Three girls have been charged after a teenager was allegedly held against her will, punched and stabbed in an hours-long ordeal.

The alleged assault took place at a home in Tewantin, near Noosa Heads in Queensland, on March 11 and was filmed.

In confronting videos posted to social media, a 13-year-old, who cannot be identified due to her age, can be seen standing in the corner of a room wearing a bra and shorts.

One girl can allegedly be seen punching her in the face multiple times, while another holds a large knife which she uses to threaten and stab the teen.

An additional person is nearby, filming the alleged torture in what looks to be a bedroom.

The alleged victim is covered in bruises and cuts, and holds her arms up to her face and body at various times, attempting to defend herself.

Three teenage girls have since been charged.

A 14-year-old girl was charged with four counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, assault occasioning bodily harm whilst armed in company, deprivation of liberty, entering a dwelling and committing an indictable offence, armed robbery whilst in company using personal violence, entering a premises and committing an indictable offence, and wilful damage.

She was remanded in custody and is due to face court again next month.

A 13-year-old girl was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm, assault occasioning bodily harm whilst armed in company, deprivation of liberty, armed robbery whilst in company using personal violence, entering a dwelling and committing an indictable offence, common assault and unauthorised dealing with shop goods.

She is due to reappear in Maroochydore Children's Court later this month.

A 12-year-old girl was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm, assault occasioning bodily harm whilst armed in company, deprivation of liberty, armed robbery in company with personal violence, entering a dwelling and committing an indictable offence and unauthorised dealing with shop goods.

She is due to reappear in Maroochydore Children's Court later this month.

Every 150–200 kilometres on main highways will have a hub, Transport Minister says.

The family of an Australian father accused of training Chinese military pilots and held in a maximum security prison has appealed to New South Wales political leaders ahead of the state election.

Daniel Duggan, 54, a former US Marines Corps pilot, was arrested in October last year near his family home in Orange, in NSW, and accused of providing military training to pilots working for China.

US authorities are seeking to extradite him and appeared in a Sydney court on Monday by video link from a prison cell for a brief hearing.

READ MORE: China headhunting Aussie military pilots triggers urgent investigation

The father of six has denied the allegations, saying they were "political" posturing by the US which unfairly singled him out.

His wife, Saffrine, today called on all NSW political parties to commit to placing her husband in home detention while he defends the hotly opposed extradition matter and farewells his dying 95-year-old mother, who suffered a stroke in Boston yesterday.

"Dan is no danger to anyone nor a flight risk, but he is in potential danger in prison with terrorists and other hardened criminals," Saffrine Duggan said.

"Surely this is not right.

"The way Dan is being treated in a NSW prison, under NSW law, is unprecedented and an affront to Australia's rule of law and manipulation of the Australian legal system by the United States, at the expense of the Australian taxpayer.

"The NSW government should not stand for this treatment of its citizens!"

READ MORE: 'Employees left scrambling' after 12,000 fired from Google over e-mail

Voters in NSW will head to the polls on Saturday.

Ahead of his court hearing this week, Duggan was moved from Silverwater jail in Sydney to Lithgow maximum security prison.

His family said home detention would significantly lighten their financial and emotional burden.

"Dan's unfair treatment has resulted in a formal complaint to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, and the United Nations Human Rights Committee," Saffrine Duggan said.

"It is unacceptable on every level and must stop now."

Born in Boston, Duggan served in the US Marines for 12 years before migrating to Australia in 2002.

In January 2012, he gained Australian citizenship, choosing to give up his US citizenship in the process.

READ MORE: What will happen if Donald Trump is arrested?

A 2016 indictment from the US District Court in Washington, DC, was unsealed late last year.

In it, prosecutors say Duggan conspired with others to provide training to Chinese military pilots in 2010 and 2012, and possibly at other times, without applying for an appropriate licence.

US prosecutors say Duggan received about nine payments totalling about $88,000 and international travel from another conspirator for what was sometimes described as "personal development training".

The indictment says Duggan travelled to the US, China and South Africa, and provided some training to Chinese pilots in South Africa.

His next court appearance is set for May 1.

