Author: afp

  • France bids farewell to screen legend Alain Delon

    France bids farewell to screen legend Alain Delon

    As tributes for film legend Alain Delon poured in from around the globe following his death at 88, France was preparing on Monday its farewell to one of its greatest stars.

    No national tribute has been planned, as Delon had made it clear he did not want one. He said he wanted to be buried near his dogs on his property in Douchy in central France where he died.He had already started sounding out the local authorities there, Christophe Hurault, the sub-prefect of Loiret, told AFP. The prefecture “had given its agreement in principle”.His three children, Anthony, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, having squabbled bitterly for months over his medical treatment, spoke in a unified voice Sunday when they announced their father’s death.Now they have to manage the funeral of the screen icon, deciding whether to limit it to close family or extend it to the cinema world.Delon, naturally, dominated the front pages of France’s newspapers Monday, many of them featuring full-page portraits of the actor in his prime.”The Last Samurai”, wrote Le Figaro for its front-page headline, a reference to one of his most famous roles, as the enigmatic assassin in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 thriller “Le Samourai”.

    – End of an era –

    Delon’s performances in some of the greatest films of the 1960s and 70s were widely praised, his charisma on screen impossible to ignore.He was one of the last living legends of a golden era for French cinema in the 1960s.Fellow 60s star Brigitte Bardot, 89, told AFP Delon “leaves a huge void that nothing, nobody, can fill”.French President Emmanuel Macron called him a “French monument” who “played legendary roles and made the world dream”.His death was covered by newspapers around the world, with the New York Times, Washington Post and New York Post all publishing lengthy obituaries.The Washington Post described him as the “angel-faced tough guy of international cinema”, while The Hollywood Reporter said he was the “seductive star of European cinema”.”Mesmeric and beautiful, Alain Delon was one of cinema’s most mysterious stars,” The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw wrote.Germany’s Spiegel called him “Europe’s James Dean”, while Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the “aura of the handsome angel of death made him a legend”.Italy, where he spent much of his career, also gave extensive coverage to his passing. “There will never be another actor like Delon, unique and immortal”, wrote Il Corriere della Sera.La Stampa and La Repubblica bid “adieu to the legend of French cinema”.”For me, he was a legend,” 26-year-old moviegoer Victor Roussel told AFP before a showing of his 1963 film “The Leopard” at a Paris cinema Sunday.”Alain Delon really represents French cinema with a capital ‘C’”.

    – Controversial views –

    While he had legions of fans around the world, his personal life and political opinions divided opinion.Delon’s relationship with women caused controversy. His sons accused him of domestic violence, which Delon denied while admitting slapping women during quarrels.Delon also drew criticism for supporting Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, who was in favour of the death penalty and spoke against same-sex relationships.Feminists were also appalled by the lifetime achievement award the Cannes Film Festival gave him in 2019.He lived his later years largely as a recluse, though his personal life kept him in the headlines.In 2023, his three children filed a complaint against his live-in assistant Hiromi Rollin, accusing her of harassment and threatening behaviour.The siblings went on to wage a public battle in the media and the courts, arguing over his health, which worsened after a stroke in 2019.Delon lived out his final years in the small village of Douchy, surrounded by high walls, where he planned to be buried not far from his dogs.Outside the entrance to his home, dozens of fans placed flowers to pay their respects.”In our minds we believe that these icons are eternal,” said Marie Arnold, laying white flowers with her sister Michele.”It’s a part of our youth that is gone, it’s very sad.”

  • Sindh floods push low-income families to marry off daughters for financial help

    Sindh floods push low-income families to marry off daughters for financial help

    As monsoon rains were about to break over Pakistan, 14-year-old Shamila and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off in exchange for money, a decision their parents made to help the family survive the threat of floods.

    “I was happy to hear I was getting married… I thought my life would become easier,” Shamila told AFP after her wedding to a man twice her age in hope of a more prosperous life.

