Global Pulse

分类： society

  • Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101

    Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101

    For nearly 76 years behind bars, Francis Clifford Smith faced death eight times, each time walking away from a scheduled execution to hold the title of the United States’ longest-serving incarcerated person before passing away at 101 years old. Throughout his decades in custody, those close to him say he never once wavered from claiming he was wrongfully convicted of a 1949 murder.

    Smith’s saga began in 1949, when the 25-year-old former petty offender was accused of killing Grover Hart, a night watchman at a Connecticut yacht club. He was arrested alongside a second suspect, who accepted a plea deal in exchange for testifying against Smith. A jury found Smith guilty of first-degree murder in 1950, and he was sentenced to death. Over the decades that followed, however, credible doubts emerged about his conviction: multiple key witnesses later withdrew their original statements, another incarcerated person confessed to the murder in custody, and even the lead interrogation officer Major Leo Carroll publicly told the Board of Pardons he did not believe Smith was present at the killing at all.

    During his decades at Osborn Correctional Institution, Smith became a well-known figure among staff and fellow inmates for his quiet habit of sneaking bread out of the cafeteria to feed wild birds around the prison grounds. “He would stuff as much bread as he could fit in his clothing,” Andrius Banevicius, public information officer for the Connecticut Department of Correction, recalled. “Everyone kind of turned a blind eye to it because they knew he was just feeding the birds.” The small, gentle routine earned Smith the nickname “The Birdman of Osborn.”

    Beyond his continuous sentence, Smith experienced three brief breaks from incarceration: he escaped in 1967 and was recaptured after 12 days; he was granted a one-day Christmas furlough in 1974 and returned voluntarily the next morning; and he won parole in 1975, spending 10 months in free society before a petty larceny and weapons charge sent him back to prison for a parole violation. For decades after that, Smith repeatedly declined offers to pursue new parole opportunities, only accepting supervised release to a specialized justice system care home for elderly inmates in 2020.

    Smith’s death in his sleep at the 60 West care facility in June, from natural causes related to old age, has thrown a sharp spotlight on a growing national and international crisis: the rapid graying of prison populations. Long-term incarceration is well-documented to cause accelerated aging, with many people who spend decades behind bars developing age-related health conditions 20 to 30 years earlier than their non-incarcerated peers. “We frequently say that a person coming from a long period of incarceration can be 60 but have the health status of a 90-year-old,” David Skoczulek, spokesman for 60 West, explained. Smith, who developed age-related cognitive decline in his final years, received specialized end-of-life care through MissionCare Health, one of the few programs in the U.S. focused on geriatric care for formerly incarcerated people.

    Data underscores the scale of the aging inmate crisis. A 2025 study found that the population of incarcerated people aged 55 and older in the U.S. grew by nearly 400% between 1991 and 2021. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2030, at least one in three incarcerated people across the country will be over the age of 50. This crisis is not unique to the U.S.: Dr. Stephanie Prost, a researcher focused on older adults in carceral settings at the University of Louisville, notes that similar trends are unfolding in Australia and England, though the U.S. faces a far larger scale of the issue due to its high mass incarceration rate.

    Prost and other criminal justice researchers are advocating for targeted “smart decarceration” policies to address the crisis, including expanding compassionate release, medical parole, and elderly parole initiatives. These policies prioritize releasing aging inmates who have complex, costly medical needs that are impossible to adequately address in traditional, rigid prison environments, where elderly inmates often struggle with common age-related conditions such as mobility impairment, incontinence, and hearing loss. Even when parole is granted, however, experts point out that few care facilities are willing to accept convicted elderly inmates, leaving very few options for people like Smith outside of traditional prison walls.

    After his death, Smith was cremated per his wishes. Though he had little contact with remaining family in his final days, Skoczulek confirmed that staff at 60 West ensured his end-of-life care was dignified and aligned with his requests, closing a 76-year chapter that began with a disputed conviction and ended as a stark case study of America’s unfolding aging prison crisis.

