Daily News Roundup

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4

Police are hunting a man who used a fishing rod to steal a Versace necklace off a mannequin in a Melbourne CBD store last week.

It took the man three hours to fish the necklace, believed to be valued at about $800 from the luxury shop.

The man created a small hole in the window of the store and then used the fishing rod to hook the necklace and pull it out.

“It appears that the burglar was fishing for nearly three hours before landing his catch,” a police spokeswoman said in a statement.

The theft took place at high-end fashion store lestyle on Little Collins Street in Melbourne’s CBD just after 2:00am on Monday, February 24.

Police released CCTV footage of a man they believe may be able to help with their inquiries.

He is seen wearing a blue Lonsdale windcheater and grey tracksuit pants.

The man is described as Caucasian in appearance, aged between 40 and 50, about 180cm tall, with short, fair receding hair.

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Contrary to expectations, Australia’s economy grew by a better-than-expected 0.5 per cent in the December quarter and 2.2 per cent over the past year, according to the Bureau of Statistics.

Most economists were forecasting quarterly economic growth of 0.3 or 0.4 per cent and annual growth around 2 per cent, although the lowest forecast was from AMP Capital’s Shane Oliver, who tipped 0 per cent GDP growth for the quarter.

The Reserve Bank yesterday preemptively cut interest rates by 25 basis points in anticipation of a major growth hit from both bushfires and the coronavirus, while the US Federal Reserve surprised analysts overnight with a 50-basis-point move.

Sarah Hunter from BIS Oxford Economics said the better-than-expected December figures did not eliminate the risk of a recession in 2020.

“Overall, the data confirms that momentum in 2019 was slow and steady (through the year growth was 2.2 per cent). But conditions have clearly changed markedly since then,” she wrote in a note on the figures.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the annual growth figures showed a slight improvement in the Australian economy at the end of last year, however he acknowledged the March quarter numbers would take a significant hit.

“The coronavirus is impacting on the tourism, education, and export sectors, but also disrupting end-to-end supply chains,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“The measures the Government has already put in place are designed to keep Australians safe, and that remains our first priority,” he said.

“As the Prime Minister has foreshadowed, the Government is working on a targeted, responsible and scalable series of measures that are designed to keep business in business and Australians in jobs.”

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The World Health Organisation has revealed 3.4 percent of people who have caught coronavirus have died (compared to less than 1 per cent for the seasonal flu) while at the same time again stressing the disease can be contained.

The WHO statement came as new cases of coronavirus — including an aged care worker infected through person-to-person transmission — were recorded in Australia.

Health authorities in NSW have confirmed the woman in her 50s, is an aged-care worker at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Macquarie Park.

She is the third person to be infected via human-to-human transmission in Australia — all are in Sydney.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the woman had contact with 13 residents of the aged-care home, and that two of them subsequently reported respiratory symptoms.

One of those two residents, a 95-year-old woman, has died.

“Whether or not it was related to corona, we don’t know at this point,” Mr Hazzard said.

The other patients the aged-care worker came into contact with have been placed in isolation.

It is unclear how she contracted coronavirus, as she had not been overseas.

NSW Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant said infection control staff visited the Macquarie Park facility last night.

She said it was pleasing to note that the centre had already taken a “lot of steps” to raise infection control.