Malaysia's maritime agency said it found a cannon shell believed to be from World War II on a Chinese-registered vessel and was investigating if the barge carrier was involved in the looting of two British warship wrecks in the South China Sea.

Malaysian media reported that illegal salvage operators were believed to have targeted the HMS Repulse and the HMS Prince of Wales, which were sunk in 1941 by Japanese torpedoes, days after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

A total of 842 sailors perished, and the shipwrecks off the coast of central Pahang state are designated war graves. Fishermen and divers alerted authorities after spotting a foreign vessel near the area last month.

READ MORE: One of Australia's biggest maritime mysteries solved after 50 years

The agency said it detained the vessel registered in Fuzhou, China, on Sunday for anchoring without a permit off southern Johor state.

It said there were 32 crew members aboard, including 21 Chinese, 10 from Bangladesh and a Malaysian.

The agency said officials from the National Heritage Department and others will work together to identify the cannon shell.

Britain's National Museum of the Royal Navy last week said it was "distressed and concerned at the apparent vandalism for personal profit."

READ MORE: Storms uncover wreckage from ancient Rome that had lain hidden beneath mountains of sand on sea floor

The maritime agency said it believed the rusty cannon shell was linked to the police seizure of dozens of unexploded artillery and other relics at a private scrapyard in Johor.

The New Straits Times newspaper reported that the ammunitions were believed to be from the warships and that police conducted an on-site controlled explosion of the weapons.

Pictures and a video released by the agency showed a barge carrier with a large crane and heaps of rusty metal on board.

Known as pre-war steel, the material from the two warships is valuable and could be smelted for use in manufacturing of some scientific and medical equipment.

It was not the first time that the two shipwrecks were targeted.

The New Straits Times reported that foreign treasure hunters used homemade explosives in 2015 to detonate the heavy steel plates on the ships for easy pickings. Other media said authorities detained a Vietnamese vessel involved in the looting of the wreckage at the time.

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Australian parents are planning on shelling out large sums of money to help their children buy homes, according to a research from Finder.

A beluga whale speculatively claimed as spying for the Russian military has been spotted in Swedish waters, after first appearing in Norway four years ago.

The white male cetacean has spent the last three years tracking around Norway before it was monitored on Sunday near Hunnebostrand, off Sweden's south-western coast.

It first captured attention in 2019 when Norwegian fisherman sighted the tame whale with an unusual tight harness strapped around its upper body.

READ MORE: 'Once-in-a-lifetime': Rare blue whale spotted off NSW Central Coast

The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries said "Equipment St Petersburg" was written on the harness strap, which featured a mount for an action camera.

At the time, directorate spokesman Joergen Ree Wiig said people in Norway's military had shown "great interest" in the harness.

The clips on the harness also read "Equipment St. Petersburg," contributing to a theory that the whale came from Murmansk, Russia, and was trained by the Russian navy.

Russian authorities did not confirm or deny the speculation.

According to the BBC, an investigation by Norway's domestic intelligence agency found "the whale is likely to have been part of a Russian research program".

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union did operate military programs which trained seals and dolphins to detect underwater weapons.

The US did the same, training dolphins to use powerful sonar to find threats.

READ MORE: Vet issues warning after suspected poison bait found inside dog

The Barents Sea, where the beluga has been swimming for at least four years, is a secluded part of the Arctic Ocean, divided between Norway and Russia.

It is of paramount importance to both countries, and Moscow views the Arctic as an ideal deployment area for high-tech weapon systems.

Russia has major military facilities in and around Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula, in the far northwest of the country.

Speaking in 2019, Audun Rikardsen, a professor at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology at the Arctic University of Norway, said he believed "it is most likely that (the) Russian Navy in Murmansk" is involved.

"This is a tame animal that is used to get food served so that is why it has made contacts with the fishermen," he said.

Norwegians have nicknamed the beluga "Hvaldimir" – combining the word for whale, hval, with a play on the unproven theories about Russia.

A marine biologist who has been surveilling Hvaldimir, estimated to be around 14 years old, noted it had dramatically increased its swimming speed recently.

"We don't know why he has sped up so fast right now," Sebastian Strand told AFP.

"It could be hormones driving him to find a mate," he said.

"Or it could be loneliness as Belugas are a very social species – it could be that he's searching for other Beluga whales."

Strand said the whale was moving "very quickly away from his natural environment".

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Satellite imagery has captured a shot of one of Australia's only active volcanoes erupting.

Lava can be seen flowing down the side of Mawson Peak on Heard Island in the image, which was originally captured by the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite.

The image was captured on May 25.

READ MORE: Search for possible corpses after Sydney fire as demolition begins

Weatherzone reported that satellite data indicated the volcano had been undergoing small eruptions for the past 18 months.

Mawson Peak sits atop the "Big Ben" massif on Heard Island, about 4000 kilometres south-west of Perth.

Heard Island and McDonald Islands are an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, and are classed as Antarctic islands.

McDonald Islands also contains Australia's only other active volcano.

