Sweden is set to grant protection to all Uighurs seeking refugee status citing the United Nation’s concerns that China is holding up to a million of them in ‘re-education camps’.

This decision comes as part of the effort to protect the Turkic minority from alleged internment camps in China and will make it easier for them to gain asylum and residence permits in the country.

The Swedish Migration Agency has announced that all Uighurs will be granted protection status upon presentation of sufficient evidence to prove they face persecution.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has criticised student protesters following a strike against climate change last Friday.

Mr Dutton said that without coal-fired power, it is “100 per cent right” to suggest that Australia would be sitting in the dark.

Mr Dutton said that the debate has gotten “stupid” and that it “defies common sense”.

More than 90 Victorian prisoners have been diagnosed with the flu or with "flu-like symptoms" as health authorities warn an outbreak has affected more than 3,400 people across the state.

A corrections source told the ABC convicted child sex offender George Pell was among those taken to hospital, but the Victorian Department of Justice said otherwise.

There has been 19 confirmed flu cases in Victorian prisons with 73 prisoners presenting "flu-like symptoms" and 13 confirmed cases at the Metropolitan Remand Centre at Ravenhall.

Almost one in five calls to Policelink were not answered last year, reports have shown.

197, 648 ( a hundred and ninety seven thousand, six hundred and forty eight)  calls were either unanswered or disconnected in 2018, which was more than double the figures from the previous year and 644 percent more than 2014.

With 17 per cent of all Policelink calls going unanswered, Queensland Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said such information is vital to crime prevention and that police officers are missing out on vital tip-offs.

TransLink data shows on any school day almost 4000 students don’t pay their bus fares, costing an extra half a million dollars more annually than three years ago.

The number of students evading fares has tripled over just the last two years, correlating with a 51 per cent drop in revenue from Gold Coast school bus services over the same period.

Bus drivers are not allowed to refuse service to students, leading to Queensland bus drivers recording 1.53 million fare evasions in the last financial year, almost double the previous year before.

New Zealand will hold two minutes of silence tomorrow, marking one week since 50 people were killed in terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said tomorrow’s commemoration will also include the Muslim call to prayer being broadcast nationally on TV and radio, and that plans are under way for a further memorial service next week.

The plans come as New Zealand’s foreign minister Winston Peters travels to Turkey to confront President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his comments about New Zealand following the Christchurch attacks.

A hidden spycam ring in South Korea has been accused of secretly filming 1600 hotel room guests and live-streamed the footage online.

South Korean police have so far arrested four men accused of using the hidden cameras installed in TVs, wall sockets and hairdryer holders.

The devices were found in 42 rooms at 30 hotels across 10 South Korean cities.

Police said there was no evidence showing the businesses were aware of the privacy breach.

David Leyonhjelm's former chief of staff is filling his Senate seat, after the former senator stepped down to contest the NSW state election.

Duncan Spender, who founded the Liberal Democrats, will be filling the federal upper house seat in Canberra.

He will be sworn in the next Senate meeting on April 2.

Tropical cyclone Veronica has intensified to category three as it heads towards the Western Australian coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the forecast track has some uncertainty but there is potential for severe tropical cyclone impact along the Pilbara coast over the weekend.

People near Mardie and Pardoo, including Port Hedland, South Hedland, Wickham, Roebourne, Point Samson, Karratha and Dampier are being warned to prepare for cyclonic weather.

The Brisbane City Council has found that U-turn signs have too many words on them, with simpler signs being trialled across the city.

The trial is set to replace the current ‘U-turns prohibited sign’ with image-based signs at six locations across the city.

Infrastructure chair Amanda Cooper said the new signs aim to reduce the amount of illegal U-turns which can cause traffic accidents and increase congestion.