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No oil leaks have been found the area where the NZ Navy ship HMNZS Manawanui sank yet, the Samoa government says. The Ministry of Works chief executive Fui Mau Simanu told RNZ Pacific that New Zealand Navy divers had been assessing the area since Tuesday morning. He said they were working alongside local police and Samoa's Natural Resources and Environment Ministry. "We haven't seen any leakage or any sort of spillage," Fui said. "But we should have a fair idea of any damage to the environment if there is any probably tonight, when the teams come back from their assessment," Fui said. Read more: 'It's my ship and I'm gutted': Former minister Ron Mark on Manawanui sinking HMNZS Manawanui: What we know about the ship's sinking An expert explains why a speedy cleanup will be crucial - and the...

The author Salman Rushdie. Photo: TOBIAS SCHWARZ The author Salman Rushdie, who survived a stabbing in 2022 that almost took his life, revealed he is writing new works of fiction. Rushdie, speaking via videolink to the Lviv BookForum in Ukraine, told a packed auditorium and thousands more online that he is in the midst of writing three novellas. While Rushdie appeared at writers' conference to discuss his memoir Knife, a look at his recovery from the attack that cost him an eye, he also spoke about a new project that examines life's end. "When you get to this age you obviously think about how long is left," said Rushdie, who is 77. "There obviously aren't 22 more [books] that will be written. If I am lucky there will be one or two." The Indian-born British American author is taking insp...

By ABC chief business correspondent Ian Verrender Should Israel attack Iranian oil export facilities, oil and petrol prices could surge. (file photo) Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook Analysis: What was he thinking? When US President Joe Biden last Thursday casually dropped that he had discussed military strikes against Iran's oil export facilities with Israel, all hell broke loose. Crude oil prices, which in recent months have been languishing, immediately took flight, surging 5 percent. By the end of the week, they had stacked on 8 percent. It didn't take long for the inevitable about face. By Friday, Biden had canned the idea, saying he had warned Israel against it and ordered it to find "other alternatives". There's no doubt an attack on Iran's oil export facilities would hurt. The country h...

This satellite image shows hurricane Milton churning over the Gulf of Mexico on October 7, 2024. Photo: NOAA / RAMMB / AFP By Daniel Trotta and David Alire Garcia, Reuters Hurricane Milton strengthened into a Category 5 storm on Monday (US time), posing an immediate threat to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on its way to Florida, where the state ordered mass evacuations while still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Helene. With maximum sustained winds of 285km/h, Milton was categorised as the strongest level storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. Milton was classified as a tropical storm on Sunday afternoon but in less than 24 hours it "explosively" morphed into a Category 5 storm - the third-fastest intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the US Nat...

By Niklas Pollard, Ludwig Burger, Jonathan Allen, Reuters Nobel prize for medicine winners Victor Ambros (left) and Gary Ruvkun (right). Photo: AFP/JOSEPH PREZIOSO US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun have won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of microRNA and its crucial role in how multicellular organisms grow and live. Their work helped explain how cells specialise and develop into different types, such as muscle and nerve cells, even though all the cells in an individual contain the same set of genes and instructions for growing and staying alive. "The Nobel's, you know, there's a word we use for Major League Baseball, it's called 'The Show'. Which means it's not any show, it's THE show," Ruvkun told Reuters, describing what it was like being thrust into th...

By Brendan O'Brien, Reuters Residents board up a store in St. Petersburg ahead of Hurricane Milton's expected landfall in the middle of this week in Florida. Photo: BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP As Hurricane Milton strengthened to a Category 5 storm, Floridians scrambled to prepare for its arrival this week near Tampa, where it may bring blistering winds, life-threatening storm surge and torrential rains to the Gulf Coast for the second time in two weeks. Milton strengthened to the most powerful category of storms as it churned through the southwest Gulf of Mexico, about 1183km from Tampa. It was packing sustained winds of up to 257kph, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm was expected to turn northeast on Wednesday (NZT) and head toward the populous Tampa-St. Petersburg area, making l...

Earth sits in dried cracked mud before metropolis Photo: Bruce Rolff Three of New Zealand's Pacific neighbours have asked the International Criminal Court to consider "ecocide" an international crime. In September, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa made a formal submission to the world's highest court, asking it to put the worst environmental destruction by humans on a par with genocide and crimes against humanity. It follows a push in recent years to make ecocide a globally punishable offence and moves by some countries - particularly in Europe - to include it in their own statutes. So what kind of destruction would "ecocide" apply to? And what's the process the ICC has to follow? Stop Ecocide International chief executive Jojo Mehta told Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan the term was coined in th...

The Manawanui sank off the south coast of the island of Upolu on Saturday. Photo: Supplied / Profile Boats Nearly 1000 tonnes of diesel fuel were onboard HMNZS Manawanui when it sank, the Chief of Navy says. The Manawanui sank off the south coast of the island of Upolu on Saturday, after running aground, catching fire and capsizing. The immediate focus was on the safety and recovery of its crew, with attention now turning to salvage and environmental mitigation. Rear admiral Garin Golding told Morning Report there were different types of fuel on board the ship, the largest being 950 tonnes of automotive gas oil. "It is a diesel fuel ... a light oil of commercial diesel quantities." A dive team will on Tuesday assess the condition of the stricken ship and if there are any leaks, he said....

By Manuel Ausloos, Reuters Two people embrace as relatives and supporters of Israelis killed in the 7 October Hamas attack attend a ceremony at the Nova memorial near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel on the first anniversary of the attacks. Photo: JOHN WESSELS/AFP Israelis marked the first anniversary of the devastating Hamas attack that triggered a war which has sparked protest worldwide and risks igniting a far wider conflict in the Middle East. Ceremonies and protests in Jerusalem and Israel's south began around 6.29am local time, the hour when Hamas launched rockets into Israel at the start of its 7 October assault last year and burst across the border, rampaging through towns. They killed some 1200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli figures. Outside ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Hussam al-Masri, Reuters Displaced people arrive in Khan Yunis after being given notice by Israeli forces to evacuate from the eastern parts of the city in the southern Gaza Strip on 7 October, 2024, on the first anniversary of the ongoing war. Photo: BASHAR TALEB/AFP Israel stepped up air and ground attacks on Hamas in Gaza, killing at least 52 people according to Palestinian medics, on the first anniversary of a war that has left most of the territory in ruins and shattered the lives of its people. For its part, Hamas said it struck Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv with a missile salvo, setting off sirens in central Israel. Two people were lightly injured, according to the Israeli ambulance service. The rocket volley signalled Hamas' enduring ability to...