Figures have revealed that Brisbane drivers are more likely to pay for tolls in order to avoid congestion.

Tolling company Transurban’s six- monthly financial results show that increased road works and traffic on alternate toll free-roads means time saving routes are more appealing to drivers.

The largest traffic growth is the Airport Link Tunnel between Bowen Hills and Brisbane airport at a 5.9 per cent increase.

Queensland’s disaster experts could be sent to Puerto Rico in an effort to help the hurricane ravaged island get back on its feet.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk met yesterday with Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello to offer assistance following the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.

Ms Palaszczuk has said she wishes to ensure Puerto Rico has full access to Queensland Reconstruction Authority and other departmental officials involved in responding to the damage from the Hurricane.

Six people have been injured following a blast that destroyed a convenience store and home in the English city of Leicester.

Six fire engines and a hazardous material response team were deployed to the scene, treating the situation as a search and rescue operation.

Police said the “the cause of the explosion will be the subject of a joint investigation by the police and Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service”.

The National Rifle Association in the United States have pushed back on Trump’s proposals to gun law reform in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in which 17 people were killed.

Trump has declared support for raising the age limit to 21 from 18 for buying rifles after the high school shooter was only 19 when he legally purchased a semi-automatic rifle.

Trump has also said he supports legislation to tighten background checks for gun buyers, the details of which he has not yet specified.

Developers are increasing social housing by 10% with the redevelopment of nine inner-city estates in Melbourne.

The plan is to sell the land to the developers on the condition that an additional 10% of social housing is built on the sites to meet the demand for social housing, with an estimated 57,000 applicants on the waitlist.

Police investigating the disappearance of Western Australian man Dean Patrick White, have been confronted with a mystery that is stretching across the nation.

Mr White, better known as ‘Whitey’, is 55 years old and was last seen in Quairading, in WA's Wheatbelt, on March 31 last year.

Described as someone who is easy-going and placid, his family is urging anyone with information to contact the police.

Racing Queensland has defended a handicap racing penalty that is applied to interstate horses when they compete in Queensland.

The Australian Trainers Association believes the discrepancy between the handicap on horses when they compete in Queensland, versus the leniency Queensland horses are given in other state’s competitions is unequal.

Racing Queensland says that horses are treated equally on their own individual merits, and it is wrong to assume that there is a lenience to interstate horses.