Michael McEwan remains in induced coma over Christmas.

1. Six-year boy dies

A six-year old boy on holiday from Malaysia was pinned against a fence and killed yesterday when the group he was walking to school with, including his mother, were hit by a car.

The six-year-old, Akshay, died with his mother, 38, and two cousins, aged four and five, with him at the scene outside Carlingford Public School in Sydney about 9.20am.

The white Nissan Dualis 4WD, driven by a 46-year-old mother with two of her own children inside ran over Akshay, pinning him against a fence and killing him.

2. Family of Bondi bashing victim speak

The father of a man bashed in Bondi last weekend says his son, Michael McEwan, was close to becoming “the next Thomas Kelly”.

Michael McEwen, 23, was punched and stomped on at Bondi Beach in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Police and the McEwen family are appealing for information to find out who attacked Michael, who is likely to remain in an induced coma over Christmas. For more on this read this post here.

 3. Disease alert

QLD general practitioners will be warned today to be on the alert for patients with symptoms of a potentially fatal bacterial infection after the death of a four-year-old.

The boy died in the Mater Children’s Hospital on Sunday from invasive group A streptococcal disease after a “rapidly progressive illness”.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said last night she was concerned about a jump in cases of the infection this year.

Streptococcal infection – group A is a common infection that can cause sore throats (pharyngitis), scarlet fever or impetigo (school sores).

 4. Paid parental leave back down

Tony Abbott has hinted he may be willing to change features of his paid parental leave scheme to get the legislation passed through the Senate.

The Prime Minister had, until now, refused to budge on his signature policy, which will cost $5.5 billion a year.

Nationals MPs and senators have threatened to cross the floor over the policy, which they view as fundamentally unfair – while some working mothers will earn $75,000 under the policy, stay-at-home mothers will be left on the minimum wage.

5. Amnesty In Russia

Russia’s parliament on Wednesday adopted an amnesty which lawyers said would free two jailed members of punk band Pussy Riot and enable 30 people arrested in a Greenpeace protest against Arctic oil drilling to avoid trial, including Tasmania Greenpeace Activist Colin Russell .

Lawyers said it would also lead to the early release of Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, whose two-year sentences over an anti-Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral have been criticised in the West as excessive.

6. Indian diplomat row

The Indian Government has responded to the arrest of a diplomat in the US – after she allegedly committed visa fraud and was accused of paying her nanny just $3 an hour.

They retaliated to what they called a “despicable and barbaric” arrest – she was strip-searched, cavity searched and DNA swabbed.

India took what a senior government official termed “reciprocal measures” which included revoking the ID cards of US embassy personnel and their families and removing concrete security barriers outside the embassy complex in India.

India has now transferred the diplomat , Devyani Khobragade, to its UN mission in New York to give her full diplomatic immunity.

 7. Butcher of Bega appeal

Former NSW doctor Graeme Reeves – dubbed the Butcher of Bega – has won the right to appeal against his sentence.

Reeves, who was found guilty in 2011 of removing a woman’s clitoris and genitals, has lost his appeal against his conviction but the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal will now consider whether Reeves’ sentence should be reduced.

 8. Baby news

Happy news for MP Clive Palmer with his wife Anna giving birth to a baby girl Mr Palmer tweeted yesterday: “My lovely wife Anna has given birth to a beautiful baby girl. Mother and child are both doing well.”

 9. Train robber dead

Notorious criminal Ronnie Biggs, famous for his part in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, has died at the age of 84.

Biggs spent decades on the run after breaking out of prison, and returned to Britain in 2001.

 10. Dog rescues man

A Blind man has had his life saved by his guide dog after the man lost consciousness and tumbled in front of an oncoming train at a  Manhattan subway platform. The guide dog, Orlando, a black Labrador retriever, bravely leapt on to the tracks and tried to rouse his owner, Cecil Williams, 61.

Williams and Orlando both escaped serious injury when the train passed over top of them.

11. Actress wants the word ‘fat’ outlawed

Jennifer Lawrence has said it should be illegal to call someone fat on TV.

The Oscar-winner slammed the practice of ‘fat shaming’ actresses over their weight in an interview with US journalist and The View host Barbara Walters.

12. Cricketer’s controversial comments

English cricketer Graeme Swann is under fire for comments he made on Facebook comparing the Ashes defeat to being ‘arse-raped’.

The Daily Mail report that rape charities have criticised the spin bowler player for his ‘appalling’ actions and urged him to apologise for the comments.

In Brief:

Paedophile Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins has been jailed for 35 years after admitting to 13 sex offences.

Spanish police have arrested a vet who surgically implanted heroin inside live puppies to traffic drugs between Colombia and the USA

What news are you talking about today?