Cyclone Alfred stalls off Australia’s east as millions brace for impact
Cyclone Alfred stalls off Australia’s east as millions brace for impact/node/2592601/world
Cyclone Alfred stalls off Australia’s east as millions brace for impact
More than 5,000 properties in southeast Queensland and thousands in northern New South Wales are without power as officials warned there would be more outages when the wind speed increases. (AFP)
Cyclone Alfred stalls off Australia’s east as millions brace for impact
Cyclone Alfred is now likely to make landfall by Saturday morning near Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city
The storm’s destructive reach will stretch across the border regions of the states of Queensland and New South Wales
Updated 06 March 2025
Reuters
SYDNEY: Cyclone Alfred stalled off Australia’s east coast on Thursday as officials shut airports, schools and public transport while residents stockpiled supplies and sandbagged homes against flooding expected when the category-two storm hits.
The storm is now likely to make landfall by Saturday morning near Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city, the Bureau of Meteorology said in its latest update, compared with a prior projection of landfall by early Friday.
The storm’s destructive reach will stretch across the border regions of the states of Queensland and New South Wales, the bureau said, bringing heavy rain, flooding and damaging wind.
“Alfred is behaving at the moment like a completely unwanted houseguest. It’s told us it’s going to be late but linger even longer,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told reporters.
“Unfortunately that means the window for destruction in our community – heavy rains, winds, powerful surf – is longer than we would have otherwise liked.”
Storm warnings on Thursday stretched for more than 500km across the northeast coast, as huge waves whipped up by the cyclone eroded beaches, and officials urged residents in flood-prone areas to evacuate soon.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the defense force would be ready to support emergency services.
Heavy rain from the weather system has already drenched some regions, said Dean Narramore, forecaster at Australia’s weather bureau.
Narramore said the cyclone’s stalling could result in “a longer and prolonged period of heavy rainfall, particularly in northern New South Wales” leading to life-threatening flash flooding.
New South Wales resident Sara Robertson and her family has moved all their valuables from their home in the rural town of Murwillumbah to a motel ahead of the storm.
“I’m glad we’ve got a little bit more of a breather, feeling very tired today and we still have a lot to do,” Robertson told ABC News after moving computers and electronics into the motel.
More than 5,000 properties in southeast Queensland and thousands in northern New South Wales are without power as officials warned there would be more outages when the wind speed increases.
Brisbane airport said it will suspend operations around 4 p.m. (0600 GMT) on Thursday but keep its terminals open for defense operations.
Qantas Airways said its international operations from Brisbane would remain suspended until Saturday noon and domestic flights until Sunday morning.
More than 1,000 schools in southeast Queensland and 250 in northern New South Wales were closed on Thursday, while public transport in Brisbane has been suspended.
Alfred has been called by officials a “very rare event” for Brisbane, Queensland’s state capital, with the city last hit by a cyclone more than half a century ago in 1974. The city of around 2.7 million had near misses from cyclones in 1990 in 2019.
BEIJING: Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Wednesday after six months on the country’s space station, state media footage showed, as Beijing advances toward its aim to become a major celestial power. China has plowed billions of dollars into its space program in recent years in an effort to achieve what President Xi Jinping describes as the country’s “space dream.” The world’s second-largest economy has bold plans to send a crewed mission to the Moon by the end of the decade and eventually build a base on the lunar surface. Its latest launch last week ferried a trio of astronauts to the Tiangong space station, heralding the start of the Shenzhou-20 mission. They have taken over from Shenzhou-19 crew Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, whose landing capsule touched down in the northern Inner Mongolia region on Wednesday. Xinhua state news agency said the group were in “good health” shortly after touching back down on Earth. Pictures from state broadcaster CCTV showed the capsule, attached to a red-and-white striped parachute, descending through an azure sky before hitting the ground in a cloud of brown desert dust. Teams of officials in white and orange jumpsuits then rushed to open the golden craft, and one planted a fluttering national flag into the sandy soil nearby. The Shenzhou-19 crew had worked on the space station since October, where they carried out experiments and set a new record for the longest ever spacewalk. They were initially scheduled to return on Tuesday, but the mission was postponed due to bad weather at the landing site, according to Chinese authorities. Wang, 35, was China’s only woman spaceflight engineer at the time of the launch, according to the Chinese Manned Space Agency (CMSA). Commander Cai, a 48-year-old former air force pilot, previously served aboard Tiangong as part of the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022. Song, a 34-year-old onetime air force pilot, completed the group of spacefarers popularly dubbed “taikonauts” in China.
