Australia & Pacifics

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia said Saturday it was noting with regret France’s recall of its ambassador over the surprise cancellation of a submarine contract in favor of a U.S. deal.

France recalled its ambassadors to Australia and the United States on Friday in an unprecedented show of anger over a deal among the United States, Australia and Britain to provide Australia with a fleet of at least eight nuclear-power submarines.

CANBERRA, Sept 17 (NNN-XINHUA) – Australia’s COVID-19 response saved tens of thousands of lives, the government claimed.

According to data released by the federal government, Australia has the second-lowest COVID-19 death rate in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with 0.75 deaths per 100,000 people.

By comparison, the death rate between Feb 24 and Sept 14 was 93 per 100,000 in the United States and 89.4 in Britain.

Only New Zealand bettered Australia among OECD members.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Three young children who had just moved to New Zealand from South Africa have died in what police said Friday they’re investigating as homicide.

Police said they were not looking for any possible suspects beyond those involved in the incident late Thursday at a home in the South Island town of Timaru. They said emergency services had found a woman at the address who had been hospitalized in stable condition.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday rejected Chinese criticism of Australia’s new nuclear submarine alliance with the United States and said he doesn’t mind that President Joe Biden might have forgotten his name.

China reacted angrily when Biden, Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used a virtual news conference this week to announce a trilateral defense alliance that will provide Australia with a fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.

WELLINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday that Australia's new nuclear-powered submarines would not be allowed in its territorial waters under a long standing nuclear free policy.

A new Indo-Pacific security partnership announced by U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, will see the United States and Britain provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines.

SYDNEY, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Australia's new security pact with the United States and the UK, seen as a move to contain China, may worsen strained ties with its biggest export customer, but China's insatiable appetite for resources may limit its punitive responses, say analysts.

The security pact with the Western powers, including access to U.S. nuclear submarine technology, will be seen by Beijing, which is embroiled in a long-running trade spat with Canberra, as a threat, said Michael Sullivan, International Relations Lecturer at Flinders University.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia decided to invest in U.S. nuclear-powered submarines and dump its contract with France to build diesel-electric submarines because of a changed strategic environment, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday had announced a new U.S. security alliance with Australia and Britain that would develop an Australian nuclear-powered submarine fleet.

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) IT major Infosys and Microsoft have entered into a multi-year strategic engagement with Ausgrid to accelerate the cloud transformation of the largest electricity distributor on Australia's east coast.

This programme will further Ausgrid's vision to connect communities and empower lives with a focus on affordability, reliability and sustainability, Infosys said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia is forecast to reap record farm revenues this year despite pandemic challenges, a mouse plague and a trade dispute with China.

Australian farmers are expected to sell 73 billion Australian dollars ($54 billion) in produce in the current fiscal year that started in July thanks to favorable weather and grain prices inflated by drought in the United States and Canada, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Agriculture Department’s research branch.

SYDNEY, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The government of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) said on Monday the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations had slowed as first-dose coverage neared 80% and urged the unvaccinated to get shots soon or risk missing out on freedoms when curbs ease.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has promised to relax some restrictions for the state's 8 million residents once two-dose vaccination rates hit 70%, expected to be around the middle of next month. So far, about 46% of the state's adult population has been fully vaccinated, above the national average of 42%.