New Zealand boat mystery leaves five dead in Kaipara Harbour

Five people are thought to have died and three others are missing after a chartered fishing vessel went missing in New Zealand.

Eleven people were on board the Francie when it was reported missing in the Kaipara Harbour area of the country's North Island.

Weather conditions were poor and the area has dangerous a sandbar known to be one of the most difficult to navigate in New Zealand.

One person described the waters as "confused" and said skippers are expected to notify the Coastguard when entering or leaving.

Rescue crews managed to pull three people from the sea and winch them to safety by helicopter. They are being treated at a nearby hospital.

It is not known if other vessels were in the water at the time and the search and rescue operation is due to recommence after being stalled overnight.

Police Inspector Duncan Hall told the New Zealand Herald: "Conditions are not suitable for an air search to continue tonight due to a significant sea swell. Visibility is poor, which would put rescue aircraft and their crews at risk."

It is not known how those on board ended up in the water.

The Francie's ex-captain has described the vessel as "a flaming good little boat" but he added that the weather was too rough for it to have been at sea.

Speaking about the weather and how he had cancelled his own trip, Rod Bridge told the Herald: "I stayed home, I'm not stupid... the wind was coming up and the swell was coming up. You wouldn't go out over the bar."

Kaipara Harbour's shifting sandbars, which obstruct the route out to the Tasman Sea, are known as 'the graveyard' and are thought to have claimed up to 110 ships.

Green Party files petition to recount votes cast in Wisconsin

Green Party leader Jill Stein has filed a petition to recount the presidential votes cast in Wisconsin.

An election official said Ms Stein filed the request about an hour-and-a-half before a 5pm Friday deadline.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission said it is "preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States".

The Green Party has been raising money to pay for votes to be recounted in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania; crucial swing states during the election and all won by Donald Trump.

Although there is no evidence of election tampering in those states, Ms Stein, who stood as the party's candidate in the election, has cited "anomalies" as grounds to mount a challenge in the three so-called Rust Belt states.

The deadlines for filing in Pennsylvania and Michigan are Monday and Wednesday of next week.

Green Party spokesman George Martin said: "There's no smoking gun here, but we're saying the American public needs to have it investigated to make sure our votes count.

"We're doing this to ensure the integrity of our system."

Donald Trump won Wisconsin, which was worth 10 electoral college votes, with 1,409,467 popular votes (47.9% of the total).

Hillary Clinton came second with 1,382,210 votes (46.9%) and Ms Stein polled 30,980 votes (1.1%).

Wisconsin is legally required to recount votes at a candidate's request providing he or she can meet the costs, which election officials estimate to be up to $1m (£800,735).

The Green Party has so far raised $5.2m (£4,163,820).

Aleppo 'faces starvation' amid continued bombardment

At least 39 people, including five children, have been killed in the latest round of air strikes and shelling in and around the Syrian city of Aleppo, Al Jazeera has learnt.

Witnesses and activists told Al Jazeera the air strikes on Friday destroyed two women's hospitals in Aleppo and Idlib province, as the renewed government offensive to capture Aleppo city from opposition fighters stretched into its tenth day.

Both Syria and Russia have denied involvement in the bombardments.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said fuel is critically low in the besieged city, as residents faced a harsh winter without heating and electricity, and escalating food prices.

Some residents said meat now costs $50 per kilo, compared to $9 four months ago.

Journalist's account

Mohamed Shbeeb, a freelance journalist trapped inside the besieged city, said conditions in Aleppo were rapidly deteriorating.

"Since the early [Saturday] morning, Russian warplanes attacked the city. Many people were killed. In the last 10 days in this campaign, more than 500 people have been killed by Russian air strikes and ballistic missiles," he told Al Jazeera.

Vladimir Putin grants action hero Steven Seagal Russian passport

Vladimir Putin has expressed his hopes for improving relations between Moscow and Washington as he personally granted a Russian passport to Hollywood star Steven Seagal.

