When Thomas Niel stepped onto a flight to France after the death of his grandmother, he was hopeful he would be able to get back home to Cairns soon.

The French national had applied eight times to the Australian Border Force for a travel exemption to attend his grandmother's funeral in September last year and was rejected each time.

"My grandmother helped raise me and my sister. I consider her like a second mother, it was important for me to be there," Mr Niel said.

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Having lived and worked in far north Queensland for the past nine years, Mr Niel is currently on a bridging visa B, which – outside of the pandemic – normally allows travel overseas.

The restaurant manager has been living on a bridging visa while he waits for his permanent, work-sponsored Australian visa to be approved – a process which has so far taken five years.

Desperate, Mr Niel decided to take the risk and travel to France without an exemption to return home.

"I made that call myself, thinking my family really need me. I had a lot of hope that the borders would open up. Everyone thought this would happen within a few months," Mr Niel said.

However, the Department of Home Affairs is yet to change the rules for people on bridging visas, of which there are 360,000 in Australia.

This is despite removing requirements for a travel exemption to re-enter the country on most temporary visas – including working holiday, skilled and student visas – in December.

Trapped in France and with no way to return to his life and job in Australia, Mr Niel is one of thousands of bridging visa holders who have grown increasingly frustrated with the government's refusal to allow them to travel overseas and return home.

"I'm a worker. I work in hospitality in Far North Queensland, a region very impacted, by COVID and having a very hard time finding qualified staff in the region," Mr Niel said.

"I've been in Australia for nine years, and all I'm asking is to come back and work again.

"For me (the government's position) is not understandable, it's just weird."

Mr Niel said it was particularly frustrating to see Prime Minister Scott Morrison's announcement last month of a rebate scheme allowing visa fees to be refunded to backpackers and students in a bid to revive the economy and alleviate labour shortages.

Irish national Amy, who has been living and working in Sydney for almost five years, said she was one of many on bridging visas fed up with the situation and now considering leaving Australia for good.

"What do we do? Give up? Do we want to live in a country that treats people like this?" she said.

"Now, it's at the stage where people want to leave, people have left and will never return over the way people on temporary visas have been treated since the start of the pandemic. 

"The government needs to wake up and realise what they are doing to people and their mental health and the reputation it's causing for Australia."

Amy, who holds a senior job in the finance industry, said she was sick of being discriminated against and being dismissed as a backpacker.

"I am not a backpacker. I have my own apartment. I have been paying taxes here. I don't go dressing like a backpacker and it's just highly insulting to be put in that category."

Being cut off from her family for two years with no end in sight had left her feeling trapped and miserable like many others, Amy said.

"I was stuck in isolation all Christmas on my own, my friends got COVID-19, and now it's the new year and I still have no hope of getting home."

"I missed many family occasions over the last two years including the birth of my first niece. I was devastated when I found out bridging visas were excluded from travel."

An online petition calling on the Federal Government to allow bridging visa holders to travel oversea and return home without an exemption has so far attracted more than 17,000 signatures.

A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said remaining travel restrictions were needed to balance safely reopening the country with protecting Australian communities from COVID-19.

"These border policies have contributed to Australia having one of the lowest death rates from COVID-19, strongest economies and highest vaccination rates in the world," the spokesperson said.

"The key principles guiding Government decisions on visas while responding to COVID-19, are that our visa system must support public health measures and should not displace job opportunities for Australians."

Israeli archaeologists have detailed the "heartbreaking" discovery of three Jewish pendants at a former Nazi extermination camp in Poland.

Three "Shema Yisrael" pendants had been found at the site of the Sobibor extermination camp in the past decade, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced yesterday on Facebook.

The pendants depict Moses holding the Tablets of the Law – the stone tablets on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments one – one side, and on the other the Hebrew prayer "Shema Yisrael" ("Hear O Israel").

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One of them was discovered in the remains of the building where victims were undressed before being led to the gas chambers.

Over the floor of the building were also scattered dozens of women's hairpins and jewellery.

