A 27-year-old Australian man has died after he disappeared near a ski resort in Japan yesterday.

Michael "Micky" Hurst was exploring the back country of Niseko with several friends when he died of a suspected heart attack.

He was in the country working at a nearby ski resort.

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A family friend paid tribute to the Melbourne man.

"No mother wants to have to be the one to tell you the news your childhood best friend passed away having a heart attack on the slopes of Japan," she said on Facebook.

"Knowing he died doing the sport he loved the most makes us happy knowing you left this world in full action.

"You were the healthiest, good looking but most humblest child, young man, we knew."

According to his LinkedIn profile, the town planner was taking a "career break" in Japan over the 2025-26 ski season.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said authorities were providing consular assistance to the family.

"We send our deepest condolences to the family at this difficult time," a spokesperson said in a statement.

"Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment."

According to a translation of a local media report, the Hurst missing while skiing with a group of friends between Niseko Moiwa Ski Resort and Niseko Annupuri International Ski Resort in Niseko, Hokkaido.

Police joined the search for man, who found him being given CPR by a group of four.

Emergency services rushed the man, who had no visible injuries, to hospital where he later died.

Police are currently investigating the cause of the 27-year-old's death and the circumstances surrounding the incident.

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The death comes days after 22-year-old Sunshine Coast woman Brooke Day died at a resort in the Hakuba Valley, a popular skiing and snowboarding region about 30 kilometres from Nagano.

It is believed the Sunshine Coast woman went into cardiac arrest after becoming stuck in a chairlift and suspended in the air.

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Nicola O’Connor’s house bus was found on Rapurapu Track yesterday.

Exclusive: Bill Gates has addressed his presence in the three million recently-released pages of the Jeffrey Epstein files, saying he regrets ever coming into contact with the convicted sex offender.

The documents appear to show draft messages in Epstein's email account alleging that Gates had used him to organise trysts with women and contracted a sexually transmitted infection.

In an exclusive interview with 9News' Chief Political Editor Charles Croucher, Gates again denied the "false" accusations.

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"Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent. The email is false," he said.

"I don't know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?

"Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise that I did that."

Melinda French Gates today told NPR the allegations reminded her of "very, very painful" times in her marriage, adding that her billionaire ex-husband was one of many who had questions to answer about Epstein.

Gates said he met Epstein in 2011 and had several dinners together over three years, but never visited his island nor had relations with women.

"The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end," he said. 

"I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him.

"The more that comes out, the more clear it will be that, although the time was a mistake, it has nothing to do with that kind of behaviour."

READ MORE: Australian man dies after disappearing while skiing in Japan

Gates talks AI disruption in Australia, praises social media ban

Gates became wealthy after co-founding Microsoft in 1975.

He has pledged to spend the entire endowment of the Gates Foundation, about $200 billion, to eradicate diseases and reduce poverty by the time the charity closes in 2045. 

"I hope when people read about Malaria in the future, I hope they'll say what was that? The same with polio," he told 9News in the wide-ranging interview.

Now, he sees artificial intelligence as revolutionising healthcare for some of the world's poorest countries, but warned it could result in job losses in countries like Australia. 

"I think it's up to people in the field to say to society at large, this could really be disruptive," he said.

Speaking about social media, Gates praised Australia's world-first ban for children under 16 as a "good idea". 

"I know it's not an easy thing to implement. I think it's a favour to the world that you'll study," he said.

"We overprotect kids in the real world; we don't let them go out and do things. But we underprotect them in the digital world."

Watch the full interview at the top of the page

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The man was found in a cell inside the First Security van after returning from court.

Time to check your ticket against the winning numbers.

A scorned woman's wrath seemed to "bubble and fester" for months after she was evicted from a share house, a judge has said.

It culminated with Tsai-Wei Hung visiting her landlord's home and setting the entrance on fire while seven people including two children and an elderly woman were inside.

