- A fourth fatality confirmed as authorities investigate the Optus triple-zero outage
- Hamas issues a hostage farewell montage as Israel continues to pound Gaza City
- Reigning premiers Brisbane Lions book their spot in the AFL finals
A fourth person is confirmed to have died after being unable to contact the triple zero emergency line during a 10-hour Optus outage.
The telco has confirmed a second death in Western Australia and says police informed them the person had likely attempted to call triple zero for help.
An eight-week-old baby and 68-year-old woman died in Adelaide, while the third fatality linked to the incident, which involved up to 600 attempted triple-zero calls, involved a 74-year-old from Perth.
WA Premier Roger Cook says police have confirmed that a second West Australian fatality had tried repeatedly to contact Triple Zero..
“Optus needs to be held to account. They need to be accountable for this. And the fact that people appear to have lost their lives as a result of not being able to contact Triple Zero – and I say appears to as a result of not being able to contact Triple Zero – that is very serious indeed. And Optus will obviously need to answer to those families and I can imagine there will be serious legal ramifications.”
Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells says the Commonwealth government is investigating the Optus outage.
Optus CEO, Stephen Rue, says Optus will also conduct its own independent analysis of what happened.
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Hamas has published farewell photographs of most of the remaining hostages in Gaza, warning that Israel's assault on Gaza City could endanger their lives.
The militant group published a photo montage in which it accuses the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of refusing to agree to a ceasefire.
Of the 47 hostages remaining in Gaza, about 20 are thought to still be alive, as Israel escalates its attacks on Gaza City with ground troops and heavy air strikes.
Many hostage families have urged the government to halt the offensive, warning it risks the lives of their loved ones.
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Major European airports including Brussels, Berlin and London's Heathrow have been hit by a cyberattack on check-in systems that caused cancellations and long delays for thousands of passengers.
The problems were centred on MUSE software made by Collins Aerospace, which provides systems at 170 airports globally.
Collins Aerospace's parent company, RTX, said the impact of the attack was limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop, and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations.
Paul Charles, aviation and travel expert said the incident was uncommon, and deeply worrying.
"This is a very clever cyberattack indeed because it's affected a number of airlines and airports at the same time. Not just one airport or one airline but they've got into the core system that enables airlines to effectively check in many of their passengers at different desks at different airports around Europe. This is highly significant."
At Heathrow, Berlin and Brussels, 29 flight departures and arrivals had been cancelled as of midday on Saturday.
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Estonian military officials say they have evidence that a Russian incursion into the country's airspace was an intentional act.
It's the latest incident in a series of airspace violations ramping up tensions between Russia and NATO countries.
Officials say three Russian jets entered Estonia's airspace for 12 minutes before Italian NATO jets forced them out.
Russia has denied it violated Estonia's airspace, but Colonel Ants Kiviselg, Commander of Estonia’s Military Intelligence Center, says it's the fourth violation this year, and was not a mistake.
Poland and Romania have also reported violations of their airspace by Russia within the past fortnight.
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To sport now, and in A-F-L,
Reigning premiers Brisbane will play in their third straight season decider after a massive second half set them up for their 29-point preliminary final win against Collingwood.
Saturday's 100 to 71 victory ended up being conclusive, but controversy erupted in the last quarter when Magpies forward Jamie Elliott was not paid a free kick close to goal.
It proved to be a decisive turning point, with the Lions scoring soon afterwards, kicking off a four-goal burst that won them the clash.
Lions coach Chris Fagan says he'll leave it to others to commentate on the umpire's call.
"You know, you're right, it probably was at a delicate stage in the game. That's the way it goes. Preliminary finals are like that. They're emotional, emotional, fast paced, crazy games of football (and) both games have been like that. Last night was, and I think tonight was as well. So, yeah, I'll let all the experts on umpiring decide what should have been paid there."
The Lions will meet Geelong in a grand final for the first time next Saturday [[27 SEPT]].
