Thursday's news in under 5 minutes: 22nd January 2015

A complete round-up of all the news from Australia and around the world.

1. Gold Coast double murder

A 5-year old boy may be the only witness to a double murder on the Gold Coast.

Police have arrested a 36-year old man after they discovered the bodies of a 39-year old woman and a 43-year old man at a home in Upper Coomera.

News Limited reports that a neighbour heard loud arguing coming from the house on Tuesday night but the commotion had stopped when they investigated the noise.

Superintendent David Hutchinson said ““You would understand that a five-year-old child being in the house under those circumstances would have to be very traumatic. ”

The 36-year-old Upper Coomera man has been held in custody and is due to appear in the Southport Magistrates Court this morning on two counts of murder.

 2. William Tyrell search

Police have acted after an anonymous tip off searching a rural property belonging to a 63-year old man in the investigation into the disappearance of William Tyrell.

The 63-year old man had been due to fix William’s grandmother’s washing machine on the day he went missing from her home.

On Tuesday they searched a first-floor unit in Laurieton from where the man used to run a pawn broking business.

Several news sources have reported a large “maze-like structure” beneath his home with several rooms, which excavators were searching yesterday.

Fairfax Media reports that the man had made four posts on his Facebook page about William including one on December 2 saying, “Don’t give up looking….”

The Police have stressed that the investigation was just one of many lines of inquiry.

“I don’t describe it as a major breakthrough. It is a line of inquiry we’re taking as part of the normal investigation phase for an investigation of this nature,” Supt Paul Fehon said.

For more read this post here.

 3. Jihadi converted child

A Sydney- based jihadist Mohamed Elomar has boasted online about converting a young Iraqi boy to Islamic State.

On his Twitter account Elomar has posted a picture of the boy, thought to be about three or four years old holding a handgun and with a dummy sitting on his chest.

4. Andrew Chan’s powerful letter

Bali 9 convicted drug smuggler Andrew Chan has written a six-page letter to his 15-year old self pleading with young people not to follow his path.

His compelling message is one all Australians should share.

For more read this post here.

 5. Baby dies after being left in car

A 16-month old has died after his mother left him in her car while she went to work thinking she had dropped him at daycare.

The mother from Whanganui in New Zealand was a member of staff at the Whanganui Hospital.

She did not usually take the child to daycare on a Friday – his father did the drop off, but last Friday he had to work. The temperature in Whanganui reached 26 degrees Celsius that afternoon.

It’s understood that when the mother rang the childcare centre, she was told the toddler hadn’t been dropped off that day.

Stuff.co.nz reports that she collapsed when she discovered the baby dead in her car.

The child care centre’s company director Kristie Cate said she understood the police investigation “will take some time to complete”.

“Our thoughts and love is with the family at this tragic time.”

 6. Toddler freed after being left in car

A three-year old boy has been freed after being left in a car outside a Brisbane club for nearly an hour yesterday.

Patrons at the Brisbane Lions Club in Springwood alerted police after seeing the boy asleep in the car.

Police and ambulance officers pulled the child from the unlocked vehicle.

They questioned the male owner of the car and released him without charges. The Courier Mail reports that the Child Protection Investigation Unit will continue to investigate.

7. Warning bells screaming

An investigator, from Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, has revealed that the warning alarms on QZ8501 were “screaming” as the pilots tried to stabilise the plane just before it crashed.

Speaking to AFP he said, “The warning alarms, we can say, were screaming, while in the background they (the pilot and co-pilot) were busy trying to recover.”

8. State of the Union

US President Barack Obama has vowed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the terrorist threat posed by Islamic State in his State of the Union address.

“It will require focus. But we will succeed,” Mr Obama said. “I call on this congress to show the world that we are united in this mission by passing a resolution to authorise the use of force against ISIL.”

 9. Day care worker charged over assaulting child

A day care worker has been charged with child abuse after she was caught on security camera kicking a child.

Linda K. Klemm, a mother-of-four from Tarpon Springs in the US, has been charged with child abuse after the footage captured her attacking a 16-month-old girl who was sleeping on the floor.

