Friday's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.
  

1. New “Earth like planet” discovered.

Nasa has discovered a rocky Earth-like planet the “closest so far” to Earth.

The Kepler telescope has discovered the planet, Kepler-452b that shares many characteristics with Earth.

Kepler-452b orbits at a very similar distance from its star, though its radius is 60% larger.

Mission scientists said they believed it was the most Earth-like planet yet.

Scientists believe the planet might be small and cool enough to host liquid water on its surface – and might therefore be hospitable to life.

Nasa’s science chief John Grunsfeld called the new world the “closest so far” to Earth.

“Kepler 452b is orbiting a close cousin of our Sun, but one that is 1.5 billion years older,” NASA said in a statement.

Doug Caldwell, a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute scientist working on the Kepler mission said overnight “If Kepler 452b is indeed a rocky planet, its location vis-a-vis its star could mean that it is just entering a runaway greenhouse phase of its climate history,”

“The increasing energy from its ageing sun might be heating the surface and evaporating any oceans. The water vapour would be lost from the planet forever,”

“Kepler 452b could be experiencing now what the Earth will undergo more than a billion years from now, as the Sun ages and grows brighter.”
  

2. The Australian flag to change if NT becomes a state.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said that the flag might need changing if the NT’s bid to become a state in 2018 was successful.

The territory is hoping to achieve statehood by July 1, 2018 – a move endorsed by the other Premiers and State Ministers yesterday.

Mr Abbott told reporters yesterday that tweaking the flag to have seven points rather than six was “hardly a massive change”.

“(If) the Commonwealth star was to be a seven-pointed star rather than a six-pointed star, that’s hardly a massive change.”

“I would say that that is an evolution rather than a revolution,”

“We all acknowledge that this is a very longstanding aspiration on the part of the Territory … and we are prepared to work with the Territory to see how it can be done.”

PM might need to work on his maths as well as the star currently IS seven points.

(We think he means eight).
  

3. Mother who killed her sons: “Something went very wrong that night.”

A mother who killed her two sons by strapping them into their car seats and then letting her car roll into a lake has spoken out about their murder.

43-year old Susan Smith, from South Carolina in the US, was convicted in 1995 of murdering 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex.

She initially told police that an African-American man forced her out of the car at gunpoint and drove off with her two small sons in the back before confessing.

But now, for the first time she has spoken about the night.

“Something went very wrong that night. I was not myself,” Smith said in a letter to The State newspaper. “I was a good mother and I loved my boys. … There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. I was not in my right mind.”

She says she planned to kill herself “I had planned to kill myself first and leave a note behind telling what had happened,” Smith said. “I didn’t believe I could face my family when the truth was revealed.”

“Mr. Cahill, I am not the monster society thinks I am. I am far from it,”

Smith was sentenced to life in prison.

Five years later she was also found guilty of sexual misconduct for engaging in sexual acts with two prison guards while incarcerated.

For help call Lifeline on 13 11 14. 

4. UK boy pleads guilty to inciting a terrorist attack on police officers at an Anzac Day parade in Melbourne.

A 15-year old boy, the youngest person ever charged with a terror offence in the UK, has pleaded guilty to inciting a terrorist attack on police officers at an Anzac Day parade in Melbourne.

London’s Old Bailey heard that the youth planned the attack in instant messages exchanged with an 18-year-old Australian man.

The 18-year old was charged with plotting an Anzac Day terror attack in Melbourne.

Prosecutor Paul Greaney QC told the court in the UK the men exchanged thousands of instant messages.

Those messages reveal the intentions of the plotters and their targets, along with their motivation, which may be summarised as support for ISIS, and their enthusiasm for the attack.”

On March 18, the boy had suggested the Australian man “break into someone’s house and get your first taste of beheading”, Mr Greaney said.

The British boy told the Australian man not to underestimate the “difficulty of beheading a person”.

“U gotta be a lion especially that ur doing it in public.

5. Prime Minister Tony Abbott “Australian men need to pull their head in on domestic violence.”

The PM has called for Australian men to step up in the face of domestic violence and pull their heads in.

“Fathers have got to say to sons that it’s just not on to raise your hand against a woman,” he said after a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments.

“Mates have got to say to mates that it’s just not on to raise your hand against a woman, or to tell that appalling sexist joke.”

“What is required here is a change of heart by men in particular,” he said.

