World News

Residents of Eputobi village watch the eruption of Mount Lewotobi on 8 November. Photo: BAYU ISMOYO and ARNOLD WELIANTO / AFP Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki has erupted at least three times on Saturday, spewing an ash column 9km high, as authorities plan to widen the restricted area, officials say. A big eruption on 3 November by the volcano in East Nusa Tenggara province killed nine. Since then, authorities have been scrambling to evacuate 16,000 people from villages nearest the crater as eruptions continue. "The eruption accompanied by the ejection of hot lava and hot clouds to the west and northwest of Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki is still occurring," said Muhammad Wafid, head of the volcanology agency. The agency plans to expand to 9 km from 8 km the zone southwest to northwest of...

By Stephanie Kelly for Reuters Robert F Kennedy Jr at an election night event for Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photo: JOHN MOORE / Getty Images via AFP Robert F Kennedy Jr, the former independent presidential candidate, is reviewing candidate resumes for the top jobs at the US government's health agencies in Donald Trump's incoming administration, a former Kennedy aide and a source says. Kennedy, of the famed political family, has been asked to recommend appointees for all regulatory health agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration, said Del Bigtree, who was director of communications for Kennedy's campaign and remains close to the former candidate. A source familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified...

Contrary to its serene appearance, the clouded globe of Venus is a world of intense heat, crushing atmospheric pressure and clouds of corrosive acid. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech To 1950s stargazers, the planet Venus looked like "a forest world where it's always raining", says rock star physicist Dr Brian Cox. We now know that this cloudy-looking neighbour is covered in thousands of volcanoes and hellishly hot. "It's well over 400 degrees Celsius on the surface so lead would melt into molten lead. The pressure is 90 times the atmospheric pressure on Earth. "The clouds are not beautiful clouds of water but they rain sulphuric acid - concentrated battery acid - so it's about as close to hell as you can get." A digital image of Earth's home solar system which is home to eight planets and fi...

By Lisa Richwine, Reuters Photo: CNN Superstar singer Beyonce has topped the list of Grammy Award contenders unveiled, earning 11 nods including an album of the year nomination for her venture into country music, 'Cowboy Carter'. Behind Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone tied with seven nominations each. Pop phenomenon Taylor Swift and newcomers Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter scored six each. Beyonce's nominations brought her career total to 99, more than any other artist. She had been tied for the lead with her husband, rapper Jay-Z, who has 88. Women dominated the album of the year category, the top Grammy honour. Beyonce, despite her lifetime lead in nominations, has never taken home the album trophy. Jay-Z called out that fact at the last Gra...

Photo: CHIP SOMODEVILLA / Getty Images via AFP By Andrew Goudsward, Reuters A US judge has set aside pending deadlines in President-elect Donald Trump's 2020 election subversion case after federal prosecutors said they were grappling with the "unprecedented circumstance" of his impending return to the White House. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington approved a request from Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting the criminal case, to set aside the deadlines, according to a court order, while they weigh its future. Prosecutors wrote the delay was necessary "to afford the government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy". Under a Justice Department policy dating back to...

By David Weber for the ABC Photo: WA District Court Warning: This story contains references to child abuse A father on trial for allegedly starving his severely malnourished daughter says he "adamantly disagreed" with medical advice she was at risk of a heart attack and rejected test results. The man, and his wife, are in the midst of being tried in WA District Court for starving their teenager who was described by doctors as being "dangerously underweight". On his second day giving evidence, the man was asked about a visit to a doctor in April 2021, when the girl was aged 17 and weighed not much more than 27kg. In that visit with Dr Amy Murdoch, the father said he was shocked to be told his daughter was "very underweight". "I didn't think I felt the same way," he told the court. Dr...

The Princess of Wales, seen at Trooping the Colour in June as she made a tentative return to public life. Photo: AFP/Justin Tallis Britain's Princess Kate, who is recovering from preventative treatment she underwent for cancer this year, will attend two events this weekend to commemorate Remembrance Day in London, Buckingham Palace says. The Princess of Wales, 42, said in September she had finished her course of preventative chemotherapy but cautioned her path to full recovery would be long, and her focus was to remain cancer-free. At the time, she said she would be carrying out a handful of public engagements later in the year. Her last public appearance was last month when she met the bereaved families of three young girls who were murdered at a dance class in Southport, northwest Eng...

Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki has erupted again. (File image) Photo: AFP Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupted several times on Friday, belching volcanic ash that rose up to 10km into the sky, officials said, following a big eruption on Sunday night that killed nine people. The eruption on the island of Flores in the province of East Nusa Tenggara has damaged more than 2000 houses and caused thousands to evacuate. Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for the country's disaster mitigation agency, said the eruptions were "pretty significant" due to ash rains and sand-falls that reached far into the surrounding areas. Hadi Wijaya, chief of Indonesia's volcanology agency, said one eruption on Friday produced a towering ash column that reached eight km to 10km high, adding volcanic matter and hot ga...

By Emma Farge, Reuters Palestinians survey the damage from an Israeli airstrike in Rafah in April, reported to have killed about 35 people. Photo: Jehad Alshrafi / AP Report covers fatalities verified by UN rights office It says nearly 70 percent were women and children Israel says it takes care to avoid harming civilians The U.N. Human Rights Office says nearly 70 percent of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. The U.N. count covers the first seven months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip that began more than a year ago. The 8119 victims verified by the U.N. Rights Office in that seven-month period is considerably l...

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, looks at US President Donald Trump before posing for a family photo before the G20 summit in Argentina, 30 November, 2018. Photo: Vladimir Astapkovich / Sputnik via AFP By Vladimir Soldatkin, Reuters Russia President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Donald Trump on winning the US presidential election, praising him for showing bravery when a gunman tried to assassinate him, and said Moscow was ready to talk to the Republican president-elect. "I would like to congratulate him on his election as president," Putin told the Valdai discussion club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Trump said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours if he was elected, but has given few details on how he would seek to end the biggest land w...