WA woman charged over $1.5m drug stash

A 47-YEAR-OLD woman has been charged over a drug stash, estimated to be valued at more than $1.5 million.

Police raided a home in Morley in suburban Perth on Tuesday, uncovering about three kilograms of drugs believed to be methylamphetamine.

They also found more than $17,000 in cash.

A Morley woman, 47, was charged with possession a prohibited drug with intent to sell/supply.

She appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday and will re-appear on January 7.

Police conducted the search warrant as part of a joint investigation with Australian Customers and Border Protection Services into illegal tobacco trade.

They estimate the drugs found are valued at more than $1.5 million.

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Woman leaves toddler in car, goes shopping

A WOMAN is expected to face charges after leaving a 17-month-boy locked in the car while she went shopping for the Boxing Day sales.

Police have been told a woman drove to attend the sales at a Doncaster shopping centre in Melbourne's north east about 9.30am (AEDT).

She parked in an undercover car park and went alone to the shops, leaving the boy locked in the car.

A passer by spotted the boy about half an hour later and told security, who removed the child after an unsuccessful bid to find the car owner.

The Doncaster woman, 27, was found about 11am (AEDT) and spoken to by police.

She is expected to be charged with leaving a child unattended and being a learner driver without being accompanied by a licensed driver.

The child was checked over by paramedics and found to be fine.

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Two men arrested over SA police chase

Two men have been arrested after a police pursuit in Adelaide's southern suburbs. Source: AAP

TWO young men have been arrested on Christmas Day after a police pursuit through the southern suburban streets of Adelaide.

While responding to reports just after 2.30am of a suspicious car at Elizabeth Road at Christie Downs, south of Adelaide, police spotted one of the men allegedly marking graffiti on a building.

The man then drove off in a Nissen sedan, police said.

Officers pursued the car through several backstreets before calling off the chase.

The car was found a short time later in Christine Street, Morphett Vale.

The driver ran off but was quickly caught by police.

An 18-year-old Flagstaff Hill man has been charged with marking graffiti, engaging in a police pursuit and hindering police.

An 18-year-old man from Morphett Vale was arrested for breach of bail.

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Thousands turn out for community lunches

THOUSANDS of Sydney-siders who would otherwise be alone for Christmas will spend the festive season celebrating with their communities.

More than 600 people - including a few famous faces - turned out for the Wayside Chapel Christmas lunch in King's Cross.

Blaxland resident Stephen South has attended the lunch and church service for four years.

"I don't have any family and this is my family," Mr South told AAP.

"On a day like today, if you don't have family it's really hard."

The Wayside Chapel's 200 volunteers provided 80 turkeys, 40 hams, 700 mince pies and 140 bags of potatoes for the day.

Actress Claudia Karvan made her third visit to the street party this year, and actor David Wenham attended.

"I can't stay away - it just puts a smile on my face that stays there for the whole day," Karvan said.

"It totally encapsulates the spirit of Christmas, I think.

"The open-heartedness, the generosity of the day, the inclusiveness - everyone from all different walks of the community, whether you're sleeping rough or wealthy and isolated, it doesn't matter, you can come down here."

Between Christmas singing, Wayside chief executive Pastor Graham Long said the day was about people not being alone.

"Don't be alone and miserable," he said.

"Come and be miserable with us."

In Ashfield, more than 3000 people were expected at the Exodus Foundation's free Christmas lunch on Liverpool Road.

Volunteers prepared 65 hams, 50 turkeys, 400 kilograms of potatoes, 200 kilograms of green veggies, 400 kilograms of pumpkins, 1300 litres of gravy, 2500 mini puddings and 330 litres of custard.

"You can imagine, we've been preparing for this for months," Reverend Bill Crews said.

Santa Claus will give presents to needy children and adults.

"All these presents have been donated, which is another example of how generous Sydney-siders are," Rev Crews said.

At Redfern's Australian Technology Park, the Salvation Army hoped to feed 1200 of Sydney's less fortunate and disadvantaged.

"Every year we're humbled by the generosity of the over 150 volunteers who give up part of their Christmas Day to bring joy, hope and happiness to those who would otherwise go without," Salvation Army spokeswoman Robyn Evans said.

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Man stabbed, woman left unconscious

A MAN has been found with stab wounds to his neck and a woman has been found unconscious in Sydney's west.

Police were called to a house on Woodville Road, Guildford, just after midday on Tuesday after reports of a man and woman fighting in the yard of the premises.

