Thursday's news in 5 minutes.

1. Mother of Mia Ayliffe-Chung tried to get daughter’s Facebook page shut down but Facebook refused as there was no proof of death.

The mother of the 21-year-old British backpacker who died last week in a hostel in Queensland after being stabbed to death has spoken of her futile attempt to protect her daughter’s image after she died.

Mia’s mother, Rosie Ayliffe has told the ABC she tried to shut down Mia’s Facebook page as she didn’t want it to be pillaged for photos or “stupid comments” she’d made.

She says she spoke to Facebook who told her she needed “proof of death”.

“My daughter had died two hours earlier and I needed proof of death,” Ms Ayliffe said.

“As a consequence, her Facebook profile was wide open and exactly what I thought would happen did happen.”

She wrote for The Independent: “Before she left the UK this wouldn’t have been a problem as she was careful about what she put on Facebook, but the youth culture in a city is different to that in a small-town environment like ours, and Mia’s Facebook was getting a lot racier than I’d have liked.”

“I didn’t try to control this as the last thing I wanted was for her to feel I was being judgmental or to ‘unfriend’ me so that we would lose contact. She’s a beautiful girl, and how she chooses to dress is (was) her business.”

Police have charged 29-year-old French man Smail Ayad with her murder.

She told the ABC that she felt pity towards her daughter killer.

“If he is capable of contrition and of realising what he has done, I feel pity for him, because he now has to live knowing that he has killed two beautiful, strong, exceptional people – and even if they weren’t he’s killed two people – he has to live with that.”

2. Canberra man whose DNA was allegedly found in 2-year-old’s nappy denies charges.

A 37-year-old man from Canberra whose semen was allegedly found inside the nappy of a two-year-old girl has told a court he never sexually assaulted the toddler.

The man, who faces three charges including sexual intercourse with a child under 10, said he did not molest the girl in June 2013 and that the accusation has since made his life a nightmare.

The man lived in the same house as the child’s babysitter.

A forensic scientist told the court she had tested the pull-up nappy the girl had been wearing on the day for both semen and saliva, after initial positive indications in several areas and his DNA was a match.

Forensic scientist Felicity Pagan told the court there was a “very strong support that the defendant [was] the source of the DNA in the nappy”.

On cross examination she was asked whether the DNA material could have been transferred by the child touching things in the house, including towels in the bathroom.

Ms Pagan said it was possible small amounts of DNA material could have been transferred that way.

The ABC reports that the girl’s mother told the court that her two-year-old told her what happened as they left the babysitter’s house.

She said, “It’s very hard to forget your two-and-a-half-year-old daughter telling you that somebody has done that to her.”

3. Four-year-old preschooler in NSW has begun “transitioning” their gender before attending their first day of kindergarten.

A wave of children – some as young as three or four –  are transitioning their gender in primary schools, with the The Children’s Hospital at Westmead saying referrals to its gender services have tripled.

The case of the four-year-old was revealed at yesterday’s NSW state government budget estimates.

The Education Department’s deputy secretary of school operations Gregory Prior said the school had used Safe Schools resources to help teachers assist the child reports The Daily Telegraph.

Michael Carr-Gregg told News Limited 250 children as young as three were being assisted by the gender dysphoria unit at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.

10-years-ago, he said the unit had just one child on its books.

“There is a huge difference between dress-ups and a child believing with every fibre of their being they are in the wrong body,” he said.

“These children can be managed with compassion and sympathy, and they can lead perfectly happy lives.”

5. Three people to face court after charges laid over murder of Logan mum.

Two men and a woman will appear in court today over death of Logan woman Sabrina Bremer.

The 34-year-old’s burnt body  was found by a northern NSW road on August 18.

A 28-year-old Woodridge man and a 27-year-old Kingston woman were both charged with one count each of murder and misconduct with a corpse by interfering yesterday, while a 38-year-old Wynnum man has been charged with accessory after the fact to murder.

The Brisbane Times reports that she was last seen alive on August 16.

6. Linda Burney, the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the House of Representatives welcomed to parliament.

Linda Burney, the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the House of Representatives has delivered her maiden speech.

With a kangaroo-skin cloak wrapped around her told the story of a “freshwater kid from the Riverina” whose first 10 years were spent in a time when the number of sheep in the country was counted, but not the number of Aboriginal people.

She said one measure of the success of her first term in the Parliament would be whether the nation’s first people were recognised in the Constitution.

Ken Wyatt, an Aboriginal man of Noongar, Yamitji and Wongi heritage who represents the Liberal Party crossed the chamber when her speech was done and they embraced.

“It’s going to be so good to serve with you,” he said.

7. Mexican president faces backlash for inviting Trump for talks.

Mexico’s president has been criticised for his decision to invite Donald Trump  – who has vowed to build a huge security wall between the two countries – for talks.

Enrique Pena Nieto  previously compared Mr Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

He insisted the talks would “promote the interests of Mexico in the world and protect Mexicans wherever they are.”

Mexicans called on their president to stand up to Mr Trump and to reiterate that the country would not be paying for the wall.

8. Hayfever season set to be worst in 50 years.

Spring as arrived and with it sniffs, itching and sneezing for the nation’s hayfever sufferers.

The outlook isn’t good with experts warning the wet winter will bring about the worst hayfever season in years.

The increased grass growth means more pollen in the air in the coming months.

With one in eight Australians suffering from hayfever there is going to be a lot of sneezing.

University of Western Sydney immunologist Professor Connie Katelaris told the ABC October and November would be the worst months.

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