Warning: This story contains content that some readers may find disturbing.

A man charged with murder in Queensland's far north cut off the victim's leg as part of an arrangement between the pair, police allege.

Just before 4am yesterday morning, It's alleged a 36-year-old man used a circular saw to cut off a 66-year-old man's leg near Fitzgerald Esplanade in Innisfail, about an hour south of Cairns.

Police now say the amputation was planned as part of a pact between friends.

"During my 34 years of being a police officer, I have never experienced a situation as we are presented with here," Detective Acting Inspector Gary Hunter said.

"We are unable to establish the motive behind the removal of the leg but we can say it's an arrangement between the two people."

9News understands the saw belonged to the 66-year-old and that the men travelled to the park together with the intent to carry out the amputation.

Police allege the 36-year-old Innisfail man helped the older man back to his car, before leaving the area on foot.

But the older man was unable to get back into the car and lost consciousness before two locals on their morning walk found him.

He died before paramedics arrived.

The 36-year-old has been charged with one count of murder.

A 47-year-old Adelaide man in a wheelchair who was fatally hit by a car on his way to the pub overnight has been remembered as a "joker" who will be "sorely missed".

Jason Edwards was on his way to his local haunt when the silver station wagon struck him about 7.30pm while pulling out of the On The Run service station on Brighton Road.

Mr Edwards took the same route to the pub often — although he'd been kept away by COVID-19 restrictions for long periods — according to people close to him.

"He didn't want anyone feeling sorry for him — he just wanted people to accept him for who he was," carer Paul Paget said.

Mr Paget said Mr Edwards loved music, motorsport, and the Collingwood AFL club.

"Everybody knew him. Everybody loved him," he said.

"He was a joker and he will be extremely sorely missed."

The 26-year-old woman behind the wheel was not injured but was taken to hospital for mandatory testing.

No charges have been laid.

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Emergency services have been called to Parklea prison in Sydney after fires were lit in the facility.

Up to 100 inmates were reportedly evacuated to the prison yard after two detainees allegedly set a fridge and mattress alight in the day room about 3.30pm on Sunday.

Parklea Correctional Centre operators MTC-Broadspectrum said in a statement that the pair had become "non-compliant".

READ MORE: Why the NT is looming as an election battleground

"The fire was extinguished and the two inmates were placed in segregation," the spokesperson said.

"The incident was resolved within 30 minutes."

Aerial images showed evacuated prisoners forced to lay facedown in the yard.

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The other inmates were provided outdoor yard access until the smoke dissipated.

No injuries were sustained.

Fire trucks were still on the scene shortly after 6pm (AEDT).

The Joe Biden administration in the US has been quietly laying the groundwork to release prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention center and at least move closer to being able to shut it down.

A review board that includes military and intelligence officials has now determined more than half of the 39 men held indefinitely without charge at the US base in Cuba can now be safely released to their homelands or sent to another country.

Decisions about several of these prisoners, including some denied under previous reviews, have come in recent weeks as the administration faced criticism from human rights groups for not doing more to close Guantanamo, releasing only a single prisoner over the past year. Here's where things stand.

Is the Biden Administration about to empty Guantanamo?

No. With the most recent decisions, there are now 20 prisoners deemed eligible for release or transfer and one due to soon complete a sentence after being convicted by military commission in a plea deal.

Much still must happen, such as in some cases finding countries willing to accept prisoners and impose security controls on them.

But some could start to leave in the coming weeks and months.

Does this mean the US is closer to shuttering Guantanamo?

In theory, yes. But even if the US releases all 20, what to do with the rest?

There are 10 still facing trial by military commission. They include five charged with planning and aiding the September 11 attacks.

The death penalty case has been bogged down in pretrial litigation for years and there still is no start date.

One potential solution would be plea bargains to end all pending cases, but that leaves open the question of where they would serve out any sentences.

How did we get here?

The US opened the detention center under President George W Bush in January 2002 after the September 11 attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan. It was intended to hold and interrogate prisoners suspected of having links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

About 780 men have passed through Guantanamo, which hit a peak of a about 680 in 2003.

