news

Tuesday's news in under 5 minutes: 20 January 2015.

A complete round up of all the news from around the world and Australia in one easy place.

1. Police tear gas children in playground

Kenyan police have fired tear gas at children as young as six as they protested against the seizure of their school playground by a property developer.

The pupils had returned to the Lang’ata school after a two-week teachers strike to find the play area fenced off.

40 armed police accompanied by dogs dispersed the protesters by firing tear gas canisters.

Television footage showed children aged between 6 and 13, some being carried away, writhing in pain, screaming and choking because of the tear-gas.

At least five children received medical treatment while one policeman was wounded.

The incident sparked an outcry over Twitter using the hashtag “OccupyPlayGround.”

Bloomberg reports that opposition leader Raila Odinga said “It is difficult to believe that police can actually deploy against primary school children and lob tear gas at them to defend a land grabber,”

2. Baby Gammy granted citizenship

Baby Gammy the boy at the centre of a surrogacy scandal in Thailand  has been granted Australian citizenship reports the ABC.

Gammy has Australian citizenship.

The little boy who turned one in December has qualified for citizenship as his father is Australian.

Gammy’s Thai surrogate mother Pattharamon Chanbua lodged the application with the Australian embassy in Bangkok.

ADVERTISEMENT

3. Conflicting accounts of top sportsman’s abduction

There have been some bizarre and bewildering reports about the alleged violent bashing of Aussie golfer, Robert Allenby in Hawaii.

Robert Allenby

Nine News reports that CCTV footage obtained by the police shows a suspect wanted over the attack. At the same time a homeless woman has said that she saw Allenby “bloodied and confused” verbally arguing with two men a block away from the bar where he had been out the night he was bashed. She says Allenby asked her to use his credit card to withdraw $500 cash to pay his attackers so he could get his wallet back, and that he was put in a taxi.

4. Boy’s family sent invoice for no-show at birthday party

A five-year old boy has been billed for a no show at a friend’s birthday party resulting in threats of legal action.

Alex Nash and his Dad

Alex Nash, from Cornwall in the UK, was invited to the party just before Christmas, when he agreed to go, but then did not show up on the day the family of the party boy sent Alex’s parents an invoice.

Julie Lawrence said Alex’s non-attendance left her out of pocket and his parents had her details to tell her he was not going.

Alex’s father Derek said he had been told he would be taken to the small claims court for refusing to pay.

A series of emails leading up to the exchange has been makig headlines around the world.

For more read this post.

5. Half of AVOs issues in NSW breached

After the devastating death of Leila Alavi on the weekend allegedly at the hands of her ex-husband domestic violence experts have issued a warning that NSW faces epidemic proportions of domestic violence with breaches on nearly half of all apprehended domestic violence orders issued in NSW.

ADVERTISEMENT
Leila Alavi died on Saturday

80% of domestic AVOs are taken out by women.

Domestic Violence NSW chief executive Moo Baulch has called for a national summit on domestic violence and for  every police station to have  a domestic violence liaison officer reports The Daily Telegraph. 

6. Victorian Royal Commission into family violence

Meanwhile The Australian reports that Victoria’s royal commission into family violence led by Supreme Court judge Marcia Neave has been given the scope to examine strategies and programs across government and non-government org­an­isations to establish best prac­tice for preventing family ­violence and promoting early intervention, support for victims and accountability for perpetrators

“We need to repair a ­broken system to punish the guilty, to protect the vulnerable, to save the lives of women and children across our state,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.

The Premier said that the government will consider any recommendations the commission made, including tougher penalties for perpetrators who breached intervention orders and paid family ­violence leave.

7. Rapist wants electronic monitoring bracelet off as it is “embarrassing”

News Limited reports that a violent rapist whose 14-year old victim took her own life after she was attacked has appealed to the Queensland Supreme Court  to have his electronic ankle bracelet removed.

Rapist wants monitoring bracelet off.

Darren Michael Costello, 43, says wearing the monitor makes him feel “uncomfortable, paranoid, uneasy and anxious … with everyone knowing my personal business”.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I feel the monitoring device is an obstacle and barrier in my way from (sic) being able to try and live a normal life and engage with people.

“I am very uncomfortable by (sic) the noise it creates and am paranoid that everybody knows that I have a monitoring device.”

he says that since his parole he has been living with his mother in Inala, his brother in Goodman and with his sister at Deception Bay but that he can’t get a job with the monitor on.

8.PNG Government says Manus Island protests resolved

By ABC

A stand-off between asylum seekers and guards at a compound inside the Manus Island detention centre has been resolved, according to a Papua New Guinea government spokesman.

The spokesman said chief migration officer Mataio Rabura  entered Delta block and negotiated an end to the blockade, allowing dehydrated protesters to get medical treatment.

The spokesman also said security guards were involved, and that police were in attendance but stayed back.

There were no serious injuries, according to the spokesman, although some detainees were restrained.