  • Man, 21, arrested after allegedly repeatedly attacking 82yo in Melbourne while riding e-scooter

    Man, 21, arrested after allegedly repeatedly attacking 82yo in Melbourne while riding e-scooter

    A major development has emerged in the shocking investigation into an alleged assault on an 82-year-old Melbourne pensioner who confronted an e-scooter rider over dangerous speeding, with Victoria Police announcing the arrest of a 21-year-old suspect this Wednesday.

    The violent incident unfolded on 6 July in the leafy Melbourne outer suburb of Ferntree Gully, leaving the elderly victim hospitalized with injuries that, while not life-threatening, have left him deeply traumatized. According to police allegations, the confrontation began on the popular Blind Creek Trail when the retired senior asked the young e-scooter rider to reduce his speed for the safety of other trail users. Instead of complying, the rider launched into a verbal tirade against the 82-year-old before physically shoving him to the ground multiple times, then fleeing the scene immediately.

    Worse still, investigators allege the same attacker followed the pensioner to nearby Rankin Road, where he carried out a second unprovoked assault on the elderly man before leaving the area for good. Shaken and injured, the victim was rushed to hospital for urgent medical assessment and treatment.

    After days of investigation, Victoria Police executed an arrest at a residential address in Scoresby, a nearby suburb, taking the 21-year-old suspect into custody. Law enforcement confirmed the man is set to receive a summons to face court on multiple assault charges connected to the attack. The case highlights growing community tensions around shared use of public trails and paths between pedestrians, cyclists, and e-scooter riders, with many calling for clearer safety guidelines and enforcement of speed limits to prevent similar violent conflicts.

  • Mushroom murderer trial undermined by ‘catastrophic’ hotel mix-up, court told

    Mushroom murderer trial undermined by ‘catastrophic’ hotel mix-up, court told

    One of Australia’s most high-profile murder cases has returned to the courts this week, as Erin Patterson — the 51-year-old woman convicted of poisoning three of her relatives with toxic death cap mushrooms in 2023 — challenges her life sentence, while state prosecutors separately push for a harsher punishment.

    Patterson was found guilty of orchestrating a fatal poisoning at her regional Victoria home, where she served guests a beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms during a family lunch. The attack killed her 70-year-old in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s 66-year-old sister Heather Wilkinson. Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, the only person who ate the meal and survived, was present in the Melbourne Court of Appeal for the first day of hearings on Wednesday. Patterson herself did not appear in person, instead joining the proceeding via video link from her prison, where she is currently serving her life sentence. Her estranged husband Simon Patterson — who avoided the lunch by cancelling at the last minute, having long suspected his wife was attempting to poison him — was also absent from the court.

    The most serious allegation raised by Patterson’s legal team centers on a serious procedural error during the original trial: while the jury was deliberating on a verdict, all jurors were housed in the same hotel as the prosecution team, a key police witness, and reporters covering the case. Patterson’s senior barrister Richard Edney labeled the incident a “catastrophic” breakdown in procedure that irreparably damaged the integrity of the guilty verdict, arguing the convictions must be overturned and a full retrial ordered. “Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done,” Edney told the court.

    Representing the state, Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane acknowledged the overlapping accommodation was regrettable, but stressed it was an unintended accident, not a deliberate breach of procedure. He added that no evidence has emerged to prove any improper communication occurred between jurors and the prosecution or witness, meaning the incident does not qualify as a fundamental trial irregularity that would justify overturning the verdict.

    Beyond the hotel mix-up, Patterson’s legal team has outlined multiple other grounds for appeal. They argue that prosecution speculation linking Patterson to the foraging of death cap mushrooms should never have been presented to the jury. Prosecutors had argued during the original trial that Patterson targeted the mushrooms after finding reports of local death cap sightings on the citizen science platform iNaturalist, pointing to cell tower data that placed her phone in the areas where the mushrooms were spotted. But defense lawyer Veronika Drago told appeal judges the prosecution had inflated thin, circumstantial evidence into an incriminating narrative. Drago noted there is no proof Patterson ever accessed or viewed the iNaturalist posts, and the cell tower data only provides a possible location, not definitive proof of her presence. “Speculation was invited by the prosecution,” she said, arguing the unfair prejudice of the evidence far outweighs any limited value it could have had. Crown prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams pushed back against this claim, defending the use of cell tower expert testimony and noting the jury was properly permitted to use that evidence to assess whether Patterson had the opportunity to source the toxic mushrooms as alleged.

