We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.
1. Bali 9 execution delays allows hope.
As the execution of Bali 9 duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran is delayed there are slivers of hope emerging as two other prisoners slated for execution, Serge Areski Atlaoui from France and Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso from the Philippines are told they will be allowed to have their legal appeals heard.
The Attorney General has said that time is needed to prepare the isolation rooms and execution fields on Nusakambangan.
Late yesterday Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi addressed the media in saying the drug situation in Indonesia is “dire” and that is why they have chosen to enforce the laws so strongly.
She commented on the wide media coverage the death sentence had received in Australia, saying the government had taken note of the representation made at all levels. “This issue is purely a law enforcement issue,” she said. “Law enforcement against extra-ordinary crime. Law enforcement by a sovereign country.
For more read this post here.
2. Man to face court for allegedly kidnapping and detaining 50-year old woman.
A Sydney man will appear in court today after it is alleged he kidnapped and detained a 50-year old woman last month.
Police arrested the 46-year-old man yesterday after receiving reports the man allegedly assaulted and detained a 50-year-old woman for a three-week period.
The man was charged with six offences including assault occasioning actual bodily harm, contravening and Apprehended Violence Order, taking/detaining in company with intent to get advantage occasion actual bodily harm and stalking.
3. Mum paid compensation for accident that changed her life.
A woman who was hit by an out-of-control car while walking her 19-day-old daughter in a pram has been awarded an out-of-court settlement. Emma de Silva’s life changed in an instant when a car hit her in 2011.
The driver 27-year-old Bryce Wayland, whose driving record included serious speeding offences as well as a ‘burn out’ offence, claimed the accelerator had become stuck under a floor mat.
After years of rehabilitation Emma has now been awarded a settlement.
For more read this post here.
4. Manus Island protest takes to the skies.
Three artists have crowd funded a sky writing protest over Manus Island with Sydney-siders yesterday being treated to the words “Shut Down Manus” written high above the harbor.
The artists’ crowd funded the idea and raised $9700 in a week.
5. Pay Gap report shows startling inequalities.
Figures released by The Workplace Gender Equality Agency show that female managers are getting paid up to 45% less than male managers in every industry in senior management.
General managers and executives have a gender pay gap of nearly 28 per cent, while senior female managers get paid 23.5 per cent less than male managers.
In administrative and support services there is a 44.7% difference.
Helen Conway, director of WGEA told “Men need to work harder to remove barriers than inhibit women from entering higher paying roles.”
6. RSPCA calls for independent body to regulate greyhound industry.
The RSPCA wants an independent authority to regulate the greyhound industry in the light of the Four Corners investigation that revealed extensive live baiting of animals.
RSPCA Victoria CEO Dr Liz Walker told AAP “There’s so much money in this industry, it’s billions of dollars, it’s people’s livelihoods and they behave accordingly.”
“We need to make sure that the regulatory authority is quite separate and independent to the body that promotes greyhound racing.”
7. Berries scare hits blood supplies.
The Red Cross is trying to determine whether its donated blood supply is tainted after a national recall frozen berries linked with hepatitis A outbreaks.
The service is asking blood donors who have eaten the berries to get in touch immediately.
“Even though the donor might feel OK now, the hepatitis A virus has a window period of between 15 and 50 days and an average incubation period of 28 days, so it’s important we ascertain when they ate the berries and the order,” said Red Cross spokesman Shaun Inguanzo.
8. Chloe Valentine inquest re-opens in Adelaide.
The inquest into the death of four-year-old Chloe Valentine and the handling of her case by Families SA has heard a Families SA supervisor Trevor Bailey admit “oversights” by his staff – and yet he signed off on a report which said there was no evidence the toddler had suffered abuse at the hands of her mother, Ashley Polkinghorne
Chloe died in 2012 after repeatedly crashing a motorbike she was forced to ride in her Adelaide backyard.
