Australian father follows hunch, hires helicopter to find injured son in crash

Samuel Lethbridge, 17, is 'lucky to be alive' after his father hired a helicopter to search for him.  (Michael Lethbridge via AP)

A father’s hunch in hiring a helicopter to search for his missing son may have saved the teen's life when the chopper spied the 17-year-old's wrecked car on the side of the road.

Tony Lethbridge, of New South Wales, Australia, said he feared the worst when his son, Samuel, did not return home Sunday morning after a Saturday night out with friends in the nearby city of Newcastle.

He reported his son as a missing person to police and then contacted a helicopter service to help him in the search, Sky News reported.

“When I saw the police, they thought he’d run away. I said ‘that’s not Samuel.’ When he doesn’t show up or phone, something’s seriously wrong,” Lethbridge told the Associated Press.

He added: "I understand that they've got a lot to do and they hear this every day, but I took matters into my own hands and was thinking all night that tomorrow morning, I'm just going to get a helicopter and go looking for him because we're running out of time — it's been long enough."

The search paid off. Samuel’s car was spotted among the trees off the road about 12 miles from the family's home in Lake Macquarie.

The wreckage was spotted within 15 minutes of the search.  (New South Wales Ambulance)

The teenager was cut out from the wreck some 30 hours after the crash. He suffered multiple fractures and remains in serious condition, officials said.

“[He’s] very lucky to be alive,” said Jeff Atkins, inspector with the New South Wales Ambulance, according to Sky News.

Lethbridge got in touch with Lee Mitchell, pilot and part-owner of Skyline Aviation Group at Lake Macquarie, for help.

“He came in looking anxious and somewhat fatigued and said he needed a helicopter bad,” Mitchell told reporters. “He just said: 'I've got [$797] on me, will that be enough?' and we said: 'Yes, it would.’”

Mitchell said they usually charged a rate of $956 per hour, but the company gave Lethbridge a discount after he explained his plight.

The teenager's father hired a helicopter to search for his son.  (Michael Lethbridge via AP)

Samuel’s uncle Michael Lethbridge joined Mitchell on board the helicopter for the search. The car was spotted within 15 minutes of taking off.

"It was fairly easy to spot from the air. It would've been near impossible to see from the road because it was well below the road level," Mitchell said.

The teen’s uncle was the first to reach the car. He said he was terrified of what he would find and feared the worst.

"I really didn't want to go. I was scared of what I'd find. As I got closer I seen Sam's head move," Michael Lethbridge said. "I went from being terrified to ecstatic in a couple of seconds."

Mitchell said everyone was overwhelmed by the “great outcome.”

“We’ve done a lot of search and rescue stuff in previous years and they don’t always turn out so favorably,” he said.

Samuel Lethbridge, 17, remained in intensive care in a hospital with multiple fractures two days after the crash.  (Michael Lethbridge via AP)

While Australians rarely pay for search and rescue operations, Tony Lethbridge, who works in a mail sorting room of the national postal service, has no complaints.

"It's priceless. If it's [$797] I've got to pay to get his life, I'm OK with that," the father said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hong Kong court to rule later on 3 activists' prison terms

HONG KONG –  Three Hong Kong activists will have to wait to learn the outcome of their final appeal Tuesday to overturn prison sentences for their roles in sparking 2014's massive pro-democracy protests in the semiautonomous Chinese city.

Judges at Hong Kong's top court said they would issue their decision at a later, unspecified date following the appeal hearing for Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow against the sentences of up to eight months. Bail for the three was extended.

The three were initially let off with suspended or community service sentences after they were convicted of taking part in or inciting an unlawful assembly by storming a courtyard at government headquarters to kick-off the protests.

But the case sparked controversy when the justice secretary requested a sentencing review that resulted in stiffer sentences, raising concerns about rule of law and fears that the city's Beijing-backed government is tightening up on dissent.

The trio's lawyers said the lower court overstepped its boundaries and put too much emphasis on the need for deterrence in handing down the revised harsher sentence.

"Laying down a heavy sentence will have a deterrent effect, but a balance has to be held between a deterrent and stifling young idealistic people," Law's lawyer, Robert Pang, told the judges.

Wong's lawyer also argued that under Hong Kong law, the 21-year-old shouldn't have been sent to prison because he was a minor at the time.

Speaking on the courthouse steps before the hearing, Wong estimated he had a 50-50 chance of going back to prison. "However I still believe that when people are united we will not be defeated."

Wong made world headlines and starred in a Netflix documentary after leading the "Umbrella Movement" protests while still a teenager. The protests, which brought parts of the busy Asian financial hub to a halt over Beijing's plan to restrict elections for top leader, ended without resolution after 11 weeks.

The three were given revised sentences ranging from six to eight months of prison time in last year's ruling but were bailed partway through when they won permission to appeal.

Wong could end up back in prison as soon as Wednesday, when he is due to be sentenced in a separate court case also related to the 2014 protests.

