Australia and Oceania

Asian TPP nations pledge to salvage trade accord

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) — Asian TPP nations announced on Tuesday (January 24) they were looking for ways to save the multi-country trade pact in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull his country out of it. Fulfilling a campaign pledge Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office on Monday (January 23) pulling the United States out of the 2015 TPP agreement and distancing the United States from its Asian allies. […]

7.9 quake shakes PNG, tsunami alert rescinded

    SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A major 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guinea Sunday, but a tsunami alert intially issued for the Pacific island nation and its neighbours was later cancelled. The tremor struck 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Panguna on Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville island at a depth of 153 kilometres at 3:30 pm local time (0430 GMT), the US Geological Survey said. Its preliminary assessment added that light to moderate damage […]

Strong quake hits off Solomon Islands

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Friday off the Solomon Islands, the US Geological Survey said, in the same region where several large tremors struck last month. The quake struck at 10:04 am local time (2304 GMT) at a depth of 33 kilometres (20 miles) some 70 kilometres west of Kirakira, the USGS said. No tsunami warning was issued. Three strong tremors were felt off Kirakira in December, although there were no reports […]

Australia on the defensive offers hope of new MH370 hunt

MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s transport minister Wednesday defended the suspension of the undersea search for MH370, after relatives of passengers slammed the decision, and added that it could resume if “credible new evidence” emerges. Australia, Malaysia and China — where most of the 239 on board the missing Malaysia Airlines jet lived — on Tuesday pulled the plug on the massive operation in the southern Indian Ocean almost three years since the plane vanished on March […]

Japan’s Abe pushes Pacific trade deal in Australia

Sydney, Australia (AFP)  — Japan and Australia will work together to ensure the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal comes into force, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday, making no mention of strong US opposition. After talks with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Abe took the lead on the trade pact covering 12 Pacific Rim nations that was ratified by Japan’s parliament last month. “We agreed that we should demonstrate anew to the world the importance of free […]

Tsunami warning after 7.2-magnitude quake off Fiji

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A shallow 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Fiji on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, triggering a local tsunami warning. The quake hit at a depth of 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) some 221 kilometers from Nadi and 283 kilometers from the Fijian capital Suva. “Hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible within 300 kilometers of the epicenter along the coasts of Fiji,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, […]

Major security operation underway in Sydney as police heighten New Year’s Eve security

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (Reuters) — A major security operation was underway in Sydney on Saturday (December 31) with more than 2000 police patrolling harbor side locations following recent counter-terrorism raids. Australian counter-terror officers arrested a 40-year-old man at Sydney Airport on Thursday (29 December) and charged him with making online threats “relating to New Year’s Eve” festivities in Sydney The arrest follows police raids across the southern city of Melbourne a week ago, which authorities said foiled […]

Australia kicks off global New Year party defying terror threat

by Barry PARKER SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Global terror attacks have cast a pall over 2016 but Australia was Saturday set to defy the threats and ring in the New Year with bumper crowds gathering to watch a firework extravaganza on Sydney’s glittering harbor. 2016 has seen repeated bloodshed, most recently a deadly truck attack at a Berlin Christmas market, a similar incident on Bastille Day in France that killed 86, and atrocities in Turkey […]

Australian police charge man over New Year threats

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) –Australian counter-terror officers arrested a 40-year-old man at Sydney Airport, after he disembarked from a flight from London on Thursday (29 December), and charged him with making online threats “relating to New Year’s Eve” festivities in Sydney, police said on Friday (30 December). The arrest follows police raids across the southern city of Melbourne a week ago, which authorities said foiled an Islamic State-inspired plot to attack prominent sites in the city […]

Rare death from snake bite in Australian home

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A man has died a week after being bitten by one of the world’s deadliest snakes in his living room in Australia’s tropical northeast, officials said Tuesday. The 77-year-old, named in local media as David Pitt, was at his home in Cairns when he was bitten between his toes as he tried to kill the snake with a spade last Tuesday, Queensland Ambulance said. Paramedics performed CPR and gave Pitt anti-venom […]

Robot gives rare glimpse under Antarctic sea ice

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — An underwater robot has captured a rare glimpse beneath the Antarctic sea ice, revealing a colourful world filled with coconut-shaped sponges, dandelion-like worms, pink algae and spidery starfish. The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) took footage on a camera attached to a Remotely Operated Vehicle sent down by scientists through a small hole drilled in the ice as they recorded the acidity, oxygen, salinity and temperature of the seawater. “When you think […]

6.5-magnitude earthquake rattles northern Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled northern Australia and parts of Indonesia Wednesday with residents in Darwin reporting widespread shaking, but there were no immediate reports of damage. The tremor struck off the coast of eastern Indonesia, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued. “TV nearly rattled off the cabinet, two storey house was swaying around,” said Rosie McCurrach on broadcaster ABC’s Darwin Facebook page. Another poster said: “Mitchell Center […]