Image copyrightSA POLICEImage captionThe disappearance of the Beaumont children shocked Australia
Australian police have begun excavating a factory site over the disappearance of three children more than 50 years ago.
The case of the Beaumont children is often described as Australia’s most enduring cold case mystery.
The children – Jane, nine, Arnna, seven, and Grant, four – vanished after visiting a beach in Adelaide in 1966.
Authorities said the site of the excavation was once owned by a person of interest in the case.
The new search followed a recently discovered “anomaly” in the soil, according to South Australia Police.
“We have our fingers crossed. We hope for the best, but we do want to temper expectations,” Detective Chief Inspector Greg Hutchins said on Friday.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionThe children were on their way back from Glenelg beach when they went missing in 1966
The factory site, in the suburb of North Plympton, is about 5km (3 miles) from Glenelg Beach, where the children were last seen after going for a swim.
The property once belonged to a local businessman, Harry Phipps, who died in 2004. He remains a person of interest in the case.
A separate area of the site was excavated in 2013, but no evidence was discovered.
Police said their investigation would attempt not to cause unnecessary distress the children’s elderly parents, Grant and Nancy Beaumont.
“We all must remember the two Beaumont family parents who [have] suffered significantly over many, many years,” said Insp Hutchins.
Police said they hoped to complete their excavation on Friday, but it may require additional days.
The South Australian government has offered a A$1m (£560,000; $800,000) reward for information that helps solve the case.
Test captain Joe Root will return after being rested for the Twenty20 tri-series against Australia and New Zealand, which begins on Saturday.
Bowler Jake Ball has been dropped, as has batsman Dawid Malan, who was called up as cover for Stokes during the recent 4-1 series victory over world champions Australia.
Stokes, who has not played for England since the incident in Bristol and intends to contest the charge against him, was made available for selection last month by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
He missed England’s winter Ashes campaign and the limited-overs series against Australia, but the ECB allowed him to play domestic cricket in New Zealand in December.
The Durham player’s first involvement could now be the second T20 match against New Zealand in Hamilton on Sunday, 18 February.
England will face New Zealand in two Tests in March following the ODI series.
England’s 15-man squad versus New Zealand: Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
Fixtures
February
25: 1st ODI, Hamilton (d/n) (01:00 GMT)
28: 2nd ODI, Mount Maunganui (d/n) (01:00 GMT, moved from Napier)
A spokesman for the LAPD tells BBC Los Angeles correspondent James Cook that police do not believe this is an ongoing threat, but added that police are still searching the area to check for any additional victims or weapons.
The school will remain on lockdown for the remainder of the day, officials added.
An 11-year-old boy, a 12-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman reportedly sustained minor injuries, with abrasions to the head and face but were not shot, said Fire Department Captain Erick Scott at a news conference.
Authorities have not released a suspected motive for the shooting, or more details of how the girl was arrested.
Steve Zipperman, the chief of police for Los Angeles schools, said that investigators will carefully examine the case and will make trauma counsellors available to any students who may need them.
“We will attend to the needs of these students who witnessed this very carefully, with the understanding that this is very traumatic,” he said at a press conference outside the school.
Interim Superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District Vivian Ekchian said in a statement, “our thoughts and prayers are with those who were hurt in today’s shooting incident”.
Ms Ekchian added the school district is “providing appropriate supports to those who may be impacted by the incident”.
This is at least the third shooting at a US school in recent weeks.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionMrs Mujuru was once Mr Mugabe’s vice-president, but now campaigns against her former party
Former Zimbabwean vice-president Joice Mujuru has been attacked while holding a political rally, her party says.
The opposition National People’s Party said Mrs Mujuru and several others were assaulted with rocks while campaigning in a suburb of the capital, Harare.
At least eight people are injured, a party spokesman told the BBC, but Mrs Mujuru’s injuries are not serious.
Her party alleges the attack was politically motivated, and carried out by members of the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Zimbabwe has undergone rapid political change in the past year, with the departure of former president Robert Mugabe in November, after 37 years in power.
Its new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has promised that elections scheduled for later this year will be fair and free from violence.
Mrs Mujuru was once President Mugabe’s heir apparent, serving as vice-president for a decade before she was ousted in 2014, in a move led by Mr Mugabe’s wife Grace.
Mrs Mugabe claimed the vice-president was “corrupt, an extortionist, incompetent, a gossiper, a liar and ungrateful”. Mrs Mujuru was expelled from Zanu-PF, and became president of the National People’s Party.
Image copyrightEPAImage captionA man gets medical help from rescue workers after clashes in Calais, northern France
At least five migrants have been shot in the French port city of Calais, after a mass brawl between Afghans and Eritreans.
French news agency AFP reports that four Eritrean youths aged 16-18 are in a critical condition and have been rushed to a local hospital for surgery.
A fifth man was taken to nearby Lille due to the severity of his injuries.
At least 13 more people were wounded due to “blows from iron bars”, the local prosecutor’s office said.
