CANBERRA: A highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza has been found on a fourth poultry farm near Melbourne near two other properties where the virus had already been detected, the government of Australia’s Victoria state said on Wednesday.
“Avian influenza virus has been confirmed at a fourth Victorian poultry farm,” the government said in a statement.
The H7N3 strain of the virus has been detected at the farm, it said, which is not the same as the H5N1 strain that has spread globally through bird and mammal populations and even into humans.
H7N3 has now been found at three farms near the town of Meredith and an H7N9 strain has infected another farm near Terang, an hour and half’s drive east.
The state government said all the poultry at the farms would be killed and disposed of. That adds up to hundreds of thousands of birds, a small fraction of Australia’s total.
Affected farms have been placed in quarantine with curbs on movement in surrounding areas. Local bird owners must keep their birds enclosed to minimize contact with wild birds that could spread the virus.
Before the latest bird flu cases, Australia has seen nine outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza since 1976, all of which were contained and eradicated, according to the government.
Officials say there is no risk to the public from eating eggs and poultry meat.
Highly pathogenic bird flu found on fourth poultry farm in Australia
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Highly pathogenic bird flu found on fourth poultry farm in Australia
- The H7N3 strain of the virus has been detected at the poultry farm near Melbourne
- H7N3 has now been found at three farms near the town of Meredith and an H7N9 strain has infected another farm near Terang
Bangladesh sounds alarm as ‘extreme desperation’ drives Rohingya into deadly sea journeys
- UNHCR says 427 Rohingya died in accidents off Myanmar’s coast in early May
- Thousands of refugees have attempted perilous sea voyages in past few years
DHAKA: Bangladeshi authorities on Saturday raised the alarm over increasing numbers of Rohingya refugees taking risky boat journeys to flee the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar.
Bangladesh hosts more than 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims, who, for decades, have fled neighboring Myanmar to escape persecution, especially during a military crackdown in 2017. The majority of them live in Cox’s Bazar in eastern Bangladesh, which has become the world’s largest refugee settlement.
Over the years, humanitarian conditions in Cox’s Bazar’s cramped refugee camps have been deteriorating, with aid continuously declining since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly one in five people attempting to flee the settlement by sea have been reported as dead or missing so far in 2025, according to UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency.
Two boats which capsized on May 9 and 10 were carrying a total of 514 Rohingya refugees from Cox’s Bazar and Myanmar’s Rakhine state, according to UNHCR, which estimates that at least 427 of them died.
“The ongoing funding crisis for the Rohingya is severely hampering the lives of Rohingya in the camps in Cox’s Bazar, which fueled the desperation for the perilous sea journey,” Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News.
“Every aspect of their lives — food, livelihood, health, and so on — has been severely impacted. Most importantly, it has darkened their future also. They are at a loss what to do. The uncertainty in their lives triggered many of them to (undertake) the risky sea journeys towards unknown destinations.”
Over the past few years, UNHCR has documented thousands of Rohingya refugees embarking on deadly sea journeys from Bangladesh — and, to a lesser extent, from Myanmar — and reported hundreds dying or going missing.
The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority, lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s. Since then, many of them have fled to Bangladesh, where they are almost entirely reliant on humanitarian aid.
Despite multiple attempts by Bangladeshi authorities, the UN-backed repatriation and resettlement process of the Rohingya has so far failed to take off.
In 2025, aid for the Rohingya faced another cut after US President Donald Trump’s administration announced it was eliminating most US aid globally. Washington was the largest donor of foreign aid to the Rohingya last year, contributing $301 million — 55 percent of all foreign aid received.
UNHCR requires $383 million in 2025 to “stabilize the lives of refugees and their host communities” across Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, as well as those displaced inside Myanmar. But, as of Friday, it had secured only 30 percent of that amount.
The deadly boat accidents earlier this month may have been fueled by “extreme desperation,” UNHCR said, highlighting that it occurred during the monsoon season, which is a particularly dangerous time for boat travel in the region.
“The dire humanitarian situation, exacerbated by funding cuts, is having a devastating impact on the lives of Rohingya, with more and more resorting to dangerous journeys to seek safety, protection and a dignified life for themselves and their families,” said Hai Kyung Jun, UNHCR director for Asia and the Pacific.
