Former NRL player Brett Finch has been charged over the alleged transmission of child abuse material.

This morning, NSW Police attended a home in Sans Souci, in Sydney's south, and during a search found and seized a mobile phone for further forensic examination.

Finch, 40, was arrested and charged with five counts of using a carriage service to transmit publish or promote abusive material.

He is one of eight men charged as part of Strike Force Hank, which was established by the Child Exploitation Internet Unit (CEIU).

The strikeforce is probing an adult telephone chat service used by a number of men to allegedly arrange the dissemination of child abuse material and discuss the sexual abuse of children.

Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty, Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad Commander, said the investigation had uncovered alleged chat participants who were aggressive in their pursuit of child sex offending.

"We will allege that each of the men arrested by detectives over the past month expressed desires to engage in sexual activity with children, and in some cases, attempted to access child abuse material from other users of the service," Detective Superintendent Doherty said.

"Producing, disseminating or possessing child abuse material are serious offences, and detectives will continue to dismantle these types of operations, so children are free from harmful situations, exploitation, and abuse."

Finch was granted conditional bail to appear at Sutherland Local Court on January 11.

He played 270 NRL games across four clubs and three State of Origin games for NSW.

Investigations under Strike Force Hank continue.

National MP Chris Bishop has announced he and his wife Jenna Raeburn are expecting their first child.In a post to his public social media pages, Bishop shared a photo of Raeburn, their pets and himself holding a photo of an ult…

Australia could become one of the hottest places in the world this week, with temperatures potentially soaring to 50C in the outback.

The nation's highest official temperature on record for December clocked in at 49.9C at Nullarbor in South Australia in 2019, Weatherzone said.

This heatwave is being fuelled by an "exceptionally hot air mass" and a lack of cloud cover.

READ MORE: Christmas parties could spark Omicron wave

Hot air will build over central Australia during the next several days, peaking at the end of the week as it drifts north-west.

"Severe to Extreme" heatwave conditions will be felt across a large area of central and northern Australia this week.

The hottest temperatures are expected over the Pilbara, Kimberley and North Interior districts of Western Australia, with a chance of 50C being hit.

READ MORE: China scrambles to contain fallout of giant Evergrande debts

A highs of 41C is predicted for Alice Springs every day between now and Saturday, Weatherzone said.

This is 4 – 6C above average for this time of year.

An investigation is underway in New Zealand after a woman was given a COVID-19 vaccination with a needle that had already been used on another person.

The incident happened at a Christchurch Hospital vaccination clinic on Friday afternoon.

Speaking anonymously, the husband of the woman who was injected with the used needle told Stuff his wife was really stressed about the incident.

READ MORE: China scrambles to contain fallout of giant Evergrande debts

The woman is a health board employee and was receiving her third booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the time, the man said.

He described what happened as "really concerning".

The Canterbury District Health Board said a "comprehensive investigation" into how the mistake occurred was now underway.

The health board's senior responsible officer for COVID-19 response, Dr Helen Skinner, said in a statement the board had apologised to both people who were injected with the needle.

Blood samples had since been taken from both people.

The woman's husband said results came through on Tuesday afternoon and showed everything was normal.

Dr Skinner said the health board was doing everything it could to support those involved, including the vaccinator and both people who were injected.

READ MORE: Christmas parties could spark Omicron wave

The board would implement any improvements to its systems that would reduce the chance of a similar incident happening again.

Dr Skinner said the affected woman was told immediately when staff realised what had happened.

"We will continue to communicate with the person injected with a pre-used needle, supporting them and sharing any new information we receive."

Hundreds of families have been touched by an anonymous donation to a Tasmanian toy store, after a mysterious caller contributed thousands to pay off lay-bys.

The undisclosed amount allowed Launceston Toyworld to pay off over 150 lay-bys on children's toys, proving that the Christmas spirit is truly alive and well.

Owner Patrick Williams was shocked to receive the call that would change Christmas morning for hundreds of children.

