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Monday's afternoon’s news in under 5 minutes: 19th January.

Don’t have time for sift through all the news of the day? No worries, we’ve got you sorted.

1. Ladies rejoice: Maternity leave is good for business, argues YouTube CEO

Tell your boss the good news: maternity leave isn’t just good for mothers, it’s good for businesses too.

In an Op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Youtube CEO and former Google employee Susan Wojcicki  has made a strong case for why Maternity leave is good for business.

In the piece, Susan Wojcicki cited a paper from the Centre for Economic and Policy Research that stated 91% of businesses under the Californian paid leave policy positively effected profitability.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

She also contested her personal experience with the scheme, being that she was the first Google employee to take maternity leave.

She also argued that when maternity leave weeks were increased to 18 from 12 weeks, the rate of which young mothers would leave the company went down 50%.

2.  Manus Island Asylum seekers say police, guards preparing to enter compound by force.

By ABC

Asylum seekers who have barricaded themselves inside a compound at the Manus Island detention centre say police and guards are preparing to enter the compound by force, a claim the PNG government denies.

Protests at the facility are entering their seventh day, with detainees of Delta compound preventing staff from entering and refusing food and water.

Detainees of Delta compound have blocked staff from entering the premises and refused food and water. Photo courtesy of ABC

An asylum seeker who said he was inside the compound sent this message this morning: “This is my last message to you. There are a lot of police and guards around the Delta and they want to attack to us.”

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A version of this post originally appeared on the ABC website and has been republished with permission.

3. Fake police officer pulls over drivers, steals licences in Sydney’s west

By ABC

Police are investigating reports of a fake officer pulling over drivers and stealing their licences in Sydney’s west.

New South Wales Police said it had received two reports over the weekend of drivers being stopped, breath-tested and told they were not allowed to drive.

The culprit, according to police, was stopping drivers and ordering them to undertake a breath test.

During the first incident, a 32-year-old man was pulled over on Greendale Road at Bringelly about 11:00pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

“Police have been told the man noticed a white Holden Commodore with a blue light flashing on the dash behind him and subsequently pulled over,” a NSW Police statement said.

“The driver of the Holden approached the man’s car and spoke to him, claiming he was a police officer, and showing him what is believed to be a fake police badge.

“He asked the driver to undertake a roadside breath test.

“The man impersonating a police officer left the scene, taking the man’s driver’s licence, after telling the driver it had been suspended.”

A version of this post originally appeared on the ABC website and has been republished with permission.

4. Iranian footballers threatened after taking selfies with female fans

Iran’s Football Federation’s disciplinary committee has warned its football team against taking photos with female fans.

The team, who are currently in Australia for the Asian Cup, has been quite busy on social media, posting a slew of happy snaps with some female fans. In Iran, due to the sex segregation rules, female fans are not allowed to attend football matches.

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The Federation bemoaned that the women “may later use these photos for political ransom against our country or sue the players for harassment”. In coverage of the tournament in Iran, “inappropriately dressed” women have been censored.

5. Funeral Parlour accidentally threw out baby’s cremated remains

Police in Melbourne are searching for the cremated remains of a still born, that was accidentally thrown out by a funeral parlour, Fairfax Media reports. The Tobin Brother’s Funeral Parlour has confirmed that the remains were disposed by a staff member. The spokesperson  for the parlour, James MacLeod, told told radio station 3AW that the family was ‘distraught’.

6. Survey finds that Aussies are working on their holidays

A tripAdvisor survey has uncovered that 73% of Australians admit to working while on holiday. The survey asked over 16,000 people from 14 different countries about their holiday habits, and found that half admitted to checking their business emails at least once a day. And Australia took the cake for the worst offenders.

Aussies are not taking a break on their holidays, a new survey finds.

TripAdvisor’s Scott Wegener remarked that”Australians are working more on their holidays than any other nationality we surveyed”. Catch up on more headlines in this 90-second news update by the ABC:

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