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1. Man charged with murder of his 8-year-old son.

A 37-year-old Canberra man has been charged with the murder of his eight-year-old son.

Graham Stuart Dillon, 37, of the northern Canberra suburb, Jacka faced court yesterday.

He is accused of murdering his son, Bradyn Dillon, 8, on Monday.

The Canberra Times reports that Mr Dillon is also facing three assault charges related to another person alleged to have occurred through this year.

The little boy was rushed to hospital by ambulance on Monday but did not survive his injuries. Neighbours have described how after paramedics removed the little boy a man appeared from the home with his hands up.

In court Mr Dillon, a father of three, did not apply for bail.

Police ask anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

2. Husband forced wife into performing sexual acts for strangers online.

Dr Chamari Liyanage, on trial for murdering her husband with a mallet while he slept at their home in Geraldton, 400 kilometres north of Perth, in June 2014 has told a court that her husband, also a doctor, made her perform sexual acts for strangers online.

Liyanage, 35, told the jury yesterday that her husband, Dinendra Athukorala would direct her to perform sex acts while he streamed live video of her online. She said he was obsessed with child pornography websites and would stay up into the early hours of the night viewing them reports the ABC.

“It became constant beatings, constant teaching sessions, he kept me sitting on the bed or kept me on camera and [had me] perform for people online. People would ask me to get undressed or do sexual acts,” Liyanage said.

“He got more and more interested in children, younger and younger children.

“He would constantly be downloading and chatting on websites trying to find women. If I had shown I was not interested, he would get extremely angry.”

She told the court that she loved her husband and never thought of harming him. When asked why she did not go to the police she replied, “what would I tell them?”

“If Din went to jail he would get out and he would come and find me. So for the rest of my life I would be so scared something would happen to myself or my family.”

“I didn’t want to burden anyone else. I’m scared he would try post their numbers on sex websites and would threaten them. I couldn’t risk that.”

The trial has now entered the last week.

3. Car crash at school kills pedestrian school father.

A father has been killed outside a Melbourne school after a car ploughed through a fence.

Paramedics were called to the crash at St Leonard’s College in Brighton East at 4.20pm yesterday.

The school principal Stuart Davis confirmed the man killed was a parent of a student at the school.

” A vehicle lost control at our Ratho Avenue gates and collided with the fence near the Marjorie Menzies Hall in our junior school,” he said.

“I regret to inform you that a parent was struck and killed in this incident.

The Age reports that the car sped through the school’s one-and-a-half metre iron fence at its drop-off zone.

4. Fears that the health implications of being conceived by IVF may be far reaching.

A leading scientist has warned that children born through IVF could have shorter lifespans and poorer health in later life because the assisted reproduction bypasses critical natural selection processes in the body.

Speaking at a the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Washington, Pascal Gagneux, Associate Professor University of California, said the problem could be like the “junk food timebomb” where the health impact was not known for more than 50 years.

Dr Gagneux believes that issues could arise because the healthiest sperm are not selected during assisted reproduction.

In IVF the egg is placed in a solution with millions of sperm, or else a lab technician selects just one with which to fertilise an egg.

“The jury is out though about whether these children are going to be healthy 80 years down the line and there are some worrying signs,” he said.

“I wouldn’t rule out that they could have shortened lifespans. We are engaging in an evolutionary experiment.”

A Swiss study last year found that IVF children had poorer cardiovascular health.

The oldest person to be born through IVF, British woman Louise Brown, is still only 37,

5. GST is off the table.

The Prime Minister has confirmed that a flouted idea of increasing the GST is no longer in contention.

Malcolm Turnbull told reporters yesterday “I can assure you that the government will not be taking a proposal to increase the GST to the election.”

On Monday Minister Michaelia Cash had told Sky News that a GST raise was not “off the table completely, not at all.”

The ABC reports that today, in a speech at the press club Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison will make his case for income tax cuts.

“The Government understands that a dollar in your hand means you are more likely to make it into $2, while a dollar in the Government’s hand is more likely to turn it into 50 cents,” he said.

“Government budget savings and increases in revenue, as a result of economic growth, should benefit Australian income taxpayers” he will say.

6. Extraordinary cancer treatment hailed as breakthrough.

A new treatment which trains the immune system to attack cancer has shown “extraordinary” results – and could be a potential breakthrough in curing the disease.

Lead scientist Professor Stanley Riddell, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting “Most of the patients in our trial would be projected to have two to five months to live.”

“This is extraordinary. It’s unprecedented in medicine to be honest, to get response rates in this range in these very advanced patients.”

The treatment involves removing immune cells called T-cells from patients, tagging them with “receptor” molecules that target cancer and then infusing them back in the body.

In one study 94% of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia saw their symptoms vanish completely.

And patients with other blood cancers saw response rates of more than 80%, with half experiencing complete remission.

So far, the technique has only been tried on patients with “liquid” blood cancers.

“This is potentially paradigm-shifting in terms of how we treat them. I think this is a significant breakthrough, but we have a way to go” Professor Riddell said.

It isn’t without side effects, seven patients were affected so badly they needed intensive care and two died.

7. Nannies attend parent teacher interviews as parents too busy.

Nannies are being used to fill in for parents at important events such as parent teacher interviews reports The Herald Sun.

The Australian Nanny Association has said that with the rise in two-parent working families, and many turning to nannies to fill in the gaps many activities traditionally filled by the mother, like attending school meetings like homework supervision, packing lunches, ferrying kids to sport and music classes and doctor’s appointments were increasingly being filled by nannies.

Melbourne nanny Alice Vandersteen told The Herald Sun “I do know of nannies that have done the parent interviews at schools,” she said.

“The one I went to was a ten minute update of how the child is going, how they are fitting in and general behaviour, which I relayed to the family.”

However Victoria Principals Association president Gabrielle Leigh told the newspaper that she didn’t think it was appropriate and was “horrified” by the idea.

8. Parents told to stop smoking cannabis at school gates.

A British school has fired off a letter to parents requesting they stop smoking drugs on the school run.

Deputy head teacher Deborah Binns of St John’s Primary in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester has asked parents to “set a good example” for their children.

“We have had concerning reports that parents have been using cannabis around the school premises as they drop off and collect their children. This has been reported by parents and has been noticed by some of the older children” her note to parents read.

“This is a serious safeguarding concern and if further complaints are brought to our attention, we will notify the relevant authorities. We have informed the community police service and they are likely to be keeping a close eye on the situation.”

Head teacher Jason Harvey told Metro “Our deputy head had a couple of concerned parents come in on Thursday morning and that’s why we sent the letter out. Tson

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