    The defense also argues that damaging Facebook messages Patterson sent months before the lunch, in which she harshly criticized her estranged husband and his parents, were irrelevant to the case and should have been excluded from trial. They further claim the original chief prosecutor engaged in overly aggressive, improper conduct during cross-examination, and identify 35 separate issues with the prosecution’s closing address to the original jury. When Justice Peter Kidd, one of the three appeal judges, asked why these issues were not raised during the original trial, Edney explained that the original defense team was operating under intense time and pressure, and the additional issues only became clear once the dust settled after the verdict.

    In pre-hearing filings, prosecutors have rejected all of the defense’s claims, arguing the guilty verdicts were inescapable given the overwhelming body of evidence. They noted multiple incriminating circumstances: the suspicious arrangement of the lunch invitation, Patterson’s decision to serve her own meal on a separate plate from the guests, and the fact that Patterson suffered no adverse health effects while all other guests became seriously ill. “Taken together, these circumstances point overwhelmingly to a deliberate act of poisoning,” prosecutors said.

    The appeal hearing is set to continue on Thursday, where prosecutors will continue responding to the defense’s arguments, and will also bring forward their own appeal against Patterson’s sentence. Currently, Patterson is eligible to apply for parole after serving 33 years of her life sentence, but the Director of Public Prosecutions argues this parole period is manifestly inadequate, and says the original trial judge acted inappropriately by setting any fixed parole term. The three appeal judges have indicated they will reserve their decision after concluding the hearing, meaning a ruling on the appeals is not expected for many weeks.

  • China arrests local official over assault on woman at business event

    China arrests local official over assault on woman at business event

    A high-profile sexual assault case in eastern China has ignited widespread public fury and sparked urgent national conversations about power abuse, workplace gender safety, and long-criticized business drinking culture, after local authorities announced the arrest of a local government official and a state-owned enterprise businessman over the attack. According to official announcements, the incident unfolded following a formal company dinner attended by multiple corporate executives and public officials, when the unnamed female victim was allegedly assaulted at a nearby karaoke bar in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

    Local investigative statements confirm that the victim was sexually assaulted by both suspects. One suspect pushed her to the ground during the attack, leaving her with visible injuries to her lower back. Following the completion of initial investigative procedures, both accused have already been removed from their official and professional positions, and are now in legal custody awaiting further judicial processing.

    While incidents of sexual misconduct linked to business entertainment events are not unprecedented in China, legal arrests in such cases — especially those involving sitting public officials — remain relatively rare. What has amplified public anger in this particular case is the combination of the severe harm inflicted on the victim and the alleged abuse of hierarchical workplace power by the two accused: one a serving public official, the other a senior executive at a state-owned enterprise.

    The case quickly dominated public discourse on Chinese social media, cementing its place as one of the most discussed topics nationwide. On Wednesday alone, seven of the top 50 most trending topics on Weibo, China’s leading microblogging platform, were tied to the incident. After local authorities released their official investigative findings, public attention surged even further: one related discussion thread accumulated more than 68 million views, while multiple other connected topics racked up between one and six million views each.

    Across social media, users have widely voiced solidarity with the victim and condemned the attackers. “Attending a work social event with drinks never equals consent to be harmed, and drinking alcohol never equals voluntary consent to abuse,” one widely liked Weibo comment read. Much of the public conversation has also centered on China’s long-debated “drinking table culture”, after early reports emerged that the victim was pressured to consume large volumes of alcohol before being taken to the karaoke lounge where the assault occurred. “What is the logic behind forcing women to accompany men for drinking at business events? We hope this harmful practice can be stamped out entirely,” another popular comment read.

    State-run China Women’s News also weighed in on the case in an editorial, arguing that punishing the individual perpetrators alone would not be enough to address the root problems exposed by the incident. The commentary argued that institutional measures are urgently needed to draw clear boundaries for appropriate business interactions, and eliminate the ambiguous grey areas where public power becomes tangled with coercive social obligations that enable abuse.