Another pendant, on which Latin numbers were inscribed on the Tablets of the Law, was uncovered in the area where victims were undressed in Camp II.

A third pendant, on which only the side with the inscribed prayer survived, was discovered next to a mass grave.

The metal pendants are inscribed by hand and are different from one another.

Over the past year, researchers have identified their origin in Eastern Europe: from Lviv in Ukraine, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.

"Little is known about the stories behind the pendants, which are heartbreaking," Yoram Haimi of the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

"It has been possible to identify a kind of tradition or fashion among the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe with pendants inscribed with 'Shema Yisrael' on one side and a depiction of Moses and the tablets of the Law on the opposite side."

But he said it was not yet known if the pendants had been distributed in synagogues, or produced for individual orders, and called on the public to help ongoing research with any information.

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"The personal and human aspect of the discovery of these pendants is chilling," Eli Eskozido, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

"They represent a thick thread running between generations of Jews – thousands of years old, of prayer and faith."

The Sobibor extermination camp was established by the Nazis in occupied Poland in WWII.

It operated from May 1942 to October 1943, during which time an estimated 250,000 Jews were murdered there.

The camp was shut down by the Nazis after a revolt from the captive Jews saw 11 Schutzstaffel (SS) officers killed and about 300 of the inmates escape to freedom.

A new documentary has claimed a man who German prosecutors insist killed Madeleine McCann worked repeatedly at the Portuguese resort where the British girl vanished in 2007.

The anonymous witness, described by German TV channel SAT.1 as "reliable", claimed Christian B "repeatedly carried out repair work" at the Ocean Club Resort where the McCanns stayed.

Christian B was "very familiar" with the Ocean Club and coastal town of Praia da Luz, the makers of SAT.1 investigativ: Neue Spuren im Fall Maddie, said in a statement.

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The documentary is scheduled for broadcast on Monday evening (local time) in Germany.

"A reconstruction of the evening of the crime and extensive research in Portugal and Germany found that Christian B was very familiar with the Ocean Club area in Praia da Luz," an SAT.1 spokesman said.

The fresh claims in the German documentary appear at odds with revelations last month out of a UK documentary that claimed Christian B was not in Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine vanished, and that the case against him was about to collapse.

That British investigation, led by former Surrey Police detective Mark Williams-Thomas, claims to have established that Christian B was 30 minutes away from the McCann's holiday apartment when she disappeared, possibly taken by abductor.

Christian B was in June 2020 sensationally named by German prosecutors as the man responsible for the alleged kidnapping and murder of Maddie.

The German prosecutor, Hans Christian Wolters, has repeatedly stated he has "concrete evidence" to prove that Madeleine was dead and that Christian B was the killer.

However, Mr Wolters has never revealed what that evidence is, nor has he charged Christian B, aged 44, with any crime since his explosive declaration.

The case against Christian B, currently in a German prison for an unrelated crime, is circumstantial, Mr Wolters said.

Christian B's lawyer Friedrich Fulscher has always maintained his client had no involvement in Madeleine's case.

Since German prosecutors declared Christian B was the new Maddie prime suspect there has been intense interest in the cold case.

German prosecutor Mr Wolters at one point claimed he had written a letter to Madeleine's parents, informing them she was dead.

But immediately, Kate and Gerry McCann issued a public statement denying they had received any such letter.

Despite the claims from Mr Wolters he is "100 per cent certain" Maddie is dead and was killed by Christian B, London Metropolitan Police have maintained the case is still a missing person investigation.

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Madeleine went missing on May 3 in 2007 aged just three years old while on holiday with her family in Portugal.

She would be now be 18 years old, if she is alive.

During the original Portuguese police investigation, Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry McCann were at one time declared suspects, as was a British man who sometimes lived in Praia da Luz.

However, police closed the case in 2008, with no one ever charged over her disappearance.

Thousands of people with cystic fibrosis are one step closer to accessing a 'lifesaving' drug, after it was recommended for inclusion on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

The medication Trikafta has been credited with helping people with cystic fibrosis avoid lung transplants and live longer lives.

