7.5 Thursday news bites (August 18)

Police searching for the missing body of Sunshine Coast schoolboy Daniel Morcombe have found a shoe in bushland near Beerwah after an exhausting four day search. Forensic testing could take several weeks to determine if it belonged Morcombe and police are warning that due to the difficult terrain it could be months before anything new is found.

3. Gagged girl banned by advertising watchdog

An ad for menswear label Roger David has been pulled by the Advertising Standards Bureau for presenting the young girl featured in the image as a “sexual object”. The 18-year-old appears “gagged” with a Union Jack in her mouth and is bar coded with the word “slave”on her shoulder.

The clothing company has defended the ad stating: “The relevant audience for this advertisement is young men. Roger David strongly believes that young men would relate to this image, and would not see it as shocking or exploitative.”

4. Sperm donor taken off birth certificate

The Sydney District Court has ruled that a man who donated sperm to a lesbian couple 10 years ago be taken off his biological daughters birth certificate and replaced by her mother’s ex-partner.

It is the first time since the introduction of laws three years ago giving lesbian couples equal parenting status that a case like this had been before a court. The judge ruled the father had “no contractual right” to be on the birth certificate after the woman, who shares custody of the nine-year-old girl since the couple split in 2006, launched court action against the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

5. Oui, Oui. Gerard Depardieu caught short in plane drama

French actor, Gerard Depardieu has urinated in an aeroplane aisle in front of fellow passengers after cabin crew refused to let him use the toilet. He was flying from Paris to Dublin on Tuesday evening when the Air France flight was delayed.

Depardieu was told the toilets were locked and he would have to wait fifteen minutes until the plane took off before he could make use of the facilities. Depardieu said he could not wait, unzipped his trousers and proceeded to urinate on the carpet. The actor had reportedly been drinking and the plane was forced to return to the gate and was delayed for a further two hours as ground crew cleaned up the mess.

6. Young Aussies unaware of their sexual health

A survey conducted by private insurancer Bupa has revealed many young Australians are unaware about STI’s, Pap smears and how the contraceptive pill works.

Nearly 50 per cent of the 1000 18 to 35-year-olds surveyed, wrongly believed Pap smears for cervical cancer could also pick up sexually transmitted infections. And one in 10 men believed the pill protected a woman against STIs such as gonorrhoea and chlamydia, while one in five did not know STIs could potentially affect their fertility.

7. New French lingerie line is aimed at girls aged four through 12

Just when we had finished being outraged about ten-year-old model, Thylane, French brand Jours Après Lunes’ launches a line of lingerie for girls age four through to 12. According to the labels website, it’s “the first designer brand dedicated to ‘loungerie’ for children and teenagers, comprised of loungewear and lingerie to be worn over and under, inside and outside.”

While the bra and undie sets are similar to what you would see on young girls at the beach, the controversy lies in the way the children have been photographed emulating poses more suited to adult models.

7.5. Happy Feet penguin will return home

The antarctic Emperor penguin that washed up on New Zealand’s Peka Peka Beach in June, will be hitching a ride home on a scientific research vessel on August 29.

Nicknamed “Happy Feet” by locals, the penguin has been bulking up on “fish milkshakes” during his recovery at The Wellington Zoo and will be fitted with a satellite tracking device before he is released, so scientists and the public can track his progress on the zoo’s website.