The man was found with stab wounds to his neck while a woman, aged in her mid-20s, was found unconscious.

The man's age is not known.

Both were treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance Paramedics and taken to Westmead Hospital.

Their condition is not yet known, police say.

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident, while a crime scene has been established on Woodville Road with two southbound lanes closed.

They will be examined by specialist forensic officers.

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Aussies spend $29.6bn on Xmas

AUSTRALIAN shoppers are spending up big this Christmas, and the tills are tipped to be fuller than any year since the global financial crisis hit the world.

Margy Osmond from the Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) says the overall spend in the four-week run-up to Christmas this year is expected to hit $29.6 billion.

"We think Australian retailers will probably have the best Christmas they've had for four or five years," she told AAP.

And the post-Christmas sales are set to bring in bumper figures, too, with ANRA predicting bricks-and-mortar spending will reach $13.1 billion, up 4.2 per cent on the corresponding period last year.

Ms Osmond believes the other kind of bricks and mortar are responsible for pushing up consumer confidence.

"I think the interest rates are starting to really make some difference in terms of households and the fact that the housing market's taken off, so everyone feels a bit more comfortable about what they're worth," she told AAP.

"And we're post-election, so everyone's like, 'Phew, thank god that's over'."

Australia-wide, bargain-hunters are expected to spend $1.9 billion on Boxing Day alone.

David Jones group executive for operations, Cate Daniels, said the department store was gearing up for a big day when its flagship Sydney city store opens at 5am (AEDT) on Boxing Day.

"We'll have thousands of employees in our stores ready for the millions of customers I hope to see over the coming weeks," she told reporters on Tuesday.

She's tipped men's business shirts, international designer clothes and manchester as some of the best bargains.

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128 staff retrenched at Brindabella

NEARLY all staff at troubled regional carrier Brindabella Airlines have been told they're out of a job just two days before Christmas.

The 140 workers at the Canberra-based airline were told on Monday that 128 of them had lost their jobs.

Staff were told the airline could no longer be sold after it lost most of its licenses and the majority of its planes were returned to their owners.

All but a dozen staff at the cash-strapped airline will be retrenched, as the receivers KordaMentha try to sell the company's remaining assets, mainly four J-41 jetliners.

KordaMentha spokesman Michael Smith said the receivers did not want to dangle false hope in front of the workers once it became clear there wasn't anything left to sell.

"It's a terrible time of year for this to happen," he told AAP on Monday.

"But the receivers thought it was better to be upfront with the workers as soon as the worst had been realised, to give them every possible chance to use the holiday period to look for work."

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Boy's body found, horror day on NSW water

THE body of a five-year-old boy who vanished in a Sydney river on Sunday has been pulled from the water by police in a horror 24-hours on NSW waterways.

On a day in which a man's body was dragged from the Murray River and a fisherman was swept from rocks at Jervis Bay, the five-year-old's body was found underwater by police divers around 10am (AEDT).

The young boy had been playing in the water with his older brother at a popular picnic spot between Botany Bay and the Georges River at Dolls Point on Sunday afternoon when he disappeared under the waves.

A massive search by local police, water police, PolAir, the State Emergency Service (SES) and the Westpac rescue helicopter failed to locate the boy on Sunday, and resumed on Monday with the aid of volunteers.

Police said the boy's body was found several metres from the shoreline in water about 4.8 metres deep where the ocean floor dropped steeply.

There were strong currents in the area and visibility was very poor, police said.

St George Local Area Commander Superintendent Dave Donohue said the boy's mother was "devastated" after being told the news.

"It's very traumatic. We all have kids. It hits home," he told reporters outside the Georges River Sailing Club.

His message to beachgoers was "play safe and be safe".

"You need to understand the conditions you're swimming in, and no matter you go where there's water (have) good supervision of your children," he said.

"It really hits home at this time of year leading into the Christmas period."

Meanwhile, authorities on Monday also recovered the body of a man who went missing after swimming in the Murray River on Saturday.

The man, 44, from Mount Pritchard, was camping with his family when he went for a swim alone in the river near Bruce's Bend at Yarrawonga, on the NSW-Victoria border, on Saturday afternoon.

After searching the area over the weekend the man's body was located by an SES volunteer about 9am (AEDT) Monday.

In the third incident, a fisherman was washed off rocks at Jervis Bay in the early hours of Monday morning.

