Thousands of employees across Australia are unknowingly trapped in so called "zombie" workplace contracts created during the WorkChoices era, an ABC investigation has found.

One of South Australia's largest employers, On The Run, has chosen to finally phase out WorkChoices-era contracts for over 3,000 of their employees, offering them the full workplace privileges they are entitled to.

A new Queensland-led study has found switching off gas stoves may help curb childhood asthma.

Researchers found that for 12.3 per cent of sufferers aged 14 or younger in Australia asthma was triggered or worsened by exposure to gas stoves, while exposure to damp housing accounted for 7.9 per cent.

Train crews will be rested following the rail “marathon” during the Commonwealth Games, which will impact train timetables from Monday.

Crews completed more than 200,000 kilometres of train journeys through the 11 days of Games, working around the clock to deliver a total of 270 services on the Gold Coast line daily.

Queensland Rail chief executive Nick Easy said that they are resting their hardworking train crews who have gone ‘above and beyond’ for the games.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has warned the world that further Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs.

United States, France and Britain launched 105 missiles targeting three chemical weapons facilities in Syria on Saturday, in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack in Douma on April 7.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has been blamed by the Western countries for the attack that killed dozens of people.

The Syrian government and Russia have denied participation in any such attack.

Australia’s waste industry is in need of significant change, according to experts who say the industry has been struggling under China’s ban imposed at the start of the year.

Experts say the waste industry has already reached a crisis point just several months into the ban, with stakeholders wanting immediate action.

The industry is calling for assistance to help it transition to a so-called 'circular economy' where waste would be collected, processed and then reused to make new products here in Australia.

Sunday night’s Commonwealth Games closing ceremony has been deemed a failure by reporters and the general public after event broadcasters focused too much on the entertainment with no vision of the athletes.

Athletes entered the stadium before the television broadcast and were not shown to TV audiences as they stood in darkness and many spectators left the venue less than an hour into the event.

Channel Seven commentators, Johanna Griggs and Basil Zempilas, attacked the ceremony immediately after it finished, saying they were "furious".

Australia’s waste industry is in need of significant change, according to experts who say the industry has been struggling under China’s ban imposed at the start of the year.

Experts say the waste industry has already reached a crisis point just several months into the ban, with stakeholders wanting immediate action.

The industry is calling for assistance to help it transition to a so-called 'circular economy' where waste would be collected, processed and then reused to make new products here in Australia.

Environment department investigators have rushed to the site of a potential chemical spill from an explosives storage plant at the site of a proposed super dump in Ipswich.

Photographs have emerged over the weekend showing a spill of liquid from a storage area in the suburb of New Chum – near Swanbank – into an abandoned mine.

The Ipswich City Council and the Department of Environment and Science were unaware of the leak until it was reported to both the council and the department by Fairfax Media on Friday.

Researchers who promoted an alleged cult and showcased its bizarre healing claims have ensnared the University of Queensland (UQ) in a large-scale academic misconduct probe.

The University of Queensland and two international medical journals are investigating alleged ethical violations in research around Universal Medicine (UM), an organisation based in Lismore in New South Wales which touts the healing powers of various unproven treatments.