Friday'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. Childcare worker charged with indecent assault of 2-year old girl.

Warning: This item deals with the indecent assault of a child and may be upsetting for some readers.

Parents of children attending a childcare centre in Sydney’s West have received the horror news that an educator at the centre has been charged with indecent assault of one of the children.

The 24-year old man has been charged with indecently assaulting a two-year-old girl at a childcare centre in Sydney’s inner-west.

Fairfax Media reports that another staff member saw the worker indecently assaulting the girl as she slept at the centre on May 13.

He was charged with indecent assault of a person under 16 years on Tuesday.

The man was granted conditional bail and will appear at Burwood Local Court on June 4.

For help please phone 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). 

2. Jakarta tells Australia to act on humanitarian charter.

Jakarta has reminded Australian of its humanitarian obligations saying Australia should not ignore the humanitarian crisis playing out in the Bay of Bengal.

Over 7000 Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees are still stranded at sea in the area.  The men, women and children have been stranded on at least five boats near the Myanmar-Bangladesh coasts for more than 40 days.

Both Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to provide humanitarian assistance to and provide temporary shelter for up to a year.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said Australia needs to be involved.

“My point is this: countries that are parties to the convention on refugees have a responsibility to ensure they believe in what they sign,”

“I hope all the countries that signed the refugee convention address the issue,” Mr Nasir said.

“If you believe it when you sign it, you should act upon it.”

Asked earlier yesterday whether the Australian government would help resettle those who have been stranded at sea, Mr Abbott said “nope, nope, nope”.

“I’m sorry. If you want to start a new life, you come through the front door, not through the back door,” he said.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN convention that Australia signed in 1954.

3. Cardinal George Pell denies bribery allegations.

In a lengthy statement issued from his office Cardinal George Pell has claimed as false and misleading reports he attempted to bribe a victim of child sex abuse, ignored pleas for help or protect an accused paedophile.

Cardinal Pell said he was preparing to make another formal statement to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

The Vatican has said that anyone found guilty would be exposed and treated by law.

The Cardinal said: “Firstly, while out of the greatest respect for Mr Green, as I have stated previously, I have no recollection of a conversation with Mr Green in 1974, more than 40 years ago. Having recently read his statement to the Commission I still cannot remember Mr. Green or the conversation. To the best of my belief, this conversation did not happen. I stand by my previous statements.”

He added “I was and remain extremely sympathetic to David Ridsdale who because of his uncle suffered horrible abuse

“I continue to regret the misunderstanding between us. At no time did I attempt to bribe David Ridsdale or his family or offer any financial inducements for him to be silent.”

He said he has the “deepest sympathy for the victims of abuse, their families and the community of Ballarat for what they have suffered. Once again, I will answer allegations and criticisms of my behaviour openly and honestly.”

4. Newspaper forced to apologise to Cardinal Pell after Facebook post.

The Age has had to make a written apology to Cardinal George Pell after a Facebook post on the newspaper’s website saying “Die Pell’’ was up for over an hour yesterday.

The Age’s editor-in-chief Andrew Holden blamed an unknown hacker.

The paper’s Facebook page later contained a prominent retraction.

The retraction read: “The Age would like to apologise to readers and Cardinal George Pell for an offensive remark posted on our Facebook page this morning. The post was deleted as soon as staff became aware of the problem.’’

But below the retraction the debate raged about the post with many defamatory comments.

“Why would you apologise to a scheming dirty Catholic priest?’’ read one.

5. Mother says she had to catch her bowel and intestines when c-section scar ripped open.

A British mother has spoken of how she had to catch her own bowel and intestines after her surgical scar from her c-section reopened five days after her birth.

Sam Bell told The Mirror that she gave birth to daughter Chloe Terman by planned Caesarean and went home three days later.

After a home visiting midwife removed her ‘bead stitches’ five days post op she says things went wrong.

“I just felt this twinge. It almost felt like my trousers were stuck to my stomach, so I pulled them open.”

“Obviously I shouted and my partner came running in and the midwife came running in and that was the only time I looked at it because I just couldn’t bear to look at it any more.

“The midwife had a fright herself because she’d never seen anything like it before.”

The hospital said in a statement: “We offer our full and sincerest apologies to Ms Bell for what must have been a very distressing experience.

“Immediately following this incident, a full review and investigation was launched.