    “But I have nothing more. And with the rain, I fear I will have even less, if that is possible.”

    Pakistan’s high rate of marriages for underage girls had been inching lower in recent years, but after unprecedented floods in 2022, rights workers warn such weddings are now on the rise due to climate-driven economic insecurity.

    The summer monsoon between July and September is vital for the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security, but scientists say climate change is making them heavier and longer, raising the risk of landslides, floods and long-term crop damage.

    Many villages in the agricultural belt of Sindh have not recovered from the 2022 floods, which plunged a third of the country underwater, displaced millions and ruined harvests.

    “This has led to a new trend of ‘monsoon brides’,” said Mashooque Birhmani, the founder of the NGO Sujag Sansar, which works with religious scholars to combat child marriage.

    “Families will find any means of survival. The first and most obvious way is to give their daughters away in marriage in exchange for money.”

    Birhmani said since the 2022 floods, child marriage has spiked in villages in Dadu district, one of the worst-hit areas that for months resembled a lake.

    In Khan Mohammad Mallah village, where Shamila and Amina were married in a joint ceremony in June, 45 underage girls have become wives since the last monsoon — 15 of them in May and June this year.

    “Before the 2022 rains, there was no such need to get girls married so young in our area,” said village elder Mai Hajani, 65.

    “They would work on the land, make rope for wooden beds, the men would be busy with fishing and agriculture. There was always work to be done”.

    Parents told AFP that they hurried the marriage of their daughters to save them from poverty, usually in exchange for money.

    Shamila’s mother-in-law, Bibi Sachal, said they gave 200,000 Pakistan Rupees ($720) to the young bride’s parents –- a major sum in a region where most families survive on around one dollar a day.

    – ‘I thought I would get lipstick’ –

    Najma Ali was initially swept up in the excitement of becoming a wife when she married at 14 in 2022 and began living with her in-laws, as is tradition in Pakistan.

    “My husband gave my parents 250,000 rupees for our wedding. But it was on loan (from a third party) that he has no way of paying back now,” she said.

    “I thought I would get lipstick, makeup, clothes and crockery,” she told AFP, cradling her six-month-old baby.

    “Now I am back home with a husband and a baby because we have nothing to eat.”

    Their village, which lies on the banks of a canal in the Main Nara Valley, is barren and there are no fish left in the polluted water — its stench overwhelms the area.

    “We had lush rice fields where girls used to work,” said Hakim Zaadi, 58, the village matron and Najma’s mother.

    “They would grow many vegetables, which are all dead now because the water in the ground is poisonous. This has happened especially after 2022,” she added.

    “The girls were not a burden on us before then. At the age girls used to get married, they now have five children, and they come back to live with their parents because their husbands are jobless.”

    – ‘I want to study’ –

    Child marriages are common in parts of Pakistan, which has the sixth-highest number of girls married before the age of 18 in the world, according to government data published in December.

    The legal age for marriage varies from 16 to 18 in different regions, but the law is rarely enforced.

    UNICEF has reported “significant strides” in reducing child marriage, but evidence shows that extreme weather events put girls at risk.

    “We would expect to see an 18 percent increase in the prevalence of child marriage, equivalent to erasing five years of progress,” it said in a report after the 2022 floods.

    Dildar Ali Sheikh, 31, had planned to marry off his eldest daughter Mehtab while living in an aid camp after being displaced by the floods.

    “When I was there, I thought to myself ‘we should get our daughter married so at least she can eat and have basic facilities’,” the daily wage labourer told AFP.

    Mehtab was just 10 years old.

    “The night I decided to get her married, I couldn’t sleep,” said her mother, Sumbal Ali Sheikh, who was 18 when she married.

    An intervention from the NGO Sujag Sansar led to the wedding being postponed, and Mehtab was enrolled in a sewing workshop, allowing her to earn a small income while continuing her education.

    But when the monsoon rains fall, she is overcome by dread that her promised wedding will also arrive.

