Melbourne recycling fire expected to continue to burn for another 3 days; CLIP

A Melbourne recycling plant fire is expected to continue to burn for another three days MORE: https://t.co/hXBkoJwJQf http://pic.twitter.com/Ka5JvyMg2Y

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) July 15, 2017

500 people snowed in at New Zealand ski resorts

Hundreds of people are trapped in ski resorts on New Zealand’s North Island after wild storms and heavy snowfall.

About 500 people are snowed inside Skotel Alpine Resort and Chateau Tongariro on Mt Ruapehu in the Tongariro National Park, reported the NZ Herald.

Skotel Alpine Resort general manager Rebecca Dalgarno, who is at Whakapapa Village, told stuff.co.nz they were ‘just trying to survive’.

Hundreds of people are trapped in ski resorts on New Zealand’s North Island after wild storms and heavy snowfall. Pictured is the

Ms Dalgarno said they were ‘trying to get through the day. Taking it hour by hour’.

‘It’s horrendous weather. Absolutely nuts up here.’ She said they had landlines and power but a surge overnight had ‘fried’ their Eftpos and internet.

She said guests had been pretty good, and they understood there was nothing that could be done about it, but some were worried about international flights they are meant to be catching today and tomorrow.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts marketing manager Matt McIvor said there were also people stuck in other ski club lodges on the mountain but said they are well equipped for the isolation.

Source: Around 500 people snowed in at New Zealand ski resorts 

Fake Perth Mint gold, police ID for sale on dark web

FAKE gold bars claimed to be from Perth Mint, a WA Police identification card and counterfeit Bankwest credit cards and utility bills are all openly for sale on the “dark web”.

After Federal agencies were sent into a spin this week over revelations Medicare details could be bought on the internet’s underbelly, a quick search of some of the dark web’s favourite marketplaces found some local product.

They included fake Perth Mint gold bars bearing a striking resemblance to the real thing for the equivalent of $50. The seller, said to be based in the Netherlands, boasts how buyers could “multiply your money amazingly with this system”.

“Normal people buy gold to hold it, never open the package and scratch it to verify. These are by far the best bars available and are almost indistinguishable from the real thing,” the advertisement read.

“This bar looks 100% like the original, and is without the crimping on the edges. They will pass the X-ray test but not the scratch test. I will leave it to your imagination the possibilities with these.”

A Perth Mint spokesman said the issue was “a known industry problem for many mints throughout the world”…

Source: Fake gold, police ID for sale on dark web | Perth Now

Nationals’ push for coal-fired power leaves voters cold in poll

Seven U.S. Sailors Confirmed Dead After Collision With Cargo Ship

The bodies of the seven sailors were recovered from inside the USS Fitzgerald as the investigation into what caused the collision off the coast of Japan continues.

The seven sailors were found in a berthing area of the vessel below the waterline, the officials said.

The USS Fitzgerald collided with the Philippines-registered ACX Crystal early Saturday local time, about 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka, near Tokyo. The impact caused significant damage to the 500-foot-long Fitzgerald above and below the waterline, resulting in flooding, the Navy said.

An investigation into the cause of the collision is continuing, U.S. and Japanese officials say.

Nippon Yusen K.K . , the Japanese shipping company that operates the 728-foot-long ACX Crystal cargo ship, said all of the 20 crew members were safe. The company said it would fully cooperate with an investigation into the cause of the collision…

Source: Seven U.S. Sailors Confirmed Dead After Collision With Cargo Ship – WSJ

‘falsely inflated visitor numbers to Elizabeth Quay to make the venue appear more popular…’: Saffioti

THE Barnett government falsely inflated visitor numbersto Elizabeth Quay to make the venue appear more popular than the Colosseum in Rome, says Planning Minister Rita Saffioti.

Ms Saffioti ridiculed the previous government’s claim there have been more than seven million visitors to Elizabeth Quay, telling Seven News they had counted “imaginary people”.

The head count would not only make the quay more popular than the Colosseum, which has four million visitors a year, but also the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower.

In Australia, the quay would come second only to the Sydney Opera House, which has about 8.2 million visitors annually.

The former government allegedly arrived at its figure by tracking mobile phones through a network of 23 wifi hotspots.

Any mobile phone they detected was recorded, whether the person was a genuine tourist or someone passing through.

Ferry passengers going to work would have been recorded every morning and again on the way home.

That delivered about four million mobile phone detections since Elizabeth Quay opened in January 2016.

Ms Saffioti says the Barnett government made up the rest.

“So they basically started counting imaginary people so for every 10 real people they counted eight imaginary people and that’s just not on,”

Source: Quay visitor numbers don’t add up: Saffioti | Perth Now

Senator Responds to Trump’s N.R.A. Speech With Photos of Shooting Victims

As President Trump took the stage to champion the Second Amendment at a National Rifle Association convention on Friday, a United States senator sought to counter his message by unleashing a Twitter storm using the names, ages and pictures of gun violence victims.

Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who has fought for increased gun control since the 2012 school massacre in his home state, posted on Twitter on Friday morning to urge his followers not to watch Mr. Trump’s speech and instead, “think about who we are fighting for.”

Bafta-nominated The Durrells, Spooks and The Missing: Keeley Hawes

Bafta-nominated The Durrells, Spooks and The Missing

Amidst all the hoo-ha about The Night Manager, The Missing and Line of Duty being largely ignored in this year’s Bafta award nominations, one mighty feat has been overlooked – that an ITV Sunday evening family show – ostensibly a cosily escapist costume drama – should find itself on the shortlist for best TV drama.

The Durrells is loosely based on naturalist Gerald Durrell’s best-selling memoires of his family’s four-year stint on pre-war Corfu, My Family and Other Animals – his widowed mother Louisa having upped sticks from genteel Bournemouth, taking her daughter and three wayward sons to the Greek island.

And it’s Louisa, rather than her more famous offspring, Gerald and author Lawrence Durrell, who is the central protagonist of the ITV drama – juggling her eternally squabbling children and their quixotic interests (animals, guns, novel-writing) along with the need to grub a living from this beautiful but peasant-poor corner of the Mediterranean.

The part of Louisa was a god-send for actress Keeley Hawes, coming off the back of a run of emotionally draining roles – as the demented DI Lindsay Denton in two series of Line of Duty, a murder victim in The Tunnel, and in the latest harrowing series of The Missing, as a grief-stricken mother.

The Durrells’ returns to ITV at 8pm on Sunday 23 April

Source: Keeley Hawes on the return of the Bafta-nominated The Durrells, Spooks and The Missing | The Independent