Bits and Bites from Around the World > Man and surfboard bitten in half by large shark off a Sydney beach

 

Surfer dies in Sydney shark attack

By Simon Corlett

   

A 57-year-old man has died after being bitten by what officials are calling a “large shark,” while surfing at Long Reef Beach north of Sydney, Australia, police confirmed Saturday. Photo by Dean Lewins/EPA-EFE

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- A man has died after being bitten by what officials are calling a "large shark," off a beach in Sydney, Australia, police confirmed Saturday.

The man's surfboard was bitten in two during the attack, which happened around 10 a.m. AEST at Long Reef Beach, a popular surfing location north of Sydney.

The man, identified by the Sydney Morning Herald as Mercury Psillakis, suffered critical injuries, losing both of his legs. Officials said he died at the scene.

Witnesses estimated the shark to be almost 20 feet in length and occurred some 320 feet from shore.

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"Officers attached to Northern Beaches Police Area Command have closed the beach and will liaise with experts from the Department of Primary Industries to determine the species of shark involved," the New South Wales Police said in a statement.

"Two sections of a surfboard have been recovered and taken for expert examination."

The beach was heavily populated with surfers at the time of the shark attack, which happened a day before Father's Day in Australia.

Psillakis was a father and well-known member of the local surfer community, local media reported.

Shark attacks are commonplace in Australia, with the country experiencing on average around 10 injuries and 2.8 deaths per year attributed to sharks over the last decade, according to data from the Taronga Conservation Society.

Over 90% of all shark bite incidents in Australia involve White Sharks, Bull Sharks, Tiger Sharks, Wobbegongs and other whaler sharks, according to the society.

Long Reef Beach falls under the New South Wales Shark Management Program, a collection of nets and drumlines, drones and other measures meant to keep the animals from attacking humans.

Islam in Australia > Ugly antisemitic rally in Sydney; Sydney synogogue graffitied

 

Australia: Muslims scream genocidal ‘Khaybar’

chant at pro-jihad rally in Sydney

Dec 11, 2024 12:30 pm By Robert Spencer

In the video here, you can see the Muslims chanting “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud, jaish Muhammad sa yaoud,” that is “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return.” The meaning is that Muslims will massacre Jews as Muhammad did at the Khaybar oasis according to Islamic tradition. Full explanation here.

And now Muslims are chanting this with impunity all over the world, secure in the willful ignorance of non-Muslim authorities.

‘Come after the Jews’: Sydney rally turns ugly

with antisemitic hate slogans

Sky News, December 9, 2024:

Sky news host James Macpherson discusses a Sydney rally which turned ugly “chanting” antisemitic hate slogans.

“People celebrating in Sydney … onto the streets waving flags, chanting,” Mr Macpherson said.

“This comes just hours really after the synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed in an antisemitic attack … in the wake of that we have got lots of people out on the street in Sydney chanting Muhammad is going to come after the Jews.”

Muhammad has been after the Jews for 1400 years. He will have no more success this year than in the past. Besides, Muhammad is dead.

 

 

Australia: Sydney synagogue daubed in antisemitic graffiti, ‘Hitler on top, Allahu akbar’

Jan 10, 2025 1:00 pm By Robert Spencer

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says that there is “no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity,” but he isn’t going to do a single solitary thing about the Jew-hatred of the Muslims or their leftist allies.

Note also that this Reuters report says nothing about the “Allahu akbar” graffiti. It’s partially obscured, but still, what it said was unmistakeable. Why does Reuters omit all mention of it? Because establishment media “journalists” consider it their first and most important job to protect the image of Islam.

Sydney synagogue daubed in antisemitic graffiti in latest attack

on Australian Jews

by Alasdair Pal, Reuters, January 9, 2025:

SYDNEY, Jan 10 (Reuters) – A synagogue in Sydney was daubed in antisemitic graffiti on Friday, police said, the latest in a spate of incidents targeting Jews in Australia.

Police will deploy a special taskforce to investigate the attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah that happened in the early hours of Friday morning, New South Wales state Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna told a news conference.

