WELLINGTON—Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Thursday it had taken the head of a global drug trafficking syndicate, dubbed “Asia’s El Chapo,” into custody after he was extradited from the Netherlands. The AFP said the arrest is the culmination of a long-running investigation into an organized crime syndicate known as “Sam Gor”, or “The Company”, […]
CANBERRA, Australia—The Australian government confirmed on Thursday that Novak Djokovic had been granted a visa to compete in the Australian Open in January a year after he was deported because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19. The 21-time Grand Slam singles champion had his visa canceled on public interest grounds on Jan. 14 and lost […]
SYDNEY—Australian animal shelters are overflowing, and the wait to return animals can be as long as eight months as pet owners return to work and face rising costs. “In all the 20 years that I’ve been in rescue I have never seen it like this,” says Monika Biernacki, founder of Monika’s Doggie Rescue from the […]
PERTH, Australia—A man who may have been keeping a wild kangaroo as a pet was killed by the animal in southwest Australia, police said Tuesday. It was reportedly the first fatal attack by a kangaroo in Australia since 1936. A relative found the 77-year-old man with “serious injuries” on his property Sunday in semirural Redmond, […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand—A red panda that spent two days on the lam after escaping from an Australian zoo was recaptured Sunday after he was spotted hanging out in a fig tree in a nearby park. Named Ravi, the 7-year-old panda had arrived at Adelaide Zoo last week after he was brought in from another zoo […]
CANBERRA, Australia—An Australian state attorney general on Wednesday declined to pardon a mother convicted almost 20 years ago of smothering her four children to death and instead ordered a new inquiry into whether there could be a medical explanation for the tragedies. The inquiry will be the second in three years into scientific evidence that […]
CANBERRA, Australia—Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave has confirmed the death of his son Jethro Lazenby at age 31. “With much sadness, I can confirm that my son, Jethro, has passed away,” the frontman of rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds said in a statement Tuesday. “We would be grateful for family privacy at this […]
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared that the federal election will take place on Saturday, May 21. In his first pitch to Australians, officially kicking off his reelection campaign, Morrison on Sunday asked voters to focus on his cabinet’s performance during the pandemic and its contribution to post-pandemic economic recovery. He stressed that the […]
