Tuesday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Oscar Pistorius sentencing

Oscar Pistorius is a broken man according to his defence team. His sentencing hearing has heard from trauma counsellor Lore Hartzenberg, who strongly implied that a “broken” Pistorius had been punished enough.

He faced a court in South Africa yesterday to be sentenced for culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The defence called Joel Maringa, a state correctional services officer who said Oscar Pistorius should be sentenced to three years of house arrest and be obliged to carry out community service as a cleaner for 16 hours a month during that period, cleaning a museum for example.

During this time he would be allowed to do athletic training.

“We are basically saying he should not be destroyed,” Mr. Maringa said.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel called the suggestion “shockingly inappropriate” after the killing of Ms. Steenkamp.

The defence is expected to call one more witness tomorrow, a probation officer. Then the state will call two witnesses.

2. PM says coal is good

The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott has said that Australia’s coal industry has a “big future, as well as a big past” and claimed that it will be the world’s principal energy source for decades to come.

Speaking at the opening of a $ 3.9 billion Caval Ridge Mine in Central Queensland.

Fairfax Media reports that this mine will produce 5.5 million tonnes annually of metallurgical coal and employ about 500 people.

“Coal is good for humanity, coal is good for prosperity, coal is an essential part of our economic future, here in Australia, and right around the world.” He said.

3. PM says he will shirt-front Putin

The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott has puzzled social media by announcing at a press conference yesterday that he is going to shirt-front Russian president Vladimir Putin when they meet at the G20 summit in Brisbane next month.

“I’m going to shirtfront Mr Putin,” he said in regarding to the ongoing investigation into MH370.

“I am going to be saying to Mr Putin Australians were murdered.”

“There’ll be a lot of tough conversations with Russia and I suspect the conversation I have with Mr Putin will be the toughest conversation of all

The unusual phrase – a football term meaning to knock someone to the ground – or to stand up to them – was trending on Twitter.

“Perfect way to abolish war – in future all disputes to be settled by a duel between presidents! #Shirtfront #Pistols_at_dawn :)) wrote one user

“I imagine the guy who spent 16 years in the KGB is feeling seriously intimidated right now ‪#shirtfront “tweeted Senator Scott Ludnam

5. Dallas Nurse named

A Texas nurse who contracted the deadly #Ebola virus has been identified by her family according to the US media.

26-year old Nina Pham is in a “clinically stable” condition.

It has been reported that she can not identify any breaches of protocol to pin point how she contracted the virus.

 6. Gay Right groups welcome Catholic paper

Roman Catholic gay rights groups around the world have hailed as a breakthrough a paper by the Vatican which says that homosexuals had “gifts and qualities to offer” and asked if Catholicism could accept gays and recognise positive aspects of same-sex couples.

The paper, compiled at a Synod asks whether  “our communities (are) capable of proving that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”

Complied at an assembly of Bishops the paper is being praised worldwide by Catholic gay rights groups.

Reuters reports it says “Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community: are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a further space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home,”

 7 . It took an ambulance 23 minutes to get to a drowning 3 y/ o

A devastated Melbourne family are demanding answers after their three-year old daughter Emmy died from a bathtub drowning and an ambulance took more than 20 minutes to reach her home.

The Herald Sun reports that Pauline and Rohan Boyle claim their daughter was not given a fighting chance because of an ambulance dispatch bungle.

Pauline says she left Emmy for only a minute to run downstairs to get her daughter’s favourite pink towel.

The little girl was standing up when she left her. When she returned the three-year old was head down under the bubbles.

A neighbour called emergency services but a mistake in dispatch meant the drowning was not given a priority o code so it took 23 minutes for the paramedics to arrive.

“We live 14 minutes from the CBD. It would have been quicker for John and me to jump in the car and drive to the hospital ourselves,” she said.

The family are demanding changes to the system.

 8. Test case in Federal Circuit Court

The Federal Circuit Court will today hear a test case that could determine the fate of 100 babies.

The case is being made on behalf of 11-month-old Ferouz, a Rohingya boy who made headlines when he was born in the Brisbane’s Mater Hospital.

If it is successful 100 other babies will all be able to apply for permanent protection.

For more read this post here.

