A push for changes to be made to the controversial testing system of NAPLAN has been made by the nation’s education ministers.

New South Wales Education Minister Rob Stokes believes NAPLAN is not doing its job of helping schools and teachers improve students learning.

The nation’s Education Ministers are eager to review the test to make it simple, clear and flexible as the focus of the test is seen to create high stress for teachers, students and parents.

A small number of donors have begun to withdraw their donations from the Australian arm of Oxfam following revelations that senior staff from Oxfam UK paid local women in Haiti for sex during the organisation’s relief efforts in the country following the 2010 earthquake disaster.

The charity’s UK arm has already been threatened with a 50 million pound funding cut from the British government and its deputy chief executive has resigned over the matter.  

International critics are concerned that Cambodia’s ruling party led by Hun Sen will continue to drag the country further into dictatorship, following the party’s release of its next five year plan.

The party has said it will increase surveillance, shut out any opposition force and prevent the spread of misinformation.

These plans crush any hope that Hun Sen will re-establish political freedom and democracy in Cambodia following the country’s mid-year elections.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has received an endorsement from America’s top communications regulator to build a broadband services network using satellites.

The satellite broadband network will service Americans who live in rural or hard-to-serve places where fibre optic cables and cell towers currently do not reach.

SpaceX plans to launch one of its first experimental satellites this Saturday on their Falcon 9 rockets in California.

Fire crews in the New South Wales Hunter Valley are currently working to contain a bushfire.

Rural Fire Service Inspector Ben Shepherd says that the prevailing hot conditions nationwide and lack of significant forecasted rainfall means that the fire could burn for up to a month.

While the blaze remains contained in a remote area, travelling smoke and embers still pose a risk to other regions. Fire bans have remained in place across the state

More than 400 drivers were hit with infringement notices by parking inspectors during the Brisbane International tennis tournament  in January.

In just over a week a total of $25,956 in fines had been given out, with each individual fine being $63.

The parking restrictions that caught drivers off guard limited people to one hour of parking between 7am-10am, a strategy Lord Mayor Graham Quirk explains, intended to make it easier for residents to understand local parking restrictions.

The Goodwill Bridge’s slippery path has left many cyclists broken and bruised, despite $23,000 being spent to fix the slippery surface last year.

An upgrade to the path was reviewed in October 2017 when it was discovered that cyclists consistently lost traction on the newly applied  blue surface when it was wet.

Despite new slip-resistant works having been done, cyclists are still falling, and signs have had to be placed in the precinct to encourage them to dismount when crossing the bridge in wet weather.

New figures from a University of Sydney study show that almost 500 teens were hospitalised between 2012 to 2017 after playing at indoor trampoline centres.

While the most common injuries were sprains and fractures, nearly 20 percent of the study’s patients had serious spinal cord and head injuries, some causing permanent and lifelong disability.

Jacob Zuma has resigned with immediate effect as President of South Africa following order from his own ruling party the African National Congress.

The former President served nine scandal-ridden years in power.

But the ANC’s deputy secretary general, Jessie Duarte say that the resignation has provided South Africans with certainty at a time of severe economic, social, and environmental challenge in their country.