Monday'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. As many as 700 feared dead after migrant ship capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.

A boat carrying as many as 700 asylum seekers has capsized off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean Sea, prompting a major search operation.

The vessel, thought to be just 20m long, capsized at midnight local time in Libyan waters south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

So far only 28 people have been rescued and 24 bodies retrieved.

The Coast Guard said in a statement that the migrants’ vessel may have overturned because migrants rushed to one side of the craft when they saw a Portuguese merchant vessel approach late last night.

Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, said “They are literally trying to find people alive among the dead floating in the water.

“This could possibly be the biggest tragedy to have ever taken place in the Mediterranean. Children, men, and women have died.”

The Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi  has been criticised by aid agencies for not doing enough to prevent migrants drowning in the Mediterranean.

He confirmed in a press conference overnight that Italy had called an “extraordinary European council” meeting as soon as possible to discuss the recent tragedy.

He said “There is a scourge in the Mediterranean and on our continent, this is the a new 21st-century slavery trade.

“We must block these new slave traders because it is about human dignity and security.”

He also confirmed that Italy was working with the Maltese government to “save as many human lives as possible”.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that should these figures be confirmed, then so far in 2015 1,600 people have died attempting to reach Europe by boat.

For more read this post here. 

2. Baby in critical condition after car crashes into home.

A four-month old baby is in a critical condition after a car crashed into the bedroom of her Geelong home where she was sleeping.

Police say the car crashed through a fence and into the house after a driver failed to negotiate a roundabout,

A man and woman in their 20’s who were in the bedroom at the same time are also injured.

A 20-year old man is under police guard in Geelong Hospital.

3. Teens arrested over alleged Anzac Day terror plot knew Numan Haider.

The Herald Sun reports that one of the men arrested over an alleged terror plot in Melbourne, Sevdet Ramadan Besim, and another who can not be named who is being held under a Preventive Detention Order, were friends with and attended the funeral of Numan Haider.

Haider was shot dead last year after stabbing two police officers at a Melbourne police station, he had allegedly planned an Islamic State style attack.

Fairfax Media reports that the men also had links to a top Australian Islamic State recruiter Neil Prakash, 23 – who goes by the name of Abu Khalid al-Kambodi.

200 Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police officers raided several homes in Melbourne’s southeast before dawn on Saturday and arrested five men amid concerns of an alleged terror strike.

Police alleged the men were planning to kill authorities and attack the public with knives and swords.

4. Students prepare to return to school without their beloved teacher Stephanie Scott.

Students at Leeton High School prepare to return from holidays without teacher Stephanie Scott who was murdered on Easter Sunday.

The Daily Mail reports that the school has placed a message of support on their Facebook page writing

The Australian reported last week that a local mother, Jodie Salerno had said her three children “don’t want to return” to Leeton High School and feel the absence of their favourite teacher.

The funeral for Stephanie Scott takes place this Wednesday.

5. Islamic State claims murder of Ethiopian Christians.

A video purportedly made by the so-called Islamic State appears to show another mass execution on a beach in Libya.

The 29-minute film, posted online shows two different groups of men, one group being beheaded on a beach and another group being shot in the head in a desert.

It appears those killed are two different groups of approximately 30 captured Ethiopian Christians.

The video is similar to previous ones posted by IS, including the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians in February.

The video contained the official logo of the IS media arm Al-Furqan

Ethiopia says it is unable to confirm whether its citizens have been killed by the militant group, but condemned the murders as a “atrocious act”.

6. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop gives an upbeat assessment of Iran’s approach to negotiations to rein in its nuclear program after meeting with the country’s president.

By Matt Brown

Julie Bishop has given an upbeat assessment of Iran’s approach to negotiations to rein in its nuclear program.

Ms Bishop, who travelled to Iran for the first high-level talks between Australia and Iran in more than decade, met with Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani yesterday.

She said the meeting was long and constructive, adding that Mr Rouhani was very optimistic the framework deal struck weeks ago could be turned into a final detailed agreement by the end of June.

Ms Bishop said she believed the deal, which has been criticised by Israel, was balanced.

Under the framework agreement, Iran agreed to significantly reduce the number of installed uranium enrichment centrifuges it has to 6,104 from 19,000 and will only operate 5,060 under a future comprehensive nuclear deal.

