1. Dumped baby allowed to be named by mother

The newborn baby dumped by his mother in a drain near the M7 at Quakers Hill has been named by his mother.

News Limited reports that the woman, of Pacific Island decent has been allowed to name the baby that she left in a drain for five days.

The name is reported to be biblical one.

The Daily Telegraph reports “for legal reasons we can’t mention the name, but it is associated with one of the most infamous child death cases in Australian history.“

The baby was in a stable condition last night at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead despite bleeding on his brain.

In Blacktown Local Court the woman was charged with attempted murder. It is alleged she gave birth after 30-hour labour last week on Monday and went straight to the drain from Blacktown Hospital where she dumped the newborn.

The woman lives with her aunt, uncle and cousins in Sydney’s west.

Her immediate family live in Samoa.

The Daily Telegraph report that the mother hid her pregnancy from both her family and the father of her child after they broke up earlier this year.

For more, see this post.

 2. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel resigns

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has stepped down from his job after less than two years in the office.

NBC News reports the White House had “lost confidence” in Hagel to carry out his role at the Pentagon amid criticisms of Obama’s national security team and the threat posed by IS.

Mr Hagel said he was “immensely proud” of what he and his colleagues had accomplished while he was US Defence Secretary.

 3. ABC cuts

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has called for a Senate inquiry after Mark Scott the Managing Director of the ABC announced up to 400 redundancies at the organization.

After the announcement of cuts to areas such the ABC television production in Adelaide and the closure of five regional sites. Mr Xenophon said “There’s no question that the government’s cuts to the ABC are a broken promise and the government stands condemned for that But Mark Scott needs to understand that, while he can’t control by how much the ABC is cut, he can control where it bleeds.”

The Australian reports that the Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten was asked on radio whether he would make an immediate promise to restore the cuts if he won the next election.

But he declined to do so.
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4. US Police shoot 12-year old boy carrying a toy gun

A 12-year-old boy has been shot dead in the US city of Cleveland after police mistook his toy gun for a real weapon. Tamir Rice was in a playground when officers opened fire reports The New York Times.

A 911 caller told police they did not believe the weapon was real. It later emerged it was a toy pellet gun.

Most pellet guns have bright orange tips so they are not confused with real guns but police said this had been removed.

Tamir was shot in the abdomen and underwent emergency surgery but died in hospital on Sunday.

 5. Gender force gap

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency report to be released today will show that the workplace gender gap in Australia is startlingly wide.

The reports shows that women comprise only ¼ of management positions in Australia, even though they are ½ the workforce.

They are paid 24.7 % less than men who perform the same work.

The key points of the report:

• Women account for just 35 % of full-time employees.
• Men fill 76 % of directorships, 88% of board chairmanships and 83 per cent of chief executive positions.
• Women comprising less than 30 % of CEOs’ direct report.
•  Only 13.6% of employers have a strategy for flexible working.
• 7% per cent of employers have a stand-alone strategy to achieve gender equality.

 6. Mother thought baby had dwarfism

A mother has appeared in a special hearing in the NSW Supreme Court after being accused of drowning her six-month old baby in a bath.

The court heard the women was obsessed with thoughts the baby suffered dwarfism.

For more read this post here.

 7. NSW defies UN call on Janine Balding killers

The NSW Attorney-General has said he will not follow a recommendation by the UN to release the two convicted killers of Sydney woman Janine Balding.

On the weekend the UN’s Human Rights committee found that the life sentences given to Matthew Elliott and Bronson Blessington are in breach of Australia’s human rights obligations.

Elliott was 17 and Blessington 14 when they were jailed for life for the abduction, rape and murder of Janine Balding, 20, in 1988.

Cronulla bank teller Janine Balding was abducted, raped and murdered before being hogtied and drowned in a dam at Minchinbury.

“The (UN) has failed to acknowledge the human rights of Janine Balding and those of the community who are entitled to protection. I don’t see any sign the human rights committee weighed up the barbaric end to her life at the hands of these individuals,” NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard said yesterday.

News Limited reports that the UN’s Human Rights committee found because the life sentences allowed no genuine chance of release, even with full rehabilitation, they were in breach of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

 8. Bus basher sentenced

A Gold Coast teenager who pleaded guilty to the bashing of a 77-year old pensioner Paul Buttigieg has been sentenced for her role in the attack that went viral round the world.

Layni Gloria Cameron was sentenced to three years in jail – but after having served almost nine months she will be released on Thursday.

The Courier Mail reports that Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie viewed the sentence as “manifestly inadequate” and will appeal.

