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Italian divers retrieve the body of one of the victims of the Bayesian sinking. Photo: AFP The captain of a superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily, killing seven, says he did everything possible to save those on board, according to local media. New Zealander James Cutfield was at the helm of the Bayesian when it went down in August during a storm. British tech magnate Mike Lynch, the yacht's owner, and his teenage daughter Hannah were among those killed. Cutfield is now under investigation by Italian authorities for manslaughter and shipwreck, along with two other crew members. Being investigated does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow. Cutfield was now suffering through the darkest days of his life, sources close to him told the Italian newspaper Corrier...

By Stephanie Kelly, Reuters Hersh Goldberg-Polin, pictured in a video released by Hamas in April. Photo: AFP/ Hamas Media Office Biden says he is 'devastated and outraged' Israel releases names of others recovered Biden, Harris vow to work to free remaining hostages Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including that of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, U.S. President Joe Biden said late on Saturday (local time). "Earlier today, in a tunnel under the city of Rafah, Israeli forces recovered six bodies of hostages held by Hamas," Biden said in a statement issued by the White House. "I am devastated and outraged." The Israeli military said in a statement early on Sunday that the bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Or...

Flooding has been seen around Tasmania. Photo: TAS SES - Kentish Unit / Facebook Tens of thousands of people in Australia's Tasmania state were without power on Sunday after a cold front brought damaging winds and heavy rains, sparking flood warnings. "Around 30,000 customers are without power across the state this morning," Tasnetworks, a state-owned power company, said on Facebook on Sunday morning. The nation's weather forecaster said a cold front over Tasmania, an island state of around 570,000 people, was moving away "although bands of showers and thunderstorms continue to pose a risk of damaging wind gusts." "Yet another strong cold front will cross the state on Sunday night into early Monday morning, likely impacting the western and northern coasts," the forecaster said on its w...

Puja Patel Photo: New York music journalist Puja Patel says it's a complete accident her Mixtape song selections are all about "the complicated nuances of love". "It's possible that the heat and the airport - two things that make me kind of nostalgic - infiltrated my brain and sent me down this path," she tells Music 101's Charlotte Ryan. Patel, who recently spent six years as editor-in-chief at Pitchfork, says music journalism was quite an unusual path for a first-generation Indian American girl. This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. Living between two cultures, she understood early on though that "cool" was chronicled through music and that she could study this by reading the Rolling Stone Album Guide and Spin magazine at the local library. "Honestly, I th...

By Doina Chiacu, Reuters US Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at an election campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, on 29 August. Photo: AFP/ Kyle Mazza US Vice President Kamala Harris has criticised her Republican presidential rival Donald Trump on Saturday over a visit he made to soldiers' graves at Arlington National Cemetery that was later used in campaign video footage. "It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honour American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation. It is not a place for politics," Harris wrote in an X post. The vice president weighed in five days after Trump took part in a wreath-laying ceremony honouring the 13 servicemembers killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. He also visited Section 60 of ...

By Tom Balmforth for Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden in June 2024. Photo: Mandel NGAN / AFP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky increased pressure on the United States to let Kyiv strike deeper into Russian territory after his representatives met senior US officials in Washington on Saturday. Washington has provided Ukraine with more than US$50 billion (NZ$80bn) worth of military aid since 2022, but has limited the use of its weapons to Ukrainian soil and defensive cross-border operations. "Clearing the Ukrainian sky of Russian guided aerial bombs is a strong step to force Russia to seek an end to the war and a just peace," Zelensky said in his nightly video address. Appealing to the United States, Britain, France and Germany, he said, "We...