The latest legal chapter in the case of a Tamil family, held in detention on Christmas Island, is due to be heard in a Melbourne court today.

Nadesalingam Murugappan, Kokilapathmapriya Nadesalingam, and their Australian-born daughters remain in detention as the federal government resists calls not to deport their family to Sri Lanka.

The Federal Nationals MP for the town of Biloela, Ken O'Dowd said that the ongoing uncertainty is "tearing the community apart"

Hindi and Tamil are among five new languages set to be taught in NSW schools.

The NSW public school language curriculum has also been expanded to also offer three more languageMacedonian, Punjabi and Persian, taking the number of languages on offer to 69.

Demographer Bernard Salt said the additions reflected modern Australian society, citing figures showing that 39 per cent of Sydney's population was born in another country. 

The Palaszczuk Government has committed to tighter controls on mine dust to protect mine workers on the eve of the state’s memorial day for mine victims.

The commitment comes after the discovery of dozens of confirmed cases of black lung disease have been diagnosed in former coal miners in the past two years alone. 

New fires are feared to start under the forecast of dry and gusty thunderstorms.

The storms are expected to accompany with a lot of lightening but little rain between the Queensland-NSW border and Kingaroy.

Senior forecaster Jonte Hall says the high temperatures and gusty winds might spark new fires.

India has lost contact with mission Chaandrayaan-2 moon lander after it touched down on the Moon's surface

The loss in contact follows the lander’s final approach towards the South pole of the Moon to install rovers to search for signs of water.

The landing aimed to study water deposits contained in the Moon's shadowy craters.

Cold conditions in Canberra have eased, following large snowfalls yesterday morning.

Canberran residents awoke to widespread snowfalls of 15cm, on Tuesday morning that blanketed the surrounding region and delayed highway traffic.

Indonesia has faced complaints from neighbouring countries over its failure to prevent fires which caused toxic smoke to drift across the South-East-Asian archipelago.

The transboundary haze from bush fires on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo has impacted Singapore and and Malaysia, with Kuala Lumpur copping the brunt of the haze.

The cause of fires is attributed to deforestation and burning of peatland for extracting palm oil.

Former Labor leader and Opposition services spokesman Bill Shorten has announced that a class action will be launched against the Government over the controversial “robodebt” scandal.

Gordon Legal, who will lead the proposed class action, say they will allege the federal government financially benefited through the robodebt algorithm, when it wrongfully collected and banked money that legitimately belonged to recipients.

Neil Parker, a 45-year Brisbane Bushwalkers hiking guide, splinted his shattered leg with hiking sticks and crawled for 48 hours to a clearing while lifting his broken leg every step of the way, Queensland Health have said.