Tag: Australia

Australia ramps up measles warnings as cases jump

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Monday launched a major education campaign to encourage its residents, particularly those traveling overseas, to get vaccinated against measles as a sudden spike in cases amid a global resurgence causes alarm. Measles — an airborne infection causing fever, coughing and rashes that can be deadly in rare cases — was declared officially eliminated from Australia by the World Health Organisation in 2014. In developed nations including Australia however, the […]

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Social media bosses face jail under ‘world first’ Australian laws

by Andrew Beatty Agence France Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Social media executives risk jail for failing to take down violent extremist content quickly, under controversial laws passed in Australia Thursday — a “world first” in the wake of the Christchurch mosques massacre. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of the laws, which hold firms like Facebook and YouTube — and their executives — responsible for removing “abhorrent material” quickly. The companies face fines approaching billions […]

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Lights out around the globe for Earth Hour environmental campaign

By Agence France Presse The Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House and even the ancient Acropolis in Athens were plunged into darkness for an hour Saturday as part of a global campaign to raise awareness about climate change and its impact on the planet’s vanishing plant and animal life. The 13th edition of Earth Hour, organised by green group WWF, saw millions of people across 180 countries turn off their lights at 8:30 pm to […]

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Lights out in Sydney for Earth Hour conservation campaign

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge were plunged into darkness for an hour Saturday to raise awareness about climate change and its impact on the planet’s vanishing biodiversity. The 12th edition of Earth Hour, organised by the green group WWF, will see millions of people across 180 countries turn off their lights at 8:30 pm local time to highlight energy use and the need for conservation. “We are […]

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Boulder-sized sunfish washes ashore in Australia

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A boulder-sized fish of a kind known to “sink yachts” has washed up on an Australian beach. The 1.8 metre (six feet) specimen — believed to be a Mola Mola, or ocean sunfish — came ashore near the mouth of the Murray River in South Australia at the weekend. The enormous creature is distinct for both its size and peculiar shape featuring a flattened body and fins. The fish can […]

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SWS: Filipinos’ net trust “very good” for US, “neutral” for China

Net trust for Australia, Japan “good” (Eagle News)—Net trust for the United States remained “very good” among Filipinos, while that for China was at neutral, and for Australia and Japan “good,”  a recent Social Weather Stations survey found. The Fourth Quarter 2018 Social Weather Survey said the +60 net trust rating for the US in December 2018 translated to 71% with much trust and 11% with little trust in the country, hardly moving from the +59 […]

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Australian priest charged with sex abuse of boy: police

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian police said on Wednesday they had charged a Catholic priest with indecent assault of a 15-year-old boy more than two decades ago, the latest member of the clergy caught in the church’s global sex-abuse scandal. The announcement comes a week after disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell was sentenced in Melbourne to six years in prison for the sexual abuse of two choirboys. Police said the 61-year-old man, whose identity was […]

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Australian PM pushes G20 to tackle internet extremism

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called on world leaders to press technology firms to tackle the “ungoverned” space of extremist internet content in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack. In a letter published Tuesday, the Australian leader asked the G20 summit host, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, that the issue be raised when leaders gather in Osaka this June. Morrison is in the middle of a tough re-election campaign, […]

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Remote Cape with ‘world’s cleanest air’ offers smog respite

by Andrew BEATTY CAPE GRIM, Australia (AFP) — As much of Asia wheezes, coughs and sniffles its way through another smog season, one isolated and windswept corner of Australia is serving as the global standard for clean air. With panoramic views of swaying tussock grass and the vast crystalline expanse of the Southern Ocean, Tasmania’s beautiful Cape Grim peninsula is an unlikely reference point for the scientific world. But since 1976, this wild and blustery […]

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Australia takes precautions after national carries out NZ mosque massacre

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The gunman who killed 40 worshippers in two New Zealand mosques on Friday was a right-wing “terrorist” with Australian citizenship, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. “We stand here and condemn absolutely the attack that occurred today by an extremist, right-wing, violent terrorist,” Morrison told a press conference. He confirmed media reports that the gunman who mowed down worshippers in two mosques in the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch was […]

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Judge says disgraced Australian cardinal Pell may die in prison

  MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell “may not live to be released from prison”, the judge warned a Melbourne court Wednesday as the sentencing of the 77-year-old for child sex crimes began. Pell, the most senior Catholic clergyman ever found guilty of child sex abuse, faces a maximum 50 years in prison for assaulting two choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral in 1996-97. The Australian cleric has been in custody since late […]

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Australia, Singapore ban Boeing 737 MAX jets, more airlines ground plane

by Sam Reeves Agence France Presse SINGAPORE (AFP) — Australia and Singapore on Tuesday banned Boeing 737 MAX planes from their airspace and airlines around the world grounded the jets following a second deadly accident in just five months. On Sunday a new Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 went down minutes into a flight to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board. It came after a Lion Air jet of the same model crashed in […]

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