A protest has been staged in Northern India after a train ran into crowds celebrating a Hindu festival, killing around 60 people.

The train hit the victims who had gathered on the railway tracks on the outskirts of Amritsar city in Punjab state on Friday to watch a firework display.

The disaster has led to new demands for safety reforms to India's accident-plagued railway system, which records thousands of deaths each year.

Swedish prosecutors have indicted 21-year-old Elin Ersson, who in July staged a standoff to prevent the deportation of a rejected asylum-seeker to Afghanistan.

Elin is a volunteer with an organisation that fights the forced return of Afghan asylum-seekers whose applications have been rejected. She filmed herself in a standoff in July with the cabin crew of a Turkish Airlines flight at Landvetter Airport in Gothenburg.

Australia has developed a world-first surveillance program that tracks adverse reactions to vaccinations.

SmartVax - a program that has monitored over one million vaccinations since 2010 -  will soon monitor every vaccine administered to Australians.

SmartVax was created in response to the 2010 Fluvax disaster, when a spike in convulsions and fever prompted Australia’s chief medical officer to suspend the flu vaccine program for children under five.

A North Queensland family has saved a toddler from a four-metre-long scrub python after it latched onto the child's arm.

The 22 month-old boy was playing at the family home in Julatten, north of Cairns, with his three-year-old sister when the python struck.

The children's mother and grandparents came to the rescue, stabbing the snake four or five times until it released the boy from its grasp.

Almost 17% of bus passengers have abandoned Brisbane’s regional bus companies and returned to their cars, figures show.

Rail Back on Track says the drop showed passengers were shunning out-of-date connections between regional bus lines because they "did not begin earlier enough or run late enough".

By contrast, Brisbane City Council’s bus lines show an overall passenger drop of 3.8 per cent. The Queensland government continues to invest in public transport and create initiatives to encourage greater use.

Saudi Arabia has now called the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its Istanbul consulate a "huge and grave mistake".

Afghanistan's second day of parliamentary elections came to a close as a roadside bomb brought the two-day death toll to over 50.

Despite the Taliban and Islamic State Affiliate warning voters against casting ballots in parliamentary elections, around 4 million of Afghanistan's 8.8 million registered voters have cast their ballots amid violence in regions including capital city, Kabul.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has summarised the practices under Catholic institutions; however, certain victims throughout Ballarat are refusing to accept the federal government’s reparations.

Certain survivor’s have dismissed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s national apology, dismissing them as “hollow” due to inconsistent reporting laws.  

Independent candidate Kerryn Phelps is predicted to win the Wentworth by-election, a seat held by the Liberal Party since the 1940s.

Phelps currently has a lead of over 1600 votes after preferences, with a swing against Liberal Candidate Dave Sharma by up to 19 per cent.

Postal votes are continued to be tallied, as well as voting booths recounted to ensure accuracy.