Thursday's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.

1. Family and friends of Allison Baden-Clay say her jailed husband has never shown remorse.

The family and friends of Allison Baden-Clay have reacted with anger at Gerard Baden-Clay’s murder conviction being downgraded to manslaughter.

Jodie Dann, Allison’s cousin, and a domestic violence advocate has told The Courier Mail that Baden-Clay has shown no remorse.

“We sat and watched for days him deny, deny, deny and for 10 days say he didn’t know where she was and through the funeral pretend to be the grieving husband,” Ms Dann said.

“He’s just lied every step of the way. He knew all along where she was. He obviously didn’t want her found.”

She said the decision was devastating for women.

“There is no accountability. It would frighten women off,” she said.

“We’ve spent the last six months really pushing hard on domestic violence with (advocate) Rosie Batty and (former governor-general) Quentin Bryce. It feels like we’ve just gone 10 steps back.”

Today’s Courier Mail has once again called for justice for Allison.

2. Adrian Bayley wants Legal Aid for his appeal.

The man convicted of murdering and raping Jill Meagher has launched legal action against Victorian Legal Aid after he was denied legal aid for an appeal.

AAP reports that a legal team acting pro bono for Bayley has told a court he should have access to taxpayer-funded lawyers to fight two rape convictions.

Saul Holt, QC, told the Victorian Supreme Court a decision by Victorian Legal Aid to deny Bayley access to funding was “legally unreasonable”. He said Bayley’s appeal was likely to have been successful.

Bayley is serving a life sentence after being convicted of murder and rape. His non-parole period was increased from 35 years to 43 years in May after he was convicted of three further rapes, two of which he wants to appeal.

3. Time’s Person of the Year announced.

Angela Merkel has been named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

The German Chancellor was praised by the magazine for her leadership and her strong response to “Vladimir Putin’s creeping theft of Ukraine” Angela Merkel, called the “Chancellor of the Free World” on the magazine cover is the first time in three decades a woman has been Time’s person of the year.

For more read this post here. 

4. Ginger jihadi Abdullah Elmir killed in Syria.

The Australian reports that Australian teenager Abdullah Elmir – the ginger-haired teenager 18-year old who became the face of young jihadism after he starred in an Islamic State propaganda video, is believed to have been killed in Syria.

The report, which cannot be verified, says that 18-year-old Elmir is believed to have been killed eight to 10 weeks ago, apparently in a bombing raid.

He came to prominence last October when he starred in an Islamic State propaganda video where spoke to Barack Obama and Tony Abbott saying ”These weapons that we have, these soldiers, we will not stop fighting, we will not put down our weapons until we reach your lands, until we take the head of every tyrant and until the black flag is flying high in every single land,” Elmir said.

There have been indications Elmir took a British schoolgirl as a teenage bride while fighting in Syria.

5. Man jailed after Facebook nude pics threat.

A Tasmanian man who threatened to publish naked photos of his girlfriend unless she had sex with him has been jailed for rape.

The Mercury reports that the man told his on-again off-again partner to come to his house or he would distribute naked photos that she had sent him via Facebook.

Justice Shan Tennent said that when the woman arrived at the man’s home, “she felt coerced into sex given the defendant’s threats to distribute the electronic images of her naked upper torso.”

The man was sentenced to two years and nine months’ imprisonment, backdated to December 3.

6. States to discuss raising GST today.

Today’s Council of Australian Governments meeting will examine options to raise the rate or broaden the base of GST as the nation’s treasurers gather, ahead of formal COAG talks on Friday in Sydney.

Yesterday a leaked document went public revealing modelling prepared by the federal treasury at the request of the states in July that will help frame the tax meeting.

Eight options for tax reform – including six GST options and two Medicare Levy proposals – are canvassed in the paper.

7. School is chaos as thirty staff members resign and students threaten to “turn their backs on the principal at the school’s speech night at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.”

Another elite Sydney girls’ school is making headlines with MLC School in Sydney’s inner west in turmoil after the resignation of scores of staff members and a student-led petition against the principal.

Fairfax Media reports that a social media hashtag parents #ReclaimOurMLC has sparked a proposal for students and parents to their backs on the principal as she speaks at the school’s speech night.

A parent of a child in year 8 told Fairfax Media that parents of the school’s 1000 students were very concerned about the developments.

“The students are in tears, the teachers are in tears,” she said.

Denice Scala, the principal said it had been a challenging time.

“In 2016 the pace of change will slow and I will redirect my focus to greater communication with the broader community,”

The school is the second all-girls private school to come under fire this week, after the captain of Ravenswood aired her concerns about the school’s business model with a speech that went viral.

8. FBI says San Bernardino shooters were radicalised before they started dating.

The couple behind the San Bernardino attack that killed 14 people were radicalised before they started dating, the director of the FBI has said.

James Comey said Tashfeen Malik and husband Syed Farook spoke of jihad and martyrdom during conversations on an online dating service in late 2013.

The FBI believes the duo were inspired by foreign terrorist organisations.

The revelation contradicts earlier suggestions that Malik may have radicalised her husband.

9. More than 250,000 people sign a petition to ban US presidential hopeful Donald Trump from the UK.

A petition that came after Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on” and said that radicalisation meant there parts of London where the police feared for their lives has gathered more than 250,000 signatures.

The petition calls for Trump to be denied a visa to enter the UK.

Having topped 100,000 signatures, the petition now has to be considered for debate by parliament and will require a written government response.

“The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech. The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the UK,” said the petition.

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