News: Tony Abbott confirms Australia will join air strikes in Iraq.

Australia to join air strikes in Iraq

BREAKING: Prime Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed that Australia will join air strikes in Iraq, in an attempt to “disrupt and degrade ISIL”.

Federal Cabinet have today authorised this deployment of Australian forces into Iraq, in order to assist Iraqi forces.

“We are joining combat operations as part of an Austalian-led coalition in support of the Iraqi government. We have no intention of doing anything else but there is useful work that we can and must do… it is very much in Australia’s interest,” the Prime Minister said in a press conference this afternoon.

“I have to warn the Australian people that this deployment may be quite lengthy. It is a dangerous mission,” the PM added. “We will be there for as long as is necessary, but no longer than we need to be.”

The Government plans to commit up to eight Australian F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft to participate in the airstrikes.

More to come.

1. Abbott to kill off burqa ban

The Prime Minister will ask the Speaker to back down over an interim measure brought in to place women wearing burqas or niqabs in a glass chambers in the public gallery in Parliament house.

The Speaker, Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry announced the plan yesterday

The step would require “persons with facial coverings entering the galleries of the House of Representatives and Senate [to] be seated in the enclosed galleries. This will ensure that persons with facial coverings can continue to enter the chamber galleries, without needing to be identifiable.”

Fairfax Media reports that the PM will ask the Speaker to kill off the security measures, reporting that he has told collegues once someone had been screened he was “more relaxed about facial coverings being worn.”

 2. Oscar Pistorius secret nine minute call to ex-girlfriend

A secret nine minute phone call tthat Oscar Pistorius made to his ex-girlfriend shortly before he killed Reeva Steenkamp has been uncovered by a South African journalist.

The Mirror reports that he called Olympian Jenna Edkins when he arrived at his home for his Valentine’s Day dinner with Reeva Steenkamp.

News Limited report that the revelations, soon to be made public in a book, were known by police during his trial.

It is also reported that the brother of Oscar Pistorius wiped the entire phone history and the contents of his What’s App messages in the days after Reeva Steenkamp’s death.

Pistorius is due back in court on October 13 to be sentenced for culpable homicide.

 3. WA Shark Attack

A man has reportedly lost both hands after being attacked by a shark off the Western Australia coast.

23-year-old Sean Pollard was surfing at Wylie Bay Beach in the town of Esperance when he was bitten.

Seven News reports he lost one arm from the wrist and the other from the elbow.

He was taken to hospital for treatment immediately after yesterday’s attack.

WA Fisheries caught and killed a great white shark.

The ABC reports that Mr Pollard said he believed he was attaced by two bronze whalers.

4. Confession over deaths of British tourists

There are reports that a Myanmar man who is a worker on the island of Koh Tao in Thailand has confessed to killing two young tourists, Hannah Witheridge and David Miller.

For more read this post here.

 5. Approval for airstrikes.

Nine News reports that Defence Minister David Johnston will announce approve of Australian airstrikes in Iraq today.

 6. Father blames daughter for sexual abuse

Warning: This item deals with sexual abuse and may be distressing for some readers.

A father who abused his daughter when she was between the ages of 10 and 13 has been given one of the longest jail sentences ever imposed in NSW for historical child sexual assault – an 18-year sentence.

However in being sentenced he told the judge that he “only had sex with his daughter” and he did not understand why the woman – now aged 52 did not forgive him.

News Limited reports that the Judge said, “It is difficult to comprehend such brutal and degrading treatment by a ­father towards his young daughter.”

7. US Ebola patient exposed 100 to disease

There are reports that the man infected with the Ebola virus in Dallas may have exposed up to 100 people.

CBS News reports that the first time Thomas Eric Duncan presented to a local emergency department they sent him home with antibiotics, even though he told them he had been to Liberia.

 8. Hong Kong leader: I will not step down

Hong Kong’s leader Leung Chun-ying  has told reporters that he has offered to hold talks between his government and pro-democracy protesters, but said he will not accept their demand that he resign.

 9. Woman would have had a hospital birth if not for midwife

An inquiry into the death of a baby during a home birth has heard that the mother would have had a hospital birth if not for a community midwife assuring her she would be safe at home.

The Adelaide mother testified that at 31 weeks she was told by her doctor a home birth was too high risk due to complications she had during the birth of her first child reports the ABC.

“I remember being very distressed. I found it a blow to my confidence in general, but then I started to prepare for a hospital birth,” she told the inquest.

However a community midwife convinced her otherwise saying a home birth would be fine.

He testified that the midwife told her “the doctor was overreacting and being cautious and she was happy to support me at home,”

Her baby boy was unresponsive and not breathing when he was born.

He was rushed to hospital but died nine days later.

 10. The company where employees are expected to be on call 24/7

Two former employees of Apple have spoken of the intensity of working for the high tech giant saying they were expected to be on call for 24 hours a day.

In an interview with Debug, and also reported by The Daily Mail former managers Don Melton and Nitin Ganatra said that they could only go to the toilet on a Sunday night when the Sopranos was on as their manager watched the show.

“For a while there, you could count on the hour that The Sopranos was on that Scott wouldn’t bug you because he was watching The Sopranos. And that was your reprieve. You could go to the bathroom, you could have a conversation with your family, said Don Melton

11. Girl mutilated by jealous school friends

A 15-year old girl has been mutilated by friends who wanted her to look ‘like chucky’ because she was too pretty.

15-year-old Julia Alvarez from the Argentinian province of Formosa was attacked by two sisters who slashed her face with knives.

At first police refused to get involved, but after her images were posted on Facebook they arrested an 18-year old woman reports

 12. Madeline McCann’s parents trolled

An investigation is underway into nasty social media attacks targeting the parents of Madeline McCann.

Sky News reports that some of the attacks on Kate and Gerry McCann call for the couple to be tortured and killed, and others targeted their children.

A dossier of over 80 tweets, Facebook posts and forum messages has been handed over to the UK Metropolitan Police.

13. Legal action over Adam Bolan’s book

Fairfax Media report that the memoirs of former Sunrise Executive Producer, Adam Boland is now the subject of court action.

The Seven Network has issued a summons over his new book, which was due to be released in November.

It has been reported that Seven wants to see an early copy of the book, Brekky Central.

Fairfax say an injunction hasn’t been served, but that the publishers of the book, Melbourne University Publishing do not send out early copies of their books so an order has been sought.

14. Study shows why some mothers don’t bond with babies

A study by the University of New South Wales has found that women who have had with troubled maternal relationships have lower levels of the hormone oxytocin.

This can mean that they are more likely to experience difficulty bonding with their own babies.

Fairfax Media reports that the research suggests that “trust pathways are set in infancy and the quality of mother-and-child bonding repeats itself down the generations.”

Infant, child and adolescent psychiatry professor Valsamma Eapen who led the study said

“They didn’t have a secure relationship with their mums and we’re finding that they’re also having difficulties with their babies.
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