Two have died in Mangaweka and Gore, while in Ōpōtiki, a car has been found down a bank.

Locals in South Australia have been left stunned by the sight of thousands of dead fish that have washed ashore at a popular beach.

Footage obtained by 9News appears to show thousands of dead carp blanketing Middleton Beach on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Onlookers say the smell is "horrendous" and the odour wafting from the carcasses can be smelt "from streets back".

READ MORE: Australian scientists discover 'promising pathway' to treat COVID-19

Though confronting, experts agree that mass kill events can happen due to changes in a number of natural factors.

These factors include salinity and oxygen levels in the ocean and the temperature of the water.

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Diseases and pollutants can also contribute to the deaths.

Just weeks ago, a similar event occurred at the same beach.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA said the incident is being investigated.

"The Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) is aware of reports of dead fish washing up at Middleton Beach and are currently investigating the situation, including clean up options," a spokesperson said.

"This latest wash up is linked to the ongoing South Coast fish kill event caused by the River Murray floods, which was first reported on 19 January."

It is not believed the dead fish pose any danger to swimmers, though it's not advised to handle the carcasses. 

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Evacuation centres are today being opened as Category 3 Cyclone Gabrielle bears down.

A 21-year-old man from Ipswich has been arrested and charged with murder following the "suspicious" death of Queensland woman Krystle Monks.

Monks, 19, was found unresponsive at a Bundamba home at about 9.30pm last Saturday, February 4.

She was rushed to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, but died the following night.

READ MORE: Police treating death of young Queensland woman as suspicious

Police were initially told she'd collapsed but are now treating the case as domestic violence.

Michael Kurt Pringle, 21, from Dinmore is charged with murder and chose not to appear at Brisbane Magistrates Court today. 

He'll stay behind bars until the matter returns to court in Ipswich at the end of next month.

Anyone with information relating to the alleged murder has been urged to contact police.

Monks is being remembered as a "much-loved daughter, granddaughter and sister".

Her family says she will be "forever young" and "always beautiful".

A vigil in her memory is planned for Sunday night, ahead of what would have been her 20th birthday.

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If you -or someone you know needs help call 1-800 RESPECT/ 1-800 737 732.

Turboprop flights into Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga from regional areas cancelled.

Australian scientists have discovered a receptor in the human body that "blocks" COVID-19 infections and forms a natural protective barrier from the virus.

The receptor – leucine-rich repeat-containing protein 15 (LRRC15) – "binds the SARS-CoV-2 virus" without passing it on, meaning scientists can now look into developing antiviral and antifibrotic treatments for the disease.

The research was conducted by scientists at the University of Sydney alongside two other leading universities in the US.

READ MORE: 'The holy grail': Gold Coast man catches huge barramundi after shark chase

The results "open up an entirely new area of immunology research around LRRC15" and offers "a promising pathway" to manufacturing new drugs to prevent viral infection such as COVID-19.

The research could also mean new treatment options for people with fibrosis in the lungs.

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"Alongside two other groups, one at Oxford, the other at Brown and Yale in the USA, we found a new receptor in the LRRC15 protein that can stop SARS-CoV-2. We found that this new receptor acts by binding to the virus and sequestering it which reduces infection," Professor Greg Neely from Sydney University's School of Life and Environmental Sciences said.

"For me, as an immunologist, the fact that there's this natural immune receptor that we didn't know about, that's lining our lungs and blocks and controls virus, that's crazy interesting.

"We can now use this new receptor to design broad-acting drugs that can block viral infection or even suppress lung fibrosis."

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A bomb from World War II has exploded unexpectedly in an English town, with the blast heard from kilometres away.

No one was hurt when the 250kg bomb detonated as army specialists attempted to defuse it in the town of Great Yarmouth.

Drone footage captured the moment the bomb went off on the banks of the Yare River on Friday afternoon, local time.

READ MORE: Australia one of the best-placed countries to survive nuclear war

The bomb was discovered close to two gas pipes on Tuesday, and the army was brought in to disarm it.

The neighbouring streets were evacuated after the discovery, but those residents can now return to their homes, Norfolk Police said.

"Southtown Road remains closed while necessary checks on damage take place," Norfolk Police said in a statement.

As a coastal town on the German air force's route to England's northern industrial areas, Great Yarmouth saw a larger-than-usual number of bombs dropped on it during World War II.

