Wednesday's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.

1. Tara Brown and Channel 9 crew appear before judge.

60 minutes presenter Tara Brown along with her crew and Sally Faulkner, the mother of the children in the botched child recovery operation have been charged with kidnapping and have now appeared before a judge in Beirut after being brought handcuffed to the court.

Brown, senior producer Stephen Rice, camera man Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment are facing four separate charges, including kidnapping, causing harm and not respecting local authority, which carry between three years and life.

Last night they all appeared individually in court before Judge Rami Abdullah where they were asked if they wanted representation in the case before being questioned.

All five were asked one-on-one questions by the judge about the accusations and all of them asked for a lawyer.

Sally Faulkner however answered more questions spending longer with the judge – her former husband was also present in the room.

News Limited reports that when asked if they were getting out, one of the Channel 9 crew members said, “I wish”.

Faulkner allegedly travelled to Beirut in order to take her two children, Lahela. 6, and Noah, 4, back from their father Ali Elamine.

Faulkner claims the children had been taken to Lebanon on a holiday but were meant to return home.

The ABC reports that the judge could downgrade the child abduction charges against them from the more serious “deprivation of liberty” to a misdemeanor relating to reuniting them with their mother, which carries a lesser penalty of three months.

News Limited spoke to the children’s father Ali Elamine outside court where he said it was all a big mess.

“It is a big mess, a really big mess, 100 per cent,” said Mr Elamine.

“The children are good, they are in good health and that is all that matters not the media not what happened, but it (CCTV of the botched operation) is for everyone to view.

“But the children, I’ve calmed them down as much as I can. It was a bit rough and tough. The manpower … it went wrong in places.

“It is a mess, all of it. She (the children’s mother Sally Faulkner) could have gone about it in a different way, not like this.

“What happened shouldn’t have happened and the kids should not have been put in a situation where someone could have been harmed; the kids should not have been dragged into this.”

A full court hearing is expected today.

2. Sanaya Sahib mother Sofina Nikat to appear in court today.

The mother of 14-month-old toddler Sanaya Sahib will appear before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today over the murder of Sanaya.

Yesterday Sofina Nikat, 22, of Mitcham was charged with murder by homicide detectives.

Police told a court hearing last night that Ms Nikat made a full confession to murder.

CCTV footage shows Ms Nikat walking to the park with a baby in a pram and calmly returning a short time later with the blue and yellow pram empty.

Police allege the little girl was murdered on Saturday, then dumped in the Darebin Creek.

The Herald Sun reports that the mother clasped a yellow copy of the Koran during the brief out-of-sessions hearing at Melbourne West police station.

Ms Nikat had claimed her baby was snatched by a shoeless African man who smelled of alcohol on Saturday while they walked in the park.

3. Petition calls for removal of degrading Facebook page that ranks uni students by looks.

A University of Melbourne law student Laura Blandthorn has started a petition calling for the removal of a degrading Facebook page that “ranks” the appearance of students at the University of Melbourne.

Ms Blandthorn, 28, says the page which has 13,000 followers – promotes predatory behaviour towards women.

The Age reports that comments range from  "Shoot me with tranquilliser right now before I go out to hunt!"  and “This bloke doesn't take no for an answer" to "She's a bitch and has bad breath." And "This girl is a 0/10. I would not bang her even if they paid me."

On it some men detail the sexual acts they would like to perform on students and revealed where the women can be seen so they can be "picked up."

The Age reports that similar pages exist for RMIT and Monash University students.

On the Facebook pages photos are uploaded without student's permission.

In an opinion piece in De Minimis,  Ms Blandthorn urged other students to join her campaign.

"It's time to get cranky and take some action,"

"Not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because the mere presence of this page damages the purported excellence of our institution. It compromises the safety of our campus."

She writes: "It is a space in which people are promoted as property, commoditised as mere objects and stripped of their consent."

The University of Melbourne has asked Facebook to remove the page and also raised concerns about its content with the administrators.

"The University of Melbourne is strongly committed to ensuring a safe, inclusive, connected and respectful University community," a university spokesman told The Age.

He said the university's safer community program promoted positive social media practices.

4. Judge finds adopted siblings committed incest.

A Queensland judge has had to determine whether sex between adopted siblings constitutes incest.

The man, who cannot be named, had alleged sexual relations with his sister between September 1987 and September 1990.

