A breakthrough new drug aimed at treating HIV patients is almost certain to be approved for federal subsidies this week.

Hopes are high in the LGBTIQ community as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee will meet on Friday and it is hoped it will issue a long-awaited "positive recommendation" for drug Truvada, commonly known as PrEP.

Japanese Princess Mako has announced that she will delay her wedding for two years due to a cited ‘lack of preparation’ for the ceremony and its year of proceeding rituals.

Princess Mako is the eldest grandchild of Emperor Akihito who is due to abdicate in early 2019.

The Princess’ engagement to college sweetheart Kei Komuro has attracted significant media attention because Imperial Household Law holds that female family members lose their royal status if they marry a commoner.

Sufferers of the ancient disease of leprosy have been labelled as one of the minority groups hardest hit by the 3 year long war in Yemen.

Lepers have been banished from their villages, had their possessions destroyed and been completely ostracised by their communities as the disease is incorrectly labelled as a disease of sin.

Fighting has killed at least 10,000 people, wounded tens of thousands of others and forced more than one million people from their homes.

Poor weather conditions and heavy snowfall has covered Paris has forced the Eiffel Tower to close.

The dangerous weather and ice on the roads has set off high-level orange alerts in twenty-eight french departments and is causing major travel disruptions in France’s northern half.

Meteorologists said snowfall accumulation could reach 10 centimeters by the end of the day.

Amnesty International has labelled the Chinese Government’s brazen and outrageous contempt for fair trial and other human rights ‘ludicrous’ after their admission that Hong Kong-Swedish dual national, Gui Minhai is again detained and faces criminal charges.

Gui Minhai is a Hong Kong bookseller who went missing from Thailand in 2015. He later appeared in Chinese custody without apparent charge and was not released until two years later in October 2017.

A series of cruel wildlife attacks on Western Australia’s South Coast that left pelican’s stabbed, turtles hung and hooked, and a seagull skewered.

While authorities have not ruled out that some of the incidents could have resulted from human littering, the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions is investigating whether the injuries were deliberate or malicious.

Victorian councils could start feeling the effects of China’s ban on recycling imports, as waste collection firms begin to put a stop to their services.

The state government has been in discussions with waste collection companies and recycling processors to find a solution, after the Chinese ban on low-grade and contaminated waste was imposed on January 1st.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned mobile phone users to avoid returning missed calls from overseas numbers, in the hope that consumers will avoid being scammed.

The ACCC’s deputy chair Delia Rickard said the consumer watchdog hotline received 50, 000 reports of similar scams in 2017.

Ms Rickard said scammers make their money by enticing people to call back a premium number similar to those used by psychic hotlines and phone sex lines.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is calling on Adani to prove its finances, and show that the multi-million dollar project is meeting its targets.

The criticism follows Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten accusing the mining heavy weight of promising ‘fake jobs’ to the north-Queensland public.

Ms Palaszczuk said the project’s finances needs to stack up, just the same as any other resource company, and hopes the promises of jobs is forthcoming.