In return, it will gradually receive relief from US and European Union nuclear sanctions as it demonstrates compliance with a future comprehensive nuclear agreement, which Iran and six world powers aim to conclude by June 30.

The framework deal is also controversial in some hardline quarters in Tehran.

Ms Bishop said Mr Rouhani’s optimism was fuelled by his view that there has been goodwill in the negotiations with world powers and an appropriate degree of give and take.

A version of this story was originally published on ABC.

7. Senator: Having children is a personal choice that shouldn’t be subsidised.

Should people who choose not to have children subsidise those who do?

Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm says no, and he says that’s the reason he will not be backing the proposed increases to childcare rebates.

The Government is expected to include a families package in the budget that includes extra support to help middle- and low-income families and proposals to make it easier to access childcare places.

Senator Leyonhjelm said Australians who did not have children were being increasingly taxed to support the choices of others, something he described as “socialising a personal decision”.

“A lot of people don’t have children,” he told Fairfax Media “A lot of people have children who have grown up and moved on.

“There’s no good argument that all of those people should subsidise people who do have children.”

 8. A pregnant Perth woman has been refused entry to the Qantas lounge for wearing Birkenstock sandals.

Chloe Wear was told last week that the shoes she was wearing were not suitable for the Qantas Club as they did not have an ankle strap.

Mrs Wear who incidentally is a podiatrist is 31-weeks pregnant and told News Limed she chose the shoe deliberately for the four-and-a-half hour flight to Brisbane.

My wife’s 31 weeks pregnant, she’s not exactly going to be running around in high-heeled shoes,” Mr Wear told News Limited.

“I would like an apology and some sort of acknowledgment that it’s ridiculous. It’s not like my wife is going to drink the bar dry or anything like that, she just wanted a comfy seat.”

A Qantas spokesman told News Limited they had apologised “We do have a dress code in place at our lounges in capital cities but we do relax the rules for pregnant women.

“We’ve since apologised to the customer and let them know that they are welcome back into the lounge for their return trip.”

9. University lecturer makes headlines after showing students confronting performance.

A University lecturer in the UK has come under fire for showing a graphic video of her performance art that featured her vagina to a class of first-year students.

The Tab Queen Mary writes that Lauren Barri-Holstein a lecturer and actress displayed clips from her “feminist performance art” stage production Splat! to her drama class at Queen Mary University last month.

The graphic clip is described by Ms Barri-Holstein as “feminist performance art concerned with the female body”, but it unabashedly exposes a lot more than her feminist values.

The performance shows her inserting a knife handle into her vagina and throwing garish red tomatoes at the blade, giving birth to a small, plastic Bambi figurine, urinating on stage and blowing a condom out of her vagina.

Students complained about the content “It was surreal. I honestly didn’t know how to react,” one student told The Tab. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look her in the eye in person, it’s just weird.

“It’s not even the fact we saw her lady parts, it’s the fact I literally have no idea how the clip was in any way related to this module. It was just so extreme and I don’t understand why it was in any way necessary.”

Others defended her.

I understand her credo is to actively gross out the audience and challenge us, which does actually make sense.

“She’s really passionate about exposing our socially engrained expectations, so I’m going to suspend my judgment and wait until I get to know her better as a teacher.”

10. Mother of twins stretch mark  photos censored by Instagram.

Instagram has deleted images of the body of a mother of twins after they deemed the photos violated community guidelines.

A woman who says that she has finally found happiness after struggling with bullies during her youth has been bullied once again – by a social media company.

The young mother, 20-year old Hannah Moore from the UK posted pictures of her post-pregnancy stretch marks on Instagram.

She says she was shocked that less than two-minutes after they were posted her account was blocked.

For more, and to see the photos deemed “offensive” read this post here. 

 11. Royal Baby will be a blonde girl named Alice.

Booking odds have shortened even further that the royal baby will be a girl with bookies predicting the royal baby girl will be born on Anzac Day, Saturday.

Bookie Rupert Adams said “The latest odds suggest that Catherine will give birth to a baby girl.

“She will be born on Saturday the 25th, weigh between 7 & 8lbs and be named Alice.

“She will have blonde hair and it will be a proud mum holding her as she is introduced to the world’s media.”

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