The body of former missing person Natasha Ryan, who was previously known for being found hiding in her boyfriend's cupboard while a man was on trial for her murder, has been found in Central Queensland.

Police told 9News Queensland the 40-year-old was found dead at the Rockhampton Golf Course this morning.

Officers will prepare a report for the coroner, with police saying the circumstances of her death were not suspicious.

Ryan ran away from her Queensland home at the age of 14 and disappeared.

For years police searched for her, and a man was charged with murdering her.

Almost five years after her disappearance, the man was on trial for her murder when police raided her boyfriend's home and found the then-schoolgirl, alive and well, hiding in his cupboard.

She then became known as 'the girl in the cupboard'.

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Six cars were impounded and two people were arrested.

Russia has a complex 128-year history at the Olympic Games and it is about to enter a new era in Paris 2024, as the country's athletes will compete under a completely new title.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced it would allow athletes from Russia to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes (INA) following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has been ongoing since February 2022.

The same order was made for Belarus, which supported Russia in the invasion.

It means athletes from those countries will compete without any mention of their country, like how Russian and Belarusian tennis players are presented at ATP, WTA and grand slam events.

It is not the first time Russia has been disciplined by the IOC.

More than 100 of its athletes were banned from Rio 2016 after the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) independent commission found "systematic doping" had occurred, which had knock-on effects for subsequent Olympic Games.

So what is a neutral athlete?

An Individual Neutral Athlete is the name used to refer to athletes with either a Russian or Belarusian passport who will be competing at this year's Games in July and August.

These athletes are referred to by the abbreviation AIN, which comes from the French translation Athlètes Individuels Neutres.

These athletes will be permitted to compete if they meet eligibility requirements.

No reference to either country will be made at the Games through the athletes' participation, meaning the countries will not compete in team sports.

"The sanctions against those responsible for the war, the Russian and Belarusian states and governments, remain in place for the Olympic Games Paris 2024," the IOC said in a statement.

"No flag, anthem, colours or any other identifications whatsoever of Russia or Belarus will be displayed at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in any official venue or any official function," the statement continues.

Competition gear for the AINs has not yet been revealed, so it is unclear whether it will bear the turquoise colours of the brand-new flag of the AINs, or that they will don basic sportswear.

An anthem, without lyrics, has also been commissioned for use in medal ceremonies.

Though AINs are eligible to compete and win Olympic medals, they will not be displayed in the medal table of nations.

AINs will also be excluded from the parade of delegations at the Opening Ceremony on the basis that they are individual athletes rather than a team, though the IOC has said "an opportunity will be provided for them to experience the event".

'A workable solution'

Victoria University Professor Ramón Spaaij told 9news.com.au the decision to have neutral athletes was a compromise and a workable solution.

"You're not denying individual athletes who've been working towards peak performance at an event like this … their right to participate," Spaaij said.

About 55 Russian athletes and 28 Belarusians are expected to compete at Paris 2024, according to the IOC.

"Those athletes will probably be very wary of making any political statements," Spaaij said.

He said the athletes from those countries might not support the invasion but it was also necessary to penalise the countries.

"You're robbing them of the opportunity to showcase the strength of their regime through their achievements on the sporting field," Spaaij said.

Teams have previously refused to play against Russian teams, like in the FIFA World Cup, which Spaaij said becomes "absolute chaos".

Russia being allowed to compete could also be hurtful to Ukrainian athletes. 

He said the solution wasn't ideal but it seemed to be the best way to handle the situation.

Russia's success

Despite its political issues, Russia has proven to be a major competitor at the Games.

The country first competed as the Russian Empire in 1900, 1908 and 1912.

It didn't compete again until 1952 as the Soviet Union, then as the Unified Team in 1992 after the union break-up.

They competed as Russia from 1996 until these games.

As the Soviet Union they finished first five times and when competing as Russia, the nation finished in the top four at each Games until Rio 2016.

– Reported with CNN

Police are searching for a group who broke into a home in Melbourne's north-west in the early hours of the morning, stealing a laptop, keys, and Mercedes.

The offenders stormed the house on Gibsons Circuit in Bonnie Brook about 5.45am on Thursday while two people were asleep inside, police said.

They allegedly ransacked the house before fleeing in the victim's Mercedes that was parked outside.

READ MORE: Search for driver after hit-and-run leaves man seriously injured in Melbourne

Police found the Mercedes dumped in Lalor about 8am.

No arrests have been made as police continue to search for the offenders.

Anyone who witnessed the incident, has dashcam or CCTV footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

North Korea launched hundreds more trash-carrying balloons toward the South after a similar campaign a few days earlier, according to South Korea's military, in what Pyongyang calls retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.

