Thursday'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. Sir Cliff Richards sex abuse investigation.

The police investigation into allegations that Sir Cliff Richard was involved in a sex crime involving a young boy has expanded.

In a letter to the Chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, South Yorkshire’s Chief Constable David Crompton has said the investigation had ‘increased significantly in size’ and involves ‘more than one allegation.

Last August officers raided Sir Cliff’s home.

At the time he released a statement saying he had no idea where the “absurd and untrue” allegations against him came from.

“The police have not disclosed details to me,”

“I have never, in my life, assaulted anyone and I remain confident that the truth will prevail. I have cooperated fully with the police, and will, of course, continue to do so.”

 2. Families of Bali 9 appear on TV begging for their loved one’s lives.

The families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have appeared on Indonesia’s MetroTV begging for their lives to be saved.

“I don’t want them to execute my son. He has done a lot of good things, he is a good person, he is a changed person and I am begging the president not to execute him, to give him another chance, for him to stay in the prison and continue to do all the good things he is doing,” Sukumaran’s mother, Raji Sukumaran, said.

Meanwhile Fairfax Media has reported that Indonesian authorities are 90% ready to execute 10 convicted narcotics cases including Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

Three Indonesian murderers on death row have been taken off the list while two Nigerians drug offenders have been added to it.

According to Fairfax H.M. Prasetyo, the attorney-general, has confirmed this is “final”.

3. Four sick after eating tinned tuna.

Four people have become dangerously sick after eating a tuna salad at a Sydney café sparking fears of other poisoned tuna products being on the market.

The customers at the Soul Origins café had eaten a salad made with imported tinned tuna – likely from Thailand – and have fallen ill with suspected Scombroid poisoning.

Scombroid was linked to the death of Sunshine Coast mother and daughter Noelene and Yvana Bischoff last year, when they consumed fish in Bali.

News Limited reports that the customers suffered symptoms including skin rashes, dizziness, tingling in the mouth and nausea.

One woman told The Daily Telegraph she was sick within 15 minutes of eating the salad on Monday. “I went bright red, I started to get heart palpitations and the whites of my eyes turned red.”

NSW Health is investigating the cases.

The café have switched tuna brands.

4. Man sentenced after catfishing on dating site.

A man has been sentenced to a two-year community corrections order after pretending to be a blonde muscular man and tricking a woman into sex.

He had posed on an online dating site as a blonde man when in fact he was an Indian married father-of-three.

It was only when they had moved their sexual encounter to the shower and she briefly opened her eyes that she realized he was not who she thought.

For more read this post here.

 5. Drones spotted over Paris for second night in a row.

Unidentified drones have been spotted around Paris for the second night flying around major landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower.

Flying drones over Paris at night is illegal and daytime flights require authorisation from the city.

The tiny drones – the types that can be bought easily have left Parisians feeling uneasy.

The latest incident has been captured on film and will be analyzed by a 10-strong team of investigators set up after the first incidents.

6. 40 Australian women have become Jihadi brides.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has told Parliament there was an “increasing number of young females’’ seeking to join the conflict and fight for IS, or Daesh.

Her comments came after three British schoolgirls traveled to Syria to join the fight.

One-fifth of foreign fighters involved in the IS conflict are women.

“Thirty to 40 Australian women are known to be either engaging in or supporting terrorist activity in Syria, Iraq and here in Australia,’’ Ms Bishop said.

“This defies logic. Given we know the attitude of Daesh towards women, if the killings and executions aren’t enough, Daesh has published instructions on the treatment of sexual slaves, which includes raping and beating women, even children are not immune with instructions encouraging sexual assault on girls who have not yet reached puberty.’’

She said that women faced exploitation “in the most appalling way’’, and were being used by men as sexual slave, and in some cases as suicide bombers.

“Many are being radicalised online, seduced by a slick exploitation of social media to spread Daesh’s depraved narrative.’’

 7. Sydney traffic chaos yesterday caused by woman who fell asleep at the wheel.

A crash on the Harbour Bridge yesterday morning in peak hour was caused by a 37-year old woman who fell asleep while driving across the bridge.

Police have told The Daily Mail that the driver fell asleep shortly before 6.45am.

The traffic was gridlocked– finally cleared by 8am, but the effect of the crash was felt for hours afterwards

All northbound lanes plus two of the five southbound lanes on the bridge were closed.