Mr Bush's defense secretary, DonaldRumsfeld, famously referred to the men held there as "the worst of the worst," but many were low-level militants, some had no connection to terrorism at all, and few would ever be charged with a crime.

As reports of torture and abuse emerged, the detention center became a lightning rod for international criticism from American allies and a propaganda bonanza for enemies. Mr Bush released 532 prisoners but left it to his successor to figure out what to do with the rest.

President Barack Obama pledged to close Guantanamo upon taking office. But members of Congress resisted the idea of transferring prisoners to the United States, even to face trial in federal court.

The Obama administration created the Periodic Review Board to evaluate prisoners and determine if they could be released without posing a threat to national security. Under Mr Obama, 197 prisoners left Guantanamo.

Under President Donald Trump, a single prisoner was released as part of a plea bargain, bringing the total to 40.

President Joe Biden has said little about Guantanamo, which has largely fallen out of the political spotlight. So far, just one prisoner has been released under his administration.

What's been happening in recent weeks?

In January, human rights groups were marking the 20th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo and bemoaning what they saw as a lack of progress on closure.

Since then, there's been some behind-the scenes activity with the board, which was never popular with detainee advocates but has been one of the few paths out of confinement.

When Mr Biden came into office, there were five cleared detainees; four were holdovers from the Obama administration and one was approved under Mr Trump. Under Mr Biden, 15 have been cleared so far, including more than half a dozen in recent weeks.

This is what the administration considers a "deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and closing of the Guantanamo facility," according to said Pentagon deputy press secretary J Todd Breasseale.

Among the factors they consider, Mr Breasseale said, are the age and health of the detainees.

They have included Mohammed al-Qahtani, a mentally ill Saudi who authorities said intended to be one of the 9/11 hijackers but was prevented from entering the US by a suspicious Customs officer at the airport in Orlando, Florida.

A Bush legal official concluded al-Qahtani had been tortured at Guantanamo and an effort to try him by military commission was scrapped.

Also cleared under Mr Biden was Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani with various medical ailments who, at 74, is the oldest prisoner at Guantanamo.

The review board for this first time has cleared one of the "high-value detainees," designated as such because they were held in the clandestine CIA prisons known as black sites.

What has been the reaction?

Some Republicans in Congress have expressed outrage at the al-Qahtani decision. Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, called it "an appalling capitulation to the far left."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is critical of the policy more broadly of seeking to close Guantanamo, which he recently defended as "a highly secure, humane and entirely legal place to detain terrorists."

Under the law, Congress must be notified in advance of any pending transfers or releases but is largely powerless to stop it from occurring.

Among detainee advocates, there is a wait-and-see attitude. They welcome the board's decisions but want to see if the administration follows through with releases.

Wells Dixon, an attorney for the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, is waiting to see what happens with his client, Majid Khan, the prisoner who has reached a plea bargain and has nearly completed his sentence.

"It's a positive thing for these men to be cleared," Mr Dixon said.

"But it's not meaningful progress toward closure unless there are transfers."

With dusty desert plains and thundering waterfalls, the Red Centre and the Top End are home to some of Australia's most famous sites.

But when it comes to the country's political landscape, the Northern Territory is usually out of sight and out of mind.

With only two lower house seats in the federal parliament – and a relatively lengthy journey required from most capital cities – the Territory is rarely visited by political leaders traipsing electoral battlegrounds.

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But in recent days, the NT has been front and centre in the unofficial election campaign – with both the Prime Minister and Opposition leader spending time here and promising dollars along the way.

The official reason for their coinciding visits was to mark the 80th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin, as the community gathered at commemorative services on Saturday.

But for electoral reasons, both leaders lingered in the NT.

Scott Morrison touched down in Alice Springs on Thursday night and visited a local welding business on Friday with a funding promise for an Indigenous leaders program – getting on the tools to perform for the cameras (in a moment his opponents seized upon, labelling it a cringe-worthy election stunt).

