Typhoon Damrey kills 19 in Vietnam days before Donald Trump’s visit

Typhoon Damrey has killed at least 19 people after slamming into Vietnam’s south-central coast on Saturday, officials say, just days before Donald Trump heads to the country for the APEC summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.

Damrey reached land at 4am (local time) with winds gusting at up to 90 kilometres per hour that tore off more than 1,000 roofs, knocked down hundreds of electricity poles and uprooted trees.

At least 12 people were missing and more than 370 houses had collapsed, the communist state’s search and rescue committee said. More than 33,000 people had been evacuated.

Source: Typhoon Damrey kills 19 in Vietnam days before Donald Trump’s visit

Three dead as the worst storm to hit Ireland in 50 years makes landfall

Three people die as Tropical Storm Ophelia batters Ireland and the UK, knocking down trees and power lines…

MORE: Ophelia: Three dead as storm batters Ireland, UK with ‘life threatening’ weather – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Catalonia referendum: Thousands of Spaniards take to the streets as independence tensions rise

Thousands of people gather in Madrid and Barcelona as Catalonia prepares to declare independence.

MORE: Catalonia referendum: Thousands of Spaniards take to the streets as independence tensions rise – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Pell heckled at Melbourne court appearance

Guarded by a ring of police, Cardinal George Pell has been heckled outside the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court where he appeared for a brief mention of his sexual abuse case…

MORE: Pell heckled at Melbourne court appearance | Perth Now

Australian woman injured in freak accident after statue falls on her in Spain

Australian woman injured in freak accident after statue falls on her in Spain https://t.co/g9M01AziI8

— SBS News (@SBSNews) September 29, 2017

Trump: North Korea says attack on US inevitable after ‘Mr Evil President’, ‘Rocket Man’ trade barbs

North Korea’s Foreign Minister says US President Donald Trump is a mentally deranged person full of megalomania who has made military conflict inevitable.

MORE: Donald Trump: North Korea says attack on US inevitable after ‘Mr Evil President’, ‘Rocket Man’ trade barbs – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Kaspersky security software banned on US govern’ computers. Should you be worried?

The US Government has given staff 90 days to remove any Kaspersky Lab software from their IT systems. Should you be worried if you have it installed on your computer or phone?

MORE: Kaspersky internet security software banned on US government computers over Russia links – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

#Perth Plans for $150m airport shopping centre unveiled

A $150 MILLION shopping complex with 120 stores will open next to Perth Airport next Spring, in another sign of retail confidence in WA’s long-term economy.

The Direct Factory Outlet shopping centre, also known as DFO, specialises in selling previous season fashions and sale items at a discount of up to 70 per cent.

The retailers are yet to be decided but Sydney’s DFO complex includes upmarkets international labels such as Armani, Oroton, Burberry and Calvin Klein.

It also sells mainstream brands like JeansWest, Just Jeans, Portmans and Veronica Maine, as well as homewares, cafes and restaurants.

WA’s only other brand outlet, Watertown in West Perth, focuses mainly on mainstream labels.

The 24,000 sqm/m facility, with parking for more than 1500 cars, is a joint venture by Australian retail property group Vicinity Centres and Perth Airport.

The project will provide a jobs boon, with the owners claiming it will create 250 direct jobs, and more than 450 indirect jobs, during the construction phase., which started recently.

Once complete, DFO will create 650 direct retail jobs and more than 450 indirectly.

Retailers have shown great confidence in WA’s medium to long term economy with big investments in recent years, despite the sluggish economy.

Source: Plans for $150m airport shopping centre unveiled | Perth Now

Telstra internet down: Outages hit SOME customers. AGAIN

TELSTRA customers in New South Wales are reporting home internet outages this morning.

There has been a spike in complaints from about 7am, with a majority of complaints coming from Sydney and surrounding areas with both NBN and ADSL users complaining of issues.

At the time of writing website Aussie Outages which tracks service interruptions and outages has received more than 385 complaints from Telstra customers. Meanwhile plenty of others have taken to social media in a bid to ask Telstra what’s going on.

A number of customers are claiming it’s a DNS (Domain Name System) issue with some suggesting that Telstra customers could change their DNS to 8.8.8.8 to use Google’s free alternative DNS system until the problem is fixed.

While Telstra’s social media customer service agents are busily responding to complaints, the telco has not officially addressed the technical issues online.

