Wednesday's news in 5 minutes.

1. ‘Faith-healing’ parents have been charged with murder after the death of their premature twin baby.

A young married couple have been charged with murder after one of their twin daughters died in their home just hours after her birth in March.

According to The Oregonian, Sarah Mitchell, 24, and her 21-year-old husband Travis, turned themselves into police earlier this week on accusations of murder by neglect and first-degree criminal mistreatment.

Investigators say their newborn baby, named Ginnifer, was delivered at the home of Sarah’s parents near Oregon City. Shortly after her birth, the newborn was having difficulty breathing.

Dozens of people from the Followers of Christ Church, where the couple were members, were gathered in the house at the time. The group believes in faith-healing, and police say nobody called 911 to report the newborn’s medical emergency.

A church elder contacted the county’s medical examiner an hour and a half after the little girl’s death. When police arrived at the home, Ginnifer was wrapped in a blanket and was being held in her mother’s arms.

An affidavit states the couple provided “vague, stilted and forced” answers when asked how the baby had died.

Baby Ginnifer was 40cm long and weighed 3 pounds and 6 ounces when she died, the affidavit said. It’s estimated she and her surviving twin, named Evelyn, were born after 7.5 or 8 months.

An autopsy conducted by Oregon State Medical Examiner Karen Gunson found that Ginnifer died from complications due to her premature birth.

Gunson told investigators the baby’s lungs hadn’t developed enough to work on their own, and that there would have been clear signs she was struggling to breathe in the hours before her death.

In other premature babies with the same condition, 24-hour medical care is usually needed.

“The death was preventable if Baby Ginnifer had been given the medical care available in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit,” Gunson said.

The case is made all the more alarming due to the fact Sarah Mitchell’s sister and brother-in-law are currently serving time for a similar crime.

Shannon and Dale Hickman were sentenced to more than six years in prison in 2011 for the death of their newborn son, who died less than nine hours after he was born premature in 2009.

After welfare checks, Evelyn was later taken hospital for treatment. It is unclear who has custody of the young girl.

2. The man killed in the Melbourne siege was a father who married just 15 days ago.

The man killed when so-called ‘terrorist’ Yacqub Khayre took a sex worker hostage in the up-market suburb of Brighton has been identified as 36-year-old Nick Hao.

Hao was working at the Buckingham Serviced Apartments on Monday night when Khayre shot and killed him.

Khayre then barricaded himself inside a room, where he held a Colombian woman hostage.

According to 7 News, Hao had only married 15 days ago and had a child.

He was the only person killed by the 29-year-old man responsible during the terrifying two-hour siege. The gunman was killed when he fired at police while leaving the building.

It’s believed Khayre was on parole and was part of an official de-radicalisation program run by the Islamic Council of Victoria.

During the siege, he rang a Channel 7 newsroom with a conflicting message: “This is for IS, this is for Al Qaeda”.

A witness described the scene, telling 7 News he watched the events – which are being treated as a terrorist incident – unfold from the safety of his home.

“We were in the front room at the window watching all of the operations people taking aim at the apartments and behind fences,” he said.

“Then all of a sudden all hell broke loose and rapid fire and we all just jumped onto the floor and yelling to the kids, ‘Just keep your heads down’.”

Authorities will now examine the man’s movements in prison and while on parole, and are investigating whether he deliberately lured officers into the deadly ambush on Monday night.

3. A teenager is critical after three men were stabbed in a park in Northern NSW.

A teenager has undergone emergency treatment after being stabbed during a violent brawl in northern NSW that left another man dead.

The 18-year-old was one of three men stabbed at Knox Park when the melee broke out on Tuesday afternoon, AAP reports.

A 46-year-old who was taken to hospital later died from his injuries, police said.

The teenager, who was stabbed in the chest, was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a critical condition and underwent emergency treatment on Tuesday evening.

The third stabbing victim, aged 29, suffered minor injuries.

Police arrested a 32-year-old man at the scene and he was later charged with murder, two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and larceny.

