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Dracula author Bram Stoker, pictured in 1906. Photo: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons An amateur Irish historian says he is still coming to terms with finding a long-lost story by Dracula author Bram Stoker. Gibbet Hill was published in the Dublin edition of the Daily Express in 1890 but it was forgotten over time. The story will be presented at this month's Bram Stoker Festival and published as a limited-release book. A long-lost short story by Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, has been re-discovered after remaining undocumented for more than 130 years. Amateur historian Brian Cleary was doing research on Stoker in the Irish National Library last year when he came across the 1890 Christmas edition of the Dublin Daily Express, where he found a Gothic horror tale that had been lost...

By Jarrett Renshaw, Reuters Elon Musk is backing Republican candidate Donald Trump in the presidential election. Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP Musk awards first US$1 million (NZ$1.65m) to event attendee He has given $75 million to America PAC to support Trump America PAC is helping to mobilise, register voters Billionaire Elon Musk has promised to give away US$1 million (NZ$1.65m) each day until November's election to someone who signs his online petition supporting the US Constitution. And he wasted no time on Saturday (local time), awarding a $1 million check to an attendee of his event in Pennsylvania aimed at rallying supporters behind Republican Donald Trump. The winner was a man named John Dreher, according to event staff. "By the way, John had no idea. So anyway, you're welcome...

Displaced Palestinians, ordered by the Israeli army to leave the school in Beit Lahia where they were sheltered, arrive in Gaza City on 19 October. Photo: MAHMOUD ISSA / AFP Gaza's civil defence agency said Sunday that an Israeli air strike on a residential area killed at least 73 Palestinians in Beit Lahia in the territory's north. Israel said it struck a "Hamas terror target". "Our civil defence crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area... in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency told AFP. "There are still martyrs under the rubble," he added. Bassal said residences of several families had been hit in the strike, which happened late on Saturday. Gaza government...

By Susana Lei'ataua in Apia, Samoa The NZDF base off Upolo, near where the Manawanui sank. Photo: RNZ / Louise Ternouth An insurance surveyor has completed their work on the HMNZS Manawanui, which sank two weeks ago off the south coast of Upolo, Samoa. Samoa's Marine Pollution Advisory Committee said a contractor would now be selected to remove the remaining fuel from the vessel. The New Zealand Navy ship was carrying 950 tonnes -- the equivalent of 950,000 litres - of fuel when it ran aground on the Tafitoala Reef on 6 October and sank the following day. Committee chair Fui Tupai Mau Simanu said salvaging the fuel was expected to start in mid-November and take about 20 days, depending on the weather. The committee reported up to 200,000 litres of diesel leaked from three places on t...

By Laura Chung, AFP King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive to attend a Sunday morning service at St Thomas' Anglican Church in Sydney on 20 October. Photo: Dean Lewins / POOL / AFP King Charles III attended church Sunday as he began an Australian tour in earnest, giving antipodean admirers the first glimpse of their reigning monarch. The 75-year-old sovereign arrived in Sydney late on Friday evening, but had kept a low profile as he balances cancer recovery with royal duties. His first official public appearance was a Sunday morning service at St Thomas' Anglican Church in northern Sydney, a stone edifice built as a place of worship for British colonial settlers. A number of prominent British colonists are buried in the church's graveyard nearby, including Edward Wollstonecraft - ...