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News in 5: Shark attack victim identified; Don Dale centre fire; 'Sexiest man' named.

-With AAP

1. The man who was killed by a shark in the Whitsundays has been named as a Melbourne doctor.


The Victorian man who was fatally mauled by a shark in the Whitsunday Islands has been identified as Melbourne doctor Daniel Christidis.

The 33-year-old died from bites to his left thigh, right calf and left wrist in the attack at Cid Harbour at dusk on Monday.

Dr Christidis worked as a urologist at Melbourne’s Austin Health and was in the Whitsundays on a yachting holiday with friends when the attack happened.

Austin Health said it was a “tragic loss” and has reached out to his colleagues to provide counselling support, a spokeswoman told AAP in a statement.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Dr Daniel Christidis who was a research fellow with Austin Health. Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time,” the spokeswoman said.

It’s the third serious shark attack at Cid Harbour in two months with locals and holiday makers in the Whitsundays warned not to swim in the area.

The attack has prompted debate about how to prevent further attacks at the beautiful boat mooring site where food and fishing scraps from boats can attract sharks.

Tasmanian woman Justine Barwick and 12-year-old Melbourne girl Hannah Papps survived after being bitten on consecutive days in September.

Water police, Queensland Department of Fisheries and other government agencies were at Cid Harbour on Tuesday, interviewing witnesses and warning people not to swim there.

Dr Christidis had been on the first of a five-day sailing holiday with nine other friends on a 40-foot yacht from Cumberland Charter Yachts.

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He and a woman had been using a stand-up paddleboard moments before the mauling, Queensland Police Inspector Steve O’Connell told reporters.

The pair were taking turns, and the attack happened when Dr Christidis got off the board.

Despite the frantic efforts of his friends – including two doctors – Dr Christidis went into cardiac arrest and had to be given CPR before being flown to Mackay Hospital.

“Every effort was made to save that man’s life,” O’Connell said, adding that the friends were “going through a hell of a time.”

“I’ve been in the Whitsunday area on and off for 30 years and apart from some minor nips and bites I’ve never heard of substantial attacks like what we’ve seen in these three attacks,” Mr O’Connell told media this morning.

“I believe the message we want to get across is don’t swim in Cid Harbour. At all.”

RACQ crewman Ben McCauley said the scene was “absolutely horrific”.

“He’d suffered very serious bites, significant blood loss as well as cardiac arrest,” Mr McCauley said.

The 33-year-old later died in hospital and his friends were given support on Hamilton Island.

Baited drumlines were controversially installed around Cid Harbour following the attack on Ms Papps but they were removed about a week later.

Whitsunday LNP MP Jason Costigan called on Tuesday for the state government to urgently reconsider putting in permanent controls saying it was flirting with danger to not have them.

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However environmental groups say random culling is not the answer to preventing shark attacks.

2. Fire breaks out at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin.

A fire has broken out at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre during a major disturbance involving inmates at the Darwin facility.

At least 15 police cars, including tactical response vehicles, as well as firefighters and ambulances responded to the incident on Tuesday night.

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Video footage posted online by the Nine Network showed a section of the centre well alight and thick smoke billowing.

Just after midnight, multiple detainees were spotted being taken from the centre in police vehicles, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports.

A Territory Families department spokeswoman says the disturbance at the centre started at 6.45pm on Tuesday.

“The police have been called and are currently assisting to resolve the situation,” the department said in a statement on Tuesday night.

The centre received national attention in 2016 when the ABC aired footage of the abuse of youths, including Aboriginal teen Dylan Voller in a restraint chair wearing a spit hood, prompting a royal commission into juvenile detention in the NT.

Don Dale has continued to be the subject of negative publicity this year, with four boys accused of starting fires at the centre in July and injuries to prison guards in May.

An offender who stabbed a man in the neck was released on bail recently after a judge heard the male youth had been held for 52 days and under lockdown for 15 hours at a time amid understaffing and no community programs.

The NT government has committed $70 million for two new detention centres in Darwin and Alice Springs as part of $229.6 million to be spent over the next five years to overhaul the child protection and youth justice systems, and implement the recommendations of the royal commission.

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3. US voters have given their verdict on Donald Trump.

Americans have voted to decide whether Donald Trump’s Republicans maintain their grip on the US Congress, or if Democrats can slow the president’s agenda after a divisive campaign marked by clashes over race, immigration and trade.

