Tag: Australia

Australia exits first recession in almost 30 years

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia has exited its first recession in almost 30 years, after official figures on Wednesday showed the economy grew 3.3 percent in July-September compared with the coronavirus-hit previous quarter. With local transmission of Covid-19 largely under control, official data showed businesses have begun to rebound and consumer spending has surged. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said household spending largely drove the economic bounce, rising 7.9 percent compared with the previous quarter. […]

Continue Reading →

Australia’s former NBA championship winner Andrew Bogut retires

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — NBA championship-winning centre Andrew Bogut announced his immediate retirement from basketball Tuesday after a 15-year career. The 36-year-old Australian, who was the NBA’s top draft pick in 2005 for the Milwaukee Bucks, said the coronavirus shutdown had given him the time to reflect on his future. “The decision hasn’t been an easy one, but I think its the right decision,” he said on his podcast ‘Rogue Bogues’. “I’ll be retiring from […]

Continue Reading →

Laser-guided lightning may help prevent wildfires

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Small, portable laser pointers could be used to guide lightning strikes, with a study suggesting the technology may prevent bolts from sparking wildfires, a researcher told AFP Thursday. A team of international scientists have shown storm clouds could be “short-circuited” by using a hollow laser — like a pipe of light —  to deliver particles into the clouds and draw lightning strikes, research co-author Professor Andrey Miroshnichenko from the University of […]

Continue Reading →

Czechs launch border checks after Vienna attack: police

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) — Czech police said they had started random checks on the country’s border with Austria following Monday’s attack near a Vienna synagogue that had left at least two dead and several injured. “Police are carrying out random checks of vehicles and passengers on border crossings with Austria as a preventive measure in relation to the terror attack in Vienna,” Czech police tweeted. Police added they had stepped up “supervision over major […]

Continue Reading →

Australia records zero new community Covid cases

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia reported zero new locally transmitted coronavirus cases Sunday, the country’s health minister announced, sparking celebrations online of the first “national donut” since June. Health Minister Greg Hunt said he received advice from the National Incident Centre that no cases were detected in the community in the 24 hours to 8:00 pm Saturday. The country last reached the milestone nearly five months ago on June 9, before a second-wave outbreak in […]

Continue Reading →

Last major Aussie bank ditches coal, in fresh blow to sector

by Andrew BEATTY / with Holly Robertson in Brisbane Agence France-Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s ANZ became the country’s last major bank to walk away from thermal coal investments Thursday, delivering a fresh blow to a sector facing export market upheaval and widespread public hostility. The bank said that from 2030 it would no longer finance thermal coal mines or coal-fired power stations, joining Australia’s other “big four” banks who have already made similar […]

Continue Reading →

Women on 10 flights from Qatar invasively examined: Australia

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Female passengers on 10 planes flying out of Doha were forced to endure invasive physical examinations, Australia’s foreign minister said Wednesday, greatly expanding the number of women previously thought affected. It was revealed on Sunday that women were removed from a Sydney-bound Qatar Airways flight in Doha earlier this month and forced to undergo vaginal inspections after a newborn baby was found abandoned in an airport bathroom. Australian Foreign Minister […]

Continue Reading →

Australia’s second-wave epicentre records zero new virus cases

MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Australian health officials on Monday reported no new coronavirus cases or deaths in Victoria state, which has spent months under onerous restrictions after becoming the epicentre of the country’s second wave. It was the first 24-hour period without any new Covid-19 cases reported in the state since the five million residents of Melbourne were locked down after security bungles at quarantine hotels housing returned international travellers sparked a major outbreak in […]

Continue Reading →

Australia’s second-biggest city eases lockdown as virus cases fall

  MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Lockdown restrictions in Australia’s second-biggest city were eased slightly Sunday following a steady decline in new coronavirus cases, but officials stopped short of ending a controversial “stay-at-home” rule. More than 100 days after the lockdown was imposed on Melbourne’s five million residents to fight an out-of-control surge of Covid-19 cases, authorities said that as of midnight they were lifting a two-hour limit on the time people could spend outside their […]

Continue Reading →

Australia’s unemployment rate ticks up to 6.9%

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 6.9 percent in September, as the coronavirus kept the brakes on hopes of a speedy economic recovery. The country’s statistical agency said Thursday that unemployment grew 0.1 percent from 6.8 percent in August, with around 20,000 more people leaving the workforce entirely. Australia — with a population of 25 million — is experiencing its first recession in almost 30 years. The latest unemployment figures were […]

Continue Reading →

Coronavirus ‘can survive for 28 days on surfaces’: study

by Holly ROBERTSON Agence France-Presse BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 can survive on items such as banknotes and phones for up to 28 days in cool, dark conditions, according to a study by Australia’s national science agency. Researchers at CSIRO’s disease preparedness centre tested the longevity of SARS-CoV-2 in the dark at three temperatures, showing survival rates decreased as conditions became hotter, the agency said Monday. The scientists found that at 20 […]

Continue Reading →

14 million tons of microplastics on sea floor: Australian study

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The world’s sea floor is littered with an estimated 14 million tons of microplastics, broken down from the masses of rubbish entering the oceans every year, according to Australia’s national science agency. The quantity of the tiny pollutants was 25 times greater than previous localised studies had shown, the agency said, calling it the first global estimate of sea-floor microplastics. Researchers at the agency, known as CSIRO, used a robotic […]

Continue Reading →
1 … 29 30 31 32 33 … 79