Thursday's news in under 5 minutes

BREAKING NEWS:

A four-year old boy has been found dead in a lake on the Sunshine Coast, half an hour after being reported missing by his parents.

The pre-schooler went missing from his home at 7.30pm last night and police were alerted. Tragically a search for the boy found him face down in Currimundi Lake last night.

Two weeks ago Connor Graham, also aged four and from Queensland, drowned in the Clarence River in northern New South Wales.

1. 9 years old and drunk

The YouTube video shows the young boy, from Hamilton in NZ drinking a bourbon and cola drink slumped against a wall before stumbling around and attempting to ride a scooter surrounded by other youths. His mother has told the NZ Herald that she was “extremely angry” that an adult (in the video he says it was his Aunt) had supplied alcohol to her son. She was also angry that a number of people had seen the events unfold but did not contact her or police immediately.

The police say they are considering charges under the sale of alcohol act. However, the legislation around the supplying of alcohol to minors “never envisaged an adult supplying alcohol to a 9-year-old child”.

2. Memorial Service

A memorial service for the mother and daughter who died tragically on the weekend in Bali will be held at a Caloundra church, on the Sunshine Coast, this morning.

It has been reported this morning that their bodies will be flown home to Queensland in the coming days.

Acting Attorney-General David Crisafulli said once the bodies arrived in Brisbane, autopsies would be carried out by the Coroner.

3. Asylum Seekers claim mistreatment

Two men who claim they were on asylum seeker boats towed back to Indonesia by the Australian Navy have told the ABC they were mistreated before being abandoned at sea.

One Sudanese man says he and his wife paid $6,000 to travel from Indonesia to Australia, but the engine broke down on New Year’s Day. He says after the group called the United Nations for help, two Australian naval ships arrived.

The man claims the Navy used force on some people, including women, while transferring them to one of the Navy boats, and that some fell into the sea.

The Government has denied the claims that people fell overboard.

4. Forcing kids to kiss relatives may be harmful

A sex education chief in the UK has been criticised over warnings that forcing children to kiss relatives could be harmful and suggesting that encouraging a youngster to high-five or wave instead could help them avoid future sexual exploitation.

For more read this post here “Forcing kids to kiss relatives: harmless or harmful? 

5. Baby weaning

A new study has shown that babies who are spoon-fed are more likely to be overweight than babies who are fed through a ‘baby led weaning’ approach.

The study by Swansea University found infants weaned using a baby-led approach were “significantly more” able to stop eating when they felt full.

These results were independent of other factors such as mother’s background, birth weight, weaning age and breastfeeding.

6. Salmonella scare

A salmonella outbreak at a Vietnamese restaurant in Melbourne has caused at least 21 people to fall ill. Two heavily pregnant women were among them.

The restaurant, Hao Phong on Hopkins St in Footscray has forced at least three people to admit themselves to hospital.

The restaurant has been closed to the public until further notice.

7. Offensive t-shirt

The supermarket chain Aldi has removed a range of t-shirts after copping backlash on social media.

The shirts were designed with a slogan that read “Australia est. 1788”. A twitter storm erupted over the offensive design with many calling it racist.

7. Gay man fights for recognition as father.

A two-year-old girl is caught up in a custody battle between her sperm-donor gay father and her lesbian mothers.

The lesbian couple are the girl’s legal parents because they were in a defacto relationship when she was born and therefore the “father” is not considered a parent under the law, Judge Judith Small said in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

But the judge has ruled he still has the right to play a significant role in her life and the mothers must put his name on all the girl’s medical and school forms and make sure he is included in events and functions usually attended by a child’s family.

9. 10-year-old bomber

A 10-year-old girl would-be suicide bomber has told police her brother wrapped an explosive suicide vest on her and told her to approach a police checkpoint.

But she said she refused to carry out the attack the next day.

She said her brother promised the police would die but she would live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-PjlWZ-hxY

10. Worst diets

The Dietitians Association of Australia has announced the ‘worst diets in the country.’

The ‘Lemon Detox Diet’ came out as the worst followed by the ‘SkinnyMe Tea Diet’, Ashy Bines’ online ‘Clean Eating Diet Plan’ was third worst diet for 2014 receiving votes from 32 per cent of experts.

11. CSIRO to step up its dragon research

The CSIRO has promised to step up its dragon research program,  after a seven year old girl, Sophie Lester, from Queensland, sent a letter to them to ask for a female, toothless dragon.

The CSIRO responded releasing a statement apologising to the nation for their lack of a dragon research program.

“Over the past 87 odd years we have not been able to create a dragon or dragon eggs… our work has never ventured into dragons of the mythical, fire breathing variety,” CSIRO said in a statement.

“And for this Australia, we are sorry.”

12. English cricketers talk man down

Two English cricketers Matt Prior and Stuart Broad have been credited with helping prevent a suicidal man from jumping off a bridge in Sydney’s Darling Harbour.

Prior and Broad, who had been attending a Barmy Army charity event nearby, talked to the man for nearly an hour before police arrived.

If you or anyone you know needs help contact Lifeline on 13 11 14

 In Brief:

WA braces itself for a heatwave

A Sydney father of five has been killed in the South Sudan conflict

 What news are you talking about today?