But, at a cost of about $300,000 a year, the drug is out of reach for most patients.

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The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) has now recommended Trikafta be added to the PBS for people aged over 12 with cystic fibrosis, in a decision published last Friday.

Adelaide woman Genevieve Handley, who has cystic fibrosis, has been campaigning for Trikafta to be added to PBS, with a parliamentary petition she started last year attracting 35,000 signatures.

Ms Handley said the PBAC decision was good news for the 2200 people waiting to access the drug.

"There's been widespread celebration as we're now much closer to accessing Trikafta," Ms Handley said.

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However, there were still some hurdles to get through before the drug was added to the PBS, including price negotiations between drug company Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Federal Government, Ms Handley said.

A spokesperson for Vertex Pharmaceuticals said the company also welcomed the PBAC decision, but hinted price negotiations could become a stumbling block.

"We are pleased the PBAC has now recognised that all eligible CF patients should have access to Trikafta," the spokesperson said.

"However, it is disappointing that despite providing recent additional clinical data that supports the long-term effect of Trikafta and applying health economics methodology consistent with prior PBAC advice, the outcome has come at the expense of recognising the value of the medicine and its impact on patients."

There are 3500 Australians living with cystic fibrosis, the country's most common genetic disease.

The condition causes mucus to build up in the lungs and airways, leading to irreversible lung damage.

Around half of those with cystic fibrosis currently pass away by the age of 30.

Matt Dickinson, from South Australia, is one patient whose family say he would benefit immensely from Trikafta being added to the PBS.

Matt, who also has autism as well as cystic fibrosis, spent the five out of eight weeks in hospital, including his birthday.

Matt's mother Cassandra Day said Trikafta would give her son his life back.

"We are beyond excited and grateful to have received the news that Trikafta has finally been 'recommended' to be listed on the PBS," she said.

Ms Day said she hoped both Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Federal Government would move swiftly to add the drug to the PBS.

Supermarket shelves across Perth have been stripped bare after extreme weather in South Australia disrupted supply chains.

Floods in the SA outback last week has damaged the rail line linking Perth to the eastern states, causing a logistical headache for West Australian businesses.

Dairy products, paper towels, eggs, toilet paper, and some meat products are some of the items in short supply at supermarkets across Perth.

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Throughout Australia, Woolworths has put a two-pack limit on toilet paper, pain relief and oral analgesics, while in WA there is a two-pack limit on sausages, mince and chicken.

Coles has also announced a two-pack limit on painkillers, and a one-pack limit on toilet paper.

The supermarket shortages have triggered calls by logistics businesses for the Federal Government to invest more into national railroad infrastructure.

Severe weather warnings remain in place in South Australia's flood-affected northern outback today.

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The Bureau of Meteorology has warned the deluge could continue this morning for the communities of Marla, Coober Pedy, Roxby Downs, Leigh Creek, Moomba and Marree, with more storms expected to dampen the already flooded state tomorrow.

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Rains of up to 150mm could be recorded within 24 hours in isolated regions.

Australia's biggest warship has suffered an "outage" during an aid mission to Tonga, the Department of Defence has confirmed.

The Federal Government has confirmed that back-up power has been activated on the HMAS Adelaide, and denied reports that systems including sanitation and refrigeration were shut down.

Civilian experts are now heading to the warship to conduct an assessment of the affected systems, the Defence Department said in a statement.

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"Defence can confirm that HMAS Adelaide has experienced a power outage."

"Back-up power has been activated to restore essential systems.

"The situation is being closely monitored and the safety of the ship and the embarked personnel remains our highest priority."

Officials denied reports the HMAS Adelaide had been 'stranded' by the power outage.

It has also not affected the Australian Government's ability to deliver aid to Tonga, the Defence Department stressed.

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The incident is the second setback for the aid mission after last month's devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Last month 23 people aboard the naval ship tested positive for coronavirus.

The vessel sailed from Brisbane and arrived in Tonga last week.