World News

By Maya Gebeily and Ari Rabinovitch, Reuters Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Khiam. Photo: RABIH DAHER/AFP Israel's military chief told troops that air strikes in Lebanon would continue in order to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure and to prepare the way for a possible ground operation by Israeli forces. Even as he spoke, sources said the United States had started a diplomatic push to stop the fighting in both Gaza and Lebanon, and that proposals were being hammered out at the UN General Assembly in New York. US President Joe Biden told ABC television that all-out war was possible, but added: "We're still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region." Read more: Hundreds killed by Israeli ...

Australian surfer Matt Formston. Photo: YouTube / Bonsai Films At the age of 5, Australian surfer Matt Formston was diagnosed with macular dystrophy, a rare eye condition that left him with only 3 percent of his vision. Instead of letting that limit him, Formston decided he would dedicate his life to proving that he could do anything. Now, the 46-year-old is a world champion paralympian, cyclist, author and motivational speaker - and he's just added another record under his belt - as the first ever blind surfer to conquer the Nazare break in Portugal - otherwise known as the biggest wave in the world. His feat is the subject of a new film called The Blind Sea. Formston told RNZ's Kathryn Ryan the film is all about proving that people with disabilities can achieve incredible things. "I...

By Kanishka Singh, Reuters Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Photo: Brandon Bell / Getty Images via AFP Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was briefed on Tuesday by US intelligence officials on alleged threats from Iran to assassinate him, Trump's campaign said. "President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilise and sow chaos in the United States," the campaign said in a statement. The campaign said that intelligence officials have identified that Iranian threats have "heightened in the past few months" and US government officials were working to protect Trump and ensure the elections were not impacted. Iran has previous...

Ryan Routh. Photo: AFPTV / AFP The man accused of staking out Donald Trump's Florida golf course with a rifle was indicted on Tuesday (local time) on a charge of attempted assassination of a political candidate as prosecutors alleged he intended to kill the former US president, federal prosecutors said. Ryan Routh, 58, was already facing two gun-related charges after authorities said he pointed a rifle through a fence at Trump's golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida on 15 September while the Republican presidential candidate was golfing there. He has been ordered to remain in jail to await trial. A federal prosecutor said on Monday that the US Justice Department would ask a grand jury to approve the more serious attempted assassination charge, which carries a maximum of life in prison. ...

By Doina Chiacu, Reuters Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican nominee Senator JD Vance of Ohio. Photo: AFP Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance will face off next week in the only scheduled US vice presidential debate, a chance for each man to reinforce his running mate's message to voters just weeks before the 5 November election. Here are some details about the event: When and where is the debate? The 90-minute debate, hosted by CBS News, will take place on 1 October at 9pm ET (2pm NZT 2 October, after daylight savings time begins here this weekend) in New York City, a Democratic stronghold that is the former home of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate running against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Who are the mo...

By Joseph Ax, Reuters This photo obtained 22 August 2017 courtesy of the Missouri Department of Corrections shows death-row inmate Marcellus Williams. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP A Missouri man was executed today, according to the man's legal team, even though the prosecutor's office that secured his murder conviction 21 years ago expressed doubts about the integrity of the case. The US Supreme Court, the last body that could have halted the execution, declined to intervene in the case on Tuesday. Marcellus Williams, 55, was put to death by lethal injection shortly after 6pm local time at a prison in Bonne Terre, according to The Innocence Project, whose lawyer worked with Williams. His death came a day after both Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the state's highest court also rejected his...

This combination of file pictures created on August 3, 2024 shows US Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaking on March 26, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina; and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking in the first presidential debate with US President Joe Biden in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. Photo: AFP Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 47 percent to 40 percent in the race to win the 5 November US presidential election, as she appeared to blunt Trump's edge on the economy and jobs, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published today found. Harris had a lead of six percentage points based on unrounded figures - which showed her with support from 46.61 percent of registered voters w...

By Joseph Ax, Reuters This photo obtained 22 August 2017 courtesy of the Missouri Department of Corrections shows death-row inmate Marcellus Williams. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP A Missouri man is scheduled to be executed today unless the US Supreme Court intervenes at the last minute, even though the prosecutor's office that secured his murder conviction 21 years ago has expressed doubts about the integrity of the case. Marcellus Williams, 55, was expected to be put to death by lethal injection at 6pm Tuesday local time (11am Wednesday NZT) at a prison in Bonne Terre, a day after both Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the state's highest court rejected his last-ditch bids to avoid execution. Williams was found guilty in 2003 of killing Felicia "Lisha" Gayle, a former newspaper reporter who...

By David Shepardson, Reuters Delta Air Lines has vowed to take legal action, saying the outage forced it to cancel 7000 flights. Photo: AFP / Getty Images North America A senior executive at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike apologised at an appearance before a US House of Representatives subcommittee on Tuesday for a faulty software update that caused a global IT outage in July. Adam Meyers, senior vice president for counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, told the House Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection subcommittee that CrowdStrike released a content configuration update for its Falcon Sensor security software that resulted in system crashes worldwide. "We are deeply sorry this happened and we are determined to prevent this from happening again," Meye...

The deceased was said to be a 64-year-old American woman. Photo: ARND WIEGMANN/AFP Warning: this story discusses suicide and euthanasia. Swiss police have arrested several people after a controversial futuristic-looking capsule designed to allow its occupant to commit suicide was used for the first time, authorities said on Wednesday. Police in the northern canton of Schaffhausen bordering Germany said the so-called "Sarco" capsule had been deployed in a wood in the municipality of Merishausen on Monday local time. Prosecutors in Schaffhausen have opened criminal proceedings against several people for "inducing and aiding and abetting suicide", a police statement said, adding several people were detained, without giving details about them or the deceased. A spokesperson for the group be...