– Reported with Associated Press

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.

Three men are being treated in hospital for gunshot and stab wounds after a violent brawl erupted at a home in Melbourne's west overnight.

Police say that a group of people "rammed into the garage of a property" at Bayview Crescent in Hoppers Crossing at 8.45pm on Tuesday before the occupants of the vehicle jumped out and viciously attacked those within the home.

During the attack, a 23-year-old man was shot in his lower body and two other men – aged 29 and 19 – were stabbed.

READ MORE: Dad's ashes stolen during violent break in at Melbourne home

Officers say the victims are known to police and the investigation will be looking into the possibility the attack was "an act of revenge".

It's believed the weapons used during the ordeal included a shotgun, knives and machetes.

"Initially four men were arrested nearby, they were taken back to the Werribee Police Station and at this stage, those four people have been treated as witnesses to the incident," Detective Inspector Chris Ellway said.

"We're still seeking the outstanding offenders which is up to five or six persons we believe were involved in the incident and we're certainly seeking public assistance with identifying those people involved."

READ MORE: Brawl between teacher and student breaks out at NSW school

Ellway said that officers are "confident" the attack was premeditated.

"Circumstances of the incident are still being investigated, we don't really know what the circumstances are at the moment … we do believe however that it is a targeted attack on the occupants of that address and the people involved will be known to the victims," he said.

"We are keen to speak to any member of the public that has information in relation to this incident and anyone that knows any motive for what's happened and also keen to speak to anyone that might have dash-cam footage or CCTV footage.

"We do obviously understand that incidents like this cause great concern to the community but just want to reassure the public that we're doing everything we can."

READ MORE: Tasered man aboard Jetstar flight speaks out

The group police held in custody, who have since been released, had "not been forthcoming" with information, Ellway said.

Detectives "are not ruling out" the possibility the assault was gang-related.

The men inside the home at the time of the attack are friends who were in the middle of "a gathering" and a number of "sharp instruments" including knives and machetes – believed to have been used during the brawl – were seized at the property.

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.

A judge has labelled the abduction and repeated rape of a female jogger whose head was held under creek water as "a chamber of horrors".

WARNING: This story contains some details that readers may find distressing.

Joel Russo, 28, pleaded guilty in Victoria's County Court to rape, sexual assault and conduct endangering a person, more than three years after he attacked a woman in Melbourne's north.

READ MORE: Brawl between teacher and student breaks out at NSW school

He appeared in court via video link from prison for a pre-sentence hearing on Wednesday, where full details of the daylight assault were revealed.

Russo, who was previously jailed for another rape, came up behind the woman as she was walking along the Merri Creek Trail in Brunswick East about 7.30pm on December 3, 2019.

He grabbed her as she screamed and tried to kick him in the groin, before he dragged her down a steep embankment towards the creek, prosecutor Jane Warren told the court.

"She clawed the ground to try to stop Mr Russo dragging her into the water," Warren said.

READ MORE: Tasered man aboard Jetstar flight speaks out

Russo pulled her into the creek's shallow waters, telling her: "Shut up. Stop screaming."

He laid on top of the woman, pushing her head under the surface.

When she tried to turn her head to the side to breathe, he put his hands around her neck and pushed her head under the water for 30 seconds, the prosecutor said.

The woman believed he was trying to kill her.

Russo said he would let her live if they had sex and repeatedly raped her while in the creek.

After hearing people nearby, and as it was beginning to get dark, Russo pushed her into some bushes.

He told her to be quiet and raped her again.

Russo told her to call her friends and tell them she was alright.

READ MORE: Russian soldier accused of war crimes after audio files intercepted

They walked to a nearby McDonald's and Russo insisted on holding her hand, asked her if she would tell police, whether she enjoyed it and if she would "visit him in jail".

He then told the woman: "Sorry for raping you. I've ruined your life, haven't I?"

The woman clutched a metal pole outside McDonald's, as Russo tried to pull her away from the restaurant.

He loitered nearby and eventually left.

Her clothing wet and hair covered in twigs, she asked someone at the store to call police.

Russo was later arrested after trying to steal money and cigarettes from a Coles Express.