"Go to hell," Hung, dubbed the "housemate from hell" by her victims, yelled in Mandarin before igniting the blaze.

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Hung, 33, was jailed for up to six years and two months in Melbourne's County Court today after pleading guilty to four arsons, extortion and conduct endangering persons.

Judge Carolene Gwynn described her offending as an "extraordinary, volatile and frankly dangerous" response to being evicted and asked to leave her former share house.

"Not only was your animosity towards your victims clearly ongoing, but your wrath seemed to bubble and fester," she told Hung.

"You pursued a terrifying vendetta, affecting numerous victims, in a premeditated course of conduct, involving arson, dangerous driving, criminal damage, extortion and of course the charges relating to your reckless conduct."

Hung became emotional during the sentence and it had to be briefly adjourned to allow her time to calm down.

Her three-month tirade began the day she was evicted, on March 11, 2024, when she hurled eggs at a garage door.

Hung then accelerated towards her former housemate Chung-Ting Tuan and landlord Lin Zhang at speed, stopping sharply one metre away from them.

She drove into the garage roller door, damaging it and three vehicles parked inside, fleeing before police arrived.

Hung returned the next day and damaged the vehicles inside the garage further, then went to police and claimed "she just wanted to scare them".

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Three months later, on June 10, she returned to her former Clyde North home and set the front door on fire before setting two cars alight.

She tried to extort her victims by demanding her landlord pay her $30,000, and warning Zhang and his family "be careful or they will have the same experience as me, or even lose more than that".

His Clyde North tenants were afraid and arranged to stay with Zhang and his family on June 11.

There were seven people at Zhang's Berwick home – including his two kids and their grandmother – when Hung visited early on June 12.

She poured accelerant outside the front entry to the home and used matches to set it alight. Luckily no one was injured and the fire went out itself on the concrete.

Gwynn said she was concerned about Hung's actions and reactions in the three-month period, combined with her limited remorse.

"Your capacity to deal with conflict and or stress in the future is unknown," she said, as she sentenced Hung.

Hung has already served one year and seven months of her sentence, and will have to spend four years behind bars before she is eligible for parole.

The 36-year-old is charged with burglary of items valued under $500.

A metal statue of political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi has been stolen from a charity in Melbourne's south-east.

Police believe the 400kg solid bronze statue of the global peace figure was taken from the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville just before 1am on Monday, January 12.

The thieves used an angle grinder to cut the statue at the ankles, according to CCTV.

EXCLUSIVE: The extraordinary lengths young Aussies are going to after being forced out of home ownership

Australian Indian Community Charitable Trust chairperson Vasan Srinivasan said the brazen theft had left the community angry and upset.

"Gandhi means a lot to us – a father of the nation who fought for India's freedom without bloodshed," he said.

"We adored this Gandhi statue, there are so many school children, families come here and take pictures with it."

He doesn't suspect the theft of the statue, which has an estimated value of $60,000, had racist or political motivations.

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"There was no defacing, there was no spraying of any graffiti, it's cut and taken it very cleanly,"

"We're treating this as a theft of the statue, they took it for metallic value."

Scrap metal dealers are warned to look out for the statue as the thieves may be looking to on-sell it.

The statue was gifted to the centre in 2021 by the Indian government.

It was vandalised just days after then-prime minister Scott Morrison inaugurated it, when thieves failed in their attempts to remove the head of the statue.

The Indian government's Ministry of External Affairs today denounced the robbery.

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"We strongly condemn the vandalisation and removal of the Mahatma Gandhi statue located at the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville, Melbourne by unidentified people," ministry spokesperson Shri Randhir Jaiswal said.

"We have strongly raised the matter with Australian authorities and urged them to take immediate action to recover the missing statue and hold the culprits accountable."

The investigation remains ongoing. 

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Emergency services were called to a home on Adams Flat Rd in Crichton on January 23.

Emergency services could not save the child, who died at the scene.