Three months after vanishing and six days before her foot washed up on a NSW beach, Melissa Caddick's disappearance continued to stump police.

The 49-year-old was reported missing by her husband Anthony Koletti on November 13, 2020, two days after corporate watchdog ASIC and Australian Federal Police officers raided her Dover Heights home.

The final day of an inquest into her disappearance has heard police struggled to watch the mountain of video evidence they had gathered.

READ MORE: Outback Wrangler star heads to NT over fatal helicopter crash

By the time of a case review on February 15, 2021, only about 20 per cent of the gathered CCTV evidence had been watched.

Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command Detective Inspector Gretchen Atkins said injured or otherwise restricted officers from the area were assigned to reviewing CCTV from around the Dover Heights home where Caddick was last seen and from airports and other departure points.

"We were quite short staffed at the time," Atkins told the inquest on Tuesday.

Detective Sergeant Michael Foscholo, who took over as officer-in-charge of the investigation as it began to attract widespread attention, wanted more help.

"With the resources I had at my disposal we were pushing through it," he said.

"Extra resources would have been good."

His superior, Atkins, said she tried to provide them.

"I gave him what I could at the time," she said.

"It was time consuming and painstaking and he was trying to review it as quickly as possible."

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Foscholo took over as officer-in-charge 10 days after Caddick was reported missing.

He told the inquiry his strategy was to immediately "saturate" the area surrounding her home, canvassing for any CCTV that could be useful before it was deleted or overwritten.

A couple pieces of potential footage was lost, he said.

But the CCTV was only one part of a complex investigation that was starting to attract widespread attention.

"It was clear to me that Melissa Caddick was not just going to hand herself into a police station," Foscholo said.

Caddick defrauded family and friends of between $20 million-$30 million in a Ponzi scheme before her disappearance.

Her decomposing foot washed up in a running shoe on the NSW south coast's Bournda Beach in February 2021, some 350 kilometres from the home Caddick was last seen at in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

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Minutes after being discovered in his underwear with another woman, a Sydney man was killed when a furious ex-partner hit him with her car, a jury has heard.

As her murder trial opened on Tuesday, Jackline Sabana Bona Musa has been accused of deliberately driving her black Toyota Kluger into Payman Thagipur on June 27, 2020, with an intent to either kill or cause very serious injury.

Prosecutor Emma Blizard said Musa was angry about finding Thagipur with another woman in his home and had then driven at him in the car park of his Wentworth Point apartment block, fatally pinning him to the wall.

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"It is the Crown case that in this state of anger she drove her car out of the parking spot very quickly, that she drove her car at the deceased deliberately as he walked towards her through the car park," Blizard said.

The NSW Supreme Court jury heard Musa and Thagipur met online and had been seeing each other since late 2019. By June 2020, Musa considered him her boyfriend.

The last time the couple met in person was June 21, 2020. After this, Musa sent a number of text messages to her then-partner, none of which he responded to.

"Hi, how are you? Am concerned and worried. I just wanted to know that you're not hurt or sick. If there's something I did wrong, I would like to apologise. Please get in touch," she wrote on the afternoon of June 27.

This message was ignored.

That night, after failing to find Thagipur at a Granville shisha bar he was known to frequent, Musa sought him out at his apartment, the jury heard.

Arriving at 8.13pm, she attempted to gain entrance to the building without initial success. She then tailgated another vehicle, waiting until the roller door was raised before she drove into the car park.

READ MORE: Outback Wrangler star arrives in Darwin to be charged over fatal helicopter crash

On her way in, the roller door impacted the top of her Toyota, damaging both her roof rack and the door itself which no longer opened and closed as normal.

After being let in through another security door by a resident who had come out to examine the broken roller door, Musa then knocked on the door of Thagipur's apartment to find he was not alone.

"Is it your turn today?" she is alleged to have said to the other woman inside.

She is then claimed to have spat in Thagipur's face before saying, "Is this what you are like?" and leaving.

After he put on some pants and a t-shirt, he walked out to the car park where he was struck by Musa's vehicle at around 8.30pm.

