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Four people who were injured in a lightning strike in Sydney are said to be recovering well.
The group were sitting under a tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens when it was struck by lightning during an intense thunderstorm.
New South Wales Ambulance Inspector Dominic Wong says they were all taken to hospital in a stable condition.
"The four patients are ranging in age from 19-36 with burns on their backs and limbs and also suffering from cardiac symptoms."
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Australia says it will offer practical support to Papua New Guinea after an escalation in tribal violence.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Australian government stands ready to assist its Pacific neighbour.
The death toll in the massacre in the P-N-G highlands has been revised down from 53 to 26, with police saying they had received the "wrong head count".
The violence broke out just as Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the government was giving Papua New Guinea a funding package to address major health challenges, including HIV and malaria.
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P-N-G Prime Minister James Marape says the violence has convinced him to give more powers to the police.
Mr Marape says the additional authority is justified.
"We’ve asked for stronger police approach, especially in the face of firepower. Police at the moment are hesitant in terms of their own personal risk and safety."
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The asbestos mulch scandal has spread from Sydney to Canberra.
Records show the mulch product behind each positive result was sold for nine months in the capital.
The ACT's Environment Protection Agency says the mulch was sold on to dozens of businesses and addresses last year.
The A-C-T landscaping business that imported the product linked to all the positive tests has contacted its customers.
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The former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration says boats will almost certainly come to Australia.
Abul Rizvi politicians should therefore be careful with how they talk about these boat arrivals.
He says the debate could lead to more of them coming.
"I think we've got to remember we've got a very, very big coastline along the west. The sea between Australia and Indonesia is huge. The number of fishing boats that look almost identical to an asylum seeker boat is huge. The chances of a boat being missed is always there, despite the efficiency of our navy. One or two boats will get through - that's just almost inevitable. I think we just need to accept that rather than just getting into this hysterical panic."
Meanwhile aid organisations have called for a rethink of Australia's immigration measures.
Amnesty International says boat arrivals should be processed in Australia, rather than offshore on Nauru.
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Major Australian businesses are failing to meet global standards for net zero targets.
New research from the University of Sydney has found less than half of 10 prominent companies were on track to meet their own climate change goals.
They found none of them planned to phase out fossil fuels.
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An Australian-led team of astronomers have found what could turn out to be the brightest object in the universe.
They have discovered what's known as a quasar, shining 500 trillion times brighter than the sun.
Lead author Christian Wolf from the Australian National University says the quasar has a black hole at its heart growing so fast that it swallows the equivalent of a sun a day.
He says the object is like a cosmic hurricane.
