Glencore’s Hail Creek coal mine in the Bowen Basin near Mackay will make more than 400 workers redundant due to a recent restructure of the mine.

Meetings were held by the global resources giant on Monday at the Mackay showgrounds, to announce its reconfiguration of the two dragline operation.

Over 30 per cent of the mine’s current workforce is expected to be cut, reducing the numbers of workers from 1,360 to 930.

A young mother who was pelted with large hailstones while shielding her baby during a Queensland thunderstorm last week will be nominated for a bravery award.

After large hailstones blew out her car windshield last week near Kingaroy, 23 year old mother Fiona Simpson used her body to cover her baby daughter.

The department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet issue these bravery awards in Australia, ranging from the highest honour of the Cross of Valour, to a commendation for Brave Conduct.

A top Australian medical alliance warns overdiagnosis is exposing healthy people to tests and treatments that are useless at best, and at worst triggers of severe side effects.

A Medical Journal of Australia study released on Monday revealed some of the country’s foremost health experts have laid out plans for national action against overdiagnosis for everything from ADHD to cancer.

A charity in support of nicotine vaping in Australia has accepted overseas funds from a group with links to tobacco multinationals.

Against their public policy, the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association accepted $8000 dollars from a similar UK organisation that had been partially funded by tobacco companies.

“Harm reduction” aims to lessen the health risks of a product rather than banning it, but critics believe tobacco companies co-opt the term to improve their reputation.

Bangladeshi journalists have protested the state’s new digital security act.

The journalists formed a human chain outside the National Press Club against the act, which introduces prison sentences of up to 14 years for gathering government information on a computer.

The editors said the laws will have a ‘chilling effect on media freedom’.

At least 11 people have died due to flash flooding in France on Monday.

The heavy rainfall, equivalent to three months of downpour, came overnight and caused some rivers to reach levels not seen in 100 years.

Interior ministry spokesman, Frederic de Lanouvelle, said rescue teams were deployed as quickly as possible, but operations were complicated due to the conditions.

The investigation into the deliberate contamination of strawberries across Australia last month has been scaled back to just one full time detective.

A lack of leads and a series of ‘copycat’ offences reduced the investigation conducted by Queensland Police down from 100 officers.

The nationwide hunt has been running since September, after sewing needles were found inside strawberries sold across Australia, prompting the removal of six fruit brands from shelves.

Woodford Folk Festival will be offering punters an environmentally friendly alternative this year for camping, introducing cardboard tents.

Dutch company KarTent is behind the innovative camping gear, which is already used at more than 600 events worldwide and ten festivals in Australia.

KarTent chief executive Jan Portheine has stated the cardboard tents have been tested in Australian conditions, with tents lasting anywhere from nine days to three-and-a-half months in the rain

Australia’s Grand Mufti Sheik Hilaly opposes Bill Shorten’s proposed changes to discrimination laws, saying gay teachers in Islamic schools engage in “abnormal practices that contradict nature.”

After the leaking of the Ruddock report on religious freedoms last week, the opposition leader called for the removal of laws allowing faith-based schools to discriminate against students or teachers based on sexuality.

Sheik Hilaly’s reappointment as Grand Mufti of Australia last month is disputed by the Australian National Imams Council.