    “I have told my father I want to study,” she said. “I see married girls around me who have very challenging lives and I don’t want this for myself.”

  • Five charged over ketamine death of ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry

    Five charged over ketamine death of ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry

    Five people who allegedly supplied ketamine to “Friends” star Matthew Perry in a bid to exploit his drug addiction for profit have been charged in relation to his overdose death, US officials said Thursday.

    The actor died at his luxury Los Angeles home last year, sparking an outpouring of grief from fans around the world.

    “These defendants took advantage of Mr Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr Perry, but they did it anyway,” said federal prosecutor Martin Estrada.

    “These defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr Perry than caring for his well-being,” said Estrada, the US attorney for the central district of California.

    Charges were levied against two doctors, Perry’s live-in assistant, a broker and a North Hollywood dealer known as “the Ketamine Queen,” who has been linked to the overdose death of another man.

    Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom from 1994 to 2004, was found unresponsive in his swimming pool in October. He was 54.

    An autopsy found the cause of his death was “the acute effects of ketamine,” a controlled drug the recovering addict was taking as part of supervised therapy.

    – ‘Drug-selling emporium’ –

    Estrada said Perry had fallen back into addiction in the autumn of 2023, when he began to be supplied by Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, both doctors.

    Over two months, they sold him 20 vials of the drug for $55,000. Each one cost them as little as $12, said Estrada.

    In one text message, Plasencia, 42, wrote: “I wonder how much this moron will pay… Lets [sic] find out.”

    Plasencia, who reportedly works in the tony Calabasas neighborhood outside Los Angeles, knew Perry was spiralling out of control, but carried on.

    “On one occasion, he injected Mr. Perry with ketamine, and he saw Mr. Perry freeze up and his blood pressure spike,” Estrada said.

    “Despite that, he left additional vials of ketamine for (Perry’s assistant Kenneth) Iwamasa to administer.”

    Perry also obtained the drug from Jasveen Sangha, a woman nicknamed “the Ketamine Queen,” through broker Eric Fleming, including the batch that would ultimately kill him.

    Her home was “a drug-selling emporium” containing methamphetamine, cocaine and prescription drugs like Xanax, officials said.

    Plasencia, whose ankles were chained when he appeared in court, denied one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, as well as a raft of other charges.

    He was released on $100,000 bail and ordered to inform his patients of the charges he faces. He was ordered to stand trial on October 8 and could be imprisoned for up to 120 years.

    Sangha, a dual British- and American citizen, wore a green “Nirvana” sweater when she entered not guilty pleas to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, and other charges.

    She was denied bail after the judge heard of a jet-set lifestyle that included a trip to Tokyo just two weeks after Perry’s death.

    She was ordered to stand trial on October 15, and could face life behind bars.

    The other defendants have either pleaded guilty or agreed to do so in relation to their charges. They face between 10 and 25 years in prison.

    – ‘Exploitation’ –

    Doctors and veterinarians use ketamine as an anesthetic, and researchers have explored its use as a treatment for depression.

    Underground users take it for its hallucinogenic effects, though it can be addictive and dangerous for people with underlying health problems.

    “Friends” (1994-2004), which followed the lives of six New Yorkers navigating adulthood, dating and careers, drew a massive global following and made megastars of previously unknown actors.

    Perry’s role as the sarcastic man-child Chandler brought him fabulous wealth, but hid a dark struggle with addiction to painkillers and alcohol.

    In 2018, he suffered a drug-related burst colon, and underwent multiple surgeries.

    In his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” Perry described going through detox dozens of times.

    “I have mostly been sober since 2001,” he wrote, “save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps.”

    Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram told reporters Perry’s re-entry into destructive drug use began with “unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, and it ended with street dealers who sold him ketamine in unmarked vials.”

    “The desperation that led Perry to these individuals was not met with help… but instead it was met with exploitation.”

