Page 24 - Australia

Australia assures India of steady coking coal supplies amid shortage

Australia accounts for over half of India's coking coal imports of around 70 million metric tons a year

India, Australia at risk of becoming dumping grounds for polluting cars

The financial burden of imports on developing nations will also get worse without clear goals to end sales of gasoline vehicles, Scott said

Netherlands, UK, Australia push India's exports in April-October period

India's imports contracted 8.9 per cent in April-October period though inward shipments shot up 12.3 per cent in October led by a near doubling of gold imports

Kolkata weather forecast: Will rain hamper AUS vs SA World Cup semi-final?

Cricket World Cup 2023, South Africa vs Australia weather forecast Kolkata: The 2nd semi-final at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata may be affected by rain today & can be shifted to a reserve day on Friday

Australia mulls jail term for high-risk migrants who breach visa conditions

Migrants with criminal records in Australia will face up to five years in prison for breaching their visa conditions under emergency legislation introduced Thursday in response to a High Court ruling that foreigners can't be detained indefinitely. The government said it has released 84 foreigners most of whom have convictions for crimes including murder and rape since the court ruled last week that indefinite detention of migrants is unconstitutional. The decision reversed a High Court ruling from 2004 that had allowed stateless people to be held in migrant centers for any length of time in cases where there were no prospects of deporting them from Australia. The legislation introduced in Parliament by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles would let the government order certain migrants to wear electronic tracking bracelets and to comply with curfews. Failure to comply with those visa conditions could be a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. The released migran

Centre to seek steady coking coal supplies from Australia for steel mills

Australia accounts for over half of India's coking coal imports of around 70 million metric tons a year

HCLTech appoints Sonia Eland as country manager for Australia, New Zealand

IT services company does business in digital, engineering, cloud, AI in the two countries

India rejects Australian court's order asking ex-envoy to pay compensation

India on Thursday strongly rejected an Australian court's ruling ordering former Indian high commissioner to Canberra Navdeep Singh Suri to pay a former domestic employee thousands of dollars in compensation after she accused him of unfair working conditions and exploitation. Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said the Australian authorities do not have any locus standi to adjudicate on matters concerning India-based service staff of its high commission and called on Canberra to uphold its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Justice Elizabeth Raper of the federal court had ordered Suri to pay Seema Sherghill more than 136,000 dollars plus interest, within 60 days after she alleged that she was forced to work in unfair conditions, Australian media reported on Sunday. In his weekly media briefing, Bagchi said the service staff "wilfully deserted" her post in May 2016, a day before her scheduled return to India and .

Australia's Albanese calls for free trade with China on visit to Beijing

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is calling for the full resumption of free and unimpeded trade with China in a meeting with his counterpart Li Qiang on the first first visit by an Australian leader to China in seven years. Climate change, food security and transnational crime are areas in which the two nations can cooperate, Albanese said Tuesday. The sides should discuss ways to shape a regional and global order that is peaceful, stable and prosperous, where countries respect sovereignty and meet their obligations under international law and conventions, Albanese said. Geostrategic competition must be handled through dialogue and through understanding, he said, in apparent reference to heightened tensions between China and the United States, a key Australian ally. "We can grow the relationship while advancing our respective interests, if we wisely navigate when there are differences," Albanese said. Li was quoted by the Australian foreign office as acknowledging that ..

Albanese calls for cooperation ahead of meeting with China's Xi Jinping

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese struck an optimistic tone ahead of his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday, calling for cooperation while emphasising that the two countries will continue to have differences. Albanese is the first Australian prime minister in seven years to visit China as the two countries have recently begun to repair a relationship that had crashed over trade and security differences. What I've said is that we need to co-operate with China where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest," Albanese said in Beijing. "I think there are promising signs we've already seen, a number of the impediments to trade between our two nations removed and an uplift already, substantial uplift in the trade between our two nations. His visit is largely symbolic, and comes near the 50th anniversary of the first trip by an Australian prime minister to the People's Republic of China. He is planned to meet with Xi later Monday. China and

Anthony Albanese soon will be first Australian PM in 7 years to visit China

Anthony Albanese will become the first Australian prime minister in seven years to visit China in recognition that bilateral relations have improved after crashing to unprecedented depths over trade and security differences that remain largely unresolved. The election of Albanese's center-left government last year after nine years of conservative rule created an opportunity for a reset. His three-day visit that starts Saturday will take him to Shanghai then Beijing, though details about his itinerary are limited. Since 2016, when Chinese leader Xi Jinping met an Australian prime minister twice in six months, China severed top-level ministerial contacts. Official and unofficial trade sanctions stacked up since 2020 to cost Australian exporters up to 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year for commodities including coal, wine, beef, barley and lobsters as business and politics entwined in the relationship as never before. But many say the trade boycott was hurting an ...

Fifa World Cup: Australia won't bid for 2034, Saudi Arabia likely to host

Football Australia on Tuesday said it won't bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, clearing the way for Saudi Arabia to host the men's marquee tournament. The chances of Australia hosting the 2034 event appeared unlikely after the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) backed the Saudi bid on October 5. Indonesia's football association initially showed interest in a joint bid with Australia, potentially alongside Malaysia and Singapore, but that faded when Indonesia instead backed Saudi Arabia. We have explored the opportunity to bid to host the FIFA World Cup and having taken all factors into consideration we have reached the conclusion not to do so for the 2034 competition, Football Australia said in a statement. Australia will instead attempt to secure hosting rights for the 2029 Club World Cup and the 2026 Women's Asian Cup. We believe we are in a strong position to host the oldest women's international competition in the world, the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026, and then welcome the ...

