A significant stolen property ring has been brought down by police in Wellington today in an operation that uncovered thousands of dollars in nicked goods. Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Anna Grant said 12 search warrants across…

A human skull has been found near the outback town of Katherine in the Northern Territory.

The gruesome discovery was made 15km north of the town by a member of the public.

Northern Territory Police said they are investigating and have set up a crime scene.

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Anybody with any information should contact police.

Just a week ago, on September 28, human bones were discovered in Darwin in the Northern Territory.

A bush walker discovered the remains at Lee Point Beach and called police.

Medical experts, including a forensic pathologist were called in.

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"To date a large number of bones, including a skull, have been recovered," NT Police said last week.

An oversized vehicle has hit an overbridge, blocking a southbound lane on Auckland’s Southern Motorway.Waka Kotahi NZTA said the lane will remain blocked for “some time this afternoon” after the incident at the Penrose Rd overbridge,…

A Queensland snake catcher has eyed down a massive "weapon of a brown snake" found in a Brisbane backyard after it was spotted getting "up to no good".

Steven Brown, from Brisbane North Snake Catchers, encountered two of the venomous reptiles in the backyard of a Bunya home on Monday, after receiving reports the two were making mischief at the home's backdoor.

Immediately the large size of one of the snakes caught the seasoned handler's attention. Photos captured by Brown show the snake's body is as thick as a beer bottle.

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He told 9news.com.au the large reptile was pushing seven feet, which is nearly two metres.

At one point the brown snake reared at Brown as he ventured a little too close with his camera.

But this didn't phase the catcher one bit.

"It was great to see such a big eastern brown getting around," he said.

"I always try get them up in the 'S' shape to show people their belly colour."

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Brown added this was the biggest eastern brown snake he had ever caught.

"I've seen it a couple times in my lifetime but never in person, or catching one at that," he said.

"This is as big as they get and are very rarely seen this big.

"Especially now with all the land destruction and development going on."

The big snake was caught and relocated.

However, the smaller snake vanished into a retaining wall and was not seen again.

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Eastern brown snakes are Australia's second most venomous land snake, and an untreated bite can kill in under half an hour.

This encounter comes just over a week after an orange eastern brown snake was captured outside a store in Hinkler, Bundaberg.

Jake Stinson, from Jakes Reptile Relocations, insisted the snake's sunset-orange colouring was unedited, and explained they can come in many shades including brown, black, orange and red.

"I have found most brown snakes in this colour range around the hummock, so this fella's beauty was a nice surprise on a Main Street," he said on Facebook.

"I have caught some here in Bundaberg in bronze, jet black and red.

"We're in for a hectic season".

Australia's snake season generally begins September and runs to April as the animals begin breeding.

For more than half a month, mass protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini have drawn attention around the world.

While the fact there are protests isn't particularly noteworthy – uprisings against Iran's Islamic regime have broken out with some regularity since the country's shah was overthrown in 1979 – these rallies themselves are a little different to earlier ones.

Rather than being driven by economic concerns, the current movement "is different, because what people are really asking for is a more significant kind of political change," Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder and CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, an economic think tank focused on the Middle East and Central Asia, said.

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He added today's protests are finding it easier to "generate solidarity among different social groups".

So how did the movement start, and how has it developed since?

Here's what you need to know about the current Iranian protests.

Why are people protesting in Iran?

There's no one issue people in Iran are protesting about.

Some have gone as far as calling for a reigime change, while others want and end to the country's oppressive systematic gender inequalities.

The rallies all have a much smaller source, however: they started with calls for justice for the death of Amini.

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What happened to Mahsa Amini?

Mahsa (or Zhina) Amini was arrested by Iran's morality police on September 13, reportedly for not wearing a hijab properly.

Three days later, she was dead, aged just 22.

Authorities later claimed she had a stroke and fell into a coma due to a pre-existing heart condition.

Amini's family, though, have steadfastly rejected that argument, instead saying she was beaten by police.

The CCTV footage released by authorities to support their claims was heavily edited.

Eyewitness accounts also support the family's claim that the 22-year-old was beaten by police.

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Why are Iranian women cutting their hair?

For many women in Iran, cutting and even shaving off their hair is a symbol of protest against the government's system of oppressive gender inequality.

"We want to show them that we don't care about their standards, their definition of beauty or what they think that we should look like," Faezeh Afshan, an Iranian chemical engineer living in Italy, said.

"It is to show that we are angry."

Iran's treatment of women has been labelled "extreme gender apartheid" by some experts for the country's many discriminatory laws.

Some of those laws include a requirement for women to cover their head and face with a hijab and obtain written permission from a male guardian before travelling overseas.