France’s interior minister said he would make an urgent visit to the area.
“After today’s serious incidents I shall be heading for Calais tonight to take stock of the situation with the prefect, the mayor and local players,” Gerard Collomb tweeted.
The initial fight, which lasted almost two hours, broke out on the city’s southern outskirts where migrants had been queuing for food handouts. Around 100 Eritreans and some 30 Afghans were caught up in the violence. It started when an Afghan fired shots, AFP said.
Image copyrightEPAImage captionA group of migrants pictured with sticks during the clashes
A second melee then erupted at an industrial site around 5km (three miles) away.
“Police intervened to protect the Afghan migrants faced with 150 to 200 Eritrean migrants,” the local prefecture said.
Members of the French security forces have been sent to the area.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionMeridian Township police chief apologises to Brianne Randall-Gay on videoconference
Michigan police have offered a public apology to a woman whose complaint against ex-USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was ignored in 2004.
“We wish we had this one back”, said police chief Dave Hall.
Brianne Randall-Gay was 17 years old when she reported Nassar, but police closed the case after he said he was using a procedural medical technique.
Nassar has been accused of sexual abuse by 265 women. He received 40 to 175 years in jail in a separate hearing.
Chief Hall said at a news conference on Thursday that police had been “deceived” by Nassar, who was also a sports doctor for nearby Michigan State University (MSU).
“It should have been passed on to another expert and it wasn’t,” he said, adding that it was a misstep.
Ms Randall-Gay and her mother reported Nassar’s abuse to the Meridian Township police department, telling authorities he rubbed her breasts and attempted to penetrate her with his fingers, without gloves, according to a police report.
“I felt I was ignored,” said Ms Randall-Gay, who was seeking medical advice for a back injury.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionLarry Nassar is accused by 265 women of sexual abuse
Nassar had defended himself by saying he applied pressure to the “perineum”, or an area between the legs, to manipulate a ligament, according to the police report.
He provided to police a PowerPoint presentation about the ligament procedure and the case was closed.
Township Manager Frank Walsh said Nassar showed officers a “stack of medical journals”.
“He duped us,” Mr Walsh said.
Ms Randall-Gay, who appeared at the news conference via video from Washington state, said the apology eased her pain but does not “erase the pain I’ve suffered”.
Media captionWhat it was like to testify against Larry Nassar
At least 65 victims who allege Nassar molested them are expected to confront him in the last of three sentence hearings this week.
He will be sentenced for molesting patients in the back room of Twistars gymnastics club in Dimondale, Michigan.
The former MSU physician pleaded guilty in November to three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct against girls for whom he was supposed to be providing medical care.
At least one of the sexual assaults included a victim younger than 13. Two of the victims were abused at 15 or 16 years old.
Nassar is already serving 60 years in prison for possession of child sex abuse images and last week received 40 to 175 years in prison after nearly 160 women testified that he had molested them.
Nassar’s victims included Olympic gold medal winners Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionJessica Thomashow said: “He first molested me when I was nine… before I had braces”
In this final sentencing, a minimum of 25 to 40 years is expected to be added to Nassar’s prison sentence.
MSU, along with USA Gymnastics (USAG) and the US Olympic Committee (USOC), are reeling in the wake of the Nassar scandal.
The US Olympic Committee ordered the USAG board of directors to resign or risk losing its governing authority.
Meanwhile about 140 victims are suing Nassar, USA Gymnastics and MSU, seeking monetary damages from institutions they accuse of ignoring the allegations.
Michigan’s attorney general has launched a criminal investigation into MSU while the university’s president and top sports official resigned last week following Nassar’s sentencing.
High-tech tracking collars on nine female polar bears have measured the animals’ efforts to find food on the diminishing Arctic ice.
In Spring of 2014, 2015, and 2016, Anthony Pagano, a researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz and his colleagues, set out to track the polar bears’ hunting and survival during this critical season.
The results give a polar bear’s-eye view of the Arctic, and an increasing struggle.
The four-page document was compiled by aides for House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, who served on the Trump team during his White House transition.
What does the memo say?
It reportedly accuses the FBI and justice department of misleading a judge in March last year while seeking to extend a surveillance warrant against Carter Page, who was a foreign policy adviser to the 2016 Trump election campaign.
The memo is said to argue that the FBI and justice department did not tell the judge that some of their justification for the warrant relied on a much-disputed Trump-Russia dossier.
Compiled by a former British intelligence agent, that dossier was financed in part through the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to dig up dirt on Mr Trump.
Unnamed sources told Reuters news agency the Republican memo is misleading because all the dossier excerpts used in the FBI warrant application were independently confirmed by US intelligence.
Mr Page, the former Trump adviser, testified before a congressional committee last November that he met Russian government officials during a trip to Moscow in July 2016.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionAides to Republican Devin Nunes wrote the secret memo
What are Democrats’ objections?
