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Two helicopters collided in an Australian tourist hotspot Monday afternoon, killing four passengers and critically injuring three others in a crash that drew emergency aid from beachgoers enjoying the water during the southern summer. One helicopter appeared to have been taking off and the other landing when they collided near the Sea World theme park in Main Beach, a northern beach on the Gold Coast, Gary Worrell, Queensland state police acting inspector, said at a news conference. Read more: Helicopter crash kills 3 in Kabul during training session One helicopter landed safely on a sandbank, but debris from the other was spread across an area police described as difficult to access. The dead and three most seriously injured people were all passengers in the crashed helicopter. “Members of the public and police tried to remove the people and they commenced first aid and tried to get those people to safety from an airframe that was upside down,” Worrell said. “(People on) Jet Skis, family boaters, ordinary members of the public rushed to assist these people.” Passengers in the other helicopter, which lost its windscreen in the crash, are also receiving medical assistance. Footage of the crash showed a helicopter shortly after takeoff being clipped by another helicopter flying over the water. A witness named John told Melbourne radio station 3AW that patrons at Sea World heard the crash. Read more: Pakistan says army general, 5 others die in helicopter crash He said staff at the theme park moved swiftly to close off areas closest to the crash. “There was a massive, massive bang,” he said. “It was just huge. I’m not sure if it was the propellers or whatever hitting against each other. But there was this poor lady and her son near the helipad in tears.” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the accident was an “unthinkable tragedy. “My deepest sympathies are with each of the families and everyone affected by this terrible accident,” she said. Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said an investigation into the cause of the crash was underway. Queensland Ambulance Service said earlier that 13 people were being assessed for injuries. The Gold Coast region is at its busiest in January, the peak time for holidays in Australia's summer.

Fijian police on Thursday said they were calling in the military to help maintain security following a close election last week that is now being disputed. It was an alarming development in a Pacific nation where democracy remains fragile and there have been four military coups in the past 35 years. The two main contenders for prime minister this year were former coup leaders themselves. Police Commissioner Brig. Gen. Sitiveni Qiliho said in a statement that after police and military leaders met with Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama they collectively decided to call in army and navy personnel to assist. The commissioner said there had been threats made against minority groups who were “now living in fear following recent political developments.” Reporters in the capital, Suva, said there were no immediate signs of any military presence on city streets. The military move came after Bainimarama’s Fiji First party refused to concede the election, despite rival Sitiveni Rabuka’s party and two other parties announcing they had the numbers to form a majority coalition and would serve as the next government. Fiji First Gen. Sec. Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told media Wednesday that under the nation’s constitution, Bainimarama would remain prime minister until lawmakers returned to Parliament within two weeks to vote on the next leader. Read more: Vote counting finishes in Fiji election with no clear winner Sayed-Khaiyum questioned the validity of the internal voting which had led to one of the parties joining Rabuka’s coalition. And he lashed out at Rabuka, accusing him of sowing division in Fiji. “The entire rationale of this man has been to divide Fiji to gain political supremacy,” Sayed-Khaiyum said. “And we can see that simmering through again. In fact it’s not simmering, it’s boiling.” A day earlier, Rabuka and two other party leaders announced they were forming a coalition with a total of 29 seats against Fiji First’s 26 and would form the next government. “A government we hope that will bring the change that people had been calling out for over the last few years,” Rabuka said at a news conference. “It’s going to be an onerous task. It will not be easy, and it was never easy to try and dislodge an incumbent government. We have done that, collectively.” Rabuka’s announcement prompted New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta to send her congratulations on Twitter, saying New Zealand “looks forward to working together to continue strengthening our warm relationship.” But New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took a more cautious approach, saying she was waiting until the dust settled. Bainimarama has been in power for 16 years. He led a 2006 military coup and later refashioned himself as a democratic leader by introducing a new constitution and winning elections in 2014 and 2018. Rabuka, meanwhile, led Fiji’s first military takeover in 1987 and later served seven years as an elected prime minister in the 1990s. Bainimarama and Rabuka were initially deadlocked after the election. Rabuka’s People’s Alliance Party won 21 seats and the affiliated National Federation Party won five seats, while Bainimarama’s Fiji First party secured 26 seats. That left the Social Democratic Liberal Party, which won three seats, holding the balance of power. The party decided Tuesday in a close 16-14 internal vote to go with Rabuka — a vote that Fiji First is now questioning.      

