Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 9 February. Top stories The US has said it killed more than 100 fighters loyal to the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad as it repelled an assault on a US-controlled base in eastern Syria – the most serious clash between the US-backed alliance and government forces. News of the battle emerged amid another bloody day in Syria that signalled the complete unravelling of a nationwide ceasefire. Syrian government forces shelled and bombed eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, on the third day of a relentless campaign that has killed 21 people so far on Thursday alone. "There is a new massacre in eastern Ghouta and new violations against humanity," said Raed Srewel, a journalist based in Douma. "God is our only solace." The escalating violence came days after a failed peace conference in Sochi sponsored by Russia, the Assad regime's main backer. After the conference, the regime and its allies stepped up attacks in Ghouta and Idlib, two of the opposition's last major strongholds. Assad's forces also clashed with US forces in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor in their first large-scale confrontation on Syrian territory. Coalmining companies were given approval to clear nearly 10% of what is now a critically endangered forest in the NSW Hunter Valley over the past decade, according to evidence before a government commission. The Lock the Gate Alliance is contesting a state planning department recommendation to allow mine operators Glencore and Peabody Energy to clear 250 hectares of the endangered area to allow two existing coalmines to become one open-cut mine. The alliance says the mine's assessment did not factor in nine previous decisions to allow clearing of 3,109 hectares of lowland forest – about 9% of what remained. Lock the Gate's state coordinator, Georgina Woods, said the federal government had warned the habitat could be extinct in 40 to 60 years: "This is a scandal."
A Rohingyan refugee is pleading with the Australian government to grant him a travel document allowing him to speak at the European parliament about the persecution of his people. Habiburahman –arrived in Australia by boat in 2009. He has been stateless since 2000, when he fled Myanmar aged 19 after facing harassment, arrest and forced labour. After a conviction stemming from a protest in immigration detention he was placed on a removal pending visa, which does not allow him to re-enter Australia if he leaves. His book, First They Erased our Name – co-written with the French author Sophie Ansel, charts his life and the persecution of his people. "This is my chance to speak for my people, who continue to suffer, but who are voiceless," Habiburahman told the Guardian. Quentin Tarantino has apologised for remarks he made about Roman Polanski's sexual assault of Samantha Geimer, calling his earlier opinion "ignorant". In a resurfaced interview with Howard Stern, the film-maker defined the attack as "not rape" because he believed that the 13-year-old wanted to have sex. "I want to publicly apologise to Samantha Geimer for my cavalier remarks on The Howard Stern Show speculating about her and the crime that was committed against her," Tarantino said. "Fifteen years later, I realise how wrong I was. Ms Geimer WAS raped by Roman Polanski." While a hospital funding row is expected to dominate today's Council of Australian Government talks, the GST carve-up is going to be hotly debated, too. South Australia's premier, Jay Weatherill, will also raise objections to a potential loss in revenue as part of radical changes floated last year by the Productivity Commission. A draft report handed down four months ago put the cat among the pigeons on the GST carve-up, proposing an overhaul of distributions that would see Australia's eastern states lose billions to Western Australia. Sport Glenn Maxwell's on-field performances, not personality clashes in dressing rooms, are the only concern for the national Twenty20 selector Mark Waugh, who says selectors have been at the 29-year-old to play leading roles in victories. The case for Ben Simmons to be included in the NBA All-Star team has gone all the way to the Australian parliament. The MP Tim Watts made an impassioned plea for the Philadelphia 76ers player to become the first Australian to make the prestigious line-up. Thinking time | 
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A man holds a child after airstrike in the besieged town of Douma in Syria. Photograph: Bassam Khabieh/Reuters 
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