One person has died, and several others have been injured as a tropical low moves west across the Australian east coast, reports AP. Heavy rainfall is expected to continue battering parts of the Australian east coast for several more days, despite the region escaping the destructive winds of its first tropical cyclone in 51 years, officials said on Saturday. Authorities confirmed one fatality and multiple injuries. Evacuations ordered as first cyclone in 51 years approaches Australia Tropical Cyclone Alfred was initially predicted to be the first cyclone to make landfall near Brisbane, the capital of Queensland and Australia’s third-largest city, since 1974. However, on Saturday, it weakened into a tropical low—characterised by sustained winds of less than 63 kph (39 mph)—and stalled off the Brisbane coast for several hours. According to Matt Collopy, a Bureau of Meteorology manager, the cyclone's remnants are expected to move west across the Australian mainland over the coming days, bringing intense rainfall. “The primary concern now is the locally heavy-to-intense rainfall, which may result in flash and riverine flooding,” Collopy told reporters. Cyclones frequently occur in Queensland’s tropical north but are uncommon in the state’s more temperate and densely populated southeast, which borders New South Wales. 3 dead after light planes collided in Australia Police reported that a 61-year-old man, who went missing in a flooded river near Dorrigo in New South Wales, was confirmed as the first fatality when his body was recovered on Saturday. Additionally, several defence personnel sustained injuries when two military trucks involved in the emergency response collided in Tregeagle, New South Wales, on Saturday, according to police. Media outlets, including Nine Network television, reported that 36 people were injured in the accident, eight of them seriously, while two individuals remained trapped inside the trucks. A woman suffered minor injuries after the roof of an apartment building in the Queensland border city of Gold Coast was torn off on Friday, police said. She was among 21 residents evacuated from the building. Officials reported that a couple sustained minor injuries when a tree crashed through the ceiling of their Gold Coast bedroom during strong winds and rain on Thursday night. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli stated that 330,000 homes and businesses had lost power since Thursday due to the storm. No previous natural disaster had caused a larger blackout in the state’s history. In New South Wales, up to 45,000 properties were left without electricity on Saturday, although officials said tens of thousands had been reconnected by late afternoon. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, days of heavy rainfall have resulted in flooding across Queensland and New South Wales. The missing man was the only casualty among 36 flood rescues conducted by emergency teams in northern New South Wales in recent days, most of which involved vehicles attempting to drive through floodwaters, police said.

A man has gone missing in floodwaters, evacuations have been ordered in flood-prone areas, and tens of thousands of homes lost power on Friday as the Australian east coast faced heavy rain and winds ahead of its first tropical cyclone in 51 years, reports AP. Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to make landfall north of Brisbane in Queensland state early Saturday, according to Bureau of Meteorology manager Matt Collopy. 3 dead after light planes collided in Australia Collopy stated, “It’s important to note that the exact track is still uncertain,” adding that Alfred was moving west with winds near 95 kph (59 mph) and gusts up to 130 kph (81 mph). However, the storm is anticipated to weaken as it approaches Brisbane, and destructive winds are unlikely for the city itself. Damaging gusts of up to 120 kph (75 mph) are still expected to develop quickly as the storm nears. The missing man was driving an SUV that was swept off a bridge near Dorrigo in northern New South Wales on Friday afternoon, a region that has seen significant rainfall in recent days. Police said the driver managed to escape the SUV and hold onto a tree branch 30 meters (100 feet) from the riverbank. Though they were able to speak to him before he was swept away, he has since disappeared underwater. Emergency teams have launched a search. At least five people have been rescued from floodwaters as rivers rise in New South Wales. In Queensland, two people narrowly avoided being struck by a large tree that fell on their home in Currumbin Valley on Thursday night. The couple was only centimeters from where the tree landed in their bedroom, but they sustained only minor injuries, according to Queensland Ambulance Service. Power outages have affected 46,000 homes and businesses in Queensland, mainly in the Gold Coast area, due to fallen trees. In northern New South Wales, 43,000 properties lost power, though 6,500 had their electricity restored by Friday afternoon. State Emergency Service acting chief superintendent Stuart Fisher reported that 19,000 people in New South Wales had been ordered to evacuate their homes by noon to avoid being trapped by flooding. Cyclones are common in Queensland’s tropical north, but rare in the state’s southeastern regions, which are densely populated and border New South Wales. Popular tourist destinations like the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast have been hit by large waves and high tides generated by Alfred, which have caused significant beach erosion. Alfred is expected to become the first cyclone to hit the Brisbane area since Cyclone Zoe struck Gold Coast in 1974, bringing widespread flooding. The storm has been tracking south from the tropics for weeks. Lithuanian rower Aurimas Mockus, 44, was rowing solo from San Diego, California, to Brisbane when he became stranded in the Coral Sea last week due to the storm’s conditions. An Australian warship battled 16-meter (52-foot) swells to rescue him 740 kilometers (460 miles) east of Mackay, Queensland. Mockus was finally reunited with his wife in Sydney on Friday. Australia rejects Beijing's claims over rife with 'racism, hate crimes' Mockus, relieved to be safe, told reporters in Sydney he thought he was going to die when he activated his emergency beacon on Feb. 28, waiting three days for rescue. He recalled the terrifying experience, saying his boat rolled 30 times in tumultuous seas, and described his boat as sinking with broken equipment, including a faulty radio. “I thought if I lost my mind, I’d have nothing left to fight for,” he added.

