World News

By Jake Evans for the ABC A collage of pictures from 2006 showing the Australian 'Bali Nine' (from top, L to R): Myuran Sukumaran, Scott Rush, Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen, Renae Lawrence. (Lower row, L to R): Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephen and Andrew Chan, on Bali island during their trials. Photo: AFP/ Jewel Samad The remaining five members of the Bali Nine have returned to Australia after spending two decades in an Indonesian prison for their roles in a botched drug smuggling operation. Australians Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si-Yi Chen, Martin Stephens and Michael Czugaj were serving life sentences in Indonesia for their roles in the 2005 smuggling plot. The two ringleaders of the plot, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed in 2015; Renae Lawrence's...

Downtown San Francisco. Photo: 123rf For the first time in recorded history, downtown San Francisco was issued a tornado warning as severe storms swept through the city, just one week after a tsunami warning triggered widespread panic in the region. The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management confirmed the tornado threat ended around 3.14am NZT after the storm moved northeast of downtown. "Take shelter now in a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. If you are outdoors, in a mobile, home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from debris," SFDEM urged residents in an earlier tweet. The National Weather Service (NWS) also issued a flood advisory and high wind warning, with sustained winds of up to 64km/h exp...

Asma al-Assad with her husband Bashar, the former president of Syria. Photo: AFP PHOTO / HO / SANA A now-infamous 2011 Vogue profile of Asma al-Assad, the wife of toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, reads like, well, a Vogue profile. Her neck is described as "long." Her grace is "energetic." Her shoes show a "flash of red soles," a trademark of luxury shoemaker Christian Louboutin. The article has since been removed from Vogue's website after it was widely criticised for trivialising the regime and Asma's role in it. Its headline "Rose in the Desert" hints at the hope Syria's critics had that Asma would somehow tame her husband, who followed in the footsteps of his father's brutal rule. Now, the al-Assad family have fled to Russia after rebel forces stormed the Syrian capital of Da...

Jon Collins-Black Photo: Supplied What would you do if you became a billionaire? Well when, Jon Collins-Black has found himself in that position, and decided to recapture the imagination of his youth and set up a treasure hunt across America. His new book There's Treasure Inside contains all of the necessary clues to find the five treasure chests. Collins-Black told Sunday Morning the idea was inspired by his hunt for art dealer Forrest Fenn's treasure years ago. "I think [the treasure hunter] spirit was always with me and I was like 'wow, what would it be like to go out and hunt for treasure?' I did a lot of research and that's when I came across Forrest Fenn's treasure and I got really into it for a while." Collins-Black hid five treasure chests across America, each with their own th...

By Sarah Gerathy, ABC Those caught up in the Lindt Cafe siege reflect on the decade since the attack. Photo: ABC News On 15 December 2014, images from the heart of Sydney were being beamed live around the world into millions of homes. And they were terrifying. The tear-streaked faces of men and women being held hostage at gunpoint inside the Lindt Cafe, their hands pressed to the windows. Petrified hostages ran for their lives down Martin Place, into the arms of heavily armed tactical police. And finally in the early hours of 16 December, police stormed to the cafe in a hail of gunfire and brought the siege to its ultimate bloody end. It was 10 years today since lone-wolf gunman Man Haron Monis walked into the Lindt Cafe and took 18 people hostage, demanding politicians declare Austr...

Photo: 123RF US President-elect Donald Trump has praised the polio vaccine as the "greatest thing," but a lawyer affiliated with Trump's pick to lead the country's top health agency has petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration to revoke approval of the vaccine used in the United States. The lawyer, Aaron Siri, filed the petition in 2022 on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, or ICAN, a nonprofit that challenges the safety of vaccines and vaccine mandates. Siri has been working closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - a vaccine skeptic and Trump's pick to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services - to choose officials to serve in the incoming administration. He was also Kennedy's personal lawyer during his own presidential campaign. "The FDA is continuing to review ...

Isak Andic Photo: AFP / LLUIS GENE The founder and owner of fashion empire Mango, Isak Andic, has died in a mountain accident. He was 71. The businessman slipped and fell over 100 metres from a cliff while hiking with relatives in the Montserrat caves near Barcelona, a police spokesperson said. "His departure leaves a huge void but all of us are, in some way, his legacy and the testimony of his achievements. It is up to us ... to ensure that Mango continues to be the project that Isak was ambitious and proud of," Mango's CEO, Toni Ruiz, said in a statement. Born in Istanbul, Andic moved with his family to the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia in the 1960s and founded Mango in 1984. He was worth US$4.5 billion, according to Forbes. He was non-executive chairman of the company when...

Photo: 123RF Officials from the White House, FBI and DHS stressed that most of the recent reported drone sightings in New Jersey and nearby states involved manned aircraft, and there was no evidence of any national security threat. An FBI official told reporters during an impromptu briefing that the agency was working with 50 local, state and federal partners to look into increased reports. The official said less than 100 of the over 5000 reported sightings had turned out to merit further investigation, and all of the large fixed-wing reported sightings so far involved manned aircraft. "The combination of efforts so far ... to include technical equipment, tip line information and noted consults has ... not found any evidence to support large-scale (unmanned aerial systems) activities," t...

By Makini Brice, Reuters It is not immediately clear what the motives for the shooting are. Photo: 123RF Two security agents and two migrants have been killed in a shooting in Loon-Plage near the northern city of Dunkirk, French media reported, citing security sources. A 22-year-old man turned himself in to nearby authorities following the shooting. He said he had been the attacker and had also killed a fifth person in a nearby town earlier that day, according to French media. Authorities found three more weapons in the man's car, French media reported. Representatives for the Interior Ministry and the Justice Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was not immediately clear what the motives were for the shooting. Loon-Plage, located about 10 kilometres from ...

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP Yoon vows not to give up after impeachment vote Constitutional Court to decide whether to remove Yoon within 6 months Acting President Han pledges to maintain stability At least 12 from Yoon's party backed impeachment Yoon faces separate criminal investigation South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has vowed to fight for his political future after he was impeached in a second vote by the opposition-led parliament over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, a move that had shocked the nation. The Constitutional Court will decide whether to remove Yoon sometime in the next six months. If he is removed from office, a snap election will be called. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was appointed by Yoon, became acti...