Four people were found clinging to rocks after being swept away at far North Queensland gorge.

A man and woman in their 40s along with a male teenager and a boy were swept away just after 4.15pm on Thursday at Mossman Gorge, almost 80 kilometres north of Cairns.

Swift water rescue crews managed to get the four people back to dry land after they were stranded on two rocks when they were swept away by the strong current.

A Brisbane McDonald's worker who broke her leg climbing down from having a smoke on the restaurant's roof before her shift has won an appeal granting her the right to worker's compensation.

WorkCover initially rejected the workers claim for cover and her first appeal, to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, was dismissed.

The worker eventually won her Industrial Court of Queensland battle for worker's compensation this week.

The Greens are urging the government to spend $1 billion making buildings and public spaces more accessible to people with disabilities as there are mounting concerns that too many are segregated from mainstream life.

This marks a broader policy to be launched, aimed at improving and integrating people with disabilities in housing, education, and employment.

Greens disability spokesman, Jordan Steele-John, says “the reality for disabled people in Australia today is very different to people who do not journey with a disability”.

Faced with a shearer shortage, the Australian wool industry is spending $10 million on research to streamline wool harvesting.

Projects range from better shed design to robotics, including one project that would fully automate the process of getting wool off a sheep and into a bale.

The idea of robotic shearers has drawn criticism from some with shearer Sam Weatherall  saying that A robot can't feel when he sheer is on the skin, can't work around wrinkles and that it won't be efficient".

The Ugandan government is urging UK donors to check who they are giving money to after they found that at least 60 illegals orphanages and children’s homes have been funded by UK charities, church groups, and volunteers.

The Ugandan government recently announced a programme to close down more than 500 unlicensed orphanages in the country.

The government will shut down unregistered homes to try and improve oversight of children's care in the country.

Eight people have been hurt in a crash involving a commercial rigid inflatable boat on the River Thames in london

Four people - two men and two women - were taken to hospital with what were believed to be minor injuries, London Ambulance Service said.  

The Thames Clippers river bus service said one of its boats was assisting with the operation.

Facebook has removed 500 accounts and pages which are allegedly involved in distributing fake news in Central and Eastern European countries.

The accounts have more than 900,000 followers combined and more than $160,000 worth of active advertisements at time of their closure.

Facebook says the accounts are loosely connected to Russian state groups.

The African Union, a pan-African political organization, has urged the Democratic Republic of Congo to postpone the release of its presidential election results.

A number of African Union heads of state and government met in Ethiopia to release a statement about the controversial election hosted at the end of December.

The statement reads “there were serious doubt on the conformity of the provisional results, as proclaimed by the National Independent Electoral Commission”.

A Tasmanian farmer says he's lucky not to have lost his entire crop after lightning started a fire on his Central Highlands property.

Fortunately, the lightning strike did not hit the driest area of land and was spotted by a farm worker and extinguished before it spread.

As of yesterday, 64 bushfires were burning across Tasmania and authorities have called for more interstate help to battle the largest blazes, in the state's remote south-west.