Thursday'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. Father who placed a blanket in baby son’s mouth to stop him crying denied bail to attend son’s funeral.

Seven-month-old Shisui Grady O’Meara died of unknown causes. via Facebook.

Police allege a 20-year-old Perth father placed a blanket in the mouth of his crying seven-month-old son to “settle” him for 20 minutes after he had broken the baby’s arm.

The baby, died shortly after had he suffered a broken forearm and fractured wrist and elbow, but a cause of death had not been established.

His parents reported he was “cold to touch” when they went to wake him several hours later.

His father, Dylan Clinton O’Meara, 20, is accused of causing grievous bodily harm to baby Shisui Grady O’Meara, but police expect to upgrade the charge to manslaughter or murder when a post mortem is complete reports 7 News.

Yesterday O’Meara applied for bail so he could attend his son’s funeral.

Police allege Mr O’Meara forcefully pulled his son by the forearm from his cot on April 8 as he tried to feed him.

Sergeant Chadd Graham told the court "in an attempt to settle the crying" Mr O’Meara placed a blanket in his son's mouth for him to bite on for around 20 minutes later while he listened to loud music on his iPod and fell asleep.

The court heard Mr O’Meara had experienced some psychotic episodes and needed treatment.

Magistrate Martin Flynn refused bail and placed Mr O'Meara on a hospital order.

2. Smacking study shows long-term damage from spanking a child.

A 50-year study has shown that children who are spanked are more likely to defy their parents, behave anti-socially, and experience increased aggression, mental health problems and cognitive difficulties.

The study, published in the Journal of Family Psychology study, looked at five decades of research involving over 160,000 children.

“We found that spanking was associated with unintended detrimental outcomes and was not associated with more immediate or long-term compliance, which are parents’ intended outcomes when they discipline their children,” said Elizabeth Gershoff, associate professor of human development and family sciences at The University of Texas at Austin.

Co-author Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, from the University of Michigan School of Social Work, said: "The upshot of the study is that spanking increases the likelihood of a wide variety of undesired outcomes for children. Spanking thus does the opposite of what parents usually want it to do."

Gershoff said: “We as a society think of spanking and physical abuse as distinct behaviours,” she says. “Yet our research shows that spanking is linked with the same negative child outcomes as abuse, just to a slightly lesser degree.”

According to a 2014 UNICEF report up to 80 per cent of parents around the world spank their children. A study in 2014 said that 90% of Australian parents said smacking was ok.

3. Baby dies of suspected spider bite.

A two-month-old baby boy has died in Perth from a suspected spider bite.

The baby, Lance Ryder was flown from Geraldton to Perth for treatment after his parents found a spider bite on his hand but he died on Monday night.

"Such a tragedy to hold yr [sic] dying son in your arms ... suffering from a spider bite on his hand this little battler lost his fight for life some 10 hours later after being flown to Perth by the Royal Flying Doctor” his aunt Kathleen Nelly wrote on a fundraising website set up to help the boy's family.

Doctors are yet to confirm if Lance's death was caused by a spider bite.

His death comes just weeks after the death of 22-year-old northern Sydney man Jayden Burleigh who died from a redback bite.

4. Son arrested over woman’s death in Melbourne.

Homicide detectives in Melbourne have arrested the son of an elderly woman who was found dead in her house in Melbourne’s southeast.

Neighbours reported screaming in the moments before the woman’s death.

Socrates Tamvakis, 44, was arrested yesterday after a local café owner recognized him as a customer in his café.

The Herald Sun reports that Maurizio Brusco saw a photo of Tamvakis on a TV news reports. Police had released his image after he had not been seen since his mother’s death.

Violetta Tamvakis, 74, suffered fatal wounds in an alleged violent assault with a weapon in the front room of her Bentleigh house.

5. Dutton still wants to negotiate with PNG over decision to close Manus detention centre.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton wants to negotiate with the Papua New Guinea government over the planned closure of the Manus Island detention centre.

Yesterday PNG’s Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's said the centre would close followed a PNG Supreme Court ruling that the centre was illegal and unconstitutional but Mr Dutton has said he would continue discussions with the neighbouring government.

NG MP Ronnie Knight said Mr Dutton's statement was unrealistic

“I don't see that can happen unless there's a major, drastic improvement in the way (the men) are treated,” Mr Knight told the ABC.

6. Radiographer disqualified after exposing patient's vagina.

A Perth radiographer who admitted he pulled a woman's underpants down without consent and spread her legs to expose her vagina has been banned from practicing for 18 months.

The ABC reports that Pei Ren Un was taken to the State Administrative Tribunal this month by the Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia.

Mr Un admitted untying the patient's robe and pulling her underwear down without her consent, he then pushed her knees apart, exposing her vagina.

Mr Un said he told the woman who kept trying to cover herself with her robe admitted "Why bother, I have seen it all anyway".

Mr Un was found to have committed professional misconduct by breaching professional boundaries and engaging in sexual misconduct.

He was also found to have failed to treat the patient with respect, informed consent and behaviour that warranted the trust of the community.

7. Baby born on Jetstar flight named after airline.

A woman who went into labor while flying from Singapore to Burma has named her baby after the airline.

The crew on board called for medical assistance when the woman went into unexpected labor and three doctors on the flight came forward to help.

The mum named her baby Saw Jet Star after the airline and Jetstar customer service manager Saw Ler Htu, who the mother said was particularly helpful.

Asia One reports other passengers on the flight, mostly Myanmar nationals, "received the news with applause".

It is understood that both mother, named Star, and baby are in good health and have been discharged from hospital.

The 2.9kg baby boy is the first to be delivered on a Jetstar Asia flight.

8. Teenage boys consume 38 teaspoons of sugar a day.

We are a nation of sugar eaters, with half of all Australians exceeding the World Health Organisation’s recommendations they consume less than 13 teaspoons or sugar a day.

Teenage boys are the worst offenders, consuming 38 teaspoons of sugar a day. New results from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Health Survey shows on average we’re consuming 14 teaspoons of sugar a day and most of it is in drinks or sugar added to processed food.

News Limited reports that three-quarters of nine-13 and 14-18 year olds get 10 per cent or more of their dietary energy from sugars.

Some experts have called for the government to follow Britain’s lead and introduce tax on sugary drinks in next week’s budget.

9. Court orders father to pay for upkeep of 28-year-old son.

I'm NOT going. Via IStock.

An Italian court has ordered a middle-aged father to keep supporting his 28-year-old son through university.

The father had tried to get the 28-year-old to get a part time job saying that he should no longer be obliged to support his son.

Under a divorce settlement he had had to pay for the young man’s tertiary education.

The Telegraph reports the 28-year-old had completed a degree in literature, taking several years longer than expected to finish the course, and has now enrolled on a post-graduate course in experimental cinema in Bologna.

The father told the court  “He does not deserve any further financial support, having made no effort to find work to support himself,” he told the court.

But the civil court in Modena ruled that the cinema course is in keeping with the son's "personal aspirations" and must be paid for by his father.

Around 65 per cent of Italians aged 18 to 34 still live with their parents, the highest percentage of young stay-at-homes anywhere in Europe.

The Telegraph reports that case underlines “the country's problem with ‘bamboccioni’ - spoilt "big babies" who refuse to leave home and instead sponge off their parents.”

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