Global Pulse

分类： society

  • Multiple inside during targeted early morning shooting at Kealba, Melbourne

    Multiple inside during targeted early morning shooting at Kealba, Melbourne

    A frightening early-morning drive-by shooting has left a Melbourne suburban home riddled with bullet damage, though all five people inside escaped without injury in what investigators are calling a close call for the residents.

    Victoria Police confirmed the brazen attack unfolded just after 1 a.m. on Thursday at a residential property located on Rowan Street in the northwestern Melbourne suburb of Kealba. According to preliminary police accounts, an unidentified male suspect fired multiple rounds directly toward the occupied home before fleeing the scene in a white SUV.

    The gunfire left four large, conspicuous bullet holes punched through the property’s front door, marking the visible aftermath of the violent incident. For the five Melbourne residents inside the home at the time of the shooting, the outcome was a narrow escape—no injuries to people inside the residence were reported following the attack.

    In the hours after the shooting, law enforcement officers secured the site and established a formal crime scene to process evidence linked to the attack. Investigators are now appealing to members of the public who were in the Kealba area around the time of the incident to come forward with any potential evidence. Specifically, police are asking anyone with dashcam footage from local roads or privately owned CCTV cameras covering the Rowan Street area to contact Crime Stoppers to assist with the ongoing investigation.

  • Fury as man accused of Bunnings dog attack skips court again

    Fury as man accused of Bunnings dog attack skips court again

    A man accused of animal cruelty over an alleged violent attack on a pet dog in a Bunnings Warehouse carpark in Adelaide’s northern suburbs now has an active arrest warrant against him after failing to appear in court for a second time.

    Forty-eight-year-old Nathan Bradwell, a resident of nearby Smithfield, was captured on camera in March this year delivering two separate kicks to the head of 4-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier Maya inside the parking lot of the Bunnings Parafield outlet. He was subsequently charged with ill-treatment of an animal, a charge he has publicly denied, claiming he acted out of self-defense during the confrontation.

    Bradwell’s repeated absence from court proceedings has added to the frustration of the case. He first failed to attend a scheduled hearing on May 11, though he did appear before a judge one month later on June 10. But on Thursday, he again failed to show up for his scheduled hearing at Elizabeth Magistrates Court. Magistrate Karim Soetratma approved the issuance of an arrest warrant with no bail granted, meaning Bradwell will be held in police custody immediately after he is taken into custody until his next scheduled court appearance.

    The dog’s owners, Hayden Palkovics and Tyler Wright, have attended every court hearing to date, marking their fourth consecutive in-person appearance for the case. Speaking after Thursday’s proceeding, Palkovics expressed deep frustration with the repeated delays. “It is beyond frustrating. Now it is just a waiting game. This was round 4 for us and we just really hope he shows up for round 5,” he said.

    Despite the traumatic incident four months ago, Palkovics confirmed Maya is now in good health and enjoying a normal, happy life with the couple. “She is still doing very well and lives the dream life, as she should,” he added. Wright said the pair remains committed to seeing the case through to ensure accountability for the attack, noting that they will continue to show up to every hearing to advocate for Maya, who cannot speak for herself in court.

    When Bradwell first appeared in court on April 14, he told reporters outside the courthouse, with his face covered by a jacket, that he had only acted to remove the dog from himself in self-defense. Footage of the alleged attack circulated widely across social media platforms shortly after the March 1 incident, sparking widespread public anger over the treatment of the animal. The case will be next called before the court once Bradwell is taken into custody.

  • Library cards and faux copies – US man sentenced in elaborate theft of 17th Century Chinese literature

    Library cards and faux copies – US man sentenced in elaborate theft of 17th Century Chinese literature

    An elaborate forgery-fueled theft scheme that targeted one of the United States’ most significant collections of rare historical artifacts has concluded with sentencing for the perpetrator, a California man who stole centuries-old Chinese manuscripts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Library.

