news

Saturday's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the news you need to know today, so you don’t have to go searching.

1. Rio Olympics open today.

The Olympic Games opening ceremony started at 8pm local time on Friday 5 August, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

That’s 9am today Sydney time (or 8:30am for Adelaide and 7am for Perth.)

Athletes from 206 nations, as well as a refugee team, are currently in Brazil to compete in 28 sports in the games.

Defending Olympic men's tennis champion Andy Murray, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen and British Dame Judi Dench are confirmed to have roles in the production, BBC News reports.

An estimated three billion people will watch the ceremony.

2. Father arrested after twin babies die in hot car.

A young man who allegedly left his twin daughters to die in a hot car in the US has been arrested.

According to local news outlets, 24-year-old Asa North was arrested early on Friday. The Carrollton, Georgia man is charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct, Carroll County jail records show.

The 15-month-old girls have been named as Ariel and Alaynah.

The girls were discovered unresponsive in the back seat of an SUV on Thursday night, according to Carrollton police.

Neighbours helped to frantically try to cool the girls' bodies down, placing them in a wading pool with ice packs, but emergency services said was too late, WSB-TV reports.

They were pronounced dead in hospital.

3. A boy found his "dead mother" thanks to an Australian YouTuber.

A south Australian YouTuber has helped reunite a family - after a boy recognised his missing mother, who he thought had died, in an online video.

ADVERTISEMENT

YouTube star Brooke Roberts, 19, uploaded a video about homelessness to his social media channel, Prank Nation, in July after filming it in Los Angeles.

The Adelaide teenager soon received an email from a US man named Eddie, who said his 10-year-old son had spotted his mother in the video, WA Today reports.

"I need your help, we need to know where this video was filmed," Eddie said.

"My son's mother has been suffering from addiction and mental illness for about the last ten years," Eddie said.

"We thought she had passed away and in some kind of miracle, my son Evan, her son, who's 10-years-old, was watching YouTube videos like he always does... two minutes and 30 seconds into the video, sure enough there's his mum on the other side of the country sitting on the curb."

Post continues after video:

Brooke and Eddie met up in the US and searched the streets of Los Angeles -- until they eventually found the missing woman, Jaime.

Eddie gave Jaime a hotel bed to sleep in, then took her to buy clean clothes and a mobile phone.

Eddie now says he is trying to get her established in his home town and that she will hopefully come soon for a visit.

4. Flesh-eating ulcer at record levels in Victoria.

A flesh-eating ulcer has been encountered in Melbourne’s southeast suburbs, The Age reports.

The Buruli ulcer, which can result in limb amputations, has hit record levels in Victoria -- with 45 cases reported this year.

ADVERTISEMENT

The disease has now spread to inner-Melbourne suburbs such as Bentleigh, Hampton and Cheltenham.

Victorians who have contracted the virus include seven-year-old girl Mia Spilman, who is thought to have developed the ulcer after a painful mosquito bite in April in the Mornington Peninsula, Kidspot reports.

It’s believed the ulcer can be contracted by contact with bodies of water, mosquitoes and possums. However, the exact mode of spreading has yet to be confirmed.

5. Black Lives Matter protest blocks roads to Heathrow.

Black Lives Matter protesters have blocked a number of key roads in the UK -- including in London, Nottingham and Birmingham on Friday -- causing massive traffic jams.

A road to Heathrow airport was brought to a standstill as activists chained themselves together on the road, The Guardian reports.

Ten people were arrested during the demonstration, which took place at the peak of the holiday season, ABC News reports.

Black Lives Matter UK had called for a national "shutdown" to mark the fifth anniversary of the police shooting of Mark Duggan, whose death sparked riots across England.

6. Perth childcare worker sentenced for sexual abuse of girls

A childcare worker has been jailed for 4.5 years for sexually abusing five young girls Perth's eastern suburbs, ABC News reports.

The 25-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children, pleaded guilty to charges of sexually penetrating one girl and indecently dealing with four others in 2014.

ADVERTISEMENT

The girls were aged between two and four years old at the time when he abused them at the WA childcare centre.

According to ABC News, some of the offences happened while the man was reading them a book.

7. The Australian cartoonist Bill Leaks hits back at critics.

Bill Leak, The Australian cartoonist who has been criticised for a cartoon widely condemned as racist, has described his critics as "sanctimonious Tweety Birds".

The drawing, published on Thursday, showed an Aboriginal child being held by the collar by a black policeman, Fairfax Media reports. In the drawing, the child's father is shown holding a beer can and forgetting his son's name.

Following criticism of the drawing, Leak hit back, describing his critics as "sanctimonious Tweety Birds having a tantrum".

He then drew another cartoon showing himself being help by his shirt collar by a policeman, as a man in a Twitter t-shirt approaches with a baseball bat saying "Lemme at 'im."

The Australian has stood by the cartoonist, who is a Walkley award winner and has been with the newspaper for more than two decades.

"Bill Leak's confronting and insightful cartoons force people to examine the core issues in a way that sometimes reporting and analysis can fail to do," The Australian said in a statement.

8. Massive fine for parking at a children's hospital to be reviewed.

A $1000 fine given to a mother who illegally parked her car at Princess Margaret Children's Hospital will be reviewed, ABC News reports.

The West Australian Health Minister has conceded that the fine -- given to mum Monique Garcia after she rushed her teenaged son, who has a congenital heart condition, to the emergency department -- was excessive.

ADVERTISEMENT

Health Minister John Day today told 720 ABC Perth Ms Garcia would not have to pay the fine, which she received on Wednesday.

"No she won't... indeed before this became a media issue, she wouldn't [have had to pay] if she'd gone to the hospital and explained the circumstances; it would have been waived," he said.

He admitted the amount was "far too high" and would be reviewed.

9. Terri Irwin says she hasn't dated since Steve's death.

Wildlife champion Terri Irwin says she hasn't been on a single date since she lost her husband Steve a decade ago.

The mother-of-two told Australian Women's Weekly that remarrying hasn't been a priority since her husband was killed by a stingray in 2006.

She said she did not think it was wrong to remarry, but that she had been enjoying her life with her children, 18-year-old Bindi and 12-year-old Robert.

10. Giant alligator removed from backyard

Police in the US have removed a six-foot (183cm) alligator from the backyard of a home.

The alligator was retrieved from the yard in West Springfield, Massachusetts, with the help of workers from a local zoo.

Police had received reports that the alligator had been living at the Main Street residence for 26 years, but could not confirm they were true, The Boston Globe reports.

The alligator, which weighs as much as 200 pounds, is currently being held at the zoo.

What's making news in your world?

00:00 / ???