1. Queen Elizabeth II has been admitted to hospital for the first time in 10 years. The Queen is reportedly suffering from symptoms of gastroenteritis. Buckingham Palace has issued a statement about the monarch’s health, it read: “The Queen is being assessed at the King Edward VII hospital, London, after experiencing symptoms of gastroenteritis. As a precaution, all official engagements for this week will regrettably be either postponed or cancelled.”
2. Prime Minister Julia Gillard will spend the next five days in the suburbs of Western Sydney in an attempt to win back votes in key federal seats. More than two million people live in the area and many of the seats in the area are considered marginal. Speaking to 1000 Labor supporters last night, the PM said: “Put simply, we don’t accept that other suburbs come first and you come second.”
3. The United Nations has raised concerns over Australia’s welfare cuts for single parents. They said the cuts which came into effect this year – and which have seen some single parents’ payments cut by as much as $100 a week – could be a violation of Australia’s human rights obligations.
4. A US couple on route to a hospital delivery room have been killed in a car accident – but their baby survived. The son of Nathan and Raizy Glauber, both 21, was born premature and is in a serious condition in hospital. The driver of the BMW that hit the car he and his parents were travelling in fled the scene.
5. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald‘s traditional broadsheet design is no longer. Both Fairfax papers will move to a tabloid style from today.
6. In the US, there’s been reports of a Hurricane Sandy baby boom. Doctors are saying they’re seeing around a 10 per cent increase of pregnancies that originated at the time of the storm – when many people were house bound because of wild weather.
7. Australian troops have been accused of causing the deaths of two children in Afghanistan. Uruzgan provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada said the troops shot the children by accident during a clash with Taliban insurgents. But the Australian defence force says it’s too early to say what happened.
8. Australia’s leading radiation watchdog is warning parents about the dangers of keeping baby monitors too close to their children at night. The Federal Government’s Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency said baby monitors should be kept at least a metre away from cots. They also warned of the dangers of mobile phones and cordless phones – because of lack of evidence.
Top Comments
How about the news of how CocaCola are intent on destroying our environments and oceans? http://www.abc.net.au/news/...
Im not sure I understand the UNs reaction to the welfare cuts. Don't get me wrong- I understand why people in Australia are upset about it, and don't question the need for welfare. But the US and UK basically has no welfare for many sectors of society that need it. Our welfare system has always been comparatively generous. I wonder if the UN has expressed concern over the rest of the developed world too? Surely with all the atrocities and human rights violations around the world that i s a bit of a storm in a tea cup?
Yeah I don't get this either. Strangely when I get emails from Amnesty talking about people being persecuted for their skin colour, beliefs, whatever...I don't think of how they're doing it just as tough as those on PPS. The day anyone starts believing it's our right to access welfare payments instead of acknowledging how immensely privileged we are in this particular country is the day we're all f'd.