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Sydney siege: Monis avoided jail after confusion over sex charges
Victim forced into electric shock ‘therapy’ after reporting sex assault in state care
The tiny Greek island sinking under Europe’s migrant crisis – video
Tony Abbott urges discipline amid pressure over Dyson Heydon and same-sex marriage – as it happened
500 writers sign letter to Mexico's president over journalists' murders
Siena's Palio bareback horse race – in pictures
Bangladesh says Briton arrested over murders of secular bloggers
Tony Abbott on Bangkok bombing: 'Australians should continue to go to Thailand' – video
Bangkok bomb: Thailand says identity of attackers 'much clearer'
Tianjin explosions: warehouse 'handled toxic chemicals without licence' – reports
Indonesia plane crash: rescuers reach Papua site and find dozens of bodies
Madeleine McCann family spokesman launches PR agency
From online trolling to death threats – the war to defend Eritrea's reputation
Secret aid worker: there is still racism within humanitarian work
The war on Görli: could cleaning up Berlin destroy the reason people love it?
The Hungry Ghost Festival (Yu Lan) - in pictures
'I feel so very helpless' - letter from an Eritrean father whose son fled to Europe
Sydney siege inquest resumes with a blame game over gunman's bail application – rolling report
Sri Lanka election: Mahinda Rajapaksa concedes he is unlikely to be PM
Pregnant women flocking to classes on self-hypnosis births

Sydney siege: Monis avoided jail after confusion over sex charges

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 01:32 AM PDT

The Lindt cafe gunman was granted bail because police feared being accused of unlawful arrest if they detained him for 37 new sex offences

Man Haron Monis could have been behind bars at the time of Sydney siege had police arrested him two months before, after he was charged with more than three dozen sex offences, an inquest has heard.

The New South Wales coroner is examining whether the gunman should have been out on bail when he staged the siege on 15 December last year.

Victim forced into electric shock ‘therapy’ after reporting sex assault in state care

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 01:29 AM PDT

Robert Cummings tells child abuse inquiry that he was sent to hospital to have electric shocks to cure him of being gay

When a child sexual abuse victim reported to staff at the state-run home in charge of his care that he was being assaulted by another boy, he was forced to undergo electric shock "therapy" so severe that it burned his skin, a royal commission heard on Tuesday.

The psychologist who administered the treatment also gave evidence on Tuesday, telling the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse that the shocks felt no stronger than flicking an elastic band against a wrist, and was only given to adults. But later the psychologist described the treatment as "quite severe", and apologised.

The tiny Greek island sinking under Europe’s migrant crisis – video

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 01:09 AM PDT

Leros is a tiny Greek island seven miles from the Turkish coast where 2,500 migrants have arrived illegally by boat in the last three weeks. Without support from Athens or Europe, overstretched local authorities rely on a committed team of local volunteers to prevent chaos and humanitarian crisis. But as increasing numbers of migrants arrive at Leros, the island is at breaking point, as Phoebe Greenwood reports

Tony Abbott urges discipline amid pressure over Dyson Heydon and same-sex marriage – as it happened

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:52 AM PDT

PM warns of consequences over leaks as leadership grumblings resurface over same-sex marriage, the ACTU considers the commissioner's fate, and polls point to a swing against the Coalition in the Canning byelection. As it happened ...

5.52pm AEST

I think that is enough words from me. Thanks to Lenore Taylor, Daniel Hurst and Shalailah Medhora for their assistance. And Mike Bowers, take a bow. Excellent pictures.

5.09pm AEST

Lenore Taylor has unpicked the issues underlying the Abbott government war against environmental and community groups - following the federal court decision to overturn government approval for the Carmichael coal mine.

This follows the government announcement that it will attempt to tighten the eligibility rules around who can take legal action against development projects.

The biggest danger to the Adani mine is its own business case, not environmental legal cases, and the Indian energy minister has unveiled plans for a rapid expansion of domestic coal production, as well as renewables, and said India aims to stop imports of thermal coal within three years, which undercuts somewhat the idea that the Adani mine's coal is the only thing that can possibly provide power to impoverished Indians.

And the tired old meme that says environmental protection and job creation are conflicting and contradictory objectives doesn't fly any more. And it isn't only "greenies" questioning the impact of mines and CSG wells, it's farmers and rural communities as well. Ones often represented by the National party.

