Wednesday's news in 5 minutes.

1. A 5-year-old boy disappeared after a family trip to Disneyland. Two months on, his body has been found.

A 35-year-old father accused of killing his son as an act of revenge against his ex-wife has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in a Los Angeles court.

Aramazd Andressian Sr. was the last person to see his five-year-old son, Aramazd Andressian Jr. on April 20, where the pair spent the day at Disneyland in Califorrnia.

According to PEOPLE Magazine, security footage shows the pair leaving the park at around midnight. From there, authorities believe the father drove almost 233km to Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County, where the boy’s body was discovered on Friday.

Just two days after his son, who was known as Piqui, was seen, Andressian Sr. was discovered passed out inside his car after taking prescription medications. The car had reportedly been doused in gasoline and matches were found inside.

“No justice in the world will bring my Piqui back,” Andressian Jr.’s mother said outside court this week. “However, Ara will pay tenfold for all that he has done.”

Authorities are yet to confirm how the boy died.

The 35-year-old was detained in relation to the murder on June 23. His bail is currently set at AU $13.1 million.

“This is just the beginning of a very long case,” Andressian Sr.’s attorney, Ambrosio Rodriguez said.

“We ask for everyone’s patience as we move forward with the process.”

A preliminary hearing for the case has been set for August 16.

2. 16-year-old boy to face court over the alleged assault of a police officer in Sydney.

A NSW teenager is due to face a Children’s Court after he allegedly kicked a police officer in the face during a violent arrest in Sydney, AAP reports.

The 37-year-old father of two was one of three officers allegedly injured by the 16-year-old when they detained him at Marsfield on Monday evening.

During the arrest, the boy allegedly kicked the officer so hard he fell on to the pavement and hit his head.

The 16-year-old was charged on Tuesday evening with a string of offences including causing grievous bodily harm to a police officer, assaulting an officer and affray and will face a Children’s Court on Wednesday.

The boy also faces charges over the alleged assault of two security guards by youths at a shopping centre before he was spoken to by police.

The officer is in a serious condition in hospital and Detective Superintendent John Duncan said he faced a long road to recovery.

“He’s a lovely young officer … our thoughts and best wishes are with him and his speedy recovery,” he said.

On Tuesday night officers attended a house in Wentworthville where they arrested a 17-year-old boy in relation to the shopping centre assaults.

The boy has been charged with robbery in company and refused bail to appear at a Children’s Court on Wednesday.

3. QLD Police excavate landfill in search for 16-year-old Rachel Antonio, who went missing in 1998.

Police will excavate a Queensland landfill in the hope of uncovering clues into the disappearance of a teenage girl who went missing more than 20 years ago.

Officers will spend Wednesday examining the Bowen tip, to as part of their ongoing investigation into the disappearance and suspected homicide of 16-year-old Rachel Antonio in 1998, AAP reports.

She was last seen walking along the Queens Beach Esplanade in Bowen on April 25.

Detective Inspector Nikki Colfs said 10 officers would be involved in the one-day exploratory examination of the tip which is designed to determine the level of refuse when Rachel disappeared.

“The Antonio family deserve to know what happened to Rachel, and the Queensland Police Service remains committed to finding her,” she said.

“We will endeavour to undertake a scientific evaluation of the refuse and the environmental conditions that were present in 1998.”

Police say they have not received any new information about the possible location of Ms Antonio.

A $250,000 reward for information which leads to the recovery of her remains has been offered.

A coronial inquest into Ms Antonio’s disappearance and suspected homicide was held in May 2016.

4. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop condemns North Korea’s latest “provocative ballistic tests”.

Australia has condemned North Korea’s latest reported launch of a long-range missile.

State-run television claims the rocket, which flew for almost 40 minutes before landing in the Sea of Japan, was ordered and supervised by leader Kim Jong Un.

The North says its missiles are now capable of striking anywhere in the world.

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has become an imposing nuclear power with the most powerful ICBM capable of hitting any part of the world,” the state broadcaster KCTV said.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says such ballistic tests are “provocative” and in breach of numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions, AAP reports.

“North Korea continues to threaten its neighbours while undermining regional and global security,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.

“North Korea’s long-term interests would be best served by ceasing its nuclear and missiles programs, and focusing on improving the lives of its long-suffering people.”

Acting US ambassador to Australia James Caruso questioned claims the missile was, in fact, intercontinental.

He expressed concern that North Korea continues to violate UN resolutions and is launching missiles in the direction of other countries.

“The whole world has to come together to get them to stop and denuclearise the Korean peninsula,” he told reporters in Canberra.

Mr Caruso said US President Donald Trump has been warning North Korea by calling on other nations to stop trading with them and employing their workers.

“He wants to tell North Korea that if they’re going to be an outlaw among the international community by doing these nuclear tests and launching these missiles, there are consequences.”

The ambassador would not say if he believed the launch was timed to coincide with July 4 Independence Day celebrations in the US or the the G20 summit starting in Germany later this week.

5. Two former juvenile justice officers allegedly sexually assaulted young inmates in Sydney.

Two former female juvenile justice officers who allegedly sexually assaulted young inmates in a Sydney detention centre have been charged.

A 43-year-old woman was charged on Tuesday with 75 offences including 21 sexual offences, AAP reports.

NSW Police allege she sexually assaulted several inmates aged 10 to 16 at the Airds juvenile justice centre between 1997 and 2004.

The second woman, 47, allegedly assaulted a juvenile inmate at the Airds detention centre between 2001 and 2004.

She was charged on Tuesday with two counts of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault.

Both women were to have appeared at Campbelltown Local Court on Tuesday.

It follow the arrest of a 43-year-old Padstow woman in May who was charged with three sexual offences committed while she worked as a juvenile justice guard at the Airds detention centre.

The arrests are part of the ongoing Strikeforce Redcliffe investigation established after the allegations were raised at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

6. The placebo effect in exercise is a real thing, study finds.

People find sport or exercise less strenuous if they believe it’s doing them good, a new study has found.

German researchers from the Department of Sport Science at the University of Freiburg discovered a person’s expectations have a major influence on just how strenuous they perceive exercise to be, AAP reports.

They also found that how the person felt about themselves played a big role in feeling the strain of the activity.

The researchers say the findings add further evidence that the placebo effect works in sport and could have important implications in the battle against obesity.

“Negative affective responses, in turn, decrease long-term exercise motivation and participation. If one wishes to counteract the detrimental effects of a sedentary lifestyle, it is thus important to understand factors that affect perceived exertion in exercising individuals,” the authors wrote.

Led by psychologist Hendrik Mothes, the team or researchers studied a group of 78 men and women aged between 18 and 32 who were asked to ride a stationary bike for 30 minutes.

Before the cycling, they were asked to say how athletic they thought they were and were asked to put on a compression shirt produced by a well-known sporting goods manufacturer.

The participants were assigned to different groups and shown one of several short films that either stressed the positive health effects of cycling or dampened the expectations.

During the exercise, they were asked every five minutes what level of strain they were experiencing.

The results, published in journal PLOS ONE, showed the training was rated less strenuous for those who started out with a positive, and the more athletic the participants perceived themselves to be, the stronger this effect was.

However, positive expectations did not help participants who considered themselves not very athletic.

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