Vote counting finished in Fiji's general election Sunday but there was no clear winner, and various political parties are now negotiating to form a coalition government. The election had pitted two former coup leaders against each other. Sitiveni Rabuka, who led a coup back in 1987 and later served as an elected prime minister in the 1990s, emerged as the main challenger to Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who has held power for the past 16 years. Rabuka’s People’s Alliance Party and allies the National Federation Party won about 45% of the vote combined. Bainimarama's Fiji's First party, meanwhile, won about 43%. That has left both sides seeking to form a coalition with the Social Democrat Liberal Party. The liberal party's general secretary Lenaitasi Duru told media they were having meetings with both sides. “The first round of negotiations was done yesterday,” Duru said. "We are expecting more negotiations later this afternoon.” He said the party's priorities included Indigenous affairs and education. “Right now we’re sitting in the middle," Duru said. "We’re watching and waiting for what is on offer, then we’ll make the decision based on what’s best for the nation.” Earlier, on Friday, Rabuka's party and four others had said they were launching a nationwide petition because they had no faith in the integrity of election officials. Read more: Peru s presidential runoff election too close to call But an international group that monitored the election said Friday it did not observe any voting irregularities and the process was transparent and credible. The dispute had threatened to destabilize the Pacific nation’s fragile democracy, which has been marred by four military coups in the past 35 years. Rebekha Sharkie, an Australian lawmaker and co-chair of the 90-strong Multinational Observer Group, told reporters in Fiji they had unrestricted access to the election process and didn't observe any irregularities. She said the group had assessed that Fijians were able to vote freely. Rabuka’s concerns came after his party had been leading in preliminary results posted online after polls closed, but then the results app stopped working. Election officials said they’d found an anomaly in the system and needed to reload the results. When the next batch of results was posted, Bainimarama’s party was in front. Election officials later stopped their provisional count and switched to a final count. Bainimarama first seized the top job by force in 2006 and later refashioned himself as a democratic leader by introducing a new constitution and winning elections in 2014 and again in 2018. Fiji is known abroad as a tourist paradise that is dotted with pristine beaches and filled with friendly, relaxed people. Read more: Congress removes Peru's president amid political unrest However, the past few years have proved tough for many people in the nation of just under 1 million, after tourism evaporated when COVID-19 hit and the economy tanked. The World Bank estimates the nation’s poverty rate is about 24%.

Australia’s government on Thursday said it was seeking assurances from Indonesia that the man convicted of making the bombs used in the 2002 Bali terrorist attacks would continue to be monitored after his release from prison. Islamic militant Hisyam bin Alizein, also known as Umar Patek, was paroled Wednesday after serving about half of his original 20-year sentence, despite strong objections from Australia. The attacks killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said it was a difficult day for those who lost loved ones in the bombings. Also read: Indian police detain man accused of killing Australian woman because ‘her dog barked at him’ He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that his government had advocated against Patek’s early release and would urge the Indonesian government to ensure he was under constant surveillance while on parole. Indonesian authorities have said Patek, 55, was successfully reformed in prison and they will use him to influence other militants to turn away from terrorism. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said it was a horrible day for the victims and their families. “This is a person who was in the Indonesian justice system. My personal view is his actions are inexcusable and completely abhorrent,” O’Neil said at the National Press Club in Canberra. ”We don’t control the Indonesian justice system, and that is the way of the world.” Bombing survivor Peter Hughes, who gave evidence at Patek’s trial, said he and other survivors were skeptical the bomber was a changed man. “There is a history of people like him, they won’t stop. For him to be let out is laughable,” Hughes told the ABC. Another survivor, Jan Laczynski, said he was shocked and appalled at Patek’s release. “I still can’t understand how this person that created so much loss of life, and not just for 88 Australians — 202 people — could be walking free this morning,” he told Channel 9. Lawmaker Chris Bowen said Patek’s release was concerning but the Australian government respected Indonesia’s legal system. “Indonesians and Australians were killed by these terrible murders, Indonesians and Australians went through this terrible ordeal together,” he told the ABC. Patek was a leading member of Jemaah Islamiah, which was blamed for the blasts at two nightclubs in Kuta Beach. He was found guilty by the West Jakarta District Court of helping build a car bomb that was detonated by another person outside the Sari Club in Kuta on the night of October 12, 2002. Moments earlier, a smaller bomb in a backpack was detonated by a suicide bomber in the nearby Paddy’s Pub nightclub.

