Thursday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Mother of journalist pleads with ISIS

The mother of US journalist Steven Sotloff, who has been held captive by ISIS for over a year, has made a plea for her son’s release.

Steven Sotloff appeared last week in an ISIS video showing the decapitation of American journalist James Foley. It was threatened that he would be next.

Shirley Sotloff spoke directly to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a video broadcast on Al Arabiya Network. “He is an innocent journalist,” she said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etxlMoOJIy4

“Steven is a journalist who traveled to the Middle East to cover the suffering of Muslims at the hands of tyrants. Steven is a loyal and generous son, brother and grandson,” Shirley Sotloff said in the rare public appeal.

“He is an honorable man and has always tried to help the weak.”

2. Redfoo glassed

X Factor Australia judge Redfoo has been glassed while out with friends at the Golden Sheaf Hotel in Sydney’s Double Bay.

News Limited report that a 21-year-old man approached him and allegedly threw a glass at him, cutting his head.

A witness wrote on Twitter: “Just saw @RedFoo get a bottle thrown at his head at the Golden Sheaf bleeding! Jesus Christ! What is wrong with people..Hope you’re okay mate”

3. Anthea Mari murder

Police have charged a man with murder over the death of Brisbane Mother-of four Anthea Mari.

Jacob Michael Smith, 38, was charged with murder, as well as a number of other charges that cannot be revealed. He is due to face Brisbane Magistrates Court today.

For more on this story, read this post.

4. Zara’s offensive t-shirt

Just days after fashion chain Zara was forced to pull a t-shirt with the slogan “ White is the new black” from its shelves, the chain is now under fire for a child tee which has been criticised for its resemblance to uniforms worn by Jewish concentration camp prisoners.

The kid’s tee has horizontal blue and white stripes and a yellow star, similar to the Star of David, on the upper left hand side.

Zara said the shirt was meant to be a western design with the star a Sherriff’s star.

Fairfax Media reports that it has now been removed from he shelves after much condemnation on Twitter.

“The new #ZARA Sheriff T-Shirt is somewhat #Holcocaust ish in its design don’t you agree?” tweeted @shulman_k.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz called the garment “hauntingly reminiscent of a darker era”.

5. Principal says “mental health days are for morons”

A primary school principal has angered parents after saying in a staff newsletter that students who may be bullying victims or have mental health problems are “morons”, “nut cases” and “village idiots”.

Christian Cundy, from Calare Public School in Orange, NSW, wrote: “I will send out a well-scripted letter in week 4 starting off — Have you bred a moron? You might like to access the services of Calare’s new initiative, ‘Operation Nutcase’. Sign on the dotted line or leave your thumbprint if you cannot write.”

The newsletter, which did not go out to the wider community but was disseminated to about 50 people including teachers in the school, was in reference to a program to be conducted at the school by an outside company.

Autism Advisory and Support Service founder and president Grace Fava told News Limited the principal should be disciplined.

“You do not joke about this — he is supposedly the head of a school filled with kids who have special needs. A reprimand is not enough, a slap on the wrist is not enough,” she said.

News Limited reports that Mr Cundy has apologised for any offense the newsletter may have caused.

6. Another surrogate twin abandoned

In a case that echoes that of baby Gammy, a UK couple have rejected one of their biological babies after she was born with the severe muscular condition Congenital Myotonic Dystrophy.

The Mirror reports when the biological mother found out the baby had the condition she told the surrogate she didn’t want the “dribbling cabbage”.

The surrogate mother has vowed to raise the rejected baby girl and to tell her exactly what took place.

“I do sometimes think of her brother — mostly at Christmas and on her birthday,” she said. “I’d like Amy to meet him one day, but it would have to be done through a middleman.”

7. Twenty-one million women have experienced emotional abuse

One in four Australian women and one in seven Australian men have experienced emotional abuse by a partner since the age of 15, according to data out today by the ABS.

The startling results show that one in five women who had experienced emotional abuse by their current partner had also experienced emotional abuse by a previous partner.

Of the 392,000 women who had experienced emotional abuse by their current partner, almost half said that they were constantly insulted to make them feel ashamed, belittled or humiliated.

Both women and men who had been emotionally abused by their current partner commonly reported that their partner had controlled or tried to control where they went or who they saw or monitored their whereabouts.

8. Playground tree removal unnecessary

An expert has called the decision to chop down more than 5000 trees and to examine those at all 2181 school sites across NSW “knee jerk” and “entirely ineffective”.

