A Sydney couple have pleaded not guilty to charges of reckless grievous bodily harm and failing to provide for a child after feeding their 20-month-old daughter a strict vegan diet which left her “malnourished” and suffering rickets.

The pair were arrested in Sydney’s eastern suburbs last Friday after their daughter was allegedly found to be severely deficient in vitamin D, vitamin B12, zinc and iron.

Authorities became aware of the girl when she was presented to Sydney Children’s Hospital after suffering a seizure on March 10 this year.

Tony Abbott has accused Malcolm Turnbull of behaving like a “clever barrister” after the Prime Minister denied a story in The Australian newspaper that claimed immigration minister Peter Dutton raised the prospect of reducing Australia’s annual permanent immigration intake in cabinet.

Mr Dutton allegedly proposed the number of immigrants allowed into the country be reduced by 20,000 to 170,000 people, which the article states Mr Turnbull overruled.

The final public hearing of a senate inquiry into flight services to rural queensland begins today in Cloncurry.

The inquiry, conducted by the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee, has surveyed the operations, regulation and funding of air route service delivery to rural and remote communities and hopes that its findings will lead to reduced costs for commercial airline flights to and from these areas.

Indigenous activists temporarily shut down the Gold Coast light rail system yesterday after 50 protesters stood across the tracks on Scarborough Street in Southport.

The light rail system is a crucial part of the Gold Coast public transport system for the Commonwealth Games.

The protest is another event of the “Stolenwealth Games” campaign which attempts to draw attention to issues that still plague Indigenous Australians.

A melanoma patient is working with Cancer Council Australia and the Melanoma Institute Australia to get more aussies using umbrellas to protect themselves from UV.

After being diagnosed five years ago, Damien MacRae has taken sun protection very seriously by slip-slop-slapping and bring a “mobile shade” of a UV blocking umbrella.

Mr MacRae is concerned that so many Aussies aren’t using umbrellas or parasols on an everyday basis as they reduce the risk of skin cancer.

Star wars may be closer than we think as experts warn intergalactic combat is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’.

Academics from Australia, the UK and US are collaborating on the Woomera Manual which will outline military and security laws by 2020.

Melissa de Zwart, the dean of law at the University of Adelaide says space-based assets are increasing in value, but legal regimes that govern outer space activity are currently very unclear and are important to document as there are more competitors in the space race than ever before.

Indian housewives are beating down tradition and discrimination to study to be Hindu priests.

Seventy-two year old, Sailja Joshi is the oldest female student at a school in west India says “host families have more trust in female priests because they perform rituals sincerely.”

Men vastly outnumber women in religious roles, despite there being nothing in Hindu holy books banning women to do so; rather it has been centuries of convention that have dictated only high class men who can become priests.

A woman who conned her family and friends out of almost $42 000 for fake cancer treatment has been given a three month jail sentence.

In 2013, nineteen year old Hanna Dickenson told her parents she was gravely ill with cancer and required an overseas trip for treatment or she would die within months. Three family friends donated a combined $41 700 for her trip. Dickenson then used the money for partying, drugs and an unrelated overseas trip.