Thursday's news in under 5 minutes.

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

1. Two persons of interest ‘met’ the day William Tyrrell disappeared.

Two convicted paedophiles who are “persons of interest” in the case of William Tyrrell may have met on the day the little boy went missing.

Tony Jones and Paul Bickford are both ‘persons of interest’ in the case and are both serving time in jail –  Tony Jones has 90 convictions against his name including aggravated indecent assault of a minor.

It is reported in The Daily Telegraph that Jones’s family has said on the day William vanished that he told them he was going to visit convicted child abuser Paul Bickford.

Jones was jailed in September for the aggravated indecent assault of a young girl.

Jones has told police he was in the bush collecting scrap metal the day William disappeared but his family, from whom he is estranged, have said that is false and that Jones came home drunk that day.

“Paul Bickford was living in the pub at the time of the Tyrrell disappearance. He knew Paul Bickford was in the pub as well as we do,” they said in a statement to The Daily Telegraph. 

Bickford is serving a suspended sentence for indecently assaulting a girl suffering Asperger’s syndrome.

The two men who were both members of grandparent social group Grandparents as Parents Again.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the men drove cars similar to the ones police said were spotted by William’s mother near the Kendall, home from which he went missing.

While both men have denied any involvement and say they hardly knew each other, a statement from a close relative reads:

“Paul Bickford and Tony Jones often went fishing and I can categorically without any fear call bullshit on the fact Paul Bickford and Tony Jones were simply ‘acquaintances’,”

“They were close friends, no doubt about it.”

Jones and Bickford have categorically stated they had nothing to do with William’s disappearance. Bickford telling A Current Affair he felt sorry for the family of William Tyrrell.

“If I heard [anything suspicious], I’d be the first to report it to police.” he said his conviction doesn’t stop him from feeling empathy and said he also has a ‘very low’ libido.

“I don’t want to see any child hurt.”

2. Father accused of forcing baby to swallow coin acquitted of all charges.

A young QLD father accused of attempting to murder his four-month-old baby daughter by getting her to swallow a 10-cent coin and then feeding her prescription medication has been acquitted of all charges.

The man had pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempted murder of the four-month-old girl and two alternate charges of unlawful assault and causing grievous bodily harm.

The prosecution alleged he tried to kill his daughter by making her ingest a 10 cent coin, saying he had asked the baby’s grandmother what harm swallowing a coin would have on the baby. They argued unsuccessfully that when that didn’t work he poisoned her with medication while she was in hospital.

His defence lawyer told the jury no one had seen the father give the coin or the medication to the baby and that the evidence against him was circumstantial.

The man walked free yesterday after the jury delivered a not guilty verdict after about two hours of deliberations.

3. Wellbeing study finds that one child in every classroom is going to school hungry.

A massive study of Australian children has found that one child in nearly every classroom is going hungry to bed or to school, and 10 per cent miss school at least once a week.

The Australian Child Wellbeing Project, the largest study of its kind in Australia examined the lives of 5400 children aged between eight and 14 years.

It found that a quarter of year 8 girls feel so much pressure from school work that it is affecting their health while marginalised kids were more likely to miss school, with absences most common in year 8.

One in 30 goes to bed or to school hungry nearly daily, while one in 10 will miss school at least once a week, and almost one in six have been bullied.

On the whole they are doing well though, with young people saying their family was the most important thing to them.

90 per cent of children felt ‘very close’ to their mums, while 75 per cent reported feeling equally close to their dads.

Most year 8 students, 86 per cent, have their own bedrooms, an iPod, and access to pocket money.

82 per cent of year 8 students owned their own mobile phones.

4. Melbourne measles outbreak spreading – causing mums to keep their babies home.

As Melbourne’s measles outbreak spreads parents are keeping their children home to avoid being exposed to the disease in Melbourne’s north, northwest and east.

15 people have so far been diagnosed with the disease.