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The Prime Minister then used a naval base in Darwin as a backdrop for a $282m defence announcement – a continuation of the government's push to convince voters the Coalition is tough on matters of national security, and Labor is weak.

Then of course, there was the inevitable campaign stop-off at a watering hole to mingle with locals over a beer.

The Opposition Leader spent three days doing the rounds of businesses in Darwin – starting on Friday with a promise to improve Indigenous health services. He gave a rained-out pub speech to the party faithful on Saturday evening, and wrapped today, with a pledge to upgrade Northern Territory roads.

The leaders' schedules reflect the fact at the 2022 federal election, the territory will hold greater-than-usual significance.

There are two reasons to pay attention.

Arguably the most obvious is that Labor's Luke Gosling holds the urban seat of Solomon on a margin of only 3.08 per cent, after claiming it from the Country Liberals in 2016.

But interestingly, it's the less marginal of the NT's two seats that will be watched more closely.

The sprawling electorate of Lingiari is on a margin of 5.46 per cent – and has been in the comfortable hands of long-serving Labor MP Warren Snowdon since it was formed in 2001.

But after more than three decades in parliament – the Opposition MP is retiring at the next election.

Which means it will no longer be safeguarded by a well-known incumbent – and Lingiari becomes a risk for Labor, and an opportunity for the Coalition.

For each leader, every day is precious at this stage of the election cycle, and their campaign puppet-masters must calculate carefully how to best use their time.

The fact both leaders spent multiple days in the Northern Territory comes down to some simple equations.

The Coalition currently holds 76 of the 151 seats in the House of Representatives.

Labor has 68 – but will pick up another due to redistributions.

Both sides will be aiming to end the race with at least 76 seats (ideally, 77 so they can provide a Speaker in the House of Representatives).

If Scott Morrison loses one seat, his government is in a minority.

If he loses five to Labor, Anthony Albanese could form a government with crossbench support.

And if Labor gains seven, the party will be able to govern in its own right.

When the numbers are this close, every seat matters.

Whether it's in the bustling big smoke or the remote red centre – if there is a political question mark over it, it will be on leaders' itineraries, and firmly in their sights.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, facing a sharp spike in violence in and around territory held by Russia-backed rebels and increasingly dire warnings that Russia plans to invade, today (AEDT) called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet him and seek resolution to the crisis.

"I don't know what the president of the Russian Federation wants, so I am proposing a meeting," Mr Zelenskyy said at the Munich Security Conference, where he also met with US Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr Zelenskyy said Russia could pick the location for the talks.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson says Russia waging 'biggest war since 1945'

"Ukraine will continue to follow only the diplomatic path for the sake of a peaceful settlement," he said.

There was no immediate response from the Kremlin.

Mr Zelenskyy spoke hours after separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilisation, while Western leaders made increasingly dire warnings that a Russian invasion of its neighbor appeared imminent.

In new signs of fears that a war could start within days, Germany and Austria told their citizens to leave Ukraine. German air carrier Lufthansa canceled flights to the capital, Kyiv, and to Odessa, a Black Sea port that could be a key target in an invasion.

NATO's liaison office in Kyiv said it was relocating staff to Brussels and to the western Ukraine city of Lviv. Meanwhile, top Ukrainian military officials came under a shelling attack during a tour of the front of the nearly eight-year separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The officials fled to a bomb shelter before hustling from the area, according to an Associated Press journalist who was on the tour.

Violence in eastern Ukraine has spiked in recent days as Ukraine and the two regions held by the rebels each accused the other of escalation. Russia on Saturday said at least two shells fired from a government-held part of eastern Ukraine landed across the border, but Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba dismissed that claim as "a fake statement."

READ MORE: Explosions heard on Ukrainian front line

Sporadic violence has broken out for years along the line separating Ukrainian forces from the Russia-backed rebels, but the recent shelling and bombing spike could set off a full-scale war.

The US and many European countries have alleged for months that Russia, which has moved about 150,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, is trying to create pretexts to invade.

"They are uncoiling and are now poised to strike," US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Saturday during a visit to Lithuania.