Asylum seekers in other compounds who did not witness the confrontation reported people being beaten, dragged on the ground and handcuffed.

Discussions are continuing between leaders of the protest and Mr Rabura.

ADVERTISEMENT

Neither the claims from the asylum seekers nor the PNG government can be independently verified.

Detainees of Delta compound were preventing staff from entering and refusing food and water on what was the seventh day of protests at the facility.

Asylum seekers who barricaded themselves inside the compound at the Manus Island detention centre earlier said police and guards were preparing to enter the compound by force.

The asylum seekers were protesting against the prospect of refugees being resettled in PNG.

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

9. Up to 10 killed in riots over Charie Hebdo.

Up to 10 people have been killed and 45 churches razed in Niger’s capital over a weekend of protests over the publication of a Prophet Mohammed cartoon by the magazine Charlie Hebdo. 

The Vanguard reports that the protests, which left 128 people injured, also saw a Christian school and orphanage set alight, a spokesman for the national police, said.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people rallied at a state-sponsored protest in Russia’s Muslim North Caucasus region of Chechnya against the publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

“This is a protest against those who support the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad,” the region’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov said at the rally on Monday, Al Jazeera reports.

“This is a protest against those who insult the Muslim religion.”

ADVERTISEMENT

10. Air Asia crash: No evidence of terrorism

Indonesian investigators have revealed that the crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501 did not appear to be due to terrorism after analysing the cockpit voice recorder.

Transport safety committee investigator Andreas Hananto told the BBC it seemed the plane went down due to bad weather.

He said that there had been “no threatening voice on board” and that evidence had reviled that the pilot was too busy attempting to regain control of the aircraft to send a distress signal.

11. Prince Andrew to break his silence

There are reports that Prince Andrew is set to break his silence on the alleged sex slave scandal when he gives a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday reports The Times.

Prince Andrew set to speak.

Now aged 30, Virginia Roberts claims that she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was underage and was ‘kept’ by  billionaire, and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein as a “sex slave”.

His speech at the forum is said to be focused on his Pitch@Palace business initiative for young entrepreneurs.

But there may be a mention of the scandal “in vague terms” offering denials.

12. School fees set to hit half a million

A study out today by the Australian Scholarships Group has shown that the cost of private schooling in Sydney for a baby born in 2015, by the time it graduates high school, will be $541,275, making it the most expensive city in Australia to educate a child.

School fee explosion

The breakdown is $175,109 for primary school and $359,043 for high school.

ADVERTISEMENT

According to the report public school fees will reach up to $71,000 in Sydney,  while fees for Catholic schools could cost as much as $234,887.

 13. Child born today will live to 150

The Treasurer has had what is being called his ‘Sarah Palin’ moment.

Sarah Palin moment

Speaking on Fairfax Radio yesterday the Treasurer was trying to justify why Australians should pay for their health care.

“It’s kind of remarkable that somewhere in the world today, it’s highly probable that a child is being born that is going to live to 150,” Mr Hockey said.

Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten was quick to brand it Hockey’s ‘Sarah Palin’ moment Bill Shorten, who described it as a “brain snap”.

“Joe Hockey has been kept in the basement over summer and now he’s burst out of the basement,”

“He’s almost had what I’d call his ‘Sarah Palin moment’,”

“This proposition to justify his 2014 budget, based on a not-yet born baby’s 150th birthday in a century and a half’s time, just shows, I suspect, our Treasurer’s simply lost the plot.”

However Fairfax Media reports that Mr Hockey may not be in fact far off the mark.

University of New South Wales faculty of medicine dean Peter Smith told the media group that while the prospect of people living to 150 was scary it was a “reasonable assumption”.

“It’s not science fiction anymore,” he said.

ADVERTISEMENT

14. David Warner fined after sledge.

Cricketer David Warner has been fined half of his match fee after an exchange with India’s Rohit Sharma during the one-day international at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.

Reports are that Warner asked Shrama to “speak English”  during the exchange, before being separated by umpires and fellow players.

Warner has now said that he “approached Sharma and I shouldn’t have”.

Cricket Australian boss, James Sutherland has said that he is satisfied Warner’s exchange was not racial motivated yet he has told him to “stop looking for trouble.”

15. World’s first chip samba cafe

The world’s first crisp sandwich shop ( we call them chips) has opened in Belfast and is planning on staying open much longer past the original four weeks.

Yum! Salt and Vingear.

The Daily Mail reports that the Simply Crispy pop-up in Belfast has diners queuing down the street to get their hands on the bread roll  and chip delicacies which have sold out every day.

Diners at the café can choose from 35 different chip flavours and three different types of bread on which to make their ham and cheese sandwich, if they wish they can add ham and cheese.

But why would you?

16. Mum finds home has been turned into a giant ball pit

A woman has had her entire home turned into a ball pit.

Her husband a “serial prankster” trucked in thousands of brightly coloured balls  filling the house to surprise his wife.

What’s making news in your world today?