following the earlier discovery of an elderly man who died near the city
of Bundaberg.Boatpeople FaceLlifetime Ban From Australia?
SYDNEY: Australia moved Sunday to bar any refugee or asylum-seeker who arrives in the country illegally by boat from ever being able to apply for a visa, even as tourists or for business. 
The lifetime ban will be put to parliament this week, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull saying it was necessary to send an “absolutely, unflinching, unequivocal message” that boatpeople will never be allowed in Australia.
“This is a battle of will between the Australian people, represented by its government, and the criminal gangs of people-smugglers,” he said.
- “You should not underestimate the scale of the threat. These people-smugglers are the worst criminals imaginable. They have a multibillion-dollar business.
- “We have to be very determined to say no to their criminal plans.” Amendments to the migration act would be backdated to mid-2013, when former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd declared: “As of today, asylum-seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia.”
- Canberra currently sends all boatpeople to offshore processing camps on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus.
- They are already blocked from being resettled in Australia even if found to be genuine refugees. They can either return home, be resettled on Manus or Nauru, or go to a third country.
- The new legislation would affect those sent to Nauru and Manus from July 19, 2013, including those who have returned home, and anyone who arrives in the future.
But children will be exempt and the immigration minister would have the power to make exceptions. The Nauru facility holds just over 400 men, women and children.
Some 800 men are detained on Manus, which Australia in August agreed to close after a Papua New Guinea court ruling that holding people there was unconstitutional and illegal.
Rights group have alleged there is widespread abuse and self-harm in the camps. 
Turnbull said the move would reinforce to refugee advocates still hoping Australia will accept some of those on Nauru or Manus that it will never happen.
“We have one of the most generous humanitarian programs in the world,” he said.
“But the only reason we can do it, the only reason it has the public acceptance that it does, is because we are in command of our borders.
”
Australia has boosted its annual humanitarian refugee intake in recent years from 13,750 to 18,750, and has also agreed to take 12,000 displaced in Syria and Iraq.
”
Australia has boosted its annual humanitarian refugee intake in recent years from 13,750 to 18,750, and has also agreed to take 12,000 displaced in Syria and Iraq.
Since the start of “Operation Sovereign Borders” in September 2013, the government has managed to halt the flood of boat arrivals, and drownings, that characterized previous Labor administrations.
Labor had yet to decide whether to back the visa ban.
Labor had yet to decide whether to back the visa ban.
Source: AFP
DRONES TO CIRCLE AUSTRALIA BEACHES TO MONITOR SHARKS
SYDNEY, Australia - Drones will circle popular swimming spots in eastern
Australia and "listening stations" track tagged sharks as part of a
new strategy announced Sunday to keep beachgoers safe after a spate of bloody
attacks.
The country has one of the world's highest incidences of
shark attacks with 13 in New South Wales this year leaving one dead and seven
injured, threatening the beach tourism industry.
In response the nation's most populous state, which has
ruled out culling sharks, unveiled a five-year plan to address the issue,
including next-generation sonar systems and boosted aerial surveillance.
- The state's primary industries minister Niall Blair said the multi-faceted approach followed advice from experts attending a recent shark summit in Sydney and community consultation.
- "We are proud to be the first jurisdiction anywhere in the world to adopt an integrated approach toward keeping our beaches safe," he said.
The wide-ranging AUD16 million (RM49.13 million) plan to
protect swimmers and surfers, while minimizing harm to sharks, will see the
trial of drones to provide real-time vision, while boosting helicopter
surveillance.
The tagging of sharks will be stepped up, sonar detecting
buoys deployed and 20 "listening stations" built at known hot spots
using 4G technology to allow tagged animals to be monitored.
Source: The Sun Daily
AUSTRALIAN MOTHER ABANDONS CHILDREN TO JOIN ISLAMIC STATE
SYDNEY , Australia - A mother has abandoned her two children and fled
to Syria for a new life under the Islamic State group, media reported Tuesday,
becoming one of more than 100 Australians who have joined the jihadists.
The Australian government said it was deeply disturbed by the report and that it was monitoring the situation closely.
The Sydney Daily Telegraph said Jasmina Milovanov, a
26-year-old Muslim convert, left her children, aged five and seven, with a
babysitter earlier this month and never returned.
It cited her ex-husband as saying she sent a text message
telling him she was in Syria.
Milovanov is Facebook friends with former Melbourne woman
Zehra Duman, who is known in Australia as the “jihadi bride recruiter” and uses
social media to entice women to join the militant group.
