We’ve got the biggest news stories from Australia and around the world so you don’t have to go searching.
1. 15 minutes to live
Sydney siege hostages have spoken to 60 Minutes and the Seven Network’s Sunday Night saying that Man Horan Monis told them they had 15 minutes to live.
One of the hostages, Marcia Mikhael, a 43-year-old mother-of-three said that she lost hope at one point.
“He told us, ‘For every person that escapes, I will shoot two.’ That was when I lost hope.”
“That’s when I asked him if I could call my kids and if I could speak to them.
“I actually wanted to hear their voices for the last time.
“I told them that I loved them very much and I needed them to remember that.
“My eldest son kept telling me ‘Mum, stop it, everything’s going to be okay’ and I kept telling him ‘I know, I know but just remember that I love you, I love you so much’ and then I had to hang up.”
Hostage Selina Win Pe has told 60 Minutes that she begged for her life.
“I said please don’t shoot me, please don’t shoot me.
“I only have my mum, please don’t shoot me. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, ‘You have 15 minutes.'”
2. Prince Andrew denies claims of underage sex slave
The Duke of York has finally broken his silence over claims he had an underage sex slave.
He said he wanted to “reiterate and to reaffirm the statements which have already been made on my behalf by Buckingham Palace”.
“My focus is on my work and this evening’s reception allows me to tell you about just a couple of the initiatives that I have founded and am passionate about.”
And that was the extend of his statement, before he went on with the prepared speech.
Royal watchers have expressed surprise that the Duke responded at all.
Two days ago Prince Andrew was asked formally respond to claims made in the US by his alleged victim, Virginia Roberts in a letter filed by her lawyers.
She detailed in her claim extensive allegations of having sex with the Prince on three different occasions, including one “orgy” with seven other young women.
3. Bali 9 execution date yet to be set
The execution date for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran is yet to be set according to the office of the Indonesian attorney-general.
Late yesterday a decree from Indonesian President Joko Widodo denied clemency to drug trafficker Andrew Chan.
Indonesia plans to execute the two Bali 9 ringleaders together, reports AAP.
4. Gold Coast double murders
A 36-year-old man charged with the murders of a man and a woman in Upper Coomera has been identified as an Australian Army soldier, and the ex-husband of one of the victims.
It is believed that Renee Carter, 39, and her partner, Corey Croft, 43, were stabbed to death.
Carter’s ex-husband, Christopher Robert Carter, a 36-year-old serving soldier, was charged with two counts of murder yesterday.
The Gold Coast Bulletin reports that the five-year-old son of Renee Carter and Corey Croft was alone in the house with the dead bodies of his parents for 24 hours before a female relative discovered him.
Police believe he did not witness the murder of his parents.
The Gold Coast Bulletin reports that the little boy told a neighbour, “I’m going to take them to hospital to fix their cuts so they can get better.”
5. Time running out for Japanese hostages
Time is running out for the two hostages held by Islamic State as the deadline for a $200 million ransom nears.
Officials in Japan have said they are doing their best to communicate with ISIS, but Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told that Tokyo had so far heard nothing and doesn’t know what situation the two hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, are in.
The deadline for the IS ultimatum is 2.50pm today, Tokyo time. 3.50pm EST.
6. Parents sue over home birth death
The parents of a baby girl who died after a hospital-backed home birth are suing the hospital claiming it did not do enough to ensure their daughter would survive.
The couple, Emma Kilby and Paul Gent, say in the writ against Sunshine Hospital in Melbourne’s outer-west that they never wanted a “home birth at all costs” and only went down that path after it was suggested to them.
Their first baby was born quickly and they thought a home birth would be beneficial in case their second child did too.
Emma Kilby and Paul Gent say that when Emma’s waters broke on January 26, 2012 they called the hospital and were told that their midwife was unavailable and another would come to their home.
Their daughter Chloe was born about 20 minutes later. The midwife still had not arrived.
The Herald Sun reports that their claim states the baby was an unusual colour, but was crying. They say that five minutes later the hospital sent a text message with the midwife’s phone number, but it was a wrong number.