The investigation, which is being led by the most senior members of our medical and maternity teams, is still ongoing and as such, we are unable to comment on the details of the case any further.

“Once completed, our investigation will allow us to establish what measures, if any, can be taken to avoid a similar event occurring in future. “

6. Man who murdered Devonport woman had history of domestic violence, court hears.

By ABC

Warning: This item contains details of domestic violence and may be upsetting for some readers.

A Devonport man who admitted stabbing his partner to death had a history of domestic violence.

Mark Anthony Mason, 41, pleaded guilty to the murder of Karen Kugel in November 2013 by stabbing her once to the chest and twice to the neck.

He has also admitted stabbing Marilyn Xubreb seven times in the hand, neck, shoulder, upper chest and abdomen when she tried to intervene.

Mason was arrested at an East Devonport unit in 2013.

The court heard he had a blood alcohol reading of 0.377 when he stabbed his partner, Ms Kugel.

He then turned on her friend whose injuries were life-threatening.

The court heard both Mason and the deceased were alcoholics and had been in an often violent relationship since 2006.

Mason had been convicted of several assaults on the victim and was released from jail three weeks before.

He had also breached orders put in place to protect her.

Prosecutor Linda Mason said the killing occurred “against a backdrop of domestic violence”.

The court was told the violence escalated over a period of years and culminated with her murder.

Mason’s lawyer Tamara Jago told the court: “it was a cycle that was doomed to be disastrous”.

Mason will be sentenced next week.

For support 24/7, call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).

A version of this story was originally published on ABC.

7. Australian capital cities at risk of terrorist attack.

A new global index has ranked Baghdad as the world’s most dangerous city, but has also raised the level of Australian capital cities.

According to the index the risk of terrorist attack in European cities has risen sharply in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks.

It has also highlighted the position of Australian capital cities saying

“According to Verisk Maplecroft, Paris (97th and ‘high risk’) has experienced one of the steepest rises in the ranking, reflecting the severity of the terrorist attack in January 2015 that left 17 people dead.”

“The risk level in Paris is representative of a wider trend for Western countries, including Belgium, Canada and Australia, where the level of risk in key urban centres is substantially higher than elsewhere in the country, in part due to the significant PR value attached to such high profile targets by militant Islamist groups.”

The index ranks world cities by the likelihood of a terror attack based on historic trends showing 64 cities around the world to be at “extreme risk” of a terror attack.

The majority of the cities are in the Middle East – with 27 or Asia which has 19. 14 are in Africa.

Three are in Europe – Luhansk and Donetsk in Ukraine, and Grozy in Russia.

Paris is ranked 97th in the world, up from 201st at the start of the year prior to the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Sydney is ranked 192 and low risk, Melbourne is at 383.

The world’s seven most dangerous cities are all in Iraq.

8. Australian sportsbet site forced to apologise after sexist comments.

An Australian sportsbet site has been forced to apologise after sending out a misogynistic tweet about the girlfriend of Manchester United star James Wilson saying

“Sure she’s a lovely girl but someone needs to remind James Wilson he’s a pro footballer. Start abusing this privilege”

Later the site removed the tweet and said: Apologies for the offence caused by our earlier Tweet – it’s now been deleted.

9. Ireland same-sex marriage referendum.

Irish voters will decide Friday whether or not gay and lesbian unions should be recognised by the constitution.

If the referendum is passed, Ireland will become the first country in the world to adopt same-sex marriage through a popular vote.

Ireland’s voters will be asked to approve this statement: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”

If more say “yes” than say “no,” the change to the constitution will give gay and lesbian couples the right to civil marriage, but not to be wed in a church.

Happily opinion polls in the run-up to the vote suggest the “yes” vote might just win.

For more read this post here. 

10. One of the vaccines you give your kids is protecting them against cancer.

Here’s another reason to vaccinate your kids – one of the vaccines we routinely give them is also protecting them from the most common childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

A study published in Nature Immunology has shown that scientists have found the HiB vaccine – one that is included on the Australian Immunisation Schedule  – to have an added benefit in that it reduces the risk for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

This type of leukaemia is one of the most common childhood cancers.

Dr. Markus Müschen, the senior author of a new study published in Nature Immunology told The NY Times that the effect of the vaccine was a 20 percent reduction in risk for leukemia.

“This seems small,” he said. “But it’s highly significant in large populations.“

Do you have a story to share with Mamamia? Email us news@mamamia.com.au
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