World News

By Jarrett Renshaw, Reuters Elon Musk is backing Republican candidate Donald Trump in the presidential election. Photo: JIM WATSON / 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 has promised to give away US$1 million (NZ$1.65m) each day until November's election to someone who signs his online petition supporting the US Constitution. And he wasted no time on Saturday (local time), awarding a $1 million check to an attendee of his event in Pennsylvania aimed at rallying supporters behind Republican Donald Trump. The winner was a man named John Dreher, according to event staff. "By the way, John had no idea. So anyway, you're welcome...

Displaced Palestinians, ordered by the Israeli army to leave the school in Beit Lahia where they were sheltered, arrive in Gaza City on 19 October. Photo: MAHMOUD ISSA / AFP Gaza's civil defence agency said Sunday that an Israeli air strike on a residential area killed at least 73 Palestinians in Beit Lahia in the territory's north. Israel said it struck a "Hamas terror target". "Our civil defence crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area... in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency told AFP. "There are still martyrs under the rubble," he added. Bassal said residences of several families had been hit in the strike, which happened late on Saturday. Gaza government...

By Susana Lei'ataua in Apia, Samoa The NZDF base off Upolo, near where the Manawanui sank. Photo: RNZ / Louise Ternouth An insurance surveyor has completed their work on the HMNZS Manawanui, which sank two weeks ago off the south coast of Upolo, Samoa. Samoa's Marine Pollution Advisory Committee said a contractor would now be selected to remove the remaining fuel from the vessel. The New Zealand Navy ship was carrying 950 tonnes -- the equivalent of 950,000 litres - of fuel when it ran aground on the Tafitoala Reef on 6 October and sank the following day. Committee chair Fui Tupai Mau Simanu said salvaging the fuel was expected to start in mid-November and take about 20 days, depending on the weather. The committee reported up to 200,000 litres of diesel leaked from three places on t...

By Laura Chung, AFP King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive to attend a Sunday morning service at St Thomas' Anglican Church in Sydney on 20 October. Photo: Dean Lewins / POOL / AFP King Charles III attended church Sunday as he began an Australian tour in earnest, giving antipodean admirers the first glimpse of their reigning monarch. The 75-year-old sovereign arrived in Sydney late on Friday evening, but had kept a low profile as he balances cancer recovery with royal duties. His first official public appearance was a Sunday morning service at St Thomas' Anglican Church in northern Sydney, a stone edifice built as a place of worship for British colonial settlers. A number of prominent British colonists are buried in the church's graveyard nearby, including Edward Wollstonecraft - ...

Photo: AFP / Andri Tambunan At least seven people were killed after part of a boat dock collapsed, sending at least 20 into the Atlantic waters off the coast of the US state of Georgia. US Coast Guard ships were searching Saturday night for missing people. The accident, which also caused multiple injuries, happened during a celebration of Sapelo Island's tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants, authorities said. A gangway that was crowded with people waiting for a ferryboat collapsed late Saturday afternoon local time on the Georgia barrier island about 97 km south of Savannah, said Tyler Jones, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which runs the ferry. "We and multiple agencies are searching for survivors," Jones said. Coast Guard helicopters ...

Philip G. Zimbardo was behind the controversial "Stanford Prison Experiment". File image. Photo: UnSplash/ Matthew Ansley Philip G. Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the controversial "Stanford Prison Experiment" that was intended to examine the psychological experiences of imprisonment, has died. He was 91. Stanford University announced Friday that Zimbardo died 14 October at his home in San Francisco. A cause of death was not provided. In the 1971 prison study, Zimbardo and a team of graduate students recruited college-aged males to spend two weeks in a mock prison in the basement of a building on the Stanford campus. The study was ended after six days as the students playing guards became psychologically abusive and those playing prisoners became anxious, emotionally depressed and en...

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris greets supporters after speaking during a campaign rally at Lakewood Amphitheatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA / AFP By Andrea Shalal, Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt for Reuters Republican Donald Trump escalated his verbal attacks on Democrat Kamala Harris on Saturday local time as the vice president turned to celebrities to generate enthusiasm for her campaign, with both candidates for US president courting early voters. Harris and Trump are essentially tied in the most competitive states and many Americans are voting early by mail or in person, with just 17 days until the 5 November election. On Saturday, Harris rallied supporters at a get-out-the-vote event in Detroit, Michigan, for the city...

By Danielle Broadway and Catarina Demony, Reuters British singer-songwriter Liam Payne (right) and then-partner Cheryl pose on the red carpet on arrival for the BRIT Awards 2018 in London on 21 February, 2018. Photo: AFP / Tolga Akmen Liam Payne's former partner, pop singer Cheryl, has joined an outpouring of grief over the death of the One Direction band member, calling for restraint in coverage to protect his family during an "indescribably painful time". Payne, who shot to global fame with boy band One Direction, died at age 31 after falling from a third-floor hotel room balcony in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, triggering tributes from fans around the world. Cheryl Tweedy, more commonly known by just her first name, was in a relationship with Payne between 2016 and 2018 and she used ...

File image. Photo: DANIEL SLIM / AFP The US is investigating a leak of highly classified US intelligence about Israel's plans for retaliation against Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter. One of the people familiar confirmed the documents' authenticity. The leak is "deeply concerning," a US official told CNN. The documents, dated October 15 and 16, began circulating online Friday after being posted on Telegram by an account called "Middle East Spectator". They are marked top secret and have markings indicating they are meant to be seen only by the US and its "Five Eyes" allies - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. They describe preparations Israel appears to be making for a strike against Iran. One of the documents, which says it was compiled by th...

RNZN Naval Divers on the scene above HMNZS Manawanui, off the Southern Coast Of Upulo. Photo: New Zealand Defence Force Environmental recovery efforts after a New Zealand naval vessel sank off the coast of Samoa will be suspended for one week as the Pacific Island nation gears up for hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Representatives of village communities who said their livelihoods have been devastated by the sinking of HMNZS Manawanui, met with the New Zealand high commissioner and the Samoan government to express their anger at a perceived lack of support from both governments. But Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa told a press conference on Friday that work on the shipwreck would be almost entirely scaled back over the next week. "Response teams - dive a...