Friday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. MH370 – search has been in the wrong spot

Officials have confirmed that the Indian Ocean search area where “pings” were heard in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is not the final resting place of the lost Boeing 777.

A statement by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre in Perth said: “The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has advised that the search in the vicinity of the acoustic detections can now be considered complete and in its professional judgment, the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of MH370.”

US Navy deputy director of ocean engineering Michael Dean said it now seems most likely that the “pings”, upon which so much of the recovery effort has relied, actually came from the search vessel itself.

Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul is one of the missing passengers, told Fairfax Media she was devastated by the news that the search area was being expanded. ”It just is another slap in the face. It’s just another long road for us and look, I’m just shattered by the news,” she said.

2. Girls gang-raped and hanged

Two teenage girls in India have been gang-raped and then found hanged from a tree in a village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

One man has been arrested while the police hunt for four other suspects.

The victim’s families say the girls were gang-raped and then hanged by five men from the village. They claim there was a conspiracy with the police protecting the girl’s killers.

However, some reports indicate the women may have committed suicide by hanging following the rapes.

It was only after angry villagers found the corpses hanging from a mango tree and they took the bodies to a nearby highway and blocked it in protest that the police registered a case of rape and murder.

3. Marathon runner wins damages case

Marathon runner Turia Pitt has won a multi-million dollar settlement in the NSW Supreme court against organisers of an ultra-marathon who ignored reports of flames and smoke before racers were trapped in a bushfire.

Ms Pitt, 26, was left with burns to 64 per cent of her body after the 100km race in the remote Kimberley Region of WA in 2011.

4. Police to pursue multiple voting

The Australian Electoral Commission has told Senate Estimates that it will ask the federal police to investigate 8,000 cases of multiple voting from last year’s federal election.

In 2010, just 19 cases from the federal election were referred to the Australian Federal Police.

Senate estimates has heard that 2,000 people have admitted voting more than once, citing reasons including being drunk, confused or “trying out the system”.

5. Swapped at birth

Two mothers who only recently found out that their daughters were swapped at birth in 2010 are facing a court in South Africa as only one of the women wants to swap the children back.

For more on this heartbreaking case, see this post.

6. Rolf Harris trial

The trial of Australian entertainer Rolf Harris has heard that his daughter Bindi smashed paintings in anger when she heard claims he had sexually abused one of her friends.

Harris is charged with 12 counts of indecently assaulting four girls between 1968 and 1986. He has denied all charges.

The prosecutor Sasha Wass QC said Bindi Harris was “beside herself with shock” when she found out what was alleged.

Mr Harris said: “I don’t recall her being angry with me in person but I recall her breaking some paintings I had given her so I assumed she was very angry.”

7. Australian student sues US University

An Australian man who formerly attended elite Sydney Grammar is suing a US university after it refused to let him graduate over a sexual assault allegation.

Lewis Meyer McLeod is suing Duke University in North Carolina for breach of contract.

McLeod was investigated by the police over an incident claimed by a fellow student to be sexual assault last year. They decided not to proceed with charges.

But Duke University conducted its own investigation and expelled him as a result of the allegations. Its panel reportedly found that it was “more likely than not” McLeod and the student had non-consensual sex because she “had reached an incapacitating level of intoxication that rendered her unable to give consent to sex”.

Lewis McLeod says unless he is allowed to graduate he will be unable to take up a Wall Street job offer starting in July and without a job he will be forced to return to Australia because his student visa has expired.

8. Bus driver charged over women’s death

The driver of a Sydney State Transit bus that hit and killed a pedestrian in the Sydney CBD earlier this year has been charged with negligent driving occasioning death.

Christine Mulholland, 53, died after being trapped under the bus for two hours.

9. Australian women let down in contraception stakes

A report out today shows that Australian women are behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to access to long-lasting contraception. The report by Family Planning NSW showed that the number of women receiving subsidies for oral contraceptives fell from 391,000 in 2003 to 252,000 in 2011.

