Oceania

Western Australia, the mining-heavy state that has held firm on strict borders controls for two years, said it will be reopening to triple vaccinated visitors after deciding it can cope ...

A shark killed a swimmer off a Sydney beach on Wednesday in the city’s first fatal attack in nearly 60 years, causing “catastrophic injuries”, police and ambulance services said. Witnesses ...

New Zealand police on Thursday arrested 120 people as they attempted to forcefully remove hundreds of protesters camped outside parliament to protest Covid-19 vaccine mandates and tough coronavirus restrictions. Inspired by ...

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday that the reopening of the country’s borders to international tourists may not be far away, adding that the parliament will debate ...

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stayed in self-isolation on Sunday, as the country recorded 103 new COVID-19 infections and its tough border controls were highlighted by a pregnant journalist who ...

Australia will seek to be included in consultations about a trade dispute between the European Union and China launched by the EU at the World Trade Organisation, the Australian trade ...

Hip-hop artist Kanye West will have to be fully vaccinated if he wants to play concerts in Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday, after media said the performer ...

Australia suffered its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday with nearly 100 deaths, but several large states said they expect hospital admissions to fall amid hopes that the latest ...

By Kirsty Needham and Praveen Menon Tongans queued for limited money services that were restored in the Pacific island’s capital on Saturday, as the clean-up continued a week after ...

Scientists have discovered a pristine, 3-km (1.8-mile) long reef of giant rose-shaped corals off the coast of Tahiti, in waters thought to be deep enough to protect it from the ...

An Australian court said on Thursday it dismissed tennis superstar Novak Djokovic’s challenge to his visa cancellation as the minister who revoked it reasonably believed Djokovic, who is not ...

Telephone links between Tonga and the wider world began to be reconnected on Wednesday, though restoring full internet connectivity is likely to take a month or more according to the ...

Two New Zealand navy vessels will arrive in Tonga on Friday carrying critical water supplies for the Pacific island nation reeling from a volcanic eruption and tsunami and largely cut ...

Australian COVID-19 cases soared to a pandemic record on Tuesday as the Omicron variant ripped through most of the country, driving up hospitalisation rates as the once-formidable testing regime buckled ...

Australia on Thursday narrowed its definition of close contacts of coronavirus cases and relaxed requirements for COVID-19 tests, as daily cases topped 20,000 for the first time in the pandemic, in ...

Australia will seek to make urgent changes to COVID-19 testing rules to ease pressure on test sites as infections surged and the country’s most populous state reported a near ...

Australia reported its first confirmed death from the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Monday amid another surge in daily infections, but the authorities refrained from imposing new restrictions saying ...

Australia on Friday narrowed the wait time for people to receive Covid-19 booster shots as another record jump in daily infections resulted in cancelled flights and sent Christmas travel plans ...

New Zealand authorities on Monday said they had linked a 26-year-old man’s death to Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine after the person suffered myocarditis, a rare inflammation of the ...

By Sonali Paul An 11-year-old boy died on Sunday from a jumping castle accident four days ago in Australia’s island state Tasmania, taking the death toll from the tragedy ...

A fire swept through a psychiatry clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, with 27 people feared dead and police reported to be investigating possible arson. The blaze broke ...

Four children were killed and several more badly injured in Australia after strong winds lifted an inflated jumping castle into the air during end-of-year school celebrations, causing them to fall 10 ...

New Zealand plans to ban young people from ever buying cigarettes in their lifetime in one of the world’s toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry, arguing that other efforts ...

Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy, will close its borders to all foreigners, while Australia’s plans to re-open to skilled migrants were also in doubt as nations scrambled on ...