Between last night and this morning, about 600 balloons flown from North Korea have been found in various parts of South Korea.

The balloons carried cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, waste paper and vinyl, but no dangerous substances were included, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said today.

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The military advised people to beware of falling objects and not to touch objects suspected to be from North Korea but report them to military or police offices instead. There have been no reports of injuries or damage.

In Seoul, the city government sent text alerts saying that unidentified objects suspected to be flown from North Korea were detected in skies near the city and that the military was responding to them.

The North's balloon launches added to a recent series of provocative steps, which include its failed spy satellite launch and a barrage of short-range missiles launches that the North said was intended to demonstrate its ability to attack the South preemptively.

READ MORE: Diners' lucky escape after car ploughs into pizza shop at dinnertime

South Korea's military dispatched chemical rapid response and explosive clearance teams to recover the debris from some 260 North Korean balloons that were found in various parts of the country from Tuesday night to Wednesday.

The military said the balloons carried various types of trash and manure but no dangerous substances like chemical, biological or radioactive materials.

Some of the balloons were found with timers that suggested they were designed to pop the bags of trash midair.

In a statement on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, confirmed that the North sent the balloons to make good on her country's recent threat to "scatter mounds of wastepaper and filth" in South Korea in response to leafleting campaigns by South Korean activists.

She hinted that balloons could become the North's standard response to leafletting moving forward, saying that the North would respond by "scattering rubbish dozens of times more than those being scattered to us".

South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Friday that North Korea must stop the provocations — also including its missile launches and other acts — or face unspecified "unbearable" consequences.

South Korea's military has said it has no plans to shoot down the balloons, citing concerns about causing damage or the possibility that they might contain dangerous substances. Firing at balloons near the border would also risk triggering a retaliation from the North at a time of high tensions.

"(We) decided it was best to let the balloons drop and recover them safely," Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing on Thursday.

North Korea is extremely sensitive about any outside attempt to undermine Kim Jong Un's absolute control over the country's 26 million people, most of whom have little access to foreign news.

In 2020, North Korea blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison office on its territory after a furious response to South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns.

In 2014, North Korea fired at propaganda balloons flying toward its territory and South Korea returned fire, though there were no casualties.

In 2022, North Korea even suggested that balloons flown from South Korea had caused a COVID-19 outbreak in the isolated nation, a highly questionable claim that appeared to be an attempt to blame the South for worsening inter-Korean relations.

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It’s the second aircraft flown by the carrier to encounter flight troubles this week.

The first half of 2024 brought us drought and deluges. So what’s to come in winter?

Pat Taka used to sit on a highway stump and wait for a ride. He was last seen in March.

More than a month's worth of rain was dumped over Sydney in the 24 hours to 9am, with more than a hundred emergency calls made overnight.

The most persistent rainfall was in inner-city Sydney with Observatory Hill recording 142mm within just 24 hours, smashing the total monthly average of 133mm for June.

"Sydney and some of the eastern suburbs had a month's worth of rain in the last 24 hours on Saturday," BoM senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said.

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Sydney's east was mostly inundated with rain while the city's west received between 25mm and 50mm from Richmond to Badgery's Creek.

The State Emergency Service (SES) was called to 140 jobs since 6pm yesterday which included storm damage repairs, sandbagging and and fixing leaky roofs.

About 106 of those calls were from Sydney's metropolitan area and there were two flood rescues carried out in Fairfield and Kogarah.

READ MORE: Five hospitalised after explosion causes building collapse

There are downpours of about 20mm expected to fall across NSW and Queensland today but Narramore said the worst of the rain was over. 

"We might see a couple of light coastal showers but pretty much all that persistent, heavy rainfall has now cleared as that low continues to move further away from the NSW coast," he said.

"We could see some showers in north-east NSW and coastal parts but they'll only be hit-and-miss and isolated. Nothing like what we've seen so generally in the Sydney are it's mostly cleared up for now."

Earlier, WaterNSW warned Warragamba Dam was forecast to spill as a result of the rain event, however, the alert was withdrawn this morning.

Overnight Queensland saw 15mm and 25mm in south-eastern parts of the region.

However, heavy downpours are likely to subside as a stretch of cloud band moves south, expected to hit Victoria early next week.

"The cloud band that's brought all that rain has now moved offshore so the rain up there is all done as well," Narramore said. 

"People are urged to stay up to date with weather warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology over the weekend.

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The supermarket chain ran out of free cookware, sparking outrage last year.