Cambodia upholds jail term for Australian in surrogacy case

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia –  An appeals court on Monday upheld the prison sentence of an Australian woman convicted of providing commercial surrogacy services in Cambodia.

Judge Kim Dany said the appeals court found the lower court conviction of Tammy Davis-Charles complied with Cambodian law and therefore upheld the verdict. She did not take questions from media during the court appearance.

Davis-Charles is serving one and a half years in prison after being convicted last August. During the court appearance last year, Davis-Charles said she has "lost everything" since her arrest and wants to be reunited with her family in Australia, including her twin sons.

Cambodia banned commercial surrogacy in 2016 after becoming a popular destination for would-be parents seeking women to give birth to their children.

Davis-Charles was arrested in November 2016, within weeks of the ban.

She has said she launched her business in Cambodia only after consulting three local lawyers who assured her the clinic was legal. The surrogates were paid $10,000 for each pregnancy, she has said.

Surrogacy costs are much lower in developing countries than in nations such as the United States and Australia, where services cost around $150,000. The surrogacy business boomed in Cambodia after being restricted in neighboring Thailand, in India and in Nepal.

After Cambodia's crackdown, the trade has shifted to neighboring Laos.

The judge said Davis-Charles could appeal to the Supreme Court if she is not satisfied with Monday's court decision.

UNICEF using biased information to blacklist Israel military, critics say

EXCLUSIVE –  The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is being accused of allowing biased information, supplied by radical anti-Israeli groups, to include Israel’s military in a report by the U.N. secretary-general on children and armed conflict. Being placed in that report could lead to tough Security Council sanctions.

According to critics of the upcoming U.N. report, the purpose is to include the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on a blacklist of “grave violators of children’s rights.” The critique is authored by NGO Monitor, an Israel-based research institute analyzing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) claiming to advance humanitarian agendas.

Titled “UNICEF and its NGO Working Group: The Campaign to Blacklist the IDF,” it explains that since 2007, UNICEF has led the “Working Group on Grave Violations against Children,” that monitors and reports grave violations against children in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory as well as 19 other conflict zones.

The UNICEF working group is expected to share its data with the U.N.’s special representative for children and armed conflict soon. This information then will be passed onto the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. NGO Monitor states that, “UNICEF’s role in this process includes giving legitimacy to false and distorted claims made by the NGOs, which are fed through a UNICEF database to a variety of U.N. publications.”

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NGO Monitor accuses UNICEF’s office in the Palestinian Territories for being politically motivated and, “completely inconsistent with its mandate of child protection and from its guidelines for neutrality and impartiality.” That office works with NGOs, many of which it says are radically anti-Israel.

Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News that Israel is a “staunch defender of human rights,” and warned of financial consequences if there was ever to be a blacklist. “For the United Nations to even consider such action following their condemnation of President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is further proof of the U.N.’s anti-Israel bias.”

DeSantis continued, “The United States should take any punitive action against Israel into consideration when determining who is deserving of foreign assistance.”

NGO Monitor stated, “These publications do not note that the accusations originate with unqualified and partial activists, some from groups with alleged ties to terror organizations, or that they were not verified by credible independent bodies.” NGO Monitor pointed to a branch of the agency, known as UNICEF OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territory), as being “instrumental in this campaign.”

In response to the criticism, a spokesperson for UNICEF took issue with NGO Monitor’s findings, and said that UNICEF is not involved in the listing process.

UNICEF said that it does not make recommendations on countries and entities to be listed in the secretary-general’s report and it’s the secretary-general alone that makes that decision.

The UNICEF spokesperson defended the group’s impartial reporting to Fox News: “The monitoring and reporting process is led by a working group, which brings together U.N. agencies and international, Israeli and Palestinian NGOs. These organizations are selected based on their ability to regularly provide accurate, reliable, impartial and objective data on children affected by armed conflict.”

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The spokesperson claims that the information they receive and utilize, “follows a stringent verification process whereby data collected and shared by members is triangulated.” According to the UNICEF spokesperson, all information is verified, “information which is judged inaccurate or biased is not accepted.”

“Our work on children and armed conflict is known to member states, many of which are also UNICEF donors, and we provide them with regular reports on how we use their respective contributions.”

But, NGO Monitor does believe the information is biased; in fact, it claims three of those groups who supply information to the working group have troubling links to a terrorist group, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). PFLP is on the U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations as well as the European Union’s, but not the United Nations list.

NGO Monitor’s analysis states that Addameer is an example of one such group that gives information to UNICEF’s working group, calling it an affiliate of the PFLP, which has seen senior members convicted of crimes including its chairperson and co-founder. One of its field workers was imprisoned for trying to assassinate a former chief rabbi of Israel in 2005.

NGO Monitor contends that the Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) had one board member who was imprisoned by Israel for 17 years for carrying out grenade attacks against Israeli civilians in 1968.

It also claims that the founder and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights was imprisoned by Israel for membership in the PFLP, and in 2012 also was denied a visa to the U.S.

