A 69-year-old shearer who allowed his bank account to be used for Facebook fraud has been ordered to pay back $3715 fleeced from eight victims. The Napier District Court was told that Major Te Ture, of Hastings, was not the fraudster…

Staff and shoppers were forced to evacuate Countdown Hastings after a person with a knife entered the store on Friday afternoon.A police spokeswoman said the incident was reported about 2.13pm.”It appears a person has entered…

A giant flying reptile that lived alongside the dinosaurs has been uncovered from a rocky outcrop in Argentina during a civil construction project.

Dubbed Thanatosdrakon amaru – meaning " dragon of death" in Greek – the species is the largest pterosaur ever found in South America.

Two massive specimens were found fossilized in the Plottier Formation, in the province of Mendoza, and had a wingspan of nine and seven metres respectively.

READ MORE: Texas gunman was inside the school for more than an hour

The animals are azhdarchids, paleontologists have confirmed.

Azhdarchids were a family of pterosaurs ruled the skies at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 146 million to 66 million years ago.

The research will be published in the September 2022 issue of Cretaceous Research.

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But speaking to LiveScience lead author Leonardo D. Ortiz David, from the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza, confirmed the animals died around 86-million-years ago and were found together.

"Azhdarchids were known for their very large skulls — sometimes larger than their bodies — as well as their hyper-elongated necks and short, robust bodies," Ortiz David said.

"There is no indication in the fossil remains of a degree of parental relationship," .

"However, it can be confirmed that both specimens are of different sizes, and that the smaller one is a juvenile-subadult, and that they were together when they died more than 86 million years ago."

The news comes following the announcement two new pterosaurs were identified from remains found in outback Queensland.

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Bone scarring suggests one may have encountered a crocodile.

Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to evolve powered flight.

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Every week we will break down, debunk and demystify your rights as a shopper in Australia. This week we are looking at retailers who specify what type of payment they want and whether that's legal.

We all know life is getting more expensive than ever before, and how important it is to stretch every dollar you make.

That's why each week we'll answer a question surrounding what shoppers are – and aren't – entitled to when dealing with retailers and manufacturers.

MONEY MATTERS: How to get a refund if you've lost the box

No cash, no sale?

A few days ago I was waiting for the bus when I decided I should grab a bottle of water to take with me to work. There was a convenience store down the road from the bus stop, so I scrambled inside and grabbed a bottle. When I went to pay, the shop had a sign on the register that said "CASH ONLY". I only had my cards on me. Is it legal for shops to do this even though almost everyone uses card?

The short answer is yes, it is legal.

According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, the provider of the goods or services is "at liberty to set the commercial terms upon which payment will take place before the 'contract' for supply of the goods or services is entered into".

In simple language, as long as it is made clear before a product has been purchased or a service has started, it is legal for a business to dictate how it would like to be paid – as long as the other party agrees, of course.

MONEY MATTERS: The problem with 'no refund on sale item' signs

This is why it was legal for some businesses to accept only cash during the height of COVID-19, and why it's legal for little vending machines to say they'll only accept gold coins.

They are laying out the terms of the sale before you enter into it.

Now, given it is 2022 and many people use digital payment methods, it's likely to heavily restrict your business if you stipulate that you'll only accept cash.

A lot of people are also wondering about tax.

Yes, the Australian Tax Office is highly – let's say extremely – aware that some businesses use cash transactions to avoid meeting their tax obligations.

This is referred to as the "black economy", a whole sector of money changing hands without any tax paid on it at all.

Again it's legal to operate a cash only business, as long as you keep thorough records and pay the correct amount of tax.

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

The gunman who massacred 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school was inside for more than an hour before he was killed in a shootout, US law enforcement authorities said, amid mounting public anger and scrutiny over their response to the rampage.

A media briefing called by Texas public safety officials to clarify the timeline of the attack provided bits of previously unknown information.

By the time it ended, though, it had added to the troubling questions surrounding the attack, including about the time it took police to reach the scene and confront the gunman, and the apparent failure to lock a school door he entered.

READ MORE: Texas gunman warned online he was going to shoot up school

Instead, Ramos entered the building "unobstructed" through an apparently unlocked door, said Victor Escalon, regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Local police officers entered the building four minutes later but were driven back after exchanging fire with the gunman, he said.

The crisis did not end until a group of Border Patrol agents went in nearly an hour later.

Ramos, who had staked out a spot in the fourth grade classroom he targeted, was killed during the shootout, Escalon said.

Many other details of the case and the police response remained murky.

The motive for the massacre — the nation's deadliest school shooting since Newtown, Connecticut, a decade ago — remained under investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history.

READ MORE: What we know about the victims of the Uvalde shooting

During the siege, frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the school, according to witnesses.

"Go in there! Go in there!" women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who watched the scene from outside a house across the street.

Carranza said the officers should have entered the school sooner: "There were more of them. There was just one of him."

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw defended the agency on Wednesday, saying: "The bottom line is law enforcement was there. They did engage immediately. They did contain (Ramos) in the classroom."

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Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz did not give a timeline but said repeatedly that the tactical officers from his agency who arrived at the school did not hesitate.

He said they moved rapidly to enter the building, lining up in a "stack" behind an agent holding up a shield.

"What we wanted to make sure is to act quickly, act swiftly, and that's exactly what those agents did," Ortiz told Fox News.

