A $1 million reward is on offer to help solve the suspicious disappearance of a Melbourne man believed to have been murdered more than 18 years ago, Nine News reports.

Nick Falos, then aged 55, was last seen on March 14, 2003 at about 8.30am as he drove his red Porsche along Albion Street in Brunswick.

His Porsche coupe with registration JD 944 was found burnt out in the Yarra State Forest at the intersection of Mt Beenak Road and Torbetts Road, near Gladysdale, three days later.

Mr Falos, who also went by the name Nikolaos Falieros, was reported missing on April 1 by a concerned neighbour who hadn’t seen him for several weeks.

Police searched bushland near Gladysdale in May that year but found no trace of Mr Falos.

Police are investigating a number of lines of inquiry including a phone call made from a payphone to Mr Falos on the morning of Saturday, March 15, 2003.

Detective Acting Inspector Tony Combridge of the Missing Persons Squad said police believe Mr Falos was murdered.

“It may be 18 years since Nick disappeared, however, I would like to strongly reinforce to the community that this is very much an active investigation,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

“While Nick is no longer believed to be alive, we are still hopeful of finding out what happened to him.

“It is also our belief that a number of people were potentially involved in Nick’s murder.”

In 2018, a 77-year-old Endeavour Hills man and an 84-year-old Devon Meadows man were arrested in relation to his disappearance. Both were later released without charge, 7 News reports.

Detective Acting Inspector Combridge said police believe there are multiple people out there who could assist with the investigation. Police are keen to speak to anyone who recalls seeing Mr Falos or his red Porsche in the Yarra Junction area on March 15 or 16 in 2003.

“There is the possibility that the person or persons responsible for his death may have spoken to someone about Nick and today’s reward announcement may lead to them finally coming forward with information,” Mr Combridge said.

“People’s circumstances can change over the years and someone who may not have wanted to provide information to police previously may now feel ready to do so.”

Investigators have released photos of Mr Falos and a vehicle similar to his Porsche in the hope that someone will remember seeing him or the car.

A reward of up to $1 million will be paid at the discretion of the Chief Commissioner of Police for information leading to the apprehension and subsequent conviction of the person or persons responsible for Mr Falos’ death.

Anyone with information about the disappearance of Nick Falos is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Katie Vandorou is a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania who uses a rather uncommon technique to detect planets outside of our solar system, or ‘exoplanets’. 

“They’re quite mysterious because they’re difficult to detect, they don’t emit their own light,” Vandorou tells ABC News. 

“Some of these planets are all the way at the center of our galaxy … which is about 25,000 light-years away.” 

Vandorou is using the gravitational microlensing technique to look at three exoplanet systems in particular. 

“One of the planetary systems that I’ve confirmed is called MOA 2013 BLG-220L and it’s a super-Jupiter, so it’s three times the size of Jupiter, and orbits a star similar to our sun,” she said. 

She compiles her research into an exoplanet archive, an open-source website assessed by scientists all over the world. 

Vandorou has been accepted to work at NASA later in the year where she will continue her gravitational microlensing research work. 

“I’ll be doing more follow-up observations on these systems and there will also be room to work on some other things and collaborate with some new people,” she says.

“It’s definitely a very good opportunity and opens lots of doors and the US has a lot of research around exoplanets so it means I get a lot of exposure to a lot of other scientists, which will be cool.”

Source: ABC News

Christos Tsiolkas has been named a finalist of the Melbourne Prize. 

Tsiolkas is in the running for the $60,000 award alongside authors Jordie Albiston, Maxine Beneba Clarke, and Pi O.

The triennial prize awards “a Victorian author whose body of published work has made an outstanding contribution to Australian literature and to cultural and intellectual life”.

Tsiolkas’ latest novel 7 1/2 will be published in November. It will succeed his acclaimed 2019 book Damascus.

Damascus won the fictional category of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award last year. 

Tsiolkas is the author of nine published works, including The Slap, Barracuda, and Loaded. 

The winners of the Melbourne Prize for Literature will be announced on 10 November. 

Source: Books+Publishing

Mayors from Sydney’s twelve COVID-19 hotspot local government areas met with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian over three split Zoom sessions. 

Cumberland’s Steve Christou, Canterbury-Bankstown’s Khal Asfour, and Burwood’s John Faker attended one of the meetings on Tuesday. 

The meetings were scheduled to discuss current restrictions and the vaccine rollout, in light of the state’s recently unveiled roadmap out of lockdown.

Cumberland mayor Steve Christou has been highly critical of his community’s restrictions and labeled the meeting a “PR stunt just paying us lip service”. 

“I would warmly support any leader willing to take over who is more sympathetic to the plight of western Sydney residents because we should all be living under the same circumstances and constraints,” he said. 

Mr. Christou says he told the Premier that his community was working-class and most could not work from home. 

“The Premier got some long overdue realities of what’s happening out here and the harsh circumstances of what people are now experiencing,” he said.

“Our people are hurting, we’ve got families that are not going to recover, that can no longer afford to pay their mortgage, their rent, their bills or put food on the table for their children.”

“Many businesses are not going to reopen, come opening uptime – they’ve been devastated.”

Christou says if he was approached by a law firm over a possible legal challenge to the current lockdown orders, he would consider it. 

Source: The Australian