Two men have been charged with murder over the sudden disappearance of a Victorian stepdad more than 16 years ago in a massive breakthrough for detectives.

Christopher Jarvis was last seen leaving the home he shared with his partner and stepchildren on Warrne Road in Wangoom about 6am on Tuesday, June 13, 2006.

The 38-year-old was expected to arrive at his work, a freight company in Warrnambool, shortly after, but never made it.

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For years, police treated his disappearance as not suspicious but a week ago announced new information had led them to believe "foul play" was involved.

Police arrested two people yesterday afternoon.

"A 70-year-old Wangoom man and a 59-year-old Warrnambool man have both been taken into custody and will now be interviewed by police," Victoria Police said.

Both men have since been charged with one count of murder.

They will face Warrnambool Magistrates' Court today.

"The investigation was originally handled by the local area as a missing person and initial enquiries suggested his disappearance was not suspicious.

"However, the investigation was reinvigorated with the provision of new information from the public to the Missing Persons Squad," police have said.

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The police were made aware Jarvis was missing after concerned colleagues told his partner he hadn't arrived at work at around 7.30am on June 13. 

Half an hour later, his car – a silver 1991 Ford station wagon – was located on fire at Thunder Point, a popular coastal lookout in Warrnambool.

Anyone with further information regarding Jarvis' disappearance is urged to contact police.

Police in Chesapeake, in the US state of Virginia, are responding to a shooting at a Walmart, where there are multiple fatalities and injuries.

Officers responded to the store around 10:12pm local time (2:12pm AEDT) and found evidence of a shooting inside, Chesapeake Police public information officer Leo Kosinski told CNN.

The officers entered the store and discovered multiple people dead and injured, Kosinski said.

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He added that police couldn't yet confirm a specific number of deaths, but they believe it's "less than ten".

The shooter is believed to be among the dead, Kosinski said, noting it's not believed any law enforcement officers fired shots during the response.

Officers are still going through the store to search for more potential victims.

Chesapeake city officials asked people to stay away from the store during the investigation.

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https://twitter.com/AboutChesapeake/status/1595281520763494400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"Our first responders are well-trained and prepared to respond; please give them space to do so," the city said in a tweet.

The Sydney home of internet personality Jordan Shanks-Markovina, also known as YouTuber Friendlyjordies, has been targeted in an alleged arson incident.

Emergency services responded to reports of a house fire in Bondi just after midnight.

"When fire crews arrived they were confronted with significant fire activity," Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said.

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The blaze was quickly extinguished and no one was injured.

Police said the property was also hit without warning by another fire last Thursday.

Dewberry said the fire is being treated as "suspicious" and crews are looking at where and what started it.

"The cause and origin of this fire is being investigated by specialist investigators from police forensics and Fire and Rescue NSW.

"That includes our dog that is trained to detect the use of any accelerants."

Shanks-Markovina's lawyer Xenophon Davis tweeted that his home was "firebombed" overnight.

"We hope that every possible police resource is dedicated today to securing evidence and intel," the tweet read.

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Residents in the neighbourhood were shocked to see the home engulfed by flames.

"I just saw this big amber glow out the window around midnight and just had this gut feeling something was off," resident Tim Robertson said.

"I came out to the front door and looked down and I saw flames shooting out the front door of the house," another resident Lea Gamble said.

An event management company executive has been found guilty on dozens of fraud and bribery charges after splashing millions of dollars in kickbacks to bribe a former senior National Australia Bank staffer.

Helen Mary Rosamond, 47, was accused of defrauding NAB by sending falsified and inflated invoices from Human Group to the bank and paid millions of dollars in gifts to Rosemary Rogers to ensure they were paid.

A NSW District Court jury today found Rosamond guilty on 69 counts of 92 including corruptly giving Rogers hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of benefits between 2013 and 2017.

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Rogers, the now-convicted former chief of staff to the National Bank of Australia's chief executive, told the trial she received a house, a BMW car, a boat, holidays and other benefits after approving false bank invoices for Rosamond.

The costs are believed to have totalled more than $26 million.

Rosamond was acquitted of one charge.

