1. Fashion retailer Lisa Ho is reportedly closing down all its stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The company announced it was closing just weeks after it went into voluntary administration. The business – which has been around for 30 years – is apparently $11 million in debt.
Meanwhile, the company has announced a sale that will end on June 30.
2. Nigella Lawson‘s husband has dismissed allegations that he assaulted his wife in public, saying they just had a “playful tiff”. Earlier this week, UK tabloid Sunday People published images that appeared to show celebrity chef Nigella Lawson being assaulted by her husband during a public fight at a restaurant.
Charles Saatchi told London’s Evening Standard newspaper: “There was no grip, it was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella’s tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt. We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled.”
Yesterday, Lawson was photographed leaving her London home with suitcases. You can read more about the story here.
3. New South Wales State of Origin player Blake Ferguson has been charged with indecent assault and stood down from the side. Ferguson allegedly assaulted a woman at a Sydney nightclub where he was drinking with his former Canberra Raiders teammate Josh Dugan. The 23-year-old also had his NRL contract with the Canberra Raiders suspended.
Speaking to the media, NRL chief executive Dave Smith said: “It’s time for people to understand that the game isn’t going to accept this sort of behaviour. The first step in Blake’s case is to make a clear call in relation to Origin, and tomorrow we will consult with the Raiders to determine the minimum period we would look at in terms of suspension.”
4. Prince Phillip has reportedly left hospital after being admitted for exploratory abdominal surgery. The 92-year-old will spend the next couple of months recovering.
5. Malala Yousafzai – the 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban because of her work to promote women’s education – has spoken out against the Taliban’s latest attack on a bus carrying school girls in in Quetta. “This was a cowardly and desperate attempt to deny girls their right to education,” Malala said. At least 25 people died when the bus exploded.
6. A Western Australian coroner is investigating the case of a little boy who was found dead in a washing machine. Three-year-old Sean Murphy was found in the machine in September 2010. His mother Kerry Murphy reportedly said she woke from a nap and found her son in the front-loading machine. The coroner will examine whether it’s possible that the boy could have shut the door himself and whether a dog might have accidentally closed it by jumping.
7. Kristi Anne Abrahams, the mother of Kiesha Weippeart, has pleaded guilty to her daughter’s murder. Six-year-old Kiesha disappeared from her home in Western Sydney in August 2010. Her remains were found eight months later in April 2011. Thirty-year-old Kristi Anne Abrahams appeared in Supreme Court yesterday for what was supposed to be the first day of her murder trial. She’ll now be sentenced next week.
Top Comments
It seems lately that not a day goes by where we are hearing another story about a professional football player going feral. I gave up on football many years ago when the various scandals (assaults against males and females, drunken antisocial behaviour, drug offences, etc) became more frequent (or perhaps were no longer sweptbunder the carpet).
It's time the NRL and AFL took a stance and stopped treating the bad eggs like demi-gods. The players are paid huge salaries and with that should come responsibility and conditions. If it were any other workplace and we behaved like that we would be out the door in the first instance.
Enough is enough. How much longer can these idiots be supported. Instead they are kicked out of a club and quickly snapped up somewhere else often on a higher salary. How does this teach them that their behaviour is not acceptable when they just perpetuate somewhere else?
How about no drinking during game season (their workplace) and no 'three strikes and you are out' with regard to drugs for starters. What other workplace would even accept this behaviour let alone repeat offences from their workers?
The culture has to change so instead of the duty of care stance that seems to be taken of late whereby the football bosses throw themselves behind these baboons and vow to help them to rehabilitate (which doesn't seem to work for the majority) - how about your duty of care to not tolerate drinking and/ or drug taking in the workplace - and make no exceptions.
Too many chances are given to these players and until someone has the balls (pardon the pun) to clean up the footy codes I will not be supporting them. I am over it.
How horrible is the case of the little boy in the machine?
As for Nigella, she'll probably go back to her husband and it will be her decision. Lots of people will judge her for that, and then the world will move on.
Like someone said below, it's a depressing day's news...