Friday's news in under 5 minutes

1. Rolf Harris jury retires to consider verdict

The jury has to reach a  verdict.

The jury in the trial of entertainer Rolf Harris has retired to consider its verdict.

The Australian entertainer is charged with 12 counts of indecently assaulting four women from 1968 to 1986. He denies all charges.

In summing up the judge instructed the jury to reach unanimous verdicts for each of the 12 charges.

Judge Nigel Sweeney warned the jury – made up of six men and six women – against being swayed by emotion.

He said: “Neither media nor Internet nor speculation nor emotion of any type can have any part whatsoever to play in your deliberations.”

2. Iraq crisis

The US President Barack Obama is preparing to send Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East in response to the crisis in Iraq. In a press conference he announced he will send up to 300 military advisers and set up “joint operation centers” to aid the Iraqi military.

Earlier The Wall Street Journal reported that extremists in Iraq have occupied what was once Saddam Hussein’s premier chemical-weapons production facility, a complex that still contains a stockpile of old weapons.

3. Our kids on prescription drugs

A study by the University of Sydney has found the rise in the number of prescriptions for medications for children and adolescents to treat attention deficit disorder, severe depression and psychosis is as much as 50 per cent.

The Sydney University study found that over a four-year period, ending in 2012, the use of Ritalin jumped by 35 per cent nationwide. Anti-depressant medication for children aged between 10 and 14 jumped by more than 1/3 and anti-psychotic prescriptions rose by almost 50 per cent.

Professor Philip Mitchell head of psychiatry at the University of New South Wales told the ABC “We’ve got to be careful we don’t overprescribe but for children with clear psychotic illnesses such as those, these can make a huge difference to people’s lives.”

4. Baden-Clay trial

The psychiatrist who treated Allison Baden-Clay for depression has told the court that she was not suicidal.

Dr Tom George saw Allison for several years for panic attacks and depression. He says that she was “free from depression” although “unhappy about the state of her marriage”.

Allison Baden-Clay’s husband Gerard is on trial for her murder. He has pleaded not guilty to killing her and dumping her body under a bridge in 2012.

Dr George said that Gerard Baden-Clay told him he “felt very unsupported and isolated within their marriage and he then said that he was contemplating ending the marriage but was extremely guilty about the impact such a decision would have on Allison and the children.”

He told the court that Allison did not want the marriage to end.

5. Teenager killed after State of Origin

A Sydney teenager shot dead after watching the State of Origin on Wednesday night is reported to have been crying out “Shoot me Shoot me” moments before the fatal shot.

Jed Coates, 18, had been at the Colyton Hotel in Sydney watching the State of Origin game when police said he became involved in a fight with 21-year-old Matthew Perry.

Mr Perry, a Queensland supporter, is accused of later fatally shooting him in the neck.

The twin brother of Jed Coates Sam, paid tribute to his brother online. “Rip Jed my brother my twin your a king in my eyes love you bro.”

6. Woman selfies own stroke

A woman has made a video selfie of her own stroke in an attempt to convince doctors that she was actually suffering a stroke.

The woman from Toronto in Canada had three strokes all dismissed by Doctors as stress. She then made this video that saved her own life.

For more read this post here.

7. Bodyguards for Ministers

The Federal budget backlash has seen rising concern for the safety of several key ministers.

Fairfax Media reports that four ministers — Treasurer Joe Hockey, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Education Minister Christopher Pyne and junior Defence Minister Stuart Robert — have been assigned personal protection officers from the Australian Federal Police in the month since the budget’s release.

Due to his controversial portfolio Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has also been assigned a protection team.

8. QLD man fined $1500 for having sex with 15-year old girl

A man in QLD has been fined $1500 and no conviction was recorded against him after he engaged in a sexual act with a 15-year-old girl.

The Daily Mail report that the girl was forced to work as a prostitute before and after school by her Thai mother.

The girl’s mother sentenced to nine years in jail in 2013 for child trafficking. The man told the court he thought he was engaging the girl’s mother – a prostitute and did not realise the girl was only 15.

9. “What have I done?”

A devastated father who accidentally left his 22-month old son in a hot car mistakenly thinking he had dropped him at daycare has been charged with cruelty to children in the first degree, following the death of his son.

The tragic events took place in the US state of Georgia.

A witness saw the man stop his car across two lanes of traffic and attempt to revive his son. He told KPHO: “He pulled him out of the car seat, laid him on the ground and was trying to resuscitate him.”

The man was crying out “What have I done? What have I done?”

The channel says the man had to be restrained by police as he was so distraught.

No bond was granted.

10. Facebook was down.

The world survived.

Facebook had a worldwide outage last night for 20 minutes the longest outage of the social networking site in recent years.

As Facebook went off Twitter usage went up, with a surge in users taking to Twitter to complain about the Facebook outage.