500 writers sign letter to Mexico's president over journalists' murders

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:52 AM PDT

They point to his country's 'shameful' record of 'outrages againt the press', call for proper investigations of killings and demand an end to impunity

More than 500 writers, journalists and artists from around the world have signed a letter to Mexico's president, Enrique Peña Nieto, calling on him to stop the violence against journalists in his country.

The signatories from more than 40 countries include Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Gael García Bernal, Noam Chomsky, John Coetzee, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Auster, Alan Rusbridger, Gavin MacFadyen, Arianna Huffington, Christiane Amanpour and Jo Glanville, the director of English PEN.

Siena's Palio bareback horse race – in pictures

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:45 AM PDT

The Palio della Madonna dell'Assunta has been held twice each year in July and August since the mid 1600s. Ten riders compete bareback around Siena's shell-shaped central square in a bid to win the Palio, a silk banner depicting the Madonna and child

Bangladesh says Briton arrested over murders of secular bloggers

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:39 AM PDT

Security forces claim a UK citizen of Bangladeshi origin, Touhidur Rahman, was main planner of fatal attacks on Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das

Bangladesh's security forces have arrested three suspected Islamist militants over the murders of two prominent secular bloggers, including the "main planner" who they say is a British citizen.

Tony Abbott on Bangkok bombing: 'Australians should continue to go to Thailand' – video

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:26 AM PDT

Prime minister addresses parliament on Tuesday to express condolences for those killed and injured by the Erawan shrine bombing in Bangkok on Monday night. He confirms no Australian citizens are reported dead or missing, but police assistance has been offered. He said citizens should continue to travel to Thailand, as the object of such acts is to 'scare us from being ourselves'

Bangkok bomb: Thailand says identity of attackers 'much clearer'

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:21 AM PDT

Defence minister says police have suspects for bombing that killed 22, after army chief says attack did not bear hallmarks of southern separatists

Thailand is close to determining who detonated a bomb at a popular shrine in Bangkok that killed 22 people and injured 123, the country's defence minister has said, as police reported a second, much smaller, explosion in the Thai capital on Tuesday.

Tianjin explosions: warehouse 'handled toxic chemicals without licence' – reports

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:20 AM PDT

Chinese state media says company at centre of last week's explosions worked with hazardous materials despite lacking a licence until weeks before blasts

The warehouse at the centre of last week's explosions in the Chinese city of Tianjin received a licence to handle hazardous chemicals just two months before the disaster, Chinese media has reported.

The state-run news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday that Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics, the company that owns the warehouse, did not have legal permission to handle such dangerous materials between October 2014 and June 2015. But the company had continued to work with hazardous chemicals, Xinhua reported, citing an unidentified company official.

Indonesia plane crash: rescuers reach Papua site and find dozens of bodies

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:01 AM PDT

Trigana Air plane completely destroyed, say Indonesian authorities, ruling out possibility that any of the 54 people on board could have survived

The first rescuers reached the Indonesian crash site of a Trigana Air plane on Tuesday and found dozens of bodies, authorities said, adding that the plane was completely destroyed and there was no chance any of the 54 people on board had survived.

Madeleine McCann family spokesman launches PR agency

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:00 AM PDT

Clarence Mitchell to continue to represent Kate and Gerry McCann 'when needed' after establishing his own company

Clarence Mitchell, Kate and Gerry McCann's long-serving spokesman, is to launch his own communications consultancy.

Mitchell, who gamely attempted to unseat the the Green party in their Brighton stronghold in a bid to become a Conservative MP at the general election, has opened the doors on Clarence Mitchell Communications.

From online trolling to death threats – the war to defend Eritrea's reputation

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:00 AM PDT

Exiles working to criticise the government describe a litany of abuse both on and offline by users intent on silencing them

Daniel Mekonnen has been the target of online attacks from forces loyal to the Eritrean regime for over a decade, ranging from abusive emails to fully fledged death threats – one serious enough to warrant temporary police protection.

He says that the offensive started after he co-founded the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights in 2004 – "the first diaspora based-movement to openly oppose the government".

Secret aid worker: there is still racism within humanitarian work

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:00 AM PDT

An aid worker in Africa talks about racial divisions within the ranks of humanitarian workers

Every African country I have worked in has its own term for white people – muzungu in Kenya, poomwe in Sierra Leone or khawarja in Sudan. The white woman or man is christened with this title that to some extent carries heavy historical baggage and certain expectations with it.

