World News

By Asif Shahzad, Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam and Charlotte Greenfield for Reuters Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has been in jail since August 2023. Photo: AFP Thousands of protesting supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan stormed the heavily guarded Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday, escalating their face-off with the government and its military backers for his release. At least six people, including four paramilitary soldiers, were killed during clashes between security forces and protesters, led by Khan's wife, who made it all the way to the edge of the city's highly fortified red zone, before being pushed back by hundreds of security force personnel. The red zone, being guarded by army soldiers, houses the country's most important offices and building...

By Maayan Lubell, Maya Gebeily and Laila Bassam, Reuters Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to speak soon. Photo: AFP / GIL COHEN-MAGEN Israel has agreed a ceasefire with Lebanon, Israel's Channel 12 television reported Wednesday, clearing the way for an end to a conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year. The accord was expected to take effect on Thursday. The Channel 12 report followed a meeting of Israel's security cabinet under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened to discuss a ceasefire deal. Israeli approval of the deal would pave the way for a ceasefire declaration by US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, according to four senior Lebanese sourc...

By Ben Knight and ABC staff Police last week forcibly closed the Nana hostel, where most of the victims had stayed. Photo: ABC / Mitchell Woolnough Laos police have detained eight men over a suspected methanol poisoning that killed six backpackers, including two Australians. Laos police told the ABC the detained men were staff and management of the Nana Backpackers hostel, where Australian teenagers Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles were staying when they fell ill. The friends had consumed alcoholic drinks while holidaying in the backpacker party town of Vang Vieng, and later died in separate hospitals in Thailand. Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, died after drinking tainted cocktails in Laos. Photo: ABC/Supplied A further four foreign tourists from Denmark, the UK and the U...

The man is reported to have died on Mostert Street in Monte Vista, South Africa. Photo: Supplied / Google Maps A Kiwi man has reportedly been killed following a robbery in South Africa, media are reporting. According to local news media Daily Voice, the man was trying to stop a robbery in Monte Vista and shot dead. Police spokesman Malcolm Pojie confirmed to the Daily Voice the man was 49-years-old and died around 1.30pm on Friday on Mostert Street in Monte Vista. "We have reason to believe that it was a bank-following-robbery as the motive, even though the suspects fled the scene without any loot," the outlet reported Pojie as saying. "The vehicles of the suspects were traced and recovered in a parking lot in Parow." Daily Voice reported the dead man's parents were the intended victims...

By Bill Birtles and Lauren Day for ABC The Nana backpackers hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos. Photo: ABC / Mitchell Woolnough Two weeks on from the first case of suspected methanol poisoning in Laos, fellow backpackers have been investigating the culprit in lieu of public information from police. It comes as Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs in a notable public statement urged authorities in Laos to be transparent. "We are clear with our Lao counterparts that Australians expect those investigations to be thorough and transparent," a DFAT spokesperson said. Police confirmed in recent days they had questioned the operators of the Nana backpacker hostel, where at least five of the six victims who died were staying. Among them were 19-year-old Australian friends Bianca Jones and Holly ...

By Bill Birtles and Lauren Day for ABC The Nana backpackers hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos. Photo: ABC / Mitchell Woolnough Two weeks on from the first case of suspected methanol poisoning in Laos, fellow backpackers have been investigating the culprit in lieu of public information from police. It comes as Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs in a notable public statement urged authorities in Laos to be transparent. "We are clear with our Lao counterparts that Australians expect those investigations to be thorough and transparent," a DFAT spokesperson said. Police confirmed in recent days they had questioned the operators of the Nana backpacker hostel, where at least five of the six victims who died were staying. Among them were 19-year-old Australian friends Bianca Jones and Hol...

Barbara Taylor Bradford attends a theatre event in New York on 9 December, 2004. Photo: AFP Bestselling British-American writer Barbara Taylor Bradford, whose debut novel A Woman of Substance turned her into an overnight success and sold over 30 million copies, has died aged 91, a spokeswoman said on Monday. Taylor Bradford, who wrote 40 novels and notched up 91 million book sales worldwide during her career, died peacefully at her home on Sunday following a short illness. She "was surrounded by loved ones to the very end", the spokeswoman said, adding that a private funeral would be held in New York. A Woman of Substance tells the story of servant Emma Harte who overcomes a humble start in Taylor Bradford's native Yorkshire in northern England to head a business empire, navigating nume...

First published on By Chris Ogden, University of Auckland associate professor in Global Studies* Trump's victory thus marks the amplification of a deeply autocratic era in global politics, says an Auckland University professor. Photo: AFP PHOTO / SPUTNIK / Mikhail KLIMENTYEV Comment - The election of Donald Trump for his second presidential term has led to widespread fears of an imminent authoritarian descent in the United States. Quite how that might play out remains speculative, for now at least. But evidence from Trump's first term, as well as his campaign policies and cabinet nominations since the election, suggest those fears are not without foundation. Another way of looking at this, however, is that Trump's return simply echoes realities within the internati...

By Marc Leras for Reuters Gisele Pelicot, 71, could have demanded the trial be kept behind closed doors, but instead asked for it be held in public. Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP French prosecutors asked for the maximum 20-year prison sentence for Dominique Pelicot, who organised the repeated mass rape of his then-wife by knocking her unconscious with drugs and inviting dozens of strangers to abuse her in the family home. Pelicot, 71, has admitted the charges in a trial that attracted worldwide attention and turned into an examination of the pervasiveness of sexual violence in France and beyond. Fifty other men also stand trial for participating in the sex acts. The prosecutors, who will over the next two days say what sentences they seek against the co-accused, rejected the arguments ...

File photo. A section of the Red Sea coastline. Photo: 123RF Egyptian authorities rescued 28 people after a tourist boat sank off its Red Sea coast, the Red Sea Governorate said in a statement on Monday, as a search continued for the 17 remaining passengers and crew. The boat, Sea Story, was carrying 45 people, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 14 crew, on a multi-day diving trip when it went down near the coastal town of Marsa Alam, according to a separate statement by the governorate. Egyptian armed forces frigates and aircraft swept the area to try to locate the missing, but by 5pm (1500 GMT) the search had been paused for the night, a government source said. The governorate said a distress call was received at 5.30am and that the boat had departed from Porto Ghalib ...