Tuesday's 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. Peta Credlin responds to affair claims: “Completely false, utterly untrue.”

Peta Credlin, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Chief of Staff, has responded to a new book, which detailed the final months of his leadership and implied that there were rumours of an affair.

The book, written by political commentator Niki Savva, tracks Mr Abbott’s rise to power and his demise. It argues that his chief of staff Peta Credlin shouldered a significant amount of blame for what went wrong.

Savva’s book revealed that Mr Abbott was told to dump Ms Credlin over the “perception” that they were having an affair, which Mr Abbott has dismissed as “scurrilous gossip and smear”.

Peta Credlin has now spoken out to The Australian where she unequivocally denies she was having an affair with Mr Abbott, rejecting the rumours as “completely false” and “utterly untrue.”

Ms Credlin says the speculation is “vicious” and “malicious.”

“I can’t be any clearer – it is about as low as it gets.”

In the book, the Road to Ruin an unnamed Liberal says they witnessed Ms Credlin feeding Mr Abbott food from her fork in public at a restaurant and resting her head on his shoulder.

She says, “The idea that my relationship with the prime minister was anything other than professional is completely false.”

“People tell me to ignore it but I refuse to let this stand. I earned my good reputation by working hard for four cabinet ministers, three opposition leaders and one prime minister so I am not going to let these sneering cowards define me.”

Yesterday Mr Abbott responded saying he was focussed on the election of the Turnbull Government.

“The best response to this book is the objective record of the Abbott government,” he said.

“After fighting Labor to a draw in 2010 and winning a strong majority in 2013, the Abbott government substantially delivered on its commitments.

“A dysfunctional opposition couldn’t win an election and a dysfunctional government couldn’t have got so much done in just two years.”

2. Sydney hostage situation leaves one dead.

A siege involving a business dispute that saw a six-hour police standoff in a Sydney industrial estate ended with the gunman taking his own life yesterday.

The gunman, named by The Daily Telegraph, as Wayne Williams, a Finks bikie gang associate, opened fire at 10.45am at Ingleburn’s Inline National Signage and Property Services.

Negotiators tried to get him to give himself up as nearby local businesses and surrounding streets were sent into lockdown, with police telling people not to go near windows.

Three hostages were released from the factory building in Heald Street just after 5pm and officers then found the gunman’s body.

Acting Commander Mark Brett said that police located three people inside in the unit.

“A further search of that unit located a male deceased.” He said

“It’s believed that person died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

3. PM’s popularity slipping.

Latest Newspoll figures show Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity is slipping with the prime minister’s satisfaction level at its lowest since he took over from Tony Abbott.

The latest Newspoll in The Australian, shows that the Coalition has failed to lift its standing, remaining deadlocked with Labor at 50-50 in two-party terms.

Bill Shorten is continuing to enjoy a rise in his approval ratings as his preferred prime minister stocks rise for the third consecutive time.

However, Mr Turnbull is still a clear frontrunner for the top job at 55% compared to Mr Shorten’s 21%.

The Coalition’s primary vote is at the equal lowest level since Mr Turnbull took over of 43 per cent. Labor’s support is also unchanged at 35 per cent and the Greens at 12 per cent.

4. Alan Jones declares himself a feminist.

Radio presenter Alan Jones has, on the eve of International Women’s Day declared himself to be a feminist.

Mamamia’s co-founder and creative director Mia Freedman appeared on QandA last night alongside the Minister for Employment and Women Michaelia Cash, Opposition Leader in the Senate Penny Wong, radio broadcaster Alan Jones and media personality Josh Zepps.

When discussing the term feminism the Minister for Women said “I don’t label myself but I can tell you that I get out there everyday and passionately defend gender equality.”

To which Mia Freedman asked “Alan are you a feminist?”

Alan Jones replied “I certainly believe in equality of the sexes that’s for sure.”

“It troubles me that Alan Jones is willing to label himself a feminist,” Mia Freedman said. “But our Minister for Women isn’t, and I’m not saying that you don’t act like a feminist and walk the talk of a feminist, Michaelia, but I think that words are important.”

Jones said he thought it was “awful” for people to feel that simply because of their gender they were a “second-class citizen.”

5. Children not ready for school.

A survey of Australian children has found that many children – in some areas 9% — were not meeting targets deeming them ready for school.

The Australian Early Developmental Census released yesterday by Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham found that one in five children across the country are vulnerable in at least one area of their development when they start school.

This year’s results showed progress in the language and cognitive skills area, with 84.6 per cent of children on track in 2015 compared to 77.1 per cent in 2009.

But children were not up to par in the emotional maturity domain.

The number of children considered developmentally on track rose from 75.6 per cent in 2009 to 78.1 per cent in 2012, only to go backwards to 76.4 per cent last year.

There was also an increase in the number of children vulnerable in their physical health and wellbeing, from 9.3 per cent in 2012 to 9.7 per cent in 2015.

The results echoed a nine-year trend of children from affluent areas, especially boys, sliding backwards in meeting social, emotional and physical development yardsticks.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the onus for development in the preschool years was on families.

“With one in five children struggling in terms of their skills when they get to school, and particularly when it’s basics like whether they’ve had a good breakfast or a good night’s sleep, these are things that families and parents need to take responsibility for.

“But we can make sure there are services targeted in local communities to help those parents.”

6. Second boy charged after child badly burned.

A second boy has been charged after an eight-year-old suffered serious burns to a third of his body.

The three boys were playing in the yard of an abandoned Mt Isa house on Saturday.

Police say the eight-year-old caught fire when a 10-year-old boy poured petrol onto a burning tyre, causing it to flare up.

The young boy suffered burns to about 35 per cent of his body and was airlifted to Townsville Hospital.

On Sunday, the 10-year-old was charged with offences including wilful damage by fire and negligent acts causing harm.

Police charged a second boy yesterday. The 11-year-old was charged with trespassing, stealing and wilful damage.

7. International Women’s Day theme is gender parity.

Today, on International Women’s Day, the UN have said it is time to focus on gender parity and equality.

The UN Women website says: “The 2016 theme for International Women’s Day is ‘Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality’. The United Nations observance on 8 March will reflect on how to accelerate the 2030 Agenda, building momentum for the effective implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals.

“It will equally focus on new commitments under UN Women’s Step It Up initiative, and other existing commitments on gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights.”

The International Women’s Day committee has said that while women continue to contribute to social, economic, cultural and political achievements, “progress towards gender parity has slowed in many places”.

“The World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. Then one year later in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already glacial pace of progress meant the gender gap would not close entirely until 2133.

“So how do we want to celebrate International Women’s Day 2016? We say by Pledging For Parity! Everyone – men and women – can pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly – whether to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias.”

8. NSW and Victoria in the grip of an endless summer.

Those beach days aren’t coming to an end anytime soon for residents of NSW and Victoria with a persistent heat wave.

Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) senior forecaster Jake Phillips told the ABC that most regions in NSW have experienced persistent hot temperatures.

“That’s largely due to a band of high pressure, which has been very static across the region, and that’s prevented any cold fronts from moving through,” he said.

Sydney has had a record 32 days in a row of temperatures 26 degrees Celsius or above.

“Persistent onshore winds have kept the high temperatures in Sydney to the low 30s, but western Sydney has experienced temperatures climbing into the 40s,” Mr Phillips said.

In Victoria there is no relief in sight until the middle of the month.

In Northern Victoria, temperatures are tipped to reach almost 40 degrees in some areas.

Southern parts of the state are expected to escape the heatwave, but temperatures will hover around the 30-degree mark for most of the week.

9. Matildas qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time in 12 years.

Australia’s national female football team, the Matildas, has qualified for the Rio Olympic Games for the first time in more than a decade.

The women maintained a perfect record in the Asian qualifying campaign with a 2-1 win over North Korea in Osaka, Japan.

Australia coach Alen Stajcic made two changes to the side with co-captain Lisa De Vanna left on the bench while Caitlin Foord and Michelle Heyman started.

The result sees Australia end a 12-year drought from the Olympic Games. The 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil kicks off on August 5

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