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Tuesday's news in 5 minutes.

1. Ali Elamine responds to ex-wife Sally Faulkner’s claims on Australian Story saying “the story is over.”

Ali Elamine, the former husband of Sally Faulkner, has responded to Ms Faulkner’s claims on Australian Story surrounding their relationship and her 60 Minutes child snatch operation.

Mr Elamine has told Fairfax Media that there is nothing more that should be aired about the custody battle, saying the “story is over.”

It came to light yesterday that Mr Elamine had previously taken their elder child away from Ms Faulkner for a period of three months when she was a baby.

Ms Faulkner recalled, the pair had packed Lahela’s things into their car while they were living in Lebanon and Lahela was 10-months-old when Elamine asked her to pass their child over to his mother for a hug.

“I handed her over, she took her… she took her and walked into the house,” she said.

She didn’t see her daughter for another three months.

Overnight Mr Elamine told Fairfax Media he was not interested in having a “back and forth” with his ex-wife via the media.

“I believe the story is over and what is most important now is the wellbeing of the kids,” he said.

He refused to answer claims he had separated Ms Faulkner from Lahela after he thought his wife flirted with a tradesman when she offered him a glass of water.

“She knows the truth and she can say whatever she wants,” he said.

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He said the media was on “Sally’s side” but that he only cared about the children’s wellbeing.

“From day one she was going on her own and the media took her side while I was concerned about the kids’ state of mind, and how they should recover from the trauma they went through during the kidnapping.”

“The kids are doing well now in relation to what they went through and everything else does not matter. ”

2. Was Gable Tostee too drunk to be found guilty?

One of the issues jurors in the Gable Tostee murder trial must consider is if he was too drunk to have murdered Warriena Wright.

The jury in the 30-year-old Gold Coast carpet layer’s trial began their deliberations yesterday but were unable to reach a verdict so far reports, The Courier Mail.

Tostee has pleaded not guilty to murdering the New Zealander he met on Tinder in the early hours of August 8, 2014 when she fell to her death from the 14th floor balcony of his apartment in an alleged attempt to escape him.

Tostee’s intent is one of the key issues the jury must consider as the jury deliberates whether Tostee unlawfully killed Ms Wright by ‘‘intimidating’’ her into trying to escape by climbing over his balcony.

Justice John Byrne told jurors that intoxication, while not a defence, was a factor in determining intent

“Evidence relating to the accused’s intoxication is relevant to the issue of intent,” he said. “If, because of the evidence concerning his (Tostee’s) consumption of alcohol or otherwise, you are not satisfied the accused did in fact form the necessary intent … to cause the deceased some grievous bodily harm … you must find him not guilty of murder.

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“Intoxication … may be regarded for the purpose of ascertaining whether such an intention in fact existed.”

During the trial the court heard that Tostee’s blood-alcohol concentration was estimated to be up to .28 per cent and Ms Wright’s at .156 per cent.

Prosecutor Glen Cash argued during the trial Tostee choked Ms Wright for up to 45 seconds and that was the ‘gurgling’ noise heard on the audio tape.

Defence barrister Saul Holt last week argued Tostee did not choke Ms Wright but managed her “craziness” by restraining her.

“You don’t get convicted of murder or manslaughter for saying stupid things or for being angry,” Mr Holt said.

3. Five-year-old survives crash that tragically killed his father and grandfather.

A five-year-old boy has survived a car crash that killed three men, including his father and grandfather.

The family had travelled to a remote Hunter Valley property in NSW when the four wheel drive they were in crashed  along a ridge line and into an embankment at Gundy, 20kms east of Scone.

The boy was found hours later by police wandering near the site with a broken arm.

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The site was so remote helicopters could not reach it and paramedics had to travel in on quad bikes.

4. Family of four found dead in Sydney’s north could have been poisoned.

There is speculation that the family of four found dead in the Sydney suburb of Davidson could have been poisoned.

Fernando Manrique, 44, Maria Claudia Lutz, 43, and their two children – Elisa 11 and Martin,10, were all found dead, as well as their large dog.

Nine News reports detectives are considering the possibility the family was poisoned.

The two children who were severely disabled attended St Lucy’s school in Wahroonga. St Lucy’s acting principal Warren Hopley told reporters that Ms Lutz was an “exceptional woman.”

“I don’t think she slept for many hours of the night because of the difficulties often with the two children, and yet she would always be here helping out in every way she possibly could.”

5. Primary schools and childcare centres redesigning toilets and putting security guards outside toilet blocks to stop child-on-child sexual assaults.

The number of sexual assaults by children to other children is rising.
The Courier Mail

The Courier-Mail reports that number of sexual assaults by children was now responsible for more than 40 per cent of all sex crimes.

Melinda Tankard Reist, co-founder of Collective Shout, told The Courier Mail schools were re-thinking how they were designed.

“I’ve had at least three principals tell me they are redesigning their toilets to keep kids safe at school, and another school put a security guard on the toilet block,” Tankard Reist said.

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Bravehearts criminologist Carol Ronken said schools and childcare centres were often poorly designed leaving vulnerable areas that could not be monitored.

She said one case at a Queensland childcare centre where a young boy repeatedly cornered his peers in play areas, toilets, or the book corner and grabbed their genitals showed how deep the problem was.

“With at least three victims, the young boy tried to digitally penetrate them,” she said. “He would threaten them to ensure they would not tell.”

6. Report says Australian government ‘deliberately’ subjects refugees to abuse.

A damning report released Amnesty International says the Australian Government subjects refugees and asylum seekers to an elaborate and cruel system of abuse by holding them on Nauru.

Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Dr Anna Neistat, who travelled to Nauru in July and is one of the few people who has visited Nauru to investigate human rights abuses.

Dr Neistat accused the Australian government of running an open-air prison.

"It is a model that minimises protection and maximises harm," she said, reports AAP.

"The only direction in which Australia is leading the world on refugees is in a dangerous plunge to the bottom."

Dr Neistat said nearly everyone she spoke to on the island, including children, reported mental health issues.

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"I met children who had tried to kill themselves multiple times," she said.

“The government of Australia has isolated vulnerable women, men and children in a remote place which they cannot leave, with the specific intention that these people should suffer. And suffer they have – it has been devastating and in some cases, irreparable.

7. Chinese police to charge James Packer’s staff.

Police in China are going to charge 18 employees from James Packer’s Crown Resorts across China, including three Australians, with organising gambling activities for mainland nationals overseas, Fairfax Media reports.

The 18 staff from sales and marketing are being investigated for the inducement and facilitation of Chinese nationals travelling to Australia to gamble.

Under our country's laws, it is not just gambling and opening casinos in China which fall under gambling crimes," a source told Fairfax Media.

"If you organise or introduce our country's citizens to go overseas to gamble, if it's more than 10 people then you will face criminal liability."

According to the report foreign casinos usually “skirt” the law by promoting the resorts and cities where their gaming venues are located but these employees may have organised visas and lines of credit for Chinese nationals.

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