‘Their people were lucky to come out of that alive and unhurt’.

The man did not disclose his unlawful sexual connection conviction.

‘He died doing what he loved, with the people he loved.’

Person critically injured after accident involving truck and motorbike on bridge.

A US Navy and Coast Guard operation on Tuesday rescued three mariners stranded on a tiny Pacific Ocean islet for more than a week after the trio spelled out "HELP" using palm fronds laid on a white-sand beach.

The mission also unexpectedly turned into a family reunion.

The three men had been planning to fish the waters around the Pikelot Atoll, part of Micronesia, on March 31 when their six-metre open skiff was caught by swells and its outboard motor was damaged, according to US Coast Guard officials.

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They scrambled ashore on uninhabited Pikelot, but their radio ran out of battery power before they could call for help.

So the castaways gathered palm fronds from the 31-acre island, arranged them to spell out "HELP" on the beach, and waited, according to a Coast Guard statement.

The names of the stranded men have not been released by the Coast Guard, and CNN attempts to contact their relatives have not gotten replies.

For a week, the men lived off coconut meat, but they did have fresh water from a small well on the island, which is sometimes visited by fishers in the region, Coast Guard officials said.

The search for the men began on April 6, when one of their relatives called rescue officials in the US Pacific territory of Guam.

The relative said the men had not returned to Polowat Atoll, an island more than 160 kilometres away, where the three started their voyage on Easter Sunday.

It is difficult to overstate just how remote Piklelot is.

The island is part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a Pacific nation between the Philippines and Hawaii that is made up of more than 600 islands scattered across about 2.5 million square kilometres of ocean.

The Coast Guard said a US Navy P-8A reconnaissance jet dispatched from Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, spotted the palm-frond "HELP" sign on the beach on April 7.

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Lieutenant Chelsea Garcia, the search-and-rescue mission coordinator on the day the trio was located, said the sign was "crucial" to finding them in a search area that covered more than 266,000 square kilometres.

"This act of ingenuity was pivotal in guiding rescue efforts directly to their location," Garcia said in a statement.

The Navy jet dropped survival packs to the three men and relayed their location to the rescue centre.

A day later, a Coast Guard HC-130 flying from Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii dropped a radio to the men, who were able to tell the crew they were in good shape and eager for help to get back to Polowat.

When the Coast Guard cutter Oliver Henry reached Pikelot on April 9, the story took another twist.

One of the first rescuers on the beach was Petty Officer 2nd Class Eugene Halishlius.

The stranded men were surprised to see that Halishlius was Micronesian and spoke the local language.

"I could see on their faces, 'Whoa! Who's this guy pulling up that can speak our language?'" Halishlius told CNN in an interview from the Oliver Henry, which was at sea on Thursday after dropping the men off at Polowat.

When he gave his name to the first of the stranded men to reach the rescue boat, the castaway was stunned: they were related.

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"It's a crazy world, I actually found out I'm related to them!" Halishlius said.

"He couldn't believe I'm with the Coast Guard trying to rescue them."

The man was a third cousin, the others fourth cousins, he said.

Amazingly, this was not the first rescue of castaways from Pikelot.

In 2020, three other men travelling between two Micronesian atolls found themselves washed up there after their boat ran out of fuel during their voyage.

Those three spelled out "SOS" on the beach, a message that was spotted by the crew of a US Air Force tanker operating out of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, which then directed Coast Guard, Micronesian and Australian naval units to get the men from the island.

How does this happen on the same island twice in four years?

"It could be coincidence," said Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir, public affairs officer for US Coast Guard Forces Micronesia.

"The people of Micronesia frequently travel island to island, and do so with a great deal of skill and experience," she said.

But occasionally, accidents happen. And so do unexpected family reunions.

The videos sure did the trick.

In a series of punchy ads, slickly edited to capture attention on social media, a group of young men who may or may not be actual tradies promote a nifty ratchet strap.

Sold by an Australian company called Trades Mate, the strap is the kind of gadget tradies might use to securely fasten loads on trailers or the back of a ute.

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The ads do a brilliant job showcasing just how easy the strap is to use, and it's a compelling watch.

Too compelling, it turned out.

Before long, the ads had been watched millions of times. Thousands of orders flooded in and the cash tills started ringing.

But problems, too, quickly began to mount.

After ordering the straps, which ranged in price from $45 to $70, customers waited and then waited some more – sometimes for months – for deliveries of those eye-catching devices to arrive.

