Sunday'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. Teachers being stalked by over-zealous parents. 

A study released by the Queensland University of Technology has found increasingly high expectations of teachers has lead parents to stalk and harass their child’s teacher on weekends and over electronic media.

The study conducted by QUT interviewed nearly 900 parents of children who attended an independent or Catholic school and concluded a risky culture of “over-parenting” where parents were more likely to blame their child’s academic failings on teachers, rather than their child and feel “excessive emotional reactions” if their expectations weren’t fulfilled.

“It shows a real inability of the parent to accept the consequences for the child,” said Locke. “Instead, it was the teacher’s responsibility to take time out of their weekend [to explain their homework].”

In one instance, a parent reported in the study that he once found out the address of his son’s teacher to ask them questions about homework, after his son claimed to not know about it. The father approached the apartment building where the teacher lived and rang every bell int he building, on the Sunday afternoon, until he found the teacher. Once identifying where the teacher lived, the father forced the teacher to explain the homework, or if there was any at all.

“In days of old,” Locke reported, “parents would say to the child ‘why aren’t you doing your homework’. Now, they’re much more likely to say to the school ‘what are you doing about it?”.

Interestingly, these expectations of teachers continued as children moved into high school.

Research, Judith Locke, commented, “Teacher’s were seen as falling short in their actual responsibility in the higher grades.”

The culture among parents exposed in the report was also backed by Gloria Taylor, from the Independent Education Union.

“People feel they can expect an instant response from a teacher if they contact them out of hours,” said Taylor. “They aren’t very reasonable…There is not doubt that those people expect teachers to be on call or do a lot of work that would probably could be done at home.”

2. Tropic Cyclone Stan crosses coast of WA. 

Tropic Cyclone Stan has made landfall earlier this morning, understood to be a category two system.

It first crossed the coast north-west of the Pilbara region and is causing heavy rainfall and wind at up to 140 kilometres per hour, according to the ABC.

The cyclone is not predicted to directly cause damage to highly populated areas, however, the highest warning levels are set for people between Port Headland and Wallal.

Cyclone Stan crosses WA coast, heavy rain, strong winds, tracking towards Marble Bar https://t.co/si6vBbGSS0 pic.twitter.com/KNrOTIP32w

— ABC News Perth (@abcnewsPerth) January 30, 2016

The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed the system will move inwards and will continue to weaken in strength.

“We’re expecting reasonable rainfall down through the eastern Pilbara, adjacent Kimberley and also into the interior…with widespread rainfalls of 50-100 millimetres with isolated falls up to 150 millimetres,” said Mark Paul from BoM.

“It will pass between Telfer and Nullagine as it heads down, by then it should be a category one system and it will continue to weaken as it passes overland.”

3. Brisbane policeman charged for murder of his two-month-old son. 

A senior constable in the Queensland Police force has been charged with the murder of his own baby son.

After a joint investigation by the child trauma taskforce within the child safety and sexual group, state crime command and the ethical standards command, police arrested the 38-year-old man.

The ABC reports that the alleged murder occurred on June 28, 2014, in Victoria Point on Brisbane’s bayside.

Speaking at a media conference on Saturday afternoon, Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski, said that the officer had been suspended from the force about a month after the child’s death. Gollschewski strongly defended the decision of investigators to keep private the officer’s alleged actions until Saturday.

“Our community needs to have confidence, in fact great confidence,” the Deputy Commissioner said, “that no matter who is responsible for these types of crimes, that its police service will be relentless and committed in ensuring that the investigations are brought to conclusion and that the offenders are brought to justice.”

“Now this is a very tragic event, with the loss of a young, innocent life and the devastation of a family.

“I’m a father – these sorts of crimes, irrespective of who commits them, are tragic and terrible.

“I can only say that we are committed, as we have been in this instance, to making sure the offender is brought to justice.”

4. Zika virus could be a greater world health threat than Ebola. 

Global health experts are warning that Zika virus, which has broken out in Latin America, could pose a greater threat to global health than Ebola.

Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, claims that the Zika virus is often symptomless, unlike the Ebola virus, and can thus, spread more easily.

“In many ways the Zika outbreak is worse than the Ebola epidemic of 2014-15,” said Farrar. “Most virus carriers are symptomless. It is a silent infection in a group of highly vulnerable individuals – pregnant women – that is associated with horrible outcome for their babies.”

At least 80% of individuals infected with the virus show no symptoms of the disease, which is spread by the mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, across tropical parts of the planet.

The Zika virus is currently being linked to causing a radical spike in the number of cases of foetal deformation, called microcephaly.

Another spokesperson for the Wellcome Trust, Mike Turner, commented that Zika also has limited prospects of a vaccine being developed.

“The real problem is that trying to develop a vaccine that would have to be tested on pregnant women is a practical and ethical nightmare,” said Turner.

5. Victorian individuals convicted of homosexuality set for apology. 

On May 24, the Victorian Parliament is set to offer a formal state apology for all Victorian individuals who received criminal convictions for homosexual acts before it was decriminalised in the State.

Premier Daniel Andrews will make the announcement as he attends the annual Pride March for the LGBTI community, reports The Age.

“Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1980, but for those convicted under the old laws, it’s been a long wait to clear their names,” said Andrews.

“These laws cast a long, dark shadow of prejudice that still stands today, and our apology is one small but meaningful way to right that historic wrong.”

The apology comes soon after the Parliament moved to expunge the criminal records of individuals who were convicted for homosexual acts.

Equality Minister, Martin Foley, said that the Government’s recent movements was “an important step towards healing the hurt of LGBTI Victorians who were so unfairly labelled criminals.”

Do you have a news tip? We’d love to hear it. E-mail us at: news@mamamia.com.au