Changed rules may see more Māori sculptures in New Plymouth

King Tuheitia shared a moment of mutual respect and recollection with King Charles.

Police are appealing for the public’s help to find Auckland woman Honey Ihaka.

Victims as young as five years old are being treated after a mass shooting in a shopping centre in Texas killed at least eight people.

Seven victims are being treated at trauma facilities, officials said on Saturday night (local time).

A Dallas area medical group said children as young as five were receiving care.

The gunman, who authorities believe was acting alone, is also dead.

READ MORE: King Charles lives the moment he was born for

Authorities have not released any details about the slain victims, but witnesses said they feared children had been among them.

Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said that at least nine people were sent to hospitals.

"Of those that we transported, two have since died. Three are in critical surgery, and four are stable," said Boyd.

Witnesses who were at the Allen Premium Outlets on the outskirts of Dallas, told The Associated Press they saw multiple victims, including some who appeared to be children, and that they saw a police officer and a security guard who appeared to be unconscious on the ground.

Dashcam video that circulated online showed a gunman step out of a silver sedan outside the shopping centre and immediately start shooting at people on the sidewalk.

More than three dozen shots could be heard as the vehicle recording the video drove off.

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An Allen Police officer was in the area on an unrelated call when he heard shots at 3.36pm, the police department wrote on Facebook.

"The officer engaged the suspect and neutralised the threat. He then called for emergency personnel. Nine victims were transported to local hospitals by Allen Fire Department," the agency wrote in the Facebook post.

"There is no longer an active threat."

A crowd of hundreds of people who had been shopping stood outside, across the street from the shopping centre, on Saturday evening.

Officers circulated among them asking if anyone had seen what happened.

"The officer engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat. He then called for emergency personnel," the agency wrote in the Facebook post.

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https://twitter.com/ATFDallas/status/1654961891461013504

Mass killings are happening with staggering frequency in the United States this year: an average of about one a week, according to an analysis of The AP/USA Today data.

The White House said President Biden had been briefed on the shooting and that the administration had offered support to local officials.

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has signed laws easing firearms restrictions following past mass shootings, called it an "unspeakable tragedy."

'Heard loud popping': Witnesses inside mall speak out

Fontayne Payton, 35, was at H&M when he heard the sound of gunshots through the headphones he was wearing.

"It was so loud, it sounded like it was right outside," Payton said.

People in the store scattered before employees ushered the group into the fitting rooms and then a lockable back room, he said.

When they were given the all-clear to leave, Payton saw the store had broken windows and a trail of blood to the door.

Discarded sandals and bloodied clothes were laying nearby.

Once outside, Payton saw bodies.

"I pray it wasn't kids, but it looked like kids," he said. The bodies were covered in white towels, slumped over bags on the ground, he said.

"It broke me when I walked out to see that," he said.

Further away, he saw the body of a heavyset man wearing all black. He assumed it was the shooter, Payton said, because unlike the other bodies it had not been covered up.

Tarakram Nunna, 25, and Ramakrishna Mullapudi, 26, said they saw what appeared to be three people lying motionless on the ground, including one who appeared to be a police officer and another who appeared to be a security guard.

Another shopper, Sharkie Mouli, 24, said he hid in a Banana Republic store during the shooting.

As he left, he saw what appeared to be an unconscious police officer lying next to another unconscious person outside the outlet store.

"I have seen his gun lying right next to him and a guy who is like passing out right next to him," Mouli said.

Stan and Mary Ann Greene were browsing in the Columbia sportswear store when the shooting started.

"We had just gotten in, just a couple minutes earlier, and we just heard a lot of loud popping," Mary Ann Greene told The Associated Press.

Employees immediately rolled down the security gate and brought everyone to the rear of the store until police arrived and escorted them out, the Greenes said.

Eber Romero was at the Under Armour store when a cashier mentioned that there was a shooting.

As he left the store, Romero said, the shopping centre appeared empty, and all the shops had their security gates down.

That is when he started seeing broken glass and people who had been shot on the floor.

Video shared on social media showed people running through a parking lot while gunfire could be heard.

More than 30 police cruisers with lights flashing were blocking an entrance to the shopping centre,e with multiple ambulances on the scene.

