Tag Archives: oceania

Girl clings to balcony railing during dangerous photoshoot

A girl has been filmed clinging to the wrong side of a highrise balcony during a photoshoot on the Sunshine Coast.

Stunned witnesses in another unit block captured the sickening stunt that occurred on the eleventh floor of Mooloolaba's Seaview Resort.

The video shows the girl clinging to the balcony rail with nothing below as another person takes photos.

At one point she kneels on the ledge as her photographer gets a better angle.

When the photoshoot wraps up, she struggles but eventually pulls herself up and over the ledge to safety.

James captured part of the four-minute display yesterday afternoon from his hotel balcony across the road.

"I just thought one slip and she's gone," he told 9News.

"Next photo might have been her on the ground."

Social Media expert Meg Coffey said some young social media users go to dangerous lengths to get "instagramable" snaps.

"We as humans seem to be validated by how many likes we get so we will do whatever it takes," she said.

"It's bewildering as they're willing to put themselves in grave danger."

Queensland Police has slammed the behaviour and said the girl and her photographer could end up in court.

"I cannot impress how foolish this behaviour is," Superintendent Craig Hawkins said.

"These are people that can and should be put before a magistrate."

Suspected Bali bombing mastermind to be released from prison

The man suspected of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings is set to be released from prison after serving an unrelated sentence.

Indonesian man Abu Bakar Bashir, 82, was not convicted over the Bali bombing attacks that killed 202 people – including 88 Australians – and has always denied the allegations.

Bashir, a Muslim cleric, has also denied being the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Quaeda-linked group blamed for the attacks.

READ MORE: Key figure behind Bali bombings arrested in Sumatra

In 2005, he was jailed in Indonesia for conspiracy over the Bali bombings, but his conviction was quashed on appeal.

In 2011 he was sentenced to 15 years for supporting a militant training camp in Aceh, but now, he is set to be released on Friday.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the government had spoken to Indonesian authorities about the issue.

READ MORE: FBI accuse Kenyan man of 9/11-style plot

"This is a matter for the Indonesian government," he said.

"We have expressed our concerns about the situation and will continue to."

Anger over 'joyride' on SA beach with kids in rear tray

Two drivers have been fined after allegedly hooning on a busy SA beach with multiple children unrestrained in the tray of one of the vehicles.

Furious onlookers filmed with their phones as three vehicles allegedly sped across the sand and in the shallows of the water at North Beach, Wallaroo yesterday evening.

In one of the utes, eight children were seen clinging onto the back tray – completely unrestrained.

Wallaroo beach ute fine

READ MORE: Passenger videos terrifying high-speed drive through Gold Coast streets

The three vehicles raced along the water's edge for 10 minutes, passing close to other beachgoers, including children playing in the water.

Fearing for their safety, two fed-up locals eventually walked out in front of one of the cars demanding they leave – which they eventually did.

"Sometimes a child can be hard to see in the water and bob up much too late for someone to stop and it could have been a really tragic day," witness Roslyn told 9News.

"This is an unusual occurrence, and it's really pleasing that our community called these people out."

Wallaroo beach ute fine

READ MORE: Hoon drivers put on notice as police roll out new hi-tech cameras

A police report was made and officers caught up with two of the drivers this morning in Port Hughes.

A 29-year-old Para Hills man was fined more than $1300 for offences including having multiple children not wearing a seatbelt and riding in part of a vehicle not for people and he also copped five demerit points.

Another 29-year-old from Victoria was hit with a $287 fine for driving a vehicle without proper control.

Former solider bashed by gang in Melbourne

A former soldier has fallen victim to an alleged gang bashing when he went to help a woman in trouble in a Melbourne park.

Ben Woolley found himself in the fray because a woman needed help.

"A young girl was being attacked," he said.

Mr Woolley was confronting a group of eight thugs which allowed her to escape, which is when the mob turned on him.

"They just came in with full force with every weapon they had at their disposal," he said.

Using the end of an umbrella, pieces of steel and rocks, they repeatedly thrashed him.

"Some of the women in the group, as the men were hitting me — they were calling for the guys to kill me."

Coming in and out of consciousness, Mr Woolley was sure he would die.

READ MORE: Black Rock COVID-19 cluster in Victoria spans across multiple households, three new local cases recorded

"Regardless of whether I was conscious or not they were just going to keep attacking me," he said.

"That was my concern, I didn't think that I would survive it."

His partner Jessica Davies witnessed and filmed the alleged attack.

"They were just out to kill and it was just so vicious and traumatic.

"I thought he was going to die."

Ben now has cracked ribs, dislodged teeth, a broken nose and his vision is impaired.

