World News

Phillip Mehrtens was kidnapped in February 2023. Photo: Facebook Rebels in Indonesia's West Papua region have proposed the terms of release for the New Zealand pilot taken hostage almost 18 months ago. The armed faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army kidnapped Phillip Merhtens in February last year after he landed a small commercial plane in a remote, mountainous area. The group has tried to use Mehrtens to broker independence from Indonesia. It is now asking the New Zealand government, including the police and army, to escort the pilot and for local and international journalists to be involved in the release process. Both Foreign Affairs and the minister's office say they are aware of the proposed plan. In a statement, they say their focus remains on securing a peaceful res...

Sergio Perez crashed at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Photo: Screengrab / Formula1 Sergio Perez's father was stable in hospital in Mexico City after he collapsed at home following the Red Bull Formula One driver's heavy crash in Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, local media reported on Tuesday. A statement from the Scuderia Perez race organisation said Antonio Perez Garibay, 65, would remain under close medical supervision for several days. "Everything happened after the accident," the Mediotiempo website quoted him saying from the hospital. "It may be that the shock of the accident triggered it. They are already checking my heart to see why I fainted." Photo: PHOTOSPORT Perez and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz were battling for third place in Baku when they collided and ended up in the wall, w...

Virgin Australia was forced to reinstate the cabin crew member following a ruling by the country's Fair Work Commission. Photo: 123RF/ Ryan Fletcher An Australian airline which fired a staffer after a Grindr hookup while on 'fatigue leave' probably would not have taken such action if he was married and straight, an employment law expert says. Virgin Australia was forced to reinstate the cabin crew member, Dylan Macnish, following a ruling by the country's Fair Work Commission. Macnish was dismissed after the airline obtained hotel CCTV footage and room swipe card records, the Guardian reported, after he had asked for a roster change due to fatigue. During a stressful shift the previous day, he had been urinated on by a passenger suffering a suspected stroke. Early the next morning, Macn...

By Gram Slattery, Reuters Donald Trump. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP The head of the Secret Service told Donald Trump in a private meeting that significant new security arrangements will be needed if he wants to keep playing golf, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. Trump asked Ronald Rowe, the Secret Service's acting director, in a meeting on Monday whether it was safe for him to continue playing, the newspaper said. Rowe said the Secret Service views the golf course at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland as easier to secure because it is a military course. That meeting occurred a day after the Secret Service thwarted a second apparent assassination attempt on Trump in less than two months. On Sunday, Secret Service agents fired on Ryan Wesley Routh, the apparent would-be assas...

The police and military in Papua New Guinea are struggling to cope with chronic tribal "revenge killings" among "local terrorists" with high powered weapons in Enga Province. Photo: Supplied In 2022, Papua New Guinea's Parliament unanimously voted to change the country's gun laws making it possible for the courts to impose life sentences on people found to be in possession of illegal firearms. The amendments to the Firearms Act were tabled by Prime Minister James Marape and it came just three years after a previous set of changes. Parliament's decision reflected widespread public sentiments after the brutal mass murder of 16 women and children in James Marape's Hela Province and in the Pogera District of the Enga Province in 2019. Since then, Papua New Guinea, has joined the club of cou...

US President Joe Biden (C), British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (R) and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) hold a press conference during the AUKUS summit on March 13, 2023, at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego California. Photo: AFP / JIM WATSON AUKUS partners Australia, Britain and the United States said on Wednesday they are in discussions with Canada, Japan and New Zealand about potential collaboration on defence technology projects. The AUKUS defence technology partnership will deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Australia next decade, and is collaborating on other advanced weapons development they say will boost deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, amid concern over China's naval build-up. The Australian, British and US leaders said that new partners could contribute to t...

By Mark Rigby and Danielle Mahe, ABC News Security officers seized bullets, shells and firearm parts at the Gold Coast Airport. Photo: Australian Border Force / supplied A 62-year-old man will face court after allegedly trying to export hundreds of bullets, shotgun shells and bullet casings, as well as firearm parts, on a flight from the Gold Coast to New Zealand. The New Zealand national was allegedly carrying some items on his body and had others in his luggage when he was stopped by Australian Border Force officers. The man is expected to appear in Southport Magistrates Court today and could face a maximum penalty of $782,500 and 10 years' imprisonment. A New Zealand man allegedly caught trying to leave Australia with hundreds of bullets, shotgun shells, and firearm parts has fa...

By Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily for Reuters Lebanese army soldier gestures to an ambulance rushing wounded people to a hospital in Beirut on 17 September 2024, after explosions hit. Photo: AFP / Anwar Amro Israel's Mossad spy agency planted a small amount of explosives inside 5000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Lebanese group Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters. The details shed light on an unprecedented Hezbollah security breach that saw thousands of pagers detonate across Lebanon, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3000 others, including the group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut. Iran-backed Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, whose military declined to comment on the blasts. The pl...

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams hold a news conference from the International Space Station on 13 September. Photo: AFP PHOTO / NASA TV Two astronauts who flew to the International Space Station for eight days and ended up staying months were aware of the risks and will be being kept busy, a retired astronaut who knows the pair says. NASA astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore crewed Boeing's Starliner which left earth on 5 June for what was meant to be an eight-day test mission. They're now expected to return in February on a different spacecraft. Retired astronaut Michael Fossum told Nine to Noon what happened to Wilmore and Williams was "pretty jarring" - to go from an eight day mission to months spent in space. But this was a test flight, he sa...

By Marc Leras and Makini Brice, Reuters Gisele Pelicot insisted on a public trial to expose her husband and the other men accused of raping her. Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP Warning: This story discusses sexual assault Dominique Pelicot admitted to drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her over nearly a decade, begging for his family's forgiveness, as he told a French court: "I am a rapist." Pelicot's hearing, the centrepiece of one of France's most spectacular criminal trials in recent history, had to be delayed last week due to his bad health. He faces multiple charges including rape, gang rape and privacy breaches by recording and disseminating sexual images. Pelicot appeared in court with a cane on Tuesday morning and spoke to the judge through a microphone....