  • Thai teen found in suitcase died from suffocation, police reveal

    Thai teen found in suitcase died from suffocation, police reveal

    A devastating homicide case in the popular Thai coastal resort of Pattaya has taken new procedural steps forward, with official autopsy results confirming the teenage victim died from suffocation, law enforcement authorities have confirmed publicly. The victim, identified locally as 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla, was found dead inside a suitcase abandoned near a railway line in the early hours of June 27. Just 15 minutes before the discovery of her remains, Pattaya police took 45-year-old Australian citizen Simon Peter Carman into custody on suspicion that he was preparing to flee Thailand to avoid prosecution.

    Speaking to the British Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday, Pattaya City Police Chief Anek Srathongyoo shared key details from the post-mortem examination. He confirmed that while the victim sustained brain injuries, those wounds did not cause her death. According to Anek, those injuries likely occurred after Tunchanok had already died, when the accused moved her body in the suitcase before abandoning it along the tracks. Investigators have also confirmed that DNA recovered from the victim’s body matches Carman’s genetic profile, with police saying the match most likely came from him handling the body while placing it into the bag.

    Carman now faces four formal criminal charges: murder, concealment and movement of a deceased body, kidnapping of a minor between 15 and 18 years old, and taking a minor in that age group for an indecent act. Anek told reporters that Carman did not reject all allegations from the start of interrogation, admitting he had left the area with Tunchanok. Even if Carman enters a not guilty plea during upcoming court proceedings, Anek said investigators have compiled a complete, thorough evidence file and addressed all gaps in the case to prove the charges before the court.

    Investigators are on track to submit the full case file to public prosecutors by this Friday, Anek confirmed, noting the September 18 statutory deadline to formally indict the accused. Previously released closed-circuit television footage places Carman and Tunchanok together at a local condominium at 3:34 a.m. local time on June 25. Later that same day, police say footage shows Carman leaving the building alone, dragging a large suitcase. He then loaded the suitcase onto a motorbike and traveled in the direction of the railway line where the body was eventually found.

    Since his arrest, Carman has shifted his stance, initially offering a claim of self-defense to officers. He told police he had agreed to pay Tunchanok 1,000 Thai baht (equivalent to roughly $30 USD) for sexual services, but a dispute broke out when he only offered 500 baht after the pair returned to his rental apartment. In a recorded statement from custody, Carman addressed the victim’s family, saying, “I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control. I know you’ll be very sad, upset… same [as] me. Please tell other girls… just to be careful.”

    The victim’s family, who spoke to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, shared that Tunchanok was an only child who lived with her father and stepmother in Kalasin Province, roughly 480 kilometers northeast of Pattaya. Known to loved ones by her nickname Cake, she told her family she was traveling to Pattaya for a holiday with a friend and left for the coastal city on June 16. Her father, Thongchai Donhomla, said he is deeply grieved by his daughter’s death, noting that “My daughter had no mother, so whenever she wanted anything, she would find a way herself, and she always helped me too.”

    Her stepmother, Oradee Bussarakum, said the confirmation of Tunchanok’s death fulfilled the family’s worst fears. “We were scared. We just hoped it wouldn’t turn out the way we feared. Now our eyes are swollen from crying,” she said. Oradee has publicly called for the maximum punishment, saying “I just want [Carman] executed. I even asked the police if I could hit him, if I could beat him.” If Carman is ultimately convicted of murder under Thai law, he is eligible to receive the death penalty.

  • French civil servant drugged us to make us urinate on ourselves, say accusers

    French civil servant drugged us to make us urinate on ourselves, say accusers

    For more than a decade, a former senior French civil servant stood accused of orchestrating a pattern of alleged drug-facilitated abuse against job candidates, leaving hundreds of women grappling with lasting psychological and physical harm—and a justice system that has left them waiting years for accountability.

