Friday's news in under 5 minutes.

UPDATE:

Police have confirmed that a person has been found dead in Victoria’s bushfires near Roses Gap.

According to a police spokesperson: “The death is being treated as occurring as a result of the fires.”

Arson and Explosives Squad investigators are reportedly heading to the scene.

Earlier today, as the weather was predicted to reach at least 44C, residents living in areas in and around The Grampians were advised to leave their properties.

1. Missing Eeva.

Police have called upon residents in the NSW towns of Katoomba and Mullumbimby to look out for missing father Greg Hutchings, aged 35, and his four-year-old daughter, Eeva Dorendahl.

The appeal comes as they released a new image Greg Hutchings.

Police have formed  Strike Force Beadle in order to investigate the disappearance.

Police are urging anyone with information about this incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page.

2. Asylum seekers sent back on lifeboats

Australia has for the first time used one of its new lifeboats to send a group of 56 asylum seekers back to Indonesia.

The Asylum seekers were loaded on the Australian Navy vessel, HMAS Stuart, and kept overnight before being transferred to a Customs and Border Protection vessel.

The men have told the SMH that they believed they were headed towards Christmas Island. The say they were tricked into boarding a small orange vessel saying it would take them to Christmas Island but when they boarded they were given a document saying “You only have enough fuel to reach land in Indonesia. You do not have enough fuel to continue your voyage to Australia.” And they were forced to return to Indonesia.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison declined to comment on the asylum seekers’ treatment.

3. Another child left in a car

A mother  in NSW has been charged after she allegedly left her three-year-old daughter in the back of her car with the windows closed while she went shopping.

Police were forced to smash the rear window of the Subaru to free the girl after she was seen abandoned in the car in an underground car park at Katoomba just before 6pm on Monday.

The officers had to force their way into the car because the windows were wound up and the doors locked while the girl also did not respond to their knocking or calling out.

4. Heatwave

Temperatures again hovered in the mid-to-high 40s in Adelaide and Melbourne yesterday. While inland areas of SA, Victoria and NSW have seen the mercury reach as high as 48C.

Dozens of bushfires are burning across Victoria and South Australia and conditions today are set to worsen.

Emergency warnings are in place for the towns of Brimpaen, Heathvale, Laharum and Wartook in the northwest entrance of the Grampians National Park as an out-of-control bushfire dramatically escalated overnight to 11500ha.

For up to date warnings visit http://www.emergency.vic.gov.au/#now

Animals are also suffering, falling from trees due to heat stress on a scale wildlife workers say they have not seen since Black Saturday in 2009.

5. Funeral for Daniel Christie

A public funeral for “coward punch” victim Daniel Christie will be held in Sydney this morning.

The Thornleigh teenager will be farewelled at the Hillsong Church Convention Centre from 10am.

The church service will be open to the public at the Baulkham Hills Hillsong Church and will be followed by a private family service.

6. Find ‘Mike’

A British man has launched a worldwide appeal to find a Good Samaritan who talked him down from an attempted suicide six years ago.

For more read this post here. “Help ‘Find Mike’.

7. Why did no one help her?

A 29-year-old Sydney woman known only as “Aida” has spoken of how a crowd of people watched a man attempt to attack her and no one came to her assistance.

At 4.30pm on Monday, on busy Railway Street in Liverpool, Aida fought off a man who tried to drag her into a car. There were three other men inside the car. There were “dozens of people around”.

Not one of the people came to Aida’s assistance, despite her screams.

8. Sentencing outrage

A father has expressed his disgust at the sentence given to a man who bashed his teenage son and then photographed him and sent the image to the victim and countless others. The offender has been given a suspended six-month jail term in the Maroochydore Magistrates Court this week.

“The level of violence in the community is ridiculous. To be slapped on the wrist with a six month suspended sentence is disgusting,” Brett Tait, the victims father told The Courier-Mail.

The other men involved in the attack and in taking photographs were not charged after agreeing to give evidence.

9. Derryn Hinch

Former Melbourne radio and TV personality Derryn Hinch faces jail again by refusing to pay a $100,000 contempt of court fine in relation to a murder case.

Hinch said last night he had opted to go to prison rather than face the large fine after embroiling himself in controversy over the murder of former ABC employee Jill Meagher.

10. 4000 sheep cooked alive

The live export trade is under scrutiny again and Labor and the Greens are calling for the export licence of the company, the Livestock Shipping Services to be suspended after reports over 4000 sheep were literally cooked alive in August last year during a journey from Australia to the Middle East.

“The suffering of these animals is too horrific even to imagine. In these temperatures, the ship would have turned into an oven, with these thousands of individual sheep literally baking alive,” said Animals Australia Campaign Director Lyn White.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon has also called for the end to live exports.

11. Judge jails father

A Judge has indefinitely jailed a father in Queensland for ignoring an order to return his young daughter from overseas, where he left her last year.

The father, who took the Australian child overseas without her mother’s consent, then returned to Australia without her, has to stay in jail until she is returned.

12. Apple pulls plastic surgery game

A Barbie-branded app about plastic surgery that was designed for nine year olds has been pulled by Apple. “This unfortunate girl has so much extra weight that no diet can help her,” the game’s description read.

“Plastic Surgery Doctor & Plastic Hospital Office for Barbie Version” had players making “small cuts of problem areas” to “suck out the extra fat” from bloody slices on the poor woman’s cheeks and stomach.

Everyday Sexism, a project that documents overlooked incidents of sexism and harassment, originally brought attention to the app, which Apple quickly removed, as well as a similar version called “Plastic Surgery for Barbara.”

In Brief:

Cate Blanchett has been nominated for best actress at the 2014 Academy Awards.

In tennis Andy Murray has survived a third set scare against Frenchman Vincent Millot but came back to win 6-2, 6-2, 7-5.

Australian Samantha Stosur plays Ana Ivanovic for a place in the fourth round today.

 What news are you talking about today?