He was refused bail and will appear at Tweed Heads local court on Wednesday.

4. Gavel the German Shepherd didn’t make the police dog squad. But he’s still got a very important job.

German Shephard pup Gavel was training at the police dog academy in Queensland last year. Unfortunately, he was deemed “too sociable” to work on the front line and was denied a position on the squad.

But that doesn’t mean Gavel didn’t land himself an equally as important gig, the Brisbane Times reports.

During his training, Gavel was fostered out to the Paddington residence of the Governor of Queensland, Paul de Jersey. When he became a ‘dropout’, de Jersey decided to give Gavel a second chance.

In February, the friendly pup was named as Queensland’s first official vice-regal dog.

He spends his days performing a range of important duties including welcoming tour groups, attending formal ceremonies and going to functions with the Governor himself.

Gavel even has his own specially-made uniform that he wears proudly around the grounds of Government House.

A spokesman for the Governor describes Gavel as a “valued and much-loved part” of the team.

“Gavel has also demonstrated his capacity to uphold the ceremonial importance of his role at State of Origin time,” the spokesperson said.

What a good boy, indeed.

5. Notre Dame attacker armed with a hammer yelled “this is for Syria” before he was shot.

A man armed with a hammer shouted “this is for Syria” and wounded a policeman before being shot and wounded by other officers outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, one of France’s most famous tourist sites.

The Paris prosecutor’s office swiftly launched a counter-terrorism investigation into Tuesday’s attack, the first since President Emmanuel Macron won power last month and days before the first round of a parliamentary election in France.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the attacker was carrying the identification card of an Algerian student and preliminary information indicated he acted alone, AAP reports.

Dozens of armed police sealed off the area and put the Gothic cathedral into lockdown with nearly 1000 people inside.

The incident came three days after militants drove a van at high speed into pedestrians in London before stabbing revellers on the street and in nearby bars, killing seven people and wounding dozens.

That followed a suicide bombing in the northern English city of Manchester that killed 22 people.

Tuesday’s attack will put a renewed focus on France and Europe’s struggle to deal with unsophisticated, low-tech attacks in the countdown to the first round of the parliamentary election on Sunday.

Macron’s rivals portrayed him as weak on security during the presidential election campaign. Collomb said fighting terrorism was the president’s “number one” priority.

Anna Levy, an American tourist, said she had been about to enter the cathedral when she heard gunshots.

“It was just scary because you didn’t know what was happening. People were just running,” she said.

One of those inside the catherdral, Dean Blair, tweeted: “Not the holiday experience wanted. Trapped in Notre Dame Cathedral after police shoot a man. We are with our 2 terrified children.”

Macron wants to extend a state of emergency that has been in place since gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in coordinated attacks on entertainment venues in Paris in late 2015.

In total, more than 230 people have died in attacks across France in the past two-and-a-half years, most of them claimed by Islamic State.

6. Andrew Bolt ‘furious’ after he was attacked outside a Melbourne book launch.

Controversial commentator Andrew Bolt has posted pictures and video on his blog of the men who attacked him outside a Melbourne book launch.

“Watch the fascist Left attack me and get clobbered,” he posted.

“Luckily the cameras do not capture me kicking one between the legs. I cannot have my children see me acting like a thug.”

He’s urged anyone who recognises the men to contact police.

Two men attacked the Sky News host and News Corp Australia columnist after a book launch at an Italian restaurant on Melbourne’s famous Lygon St at 12.15pm on Tuesday, AAP reports.

Bolt told Sky News he was approached by a woman who wanted a selfie when he was “jumped”.

“Two masked protesters then jumped me, spraying me in the face and all over my suit with some sticky liquid with some glitter and dye,’ he said.

The columnist called the men “left-wing fascists” on Twitter and said it was a “cowardly” attack, which shows “another warning of the rising violence of the left”.

Victoria Police say the two men were wearing hooded jumpers and were believed to have thrown shaving cream and glitter.

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