We’ve rounded up the latest headlines – from Australia and around the world – so you can catch-up on the latest news in under five minutes.
1. NSW government reviews time limit on child sexual abuse claims.
By ABC News
The New South Wales Government is considering removing a time limit on legal claims being lodged by victims of child sexual abuse.
Under existing laws, victims of child sexual abuse in NSW typically have between three and 12 years to sue for damages in a civil court before the statute of limitations can be used to block their claims.
But Attorney-General Brad Hazzard said the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had highlighted the trauma this causes victims, who often taken years to work up the courage to come forward.
“Most of us would be thinking after hearing the horror stories at the royal commission that removing the limitation would be a good way to go,” said Mr Hazzard.
“People who have suffered at the hands of others sometimes take 20, 30 years to just build up the courage to be able to say anything.
“With that background now it’s a bit strange that there’s a limitation in the law that says you can’t bring proceedings.”
A version of this post originally appeared on ABC News and has been republished with permission.
2. US government reportedly agrees former David Hicks is innocent.
By ABC News
The United States has agreed that former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Australian David Hicks, is innocent, his lawyer has said.
Mr Hicks pleaded guilty in 2007 to providing “material support for terrorism” but his legal team claimed that he did so under duress and filed an appeal last year.
Mr Hicks’s lawyer was confident his name was set to be cleared after the change of position by the US government.
Mr Hicks had appealed against his 2007 conviction for providing material support for terrorism.
Lawyer Stephen Kenny said they had been told the government did not dispute his innocence and also admitted that his conviction was not correct.
He expected to hear within a month whether the Military Commission would quash his conviction.
A version of this post originally appeared on ABC News and has been republished with permission.
3. Campbell Newman and Jeff Seeney sue Alan Jones for defamation.
By ABC News
Clive Palmer says he will help pay Alan Jones‘ legal fees, after Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and his deputy Jeff Seeney announced they would sue the broadcaster for defamation.
Mr Newman and Mr Seeney are suing Jones and Brisbane Radio station 4BC for aggravated damages over comments Jones made in broadcasts this week during the state election campaign.
In a statement of claim filed on Thursday in the Supreme Court in Brisbane and obtained by the ABC, Mr Newman and Mr Seeney claim each of them has been “greatly injured in his credit and reputation” by Jones’s broadcasts.
The pair are suing over three broadcasts, made on the mornings of January 19, 20, and 21, in which Jones said Mr Newman had lied to him about plans for the expansion of the New Hope coal mine at Acland on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland.
Mr Newman and Mr Seeney, who gave their addresses as Liberal National Party (LNP) headquarters in Brisbane, argue in the statement of claim that they were defamed by Jones when he claimed the LNP received a “bribe” of $700,000 from the owners of the mine in the form of donations to the party, and this induced Mr Newman and Mr Seeney to approve the expansion plan.
A version of this post originally appeared on ABC News and has been republished with permission.
4. The are the 25 worst passwords of 2014
Bad news if your password begins with “1234…”
SplashData, which makes password management applications, has released its annual list of the 25 worst passwords based on files containing over 3.3. million passwords leaked in 2014, and and here’s is the full list:
1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345
4. 12345678
5. qwerty
6. 123456789
7. 1234
8. baseball
9. dragon
10. football
11. 1234567
12. monkey
13. letmein
14. abc123
15. 111111
16. mustang
17. access
18. shadow
19. master
20. michael
21. superman
22. 696969
23. 123123
24. batman
25. trustno1
Unsurprisingly, cyber-security experts often say that the harder the password is for you to remember, the more secure it is.
5. Abbott asks Indonesia to reconsider death penalty for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukamaran.
By ABC News
Prime Minister Tony Abbott spoke to the families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran on Friday, saying they face “an unimaginably difficult time” and promised to continue to work to stop the executions of the pair.
But the Catholic priest who provided care to the family of the last Australian executed overseas – Van Tuong Nguyen, who was hanged in Singapore in 2005 – said Mr Abbott and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop had not so far been strong enough in their appeals for mercy for the condemned pair.
In calling for Indonesia to reconsider executing the pair, Mr Abbott said the two men – the ringleaders of the Bali nine drug traffickers – were “reformed characters and both have helped to rehabilitate other prisoners”.
“The prerogative of mercy should be extended to them,” Mr Abbott said.
Chan’s bid for clemency to Indonesian President Joko Widodo was rejected earlier this week, which means he is likely to be executed with Sukumaran.
Mr Abbott repeated his opposition to the death penalty in Australia and overseas.
“While Australia respects Indonesia’s sovereignty, we are asking that Indonesia reconsider its decision to execute two Australian citizens,” Mr Abbott said.
“The government has made representations at the highest levels.”
A version of this post originally appeared on ABC News and has been republished with permission.
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Top Comments
David hick is far from innocent, in his own words......Dear family I spent around three months in a muslim military training camp in the mountains.I learnt about weapons such as ballistic missiles, surface to surface and shoulder fired missiles, anti aircraft and anti-tank rockets, rapid fire heavy and light machine guns, pistols, AK47s, mines and explosives. After three months everybody leaves capable and war-ready being able to use all of these weapons capably and responsibly.
The Christians and Jews are fighting the Muslims. As a practicing Muslim with military experience I can go to help in any of those conflicts contacts are not a problem.
Hicks admitted that while he was in Pakistan he fired “hundreds of bullets” into Indian territory; and “intelligence sources have said that Hicks trained longer with al-Qa'ida than did any other Westerner”. In a charge-sheet set out in February this year, Hicks was “even alleged to have been personally vetted by Mohammed Atef - Osama bin Laden's security chief who was killed in 2001 and who has been credited with inspiring Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to engineer the attacks”. (Editorial, Weekend Australian, January 6-7, 2007)