news

Thursday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Neville Wran’s daughter charged with man’s murder

Harriet Wran arrested

The daughter of former NSW premier Neville Wran has been arrested and charged with the stabbing murder of a 48-year old man, Daniel McNaulty and the attempted stabbing of another man, Brett Fitzgerald.

She has also been charged with aggravated break-and enter.

Harriet Wran handed herself in to police yesterday afternoon after police announced they were looking for a 26-year old woman in connection with the murder.

Another man, 29-year-old Lloyd Edward Haines faced Parramatta Local Court yesterday for the murder of Mr McNaulty.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Harriet Wran is understood to have been in the Redfern apartment block at the time of the murder.

Her father was the premier of NSW for 10 years.

2. Trolls taunt Robin Williams’s daughter

Zelda Williams has quit Twitter

Robin Williams’s daughter has quit Twitter after trolls sent her offensive messages with fake images of her father’s dead body.

Zelda Williams was sent fake photoshopped images according to The Huffington Post. She sent out a tweet saying she was taking a break from the social media platform and she intended to delete the Twitter app from her devices “for a good long time, maybe forever.”

The 25-year-old actor said she was opting out of Instagram too.

“I will be leaving this account … while I heal and decide if I’ll be deleting it or not,” she wrote “In this difficult time, please try to be respectful of the accounts of myself, my family and my friends. Mining our accounts for photos of dad, or judging me on the number of them is cruel and unnecessary.”

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3. Abby endured “unspeakable violence”

Abigail Herdandez in court

 

The lawyer for US teenager Abigail Herdandez – who was abducted for 9 months before returning home – has released a statement saying that “Abby suffered numerous acts of unspeakable violence.”

On their Facebook site, Bring Abby Home he said that she “was violently abducted by a stranger.”

He pleads with the media and members of the public to give her time and space and to be “sensitive to the well-being of this child.”

The circumstances of her abduction, mysterious captivity and release have been withheld – with a man being arrested for her disappearance, Nathanial Kibby, facing up to 7 years jail.

4. Gable Tostee video surveillance following the death of Warriena Wright.

More details have emerged about the video surveillance Gable Tostee used on women he invited back to his apartment. The Courier Mail is reporting that he attached miniature spy cameras to his clothing while trying to pick up women. A live feed would then access the images from his surveillance cameras.

“I also have mini spy cameras which I’ve used for fun when I’ve gone out and had a drunken night or something,” he wrote on an online forum.

New Zealander Warriena Wright fell from his balcony last weekend and died.

Tostee has not been charged with any crime.

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Her family flew into Australia yesterday and are due to make a statement to the media this morning.

5. Should cafés be able to ban prams?

Should cafes be able to ban prams?

A Sydney Mother has been thrown out of a café for having a pram inside has sparked an online debate over whether cafés should be able to ban prams.

The Mum says she was embarrassed and offended when she was asked to leave the small café.

For more read this post here.

6. Joey’s step-father speaks

The stepfather of three-year old, Joey Woodcock who died after allegedly becoming entangled in his dog’s lead and suffering a head injury has spoken to the media.

Andrew Woodcock told Nine News that he is a suspect as police do not believe his version of events. A strike force of local detectives and senior members of the NSW homicide squad have been investigating Joey’s death for over a week. Andrew Woodcock says he has nothing to hide and that the boy did indeed die due to tripping over the dogs.

7. Teachers acting as chemists

The Herald Sun has reported that a student has been given the wrong medicine at a Melbourne school amidst increasing numbers of children needing pharmaceuticals that are dispensed to them by teachers.

The rising number of children needing medication was highlighted when a year 1 boy, who takes Ritalin to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was given another student’s medication at Iramoo Primary School in Melbourne’s west.

According to The Herald Sun the boy was given blood pressure medicine instead.

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Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Meredith Peace told The Herald Sun that some students were requiring up to three medicines a day, administered in differing quantities at different times.

The responsibility was often “akin to that of a medical expert. “

“It does seem to be more and more each year and it is quite complex,’’ Ms Findlay said.

8. Treasurer out of touch with Australia’s lower income earners.

Joe Hockey slammed for his comments

The Treasurer, Joe Hockey has been slammed for comments he made regarding petrol tax.

Mr Hockey said that the poorest Australians wouldn’t be hit by increases to the tax because they don’t own cars.

“The poorest people either don’t have cars, or actually don’t drive very far in many cases,” Mr Hockey said.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten questioned whether the Treasurer had his head in the clouds

“Are you serious Joe Hockey? Are you really the caricature – the cigar chomping leghorn foghorn of Australian politics – where you’re saying poor people don’t drive cars?” said opposition leader Bill Shorten.

 

9. Size 16 mannequins promote the idea that fat is acceptable

An author and weight-loss expert has critisised retailers for using size 16 mannequins in their shops saying they are making “fat” acceptable.

The UK TV presenter of the series Fat Families said that the use of such mannequins normalised obesity.

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He told The Daily Mail “If you start having fat mannequins – and I do call them fat because every size 16 woman I have worked with has been fat – you are putting out the message that it is normal.”

He says, “’political correctness is encouraging people to stay fat’” “It is very concerning. Using size 16 mannequins is like saying ill health is OK.”

His comments have been backed up by the UK’s Chief Medical Officer who condemned the use of larger mannequins in her annual report.

10. Siri helps man hide body

A man in the US accused of murdering his friend asked Siri where to hide his body.

20-year-old Florida man Pedro Bravo is on trial for murdering his friend Christian Aguilar in September 2012.

According to local media reports he asked Siri “I need to hide my roommate.”

Her answer “What kind of place are you looking for? Swamps, reservoirs, foundries, dumps?”

11. Alcohol makes us not care

Turns out that alcohol doesn’t impair our ability to make decisions, it just makes us not give a f..k.

A study at the University of Missouri found that people who had drunk alcohol were as aware as those who were sober about their decisions, but they cared less.

Researchers say that what this means is that alcohol doesn’t inhibit our ability to know what we’re doing – instead it inhibits our inability to feel guilt, remorse or shame about it.

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12. Men want to have children before women do

Men want families before women do

This may surprise you but it seems that men are clucky many years before women.

A UK poll has asked men what age they wished to first have children, the average age most men answered was 29 while women would ideally wanted to wait until they were 32.

The Daily Mail reports that the research also showed 88% of men said they wanted to have a baby compared with only 79 % of women.

13. Government responds to crisis in Iraq by issuing special humanitarian visas.

The Federal Government has today responded to the crisis in Iraq by allocating Special Humanitarian Visas to certain refugees.

Australia’s current humanitarian refugee program annually allocates 4000 of 13,750 refugee visas for those who are “most in need of resettlement” due to excruciating circumstances. Today, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has announced that Iraqi Christians and Yazidis fleeing from Islamic State militants will also be eligible.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has said standing by and doing nothing would be comparable to facilitating a genocide of a scale not seen for a long time.  “We have to stop the systematic slaughter of people wherever it might be in the world,” he told ABC NewsRadio.

Refugee advocates including Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young have praised the government on their decision, but are urging them to add another 5000 humanitarian places for refugees in desperate need.