  • ‘The Notebook’ star Gena Rowlands dead at 94

    ‘The Notebook’ star Gena Rowlands dead at 94

    Gena Rowlands, an award-winning US actress best known for starring in the films of her first husband, director John Cassavetes, died Wednesday at age 94, according to US media reports.

    Rowlands died surrounded by family at her home in Indian Wells, California, US entertainment publication TMZ reported.

    No official cause of death was immediately given, but Rowlands’s son Nick Cassavetes said in June she had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for the past five years, according to the New York Times.

    Rowlands starred in 10 films by John Cassavetes, and was married to him for nearly 35 years until his death in 1989.

    Starting in the 1960s, the couple formed an enchanting and explosive on-screen partnership over three decades that explored themes of passion and self-destruction against a backdrop of alcohol and infidelity.

    In what many consider her finest role, Rowlands captured to devastating effect the descent of a housewife into mental illness in “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974), bringing her the first of two Oscar nominations.

    “Incapable of an unreal moment,” said Woody Allen of the actress, whom he cast in his 1988 film “Another Woman.”

    “Whatever I say about Gena isn’t enough because she’s so incredible,” said Winona Ryder, quoted in the LA Times in 1992 when the two co-starred in Jim Jarmusch’s “Night on Earth.”

    – A storied career –

    Rowlands was born on June 19, 1930, in Cambria, Wisconsin, into a cultured middle-class family. Her father was a state senator and her mother was a painter and occasional actress.

    She enrolled in New York’s American Academy of Drama and in 1953 met Cassavetes, a fast-talking and exuberant Greek-American. A year later they were married.

    It was their collaboration that generated her stand-out performances, the highlight arguably being “A Woman Under the Influence” which also brought an Oscar nomination for Cassavetes as director.

    Rowlands was captivating as housewife Mabel who descends into madness after years of quiet, complicated dominance by her hardworking, silent husband, played by Peter Falk.

    In 1989, Cassavetes died from liver failure after years of alcoholism. Rowlands continued to make films and also worked for television, winning four Emmys.

    She and Cassavetes had three children, all of whom have gone on to work in film and television. Her son Nick directed her in “The Notebook” alongside Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in 2004.

    In 2012, she married retired businessman Robert Forrest and in 2015 was awarded an honorary Academy Award, the same year she retired from acting.

  • Taylor Swift returns to stage in London after Vienna concert plot

    Taylor Swift returns to stage in London after Vienna concert plot

    Taylor Swift will return to the stage in London on Thursday to end the European leg of her “Eras” tour, a week after her Vienna concerts were cancelled due to a suicide attack plot.

    Around 90,000 fans will again pack London’s Wembley Stadium for the first date in the five-day run, with additional ticket checks and restrictions in place.

    Last week, all three of the American mega-star’s shows in the Austrian capital were cancelled following the discovery of an Islamic State-inspired plan to launch an attack using explosives and knives.

    Three alleged Islamic State sympathisers have been arrested on charges of plotting the atrocity, which was thwarted with the help of US intelligence.

    London’s Metropolitan Police has said there was “nothing to indicate that the matters being investigated by the Austrian authorities will have an impact on upcoming events here in London”.

    The force was working “closely with venue security teams and other partners to ensure there are appropriate security and policing plans in place”, a police spokesperson said in a statement.

    Fans have been warned on Wembley’s website to expect “additional ticket checks” around the stadium.

    – ‘Tay-gating’ –

    Swift’s return to the British capital, following three sold-out shows in June, also comes two weeks after three young girls were killed in a stabbing at a dance class themed around the pop star’s music in northwest England.

    Following the knife attack, Swift said she was “completely in shock” and at a “complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families”.

    She has not yet commented on the decision to cancel the Vienna shows.

    London’s mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News that the city was “going to carry on working closely with police, ensuring that the Taylor Swift concerts can take place in London safely”.

