8 news stories you'll want to know about

Morning girls and guys! There’s plenty happening out there. Both sides of politics continue on the faux-election hustings debating the carbon tax, it’s still ridiculously cold (at least it is here) and Julian Assange is back in court. Yup, check it out:

1. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is back in court to fight extradition to Sweden

London’s Royal Court of Justice was back in session with the extradition case of Julian Assange, expected to last two days. Assange angered the United States of America when his WikiLeaks organisaiton began releasing hundreds of thousands of classified documents relating mostly to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But it’s sexual assault charges he’s fighting in Sweden, and for which he may be extradited. His supporters say they’re either trump charges or the prosecution over there is being politically manipulated … so that he may eventually be sent to the United States. Who knows? A judge in the current case says he was ‘misled’ and that ut appeared the sex acts of which Assange has been accused were consensual and ‘not violent and forceful’ as had been alleged. In the meantime, Assange is working from a wealthy support’s mansion outside of London and has to report to police on bail.

2. US accidentally reveals image of Osama hunter

It wasn’t meant to happen. The United States Government trumpeted the fact it’s highly graded (but not undercover) intelligence agent who led the hunt against Osama bin Laden was just out of frame of that famous photo that showed President Obama and Hillary Clinton bent over in nervous anticipation. The only problem was they didn’t crop out part of the man’s tie and a blogger then sifted through other photos on the White House’s Flickr feed to find an image of the unreasonably tall, yellow tie wearing official. Oops.

3. Alcohol warning labels are fairly obvious

“It is safest not to drink while pregnant.” That’s one of the new warnings to be printed on alcohol beverage labels after DrinkWise Australia Board decided they wanted to be proactive about positive drinking messages. Which is commendable, even though the messages are so lukewarm as to be almost hilarious.

4. Prince Albert and new wife Charlene went on their honeymoon … slept in separate hotels

It’s certainly not your average royal wedding. The couple were booked in to the fanciest of fancy pants hotels in South Africa (where Charlene is from) but ended up sleeping in different hotels 16km apart. What this means, exactly, is unclear but it certainly doesn’t help the couple fight the perception that something in the romance has gone a little wrong. Each to their own, I suppose.

5. Just in case you missed it, check out Brutus the leaping 5.5m croc.

Yup, no bull. That’s a genuine photograph and an impressive indication of how big these things can grow. Brutus has been entertaining river tourists for quite some time. But presumably only while they’re in boats. On a side note, it is my favourite

game in the world to flick through the Northern Territory News

website to spot croc stories. So many

6. USA launched fake vaccination program in Pakistan in order to gain terrorist DNA

This is bizarre, but goes to show how laterally the CIA were thinking about nabbing Osama bin Laden. Or at least making sure he was in the compound they thought he was living in. They recruited a senior Pakistani doctor to start up the vaccine program – first in a poor part of town, for credibility – before moving to the richer area where the compound was located. The US were hoping to gain DNA matches from people in the compound to Osama bin Laden’s sister, whose DNA they had on record. A nurse gained access but the plan reportedly failed. The doctor has been arrested by Pakistani officials.

7. Murdoch and co asked to front parliamentary committee as legal case launched in US

The phone hacking scandal in Britain continues to evolve as Rupert Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks and James Murdoch have been asked to front a culture committee at British Parliament to answer questions about the case. Of course, it doesn’t mean they will. No one can force them to go. In the meantime, major News Corporation shareholders have used the scandal as the perfect opportunity to renew the push for a legal case against Murdoch who they claim uses the company as ‘the family candy jar’ in blatant bouts of nepotism. Like the instance where News Corp paid $615 million for Shine, a production company owned by Rupert’s daughter Elizabeth. The price, it was alleged, was grossly inflated.

8. Black Swan star Mila Kunis surprises US marine, accepts invitation to ball

A plucky US Marine who made a YouTube video while on duty asking Mila to the Marine Ball this November didn’t really expect anything to come of it. But when a reporter asked about whether Mila would accept, in front of Justin Timberlake, JT stepped in. “I’m going to work on this, man. This needs to go down.” Lo and behold, she said yes! It’s a date! Check out the marine’s ‘proposal’ here: