World News

By Lilit Narcus of CNN Passengers disembark after landing at the Paro International Airport in Bhutan. File pic Photo: AFP / Christian Kober There's a Buddha in the cockpit. The orange-robed icon looks on as the pilot speedily executes a dramatic last-minute turn to land the A319 on the slender runway. A dozen passengers, some of whom have spent the last few minutes white-knuckling the seat armrests, break out into applause. That's just another normal working day at Bhutan's Paro International Airport (PBH), widely considered one of the most technically difficult plane landings in the world. Manoeuvring onto a short runway between two 18,000-foot peaks requires both technical knowledge and nerves of steel. The airport and its challenging conditions have only added to the mystique su...

By Steve Contorno, CNN Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump works the drive-through line as he visits a McDonald's restaurant. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP Donald Trump is pulling one of the most iconic American companies - McDonald's - into the political arena in the final days of his third White House bid. The former president stopped by one of the fast-food chain's Pennsylvania franchises during his Monday swing through the Keystone State, where he swapped his suit jacket for an apron to work as a fry attendant. He later handed customers food through the drive-thru window, telling them he had made it himself and that it was all on him. Manning the fry machine is the same job Vice President Kamala Harris has said she held as a young woman, a biographical detail revea...

By Issy Ronald, CNN Photo: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP Six-time Olympic champion Chris Hoy has announced that he has terminal cancer and that doctors have given him two to four years to live. The 48-year-old former cyclist, who is one of Britain's most successful and recognizable Olympians, shared his diagnosis with The Sunday Times newspaper, saying that he initially went to the hospital last September after feeling some pain in his shoulder. A scan found a tumour there, before a second scan found primary cancer in his prostate which had spread to his bones. The scans found tumours in his shoulder, pelvis, hip, spine and rib. "As unnatural as it feels, this is nature. You know, we were all born and we all die, and this is just part of the process," he told The Sunday Times. "Hand on heart,...

By Jarrett Renshaw, Reuters Elon Musk gave a $1 million check to an attendee of his America PAC event aimed at rallying supporters behind presidential candidate rump. Photo: AFP Musk awards first US$1 million (NZ$1.65m) to event attendee He has given $75 million to America PAC to support Trump America PAC is helping to mobilise, register voters Billionaire Elon Musk promised to give away $1 million each day until November's election to someone who signs his online petition, with the first prize awarded at a PAC event supporting Republican Donald Trump, raising questions about the legality of the payments. Musk gave a $1 million (NZ$1.65m) check to an attendee of his America PAC event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, aimed at rallying supporters behind presidential candidate Trump. T...

Pope Francis presides over the Holy Mass and canonisation of 14 saints and martyrs, at the Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican. Photo: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP Pope Francis has created a new group of saints, canonising 14 individuals including the "martyrs of Damascus", killed in Syria during the Ottoman Empire and symbols of Christian persecution. Francis presided over the canonisation ceremony in Saint Peter's Square in the presence of thousands of Catholic faithful from around the world on Sunday local time (Monday NZT). "We enrol them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole Church," proclaimed Francis, after reciting each name. Canonisation is the final step towards sainthood in the Catholic Church, following beatification. Three conditions are r...

By Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland, Reuters US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks during a church service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia. Photo: CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA/AFP Democrat Kamala Harris kicked off her 60th birthday with a church visit in Georgia as part of an effort to court early voters, while her Republican rival, Donald Trump, is set to hold an event in battleground Pennsylvania and visit a local McDonald's. Harris and Trump, who are essentially tied in the race for president in the most competitive states, have sharpened their attacks in recent days, while drumming up support for early votes by mail or in person with just 16 days left until the 5 November election. Vice President Harris and former Presid...

Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has been ongoing for the past year. Photo: ETIENNE TORBEY / AFP Israel says its air force has attacked Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut as well as an underground workshop for the production of weapons. In a statement, the Israeli military said its fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders, including Alhaj Abbas Salameh, a senior figure in the group's southern command, Radja Abbas Awache, a communications expert, and Ahmad Ali Hussein, who it said was responsible for strategic weapons development. It was not clear if the three were killed in the attack on the headquarters on Sunday (local time) or in separate actions. Hezbollah made no immediate comment. Israel's military said on Saturday it had destroyed tunnel shaft...

It's one of the most popular shows of the 21st century and now, another iteration is taking place downunder. The Office is set in Australia with the first female boss - Hannah Howard, at a Sydney-based packaging company, played by actor and comedian Felicity Ward.  The British version which first aired in 2001 was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Four years later, Steve Carrell took on the US version which ran for nine seasons.  The Australian version has a cast of both Aussies and Kiwis, including Josh Thomson, Edith Poor and Jonny Brugh, and it's also co-directed by our own Jackie Van Beek.  Edith Poor plays the straight-laced, 'front desk executive' and productivity manager Lizzie Moyle. An original fan of the first series, she describes it as "an honour" to be part of thi...

By Ananda Teresia and Stefanno Sulaiman for Reuters Prabowo Subianto greets a crowd during his 2019 run for the Indonesian presidency. Photo: AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana Indonesia's Prabowo Subianto on Sunday took over as president of the world's third-largest democracy after sweeping the country's election with policies like free meals for school children and with the outgoing leader's son as his running mate. The 73-year-old former special forces commander won the 14 February contest with nearly 60 percent of the vote and has spent the past nine months building a formidable parliamentary coalition. Prabowo, wearing a traditional black hat and navy suit with a woven maroon and golden sarong, officially become Indonesia's eighth president on Sunday morning after he was sworn in during a ...

Dracula author Bram Stoker, pictured in 1906. Photo: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons An amateur Irish historian says he is still coming to terms with finding a long-lost story by Dracula author Bram Stoker. Gibbet Hill was published in the Dublin edition of the Daily Express in 1890 but it was forgotten over time. The story will be presented at this month's Bram Stoker Festival and published as a limited-release book. A long-lost short story by Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, has been re-discovered after remaining undocumented for more than 130 years. Amateur historian Brian Cleary was doing research on Stoker in the Irish National Library last year when he came across the 1890 Christmas edition of the Dublin Daily Express, where he found a Gothic horror tale that had been lost...