A 73-year-old Halcyon Parks resident has been preparing to participate in the 5km race at the Sunshine Coast Marathon.

Ash O’Neil says health is an important aspect of his life that he has retained all the way through.

Every entry into the event will result in $5 being donated to the Ronald Mcdonald House.

A club linked to a long-term business partner of Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate may escape paying a $137,000 debt owed to the Gold Coast City Council.

Mr Tate’s connection to the Gold Coast Commerce club is unclear but allegedly is a key stakeholder of companies connected to the club.

The club's treasurer says it has been "wrongly charged" with the dues, a claim the council rejects

Australia has been the latest country to join the lab-grown meat industry with two new companies, Heuros in Canberra and VOW in Sydney, aiming to commercialise meat grown from stem cells in a laboratory.

So far the industry has been dominated by food-tech start-ups in Europe, Israel and California’s Silicon Valley, however no company anywhere in the world has released a commercial product.

A multi million-dollar class action by former senior public servants hoping to get back extra pay after being made redundant from Airservices Australia has been scuttled by a federal court judgement.

The court did not rule directly on their case, but on separate actions launched by former Airservices Manager Catherine Duck.

This case serves as a test for class action in relation to this company, which lawyers say have been launched by 350 retrenched managers.

Villagers in northeastern Nigeria are fleeing their homes after armed men on motorbikes roared into their area and gunned down funeral mourners on Saturday killing at least 65 people.

Officials have attributed the attack to Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist group, however there has been no immediate claim for the assault.

Villagers have formed defence groups armed with hunting guns and knives to resist Boko Haram and had repelled a militant assault two weeks earlier. 

Several dozen heavily armed minors dressed in military fatigues invaded an indigenous village, fatally stabbing at least one of the community’s leaders in remote Northern Brazil on Saturday.

The violence comes as miners and loggers are making increasingly bold and defiant incursions into protected areas, including indigenous territories.

Brazilian president Bolsonaro has stated indigenous communities should be opened to industry to make them more profitable.

The number of State Emergency Service volunteers have been steadily declining with almost 1000 personnel quitting over the past 3 years.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Acting Commissioner, Mike Wassing, said volunteer numbers would “eb and flow” with community demographics and SES services would not be affected by declining numbers.

Younger people focusing on relationships and employment is also thought to be a reason for the reduction in volunteers.

Accountants based in regional areas are getting mental health first aid training to help them work with clients whose financial pressures are causing them emotional distress.

Central Queensland Accountant Andy Freeman took up the offer for the training from Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand after regularly finding himself a confidant to struggling clients.

The NSW parliament has introduced a bill to decriminalise abortion in the state co-sponsored by 15 people across the political spectrum, aiming to achieve legal termination of pregnancy up to 22 weeks.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and several ministers have confirmed they will support the bill, the first of its kind in NSW history.

NSW is the only state in Australia that has not decriminalised abortion.