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Tuesday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Manus Island review

Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati died on Manus Island.

 

 

An independent review into riots that took place at the Manus Island detention centre in PNG on February 16-18 this year has found that a Salvation Army worker allegedly fatally attacked Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati.

The review found that protests exploded into fatal violence after months of tension between the mainly Iranian asylum seekers and the PNG nationals working there.

The Salvation Army worker is expected to be charged in PNG.

The report by former secretary of the Attorney-General’s department, Robert Cornall, says asylum seekers felt “anger and frustration at the former Labor government’s permanent resettlement plan, which meant they would never make it to Australia, led to the violent protests.”

Jamie Gao.

2. Jamie Gao investigation

UPDATE:

Disgraced former police officer Roger Rogerson has been arrested and charged with murder and will spend the night behind bars, Yahoo News reports.

The charge relates to the body found floating yesterday off Cronulla Beach, which was today formally identified as that of 20-year-old UTS student Jamie Gao.

Rogerson, 73, was arrested at his Sydney home after returning from Queensland today, and appeared briefly for a mention at Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday.

He is next due to appear before Central Local Court on July 22.

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Fellow former Sydney detective and self-titled whistleblower Glen McNamara, 55, was charged on Monday with Mr Gao’s murder.

According to Sky News, Rogerson said — via his lawyer Paul Kenny — that he is “beyond shocked” at being linked to the death of the UTS student.

Mr Kenny said he planned to make formal complaint to the NSW Police Commissioner about the way his client was arrested and earlier told reporters Rogerson had “never dodged the police”, the ABC reports.

Police allege Mr Gao was killed as part of a drug deal, saying almost three kilograms of what was believed to be methamphetamine had been found.

3. Will $7 co-payment deter vaccinations?

Will the $7 fee deter parents from vaccinations?

The Australian Medical Association has expressed concerns that the new $7 fee to see the GP may deter some parents from having their children vaccinated.

AMA’s national president Brian Owler told Fairfax Media that doctors were concerned the fee could deter some low-income families from having their children immunised.

”We have been working hard to drive immunisation rates up. We don’t want to see barriers put up to those programs,” Associate Professor Owler said.

4. Judge breaks down during sentencing

A judge has had to leave court after becoming so upset while sentencing a Victorian paedophile priest.

Judge Frank Gucciardo became visibly affected by his own words as he described the impact of paedophile priest Frank Klep’s abuse of 15 schoolchildren.

Klep, 70, was jailed for 10 and a half years after preying on sick and vulnerable boys while running the infirmary at Salesian College Rupertswood in Sunbury between 1974 and 1983.

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“The young men you have abused were broken by your conduct,” judge Gucciardo said. “There is no doubt your conduct plummets the depths of evil hypocrisy.”

5. Image of Indian boy tied by leg to bus stop goes viral

This image has made international headlines.

An image of a disabled Indian boy who is tied to a bus stop during the day has captured worldwide attention.

The nine-year-old boy, Lakhan Kale, has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and is unable to communicate with others.

His grandmother ties him to the bus stop while she works to keep him safe. The images that appeared in The Times of India last week have illustrated the lack of services for the poor and the 40-60 million disabled people in India.

After Lakhan’s picture went national, the police and a social worker helped get him admitted to The Children’s Aid Society, a shelter for destitute, orphaned and victimised kids near Mumbai, The Times of India reported.

“I am a single old woman. Nobody paid attention to me until the newspaper report,” his grandmother told the AFP.

6. Nigeria calls off deal for the missing girls

A deal for the release of some of the abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria was close to being secured when the Nigerian government called it off, the BBC has reported.

Some of the girls were set to be freed in exchange for imprisoned Islamist militants but the government cancelled the planned agreement shortly before the swap was due to take place.

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The reasons for the withdrawal are unclear. It came just after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan attended a meeting in Paris hosted by President Francois Hollande of France where leaders said they had agreed a “global and regional action plan” against Boko Haram.

The ABC reports that the Nigerian authorities have said they know where the girls are but will not rescue them for fear of endangering their safety.

7. Elliot Rodger’s victims’ names

The six victims of Elliot Rodger have now been named.

Rodger went on a stabbing and shooting spree in California on Friday after posting a frightening YouTube video proclaiming his hatred of women.