    Anaïs de Vos was 27 years old when she sat down for a 2011 job interview at France’s Ministry of Culture in Paris, opposite interviewer Christian Nègre, then a top civil servant in the department. Unaccustomed to drinking coffee, de Vos accepted Nègre’s offer of a cup out of professional courtesy, only to find the drink had an unpleasant off taste that led her to consume just half. Within minutes of starting the meeting, Nègre suggested the pair move their conversation outside for a stroll through Paris’s central streets.

    It was not long before de Vos began experiencing sudden, uncontrollable physical symptoms: an overwhelming, urgent need to urinate, followed rapidly by growing weakness that left her unable to feel her legs. When she told Nègre she needed to find a toilet immediately, she recalled his response as eerily giddy, framing her urgent need like that of a misbehaving child. He directed her to a locked storage cupboard under a Seine River bridge and told her she could relieve herself there. Alarmed by the disturbing suggestion, de Vos insisted they continue to a public facility.

    The pair headed to the Louvre, where public restrooms required a one-euro fee that neither de Vos—who had left her purse at the ministry—nor Nègre claimed to have cash to cover. By the time de Vos found a cafe that would let her use their bathroom, she had already lost control of her bladder. Shaken, she managed to hide the accident thanks to the dress she wore that day, and completed the three-hour interview dizzy and completely drained. She left without the job, and carried vague suspicions that something was very wrong that day, but buried the thought that a public official at a government ministry could have harmed her on purpose. The incident gutted her self-confidence, she says, pushing her onto a far less ambitious career trajectory in the years that followed.

    It was not until 2019, when police reached out to de Vos, that her vague unease became a shocking confirmation: she was one of nearly 200 women Nègre was suspected of drugging during fake job interviews at the ministry. Dozens more victims have come forward since that initial notification, bringing the total number of accusers to nearly 250. All allege Nègre subjected them to chemical submission—a form of abuse where drugs are used to strip victims of control over their bodies—between 2009 and 2018. Investigators believe Nègre used diuretics, common medications used to treat conditions like high blood pressure that trigger excess urine production, to humiliate and control his alleged victims. On Nègre’s computer, police found a detailed spreadsheet titled “Experiments P” that logged every step of his alleged actions: the time each candidate arrived for their interview, when the diuretic was given, how long it took for the urge to urinate to take effect, and even what type of underwear the woman was wearing.

    Marie-Hélène Brice, another alleged victim whose name appeared in Nègre’s notes, says her 2016 interview with Nègre in Strasbourg followed an almost identical pattern. Nègre suggested a walk along a local canal to calm her interview nerves, and within minutes Brice began experiencing the same crippling, urgent need to use a toilet. Nègre told her he knew where a public restroom was located, but when they arrived, no facility existed. Left with no other option, Brice was forced to urinate in public, while Nègre stood over her, never taking his eyes off her even as he offered to shield her with his jacket. Like de Vos, Brice carried the shame of the incident for years, only learning she was one of dozens of victims when police contacted her. The abuse left her with lasting urinary issues alongside severe psychological distress, and she says the incident fits her definition of sexual assault without question. “I have been attacked, I have been intoxicated, I have been poisoned, but for me it is a sexual assault, clearly,” Brice told reporters.

    The investigation into Nègre first opened in June 2018, when a colleague caught him taking upskirt photos of a woman under a table. He was suspended from his post as regional director of cultural affairs almost immediately, and fired from the Ministry of Culture in 2019. Prosecutors say Nègre admitted to investigators in 2018 that he “imposed humiliating situations on women” during these job interviews. Now in his 60s, Nègre is under formal investigation on charges including drugging, invasion of privacy, and sexual assault, and is awaiting trial. The BBC reached out to Nègre for comment through his legal team, but he declined to respond to the allegations.

    The Nègre case has drawn new national attention to the issue of chemical submission in France, a topic that gained widespread public notoriety in 2024 after the conviction of Dominique Pelicot, who drugged his wife Gisele Pelicot for years and invited strangers to rape her while she was unconscious. French MP Sandrine Josso, who became a leading advocate for chemical submission survivors after a French senator was convicted of drugging and assaulting her earlier this year, has pushed for systemic changes to how France handles these cases. Josso championed a new pilot program that allows women who suspect they have been drugged to submit blood, urine, or hair samples for toxicology testing without first filing a formal police complaint, a change designed to remove barriers for survivors seeking confirmation of their abuse.

