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SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The leader of Australia’s most populous state resigned Friday amid a corruption investigation, leaving Sydneysiders — deep in months of lockdown — without a political leader. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she would leave parliament after an anti-corruption body announced an inquiry into allegations against her. “My resignation as premier could not occur at a worse time, but the timing is completely outside of my control,” Berejiklian told media […]
by Andrew BEATTY SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia will begin to reopen its borders next month, the country’s prime minister said Friday, 18 months after citizens were banned from travelling overseas without permission. Scott Morrison said vaccinated Australians would be able to return home and travel overseas “within weeks” as 80 percent vaccination targets are met. On March 20 last year Australia introduced some of the world’s toughest border restrictions in response to the coronavirus […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A tornado ploughed through a rural area west of Sydney on Thursday, damaging homes and scarring a tract of countryside. The Bureau of Meteorology said the tornado formed west of Australia’s largest city, damaging a broad area near the town of Bathurst. “There are reports of damage to houses, power lines and trees,” the bureau said. “From current reports, we have indications of damage over a 25 to 30-kilometre line, running […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Vaccinated Sydney residents will finally emerge from a lengthy Covid lockdown by mid-October, Australian officials said Monday, outlining a “blueprint for freedom” as case numbers fell in the city. Stay-at-home orders are set to be lifted in Sydney and surrounding New South Wales when the double-dose vaccination rate hits 70 percent, with state premier Gladys Berejiklian saying “quite confidently” that was now expected to occur on October 11. Shuttered pubs, restaurants […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under pressure to adopt a 2050 net-zero carbon emissions target, said in an interview published Monday that he may not join this year’s landmark UN climate summit in Glasgow. The world’s biggest coal exporter by value, and still reliant on fossil fuels for most of its electricity, Australia has not made a firm commitment on its own greenhouse gas reductions. Morrison has vowed to mine and […]
by William WEST MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — A rare quake rattled southeastern Australia early Wednesday, shaking buildings, knocking down walls and sending panicked Melbourne residents running into the streets. The shallow tremor hit east of the country’s second-largest city just after 9:00am local time (2300 GMT) and was felt hundreds of kilometres (miles) away. The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.8, later revised up to 5.9, and said it struck […]
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — A shallow quake rattled southeastern Australia early Wednesday, with reports saying people ran into the streets of the second-largest city of Melbourne after the tremor shook buildings there. The rare quake hit east of the city just after 9:00am local time (2300 GMT) and was felt hundreds of kilometres (miles) away. The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.8 and said it struck at a depth of […]
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Melbourne riot police used pepper spray, foam baton rounds and rubber ball grenades to disperse a violent protest against mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for construction workers Tuesday. More than 1,000 demonstrators wearing work boots and hi-vis jackets rampaged through the centre of Australia’s second-largest city, lighting flares, throwing bottles, attacking police cars and chanting their opposition to vaccines and lockdown restrictions. Melbourne has been in strict lockdown for seven weeks, as the […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea’s foreign ministry on Monday said a new US alliance in the Indo-Pacific and recent US submarine contract with Australia could trigger a “nuclear arms race” in the region. Last week the United States announced a new three-way security pact with Australia and Britain, as part of a strategic partnership under which US nuclear submarines will be supplied to Canberra. “These are extremely undesirable and dangerous acts which will […]
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday rejected France’s accusations Canberra lied about plans to cancel a contract to buy French submarines, saying he had raised concerns over the deal “some months ago”. Australia’s decision to tear up a deal for the French submarines in favour of American nuclear-powered vessels sparked outrage in Paris, with President Emmanuel Macron recalling France’s ambassadors to Canberra and Washington in an unprecedented move. Canberra has stood firm as […]
Australia’s second-largest city will exit its coronavirus lockdown in late October if vaccine targets are met under an official roadmap released Sunday. About five million people in Melbourne have been under stay-at-home orders since August 5, the sixth lockdown they have endured so far during the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials in Victoria state, which includes Melbourne, announced those orders would be lifted when 70 percent of over-16s are fully vaccinated. They projected that target would be […]
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Several police officers were wounded and hundreds of protesters were arrested in Australia’s second-most-populous city Saturday in violent clashes at an anti-lockdown march. Officers used pepper spray and made over 200 arrests in Melbourne as several hundred attendees flouted stay-at-home orders and marched through an inner-city suburb. The illegal gathering comes as the city goes through its sixth lockdown since the pandemic started, with the wider state of Victoria reporting […]