Police said the 28-year-old, from Winston Hills in Sydney, had been with friends on a rock platform at Little Beecroft Head when he was swept into the sea.

The man wasn't wearing a lifejacket and couldn't swim, a police spokeswoman told AAP.

The search for the man was suspended on Monday afternoon.

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Two men killed in gyrocopter crash

A PILOT and his passenger were checking fire damaged bushland when their gyrocopter crashed northeast of Melbourne, killing both.

The bodies of the 51-year-old pilot from Melbourne, and a second unidentified man, were found in rugged terrain in Victoria's Kinglake National Park about 7am on Sunday (AEDT).

A police plane spotted the wreckage in dense bushland that has regenerated after bushfires.

Searchers had been scouring the park for the men, who failed to return from what was to be a 15-minute flight from the Yarra Valley conference centre on the Melba Highway at Dixons Creek about 7.20pm on Saturday.

Benalla Acting Senior Sergeant Colin Anderson said the pair were flying over a remote area of the ranges to view bushfire damage.

Emergency services were notified when the men failed to return as planned.

An extensive search on Saturday evening failed to find the pair and was called off when it got dark, resuming early Sunday.

Acting Sen Sgt Anderson said next of kin were yet to be notified and he was unable to confirm reports the second man was from overseas.

The bodies are expected to be retrieved from the wreckage on Sunday afternoon, with the help of the SES, he said.

Police are investigating the cause of the crash and will prepare a brief for the coroner.

"There's experts coming to view the wreckage and from that, that report will be prepared for the coroner," he said.

Acting Sen Sgt Anderson said it was a tragedy.

"It's devastating to all concerned - people involved that have to retrieve people from the situation and those directly involved with the people that have been killed," he said.

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Man critical after CBD assault

Police would like to speak to this man in relation to a serious assault in Brisbane's CBD early Sunday morning. Source: Supplied

Police would like to speak to this man in relation to a serious assault in Brisbane's CBD early Sunday morning. Source: Supplied

POLICE have relased CCTV images of a man as they continue to investigate the serious assault of a man in Brisbane's CBD.

Police are searching for a man who intervened in a couple's fight, seriously injuring a 38-year-old man in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The couple were arguing on the footpath of Queen Street near the intersection with Wharf Street around 4am when an unidentified man stepped in, seriously injuring the 38-year-old.

Brisbane region detective inspector Ian Park said the partner of the injured Arana Hills man was by his bedside in hospital.

"She's very upset obviously by what's happened," he said.

He said the man today remained in Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a critical condition with serious injuries after being resuscitated at the scene.

Insp Park said alcohol may have been a factor.

"I guess it's a fair assumption that at 4 o'clock there is going to be alcohol involved, so we would appeal to people to just be careful with alcohol and look after themselves and each other and not to drink to excessive levels, which is always a deadly cocktail."

There were reports that people performed CPR on the man before paramedics arrived.

Alessandro Vosolo, who is staying on the 44th floor of the building, said the fight sounded violent and lasted less than four minutes.

"Fighting, screaming, arguing like guys getting thrown around, that sort of thing," he said.

One witness said he was on the 20th floor of the hotel and heard the fight.

"A dude got beat up... We heard it but then police rocked up."

Police insp Park said a number of witnesses had already been interviewed but appealed for more people to step forward, particularly the man, understood to be Caucasian and in his 30s, who was involved in the fight.

The injured man was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a critical condition.

"Initial information suggests that a man and a woman were seen arguing on the footpath of Queen Street near the intersection with Wharf Street when another man intervened just before 4am," police said in a statement.

Police said the two men were then involved in a fight in which a 38-year-old Arana Hills man sustained a serious head injury.

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Detective inspector Ian Park said police were also investigating the assault of a man who got into a fight with a hotel staff member at the Orient about 4.30am.

A 37-year-old man fell down the stairs and suffered serious head injuries when his head hit the concrete pavement.

"I believe the may have been a disagreement between this person and a staff member but as to what actually took place is subject to investigation," Insp Park said.

The man was taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital where he is in a serious condition.

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In a third incident, a man was allegedly glassed in the face at the Family Nightclub on McLachlan St in the Fortitude Valley about 3am Sunday.

Police said a 19-year-old was struck in the face with a glass, receiving cuts to his cheek area. Police said the man did not have life-threatening injuries.

A spokesman said security staff and patrons stopped the alleged attacker and held him until police arrived.

A 20-year-old Calamvale man has been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm. He is due to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday morning.

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