A man police feared may have been murdered has been found hiding in a wood, five years after he disappeared.

Ricardas Puisys, then 35, of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, was last seen at his workplace in September 2015. No trace of him was found, but in November last year a Facebook account was set up in his name. Last month he was found in a Wisbech wood. Police believe he was in hiding to escape the clutches of people who had been exploiting him.

He is now being safeguarded and a police investigation is under way. The last confirmed sighting of the Lithuanian national was at his workplace, Nightlayer Leek Company in Chatteris, on 26 September 2015. Mr Puisys had been with a small group of Lithuanian men at the time.  “There were genuine concerns Ricardas came to harm that evening,” said Det Ch Insp Rob Hall, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit.

A man was arrested and released during the murder investigation, during which no trace of Mr Puisys was found.(BBC)…[+]

At least 41 passengers and crew on a Norwegian cruise ship have tested positive for Covid-19, officials say.

Hundreds more passengers who travelled on the MS Roald Amundsen are in quarantine and awaiting test results, the company that owns the ship said. The ship, which belongs to the Norwegian firm Hurtigruten, docked in the port of Tromso in northern Norway on Friday. Hurtigruten has halted all leisure cruises because of the outbreak.

“This is a serious situation for everyone involved. We have not been good enough and we have made mistakes,” Chief Executive Daniel Skjeldamsaid in a statement on Monday. “A preliminary evaluation shows a breakdown in several of our internal procedures,” he added. “The only responsible choice is to suspend all expedition sailings.” 

Norway’s government has announced it will stop all cruise ships with more than 100 people on board from disembarking passengers for at least 14 days. And police said they were investigating whether any laws had been broken prior to the outbreak on the Roald Amundsen. “We have found grounds to open a case,” a police official told Reuters news agency.(BBC)…[+]

A woman has suffered serious injuries after being struck and injured while swimming with humpback whales off the coast of Western Australia. The Australian woman, 29, was with a tour group at the popular Ningaloo Reef on Saturday when she was struck. She reportedly suffered fractured ribs and internal bleeding. St John Ambulance said the woman had suffered internal bleeding and upper torso injuries “from  the crush”. Unconfirmed reports said she was trapped between two of the giant mammals, which can grow up to 19m (62ft). She was treated in the town of Exmouth before being flown to a hospital in Perth, where she was in a “serious but stable condition” on Monday. 

Other guests on the snorkelling tour witnessed the incident but were uninjured, according to Western Australia Police. The tour group had only been a few hundred metres from the shore when the incident happened. Police said work safety regulators were investigating the incident, as it had involved a charter group.

Chartered swimming with humpback whales is currently undergoing a five-year trial in the region, monitored by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA). Fifteen tour operators have been licensed to take groups of nine swimming with the whales, with guidance in place advising the swimmers to stay at least 15m from the animals. The DBCA said in a statement it was “working closely with the industry and the tour operator involved to understand how the incident occurred”, and that swimming with humpback whales involved “some inherent risk”.

It said nearly 10,000 participants had swum with humpback whales since the trial began in 2016, with no previous incidents resulting in serious injuries.(BBC)…[+]

Vietnam has recorded its first Covid-19 fatalities, in a devastating blow for a country proud of its zero deaths. The first man, who was aged 70, was from the central city of Hoi An, state media said on Friday. A second death, of a 61-year-old man, was reported later in the day.

There had been no new locally transmitted infections for more than three months, before an outbreak was reported in the nearby resort of Da Nang earlier this week.Both of the patients who died had underlying health conditions, according to Vietnamese media. The country, which has a population of around 95 million, has reported just 546 cases since the pandemic began. Unlike many other countries, Vietnam acted before it even had confirmed cases, closing its borders early to almost all travellers, except returning citizens. Anyone entering the country must quarantine in government facilities for 14 days and undergo testing. And for a while, this approach appeared to be highly effective, with no new local transmissions reported since mid-April.(BBC)…[+]

