Australia & Pacifics

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia will not extradite an Iranian academic to the United States, Australia’s attorney-general said over the weekend, following a 13-month detention of the researcher for allegedly exporting American-made military equipment to Iran.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said in a statement that “in all the circumstances of this particular case” the academic, Reza Dehbashi Kivi, should not be extradited.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Nearly a million New Zealanders face the risk that their medical data has been accessed illegally after a cyber attack on the website of Tū Ora Compass Health, the company said on Saturday.

The website was hacked in August, but investigations also uncovered previous attacks dating from 2016 to March 2019, the health firm, which collects and analyses patient information from medical centers, said in a statement.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian foreign minister said Saturday an Australian-British blogger and her fiancé were released in Iran after three months of detention.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that the couple, Jolie King and Mark Firkin, were on their way home and in “good health and in good spirits.”

She said all charges against them had been dropped.

“For Jolie and for Mark, the ordeal they have been through is now over, they are being reunited with their loved ones, which is a source of great relief and joy to everyone,” Payne said.

3 October 2019; AFP: One of the world's deadliest fungi has been discovered in Australia's far north for the first time -- thousands of miles from its native habitat in the mountains of Japan and Korea.

The Poison Fire Coral fungus was discovered in a suburb of Cairns by a local photographer and subsequently identified by scientists, James Cook University announced Thursday.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia should reject “unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy”, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday, echoing a recent call by U.S. President Donald Trump for nations to embrace nationalism.

“We should avoid any reflex towards a negative globalism that coercively seeks to impose a mandate from an often ill-defined borderless global community,” Morrison said in a speech at the Lowy Institute think-tank.

“Under my leadership, Australia’s international engagement will be squarely driven by Australia’s national interests.”

CANBERRA, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- A majority of Australians believe Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was wrong to snub a United Nations (UN) climate summit.

A survey of 1,097 people, published by the Guardian Australia on Wednesday, found that about 70 percent of respondents believe Morrison should have joined fellow world leaders at a UN climate summit in New York.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne attended the summit in Morrison's place.

Washington, Oct 1 (AFP) Donald Trump asked Australia to "assist" in discrediting a Russia investigation that has clouded his presidency, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison admitting Tuesday that he agreed to help.

An Australian government spokesperson confirmed Trump asked Morrison to investigate issues raised in Robert Mueller's probe -- which concluded that Russia tried to swing the 2016 election in the Republican's favour.

SYDNEY, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- A number of hospitals in the Australian State of Victoria have been infiltrated by "sophisticated cyber criminals," forcing the cancelation of elected surgeries and the shutdown of computer services, the authorities said on Tuesday.

Targeting the Gippsland Health Alliance and the South West Alliance of Rural Health, the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet said in a statement "The cyber incident, which was uncovered on Monday, has blocked access to several systems by the infiltration of ransomware, including financial management."

Refugees from different cultural backgrounds are staging weekly protests outside David Coleman’s  office in Revesby to demand an end of their sufferings. David Coleman is a Member of Parliament (MP) for Bank and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs.

CANBERRA, Sept 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, announced a new support package, which will deliver nearly 100 million Australian dollars (67.6 million U.S. dollars) in drought relief funding.

Morrison visited regions hit by the drought in Queensland. The package includes about 51 million Australian dollars (34.5 million U.S. dollars) to simplify and extend the Farm Household Allowance (FHA), a form of welfare for drought-affected farmers.