Australia

Firefighters are struggling to control the huge bushfire on Fraser Island, off the east coast of Queensland.

The bushfire was sparked by an illegal campfire in mid-October and has destroyed at least 82,500 hectares of the Unesco World Heritage site.

A heatwave in south-east Australia has exacerbated bushfire conditions.

The Fraser Island fires are among the most serious since the end of last summer. Australia's 2019-20 bushfire season was its most intense on record, though not its most deadly.

The city recorded a minimum overnight temperature of 25.4C and then hit 40C during the daytime on Sunday.

Dozens of bush fires are already burning in New South Wales with hotter weather predicted on Tuesday.

The states of Victoria and South Australia also reported soaring heat over the weekend.

"November has been quite unusual in many ways. We have only seen about half our normal rainfall and it is quite possible it will be one of our hottest Novembers on record," Andrew Watkins, of the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) noted on Friday.

The new school building replaces the IA building, which was damaged by Tropical Cyclone Gita in 2018.

There are three classrooms and a storeroom, at a value of TOP$627,467.37

The construction was carried out under the Pacific Resilience Programme (PREP) project led by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC) and co-funded by the World Bank and the  Australian Government.

Speaking at the launch of the campaign for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, Thursday, Morrison said that gender-based violence is a shared problem impacting the Pacific, Australia and countries globally.

‘During these 16 Days of Activism, and on every day of the year, we support our partners in Tonga as they call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women,’ said the High Commissioner Adrian Morrison, adding

Abdul Nacer Benbrika was jailed for 15 years in 2009 and is eligible for release from next month.

But Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said it was "appropriate" to revoke his citizenship to protect Australians.

The move makes Benbrika the first person to be stripped of Australian citizenship while still in the country.

His lawyer has declined to comment on the government's decision, ABC News reports.

Severe heatwave conditions are set to stretch across the continent - from north-west to the south-east - as heat is drawn down from the centre.

Tracts of the country face severe heatwave conditions and this will not be a one-day affair.

To hit the official criteria for a heatwave, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) requires "three days or more of high maximum and minimum temperatures that are unusual for that location" - the heat is expected to hang around all the way into next week.

Victoria, which imposed a tough lockdown after a surge in cases, has reported no new infections since the beginning of November.

The state is also relaxing its rules on wearing face masks.

Australia has recorded about 900 deaths and 28,000 infections in total.

The country has relied on lockdowns, widespread testing and aggressive contact tracing to push daily infections nationwide close to zero.

Australia shut down its international borders early in the pandemic and requires all arriving travellers to spend two weeks in quarantine in designated hotels.

The attack happened near Cable Beach in the north of the state. The man was pulled from the water but was later pronounced dead.

"Police can confirm that tragically the man has died," Western Australia police said in a statement.

The beach has been closed and the public is being urged to avoid local waters. It is the eighth fatal shark attack in Australian waters this year.

A search for the shark is under way, but its species is not yet known.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the operation was one of Australia's most significant efforts targeting child exploitation.

Investigators identified links through the online forums to alleged child sex offenders residing in Europe, Asia, United States and Canada, and New Zealand, with 146 international referrals made as a result of this investigation, AFP said.

The flight from New Zealand is scheduled for 19 November and the one from Australia is due to arrive on 24 November.

According to a travel advisory only Tongan citizens and permanent residents can enter Tonga at this time.

Most international flights have been cancelled, and options to leave are extremely limited.

A state of emergency is in force and activities are restricted to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Meanwhile 251 repatriated passengers that arrived from Australia and New Zealand last week have tested negative for Covid-19.