Wednesday's news in under 5 minutes

BREAKING NEWS:

A mother could face charges after allegedly leaving her nine-month old baby in a car parked outside an apartment block in Sydney’s west.

Witnesses saw the distressed infant locked in a car at 9.30pm last night. They called triple-0 and police broke into the vehicle and rescued the baby boy.

The mother returned to her car shortly after and told officers she had left her baby sleeping while she was busy doing chores in a nearby unit.

Ambulance officers assessed the baby and he was left with his mother.

In this current hot weather we are experiencing Police have reinforced that it is against the law to leave a child locked in a car unattended, and pleaded with parents to take extra care with their children around cars.

1. Where is Eeva?

While the search for four-year old Eeva Dorendahl and her father Greg Hutchings continues it has been revealed that her disappearance may be linked to his discovery that her mother was considering relocating with Eeva to Finland.

Hutching’s sister has revealed on her Facebook page that he discovered the little girl had recently acquired a Finnish passport.

Police would not comment on whether a passport was a motive for the disappearance.

They are urging anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000

2. Detention Centres to close

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has said he will close four detention centres on the Australian mainland, in a move he says will save the budget $88.8 million a year.

Although it is cheaper to process asylum seekers on the mainland, Mr Morrison said it “doesn’t stop the boats”.

There are 285 asylum seekers affected by the move – some of which are members of family groups.

Mr Morrison says the family groups will be put in “appropriate family accommodation”.

The Minister has also indicated he will no longer hold a weekly press conference to update journalists about the Government’s border protection operations. Last night he told the ABC that his weekly briefings will now be held on an “as-needs basis”.

3. French President

The French President has faced the media for the first time since his affair with a French film star, Julie Gayet was disclosed by a magazine.

In the press conference he has refused to comment on the matter saying, “private matters should be treated in private.” He said he would clarify whether Valerie Trierweiler was still first lady before a February trip to the US.

The First Lady is being treated in a hospital for shock over the affair. The media are calling for transparency over her role now- as she has an office in the Elysee Palace with six staff, which is supported by public money. If she is no longer his ‘partner’ she may no longer be eligible for public funds.

4. Family’s heartbreaking search

The family of a 19-year old girl missing off the coast of NSW have said they will not give up in their search to find her. 19-year old Danielle Wright is missing along with seven other crew members after her ship ‘The Nina’ encountered heavy storms last year.

For more read this post here “Mystery: Where is the yacht Nina?”

5. Heatwave

The heatwave across South-Eastern Australia continues with Adelaide expected to reach 45 degrees today, and Melbourne a blistering 43 degrees.

Fire-danger ratings are uniformly very high across Victoria and mostly very high or high for NSW. In South Australia, the danger is severe for the whole state except for the Adelaide metropolitan area, and it will be very high across most of Tasmania.

 6. Daniel Christie

Yesterday builder Shaun McNeil chose not to appear in court to face a charge of murder over the death of 18-year-old Daniel Christie in Kings Cross on New Year’s Eve.

He did not apply for bail and it was formally refused. He will reappear in court in March.

 7. Could you save this little girl’s life?

A British family of a 16-month-old girl suffering a rare form of blood cancer has launched a worldwide appeal to try to find a stem cell donor who can save her.

Margot – who was diagnosed two months ago with a form of leukaemia so rare that her doctor has only seen it three times in the past decade needs a bone marrow transplant. For that, she needs a blood stem cell donation from someone who is a match for her tissue type.

Her family is calling on people around the world to take an at-home swab test that may help them find a perfect stem cell match for their daughter. In Australia you can locate information on stem cell donation here.

For more information on Margot see their Facebook page here.

 8. Ban kids in restaurants

He took to twitter to ask his followers their thoughts.

Appearing on Good Morning America, the chef Grant Achatz said he has not made up his mind. “It’s never about the kids. It’s always about the parents.” He said.

9. ‘Sexting’ charges

In Canada a teenager has been found guilty of distributing child porn for “sexting” pictures of her boyfriend’s ex.

The teen was convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography and uttering threats. It is believed to be the first time in Canada a teenager has been convicted of pornography offences related to so-called “sexting.”

The accused, who was 16 at the time of the offence, sent nude pictures of her boyfriend’s ex to a friend and posted one to the victim’s Facebook page in an attempt to humiliate the other girl and prevent the old romance from being rekindled.

10. Womb transplants

Nine women in Sweden have successfully received transplanted wombs donated from relatives and will soon try to become pregnant.

The women were born without a uterus or had it removed because of cervical cancer. It is the first major experiment to test whether it’s possible to transplant wombs into women so they can give birth to their own children.

According to doctors the nine womb recipients were doing well – many already had their periods six weeks after the transplants.

11. Gillard treated badly

A survey has shown that 2/3 of women with political aspirations are less likely to pursue them because they think former Prime Minister Julia Gillard was treated badly.

The YWCA and University of Adelaide survey found that most of the respondents thought the media treated male and female politicians differently.

12. Pope and Abortion

Pope Francis has spoken out about abortion, calling it a “horrific” symptom of a “throwaway culture” that placed too little value on human life.

He said it was was “frightful” to think about early pregnancy terminations. Since his election in March, the pope has not spoken out against abortion as sternly as his predecessors.

Whilst in Spain – draft abortion laws will soon make abortion illegal.

For more on this read Mia Freedman’s post here.

In Brief:

In temperatures peaking at 42 degrees Lleyton Hewitt has been eliminated from the Australian Open by Italy’s 24th-seeded Andreas Seppi.

Bernard Tomic has called it quits after just one set against Rafael Nadal.

Rolf Harris has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges related to sexual offences including the assault of a seven-year-old girl.

What news are you talking about today?