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Missing yachtie found alive

A yachtsman who went missing from New Zealand with his six-year-old daughter in December has told how the pair saw “plenty of whales” while international searches for the pair were underway.

Alan Langdon, 46, and his daughter Que were located in Australia this week, almost a month after they were last seen on December 17.

Mr Langdon was in the middle of a custody dispute with his former wife, Que’s mother Ariane Wyler, when they disappeared, prompting widespread searches of the New Zealand coast.

The pair landed at Ulladulla on the New South Wales coast earlier this week, New Zealand Police and child recovery expert Col Chapman announced yesterday.

Mr Langdon told local newspaper the Milton and Ulladulla Times that he and Que were looking forward to much needed rest after the trip, for most of which they were left with just one rudder after the other broke.

A yachtsman who went missing from New Zealand with his six-year-old daughter has been found.Source:News Corp Australia

Hanson has a ‘great' Culleton alternative

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has said if a casual vacancy is declared to replace Rod Culleton, she already has a “great” alternative in mind.

The former One Nation member turned independent officially lost his seat in parliament after he was declared bankrupt by a Federal Court judge.

Senate president Stephen Parry on Wednesday informed Mr Culleton and WA governor Kerry Sanderson there was now a vacancy because of his disqualification.

“I’m not disclosing at this moment who it would be,” Senator Hanson said about Mr Culleton’s replacement, during an interview on Today.

The party leader said she was not happy about the decision on Mr Culleton, but had moved on.

“This has been a debacle, what’s happened, and I’m not happy about that at all, and I didn’t want it to happen for the people of Western Australia, but it’s what it is.”

Open fire in Spanish supermarket

A gunman has reportedly burst into a supermarket in Spain yelling “Allahu Akbar”.

Reports say he was wearing a suicide vest filled with gasoline and gunpowder.

According toThe Guardian, the attacker walked into the shop in the As Lagoas region in the northwest of the country and started firing into the air.

There were several shoppers in the supermarket at the time.

Spanish emergences services have rushed to the address.

According to the report, the young male attacker lives near the supermarket and has mental health issues.

A supermarket employee told the newspaper the gunman shouted Arabic phrase “God is great” before he opened fire.

Polish Foreign Minister accidentally creates country

Poland’s Foreign Minister is being ridiculed by the internet after he accidentally invented a country.

Witold Waszczykowski said a number of countries he’d visited had added their support for Poland’s campaign to win a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Speaking in New York, Mr Waszczykowski said he’d met ministers from “Belize and San Escobar”.

Only San Escobar is not a country. It’s not even a city. It’s non-existent.

Poland’s foreign ministry told The Telegraph he may have gotten lost in translation, but the damage was done. And of course, the internet responded accordingly.

Twitter users created fake flags and profiles showcasing the so-called “San Escobar”, making the fake name a trending topic on Twitter in Poland.

A Twitter account was even created to represent the “People’s Democratic Republic of San Escobar”, complete with flags, maps and photographs of the fictional country.

Other users suggested he got mixed up with Pablo Escobar, the late Colombian drug lord who is the subject of the Netflix show “Narcos”.

Whatever it is, it’s pretty damn funny.

Sheen says he ‘wanted to kill himself’

Charlie Sheen admitted he wanted to kill himself following his HIV diagnosis in 2011.

Speaking to Good Morning America, the 51-year-old actor said that the only thing that stopped him from “eating a bullet” was the fact his mum Janet was there.

“I feel really good. I am so grateful,” said Sheen.

“The day I was diagnosed, I immediately wanted to eat a bullet, my mom was there, I wouldn’t do that in front of her, or let her find me to clean up that mess.”

He went on to say: “I feel like I’m carrying the torch for a lot of folks out there that are suffering from the same thing.

“Some days are better than others, but most days are pretty f*cking cool.”

Tiger flights in and out of Bali cancelled

All Tigerair flights in and out of Bali today have been cancelled as the airline’s dispute with the Indonesian government drags into a second day.

However, Virgin plans to operate two flights from Bali today, in order to bring as many affected customers back to Australia as possible.

Flights in the early hours of tomorrow have also been cancelled, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.

The remaining five flights to and from Bali tomorrow are currently under review.

Customers currently in Australia who are affected by the cancellation of Tigerair’s services today will be offered a full refund.

All Tigerair flights in and out of Bali today have been cancelled.Source:News Corp Australia

CNN defends report on Trump dossier

CNN says its decision to publish “carefully sourced reporting” on unverified intelligence documents concerning US president-elect Donald Trump is “vastly different than BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos.”

CNN’s statement came after Trump called the news outlet “fake news” and refused to take a CNN reporter’s questions at a news conference.

BuzzFeed on Tuesday published a story about a dossier of documents it said were unverified and “potentially unverifiable” allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives.

Included in the documents were claims that Russian intelligence had compromising information about Trump.

In a memo to his employees, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti defended the decision to publish the dossier, referring to it as a “newsworthy document.”

Throughout the news conference, Trump decried a CNN report on Tuesday that said U.S. intelligence officials had presented Trump with claims that Russian operatives said they had compromising personal and financial information about him.

CNN has defended its report on an unverified intelligence dossier concerning Donald Trump.Source:AP

Toddler dies in hospital after being found unconscious in pond

A family is reeling after their two-year-old boy died in hospital yesterday.

He was found unconscious in a pond in Fairfield West, in Sydney’s west, earlier this month.

Henry Tran was discovered in the pond of the front yard of his home in McGee Place on January 2 and was pulled from the water.

The boy was rushed to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition.

He died in hospital yesterday.

The toddler’s death brings to 22 the number of people who have drowned in NSW pools, beaches and rivers since Christmas.