Three men died after two light planes collided midair and crashed into a forested area southwest of Sydney on Saturday. Australian police, fire and ambulance crews reached the two wreckage sites, located in a semirural bushland area about 55 miles southwest of Sydney, on foot. One plane had burst into flames on impact. New South Wales Police Acting Superintendent Timothy Calman confirmed that a Cessna 182 carrying two people collided with an ultralight aircraft from a nearby airfield carrying one. Further details of the victims have not been disclosed. Anti-war protesters in Australia clash with police outside a weapons convention Witnesses saw “debris coming from the sky” and tried to help, but “there was probably not much that could’ve been done,” Calman said to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . He noted both crashes, about one kilometer apart, were “not survivable.” NSW Ambulance Inspector Joseph Ibrahim, part of the emergency response team, said to the ABC, “unfortunately, there was nothing they could’ve done.” The cause of the crash will be investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected accusations from Beijing that his country is “plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes” after an Australian diplomat led a group of Western nations in renewing concerns about human rights violations in China. “When it comes to China, we’ve said we’ll cooperate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must, and we’ll engage in our national interest, and we’ve raised issues of human rights with China,” Albanese told reporters on Thursday as he arrived in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa for a Commonwealth leaders’ summit. A day earlier, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian had denounced a statement made by 15 nations to the United Nations General Assembly this week — presented by a top Australian envoy — underscoring “ongoing concerns” about “serious human rights violations” in Xinjiang and Tibet. James Larsen, Australia’s ambassador to the U.N., urged China to “uphold the international human rights obligations that it has voluntarily assumed” by releasing “all individuals arbitrarily detained in both Xinjiang and Tibet, and urgently clarifying the fate and whereabouts of missing family members.” The statement amounted to “political manipulation under the pretext of human rights,” Jian said Wednesday. Singling out Australia for rebuke, Jian said the country was “long plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes” and should resolve its own affairs rather than criticizing China’s. Albanese said Australia would “always stand up for Australia’s interests” and had raised the matter of human rights with Beijing in a "consistent and clear way.” The Chinese government launched in 2017 a campaign of assimilation in the northwestern Xinjiang region — home to 11 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities — that has included mass detentions, alleged political indoctrination, alleged family separations and alleged forced labor among other methods. More than 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other ethnic minorities are estimated to have been held in extralegal internment camps. The Chinese government at the time described the camps as ” vocational training centers.” The U.N. Human Rights Office in 2022 found accusations of rights violations in Xinjiang “credible” and said China may have committed crimes against humanity in the region. Larson in his statement also cited “credible” reports of China subjecting Tibetans to coercive labor, separation of children from their families, erosion of cultural and religious freedoms, and detention for peaceful political protests. He urged “unfettered and meaningful access” to Xinjiang and Tibet for independent observers. “No country has a perfect human rights record, but no country is above fair scrutiny of its human rights obligations,” Larson added. In response, Jian decried what he said was Australia’s hypocrisy, citing the country’s treatment of refugees, immigrants and Indigenous people. “Australian soldiers have committed abhorrent crimes in Afghanistan and other countries during their military operations overseas,” Jian said. Jian appeared to be referring to allegations that elite Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and civilians between 2005 and 2016, which led to a number of senior military officers recently being stripped of their medals. Australia's past policy of refusing to allow asylum seekers who attempt to reach its shores by boat to ever settle in the country is also often cited by China as tarnishing the country's standing on human rights. Beijing’s economic ties with Canberra are thawing after several years of official and unofficial trade blocks. But the relationship remains tense on matters of human rights and geopolitics as China becomes militarily more belligerent in the Asia-Pacific region and Australia grows closer to its Western-intelligence sharing partners, particularly the U.S. Chinese Premier Qiang Li said during a state visit to Australia in June that he had agreed with Albanese to “properly manage” their nations’ differences. However Justin Bassi, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said China's rebuke this week was an “overreaction" intended to warn Canberra to pull its punches. “By limiting all but the most unavoidable criticisms of China to statements delivered by officials rather than ministers, Australia was offering Beijing a compromise,” Bassi said. “Instead of taking that as a win, China is biting back hard.”

