More rain forecast for Queensland's south-east; Melissa Dennis remembered as a popular and talented cyclist and David Warner announces his retirement from one-day international cricket.
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TRANSCRIPT
- More rain forecast for Queensland's south-east
- Melissa Dennis remembered as a popular and talented cyclist
- David Warner announces his retirement from one-day international cricket
Two evacuations centres have been set up on Queensland's Gold Coast with more heavy rain forecast for the state's south-east.
300 millimetres has fallen on the Gold Coast in the past 24 hours and the bureau is predicting there will be more heavy falls over the next day or so.
Acting Police Inspector Mick Williams is urging people to stay home and off the roads and says no one should be operating boats during the severe weather.
"Please stay off the roads, any roads wherever possible as we're finding that we've got a lot of people out on the road network that probably don't need to be out there. There has been issues in the last few days with people filming flooded roads and damaged roads etc so please stay off the road network if you can."
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Crowds crammed vantage points for Sydney Harbour's world-renowned pyrotechnics as revellers around the nation saw in the new leap year with traditional glee.
Victorians partied hard to usher in new year and police were pleased with crowds across the state after half a million gathered in Melbourne's C-B-D to watch fireworks displays.
Assistant Commissioner Mick Grainger says it was an overwhelmingly safe and enjoyable evening for most of the public.
Queensland Police Superintendent Andrew Pilotto say crowds in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast were smaller than expected, likely due to the weather.
"I can summarise New Year's Eve in Queensland as well behaved safe and heavily impacted by weather, the weather over the last two weeks and certainly last week. The unpredictability certainly had an impact on numbers in Brisbane Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. In Brisbane, we had around 60,000. We, we budgeted? Well, we plan for 100,000 people that were very well behaved. We had seven arrests and a number of other move-ons, which is a very low number Gold Coast had a handful of arrests. And now we're very happy also."
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Melissa Dennis is being remembered as a popular and talented competitor as Australian cycling reels from her death.
Olympic gold medallist Anna Meares paid tribute to Ms Dennis while AusCycling also released a statement.
The 32-year-old mother of two died in hospital after she was struck by a car on Saturday night in Adelaide's inner north.
The 33-year-old man who was arrested and charged over Ms Dennis' death is said to be her husband Rohan, an Olympic cycling medallist and former world champion who retired from competition in 2023.
South Australia Police say he has been charged with several offences and granted bail.
"The driver is known to the woman and following an investigation a 33-year-old Minindee man has been arrested and charged with causing death by dangerous driving, driving without due care and endangering life. He'll be bailed to appear in the Adelaide Magistrate's Court on the 13th of March."
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Displaced Palestinians in a makeshift refugee camp in Gaza wish to be able to return to their homes in the New Year after 12 weeks of a deadly war between Hamas and Israel.
Huddled around a fire, the al-Zeinaty family said they cannot find any good reason to celebrate the New Year.
"We do not feel that there is a new year because of the intensity of the pain we live in - all days are the same. Our celebrations are not celebrations. When can we celebrate? When we check on our children who we left behind in the north, in Jabalia and check on our people, about 80 people, from the rest of our family who are still in the north, then it will be a celebration. ... My tragedy lives inside me; the outside world does not feel it at all. Let them have their celebrations and leave me to live my tragedy."
The Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 21,800 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli fire and airstrikes since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out
The war erupted on the 7th of October when militants linked with Hamas, and other armed Palestinian groups, stormed southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, and abducted 240 others.
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David Warner has announced his retirement from one-day international cricket in the lead-up to his final Test match.
The veteran Australian opener says he is "comfortable" the time was right to conclude his O-D-I career following Australia's World Cup triumph in India late last year.
Warner flagged the decision would create opportunities to play franchise cricket overseas and will not rule out a comeback if Australia needs an opener for the ICC Champions Trophy in 2025.
"I'll make that decision today as well to retire from those forms which it does allow me to go and play some other leagues around the world and and sort of get the one day team sort of moving forward a little bit on either the Champions Trophy coming up and you know, look if I'm playing decent cricket still in two year’s time, and I'm around and you know, they need someone I'm going to be available."
The 37-year-old will play his final Test match against Pakistan at the S-C-G from Wednesday.
