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News in 5: Groom-to-be dies in accident; Trump goes after Oprah; Olympics skating mishap.

1. A 28-year-old husband-to-be has died in a tragic paragliding accident just three months before he was to marry.

Josh Tingey and Bex Wootton. Image via Facebook

A 28-year-old Auckland man has died paragliding just seven weeks after becoming engaged to his childhood sweetheart.

Josh Tingey, a sports fan and passionate paraglider, was on his second flight of the day when he crashed into a rock on the side of Mount Maunganui on Saturday, The New Zealand Herald reports.

Civil Aviation and Victim Support are currently investigating the cause of the crash, though it's believed he had been paragliding for more than three years.

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Tingey and his partner of eight years Bex Wootton were engaged less than two months ago. In 2016, the couple were won a TVNZ reality show called Our First Home, taking away $100,000 after renovating a house Tingey's parents had bought for them. They were planning to marry in May.

Fellow pilot Dave Show told the Bay of Plenty Times before the tragedy unfolded, Tingey was "smiling and happy" and having a "great flight".

"He was having a great flight, he was smiling and happy - everyone was happy. We were all flying around having a great time," he said.

His mother, Theresa, also told the Bay Of Plenty Times her family were holidaying in Utah when they were told of their son's death, adding her son, a surveyor, was a keen sportsman who enjoyed tennis, hockey, water skiing and snow skiing.

"He was all go and all stop, with nothing in-between. He never wasted a moment of his life," she said.

2. So, President Donald Trump is now going after Oprah Winfrey. 

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US President Donald Trump has blasted Oprah Winfrey on Twitter over a segment on CBS's 60 Minutes program and again says he hopes she will face him as an opponent in the 2020 presidential race.

Actress and television host Winfrey, now a contributor to the CBS program, led a panel of 14 Republican, Democrat and Independent voters from Grand Rapids, Michigan in a wide ranging discussion about Trump's first year in office.

Trump tweeted: "Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes. The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!"

Winfrey has told various media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, that she is not running for president, but has considered it, after there was much recent media speculation.

The panellists ranged from voters who said "I love him more and more every day," to others questioning Trump's stability, saying, "All he does is bully people."

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Winfrey made no declarative statements for or against the president in the program. But she did ask questions ranging from whether the US is better off economically to whether respect for the country is eroding around the world.

3. An Olympic figure skater suffered a wardrobe malfunction and handled it like a total pro. 


Video via Channel 7

French figure skater Gabriella Papadakis has said her mid-performance costume malfunction was her "worst nightmare" coming true at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

On Monday, the Olympian was performing with partner Guillaume Cizeron when a clasp holding her dress together came undone, exposing her breast on live television. But, like a true professional, Papadakis didn't let the mishap stop her performance.

“It was my worst nightmare happening at the Olympics,” 22-year-old Papadakis told reporters after the performance.

Image: Getty.
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“It happened in the first few seconds [of the routine]. I told myself I didn’t have a choice; I have to keep going.

"We have to be proud of ourselves, delivering a great performance with that happening."

Because figure skating is scored, in parts, on aesthetics, the duo were marked down for the malfunction, still mustering a score of 81.93 points to earn them a second-place finish. They aren't yet out of the race for a gold medal, depending on their later performances.

“It’s just frustrating to miss a few points because of a costume issue. It is not what we get ready for when we train,” Cizeron added, according to The Independent.

It's not the first wardrobe malfunction of the competition, with South Korean skater Yura Min’s costume coming undone on day three of the competition.

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“Despite the wardrobe malfunction, I had an amazing time competing in my home country! I promise to sew myself in for the individual event," Min tweeted after the event.

4. Nationals MP George Christensen refuses to apologise over a gun-wielding photo of himself threatening "greenie punks".

Nationals MP George Christensen is refusing to apologise after copping widespread condemnation for publishing a photo of himself pointing a pistol with the caption "do you feel lucky, greenie punks?"

Even though he has removed it, Mr Christensen does not accept there is anything wrong with his apparent attempt at a Dirty Harry-inspired joke, which has prompted a complaint to federal police by the Australian Greens.