    Yet major gaps remain: most of Nègre’s alleged victims had no idea they had been drugged for years after their encounters, and toxic substances only remain detectable in blood and urine for a short window after administration. While drugs can be detected in hair samples for longer periods, tracing the exact timing of administration becomes far more difficult as time passes. Jean-Claude Alvarez, a toxicology professor who leads the pilot testing program at Paris’s Raymond-Poincaré AP-HP Hospital, called the use of diuretics for this purpose “very unusual,” adding he had never encountered such a case in 26 years of practice. The program has now added diuretics to its standard screening panel in response to the Nègre case.

    Fifteen years after de Vos’s interview, and seven years after she first spoke to police, the case has yet to go to trial—a delay that has left dozens of survivors frustrated and re-traumatized. According to the women’s rights group Fondation des Femmes, which supports 30 of Nègre’s alleged victims, Nègre has continued to work in human resources throughout the investigation. De Vos, now 42, says she heard nothing about the case from authorities between 2019 and 2023, despite repeated emails seeking updates. “For four years, I was alone with the knowledge that I was a victim. I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I am very angry with the justice system.” Brice describes the long wait for trial as “secondary victimisation,” noting that survivors are forced to repeatedly prove the harm they suffered while waiting years for any sense of resolution. Many say they do not feel authorities take their claims seriously.

    Kalliopi Mingeirou, a representative from UN Women, told the BBC that drug-facilitated sexual assault remains a greatly underaddressed issue globally, and that systemic delays in abuse cases destroy survivors’ lives. The BBC requested comment from French police, judicial authorities, and the national government on the criticisms raised by survivors, but no response was provided.

    For Brice and de Vos, speaking out publicly has become a way to turn pain into action. After years of staying silent out of shame, Brice says she no longer hides her status as a survivor. “It is important for me to speak publicly because it allowed some victims to recognise themselves, to discover they were a victim and to file a complaint in turn,” she said. “Speaking out is necessary in the world in which we live, it is important to talk about sexist and sexual violence.”

  • Darwin man charged over alleged ‘Islamophobic’ incident involving threats to family, guns seized

    Darwin man charged over alleged ‘Islamophobic’ incident involving threats to family, guns seized

    A 53-year-old Darwin resident has been taken into legal custody and charged under federal Australian law following an alleged Islamophobic attack that saw him threaten a pregnant woman, her partner, and their young child, Northern Territory police have confirmed.

    The alleged incident, which was motivated by racial and religious hatred, unfolded on June 7 in Australia’s Northern Territory capital, according to law enforcement officials. Authorities confirmed last Tuesday that the suspect had been arrested and hit with two distinct Commonwealth charges.

    The formal charges stem from two counts of threatening force and violence against individuals on the basis of their protected group status, an offense that specifically criminalizes harm intended to intimidate entire protected communities. As part of the ongoing investigation into the incident, law enforcement teams executed a search that resulted in the seizure of all firearms owned by the suspect, and an immediate suspension of his firearms licence was put in place.

    Following his arrest processing, the suspect has been released on bail and is scheduled to make his first court appearance at Darwin Local Court on the first of October.

    Acting Commander Robert Griffiths of the Northern Territory Police force issued a firm public statement following the arrest, emphasizing that the targeted harassment of individuals or families based on their race, religious faith, or national origin has no place in the local community.

    “This alleged conduct is completely unacceptable in any tolerant, inclusive society,” Griffiths said. “Every single person in this community has the fundamental right to go about their daily routines, gather with their loved ones, and live without fear, intimidation, or targeted persecution.”

    He added: “No person should ever be targeted simply because of who they are, what their religious beliefs are, or where they were born. This kind of bigotry will not be tolerated by Northern Territory Police, and we will take swift action to hold those who perpetrate it accountable.”

  • Hotel blaze in India’s West Bengal kills 9 and injures 6

    Hotel blaze in India’s West Bengal kills 9 and injures 6

    In the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, a devastating fire broke out at a midtown Kolkata hotel, located just steps from the West Bengal Fire Department’s own headquarters, leaving at least nine people dead and six others injured, according to local law enforcement and Indian media reports.

