Blog

By Ari Rabinovitch and Maya Gebeily, Reuters Hassan Nasrallah, pictured in Beirut in 2016. Photo: AFP / Patrick Baz Hezbollah confirms leader Nasrallah is dead Israel said it eliminated him in Beirut airstrike on Friday Death marks major blow to Iran and its allies Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, the Iran-backed group said on Saturday, confirming his death after the Israeli military said it had eliminated him in an airstrike in Beirut the day before. His death marks a devastating blow to Hezbollah, as it reels from an intense campaign of Israeli attacks. It is also a huge blow to Iran, removing an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Tehran's constellation of allied groups in the Arab world. Hezbollah said in a statement that...

By Jenny Cai, ABC News Police near the Japanese school in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, where a boy was fatally stabbed. Photo: AFP / Ichirou Ohara The deadly stabbing of a 10-year-old boy in China has fuelled anti-Japanese and ultra-nationalistic comments on Chinese social media. Chinese authorities have censored comments related to the incident in the hopes of preventing further strains in China-Japan relations. Experts say there needs to be greater education and open discussions of the difficult history between the two countries. The deadly stabbing of a 10-year-old boy in China has raised alarm among the Japanese community in the country while triggering a flood of criticism of the incident and extreme nationalist comments on Chinese social media. He was attacked by a 44-year-o...

Men show photos of Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-general of Hezbollah, as people demonstrate against Israel and the attack on Lebanon at Palestine square in Tehran on 28 September 2024. Photo: ATTA KENARE / AFP The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on the group's central headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut a day earlier. The Iran-backed Hezbollah has yet to issue any statement on the status of Nasrallah, who has led the group for 32 years. The Israeli military "eliminated ... Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization," Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a statement on X. "Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world," the Israeli military said in a pos...

Previously, New Zealanders have been able to enter the UK for six months without a visa. Photo: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto A travel agent says new rules for New Zealanders wanting to visit the United Kingdom could prove costly if people are not aware of them. From January, people wanting to travel to the UK will need to apply for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) as the country digitises its border and immigration system. "Everyone wishing to travel to the UK - except British and Irish citizens - will need permission to travel in advance of coming here. This can be either through an ETA or an eVisa," the UK Home Office said. Eligible citizens outside of Europe could apply for an ETA from 27 November 2024, and it would be compulsory from 8 January 2025. Those Kiwis with European pa...

Dame Maggie Smith in the 2023 film The Miracle Club. Photo: Supplied / Zephyr Films New Zealand actors are among those paying tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, who died on Friday aged 89. Jennifer Ward-Lealand, an actor and the president of the professional performers' union Equity New Zealand, said Dame Maggie was a rare breed of actor. Jennifer Ward-Lealand. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Her death was "a huge loss to the acting community", both in her native United Kingdom and around the world. "There are not many performers left like her who were part of a really venerable legacy. She straddled live performance and screen works, but also the old world of acting and the new. "When she started in the early '50s and the '60s, there was a real considerable change of style and mate...

Republican candidate for North Carolina Governor Mark Robinson. Photo: GRANT BALDWIN / Getty Images via AFP North Carolina's controversial Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, was sent to hospital with burns following an incident at a campaign event, US media is reporting. CNN is reporting the campaign said Robinson was treated for second-degree burns at Northern Regional Hospital "following an incident at a campaign event." Robinson, the state's lieutenant governor, is doing fine, the campaign said. The campaign has not said what caused the burns. A reporter for the Washington Post reported that Robinson burned his hand while leaning against a truck at a truck show. Mark Robinson attended a truck show in Mt Airy NC tonight. He burned his hand leaning against a truck and w...

Debris left by Hurricane Helene after making landfall are seen in Cedar Key, Florida, on 27 September , 2024. Photo: AFP Tropical Depression Helene brought life-threatening flooding on Friday to wide sections of the US Southeast, where at least 43 people have been killed by a storm that swamped neighborhoods, triggered mudslides, threatened dams and left more than 3.5 million homes and businesses without power. Helene hit Florida's Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday (local time) and left a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbours, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets. A New Zealander based in Florida said she was seeing wind and power outages like never before as the southeastern United States grappled with Tropical Storm Helene. Chloe Hi...