Some of the other NGOs listed in the report have links to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign that has been accused of being anti-Semitic. Others have likened Israel to Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa.

NGO Monitor is especially concerned with UNICEF’s inability to protect children. It quotes one of UNICEF’s Children in Armed Conflict bulletins as admitting that the situation in Gaza interferes with UNICEF’s ability to document “cases of child recruitment and use of children in armed conflict.” Something which Hamas and other Gaza based terrorist groups have been shown to do.

If Israel were to be put on the blacklist, they would join ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. While diplomats at the U.N. believe that is highly unlikely to happen, NGO Monitor wants countries to better understand who they are funding and recommends that UNICEF end cooperation with NGOs with suspected ties to terrorist organization, and publicly retract false information on Israel.

Gov. Wike reacts to death of notorious kidnapper, Don Wani

Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike has commended security agencies for the death of Prince Igwedibia, popularly known as Don Wani who is allegedly responsible for the New Year attack in the State.

The army confirmed the suspect was killed on Saturday in his hideout in Enugu.

Reacting, the Rivers State Commissioner of Information and Communication, Emma Okah, said, “The success recorded in the operations that ended Don Wani and his men is a victory for the law abiding people in the state.

“It underscores the desirability of honest partnership and synergy between the government and security agencies as well as the public in tackling security problems in the state.

“This victory gladdens our heart and we remain more committed in the fight against crimes and will continue to support the police and all security agencies in the onerous task of securing our dear Rivers State and her people.

“We thank President Muhammadu Buhari for not playing politics with the Omoku massacre but gave a matching order which galvanised the efforts of the 6 Div of Nigeria Army, the DSS, police and everybody or agency who played a role to avenge the death of the innocent people killed in Omoku on 1st January, 2018.

“The success of our collective effort has shown that there is no hiding place for the wicked.”

Antifa member ordered to pay legal fees of Berkeley conservative over attempted restraining order

A middle school teacher and prominent member of an Antifa group has been ordered to pay legal fees for a failed attempt to get a permanent restraining order against the former president of the Berkeley College Republicans at the University of California, Berkeley, according to reports.

Alameda County Superior Court Commissioner Thomas Rasch ordered Yvette Felarca, the leader of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), an Antifa, or anti-fascist, group, to pay $10,000 in attorney’s fees and $1,100 in court fees, The Berkeleyside reported Friday. Rasch said that Felarca’s legal actions against Troy Worden, the former head of the Berkeley College Republicans, were not brought in good faith.

Felarca’s attorneys dispute that characterization, according to The Berkeleyside, and have vowed to appeal the ruling.

“By ruling that Yvette Felarca did not demonstrate good faith in filing the restraining order, the court recognized the frivolous nature of Felarca’s actions,” Mark Meuser, Worden’s attorney, said after the decision, according to The Berkeleyside. “The award of attorney fees should send a strong signal that she cannot abuse the court system to silence speech.”

Meuser testified in court that actual legal expenses were around $178,600, and that he was seeking a higher reimbursement, according to The Berkeleyside.

“This verdict was based on the judge’s decision to support the political views of Troy Worden and the alt-right and that is not acceptable,” Felarca’s attorney Shanta Driver said.

Felarca got a temporary restraining order against Worden in September after alleging he was stalking and harassing her on the Berkeley campus. Worden initially was ordered to stay 100 yards away from Felarca, but that distance later was reduced to 10 yards. Felarca, according to The Berkeleyside, then applied for a permanent restraining order in October but withdrew the order the day of the hearing, making Worden the prevailing party entitled to receive lawyer and court fees.

“Felarca filed a frivolous restraining order that restricted Worden’s First and Second Amendment rights and made it difficult for him to move around the campus to attend classes,” Meuser told Fox News in November.

Worden said he and many other UC Berkeley College Republicans faced months of harassment and violence.

“I have to look behind my shoulder whenever I am on campus and especially when I am engaged in political activism,” Worden said.

“The No. 1 public university in the world and the so-called ‘birthplace of the free speech movement’ is anything but. It is the place where America’s conservative youth are daily under threat of violence, lacking the support of the university administration, police, or city,” he added. “The Free Speech Movement is dead, and the left has killed it.”

El-Rufai, double faced individual – Jonathan’s aide, Omokri

Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan has ‘attacked’ Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, describing the governor as a double faced individual who switches at any given time.

This was posted on his twitter handle alongside a picture of El-Rufai kneeling for Atiku Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo and Buhari respectively.

Omokri, therefore, urged Nigerians to pray to be set free from the likes of Kaduna governor.

He wrote, “The man who kneels to you when he needs you and stabs you in the back when he no longer needs you. May God deliver Nigeria from your likes!

Recall that there has been the war of words between the Kaduna State governor and Senator representing Bayelsa east, Senator Ben Murray Bruce over who should be given credit for the Abuja-Kaduna railway.

Ben Bruce had told El-Rufai, that his (El-Rufai’s) hatred for late former President, Ya’Adua had clouded his judgement on who initiated the Abuja-Kaduna railway.