Australia & Pacifics

SUVA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Samoa's Supreme Court on Sunday overturned the decision made by the Head of State Tuimalealiifano Sualauvi Vaaletoa II to suspend the parliament's scheduled sitting on Monday.

According to Samoa's English daily the Samoa Observer, after an urgent meeting attended by Chief Justice Satiu Simativa Perese, Justice Vui Clarence Nelson and Justice Tafaoimalo Leilani Tuala-Warren, the Supreme Court ruled that the head of state's decision on Saturday night is "unlawful."

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Authorities said Friday they feared for the lives of five people who leapt from their fishing boat near Fiji earlier this week after alleged violence on board.

A sixth crew member who abandoned the vessel was found alive Thursday on an overturned life raft, while two more people who had remained aboard the fishing boat were due to be picked up by a military patrol boat.

The Fiji navy said it was working with police to sort through the series of events that had occurred aboard the Tiro II, a longline tuna boat.

(Reuters) --- Australia is sticking to plans to start re-opening to the rest of the world only from the middle of next year, officials said on Sunday, resisting mounting pressure to end the closure of international borders.

In March 2020, Australia closed its borders to non-nationals and non-residents and has since been allowing only limited international arrivals, mainly citizens returning from abroad.

(Reuters) --- Australia carried out its first repatriation flight from India after temporarily banning all travel from the COVID-ravaged country last month, the government said, with 80 passengers arriving in Darwin on Saturday from New Delhi.

Passengers had to show two negative COVID-19 tests before boarding the government-backed Qantas (QAN.AX) flight and were taken upon arrival to a converted mining camp in Howard Springs in the Northern Territory for a two-week quarantine.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Two years after a white supremacist in New Zealand livestreamed the slaughter of 51 Muslim worshippers on Facebook, French President Emmanuel Macron says the internet continues to be be used by terrorists as a weapon to propagate hate.

Macron and other leaders from tech giants and governments around the world — including the U.S. for the first time — gathered virtually on Saturday to find better ways to stop extremist violence from spreading online, while also respecting freedom of expression.

Delhi; 14 May 2021 (UMMN): Out of 150 Australians booked on evacuation flight from India, over 40 have been found Covid-19 positive, and another 30 deemed as close contacts. Northern Territory Health officials confirmed that these pasengers could no longer fly back home.

Australian government’s India travel ban expires at midnight on Friday and the flight was due to leave New Delhi on Friday night and arrive in Darwin on Saturday morning.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Some wealthy nations that were most praised last year for controlling the coronavirus are now lagging far behind in getting their people vaccinated — and some, especially in Asia, are seeing COVID-19 cases grow.

In Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, the vaccination rates are languishing in the single figures. That is in sharp contrast to the U.S., where nearly half of all people have gotten at least one shot, and Britain and Israel, where rates are even higher.

12 May 2021; MEMO: The Australian government has informed Israel's largest private arms company, Elbit Systems, that its military will stop using its Battle Management System (BMS) from mid-June.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A Chinese-born political adviser on Wednesday lost his challenge in Australia’s highest court against laws banning covert foreign interference in domestic politics.

John Shi Sheng Zhang also lost his High Court challenge in a unanimous decision of seven judges to the validity of search warrants executed by police at his Sydney home and offices last year as part of an investigation into illegal foreign interference on behalf of China.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government released a big-spending economic plan for the next fiscal year on Tuesday that includes hefty investments in defense and national security as relations with China worsen.

The government plans to spend 270 billion Australian dollars ($212 billion) over the next decade on upgrading defense capabilities to “promote an open and peaceful Indo-Pacific,” Treasury Department documents say.