“The one place where people ought to feel absolutely safe is their home.”

Mr Abbott announced a $30 million program to address problems associated with domestic violence.
  

6. Detectives arrest two teenagers who attempted to sexually assault a woman at sword point in front of her baby.

Police have arrested two teenagers — aged 15 and 16 who entered a woman’s home on the Central Coast of NSW and threatened the 20-year old woman with a sword before attempting to sexually assault her in front of her 23-month-old son.

The woman contacted emergency services while the youths were still inside her home but they fled before police arrived.

Yesterday a search warrant was executed at a home nearby and two teenagers were charged with attempted sexual assault under circumstances of aggravation, assault with intent to have sexual intercourse, breaking into a house and committing a serious indictable offence under circumstances of aggravation, and common assault upon a child.

They will appear in court today.
  

7.  Best and Worst baby food revealed.

An international study has looked at the best and worst baby foods available and found that Australia’s baby foods are healthier than products in Britain and Canada.

The research by the George Institute  looked at 309 baby food products shows 30 per cent of products are considered high in sugar.

Author Professor Victoria Flood said the taste preferences of infants meant that their eating habits should be carefully monitored in their early years.

“Young children naturally prefer sweet and salty foods over those with less sweet tastes such as vegetables,” she said.

Commercial baby foods are consumed by as many as 90% of children at nine months old and 50% of 18 month olds.

The findings, which have been published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal show the worst offenders were snack and finger foods:

• Heinz Little Kids Yoghurt Muesli Fingers Fruit Salad had 38.5 grams of sugar and 75 grams of salt per 100 grams.
• Rafferty’s Garden Fruit Snack Bars Blueberry Banana Apple contained 40.1 grams of sugar and 170 grams of salt per 100 grams.
• Heinz Little Kids Wholegrain Cereal Bars Apple and Strawberry with yoghurt flavour had 35 grams of sugar and 80 grams of salt per 100 grams.
• Rafferty’s Garden Fruit Snack bars with banana had 37.2 grams of sugar and 220 grams of slat per 100 grams.

The best foods:

• Only Organic Pasta Bolognese which contains just 4.2 grams of sugar and 20 grams of salt per 100 grams.
• Rafferty’s Garden Beef with Veggies and Basmati Rice had 1.3 grams of sugar and 15 grams of salt per 100 grams.
• Only Organic Pear, Purple Carrot, Blueberry and Quinoa had 4.6 grams of sugar and 11 grams of salt per 100 grams.
• Heinz Little Kids Tender Beef and Vegetable had 2.9 grams of sugar and 35 grams of salt per 100 grams.

8. Cancer warning from nail salons.

The Cancer Council has warned that women are exposing themselves to dangerous levels of UV when they use ultraviolet nail lamps in beauty salons.

The lamps are used to dry varnish after it has been applied.

The Cancer Council Queensland spokeswoman Katie Clift told News Limited that salon customers should be aware of the skin cancer threat.

“Exposing any part of the body to additional artificial sources of UV radiation is likely to add to the risk of skin cancer, particularly if that area of skin has already received excessive UV exposure such as sunburn,” Ms Clift said.

“To lower this risk, manicure clients should always wear sunscreen.”

9. Unruly passenger restrained with seatbelts and tape.

A passenger on on board a flight from Hong Kong has been restrained after being drunk and unruly.

The man travelling Siberia Airlines Flight 546 from Hong Kong to Vladivostok on Monday was restrained by other passengers using a combination of seatbelts and tape.

The Daily Mail reports that the incident was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube.

He was arrested on arrival.
  

10. Peppa Pig and Big Bird are bad role models.

As if the fact that Peppa Pig encourages our kids to jump in muddy puddles isn’t enough it now turns out that she might also be making them fat.

(Surely we should blame George who just wants “chocolate cake” for breakfast..)

A study conducted by Colorado State University has found that characters like Peppa and even that beloved yellow talking bird, Big Bird are perceived by children as being overweight, and that being exposed to these characters has an influence on their own eating habits.

The findings, published by the Journal of Consumer Psychology showed that those kids exposed to the perceived “overweight characters” had a tendency to eat almost twice as much indulgent food as kids who were exposed to perceived healthier looking characters, or no characters at all.

Poor Peppa we never thought of her as porky before.

Do you have a story to share with Mamamia? Email us news@mamamia.com.au
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