Facebook has been slammed for allowing a 16-year-old child bride in South Sudan to be auctioned off to the highest bidder on the social media platform.

It took Facebook just over two weeks to delete the post, despite the company repeatedly claiming to work around the clock to remove prohibited content.

Critics have called this a ‘barbaric use of technology’, likening it to ‘latter day slave markets’.

Opposition leader, Bill Shorten will formally adopt former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG) as Labor policy.

Australian households will be offered federal rebates to install solar storage batteries under a federal Labor energy policy which will also direct funding towards solar, wind, and hydro projects.

Mr Shorten will promise massive spending on renewable energy projects, with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to have its funding topped up to $10 billion.

The New South Wales child protection agency has directed that children in its care maintain their connection with a group that a Supreme Court jury has branded a "socially harmful cult"

Links between the cult group Universal Medicine and the Family and Community Services office at Lismore in far northern NSW have been found prompting the Office of the Children's Guardian to issue an internal ban on referring children to the controversial occult healing group.

A remote Indigenous community about two hours drive from Rockhampton has introduced nightly curfews for youths, as they say they are running out of options to control youth crime.

The curfew in the central Queensland community of Woorabinda is from 8:30pm every night and is being enforced by groups of local volunteers.

Gold Coast based charity, Support the Girls Australia is helping single mothers living with their children in their cars by providing underwear, sanitary products, and toiletries.

Homeless families on the Gold Coast are on the rise, and many mothers are choosing the safety of their vehicle or a tent rather than a temporary shelter or living in an abusive relationship.

The crisis in Yemen continues to unfold with 85,000 children dead since 2015. According to Save the Children, they may have died from starvation or disease.

The estimate was based on data compiled by the United Nations, which has warned that up to 14 million people are at risk of famine in Yemen, where Saudi-backed forces are battling Iran-aligned Huthi rebels.

Save the Children director in Yemen, Tamer Kirolos, said for every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving from a preventable death.

A 14-year-old girl in a rural Indian village has died after she was forced to sleep alone in a hut during Cyclone Gaja as the girl was menstruating.

A coconut tree fell on the girl’s hut, which made it impossible for her family to reach her. They survived the cyclone despite sheltering in a neighbouring hut.

Villagers say it is common practice to segregate menstruating girls, and the girl’s death is a “wake up call”.

Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence has set foot in Australia for the first time in 13 years, landing in Brisbane after her release from prison in Indonesia.

Lawrence was yesterday released from Bangli Prison, where she spent the last four years of her sentence, before flying out of Denpasar International Airport late last night.

She landed in Brisbane just before 5:00am (AEST) and is expected to board a flight to Newcastle later this morning.

Online retail giant Amazon has backflipped on its unpopular decision earlier this year to block Australian shoppers from shipping goods traditionally bought from the US store.

The decision, announced on the 1st of July as a result of the Federal government’s move to charge GST for international online purchases, prompted a major backlash from Australian customers.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison estimates the Government will gain about $300 million in additional revenue by extending GST to online sales.