South China Morning Post - Australasia

Israel extradites woman facing 74 child sex abuse charges in Australia

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 10:10:45 GMT

Israeli authorities on Monday extradited a former teacher accused of sexually abusing her former students in Australia, capping a six-year legal battle that had strained relations between the two governments and antagonised Australia’s Jewish community.Malka Leifer, who is wanted on 74 charges of child sex abuse in Australia, was placed on a flight early in the day, just hours before Israel was to close its international airport to nearly all air traffic due to a raging coronavirus outbreak…

Coronavirus: New Zealand records first community case in over two months

Sun, 24 Jan 2021 06:15:16 GMT

New Zealand has reported its first case of coronavirus community transmission in more than two months, although there was no immediate evidence that the disease was spreading.Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said Sunday the case was a 56-year-old woman who arrived in Auckland from London on December 30 after travelling in Spain and the Netherlands.Like other returning travellers, she spent 14 days in quarantine and twice tested negative before returning home on January 13.Pacific…

Dutch police arrest Chinese-Canadian man described as Asia’s ‘El Chapo’

Sun, 24 Jan 2021 03:06:46 GMT

The alleged ringleader of Asia’s biggest crime syndicate and one of the world’s most wanted men has been arrested in the Netherlands, with Australian authorities pushing for his extradition to face trial.Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-born Canadian national, was detained on Friday at the request of Australian police, who led an investigation that found his organisation dominates the US$70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade, Dutch police spokesman Thomas Aling said.Tse, an ex-convict who formerly…

Ships continue to transport coal to China, despite ban on Australian imports

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 06:00:15 GMT

After loading up with coal, the DZ Weihai slipped into the turquoise waters off the coast of Australia earlier this month and began a 14-day voyage to the southern Chinese port of Yangpu. How long the ship waits to discharge its cargo upon arrival is anyone’s guess.Despite a Chinese ban on coal imports from Australia that has left about 70 ships, 1,400 seafarers and 6.4 million tons of the fuel in offshore limbo, some vessels continue to make the voyage.While the stranded cargoes and crew are…

China-Australia relations: what drove Chinese initial public offerings to stay away from Down ...

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 23:30:14 GMT

Chinese companies raised a record US$281.6 billion from stock markets worldwide last year – but none of it was from Australia.China buys about a third of Australia’s annual exports and is its biggest trading partner. The Australia Stock Exchange (ASX) was among the first overseas exchanges to host Chinese companies after they were allowed to list overseas 27 years ago.But relations have frayed after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent investigation into the…

China’s ban on Australian coal drives diversification, but can it fill the gap?

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 04:00:16 GMT

In December, South Africa dispatched fresh shipments of thermal coal to China for the first time since 2014, with word in the industry that more was on the way.A month earlier, Chinese buyers also snapped up coal from Colombia, which has never been a big seller to China because of long shipping times when compared to regional suppliers such as Australia and Indonesia.Historically, South African coal has not been allowed into China because it contains restricted trace elements like fluorine,…

Singapore tightens travel restrictions to prevent new coronavirus variants

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 01:45:38 GMT

Singapore has tightened its border restrictions in response to new Covid-19 variants and the worsening global pandemic situation.All travellers, including Singapore citizens and permanent residents, will have to take a Covid-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test when they arrive in Singapore. This will take effect from 11.59pm on January 24, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Saturday.The stay-home notice requirements, including the PCR test at the end of the stay, will continue to be in…

China-Australia relations: imports of some stranded Australian coal could soon be allowed

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 06:15:46 GMT

China is considering accepting some stranded Australian coal cargoes, an effort that would help ease a logjam of vessels that have stacked up off its coast for months.The shipments that could be cleared are those that arrived before a ban on Australian coal went into effect, said a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private.The deliberations are at an initial stage and any decision would need the approval of more senior Chinese leaders, the…

Bird in Australia could escape death as ‘US leg band’ comes under scrutiny

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 04:45:16 GMT

A pigeon that Australia declared a possible biosecurity risk may escape death after the authenticity of its leg band identifying it as a US racing bird was thrown in doubt.The blue band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on December 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the US state of Oregon two months earlier.On that basis, Australian authorities on Thursday said they considered the bird a disease risk and planned to kill it.A US bird travelled 13,000km to Melbourne. Australia…

Animal crossing: Australia to kill US bird that made 13,000km trip to Melbourne

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 06:41:40 GMT

A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 13,000km Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to reach Australia. Now authorities consider the bird a quarantine risk and plan to kill it.Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird on Thursday said he discovered that the exhausted bird that arrived in his backyard on December 26 had disappeared from a race in the US state of Oregon on October 29.Experts suspect the pigeon – which Celli-Bird has named Joe, after the US president-elect – hitched a…

Liberian oil tanker that falsely flew Palau flag linked to Hong Kong-based firm

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 04:30:04 GMT

The island nation of Palau says an oil tanker that recently loaded Venezuelan crude was using a false signal to disguise its identity, potentially putting the nation in the crosshairs of US sanctions.Palau is asking Venezuela to investigate the vessel that claimed last month to be the Ndros.The Ndros was a Palau-flagged ship that was scrapped in Pakistan in 2018, and so could not be the vessel that appeared in December off the coast of Venezuela, according to a letter dated December 16 that the…

Coronavirus: Philippines’ Duterte defends Sinovac vaccine order, New Zealand allows some ...

