A major score-rigging scandal has engulfed one of Tokyo's medical schools, with an investigation revealing the university deliberately marked down all female applicants to limit the number of women studying at the school.

It is understood the senior officials at Tokyo Medical University wanted to keep the number of women at about 30
per cent, so they altered the computerised marking system.

The practice had reportedly been going on for more than a decade.

Former governor-general Dr Peter Hollingworth is being urged to forego hundreds of thousands of dollars from his taxpayer-funded pension and entitlements he receives every year.

Dr Hollingworth resigned as governor-general in 2003 after a series of scandals over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests and teaching staff while he was the archbishop of Brisbane in the 1990s.

Schools and parents will get NAPLAN results this month, but the agency responsible did not say whether it would still provide an accurate national picture of student performance.

Senior state education officials raised questions on Wednesday about whether results from the new online NAPLAN test, sat by students at a fifth of Australian schools in May, was statistically comparable with results from the pen-and-paper version sat by everyone else.

Brisbane City Council spent almost $14,000 of ratepayers money to send promotional material outlining the LNP’s budget commitments to four non-LNP wards.

On Tuesday, it was revealed the council spent $13,975 on sending Lord Mayor Graham Quirk’s 2018-19 Budget Newsletter for four council wards including
Deagon, Forest Lake, Tennyson and The Gabba.

Labor
councillors represent Deagon and Forest Lake wards, independent councillor Nicole Johnston is the councillor for Tennyson while Greens councillor Jonathan Sri represents The Gabba.

Drones have locked down a south-east Queensland prison for the second time in less than a month, according to a spokeswoman for Queensland Corrective Services.

Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, located in Darra, was locked down and searched on Tuesday after two drones were seen "flying near or over the prison”.

Trials began last month at Woodford Correctional Centre to detect drones and track drones' source using radio waves.

Clues to the mystery of why Viking colonies in Greenland thrived and disappeared have been found in the DNA of medieval walrus bones housed in more than a dozen European museums.

On Greenland, they had elaborate stone churches with bronze bells and stained glass, a monastery, and their own bishop. Their colonies at one time supported more than 2000 people. And then they vanished.

The US Government says it will impose fresh sanctions on Russia after it determined that Moscow used a nerve agent against a former Russian agent and his daughter in the UK.

Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in Russia's GRU military intelligence service, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were found slumped unconscious on a bench in March after a liquid type of nerve agent was applied to his home's front door.

The national building regulator needed to be "publicly exposed" for wasting taxpayer money after it made an "outrageous" decision to take legal action against two union officials for having a cup of tea, the federal court has said.

Federal Court Justice Tony North said the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) had wasted money taking legal action against the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union officials.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is tightening drought assistance pressure on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by calling for the government’s $12,000 cash grants to farmers to be accelerated to September 1.

Mr Shorten also announced a $20 million scheme to fund outback councils to create jobs.

Mr Turnbull on Sunday announced the scheme to be paid to drought-ravaged farmers on top of their $16,000 annual Farm Household Allowance.

However, some farmers criticised the plan as “too little too late”.