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Drinks after work probably seemed like a good idea – but for one worker in Japan the hangover is likely to last for some time.

The unnamed worker lost a USB flash drive containing the personal details of every resident of the city of Amagasaki, northwest of Osaka, after going for drinks this week, according to a statement from the city's government.

Public broadcaster NHK reported that the worker, a man in his 40s, fell asleep on the street after drinking alcohol at a restaurant. When he woke up, his bag containing the flash drive was gone.

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The man works for a company tasked with providing benefits to tax-exempt households, the city government's statement said.

On Tuesday, he went to the city administration's information center and transferred residents' data onto a flash drive. The data included the names, birth dates, and addresses of 465,177 people, the statement said – the city's entire population.

The flash drive also contained sensitive information including tax details, bank account names and numbers, and information on households receiving public assistance such as childcare payments.

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On Wednesday, the employee searched for the flash drive but couldn't find it, so he filed a lost property report with the police, according to the government statement. Later that afternoon, the company notified city authorities about the loss.

The flash drive is encrypted, and no data leak has been confirmed yet, authorities said in the statement.

It added that though the employee had been authorised to access the data, he had not been given permission to transfer it onto a separate electronic device. The statement also criticised the employee for failing to erase the data from the flash drive after completing his work at the city office, and for carrying it personally instead of using a more secure transportation method.

Authorities held a news conference on Thursday, with the city's mayor and other officials bowing in apology to residents.

The city will make payments to eligible households without delays, and will provide more information on the case as they investigate, said the official statement – which ended with a pointed reminder for government employees to get permission before taking flash drives out of the city's offices.

A forensic reporter leading new investigations into the 'Frankston' serial killer has revealed new details about the felon, who was found guilty of murdering three young women in the 1990s.

Paul Denyer was found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Natalie Russell, 18-year-old Elizabeth Stevens and Deborah Fream, 22, in the Frankston area of Melbourne over a several week period, sending shockwaves of fear through the community.

Stevens was killed after leaving a bus on her way home from the library while young mum, Fream was ambushed by Denyer in her car.

Natalie was murdered as she walked home from school.

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Denyer confessed to the murders after days of questioning and 1500 questions from detectives who noticed his "chilling" interest in the cases.

Crime reporter John Silvester, who leads the forensic examination in a new documentary on the murders, said serial killers often like to place themselves in the story and that Denyer was no different.

"He wanted to be the centre of attention and he was too clever," Silvester said.

"He was able to identify exactly where he was seven weeks earlier at the time of the first murder and detectives thought- this isn't right."

He added Denyer's resolve was shaken when a detective noticed cuts on his hand, and told the killer they didn't believe his story.

Silvester said Denyer had then noticed a cross during the interrogations and asked one of the detectives if he was a Christian.

"He said- 'I'll tell you. I did it. I killed all three'," the reporter said.

"Once he decided to confess he wasn't begrudging or ashamed he was enthusiastic, it's like he was bragging to police about how clever he was."

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Silvester said it remains shocking 30 years later the impact the murders had on the community, with people fearful of leaving their homes and constantly checking streets while the murders were taking place.

Silvester said shop attendants would walk women to their cars for fear they would be abducted.

"That was the level of fear," he said.

"Some of these investigators I continue to be good friends and I didn't realise how much it had impacted on them.

"We all think we work under pressure but I always think back at this homicide squad where everyday they knew they didn't find him they knew were closer to another murder.

"This was before CCTV and phones so police were going through lists and lists of known offenders and Denyer was not on the list- It was a member of the public who put him in the frame for the first time."

Originally sentenced to life behind bars, 51-year-old Denyer- now known as Paula appealed the decision and was granted a 30-year-sentence without parole.

He will soon be eligible for parole and could be back in the community from next year.

The victim's families, politicians and the Frankston community have furiously pushed back against this decision.

"Not one person who has dealt with him suggests that that is a good idea because no one, no expert can give us a guarantee that he's not a danger to society," Silvester said.

"This is not about protecting Denyer, Denyer is irrelevant it's about protecting the community and therefore he must stay in jail."

Nine, the publisher of this website, is the owner of Stan, where No Mercy No remorse is currently streaming

A Victorian man has been charged with alleged online grooming after he drove to Sydney for what he believed would be a meeting with a child, police claim.

NSW Police will allege that the man, from Yallourn North, east of Melbourne, believed he was speaking with the mother of a girl aged under 10 and engaged in sexually explicit conversations about the "child".

It will be further alleged that the man arranged to meet the mother and girl and had driven from Victoria for the purpose of a sexual encounter in New South Wales.

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The 66-year-old man was arrested in Liverpool at about 11.15am yesterday.

He was charged with use carriage service to procure a person under the age of 16 years for sexual activity.

He was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court today.

Parents are urged to speak to their children about online connections and the dangers of social media.

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"With school holidays in the next couple of weeks, parents and guardians need to have regular conversations with children about how they can keep themselves safe online," Detective Chief Inspector Chris Goddard said.

"For young people, engaging with people who they do not know on any online platform can put them at risk."

"Our priority is protecting children from any type of harm, and we will always utilise every resource at our disposal to locate anyone who uses the internet for criminal activity," Goddard said.

More information can be accessed via the eSafety website.

And educational packages for parents and children are available from ThinkUKnow, a multi-agency program designed to educate and promote cyber safety.

