Death toll from Vanuatu earthquake rises to 14, the father and stepmother of murdered 10-year-old Sara Sharif jailed in the UK, and Tim Southee's winning goodbye to Test cricket.
1 Vanuatu earthquake: Fourteen reported deaths after 'violent' event
Fourteen people are so far reportedly dead after a massive earthquake struck near Vanuatu yesterday afternoon.
Katie Greenwood, the Fiji-based head of the Asia-Pacific regional office for the Red Cross, provided the latest casualty figures overnight.
"The Vanuatu Government is reporting 14 confirmed fatalities and 200 treated for injuries at main hospital in Port Vila," she said.
2 Company, director sentenced in NZ's first criminal cartel prosecution
An Auckland construction company has been fined $500,000 as part of the country’s first criminal prosecution for cartel conduct, where two or more businesses agreed to not compete with each other.
Earlier this year, Munesh Kumar, and his company Maxbuild Limited, admitted to bid rigging on publicly funded projects in Auckland, between January and May 2022.
The projects were the Northern Corridor Improvement Project and The Middlemore Railway Bridge Project.
3 Sara Sharif: Dad, stepmother jailed for murder of 10yo girl in England
The father and stepmother of a severely abused 10-year-old girl found dead in her home in England have been sentenced to life in prison for murder.
Urfan Sharif, 42, and Beinash Batool, 30, were convicted of murder last week in Sara Sharif's death in what prosecutors called a "campaign of abuse".
The girl's uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was found guilty of causing or allowing the girl's death. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Warning: This story contains details which may be upsetting to some readers.
4 National Park Village to change name — Petone to stay the same
Decisions have been reached on proposals to change 12 place names around New Zealand.
Proposals to change the names of Wellington's Petone and Manawatū-Whanganui's National Park village were among those considered.
5 US CEO killing: Suspect charged with murder as an act of terrorism
The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare's chief executive has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism, prosecutors said today as they worked to transfer him to a New York court from a Pennsylvania jail.
Luigi Mangione already was charged with murder in the December 4 killing of Brian Thompson, but the terror allegation is new.
ONE WINNING SEND-OFF
He didn’t quite get to 100 Test sixes but Tim Southee got the send-off he was hoping for as the Black Caps created their own slice of history in beating England by 423 runs in the third and final Test of the series.
Southee was just short of an extraordinary Test sixes milestone – he finished on 98, the fourth highest in history behind England’s Ben Stokes (133), New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum (107) and Australia’s Adam Gilchrist (100).
ONE BETTER FINANCIAL YEAR AHEAD — HERE'S HOW
You've (almost) survived to 2025. Now it's time to thrive.
Frances Cook outlines five financial resolutions to make this New Year's Eve.
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