News bites: famine in Africa, Malaysia solution for asylum seekers

Siyad Ali, 2, a severely malnourished refugee from Somalia, cries after receiving treatment inside the stabilization ward in Dadaab — Siyad Ali, 2 is one of the lucky ones. Picture: Reuters.

Morning all! It’s the morning news hour and we’re keeping you in touch with everything you need to hear. Rick’s back on deck for the news this morning:

1. As famine worsens, 1 in 10 Somali kids aged under 5 will die by November

That’s a frightening statistic as hope fades in the Horn of Africa. The famine is spreading faster than aid agencies can handle. The number of people affected by the famine has blown out from 10 million just weeks ago to the more accurate estimate of 12 million today. 1.2 million children need urgent assistance. If you’d like further information, including agencies to contact to donate, follow the link to MM’s cheat sheet on what’s happening.

2. Number of big polluters covered by carbon tax drops from 500 to ‘more like 400’.

It was originally meant to cover 1000 of the nation’s top polluters, and then 500 but the head of the Climate Change Department has told an inquiry into the carbon tax that it will cover ‘more like 400’ due to differing definitions over fuel polluters. The tax will be paid by organisations that pump more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year into the atmosphere, but not those who are exempt like the petrol industries and agriculture.

3. PM wants to reopen closed detention centre for asylum seekers … in Papua New Guinea

Ms Gillard has long wanted to re-open the centre on PNG’s Manus Island, which was closed in 2005, but has been unable to due to political instability. But with a new leader in PNG who has said he will give the matter ‘prompt consideration’ things are looking like moving into gear. With the High Court case offering an injunction to refugee advocates regarding processing and deportation, it has become politically necessary for Gillard to find a processing centre outside of Australian borders. Manus Island was a key plank in Howard’s ‘Pacific Solution’.

4. There’s a petition to get Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie to marry

Marriage soon?

Ever since New York legalised gay marriage thoughts have turned to whether Sesame Street’s most famous ‘housemates’ might tie the knot. Seriously. There’s a petition on line with more than 4000 signatures (at time of writing) to have the friends wed or, at least, to include a character who is Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual, Intersex or Queer. Phew. Sesame Street has a history of being progressive but if it says Bert and Ernie are just mates, shouldn’t it stay that way?

5. Need to wear your pants really low but don’t want them to fall? Problem solved.

Those who still insist on wearing their pants well below their underwear line can now have the added peace-of-mind of not having them fall to the floor. Yup, it’s a new fashion ‘invention’ which is basically a set of underwear and jeans that can hook together at 3 different levels, to achieve the desired level of baggy-ness. Finally, a solution to a REAL problem*

*May or may not be sarcasm.

And here are the week in pictures:

The other side to the riots - broom armies spring up across the UK to help in the cleanup effort. The groups gathered at meeting points in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Wolverhampton organised on social networking site Twitter.

This image of 32-year-old Monika Konczyk escaping her first-floor apartment in Croydon becomes an iconic image of the riots.

Fire fighters and riot police survey the area as fire rages through a building in Tottenham, north London on Aug. 7, 2011. A demonstration against the death of a local man turned violent and cars and shops were set ablaze.

A double decker bus burns as riot police try to contain a large group of people on a main road in Tottenham on August 6, 2011.

Fire rages through a building in Tottenham on Aug. 7, 2011.

Australian war heroine Nancy Wake dies on Sunday in a hospital in London, where she had lived since 2001. She was 98.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is photographed out bike riding in a t-shirt that says: 'I Survived Maria'. (Pic credit: TMZ)

These are the world's most expensive thongs. A pair will set you back $18,000 - made by Chipkos, the shoes feature hand-painted art by renowned LA-based artist, David Palmer.

A new Levi's ad campaign due to be released in the U.K. today was postponed because it features scenes of rioting similar to those currently going on in Britain.

Madonna's 14-year-old daughter, Lourdes launches a beauty line. 'Material Girl Beauty' features body lotions, body washes, mists, lip glosses and nail polishes and will be available mid-August at Macy's and Macys.com and sold for $7-$12.

Mambo creates a Kerr-Bloom t-shirt for Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom's son, Flynn to wear on their short visit to Sydney.

Victorian man, Raymond Hoser allows a taipan and a death adder to bite his 10-year-old daughter at a shopping centre demonstration to prove that the snakes have been de-venomised. He was subsequently fined $12,000 in the County Court. His daughter was left with bleeding puncture wounds in her forearm, but was otherwise unhurt.

Tabloid magazines already have Jennifer Aniston married off and pregnant.

A baby humpback whale rescued off the Gold Coast on Monday has been put down after beaching itself for the second time in three days. (Pic: Channel Ten News).

Australia's Miss Universe contestant, Scherri-Lee Biggs reveals her national costume designed by Nikki Silverthorne of Kooey Swimwear.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority bans this ad campaign featuring children tshirts printed with the slogan made famous by Kate Moss: 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'.

Kate Bracks wins the 2011 Materchef title.

A french baker invents a 24-hour baguette vending machine to make bread available outside of the bakery's opening hours. The par-baked loaves are dispensed hot and are ready in within seconds. The loaves cost 1 euro ($A1.39) and he has sold 1600 baguettes in its debut month, and nearly 4500 in July.

Canadian resident Pat Kavanagh took four photos of the of giant storm clouds which threatened to unleash a devastating tornado above Taber and fused them in Photoshop to create this dramatic image that has drawn global media attention.

Holly Valance poses in gold bodypaint and hotpants to promote Fosters beer.

Proud mum Victoria Beckham shows off her newborn daughter by tweeting a photo of Harper Seven cuddling her father, David Beckham

Kris and Bruce Jenner renew their wedding vows during a family trip to Bora Bora in May. In 12 days Kim Kardashian will also walk down the aisle to marry Kris Humphries.

Kris and Bruce Jenner renew their wedding vows during a family trip to Bora Bora in May.

A plane flies a banner over lower Manhattan reading 'Thanks for the downgrade. You should all be fired'. The pilot of the plane is reportedly St. Louis, Missouri woman Lucy Nobbe, a vice president at private equities and investment firm Wedbush Morgan Securities. Nobbe is fed up with Wall St and politicians after the US credit rating was downgraded over the weekend.

American endurance swimmer Diana Nyad sets off from Cuba in an attempt to become the first person to swim across the Florida Straits without the aid of a shark cage. Susie Maroney successfully completed the swim in 1997 in a shark cage.

Georgia May Jagger plays Margaret Thatcher in the latest issue of Harper's Bazaar. The almost comical pictures depict the model recreating iconic moments of Thatcher's career.

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