Thursday's news in only 2 minutes.

1. A court has heard details of the night Reeva Steenkamp was murdered at Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius‘ home in South Africa. The bail hearing was told neighbours heard a woman’s screams coming from the house before the shots were fired. Reading an affidavit, Pistorius said that he fired shots into the bathroom door because he thought there was an intruder hiding in there. He though Reeva was lying in the bed next to him. A detective in the court said Oscar’the 26-year-old’s story stacked up with the evidence presented so far.

2. Bernard Gaynor has resigned from Bob Katter’s Australian Party. He said he resigned because the party because “it failed to oppose abortion”.  Earlier this month, Gaynor caused outrage when he said he would never let a gay person teach his children.

3. The Federal Government has reversed a decision to cut funding to Victorian hospitals by $107 million per year. The move came after hospitals announced plans to cut 20,000 elective surgeries and close 350 beds.

4. Three sisters in India have been raped, murdered and dumped in a well. It’s believed the three girls – who were aged six, nine and 11 – were lured by their attacker with food. It’s one of a growing number of hideous cases in recent months and the case has sparked fresh outrage in India, with many people calling for tougher penalties for rapists.

5. Activists working on the anti-whaling vessel The Sea Shepherd are reporting their vessels have been “rammed” twice by a Japanese ship called the Nisshin Maru in the Southern Ocean. On his Facebook page yesterday, Sea Shepherd’s captain Paul Watson said one of the vessels was taking on water. The Japanese have since suspended their annual whale hunt.

6. A woman in the US has given birth to two sets of identical twin boys. The odds of that happening are around one in 70 million. Tressa Montalvo said she and her husband weren’t using any fertility treatments – they just wanted a sibling for their two-year-old son. “We planned the pregnancy – I guess we just succeeded a little too much!” Tressa said after the birth.  The four babies were born at 31 weeks.

7. A three-year-old in China has been rescued by firefighters after she got stuck in a washing machine. The incident occurred when the girl was playing alone in the laundry. It took crews a few hours to free the girl and fortunately the machine wasn’t turned on.

8. A family court in Victoria will allow a 12-year-old who was born as a boy but raised as a girl to be given puberty blocking drugs. Doctors warned the 12-year-old – who goes by the name “Jodie” – was at a risk of self harm.