A group of 21 un-vaccinated children have been banned from attending Princes Hill Primary School until next month after two students, both believed to have been un-vaccinated, tested positive to measles.

The Age reports that mothers with young babies have said they are avoiding public places such as cafes, parks and public libraries.

Lucinda Ubilla, from West Footscray, the mother of five-month-old  and a toddler said she is concerned taking her children out will expose them to measles and she has skipped playgroups and library story times.

“If diseases are preventable, why put your child at risk of serious implications or even fatality when you can have a vaccine?” she said.

5. White paper to increase spending and troops.

Today’s Defence White Paper will outline $30 billion of additional spending over the next 10 years committing the government to honouring an election promise to increase defence spending to two per cent of gross domestic product within 10 years.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the paper, which he described as a ‘very substantial piece of work’, would focus on securing the nation.

The 5000 new uniformed personnel will be spread across all three armed services and take Australian Defence Force numbers to 63,000.

The paper will outline major acquisitions including new warships, including nine new frigates and a number of offshore patrol vessels.

6. Mummy blogger gets life for throwing son with autism off a bridge.

An American blogger has been sentenced to life in prison for throwing her six-year-old son who had autism to his death from a bridge in the US town of Newport in 2014.

Jillian McCabe, 36, pleaded guilty to the murder of her son, London.

Prosecutors accused her faking mental illness in order to get off with an insanity defense.

McCabe’s in-laws said she was in the throes of a breakdown driven to the brink by the stress of caring for a child with autism and a disabled husband.

But prosecutors said the subsequent investigation had turned up evidence that McCabe had “fabricated” her symptoms. The court heard that McCare searched ways to murder London, googled “temporary insanity” and “insanity defense,” and read up on the case of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in 2001 and was committed to a mental hospital.

Lincoln County District Attorney Michelle Branam said McCabe wrote about plans to kill London in her journal for weeks before it happened.

“I study the bridges as we drive over them,” she wrote in her journal before the killing. “I know where I would push London off.”

Prosecutors said McCabe killed the boy because he was taking up too much of her husband’s attention.

7. Baby among 42 dead in Fiji cyclone.

A 10-month-old baby is among a death toll of at least 42 after Fiji’s Winston cyclone. The baby’s parents told Fiji One Television that they lost hold of him amid ferocious winds.

The cyclone tore through the Pacific Island chain over the weekend with winds that reached 285km/h, making it the strongest storm in Fiji’s recorded history.

The Government in Suva has declared a state of emergency for 30 days in the wake of the devastation caused by the cyclone.

It is estimated more than 8000 people are now residing in more than 50 evacuation centres.

The baby’s father Alifereti Samu, told Fiji One Television they ran from the home where they were sheltering and were expecting the winds but not the huge seas. “When the winds began to rise, we then ran for safety,” he said, adding they tried to keep their son above water.

“The water level was up to my neck. The house began to fall and waves began to pound on us.” He said their son was their firstborn.

“We still haven’t found him. We believe he has been taken out to sea,” Mr Samu said. “We are at peace with the thought that he has found eternal life.”

How you can help:

Red Cross

UNICEF

OXFAM

8. Facebook now has their own emojis called Reactions.

Your Facebook feed might look a little different this morning, that ‘like’ button previously so lonely and all-encompassing has been given some friends – a team of extra emoticons to help Facebook users express their feelings about a post.

Overnight the social media giant has rolled out their new “Reactions.”

Users now have the option of choosing from a collection of emojis called “Reactions” to respond to each post, the symbols represent expressions of love, laughter, surprise, sadness and anger.

“Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years” Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook today.

“But not because people want to tell friends they don’t like their posts. People wanted to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the right way to do this with our team. One of my goals was to make it as simple as pressing and holding the Like button.

The result is Reactions, which allow you to express love, laughter, surprise, sadness or anger.

Love is the most popular reaction so far, which feels about right to me!”

What do you think of the new Reactions? 

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