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Facebook and Instagram began a week-long rollout of their first paid verification service on Friday, testing users’ willingness to pay for social media features that until now have been free. Facing a drop in advertising revenues, parent company Meta is piloting a subscription in Australia and New Zealand before it appears in larger markets. The service will cost US$11.99 on the web and US$14.99 on the iOS and Android mobile platforms. From Friday, subscribers […]
Napier, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand deployed gunships and helicopters to deliver water, food and fuel to cities cut off by Cyclone Gabrielle on Thursday, as overwhelmed authorities embraced overseas offers of help. Five people have died, 100 are missing and 10,500 more have been displaced in a disaster that has crippled the country’s populous North Island. Four days of violent winds and lashing rains caused landslides and widespread flooding that lacerated the island’s […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Tens of thousands of homes in New Zealand were without power Monday and hundreds of flights have been cancelled as a tropical storm lashes the north of the country. A state of emergency has been declared in five separate regions in the North Island, covering almost one-third of New Zealand’s entire population of 5.1 million. Although the storm was downgraded as it approached on Sunday, it has already toppled trees, […]
Jayapura, Indonesia | AFP | At least four people were killed Thursday when an earthquake struck the capital of Indonesia‘s breakaway eastern region of Papua and crumpled a waterfront restaurant, officials said. The 5.1-magnitude quake hit around 1.28 pm (0628 GMT) on land just southwest of Jayapura city at a depth of 22 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said. “A cafe collapsed and four people died there. It fell into the sea,” Asep Khalid, head […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Thursday pledged to hold Russia accountable for shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, after a team of international investigators halted its probe into the disaster. The team said there were “strong indications” Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved supplying the missile system that eventually downed the flight — but halted the investigation because there was no “conclusive evidence”. The Boeing 777 was shot down over Ukraine in 2014, killing […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Police said Wednesday they had seized enough cocaine to supply New Zealand for 30 years, after snaring a massive bundle of drugs floating in the Pacific Ocean. New Zealand police commissioner Andrew Coster told reporters the haul — containing 81 bales of cocaine — weighed 3.2 tons and had a street value of around $316 million. “This is the largest find of illicit drugs by New Zealand’s agencies by some […]
by Steven TRASK Agence France-Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Protesters denounced late Australian cardinal George Pell for his “bigoted” views on Thursday, as the Catholic Church remembered his “remarkable legacy” with a grand funeral mass in Sydney. The Vatican power broker, who died in Rome last month aged 81, will be buried in the crypt of St Mary’s Cathedral after a Pontifical Funeral Mass steeped in the traditions of the Church. Pell continues to divide […]
Volcano Information bulletin issued; Date: 01/02/2023 Time: 04:33 PM Location: EAST EPI ISLAND – VANUATU REGION pic.twitter.com/DQH3qvndgG — Seismology Fiji (@FijiSeismology) February 1, 2023 Vanuatu’s East Epi underwater volcano erupted Wednesday, hurtling ash into the sky and leading authorities to warn ships and aircraft to avoid the area. “We are telling locals to watch out for any strong explosions as the eruptions are still ongoing,” senior volcano officer Ricardo William, at the meteorology and geo-hazards […]
A tiny but dangerously radioactive capsule which fell off a truck along a remote stretch of outback highway in Australia last month was found on Wednesday, authorities said. The solid, silver-coloured cylinder is smaller than a human fingernail — just eight millimetres by six millimetres — but the authorities say it contains enough Caesium-137 to cause acute radiation sickness. It was discovered at the side of a desert highway just south of the town of […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s Catholic Church held a prayer vigil for late cardinal George Pell who lay in state Wednesday, as sexual abuse survivors tied ribbons to the cathedral gates in protest. Pell, a Vatican powerbroker who rose from humble beginnings in small town Australia, died in Rome in January, aged 81. Once considered Pope Francis’s “right-hand man”, Pell’s final years were marked by sexual abuse allegations and criticism of his hard-line positions on […]
Mining giant Rio Tinto apologised Monday for losing a tiny but dangerously radioactive capsule that fell off a truck along a 1,400-kilometre-long stretch of road in Western Australia. The solid, silver-coloured cylinder is smaller than a human fingernail — just 8mm by 6mm — but the authorities say it contains enough Caesium-137 to cause acute radiation sickness. It disappeared this month from a truck that drove to the suburbs of Perth from a remote mine […]
Wellington, New Zealand | AFP | Friday 1/27/2023 A state of emergency was declared in Auckland on Friday after torrential rain caused widespread flooding in New Zealand’s largest city, closing the airport and forcing the cancellation of an Elton John concert. Auckland mayor Wayne Brown told a news conference late on Friday he was “deeply saddened” after a body was found in a northern suburb. Police have not confirmed whether the death was a […]
