World News

By Millie Roberts Sphen (right) and Magic (front left) pose with a Pride rainbow at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. Photo: Supplied / Sea Life Sydney Aquarium One half of a famous same-sex penguin couple, Sphen, has died aged 11, Sea Life Sydney Aquarium said The gentoo penguin was known for adopting and raising two chicks with his partner Magic since 2018 Sea Life said the penguin colony started singing in honour of the celebrity penguin's life A penguin who inspired a Mardi Gras float after making international headlines for his same-sex relationship has died aged 11. Sphen shot to fame in 2018 after partnering up with fellow gentoo penguin Magic at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. The couple, who spent six years together, successfully fostered two chicks Sphengic (Lara) in 2018 and Clancy in...

By Andrea Shalal and Stephanie Kelly, Reuters Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz prepared for a high-profile speech at his party's convention on Wednesday, while independent candidate Robert F Kennedy appeared to be weighing an endorsement of Republican Donald Trump. Walz, the running mate of presidential nominee Kamala Harris, has energised Democrats eager to defeat the former president in the Nov. 5 election. The Minnesota governor, 60, will talk about growing up on a farm in Nebraska, his family, and freedoms that Democrats say are under attack from Trump, who is making his third major-party run for the White House. Meanwhile, ABC News reported that Kennedy plans to abandon his bid and declare support for Trump, a development that could help the Republican pick up votes in ...

Tongan Police arrested 17 people and seized several kilograms of methamphetamine in raids. Photo: Tonga Police/Supplied By Mackenzie Smith, ABC Pacific affairs reporter, Liam Fox and Doug Dingwall, ABC Police in Tonga say an alleged Comancheros gang member deported from Australia was behind moves to establish the outlaw motorcycle group in the Pacific Island - an attempt they say was disrupted in a drug bust this month. They arrested 17 people and seized several kilograms of methamphetamine in raids across Tonga's main island amid warnings of increased illegal activity involving the gang. Tonga Police Commissioner Shane McLennan said police began an operation targeting the Comancheros when a "patched" member was deported from Australia to Tonga in October 2022. The ABC can reveal that p...

Andrew Tate, centre, speaks to journalists as he is brought in for questioning by the Romanian gendarmes after a ten-hour long raid by police at his home in Bucharest on August 21, 2024. Photo: AFP / Daniel Mihailescu Internet personality Andrew Tate's home near Bucharest was raided by law enforcement on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, as Romanian police launched four searches in an investigation into crimes including human trafficking and sex with a minor. A self-described misogynist, social media influencer Tate has gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say denigrates women. He was already indicted in mid-2023 along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually ...

By Tom Balmforth and Yuliia Dysa for Reuters Ukrainian servicemen operate a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, on August 12, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo: AFP / Roman Pilipey Ukraine said on Wednesday it had destroyed Russian pontoon bridges with US-made weapons to defend its incursion into Russia's Kursk region, while Moscow said its forces had halted Kyiv's advance there and gained ground in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv has announced a string of battlefield successes since it crossed unexpectedly into Kursk region on 6 August, but Moscow has steadily inched forward in eastern Ukraine, pressuring troops worn down by two-and-a-half years of fighting. Olaf Scholz, chancellor of close ally Germany, said he expected Ukraine's push in Kur...

A British newspaper is reporting tech magnate Mike Lynch is among the four bodies retrieved from a sunken superyacht near Sicily. Photo: AFP / Pool / Ben Gurr By Giselda Vagnoni, Reuters Four bodies were found aboard the sunken wreck of a yacht belonging to the wife of British tech magnate Mike Lynch, sources close to the rescue operation said. The identities of the victims were not immediately given by the authorities. Three of the bodies were brought ashore and taken to nearby hospitals for formal identification. The fourth corpse was being taken to land as evening set in. Britain's Daily Telegraph reported that two of the dead were Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter. Local authorities in Sicily declined to comment on the report. The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long superyach...

By Jeremy Wilkinson, Open Justice Multimedia Journalist of The Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney. Photo: AFP "I'm here today 35 years after the unthinkable," the father of a murdered toddler told a courtroom. "My daughter was taken in the most horrible and senseless manner imaginable at the hands of her own mother." Gerard Stanhope spent 30 years thinking his daughter Tillie Craig was still alive and was desperate to track her down after her mother took her to live at a cult in rural Sydney. He last saw Tillie a few months before her death but was told she was alive and well by her Kiwi mother Ellen Craig. "The reality is that Tillie was violently murdered by the person she should have been able to trust to protect her the most," Stanhope said. "It's a woun...

By Jeff Mason, Stephanie Kelly and Jarrett Renshaw, Reuters Former US President Barack Obama speaks on the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. Photo: AFP / Eva Hamback Former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama delivered a one-two punch at the Democratic National Convention, urging Americans to back Kamala Harris in her 11th-hour presidential bid against Republican Donald Trump. America's first Black president, Obama, has thrown his considerable political capital behind Harris as she seeks to make history herself on 5 November as the first woman and first Black and South Asian person to be elected US president. "We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos. We have seen that movie before, an...

Erin Patterson was arrested and charged with murder on 2 November 2023. Photo: Screenshot / ABC Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson will face trial in regional Victoria early next year. Patterson is alleged to have murdered three people by serving a beef Wellington laced with poisonous mushrooms. Her defence team has been pushing for her trial to be held in the Latrobe Valley, although the prosecution wanted it to be held in Melbourne. The Supreme Court today decided that the highly-anticipated trial will be held in Morwell in April next year. Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges. In November, prosecutors charged Patterson with three counts of murder over the deaths of father-in-law Don Patterson, mother-in-law Gail Patterson and extended relative Heather Wilkinson, who at...

Photo: AFP / ROBYN BECK Singer and actor Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from her actor husband Ben Affleck after two years of marriage, TMZ and other media outlets reported on Tuesday (local time). Lopez submitted divorce papers in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, TMZ said. Spokespeople for the actors did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The couple exchanged vows in a Las Vegas wedding chapel in July 2022, roughly two decades after a high-profile romance that ended in a break-up. In the early 2000s, the pair dubbed "Bennifer" were the most talked about couple in the celebrity world in a relationship marked by his-and-her luxury cars and a large 6.1-carat pink diamond engagement ring. They abruptly called off their wedding in 2003 and split up a few mont...