World News

Photo: 123RF The sanctions are being applied to 12 individuals and eight entities by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury. Its aim is to protect international trade - both in the United States and abroad - against the threat of terrorist activities and drug and arms trafficking. OFAC also sanctions individuals, companies and organisations and prescribes them as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs). Of those being sanctioned today, three people and two of the entities have direct ties to New Zealand, OFAC said. It is the first time people connected to New Zealand have appeared on the list, police said. They include Rokas Karpavicius, a Lithuanian national who was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and conspiracy to supply methamphetamine as par...

By Elizabeth Wolfe, Chris Boyette, Shimon Prokupecz, Hanna Park and Holly Yan, CNN Madison Police chief Shon Barnes speaks to the media about the shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on 16 December 2024 in Madison, Wisconsin. Photo: AFP / Scott Olson Police are investigating why a teenage girl brought a handgun to her small Christian school in Wisconsin and opened fire, killing two people and wounding several others a week before Christmas. A student and a teacher were killed, and six people were taken to area hospitals, Madison police said. The slain victims have not been publicly identified. Madison police identified the shooter as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, a student at Abundant Life Christian School. Evidence suggests the shooter, who also went by the name "Samantha," ...

Photo: CNN Newsource By Artemis Moshtaghian and Caroll Alvarado, CNN Hannah Kobayashi, the Hawaii woman whose disappearance last month sparked a weekslong search complete with grainy surveillance images and tearful family, says she was unaware of "everything that was happening" while she was out of touch. Kobayashi arrived at Los Angeles International Airport from Maui on November 8, but did not board her connecting flight to New York, her sister previously told CNN. The 30-year-old then went radio silent on November 11 after spending four days in Los Angeles at various locations, according to video footage and photos and was later believed to have crossed the border into Mexico. Tragedy struck the family during their search for Hannah Kobayashi when her father Ryan Kobayashi, who had tr...

By Tom Little, Louise Rasmussen and Isabelle Yr Carlsson, Reuters US-Canadian Paul Watson, 74, founder of the Sea Shepherd conservationist group, was released in Greenland. Photo: AFP Denmark released anti-whaling activist Paul Watson from detention and said it had rejected a Japanese request to extradite him over criminal charges dating back more than a decade. US-Canadian Watson, 74, founder of the Sea Shepherd conservationist group and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, was released in Greenland's capital Nuuk, police in the autonomous Danish territory said. Watson was apprehended when his ship docked in Greenland in July. "I'm certainly relieved, especially since it allows me to get home to my children before Christmas," Paul Watson told Reuters after his release on Tuesday. "I ...

Photo: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters via CNN Newsource Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting dead UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street this month, was indicted for murder, New York prosecutors said. Mangione was indicted on 11 counts, including first-degree murder and murder as a crime of terrorism. The indictment accused Mangione of murdering Thompson with the intent to "influence the policy of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion." "This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation," Bragg told reporters. Mangione's defence lawyer in New York, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, declined to comment. Ivy League-educated Mangione was charged with murder on 9 December for the killing of Thompso...

By Erin Banco and Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on 7 December. Photo: AFP / Eyad Baba Deal could free hostages, Palestinian prisoners Hamas demands guarantees for comprehensive agreement US and Israeli officials guardedly optimistic about deal An agreement to halt the 14-month-old war in Gaza and free hostages held in the Palestinian enclave could be signed in coming days with talks in Cairo making progress, sources briefed on the meeting said. The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, have made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month. "We believe - and the Israelis have said this - th...

Aftershocks have continued to hit Vanuatu after a large 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck just off the coast of capital Port Vila on Tuesday afternoon. Vanuatu Business Resilience Council chair Glen Craig was talking to Morning Report when a 6.1 aftershock struck. Craig was discussing the need to do checks on key infrastructure to assess the damage after the initial earthquake, and was reiterating the need for help from Australia and New Zealand to check on some key buildings when the aftershock hit. "We have put in some requests to Australia, and I know the same requests have gone to New Zealand. So the requests have been for engineers so that they can do checks on the structural integrity of critical infrastructure like some of the key buildings, like hospitals, Prime Ministers Office, and...

By Ange McCormack and Libby Hogan, ABC with wires Photo: Michael Thompson/Facebook Australia is sending urgent assistance to Vanuatu after locals were rocked by a magnitude-7.3 earthquake that struck near the capital city of Port Vila. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it believed at least six people had died, and the city's two main water reservoirs had been damaged in the quake. The death toll officially remains at one, but is expected to rise as search and rescue teams work to reach people trapped under collapsed buildings. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the earthquake caused "significant damage", adding that Australia would send urban search and rescue teams, as well as emergency medical assistance, to help recovery efforts. "We ...

Rescue efforts have continued overnight, witnesses report seeing people alive being pulled from the rubble. Photo: Michael Thompson/Facebook The death toll from Vanuatu's 7.3 earthquake is expected to rise because concrete buildings have collapsed with people inside in the capital Port Vila. International Federation of Red Cross Pacific head of delegation Katie Greenwood posted on X that the Vanuatu government was reporting 14 confirmed fatalities and 200 people were treated for injuries at the main hospital in Port Vila. Rescue efforts to retrieve people trapped by fallen buildings and rubble have continued overnight. In a press conference, Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai said a State of Emergency and curfew were in place in the worst affected areas. " urgently request internatio...

By Andrew Osborn and Guy Faulconbridge, Reuters Igor Kirillov was killed in Moscow by a bomb was hidden in electric scooter. Photo: Russian Ministry of Defence / SUPPLIED A top Russian general accused by Ukraine of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops was assassinated in Moscow by Ukraine's SBU intelligence service in the most high-profile killing of its kind. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an apartment building along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off, Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said. An SBU source confirmed to Reuters that the Ukrainian intelligence agency had been behind the ...