8. Gillian Triggs: Malcolm Turnbull defends Human Rights Commission president as ‘distinguished academic.’

By Emma Griffiths

Cabinet Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed the debate about Gillian Triggs’ impartiality as one that “misses the point”, describing her as a “distinguished” figure.

The comments stand in stark contrast to those of Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Attorney-General George Brandis, who have repeatedly declared the Government has lost confidence in the Human Rights Commission (HRC) chief.

The Government and the HRC have been at loggerheads following the release of the commission’s damning report into children in detention, which was described by Mr Abbott as a “blatantly partisan, politicized exercise”.

Both Senator Brandis and Mr Abbott have told parliament that they have lost confidence in Professor Triggs.

However, when asked about the furor on Wednesday morning, Mr Turnbull said he did not want to get into “personalities”.

“The main point is the children.”

Mr Turnbull defended the Government’s record in stopping asylum seeker boats from reaching Australia and in transferring children out of detention.

“I’m not going to buy into this discussion about Gillian Triggs,” he said.

“I’ve known Gillian Triggs for many years. She’s a very distinguished international legal academic.

“Obviously this has become a very controversial issue, and there’s all sorts of allegations flying around. I don’t want to get into that.

“Other people can do that if they wish.

 A version of this story was originally published on ABC and has been republished with full permission.

9. Three-parent babies to be a reality.

The first baby conceived using DNA from three different people may be born as early as next year as the UK becomes the first country in the world to allow the creation of in vitro fertilization (IVF) babies using three parents.

The House of Lords voted by 280 to 48 approving the procedure after an impassioned debate lasting nearly four hours.

A three-parent child would have “nuclear” DNA determining individual traits such as facial features and personality from its two parents, plus a tiny amount of mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) from an anonymous woman donor.

Opponents have warned that the change has been brought about too hastily and marked the start of a “slippery slope” towards designer babies and eugenics.

 10. Twins both die after drowning in bath

Police in the US have launched an investigation after 15-month-old twin sisters drowned in the bath.

Their mother, Barbara Russo from Texas called paramedics claiming she found Savannah and Sabrina Russo unresponsive and underwater.

The first twin tragically died last week, while Sabrina lost her fight for life four days later when she was taken off life support on Sunday night.

KHOW reports that the father of the girls, John Russo, was not at the house when the girls’ drowned after recently splitting with his wife.

 11. Perfectly preserved mummified monk found inside Buddha statue.

Scientists have found an ancient Buddhist statue containing the perfectly preserved remains of a 1,000-year-old mummified monk.

The body was discovered in the 1990’s but could not be examined for fear of disintegration, but now scientist have performed a

CAT scan which has revealed the monk’s skeleton in perfect detail.

The scam revealed another startling discovery the organs had been removed prior to mummification, researches discovered rolls of paper scraps covered in Chinese writing.

Wilfrid Rosendahl, a German palaeontologist who led the research told The Telegraph “It was not uncommon for monks to practise self-mummification but to find a mummified monk inside a statue is really extraordinary,”

“It’s a complete mummy, not just a skeleton. He was aged between 30 and 50.”

He said that “during the last weeks he would have started eating less food and drinking only water. Eventually he would have gone into a trance, stopped breathing and died. He basically starved himself to death.

“The other monks would have put him close to a fire to dry him out and put him on display in the monastery, we think somewhere in China or Tibet.

“He was probably sitting for 200 years in the monastery and the monks then realised that he needed a bit of support and preservation so they put him inside the statue.”

The statue will now go on display in museums around Europe, and is currently in the Natural History Museum in Budapest.

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 12. Two children being tested for Ebola in Melbourne.

By ABC News.

Two children are being tested for Ebola at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

The ABC can reveal the children, both under 10, were isolated after being admitted this morning.

In a statement, the hospital said only that the two children were being tested for a “range of infectious diseases”.

However, the ABC has been told that Ebola was one of the diseases they were being tested for, and that the specific precautionary measures for Ebola were put in place this morning.

“Specialist medical staff are caring for the patients, using the procedures and equipment in which they have been trained,” the statement said.

“The safety of staff and the community is paramount.

“Results of the diagnostic testing will be known within a few hours.

“The hospital is unable to provide further information about the patients or their conditions until the test results are known.”

A version of this post originally appeared on ABC News and has been republished with permission.

What news are you talking about today?