1. Peter Greste re-trial
The family of Peter Greste say they are disappointed that a Cairo court ordered a retrial for the Australian journalist rather than grant him bail.
Greste, who has been imprisoned in an Egyptian jail for a year along with two of his colleagues, were granted the retrial by Egypt’s top court last night.
However the three were not granted bail.
reports that Lois Greste, Peter Greste’s mother, said the verdict was “not as good as we hoped.”
The retrial means their convictions and sentences have been lifted and the journalists go back to being prisoners charged and awaiting trial.
The retrial could take up to a year to take place. There is hope, however, as Fairfax Media reports that Greste and his colleagues could be deported via a presidential decree.
[raw]
2. Adelaide New Year’s Eve murder
A Sydney woman has been found dead in a hotel room in Adelaide.
The Advertiser reports that the 26-year-old woman was found dead at the Grand Chancellor Hotel.
Police are investigating whether the woman had links to the sex industry.
Detective Inspector Greg Hutchins said that signs of violence in the room made it clear the woman had been murdered.
3. QZ8501 body laid to rest
The first victim of AirAsia flight QZ8501 has been buried in a ceremony in the Indonesian city of Surabaya.
She has been identified as a female flight attendant, Hayati Lutfiah Hamid.
Theories on why the plane crashed have begun to emerge with reporting that radar data appeared to show that the aircraft’s “unbelievably” steep climb – to 34,000ft to avoid bad weather may have been beyond the Airbus A320’s limits.
As debris is uncovered one expert says he believes the plane made a successful emergency landing on the ocean but was overcome by high seas. As the first two pieces of debris found were an emergency exit door and an inflatable slide, Former air force commander Chappy Hakim told AFP that he believes passengers may have started to evacuate the plane.
“The conclusions I have come to so far are that the plane did not blow up mid-air, and it did not suffer an impact when it hit a surface, because if it did so then the bodies would not be intact.”
A shadow of the plane believed to have been spotted on the seabed also shows the plane may have been largely intact.
There are reports that some passengers have been found wearing life vests.
4. SA and Victorian Fires
Much of South Australia faces total fire bans today with a heat wave settling in across the state. Adelaide is expecting a top of 42 degrees today.
There is a catastrophic fire danger rating in the Mount Lofty Ranges and Lower South East.
In Victoria total fire bans have been declared for eight of nine districts in Victoria today, on Saturday the entire state will be under a total fire ban.
Temperatures will climb to 43 Celsius at Mildura, Swan Hill, Horsham and Echuca today and Saturday, and are forecast to hit 40c in Melbourne.
For fire warnings in Victoria visit the CFA website.
For SA fire warnings visit the CFS website.
4. Man Haron Monis lectures to Sydney mosques
News Limited has uncovered a series of lectures delivered by Man Haron Monis to packed Sydney prayer halls in 2009 which call for an “Islamic society”.
The man who went on to hold 18 people hostage at the Lindt café called for Islamic justice and for a caliphate with one religion.
“Society should behave in an Islamic manner ” he says in the recordings.
In his lecture he talks about the importance of monitoring “friends”.
“An ignorant friend is worse than an enemy, why? Because you are always are cautious of your enemy,” he said.
“An enemy would bluntly claim that they are the enemy. An ignorant friend claims that they are friends and they approach you, you would socialize with them and associate with them, but one day like a bear, they lift a big stone and they hit it to the face of that person and kills him.”
The lecture was conducted the same year Monis fell off the national security watch list.
5. US House of Horrors
A 31-year-old mother has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of fetal death concealment relating to the remains of three babies found in the cupboard of her home in the US.
Investigators found two more living children hidden in the house.
“The pediatricians had to literally clean the maggots out of the ears of the three-year old girl so that she was able to hear correctly”
For more read this post here.
6. Breastfeeding Mum told to “put her boob away”
A mother on the Sunshine Coast has been shocked to be told by a fellow mother to put “her boob away” when she was breastfeeding her infant son.
Jodie Tangikara told The Sunshine Coast Daily that she was at popular water park, Splash Lagoon breastfeeding her baby when a woman smoking a cigarette glared at her.