Her mother, Ashley Polkinghorne and Polkinghorne’s partner Benjamin McPartland are serving jail sentences for manslaughter by criminal neglect.
The Advertiser reports that Familes SA never contacted one of the people who raised an abuse notifications.
9. Bride bashed by husband on wedding night.
Trigger warning: this post deals with family violence and murder.
A British woman who was bashed by her husband on their wedding night has spoken out about domestic violence.
22-year-old Amy Dawson had married the father of her baby, Gavin Golightly. She was attacked after she asked him to help her remove her wedding dress.
The Sunderland Echo reports that “The defendant (Golightly) then tried to undo Ms Dawson’s dress. She received a crochet hook (to undo the dress with), but the defendant then refused to undo his new wife’s dress,” prosecutor Sarah Traynor told Peterlee Magistrates Court.
“The defendant then jumped up from his chair, approached Ms Dawson and pushed her over.
“He then sat on top of her and started punching her with clenched fists. He then got up and left the room. It appears that the defendant then came back to the room.”
Amy Dawson said “When I first met Gavin, he was lovely, I couldn’t fault him,”
“He was caring and loving, and when we found we were having baby, we were delighted.
“I fell pregnant after eight months, but almost straight away, Gavin became controlling and manipulative. It was like walking on eggshells.
“When he lashed out at me on my wedding night, I thought I was going to die. I was terrified. He looked like he was going to kill me.”
Golightly was given a two-year community order, and a restraining order.
Amy says greater punishment is needed.
“The community order was far too soft. The restraining order is the only thing keeping me strong.
“He means nothing to me now.”
She has since filed for divorce.
If you need help escaping domestic violence, you can call 1800RESPECT, 24 hours a day.
10. Woman rescued just moments before car sunk.
A New Zealand woman has been rescued by police just moments before she drowned after her car plunged off a ferry terminal wall in Waitemata Harbour, Auckland.
Two police officers and a passerby quickly leapt into the harbour to save her.
As the front of the vehicle flooded, the blonde woman could be seen clinging to the back seat of the car, desperately trying to get at the last pocket of air.
Meanwhile the men, after having no luck with opening the car doors, began trying to smash the rear window with rocks. She was eventually rescued.
Police officer Paul Watts told “It was pretty close, probably 30 or 40 seconds after we managed to get the female out of the car, the car was already slipping further into the water.
“I’d say she’d probably only had maximum probably another minute, minute-and-a-half if she hadn’t got out.”
11. Police in UK search for suspect who reached into a pram and tried to choke a baby.
A mother shopping in a UK chemist has had her one-year old baby assaulted by a woman who reached into the baby’s pram, tried to choke him then told the mother “baby would rather be dead’.
The assault by the woman in her sixties was captured on CCTV.
A Police spokesman said “The mother of the baby had originally thought that the suspect was going to just look and fuss over her baby, but when she saw what was actually happening, she immediately grabbed the suspect’s hand to prevent the assault from continuing.
“The baby was not injured due to his mother’s quick reaction, however she was extremely shaken up and traumatised by the incident”
12. Airline under fire for sexist and archaic rules.
The 10th largest airline in the world Qatar airlines has been singled out for its shocking treatment of women with a report by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) saying it had “flagrant abuses of aviation workers”.
The ITF claim that female flight attendants employed at Qatar Airways must follow these rules.
- Female flight attendants can only be hired if they are single
- They must remain single for five years after starting work
- If they want to get married they have to ask the airline’s permission
- Pregnancy is a breach of contract and can lead to firing
But Qatar has denied some of the alleged rules telling The Washington Post that the contract claims are not true.
“Qatar Airways flight attendants do not have to be, or remain single,” Rossen Dimitrov, Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Customer Experience, said. “Many of our cabin crew are in fact married.”
Qatar said that while the cabin crew do have to notify the airline of pregnancies it is “for health and safety reasons.”
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Bad news on the doorstep...(as the song goes)...Depressing, isn't it?