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By Giselle Wakatama, Carly Cook and Bridget Murphy, ABC News Flowers were left at the scene of the bus crash. Photo: AFP / SAEED KHAN A judge has said a Hunter Valley bus driver abandoned responsibility and engaged in risky behaviour in the lead up to a fatal crash, as he handed him a 32-year jail sentence. Brett Andrew Button, 59, was driving wedding guests from the Hunter Valley vineyards to Singleton on 11 June last year when the bus rolled and hit a guard rail at Greta. Button was originally charged with 10 counts of manslaughter but those charges were later downgraded to dangerous driving occasioning death after a plea deal was done with the Department of Public Prosecutions. He had also pleaded guilty to dozens of charges relating to dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodil...

Photo: Composite image: Kamala Harris AFP/Roberto Schmidt. Donald Trump AFP/Mark Peterson. Immediately after the US presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Wednesday, the Republican candidate and his supporters complained he'd been unfairly treated by the moderators. "You have two moderators there who acted as agents of the Harris campaign," said David Bossie, a longtime Trump adviser and Republican National Committee member. Trump's chief complaint was that the ABC's David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked him on various claims but failed to do the same with Harris. If he had a grounds for complaint on that, he could not reasonably gripe about the moderators giving him space to speak. An RNZ analysis found he took more turns and spoke many more words than Democrat...

By Howard Schneider, Reuters Donald Trump aired falsehoods including the baseless claim that immigrants are eating pets in his debate with his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images via AFP Rose Joseph and Banal Oreus followed different paths from Haiti to this struggling Midwestern industrial city that suddenly finds itself at the centre of the US presidential race. Joseph arrived in 2022 after landing in Florida two years earlier to escape violence in Haiti, journeying north on word of good job prospects. Oreus, after stops in Brazil, Portugal and Mexico over an eight-year stretch, was drawn to Springfield in 2023 by family and friends who had already found their way here. "The first motivation was job and work opportunities," Joseph, n...

By Joseph Ax, Reuters Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris prepared to debate for the first time. Photo: AFP Former Republican president Donald Trump and current Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris will take part in the only scheduled debate of the US election at 1pm. Everything you need to know about watching the debate from New Zealand. The US election will be held on 5 November. Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris prepared to meet for the first time in their only scheduled debate of the US presidential campaign, a key moment in a close-fought contest. The nationally televised debate beginning at 9pm local time (Wednesday 1pm NZT) takes place just eight weeks before the 5 November election, and days before early v...

By Ammu Kannampilly, Reuters Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei. Photo: FERENC ISZA / AFP The man accused of dousing in petrol and setting alight Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei has died from burns sustained during the fatal attack on the Ugandan athlete, a hospital official said on Tuesday. Cheptegei, 33, who competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, suffered burns to more than 75 percent of her body in the 1 September attack and died four days later. Her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, died at 1830 (1530 GMT) on Monday, said Philip Kirwa, chief executive officer of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret in western Kenya where Marangach was being treated and where Cheptegei also died. "He developed respiratory failure as a result of the severe airway burn...