The singer with the American rock bank Linkin Park has been found dead at his home in Los Angeles on what would have been the 53rd birthday of his close friend Chris Cornell, the lead singer of Soundgarden who was found dead after a concert in May.
Chester Bennington, 41, was discovered yesterday in what police called a possible suicide, hours after the band released a new music video.
Mike Shinoda, 40, a co-founder of Linkin Park, said: “Shocked and heartbroken, but it’s true.”
India’s low-caste victor
Ram Nath Kovind, a low-caste politician backed by the Hindu nationalist-led coalition, has won India’s presidential election by an overwhelming majority. The constitution provides a largely ceremonial role for the president, with the prime minister and his cabinet holding executive power. Mr Kovind beat Meira Kumar, of the Congress party. Both are Dalits, India’s lowest caste. (Reuters)
Cameroon ‘tortured’ Boko Haram suspects
Yaoundé Security forces in Cameroon have allegedly engaged in routine torture and illegal detention of suspects accused of supporting Boko Haram, according to an Amnesty International report. From 2013-2017, suspects arrested by government forces or men in plain clothes were taken to unofficial detention sites in Cameroon, where they were allegedly held incommunicado and subjected to beatings with electric cables and machetes, stress positions, sleep and food deprivation. Boko Haram has been active in Cameroon’s far north since 2011, according to the International Crisis Group.
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Ukraine’s deadliest day
Washington The United States has condemned an outbreak of violence in east Ukraine, calling it the deadliest 24 hours this year. The Ukrainian military said nine soldiers died in the region, where government forces and Russian-backed rebels have been fighting for more than three years. The US State Department said that clashes in which five soldiers died appeared to have been started by Russian-led forces. (AP)
Shark strikes twice
Sydney A world champion surfer who escaped a shark attack two years ago has had to be rescued a second time during the same competition. Mick Fanning, 36, was knocked off his board in the J-Bay Open in 2015. On Wednesday the Australian was pulled from the same waters at Jeffreys Bay on South Africa’s Eastern Cape as a 3m-long shark approached. Gabriel Medina, his Brazilian rival, was also rescued.
Diplomats expelled
Kuwait City Kuwait has expelled about 15 Iranian diplomats and closed some of the country’s embassy missions after its highest court convicted a “terrorist cell” of having links to the Islamic republic. A supreme court ruling last month convicted 21 people of belonging to a cell formed and trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Kuwait ordered the closure of the Iranian military, cultural and trade missions. (AFP)
Human history revised
Sydney Axeheads and grinding stones found 300km (186 miles) east of Darwin suggest that humans arrived in Australia 18,000 years earlier than thought. Luminescence-dating put the tools before aboriginal culture 47,000 to 65,000 years ago. It also indicated that humans migrated from Africa earlier than this, as Australia was at the end of their route, Chris Clarkson, the study’s author, told ABC radio. (Reuters).