A coroner to examine the death of an Indigenous teen in Western Australia, United States officials reveal their troops have been attacked in Iraq and Syria, Swimming Australia holds an emergency meeting as it fights off the threat of international explusion.
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TRANSCRIPT
- A coroner to examine the death of an Indigenous teen in Western Australia.
- United States officials reveal their troops have been attacked in Iraq and Syria.
- And in sport, Swimming Australia holds an emergency meeting as it fights off the threat of international expulsion.
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Western Australia's government says the death of an Indigenous 16-year-old boy after he was found unresponsive in his Unit 18 cell last week will now be subject to a mandatory coronial inquest.
Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia says the department is continuing its own investigation into the incident but will co-operate fully with the coroner.
The teen's death will likely add to concerns about Unit 18 and Banksia Hill, which have been plagued by high rates of self-harm incidents and attracted regular criticism from Indigenous advocates.
The Minister says he is committed to making conditions better but has defended the current arrangements as a necessary evil.
"Detention is an option of last resort. It is a sad fact that they pretty much universally have had a terribly tragic experience in their lives, and we get them at the end of that... When you encounter these juveniles, by the time we get them, they are detained by the courts for a reason."
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United States officials have revealed that their troops have been repeatedly attacked in Iraq and Syria in recent days, as regional tensions soar in the midst of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
President Joe Biden has sent naval power to the Middle East in the past two weeks, including two aircraft carriers, other warships and about 2,000 Marines.
Rockets have since hit a military base hosting US forces near Baghdad's international airport, while a US Navy warship near Yemen intercepted missiles and several drones believed to have been launched by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.
But Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder says he believes the rise in attacks is not related to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
"The information that we have does not show a direct connection to the Hamas attacks on October 7th as it relates to Iran. Again, that's something that we'll continue to look closely at."
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A Palestinian Australian man has slammed the federal government's efforts to repatriate his wife, who is trapped in Gaza.
63-year-old Melbourne engineer Khalil Elmobayed says his wife Hanaa is being exposed to danger because of messages from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which have told her to "just go to the crossing and it will be open soon".
Mr Elmobayed says his wife has found the crossing to be closed.
DFAT says it is all doing it can to help repatriate 46 Australian citizens stuck in Gaza, but that its ability to provide assistance remains extremely limited.
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Researchers have collected fish and sea samples from a port near the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, as authorities continue efforts to allay concerns over the released of treated radioactive water from the facility.
China immediately Japanese seafood imports after the water began to be released in August - and Russia has now announced its own restrictive measures, alleging that Japan has not been transparent enough about the safety of its water.
Scientists from China - as well as South Korea and Canada - have now been among the observers to join International Atomic Energy Agency researchers in the sample collection.
The agency's Paul McGinnity says the material will now be delivered to a research centre in Chiba Prefecture and also each country's laboratory for independent testing.
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To sport,
And Swimming Australia's board will meet with member associations at an emergency session this afternoon to consider reforms proposed by World Aquatics and backed by Olympic powerbrokers.
The reforms are understood to involve changes to broaden the body's membership base to give more of a say to athletes and coaches, and make the sport more inclusive.
World Aquatics has reported threatened to expel Swimming Australia if the changes aren't supported.
But any such move would not impact Australian swimmers competing at global events.