    Jeffrey Ying, 39, a resident of Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area, pleaded guilty to one felony count of major artwork theft for stealing a 17th-century Qing Dynasty ancient Chinese manuscript. In a California federal court ruling, he was sentenced to time served — equal to roughly one month he spent in jail following his arrest — followed by one year of home confinement and three years of supervised release. No immediate fine was issued, though court documents note that the amount of restitution owed to the library for its losses has not yet been finalized.

    The criminal complaint against Ying lays out the sophisticated plot he carried out between December 2024 and July 2025. Prosecutors allege that Ying exploited a then-existing UCLA Library policy that allowed members of the public to request library cards for access to rare collections entirely online, with no requirement to present in-person government-issued identification. Using three different aliases — Jason Wang, Alan Fujimori, and Austin Chen — he created multiple library accounts to check out the rare ancient Chinese texts held in the institution’s archives. The UCLA Library houses one of the nation’s largest open collections of rare books and historical artworks, making it accessible to outside researchers under controlled public access policies.

    After renting out each manuscript, Ying traveled back and forth between the U.S. and China within days of each check-out, according to prosecution records. Investigators believe he used custom forging equipment and blank parchment matching the style of the original ancient documents to create detailed counterfeit copies. When he returned the fakes to the library under his aliases, the switch went undetected for months.

    The scheme was only uncovered when library staff processing recently returned items noticed inconsistencies that revealed the submitted documents were forgeries. An internal review launched by library administration identified multiple suspicious returns linked to the aliases, and cross-checking with surveillance footage confirmed that all the checked-out original manuscripts had been picked up by the same individual, later identified as Ying.

    When law enforcement arrested Ying in August 2025, a search of his hotel room located near UCLA’s campus uncovered blank manuscript paper and reference documents matching the stylistic characteristics of the stolen texts. Prosecutors’ arrest affidavit states these materials were explicitly used to create “dummy” counterfeit books to swap for the authentic historical artifacts. At the time of arrest, authorities also seized a fraudulent California state ID issued under the name Austin Chen, as well as two library cards registered to aliases Austin Chen and Jason Wang.

    Prosecutors estimate the total value of the manuscripts Ying is accused of stealing amounts to roughly $216,000, equal to approximately £161,300. The stolen items include two particularly valuable artifacts: a text dating back to 1393 and another published in 1575. As of the sentencing ruling, Ying has only been charged and convicted for the theft of the 17th-century Qing manuscript. Court records do not currently outline where the stolen authentic manuscripts are being held, leaving the ultimate fate of the historical artifacts unknown. Following the exposure of the theft scheme, UCLA has revised its public access policy for rare collections, now requiring in-person identity verification before granting access to high-value archival materials.

  • 11-month-old child hospitalised with serious injuries

    11-month-old child hospitalised with serious injuries

    A shocking case of alleged infant abuse has left an 11-month-old child fighting for life in a Western Australia hospital, with a family member now facing serious criminal charges over the incident. According to local law enforcement details, the infant sustained life-threatening harm following an alleged shaking attack on July 2. Emergency responders immediately rushed the injured child to Joondalup Health Campus in critical condition, before the young patient was transferred to Perth Children’s Hospital for specialized intensive care. As of the latest update, the 11-month-old remains in a critical but stable condition under close medical observation. Western Australia Police confirmed on Monday that the accused, a 25-year-old man from Two Rocks, a coastal suburb north of Perth, was formally charged with one count of aggravated grievous bodily harm this past Friday. Investigators have also confirmed a familial relationship between the accused man and the injured infant, though no further personal details have been released to protect the child’s identity. The suspect is scheduled to make his first court appearance at Perth Magistrates Court on July 29, where formal legal proceedings will begin. This incident has prompted renewed local discussion about infant safety and prevention of non-accidental head trauma in young children, a leading cause of severe injury in infants under 12 months of age across Australia.

  • Arizona toddler found alive in hospital morgue after declared dead from drowning

    Arizona toddler found alive in hospital morgue after declared dead from drowning

    A shocking case of medical error has emerged from the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, Arizona, where an 18-month-old toddler was incorrectly pronounced dead following a near-drowning incident, only to be discovered alive hours later in a medical examiner’s cold storage facility, newly unsealed police records confirm.

