Major update after Aussies 'poisoned' in Fiji, Qantas offers refunds after deadly earthquake, state issued emergency alert

An Amber alert has been issued after police fear a young girl was taken from a Queensland property.

Police are urging Queenslanders to assist in the location of the girl, who was allegedly taken from a facility in Beach Rd, Maroochydore about 10.45am on Thursday by a man police say is known to her.

The child was seen being put into a dark blue Toyota HiLux as the man – believed to be in his 40s – fled the scene.

The girl, who police say may be “at significant risk” has blonde hair and was wearing black and white checkered shorts, a navy blue shirt and white sandals.

Never judge a book by its cover, as the saying goes.

Plenty of people were intrigued by the look of this quaint detached home in North Sydney, but there's a big surprise behind the picture-perfect facade.

The home sold for what at first appears to be a bargain $1.55 million, yet on closer inspection, there's plenty of work to do.

That's because the owners had recently painted the front of the home to give it a bit of street appeal, yet the rest of the home is in a pretty miserable state with hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to renovate the home.

BresicWhitney agent Louise Barton told Domain the paint job certainly got people looking at the three-bed property before its sale at auction.

“Probably the main question I’ve had throughout this campaign has been the façade,” she said.

Well this doesn't look good.

Potential train strikes for New Year's Eve in Sydney are a step closer to becoming a reality after an 11th-hour injunction to halt strike action was tossed out.

NSW rail union secretary Toby Warnes says rail bosses have failed to act after a strike last month was stopped at the last minute.

On Thursday, a judge said previous orders preventing action would be discharged.

The RTBU has been in protracted negotiations with the state government over calls for a 32 per cent pay rise over four years and the implementation of 24-hour train services between Thursday and Sunday.

Read the full story here from NCA NewsWire.

Police in Spain have hailed Google Maps after they were able to identify murder suspects from Street View images.

In a still from the small hamlet of Tajueco, a man is pictured bending over a sedan's boot with a white sack inside. In a separate image, a man is pushing a white object in a wheelbarrow.

Police said they used the pictures as evidence to arrest the suspects on suspicion of murdering a Cuban resident.

Spanish media report the suspects are the man's partner and one of her former partners.

The victim's remains were found police buried at a cemetery.

Could you be without your favourite soft drinks this Christmas Day?

Coca-Cola factory workers in Sydney have walked off the job for a second time this month amid a pay dispute and while the soda giant says it has plans to ensure minimal disruption, there are inevitably concerns about product availability moving forward.

Around 250 different products are made at the factory in Northmead, western Sydney, including Mount Franklin, Kirks, Fanta, Cascade, Pump, Mother, Deep Spring and Neverfail.

Well this is becoming bit of a trend this year. With how popular Spotify Wrapped has become, plenty of businesses are sharing their data for the year and Krispy Kreme is the latest to do so.

The doughnut giant says it made over 118 million doughnuts in 2024 which would span close to 10,000km if laid out.

Nearly half of those were the company's signature Original Glazed, with the second and third most popular being Kookies & Kreme and Strawberry Sprinkle.

Krispy Kreme called the findings "wild".

A damning report has found Australian universities are rife with racism, with a host of minority groups subject to discriminatory behaviour.

Addressing the findings from the Australian Human Rights Commission, Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman said it was clear structural racism "remains embedded in our society".

"Universities are not inoculated from racism by the intellectual endeavour that takes place within them," he said.

It comes three years after China urged Australia to "own up" to its racism problem as it blasted an increase in abuse to Chinese students amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We hope that the Australian side will own up to the problem, make their people better citizens, solve the problems of racism and discrimination at home and safeguard the safety and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens in Australia," then foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

Staying with the US now and a father-of-five has died after a bear fell on top of him after it was shot by a member of his hunting group.

Virginia wildlife officials said the hunters had forced the bear up a tree before it was shot. It fell from the tree and landed on the 58-year-old, the Associated Press reported.

He was rushed to hospital and died four days later.

There's plenty of talk online about Donald Trump this morning, and it's not about his immediate plans for when he returns to the White House.

Social media is fixated with the 78-year-old's hair, with what has been described as his "swirly bird's nest" long gone.

In its place is a slicked back hairdo which one pro-Trump account on X said offered him a "unique and powerful aura".

The ingredients of drinks at the centre of a suspected poisoning at a luxury Fiji resort did not contain methanol, authorities have said.

Tests were conducted after seven people, including four Australians, were hospitalised after drinking pina coladas from Warwick Fiji's poolside bar.

Initial reports suggested they had suffered alcohol poisoning and the scary ordeal came just weeks after two Australian women died in Southeast Asia after a mass methanol poisoning incident.

But the Fiji government says methanol was not involved in this latest incident. Fiji's Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka said the initial findings from their toxicology report said there were "no illicit substances or methanol" detected in the ingredients.

The cause of the illness has not been declared and testing is ongoing.

Australians have been urged to “stay away” from the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping if they’re prone to losing their temper following a rise in verbal and physical abuse over the festive period.

Retail and Fast Food Workers Union secretary Josh Cullinan said the Christmas period could lead to an “escalation of frustrations” across retail and hospitality workplaces, with people who normally wouldn’t engage acting disrespectfully.

“We’ve got this ongoing undercurrent of people who behave in offensive and often unlawful conduct,” Mr Cullinan said.

He issued a simple message to shoppers who may be prone to losing their temper.

“If they’re feeling like the frustrations, annoyance, or whatever else is overcoming them, they shouldn’t be in anyone’s workplace,” he said.

- NCA NewsWire

Residents in parts of Queensland have been issued with an emergency alert as the state battles a barrage of rain and flooding, marking one of the wettest Decembers in 14 years.

Parts of east and southeast Queensland were soaked with heavy rain overnight, turning roads into rivers and seeing people abandoning their cars as water engulfed the streets.

The deluge has continued into Thursday, with Queensland Police issuing an emergency alert for Jandowae in the Western Downs region just after 4am.

It warned residents in low lying areas to “prepare now” and “warn neighbours, secure belongings, and enact (their) emergency plan”.

Read more here from NCA NewsWire.

Qantas has offered customers with flights to and from Vanuatu over the holiday period a full refund after Australia's Pacific neighbour was rocked by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake.

While the airline says it plans on resuming flights as soon as possible after Port Vila closed its airport to commercial flights for 72 hours, it is giving customers the option to cancel or rearrange flights booked up until January 5. Flights have been cancelled to at least Saturday.

The offer comes as Vanuatu pleaded for Australians to still holiday in the country as it fears a significant blow to its tourism industry during what should have been a bumper period for the island nation.

"The best thing that people can do is to actually come to Vanuatu because if they don't come then the money doesn't flow into the people's hands," Vanuatu Business Resilience Council chairperson Glen Craig said, the ABC reported.

Locals fear it could take months and even years to fully recover from the quake that has killed at least 14. Further deaths are expected to be confirmed as rescue crews search collapsed buildings.