Australia and Oceania

Massive global IT outage hits airlines, banks, media

By Joseph BOYLE PARIS, July 19, 2024 (AFP) – Airlines, banks, TV channels and other business across the globe were scrambling to deal with one of the biggest IT crashes in recent years on Friday, apparently caused by an update to an antivirus program. Major US air airlines initially grounded all flights over a communication issue — though American Airlines later said it had reinstated its flights. Airports across the world said check-in systems were […]

Sacked hotel worker arrested over killings of two Australians, Filipina

MANILA, July 17, 2024 (AFP) – A disgruntled former hotel employee has been arrested over the killings of two Australians and a Filipina in the Philipines, a government official and police said Wednesday. The bodies of a man and two women were found in a hotel room in Tagaytay city, south of Manila, on July 10, with their hands and feet bound and packaging tape over their mouths. The suspect was identified from CCTV footage […]

UN says world population to peak at 10.3 billion in the 2080s

NEW YORK (AFP) – Earth’s population will peak in the mid-2080s at around 10.3 billion people, then drop slightly to a level much lower than anticipated a decade ago, the United Nations said. The current population of 8.2 billion people will rise to that maximum over the next 60 years, then dip to 10.2 billion by the end of the century, says a report released Thursday entitled “World Population Prospects 2024.” It said the size […]

Australia pushes Solomons to rely on Pacific nations for security

SYDNEY, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – Australia urged Solomon Islands to rely on fellow Pacific nations for security assistance Wednesday during a visit by China-friendly Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele. The Solomons leader was visiting Australia as part of a three-nation tour that will also take him to China and Japan. It is Manele’s first official international trip since he replaced enthusiastic Beijing supporter Manasseh Sogavare as prime minister in May. Sogavare switched diplomatic recognition from […]

WikiLeaks founder Assange freed in US plea deal

By Andrew McKirdy and Harumi Ozawa SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – A US judge freed Julian Assange on Wednesday in a plea deal that ended years of legal drama for the WikiLeaks founder, long wanted by Washington for revealing military secrets. “With this pronouncement, it appears that you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” said the judge in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, […]

Chinese Premier Li targets clean energy in Australia visit

SYDNEY, June 18, 2024 (AFP) – Premier Li Qiang toured a Chinese-controlled lithium refiner in Perth on Tuesday, a sign of his country’s vast appetite for Australian “critical minerals” required for clean energy technologies. Li ended his four-day visit to Australia with a tour of the low-carbon energy industry in resource-rich Western Australia. His first stop was Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia, a 51-percent Chinese-owned venture comprising a mine for hard rock lithium ore, and a […]

Australian economy shows ‘weak’ growth

SYDNEY, June 5, 2024 (AFP) – Australia’s resource-rich economy posted anaemic growth in the first quarter, official data showed Wednesday, deepening concerns about a double-whammy of low growth and still high prices. Growth slowed to 0.1 percent in the quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported, using seasonally adjusted data. The economy had grown 0.3 percent in the last quarter of 2023. Economists predict tepid growth — coupled with still-high inflation — will tie the […]

High likelihood’ of more landslides at Papua New Guinea disaster site: govt report

PORT MORESBY, June 4, 2024 (AFP) – Papua New Guinea authorities have warned there is a high risk of more landslides at the site of a recent deadly disaster, with government experts demanding the area be evacuated and declared a “no-go-zone”. A draft internal report by Papua New Guinea’s mining and geohazards department, obtained by AFP on Tuesday, warns that the highland community where hundreds are feared to have died on May 24 needs to […]

Aid reaches Papua New Guinea landslide site

PORT MORESBY, May 29, 2024 (AFP) – Supplies of food and medicine were beginning to arrive at the scene of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea Wednesday, with aid workers discovering children rendered mute by the shock of the disaster. Papua New Guinea’s government estimates that 2,000 people may be buried underneath a massive landslide that struck a thriving highland settlement in Enga province in the early hours of May 24. After days of […]

Papua New Guinea faces new devastating landslide; evacuation underway for 7,900

PORT MORESBY, May 28, 2024 (AFP) – Papua New Guinea moved to evacuate an estimated 7,900 people from remote villages near the site of a deadly landslide on Tuesday, as authorities warned of further slips. Some 2,000 people are already feared buried in a landslide that destroyed a remote highland community in the early hours of May 24. With rescue and relief efforts hampered by the remote location, a severed road link, heavy rainfall and […]

Magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes near Tonga: USGS

WELLINGTON, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake rattled the Pacific nation of Tonga on Monday, the United States Geological Survey said, but there was no threat of a tsunami. The quake struck at 9:47 am local time from a depth of about 112 kilometres (69 miles), according to the USGS, and was centred in a patch of ocean about 198 kilometres (123 miles) north of Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa. There were no immediate […]

UN raises Papua New Guinea landslide death toll estimate to 670

PORT MORESBY, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – More than 670 people are believed to have died after a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea, a UN official told AFP on Sunday as aid workers and villagers braved perilous conditions in their desperate search for survivors. “There are an estimated 150-plus houses now buried” said UN migration agency official Serhan Aktoprak, adding that “670-plus people are assumed dead”. “The situation is terrible with the land still […]