    The incident unfolded on February 8, as the toddler’s extended family had gathered at the home to watch the annual NFL Super Bowl. At roughly 5:30 p.m. local time, panicked family members discovered the young child floating face-down in the property’s unmonitored swimming pool and immediately placed an emergency call to law enforcement. First responders arrived on scene within minutes, initiated advanced resuscitation efforts, and rushed the unconscious toddler to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center for urgent care. Roughly an hour after the child arrived at the hospital, attending physician Dr. Aryan Toosi declared the 18-month-old dead at 6:20 p.m.

    Body camera footage captured by responding Gilbert police officers, later obtained by local NBC affiliate 12 News, records the declaration of death: after officers noted that they still observed faint signs of life, Dr. Toosi dismissed their concerns, telling officers “please do your thing and let me do my thing. I went to medical school for a reason.” He then formally marked the time of death as 18:20 and called for a moment of silence before the child’s body was transferred to the hospital’s morgue to await pickup by the county medical examiner’s office.

    Five hours after the death was declared, a transporter from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office arrived at the hospital to collect the remains. When the transporter opened the cold storage unit holding the toddler, he made the startling discovery that the child was still breathing. The toddler was immediately airlifted to a specialized pediatric care facility for emergency treatment, and in a stunning turn of events, made a full recovery and was later released to family members.

    Full medical details of the toddler’s condition and the misdiagnosis have not been released to the public, as medical records were not included in the unsealed police report, leaving many questions unanswered about the sequence of events that led to the incorrect death declaration. Scott Holden, attorney for Dr. Toosi, told the Associated Press that the public narrative released so far omits critical contextual and medical details, noting “there is much more to this case, both factually and medically, than has been reported thus far.” The BBC has reached out to Holden for additional comment on the case, but has not yet received a response.

    Alongside the internal hospital review, law enforcement has opened a separate investigation into the circumstances that allowed the toddler to access the pool unsupervised. Investigators reported detecting a strong odor of marijuana inside the home at the time of the incident, and Gilbert Police have formally recommended filing negligence charges against the toddler’s parents. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has not yet announced whether it will move forward with formal charges, and is still reviewing the case file.

    Mercy Gilbert Medical Center released a public statement following the revelation of the incident, confirming that the facility has launched a full organizational review of the toddler’s care. “We conducted a thorough review of all aspects of the care provided to learn what happened and to make meaningful changes to strengthen our care,” the statement read, adding that “this is a heartbreaking situation” and declining to share further details due to patient privacy regulations.

  • Teenager arrested after two girls, 13, seriously injured in German school attack

    Teenager arrested after two girls, 13, seriously injured in German school attack

    A violent attack at a German secondary school has left two young teenagers seriously injured and sparked a large-scale emergency response in the small town of Schongau, Upper Bavaria. Law enforcement authorities have confirmed that a 16-year-old suspect has been taken into custody following the Wednesday incident at Welfen-Gymnasium, a local public secondary school with deep community roots stretching back to its founding in 1887.

    According to official statements from German police, responding officers found the suspect in possession of both a knife and a firearm when they arrived at the scene. Investigators currently believe the suspect acted alone in carrying out the attack, though many details about the incident remain under active investigation as of Wednesday afternoon.

    The two victims, both 13-year-old female students at the school, suffered severe wounds in the attack. Police confirmed that while their injuries are serious, they are not currently considered life-threatening. However, authorities have noted that they are still working to confirm whether additional people were hurt, and are still assessing the full scope of harm from the incident.

    Early in the response, a police spokesperson told AFP that the type of weapon used had not yet been confirmed, and declined to confirm initial reports of a stabbing. Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann later told local public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk that he believed the two girls had been stabbed, though this detail has not yet been formally confirmed by law enforcement.

    Multiple key details about the suspect remain unconfirmed, including their full identity and their connection to the school. Herrmann told reporters that the suspect had received prior psychiatric treatment, and there are unconfirmed reports that the individual is a former student of Welfen-Gymnasium. Police have publicly classified the incident as a “rampage” as their investigation continues.