Musa called triple-zero after the collision, the jury was told.

"The accused told the triple-zero operator that what had happened had been an accident and she said, 'I was driving out, he come out of nowhere in front of me'," Blizard said.

No drugs or alcohol were found in her blood after mandatory police testing.

Blizard said Musa's actions amounted to murder because they were a deliberate attempt to either kill Thagipur or cause really serious injury.

The barrister said that if the jury was not convinced of this, however, they should consider finding Musa guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

READ MORE: Young Sydney boy who lost leg to rare cancer dies

Defence counsel Madeleine Avenell SC did not dispute that her client had driven her car at Thagipur.

However, she rejected allegations Musa had used her car with murderous intent or in an unlawful manner amounting to manslaughter.

"What is in dispute is that Ms Musa saw Mr Thagipur before colliding with him, that she deliberately drove at him as he walked through the car park and that she intended to cause him grievous bodily harm or intended to kill him," Avenell said.

"She denies that the circumstances were such as to amount to an unlawful and dangerous act of manslaughter."

The trial with Justice Richard Button continues.

Reality star and crocodile wrangler Matt Wright has arrived at a Darwin police station to face charges over a helicopter crash that killed a fellow cast member and "close mate".

The Outback Wrangler was flanked by supporters, some of whom jostled with waiting reporters and camera crews, as he arrived at Darwin Aiport just after 11.30am (1pm AEDT) before heading to Darwin Police Station.

The 43-year-old is facing a string of offences that relate to a helicopter crash that killed co-star Chris "Willow" Wilson who was dangling from a sling when it crashed on a crocodile egg-collecting mission in West Arnhem Land in February.

READ MORE: World's largest active volcano erupts for first time in almost 40 years

The charges include perverting the course of justice, destruction of evidence, fabricating evidence, interfering with witnesses, unlawful entry and making a false statement.

Helicopter pilot Sebastian Robinson was also injured in the crash and airlifted from the accident site with serious injuries.

Northern Territory Police issued a warrant for Wright's arrest on Monday as a result of the ongoing investigation into the chopper crash. He flew with his family from Sydney today.

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Police will allege Wright visited helicopter pilot Robinson twice in hospital and attempted to have him falsify records.

A spokesperson for Wright said the reality star "strenuously denies any wrongdoing".

"What happened was a tragic accident that took the life of a close mate," the spokesperson said.

"His immediate concern following the accident was the condition of the two team members on board at the time.

"The next priority was ensuring the other helicopters and team members at the site weren't at risk and that the location was safe."

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The spokesperson added that Wright won't be making any further statements and will "vigorously" defend the charges.

Decorated police officer Neil Mellon and helicopter pilot Michael Burbidge have also been charged in relation to the helicopter crash.

The men are charged with a number of offences, including perverting the course of justice.

Burbidge faced court last month and a judge ruled he is prohibited from contacting a number of people, including Wright.

Public outrage and death threats should count as punishment for a man who kicked a dog at a Melbourne anti-COVID-19 restrictions protest, his lawyer has argued.

Stipo Cicak, 42, pleaded not guilty to a charge of animal cruelty after he was filmed kicking a dog at a construction industry protest in the Melbourne CBD in September 2021.

But a magistrate found he was guilty of aggressive and deliberate cruelty.

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Cicak should not be convicted for his actions, because he is a man of good character who has received death threats in the aftermath, his lawyer Samir Banga told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The attack was captured in a video which was posted to social media and republished in the news media, resulting in strong punishment outside the justice system, he argued.

Cicak's address was published online and his life had not been the same since, Banga said.

He argued Cicak, who had worked in the construction industry for 23 years, would not have committed the offence if it wasn't for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Construction workers faced a loss of livelihood and some took it harder than others, believing they had more to lose, he said.

"He understands he should have treated the situation differently," he said.

"He will not do it again.

In one of seven character references, Cicak's wife said he was a man of integrity who would never intentionally harm anyone.

Prosecutor David De Witt described the kick as cowardly and was in the context of a man lashing out in anger.

