Monday's news in under 5 minutes

Update: Toyota to stop making cars in Australia

Car manufacturer Toyota has announced that they will stop producing cars in Australia from 2017. The move will see the loss of 2,500 jobs. Speaking to the ABC, Toyota Australia president Max Yasuda attributed the “devastating” news to an unfavourable Australian dollar, high costs of manufacturing and low economies of scale.

1. Fourteen year old girl gang raped

A fourteen-year old girl has been gang raped in Sydney.

The alleged assault took place in Doonside in Sydney’s west at 11pm on Saturday night.

Six men, described as being of African appearance and aged in their late teens to early 20s, attacked her before they fled.

She was taken to hospital for treatment. The NSW State Crime Command’s sex crimes squad are investigating.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

2. Schapelle Corby

Schapelle Corby is due to be released from jail –with some reports saying it could come as early as this afternoon.

However more paperwork needs to be completed before Schapelle can close this door on her nine-year stay at Kerobokan Prison.

Farid Junaedi, the Prison Governor will give an update on her release at a press conference at 10am local time (1pm AEDT) on Monday.

Schapelle Corby will live with and work with her sister Mercedes and brother-in-law Wayan Widyartha for the next three years.

3. Victorian Fires

Victoria has experienced the worst fire day since 2009’s Black Saturday with a blaze at Hazelwood threatening the open-cut mine and power station.

Up to 2o homes have been destroyed and 150 bushfires have burnt across the state.

A cool change overnight has assisted firefighters efforts but there are still four emergency warnings in place.

For the latest visit http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au

Meanwhile police are investigating whether a grassfire in Melbourne’s south-east on Sunday was deliberately lit.

Two children were arrested on Sunday afternoon after a series of rubbish bins were set alight.

4. Daniel Morcombe alleged killer’s trial starts

The trial of the man charged with the murder of Queensland schoolboy Daniel Morcombe will begin today in QLD.

Brett Peter Cowan, 44, has been charged with murder, indecent treatment of a child, and interfering with a corpse.

Thirteen-year old Daniel Morcombe vanished at an unofficial bus stop in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in 2003.

His remains were found in bushland in the Glass House Mountains in 2011.

5. Rachelle Louise speaks

The girlfriend of balcony killer Simon Gittany has given an in-depth interview to Channel 7’s ‘Sunday night’ denying she looks anything like Simon Gittany’s dead fiancé, Lisa Harnum and professing her belief in his innocence.

She has said she would have no problem if Gittany installed surveillance devices on her phone, as she had nothing to hide.

She also denied that there was abuse in the relationship between Gittany and Harnum saying that he did not break Lisa Harnum’s finger – he only fractured it.

Simon Gittany will learn his sentence in court tomorrow.

6. Baby left in car in 42-degree heat

Security guards have smashed open the window of a car after a 14-week old baby was left, locked in car in an Adelaide shopping centre in 42-degree heat.

Shocked onlookers filmed the baby’s rescue. Police located the driver of the car – who was not the baby’s mother – and did not charge her.

7. Newborn baby kidnapped

A five-day old baby has been kidnapped in the US – his mother discovered he was missing at 4.30am last Thursday from his bedroom. The baby was discovered over thirty hours later abandoned in a petrol station. And his Aunt has been arrested on federal kidnapping charges.

For more read this post here. “She faked her pregnancy then kidnapped her nephew.”

8. Zoo executed Giraffe as he was ‘surplus to requirements’

Animal activists around the world are horrified at a Copenhagen Zoo who put down an 18-month old giraffe, named Marius with a bolt gun to prevent in-breeding.

The BBC report that the Zoo said they had no choice as his genes are already well represented at the Zoo. Under European Association of Zoos and Aquaria rules inbreeding between giraffes is to be avoided.

The Huffington Post report that the giraffe was publicly skinned and dissected in front of watching children – and meat from his body was used to feed the lions at the zoo.

One Swedish zoo and another in the UK asked in vain to take in Marius.

Despite thousands signing a variety of online petition the young Giraffe was killed yesterday.

9. 12-year old girl married in NSW

The father of a 12-year old girl who had an Islamic ‘marriage’ in NSW and is now at the centre of a child sex case has spoken to News Limited.

The fifth generation Australian, who only converted to Islam 18 months ago following a drug problem allowed the man to marry his daughter in his Hunter Valley home.

He has told News Limited that his daughter is heartbroken and he fears she will die after being separated from her ‘husband.’

The father of the girl does not face charges.

10. Racist tweet casts shame on Olympics

A racist tweet sent out by Irina Rodnina – the Russian figure skater who was given the honor of lighting the Olympic flame – has cast a shadow over the Sochi Olympics.

The tweet was sent in September 2013 and has since been deleted, but according to The Guardian Rodnina insists that there was nothing wrong with the photograph, and said she had been sent it by friends in America.

11. Boy rapes sister after viewing porn

A 13-year-old boy in the UK has pleaded guilty to raping his 8-year-old sister – after claiming that he got the idea after watching porn via the Internet browser of his friend’s Xbox 360.

The youth admitted in court to indecently assaulting his sister and inciting her to perform a sex act on him. The Lancashire Telegraph reports that he chose his sister because she was small and “couldn’t remember stuff.”

11. Caesarean rates

Until now it was thought that the high rate of caesarean sections in Australia was due to obstetricains intervening and ordering the procedure.

But a study to be released by the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology has shown that it is actually the increasing age of Australian mothers that is behind the rise.

The mother’s age was found to be a factor in three-quarters of caesarean interventions.

12. Court to order Chemo

In the US a court has sided with a hospital that wish to take over medical decisions for a young Amish girl whose parents stopped her chemotherapy treatments.

The parents of the ten-year old girl initially started chemotherapy to treat her tumors, but stopped after they said it was making her sick, instead they wanted to use natural treatments. A court has ruled that the hospital will be given guardianship over her medical decisions. It goes to another judge on Tuesday for a final ruling.

12. Labradoodle inventor’s regrets

I’ve done a lot of damage,’  Wally Conron told Associated Press. ‘I’ve created a lot of problems.’

Instead of breeding the problems out he says that problems are being bred in.

“You can’t walk down the street without seeing a poodle cross of some sort. I just heard about someone who wanted to cross a poodle with a rottweiler. How could anyone do that?’ he said.

 In brief:

Torah Bright has missed out on a medal in the women’s slopestyle at the Olympics- coming in seventh.

What news are you talking about today?