In Memorium

SYDNEY, Australia, Jan. 15 — Molly Kelly, whose childhood trek across 1,000 miles of the Australian desert to return to her Aboriginal mother inspired the 2002 movie “Rabbit-Proof Fence,” died on Tuesday at her home in Jigalong in Western Australia, her family said. She was thought to be 87.

Ms. Kelly was about 13 when she, her little sister and a cousin made the nine-week journey with little food or water. When her story came out decades later, she became a symbol of the resilience of Aborigines in the face of mistreatment by Australia’s European settlers.

In 1931, Ms. Kelly was taken from her mother and sent to a government institution to be trained as a domestic servant along with her sister and cousin.

Thousands of such forced separations created what are now known as Australia’s “stolen generations.” The policy aimed at assimilating Aborigines into mainstream society began in 1905 and continued until 1971.

14-1-04: Tom Hurndall , the British Photographer shot in Gaza while shepherding young children out of the line of fire, died last night at 7.45pm . His death came nine months after an incident in which he was shot in the head by an IDF soldier which left him in a vegetative state. The traumatic nature of his injuries has meant that at any time Tom has been vulnerable to serious infection and his death came after his body was unsuccessful in overcoming an episode of Pneumonia.

At a hearing on Monday, a soldier arrested last week in connection with the shooting of Tom Hurndall, has finally been indicted on six charges : Aggravated Assault; two counts of Obstruction of Justice; Incitement to False Testimony; False Testimony; Improper Conduct.

The decision of the court to prosecute the soldier on a charge of Aggravated Assault rather than attempted murder is based on the assumption that the soldier did not intend to murder Tom. The family believes that based on its own extensive investigation and the soldiers testimony that he shot Tom using an advanced telescopic lens, it is improbable that the shot which entered Tom’s forehead was intended to do anything other than kill.