We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.
1. Pregnant woman lives next door to hotel where guest had Zika.
A pregnant woman from Rockhampton is fearing the worst after it was revealed that the hotel next door to her had a guest diagnosed with Zika virus.
The mosquito-borne virus has been linked to a disease, microcephaly, that can cause children to be born with a small head and underdeveloped brain.
The man, a fly-in-fly-out worker was diagnosed with the illness this week.
On Wednesday authorities sprayed 29 homes in the surrounding area for mosquitos.
Queensland’s acting chief health officer Dr Sonya Bennett yesterday said Zika virus, like dengue, could be spread if an Aedes aegypti mosquito bit an infected person, was then itself infected, and then went on to bite another person.
While authorities tried to reassure locals that the chance of infection was slim Russell Burton and Jess Edwards, who live next door to the Globe Hotel where the worker was staying, are anxious as they are expecting their first baby together in nine days.
“We’ve actually had the flu the last couple of days so we’re very concerned whether it may be that or not,” Mr Burton said.
“Very nervous at the present time just waiting on getting tests done … heard about a few of the side effects that may occur because of the Zika virus and yeah, just hoping it’s going to get controlled responsibly quick.” Mr Burton told the ABC.
University of Queensland emerging viruses specialist Ian Mackay told The Brisbane Times that microcephaly was most likely to take effect in the first trimester of pregnancy but said this was preliminary information.
2. Measles outbreak hits Swinburne University.
Two of the cases of the measles epidemic are at Melbourne’s Swinburne University with medical experts warning others will come.
The university has written to students asking them to make sure they are immunised and to watch out for signs and symptoms of the disease.
“Measles is a highly infectious viral illness, which means that further cases could occur. Please continue to watch out for signs and symptoms,” the university’s note to students said.
3. Jalal brother says his arrest is “no big deal.”
The men at the centre of an online prank involving a fake AK-47 gun have been arrested.
But they say it’s “no big deal.”
Max Jalal, 20, his brother Arman Jalal, 18, and a 16-year-old boy who cannot be identified were handed themselves in to police and were arrested on Thursday following a search of a suburban Melbourne home.
Victorian police say they were charged with public nuisance, possessing a prohibited weapon and behaving in an offensive manner in a public place.
“The charges relate to material posted on a social media website,”
”I’ve been charged with public nuisance, it’s not a big deal,” the 16-year-old man told reporters.
“I reckon we’re pretty lucky with what we got.
“We did something pretty bad and the punishment … could have been worse.”
Shortly after being charged Max Jalal posted online: “Prison Break, who gone (sic) stop us?”
“Victoria Police logic: There’s rapist, pedophiles, drug dealers, the list goes on. But they’re sooooo proud they arrested us lmao. Go get some real criminals,” he added a few hours later.
4. Man who reunited with his estranged son faces rape charge.
A birth father who was reunited with his son, after he tracked him down 33-years later, faces historical rape charges after his son urged his mother to report the man to police.
John Thomas O’Connell, now 69, has pleaded not guilty to a rape he was only recently charged with after the son born from the alleged assault was reunited with his mother reports
Prosecutor Tim Hoare told Bendigo County Court on Wednesday, when the man was 33 and found his birth mother he was informed that he had been conceived when she was 16 and was raped.
She gave him up for adoption.
The man encouraged his birth mother to report it to police. The report sparked an investigation in 2013-2014, which led to DNA being taken from Mr O’Connell, the son and his mother.
The woman says that in 1967, two men she didn’t know pulled up in a car as she was walking with a friend across a bridge, Mr Hoare said.
The woman says that one of the men raped her. She reported the rape to police but according to the prosecution got a less than favourable response.
She then gave her baby up for adoption when he was six-months-old.
5. Double dissolution election early July according to reports.
News Limited reports that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is considering dissolving the Senate and going to the polls in early July with a double dissolution election to clear out the logjam in the Senate.
The Senate has stalled $36 billion in proposed government savings. News Limited reports that the PM is expected to call the double dissolution on May 11 the day after the Budget is handed down.
6. Terror warning for Indonesia.
Australian travellers have been warned that terrorists might be in the “advanced stages of preparing attacks” in Indonesia.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said in an updated travel advisory on Thursday that “recent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia,”
“We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Indonesia, including Jakarta, Bali and Lombok, due to the high threat of terrorist attack.”
The advisory did not raise the overall threat level, which is at “exercise a high degree of caution”, and said that the department continued to “receive information that indicates that terrorists may be planning attacks in Indonesia, which could take place anywhere at any time”.
7. Report finds “serious failings” at the BBC allowed Jimmy Savile to abuse 72 people.
Serial child abusers and sexual offenders Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall were allowed to operate within the BBC with impunity, a damning report has found.
The report found there was an “atmosphere of fear” within the BBC that “still exists today” – with many people who filed complaints or raised concerns relating to sexual misconduct being warned that pursuing their report would damage their careers.
One junior employee in the late 1980s, upon complaining that Savile had put his hand up her skirt, was told: “Keep your mouth shut, he is a VIP.”
BBC stars – referred to as ‘the Talent’ – were “treated with kid gloves and rarely challenged”, the report found.
“The BBC appears to have been much more concerned about its reputation and the possibility of adverse comment in the media than in actually focusing on the need to protect vulnerable young audiences,” the 1,448-page report found.
Jimmy Savile, who died in October 2011, is believed to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.
8. Sydney house where woman lay dead for eight years before her body was discovered, has sold for $1.105m at auction.
A “completely uninhabitable” Sydney house where police discovered the skeletal remains of Natalie Wood, 86, who’d lain dead for eight years, has sold for $1.105m at auction.
The Surry Hills home was described by the selling agent as a “dilapidated Victorian” possessing “unquestionable opportunity”,
“Never did I think for one minute we’d get anywhere near that price, I couldn’t believe it,” selling agent Corrinne Olsen said.
Ms Wood, whose parents owned the property became known as “the woman Sydney forgot.”
The Nine Network reports that the unidentified new owner said he would find Ms Wood’s grave and lay flowers on it.
Ms Wood’s sister-in-law reaps the profits from the sale.
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