The NSW Education Department ordered the arborists examine the playground trees after the death of eight-year-old Bridget Wright in February. She had just sat down to eat her lunch at Pitt Town Public School when a seven-metre branch fell and killed her.

Mark Hartley, a director of peak industry body Arboriculture Australia, told Fairfax Media: “This expenditure would have been better allocated elsewhere. They would have been better off developing a policy and some educational material for principals and staff about what to look for in finding defective trees and to have only trees inspected that they had concerns about.”

“That would have meant a substantially lower cost,” he said.

9. Three-year-old girl dies after driveway accident

A three-year-old girl has died after being reversed over in the driveway of her home in Taree in NSW.

Police says the pre-schooler was hit by a Holden Commodore station wagon as it reversed out of the driveway.

The Manning River Times reports that the driver of the car, a 27-year-old man was related to the girl.

10. Newborn baby dumped in garbage bin

A mother has been arrested after dumping her two-day-old baby in a garbage bin in the hopes her “problems will go away.”

The 23-year-old woman in the US hid the entire pregnancy and birth from her family.

For more, read this post.

11. Fined for slapping stepson’s face

A man has been fined $1000 after he slapped his 12-year-old stepson across the face for arguing with his mother and swearing in front of her.

News Limited reports prosecutor Sergeant Sean Francis told the court the step-father “swung an open hand at the boy, making contact just under his right eye and causing bruising.”

The man’s lawyer said that the father – who had been in a relationship with the boy’s mother for five years –  tried to talk to the boy after he was rude to his mother, punched a wall and yelled “This is f__ng shit”.

The Courier Mail reports that Magistrate Anne Thacker said the man was not able to control himself and that “lashing out” against a child was not the answer.

“The child clearly placed you in a difficult position but two wrongs don’t make a right,” she said.

She fined the man $1000.

12. Ice bucket challenge

The Ice bucket challenge has raised AUD $95 million in the US and $700,000 in Australia since it went viral in July.

The National Director of the Motor Neuron Disease Australia Carol Birks told the ABC at least half of the funds will go towards research. The global ice bucket challenge has been raising funds for ALS – amyotrophic lateral disease – not a term used in Australia.

“One form of MND is ALS and it’s the most common form, about 65 per cent of cases of MND are ALS,” she told the ABC. “So in the US and some other countries around the world they use that term, where as here we use the term MND.”

“It has been problematic but I think this challenge has given us the opportunity to talk about MND ALS and to explain to people that they are one and the same disease.”

Even Homer Simpson has done the challenge.

13. Jennifer Aniston says she is made to feel like less of a woman for not having a baby.

Jennifer Aniston has told The US Today Show she is often made to feel less of a woman because she has not had any children.

She said: “I don’t have this sort of checklist of things that have to be done, and … if they’re not checked, then I’ve failed some part of my feminism or my being a woman or my worth and my value as a woman because I haven’t, you know, birthed a child?”

“I’ve birthed a lot of things and I feel like I’ve mothered many things and I don’t think it is fair to put that kind of pressure on people.”

 14. Would you help a lost child?

Would you help a lost child?

It seems that two in three people would hesitate to help a child who appeared lost for fear of being falsely accused, according to research out in the UK today.

A significant 64 per cent of adults said they would be concerned about being wrongly suspected or that someone would misunderstand their intentions if they went to the aid of a child who seemed to be lost.

Meanwhile, 45 per cent said they would stay close by and observe, and three percent of men admitted they would simply keep walking, compared to 1 per cent of women.

 15. The new ‘challenge’ going viral

You’ve heard of the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’.

But in Texas, a new challenge is going viral – and this time, participants are asked to eat a taco and drink a beer before donating to a pro-choice organisation.

Time Magazine reports that participants may “donate to any abortion rights fund — from Planned Parenthood to another local or national organization.”

The challenge began as a joke on Twitter, started by political reporter Andrea Grimes.

Grimes wrote for RH Reality Check: “What do ice buckets have to do with ALS? I don’t know. What do tacos and beer have to do with abortion? I don’t know that either.”

“What I do know is that eating tacos and drinking beer is more pleasurable than getting doused with ice water, and that lawmakers around the country are passing increasingly restrictive anti-abortion access laws,” she said.

16. Zara is coming to Brisbane

After last month’s announcement that Zara was coming to the Gold Coast left Brisbanites saying “What about us?”, the Spanish fast fashion chain has finally announced plans to move into Queensland’s capital.

Zara has announced plans to open in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall, the Financial Review reports. The news comes after various rumours that the chain was looking for retail space the area.

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