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. Mother who bashed her infant twins, killing one and leaving the other severely disabled wants access to her two surviving children.

A mother, who beat her two-month-old twins so severely that one died and the other was left so disabled that the infant needs full-time care, has applied to a court to allow her unfettered access to her two surviving children.

The mother was found guilty of infanticide in 2014 of one of then two-month-old twins, who she killed in 2012 but received a non-custodial sentence because the crime was driven by mental illness.

She told police at the time that maybe she “shook them too hard” but could not remember exactly when or how often.

The girl who survived suffered permanent brain damage, has cerebral palsy and cannot walk or talk. The mother, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to one count of infanticide and one count of recklessly causing serious injury.

While sentencing her, the judge said no punishment would be as severe as the punishment of having to live with what she had done to the twins.

The mother has since been allowed to see her other children with approval and in the presence of her former husband. She has also sought permission for overnight care of children from a court.

The Herald Sun reports that yesterday the mother appeared in court where police said they would oppose a revocation of court-ordered restrictions on when, where and with whom she can see the children.

Secrecy orders protect the identity of the mother and the children, although The Herald Sun reports that the father objects to these saying their story deserves to be told.

2. Woolworths gives trolley full of free groceries to shopper who lost her wallet.

Woolworths has been praised after a Sydney store gave a woman who had her wallet stolen a trolley full of groceries free.

Melissa Deacon took to Facebook to thank the staff at the Carlingford store for their “kindness and generosity” when they gave the mother her groceries free of charge.

“Unfortunately my mum’s wallet was stolen in your Carlingford NSW store yesterday,” she wrote. Her mother had a trolley full of groceries and was unable to pay.

Ms Deacon says that her mother apologised to the staff members for having to put the stock back on the shelves.

As she went to a bank in the same centre to cancel her credit cards, a Woolworths staff member approached her with her trolley filled with bagged groceries.

“Whilst she was in the bank, a trolley pushed by a Woolworths staff member came in with all of her groceries bagged and ready to take home. They were free of charge,” Ms Deacon said.

My mum is still a little shaken by the whole event but my family and I are forever grateful for the kindness you showed her. Thank you again xx,” she said.

Woolworths told Nine News they were happy to make the shopper’s day better.

“Our team at our Carlingford store were very happy to be able to help out with this small gesture and make her day just that little better.”

3. Tsunami fears as earthquake hits Indonesia.

Indonesia has been fearing the worst after a powerful quake struck off Sumatra sending panicked residents rushing from their homes and triggering a Tsunami warning.

Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said tsunami warning sirens were activated and “people responded to the early warning by evacuating to higher places,” reports the ABC.

The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) tweeted at 11:38pm local time that the tsunami warning triggered by an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter Scale had ended.

But it has now been lifted several hours after the earthquake struck.

A tsunami warning for Cocos Island has also been cancelled, with the main tsunami waves having now passed.

“Small unusual waves may continue but are no longer expected to be dangerous,” the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology said.

Andi Eka Sakya, an official of the National Meteorological Agency, told TVOne: “So far there have been no reports [of damage] yet.”

“In Bengkulu [on south-west coast of Sumatra] they didn’t feel it at all,” he said.

4. Russian Nanny accused of beheading child appears in court.

A nanny in Russia accused of murdering and then decapitating a four-year-old girl she cared for has told journalists outside court that “Allah ordered” her to carry out the act.

Gulchekhra Bobokulova, 38, spoke to reporters on her way into a Moscow court.

Bobokulova, mother-of-three, replied “yes” when asked if she accepted her guilt.

Investigators believe she waited for the four-year-old girl’s parents to leave home before killing her, setting the apartment on fire and fleeing, The Moscow Times reported.

Prosecutors told the court that they believed Bobokulova was not acting on her own and that there were individuals who “incited” her to carry out the attack.

The court approved her detention for two months while the investigation continues. Investigators suspect her of murder but it is not known whether they suspect her of offences related to terror.

5. Labor calls on PM to have same-sex marriage vote before the weekend.

Federal Labor MPs have called on the government to address the issue of same-sex marriage in the lead-up to the Sydney Mardi Gras.

“The time has come, we could have marriage equality by the weekend,” deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek said yesterday

She said removing the last piece of discrimination against same-sex couples would be cause for celebration.

Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong said that a planned plebiscite would stir up intolerance, saying the debate about the Safe Schools program is an example of what would happen during a plebiscite campaign.

“Extreme, intolerant views and some hateful language would start to hijack the debate — a clear demonstration on why we need a parliamentary vote and not a plebiscite on this issue,” she said

6. Scientists find there is a gene for grey hair.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, an international team of researchers have revealed they have found the first gene linked to the greying of hair. The finding came from a larger study on genes related to a number of hair traits, including balding, monobrow, curliness and beard growth.

The group sequenced the genomes of more than 6000 people from Latin America and compared their genes against various hair features, including how much grey hair they had.

The study found the gene accounted for about 30% of hair greying, with the remaining 70% due to other factors such as age, (probably the biggest contributor), stress and other environmental exposures.

Kaustubh Adhikari, a post doctoral researcher at University College London, said, “We might have drugs that boost or stop the protein from acting and change the amount of melanin in hair follicles and change the hair internally,”

“So once the hair comes out like the way you want, you don’t have go out and buy dyes.”

7. Parents consult Dr Google, but don’t trust it.

A survey has found that while many people Google and ask Facebook for medical diagnosis, they don’t trust the information they get.

The Australian Child Health Poll found that most parents used websites, online forums and blogs but still their most trusted source of information was their general practitioner.

More than 60 per cent of parents used websites, blogs and online forums, but only 6 per cent trusted those sources of information “a lot” and 36 per cent did not trust them at all.

Nearly half of the 2100 people surveyed had consulted a schoolteacher for health information.

Australian Child Health Poll director Anthea Rhodes told The Age that the overload of information was feeding parental anxiety.

“What we also saw in this study was a startling number of families who used hospitals, including emergency departments, for health information,” Dr Rhodes said.

“Rather than reassuring them, people are overwhelmingly confused and that’s driving them to present more to the health care system.”

8. Trump and Clinton the big winners on Super Tuesday.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump scored the biggest victories on “Super Tuesday” — each winning seven of 11 state nominations for their parties on a night viewed as a major indicator of the shape of the presidential race.

On the biggest single day of voting in the US, Trump emerged as the clear frontrunner for the Republicans, with closest rival Ted Cruz taking just three states.

Meanwhile, Clinton polled strongly for the Democrats, with opponent Bernie Sanders claiming the biggest of three wins in his home state Vermont.

The two have now begun to focus on each other, Trump telling media that Hillary Clinton had failed in her four years as Secretary of State and that it would be a sad day if she won the Democratic nomination vowing to “go after her”.

Coincidentally, timed in with Trump’s victories, Google searches for “How to move to Canada” surged. Simon Rogers, a data editor at Google told The Washington Post that the phrase’s search popularity had increased by 350 percent between 8pm and midnight Eastern.

Do you have a story to share with Mamamia? Email us news@mamamia.com.au