“Some customers in New South Wales may be experiencing an issue connecting to their Broadband and NBN services,” a Telstra spokesperson told news.com.au.

“We are working to fix this ASAP and apologise for any inconvenience.”

MORE: Telstra internet down: Outages hit customers

Trump fires chief strategist Steve Bannon, conservative returns to Breitbart

President Donald Trump has fired chief strategist Steve Bannon, ending his turbulent tenure.

President Donald Trump has fired chief strategist Steve Bannon, removing the far-right architect of his 2016 election victory and a driving force behind his anti-globalisation and pro-nationalist agenda.

Key points:

• Mr Bannon gave an interview earlier this week that was seen to undercut the President
• Critics have long accused Mr Bannon of being anti-Semitic
• Democrats have welcomed Mr Bannon’s departure

A favourite in the farther-right portions of the Republican Party, Mr Bannon pushed Mr Trump to follow through on some of his most contentious campaign promises, including a travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations and his decision to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders announced Mr Bannon’s exit in a statement.

“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day,” the statement said.

“We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”

He has already returned to Breitbart News, the far-right publication he led before joining Mr Trump’s election campaign, and chaired an evening edi

Source: Donald Trump fires chief strategist Steve Bannon, conservative returns to Breitbart – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Trump bashes ‘alt-left,’ again saying two sides to blame in Charlottesville

President Trump first asked reporters to define the “alt-right,” before saying members of the “alt-left” were also to blame for violence in Charlottesville, while taking questions from reporters on Aug. 15 at Trump Tower in New York.

VIDEO HERE: Trump bashes ‘alt-left,’ again saying two sides to blame in Charlottesville

Aussie Dani Stevens wins women’s discus silver: World athletics titles, breaking Australian record

Dani Stevens has smashed the Australian record to claim the silver medal in the women’s discus at the world athletics championships in London.

Stevens burst onto the global scene as a 21-year-old in Berlin back in 2009 when she became the youngest woman to win a world throwing title.

The intervening eight years have produced several disappointments at the elite level for the Australian.

But the 29-year-old stepped up big-time on Sunday night in London.

Already in the silver-medal position behind Croatian powerhouse Sandra Perkovic with one round to go, Stevens produced the best throw of her life — a huge 69.64m effort which smashed the previous national record of 68.72m set 23 years ago by Daniela Costian.

Two-time Olympic champ Perkovic won the gold medal with a throw of 70.31m.

The bronze went to Melina Robert-Michon of France with 66.21m.

Source: Dani Stevens wins women’s discus silver at world athletics titles, breaking Australian record – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Trump threatens North Korea with ‘fire and fury’, prompting threat to attack Guam

US President Donald Trump has warned North Korea “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it continues to threaten the United States.

Key points:

• Mr Trump made comments a day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left door open for dialogue
• President’s press briefing was supposed to be about opioid addiction
• Washington Post says Pyongyang has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery

Mr Trump’s comments, delivered to reporters at his New Jersey golf course, came after Japan said it believed North Korea could have developed the technology to miniaturise nuclear warheads — which would enable them to be put on an inter-continental ballistic missile.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Mr Trump said during a briefing which was supposed to be about the problem of opioid addiction in the US.

But within hours of Mr Trump’s threat North Korea’s military said it was “carefully examining” a plan to strike the US Pacific territory of Guam with missiles.

A spokesman for the Korean People’s Army, in a statement carried by the North’s state-run KCNA news agency, said the strike plan would be “put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment” once leader Kim Jong-un made a decision.

Source: Donald Trump threatens North Korea with ‘fire and fury’, prompting threat to attack Guam – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

‘Night of the Living Dead’ Director George Romero Dead at 77

George Romero, whose classic “Night of the Living Dead” and other horror films turned zombie movies into social commentaries and who saw his flesh-devouring undead spawn countless imitators, remakes and homages, has died. He was 77.

Mr. Romero died Sunday following a battle with lung cancer, said his family in a statement provided by his manager Chris Roe. Mr. Romero’s family said he died while listening to the score of “The Quiet Man,” one of his favorite films to watch, with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher, and daughter, Tina Romero, by his side.

Mr. Romero is credited with reinventing the movie zombie with his directorial debut, the 1968 cult classic “Night of the Living Dead.”

The movie set the rules imitators lived by: Zombies move slowly, lust for human flesh and can only be killed when shot in the head. If a zombie bites a human, the person dies and returns as a zombie.

