Australia news LIVE updates: Anti-war protesters detained in Russia; 2000 NSW homes and businesses declared unliveable; Shane Warne tributes continue to flow

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage today.

Here are the biggest headlines from this evening:

• Shane Warne’s body will be flown back to Australia from Thailand on Tuesday after a police investigation into his death found that there was no sign of foul play and the cause of death was a suspected heart attack. Thai police said an incident in which a woman was allowed into the back of the ambulance carrying Warne’s body to the mainland was a security breakdown.

(FILE PHOTO) MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM - AUGUST 09: Shane Warne of Australia who needs only one wicket to reach 600 career Test wickets takes in the centre wicket area after training at Old Trafford on August 9, 2005 in Manchester, United Kingdom (Photo by Hamish Blair/Getty Images)Credit: HAMISH BLAIR

• Further flooding could affect the Hawkesbury, Nepean and Colo rivers with significant rainfall expected on Monday night and Tuesday. The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of the potential for “rapid river level rises and very deep and dangerous flooding”.

The Hawkesbury River on Old Northern Road in Wisemans Ferry on Friday.Credit: Louise Kennerley

• Russia said it would hold fire on Monday morning, Kyiv time, to allow for the evacuation of civilians from a number of Ukrainian cities, after similar plans failed over the weekend. All humanitarian corridors

A damaged vehicle and debris following Russian shelling in Mariupol.Credit: AP Photo/Sergei Grits

• The global COVID-19 death toll eclipsed six million on Monday, as the pandemic enters its third year.
• A second Japanese encephalitis virus case has been confirmed in NSW in a child from the state’s far south-west, who remains in hospital with “serious illness”. The mosquito-borne virus was first detected in samples collected from commercial pig farms in NSW in late February and its spread is being assessed.

There has been some local flooding tonight in Sydney’s inner west.

This photo was taken on Park Street in Petersham, just south of Parramatta Road.

Other social media users reported minor flooding in Peakhurst and Condell Park, in the city’s south-west.

More heavy rain is forecast tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Hume Highway is closed in both directions due to flooding at the Cumberland Highway, and Milperra Road is closed in both directions due to flooding at Ashford Avenue.

The death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 6 million on Monday — underscoring that the pandemic, now in its third year, is far from finished.

The milestone is the latest tragic reminder of the unrelenting nature of the pandemic even as people are shedding masks, travel is resuming and businesses are reopening around the globe, AP reports.

The COVID-19 death toll has exceeded six million.Credit: AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

The last million deaths were recorded over the last four months, according to the tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

That’s slightly slower than the previous million, but highlights that many countries are still struggling with the coronavirus.

Remote Pacific islands, long protected from the virus by their isolation, are just now grappling with their first outbreaks and deaths, fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Hong Kong, which is seeing deaths soar, is testing its entire population of 7.5 million three times this month as it clings to mainland China’s “zero-COVID” strategy.

As death rates remain high in Poland, Hungary, Romania and other Eastern European countries, the region has seen more than 1.5 million refugees arrive from war-torn Ukraine, a country with poor vaccination coverage and high rates of cases and deaths.

The United States is nearing 1 million reported deaths on its own, the largest official death toll in the world.

Despite the enormity of the figure of 6 million deaths — more than the populations of Berlin and Brussels combined — experts say the number is likely a vast underestimation.

With poor record keeping and testing in many parts of the world, many deaths have not been attributed to COVID-19, and there are also the excess deaths related to the pandemic but not from actual COVID-19 infections, like people who died from preventable causes but could not receive treatment because hospitals were full.

Overall, some 450 million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded.

AP

The leader of South Korea’s ruling party was hospitalised on Monday after being attacked while campaigning for this week’s presidential election, a race already overshadowed by controversy and in which early voting has been marred by irregularities, according to Reuters reports.

Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil was attacked in Seoul by a man wearing a traditional robe who approached him from behind and struck him on the head with a smaller hammer, a video uploaded to YouTube by a Democrat campaigner showed. The images have not been verified.

Party officials said Song was in a stable condition and a suspect was in police custody.

In a contest characterised by scandals, smear tactics and gaffes, the Democrats’ Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative main opposition People Power Party are running neck-and-neck.

Both men on Monday condemned the attack on Song, who is also Lee’s campaign manager.

“Violence harms democracy, it can never be accepted,” Lee told another rally in the southeastern port city of Busan, and wished Song a rapid recovery.

Yoon issued a statement saying any violence interfering in the election could not be justified, and hoping for Song’s speedy recovery and all campaigners’ safety.

President Moon Jae-in called the attack a “terror against democracy,” his spokeswoman said.

The attack came after early balloting that ended on Saturday was blighted by long waits for coronavirus sufferers, while some voters received used ballots.

The two days of voting drew a record of nearly 37% of the electorate but also tarnished South Korea 35-year democratic history of tight and relatively transparent management of elections, and a mostly successful fight against COVID-19.

Reuters

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning of renewed major flooding along the Hawkesbury, Nepean and Colo rivers.

The weather bureau said in an update tonight that flooding could exceed levels seen last week, and possibly even exceed March 2021 levels.

Major flooding has continued to occur along the Hawkesbury River downstream of Windsor.Credit: Nick Moir

Days of sustained heavy rainfall across a soaked landscape means any water runs straight down into rivers, rather than being absorbed by the earth.

More heavy falls overnight and tomorrow may result in “rapid river level rises and very deep and dangerous flooding”, the bureau warned.

Richmond, in the north-west, could get up to 120 millimetres tomorrow.

The Nepean River at Menangle Bridge surpassed 15 metres on Monday night, well above the major level of 12.2m. The Nepean is expected to surpass moderate level at Camden Weir and Wallacia Weir tonight.

Major flooding is occurring along the Hawkesbury River at North Richmond, and major flooding is expected at Penrith and Windsor and downstream.

Further rises to levels similar or higher than the March 2021 event are possible from tomorrow.

Major flooding is also occurring along the Colo River at Putty Road.

Europe faces its fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II with 1.5 million Ukrainian civilians fleeing since fighting began, as Russian forces intensified their bombardment of civilian centres after talks to create safe evacuation corridors failed over the weekend.

Volunteers fill sandbags to build barricades in Odesa, Ukraine.Credit: AP Photo/Max Pshybyshevsky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was preparing for an assault on Odesa, a critical Black Sea port and Ukraine’s third-largest city with about 1 million residents.

“Russians always travelled to Odesa, always felt only warmth in Odesa,” Zelensky said in a video recording on Sunday yesterday in Ukraine. “And now what? Bombs against Odesa? Artillery against Odesa? Rockets against Odesa? This will be a war crime.”

Read the full story here.

Police Lieutenant General Surachate Hakparn, second in command of the Royal Thai Police, said an incident in which a woman briefly entered the ambulance transporting Shane Warne’s body to hospital for an autopsy was a breakdown in security.

Stills from footage of a woman, identified as a German national who lives on Koh Samui, speaking to ambulance attendants who then allowed her inside the back of the van with the body of Australian cricketer Shane Warne.Credit: ABC

The woman, who has been named as Barbara, a German national, was at the press conference, said she was a fan of Warne and was there to “pay condolences”.

“I’m a big fan of him,” she said.

“It’s very sad that we lost him. I took the flowers to pay condolences. I am sorry about yesterday, but I do not mean it as a negative act. I am a big fan, he’s a great player.”

The woman approached the ambulance while it was at a ferry terminal, waiting to move Warne’s body from Koh Samui to the mainland for an official autopsy.

She was then briefly allowed into the back of the ambulance alone.

Mr Hakparn said he accepted the woman was a fan and said she hadn’t committed a crime.