The last major outage to hit Facebook occurred in 2010 when the site was unreachable for 2.5 hours, the worst for four years.

11. Paracetamol poisonings

In a paper published in the journal Emergency Medicine Australiasia Professor Andis Graudins calls for a restriction on the size of paracemteol packets as large packs of modified release paracetamol are putting patients at greater risk of a larger overdose.

Over 8000 patients per year are treated in Australia for paracetamol overdose taken as deliberate self-harm, usually without suicidal intent.

“It can kill if you take enough and you don’t get the appropriate medical treatment,” Professor Graudins wrote.

If you need help please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

12. Julia Gillard says female leaders talk about sexism

Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has given an interview on US public radio in which she said she agrees with Hillary Clinton about the sexism faced by female leaders.

Hillary Clinton has written in her memoir, Hard Choices, that former-PM Julia Gillard faced “outrageous sexism”, which should not be tolerated in politics around the world.

Ms Gillard said on radio that female leaders would regularly discuss the sexism they all faced when she was serving as Prime Minister.

13. Mother kicks child

A video of a mother in Japan kicking her child in a train station has gone viral with many commentators angry that it depicts child abuse.

In the footage, which was captured by a witness, a woman yells at her young daughter in what is said to be Japan’s Shibuya Train Station in Tokyo. The little girl can be seen screaming and crying and just as the mother grabs the child and starts to drag her away, the little girl tries to resist. The angry mother lifts up her leg and kicks her young daughter so hard in the head that the little girl falls to the ground.

The video which made headlines on most major news sites and received thousands of views on YouTube has since been removed.

14. Caecilius est in atrio

News Limited report that there is a Federal Government push to revive Latin our classrooms.

The drive will see the ancient language elevated to the national curriculum on par with languages such as Indonesian.

P & Cs Qld chief executive Kevan Goodworth told News Limited it would be “patently absurd” to teach Latin rather than a language like Mandarin.

From July 1 the curriculum will encourage schools to teach classical Latin and classical Greek. They will also add Hindi, Turkish and Auslan (Australian Sign Language) to the curriculum.

15. Migaloo the whale comes to visit

Migaloo, Australia’s most well-known humpback whale, was sighted off Australia’s east coast yesterday.

Migaloo is travelling as part of the seasonal migration of humpbacks to the warmer waters of tropical north Queensland.

He was spotted swimmingoff the coast of Eden on Wednesday, and then Cronulla on Thursday afternoon. A twitter user later reported seeing him near Port Stephens on Friday morning.

He is travelling with at least four other whales, the Guardian reports.

When he was first sighted in 1991, Migaloo was the only known all-white whale in the world.

Now around  28 years old, he is protected under Australian law.

16. American Apparel CEO ousted

“We take no joy in this, but the Board felt it was the right thing to do,” Co-Chairman of the board Allan Mayer said in a statement.

“Dov Charney created American Apparel, but the company has grown much larger than any one individual and we are confident that its greatest days are still ahead.”

Charney, who created the brand at age 20, has previously been the subject of lawsuits alleging inappropriate sexual conduct with female employees, News.com.au reports. He has previously admitted to having sexual relationships with workers, but said they were consensual.

17. ACCC takes legal action against Jetstar and Virgin

Australia’s consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has lodged proceedings against Jetstar and Virgin, Pedestrian reports.

The proceedings relate to the extra fees involved in booking airfares on their domestic flights, with the ACCC accusing the airlines of both “misleading and deceptive conduct” and “false or misleading representations.”

Jetstar has said:

“The way low cost carriers work is to offer customers a seat to a destination at the lowest price. There are optional extras that can be added – whether that’s baggage or a fee for a particular way of booking – and conditions that apply. But the lowest advertised fare is available to customers who book using the fee free payment channels.“

17. Protester arrested after lunging at Julie Bishop

An anti-government protester who lunged at Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s car in Melbourne today has been arrested.

Ms Biship was leaving a C20 summit at the University of Melbourne when the protester, who was demonstrating against university fees and job losses, hurled himself at her government car, News.com.au reports.

The man was arrested in the street, as protesters yelling “let him go” surrounded him. 

Ms Bishop was also targeted by protesters in May at Sydney University.

18. High Court rules government cannot impose cap on protection visas offered to refugees

The High Court has ruled that the Federal government cannot impose a cap on protection visas it issues for refugees in Australia.

The court, which is the highest in Australia, made the ruling in favour of two asylum seekers who were found to be refugees but were denied protection visas because of the cap. One of the refugees came Ethiopia to Australia last year, and the other man, who is from Pakistan, arrived at Christmas Island in 2012, the ABC reports.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison signed a legal instrument in March saying a maximum of 2773 protection visas could be granted in the year to June 30. But today, the court found that the Minister does not have the power to limit the number of visas because of this time limit.

Mr Morrison must now reconsider the refugees’ application for protection.

What news are you talking about today?