Cardinal George Pell faced intense questioning at the child abuse royal commission about complaints made to him about priest Peter Searson (above) in 1989. The church failed to remove Searson from his position in the 1980s despite mounting evidence that he was abusing children. Complaints against Father Searson included keeping a gun at school, showing a body in a coffin to children, sexual contact with children, stabbing a bird to death with a screwdriver and holding a knife to a girl's chest while saying 'if you move, this will go through you'. Cardinal Pell called Searson's behaviour 'abhorrent' but denied knowing about it at the time and could not recall being told of Searson's sadistic practices. 'The position I accepted was the official position given to me that we did not have sufficient evidence to remove him,' Cardinal Pell said.

UPDATED The billionaire real estate tycoon has been declared the winner in seven states - Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. His early victories are setting the stage for what could be a blowout of a night. Eleven states in all are hosting Republican presidential primaries or caucuses on Tuesday, and pre-election polling showed Trump with solid leads in eight of the contests.

NEW Police believe the offending pair, aged in their 20s, (pictured top and bottom left) arrived at a vacant address in the north-eastern suburb of Templestowe with the intention to graffiti the property on Monday, February 15. The 50-year-old victim (right) is recovering from serious injuries after the he found the pair at the property and endured a harrowing ordeal which started when the offending male grabbed him around the neck.

NEW Amy Slapp, 31, from Bundaberg, Queensland, was just 25 weeks pregnant when she gave birth to her little girl Olivia (pictured). The tiny baby weighed just 754 grams, was just 31 centimetres long and Ms Slapp had to wait 10 days before cuddling her for the first time (inset). The mother-of-three stayed with Olivia for 10 weeks as she grew and became stronger and was able to take her home 22 days before her due date. But Olivia was soon struck with meningitis and started having seizures due to her body growing faster than her brain. Despite the complications, Olivia's seizures had stopped by the time she was two and, much to the relief of Ms Slapp, Olivia was able to grow and develop without any complications. Now Olivia is five and started school earlier this year.

NEW Bristolian company Coexist will introduce the period policy in its office which consists of 31 employees, seven male (pictured company director Bex Baxter, centre, and staff members). Female employees will be entitled to paid leave if in pain during their cycle. Menstrual leave began in Japan in 1947 and other countries including South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia also have laws in place allowing women time off work when they are on their period.

NEW Sheryl Sandberg is dating billionaire businessman Bobby Kotick (circled in red above, inset bottom right). The Facebook COO was seen with the Kotick over the weekend at various Oscar parties, and the two have been friends for years. Kotick was also spotted standing behind Sandberg (above with Brian Grazer) as she posed for photographs with newly married film producer Brian Grazer at Vanity Fair's annual Oscar soiree on Sunday night. The romance comes ten months after Sandberg's husband Dave (inset top right), 47, died after suffering head trauma and blood loss following a fall off a treadmill

A disturbing photograph has shown vile paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale (main, right and inset) sitting smiling beside one of his innocent victims that he abused every night over a six-month period in the early 1980s. The photograph shows a then 14-year-old Paul Levey (left) who was 'sexually abused all the time just about every day' after he was sent to live with Ridsdale (right) at a presbytery in Mortlake, Sydney, for six months after his parents separated in 1982.

A moving new ad from laundry company Ariel India is quickly going viral. The video aims to get men to 'share the load' around the house by raising awareness about gender stereotypes and how they are passed down through generations. An older father visiting his daughter's family watches sadly as his daughter tries to juggle housework (bottom right), caring for her child and making dinner (top right), all while her husband sits on the couch watching TV (left). To his horror, the father realises that this behaviour was learned from his own actions, because he never helped his wife around the house.

It's not just the kids who were excited about their first day of school. Sally (inset), who goes by Miss Hannah, is a Queensland-based graduate year six teacher fresh out of university. The passionate educator has won followers on Instagram after sharing photos of her impressively decorated classroom and perfectly organisational methods. Sally, who says her 19 students deserve the 'absolute best', went back to school early and transformed her 'blank canvas' room into an eye-popping colourful space complete with a reading corner (left), colour-coded working areas, inspirational quotes, job charts, behaviour posters and little name buckets (bottom right) which she stuck on the wall. She also created a 'teacher toolbox' (top right), bought a light box with 'Welcome To Year Six' written on it, has personalised stickers and made all of her students personalised Valentine's Day presents.