Duman’s husband Mahmoud Abdullatif was reportedly killed fighting with the Islamic State group earlier this year.
Friends of Milovanov, cited by the Telegraph, said she had
often talked about marrying a jihadi fighter.
New South Wales state police confirmed its counter-terrorism
unit was investigating.
Source: AFP
BUSHFIRE BURNS OUT OF CONTROL IN SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY, Australia - Houses were lost as an intense bushfire raged out of control in South Australia on Saturday, as authorities warned the state faced its worst wildfire danger since deadly 1983 blazes.
Officials said the scenic Adelaide Hills, northeast of Adelaide city, faced “an incredibly dangerous fire” which, with high winds and temperatures forecast, was impossible to fight head-on.
Dotted with pretty villages, the area is known for its farming produce and wineries and has a population of some 40,000.
The blaze at Sampson Flat is burning freely in all directions and in an erratic manner, after spreading rapidly from a 154 hectare fire on Friday afternoon to one covering 4,741 hectares with a perimeter of 38 kilometres.
The fire is in rugged country and subject to unpredictable behaviour due to wind gusts, forcing firefighters to abandon hopes of stopping the blaze until the weather abates.
- So far five homes have been destroyed but authorities said this number could rise as winds reach speeds of up to 110 kilometres per hour.
Source: The Real Singapore
SRI LANKAN ASYLUM SEEKER SETS HIMSELF ON FIRE IN AUSTRALIA
MELBOURNE, Australia - A Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seeker has died after setting
himself on fire while awaiting a visa decision in Australia, Immigration
Minister Scott Morrison(pic) said Monday.
Leorsin Seemanpillai, 29, who was living in Geelong, outside
Melbourne, after being granted a temporary visa a year ago, suffered
burns to 90% of his body after the incident on 
Saturday morning. He died on Sunday in a Melbourne hospital.
Saturday morning. He died on Sunday in a Melbourne hospital.
“This man sadly died as a result of a very serious set of injuries that were self-inflicted,” Morrison said.
He added that authorities had been in touch with Seemanpillai’s father in India, who requested a funeral for his son in Geelong.
Seemanpillai, who arrived by boat in Australia in January 2013, was
receiving community mental health support and his refugee application
was still being processed, Morrison added.
“I can also advise that the last case worker contact with Mr
Seemanpillai was on Friday, May 30, and I am advised that there was no
concern or indication of any suicidal intention… at that time,” he said.
His death came as activists said seven Iranian asylum-seekers sewed
their lips shut on Sunday in a mass hunger-strike at an immigration
detention centre on Christmas Island – an Australian outpost in the
Indian Ocean.
Activists said about 400 asylum-seekers were refusing food as part of
a protest against the death of Iranian Reza Barati, who was killed in a
riot this year at another Australian detention centre on Manus Island
in Papua New Guinea.
- Morrison said Monday that protests were not uncommon at detention centres and that the matter was “well in hand”.
- Under Australia’s tough refugee policy, asylum-seekers who arrived by boat after July 2013 have been sent to detention centres on Manus Island or Nauru in the Pacific for processing and permanent resettlement.
- While most boat people come via Indonesia, many have also attempted the difficult trip from Sri Lanka, where they claim persecution over the country’s Tamil separatist conflict.
Australia has sent back dozens of Sri Lankan nationals who tried to enter the country illegally.
According to the immigration department, more than 24,000
asylum-seekers are living in Australia on bridging visas of the type
Seemanpillai was on.
A further 2,450 asylum-seekers are being held on Nauru and Manus
Island and another 823 are detained on Christmas Island.
Source: AFP.
NSW AUSTRALIA BRACED FOR LOSS OF HOMES, IF NOT LIFE
HUNDREDS of homes are feared destroyed and the NSW premier believes it will be a miracle if no lives are lost in the most grave bushfire crisis to hit the state in a decade.
While the extent of the devastation was unclear on Thursday night, one of the worst-hit areas was Springwood, in the Blue Mountains, where up to 30 homes were known to be lost.
But when the ashes settle, the number of destroyed or damaged properties across the state is expected to be much worse.
Elsewhere, thousands of firefighters were struggling against around 100 blazes across the state - on the Central Coast and further north, the Southern Highlands and the south coast.
- It was too soon to estimate how many properties had been lost, but Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons predicted: "we'll be counting properties in the dozens, if not the hundreds."
