World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76 surrounded by friends and family at his home in Cambridge.

At the age of 22 Hawking was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and given two years to live; he defied the odds communicating his extraordinary works via a voice synthesiser for most of his life.

Thousands of students across the United States have left their classrooms to take part in a 17 minute vigil of silence to commemorate the 17 victims of the school shooting that took place at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida last month.

One month has passed since the shooting and today's vigil is another youth led initiative in the growing protest movement for the reform of American firearms legislation

Similar demonstrations are planned for the 20th of April to mark the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School Massacre.

Newly released census data has revealed the number of people in Australia who are homeless has risen by 15% since the 2011 Census.

More than 116,400 Australians were homeless on census night in 2016, with the largest number situated within the Melbourne area.

The data also revealed an increase in homelessness for older women, people under 25 and women and children escaping family violence.

15% of people who arrived in Australia between 2011 and 2015 are homeless.

Home affairs minister Peter Dutton has received criticism from his South African counterparts after revealing his department was exploring ways to fast-track humanitarian visas for “persecuted” white farmers.

Mr Dutton said white farmers need help “from a civilized country like ours,” following increasing reports of farm murders and possible land displacements in South Africa.

A Sri Lankan asylum seeker family last night were pulled from a plane at Perth airport, just minutes before they were due to be deported by Border Force Officials.

It's understood the couple came to Australia separately by boat in 2012 and 2013, following Sri Lanka’s civil war and settled in Biloela on a bridging visa which has since expired.

Biloela residents held a vigil last night, while a petition to return the family to their home has reached almost 60,000 signatures.

Charity groups in northern New South Wales have raised concerns the upcoming Gold Coast Commonwealth Games will strain their resources as persons experiencing homelessness move south as they are crowded out of the city.

St Vincent de Paul Lismore spokeswoman Linda Williams said Games preparations have affected access to some popular rough-sleeping spots.

Queensland housing minister Mick de Brenni said homeless people won’t be “moved on” from the Gold Coast “until such time as they're required to have a ticket.”

International researchers based in Australia have discovered animals born in captivity are half as likely to breed successfully compared those in the wild.

Study supervisor Dr Catherine Grueber of the University of Sydney's School of Life and Environmental Sciences and San Diego Zoo Global, was surprised by how universal the patterns were.

This new discovery puts into doubt the future success of animal breeding schemes across the world.

A set of three-fingered ‘mummies’ have been discovered in Peru that aren’t human.

Professor Konstatin Korotkov, from the Russian National Research University says the ancient remains are humanoid but not homo sapien.

He claims they could possibly be alien.

It has recently been revealed overseas hackers breached the Queensland Transport Department's security network last year.

The hackers attempted to steal information from staff members and from other sections of government after gaining access to two official email accounts.

However the operations were shut down within 5 hours and the identified IP addresses were blocked.