Tag: Australia

Heat records topple across sweltering Asia

BANGKOK, Sept 1, 2023 (AFP) – Temperature records are being toppled across Asia, from India’s summer to Australia’s winter, authorities said Friday, in fresh evidence of the impact of climate change. The sweltering temperatures match longstanding warnings from climate scientists and come as countries from Greece to Canada battle record heat and deadly wildfires. In India, the world’s most populous country, officials said this August was the hottest and driest since national records began more […]

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Australian doctors find live parasitic worm in woman’s brain

SYDNEY, Aug 29, 2023 (AFP) – A parasitic roundworm typically found in snakes was pulled “alive and wriggling” from a woman’s brain in a stomach-churning medical first, Australian doctors said Tuesday. Baffled doctors performed an MRI scan on the 64-year-old Australian woman after she began suffering memory lapses, noticing an “atypical lesion” at the front of her brain. It was an eight-centimetre (three-inch) roundworm, called Ophidascaris robertsi, which researchers said was a common parasite in […]

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All 23 US marines accounted for after deadly Australia crash

DARWIN, Australia, Aug 28, 2023 (AFP) – All 23 US marines on board a military aircraft that crashed in northern Australia have been accounted for, police said Monday, as investigators worked to uncover the cause of an accident that left three dead and five seriously injured. The Boeing MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed on Melville Island, north of Darwin, on Sunday morning during a routine military exercise for locally based troops. Authorities confirmed to AFP […]

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Australian charged with making fake bomb threat on plane

SYDNEY, Aug 14, 2023 (AFP) – An Australian man was charged Tuesday with making a fake bomb threat on a flight to Malaysia, terrifying passengers and causing havoc in the country’s airspace. The Malaysia Airlines flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur was forced to turn back Monday afternoon when the agitated man started claiming he had “explosives” in his backpack, police said. Police said the 45-year-old, who was arrested after the plane returned to Sydney, […]

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Bright flashes over Australia likely Russian rocket: space agency

https://youtu.be/PGDFGieOuGI   SYDNEY, Aug 8, 2023 (AFP) – Flashes of light seen across the sky over south-eastern Australia on Monday night were likely to have been remnants of a Russian rocket, the country’s space agency said. The dazzling display was spotted over the southern states of Victoria and Tasmania, captivating stargazers who thought it might be a meteor. But the Australian Space Agency said it was more likely to have been a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket […]

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No hope of survivors from downed Australian military helicopter: govt

SYDNEY, July 31, 2023 (AFP) – Authorities have lost hope of finding survivors after a military helicopter plunged into the sea during war games over the weekend, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said Monday. Rescuers initially clung to slim hopes they would find the four crew members alive, but those were dashed after the discovery of “significant wreckage” from the aircraft, Marles said. The chopper had been taking part in the large-scale Talisman Sabre exercise, […]

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Blinken, Austin visit Australia on last leg of Pacific blitz

BRISBANE, Australia, July 28, 2023 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin visited Australia Friday on the final leg of a Pacific tour designed to reinforce Washington’s standing in the region. The United States has been ramping up efforts to re-engage in the South Pacific, where China has emerged as a rising diplomatic and military power. Blinken’s trip to Brisbane caps a diplomatic blitz in which he has also […]

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Entire pod of 97 pilot whales dies in Australia beaching

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Nearly 100 pilot whales have died after beaching in Western Australia, wildlife officials said Thursday, following desperate rescue attempts. The pod of 97 long-finned pilot whales gathered in shallow water off Cheynes Beach, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Perth, on Tuesday, with scores stranding themselves on the sand. By the next morning, 51 of the cetaceans had died. Some 250 volunteers joined 100 wildlife experts in a vain struggle […]

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51 whales dead after beaching in Western Australia

    SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Dozens of pilot whales have died just hours after stranding themselves on a beach in Western Australia, authorities said Wednesday. The 51 long-finned pilot whales were among a pod of almost 100 spotted off Cheynes Beach near Albany, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Perth on Tuesday. The state’s Parks and Wildlife Service said it was working with volunteers to try to save the remaining 46 whales, with […]

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Australia fears China’s latest Pacific deal could stoke tensions

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia has urged China to release the details of a new policing pact with Solomon Islands, saying Beijing’s latest push for influence threatens to inflame tensions in the South Pacific. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare inked a raft of deals during a trip to Beijing this week, including an agreement allowing China to maintain a police presence in the developing Pacific nation until 2025. China has lavished attention on Solomon […]

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One dead in ‘gang’ shooting in Sydney’s Bondi neighborhood

SYDNEY, June 27, 2023 (AFP) — A man was killed in Sydney’s famed Bondi neighborhood Tuesday, in what police described as a hit on a “major player” in the city’s crime underworld. A police cordon was thrown up around one of Sydney’s busiest shopping precincts after residents and rush hour commuters were shocked to hear shots ring out from an underground parking lot not far from Bondi Beach. A 48-year-old man with an “extensive criminal […]

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