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News in 5: Woman held hostage makes new claims; New details about Perth bodies; Serena fined.

1. Woman who spent five years in Taliban captivity with her husband alleges emotional abuse.


Caitlan Coleman spent five years in the custody of the Taliban with her husband Joshua Boyle and two children. Now, she alleges she was not only abused by her captors – but also by her own husband.

The Canadian couple, who had been travelling in Afghanistan during a trip aimed to save their marriage when they were captured in 2012, is going through a bitter divorce.

Court documents show that the 32-year-old alleges her 34-year-old husband “regularly threatened to kill me by setting me on fire” among a host of other emotional and physical abuse claims – none of which have yet been proven in court, and all of which Mr Boyle denies.

In fact, he has lodged claims of emotional abuse and lack of care also, before, during and after their five-year ordeal, which ended when they were rescued in October last year.

The couple were in court in July, and are fighting over custody of their three children. Ms Coleman is heavily pregnant with their fourth.

When the woman was granted a restraining order against her husband in July, the judge commented that keeping Ms Coleman with her husband would be “be akin to once again holding them hostage”.

Ms Coleman alleges that while in captivity, her husband began to be emotionally abusive, which later turned into physical abuse. She claims he regularly threatened to kill her by setting her on fire.

“J.B. had uncontrolled rage, instituted corporal punishment of me, and struck me in a fit of rage,” Ms Coleman wrote in an affidavit lodged in court.

2. Bodies of three children, mother and grandmother found in Perth home.

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Homicide detectives are continuing to comb a house for clues after five people were found dead in a Perth home.

The bodies found in the Bedford house are those of twin girls, aged two, another girl, aged three-and-a-half, and their mother and grandmother.

The ages of the children and their relationship to the two adult women found at the Bedford address were confirmed on Monday by WA Police.

A man aged in his 20s turned himself in at a regional police station on Sunday, with officers then visiting the Coode Street home in the Perth suburb of Bedford, where the five bodies were found.

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Assistant Commissioner Metropolitan Region Paul Steel told reporters police arrived at the home about 12pm local time to find women and children among the dead.

It’s believed the man was known to the victims with media, citing neighbours, saying a couple with three little girls, one aged three and 18-month-old twins, lived at the home.

Specialist forensic police are expected to continue a meticulous examination of the crime scene on Monday.

“Depending on the size of that crime scene that will take a period of time, and it could be a number of days,” Mr Steel told reporters.

“Police have located the bodies of a number of deceased people including women and children,” he said but would not say how they died or if any weapons were found. He also could not confirm the ages, genders and relationship of the deceased.

It is yet to be determined how long the bodies had been there, Mr Steel added. “It is a tragic thing when incidents like this occur. It does send a ripple through the community of Western Australia.”

The man in question remains in custody and is being interviewed by police.

3. Serena Williams fined over on-court behaviour.

Image: ESPN
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Serena Williams has been fined $US17,000 ($A23,920) for the code violations she received during the U.S. Open final, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) have announced.

During Saturday's match, which she lost 6-2 6-4 to Japan's Naomi Osaka, Williams, was handed a coaching violation and a point penalty for breaking her racquet before a heated argument with umpire Carlos Ramos ended with her losing a game.

The tournament referee's office fined the former world No.1 $US10,000 for the "verbal abuse" of Ramos, $US4,000 for being warned for coaching and $US3,000 for smashing her racket.

Williams, who was seeking a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title on Saturday, vigorously disputed each of the violations during the match.

She demanded Ramos apologise for handing her a coaching violation and later called the umpire a "thief" for giving her a point penalty.

4. Newspoll shows leadership change hasn't boosted Coalition's popularity

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The coalition has lost its 40th Newspoll in a row with a change in leadership failing to give its numbers a bounce.

In the first fortnightly Newspoll since Scott Morrison replaced Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister on August 24, the coalition has seen a further drop in two-party-preferred terms, lagging behind Labor at 44 to 56 per cent.

The difference was closer in the last Newspoll of Mr Turnbull's prime ministership at 49 to 51 per cent.

The poll published in The Australian on Monday also showed the government's primary vote moved up one point from 33 to 34 per cent but Labor's also rose a point to 42 per cent.

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Meanwhile, the results showed Mr Morrison was the preferred prime minister over Labor leader Bill Shorten, polling 42 to 36 per cent.

More than 40 per cent of voters were satisfied with Mr Morrison's performance while 39 per cent were dissatisfied, the poll showed.

This compared to Mr Shorten's performance results, with 37 per cent of voters satisfied with his performance, compared to 51 per cent dissatisfied.

The Greens' primary vote remains at 10 per cent while One Nation has dropped a point to 6 per cent.

The poll canvassed 1653 voters and was conducted between September 6 and 9.

5. German celebrity goes missing from cruise ship.

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A German former television star and singer, Daniel Kueblboeck, has gone missing from a cruise to Canada and may have gone overboard, the cruise operator says.

Aida Cruises said there was reason to believe that the celebrity, who first became well-known as a contestant in Germany's version of Pop Idol in 2003, jumped into the sea on Sunday morning.

"That is our suspicion," said spokesman Hansjoerg Kunze.

The 33-year-old, who tried but failed to be chosen as Germany's Eurovision entry in 2014, was travelling on the vessel in a private capacity, as one of about 2200 passengers on their way to Newfoundland from the northern German port city of Hamburg.

The incident occurred about 100 nautical miles (about 185 kilometres) north of the city of St John's on Newfoundland. The water temperature was recorded at about 10.5 degrees Celsius.

Kueblboeck's management company could not be reached for comment.

The coastguard was searching for Kueblboeck with planes and helicopters, while the ship itself returned to where the incident may have occurred to help with what Kunze described as "an intensive search".

If you or anyone you care about is in crisis, you can always phone Lifeline on 13 11 14. Help for depression is available at beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.