Australia & Pacifics

Melbourne, Dec 21 (AP-PTI) An Australian state government leader on Monday apologised for a bungled hotel quarantine program that led to most of the nation's COVID-19 deaths.

A retired judge who investigated Victoria state's quarantine program for returned travelers criticized the use of private security guards to enforce isolation in Melbourne hotels in May and June.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A powerful cyclone that tore through Fiji late last week has caused havoc in some areas and left people without shelter and fresh water, Fiji Red Cross said on Sunday.

The death toll from Cyclone Yasa, a top category-five storm that made landfall on Thursday, rose to four, authorities said.

Aerial assessment showed that Bua province on the northern island of Vanua Levu suffered 70% damage and destruction, while the small island of Kia was completely destroyed, Fiji Red Cross Director General Ilisapeci Rokotunidau said.

SUVA, Dec 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Super cyclone Yasa flattened entire villages as it tore through Fiji, aid agencies said Friday, with one person reported dead as rescue workers raced to the worst-hit communities in isolated areas of Pacific island nation.

Yasa made landfall late Thursday as a top-of-the-scale Category Five cyclone, lashing Fiji’s second-largest island, Vanua Levu, with wind gusts of up to 345 kilometres an hour (210 miles an hour).

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Fiji ordered its entire population to take shelter on Thursday in the path of what is expected to be the worst storm in its recorded history.

Cyclone Yasa, a top category five storm expected to bring winds of up to 250 km per hour (155 miles per hour) and torrential rain, made landfall over Bua province on the northern island of Vanua Levu at about 6 p.m. local time (0600 GMT).

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Up to a quarter of a million children, young people and vulnerable adults were physically and sexually abused in New Zealand’s faith-based and state care institutions from the 1960s to early 2000s, a public inquiry revealed on Wednesday.

An interim report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry found children, some from as young as nine months old, suffered years of abuse, which included rape and electric shock treatment, by staff at psychiatric and state care facilities, clergy and foster guardians.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia will ask the World Trade Organization to intervene in its dispute with China over barley and expects other nations to become involved in the case, Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said on Wednesday.

China effectively ended imports of Australian barley in May by putting tariffs of more than 80% on the crop, accusing Australia of breaching WTO rules by subsidizing barley production and selling the grain in China at below production costs.

Birmingham said Australia would formally ask the WTO to intervene on Wednesday.

SYDNEY, Dec 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A severe weather system, lashing parts of Australia’s east coast, prompted over 850 calls for help across the weekend, as heavy rain and winds caused flooding and other damage.

Warning remained in place today, for north New South Wales (NSW) state and south-east Queensland state.

A NSW State Emergency Service (SES) spokesperson, said, crews conducted five flood rescues over the weekend and responded to 853 calls for help, involving property damage, fallen trees and branches and assistance with flood protection.

SYDNEY, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Australian State of Queensland will reopen its borders to New Zealand from Saturday, helping to reunite families in time for Christmas.

New Zealanders will not be required to undergo a two-week hotel quarantine when they arrive in Queensland as is the case for all other international arrivals.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Friday the decision was made possible by New Zealand recording 28 days of zero community transmission.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that his government won’t rush approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine because he wants people to have confidence in the product

His comments come as Australian researchers said they were abandoning their own potential vaccine because it produced false positive results to HIV tests.

Morrison said Australia was in a different position to Britain, which has given emergency approval to the Pfizer roll out, and the United States, where a government advisory panel has endorsed the Pfizer vaccine.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police arrested on Wednesday an 18-year man who had allegedly expressed interest in committing a mass causality attack, motivated by right-wing ideology.

Police said they expect to lay charges on Wednesday against the unidentified man from Albury, a small town 553 km (344 miles) southwest of Sydney.

“The male we’ve arrested has an extremely right-wing ideology and is focused on neo-Nazi, white supremacist and anti-Semitic material,” Australian Federal Police Assistant Commission Scott Lee told reporters in Sydney.