TRANSCRIPT
- A man charged over the alleged rape of an elderly woman at an aged care home
- The latest COVID-19 vaccines approved for use
- Rugby Australia pledges a new way forward for the sport.
A man has been charged with raping an elderly woman in a nursing home on the New South Wales Central Coast.
Police allege the man carried out the attack after breaking into a facility in Bateau Bay on November 15.
The 90-year-old woman was taken to hospital where she was treated for serious injuries.
Detective Superintendent Jane Doherty says her heart goes out to the victim and the other residents of the aged care home.
"It's horrendous that someone - any person - in the safety of their home would be attacked like this. But to attack a very defenceless old lady is beyond belief."
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A man has been taken to hospital in a critical condition after being shot in a clash between rival groups in regional Victoria.
Victoria Police say the 28-year-old was shot when two groups of men fought at a property in Moe, about 135 kilometres southeast of Melbourne.
Five men have been arrested over the shooting and are being questioned by police.
It is believed the groups know each other.
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The latest COVID-19 vaccines targeting common variants of the virus will be made available to Australians from next month.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says the government has approved the monovalent vaccines, which target Omicron variants, after taking advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.
Mr Butler says the new XBB 1.5 vaccines have been found to provide modest improved protection against the strains currently circulating in the community.
But federal health authorities say people who have already had their 2023 vaccinations don't need to get jabbed again and remain well protected against severe disease.
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Government bodies will examine the stability of the triple zero call network in the wake of the mass Optus outage that prevented hundreds of emergency calls from coming through.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has independently begun an assessment to investigate Optus's compliance with rules on emergency calls, which cover obligations as conducting welfare checks on people making unsuccessful emergency calls during an outage and providing access to emergency call services.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told Sky News the government will also set up a review into the outage that may analyse the nation's emergency call framework.
"We'll be transparent about sending that message through to the private sector as well as to the public sector... We'll be doing further work on a range of issues, including cyber security of course this week as well. We've been working with the private sector for some time, but clearly this was just a complete fail."
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The United States Defence Secretary has paid a surprise visit to Kyiv to announce a new raft of military aid for Ukraine.
Lloyd Austin has told Ukrainian officials that the Pentagon will send an additional $100 million in weapons from existing US stockpiles, including artillery, munitions for air defence systems, and another High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.
Mr Austin says money and weapons will keep flowing to Ukraine even as US and international resources are stretched by the new global risks raised by the Israel-Hamas conflict.
He says that is because Ukraine's effort to defeat Russian forces matters to everyone in the world.
"This is more than just Ukraine alone. This is about the rules-based international order. This is about making sure that an autocrat cannot overrun his peaceful neighbour at will."
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To sport,
New Rugby Australia chairman Dan Herbert is promising to listen to the people after taking a thinly-veiled parting shot at his maverick predecessor, Hamish McLennan - who was ousted in a late night board meeting at the weekend.
Herbert has said fans and stakeholders must not be ignored as the governing body strives to pick up the pieces in the wake of the Wallabies' disastrous World Cup campaign.
Herbert says the reform must start at the grassroots.