The victim was a leashed and fearful dog who was trying to escape the situation.

"It was an animal that was defenceless and had no means to advocate for itself," he said.

He said at no stage had Cicak accepted that he did kick the dog, and when asked if given his time again he would not kick the dog Cicak had responded that he just wouldn't be at the protest.

READ MORE: Four Liberals throw their hats in the ring to become next leader

Putting aside the death threats, he argued having to weather general anger from the community shouldn't mitigate the sentence.

But Magistrate Peter Reardon said the court had to be careful about people saying whatever they liked on social media, including anonymously.

"It seems to be a dangerous area for courts to start going into – social media outrage," he said.

The offence carries a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison.

The RSPCA was also seeking Cicak pay some of the prosecution costs, noting two thirds of its funding comes from public donations, De Witt said.

Severe thunderstorms and hail are heading for Queensland after hail left a NSW town looking like it had snowed.

Port Macquarie was battered by heavy hail yesterday afternoon, with residents taking footage of what looked like a winter wonderland, days out from December.

Queensland is also in line for hail tonight and tomorrow.

READ MORE: Outback Wrangler star heads to NT over fatal helicopter crash

Heavy rainfall and strong winds are also forecast, the Bureau of Meteorology warned.

It's the second day the state has been blasted by severe weather.

https://twitter.com/BOM_Qld/status/1597392318490988546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1597392318490988546%7Ctwgr%5E2989fcba42b0a2b1611deba50a225936b24cae5c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.9news.com.au%2Fnational%2Faustralia-breaking-news-today-latest-updates-live-november-29-2022-cost-of-living-floods%2Fc2850cd6-3d30-484b-b6c9-2cdf1a917034

A clean-up was underway this morning after a 260km stretch of wild storms swept through Queensland's south-east last night.

The weather brought damaging wind, hail and flash flooding, with residents on parts of the Gold Coast left without power.

READ MORE: World's largest active volcano erupts for first time in almost 40 years

More than 66,000 lightning strikes were recorded within 100km of the Gold Coast on Monday, Weatherzone said.

Much of Queensland will also see showers for the rest of the week.

The Queensland parliament today passed a motion in support of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and an Indigenous Voice to federal parliament.

Earlier this year, the Queensland government also announced a First Nations committee with a view to pursuing an Indigenous Voice to the state parliament.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has outlined his intention to hold a referendum to enshrine a First Nations Voice in the constitution in his government's first term.

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The Voice would be an advisory body that could make representations to parliament and the government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The proposal is now in the consultation phase

Federal Nationals leader David Littleproud yesterday announced the party would not be supporting the Voice, saying they didn't believe it would "close the gap".

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is now under pressure to reveal whether or not the federal Liberal Party will support the proposal.

He has previously said the government needed to provide more detail on the proposal.

Bipartisan support is not essential for a referendum to succeed, however it does make it more likely.

A "lovely" Adelaide couple with two young children are "in shock" after both being diagnosed with cancer on the same day.

Kirsty Lee got a call from her GP last Tuesday morning to tell her she had stage 3 breast cancer.

Just hours later, her husband Steve Lee went to hospital to be told by his surgeon that he needed to start a fight against rectal cancer.

READ MORE: Outback Wrangler star heads to NT over fatal helicopter crash

They are looking down the barrel of a year of treatment, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

All while caring for their five-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.

A family friend of the Lees spoke to 9news.com.au with the couple's permission and said they were still reeling over the diagnoses.

"They are still processing it," Sonya Kohlhagen said.

"Steve had some abnormal results from a colonoscopy the week before and they suspected rectal cancer."

Now the timber salesman will face radiotherapy, then chemotherapy.

Kohlhagen, whose husband went to school with Steve, said Kirsty had a mammogram after finding a lump in her breast.

The government worker will need 12 months of chemotherapy.

READ MORE: World's largest active volcano erupts for first time in almost 40 years

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The couple met eight years ago and got married just before pandemic lockdowns in 2020, with Kohlhagen describing them as "lovely".

