news

Tuesday’s news in 5 minutes.

1. Father collapsed by the side of the road as he learned of his three children’s deaths.

Three teenage siblings have died in a fiery collision on the Newell Highway in northern NSW with police saying the scene was “quite dramatic”.

The victims were 19-year-old Jack Pink, 17-year-old Marina Pink and 15-year-old Destiny Pink.

“Unfortunately, three people have lost their lives from the incident,” Detective Inspector David Silversides confirmed at the scene, AAP reports.

It is understood that Jack was driving alone in a Pantech removal truck filled with furniture when he collided head-on with a southbound fuel tanker on Newell Highway at approximately 6am. His two younger sisters, Marina and Destiny are believed to have been following in a car behind that also collided with the tanker moments later.

All three were killed at the scene.

The petrol tanker’s male driver was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to Goondiwindi Hospital.

Tragically, the family’s father, Glenn, was driving ahead of his three children and learned of the accident over a two-way radio before returning to the scene to discover what happened.

Rural Fire Brigade member Garry Roberts said emergency services found Glenn collapsed by the side of the road.

“We saw a man laying in the middle of the road when we arrived but we came straight to the burning vehicles,” Roberts told The Daily Telegraph. “We learnt later it was the father of the people in the cars.”

A donations page has been created on GoFundMe to help support the family as this difficult time. As of this morning, more than $56,000 had been raised.

ADVERTISEMENT

2. Queensland police officer slain in standoff remembered as a “fine son”, while the siege continues.

A Queensland policeman shot and killed after trying to pull over a man west of Brisbane has been remembered as a dedicated officer, family man and a “fine son” of the state’s police force.

Senior Constable Brett Forte was killed and others received minor injuries after a “wanted man” evaded police in a traffic stop in the Lockyer Valley just before 2pm on Monday.

Senior Constable Forte was a father of two who served with the Queensland Police Service for more than 15 years and was part of Toowoomba’s Tactical Crime Squad,  AAP reports.

His was killed on the anniversary of the murder of another Queensland police officer, Damian Leeding who was shot trying to stop a Gold Coast robbery on May 29, 2011.

“As you would well imagine, the whole family is devastated. Both his own family, the family of his wife and their extended family,” Commissioner Stewart said.

“We’ve lost a fine son today.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk sent condolences to the slain officer’s friends and family and said members of the public should be “immensely grateful” for the work of the police force.

“Every day, the brave officers of the Queensland Police Service put their lives on the line when they go to work,” she said in a statement, with Police Minister Mark Ryan calling him “a hero”.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers, who knew the late senior constable and described him as a decent person and family man, said the loss was a tragedy.

ADVERTISEMENT

Meanwhile, the siege with the suspected gunman continues.

Police have been negotiating with the suspected gunman – named in the media as Rick Maddison – holed up in a farmhouse near Gatton.

It’s believed Maddison is armed with a machine gun.

Commissioner Ian Stewart told a press conference late on Monday night that police wanted to resolve the stand-off “as peacefully as humanly possible”.

Police have cordoned off a large section of the area, forcing some locals to sleep in their cars.

A police source said Maddison got out of his car during the chase and shot Senior Constable Forte before driving down a dirt road at Seventeen Mile.

He also fired at a police helicopter while entering a farmhouse.

3. A tiger has killed a zookeeper in a “freak accident” at an English zoo.

Police say a tiger has killed a female zookeeper at Hamerton Zoo Park 130km north of London.

“A tiger had entered an enclosure with a keeper. Sadly the female zookeeper died at the scene,” Cambridgeshire Police said in a statement after Monday’s incident.

The zoo said in a statement that a “freak accident” was to blame for the death. It said, “Our thoughts and sympathies are with our colleagues, friends and families at this dreadful time.”

Hamerton Zoo posted a statement on its website saying staff members were too “distressed” to speak the media about the death. The zoo is expected to be closed on Tuesday while an investigation continues.

Police said they were called to the zoo late on Monday morning.

ADVERTISEMENT

The tiger never escaped from the enclosure, and police said foul play was not suspected in the keeper’s death.

Visitors were evacuated when the incident began and an air ambulance was summoned to provide emergency help for the victim.

An eyewitness says visitors were removed calmly and that there was no panic.

4. Former golfer Tiger Woods arrested on drink-driving charge.

Former world No.1 golfer Tiger Woods has been arrested in South Florida on Monday morning on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to an online Palm Beach County Police report.

Woods, who is second on the all-time list with 14 major titles, was taken into custody at about 3am near his Jupiter Island home, booked at 7:18am and released hours later on his own admission, the police report showed.