The midwife finally arrived one hour and ten minutes after Emma’s water’s broke, by which stage Chloe required resuscitation.
An ambulance took Chloe to the Royal Women’s Hospital. She was put in intensive care, but died on February 5.
7. Australian jihadists accused of enslaving Yazidi
Australian jihadists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar have been accused of kidnapping women from the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq an threatening them with rape, telling them “Forget about your gods, for good, because we have killed them all.”
The terrified women have now spoken out about the ordeal.
For more read this post here.
8. Top Sydney boy’s school to be examined by Royal Commission
The exclusive Sydney boy’s school Knox Grammer will be publically examined by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.
The public hearing will examine how the school responded to inappropriate conduct by teachers towards students between 1970 to 2012.
Fairfax Media reports that the public hearings are due to commence in Sydney on February 23.
9. If you aren’t vaccinated, don’t go here.
After 70 people contracted measles visiting Disneyland there have been calls for unvaccinated people to stay away.
California public health officials have said that the tally is expected to rise.
10. Revealed: What’s actually in McDonald’s fries – 19 ingredients.
Making the rounds on the web this morning is a video showing exactly what’s in those crunchy golden strands of mystery called McDonald’s fries.
As part of its “Our food. Your questions” campaign, McDonald’s has released a video that explains how the company makes its fries.
MythBusters co-host Grant Imahara explores the process in reverse. He finds out that there aren’t 17 ingredients in the fries. There are actually 19.
And they include a weird an anti-foaming agent that keeps oil from splattering and something that “stops the fries going grey”.
And potatoes, somewhere.
11. Crocodile shot
An image of a 4.2 metres crocodile shot by rangers in the Northern Territory has gone viral.
Nine News reports that the 4.2 metre saltie lunged at two people near a culvert on the Arnhem Highway.
“The animal was judged to be dangerous – a problem croc – and was shot and removed in the interest of public safety. We never take this decision lightly, but public safety is paramount. Once a croc has started to display that kind of aggressive behaviour towards people, it’s too risky to leave it out there.
However they had problems removing the crocodile from the area, resulting in staff having to use a tractor to lift it out.
12. Victorian paramedics called to 111 kids locked in hot cars this year.
There has been well-deserved outrage after Ambulance Victoria revealed that so far this year 111 children have been rescued from hot cars.
“It appears most of the calls were because of deliberate acts where parents made a decision to leave a child in a car while they go into a shop,” Ambulance Victoria spokesman Paul Bentley told AAP.
“Sadly we’ve had a couple of children die in recent years and it’s just not worth the risk.”
On a 29C day the temperature inside a car can reach 44C within 10 minutes, and 60C in 20 minutes.
“Even if you’re going to duck into the shop for just a couple of minutes there’s a chance you might get delayed and that puts your child in danger,” Mr Bentley said.
13. Page three girls return.
It seems that claims British tabloid had axed its Page 3 girls was greatly exaggerated.
Yesterday the tabloid published its customary page three topless model with the headline “Clarifications and corrections”.
“Further to recent reports in all other media outlets, we would like to clarify that this is Page 3 and this is a picture of Nicole, 22, from Bournemouth,”
“We would like to apologise on behalf of the print and broadcast journalists who have spent the last two days talking and writing about
The No More Page 3 campaign tweeted “It seems the fight might be back on. Thanks to @TheSunNewspaper for all the publicity they’ve given the campaign.”
14. Whooping cough outbreak fears.
By Lucy Carter, ABC.
As children head back to school this week, parents are being warned of a sharp increase in whooping cough in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT.
The number of whooping cough cases quadrupled between last April and December in New South Wales.
In Victoria and the ACT reported cases doubled.
While figures are not at the highs seen during the last major outbreak in 2010/2011, authorities are concerned another outbreak may be imminent.
Dr Nicholas Wood, a staff specialist general paediatrician at Sydney’s Westmead Children’s Hospital, said whooping cough, or ‘pertussis’, is a condition that has fairly regular outbreaks in Australia.
