The victim said the offender was ‘dangerous’ and needed to be held to account.

A DNA breakthrough has led to the arrest of a 65-year-old man almost three decades after a nine-year-old boy was allegedly sexually assaulted on the NSW Central Coast.

The boy was allegedly sexually assaulted by a stranger on March 26, 1996.

Detectives at the time investigated but were unable to make any arrests.

READ MORE: Russia pushes ahead of Australia in Asia power rankings

But now, thanks to continued investigation and advances in forensic DNA technology, detectives have arrested a 65-year-old man at Bathurst Police Station.

He was charged with sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 10 years and attempted sexual intercourse with a person under 10 years.

He was refused bail and will face the Bail Division Court 4 today.

At the time of the alleged sexual assault, the man would have been 35 or 36.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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Mayor Rehette Stoltz says the shake-up starts a wider national discussion.

Auckland Council decides to support Government plan for more concerts – ‘in principle’.

MetService warns the sticky heat may linger until Tuesday.

The stabbing death of a ride attendant at Sydney's Royal Easter Show was not murder but rather, an impaired 14-year-old's impulsive and immediate action without a thought of consequences.

The teenager was acquitted of murder today after arguing he did not intend to seriously injure when he lunged at and stabbed Uati "Pele" Faletolu in April 2022.

The knife penetrated the heart of the 17-year-old Uati, who was on a break and meeting two friends.

READ MORE: Boy stabbed at primary school in Melbourne's south-east

The confrontation occurred by chance after the killer and two friends – all members of a rival street gang – crossed paths with Uati.

Within 10 seconds, the 14-year-old lunged through a gap in his friends, knifed Uati once and then bolted.

Prosecutors argued the teen's motivation to kill was underlined by self-stated animosity towards people associated with Uati's street gang.

The teen texted "GG 67 motherf—–" after the stabbing and later wrote a rap that "Should have worked at Maccas. Now he's dead. We smoke him up."

He also typed a note into his phone which included, "I didn't beat him up. I took his soul".

He also had a "fascination with knives" and gave each of his weapons individual names, including "Barbie" for the knife used in the killing, the Crown told the trial.

But NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling dismissed the post-killing statements as the boasts of an adolescent trying to bolster an image of being a gang member.

He placed weight on evidence of the teen's troubled childhood, featuring beatings by his drunk father when he tried to stop violence toward his mum, and being stabbed himself aged 13 when walking to football training.

The boy joined the local "Ready for Anything" gang in Mount Druitt afterwards, crediting the members for helping him during his recovery.

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He was with other gang members on April 11, 2022, when he attended the Easter show and came across Uati, a member of Doonside's 67 gang.

"The confrontation occurred by chance and without planning," Justice Garling said.

The teen's actions were impulsive and a response to the confrontation, but triggered by his then-undiagnosed PTSD and heightened perceptions of threat, the judge found.

"I'm satisfied the accused's action was impulsive, thoughtless and immediate without any consideration of the consequences," he said. 

"After all, he was a psychosocially immature adolescent who was only 14 years old."

Community standards would recognise young adolescents, especially those who had suffered a hard upbringing, are prone to thoughtless actions, he said.

"These (actions) are not the traits of a criminal mind or criminal behaviour," Justice Garling said.

The boy, who was also of Pacific Islander heritage, faced the judge-alone trial after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in an earlier trial.

He had pleaded guilty to Uati's manslaughter and will be sentenced at a later date.

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Australia's power and influence in Asia has dropped beneath Russia, while long-held US ascendancy in the region is at risk, new research shows.

The Lowy Institute's 2025 Asia Power Index found the top five countries for overall power are: the US, China, India, Japan and Russia.

Australia drops one place in this year's ranking, to sixth.

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Experts from the think tank said Australia's slip down the overall rankings was down to other nations' stronger economic and military resources.

Benefiting from the support of authoritarian partners China and North Korea, Russia regained fifth spot.