    “We have a huge amount of experience in policing these events, we’re never complacent, many lessons were learned after the awful Manchester Arena attack,” Khan added.

    He was referring to the 2017 bombing at an Ariana Grande concert that killed 22 people, some of them children.

    Fans without tickets will also not be allowed to “tay-gate” the event — the practice of Swift fans standing outside the venue during the live show to hear the music.

    – Royal audience –

    The stadium’s website says that “no one is allowed to stand outside any entrance or… at the front of the stadium” and “non-ticket holders will be moved on”.

    While the practice was not permitted at her June concerts there, some fans still managed to gather outside Wembley.

    After two performances in Madrid at the end of July, Swift noted around 50,000 “people came out and listened to the show” from a nearby hillside on both nights, “participating in the show from afar”.

    Meanwhile, her last London appearances were attended by some high-profile names.

    They included Keir Starmer, who was then running to become Britain’s prime minister, and Prince William — celebrating his birthday — along with his children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

    The singer posted a photo posing with the royals and her boyfriend, American football player Travis Kelce, with the caption “Happy Bday M8! London shows are off to a splendid start”.

    After wrapping up the European leg of her record-breaking tour — which began in Paris in May and saw the star perform across the continent — Swift will then head back to North America.

    Its final leg there starts on October 18 in Miami.

  • Viral marketing stunts made ‘Deadpool’ a $1bn hit, says Disney exec

    Viral marketing stunts made ‘Deadpool’ a $1bn hit, says Disney exec

    From cameos in K-pop videos to cooking chimichangas with celebrity chefs, movie stars like Ryan Reynolds are trying ever-more unorthodox stunts to reach fragmented Gen-Z audiences, according to Disney’s marketing chief.

    The giant Hollywood studio is enjoying a blockbuster summer, with irreverent superhero movie “Deadpool & Wolverine” becoming its latest film set to pass $1 billion at the global box office this weekend.

    Speaking at Disney’s D23 fan convention Saturday, chief brand officer Asad Ayaz attributed a large part of that breakaway success to stars Reynolds and Hugh Jackman pushing the boundaries of traditional marketing.

    The A-listers appeared in character for the “Chk Chk Book” music video with Korean pop sensation Stray Kids, and joined a YouTube cooking competition with Gordon Ramsay and his 22-year-old daughter.

    They also took their world tour to a European Championship soccer match in Germany, a London chicken shop (for a popular online comedy sketch series), and got drenched at a water balloon festival.

    “We were very lucky and fortunate to have talent… who are willing to do things that sometimes actors don’t want to do, like do things in character,” Ayaz told AFP.

    Gen Z, who are roughly aged 12-27, have been particularly difficult for Hollywood and movie theaters to reach in recent years, setting off alarm bells in the industry.

    But unusual stunts “cut through” to young viewers who pay more attention to their phones, social media, YouTube influencers and commercials on video games than traditional TV ads or movie trailers, said Ayaz.

    Much of the focus is on generating off-the-wall content that spreads rapidly online.

    A highly suggestive popcorn bucket for the film, supposedly “designed” by Reynolds’ innuendo-loving Deadpool character, was intended to — and succeeded in — going viral globally.

    Reynolds and Jackman also filmed a pre-movie message warning theater-goers to switch off their cell phones — in character as their wise-cracking superhero characters.

    “Turn your phone to silent,” growls Jackman’s aggressive Wolverine, in an expletive-laden threat to camera, which has been watched hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.

    “That was an example of us producing unique content with Ryan and Hugh… in full costume,” said Ayaz.

    – Meme-ready marketing –

    “Deadpool and Wolverine” was particularly suited to the gonzo approach because the character of Deadpool repeatedly speaks directly to audiences during the film.

    Reynolds’ potty-mouthed hero frequently pokes fun at parent company Disney, and even makes jokes about “saving” the Marvel superhero franchise, which has endured a relatively lackluster few years.

    But the outside-the-box approach is becoming more widespread.