The mother of the little girl, 16-month-old Lillian Roan said her daughter was dotted with bruises when she picked her up from the day care, one underneath her eye, three on her forehead, and a red, bald patch created when the worker kicked her daughter in the head.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that the footage shows a blond girl lying on her stomach, a blanket by her side, while several children play nearby. The childcarer, Klemm approaches the little girl and kicks her on the top of her head, then drags her shoe along the girl’s head to wake her up. The girl twitches and gets up on her hands and knees.

Ten minutes later Klemm is shown approaching Lillian, who is curled up sleeping in the same spot with a teddy bear and blanket. Klemm kicks 16-month old Lillian then pulls her into a sitting position and walks away.

 11. Should your partner actually be at your baby’s birth?

It seems maybe our Grandmothers had it right and that your partner shouldn’t be anywhere near the delivery room when you have your baby.

A study has found that for some women, the presence of their partner may just exacerbate the pain of childbirth.

The study in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience showed that pain felt by women who were given “pinprick” laser pulses on their fingers was not reduced by having their partner near by, in many in fact, his presence made it worse.

This was particularly evident for women who tended to avoid closeness in their relationships.

Katerina Fotopoulou, a cognitive neuroscientist who led the work at University College London, said: “Some women might feel more uncomfortable with their partner there. It raises questions about the one-size-fits-all approach.”

“Overall, this study suggests that partner support during pain may need to be tailored to individual personality traits and coping preferences,” Dr Fotopoulou said.

12. Grandparents of 5-year old who died in car crash refused entry to UK to attend funeral

The grandparents of a five-year old girl who died after being hit by a car in the UK have been rejected for a visa to allow them to attend her funeral.

The Guardian reports that the UK Home Office refuse to approve a temporary travel visa for the Zimbabwean grandparents and aunt of Andrea Gada, who died after being hit by a car just before Christmas in Sussex.

This was despite the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron promising to intervene in her case.

The Bishop of Chichester has condemned the decision by the Immigration Minister saying “This cannot be right. It offends at the most elementary level of human compassion.”

The local community where Andrea attended school raised more than £5,000 to enable her relatives to travel.

13. Glad Wrap ditch the new design

People power has preserved and triumphed over the battle with cling film. Glad Wrap has announced the original cuter will be returning to the base of the box in the coming months.

Unprecedented protests had occurred (Occupy Wall Street knew nothing like this) over the brand’s decision to relocate the serrated cutter bar from the base of the box to inside the lid.

But the company have announced that they will return to the original design.

Glad Australia marketing director Phil James told The Herald Sun “We have heard the message loud and clear. We are working through this with urgency and our objective is to get the product back as soon as humanly possible”.

“The explosion of conversation about the new cutter bar has been unprecedented. We simply could not ignore the magnitude of complaints.”

The revert back to the old way of slicing is expected to costs the company many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

14. Time to re-think screen time rules

A study has found that official guidelines which suggest kids should spend no more than two hours a day looking at screens are virtually unenforceable and need a re-think.

The report titled, Virtually Impossible: limiting Australian children and adolescents daily screen-based media use, by the University of Western Australia says that recommended paediatric screen guidelines should be revised as by the age of eight almost half were already exceeding screen time guidelines, with girls were more likely to spend “excessive” time looking at screens than boys.

Lead researcher Professor Stephen Houghton told The Advertiser “The introduction of mobile devices suggests the less-than-two-hours-per-day recommendation may no longer be tenable given the surge in social media engagement and school-derived screen use.”

  15. Worrying rise of mumps

A worrying rise in the number of people in South Australia with mumps has prompted health authorities to call for people to make sure they are fully vaccinated.

So far this year there have been nine cases of mumps reported to SA Health, compared to last year’s annual total of 14 cases and just five in 2013.

SA Health is calling on parents to fully vaccinate their children against measles, mumps and rubella.

SA Health Chief Medical Officer Professor Paddy Phillips said many of the cases of mumps had occurred in people who were not fully vaccinated.

“Mumps is a respiratory illness, most commonly known for causing swollen glands on the sides of the face and the jawline, which is spread through coughing and sneezing,” he said.

“It’s a relatively uncommon illness due to high rates of vaccination, so the fact that we’ve seen 15 cases in the last three months alone is unusual.

“Most people recover fairly quickly from mumps but it can cause serious complications, with about 10 per cent developing meningitis and in rare cases, potentially fatal encephalitis.”