Australia faces a long-term challenge to maintain relative power in Asia, the think tank said.

The research also found the US is losing ground in Asia, recording its lowest ever score in the 2025 Asia Power Index.

While the superpower has the "resources and influence that will survive any single administration", the US President Donald Trump's policies have been a net negative for US power in the region.

The benefactor is China, which is closing the gap with the US on the power index to its narrowest margin since 2020.

China is well placed to withstand coercive US economic policies.

It has also successfully positioned itself as a reliable partner amid uncertainty about the US approach to Asia.

Launched by the Lowy Institute in 2018, the index ranks the relative power of 27 countries and territories in the Indo-Pacific region, by assessing their strengths against 131 indicators across eight benchmarks.

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Residents in Hong Kong have set up a crowdsourced app to keep track of who's safe and who remains missing following the deadly fire that ripped through a residential complex.

The website appears to list all the apartments in the Wang Fuk Court high-rises, where dozens of people have died and hundreds remain missing from the devastating overnight blaze.

The rooms are marked either green, to signify the residents are safe, or red, indicating the occupants are still missing and require assistance, with those reports based on information submitted to the site's administrators through a series of forms and spreadsheets.

READ MORE: Death toll rises in horror Hong Kong high-rise inferno

According to the site, there are more than 100 apartments whose residents remain unaccounted for, as of 11:30am (AEDT), the bulk of whom are in building blocks E and F.

While many of the entries are short and provide little information, some come with more detailed messages about who is missing.

"A 41-year-old man went missing at 16:45," one reads, according to a translation of the message.

"His last message was that he was trapped in (a) stairwell."

READ MORE: Police continue to scour bushland for missing mum Samantha Murphy

Many of the "SOS" entries suggest that a significant number of those who remain missing are elderly residents.

"Three elderly people, one with dementia and another with a back problem, have been missing for nine hours," one reads.

"Grandma Yang has been out of contact since the afternoon," says another.

Hong Kong authorities have arrested three people on suspicion of manslaughter in relation to the fire.

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Australians have been blocked from three of the world's most popular deepfake nudify websites after they were used to create AI-generated deepfakes of school children.

Itai Tech restricted accessibility to some of its websites after the eSafety Commission threatened to take the UK-based company to court for $49.5 million over its failure to comply with mandatory codes and standards.

The company was told that their services have been used in high-profile cases of Australian school children creating deepfake explicit images of their peers.

READ MORE: Police continue to scour bushland for missing mum Samantha Murphy

The sites allow users to upload images of real people, including children, to undress and depict in several ways, including as a schoolgirl, in lingerie and in BDSM.

Itai Tech's websites are the most popular in the world, with the eSafety Commission estimating they received about 100,000 visits a month in Australia alone. 

"We know 'nudify' services have been used to devastating effect in Australian schools, and with this major provider blocking their use by Australians we believe it will have a tangible impact on the number of Australian school children falling victim to AI-generated child sexual exploitation," Commissioner Inman Grant said.

"We took enforcement action in September because this provider failed to put in safeguards to prevent its services being used to create child sexual exploitation material and were even marketing features like undressing 'any girl,' and with options for 'schoolgirl' image generation and features such as 'sex mode'."

Itai Tech also blocked UK users from its website after it was fined £50,000 ($101,000) earlier this month for not having age checks.

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Global AI model hosting platform Hugging Face has also changed its terms of service after some models were misused to create deepfake sexual exploitation material of real children and survivors of sexual abuse.

Following a warning from the eSafety Commission, the platform has instructed all account holders to take steps to minimise the risks associated with the models, specifically to prevent the generation of child sexual exploitation or pro-terror material.

eSafety said it was targeting the AI consumer tools, as well as the underlying models that power them and the platforms that host them.

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Exclusive: Australians have voted on the most annoying driving habits and countless motorists are guilty of the top offenders.

Several of which can attract hefty fines and penalties.

