Friday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Call for Chloe Valentine’s killers’ sentences to be increased

The Director of Public Prosecutions in South Australia, Adam Kimber SC, has asked the Court of Criminal Appeal to increase the sentence given to the mother of four-year-old Chloe Valentine and her partner.

Ashlee Jean Polkinghorne and Benjamin Robert McPartland were jailed for four years after they had repeatedly forced Chloe to ride a 50kg motorbike while severely injured.

The DPP asked the court to view the case’s “chilling” evidence, including photos of Chloe’s 39 injuries and videos, and increase the sentences of her killers.

At the hearing yesterday, at which Polkinghorne and McPartland were appealing their sentences, Polkinghorne was absent. Her lawyer said she was still “suffering psychologically from the trauma associated with all of this and she just does not want to appear again.”

Mamamia has previously reported on this story here.

2. Co-payments already hurting families

Patients in poorer areas are reportedly cancelling visits to the doctor as they fear the $7 GP co-payment is already in place.

The Australian Medical Association told Fairfax Media that some clinics have reported a sharp fall in visits.

A doctor in Sydney’s Blacktown-Mount Druitt area told of a 10 per cent fall in patient visits since last week’s budget announcement that said 100 per cent bulk-billing would become a thing of the past.

The Sydney Morning Herald says other doctors estimated the downturn at closer to 30 per cent.

3. Military coup

Thailand’s Army Chief has announced that the military has taken control of the government.

In a statement released to the media, they have announced that General Prayuth Chan-ocha now has the powers to act as Prime Minister until a new Prime Minister is in place.

In a televised address, military officials have said there is now a curfew from 10pm to 5am local time. They also announced that the military has ordered the 2007 constitution be thrown out, except for Section 2 that acknowledges that the king is the head of state.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the military takeover. “He appeals for a prompt return to constitutional, civilian, democratic rule and an all-inclusive dialogue that will pave the way for long-term peace and prosperity in Thailand,” his spokesman said.

Thursday’s coup was the 12th successful military takeover since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

4. Tragic reaction of family of boy hit by car

Witnesses to the accident that has led to a three-year-old boy fighting for his life after being hit by a car on a Sydney street have said that the family were so distraught, they mistakenly began to bash the car of a nurse trying to save the boy’s life as they believed the nurse had injured the child.

The boy walked out onto busy Reservoir Road in Blacktown on Wednesday afternoon.

Fairfax Media report that the nurse was actually a passerby who fought to save the boy’s life.

5. Prince Charles angers Russia

Russia has responded with anger to remarks made by Prince Charles sparking international tension between the two countries.

The Prince of Wales, on a trip to Canada, reportedly said that President Putin is “like Hitler”.

Russia has hit back saying his remarks are “outrageous” and unworthy of a future monarch. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the remarks, if accurate, are “unacceptable” and part of a “propaganda campaign” against Moscow.

The Prince told a woman who lost relatives in the Holocaust: “And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.”

6. Prime Minister defends his daughter’s scholarship

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has hit back at critics, who said his daughter Frances Abbott unfairly received a $60,000 scholarship to the Whitehouse Institute of Design.

Mr Abbott has said that families should be left out of politics. He told Fairfax radio his daughter got it on her academic potential. ”She kept it on her academic merit, she is a distinction student,” he said.

7. Police to investigate Pamela Anderson’s rape

The police in Canada have said they plan to investigate Pamela Anderson’s recent allegations of childhood rape.

The actress made the details public last week at a press conference in Cannes saying she had been sexually abused while growing up on Vancouver Island from the age of six until her teens.

8. Photo banned from Instagram

A woman whose ‘butt selfie’ was removed from Instagram has gone public with her complaint saying it was removed because she was fat despite hundreds of users regularly posting their own ‘butt selfies’ on the social media site. Meghan Tonjes approached Instagram about her image removal via a YouTube video.

For more, and to see the ‘offensive’ butt selfie, read this post here.

9. Rolf Harris trial

The trial of Rolf Harris has heard from a Newcastle mother and daughter who gave evidence via video link.

