Daily News Roundup

May 29, 2019

WEDNESDAY,  MAY 29

Divine intervention has saved a driver who was caught speeding down a German road from a 105 euro ($170) fine, according to local police.

Cable news reports said the driver was caught by a speed camera travelling at 54 kilometres per hour in a 30kph zone but cannot be identified because their face has been hidden by a dove in mid flight.

The bird photobombed at just the right moment, thereby concealing the necessary evidence of who was at the wheel.

In a statement, Viersen police, in Germany’s west, said the “Holy Spirit” had intervened, referencing the dove as symbolic of God.

“Thanks to the feathered guardian angel with apparently carefully spread wings, this has probably spared him,” the statement said.

“We associate with it the hope that the protected speeder understands this ‘hint from above’ as well and drives appropriately in the future.”

Police added the dove should have been fined for exceeding the speed limit as well, but they had decided on mercy as the Christian holy day of Pentecost was a little more than a week away.

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Chinese maritime militia vessels are believed responsible for a series of laser attacks on Australian Navy pilots during a recent voyage through the hotly contested South China Sea.

Defence sources have confirmed helicopters were targeted during night flights, forcing the pilots to temporarily return to their ship for medical check-ups.

The incidents occurred as Australian warships were completing Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019, an ADF regional engagement mission that wrapped up this week.

This week the ABC revealed the Australian Task Group had been closely followed earlier this month by Chinese warships as they travelled between Vietnam and Singapore through the South China Sea.

The ABC reports that Australian military officials believe the laser attacks on the Navy helicopters came from fishing boats, but it has not yet been formally confirmed if the vessels were Chinese flagged.

Beijing maintains a robust maritime militia in the South China Sea, composed of fishing vessels equipped to carry out missions just short of combat.

The Australian Defence Department is yet to comment publicly, but similar incidents involving lasers and the Chinese military have also been reported as far away as Djibouti, where the US and China have bases.

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A woman suspected by British authorities of having ill-gotten wealth spent 600,000 pounds ($A1.09 million) in one day and 16 million pounds ($A29 million) over a decade at upmarket London department store Harrods.

Zamira Hajiyeva is the first person subject to an Unexplained Wealth Order, nicknamed the ‘McMafia laws’, which allows UK authorities to seize assets from people suspected of corruption or links to organised crime until the owners account for how they were acquired, according to reports out of London..

Britain’s National Crime Agency wants to know where Ms Hajiyeva, whose banker husband is in jail in Azerbaijan, got the money to fund her spending and buy two UK properties worth 22 million pounds, including a house just around the corner from Harrods.

Court documents reveal investigators say Ms Hajiyeva spent 16 million pounds at Harrods between 2006 and 2016, using 35 credit cards issued by a bank led by her husband.

Harrods records disclosed at the High Court detail spending that includes 5.75 million pounds ($A10.5 million)  at jewellers Boucheron and Cartier, 1 million pounds ($A1.8 million) in Harrods’ toy department and 30,000 pounds ($A55,000) at chocolatier Godiva.

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