Australia and Oceania

US fears nuclear arms race in Asia-Pacific: Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Senior Trump administration officials fear a nuclear arms race in Asia-Pacific if an increasingly belligerent North Korea is not reined in, Australia’s foreign minister said Friday after talks in New York. Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a “heavy” nuclear warhead, fueling tensions with Washington. It has carried out two atomic tests since […]

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Australia’s Omar in the running to be crowned the world’s longest cat

MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) — Omar, the Maine Coon cat from Melbourne, is in the running to be named the world’s longest cat after Guinness World Records contacted his owner, Stephy Hirst, following a picture she posted of him on Instagram. Measuring 120 cm (47.4 inches) in length and tipping the scales at 14 kilograms (30 pounds), Omar is hoping to beat current world record holder, Ludo from the United Kingdom, who measures 118.3 cm (46.6 […]

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17 shot dead in Papua New Guinea prison breakout

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Seventeen prisoners have been shot dead after a mass breakout at a jail in Papua New Guinea, police said Monday, with 57 still on the run. Inmates from the Buimo jail in the Pacific nation’s second largest city of Lae made a dash for freedom after breaking out of their compound on Friday, with prison warders opening fire. The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary said in a statement 17 were killed, […]

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Australia toughens foreign worker visas; says Australian jobs for Australians

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) — Australia will abolish a temporary work visa popular with foreigners and replace it with a visa requiring better English-language and work skills, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Tuesday (April 18). Turnbull rejected suggestions the visa policy change was in response to far-right wing political parties, such as One Nation, demanding more nationalistic policies. He said the visa change would attract better skilled workers and see Australians employed over cheap foreign […]

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Australian PM surveys cyclone damage as floods threaten southeast Queensland

NORTH QUEENSLAND (Reuters) –Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull praised the resilience of residents in Queensland state as he surveyed the damage caused by Cyclone Debbie in Bowen on Thursday (March 30). Cyclone Debbie struck as a category four storm on Tuesday (March 28), smashing tourist resorts, ripping off roofs, bringing down power lines, flattening canefields and flooding coastal regions. Tens of thousands more people were still without power on Thursday in north Queensland, where officials […]

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Widespread damage in coastal towns as Debbie rips through Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) — Australia’s army and emergency workers headed to areas hardest-hit by Cyclone Debbie on Wednesday (March 29), finding roads blocked by fallen trees, sugarcane fields flattened and widespread damage in coastal towns. No deaths were reported. Debbie ripped a trail of destruction through northeast Australia on Tuesday (March 28) as a category four storm, one rung below the most dangerous wind speed level, before being gradually downgraded through the night to a […]

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Cyclone Debbie makes landfall in Australia: meteorologists

AYR, Australia (AFP) — Cyclone Debbie made landfall in northeast Australia Tuesday, with lashing rain and howling winds battering the area as local towns went into lockdown. The category four storm — on a scale of five — began crossing the Queensland state coast, packing destructive wind gusts of up to 270 kph (167 miles) near its wide core, the Bureau of Meteorology said.  

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Residents prepare as Cyclone Debbie bears down on Australia

QUEENSLAND, Australia (Reuters) –Residents of the town of Airlie Beach in north Queensland, Australia, began filling sand bags on Monday (March 27) in preparation for Cyclone Debbie, forecast to make landfall early the next day. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said the storm will strengthen to a Category Four, with winds forecast to reach up to 300 km per hour (185 mph). State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warned it would be the most powerful storm to […]

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is officially welcomed to New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Reuters) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was officially welcomed to New Zealand on Monday (March 27) during a traditional ceremony at Wellington’s Government House. Welcomed by New Zealand’s governor-general with a traditional Maori Hongi, or nose rub, Premier Li and his wife Cheng Hong watched a traditional Haka being performed. The Chinese delegation were greeted by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Bill English and his wife Mary English before the Premier inspected the […]

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Australia braces for ‘very destructive’ cyclone

Sydney, Australia (AFP) — Australians are bracing for the worst cyclone in the country’s northeast in several years, with residents evacuated and schools closed amid forecasts of destructive winds and rain. Cyclone Debbie has been forming off the coast of Queensland state in recent days, the official Bureau of Meteorology said Sunday, with its “very destructive core” expected to hit land early Tuesday morning. “The very destructive core of Tropical Cyclone Debbie is currently expected to […]

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South China Sea installations ‘primarily’ civilian: Li

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — China is not militarizing the disputed South China Sea, the country’s premier insisted in Australia on Friday, claiming defence equipment Beijing has installed on artificial islands is “primarily” for civilian use. The sea is a source of growing regional tension, with Beijing insisting it has sovereignty over virtually all the resource-rich waters, which are also claimed in part by a handful of other countries, and deemed international waters by most of […]

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6.0-magnitude quake hits off Solomon Islands

HONG KONG, China (AFP) — A 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit off the Solomon Islands in the early hours of Monday, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck at 02:43 am local time (1543 GMT Sunday) at a depth of 4.0 kilometres (2.5 miles), some 170 kilometres north-northeast of the capital city Honiara, the USGS said. No tsunami warning was issued. The Solomon Islands are part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a zone of tectonic […]

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