Thursday's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.

1. Indonesian Attorney-General says executions were a success “All worked, no misses.”

Indonesian Attorney-General HM Prasetyo has claimed the executions of eight men yesterday, including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were a success.

The executions have been successfully implemented, perfectly,” said Mr Prasetyo.

“All worked, no misses.”

Meanwhile the decision by the government to withdraw Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia in response to the executions has been met with criticism.

Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr has said that it is Australia’s interest to co-operate with Indonesia and that the ambassador should have remained in place to pursue Australia’s interests.

Fairfax Media reports that the Australia’s ambassador Paul Grigson will be recalled for just over a week. It is understood that he will need to return to Jakarta around the time of the budget to explain possible foreign aid cuts to the Indonesian government.

Fairfax Media reports that he could possibly leave Indonesia again after the budget.

In other developments:

• The bodies of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will depart Jakarta today arriving in Sydney on Friday.
• The UN’s secretary-general has spoken out against the execution of eight drug convicts in Indonesia, saying the death penalty had “no place” in the 21st century.
• A British grandmother on death row in Bali for smuggling cocaine has said she now feels like giving up. Lindsay Sandiford, 58 told The Daily Mail “If they kill someone as good as Andrew, what hope is there for me?”

2. Fears Australian man Peter Gardner could face death penalty in China.

There are fears that a 25-year old Sydney man, Peter Gardner could face the death penalty in China after his case was brought forward by almost six months. Gardner will go on trial in Guangzhou next Thursday for allegedly attempting to export 30kg of methamphetamine, or ice.

Gardner was arrested along with Sydney woman  Kalynda Davis in November. She was later released.

Gardner’s lawyer, New Zealand barrister Craig Tuck told News Limited the reasons for the fast-tracked trial were unknown.

3. Nepal relief slowly seeping through.

Relief efforts in devastated Nepal are slowly reaching their targets as the death toll climbs to 5,200.

The Government has said that half a million tents are urgently needed for the huge number of people forced from their homes.

Minendra Rijal, Nepal’s minister of information and communications, said relief operations were underway, but that much more needs to be done.

“Life is returning to normal, but it will be some time to be completely normal,” he said. “We have still not been able to properly manage to provide relief.

Yesterday a funeral was held for the Melbourne mother of two Renu Fotedar who was killed at the Everest base camp.

The UN has launched an appeal for $415m to provide emergency relief over the next three months.

Other ways you can help:

UNICEF

SAVE THE CHILDREN

4. Australian suburbs not meeting measles vaccination requirements.

A report by the National Centre of Immunisation Research and Surveillance for Vaccine Preventable Diseases has found throughout Australia immunisation rates are well below the minimum requirement to prevent deadly measles breakouts.

Analysis found that 95 per cent of 6 year-old children should have at least one measles vaccination in order to prevent outbreaks but that nearly half Australia’s suburbs do not have enough people immunised against measles.

The Age reports that in Mullumbimby rates are as low as 57 per cent. Brunswick Heads is at 67 per cent, while Bellingen, Bangalow, Byron Bay are at 76, 80 and 82 per cent respectively.

Sydney City is at 72 per cent.

In Victoria Melbourne City is 55 per cent and Southbank is 67 per cent.

The Yarra Valley is at 77 per cent.

The NSW government is bringing in a measles booster to children in their senior years of high school.

5. Russian spacecraft out of control.

An unmanned Russian space craft that was meant to be delivering supplies to the International Space Station is out of control and will fall back to Earth.

Russia’s space agency says Progress M-27M is now orbiting in an uncontrolled spin.

Cathleen Lewis, a specialist in Russian space programs at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington told the BBC that it was highly unlikely the debris would hit urban areas.

“I always remind people that two-thirds of Earth’s surface is water,” she said.

“The likelihood of it coming down and hitting someone is so remote as to be miniscule.”

 6. Royal baby: could be another week.

The UK public may have to wait longer for their much anticipated royal baby after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arranged for parking restrictions to be extended outside the hospital where the Duchess will give birth signaling the baby may not be coming anytime in the immediate few days.

The UK media reports that the local council had arranged for the parking restrictions to finish today as Kensington Palace had expected the royal baby to have arrived by now.

But the restrictions will now run until Tuesday, May 5 – and could even be extended further.

 7. Open letter to sex attacker.

A 20-year old woman’s open letter to a man who brutally assaulted her has gone viral.

Student Ione Wells was sexually assaulted by a stranger near her home in Camden, North London. She has written a powerful letter to her 17-year old attacker.

She says she wants all victims of sexual assault to know that they are not guilty. They are the innocent ones.

“Victims are inherently not guilty, and always will be, never forget that.”

For more read this post here.

 8. Baltimore:  night of relative calm.

The US city of Baltimore has seen a night of relative calm after the violence of Monday night when more than 200 people were arrested during hours of violent clashes.

The mother who was caught on video hitting and dragging her son from the ruckus after she found him participating in the riots has spoken to CBS saying “To see my son come across the street with a rock in his hand, I think at that point, I just lost it.”

Toya Graham has been hailed as a “mother of the year” after the video went viral.

She says he had been in trouble before and she was telling him “how dare you”.

“He’s just like the other teenagers that doesn’t have the perfect relationship with the police officers in Baltimore City, but you will not be throwing rocks and stones at police officers,” Graham said.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right, and at the end of the day I just wanted to make sure I had gotten my son home.”

For more on the riots- and to see the viral video – read this post here. 

9. French Muslim girl banned from school for long skirt.

A 15-year-old French Muslim girl has been banned from her classroom for wearing a long black skirt which was seen as going against France’s law guaranteeing secularism.

She missed two days this month from school in a dispute over her skirt.

10. The Pope says, “It’s ‘pure scandal’ that women earn less than men for the same work.”

Pope Francis has said that he supports equal pay for men and women who perform the same jobs. He said the fact there is a disparity is a “pure scandal.”

Francis asked Catholics to consider “the Christian seed of radical equality between men and women”

“Why should it be taken for granted that women must earn less than men? The disparity is pure scandal,” Francis said.

ANSA reports he said it was “not true” and an “insult” to suggest that women’s rights movements should take the blame for declining marriage rates. Doing so “is a form of chauvinism that always wants to control the woman.”

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