Brendon Hamilton never saw the knife coming when his girlfriend fatally stabbed him in the neck, a murder trial prosecutor told jurors today.But the defence at Rikki-Lee Simeon’s trial said Hamilton, 21, was drunk and aggressive…

Cases of the flesh-eating Buruli ulcer have appeared in inner-city Melbourne from Victoria's coastal areas for the first time.

The Department of Health issued a warning that the skin infection, sometimes known as the 'Bairnsdale ulcer', has made it's way to Essendon, Brunswick West and Moonee Ponds.

The disease causes a range of symptoms ranging from mild inflammation of the bite and fever to large, open sores or ulcers that can lead to limb amputation in severe cases.

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The ulcer, which in early stages usually presents as an insect or spider bite, is most frequently found at Rye, Sorrento, Blairgowrie and Tootgarook on the Mornington Peninsula.

There is a moderate risk of infection on the Bellarine Peninsula including Ocean Grove, Barwon Heads, Point Lonsdale, Queenscliff, and the Frankston and Seaford areas in Melbourne.

A low risk is associated with the rest of the Bellarine and Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne's south-eastern bayside suburbs and East Gippsland.

The recent detection of Buruli ulcer in Melbourne's inner west means this location is a new area of interest, the health department said in a statement.

"This is the first non-coastal area in Victoria to be recognised as a potential area of risk."

Buruli ulcer is understood to be transmitted by mosquitoes and has a median incubation period of four to five months.

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The infection usually presents as a small risen bite and it is usually found on exposed areas, particularly arms or legs.

Preventative measures include avoiding insect bites by using fly screens, insect repellent, wearing long sleeves and trousers when outside.

Wearing gardening gloves, long-sleeved shirts and trousers when gardening or working outdoors and reducing mosquito breeding sites by limiting areas where water can pool.

The Department of Health said while the recent cases in the inner-west were the first in that area, the risk at the moment is reasonably low.

Anyone concerned should go and get checked by their doctor.

"Early diagnosis is critical to prevent skin and tissue loss," the health department advises.

"Buruli ulcer must be notified to the Department within five days of diagnosis."

A 'Beating Buruli in Victoria' research project is underway which involves the Department of Health, the Doherty Institute, Barwon Health, Austin Health, Agriculture Victoria, the University of Melbourne and Mornington Peninsula Shire.

Craig Kelly has stunned colleagues by quitting the Liberal Party and moving to the crossbench, telling 9News he intends to run at the next election as an independent.

The NSW Liberal, who faced an uphill battle for pre-selection in his seat of Hughes, said he was resigning from the party because he felt restrained in what he could post online in regards to coronavirus treatments.

Mr Kelly told 9News he has been approached by Barnaby Joyce to join the Nationals, and while he hasn't ruled it out, indicated that move would be highly unlikely.

READ MORE: Craig Kelly quits Liberal Party to move to the crossbench

Earlier, the prime minister said he would not be "distracted" after Mr Kelly's resignation, which squeezes the number in the lower for Scott Morrison's government.

The backbench MP had been widely criticised by leading health officials over claims he was pushing misinformation about Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin through a series of Facebook posts.

Mr Kelly denies ever posting misinformation, but earlier this month was hauled before the prime minister for a please explain over his posts after a very public and heated exchange with Labor's Tanya Plibersek.

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Horizons Regional Council has apologised to a Whanganui hapū after a consent was granted to excavate a section of the Punakewhitu/Gentle Annie maunga without consultation.Work was suspended on the site last week after 120…

Facebook is set to end its ban on Australian news appearing on its platform just six days after the controversial decision was implemented.

Facebook has told the Federal Government it intends to restore Australian news pages "in the coming days" following amendments to the News Media and Digital Bargaining Code.

Currently, all Australian news pages are blocked from sharing content and all users are banned from sharing links to Australian news sources.

READ MORE: Facebook exec apologises for pages caught up in Aussie news ban

https://twitter.com/jekearsley/status/1364061667793936388

The amendments to the code aim to provide "further clarity" to the proposed media code.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the social media giant was engaging with the government in seeking a solution to the stalemate.

"Facebook has committed to entering into good faith negotiations with Australian news media businesses and seeking to reach agreements to pay for content. 

"This follows a series of intensive negotiation, the Minister, the Prime Minister, and the head of the ACCC Treasury and myself.

"We have agreed to make some clarifications to the code," Mr Frydenberg said. 

Under the amendments, it must be considered whether a digital platform (such as Facebook) "has made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry".

The code now accounts for digital platforms that have struck independent payment deals with publishers outside of mandatory payment structures.

Mr Frydenberg said he was grateful to Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg for taking part in negotiations.

"I want to thank Mark Zuckerberg for the constructive nature of the discussions we have had over the course of recent days. It has been a difficult process, but these are really important issues.

READ MORE: Watch: Facebook executive explains Australian news ban

"These are important issues because the purpose of the code and the purpose of the Morrison Government's intentions have been designed to sustain public interest journalism in this country," he said.

In a release, Mr Frydenberg said the changes will encourage dialogue between publishers and the major digital platforms.

"These amendments also add further impetus for parties to engage in commercial negotiations outside the Code – a central feature of the framework that the Government is putting in place to foster more sustainable public interest journalism in Australia," Mr Frydenberg said.

"The Government has been advised by Facebook that it intends to restore Australian news pages in the coming days."

