Authorities will investigate whether five central Portugal wildfires were deliberately lit after breaking out in the same pine forest Saturday afternoon. 

Portugal Interior Minister Eduardo Cabrita said it is suspicious that such large fires started in such close proximity.

About 1,800 firefighters and hundreds of vehicles have been containing the blaze, which has left 20 people injured so far.

A whale caught in a shark net off Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast yesterday, struggling to free itself before being untangled by rescuers.

Queensland’s Marine Animal Release Team said they had unpicked the net by 2:30pm and the whale looked uninjured as it swam away.

Whales caught in shark nets are rare events according to the team, who says more than 33,000 whales pass the area each year. 

The white spot virus outbreak that devastated South-East Queensland prawn farms two years ago may finally be over, with latest biosecurity tests showing up clean.

Australian Prawn Farmers President Matt West says he wants to thank the Logan farmers who closed their farms in a bid to contain the disease.

Minister for Agriculture Mark Furner said Australia can be declared free of white spot disease if no traces are found in a round of tests next year.

One of the world’s top 100 most invasive species, yellow crazy ants, have been found on the mainland near the Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef. 

The yellow crazy ants are known to cause devastation to native wildlife by creating super colonies and spraying formic acid that can blind and kill other animals. 

Whitsunday Regional Council’s resource manager Scott Hardy said campgrounds and tourists boats are being monitored to prevent the ants from spreading to the islands. 

Perth commuters are favouring cars over public transport despite a $4 billion investment in the Western Australia public transport system.

Professor Newman says billions spent on new road infrastructure in previous years has discouraged public transport use.

Public transport usage declined in Perth at the end of mining boom in 2014, because public transport took longer and was pricier than cars. 

Russian space capsule with 3 astronauts aboard successfully docked at the International Space Station on Saturday. 

The Soyuz capsule docked after six hours and 20 minutes from when it blasted off from the Russia’s launch complex.

The Russian, Italian and American astronauts will join some other astronauts who have been aboard the space station since March. 

Brazil’s national space institute is under fire from the country’s own president for “smearing Brazil’s reputation” in a new report on rainforest clearing in the Amazon.

The National Space Research Institute reported their being a 70 per-cent increase in deforestation, but President Jair Bolsonaro says this is a lie.

Previous Brazilian governments had successfully introduced fines and worked with federal agencies to reduce the rate of deforestation in the Amazon.