    Local authorities have moved quickly to support affected families and community members in the wake of the violence. A dedicated support and contact point for parents, relatives of students, and witnesses has been set up at the town’s local fire station to provide information and mental health resources.

    Founded more than 135 years ago, Welfen-Gymnasium began as an almost entirely all-girls school before shifting to a co-educational model roughly 40 years ago, according to information posted on the school’s official website. The incident has shocked the quiet small town community, with a large police operation still ongoing in the area surrounding the school as investigators collect evidence and piece together the full sequence of events.

  • Police name man wanted over murders of wife and daughters

    Police name man wanted over murders of wife and daughters

    A cross-border manhunt is underway after a mother and her two young daughters were found dead in a residential property near Bedford, in what UK police describe as a targeted, deeply distressing suspected triple murder. The victims are 42-year-old Nothabo Zandile Tshuma and her children, 15-year-old Natalie and five-year-old Nala. Their bodies were discovered on Monday, when officers from Bedfordshire Police forced entry into their home in the Great Denham neighbourhood after community members raised alarm that the entire family had not been seen in public for several days.

    Authorities have named the prime suspect as 45-year-old Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma, also known by the informal name Mark, who is the husband of the murdered mother and father of the two dead girls. Investigators have confirmed that Tshuma used a valid British passport to leave the United Kingdom through London Heathrow Airport on Saturday, two full days before the bodies were found. Detective Inspector Lee Martin, the lead officer on the case, confirmed that UK police believe Tshuma has traveled to Zimbabwe, and that law enforcement teams are collaborating with domestic national agencies and international partners to track the suspect down.

    “We are urgently working to find and apprehend him, and would appeal to him directly to hand himself in,” Martin said in a public statement. Addressing the suspect directly, he added: “Mark, unthinkable harm has been caused to those around you and this has left your relatives and friends utterly devastated. Criminal investigation knows no borders. Please do the right thing, come forward and hand yourself in to local authorities.”

    As of Tuesday, Zimbabwean national police have not yet received a formal Interpol notice regarding Tshuma’s possible presence in the country, a police spokesperson Paul Nyathi told the BBC. Nyathi added that Zimbabwean authorities were aware of the case through media reports, and had already put monitoring systems in place to flag any credible sightings of the suspect.

    The tragic deaths have prompted an outpouring of grief from the local community and the girls’ schools, which have paid warm tribute to the two young lives cut short. Jo Webster, headteacher at Pilgrims Pre-Prep School, where Nala was a pupil, described the five-year-old as a “ray of sunshine” celebrated for her curious personality and wonderful sense of humour. “Many of our staff had known her since she was just seven months old and had the privilege of watching her grow,” Webster said.

    At Bedford Girls’ School, headteacher Gemma Gibson remembered 15-year-old Natalie, a Year 10 student, as a bright, accomplished young person with extraordinary talents across dance, music and sport. “She was fun-loving, full of life and had a positive impact on everyone she came into contact with. She will be remembered with great warmth and affection,” Gibson said.

    The family’s Carnoustie Drive home has been cordoned off as an active crime scene, and local residents have left bunches of flowers at a nearby hedge as a quiet tribute to the victims. One tearful resident who left flowers told the BBC: “We’re really sorry to lose her. She was such a gracious mother.” Multiple neighbours told reporters they were deeply shocked that such violence could occur in what they described as a quiet, typically safe residential area.

    Bedfordshire Police Assistant Chief Constable John Murphy previously called the incident “a deeply distressing incident in which a mother and her two children are believed to have been murdered.” The force stressed there is no current evidence to suggest the suspect poses any wider risk to the general public, but has confirmed it will increase visible patrols in the Great Denham area to reassure anxious residents.

    Formal identification of the victims has not yet been completed, according to a police update. Investigators are asking any member of the public who noticed suspicious activity in the local area between Friday and Saturday, or who holds any relevant information about the case, to contact Bedfordshire Police immediately with details.

