Waikumete Cemetery mausoleum at the centre of funeral-director investigation.

Group boarded a bus into central Auckland before police found the vehicle and stopped it.

Formula One drivers have taken to the track for the first time today, burning rubber on the Albert Park circuit in practice laps ahead of the Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

Three people have been arrested after a body was found at a home in Sydney's north-west.

Police were called to a home on Gleness Place, Glenorie, which is about 44 kilometres north-west of Sydney CBD, about 11am.

Police found what they believe to be human remains at the home.

READ MORE: Australia's youngest murderer set to walk from prison in just hours

A crime scene has been established and homicide squad detectives are investigating, detectives.

The death is being treated as suspicious.

Two men and a woman were arrested nearby.

Police said they were assisting detectives with their inquiries.

More to come.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Chloe Wigg’s dad jumped out a window, saving their dog, but was hospitalised.

Two federal judges handed down orders requiring President Donald Trump's administration to rehire thousands, if not tens of thousands, of probationary workers let go in mass firings across multiple agencies on Thursday, slowing down for now the president's dramatic downsizing of the federal government.

Both judges separately found legal problems with the way the mass terminations were carried out and ordered the employees at least temporarily brought back on the job.

The Trump administration has already appealed the first ruling. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cast it as an attempt to encroach on the president's power to hire and fire employees.

READ MORE: Trump's trade war hits bourbon and bubbly hard

“The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order," she said in a statement.

In San Francisco, US District Judge William Alsup found on Thursday morning that terminations across six agencies were directed by the Office of Personnel Management and an acting director, Charles Ezell, who lacked the authority to do so.

READ MORE: Columbine death toll rises after survivor dies 26 years later

In Baltimore, US District Judge James Bredar found that the administration did not follow laws set out for large-scale layoffs, including 60 days' advance notice.

Bredar, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, ordered the firings temporarily halted and the workforce returned to the status quo before the layoffs began.

He sided with nearly two dozen states that filed a lawsuit alleging the mass firings are illegal and already having an impact on state governments as they try to help the suddenly jobless.

At least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since Trump took office, the lawsuit alleges, though the government has not confirmed that number, including advance notice required for affected states.

READ MORE: Wall Street spirals after Trump escalates his trade war

The Trump administration argues that the states have no right to try and influence the federal government’s relationship with its own workers.

Justice Department attorneys argued the firings were for performance issues, not large-scale layoffs subject to specific regulations.

The White House did not immediately return an email seeking comment on Bredar's ruling.

Probationary workers have been targeted for layoffs across the federal government because they’re usually new to the job and lack full civil service protection. Multiple lawsuits have been filed over the mass firings.

Alsup's order tells the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer job reinstatement to employees terminated on or about February 13 and 14.

He also directed the departments to report back within seven days with a list of probationary employees and an explanation of how the agencies complied with his order as to each person.

READ MORE: Trump threatens 200% tariff on European wine

The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and organisations as the Republican administration moves to reduce the federal workforce.

“These mass-firings of federal workers were not just an attack on government agencies and their ability to function, they were also a direct assault on public lands, wildlife, and the rule of law,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, one of the plaintiffs.

Alsup expressed frustration with what he called the government's attempt to sidestep laws and regulations governing a reduction in its workforce — which it is allowed to do — by firing probationary workers who lack protections and cannot appeal.

READ MORE: Fears of falling debris after Hilton Hotel fire on Gold Coast

He was appalled that employees were told they were being fired for poor performance despite receiving glowing evaluations just months earlier.

“It is sad, a sad day, when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie," he said. “That should not have been done in our country.”

Lawyers for the government maintain the mass firings were lawful because individual agencies reviewed and determined whether employees on probation were fit for continued employment.

READ MORE: US influencer at centre of wombat scandal flees Australia

But Alsup, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, has found that difficult to believe.

He planned to hold an evidentiary hearing Thursday, but Ezell, the OPM acting director, did not appear to testify in court or even sit for a deposition, and the government retracted his written testimony.

“I know how we get at the truth, and you’re not helping me get at the truth,” Alsup said to Kelsey Helland, an assistant US attorney.

READ MORE: Plane catches fire on tarmac at US airport, passengers escape on the wings

There are an estimated 200,000 probationary workers across federal agencies. They include entry-level employees but also workers who recently received a promotion.

About 15,000 are employed in California, providing services ranging from fire prevention to veterans’ care, according to the lawsuit filed by the coalition of labor unions and nonprofit organisations that represent parks, veterans and small businesses.

The plaintiffs said in their complaint that numerous agencies informed workers that the personnel office had ordered the terminations, with an order to use a template email informing workers their firing was for performance reasons.

Tauranga’s first Irish festival is taking place in Mount Maunganui this weekend.

A video of fire ants forming 'life rafts' on Queensland floodwaters has gone viral on social media, prompting concerns that the invasive species will enter NSW in the aftermath of ex-Cyclone Alfred.

Footage shared by Allenview resident Kirsty McKenna to Facebook on Wednesday shows swathes of fire ants forming clumps on a body of water near her property to stay alive.

READ MORE: Trump's trade war hits bourbon and bubbly hard

"There's piles of them everywhere, floating through the waterway, heading to the Logan River," said McKenna in the video.

"You can see the ants moving the eggs around in the pile, trying to get them in the middle to protect them, clinging on to anything just to stay afloat, until the water recedes and they can make a new nest."

Fire ants are an invasive species endemic to Queensland that can kill people, wildlife, and live stock, and destroy crops and machinery, with invasive species advocates urging state and federal governments to amp up suppression efforts.

READ MORE: Columbine death toll rises after survivor dies 26 years later

"As flood waters recede we are urging the community to look out for and report fire ant nests including in their backyards, local parks, beaches or bushland," Invasive Species Australia Advocacy Manager Reece Pianta says.

Recent heavy rainfall in south Queensland will spread high-density fire ant infestations and may sweep the ants into carrier materials like turf, he says, threatening other parts of Australia.

"Fire ants form large floating rafts that move with water currents. Disturbingly, new footage shows this rafting behaviour happening right now in flood-affected areas with high fire ant density like Logan, Scenic Rim and northern Gold Coast."

READ MORE: Wall Street spirals after Trump escalates his trade war

The NSW government has today announced that it will ban fire ant-carrying materials, such as hay, from infested and storm-impacted south-east Queensland areas from entering the state, in an effort to prevent an infestation.

"The impacts of Tropical Cyclone Alfred are being felt in our agricultural sector in the north of the state," Minister for Agriculture Tara Moriarty said.

"They need our support to get them back on their feet and don't want a fire ant incursion adding stress and strain to their recovery."

READ MORE: Restaurant chain vows compo payouts after diners 'urinated in broth'

However, ants simply floating into NSW is "not possible" based on hydrological analysis, NSW Chief Invasive Species Officer Scott Charlton said. Instead, human activities are most likely to cause an infestation.

"They will either be carried with materials such as soil, mulch, hay and turf, or fly in by natural spread from QLD," Moriarity said.

According to Pianta, fire ants are expected to exceed $2 billion per year in economic impacts on Australia's economy, and may cause over 650,000 extra medical appointments each year if they get out of control.

"Fire ants are one of the world's worst super pests and their unchecked spread will result in economic damage greater than that caused by cane toads, rabbits, feral cats and foxes combined," he says.

Pianta advises people to not put themselves, clothing, or belongings in direct contact with ants or their nests if they encounter them.

Emergency services are attending the blaze beside the road.

The fires are not thought to be linked to a threatening email that closed the school.