The victim said she has avoided going to parklands or spending time in nature since the attack.

"There is no limit to the anger I feel knowing the most life-threatening risk I took was to go for a walk alone and to be a woman," she said in a statement read to court.

Judge Elizabeth Gaynor said the attack was "every woman's worst nightmare" describing the offending as "appalling, degrading and terrifying".

"To any woman this reads like a chamber of horrors," she said.

"Nothing exists in the community to take care of it other than jail."

She will sentence Russo at a later date.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.

It is not possible to eradicate the biggest and potentially most threatening invasive species in America, a sobering study from the US government has found.

Donald Trump has flagged that he is about to be arrested in New York in the coming days, ahead of a trial in relation to hush money paid to a former mistress.

But what can the former president expect if he is arrested, and can he expect to be treated differently to the average criminal suspect in New York?

Is Donald Trump about to be arrested? Why?

In spite of Donald Trump's declaration he is about to be arrested, it is not a sure thing.

Once a decision has been made to arrest someone, law enforcement normally acts immediately.

A grand jury in New York is currently considering felony charges against the former president.

While the details have not been made official, this investigation relates to hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Daniels was given $US130,000 ($194,000) during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about an affair she had with Trump.

The grand jury investigation centres around whether Trump concealed the hush money as something else.

If he presented it in his books as a legal or a business expense, he could face fraud charges.

He could face a maximum of four years in jail if found guilty.

READ MORE: Why a Trump indictment would have huge implications

What is an indictment?

An indictment is a formal notice that a person is believed to have committed a crime.

In New York, the indictment includes all the felony charges that a person will go on trial for.

An indictment is different from an arrest, but if Trump is indicted, it means he will be arrested.

How will an arrest take place?

A SWAT-style raid on Trump's country club in Mar-a-Lago is not going to happen, and we won't see him kicking and screaming as they drag him into a squad car.

For the first time, an arrest will need to take place with the consultation of the Secret Service agents tasked to protect him.

As a former president, Trump is entitled to Secret Service protection.

But that likely won't mean they will be allowed to follow him into court or frisk the judge at his bail hearing.

The most likely course of action will be the Manhattan district attorney's office will contact his lawyers, and Trump will fly up to New York to surrender.

READ MORE: Trump says he won't drop out of presidential race if he's indicted

What will happen after Trump is arrested?

There's an indecorous tradition in New York law enforcement called the "perp walk", where high-profile suspects are paraded in front of cameras.

In a perp walk, handcuffed suspects are walked slowly from a police car into the courthouse, while news photographers jostle to snap photos of them.

The New York Times is reporting that Trump is considering whether to smile for the cameras if he is put through a perp walk.

But both the New York Daily News and the New York Post cite police sources saying Trump won't be put through a perp walk.

But if he is indicted, Trump will be booked, most likely at the Manhattan district attorney's office.

That means he will be fingerprinted, have his mugshot taken and be read his Miranda rights ("You have the right to remain silent…").

Mugshots in New York state are not allowed to be released, but it is very possible it gets leaked.

Whether Trump is handcuffed will be up to the district attorney's office.

READ MORE: Judge lets 'Access Hollywood' tape into Trump rape trial

When will Trump face court?

Trump will likely not face any time behind bars before facing court for his bail hearing.

He will likely be taken directly from the district attorney's office to court, where his lawyers will ask for him to be released under his own recognisance.

It is almost certain Trump will be immediately released.

Under New York's recent bail laws, a suspect is required to be released without bail unless they have committed a violent crime or are considered a flight risk.

Trump may be required to surrender his passport and could be prevented from leaving the state.

When would Trump face trial?

A trial could be months away, thanks in no small part to Trump's fame.

Jury selection would be an immense headache in the case.

Finding 12 New Yorkers who don't already have a strong opinion about Donald Trump is going to be very difficult.

Can Trump be charged if he is running for president?

He absolutely can.

Even if he were still the president, Trump could be arrested, indicted, tried, convicted and imprisoned if guilty of any crime.

While federal guidelines advise law enforcement against prosecuting politicians too close to election day, New York prosecutors are not bound by this rule.

