Police in New Zealand are treating the deadly hostel fire that killed at least six people at Wellington's Loafers Lodge as arson, launching a homicide investigation into the blaze.

"I can confirm that we are treating the fire as arson," Inspector Dion Bennett, the acting Wellington district commander, said on Wednesday afternoon, adding that "because it is an arson with deaths involved, it is homicide inquiry".

He also confirmed police have a list of people they want to speak to in relation to the fire, but didn't say who they were.

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While six people have been confirmed dead, Bennett said there are less than 20 people who remain unaccounted for.

"Our reconciliation teams have been working fast and accurately today," he said.

"I can say that we have accounted for 92 people and that the number still to be accounted for is less than 20."

A small reconnaissance team of police officers has entered Loafers Lodge after the fire tore through it in the early hours of Tuesday morning, but a more extensive search of the building isn't expected to start until tomorrow.

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Bennett's comments came after he had confirmed earlier on Wednesday that there had been a couch fire at Loafers Lodge about two hours before the separate, deadly blaze, and that police are investigating any link between the two.

"There was a couch fire at Loafers Lodge at around 10.30pm on Monday night, prior to the fatal fire which occurred around two hours later," he said.

"The couch fire was not reported to emergency services at the time.

"As part of our enquiries, we will be seeking to confirm any link between that couch fire and the subsequent fatal fire."

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Bennett warned at the time it could take days before the building is completely examined.

"This scene examination will be an extensive and methodical process, and we expect it to take some time – likely several days," he said.

"Alongside the scene examination, officers will be working to locate and recover those who lost their lives in the fire.

"We know there are many people waiting for news of family and friends – including the residents who escaped the fire and are keenly waiting for news of their fellow tenants.

"I again want to provide the reassurance that we have a large number of officers working on this investigation, with the aim of providing them the answers they need as quickly as possible."

While there were no fire sprinklers in Loafers Lodge before Monday night's devastating blaze, Wellington City Council confirmed yesterday the building passed an independent safety inspection just two months ago.

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"The Loafers Lodge has a Building Warrant of Fitness issued in March this year," the council said in a statement.

"There were no concerns raised by the independently qualified person who inspected and tested the life safety systems in the building."

While new buildings are required to install sprinkler systems, older ones like the hostel are exempt from having to retroactively fit them, however Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the fire could lead to a review of the country's building regulations.

Hipkins told reporters on Wednesday he has asked Housing Minister Megan Woods to look into "issues around building regulation", although said any government review would need to wait until after the current police investigation of the hostel.

"What comes out of their work, of course, will inform decisions about what a future review might look like."

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Police are investigating an alleged hit and run in Adelaide last night.

Emergency services were called to Mawson Lakes Boulevard to reports of a crash between a Hyundai sedan and a Honda sedan.

Police said the crash was so severe it caused the Hyundai to flip and land on its roof before the driver allegedly left the scene.

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Officers in checks revealed the Hyundai had been stolen in early April from Redbank in Queensland.

The other driver involved was not injured.

The police found the driver of the Hyundai, who is a 29-year-old man.

He has been taken to the Lyell McEwin Hospital for treatment.

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The search for a missing man has been called off by Queensland Police after an unsuccessful three-day rescue mission.

A man in his 60s went missing from Sandy Kape, K'gari (Fraser Island) three days ago after a yacht sunk five nautical miles (nine kilometres) from the shore.

The distress call was made at 8:30pm on Sunday.

Police have been searching the area extensively since.

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A 25-year-old female crew member was rescued, but emergency services have not found the missing skipper, and have decided to call off the search.

"Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to locate the man and bring him home to his loved ones," Wide Bay District Regional Search Coordinator Rowan Treiguts said.

"We have liaised closely with his family and discussed the sad news regarding the likelihood of survival, they have asked for privacy during this difficult time.

"We want to thank each and every person who assisted and who provided support during the search."

"While we hold serious concerns for the man's welfare, I ask the boating community to be vigilant and to report any sightings or information to police immediately."

The search effort included police, volunteer marine rescue crews and several helicopters. 

Police advise boaties to wear their life jackets and to be mindful of changing weather conditions. 

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A Tasmanian building company is the latest construction business to fall into liquidation amid soaring inflation adding to material costs and labour shortages.

Multi-Res Builders, a family-owned construction business based in Hobart, entered liquidation on May 14, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) documents.

David Levi from Levi Consulting has been appointed as the liquidator.

