We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.
1. Five people killed in Queensland after cars swept away by floodwaters.
Five people have died in Queensland on Friday night after their cars were swept away by ferocious floodwater.
Two cars were swept into King John Creek at Caboolture when they tried to cross a flooded bridge.
A 74-year-old man, a 39-year-old woman and a five-year-old boy were killed in one car. The driver of the second car, a 49-year-old man, also died. His two children, aged 21 and 16, managed to escape the car and climb to safety.
In a separate incident, a 75-year-old man died in his car after it was swept off the road late on Friday evening. The man’s wife survived by climbing a tree and waiting for emergency services.
“Sadly, it is unfortunate we need to highlight again the dangers of entering floodwaters,” Inspector Jeffries of the Queensland police told ABC Online.
“I haven’t seen anything as significant or as tragic as this.”
A six-year-old boy has also died at Ballina after he was swept into the ocean while walking with his father and brother along the beach.
2. Woman claims she was Andrew Chan’s ‘secret wife’.
Australian Leonie Smyth claims the pair married on a secret mobile phone hidden in the Indonesian prison where Andrew Chan was housed.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Smyth met Chan through friends who had travelled to Kerobokan prison in an attempt to meet Schapelle Corby.
“For the first six months of our relationship, he was just that, a pastor and mentor. I really looked up to him, even though he was two years younger than me.” Smyth told the Daily Telegraph.
“Our relationship got closer and we realised we were truly in love.”
Smyth claims she was forced to keep the relationship clandestine to ensure nobody discovered the secret mobile phone Chan kept in his cell. Chan allegedly proposed to her via Skype, and that the pair grew so close even her 13-year-old son Josh started calling Chan ‘dad’.
Smyth has yet to comment on Chan’s marriage to Febyanti Herewila in the last hours of his life.
Read more: The beautiful moment Andrew Chan married the love of his life.
3. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s husband died suddenly overnight.
David Goldberg, the husband of Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, died suddenly overnight at age 47 while holidaying with his wife.
Goldberg was the CEO of online survey company SurveyMonkey.
Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has released a statement saying Golberg was “an amazing person.”
“I am glad I got to know him. My thoughts and prayers are with Sheryl and her family.”
The death was announced online by Robert Goldberg, the brother of the deceased.
4. Tony Abbott has declared his second budget will be ‘measured, responsible and fair’.
Reports claiming the government has chosen to backflip on its highly unpopular pension indexation are unconfirmed, but Tony Abbott has declared the Coalition’s next budget will be ‘measured, responsible and fair’.
“It’s a budget that will be good for jobs, growth and opportunity,” Abbott told reporters in Sydney.
Abbott has also dampened rumours of a possible early double-dissolution election.
“I should say it is my firm intention to deliver on the mandate that the public gave us and when the public elected us, they expected us to govern for three years and that is absolutely what we intend to do,” he said.
5. Mothers up in arms as high heels designed for babies released for sale online.
Pee Wee Pumps, a company that sells high heels designed to be worn by babies in their cots, has come under fire from horrified mothers.
Labelled ‘your daughter’s first fashion statement’, the shoes come in a variety of styles and colours like ‘sassy’, ‘diva’, ‘glamorous’ and ‘wild child’.
Angry mothers have labelled the product ‘utterly hideous’ and ‘completely inappropriate’, with a spokesperson from My Family Club UK asking Daily Mail, ‘Whatever happened to childhood innocence?’
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Top Comments
I think they are really cute! What a great idea! Love them and wish they were around when I had my firstborn daughter 23 years ago!