This Day In History

May 20 1989
Attempting to clear Tiananmen Square of student activists and quell 100 million others protesting throughout the country, China declares martial law in Beijing. Two weeks later, after they continue to loiter in the Square, thousands of students are massacred by government troops.

May 20 1999
The dissolving body parts of eight people are discovered inside six plastic barrels sitting in an abandoned bank vault in Snowtown, Australia.

Dust Storm Blankets Australian Cities in Red Haze

(CNN) -- A massive dust storm swept through parts of Australia on Wednesday, bathing the city of Sydney in a reddish haze.

Susan Paget marveled at the eerie red view from the balcony of her apartment in Manly, a suburb of Sydney, and said she took the day off work to avoid the dust storm mess.

"It just feels dirty and rusty," Paget told CNN. "It was totally bizarre to wake up around 5:30 a.m. and see such a red bizarre sky."

A video Paget submitted to CNN's iReport showed thick haze, which made it difficult to see her neighbors' homes. Watch Paget's updated iReport

Health officials in Sydney warned residents to stay in indoors if possible, especially if they had asthma or heart and lung conditions.

"Avoid spending too much time outdoors due to the high particle levels and hazardous air quality," the New South Wales Department of Heath Web site said.

The Ambulance Service of New South Wales said the dust storm had kept it busy with emergency calls.

"We have already seen an increase in calls to people suffering from asthma and other respiratory problems," the agency said in a statement.

iReporter Mark Clarke told CNN he woke up earlier than usual with a stuffy nose and cough at his home in Stanmore, a suburb of Sydney.

He pulled the curtains back and saw a "strange red orangish glow coming from outside."

"It feels and smells like a vacuum cleaner exploded," he said.

The country's bureau of meterology attributed the red haze to strong north-westerly winds which blew the dust overnight to Sydney and regions west of the capital.

During the day, the dust blanket moved north onto the Queensland capital of Brisbane.

The bureau of meterology's senior forecaster Tony Auden told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the haze was likely to continue moving north.

"It should make its way up into the Sunshine Coast and into those Capricornia and central coast areas soon," he said. "For the south-east expect it to probably linger for the rest of today and hopefully settle out of the air overnight."
See images of the dust storm »

Report: Man Fathered Four with Daughter

Sick fuck. Like Josef Fritzl.
(CNN) -- An Australian man has been arrested for allegedly fathering four children with a daughter he repeatedly raped for more than 30 years, local media reported Thursday.

The man, in his 60s, began the abuse in the 1970s when the daughter was 11 and continued almost daily until 2007, said the Herald Sun newspaper, which first reported the case.

The assaults resulted in four children, all with birth defects, the paper said. One later died.

Authorities in the southeastern state of Victoria would not confirm details of the case to CNN, citing an overarching court gag order that bars the release of any information that may identify the man.

A clerk with the Melbourne County Court would say only that the man was arrested on charges of rape and incest.

Lisa Neville, Victoria's minister for community services, said her agency is investigating.

"As a parent, this is just a horrific and appalling story," she said. "Court proceedings and a very broad suppression order make it impossible to go to the specifics of the story," she said.

The case has created a stir in the country, with many comparing it to that of Josef Fritzl, the 73-year-old Austrian man who kept his daughter imprisoned in a basement for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.

Local media outlets have also compared it to the recent case of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was kidnapped from South Lake Tahoe in California at age 11, kept a prisoner for 18 years, and bore two children with her captor.

The suspect in the Australia case denied raping his daughter, but was arrested after DNA tests revealed otherwise, the newspaper said.

The alleged victim's mother told the newspaper she was unaware of the abuse, despite living in the same house.

"We lived in a big house, so I wouldn't have known," she said.

She said her daughter was vague about who fathered the children.

"She used to say something about going out to nightclubs and meeting a fella, but then she would clam up," the mother told the newspaper.

The newspaper said the victim, now in her 40s, first reported the abuse to authorities in 2005 at the urging of a neighbor, but then refused to cooperate because she feared for her safety.

She came forward again in June 2008, after which authorities conducted the DNA tests on her father.

The man was arrested in February, but someone tipped off the newspaper to the case only recently.

The woman and her three children were taken to a safe house.

Another neighbor told the Herald Sun she had her suspicions about the father but did not want to interfere.

"I didn't go to anybody, because it wasn't anybody's business," she told the paper.

She added that the woman who encouraged the victim to contact police "has always been a busybody."

(CNN) -- An Australian high court ruled Friday that a quadriplegic man has the right to refuse food and water and can be allowed to die, a rare legal finding that some see as a major victory for right-to-die campaigners.

The ruling means that the nursing facility in which Christian Rossiter has lived since November 2008 cannot be held criminally liable for allowing the patient to die, the Supreme Court of Western Australia said.

"I'm happy that I won my right to die," Rossiter, 49, said afterward. But he added that he will further consult with a doctor because he may change his mind.

A leading Australian right-to-die advocate called the ruling a significant victory.

