Tuesday's news in under 2 minutes

1.War is over

Tony Abbott has travelled to Afghanistan to declare the end of the war and label it a “bitter-sweet” moment.

The Prime Minister told a large crowd that it was sweet because hundreds of soldiers would be home for Christmas, and bitter because 40 were not going to be with their families.

Mr Abbott did not declare victory or defeat, but he declared that Afghanistan was a better country for Australia’s efforts.

2. Collar Bomber to appeal

The businessman jailed for attaching a fake collar bomb around the neck of a Sydney schoolgirl will appeal against his sentence in the Supreme Court today. Paul Douglas Peters was jailed last November for at least 10 years, with a maximum of 13-and-a-half years, for the attack on Madeleine Pulver. Peters entered the Pulver family home armed with a baseball bat and attached the device to the 18-year-old’s neck. The device had a USB stick and ransom note attached, warning that tampering with it would make it explode.

After a ten hour stand off the device was found to be fake. Peters has lodged an appeal against the severity of his sentence.

3. Europe Storm:

Across the UK and Europe eight people have died after severe storms swept through southern Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

Flights have been cancelled, and hundreds of thousands of homes are without power.

4. Phone Hacking trial

Still in the UK, the trial begins today for the News of the World journalists accused of phone hacking. Rebekah Brooks, former News International chief executive, and Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor, are accused of conspiring with others to listen to voicemails. More than two years after the phone-hacking scandal led to the closure of the News of the World Brooks and Coulson are among eight people who will face a range of charges.

5.  Same-Sex Marriage Bill

The Upper House In Tasmania will today vote on a motion from Ruth Forrest MLC to revisit the Same-Sex Marriage Bill. The constitutional concerns which sank the Bill last year have been addressed with leading constitutional Barrister, Bret Walker SC declaring the Bill to be constitutionally valid.

Tasmanians United for Marriage Equality released a video yesterday in a final attempt to convince state Upper House members to bring back the Same-Sex Marriage Bill narrowly defeated last year.

6. Kenyan Rape Outrage 

Over one million people have signed a petition demanding justice after three men accused of brutally gang raping a Kenyan schoolgirl were ordered to cut grass as punishment. The 16-year-old girl was reportedly attacked, beaten and then raped by six men as she returned from her grandfather’s funeral in western Kenya in June. The gang allegedly then dumped her, bleeding and unconscious, in a deep sewage ditch.

7. Anti Semitic attack

The mother of a boy accused of an anti-Semitic bashing in Bondi has denied her son is racist, citing she works in a Jewish nursing home. The 17-year-old is accused of being among a group of boys who viciously bashed a Jewish family at Bondi at midnight Saturday. Asked whether her son was racist, she said “no”. Then, as evidence, she said she worked at a Jewish nursing home. Police are still looking for at least five other males believed to have been involved in the alleged attack who ran from the scene. For more on the attack see Mia Freedman’s comments here.

8. Pretty or Ugly Videos

In a disturbing YouTube phenomenon, young girls aged 9 to 14 are posting online videos asking for comments on their appearance. There are over half a millions “pretty or ugly” videos on YouTube.

“I have a question,” one young girl says, “People tell me this all the time, so I dunno. Is it true? People say I’m ugly. So tell me, am I?”

9. Oblivion Drinking

Experts have coined the term ‘oblivion drinking’ to explain the increasing number of women abusing alcohol. The term refers to the use of alcohol for women to forget the day, or to escape into sleep offering multi-tasking women a temporary escape from the pressure to look, behave and perform as the perfect wife, mother and colleague.

Psychologists however have said the epidemic is so widespread its becoming the modern ‘mother’s little helper’, replacing the widespread Valium addiction of Sixties housewives

A recent survey showed that with 81 per cent of women admitted they drank above the safety guidelines every week saying they did so ‘to wind down from a stressful day’.

10. The i-Generation 

A new study has shown how app-happy our kids really are, with surprising figures revealing nearly 40% of kids as young as two had used mobile devices. Tablets are the main growth area. With 40% of families now owning tablets, up from only 8 percent two years ago.7% of kids had tablets of their own. However the amount of time children spend with the traditional screens — television, DVDs, video games and computers — has declined by half an hour a day over the last two years. TV still dominates, though, taking up about half of all children’s screen media time.

For teenagers though the warnings are more dire. The American Academy of Pediatrics has just released its recommendations to limit entertainment screen time to no more than two hours daily for 8 – 18 year olds.

Under the new policy, those two hours include using the Internet for entertainment, including Facebook, Twitter, TV and movies; online homework is an exception.

A 2010 report that found U.S. children aged 8 to 18 spend an average of more than seven hours daily using some kind of entertainment media.

11. Unknown millionaire

In WA someone is a millionaire but just who it is remains a mystery. The mystery ticket holder picked up the entire $30 million division one prize pool last Thursday night, equaling the largest lottery prize ever won in the state.

The only details released by Lotterywest is that the winning ticket was sold in Perth’s northern suburbs.

 But despite the size of the prize, no winning ticket holder has come forward to claim the massive prize.

IN BRIEF:

A dad has bought his 5-year-old son a $710,000 apartment in Sydney

One in ten Uni students use caffeine pills, Ritalin or narcolepsy medicines to improve their concentration and stay awake for studying.

Police are calling for parents to be extra vigilant after a four-year-old boy playing with a cigarette lighter accidentally caused a massive fire that burnt his family home to the ground on the NSW mid North Coast

What are you talking about in today’s news?