9. Woolworth Singlet

Woolworths has been accused of fanning the flames of racism after two of its stores stocked a singlet featuring the words  “If you don’t love it, leave,” underneath a print of the Australian flag.

The singlet was first posted to Twitter by a Cairns Woolworths customer George Craig who wrote

“Cairns, selling racist singlets for everyday low prices! #racist.”

The supermarket giant quickly leapt into action pulling hundreds of the offensive items from their shelves and issuing a statement saying

“The singlet was not one we ordered. It was delivered to us in error and should never have been allowed on our shelves.“

“As soon as we were made aware we immediately withdrew the product from our shelves. The sentiment expressed on the singlet does not reflect the views of Woolworths. Woolworths has a policy of ‘Doing the Right Thing’ which means we believe in fostering an environment where everyone is treated with dignity, courtesy and respect.”

 10. The Snappening

The rumoured event titled “The Snappening” has taken place online with a file containing 200,000 photos and 10,000 videos of Snapchat users posted online.

Many of the images are of teenagers; aged 13 to 17 reports The Entrepreneur.

The stolen pics are thought to have been acquired through the hacking of a third-party app called SnapSaved.com.

Snapchat released a statement saying that its servers have not been breached. The company said: “Snapchatters were victimised by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice we expressly prohibit in our terms of use because they compromise users’ security.”

 11. No trial for Mum who murdered three disabled children

A mother who admitted killing her three disabled children will not face trial for murder after her manslaughter plea was accepted by a British court reports The Independent.

42-year old Tania Clarence pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of three of her four children, Olivia aged four, and three-year-old twins Ben and Max – all of who had type 2 spinal muscular atrophy.

The children’s bodies were found at their upmarket home in the UK in April.

Prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC said: “It is clear on the evidence Mrs Clarence killed her three children because she wanted to end their suffering and at the time she committed the act she could not see any alternative or any other way out of their joint suffering.”

She will be sentenced on November 14.

12. Five-year old forced to sign ‘suicide contract.’

A five-year old student has been forced to sign a school contract saying she would not kill herself or anybody else after she pointed a crayon at another pupil.

The girl’s mother told local media in her home state of Alabama in the US that her daughter “drew an object which “resembled a gun”.

She said: “According to them she pointed a crayon at another student and said, ‘pew pew.'”

The little girl was asked by the school whether she was depressed and given a “Mobile County Public School Safety Contract to sign” – the contract stating she would not kill herself or anybody else.

 13. Bosses dislike work from home

Reports today that while over 2.4 million people work from home in Australia it is something that bosses dislike, as they are fearful their employees will do less work.

Techno giants Google and Yahoo both discourage employees from working from home as they consider it less productive.

Fairfax Media reports that research has shown that those who work from home tend to work harder than they would have in an office.

The Chief executive of the Australian Federation of Employers and Industries, Garry Brack told Fairfax Media the majority of people wanting to work from home were women returning after maternity leave.

14. A legion of fans disappointed

There is anguish and despair today over the shock announcement that yet another much loved childhood character is getting a makeover.

Bob the Builder fans took to Twitter to condemn the new Bob, launched yesterday.

The show’s makeover includes a cast change with Harry Potter’s Lee Ingleby to replace Neil Morrisey as the voice of the main character, and Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt to voice Wendy.
Stop-frame animation is being replaced by computer-generated imagery.

Fans were horrified.

“Just nearly fainted at the sight of Bob the Builder, Absolutely tragic to see him in such poor condition.”

“You know your childhood is over when Bob the Builder has a new look.”

Those who actually watch Bob -two and three year old kids – didn’t seem to weigh in on the debate.

15. A free car for students who ace their exams

A Melbourne school is offering a free car to students who score above 95 for their VCE, the Dandenong Leader reports.

The Keysborough school will hand over the keys to a new Suzuki Swift to students who meet that goal.

“I haven’t heard of another school doing this,” Principal of Mt Hira College, Patricia Gay, said.

“Because our kids come from lower socio economic areas, some of them need a little incentive to study hard,” she said.

“We wanted the kids to put an effort in and we knew some of our kids could do really well with the right motivation… We just thought this would be a nice way to encourage and inspire kids to try hard.”

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