Australia’s environment minister said Tuesday her government will lobby against UNESCO adding the Great Barrier Reef to a list of endangered World Heritage sites. Officials from the U.N. cultural agency and the International Union for Conservation of Nature released a report on Monday warning that without “ambitious, rapid and sustained” climate action, the world’s largest coral reef is in peril. The report, which recommended shifting the Great Barrier Reef to endangered status, followed a 10-day mission in March to the famed reef system off Australia’s northeast coast that was added to the World Heritage list in 1981. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the report was a reflection on Australia’s previous conservative government, which was voted out of office in May elections after nine years in power. She said the new center-left Labor Party government has already addressed several of the report’s concerns, including action on climate change. “We’ll very clearly make the point to UNESCO that there is no need to single the Great Barrier Reef out in this way" with an endangered listing, Plibersek told reporters. read more: Coral reefs' survival at stake: Unesco “The reason that UNESCO in the past has singled out a place as at risk is because they wanted to see greater government investment or greater government action and, since the change of government, both of those things have happened,” she added. The new government has legislated to commit Australia to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 43% below the 2005 level by 2030. The previous government only committed to a reduction of 26% to 28% by the end of the decade. Plibersek said her government has also committed 1.2 billion Australian dollars ($798 million) to caring for the reef and has canceled the previous government’s plans to build two major dams in Queensland state that would have affected the reef’s water quality. “If the Great Barrier Reef is in danger, then every coral reef in the world is in danger,” Plibersek said. “If this World Heritage site is in danger, then most World Heritage sites around the world are in danger from climate change.” The report said Australia’s federal government and Queensland authorities should adopt more ambitious emission reduction targets in line with international efforts to limit future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. Read more: Great Barrier Reef enters crucial period in coral bleaching The minor Greens party, which wants Australia to slash its emissions by 75% by the end of the decade, called for the government to do more to fight climate change in light of the report. Jodie Rummer, a marine biologist at James Cook University in Townville who has worked on the reef for more than a decade, supported calls for Australia to aim for a 75% emissions reduction. “We are taking action, but that action needs to be much more rapid and much more urgent,” Rummer told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “We cannot claim to be doing all we can for the reef at this point. We aren’t. We need to be sending that message to the rest of the world that we are doing everything that we possibly can for the reef and that means we need to take urgent action on emissions immediately,” she added. Feedback from Australian officials, both at the federal and state level, will be reviewed before Paris-based UNESCO makes any official proposal to the World Heritage committee. In July last year, the previous Australian government garnered enough international support to defer an attempt by UNESCO to downgrade the reef’s status to “in danger” because of damage caused by climate change. The Great Barrier Reef accounts for around 10% of the world’s coral reef ecosystems. The network of more than 2,500 reefs covers 348,000 square kilometers (134,000 square miles). Australian government scientists reported in May that more than 90% of Great Barrier Reef coral surveyed in the latest year was bleached, in the fourth such mass event in seven years. Bleaching is caused by global warming, but this is the reef’s first bleaching event during a La Niña weather pattern, which is associated with cooler Pacific Ocean temperatures, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority said in its annual report. Bleaching in 2016, 2017 and 2020 damaged two-thirds of the coral. Coral bleaches as a response to heat stress and scientists hope most of the coral will recover from the latest event.

