Australia

Melbourne, Oct 11 (AP/PTI) The premier of Australia's Victoria state is stepping up his fight with members of the public who don't comply with pandemic regulations, saying close contacts of those infected who refuse a test will have to spend 21 days in quarantine.

The state government has announced mandatory quarantine will be extended by 10 days for close contacts if they decide not to be tested on the 11th day of isolation. The change will come into effect at midnight Sunday.

CANBERRA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Australia's outgoing Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has been nominated as the secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday.

Cormann, who was born in Belgium, is the longest-serving finance minister in Australian history for having held the portfolio for seven years.

He announced his retirement from politics in July after 13 years as a senator.

CANBERRA, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Australia's national science agency has announced a plan to cut its carbon emissions by half in about 10 years.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) on Tuesday signed a 10-year renewable power purchase agreement with the battery company ZEN Energy, which will enable it to halve its emissions from electricity.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis’ former finance minister, will soon return to the Vatican during an extraordinary economic scandal for the first time since he was cleared of child abuse allegations in Australia five months ago, a newspaper reported Monday.

Pell will fly back to Rome on Tuesday, Herald-Sun newspaper columnist Andrew Bolt wrote. The report by a vocal champion of the cardinal did not cite a source for the cardinal’s plans.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is poised to retain power at next month’s election, a widely watched poll showed on Sunday, although it said a recent COVID-19 outbreak has dented her support slightly.

A Newshub-Reid Research Poll released on Sunday showed support for Ardern’s Labour Party at to 50.1%, though this is down from the record 60.9% recorded earlier this year when New Zealand was widely lauded as a world leader in battling COVID-19.

Support for the main opposition National Party was at 29.6%, up 4.5 percentage points.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Authorities revised up the number of pilot whales rescued from Australia’s worst mass stranding from 50 to 70 on Thursday, as the focus shifted to removing 380 carcasses from Tasmania state shallows.

The number of rescues had been estimated at 50 late Wednesday, but 20 more came to light following later discussions with rescue crews, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service Manager Nic Deka said.

Hobart (Australia), Sep 23 (AP/PTI) More pilot whales were found stranded on an Australian coast Wednesday, raising the estimated total to almost 500 in the largest mass stranding ever recorded in the country.

Authorities had already been working to rescue survivors among an estimated 270 whales found Monday on a beach and two sand bars near the remote west coast town of Strahan on the island state of Tasmania.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government on Friday announced a 5 million Australian dollars ($3.7 million) grant to the national news agency as part of pandemic-related assistance to regional journalism.

Australian Associated Press is critical to media diversity and has consistently demonstrated its commitment to accurate, fact-based and independent journalism over its 85-year history, including a strong contribution to regional news, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in a statement.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia has named China in a court document as the foreign state under investigation by police in its first foreign interference investigation, though Beijing dismissed the allegation as an anti-China smear.

Ties between Australia and its biggest trading partner have been plagued over recent years by Australian complaints of Chinese interference in its politics. China has consistently denied the accusations.

CANBERRA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt has said there is "genuine cause for hope and optimism" that a coronavirus vaccine will be available in the first half of 2021.

Hunt said on Sunday that he was "quietly becoming more hopeful and more optimistic" about the potential for a vaccine.

His comments came after pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced that stage three trials of a candidate vaccine developed by the University of Oxford have resumed.