Iranian law also contains the principle that the value of a woman is half of that of a man.

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What has the government response been?

The response from authorities has been to violently crack down on the movement, with video showing police both opening fire on the peaceful protesters and making arrests.

Other footage shows water cannons and batons being used on demonstrators, while in an incident over the weekend, students taking part in the protests at a university in Tehran were trapped by police in an underground carpark.

The retaliation has been so severe that the US is poised to announce new sanctions on Iranian law enforcement officials and other people involved in the crackdown.

President Joe Biden, who moved quickly to throw his support behind the demonstrators, issued an intentionally vague statement on Monday promising further costs "on perpetrators of violence against peaceful protesters".

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A source told CNN those costs are expected to be in the form of additional sanctions this week, with more action to potentially follow.

Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Monday broke his silence on the protests to claim the "rioting" was planned by the United States and Israel.

He also claimed he was "deeply heartbroken" by Amini's "tragic" death, but lambasted the protests.

"This rioting was planned," he said.

"These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees."

Have there been deaths in the Iranian protests?

Yes. The number of protesters killed, as of October 4, sits at at least 154.

That number, according to the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, is believed to include nine children.

Hundreds more people have been arrested and wounded in the demonstrations.

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Why did Iran shut down the internet?

At the start of the protests, videos of the uprising began to flood the internet.

But then it went dark as WhatsApp, Signal, Viber, Skype, and even Instagram, one of the last remaining social media apps to be usable, were blocked.

Internet shutdowns aren't new in Iran, often accompanying periods of unrest and dissent.

The most severe crackdown was in 2019, during which more than 100 protesters were killed and the internet was cut off for 12 days, according to Amnesty International.

Activists in Iran say that the primary purpose of the shutdowns is to disrupt communication among people organising protests on the ground and stifle dissent.

As a result of these frequent blackouts, tech-savvy Iranians have learned increasingly to rely on more advanced tools like VPNs or Tor network as workarounds to stay connected.

But even these are now being restricted by authorities and are therefore far from reliable.

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Iran protests around the world

While there have been dozens of protests across Iran, the movement has spread across the globe.

Rallies in solidarity with demonstrators in Iran have been held all over the planet.

Around 3000 people – including Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi – marched in Sydney on October 1, and similar events were also held in Australia's other capital cities.

Protests have also taken place in the likes of London, Paris, Rome, Istanbul, Berlin, Buenos Aires and Washington, DC.

– Reported with CNN, Associated Press



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A new radar image has shown the "vast" scale of the cloud band responsible for dumping yet another deluge over the east coast.

The image shared by Weatherzone shows the weather system stretching from the Southern Ocean all the way up to Townsville in Far North Queensland, and inland past Mount Isa.

Two big days of rain are bringing rain and storms to multiple states, with the SES warning of flooding once again around the Macquarie and Hawkesbury regions in New South Wales.

Roads have already started closing across rural NSW, including the Kamilaroi Highway, the Silver City Highway, the Cobb Highway and the Carnarvon Highway.

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Motorists are urged to never drive through floodwaters, and to stay across current closures at livetraffic.com.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has this afternoon issued a severe weather warning for parts of north west NSW.

Weatherzone said the flooding risk is exacerbated by the fact catchments are already saturated.

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https://twitter.com/BOM_NSW/status/1577524637604495362

"Murray Darling Basin and rivers east of the Great Dividing Range in NSW, Victoria and Queensland can expect flooding," it wrote.

"Numerous flood warnings are in place, especially for rivers in western and central NSW."

Residents in NSW can stay across flood warnings here.

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https://twitter.com/weatherzone/status/1577473887931355136

Rain records set to tumble

Sydney could break its all-time rain record this week as multiple states brace for floods and storms.

Greystanes in Sydney's west has seen 23mm of rain in just two hours.

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Weatherzone reported that the city could this week set a new record for its wettest year ever.

In 164 years of records, 2022 is already Sydney's second-wettest year ever, with 2112mm recorded as of yesterday.

That's just 82mm short of the record of 2194mm, recorded in 1950.

And, Weatherzone said, at this point in 1950, Sydney had received just 1960.5mm of rain.

With falls of between 70mm-110mm expected between now and Monday morning, it's likely a new record will be set in coming days.

A hazardous surf warning remains in place along much of the east coast, including Sydney.

Overnight, Adelaide was smashed by storms, with trees brought down across the city.

Glass panels on a shopping complex in Rundle Mall were blown out and smashed onto the road below.

The SES worked through the night to clean up the damage, responding to 400 calls for assistance.