New Zealand lawmakers will take a vote on whether to lower the national voting age from 18 to 16, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday. Her announcement came hours after the country's Supreme Court ruled that not allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote amounted to age discrimination. But while Ardern said she personally favors lowering the age, such a change would require a 75% supermajority of lawmakers to agree. And even proponents acknowledge they don't currently have the numbers. A number of countries are debating whether to lower their voting age. Some that allow people to vote at 16 include Austria, Malta, Brazil, Cuba and Ecuador. Sanat Singh, co-director of New Zealand's Make It 16 campaign, said he was absolutely thrilled with the court's decision. Read more: Climate change in New Zealand to cause sperm, blue whales to seek higher latitudes “It's a huge day,” he said. “This is historic not only for our campaign, but for the country.” Singh, 18, said existential issues like climate change — as well as issues like pandemic recovery and the state of democracy — will most affect young people. “That's why I think it's really important to get all hands on deck to make sure we can have a stronger future,” he said. Ardern, who leads the liberal Labour Party, said all lawmakers should have a say on the issue. “I personally support a decrease in the voting age but it is not a matter simply for me or even the government,” Ardern said. “Any change in electoral law of this nature requires 75% of parliamentarians' support.” Ardern said the vote would likely take place within the coming months but any change would not take effect until after next year's general election. The liberal Green Party said it supported a change. “Young people deserve to have a say in the decisions that affect them, both now and in the future,” said Golriz Ghahraman, the party’s electoral reform spokesperson. But New Zealand's two main conservative opposition parties said they oppose a change. Read more: New Zealand welcomes back first cruise ship since COVID hit “It's not something we support,” Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon told reporters. “Ultimately, you've got to draw the line somewhere, and we're comfortable with the line being 18.” At the Supreme Court, four judges found in favor of the lobby group's appeal with a fifth judge dissenting to some aspects of the decision. In New Zealand, the protection against age discrimination begins at 16, and the judges ruled that the attorney-general had failed to show why 18 had been chosen as the age to vote rather than 16. The nature of the court’s ruling compelled New Zealand lawmakers to at least debate the issue, but it didn’t compel them to take a vote or to make a change. Singh said he's hopeful that while his group may not yet have the 75% support it needs in Parliament, it will get there within the next few years. He said a possible first step would be to get the voting age lowered to 16 for local council elections, as that change requires only a regular majority of lawmakers. New Zealand's voting age was previously lowered from 21 to 20 in 1969, and then to 18 in 1974.

Australia has reversed a previous government's recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the foreign minister said Tuesday. The center-left Labor Party government Cabinet agreed to again recognize Tel Aviv as the capital and reaffirmed that Jerusalem's status must be resolved in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said. Australia remained committed to a two-party solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and “we will not support an approach that undermines this prospect,” Wong said. Former conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison formally recognized West Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2018, although the Australian embassy remained in Tel Aviv. The change followed the then-U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to shift the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. President Joe Biden has kept the embassy in Jerusalem as the U.S. steps back from its once-intense mediation between the Israelis and Palestinians, who have not held substantive peace talks in more than a decade. Wong described Morrison’s move as out of step internationally and a “cynical” attempt to win a byelection in a Sydney locale with a large Jewish population. Morrison’s Liberal Party ran Jewish candidate Dave Sharma who was defeated in the byelection but won the seat in the next general election. Morrison’s government was elected out of office in May after nine years in power.

 At least three people are dead after a powerful earthquake hit a remote part of Papua New Guinea Sunday morning, authorities say. Others were injured and infrastructure damaged in the magnitude 7.6 jolt that was felt across the Pacific country. The three people died in a landslide in the gold-mining town of Wau, said Morobe Provincial Disaster Director Charley Masange. Other people had been injured from falling structures or debris, and there was damage to some health centers, homes, rural roads and highways, Masange told The Associated Press. Masange said it could take some time to assess the full extent of the injuries and damage in the region. But he said the sparse and scattered population and lack of large buildings near the epicenter in the nation's largely undeveloped highlands may have helped prevent a bigger disaster, given the earthquake was so strong. Read:Earthquake kills 65, triggers landslides in southwest China One resident from the town closest to the epicenter described his ordeal to the AP. Renagi Ravu was meeting with two colleagues at his home in Kainantu when the quake struck. Ravu tried to stand up from his chair but couldn't maintain his balance and ended up in a kind of group hug with his colleagues, while plates and cups crashed from his shelves to the ground, he said. His children, ages 9 and 2, had their drinks and breakfast spill over. Ravu, who is a geologist, said he tried to calm everybody as the shaking continued for more than a minute. Ravu said that about 10,000 people live in and around his town, which is located 66 kilometers (41 miles) from the quake's epicenter. He said people were feeling rattled. “It's a common thing that earthquakes are felt here, but it usually doesn't last as long and is not as violent as this one,” Ravu said. “It was quite intense.” Ravu was sorting through the damage to his home, which he said likely included a broken sewer pipe judging from the smell. He said friends elsewhere in Kainantu had messaged him with descriptions of cracked roads, broken pipes and fallen debris, but hadn't described major building collapses or injuries. “They are starting to clean up their houses and the streets,” he said. Communication seems to have been affected, he added, with some cell towers likely to have fallen. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in 2018 in the nation’s central region killed at least 125 people. That quake hit areas that are remote and undeveloped, and assessments about the scale of the damage and injuries were slow to filter out. Read: Strong undersea quake causes panic in western Indonesia Felix Taranu, a seismologist at the Geophysical Observatory in the capital Port Moresby, said it was too early to know the full impacts of Sunday's earthquake, although its strength meant it “most likely caused considerable damage.” According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake hit at 9:46 a.m. local time at a depth of 90 kilometers (56 miles). NOAA advised there was no tsunami threat for the region. Papua New Guinea is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, to the east of Indonesia and north of eastern Australia. It sits on the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire,” the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where much of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic activity occurs.

