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SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s biggest supermarket on Wednesday announced a limit on toilet paper purchases after the global spread of coronavirus sparked a spate of panic buying Down Under. Woolworths said the restriction of four packs of toilet paper per person would apply “to ensure more customers have access to the products”. Hand sanitizers will also be sold from behind the service counter and restricted to two per person. “It will help shore up […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian scientists are developing the country’s first satellite designed to predict where bushfires are likely to start, following months of devastating fires. The Australian National University said Wednesday a team is creating a “shoebox-sized” satellite that will measure forest ground cover and moisture levels using infrared detectors. It is hoped the data will help determine where bushfires are likely to start and where they may be difficult to contain. The technology […]
by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Climate change and sea-level rise are currently on track to wipe out half the world’s sandy beaches by 2100, researchers warned Monday. Even if humanity sharply reduces the fossil fuel pollution that drives global warming, more than a third of the planet’s sandy shorelines could disappear by then, crippling coastal tourism in countries large and small, they reported in the journal Nature Climate Change. “Apart from tourism, sandy […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian summers are lengthening by a month or more while winters are getting shorter due to climate change, according to an analysis by a leading think tank released Monday. The Australia Institute said large swathes of the country were experiencing an additional 31 days of summer temperatures each year compared to the 1950s. While Sydney was just under the average with an extra 28 hot days a year, Melbourne added 38 warmer […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Two Australians evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for coronavirus on their return home, despite being cleared in Japan, authorities said Friday. “We have two people who are positive for the COVID-19 virus. Those two people have mild illness,” said Dianne Stephens, acting chief health officer for the Northern Territories. Health officials in Canberra told AFP all 164 Australians who returned home earlier this week “were tested […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — An ex-rugby league player is suspected of killing his three children and estranged wife by setting fire to their car, in what Australian police described as one of the most horrific incidents they have encountered. Police said a 31-year-old woman, named by local media as Hannah Baxter, died in a Brisbane hospital on Wednesday just hours after her three children aged three, four and six were found dead in the burned […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Three in four Australians — almost 18 million people — were affected by the country’s deadly bushfire crisis, according to a survey released Tuesday that also pointed to plummeting support for the government and for coal projects. The Australian National University study showed the vast human scale of the five-month crisis, which killed more than 30 people and destroyed thousands of homes. “Nearly every Australian has been touched by these fires […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Heavy rain has given hope to Australia’s drought-stricken regions, but scientists warned Tuesday sustained falls were needed to end a years-long dry spell. Stormy weather has brought days of chaos and destruction in the country’s east, with one man missing after his car was swept off a road in Sydney’s north and hundreds more rescued from floodwaters. In the small town of Stanthorpe, Queensland, Tracy Dobie said the rain had been […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Tropical cyclone Damien lashed Australia’s northwestern resource-rich region of Pilbara on Saturday as locals heeded a code red emergency warning and hunkered down indoors. The category three storm brought winds of 150 kilometres per hour (93 miles per hour) that were expected to strengthen to gusts of 220 kph as the cyclone further advanced toward the coast. The Bureau of Meteorology said Damien had brought “very destructive winds” and “very […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The Australian government on Saturday said it would bar non-citizens arriving from mainland China from entering the country under new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said only “Australian citizens, Australian residents, dependents, legal guardians or spouses” would be permitted into the country from mainland China from Saturday. “The arrangements are being put in place through our border authorities to ensure that that […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Authorities in Canberra on Friday declared the first state of emergency in almost two decades as a bushfire bore down on the Australian capital. Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory Andrew Barr said the measure was “effective now and will be in place for as long as Canberra is at risk”. The measures come ahead of heatwave conditions expected over the coming days and as forecasts predicted fires could hit […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia was bracing for a heatwave to sweep across the country’s fire-ravaged southeast in the coming days, with the forecast stoking fears the soaring temperatures could inflame bushfires. Temperatures reached above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday in South Australia state, where dangerous fire weather warnings were issued in several bushfire-prone areas. The heatwave is then expected to hit Melbourne and Canberra on Friday before parts of Sydney reach […]
