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Friday afternoon'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. Gina Rinehart sues Channel 9 over House of Hancock.

Gina Rinehart is seeking an injunction to stop Channel 9 airing the final part of its House of Hancock series.

Mrs Rinehart’s lawyers have appeared in court claiming the show is false and defamatory, demanding Channel 9 hand over a copy of the second and final episode of the miniseries and stop it from going to air.

 

The show is allegedly based on the relationship between mining magnate Lang Hancock and his daughter, Gina Rinehart.

According to news.com.au, Rinehart’s lawyers are using Section 18 of Australian consumer law to argue that the stars of the telemovie breached rules on misleading or deceptive conduct by pretending to be someone else.

The next instalment of House of Hancock is set to air on Sunday.

2. All student teachers will have to pass a literacy and numeracy test before they can graduate.

The Federal Government has decided that from 2016 student teachers will need to pass a national literacy and numeracy test before being allowed to graduate.

The Government will also insist primary school teachers specialise in a particular subject.

The moves are part of a bid to lift teacher quality after a Government-appointed panel found “significant pockets of objectively poor practice” in education courses.

“I don’t think that would be a particular problem, it’s not exactly like there’s a lack of teachers,” he said.

Despite the push to boost standards the Government has decided not to set a minimum entry score, or Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), for teaching courses.

The teacher’s union said it was something that needed to be discussed.

“When the review was announced we had concerns that its chair Professor Greg Craven was compromised by his role as Vice Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University which offers teaching courses with low ATARs,” Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe said.

“We think that these concerns have been played out with the lack of focus on ATAR scores.”

However, the review found some higher education providers publish their ATAR cut-offs for teaching courses but then let students in with lower scores.

Mr Pyne said he did not want to get “caught up” with ATAR scores.

“What the review says and what I will be supporting is a much more sophisticated and rigorous selection process,” he told ABC’s AM.

“Rather than just churning students through teaching degrees [or] pushing them out into the workforce without the necessary skills to be able to teach.”

This article originally appeared on the ABC and was republished here with full permission.

3. The Bali 9 execution meeting has been delayed.

By ABC.

A meeting between Indonesian prison and security authorities to make preparations for the execution of two convicted Australian drug smugglers may not go ahead today as planned.

Permission was granted on Thursday for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to be transferred from Kerobokan prison in Bali in preparation for execution.

The meeting between officials was meant to take place in Bali today, but ABC News has been told the head of the Bali prosecutor’s office, Momock Bambang Samiarso, flew to Jakarta last night.

The head of the General Crime Division in the Bali prosecutor’s office now says nothing will be happening today.

Police, prison officials and others involved in organising the executions were due to meet to arrange the transfer of the two men to Nusa Kambangan prison, off Java, where they are due to be executed.

The governor of Bali’s Kerobokan prison confirmed the ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine were still at the prison, despite some media reports they had already been moved.

The time of the transfer had not been confirmed but Mr Momock yesterday said families of the two men would be notified before the transfer went ahead, giving them the opportunity to visit for the last time.

No date has been set for the execution, but Indonesian attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo will make the official announcement that the executions are to go ahead three days beforehand.

Mr Momock said the execution would be done as soon as possible.

“The permit to transfer the prisoners has been received. We are going to transfer [them] and conduct execution as soon as possible,” Mr Momock said.

“We’re not delaying execution … the attorney-general’s office asked to do it as soon as possible.”

The two men have been denied presidential pardons.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo, who has a policy of denying clemency for all drug offenders, said he had rejected 64 bids for clemency and was not forgiving any drug criminal.

But lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran are still attempting to appeal against the president’s decision to refuse them clemency without considering their cases.

An appeal was filed in the State Administrative Court in East Jakarta on Wednesday in the hope of forcing Mr Widodo to reconsider the cases individually.

This article originally appeared on the ABC and was republished here with full permission. 

4. Mothers launch a “different kind of girly” clothing label for kids.

Frustrated with the typical clothing collections designed for girls, two mothers in the United States decided to launched their own fashion line, decorating their clothes with “boy stuff” like cars, dinosaurs and pirates.

They go by the motto: “Girls shouldn’t have to decide between dresses and dinosaurs or ruffles and robots. We’re a different kind of girly.”

Earlier this month, Rebecca Melsky and Eva St. Clair, from Washington D.C., looked to crowdfund their collection — Princess Awesome — on Kickstarter.

In only a few short weeks, their crowd funding campaign has made more than $90,000 — triple the intended budget — and, according to , has become the highest-funded children’s clothing project in Kickstarter history.

5. Labor wins enough seats to form minority government in QLD.

All seats in the Queensland election have been declared, with Labor securing enough to form a minority government.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ)declared the 89 seats which make up Queensland Parliament at 2:15pm (AEST).

Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk could be sworn in as Queensland’s premier as early as today.

 

Although the writs were due to be returned on Monday, Governor Paul de Jersey said earlier this week he would commission a new premier when all seats were declared.

Labor won 44 electorates and will have the crucial 45 to form a minority government with the support of independent Peter Wellington.

The Liberal National Party (LNP) finished with 42 seats, and its only hope of forming a minority government would be to win the backing of the two Katter’s Australian Party MPs and victory in a Ferny Grove by-election, if one is held.

Meanwhile, ECQ has rejected Pauline Hanson’s request for a recount in the seat of Lockyer.

This article originally appeared on the ABC and was republished here with full permission. 

6. Islamic State Magazine praises terrorist attacks in western nations.

By ABC.

The latest issue of Islamic State’s magazine has praised those who carry out terror attacks in Western countries including Australia, and gloated about the deployment of police and soldiers in the streets of Western cities in response to such attacks.

Dabiq magazine has also published what purports to be an interview with the wife of a French terrorist who killed five people in a kosher supermarket in Paris after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine last month.

The slick-looking 83-page online publication carries a mixture of lectures, interviews with foreign jihadists fighting for Islamic State (IS) and gruesomely illustrated stories about the beheadings of two Japanese hostages and the recent burning alive of a captured Jordanian pilot.

It also features a long article about extremist Islamist groups in various parts of the world pledging allegiance to IS.

In it, recognised IS mouthpiece Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani calls on Muslims to terrorise “crusaders” in their own streets and homes, referring to the recent spate of terror attacks across the Western world.

“Indeed, you saw what a single Muslim did with Canada and its parliament of shirk, and what our brothers in France, Australia and Belgium did – may Allah have mercy upon them all and reward them with good on behalf of Islam,” al-Adnani said.

“And there were many others who killed, ran others over, threatened, frightened and terrorised people, to the extent that we saw the crusader armies deployed on the streets in Australia, Canada, France, Belgium, and other strongholds of the cross to whom we promise – by Allah’s permission – a continuation of their state of alert, terror, fear and loss of security.”

This article originally appeared on the ABC and was republished here with full permission. 

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Top Comments

Hannah 10 years ago

In WA Early Childhood Teachers (can teach up to year 3) have to pass Literacy, Numeracy and Science tests to a year 9 standard. This is done as the first unit of first year, so you can't even complete the degree without passing this!


Guest 10 years ago

Gina, Gina, Gina…. you are just guaranteeing that EVERYONE who may not have particularly bothered about this show will now be tuning in, all ears, to see what the fuss is all about!