As the clock ticked, accusations about Trades Mate began to swirl.

According to ASIC, Trades Mate launched in January and is owned by Joshua Ward, 23, and Lachlan Waldon, 21. The company is located in their hometown of Townsville, Queensland.

In a statement over email, before Trades Mate cut all contact with 9news.com.au, Ward blamed the long shipping delays on an "unexpected volume of orders" when the ads for the strap blew up and "went viral".

Ward said there had been an "incredible response" to the ads they'd made.

But some unhappy customers alleged there was more to it than that.

They made other allegations about Trades Mate.

Chief among those claims, beyond the shipping delays, were doubts over whether a raffle for a $100,000 Toyota LandCruiser had ever been drawn and given to a winner.

The raffle was promoted on the company's website, and $10 tickets had been sold to hopeful customers.

Trades Mate did not respond when 9news.com.au asked the company to identify who won the LandCruiser, and to confirm that the raffle was compliant with strict rules stipulated by Queensland's Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation.

Less than 24 hours after 9news.com.au put those questions to Trades Mate, one woman who had bought a ticket for the LandCruiser said $10 price – which was the price of her ticket – was refunded to her bank account.

The $10 refund appeared six weeks after the draw for the LandCruiser was originally advertised to take place, on January 31.

9news.com.au does not suggest that Trades Mate did engage in any misconduct in relation to the raffle, only that certain customers alleged this.

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As frustrations over shipping delays grew, and amid difficulties some experienced obtaining a refund, nearly 150 customers joined a Facebook group where they vented their frustrations.

As customer anger grew, Ward said he and Waldon had both been subjected to death threats.

But Ward insisted the pair had not done anything wrong, except to be "not prepared" for the "3000-plus orders we received for over 7000 items of stock".

Based on those numbers, Trades Mate may have sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of straps.

The Trades Mate story appears to highlight the potential pitfalls of dropshipping, an increasingly popular online business model where traders sell a product they don't actually stock.

Instead, the manufacturer of that product, frequently located in China, is often asked to send the item directly to the customer.

Turning off the tap

As orders for the straps poured in and it became abundantly clear there would be problems fulfilling them, Ward said he pulled the ads from social media.

After that, he said, they took the additional step of shutting off orders on the website.

Finally, they deactivated the entire website, one day after 9news.com.au began making inquiries.

Trades Mate refused to confirm the dates of each step it took to scale back and turn off orders for the straps.

A spokesperson for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the national consumer watchdog, said dropshipping companies must not mislead consumers about stock availability, shipping options, dispatch, and delivery times.

"We can't win," Ward said.

"We took the step to suspend our website so we could fulfill our current orders and some customers have interpreted it as us disappearing.

"They then make a complaint to Facebook and our Facebook page gets suspended, also interpreted as us disappearing."

Ward said the product launched on January 11 and we "went viral online within five days".

He said Trades Mate had an initial supply of stock that was quickly sold and sent out.

"We immediately secured all available stock from our suppliers and engaged our manufacturer to commence manufacturing further stock."

But as days ticked into weeks and months, customers chased Trades Mate for updates.

Trades Mate asked for them to be patient.

Some were emailed package tracking numbers from Australia Post or the courier company Aramex.

Despite initially offering hope, the tracking numbers sat idle for weeks, in some cases showing a "pending" status for packages that did not appear to move.

Trades Mate told 9news.com.au the tracking numbers "were genuine" but that packaging and delivery had been delayed because of a deluge of orders.

Annette Marshall bought three straps for $145 in early January, expecting Trades Mate to deliver on its advertised "1-3 day processing" for orders.

"I had seen (the ads) on Facebook and I thought, 'What a great idea'," Marshall said.

She said she had given up ever receiving the straps.

Marshall's story is a common one in the Facebook group and on Trust Pilot, a website that aggregates feedback on the perceived trustworthiness of companies.

Most customers 'happy', Trades Mate says

The Trades Mate website used to have a review page too, but that section of the website was taken down when it turned into a lightning rod for complaints.

But Ward told 9news.com.au the complainers were a noisy few.

"The majority of our customers (he estimated over 90 per cent) are happy with the regular updates in relation to the delay in delivery," he said.

After 9news.com.au began making inquiries, some customers received their orders.

Some are still waiting.

Others claimed they got sent a different product to the item they thought they were buying.