I started my career as a humanitarian worker in Sudan. A year out of university, after a brief interlude teaching English, I volunteered for an aid agency. Despite being no more committed or able than my Sudanese colleagues, I found myself rising rapidly through the ranks. After a few months, I was put in charge of a team of sanitation engineers, and within a year I was logistics manager leapfrogging a dozen national staff and in charge of a £1m budget.

The war on Görli: could cleaning up Berlin destroy the reason people love it?

Posted: 18 Aug 2015 12:00 AM PDT

A police crackdown on drug dealing in tiny Görlitzer park has sparked protests against anti-migrant racism – and raised fears that as Kreuzberg gentrifies, the city's liberal values and counterculture are under threat

From Berliners, mention of "Görli" elicits a knowing look, somewhere between suspicion, affection and amusement. Among the many green spaces for which Berlin is known, Görlitzer Park is neither the biggest, the most beautiful nor of the greatest historical significance. Yet this seemingly unremarkable park, built in the early 1990s on the site of an old train station, has become infamous.

The park sits on the edge of Kreuzberg, the area known during the cold war as the epicentre of counter-culture in West Berlin, today a major tourist hotspot. Set between the city's two major nightlife areas, by day Görli is full of the evidence: clubbers sprawled in the mid-morning sun, ageing punks bringing in the day with Berliner Pilsner, bottle collectors rattling by with teetering castles of plastic and glass. The drug dealers get to work before the first morning commuters.

The Hungry Ghost Festival (Yu Lan) - in pictures

Posted: 17 Aug 2015 11:30 PM PDT

The Unlocking Of The Gates Of Hell: The Hungry Ghost Festival or Yu Lan was inscribed on to China's third national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011 and is held at over 60 places on Hong Kong Island as well as Kowloon and New Territories. Some of the main activities of the festival include paying respects to the hungry ghosts and opera for the spirits

'I feel so very helpless' - letter from an Eritrean father whose son fled to Europe

Posted: 17 Aug 2015 11:30 PM PDT

A note smuggled out of the notoriously repressive country reveals the emotional toll the country's migrant crisis has on family life

Tale of two Eritreans offers glimpse inside Africa's most secretive state

I should have been ready for it, but I wasn't. It had been happening to so many of my friends, but for some reason I didn't expect it to happen to me.

Last week I found out that my 19-year-old son has joined the ranks of those who have left the country, just like so many others of his age. He did it without consulting me or his mother. He didn't speak to anyone in our extended family.

Sydney siege inquest resumes with a blame game over gunman's bail application – rolling report

Posted: 17 Aug 2015 11:24 PM PDT

Updates from the inquest by the New South Wales coroner into the deaths of Tori Johnson, Katrina Johnson and Man Haron Monis in the Lindt cafe siege

4.24pm AEST

And that's that. Thanks for sticking with us for a day of shadow boxing between the DPP and the NSW police. The first segment of hearings focused on Monis' biography, and only vaguely touched on the events of 2014 leading up to the December siege. There was nobody to blame, no pointed fingers; only investigation, fact-finding. This round of hearings, which centres on why Monis was free in December 2014, is going to be very different.

A summary:

3.58pm AEST

We're back onto this question of why the police didn't arrest Monis in October 2014, after being told that doing so could see him jailed.

"At the very least it would have been unreasonable. At it's highest, it would have been unlawful," Stek says.

Sri Lanka election: Mahinda Rajapaksa concedes he is unlikely to be PM

Posted: 17 Aug 2015 11:22 PM PDT

Official count under way but President Sirisena has vowed not to appoint his predecessor and rival to lead government regardless of seats he wins

Sri Lanka's former president Mahinda Rajapaksa at first conceded defeat but later rowed back, saying instead that he was unlikely to be prime minister, as figures began to come in following parliamentary elections on Monday night.

Pregnant women flocking to classes on self-hypnosis births

Posted: 17 Aug 2015 11:00 PM PDT

Steady increase in antenatal classes teaching alternative relaxation techniques, with more NHS trusts either subsidising the courses or offering them for free

It is the alternative birth method that midwives predict will be standard antenatal practice within a decade. Hospitals around the country are reporting a steep rise in the demand for classes in hypnobirthing, which focuses on relaxation and self-hypnosis during the birth process..

When Colchester Hospital University NHS Trust in Essex began offering hypnobirthing classes in 2012, it was running one class a month, teaching about 48 women a year. After steady increases in 2013 and 2014, the trust made the decision to offer the course for free. They now run 10 hypnobirthing courses a month and predict they will instruct between 720 and 960 women in hypnobirthing in 2015.