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Australia’s biggest state of New South Wales (NSW) launched a fresh round of firearm destruction Tuesday, disposing of weapons seized and gathered by local law enforcement officers. The haul of 2809 firearms came into police possession after being seized through criminal investigations, located as abandoned property, and surrendered. The state has a population of just over eight million people.

Beijing (AFP) - Chinese authorities have ordered dozens of coal mines to expand production amid a nationwide energy crunch, state media reported Friday. Dozens of mines in China's Inner Mongolia, a major coal producing region, were instructed to increase their capacity by more than 98 million tonnes in an official notice not released to the public, the state-run Securities Times reported. Nearly 60 percent of China's energy-hungry economy is fuelled by coal, and the country has struggled to wean itself from the fuel despite its pledge to become carbon neutral by 2060. China has been hit by widespread power cuts...

Resistance to COVID-19 countermeasures has reached a fever pitch. Tractor-trailer drivers on strike. Large-scale protests in the street. Civil disobedience on a massive scale. The government’s reaction is one of Orwellian overreach and efficiency. This is the current situation in Australia — but soon could be happening in the United States. Australia’s isolation as an island and its strict border controls meant that the nation of 25 million has suffered only 1,036 coronavirus deaths and 60,000 cases of the virus. Closer to home, New York State, with 20 million people, suffered 54,069 deaths and 2.3 million cases. But no matter...

Rebel MPs wreck Australia's tough immigration plans By Nick Squires in Sydney (Filed: 15/08/2006) A revolt by backbench MPs forced the Australian government to abandon a controversial immigration law yesterday. The legislation would have meant that asylum seekers were sent to a detention centre on the remote South Pacific island of Nauru while their applications were processed. Opponents said that asylum seekers, including women and children, would be kept behind razor wire for months or years in a refugee equivalent of Guantanamo Bay. John Howard, the prime minister, had to take the humiliating step of withdrawing the legislation, knowing that...

SYDNEY: Australia plans to seek even closer ties with the United States and take a more assertive role in the Pacific region, Prime Minister John Howard said in a major foreign policy speech Tuesday. "America will grow more, not less, important to Australia as the years go by," Howard said in a speech to the Sydney Institute, an independent think tank. Howard has worked assiduously to boost ties with the United States and sent troops to serve with the US-led coalitions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Canberra's increasingly close alliance with Washington, however, has irked some Asian neighbors and drawn fire...