A scientific study has revealed the first arrival of Indigenous Australians to the continent was deliberately planned using complex technologies, with large groups first arriving over 50,000 years ago.

According to the research, at least 1300 people might have arrived in either a single migration event or smaller with successive waves averaging at least 130 people every 70 years over the course of about 700 years.

Terminally ill Victorian adults can legally ask for their doctor’s assistance to access legal euthanasia drugs from today, in an Australian first.

The assisted dying scheme will be available to patients suffering intolerable pain with fewer than six months to live and 12 months for neurodegenerative patients, providing they meet 68 conditions.

The Victorian government anticipates around 12 people will access assisted dying services under the new laws this year, increasing to about 150 each year thereafter.

161 people have been killed and almost 300,000 displaced by a resurgence of inter-ethnic conflict in northeastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The United Nations’ refugee agency says displacement centres in the region are in dire need of supplies, with humanitarian groups unable to access most of the areas affected by the violence.

The DRC has one of the world's largest numbers of displaced people, with almost 4.5 million fleeing various conflicts across the vast central African nation.

Facebook plans to launch a cryptocurrency called Libra next year as part of its wider efforts to expand beyond social networking into e-commerce and global payments.

Facebook will join with 28 partners to form Libra Association, a Geneva-based entity governing its new digital coin, which will be launched in the first half of 2020.

The Victorian Labor government is introducing new laws allowing trans, gender diverse and Intersex Victorians the option to change the sex on their birth certificate without undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

If passed by parliament, the laws will allow applicants to self-nominate the sex listed on their birth registration as male, female or any other gender diverse or non-binary descriptor of their choice.

The southern Indian city of Chennai is facing a water shortage crisis after its four main water reservoirs ran completely dry.

Residents have queued for hours to get water from government tanks, with the situation prompting clashes to break out between residents over water-sharing in the neighbourhood.

The city’s water department is identifying and extracting water from quarries in an attempt to resolve the dire situation, but officials say only rainfall can bring an end to the crisis.

Scientists fear the global climate crisis is accelerating faster than predicted after permafrost at outposts in the Canadian Arctic melted 70 years earlier than expected.

A professor of geophysics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Vladimir Romanovsky, says the melted permafrost indicates the climate is now warmer than at any point in the past 5000 years.

The executive director of Greenpeace International, Jennifer Morgan, says the premature thawing is a clear signal economies must be immediately decarbonised.

An Irish family at risk of being deported because of their son’s cystic fibrosis has been given renewed hope with news their application for permanent residency will be reviewed.

The child was deemed a “burden” to taxpayers, as treatment for his condition exceeds $40,000 per year, which is not allowed under Australian migration law.

The mother of the child, Christine Hyde, says the family's biggest concern was their child’s medication was not readily available in Ireland and hoped their application for permanent residency would be approved.

Lawyers representing sacked Ipswich City Councillors have argued they should be considered “employees” in an effort to win compensation for unfair dismissal.

Tony Morris, QC, says the fact councillors received salaries, superannuation and other perks meant they were employees of the Council and should be covered by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.

Andrew Herbert, QC, representing Ipswich City Council, says it would be ‘legal nonsense’ for councillors to be considered both employer and employee, and wants the case dismissed.