Monday'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. Funding for homelessness targets women and children.

The Abbott government will today announce a $230 million federal program to support the homeless extending the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness until at least 2017.

The Australian reports that Social Services Minister Scott Morrison will commit to funding the national partnership agreement with the proviso that the states match the federal contrib­ution and show the money is used effectively.

Mr Morrison will say that the partnership agreement needed a stronger focus on areas with the greatest need  – in particular women and children made homeless as a result of domestic violence.

“It’s got to be used for frontline services, not symbolic gestures,” he told The Australian.

He told“The Coalition government recognises that domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness and that women and children are particularly vulnerable,”

2. Police search for hit and run driver.

Police are searching for driver of a car that hit and killed a 20-year-old woman in Brisbane.

Nine News reports that Ashleigh Humphreys was hit by a dark coloured sedan just before 4am early Sunday morning while walking along the Western Freeway at Toowong.

It is reported that she had been seen arguing with a friend near a service station before walking home alone.

Police are searching for the driver of a car that struck Ms Humphreys.

For more read this post here.

 3. Islamic State threatens US military person personnel.

Over 100 U.S. troops have been singled out by Islamic State with a group known as the Islamic State Hacking Organization calling for beheadings and attacks in the United States.

They posted the names, pictures and home addresses of service men and women from all branches of the U.S. military – some of which were publicly available.

Similar threats have been made before.

4. Mother calls for greater awareness over whooping cough vaccine.

The mother of a four-week old baby, Riley Hughes who died last week from whooping cough has said that she was never told to get a whooping cough booster during her pregnancy with Riley.

Catherine Hughes has told Mamamia that new recommendations saying all pregnant women should get the booster in each and every pregnancy in their third trimester was not made clear to her at any stage.

She says that many Australian women – and medical experts- do not know of the new requirements

For more read this post here.

5. Protesters march from park where Masa Vukotic was murdered.

By ABC

About 40 people have attended a protest against victim blaming at an east Melbourne park where a 17-year-old girl was killed earlier this week.

Masa Vukotic was stabbed to death in Koonung Creek Linear Reserve in the suburb of Doncaster, not far from her home.

The group marched from the small park where she was attacked, across the freeway footbridge to Elgars Park, holding a large banner with the words “Our park, our streets, our homes”.

Several protesters wore pink clothes and walked with dogs donned with pink bows. Cars travelling beneath the footbridge honked their horns in support.

Protest organiser Katie George said women should not have to change their behaviour or feel responsible for the violence perpetrated against them.

“We tend to hear a lot of well meaning people say things like ‘women really need to protect themselves’ and ‘women really need to take self-defence classes’ and ‘women really need to safeguard themselves against violence’. I want to change that discussion to be more about well perpetrators shouldn’t be perpetrating violence,” she said.

Local, Katerina Sirianos said women should not be blamed for the violence against them.

“We shouldn’t be afraid to walk in our own neighbourhood. We shouldn’t be afraid to let our children walk alone … whether we have earphones on or not we shouldn’t be afraid to experience life in itself,” she said.

Melbourne man Sean Christian Price has been charged with Ms Vukotic’s the murder after handing himself into police.

During the investigations, a senior homicide investigator caused controversy after making comments that women should not walk alone in parks.

Detective Inspector Mick Hughes said the tragedy had highlighted concerns for the personal safety of women in public areas, urging women to be a “little bit more careful” walking in parks alone.

But later that afternoon, the senior detective said he “never actually said” that woman should not walk alone.

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Steve Fontana also defended Detective Inspector Hughes.

“Yes, Mick did say that he believes people, particularly women, shouldn’t walk alone,” Assistant Commissioner Fontana said.

“At the time he did this early morning interview the squad were under a lot of pressure and Mick was working extremely long hours. All with the goal of finding this killer.

“He didn’t respond as clearly as he wanted but I can assure you his number one priority was about protecting the community.

