Brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez will wait a further two months to find out if their convictions in the shotgun murders of their parents in their Beverly Hills home more than 30 years ago will be re-examined, after a judge delayed his decision.

The brothers were found guilty of murdering Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

While their defence attorneys argued at trial that they had been sexually abused by their father, prosecutors denied that and accused them of killing their parents for money. In the years that followed, they repeatedly appealed their convictions without success.

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Now, at 53 and 56, Erik and Lyle Menendez are making a new bid for freedom. Their lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition — a request for a court to examine whether someone is being lawfully detained — in May 2023, asking a judge to consider new evidence of their father's sexual abuse.

"Newly discovered evidence directly supports the defence presented at trial," the petition said.

The recent releases of the Netflix drama Monsters: Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and the documentary The Menendez Brothers in 2024 brought renewed public attention to their plight. Members of the public will be given the opportunity to win a seat in the courtroom to catch a glimpse of the brothers, who will be appearing virtually.

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Prosecutors recommended resentencing for the brothers last month, saying they have worked on redemption and rehabilitation and demonstrated good behaviour inside prison.

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón held a news conference less than two weeks before Election Day, asking for new sentences of 50 years to life.

This could make them immediately eligible for parole because they were less than 26 years old when they killed their parents.

Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said on Monday (Tuesday AEST) that he would consider the resentencing request on January 30, instead of December 11 as originally planned. The judge said he had 17 boxes of documents to review.

The brothers' extended family has pleaded for their release, saying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars.

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Several family members have said that in today's world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.

Incoming Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman told Today he had asked for additional time to review the case due to the weight of evidence that needed to be re-examined, and compared to the new evidence.

"This will be a high priority once I enter office, I will conduct this thorough review of the facts and the law, and then go into court and render a decision, and then be able to defend that decision as well," he said.

"It would be a disservice to both the Menendez brothers, the victims, family members, and the public for me to speculate where I'm going to end up."

Not all Menendez family members support resentencing. Attorneys for Milton Andersen, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a legal brief asking the court to keep the brothers' original punishment.

"They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death," Andersen's attorneys said in a statement last week.

"The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury's verdict was just, and the punishment fits the heinous crime."

Immediate freedom is one possible result of Jesic's upcoming decision; the judge also might weigh in on the merits of the evidence. And if the brothers don't get relief in court, they can hope California's governor will grant them clemency.

The new evidence includes a letter Erik Menendez wrote in 1988 to his uncle Andy Cano, describing the sexual abuse he had endured from his father. The brothers asked their lawyers about it after it was mentioned in a 2015 Barbara Walters television special.

The lawyers hadn't known of the letter and realised it had not been introduced at their trials, making it effectively new evidence that they say corroborates allegations that Erik was sexually abused by his father.

More new evidence emerged when Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, recently came forward saying he had been drugged and raped by Jose Menendez, the boys' father, when he was a teen in the 1980s. Menudo was signed under RCA Records, where Jose Menendez was chief operating officer.

Rossello spoke about his abuse in the Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, and provided a signed declaration to the brothers' lawyers.

Had these two pieces of evidence been available during the brothers' trial, prosecutors would not have been able to argue that there was no corroboration of sexual abuse, or that their father Jose Menendez was not the "kind of man that would" abuse children, the petition argues.

While clemency might be another pathway to freedom for the brothers, California Governor Gavin Newsom said last week that he won't decide until Hochman reviews the case.

Hochman, a Republican-turned-Independent who unseated the progressive Gascón on December 2, has said he wants to carefully look at the evidence before making any decisions.

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Two states are facing a blackout warning today as temperatures along much of the New South Wales coast are set to nudge 40 degrees.

The heatwave is predicted to sweep Sydney, the Hunter, and the Illawarra regions in particular, putting electricity reserves to the test as millions turn on the air conditioning.

And critical power generators are undergoing maintenance, with four still offline this morning.

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Authorities have issued blackout warnings for today and tomorrow, with tomorrow's warning also covering Queensland residents.

The highest-risk blackout times are between 3.30pm and 7.30pm.

People have been urged to limit their use of electric lights and also air-conditioning if they can safely do so.

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Temperatures in the next couple of days are expected to be 10 to 12 degrees higher than average, closing in on 40 tomorrow in Sydney's west.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said it "has alerted the energy industry and is working with power station operators and transmission businesses to boost electricity availability".

Late yesterday afternoon, AEMO advised that energy reserves had improved after transmission outages were cancelled.