    The inferno ignited at approximately 1:45 a.m. local time, state-run news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) confirmed. Emergency responders rushed five fire engines to the scene to contain the spread of the blaze, while local police and regional disaster management teams launched coordinated search and rescue operations. All injured victims were immediately transported to a nearby medical facility for urgent care.

    A serving police officer told PTI that thick, acrid smoke quickly enveloped the multi-story building, creating major obstacles for firefighters working to reach guests trapped on the upper floors. Despite the challenging conditions, crews eventually managed to bring the fire fully under control.

    As of Wednesday morning, authorities confirmed that the official death toll stands at nine, but warned that the number of fatalities could climb as search operations continue for any remaining people trapped inside the structure. Officials added that their immediate priorities are continuing rescue efforts and launching a full investigation into the origin of the blaze, which remains undetermined at this stage.

    This latest deadly fire highlights a long-running, systemic safety crisis across India, where frequent devastating blazes are often traced to electrical failures, unregulated gas cylinder installations, widespread disregard for fire safety protocols, and lax enforcement of existing fire codes. These systemic failures have led to recurring, preventable loss of life in recent years.

    Just two days before the Kolkata incident, a separate hotel fire in Tarapith, a famous temple town also located in West Bengal, claimed seven lives and left multiple others in critical condition. Before that, a December blaze at a crowded nightclub in the popular tourist state of Goa killed at least 25 people, in one of the deadliest fire incidents in the country’s recent history.

  • Erin Patterson appeals 3 murder convictions in Australia over death cap mushroom lunch

    Erin Patterson appeals 3 murder convictions in Australia over death cap mushroom lunch

    One of Australia’s most high-profile murder cases has entered a new phase, as convicted triple-killer Erin Patterson has formally appealed her convictions over the 2023 death cap mushroom poisoning that killed three members of her estranged husband’s family.

    The appeal hearing kicked off Wednesday at the Victoria state Court of Appeal, where three judges will examine arguments over two days against both Patterson’s convictions and her original sentence. Patterson, 51, was found guilty last September on three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder stemming from a lunch she hosted at her rural Leongatha home in July 2023. She prepared beef Wellington pastries laced with toxic death cap mushrooms for the gathering, which claimed the lives of Don Patterson, Gail Patterson—parents of her estranged husband Simon—and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson. Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived after weeks of intensive hospital care.

    Simon Patterson was invited to the fatal meal but ultimately did not attend. In a twist that emerged after the original trial, pretrial testimony from Simon, only made public post-conviction, revealed he suspected his estranged wife had deliberately poisoned him on multiple occasions before the 2023 lunch. Initially, Patterson was charged with three counts of attempted murder for alleged incidents between November 2021 and September 2022 targeting Simon. She denied all of these accusations, and prosecutors ultimately dropped all charges related to these claims before the main trial got underway in April 2025. Investigators never found trace of any poison in Patterson’s home or possessions beyond the toxic mushrooms recovered from the victims.

    Following her 2024 conviction, Patterson was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 33 years. Prosecutors have launched a cross-appeal, arguing that this original sentence was overly lenient, and are pushing for the court to impose a life sentence with no possibility of parole.

    Patterson did not appear in the Melbourne courtroom for the first day of the appeal hearing, and instead watched proceedings via video link from her prison cell. Her legal team has laid out multiple legal grounds to challenge her convictions, starting with a major procedural error during the original trial: jury members were sequestered in the same hotel as a key police witness and the prosecution’s legal team. Defense barrister Richard Edney emphasized to the court that this mistake amounted to a very serious breach of sequestration rules designed to protect a defendant’s right to a fair trial.

    A second key argument from the defense centers on contested cellphone evidence used to connect Patterson to areas where death cap mushrooms had been spotted. Prosecutors presented testimony from a telecommunications expert that showed Patterson’s phone connected to cell towers near the regional towns of Loch and Outtrim, where social media posts had noted local sightings of the toxic fungi. Defense barrister Veronika Drago told the court there is no actual evidence that Patterson ever saw those online posts, and the tower connection evidence only proved her phone may have been in the area—not that she was actively foraging for poison mushrooms. Drago argued that this circumstantial evidence was inherently unfair and dangerous to the defense’s case, creating undue bias against Patterson in the eyes of the jury.

