Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 15 January. Top stories Said Imasi doesn't know where he was born, or when, and has few official documents to demonstrate who he is or where he comes from. For this reason he has spent the past eight years detained by Australian immigration with no prospect of release. But calls are mounting for the government to release, and possibly compensate Imasi. "They say my case is complicated," Imasi says. "I say, 'I have been here eight years, how can you not know about me? How can it take this long?' They blame me. But I am not accused of anything. They have never made any allegation against me." In four reports to parliament, the commonwealth ombudsman has urged the immigration department to consider releasing Imasi, only to be refused. Now, the UN human rights committee's working group on arbitrary detention has told Australia its detention of Imasi is unlawful, indefinite and arbitrary. "Seeking asylum is not a criminal act; on the contrary, seeking asylum is a universal human right," the working group said. It said Australia's "extraordinary lengthy detention" of Imasi, and its failure to properly assess his case, was unjustified and unreasonable. The top fashion photographers Mario Testino and Bruce Weber have been suspended from working with fashion magazines, including Vogue, after models accused the photographers of sexually exploiting them. Lawyers for Testino, known for photographing the royal family, disputed their accounts while Weber denied the claims. But Anna Wintour, the artistic director of Condé Nast, said the publisher would not work with the pair for the "foreseeable future". Testino, 63, was accused by 13 male assistants and models of sexual impropriety, including masturbation, while Weber, 71, is accused by 15 current and former models of subjecting them to unnecessary nudity and coercive sexual behaviour. Labor sources are urging Wayne Swan to retire at the next election, with one describing the former treasurer as "one of the last relics of the Rudd-Gillard years". The veteran Labor MP has yet to make a decision, describing himself as "very involved in the economic debate about how we create prosperity and opportunity". But one Labor source said Swan should have left at the last election and it was time for new blood. Swan's fellow AWU right member and former campaign manager Anika Wells is considered the most likely candidate to replace him in the Queensland seat of Lilley, which he has held since 1998. Thousands of Tunisians celebrated the seventh anniversary of the revolution on Sunday that ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, capping a week of protests against the government they say now threatens its legacy. Amid growing anger, the president, Beji Caid Essebsi, made an unprecedented visit to one of the most deprived suburbs of the capital to launch a package of social reforms aimed at quelling the uprising. Mass protests have broken out in many parts of Tunisia in the past week, sparked by a harsh new budget, which pushes up the prices of necessities. The activist Chelsea Manning has announced she will run for the US Senate. Manning confirmed growing speculation that she planned to run as a Democrat in Maryland, sharing a video on Twitter hashtagged #WeGotThis. "We need someone willing to fight," she said. The former US army private, who was held in military lockup for longer than any other official leaker in modern times, said she wanted to change the climate of fear, supression and hate in the US. Sport Liverpool have ended Manchester City's 30-game unbeaten run in the Premier League with a sensational 4-3 victory at Anfield, inspired by Mohamed Salah. Three second-half goals in eight minutes put Jürgen Klopp's side 4-1 ahead before the league leaders threatened an implausible comeback in the dying moments. The Ashes may be gone but England kicked off the one-day internationals with a thumping five-wicket win in the first of a five-game series. Jason Roy pillaged 180, the highest score by an Englishman in ODIs to reach the target of 305, more than matching Aaron Finch's century for the home side. Thinking time |
Naaman Zhou plunged headlong into Australia's first foray into slow TV on Sunday, watching pretty much all 17 hours of The Ghan's journey from Adelaide to Darwin. "Viewed occasionally as something to pop in and out of, slow TV is relaxing, inoffensive," he writes. "Viewed intensely, it becomes a journey of highs and lows, more stark the closer you zoom in. If you engage with it, it pushes back. As the timeframe approaches infinity, the odds of something becoming interesting becomes certain." More than 10 years after fossils were discovered sticking out of a rock platform in Victoria's remote south-west, scientists have identified a new dinosaur that once roamed the "lost world" between Australia and Antarctica. Foot and tail fossils found in 113m-year-old rocks near Cape Otway in 2005 have led to the discovery of a turkey-sized herbivore named Diluvicursor Pickeringi. It ran on two strong hind legs and probably weighed between 3kg and 4kg. "Understanding the ecology of these dinosaurs – what they ate, how they moved, where they roamed ... presents exciting challenges for future research," says Matt Herne, from the University of Queensland's school of biological sciences.
Milkshake duck has been announced as the Macquarie Dictionary's word of the year for 2017, giving belated recognition to the internet term that has become short-hand for the rush to seize on the latest social media phenomenon before rejecting it just as enthusiastically. Macquarie defines it as "a person who is initially viewed positively by the media but is then discovered to have something questionable about them which causes a sharp decline in their popularity", revealing why a two-word concept was required in the first place. What's he done now? Donald Trump has tweeted a blunt and undiplomatic prediction that Daca – the program protecting the children of undocumented immigrants to the US – is "probably dead", alarming Democrats and the tens of thousands of young people whose fate is is now being argued in multiple courts across the US. "DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don't really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military," Trump wrote.
Media roundup The Adelaide Advertiser reports on what it says are high levels of violence on Friday and Saturday nights around Hindley Street in Adelaide, with revellers twice as likely to become victims of violence in the west end than elsewhere in the city. About $100m appears to have disappeared from Plutus Payroll, the company at the centre Australia's largest tax fraud case, the Australian Financial Review reports, with liquidators investigating where tens of millions of dollars siphoned out of the company to related entities and offshore in the last year ended up. The ABC and other media report on new evidence that "baby brain" is a real phenomenon. Researchers at Deakin University said they found that overall cognitive functioning was poorer in pregnant women than non-pregnant women, especially in the third trimester of pregnancy.
Coming up The Australian Open begins in Melbourne, with Nick Kyrgios, Daria Gavrilova, Samantha Stosur and Matthew Ebden among Australian hopes. But Roger Federer is the favourite to retain his men's title, even at the age of 36.
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Said Imasi has been held in Australian immigration detention for nearly eight years without charge or trial 
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