news

Friday's News in five minutes.

 

 

1. Anzac Day dawn services have been held across the country.

Thousands of Australians attended dawn services this morning to honour our Anzac heroes, with large numbers across all capital cities.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the Canberra service in Canberra – the first royal couple to do so since 1970.

This year marks the centenary of the start of World War I. Marches were held later in the morning with the veterans of WWI poignantly represented by a riderless horse.

ADVERTISEMENT

Here is William and Kate at the Canberra dawn service:

ADVERTISEMENT

 

2. Australian airline comes under fire for refusing to let boy with cancer fly home for Easter.


Regional Express (REX) refused to transfer a young boy with cancer to another flight after he needed a last-minute blood transfusion.

According to the Western Advocate, the boy had arranged flights through Little Wings, a charity that flies children and their parents from regional areas to Sydney for medical treatment. If Little Wings have no plane available, they pay for families to take commerical flights.

But when the boy fell ill on Good Friday, REX reportedly told Little Wings that because there was less than 12 hours until the flight departed, new tickets would need to be purchased unless a medical certificate was provided.

ADVERTISEMENT

Little Wings CEO Kevin Robinson told the Western Advocate that they could have provided the certificate but felt it was a ridiculous policy to enforce on a family that is clearly in need: “Rex have put their policy first and even though they have the option to put them on a later flight, Rex have decided the ticket will be forfeited and new tickets must be purchased. Even though we can provide a letter, it’s not good enough and it’s policy before community and helping a boy with cancer at Easter.”

 

3. Time has named its 100 most influential people of the year.


According to Time magazine, the most influential person of 2014 is Beyonce:

Bey beat the likes of Pope Francis and Hilary Clinton to make the cover. Her tribute piece was written by Sheryl Sandberg, who said that she “…raises her voice both on and off stage to urge women to be independent and lead.”

Although less than half of the list is made up of women, it is still a ‘record year’ for Time with 41 being the highest number of females to ever make the list.

 

4. Australia ranks really low when it comes to internet speed.


In a ranking of countries across the globe and their respective internet speeds, Australia has ranked in at 44. That puts us behind the US, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic and Latvia.

ADVERTISEMENT

According to the Akamai Technologies’ latest State of the Internet report, South Korea is in first place, with an average internet speed of 21.9 megabits per second. To put that in perspective, Australia’s average internet speed is just 5.8 megabits per second.

We still beat New Zealand though, who came in one place behind us at 45.

 

5. Lance Armstrong has insisted he still considers himself a Tour de France winner.

Lance Armstrong: “Yes, I feel that I won the races.”

In his first public interview since sitting down with Oprah in January 2013, disgraced cycling champion Lance Armstrong has told Outside magazine that he still considers himself a champion despite his use of performance enhancing drugs.

Despite being stripped of all seven of his Tour de France medals, Armstrong has indicated that he feels he still won fairly because drugs were a widespread problem in the sport at the time.

“Yes, I feel that I won the races,” he said. “I know that is not a popular answer, but the reality is that… it was just a messy time. It was basically an arms race and we all played ball that way.”

Armstrong has even insisted that his fellow competitors feel the same way:

“Of course I’m going to say I won – but ask the guys (fellow competitors) that went and suffered with you and ask them, ‘Did he win?’ I think I know what they’d say.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Watch the full interview here.

 

6. A man in the US has been found guilty of murdering his wife four days after taking out a life insurance policy on her.


Michel Escoto has been found guilty of murdering his wife, 13 years after he attacked her with a tyre iron. Escoto took out a life insurance policy on his 21-year-old wife Wendy that would see him receive US$1 million in the event of her death. Four days later, he tried to drug her and drown her in the bath. When that didn’t work, he bludgeoned her to death.

The trial has recevied much press in the US, where Escoto represented himself and often threatened members of the court. Sentecing is scheduled for May but this kind of crime results in automatic life imprisonment in Escoto’s state of Miami.

 

7. Joe Hockey will need to cut a whopping $300 billion from government spending in order to meet surplus promise.


After announcing yesterday that there were going to be some difficult budget cuts in the near future, Joe Hockey’s figures have been put under further scrutiny. In order to meet the promise of a budget surplus by 2024, Fairfax states that the Abbott government would have to cut $300 billion from Commonwealth spending over the next 10 years.

Although the official budget will not be released until May, Hockey has made it clear in interviews that there is going to be a major clamp down on government support and social welfare.

 

What news are you talking about today?

 

 

Tags: