Your speedy update on all the day’s big stories, Tuesday, April 29 2014
The scariest sound a parent could hear?
Heather and Adam Schreck, a couple from Cincinnati Ohio, have lived every parent's worst nightmare: waking to find an intruder in their baby's room. The pair woke in the middle of the night to the sound of a man screaming "wake up baby!" They ran into their 10-month-old Emma's (right) room to discover that the voice was coming from their baby monitor, which had a camera positioned over her head. Heather told Fox 19 TV: "I heard a voice again start screaming at my daughter...'Wake up baby. Wake up baby.' Then just screaming at her trying to wake her up." When Adam entered the room the man began swearing at him. IT experts have told the MailOnline that people hacking webcams, like those use in baby monitors, is common and parents should make their wireless devices more secure by making sure the passwords used different to those on their computer.
Vic communities 'in the grip of Ice'.
The Australian Crime Commission will today release a report showing that use of the drug ice in Australia is reaching pandemic proportions. The Herald Sun reports that almost 20 tonnes of illegal drugs worth $2.7 billion were seized in Australia last year. Graham Ashton, the Victoria Police deputy commissioner, has warned parents in countryside Victoria that "It is clear that an entire generation of rural youth is at risk, threatening the future prosperity of those communities." The ACC report will show that organised gangs are specifically targeting Australia, as our drug prices are among the world’s best and will call for a broader approach on cracking down on the issue which has gone beyond the reaches of law enforcement.
Abbott under fire over 'new tax'.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott is insisting that the Government's rumoured new tax is not a broken election promise. The PM claims that a debt levy of is a necessary, but temporary measure, in order to ease the deficit leftover from the Rudd and Gillard governments. Before the last election Abbott stridently campaigned against new taxes and in 2012 told reporters: "What you'll get under us are tax cuts without new taxes." The proposed tax would cost higher income earners - those earning over $80,000 a year, 1% of their annual income.