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If Luftwaffe pilots could not find their targets, they would often drop their bombs on Great Yarmouth so as not to return to Germany with them.

Undetonated bombs from World War II remain a serious concern throughout nearly all of Europe.

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A man has caught a huge barramundi, which a bullshark was trying to eat when he was fishing along a Gold Coast river.

Ryan Selvey, 21, was fishing along the Nerang River near Bond University when he reeled in the 129 centimetre catch.

Selvey said he thought he saw two huge "barra" but discovered it was something else once he looked closer.

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"That's when I realised there was a metre shark roughing it up, trying to bite it," Selvey told 4BC's Neil Breen.

"The barra was quite a bit bigger than the shark and the shark couldn't get a good bite on it.

"The shark actually just boosted away from the barra."

https://omny.fm/shows/4bc-breakfast-with-neil-breen/quite-the-tale-young-fisherman-catches-massive-bar/embed

9News Gold Coast weather presenter Luke Bradnam said it was the biggest barramundi he had ever seen.

"To get one over a metre long is something people will fly to Australia to do… It is the holy grail," Bradnam said.

Bradnam said his 75-year-old father had spent his whole life trying to hook a barramundi over a metre long.

Selvey snapped a picture before throwing it back into the river.

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They're the disasters that spawned an entire genre of TV shows and books – a supervolcano, a nuclear war, or a massive asteroid strike that leaves the Earth a barren and post-apocalyptic wasteland.

But it turns out that while it wouldn't quite be "business as usual", Australia is pretty well-positioned to avoid our society going full Mad Max in the event of an apocolaypse.

A report published in the journal Risk Analysis examined what countries around the world were best place to survive, if not thrive, under an "abrupt sunlight reduction scenario".

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Such a situation could be caused by a nuclear winter, or an eruption by a supervolcano that dims the sun in the sky. It can lead to – depending on severity – a severe loss of food production, freezing temperatures, and mass loss of plants and wildlife.

But according to the report, Australia, along with New Zealand and other Pacific nations including Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, have the best chance in the world of weathering such a catastrophe more-or-less intact.

Australia's massive natural resources and agricultural production meant our food buffer was "gigantic", the researchers said.

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By comparison, nations such as China, the US and France were more likely to suffer a 97 per cent loss in food production.

Australia could also remain self-sufficient in terms of energy supply, the report found, and its stability, strong health system, and well-maintained infrastructure were also in its favour.

New Zealand, by comparison, relied on trade for much of its energy, which could suffer badly in the event of a northern hemisphere left essentially non-functional in a potential wartime scenario.

READ MORE: Aussie rescuers on the way as quake death toll tops 20,000

But New Zealand did have advantages over Australia, including its geography – with most of its regions relatively close to the ocean, it would be freer of any temperature extremes.

And Australia's closer military ties to the US or UK could lead to it being a target in a nuclear exchange.

The report focused on island nations, but noted that in previous analyses, Scandinavian countries had been rated among the most resilient in the world.

The researchers did include Iceland among their top potential survivors.

READ MORE: Police divers end search for missing UK woman in river

Ultimately, the report advised against any nation opting to "go it alone" in such a situation, urging strong alliances and contingencies be prepared.

"Trade in food, energy, components, and expertise is needed to maximise survival chances in the face of severe climate effects and the cascading impacts across many human and ecological systems," the authors wrote.

"Collapse of technological society is possible even in locations considered most likely to survive. This may seriously impede cooperation, coordination, and resilient food production."

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Rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has failed to engage with the lawyers he hired to pursue a lawsuit against a Melbourne burger shop.

A lawyer for College Dropout Burgers told the Federal Court in they would try to get the case thrown out if Ye continued not responding, according to ABC.

Ye has until Feburary 27 to provide evidence otherwise the case will be dropped.

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The burger shop, which opened in on Upper Heidelberg Road in Heidelberg in Melbourne's north-east in May 2021, is named after West's debut album and sells burgers named after West's songs.

West's album artwork is the shop's logo and a mural of West was painted inside the store.

The stores owner Mark Elkhouri received a cease and desist letter from the rapper's lawyers in June last year.

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The store has since removed all references to Ye.

In November, there were calls to ban Kayne West from Australia after he made anti-Semitic comments on social media.

West is believed to be planning on travelling to Melbourne soon to meet the family of his new wife, Bianca Censori.

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