The 2014 podcast Serial brought international attention to the murder of Hae Min Lee, scrutinising the evidence — or lack thereof — that led to the conviction of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed.
Lee was aged 18 when she disappeared in January 1999 after leaving her school in Baltimore in the US. Her body was discovered weeks later in a park. Forensic reports showed she had been strangled.
Syed, who was 17 at the time, was arrested and charged with the murder. A year later, he was sentenced to life in prison, convicted of murder, kidnapping, robbery and false imprisonment.
The case went out of the public eye for years, until it was featured in season one of Serial, a podcast hosted by US journalist Sarah Koenig. In 12 episodes, the podcast pores over the case, pointing out several inconsistencies, including that forensic reports showed no signs of Syed’s DNA on Lee’s body. The series raised questions about whether Syed, a young Muslim man, was convicted partly owing to racial prejudice.
The podcast was instrumental in bringing Syed’s wrongful conviction back to the courtroom, and on Monday, his conviction was overturned by a judge owing to the state's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence. The state has been given 30 days to decide whether to seek a new trial or dismiss the case.
Serial, however, is not the only true-crime podcast to have reignited a cold case.
'The Teacher’s Pet'
On August 30, Australian former rugby player and teacher Christopher Dawson was found guilty of murdering his wife, Lynette — 40 years after she mysteriously disappeared.
The pair had met in high school in 1965. They married in 1970 and had two children. Dawson pursued a professional rugby career between 1972 and 1976. He then worked as a physical education teacher in a Sydney school, where he was alleged to have engaged in illicit behaviours with his female students. In 1981, he groomed and began a relationship with a 16-year-old student. Lynette went missing on January 9, 1982. Three days later, Dawson invited the student to move into the family home. They were married in 1984 and divorced almost a decade later.
Lynette’s body was never found. However, investigations ruled that she had most likely been murdered by someone she knew. Dawson claimed that Lynette had left after long-running disputes over credit card spending and that she had joined a religious organisation.
For years, Dawson was not charged as prosecutors cited insufficient evidence. Then, in 2018, The Teacher’s Pet reignited public interest in the case. The podcast by journalist Hedley Thomas highlighted inconsistencies in Dawson’s statement and argued that it was unlikely that Lynette, by all accounts a devoted mother, would leave her children and that she would do so with no suitcase or jewellery.
The series was a hit and was downloaded more than 60 million times. Months after its release, Dawson was formally charged. His trail started in May and ended in August with a conviction.
'Up and Vanished'
The podcast Up and Vanished was praised by officials for elucidating the evidence in the murder of Tara Grinstead and bringing the case to public attention again.
Grinstead was a beauty queen and high school teacher in Ocilla, Georgia, who went missing in 2005. The night before her disappearance she attended a beauty pageant she was coaching and then visited a barbecue. She did not show up for work the next day, which roused the suspicion of her fellow teachers. Police went to Grinstead’s home, where they found her mobile phone inside and her car parked outside. There was no sign of a struggle or forced entry.
The case went cold until 2008, when 48 Hours, a show on CBS News, highlighted similarities between Grinstead’s case and the more recent disappearance of another young woman in Florida. It was then revealed that investigators had found DNA on a latex glove discovered in front of Grinstead’s house. However, they were unable to find a match for the DNA.
Then, in 2009, a man began releasing videos online claiming he had killed 16 women, one of whom was Grinstead. The man’s face and voice were digitally concealed but police managed to identify the creator as Andrew Haley, 27. The video was determined to be a hoax.
In 2016, Up and Vanished released its first season, which unpacked the murder case, going over evidence and interviewing several people.
A year later, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced it had received a tip that implicated a man named Ryan Alexander Duke in Grinstead's murder. Duke had attended Irwin County High School, where Grinstead worked as a teacher three years before her disappearance. According to court documents, Duke had been robbing Grinstead’s home when she caught him in the act. He then strangled her and with the help of a former classmate, Bo Dukes, attempted to cover up the murder.
Dukes, was found guilty in 2019 of helping to conceal the murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Meanwhile, Duke pled not guilty to the killing and inMay, was found not guilty of murder, aggravated assault and burglary, but was convicted of concealing the death. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Season four of Up and Vanished covers Duke’s trial.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Dolittle
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Michael Sheen
One-and-a-half out of five stars
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
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Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
EPL's youngest
- Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)
15 years, 181 days old
- Max Dowman (Arsenal)
15 years, 235 days old
- Jeremy Monga (Leicester)
15 years, 271 days old
- Harvey Elliott (Fulham)
16 years, 30 days old
- Matthew Briggs (Fulham)
16 years, 68 days old
House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Westminster, London
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
New process leads to panic among jobseekers
As a UAE-based travel agent who processes tourist visas from the Philippines, Jennifer Pacia Gado is fielding a lot of calls from concerned travellers just now. And they are all asking the same question.
“My clients are mostly Filipinos, and they [all want to know] about good conduct certificates,” says the 34-year-old Filipina, who has lived in the UAE for five years.
Ms Gado contacted the Philippines Embassy to get more information on the certificate so she can share it with her clients. She says many are worried about the process and associated costs – which could be as high as Dh500 to obtain and attest a good conduct certificate from the Philippines for jobseekers already living in the UAE.
“They are worried about this because when they arrive here without the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] clearance, it is a hassle because it takes time,” she says.
“They need to go first to the embassy to apply for the application of the NBI clearance. After that they have go to the police station [in the UAE] for the fingerprints. And then they will apply for the special power of attorney so that someone can finish the process in the Philippines. So it is a long process and more expensive if you are doing it from here.”
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
