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An Iranian man who inspired Steven Spielberg's film The Terminal has died in Charles de Gaulle Airport where he lived for 18 years.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in Terminal 2F on Saturday, an official with the Paris airport authority said.

Police and a medical team were called but were not able to save him, the official said.

Nasseri, believed to have been born in 1945, lived in the airport's Terminal 1 from 1988 until 2006, first in legal limbo because he lacked residency papers and later by choice, according to French media reports.

He had been living in the airport again in recent weeks, the airport official said.

His saga inspired The Terminal starring Tom Hanks, and a French film.

Year in and year out, he slept on a red plastic bench, making friends with airport workers, showering in staff facilities, writing in his diary, reading magazines and watching passing travellers.

Staff nicknamed him Lord Alfred and he became a mini-celebrity among passengers.

"Eventually, I will leave the airport," he told The Associated Press in 1999, smoking a pipe on his bench, looking frail with long thin hair, sunken eyes and hollow cheeks. "But I am still waiting for a passport or transit visa."

Nasseri was born in 1945 in Soleiman, a part of Iran then under British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British mother. He left Iran to study in England in 1974. When he returned, he said he was imprisoned for protesting against the shah and expelled without a passport.

He applied for political asylum in several countries in Europe. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Belgium gave him refugee credentials but he said his briefcase containing the refugee certificate was stolen in a Paris train station.

French police later arrested him but could not deport him anywhere because he had no official documents. He ended up at Charles de Gaulle in August 1988 and stayed.

Further bureaucratic bungling and increasingly strict European immigration laws kept him in a legal no-man's land for years.

When he finally received refugee papers, he described his surprise, and his insecurity, about leaving the airport.

He reportedly refused to sign them, and ended up staying there several more years until he was admitted to hospital in 2006, and later lived in a Paris shelter.

Those who befriended him in the airport said the years of living in the windowless space took a toll on his mental state.

The airport doctor in the 1990s worried about his physical and mental health, and described him as "fossilised here". A ticket agent friend compared him to a prisoner incapable of "living on the outside".

Nasseri's mind-boggling tale loosely inspired 2004's The Terminal starring Hanks, as well as French film Lost in Transit and an opera called Flight.

In The Terminal, Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man who arrives at JFK airport in New York from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakozhia and discovers that an overnight political revolution has invalidated all his travelling papers.

Viktor is dumped into the airport's international lounge and told he must stay there until his status is sorted out, which drags on as unrest in Krakozhia continues.

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© AP 2022

Samoa have created history, becoming the first tier-two nation to advance into a Rugby League World Cup final with a golden-point extra-time 27-26 win over England.

Penrith centre Stephen Crichton delivered with the clutch field-goal winner in the 84th minute of a chaotic semi-final in front of 40,489 fans at the Emirates Stadium.

Samoa will play Australia at Old Trafford next Saturday (Sunday AEDT) after extending one of the most remarkable turnarounds at a tournament.

The drama-filled win in north London came less than a month after Samoa had kicked off their campaign with a 60-6 group stage defeat at the hands of England.

"We've got each other's back - plenty of people had plenty to say about going home on planes and all that," said Samoa coach Matt Parish, whose position was under threat last year amid talk of Sonny Bill Williams and the Johns brothers taking his role.

"It's inspirational, to put Samoa - a tiny little dot in the middle of the Pacific - into the final, it's incredible."

Things are about to get tougher for the Samoans, however, with hooker Nu Brown concussed and captain Junior Paulo potentially facing suspension for a spear tackle on England prop Tom Burgess which led to him going to the sin bin in the first half.

"Sometimes accidents are going to happen, that's footy. It's played at a fast pace," Paulo said.

"It was unintentional. How important this game is - I can't imagine myself missing out on the biggest game in Samoa's history."

While Samoa were rejoicing, England were left to lick their wounds.

Shaun Wane's side had arguably never had a better chance to win a tournament, or at the very least get to a final.

