Friday's news in under 5 minutes

1. Tragic drowning

A family celebrating Christmas on a north NSW Island have been hit with tragedy with their four-year old son drowning after going missing.

The parents of Connor Elliott Graham woke on Boxing Day and found their son was not in his bed and nowhere to be seen.

After a search of Chatsworth Island involving police, the dog squad, helicopters, residents and 29 State Emergency Service volunteers, it is understood a resident discovered the boy’s body hours later in the Clarence River, near the family home.

Police Inspector Brendan Gorman said he did not suspect foul play.

“We believe the child left the premises of his own volition,” Inspector Gorman told the ABC.

2. Mother arrested after baby left in car

A mother is expected to face charges after leaving her 17-month-boy locked in the car at a Doncaster shopping centre in Melbourne while she went shopping for the Boxing Day sales.

She parked in an undercover car park and went alone to the shops, leaving the boy locked in the car.

A passer by spotted the boy about half an hour after he was left and told security, who removed the child. For more on this read this post here.

3. Childcare provider says no to Govnt.

Early Learning, which is the nation’s biggest childcare provider has rejected calls by the Abbott government to hand back $60 million earmarked under Labor for pay rises.

The childcare provider has told the government it won’t co-operate with Assistant Education Minister Sussan Ley’s plea to “do the right thing” and drop its claim to the money sourced from a funding agreement signed the day before the federal election.

Goodstart runs 641 early learning centres attended by 73,000 children, with 13,000 staff.

The Australian reports that the Minister said she was disappointed by Goodstart’s move.

4. Sex selection

A leading IVF pioneer, Professor Gab Kovacs, has called for an overturn of the ban on sex selection of babies.
 Writing in the International Journal of Reproductive Medicine, Prof Kovacs said preimplantation genetic diagnosis should be allowed, but not be encouraged.

“I do not believe that sex selection should be advertised by those who offer the service … or that it should be encouraged. But it should not be prohibited,” Prof Kovacs said.

He said he found it difficult to understand the overwhelming opposition to the practice. In the Herald Sun a mother who travelled overseas to have a baby girl after three sons backs his call.

5. QLD siege

A man has been found dead in a home after a five-hour siege in QLD. A mother and her teenage daughter were shackled in a bathroom with police sending in remote camera robots and even an aerial drone. The gunman was found dead by the robot inside an upstairs room about 7.25pm. Police say they have no idea what motivated the siege.

6. Governor-General

The Federal Government has said that no decision has been made on who the next governor-general of Australia will be, despite reports yesterday that former general Peter Cosgrove had already been picked.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s office told News Limited “an announcement will be made in due course as per the usual process.”

7. Novelist criticizes refugee treatment

Prize winning novelist Alex Miller has slammed Australia over its treatment of refugees, saying that his original experience of Australians as welcoming and generous “doesn’t seem to be true any more”

Writing an essay in a new book, A Country Too Far he has likening Australia’s “cruel and inhumane” treatment of asylum seekers to Britain’s treatment of the Jews fleeing the Nazis for British-ruled Palestine.

8. Hero fire-fighter

An off-duty firefighter used a tomahawk and a sledgehammer to help save two children from a burning Brisbane home on Christmas Day.

An eight-year old boy and a 15-year old girl escaped the blaze. A woman, believed to be the children’s mother died.

9. Clown craze

A Facebook craze where people dress up as clowns and carry knives and balloons intending to scare others is making headlines in the UK.

The trend emerged when the ‘Northampton Clown’, who posts photos of himself in public places, gained nearly 200,000 ”likes” on Facebook. Over the Christmas period clown sightings right across the UK were reported to police.

10. Poppy returns

A pet dog has returned to her family this Christmas three years after going missing.

Ava McAninly was just three years old when Poppy, a maltese shitzu, ran away from their hillside home during fireworks on New Years Eve 2010. She returned matted and hungry on Christmas day.

11. Women more chivalrous

A new survey has shown that women are the more polite sex – with women 12 per cent more likely to say hello to a complete stranger, 10 per cent more likely to share a transport pass and 7 per cent more likely to hold the door open for you.

In Brief:

Schapelle Corby’s sentence has been cut by a further two months meaning she could be free to return home by the middle of 2015.

In the cricket England is 6 for 226 at stumps, having been sent in after Australian captain Michael Clarke won the toss.

Supermaxi Perpetual LOYAL is narrowly in the lead in the Sydney to Hobart

What news are you talking about today?