- Premier Barry O'Farrell and Mr Fitzsimmons told reporters the public should brace for widespread destruction.
FOUR DEAD IN AUSTRALIA FLOODS
BRISBANE, Australia - Helicopters plucked dozens of stranded Australians to safety
in dramatic rooftop rescues on Monday as severe floods swept the
northeast, killing at least four people and inundating thousands of homes.
The body of one man carried off by rising waters was found in the
Queensland state capital Brisbane and another further north at Gympie,
following the earlier discovery of an elderly man who died near the city
of Bundaberg.
following the earlier discovery of an elderly man who died near the city
of Bundaberg.
A pregnant woman and her three-year-old son were hospitalised after a
large tree fell on them as they were walking on Monday morning in
Brisbane. They were reported to have head injuries, with the child in
critical condition.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman
announced that an acute emergency
was unfolding in Bundaberg, home to about 50,000 people some 360
kilometres north of Brisbane, with people scrambling to get out as the
river hit a record peak.
Hundreds were last night spending the night in evacuation centres across central and southern Queensland as floodwaters climbed towards record heights in some parts.
Emergency crews were working to rescue people isolated by the rising waters.The widespread disaster, triggered by heavy rainfall and wind from cyclone Oswald
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman
announced that an acute emergency
was unfolding in Bundaberg, home to about 50,000 people some 360
kilometres north of Brisbane, with people scrambling to get out as the
river hit a record peak.Hundreds were last night spending the night in evacuation centres across central and southern Queensland as floodwaters climbed towards record heights in some parts.
Emergency crews were working to rescue people isolated by the rising waters.The widespread disaster, triggered by heavy rainfall and wind from cyclone Oswald
Source: Agency
PETS ASHES BANG INTO THE SKIES AT AUSTRALIA’S FIREWORKS FUNERAL
SYDNEY, Australia -
Warren Blackwell held onto the ashes of his beloved canine companion Gypsy for
eight years, never able to find the right place or occasion to celebrate her
life.
"I've
never been able to part with them, I've never been able to come up with
anything that was suitable to do with them that would make me happy," he
said.
The smart,
loyal Staffordshire bull terrier was hit by a car when she was just four years
old, shortly after Blackwell moved to the city from the countryside, a
horrifying moment he said compounded his need to give her a proper farewell.
"I
was giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and I tried to get her to the
hospital, to the vet, but she didn't make it," he said.
"I
didn't want something that was all about her death. I wanted it to be about her
life." So Blackwell didn't think twice when friend Craig Hull, a trained circus performer and pyrotechnician asked whether he'd like to send Gypsy off in style, as the first customer of his fireworks funeral firm, Ashes to Ashes.
"When
Craig suggested this I said 'mate I want to be first cab off the rank',"
he told AFP, watching the sun set over the glittering waters of Sydney Harbour
-- soon to be Gypsy's final resting place.
"I've
seen the shell, and I've seen her go into the tube over there, she's over there
waiting. I know she's going to make a loud bang, that much I'm sure of."
The Ashes
to Ashes story began almost three years ago when Hull's two beloved dogs,
German shepherd-Akita cross Zeus and Gyprock, a white labrador-cattle dog
cross, died, leaving a "big hole" in the performer's life.
He'd
already scattered the ashes of a friend during an aerial routine at an opening
ceremony for one of the Olympics -- he won't say which -- and felt his dogs
deserved something even more spectacular.
Source: The Sun Daily...More...
AUSTRALIA CREATES WORLD’S LARGEST NETWORK OF MARINE RESERVES
SYDNEY, Australia - Australia on Friday created
the world’s largest network of marine reserves, protecting a huge swathe of
ocean environment despite claims it will devastate the fishing industry. 
The plan will entail six marine
regions covering more than 2.3 million square kilometres of Australian
waters, Xinhua news agency reported.
The marine reserves are a world
first and will only have a minor impact on commercial fishing, said Environment Minister Tony Burke.
"There are some areas
where you've got fishing still continuing but some activities such as
trawling are banned, while you have some areas where oil and gas
exploration is banned," he said.
Business affected by the
changes will be able to access 100 million dollars in assistance.
The government announced its
proposal to create the network of marine reserves in June, saying it would
consult with affected industries about how they should be
implemented.
New marine reserves have been
proclaimed in five of Australia's six large marine regions, with the
reserves in the Southeast region announced in 2007.
Source: Agency
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
