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Tag Archives: oceania
The Front Page: How worried should we be about Kiwis leaving for Australia?
NZ’s migration figures are steadily ticking up.
Auckland CBD worker injured after being robbed at knifepoint
Police are trying to find the person responsible for incident at convenience store.
Mystery of pole cemented into Tauranga teacher’s driveway solved
‘People are only human and mistakes do happen.’
Family offer $10k for return of beloved dog
A young couple is offering a $10,000 reward for the safe return of their beloved family dog who was snatched from the front yard of their home in Melbourne over the weekend.
Two-year-old Labrador-French mastiff cross, Leo, was in the yard of his Park Street home in Brunswick at roughly 4.15pm on July 30, when an unknown man approached the property.
"It's just so awful," his tearful owner Courtney Beaumont said.
READ MORE: Interest rates on hold as RBA eyes 'soft landing'
"It's just sickening, It's just so depressing to think we are in a community, society where this sort of thing happens."
Senior Constable Jessie Coletti said a man got out of a silver Toyota Kluger, unlatched the gate, walked the dog out into the car and drove away.
"There was definitely a possibility he was scoping out the property," she said.
"It is distressing for someone to lose their dog."
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No trace of Leo has been found since.
Police say the vehicle the offender used has been identified as having stolen number plates with registration TCD849.
Detectives observed the vehicle on CCTV parked outside the property from around 3.30pm until the theft.
Anyone with information on Leo's location should contact police or Crime Stoppers immediately.
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'Especially surprising' discovery about 'rarely sighted' Aussie whale
Much about the pygmy right whale remains a mystery, but scientists have made a new discovery about this "rarely sighted" marine enigma that calls the waters off Australia home.
The animals are one of the only whale species not to embark on seasonal migrations to nutrient-rich Antarctic waters, new research led by the University of New South Wales, and published in Frontiers in Marine Science found.
Instead, the whales reside in the temperate waters near Australia throughout the year.
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"If you google pygmy right whale, one of the first queries that comes up is whether they are extinct, which illustrates just how little we know about them, and how little known they are," Adelaide Dedden, lead author of the study and a marine ecologist at UNSW Science, said.
"What's especially surprising is it turns out these whales are somewhat a resident species, given they appear to be hanging around Australia year-round."
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Researchers came to the discovery by analysing the baleen plates of 14 Australian pygmy right whales, loaned from the South Australian Museum.
The key to solving the puzzle lay in what the animals eat, Professor Tracey Rogers, a marine ecologist at UNSW Science and senior author of the study, said.
"As the baleen grows, biochemical signals from their food called stable isotopes get trapped," Rogers said.
"These signals don't decay over time, so it's like reading a history book about their behaviour, including what they ate and the general area they were in at the time.
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From these isotopic records, it was concluded the species likes to hang around the mid-latitude waters year-round off southern Australia, feeding on krill and small crustaceans.
"They're our little homebodies, just happy to hide away and never leave the comforts of our continental waters," Rogers said.
"This makes sense when you look at the slender structures of their baleen plates relative to their body size."
"They need to draw in as much as possible from these less productive waters around Australia to stay in the region year-round."
Pygmy right whales are the smallest member of the filter-feeding family, reaching lengths of just 6.5 metres and can weigh around 3.5 tonnes.
Their numbers are believed to be stable as they were never targeted for whaling, however more data is needed on the species.
The findings were published in the midst of Australia's annual humpback whale migration.
Starting around June, tens of thousands of humpbacks migrate up Australia's east coast from Antarctica to warmer waters.
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Interest rates on hold as RBA eyes 'soft landing'
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has kept interest rates on hold at 4.10 per cent as hundreds of thousands of borrowers nervously negotiate a looming "mortgage cliff".
Pausing rates for a second month running, the central bank said it was closely watching a slowing rate of inflation and an easing of consumer spending.
A "soft landing" requires the RBA to return inflation in Australia to the target band of between 2 and 3 per cent without hiking rates too dramatically, which could result in high unemployment and an economic recession.
READ MORE: Recession warning as RBA weighs up tomorrow's rates decision
Governor Philip Lowe, who is due to exit his role at the RBA in September, said the bank was aware of the "painful squeeze" interest rates were placing on some households.
"Many households are experiencing a painful squeeze on their finances, while some are benefiting from rising housing prices, substantial savings buffers and higher interest income," he said.
"In aggregate, consumption growth has slowed substantially due to the combination of cost-of-living pressures and higher interest rates."
Lowe said inflation in Australia was "declining" but "still too high" at 6 per cent and warned that more interest rate hikes would be likely.
