Australia & Pacifics

SYDNEY, Apr 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – An Australian man is sentenced to 15 years jail, over his involvement in a multi-million dollar shipment of methamphetamine in 2016, Australian Federal Police said today.

The drugs arrived in the country, concealed within a shipping container of timber — all up weighing 45.6 kilograms and carrying an estimated street value of 26.4 million Australian dollars (16.9 million U.S. dollars).

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) plane carrying aid to cyclone-struck Vanuatu turned around and returned home on Sunday as a Chinese plane with medical equipment was already on the airport’s tarmac, Vanuatu airport officials said.

The decision to return to Australia, some 2,000 km (1,240 miles) away was made despite being cleared by air traffic control to land and comes amid increasing rivalry between Australia’s and China’s aid programmes in the Pacific.

11 April 2020; AFP: More than 100 Australians and New Zealanders left Uruguay on a chartered flight after two weeks stranded aboard a virus-infected cruise ship, Montevideo's Carrasco airport said Saturday.

Of 217 people aboard the Greg Mortimer liner, 128 had tested positive for new coronavirus and had been blocked from docking.

Melbourne, Apr 11 (PTI) Hundreds of health workers in the state of South Australia will undergo a clinical trial to test whether an established tuberculosis vaccine can be used to reduce the severity of the novel coronavirus symptoms by providing a boost to the immune system.

According to the ABC science news, the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) has been researching the effects of the vaccine known as the Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine (BCG), for some time.

SYDNEY, Apr 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Passengers of a cruise ship, hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, were allowed to disembark at Australia’s harbour city, despite informing authorities there were 13 people sick on board.

The vessel, Ovation of the Seas, told federal authorities about its ill passengers, including three suffering high temperatures, before docking at Sydney’s Circular Quay, on Mar 18, the Seven News channel reported.

7 April 2020; AFP: A deadly cyclone destroyed much of Vanuatu's second-largest town but early warnings appeared to have prevented mass casualties in the Pacific nation, with some residents sheltered in caves to stay safe, aid workers said Tuesday.

Tropical Cyclone Harold, which claimed 27 lives when it swept through the Solomon Islands last week, lashed Vanuatu's northern provinces overnight as a scale-topping category five superstorm.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia’s central bank kept rates at record lows on Tuesday and pledged to keep three-year government bond yields at its 0.25% target as it predicted the coronavirus pandemic would trigger a massive economic decline.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on March 19 announced an out-of-cycle rate cut to 0.25% together with an unprecedented stimulus package, which included an unlimited quantitative easing programme.

SYDNEY, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities launched a criminal investigation Sunday into a COVID-19 infected cruise ship which was allowed to dock in Sydney before releasing thousands of passengers directly into the community.

Since the Ruby Princess berthed at Circular Quay on March 19, more than 600 confirmed cases of the virus have been linked to the ship, and 11 of them have subsequently died -- accounting for roughly 30 percent of Australia's national death toll.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Cardinal George Pell welcomed Australia’s highest court clearing him of child sex crimes Tuesday and said his trial had not been a referendum on the Catholic Church’s handling of the clergy abuse crisis.

Pope Francis’ former finance minister Pell had been the most senior Catholic found guilty of sexually abusing children and has spent 13 months in high-security prisons before seven High Court judges unanimously dismissed his convictions.

5 April 2020; AFP: Australian police on Sunday launched a criminal investigation after thousands of passengers were allowed to disembark a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in Sydney and 10 later died of the illness.

The government last month allowed 2,700 passengers to walk off the Carnival Australia-owned Ruby Princess and travel to their homes around the country -- despite a ban on cruise ships docking in Australia being announced just days earlier.