A report released today names Brisbane’s northside stretch the state’s most dangerous road for serious car crashes.

AAMI’s annual crash index reveals Gympie Road has seen a significant rise in crashes over the last financial year.

Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, Sunnybank’s Mains Road and Logan Road at Mount Gravatt also appeared in the top ten crash hotspots.

The State Government has had to step in to stop Queensland Rail senior managers from sharing $3.6 million in bonuses.

The bonuses were approved by QR on Friday and would have granted bonuses to 380 staffers.

This comes despite earlier advice from Transport Minister Mark Bailey that no bonuses should be paid until QR timetables were restored and services were back to normal.

Mr Bailey said he was furious and issued a joint directive with the Deputy Premiere to reverse the decision.

Iraq’s Parliament has elected a veteran Kurdish politician as the country’s new president, in a step towards forming a new government.

Barham Salih (bara-ham sal-ee) of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), won 220 votes out of the 273 lawmakers who attended Tuesday's session.

He was among 20 candidates for the post, including one from the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) with two parties dominating Kurdish politics for decades.

The death toll from the Indonesian quake and tsunami on the island of Sulawesi (Sul-a-wesi) has climbed to 1,347 according to the country’s disaster management agency.

Authorities and aid workers struggled to reach the affected areas made inaccessible by damaged infrastructure.

Some remote areas are still cut off after friday’s magnitude 7.5 quake triggered massive tsunami waves destroying roads and bridges, damaging 65,000 homes and displacing over 60,000 people.

Casual employees now have the right to ask for a permanent contract if they’ve worked regular hours for at least a year, thanks to a new ruling from the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Employers can refuse the request, however, they must consult with their employee first and provide an explanation based on reasonable grounds.

Australian Council of Trade Unions President Michelle O’Neill says this is an important change as every employee should be able to have secure work.

Australia is set to become the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health issue, following the success of screening and vaccination programs.

This news comes as new research predicts the rate of cervical cancer in Australia will fall to less than 6 in 100,000 by 2022 and below 4 in 100,000 by 2035.

Professor Karen Canfell from the Cancer Council says it's exciting news, but we still need to maintain our efforts against the disease.

An off duty detective working in the states anti-corruption agency has been demoted after using a confidential police database for personal reasons.

According to evidence submitted to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, the detective used the database to look up a man’s details after an altercation regarding an oven.

This breach of conduct represents a trend of misuse of confidential information, with 9 per cent of all cases reported this year being related to Queensland Police Officers.  

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (Pala-shay) defends the pay packets given to the state’s top bureaucrats and deems them appropriate.

Figures show more than a dozen public servants are earning more than the premier, including her own director-general Dave Stewart, who earns one-third more.

The premier also says she is not happy with less than one-fifth of top ranks being held by women.