Dunedin’s New Zealand sea lion pups have arrived in record numbers.Department of Conservation staff, with the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust and Te Runanga o Otakou, tagged 20 pups this summer from St Kilda to Warrington.Doc biodiversity…
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Man hospitalised after crocodile attack in Northern Territory
A man has been bitten by a crocodile while spear-fishing in a remote Northern Territory community.
The 22-year-old had been fishing around 4am in East Arnhem Land when the crocodile attacked him, injuring his arm and leg.
The man's injuries are not considered life-threatening.
READ MORE: Three people killed, one unaccounted for in suspicious Sydney blaze
Police in Nhulunbuy were notified of the incident.
"Due to the remote location of the incident, a community member transported the victim to Birany Birany," Senior Sergeant Xavier McMahon said.
"He was then airlifted to Gove District Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition."
Northern Territory police said the incident was a timely reminder to be aware of crocodiles in the Top End.
Mum fights for life, teen hospitalised after 'suspicious' Melbourne house fire
A mother-of-seven is fighting for life after her husband allegedly set fire to their home in Melbourne's west while six children, including a baby, were inside.
Police allege 38-year-old Roland Griffiths ignited a flammable liquid, causing the Sutherland Street home in Albanvale to go up in flames before 5.20pm yesterday.
Neighbours told 9News it sounded like a bomb had gone off inside the property and they heard screams.
READ MORE: 'Loud bangs' heard amid deadly Sydney boarding house fire
Thick, black smoke billowed from the roof as fire engulfed the family home.
It is understood six children, including a nine-month-old baby, were home when the blaze broke out.
A 17-year-old girl and 36-year-old mother Kylie Griffiths – Mr Griffiths' wife – were inside and tried desperately to extinguish the flames.
"My husband was out the front … he heard a big pop and we saw a girl running down the street with her legs burnt," a resident told 9News.
Ms Griffiths suffered critical burns and was rushed to The Alfred hospital.
The teenager also sustained burns and was taken to the Royal Children's Hospital.
More than 25 firefighters battled the blaze, bringing it under control within 30 minutes.
"Firefighters arrived on scene within five minutes to find a single-storey house fully involved in the blaze," a Fire Rescue Victoria statement read.
"At this stage, the fire is being treated as suspicious and the incident has been handed over to Victoria Police to investigate."
Mr Griffiths suffered non-life-threatening injuries and remains at The Alfred hospital under police guard.
Police said all parties were known to each other and the exact circumstances are under investigation by the Arson and Explosive Squad.
Tenant needed counselling after abusive tirade from landlord calling him 'crazy' and 'disgusting'
A renter sought psychological help after he was verbally abused by his landlord, who called the man “crazy”, “sick” and “disgusting”. But the landlord made a counterclaim in the Tenancy Tribunal, seeking damages from the tenant…
Inflation Nation: Flicking the switch on your power provider and tweaking your airfryer and heatpump use can save you cash
The rising cost of living and the return of inflation is hitting Kiwis hard. In a new Herald series, Inflation Nation, we explore the reasons and impacts of the price shock – and possible solutions. We also share some great life hacks…
Second man charged after body found under concrete slab
New charges have been laid in the investigation into the alleged murder of Andrew Walsh, whose body was found beneath a slab of concrete at a Brisbane transport depot this month.
A 39-year-old man from Thagoona, west of Brisbane, is alleged to have helped move Mr Walsh's body after he was killed and has been charged with accessory after murder and interfering with a corpse.
The man was refused bail and appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court today. He is due to front court again on May 9.
READ MORE: Mother and two children found dead in a burnt-out car in Perth
The man is the second to be charged in relation to Mr Walsh's alleged murder.
A 27-year-old man alleged to have murdered Mr Walsh was intercepted at Sydney Airport by Australian Federal Police and has been extradited to Queensland.
Lachlan Griffiths, also believed to be connected to the transport depot, remains missing.
It's believed Mr Griffiths and Mr Walsh, 35, were not known to each other, but had both visited the Coopers Plains transport depot before they disappeared.
