Australia

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian branch of the PricewaterhouseCoopers consultancy network said Monday that nine of its partners were ordered to take leave during an inquiry into the leaking of confidential Australian tax avoidance policy changes to corporate clients who could benefit from the information.

PwC’s acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins apologized in announcing the directors are on leave pending a review of the firm’s governance, accountability and culture. A report is due in September.

SYDNEY, May 25 (Xinhua) -- A major fire has broken out at a building in the suburb of Surry Hills in central Sydney on Thursday afternoon.

Fire and Rescue New South Wales (NSW) said emergency calls were received when flames started engulfing the building just after 4:00 p.m. local time. More than 100 firefighters and over 30 fire trucks are working on the scene to contain and extinguish the blaze.

The building partially collapsed, while the inferno spread to several neighboring buildings, including residential apartments.

SYDNEY, May 24 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 scholars of the humanities, social sciences and other disciplines have signed an open letter as of Tuesday expressing their concerns over Australia's participation in the AUKUS trilateral security agreement.

CANBERRA, Australia: (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was working in the “most effective way possible” to secure the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but declined an invitation Monday to meet the Australian citizen’s wife.

Independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie asked Albanese if he would meet Assange’s wife Stella Assange, who was watching Parliament from the public gallery. Albanese said a meeting with Stella Assange wouldn’t help her 51-year-old husband who is in a London prison fighting extradition to the United States.

SYDNEY, May 20 (NNN-AAP) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1, jolted south-east of the Loyalty Islands at 01:51 GMT last night, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

According to the latest update from the USGS, the epicentre, with a depth of 36 km, was determined to be at 23.062 degrees south, latitude, and 170.456 degrees east, longitude.

CANBERRA, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities have identified a large area in the Indian Ocean where they will focus the search for a capsized Chinese fishing vessel.

A spokesperson for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) told Xinhua on Thursday that, based on drift modeling, a remote 12,000 square km zone has been identified to search for the vessel.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — China opened its doors on Thursday to Australian timber imports for the first time in more than two years, in another sign that the tattered bilateral relationship is being repaired.

Timber was on a list of Australian exports subjected to official and unofficial Chinese trade barriers imposed in 2020 after Australia called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The list that included coal, wine, barley, beef, seafood, cotton and copper was estimated to cost Australian exporters $14 billion a year.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A truck driver was charged Wednesday after seven children were hospitalized with serious injuries when he rear-ended a school bus on the outskirts of Melbourne in southeastern Australia, officials said.

The dump truck that Jamie Gleeson was driving hit the back of a school bus carrying 45 students and caused it to overturn Tuesday afternoon at an intersection in Eynesbury, a semi-rural community west of Melbourne, police said. Head injuries, arm amputations and suspected spinal injuries were reported by a hospital official.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out a so-called Quad summit taking place in Sydney without President Joe Biden, saying the four leaders will talk at the Group of Seven meeting this weekend in Japan.

Albanese said Wednesday he understands why Biden pulled out of the summit to focus on debt limit talks in Washington since they are crucial to the economy. The summit including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had been scheduled for May 24.

CANBERRA, May 16 (NNN-AAP) – Australia’s banks have joined forces to launch a new tool to prevent fraudulent transactions.

The Australian Banking Association (ABA), whose membership includes 20 of the country’s biggest banks, announced the new Fraud Reporting Exchange (FRX) platform, today.

The new real-time reporting tool will allow banks to quickly report fraudulent payments, to stop customers from losing money to scams.