Australia

7 Nov 2018; AFP: A huge runaway train laden with iron ore had to be derailed remotely after speeding through the Australian outback for almost an hour.

The 268-wagon train started on its solo journey when the driver got down from his cab to carry out an inspection, and was soon hurtling along at up to 110 kilometres (68 miles) per hour.

Mining giant BHP, which owns the four-locomotive train, decided to derail before it reached the town of Port Hedland near its Western Australia Pilbara site, and flicked the points.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government on Wednesday warned it intends to block a Hong Kong and Chinese consortium’s 13 billion Australian dollar ($9 billion) takeover bid for an energy infrastructure company because it conflicts with Australia’s national interest.

The CK Consortium needed approval of Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board to take over APA Group, which owns more than 43,700 kilometers (27,100 miles) of gas pipeline in Australia.

Sydney, Nov 1 (AFP) China's rising and "unprecedented influence" in the Indo-Pacific region will challenge American interests, but confrontation must not define relations between the two powers, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned Thursday.

In his first major foreign policy speech, Morrison tried to tread a careful line between Australia's alliance with the United States and engaging a rapidly and evermore assertive China.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia aims to remove all asylum seeker children from Nauru within two months as concerns escalate about their deteriorating health after languishing on the tiny Pacific atoll nation for up to five years.

But Cabinet ministers said Thursday the government is maintaining its much-criticized policy of sending all asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat to immigration camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Refugee advocates welcomed the change for children, 46 of whom were born in Nauru.

SYDNEY; 20 Oct 2018; (AP) — Australia’s ruling coalition was forced into minority government on Saturday after a massive swing against its senior partner, the Liberal Party, in a by-election for the seat of the prime minister the party itself had dismissed.

In a stinging backlash from the electorate after the fourth toppling of an Australian leader by internal party vote in just eight years, a swing of more than 20 percent against the sitting Liberals propelled independent candidate Kerryn Phelps to a decisive victory.

CANBERRA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Australia's prime minister has rejected calls from conservative colleagues to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

Speaking ahead of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, Prime Minister Scott Morrison repeated his previous claim that Australia would meet its emissions reduction target "at a canter."

Australia has committed to reducing its emissions by 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.

Australia's scandal-plagued banks were accused of putting profits before people and of failing to meet "basic standards of honesty" on Friday, as an official inquiry offered a damning assessment of the sector.

The nearly 1,000 page Royal Commission interim report painted a picture of a sector defined by greed, forgiving of misconduct and frequently flirting with illegality.

CANBERRA, 28 Sep 2018; Australia (AP) — The chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. resigned on Thursday over allegations that he pressured the independent national broadcaster to fire two political journalists because the ruling conservative government disliked them.

The scandal has damaged the credibility of both the governing coalition and the ABC, which is government-funded but is required by law to operate independently of party politics. The ABC is many Australians’ most trusted news source.

CANBERRA, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Two of Australia's big four banks have been accused of criminal offences over their treatment of superannuation customers.

In a submission to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, Michael Hodge, senior counsel assisting the commission, recommended that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and National Australia Bank (NAB) face criminal charges.

The CBA is Australia's largest bank while NAB is the second largest.

by Charles Happell

CANBERRA, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Scott Morrison rode a wave of late momentum to become Australia's 30th prime minister on Friday, as his colleagues in the ruling Liberal Party deciding that the Sydney member of parliament (MP) represented a greater chance of electoral success than his main challenger, Peter Dutton.

At the end of a dramatic week in Canberra, Morrison defeated Peter Dutton, 45 votes to 40, for the Liberal Party leadership, with the third challenger, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, eliminated in the first round of voting.