Thursday's news in under 5 minutes

UPDATE: A 7-year-old boy has died after becoming lost in the snow at Victoria’s Mt Buller ski resort.

The boy, from Roxburgh Park in north Melbourne, went missing at around 5:30pm yesterday and was found by ski patrol at 6:30pm. He was found unconcious and rushed to parametics, but died shortly after.

It’s believed the boy was playing outside his hotel, when snow fell on him from the roof of his hotel. The Daily Mail is reporting ‘he was found unconscious covered in snow.’

1. Baden-Clay trial

Update:

Gerard Baden-Clay has stepped into the witness box to give evidence under oath at his murder trial, which continues in the Brisbane Supreme Court.

Asked directly if he killed Allison, he responded: “No, I did not.”

He gave evidence about how the two met — at work at a travel agency — and how he “fell in love with her pretty well straight away,” News.com.au reports.

“I had had a couple of girlfriends previously but I felt a level of emotional attachment to Allison that was far deeper than ever before and because of that I knew she was the one,” he said.

“I actually proposed to her underneath the Eiffel tower of Park Road. She was quite taken aback because I think she had been engaged before… she actually asked for a week to think about it.”

He said his wife was “just a world-beated” when they first got married, buyt that she became very anxious following their first child being born and was only capable of attending to her daughter’s most basic needs, the Courier Mail reports.

“To be perfectly candid with you, it came to a point where I was doing 80, to 90 nearly 100 per cent of the parenting… because Allison was in a state that wouldn’t really enable her to do anything,” he said.

The accused said his wife’s mood swings and anxiety got progressively worse in 2002, but that he did not tell anyone about his wife’s problem to protect her.

“She didn’t tell anybody because she didn’t want to be seen to be incapable,” he said.

The accused told the jury that over a period of time, his wife started to improve, and that he and his wife were planning to spend the rest of our lives together … “after the infidelity I had in the past,” The Courier Mail reports.

The court will resume on Monday at 10am.

 Previously, Mamamia wrote…

After 10 days of evidence the prosecution in the case against Gerard Baden-Clay has wound up their case.

He is accused of murdering his wife Allison and dumping her body under a bridge. He has pleaded not guilty.

Yesterday the court heard excerpts from her diary – a list of questions she planned to ask her husband about his affair with his former colleague Toni McHugh. They included:

“How many times?”

“How were hotels paid for?”

“Do you regret the whole thing or just being caught?”

“How many people in the office knew?”

“Really hurt – had so many opportunities to tell me. Let me believe it was all my fault”.

The court will today hear whether Gerard Baden-Clay will give evidence for the defence.

2. 21 dead after bomb in Nigerian shopping mall

A bomb has exploded in a shopping mall in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, killing at least 21 people.

It is not yet clear what was behind the explosion, but police say they are securing a “crime scene.”

3. No smoking for those born after 2000

A plan for no one born after the age of 2000 to be sold cigarettes is gaining momentum in the UK.

The proposal was first suggested in Singapore, then considered by Tasmania in 2012. Now the British Medical Association’s annual representative meeting in the UK have voted overwhelmingly for a campaign to bring in the idea.

Dr Tim Crocker-Buque told The Guardian: “The idea of this proposal is to prevent those children who are not smoking from taking up smoking.”

4. Video footage of jail Peter Greste is held in

Video footage has revealed the conditions in which Australian journalist Peter Greste is being held.

Greste was jailed on Monday night for seven years by an Egyptian judge on charges of “aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting false news.”

The video footage, obtained by News Limited, shows dark dirty cells, open pit toilets full of rust, prisoners sleeping on dirty floors.

5. PUP backs carbon tax repeal

In an appearance alongside Al Gore, Clive Palmer has said he will back the repeal of the carbon tax only if lower power prices for consumers were guaranteed.

He said that his party wanted to see the creation of an emissions trading scheme – but in an appearance on the ABC last night, he added that he would back the carbon tax repeal even if an emissions trading scheme is not introduced.

However he said the Palmer United Party (PUP) would vote against the Coalition’s bid to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Renewable Energy Target and the Climate Change Authority.

He is due to meet Prime Minister Tony Abbott this morning for a breakfast meeting.

6. Newborns in “mini epidemic” of potentially fatal virus

Doctors are warning parents to be on the lookout after hundreds of newborn babies were infected with a dangerous virus that is similar to hand, foot and mouth disease.

The Age reports about 300 babies have contracted Parechovirus – a respiratory and gastrointestinal infection that can cause a sepsis-like illness – since late last year.

Symptoms for babies under three months are a red rash, irritability, fever and diarrhoea. Some children may require treatment in intensive care.

Dr Julian Druce, of the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, described the outbreak as a “mini-epidemic” to The Age.

7. Foster Mother “years of neglect”

A tribunal has heard of “years of neglect” inflicted in four children by a NSW foster mother.

