A Canterbury lines company is offering a $5000 reward to anyone who reports "significant" information about the tampering or theft of copper earthing wires from power poles.

Israel has warned that displaced Lebanese driven from their homes by its military campaign would not be able to return until the safety of Israelis living near the border was ensured, as Israeli troops pushed into new parts of southern Lebanon.

Cuba's national electric grid has collapsed leaving around 10 million people without power amid a US-imposed oil blockade that has crippled the island's already obsolete generation system.

What began as a routine trial quickly veered off course as jurors appeared to fixate on the complainant, her underwear choice and her sexual history.