A self-described Nazi on Tuesday became the first person convicted in the Australian state of Victoria of performing an outlawed Nazi salute. Jacob Hersant, 25, gave the salute and praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in front of news media cameras outside the Victoria County Court on Oct. 27, 2023, after he had appeared on a unrelated charge. It was six days after the Victoria state government had made the salute illegal. The Federal Parliament passed legislation in December that outlawed nationwide performing the Nazi salute in public or to publicly display, or trade in, Nazi hate symbols. Renowned Nazi hunter in France advises Jews to choose far right over far left in elections A Melbourne magistrate found Hersant guilty, dismissing defense lawyers’ arguments that the gesture wasn’t a salute and that the ban unconstitutionally infringed upon Hersant’s implied freedom of political communication. Hersant is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday and could face 12 months in prison and a fine. Three men were convicted in June of performing the Nazi salute during a soccer match in Sydney on Oct. 1, 2022. New South Wales state had banned Nazi symbols in 2022. They were each fined and have appealed. Hersant told reporters outside court that he would consider an appeal to a higher court. He said he did “not necessarily” acknowledge that he had given a Nazi salute when he was filmed by media cameras a year ago. German court convicts a prominent far-right politician for using a Nazi slogan again “But I do give the Nazi salute and I am a Nazi,” Hersant said. “I’ll still continue to give the salute, but hopefully police officers don’t see it." Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich, a leading opponent of antisemitism in Australia, said the verdict filled him with a profound sense of relief. “This is a historic and thundering day for justice and decency,” Abramovich said.

Australian police said Wednesday they have infiltrated Ghost, an encrypted global communications app developed for criminals, leading to dozens of arrests. The app's alleged administrator, Jay Je Yoon Jung, 32, appeared in a Sydney court Wednesday on charges including supporting a criminal organization and benefitting from proceeds of crime. Jung did not enter pleas or apply to be released on bail. He will remain behind bars until his case returns to court in November. Australian police arrested 38 suspects in raids across four states in recent days while law enforcement agencies were also making arrests in Canada, Sweden, Ireland and Italy, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney said. “We allege hundreds of criminals including Italian organized crime, motorcycle gang members, Middle Eastern organized crime and Korean organized crime have used Ghost in Australia and overseas to import illicit drugs and order killings,” McCartney told reporters. Australian police had prevented 50 people from being killed, kidnapped or seriously hurt by monitoring threats among 125,000 messages and 120 video calls since March, Assistant Commissioner Kirsty Schofield said. Police allege the Jung developed the app specifically for criminal use in 2017. Australia joined a Europol-led global taskforce targeting Ghost in 2022. Col. Florian Manet, who heads France’s Home Affairs Ministry National Cyber Command Technical Department, said in a statement issued by Australian police that his officers provided technical resources to the task force over several years that helped decrypt the communications. McCartney said the French had “provided a foot in the door” for Australian police to decrypt Ghost communications. Australian police technicians were able to modify software updates regularly pushed out by the administrator, McCartney said. “In effect, we infected the devices, enabling us to access the content on Australian devices,” McCartney said, adding that the alleged administrator lived in his parents’ Sydney home and had no police record. Jung was arrested at his home on Tuesday. Police say Jung used a network of resellers to offer specialized handsets to criminals around the world. The modified smartphones sold for 2,350 Australian dollars ($1,590) which included a six-month subscription to Ghost and tech support.

