A private Waikato school being investigated for workplace bullying is closed today after an overnight bomb scare. Pupils and staff at St Peter’s School in Cambridge were evacuated from the campus due to a threat after police alerted…

Firefighters and police were called on Thursday evening to the Auckland home where health chief Pauline Hanna was found dead last month.Hanna’s death at her Remuera home remains “unexplained”. Two fire trucks were called to the…

Opening up the border to vaccinated tourists to resurrect this country’s tourism industry could require Kiwis to return to life at Covid alert level 2.5.That is a future vision floated by director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield…

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The trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting in the death of George Floyd will be pushed back to March 2022, in part to allow the publicity over Derek Chauvin's conviction to cool off, a judge ruled Thursday.

Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao were scheduled to face trial August 23 on charges they aided and abetted both murder and manslaughter. The officers' co-defendant, Chauvin, was convicted of murder and manslaughter counts. All four officers also face federal charges that allege they violated Floyd's civil rights during his May 25 arrest.

Judge Peter Cahill said he moved jury selection in the other officers' trial to March 8, 2022, so the federal case can go forward first. He also said he felt the need to put some distance between the three officers' trial and Chauvin's due to the high-profile nature of the case.

READ MORE: Teen with 'a cell phone and sheer guts' who filmed Derek Chauvin

The news that the trial was being pushed back came during a Thursday hearing on pretrial motions. The former officers waived their right to appear and were not in court, but their defence attorneys all agreed to the postponement. The state, via Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank, did not support the delay. It wasn't made clear at Thursday's motions hearing who originally sought the change.

Chauvin, who was seen in widely viewed bystander video pressing his knee into Floyd's neck as the Black man said he couldn't breathe, was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. He's to be sentenced June 25.

During Thursday's hearing, attorneys for the defence argued that prosecutors should be sanctioned after media reports that Chauvin had planned to plead guilty a year ago. Frank said the Attorney General's Office was willing to submit affidavits from personnel involved in the case to state that they were not the source of the leak. A prosecutor from the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said they would do the same.

READ MORE: Al Sharpton decries 'stench of racism' in Daunte Wright's death

Thao's attorney, Bob Paule, said in a motion filed in February that he wants an order sanctioning the state for "its role — directly or indirectly — in the leaking of highly prejudicial information related to potential plea agreements of co-defendants."

Cahill said he would hold an evidentiary hearing on the issue in August.

The New York Times reported Feb. 10 that Chauvin was ready to plead guilty to a third-degree murder charge last year but then-Attorney General William Barr rejected the agreement. The Associated Press published a similar report the next day, citing two law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the talks. Paule alleged that the leaks came from the state, and asked that anyone who did so be barred from participating in the trial. Tom Plunkett, Kueng's attorney, echoed his statements.

Attorney General Keith Ellison earlier dismissed Paule's motion as "completely false and an outlandish attempt to disparage the prosecution."

In a separate motion, Earl Gray, Lane's attorney, is asking Cahill to compel the state to disclose all use-of-force reports over the past 30 years — after initially asking for data dating back 50 years — in which a Minneapolis police officer used force and another officer intervened verbally or physically. Gray said it's necessary to show the jury that no such intervention has been made, which would call into question the state's expert testimony about the duty of officers to intervene.

READ MORE: George Floyd's killer seeks new trial to impeach murder verdict

Prosecutors have said that request should be denied; Cahill said he would take it under advisement.

Paule also filed a motion Wednesday asking the court to sanction prosecutors for allegedly failing to disclose information about the alleged coercion of a witness. Paule claimed that he Hennepin County medical examiner, Dr Mark Baker, was coerced to include "neck compression" in his findings — and that prosecutors knew of it.

In a brief letter to Cahill, Frank said "The bizarre allegations offered in support of the motion are false and wrong and we intend to file a complete response." The issue did not come up during Thursday's hearing.

Paule wrote in his court filing that Baker initially said there was no physical evidence that Floyd died of asphyxiation. But after talking twice to Dr Roger Mitchell – a former medical examiner in Washington, DC – he amended his findings to include neck compression as a factor, according to Paule.

