Australia & Pacifics

SYDNEY, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Virgin Australia have assured the public that they will not introduce any new aircraft to their fleet unless completely satisfied with its safety, the airline said on Wednesday.

The statement came after Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines crash which killed all 157 people on board.

Just five months prior, another Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Lion Air also went down in Indonesia, killing 189 people.

Australia has suspended all flights into or out of the country by Boeing 737 Max aircraft, the type that was involved in Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority says no Australian airlines operate the aircraft type, but two foreign airlines — SilkAir and Fiji Airways — fly them to Australia.

It says Singapore-based SilkAir has already suspended operation of its 737 Max aircraft.

09 Mar 2019; AFP: Australia has admitted it had not focused enough attention on its Pacific backyard but vowed to make "long overdue" amends, amid growing Chinese influence in the region.

"I think we would have to accept some criticism," Australia's minister for international development and the Pacific, Anne Ruston, told AFP on Friday.

"We have perhaps not put as much attention and effort into our own region as we should of."

07 Mar 2019; AFP: Convicted Australian Cardinal George Pell faced a fresh legal challenge Thursday after a civil suit was filed against him for further alleged abuse in the 1970s.

Pell -- the most senior Vatican official to be found guilty of child sex crimes -- is currently in detention awaiting sentencing for assaulting two choirboys in Melbourne in the 1990s.

He maintains his innocence and an appeal is scheduled for June.

02 Mar 2019; AFP: Australia's defence minister and his deputy both announced they were quitting politics on Saturday, bringing to five the number of cabinet members retiring as Prime Minister Scott Morrison heads into a fraught election.

Defence Minister Christopher Pyne, the most moderate remaining member of Morrison's conservative coalition government, said he was stepping down at the next election, due by mid-May, to begin a business career.

27 Feb 2019; DW: Australian Cardinal George Pell will spend his first night in prison after a judge revoked his bail on Wednesday.

Victorian state County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd revoked Pell's bail at the end of a sentencing hearing before corrections officers took him into custody. Kidd said he would deliver Pell's sentence on March 13.

WELLINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Of New Zealand households on a low income, 4 in 10 also have the smallest safety-net of household wealth to fall back on if they lose a job or face unexpected costs, Stats NZ said Wednesday.

"Many households with a low income have little wealth behind them," labour market and household statistics senior manager Jason Attewell said.

"But perhaps surprisingly, a low income doesn't always mean low wealth. About 1 in 10 households with a low income is in the wealthiest group in society."

26 Feb 2019; AFP: Australian Cardinal George Pell, one of Pope Francis' closest advisors, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two choirboys, becoming the most senior Catholic cleric ever convicted of child sex crimes.

An Australian jury unanimously found Pell guilty in December on one count of sexual abuse and four counts of indecent assault against two boys at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in the 1990s.

CANBERRA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has downplayed the results of an opinion poll which showed that the governing Liberal-National party coalition (LNP) still trails the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the run up to the general election in May.

The latest Newspoll, released on Sunday night, revealed that the LNP trails the ALP 47-53 on a two-party preferred basis.

The result comes despite Morrison leading an all-out assault on Labor over its border protection policies over the last two weeks.

SYDNEY, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Record numbers of migratory and threatened waterbirds have been spotted along the mid coast of Australia's New South Wales state, with the birds possibly finding new flight paths amid the major loss of feeding grounds, according to latest surveys.

Nearly 4,000 waterbirds were recorded in just one day in the state's Port Stephens area, with "significant numbers" of the critically endangered eastern curlew migratory shorebird found, local media reported on Sunday.