Notorious Australian serial killer Ivan Milat dies
Sydney: Australia’s most notorious serial killer Ivan Milat, whose murder of seven young backpackers in the 1990s terrified the country, has died in hospital, officials said on Sunday.
Milat was serving consecutive life sentences for the brutal killing spree took place near Sydney between 1989 and 1992.
A spokeswoman for Corrective Services New South Wales said in a statement that the 74-year-old died at Long Bay Hospital at 4:07 am on Sunday.
He was diagnosed with terminal stomach and oesophagus cancer in May and had been in hospital to receive pain relief since October 11, according to national broadcaster ABC.
His seven confirmed victims were Britons Caroline Clarke (21) and Joanne Walters (22), Australians James Gibson and Deborah Everist, both 19, and German backpackers Simone Schmidl (21), Anja Habschied (20), and Gabor Neugebauer (21).
In each case, he had offered the young hitchhikers a lift, stabbed or shot them in thrill killings and buried the bodies in shallow graves in a forest in the NSW southern highlands.
Milat was arrested in 1994 following one of Australia’s biggest police investigations, which was sparked by the discovery of the bodies in 1992 and 1993. He was convicted of the murders in 1996, as well as of the abduction of another traveller who escaped, but denied having a role in the crimes.
Milat was also a major suspect in the murders of three other women who went missing in the state’s Hunter region a decade before he began the killings for which he was jailed.
Leanne Beth Goodall, Robyn Elizabeth Hickie and Amanda Therese Robinson disappeared in 1978 and 1979. Their bodies were never found.
Milat admitted that he had worked as a roadman in the area during the late 1970s but denied involvement in the three murders. (PTI)
China to build 58 schools, 30 hospitals in Pak districts
Peshawar: The Chinese government has approved construction of 58 schools in erstwhile Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), along with 30 hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing has said.
“Our forefathers belong to the region now known as the northern areas of Pakistan. Hence it is our top priority to develop these areas,” Jing said on Saturday while addressing a seminar here.
He underscored the need of peace and stability in the region so that Chinese firms execute dream project of linking Quetta, Chaman to Gwadar and Peshawar to Kabul and onwards to Kazakhstan through railway tracks, reports The Express Tribune.
Pakistan and China are working on 10 agriculture projects, Ambassador Jing said, urging Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to come up with proposals to establish the 10 agriculture labs in the country through Planning Commission and Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC).
Jing said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would play a vital role to make the CPEC dreams come true.
“Peshawar would be the gateway to the central Asia in the region and in near future the rail tracks from Karachi to Peshawar would be upgraded along with the new rail systems,” he added.
He also signed a cheque of 2 million Pakistani rupees for scholarships to students.
Addressing the gathering at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Governor Shah Farman called upon the HEIs to rise to the occasion to meet the global demand of mineral, agriculture and technology sectors.
He urged the Chinese Ambassador to give boost to value addition of local mineral industries through establishment of manufacturing and marketing labs at the raw material sites. (IANS)