She said neither had been unwell before they were diagnosed and are fearful cancer will stop them from continuing to lead active lives.

"They're just really unassuming and humble," she said.

"Just really happy with the simple things in life."

"Their life really is family."

READ MORE: Tributes to woman killed in Woolworths tragedy

Do you have a story? Contact journalist Sarah Swain on ss****@******om.au

"They go for bike rides and to the beach, so the thought they will have times where they can't get out of bed, I think that's what gets them."

The Kohlhagens have started a fundraiser for the pair, amid what she called their "worst nightmare".

The Canberra couple want to raise money to help with Kirsty and Steve's rent, bills, treatment and childcare.

"This will be tough. It's tough for everyone going through it. They have limited leave entitlements," they wrote on a crowd fundraising platform.

"They'll probably need to move out of their house.

"But to see them go through it at the same time, and with kids at that age, that's what really breaks my heart."

READ MORE: Little boy who lost leg to rare cancer dies

How common is bowel cancer and what are the symptoms?

Rectal cancer is a form of bowel cancer, which is one of the 10 most common in Australia.

More than 15,700 people were expected to be diagnosed in 2022 alone, according to Cancer Australia.

In 2020, bowel cancer was the second highest cause of cancer death in Australia.

But, 71 per cent of people survive five years or more.

Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, develops from the inner lining of the bowel and is usually preceded by growths called polyps.

Bowel cancer may be called colon or rectal cancer depending on where it begins.

Aussies over 50 can get free screenings for the disease.

You can find out more information on the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program here. 

Bowel cancer symptoms include:

Change in bowel habits including diarrhoea or constipation

• Blood in the stool
• Abdominal pain
• Weight loss
• Frequent urination

How common is breast cancer and what are the symptoms?

Breast cancer is the abnormal growth of the cells lining the breast lobules or ducts.

This year 20,640 women and 212 men were expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer, according to Cancer Australia.

It's the second most common cancer but also one of the most survivable, with 92 per cent of people living five years later.

Breast symptoms include:

• Lumps or thickening in the breast
• Nipple sores or discharge
• Changes in size or shape
• Swelling or pain in armpits

As protests erupt across China in opposition to the country's strict zero-COVID policy, state media is doing its best to prevent local citizens from seeing footage of mask-free fans enjoying the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Social media users have posted on Twitter that the Chinese World Cup broadcasts don't include close-up shots of maskless fans, which have instead been replaced with angles focusing on coaches or players.

Some have even posted footage of the World Cup as it's shown in other countries, including Australia and the UK, alongside the Chinese broadcast of the same passages of play, showing the stark difference.

READ MORE: Protester with rainbow flag runs onto field at World Cup

https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596921122334703618

The altered broadcasts have impacted several matches, including Australia's win over Tunisia on Saturday night, as well as Japan versus Costa Rica and Croatia versus Canada.

During the latter match, the international feed shows a shot of a celebrating Croatian fan right after Andrej Kramaric's first goal. The Chinese broadcast instead showed a shot of coach Zlatko Dalic.

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Author Mark Dreyer, one of the Twitter users to post the side-by-side footage, said the decision to edit out the crowd shots was "due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar".

Dreyer also claimed one of his posts had been the subject of a takedown notice from FIFA. The footage in the post has been replaced by a message saying: "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner."

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Censorship comes amid increasing protests against China's zero-COVID policy

While thousands of maskless fans attend each World Cup game, China is persevering with its zero-COVID policy despite rising infections – and protests.

For the first time in decades, thousands of people have defied authorities in the country to protest at universities and on the streets of major cities, demanding to be freed not only from incessant COVID-19 tests and lockdowns, but strict censorship and the Communist Party's tightening grip over all aspects of life.

That censorship has reared its head in response to the protests.

As Twitter searches for the demonstrations rise in China, they are now returning a flood of spam, pornography and gibberish that some disinformation researchers say at first glance appears to be a deliberate attempt by the government or its allies to drown out images of the rallies.