“The people who do the sort of thing should realise we will be out in force to look for them, we will catch them and prosecute them,” he said.

Television footage showed multiple swastikas painted on the building, along with a message reading ‘Hitler on top’.

“(There is) no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference….

Stupid kids! I'm willing to bet that nothing will happen to them even if they do get caught, despite Albanese's words. What do you think?

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Covid-19 > Cruise ship docks in Sydney with 800 Covid+ passengers

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Cruise ship with 800 COVID-19 cases docks in Australia

The Majestic Princess docked at Sydney's international cruise ship passenger terminal at Circular Quay with some 800 people infected with COVID-19. Passengers started to disembark Saturday morning local time. Photo courtesy of Princess Cruises

By Matt Bernardini

   

Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A cruise ship with around 800 cases of COVID-19 on board has docked in Australia, as New South Wales declares a fourth wave of the virus.

The Majestic Princess docked at Sydney's international cruise ship passenger terminal at Circular Quay. Passengers started to disembark Saturday morning local time.

Almost one in four guests on board have been diagnosed with COVID-19 after a 12-day trip around New Zealand, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

A Princess Cruises spokesperson told the Herald that guests with COVID-19, who were all "mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic," were to isolate in their rooms on board the vessel before disembarking.

"Guests who have not been impacted are wearing masks and this will continue when they disembark," the spokesperson said.

NSW has entered a fourth wave of COVID-19, Chief Health Officer Dr. Kerry Chant said.

"The wave is taking off with some trajectory, it will be quite a steep wave and hopefully the decline will be equally as steep," she told ABC News. "That's why it's important the community takes these protective measures now and I can't stress the urgency -- if you're going to get vaccinated, do it immediately."

Bits and Bites from around the World > Alcohol taskforce cop gets drunk shoots another cop; 5 Lions slip away from Zoo Containment

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'Alcohol taskforce' cop gets drunk in Swiss police station

and shoots colleague in the foot

By TOM SCOTSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 14:11 EDT, 31 October 2022 |

An alcohol taskforce cop got drunk in a Swiss police station and shot a colleague in the foot, authorities said on Monday. 

The intoxicated officer fired his gun seven times inside the taskforce office's last Friday, a spokesman for the Geneva judiciary confirmed. 

Five of the man's colleagues were there including 'one who was hit in the foot and had to undergo surgery,' he said.

The intoxicated officer fired his gun seven times inside the taskforce office's last Friday, a spokesman for the Geneva judiciary confirmed (file image of Swiss policemen on a Geneva Street)

The officer was questioned by Geneva's top prosecutor and stands accused of endangerment and causing bodily harm through negligence.

He has also been accused of resisting efforts to establish his 'capacity to drive'.

The authorities, who did not provide details on what the man's blood-alcohol level had been at the time, said the investigation was ongoing.

Methinks the fool will be reassigned to a different unit!

Five lions escape enclosure at Australian zoo, sparking emergency

By Darryl Coote

   

Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Officials at an Australian zoo have launched an investigation after five lions momentarily escaped their enclosure Wednesday, sparking an emergency situation.

The incident occurred Wednesday morning at the Taronga Zoo, located along the shores of Sydney harbor.

Park officials said that one adult lion and four cubs were found outside their main exhibit at about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The lions were spotted in an area adjacent to their main exhibit and separated from the rest of the zoo by a six-foot containment fence, whose purpose is to keep the public back from the lion exhibit.

The zoo enacted an emergency response within 10 minutes of the lions exiting its enclosure, officials said.

Simon Duffy, executive director of the Taronga Zoo, told reporters during a press conference that all people on site when the incident occurred were moved to so-called designated safe zones.

"This is a significant incident. A full review is now underway to confirm exactly how the lions were able to exit their main exhibit," he said.

Four of the lions returned to their enclosure on their own, requiring zoo staff to only tranquilize one of the cubs, he said.

