A band of dangerous thunderstorms brought hail to most of southeast Queensland yesterday afternoon. 

Energex spokesman, Danny Donald said, “We’ve already been whacked by about 55,000 lightning strikes... so it’s doing its job, but hey, it’s south-east Queensland - this is what happens.” 

At the storm’s peak, more than 21,000 homes were without power. 

A Florida woman has been reunited with her dog 12 years after it went missing 1600kms from her home. 

The toy fox terrier’s owner Katheryn Strang continued to pay for the dog’s microchip before she was found at a shelter in Pittsburg. 

Ms Strang said she has no idea how her pet travelled so far. 

"They are like your babies. You don't give up hope," Ms Strang said.  

More than 300 people have been arrested following the take-down of one of the world's "largest dark web child pornography marketplaces". 

The website was run from South Korea and had nearly 8 terabytes of illegal content made up of thousands of hours of footage. 

The UK’s National Crime Agency said the website was one of the first to offer the videos for sale using the cryptocurrency bitcoin. 

The Cotton On Group and Target Australia have stopped buying cotton from China’s Xinjiang province over concerns of human rights abuses.

Both companies completed internal investigations in their supply chains following a Four Corners story that revealed Muslims were being rounded up and forced to work in textile factories in the region. 

Expert on China’s forced labour Adrian Zenz told Four Corners it would soon be impossible to determine whether products are made with labour from former detainees or not. 

A record number of women have received prime minister’s science awards, with mathematician Cheryl Praeger taking out the top prize for ‘outstanding contribution to mathematics’.

Ms Praeger, who expertise in group theory and combinatorial mathematics has underpinned advances in algebra research and computer cryptography.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews said female representation in the honours had gone “from just one female recipient last year to five this year”.

Water from Paradise Dam is helping fill Childers and Woodgate water supply source, Gregory Weir, which was approaching a critical low.

Natural Resources Minister Dr Anthony Lynham reports that, “as of today, Gregory Weir is now at full supply level.”

“Sunwater and the Government are making every effort to ensure that the water that has to be released for safety is being used as productively as possible,” Dr Lynham said. 

Dr Lynham says it is great to be able to provide this for council, for Mayor Jack Dempsey, and the local communities.

Private and public schools will come together for the inaugural Greater Springfield Festival of Learning next week.

The festival will offer Greater Springfield students the chance to participate in events and workshops across the city’s schools, on topics as diverse as Lego, drones and technology, literacy, song and dance.

Coalition chairman and Springfield City Group EGM, Dr Richard Eden, said the event aims to highlight what can be achieved when schools collaborate.

Billion-dollar activewear brand Lululemon is the latest company to be implicated in the allegations of abuse of women workers in Bangladeshi factories. 

A report found that female workers are subjected to physical and verbal abuse, and were commonly humiliated with sexual slurs from managers. 

A pair of Lululemon leggings retails for about $120 in Australia — just a little less than the average worker in its Bangladeshi supply chain earns in a whole month.