Justice Robert Sutherland has asked the jury to continue deliberating on the remaining 22 counts.

Donald Trump reported losses on his tax returns every year for a decade, including nearly $US700 million ($1.05 billion) in 2009 and $301 million in 2010, his longtime accountant testified today, confirming long-held suspicions about the former president's tax practices.

Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years preparing Trump's personal tax returns, said Trump's reported losses from 2009 to 2018 included net operating losses from some of the many businesses he owns through his Trump Organisation.

"There are losses for all these years," said Bender, who was granted immunity to testify at the company's criminal tax fraud trial in Manhattan.

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The short exchange amounted to a rare public discussion of Trump's taxes — which the Republican has fought to keep secret — even if there was no obvious connection to the case at hand.

A prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, questioned Bender briefly about Trump's taxes on cross-examination, at one point showing him copies of Trump tax paperwork that the Manhattan district attorney's office fought for three years to obtain, before moving on to other topics.

The Trump Organisation, the holding company for Trump's buildings, golf courses and other assets, is charged with helping some top executives avoid income taxes on compensation they got in addition to their salaries, including rent-free apartments and luxury cars. If convicted, the company could be fined more than $1.5 million.

Trump is not charged in the case and is not expected to testify or attend the trial. The company's former finance chief testified that he came up with the scheme on his own, without Trump or the Trump family knowing. Allen Weisselberg, testifying as part of a plea deal, said the company also benefited because it didn't have to pay him as much in salary.

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Bender's testimony came on a day full of Trump-related legal drama, including the US Supreme Court clearing the way for Congress to get six years worth of tax returns for Trump and some of his businesses.

Also Tuesday, the judge in New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company set an October 2023 trial date; a federal appeals court heard arguments in the FBI's Mar-a-Lago documents investigation; and Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, testified before a Georgia grand jury probing alleged 2020 election interference.

Bender's tax loss testimony echoed what The New York Times reported in 2020, when it obtained a trove of Trump's tax returns. Many of the records reflected massive losses and little or no taxes paid, the newspaper reported at the time.

The Times reported Trump paid no income tax in 11 of the 18 years whose records it reviewed, and that he paid just $1130 in federal income tax in 2017, the year he became president. Citing other Trump tax records, The Times previously reported that in 1995 he claimed $1.38 billion in losses, which he could have used to avoid future taxes under the law at the time.

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Manhattan prosecutors subpoenaed Bender's firm in 2019, seeking access to eight years of Trump's tax returns and related documents, finally getting them after a protracted legal fight that included two trips to the US Supreme Court.

Bender handled tax returns and other financial matters for Trump, the Trump Organisation and hundreds of Trump entities starting in the 1980s. He also prepared taxes for members of Trump's family and other company executives, including Weisselberg and Weisselberg's son, who managed a company-run ice rink in Central Park.

Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty in August to dodging taxes on $2.56 million in extras in exchange for a five-month jail sentence, testified that he hid company-paid extras such as Manhattan apartments and Mercedes-Benz cars from his taxable income by having the company's comptroller, Jeffrey McConney, reduce his salary by the cost of those perks.

Bender testified that Weisselberg kept him in the dark on that arrangement — and that he only found out about it from prosecutors last year.

But emails shown in court Tuesday suggested that McConney tried to loop him in as early as 2013, with attached spreadsheets listing Weisselberg's pay and reductions for extras, including Trump-paid tuition for his grandchildren's private schooling.

Bender, who testified that he got numerous emails from Trump executives daily, said he didn't recall seeing those messages. If he had, he said: "We would have had a serious conversation about continuing with the client."

Mazars USA LLP has since dropped Trump as a client. In February, the firm said annual financial statements it prepared for him "should no longer be relied upon" after James' office said the statements regularly misstated the value of assets — an allegation at the heart of her lawsuit.

Trump blamed Bender and Mazars for the company's troubles, writing on his Truth Social platform last week: "The highly paid accounting firm should have routinely picked these things up – we relied on them. VERY UNFAIR!"

Bender testified that he put the onus on Weisselberg to fix any problems as scrutiny of the Trump Organisation intensified after Trump's election in 2016 and advised him to stop one dubious practice: the company's longstanding, tax-saving habit of paying executive bonuses as freelance income.

