‘My name is Cleo’: Missing four-year-old found in locked house
Police who found missing Cleo Smith in a locked house in Australia say they were “shocked” and then “elated” when the four-year-old confirmed: “My name is Cleo.”
Detective Sergeant Cameron Blaine told reporters they were not prepared for such a happy outcome despite “always” hoping for it.
“It was absolutely fantastic. To see her sitting there was incredible,” he said.
The child disappeared from a campsite in Western Australia more than two weeks ago.
A 36-year-old local man was arrested following a late-night raid at the house in the coastal town of Carnarvon, after police received a tip-off.
Bodycam footage shows an officer carrying Cleo
While one of the other officers picked Cleo up, Detective Blaine said he was concerned to make sure it really was her.
“I said: ‘What is your name?’ She didn’t answer, I asked again and she didn’t answer. I asked a third time and then she looked at me and said: ‘My name is Cleo.’ And that was it. Then we turned around and walked out of the house.”
Lead investigator superintendent Rod Wilde said officers were overcome with emotion after finding Cleo.
“We all cried,” he said. “Most definitely. It was an amazing moment. Suddenly after hearing that, we were on such a high. It was fantastic.”
Detective Sergeant Hutchinson, the family liaison officer, then called Cleo’s parents, telling them: “We’ve got someone here that wants to speak to you.”
Their reaction was “just absolute surprise and they were ecstatic”, the officer added.
“Things developed very quickly. To be able to give them that news and say ‘please start making your way to the hospital’ was fantastic.”
Cleo’s mum, Ellie Smith, wrote on social media: “Our family is whole again.”
Cleo is ‘physically okay’, police say
Detective Blaine said Cleo is “physically okay – that was evident from the start”.
Finding her caused “shock to start with, quickly followed by elation”.
He added: “Can I say, having seen her a couple times this morning, she is a little energizer bunny.
“She’s just a very, very sweet, energetic girl, very trusting and very open with us. You know, we all wanted to take turns in holding her. So yeah, it was a really good experience.”
Cleo’s mother, Ellie Smith, and her partner Jake Gliddon
Initially when Cleo went missing a huge land and sea search got underway on the assumption that she had wandered away from the tent she was in.
But the zipper on the compartment where she and her sister were sleeping was too high for her to have reached it.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said her discovery was a “huge relief” and a “moment for great joy”.
Western Australia state Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said “dogged, methodical police work” led to Cleo being found.
He added: “It is a really special day for Western Australia. Indeed, I know the nation is rejoicing over the fact that we have been able to conduct this operation and we never gave up hope, and I know that Cleo’s parents never gave up hope.”
Thousands of people in Georgia have protested for the third consecutive night over a bill they say is inspired by laws used in authoritarian Russia to crush dissent.
The law would force non-government organisations and media outlets that get more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as an “organisation serving the interests of a foreign power”.
It is seen as a major test of whether Georgia will move closer to the West or to Russia. It is also being watched closely by the European Union, as it considers the country’s bid for full membership.
Some 10,000 people were on the streets of the capital Tbilisi on Wednesday evening, many of them waving Georgian and European flags, holding signs reading “Yes to Europe, no to the Russian law”.
Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
The protesters managed to defeat a similar bill last year, with the government citing the need to reduce “confrontation” as it dropped the proposal.
This time the bill passed the first of two readings it needs to be brought into law, but not without controversy – opposition politicians boycotted the vote and four of them were removed from the rowdy parliamentary session amid calls of “No to the Russian law”.
Soon after the vote, the EU said: “This is a very concerning development and the final adoption of this legislation would negatively impact Georgia’s progress on its EU path.
“This law is not in line with EU core norms and values.”
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Georgia’s President is asked: Is Georgia pro-EU or pro-Russia?
It said the proposed bill would “limit the capacity of civil society and media organisations to operate freely, could limit freedom of expression and unfairly stigmatise organisations that deliver benefits to the citizens of Georgia.”
The bill’s main backer, Georgian prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze, claimed Western officials had provided “no arguments” against the bill and he would not bow to countries, including the US and UK, that have urged a change of heart.
President Salome Zourabichvili said she would veto the law if it was passed – but parliament can override her veto.
Activist Paata Sabelashvili said: “It is very hard to predict any scenario, because the government is unpredictable, unreliable, untruthful, sarcastic and cynical.
“People here are just flowing and flowing and flowing like rivers.”
Pic: AP
Opposition politician Aleksandre Ellisashvili said those who voted for the bill were “traitors” and the rest of Georgia would show them that “people are power, and not the traitor government”.
Zaza Bibilashvili, from civil society group Chavchavadze Centre, said the law would keep Georgia “in the Russian sphere of influence and away from Europe”.
Surveys show up to 90% of Georgia’s 3.7 million people want their country to be in the EU but the bloc has said it must reform its political and judicial systems.
Brussels has also been frustrated by the Georgian government’s closeness to Russia – it has not imposed sanctions like other Western countries have, and it has restored direct flights.
But many Georgian people are suspicious of Russia, at least partly because it helped two breakaway Georgian regions – Abkhazia and South Ossetia – to get de facto independence in the 1990s and in 2008.
Germany has arrested two men for allegedly spying for Russia, with one planning to carry out attacks in the hopes of sabotaging aid intended for Ukraine.
The two German-Russian men were identified only as Dieter S and Alexander J, in line with German privacy rules, after they were arrested on Wednesday in Bayreuth.
According to federal prosecutors, they were arrested on suspicion of espionage with one of them allegedly having agreed to carry out attacks on potential targets including US military facilities – all in the hopes of affecting aid for Ukraine.
Follow latest: Ukraine-Russia war
Dieter S was alleged to have discussed carrying out acts of sabotage within Germany, with a person linked to Russian intelligence since as far back as October.
It was said that the aim was to undermine German military support given to Ukraine.
In a statement, prosecutors said that the suspect declared himself willing to carry out bombing and arson attacks on infrastructure used by the military and industrial sites in Germany.
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Dieter S gathered information on potential targets, prosecutors added.
He was alleged to have been helped by his co-defendant from March at the latest.
Dieter S scouted some of the sites, taking photos and videos of military goods and passing information to his intelligence contact.
A judge ordered that Dieter S should be kept in custody pending a possible indictment.
Alexander J is due to make a closed-doors court appearance today.
Dieter S also faces separate accusations of being part of an armed unit of pro-Russian separatist forces in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, from 2014 to 2016.
Germany has become the second-biggest supplier of weapons to Ukraine, after the US, since Russia ignited its full-scale invasion over two years ago.
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