Ms Tangikara said she glared back at the woman as she didn’t like her smoking so close to children.
“She said ‘I think you should put your boob away. You shouldn’t have your boob out around children, especially my children’,” Ms Tangikara said.
“I just thought, ‘well love, what I’m doing is perfectly legal and what you are doing (smoking) is perfectly illegal’,” Ms Tangikara said.
“I kept the peace because there were children around.”
She told the newspaper that it was not the first time she had faced harassment because she was breastfeeding.
7. Record number arrested over drugs at Festival
Police have arrested a record number of people in relation to drug offences at a New Year’s Day dance festival in Sydney.
214 people were arrested at ‘Fuzzy Field Day 2015’, held at The Domain yesterday.
Major arrests included three people arrested and charged with drug supply offences.
A 20-year-old woman was found to be in possession of 75 ecstasy tablets; a 21-year-old woman was found with 50 ecstasy tablets, and a 19-year-old man was found to be in possession of 40 ecstasy tablets.
All three were charged with supplying drugs and granted conditional bail.
8. British couple whose baby came early left with massive medical bill
A British couple who went to New York on a five day getaway have e left stranded with medical bills of up to US$200 000 after their baby came 11 weeks early.
Katie Amos, 30, went into labour just days into her holiday.
Baby son Dax was born weighing just 1.3 kilos. Doctors have said the baby will not be able to fly home until March.
His dad Lee said, “The good news is Dax is doing really well. It was just amazing to see Katie holding him.
“The only problem is we aren’t sure if our insurance covers the medical bill” reports The Daily Mail.
They have started a crowd-funding site to help them finance the next few months.
9. ‘Nervous flyer’ prompts Qantas flight to return to Melbourne
By ABC
A Qantas flight was forced to return to Melbourne shortly after take off because of a passenger who was a “nervous flyer”.
Fifteen minutes into Thursday’s Qantas Link flight to Hobart the passenger, identified as an 18-year-old man, became “quite fidgety and agitated”, according to a Qantas spokeswoman.
She said the captain decided they were not that far from Melbourne and the plane returned to the airport at about 1:00pm (AEDT).
Officers from the Australian Federal Police met the aircraft on arrival to investigate and interviewed the man.
They determined there was no threat and no further action was taken.
The flight left Melbourne about 45 minutes later.
The airline said reports the passenger attempted to open the exit door were “unconfirmed”, however due to air pressure the exit doors could not have been opened at that altitude.
A version of this story was originally published on ABC and has been republished with full permission.
10. Restaurant shames customers who forgot to pay for meal.
The British restaurant, Burger & Lobster’s new Cardiff restaurant wrote on their Facebook page.
“To this family that walked out tonight without paying their bill, we are sure this was just a ‘mistake’ and you completely forgot, so out of the goodness of your heart please call the restaurant tomorrow to pay the bill. Thanks.”
After more than 600 people commented the restaurant decided to delete the photo.
Many critics of the action are saying that there is a chance the family simply forgot and the post which was put up only minutes after they left was too much.
One saying “People make mistakes like this all the time, especially if there is a few of them.
“I’ve had to go back and pay after leaving and realising. Not a very professional approach by this food chain if these customers have left in error!
“I don’t like the way in which you operate and puts me off ever coming into your establishment! Disgusting!”
Walesonline reports that the family have since returned and paid the bill.
11. Boy saves sister from dog
Now this is love.
A brother has saved his baby sister from a dog attack in India. The amazing footage shows 10-year old Kashish fighting with the German shepherd for 10 minutes before he managed to free his 15-month old sister from the determined animal.
“I pulled her by her arms and tried all my force to save her. I am thankful to God that she is fine. I love her so much and will do anything to protect her,” he said.
Top Comments
I think it would be really easy to forget to pay for a meal.I have nearly done this myself several times. It's totally different to deliberately skipping out. As for number 8 really really silly to travel to another country 11 weeks before your due date without top comprehensive cover or checking whether you were covered. And it s a reasonably long fligh too (5 hours?) wouldn't you only do that if it was really vital not for a holiday? I do feel sorry for them though!
Are we having a Best & Worst today?
It's up now :)