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By Lauren Day, ABC The Nana backpackers hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos. Photo: ABC / Mitchell Woolnough In the days after backpackers in Laos began falling violently ill due to suspected methanol poisoning, travellers tried desperately to warn each other about the hostel at the centre of the scandal. In a series of now deleted Google Reviews obtained by the ABC, backpackers warned about the unfolding disaster at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng - where at least five of the six people to have died from suspected methanol poisoning were staying. Eight members of hostel staff had now been detained. The reviews were sometimes met with claims of 'slander' and subsequently deleted. In an interview with the ABC last week, owner Duong van Huan denied the poisoned drinks came from his bar...

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN A woman has been jailed for seven and a half years in England for keeping her infant daughter in this drawer under her bed. Photo: Cheshire Constabulary A mother who kept her baby daughter in a drawer under her bed for almost three years has been jailed for seven and a half years in Britain. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed at Chester Crown Court in northwest England after the judge said the child - who was discovered weeks before her third birthday - had endured a "living death" as a result of her mother's "terrible secret". The unnamed toddler was found with matted hair, rashes and some deformities at the family home in Cheshire, according to the PA Media news agency, which reported on the case. The court was told that the woman, w...

By Maya Gebeily and Aziz Taher, Reuters This picture shows the destruction from Israeli bombardments in Lebanon southern village of Khiam on 27 November. Photo: AFP A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held on Wednesday after the two sides struck a deal brokered by the US and France, but Israel warned local residents not to return to the border area yet. The ceasefire agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region wracked by conflict for months, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years, but Israel is still fighting its other arch foe the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Cars and vans piled high with mattresses, suitcases and even furniture streamed through the heavily-bombed southern port c...

By Joseph Ax, Helen Coster and James Oliphant, Reuters Nearly 75,000 Americans died from synthetic drug overdoses in 2023, according to government figures. Photo: 123RF US President-elect Donald Trump's vow to impose tariffs on China and Mexico unless they stem the flow of fentanyl and migrants across the US border could impel deeper cooperation from those governments on drug policing, experts said. But the threat also carries risk, particularly concerning US-Chinese collaboration on fighting fentanyl, which had improved this year after bilateral negotiations between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In social media posts on Monday, Trump promised to impose additional 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports and 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods - t...