Friday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Passenger jet “shot down”: 295 dead

A Malaysia Airlines plane with 295 people on board has crashed in Ukraine, near Russia, with claims it was shot down.

Flight MH17 was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Aviation experts say it was a deliberate act.

CNN have reported that the US have confirmed the plane was shot down by a missile.

Both the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels who have been fighting in the region have denied responsibility for the attack. Ukraine’s president has called the loss of the plane an “act of terrorism”. An adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Herashchenko, alleges that the plane was hit by a missile fired by a Buk launcher – a Russian-made, medium-range surface-to-air missile system.

However, separatist leader Alexander Borodai accused the Ukrainian government of downing the airliner itself.

The Netherlands have confirmed there are up to 27 Australians on board. The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott told Channel 9’s Today that they could confirm 23 Australians had died.

Anyone with information on relatives or friends is urged to call 1300 555 135  the 24-hour the Consular Emergency Centre in Canberra.

For more read this post here.

2. Carbon tax repeal

After yesterday’s repeal of the Carbon Tax, Bill Shorten has confirmed he will take a pledge to the 2016 election to bring back carbon pricing.

He said that he would campaign for an emissions trading scheme: a floating price on carbon set by markets rather than a fixed price set by government.

Christopher Pyne responded by telling Mr Shorten in parliament that his commitment to an emissions trading scheme would hang around his neck “like a rotten, stinking carcass, right through to election day at the end of 2016”.

“You’ve given the Coalition a whole new lease of life, Bill, a whole new lease of life, because we can now tell the Australian public with great confidence that if they vote Labor at the next election, then the carbon tax will be reintroduced,” Mr Pyne said.

3. Six year old girl raped in India

A six-year-old girl has allegedly been raped in India by two staff members at her school in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

The school is described as being a “prominent” school.

The BBC report that the assault happened several weeks ago but her parents discovered it only a few days ago after she complained of a stomach ache and was taken to hospital. Hundreds of parents have protested outside the school, pulling down its gates and shouting slogans.

No arrests have been made.

4. Baden-Clay appeal

The family of Allison Baden-Clay have spoken of their anguish at the news Gerard Baden-Clay will appeal his conviction.

“It’s been a difficult time for the family, just let her rest in peace,” one of Allison’s relatives told The Courier-Mail.

The appeal comes two days after the 43-year-old was found guilty of killing his wife Allison, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a 15-year non-parole period.

His conviction is being contested on four grounds, including that the conviction is “unreasonable” due to the jury being misdirected in relation to evidence of blood found in the boot of Allison Baden-Clay’s car, and cuts on Mr Baden-Clay’s face

5. Aussie maths prodigy

A Melbourne school boy has been crowned the world’s number 1 at the International Mathematical Olympiad.

17-year old Alex Gunning, a year 11 student from Glen Waverley, has won his second consecutive gold medal.

What’s more, he finished with 42 out of 42, a perfect seven on all six questions. This has never before been achieved by an Aussie.

Alex told The Age he was hoping that next year the questions would be harder. “I’m hoping next year is harder, you know, for the questions to be more challenging,” he said, smiling. “The questions weren’t easy as such, but they were manageable.”

 6. Beauty Queen told she is “too old”

A beauty queen is suing the Miss America pageant after being told she is too old.

Miss Delaware Amanda Longacre won the Miss Delaware title on June 14 but was replaced two weeks later by the first runner-up Brittany Lewis because she was deemed to be too old to have competed.

Pageant officials say contestants must be between 17 and 24. Amanda Longacre turns 25 in October, after this year’s national pageant, but the rules require contestants to be no older than 24 at year’s end.

In a lawsuit she is seeking to be reinstated as Miss Delaware and to be allowed to compete in the Miss America pageant. She also is seeking $500,000 in damages for herself and $2.5 million for other contestants who she claims were recruited to compete in pageants before being told they were too old.

The beauty queen says she never hid her age and provided her birth certificate, driver’s license and other documents and was judged to be eligible.