Kingscote, the largest town on Kangaroo Island saw 36.6 mm of rain, which is its heaviest daily October rain in 22 years, and Lameroo in the Murraylands had 31 mm; its highest daily fall in any month for almost three years.

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The severe weather warning for the city has now been cancelled, but the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast more on the way.

The main areas forecast to be affected by heavy rain today are western and south-west Queensland, western and central NSW and northern and north-eastern Victoria.

Moderate falls are also possible along the NSW South Coast.

Severe thunderstorms are likely on Wednesday, with heavy rain being the main risk, primarily around south-west Queensland and western NSW.

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Rainfalls of between 20-40mm are expected today across southern Queensland, inland NSW and Northern Victoria. Storm activity could see an increase of rainfall to 40–60mm under storms with isolated totals in excess of 100 mm possible.

Tomorrow, the heaviest rainfall will be around south-east NSW, the NSW South Coast, north-east Victoria and elevated northern Tasmania.

Thursday night and Friday will see rain and thunderstorms, some severe, rapidly develop through central NSW and Victoria as the cold front approaches then moves into eastern Victoria and NSW on Friday night.

"Many communities that recently experienced flooding or are currently in flood will likely see rivers rise in the coming week," the Bureau said in a release.

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"The ground remains saturated, and any additional rainfall will cause streams and rivers to rise."

NSW SES has also warned communities to prepare for emergency situations.

"The majority of river systems are already full, and the predicted rainfall could see renewed river level rises similar to what has been experienced in the last month," Commissioner Carlene York said.

"Many communities across inland, central west and western NSW including Gunnedah, Wee Waa, Warren, Parkes, Forbes, and Albury are expected to be impacted."

York said volunteers were also preparing for a busy weekend with the Bathurst 1000 due to take place from Thursday to Sunday.

"We are preparing for possible flooding along the Macquarie River – and with Bathurst shaping up for a wet weekend it is important people take steps to stay safe," she said.

"School holidays are also continuing so it is important all holiday makers who are travelling on the roads over this time to drive to the conditions and avoid flooded roads."

As her plastic-wrapped body lay in a creek, Danielle Easey appeared to ask her mother over Facebook for $50, a jury has heard.

That request followed a string of messages purportedly claiming Easey was in Sydney and "everything was fine".

But a NSW Supreme Court jury was told on Wednesday the author was Carol McHenry, who along with Justin Kent Dilosa is accused of murdering the 29-year-old Central Coast woman in McHenry's Narara home on August 17, 2019.

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Easey's decomposing body was found two weeks later in a creek near the M1 motorway at Killingworth.

McHenry and Dilosa point the finger at each other, claiming the other attacked and fatally wounded Easey.

The Crown says the pair worked in concert to at least cause really serious injury.

The NSW Supreme Court trial is expected to hear that after the victim's mother last spoke to her daughter on August 16, Jennifer Collier sent various messages to Easey on Facebook Messenger.

"There was some concern… because she could tell someone was reading the messages but she wasn't getting a reply," crown prosecutor John Stanhope said in his opening address.

He said replies started coming in on August 21 stating Easey "was in Sydney, everything was fine, she was with a friend, her friend was helping her".

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McHenry does not dispute the Crown's assertion that she posed as the murder victim, her lawyer said.

But rather than covering up her own crime, the Narara woman was acting out of fear Dilosa would kill her next, barrister Tony Evers said.

"What she told police is she was asked to do this by Dilosa, she was asked to maintain a fiction that Easey was still alive," he told the jury.

"You'll notice that (at the time of the first messages) Dilosa had still not disposed of Easey's body."

By throwing away Easey's phone somewhere it would obviously be found and having the victim's mother transfer $50 into her own account, McHenry was "laying breadcrumbs" for police to find her and ask her for the full story.

"She was too scared to go to police herself," Evers said.

Meanwhile, Dilosa's barrister Angus Webb said his client's ultimate case was "he did not attack Easey".

The Cardiff man admits dumping Easey's body in Cockle Creek, west of Lake Macquarie.

It was found days later on August 31 inside a protective suit, wrapped in a doona, wrapped in plastic and finally wrapped in duct tape.

Easey had extensive scalp lacerations, skull depressions and stab wounds to her back, consistent the Crown says with being attacked with a hammer and a knife.

One witness, who has been sentenced as an accessory after the fact, is expected to tell the trial each accused claimed responsibility for Easey's murder when he asked "who killed her?"

"At one stage, McHenry said 'I did" and then Dilosa said 'No, she didn't – I did'," the crown prosecutor told the jury.

However, witnesses in the trial included alcoholics, ice users and criminals whose reliability and credibility issues would need to be assessed by jurors, McHenry's lawyer said.

The trial is expected to run into November.