A spokesperson for Nine (the publisher of this website) said the business welcomed resuming discussion with Facebook.

"We are pleased the Government have found a compromise on the Digital Code legislation to move Facebook back into the negotiations with Australian media organisations," the spokesperson said.

"We look forward to constructive discussions resuming."

In a statement, Facebook's Australia and New Zealand Managing Director William Easton said the platform was "pleased" to have reached an agreement with the government.

"After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognize the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them," Mr Easton wrote.

"As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days."

It will take days for Australian news pages to be restored to Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg told Mr Frydenberg. 

In a phone call the Facebook founder told the Treasurer the restoration of local news pages will depend on "engineering details". 

"Their behaviour last week was regrettable, and I expressed that very directly to Mark himself," Mr Frydenberg said.  

"I said, not only was the Australian government disappointed in what Facebook did, but we were disappointed in the way they did it, because we weren't given any advance notice." 

A dog is lucky to be uninjured after he travelled under a moving car on a NSW highway for half an hour.

The 18-month-old Jack Russell named Diesel travelled 30 minutes from Singleton to Huntlee.

Emergency services rescued the canine from under the motor of a vehicle this morning.

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A Fire and Rescue NSW team was involved with the rescue and returned the dog to its owner.

A woman has narrowly escaped injury after a B-double truck crashed into her house in Victoria's south-west this morning.

The truck collided with a school bus at the intersection of Hamilton Highway and Dundas Street in Inverleigh, 28 kilometres west of Geelong, before ploughing into the home about 8am.

Resident Rachel, who lives inside the house, told 3AW the B-double rammed through her bedroom wall just moments after she left the room, causing "significant damage".

READ MORE: Body found inside burnt-out vehicle in bushland on Victoria's coast

"I had just walked out of the bedroom to go into the bathroom to have a shower," she told Neil Mitchell.

"It was a very confronting moment.

"I'm still in a little bit of shock. I feel a bit sick."

The shaken resident said it was "very lucky" others were not seriously injured.

"There's a lot of people that are very lucky they haven't been injured in this case," she said.

"The bus didn't have any kids on board, which is such a relief."

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Bus company McHarry's in a statement told 9News the truck allegedly failed to give way at the intersection, crashing into the school bus.

Witnesses alerted the authorities to the collision with paramedics, police, SES and the Country Fire Authority (CFA) attending the scene.

The male bus driver was airlifted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with lower leg injuries.

"Our thoughts are with our driver who is a long-term trusted, reliable employee and we all hope and pray for his quick recovery and return to duties," McHarry's said in a statement.

"Transport Safety Victoria were also informed of the incident."

The truck driver, a 28-year-old man from Tyntyndel, managed to escape without any injuries.

There were no passengers on the school bus at the time of the crash.

Police are continuing to investigate the incident.

Anyone who witnessed the collision or with dashcam footage is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

NRL player Corey Horsburgh has been fined $500 and had his licence suspended for three months for drink driving.

The Canberra Raiders forward admitted he had "10 or 11" drinks before getting behind the wheel on Christmas Eve last year.

He was pulled over in the early hours of Christmas Day for failing to indicate on a roundabout and breath-tested.

"I am aware what I did was wrong, I am disappointed I let the club down and my family," the 23-year-old said outside court today.

"I'm glad it's all done and I'm just looking forward to playing some football now."

The incident has been referred to the NRL Integrity Unit.

One of four men accused of murdering two people, stuffing their bodies in a toolbox and dumping it in a Kingston dam in Queensland, has entered a plea.

Trent Michael Thrupp pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Brisbane Supreme Court. But the prosecution refused to accept his plea, the court was told.

Mr Thrupp, along with Stou Daniels, Davy Malu Junior Taiao, and Waylon Ngaketo Cowan Walker are all charged with murdering Iuliana Triscaru, and Cory Breton back in January 2016.

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The pair were reported missing, their bodies found 18 days later.

Thrupp, Daniels, and Taiao are also charged with torturing the victims.

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All four have pleaded not guilty to murder on the first day of the trial.

The trial is expected to run for four weeks.

New satellite imagery points to China building "full-blown military bases" on artificial islands in the South China Sea.

Construction of radar antennae mounts on Mischief Reef could be part of a military installation, a report by geospatial software company Simularity claims.

The ring-shaped reef, 250 kilometres from the Philippines, has been claimed and occupied by China since 1995.

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The satellite images show building work in seven areas between May 2020 and February 2021.

One image dated May 7, 2020 shows an empty plot of land, which is now occupied by a 16 metre-wide cylindrical structure.

According to Simularity, it could be a "possible antennae mount structure".

Another image shows a concrete structure with a weatherproof enclosure used to protect a radar antennae nearby.

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Simularity said this could "possibly be a fixed radar structure".

Other sites on Mischief Reef appear in mid-construction or have been cleared for development.

China has claimed almost all of the South China Sea, and since 2014 has built up tiny reefs and sandbars into man-made artificial islands heavily fortified with missiles, runways and weapons systems – prompting outcry from the other governments.

At least six other governments also have overlapping territorial claims in the contested waterway: the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Trade shipments worth trillions of dollars pass through the South China Sea every year.

Mischief Reef has been at the centre of tensions between China and the Philippines.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that it is within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

Relations between China and the Philippines remain strained.

Last month, China passed a law that gave its navy and coast guard the power to take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty in the disputed waters.