Australia

CANBERRA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been deployed to aid in the response to catastrophic flooding in the country's second most populated state.

Prime Minister (PM) Anthony Albanese on Sunday toured flood-affected areas in Victoria.

Hundreds of homes in the region have been impacted by floods following heavy rains, with waters expected to continue rising.

SYDNEY, Oct 14 (NNN-AAP) – Residents of multiple communities, in the Australian state of Victoria, received evacuation warnings today, due to flood emergencies.

Currently, there are more than 90 warnings issued across the state, including over 10 evacuation orders. Residents in some regions along rivers or creeks, are warned to avoid the riverine flood and move to higher ground immediately.

Sydney; 7 Oct 2022 (UMMN): A PhD student from India was stabbed multiple times to his face, chest and abdomen in Sydney’s Artamon. He was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital and underwent surgery. He remains in a serious but stable condition.

11 October 2022; MEMO: Sixteen Australian women who will be repatriated from camps in northeast Syria will be detained immediately on arrival in Australia.

The women and 42 children, who will also return to Australia, are wives and children of former Islamic State members and have been kept in camps since March 2019.

According to the WSWS, some of the women will appear in court, others will be charged with terrorism-related offences.

SYDNEY, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- With three months to spare, annual rainfall in Australia's Sydney already reached its highest level of 2,199.8 mm as of 3:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, since the Observatory Hill weather station began recording in 1858.

According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), the city's previous record was set in 1950, when a total deluge of 2,194 mm poured down for the whole year.

Canberra, Oct 4 (AP) Australia's central bank on Tuesday boosted its benchmark interest rate for a sixth consecutive month to a nine-year high of 2.6 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of Australia's increase of a quarter percentage point to the cash rate was smaller than those at recent monthly meetings.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s government released details Tuesday of a proposed corruption watchdog that was an important promise in its recent election campaign.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said he would introduce legislation to create the National Anti-Corruption Commission to Parliament on Wednesday.

The center-left Labor Party promised that creating the watchdog would be a priority before it came to power at elections in May.

CANBERRA, Sept 19 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Australian government, today, extended funding for coronavirus testing and protocols in high-risk settings.

Health and Aged Care Minister, Mark Butler, said, the federal government would spend an additional 1.4 billion Australian dollars (941 million U.S. dollars) over the next three months, on preventing the spread of COVID-19 in aged and disability care and hospitals.

Federal funding for coronavirus testing and protocols was due to end on Sept 30, but Butler said, the extension would ensure vulnerable Australians remain protected.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s prime minister on Monday defended an obscure and longstanding protocol that bars the nation’s parliament from sitting for 15 days following a British monarch’s death.

Lawmakers will reconvene on Sept. 23 to debate a condolence motion for Queen Elizabeth II, the earliest date that the protocol allows, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

07 Sep 2022; MEMO: Iran's stock of uranium enriched to up to 60 per cent, close to weapons-grade, has grown to enough, if enriched further, for a nuclear bomb, a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog showed on Wednesday, Reuters reports.