"I want to congratulate you and express the hope that this is another, albeit small, gesture and it might be a sign of the gradual normalisation of relations between our countries," the Russia president said to the US actor and director as the document was handed over.

"Spasibo bolshoye," replied Seagal (thank you very much).

The Kremlin released a transcript of their conversation, with Mr Putin saying they had been discussing citizenship for "quite a while".

Seagal, 64, who has Russian heritage and is a regular visitor to the country, has been a vocal supporter of Mr Putin, who earlier this month signed an order granting his Russian citizenship.

In the 1990s the star opened a branch of the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood in Moscow, and has since participated in a number of publicity campaigns for Russian companies.

Russian business newspaper Vedomosti reports the actor could acquire a stake in Russian IT company Galaxy.

Seagal's fame peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s with films such as Under Siege and Above the Law, but he remains hugely popular in eastern Europe and was granted Serbian citizenship in January.

He is not the first celebrity to be awarded citizenship by the Kremlin.

French actor Gerard Depardieu got his in 2013, saying at the time he was leaving France to avoid proposed tax increases.

US boxer Roy Jones Jr got his Russian passport in 2015, writing on his website later: "This is the happiest day of my life."

US relations with Russia have been increasingly under the spotlight since Donald Trump was elected.

Mr Putin has had a strained relationship with President Barack Obama, but Mr Trump issued warm remarks about the Russian leader during his campaign.

After his election, the President-elect and Mr Putin agreed in a phone call to work on what the Kremlin called "the extremely unsatisfactory state of Russian-US relations at present".

Russian MPs applauded Mr Trump's victory and Mr Putin is reported to be hoping for a deal to relieve Western sanctions on Russia as a result of the annexation of Crimea, which are crippling the economy.

Britons could pay to keep EU benefits post-Brexit under new plans

Britons could pay to retain the benefits of European Union citizenship after Brexit under plans being considered by MEPs.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's lead Brexit negotiator, said he backed the proposal to allow UK citizens to "opt in" individually to EU membership.

Under the scheme, Britons would pay an annual fee to benefit from free movement around the EU, the right to reside in other European countries under existing rules and the right to vote in EU elections.

"Many say 'we don't want to cut our links'," Mr Verhofstadt told The Times. 

"I like the idea that people who are European citizens and saying they want to keep it have the possibility of doing so. As a principle I like it."

Charles Goerens, an MEP from Luxembourg who put forward the idea, says the scheme could even be free for Britons.

He said: "If it is adopted, it must be a voluntary request made by each UK citizen.

"It was thought at the very beginning that they should have to pay a fee but that is a detail. Paying a fee or not is not the essence." 

He added: "Between 15 and 30 million British citizens deeply regret Brexit. 

"My amendment was tabled in order to get European citizenship for those British citizens who want to keep their citizenship."

MEPs will vote on the proposals by the end of the year, but any Brexit deal with the UK would have to have the agreement of the leaders of the other 27 EU nations as well as the European Parliament.

On the chances of the proposal being voted through, Mr Verhofstadt admitted: "I don't know if it will fly or not."

He added: "There are big differences of view here in the parliament."

Brexit-backing Tory MP Andrew Bridgen claimed the plan is "an attempt to create two classes of UK citizen and to subvert the referendum vote."

He told The Times: "The truth is that Brussels will try every trick in the book to stop us leaving."

It comes as former prime minister Tony Blair suggested Britons could stop the process of leaving the EU if they disagree with the terms.

He said voting to leave was "like agreeing to a house swap without having seen the other house".

Meanwhile, Ireland's prime minister has told Sky News it will be "impossible" for the UK to agree a full Brexit deal within the two years set out in Article 50.

Enda Kenny said a Brexit transition deal between the UK and EU was "inevitable".

Fidel Castro in his own words: 'A revolution is not a bed of roses'

Under Fidel Castro, Cuba became the one and only communist state in the western hemisphere.

