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By Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel New York City mayor Eric Adams talks to the press outside Gracie Mansion, the official residence, after he was indicted on federal criminal charges. Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP US prosecutors have charged New York City mayor Eric Adams with accepting illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel from Turkish nationals seeking to influence him, capping an investigation that has sent the largest US city's government into turmoil. In a 57-page indictment, prosecutors laid out an alleged scheme stretching back to 2014 that helped to underwrite Adams' 2021 mayoral campaign and showered him with free rooms at opulent hotels and meals at high-end restaurants. In return, Adams pressured city officials to allow the country's new 36-storey consulate to op...

Bystanders and reporters look at the destruction in a street under a residential building whose top two floors were hit by an Israeli strike in the Ghobeiri area of Beirut's southern suburbs. Photo: AFP Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Thursday rejected proposals from the United States and France calling for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had not responded but told the army to keep up its operation. "There will be no ceasefire in the north," Katz said on the social media platform X. "We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes." Netanyahu, who left Israel on Thursday to address the United Nations, issued a ...

This handout taken and released on 21 September 2024 by the Cartenz Peace Task Force shows New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens (left), who was snatched by rebels in Indonesia's restive region of Papua in February last year, following his release at a press conference in Timika. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP West Papua advocates are concerned Indonesia will launch a military assault in Nduga province, putting thousands of innocent lives at risk, now that New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been released. But the Indonesian government say it is a "baseless accusation". Mehrtens was held captive for almost 600 days by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) in Nduga province. The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) vice-president Octovianus Mote is asking the New Zealand gov...

By Rosie Leishman* Afghan journalist Zahra Joya Photo: Zahra Joya/supplied The Taliban has introduced laws further restricting women's rights in Afghanistan, but an Afghan journalist in exile says they don't feel new. And she hopes New Zealand will do more. Three years on from the US withdrawal in Afghanistan and the Taliban's return to rule, journalist Zahra Joya said the new law banning women from raising their voices in public "doesn't feel new". Under the Taliban women in public must also be covered from head to toe and most cover their faces, leaving only their eyes visible. There were also restrictions for behaviour in their own homes. "It is a serious time for the international community and those who believe in human rights, women's rights, any of those basic values," Joya sa...

By Rich McKay, Brendan O'Brien and Andrew Hay, Reuters View of flooded houses in the coastal town of Guanimar, in Artemisa province, southwest of Havana, after the passage of Hurricane Helene on 25 September 2024. Photo: AFP / YAMIL LAGE Florida braced for the arrival of Hurricane Helene on Thursday, forecast to be a powerful Category 4 storm when it smashes into the state's panhandle. Officials issued dire warnings, pleading with residents in coastal areas along the hurricane's path to evacuate ahead of catastrophic winds and a potentially deadly storm surge, the wall of seawater pushed on land by hurricane-force winds, that could rise to 20 feet (6.1 metres) in some spots. "This is not a survivable event for those in coastal or low-lying areas," said Jared Miller, the sheriff of Wa...