Paule said that in one of the conversations, Mitchell called Baker and told him he was going to submit an opinion piece critical of Baker's findings to the Washington Post. When Baker released final autopsy findings June 1, they included neck compression, Paule wrote, and Mitchell never submitted his piece to the newspaper.

Mitchell, now chairman of the Department of Pathology at the Howard University College of Medicine, did not respond to a phone message left at the department Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Baker said they could not comment due to the pending case.

Paule also took aim at Mitchell's criticism of Dr David Fowler, a key defence witness for Chauvin who testified that the former officer was not responsible for Floyd's death. After Mitchell and other doctors sent a letter to Maryland's attorney general, criticising Fowler's conclusions, Maryland officials announced they would review all in-custody death reports during Fowler's tenure. Paule said Mitchell's accusations had a chilling effect on Thao's ability to find medical experts unafraid to testify on his behalf.

As the Israeli military and Palestinian militants in Gaza exchange deadly airstrikes and rocket bombardments, rioting and violent clashes have swept through several Israeli cities between Arab and Jewish citizens.

In Bat Yam, south of Jaffa, graphic video on Wednesday night showed a Jewish right-wing mob trying to lynch an Arab driver.

Police say the man was dragged from his car before the assault began.

READ MORE: Israel steps up Gaza offensive, kills senior Hamas figures

Video shows about 20 people hitting him with metal objects and kicking him in the head repeatedly. He was taken to hospital where his injuries were described by police as moderate.

In Acre, north of Haifa, a lynching attempt by an Arab mob left a Jewish man critically wounded, according to Israeli police.

A police spokesman said the mob attacked police officers with stones before attacking the victim with stones and iron bars.

"We are very, very worried about this deterioration," Israeli lawmaker Aida Touma-Suleiman in Acre told CNN's Hala Gorani in a live interview on late Wednesday evening local time.

"I am locked in my house, it's happening in front of my house, and there is no way to go out," she said.

"The tear gas is filling the houses, and the situation is insecure. There has been attacks on Arab citizens in different cities today

"I'm really, really worried about this city (Acre). The same is happening in Haifa. The same is happening in Lod.

"There are different attacks on different citizens."

The Israeli-Arab lawmaker went on to say: "I'm not sure that the police is able or even willing to control the situation."

READ MORE: UN warns Isreal-Palestine conflict could turn into 'full-scale war'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday slammed the violence in Israeli cities as "unacceptable" and said he had ordered the police to adopt emergency powers, to reinforce with border police units, and to impose curfews where necessary.

"Nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs and nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews," he said in a statement.

"To the citizens of Israel I say that I do not care if your blood is boiling. You cannot take the law into your own hands," Mr Netanyahu said.

"You cannot grab an ordinary Arab citizen and try to lynch him — just as we cannot watch Arab citizens do this to Jewish citizens."

Militants in Gaza have fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israel since the latest flareup began on Monday afternoon, and Israel has responded with devastating airstrikes in Gaza.

Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza had killed at least 83 people, including 17 children and seven women, the Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry reported Thursday. At least 487 people had sustained various injuries, the ministry said.

Seven Israelis had been killed and more than 200 been injured since Monday, the Israeli military said on Wednesday.

A six-year-old boy was killed Wednesday when a rocket fired from Gaza struck a residential building in Sderot, according to an emergency responder.

READ MORE: Explained: What led to the recent Israel-Gaza violence

Decades of coexistence 'trampled'

Fuelled by controversy over planned evictions of Palestinian families in Jerusalem, and restrictions at a popular East Jerusalem meeting point as Ramadan began, conflict between Israelis and Palestinians boiled over this week, escalating rapidly into one of the worst rounds of violence between the two sides in the last several years.

"We're escalating towards a full-scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation," UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said on Wednesday.

https://twitter.com/TWennesland/status/1392218044433420291

Fury over the situation has fuelled fierce protests in the central Israeli city of Lod, where Israeli police reported on Wednesday that people were throwing rocks at passing cars and blocking roads into the early hours.

