World

A jury in New Jersey yesterday acquitted a Newark man of murdering five teens who vanished in the city in 1978. The prosecution had contended Lee Anthony Evans trapped the boys in an empty house before burning it down. Alvin Turner, 16; Melvin Pittman, 17; Randy Johnson, 16; Ernest Taylor, 17; and Michael McDowell, 16 disappeared on August 20, 1978. Recently homicide detectives got involved and in March last year they arrested Evans and his co-accused Philander Hampton. Hampton, Evans's cousin, had told police in 2008 that the pair were behind

A report published today by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) finds that, in many cases, England's home care system breaches the human rights of the elderly it is supposed to serve. The Close to home: older people and human rights in home care report is the result of a twelve-month investigation into care generally provided by local authorities. Approximately half of those receiving home care, plus friends and family, providing evidence to the inquiry were satisfied with the quality of care provided. However, the report stresses

Two police officers are now on administrative leave after an incident in which they used pepper spray on protesters at U.S. University of California, Davis. The students were protesting in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and expressing support for University of California, Berkeley protesters who police used batons against on November 9. The incident was videoed and distributed on YouTube and social networking websites including Facebook and Twitter. The footage shows a police officer spraying numerous students sat alongside each

In the centre of the English city of Birmingham, three vehicles collided and eight people are reported injured. The crash was on the Aston Expressway; of the eight injured two are said to be in a serious condition. No fatalities have been reported. The two people most seriously injured are both female, one in her 30s and the other an elderly woman. Both women had to be freed from the vehicle they were in when the crash occurred at approximately 1845 UTC yesterday. According to a spokeswoman for West Midlands Ambulance Service: "The elderly wom

Strathclyde Police in Scotland have apologised to the family of Diane Fallon and her daughter Holly after a report heavily criticised the force's handling of their killer — a known sex offender living next door. Thomas Smith, now 28, had been given a six month jail sentence in 2006 after a sex attack on a ten-year-old girl. He had been living next door to the Fallons in a small village in Ayrshire for a year at the time of the murders in March 2009. Nobody in the village was aware he was a registered sex offender. Smith sexually assaulted Dia

Australian newspapers and magazines could be fined up to $30,000 for breaches of media standards, according to a Press Council submission to Julia Gillard's media inquiry. The fine is said to be reserved for "exceptionally grave" or persistent breaches, and suggests that newspapers could be censured or reprimanded "where appropriate". PM Julia Gillard announced the media inquiry earlier this year under pressure from Greens leader Bob Brown, as part of an attempt to boost public confidence in the media following the News of the World hacking sc

Anglo American PLC has negotiated a price of US$5.1 billion to buy 40% of diamond giant De Beers from the Oppenheimer family. Anglo's stake will jump from 45% to either 75% or 85%; the Botswanan government has an option to increase its own stake. "This has been a momentous and difficult decision as my family has been in the diamond industry for more than 100 years and part of De Beers for over 80 years," said De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer. The Oppenheimers are selling their entire remaining stake in the company they took over in the 1920

A US soldier has been sentenced by a South Korean court to ten years in prison for raping a teenager. Although the court declined to identify the 21-year-old pending a possible appeal, media has named him as Pfc. Kevin Flippin. Flippin stood accused of breaking into the eighteen-year-old's rented accommodation and raping her for hours, stealing 5,000 won (US$4.50). The allegations date to September 24, with the indictment coming that month. The US government was quick to hand Flippin over and issued an apology following the incident in Dongd

A family of four adults and one minor has been reported dead after the house they were inhabiting in the city of Pichilemu, in Chile was allegedly intentionally set on fire on Sunday morning. The fire was reported for the first time at around 8:00 AM local time (11:00 UTC). The house was located in Dionisio Acevedo Street, in front of the Inmaculada Concepción Catholic Church of Pichilemu. According to eyewitnesses, it was "intentionally caused by a group of drunken teenagers." Another eyewitness said it was "the greatest fire she ever saw in

Australian international airline Qantas is grounding all its flights with immediate effect in the midst of a major industrial dispute. The airline announced yesterday that there "will be no further Qantas domestic departures or international departures anywhere in the world" after 5pm AEDT. They then plan to "lock out" all employees involved in the action at 8pm AEDT on Monday. Flights will remain grounded indefinitely until a decision with unions over pay and working conditions is reached. Thousands of passengers have been stranded in airpor

The US and North Korea have come to an agreement to recommence the search for remains of US servicemen, after six years, that had been unaccounted for after the Korean War. The search will continue next year around 100km away from Pyongyang. They had started work on the recovery of war remains in 1996 but it was brought to an end by Donald Rumsfeld under the Bush Administration in 2005 because of the safety of the search teams after the ambitions for nuclear weapons. The US has been adamant that this is a "humanitarian matter" so thus their r

120 years after it was founded, the University of Wales (UoW) will shut down. Already comprised of several institutions, two will merge fully while two more will become independent universities. With a charter from 1893 and the Prince of Wales as its chancellor, problems began at UoW last year after concerns the head of a Malaysian partner institution, a local pop artist, had non-legitimate qualifications. This was followed by Thailand's authorities denouncing another UoW partner as illegal, then an investigation in the UK into all the UoW's f