Anti-war protesters clashed with police on Wednesday outside a military arms convention in the Australian city of Melbourne. Protesters hurled bottles, rocks and horse manure, a police statement said. They also sprayed officers with liquid irritants, some of which were identified as acid, police said. Police retaliated with pepper spray, flash distraction devices and rubber bullets, which are designed to inflict pain without penetrating the skin. At least 24 officers required medical treatment. Police arrested 39 protesters for offenses such as assault, arson and blocking roadways. “Victoria Police is appalled at the behavior of some of the protesters,” the statement said, referring to the Victoria state force. Around 1,800 police officers have been deployed to a Melbourne convention center where the Land Forces International Land Defense Exposition is taking place through Friday. Some of the convention attendees also were assaulted, police said. Protesters also threw rocks, horse manure and tomatoes at police horses and officers with shields and wearing riot gear. A police officer on horseback struck a protester with a riding crop and a line of police were seen forcing protesters away from the convention center. Police said some protesters targeted the horses, but no animal sustained serious injury. Roads have been closed and traffic was disrupted by the protests, organized by Students for Palestine and Disrupt Wars groups. The organizers hoped up to 25,000 protesters would turn out. Police estimated 1,200 protesters had surrounded the convention center by noon. Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said it was the state police force's biggest planned deployment since Melbourne hosted the World Economic Forum in 2000 and backed his officers' use of force. He said the protesters had planned for conflict. "They come her to protest ... anti-war so presumably anti-violence," Patton told reporters. “The only way I can describe them is a bunch of hypocrites.” Students for Palestine national co-convenor Jasmine Duff blamed police for the protest violence. “They used serious weapons on peace activists that should be banned for use on demonstrators, including pepper spray, which is classified as a chemical weapon,” Duff said in a statement. “They hit us with batons, including hitting one man so hard he had to go to hospital and they shot us with rubber bullets,” she added. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called on protesters to show respect for police. “People have a right to protest peacefully, but you don’t say you’re opposed to defense equipment by throwing things at police,” Albanese told Seven Network television. “They’ve got a job to do and our police officers should be respected at all times." The organizer of the biennial convention, AMDA Foundation, said it would not comment on protester activity. The gathering brings together arms industry figures from Australia, the United States, Asia and Europe. In 2022, the convention was held in the city of Brisbane where protests were more subdued.

A charity working with homeless people in Auckland, New Zealand unknowingly distributed candies filled with a potentially lethal dose of methamphetamine in its food parcels after the sweets were donated by a member of the public. Auckland City Mission on Wednesday said that staff had started to contact up to 400 people to track down parcels that could contain the sweets — which were solid blocks of methamphetamine enclosed in candy wrappers. Three people were treated in hospital after consuming them, New Zealand authorities said, but were later discharged. The amount of methamphetamine in each candy was up to 300 times the level someone would usually take and could be lethal, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation — a drug checking and policy organization, which first tested the candies. Ben Birks Ang, a Foundation spokesperson, said disguising drugs as innocuous goods was a common cross-border smuggling technique and more of the candies might have been distributed throughout New Zealand. The sweets had a high street value of NZ$ 1,000 ($608) per candy, which suggested the donation by an unknown member of the public was accidental rather than a deliberate attack, Birks Ang said. The authorities' “initial perceptions” were that the episode was likely an importation scheme gone awry, said Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin, but the nature and scale of the operation was unknown. Officers have recovered 16 of the candies, but do not know how many are circulating, he said. The City Missioner, Helen Robinson, said eight families, including at least one child, had reported consuming the contaminated candies since Tuesday. The “revolting” taste meant most had immediately spat them out. The charity's food bank only accepts donations of commercially produced food in sealed packaging, Robinson said. The pineapple candies, stamped with the label of Malaysian brand Rinda, “appeared as such when they were donated," arriving in a retail-sized bag, she added. Auckland City Mission was alerted Tuesday by a food bank client who reported “funny-tasting” candy. Staff tasted some of the remaining candies and immediately contacted the authorities. One staff member was taken to hospital after sampling the sweet, Baldwin said, adding that a child and a “young person” were also treated in hospital before being discharged. The candies had been donated sometime in the past six weeks, Robinson said. It was not clear how many had been distributed in that time and how many were made of methamphetamine. Rinda said in a written statement the company had learned through New Zealand news reports that its candies “may have been misused” and would cooperate with authorities. “We want to make it clear that Rinda Food Industries does not use or condone the use of any illegal drugs in our products,” said General Manager Steven Teh. Methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It takes the form of a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol.