The only criteria for running for president is that a person needs to be older than 35 and a "natural born citizen".

Trump could still be elected president even if behind bars, though he would still need to serve his term in jail while serving his term in the Oval Office.

While no former president has ever been arrested, one sitting president has.

Ulysses S. Grant was arrested in 1872 for speeding on his horse and buggy as he raced through Washington.

READ MORE: Pence says Trump 'endangered my family' on January 6

Will there be protests if Trump is arrested?

Very possibly, but the most recent demonstration in New York was a dud.

A protest outside Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday morning only attracted five Trump supporters and a few dozen anti-Trump counter-protesters.

Despite this, all 35,000 officers of the New York Police Department have been ordered to be ready to mobilise in full uniform at a moment's notice.

Heavy fencing has also been set up around the courthouse as the grand jury makes its decision.

READ MORE: Trump calls for protests over arrest

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.

There is a tantalising new clue in the hunt for the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In new analysis posted online today, an international team of researchers said their findings add to evidence that live animals traded at the market could have passed the coronavirus to humans, pointing to a natural origin for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research found swabs collected from stalls and equipment at the Huanan Market in Wuhan that tested positive for traces of the virus that causes COVID-19 also, in some cases, contained traces of DNA from animals known to be susceptible to infection.

READ MORE: 'Atomic bomb' drops on Sydney man as web of lies that ruined him exposed

The swabs were collected by scientists affiliated with China's Centres for Disease Control in early 2020, shortly after China closed the market, which was an early hotspot for COVID-19 infections.

No one had seen the raw data from that testing until Chinese researchers quietly uploaded details from their sampling to the genetic data-sharing platform GISAID.

The data was noticed by an international collaboration of researchers probing the pandemic's origins in early March and downloaded for further study.

The new analysis drew attention last week after several media reports characterised its findings and World Health Organisation officials discussed them in a news briefing.

The analysis had not been made public until today, when it was posted online as a preprint study, ahead of peer review.

The species included in the analysis included raccoon dogs as well as red foxes, rabbits, cats and dogs.

Genetic material from other mammals was also identified, including Amur hedgehogs, Malayan porcupines, hoary bamboo rats, Himalayan marmots, masked palm civets, Siberian weasels and hog badgers.

Scientists don't know whether the virus that causes COVID-19 can infect every species they identified in the samples.

READ MORE: Drug resistant 'superbug' fungus spreading quickly through US

Raccoon dogs are of particular interest because other studies have shown that they can be infected, they shed a lot of virus when they get sick, and they can transmit the infection to uninfected animals.

What's more, most of the positive samples were concentrated in the south-west corner of the Huanan Market, an area that had previously been identified as an apparent hot spot for infections and an area where live animals were thought to have been sold.

The findings aren't able to prove that any of these animals were infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, or that any of these animals infected people.

Indeed, there were a few positive specimens from other parts of the market that contained only human DNA, suggesting that humans were shedding the virus there.

In addition to support for the natural origin idea, the findings support the theory that there wasn't a single spillover event from animals to humans but probably several, centred at the market, that eventually launched COVID-19 into the wider world.

Still, the researchers say their conclusions are limited because they were able to work with only a partial set of uploaded data.

Scientists involved with the reanalysis say they first noticed the data on March 4 and only realised how important it was on March 9, when they discovered that it corresponded to environmental samples taken at the Huanan Market near the start of the pandemic.

Chinese scientists posted their own analysis of the sampling as a preprint study in February 2022 but did not mention genetic sequences from non-human animals in the environmental swabs.

That paper concluded that the busy Huanan Market had acted as an amplifier of early COVID-19 transmission but was probably not its source.

Western scientists have speculated that this information was deliberately left out of the Chinese preprint to avoid drawing attention to China's controversial wild animal markets, which were known to spread respiratory diseases such as RSV and influenza.

READ MORE: The most banned book in America may face similar fate in Australia

Scientists had cautioned for more than a decade that these markets had the potential to start pandemics, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government had done little to rein in this type of trade.