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"Putting a joke up on social media, if that's doing something wrong, then there's a lot of people that are going to be in trouble because it happens every day, every hour in this country," Mr Christensen said.

His Facebook post, which came just days after a high school shooting massacre in Florida, has given Malcolm Turnbull another Nationals-induced headache as he deals with the fallout from the Barnaby Joyce scandal.

"It was very inappropriate and he took it down after he was spoken to about it," Mr Turnbull told 3AW radio on Monday.

Liberal MP Warren Entsch was far more blunt.

"I think it was bloody stupid," he told reporters.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has referred the post to the AFP while the minor party's Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has lodged her own complaint over a death threat she received from someone she believes is a supporter of Mr Christensen.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the colourful north Queensland MP might not have broken the law but it was not his job to stoop to the lowest common denominator with cheap gags.

"He's a member of parliament, not some galah down in the front bar carrying on with a few jokes," Mr Shorten told reporters in Townsville.

5. Residents of  a NSW town are fearing for their lives after a wild feud erupted between two families. 

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Some residents in a northern NSW town are fearing for their lives after a series of massive street brawls reportedly between two feuding extended families.

Police have made six arrests following the fights in Inverell, AAP reports. NSW Police were first alerted to large groups of people brawling on Waratah Avenue on February 13.

The groups were not brawling when police arrived but officers were forced to pepper spray some members of the group to separate them, NSW Police said in a statement on Monday.

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Officers were again called to reports of people fighting in the same street on Sunday night.

"Police were unable to approach the group after bottles were thrown at the officers who responded to the brawl," police said.

One neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said she feared for her life and watched as people picked up bladed weapons, poles and bricks during the clash.

"I've lived here two-and-a-half years and this s*** is non stop," she told AAP.

"I haven't slept for two nights, I had to get my kid out of here. I'm afraid to be alone.

"I've been told I need to go back to the women's refuge but I could be there a year before I get another home - I can't do that to my kid."

The neighbour, speaking on Monday night, said she feared the violence was about to start again and she could hear people shouting in the street.

"You can't look at these people the wrong way," she said. "They'll burn your house down."

Officers, earlier on Monday, arrested six people all known to one another.

Three men aged 65, 56 and 29 and three women aged 49, 31 and 27 were all charged with affray and offensive behaviour. They were granted conditional bail to appear at Inverell Local Court on April 12.

6. A national plan has been announced to stop the scourge of elder abuse.

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The abuse of older Australians will no longer be "someone else's problem" as Attorney-General Christian Porter announces a national plan to stamp out the scourge.

Commonwealth and state attorneys have agreed to work together to eradicate the problem after a major report highlighted a litany of serious physical and financial elder abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Mr Porter, who took over as attorney-general in December, said ending the abuse of older people would be a top priority in his new portfolio.

"Abuse takes many forms and can have wide reaching emotional, financial and physical effects on victims," he said in announcing the plan on Tuesday.

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"We have all seen or heard stories about older people facing abuse in a variety of circumstances, from financial pressure to provide family members money or change wills, to abuses in aged care settings."

Mr Porter said Australia had a rapidly ageing population and the community needed to address the risks of abuse confronting people as they age.

While there isn't a detailed picture of the problem in Australia, overseas studies have shown elder abuse affects between two and 12 per cent of older men and women.

The Turnbull government will fund a study on the prevalence of elder abuse to inform the national plan.

As recommended by the Australian Law Reform Commission in its 2017 report, the plan aims to promote the autonomy and agency of older Australians, safeguard at-risk people and address ageism.

It will also endeavour to promote community understanding of elder abuse, progress national consistency, and build on available evidence.

Mr Porter said tackling elder abuse was not just a legal problem, and attorneys-general would work with other ministers to develop the plan in consultation with older Australians and the community, business and financial sectors.

"From this time on in Australia elder abuse will no longer be someone else's problem and I am committed to working with you to eradicate it in our community," Mr Porter will tell a conference in Sydney on Tuesday.

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