Wednesday's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.

1. Eight-year-old boy killed along with his 60-year-old grandmother in Sydney.

An eight-year-old boy and a 60-year-old woman have been killed after a man, believed to be related to them, attacked them with a knife in the front yard of a home in NSW.

Police attended a home in Lalor Park at 11pm after reports a man armed with a knife was threatening a woman.

Upon arriving at the location, officers say they found the body of a woman, aged in her 60s, on the front lawn of a property.

Police say that the body of the boy, eight, was found on an adjacent lawn.

The man, 35, was arrested by police and taken into custody.

2. Prime Minister set to announce Australia’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott will today announce whether Australia will increase this year’s humanitarian intake of 13,750 people in order to allow more refuges from Syria into Australia.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told the ABC he thinks Australians will be proud of the commitment the government will make.

Yesterday, several members of the government expressed a viewpoint that the intake of refuges should be Syrian Christians.

Nationals MP George Christensen told the ABC: “If you’re coming into this country and you harbour a jihadist outlook in life, if you believe that Sharia law should be the law of the land, well, perhaps you’re not welcome in this country.”

Federal cabinet will meet this morning to approve extending RAAF airstrikes against Islamic State – as well as the increased refugee intake.

3. School principal loses her job over cage for boy with autism.

Yesterday ACT Education Minister Joy Burch and her department director-general Diane Joseph outlined the finding of a report into how the boy was placed in a two-metre by two-metre cage on 14 days in a Canberra school.

It was revealed that the cage cost $5195 paid for from the school bank account, but was not approved by the ACT Education Directorate.

Director-general of ACT Education Diane Joseph said: “Officers within the directorate did not meet directorate or public expectations by acting with sufficient urgency or alarm when provided with information about the structure”.

The Canberra Times reports the decision to construct the cage had been made “without input, consultation or approval from within the school or the directorate”.

The inquiry heard on one occasion the student was put in the structure by staff to calm down.

The inquiry has now established a director for families and students who would have responsibility solely focused on the safety and wellbeing of students.

4.  Father may have been trying to “kill whole family,” reports alleges.

The 52-year-old man who allegedly killed his 6-year old daughter at Kedron in Brisbane’s north may have been planning on murdering his whole family, reports The Courier Mail.

The Courier Mail reports that the man’s wife was woken by noises and found the father “with their second daughter”. He told his wife that he was comforting her after a nightmare, but the mother then allowed the eight-year-old girl to sleep in her bed.

The newspaper reports that this may have saved the girl’s life.

The family had moved from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Brisbane in March 2013.

The 52-year-old father was charged with his daughter’s murder. He did not appear when his case was heard in Southport Magistrates Court yesterday.

5. Blindfolded woman’s “disbelief” over claims boyfriend of two years was a woman.

The woman says she thought she was having sex with a man called Kye Fortune who she met in hotel rooms. She says that “Kye” told her he was recovering from a brain tumour and did not want her to see his scars.

She told police that when she decided to meet “Kye,” the only stipulation that he made was that she wear a blindfold — because he was “anxious about the way he looked” and “could not walk properly” due to nerve and muscle damage.

She said Kye was in the bathroom when she entered the hotel room and the bed was covered with rose petals and Hello Kitty bears.

The Telegraph reports that the woman said she put on the blindfold of a sleeping mask and scarf and that a “shaking” Kye came in and said he had signed himself out of a private hospital.

The pair then had sex, she alleges, before Kye said he had to return to hospital.

Further hotel visits followed where she said sex took place again before Kye visited her flat and finally uncovered the truth – that it was in fact her friend, Gayle Newland, 25.

Newland is on trial where she denies five counts of sexual assault between February and June 2013.

6. An Egyptian billionaire has offered to buy an island to house refugees.

Egypt’s third richest man, Telecoms billionaire Naguib Sawiris, has offered to buy an island off Italy or Greece to house hundreds of thousands of refuges fleeing from the conflict in Syria.

“Greece or Italy sell me an island, I’ll call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country,” Sawiris said in a tweet.

Naguib told AFP that his idea is feasible and insists that he is serious about his proposition.

“You have dozens of islands which are deserted and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees,” Sawiris said.

The Egyptian billionaire believes he could build a new country from scratch by investing heavily in infrastructure.

7. Angelina Jolie calls for a strong international response against Islamic State.

Angelina Jolie has appeared before a British parliamentary committee to call for a “strong response” against Islamic State over the use of mass rape as “a centrepoint of their terror”.

“The most aggressive terrorist group in the world today knows what we know, knows that it is a very effective weapon and they are using it as a centrepoint of their terror and their way of destroying communities and families, and attacking and dehumanising,” Jolie said.

“This terrorist group we are dealing with in Syria and Iraq is absolutely using rape. They are dictating it as policy. This is beyond something we have seen before… they are saying, ‘You should do this, this is the way to build a society, we ask you to rape.’

“We really have to have a very strong response at this time to this particular group.”

Jolie, who co-founded the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, which campaigns for the victims of rape in war zones described some of the rape victims she had met.

“I remember distinctly meeting this little girl, who was very young – probably about seven or eight – and she was rocking backwards and forwards and staring at the wall and tears were streaming down her face because she had been brutally raped multiple times.

“You couldn’t talk to her, you couldn’t touch her. I felt absolutely helpless and didn’t know what to do for her.

8. Pope Francis makes annulment of marriages easier.

Pope Francis has made annulments of marriage easier and cheaper.

The new law involves a fast-track process that will be handled directly by bishops.

An annulment is a ruling that a marriage is not valid because certain conditions are not being met, such as free choice, psychological maturity and willingness to have children.

The ruling is based on a finding that the marriage contract was fundamentally flawed from the start, and hence invalid in the eyes of the church.

Without an annulment, a Catholic who remarries is considered an adulterer and may not participate in some sacraments, including Holy Communion.

9. Queen Elizabeth hits a royal milestone.

Today Queen Elizabeth II becomes Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

She surpasses the record of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria making her the longest-reigning female monarch in history.

Born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on April 21, 1926, Elizabeth II became head of the Commonwealth on Feb. 6, 1952 and is serving as Queen for her 63rd year.

The Queen has visited Australian 16 times.

10. New GIANT funnel web found.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Australian National University scientists have discovered what they believe might be a new species of funnel-web spider living near Jervis Bay on the South Coast.

Biologists uncovered the unusually large specimen inside a rotting log in a silk-lined nest up to two metres long.

Dr Thomas Wallenius, from The Australian National University said she had probably been living in there for 25 to 30 years.

“It shows we still have a lot to learn about what’s out there in the bush.”

We think we might just stick to the city thanks.

Do you have a story to share with Mamamia? Email us at news@mamamia.com.au
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