Lawyers for the trio said murder was never their intention.

The Government pulled off a successful infrastructure summit in Auckland.

He was diagnosed with leukaemia at 11 months, needing a stem cell transplant.

Anthony Albanese will join a phone call with a host of prominent European and other Western world leaders this weekend to discuss a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.

The prime minister confirmed today that he had been invited by UK counterpart Sir Keir Starmer to join the call tomorrow night, although said it was not certain what would come from the conference.

"I look forward to re-engaging with President Zelenskyy but with other democratic leaders as well," Albanese told reporters today.

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"I won't pre-empt what comes out of that meeting but Australia has of course stood with Ukraine since the beginning of this process."

Other leaders also attending include Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, France's Emmanuel Macron, New Zealand's Christopher Luxon, Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney and representatives from Germany and Italy.

The meeting comes weeks after Starmer first proposed putting British troops on the ground in Ukraine to maintain any eventual peace deal with Russia, which was followed by Albanese saying he would consider any request for Australian soldiers to join such a coalition of the willing.

"It's an illegal war. It's an immoral war. And it's one led by a Russian authoritarian dictator who has imperialistic designs on Ukraine and the region," Albanese said today.

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"This is a struggle for national sovereignty for the Ukrainian people but also a struggle for the rule of international law that is so important.

"That's why you have such overwhelming support from democratic nations."

He added that no peacekeeping plans have been committed to yet.

"We don't have peace, so therefore we don't have a peacekeeping agreement," he said.

Starmer, who has led efforts for a united European response to the war since Donald Trump re-entered the White House, has previously pledged to produce plan for peace in Ukraine to be presented to the United States.

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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has said he wouldn't send ADF personnel to Ukraine, and dismissed the idea this morning as a "thought bubble".

"We should continue to support Ukraine, but not with troops on the ground in Ukraine," Dutton said.

"(Support for Ukraine) did have a bipartisan position and it appears that Mr Dutton has walked away from that," Albanese countered this afternoon.

"That's a decision for him. But we stand with Ukraine and we stand against and remain committed to opposing the actions of Vladimir Putin."

Overnight, Putin said there are "issues" with a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire thatUkraine has agreed to, although said he agrees in principle to the plan.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.