Mr. Romero’s zombies, however, were always more than mere cannibals; they were metaphors for conformity, racism, mall culture, militarism, class differences and other social ills.

“The zombies, they could be anything,” Mr. Romero said in 2008. “They could be an avalanche, they could be a hurricane. It’s a disaster out there. The stories are about how people fail to respond in the proper way. They fail to address it. They keep trying to stick where they are, instead of recognizing maybe this is too big for us to try to maintain. That’s the part of it that I’ve always enjoyed.”

Source: ‘Night of the Living Dead’ Director George Romero Dead at 77 – WSJ

ROGER HUSSEY: Holmes a Court’s inner circle as the WA businessman began his rise to power

ROGER Hussey was one of a band of smart go-getters pulled into Robert Holmes a Court’s inner circle as the WA businessman began his rise to power.

Mr Hussey, who forged his own prominent business career during the 1980s before retreating from the limelight, had joined Mr Holmes a Court’s Bell Group in 1975 after three years in a marketing job at Shell.

Seven years earlier, the new Floreat Park law graduate had won two scholarships, one to Canada’s Alberta University, the other — sponsored by Shell — to Oxford. He chose politics and economics at Oxford.

Having studied with Mr Holmes a Court at the University of WA, he was hired into a finance and investment role at Bell, working on unsuccessful takeover bids for Ansett and TNT late in his tenure.

One insider at the time yesterday recalled a self-confident, academically minded colleague who “didn’t have a strong commercial bias, that came later”.

Leaving Bell in 1979, Mr Hussey headed a leasing and insurance broking business before founding an investment company, Century Holdings, one of the first companies on Perth’s now defunct second-board market.

Taking stakes in various businesses, including Toms Tyres, he developed a prowess for turning around ailing companies, a reputation which supported a growing public profile as an emerging business talent.

Perth businessman John Poynton, who partnered Mr Hussey in a short-lived corporate advisory business in the early 1990s, remembers him as “quirky” and “sharp as a tack”, but also very private.

Source: Phuket parasailing death: Perth businessman Roger Hussey remembered | Perth Now

Source: Justice Dept. probe will look at Trump Jr.’s disclosed emails, meeting

Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators plan to examine the meeting and email exchanges disclosed by Donald Trump Jr. as part of the broader Russian-meddling investigation, according to a US official briefed on the matter.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Trump Jr., released an email chain showing that he agreed to meet with someone he believed to be a “Russian government attorney” last summer after receiving an email offering him “very high level and sensitive information” that would “incriminate” Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

One email, from publicist Rob Goldstone, claimed the information was part of “Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” But the Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, has denied having ever acted on behalf of the Russian government.

The details of the interactions between Trump Jr., Goldstone and Veselnitskaya weren’t fully known to federal investigators until recently, according to three US officials familiar with the probe. The FBI, as part of its counter intelligence probe and the investigation into Russian meddling, has scrutinized some of Donald Trump Jr.’s business dealings and meetings even before the latest meeting was disclosed, one of the US officials said.

Now, Mueller’s probe will look at the meeting and email exchanges that Trump Jr. disclosed as part of its investigation, according to the US official briefed on the matter.

Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law, also attended the June 2016 gathering. He recently amended his security clearance forms with the FBI to disclose the existence of the gathering, Kushner’s attorneys have said.

A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment, and an attorney for Trump Jr. didn’t respond to a request for comment…

Source: Source: Justice Dept. probe will look at Trump Jr.’s disclosed emails, meeting – CNNPolitics.com

Australia cricket: Players unemployed as – BBC Sport

Australia’s top cricketers are effectively unemployed after a deadline for them to agree new pay and conditions passed without resolution.

The previous agreement between Cricket Australia and the country’s leading players expired on Friday, and no new deal has been struck.

Money set aside by the governing body will be re-routed to the grassroots.

The players’ union will meet on Sunday to discuss a possible boycott of the ‘A’ team’s tour of South Africa.

That tour comprises two four-day games, with the first beginning on 12 July.

• Analysis: Are the Ashes really under threat?

More than 200 leading cricketers are affected by the dispute, which centres on Cricket Australia’s desire to remove a clause from players’ contracts which guarantees them a percentage of the organisation’s revenue.

The board, however, was offering increased pay deals for both the men’s and women’s teams…

Source: Australia cricket: Players unemployed as pay dispute deadline passes – BBC Sport