1. Two killed and four injured as 15-year-old student opens fire in Washington school.
A teacher has heroically prevented a massacre from occurring at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington. First-year social studies teacher, Megan Silberberger, reportedly walked up to the armed student, 15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg, and grabbed his arm as he reloaded his gun after shooting five people in the school’s cafeteria.
According to the DailyMail, Fryberg was a popular student, crowned homecoming prince, he also loved to play football and was a known gun enthusiast. According to reports, he had been recently suspended from the school’s football team and also “rejected by a girl”. His final tweet, posted the night before the shooting, read “It won’t last … It’ll never last … “.
The shooting, which only lasted two minutes before Silberberger intervened, resulted in one student being killed and four injured before Fryberg shot himself dead. A candlelit vigil was held for the local community last night.
2. New York orders mandatory quarantine for travellers as doctor tests positive for Ebola.
The governors of New York and New Jersey have ordered the quarantining of all people entering through the two area airports who have had direct contact with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. This announcement comes as an American doctor, Dr. Craig Spencer, has tested positive for the virus after returning from Guinea earlier this month.
“A voluntary Ebola quarantine is not enough,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told The New York Times. “This is too serious a public health situation,” he said.
There is reportedly no serious risk posed by Dr. Spencer’s diagnosis, as it was detected early and anyone believed to be at risk has also been identified and quarantined. Doctors and health officials are confident that the chances of the average New Yorker contracting the virus are slim.
Meanwhile President Obama has met with Nina Pham, the Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola and was cleared of the virus on Friday. The 26-year-old nurse, who met with Obama in the Oval Office, was given a hug by the President. Pham was the first American nurse to contract the virus after she cared for Thomas Eric Duncan who died earlier this month.
You can read more about Australia’s response to the Ebola outbreak here.
3. Two men found dead at Sydney’s Central Station.
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the mysterious deaths of two men at Sydney’s Central Station yesterday afternoon. The bodies of the men, who caught a train from the NSW Central Coast together, were found shortly after their country train terminated.
News.com.au reports that the men, both aged 40, knew each other and boarded the train together at Woy Woy Station. Officers reportedly found one man unresponsive inside a toilet cubicle on the train shortly after its arrival at Central. Moments later, the second man was found unresponsive in a men’s restroom on the country rail concourse. Attempts to revive both men were unsuccessful.
Post mortems will be conducted to determine the causes of death, however police have said the circumstances are not suspicious.
4. 15-year old ISIS fighter describes atrocities.
15 year-old Kareem Mufleh who is being held prisoner by a Kurdish group fighting Islamic State has confessed that he fought for IS, but his reason for it is shocking: “They captured my village and gave me a choice,” he said. “Either join ISIS, or be beheaded.”
The teen has told CBS that he was drugged and forced to witness violent crimes when ISIS seized villages in Syria. “I even saw them kill a woman because her wedding dress showed her neck and bare arms,” Mufleh said.
He says that he was drugged with medication before he fought for ISIS. “That drug makes you lose your mind,” he said. “If they give you a suicide belt and tell you to blow yourself up, you’ll do it.”
5. Fraser Island returned to traditional indigenous owners.
Yesterday, the Federal Court of Australia recognised the native title rights of the indigenous Butchulla tribe, who have lived on Fraser Island in Queensland for 50,000 years.
Federal Court Justice Berna Collier visited the world’s largest sand island to make the announcement and said that, having examined all of the submissions, historical, anthropological and genealogy reports, she was “satisfied that the Butchulla people of this country hold rights and interests”.
This recognition of rights will allow the Butchulla people to maintain places of importance and significance, camp, hunt, teach and participate in rituals and ceremonies.
The Courier Mail spoke to a ranger on Fraser Island, Mr Tobane who is also one of the Butchulla people. He said that native title recognition means that he and his tribe have “come home” and can rediscover their native traditions on Fraser Island (called K’Gari by the traditional owners).
“This is our beginning. This is the start. My boys love K’Gari. They don’t want to go to theme parks. They want me to take them to K’Gari.”
6. Kurtley Beale fined but not suspended for offensive texts to female staff member.
Kurtley Beale’s rugby career was saved last night when he was declared eligible for Wallabies selection, despite breaching the code of conduct for an offensive image and text he sent to team business manager Di Patson in June. He was fined $45,000 for the offence.
The Brisbane Times reports that the Australian Rugby Union will donate the fine to “a suitable organisation that promotes the empowerment of women”.
More about this case can be found here.
7. Pets could soon be allowed to travel on Canberra buses.
The ACT Government is considering letting domestic pets ride on ACTION buses if they are held in a suitable cage or container. ABC News reports that the proposed policy change has been met with support by the RSPCA, who welcome the change as it would allow users with restricted access to a car to take their animals to the vet.
8. The Mo, Evie and Otis Maslin Foundation to be launched.
The Sydney Morning Herald has launched a fund to support a foundation in memory of Mo, Evie and Otis Maslin, the siblings from Western Australia who were killed in the MH17 disaster.
According to the Herald, “It is the newspaper’s hope that, together, we can create a substantial and lasting foundation to honour the memory of Mo, 12, Evie, 10 and Otis, 8, and the bravery of their parents.”
The foundation will aim to help those children living with dyslexia and other learning difficulties, as well as their families. This is a cause particularly close to the family’s heart as Otis had recently been diagnosed with dyslexia.
Today marks 100 days since the plane was gunned down over eastern Ukraine.
To make a donation to the Mo, Evie and Otis Maslin Foundation, click .
Read the statement made by their parents at the funeral of the Maslin children here.
9. American teenager writes children’s picture book about growing up transgender.
A 14-year-old Florida teenager, Jazz Jennings, has written a children’s picture book about growing up transgender. Jennings, who was born a male but started identifying as a female at age two, has been named one of the world’s most influential teens for her contribution to this topic.
According to news.com.au Ms Jennings, who was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder at age five, will have to wait until she is 18 to have gender reassignment surgery. She uses the book to explain that she has “a girl brain but a boy body.”
Top Comments
#1. Love the photo of teenage killer Jaylen Fryberg happily holding his birthday present. A gun (or rifle, whatever.) Isn't it great when moronic American parents give a teenager a weapon for their birthday and they post a lovely photo of it on Facebook?
Finally!!! Some sense in the whole Ebola thing! Isolating aid workers and other people who have had contact with Ebola for a mandatory period, in a place that is equipped to deal with the disease makes more sense than allowing these people to go home to their own towns which aren't equipped and staff aren't trained. Introduce this measure in Australia too!
Sounds like a good measure...but is it? Imagine having no symptoms, finding yourself in quarantine with quite a number of people, some of whom may very well develop the disease. Will the conditions be made safe enough to protect you? Or are all those people, including you, now inevitably exposed to great risk?
Well you've already been exposed to Ebola, which is why you're there. I imagine they continue to keep you in 'safe' conditions so you don't infect others....which is the whole nature of ebola. I'm sure they're not all sharing twin beds and spas while they wait out the incubation period.