Do you know more? Email ms**********@******om.au

One woman who felt let down by Trades Mate claimed she knew of some customers lodging complaints with the ACCC, the consumer watchdog.

An ACCC spokesperson said it "does not generally comment on complaints received or potential investigations", in response to questions about Trades Mate.

All businesses, including dropshippers, must comply with Australian Consumer Law, they said.

"This includes not misleading consumers about stock availability, shipping options, dispatch, and delivery times," the spokesperson said.

"Businesses should provide clear and proactive updates to their customers when there are delays in dispatch or delivery."

If there are problems, they added, the business should proactively offer a remedy, such as a replacement product, if the customer consents, or a refund.

The ACCC said customers who wait long periods for unfulfilled orders from dropshippers or online businesses may be able to get their money back by asking their bank or payment provider to reverse the payment.

That request is known as a "chargeback", but time limits can apply to this process.

Australia Post will deliver letters only every second day from next week as new performance targets are rolled out.

The change will begin next Monday and is part of a shake-up announced by the federal government last year and follows months of public consultation.

The performance targets are needed to meet a surge in demand for parcel deliveries and a slump in letter deliveries, the government says.

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The latest figures from Australia Post show that four in five households bought something online last year, with 9.5 million households receiving a parcel.

In contrast, letter deliveries continue to decline, reducing two-thirds since their peak in 2008.

The new performance targets also give the government-owned corporation an extra day to deliver standard letters.

For inter-state deliveries, letters should take from six to eight days.

Australia Post will also be able to tweak how it manages priority mail, enabling it to deliver services "at a more commercial rate".

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Many people are already familiar with the changes in letter deliveries since trials were held in capital cities last year.

The government says the number of post offices across Australia won't change.

Posties will also continue their daily deliveries, but parcels will be given priority.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the overhaul in services was essential for Australia Post.

"These changes reflect the way Australians now interact with Australia Post, and will help improve the company's financial sustainability," she said.

Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan has been sentenced to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam in the country's largest financial fraud case ever, state media Vietnam Net said.

The 67-year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was formally charged with fraud amounting to $19.1 billion – nearly three per cent of the country's 2022 GDP.

Lan illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and allowed 2500 loans that resulted in losses of $41 billion to the bank, reported state media VnExpress.

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The court asked her to compensate the bank $41 million.

Despite mitigating circumstances – this was a first-time offence and Lan participated in charity activities – the court attributed its harsh sentence to the seriousness of the case, saying Lan was at the helm of an orchestrated and sophisticated criminal enterprise that had serious consequences with no possibility of the money being recovered, VnExpress said.

Her actions "not only violate the property management rights of individuals and organisations but also push SCB (Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank) into a state of special control; eroding people's trust in the leadership of the Party and State," VnExpress quoted the judgement as saying.

Her niece, Truong Hue Van, the chief executive of Van Thinh Phat, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for aiding her aunt.

Lan and her family established the Van Thing Phat company in 1992 after Vietnam shed its state-run economy in favour of a more market-oriented approach that was open to foreigners.

She had started out helping her mother, a Chinese businesswoman, to sell cosmetics in Ho Chi Minh City's oldest market, according to state media Tien Phong.

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Van Thinh Phat would grow to become one of Vietnam's richest real estate firms, with projects including luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping centres.

This made her a key player in the country's financial industry.

She orchestrated the 2011 merger of the beleaguered SCB bank with two other lenders in coordination with Vietnam's central bank.

The court found that she used this approach to tap SCB for cash.

She indirectly owned more than 90 per cent of the bank – a charge she denied – and approved thousands of loans to "ghost companies", according to government documents.

These loans then found their way back to her, state media VNExpress reported, citing the court's findings.

She then bribed officials to cover her tracks, it added.

Former central bank official Do Thi Nhan was also sentenced to life in prison for accepting nearly $8 million in bribes.

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Lan's arrest in October 2022 was among the most high-profile in an ongoing anti-corruption drive in Vietnam that has intensified since 2022.

The so-called Blazing Furnace campaign has touched the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics.

Former President Vo Van Thuong resigned in March after being implicated in the campaign.

But Lan's trial shocked the nation.

Analysts said the scale of the scam raised questions about whether other banks or businesses had similarly erred, dampening Vietnam's economic outlook and making foreign investors jittery at a time when Vietnam has been trying to position itself as the ideal home for businesses trying to pivot their supply chains away from China.