He also said a thorough autopsy had been performed and there was no suspected foul play in Warne’s death.

Thai police say there were no suspicious circumstances around Shane Warne’s death and that his body would be flown back to Australia tomorrow.

Police Lieutenant General Surachate Hakparn, second in command of the Royal Thai Police said Warne’s death had been investigated for several days and that there was no sign of foul play.

Thai police say there were no suspicious circumstances around Shane Warne’s death.Credit: Jack Thomas/Getty Images

He said the cause of death was a suspected heart attack and police would like to assist the process of bringing Warne’s body back to Australia, in a press conference on Monday evening.

Warne’s body will be driven to Bangkok tonight and flown home on Tuesday, he said.

The autopsy report showed Warne died of a “congenital disease”, deputy director of Samui Hospital Songyot Chayaninporamet said.

“There is no COVID-19 infection and no sign of assault or murder,” he said.

The Australian Ambassador to Thailand Allan McKinnon thanked Thai police for their professional handling of the case.

He said Shane Warne was much loved and his early death was a terrible shock for those who loved him.

Warne’s business manager Andrew Neophitou also thanked the police and hospitals.

“On behalf of Shane Warne’s family, I’d like to thank the Thai police for the compassion and honour they’ve shown him,” he said.

Well-wishers left tributes of flowers, flags, an Australian sports shirt, a can of beans and a packet of cigarettes outside the villa on the northeast coast of Koh Samui where Warne was found unconscious.

with Reuters

Shane Warne’s daughter Summer Warne said she wished she could have hugged her father tighter in “what I didn’t know were my final moments with you”.

“And your final breaths were only moments away,” she said. “I wish I could’ve told you that everything was going to be okay and hold your hand.

Shane Warne’s family have remembered him.Credit: Getty

“Our time was robbed. I want more holidays with you, more laughs where your smile lights up the whole room, more ‘goodnight I love you SJ, I’ll see you in the morning’, more talks about how our days were and just to feel safe when you would hug me and you would let me know how proud you are of me and how much you love me.

“You haven’t died Dad, you’ve just moved to a different place, and that is in our hearts.”

Daughter Brooke Warne said her father was taken away too soon and “life is so cruel”.

“I will forever cherish our final memories together laughing and joking around with each other,” she said.

“We were happy. We were so similar in so many ways and I always used to joke that I got your genes and about how much that annoyed me!!

“Well now I couldn’t be happier and prouder that I have your genes.”

Brother Jason Warne said the “world has lost someone extremely special to them”, while he had lost “my nemesis in all sports as a child, the person who smeared Vegemite under my nose while he pinned me down giving me the typewriter, my big brother, my mate”.

Ex-wife Simone Callahan, who was married to the cricketer for a decade, wrote: “Who bring a light so great to the world that even after they have gone the light remains.”

Shane Warne’s family have spoken out following his sudden death, with his mother and father saying finding words to express their sadness is an “impossible task”.

In a statement issued on Monday, Keith and Brigitte Warne described the night of March 4 as the beginning of a “never-ending nightmare” for their family, and said their son’s death was a tragedy they would never come to terms with.

“To find words to adequately express our sadness is an impossible task for us and looking to a future without Shane is inconceivable, hopefully the mountain of happy memories we all have will help us cope with our ongoing grief,” the statement said.

The cricketer’s parents said the family have gratefully accepted the offer of a state funeral, and they were thankful, too, for the messages of love and support they had received.

Son Jackson Warne said, “I don’t think anything is ever going to fill the void you have left in my heart”.

“Sitting at the poker table, walking around the golf course, watching the Saints and eating pizza is never going to be the same,” he said.

“But I know all you ever wanted for me is to be happy, no matter what. So that’s what I’m going to do, try and be happy.

“I am going to miss you so much Dad and you were truly the best father and mate anyone could’ve asked for. I love you so much Dad, see you soon.”