Radio host Harnek Singh nearly died after a group of strangers ambushed and stabbed him.

Sophie previously won the award in 2019 and 2020.

OPINION: Raukotahi is a concept that acknowledges all those who have gone before us.

Connor Godfrey broke down in tears as the family of a man he accidentally choked to death told a court of their pain.

The 22-year-old pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the death of 43-year-old Giuseppe Pagano following an altercation at a Sydney apartment block in the early hours of Easter Sunday, 2021.

The court accepted Godfrey acted in self-defence after Pagano attacked and punched him but found he should have discontinued a chokehold before it turned fatal.

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At the time of the incident, Godfrey had drunk a large amount of alcohol and Pagano had consumed methamphetamines, the court was told.

Victim impact statements from Pagano's 18-year-old daughter Anastasia and older brother Darren Clifton were read out to the court during a sentence hearing in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.

As Clifton left the stand, Godfrey called to him, "I'm so sorry for each of you".

Mr Clifton replied, "It's too late for sorry bud".

Godfrey was initially accused of murdering Pagano, but a trial over that charge was abandoned earlier this year and the jury dismissed.

READ MORE: Last-minute bid to stop Voice to parliament referendum fails

At the start of that trial, prosecutor Mark Hay told the jury Godfrey had met Pagano while walking down George St from Circular Quay and was trying to source drugs.

Anastasia Pagano, whose statement was read in her absence, said despite her father's drug addiction he always tried his best for her.

"What most people don't usually understand is when you're an addict it consumes your whole life and the lives of those around you," she said.

"He was a kind soul, fighting a rough battle.

"No matter what happened in the past, my love for him never went away."

Clifton said in his emotional statement to the court he doubted Godfrey was telling the truth about the events that led to his brother's death.

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"There are only two people that have the truth of what happened in that apartment," he said.

"One of those is dead and the other sits before us today.

"Godfrey knows exactly what occurred and I doubt he's giving the truth."

Justice Richard Cavanagh said Godfrey had good prospects of rehabilitation as he was a young man who had remained drug and violence-free while in custody.

But he said the 22-year-old should expect a sentence on the basis that he took another man's life.

"He must have known at the very least that by continuing to place a chokehold on Mr Pagano, there was a real risk of killing him," Cavanagh said.

"At some point in time, he continued to apply that hold and that's the excessive nature of the offending."

The matter has been listed for sentence on November 3.

The result of tomorrow's New Zealand election could be determined by Kiwis living in Australia.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon are vying for the top job after weeks of campaigning..

Even as Australians vote on the Indigenous Voice to parliament tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of people have been urged over past weeks to take advantage of New Zealand's newly changed voting laws to have their say on who runs things across the Tasman.

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New Zealand citizen expats can now cast a vote for their mother country if they haven't been home in less than six years – double the three-year limit in place previously.

Permanent residents have also received an expanded eligibility, from 12 months overseas to four years.

Non-partisan group Every Kiwi Vote Counts is calling on the hefty contingent of New Zealanders in Australia to have their say.

Of the estimated one million New Zealanders living overseas, the group said almost 70 per cent of them were in Australia.

"In the past, elections have seen only one in 10 overseas New Zealanders vote, which represents a mere two per cent of our votes," group director Tracey Lee said.

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"With roughly one million New Zealanders living overseas, we could have an additional 750,000 New Zealanders who aren't exercising their democratic right to vote."

She said the combined votes of the Australian-New Zealand bloc would outweigh eight electorates.

READ MORE: Voice to parliament referendum: When, how and where do I vote?

Earlier this month, the group has also launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign led by mascot Darryl Brown, who boasted that Australia had always "guided" New Zealand.

"We showed them how to make pavlova, gave them their best music in Crowded House, their best athletes in Phar Lap, and their best actors – like that gladiator bloke," he said.

"If you're an Aussie-Kiwi and have been back to visit in the last six years, then you're more than qualified to tell them how to run it."

Overseas voting for the 2023 New Zealand General Election can be done online until tomorrow.

Find more information and links, visit the Every Kiwi Vote Counts website.

There is essential information and direct links to enrol and vote to be found at everykiwivotecounts.nz.

Classical Greek marble sculptures today appear crisp and white. But they weren't always that way, according to a new study, which found the famous 2500-year-old Parthenon sculptures were colourful, painted with floral patterns and other elaborate designs.

By using a noninvasive imaging technique, researchers at the British Museum — where nearly half of the sculptures reside — and King's College London found traces of paint on 11 out of 17 figures and from a section of frieze on show in the museum, according to a study published this week in the journal Antiquity.

Paint often does not survive on archaeological finds, particularly in cases such as the Parthenon sculptures that date back to between 447 and 438 BCE and were continuously exposed to the environment, said lead study author Dr Giovanni Verri, a conservation scientist at the Art Institute of Chicago who previously was a fellow at the British Museum.

