I can't help observing that lately Australians have been dying in very odd ways.

There is the girl who died scuba diving in Queensland. Her American husband had evidently been planning this for some time. He'd been hassling her about getting a life insurance policy and so most recently, knowing she hadn't but wanting to say whatever would get him off her case, she said yes she had. And so he murdered her in a way will never happen to me. Honestly, take note now. If I am ever found dead scuba diving I have been murdered. Please investigate. He is in gaol in Australia but is being extradited to the US, one hopes to a worse gaol term than he got here.

Last week Australian twins were at a shooting range in the US and fell out of their booth simultaneously with gun shots to the head. It turned out to be a suicide pact but one of them took better aim than the other. Because they were identical the authorities couldn't even tell which one was dead. Eventually the one that shot badly came to consciousness in hospital. She is pretty irritated at how things have turned out. The girls were in their late twenties and to all intents and purposes normal, whatever that means. Evidently they had a particular interest in the Columbine massacre.

Zarah, the poor sweet thing. Her mother gave her up early to her husband. Then it was discovered she had serious cancer which resulted in deafness and an artifical leg. Her father met an American woman on the internet, took Zarah with him to take up life with this woman in the US. The step-mother has, I gather, chopped Zarah up into pieces and then pretended to police via a fake ransom note that she was kidnapped. At least the others were old enough to know what they were doing and have some control over their lives. Doesn't your heart go out to Zarah, though? A horrible life followed by a horrible death.

I wonder if it is just coincidence that there is an American connection to all these things?

Some are real laugh-out-loud Darwin Awards material but lots are just sad and pathetic. ( )