Five people died Saturday in New Zealand after the small charter boat they were aboard capsized, authorities say, in what may have been a collision with a whale. Another six people aboard the boat were rescued. Police said the 8.5-meter (28-foot) boat overturned near the South Island town of Kaikōura. Police said they were continuing to investigate the cause of the accident. Kaikōura Police Sergeant Matt Boyce described it as a devastating and unprecedented event. “Our thoughts are with everyone involved, including the victims and their families, their local communities, and emergency services personnel,” Boyce said. He said police divers had recovered the bodies of all those who had died. He said all six survivors were assessed to be in stable condition at a local health center, with one transferred to a hospital in the city of Christchurch as a precaution. Kaikōura Mayor Craig Mackle told The Associated Press that the water was dead calm at the time of the accident and the assumption was that a whale had surfaced from beneath the boat. He said there were some sperm whales in the area and also some humpback whales traveling through. He said locals had helped with the rescue efforts throughout the day but the mood in the town was “somber” because the water was so cold and they feared for the outcome of anybody who had fallen overboard. Read: Whale carcass washes ashore on Cox’s Bazar beach Mackle said he’d thought in the past about the possibility of a boat and whale colliding, given the number of whales that frequent the region. “It always plays on your mind that it could happen,” he said, adding that he hadn’t heard about any previous such accidents. Mackle said the boat was a charter vessel typically used for fishing excursions. News agency Stuff reported the passengers belonged to a bird enthusiasts' group. Police said they were still notifying the relatives of those who died, and couldn't yet publicly name the victims. Vanessa Chapman told Stuff she and a group of friends had watched the rescue efforts unfold from Goose Bay, near Kaikōura. She said that when she arrived at a lookout spot, she could see a person sitting atop an overturned boat waving their arms. She said two rescue helicopters and a third local helicopter were circling before two divers jumped out. She told Stuff that the person atop the boat was rescued and a second person appeared to have been pulled from the water. Kaikōura is a popular whale-watching destination. The seafloor drops away precipitously from the coast, making for deep waters close to the shore. A number of businesses offer boat trips or helicopter rides so tourists can see whales, dolphins and other sea creatures up close. Compliance agency Maritime New Zealand said it sent two investigators to the scene and would be conducting a thorough investigation once recovery operations had concluded. Principal Investigator Tracy Phillips said the agency “offers its heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of the people who have died.”    

New Zealand on Friday welcomed the first cruise ship to return since the coronavirus pandemic began, signaling a long-sought return to normalcy for the nation’s tourism industry. New Zealand closed its borders in early 2020 as it sought at first to eliminate COVID-19 entirely and then later to control its spread. Although the country reopened its borders to most tourists arriving by plane in May, it wasn’t until two weeks ago that it lifted all remaining restrictions, including those on maritime arrivals. Many in the cruise industry question why it took so long. Read: New Zealand's unemployment rate remains low at 3.3 pc The end of restrictions allowed Carnival Australia’s Pacific Explorer cruise ship to dock in Auckland with about 2,000 passengers and crew Friday morning as part of a 12-day return trip to Fiji that left from Sydney. “Amazing, isn’t it?” Tourism Minister Stuart Nash said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Its another step in the reopening of our borders and a step closer to resuming business as usual.” Nash said it would take some time for international tourist numbers and revenue to return to their pre-pandemic levels, when the industry accounted for about 20% of New Zealand’s foreign income and more than 5% of GDP.