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"These are just thin paint layers at the very, very top of the surface of these objects, and so they are at the interface between everything that happens. … (The paint) is the first to get the impact of the environment," Verri said. "It's also possible that during conservation treatments — restoration treatments — these small traces that looked like dirt effectively, were inadvertently removed."

Greece has repeatedly called for the return of the sculptures that British diplomat Lord Elgin removed from the imposing Parthenon temple in Athens in the early 19th century when he was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which then ruled Greece.

Infrared light detects traces of long-lost paint

The technique used to find the paint was created in 2007 by Verri and is known as visible-induced luminescence imaging. The process uses infrared light that finds microscopic traces of paint that the eye cannot see, Verri said. By illuminating the sculptures with the red light, a pigment known as "Egyptian blue" absorbs the light and appears on camera as a glowing white.

"Egyptian blue" was a popular pigment of its time that was made using calcium, copper and silicon, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. The bright blue was highly valued for its rarity and was commonly saved for royalty or depictions of gods and goddesses.

The distinctive blue was found in several places in the marbles, including the serpent tail on the sculpture of mythical king Kekrops, within the background space of statues Demeter and Persephone and on the garment worn by Dione, mother of Aphrodite, where the forming of two flower petals was found near the bottom of the cloth, according to the study.

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"The interpretation of these very small traces is always complicated," Verri said. "So, we make suggestions (of these patterns) through comparisons with other works of art."

The researchers also detected a purple colour that was not found through the imaging process but by the human eye, Verri said. The hue, which they named "Parthenon purple," is particularly unique, the study said, because researchers found that it was not made using shellfish — the common ancient Mediterranean recipe.

Shellfish-based purple can be detected using a technique called X-ray fluorescence, Verri said, but that colour was not present in this case.

Classical texts refer to an elusive purple colour, the study added, but the ingredients weren't disclosed because the colour was deemed so valuable.

"This recent study gives more proof that colourful decoration was common in ancient Greek art," said Michael Cosmopoulos, a professor of archaeology and Greek studies at the University of Missouri–St Louis, via email. He was not involved in the study.

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"This is a big deal because it challenges the traditional Western idea that classical art was just plain white marble and shows how important colour was to ancient Greek artists. … These findings help us understand the creative process behind, as well as the meaning of the Parthenon and its sculptures."

At this stage, a reconstruction of the sculptures' original appearance "is not really possible," Verri said, since the imaging technique only detected blue paint, and "because reproducing in modern terms one of the greatest masterpieces of mankind is not something that can be addressed lightly," Verri added.

The study also found that there were no signs of keying or abrasion to the sculptures that are typically seen to help paint adhere.

"What we were able to really demonstrate is not specific surfaces for the application of paints, but rather that both carving and colour were conceived as part of the same objective," said William Wootton, an author of the study from King's College London. "Extreme care and attention in the production of sculpture — both its carving and its colour — actually was visible across the ancient world to a level which we are still only beginning to understand."

The study points to earlier instances when Greek sculptures were found to be coloured, such as in 2008 when conservators at the Acropolis Museum in Athens found a greenish pigment on the West Frieze featuring a horseman.

Verri said he hopes that further imaging will soon be developed to find other colours present on the sculptures.

An Indigenous activist's High Court bid to stop the Voice to parliament referendum from going ahead has failed.

Robbie Thorpe, the uncle of independent senator Lidia Thorpe, sought to argue Saturday's vote was "an attack on Aboriginal sovereignty".

Thorpe said in a statement on Friday the denial of sovereignty was causing serious mental harm.

READ MORE: Yes and No campaigns make final pitches to voters

However, Chief Justice Susan Kiefel made a direction under High Court rules which meant Thorpe's writ was not accepted for filing.

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The rule states "if a writ, application, summons, affidavit or other document appears to a registrar on its face to be an abuse of the process of the court, to be frivolous or vexatious or to fall outside the jurisdiction of the court, the registrar may seek the direction of a justice".

The justice may then direct the registrar to issue or file the document, or to refuse to issue or file the document.

Thorpe has previously sought to charge the Commonwealth with genocide.

For 24/7 crisis support run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, contact 13YARN (13 92 76).

Yes and No campaigners are making their final pitches to voters with less than 24 hours to go until polls open on referendum day.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in Adelaide this morning encouraging voters to back the proposed Voice to parliament, saying creating the body to benefit First Nations peoples would cost Australians nothing.

"This is a time where Australians have that opportunity to show the generosity of spirit that I see in the Australian character where at the worst of times we always see the best of the Australian character," he said.

