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1. Step-father found guilty of boy’s death after claiming he died from falling off a pogo-stick.

Warning: This item deals with child abuse and may be distressing for some readers.

A Christian hip-hop music producer has been found guilty of the murder of his partner’s seven-year old son.

Kodi Maybir pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of criminal negligence but denied murdering the boy who died at his Oatley music studio in Sydney’s south in May 2013.

He had previously claimed the boy fell off a pogo stick.

Following two days of deliberations,  yesterday the Supreme Court jury found him guilty of the higher charge of murder as well as several other offences against the seven-year-old boy including two counts of assault and one count of producing child abuse material.

The boy’s mother, Kayla James, is in jail after pleading guilty to her son’s manslaughter in June. She received a discount on her sentence for manslaughter for agreeing to give evidence at her former partner Kodi Maybir’s trial.

During the trial Kayla James admitted hitting her son with a plank of wood while Maybir held him down.

Maybir, a Christian music producer, used boot camp-style exercises to discipline the three children, and that the couple withheld food and water from him as punishment.

Maybir would make the children run on the beach and called them “soldiers.”

“He would be forced to endure, to keep running,” James said.

Crown prosecutor Christopher Maxwell QC asked: “How did this make you feel?”

She replied: “I felt hopeless.”

Mr Maxwell said: “Did you ever say to Mr Maybir, ‘this is too much for him’?”

“Not at that time,” she answered.

During the trial the court heard Maybir assaulted the boy on numerous occasions, made him wear a nappy and shaved off his eyebrows so he would look like the character Neo from The Matrix.

Ms James then recounted how on May 20, 2013, the seven-year-old was made to squat against a wall for up to three hours with his arms outstretched as punishment for “lying”.

She says that Maybir read her son passages from the Bible while the little boy squatted.

Maybir admitted smoking a few “cones” before meting out his form of “discipline” on the boy. James told the court during her evidence that the next morning as she was making breakfast she heard a “scratch and thud as if something was being scraped against the floor”.

“I thought of Mr Maybir getting upset because there was noise already,” she told the court.

Just moment later Maybir came into the kitchen with the boy in his arms.

“I was calling (my son’s) name trying to rouse him … His eyes were rolled back and he had a bit of froth on the corner of his mouth,” James said in court.

But Maybir said the boy had just fallen over.

The couple then went on with their day as the boy struggled to even moan.

“Did it occur to you then that he may be extremely seriously injured?” crown prosecutor Chris Maxwell QC asked during the trial.

“I was afraid of finally putting Maybir in a position with the police.”

So instead of calling an ambulance they had sex, ordered pizza and went to bed.

The next day the boy was dead.

Maybir will face sentencing proceedings on February 19.

2. 37 per cent of family day care services nationally have a quality rating.

Two days after a five-month old baby died in a Brisbane family day care centre from what police believe were not suspicious circustances there are reports that two-thirds of family day care operations have not been rated under a national quality scheme introduced three years ago.

The family day care home where the boy was is now being investigated after police believe it failed to meet certain standards.

Officers who attended the home say children were discovered behind locked doors and no records were found for some parents.

The Courier Mail reports the latest figures from the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority reveal only 37 per cent of family day care services nationally have a quality rating.

A Department of Education spokeswoman told the newspaper the centre where the boy died was overseen by Moorooka Family Day Care, an approved provider but was not rated.

3. Islamic State ringleader of Paris attacks dead.

The French Prosecutor has confirmed that the suspected architect of the Paris terror attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud has been killed.

His body was identified after the several hour siege during which his female cousin blew herself up via a suicide vest and several arrests were made.

In a statement, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that Abaaoud died in the raid and his body had been identified based on saliva samples.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud was connected to several attempted acts of terror before playing a “key role” in last Friday’s coordinated attacks, the French interior minister has said.

Bernard Cazeneuve said Abaaoud was behind four of six foiled attacks since the spring, including the planned attack on the Paris suburb of Villejuif in March.

Spain’s Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz has told a Spanish TV channel that Abdelhamid Abaaoud used social media to try to recruit women from Spain to join Islamic State.

Meanwhile the French parliament has voted to extent the state of emergency for three months from November 26. It got an overwhelming majority: 551 voted for the measure, with six votes against and one abstention.

After approval in the National Assembly the measure goes to the Senate on Friday, where it is likely to win approval.

It is also looking into measures which include allowing police to carry weapons when they are off duty and use them in the event of an attack – providing they wear a police armband to avoid “any confusion”.

4. Details emerge about the life of Europe’s first female suicide bomber.

The life of 26-year old Hasna Ait Boulahcen, the cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud who blew herself up while wearing a suicide vest during police raid in Paris is being exposed after revelations she was “party loving” and had no interest in religion.