READ MORE: 'Christmas grinch' charged after $50k worth of gifts stolen

"Somebody rang the shop out of the blue. She rang initially just to discuss it and I explained our situation and the amount of lay-bys," Mr Williams told 9news.com.au.

"About a week later, she rang back and said we're good to go and we want to give you this amount of money to help make people's Christmas a little bit better."

The shop had 700 lay-bys at the time of the call, most amassed by parents setting aside special gifts for their children on December 25.

Mr Williams and his team used a random draw of names to decide which lucky shoppers would be selected to receive the donation.

Customers were surprised by the news when they arrived at the store to make a payment, many reacting with relief, shock and tears of gratitude.

"We had a lot of people who just started to cry," Mr Williams said.

One man was too overwhelmed to speak when he heard his debt had been paid, his wife calling the store in tears the next day to express her thanks.

Mum of three, Samantha De Bear, said the donation was a game-changer for her family Christmas.

When Ms De Bear walked into the store to pay off some of her lay-by, she was told that two of her payments had been paid off in full.

"I was just in shock," she said.

"I didn't compute properly.

"I was just like, 'Oh my God.'

"I was just totally lost for words."

READ MORE: Christmas parties could spark Omicron wave

Ms De Bear said she had been considering cancelling some of her Christmas present orders due to the financial strain of the holiday.

"It's made our family's Christmas. Especially at this time of the year, every little bit helps."

Mr Williams described the donor as a "good Samaritan" whose "interests were just benevolent".

"They wanted people to know about it so in the future other people might be interested in donating," he said.

The former Waikato health chief has defended the Medical Council of New Zealand’s language policy after a US doctor called it bureaucratic “nonsense”. Retired cardiologist and ex-head of medicine at Waikato District Health Board…

A two-month-old whose family tried to protect her by putting her in a car seat was among dozens of people killed by tornadoes that ripped through the US on Friday night.

There have been dozens of confirmed deaths in Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee, but those numbers are expected to rise.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said at least 74 had died in his state alone.

READ MORE: Six killed in US Amazon warehouse after tornado

Douglas Koon, his wife, Jackie, and their three children huddled in his mother-in-law's bathroom in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, as the storms approached.

The tornado hit the house directly, flinging the family around and tossing a bathtub in the air that was shielding two of his sons.

They were all thrown from the home on Crawford Lane and landed across the street.

The couple put their infant daughter, Oaklynn, in a car seat to protect her, and she appeared to be OK on Saturday.

"It's the most traumatic thing I've been through, I felt like I was helpless in protecting my kids," Mr Koon told MSNBC in an interview on Saturday.

His 11-year-old son Bentley and four-year-old son Dallas were buried in debris as the storm went through

Dallas had bleeding from his head and was sent to Indiana for treatment, before being released from hospital.

By Sunday, baby Oaklynn was having seizures, and doctors noticed a brain bleed after she was taken to the hospital.

They believed she had a stroke, Mr Koon said in a Facebook post.

"It's not looking good at this point," he wrote.

"The machines are keeping her alive.

"Her head swelled really bad. She doesn't have activity.

"So now we're going to have to make a decision. I can't believe I'm writing this.

"I'm in shock, my heart feels absolutely shattered. We love you Oakie."

Early Monday morning, the family posted that the infant had died.

In a text message to The Associated Press today, Mr Koon said he was struggling "to process everything that I'm going through".

A family member has set up a crowdfunding account for Mr Koon's family and his mother-in-law, Sheila Rose, who lost her home.

More than US$84,000 has been raised for the family so far.

By Jane Patterson of RNZ The Government has no plans to make any substantial improvements to emergency housing outside of Rotorua until next year.There are ongoing concerns about the safety of some motels amid reports of increasing…

With Auckland’s borders set to reopen tonight, police have warned of delays as they clear checkpoint infrastructure – and they have revealed how the Northland checkpoints will operate. At 11.59pm tonight, the north and south borders…

By RNZ Local leaders in the Tairāwhiti Gisborne region are calling for checkpoints around the region to protect its residents from Covid-19 this summer.The region has the second-lowest full vaccination rate in the country,…