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"Notice is given that at a general meeting of the members of the Company held on 14 May 2023, it was resolved that the Company be wound up and that David Levi be appointed liquidator," ASIC documents said.

9news.com.au has contacted Levi for comment.

It comes after a multitude of construction companies have struggled to stay afloat amid soaring costs as a result of demand and pressure for materials, labour shortages and skyrocketing inflation.

The struggles in the industry became evident when construction giant Porter Davis collapsed, which left around 1700 home-building projects in Victoria and Queensland in limbo.

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Another two Victorian construction companies have also entered administration, Interface Constructions Victoria and Mahercorp due to "unprecedented challenges".

Queensland developer Property Solutions Holdings also recently entered liquidation.

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The annual Cannes Film Festival has kicked off for 2023, showcasing the world's best in cinema, with A-list stars flocking from across the globe to the seaside town along the French Riviera.

A Queensland craft beer has been recalled after it was found to have too much alcohol by Food Standards Australia New Zealand.

Pace Beer made by Fortitude Brewing Company has been available for purchase in Dan Murphys stores across the state and at the brewery itself.

The brew number effected has the best before dates of February 15 and 16, 2024.

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"The recall is due to secondary fermentation," the food safety authority said in a recall notice.

"Food products containing excess alcohol and carbonation may cause illness/injury if consumed."

They are advising customers not the drink or open the product and to dispose of it safely.

Customers can contact Fortitude Brewing Company to be reimbursed.

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Ukrainian air defences, bolstered by sophisticated Western-supplied systems, thwarted an intense Russian air attack on Kyiv, shooting down all missiles aimed at the capital, officials said.

The bombardment on Tuesday, which targeted locations across Ukraine, included six Russian Kinzhal aero-ballistic hypersonic missiles, the most fired in a single attack in the war so far, according to Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly touted the Kinzhals as providing a key strategic competitive advantage and among the most advanced weapons in his country's arsenal.

The missiles are difficult to detect and intercept because of their hypersonic speed and maneuverability.

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If Ukraine's claim of having shot down six Kinzhal missiles fired on Tuesday is confirmed, it would mark another blow to Putin's war efforts and show the increasing effectiveness of the Ukraine's air defences.

Air force spokesman Ihnat, who said in March that Ukraine lacked the equipment to intercept the Kinzhals, didn't explain what systems were used to knock them down.

Since March, Western countries have supplied Ukraine with various air defence systems.

Russia fired the Kinzhals from MiG-31K warplanes, along with nine cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea and three S-400 cruise missiles launched from the ground, Ihnat said.

In all, Ukraine's military said later, Russia had targeted Ukraine with 27 missiles in a day and launched 37 airstrikes.

Russia began using the Kinzhal to strike targets in Ukraine early in the invasion but has used the expensive weapon sparingly and against priority targets, apparently reflecting limited availability.

The Russian military says the missile's range is up to 2000km and it can fly at 10 times the speed of sound.

Its speed and heavy warhead allow the Kinzhal to destroy heavily fortified targets, such as underground bunkers or mountain tunnels.

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Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday contested the Ukrainian claims, telling the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency: "We have not launched as many Kinzhals as they allegedly shoot down every time with their statements."

Loud explosions boomed over Kyiv in the major nighttime attack apparently aimed at overwhelming Ukraine's air defences.

Kyiv's mayor reported three people were wounded.

The barrage comes as European leaders sought new ways to punish Russia for the war and a Chinese envoy sought traction for Beijing's peace proposal, which appears to have made little impression on the warring sides.

It also came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned home from a whirlwind European tour to seek more military aid.

The overnight attack on Kyiv was "exceptional in its density — the maximum number of attacking missiles in the shortest period of time," said Serhii Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration.

It was the eighth time this month that Russian air raids had targeted the capital, a clear escalation after weeks of lull and ahead of a much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive using newly supplied advanced Western weapons.

Sophisticated Western air defence systems, including American-made Patriot missiles, have helped spare Kyiv from the kind of destruction witnessed along the main front line in the country's east and south.

While most of the ground fighting is stale-mated along that front line, both sides are targeting other territory with long-range weapons.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said a Kinzhal destroyed a Patriot missile battery in Kyiv but he didn't provide evidence, and the statement couldn't be independently verified.

Ihnat, the Ukrainian air force spokesman, refused to comment on the claim.

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Australian workers' wages rose to the highest level in more than 10 years as the country sees a low unemployment rate and tight labour market.

The latest data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed the wage price index rose 0.8 per cent in the March quarter of 2023.

