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Wednesday's news in under 2 minutes.

Rebecca Ann Segwick

 

 

1. Two teenage girls have been arrested in Florida overnight after one of them admitted in an online post of bullying twelve-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, who killed herself last month. The 12 year old had been “terrorised” by as many as 15 girls who ganged up on her and picked on her for months through online message boards and texts.

Two girls, ages 12 and 14, were identified as Rebecca’s main tormentors. They were both charged with aggravated stalking in connection to Rebecca’s suicide. On Saturday the 14-year-old tormentor posted this message on social media:

“Yes ik [I know] I bullied Rebecca nd she killed her self but IDGAF”

That message ended with a heart symbol.

The 14-year-old instigated the bullying after she started dating Rebecca’s ex-boyfriend. The 12-year-old girl was once Rebecca’s friend. But the 14-year-old girl turned her against Rebecca. The girls admitted to the abuse. They were charged with aggravated stalking. They were handcuffed, booked and jailed for a few hours and released to their parents.

 

2. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced plans to present his carbon price repeal legislation this year. It will be the first order of business when parliament resumes on November 12.

Asked about Labor’s vow to block the repeal of a carbon price, Mr Abbott said he was confident public pressure on the opposition not to defy “the mandate of the Australian people at the election” would be “irresistible”.

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If the bills are not passed by July 1, and the government is forced to wait for the new Senate, the carbon tax repeal bills will apply retrospectively to that date.

The Prime Minister said the abolition of the carbon tax would leave households $550 a year better off.

The government estimated that power prices would go down by 9 per cent and gas prices would go down by 7 per cent.

The move increases the chances of another election in the first half of 2014 if the eight bill package is rejected.

 

3. Time is left for politicians to work out a deal to raise the borrowing limit and avoid an unprecedented US debt default. But overnight The White House rejected a new proposal from House Republicans for reopening the government and extending the debt ceiling.

The proposal, which included a two-year suspension of a tax on medical devices aimed at funding President Obama‘s signature healthcare law, was immediately rejected by the White House. The deadline looms as the government shutdown enters its third week.

 

Bikini girl from online game Second Life

4. Concerns are being raised over the sexualisation of women’s avatars in video games. A study from Stanford university has shown that women who use sexy avatars in video games are more likely to objectify themselves in real life.

Even more alarming it showed embodying the virtual life of characters like Lara Croft made women more likely to accept the ” rape myth” . This is the idea that a woman is in some way to blame for her rape. With 46 per cent of gamers now women experts say it’s cause for concern. Time magazine reports that playing Lara Croft might actually be worse for women’s body image than watching Miley Cyrus twerking in a bikini.

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5. Teenagers are being warned they risk a heart attack or stroke by consuming energy drinks. The drinks can cause heart attacks, strokes, fainting, increased heart rate and raised blood pressure. The nation’s medicine safety watchdog ( TGA) has warned teens ahead of schoolies celebrations starting next month.

Products marketed as energy supplements, weight loss drugs and legal highs have been linked to cardiovascular toxicity when used with alcohol. Banned from sale in Finland, Denmark and Sweden, oxedrine and caffeine products are also restricted in Canada and the TGA yesterday announced it was is reviewing their safety here.

 

6. In the US a couple have been accused of starving their two-year-old daughter after becoming obsessed with the online video game Second Life.

The two-year-old girl was rushed to hospital weighing just 5.8 kilos. Her parents were found at home playing Second Life. They have been charged with neglect and abuse.

 

7. Katie Hopkins has had another controversial rant on British TV. This time coming under fire after claiming, “behind every fat child is a fat mother”.

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“Behind every fat child is a fat mother”

Katie Hopkins, who has previously slammed parents for their choices of baby names and declared that redheaded children were harder to love, told British chat show This Morning that parents were responsible for telling their children they were fat.

“Behind every fat child is a fat mother who should take full responsibility,” she said.

“It’s absolutely the parent’s fault that those children are fat.

“They need to look in the mirror, look at themselves, and realize it’s their fault.”

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAdGCvADt5w

 

8. They are calling it the biggest scandal in sporting history. Roll over Lance Armstrong and make room for the Spanish Paralympic basketball team who’s coach has, after 13 years, finally been found guilty of fraud.

The former head of the Spanish Federation for Mentally Handicapped Sports Fernando Martin Vicente faked a team of disabled athletes in order to win gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The final team did comprise two players with IQs below 70 as required, but the other ten posed as mentally disabled players with the help of fake medical certificates they were provided with.

A Madrid court has now fined him 5,400 euros and ordered him to return 142,355 euros in government subsidies which the federation received for the athletes without disabilities.

The category of intellectual disabled basketball was removed from the Paralympic program after the 2000 Games.

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9.  A school in South London has banned popular slang words used by pupils in an effort to improve standards of English.

No longer will words and phrases such as ‘you woz’, ‘bare’ and ‘innit’ be tolerated in the corridors of Harris Academy in the London Borough of Croydon. The school has put up signs with a list of ‘banned words’ – including ‘extra’, ‘innit’ and ‘like‘, as well as beginning sentences with ‘basically’ or ending them with ‘yeah’.

We are still trying to work out what ‘extra’, ‘ you woz’ and ‘bare’ actually mean?!

 

Sign from the walls of the Harris Academy in London

 

And briefly: Victoria will be a paler but healthier state after Parliament passed a law to ban commercial tanning beds.

Race driver Sean Edwards was killed yesterday as his car hit a wall at a Queensland Raceway at Willowbank

A Legislative Assembly committee has raised concerns about whether the ACT’s proposed marriage equality law will include appropriate legal protections for the children of divorcing same-sex couples.

A typhoon described as the “strongest in 10 years” is closing in on Japan, on a path that will take it towards the precarious Fukushima nuclear power plant.

 

What news has got you talking today?

 

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