A live aerial broadcast from the news station showed armored trucks and other law enforcement vehicles stationed outside the sprawling outdoor shopping centre.

Ambulances from several neighboring cities responded to the scene.

The Dallas office of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded.

Allen, a suburb about 40 kilometre north of downtown Dallas, has roughly 105,000 residents.

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A new King has been crowned, in a ceremony a top Australian soldier dubbed "surreal".

Brigadier Grant Mason, head of ADF staff in the UK, was among 40 Australian troops who took part in the processions as Charles III was crowned.

He compared the event to the spirit of wartime.

"I said to a number of people that it almost had that feel of 1944 getting ready with just the massive troops to go and do something really, really epic," he shared.

"Many of us were sort of standing around talking to each other at, at different points of the event, whether it was talking to our troops from the Australian Federation Guard or talking to members of the other commonwealth nations or members of the British military, just about what a surreal experience it was."

The soldiers even got a taste of home, Mason said, with Australians in the crowd taking up the "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" chant.

A moment seven decades in the making

After seven decades of waiting, and two more hours of British bombast fuelled by gold, trumpets, choirs, celebrity and circumstance, King Charles III lived the moment he was born for.

Queen Elizabeth II's son, sitting on a two-metre-tall, 700-year-old wooden chair, holding two golden sceptres, valuable and controversial, waited calmly as Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby approached with St Edward's Crown.

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A brief adjustment of the enormous headpiece, a look to the bishop, a glance at the floor, eyes closed, and the moment was complete. 

Charles became just the seventh monarch to don the crown, which he will never wear again.

"God save the King," rang out around Westminster Abbey.

After more than an hour-and-a-half of soaring ceremony built on ancient traditions, all that was left was for his loyal subjects, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to swear allegiance.

Prince William followed with his own pledge, kneeling, rising, touching the crown and kissing his father's cheek.

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Then it was time for Camilla to take centre stage, completing a carefully managed decades-long transition from "most hated woman" in Britain to Queen Consort and now simply Queen.

Staggeringly, it was a slimmed-down affair compared to Queen Elizabeth II's investiture: just 2000 guests, including world leaders, pop stars and famous Australian faces such as rock star Nick Cave and football star Samantha Kerr.

AS IT HAPPENED: King Charles' coronation

Dr Jill Biden became the first ever US First Lady to attend a British coronation — a ceremony no US president has ever attended.

"You can't imagine that moment where you actually see the crown being placed on the head of the king and then on the head on the queen," she said during a phone interview with The Associated Press after the ceremony in London.

"It's really surreal to see and experience that moment."

Biden said she was honoured to represent the US at the event.

Much was made in the lead-up of the risk that family politics would overshadow the occasion, as Prince Harry returned from California, ever so briefly, to watch his father make history.

Instead, his arrival was casual, swapping smiles and conversations with his cousins, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and their husbands, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank, as they entered the Abbey.

Less discussed but far more grave are the accusations hanging over Prince Andrew, who stepped down from public duties and paid $20 million to settle a civil sexual assault case amid links to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The prince denies the claims. 

READ MORE: The legendary Stone of Destiny and King Charles' coronation

Despite this, and in contrast to Harry, the Duke of York arrived at Westminster Abbey wearing the Navy mantle.

Neither prince was present when Charles — already changed out of his ceremonial crown into the only slightly more practical Imperial State Crown — and Camilla, emerged onto the Buckingham Palace balcony for the moment the throngs had waited for.

The noise of the crowd told the story before the TV cameras zoomed in on the monarchs, trailed by their pages of honour and ladies in waiting.

They were followed by the rest of the working royal family before Royal Air Force helicopters and Red Arrows roared out of the rainy grey skies, down The Mall, and over the palace in a scaled-back flypast.

On top of the obvious constitutional considerations and star representatives, Australia played a central role via the implausibly golden Diamond Jubilee State Coach, which carried Camilla and Charles to and from the ceremony.

Eight Windsor grey horses pulled the heated, air-conditioned behemoth on hydraulic suspension past the endless crowds of royal fans, umbrellas and Union Jacks braving the wet and dreary London weather on The Mall.