9. Saudi Restaurants ban single women from entering

Human Rights groups have condemned the actions of several restaurants in Saudi Arabia who have banned single women from entering because of their “mentally unstable” behaviour such as flirting, smoking and using mobile phones.

The Week reports that one restaurant owner told the Arabic newspaper Al Hayat: “We put up these signs because we have seen numerous incidents of flirting taking place inside the restaurant.”

A male blogger from Saudi Arabia wrote “The best thing is to keep women away from restaurants unless they have a male custodian. That way the restaurant is not shut down because of the misbehaviour of an adolescent or mentally unstable woman.”

 10. Turkish President says women are not equal to men

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told a women’s rights conference that you cannot put men and women on an equal footing as women are not equal.

“It is against nature. “ he said “They were created differently. Their nature is different. Their constitution is different.’

Erdogan told the audience which included his own daughter that Islam has “defined a position for women [in society]: motherhood” reports The Independent.

“You cannot explain this to feminists because they don’t not accept the concept of motherhood.”

“You cannot make a mother who has to breastfeed her child equal to a man. You cannot make women do everything men do like the communist regimes did…this is against her delicate nature.“

The Turkish President has previously said that every woman in Turkey should have three children and has proposed to limit abortion rights, the morning-after pill and caesarean sections.

 11. Students need to learn how to be rebels

The head of a top school in the UK has said that students need to learn to break the rules in order to become independent thinkers.

The Daily Mail reports that Nigel Lashbrook from the £30,000-a-year Oakham School in Rutland said

“There are well-cited examples of acts of social rebellion, including Rosa Parks breaking the rules of segregation to start the Montgomery Bus Boycott, becoming an icon of resistance to racial segregation.
“Or Millicent Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst, who rebelled against the legal and social norms of their day to fight for voting rights for women

Our schools rightly teach pupils about these momentous acts of rebellion. But do we do enough to teach those same students how they can, and should, stand up for what they believe?”

 12. Airport bans luggage with wheels

Venice has become the first city (that we’ve heard of) to ban wheelie cases.

Vietato valigia con ruota – from May new airport signs will tell visitors ‘Forbidden luggage with wheels’.

The Telegraph reports that the incessant sound of wheeled suitcases is giving Venetians “serious discomfort” and also leading to the “progressive deterioration” of centuries-old paving slabs, marble steps and foot bridges, the city council said.

Tourists who use rolling suitcases could be fined up to 500 euros ($620), but residents would be exempt from the ban

13. Frances Abbott’s whistleblower sentenced.

A university student who admitted leaking details of a scholarship awarded to Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s daughter Frances has been given a two-year good behaviour bond in Downing Centre Local Court this morning.

No conviction will be recorded against the young woman for accessing confidential files that revealed Frances Abbott received an undisclosed $60,000 scholarship.

Freya Newman, 21, pleaded guilty to accessing restricted data held in a computer after she obtained details about a $60,000 Whitehouse Institute of Design scholarship granted to Frances Abbott reports New Matilda.

Newman worked in the library at the Whitehouse Institute of Design.

14. Macquarie Dictionary expands definition of ‘shirt-front’

The Macquarie Dictionary will expand it’s definition of the verb “to shirtfront” in its next edition after Tony Abbot’s threatened to “shirt front” Vladimir Putin.

Susan Butler, the editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, said that the controversy had highlighted how the term has taken on a broader meaning.

She told AP that possible definitions include “to grab (a man) by the front of his shirt in an aggressive and threatening manner, usually as a preliminary to abusing or berating him” or “to confront (someone) with a complaint or grievance.”

15. Australian cricketer in critical condition after being hit by short ball

Australia cricketer Phil Hughes has undergone surgery and is in intensive care after being hit in the head by a bouncing cricket ball at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday.

The Guardian Australia reports that the South Australian batsman collapsed on the crease when he was struck in the left ear by a short delivery.

Doctors attended the sceneand worked on the cricketer for around 30 minutes  before he was transferred to St Vincen’t hospital where he underwent surgery and is now in an induced coma.

The South Australia Cricket Association CEO, Keith Bradshaw told the media that he was shocked by the incident, saying “to be honest it sends shudders through you a little bit.

“All we know is that it’s serious and he’s fortunate to be in the best possible place right now with experts all around him,” he said.

“He’s fiercely determined, extremely proud of his achievements, and I guess he’s a quiet achiever and has the respect of all of his teammates.”

Unfortunately, the outcome of Hughes’ surgery is unlikely to be known for 24-48 hours.