Sunday's news in under five minutes.

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

1. The Islamic State is recruiting ‘highly trained professionals’ to manufacture chemical weapons, Julie Bishop warns.

It has come to the attention of our Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, that the Islamic State are recruiting tried professionals to develop chemical weapons. She said as such while addressing the Australia Group in Perth on Friday.

IS has already used chlorine in an attack, and Ms Bishop is concerned that it is the “gravest security concern we face today.”

“They seek to undermine and overthrow that order and as we have seen, are prepared to use any and all means, any and all forms of violence they can think of to advance their demented cause,” she said.

Read more: Julie Bishop talks about why Malala is such a remarkable woman.

“That includes use of chemical weapons.”

Cabinet Minister Mathias Cormann said it would be “absolutely terrible” if IS was able to get hold of “chemical, biological or, even worse, nuclear weapons”.

“Countries around the world that are as committed as we are to defeating this threat have got to continue working together to make sure this doesn’t happen,” he said.

Read more: Julie Bishop: “Child care support is not a welfare payment.”

“Chemical weapons often receive less public attention than nuclear and biological threats,” Julie Bishop has said.

“However, toxic chemicals were, by far, the most widely used and proliferated weapons of mass destruction in the 20th century.”

More than 100 Australians are believed to be fighting alongside the IS group in Syria and Iraq and the Government believes another 150 are supporting them at home.

2. A juror has been caught flirting with the accused during a criminal case.

After three weeks sitting for a criminal court case, Judge Peter Berman was almost ready to hand matters over to the jury at Downing Centre District Court, when a sheriff in the court noted a woman who appeared to be “flirting” with the accused.

She was apparently flicking her hair, smiling, raising an eyebrow and nodding in a suggestive manner at the accused man.

The female juror was the jury’s foreperson, a fairly lead role in a criminal case, which provoked Judge Berman to abort the trial.

Read more: Chris Lane’s alleged murderer faces trial.

“I was satisfied that there was a real risk that the juror couldn’t do her job impartially,” he said.

The man, who for legal purposes cannot be named, was on trial accused of trying to influence a witness in a ­separate armed robbery case levelled against him in 2012. The court heard he had been acquitted of that charge.

While the jury was dismissed, a new set of impartial members will be reassigned to the case.

3. An assortment of rapists, paedophiles, killers, wife beaters and baby bashers have been cleared to work with children.

A woman on parole for a bashing murder, a man convicted of incest against his 14-year-old daughter and a swimming coach who fondled boys in a public toilet have been granted a Working With Children Check (WWCC) over the past 12 months despite the fact they were considered ineligible to work with children by the NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian.

These are just some of the many criminals who have been rejected by the Children’s Guardian, only to appeal to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) and have their case overruled.

Brad Hazzard, Family and Community Services Minister, said the cases identified were “deeply concerning” and may have failed the “commonsense test.”

Read more: People think that riders are risk-taking criminals. But they’re not.

The Daily Telegraph has launched a formal investigation into the matter and spoke directly to Brad Hazzard.

Mr Hazzard said he would ask the state’s Attorney General Gabrielle Upton to review the decisions.

“Logically, there can’t be too may circumstances where allowing a murderer to work with children could be considered a sensible option,” Mr Hazzard said, referring to the case of a woman recently awarded a WWCC, despite being on parole until August 30, 2017 for a bashing murder.

Ms Upton has since requested a full report into the circumstances of each matter.

4. A mistress has filed a $2 million lawsuit against her former lover for six years of unpaid services after the man refused to leave his wife.

According to papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, James Greenwald, 88, was romantically involved with Theodora Lee Corsell, 67, while he was living with his wife Marilee.

Theodora is suing for the “reasonable value” of the six years during which her romantic “services” went unpaid.

The New York Post suggests that she performed tasks for Greenwald such as helping him get rid of New York Giants tickets, dealing with a $3million threat from another mistress and digging up dirt on his 77-year-old wife.

Read more: “I bought my husband’s mistress lingerie.”

It really is a story for the Bold and the Beautiful.

Greenwald’s attorney has called the case a “shameless shakedown” and says that there is no evidence to stand in court.

5. For all the celebrities endorsing Manuka honey, you’re lying. Primary school students say so.

Manuka honey is produced by bees that collect their nectar solely from the manuka tree.

These grow mainly on New Zealand’s North Island and are used in Maori medicine for colds, stomach upsets and as a painkiller.

The honey has acquired a magical reputation as a natural cure for everything from stomach ulcers to ingrown toenails, but one primary school has proven it’s just like regular honey. Delicious, but not magical.

Gillespie Primary School in the north London borough of Islington – the spiritual home of Britain’s more bizarre health kicks – conducted what is believed to be the country’s first proper randomised control of the honey.

And the test proved that the high-end honey has no real curative abilities whatsoever.

Sorry, Gwyneth and Scar-Jo. Your liquid gold is not all it’s cracked up to be.