Wednesday's news in under 5 minutes.

UPDATE: Clive Palmer has reportedly become a dad for the fourth time.

The billionaire and MP tweeted today: “My lovely wife Anna has given birth to a beautiful baby girl. Mother and child are both doing well.”

He sent the tweet at 3:43pm.

Mr Palmer has one other child with Anna – a five-year-old daughter named Mary – and two children from a previous marriage.

1. Nigella court case

A court in the UK has heard that Nigella Lawson had taken cocaine through the night to help her write her books.

Her former housekeeper Francesca Grillo who is on trial for fraudulently spending £685,000 on corporate credit cards said that she often saw Nigella with white powder inside her nostril, and that the TV Chef was “absent and grumpy.” The court has previously heard that Charles Saatchi had blocked Nigella Lawson’s US TV career because he did not want her to be away from home.

Miss Grillo, said when she saw pictures of Nigella Lawson’s bust-up with Charles Saatchi in a restaurant in June, she decided the couple must have been arguing about drugs.

“The picture which stuck in my mind was Charles picking her nose. I thought maybe he had the same problem I had, he found some remains inside her nose relating to drugs and I thought maybe if he didn’t know that maybe he didn’t know that she authorised all the spending.”

The case continues.

 2. Hot car baby death

A mother whose baby died after being left in a hot car has been committed to stand trial on a charge of manslaughter.

Bendigo mother-of-three Jayde Poole indicated she will plead not guilty to the charge, after another charge of reckless conduct endangering life was dismissed.

The Judge remanded Ms Poole, who is on bail, to appear in the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne on January 22 next year.

 3. Government slashes welfare and health

The Abbott government has slashed spending and warned of serious pain to come as it tries to stop national debt soaring past $650 billion within a decade.

A rapidly deteriorating budgetary situation has forced immediate cuts in welfare, health, education and Aboriginal services.

In the area of health, Westmead Children’s Hospital will lose $100 million in funding, while the Children’s Medical Research Institute will lose $10 million and the Millennium Institute will lose $12 million.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has flagged a horror budget in May as billions of dollars are ripped out of Commonwealth spending.

But he indicated as the government delivered the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook yesterday that spending cuts rather than taxes would be required over the coming years.

He indicated that the cash-strapped government would still proceed with repealing the carbon tax even though it will cost it $7.4 billion in revenue.

4. False pregnancy

Doctors have performed an emergency C-section on a ‘heavily pregnant’ woman who was ‘in labor’- only to find that her womb was empty. The 37-year-old woman had been accompanied by midwives from south-east Brazil, since the beginning of her pregnancy and arrived at the hospital claiming sharp pains.

She reportedly arrived at the town’s women’s hospital with a large belly and proof of her pre-natal treatment, which showed she was 41 weeks’ pregnant.

The Daily Mail reports that ‘they did the surgery then had the great shock of not finding any baby at all.’.

The case was registered as a phantom, or false pregnancy. The rare condition occurs when a non-pregnant woman convinces herself she is pregnant, often even exhibiting all the classic symptoms of pregnancy.

She was released from the hospital and referred to psychiatric care.

5. Royal Commission

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that the Marist Brothers allowed child molester Brother Raymond Foster to continue teaching at the prestigious boys’ boarding school St Joseph’s College in Sydney on the strength of an assurance that he wouldn’t do it again.

6. Christmas lotto win

One lucky Queenslander is $70 million richer today after taking out the entire OZ Lotto Division 1 jackpot.

The $70 million prize is the richest lotto prize to be won in Australia.

Two West Australians have claimed consolation prizes, picking up more than $39,000 each as they shared Division 2 with another 19 people around the country.

7. Nanny paid $3 an hour

An Indian diplomat who championed women’s rights is being criminally charged in New York for paying her female nanny $3.31 an hour and lying about it on the woman’s visa application.

Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general for political, economic, commercial and women’s affairs, was arrested and handcuffed this week as she dropped her daughter off at a Manhattan school.

8. Boy and Dad in tragic hunting accident

France is in shock after a 14-year-old boy mistakenly shot his father dead while out hunting then took his own life in despair.

The father and son had been out hunting when the boy slipped on leaves, accidentally pulling the trigger.

The youth’s 42-year-old father was wounded in the legs. The distraught teenager then contacted a family member who alerted emergency services, but the father died before paramedics arrived. When he realised he had killed his father, the boy then took his own life.

If you or a loved one needs help you can contact Lifeline: 13 11 14.

 9. Husband nabbed

A woman in the US discovered her husband was cheating when a local hotel sent a survey asking about his recent stay.

The wife apparently confronted her hubby, asking for a please explain. And judging by the man’s responses to the survey, it didn’t end well.

The man’s reply was uploaded to reddit by a friend of a hotel staffer.

10. Cheap tablet

The world’s cheapest tablet has gone on sale for just A$54.

It’s called the Datawind UbiSlate 7Ci and it’s a basic 7in device that was originally launched in India as an affordable way for students to get access to the internet. Now, the slate has been made available for world market from their website.

 In Brief

Australia has reclaimed the Ashes after taking a 3-0 lead over England with a WACA victory.

Bradley John Murdoch, the man convicted of murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio, has officially lodged an appeal.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is today expected to outline an assistance package to help Holden workers find new jobs.

 What news are you talking about today?