PM

According to mental health professionals, 125 people have committed suicide in the Kimberley in the past decade - 102 of them of Indigenous heritage. The rate of suicide in the Kimberley is 10 times the global average, prompting Indigenous leaders and politicians to call for Indigenous people to have a greater say in suicide prevention strategies.

For those who are fascinated by extreme weather events, some parts of Australia have been putting on a show this spring. There have been record rainfalls, floods, gale-force winds and storms which have resulted in lives lost, dramatic rescues, damaged properties and power blackouts. Weather experts predict more intense rainfall and cyclones in coming months. Storm chasers are anticipating a good season.

A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo has published a study that indicates that the lunar cycle affects when cows give birth. Studying the reproductive habits of 400 dairy cows, the team says the study indicates that cows give birth more frequently around the full moon. Lead researcher Tomohiro Yonezawa posits some theories as to why, but has no definitive answer.

Against that fraught international economic background, the Treasurer today cast himself and the government as the champions of openness on trade, foreign investment and immigration. In a speech to the foreign-affairs focussed Lowy Institute, Scott Morrison warned of the dangers of barricading the economy from the rest of the world. Labor, meanwhile, says it's the Treasurer himself who's been responsible for playing to populist anti-globalisation sentiment.

Now we know the role that Russia and its proxy forces in Eastern Ukraine played in the missile attack on MH17, there's renewed focus on why the plane was there in the first place. Victims' families are suing Malaysia Airlines for negligence in flying over a known warzone after it admitted how little it actively monitored the Ukraine crisis. Under Malaysian laws a number of key staff at the airline at the time could potentially face jail if police decide to act.

India's military has taken the rare step of publicly crossing the two countries' de-facto border to strike at what it says were suspected terrorist camps in Pakistan. Pakistan has denied the incursion, but has said two of its soldiers were killed in cross-border firing, which it called 'naked aggression' by India. The incident has raised new fears of heightened conflict between the nuclear rivals.

The Olympic cauldron in Rio has only just cooled and now it's time for attention to turn to Tokyo, where the games of the 32nd Olympiad will be staged in 2020. Already the Tokyo games have been the subject of scandal and embarrassing stuff-ups. There's fresh embarrassment for the Olympic organisers as the newly elected Governor of Tokyo calls 'time out' on the construction of some venues amidst a massive cost blowout.

Kenya's Nairobi is the only capital city in the world to boast a national park inside city limits. Being Nairobi, it very much depends on traffic, but the drive can take as little as a 20 minutes from the centre of town. However, an announcement by the Government to run a new railway line through the centre of the park has conservationists outraged.

Dust-related lung diseases were supposed to be a relic of Queensland's coal mining past. But not for the first time this year, the state's mining workers union is reporting another new case. Queensland's radiologists are already under fire for failing to improve black lung monitoring despite recommendations for reform earlier this year. The Royal Australian College of Radiologists says it can't reform education programs without state government help.

River levels have been rising and falling most of the day just north of Adelaide. In one of the state's wine regions, vines are underwater and there have been evacuations. Wednesday's state-wide blackout is still causing headaches for thousands, with one whole town still in the dark.