7. Turia Pitt to return to the waves

Burns survivor Turia Pitt will yet again show her strength and determination with a vow to return to what she calls one of her greatest loves – surfing.

Turia has teamed up with filmmaker Mark Brightwell, who has made several successful surfing films, to document her return to surfing. She told News Limited that she was in fact surfing two days before the ultra marathon that changed the course of her life.

Turia was caught up in a bushfire with several other runners during a marathon in Western Australia in September 2011 and survived burns to 65 percent of her body.

Turia and Mark are trying to raise $60,000 for the film, Phoenix,  through crowd funding.

“Phoenix is about overcoming adversity and never giving up and finding that piece of inner strength that we all have inside of us,” Turia said.

8. Gaza boys

Images have emerged of the four boys killed by rocket fire on a beach in Gaza. The images on twitter show the children running across the beach.

Users have described the scenes as the boys “running for their lives.”

Meanwhile a temporary cease-fire lasted only two hours as Gaza fired mortars at Israel.

9. McDonald’s home delivery

McDonald’s straight to your door?

The fast food restaurant chain has announced a Victorian location will follow in the footsteps of two Sydney chains in trailing home delivery for McDonalds.

A South Melbourne outlet will cater to areas within a 2.5km radius including South Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Albert Park, South Wharf and Docklands.

10. Is this the most irresponsible school project ever?

A six-year old boy given a school assignment to see how far his social media post can travel has been a cause for concern by cyber safety experts.

Ruben, a Grade 1 student from Pretoria, South Africa, was asked to see how far a social media pic of him holding a sign can go in six days.

His mother shared the photo since then it has had 47,500 shares and 21,500 comments from people all over the world.

Ruben, whose face can be seen clearly in the photo, holds a handwritten sign that reads: “My Grade 1 Science Project Social Media — How far will my picture travel in 6 days? Please comment with your location where you see me. Thank you, Ruben ******, Pretoria, RSA.”

News.com.au reports that cyber safety expert Dr Peter Radoll has said that parents aren’t carefully considering the implications before posting photos of their children online.

 11. Australian Suicide bomber in Baghdad

An Australian suicide bomber has reportedly killed three people in Baghdad. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took to Twitter to tell followers that the man detonated explosives near a Shiite mosque, which killed three people and injured 90.  

According to ASIO over 150 Australians are involved in extremist groups in Iraq, with over 60 people currently fighting in the region.

 12. Israel invades Gaza on foot.

Israel troops have invaded Gaza on foot, following the news that 13 Israel Resistance movement (Hamas) terrorists were burrowing into Israel via tunnels on Wednesday night.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the ground operation last night in a bid to destroy the ‘terror tunnels’ that lead into Israel. It is believed over a thousand troops from the Israel Defence Force (IDF) were ordered into the Gaza strip following 10 days of attacks by the Hamas.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Motti Almoz told the media “our forces, large ground forces accompanied by massive air force support, naval forces and intelligence, are taking over targets in Gaza, operating against tunnels and terror activists and infrastructure,” he said.

The move has been condemned by Egypt who were hoping to form a truce between Israel and Palestine.

13. Baby Whale spotted off Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Hundreds of whale watchers gathered on Sydney’s Northern Beaches yesterday to watch a Southern Right baby whale being born. While they didn’t see the whale being born, residents woke up to a nice surprise this morning when the whale was spotted off Sydney’s coast:

Whale spotted off Sydney’s northern beaches has given birth overnight. Details on @9NewsSyd. pic.twitter.com/E4BysxDJJH

— Kate Creedon (@KateCreedon9) July 18, 2014

14. Three children killed in Israeli air strike.

Three children have died after being hit by an Israeli airstrike. The children, who were all related, were playing in the Sabra neighbourhood when they were killed. The incident occurred just after bombing resumed following a five-hour “humanitarian window” that was designed to allow Gaza residents to stock up on food and other essential supplies.