— via Daily Telegraph

Friends and family at the front of the property Sydney where a two-year-old boy was found unconscious in a pond.Source:News Corp Australia

Australian Taliban hostage pleads for release

The Afghan Taliban has released a video showing an Australian hostage pleading with the US government to negotiate with his captors.

Timothy Weekes, an Australian teacher at the American University in Kabul, and his American colleague Kevin King, were seized near the campus in August.

Weekes says that unless a prisoner exchange was agreed, he would be killed.

“I don’t want to die here, not alone, not here. Please speak for me now, speak to the American government, and please, please help me secure my release,” a tearful Weekes said in the video.

Myuran Sukumaran’s exhibition set to open

The first major exhibition of paintings by executed drug smuggler Myuran Sukumaran is set to open this weekend as part of the Sydney Festival.

Another Day In Paradise is a collection of more than 100 of Sukumaran’s paintings created at Bali’s Kerobokan jail and on Nusa Kambangan Island, and includes artworks from six of Australia’s leading artists responding to the death penalty and Sukumaran’s work.

Sukumaran was executed by firing squad in April 2015 along with fellow Bali Nine ringleader Andrew Chan for attempting to smuggle four million dollars worth of heroin from Bali to Australia.

While in jail he spoke of his remorse and guilt, and discovered a talent for painting.

The first major exhibition of paintings by executed drug smuggler Myuran Sukumaran is set to open this weekend as part of the Sydney Festival.Source:News Corp Australia

Heatwave gripping southern Queensland

Calling all Queenslanders — retreat to your nearest air-conditioned facility or pool at once.

Southern Queensland is being gripped by a lengthy heatwave, with temperatures well above average.

A top of 34C is forecast in Brisbane today, higher than the January average of 29C.

But towns in the state’s southwest will be hit particularly hard, with temperatures in the mid-40s.

With very hot weather expected until early next week, Acting Premier Jackie Trad has urged Queenslanders to protect themselves.

“Keep hydrated, make sure you use plenty of sunscreen and stay in the shade or indoors as much as possible,” she said.

Be sure to wear sunscreen if you’re heading outdoors in this heat.Source:Supplied

New Facebook tool to fight fake news

Facebook has launched its “Journalism Project”, as the world’s biggest social media network looks to deepen its relationship with news organisations.

The launch comes less than a week after the company said it was hiring former CNN reporter, anchor and host Campbell Brown to lead its news partnerships team.

As part of the new project, Facebook said it would focus on improving its current storytelling formats such as Live, 360 and Instant Articles.

Facebook said it would test a feature using Instant Articles to allow readers to see multiple stories at a time, as a package, from their preferred news organisations.

The company said it would work with third-party organisations to promote “news literacy” and help users decide which sources are trustworthy and would also continue to work on curbing hoaxes.

Facebook has launched its “Journalism Project”, as the world’s biggest social media network looks to deepen its relationship with news organisations.Source:AFP

Family booted from Bali Jetstar flight

Jetstar is standing by its decision to kick a family off one of its flights.

In a video posted to Facebook by Vincent Bamforth, who was on flight JQ128 on January 10, the family can be seen packing up their belongings while two Jetstar crew members watch on.

The family is then seen being escorted off the flight.

Jetstar has stood by its decision to remove the family from the flight, saying they refused to take their allocated seats.

“We had customers board a flight from Bali to Adelaide overnight who had taken other passengers’ seats and refused to move to their allocated seats,” a Jetstar spokesperson told News Corp Australia.

“The passengers refused to follow numerous requests from our crew so the captain decided that they would not travel on that flight.

“Like all airlines, our customers are allocated specific seats and we can’t have a situation where passengers sit wherever they like. This causes disruptions to other customers and delays the flight departing.”

The spokesperson said the family was rebooked to travel on a later service.

Fears over prophecy by ‘Italian Nostradamus’

Yeah, so, apparently the world is going to end pretty damn soon.

Philosopher Matteo Tafuri, who lived between 1492 and 1582, warned that two consecutive days of snow would ruin the Italian resort of Salento in the lead-up to the apocalypse.

Snow is a rarity in the region, which is known for its mild climate.

Centuries ago, the “Italian Nostradamus” predicted: “Salento of palm trees and mild south wind, snowy Salento but never after the touch.

“Two days of snow, two flashes in the sky, I know the world ends, but I do not yearn.”

According to The Inquisitr, fears have intensified amid an usual pattern of freak snowstorms in southern Italy.

Likewise, it’s believed the “two flashes” referred to in Tafuri’s prophecy could be a reference to a supervolcano eruption.

Last month, scientists warned that supervolcano Campi Flegrei may be waking up and approaching a “critical state”, in a move that could cause worldwide destruction comparable to a large asteroid impact.

On the plus side, if the world does end today, this is technically your last day at work. Hooray!

Salento in southern Italy is uncharacteristically blanketed in snow, in line with a disturbing prediction made centuries ago.Source:Supplied

Trump blasts reporter over unverified document

Donald Trump has unleashed on a reporter in a press conference, saying “you are fake news” after the publication of an unverified dossier that claimed he was “cultivated” by Russia.

“Quiet — don’t be rude. I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news,” he told a reporter who wanted to ask a question.

Mr Trump blasted the leaking of the report from intelligence agencies as “disgraceful” and “crap”, repeating claims made earlier on Twitter about it being akin to living in “Nazi Germany”.

“That’s something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do. That information that was false and fake and never happened,” he said.

He also dismissed Buzzfeed as a “failing pile of garbage” and slammed CNN for “going out of their way to build it up”.

“I think it’s a disgrace that information would be let out,” he said.

“It’s all fake news, its phony stuff, it doesn’t happen ... It was a group of opponents who got together, sick people and they put that crap together.”

Read the full story here.

President-elect Donald Trump blasted a reporter in a press conference.Source:AP