WA news live: Evacuation buses start departing cyclone-ravaged Exmouth

Hundreds of travellers to Exmouth remain stranded in the holiday town for the sixth day in a row, with the airport likely to remain closed for the next week due to cyclone damage.

Evacuation buses are being arranged to transport people down to Karratha, where they can catch an ongoing flight home. The first of the trips left Exmouth yesterday.

The roads in and out of town remain mostly closed, however there are contingency plans in place to allow some to leave town via the only safe route out.

It comes after the true toll of cyclone Narelle’s fury is still being counted by locals in Exmouth and Carnarvon, with many still without power.

Nearly 230 homes were damaged by the category three system, four were destroyed. Eight structures were also destroyed.

And it couldn’t have come at a worse time, with tourists still banned from the area as the holiday town approaches Easter, which is usually one of their busiest tourist periods.

Here’s what’s making news across the country and around the world:

• When Desmond Freeman was located by police near a tiny country town not far from the banks of the Murray River, both sides had already rehearsed the likely outcome, and both sides stuck to the script. Freeman, on the run for more than 200 days, was prepared for a shootout he knew he was always going to lose.

• Excise tax will be halved for three months to deliver a 26¢ cut to a litre of petrol, Labor has announced, as economists warn the Iran war could force interest rates up three more times by August and drive the economy into a recession by Christmas.
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• Vaping is likely to cause cancer, a first-of-its-kind scientific review has found, contradicting claims it is safer than smoking and highlighting the urgency of efforts to stop young people becoming addicted.

• US President Donald Trump claims to have made progress in talks with Tehran but also threatened to “completely obliterate” Iranian energy assets, including major oil hub Kharg Island and “possibly all” desalination plants, if a deal is not reached “shortly”.