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. Knife-wielding man arrested as Melbourne restaurant siege ends this morning.

BY ABC

A 35-year-old man has been arrested after a siege in a Melbourne restaurant ended this morning with the release of a woman who was being held hostage.

The 27-year-old woman was released about 5:30am (AEST) after being held by the knife-wielding man, who barricaded himself inside the Ludlow Bar and Dining restaurant at Southbank about 10:00pm yesterday.

Police said the man was a disgruntled former employee of the restaurant.

The man was wheeled out of the restaurant on a stretcher and taken to an ambulance for a precautionary assessment at St Vincent’s Hospital after being tasered by police when he released the woman.

He had made his way into a store room at the rear of the restaurant armed with a knife earlier on Sunday night, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman said the woman, a female staff member known to the man, was in the store room at the time.

Staff self-evacuated the restaurant after another staff member saw the knife and called police, he said.

Police said the man had been employed by the restaurant as recently as last week.

“At this stage it’s really the subject of an ongoing investigation, but all I can say is that he was fairly disgruntled around some employment issues with the restaurant,” Inspector Travis McCarthy said.

Inspector McCarthy said he was unaware whether the man had specifically targeted the woman and whether he had made any threats.

He said potential charges would be looked at.

The surrounding area was cordoned off during the siege.

A version of this article was originally published by the ABC.

2. One of the gunmen responsible for the Kenya attack has been identified as a government official’s son.

As Kenya begins three days of national mourning, Kenyan authorities have named the son of a government official as one of four gunmen who attacked a university this week, killing 148 people.

The university, located in the northeastern town of Garissa, was stormed by militants at dawn on Thursday in what has been labeled as, “barbaric medieval slaughter”.

Interior ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka has identified Abdirahim Abdullahi, the son of a government official in the northern Mandera county bordering Somalia as one of the gunmen.

According to a Garissa-based official, the government was aware of the former University of Nairobi law student and had heard reports that he joined the militant group Al Shabaab after graduating in 2013.

“He was a very brilliant student. But then he got these crazy ideas,” the official said.

Mr Njoka added that it is, “critical that parents whose children go missing or show tendencies of having been exposed to violent extremism report to authorities”.

After initial criticisms of intelligence failings and a slow response rate to the siege, Kenyan authorities have now shown progress with the arrest of five men in connection with the attack.

3. Bali Nine: Indonesian court to decide on Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran’s appeal against execution.

BY GEORGE ROBERTS

An Indonesian court will decide today if two Australian drug smugglers will be given the chance to challenge their planned executions.

Lawyers for the two Bali Nine members, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, will face the State Administrative court today.

The two men have applied to challenge president Joko Widodo’s refusal to grant pardons to any drug smugglers.

The hopes of Chan and Sukumaran are in the hands of three Administrative court judges.

The men’s lawyers are arguing that Mr Widodo should have given due consideration to their cases.

An expert witness was used to try to convince the court Mr Widodo’s refusal to grant pardons can be challenged and the Administrative Court is the right jurisdiction.

On the other hand, the president’s legal team argues that his clemency power cannot be contested and the court does not have the authority.

A positive verdict for the Australians will mean they get to go to a full trial, and potentially the chance to force the president to reconsider their clemency bids.

If they are denied that chance it still does not mean they will face a firing squad straight away.

The Indonesian government is waiting for all of those listed for execution alongside the Australians to exhaust all legal avenues of appeal — how long that could take is still unclear.

A version of this article was originally published by the ABC.

4. Michael Jackson’s Australian sex assault accuser will pursue damages in court.

Australian choreographer Wade Robson will learn this week if he is permitted to pursue a portion of Michael Jackson’s $2 billion estate.

Robson’s testimony at Jackson’s 2005 molestation trial in California was once key to the late King of Pop’s acquittal. Robson has now admitted to claims Jackson repeatedly sexually abused him as a child.

A choreographer for Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, Robson has revealed that he has been unable to work due to the pain caused by Jackson’s abuse.

Robson has said he, “lived in silence and denial for 22 years” and alleges he was just seven years old when Jackson first abused him.

The Post reports that Blanca Francia, a former Jackson maid, is expected to testify that she walked in on the singer showering and touching a then nine-year-old Robson. It is also alleged that she observed Jackson and Robson semi-nude in bed together.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff will decided on Tuesday if Robson, 32, and another of Jackson’s alleged victims, James Safechuck, 36, can proceed with their respective claims.

5. Prince Harry arrives in Australia to begin month-long stint with Army.

BY ABC

Prince Harry has visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the War Memorial in Canberra after arriving in Australia to begin a month-long secondment with the Army.

The Prince arrived in Sydney on a commercial British Airways flight at 5:00am (AEST) before boarding an RAAF jet to Canberra.

He laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before visiting the War Memorial.

The Prince will spend time meeting the public in his only public appearance in the country.

Details of the Prince’s secondment to the Australian Defence Force were released last week.

During the secondment Prince Harry, known as Captain Wales, will spend time with SAS commandos in Perth and with Indigenous NORFORCE soldiers in the Northern Territory.

He will also spend time with the Army’s Sydney-based 6th Aviation Regiment, where he will fly helicopters if he passes military testing.

A spokesman for Prince Harry said the fourth-in-line to the British throne had been keen to come to Australia for a military exchange for some time and the ADF has prepared a “challenging and hectic” program for him.

“Prince Harry is tremendously looking forward to starting his four-week attachment with the ADF,” the spokesman said.

After today’s wreath-laying ceremony at the War Memorial and touring the World War I and Afghanistan exhibits, Captain Wales is set to meet Defence Chief Mark Binskin to report for duty.

The Prince’s Australian trip will be interrupted briefly when he will fly to Gallipoli to accompany his father the Prince of Wales at Anzac Day commemorations.

A version of this article was originally published by the ABC.

6. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says au pairs are not the answer to childcare challenge.

On Sunday, the Abbott government indicated that it might be considering a Productivity Commission recommendation, which would extend the current limit of six months to allow au pairs to work for one family for 12 months.

In response, when interviewed on Channel Nine, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has revealed that proposals to make greater use of foreign au pairs to improve the affordability and availability of childcare will not work.

“I think the big challenges in childcare aren’t going to be solved by bringing in nannies from overseas,” he said.

“I think the foreign nanny issue is not the big issue in this and I think if people think that we’re going to have all the children in Australia and their childcare solved by bringing in a whole lot of overseas nannies … that’s not the long-term solution.

“I think what we need to do is make sure [childcare is] properly funded, that people can afford to pay it, that the fees aren’t getting out of control and of course it’s good quality for our kids,” Mr Shorten said.

Social services minister Scott Morrison has said he is working with Labor on a response to the commission’s recommendations.

What’s making news for you today?