Tag: Australia

Flowers, cheers and tears as Australia’s border reopens

by Andrew LEESON Australia’s international border reopened on Monday almost 600 days after a pandemic closure began, sparking emotional scenes at Sydney airport as loved ones reunited. Shortly after dawn, bleary-eyed passengers began to trickle into the arrivals terminal at Kingsford Smith International and were quickly wrapped up in the tearful embraces of flower-clutching relatives. On March 20 last year, Australia introduced some of the world’s toughest border restrictions in response to the coronavirus pandemic. […]

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Australia approves vaccine booster shots for adults

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Wednesday authorized booster shots of Covid-19 vaccines for over-18s, with the third dose expected to be offered to the entire population from next month. The Therapeutic Goods Administration regulatory authority said it had granted provisional approval for one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be given as a booster shot to adults. “The provisional approval means that individuals aged 18 years and older may receive a booster (third dose), […]

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Australia sets $1 million reward for missing four-year-old

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian authorities on Thursday offered Aus$1 million (US$750,000) for information leading to the discovery of a missing four-year-old girl feared abducted from a remote campsite last weekend. Cleo Smith disappeared from her family’s tent in Western Australia during the early hours of Saturday, sparking an extensive air, sea and ground search. But after six days of fruitlessly combing in the area surrounding the Blowholes campsite — a coastal tourist spot about […]

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Melbourne eases months-long Covid lockdown restrictions

MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — One of the world’s most locked-down cities will reopen late Thursday, with Melbourne residents hoping this sixth bout of stay-at-home restrictions will be their last. Five million people in Australia’s second-biggest city have endured lockdowns totalling more than 260 days since the beginning of the pandemic. But now that 70 percent of eligible people in Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state are fully vaccinated, restrictions that began on August 5 will be […]

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Rio Tinto says to ‘halve’ emissions by 2030

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Australia-based mining giant Rio Tinto on Wednesday announced plans to cut direct carbon emissions 50 percent by 2030, ramping up previous targets as the firm tries to green its highly polluting operations. Rio Tinto said it would spend around $7.5 billion from now until the end of the decade to cut so-called scope one and two emissions — from mining operations and power consumption. “Governments are setting more ambitious targets and […]

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Grapefruit-sized hailstones hit Australian town

BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — A tropical north Australian town has been pounded by “record-breaking” hailstones the size of mangoes or grapefruit, with some shattering car windscreens. The giant hailstones measured more than 16 centimetres (six inches) in diameter, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said Wednesday. They hit Yalboroo when a storm swept through the small town about 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) north of Brisbane late Tuesday. Social media images showed the icy monsters spilling out of […]

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Australia’s PM drops threat to skip UN climate summit

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Australia’s prime minister on Friday withdrew a threat to skip next month’s landmark UN climate summit, describing the meeting as “an important event”. “I confirmed my attendance at the Glasgow Summit, which I’m looking forward to attending,” Scott Morrison told journalists. Under mounting pressure to adopt more ambitious climate targets, the conservative leader had suggested he would not join other heads of government in Scotland’s largest city. His comments angered climate […]

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Sydney to scrap quarantine, readies to welcome overseas visitors

by Andrew BEATTY SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Sydney will scrap all quarantine requirements for travellers from next month, officials said Friday, an abrupt step toward reopening Australia’s long-shuttered borders. In a surprise announcement, Premier Dominic Perrottet of New South Wales said that from November 1 vaccinated travellers would be allowed to enter the state without quarantine of any kind. “For double vaccinated people around the world, Sydney, New South Wales, is open for business,” Perrottet […]

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Sydney lockdown ends after 106 days

by Andrew BEATTY SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Elated Sydneysiders were emerging from almost four months of “blood, sweat and no beers” early Monday as a long coronavirus lockdown was lifted in Australia’s largest city. Sydney’s more than five million residents have been subjected to a 106-day lockdown, designed to limit the march of the highly transmissible Delta variant. With new infections now falling — New South Wales state recorded 477 cases on Sunday — and […]

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Sydney readies for ‘freedom day’ after long virus lockdown

by Andrew BEATTY SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s largest city will emerge from a 106-day lockdown on Monday, as Sydney authorities confirmed coronavirus vaccination targets had been met. Stay-at-home orders will be lifted for the Harbour City’s five-million-plus people now that 70 percent of state residents over 16 have been double jabbed. “The light at the end of the tunnel is now very, very close,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday, hailing the reopening announcement. […]

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Australian firm recalls US Covid tests over false positives

  BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — Australian medical tech manufacturer Ellume said it had recalled almost 200,000 at-home Covid-19 tests in the United States over an increased chance of false positives. Ellume’s rapid at-home coronavirus test last year became the first to receive emergency use authorisation in the US. The US Food and Drug Administration issued an alert Tuesday over the “potential for false positive results with certain lots of the Ellume COVID-19 Home Test, due […]

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Global warming kills 14 percent of world’s corals in a decade

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Dynamite fishing and pollution — but mostly global warming — wiped out 14 percent of the world’s coral reefs from 2009 to 2018, leaving graveyards of bleached skeletons where vibrant ecosystems once thrived, according to the largest ever survey of coral health. Hardest hit were corals in South Asia and the Pacific, around the Arabian Peninsula, and off the coast of Australia, more than 300 scientists […]

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