The real estate sector in Vietnam has been hit particularly hard.

An estimated 1300 property firms withdrew from the market in 2023, developers have been offering discounts and gold as gifts to attract buyers, and despite rents for mixed-use properties known in Southeast Asia as shophouses falling by a third in Ho Chi Minh City, many in the city centre are still empty, according to state media.

In November, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam's top politician, said that the anti-corruption fight would "continue for the long term".

Defence Minister Richard Marles will travel to Ukraine, aiming to dispel claims of faltering support for the under-siege nation in its war against Russia.

His trip, set for the near future, is still being planned and has not been publicly announced, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

News of Marle's planned visit comes amid frustration in Australia about the level of support for Ukraine, despite the government contributing a further $50 million to an international support fund.

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Australia once boasted about being the largest non-NATO donor to the Ukrainian military, but it is now among the lowest of all per capita donor nations as a proportion of gross domestic product.

The Albanese government ruled out sending armoured vehicles and some of the Defence Force's retired Taipan helicopters. It is also yet to decide on a request by Ukraine for more Australian coal shipments.

Labor MPs also remain disappointed by the government's refusal to reopen the Australian embassy in Kyiv since it was evacuated in the lead-up to Russia's invasion in February, 2022.

Marles is expected to use the trip to announce a new military contribution in the form of drone supplies to help Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a massive missile and drone attack destroyed one of Ukraine's largest power plants and damaged others, officials said on Thursday, part of a renewed Russian campaign targeting energy infrastructure.

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The Trypilska plant, which was the biggest energy supplier for the Kyiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions, was struck numerous times, destroying the transformer, turbines and generators and leaving the plant ablaze.

The plant supplied electricity to three million customers — but none lost power because the grid was able to compensate since demands are low at this time of year. Still, the consequences of the strikes could be felt in the coming months, as air conditioning use ramps up in the northern hemisphere summer.

At least 10 other strikes overnight damaged energy infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 200,000 people in the region, which has been struck repeatedly, were without power.

Ukraine's leaders have pleaded for more air defence systems to ward off such attacks, but those supplies have been slow in coming.

– With Associated Press

Protests are planned in multiple major Australian cities and around the world on Monday, with pro-Palestine activists aiming to disrupt the economy.

Groups behind the international group "A15 Action" have called for people to join the day's planned protests on their website.

"Join participating cities in blocking the arteries of capitalism and jamming the wheels of production," the site reads.

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"The proposal states that in each city, we will identify and blockade major choke points in the economy, focusing on points of production and circulation with the aim of causing the most economic impact, as did the port shutdowns in recent months in Oakland, California and Melbourne, Australia, as just a few examples."

In a list of global participating cities, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, "Adelaine" (sic), Hobart, Darwin, and Canberra were all listed, alongside other centres such as Geelong, Alice Springs, and Castlemaine.

Nine newspapers reported law enforcement and activist sources said protest locations could include ports, train stations, major roads and business offices.

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In Victoria, The Age reported, police will activate the State Police Operations Centre, last in use during the anti-lockdown protests in 2021.

Officers, including mounted police and the public order response team, will be out in force on the day, while police in suburban stations will be re-deployed to central Melbourne.

Protests, including those targeting Israel-linked shipping, have periodically erupted in Australia since Israel's invasion of Gaza following the October 7 attacks last year.

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Hamas militants killed about 1200 people and kidnapped hundreds of hostages during the bloody surprise attacks.

Israel's reprisal, with the stated goal of eliminating Hamas, has so far killed over 33,000 Palestinians, according to to Gaza's health authorities, with unrelenting missile attacks as well as ground deployment.

The UN and the international community have repeatedly urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties, and warned that Gaza stands on the edge of famine.

"We've rallied, there's been petitions, social-media campaigns, we've written letters – but it's been six months and the situation is worse than ever," one Australia-based activist, Nathalie, told The Age.

"Because the government is not listening, they need to get the message where it hurts, which is in their pockets. There needs to be disruption to the economy."

But Anti Defamation Commission chair Dr Dvir Abramovich condemned the protesters, who he claimed would turn cities into "battlefields".

"The monster of antisemitism and anti-Israel has been unleashed, and this is the terrifying new world of hatred and targeting of Jews that we now live in," he said.

"We are now facing a tsunami of harassment, physical violence and targeting that is a real threat to our life as Jews here."

He called for any offenders to be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

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