Brisbane news live: Three dead after house fire, as two more children lose fight for life
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7.28am
Three dead after house fire, as two more children lose fight for life
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Three children are dead following a house fire in Toowoomba yesterday, after two girls died in hospital from severe burn wounds overnight.
The two children – aged four and seven – had been transferred to Queensland Children's Hospital yesterday after escaping a house fire at Merritt Street home in Toowoomba just after midnight yesterday.
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A nine-year-old boy also died in the blaze, with emergency crews recovering his body in the home yesterday.
A 36-year-old woman remains in critical condition and under police guard at the Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital this morning.
Police said three other residents – a 34-year-old man, an 18-year-old man and an 11-year-old boy – were in stable conditions, with some undergoing treatment for various less severe wounds.
7.18am
Warmth before a wetter weekend
Enjoy the warmth of a 28-degree day in Brisbane today – tomorrow the top temperature is set to pause in the mid-20s, with cooler days to come as potential showers move in for the weekend.
Here's the forecast for today, the weekend and early next week:
7.17am
While you were sleeping
Here's what's making news further afield this morning:
Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley has won support from three former Liberal premiers in the quest to lead the party out of its sweeping defeat.
The party of protest has just discovered it protested far too much. Greens leader Adam Bandt has suffered a devastating verdict from voters.
Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats has won for illustrated book of the year at the Australian Book Industry Awards, beating fellow cook Brooke Bellamy and others to the prize a week after accusing Bellamy of copying two of her recipes.
In Vatican City, the first vote in the papal conclave to select Pope Francis' successor has failed, with black smoke emerging from the Sistine Chapel's chimney.
And Australia's ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, at a high-powered executive conference in Los Angeles and reminded business leaders that Trump tried to place import taxes on uninhabited islands. 'I don't think we want to see a tax on Bluey,' Rudd said.
7.01am
The top stories this morning
Good morning, welcome to Brisbane Times' live news coverage for Thursday, May 8. The city can expect a party cloudy day with a top temperature of 28 degrees.
In this morning's local headlines:
While many private sector employers are ordering staff back to the office, Queensland's public servants are increasingly resisting the shift.
A man accused of murdering his flatmate has admitted that he 'led police on a wild goose chase' while knowing the woman's body was concealed in his tool box.
Brisbane schoolboys were asked to submit questions they wanted answered. The result: a new app that gives them advice on relationships, respect and consent – and it's dished out by role models they might just listen to.
Bondi Junction killer Joel Cauchi's voice has been heard publicly for the first time after body-worn police cameras captured an interaction with him outside his family home in Toowoomba 15 months before his stabbing spree.
Also in Toowoomba, a house fire in which a young boy died on Wednesday and several other people were critically injured is being treated as suspicious, with a woman under police guard in hospital.
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