Top News Stories –

Cannes Film Festival ‘turns away women in flat shoes’ –
Cannes Film Festival has come under fire after reports women were turned away from a red carpet screening for wearing flat shoes instead of heels. The women – some of whom were said to be older with medical conditions – were attending the world premiere of Cate Blanchett’s new film Carol. Screen Daily said the festival had confirmed heels were obligatory for women at red carpet screenings. However the director of the festival said the “rumours” were “unfounded”. [BBC]
Cate Blanchett

Prostitute pleads guilty in Google executive heroin overdose death on yacht –
A high-end prostitute who pleaded guilty to killing a Google executive with an overdose of heroin aboard his yacht has been jailed for six years. Alix Tichelman, 27, was initially arrested on suspicion of murder over the death of Forrest Hayes, 51, a father-of-five, who was found on his 50ft boat in Santa Cruz, California in November 2013. Surveillance cameras on the yacht recorded Tichelman gathering her belongings, including heroin and needles, finishing a glass of wine, and stepping over Mr Hayes as she left. Following her arrest she was dubbed the “call girl killer” and the “harbour hooker”. [Daily Telegraph]

‘Australian Hugh Hefner’ criticised for posting photo of his wife on a leash –
A tobacco tycoon labelled “Australia’s Hugh Hefner” has been accused of creating a poisonous cult in his waterside mansion after he posted images of his wife on a leash and of his children attending raucous poolside parties. Travis Beynon, who calls himself The Candyman, lives on a £1.9 million estate in Queensland’s Gold Coast and publishes a constant stream of images of his antics on his Instagram account. But the former Australian Football league player has been criticised for his lifestyle, particularly after he posted a photo of himself leading his wife Taesha and another woman on a leash, with the caption “Candyman’s interpretation of ‘Doggy Style’”. [Daily Telegraph]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War
  • The Russian embassy in Damascus is shelled. (RT)

Business and economy

• The inflation rate in the United Kingdom goes to -0.1 in April, marking the first time since 1960 it has done so. (BBC)
• Takata Corporation doubles the size of its recall of faulty airbags in the United States with 34 million vehicles to be recalled. (Wall Street Journal)
• The Los Angeles City Council votes to increase the minimum wage in the American city of Los Angeles, California to $15 an hour by 2020. (New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

• More than 20 garment workers are killed after a bus that they were travelling to work in collides with a tourist bus in Cambodia‘s Svay Rieng Province. (Cambodia Daily)
• The death toll from landslides in the Colombian town of Salgar rises to 56 with scores missing. (Agencies via Al-Jazeera)
• Germanwings Flight 9525
  • French prosecutors say the passengers onboard the Germanwings flight that crashed in southern France have all been identified, and their bodies can be returned home to their families. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
• At least 16 people are killed and scores are injured in a residential building fire in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Reuters UK)
• Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Dawn ran aground three miles off Bermuda when departing for return trip to Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A..(Boston Herald) (Irish Independent)

International relations

• Prince Charles of Wales becomes the first member of the British Royal Family to meet with Gerry Adams, the President of Sinn Fein during a two-day visit to Ireland. (AFP via ABC News)

Law and crime

• Former nurse Victorino Chua has been found guilty of murder and poisoning patients at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester,U.K. and sentenced to 35 years in jail. (BBC)
• Police arrest more than 50 people following a probe into match fixing in Italian football. (BBC)
• Mohawk Industries and five other companies agree to pay $275.5 million to settle lawsuits related to alleged price fixing of polyurethane foam,(Reuters)

Politics and elections

• The President of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza says that the government will proceed with a presidential election despite protests and a recent failed coup. (BBC)
• The United States Congress sends a human trafficking bill to President Barack Obama for signature.

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