    Last year, rival studio Warner built a real-life “Malibu DreamHouse” to promote “Barbie,” which went viral after it was listed for rent on Airbnb.

    Another recent big Disney hit, “Inside Out 2,” deals with issues such as anxiety and depression, which are themes frequently discussed by Gen Z online.

    Analysts have warned that many widely shared movie memes feature pirated footage, or clips illegally filmed by audience members in theaters.

    But Disney made custom clips and digital toolkits for “Inside Out 2” available to TikTok and YouTube creators, who rapidly spread memes about the film, said Ayaz.

    “This is an audience that is heavily on their devices. Their consumption of media is very different” to older generations, he said.

    “Making sure that we are on the platforms that Gen Z spends the most amount of time” on is key, Ayaz added.

  • Bangladesh court opens murder case against ex-premier Sheikh Hasina

    Bangladesh court opens murder case against ex-premier Sheikh Hasina

    A court in Bangladesh opened Tuesday a murder investigation into ousted ex-premier Sheikh Hasina and six top figures in her administration over the police killing of a man during civil unrest last month.

    A week ago, Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted tenure.

    “A case has been filed against Sheikh Hasina and six more,” said Mamun Mia, a lawyer who brought the case on behalf of a private citizen.

    He added that the Dhaka Metropolitan Court had ordered police to accept “the murder case against the accused persons”, the first step in a criminal investigation under Bangladeshi law.

    Mia’s filing with the court also named Asaduzzaman Khan, Hasina’s former home minister, and Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of Hasina’s Awami League party.

    In addition, it named four top police officers appointed by Hasina’s government who have since vacated their posts, including former police inspector general Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.

    It also named detective branch chief Harun-or-Rashid and senior Dhaka Metropolitan Police officers Habibur Rahman and Biplob Kumar Sarker.

    Police take control of Dhaka streets

     Bangladeshi police resumed patrols of the capital, Dhaka, on Monday, ending a weeklong strike that had created a law and order vacuum caused by recent uprisings.

    Officers vanished from the streets of the sprawling megacity of 20 million people last week after Hasina’s resignation and flight abroad ended her 15-year rule.

    Police were loathed for spearheading a lethal crackdown on the weeks of protests that forced her departure, with 42 officers among the more than 450 people killed.

    They had vowed not to resume work until their safety on duty was guaranteed but agreed to return after late-night talks with the new interim government, helmed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

    “It’s good to be back,” Assistant Commissioner Snehasish Das told AFP while directing traffic at a busy intersection. “As we feel secure now, we are back on duty.”

    Student-led protests against Hasina’s government had been largely peaceful until police attempted to disperse them violently. Yunus told reporters that Bangladesh was experiencing a “revolution” after Hasina’s ouster after ” the whole government’s business collapsed”.

    He said he had been instructed by the protests’ student leaders to take office, adding he told them, “Because you ordered me to do this, I take your order.”

    Several top Hasina allies, including the chief justice and the central bank governor, stepped down after students issued them ultimatums to quit their offices.

    However, Yunus said their resignations had been conducted legally.

    “I’m sure they will find the legal way to justify all of this because legally… all the steps were followed,” he said at a late-night briefing on Sunday.

    Around 450 of the country’s 600 police stations were targeted in arson and vandalism attacks over the past month, according to the national police union.

    In the police’s absence, the students who led the protests that toppled Hasina volunteered to restore law and order after looting and reprisal attacks in the hours following her departure.

    They acted as traffic wardens, formed overnight neighbourhood watch patrols and guarded Hindu temples and other places of worship, quickly settling the unrest.

    Arrests in India

    India has arrested nearly a dozen Bangladeshis attempting to cross the border to escape violence and political tumult following deadly protests that led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, border officials said on Monday.

    Hundreds more are waiting along the frontier pleading for permission to cross, India’s Border Security Force (BSF) said.