Premier Chris Minns said he aimed to let people know what's going on.

"We've had early reports that the grid could be under a lot of pressure. I acknowledge that," he said.

"We will be as quick as possible with updates to the community about potential interruptions with supply."

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"He burned the face I used to kiss every night."

Those were the devastating words of a father grieving his murdered daughter, who was killed and thrown into a bathtub full of acid by her husband.

Arnima Hayat, 19, was found dead at her Parramatta home in Sydney two years ago.

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Her husband faced a sentencing hearing in the New South Wales Supreme Court today over the gruesome killing.

Meraj Zafar apologised to the family, with his lawyers arguing he's a changed man.

Almost three years after the mother-to-be and medical student was brutally murdered by her husband, those who loved her most were still lost for words.

"As a father it's very hard to say something about my daughter," her father, Abu Hayat, said.

It was January 2022, when Zafar either choked or smothered his wife in their North Parramatta apartment, before he dumped her in a bathtub full of acid.

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His internet searches at the time included "whether hydrochloric acid can burn through skin" and "how many years do you get in Sydney for murder".

Her father today told the court: "He burned the face I used to talk to and kiss every night."

"Can you imagine someone burning your child?" he said.

The couple had only been married for four months.

Zafar was worried Arnima would leave him.

Arnima's mother broke down as she faced her daughter's killer who appeared via video link.

"I sit by her grave every Friday, stroking the grass because I can no longer stroke her hair," she said.

"I kiss and hug her tombstone, longing to hold her and smell her."

Zafar's lawyers today tried to argue for a lesser sentence, saying he's not only remorseful for what he's done but he's already accepted the need to begin self rehabilitation.

They argued these are positive signs that should be taken into consideration when sentencing.

His sorrow over the crime was dismissed by the family.

"I want punished him a long, long time," her father said.

Zafar will learn his fate next month.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

Barbara Taylor Bradford, a British journalist who became a publishing sensation in her 40s with the saga A Woman of Substance and wrote more than a dozen other novels that sold tens of millions of copies, has died. She was 91.

Bradford died on Sunday at her home in New York City, a spokesperson said on Monday.

Starting with A Woman of Substance, published in 1979, Bradford averaged nearly a book a year as one of the world's most popular and wealthiest writers, her net worth estimated at more than $US200 million ($307 million) and her fame so high that her image appeared on a postage stamp in 1999. In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II awarded her an OBE (The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire).

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Her books were published in 40 languages and sold more than 90 million copies around the world.

With titles like Breaking the Rules and Act of Will, she specialised in stories of women fighting for love and power in a man's world. Her favourite among her books was The Women In His Life, inspired by her husband's escape from the Nazis

Bradford was married for 56 years to German-born film producer Robert Bradford, who died in 2019.

A native of Leeds, West Yorkshire, she was an only child in a working class family who loved books early. As a girl, she had a story published in a local magazine. By age 16, she left school against her parents' wishes to become a reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Over the next 30 years, she would work as fashion editor of Woman's Own Magazine, cover a variety of beats for the London Evening News and, in the United States, write a syndicated column about interior design.

Although she wrote children's stories and advice books, novels were her dream. A Woman of Substance was a multi-generational chronicle of the travails and triumphs of retail baron Emma Harte, who would be featured in several other Bradford novels. The book has sold more than 30 million copies and was the basis of a 1984 television miniseries starring Jenny Seagrove as a young Emma and Deborah Kerr as Emma late in life.

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"And if you want to meet the real Emma, meet me," Bradford told the Telegraph of London in 2009.

"Emma had to be tough and ruthless at times: but then so am I.

"I have to be, as a businesswoman. And I'm a bloody good businesswoman."

Bradford and Emma Harte were linked by more than money: both had family secrets. As a young woman, Emma became pregnant by a man who refused to marry her and gave birth to a daughter.

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Years later, Bradford learned through her biographer that her own mother had been born out of wedlock. It is now believed that Bradford's maternal grandfather was Frederick Oliver Robinson, the second Marquess of Ripon and the owner of the Studley Royal estate.

Seagrove, who became friends with Bradford after starring in the miniseries, described her as a "powerhouse of glamour and warmth" and a "force of nature" who stayed true to her roots.

"Success never diluted her warmth and humour or her ability to relate to everyone she met, whether a cleaner or a princess," Seagrove said.

"She never, ever forgot that she was just a girl from Yorkshire that worked hard and made good. RIP dear friend."

