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News in 5: Killer's daughter speaks; "Cheap" flu vaccine denied; Practice saving premmie lives.

1. Daughter of serial killer feels a responsibility to “right her father’s wrongs”.

Elisha Rose speaking to Australian Story. Image via Facebook.

Elisha Rose was 12 when she found out her dad was a murderer and she remembers the curtains.

The "burnt orange pattern of the curtains that hung on either side of the TV" in her Perth childhood home burnt themselves into her memory as she learned her father - who she hadn't seen for three years - had killed five people, she told ABC's Australian Story on Monday night.

Before he began taking people's lives, Lindsey Rose saved them. He worked as a paramedic in Sydney and was one of the first responders to the 1977 Granville train disaster.

But only seven years later, in 1984, Rose went to the home of Bill Cavanagh, 58, and Carmelita Lee, 21, in Hoxton Park in Sydney. According to reports from The Sydney Morning Herald at the time, Rose was looking to kill Cavanagh in revenge for beating up a friend. He ended up killing Lee too, telling police he "had to" because she was there.

Five years on and Rose murdered 46-year-old Reynette Holford during a botched burglary. Finally, in 1994, Rose murdered Kerrie Pang, 40-year-old mother of five, and Fatma Ozonal, a 25-year-old mother of one, at Pang's massage parlour.

It was 1996 when Elisha Rose sat there, in front of those orange curtains, and was told about her father's crimes. He wouldn't be captured by police until a year later, after 12 months on the run. Eventually he pleaded guilty to the murder of five people and was sentenced to life in prison with no parole.

Elisha Rose and her father, serial killer Lindsey Rose. Image via Australian Story Facebook.

For a long time, Elisha told no one of her father's history. Now, for the first time, she's spoken publicly about the ordeal, telling ABC's Australian Story that she has lived with a responsibility to "make things right".

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"My father's actions have created horrific trauma, loss and grief to their families and that will be intergenerational trauma for those families," she told the ABC. "No matter that the debt was not mine, I knew I had to right his wrongs."

She works as a litigation lawyer. She volunteers for a number of charities. And, in 2014, she became a long-term foster parent for two young children.

But it hasn't been enough.

"Perhaps I thought giving back to the community would make the burden of my father's actions dissipate over time; ultimately it had the opposite effect," she said. "The older I became, the more I understood about life, the deeper the secret about my father was buried. I often felt like I was being deceitful, though it was never my intention."

Elisha's decision to speak publicly was triggered when she was approached by a journalist writing a book about her father's murders. Now, Elisha said she sees it as an opportunity to "finally unburden myself of a secret I have carried for nearly 20 years".

The last time she saw her father was April 2009.

2. Government denies claims of "cheap" flu vaccine, but says stronger shots are needed next year.

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Discussions to fast-track the availability of a super flu vaccine for the elderly are underway after a deadly season claimed 546 lives, mostly older Australians, AAP reports.

Australia's Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy has conceded the current seasonal flu vaccine hadn't been as effective in the over 65s, but rejected as "utterly false" claims the Federal Government had bought a cheaper product.

"The vaccines that were purchased for this year's seasonal influenza were the best available vaccines in Australia, the same vaccines that are available in the private market, the same vaccines that are used in other countries," Prof Murphy said.

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More than 217,000 Australians had laboratory confirmed cases of the flu this year - more than double the previous record of just over 100,000 in 2015, which doctors have blamed on the use of a "cheap" and ineffective vaccine.

Influenza expert and chair of the Immunisation Coalition Professor Paul Van Buynder says stronger 'super' vaccines were available overseas but because of licensing issues and the purchasing process they could not be accessed here.

"We didn't have a choice to get the better one," Prof Van Buynder said, adding the Federal Government must ensure the best vaccine is available to over 65s next season.

3. Taliban says the health of Aussie and US hostages deteriorating.

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The Taliban has warned about the deteriorating health of a US university professor the group is holding hostage along with an Australian man.

The militant group said in an email on Monday that Kevin King, a 60-year-old US citizen, is suffering from heart and kidney problems and that treatment has not improved his conditioncc

King, 60, and Australian Timothy Weeks, 48, teachers with the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, were kidnapped at gunpoint near the campus in August 2016.

The statement said King's condition "has exponentially worsened, his feet have begun swelling [and] he frequently losses consciousness."

The militants warned that if their demands are not met then they will not be responsible if "the illness of Kevin King becomes incurable or he loses his life."

The Taliban also blamed US authorities for delaying the negotiations for the release of the professors.

On June 22, the militants released a new video in which the two professors were seen asking US President Donald Trump to negotiate their release.

4. Doctors to study Las Vegas shooter's brain, desperate to find motive.

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Scientists are preparing to do a microscopic study of the Las Vegas gunman's brain, but whatever they find, if anything, likely won't be what led him to kill 58 people in the worst mass shooting in modern US history, experts said.

Stephen Paddock's brain is being sent to Stanford University for a months-long examination after a visual inspection during an autopsy found no abnormalities, Las Vegas authorities said.

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Doctors will perform multiple forensic analyses, including an exam of the 64-year-old's brain tissue to find any possible neurological problems, AAP reports.

It will be dissected to determine if Paddock suffered from health problems such as strokes, blood vessel diseases, tumors, some types of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, degenerative disorders, physical trauma and infections.

The examination will come about a month after Paddock unleashed more than a thousand bullets through the windows of a 32nd floor suite at the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel into a crowd below attending an outdoor country music festival.

5. Delayed clamping of umbilical cord could save premmie lives.

Image iStock.

Delaying the clamping of the umbilical cord by one minute could save the lives of thousands of premature babies.

An Australian-led study, approved for publishing in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has assessed morbidity and mortality outcomes from 18 international trials comparing delayed versus immediate cord clamping in nearly 3000 births before 37 weeks gestation.

It found evidence that delayed clamping reduced mortality by a third and is safe for mothers and pre-term infants. The research also found it reduced the need for blood transfusions, AAP reports.

"It confirms international guidelines recommending delayed clamping in all preterm babies who do not need immediate resuscitation," said University of Sydney Professor William Tarnow-Mordi, a senior author.

Neonatal specialist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and lead author Professor David Osborn said he would expect worldwide use of delayed clamping to save between 11,000 and 100,000 additional lives every year.

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"We estimate that for every thousand very preterm babies born more than 10 weeks early, delayed clamping will save up to 100 additional lives compared with immediate clamping," Professor Osborn said.

The systematic review confirmed new findings from the Australian Placental Transfusion Study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, reporting that delayed clamping might reduce mortality before 36 weeks.

6. WA Government to wipe homosexuality convictions.

Image via Getty.
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WA Premier Mark McGowan will make a formal apology to people convicted under defunct homosexual laws as legislation to expunge their criminal records is introduced to state parliament.

The Labor Government will fulfil an election promise on Wednesday when it submits a bill proposing the records of people convicted for consensual homosexual activity be expunged, AAP reports.

WA decriminalised homosexuality in March 1990 but people must apply to have a spent conviction, which could affect employment, overseas travel and adopting a child.

Mr McGowan said his government had made an election commitment to ensure no government policies directly or indirectly discriminated against the LGBTIQ community.

"This is simply about righting the wrongs of the past," he said in a statement.

"These acts should never have been considered a criminal offence and the people impacted should never have had a criminal record against their names."

The proposed laws will allow people to apply to have their record expunged while families of those who have died may do so on their behalf.

The Premier will also deliver a formal apology on behalf of parliament.