A spacecraft has successfully fired a harpoon into a target orbiting Earth in an operation that could help clean up the tonnes of space junk threatening satellites.

It was the third of four experiments in where scientists of the RemoveDEBRIS spacecraft, fired a harpoon at a speed of 20 meters per second to hit the target.

Indonesian police insist an explosion near the venue of last night's presidential debate was a firecracker, not a bomb.

The blast occurred while President Joko Widodo and challenger Prabowo Subianto were on stage at Jakarta's Sultan Hotel for a televised pre-election debate.

Footage recorded on mobile phones showed people running in fear, while a voice, amplified by loudspeaker, urged them not to panic.

India is warning of rising communal tensions after a Kashmiri suicide bomber killed 44 policemen in the region last week.

The attack has prompted backlash against the Kashmiri Muslim population, hundreds of which now face property evictions after a village headman declared housing them to be an act of treason.

The Federal Interior Ministry has issued an advisory to all states to ensure the safety and security of the Kashmiri Muslim minority, and in same cases Kashmiri students are being held as a precaution in police guarded hostels.

An Australian-first study into imaged-based sexual abuse - also known as revenge porn - has found nearly one in 10 adults have taken nude photos or recorded footage of others without consent.

RMIT researchers surveyed 4,200 people aged 16 to 49 and found more than 6% of respondents have shared the images or footage and close to 5% had made threats to do so.

Labor warns it will embrace the hard line border control policies of the current government and forcibly return South-East Asian refugees if elected this May.

The comments come in spite of world wide condemnation of the policies which have seen would-be refugees languishing in detention centers for years without adequate medical aid.

Shadow immigration minister Scott Neumann issued a statement to migrants on Friday, warning the journey across the Timor sea would not be worth their money or their lives.

Disaster assistance has been extended to Cassowary Coast Regional Council, as well as primary producers in Charters Towers, Croydon and Etheridge affected by Queensland’s monsoonal floods.

Assistance is being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-Queensland Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) and is in addition to assistance already activated for the flooding event.

Queensland’s Lockyer Valley is replanting more than 12,000 koala food trees in hopes of attracting koalas’ return to the region.

The new forest sits between healthy koala populations at Rosewood and Walloon but growing residential development on the lower end of the forest is putting pressure on environmental conservation.

Ipswich City Council Planning Officer John Young says there are already promising signs of return and the council expects this to continue as the trees grow, the canopy closes and ongoing wild dog management yields results.

The Vatican is convening senior bishops from around the world this week to discuss the management and prevention of sexual abuse within the Catholic church.

The unprecedented meeting will attempt to tackle the two-decade long scandal that saw predator priests relocated from parish to parish, rather than reported to authorities.

Father Federico Lombardi says the credibility of the Catholic church is at stake and no member of the hierarchy is immune to repercussions.

The Financial Times reported yesterday Berlin will stop extraditing Germans to Britain immediately after Brexit even if it leaves the European Union with a deal, citing a formal notification submitted by Germany to the European Commission last week.

The notification cites concerns faced by Britain and the EU in maintaining their security cooperation at the current level after Brexit, according to the report.

Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29.