A survey from Youi revealed the six most annoying driving habits encountered on Australian roads.

READ MORE: The $1200 seatbelt crime countless Aussies have committed without even realising

Tailgating took the top spot, with more than half of the Aussies surveyed branding it one of the top three most annoying driving habits.

More than 40 per cent ranked it number one.

Not using indicators was in second place, with 36 per cent of the Aussies surveyed putting it in their top three most annoying habits.

In third place was cutting into a lane without warning, which 29 per cent of Aussies included in their top three.

Driving too slowly in the right lane, using a phone while driving and road rage were also commonly cited among the most annoying habits Aussies experience on our roads.

Almost 40 per cent of respondents said they witnessed these annoying and potentially unsafe driving habits weekly.

Nearly one in five reported experiencing them almost daily.

About a quarter said they had reported other drivers for unsafe or annoying behaviour on Australian roads in the past.

When asked how these bad habits should be combatted, more than 40 per cent of Aussies were in favour of stricter penalties.

And the penalties for some of these behaviours are already pretty severe.

Tailgating

Tailgating, or following a lead vehicle too closely, is dangerous and illegal in Australia.

Fines and penalties are as follows:

• NSW: $562 fine and three demerit points
• Queensland: $389 fine and one demerit point
• Victoria: $305.26 fine and one demerit point
• ACT: $447 fine and one demerit point
• SA: $414 fine and one demerit point
• WA: $200 fine and two demerit points
• NT: N/A
• Tasmania: fine of up to 10 penalty units ($2050)

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Not using indicators

Failing to indicate when turning or misusing indicator lights could land drivers with a fine and other penalties.

Fines and penalties are as follows:

• NSW: $235 fine and two demerit points
• Queensland: $100 and two demerit points
• Victoria: $203.51 fine and up to two demerit points
• ACT: $224 fine
• SA: $392 fine and two demerit points
• WA: N/A
• NT: $60
• Tasmania: $146 fine and two demerit points

Cutting in without warning

It is an offence to not give adequate room to other cars when overtaking or overtake when it's not safe, also known as 'cutting in'. 

Fines and penalties are as follows:

• NSW: $423 fine and two demerit points
• Queensland: $233 and two demerit points
• Victoria: $407.02 fine and two demerit points
• ACT: $335 fine and two demerit points
• SA: $377 fine and two demerit points
• WA: $400 fine and four demerit points
• NT: $70
• Tasmania: fine of up to 10 penalty units ($2050)

READ MORE: NSW e-bike crackdown looms with fines up to $825k for breaching new safety requirements

Driving too slowly in the right lane

There are no specific road rules or penalties for driving too slowly in the right lane.

However, it is an offence in all states and territories to drive significantly below the speed limit and in doing so create an obstruction for other vehicles.

Drivers can also face penalties for driving in the right lane when not overtaking on a road with 'keep left unless overtaking' signs posted, or on some roads with high speed limits.

Using a phone while driving

Using or even touching a phone while driving is illegal in all Australian states and territories.

Fines and penalties are as follows:

• NSW: fines start at $423 and five demerit points
• Queensland: $1,251 fine and four demerit points
• Victoria: $611 fine and four demerit points
• ACT: $548 fine to $674 and three to four demerit points
• SA: $658 fine and three demerit points
• WA: $500 fine to $1000 and four demerit points
• NT: $500 fine and three demerit points
• Tasmania: $410 fine and three demerit points

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Aggressive driving/road rage

Aggressive driving and road rage aren't standalone offences in Australia, but engaging in engaging in violent or aggressive behaviour on the road can attract hefty fines and penalties, including prison time.

Furious and reckless driving is knowingly or carelessly driving in a way which seriously endangers others.

Predatory and menacing driving offences occur when a driver pursues or threatens someone else on the road with the intent to cause physical injury.

Fines and penalties vary depending on the specific offence and where it occurred.

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