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 02:16:25 GMT

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defended his government’s decision to purchase Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines, saying they are as good as the shots developed by the Americans and the Europeans.“The Chinese are not lacking in brains,” Duterte said in a late-night televised address on Wednesday. “The Chinese are bright. They would not venture (into producing vaccines) if it is not safe, sure and secure.”Duterte made the remarks as questions have been raised over the level of protection…

Australian scientists raise doubts over whether AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine can deliver ...

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 11:43:38 GMT

Australian scientists have raised questions over the efficacy of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in establishing herd immunity, calling for a pause on its widespread roll-out as the country recorded one new coronavirus case on Wednesday.The opposition to the vaccine casts a cloud over Australia’s immunisation plans with 53 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab already on hand.“The question is really whether it is able to provide herd immunity. We are playing a long game here. We don’t know how…

Coronavirus: Indonesia rolls out CoronaVac vaccines, Japan widens state of emergency

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 02:02:21 GMT

Indonesia starts a mass coronavirus vaccination campaign on Wednesday, with President Joko Widodo to receive the first shot of an ambitious drive launched amid record deaths from one of Asia’s most stubborn epidemics.The vaunted immunisation campaign aims to inoculate 181.5 million people, the first of whom will receive the CoronaVac vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech, which Indonesia authorised for emergency use on Monday, with an efficacy rate of 65.3 per cent.The president, who is known as…

China-Australia relations: Beijing slams Canberra for ‘politicising’ canned US$230 million ...

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 07:48:35 GMT

State-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation has dropped its bid for the Australian builder of the tallest residential tower in Sydney, Probuild, after indications that Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg would block the deal on national security grounds.This did not escape Beijing’s attention, and on Tuesday China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs cautioned Canberra not to “politicise” business deals and jeopardise long-standing commercial relationships, as well as agreed-upon…

Coronavirus: Brisbane lifts lockdown; Japan to conduct large-scale PCR testing

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 01:52:56 GMT

Australia’s third-largest city on Monday lifted stay-at-home orders, after mass testing and tracing across Brisbane found no new coronavirus cases despite fears over a contagious strain entering the community.More than 2 million people were ordered into a snap lockdown on Friday after a cleaner at a quarantine hotel contracted a new variant of Covid-19, first reported in Britain, from a returned traveller.The strain is among several emerging variants around the world believed to be more…

New Zealand’s central bank says data system breached by hacker

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 06:22:21 GMT

New Zealand’s central bank said on Sunday that one of its data systems has been breached by an unidentified hacker who potentially accessed commercially and personally sensitive information.A third party file sharing service used by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to share and store sensitive information had been illegally accessed, the Wellington-based bank said in a statement.Governor Adrian Orr said the breach has been contained. The bank’s core functions “remain sound and operational”, he…

Did a ‘Canadian technique’ police sting and a bogus Mr Big leave an Australian murder probe ...

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 23:00:19 GMT

At a luxury Melbourne hotel in September 2009, crime boss Gary Butcher made Glen Weaven an offer that promised to make his problems go away.Weaven had been helping Butcher ply his criminal trade for several months in Australia’s second-largest city, following a chance meeting in a bar with a stranger who happened to be a member of the crime lord’s gang.Weaven’s involvement started small and initially stayed within the confines of the law. At Berwick Springs Hotel in Melbourne’s southeastern…

China-Australia relations: tax rebates, entreaties by Australian states fall on deaf ears as ...

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 04:00:17 GMT

Chinese homebuyers, the fifth-biggest group of foreign investors in Australian property in 2019 before relations went into a deep freeze, are turning their backs on the tax rebates and other entreaties offered to lure them back, as they stay on the sidelines to await for a thaw in bilateral ties.The Chinese were the biggest foreign buyers of Australian real estate from 2015 through 2018. Their inquiries for homes in major Australian cities have fallen by half compared with a year earlier, said…

China-Australia relations: bans on Australian imports ‘beginning to bite’ as commodity ...

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 20:30:17 GMT

Australia’s major commodity exports to China sank in November as Beijing’s trade restrictions hit home, although the impact of the slowdown was cushioned by redirected sales to other countries.Australia’s overall exports, including those to China, rose slightly in November as a result of an increase in non-volatile gold exports, but iron ore and coal exports to China both fell 2.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively, compared to October.Despite record iron ore prices in the past few months,…