Complaints about the price of a pint are nothing new but an Australian journalist has more reason than most to gripe, after being charged more than £55,000 for a beer in a Manchester hotel. Peter Lalor, who is the chief cricket writer and beer editor of the Australian newspaper, was charged the exorbitant sum for a bottle of Deuchars IPA at the Malmaison hotel, after a day watching the Ashes cricket series at Old Trafford.

“I decided I wanted one beer on the way home and dropped in because I have mates staying there,” he told the Guardian. “When I paid, I didn’t have my glasses on and there was some issue with the machine so I had to put my details in twice. “I just had this weird feeling and I said, ‘How much did I just pay for that beer?’ The girl at the bar looked at the reeipt and said, ‘Oh my God!’ and was a bit reluctant to show me the bill.”

Upon seeing he had been charged A$99,983.64 (£55,262.96), Lalor said a hotel manager immediately admitted the mistake and promised to help him rectify it with his bank. He left, wrongly assuming the bank would never authorise such a large payment anyway.

“I woke up to an alarmed phone call from my wife, who had found a massive hole in my mortgage account,” said Lalor. “They can take the money out in a second but apparently it takes them up to 10 working days to put it back. I’m losing a fair whack of interest and as of this moment, I’m $99,000 out of pocket.(The Guardian)…[+]

Two men who groomed and abused hundreds of children at a campsite in Germany over a period of more than 20 years have been jailed by a judge who said she was “lost for words” at the severity of their crimes.

Victims’ families said they hoped the attackers would spend years behind bars. The nation’s judiciary, police, youth services and politicians came under fire during the 10-week trial for their slowness to act, despite suspicions about the men expressed by children and their parents years before. Herbert Reul, the interior minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia where the abuse took place, has conceded that authorities have “not been on the ball – but half-asleep” on tackling child abuse, and promised to ensure the issue was put at the top of the political agenda.

Andreas V, 56, and Mario S, 33, whose full names were not released in accordance with German law, will spend 13 and 12 years in prison respectively, followed by a period in preventive detention, a punishment reserved for the most serious of criminals because of the risk they pose to the public’s safety.

The men were accused of more than 450 incidents of abuse, most commonly rape, of 32 boys and girls, between 1998 and 2018. Their victims were aged between three and 14. Some of the children were holidaying at the camp in Lügde, close to Hamelin in northern Germany; others were visiting a girl who was being fostered by Andreas V, who was also raped by him and was in turn used to lure other children to his caravan.(The Guardian)…[+]

Three men have been given life sentences in connection with one of Pakistan’s most notorious “honour killing” cases. Named as Omar Khan, Sabeer and Saheer, they are related to three women killed after being filmed singing and clapping at a wedding in 2011.

Their bodies were never found. Two men they were with are still in hiding. The fates of another two women are unknown. The killings sparked a blood feud which left another four dead. Five other men were acquitted by the court in Besham, in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The exact details of what took place are not entirely clear.

A video emerged in 2011 which appeared to show a group of women – named as Bazeegha, Sereen Jan, Begum Jan and Amina – at a wedding, singing and clapping. A fifth woman – Shaheen, who was under 18 – is also thought to have been present.

It also showed a man dancing – although they were never in the same shot together. A second man is said to have been filming. It was enough, in the remote northern Kohistan district where matters of family honour are settled in blood, to warrant at least three of the women’s deaths.

According to local custom, male family members of a woman suspected of an out-of-wedlock liaison – even of a seemingly innocuous nature – should first kill the woman, and then go after the man. The family of the man would not oppose this action, correspondents say. It meant everyone in the video – which was seen as “breaching the honour” of the women’s family – was in danger.(BBC)…[+]