Australia & Pacifics

SYDNEY, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Pregnant women should avoid using electronic cigarettes as there is a lack of evidence about the safety of the smoking devices, Australian researchers said on Saturday.

Many people believe that "vaping" with the e-cigarettes "was either safe or at least far safer than tobacco smoking during pregnancy, however, the lack of detailed research into the subject meant this belief could not be supported," researcher from the Telethon Kids Institute Alexander Larcombe said in a statement from the institute.

SYDNEY, June 1 (Xinhua) -- High temperatures and lack of rainfall helped kill off a record number of critically endangered sawfish in a parched creek in Western Australia state, according to the latest research.

More than 40 of the fish, with their distinctive flat nose extension and sharp traverse teeth, died on a dried-out area in the Kimberley region late last year, local media reported on Saturday.

A team of researchers, who have just confirmed the latest deaths, tried to save the fish but only two of the victims survived, according to the ABC news channel.

Port Moresby, May 30 (AFP) Papua New Guinea lawmakers overwhelmingly elected James Marape as prime minister on Thursday -- a former finance minister who resigned in protest against a massive ExxonMobil and Total gas project.

Marape won the landslide backing of members of parliament after weeks of political manoeuvring that saw eight-year prime minister Peter O'Neill resign.

CANBERRA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- An elderly Australian man has suffered a heart attack while climbing Uluru, just months before the iconic rock is closed to climbers on October.

The 64-year-old man was halfway through the hour-long climb of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, with a tour group on Tuesday when he entered cardiac arrest.

Two paramedics were quick to help, and two off-duty police officers were able to get the man's heart back into "survivable rhythm" with a defibrillator while awaiting the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s government says it will spend billions of dollars more on mental health services and combatting child poverty as part of a new approach to its finances.

The liberal-led government on Thursday unveiled the country’s first so-called well-being budget. It aims to measure social outcomes like health and the environment alongside traditional metrics such as economic growth.

The new approach has been lauded by some internationally but criticized by the conservative opposition as meaningless window-dressing.

29 May 2019; DW: Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill formally resigned on Wednesday, easing a political crisis in the South Pacific island nation.

Facing a vote of no-confidence he was likely to lose, O'Neill told parliament in the country's capital of Port Moresby that he had delivered his resignation to Governor-General Bob Dadae on Wednesday morning, an announcement that was met with applause.

29 May 2019; DW: The 17-year-old who went viral cracking an egg over a politician's head was given thousands by the public to cover his legal fees and allow him to "buy more eggs." He has donated the money to victims of a mosque attack.

29 May 2019; DW: Tens of thousands of New Zealand teachers joined the country's largest ever education strike on Wednesday, demanding higher pay and shorter hours.

The labor action by almost 50,000 secondary and primary school teachers came a day before Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's center-left government was set to release its first "well-being" budget.

Sydney, May 29 (AP) An Australian man who kidnapped and repeatedly raped a British backpacker during a month-long ordeal in the country's Outback has been jailed for 10 years.

Marcus Allyn Keith Martin, 25, had pleaded guilty in the District Court of Cairns, in the far north of Queensland state, to charges of rape and deprivation of liberty against the 22-year-old woman from Liverpool, England.

Prosecutors told the court the pair met in Cairns in January 2017 and had begun a relationship.

21 May 2019; AFP: Chinese investment in Australia has fallen to its lowest level in five years, new research shows, sparking calls for the newly re-elected conservative government to improve its rocky relationship with Beijing.

After hitting a peak of Aus$15.8 billion (US$10.4 billion) in 2016, Chinese firms invested Aus$4.8 billion in the country last year, the Australian National University said Monday.