By RNZ About 100 flood-affected people pleading for help at a meeting in Nelson have been told it will be a long road to recovery.Hundreds of people have been evacuated due to landslides and the Maitai River flooding.Prime…

High-risk driving zones in Queensland, such as schools and roadworks, will soon have increased levels of safety and scrutiny when new speed camera technology is deployed across the state.

The notoriously dangerous areas, where students and workers have been struck by vehicles, will be targeted by solar-powered mobile worksite cameras to reduce injury and in some cases, fatal accidents.

Speaking before the start of road safety week, state Transport Minister Mark Bailey announced the new speed cameras will come into action from September 9.

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"I urge people, if you think you're one of the people who might get nabbed from doing the wrong thing, you know, drive safely from today, because then that really reduces your risk and the risk of everybody else," Bailey said.

The world-first portable speed detection devices will be set up at random sites and moved around at random times, with the Queensland government not revealing just how many units will be out in force.

"They can be anywhere, at any time, in any school zone or construction site anywhere in the state," Bailey said.

"The units can be put into all sorts of different spaces and they will be moved regularly."

He said the aim of the new technology is the same as random breath testing.

"So you know, if you drive safely, you've got nothing to worry about," he said.

Queensland has had 74 speeding-related deaths in the past year.

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Queensland Police Service Acting Superintendent Janelle Andrews said Australia has an alarming increase in serious road crashes and fatalities, including on Queensland roads.

"The theme for this year's road safety is 'Starts with Me," she said.

"To challenge the community about what they will do to make our roads safer, about their decision making when they get behind the wheel of a car and how they can impact to reduce the number of crashes on our roads."

"One life lost on the road is one too many," Andrews said.

The new devices aim to provide Queensland with specific intelligence around how many motorists and heavy vehicles are speeding through high-risk zones each day.

Police believe a man whose body was found on a highway in Victoria was the victim of a hit-and-run.

The man, who is yet to be formally identified, was discovered when he was hit by a car on the Murray Valley Highway at Reedy Creek, near the New South Wales border just before 2.30am.

A 59-year-old Nyah West woman driving the car stopped and called emergency services

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Investigators believe the man may have been hit by another vehicle earlier, which left the scene without stopping.

Police said it may be possible he was hit by a large vehicle whose driver was not aware what had happened.

Detectives are trying to piece together the victim's movements before his death and are keen to speak to anyone travelling in the area between 2am and 2.30am.

If you can help contact Crimestoppers.

Millions of Qantas frequent flyers have been issued a $50 discount as part of an apology from CEO Alan Joyce following months of delayed flights, cancellations and mishandled baggage.

The discount can go towards a return flight, or it could alternatively be spent on status extensions, Qantas points and lounge passes.

In a video and email message sent to millions of the company's customers, Joyce acknowledged his airline hasn't been up to standard, but claimed there were still "good reasons" behind the poor service.

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"Over the past few months, too many of you have had flights delayed, flights cancelled and bags misplaced," he said.

"There are good reasons why, but when it comes to what you expect from Qantas, it's not good enough.

"On behalf of the national carrier, I want to apologise and assure you that we're working hard to get back to our best.

"We're already seeing a sustained improvement in baggage handling and on-time performance, and while factors out of our control like weather can have an impact on our schedule, we expect things to keep improving each week…

"All our frequent flyers in Australia and New Zealand will be offered $50 towards a return Qantas flight, which equates to many millions in discounts."

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On top of the $50 discount, the airline is offering frequent flyers a range of benefits to customers as part of the apology.

"As well as saying sorry, we also want to say thank you," Joyce said.

"We're investing in a range of initiatives including status extensions for frequent flyers silver and above, thousands of Qantas points and lounge passes.

Federal prosecutors said on Friday they have arrested the attorney general in Mexico's previous administration on charges he committed abuses in the investigation of the 2014 disappearances of 43 students from a radical teacher college.

Prosecutors also announced they had issued arrest warrants in the case against 20 army soldiers and officers, five local officials, 33 local police officers and 11 state police, as well as 14 gang members.

The roundup included the first arrest of a former attorney general in recent history, and one of the biggest mass arrests ever by civilian prosecutors of Mexican army soldiers.

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Jesús Murillo Karam served as attorney general from 2012 to 2015, under then President Enrique Peña Nieto.

The office of the current attorney general, Alejandro Gertz Manero, said Murillo Karam was charged with torture, official misconduct and forced disappearance.

In 2020, Gertz Manero said Murillo Karam had been implicated in "orchestrating a massive media trick" and leading a "generalised cover-up" in the case.

The arrest came a day after a commission set up to determine what happened said the army bore at least partial responsibility in the case.

It said a soldier had infiltrated the student group involved and the army didn't stop the abductions even though it knew what was happening.

Corrupt local police, other security forces and members of a drug gang abducted the students in the city of Iguala in Guerrero state, although the motive remains unclear eight years later.

Their bodies have never been found, though fragments of burned bone have been matched to three of the students.

Murillo Karam, under pressure to quickly solve the case, announced in 2014 that the students had been killed and their bodies burned at a garbage dump by members of a drug gang.

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He called that hypothesis "the historic truth."