Here are some of the former populist leader's more memorable quotes about himself and communism in Cuba:

:: "Condemn me. It is of no importance. History will absolve me." - Castro in 1953, when the young lawyer was defending himself at trial for his near-suicidal assault on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba.

:: "I began the revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I would do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action." - Castro in 1959.

:: Former Cuban president Fidel Castro dies

:: "I'm not thinking of cutting my beard, because I'm accustomed to my beard and my beard means many things to my country. When we fulfil our promise of good government I will cut my beard." - Castro in a 1959 interview with CBS's Edward Murrow, 30 days after the revolution.

:: "A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past." - Castro in 1959.

:: "I reached the conclusion long ago that the one last sacrifice I must make for (Cuban) public health is to stop smoking. I haven't really missed it that much." - Castro in December 1985 upon announcing he had stopped smoking cigars.

:: "I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure (Jesus Christ)." -- Castro in 1985.

:: "Just imagine what would happen in the world if the socialist community were to disappear... if this were possible and I don't believe it is possible." - Castro in 1989.

:: "We do not know anything about this. We, gentlemen, to tell the truth, do not even know what to charge." - Castro in 1990 on the development of international tourism In Cuba.

:: Fidel Castro: A thorn in the side of the US

:: "We have to stick to the facts and, simply put, the socialist camp has collapsed." - Castro in 1991.

:: "There's nothing strange about it. I wish I had as many opportunities to welcome personalities as important as this one." - Castro in 1994, explaining the reception, usually reserved for heads of state, given to Hugo Chavez upon his arrival in Havana a few months after he was released from prison for leading a failed 1992 coup. Five years later, Chavez was elected president of Venezuela and became Castro's closest ally.

:: "These changes (the opening to international tourism, foreign investment, some small business and family remittances)have their social cost, because we lived in a glass case, pure asepsis, and now we are surrounded by viruses, bacteria to the point of distraction and the egoism created by the capitalist system of production." -- Castro in 1998.

:: "One of the greatest benefits of the revolution is that even our prostitutes are college graduates." - Castro to director Oliver Stone in 2003 documentary "Comandante."

:: "I realised that my true destiny would be the war that I was going to have with the United States." - Castro's opening quote in "Looking for Fidel," Stone's second documentary on the Cuban leader from 2004.

:: "Here is a conclusion I've come to after many years: among all the errors we may have committed, the greatest of them all was that we believed that someone... actually knew how to build socialism... Whenever they said, 'That's the formula', we thought they knew. Just as if someone is a physician." - Castro in 2005.

:: "I'm really happy to reach 80. I never expected it, not least having a neighbour, the greatest power in the world, trying to kill me every day." - Castro on July 21, 2006, while attending a summit of Latin American presidents in Argentina.

:: "I will neither aspire to nor accept... the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief... It would be a betrayal of my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer." - Castro, in February 2008, announcing his resignation as president.

:: "We are not a developed capitalist country in crisis, whose leaders are going crazy looking for solutions amidst depression, inflation, a lack of markets and unemployment; we are and we must be socialists." - Castro writing in one of his "reflections," or newspaper columns in 2008.

:: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." - Castro in 2010 during an interview with US journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. Castro later said his comment was taken out of context.

Off-duty police officer has face slashed with knife at HMV store in Leeds

An off-duty police officer has been slashed in the face with a knife as he tried to stop a suspected shoplifter at a HMV store.

The officer received slash injuries to his neck, face and hand at the store in Leeds city centre on Friday morning.

A 36-year-old man, from Leeds, has been arrested in connection with the attack.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "The male officer received slash injuries to his neck, face and hand but fortunately these are not considered life threatening.

"Ambulance attended the scene and the injured officer has been taken to hospital for treatment.

"The store is currently closed while the scene undergoes forensic examination."

Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to contact Leeds District CID via 101 quoting log number 344 of 25 November.