A man who previously admitted to the kidnap and sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl in Newcastle has pleaded guilty to three further offences.

Five men are charged over the murder of a Queensland man who was beaten to death with a steel bar before his mutilated body was dumped, set alight and eventually found by firefighters near Taree.

MORNING BRIEFING: Former Newcastle Knights star Jarrod Mullen is charged over his alleged role in a cocaine ring in the Hunter region and Australia's country music industry is in shock after singer and producer Glen Hannah dies.

A NSW court hears 81-year-old David Allen Esling, charged with the attempted stabbing murder of his wife of 54 years in April, had formed a suicide pact with her.

Police are appealing for witnesses after a car hit two women in an "horrific" incident in Nambucca Heads on Saturday night, with the mother of one of the women later charged with manslaughter.

MORNING BRIEFING: A woman has been charged with murder after a man was found with multiple stab wounds in a Sydney apartment complex, while easing weather conditions have helped firefighters in Tenterfield gain the upper hand on a bushfire.

A 36-year-old man is charged with murder following an alleged hit-and-run attack on two men in Perth's south in the early hours of Easter Sunday.

A 56-year-old woman has been charged with acts likely to endanger life for allegedly driving with her teenage daughter on the bonnet of a car.

Micheal McRae is accused of bashing his baby son Nathaniel, leaving him with severe brain injuries, but the charge is upgraded after the boy spent a year fighting for life in hospital.

A man has been charged after he allegedly attempted to drop eight tonnes of animal manure at the offices of Tasmanian politicians.

DAILY BRIEFING: Investigators says a fire a Hobart cafe started when towels ignited in a dryer and a 16-year-old boy is charged with an attempted armed robbery in Launceston.

DAILY BRIEFING: Police allege a motorcyclist was doing more than 200km/h, and Tasmania's Basslink interconnector will be back up and running by Monday.

The Peck family want the Tasmanian Government to overhaul the Mental Health Act so clinicians can consider a patient's history and risk of self-harm when considering involuntary treatment orders.

DAILY BRIEFING: Two people plead not guilty to charges relating to the deaths of 16 polo ponies, police charge two men after last week's stabbing, and there are concerns over the second Bass Strait interconnector.

DAILY BRIEFING: A trio of women calling themselves the 'knitting nannas' are arrested for staging a climate change protest, and Hobart rent outpaces Melbourne for unaffordability.

Police charge a 32-year-old Victorian man with murder after an Afghan man's body was found yesterday afternoon near Ceduna, in South Australia's west.

A woman has faced court charged with murder following the death of a man at Port Augusta in South Australia's north.

Parishioners in rural communities are increasingly perform the role of priests, taking funerals and Sunday celebrations into their own hands.

A Victorian man is expected to be charged with the manslaughter of his 35-year-old partner Shae Francis, who was last seen when she visited her mother at the Hervey Bay Hospital in October.

A woman who forged documents to become an au pair is arrested for allegedly kidnapping two girls aged four and 10 months.

A Bendigo court orders a woman charged with child stealing to provide a DNA sample after she refused to cooperate with authorities. Her lawyer says the woman remains in hospital waiting for an MRI test.

The Victorian Government said ongoing conflict between councillors had reduced the respect for, and standing of, the council in the community.

The mother of a two-year-old boy who died in Melbourne's outer-south-east on Monday speaks of her grief as the man charged with his murder is remanded in custody.

Police have charged a man with the wilful murder of Sarah Spiers, a victim of the so-called Claremont serial killings in Perth in the 1990s.

A prominent French journalist and his television crew are charged with trespass after being arrested while filming protesters near the Abbot Point coal terminal in north Queensland.

Police drop trespass charges against prominent French journalist Hugo Clement and his film crew, following their arrest while filming anti-Adani protesters at Abbot Point earlier this week.

The father of an 11-year-old Townsville girl, who was tasered by police, after allegedly stabbing a teacher, apologises saying he has "no idea" what was going through his daughter's mind.

No charges will be laid against the organisers of a car festival that left Chaise Bouchere with horrific burns to his face and limbs, after the Northern Territory safety watchdog decided that funding future safety initiatives would be more beneficial.

The legalisation of marijuana has boosted tourism and created jobs in parts of the United States, and it could do the same in the Northern Territory, an economist says.

Police charge a woman with common assault after the Prime Minister is egged while meeting with delegates from the Country Women's Association in Albury, on the NSW-Victorian border.

Amber Holt, who is accused of throwing an egg at Scott Morrison during a CWA meeting in Albury earlier this month, pleads guilty to possessing a prohibited drug but her lawyer says a charge of common assault requires "further representation".

Two teenagers accused of killing a man in north-east Victoria admit they "bashed" him because he offered to pay one of their girlfriends for sex, a court hears.

The Northern Territory's largest bus operator is facing a litany of charges over the death of a worker who died after falling into the path of her own tour bus.

A man in his 70s is remanded in custody over a string of alleged child abuse offences uncovered in a joint investigation between NSW Police, Northern Territory Police and the Australian Federal Police.

Alexandros Deligiannis, the man police believe was the original target of Darwin's June mass shooting, faces court charged with three driving offences including driving with a prohibited drug in the body.

The 21-year-old Canberra Raiders player will still be banned from play when a new NRL season kicks off next year, after he was handed an eight-match ban for a dangerous contact charge.

The Kambah man could face serious assault charges after allegedly attempting to escape police twice, first while driving unregistered and later while being treated in hospital, when he injured two people.

A Canberra brothel owner who was charged with allowing an unlawful citizen to work and gain entry to Australia will spend no further time behind bars after the court found she did not underpay or exploit her employees.

A Canberra man appears before court facing child exploitation charges, after Tinder reported his alleged conversations searching for a young Thai girl to a United States cyber safety watchdog.

One of Australia's former top police officers says he is not guilty of the alleged offences, which his lawyer describes as "trivial".

Despite his home being raided four years ago, Roger Uren has now been arrested and charged with breaching national secrecy rules.

The Australian Federal Police is assessing whether to suspend officer Ivan Kovacic after he allegedly committed an act of indecency on a woman he had invited to his apartment with her two friends to try some craft beer.

A Snowy Mountains RSL wants charges laid against the local council, which it has accused of desecrating part of a war memorial that a historian says has "state significance".

A 27-year-old man arrested over a dramatic shooting in Canberra yesterday, has faced the ACT Magistrates Court on nine charges, including shooting at a woman and trying to steal her car.

A Cairns apprentice's charges are upgraded to unlawful striking causing death after a man he allegedly hit during a fight outside a bar on the weekend dies in hospital.

There are concerns, and equally hopes, that an extension to a ban on live sheep exports and cruelty charges against a live exporter are eroding the livestock exporting industry.

An endangered marsupial known for mating itself to death disappears from one of its most prominent Queensland habitats.

Six people have now been charged over the 2012 murder of Jason De Ieso, who was shot dead in his Pooraka workshop in Adelaide's northern suburbs. Police say he was caught in a dispute between the Finks and Hells Angels.