The person was released by police after it was confirmed they held diplomatic immunity.

Now a judge has described one of the women involved as a menace to the community.

Intercepted phone calls between a daughter and her fugitive property developer father might not be allowed to be used in a fraud case against her, despite forming a major part of the prosecution's case.

Ashlyn Nassif, who is a trained lawyer, claims the calls made during an investigation into her father Jean Nassif should fall under the category of legal professional privilege.

Hundreds of Mr Nassif's calls were intercepted by NSW Police during a 2021 investigation into suspected money laundering at Sydney's The Star casino, a court was told on Wednesday.

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Ms Nassif was an executive at her father's Toplace development firm, which has been banned from engaging in construction work by NSW Fair Trading after a string of defects in multiple, major apartment projects.

She is facing allegations she submitted falsified documents to trigger a $150 million loan from Westpac for the construction of three apartment towers in the north-western Sydney suburb of Castle Hill.

Magistrate Christopher Halburd said he would allow a NSW Police detective senior constable to be questioned about the phone calls before Ms Nassif's case proceeded.

He told a hearing in Burwood Local Court that prosecutors would have a "very strong case indeed" if the calls were allowed, but would be significantly weaker without them.

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Prosecutors have argued the calls could reasonably fall into a number of different categories, including discussions between a father and daughter about family matters.

The calls could also be classified as being about business matters between Toplace executives or between a solicitor and client, Halburd said.

"I intend to allow cross-examination on a much narrower scope than was sought by the applicant," he said.

A hearing has been set for November 29 to hear from the detective senior constable about the phone calls.

Mr Nassif left Australia for Lebanon in 2022 and is being pursued by NSW Police following a two-year fraud investigation.

An early-morning blaze that tore through a hotel in Burwood may have been started by vape batteries.

Firefighters worked to put out a fire on the second floor of the Bath Arms Hotel after it broke out about 5.45am today.

Heavy smoke was seen wafting from the venue and the front room of the building was completely engulfed in flames.

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One accommodation room in the two-storey pub was completely burnt out in the blaze, which took 35 firefighters and eight fire trucks to put out.

"If anyone was inside this would not have been survivable when our firefighters got here," FRNSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said. 

"Fortunately, the occupant had already left for work."

About 20 people were evacuated and the fire brought under control in about 20 minutes.

There were no injuries recorded.

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Fire and Rescue NSW is investigating and believe the source could be lithium-ion batteries from vapes.

Multiple vape batteries were found on charge in the room, FRNSW said. 

Dewberry said the occupant confirmed he left "cheap-style" vape batteries charging in the room.

Dewberry said the batteries were very flammable and could catch fire during a blaze even if they are not the source.

"They are extremely volatile and explosive and can significantly increase the intensity of the fire," he said.

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FRNSW warned people to never leave lithium-ion-powered devices charging while you sleep or are away from home.

A decision to buy $1500 of cocaine on credit led to a man being murdered weeks later by a shotgun-toting drug dealer during a home invasion.

Bahra Youseff killed 30-year-old Adnan Salameh in front of his partner in their granny flat in the western Sydney suburb of Tregear on November 30, 2020.

A NSW Supreme Court jury today found the 23-year-old guilty of a single charge of murder after a lengthy trial, which started in August.

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During the trial, crown prosecutor Sylvie Sloane told the jury Salameh's partner bought $1500 worth of cocaine on credit from Youseff around six weeks before the shooting.

The dealer broke into the couple's home with another man, armed with a shotgun and wearing balaclavas, and fired at Salameh after he lunged at them.

The debt was never settled and blood was shed.

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Sloane told the jury the couple were selling drugs to fund their addictions and had used the drug "ice" shortly before the murder.

Youseff planned the home invasion after hearing that Salameh and his partner had broken into the house of two friends on November 8, 2020 and stole some money.

His lawyer John Stratton SC denied there was sufficient evidence to link his client to the murder, a claim rejected by the jury.

Stratton argued Salameh had ramped up his drug use before being killed, alleging he refused to pay his debts to others and had also ripped off those who were buying his product.

Youseff will face a sentence hearing on November 12.

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Astro-photographers could soon be in for another treat: Nasa records a major solar flare.

A woman has been charged after a Hezbollah flag was allegedly displayed at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney.

NSW Police released a photo of the woman earlier today, asking for the public's assistance to identify her.

The 19-year-old attended Kogarah Police Station about 10am, where she was arrested and charged with publicly displaying the symbol of a terrorist organisation.

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She was granted conditional bail and will appear in the Downing Centre Local Court on October 23. 

The Australian Federal Police is also investigating possible crimes related to the presence of Hezbollah flags at rallies in Sydney and Melbourne on Sunday.

Australia – like the US, UK, Canada, Japan and other allies – lists Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

Displaying the symbol of a terrorist group can be punished by up to a year in prison but federal law lays out only certain illegal situations, such as if the flag is used to spread hate, to intimidate or to incite violence.

NSW Police will head to the Supreme Court to block two pro-Palestine protests planned for Sydney to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the war in Gaza this weekend.

Organisers of the planned October 6 and 7 marches had already advised people to leave the flags at home but after negotiations yesterday were told police would oppose the planned rallies.

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Cadaver dogs and search crews have trudged through knee-deep muck and debris in the mountains of western North Carolina looking for more victims of Hurricane Helene days after the storm carved a deadly and destructive path through the south-eastern US.

Meanwhile, across the border in east Tennessee, a caravan including Governor Bill Lee that was surveying damage outside the town of Erwin drove by a crew pulling two bodies from the wreckage.

It's a grim reminder that the rescue and recovery operations are still very much ongoing and the death toll – already surpassing 160 – is likely to rise.

