News: Is this the worst flash mob ever?

Bob Katter’s woeful flash mob is finally released

And yes, it’s as bad as it sounds.

You might remember when we mentioned Katter’s Australian Party got together outside Parliament House in Brisbane to film a flash mob. Well, this is the result. You really just have to see it for yourself. And then read about why, even though you might be tempted to laugh, Bob Katter still scares a few people.

Couple might get help to pay $1 million overseas labour bill

Australian couple John Kan and his partner Rachael Evans were travelling in Canada when something unexpected happened. Their daughter Piper was born early. Very early, at 26 weeks. She was placed in neo natal intensive care at a hospital in Vancouver but the bill was huge, as the Daily Telegraph initially reported.

Canada is very strict about its ‘baby tourism’ problem, where couples from poorer nations attempt to have their babies born there to obtain citizenship.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Bob Carr has stepped in to see what help might be able to be offered.

The seven-month-old Piper will be a dual Australian and Canadian citizen and when she is two, her parents Rachel Evans and John Kan plan to apply for their baby’s Canadian passport.

Ms Evans said she was grateful for help from Mr Carr’s office. “It means a lot to us, the main thing for us is we were happy taking it on ourselves and doing what we could, we don’t feel our mistake was someone else’s responsibility but obviously it is quite a large amount so any assistance we can get would be helpful,” Ms Evans said.

The couple has taken out travel and extras insurance without realising they weren’t covered for pregnancy or birth and have been paying the bill off at a rate of $300 a month.

Jim Stynes passes away after cancer battle

AFL player and Brownlow medal winner Jim Stynes died this morning.

Stynes’ wife Sam said confirmed the Melbourne Demons great died at 8.20am “in the comfort of his own home, surrounded by friends and family”.

The 45-year-old has had brain surgery six times and more than 20 tumours removed in the past three years.

He stepped down from his role as president of Melbourne Football Club last month.

Lots of Facebook friends? You might be a narcissist.

A study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences has found a link between high numbers of Facebook friends and self obsession.

The researchers, from Western Illinois University, discovered two social factors of narcissism – grandiose exhibitionism and entitlement/exploitativeness.

Grandiose exhibitionism (GE) is characterised by ”self-absorption, vanity, superiority, and exhibitionistic tendencies” and people who score high on this aspect of narcissism need to be constantly at the centre of attention.

The entitlement/exploitativeness (EE) aspect includes “a sense of deserving respect and a willingness to manipulate and take advantage of others”.

– So what does that say about the last person to join Facebook?

Powerful storm rips through Townsville

A storm cell with furious winds up to 110km/h has ripped through Townsville early this morning, tearing roofs from homes and uprooting trees.

“Our officers are describing it as a mini-tornado. We have reports of roofs off, power lines down,” a police spokesman said.

“Our crews are extremely busy. Injuries are unknown but we have reports of traffic crashes.”

The North Queensland region has received hundreds of millimetres of rain in the past 24 hours, with 20 people rescued from flooded roads at Little Mulgrave overnight.

France mourns ‘national tragedy’ shooting

A teacher and three students have been shot and killed in Toulouse, France by a lone gunman who fled on a black scooter. It bears an ‘eerie similarity’ to another recent attack on two French soldiers.

Update:b Police confirmed the attacks are linked and the man they are hunting is a ‘neo Nazi killer’.

“He shot at everything he could see, children and adults, and some children were chased into the school,” local prosecutor Michel Valet said at the scene.

The dead were named as Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, his two sons Aryeh, three, and Gavriel Yissacher, six, and the daughter of the Jewish school’s principal, Miriam Montenago, aged 10, Valet added.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy said the event was a ‘national tragedy’ and he would do everything in his power to bring justice to the families.

Weird photo shoot marks Bieber’s 18th

Naturally, it shows Justin Bieber getting the living daylights punched out of him. As you do. The shoot was for a feature with Complex Magazine about growing up:

“The typical growing pains of adolescence are different under the microscope of fame. Scooter [Braun, his manger] recalls a conversation they had about drugs: “He called me and said ‘Do you know why I’m never going to do that stuff? Because I know you’d walk in and beat the shit out of me.’” Bieber says he’s never even smoked a cigarette in his life. Most of the “pushing back” has to do with wishing for a more ordinary life. “He doesn’t like being famous,” Braun explains. “He struggles with not being normal. I’m constantly telling him, ‘You’re not normal, and since you’re living an extraordinary life, I’m holding you to extraordinary standards.’”

– When grown men aren’t punching Bieber in a photo shoot, they’re screaming at him in this rather amusing video.

Mining Tax passes last vote

The Prime Minister’s controversial ‘watered down’ Mining Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) which requires a 30 per cent tax to be paid on coal and iron ore profits when they climb above $75 million per year has passed its final vote in the Senate. It’s a less aggressive tax than former PM Kevin Rudd tried to have passed which helped lead to his removal as leader of the Federal Labor Party.

His tax would have been more broadly applied and charged at 40 per cent.

Ms Gillard says the $11 billion raised by her tax over the next three years will be used to fund increases to superannuation, infrastructure and a one per cent tax cut for other businesses.