A sickening video of at least three teenage girls in a vicious school yard fight has been posted online, resulting in a 14-year-old girl featured in the clip being 'fat shamed' by social media users. The clip, (left and right) which was posted to Facebook on Tuesday, shows two students from Cranbourne Secondary College, in Melbourne's south east, face off in a brutal scuffle as the majority of their peers stand around, encourage the violence or attempt to capture the fight on film. Hundreds of people started commenting on the video, which has been viewed almost 24,000 times, and while some condemned the violence others chose instead to 'fat shame' (inset) one of the teens involved.

Angella Gallo masturbated during labour. The mother, from Victoria, believes 'clitoral stimulation' works as a natural pain relief, and she shared her experience in an honest blog post. The mother-of-two, who works as a birthing photographer, said there was nothing sexual about the experience, it was simply her body's way of producing a natural pain relief. Through masturbation, she was able to shift the focus away from her pain and take control of her body.

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES: Gold Coast snake catcher Tony Harrison was shocked to discover a snake on the hunt for food had devoured a teddy bear at a family's home (bottom right).After immediately taking the snake to a nearby veterinary clinic, an x-ray confirmed the bulge was indeed the fluffy toy (bottom left). The snake has since survived the unusual surgery and is taking antibiotics as it recovers before being set free again (top).

A woman who walked into oncoming traffic without looking and while wearing headphones has narrowly avoided serious injuriy. The shocking footage caught on the driver's dashboard camera in Melbourne shows the car skidding and swerving and just managing to avoid taking her out.

They embraced, they held hands, they gazed deep into each other's eyes... no, it wasn't Jack and Rose on the Titanic but Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on the Oscar red carpet this Sunday. It was such an OTT display of luvvieness that many Hollywood stalwarts would have shown surprise - if only their Botox had allowed them to. And when Kate shed a tear of joy as Leo finally picked up his first Oscar - he won the coveted Best Actor for The Revenant - it showed how deep the bond they first forged on the set of Titanic all those years ago really was. Since then Kate, now 40, and Leo, 41, have made 46 films between them and, somewhat miraculously for the fickle world of Hollywood, have stayed friends. But whose career has fared better since their dunking in the Atlantic?

Blogger Matthew Kepnes's latest freebie took him from John F Kennedy Airport in New York, into Abu Dhabi, and then onto Melbourne, all in business class. The travel guru has come up with a solution that helps him bag several free trips a year, and has previously shared his methods for fellow holidaymakers. By following his advice, everybody from bachelor travellers or romantic couples to families of four can get themselves free flights and hotel stays too.

The Moken children, who live a semi-nomadic lifestyle on the west coast of Thailand, have underwater vision that's twice as good as European children of the same age. Like dolphins, they appear to be able to spot small items, such as clams, beneath the waves without much difficulty. In 1999, Anna Gislen at the University of Lund, in Sweden decided to test whether the unique characteristics of the Moken tribe was genetic. According to an in-depth report in the BBC , she recently went back to the same tribe and found that the young children she studied, now in their late teens, still have the ability to see underwater.

Talk about a dogs breakfast! When their owner stepped out of the house briefly, two dogs wasted no time in rummaging through the trash. Unfortunately for them they were easily identified as the culprits when their owner returned to find one of his dogs with a cereal box stuck on her head.

A cheeky pet cockatoo has been filmed escaping from his cage and throwing a mini tantrum after being told to go to bed. Tracey Clark, from Penrith in Sydney's west, locks Freddy in his outdoor cage each evening as the sun goes down, but says he unhooks the latch to come to the backdoor and 'argue with her'. Footage shows the adorable bird standing behind the fly screen ruffling his feathers and answering back each time Ms Clark reminds him it's bed time.

Model Stefania Dubrovina, 17, was allegedly stabbed 140 times and had her eyes gouged out when she was killed by her 'envious' 19-year-old sister Elizaveta (pictured left and inset right with Stefania) in St Petersburg, Russia. The younger sibling (right) was embarking on a burgeoning modelling career before being stabbed to death at at unnamed man's flat on the evening of February 24.

