Concerns are growing for cancer patients in Papua New Guinea as it nears two years since the country’s last radiation machine was operational.

Hundreds of patients are dying awaiting the PNG government to pass legislation to meet nuclear safety requirements and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to repair the machine.

Doctor Alfred Mel says the National Cancer Clinic has become a palliative care ward as no effective treatment is available. The only alternative is to go overseas, which is an expense many cannot afford.

President of the United States Donald Trump says he is considering eventually granting amnesty to migrants living in the US illegally, according to a tweet sent out Sunday.

The tweet, which has created anger amongst both the Democrat and Republican parties, comes as the US enters its fourth consecutive week of government shut down and is considered to be an attempt to mitigate disagreements over Trump’s border wall policy.

Trump says for now he is only offering to extend legal protections to children brought into the country illegally.

Mental health patients in rural Australia feel 'forgotten' in spite of billions of dollars in funding.

Health estimates that last year, 121 full-time-equivalent psychologists were employed to work in regional and remote areas.

One of the few rural psychologists in the North Burnett region, senior psychologist Hazel Burscough travels about 50,000 kilometres a year for work. She says she is fully booked every time when she visits a town and in one day can see up to 8 patients.

The Home Affairs Department says it will assist in funding and implementing new surveillance capabilities that will see technology companies, device manufacturers and service providers allow greater access to user data.

The legislation, rushed through parliament in the final sitting week last year, allows the home affairs department to crack encrypted messages and further investigate online behaviour of criminal suspects.

Parents and teachers say the Queensland Government's policy on air-conditioning in state schools is unfair,  disadvantaging some students based on their postcode or socioeconomic background.

The State Government provides funding to fully air-condition public schools in the north and west of Queensland, but schools south of Gladstone must find alternative funding if they wish to install climate control.

Private schools in Queensland are pushing back against the rollout of a new law that allows female students to wear pants or shorts as an alternative to skirts.

Queensland education minister Grace Grace says the government has no say in the policy of private schools, but wants students to be free to choose the type of clothing that best fits their school curriculum and activities.

Three survivors have been found in the wreckage of a migrant refugee boat in the Mediterranean sea.

Rough waters caused the boats to sink after 11 hours at sea and the majority of the 120 migrants on board are now feared dead.

Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, says Italian ports will remain closed to humanitarian boats in an effort to deter human traffickers.

52 Al-Shabaab militants have been killed by a US airstrike in Somalia on Sunday.

The strike is in retaliation for Al-Shabaab’s attack on a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi that saw a 25 year old suicide bomber kill 21 civilians.

The US has significantly increased its offence against the terrorist organisation, launching 47 airstrikes in the last year to combat the spread of Islamic law in the region.

The Great Barrier Reef Foundation has funded its first project after being awarded  the controversial $443m grant. The project is a 25-day health survey of remote parts of the reef by the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Eighteen scientists and crew are on board the research vessel RV Solander and are surveying more than 20 reefs to check for signs of coral recovery since bleaching as a result of high ocean temperatures caused mass coral mortality in 2016 and 2017.

3000 marchers rallied in Sydney on Sunday as part of a worldwide women’s rights movement.

The Hyde Park event demanded a safer space for women in Australia following the alleged murder of Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe.

Presenter and campaigner Yumi Stynes told the crowd Australia’s culture of violence against women is in crisis as the values, roles and rights of men are seen as more important than those of women.