news

"My wife, my wife." Woman killed by cement truck just two days before her 61st wedding anniversary, & more in News in 5.

— With AAP.

1. “My wife, my wife.” Woman killed by cement truck just two days before her 61st wedding anniversary.

An elderly woman who was hit and killed by a cement truck, as she was crossing a Sydney road with her husband, was due to celebrate their 61st wedding anniversary this weekend.

Gangotri Maharaj, 83, was hit by the truck on Willoughby Road in Crows Nest and died at the scene on Thursday morning, according to NSW Police.

Her husband Vijay Maharaj was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital suffering shock, while the 35-year-old truck driver was also hospitalised for mandatory testing.

The couple had reportedly become Australian citizens last week and were in the area to vote in the federal election at a pre-poll booth.

The couple were holding hands at the intersection, waiting to cross the road and meet their daughter.

A witness heard a distraught Mr Maharaj crying “my wife, my wife” over her body after the accident around 11am.

Their daughter Gita Singh said the family is devastated by the tragedy which happened just minutes after they voted.

“We are still in shock as my mother lies dead on the road and my dad is lying in hospital asking if it was true. Devastated. Distraught,” she told Network Ten on Thursday.

NSW Ambulance Inspector Carolyn Parish described the woman’s injuries as catastrophic.

“The injuries were so catastrophic that the paramedics did everything they could to treat the patient, however, as a consequence (she) has died,” Insp Parish told reporters at the scene.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It was quite a significant, traumatic scene for the attending crews.”

A police unit is investigating the crash.

2. Guard of honour to farewell lost Victorian lifesavers.

A Victorian father and son who lost their lives during an Easter Sunday rescue will have a guard of honour lining the streets of the town where they will be farewelled.

Lifesavers across the country are also planning to wear red on Friday in tribute to dairy farmers Ross “Po” Powell, 71, and Andrew Powell, 32, at their funeral in their close-knit community of Timboon.

The pair were among three rescuers who saved a male tourist, struggling after wading in dangerous waters at the mouth of Sherbrook River at Port Campbell.

Their rescue boat flipped in two-metre swells and while the 30-year-old tourist and fellow rescuer, Phil Younis, were winched to safety, the father-son pair couldn’t be saved.

“To read so many beautiful messages of support has touched our hearts and we thank you,” Port Campbell Surf Life Club President Scott McKenzie said in a message posted online.

“We know you’re all feeling the loss with us, and it gives us and the families involved, strength.”

There will be a guard of honour along Bailey Street and Powell family members are expected speak after the 3pm service.

A donations page has been set up to help the family and Mr Younis, who was hospitalised in a serious condition after the rescue.

3. Julian Assange to fight extradition to the US.

julian assange
Assange was holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy avoiding arrest for seven years. Image: Getty.
ADVERTISEMENT

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will contest a US request to extradite him.

The Australian has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for allegedly trying to assist former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning crack a Pentagon computer password cache in 2010.

Assange told Judge Michael Snow that he will not consent to extradition in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Thursday.

"I do not wish to surrender myself to extradition for doing journalism that has won many, many awards and saved many people," Assange said via videolink from HM Belmarsh prison.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 47-year-old was remanded in custody to reappear for a procedural hearing in the same court on May 30.

His full extradition hearing is set to begin on June 12.

4. Christchurch mosque attack death toll rises to 51.

A Turkish man wounded in the attack on mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch has died in hospital, raising the death toll from the shootings to 51.

Turkey's government overnight announced one of its citizens had died from the wounds he sustained in the March 15 terror attacks that killed 50 and injured 50 more.

ADVERTISEMENT

New Zealand police separately confirmed a 46-year-old man who had been in critical condition in Christchurch's public hospital since the shootings had died.

He had been injured at the Al Noor mosque, the first of two sites attacked, they said. He cannot be publicly named in New Zealand because of a court order.

The man's brother told Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency he had been taken to surgery on Thursday, but he could not be saved after battling for 50 days.

He is the second person to die in hospital following the attack and the first since the day of the shootings.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expressed her condolences.

"This sad news will be felt across Turkey as well as New Zealand," she said in a statement on Friday.

Nine other people shot remain in hospitals around the country, all in stable condition.

A 28-year-old Australian white supremacist faces 50 counts of murder and 38 of attempted murder over the shootings.

He is due to appear again in court next month.

Police on Friday declined to comment if further charges were pending.

5. Former senator David Leyonhjelm testifies in defamation case.

ADVERTISEMENT


Former senator David Leyonhjelm has told a judge he had no doubt that the meaning of a colleague's parliamentary interjection was "all men are rapists".

But he said he could not recall Senator Sarah Hanson-Young's exact wording, only that it began "women", then there was something in the middle followed by "if men didn't rape them".

He was giving evidence in the Federal Court on Thursday at the lawsuit brought by Senator Hanson-Young, who says he defamed her in a media statement and in three media interviews between June 28 and July 2, 2018.

The Greens senator denies saying the "absurd" statement that all men are rapists, contending Mr Leyonhjelm has portrayed her as a misandrist and hypocrite in that she had sex with men despite saying they were all rapists.

The former Liberal Democrat testified on Thursday that "there was no doubt in my mind that the meaning was very clear" and it was consistent with statements she had previously made on multiple occasions.

ADVERTISEMENT

In the media material, he elaborated on his comment to Senator Hanson-Young on the floor of parliament to "stop shagging men" amid a debate on legislation seeking to prevent violence against women.

Under cross-examination by her barrister Sue Chrysanthou, Mr Leyonhjelm denied that the words "I strongly urge Senator Hanson-Young to continue shagging men" in his later press release was outrageous and flippant.

He agreed he had never issued a release commenting on the sex life of a male colleague, but disagreed the only reason he wrote it was because Senator Hanson-Young was a woman.

"The purpose was to cause her distress and offence," Ms Chrysanthou said.

"I totally reject that," he replied

The barrister referred to Greens Senator Janet Rice saying, during the same debate, "interventions that prevent men's violence".

Mr Leyonhjelm said he didn't hear her say that, but looking at those words now he did not understand them to mean "all" men are violent.

"You don't think she was abusing you personally because you are a man," Ms Chrysanthou asked.

Mr Leyonhjelm replied "no" and also said he wouldn't think she was accusing him because he was a man, or that the statement meant she was a misandrist.

The hearing continues.