Australia & Pacifics

(Reuters) --- The Australian state of Victoria extended on Wednesday a snap coronavirus lockdown in its capital of Melbourne for a second week, as it scrambles to rein in a highly contagious variant first detected in India, but will ease some curbs elsewhere.

Last Thursday's lockdown in Australia's second most populous state was to have run until Thursday, following the detection of the first locally acquired cases in three months, but infections rose and the number of close contacts reached several thousand.

Wellington, Jun 1 (AP-PTI) Floodwaters in New Zealand receded on Tuesday, leaving behind a big mess on many farms in the Canterbury region and damage to a major bridge.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters the top priority was getting transport links working again, although it was unclear how long it would take to fix the bridge that connects the town of Ashburton to the main highway south. Crews hoped to have an alternate route to the town ready by the end of the day.

CANBERRA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government is reconsidering making coronavirus vaccines mandatory for aged care workers.

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) ruled in January that COVID-19 vaccines would not be made compulsory for people working in residential aged care facilities.

However, with Victoria, the country's second-most populous state, thrust back into lockdown after a cluster of COVID-19 cases emerged in state capital Melbourne, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced that he has asked the panel to reconsider.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand announced Tuesday it was the latest country to sign a space agreement with NASA, just as New Zealand’s nascent space industry begins to take off.

New Zealand became the eleventh signatory to the Artemis Accords, a blueprint for space cooperation and supporting the U.S. space agency’s plans to return humans to the moon by 2024 and to launch a historic human mission to Mars.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said New Zealand was one of only a handful of nations able to launch rockets into space.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian court on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the federal government’s draconian power to prevent most citizens from leaving the country so that they don’t bring COVID-19 home.

Australia is alone among developed democracies in preventing its citizens and permanent residents from leaving the country except in “exceptional circumstances” where they can demonstrate a “compelling reason.”

Most Australians have been stranded in their island nation since March 2020 under a government emergency order made under the powerful Biosecurity Act.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The leaders of New Zealand and Australia downplayed their differences over China and urged more investigation into the origin of the coronavirus Monday after their first face-to-face meeting in more than a year.

The two leaders also indicated an Australian-born mass murderer would remain imprisoned in New Zealand.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Several hundred people in New Zealand were evacuated from their homes Monday with some recounting dramatic helicopter rescues as heavy rain caused widespread flooding in the Canterbury region.

Authorities declared a state of emergency after some places received as much as 40 centimeters (16 inches) of rain over the weekend and into Monday. Forecasters warned of possible heavy rain through Monday evening before conditions improved.

The military helped evacuate more than 50 people including several overnight in an NH-90 military helicopter.

SYDNEY, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Australian scientist on a World Health Organization (WHO) expert team sent to China on a COVID-19 origin-tracing mission defended the team's findings as some reports speculated about the "lab leak" theory and after U.S. President Joe Biden ordered intelligence agencies to carry out extra investigations into the source of the pandemic.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Growing friction with China and how to reopen borders after the pandemic will likely be among the topics discussed by the leaders of Australia and New Zealand in their first face-to-face meeting since the coronavirus outbreak prompted both countries to close their borders.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived in the tourist resort of Queenstown for an overnight visit Sunday. He greeted his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern with a traditional Maori hongi, in which the pair pressed noses together.

New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) Scientists have developed two new drugs to both prevent the COVID-19 infection, and also treat people who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus so that they do not develop severe disease.

The peptide-based drugs developed by researchers at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia are being tested in hamsters at France's pre-clinical and clinical research facility, IDMIT.

Early promising results, published in the journal Nature Cell Discovery, show the drugs are not toxic, and have few side effects.