Premier says move will end the ‘nexus between money and political power’ and challenges state and federal counterparts to follow suit. The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has announced plans to ban political donations from state elections, paving the way for nation-leading electoral reforms....
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville spent a month with revolutionary forces at jungle bases and on front lines in Myanmar....Two loudspeakers, as big as the men carrying them, are brought to the rocky hilltop. Some 800m below, in the town of Hpasang, lies a sprawling Myanmar army base....
Heavy rains triggered flash floods and caused torrents of cold lava and mud to flow down a volcano’s slopes on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, killing at least 41 people and leaving more than a dozen others missing, officials have said. Monsoon rains and a major mudslide from a cold lava flow on Mount Marapi caused a river to...
The Prime Minister has been heavily criticised after documents from his government criticising Australia and New Zealand against China were leaked to media. The leaked document from Tonga’s Foreign Affairs Ministry shows that kingdom’s officials sharply criticised Australia and New Zealand’s response to the security pact...
Indonesia's Ruang volcano erupted on Tuesday, spewing lava as lightning flashes lit up its crater, prompting authorities to raise the alert status and evacuate more than 12,000 people living on a nearby island. The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) had warned the residents of Tagulandang island that...
Private job providers can claim public money when jobseekers find work. But they need their payslips to do so, and some resort to extreme methods to get them
At least 800 people in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province have been evacuated after multiple eruptions of the area's Ruang volcano, which for days has spewed lava and ash clouds into the sky, the country's volcanology agency said on Wednesday....
The northern municipality of Sara has declared a state of calamity due to severe impacts from the El Niño phenomenon on its agriculture. Vice Mayor Ryan Zerrudo announced the decision on Friday morning, April 12, after a special session of the Sangguniang Bayan (SB)....
The Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) has declared its solidarity with civil society groups and student protesters demonstrating against the torture of a Papuan man, Defianus Kogoya, by Indonesian troops in West Papua last February....
The French Senate on Tuesday endorsed a Constitutional review project bearing significant modifications to the local electoral rules for New Caledonia, but with amendments. The text passed with 233 votes in favour and 99 against....
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced $6 million in humanitarian assistance to those affected by conflict in Gaza and Sudan during his ongoing visit to Egypt. “There are huge and urgent humanitarian needs in both Gaza and Sudan, and it is important that New Zealand continues to make its contribution to international...
Lawmakers in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament have overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill hat would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender. The bill passed its final reading with the approval of 400 of the 415 members of the House of...
On a starry night, four Thai marine biologists scuba dived through shallow waters off an island in the country's south as billions of pink specks floated up from the ocean floor in a spectacle that takes place only once a year. The pink specks were sperm and eggs released by coral. The scientists collected as many samples as...
New Zealand’s international spy agency has been rebuked for hosting a foreign agency’s spy operation for several years without telling its minister, and without knowing whether doing so was contributing to military strikes overseas....
A project to reduce the number of plastics entering the country, focused on the food and beverage sector, was discussed during a workshop in Rarotonga this week. Like other countries around the world, the Cook Islands is an importer and end user of items with single-use plastic packaging....
Indonesian rescuers stepped up search efforts for 21 missing Indonesian fishermen on Thursday night, officials said, with another survivor found after their boat capsized days earlier leaving two dead. At least 12 crew have been found after they survived for days by clinging to their boat when it overturned on Saturday in waters...
Federated States of Micronesia President Wesley Simina has declared a national emergency due to severe drought, and sent it to his country's Congress for review. The president's signed declaration said the nation has been experiencing "extremely and unusually low levels" of rainfall, and it is anticipated that this condition...
Sentencing for the tour booking agents and managers of an island in New Zealand where a volcanic eruption killed 22 people, mostly tourists, in 2019 began on Monday, with the prosecutor warning those sentenced may not be able to pay a fine....
Three Cambodian activists arrested in Thailand will not be deported to their homeland and will be resettled elsewhere, a deputy police chief said on Wednesday, after human rights groups had raised concern about their fate if sent home.
Indonesian defence minister and presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto has extended a commanding lead in the polls ahead of February's election, with a series of recent surveys showing the former general now has a more than 20-point lead....
Australia on Monday said it would tighten visa rules for international students and low-skilled workers that could halve its migrant intake over the next two years as the government looks to overhaul what it said was a "broken" migration system.
Indonesian authorities halted the search for 12 climbers after Mount Marapi volcano erupted again, unleashing a new burst of hot ash as high as 800 metres into the air, officials said....