It also found that less than 1 per cent of women used IUD’s compared with about nine per cent in other developed countries.

Jenny Ejlak, vice-president of Reproductive Choice Australia, told Fairfax Media, “Access to and legality of abortion still varied massively depending on where you lived.”

”NSW and Queensland are still both relying on criminal law. It is legally still not the woman’s decision whether a termination goes ahead, a doctor has to make that decision on her behalf.”

10. Mammal extinctions

A major study will reveal that mammal extinction in Australia is 40 per cent higher than previously thought, The Australian reports.

The report will also show that feral cats pose by far the most common threat to Australian mammal survival, with 100 species suffering extreme predation by the cats.

The landmark report, to be released next week, says feral cats are the major cause of Australia’s mammal decline, way ahead of climate change.

Species such as platypus now have a near-threatened status, while koalas’ survival is now threatened in every habitat across the nation.

11. Pregnancy IS contagious

We’ve all heard the phrase “there must be something in the water” but scientists have now confirmed that pregnancy can be contagious.

A study published in the American Sociological Review has found a link between friends having babies at the same time.

It showed that women “compare themselves to their friends” and may follow their friends into parenthood to ensure they were not “being left behind”.

“Being surrounded by friends who are new parents makes people feel pressure to have kids as well,” said co-­author Nicoletta Balbo from Bocconi University in Italy.

12. Games children play

A study published in the Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education shows that kids in British playgrounds are much more likely to play games based on situations they had seen on TV talk shows than traditional games such as “house”.

Authors Jackie Marsh and Julia Bishop observed a number of situations in British primary schools where children around the age of 10 would sit on chairs and talk about drugs or pregnancy in “a mix between pantomime and parody”.

The authors acknowledge that while it may give some educators a cause for concern, “there is a long tradition of children exploring the grown-up world through play, such as war games or pretending to be cops and robbers.”

13. Family dinner time replaced by TV Time

It seems that increasingly the traditional family dinner around the table is being replaced by meals eaten in front of the TV.

A study has shown that one-third of Australians eat their meals at home in front of the TV.

Researcher Mark McCrindle said an increasing number of families were eating their meals by the television because time-poor parents are juggling work and domestic commitments and they want that time to unwind in the evening.

He said the rise of high- and medium-density living has also reduced space in the family home for the traditional dinner table.

The study showed that only half of 20-34 year olds ate most of their meals at the dinner table, compared to almost three quarters of those aged over 69.

14. Tiny “just-the-tip” condom being developed

Inventors and safe sex advocates are working to design a “just-the-tip” version of the condom for the mass market, The Daily Dot reports.

The “Galactic Cap” condom, invented by Charlie Powell of California, would cover just the head of the penis for increased sensitivity.

The device has two parts: a U-shaped adhesive film base and a cap that sticks to the film. The cap slides on top of the base, covering only the tip of the penis to leave parts of the penis exposed.

It is unclear whether the device prevents the transmission of STIs.

The following (NSFW) video shows how it’s used:

15. Toddler killer sentenced to 30 years in jail

Warren Ross, who brutally murdered his two-year-old stepdaughter Tanilla Warrick-Deaves in August 2011, will serve a minimum of 30 years for the crime.

The child killer, 30, was sentenced to a maximum 40-year term in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday. His earliest release date in 2041.

“No person with any modicum of humanity could not be moved by the circumstances of this murder,” Justice Stephen Rothman said.

Ross killed Tanilla at their home on the NSW Central Coast in August 2011 after subjecting her to weeks of torture.

He made Tanilla run laps until she dropped, hit her and whipped her. He also deliberately dropped a heavy tool box on her tiny hand.

He ultimately beat her relentlessly, which lead to her death.

Tanilla’s mother, Donna Deaves, watched as Ross inflicted the injuries on the child.

What news are you talking about today?