A 16-year-old boy has been accused of starting a bushfire that destroyed 14 homes in central Queensland. 

Police say the teenager has not been charged with arson but will be dealt with under the Youth Justice Act.  

The Coorabell fire near Rockhampton started around 1.30 pm on Saturday and continues to burn.

Two top national security aides who listened to President Donald Trump's July call with Ukraine's president, are testifying at US House impeachment hearings as the inquiry probes deeper into goings-on the White House.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, an Army officer at the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, his counterpart at Vice President Mike Pence's office, say they had concerns as Trump spoke on July 25th  with the newly elected Ukraine president about political investigations into Joe Biden.

Protestors have stopped Lebanon’s parliament from holding its first session in two months, as demonstrators rage against those they blame for steering the country towards economic collapse.

The session's agenda had included re-electing members of parliamentary committees and discussion of an amnesty law that would lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners.

Protesters were angry the MPs were not tackling their demands for reform, making it the worst economic crisis since the civil war.

The Curtin University "Passbox" study has found that a Melbourne cyclist gets passed by a car in a dangerous way three times, on average, during their daily commutes, and that the most dangerous spots are the Princess Highway in Pakenham and Sydney Road, Brunswick.

The CEO of the Bicycle Network, Craig Richards, has called for laws in Victoria requiring drivers to give cyclists one meter of space when overtaking, as is the case in some other states.

A school in Perth is facing criticism over its decision to reduce the amount of free play for students to 15 minutes a day, prompting calls for an urgent review by the WA Education Department.

Clarkson Primary School abolished free play at recess for Years 1-6, replacing it with "instructional play" with class teachers taking students to playgrounds for coordinated sessions lasting 15 minutes focusing on "learning dispositions and playground rules".

The federal Minister for Drought and Water Resources David Littleproud has announced a new $15 million waterway fencing program to help protect riverbanks and native finish.

The project will see funding available to local Landcare services, natural resource management groups and indigenous organisations and will involve fencing off environmentally sensitive areas northern Basin waterways from livestock.

The announcement comes after a severe decline in the health of rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin.

The State and Federal Environment Ministers have released a joint statement acknowledging climate change as the greatest existential threat to the Great Barrier Reef.

The two environment ministers, Sussan Ley, and Leanne Enoch, met in Townsville yesterday part of the Great Barrier Reef Ministerial Forum to discuss the progress of policies set over the past five years to protect the Reef.