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Bradford had a strict writing routine: at work behind her IBM Lexmark typewriter by 6am, break about 1pm, then back to writing until 6pm, at the latest.

According to an authorised 2006 biography, Piers Dudgeon's The Woman of Substance, Bradford more than adapted to her midlife fortune, living in a 500 square metre apartment overlooking Manhattan's East River, collecting Impressionist art and enjoying refills of pink champagne poured by her Moroccan butler.

When the Bradfords put their apartment up for sale in 2010, the asking price was just under $US19 million. They sold it to Uma Thurman in 2013 for $US10 million ($15.4 million).

Over the years, she met many other celebrities. Bradford befriended Sean Connery before he appeared in his first James Bond movie and remembered advising him, thankfully in vain, that he should lose his Scottish accent if he wanted to succeed.

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Around the same time, she met a fellow journalist at the Yorkshire Evening Post.

He was "lanky and disheveled with acne", and kept trying to talk to her even after she turned him down for a date at the movies.

He was Peter O'Toole.

"Years later, (Evening Post editor) Keith Waterhouse and I were at an event where the producer Sam Spiegel introduced the star of his new movie," she told The Guardian in 2021.

"Out walked the most beautiful man I'd ever seen, dressed as Lawrence of Arabia. Keith said: 'Don't you wish you'd gone to the pictures with him now?' I never got over Peter's transformation."

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Fishermen have been given a fright by a great white shark that surfaced metres from a jetty in Adelaide, thrashing in the water as it tore crab nets near unsuspecting swimmers.

The shark quickly took two nets at Semaphore jetty as crowds of people watched on.

Eyewitnesses said there were swimmers in the water nearby, with people rushing to get them to dry land.

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It's the second shark sighting in as many days off Semaphore, after another great white was spotted by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter approximately 50 metres offshore on Saturday. 

The helicopter crew successfully herded that shark back into deeper waters.

Surf Life Saving SA says it's not usual to see sharks along the coast at this time of the year, but since mid-October there have been 36 sightings.

This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.

Police have swooped on an accused drink driver who paraded his car, heavily decorated in Christmas fairy lights and trinkets through the middle of a busy Adelaide pedestrian zone, before allegedly returning a positive breath test.

The grey Mazda shrouded in festive ornaments and blasting carols drove through Henley Square just after 8pm on Sunday.

After the man drove a lap around the square, witnesses say he sat there, parked in his car for several minutes before police arrived.

The 65-year-old driver from Croyden Park said he had taken a wrong turn, according to police. 

Officers say he returned a positive breath test of 0.071, and has now been charged with drink driving and dangerous driving.

The man's car was impounded for 28 days, and he is expected to face court at a later date.

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This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.

Police are investigating after a giraffe head attached to Myer's annual Christmas windows in Melbourne's CBD was vandalised over the weekend.

Hundreds of people today lined up to get a glimpse of the windows, which this year have the theme of Australia Zoo.

Jeannie the giraffe was removed for repairs today, with her head restored within hours.

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Police believe the giraffe's head was removed on Saturday night.

Families today told 9News they were shocked by the vandalism.

"That's a bit disappointing – because it's Christmas, it's for the kids," one woman said.

It's the second incident to impact the Myer windows after protesters forced the department store to cancel its opening event.

Cameras have captured a massive avalanche engulfing the entire valley below in seconds in China.

The dramatic moment was captured by surveillance cameras in the Oytagh Glacier Park scenic area in Akto County.

The video shows an enormous mass of snow cascading down from the summit of Chakragil in the Kunlun Mountains in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regionat 6pm on Thursday.

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As the avalanche unfolded, the snow accumulated rapidly, forming a towering "snow wall" tens of metres high and covering the entire valley in less than a minute.

Fortunately, the avalanche happened in an uninhabited high-altitude area, so no injuries or casualties were reported

The Chakragil, which is more than 6000 meters above sea level, is constantly covered with snow.

The region had recently experienced heavy snowfall, resulting in a build-up of snow thick enough to trigger the avalanche.

– reported with Associated Press.

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Nine Australians. More than eight kilograms of heroin. A street value of $4 million.

It was the international crime that rocked Australia in 2005, and now it looks like the last members of the Bali Nine serving prison sentences could be coming home.

Here's everything you need to know about the Bali Nine, their crimes, sentences, and what could finally bring the last of them back to Australia.

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Who are the Bali Nine?

In April 2005, nine Australians were caught trying to smuggle more than 8.3kg of heroin out of Indonesia.

Those Aussies were Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens and Renae Lawrence.

