Hamas hands over bodies of hostages to Red Cross | Midday News Bulletin 15 October 2025

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Hamas hands over four bodies of hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross; a grim milestone reached for Aboriginal deaths in custody in New South Wales; and Australia's women's cricket side prepares for their showdown with Bangladesh.


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TRANSCRIPT
  • Hamas hands over four bodies of hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross
  • Grim milestone reached for Aboriginal deaths in custody in New South Wales
  • Australia's women's cricket side prepares for their showdown with Bangladesh
The bodies of four Israeli hostages have been handed to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza.

The bodies were then taken to the National Center for Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv where they will be identified and the families notified.

It comes after the exchange of the last 20 living hostages in Gaza - for some 2,000 prisoners and detainees held in Israeli prisons, as part of the ceasefire’s first phase.

Christian Cardon is from the ICRC.

He says the organisation has reopened its presence in Gaza City, and there remains a lot of work to do over coming weeks.

"The dignity of the human remains can be respected. And also the identification of the people to make sure as soon as possible. And what we also see as top priority at the moment it is about aid coming to the people. It is very important that in addition to the emergency aid that will be in the trucks, there is also materials to allow the key actors to rebuild these infrastructures."

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Authorities say the triple zero system in Victoria is back to normal after an early morning power outage.

The outage took out the computer-aided dispatch system at around 12.30am, forcing emergency call operators to revert to pen and paper to record information.

The system was down for a number of hours before gradually coming back online.

The Victorian government says the incident is being thoroughly investigated.

But opposition leader Brad Battin says the outage is a symptom of a much larger problem with the service.

"We've seen this too often, and we saw the results and outcomes in the past. When they ended up doing a review it came up with the conclusions of how you could fix triple zero. And at the same time they're supposed to be implementing those changes, the government cut the funding."

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Twelve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody in New South Wales so far in 2025.

It is the highest number ever recorded in a single 12-month period.

The figures come from an open letter published by State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan, who has called the deaths a profoundly distressing milestone and part of an entrenched over-representation of First Nations peoples in the criminal justice system.

The coroner has referred to data showing the number of Aboriginal people in custody has increased by almost 19 percent in the past five years, while the non-Aboriginal population in prison has declined.

She says nearly half of Indigenous adults in custody are on remand or have been refused bail awaiting further court outcomes.

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An Australian man has been charged after he allegedly transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to accounts in sanctioned Iranian banks.

Authorities say the 34-year-old, from Auburn in Sydney's west, ran a legitimate business helping Australian residents to send money overseas to families and friends.

But it is alleged that over the course of a year he sent almost $650,000 to banks in Iran that are subject to the Australian government's sanctions list.

The funds were sent over 543 international money transfers.

The alleged breach carries a maximum penalty of ten years’ imprisonment - and the possibility of steep fines.

The regulator tasked with fighting money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, has suspended the Auburn company’s remittance registration for one year.

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To sport and in cricket, Australia is talking up their chances ahead of the women's national squad's upcoming match against Bangladesh tomorrow.

Australia are the women's ODI World Cup defending champions, and will be aiming to win an unprecedented eighth 50-over World Cup title, as well as becoming the first women's team to claim consecutive titles since 1988.

Captain Alyssa Healy scored 142 to help Australia to beat India by three wickets on Sunday.

She has told the Willow Talk podcast, the team is preparing to bring their A-game against Bangladesh.

"Bangladesh have rattled a few cages, which has been really cool to see. That happens every World Cup, you get a couple of teams that come in and beat some of the bigger sides - or challenge some of the perceived bigger sides. So it has been tough work. And I think that is what a one-day World Cup is supposed to look like. Yeah, I think the next eight days are going to determine what the top four are starting to look like."

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