Australia & Pacifics

SYDNEY, Nov 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) – An Australian volunteer firefighter was arrested on Tuesday, and charged with deliberately starting seven fires, over a period, which encompassed Australia’s recent deadly bush-fire emergency.

Police allege that the man lit a fire in bush-land on Tuesday evening, before returning to respond to the fire, as part of his duties as a volunteer firefighter, shortly after which he was taken into custody.

Kokopo (Papua New Guinea) Nov 26, AFP/GANASHAKTI: A charter airline in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday said armed men hijacked one of its planes, forced the pilot to fly to an unused airstrip before making off with the cargo.

Tropicair told AFP that eight armed men approached the plan as it was refuelling in Gasmata, on the island of New Britain and forced him to take off.

A company spokesman said there were no other passengers on board.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Authorities said Monday that a measles epidemic sweeping through Samoa continues to worsen with the death toll rising to 25, all but one of them young children.

“We still have a big problem at hand,” Samoa’s Director General of Health Leausa Take Naseri said in a video statement.

WELLINGTON, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand Police shot dead a man, who held children hostage for 15 hours, at a property in Bellevue, North Island, on Sunday.

According to the New Zealand Police, local police were called to a property in Oriana Crescent, Tauranga, at around 12:25 a.m. local time, after a man threatened his partner with a knife.

The woman escaped the house and called police from a neighbor's house. Three children were still in the house with the man.

WELLINGTON, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit North Island, New Zealand, on Sunday (this) morning and was felt by thousands of people.

More than 5,000 people reported feeling the earthquake, which happened offshore around 5:34 a.m. local time. There is no report of human casualty yet.

PERTH, Australia (AP) — A self-confessed Chinese spy has given Australia’s counterespionage agency inside intelligence on how Beijing conducts its interference operations abroad and revealed the identities of China’s senior military intelligence officers in Hong Kong, media reported.

Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters Saturday that the detailed accusations of China infiltrating and disrupting democratic systems in Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan are “very disturbing.”

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand jury on Friday found a man guilty of murder in the death of 22-year-old British backpacker Grace Millane.

Millane died last December on her birthday after meeting the man through the dating app Tinder, going out for drinks with him, and then returning to his hotel apartment in central Auckland.

Prosecutors said the man strangled Millane to death. Defense lawyers claimed the death was accidental after the pair engaged in consensual erotic choking that went too far.

SYDNEY, Nov 21 (NNN-XINHUA) – Sydney’s normally picturesque skyline was once again blanketed by thick smoke today (Thursday), as around 50 bushfires continued to burn across Australia’s east coast.

Deemed “hazardous” by the New South Wales (NSW) State Department of Environment, health authorities have urged schools to keep children indoors, during lunch breaks.

“It’s important that if you do have children, just try and keep them indoors or discourage them from exercising too much outside,” Richard Broome from NSW Health told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

21 November 2019; AFP: Australia's Prime Minister on Thursday denied his climate policies had caused unprecedented bushfires ravaging the country and insisted his government was doing enough to tackle global warming.

As dozens of new blazes scorched the countryside and the country's largest city was cloaked in hazardous smoke, conservative leader Scott Morrison defended his climate record, saying Australia was "doing our bit".

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Regulators accused Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX) of 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering laws, saying the banking giant ignored red flags and for years enabled payments from convicted child sex offenders and “high risk” countries.

The oversight failure at Australia’s second-largest bank led to deep systemic non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws, financial crime watchdog AUSTRAC said in a civil court filing on Wednesday.