A secret council proposal to turn 10 Rotorua reserves into housing has been revealed in documents obtained by Local Democracy Reporting.The documents relate to a closed-door Rotorua Lakes Council “forum” on February 15 that reveals…

It’s been a sunny start to the long weekend for many, but the Easter Bunny may need to pack an umbrella as the weather takes a wet turn in some spots.While the sun is shining down on Auckland today, MetService forecasts clouds tomorrow…

Nicole McKee was living the Kiwi dream. At 23, she’d chalked up experience working in a law firm, got engaged and was ready to give birth to a baby girl. “I had the cool family life, with the house, the fence, the man, and the…

CCTV has captured a chaotic police pursuit after a Sydney driver failed to stop for a breath test.

NSW Police attempted to pull a car over for a random breath test on Old Prospect Road, Greystanes, shortly before 10am this morning.

The driver refused to stop and took off.

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The vehicle drove for two kilometres before it crashed into a tree.

The driver then made a run for it with the police hot on his heels.

"When he was running he said to the lady, 'Take my bag'," Hossein Nasirzeeh, a bystander, told 9News.

Witnesses told 9News the passenger of the vehicle walked back to the car and grabbed what appeared to be a plastic bag before she disappeared down a side street.

"Very relaxed, she walked back, she opened the door and she takes the bag and she run," Mr Nasirzeeh said.

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The driver, however, was no match for the rather fast police officer.

"Oh by gee he was good, he looked like an Olympic runner he was so fast," Dennis Thorn, a witness, said.

The 31-year-old driver was soon arrested and taken to Granville Police Station where he was charged.

The female passenger remains on the run.

A car and a train have collided in the Mid North of South Australia.

South Australia Police said a "serious" crash involving a car and a train occurred near the Augusta Highway in Winninowie, at about 12.30pm today.

9News understands the crash occurred between a freight train and a ute, with just one person in the car.

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The vehicle was pushed for hundreds of metres along the tracks until the train finally came to a stop.

The welfare of the driver is not yet known.

No one on the train was injured.

"Motorists are asked to take care travelling through the area as emergency services are in attendance and there may be delays," South Australia Police said in a statement.

Major crash investigators are at the scene.

Anyone who witnessed the crash is urged to contact police.

More to come.

An alleged bikie has been extradited to Western Australia, after Queensland detectives caught the accused money launderer on a Gold Coast highway this week.

Johnson Rowe, 28, has been charged with money laundering and conspiring to sell 50kg of dangerous drugs, including 30kg of methamphetamine, 10kg of cocaine and 10kg of heroin.

Mr Rowe's arrest on Tuesday came after the seizure of a record $6 million in drug money during a raid on a Perth home, with a total of $32 million seized during the 2020 operation.

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"At the time of the alleged conspiracy detectives seized millions of dollars in cash and several kilograms of illicit drugs," a statement from WA Police said.

The cash seizure is one of the largest in Australian history and the Australian Federal Police, as well as state officers from four states, have been searching for the perpetrators for over a year.

Police said Mr Rowe is alleged to be a major player in an international drug trafficking syndicate.

"This person has never, while committing these offences, never actually stepped foot in Western Australia and he operated from the east coast, predominantly Queensland," Detective Superintendent John Hutchison from WA Police said.

"We're getting better every day at utilising data and technical capability to apprehend these type of people and this is just a good example of that."

A number of men have already been charged in relation to the 2020 drug bust.

The warrant for Mr Rowe's arrest was issued December last year.

He will appear in Perth Magistrates Court tomorrow.

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New South Wales has detected a case of the XE COVID-19 variant, Australia's first known case, while Victoria has also identified a new sub-variant locally for the first time.

NSW Health authorities reported that the case of XE was detected in a recently returned overseas traveller last week.

It was confirmed in the weekly COVID-19 surveillance report NSW Health releases.

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"This is the first XE sequence to be identified in NSW and was identified in a recently returned traveller," NSW Health said in the report.