Under ringleaders Chan and Sukumaran, the group planned to smuggle the drugs into Australia where they'd be worth about $4 million.

Instead, Indonesian police with the support of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) detained and arrested the nine involved before they ever left Indonesian soil.

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How did the Bali Nine get caught?

The AFP had suspicions that Sukumaran, Chan, Lawrence and Norman were involved in international drug smuggling before they travelled to Bali in April 2005.

It was believed that those four were part of a larger syndicate that had smuggled a large amount of heroin from Indonesia to Australia in 2004, so when they travelled to Indonesia again in 2005, the AFP was watching.

It alerted Indonesian police to the group's presence in Bali and shared key details about the individuals involved, including their names, passport numbers, and possible links to the illegal drug trade.

Indonesian police started surveilling the group and continued the surveillance for a full week before arresting them on April 17, 2005.

Six were arrested at Denpasar airport after Stephens, Lawrence, Rush and Czugaj were discovered with packages of heroin strapped to their bodies.

Chan and Sukumaran were also arrested there in relation to the drugs, though neither were found with drugs on their person.

The remaining three — Chen, Nguyen and Norman — were arrested at the Maslati Hotel at Kuta Beach with about 300 grams of heroin in their possession.

Not long after the news broke in Australia, the group were dubbed the 'Bali Nine'.

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What happened to the Bali Nine?

Trials for the nine Australians commenced in Indonesia over four consecutive days in October 2005.

Seven were sentenced to life in prison by the Denpasar district court: Lawrence, Rush, Czugaj, Stephens, Norman, Chen and Nguyen.

In a shocking move, ringleaders Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death by firing squad.

It was the first time in recorded history that the Denpasar district court handed down death sentences for drug trafficking and sent shockwaves out around the world.

All members of the Bali Nine lodged appeals against their sentences and while some who had received life sentences had them reduced, others faced a much more dire outcome.

Lawrence successfully appealed to have her life sentence reduced to 20 years.

Czugaj successfully appealed for a reduced 20-year jail term, only to have it overturned and his life sentence reimposed.

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Chen and Norman appealed and had their life sentences reduced to 20 years, only for those appeal verdicts to be overturned and the death penalty imposed.

Rush and Nguyen also appealed to have their life sentences reduced and were instead sentenced to death.

In March 2008, it was revealed that Norman, Chen and Nguyen's sentences had been quietly reduced to life in prison. A few months later, Rush's death sentence was also reduced to life imprisonment.

Chan and Sukumaran both appealed to have their death sentences reduced and, when those appeals were rejected, begged for clemency. Both were rejected.

How many of the Bali Nine were executed?

The two ringleaders of the Bali Nine, Sukumaran and Chan, were executed in 2015.

The executions went ahead despite multiple attempts by Sukumaran and Chan to appeal their sentences, applications for judicial reviews, and bids from both for clemency.

Then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott also appealed directly to Then-Indonesian President Joko Widodo to stop the executions.

"We oppose the death penalty for Australians at home and abroad," he said in January, 2015.

"We obviously respect the legal systems of other countries, but where there is an attempt to impose the death penalty on an Australian, we make the strongest possible diplomatic representations."

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The executions were delayed and put on hold several times as avenues to save Sukumaran and Chan's lives were explored, but they ultimately went ahead just over 10 years after they were arrested.

The two men were executed by firing squad at a prison on Nusakambangan island in central Java on April 29, 2015.

Are any of the Bali Nine still in jail?

At the time of writing, five of the Bali Nine remain in prison in Indonesia.

Lawrence was released in November 2018 after serving almost 13 years in prison. Her sentence was reduced for good behavior and she was deported to Australia.

Nguyen died in prison in May 2018 from stomach cancer.

The remaining five members of the Bali Nine — Chen, Czugaj, Norman, Rush and Stephens — are still serving out their sentences in Indonesian jails, but that could soon change.

Will the Bali Nine ever be released?

A private conversation between Albanese and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at the G20 Summit, as well as "consistent advocacy" from the Albanese government, may have secured their return.

"I can confirm the Albanese government has been consistently advocating for the cases of the Bali Nine and this included conversations with former president Widodo and President Prabowo," Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said.

It's understood the federal government is waiting for the Indonesian government to make an official announcement before confirming details of the agreement.

If all goes to plan, they could be back on Australian soil before Christmas. It's expected they would serve out the rest of their sentences here.

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Queensland Children's Hospital drew on more than 1650 incidents to compile an authoritative list.