An antique World War I medal has been returned to its owner’s family after it was found during a police search under warrant. The medal was located by Canterbury’s Precision Targeting Team (PTT) at the address of an offender well-known…

A city “being ripped apart” is how one mayoral candidate has responded to the nationwide exposure of Rotorua’s emergency housing crisis. It follows media coverage on TVNZ’s Sunday programme that showed what another mayoral candidate…

Students and staff at Auckland University of Technology are anxious about their futures after the university proposed cuts to jobs and courses. AUT has outlined plans to cut 150 academic staff and 80 general staff, with the changes…

The high-profile West Australian police officer who led the investigation into missing girl Cleo Smith has been stood down.

As a result of an investigation between the Corruption and Crime Commission and WA Police Force, Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron Blaine was stood down today.

The investigation is into alleged misconduct, but the CCC and WA Police said they would not be releasing any more specific information at the time.

READ MORE: Tributes pour for Aussie medic killed in Ukraine

Detective Senior Sergeant Blaine has been involved in some of the state's most prominent cases in recent years.

He one of four officers on the scene when Cleo was found at a house in Carnarvon, in regional Western Australia.

He was also one of the lead detective on the gruesome case of autistic teenager Aaron Pajich, who was murdered by Jemma Lilley and Trudi Lenon in 2016.

9News does not suggest any wrongdoing on the part of Detective Senior Sergeant Blaine, simply that there is a current investigation.

A 14-year-old boy was on the first day of a summer holiday job when he fell 8m through a roof skylight, breaking numerous bones in his body.The teen, who can’t be named, spent nine days in hospital following the workplace accident…

Imagine the horror of shark researchers when they saw a 15m shark-shaped blob on their underwater movement detector.

The giant red blob looked and moved like a shark, and would have weighed an estimated 40 tons.

For a moment the researchers thought they were looking at a megalodon, a prehistoric shark that has been extinct for three million years.

READ MORE: The world's worst people just decided to make petrol more expensive

But as researchers from the Atlantic Shark Institute watched in perplexment and fascination, the alarming red blob scattered into thousands of smaller fish.

What researchers were looking at was actually a crowded school of Atlantic mackerel, which just happened to take on the shape of a giant shark.

Atlantic mackerel tend to huddle close together as a hunting technique.

Rather than individually hunt for plankton and other morsels, mackerel crowd together in a tightly packed phalanx.

READ MORE: The true size of the megalodon revealed

Evading a single mackerel is difficult enough for a plankton, but ending up a tasty snack is inevitable when you are confronted by a wall of fish mouths.

Scientific evidence points to megalodon having lived between 16 million and 2.6 million years ago, going extinct at the end of the Pliocene Epoch when the world's oceans were much colder than today's.

Megalodons are best remembered for being the antagonist in the film The Meg, which is regarded as one of Jason Statham's most realistic movies.

READ MORE: Great Whites wiped out the megalodon

After watching a lyrical kids cartoon with her family, one mother was shocked to hear her daughter claim she had been sexually abused by her Sydney swim coach, a jury has heard.

Giving evidence in the Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday, the mother said her child alleged instructor Kyle James Henk Daniels had inappropriately touched her while she took lessons at a Mosman swim school.

The young girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said the coach had put his hands inside her swimming costume and touched her groin in 2018.

READ MORE: Man 'pretending to be rideshare driver' charged over 'sexual assault'

After saying she couldn't say no to Daniels because he was a teacher and "he had his hands inside her," the mother gave her child some frank advice.

"I said, 'Well, you just scream – you say no and you scream for mummy and daddy'," she told the jury.

Under questioning from defence barrister Les Nicholls, she admitted she had not clarified what her daughter meant when she said his hands were inside her.

"I didn't clarify exactly because I didn't mean to ask any leading questions … I felt it was more important that she explained it to the police."

The 23-year-old coach faces 21 charges of inappropriate conduct towards nine underage female students while he worked at the swim school.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is now facing a retrial over the alleged offences which include touching girls on the outside of their swimming costumes to penetrating their vaginas on five separate occasions with his fingers.

After the swimming centre emailed parents in March 2019 about the arrest of one of their instructors, the mother sought advice from her child's school about how to discuss the situation in the right manner.

READ MORE: Tributes pour for Aussie medic killed in Ukraine

She was directed to the Pantosaurus video, an online musical animation which starts with the line: "What's in your pants belongs only to you."

