An Adelaide public hospital is using hotel rooms instead of hospital beds in a bid to reduce overcrowding and improve care options for amputees. 

High demand for beds as meant amputees from rural South Australia have had rehabilitation frequently postponed because all the beds at Modbury Hospital are full. 

Modbury's ambulatory rehabilitation clinical manager, Felicity Jenkinson, says there is an urgent need for creative ways to offer solutions to country patients, and a hotel model is one option.

Thirteen people who were paralysed in accidents have had movement in their hands restored through pioneering nerve transfer surgery. 

In some cases, patients have returned to work.

Leader of the research programme, surgeon, Natasha Van Zyl says patients were able to use their hands and extend their arms from the elbow, which makes everyday tasks more easy and accessible. 

The Agriculture and Fisheries Department warns that drones and patrols will be used to help catch illegal fishers.

A man has been fined $6000 and had his crab pots seized after being caught with 28 undersized protected crabs and a shovelnose ray at Mud Island in Moreton Bay. 

Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Minister Mark Furner All fishers need to understand the regulations and requirements around size limits and the proper marking of crab pots.

Queensland has recorded its lowest number of boating deaths in four years, but there has been a sharp increase in the number of hospitalisations. 

Maritime Safety Queensland has revealed that there were 342 reported boating incidents involving 465 vessels across the state in 2018.

Statewide almost a doubling incidents resulting in hospitalization from 19 in 2017 to 36 last year.

The UN claims that guards opened fire on migrants and refugees fleeing airstrikes that killed at least 60 people, and wounded 77 at a detention centre in Libya.

Guards at the facility denied the accusations on Thursday when they were interviewed by Al Jazeera journalists.

Two attacks hit the facility late on Tuesday, according to a report from the UN, and about 500 people are still being detained there. 

The Pacific Alliance in Latin America want to turn their regional bloc into a global powerhouse. 

The Pacific Alliance is a regional trade bloc including Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, plus 55 observer states like Argentina. 

The leaders of the four countries will meet to discuss their Strategic Vision 2030, consolidate their trade alliance, and consider integrating new members such as Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Singapore. 

Independent Senator Cory Bernardi said it was a safe bet he would retire within three years.

Senator Bernardi deregistered his Australian Conservatives party on June 28, meaning the ex-Liberal senator's South Australian seat would go back to the Liberals should he retire via a casual vacancy. 

Mr Bernardi’s departure means the Coalition will increase its numbers in the Senate from 35 to 36, reducing its reliance on the crossbench.

Prime Minister, Scott Morrison promises to consult with Labor to work on the promised religious discrimination act which he pledges to introduce to parliament this year.

The government has suggested that the religious discrimination act will be similar to Australia’s other discrimination laws, which protect from discrimination based on age, race, gender, sexuality or disability. 

Morrison says he hopes the debate is sensible and not derailed by extreme examples. 

A fire burned through a home in Brisbane’s north overnight.

Five firefrucks were called to the corner of Samford Rd and Lorne St, in Alderley at 11:30pm, to a two story home consumed in flames.

By 1:00am the fire was extinguished with no neighbouring properties affected.