They alleged the entertainer indecently assaulted both of them during promotion for British Paints in 1991.

“His right hand went on my left breast and his other hand on my right butt cheek,” the woman known as Miss H said. “It was deliberate, I stepped back and he laughed,” she told the court, adding that it was disgusting and he was old enough to be her grandfather.

Harris is accused of indecently assaulting four girls between 1968 and 1986. He denies all 12 charges.

11. Qantas planning to remove life rafts

A plan by Qantas to remove life rafts from some of their planes has been branded ‘hare-brained’ by South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon.

According to The Advertiser, the plan is to remove the rafts from Boeing 737s that do not travel more than 400 nautical miles off the coast.

It was revealed to the newspaper by the Senator.

Qantas has said that it will not implement any change that would compromise safety or CASA’s strict standards

12. Woman lets lion loose on train

A woman in Russia is facing charges for smuggling a lion on board a sleeper train and claiming it was a domestic cat.

The woman then let the 50-kilogram lion cub out.

The Interfax news agency has quoted the police, saying, “When the animal, which was being transported without a muzzle, started behaving wildly, the woman couldn’t control it.”

“She shut it in her sleeper car and asked the train staff for help.”

The woman faced questioning on “how she carried a 50-kilogram, nine-month-old lion registered in travel documents as… a domestic cat.”

13. How much pre-school does your 3 y/o get?

A Senate inquiry has heard that the optimum number of hours for a three-year old to attend preschool is 30.

Early Childhood Australia chief executive Samantha Page has told a Senate inquiry that doubling preschool hours to 30 hours per week would boost learning opportunities for young children.

All states and territories are currently committed to universal access of 15 hours of pre-school for a child the year before they attend school.

14. Baby born with another head attached to stomach

A baby born in India with the head of her twin attached to her stomach will undergo surgery.

Amlekha Bairva, 22, gave birth to the ‘parasitic twins’ last month.

The baby girl, yet to be named, was born naturally, but the head of her twin is clearly formed and attached by the neck to the baby’s stomach.

Doctors are hoping to attempt surgery to detach the extra head as soon as her condition is stable and expect the surviving twin to make a full recovery.

15. Children made to earn monopoly money to pay for bathroom trips

Parents at a primary school in Washington have complained after a third grade teacher allegedly made students pay in Monopoly money — earned through good behavior and class performance — to use the bathroom.

Two students told their parents they wet their pants because they couldn’t afford a trip to the bathroom, Gawker reports.

One mother describes how her daughter spent her Monopoly money on snacks and didn’t have any left over to pay for a bathroom trip.

“I didn’t want to be left out. I wanted to have popcorn with my friends,” the girl reportedly told her mother.

“And so she tried to hold it… She said it hurt so bad, the pain was so bad, she goes, ‘I just had to let it go,'” the mother said.

A spokesperson for the Evergreen School District said the pay-to-pee system is “part of how they manage the classroom and so that was the process that was decided upon.”

16. Move to ban dowry in Victoria

The Indian practice of dowry may be banned in Victoria if a move proposed by women’s rights advocates and former premier Ted Baillieu eventuates.

Mr Baillieu tabled a petition in State Parliament in April calling for amendments to family violence laws, The Age reports.

While economic abuse is already illegal under the Family Violence Act, campaigners say dowry leads to domestic violence and the abuse of women and therefore want a specific ban on the practice.

17. Private hospitals no better off for giving birth

A study on the two-tiered hospital system in Australia has shown women are no better off giving birth in a private hospital.

The study of nearly 700,000 mothers showed that healthy mothers who choose to have their babies in private hospitals are 40 per cent more likely to experience some kind of trauma or medical problem immediately after the birth.

Scalp injuries and jaundice in newborns were some of the common problems that were found to have occurred in babies born in private hospitals.

Professor of Midwifery at the University of Western Sydney and author of the report, Hannah Dahlen, told The Sydney Morning Herald that increasing rates of inducing birth in low-risk mothers have “no advantage” and could actually be putting babies at risk.

What news are you talking about today?