But the investigation included instances of torture, improper arrest and mishandling of evidence that has since allowed most of the directly implicated gang members to walk free.

The incident occurred near a large army base, and independent investigations have found that members of the military were aware of what was occurring.

The students' families have long demanded that soldiers be included in the investigation.

On Thursday, the truth commission looking into the case said one of the abducted students was a soldier who had infiltrated the radical teachers' college, yet the army did not search for him even though it had real-time information that the abduction was occurring.

It said the inaction violated army protocols for cases of missing soldiers.

The defense ministry has not responded to a request for comment.

The soldiers and officers being sought under Friday's warrants, and the other officials, police and gang members, face charges of murder, torture, official misconduct, criminal association and forced disappearance

It was not immediately clear whether all the suspects faced all the charges or if the suspects were among dozens previously arrested and charged during previous investigations.

Prior to reforms in Mexican law, the army had long been allowed to refer soldiers accused of wrongdoing to separate military courts.

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But soldiers must now by tried in civilian courts, if their offenses involved civilians.

The soldiers being charged served at the base near where the abduction occurred in 2014.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party, which both Murillo Karam and Peña Nieto belonged to, wrote in its Twitter account that Murillo Karam's arrest "is more a question of politics than justice. This action does not help the victims' families get answers."

Mexican federal prosecutors previously issued arrest warrants for members of the military and federal police as well as Tomás Zeron, who at the time of the abduction headed the federal investigation agency, Mexico's detective agency.

Zeron is being sought on charges of torture and covering up forced disappearances. He fled to Israel, and Mexico has asked the Israeli government for help in his arrest.

Gertz Manero said that in addition to Zeron's alleged crimes connected to the case, he is alleged to have stolen more than $US44 million ($AUD63m) from the Attorney General's Office budget.

The motive for the students' abduction remains a subject of debate.

On Sept 26, 2014, local police from Iguala, members of organized crime and authorities abducted 43 students from buses.

The students periodically commandeered buses for their transportation.

Murillo Karam claimed the students were turned over to a drug gang who killed them, incinerated their bodies at a dump in nearby Cocula and tossed the burned bone fragments into a river.

Later investigations by independent experts and the Attorney General's Office, and corroborated by the truth commission, have dismissed the idea that the bodies were incinerated at the Cocula dump.

There has been no evidence that any of the students could still be alive.

Authorities trying to curb the flow of illegally obtained two-way radio devices have charged a Northland man with importing them without a licence. The two-way radios can be used for criminal means and can interrupt emergency radio…

A painful lack of rain and relentless heat waves are drying up rivers in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

At least 20 people have been killed after unidentified gunmen stormed an upscale hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Friday evening, officials said, following gunfire and large explosions in the area.

Police Major Yasin Haji told CNN at least 50 others have been injured in the ongoing attack on the Hayat Hotel.

A number of gunmen are holding hostages and still firing from inside toward security forces slowing the operation to retake control of the hotel, Haji added.

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"It took us over 24 hours to end the terrorist siege at Hayat Hotel because the attackers took civilians as hostages and used them as human shields. We cleared the first and top floors. But they are still in the middle two floors," Haji said.

Ahmed Abdi, a doctor at Madina Hospital, said that the death toll was likely to rise and many victims were in critical condition. Madina is one of the two major hospitals in Mogadishu where most of the victims were taken.

The hospital is still receiving bodies and more wounded people, Abdi said.

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Police Major Farah Hussein confirmed to CNN that Somali security forces had entered the Hayat Hotel building and regained most of the control from gunmen. The area is frequented by lawmakers and government officials.

Two security officials, including Mogadishu intelligence chief Muhidin Mohamed, were wounded in the ongoing attack, Maj. Hassan Dahir, a police officer, told CNN. Details remained murky, however, as the siege continued.

The Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its affiliated online sites, saying its fighters managed to take over the hotel after blasting their way into the building. CNN has not independently confirmed the claim.

A US airstrike on Sunday killed 13 members of the al-Shabaab group, according to a statement by US Africa Command earlier this week. It is unclear if the Friday attack is connected to that strike.

In May, US President Joe Biden decided to redeploy troops to Somalia in support of the local government and to counter al-Shabaab. The move reversed a decision by former President Donald Trump to withdraw all US troops from the country.

A man will appear in court tomorrow after a ute was driven on the wrong side of a busy Auckland motorway before the driver ditched the vehicle and continued on foot. Video supplied to the Herald shows the ute being driven the wrong…

Five new primary care centres will be established near major hospitals across Victoria, in an attempt to ease pressure on the state's embattled health system.

The state government will invest $14.3 million to build the new centres, which will operate seven days a week and 16 hours a day.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the centres would give Victorians an "alternative to visiting an emergency department (ED)".

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The centres will be able to handle conditions such as mild infections, fractures and burns, and offer pathology and imaging services.

"This will reduce demand on our emergency departments, ensuring those that need urgent care can get it faster and avoid an unnecessary trip to the ED," Andrews said.

"The global pandemic has put health systems around the country under unprecedented pressure and this is part of our comprehensive plan to deliver the care Victorians need, when they need it, close to home."

Centres will be established close to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Northern Hospital Epping, Sunshine Hospital, Monash Medical Centre Clayton, and Grampians Health Ballarat.