World AM News Briefs For Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Good Morning Australia!! - Powerful storms could cause trouble in Victoria today, so be careful - An Aussie claims to be the father of the Bitcoin - Angry relatives are caught on video attacking an executive admitting to selling a deadly product - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has issued a severe weather warning for Victoria. Severe thunderstorms are forecast to hit in the mid-morning, with winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour predicted. "I ask people to take special care, particularly driving through peak hour around the city, we also ask that people in the community of Victoria clear backyards and secure items such as outdoor furniture and trampolines in particular," State Emergency Services (SES) acting deputy chief John Parker told the ABC.
Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright says he is the mysterious "Satoshi Nakamoto", inventor of the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin. "I was the main part of it, but other people helped me," the Sydneysider said in an interview with the BBC, in which he presented proof of his claim - the digital fingerprints of the first-ever Bitcoin transaction in 2009. Coming forward now after years of anonymity may have come as a shock to some people following the development of Bitcoin, and some have doubts over the claim; but it makes plenty of sense when you consider how he could cash in by consulting for major banks trying to get in on the unregulated currency.
A 21-year old Somali woman has set herself on fire in the Nauru detention camp. She is reportedly in a critical condition in the Nauru hospital, being treated by Australian doctors. "If you strip people of humanity, of dignity, of all hope, they become terribly, terribly depressed, distressed and, in this case, do terrible things to themselves," said Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. This comes less than a week after a 23-year old Iranian refugee set himself alight on Nauru, dying of his injuries in an Australian hospital.
The environmental group Greenpeace has leaked major details of the proposed TTIP trade pact between the US and European Union - and says the details show the TTIP will erode and undermine European environmental and health standards. "These leaked documents confirm what we have been saying for a long time: TTIP would put corporations at the center of policy-making, to the detriment of environment and public health," said Greenpeace EU director Jorgo Riss. The "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership" would standardize regulations in a wide range of sectors to boost exports on both sides of the Atlantic.
US Secretary of State John Kerry says the Syrian conflict is "in many ways out of control". He's in Geneva for talks with UN and Arab diplomats to try and re-establish the ceasefire than crumbled over the past week with heavy fighting in Aleppo. Around 250 people have died in that northern city in the past week, added to the half-million killed in the five-year civil war.
Egypt's Journalists' union is demanding the resignation of the Interior Minister after two reporters were arrested overnight. The interior ministry denied it raided the union's offices, but confirms the arrests. Amr Badr and Mahmoud al-Sakkawork for a website critical of President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi's government, and are accused of inciting protests.
Members of Turkey's ruling AK party and the pro-Kurdish HDP brawled in Parliament over plans to strip MPs of immunity from prosecution. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (who once had his balls kicked by a horse, possibly explaining his worldview) wants to prosecute the Kurds for allegedly belonging to banned groups. The opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) accuses Erdogan and the AK of attempting to stifle dissent.
Nairobi, Kenya police arrested the owner of a building that collapsed over the weekend, killing 21 people and leaving 90 unaccounted for underneath the rubble. The structure was built without the proper permits and owner Samuel Karanja Kamau had no license to rent out the 119 rooms over the fragile six-storey structure.
Angry relatives rushed the stage, and at least one slapped the head of an executive with Reckitt Benkiser as he tried to apologize for selling a humidifier disinfectant that killed about 100 people in South Korea. The UK-based consumer products firm stopped selling the disinfectant after South Korean authorities suggested a link to deadly lung conditions in 2011. "This is the first time we are accepting the fullest responsibility, and we are offering a complete and full apology. We were late, five years have passed," said the slightly battered executive Ataur Safdar, as he announced a fund for victims and families. Australia fined Reckitt Benkiser last week for supposedly specialized pain killers that were actually the same pill in different colored boxes.