"I don't know that many people will want to die this way. But for people who do, it's a very important decision," said Dr. Philip Nitschke, founder and director of Exit International, a leading global voluntary euthanasia and end-of-life advocacy group.

Nitschke noted that Rossiter's case is significant because his mind is fully functional.

"This is the first time that it's come up with a person that's rational and lucid," Nitschke told CNN. "This is unusual. It's very rare."

Chief Justice Wayne Martin noted that distinction in his order, saying, "Mr. Rossiter is not a child, nor is he terminally ill, nor dying. He is not in a vegetative state, nor does he lack the capacity to communicate his wishes. There is therefore no question of other persons making decisions on his behalf.

"Rather, this is a case in which a person with full mental capacity and the ability to communicate his wishes has indicated that he wishes to direct those who have assumed responsibility for his care to discontinue the provision of treatment which maintains his existence."

Some family and right-to-life groups opposed Rossiter's request.

"Really, what we should be doing is looking after each other rather than facilitating an escape," John Barich of the Australian Family Association said in a TV interview.

Peter O'Meara, president of Western Australia's Right to Life Association, said, "The law which is being applied can be a dangerous precedent."

Rossiter has suffered a series of injuries since 1988 that have left him with limited foot movement and the ability to wriggle only one finger. He is fed through a stomach tube. He relies on staff at the Brightwater Care Group nursing facility in the city of Perth for such routine care as regular turning, cleaning, assistance with bowel movements, physical and occupational therapy and speech pathology.

Australian law gives patients the right to refuse life-saving treatment, but helping someone commit suicide is a crime that can carry a life prison sentence. The Brightwater nursing facility sought the ruling to make sure it would not be held liable if it complied with Rossiter's request to stop all nutrition and hydration, except to be given enough liquid to make it possible to take pain medication.

Rossiter attended the hearing in a wheelchair, breathing through a tracheotomy tube in his throat. He told the judge he wants to die.

It's a point he has been making publicly.

"I can't move," Rossiter said in a televised interview this week. "I can't even wipe the tears from my eyes. And I'd like to die. I'm imprisoned in my own body. I have no fear of death. Just pain."

Rossiter pointed out in a recent interview with the PerthNow news outlet that he once led an active life.

"This is living hell," he is quoted as saying. "I used to be a cyclist, I used to be a keen walker. I bushwalked around the world. ... I've rock climbed in Yosemite Valley in California up very steep cliffs. I've got a degree in economics and now I can't even read a newspaper, I can't turn the pages."

Rossiter joined the Exit International right-to-death organization about three months ago, said Nitschke, who talked with him before the hearing.

Nitschke said Rossiter appeared "very happy" afterward.

A Brightwater executive said the company appreciates that the court's ruling has relieved the nursing facility of any liability.

"The whole organization has been most concerned for Mr. Rossiter but also concerned for our own legal standing and this has clarified things greatly," said Penny Flett, the company's chief executive.

While hailing the victory, Nitschke decried the fact that Rossiter will have to undergo a slow and painful death through starvation, rather than having a quicker and painless way to end his life. Because he cannot use his hands, Rossiter must rely on others to withhold treatment rather than being able to take his own life. Switzerland has an assisted suicide law, and Rossiter has considered going there.

"It's a bit sad that the best that Australia can come up with," Nitschke said, "is that we can let a person like that starve to death."

Hate To Sound Like A Complete UFO Junkie, Lately..

But this is crazy:

19.06.2009 - Air and ground search of the area near Bundaberg, Queensland where a bright flash and explosion was witnessed early this morning has failed to find an obvious cause.

Emergency services initially believed a plane may have crashed into a mountain at Takilberan Creek northwest of Gin Gin but the Australian Search and Rescue Authority received no mayday or distress calls from aircraft.

The mystery began unfolding when it was reported emergency crews were rushing to Gin Gin following reports of a suspected plane crash into the side of a mountain.Police soon confirmed, however, that no planes were missing and it was not a plane crash - but police officers were on their way to investigate a fire.

An "unidentified flying object" was then reported to be responsible.

Alabama Man Jailed in Scuba Honeymoon Death

(CNN) -- An Alabama man was sentenced to 4½ years in prison Friday for his wife's death during their honeymoon in Australia nearly six years ago.

David Gabriel Watson pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the October 2003 death of Tina Watson, an Australian court spokesman said.

Watson was 26 when she drowned while diving around the "Yongala" shipwreck, about 42 miles off the coast of Townsville.

Watson had told police that his wife appeared to panic 45 feet underwater and drowned accidentally. However, authorities found inconsistencies in his account.

As evidence of a motive, investigators cited her father's statement that Watson had asked her to maximize her life insurance and make him the beneficiary shortly before their wedding.

The insurance company confirmed that Watson asked about her policy after her death, investigators said.

Townsville Coroner David Glasgow noted in his inquest findings that David was an experienced diver while his wife was a novice.

The couple married in Birmingham, Alabama, and left for Australia two days later.