1. Australian schoolgirl “lured to the US for sex” by a convicted killer.
An American man accused of meeting a 16-year-old Australian girl on Snapchat and enticing her to the US for sex is behind bars in a New York jail.
Sean Price, a 39-year-old with a long criminal history and who lived with his mother in the New York borough of Queens, is charged with transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, AAP reports.
Price’s bail bid in a Brooklyn court on Wednesday failed.
US prosecutors allege Price met the girl – from Sydney’s upper north shore – on the Snapchat app in October last year and later transferred $US1500 ($A2011) to her in Australia. It is alleged he was also soliciting explicit images of the teenager.
Last month the girl, described in court documents as “Jane Doe”, vanished from home and flew to Los Angeles while Price flew to LA from New York to meet her, according to authorities.
Homeland Security Investigations said they allegedly hired a car and drove across the US and that the man was aware of the teenager’s age.
Agents received a tip-off from Australian authorities on May 11 the girl, who had been reported missing by her parents, was believed to be in Queens.
Last week NYPD officers went to Price’s home and while his mother answered the front door Price and the girl allegedly attempted to flee out a back door, but when they were spotted they attempted to hide in the basement.
Price reportedly has 11 prior convictions including criminally negligent homicide for the death of a passenger in a car crash.
2. Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell died by suicide, medical report confirms.
Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell took his own life at the age of 52, the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office has announced.
Cornell was found dead in his Detroit hotel bathroom on Wednesday night after playing a concert in the city with the grunge band.
“The cause of death has been determined as suicide …A full autopsy report has not yet been completed,” the Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement after conducting an initial autopsy, AAP reports.
Cornell’s publicist Brian Bumbery said earlier that the singer’s death was “sudden and unexpected.”
Detroit police spokesman Dan Donakowski said that officers were called to Cornell’s hotel around midnight by a friend of the musician and found Cornell “laying in his bathroom, unresponsive and he had passed away.”
Anyone affected by this story should please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
3. New York driver ploughs into pedestrians at Time Square, killing one and injuring 22 more.
A former US Navy veteran who appeared intoxicated has driven his car the wrong way up a Times Square and ploughed into pedestrians on the footpath, killing a teenager and injuring 22 other people, authorities and witnesses said.
The driver, Richard Rojas, a 26-year-old Bronx resident, was taken into custody and is being tested for alcohol.
The 18-year-old killed at the scene has been identified and witnesses have come forward to describe their horror. READ MORE: CLICK HERE.
4. Sydney patients screened for TB after man’s diagnosis.
Nearly two dozen patients at two Sydney hospitals are being screened for tuberculosis after they were potentially exposed to the disease.
It comes after a man in his 30s was recently diagnosed with TB after attending Royal Prince Alfred and St Vincent’s Public hospitals between February and April.
