Blog

By Bill Birtles and Lauren Day for ABC The Nana backpackers hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos. Photo: ABC / Mitchell Woolnough Two weeks on from the first case of suspected methanol poisoning in Laos, fellow backpackers have been investigating the culprit in lieu of public information from police. It comes as Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs in a notable public statement urged authorities in Laos to be transparent. "We are clear with our Lao counterparts that Australians expect those investigations to be thorough and transparent," a DFAT spokesperson said. Police confirmed in recent days they had questioned the operators of the Nana backpacker hostel, where at least five of the six victims who died were staying. Among them were 19-year-old Australian friends Bianca Jones and Holly ...

By Bill Birtles and Lauren Day for ABC The Nana backpackers hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos. Photo: ABC / Mitchell Woolnough Two weeks on from the first case of suspected methanol poisoning in Laos, fellow backpackers have been investigating the culprit in lieu of public information from police. It comes as Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs in a notable public statement urged authorities in Laos to be transparent. "We are clear with our Lao counterparts that Australians expect those investigations to be thorough and transparent," a DFAT spokesperson said. Police confirmed in recent days they had questioned the operators of the Nana backpacker hostel, where at least five of the six victims who died were staying. Among them were 19-year-old Australian friends Bianca Jones and Hol...

Barbara Taylor Bradford attends a theatre event in New York on 9 December, 2004. Photo: AFP Bestselling British-American writer Barbara Taylor Bradford, whose debut novel A Woman of Substance turned her into an overnight success and sold over 30 million copies, has died aged 91, a spokeswoman said on Monday. Taylor Bradford, who wrote 40 novels and notched up 91 million book sales worldwide during her career, died peacefully at her home on Sunday following a short illness. She "was surrounded by loved ones to the very end", the spokeswoman said, adding that a private funeral would be held in New York. A Woman of Substance tells the story of servant Emma Harte who overcomes a humble start in Taylor Bradford's native Yorkshire in northern England to head a business empire, navigating nume...

First published on By Chris Ogden, University of Auckland associate professor in Global Studies* Trump's victory thus marks the amplification of a deeply autocratic era in global politics, says an Auckland University professor. Photo: AFP PHOTO / SPUTNIK / Mikhail KLIMENTYEV Comment - The election of Donald Trump for his second presidential term has led to widespread fears of an imminent authoritarian descent in the United States. Quite how that might play out remains speculative, for now at least. But evidence from Trump's first term, as well as his campaign policies and cabinet nominations since the election, suggest those fears are not without foundation. Another way of looking at this, however, is that Trump's return simply echoes realities within the internati...

By Marc Leras for Reuters Gisele Pelicot, 71, could have demanded the trial be kept behind closed doors, but instead asked for it be held in public. Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP French prosecutors asked for the maximum 20-year prison sentence for Dominique Pelicot, who organised the repeated mass rape of his then-wife by knocking her unconscious with drugs and inviting dozens of strangers to abuse her in the family home. Pelicot, 71, has admitted the charges in a trial that attracted worldwide attention and turned into an examination of the pervasiveness of sexual violence in France and beyond. Fifty other men also stand trial for participating in the sex acts. The prosecutors, who will over the next two days say what sentences they seek against the co-accused, rejected the arguments ...