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Almost half a million older Australians will be given hundreds of dollars in energy bill relief as the federal government looks to battle rising power prices.

All Commonwealth seniors health card holders will receive up to $500 per household, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth announced today.

The 490,000-plus recipients will include an extra 16,230 people granted access to the card after the federal government introduced higher income thresholds for eligibility last November.

READ MORE: PM torches 'appeals to fear' over Voice vote

The new income limits are $90,000 for singles and $144,000 (combined) for couples.

The government claimed this would benefit 52,000 older people by 2026-27.

Rishworth said the energy relief would be available from July this year.

READ MORE: Search for possible corpses after Sydney fire as demolition begins

It comes just days after the Australian Energy Regulator revealed electricity prices were set to rise by 20 to 25 per cent for about 600,000 customers across three states from July 1.

The federal government's latest budget committed to $3 billion in financial support for people struggling to pay the power bill.

For more information on the Commonwealth seniors health card or to apply online, visit the Services Australia website.

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A community in Victoria's south-west is mourning the loss of a woman and three teenagers killed when a car ran off a narrow country road and hit a gumtree.

Teenagers Lucus Garzoli and Joshua Elmes, along with Alicia Montebello, 31, and another teenage girl died in the horror crash.

The sole survivor, a 17-year-old girl, is at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne fighting for life after the crash on Wannon-Nigretta Falls Road at Bochara near Hamilton, 300km west of Melbourne, sometime before 9.30am on Saturday.

READ MORE: Woman killed, five others injured after Victorian crash involving truck and four cars

Monivae College student Joshua has been remembered as "nice brother" who was "lots of fun".

His parents, Matthew and Lee Ann Elmes, told the media that their son aspired to fly jets in the ADF.

The 15-year-old was involved in army cadets, attaining the rank of sergeant.

"His main interest was cadets – he'd levelled up, going to Puckapunyal to do extra courses," Mrs Elmes said.

"He loved being out on the farm, I think that nature was his go-to."

His parents said they had previously warned their son to not get into the car that ended up crashing at the weekend.

They said teens in the area had been seeking out adrenaline rush activities, such as speeding.

"Don't get into a car and seek an adrenaline rush through that, because that's what was happening with these kids," Mr Elmes said.

"They were just pushing the boundaries too much, driving fast."

The pair described the past two days as a "nightmare".

"The last couple of days has been surreal. A parent's worst nightmare is losing a child, and people say that to warn you, but you don't understand that until it happens to you," Mrs Elmes said.

Monivae College remembered Joshua today in a letter sent out to families.

"The Monivae College community is devastated by the loss of Year 10 student, Joshua Elmes, because of the horrific accident that occurred in Bochara over the weekend," the letter said.

"We express our deepest sympathy to Josh's family and to all those who loved him, including his brother (in) Year 7."

Students at Baimbridge College, where Lucus went to school, came together this morning to pay their respects to them.

His family told 9news.com.au they were completely heartbroken.

"Lucus was a much-loved member of our family and his loss will be felt deeply across the entire community," the family said.

"He was an amazing big brother and beautiful son and will be missed greatly."

READ MORE: Melbourne shaken by the city's 'largest earthquake in 120 years'

Montebello's brother also took to social media to pay tribute to his beloved sister.

"Rest in peace, my beautiful sister taken way too soon," he wrote.

"You will be forever in our hearts and a part of my girls' lives."

Southern Grampians Mayor David Robertson this morning said two "trauma units" from Headspace were coming to the town from Horsham and Warrnambool to help support those grieving.

"The schools have got some of their own resources but it's insufficient to cater for something of this scale," he said.

"The sun is coming up this morning and it's going to be a horrific day for the whole of Hamilton."

Robertson said he knew the community would help each other cope.

"A town like this is so close-knit, they're so supportive of each other," he said.

The Department of Education has also issued a statement about the crash, saying: "Our hearts go out to the students, staff, families and community that have been impacted by this devastating tragedy".

"We request the privacy of the community be respected during this difficult time," a department spokesperson said.

Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

Assistant Commissioner for Road Policing Glenn Weir said the car was "obviously travelling at extremely high speed" when the crash occurred.

Many other details of the crash are unknown.

Wannon-Nigretta Falls Road is single-car country road, lined with red gums, and is about 10 kilometres in length, Robertson said.

It's unknown exactly what time the crash occurred, with the road typically having very little traffic.

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Retail outsiders are coming after the major supermarkets by selling certain grocery items for noticeably less.

Experts suggest that if consumers have time to shop around, thousands of dollars could potentially be saved on small household items.

Two thirds of Australian groceries are bought from Coles and Woolworths – but now players like the Reject Shop and NQR are emerging with some alternatives.

READ MORE: Victorian community in mourning after four killed in horror crash

"If that means we're coming after the big guys, then I guess we are," one Reject Shop employee said.

Leaving fresh food to the giants, instead the smaller players are getting more aggressive with pricing on things like soaps and laundry detergents.