A passenger train collided head-on with a freight train in the Czech Republic, killing at least four people and injuring 27 others, officials said Thursday. Interior Minister Vít Rakušan said the crash took place late Wednesday night in the city of Pardubice, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Prague. The high-speed passenger train belonged to the private RegioJet company. Rakušan said none of the injured was in life-threatening condition. Rescuers said 380 passengers were on board the train heading for the city of Kosice in eastern Slovakia and further to Chop across the border in Ukraine. The dead were not immediately identified. The drivers of both trains survived, the local CTK news agency said. Transport Minister Martin Kupka said the main track between Prague and the eastern part of the country had to be closed while authorities investigated the collision. It was only partially reopened nine hours later and the state-run train company, Czech Railways, advised that passengers should avoid using the route for the whole day. The corridor in Pardubice, where the trains collided, is vital for Czech Railways. It said the line will also likely be closed tomorrow. “We can't and won't speculate about the cause of the accident," Kupka said. Police said later they were investigating possible negligence. Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the crash a big tragedy and offered his condolences to the families of those killed. So did Radim Jančura, the owner of RegioJet, who said his company was ready to compensate the passengers.

The International Organization for Migration on Sunday increased its estimate of the death toll from a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea to more than 670. Serhan Aktoprak, the chief of the U.N. migration agency's mission in the South Pacific island nation, said the revised death toll was based on calculations by Yambali village and Enga provincial officials that more than 150 homes had been buried by Friday's landslide. The previous estimate had been 60 homes. “They are estimating that more than 670 people (are) under the soil at the moment,” Aktoprak told The Associated Press. Local officials had initially put the death toll on Friday at 100 or more. Only five bodies and a leg of a sixth victim had been recovered by Sunday. Riots in Papua New Guinea's 2 biggest cities reportedly leave 15 dead Emergency responders in Papua New Guinea were moving survivors to safer ground on Sunday as tons of unstable earth and tribal warfare, which is rife in the country's Highlands, threatened the rescue effort. The South Pacific island’s government meanwhile is considering whether it needs to officially request more international support. Crews have given up hope of finding survivors under earth and rubble 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet) deep, Aktoprak said. “People are coming to terms with this so there is a serious level of grieving and mourning,” he said. Government authorities were establishing evacuation centers on safer ground on either side of the massive swath of debris that covers an area the size of three to four football fields and has cut the main highway through the province. “Working across the debris is very dangerous and the land is still sliding,” Aktoprak said. Beside the blocked highway, convoys that have transported food, water and other essential supplies since Saturday to the devastated village 60 kilometers (35 miles) from the provincial capital, Wabag, have faced risks related to tribal fighting in Tambitanis village, about halfway along the route. Papua New Guinea soldiers were providing security for the convoys. Eight locals were killed in a clash between two rival clans on Saturday in a longstanding dispute unrelated to the landslide. Around 30 homes and five retail businesses were burned down in the fighting, local officials said. Aktoprak said he did not expect tribal combatants would target the convoys but noted that opportunistic criminals might take advantage of the mayhem to do so. “This could basically end up in carjacking or robbery,” Aktoprak said. “There is not only concern for the safety and security of the personnel, but also the goods because they may use this chaos as a means to steal.” Longtime tribal warfare has cast doubt on the official estimate that almost 4,000 people were living in the village when a side of Mount Mungalo fell away. 5.9-magnitude quake hits New Ireland region, Papua New Guinea Justine McMahon, country director of the humanitarian agency CARE International, said moving survivors to “more stable ground” was an immediate priority along with providing them with food, water and shelter. The military was leading those efforts. The numbers of injured and missing were still being assessed on Sunday. Seven people including a child had received medical treatment by Saturday, but officials had no details on their conditions. Medical facilities were buried along with houses, several small businesses, a guest house, school and gas station, officials said. McMahon said there were other health facilities in the region, the provincial government was sending health workers and the World Health Organization was mobilizing staff. “There will be some support, but it's such a spread-out area that I think it will be quite a challenging situation,” McMahon said. “The scale of this disaster is quite immense.” While Papua New Guinea is in the tropics, the village is 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) above sea level where temperatures are substantially cooler. Papua New Guinea Defense Minister Billy Joseph and the government’s National Disaster Center director Laso Mana were flying from Port Moresby by helicopter to Wabag on Sunday to gain a firsthand perspective of what is needed. Aktoprak expected the government would decide by Tuesday whether it would officially request more international help. The United States and Australia, a near neighbor and Papua New Guinea’s most generous provider of foreign aid, are among governments that have publicly stated their readiness to do more to help responders. Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing nation with 800 languages and 10 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers.