Wednesday's news in under 5 minutes

1. Phone hacking trial

A jury in the UK has found former News of the World editor Andy Coulson guilty of conspiracy to hack phones, while concurrently clearing Rebekah Brooks of all charges in the phone-hacking trial.

Andy Coulson faces a maximum prison sentence of two years.

Rebekah Brooks, who was a former lover of Andy Coulson, was found not guilty of conspiracy to hack voicemails, two counts of conspiracy to pay public officials and two counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Through the trial, the jury heard that the Duchess of Cambridge’s phone was hacked 155 times, Prince William’s phone 35 times and Prince Harry’s on nine occasions. They also heard that Andy Coulson said “brilliant” when a reporter played him a hacked voicemail left for James Bond star Daniel Craig by actress Sienna Miller.

Police estimate that approximately 5,500 people were targeted for phone hacking and that at least 1,000 of them were “definite victims”.

2. al-Sisi says he “will not interfere” in Greste ruling

In a devastating blow for the Australian journalist Peter Greste, Egypt’s President has told local television that he will “not interfere in judicial rulings”.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said “We will not interfere in judicial rulings … We must respect judicial rulings and not criticise them even if others do not understand this.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had said that she would make contact with the highest levels of the Egyptian government to seek an intervention to have the seven-year jail sentence reversed.

The ABC report that the family of Peter Greste say this is damaging heartbreaking news, meaning a pardon is unlikely, but they will not give up the fight.

Meanwhile, News Limited report that foreign aid worth $37.5 has ‘flowed from Australia to Egypt since 2008’.

3. Sudanese woman re-arrested

Meriam Ibrahim – the Sudanese woman who was freed yesterday from a Sudanese jail — has been re-arrested.

About 40 security agents detained her, her husband and two children, Martin aged two and Maya, two weeks old as they tried to depart the country, the BBC reports.

For more read this post here.

4. Baden-Clay trial

A court has heard that leaves found clinging to Allison Baden-Clay’s hair and arms were found growing in the garden of her Brookfield home.

A leading botanist told the Supreme Court jury that leaves from six different plants were found entwined in the mother-of-three’s hair, or clinging to her arms. Only two of these plants could be found in the area that her body was found.

The husband of Allison, Gerard Baden-Clay is charged with her murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

The trial continues today.

5. More women kidnapped in Nigeria

CNN reports that Boko Haram — the group that kidnapped over 270 schoolgirls in April — has abducted a further 60 women including children, and killed 30 men in a raid of a village in northeastern Nigeria last week.

Dressed as soldiers, the gunmen invaded the village of Kummabza in Borno state on June 18 and held the people hostage for four days.

6. Wild weather for eastern NSW States

Victoria and NSW have experienced freezing temps and wild weather over the last 24 hours and have been warned that there is more to come.

Across Melbourne 80,000 homes were left without power, in NSW 21,000 homes were also without power.

The weather has been good news for ski resorts though, with falls of up to 1 metre.

7. Sportsgirl social media backlash

Fashion retailer Sportsgirl has been criticised on social media over its use of angora fur.

The Facebook page of the women’s clothing chain was bombarded with complaints after it was revealed that they used fur from Angora rabbits in China.

The retailer have since said that they will stop the use of the fur in October.

For more, see this post.

8. Emergency Operator saves rape victim

A 911 operator in the US has saved a rape victim – by using her intuition.

The operator, Diane Waldroop, said that the first phone call she received was silent. Then it disconnected.

She redialed the number and a man answered. According to Q13 FOX News the man said the number had been called by his five-year-old daughter.

Diane said she then heard a women yelling in the background before the man hung up. She then dispatched police to the home.

Officers found a woman covered in faeces when they arrived.

According to The Whidbey News Timesi the alleged victim said she had been held captive for five days and raped repeatedly by the suspect, 50-year-old Douglas Blackburn.

The man was arrested and has appeared in court.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-4OjHRRzfw

9. Call to end plane phone ban

You’re either going to love this or hate it. There has been a call to end the regulations that require you to switch off your phone while landing or taking off.

The Australian reports that the air safety regulator has issued guidelines that will allow gate-to-gate use of small ­personal electronic devices.

Qantas and Virgin have said they will be lifting the ban. It will mean that passengers will be able to read e-books, watch videos and play games on their device. Laptop users will still need to stow their computer in an overhead compartment for safety reasons.

10. Guilty plea for Michael McEwen assault

The man who assaulted 23-year-old Michael McEwen in Bondi last December has pleaded guilty. David Hona told police he was drunk and did not remember the incident.

Michael McEwan was left for dead after being ‘stomped on’. 20-year old Hona will be sentenced next month.