The mother was appearing in front of the tribunal trying to regain custody of the two youngest children.

It heard she forced the children to sleep in broken bunk beds without sheets, and locked one child in a room without lights when she was naughty.

News Limited reports: “in 2010, the eldest boy known as C was removed from the woman’s care after alleged sexual abuse of his siblings. His brother D was later removed for “sexualised behaviour”.

The tribunal heard that “concerns included no lights or light globe in the child’s room, beds not made, not cleaned, dust everywhere and an electric cord across the doorway of the children’s room, the floor was sighted to be dusty, the bunk beds were said to be in disrepair and with only one mattress.”

The woman denied neglect. She ultimately lost her one-year battle to regain custody of her two youngest foster children.

8. Broccoli may help asthma: study

A study has shown that eating steamed broccoli may help asthmatics.

The University of Melbourne research showed that eating two cups of the steamed vegetable might stop the condition worsening.

“People with asthma have damaged linings in their airways and we have found this can actually reverse that process and also help with the reversal of the narrowing of the airways, make those airways clearer so the can breath more easily,” Honours student Nadia Mazarakis, who led the study, told The Herald Sun.

9. Child star making headlines

A seven-year old girl – chosen to be the face of a major UK retail advertising campaign is making headlines as she was born with Down’s syndrome.

Natty Goleniowska was chosen over hundreds and hundreds of other young girls to star in the Sainsbury’s Back to School campaign.

For more of her remarkable story, read this post.

10. Executive fakes resume to get Myer job

An executive has faked his resume to get a top job at the retailer Myer – only to be caught out and fired.

The Australian Financial Review reports that Andrew Flanagan was employed by Myer as general manager strategy and business development. He claimed he had worked for Zara as a Managing Director, in China as chief operations manager for British grocery chain Tesco, and for US retailers Walmart and Homeworld.

Myer discovered Mr Flanagan was lying after a executive from Zara tipped them off. The department store terminated his position after just one day in the job.

11. Man walks into McDonalds with a knife in his back

Diners in the US were shocked when a man walked into a New York McDonalds with a knife in his back while talking on his phone..

“He was cool and calm. But you could tell he was shaken up,” Michel Green told the New York Post. “I went to pull the knife out, but someone said, ‘No, no! It might have hit an artery!'”

12. Leeza Ormsby may be free within the year

Sydney resident Leeza Ormsby pleaded guilty in a Bali courtroom yesterday to personal use of half a joint found in her handbag.

Ormsby was not charged over a large stash of other drugs found in a Bali villa she was caught entering.

She will be sentenced next week. Prosecutors are asking for one year and three months’ jail time

 13. Who looks after the kids in the school holidays?

A study by the Australian Institute of Family studies has shown that the majority of care of kids in the school holidays is done by mothers.

The study showed that 90 per cent of mothers take leave during school holidays, compared with only 41 per cent of fathers.

 14. North Korea threatens “merciless counter-measures” over Seth Rogen film plot

North Korea has issued a frightening threat to the US over the plot of upcoming James Franco film The Interview.

The plot of the film, which is scheduled for release in October, involves characters played by James Franco and Seth Rogen attempting to assassinate North Korea’s president, Kim Jong-un.

The country — which was recently the subject of a UN inquiry that concluded its security chiefs should face international justice for alleged human rights atrocities — declared on Wednesday the movie’s release would be an “act of war.”

“If the United States administration tacitly approves or supports the release of this film, we will take a decisive and merciless countermeasure,” a spokesman for its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, The New York Times reports.

“Making and releasing a movie on a plot to hurt our top-level leadership is the most blatant act of terrorism and war and will absolutely not be tolerated,” he reportedly said.

North Korea routinely refers to Americans as “imperialist warmongers,” maintains an extremely repressive media environment and often berates American leaders through its media.

Earlier this week, North Korea threatened to “punish” Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop after she criticised Kim Jong-un in an interview.

15.Women who have kids later are more likely to live until very old age: study

Women still having babies after 33 are more likely to live until they’re very old, a new study has revealed.

A study published today in scientific journal Menopause compared 311 women who lived to 95 with 151 women who died younger – with shocking results, The Boston Globe reports. The study found that “those who got pregnant naturally and successfully birthed their last child after age 33 were twice as likely to live to age 95 compared to those who had their last child by age 29,” according to The Boston Globe.

As one of the researchers told the Washington Post:

“We think the same genes that allow a woman to naturally have a kid at an older age are the same genes that play a really important role in slowing down the rate of aging and decreasing the risk for age-related diseases, such as heart attacks, stroke, diabetes and cancer,” said Thomas Perls, a professor who specializes in geriatrics at Boston University Medical Center, and a principal investigator of the study.

The study only considered women who’d conceived without fertility drugs. 

What news are you talking about today?