Former ultra-Orthodox Jewish principal Malka Leifer has been found guilty of 18 sexual abuse offences against two former students.

Jurors on Monday handed down mixed verdicts against the 56-year-old mother-of-eight after a trial in the Victorian County Court.

She was accused of sexually abusing Melbourne sisters Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne's eastern suburbs between 2003 and 2007.

Jurors convicted her of 18 offences relating to offending against Erlich and Sapper.

She was acquitted of nine charges, including the five that related to Meyer and several charges involving Erlich.

Leifer, who sat with her head tilted watching the jury, did not react as the verdicts were read.

Erlich and Sapper were in court for the verdicts.

Leifer was appointed menaheles, or principal, of the girls' school after arriving in Melbourne in 2001 but was stood down when allegations were raised in 2008.

She fled to Israel days later and when charged in 2014 began a years-long battle against extradition.

The sisters told jurors they were abused by Leifer on school camps, during private lessons at the school and at Leifer's home.

Prosecutor Justin Lewis argued Leifer had a tendency to have a sexual interest in girls when they were teenage students at the school and when those same girls were student teachers.

Lewis said the tendency was to engage in sexual activities with them and to take advantage of their vulnerability, ignorance in sexual matters and her position of authority in order to do so.

Her barrister, Ian Hill KC, argued the lengthy delay between the alleged offending and the trial, which began in February, was a disadvantage to the defence and to jurors.

He attacked the credibility of the sisters, including accusing one of telling "blatant lies" in her evidence.

"Truth and reliability were lost in false accounts," he said.

"Perhaps even at times hardened into false imaginations and false memories of false realities."

Outside court, her victims said the result was "bittersweet" because Leifer was not found guilty on all charges, but they are looking forward to moving on with their lives.

"When you know your truth and the truth is the truth, truth will prevail and it did and today it did. Malka Leifer was found guilty," Sapper said.

"Knowing that she could abuse other people, we couldn't rest with that knowledge of what she did to us, how could we allow her to get away with it and continue abusing other young girls we couldn't rest with that knowledge," Erlich said.

"Malka Leifer is guilty. We have waited 11 years to say those words," Meyer added.

Leifer will be sentenced at a later date. 

– Reported with AAP

Aussies have been warned to secure their pet enclosures as snakes begin to hunt for food to survive the cooler months.

Snake Catchers Brisbane and Gold Coast posted a photo of an engorged coastal carpet python outside a home after snacking on two brush-tail possums.

The image sparked a warning from the company to pet owners to secure pet enclosures like chicken coops as snakes are ravenous before winter hits.

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"The cooler weather is on the way and this time of year pythons are taking large food items to keep the body fat on to help them through the cooler months," the group said.

"This is the time of year to make sure your pet enclosure is rodent-proof to help minimise snake versus pet encounters."

Some social media comments welcomed the cooler months for hibernation however Snake Catchers Brisbane and Gold Coast quickly debunked this.

"Brumation not hibernation, snakes are still active in the cooler months, specifically on warm winter days," the group said.

Residents are urged to make sure their enclosures for chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs and mice are secured to avoid snakes snacking on their pets.

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Police say Richie Hardcore’s car has not been found and they are investigating.

Property prices in Australia have risen for the first time in 10 months, but supply shortages are set to continue the rental crisis.

New data from CoreLogic released today showed the median value of properties sold across Australia went up by 0.6 per cent in March.

The property research company said the figure was not reflected in all states, but tomorrow's looming interest rate decision may change that.

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The price growth is being fuelled by the major capital cities, while smaller markets – such as Hobart and Darwin – remain in a downturn.

Sydney's average property price has returned to above $1,000,000.

Tim Lawless, CoreLogic's research director, said a recovery in the high end of the market was largely responsible for the Sydney recovery in prices.

There were also price increases in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane, of 0.6 per cent, 0.5 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.

Lawless said the national bounce back in prices was driven by a combination of low stock, a very tight rental market and demand from permanent overseas migrants.

Meanwhile, a separate report has predicted Australia will be short of more than 100,000 homes over the next five years, The Sydney Morning Herald report.

The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) forecasts Brisbane alone will have a shortage 12,300 dwellings within five years while Sydney will lack about 10,000 homes.

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Australia is already experiencing severe housing pressures, with rental vacancy rates in every capital at or below 1 per cent.

The construction sector has also been beset by spikes in costs, delays and poor weather that impacted building schedules.