READ MORE: Why China's anti-lockdown protests put Xi Jinping 'in a bind'

Beginning late last week and into Monday, searches in Chinese for major protest hotspots, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Guangzhou, produced a nonstop stream of solicitations, images of scantily clad women in suggestive poses and seemingly random word- and sentence fragments.

Many of the tweets reviewed by CNN on Monday came from accounts that had been created months ago, follow virtually no other accounts and have no followers of their own.

The spike in suspected inauthentic behaviour followed a deadly fire in China's Xinjiang province, where at least 10 people were killed amid COVID-19 lockdown restrictions that reportedly hindered first responders from reaching the blaze.

The fire, and long-simmering frustration over the country's zero-COVID policy, helped spur the rare protests in China.

"It is happening not just around Xinjiang but around any sensitive Chinese issue at the moment," Charlie Smith, the pseudonymous co-founder of GreatFire.org, a digital activism group based in China, said.

"Search any city that has seen a rise in COVID cases, or had on-the-street protests on the weekend, and you will see the same thing."

Twitter is officially blocked in China, but estimates of the number of Twitter users in the country have ranged between 3 million and 10 million.

– With CNN

A handful of scientists spend an entire winter in the coldest, most inhabitable place on the planet.

For much of that time at Concordia Station in Antarctica, the crew are in total darkness, almost as close to the geographic South Pole as the next group of people.

And in the months of dark, cold, isolation, Meganne Christian decided she wanted to go to space.

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Christian has been named as one of the few of the European Space Agency's (ESA) official reserves.

And while her mission has not been decided on, she will be the first Australian woman in space.

The 34-year-old from Wollongong went through a rigorous application process that winnowed the field of potential astronauts from more than 20,000 to 11.

"About 1400 people are invited to a round of testing, which was a bit like a test that pilots go through to get into a commercial airline," Christian told 9news.com.au. 

READ MORE: NASA capsule in 50-year lunar first on way to record-breaking orbit

"So maths, physics, logic, memory, spatial awareness, that kind of thing. 

"And then from there, if you were successful in that round, they brought it down to 400 people to do psychological testing. 

"After that, there was medical testing."

From now until a potential launch date, Christian will go through the various stages of astronaut training, all while maintaining her day job at the National Research Council in Italy.

All the while, she will be preparing for whatever mission the European Space Agency decides to send her on.

READ MORE: NASA's mightiest rocket lifts off 50 years after Apollo

That could be a 10-day mission to the International Space Station, or a longer-term mission on the yet-to-be launched Lunar Gateway orbiting the Moon.

If the ESA decides to launch a mission to the moon itself, it is possible Christian will be among the astronauts chosen.

"The basic training is all about getting everybody up to speed up to the same level because they take people from really diverse backgrounds," she said.

"I mean, you have medical doctors, you have fighter pilots, you have scientists. 

READ MORE: Heat shield that could land humans on Mars is hitching a ride to space

"So basically they want to give everybody a base level of understanding across all those topics."

Christian has a PhD in materials science, but her role in space will be broader. 

The tasks assigned to her will likely consist of scientific experiments in many different disciplines – the sort of tests that can't be conducted on Earth.

"You can only have a small number of people up there so they really need to know how to do everything," she said.

"And that's where my experience in Antarctica comes in, because I spent a winter over in Antarctica looking after the permanent observatories for atmospherics and meteorology that are there.

"It was when I was in Antarctica that it really crystallised that I wanted to become an astronaut."

Christian is one of two astronaut reservists who have spent time at Concordia Station.

"It's the best analogue we have on Earth for a potential Mars mission sometime in the future, in part because of the isolation, in part because of extreme conditions," she said.

"And of course, also the factor of just being with a small group of people and having to get along."

While Christian grew up in Australia, including her undergraduate and PhD degrees at the University of NSW, her UK and Italian passports allow her to be a part of the ESA.

Rotorua Library/Te Aka Mauri celebrated its third Heritage Week last week, encouraging locals to dig into the past to see how it shapes their present and future. Rotorua Library’s heritage and research lead, Abby Wharne, believes…