Monday'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. Belle Gibson has hit back at “critics”.

Belle Gibson – the health blogger accused of false claims of cancer and misleading her critics – has finally broken her silence writing on Facebook a bizarre rant telling her critics to “make yourself invisible to me”.

The 23-year-old Melbourne woman who founded health and wellbeing app The Whole Pantry, has been recently in hiding after she was found to have misled her followers.

She has resounded saying  she felt under attack “I know the work my company and it’s [sic] contents did changed hundreds of thousands for the better,”

Fairfax Media reports that she then asked her followers to speak to the media if they needed to because “it says more about you, and your priorities than me or the story you’ll get paid to tell”.

Ms Gibson wrote of being “bullied to my death” saying those who had spoken out about her were “knowingly contributing to the blatant attacking and bullying of myself and my family”.

For more on Belle Gibson read this post here. 

2. Cyclone Pam leaves Vanuatu devastated.

The president of Vanuatu has said that the majority of the population is homeless after Cyclone Pam swept through the island nation. Speaking from Japan, President Baldwin Londsdale told the BBC that most of the buildings in the capital Port Vila had been destroyed by Cyclone Pam.

Yesterday aid began to arrive to the more than 200,000 people affected by the cyclone.

A Red Cross spokesman has said the situation is apocalyptic, with entire villages swept away.

Oxfam Country Director in Port Vila, Colin Collet van Rooyen said the number of deaths is likely to climb once communities across the archipelago are reached.

“This is likely to be one of the worst disasters ever seen in the Pacific,” he said.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced a $5 million “life saving” aid package would be delivered through non-government organisations.

The Australian Defense Force has sent two C-17A Globemaster III military transport planes full of humanitarian aid and disaster relief supplies to the nation, and flights will continue for several days. The first shipment of aid and emergency management officials arrived in Port Vila at around noon yesterday.

You can support Oxfam’s response to humanitarian crises by donating to the Cyclone Pam Appeal or by calling 1800 034 034

You can donate to Save the Children here. 

To donate to the Unicef Cyclone Pam Appeal appeal go here.

 3. Two young boys have found their dead mother’s body.

Police are investigating the murder of an Adelaide woman in what is alleged to be the 16th domestic violence related murder in Australia this year.

A neighbour told The Advertiser that she had heard arguing between the couple through the night and had to ask them to quieten down.

Acting Detective Chief Inspector Paul Lightfoot said the house was not previously known to police, and that they did not believe a weapon had been used to kill the woman.

Police have asked anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

For help or support in Domestic Violence  24/7, call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). 

4. Ben Cousins in mental health unit after being “detained at SAS base.”

Former West Coast Eagles captain and father-of-two Ben Cousins is in a mental health unit according to Nine News after being detained at the Campbell Barracks in Swanbourne about 11pm on Saturday night.

It follows from an arrest last week after allegedly being caught driving recklessly and refusing to give a breath test.

5. Calls to boycott Dolce and Gabbana after IVF comments.

Sir Elton John is leading the charge to boycott Dolce and Gabbana after comments the designers made about IVF in an interview with an Italian magazine.

“No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed.”

Sir Elton John hit back saying “How dare you refer to my beautiful children as “synthetic”.

For more read this post here.

6. Missing man found dead left a note saying he was bitten by a snake.

A tragic turn of events in the search for missing Melbourne plumber Dane Kowalski whose dead body was found 250m from his ute in the South Australian outback.

His mother told The Sunday Mail that her son had written ‘I have been bitten by a snake’ on a piece of cardboard found near the his ute.

She said that she was devastated by his death “I can’t imagine what the last moments of his life were like, but I can only hope that it happened really quickly,”

Police have confirmed there was no foul play.

The plumber went missing three months ago while travelling from Melbourne to Darwin.

7. Teenager hospitalized after agreeing to be set on fire at party.

A teenager from Sydney’s Northern Beaches is in hospital after agreeing to be set on fire in a stunt that may have been a facet of the internet craze known as the “fire challenge”.

The dangerous social media challenge sees people douse themselves in a flammable liquid and set themselves on fire while their friends watch on and film the incident, then posting it to social media.