Research by NHFIC predicts  1.8 million new households over the next decade, but only 148,500 new dwellings will be added to the national housing stock this financial year.

That figure will drop to 127,500 in 2024-25.

The largest decrease will be in apartments and multi-density dwellings, the NHFIC said.

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The woman walked out of a supermarket with a trolley full of groceries without paying.

Latitude Financial Services has been criticised for holding on to historic data of New Zealanders and a "she'll be right" attitude after the company was hit by a major data breach.

Latitude reported last week 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver's licence numbers were stolen in its cyberattack – 3.2 million of these were from the last 10 years.

A further 6.1 million customer records including some but not all of the Australian and New Zealand customers' names, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth were stolen in the attack.

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New Zealand's deputy privacy commissioner Liz MacPherson claimed some of the records taken from the country's residents are up to 18 years old which "isn't okay" and reveals the broader issue of data retention.

"Data retention is the sleeping giant of data security. There are consequences for holding onto data you no longer need," she said.

"All businesses and organisations can learn from this: don't collect or hold onto information you don't need. The risk is simply too high for your customers and your organisation.

"Don't risk being a hostage to people who make it their day job to illegally extract data."

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MacPherson said there is no place for a "she'll be right" attitude to cyber security.

"People make their fortunes from hacking the security of agencies," she said.

"Having sea borders does not protect your very internet-connected agency from being hacked."

She said companies should not be collecting or retaining personal information for so long unless it is for a lawful process.

"The simple discipline of deciding how long information will be retained as you collect it and acting on these decisions will save you and your customers a lot of pain," she added.

New Zealand's privacy laws say that companies cannot retain personal information "for longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it may lawfully be use".

If there is a legal reason for keeping the data, the company can continue to do so otherwise it must be erased but there is no explicit timeline of what "longer than is necessary" means.

In Australia, the Telecommunications Act says companies can keep information for identification purposes for at least two years.

And the Privacy Act says personal information should be destroyed when the company no longer needs it for "any purpose" however there is no timeframe for how long a company can keep data.

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As Latitude and Australian and New Zealand authorities investigate the extent of the hack, MacPherson said some key questions need to be answered by the financial company.

"These include how the cyber-criminal got in, how they managed to penetrate so far and why so many records have been retained for so long," she said.

Latitude is in the process of contacting all affected customers about what was stolen and how they will be assisted.

The company announced it will pay for customers who need to replace their driver's licence.

"It is Latitude Financial's responsibility to put things right," MacPherson said.

"It is important that affected customers give Latitude a chance to make good on their commitments to provide support.

"However, if after people have worked with Latitude their privacy harms have not been resolved to their satisfaction, we encourage them people to make a complaint."

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A window cleaner ran into the house and rescued the home owner and her dog.

An Australian online shopping retailer has collapsed into administration after suffering a substantial decline in sales after the COVID-19 pandemic

ASX-listed Mosaic Brands announced its online retailer EziBuy would enter administration after suffering a large drop in sales.

The company acquired EziBuy before the pandemic and it was profitable in 2021 and 2022 while lockdowns caused many people to shop online.

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But in the first half of 2023, the company reported a 51 per cent drop in sales.

In light of the losses, the company decided to put EziBuy into administration and restructure the online retailer to improve its cash flow.

Katherine Barnet and Damien Hodgkinson have been appointed as administrators.

"Mosaic intends to propose a restructure to the administrator that would see EziBuy emerge as a simplified, profitable, cash generative online-only operation, and one that is more strongly aligned with the group's successful digital strategies across its other brands," Mosaic said in a statement to the ASX.

"The board believes this process to restructure EziBuy is in the best interests of the group's shareholders as it will improve the group's overall net asset position and operating cashflow."

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Mosaic Brands also owns other women's fashion retailers including Rockmans, Noni B, Katies, Crossroads, W Lane and Autograph.

The company, excluding EziBuy, has boasted a 68 per cent increase in online sales after the pandemic.

There has also been an 18 per cent increase in in-store sales for the company's retail brands.

EziBuy offers its own range of clothing, homewares and furniture but also stocks some of its parent company's brands.

It has no physical stores in Australia but has four in New Zealand.

A plethora of fashion and homewares retailers have collapsed in recent months.

Luxury fashion brand Alice McCall fell into administration and furniture retailer Brosa also liquidated.

Other brands have moved purely online, including music icon Sanity

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Police arrested the man after an incident near the Blenheim Railway Station.