During the video, which was played to the jury, the mother was visibly distressed and was brought to tears.

After watching the clip twice at home, she said her daughter had revealed the alleged abuse, adding that she had tried to tell this to her parents previously.

"What was worse was the fact that she said she'd tried to tell me what had happened," the mother said, again tearing up.

The hearing continues.

A body has been found in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains during a search for a missing cross-country skier.

A 23-year-old man had set off for a day trip in the backcountry of the Kosciuszko National Park on Saturday morning and hadn't been heard from since then, sparking a large-scale search.

NSW Police's helicopter, PolAir, spotted a person in a remote area of Watsons Crags on Monday afternoon but due to the steep terrain and hazardous weather conditions, emergency services had to suspend the operation.

READ MORE: At least 10 people killed, 15 injured in horror mass stabbing in Canada

When the search resumed today, specialist police returned to the area and were winched down to the ground where they found the body of a man.

Police said it's believed to be the body of the missing backcountry skier however the man is yet to be formally identified.

"The operation continues to retrieve the body," NSW Police said in a statement.

A large-scale search involving specialist police from the Alpine Operations Unit, State Emergency Service (SES), and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), had been underway for the man for the past two days.

Over nearly two years face masks have become part of our pandemic experience – but now Kiwis increasingly appear to be leaving them at home. What place should they have here in future? Jamie Morton reports. With cases down, should…

Australia's interest rates have hit a seven-year high after the nation's central bank decided to increase the cash rate for the fifth consecutive month in a row.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) today decided to lift the cash rate target by 50 basis points from 1.85 per cent to 2.35 per cent.

The last time Australia's cash rate was higher was in December 2014, when it sat at 2.50.

READ MORE: The RBA cash rate that would plunge 'majority' into mortgage stress

Today's decision means a borrower with a $500,000 loan would have repayments increase by $144, while a borrower with a $1 million loan would have monthly repayments increase by $288.

Since May – when the cash rate was a now long-forgotten 0.1 per cent – that represents an increase of more than $600 a month for those with $500,000 loans and an eye-watering five-month increase of more than $1,200 for those with more than a million dollars owing on their mortgage.

Worse yet is that more rate hikes are tipped to come.

Big Four bank Westpac is currently predicting the cash rate will hit 3.35 per cent by February next year, which if realised pushes the average variable rate close to five per cent.

READ MORE: ANZ predicts massive drop in housing prices through 2023

"While we're likely to be well over the half-way mark, the RBA has at least two, but potentially as many as five, rate hikes still in its sights," RateCity.com.au research director Sally Tindall said.

"The average borrower could see their variable rate rise to over 6 per cent in a matter of months, unless they take action.

"People on a variable rate might feel powerless right now, but that doesn't have to be the case.

"Refinancing to a more competitive rate will help mitigate future RBA hikes."

READ MORE: The Aussie neighbourhoods worst hit by mortgage stress

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers addressed the Reserve Bank's interest rates rise during question time, saying the decision will put more pressure on families.

"The fact that we knew it was coming doesn't make it any easier for people," he told parliament.

"This is tough. This will tighten the screws on family budgets. This will put more pressure on a lot of Australians who are already stretched enough."

Chalmers also outlined how much the rate hike will cost mortgage holders.

"Average homeowners owing $330,000 will have to find about $95 more for repayments," he said.

"For Australians with a typical $500,000 mortgage it's about an extra $145 a month in addition to the extra $475 they've had to find since rates started raising before the election in May.

"So interest rate rises do mean that Australians will have to make more hard decisions about how to make ends meet."

READ MORE: Landlord's dilemma, his tenant's pain: The double face of rate rises

Graham Cooke, head of consumer research at Finder, said today's hike was another expense heaped upon a general public that was already enduring high petrol, grocery and housing costs.

"This fifth rate rise since May piles on the pressure for Aussie homeowners, who will have almost $10,000 less to spend on groceries, clothing and holidays compared to only six months ago," he said.

Cooke believes many borrowers who fixed their loans during the period of record-low rates might suffer from bill shock when those fixed terms expire.

"Fixed loan holders are in for a big shock once that rate expires and their payments spike," he said. 

"Our figures show the average fixed-rate homeowner will be paying $600 extra per month come December.

"If you're on a fixed rate, check now to see how much your repayments are likely to jump."

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