NEWS: 6 stories we're talking about today.

1. Embattled Labor MP Craig Thomson has been arrested and charged with 150 counts of fraud. The timing of his arrest, so soon after Prime Minister Gillard’s announcement of the election date has been criticised by the Opposition. Many in the media are asking questions about whether the sequence of these events suggests that the two are somehow connected.

2. A teenage girl from Afghanistan has received death threats after competing in a TV talent show. Latifa Azizi was a contestant on Afghan Star late last year and her family have now had to flee their home after their community was outraged that an Islamic woman was performing publicly.

3. A school in Melbourne sent home 60 students on the first day of school yesterday because they weren’t wearing the correct uniform. The Principal of Victoria University Secondary College in St Albans said students and parents were given an “ample warning” over two years that the school old uniform had been phased out and that the new uniform was to be worn.

4. The French Government has suspended sales of the acne drug Diane, which is also used as a contraceptive pill, because it has been linked to at least four deaths over the past 25 years. Diane will be phased out over a three-month period. More the 300,000 women in France use the pill, which is sold in 116 countries including Australia.

5. Thirty-four-year-old Gavin Townroe of Nottingham in the UK has been evicted from his home for playing the Spice Girls’ song Viva Forever loudly and on repeat. Apparently the Spice Girls’ fan was playing the 1998 love song so loudly that one of his neighbours was unable to go to work the next day due to lack of sleep.

6. After weeks of rumours, Beyonce admitted to lip syncing at President Obama’s inauguration. She held a press conference ahead of  her half-time performance at the Super Bowl – which she opened with a live performance of the anthem. “Any questions?” she asked, after completing the performance.