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By Gerard Martinez, with Lucie Aubourg in Orlando and Michael Mathes in Washington for AFP Volunteers in Miami fill sandbags as residents prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Milton in Florida on 7 October. Photo: GIORGIO VIERA / AFP Hurricane Milton has exploded in strength to become a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm bound for Florida, threatening the US state with a second ferocious hurricane in as many weeks. The back-to-back hurricanes have whipped up a US election storm, with Vice President Kamala Harris slamming her White House rival Donald Trump and Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis for "political gamesmanship" and for spreading misinformation about the federal response. Milton, which is forecast to batter Mexico's Yucatan peninsula as it churns eastward, tr...

By Steven Scheer and Maya Gebeily for Reuters A Haifa resident inspects the damage following an overnight rocket attack from Lebanon on 7 October. Photo: MATI MILSTEIN / NURPHOTO Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel's third-largest city of Haifa and Hamas has vowed to rise again as Israel looks poised to expand its offensive into Lebanon, a year after the devastating Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war. Israelis held ceremonies and protests on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the 7 October attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas as the Gaza conflict has spread across the Middle East and fanned fears of an all-out regional war. Hamas, which has seen the Palestinian territory of Gaza laid waste by Israel's war, vowed to rise "like a phoenix" from the ashes despi...

By Joyce Lee, Reuters North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Photo: Supplied/Korean Central News Agency North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will speed up steps toward becoming a military superpower with nuclear weapons, and would not rule out using them if it came under enemy attack, state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday. Kim mentioned South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol by name for the second time in a week in denouncing Seoul for colluding with Washington to destabilise the region to gloss over the fact it does not even have proper strategic weapons. "Yoon Suk Yeol made some tasteless and vulgar comment about the end of the republic in his speech, and it shows he is totally consumed by his blind faith in his master's strength," KCNA quoted Kim as saying, referring to the S...

The Manawanui sank off the south coast of the island of Upolu on Saturday. Photo: Profile Boats / supplied The Navy says HMNZS Manawanui, the ship which sunk off the coast of Samoa, is not leaking oil. Navy Commodore Shane Arndell told Checkpoint on Tuesday the Manawanui was resting 30 metres underwater on a reef off the south coast of Upolu, and was not leaking. "The divers went out this morning to survey the ship ... and from what they've reported there has been nothing leaking from the ship once it sunk." There was no liquid leaking from the ship at all at this stage, he said. Manawanui is on a part of the reef, he said. "She's very stable, she's lying on her side in that depth of water and quite stable." The ship had been damaged but Arndell said he could not give any further detai...

No oil leaks have been found the area where the NZ Navy ship HMNZS Manawanui sank yet, the Samoa government says. The Ministry of Works chief executive Fui Mau Simanu told RNZ Pacific that New Zealand Navy divers had been assessing the area since Tuesday morning. He said they were working alongside local police and Samoa's Natural Resources and Environment Ministry. "We haven't seen any leakage or any sort of spillage," Fui said. "But we should have a fair idea of any damage to the environment if there is any probably tonight, when the teams come back from their assessment," Fui said. Read more: 'It's my ship and I'm gutted': Former minister Ron Mark on Manawanui sinking HMNZS Manawanui: What we know about the ship's sinking An expert explains why a speedy cleanup will be crucial - and the...