Wednesday's news in 5 minutes.

1. Woman woke up to a stranger giving her love bites and touching her genitals while her baby slept just centimetres away.

A woman who woke up to a man sexually assaulting her as she lay in her bed only realised it wasn’t her partner when she felt his hair and it dawned on her that the man she was trying to push away aggressively was a stranger.

Lang Kouth, 21, has been jailed for the aggravated burglary, during which he sexually assaulted the woman, a mother-of-one.

The Herald Sun reports that Kouth pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, sexual assault and theft. He had entered the couple’s home, drunk, looking for keys to a car he wanted to steal. He went into the bedroom, removed his shoes and climbed into bed with the victim and her partner, while their 17-month-baby was asleep on a mattress at the foot of the bed during the attack.

The court heard the woman was “terrified, disgusted and panicked” when she felt “aggressive kissing on her lips, neck and face” and touching in the genital area around 3am on July 24. She tried to resisted the advances from the man she thought was her partner but when she felt his hair and began to scream.

Victorian County Court Judge Michael Tinney said it was not hard to imagine the “acute sense of vulnerability the victim must have felt.”

“Not even her half-asleep resistance deterred you,” Judge Tinney said to Kouth. “You persisted in touching her. Thank goodness her partner was there.”

“Waking up in the middle of the night in one’s own bed next to one’s own partner with a baby in the room and finding that a complete stranger is in the bed and upon the person … it’s the stuff of nightmares.”

South was jailed for four years and must serve at least two years and three months before he is eligible for parole.

2. Blast in Sydney’s Chinatown injures 16 people, including a 2-year-old child.

Diners thought it was a terrorist attack when a gas explosion went off last night in Sydney’s Chinatown.

Sixteen people were injured including a two-year-old child who suffered lacerations to his head and was taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick along with his mother for treatment.

A NSW Ambulance spokesman told media 16 people in total received treatment for lacerations and burns with the seven more serious cases requiring further medical treatment at hospital.

The gas main in Chinatown exploded as 100 people dined at the Dixon House Food Court on Little Hay St at 7.40pm.

A Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman said, “The fire did not spread throughout the building and was contained by sprinklers and the roller door”

The Daily Telegraph reports Samuel Lopez was in the bathroom when the explosion went off and thought it was a terrorist attack.

“I saw the blast less than 15 metres away from me. After the blast I ducked and covered myself behind a register stand as the first thing that it came to my head was a terrorist attack. So I needed to know if there was something else happening like a shooter; then everybody started screaming and running away,” he said on Facebook.

3. Australian students going backwards in maths and science.

An international report has found that Australian students have slid down international maths and science rankings.

The latest global report, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study shows our Year 4 students have gone down 10 spots to 28th out of 49 countries for mathematics skills while Year 8 students went down five places in both maths and ­science since 2011.

The results show 30 per cent of our students are not meeting the Australian proficient standard or demonstrating an ability to apply basic maths and science knowledge in situations.

Australian Council for Education Research director of education monitoring Sue Thomson told The Courier Mail, “Clearly, we have a problem. We are actually slipping backwards.

The Australian Council for Educational Research chief executive Geoff Masters told The Australian: “The 20-year slide in maths and science learning is a national challenge that ­requires a national response. We cannot afford another 20 years of stagnation. The answer is not to do more of the same.’’

4. Plane crash kills 76 including most of a Brazilian soccer team.

The Brazilian goalkeeper who initially survived an air disaster that saw 75 people dead has died.

Marcos Danilo Padilha, 31, was on his way to play one of the club’s biggest ever games when he died along with many of his teammates.

The chartered plane was carrying 81 people, including Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense de Brasil crashed on the outskirts of Medellín, Colombia yesterday.

Padilha was sat next to defender Alan Ruschel on the plane which came down on Monday night. Ruschel was one of only five who survived.

Brazil’s Chapecoense had been due to play Atlético Nacional on Wednesday in the South American Cup final.

It was the first time underdogs Chapecoense had got to the final of the competition.

5. Farmer trapped in farm equipment for three days before being rescued.

A man from Victoria is in a critical condition after he was found trapped by his legs in a hay baler for about 72 hours before he was discovered.

The man was rescued from the Mt Duneed property on Tuesday night.

Emergency services were told that the man could have been stuck in the machinery for up to three days, reports The Herald Sun.

Emergency services had to cut apart the baler in order to free the man, who suffered a severe crush injury from the upper part of his leg.

6. Melbourne’s “thunderstorm asthma” epidemic, the worst in global history, will change medical advice.

An academic has labelled Melbourne’s “thunderstorm asthma” epidemic the worst in global history – after the deaths of eight people.

The family of , Ranjith Peiris who died on Tuesday, have questioned why they were not told to drive him to hospital after they waited more than an hour for an ambulance.

“Mum just keeps saying, ‘if only they told me, if only they told me. If only I knew I would have brought you here earlier’, Mr Peiris’ son told The Age.

Dr Michael Sutherland, a respiratory physician and allergist at the Epworth Hospital, told The Age the event was “by far the worst” in world history doctors may now prescribe preventative medication to people with severe hay fever who are not asthmatic during spring.

Asthma Australia is surveying people affected during the thunderstorm.

The survey can be accessed here.

7. Dreamworld to today announce its reopening date.

Dreamworld is expected to announce today that it will open its gates on Monday.

The Australian reports that Ardent Leisure, who owns Dreamworld will announce today that Dreamworld and WhiteWater World will be reopened after Workplace Health and Safety Queensland inspectors gave the park the all-clear yesterday.

The company was issued seven improvement notices and three prohibition notices last week.

Both parks have been closed since the accident that claimed the lives of Luke Dorsett, Kate Goodchild, Roozi Araghi and Cindy Low on October 25.

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