The Daily Mail have printed a series of images of Ait Boulahcen semi-naked in a bubble bath as they report she was “a fun-loving party girl who liked to drink alcohol and was nicknamed ‘the cowgirl’ due to her love of wearing big cowboy hats.”

Her brother said “She was living in her own world. She was not interested in studying her religion. I never saw her open the Koran. She was permanently on her phone, looking at Facebook or WhatsApp.”

5. Man sets fire to his Brisbane home after allegedly threatening his ex-wife and children.

A man is in police custody after making threats to his ex-wife and his children and then setting his home on fire.

The ABC reports that police had been alerted after the man made threats against his ex-wife and children at their Wynnum West home.

He then left their house and returned to his own home where he set it on fire.

Police Inspector Steve Flori said the man armed himself with a knife and then set the house on fire.

“I authorised an emergency action to extract him and allow entry for the fire service to put the fire out,” Inspector Flori said.

“There is some reasonable damage to the house, but there are no injuries to the male involved, and two police officers have received minor smoke inhalation.”

6. Indonesia announces moratorium on executions.

Seven months after Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in Indonesia comes the news that Indonesia has announced no more death row prisoners will be executed for now.

The ABC reports an Indonesian government official announced the moratorium on executions  yesterday saying it would allow the nation to concentrate on “fixing its economy”.

The coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, Luhut Panjaitan, is understood to have made the announcement.

7. Australian children see alcohol and drugs as a threat to their safety.

A study has found that Australian children see adult consumption of alcohol and drugs as a form of child abuse.

The global study of more than 6000 children aged 10 to 12 across 58 countries found Australian kids were far more likely to name drugs and alcohol as a threat than their international counterparts reports Fairfax Media.

The survey by international children’s welfare group ChildFund Alliance found 70 per cent of Australian children blamed adult consumption of alcohol and drugs for the mistreatment of children, compared with 4 per cent of children globally.

ChildFund Australia chief executive Nigel Spence told Fairfax Media it revealed a significant increase in concern from 2013.

“We know that alcohol-fuelled violence is commonly reported in the news and may also be experienced in the home,” he said.

“This result is a stark reminder that Australian children comprehend how alcohol and drugs can lead to abuse, and demonstrates their high degree of concern.”

8. Heatwave sweeps Australia’s east.

Sydney is set to hit record temperatures today reaching 41 degrees in the city as a slow-moving high-pressure system brings a huge hot air mass formed over Australia’s Red Centre into the country’s south-east.

Weatherzone has predicted if Sydney hits above 40 degrees it will be Sydney’s hottest three-day spell in November in 79 years.

A spokesman for the NSW Department of Education told Fairfax Media that school would go on no matter the temperature.

“Schools are closed only in extreme circumstances, such as during fire or flood or for health and safety reasons. Hot weather is generally not considered to be an emergency,” he said.

“Schools have a duty of care to students and releasing them early can be problematic for parents and they could possibly be exposed to greater temperatures outside and in their homes.”

Around the country Melbourne is expected to reach 23 degrees after a cool change yesterday.

In Brisbane it will hit 33 today, 39 tomorrow. Adelaide is in for a 23-degree day after a hot week.

Darwin 35 Perth 28 and Hobart 20.

9. Schoolies starts on the Gold Coast.

25,000 Queensland school leavers are expected to begin their week long schoolies celebration to celebrate the end of their school lives.

Schoolies boss Mark Reaburn has told The Gold Coast Bulletin that if parents and teens were concerned about about potential terror threats in the wake of attacks in Paris they should remain at home.

Police have said there is no imminent threat to the Gold Coast event but that officers will be on high alert.

Teens will be forced to submit to bag checks to enter the Schoolies Hub on Surfers Paradise beach and emergency services have held several meetings to discuss event security.

Australian National University terrorism expert Dr Clarke Jones said an attack on schoolies would be very unlikely.

10. A quarter of men believe they have “men periods”.

It might be time to share your hot water with a study revealing that a quarter of men believe that they experience a monthly ‘man period’.

In the British study asked 2,412 people (50pc men and 50pc women), male participants were asked if they frequently suffered the same common side effects of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) that women experience including tiredness, cramps and increased sensitivity.

Surprisingly 26 per cent of men said that they did experience these feelings on a regular basis.

Even more surprising was that 58% of their female partners believed them.

Of the female respondents whose partners had ‘man periods’ 43 % said they gave them special support during these tender times.

44% said they tried to “cheer him up” and  39% “walk around on egg shells”

33% told their partner to “man up”.

The men said they suffered increased cravings, tiredness and a “bloated” feeling 12 % were “more sensitive about personal weight” and 5% suffered from “menstrual cramps”.

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