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"I hope we see you tomorrow. I hope we see that generosity. And I call upon my fellow Australians to vote Yes tomorrow."

Albanese is also preparing to address the nation on Saturday night.

It is not common practice for prime ministers to give a speech on referendum night, but according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Albanese will seek to "knit the country back together" after the divisive campaign.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about voting in the referendum

Polls are indicating Australians won't deliver the Yes vote Albanese has been calling for since before last year's federal election.

Opinion polls are placing support for the Voice in the low to mid-40s while more than 50 per cent of voters are planning to cast a No ballot.

But with some surveys showing up to a quarter of voters remain undecided heading into referendum day, Yes campaigners are remaining optimistic about what would be a miraculous turnaround at the polling booth.

"This is not a political issue and should never have been a political issue," Yes campaigner and former Liberal MP Pat Farmer, fresh off finishing his 14,500km run around Australia, said in Adelaide.

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"This is something that involves humid rights. It is about closing the gap.

"I have seen first-hand not only on this occasion but on the many occasions when I have travelled outback and around Australia… the need and the concerns that you would normally only ever get in overseas third-world countries.

"Australia can do better. Australia will do better. I have faith in the Australian people to vote Yes on Saturday and to change things for the better and to support future generations."

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton once again called on Australians to reject the proposal due to a number of concerns including a lack of detail.

"I hope it's a No vote on the weekend because it hasn't been properly explained," he told Today.

"It's divisive. It's permanent once it goes into the Constitution and I just don't think, in their millions, Australians will support it.

"In fact, quite the opposite. I think they're angry because the detail hasn't been provided."

READ MORE: Former Liberal MP finishes 14,500km run with passionate call for Voice

Fellow No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price yesterday became one of the roughly five million Australians to have voted early when she cast her ballot in Alice Springs.

"It's not difficult to say No when it can't be demonstrated how it's supposed to make anybody's life better," Price told A Current Affair last night. 

A prolific Colombian serial killer who confessed to murdering more than 190 children during the 1990s died on Thursday in a hospital, prison authorities said. He was 66.

Luis Alfredo Garavito, nicknamed “The Beast”, confessed to having murdered children between the ages of 8 and 16 — mostly from low-income families – whom he kidnapped and abused by posing as a monk, a homeless person or a street vendor.

The National Penitentiary and Prison Institute said that Garavito died in a hospital in Valledupar, in northern Colombia, where he remained imprisoned.

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The cause of death was not immediately revealed.

Garavito was born in 1957 in the Colombian department of Quindío, and as an adult he travelled to 11 departments around the country where he abused and killed minors.

The authorities began to follow his trail when they noticed similarities in the cases of disappearances of minors in Pereira, Armenia and Tunja.

Garavito was arrested in April 1999 on an attempted rape charge, but when an investigating judge asked him if he was the killer of 114 children whose bodies were found in 59 Colombian towns beginning in 1994, Garavito admitted the crimes and begged to be forgiven.

Then he confessed to more murders, amounting to more than 190.

That same year, Garavito apologised to the families of the victims in a court hearing: “I want to ask for forgiveness for everything I did and I am going to confess. Yes, I killed them and not only those, I killed others.”

In recent years, Garavito’s release from prison was considered imminent, after serving three-fifths of his sentence. In 2021, then-president Iván Duque (2018-2022) rejected the possibility of him regaining his freedom and assured that during his government he would have to “stay in prison”.

Two men who avoided more jail time after they were twice found guilty of raping a young woman will not have their sentences changed.

Prosecutors appealed the community corrections orders handed down to Shaun Bloomfield and Luke Merryfull in April, arguing they were manifestly inadequate.

But the Victorian Court of Appeal on Friday found while the sentences were "undoubtedly very lenient", the sentencing judge did not make an error of law.

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Bloomfield and Merryfull were first found guilty in 2019 of raping the woman after a 21st birthday party in Balmoral in western Victoria.

Most of the young people at the April 2016 party had been drinking, and the woman was ready to sleep in the caravan when Bloomfield and Merryfull assaulted her.

She had trusted the men, considering them long-term friends, and repeatedly told them "no" when they advanced on her.

They took turns raping her, with Merryfull telling Bloomfield, "she's all yours now".

Bloomfield was jailed for five years and eight months after the first trial, while Merryfull was sentenced to four years and 10 months behind bars.

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Their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal and a retrial was ordered, with both released from custody after about 19 months.

They were then convicted again in August last year, with County Court Judge David Brookes re-sentencing them in April.

Merryfull received time served with a two-year community corrections order, which included 200 hours of community service.

Bloomfield was also sentenced to time served but with a longer corrections order of three years and 300 hours of community service.

The Director of Public Prosecutions filed an appeal against their sentences but the court determined none of the grounds were made out and the appeal was dismissed.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028