Representatives for the 41-year-old American were not immediately available when asked by Reuters to comment.

Woods, who is currently sidelined from competition after having his fourth back surgery in April, said last week that he felt better than he had in years and had no plans to retire from competitive golf.

“Presently, I’m not looking ahead,” Woods wrote on his website.

“I can’t twist for another two and a half to three months. Right now, my sole focus is rehab and doing what the doctors tell me. I am concentrating on short-term goals.”

This is not the first time Woods has made headlines away from the golf course.

ADVERTISEMENT

His private life unravelled in late 2009 over allegations about affairs with several women and ultimately led to the end of his marriage.

Those allegations followed a bizarre early morning car accident outside his Florida home that rapidly ballooned into a fully-fledged sex scandal that turned his previously unblemished life and career upside down.

The scandal ultimately cost Woods a number of lucrative endorsement deals, while other sponsors shifted away from using him in marketing but did not end their contracts with him.

Woods, whose current sponsors include Nike, Bridgestone, Hero, Kowa, Upper Deck, and Monster Energy was ranked 12th on Forbes’ list of the highest-paid athletes in 2016, with total earnings of $US45.3 million ($A60.9 million), despite missing much of the year recovering from back surgery.

A 79-time winner on the PGA Tour who was the world’s top-ranked golfer for a record 683 weeks, Woods lost form in recent years due to injuries and the mastering of a new swing, while his ranking has plummeted to 876 after his long spell on the sidelines.

He has competed in only 19 events on the PGA Tour since the end of 2013, recording just one top-10 during that period along with seven missed cuts and three withdrawals.

5. Lindt Cafe siege victim “deserved to have hope” that someone would save him, mother says.

The families of Lindt Cafe siege victims Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson have welcomed NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller’s admission that police should have acted sooner to end the siege.

Mr Johnson, 34, was shot dead by Man Haron Monis before police entered the cafe in the early hours of December 16, 2014, and 38-year-old barrister Katrina Dawson was fatally wounded by police bullet fragments.

ADVERTISEMENT

NSW Coroner Michael Barnes last week handed down his findings into the siege after a lengthy inquiry, concluding that police acted too late to end the 17-hour ordeal.

Ms Dawson and Mr Johnson’s families have mostly supported the findings but are still angry some in police leadership refused to concede mistakes during the inquest, AAP reports.

Mr Johnson’s mother Rosie Connellan said her 34-year-old son “deserved to have hope” that someone would save him.

“I just can’t imagine how he felt in that time and I wish I’d been there with him,” Ms Connellan told ABC’s Four Corners program on Monday.

His partner Thomas Zinn questioned whether two senior commanders in charge at the end of the siege should remain in their current roles.

“Under the benefit of hindsight throughout the inquest they have proven … that they didn’t understand the consequences of their actions,” he said.

But both families welcomed Mr Fuller’s admission that he thought police should have launched a pre-emptive rescue earlier in the day.

“The coroner has revealed so many errors, so many failures that you can conclude that the entire management of the siege was a disaster and it cannot happen again that way ever,” Ms Dawson’s brother Sandy Dawson Jnr told Four Corners.

“That is why Commissioner Fuller saying what he said is encouraging. It is the first ray of light we have seen from the police through this entire saga.”

ADVERTISEMENT

6. Revised version of Australia’s controversial schooling plan, Gonski 2.0, returns to the Senate.

The Turnbull Government is banking on an “open-minded” Senate crossbench to get its new school funding plan through parliament.

Despite fierce opposition from Labor, the lower house on Monday night passed the coalition’s proposed education reforms – dubbed Gonski 2.0.

While Greens MP Adam Bandt voiced his opposition to the changes, the minor party is still not firm on a position, AAP reports.

Same goes for the Nick Xenophon Team, which has indicated it will await the outcome of a Senate inquiry before it rules out support.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said he welcomed the commentary and support from different quarters on the issue, as well as the “open-minded and engaging approach of the Senate crossbench”.

“Their approach stands in stark contrast to the hypocrisy, crass negativity and outright lies being told by Labor,” he said in a statement.

“The government is one step closer to realising David Gonski’s vision for true, sector-blind needs-based funding for Australia’s schools.”

The federal opposition claims the proposal represented a $22 billion cut to the amount it pledged when in government.

The government, however, argues it’s a $18.6 billion increase in funding over 10 years.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie on Monday admonished both sides of politics for making school funding a “political plaything”, accusing them of letting Australia’s children down.