We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.
1. Five-year-old girl mauled by pet dog has half her nose bitten off.
A five-year-old girl from Sydney’s northwest has been mauled by a friend’s dog visiting their home.
The Daily Telegraph reports that when paramedics arrived at the scene the little girl had “most of her nose bitten off”.
Police say the savage attack occurred in the girl’s front yard early yesterday evening in Pendle Hill “by a dog that was visiting the home” with a separate family, according to police.
The dog, called a huge “monster of a thing” is a Great Dane, Bull Arab cross.
Police say the little girl was rushed to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
They are liaising with local council in relation to what to do with the dog.
2. UN ruling panel believed to back Assange.
A United Nations working group is believed to have decided that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being unlawfully detained.
The WikiLeaks founder, who is wanted for extradition on a rape accusation in Sweden and has lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012. A Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman confirmed that the UN panel, due to publish its findings today had concluded that Assange was “arbitrarily detained”.
“We can only note that the working panel has come to another conclusion than Swedish judicial authorities,” a ministry spokeswoman told AFP, a day before the panel was to formally publish its report.
Julian Assange has promised to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London and surrender to police if the UN ruling goes against him saying his passport should be returned and his arrest warrant dropped if the UN panel ruled in his favour.
3. Serial victim’s family make their first statement.
The family of Hae Min Lee, the 18-year-old murdered at the hands (a court said) of Adnan Masud Syed – and whose body was found in a park in the US city of Baltimore in 2000 – has made a statement on the case.
The case has shot to fame after the incredibly popular Seriel podcast.
Adnan has always maintained his innocence, despite being jailed for the crime.
The family of Hae Min Lee’s family have refused to be interviewed or give any media statements.
This week prompted by what Seriel uncovered, Syed’s three-day hearing began into whether his conviction will be overturned and the case retried began.
Hae Min Lee’s family released a public statement for the first time that was read out in a news conference by Maryland Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah.
“Our family has lived without a heart for over 17 years, and we continue to grieve every day in private,” the statement said.
“The immediate family members have decided not to attend this hearing, but we are grateful for all the people who are there and will be there to support us and to give Hae a voice. She is the true victim.
“Although this has made us live a nightmare we thought was behind us, we thank the state for standing up for us and continuing to seek justice.
“We believe justice was done when Adnan was convicted in 2000 and we look forward to bringing this chapter to an end, so we can celebrate the memory of Hae, instead of celebrating the man who killed her.”
4. Cafés ban mobile phones at the counter.
Cafés are increasingly banning the use of mobile phones while ordering coffee, or food, at the counter with café workers saying they are fed up with customers yapping away on their phones while gesticulating for a “coffee”.
The Age reports that the latest café to introduce the ban is Cafe 655 in West Melbourne who have put up a sign saying “Please do not use mobile phones in this area” at the counter.
Cafe owners Craig Pearce and Jessie Familetti told The Age they were tired of customers holding up the queue.
“A percentage of people think it’s acceptable to talk and make hand gestures instead of interacting,” Mr Pearce said.
Customers are told that they will be served when they are off the phone.
The Bella Natural Food Co in Terrigal, NSW introduced a 50-cent surcharge for customers on the phone at the counter two years ago.
Another Melbourne café Mister Close has a handwritten note on the cash register saying: “We can’t and won’t serve you if you are on the phone. We need to engage.”
Customers though aren’t so sure about the bans, one telling The Age “Is that even possible? A cafe is not a theatre.”
5. Turnbull wants no child in detention (but refused to say how he will achieve this).
The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull has told the house that the government is aiming to get all children out of immigration detention.
In parliament yesterday Mr Turnbull was asked by Greens MP Adam Bandt whether he would ensure no asylum-seeker children now in Australia would be deported to Nauru.
“One child in detention is one child too many,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Our goal is to reduce that to zero, but the key element in doing so is ensuring that people do not get on people smugglers’ boats and put their lives at risk.”
He did however refuse to say what the fate of the 38 babies caught up in Wednesday’s High Court decision would be.
6. Childcare changes “confusing” for parents.
A Senate Committee has heard that the federal government’s childcare reforms are so difficult to understand some parents may give up and pull their children out of care.
Fairfax Media reports that “jobs for families package”, which replace two childcare payments with one and see childcare subsidies vary could be too confusing for some parents, particularly those with fluctuating hours and incomes.
Mission Australia told the committee “Without more information, the system may be unpredictable for families, who may withdraw their children from childcare, rather than risk escalating costs,” chief executive Catherine Yeomans said in a submission.
The University of New South Wales’ social policy research centre also found that the new system would bring in “a level of complexity never seen before in the Australian childcare system”.
“[The activity test] is likely to confuse and intimidate parents rather than support workforce participation,” Professor Deborah Brennan and Dr Elizabeth Adamson say.
The Parenthood has recently found one in ten families would not meet the lowest rung of the activity test.
7. Mother jailed after drink driving led to death of her 15-year-old daughter.
A Perth mother has been jailed after she drove with a blood alcohol reading of 0.110 with her daughter and other youths in her car.
The 48-year-old woman had been playing a drinking game before getting behind the wheel of the car.
Janet Louise Kirby had six passengers, aged between 15 and 20, crammed into her five-seater Jeep when she lost control of the vehicle and it rolled over in March last year.
Her 15-year-old daughter, Lois Kirby, was unrestrained in the rear luggage compartment when it crashed after Kirby swerved to “scare” a moped rider and lost control of the car. The girl was thrown from the vehicle and died from her injuries.
Kirby was jailed for four-and-a-half-years.
8. School bomb threats continue across the country.
A Brisbane school evacuated on Thursday afternoon has become the 18th bomb threat to Queensland schools in the past three days.
In NSW, South Australia and Victoria yesterday there were continued evacuations over the threats.
The Russian hacker group who claim they are responsible for the threats have told Mashable that they have also made the calls to the UK, Hawaii, Paris, Japan, the US and Guam over the past few weeks.
Some of the phone calls from the group who call themselves Evacuation Squad feature an electronic voice message.
Spokesman Viktor Olyavich said the group carried out the threats in Australia because they were “funny”
“Yes, we are responsible for Monday’s threats,” Olyavich, told Mashable “We do these threats because they are funny to us.
“We are preparing to do schools across Europe as we speak. We don’t worry about the consequences, because our main threat-makers are based in Russia and Iran.”
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Top Comments
2. So now the UN support's rapists....... not loving your work!.
No. The UN is saying that sweden need to charge him or drop it. It's been 5 years and they haven't charged him but want him deported.
Turnbull is of course relying on the fact that children on Nauru are not in fact in detention - they and their families are free to come and go from the facilities. So, yes, he kinda means it!