“It’s well known every three or four years we get a bit of an epidemic – there was a very bad epidemic three or four years ago,” he said.
“Hopefully this is not going to become another big epidemic so we’re watching the cases.”
Dr Vicky Sheppeard, the director of communicable disease at NSW Health, said cases were clearly on the rise in the state.
“We’re watching the number of cases very closely,” she said.
“We got a low in about the middle of 2014, down as low as about 140 cases [per month] and now we’re up to close to 500 cases per month.
“In the peak of the previous outbreak, we had close to 2,000 per month recorded.”
Dr Sheppeard said the disease often came in waves of outbreaks, because immunity waned with time.
“Whooping cough is a bit different to the other bugs we deal with,” she said.
“Whether you have the disease, the infection, or whether you get vaccinated that immunity starts to wear off after a few years.
“Every few years the number of people in the community that are susceptible to infection that don’t have immunity build up to large numbers allowing outbreaks to occur.”
Dr Sheppeard said students in the later years of primary school were particularly susceptible to catching whooping cough, though the infection for them was often quite mild.
“It’s probably the upper years of primary school that we start to see more cases of whooping cough introduced into schools,” she said.
“That’s because children have had a booster when they’re four years of age and the next booster’s due at 12. We offer that to all children in year 7.”
But it means that older children can be contagious and spreading the disease through the community with few or no symptoms.
A version of this story was originally published on ABC and has been republished with full permission.
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Top Comments
So these ISIS guys, rape is allowed in their religion? Murder too it seems, but then again they wouldn't be the first religion to murder people in the name of God, but wow rape, that's really innovative of them, of course religious people have raped people before but first time I've heard of people announcing it's part of their religion.
I wonder where it is written in their religious text and how it is worded? Maybe "to honour thy god though shalt rape"?
So the home birth people are suing the hospital because the midwife didn't get to them in time, yes well that's what can happen when you choose to give birth outside a hospital!
If they had been denied a home birth I bet they would have raised the roof!
Surely they could have called an ambulance?
Wow. Cold. Perhaps they trusted the hospital when they said a midwife was on the way? They were in a position of vulnerability (as is every woman when in labour) and placed their faith and trust in a registered midwife and the person who assured them another would be sent.
The fact that their trust has been rewarded by the death of their precious child is devastating enough without you blaming them in that passive aggressive fashion & certainties that calling an ambulance would have prevented that death.
How dare you.
The point is they don't want to do things the sensible way by giving birth in a hospital, but when it all goes wrong they then want to sue! I'm fed up with people expecting other people /organisations paying for their own mistakes, and we in the long run pay for this, because if the hospital has to pay out to them that's money that could be used elsewhere for other sick patients in the hospital, yes I know it probably comes out of the hospitals insurance but then paying for high premiums is the price the hospital has to pay, also we already live in a hugely legalistic culture where lots of paperwork is required to do the simplest thing because of people like this who sue for things that are their own fault.
Of course it is sad that their baby died but just as appalling is the fact they wish to place the blame on others rather than take responsibility for it themselves.
I think perhaps your failing to consider an important point, and that is that this was a HOSPITAL endorsed program, that the HOSPITAL encouraged the parents to take part in. I agree that if the parents had been on the phone after the child's birth (which the article suggests they were), and the medical professional they were speaking to knew there was no midwife yet present, that it would have been important for that professional to ask lots of questions about the baby, the birth, and determine if an ambulance should have been ordered instead of still waiting for the midwife who they should have had a fairly accurate ETA for.
Yes, the parents (nor the hospital) didn't call an ambulance, but they did call the hospital, who had organised their home birth, asking about a midwife who should have arrived already.
You might be quicker to panic, or more "assertive" in your request for an ambulance, but I know that if it were me in that situation and the team I had been dealing with antenatally had told me to wait for the midwife, then I would have trusted them and waited.
What a tragic outcome of that trust.
Yes, home births have additional risks. If it is so damn risky then why are the hospital running and endorsing an home birth program of they can't put simple measures in place to ensure quick and adequate attendance to the births? Surely this couple have a right to question the program given the circumstances surrounding the death of their child.