Annual pay growth rose to 3.7 per cent.

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ABS acting head of prices statistics Leigh Merrington said the annual growth is a significant indicator of Australia's job market.

"Annual wages growth of 3.7 per cent is the highest since September quarter 2012, reflecting low unemployment, a tight labour market and high inflation," Merrington said.

Merrington added the private sector was the main driver of growth for Aussie wages.

"A number of private sector industries have recorded annual wages growth above 4 per cent, with the remaining industries all above 3 per cent annual growth," Merrington said.

But the public sector recorded the highest quarterly growth in a decade of 0.9 per cent and 3 per cent annually.

It comes as enterprise agreement bargaining, scheduled rises and higher wage caps come into play for the sector.

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The data shows there are also a number of jobs receiving pay increases despite the tightening economic environment.

"Wage outcomes over the March quarter 2023 saw a continued lift in the share of jobs receiving wage rises of between 4 and 6 per cent, which is the highest share since 2009," Merrington said.

"The share of jobs with a wage rise of 2 per cent or less has fallen from over 50 per cent in mid-2021 to less than 20 per cent."

Even though wages have accelerated by 3.7 per cent in the year to March, it is well behind the rate of inflation at 7 per cent.

The question is now how rising wages will impact inflation and therefore interest rates, which the Reserve Bank of Australia has foreshadowed could rise again in June.

The central bank has forecast wages to rise between 3.5 to 4 per cent per year without sending inflation on an upward trajectory.

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However, if wages continue accelerating on the path they are on now, it would add to the bank board's concerns that inflation would be impacted and therefore strengthen the case for further rate hikes.

But Treasurer Jim Chalmers is confident inflation is not being driven by wages.

"When it comes to the cost-of-living pressures on working families, decent wage rises are part of the solution, not part of the problem," he said.

"We have an inflation challenge for a whole range of other reasons, not because people have been getting paid too much."

It comes as worker unions are calling for a 7 per cent rise in wages in line with inflation with Fair Work hearings currently underway into the matter.

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Beloved Australian music festival Falls will not run in 2023 after almost 30 years of the annual New Year's event.

Partygoers keen on attending one of the festivals' locations, normally held simultaneously around the country, will have to make new plans this December after organisers announced they were taking the "season off to rest".

"After an impressive 28 years ringing in the New Year with some of the world's biggest acts, the Falls team are today switching on their OOOs and taking this New Years' season off to rest, recover and recalibrate," a statement read this morning.

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The announcement comes after the festival reverted to a one-day event in Melbourne last year after being unable to secure its flagship location at Lorne in Victoria's south.

It is the third time in the last four years the simultaneous events in Byron Bay, Freemantle and Melbourne have been cancelled.

Falls was also forced to scrap its Tasmania leg of the tour after 17 years in 2021 due to financial issues.

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In 2019, about 9000 festival-goers were told to pack up their Lorne campsites and find lifts to leave the festival due to fire threats.

The event was also plagued by pandemic restrictions during the COVID pandemic, making it impossible to operate. 

Falls Festival offers live music, arts, immersive experiences as well as food and drinks at the annual event.

Headliners in recent years have included Lil Nas X, the Arctic Monkeys, John Farnham, Hilltop Hoods, Flight Facilities, Flume and Angus and Julia Stone.

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Hundreds of people are feared to have died after a powerful cyclone hit Myanmar on Sunday, with rescue groups warning of "a large scale loss of life" following one of the strongest storms to ever hit the country.

Cyclone Mocha barrelled into Myanmar's coast on Sunday, collapsing houses, felling trees, bringing down telephone poles and severely compromising communication lines in conflict-racked Rakhine state, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

Myanmar's shadow government on Tuesday said that at least 400 people have been killed and an unspecified number of people are still missing.

READ MORE: Multiple deaths after cyclone tears through Myanmar

CNN cannot independently verify that figure, which stands in contrast to an earlier report by the military junta's Myawaddy TV, which said the official death toll stands at three people, with 13 others injured.

But sources speaking to CNN said many of the bodies of Rohingya victims, who are Muslims, have already been buried per "religious customs".

"I can't control my tears," said Aung Zaw Hein, a resident of Rakhine state's capital city Sittwe, who told CNN that he had seen the bodies of children and elderly and pregnant women lying on the ground after the cyclone.

"People are having a very hard time … because they don't have food, they don't have a place to lay down," he added.