China's falling aid to Pacific islands increasingly goes to allies: Report

China's declining aid to the South Pacific is increasingly targeted toward its political allies in the region as appetite there for Chinese credit declines and competition grows with the U.S. for influence, an independent Australian think tank reported Tuesday. Chinese overall economic influence among the 14 aid-dependent island nations in the region is losing ground because of better loan deals being offered by U.S. allies, especially Australia, the Sydney-based Lowy Institute said in its annual analysis of aid to the region. Focus on the strategic competition in the South Pacific has heightened since China struck a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year that raised the prospect of a Chinese naval foothold in the region. China has increased aid to the Solomons and neighboring Kiribati since they switched diplomatic allegiances to Beijing from self-ruled Taiwan in 2019, the report said. The United States has sought to counter Chinese influence in the region with additiona

Light show at World Cup 'dumbest idea' as they cause headache, says Maxwell

During the Australia vs Netherlands match in Delhi on Wednesday, Australian cricketer Glenn Maxwell was seen covering his eyes during the light show

Biden calls Australia anchor to peace, prosperity during Albanese's visit

President Joe Biden described Australia as an anchor to peace and prosperity while standing alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House on Wednesday, part of a state visit intended to deepen an alliance that's increasingly viewed as a critical counterweight to China's influence in the Pacific. It was the ninth and most high-profile meeting between the two leaders, reflecting their work toward closer ties on climate change, technology and national security. The United States also plans to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia in the coming years, part of a collaboration with the United Kingdom. We renewed our commitment to defend the values that are at the heart of this alliance, Biden said. "We continue to stand as one to forge a better future for both of us and all of the region." The state visit, only the fourth since Biden took office, came against the backdrop of escalating fighting between Israel and Hamas. Biden began a joint press conference with ..

Delhi Police issues traffic advisory ahead of Aus vs Ned match on Oct 25

"No heavy vehicles and buses shall be allowed on the roads from Daryaganj to Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, and from Guru Nanak Chowk to Asaf Ali Road," the advisory read

Malaysia gives nod to Lynas to process rare earths until March 2026

Malaysia's government said on Tuesday it will allow Lynas Rare Earth to continue to import and process rare earths until March 2026, after the Australian miner proposed a new technology to extract radioactive elements from the waste it produces. The Lynas refinery in Malaysia, its first outside China producing minerals that are crucial to high-tech manufacturing, has been operating in central Pahang state since 2012. But the company has been embroiled in a dispute over radiation from waste accumulating at the plant. The government had ordered Lynas to move its leaching and cracking processes which produce the radioactive waste from Australian ore out of the country by the year's end. It also was not allowed to import raw materials with radioactive elements into the country. Science Minister Chang Lih Kang said the two conditions for renewing Lynas' license had been met after the company proposed a way to extract thorium, the radioactive element, from the raw rare earths it imports

Australia PM announces China visit hours before leaving for US to meet prez

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit China in early November, his office said Sunday hours before he was set to fly to the United States to meet President Joe Biden. Albanese's office also said China agreed to review the crippling tariffs it placed on Australian wine that have effectively blocked trade with the winemakers' biggest export market since 2020. Albanese will become the first Australian prime minister to visit China in seven years when he travels to Beijing and Shanghai from November 4-7. He will meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing and then attend the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. The visit to China and a potential breakthrough in the wine dispute mark a further repair in bilateral relations since Albanese's centre-left Labor Party won elections last year after nine years of conservative rule in Australia. I look forward to visiting China, an important step towards ensuring a stable and productive relationship, Alban

Australia decides against cancelling Chinese firm's lease of important port

The Australian government announced Friday it has decided not to cancel a Chinese company's 99-year lease on strategically important Darwin Port despite U.S. concerns that the foreign control could be used to spy on its military forces. The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said it decided after an investigation of the eight-year-old lease that current monitoring and regulation measures are sufficient to manage security risks for critical infrastructure such as the port in the northern garrison city of Darwin. Australians can have confidence that their safety will not be compromised while ensuring that Australia remains a competitive destination for foreign investment, it said in a statement. Landbridge Industry Australia, a subsidiary of Rizhao-based Shandong Landbridge Group, signed the lease with the debt-laden Northern Territory government in 2015. That was three years after U.S. Marines began annual rotations through Darwin as part of the U.S. pivot to Asia. The United

KEC International bags new domestic, global orders worth Rs 1,315 cr

Infrastructure company KEC International on Monday announced securing new orders totalling Rs 1,315 crore in India and international markets. The orders have been bagged by the company's Transmission & Distribution (T&D) business in the domestic market apart from clientele in Middle East, Australia and Americas, KEC International said in a regulatory filing. In India, the scope of order includes a transmission line and a substation order from Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) while the orders in Middle East, Australia and Americas are for supply of towers, hardware and poles and various types of cables. Vimal Kejriwal, MD and CEO of KEC International Ltd, said, "we are delighted with the new order wins, particularly the orders from PGCIL in Rajasthan. These orders have significantly enhanced our India T&D order book. In a noteworthy achievement, our tower supply business footprint now extends across six continents." KEC International is a global infrastructure ...