Ms Harris opened her meeting with Mr Zelenskyy by saying the world was at "a decisive moment in history."

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Earlier, Denis Pushilin, the head of the pro-Russia separatist government in Ukraine's Donetsk region, cited an "immediate threat of aggression" from Ukrainian forces in his announcement. Ukrainian officials vehemently denied having plans to take rebel-controlled areas by force.

"I appeal to all the men in the republic who can hold weapons to defend their families, their children, wives, mothers," Pushilin said.

"Together we will achieve the coveted victory that we all need."

A similar statement followed from his counterpart in the Luhansk region. On Friday, the rebels began evacuating civilians to Russia with an announcement that appeared to be part of their and Moscow's efforts to paint Ukraine as the aggressor.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the evacuation orders could be a tactic to provide the spark for a broader attack.

"To say it very clearly, Ukraine did not give any grounds for the evacuation that was ordered yesterday," she said.

"Those are the facts on the ground. We must not allow supposed reasons for war to be constructed out of hot air."

US President Joe Biden said this weekend that based on the latest American intelligence, he was now "convinced" that Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and assault the capital.

"As of this moment, I'm convinced he's made the decision," Mr Biden said.

"We have reason to believe that."

He reiterated that the assault could occur in the "coming days."

Mr Biden was briefed on Ms Harris' meetings in Munich and has been getting regular updates on the Ukraine situation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday. Mr Biden will discuss Ukraine during a meeting with his National Security Council on Sunday, she said.

Meanwhile, Russia conducted massive nuclear drills on Saturday. The Kremlin said Mr Putin, who pledged to protect Russia's national interests against what it sees as encroaching Western threats, was watching the drills together with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko from the situation room.

Notably, the planned exercise involves the Crimea-based Black Sea Fleet. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula after seizing it from Ukraine in 2014. .

Underscoring the West's concerns of an imminent invasion, a US defense official said an estimated 40 per cent to 50 per cent of the ground forces deployed in the vicinity of the Ukrainian border have moved into attack positions closer to the border.

The shift has been underway for about a week, other officials have said, and does not necessarily mean Putin has decided to begin an invasion. The defense official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal US military assessments.

The official also said the number of Russian ground units known as battalion tactical groups in the border area had grown to as many as 125, up from 83 two weeks ago. Each group has 750 to 1000 soldiers.

Lines of communication between Moscow and the West remain open: the American and Russian defense chiefs spoke Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron scheduled a phone call with Mr Putin on Sunday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to meet next week.

Immediate worries focused on eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting the pro-Russia rebels since 2014 in a conflict that has killed some 14,000 people. Violations of a 2015 ceasefire agreement, including shelling and shooting along the line of contact, have been common.

A car bomb exploded in the center of the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk on Friday. Adding to the tensions, two explosions shook the rebel-controlled city of Luhansk early Saturday. No injuries were reported in the incidents.

Ukraine's military said two of its soldiers died in firing from the rebel side on Saturday.

By Saturday morning, the separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which form Ukraine's industrial heartland known as the Donbas, said that thousands of residents of the rebel-controlled areas had been evacuated to Russia.

Russia has issued about 700,000 passports to residents of the rebel-held territories. Claims that Russian citizens are being endangered might be used as justification for military action.

Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk rebel government, alleged in a video statement that Ukraine was going to order an imminent offensive in the area.

Metadata from two videos posted by the separatists announcing the evacuation show that the files were created two days ago, the AP confirmed. US authorities have alleged that the Kremlin's effort to come up with an invasion pretext could include staged, pre-recorded videos.

Authorities in Russia's Rostov region, which borders eastern Ukraine, declared a state of emergency because of the influx of evacuees. Media reports on Saturday described chaos at some of the camps assigned to accommodate the people from eastern Ukraine. The reports said there were long lines of buses and hundreds of people waiting in the cold for hours on end to be housed without access to food or bathroom facilities.

Mr Putin ordered the Russian government to offer 10,000 rubles (about $180) to each evacuee, an amount equivalent to about half of an average monthly salary in eastern Ukraine.