"The taskforce was established to merge two separate homicide investigations, which we now know to be linked," Acting Inspector Chris Knight from Queensland Police said.
"Certainly they had common connections."
READ MORE: 'Maliciously lit fire': Three people killed, one unaccounted for in suspicious Sydney blaze
Both men has resided in the South Brisbane and Logan districts.
The transport depot remains under investigation, with police urging anyone with information regarding the two men to come forward.
The sneaky way companies are getting you to pay more for groceries
Australians are increasingly getting less bang for their buck at the supermarket as companies gradually downsize their products while keeping prices level.
The sneaky move, referred to by experts as "shrinkflation", is a way companies are able to increase the price of their products without actually having to alter the price tag.
The minor changes in the product sizes mean customers are less likely to notice the reduction, with packaging largely still looking the same, leading to customers paying more for what they get.
READ MORE: Putin is 'angry, frustrated and likely to escalate war'
"You don't notice that you're paying more," InvestSMART's Evan Lucas said.
"So it's actually inflation by stealth."
Maltesers fun size bags used to contain 144g of the chocolate treat, but now have just 132g.
Similarly, a Weetbix value pack now just offers 1.2kg of the cereal, when it used to have 1.5kg, and a bag of Smiths chips now contains 170g instead of 200g.
A standard tube of Pringles used to contain 165g of the chips, but now holds just 134g, and there's been even more shrinkage to blocks of Cadbury chocolate. A standard block was once 250g, before being reduced to 200g and then 180g.
Original Tim Tams have 11 biscuits in a pack, but some other new flavours — Chewy Caramel, Choc Mint, Double Coat — only have nine for the same price.
Price hikes are expected to get worse as the war in Ukraine goes on, affecting supply chains around the world.
Mr Lucas has advised customers to accept living costs are set to increase "across the board".
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Traditional price markups are also beginning to occur due to the war, with major Australian food supplier SPC having just announced its staple products — from baked beans to canned fruit and dried spaghetti — will go up by 10 to 20 per cent.
The price change has been attributed to the increased production and distribution costs due to things like the rising price of oil.
When shopping for groceries, customers are advised to compare the 'price per 100 grams' labels for clearer cost comparisons.
Bryce Edwards: Political Roundup – Labour responds to the 'Costpocalypse' but should it go further?
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Where in the world are Roman Abramovich's private jets?
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich's expensive fleet of private jets and his gargantuan $830 million superyacht are on the move.
Recent flight path data shows two of the billionaire's planes, including a Boeing 787 Dreamliner estimated to be worth a half-billion-dollars, landing and taking off in quick succession from various airports in Russia, Israel, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Abramovich, who has an estimated net worth of $17 billion, is one of only a handful of people to privately own a Dreamliner, which he bought off the rack in 2018 for an estimated $339 million and then upgraded with a plush $137 million interior fit out, Forbes Russia reported.
READ MORE: London mansion 'linked to oligarch' occupied by squatters
According to flight data on the Twitter account Russian Oligarch Jets, on March 4 Mr Abramovich's Dreamliner departed from Dubai in the UAE and flew to Moscow.
It stayed on the tarmac in Russia for only a matter of hours, before turning around and flying back to Jebel Ali, the location of Dubai's second airport.
The plane, which can hold 248 commercial passengers but was converted by Mr Abramovich into a luxurious 50-seater, remains in Dubai, according to flight data.
Dubai, a longtime favourite holiday and business destination for Russia's elite, has become even more of a magnet for Russian oligarchs in the face of US-led sanctions.
According to a New York Times report, at least 38 businessmen or officials linked to Vladimir Putin own dozens of properties in Dubai valued at more than $436 million.
Last week the Financial Action Task Force, a global financial crime watchdog, added the UAE to a "grey" money laundering watch list, meaning Dubai and the six other emirates in the oil-rich Gulf state will come under closer financial scrutiny.
READ MORE: France seizes superyacht owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch
Mr Abramovich's superyacht Solaris has been heading east through the Mediterranean the past week, with a destination unknown.