“The latest tragedy is a chilling reminder that access to meaningful protection, especially in countries of first asylum, as well as responsibility sharing and collective efforts along sea routes, are essential to saving lives.”
South Africa rescues all 260 miners stuck underground alive
- The miners were trapped underground on Thursday at the Kloof gold mine, 60 kilometers west of Johannesburg
- The gold mine is one of the deepest operated by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company
WESTONARIA, South Africa: Rescuers on Friday pulled out all 260 mine workers who had been stuck for more than 24 hours in an underground shaft in South Africa, the mine’s operator said.
The miners were trapped underground on Thursday at the Kloof gold mine, 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of Johannesburg, after a hoist used to access the shaft was damaged in an accident, the mining company Sibanye-Stillwater said.
The first phase of the rescue brought 79 people to the surface by 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) while the rest were rescued six hours later, it said in a statement.
“At no point was there any risk of injury to employees during the incident,” it said. A decision had been made against using the emergency escape routes which would have involved the miners walking longer distances, it added.
The gold mine is one of the deepest operated by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company.
Desperate relatives of the miners waited outside the site during the rescue efforts, most of them expressing shock at the incident, local television footage showed.
“All affected employees will also undergo thorough medical examinations, if required, while support has also been extended to employees’ families,” the mining company said.
The National Union of Mineworkers said the incident happened around 10:00 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Thursday. It expressed concern for the miners who had been “underground for almost 20 hours.”
Sibanye-Stillwater had said earlier that the miners would be brought to the surface around midday Friday.
“The employees are not trapped; it was decided to keep them at the sub-shaft station for now,” spokesperson Henrika Ninham said.
Mining employs hundreds of thousands of people in South Africa, which is the biggest exporter of platinum and a major exporter of gold, diamonds, coal and other raw materials. But accidents are common.
Dozens of mineworkers are killed each year, though the numbers have been falling as safety standards have been stepped up over the past two decades.
According to industry group Minerals Council South Africa, 42 miners died in 2024, compared to 55 the previous year.
Sibanye-Stillwater chief executive Neal Froneman said Friday they would not resume operations “until we are confident that all the necessary remedial actions have been implemented.”
Hungarian opposition leader Magyar walks to Romania, courting ethnic Hungarians
- Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar walked across the border to Romania on Saturday to try and win the support of ethnic Hungarians in Romania
- Magyar says he is not going to cause trouble, rather to express solidarity with his Hungarian "brothers and sisters"
BUDAPEST: Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar walked across the border to Romania on Saturday after a week-long journey, in a attempt to win support of the ethnic Hungarians in Romania and appeal to conservative voters in the run-up to the 2026 elections.
Magyar’s center-right Tisza party emerged last year to mount the most serious challenge to nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban since he rose to power in 2010.
Most opinion polls now put Tisza ahead of Orban’s Fidesz party with the next parliamentary elections due in early 2026. No date has been set yet.
Carrying Hungary’s national flag, Magyar walked across the border on Saturday morning with a group of supporters.
“We are not going (to Romania) to escalate tensions or to cause any harm to our Hungarian brothers and sisters living there. We are going there to express our solidarity,” Magyar said on May 14 when he set out on foot in hiking gear.
On his way to the border, Magyar stopped in small towns to talk to rural voters, who have traditionally supported conservative Orban.
Orban’s government provides financial support to ethnic Hungarian communities in Romania and in 2014 granted the right to vote to Hungarians living abroad. In the last election in 2022 94 percent of these voters supported Fidesz.
The latest poll by the Publicus think tank, published on Friday, showed Tisza with 43 percent support among decided voters in Hungary while Fidesz had 36 percent.
Magyar announced his march on May 12 after Orban flagged he could cooperate with Romanian hard-right presidential candidate George Simion ahead of the May 18 election there.
The RMDSZ party representing ethnic Hungarians in Romania, said Simion’s win would pose a threat to minorities’ rights and urged its voters to support centrist Nicusor Dan who ended up winning the vote.
‘Seventh heaven’: Tears and laughter as Ukrainian POWs return
- A number of Ukrainian detainees are released following a prisoner exchange agreement between Ukraine and Russia in Türkiye last week
- Former detainees recount stories of mistreatment and torture in Russian captivity
CHERNIGIV: Waxy and emaciated, Konstantin Steblev spoke to his mother for the first time in three years after being released as part of the biggest ever prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine.