The three newly named victims are James Cheng-yuan Hong, 20, and George Chen, 19 – who were Rodger’s roommates — and a third man who was visiting, 20-year-old Weihan Wang.

All victims were identified as University of California Santa Barbara students.

Previously, three other victims had been named – Katherine Cooper, 22, Veronica Weiss, 19, and Christopher Michael-Martinez, 22.

8. Buck’s night sexual assault

The Herald Sun reports that a judge has jailed three men for a buck’s night indecent assault of an 18-year-old woman.

The jury stopped short of charging the men with rape after it was found they could not reach a decision on whether a lack of consent could be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

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In sentencing, the judge said he could not consider those allegations or the associated suggestions of force and restraint of the victim.

The three men, 27-year-old groom-to-be Desandren Pillay and his friends Fereti Dansey, 27, and Walter Toganivalu, 26, were out on a drunken buck’s night in Melbourne. Judge Michael Tinney sentenced the men to imprisonment for 15 months, with 10 months of that term to be suspended for two years.

9. Surrogate refuses to give up baby

Leanne Stanford and daughter Mollie, now aged 18 months.

A woman who acted as a surrogate for her mother and stepfather has refused to give up the baby saying that the bond between her and her child was stronger than that of her and her mum.

A Bitter family feud as now erupted. For more, read this post here.

10. Electric chair back in US state

Tennessee has become the first state to bring back the electric chair without offering death row prisoners another option for execution.

Republican Governor Bill Haslam signed a bill into law on Thursday that allows the state to electrocute inmates if prison officials can’t get their hands on lethal injection drugs. “I think the legislature felt very strongly we needed to have some sort of backup in case the drugs for the lethal injection weren’t available,” Haslam told CNN.

But the drought of lethal injection drugs has forced state officials to experiment with untested lethal cocktails which can result in botched executions, like that of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma last month.

Seven other states still offer electrocution as an option for inmates.

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11. Eating disorders strike young children

The Eating Disorders and Obesity Conference on the Gold Coast has heard that we live in a toxic culture which is seeing children as young as seven being hospitalised for anorexia and bulimia.

Christine Morgan, CEO of eating disorders charity The Butterfly Foundation, told the conference that the $644 million-a-year weight-loss industry, a media obsession with the ‘ideal’ body image and fad diets such as paleo and raw food were contributing to the eating disorder epidemic.

If you need help you can contact The Butterfly Foundation on 1800 33 4673 

12. Duchess of Cambridge photo scandal

The photo was taken while the Duchess was visiting the Blue Mountains.

The Duchess of Cambridge is at the center of a privacy scandal after a German tabloid published a picture of her bottom.

The images were taken as she was visiting the Blue Mountains in April and a helicopter’s wind blew her dress upwards.

The tabloid Bild.de paid more than £100,000 for the photos.

The text accompanying the images says, “Photos show our favourite Duchess Kate, 32, in the Australian Blue Mountains. The rotor blades of the royal helicopter swirl the air so that Kate’s summer dress blew up – giving a clear view of her beautiful bum!”

The pictures were offered to and refused by the British tabloids.

13. Village votes to change offensive name

Documents show the town’s original name was Castrillo Motajudios, meaning “Jews’ Hill Camp”.

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But in 1627, it became known as “Camp Kill Jews”, more than a century after a 1492 Spanish royal edict ordered Jews to become Catholics or flee the country.

Those who remained faced the Spanish inquisition, with many burned at the stake. Spain’s government earlier this year apologized to Jews by offering citizenship to descendants of those who were forced to flee centuries ago.

 14. Women will be disproportionately affected by government changes to HECS and HELP.

New modelling suggests that women will be disproportionately affected by the government’s budget decision to apply real interest to student debts.

The National Tertiary Education Union analysis found that graduates who take time off to have children, or work part time – decisions that are usually made by women – could increase debt by up to $45,000.

The analysis showed that a three year accounting degree in today’s dollars could cost $75,000, and up to and $99,000 with $24,000 of interest if it is repaid over 23 years. However, if a graduate were to take a an eight year break (say, for childrearing) and re-enter the workforce on a part-time basis for three years, it would take up to 36 years to repay their debt In this time, up to $45,000 in real interest could be applied – which would result in $120,000 total debt.

The report revealed, “The new arrangements have a built-in bias against graduates with carer responsibilities, which will mainly be women.”

What news are you talking about today?

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