"The reception is quite deafening and that can only be good news for the King and the Queen and their future role as head of state and consort for the King", former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter said on the 9News coverage of the event.

The ostentatious transport, first used in 2014, was an 80th birthday gift from Australian craftsman Jim Frecklington.

To the royal family and government, the occasion — code-named Operation Golden Orb — was a display of heritage, tradition and spectacle unmatched around the world.

The rite was expected to be watched by millions, though the awe and reverence the ceremony was designed to evoke are largely gone — and many greeted the day with a shrug.

Some even met it with disdain.

Republican protesters gathered outside to holler "Not my king" for a celebration of an institution they say stands for privilege and inequality, in a country of deepening poverty and fraying social ties.

A handful were arrested.

In Australia, republicans, of which Albanese is one, had called for the prime minister to skip mouthing the oath of allegiance.

They used the ceremony, which reportedly cost up to £100 million ($187 million) to remind Australians that Charles is their King, the head of state of the country and 14 others.

"The Australian Republic Movement is also calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to stand up for Australian values by refusing to pledge allegiance to Charles," they said.

"While it is appropriate he attend the ceremony, he should do so as a representative of Australia and not take part in a disloyal and dishonest pledge that puts a foreign King above Australians."

Albanese defended his plan to state the pledge, saying he intended to follow protocol.

The ceremony also stirred up concerns about Britain's colonial past, which includes pilfering jewels and other precious symbols from countries from Africa to India. 

The Star of Africa, perched atop the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross Charles held as the crown was placed on his head, is caught up in some of these conversations. 

The diamond is cut from a larger gem that was mined in South Africa in 1905 and handed over to the British royal family by South Africa's colonial authorities.

"The Cullinan Diamond must be returned to South Africa with immediate effect," activist Thanduxolo Sabelo told South African media soon after the Queen's death.

"The minerals of our country and other countries continue to benefit Britain at the expense of our people."

– Reported with CNN and Associated Press

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Political leaders were asked not to speak but instead to listen to the voiced concerns.

Snow is falling in Australia's south-east as a slow-moving cold front sweeps multiple states and batters the coast with extreme wind.

Live Traffic NSW has issued a warning to drivers that Kosciuszko Road and Alpine Way in Kosciuszko National Park are affected by snow and ice.

South of the border, Victoria's Great Alpine Road was closed between Hotham Heights and Harrietville due to snow and poor conditions causing several collisions.

READ MORE: King Charles lives the moment he was born for

Snow also fell in the Monaro region, while hail fell in the Blue Mountains.

The Bureau of Meteorolgy has warned of damaging winds and surf along the coast of New South Wales, and sheep producers have been directed to keep an eye on their flocks as the temperature plummets for Australia's coldest May weekend in years.

Canberra, Hobart, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney face the brunt of the cold with maximum temperatures climbing to just 9, 12, 16, 13, and 17 degrees respectively.

READ MORE: At least eight dead after shooting at Texas shopping centre

https://twitter.com/SamSpurrett/status/1655048953161998336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

A marine wind warning has been issued for Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland and NSW from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).

Similar, unrelated warnings, have also been issued for Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Weatherzone said "blustery winds" will make the temperature feel much cooler across the south-east, with Sydney set to feel as if it's "in the low teens".

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Snow will continue to fall across the Australian Alps as temperatures drop between 2 and 8C below the May average.

Snow is expected to fall as low as 700-800 metres.

"On Sunday, the heaviest precipitation looks to fall southeast of Cooma, so Nimmitabel and even Bombala are in the firing line for snow showers. It all depends on where the precipitation is heaviest, which depends on just where that low form," Weatherzone said.

Temperatures in Melbourne are set to remain low for today with a maximum of only 13 degrees forecast.

About 20mm of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours in Melbourne.

The system will bring rain to other states, with Tasmania, southern Victoria, South Australia and south-east NSW expected to see the heaviest. 

Sydney is forecast to reach a maximum of 17 degrees today before winds increase overnight.

Wind gusts over 80km/h and possibly over 100km/h are expected on Monday along parts of the coast.

Sydney will unlikely be warmer than 14 or 15 degrees at the beginning of the week.

Darwin will see a maximum of 33 degrees today, and Perth 24 degrees.

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