Page 18 - Australia

Chinese Premier Qiang, Oz PM Albanese agree to resolve differences amicably

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. Li, China's most senior leader after President Xi Jinping, arrived in the South Australian state capital of Adelaide on Saturday and the national capital of Canberra late Sunday in the first visit to the country by a Chinese premier in seven years. Li planned to underscore China's interest in buying a bigger stake in Australia's critical minerals sector, which is essential to the global transition to renewable energy sources, by visiting a Chinese-controlled lithium processing plant in Western Australia state Tuesday. Li visited New Zealand before Australia and is scheduled to stop in Malaysia before returning to China. Bilateral relations have improved markedly since

Chinese premier pledges more pandas; urges Australia to put aside issues

Chinese Premier Li Qiang's visit to Australia on Sunday focused on positive aspects of the bilateral relationship including shared giant pandas and a rebounding wine trade after he urged both countries to put aside their differences. China's most powerful leader after President Xi Jinping arrived late Saturday in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia state, which has produced most of the Australian wine entering China since crippling tariffs were lifted in March that had effectively ended a 1.2 billion Australian dollar (USD 790 million) a year trade since 2020. Li visited Adelaide Zoo, which has been home to China-born giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni since 2009, before he was to have lunch at a restaurant at an Adelaide winery. He announced that the zoo would be loaned another two pandas after the pair are due to return to China in November, China's Xinhua News Agency reported. The pair are the only pandas in the Southern Hemisphere and failed to produce offspring in ...

Quad transformed from security dialogue into multifaceted tie-up: Report

The new report titled 'Quad: Diplomacy and Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific' assesses the Quad's achievements and potential amidst the ongoing geopolitical churn

Studying in Australia costs Rs 12-30 lakh/year: Key factors to consider

Planning your finances well is key to a stress-free studying experience in Australia

Adani Group's Australian coal port gets $333 million private credit loan

Billionaire Gautam Adani's ports-to-power group is one of India's largest thermal power producers with multiple coal-based plants in the nation

Allcargo Logistics arm partners with ShipBob for freight services

ECU Worldwide, a wholly-owned global subsidiary of Allcargo Logistics, on Thursday said it has partnered with ShipBob to offer its ocean and air freight services to the latter's receiving hubs and fulfilment centres in the US, Europe, Canada and Australia. Under the collaboration, ECU Worldwide will become an integral part of FreightBob, an end-to-end managed freight and inventory distribution programme of ShipBob, through its network across over 180 countries, more than 2,400 direct trade lanes and door-to-door deliveries, Allcargo Logistics said. This would help ShipBob manage its e-commerce inventory for their merchants in over 50 markets, as a part of ECU Worldwide LCL (less-than-container load) offering, it stated. "Our new-age tech-driven booking platform ECU360 has redefined the global supply chain efficiency with convenient features, continued product innovation and a worldwide network. The association with ShipBob will help us further deepen our delivery capabilities acros

Australia expects China to lift ban on exports as they ease past 2020 row

Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell on Wednesday predicted the final obstacle for exports to China, Beijing's ban on live lobster imports, will be lifted soon after Chinese Premier Li Qiang visits the country. The return of lobsters to the Chinese market would be a milestone in the Australian government's ambition to stabilize bilateral relations since coming to power in 2022. China banned minister-to-minister communications with Australia and imposed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers in 2020 on Australian products including beef, barley, coal, wood and wine costing exporters 20 billion Australian dollars (USD 13 billion) a year. Bilateral relations plumbed new lows after a previous Australian government demanded an independent investigation into the causes of and China's responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Farrell said Li becoming the first Chinese premier to visit Australia in seven years on Saturday would remove the final trade barrier on lobsters. I think ..

China's Premier Li Qiang to visit Australia this week, says PM Albanese

China is Australia's largest trading partner, with Australian resources and energy exports dominating trade flow

Activists should turn down heat: Australia PM after US consulate attack

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged activists on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian debate to turn the heat down after the US Consulate in Sydney was vandalised on Monday. CCTV footage showed a person wearing a dark hoodie using a small sledgehammer to smash nine holes in the reinforced glass windows of the building in North Sydney after 3 am, a police statement said. Two inverted red triangles, seen by many as a symbol of Palestinian resistance, were also painted on the front of the building. Albanese urged people to have respectful political debate and discourse. People are traumatised by what is going on in the Middle East, particularly those with relatives in either Israel or in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Albanese told reporters. And I just say, again, reiterate my call to turn the heat down and measures such as painting the US consulate do nothing to advance the cause of those who have committed what is, of course, a crime to damage property, Albanes

