1. Baby’s body on beach

The two boys who found the body of a newborn baby on a Sydney beach are receiving counselling.

The six and seven-year-olds made the grisly discovery yesterday at Maroubra Beach at 10am, after a morning at Nippers.

The body of the baby was badly decomposed. Police have said that the age and sex of the child are as yet unable to be determined. Nine News have said they understand it was a baby girl.

The baby was buried under 30cm of sand around 20-30 metres away from the water’s edge.

Police say the body could have been there for several days, reports News Limited.

They are trawling through hospital records hoping to determine the welfare of the baby’s parents.A post mortem will take place today.

Police are urging anyone with information in relation to this incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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2. Obama’s daughters called “classless”

A Facebook post by a Republican staffer in the US has drawn the ire of many after she criticized the way President Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, dressed and acted during a media appearance at Thanksgiving where their father saved the life of a turkey.

The teenagers made headlines after giving their father side-eye, looking bored and radiating intense teen attitude during the Turkey pardon.

The Facebook post by Elizabeth Lauten said

“Dear Sasha and Malia […] try showing a little class …..Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect and not a spot at the bar”

The post came under intense criticism with calls for Lauten to lose her job.

She then deleted the post and issued an apology.

“I reacted to an article and quickly judged the two young ladies in a way that I would never have wanted to be judged myself as a teenager. After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents and re-reading my words online, I can see more clearly how hurtful my words were. Please know that these judgmental feelings truly have no place in my heart.” she wrote.

 3. Four-year old dies after being hit by car

A four-year-old Victorian girl has died after being hit by a car in Prahran.

The girl was crossing the road with her parents when she was struck by the car.

Senior Constable Melissa Seach said the male driver is in his 60s and was assisting police with their inquiries.

4. Victorian election

The leader of Victoria’s defeated Liberal Party, Denis Napthine, and his deputy, Louise Asher, have announced they are both stepping down.

Potential replacements are cited as being former treasurer Michael O’Brien and former planning minister Matthew Guy as the two contenders.

The party will decide in the next few days.

Meanwhile Premier-elect Daniel Andrews has spent his first day setting up his family violence royal commission and his promised audit of Victorian hospital bed numbers.

5. Government under pressure to improve deal with Defence Force

By ABC political reporter Jonathan Gul

The Federal Government is under increasing pressure to improve the Defence Force pay deal, as Parliament enters its final sitting week for the year.

Over the weekend it was reported the Federal Government was considering reinstating existing leave entitlements in the new ADF pay deal.

It was also reported the 1.5 per cent pay increase would remain unchanged.

Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie has refused to support any Government legislation until the ADF pay deal was improved.

In a statement, Senator Lambie said while the leave entitlements would be welcome, she would not stop her opposition to Government legislation unless ADF wages were also increased.

The Tasmanian senator also claimed the Prime Minister’s office postponed a meeting between her and Tony Abbott scheduled for Monday.

The ABC understands the meeting is expected to go ahead later during the week.

Meanwhile, Labor has warned the deadline for the Prime Minister to write to the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal is the end of Monday.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the pay deal would still be unfair, even if the leave entitlements were reinstated.

“If [the Prime Minister] wants to fix up Defence pay, he shouldn’t do it in a half-hearted fashion,” he said.

“What he needs to do with Defence pay is make sure that our troops, their wages are keeping up just with the cost of living.”

The Prime Minister’s office has said the matter is still under consideration.

 A version of this story was originally published on ABC and has been republished with full permission.

6. Mum may not walk again after diving on bed

A freak accident has left a mother unable to move her leg, and doctors unsure whether she will move again.

Teina Boyd, 28, a former top volleyball representative for New Zealand was at home ‘goofing around’ when she dived onto a bed.

“She dived on to the bed … and she hit her head and fractured the vertebrae [in her neck],” friend and family spokeswoman Nikki Farrell said.

“She’s a bit of a goofy girl and likes to have a bit of a laugh – and that’s what happened. It was just a freak accident.”

The New Zealand Herald reports that the dive fractured the C5 vertebra in her neck.

Doctors do not know whether she will walk again.

