Australian Robert Pether released from Iraqi jail
Indonesia and Australia announce joint military drills
NRL players agents under fire for accreditation breaches Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . An Australian man has been freed from prison in Iraq after more than four years behind bars. An anonymous source has told SBS News the man - identified as Robert Pether - has been released on bail. The engineer had been jailed in 2021 on fraud charges in a case that the United Nations later described as an arbitrary detention. His family said the charges were manufactured following a contract dispute.
Mr Pether had originally gone to Iraq to work on the construction of the country's new central bank headquarters.
Indonesia and Australia are to hold joint military exercises on a strategic eastern island in the archipelago as the two neighbours seek to strengthen defence cooperation. Morotai is an allied remnant from World War II that was an important location due to the United States' operations in the Philippines and Australia's in Borneo. Defence Minister Richard Marles and Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin have announced the joint air force and naval drills following talks in Jakarta, where they met to discuss security issues. Mr Marles says there will also be training exercises in Australia under the Defence Cooperation Agreement they have signed.
"We are encouraging the TNI (Indonesian military) on that basis to unilaterally take advantage of Australia's training facilities. The first iteration of that will occur with the TNI conducting training at the Mount Bundey Training Facility in the Northern Territory. That will occur in October of this year.'
An Australian has been arrested in Bali on drugs charges. Head of Narcotics Eradication at the Bali Provincial Narcotics Agency, Sinar Subawa, says the Australian man has been taken into custody after suspicious items were found in the luggage of an Indian man at Ngurah Rai International Airport, who has also been arrested. "Furthermore, narcotics officers conducted further investigation and arrested a man - Australian - named PR. During a search of the house occupied by PR, officers found evidence in the form of hashish belonging to suspect PR, which was purchased through the Telegram application." Authorities say the Australian man has been visiting Bali since 1988.
They allege the hashish was shipped from Los Angeles and Philippines before arriving in Bali where officers seized 191 grams of the substance, along with some candies consisting of tetrahydrocannabinol and marijuana.
The operator of a jumping castle at the centre of a tragedy that killed six children in Tasmania has been cleared of workplace safety breaches. The Devonport Magistrates Court has ruled the Taz-Zorb company was not guilty of failing to comply with a workplace health and safety duty at Hillcrest Primary School in 2021, when a gust of wind carried children in the castle into the air. The Magistrate has ruled the charge was not proven.
It had previously been alleged pegs not compliant with national standards had been used at only four of the castle's eight anchor points, despite the manufacturer's instructions recommending eight.
A US group distributing aid in Gaza has reopened two sites after a deadly shooting earlier this week that killed an estimated 27 people. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's interim director, John Acree, says work is underway to open more sites - including in North Gaza - and to ensure safe and efficient delivery of lifesaving assistance. United Nations spokesperson, Stephane Dujurric, says the UN has continued to send supplies to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, despite what he has described as the constant blocking of humanitarian missions by Israeli authorities. He says the amount of aid arriving in Gaza is still not enough to properly feed the population.
"Today we sent just over 20 truckloads of supplies which were mostly food assistance, as well as some health supplies to the Israeli side of the crossing, and that number reflects a limit imposed by the Israeli authorities... This week, partners working on food security tell us that 14 of them delivered just over a quarter of a million meals daily. This is much less than the million meals that were being distributed daily at the end of April."
To sport, two NRL player agents been banned and fined a collective $35,000 after breaching the terms of their accreditation. Mario Tartak, who represents such players as Josh Addo-Carr, Damien Cook and Haumole Olakau'atu, is alleged to have communicated with an underage player without a parent or guardian present. The NRL also claims he "entered into a commercial arrangement with two NRL clubs", which is a breach of the league's accredited agent scheme rules.
A second agent, Matthew Desira, has been found to have failed disclose police charges and court proceedings brought against him.
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Former Canberra childcare worker on trial for acts of indecency against two children in his care
Warning: This story contains details of child sexual abuse. A former childcare worker is facing trial in the ACT Supreme Court accused of committing acts of indecency on two children who were under his care. Muhammad Ali was working at a Belconnen childcare centre in 2022 when the alleged conduct took place. The alleged victims were a four-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl, with Mr Ali now facing two counts of an act of indecency on a child under 10. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges. In court on Tuesday, the jury was shown a police interview from May 2022 with the three-year-old girl. The girl tells the interviewing officers that Ali pulled her and another child's pants down and touched her "on the noo-noo" in the centre's play shed. "He said he wanted to feel it," the girl tells police. "He finished and then he pulled our pants back up." When the girl was asked by the officers how many times Mr Ali touched her, she replied, "A lot". The court heard Mr Ali's alleged conduct first came to light when a four-year-old boy made disclosures to his mother after he was picked up from the centre in April 2022. The boy's mother gave evidence in court, describing how "everything sort of went into slow motion" when her son told her that Mr Ali had pinched his penis while his pants were on. "I put him in the car seat … and could see he was upset," the mother told the court. "I asked again and he said Ali had pinched him on the doodle and I said, 'Hold on a minute, who's Ali?' "He said, 'Ali's my teacher'." The mother recorded the disclosure on her phone and that footage was shown to the court today. In the video, the mother asked her son how it made him feel when Mr Ali pinched him. "It just makes me feel sad and makes me not have a good day," the boy replied. The jury was also shown a police interview with the boy in which he repeated those allegations. "He pinched me on the doodle and it hurted [sic]," the boy told the interviewing officer. "He thinks it was fun and it was not fun for me. "Then I bited [sic] him, I bited him on the arm. And he didn't like it." The mother told staff at the centre what he son had told her and was later informed Mr Ali had been stood down,pending an investigation. The court heard that when the allegations were put to Mr Ali the next day, he laughed and asked which child had made the accusations. The matter was later reported to ACT Policing. During his opening address, prosecutor Marcus Dyason told the jury it was up to them to decide whether Mr Ali's conduct should be considered indecent. "For an act to be indecent, it needs to be indecent according to reasonable members of the community," Mr Dyason said. Mr Dyason also added that the prosecution alleges that Mr Ali had a tendency to show interest in young children. "The prosecution alleges … the accused had a tendency to have an interest in young children and a tendency to act on that interest," he said. In her much shorter opening address, defence barrister Sarah Baker-Goldsmith told the jury the case lacked objective evidence. "None of these alleged incidents were captured on any of the centre's CCTV cameras. "There is no objective evidence before you, I suggest."