The accountant said he told Weisselberg: "If there is anything bothering you, even if there's the slightest chance, we have to set the highest standards so the company should be, effectively, squeaky clean."

Police have issued a warning over a new scam involving cryptocurrency 'wallets' which they say are being scattered on streets and in parks around New South Wales.

NSW Police say they've have reports of people being scammed out of cash by falling for a trick left in small paper 'cryptocurrency wallets' they've found.

Designed to look like real paperwork relating to digital currency such as Bitcoin, they include an image of a QR code.

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But if the finder picks it up, thinking it might be worth something, and scans the code with their phone, they could see their bank account emptied, police say.

The person is then asked to click on the link to access a crypto wallet, which claims to have up to $16,000 in it.

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However, the finder must pay a 'withdrawal fee' to get the money transferred into their own crypto account, if they have one.

But they then face having all their currency stolen.

"Once the withdrawal fee is paid and person's crypto wallet details provided, the person's cryptocurrency is stolen from their crypto wallets," NSW Police, said.

"If you find a crypto paper wallet similar to this, be aware that it may be a scam!"

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"These crypto paper wallets are made to look like real Bitcoin paper wallets."

Police said if anybody finds one of the 'wallets' they should hand them to the local police station.

Report cyber scams here.

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Fallen NRL star Brett Finch has been spared going to jail after an attempt to buy drugs ended with him pleading guilty to child abuse charges.

Judge Phillip Mahony sentenced Finch to two years imprisonment, suspending it with a $1000 surety and conditions in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court today.

Mahony accepted there were "exceptional circumstances" to his offending, which was the result of Finch's drug addiction and not motivated by a sexual interest in children.

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The two-year sentence is suspended under a recognisance release order.

He will have to remain on good behaviour, continue treatment with a psychologist, and undertake rehab, among other conditions.

Finch pleaded guilty in August to one count of using a carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child abuse.

The 41-year-old said his only goal in leaving the messages on FastMeet – a telephone service for gay men – was to obtain cocaine, telling the court he was introduced to the service by drug dealer connections.

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His explanation was not challenged by Crown prosecutors and was accepted by Mahony.

"It could only have been borne out of desperation to obtain drugs to feed his addiction," he said.

Finch made the "twisted" comments about children, which cannot be published, because he thought it would draw a response from people who were on drugs or had access to them, he said.

The messages were short but contained "highly depraved and sexualised" references to children aged from 12 to 16, and posed a danger of inspiring others to offend, Mahony said during sentencing.

After leaving his first message in November 2020, Finch ceased using the service in January 2021, almost a year before he was arrested.

When police came knocking in December 2021, Finch admitted to using the service and provided access to his devices, on which no child abuse material was found.

He agreed in court it was a terrible way to buy drugs and was ashamed of it.

Expert evidence also suggested a level of hypomania and noted Finch had suffered concussions during his playing career.

His offending was unsophisticated, using his own phone, and not part of a larger network, Mahony said.

The messages were also not able to be perpetually retransmitted like material on the internet.

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Outside court, Finch's lawyer Paul McGirr requested privacy to allow Finch to rebuild his life.

"This man does not have any sexual interest in children and unfortunately drugs have played a major part in ramblings of what he was saying," Mr McGirr said.

"That's just another example of the dangers of drugs and how far they can send someone down into a spiral."

"Brett holds his head up and we move on."

Finch's drug addiction came quickly after he first tried cocaine following the end of his NRL career in 2013, when he struggled to transition to a less structured post-football life.

He felt his whole life had revolved around rugby league.

Finch played three State of Origins for NSW and won a premiership with the Melbourne Storm in 2009.

His crowning moment came in the 2006 Origin opener when he kicked a match-winning field goal for the Blues.

Post-football, Finch suffered mental health issues and spoke publicly about his battles with substance abuse.

Weatherzone is predicting Australia could flip from our current wet La Nina weather system to the opposite El Nino system next year, signaling a dramatic shift to hotter, drier conditions.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) defines El Nino as a sustained period of warming including reduced rainfall, warmer temperatures, reduced tropical cyclone numbers, increased fire danger and decreased alpine snow depths.