The mayor of Lod, Yair Revivo, said decades of coexistence had been "trampled."

He said Arab-Israeli rioters had been "burning synagogues, Talmud Torah, dozens of vehicles, burning garbage containers, destroying Israeli flags and worse, lowering the Israeli flag and hoisting the Palestinian flag, on a night of riots that injured policemen and residents who found themselves besieged."

An Arab-Israeli resident of Lod, Wael Essawi, told CNN that a mosque was stormed by Israeli police and Jewish residents during prayers on Tuesday night before tear gas was fired and cars were set ablaze.

"We couldn't do anything but we opened the windows so we can breathe… it was very intense," Essawi said.

READ MORE: Israeli PM misses deadline to form coalition

'Terrified screams'

Another resident, Khaled Zabarqah, said that following a Palestinian demonstration on Monday against Israeli policies in Jerusalem, thousands were hit with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets before Israelis started throwing stones and beating the group.

"My 15-year-old daughter was woken up by the sound of stones being thrown at her bedroom window, I was then woken up by her terrified screams," Zabarqah said.

"There was nothing we could do but protect and defend ourselves with any tools we have, it's either we defend ourselves or we get killed."

On Tuesday, a 25-year-old Arab-Israeli man was shot and killed in the city by a 34-year-old Jewish man, who fired on protesters after they targeted him with rocks, according to police.

Police arrested two suspects in connection with another shooting in Lod.

A CNN team driving through the city early Wednesday saw that some of the roads were strewn with rocks.

Burnt-out cars were also visible by the side of the road following a night of unrest in the city.

The heartbroken parents of a seven-year-old girl who died in Perth Children's Hospital want a new safeguard introduced to make sure no other families suffer what they went through.

An investigation into the death of primary school student Aishwarya Aswath found she should have received better care at the hospital before she died on the night of April 3 after developing a fever on Good Friday.

The opposition and the Australian Medical Association are calling for the Health Minister to be sacked but the girl's parents just want the state's hospital problems fixed.

READ MORE: Funeral held for child who died waiting in Perth hospital

Parents Aswath Chavittupara and Prasitha Sasidharan have "no doubt" their daughter would still be alive if she was seen quicker, rather than waiting more than an hour and a half as they pleaded with staff for help.

"Some of the staff were ignoring us because they just didn't want to even talk to us," Mr Chavittupara told 9News on Thursday.

WA Health Minister Roger Cook said the schoolgirl died of complications related to group A streptococcus and that neither she nor her family received the appropriate level of care the night they attended the hospital.

"It is associated with very poor health outcomes and high mortality," Mr Cook said, on Wednesday.

"The report makes it clear that Aishwarya and her parents should have received better care. They did not get the help they asked for."

He apologised to Aishwarya's family on behalf of the state government and the health community, but the grief-stricken parents wanted more.

"Just an apology is not good enough," the father said.

"We need to change the system. We have to find out what led to the situation."

READ MORE: Distraught parents call for hospital review

The Perth couple wants an external review into their daughter's death and any previous near misses, and a new hospital assessment model put in place to ensure parents are properly heard.

"We would like the system to be called Aishwarya's Care," Mr Chavittupara said.

"Aishwarya's Care will give a concerned parent the right right to escalate the situation and not just wait for the hospital staff to respond."

Wednesday's damning report found the young patient was given a triage rating of four, the second-lowest urgency level. That consigned her to wait at least an hour to be seen.

On top of that, the design of the triage area made it difficult to physically reach patients and properly assess them there was a practice of not taking a manual pulse or feeling the skin of a patient, including Aishwarya.

READ MORE: Perth lockdown restrictions to lift on Saturday

Aishwarya's parents stopped short of calling for Mr Cook's resignation, leaving that decision up to the public and Premier Mark McGowan.

Mr McGowan stood by his under-pressure health minister on Thursday.

"I just want to be clear, that won't be happening," he said.