China closed the Huanan Market in early January 2020 and banned the trade and consumption of certain protected wild animals.

The new analysis emerged as Republicans in Congress have opened investigations into the pandemic's origin.

Previous studies provided evidence that the virus probably emerged naturally in the market but could not point to a specific origin.

Some US agencies, including a recent US Department of Energy assessment, say the pandemic probably resulted from a lab leak in Wuhan.

In a news briefing on Friday, WHO experts said that the data is not conclusive.

READ MORE: Wave of new smokers on the way, 'alarming' vape study predicts

They still can't say whether the virus leaked from a lab or spilled over naturally from animals to humans.

"This data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

He also accused China of withholding information pertinent to WHO's investigation of the pandemic's origins.

"This data could have, and should have, been shared three years ago," Tedros said.

"We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share results."

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.

A small Australian technology company has been recruited by the US Defence Department to supply a vehicle to test fearsome hypersonic missiles.

Sydney-based Hypersonix Launch Systems will build a reusable aircraft for the Pentagon that is capable of speeds of between Mach 5 (6174 km/h) and Mach 7 (8600km/h), making it able to outpace conventionally-powered aircraft and missiles.

Flying between Mach 5 and Mach 7 would enable an aircraft to travel the 6580km from Sydney to Perth and back in about one hour. 

READ MORE: Ukraine hints it hit Russian missiles in occupied Crimea

Last year, Australia announced it will work alongside the US and UK to develop an arsenal of hypersonic missiles.

Other countries, including Russia and China, have also joined the race to build them.

Hypersonic missiles can travel at a far lower trajectory than high-arcing ballistic missiles, and pose a major challenge to air defence systems.

Russia's military deployed hypersonic missiles in Ukraine last year, the first known use of the technology in combat. 

But the testing of hypersonic weapons by the US is currently limited to land- and sea-based test ranges and uses expensive, non-recoverable test firings, slowing the development of the emerging technology.

Last September, the Pentagon's Defence Innovation Unit launched a project to build a lower-cost airborne testing platform for hypersonic weapons

READ MORE: How hypersonic missiles work and why the weapon is so feared

The Hypersonix aircraft chosen earlier this month is the DART AE (Additive Engineering) vehicle, which is largely built using 3D printing and is powered by a hydrogen-fuelled SPARTAN scramjet engine.

The company said it is "capable of flying non-ballistic flight patterns at speeds of Mach 5 to Mach 7 and up to 1000km in range (400 seconds flight time)".

Hypersonix plans to fly the vehicle early next year.

"Our longer-term focus is to capture a slice of the emerging multi-billion-dollar commercial market for the deployment of small satellites, but clearly Australia's strategic defence allies see immediate potential in our technology," managing director David Waterhouse said.

"This is our first major contract and a key step in our commercialisation process – we couldn't be happier.

"This puts Australia one step closer to being a major player in the international space race."

Hypersonix is also working with the Australian government to fly a hypersonic test vehicle.

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.

A Queenslander found a strange, and unwanted, bedfellow in their sheets when they stumbled upon a 1.8-metre venomous snake chilling out.

Zach Richards, from Zachery's Snake and Reptile Relocation, was called out to the Maroon property on Monday, explaining it was one of the more unusual removals he's had.

The reptile was an eastern brown snake, which happens to be the world's second most venomous land snake.

READ MORE: Surge in snake hatchlings sparks warning from reptile handlers

"I haven't had an eastern brown in a bed before," Richards said.

"I have had a carpet python, and found common tree snakes in toilets, but nothing like this.

"It was a little upset I disturbed its spot for sleeping.

"It was a nice size to match its length, it was reasonably placid."

READ MORE: Brawl between teacher and student filmed at NSW school

Richards shared a message to any homeowner who may encounter a snake on their property, whether it be venomous or not.

"Just leave it alone, and call a professional," he said.

"If it's in a room like a bedroom, shut the door and put a towel under it to stop it escaping."

READ MORE: 'I killed a man': Horrific phone call from Russian solider intercepted

The eastern brown snake was safely relocated into nearby bush.

The incident comes in the midst of snake season, which typically runs from September to April. 

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.