“Hello mum, how are you?” the 31-year-old soldier said, moments after stepping back onto Ukrainian soil on Friday.
“I love you. Don’t be sad. It wasn’t my fault. I promised I would come back safe and sound,” he said, smiling but with watery eyes.
Steblev, who was captured at the start of Russia’s invasion, was one of 390 military and civilian prisoners released in exchange for 390 sent back to Russia.
More swaps are expected on Saturday and Sunday to bring the total to 1,000 for 1,000 as agreed in talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul last week.
Steblev arrived with the other former captives by coach at a local hospital where hundreds of relatives were waiting, shouting, crying and singing “Congratulations!”
During the journey back to Ukraine, Steblev said he experienced “indescribable” emotions.
“It’s simply crazy. Crazy feelings,” he said.
During his years of captivity, Steblev said he managed to keep going thanks to his wife.
“She knows I am strong and that I am not going to give up just like that,” he said, adding that now he just wants to be with his family.
“It’s my absolute priority,” he said.
After that, he said it would be up to his wife to decide on the next steps.
“She will tell me and will show me how to act in future,” he said.
Thin, tired and looking slightly lost, the freshly released prisoners filed into a local hospital for medical checks.
But Olena and Oleksandr stayed outside, locked in a tight embrace despite the cameras pointed at them.
They said they had not seen each other in 22 months since Oleksandr was captured by Russia.
“I am in seventh heaven,” the 45-year-old said in his wife’s arms.
He said his dream now was to “eat... eat and spend time with my family.”
As the buses arrived at the hospital, relatives of soldiers who are still in prison ran toward the freed men to show them images of their loved ones and ask if they had seen them during their captivity.
Some women walked away crying when they failed to get any news.
Some know that their relatives are jailed but others have no news at all and desperately hope for any scrap of information.
Moments after being reunited with her husband Andriy after three years apart, Elia, 33, embraced the tearful mother of a soldier who had no news about her son.
When she saw her husband, Elia said her “heart was beating out of my chest” and she cried with joy.
“I have been waiting so long for this,” she said.
Several former prisoners of war interviewed by AFP in the past have spoken of harsh conditions and torture in Russian prisons.
Elia is now thinking about the future and about having a child with her husband.
But she said she knew that the path to rehabilitation would be a long one for him.
“He has an empty stare but I know they did not break him. The guys with him told me he was very strong,” she said.
Pope takes message of dialogue, unity to the Curia
- Pope Leo XIV promotes dialogue and building bridges to the Roman Curia in his first meeting with the Church's governing body
- Pope Leo XIV urges people to welcome “with open arms, everyone who needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love”
VATICAN: Pope Leo XIV took his message of building bridges and promoting dialogue to the Roman Curia on Saturday, in his first audience with members of the Catholic Church’s governing body.
The late Pope Francis had sometimes difficult relations with the Curia and Vatican officials, accusing them early in his papacy of “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and a lust for power.
The new pontiff, the first from the United States, said Saturday that his inaugural meeting was an opportunity to say thanks for all their work.
“Popes come and go, the Curia remains,” Leo told the audience of officials, staff and their families in the Vatican’s vast Paul VI hall.
He repeated his first words from St. Peter’s Basilica when he became pope on May 8, where he urged people to “build bridges” and to welcome “with open arms, everyone who needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.”
“If we must all cooperate in the great cause of unity and love, let us try to do so first of all with our behavior in everyday situations, starting from the work environment,” the pope said.
“Everyone can be a builder of unity with their attitudes toward colleagues, overcoming inevitable misunderstandings with patience and humility, putting themselves in the shoes of others, avoiding prejudices, and also with a good dose of humor, as Pope Francis taught us.”
From decentralising power and increasing transparency to providing greater roles for lay people and women, Francis implemented several reforms of the Roman Curia.
But his criticism left a lasting impression among many officials, and he also drew accusations of being too authoritarian in his governance, regularly bypassing the administrative bodies of the Holy See.
In 2024, the Vatican — where trade unions are not recognized — also saw an unprecedented strike by around 50 employees of the Vatican Museums over their working conditions.
The pope spent two decades working in Peru but for the past two years was head of the Vatican department responsible for appointing bishops worldwide.
