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Local authorities have been working around the clock since Tuesday to try to locate and rescue people trapped in the rubble left by the magnitude 7.3 earthquake. December 2024 Photo: Vanuatu Police Force The search for people trapped in rubble and landslides is continuing today as the New Zealand Defence Force arrives in Port Vila. The Defence Force was delayed arriving into Vanuatu after a fault on one of the older Hercules plane. Labour said it was embarrassing, but a new Hercules plane has landed in Port Vila and a second is on the way to Noumea. More than 300 aftershocks have been felt since the big quake on Tuesday. And the official death toll was revised down to nine, though it was expected to rise. Two Chinese nationals were among the dead. Follow RNZ's liveblog for the latest u...

Valerie Kalkoa spent time working in Australia to help support her son, her colleague says. Photo: Facebook/ ABC Among those tragically taken by the earthquake disaster in Vanuatu was Valerie Kalkoa, a single mother who only returned home two days ago She had just finished a second season with a labour hire firm in north Queensland and was shopping in Port Vila when she died. Meanwhile, hundreds more Australians stranded in Vanuatu after its devastating earthquakes will be flown back home on RAAF flights on Thursday evening. Brisbane Airport's international terminal will welcome both arrivals. It follows other emergency rescue flights, which brought 148 Australians from the disaster zone overnight. Australian teams are on the ground working closely with Vanuatu authorities to undertake ...

By Juliette Jabkhiro, Reuters Gisele Pelicot insisted on a public trial to expose her husband and the other men accused of raping her. Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP Content warning: This story discusses sexual violence. A list of helplines is available at the bottom of the page. Husband drugged wife, invited dozens of men to rape her Prosecutors sought maximum 20-year term for husband Trial has sparked debate on updating France's rape law Victim hopes case will help other sexual abuse survivors A French court found all 51 defendants guilty on Thursday in a drugging-and-rape case that horrified the world and transformed the victim, Gisele Pelicot, into a stirring symbol of courage and resilience. Pelicot's ex-husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, had pleaded guilty to drugging h...

All countries signed up to the Paris Agreement have until the end of December to file Biennial Transparency Reports, sharing their progress with the international community. Photo: 123RF The government's first report under the Paris Agreement gives no answers on where it will source 84 million tonnes of planet-heating pollution savings currently missing from it's climate plans. All countries signed up to the Paris Agreement have until the end of December to file Biennial Transparency Reports, sharing their progress with the international community. New Zealand's was published on Wednesday. It said "the scale of emission reductions required to meet the target is greater than what can be achieved in an economically feasible way through domestic action alone". But it did not say how the go...

A damaged school building in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on 19 December after the campus was struck by debris from the reported interception of a projectile from Yemen. Photo: JACK GUEZ / AFP Israel's "long hand" will reach the leaders of Yemen's Houthi movement, Defence Minister Israel Katz has vowed, after unleashing airstrikes on several areas of the Arab country overnight. The Israeli airstrikes killed nine people, said Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of the country. Seven of those were in the port of Salif and two in the Ras Issa oil facility, both located in the western province of Hodeidah. The strikes also targeted two central power stations south and north of the capital, Sanaa, it added. "I warn the leaders of the ...

Rescue teams dig for survivors trapped in crumpled buildings in Port Vila on 18 December. Photo: AFP There are conflicting reports of the official death toll from a massive earthquake in Vanuatu as rescue teams continue to scour the rubble for survivors. On 17 December, the Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office reported 14 deaths. It said four people had been confirmed dead by the hospital, six others were killed in a landslide and four others died in a collapsed building. But on Wednesday, the disaster management office reported only nine people had been confirmed dead by the hospital and made no mention of the deaths it had earlier attributed to the landslides and collapsed buildings. One consistent figure is the more than 200 people injured, with the hospital saying many patien...

John Marsden was one of Australia's greatest writers of children's and young adult literature. Photo: ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky Acclaimed Australian author John Marsden, whose young adult novels were read and beloved across the world, has died aged 74. Marsden wrote the internationally best-selling Tomorrow book series, which sold millions of copies and was adapted for film and television. He won many major awards for children's and adult fiction, and in 2006 received the Lloyd O'Neil Award for contributions to Australian publishing. Following the news of his death, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Marsden "wanted young Australians to read more and his writing made that happen". "Vivid, funny, quintessentially Australian, he wrote with a real love for our land and a tru...

By Lainey Priestley of Former Green Party candidate Jack Brazil. Photo: Otago Daily Times / Gregor Richardson A Dunedin shooting victim, social justice campaigner and former Green Party candidate has been arrested in Ireland after allegedly looting a shoe store during mass riots in Dublin last year. However, he claims he has an alibi. Former 2020 Green Party candidate Jack Brazil was arrested in Ireland on Tuesday (local time) for the alleged looting of a Footlocker store in Dublin last year, Irish media reported. He allegedly committed the burglary on 23 November 2023, during the Dublin riots - an incident that involved widespread looting and disorder in the city in response to a knife attack on young children, the Irish Mirror reported. He appeared in Dublin Distr...