"The Health Minister has done a very good job for over four years now."

The parents earlier this month held a hunger strike outside the hospital, demanding answers.

Upon admission to the hospital, they said, her condition deteriorated rapidly, her eyes cloudy and hands cold.

Ms Sasidharan said she told doctors what was happening with her daughter's eyes was not normal and was told a doctor would come to investigate.

As Aishwarya's condition worsened, the couple from Morley in north-east Perth pleaded for help but told 9News medical staff ignored them.

"I actually went to the reception four or five times and I asked them to look at her," Ms Sasidharan said.

The family said by the time doctors looked at Aishwarya it was too late. She died within hours of treatment beginning. 

The WA government has committed to an independent inquiry into PCH, following the report's recommendations.

The coroner is continuing to investigate Aishwarya's death.

Lottery officials are trying to get in touch with Australia's newest instant millionaire, a Sydney resident who has won the entire $30 million Powerball jackpot tonight.

The ticket bought online was the only division one entry, The Lott officials said.

The winning numbers in Powerball draw 1304 on Thursday, May 13, were 7, 19, 11, 12, 5, 25 and 8. The Powerball number was 20.

READ MORE: NSW couple kept lottery ticket in safe, didn't claim it for eight months

READ MORE: Woman vows to never work another nightshift after winning lotto

Multiple phone calls have been unable to reach the mystery new millionaire.

"I was ready to confirm Powerball's newest division one winner straight after the results of tonight's draw were known, but sadly whenever I called the number provided, it just rang out and went straight to message bank," The Lott spokesperson Matt Hart said.

"If you see a number of missed calls on your phone, you could be the winner we're trying to contact.

"You may not think it's possible you're the division one winner we're searching for, but if you purchased an online entry into this week's Powerball draw that you haven't checked yet, you're in with a chance."

The new millionaire is the seventh Powerball division one winner of 2021. Five of those seven wins have been in New South Wales.

In 2020, 14 Powerball division one winners across Australia pocketed more than $470.1 million in prize money.

Powerball twice offered an $80 million jackpot last year, the biggest prize offered by any Australian lottery game during the year.

Of the 14 Powerball division one winning entries in 2020, six were in Queensland, five in New South Wales and three in Victoria.

She is 104 years old and has not left home since 1947. It may sound like the opening gambit to a court drama, or the premise of an Edgar Allen Poe horror story, but the detail is far more benign.

Esmerelda, Taronga Zoo's Aldabra Giant Tortoise, and its longest staying guest, was in need of a check-up, and the appointment was today.

"In the last few months, the keepers have noticed some fluid coming out of her nostrils and her mouth, and a bit of a gurgling, breathing sound," says Taronga's senior vet, Dr Larry Vogelnest.

READ MORE: Rescue mission for loggerhead turtle ends on a high

And so the decision was made that Esmerelda would need a CT scan, to see what was happening within her thick, leathery neck. And at 130 kilogram, it's going to be a big job.

"I think a Komodo dragon's the biggest one that's gone through a CT scan," says Taronga's senior reptiles keeper, Lisa Cavanagh.

Getting Esmerelda to her appointment requires teamwork. After a calming injection from the doc, so she doesn't flail about during her scan, four keepers, along with two vets, carry her in a heavy-duty sling to her taxi, as her overly amorous flatmate and toyboy, 70-year-old Lance, watches on.

"He's always keen for a bit of fun, with either her or the staff,' says Dr Vogelnest. I say I admire Lance's ambition.

READ MORE: 'That thing looks like a dehydrated koala': Huge moth found in school

Within half an hour, Esmerelda is being again manhandled by sling into the loading bay of the Northshore Veterinary Hospital. From there, a wheeled trolley topped with a footstool, serves as a sturdy plinth on which to rest the patient, and to push her through the corridors to the CT scanning room.

At first, there are concerns she would not fit through the donut of medical technology, but after folding back those big hind legs that feel like old and weathered bike leather, along with dropping the table, Esmerelda is soon sliding in and out like a piston, and providing the information her doctors need.