  • German doctor jailed for killing 15 of his patients

    German doctor jailed for killing 15 of his patients

    A 41-year-old German palliative care physician has been handed a permanent life sentence and ordered to serve additional preventive detention after a Berlin court convicted him this Wednesday of murdering 15 of his patients between 2021 and 2024. In line with Germany’s strict privacy regulations, the defendant is only publicly identified as Johannes M. He was found guilty of the premeditated killings of 12 women and three men, in a case that has shaken the German medical community and sparked widespread public shock.

    All of Johannes M.’s convicted victims were between 25 and 94 years old, and all were living with critical illnesses. Court testimony confirmed that while the patients required palliative care, their deaths were not medically imminent when the killings took place. Prosecutors laid out detailed evidence that during routine home visits, the doctor administered lethal, unprescribed combinations of powerful medications to his patients without their knowledge or consent. In multiple instances, prosecutors added, Johannes M. set fire to his victims’ homes in an attempt to destroy evidence and cover up the unnatural causes of death.

    The investigation into the killings was triggered by the doctor’s final two murders in July 2024, just days before his arrest. Prosecutors confirmed that within the span of a single day, he killed a 75-year-old man in central Berlin, then traveled to a neighboring district to murder a 76-year-old woman. When he attempted to set fire to the woman’s home to cover his crime, the attempt failed, leaving critical evidence that led to his rapid arrest.

    Johannes M. remained silent for the majority of his year-long trial. It was only last month that he broke his silence, confessing to the killings of 12 severely ill patients. He told the court he had convinced himself his actions were justified, claiming he was sparing his victims from ongoing suffering and physical infirmity. “Throughout it all, I thought this was the best thing for everyone,” he said, adding an apology for the profound pain he had inflicted on victims’ families.

    However, the guilty verdict this week covers 15 murders, three more than the doctor confessed to, and law enforcement officials warn that the 15 convicted killings may only represent a small fraction of the doctor’s total crimes. Prosecutors are currently actively investigating 76 additional suspicious deaths connected to Johannes M. German media outlets note that if even a portion of these additional cases are proven in court, this will become one of the worst serial killing sprees in modern German history. The defendant told the court he intends to cooperate more fully with the ongoing investigations and upcoming legal proceedings tied to the additional suspicious deaths.

    During the trial, family members of the victims delivered emotional testimonies describing their ongoing disbelief and grief. The mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who died in 2021, told the court through tears, “She never said she didn’t want to live anymore.” The son of a 72-year-old victim who died in 2024 added that his mother had made concrete travel plans to visit the Baltic Sea with her sister, emphasizing “My mother wanted to keep on living.”

    Alongside the life sentence, the Berlin court issued two additional punitive measures: a permanent preventive detention order that will keep Johannes M. incarcerated beyond his base sentence if he is deemed a continued threat to the public, and a lifetime ban on practicing medicine in Germany. The case has prompted new calls for increased oversight of palliative care providers working in home health settings across the country.