    BSF said 11 Bangladesh nationals had been arrested since Sunday trying to “sneak” across the frontier into West Bengal state. “Several hundred Bangladeshi nationals are still waiting in no-man’s land to cross over the border,” BSF deputy inspector general Amit Kumar Tyagi said.

  • Helicopter crashes into hotel roof in Australia

    Helicopter crashes into hotel roof in Australia

    A helicopter crashed into the roof of a Hilton hotel in northeastern Australia on Monday, police said, igniting a blaze atop the building and forcing a mass evacuation.

    Mangled pieces of the helicopter’s propeller landed in the hotel’s pool, said an emergency services official, adding that one man was treated at the scene with life-threatening injuries.

    Hundreds of patrons were evacuated from the DoubleTree by Hilton in the tropical northern city of Cairns after the helicopter crashed around 1:50 a.m. local time.

    Images showed a bright plume of fire blazing on the hotel’s roof.

    “They just flew into that building,” a female voice says in a video shared on social media that captured the aftermath as sirens blared in the background.

    “Madness, man. Shivers. People were living in that. It smashed right in.”

    Queensland Ambulance supervisor Caitlin Denning said the aircraft’s propellers had “dislodged”.

    “One landed on the Cairns Esplanade and there was a second propeller located in the hotel pool on the bottom floor and it was on fire,” she told local media.

    Queensland police said “there were no injuries sustained by people on the ground”.

    Cairns is a popular tourist hub that offers a gateway to Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef.

    A team of government investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau have been dispatched to the crash site.

  • Hometown of Imane Khelif erupts in joy after Olympic win

    Hometown of Imane Khelif erupts in joy after Olympic win

    The poor, rural hometown of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif erupted in joy on Friday as she won gold at the Paris Olympics in the face of a major gender controversy.

    Cheers of Khelif’s name and the country’s famous chant “one two three, viva l’Algerie” broke out in Biban Mesbah, a town of around 6,000 people.

    “It’s Algeria’s victory,” her father, Omar Khelif, told reporters as he watched the fight on a giant screen along with the rest of the village around 300 kilometers (185 miles) southwest of Algiers.

    Villagers fired shots into the air in honour of 25-year-old Khelif’s first Olympic medal following her victory over China’s Yang Liu in the women’s 66kg final.

    Imane after winning a Gold medal

    The jubilation also spread to the capital Algiers, where crowds invaded the city center, celebrating the victory with fireworks and a chorus of car horns.

    Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune joined the celebrations on social media site X, saying: “We are all proud of you, Olympic champion Imane, your victory today is Algeria’s victory and your gold is Algeria’s gold.”

    Ahead of Khelif’s fight, hundreds of volunteers turned out in Biban Mesbah to help prepare for the big night.

    Despite scorching temperatures of 46 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit), the men carried out a vast clean-up operation while dozens of women were busy cooking a giant couscous.

    “We agreed to give the village a new face and breathe new life into it, with the victory of Imane Khelif,” her cousin Mounir Khelif, 36, told AFP.

    “We all helped each other, some bringing couscous, others oil and vegetables, while those who couldn’t help with provisions helped with the preparation,” said Amina Saadi, 52, a mother of six.

    “We are all united behind Imane Khelif, who has honored Algeria, that’s the least we can offer her,” she said.

    The boxer has been the victim of a social media hate campaign that portrays her as a “man fighting women.”

    “I’m a strong woman with special powers. From the ring, I sent a message to those who were against me,” she said Friday after her win.

    The gender controversy ignited in the French capital when Khelif defeated Angela Carini in 46 seconds in her opening bout, the Italian reduced to tears and abandoning the fight after suffering a badly hurt nose.

    Algerians from all walks of life have showed their solidarity with Khelif, irritated that her father was forced to show her birth certificate to journalists to prove she was born a girl.

    Amar, father of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, gestures during an interview with Reuters outside his house, in Tiaret province, Algeria, on Friday. – REUTERS PIC

    Khelif’s international career took off with her participation at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where she finished fifth in her weight class.