The first national elections since Trump captured the White House in a stunning 2016 upset is a referendum on the polarising president.

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It is also a test of whether Democrats can turn the energy of the liberal anti-Trump resistance into victories at the ballot box.

The Democrats have a good chance of winning at least the US House of Representatives, and slimmer hopes of gaining control of the Senate, opinion polls show.

If they do take the House, Democrats could launch congressional investigations into aspects of Trump’s administration from his tax returns to possible conflicts of interest, challenge his overtures to Saudi Arabia, Russia and North Korea, and oppose him on immigration, tax cuts and trade.

Striking a dark tone at a rally in Indiana on Monday evening, Trump accused Democrats of “openly encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws, violate our borders and overrun our country”.

All 435 seats in the House, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships are up for grabs in elections focused on dozens of competitive races that opinion polls show could go either way.

US stocks ticked higher in thin trading on Tuesday, as investors awaited the election results.

Political gridlock between the White House and Congress could hinder Trump’s pro-business agenda and raise concerns about US political instability, but investors may have already priced this in.

Voter turnout in national elections, normally lower when the White House is not at stake, could be the highest for a midterm election in 50 years, experts predicted.

About 40 million early votes were likely cast, said Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who tracks the figures.

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In the last such congressional elections in 2014, there were 27.5 million early votes.

“I have worked at this poll the last three elections and this is the biggest turnout ever,” said Bev Heidgerken, 67, a volunteer at a polling place in Davenport, Iowa.

“We usually hope for 200 voters for the entire day but by nine o’clock we already have had 69.”

At least 64 House races remain competitive, according to a Reuters analysis, and Senate control was expected to come down to a half dozen close contests in Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, North Dakota, Indiana and Florida.

Trump said in an interview with Sinclair Broadcasting on Monday that he wished he had taken a softer tone during his first two years in office – even as he kept up his attacks on political rivals.

4. Idris Elba has been named as People magazine’s ‘sexiest man alive’.

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Actor Idris Elba, who James Bond fans are campaigning to be the next person to play 007, has been named the sexiest man alive by People magazine.

The London-born actor, 46, said he didn’t believe it when the magazine told him.

“I was like, ‘Come on, no way. Really?'” Elba told the celebrity publication.

“Looked in the mirror, I checked myself out. I was like, ‘Yeah, you are kind of sexy today.’ But to be honest, it was just a nice feeling. It was a nice surprise — an ego boost for sure.”

One of Britain’s best-known stars, Elba won a Golden Globe for his lead role in BBC television detective series Luther, played a Norse god in Thor and appeared in US television series The Wire.

Other actors and singers who have been given the title by the magazine’s editors in recent years include Blake Shelton, Chris Hemsworth, Adam Levine, George Clooney and Channing Tatum.

Only two other non-white men – African-American star Denzel Washington in 1996 and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, whose mother is Samoan and whose father is black Canadian, in 2016 – have won the title since People started the feature in 1985.

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Fans have been campaigning for Elba, the son of African immigrants to Britain, to take over from Daniel Craig as secret agent James Bond in the lucrative movie franchise after the next Bond film, due for release in 2020.

Elba in August stoked the rumours that he was set to become the first black actor to play Bond when he posted a cryptic message on Twitter using one of the character’s best-known lines – “My name’s Elba, Idris Elba.”

Days later he flatly denied it was going to happen, however.

5. Mark Latham has announced he is joining Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

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Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham is joining Pauline Hanson’s One Nation as an upper house candidate for the NSW state parliament.

Mr Latham will also lead the NSW branch of the party, campaigning on immigration, congestion and over-development in Sydney.

“One Nation has the policies and NSW certainly needs a third choice – Labor and Liberal are on the nose,” he told 2GB radio on Wednesday.

“I want to provide people with a choice, a third choice, to say you can vote One Nation and have practical, common sense solutions to these big issues in our state.”

In response to the news, former Tasmanian Labor premier David Bartlett called him a “sick, sad, sorry loser”.

The one-time Labor leader did ads for both One Nation and the Liberal Democrats during this year’s Longman federal by-election, earning him the title of “king rat” from his former party colleagues.

Mr Latham led Labor to a solid defeat against John Howard in 2004 before quitting federal parliament in 2005.

He says he was sacked as a columnist for Australian Financial Review in 2015 for making offensive comments about domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty.

Mr Latham was also turfed from a co-hosting role on Sky News for making offensive remarks.