The US State Department has revealed that palestinian photojournalist Yaser Murtaja  who was killed by Israeli sniper fire at a protest in Gaza on the 6th of April had been vetted by US authorities as part of of an successfull application from his organisation for a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

This casts doubt on claims from the Israeli defence department that Mr Murtaja had been a high ranking member of the islamic fundamentalist group Hamas.

Crime is twice as high in Nairobi than the average in Kenya, crime victim Edwin Inganji and two friends James Chege and Marvin Makau also developers brainstormed how they could help make people safer.

They created ‘Usalama’ a mobile app that sends a distress signal when a user shakes their phone three times alerting emergency services of their location, as well as their next of kin, and every "Usalama" user within 200m.

The founders aim to bridge this gap between mobile-savvy Kenyans and emergency providers by adding more safety elements to the app.

The Turnbull Government has refused to ban live exports despite calls to stop the practice from NSW Liberal MP Sussan Ley.

The former Health Minister said it's “time to pick a date by which all live sheep exports must end, we can work with the industry and farmers to make this happen.”

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud however, said this is not going to happen as putting a “ban on the whole industry would only punish those exporters and farmers who have done no wrong,"

A newborn baby has been found on a footpath in inner Sydney last night, after a resident allegedly delivered the child near a grate.

It is believed a resident found the baby, believed to be two to three weeks old, on the footpath outside her home in Surry Hills, just before midnight.

Inspector Peter Eastman said the baby was taken to hospital in a stable condition, whilst police established a crime scene where the infant was found.

Brisbane-based jeweller Butterfly Silver is set to close all 19 of their stores in Australia including 13 in Queensland after falling into voluntary administration.

The company, which sells sterling silver earrings, necklaces and charms, is advertising a “closing down sale” online.

Neil Shilbury, from the consumer credit reporting agency, Equifax said, “Many of the industries seeing an increase in insolvencies, like retail, are also those facing disruption from new market entrants” such as Amazon.

A red belly black snake has been removed from a Queensland home after it was discovered under a pile of toys in a child’s cot.

Professional snake handler Andrew Smedley was called out to a property in Peak Crossing, near Ipswich, where he sized up the cot before sifting through the contents in search for the snake with his bare hands.

Mr Smedley said the little girl wasn’t home at the time the snake was spotted and it was lucky her father noticed it when he did.

Elephants at the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania are being fitted with GPS collars in response to a 90% reduction in populations of elephants in the reserve.

GPS collars have been used to track elephants in the park before, but this latest initiative in conjunction with the World Wildlife Foundation is the largest collaring effort to date, with up 60 elephants to be tagged in the next 12 months.

It’s hoped that the collars will enable park rangers to respond to threats to the elephants in real-time, vital in such a large area.

Journalist Marie Colvin’s sister Cat said she and her lawyer have evidence that the Syrian government specifically attacked Colvin when she was killed by a rocket while covering the siege of Homs in Syria.

Court documents released said a former Syrian intelligence agent alleges an informant told the Damascus government about Colvin's location the night before she was killed.