    In 2023, she made it to the semifinals of the world championships in New Delhi.

    But then she was disqualified following gender eligibility testing by the International Boxing Association, which is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee and is not running the sport in Paris.

    From a family of limited means, she spoke before the Games of the difficulty of her life in “a village of conservative people” in semi-desert surroundings.
    Imane said that her father initially found it difficult to accept her boxing.

    Imane’s family

    “I came from a conservative family. Boxing is not a widely practiced sport by women, especially in Algeria,” she told Canal Algerie a month before the Games, smiling readily and her voice soft.

    In an interview with UNICEF, she said she used to sell scrap metal and her mother sold homemade couscous to pay for bus tickets to a nearby town.

  • Passenger plane crash in Brazil kills all 61 on board

    Passenger plane crash in Brazil kills all 61 on board

    An airplane carrying 57 passengers and four crew crashed Friday in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, killing everyone on board, the airline said.

    The aircraft, an ATR 72-500 operated by Voepass airline, was traveling from Cascavel in southern Parana state to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport when it crashed in the city of Vinhedo.

    Voepass initially said the plane was carrying 58 passengers, but a statement on the airline’s website later revised the figure to 57.

    Images broadcast on local media showed a large plane spinning as it plummeted almost vertically, while other footage showed a large column of smoke rising from the crash site in what appeared to be a residential area.

    “There were no survivors,” the city government in Valinhos — which was involved in the rescue and recovery operation in nearby Vinhedo — said in an to AFP.

    Vinhedo, with about 76,000 residents, is located approximately 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo.

    Recovery of the victims’ remains for “identification” has begun and “will continue throughout the night,” Sao Paulo State Governor Tarcisio de Freitas told reporters at the scene.

    President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of mourning.

    Voepass said it was cooperating with authorities to “determine the causes of the accident,” while giving full assistance to families of the victims on flight 2283.

    The plane, a twin-engine turboprop, took off “without any flight restrictions, with all its systems operational,” the company said.

    Brazil’s CENIPA aviation accident agency has launched an investigation.

    ATR, a Franco-Italian aircraft maker and Airbus subsidiary, said its experts were working to help investigators.

    Truck driver Martins Barbosa, 49, was working when he learned of the plane crash, which occurred 150 meters (500 feet) from his home.

    “I thought it might have fallen on my house, with my son inside,” he told AFP, adding he felt despondent before learning his family was okay.

    Nathalie Cicari, who lives near the crash site, told CNN Brasil the impact was “terrifying.”

    “I was having lunch, I heard a very loud noise very close by,” she said, describing the sound as drone-like but “much louder.”

    “I went out on the balcony and saw the plane spinning. Within seconds, I realized that it was not a normal movement for a plane.”

    Cicari was not hurt but had to evacuate her house, which was filled with black smoke from the crash.

    “I arrived at the scene and saw many bodies on the ground — many of them,” another witness, Ricardo Rodrigues, told local Band News.

    Firefighters, military police and state civil defense were deployed at the scene.

    Military police told local media the accident had not caused any casualties on the ground, and that the fire sparked by the crash had been brought under control.

    The plane’s black box “has already been found, apparently preserved,” Sao Paulo state security official Guilherme Derrite told reporters at the scene.

    The doomed plane recorded its first flight in April 2010, according to the website planespotters.net.

    Air safety has improved dramatically in recent decades, with deadly passenger plane crashes becoming ever-more rare worldwide, though more frequent in developing nations.

    Excluding Friday’s crash, CENIPA data shows Brazil has recorded 108 aircraft accidents so far this year, resulting in 49 deaths. Over the last ten years, 746 people have died in 1,665 accidents in the country.

    In January 2023, another ATR 72 operated by Yeti Airlines crashed after stalling in Nepal, killing all 72 on board.

    Nepalese authorities attributed the incident to pilot error.