It certainly is about mindset: Ponting on India's global trophy drought

The all-conquering Australia under Ricky Ponting's leadership knew the art of peaking at the right time in global events and the two-time World Cup-winning captain reckons India will need to do the same besides overcoming some mental demons to win an elusive ICC trophy. Cricket's powerhouse India, who last won an ICC trophy in 2013, began their T20 World Cup campaign on an emphatic note in New York on Wednesday, beating Ireland by eight wickets. Speaking to PTI from New York, the 49-year-old Australian great said India are well-placed to end their barren run in ICC events and need to find a way to deal with the enormous pressure that comes with representing a cricket-crazy nation. "You've got to try and keep a clear mind where you can focus on the task at hand rather than thinking too far ahead or worrying about any sort of external pressures," said Ponting. "There's no doubting the talent (in India squad), but we also shouldn't forget that the World Cups are not easy to win. There

Australia orders Chinese investors to sell down stake in rare earths miner

Northern Minerals is developing the Browns Range heavy rare earths project in Western Australia, at a time when the sector has become increasingly strategic for its uses in green energy and defence

Battery maker Altmin in talks with Australia for lithium supplies

Altmin, India's only cathode active materials producer, currently sources lithium carbonate from Brazil and Bolivia

Fears of second landslide, disease outbreak loom in Papua New Guinea

Authorities fear a second landslide and a disease outbreak are looming at the scene of Papua New Guinea's mass-casualty disaster because of water streams and bodies trapped beneath the tons of debris that swept over a village, a United Nations official said Tuesday. A mass of boulders, earth and splintered trees devastated Yambali in the South Pacific nation's remote highlands when a limestone mountainside sheared away Friday. The blanket of debris has become more unstable with recent rain and streams trapped between the ground and rubble, said Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the International Organization for Migration's mission in Papua New Guinea. The UN agency has officials at the scene in Enga province helping shelter 1,600 displaced people. The agency estimates 670 villagers died, while Papua New Guinea's government has told the United Nations it thinks more than 2,000 people were buried. Five bodies had been retrieved from the rubble by Monday. We are hearing suggestions that anoth

2,000 feared dead in Papua New Guinea landslide, challenges for rescuers

The Papua New Guinea government said more than 2,000 people are believed to have been buried alive in a landslide in the South Pacific island nation, after the side of a mountain came down in the early hours of Friday morning when the village of Yambali was asleep. The settlement is located in a restive and remote area in the interior of the poor, rural nation off the northern coast of Australia, making search and rescue efforts complicated and hazardous. The government death toll is roughly triple the UN estimate of 670 killed. The remains of only six people had been recovered so far. In a letter seen by The Associated Press to the United Nations resident coordinator dated Sunday, the acting director of Papua New Guinea's National Disaster Center Luseta Laso Mana said the landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction at Yambali village in the Enga province. Estimates of the casualties have varied widely since the disaster occurred, and it was not ...

Investing for ultra-rich: Family offices are booming in Australia's Perth

Since 2019, as the rich get richer, the number of family offices worldwide has more than tripled, to almost 4,600 last year, according to investment data provider Preqin Ltd

Papua New Guinea govt says landslide buried 2,000; formally asks for help

The Papua New Guinea government said a landslide on Friday buried more than 2,000 people and has formally asked for international help. The government figure is around three times more than a United Nations' estimate of 670. In a letter seen by The Associated Press to the United Nations resident coordinator dated Sunday, the acting director of the South Pacific island nation's National Disaster Center said the landslide buried more than 2000 people alive and caused major destruction. Estimates of the casualties have varied widely since the disaster occurred, and it was not immediately clear how officials arrived the number of people affected. Australia prepared on Monday to send aircraft and other equipment to help at the site of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea as overnight rains in the South Pacific nation's mountainous interior raised fears that the tons of rubble that buried hundreds of villagers could become dangerously unstable. Australian Defence Minister Richard Marl

Oz plans aid to Papua New Guinea as rain raises fears at landslide site

Australia prepared on Monday to send aircraft and other equipment to help at the site of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea as overnight rains in the South Pacific nation's mountainous interior raised fears that the tons of rubble that buried hundreds of villagers could become dangerously unstable. Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said his officials have been talking with their Papua New Guinea counterparts since Friday, when a mountainside collapsed on Yambali village in Enga province, which the United Nations estimates killed 670 people. The remains of only six people had been recovered so far. The exact nature of the support that we do provide will play out over the coming days, Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp. We've got obviously airlift capacity to get people there. There may be other equipment that we can bring to bear in terms of the search and rescue and all of that we are talking through with PNG right now, Marles added. Papua New Guinea is Australia

Australia's Arafura Rare Earths secures $300 mn in finance from Canada

The Nolans project is slated to be the country's third rare earths processing plant

More than 100 killed by landslide in Papua New Guinea, say reports

More than 100 people are estimated to have been killed in a landslide in remote Papua New Guinea on Friday, Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. The landslide reportedly hit Kaokalam Village in Enga Province, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of the South Pacific island nation's capital Port Moresby about 3 am local time, ABC reports. Residents say current estimates of the death toll sit above 100, although authorities have not confirmed this figure. Villagers say the number of those killed could be much higher. Social media video show locals pulling out buried bodies.

Australia reports its first human case of avian influenza infection

The H5N1 strain of avian flu has swept the globe in recent years, killing billions of farmed and wild birds