It is not long before suspicions are confirmed.

READ MORE: Giant octopus spotted on Byron Bay beach

"We can definitely see that she's got some partially calcified material just sitting there in her oesophagus, just inside of her thoracic inlet," says Sarah Davies from Veterinary Imaging Associates.

"It also looks like she may have a little arthritis in her shoulder as well."

The imagery garnered will allow Taronga's vets to now fashion a treatment regime for their centenarian, but the immediate concern now, is making sure Esmerelda has company during her post-operative recovery, which is provided by the rainbow-haired reptile keeper, Del Leong.

"She actually does love massages; she puts her foot up, just so you can massage underneath her arm as well. And she loves a belly scratch," Del adds.

"Official tortoise massager is a job, it's part of my role."

"Great title!" I say, "Looks great on a business card."

For our scanner, it's the most unusual job she has executed today.

"Actually, I'd be pretty surprised if anyone else has done this, anywhere else in the world to be honest," says Sarah.

"I suspect today's a bit of a marker in your career," I say.

"Yeah, it's always exciting when the zoo comes here," says Sarah.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has taken aim at what he called Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's "showbag Budget", saying it pointed to the mistakes the Coalition has made in eight years of government.

Mr Albanese gave the Opposition Leader's traditional reply to the Morrison government's Federal Budget on Thursday night, two days after it was handed down on Tuesday.

"This Budget offers a low-growth, low-productivity and low-wage future," Mr Albanese said.

EXPLAINER: Your two-minute guide to the Budget

"And a trillion dollars of debt – is that really the best we can aspire to?"

Mr Albanese said a Labor government would follow "three guiding principles".

"One, an economy that delivers for working families. Two, investing in Australia's future," he said.

"And three, no-one held back and no-one left behind."

Mr Albanese returned to the theme of wage stagnancy, saying they had not grown in eight years while costs had kept rising, and claiming "real wages" would decline over the next four years.

"The Liberals offer up nothing but a showbag Budget," he said.

READ MORE: How the Budget affects an ordinary Aussie family

"Flashy enough to sell on Tuesday night, beginning to fall apart the very next day when the reality of falling real wages, vaccination confusion, infrastructure cuts and productivity inertia become apparent."

He said a Labor government would strengthen job security, including writing it into the Fair Work Act and forging a partnership between trade unions and business.

"We will make wage theft a crime," Mr Albanese said.

With Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Mr Frydenberg accused of delivering a Budget that mimicked Labor initiatives, including by Nine Political Editor Chris Uhlmann, Mr Albanese also claimed the Coalition had backflipped on policies they had once opposed – including on cheaper childcare.

"Now the government have rushed out a half-baked policy announcement that they say will lower the structural disincentive to work that they told us just six months ago didn't exist," Mr Albanese said.

"Labor's policy will not only deliver support to four times the number of families, it will boost the economy substantially and move towards the universal provision of affordable childcare for every family."

Like the Coalition, Mr Albanese also spruiked his plans to revitalise Australian industry and innovation, especially in technology development and renewable energy.

He also attacked the government's aged care investment of more than $17 billion, saying they had not funded enough new home care packages to "clear the current waiting list".

Mr Albanese announced Labor would also create a $10 billion housing future fund, set to build about 20,000 social housing properties in the first five years of its existence.

INTERACTIVE: Where your taxpayer money is being spent in the Budget

"This initiative will create over 21,500 jobs each year," he said.

"And one in 10 construction jobs created will be for apprentices."

A fifth of the estimated 20,000 properties would be allocated to women and children experiencing domestic violence, and older women on low incomes, he said.

Towards the end of his reply speech, Mr Albanese called for Australia's First Nations people to be recognised in the Constitution, and given a voice to Parliament.

"I truly believe this is a moment for Australia to make our own," he said.

"What we need now is a government with the plans to seize this chance, a government driven by optimism about the future, a government powered by determination to create opportunity, a government that holds no-one back, that leaves no-one behind, a Labor government that is on your side."