Wednesday's news in 5 minutes.

1. Census: ABS web site shut down by hackers

The Australian Bureau of Statistics have confirmed that the Census website was attacked by overseas hackers four times yesterday – leaving them no choice but to shut it down.

“It was an attack,” chief statistician David Kalisch told ABC radio this morning.

“It was quite clear it was malicious.”

He said that during the day yesterday the website was attacked several times.

Mr Kalisch told the ABC the site was taken down just after 7:30pm to “ensure the integrity of the data”.

“It was an attack, and we believe from overseas,” he said.

The Australian Census website has remained inaccessible after it crashed early into Census night.

Overnight the ABS reassured people they would not be fined for completing the form after August 9.

Yesterday ABS Census boss Chris Libreri said the system performed well in testing and would not be a repeat of the Click Frenzy crash.

“We have load tested it at 150 per cent of the number of people we think are going to be on it on Tuesday for eight hours straight and it didn’t look like flinching,” he said

“We wouldn’t do it unless we were able to safely do it, we have evolved it and we are confident.”

Around 1.3 million Australians, including the Prime Minister, successfully completed their census before the outage.

The ABS will hold a press conference later this morning on the hack.

2. Woman charged with raping 9-year-old boy.

Woman charged over rape of 9-year-old boy. Image via Stock.

A West Australian woman has been charged with sexually assaulting a nine-year-old boy.

The 27-year-old woman, from a south metropolitan suburb, is alleged to have sexually assaulted the boy who was known to her between October and November last year.

She has been charged with one count of sexual penetration of a child under 13 years of age and one count of threats to injure, endanger or harm any person.

Appearing in court yesterday the woman was not required to enter a plea at Mandurah Magistrates Court, Community News reported.

She also pleaded of not guilty to five fraud charges on allegations she had property gained fraudulently from Silver Sands Shopping Centre in Mandurah, but pleaded guilty to possessing a bong that had traces of cannabis on it, two counts of threatening to injure a person, and to burglary.

She was released on bail to reappear at Perth District Court on September 28 for the rape charges and Mandurah Magistrates Court on September 20 for the other charges.

For help: Lifeline 13 11 14. Kid's Helpline: 1800 55 1800. DV and Sexual Abuse hotline 27/4

3. Report highlights disturbing treatment of children with disabilities in schools.

A survey from Children and Young People with a Disability Australia (CYDA), has revealed that one in five children with a disability have experienced restraint and seclusion in schools, with 52 per cent of students with a disability nation wide bullied at school, compared with 27 per cent of the general student population reports Fairfax Media.

In Queensland a CYDA survey of more than 300 parents found that 20 per cent claimed their child had been restrained at school, and another 20 per cent said their child had experienced seclusion.

“(My child) has been pinned down physically, kept in a locked classroom,” one parent said.

Another “(My child) would be locked out in an outdoor fenced garden area at the Special Ed Unit. (They) would be extremely hysterical and distressed.”

The Courier Mail reports that one parent said their child was “given medicine to restrict movement”.

CYDA chief executive Stephanie Gotlib told The Courier Mail they had received complaints about disabled children being forced into seclusion rooms, and being forced to use seat restraints for long periods of time.

In NSW there were 64 cases in which NSW Department of Education staff were alleged to have mistreated children with disability between January 2014 and October 2015.

4.   Teen sentenced over death of pregnant Hobart mother.

A 16-year-old who killed a pregnant Hobart mother when he ran a red light in a stolen car has been sentenced to a minimum of 2.5 years jail.

The teenager was driving the vehicle at speeds in excess of 100km/h when he T-boned a Nissan hatchback driven by 24-year-old Sarah Paino in January.

The 32-weeks-pregnant mother was killed instantly while her baby son was delivered minutes later in hospital.

Ms Paino's two-year-old son who was in the back seat of the car, strapped into his car seat, was uninjured.

“His actions killed Ms Paino, nearly killed her unborn child and exposed her (backseat passenger) two-year-old son to the risk of death or serious injury.” the judge noted in sentencing.

Ms Paino's baby Caleb was delivered safely.

5.  Bronze in Equestrian plus all the latest from Rio.

On day 4 of the Olympic games the Equestrian eventing team have claimed a bronze medal.

The Australian women's basketball team, the Opals beat France 89-71. They now play against Japan and Belarus on Thursday and Saturday.

New Zealand’s Sonny Bill Williams has been taken from the field injured during New Zealand’s Rugby Sevens game against Japan.

Japan won 14-12. William’s Olympic dream is over after he suffered a partial Achilles rupture.

In other news Australian hockey player Aran Zalewski was suspended for hitting a Spanish player in the head with his stick  while the Australian women's soccer team demolished Zimbabwe 6-1.

Medal Tally:

China: 6 Gold   3 Silver   5 Bronze

USA: 5 Gold   7 Silver   8 Bronze

Australia:  4 Gold   0 Silver   4 Bronze

Italy:  3 Gold   4 Silver   2 Bronze

Japan:  3 Gold   0 Silver   8 Bronze

6.   Anger of Aussies being pulled from their beds for drug testing.

The Australian team boss in Rio has objected to athletes being woken early for drug tests just a few hours after competing.

Both swimmer Cameron McEvoy and the men's hockey team had knocks on their doors about 6am despite only getting to bed at 1am or 2am.

Chef de mission Kitty Chiller says the team is “fully supportive” of the tests but officials need to be remember their schedules.

"They want to be tested. They don't mind being tested. Test them 100 times, test them 1000 times, but do it at a time that shows some respect for their competition schedule," Chiller said.

"We are concerned about swimmers, hockey players, all our team members getting a knock on their door at six or seven o'clock in the morning when they've had a late night.

7.     Half of snack foods labelled “natural” considered unhealthy.

More than 60 per cent of Australians are more likely to buy food or drinks described as "natural" – even though almost half of supermarket snack foods labelled as "natural" are considered to be unhealthy.

A study has found that of 331 supermarket foods marked with the words "nature" or "natural" 47 per cent did not fall into one of the five core food groups.

Public health group LiveLighter found that nine out of 10 products that used the word "natural" in the snack food aisle were considered unhealthy.

Alison McAleese , LiveLighter Victoria campaign manager told Fairfax Media "'Natural' is not regulated as a word used on packaging. It might mean fewer ingredients in some products, for others it might mean less-processed or made locally. But many of these products are high in saturated fat, sugar and salt."

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