7. My Kitchen Rules contestants’ pregnancy scare

My Kitchen Rules contestants Dan and Steph Mulheron who entered the cooking show with the sole purpose of earning money for IVF have told The Courier Mail that their pregnancy was initially fraught with terror after a scan at six-weeks showed the baby’s heart was beating at 60 beats a minute.

“We were told there was a 90 per cent chance of miscarriage. We were very devastated.”

However one week later the scan showed the baby’s heartbeat was 140 beats a minute

“And we thought, ‘Wow, we have a fighter on our hands’.” Steph said.

Now at 27 weeks they are looking forward to knowing the sex of their baby, which they find out this month.

8. Sand dune defied nature and near tragedy occurs

Scientists are puzzled over a near tragedy in a sand dune in the US where a six-year-old boy was swallowed and buried alive in a sand dune,  an occurrence that scientists say defies the laws of physics.

The boy was reported to be playing on the Mount Baldy sand dune in Lake Michigan.

The boy fell through a hole that connected to a much larger hole.

His parents could hear his voice calling them but they could not see him.

After three hours with robotic probes and giant digging vehicle the boy was found huddled unconscious in one of the “winding holes.”

He was hospitalised but survived unharmed.

9. Paedophile ring abuses boy inside Buckingham Palace

There are claims that a man was sexually abused inside Buckingham Palace by a paedophile ring when he was working there at the age of 16.

The Mirror reports that the young man was working in the kitchen of Buckingham Palace when the abuse took place.

The claims may now be the subject of a police investigation into historic allegations of child sex abuse in the 1970s and 80s.

At the time the abuse was reported but the Home Secretary Leon Brittan ruled it was “not practical” to investigate.

A statement from a Palace spokesman said, “The Royal Household takes any allegation of this nature seriously and would act to ­address any specific allegations or investigate specific information.”

10. Women won’t let their partners see them without makeup

A study has shown that over ½ of women will not let their partners see them without makeup until they had been dating them for a year. The Daily Mail reports that the study showed in contrast 51% said they would bare their bodies after just six months.

11. Teenagers shut down when Mums nags

A study has found that the teenage brain shuts down when they hear their own mothers criticising them.

Wired reports that the study put 32 teenagers to a test in which they scanned their brains while playing them audio clips of their mothers.

Researchers found that teenagers showed increased brain activity in ‘affective networks’, but decreased activity in ‘cognitive control networks’ and ‘social cognitive networks’.

The results show that the teenagers respond to maternal criticism with increased emotional reactivity but decreased cognitive control and social cognitive processing.

“A better understanding of children’s responses to parental criticism may provide insights into the ways that parental feedback can be modified to be more helpful to behaviour and development in youth” write the authors.

 12. THIS is the most contaminated seat on the plane

A microbiologist has studied which is the dirtiest seat on an aeroplane and found that the aisle seat is the most germ-infested.

Chuck Gerba told Io9 that the aisle seat is the one most people physically touch when going to the bathroom.

He says that the worst place is obviously the bathroom.

“Your average plane flight will have just one toilet per fifty people; and [on some flights], that number is closer to 75.” He says.

“You find a lot of E. coli on lavatory surfaces — even more than your typical public bathroom” says Gerba.

But watch out he says because even the sink water can be contaminated.

In the US recent tests showed that 3.6 percent of random airplane water samples tested positive for fecal bacteria.

Ewwwwwww.

13. Poker player wins landmark court case over comments on Facebook. 

An international poker player has been awarded $340,000 in a landmark court case after defamatory comments were posted about him on Facebook, reports the Daily Mail. 

After a night out in Las Vegas, poker player Nicholas Polias’ former friends labelled him a thief over the misplacement of $2000 cash which was later located in a stuff toy in the hotel room.

Polias’ former friend Tobin Ryall published a post describing Polias as a thief, which was later republished by Andy Hun Wei Lee. Polias claims this post resulted in malicious rumours about him being spread around the close-knit poker community.

Both men refused to remove the post even after Polias explained the miscommunication.

Polias was awarded $340,000 in damages after suing four of his former friends for defamatory comments that appeared on Facebook.

Two more of Polias’ former friends were each ordered to pay $50,000 and $35,000 for continuing to spread the accusations around the poker community.