Friday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Canada shooting

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said his country will “never be intimidated” after a soldier and a gunman were shot dead in Ottawa.

Yesterday a masked gunman killed a soldier at Canada’s war memorial and stormed parliament before being shot dead by the ceremonial sergeant-at-arms.

Prime Minister Harper said that Canada would continue to work with its allies around the world to fight against the terrorist organisations “who brutalise those in other countries with the hope of bringing their savagery to our shores”.

“They will have no safe haven,” he added.

He said that the thoughts and prayer of the nation are with the family and friends of the slain soldier Corporal Nathan Cirillo.

“Corporal Cirillo was killed today murdered in cold blood as he provided a ceremonial honour guard at Canada’s National War Memorial.”

Authorities have identified the gunman as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.

Earlier Zehaf-Bibeau’s mother said, in a telephone interview that she is crying for the dead Corporal Nathan Cirillo, not her son.

Susan Bibeau said she did not know what to say to those hurt in the attack.

“Can you ever explain something like this?” she said. “We are sorry.”

 2. Standing ovation for Sergeant-at-Arms

The man who shot dead Michael Zehaf-Bibeau is being hailed as hero and has been given a standing ovation as Canadian Parliament resumed.

The 58-year old Sergeant-At-Arms appeared close to tears before the House of Commons as the parliament thanked him for saving their lives.

Kevin Vickers holds a largely ceremonial role and had never discharged his gun before yesterdays shooting.

3. Luke Batty inquest

An inquest into the death of Luke Batty has heard a police officer described Greg Anderson as “bad — not mad.”

The Australian reports that Senior Constable Paul Topham told the inquest that locking Anderson away was his “highest priority” but he was thwarted by the justice system.

Constable Topham said in his evidence that if Anderson hadn’t killed his son Luke in February this year “it would have been down the track”.

“I think we’ve done absolutely everything we could have done, above and beyond what we could do,” he said.

“I think the end outcome would still be similar.

“He was 100 per cent bad, as they say, bad — not mad.”

4. Julie Bishop for PM

Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro speculated that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop could “one day” become Prime Minister.

Fairfax Media reports that the remarks were made at a private function for female ambassadors and high commissioners posted to Canberra

The remarks were meant to have been an affirmation of former treasurer Peter Costello’s when he said at Julie Bishop’s campaign launch that she would never be “just a bishop – certainly a cardinal and perhaps even a pope”. She then said some might speculate that Julie Bishop might “one day” become prime minister.

Teresa Gambaro also criticised the poor representation of women in Australia’s Parliament, saying women had roughly made up 10 per cent of the Parliament since Federation.

 5. Melbourne Seige

A man has been charged with shooting three of his neighbours – from the same family on a rural property near Logan, northwest of Melbourne.

Ian Jamieson, 63, of Wedderburn, was remanded in custody after facing an out of sessions hearing charged with the murder of Peter Lockhart, 78, Mary Lockhart, 75, and Greg Holmes, 48.

“This is not a domestic or family violence-related incident,” police said.

“There are no intervention orders in place. It appears to have been a minor neighbourhood dispute that has escalated in tragic circumstances.

Jamieson will appear in court today.

6. Guard arrested Buckingham Palace

A Royal Protection officer has been arrested following the discovery of ammunition in personal lockers in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

British Metropolitan Police said the ammunition was found in personal lockers in a dedicated police building in the grounds of the palace reports The Guardian.

The officer was not assigned to guard any individual member of the Royal Family.

7. Racist tour guide

A tour guide is making headlines for all the wrong reasons after she was captured on camera drunkenly ranting against San Francisco’s China town.

The racist rant was captured on a passengers phone – and uploaded to YouTube.

For more read this post here.

8. Tattooed Teacher sent home on day one

A teacher has been sent home from school on her first day of teaching primary school due to her body art.

Primary school teacher Charlotte Tumilty, 26, was teaching St John Vianneys Primary School in Hartlepool UK.

In her first hour of teaching she claims she was told that due to the St John Vianneys being a ‘strict Catholic’ school, she would have to go home and cover her body art using plasters and bandages reports The Mirror.

9. Man chops off penis after girlfriends said it was no good.

A Macedonian man has chopped off his own penis after he was dumped by his girlfriend.

22-year old Oliver Ilic told police that his girlfriend said that he was no good in bed.

The Mirror reports that Police searched his house and discovered the severed organ in a bin after it had been cut off with a single swipe from a razor blade which was also lying in the bin.

Following five hours of surgery it was reunited with his body.

10. Hospital letter hunt

A hospital in Melbourne is on a quest to find the author of a heartwarming letter sent to them by a 10-year old patient.

The Today Show reported that The Northern Hospital in Melbourne is desperate to thank the writer of a letter they say brought ‘great joy’ to the hospital.

Northern Health CEO Janet Compton told Lisa Wilkinson that is is a “beautiful letter” and they are keen to know the author so they can be thanked.

All they know is that the letter is written by a 10-year old who lives in Coolaroo, north of Melbourne.

“To all the doctors, nurses, ambulance staff and cleaners at The Northern Hospital, I am so glad that there are people like you in the world, and hospitals in the world.

I was born at this hospital in 2004. Hospitals are clean, tidy and smell nice, and is a safe and warm environment.

Thank you for always and forever being there for us. I am 10 years now, I live in Coolaroo, Broadmeadows.

11. Birth rate at lowest point in 10 years

Australia’s birth rate is at its lowest point since 2006 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and we are having more boys than girls.

There were 308,100 births in 2013, which is down on the 309,600 from the previous year.

Bucking the birth trend was older Mums with fertility rates increasing for those aged 40-44 years between 2012 and 2013.

“Over the past 30 years, fertility rates for these older mums have nearly tripled, and today’s results see the trend continuing”, said Denise Carlton from the ABS.

The number of baby boys didn’t differ too much from 2012 only 282 births down in 2013.

But the number of baby girls born in Australia in 2013 was down more than 1,200 compared to 2012.

 12. Offensive Elsa t-shirt

A t-shirt featuring the character from Frozen, Elsa is causing offense among British parents after they say she is depicted “flicking the V sign”.

The Daily Mail reports that parents are demanding the H&M top which features Elsa with her hands posed be pulled from the shelves.

“Mother of two Jacqui Williams, 40, from Warwick, said: ‘I waited ages to get my hands on an Elsa top for my daughter Daisy but when she put it on I was shocked.”

H&M have responded saying “Clearly the character is holding her hand in that way in order to create a sparkly snowflake.” And that there are no plans to remove the top.

13. “Overshare” is the word of the year

“Overshare” and “photobomb” are 2014’s words of the year, according to Collins and Chambers dictionaries.

“Some words were more celebratory; others more exacting. But ‘overshare’ won because it was pointedly relevant to so many of the other words that were considered,” Chambers editorial director David Swarbrick told The Guardian.

14. Heart transplant breakthrough

Three “dead” hearts have been transplanted into patients at St Vincents Hospital in Sydney.

The breakthrough surgery has potential to dramatically boost the survival prospects of people with serious heart disease, The Australian reports.

Surgeon Kumud Dhital has used hearts that had stopped beating in operations performed over the past few months, with the most recent being successfully completed on Wednesday nights.

Previously, St Vincents told The Australian, transplants had been done using donor hearts from brain-dead patients whose hearts were still beating.

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