World News

By Brian Fung for CNN The sale of Chrome could help prevent an illegal monopoly in web browsing, US government lawyers say. Photo: AFP / FILE The US government has formally proposed a partial breakup of Google, urging a federal judge to force a sale of the company's Chrome web browser after a landmark ruling this year finding that Google had violated US antitrust law with its search business. The request by the Justice Department and a group of states opens the door to the most significant antitrust penalties for a tech giant in a generation, targeting not only Google's illegal monopoly in search but also its growing ambitions in artificial intelligence. If approved, the penalties could revolutionise how millions of Americans search for information and potentially disrupt the tight i...

Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped Banana entitled "Comedian," is on display during a media preview at Sotheby's in New York, on 8 November, 2024. Photo: AFP / Ken Betancur A banana fixed to a wall with duct tape artwork has been auctioned off for about US$6.2 million (NZ$10.5m), about four times the initial estimate, at Sotheby's in New York. Seven bidders competed on Wednesday (New York time) to seize Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's latest edition of his Comedian artwork, which was estimated to sell for up to US$1.5m. Chinese founder of cryptocurrency platform TRON Justin Sun. Photo: Supplied / Sotheby's That was already above and beyond the selling point of previous editions, which went for between US$120,000 and US$150,000, according to Perrotin gallery. C...

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN Billionaire Indian industrialist Gautam Adani has been charged with paying hundreds of millions of dollars of bribes and hiding the payments from investors, US prosecutors say. Photo: AFP / PUNIT PARANJPE Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and other executives have been indicted in New York for roles in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme, the US Department of Justice says. Authorities said Adani and seven other senior business executives, including his nephew Sagar Adani, promised more than US$250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts. Those bribes were "to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller in a statement Wednesday. Worth...

Vang Vieng in Laos. Photo: CHAPUT FRANCK / HEMIS.FR / AFP The ABC understands a third person has died in Laos after drinking tainted alcohol, as two Australian teenagers continue to fight for their lives following the mass poisoning incident. Melbourne 19-year-olds Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones are critically ill after they drank alcohol suspected to have been tainted by methanol at a bar in Vang Vieng in Laos last Tuesday. Bowles and Jones are currently hospitalised in Thailand. On Thursday morning the US State Department said a US citizen had died in Vang Vieng. It is understood at least two Danish women in their 20s have died, with at least 10 people falling ill after drinking the alcohol. "We can confirm the death of a US citizen in Vang Vieng, Laos," the US State Department said. "...

File photo. Jacinda Ardern pictured on 2023. Photo: AFP Former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern is to be given a global leadership award by the United Nations Foundation. The annual awards, We The Peoples, recognise "extraordinary individuals and organizations whose work embodies the values and purposes of the UN". Ardern will be given the champion for global change award. The citation said it recognised her trailblazing and empathetic leadership, her commitment to championing the rights of women, combatting climate change and fostering of unity and peace. Last month, Ardern recieved her damehood from Prince William in a ceremony in the UK. Previous recipients of the champion for global change award included UN deputy secretary-general Amina J. Mohammed, Barbados prime minister Mia Am...

By David Weber, ABC Photo: WA District Court Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find distressing. The parents of a malnourished Perth teenager who doctors warned would die without urgent medical intervention have been found guilty of starving her. The parents were accused of failing to provide adequate nutrition to their 16-year-old daughter who only weighed 27 kilograms in 2021. They've each been found guilty of engaging in conduct that caused their child to suffer, by failing to provide adequate nutrition. They've also each been found guilty of a second charge, relating to their failure to provide emotional, social and functional development. The father earlier pleaded guilty to forging his daughter's birth certificate to make her appear younger than she re...

By Kristen Holmes, Kaitlan Collins and John Towfighi, CNN Linda McMahon, former administrator of Small Business Administration, speaks at the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on 18 July. Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters via CNN Newsource President-elect Donald Trump has named his transition co-chair Linda McMahon as his pick to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Education. The decision, which Trump announced Tuesday night confirming CNN's earlier reporting, took shape after it became clear that McMahon would be passed over for Commerce secretary. Trump named his other transition co-chair, Howard Lutnick, as his pick to lead the Commerce Department earlier Tuesday after the Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive had thrown his name into the mix for T...

Maria Foy. Photo: supplied On 10 June 2024, Maria Foy posted a comment on her Facebook page to half a million followers. They probably knew her better by her online brand, Happy Mum Happy Child. It was honest, a key tenet of Foy's nature that propelled her to one of New Zealand's most popular 'mumfluencers' when social media felt sparkly and new in the 2010s. "After thinking long and hard about this I feel it's time to pivot from this thing I started almost 10 years ago as my children are older now, and they don't want to be shown on social media in the same way they were as young kids." Foy accidentally started a successful brand out of being a fun, creative, sometimes goofy and always honest mum. Her posts were seen by thousands and could also make thousands of dollars from brands as ...

By Anastasiia Malenko, Tom Balmforth and Max Hunder, Reuters A Storm Shadown missile on show at the International Paris Air Show 2023. Photo: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/AFP Ukraine fired a volley of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia, the latest new Western weapon it has been permitted to use on Russian targets a day after it fired US ATACMS missiles. The strikes were widely reported by Russian war correspondents on Telegram and confirmed by an official on condition of anonymity. Moscow has said the use of Western weapons to strike into Russian territory far from the border would be a major escalation in the conflict. Kyiv says it needs the capability to defend itself by hitting Russian rear bases used to support Moscow's invasion, which entered its thousandth day this w...

By Ben Makori, Reuters Former One Direction band members Harry Styles and Niall Horan leave after attending the funeral service of the late One Direction singer Liam Payne. Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP The former members of boy band One Direction were among the mourners at the funeral of their band mate Liam Payne, just over a month after he died aged 31. Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson joined Payne's family and friends for the private church service in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, north west of London. The mother of Payne's son, Cheryl Tweedy. Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP The father of one was found dead after he fell from his hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, triggering an outpouring of grief from fans around the world. The singer's coffin arrived at the church i...