“That is why, later in the day, he talked about how everyone needs to look after each other.”

A version of this story was originally published on and has been republished with full permission.

6. Family of woman whose baby was cut from her womb speak.

The family of a woman whose unborn baby was cut from her womb in a shocking attack have spoken about the crime.

26-year old Michelle Wilkins was attacked when she went to an address about a Craigslist posting for maternity clothes in Colorado in the US.

A woman will face court today in the US charged over the attack. It is alleged that Dynel Catrece Lane, 34, stabbed and bashed Ms Wilkins before removing her unborn baby with a kitchen knife.

It was Michelle Wilkins first baby. A preliminary coroner’s report says the baby was a 34-week gestation female.

The charges that Lane faces will be determined by the District Attorney – with Colorado’s abortion laws possibly barring a murder charge.

The decision on what charges Lane will actually face in court will be made by Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett.

The family of Ms Wilkins have said “One life was ended and another scarred beyond imagination in this senseless act, with scores of others negatively affected.”

Her medical condition is guardedly optimistic, and we hope for a full physical recovery. We are so are thankful for the many expressions of sympathy we’ve received from around the world, but particularly from those who don’t know Michelle personally. We are touched that so many have felt compelled to reach out to her with expressions of kindness, sympathy, and spiritual unity,”

 7. Child welfare experts say Moss review shows mandatory detention is “unsustainable.”

The damning Moss Review, the independent report that showed in Nauru there had been rapes, sexual abuse of children and a trade in marijuana for sexual favours has been cited by Save The Children’s chief executive Paul Ronalds as proof that the policy of detention and offshore processing was “unsustainable”.

Fairfax Media reports that Mr Ronalds said “I think the government has an opportunity to look at this positively, to say we’ve stopped the boats and it is time to move to a genuine regional-based solution,” he said.

“The Moss report makes absolutely clear that the current solution is unsustainable. Now is the time, while there is no pressure from boat arrivals, to find a new solution.”

Professor David Isaacs, a consultant paediatrician who visited the Nauru detention centre in December backed up these claims saying “The Moss report suggests that the government cannot easily keep children or adults in detention in places like Manus and Nauru and keep them safe,” he said.

“If we are going to imprison people without trial they should at least be safe while that is happening. Almost no other country in the world imprisons asylum seekers like this.”

 8. Scott Morrison rejects calls for him to apologise to aid group Save the Children after review into Nauru self-harm claims.

By Susan McDonald

Former immigration minister Scott Morrison has rejected calls for him to apologise to aid group Save the Children after an official review could not substantiate claims some of their staff were encouraging asylum seekers at Nauru to self-harm.

Former integrity commissioner Philip Moss was asked by the Government to investigate claims 10 staff from the charity group had encouraged asylum seekers to self-harm or fabricate allegations of abuse.

His report released on Friday found those claims could not be substantiated and recommended the Immigration Department review its decision to remove the staff from Nauru.

When Mr Morrison announced the review in October last year, he said, “The public don’t want to be played for mugs with allegations of sexual abuse being used as some kind of political tactic”.

Mr Morrison was asked on Sunday whether he conceded he had got his comments wrong.

He said the allegations had been presented to him in a formal report at the time and he referred them to the Moss review to be investigated along with other sexual assault allegations.

“It was my action, on seeing all of those allegations, not to draw any conclusions on them at all, as I said at the time, and to refer them off to an independent review,” Mr Morrison said.

“So I’m pleased the independent review has been taken that the Government has received it and the Government has responded to all of the recommendations in a positive way.”

When specifically asked if he would apologise to Save the Children, he replied “I made no allegations, I referred allegations for a proper inquiry”.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young continued to demand an apology.

“He should apologise and the Abbott Government needs to explain how they will make it up to the employees who were treated so badly,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

“The Abbott Government’s eagerness to shoot the messenger meant that, in this case, they shot first and asked questions later.