"All animals are now safe in their back-of-house exhibit and are being closely monitored," he added, stating the emergency lasted less than 10 minutes.

In a 5 p.m. update, the zoo said an initial review confirmed that the lions exited their enclosure due to an "integrity issue" with a containment fence.

"A full report will now be prepared for the [New South Wales] Department of Primary Industries," it said.

Australian Bushfires: Firebugs Fuelling Crisis as Arson Arrest Toll Hits 183

See bottom for prayer request and answered prayer

While climate alarmists would like to blame the Aussie bushfires 100% on climate change, it has been obvious that at least half the fires were set either deliberately or because of stupidity. 

This is not the worst fire-season in Australian history in terms of lives lost and homes destroyed, though it may well be before it is done.

2019–20 Australian bushfire season

  At least 1516 homes lost (Thought to be over 2,500),  at least 25 deaths,

  At least 6.3 million hectares (63,000 km2; 24,000 sq mi) burnt, nearly half the size of England.

2008–09 Australian bushfire season:

  173 fatalities, 2,060 houses lost

1982-1983: The 'Ash Wednesday' fires of 16 February 1983 caused severe damage in Victoria

   and South Australia 75 fatalities, 2464 houses lost

1966-67 Australian bushfire season: 62 fatalities, 900 injured, 7,000 left homeless, 4,286 buildings lost

1897-1898: On "Red Tuesday", 1 February 1898 in Victoria 260,000 hectares (640,000 acres) were burnt,

  12 people were killed and 2000 buildings were destroyed 

1850-1851: The "Black Thursday" fires of 6 February 1851 in Victoria, burnt the second largest area

  (approximately 5,000,000 hectares (12,000,000 acres)) in European-recorded history and killed more than

  one million sheep and thousands of cattle as well as taking the lives of 12 people

Bushfires rage between the towns of Orbost and Lakes Entrance in east Gippsland.

DAVID ROSS
IMOGEN REID
The Australian

More than 180 alleged arsonists have been arrested since the start of the bushfire season, with 29 blazes deliberately lit in the Shoalhaven region of southeast NSW in just three months.

The Shoalhaven fires were lit between July and September last year, with Kempsey recording 27 deliberately lit fires, NSW Bureau of Crime and Statistics and Research data shows.

Police arrested 183 people for lighting bushfires across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania in the past few months. NSW police data shows 183 people have been charged or cautioned for bushfire-related offences since November 8, and 24 arrested for deliberately starting bushfires.

Queensland police say 101 people have been picked up for setting fires in the bush, 32 adults and 69 juveniles.

In Tasmania, where fires have sprung up in the north of the state and outside Hobart, five were caught setting fire to vegetation. Victoria reported 43 charged for 2019.

Melbourne University associate professor Janet Stanley said arsonists were typically young males, aged 12 to 24, or older men in their 60s.

“There is no one profile, but generally they seem to have a background of disadvantage, a traumatic upbringing and often have endured neglect and abuse as a child,” Professor Stanley said. “They are often kids not succeeding in school, or they have left school early and are unemployed. The boundaries between accidentally and purposefully are unclear because many arsonists don’t plan on causing the catastrophe that occurs. Often there is not an intention to cause chaos and the penalties for accidentally lighting a fire are far less than purposefully lighting a fire.”

Swinburne University professor James Ogloff said about 50 per cent of bushfires were lit by firebugs and impending fire seasons excited them. “They’re interested in seeing fire, interested in setting fire and quite often the information around how fires burn and accelerate excites them,” the director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science said.

I wonder if any  were set by climate alarmists trying to make a bad situation worse. For some far-left liberals, the end justifies the means.

Prayer

Regardless of how they started, the fires are burning savagely in southeast Australia. Maps of the previous 4 or 5 fire seasons show that most of those fires were concentrated in northern Western Australia which is getting hammered with heavy rain today. The southeast hasn't had a bad fire-season for some years meaning the grounds are super-ready for kindling. 

