10 news bites you need on Thursday morning

Good morning! Get comfortable, settle in, Mamamia is bringing you the news you can use for Thursday morning. There’s plenty happening out there today, too!

1. Natalie Portman, it’s a boy!

The Black Swan star gave birth to a baby boy (name currently unknown) late yesterday. There had been a lot of secrecy surrounding the birth and, well, who can blame Natalie and her choreographer fiance Benjamin Millepied? Chalk one up for the happy couple!

2. The way you sleep may affect your baby.

A New Zealand study, which has appeared in the British Medical Journal, shows an apparent link between mothers who sleep on their right sides or their back later in the pregnancy and those who have stillbirths. Specifically, of the 155 women studied, there was double the chance for those who slept like this the night before they gave birth. The study compared the group of women against a control group of more than 300. What do you think?

3. Total eclipse of the…moon.

Did you get up in the wee hours of the morning to view the longest lunar eclipse Australia has seen in a decade? For those who had an unobscured view, the eclipse started around 3.25pm and lasted until dawn. 5.30am was the best time to view, when the moon turned a reddish-copper like colour. So beautiful.

4. Nicole Kidman posts a thank you video to fans.

Naaawwww. It’s short, it’s sweet…and she’s very nervous. Check it out here:

6. Girls, stop being so nice.

An American corporate figure has told Australian women that nice girls finish last. Ouch. Corporate coach and author Lois Frankel said women in Australia were preoccupied with playing the nice card and it wasn’t helping their careers…or their private lives. Frankel blames the lack of women in our corporate world on this. Really? Or does that have more to do with, you know, the culture itself? Discuss.

7. Government sends group to Geneva to win UN support for ‘Malaysia solution’.

So it goes a little something like this. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen keeps telling us that the United Nations is all down and cozy with the Government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Malaysia, which has an awful track record of human rights abuses and which hasn’t signed the human rights convention. Yet a delegation sent to Geneva to sweet talk the UNHCR makes it seem like the guarantee of their support is not yet guaranteed.

8. Afghanistan is the worst country in the world for women.

A new global study has found Afghanistan is the worst of a bad bunch for abuses against women and lack of equality. It’s not really a surprise. But in a shock twist, India has made the bottom 5 alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Somalia. As one of the world’s fastest growing economies, it was a bit unexpected, but then again, India has huge rates of female infanticide and abuse thanks to some cultures.

9. Flight saves baby, races ash cloud

The volcanic ash cloud that has been causing domestic travel chaos in Australia also prompted a mercy dash by the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) yesterday as they airlifted baby Bronwyn from Perth to Melbourne so she could have life-saving surgery to repair a hole in her heart. The RFDS plane flew below the ash cloud in dangerous conditions but got the job done.

10. Lastly and shockingly, is the male ponytail trendy?

Please, say it ain’t so. The MaleTail appears to be a thing now. Sounds about right, we’ve seen a few about the place. Chop it or love it?