"Some further tightening of monetary policy may be required to ensure that inflation returns to target in a reasonable timeframe, but that will depend upon the data and the evolving assessment of risks," he said.
"In making its decisions, the Board will continue to pay close attention to developments in the global economy, trends in household spending, and the outlook for inflation and the labour market.
"The Board remains resolute in its determination to return inflation to target and will do what is necessary to achieve that."
READ MORE: Bleak reasons behind interest rates pause revealed
Speaking in parliament following the decision, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said today's pause will come as a "big relief" for Australians with a mortgage.
"This is a welcome reprieve for Australians already doing it tough enough. Australians are still under the pump, even as inflation moderates and even after this decision today," he said.
"Despite this there will be a sigh of relief around Australia."
Anneke Thompson, chief economist at CreditorWatch, said surprising data over the past 30 days prompted the RBA to hold its hand on moving the nation's cash rate target.
"The Reserve Bank of Australia today made the decision to again hold the cash rate at the current level of 4.10 per cent," Thompson said.
"A better-than-expected inflation rate over the June quarter, as well as slowing retail sales growth points to cooling economic conditions.
"And while the unemployment rate is still at record low levels, the forward indicators of employment conditions all point to a much tighter jobs market going forward."
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Richard Whitten, money expert at comparison website Finder, said the decision gives some much-needed breathing room for homeowners.
"Today's hold is welcome news for borrowers who have been bracing themselves for another hike," he said.
"Inflation is slowing down, which suggests that previous rate hikes are working."
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Man who buried ex-partner alive in remote SA jailed for at least 22 more years
A man has been jailed with a non-parole period of 22 years and 10 months for abducting and burying his ex-girlfriend alive in South Australia's Flinders Ranges.
Warning: This story contains details and content that some readers may find distressing.
Nursing student Jasmeen Kaur was stalked, abducted and killed by Tarikjot Singh in March 2021 when she was buried alive in a shallow grave more than 400 kilometres from where she was last seen leaving work in Adelaide.
Singh pleaded guilty to murder before he was due to stand trial earlier this year after initially denying the killing.
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On Tuesday, Singh was sentenced to mandatory life in imprisonment.
He will be eligible for parole after 22 years and 10 months.
The minimum non-parole period for murder in South Australia is 20 years.
Justice Adam Kimber described the killing as horrific and callous in the extreme during the sentencing on Tuesday.
He said Singh had acted out of a desire to punish Ms Kaur for rejecting him.
"I am unable to find words to adequately describe how Ms Kaur must have felt when you placed her in the grave and buried her," he said.
"I cannot describe the terror Ms Kaur must have been experiencing when she realised you were burying her alive."
During sentencing submissions in July, the court heard Singh had kidnapped Kaur from her workplace after buying gloves, cable ties and a shovel from Bunnings hours earlier.
He drove Kaur for hours from Adelaide to the outback while she was restrained in the back or boot of the car.
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Her body was later found blindfolded, limbs bound with cable ties and gaffer tape in a shallow grave in the Flinders Ranges.
The murder has been described as an "act of vengeance" with an "uncommon level of cruelty".
– Reported with AAP.
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Daredevil who climbed towers falls to death from Hong Kong high-rise
A French man is believed to have fallen to his death from a high-rise residential building in Hong Kong last week, police said on Monday, with local media outlets identifying him as daredevil Remi Lucidi.
Police said a 30-year-old man's body was found on a patio in the city's upscale Mid-Levels area.
He was believed to have engaged in extreme sports, police said, without identifying him.
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Officers conducted an initial investigation and said he apparently fell from a rooftop. No suicide note was found at the scene, they said.
The cause of his death would have to be verified by an autopsy, they added.
Local media, including the South China Morning Post, said the man was Lucidi, 30.
The Post cited an unnamed source saying he was last seen alive knocking on a penthouse window on the 68th floor of a residential tower on Thursday evening. The Associated Press has not been able to verify his identity.
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Lucidi, who used the name “Remi Enigma” on social media, last posted a photo of Hong Kong's night view a week ago on Instagram and tagged the location as Times Square in shopping district Causeway Bay. The photo appeared to be taken from above.
Supporters mourned him on social media.
Lucidi posted to Instagram as he climbed various tall structures around the world and took selfies, including one he captioned, “Above the Sky, 425m” and tagged Dubai as the location.
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Danger list: Humankind's greatest monuments at risk of being lost
UNESCO has a list of 55 places around the world it considers most in danger, including on our very own doorstep.