On Sunday, (in North America), I asked my Twitter followers, and two Facebook groups to pray for cooler and wetter conditions for Australia. On Monday, when I checked, it was raining in Sydney. It wasn't a lot of rain, nor did it cover a significant area, but it was a good sign. And, the forecast was for cooler temperatures and a chance of rain over the next few days.

On Tuesday, a friend from Australia informed me that 25 record LOW temperatures had been set that morning in Australia.

I'm now asking my blog readers to join in and pray for a week of cool, wet weather across Australia, but especially in the southeast states. Do you believe in miracles? Then pray. This forecast for Sydney, in the middle of high summer, looks like a miracle to me. Please join and pray and encourage others to as well.

Australia Police Raid Homes, Arrest 2 to Foil Islamist Terror Plot

By Clyde Hughes

(UPI) -- Australian counter-terrorism police arrested two men Tuesday and raided six homes to foil what they say was a terror plot still in the planning stages.

Police said they arrested Isaak el-Matari, 20, and Radwan Dakkak, 23, members of the Islamic State terror group who had overseas help collecting weapons and explosives.

Authorities charged el-Matari with one count of preparing for a terrorist act and one count of being part of a terrorist organization. Dakkak was expected to be charged with being a member of the Islamic State.

Investigators said the men were planning to use the stash of weapons to attack local churches, courts, police stations and the military. Police said el-Matari and Dakkak communicated on messaging apps about attacking potential targets in central Sydney.

Authorities said they arrested a third man during the raids on unrelated charges.

"There are people out there who still want to commit acts of terror in this country, sadly, but we're doing everything we can to prevent those acts," said New South Wales Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing.

Authorities said they started investigating el-Matari after he took a trip to Lebanon a year ago. He had recently purchased a ticket to Afghanistan, they said, where he planned to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State and pick up weapons.

Aussie Terrorist Wants Australia To Save Him From Death Sentence in Iraq

By ZOE ZACZEK FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Sydney terrorist Ahmed Merhi has begged Australia to help him after he was sentenced to death by hanging in Iraq. 

Merhi, 27, was convicted for being a member of Islamic State in the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad.

The former Granville Boys High School student, from Sydney's west, travelled to Syria in  2014 or 2015.

Sydney terrorist Ahmed Merhi (pictured) has begged Australia to help him escape the death sentence he has been handed in Iraq

Merhi claimed he travelled to the warn-torn country for aid work but Judge Suhail rejected the claims.

The 27-year-old told News Corp he wanted to come home to Australia and argued he had been wrongly convicted.

'I'd like to go back to Australia,' he said.

Merhi said Iraq had no right to prosecute him as there was no justice and no evidence or witnesses.

'I'm a good person,' Merhi told News Corp. He pleaded for Australia to intervene despite turning his back on the country.  

Merhi claimed he travelled to the warn-torn country for aid work but Judge Suhail rejected the claims

'I'd like them to help me, by getting me justice and getting me released,' he said.

The Australian Government is not expected to take steps to assist Merhi, a high profile Australian Islamic State supporter.

He previously shared numerous photos to his social media accounts displaying weaponry and dressed in military uniform.

Merhi compared taking photos with guns to people who take photos with Ferraris - arguing it doesn't mean you own them. In another comparison Merhi said taking a photo with a model didn't mean it is your wife.

The 27-year-old told News Corp he wanted to come home to Australia and argued he had been wrongly convicted

Merhi was arrested by Kurdish soldiers in December 2017 when he was trying to escape to Turkey.

He was given to American troops who took him across the boarder and passed him on to Iraqi authorities. 

Merhi, who lost a leg in an air strike in 2016, complained about torture at the hands of Iraqi counter-terrorism officials but a medical examination found no marks of torture.

Within ten days Merhi's case will be automatically appealed and his lawyers have 30 days to present to an appeals court. The former Sydney builder could wait up to two years to have his case finalised.

Merhi was arrested alongside his cousin Tarek Khayat who is accused by Lebanese and Australian authorities of plotting to bring down an Etihad Airways flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi.