In the early hours of Sunday morning an 18-year-old man was with friends at a party Collaroy Plateau when he allegedly agreed to be set alight with aerosols and flammable liquids at about 12:20am, police said.

Fairfax Media reports that he “superficial but excessive burns” to his back and was taken by ambulance to Royal North Shore Hospital in a stable condition.

 8. Where is Vladimir Putin?

Russian president Vladimir Putin hasn’t been seen for nearly two weeks – the official report is that he has a “cold”, but there is growing speculation that the Russian president may be the father of a baby girl with Swiss Media reporting that his girlfriend, Alina Kabaeva, delivered the girl “at least a couple of weeks ago” The New York Post reports.

Officials from the Kremlin have denied the allegations insisting he is just sick with a bad cold.

9. University deregulation: Crossbench senators look set to reject Federal Government’s higher education changes for second time.

By ABC

The Senate is set to reject the Federal Government’s second bid to deregulate universities.

The Government’s already fraught relationship with the Upper House has worsened with crossbench senators accusing it of holding scientists job to ransom.

Mr Pyne said research jobs are at risk if the higher education reforms bill does not pass the Senate.

“There are consequences for not voting for this reform and that’s very important for the crossbenchers to understand,” the minister told ABC’s Insiders program.

“The consequences are that potentially 1,700 researchers will lose their jobs.”

But Labor senator Kim Carr described the education minister’s actions as morally bankrupt.

“The Government is attempting to hold the jobs of 1,700 of our scientists hostage to its immoral and unethical behaviour,” the Labor spokesman said.

Senator Carr will try to counter the Government’s bid for reform by tabling a motion in the Senate today to release the scientific infrastructure funding immediately.

“This motion will be co-sponsored by Senators Lambie, Lazarus, Muir, Rhiannon, Madigan, Wang and Xenophon – clearly the crossbenchers are not going to respond to this attempt to blackmail and intimidate senators,” Senator Carr said.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie said she is angry and determined to make it to Canberra despite her illness.

“Hell or high water I’m going to be there. I’ve actually got an attachment in my arm so if I start to go down a bit I can just go straight to the hospital and they can put some more antibiotics through me if it needs to happen,” she said.

Senator Lambie said she was “absolutely” happy to co-sponsor Senator Carr’s motion.

“I said we won’t be held to ransom and we won’t be intimidated, so in doing that to the crossbenchers he’s not making mates,” Senator Lambie said.

“I’m absolutely furious that he’d put 1,700 research jobs on the line.”

Senator Lambie said Mr Pyne should lose his job and reiterated her view that Malcolm Turnbull should replace Tony Abbott as Liberal leader.

“If he [Mr Turnbull] was in the job and was deciding who would be the next education minister, I am sure that myself and other crossbenchers would be more comfortable in that decision,” she said.

Labor and the Greens are opposed to university deregulation which means the Government needs to acquire the votes of six of the eight crossbenchers to pass the legislation.

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

10. Smelly plane turned back.

A British Airways flight to Dubai has had to return to the UK when a “smelly poo in the toilet” became unbearable for passengers.

The flight was 30 minutes into a seven-hour flight when the pilot announced the flight needed to be terminated.

A passenger on the plane, Abhishek Sachdev told The Daily Mail “The pilot made an announcement requesting senior cabin crew, and we knew something was a bit odd.

“About 10 minutes later he said you may have noticed there’s a quite pungent smell coming from one of the toilets.”

“He said it was liquid faecal excrement, those are the words he used.

“He said it’s not a technical fault with the plane, and he was very adamant about that.”

Angry passengers then had to wait 15 hours until their next flight.

 11. Pete Evans baby diet book “in store within two weeks”.

Chef Pete Evans has brushed aside controversy about his paleo baby book – which has been deemed so dangerous it could take a baby’s life – and has posted a Facebook post saying it will be on the shelves within weeks.

He wrote “Our nurturing new book “Bubba Yum Yum” will also being [sic] released in the next week or two, so we’ll keep you updated.”

Evans’ book has been criticized by health experts for the nutritional content of the recipes.

‘In my view, there’s a very real possibility that a baby may die if this book goes ahead,’ said Professor Heather Yeatman of the Public Health Association of Australia.

 What news are you talking about today?