"An El Niño occurs when sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become substantially warmer than average," BoM said on their website.

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Weatherzone models suggest a shift in the tropical Pacific Ocean temperatures to a likely El Nino weather event from April 2023.

"The graph shows that La Niña has a 90 percent likelihood of remaining in place over the next three months," Weatherzone said.

"Further into the future, this outlook suggests that El Niño becomes the most likely state for the Pacific Ocean late in the Southern Hemisphere's winter in 2023.

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"This is the first time in around three years that the monthly CPC/IRI outlook has favoured El Niño as the most likely category in the Pacific Ocean."

The outlook is based on US forecasting methods, which are different to Australia's BoM.

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BoM has previously predicted La Nina would end in January or February this year.

Weatherzone warns predictions this far into the future should be treated with "some caution".

A construction union is threatening to ban the use of "deadly" building materials and is calling on the federal government to do the same.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said if the federal government did not ban the use of engineered stone products like Caesarstone by July 2024, it would ban its members from using it.

Engineered stone is a manufactured material that contains high levels of silica crystals.

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When the stone is cut, it can produce dust with those crystals which can cause the deadly lung disease silicosis.

While dry cutting the stone has recently been banned in Queensland, Victoria and NSW, the material itself is still legal.

Engineered stone is commonly used in benchtops and is significantly cheaper than marble.

Curtin University modelling suggests up to 103,000 Aussie workers will be diagnosed with silicosis as a result of exposure to silica dust, the CFMEU claims.

CFMEU ACT Secretary Zach Smith called engineered stone the "asbestos" of this decade.

"Australian workers will keep dying unless we ban engineered stone," he said.

"Engineered stone is the asbestos of the 2020s. That's exactly why we're taking this extremely rare step of flagging a ban on CFMEU members working with this killer stone.

"Australia has one of the world's most voracious cheap benchtop habits and it could claim thousands of lives unless we quit.

"If the Federal Government doesn't ban killer stone, the CFMEU will."

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The union plans to ban the use, importation and manufacturing of engineered stone by July 1, 2024.

A Department of Employment and Workplace Relations spokesperson said the government will work with the union to address health issues that arise from silica dust exposure.

"The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations intends to discuss silicosis at a meeting of work health and safety (WHS) ministers early next year, including discussing calls for stronger WHS protections, increased compliance checks, and calls to ban high-silica content engineered stone," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said there will be amendments to the WHS laws to prohibit the uncontrolled processing of engineered stone.



The operator of a US amusement park ride from which a Missouri teenager fell to his death should pay a $375,000 fine and can never hold a ride permit in Florida again, state officials said.

Fourteen-year-old Tyre Sampson fell to his death from the 120m drop tower ride operated by Orlando Slingshot in March.

“What we can do is make sure our laws don’t allow this to happen to anyone else,“ said Nikki Fried, the state commissioner of agriculture and consumer services.

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An autopsy showed Tyre, a football player and honour roll student from the St Louis area, suffered numerous broken bones and internal injuries in the fall, and his death by blunt force trauma was ruled an accident. It showed Tyre weighed 173 kilograms, well above the ride manual’s weight limit of 130 kilograms.

The ride, on Orlando's tourist-friendly International Drive, is being dismantled.

Requirements are being put in place that will ensure Florida amusement rides are safe going forward, and the department's investigation will be turned over to the Orange County Sheriff's Office to consider criminal charges, she said.

“A young boy’s loss of his life is not going to go in vain," Fried said.

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A spokesman for the company said two employees were suspended after Tyre's death and that outside firms were brought in to improve safety, training and maintenance issues.

"We took these steps to ensure continued operations conform to applicable standards and recommendations," said Trevor Arnold, attorney for Orlando Slingshot.

A report by outside engineers found sensors on the ride had been adjusted manually to double the size of the opening for restraints on two seats, resulting in the teen not being properly secured.

Tyre's family is suing the owner, manufacturer and landlord of the ride, claiming negligence and failure to provide a safe amusement ride.

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