Tuesday's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the latest news from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.

1. Inquest hears Man Haron Monis may have been planning Sydney Siege for months beforehand.

The inquest into the Sydney Siege has heard that gunman Man Haron Monis may have been planning the siege for up to two months before he held 17 people hostage in the Lindt cafe in Sydney’s Martin Place.

Counsel assisting the inquest Jeremy Gormly SC said yesterday that in October 2014 Monis bought a Samsung mobile under another person’s name, a phone he did not use until the siege began.

He also told the inquest that the handwritten note he ordered cafe manager Tori Johnson to read out to a triple-0 operator telling her “Australia is under attack by the Islamic State” may have been written weeks earlier.

There is concerning speculation that Man Monis may have had an accessory who drove him into the city on the morning the siege began.

Police been unable to trace him using CCTV footage from trains or buses and there were no sightings of him using taxis.

“There is a real possibility he was dropped in the city in a car driven by persons or a person unknown,” Mr Gormly said but that police had no idea who that person was.

2. 49-year-old woman charged over 81-year-old’s death after she was found beaten with her own walking stick.

Police have charged a woman with the murder of an elderly woman at her unit on the Sydney Northern beaches.

May Ritchie, 81, was found bludgeoned to death at her Freshwater home on Sunday night

Marita Cunningham, 49, was last night charged with Ms Ritchie’s murder. Her ex-partner, a man now said to be Ms Ritchie’s partner found the body.

Bob Lyford, 69, who lives adjacent to Ms Ritchie told The Daily Telegraph he grew concerned when his girlfriend of six years did not arrive at his house to watch football on Sunday night. He let himself into her home with his own keys and allegedly found his ex-partner in the apartment and his partner dead.

“I tried CPR but it was to no avail” he said.

“There was too much blood on her face to do mouth-to-mouth.”

Marita Cunningham will appear in court today.

3. Daniel O’Keefe’s family thanks the community as his remains are found.

After yesterday’s grim discovery of a body thought to be that of high-profile missing man Daniel O’Keeffe underneath his family’s home in Geelong by his father his family have thanked the community who helped them with their search.

The 24-year-old disappeared on July 15, 2011 prompting his family to conduct a nationwide search and a campaign “Dan Come Home” as launched on social media by his sister, Loren.

She created the Missing Persons Advocacy Network in 2013, helping promote the search for members of other families in similar situations.

Yesterday they announced the news that remains, thought to be Daniels had been found under the family home.

Writing on Facebook the family said their focus “has always been two-fold; to raise awareness about the vulnerabilities of missing people in Australia and to ask that you harness people power to help the families left behind.”

“We ask that you keep our family in your thoughts as we navigate this process and that our privacy be respected.”

“If this is too upsetting for anyone please consider reaching out to a friend or to Lifeline on 13 11 14.”

They go on to say:

“We have united a community, which is a beautiful thing. None of this has been in vain, and that’s all thanks to you.”

For help: Lifeline 13 11 14.

4. Treasurer kept out of loop on budget timing.

The Treasurer Scott Morrison has admitted that he had not known of the decision to re-call parliament and move the budget forward to May 3 when he told 2GB’s Ray Hadley, just an hour before the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull made the announcement, that the budget was definitely May 10.

“May 10, May 10,” he told 2GB’s Ray Hadley at 9.30 am yesterday when asked about its possible rescheduling.

“We’re preparing for May 10 Ray, I can’t be clearer than that.”

Just an hour later Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the rumours were true – the budget would be brought forward to May 3, to allow for a likely double dissolution election on July 2.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said Mr Morrison had been “thrown under the bus by Malcolm Turnbull” yet again.

“The Treasurer has been completely emasculated and has no influence over tax policy or even the timing of his own budget,” Mr Bowen said in a press release.

Asked last night on 7.30 whether it was important for his Treasurer to be in the loop, Mr Turnbull said: “The Treasurer was aware that we were considering a whole range of options.”

He claimed that his relationship with Mr Morrison is “excellent”.

5. Children as young as 11 in violent outburst against family members.

Children as young as 11 are holding their families to ransom with knife attacks and abusing parents it is reported.

Welfare agency Centacare Catholic Family Services has reported a 30 per cent rise in demand for help from parents being abused by children reports The Advertiser.

