New flights direct from Seoul to the Gold Coast will pump more than $176 million into the economy and create close to 2000 jobs over the next three years.

Assistant Tourism Industry Development Minister Meaghan Scanlon says the new flights were secured through the Palaszczuk Government’s Attracting Aviation Investment Fund.

Ms Scanlon says the new Jetstar route – in partnership with Jeju Air – would operate three times a week from December.

Another four of the 11 activist women on trial and being detained in Saudi Arabia have been provisionally released, bringing the total to seven women.

The activists are being charged with contacting foreign media, diplomats and human rights after they were arrested in an apparent crackdown of supporters of women’s rights.

This release comes after international pressure to release the women from the ‘torturous’ environment where they have accused interrogators of sexual abuse.

A new report released by the US Military, has estimated a major spike in sexual assaults throughout the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, despite efforts to curb these acts.

Although Sexual harassment and assault is illegal in the US the report presents a 38% increase in recorded incidents since 2016, with only a third of assaults being reported, and the youngest recruits being most at risk.

Adani's proposed Carmichael coal mine has been dealt another setback, after Queensland's Environment Department rejected the mining hopeful's management plan for the black-throated finch.

The management plan is one of two approvals that need to be cleared by the State Government before work can begin on constructing the mine in the Galilee Basin.

A debate over artificial turf and its contribution to urban heat is warming up after an Adelaide council removed a ban on residents laying it on the road verge.

City of Marion councillors last week voted against staff guidelines to allow fake grass on the verge as an alternative to lawn — a practice popular across the country during the millennium drought when strict water restrictions were in place.

Another $50 will be wiped off 1.9 million household power bills as Queenslanders again enjoy the dividends from their own electricity assets.

Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham says the second annual $50 dividend would start to appear this week on power bills, as part of the Palasczuk Government’s Affordable Energy Plan.

Dr Lynham says this dividend, and all of the government initiatives to put downward pressure on electricity prices, are only possible because we own our electricity assets – the generation, the poles and the wires.

Public transport patronage in the south east is on track for its second year of record growth, new data has revealed.

The Queensland Government’s latest TransLink Tracker Report shows more than 45 million trips were recorded on buses, trains, light rail and ferries during the second quarter of 2018/19 being a five per cent increase compared to last year.

Indian and Bangladesh authorities have raced to complete the evacuation of more than one million people out of the path of an extreme cyclone.

The cyclone is currently heading towards the Bay of Bengal coast with winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour.

Major airports were closed in India's eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal and the railway network virtually closed down ahead of the arrival of Extremely Severe Cyclone Fani - expected to be the biggest storm to hit the region in more than two decades - on Friday morning.