  • ‘Serial killer’ German doctor given life sentence for 15 murders

    ‘Serial killer’ German doctor given life sentence for 15 murders

    In a landmark ruling that has sent shockwaves through Germany’s medical community, a 41-year-old Berlin palliative care doctor has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of murdering 15 patients between 2021 and 2024, with authorities continuing to investigate his suspected involvement in more than 70 additional unexplained deaths. The Berlin Regional Court formally found the defendant, identified only as Johannes M. in line with German privacy rules, guilty of killing 12 women and three men during routine home care visits between September 2021 and July 2024. Presiding judge Sylvia Busch labeled the physician a “serial killer” at the center of an “unfathomable” and “extraordinary” case that ranks among the most disturbing serial killing incidents in modern German criminal history. After determining Johannes M. bore “particular gravity of guilt” for his premeditated crimes, the court handed down the harshest possible sentence under German law, a ruling that drastically reduces his chance of being granted parole in the future. The court also issued a permanent ban barring him from ever practicing medicine again. Unlike cases of unlawful assisted dying, where defendants often claim compassionate motivation, the court definitively ruled that Johannes M.’s killings were driven by a desire for power over his vulnerable victims. Prosecutors argued during the five-month trial that the doctor acted out of “a lust for murder”, noting he had “no other motive for killing these people than the act of killing itself”. All victims were patients under his ongoing palliative care at the time of their deaths, ranging in age from 25 to 94. Court documents detail that Johannes M. intentionally administered lethal combinations of anesthetic and muscle relaxant to his victims. The drugs paralyze the body’s respiratory muscles, triggering rapid respiratory arrest that leads to death within minutes. In at least five separate cases, the court found he set fire to victims’ apartments after killing them in an attempt to destroy evidence and cover up his crimes. The case exposes a pattern of escalating violence: on July 8, 2024, he killed two patients within a matter of hours in neighboring Berlin districts, first a 75-year-old man in Kreuzberg, then a 76-year-old woman in Neukoelln. His attempt to burn the second crime scene ultimately failed when the fire failed to spread, leaving critical clues for investigators. In a last-minute admission ahead of the verdict, Johannes M. confessed earlier this week that he had “killed people”, telling the court “I despair at myself”. According to reporting from Germany’s leading Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he added that he has only recently come to terms with “the extent of the suffering” he inflicted on victims and their families. Red flags about the doctor’s practice were first raised by local care services, prompting a formal police investigation that led to his arrest and remand in custody in August 2024. What began as an inquiry into just four suspicious deaths quickly expanded as investigators connected the dots between the doctor’s patient roster and unexplained deaths. As of the verdict announcement, dozens of additional cases remain under active investigation. The case is not an isolated incident in Germany, drawing immediate comparisons to the 2019 conviction of Niels Hoegel, a German nurse who was sentenced to life for murdering 85 patients across two hospitals. More recently, another palliative care nurse was handed a life sentence in November 2024 for killing 10 patients and attempting to kill 27 more with lethal injections.

  • ‘Dark cloud’ over town as woman’s death investigated

    ‘Dark cloud’ over town as woman’s death investigated

    A tight-knit community in the popular Irish tourist town of Killarney, County Kerry, has been plunged into shock and grief following the sudden death of a local woman at her home, with law enforcement currently working to unravel the circumstances of the incident.

    Irish national police, known as Gardaí, confirmed they were called to a residential address on Muckross Road on Tuesday, where the woman, believed to be in her 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene. Per local reporting from Irish public broadcaster RTÉ, the deceased has been identified locally as Jamey Carney, who is reported to have personal connections to the United States.

    The tragedy has upended the normally upbeat atmosphere of the town, which had been enjoying a stretch of warm sunny weather that drew both locals and visitors out into public spaces ahead of the news breaking. John O’Donoghue, who serves as both a local councillor and the cathaoirleach (mayor) of Killarney, described the sudden loss as casting a “dark cloud” over the entire community.

    Speaking to reporters near the police cordon outside the woman’s home in the Homeland estate housing development, O’Donoghue noted that the quiet, relatively new residential neighborhood sits in one of Killarney’s most sought-after areas, a stretch often nicknamed the town’s “Golden Mile”. Though he did not know Carney personally, O’Donoghue said he frequently saw her walking in the area, and confirmed she was a parent to a young teenager.

    “There was a real almost festival atmosphere,” he told media, referring to the days before the incident, when unseasonably good weather had drawn crowds to the town’s streets. “When this news broke yesterday, it was just like a dark cloud came over the town.”

    Fellow local councillor Niall O’Callaghan echoed the community’s widespread sorrow, saying “We’re devastated, we send deepest sympathy to the family. I’m really sad and disappointed that this has happened to someone who was living in our community.” He also joined local leaders in urging any residents or visitors with relevant information to step forward to assist law enforcement.

    As of Tuesday, the exact cause of Carney’s death has not been confirmed. Gardaí have preserved the crime scene as the investigation moves forward, and have officially requested a post-mortem examination to determine the cause of death. Investigators are asking any person who was present in the Muckross Road area between the evening of July 6 and the afternoon of July 7, 2026, to share any relevant footage they may have, including CCTV recordings from private properties and dashcam footage from vehicles.

    A dedicated incident room has been established at Killarney Garda station, and a senior investigating officer has been assigned to lead the case as authorities work to piece together what led to the woman’s death.