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The family of Queensland police officer Senior Constable Dave Masters, who was killed in a hit and run in Moreton Bay last year say there are "a million things" they'd like to say on the anniversary of his death.

Senior Constable Dave Masters was hit and killed in the early hours of the morning of Saturday, June 26 last year, while laying tyre spikes on a road north of Brisbane.

Police say the driver of the stolen vehicle then fled the scene.

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The 53-year-old's wife, Sharon Masters said her husband's death has "left a gaping hole," for her family and the Moreton Bay community which he served.

"His sense of humour, it got him and us through some tough times- that fun and light-heartedness doing the job you do, it's made a huge impact to a lot of people," she said.

"No matter who you talk to they always comment on how funny he was, his sense of humour, he was always there for everyone.

"A lot of people didn't realise he was a big softie."

Masters said she spoke on the phone with her husband's colleagues for hours after his passing, reflecting on how he was often thanked for issuing parking tickets.

"Who does that? You just couldn't get mad at him," she said.

"We just want him to be remembered the way we want to have him remembered."

A service and candlelight vigil will be held for the senior police officer at 6pm tonight at the Deception Bay Police Station.

Masters said the support of the community and her husband's colleagues helped the family through the devastating periods after the accident.

"We're just so, so grateful," she said.

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"We can never repay them and we want them to know how much it means to us."

"When something like this happens, the amount of people who come out of the woodwork is just…" Masters' son Jack added.

"Big or small it's been awesome."

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision allowing states to ban abortion stirred alarm among LGBTQ advocates, who feared that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry.

In the court's majority opinion overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Justice Samuel Alito said the decision applied only to abortion. But critics of the court's conservative majority gave the statement no credence.

“I don’t buy that at all,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of medicine at Georgetown University and director of its Institute for National and Global Health Law. “It really is much more extreme than the justices are making it out to be.”

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He added: “It means that you can’t look to the Supreme Court as an impartial arbiter of constitutional rights because they’re acting more as culture warriors.”

Gostin and others pointed to a separate concurring opinion in which Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should review other precedents, including its 2015 decision legalising same-sex marriage, a 2003 decision striking down laws criminalising gay sex and a 1965 decision declaring that married couples have a right to use contraception.

“Let’s just be clear. Today is about this horrifying invasion of privacy that this court is now allowing, and when we lose one right that we have relied on and enjoyed, other rights are at risk,” said Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the landmark ruling legalising same-sex marriage, who is now running as a Democrat for the Ohio House.

Abortion opponents celebrated the potential for states to ban abortion after nearly 50 years of being prevented from doing so. Some argued that the case did not have implications beyond that, noting Alito's words.

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“And to ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterised, we emphasise that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,” Alito wrote. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

Kristen Waggoner, legal director for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which helped defend the Mississippi abortion law at issue in the ruling, said the high court's decision makes it clear that “the taking of human life is unlike any other issue.” She said raising other issues shows the weakness of critics' arguments about abortion.

Still, said Paul Dupont, a spokesman for the conservative anti-abortion American Principles Project, conservatives are optimistic about the potential for future victories on cultural issues, though getting more states to ban abortion is “a huge enough battle.”

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“If there is a thought that this could apply elsewhere, you know, they're not going to say it here, and we're just going to have to see,” Dupont said.

Other factors could protect those rulings on birth control and LGBTQ rights, too. The Obergefell decision that legalised same-sex marriage was based on equal protection, and hundreds of thousands of couples have relied on it to wed, a precedent that many courts would be loath to disturb.

Still, a sharp increase in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the U.S. and opposition to specific kinds of birth control on the right have advocates concerned that those rights are vulnerable.

Some abortion opponents treat some forms of contraception as forms of abortion, particularly IUDs and emergency birth control such as Plan B, also known as the “morning after” pill. Lawmakers in Idaho and Missouri last year discussed banning state funding for emergency contraception, and Idaho prevents public schools or universities from dispersing it.

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“It's all interconnected, because at its base, birth control and abortion are both types of health care that help people have bodily autonomy,” said Mara Gandal-Powers, director of birth control access for the National Women's Law Center, which supports abortion rights. “I'm very concerned about where this is going to go.”

The Supreme Court's three most liberal members argued that the majority decision “breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law" and “places in jeopardy” other rights.

At the White House, President Joe Biden pledged to do everything in his power to defend a woman’s right to have an abortion in states where it will be banned. He warned that the ruling could undermine rights to contraception and gay marriage: “This is an extreme and dangerous path.”

Then there is Thomas' concurring opinion, which Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the pro-LGBTQ-rights Human Rights Campaign, called an invitation for “stirring up fringe organisations, fringe politicians who want to harm the LGBTQ community.”

“There are clearly members of the court who have an outdated notion of what America looks like today and have a fantasy of returning to their painted idealism of a 1940s, 1950s America, certainly not what it really was in the 1940s and '50s,” she said. “And that is terrifying.”

Jason Pierceson, a University of Illinois political scientist, said he doesn't see the conservative majority stopping with abortion.

“They are sending signals to the conservative legal movement, which has a lot of momentum right now because of this victory, to keep going and to keep bringing cases to them over the next several years that will give them opportunities to go further,” Pierceson said.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, called the decision “dangerous” and warned that it carves the nation into two parts. He predicted there will be “a tsunami of radical litigation and legislation aimed at further eroding rights we have taken for granted."

“Make no mistake — this is just the beginning of a systematic right-wing effort to rewrite decades of bedrock legal precedent,” he said.

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