The 140m-long Solaris left a shipyard in Barcelona, Spain last Tuesday and sailed to Montenegro in the Adriatic, according to Marine Traffic, a website that tracks ships.
Meanwhile, Mr Abramovich's other plane, a Gulfstream G650 which typically costs around $90 million, has also been making trips above the Mediterranean Sea.
On March 5 it flew from the Turkish capital Ankara to Istanbul.
Six days later, it took off from Istanbul and touched down in Moscow.
Inside of 24 hours, the Gulfstream had departed Moscow and landed in Tel Aviv, Israel, a country which granted him citizenship in 2018 after his visa status in the UK became uncertain, and where he reportedly owns a hotel on on the Mediterranean coast.
Today the Gulfstream has made a series of rapid flights, from Tel Aviv to Istanbul and then touching down in Moscow just before 2.30pm (AEST).
READ MORE: US forms special 'KleptoCapture' squad to seize Russian superyachts, mansions
Mr Abramovich was potentially a passenger on the Gulfstream, with Reuters reporting it had obtained a picture of the Russian in a VIP lounge in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.
None of the countries central to Mr Abramovich's air and sea transport shuttle runs – Israel, Turkey and the UAE – have imposed financial sanctions against Russia.
The airspace options for Mr Abramovich's jets are also limited, with all 27 EU countries, as well as Albania, Canada, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, the UK, and the US, banning Russian flights.
Last week the UK government swooped in with sanctions to freeze assets held by Mr Abramovich, who has denied he has historical close ties to former KGB agent and now Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Abramovich tried to fast-track the sale of his beloved Chelsea FC after Russia invaded Ukraine, but the sanctions have complicated those plans.
Three killed, one missing in 'maliciously lit' Sydney fire
Police believe the deadly fire which tore through a Sydney boarding house, killing three people, was deliberately lit.
Three bodies have been found, officers confirmed, after the blaze erupted on Albermarle Street in Newtown about 1am today.
"Serious concerns are held" for a fourth person believed to be inside, police added.
READ MORE: Sydney Metro 'deeply apologises' after commuters stranded on trains
The bodies have not been formally identified but police believe they are men.
Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter said police are treating the blaze as suspicious and deliberate.
"It would be fair to say that some type of accelerant hasn't been used," Assistant Commissioner Cotter said.
"We are treating this as a murder.
"We are treating this as a maliciously lit fire."
Assistant Commissioner Cotter said at least 11 men live in the boarding house, aged from their 40s to 80s.
Firefighters have told 9News they are not sure if the building is at risk of collapsing.
Assistant Commissioner Cotter said they have not been able to search the top floor yet due to concerns about the structural integrity of the building.
"We're not sure how many people we're looking for, there's a number of rooms, what I understand upstairs is a hallway with a number of rooms off the left and right," he said.
"We've not been able to access some of those rooms to identify if there are any occupants or tragically anyone perished in those rooms."
https://twitter.com/LaurenTomasi/status/1503579560658747395
One man was forced to jump from the second storey of the boarding house after the fire rapidly took hold of the building, residents told 9News.
"There are bits falling down, there was fire through the house," a resident said.
"I saw an 80-year-old gentleman on the ground who had to jump out of his window so he's broken his ankles, we had to carry him out of there."
Police said eight residents were able to exit the building, with three people taken to hospital including the 80-year-old man, who is in a critical condition and suffered a heart attack when he arrived at the hospital.
Officers also said another resident was forced to "exit from the second storey" due to the intensity of the fire.
READ MORE: 'Bodies' found in burnt out car in Perth
Assistant Commissioner Cotter called for the owner of the boarding house to come forward to assist with inquiries.
"We know who he is. We have reached out to his series of addresses in Western Sydney, and as yet, we have not been able to make contact with him," he said.
"We would like that gentleman to come forward as a matter of priority, not only to talk to us — particularly to talk to us about who was inside — and the tenancies."
Assistant Commissioner Cotter also called for the public to come forward with any information about tenants in the building.