But a law enforcement official said that once in the building, the Border Patrol agents had trouble breaching the classroom door and had to get a staff member to open the room with a key.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk publicly about the investigation.

READ MORE: 'Horrifying' fake conspiracy theories swirl around Texas shooting

Department of Public Safety spokesman Lieutenant Christopher Olivarez told CNN that investigators were trying to establish whether the classroom was, in fact, locked or barricaded in some way.

Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school as the massacre unfolded.

When he arrived, he saw two officers outside the school and about five others escorting students out of the building.

But 15 or 20 minutes passed before the arrival of officers with shields, equipped to confront the gunman, he said.

As more parents flocked to the school, he and others pressed police to act, Cazares said. He heard about four gunshots before he and the others were ordered back to a parking lot.

"A lot of us were arguing with the police, 'You all need to go in there. You all need to do your jobs.' Their response was, 'We can't do our jobs because you guys are interfering,'" Cazares said.

READ MORE: America reels from yet another mass shooting

Ramos crashed his truck into a ditch outside the school, grabbed his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and shot at two people outside a funeral home, who ran away uninjured, according to authorities and witnesses.

As for the armed school officer, he was driving nearby but was not on campus when Ramos crashed his truck, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorised to discuss the case and spoke of condition of anonymity.

Investigators have concluded that school officer was not positioned between the school and Ramos, leaving him unable to confront the shooter before he entered the building, the law enforcement official said.

READ MORE: Husband of teacher killed in Texas school shooting 'dies of grief' two days later

Locals have raised concerns about the rehabilitation facility where former TV host Andrew O'Keefe is being treated.

The 50-year-old had been in custody since he was arrested in January and charged with assaulting and choking a woman.

He arrived at Connect Global in Port Stephens on Monday night as part of his bail conditions.

READ MORE: Kevin Spacey charged in UK with four counts of sexual assault

Since then, Port Stephens Council has revealed "use of the premises for a rehabilitation centre is currently the subject of a court matter".

Connect Global director Ross Pene started the organisation in 2013.

His solicitor, Mark Ramsland, told 9News "the current approval is for short term accommodation, originally set up as a 'Fisherman's Village'".

"We're trying to change the use so it's permanent accommodation for the participants here," he said.

Patients live in cabins close to members of the public, who use nearby cabins and facilities including the pool and tennis court.

READ MORE: 'Horrifying' fake conspiracy theories swirl around Texas shooting

One local claimed residents consume alcohol on site, after old images of Bandidos club members at the facility resurfaced.

Pene denied those allegations.

"There's no booze here. There's no drugs here. We take random urine tests and alcohol tests. We do alcohol tests every night," he said.

"If anyone has a positive reading, they're out. So it's strike one here and out."

On Thursday afternoon, police arrived at the facility to conduct bail condition checks.

"The difference here is I believe we don't need a stick, we just need good healthy relationships," Pene said.

O'Keefe will spend between six and 12 months at the facility.

Ray Liotta, the blue-eyed actor best known for playing mobster Henry Hill in Goodfellas and baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, has died. He was 67.

Liotta's publicist, Jen Allen, said he was in the Dominican Republic shooting a new movie and didn't wake up on Thursday morning.

An official at the Dominican Republic's National Forensic Science Institute who was not authorised to speak to the media confirmed the death of Ray Liotta and said his body was taken to the Cristo Redentor morgue.

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Robert De Niro, in an emailed statement, said "I was very saddened to learn of Ray's passing. He is way too way young to have left us. May he Rest in Peace."

Lorraine Bracco, who played Karen Hill in Goodfellas tweeted that she was, "Utterly shattered to hear this terrible news about my Ray. I can be anywhere in the world & people will come up & tell me their favourite movie is Goodfellas. Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the same…Ray Liotta."

Seth Rogen, who Liotta acted with in the 2009 comedy Observe and Report tweeted, "He was such a lovely, talented and hilarious person. Working with him was one of the great joys of my career and we made some of my favourite scenes I ever got to be in. A true legend of immense skill and grace."

Though he grew up focused on playing sports, including baseball, during his senior year of high school, the drama teacher asked him if he wanted to be in a play, which he agreed to on a lark.

Whether he knew it or not at the time, it planted a seed, though he still assumed he'd end up working construction.

And later, at the University of Miami he picked drama and acting because they had no maths requirement attached.

READ MORE: 'Horrifying' fake conspiracy theories swirl around Texas shooting

It would take a few years for him to land his first big movie role, in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild as Melanie Griffith's character's hotheaded ex-convict husband Ray.

A few years later, he would get the memorable role of the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams.

His most iconic role, as real life mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas came shortly after.

He and Scorsese had to fight for it though, with multiple auditions and pleas to the studio to cast the still relative unknown.

Film critic Roger Ebert, in his review, wrote that Goodfellas solidified Liotta (and Bracco) as "two of our best new movie actors".

It didn't matter the size of the role, or even the genre, Liotta always managed to stand out and steal scenes in both dramas and comedies, whether as Johnny Depp's father in Blow or Adam Driver's bullish divorce lawyer in Marriage Story.

Mafiosos seemed to be his specialty.

He turned down the part of Ralphie on The Sopranos because of it.

But he'd still end up playing a mob type with James Gandolfini in Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly.

Liotta has one daughter, Karsen, with ex-wife Michelle Grace and was engaged to be married to Jacy Nittolo at the time of his death.