    Two additional grounds for appeal contend that lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers’ five-day cross-examination of Patterson was unnecessarily unfair and oppressive, and that original trial judge Christopher Bale unfairly prejudiced the case against Patterson when he allowed testimony from Patterson’s Facebook friends to be entered as evidence.

    If the appeal court finds merit in Patterson’s arguments, judges have the power to overturn her convictions and order a new trial. The two-day hearing is expected to conclude Thursday, with the judges reserving their decision for a later date.

  • Husband and mother-in-law charged over Indian bride’s death

    Husband and mother-in-law charged over Indian bride’s death

    Five months after her wedding, 33-year-old Indian model and actor Twisha Sharma was found dead at her matrimonial home in Bhopal, central India, on May 12, triggering a months-long nationwide media firestorm that has gripped public attention. Now, India’s top federal investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has formally filed criminal charges against Twisha’s husband, Samarth Singh, a practicing lawyer, and her mother-in-law, Giribala Singh, a retired high court judge, on counts of abetment to suicide and domestic cruelty.

    The high-profile nature of the case has sparked extraordinary public interest across India, because the accused include a former member of the country’s judicial establishment — an institution that citizens widely expect to uphold standards of ethical conduct and public probity. Competing claims from the two sides over whether Twisha’s death was murder or suicide have kept the case on front pages and news cycles since May.

    Twisha, who won the Miss Pune beauty pageant in 2012, built a career spanning brand advertising, a starring role in a Telugu-language feature film, and later corporate marketing work. She first met Samarth Singh on a popular dating app in February 2025, and the pair tied the knot five months later that December, according to details included in the CBI’s 600-page chargesheet submitted to a local court last week.

    Twisha’s birth family has alleged that the couple faced escalating abuse from Samarth and Giribala almost immediately after marriage, driven by unmet dowry demands. Tensions boiled over in April, when Twisha discovered she was pregnant. Her family claims the in-laws publicly questioned Twisha’s character, falsely alleged the pregnancy was the result of an extramarital affair, and coerced her into undergoing an abortion in the first week of May. Just one week later, Twisha was dead.

    In its formal charges, the CBI has backed the core account of persistent abuse, writing that “due to continuous mental cruelty at the hands of both the accused, she was left with no option but to end her life.” The investigation document details that Samarth repeatedly used demeaning and derogatory language toward Twisha, while Giribala regularly encouraged her son to continue the emotional abuse. Both accused have remained in police custody since shortly after Twisha’s death: Samarth surrendered after a brief period when he could not be located, and Giribala was arrested within days of the death.

    The legal team for the Singh family has rejected all charges, arguing that investigators have uncovered no evidence to support the original claims of dowry harassment and murder. “The investigation has found no evidence of the earlier allegations of dowry harassment and murder… We have been saying this from the beginning but the media never listened to us,” defense lawyer Inosh George Carlo told the BBC. Giribala Singh has maintained that Twisha struggled with untreated mental health issues and died by suicide, adding that the pregnancy abortion was Twisha’s own personal choice, not a forced procedure.

    Weeks after Twisha’s death, Giribala sparked widespread public outrage when she held an unsolicited press conference and gave multiple media interviews where she publicly discussed her late daughter-in-law’s mental state and made derogatory comments about her personal character. When pressed to explain a dismissive reference to Twisha as “liberal,” the retired judge clarified the term to mean promiscuous, a claim that Twisha’s father called a deliberate, posthumous smear campaign against his daughter.

    Ankur Pandey, the lawyer representing Twisha’s birth family, noted that the abetment to suicide charges formalized in the CBI chargesheet mean the agency has provisionally classified Twisha’s death as a suicide driven by abuse. The CBI has also requested the court’s approval to continue ongoing investigation, leaving open the possibility that additional suspects could be named or new charges added in a supplementary filing if further evidence comes to light.