Mr Woolley spent more than a decade in the army as an infantry soldier still carries emotional scars.

Today he compared what happened to being in combat and says the violent bashing has worsened his mental health.

READ MORE: Westin Melbourne will no longer quarantine Australian Open stars as doubt cast over F1 Grand Prix

"In the ambulance, he actually thought that he was leaving the battlefield," Ms Davies said.

"The paramedics had to tell him no."

Ajah Atem, 18, has been charged over the alleged incident.

She has been remanded in custody and will front the Dandenong Magistrates Court on January 19.

Despite all Ben's injuries, he says he would do it again.

"I was just disgusted and horrified that they would attack that girl like that," he said.

"I think anyone would have done the exact same thing."

'I've been eating snails': Naked fugitive found by Darwin fishermen

Two mates have stumbled across a naked fugitive living off snails and hiding in croc-infested mangroves during a fishing trip near Darwin.

Cam Faust and Kevin Joiner were in a tinny laying crab traps in East Point, about 18 kilometres north of Darwin, when they heard someone calling for help from in the mangroves on Sunday afternoon.

"We heard this faint like 'ahhh, ahhhh' — (I said) to me mate 'is that guy saying help?' so we got a bit closer and said 'I can see you'," Mr Faust told 9News.  

NT mangrove naked fugitive

To their surprise, when the pair got closer, what they found was a naked man clinging to branches, filthy and covered in bug bites.

"I've been eating snail," Luke Voskresensky told the approaching duo, saying he was stuck after getting lost on his way to a New Year's Eve party days earlier.

"We thought he was having us on, taking the piss, and then we went closer and realised the severity," Mr Faust said.

"Completely naked, cuts all over him, swollen feet, covered in mud."

NT mangrove naked fugitive

The friends said the 40-year-old really wanted to "get out of there" and was happy to get in the boat where he was welcomed with a cold beer.

They agreed Mr Faust would gift the stark naked man his shorts as he was in a better position to do so.

"I wasn't wearing any undies so I couldn't give him mine," Mr Joiner laughed.

After bringing Mr Voskresensky back to town and calling an ambulance, the friends found out the real reason he was in the middle of nowhere.

"I was going to go visit him in hospital and my partner's a paramedic saying 'he's in hospital with handcuffs on, two cops babysitting him', so we were like oh, maybe we'll leave it," Mr Faust laughed.

In truth, Mr Voskresensky was wanted on an arrest warrant for allegedly breaching bail over an armed robbery.

He had allegedly escaped days earlier, breaking free from an ankle bracelet monitoring his whereabouts.

NT mangrove naked fugitive

The waterways around Darwin are frequented by crocodiles and the East Point area has been known as a nesting site for the reptiles.

Despite the potentially dangerous situation the two friends could have been in, they instead see it as a great story to tell next time they are at the pub.

"I don't think we'll ever catch (anything) like that again," Mr Joiner said.

Musk falls $14 billion shy of world's richest

Elon Musk is just $14 billion away from becoming the richest man on Earth, and potentially the richest man in human history.

The SpaceX and Tesla founder today is worth more than $227 billion, just shy of the world's richest man and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at $241 billion.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which ranks the net worth of the world's richest people on a daily basis, largely values a billionaire based off the value of the assets they own.

READ MORE: Uber-wealthy, super elite rake in multi-billions in 2020

Elon Musk

Because their primary assets are largely publicly-listed companies, that means the peaks and troughs of Musk's net worth is inextricably tied with the stock price of Tesla.

During the worst of the COVID pandemic, there has been few better stock options than Tesla.

In mid-May 2020, when much of the US was straining under a deluge of new cases, Tesla was worth about $USD 72.

READ MORE: Musk warns Tesla stock could be crushed 'under a sledgehammer'

Fast forward to January 2021, and that same stock is worth an astonishing $USD 729 – a percentage gain of 912.5 per cent.

That means for every $USD 1 of Tesla you bought in May, you would have made around $USD 600 profit (not including capital gains tax).

The boom comes after Tesla hit its goal of building a half-million cars in 2020.

READ MORE: Billionaire fortunes jump by a quarter during pandemic

Tesla's stock rise over the last 18 months has made it the most valuable automaker in the world.

Its current market cap is worth roughly the combined value of the next eight most valuable global automakers – Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler, GM, BMW, Honda, Hyundai and Ford.

Volkswagen, the world's largest automaker, sold just under 11 million cars worldwide in 2019.

General Motors, the largest US automaker, had global sales of 7.7 million cars in 2019.

Additional reporting by CNN.