The World Today

The Victorian Government is under increasing pressure to drop its controversial policy of shifting juvenile detainees into an adult jail. The move is in part forced by damage to a youth detention centre during a riot by detainees. Today, the state's Human Rights Commissioner and church leaders have joined the calls to abandon the policy.

Detectives and representatives from the criminal justice system from across Australia are being quizzed about the difficulties in pursuing child abuse cases through the courts. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is exploring a range of reforms already being trialled that are intended to help children give evidence.

A Senate inquiry has found a serious lack of medical facilities suitable for those with cognitive impairments has resulted in at least 100 Australians being held indefinitely inside prison, despite never being convicted of any crime. About half of the those being held without conviction are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. The report has recommended sweeping reforms, including changes to the law and much greater collection of statistics on who exactly is being held.

More than 6,000 guns were stolen in Australia over a two-year period between 2013 and 2015, while the annual number of thefts has almost doubled since 2009. Those figures were compiled from police reports obtained through Freedom of Information requests by the group Gun Control Australia. But a top criminologist believes it's unlikely the stolen guns are finding their way into the hands of organised crime gangs.

New research has found existing prevention strategies are failing to prevent rising numbers of young people taking their own lives. The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health has found that despite 20 years of investment by all levels of government, suicide rates among Australian young people are increasing. It's prompted calls for a re-think to how the problem of youth suicide is handled in Australia.

A report into the way Australian agencies worked together during the Afghanistan conflict has recommended the involvement of civilian agencies in the planning of future operations from the outset. The report has made 17 recommendations to increase the involvement of agencies like DFAT and the AFP in future overseas missions. The Government says it's already implementing the recommendations and it accepts future operations are likely to be much more than military deployments.

Unions are gearing up to fight a Fair Work Commission decision which they say is a green light to employers to sack striking workers and casualise workforces. Coal miners at Anglo American's German Creek mine in central Queensland have been on strike for 103 days, campaigning for job security. Anglo successfully argued that the strike forced it to change work practices and now the industrial umpire says it can legitimately make redundancies.

The oil and gas industry is furious over the South Australian Liberal Party's pledge to impose a 10-year fracking ban in the state's south-east. The State Opposition has promised a moratorium after an inquiry found there was no social licence from the local community for the unconventional gas industry. The Greens have welcomed the move, but oil and gas warn it's short sighted and will hurt jobs and the economy.

Moody's Analytics says booming Sydney property prices are showing no signs of slowing. Data from number crunching firm point to strong price growth in 2016, and then more to come in 2017. It's a completely different story on the West Coast, though, where prices in Perth aren't expected to pick up significantly until the 2020s.

The football world is mourning the loss of almost an entire Brazilian soccer team involved in a plane crash in Colombia. The Chapecoense football club was on a plane that claimed 71 lives when it slammed into a hillside yesterday. The tragedy ends what had been an inspiring Cinderella story for the underdog club and its players who were on their way to play in their first big competition final. Now they may be granted the champions title post-humously in a show of respect from the opponents they were to have on the soccer field.