In one case a father was locked indoors and forced to watch his 11-year-old daughter smash the family car windows because her mobile phone was confiscated, at other times children have held bread knives to their parents’ throats when they call time on their internet use.

Centralink reports that children are threatening their parents with violence if they don’t give them money to “fund their lifestyle”.

Ms Connelly said problems often emerged with children who had rarely been told “no” by their parents.

“When someone finally does say no, their reaction … is extreme and can be violent,” she said.

“It’s a very difficult thing to say: ‘I’m scared of my children’.”

6. Council rejects flying Aboriginal flag “We are one Australia, we have one flag, and that’s the way it should stay.”

An Adelaide council has voted against permanently flying the Aboriginal flag outside the council chambers, saying it would increase cultural divide rather than promote unity.

Campbeltown councillors narrowly voted against a request from its Reconciliation Advisory Committee to spend $2000 on a new flagpole so the Aboriginal flag could fly alongside the Australian flag.

Cr Max Amber told the meeting that permanently flying the Aboriginal flag would do more harm than good reports News Limited.

“I feel very strongly that the Australian flag, we fought two world wars under and numerous others, is the flag for all Australians,” Cr Amber said.

Cr Neville Grigg said it was “divisive.”

“This is separating the Australian into two separate peoples.

“We are one Australia, we have one flag, and that’s the way it should stay.”

But Cr Marijka Ryan said flying the Aboriginal flag was the right thing to do.

“It would promote everything we value as a society, compassion, tolerance, acknowledgment of our history and respect from what is right,” Cr Ryan said.

“Flying the Aboriginal flag is not divisive, it’s not meant to offend, it’s meant for the good of those who were displaced in their own land and it’s a symbolic gesture.”

Aboriginal Elder Lowitja O’Donoghue told News Limited she was “gobsmacked” by the decision.

“I didn’t think it was a question anymore, anywhere, because the flag does fly everyday in most council areas.”

The council already flies the Australian flag, the State flag and the Campbelltown flag.

7. Madonna’s UK court fight with Guy Ritchie over son comes to an end.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie have been urged by a judge to avoid taking up any more of the “fast receding days” of their son’s childhood with legal action.

The judge was ruling on whether he should allow English proceedings to close or whether he should make decisions about Rocco’s welfare.

Mr Justice MacDonald said at the hearing: “I renew, one final time, my plea for both parents to seek and to find an amicable resolution to the dispute between them.

“As I observed during the course of the hearing, summer does not last forever. The boy very quickly becomes the man.

“It would be a very great tragedy for Rocco if any more of the previous and fast receding days of his childhood were to be taken up by this dispute.”

He pleaded with them to settle their battle over the 15-year-old’s custody out of court.

The London ruling means the child custody battle over Rocco will now be resolved either in the New York or by family conciliation.

8. Reports Olivia Newton John’s partner is “alive and well” in Mexico.

There are reports that the partner of Olivia Newton-John who disappeared 11 years ago, has been found secretly living in Mexico.

Patrick McDermott has been found alive and well after vanishing on a fishing trip more than a decade ago reports Woman’s Day.

An Investigator named John Nazarian told the magazine “It’s rumoured he was with a German national. I spoke to people there. The girl he was travelling with was described as having a German accent.”

In 2005 Mr McDermott went missing from a fishing boat, but none of the 22 passengers saw McDermott go overboard.

US investigators launched a search for him, but two months later revealed McDermott had faked his own death and was living in Mexico.

It appeared that McDermott disappeared shortly after filing for bankruptcy, having unpaid debts totalling more than $30,000 at the time, including $8000 in child support.

9. Novak Djokovic: Men should get more prize money than women in tennis.

Novak Djokovic has said that men should get more prize money than women in tennis matches because they attract more spectators.

The world number one made his comments shortly after winning his fifth Indian Wells tennis title.

Djokovic said he understood the Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) efforts to try and get equal prize money for women, and that women “fought for what they deserve and got it”.

But he said there was a different side to the debate and that male players should fight more as they get more viewers.

“I think that our men’s tennis world, ATP world, should fight for more because the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches.

I think that’s one of the reasons why maybe we should get awarded more.”

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