He intended to plead guilty to the offence, but Brisbane District Court Judge Paul Smith first had to determine if it was a valid charge reports The Courier Mail.

Judge Smith ruled yesterday that the man was “open to be convicted of the incest count” because of provisions contained in the Adoption Act and Marriage Act.

“In the eyes of the law”, the judge determined the alleged perpetrator was considered to be the natural brother of the victim.

The judge referred to other matters where adopted children were deemed, by the law, to be the natural offspring of their parents and said he could not rule against the validity of the charge because the brother and sister were considered to be “as natural as biological siblings in the eyes of the law.”

The man now faces a maximum of life imprisonment.

5. Woman who racially abused people and assaulted a teenage girl will spend at least three months behind bars.

A Sydney woman who racially abused people while drunk and assaulted a teenage girl has been jailed for three months.

Nicole Boyle and her then boyfriend were travelling on a nearly full train at Parramatta last July.

Boyle is reported to have started her verbal attack on a teenage girl saying

"F***ing chinks behind us. These c***s need to go back to eating rice," Boyle said, according to court documents.

The victim then said to her friends, “She's got a pretty good tan for someone who is white” according to court documents.

Boyle accused the teenager of calling her white trash.

“I didn't say white trash. I said white person,” the girl said

Boyle then grabbed the girls’ hair reports Seven News. 

“The victim stood up and again the accused pulled the victim's hair with her right hand to the aisle and with her left hand slapped the victim to the left side of her face.”

A few hours later Boyle boarded a full bus at the Blacktown interchange and told a group of African and Pacific Islander appearance.

'F***ing get them. Look what they have done to me, the African c***s,” she said to police aboard the bus.

When warned she said “F**k off. I am not being offensive. You want to see offensive? I'll give you offensive. I'll go f***ing smash the black c*** while you're here," she said.

Boyle pleaded guilty to assault and using offensive language in a public place.

The judge said people should be able to travel safely and sentenced Boyle to a minimum three months in jail.

6. Young man first to die from redback spider bite in 40 years.

A 22-year-old whose younger brother tragically died in a triple car crash last year in the Blue Mountains, has died after a red back spider bite.

Jayden Burleigh, from Sydney, was bitten by a native redback while walking on the north coast of NSW last week and was treated in hospital after he developed an abscess under his left arm which affected his glands.

He was released last Thursday and given a course of antibiotics but died on Saturday.

It is not known whether he was given the antivenom.

The last recorded death caused by a redback was in 1955.

His parents, still mourning the death of their younger son Lachlan said in a statement that the loss of their son left “an immensely deep hole on this planet”.

“He adored nature, thrived on climbing mountains, exploring forests, diving in oceans, meeting people, and planning his next adventures,” they said.

"His loss cannot be comprehended by the human heart. However, his legacy will eternally live on as he continues his heavenly adventures together with Lachie."

7. Stephen Fry says child abuse victims should stop feeling sorry for themselves.

Actor Stephen Fry has been criticised for saying child abuse victims should stop feeling sorry for themselves.

While appearing on US TV Fry said that "self-pity is the ugliest emotion in humanity" and that people needed to "grow up".

The 58 year old said: “There are many great plays which contain rapes, and the word rape now is even considered a rape.

“They’re terrible things and they have to be thought about, clearly, but if you say you can’t watch this play, you can’t watch Titus Andronicus, or you can’t read it in a Shakespeare class, or you can’t read Macbeth because it’s got children being killed in it, it might trigger something when you were young that upset you once, because uncle touched you in a nasty place, well I’m sorry.

“It’s a great shame and we’re all very sorry that your uncle touched you in that nasty place – you get some of my sympathy – but your self pity gets none of my sympathy because self pity is the ugliest emotion in humanity.

"Get rid of it, because no one’s going to like you if you feel sorry for yourself. The irony is we’ll feel sorry for you, if you stop feeling sorry for yourself. Just grow up.”

His comments have been labeled "hypocritical" and “insensitive.”

8.  Former husband of Liza Minelli, David Gest found dead.

The former husband of Liza Minelli and renowned TV producer David Gest has been found dead in his room at a London hotel.

The TV personality, 62, passed away at the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Wharf.

Guest, who grew up alongside Michael Jackson and made a famous TV documentary about him entered the UK Celebrity Big Brother house in January this year, but left 13 days later on medical grounds.

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