An Australian tourist and three Tibetans have died in an avalanche on Mount Everest, state media report.

A typhoon caused deadly mudslides that buried people and destroyed homes on a Japanese island today.

Democratic leader Harry Reid says Senate leaders have reached a bipartisan deal to avoid default and end the US government shutdown.

British police have released a transcript of an interview with Jimmy Savile in which he denied allegations of sexual abuse.

The Fitch credit rating agency has warned that it is reviewing the US government's AAA credit rating for a possible downgrade.

British police say they've received 1000 calls following the broadcast of a reconstruction of the day Madeleine McCann went missing.

After a 12-year-old in Florida committed suicide last month, one of her tormenters continued to brag about the bullying, police say.

A chemist at Melbourne Airport has had an unusual customer today, after a kangaroo hopped its way into the shop.

With time growing desperately short, House Republican efforts to end the US government shutdown collapsed Tuesday night.

Disappointed officials at Edinburgh Zoo say giant panda Tian Tian, who was thought to be pregnant, apparently has suffered a miscarriage.

The White House has rejected a fiscal plan from Republicans in the House of Representatives to raise the debt ceiling.

Although China's economy is now growing at more modest 7 to 8 percent a year, it is still vitally important to Europe.

Hundreds of thousands of people who fled a cyclone in India have returned home to scenes of devastation.

A man with a knife is facing charges after he tried to dart through a gate at Buckingham Palace.

British detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann say a man featured in two e-fit images was seen carrying a child towards the beach on the night she disappeared.

Homeowners in some of London's most affluent neighbourhoods are adding value to their properties by digging down, but now the local councils are fighting back.

A 98-year-old woman has had thousands of bees removed from her house in Florida.

Scotland Yard's investigation has "significantly changed the timeline" and accepted version of events of the night Madeleine McCann vanished.

If you've ever watched an Iron Man film you've probably thought to yourself, "I wonder if this is actually possible?"

The latest in New York City dining? Eating in silence.

The NYPD's motto is "courtesy, professionalism and respect", but one policewoman in the city didn't get the motto.

Migrants who were rescued after their smugglers' boat capsized in the Mediterranean say they were shot at as they left a Libyan port.

With a name like Houdini you might expect a pretty impressive escape artist, and this dog doesn't disappoint.

Among the 89 people killed in a stampede in India were 17 children and 31 women.

Mass evacuations spared India the widespread deaths many had feared from a powerful cyclone that roared ashore over the weekend.

Researchers believe they have uncovered one of the reasons why elephants appear to work well with humans.

A massive, powerful cyclone packing heavy rains and destructive winds slammed into India's eastern coastline Saturday evening.

Three deadly shipwrecks that claimed the lives of hundreds sharpened calls for humanitarian corridors to allow safe passage to Europe.

British media are reporting a man has been arrested by British police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

A boat believed to be carrying around 250 migrants has sunk between Malta and Sicily, officials say.

Rebel groups in Syria have been accused of killing at least 190 civilians and taking 200 others hostage.

Hand-written pages from a journal belonging to the British wife of one of the 7/7 bombers reveal her hopes her children will follow in her dead husband's footsteps.

The Chinese navy sailed into Auckland today, but only after assurances there were no nuclear weapons on board.

Sydney has fallen short of recording its hottest ever October day but emergency services were still busy around the state.

3 New Australia correspondent Rachel Morton wraps up the latest news from Australia a One Direction, Tony Abbott and a sweltering heatwave.

Helped by the weak rupee, India is seeing more foreigners, particularly Africans, travelling there for a variety of cheaper medical treatments.

Republican leaders are to offer President Barack Obama a temporary deal to raise the US government's debt ceiling in exchange for budget negotiations.

Prime Minister John Key says his trip to Asia has been "highly successful", first attending APEC and then the East Asia Summit.

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was seized by gunmen and held for several hours before being freed, in the latest example of the lawlessness prevailing since Moamer Kadhafi's overthrow.

Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai has won the EU's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize, drawing a fresh threat of murder by the Taliban.

Firstline's Tennessee Mansford looks at how some of the world's most colourful election candidates have gathered support.

The Spirit of New Zealand set sail from Sydney today in the first ever trans-Tasman Tall Ships Race.

A three-year-old from Devon made history yesterday by becoming the youngest competitor at the Horse of the Year show in Britain.

The United States Antarctic Program is the latest victim of the US government's shutdown.

A young Kiwi woman is about to get the chance to rub shoulders with former recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Russian investigators say they're considering fresh charges against Greenpeace activists who were detained last month for an Arctic protest.

Prime Minister John Key is working to get in the ear of as many world leaders as possible on his trip through Asia.

A passenger with no flying experience safely landed a small airplane at a British airport after the pilot became incapacitated, officials said.

Mark "Chopper" Read, one of Australia's most notorious and colourful crime figures, died yesterday after a long battle with liver cancer, his manager said. He was 58.

US President Barack Obama has demanded immediate action after learning the US government shutdown had cut off death benefits to relatives of war dead.

Two leaders of a far-right, anti-Muslim group in Britain announced Tuesday (local time) that growing extremism in the organisation's ranks has led them to quit.

Over half a century, the Higgs boson has evolved from a theory rejected as daft to a cornerstone of our understanding of the universe.

Peter Higgs of Britain and Francois Englert of Belgium have won the Nobel Prize for Physics for conceiving of the so-called "God particle".

Failure to raise the US debt ceiling would cause the US to default on its bills and would be "dramatically worse" than the current shutdown, President Barack Obama has warned.

Experts in Africa, the continent worst-hit by malaria, have reacted with optimism but also caution at hopes that the first vaccine against the killer disease may soon reach the market.

Prime Minister John Key has raised the issue of two New Zealand Greenpeace activists arrested in Russia with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Russian court has denied bail for three Russians remanded along with the entire crew of a Greenpeace ship that protested Arctic oil drilling.

Brazilian police have moved into the slums to drive out drug gangs ahead of next year's football World Cup.

Prime Minister John Key is about to chair crucial free trade talks on the sidelines at the APEC leaders summit in Bali.

A 118.28-carat white diamond has broken a world record, fetching more than US$30 million at a Hong Kong auction.