Congressional Democratic leaders called on Thursday for Mr Nunes’ immediate removal as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
They accuse him of seeking to undermine inquiries into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin or obstructed US investigators.
Democrats say the White House could use the memo to justify firing justice department special counsel Robert Mueller, whose Russia investigation is overhanging the Trump presidency.
The House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff, says Republicans have also amended the memo.
Mr Schiff said the text was changed after the Republicans who control the panel voted on Monday to release the document.
The California Democrat said Mr Nunes had sent the White House a version of the memo that had been “materially altered”.
But an unnamed Republican aide said the amendments were grammatical changes and “minor edits”, including two tweaks requested by the FBI and by Democrats.
The aide accused Democrats of an “increasingly strange attempt to thwart publication”.
Why is the Department of Justice objecting?
The Republican president’s declassification of the memo could pit him against his own Department of Justice.
The agency, which oversees the FBI, has warned that the memo’s release could jeopardise underlying intelligence used to draft it.
It could also damage the arrangement under which US intelligence agencies brief lawmakers on secrets, with the understanding they will not end up in the public domain.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by President Trump, said on Thursday he will issue a rebuttal if the document is released.
The FBI issued an unusual rebuke on Wednesday to the president and his fellow Republicans in Congress.
The law enforcement bureau voiced “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy”.
The president has called the Russia investigation a “witch hunt” and “hoax”.
The tourist destination has seen political unrest since Mr Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected leader, was convicted in 2015.
His conviction and 13-year-sentence was internationally condemned, and he was given political asylum in the United Kingdom.
The country’s former Vice-President Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor and other opposition leaders were among the others named in the order.
It called for their immediate release and said the “questionable and politically motivated nature of the trials of the political leaders warrant a re-trial”.
In a tweet, Mr Nasheed called for President Abdulla Yameen to resign. The call was echoed in a joint statement issued by the country’s opposition parties.
Mr Nasheed told local television that he planned to return to Male, but not immediately.
“I will move forward wisely with the advice of the party and the united parties,” he said.
The US ambassador to Sri Lanka urged the country’s leader to respect the court’s judgement.
Image copyrightSCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYImage captionThe Indian ocean destination is popular with tourists, but has faced political turmoil
A spokesman for the president’s office said in a statement that the government questioned the ruling but would comply.
However the chief of police has reportedly been fired following the ruling, Attorney General Mohamed Anil said.
The Indian Ocean nation has been independent from Britain for 53 years, but was ruled for decades autocratically by former President Maumoon Abdul Gayhoom.
It became a multi-party democracy in 2008, but since President Yameen took power in 2013 it has faced questions over freedom of speech, the detention of opponents and the independence of the judiciary.
It is made up of 26 coral atolls and 1,192 individual islands, and is popular among foreigners as a luxury tourist destination.
Image copyrightPAImage captionPolice say Robert Wagner was the last person to see his wife, actress Natalie Wood, alive
US police investigating the mysterious death of film star Natalie Wood say her husband Robert Wagner is now a person of interest.
Investigators in Los Angeles say Wagner has “constantly changed his story”, adding that his version of events does not “add up”.
Wood was found drowned in 1981 during a boat trip off California with her husband, and actor Christopher Walken.
Her death was ruled to have been an accident but questions have lingered.
“As we’ve investigated the case over the last six years, I think [Wagner] is more of a person of interest now,” Lt John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office told CBS News.
“We know now that he was the last person to be with Natalie before she disappeared,” he said. “I haven’t seen him tell the details that match all the other witnesses in this case”.
“I think he’s constantly changed his story a little bit. And his version of events just don’t add up,” Lt Corina added.
Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died in November 1981.
Family members have previously asked for authorities to re-examine the findings of the original investigation.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionWood, who was 43 when she died, was nominated for an Oscar three times but never won
Wood, who starred in West Side Story and Rebel Without a Cause, had been partying the night before her death. The coroner’s investigation ruled she had been drinking and may have slipped trying to board a dinghy.
But police say two new witnesses have corroborated accounts of a fight between Wagner and Wood on the night she disappeared.
They say it appears the actress was the victim of an assault. The post-mortem report said Wood had bruises on her body and arms as well as a facial abrasion on her left cheek.
The captain of the boat, Dennis Davern, told NBC News in 2011 that he lied to police during the initial investigation and that a fight between Wood and Wagner had led to her death.
Image captionWagner has had numerous TV and film roles
TV star Wagner, 87, has not commented on the latest developments but acknowledged in his memoir that he had argued with his wife before she disappeared.
Investigators say he has refused to speak to them since the case was reopened in 2011.
In 2012, Wood’s death certificate was amended to reflect the uncertainty surrounding her death. It now says she died as a result of “drowning and other undetermined factors” and the circumstances of how she ended up in the water are “not clearly established”.
As a child, Wood featured in films like Miracle on 34th Street and The Ghost and Mrs Muir.
She was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Rebel Without a Cause, and for best actress for Splendor in the Grass and Love with the Proper Stranger.