Emails between UK socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been revealed in a trove of unsealed court documents. Epstein tells Ms Maxwell she has done “nothing wrong” in the 2015 exchange, which appears to contradict her earlier claims of not having contacted him. And in a deposition, accuser Virginia Giuffre says Ms Maxwell was as equally involved in sex trafficking as Epstein. Ms Maxwell faces a trial in the case in July 2021 and has pleaded not guilty.  She remains in custody in New York, charged with trafficking minors for Epstein and perjury. She could face up to 35 years in prison if convicted. Epstein died in prison on 10 August 2019 as he awaited his trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was determined to be suicide.  Dozens of papers were ordered to be unsealed late on Thursday by a court in New York. There is a near 350-page paper containing the testimony from 2016 of Virginia Giuffre, who has alleged that she was forced into sex with Epstein and his friends. The deposition comes from her now-settled civil defamation lawsuit against Ms Maxwell.(BBC)…[+]

Several staff will be replaced on Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime chat show after an investigation uncovered “deficiencies” in “the show’s day-to-day management”. The inquiry was prompted by a widely-circulated story on Buzzfeed news, in which employees made allegations of racism and intimidation on the show.

The accusers claimed the workplace was toxic and “dominated by fear”. In an email to staff, Ellen apologised and said she was “committed to ensuring this does not happen again”. “We all have to be more mindful about the way our words and actions affect others, and I’m glad the issues at our show were brought to my attention,” she added. Production company WarnerMedia said “several staffing changes” would take place as a result of its investigation. (BBC)…[+]

Seven babies were stillborn at Harare Central Hospital in Zimbabwe on Monday night after urgent treatment was delayed because of staffing issues, two doctors have confirmed to the BBC. Nurses are on strike nationwide because of a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other concerns, and the maternity wards were overwhelmed.

One doctor said Monday’s deaths were “the tip of the iceberg”. The health sector has recently been hit by a Covid-19 procurement scandal.  It is alleged that multi-million dollar contracts were awarded to buy supplies at inflated prices – and the health minister has been sacked over the allegations. Warning: Some readers may find an image below distressing. A leaked government response to senior doctors, who wrote to complain about conditions and to threaten strike action, acknowledged “challenges” in hospitals, an “increase in poor outcomes” and a serious shortage of medical supplies because of a lack of foreign currency, but urged medical staff “to reconsider your intention of withdrawing services”.(BBC)…[+]

The arrest of a protester by New York City Police (NYPD) has led to outrage from officials and accusations of “kidnapping” by witnesses. Footage of the dramatic arrest shows mostly plain-clothed men grabbing a woman and pushing her into an unmarked van during a policing protest.

The arrest on Tuesday comes amid furore over allegations of similar operations by federal agents in Portland, Oregon. Marches against racism and policing have continued all summer in the US. The NYPD later identified the suspect as 18-year-old Nikki Stone, saying she was wanted for vandalising police cameras near City Hall and spraying graffiti. Ms Stone, a trans woman from Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was released early Monday morning to cheers from a crowd of protesters. She was issued an order to appear in court to face charges of vandalism and criminal mischief.(BBC)…[+]

US President Donald Trump has again defended the use of hydroxychloroquine to ward off coronavirus, contradicting his own public health officials. He said the malaria medication was only rejected as a Covid-19 treatment because he had recommended its use. His remarks come after Twitter banned his eldest son for posting a clip promoting hydroxychloroquine.

There is no evidence the drug can fight the virus, and regulators warn it may cause heart problems. On Wednesday Dr Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, told the BBC that hydroxychloroquine was not effective against the virus. “We know that every single good study – and by good study I mean randomised control study in which the data are firm and believable – has shown that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in the treatment of Covid-19,” he said. Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cautioned against using the drug to treat coronavirus patients, following reports of “serious heart rhythm problems” and other health issues. (BBC)…[+]

The camera used to film the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police in 1991, a case that triggered deadly race riots, is to be auctioned this week. Nate D Sanders Auctions in LA will take bids for the Sony Video8 Handycam on Thursday. The police brutality against King was filmed on the camera by bystander George Holliday. The beating left King with brain damage, but the white officers involved were acquitted a year later. The case had a profound effect on race relations and the use of force by police in the US. Mr Holliday’s footage of the beating, filmed from the balcony of his apartment, is considered to be the first viral video of policy brutality and an early example of citizen journalism. The footage foreshadowed the use of mobile phones to record police abuse, as seen in the recent death of African-American George Floyd in custody.(BBC)…[+]