Australian arrested on sex abuse charges in Philippines
An Australian man charged with multiple child sex offences in the Philippines is also suspected of killing a 12-year-old girl and burying her under his rented apartment, police said Thursday.
Gerard Peter Scully was arrested in the southern Philippine city of Malaybalay on Feb 20 after a three-week stake-out, Angelito Magno, head of that region's National Bureau of Investigation, told AFP.
A local court ordered the 51-year-old's arrest in November last year on charges of rape and human trafficking after two teenage girls were found naked, chained in the bedroom of an apartment he rented, Magno said.
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Islamic State militants destroy ancient idols in Iraq museum: Video
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group released a video Thursday in which militants in Iraq are seen destroying ancient artefacts that included idols, which are prohibited by the Muslim faith.
The five-minute video shows militants at the museum in Mosul knocking statues off their plinths and smashing them to pieces with sledgehammers.
In another scene, a jackhammer is used to deface a large Assyrian winged bull at an archeological site in the city, which the Sunni extremist group captured last summer.
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Chilean girl with cystic fibrosis tells President: Let me die
A 14-year-old Chilean girl who suffers from cystic fibrosis has made an emotional plea to be allowed to die, filming herself asking President Michelle Bachelet to authorise her euthanasia.
In a video that media said had been uploaded to her Facebook page on Sunday, Valentina Maureira said from her hospital bed: "I am asking to speak urgently to the President because I am tired of living with this sickness and she can authorise the injection to put me to sleep forever."
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition that affects the lungs and other organs. Maureira's brother had died of the disease, her father, Freddy Maureira, told local Radio Bio Bio.
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Football: Besiktas oust stunned Liverpool on penalties
Turks Besiktas knocked Liverpool out of the Europa League on Thursday in a thrilling Istanbul clash at the scene of one of the English club's greatest triumphs, clawing back their first leg deficit and then winning on penalties.
With an estimated 70,000 Besiktas fans creating a cauldron-like atmosphere, Liverpool knew they faced a tough task on a balmy February evening at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, taking a slim 1-0 lead from the Anfield home leg in the round of 32.
Besiktas levelled on aggregate in the 72nd minute with a stunning strike from Tolgay Arslan, assisted by a deft back heel from Senegalese striker Demba Ba, sending the match into extra time and then a penalty shoot out.
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Madonna says intolerance in Europe 'feels like Nazi Germany'
Rebounding from her stage tumble at the Brit awards, pop star Madonna told French radio Thursday that "intolerance" was now so high in France and Europe that "it feels like Nazi Germany."
Speaking to Europe 1 radio in an interview to be aired Friday morning, Madonna said "anti-Semitism is at an all-time high" in France and elsewhere in Europe, and likened the current atmosphere to the period when German fascism was on the ascent.
"We're living in crazy times. It feels like Nazi Germany," the 56-year-old singer said, calling the situation "scary," and lamenting what she described as France's lost tradition of welcoming diversity and honouring freedom.
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