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Morning Mail: Sydney siege, Taliban school massacre, historic US-Cuba breakthrough









Guardian Australia’s morning news briefing from around the web














Tori Johnson’s mother, right, is embraced as the siege victim’s family visits the sea of flowers in Martin Place on Wednesday. Photograph: Photograph: Mike Bowers/Guim




Dave Earley






@earleyedition





Wednesday 17 December 2014 16.40 EST







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Good morning folks, and welcome to the Morning Mail – sign up here to get it straight to your inbox every weekday morning.
Sydney siege 
  
The family of Sydney siege victim Tori Johnson joined thousands of Australians gathered to pay tribute at the makeshift memorial in Martin Place yesterday.
The floral tributes are overflowing their boundaries as Australians pay their respects to Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson, the hostages who died in the Lindt cafe.
Tony Abbott announced to media that Man Haron Monis had a gun licence, and a government review would look into how he obtained it. That forced NSW police to say he did not have a gun licence, and never had. Now the Australian Federal Police is investigating how the PM was given the wrong information.
One of the hostages, John O’Brien, has described the moment he escaped from the Lindt cafe: “I have never felt such relief as I did when I turned that corner and saw the armed police waiting”
Changes to the Bail Act are due to come into force in January, but would the new bail laws have changed Man Haron Monis’s outcome and prevented the Sydney siege?
A family violence expert and lawyer says he would never have been released on bail if domestic violence was taken as seriously as terrorism, and eight questions still to be answered about Man Haron Monis and the Sydney siege.
First Dog On The Moon on the #illridewithyou campaign: Terrible people do terrible things. It remains for the rest of us to respond as best we can. So #IllRideWithYou. Even you.
See our full coverage on the Sydney siege tag page.
 Taliban school massacre



Coffins are carried during some of dozens of funerals being held for victims of the school shooting in Peshawar.
Photograph: Photograph: Asianet-Pakistan/Barcroft India/Guim


 As Pakistan buries its massacre victims, prime minister Nawaz Sharif has promised a day of reckoning with militants, saying there will be no more differentiation between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban, and lifting the death penalty ban in place since 2008.
Pakistan school siege survivors have told of the terror: ‘I saw death so close’ 
Political rivals have agreed on an anti-terrorism plan and soldiers have shown the inside of the Peshawar school where the massacre happened.
Australian news and politics



Former MP Craig Thomson was found guilty of stealing from the Health Services Union, but has been spared jail time/
Photograph: Photograph: David Crosling/AAPIMAGE/Guim


A judge has decided not to jail former federal MP and union boss Craig Thomson - instead he was fined $25,000 and ordered to pay $5,650 compensation for his theft from the Health Services Union.
British PM David Cameron says global pressure will make Australia do more for the environment: “It’s a great country. It’s clearly affected by climate change [..] I think they will feel pressure and want to do more”
Since children were stripped of the right to appeal sentences, the Newman government’s juvenile justice laws breach the UN convention on the rights of the child, says Queensland’s children’s court president.
Bunnings has lost a $700k lawsuit over a chicken manure spill that led to an employee’s brain infection. 
 Around the world



Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban president Raul Castro during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in December 2013.
Photograph: Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Guim


There has been a historic breakthrough in US-Cuba relations after the release of American prisoner Alan Gross. 
The surprise breakthrough came after a 45-minute phone call between President Obama and Raúl Castro, brokered by Pope Francis, finalised the release. Raúl Castro has hailed improved US-Cuba relations but called for embargo to be lifted. Follow live updates as Obama announces sweeping changes to US-Cuba relations.
An American Airlines plane had to makes an emergency landing in Tokyo as passengers were injured in turbulence: “We were eating and all the food just flew up in the air and pretty much bounced off and fell. There were carts all over the place.” 
A millionaire former L’Oréal boss has taken the owner of small chip stand to court in an attempt to shut them down to protect the “remarkable view” from his luxury ski chalet in the French Alps. 
A UK inquiry has found that soldiers were guilty of mistreating Iraqi detainees, but dismissed allegations that British troops murdered Iraqi insurgents and mutilated their bodies.
More from around the web



Dominique Harrison-Bentzen wanted to re-pay a homeless man for his kindness towards her.
Photograph: Photograph: Ross Parry/SWNS/Guim


• Among the most read on the Guardian this morning: Student raises raises over £20,000 for a homeless man who offered her his last £3 so that she could get a taxi home safely.
• A government watchdog has exposed some of the techniques federal public servants use to wrongfully prevent citizens from accessing their own records under freedom of information laws, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.• The Abbott government has ­quietly agreed to suspend a ban on broadscale land clearing in Tasmania, The Australian reports.
• Federal LNP MP George Christensen is under fire in the wake of the Sydney siege after describing the #illridewithyou hashtag as a leftie campaign, The Courier-Mail reports. 
One last thing



Crown-of-thorns starfish are one of the greatest natural threats to the Great Barrier Reef, and have destroyed around 40% of coral cover in the last 30 years.
Photograph: Photograph: Supplied by the Australian Institute of Marine Science/AAP Image/Guim


  
 There could be a new weapon in the fight to protect the Great Barrier Reef. A smelly snail.
Have an excellent day – and if you spot something I’ve missed, let me know in the comments here or on Twitter @earleyedition. 
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