The Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has signed a bill into law penalising a range of acts of sexual harassment including catcalling, wolf-whistling and persistent telling of sexual jokes, which pro-women's groups have accused him of committing.

Restaurants, bars and cinemas will also be required to install clearly visible warning signs against would-be violators, with penalties including fines and imprisonment depending on the severity of the offence. 

A school in Sierra Leone has defied the country’s ban on allowing pregnant girls from attending school amidst growing pressure against the laws. 

The West African country banned pregnant schoolgirls from attending classes in 2015, when the number of teenage pregnancies rose during a massive Ebola outbreak, largely due to an increase in cases of rape. 

The school’s principal, Eric Conteh, risks being fired for defying the law, but says ‘there is no reason a child should be denied her basic human rights just because she is pregnant.’

Australian scientists at Queensland University of Technology have developed a material that can be turned from solid to liquid using just light and darkness, in a world-first breakthrough. 

The type of material, which is solid when green light is shone on it but slowly becomes liquid when left in darkness, has been categorised by researchers as Light-Stabilised Dynamic Material, or LSDM. 

The NRL has appointed Belinda Sharpe as the first woman to referee a top-grade men’s rugby league match in Thursday’s fixture between the Broncos and the Bulldogs at Lang Park. 

Sharpe, who has been an NRL touch judge since 2014, said she hoped her appointment would pave the way for more women to take up refereeing

NRL Head of Football Graham Annesley has praised the increasing profile of women’s rugby league in Australia, including the launch of the NRLW and the women’s State of Origin.

A list of South Australian buildings which may contain highly-flammable cladding will remain secret after the State Government refused a Freedom of Information request from the ABC.

The Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure has refused to provide the list of buildings identified through a statewide audit, citing among its concerns the impact on the department's "business affairs".

Influenza has claimed four more lives in the past week in Western Australia with the state’s influenza related deaths increasing 940% to 52 lives.

While it is shaping up to be WA’s most deadly flu season in a decade, the Health Department warns against comparing cases from year to year with this year’s season starting two months earlier, making the comparison of severity difficult. 

A young woman in El Salvador who gave birth to a baby in a toilet is facing a second trial for murder after the country’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial. .

Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez says she didn’t know she was pregnant, as a result of rape, however prosecutors accused her of murder after forensic investigators were unable to determine the cause of the baby’s death.

Australia could soon have a new country as a neighbour when Papua New Guinea’s autonomous region of Bougainville votes in an independence referendum in October.

The referendum comes nearly thirty years after the beginning of a civil war on the island, which claimed thousands of lives and forced many to flee overseas. 

Voters in the referendum will be asked if they want greater autonomy from PNG, or full independence for the region of just over 300 thousand people.