ASIO looks back on September 11, 25 years on; The killer of childcare worker Molly Ticehurst to spend decades in jail, and in sport; A record crowd turns out in Melbourne to see the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams
TRANSCRIPT
In this bulletin;
- ASIO looks back on September 11, 25 years on
- The killer of childcare worker Molly Ticehurst to spend decades in jail
- And in sport, A record crowd turns out in Melbourne to see the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams
Australia's spy chief says transnational terrorism has re-emerged as a significant security concern 25 years on from the September 11 attacks.
ASIO director general Mike Burgess has given the stark warning in a statement marking a quarter of a century since nearly 3000 people were killed in the largest terror attacks on American soil.
He says ASIO has foiled 33 major terrorism plots since 2014 where an attack was imminent or planning for one was in advanced stages.
The ASIO head's statement says that while Sunni violent extremism represents the majority of the case load of the spy agency's work, the terror threats have diversified online since September 11.
STATEMENT VO: "Al-Qaeda, ISIS and their affiliates are exploiting permissive spaces in the real world and online to grow their capabilities, demonstrating a renewed capacity to conduct and inspire attacks outside their immediate spheres of influence... These groups still see western interests as legitimate targets."
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A WARNING THAT THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRESSING FOR SOME LISTENERS
The killer of Molly Ticehurst has been sentenced to 28 years in jail.
The 28 year old childcare worker was found dead in her pyjamas at her home at Forbes, in the NSW central west, in April 2024.
Daniel Billings broke into her bedroom and used a hunting knife to stab her 15 times in a ferocious attack that lasted less than a minute.
Justice Natalie Adams has said Molly's former boyfriend will spend at least 20 years behind bars for her brutal slaying, which the court heard was revenge for her reporting allegations of sexual assault to police.
"Nothing I do in sentencing Mr Billings today, nor anything I say in explaining the reasons for that sentence, can Molly Ticehurst back or provide her family with any meaningful closure or relief. All I can do is acknowledge their grief and sentence Mr Billings according to law."
If you or someone you know wants to talk about family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or call Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call 000.
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A Hong Kong court has sentenced two pro-democracy activists to seven years in prison, after they helped organise annual vigils marking Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
69 year old Lee Cheuk-yan and 41 year old Chow Hang-tung had been found guilty of subversion as the former chair and vice-chair of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
Public commemorations of the 1989 protests used to be legal and tolerated in Hong Kong and were seen as a symbol of the city's relative freedoms compared to mainland China.
They were effectively outlawed in 2020 when the National Security Law came into force, following mass protests the year before.
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Doctors are effectively being left homeless by a migration policy designed to fix rural healthcare shortages, a parliamentary committee has been told.
The Labor-led inquiry into skilled migration comes as major parties jostle over migration numbers, with the government aiming for 225,000 per year and the coalition proposing to tie the figure to housing completions as it fends off a One Nation surge.
Australian Medical Association president Danielle McMullen says the requirement for foreign physicians to spend 10 years working outside urban centres after arriving in Australia has resulted in doctors being dumped in remote areas without any consideration of how to settle them.
She says more than half the rural medical workforce, including almost 60 per cent of rural GPs, are from overseas - and the fragmented system and lack of support has a damaging effect.
"International medical graduates are a permanent and really highly valued part of Australia's medical workforce... So it's clear that without them many regional, rural, and remote communities would have little to no access to health care."
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To sport,
More than 100,000 fans have piled into Melbourne's M-C-G to witness the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams in Australia's first NFL regular-season game.
It was the second-highest international attendance in NFL history and the league's seventh-biggest regular-season crowd of all-time.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has come to Melbourne to witness the game and says he isn't surprised by the huge turnout.
He says he is keen to back NFL teams in their efforts to grown their international fan bases.
"Both these teams took different approaches. One team has been here for several days and the other has been here for 24 hours. Either way, this is going to open doors for how we approach other games. Right? Teams will take different approaches. And we will be able to play more international games and make this a global game, which is our objective."
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