Friday's news in under 5 minutes

1. Balcony fall death

It’s a chilling note, left in a pocket, warning of being watched. Nine words scribbled on black paper were removed from the front pocket of Lisa Harnum as police tried to work out how her body came to land at the bottom of the Sydney CBD apartment building in July 2011.

In the Supreme Court in Sydney Simon Gittany has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 30-year-old partner and claims she “lost her footing” after heading for the balcony area as the couple argued on July 30, 2011.

The Crown allege Gittany threw her from the balcony as he became aware she wanted to break off their relationship, ending months of surveillance and constant scrutiny from a man who turned her into “a mere shell of a person.” The trial continues today.

2. Rape protest

Hundreds of women in Kenya have protested after a teenager was gang-raped and the only punishment for the suspects was that they had to mow the police station lawn.

The women marched through Kenya’s capital on Thursday to protest the rape of a 16-year-old girl publicly identified as Liz.

The online activist group Avaaz says Liz was gang-raped in June and she is now wheelchair-bound.

More than 1.3 million people have signed an Avaaz petition calling for the prosecution of the alleged rapists and an investigation of the police who freed the suspects.

According to the protestors Liz now suffers from health problems including a fistula.

3. Toddler death trial

The trial continues in Sydney of Warren Ross accused of murdering two-year old Tanilla Warrick-Deaves. The court heard yesterday that Ross allegedly boasted, “watch me make her scream” as he forced the two-year-old to run laps of her lounge room. An acquaintance told the Supreme Court he then made the toddler “squeal” by lashing her with his belt.

Ross is on trial for the murder of Tanilla, the daughter of his girlfriend Donna Deaves, at her NSW Central Coast home on August 25, 2011.

He has pleaded not guilty.

The Crown alleges Ross abused the child in the weeks leading up to her death as he attempted to toilet train her, forcing her to run laps, whipping her with various implements and hitting her. The trial continues.

4. Missing ballot papers

There are calls for a fresh election to be held to resolve the West Australian Senate result, following revelations that nearly 1,400 votes have gone missing.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) revealed on Thursday that 1,375 votes, which had been verified during the initial count, could not be “located, rechecked or verified in the recount process”.

The AEC has asked former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty to investigate the “serious administrative issue”. Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says if the ballots are not found, voters should go back to the polls.

5. Drastic new measures for Schoolies

GOLD Coast high-rise building managers will lock balcony doors to save Schoolies from deadly falls.

Brisbane school-leaver Isabelle Colman died in a high-rise balcony fall at last year’s Schoolies festival.

Students were also warned of other Schoolies dangers including homosexual male rapes, soft drink-spiking and the prospect of child pornography charges for ‘sexting’ explicit images.

Police said teenagers texting explicit images taken at Schoolies could be charged with pornography offences, including pedophilia if the photo subjects were minors.

“Your future can be destroyed in this one week in Surfers,” they said.

6. Phone hacking trial

In the UK the phone hacking trial has heard of a six-year affair between News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson.

The affair was uncovered when police searched Mrs Brooks’s house after reopening their phone hacking investigation in 2011 and found on a computer a letter she had written to Mr Coulson in February 2004 after he broke off the romance.

Prosecutors said the letter supported allegations that the pair were involved in a conspiracy to hack phones while working at The News of the World between 2000 and 2006.

7. Child euthanasia 

Should children have the right to ask for their own deaths?

In Belgium, where euthanasia is now legal for people over the age of 18, the government is considering extending it to children — something that no other country has done. The same bill would offer the right to die to adults with early dementia. Advocates argue that euthanasia for children, with the consent of their parents, is necessary to give families an option in a desperately painful situation. But opponents have questioned whether children can reasonably decide to end their own lives.

8. Online forums helpful or harmful?

A new study has shown that online forums may do teenagers more harm than good . Vulnerable teenagers going online are at increased risk of self-harm and even suicide, according to the first wide-scale study.

A team of psychologists from Oxford University believes the violent imagery and discussions of self-harm on the forums lead teens to normalise the behaviour and ‘act out’ what they have seen online. But the report also acknowledged that in some cases these forums could have a positive affect. There were also examples where forum users encouraged positive behaviour, advised others to seek help and congratulated each other for not harming themselves.

9. Smoking study 

It’s seems that smoking really does age you. Researchers in the US studied the physical differences between the faces of nonsmokers and their twins who smoked and found confirmation of a long-held belief: Smoking does indeed age you.

The twins who were smokers showed many more signs of skin aging, the researchers found. Their faces featured more wrinkles, creases, droops and jowls. As the study found, even five years can make a difference.

10. Amazon for groceries?

There is talk that Amazon might soon be taking on the supermarket giants, Coles and Woolies. They have now spent the past five years establishing and growing the home-delivery grocery business in the Seattle area and just expanded to Los Angeles.

San Francisco is promised to follow soon. Warehouses and investments are rumoured around America and the UK has also been primed.

Marketing expert, Ray Beatty predicts that Australia is not too far down the target list.

11. SMS love 

Do you send a lot of SMS’s? Well there’s news it could be bad for your relationship. Researchers studying the types and frequency of SMS between men and women say the sexes use texting differently – and may be driving their partner away.

Men who SMS their partners more are likely to be unhappy with the relationship, while women who SMS their partners more often are typically happier in the relationship and trying to reach out – but may be driving their partners away by appearing too intrusive.

12. Doggy emotions 

It’s finally been proven – what all of us dog lovers have known for years. Dogs do have emotions. A new study has shown that dogs tend to move their tails more to the right or to the left depending on how happy or sad they feel.

This emotional signal can also be recognised by other dogs, affecting how the animals respond to each other.

Research, conducted by neuroscientists at the University of Trento, Italy, showed that the animals’ tails tend to move slightly more to the right if they are happy.

Good dog!

In Brief:

Rupert Murdoch has said that Australia should seize its place in the world as he spoke at the Lowy Institute Lecture last night

A 10-year-old Chinese boy jumped 30 floors to his death after failing to write a self-criticism letter demanded by his teacher.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration may relax the use of electronic devices such as video games consoles and cell phones on planes.