"The people become homeless, shelterless, some people even become powerless. The same situation has repeated again in our life for the Rohingya people."

Aung Zaw Hein also said he had performed Islamic funeral prayers for eight victims.

Myanmar's junta leader Min Aung Hlaing visited Sittwe to assess damage and deliver donations to its residents, state media MRTV reported on Monday.

'A large-scale loss of life in the camps'

Largely impoverished and isolated, Rakhine has in recent years been the site of widespread political violence.

Nearly a million stateless Rohingya members of the persecuted Muslim minority group have crossed into neighbouring Bangladesh since 2017, fleeing a brutal and bloody crackdown by Myanmar's junta.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya remain in Rakhine, mostly confined to camps where authorities place strict controls on their movement.

It is in these poorly constructed camps that aid agencies fear Cyclone Mocha has hit the hardest.

There has been "a large-scale loss of life in the camps," said Brad Hazlett, president of the non-government organisation, Partners Relief and Development.

"We are unable to say an exact number, but know of one small village we have connected with today where we have provided toilets and hand water pumps in the last year. That village was totally destroyed by the cyclone and at least 20 people have lost their life there," he said.

He added that fatality numbers shared online vary significantly and his organisation was unable to give a precise breakdown for now – but they expect the number of casualties to rise.

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"During this time, the phone network remains unstable, the roads are blocked and at least one concrete bridge was washed away so confirming the numbers is challenging," Hazlett said.

"We have heard that many people remain missing or may be under the destroyed shelters."

People living in refugee camps in Sittwe drowned in floods unleashed by the cyclone, wrote the National Unity Government (NUG) in a situation report Tuesday, with NUG Rohingya advisor, Aung Kyaw Moe, tweeting that the number of deaths in Sittwe alone stood at 400.

NUG consists of a group of ousted lawmakers, opponents of the coup and representatives of ethnic minority group that seeks to gain recognition as the legitimate government of Myanmar.

It operates undercover or through members based abroad.

Another group, the Arakan Civil Society Organisation Network (or Arakan CSO Network), told CNN they have undertaken rescue efforts in the northern part of Rakhine state, and that some 400 people died in a "Muslim" camp in Sittwe, including many children.

Video showed wind gusts over 200 kilometres per hour roiling Sittwe, flattening homes in some areas and leaving bamboo and other wood debris dangerously strewn across villages.

Further devastation

Additionally, torrential rains caused landslides in towns in Myanmar's western Chin state causing the destruction of buildings and homes, according to the NUG.

The NUG also said that communications have been interrupted or are down in cyclone-hit areas and that casualty figures are "very likely to increase".

It added that roofing material, especially tarpaulins, are needed for some 500,000 households, and that emergency food and drinking water is urgently needed for about one million people in Northern Rakhine state.

"It is crucial to provide humanitarian assistance in the most devastated areas such as Rakhine state, Sagaing, Magway and Chin State as soon as possible," it wrote in the report, which included before and after satellite imagery of hard-hit areas.

The shadow government also said some 32,300 acres of farmland has been flooded with extensive destruction of crops in towns across Sagaing and in Magway.

"It is estimated that over 90 per cent has been destroyed in (11) Townships in the entire Rakhine State by the cyclone."

Government persecution

As Cyclone Mocha built up power in the Bay of Bengal last week, the UN's humanitarian office (OCHA) warned that about six million people in the region were already in need of humanitarian assistance, among them 1.2 million people internally displaced by ethnic conflict, Reuters reported.

Myanmar's military, which seized power in a 2022 coup, view the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The Rohingya counter that they have lived in Rakhine for generations.

An estimated a million Rohingya now live in what many consider to be the world's largest refugee camp in Bangladesh after fleeing a brutal campaign of killing and arson by the Myanmar military.

At one point Cyclone Mocha had been predicted to hit the camp but it was spared a direct hit with the storm making landfall further down the coast.

An estimated 600,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine, according to Human Rights Watch, and are "subject to government persecution and violence, confined to camps and villages without freedom of movement, and cut off from access to adequate food, health care, education, and livelihoods."

The last storm to make landfall in Myanmar with a similar strength was Cyclone Giri in October 2010.

Giri caused more than 150 fatalities and roughly 70 per cent of the city of Kyaukphyu was destroyed.

According to the UN, roughly 15,000 homes were destroyed in Rakhine state during that storm.

In 2008, Cyclone Nargis carved a swathe of destruction through Myanmar's low lying Irrawaddy Delta, killing nearly 140,000 people.

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