Thursday's afternoon 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. Man arrested over fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Masa Vukotic in Melbourne

A man has been arrested in connection with the stabbing death of 17-year-old Masa Vukotic in a park in Doncaster, Melbourne after he handed himself in to police.

The Canterbury Girls Secondary College student’s body was found near a footbridge in Koonung Creek Linear Reserve in Stanton Street in Doncaster on Tuesday night.

Neighbours called Triple-0 after they heard screaming and saw a man fleeing the scene, but paramedics were unable to revive Vukotic, who had been stabbed in the upper body.

Read the full post here. 

2. Government confirms Australian killed in Tunisia attack.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed that a dual Australian-Colombian citizen was among the 19 people killed in the terrorist attack at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis.

The man was reportedly Sydney resident Javier Camelo.

The New South Wales man was one of 17 foreign tourists killed when two gunmen stormed the museum on Wednesday.

In question time today, Tony Abbott said:

“Plainly, it is an attack by Islamist extremists on a fledgling democracy, a democracy which had thus far proven quite effective in resisting the kind of extremism characterised by Al Qaeda and its variants and the ISIL or death cult in the Middle East.”

Read the full post here.

3. Controversial Paedophile support program to launch in South Australia.

By ABC

A controversial program that offers paedophiles friendship and support in an effort to reduce offending is being trialled in Australia for the first time.

The Circles of Support and Accountability or COSA model involves a group of three to five trained volunteers who provide emotional support as well as assisting with medical services, housing and employment.

QUT criminologist Dr Kelly Richards has travelled the world to study the program which already operates in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

“COSA volunteers will go with the offender to do a whole range of practical activities like doing the shopping and doing the banking and that type of thing,” Dr Richards said.

“I appreciate not everybody will want to spend their Saturday morning having a coffee with an offender, but I think we need to get over that.”

The South Australian Department of Corrections has granted $40,000 to crime prevention agency Offenders Aid and Rehabilitation Services (OARS) to trial the program.

OARS chief executive Leigh Garrett says after five failed applications, he is glad to see COSA has finally been funded in Australia.

“I think the nature of people who offend sexually is something about which the community can be quite frightened,” he said.

“So I think sometimes politicians can be a little bit timid in making commitments to introduce programs to support people who offend sexually.”

Despite the novel nature of the program, Mr Garrett says he is confident locals will be supportive.

“I would hope that the public of Adelaide will see that this is a program that has evidence over many years from all around the world that shows that it works,” he said.

“If it works, then the community is at less risk of becoming a victim of a sexual offence.”

The restorative justice program has been shown to stop paedophiles reoffending by helping them re-integrate into society after being released from jail.

Dr Richards says a 2009 Canadian study showed sex offenders in COSA had an 83 per cent reduction in offending compared to a control group.

“This is a method that has been shown to work in international jurisdictions; there’s no reason it won’t work here,” he said.

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

4. People still think it’s OK to discriminate against Indigenous Australians.

The results of a new survey by beyondblue have revealed that 20 per cent of people think it is okay to discriminate against Indigenous Australians, Fairfax Media reports.

Beyondblue commissioned the research after releasing their ‘The Invisible Discriminator – Stop. Think. Respect.‘ video. The video was made in response to research conducted by the charity last July, which found one in five young Australians would move if an Aboriginal person sat next to them, and the same amount would keep their eye on an Aboriginal if they saw them in a shop.

In the latest survey, respondents were shown the video depicting these subtle acts of discrimination. 21 per cent felt these reactions were acceptable and 70 per cent agreed that “almost everyone has been a racist at some point in their lives.”

Beyondblue’s chief executive officer Georgia Harman said the results were disappointing.

“There was a segment of the target audience who saw the ads and didn’t think there was anything wrong with the scenarios,” she said. “This illustrates how much work still needs to be done to change entrenched racist attitudes.”

Related content: Elderly Aboriginal people rejected from shelters during Cyclone Pam.

The July study also found that 37 per cent of respondents believed Indigenous Australians were lazy and 28 per cent didn’t see racial discrimination as a priority.

“Unfortunately, many people don’t realise when they are discriminating against Indigenous people and therefore don’t understand the profound effect it has on how they feel about themselves,” Harman said.

5. Sydney crowned with a place on the 80th anniversary edition Monopoly board.

This year, Monopoly is celebrating its 80th anniversary, and to commemorate, they will release a special Here and Now: World Edition board in September.

When playing on the exclusive board, instead of racing to buy real estate, players must visit as many cities as possible and collect passport stamps along the way. The most exciting part, Sydney is one of the cities to make the cut.

That’s right, gone are Leicester Square and Oxford Street, Monopoly is now an international game.

Related content: The founder of Monopoly made his fortune from an idea he stole off a woman.

As for Sydney’s placement on the new board, it’s on the lower end of the scale. The city has been placed next to the jail in the magenta section of the board, which is not exactly prime real estate. However, it’s in good company with neighbours New York and Amsterdam.

“As Australia’s global city, it’s great to see Sydney take its place on the world stage,” Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

6. New studies reveal Australia’s plain packaging laws success.

By ABC

The first comprehensive evaluation of Australia’s ground-breaking plain packaging tobacco laws shows they are working, the Victorian Cancer Council says.

Fourteen separate studies on the impact of plain packaging in its first year were published today in a special supplement to the British Medical Journal.

The research found after the laws were implemented, there was a “statistically significant increase” in the number of people thinking about and making attempts to quit smoking.

Related content: Australia is leading the charge on tobacco laws.

Cancer Council Victoria researcher, Professor Melanie Wakefield, said before plain packaging about 20 per cent of people made attempts to quit over the course of a month.

“After plain packaging, that went up to nearly 27 per cent of people who made quit attempts,” she said.

Key findings

• Reduction in ‘perceived appeal’ of packages, particularly for adolescents, young adults

• Suggestions plain packaging encourages thinking about quitting and quit attempts

• No evidence of increase in the consumption of illicit cheap cigarettes

A version of this story appeared on ABC and is republished with permission.

What’s making news for you today? Let us know in the comment section, below.