“Scott Morrison wants to wash his hands of this like he washed his hands of the assaults that were being carried out against women and children on Nauru.”

A version of this story was originally published on ABC and has been republished with full permission.

 9. Jihadist daughter has ‘married’ another Australian jihadist.

Notorious Australian jihadist Khaled Sharrouf’s 14-year old daughter has claimed she has married fellow Australian jihadist Mohamed Elomar on her Twitter account.

News Limited reports that if true there is a 17-year difference between the two.

10. Funeral for woman beaten and burned in Afghanistan.

Hundreds of people have attended a funeral for a woman beaten and burned to death by an angry mob last week in Afghanistan.

The woman known as Farkhunda was accused of burning the Koran but an official investigator has said there was no evidence for this.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he had ordered an investigation into the killing.

Footage of the attack, filmed on mobile phones, has been widely circulated on social media.

11. 600 Australia personnel in Vanuatu.

The arrival of the navy’s HMAS Tobruk in Vanuatu last night has now brought the total number of Australian personnel helping in the region to 600.

12. David Pocock calls out homophobic slurs in sport.

Former Wallabies captain David Pocock has demanded a referee address a homophobic slur in Saturday’s Waratahs game against the ACT Brumbies saying  “You can be the toughest man in the world, but it’s got nothing to do with that sort of language.”

Pocock pleaded with the referee to take action against the NSW player saying, “You heard that sir … you can’t say that, there could be gay players out there.”

“That’s fine, but after that their captain said: ‘That’s rugby.’ That’s not right, we can’t tolerate that.'”

The Canberra Times reports he called for the use of such language to be harshly dealt with

“As players, we’ve said the Brumbies aren’t going to tolerate any homophobic slurs, I just made that clear to the referee that it’s unacceptable. You can be the toughest man in the world, but it’s got nothing to do with using that sort of language,”

“I certainly haven’t heard much in the last few years. I guess in the last year or two Australian rugby has started to address, and rightly so from Bill Pulver right down, that there’s no room for homophobic language in our sport and we want to make it inclusive

13. Paris bans odd numbered cars.

In a bid to drive down the level of pollution authorities in Paris have taken an odd decision banning all cars with a number plate ending in an odd number from driving in the city today.

Free public transport will be available instead.

The government has triggered a pollution control law that allows it to ban half the private cars in the greater Paris area.

If the air pollution alert continues, it will be the turn of the even-numbered cars on Tuesday.

14. Singapore’s first Prime Minister has passed away.

The man who founded Singpaore, Lee Kuan Yew, has died, aged 91.

The nation’s first Prime Minister spent several weeks in a critical condition, after being admitted to Singapore General Hospital on February 5.

Mr Lee was widely credited as the strategist behind Singapore’s incredible economic success.

He served as prime minister from 1959, when Singapore gained independence from Britain, until he stepped down in 1990.

During his 31 years as prime minister, Mr Lee turned his nation into one of the wealthiest in the world.

He was also internationally renowned as the pioneer of Singapore’s strict drug trafficking and public cleanliness laws.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop told Sky, Mr Lee’s passing was sad news and marked the end of an era.

“Lee Kuan Yew was a towering figure not only in Singapore, not only in our region but also globally .. and he’ll be missed. He had a profound influence over Singapore’s development. Quite an extraordinary tale the development of Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew was responsible for so much of that.”

15. Former AFL footballer Ben Cousins has been arrested again.

Former West Coast Eagles star Ben Cousins has been arrested following an incident in Canning Vale, according to News.com.au.

It is the third time in a fortnight that 36-year-old Cousins has come to the attention of WA Police, including an arrest for reckless driving.

He was also taken into custody for a mental health assessment after he was caught scaling a fence at Swanbourne Barracks.

Cousins discharged himself from Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital less than 48 hours later.

The circumstances of the latest arrest remain unclear.

What news are you talking about today?