Tuesday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Coward’s punch leaves teenager in coma

Police are searching for the attackers behind a “coward’s punch” that has left a teenage boy fighting for his life after an out-of-control party in Bayswater in Melbourne on the weekend.

The 15-year-old boy, Jaiden, was walking away from the party when he was hit. Jaiden remains in a coma with bleeding on the brain.

His mother has pleaded with whoever hurt her son to one forward. “Be honest, please,” Karyn told media yesterday.

“You might not realise that the outcome of your action is what it is now but you need to know and other young people need to know that this is not on,” she said.

Police say 500 teens attended the underage rave at the Bayswater Youth Hall when organisers were forced to call police to shut down the event after gatecrashers entered the venue.

2. Parliament resumes

Parliament resumes today for its spring session, with the Senate to consider legislation that increases the co-payment on taxpayer-funded prescription medicines.

The Prime Minister will today also announce $64 million in funding to reduce the terrorist threat at home – including $13.4m to discourage young people from becoming involved with extremist groups, The Australian reports.

“Recent images of brutal killing in Syria and the brazen presence of Australian citizens amongst the foreign fighters telegraphs the need for action to counter radicalization,” Tony Abbott will say.

3. Australia preparing troops to assist in Iraq

The Daily Telegraph reports that Australia is considering involvement in the military action in Iraq, with the air force and SAS soldiers reportedly ready for deployment.

News Limited reports Australian forces will not deploy unless a request is made by either the United Nations or the US.

4. Inquest into Alana Goldsmith’s death

A New South Wales coroner has said that more could have been done to check on the mental health of 23-year-old Alana Goldsmith on the day she died – but has said the failures were not the ultimate cause of her death.

Alana Goldsmith died at a Sydney railway station on July 22, 2011, after leaving the Wesley Eating Disorders Clinic in Sydney.

Coroner Mark Douglass said that staff failed to notice her missing for more than two hours and that doctors were unaware of her previous suicide attempts.

“It was likely that she could no longer endure the burden of living with her medical condition anorexia nervosa,” as reported in The Guardian.

Alana’s family released a statement saying “We look forward to a time when optimal treatment and care is the norm for all Australians suffering with Eating Disorders.”.

 If you need assistance please call Lifeline on 13 11 14

 or the Butterfly Foundation Eating Disorders supportline 1800 33 4673 (1800 ED HOPE)

5. Michael Brown funeral

Thousands in the US have attended the funeral for slain Missouri teenager Michael Brown.

ABCNEWS reports that Rev. Al Sharpton told the packed service: “You don’t understand that Michael Brown does not want to be remembered for a riot. He wants to be remembered as the one that made America deal with how we’re going to police in the United States.”

6. In-flight gadgets given the nod

Good news for travellers today with the news that Qantas and Virgin will start to allow passengers to keep their electronic devices powered on in-flight from takeoff to touchdown.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority approved the rule changes yesterday – on the proviso that the devices stay in “flight mode”.

Fairfax Media reports that devices weighing more than 1 kilogram, such as laptops, will still need to be stored for take off and landing.

Similar rules are already in force in the United States, Europe and New Zealand.

7. Mum jailed over killing three-year-old son.

A mother in the UK, Rosdeep Adekoya, 34, has been jailed for 11 years for killing her three-year old son Mikaeel Kular, who she beat then left to die for two days.

The case made headlines when Rosedeep reported Mikaeel missing to police after she had hidden his body in a suitcase in remote woodland.

A two-day search operation got international coverage. Last month Adekoya admitted repeatedly beating Mikaeel after he was sick and then stuffing his lifeless body in a suitcase.

Judge Lord Glennie said: “Striking a child even once is bad enough. Striking him heavily and repeatedly with hand and fist when he was being sick again and again simply beggars belief.”

The court earlier heard that Adekoya’s internet history showed searches including “I find it hard to love my son”, “Why am I so aggressive with my son” and “Get rid of bruises”.

8. Two-year-old girl attacked in a gym crèche.

A two-year-old girl has been brutally attacked in a gym crèche by another child sustaining extensive injuries.

Her parents are calling for the crèche to be closed down.

For more on this story, see this post.

9. Parents value qualifications over cost reductions.

The advocacy group The Parenthood has told the by the productivity commission’s inquiry into the draft submissions into childcare that parents do not want the qualification requirements for childcare workers to be watered down.

According to a survey undertaken by the group, 95 per cent of parents did not want qualification levels reduced as was recommended in the report.

The survey also showed that 98 per cent of respondents said they would not send their child to a centre that had lower educator-to-child ratios, even if the fees were slightly cheaper.

10. Mum left with iPhone scar.

A mother has been left horrifically scared after she fell asleep on her iphone4 and it left a 12cm red welt on her breast.

The young mother, Dionne Baxter, 24, from the UK fell asleep lying across her charging iPhone. She woke up in agony and was rushed to hospital.

The Sun reports that the phone had become too hot to touch

11. Your car seats are a health hazard.

Prepare yourself: It turns out that children’s car seats are dirtier than toilets.

(Dirty toilets at that!)

A study by the University of Birmingham has found over 100 strains of bacteria on the average car seat including E Coli and salmonella.

The study, by Continental Tyres, showed that cars are actually more dangerous to our health than our homes.

Elite Daily reports that only one in five people cleaned their vehicle about once a year.

12. Is technology harming our kids’ emotional skills?

A study has shown that digital technology is causing our children to be less empathetic – and creating a generation of kids unable to read other’s emotions.

The study by the University of California Los Angeles looked at 11 and 12-year-old children whose smartphones and TV access was taken away completely for five days. It found that children who had been deprived of the technology were significantly better able to read facial emotions and other non-verbal cues to emotion, compared with the students who continued to use their electronic devices.

The findings, published in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour, applied equally to boys and girls.

The study’s co-author Dr Yalda Uhls told The Telegraph: “You cannot learn non-verbal emotional cues from a screen in the way you can learn it from face-to-face communication.

“The research implies that people need more face-to-face interaction, and that even when people use digital media for social interaction, they are spending less time developing social skills.”

13. Six-year old boy narrowly escapes being run over.

An amazing escape for a six-year old-boy from Shandong, a coastal province in China after an SUV ran over him – leaving him completely unharmed.

14. Brisbane mother killed

Two people are being questioned over the suspected murder of a 34-year-old woman at a home in an affluent suburb in Brisbane.

Officers were called to the Norman Park home at 3.30am this morning after reports of a serious assault, the Courier Mail reports.

Police have confirmed a woman was found dead in the house.

A man was taken away by police just before 7am. It is believed he was a witness.

Police have told media that no weapon was used. It is understood the woman, who is believed to be a mother, may have been beaten to death.

15. Malala takes aim at Western pop music.

Malala Yousafzai has said she is angered by pop music’s representation of women.

The activist Pakistani schoolgirl, 17, says most  female artists in the West have accepted they should be “treated like objects”, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

She told Observer magazine: “What I get a bit angry about is the image of women. It gets quite difficult for me when I listen to pop music.”

“I don’t often understand the words, but when someone translates them to me, I think, ‘What is this song representing? That women are just there to be treated like objects?,” she said.

“Most of the time they do not even make sense. And the thing is that most of the female artists seem to have accepted all this. But they have a role to play.”

Malala survived an assassination attempt in 2012 after campaigning for girls’ right to education. She has recently become involved in the campaign against female genital mutilation.

She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize last year.

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