A severe tropical cyclone, titled Cyclone Veronica, brewing north of Western Australia has intensified more rapidly than expected, reaching a category four severity.

The incoming cyclone has prompted warnings of heavy rainfall, damaging winds and a destructive storm surge along coastal areas.

The slow-moving system is tracking south-west, but is expected to veer towards the coast after developing into a category five system early on Friday morning.

Cricket Australia is hoping an increase in elite coaching will boost the performance of its intellectually disabled men's side and attract new players to the sport.

It is the first time the camp has been run with the players having their expenses paid to fly across the country to stay in Brisbane.

The increased support from Cricket Australia is a significant positive change and recognition more funding is needed to compete with the elite English teams.

The Queensland Farmers Federation is calling for the state government to get on board the Inland Rail line.

The CSIRO Transit- Inland Rail Pilot Study Report found producers of horticultural and processed foods such as diary and chilled meat stand to save an of $76 per tonne by shifting agricultural freight onto the Inland Rail line.

The exclusion zone surrounding Townsville’s Suncorp Bank in the CBD has been revoked two days after concerns were raised regarding the safety of the building.

A piece of concrete on the building facade slipped several centimetres and was noticed on Tuesday, which prompted the evacuation of the entire city block.

The entire city was placed into an exclusion zone which covered about 20 buildings.

Amnesty International has criticised the environmentally-friendly electrical vehicle industry for producing batteries using fossil fuels and unethically-source minerals.

The rights group said manufacturing batteries can be carbon-intensive and mineral extraction has been linked to human rights violations such as child labour.

Amnesty is demanding that the Electrical Vehicle industry rectify the ethical and environmental issues within five years and that carbon footprints and key mineral supply-chains are to be disclosed.

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.