The draw was in their favour, ensuring they avoided New Zealand and Australia until the final and Wane was almost moved to tears after the game.

"It was not good enough," he said.

"All credit to our players on what they did in this tournament but not doing those small details cost us dearly."

England were stuck in the blocks when Samoa scored after just five minutes, Tim Lafai running through a meek tackle from Kallum Watkins.

Elliott Whitehead hit back for England but Samoa found themselves up 10-6 at half-time when Ligi Sao scooted from dummy half to breeze through a hole left by Watkins.

The second half was chaos. Lafai fumbled a ball on his own line and John Bateman dived on it to score.

Crichton went in for Samoa after a no-look offload from Paulo as he fell in the tackle and then Lafai made amends to push them out to a 20-12 lead and Watkins was subbed off.

England centre Herbie Farnworth barged through six tackles to get his side back in the game with Tommy Makinson converting and then adding a penalty to draw England level at 20-all.

More drama was to come as England went searching for a winner.

Crichton intercepted a Victor Radley pass in the 72nd minute before Farnworth dashed over in the 77th minute to tie up the game.

Anthony Milford failed with Samoa's first attempt at a field goal, before Crichton kicked the winner to make history and set up a meeting with Australia.

"Belief was everything within this team," Paulo said. "We're going to give ourselves a chance."

© AAP 2022

Southeast Asian heads of government have held talks with visiting global leaders and were due to meet US President Joe Biden, as the region tries to navigate the growing rivalry between China and Western powers.

Cambodia is hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual summit and a parallel East Asian Summit, with the regional bloc engaging a host of leaders, including Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The event is the first in a series of summits in Southeast Asia over the next seven days that are expected to tackle tricky global issues, from the war in Ukraine, climate, and regional tensions over the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea and North Korean missile launches.

At one of Saturday's meetings with ASEAN, South Korea's Yoon proposed a mechanism for a three-way dialogue with China and Japan including a leadership summit to address future crises including from the impacts of war, on areas like security of food and energy security and climate change.

Yoon also said North Korea's attempts to boost its nuclear and missile capabilities were a serious threat to the international community, which needed to respond with one voice.

Japan's Kishida echoed those concerns, describing North Korea's recent ballistic missile launches, including one that flew over Japan, as unacceptable international threats.

During a brief exchange with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Kishida said the two countries should strive toward building a "constructive and stable" relationship.

Biden will focus on the Indo-Pacific region and talk about US commitment to a rules-based international order in the South China Sea in his discussions, senior administration officials said earlier this week.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will also attend some meetings in Phnom Penh, while Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is also in Cambodia after signing a Treaty of Amity and Co-operation with ASEAN, as Kyiv seeks to strengthen ties with the bloc.

Kuleba said he held direct talks with several leaders of ASEAN countries, during which he urged them to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, warning that staying neutral was not in their interests.

He said he also urged them to prevent Russia holding up the movement of Ukrainian agricultural products under a Black Sea grain deal, which could expire on Nov. 19.

The United Nations says 10 million tonnes of grain and other foods have been exported from Ukraine under the arrangement made in July, but warns the war will leave millions more hungry.

"I call on all ASEAN members to take every method possible to stop Russia from playing hunger games with the world," Kuleba told a news conference.

G20 leaders are meeting in Bali next week and the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum takes place in Bangkok after that.

Lavrov will represent Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bali, while hosts Indonesia on Saturday confirmed Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address the G20 meeting virtually.

ASEAN leaders on Friday issued a "warning" to Myanmar to make measurable progress on a peace plan or risk being barred from the bloc's meetings, as social and political chaos escalates in the country.

ASEAN leaders also discussed other tensions in the region, including the Korean peninsula and Taiwan, with leaders including China's premier and South Korea's president in separate meetings.

ASEAN also agreed in principle to admit East Timor as the group's 11th member. Asia's youngest democracy started the process of accession in 2002, but only formally applied for membership in 2011.

© RAW 2022