Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has hinted interest in helping solve Sydney’s road congestion nightmares, quoting $1 billion on Twitter for a high-speed transit tunnel through the Blue Mountains.

People would not actually drive through the tunnel - their vehicles would be secured on platforms that can travel at high speeds between platforms.

The 50 kilometre tunnel would link the Penrith and Lithgow regions, opening up the Western parts of the state.

The future of Keith and District Hospital is in doubt as the South Australian Government reveals it has provided the facility with $400,000 in emergency relief funding.

Keith Hospital has been under financial stress and reliant on short-term funding from the Government for many years; however, local Liberal MP Nick McBride says the funds currently allocated are so tight he questions whether it will last until July.

Researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ) have found a new class of blood-pressure regulating peptides in the venom of the common vampire bat, located in Mexico and Central and South America.

UQ Associate Professor Bryan Fry says the peptides could help revolutionise treatments for conditions ranging from hypertension to heart failure, kidney diseases and burns.

Stevedoring giant, Hutchison Ports, has lost an eleventh-hour bid to force its employees to delay a wave of industrial action, including rolling strikes set to afflict its Australian port terminals from Thursday.

Unionised employees of Hutchison Ports in Sydney and Brisbane have voted to begin a series of “broad-ranging” industrial action – such as bans on specific duties and overtime, and a range of work stoppages – amid deadlocked negotiations with management over the terms of a new wage agreement.

Greens Councillor Jonathon Sri is proposing for construction companies to begin work from 7am on weekday and 8am on weekends.

Councillor Sri said the current rules don’t strike the right balance between the need for work and peace for residents.

The proposal follows a string of complaints according to Mr Sri.

In a statement, Brisbane City Council said it does not support the proposed changes.

A team of scientists in Mozambique are researching to see if poaching has altered the genetics of elephants.

The scientists noted that among elephants who have survived poaching, there has been a 30 per cent increase of females born without tusks.  

One of the researchers has said that a key explanation for the tuskless elephants is the elephants who survived poaching then passed on the tuskless trait on to their daughters.

Australia's road toll has fallen to its lowest in four years, with 78 fewer deaths in 2018 than the previous year.

There were 1,150 deaths on the nation's roads in the 12 months to December, which is the lowest total since 2014.

Despite the improvement, Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the ultimate safety outcome is a target of zero road deaths.

The blind and vision-impaired people will soon be able to gaze at the stars through a new app being developed by a Brisbane startup company.

The Astreos app, developed by OSeyeris, is designed to be used with a smartphone as an augmented reality application to allow people without sight the experience of looking at the night sky.

Despite the focus on blind users, the app also includes intricate 3D visualisations of heavenly bodies, allowing people to see the stars in a new way.

UN rights office reports that at least 890 people have been killed in ethnic violence in the north-western Democratic Republic of Congo in mid-December.

This is double the estimate provided by a local priest and civil society activist on Monday that at least 400 people had been killed in bloodshed that led the government to cancel voting there in last month’s presidential election.