"Another recombinant BA.1/BA.2 sequence has previously been identified but it was not of the XE lineage."

XE is a mixture of the two Omicron variant sub-types BA.1 and BA.2.

The BA.2 variant has also been known as a "stealth" variant.

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There is little data yet on the transmissibility or severity of the new sub-variant.

Victorian health authorities have also confirmed the detection of a new Omicron sub-variant in wastewater.

The sub-variant, which is believed to be either BA.4 or BA.5, has been confirmed from samples taken from the Tullamarine catchment.

"The sub-variant has been recently detected in a small number of cases in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany," Victoria Health said.

"There are currently no known significant epidemiological differences observed between the new strain and the BA.2 strain."

The World Health Organisation did note last month that XE may be 10 per cent more transmissible than the currently dominant BA.2 Omicron sub-variant.

The Omicron BA.2 sub-variant has been the dominant infection in NSW for several weeks.

READ MORE: Everything to know about XE variant of COVID-19 virus

NSW Health prioritises the genomic sequencing of people hospitalised and admitted to ICU with COVID-19.

"Therefore the proportion of VOCs (variants of concern) is not necessarily reflective of their distribution in the community," NSW Health said in the report.

An animal rights organisation says Sir Mark Todd’s hitting a horse with a tree branch nine times amounts to cruelty, and a four-month ban is a slap on the wrist.The British Horseracing Authority gave the equestrian a four-month…

The FBI has blamed hackers associated with the North Korean government for stealing more than $810 million in cryptocurrency last month from a video gaming company, the latest in a string of audacious cyber heists tied to Pyongyang.

"Through our investigation we were able to confirm Lazarus Group and APT38, cyber actors associated with the DPRK, are responsible for the theft of US$620 million in Ethereum reported on March 29th," the FBI said in a statement.

"DPRK" is an abbreviation for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Ethereum is a technology platform associated with a type of cryptocurrency.

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The FBI was referring to the recent hack of a computer network used by Axie Infinity, a video game that allows players to earn cryptocurrency.

Sky Mavis, the company that created Axie Infinity, announced on March 29 that unidentified hackers had stolen the equivalent of roughly $810 million — valued at the time of the hack's discovery, on March 23 from a "bridge," or network that allows users to send cryptocurrency from one blockchain to another.

The US Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned Lazarus Group, a wide swath of hackers believed to work on behalf of the North Korean government.

Treasury sanctioned the specific "wallet", or cryptocurrency address, that was used to cash out on the Axie Infinity hack.

Cyberattacks have been an important source of revenue for the North Korean regime for years as its leader, Kim Jong Un, has continued to pursue nuclear weapons, according to a United Nations panel and outside cybersecurity experts.

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North Korea last month fired what is believed to be its first intercontinental ballistic missile in more than four years.

Lazarus Group has stolen an estimated $2.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency in recent years, according to Chainalysis, a firm that tracks digital currency transactions.

"A hack of a cryptocurrency business, unlike a retailer, for example, is essentially bank robbery at the speed of the internet and funds North Korea's destabilising activity and weapons proliferation," said Ari Redbord, head of legal affairs at TRM Labs, a firm that investigates financial crime.

"As long as they are successful and profitable, they will not stop."

While many cybersecurity analysts' attention has been on Russian hacking in light of the war in Ukraine, suspected North Korean hackers have been far from quiet.

Researchers at Google last month disclosed two different alleged North Korean hacking campaigns targeting US media and IT organisations, and cryptocurrency and financial technology sectors.

Google has a policy of notifying users who are targeted by state-sponsored hackers.

Shane Huntley, who leads Google's Threat Analysis Group, said that if a Google user has "any link to being involved in Bitcoin or cryptocurrency" and they get a warning about state-backed hacking from Google, it almost always ends up being North Korean activity.

"It seems to be an ongoing strategy for them to supplement and make money through this activity," Mr Huntley said.