He recently announced his shock retirement from acting to focus on charity work, just as the world appeared to be at his feet after his star turn in the Molly Meldrum bio-pic, 'Molly' (inset). It was just the latest chapter in the emotional saga of Samuel Johnson's (pictured main) tragic and troubled life. The 38-year-old entertainer's mother killed herself when he was just a baby and he was later blighted by two further suicides. Struggling with the grief, he received treatment for depression but also turned to drink and drugs. He was charged with assault following a drunken brawl at a Sydney casino in 2007, and was lucky to avoid jail (pictured right leaving court with then girlfriend Sarah Hallam). He has been a strong supporter of his beloved sister Connie, 35, who has been bravely battling cancer (they are pictured together as children, left). The mother-of-two most recently was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer which had subsequently has spread to her lungs, liver, pelvis, spine and knee.

UFO hunters claim to have made a new discovery on the red planet, and they say it has significant religious implications. The alien enthusiasts have spotted what they say is a cross on a rocky Martian hill, and it stands just a stone's throw away from an alleged 'caved in roof' of a nearby structure. This bizarre claim was first spurred by a UFO hunter in France, who noticed the unusual shapes in a photo taken by Nasa's Curiosity Mars rover.

An image has surfaced on Reddit showing two red-necked wallabies in the throes of a majestic battle. Native to Eastern Australia, the marsupials are known to fight over mating opportunities, using their forelegs to grip onto opponents before kicking their face and torso with their large and powerful hind legs. It's unclear exactly where the image was taken, but red-necked wallabies live in coastal bush land between Queensland's Bundaberg and the South Australian and New South Wales border.

To the naked eye there is nothing unusual about the upside-down image of Adele taken from cover of her latest album, 25. However, viewers are in for a surprise when the photo is turned right-side up. Flipping the image reveals that the 27-year-old singer's photo has been edited, so that her eyes and lips are upside down on her face.

Alexandra Andresen, aged 19, a professional dressage competitor from Norway has been named the world's youngest billionaire after amassing a 1.2billion dollar personal fortune. The teenager is one of the daughters of Johan F. Andresen, who transferred his 80 per cent holding in Norway's biggest company Ferd Holidings to her and her sister in 2007. But despite her incredible personal wealth, Miss Andresen appears to be more at home with her horses and lives in Germany where she rides professionally.

Gimo, a Scottish Fold, lives in South Korea and is ready to take the crown as the cutest cat in the internet thanks to his gigantic eyes. Pictures depict him sitting in a cardboard box, looking at the mirror, preparing to jump from a secret location or simply staring at the camera with his big, hypnotic eyes.

Australian born Princess Mary has continued her five-day tour of Saudi Arabia with a visit to a playground where she spent time with school girls as they played on a slide. The mother-of-four beamed as she spent time with the students who dressed in their red-and-white checkered uniforms, their hair tied up in pink bows. Mary is on a business tour of the country with her husband, Prince Frederik of Denmark.

NEW Mr Donahue's, located in Nolita's Mott Street, only has five bar stools and one table for four people (pictured). It opened last month after married restaurateurs Matt Danzer and Ann Redding decided to give American classics a go. They came up with their own version of a 'meat and three' restaurant, a dining format popular in the south of the US. It usually lets customers pick between several meat options, with three assorted sides. Mr Donahue's menu (inset) takes a slightly different approach, with four meat and one fish options, each served with one side.

A pair of adorable red panda cubs, Mandu and Keta (top righ), were reluctant to get their vaccinations (left) during a health check before they went on display at Melbourne Zoo in their first public appearance. The twin boys, born last year, were initially grey but now bear a lush, red coat (bottom right).

A transformed World War II bunker could be about to become the most expensive boatshed in Australia. No.1 Boat Shed (inset) on Portsea Front Beach, located just metres from the water in resort town on the tip of the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, is expected to sell for as much as $700,000. The 12sq m property is nestled against a cliff right on the waters edge (main), and despite not having running water or electricity, it is expected to sell for more than the average house price in Melbourne. The boathouse has risen a remarkable 2700 per cent in price since it was purchased for $25,000 just 25 years ago.

Wesley, a young retriever owned by Molly Moore of Spring Lake, Michigan, recently had to be fitted with braces to help align his teeth. The pup wasn't able to close his mouth properly, making it hard for him to eat. Luckily, Molly's father, a veterinarian specializing in dentistry, was able to help out little Wesley, and a photo of the puppy with a grin full of metal subsequently went viral online.