Australia storm kills three people, with more missing

Three people are dead and more are missing after massive storms flooded rivers, uprooted trees and tore into beaches along Australia's east coast.

Storms continue to batter southern New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

Erosion at Sydney's Collaroy Beach has forced the evacuation of multi-million dollar homes, which are now in danger of collapsing.

In Tasmania, where major flood warnings have been issued for seven rivers, two elderly people are feared drowned.

A man was reportedly swept into the Ouse River from his own backyard on Monday, while a woman was missing after floodwaters inundated her house in the state's north-west.

Rescuers are also searching for a man who was washed off rocks near Sydney's Bondi Beach.

On Monday morning, a man's body was found in the Cotter River near Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. Police said the 37-year-old was caught in floodwaters at a river crossing.

Police divers also retrieved the bodies of two men whose cars were washed off New South Wales roads in separate incidents.

A 65-year-old man was caught inside his vehicle while trying to cross floodwaters at Bowral, while another man was killed after his utility vehicle was washed off the road on Sydney's south-west fringe.

Northern Tasmania facing its worst flooding in decades on Monday, with parts of Launceston, Latrobe and Railton all underwater.

The Insurance Council of Australia said that insurance companies have so far received 11,150 claims across Queensland and New South Wales totalling an estimated A$38m (£19m, $28m).

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Wife of Bangladeshi anti-terrorism policeman stabbed, shot dead

Three assailants riding a motorcycle stabbed and then shot Mahmuda Aktar, 33, while she was on her way to put her son onto a school bus near her home in the southeastern port city of Chittagong, police said.

BRIEFCASE

• 1

  Wife of a cop known for battling Islamist extremism shot dead.
• 2

  Assailants riding bike stabbed and then shot Mahmuda Aktar.
• 3

  Government launches security crackdown on militant groups.

The wife of a senior Bangladeshi police official known for battling Islamist militants was stabbed and shot to death today, and machete-wielding assailants killed a Christian grocer in a separate incident.

Both attacks appeared to be the work of Islamist militants who have killed at least 30 people, including religious minorities, liberal bloggers and academics, since February last year, police said.

DETAILS OF THE CASE:

Three assailants riding a motorcycle stabbed and then shot Mahmuda Aktar, 33, while she was on her way to put her son onto a school bus near her home in the southeastern port city of Chittagong, police said.

"She was stabbed first. Then they shot her in the head three times," Humayan Kabir, deputy police commissioner of Chittagong, told Reuters.

Her husband, police superintendent Babul Aktar, has played an important role in cracking down on militants in the region.

"Babul Aktar is an efficient police officer and played a key role in apprehending Islamists. They might have killed his wife because they failed to get him," Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters.

Aktar, who was recently posted to police headquarters in the capital, Dhaka, busted several hideouts of the banned group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. His team also arrested one of the group's leaders, who was later killed in a grenade blast during a police raid in October.

GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES CRACKDOWN ON MILITANT GROUPS

The government has launched a crackdown on militant groups who want to impose strict Islamic law on Bangladesh, whose population of 160 million are mostly moderate Muslims.

In Sunday's other killing, Sunil Gomes, a 60-year-old shopkeeper, was hacked to death in his shop in the northern district of Natore, local police official Manirul Islam said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing Gomes, according to the U.S.-based monitoring service SITE.

Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many killings in the past but the government denies either group has a presence in Bangladesh and says home-grown radicals are responsible.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam told Reuters in an interview last month that Islamic State was trying to ride a wave of religious radicalisation by falsely claiming killings, and said there was enough evidence implicating domestic militant groups.

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In Mercedes Hit-And-Run, Teenage Driver To Be Tried As An Adult

The teenager accused in the Delhi Mercedes hit and run case had surrendred in court days after the accident.

NEW DELHI:In the first prosecution under the amended Juvenile Justice Act, the teenager accused in the Mercedes hit-and-run case in Delhi will face trial as an adult.

The Juvenile Justice board's order came while allowing the plea of Delhi Police seeking to try the offender - who was 17 at the time - as an adult, as the offence came under the definition of heinous crime.

The student had turned 18 four days after the accident in which a 32-year-old marketing executive Siddharth Sharma was killed on April 4.

Delhi Police on May 26 had indited the teenager for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The same charges were also filed against the teenager's father. The police had asked for the teenager to be tried as an adult in a trial court and had also pleaded to revoke his bail.

The police told the Juvenile Justice board that the teenager was a repeat offender and that he had a history of traffic violations which included over-speeding and he was booked for it on June 17, 2015.

He was also booked for driving in violation of traffic regulations on February 25, 2014 and for not wearing a seat belt on September 19, 2014.

On February 16, 2016, he was involved in a minor traffic accident at Maurice Nagar area in north Delhi, which was settled but he put a forged signature on the settlement papers to avoid detection, the police had said.

"We know we won't get justice easily. We're fighting to set an example that no one is above law, said Shilpa Mittal," Siddharth's sister.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2015 allows for juveniles 16 years or older to be tried as adults for heinous offences like rape and murder. The Act was amended following public outrage after one of the offenders in the December 16, 2012 gang rape case escaped being tried in the court as he was a few months short of turning 18.

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