The storm, which was one of the deadliest in US history, knocked out power and cellular service in some towns and cities, leaving many people frustrated, hot and increasingly worried days into the ordeal.

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Some cooked food on charcoal grills or hiked to high ground in the hopes of finding a signal to let loved ones know they are alive.

In Augusta, Georgia, Sherry Brown was converting power from the alternator of her car to keep her refrigerator running and taking “bird baths” with water she collected in coolers.

In another part of the city, people waited in line more than three hours to try to get water from one of five centres set up to serve more than 200,000 people.

The devastation was especially bad in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where at least 57 people died in and around Asheville, North Carolina, a tourism haven known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.

“Communities were wiped off the map,” North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, said at a news conference.

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In Swannanoa, a small community outside Asheville, receding floodwaters revealed cars stacked on top of others and trailer homes that had floated away during the storm.

Roads were caked with mud and debris and pockmarked by sinkholes.

Cliff Stewart survived two feet of water that poured into his home, topping the wheels on his wheelchair and sending his medicine bottles floating from room to room.

Left without electricity and reliant on food drop-offs from friends, he has refused offers to help him leave.

“Where am I going to go?" the Marine Corps veteran said.

“This is all I’ve got. I just don’t want to give it up, because what am I going to do? Be homeless? I’d rather die right here than live homeless.”

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What is being done to help?

Exhausted emergency crews worked around the clock to clear roads, restore power and phone service, and reach those still stranded by the storm, which killed at least 166 people in six states, including many who were hit by falling trees or trapped in flooded cars and homes.

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Nearly half of the deaths were in North Carolina, while dozens of others were in South Carolina and Georgia.

President Joe Biden, who is set to survey the devastation in North and South Carolina today, estimated the recovery could cost billions.

“We have to jump start this recovery process,” he said yesterday.

“People are scared to death. This is urgent.”

More than 150,000 households have registered for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days, said Frank Matranga, an agency representative.

Nearly two million ready-to-eat meals and more than a million litres of water have been sent to the hardest-hit areas, he said.

The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina, dumping more than an estimated 61 centimetres of rain in places.

Cooper's administration said that more than two dozen water plants remained closed and were not producing water.

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Active-duty US military units may be needed to assist the long-term recovery, he said, adding that Biden had given “the green light” to mobilising military assets in the near future.

A section of one of the region’s main arteries, Interstate 40, reopened after a mudslide was cleared, but a collapsed stretch near North Carolina’s border with Tennessee remained closed.

How some of the hardest-hit areas are coping

Residents and business owners wore masks and gloves while clearing debris on Tuesday in Hot Springs, North Carolina, where almost every building along the tiny town's main street was heavily damaged.

Sarah Calloway, who owns the deli and gourmet grocery Vaste Riviere Provisions, said the storm arrived in town frighteningly quickly.

She helped fill sandbags the day the night before, but they turned out to be useless.

The water rose so rapidly that even though she and others were in an apartment on an upper floor, she feared they would not be safe.

They called to request a rescue from a swift water team.

“They tried to get to us, and at that point they couldn’t,” she said.

“Luckily, that was when the water started to recede.”

“It was really challenging to watch how quickly it rose up and then just to watch whole buildings floating down the river. It was something I can’t even describe,” she said.

In the Black Mountain Mobile Home Park in Swannanoa, Carina Ramos and Ezekiel Bianchi were overwhelmed by the damage.

The couple, their children and dog fled in the predawn darkness on Friday as the Swannanoa River’s rapidly rising waters began flooding the bottom end of the mobile home park.

By then, trees were blocking the roads and the couple abandoned their three vehicles, all of which flooded.

“We left everything because we were panicking,” Ramos said.

Their children were staying with Ramos' parents and did not want to even see the devastated trailer.

“My daughter was crying, panicking," Ramos said.

"She says she doesn’t want to see her room full of toys, all thrown everywhere.”

Mobile service knocked out

The widespread damage and outages affecting key communications infrastructure left many people without stable access to the internet and cellular service, the Federal Communications Commission said.

Mayor Zeb Smathers of Canton, North Carolina, expressed frustration that so many of his constituents were still without phone service with no clear timetable for when it would be restored.

“People are walking the streets of Canton with their phones up in the air trying to catch a cellphone signal like it’s a butterfly,” he told The Associated Press.

“Every single aspect of this response has been extremely crippled by lack of cellphone communication. The one time we absolutely needed our cellphones to work they failed.”

Teams from Verizon were working to repair downed cell towers, damaged fibre cables and provide alternative forms of connectivity across the region, the company said in a statement.

AT&T, meanwhile, said it launched “one of the largest mobilisations of our disaster recovery assets for emergency connectivity support”.

The efforts to restore service was made more challenging by the region’s terrain and spread-out population, said David Zumwalt, president and CEO of the Association for Broadband Without Boundaries.

Destruction from Florida to Virginia

Helene blew ashore in Florida late last Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and upended life throughout the Southeast, where deaths were also reported in Florida, Tennessee and Virginia.

Across Georgia, Helene’s inland path knocked out power and shattered lives from Valdosta to Augusta, where a line of cars waiting to get water Tuesday stretched at least 800 metres down the road.

“It’s been rough,” said Kristie Nelson, who had no idea when her electricity would be restored.

“I’m just dying for a hot shower.”

With at least 36 killed in South Carolina, Helene passed the 35 people who were killed in the state after Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989.

When Tennessee Governor Lee flew to the eastern part of the state to survey damage, residents said the governor and his entourage were the first help they had seen since the storm hit.

“Where has everyone been?" one frustrated local asked.

"We have been here alone."

A protestor says the council’s issues could have been avoided if it listened better.

Schools across NZ have had their names changed on Google Maps.