World News

Most of the people who became ill reported eating McDonald's Quarter Pounder sandwiches (file image). Photo: SCOTT OLSON / AFP The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention issued a food safety alert Tuesday regarding an E. coli outbreak that it says is linked with McDonald's Quarter Pounders. At least 49 illnesses have been reported across 10 states, including one death of an older person. Ten people have been hospitalised, including a child who had haemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious complication that can develop from an E. coli infection. Most of the illnesses are in Colorado and Nebraska. Most of the people who became ill reported eating McDonald's Quarter Pounder sandwiches, the CDC says. The agency says that the investigation is "fast-moving" and that information reviewed by...

Polanski admitted to the statutory rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in a plea bargain in 1977 Photo: AP / Francois Mori Content warning: This story contains details about sexual assault. French-Polish director Roman Polanski, who fled the United States decades ago after admitting to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old, will no longer face trial over an alleged assault of another minor after reaching a settlement, his lawyer said Tuesday. The latest case against the director of "The Pianist," which concerned an alleged sexual attack in 1973, had been due in civil court in Los Angeles next August, but has now been withdrawn, Polanski's US attorney told AFP. The case was "settled in the summer to the parties' mutual satisfaction and has now been formally dismissed," Alexander Rufus-Isaa...

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, right, and Fiji High Commissioner to New Zealand Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, right. The man pictured in the middle is a serving officer of the NZ Police's Dignitary Protection Service. Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Lydia Lewis The intensification of geopolitics between China and the United States is fueling existing xenophobic rhetoric, an expert in Pacific geopolitics says. This follows the Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka's recent visit to Aotearoa from 18-19 October, during which he met with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and attended a Fiji Day celebration in Mangere. In pictures shared by Rabuka's team from the event on Saturday, he was seen with Kiwi-Asian men who were part of his security detail. However, a well-known Pacific journalist shared those ...

By Jarrett Renshaw, Reuters Bruce Springsteen performing at an event in New York City in 2021. Photo: AFP / Getty Images Rock legend Bruce Springsteen will hold a concert and rally with former president Barack Obama in Atlanta and Philadelphia in the coming days as part of a series of get-out-the-vote events for Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign in battleground states, a senior campaign official said on Tuesday. With early voting under way, the Harris campaign was betting these surrogate rallies would help drive enthusiasm and turn out voters in states that would decide November's tightly contested election between Democrat Harris and Republican rival Donald Trump. The 75-year-old rock star is expected to play some of his most popular songs such as 'Born to Run' on Thursday in...

By Kellie Scott, ABC Lifestyle Post-weaning depression needs more research and awareness, experts say. (file image) Photo: Unsplash Mariana is the first person in her family for four generations to breastfeed. "In Mexico, everyone got pushed formula early on," the 36-year-old from Australia's Djilang/Geelong says. "So for me, it was important to get to at least six months." Mariana exceeded her goal, and just before her son turned two, she decided to stop. "I was getting really touched out … we managed to go down to one night feed, then just stopped." Weaning her son was easier than Mariana expected, but she wasn't prepared for how she would feel afterwards. "I was just so sad all the time. "I remember crying, asking, 'Why am I so sad?' We all thought it was delayed postpartum depres...

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN Only the feet of a woman trapped between two boulders can be seen in this image released by NSW Ambulance. Photo: NSW Ambulance A woman who tried to retrieve her lost phone from between boulders in Australia's Hunter Valley became stuck upside down for seven hours before she was rescued earlier this month. Just the bare soles of the woman's feet can be seen in photos of the incident posted on social media by the New South Wales (NSW) Ambulance service. The woman had been walking with friends on a private property in Laguna, a country town in the Hunter Valley about 120 from Sydney, when she dropped her phone. As she tried to retrieve it, she slipped face-first into a three-metre crevice between two large boulders, so deep that her friends were unable to reach ...

By Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle, Reuters A person votes during early voting at a polling station in the first round of early voting at a polling place, October 21, 2024, in Daytona Beach, Florida. Photo: AFP / Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo Russia, China and Iran are intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans ahead of the 5 November US elections and may consider fomenting violence after voters go to the polls, US intelligence officials said on Tuesday. The officials, briefing reporters on US election security, said foreign actors could consider physical threats and violence, and were highly likely to conduct disinformation operations to create uncertainty and undermine the election process. "Foreign actors, particularly Russia, Iran and China, remain intent on f...

The defendants are expected to appear in court in Florida. File pic Photo: AFP Mike Jeffries, the former chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch, has been indicted on sex trafficking and prostitution involving dozens of men. The charges were unveiled on Tuesday, a decade after Jeffries left the retailer he built over 22 years into a popular clothing brand known for sexually charged marketing. Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith, and a third defendant James Jacobson, who allegedly served as a recruiter, were each charged with one count of sex trafficking and 15 counts of interstate prostitution. Jeffries and Smith are expected to appear later on Tuesday (US time) in federal court in Florida, court records show. All three defendants were arrested on Tuesday. Brian Bieber, a lawyer for ...

By Makini Brice for Reuters Photo: AFP Bob Vallier, a Paris resident who has mostly lived outside the United States for the past 30 years, has already voted in his home state of Michigan for the 5 November election. "I know that whatever happens in America affects the rest of the world. I know this because I've lived in the rest of the world," said Vallier, the LGBTQ+ caucus chair for Democrats Abroad. Vallier's vote, and the ballots of other Americans overseas, may be crucial in the tight races of battleground states like his. Michigan is one of the election's most competitive states, with latest polls showing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris holding a slight edge over Republican rival Donald Trump. The Democratic National Committee estimates that 1.6 million US voters abroad are e...

Rescuers search for survivors under the rubble a day after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb of Jnah. Photo: IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP The number of people wounded following a deadly Israeli strike near a hospital on the outskirts of Beirut has risen to 57, Lebanon's health ministry says. At least 13 people, including a child, were killed in the attack outside the Rafik Hariri University Hospital on Monday, the ministry previously said. The facility is considered to be the largest public hospital in Lebanon. Another 57 people were wounded in the strike, according to a preliminary toll from the ministry. The strike caused "a lot of damage" at the hospital, the ministry said. The strike was not in an area covered by evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military, a CNN analysis ...