Blake Danilczak Correspondent (Oceania) QUEENSLAND — Less than 24 hours after checking into a beach side resort in Bali, Noelene Bischoff and her daughter Yvana Bischoff from Queensland died mysteriously, after becoming seriously ill. Proceeding an extravagant night out at the Warung Dewa Malen restaurant in Ubud on Friday evening, staff at the Padang Bai resort, the hotel where the Bischoffs were staying, were alerted early Saturday morning, by Yvana, that she and her mother […]
Lockie Gatehouse, Correspondent (Oceania) TONGA — More than 400 homes were destroyed when severe Tropical Cyclone Ian made landfall earlier this week in Tonga, officials say. The system has been likened to tropical cyclone Larry that smashed into the Australian east coast in 2006. Leveni Aho, Director of Emergencies in Tonga, says it is “almost unbelievable” that the death toll did not rise beyond one, following the assessment of damage caused by cyclone Ian. […]
Jasper Lindell, Correspondent (Oceania) SYDNEY — A self-proclaimed martial arts fighter has been charged with murder and refused bail following the death of a teenager after an assault in Sydney’s Kings Cross nightclub district. Daniel Christie, 18, was celebrating New Year’s Eve with his brother when he was allegedly attacked by Shaun McNeil. Christie sustained severe brain injuries from a single punch to the head and spent 11 days on life support. His life support was […]
Anthony Segaert, Editor (Oceania) ‘Catastrophic’ winds are being predicted by Fijian forecasters for the northern parts of the Pacific Island of Tonga. Cyclone Ian has been labelled a Category 4 Cyclone system. It is packing winds up to 170 kilometres per hour, and gusts have reported to be up to 230 kilometres per hour. People in the regions of Vava’u and Niaofo’ou are boarding windows and clamping down outside furniture. Around 100 tourists are […]
Jasper Lindell, Correspondent (Oceania) CANBERRA — The freed Australian Greenpeace activist who was released under a Russian amnesty, Colin Russell, criticised the Australian government’s response to his plight on his return to Hobart this week. Mr Russell, 59, was the radio operator of the Arctic Sunrise crew, dubbed the Arctic 30, who were initially detained in Russia on piracy charges after scaling a Gazprom oil drilling platform in the region. The charges were later […]
Anthony Segaert, Editor (Oceania) Australian icebreaker ship Aurora Australia has abandoned its mission to rescue stranded Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy in Watt Bay, Antarctica. The huge ship, captained by Murray Doyle, began cutting through the consolidated ice floes at 6am (Antarctica time), but moved only two nautical miles. Just three hours later, Doyle decided it was not appropriate to continue on, and headed back into open waters. The captain cited poor visibility and low […]
Blake Danilczak, Correspondent (Oceania) SYDNEY – Australian entertainer, Rolf Harris, is facing a further three sexual offence charges, atop the previous nine, in a case that has shocked Australia, England and much of the world. ‘Rolf Harris is to be prosecuted over a further three allegations of indecent assault…the alleged offences relate to one existing complainant and two new complainants,’ the Crown Prosecution Service said last week. Preceding these latest developments, Harris, 83, had already […]
Blake Danilczak Correspondent (Oceania) QUEENSLAND — A 28-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder subsequent to the brutal attack on a Queensland police officer, who was rushed to a hospital in a critical condition, having been stabbed in the neck. The Townsville man, allegedly arrested at the scene of the attack which occurred at a Townsville bar on Saturday at 12:30am local time, was also charged with two counts of obstructing police, serious […]
Jasper Lindell, Correspondent (Oceania) CANBERRA — It has been a year of three prime ministers. The last came to office after what felt like a three-year election campaign. And still few people are satisfied. Julia Gillard had been the prime minister since half-way through 2010, when she won an internal leadership ballot against incumbent Kevin Rudd to become prime minister and leader of the Labor party. Following a close federal election, she formed a […]
Jasper Lindell, Correspondent (Oceania) ANALYSIS CANBERRA — Late on election night Tony Abbott made the victor’s speech. “And from today, I declare that Australia is under new management.” It didn’t take people long to realise just how different this management, led by Abbott, was. It was a Liberal government that wasn’t afraid to shake things up and make changes. In late September, three weeks after the election, the new education minister, Christopher Pyne, told […]