11. Outrage over two-year-old drinking alcohol

A Chinese website is reporting that a two year old boy named Cheng Cheng is creating uproar over his ‘preference for alcohol over milk’.

The photo of the toddler drinking a full bottle of beer has gone viral.

According to the story Cheng Cheng allegedly first tried wine when he was only 10 months old. He now drinks full bottles of wine and beer when he can obtain them.

“As sometimes he is really noisy, we have no options but let him to try a little bit of wine,” a family member reportedly said.

12. Good news for Adelaide Zoo

After five tragic infant deaths, Adelaide Zoo’s orangutan Karta is pregnant again.

The Zoo announced the news, saying: “The pregnancy follows the loss of a stillborn infant in January 2013 and the recent discovery that Karta may have difficulty breastfeeding her infants, which is thought to relate to her inability to successfully raise infants in the past.”

The 30-year-old is expecting her baby in November.

13. School reports to get easier to understand

School reports are about to get easier to understand, with new guidelines in Victoria requiring school reports to be written in plain English and gradings made simpler.

“We want to make sure parents and families can understand what their child is learning and how they are progressing, through simple, flexible, individually focused reports,’’ Education Minister Martin Dixon told The Herald Sun.

Phrases like “interpersonal learning” and “text to text connections” will be replaced with what they really mean.

14. Cry for help found in chain-store dress

A woman from wales was shocked to find a distressing cry for help sewn into a dress she had recently purchased from British-owned clothing clain Primark.

The hand-stitched note that was sewed into the inside of the dress read, ‘forced to work exhausting hours’.

Rebecca Gallagher, 25, told the South Wales Even Post: “you hear all sorts of stories about people working in sweatshops abroad – it made me feel so guilty that I can never wear that dress again”.

A spokesperson for Primark has said there have not been any other incidents of this kind in their history, but admitted they would investigate if they found issues which need to be looked into.

The large fashion chain, known for its super-low prices, was the subject of a 2008 investigation on BBC’s Panorama, which uncovered the use of child labour to produce some of the store’s cheap garments.

15. “Schools should spent their funding on tackling obesity” rather than chaplains, Anglican group says

The head of Sydney’s Anglican Education Commission has argued that NSW public schools should spend their funding on tackling obesity, promoting wellness and positive psychology rather than the government’s chaplaincy program, Fairfax Media reports.

Responding to the High Court’s recent ruling that the commonwealth could not fund the program, Bryan Cowling said there is no evidence the chaplaincy program would work, and that time and money should be invested in other places.

Dr. Cowley, who formerly headed the NSW Department of Education, yesterday told Fairfax Media spending of government funding should reflect the “highest priorities for schools”.

The NSW-based commission, which says its mission is to “to promote, encourage and support people in Anglican schools to do education Christianly,”

16. Is kids’ food getting too healthy?

Children may now be consuming too many vitamins, according to a new report from The Environmental Working Group.

The US environmental organisation’s report, released last Thursday, found that foods such as cereal and snackbars may contain harmful amounts of added nutrients including vitamin A, zinc and niacin, and that some of our sugary and honey-dipped cereals look healthier than they really are.

Samantha Heller, a dietitian at New York University Langone Medical Center has told CBS This Morning that although they “don’t have any evidence that they’re suffering from extra, but we’re concerned about it and want the new labels to reflect the changes”.

17. Frostie, the wheelchair-using goat, has died

Frostie the baby Snow Goat, who was born with a life-threatening infection that forced him to use a wheelchair, has passed away.

Edgar’s Mission has posted a message to their Facebook page announcing the sad news.

“Frostie’s legacy will long be a reminder that animals will always stand as one of humanity’s greatest tests,” the statement said.

“When we see a creature suffering or learn of their plight, we can seek to protect them, to ease their pain or we can choose to look the other way and ignore them. What we choose to do will not only write our epitaph but will shape the world in which we live.”

The little goat went viral when videos and images of him walking around with his two back legs on wheels.

RIP, Frostie.

18. Al Gore joins Clive Palmer in Parliament House press conference

Fairfax MP Clive Palmer has announced his Palmer United Party (PUP) will vote in the Senate to abolish the carbon tax, but that  that PUP Senators will move an amendment to establish an emissions trading scheme.

The scheme would be  similar to thaproposed by the ALP, the ABC reports.

But although the party is confident his emissions trading scheme proposal will be passed by the Senate, it will also have to pass the House of Representatives to become law, the ABC reports.

In a move considered strange by many commentators, Palmer was flanked by US vice-president Al Gore when he made the announcement.

Mr Gore, who served as US vice-president for eight years from 1993 and has spent his time campaigning for action on climate change since retiring from office, is in Australia as part of the Climate Reality Project.

Al Gore’s efforts were the subject of 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

What news are you talking about today?