Tuesday's news in under 5 minutes

1. Ashya’s parents held in custody.

The parents of Ashya, the five-year-old boy with a brain tumour who was removed from a southern England hospital, have faced court in Madrid.

The judge ruled that the couple must be held for up to 72 hours while the court considers whether to grant Britain an extradition request and documentation about Ashya’s medical care is handed over.

Ashya’s parents Brett and Naghemeh King were taken to court in a police van, but their hearing was delayed until the early afternoon after their lawyer failed to appear on time.

The Telegraph reports that on Friday, the five-year-old was made a ward of the state. His entire family, including his six siblings, are banned from visiting him in hospital in Spain.

According to The Times, Ashya’s grandmother Patricia King mother said that the family had driven to Spain to finalise the sale of a holiday home to raise the £90,000 cost of obtaining proton beam therapy for Ashya at a clinic in Europe.

“To try and make out that he has been neglected – well. Why haven’t we got any human rights? They keep on, the EU, about human rights,” she said.

“Where are our human rights? We have got none.”

For more on this story, see this post.

2. Mad Monday controversy

An image of two AFL players dressed as Rolf Harris and a young girl has once again called Mad Monday into disrepute.

The management of AFL team Melbourne say they are investigating the photo of Dean Terlich dressed in a fake goatee, a grey wig, and Rolf Harris-style glasses while teammate Alex Georgiou is wearing a dress and wig. The image has appeared on the Instagram account of Terlich.

A spokesman for the Demons said last night they would speak to the two about their error of judgment.

“Dean and Alex have made a poor and inconsiderate mistake in choosing their costume’s today,” the spokesman said, according to News limited.

3. Surrogate father charged with sexual abuse

A man in his fifties has been charged with sexually abusing twins he fathered with a Thai surrogate, according to ABC News.

The man, who cannot be identified, has been charged with indecent dealings of a sexual nature with the twins and possessing child abuse material which was discovered after a raid on his property.

The man denies all of the allegations against him.

A Current Affair reports the children were aged between four and five and the man had separated from his wife when the alleged sexual abuse occurred.

According to the ABC, the twins “consider themselves to be fully Australian” and “don’t know that they are half Thai or have any connection to Thailand”, Childline Thailand’s Ilya Smirnoff said.

Child protection authorities are now looking into sending the children back to Thailand to be with their surrogate and biological mother.

Thailand is currently working on new laws banning commercial surrogacy.

For more, see this post.

4. Perth Barrister under fire for inappropriate remarks

A Perth barrister who made inappropriate comments about LGBT people, Nazis and women at a primary school event has defended himself saying that his audience thought he was funny.

Simon Watters was MC at the North Cottesloe Primary School event on Friday. According to The Starfish, he shocked guests with “a relentless bombardment of sexist, racist, homophobic and xenophobic utterances.

The Barrister reportedly said, “I’m not going to say ‘faggots,’ because that’s a minority,” before repeatedly referring to gay people in that derogatory way.

At one stage he said only “young and good looking women with “C and D cups” could bring their table’s quiz answers to the front.

“He referred to “Wogs, Frogs and Nazis,” mocked the school’s principal, made repeated references to jailed sex offender Rolf Harris and joked that “even though Rolf Harris is locked up, I’d still be careful,” referring to safety standards at the school.

Mr Watters told News Limited it was upsetting that people on one table didn’t see the humour as it was intended.

5. Nude photo scandal

The nude photo scandal which has engulfed over 100 celebrities has also hit Australia’s Gabi Grecko. according to The Herald Sun.

Grecko’s fiancé Geoffrey Edelsten told The Herald Sun: “It’s disgusting. All private correspondence and images should remain private. It’s disgraceful that personal information can be stolen and dispersed to others.”

Meanwhile, celebrity news website publisher Perez Hilton has had to apologise after publishing the private images of Jennifer Lawrence.

For more on the illegally leaked photos, see this post.

6. Kindergarten girl “beaten” at school

Lacey Harris claims that when she picked her daughter AvaLynn up from school, the girl said she had been assaulted by another student.

According to their Facebook page, AvaLynn said she was “ kicked repeatedly in the face until she fell off of the slide on the school’s playground.”

The school says no teachers were present when the incident occurred, and because of that, no one could prove whether or not another student had harmed Ava.

According to The New York Daily News, the school in Mississippi denies another child was involved.

7. Baby born with one-in-a-million odds

A beautiful newborn baby in the UK has been born with white skin – a one in a million chance, seeing as his mother has Nigerian heritage and very dark skin colour.

To see the miracle baby, read this post here.

8. China Stabbing

A man has stabbed three children to death and injured several others at a primary school in China.

The suspect entered the school in Shiyan city of Hubei province on Monday, the first day of term after the summer break, and stabbed a teacher and eight students.

The man, believed to be a parent of a student, reportedly attacked the children after the school refused to allow his daughter to start the new term as she had not completed her homework, according to News Limited.

He then took his own life.

9. Find out your own credit history

It used to be a deep dark secret only accessible to financial experts, but a new web site launched today allows you to check your own credit history.

The site GetCreditScore.com.au ranks consumers credit history from zero to 1200 in order to give them a realistic snapshot of their financial status before they approach a lender.

Users will need to enter their name, address, date of birth, email address and driver’s licence number or passport number to access their score.

10. Vacuum cleaner ban

The sales of super powerful vacuum cleaners have shot through the roof in the UK as the EU ban on vacuum cleaners that use more than 1600 Watts comes into effect, according to the BBC.

The rule, agreed to five years ago, is intended to improve energy efficiency.

This is just the first stop though, with the wattage for vacuums to be lowered to a maximum of 900 Watts in 2017.

Next year the EU will start to talk about putting other appliances on the list; lawn mowers, mobile phones, hair dryers and even kettles.

11. This will make you smile

A video of a seven-week-old Australian baby hearing for the first time has gone viral. Michelle and Toby Lever from Victoria filmed their son Lachlan being fitted with his first hearing aid.

The video, which was actually filmed in 2012, now has had 159,000 likes on Facebook.

The family told The Daily Mail Lachlan was diagnosed with moderately severe sensorineural hearing impairment in both ears at four weeks old and fitted with his first hearing aid three weeks later.

12. Ryan Corr sentenced

Packed to the Rafters star Ryan Corr has been sentenced.

The award-winning film and TV actor, who pleaded guilty to possessing heroin earlier this year, was given a 12-month good behaviour bond by Waverley Local Court today.

No charge was recorded, News Corp reports.

Corr was caught by police smoking heroin — with 0.26g of heroin in a freezer bag in his possession — in a Bondi laneway on 27 May.

What news are you talking about today?

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