"I regularly shop (at discount stores) just before I go into the main supermarket, just because you can pick up some great deals," one shopper said.

NQR chief executive Ewan Jones believes they have an opportunity to appeal to new customers amid a cost of living crisis.

"Some people can't even live on a grocery bill these days," he said.

"We are happy to say we can help them with that."

Morning Fresh dishwashing liquid can sell for $5.50 in Coles or Woolworths, but is half the price at the Reject Shop and NQR.

Hand soap and laundry detergent can also be noticeably cheaper.

READ MORE: Tracker helps police find car allegedly stolen in Adelaide

Easy Money author Joel Gibson told 9News that the savings can be "surprising" to many.

"The business model of a lot of discount stores is cancelled orders, excess stock … or parallel import type stock," he said.

It can just come down to time and convenience, Gibson said.

"The reality is, what the major supermarkets sell above all else is convenience," he said.

"You can get just about everything in one place, and that's exactly what they want you to do."

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Recycling has become a healthy habit for most Australian households, but despite our best efforts, around ten per cent of the items placed inside our household yellow bins don't actually belong there.

In some council areas around Sydney, that figure is as high as 30 per cent.

9News was given rare access to the country's biggest recycling plant – the VISY Materials Recovery Facility at Smithfield in Sydney's west to see what happens after your yellow bin is collected.

READ MORE: Melbourne shaken by the city's 'largest earthquake in 120 years'

"We call it unscrambling the egg," Visy Recycling NSW State Operations Manager Luke Krstanovski said.

"We separate the paper and cardboard, glass, plastics, aluminium and steel."

The process starts by hand with an employee pulling off any large items that shouldn't have been put in the yellow bin.

During our visit we see her recover old pillows, clothing, garden chairs, even a personal coffee machine.

More manual labourers then sort through what's left, pulling out lots of soft plastics, old toys and old shoes, as well as items often known as "wish cycling".

National Operations Manager Tierry Lauren said the process is "best described as aspirational recycling".

"People don't really know, feel they'd like to, put it in the bin but actually it doesn't belong," Lauren said.

The most common item being mistakenly "recycled" is soft plastics – including by people who place all of their recycling into a plastic bin bag before throwing it in the yellow bin.

When this happens, the whole bag ends up in landfill.

READ MORE: Temperatures ease across Australia after record-breaking frosty weekend

"It's a real shame and a missed opportunity," Lauren said.

After the human workers have sorted out the obvious mistakes, the machines get to work, using shape, size and weight to sort the heavier items made of plastic, glass and metals from the lighter paper and plastics.

Then machines with cameras fitted with artificial intelligence fine tune that sorting.

Around six thousand yellow bins are processed at the Smithfield facility every hour.

It is operating 24 hours a day, five days a week, with maintenance scheduled at other times to ensure things run smoothly.

The paper that's processed here is then taken next door to the VISY pulp and paper mill and turned into a new cardboard box within 24 hours.

Lauren said recycling is really important as "it helps us divert valuable materials from landfill and give them an opportunity to be used again as new packaging."

Co-founder of the organisation DoSomething, Jon Dee, wants manufacturers and supermarket chains to make recycling easier for households.

"I think Coles, Woolworths and Aldi can take the lead here and just insist that every bit of packaging that we have from supermarkets should have the Australasian Recycling Label on it," he said.

He says consumers should always check the label to see what can be recycled, always put each item into the yellow bin separately, and never try to recycle items like soft plastics, drinking glasses or glassware materials.

"Just 15g of oven proof glass like this can stop a whole tonne of glass bottles and glass jars from being recycled," he says.

For more information on what can and can't be recycled, you can head to recyclingnearyou.com.au or use the app at recyclemate.com.au

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The South Australian government has been accused of fudging the figures around the controversial taxpayer-funded private concert with Sam Smith earlier this year.

Documents released under freedom of information laws submitted by the opposition found that $32 million in advertising value was generated by mostly negative coverage.

The fully-catered concert for an exclusive group of hand-picked social media influencers was designed to generate free publicity for SA Tourism worth the equivalent of a $7 million advertising spend.

READ MORE: Victorian community in mourning after four killed in horror crash

"I think all South Australians have been skeptical about this $32 million worth of value the government's been claiming," opposition spokesperson for government accountability Michelle Lensink said.

"The whole campaign has just been an exercise in the government fudging figures, dodging things, and now they've been exposed."

A breakdown has found about $24.5 million of the estimated advertising value equivalent (AVE) was for exposure that was negative or off-topic.

An article highlighting the complaints of an influencer who had to urinate in front of the stage was found to be worth a separate $3 million.

READ MORE: Melbourne shaken by the city's 'largest earthquake in 120 years'

Tourism Minister Zoe Bettison defended the figures a week ago, but today was no longer a fan.

"We know it captured negative press so as a measure moving forward, I think we should (have) used something else," she said.

"We are going to try unique things, and they're not going to be for everyone's taste."

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Napier police are urging witnesses of the crime to come forward.