A man charged with murdering Karlie Pearce-Stevenson in October was expected to be charged with the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Khandalyce. Daniel James Holdom, 41, was arrested yesterday. Khandalyce's remains were discovered in a suitcase dumped on the side of a South Australian highway near Wynarka in July.
Sydney reflected on the first anniversary of the deadly Lindt Cafe siege yesterday. A year ago gunman Man Haron Monis walked into the Martin Place cafe and took 18 people hostage, holding them captive for more than 17 hours. Lindt Cafe manager Tori Johnson, barrister Katrina Dawson and Monis died in the siege. Outside the cafe with Police
Commissioner Andrew Scipione, NSW Premier Mike Baird said: "We will not be stared down by those who want to bring evil to this city, those that want to divide us. We stand in hope." Baird marked the sombre occasion by having a cup of coffee with Scipione at the cafe before it opened to the public. A public candlelight vigil was held in Martin Place last night.
Europe
A British man has been convicted of an Isis-inspired plot to behead police and soldier on Remembrance Day. Nadir Syed planned to launch a car and knives attack in November last year. Detectives said the atrocity, had it succeeded, would have been larger and more horrific than the Lee Rigby murder. He was obsessed with Rigby's killers and inspired by an Isis (Islamic State) fatwa issued weeks before ordering followers to murder soldier and police wherever they were. Large knives had been bought. Syed was found guilty of following a six week trial at Woolwich Crown Court. The jury failed to reach verdicts on his co-accused Yousaf Syed and Haseeb Hamayoon. They will both now face a retrial.
Meanwhile, a French nursery school teacher who claimed he was stabbed in his classroom by an Isis (Islamic State) supporter has admitted to prosecutors that he invented the story. The 45-year-old teacher at a school in Aubervilliers, northeast of Paris, was hospitalised yesterday with light stab wounds in his side and throat. He had earlier claimed that a man had arrived while he was preparing his class, grabbed a box cutter and scissors that were in the room, and attacked him. The teacher further claimed that the man shouted: "This is Daesh [Isis]. This is a warning."
Angela Merkel headed off a rebellion from her own Christian Democrat Party when she pledged to reduce the number of refugees in Germany. In a defiant speech to her party conference, the German Chancellor defended her policy, saying it had been a "humanitarian imperative" at the height of the migrant crisis. But she said the time had come to "reduce the number of refugees appreciably" before Germany was "overwhelmed". The party united behind a compromise motion pledging to cut numbers without naming an upper limit.
It's a bit odd
Opposition MPs released tear gas in Kosovo's Parliament as they once again tried to pressure the Government into renouncing deals with Serbia and Montenegro. Clouds of smoke from two tear gas canisters forced MPs out of the debating chamber. The parliamentary session restarted later in another room with most opposition MPs barred from entering. It had to be temporarily suspended again when another tear gas canister was opened there too, after four opposition MPs were let in.
Some South Korean companies are attempting to tackle the issue of work-related stress by sending staff to attend their own mock funerals. In Seoul, the Hyowon Healing Centre runs sessions which involve a group of employees writing farewell letters to loved ones before getting into their own individual wooden coffin. They lie down in their casket, hugging a picture of themselves, draped in black ribbon. A man representing the angel of death - dressed in black with a tall hat - closes each coffin leaving those inside to reflect.
Middle East
Egypt said it has not yet found any sign of terrorism in the deadly November 1 crash of a Russian Airbus A321-200 jet in the Sinai desert which killed all 224 people aboard, a preliminary finding that conflicts with Russian, US and British statements that they believed a bomb on the aircraft probably was to blame. The vaguely worded Egyptian statement reflected the deep reluctance among government authorities to point to the possibility of a bomb, and the implication of lax security at the Sharm el-Sheikh Airport, where the Metrojet plane took off.
