New Zealand police are investigating the suspected murder of two children whose remains were found in suitcases bought at an online auction for an unclaimed locker last week.
Police launched a homicide inquiry in Auckland last week after the remains were found by a family going through the contents of a storage locker they had purchased unseen.
The two children were aged between 5 and 10 years and had been dead for some time, police said in a statement on Thursday. The suitcases had been in storage for some time, they added, without providing details.
Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Vaaelua told reporters the children had yet to be formally identified, but they believed they had family in New Zealand.
It was possible their families were not aware the children were dead, he added.
Police did not give any details on how the children had died or whether there were any suspects.
The family who found the bodies were not connected to the deaths.
South Korea and the United States will cut short annual joint military drills to five days from 11 and scale back some field training, the allies said on Wednesday, after President Donald Trump ordered a substantial reduction in US participation.
At least 100 people were killed when a low-tech artisanal gold mine collapsed in the Central African Republic on Tuesday, a senior official at a local mining association said.
An Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians at a police station in Gaza on Wednesday, medics said, two days after US envoy Jared Kushner ended a trip to the region that failed to push forward Donald Trump's plan to end the war in the enclave.
Thai schools conducted active shooter drills on Wednesday, as authorities moved to strengthen security measures two weeks after a 14-year-old opened fire at a school and killed at least eight people.