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The building housing New Zealand's High Commission and other diplomatic missions was damaged in the quake. Photo: Dan McGarry The current focus in Vanuatu remains on finding any signs of life under the rubble, but it will soon move to rebuilding, New Zealand's High Commissioner Nicci Simmonds says. Simmonds told Midday Report the death toll from Tuesday's earthquake remained at 16, but people were being found alive. Simmonds said there had been improvements to water supply, power and communications, but the services remained unstable. "Port Vila is the capital of the country, it's the economic hub, so we need the airport, the sea port, the domestic shipping, we need buildings to be able to work out of, and we need tourism back up and running." There had been concerns about rain, and e...

By Julio-Cesar Chavez, Jonathan Allen, Luc Cohen for Reuters Luigi Mangione, suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, arrives at a heliport in New York City with NYPD officers. Photo: SPENCER PLATT / Getty Images via AFP The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson has been charged with federal murder and stalking crimes in a Manhattan courtroom, alongside state murder and terrorism charges previously announced by New York prosecutors. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged Luigi Mangione, 26, with the federal crime of murder using a firearm, two charges of stalking and a charge of using an illegal gun silencer, according to a criminal complaint. The complaint accused Mangione of spending months planning an attack driven by hi...

By Saskya Vandoorne, CNN Gisèle Pelicot has inspired other women to come forward. Photo: Miguel MEDINA / AFP Analysis - It's the landmark trial that has upended French society and prompted some deep soul searching about sexual violence and consent: the Pelicot mass rape case. Many have called it a socio-cultural earthquake, a reckoning on France's systemic problem with women. At the epicentre of the trial are 51 men, all who lived within a 30-mile radius of one another. There was Dominique Pelicot at the helm, who drugged and invited those strangers to assault and rape his then-wife, Gisèle for over a decade. It was in this tiny geographic perimeter where an entire world of violence and misogyny existed. Hundreds of people packed an emotionally charged Avignon courtroom, with many sp...

Tourism is a major earner for Vanuatu's economy, says Glen Craig. Photo: Supplied The leader of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council is pleading for airlines and tourists to return, and says only a few buildings are affected. A large 7.3 quake struck Port Vila on Tuesday, causing some buildings to collapse with people inside. There had been conflicting reports of the official death toll from the quake, but on Thursday evening, Vanuatu president Nikenike Vurobatavu said the number of people dead was "around 16". Vanuatu Business Resilience Council chair Glen Craig told Morning Report the rest of Port Vila was relatively unscathed. "Out in the residential side of things, our communities, we've been largely... inconvenienced rather than really affected." Almost all of Port Vila now had...

By Richard Cowan, Andy Sullivan, Katharine Jackson and Bo Erickson, Reuters Photo: AFP / Jim Watson Republicans in the US Congress huddled to find a path forward after President-elect Donald Trump rejected a bipartisan deal to avert a partial government shutdown and demanded lawmakers abolish the nation's debt ceiling. Unless a deal passes the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Democratic-majority Senate, the US government will begin a partial shutdown on Saturday (Sunday NZT) that would interrupt funding for everything from air travel to law enforcement in the days leading up to Christmas and cut off paychecks for more than 2 million federal workers. Many government operations, such as Social Security retirement payments, would continue. Trump dug in his heels, sayi...

Paris 2024 Olympic Games - Cycling Road Photo: PHOTOSPORT The Summer Olympics returned to Europe for the first time in 12 years as Paris hosted a sumptuous visual event that hogged the global spotlight for weeks and reinvigorated the brand after the previous two Games had been hit by the pandemic. The International Olympic Committee had not seen fans in their last Summer and Winter Games -- at Tokyo in 2021 and a year later in Beijing -- due to Covid and it desperately needed Paris to be a hit for a much-needed image and revenue boost. The Olympic body had been under pressure from sponsors and broadcasters and could barely afford another miss but as it turned out France delivered a spectacular extravaganza, complete with the city's landmarks as venues and gripping competition. Local her...