Merhi was arrested by Kurdish soldiers in December 2017 when he was trying to escape to Turkey

Khayat, 46, admitted to being a financial officer for the terror group Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria, and was ordered to face death by hanging.

Australian police allege Merhi was involved with extremists in Australia who were involved in a number of terror plots.

This included the murder of police accountant Curtis Cheng who was shot dead after he left work in Parramatta, Sydney, by a 15-year-old.

The teenager, Farhad Mohamad Jabar, was shot by police.

Merhi said his cousin's case was starting from scratch following investigation from the appeals court and hoped the same would happen with his case. 

I wonder how many people he killed? How many girls he raped and enslaved? It was all fun and games, until it wasn't. I wonder what his problem is; doesn't he get to go to paradise with 72 virgins waiting for him there? Why would Australia want to rob him of that?

Astonishing Coincidence or Flat-out Miracle

An Australian pianist and a New York taxi driver

Sarah Grundstein, J-Wire

In 1983 Sydney pianist Sarah Grunstein, who had moved to NY to study at Juilliard, stepped onto the curb on West 57th St. There were 7 empty taxis coming along. She got into the first, an old yellow checker cab…

New York at the time was dangerous and racist, filled with street crime. Sarah asked the driver to please take her to East 78th. The driver, about 60 years old, began to drive, all the while staring at her in his rear view mirror. At every traffic light he turned around and stared at her more, entirely fixated. 

She was so uncomfortable she wanted to exit the cab and get into another. No time for that, she thought.

He asked her if she was from England. “No, Australia”, she replied. She realised that as he spoke he stared at her less, so she preferred to engage in conversation, feeling more comfortable with dialogue than this man’s prolonged stare.

The driver said, “I know people in Australia.” Sarah wondered, out of some 14 million, I wonder whom he knows. He mentioned five names. “Sorry sir,” she replied, “I don’t know any of those.”

Taxi-driver: Are you from Sydney or Melbourne?

Sarah: Sydney.

Taxi-driver: No wonder you don’t know those people, they are all from Melbourne.
I know two people in Sydney but I can’t remember their last names.

Sarah: That will make it a bit difficult. Who are they?

T-D: Rapping hands on steering wheel: … Last name, last name, what was their last name …. First names Hania and Bolek, I can’t remember their last name …

Sarah: Who are they?

T-D: Last name, last name, I don’t remember their last name. During the war I was in concentration camps with Bolek in Poland and Germany. Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, we were in several concentration camps together. He mentioned 5 concentration camps. Bolek came from Warsaw. We escaped, got captured again. After the war we were all together in a Red Cross Displaced Persons’ Camp in Eggenfelden, Germany. Hania and Bolek, they were at my engagement of my wife and myself in Eggenfelden. Then Hania went to Sweden. I don’t remember why she went to Sweden. Bolek tried to follow Hania to Sweden but  for some reason he couldn’t get there. Then Bolek got papers to Australia. So he sailed to Australia in 1949, and she followed him in 1950. Then they got married the next year. They had a dress factory. Bolek and Hania … I am trying to remember their last names … their last names …

[Sarah was shaking so much she thought the taxi should be swinging from side to side.]

Sarah (through the glass divider of the checker cab): Was their last name Grunstein?

T-D: What?

Sarah: Grunstein, was their last name Grunstein?

T-D: Grunstein! You know them!

Sarah: Excuse me sir, do you know those two people are my mother and father?

The driver slammed his foot on the brakes. He had just told Sarah her parents’ entire, detailed history from 1943-1951. She was still shaking.

Before she left the taxi, he said to her, “I didn’t know if you were in the entertainment business, but you look exactly like your mother.”

On the following Shabbat, at the taxi-driver’s home in Queens NY, he gave her photos of her mother and Uncle Jozef, taken at the taxi-drivers’ engagement, dating from Eggenfelden, 1946.

The story told in her words by Sarah Grunstein

The sad part of this story is that some people reading it will think that it was just a coincidence. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the odds of such a 'coincidence' are so low as to be astronomic, in other words, literally impossible.