Monday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Missing Sydney girl

Update: Police have found missing Michelle Levy after 40 hours away from her North Bondi home. For more, see this post.  

11-year old Michelle Levy left her home in North Bondi at about 6:30pm after a family argument. While she has been known to leave home before, it has only been for very short periods of time.

Police hold concerns for her safety and have been searching for her across the Eastern Suburbs, particularly in Centennial Park.

Her father told media that it was not the first time his headstrong daughter had run off, though she had never vanished overnight.

“If we fight, she storms off and sulks like a normal 11-year-old girl but she normally doesn’t go very far, only around the corner to her grandparents’ house,” he said.

“She’s a chip off the old block really, and sometimes we do have a personality clash.

Michelle is described as about 150cm tall and of Caucasian appearance, with a thin build, long red hair, blue eyes and freckles. She was wearing a white dress with black, orange and yellow flowers and a black sash at the time of her disappearance.

 The Daily Mail reports that CCTV footage of the young girl has emerged taken half an hour after she went missing – they speculate that it is from outside the Westfield shopping centre in Bondi Junction.

Michelle is wearing the same dress in the CCTV that she went missing in.

Police urge anyone with information about the missing girl to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

 2. Ebola scare Brisbane

The first round of test results for an 18-year old woman in Brisbane have come back negative.

The woman recently arrived from Guinea, with eight members of her extended family, including six children is being kept in an isolation ward at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital after developing a fever yesterday.

She will remain in hospital until a second test is performed.

Extraordinary precautions are being taken to ensure that the suspected Ebola case in Brisbane – if it does turn out to be Ebola – does not affect anybody else.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said that 19 people are being isolated in home quarantine in Brisbane that she had come into contact with.

Staff at the hospital treating the woman are being advised to keep a one-metre distance from their own families.

“There’ll be one nurse for each shift who only looks after her, doesn’t look after any other patient, and she won’t be allowed any visitors,” Dr Young said.

 3. Australia to send volunteers to fight Ebola

Meanwhile The Daily Telegraph reports that the Federal Government is considering sending volunteer medical teams to West Africa to help fight Ebola but on the condition that they are quarantined overseas for 21 days before returning to Australia.

 4. ALP shift in policy

The Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles has told Sky News that if they were to win government they ‘might’ continue the present government policy of turning back asylum seeker boats.

Mr Marles said that turn-backs had “had an impact” in reducing the flow of boats.

He told Sky News that they had worked in conjunction with former PM Kevin Rudd’s policy of resettling refugees in Papua New Guinea instead of Australia if they came by boat.

Fairfax Media reports that Immigration Minster Scott Morrison has seized the comments saying that the ALF should now support the reintroduction of temporary protection visas.

 5. Reeva Steenkamp set to leave Pistorius

The mother of Reeva Steenkamp has written in a book serialsed in The Times that Reeva was set to leave Pistorius the night he killed her.

“Her clothes were packed. There is no doubt in our minds: she had decided to leave Oscar that night,” she wrote in the book Reeva: a Mother’s Story

She wrote that Reeva had told her she “had not slept” with Pistorius and was “scared to take the relationship to that level”.

June Steenkamp rails against the evidence given by Oscar Pistorius.

He said pulling the trigger was ‘an accident’. What? Four times an accident?”

“He said Reeva did not scream, but she would definitely have screamed. I know my daughter and she was very vocal.”

 6. Fraser Island dingo attack

Two female tourists attacked by dingoes on Fraser Island were jogging when the attack took place.

One woman sustained injuries and is being treated at Hervey Bay Hospital in a stable condition for treatment of wounds to her legs.

Yidney Rocks Beachfront Units manager Maijan Goulding told News Limited that the women – visitors to the island had been jogging.

“It’s a case again of people jogging on the island and they go at the same time in the morning for the past week,” Ms Goulding said.

“She’s fine but it’s been a serious attack, they drew blood.

“They attacked her legs and tried to bring her down.”

“You don’t go running on the beach.”

7. Is this offensive?

A Sydney chain of restaurants has been slammed for an ad which many are saying exploits women.

The Bavarian Bier Café advertisement features the slogan ‘We’ve got the best racks’.

The campaign claims that the café will donate $1 to Treasure Chest Charity for every serving of ribs sold. The charity raises money for breast reconstruction for women who have suffered through breast cancer.

The organization Collective Shout has slammed the advertisement for being sexist and has asked the restaurant group to pull the ad.

“ You are not only exploiting women and girls through sexual objectification, you are exploiting and using charities – charities that exist to help women survive a deadly disease – to justify your lazy and sexist marketing” Collective Shout has claimed on their website.

  8. Imagine finding this note in your letterbox

A QLD Mum has been shocked to find a note left in her letterbox by a neighbour asking her to keep her baby quiet.

Trish LaForty told the Sunshine Coast Daily that she arrived home last week arrived home last week to find a note saying, “We’re tired of your baby crying”

Trish decided to respond.

For more read this post here.

 9. Mother wins right to allow daughter to die

A mother in the UK has made legal history after she won a High Court case to end the life of her severely disabled 12-year-old daughter.

Charlotte Fitzmaurice’s daughter Nancy was born blind and suffering from hydrocphalus, meningitis and septicaemia, which left her unable to talk, walk, eat or drink.

For 12-years her quality of life was been so poor she depended on round the clock hospital care and was fed, watered and medicated through a tube.

Her mother Charlotte Fitzmaurice went to the high court to beg them to end her daughter’s life.

“The light from her eyes is now gone and is replaced with fear and a longing to be at peace.” She wrote in a statement

“Today I am appealing to you for Nancy as I truly believe she has endured enough. For me to say that breaks my heart.

“But I have to say it”

The court granted her request and withdrew fluids from the young girl.

The Mirror reports that the ruling set a precedent – it being the first time a child breathing on her own, not on life support – not suffering a terminal illness – is allowed by a court to die.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_Pr-nbrc-w

10. Russell Brand to run for London Mayor

Comedian Russell Brand is reportedly interested in moving into politics with The Mail on Sunday reporting he has told close friends he is considering running for London Mayor in 2016.

He is apparently considering standing on an independent “anti-politics” ticket.

11. Down Syndrome Disney Princess

A family in the US have started a petition for a Down Syndrome Disney Princess.

The California couple have said that heroes or heroines with special needs are underrepresented in Disney movies and they have begun a petition asking Walt Disney Studios to create a Disney princess with Down Syndrome.

Keston Ott-Dahl and her wife Andrea are mothers to 15-month old Delaney  they have written in their petition “Children with Down syndrome are princes and princesses, too!”

They already have nearly 50,000 signatures.

12. Athletes perform better after sex

A study by Swinburne University in Melbourne has revealed that athletes perform better if they don’t undertake cognitive activities beforehand.

The Daily Mail Australia reports 20 experienced German runners participated in the study, which involved running a 3000 metre track twice – once while cognitively fatigued and once while not cognitively fatigued.

The study found that the athletes were more likely to perform at their peak if they had sex or watched TV before a race.

Those who read a good book or used a computer were less likely to excel.

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