Thursday's news in under 5 minutes

Midwife Lisa Barrett barred from attending births.

Lisa Barrett, a midwife who has been involved in four home births in which babies died, has been banned from attending any more births in South Australia.

In a public statement, Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner Steve Tully found Ms Barrett posed a “significant threat to the safety of the women you purport to advise and their unborn children and thus the public”.

Mamamia has written in detail about Lisa Barrett’s involvement in the deaths of four babies, plus a coroner’s findings that all four of those deaths “could and should have been prevented’.

You can read that post here.

Nigella in court

Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has admitted in a UK court overnight that she has taken cocaine a handful of times, but denied habitually using drugs.

Testifying at the trial of two assistants accused of defrauding her and ex-husband Charles Saatchi Lawson said Saatchi wanted to get revenge on her after she refused to back him over paparazzi pictures that showed him gripping her by the throat.

“He had said to me if I didn’t get back to him and clear his name he would destroy me,” Lawson told the court.

“I have been put on trial here, where I am called to answer, and glad to answer the allegations, and the world’s press, and it comes after a long summer of bullying and abuse.”

2. Mother forced to have a caesarean speaks

The Italian mother who made international headlines after she was detained in a British psychiatric unit and then forced against her will to have a caesarean has spoken. She has said that she is suffering ‘like an animal’. The Judge who approved the adoption of her baby has also released the findings of his judgement. For more read this post here. “Italian mother speaks”

 3. Clive Palmer and TPVs

Clive Palmer has weighed in on the debate over temporary protection visas. As Immigration Minister Scott Morrison vowed that 33,000 boat arrivals would remain in detention or on bridging visas indefinitely, Mr Palmer compared the treatment of women and children to a “neo-fascist state”.

Mr Morrison said the asylum seekers would be subject to tougher conditions than would apply with temporary protection visas until Parliament agreed to restore the visa class. Clive Palmer said that unless the treatment of women and children asylum seekers improved, his Palmer United Party would not be supporting the return of TPVs.

 4. Controlling PM’s office

Liberal National Party senator Ian Macdonald, has taken a swipe at the ‘obsessive control phobia’ of the PM’s office, and in particularly his senior aide Peta Credlin. Senator Macdonald is furious that he has not been consulted about the government’s terms of reference for its Northern Australia policies.

 5. Supre’s sexy t-shirt

Clothing retailer Supre is under fire from parents for selling a t-shirt they claim sexualizes the young girls and tweens who shop at the store.

The t-shirt features two Christmas bells and the slogan “Jingle my Bells”. Critics of the shirt have started up an online petition to pressure the store to have the offensive item taken off the racks. Supre has not responded to the allegations.

 6. Australian pedophile

A Cairns man who bought a baby boy for $US8000 and shared him with other pedophiles committed crimes that “simply shock the conscience”, prosecutors have told a US court.

Peter Truong, 36, faces a maximum 40-year sentence, but could get as little as 24 years.

“Essentially, Newton (his partner, already in jail) and Truong bought a child, falsified the circumstances of his birth and citizenship, sexually abused him to such a degree and so early in his life that by 22 months old, the child’s sexual awareness as depicted on video rivals that of an adult,” US prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

You can read Mamamia’s previous coverage of that story here.

7. East Timor

East Timor will launch a case in The Hague today to have a $40 billion oil and gas treaty it signed with Australia ripped up.

It alleges Australia had the advantage in negotiations because the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) hid listening devices in the Timorese cabinet room in Dili in 2004.

8. Craig Thomson

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday prosecutors outlined their fraud case against former MP Craig Thomson yesterday.

The court heard for the first time allegations he used $28,449 of union funds to pay for sexual services, R-Rated movies, cigarettes, and flights across the country.

9. Schoolies fall

A Perth school-leaver celebrating in Bali has reportedly suffered serious injuries after falling from a balcony. 

It is reported that 17-year old Sonny Wheale fell at least six metres. His parents are flying to Bali this morning.

10. Sanook death

Melbourne Zoo have confirmed that the baby elephant Sanook died as a result of becoming stuck a large suspended tyre he was playing in.

“Sanook managed to manoeuvre it in an unusual way that caused his head to become caught. This placed pressure on his neck and would have prevented him from breathing.” Melbourne Zoo director Kevin Tanner said.

11. Santa flies with fighter jets

An American website that allows children to track

Santa in real time has been criticized in the US for linking Santa with the military. The NORAD website had 22 million visitors last year. But is in trouble from child advocates for posing Santa flanked by a fighter jet.

In Brief:

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has cut a deal with the Greens to dispense with the debt ceiling completely.

An obsessed would-be rapist who broke into a woman’s house wearing a Scream mask and armed with a “rape kit” has walked free after serving just 13 months’ jail.

The second Ashes Test begins in Adelaide this morning.