Daily News Roundup

THURSDAY, AUGUST 9

Australian golfer Jarrod Lyle has died of cancer aged 36.

It comes just eight days after he decided to end his treatment to go into palliative care.

Lyle had been undergoing his third stint of cancer treatment after a recurrence of acute myeloid leukaemia last year.

He is survived by his wife Briony, and daughters Lusi, 6, and Jemma, 2.

“It breaks my heart to tell everyone that Jarrod is no longer with us,” Ms Lyle said in a statement.

Ms Lyle said he died at 8:20pm Wednesday evening, surrounded by friends and family in Torquay.

“He asked that I provide a simple message: ‘Thanks for your support, it meant the world. My time was short, but if I’ve helped people think and act on behalf of those families who suffer through cancer, hopefully it wasn’t wasted’.”

Lyle had twice beaten cancer, in 1998 as a teenager and again in 2012, and returned to play professional golf prior to the third reoccurrence of his illness.

He made an emotional comeback to the course during the 2013 Australian Masters before trying his luck at using a medical exemption to win back his PGA Tour card in 2015.

The PGA Tour set up a fund to help Briony and their two children with medical costs throughout his health battles.

Lyle claimed two professional victories through his career, both in 2008 at the Mexican Open and Knoxville Open, and has a career-high USPGA ranking of 196.

Mark Hayes from Golf Australia said his loss would be felt deeply not just among the golfing community but across the country.

“It’s incredibly sad and it’s probably a blessed relief. It’s a very sad day,” Mr Hayes said.

Former PGA tour player Tripp Isenhour took to Twitter to express his sadness at the news of Lyle’s death.

The announcement earlier this month that Lyle had entered palliative care was met with an outpouring of support from the golfing community.

Adam Scott was almost overcome with emotion when speaking at last week’s World Golf Championships-Bridgestone International.

“He is one of the best blokes there is. Given all the difficulties he’s had since his late teens, he has lived the best life he could with the tough cards he has been dealt.

“He played such good golf while battling illness; he has been through it all.

“His positivity and general demeanour has been so good and so infectious on others.

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The US Government says it will impose fresh sanctions on Russia after it determining that Moscow used a nerve agent against a former Russian agent and his daughter in the UK, ABC News reports..

Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were found slumped unconscious on a bench in Salisbury in March after a liquid form of the Novichok type of nerve agent was applied to his home’s front door.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Wednesday it had been determined that Russia “has used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law, or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals”.

She said sanctions would take effect on or around August 22.

Those sanctions will include the presumed denial of export licenses for Russia to purchase many items with national security implications, according to a senior State Department official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to do so by name.

The US made a similar determination in February when it found North Korea used a chemical weapon to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother at the airport in Kuala Lumpur in 2017.

The news came as Republican US Senator Rand Paul said he had delivered a letter from US President Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin proposing cooperation.

The sanctions would be structured in two tranches, with the biggest impact from the initial sanctions expected to come from a ban on granting licenses to export sensitive national security goods to Russia, NBC reported, quoting a senior State Department official.

Britain, which blamed Russia for the attack, welcomed Washington’s decision to impose the sanctions.

“The UK welcomes this further action by our US allies,” a spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said in a statement.

“The strong international response to the use of a chemical weapon on the streets of Salisbury sends an unequivocal message to Russia that its provocative, reckless behaviour will not go unchallenged.”

The Skripals survived the poisoning and both were taken to an undisclosed location for their protection.

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Three boys from a soccer team who were rescued from a flooded cave in northern Thailand last month have been granted Thai citizenship, authorities say.

Their 25-year-old coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, also gained citizenship.

Mr Ekapol and 12 boys had gone to explore the Tham Luang caves in Chiang Rai province on June 23, when a rainy-season downpour flooded the cave system and trapped them underground.

They survived for nine days on water dripping from rocks before they were discovered.

An international effort to rescue them ended on July 10 when the last of them were brought out safely.

Three of the boys and Mr Ekapol were considered stateless, even though they were born in Thailand, until local authorities checked their qualifications, including birth certificates, and approved their requests for Thai citizenship.

Four were also given Thai national identification cards on Wednesday.

“They have all the qualifications,” said Somsak Kanakam, chief officer of Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai.

“All children born in Thailand must have Thai birth certificates in order to qualify for Thai citizenship.”

This daily news roundup has been curated with stories from ABC News.