Last week, China saw off the Shenzhou-20 team in a feast of pomp and pageantry at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Base in the barren desert of northwestern Gansu province. A military band and crowds of flag-waving well-wishers bade farewell to the crew before they blasted off on a Long March-2F rocket. State media reported that they assumed control of the space station after a handover ceremony with its former occupants on Sunday. The all-male Shenzhou-20 crew is headed by Chen Dong, 46, a former fighter pilot and veteran space explorer who in 2022 became the first Chinese astronaut to clock up more than 200 cumulative days in orbit. The other two crew members — 40-year-old former air force pilot Chen Zhongrui, and 35-year-old former space technology engineer Wang Jie — are on their first space flight. During their six-month stint, the crew will carry out experiments in physics and life sciences and install protective equipment against space debris. For the first time, they will also bring aboard planarians, aquatic flatworms known for their regenerative abilities. China’s space program is the third to put humans in orbit and has also landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon as it catches up with the two most established cosmic powers, the United States and Russia. Tiangong — whose name means “celestial palace” in Chinese — is its tour de force. China has never been involved in the International Space Station due to opposition from the United States. Washington plans to return to the Moon in 2027, though the election of President Donald Trump brought uncertainty over the mission’s fate. mjw/je/mtp
Cambodian court refuses bail for jailed environmental activists
The activists from Mother Nature, one of Cambodia’s few environmental advocacy groups, denied charges of plotting against the state
The five activists have been jailed in different prisons after their sentencing in July, but have launched appeals
Updated 3 min 30 sec ago
AFP
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s top court on Wednesday denied bail to five environmentalists jailed for their activism, a family member said, in a case widely condemned by the UN and human rights campaigners.
The activists from Mother Nature, one of Cambodia’s few environmental advocacy groups, denied charges of plotting against the state, which they said were politically motivated.
The five activists were among 10 environmentalists sentenced to between six and eight years in jail last year.
Path Raksmey, 34, wife of activist Thun Ratha, said that she was disappointed with Wednesday’s ruling by the Supreme Court.
“I am very regretful that the court does not allow bail for them. They are the ones who protect the environment but they are locked in jail while people who have destroyed natural resources live happily,” said Path Raksmey.
“It is unjust for the five,” she said, adding that her husband remains “strong.”
The five activists have been jailed in different prisons after their sentencing in July, but have launched appeals.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said last year it was “gravely concerned by the conviction and harsh sentencing.”
The tussle over protecting or exploiting Cambodia’s natural resources has long been a contentious issue in the Southeast Asian nation, with environmentalists threatened, arrested and even killed in the past decade.
Cambodian journalist Chhoeung Chheung died in December after he was shot while investigating illegal logging in the country’s northwest.
Unchecked illicit logging has contributed to a sharp drop in Cambodia’s forest cover over the years, according to activists.
From 2002 to 2023, a third of Cambodia’s humid primary forests – some of the world’s most biodiverse and a key carbon sink – were lost, according to monitoring site Global Forest Watch.
Cambodia’s government has approved plans for a cement factory deep inside a protected wildlife sanctuary, according to an order seen by AFP on Tuesday.
Fire tears through hotel in Kolkata, killing at least 14 people
Updated 11 min 49 sec ago
AP
NEW DELHI: A fire tore through a hotel in the city of Kolkata in eastern India, killing at least 14 people, police said Wednesday.
Senior police officer Manoj Kumar Verma told reporters that the fire broke out Tuesday evening at the Rituraj Hotel in central Kolkata and was doused after an effort that took six fire engines. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
Photos and videos carried in Indian media showed people trying to escape through the windows and narrow ledges of the building.
Kolkata’s The Telegraph newspaper reported that at least one person died when he jumped off the terrace trying to escape.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X that he was “anguished” by the loss of lives in the fire.
Fires are common in India, where builders and residents often flout building laws and safety codes. Activists say builders often cut corners on safety to save costs and have accused civic authorities of negligence and apathy.
In 2022, at least 27 people were killed when a massive fire tore though a four-story commercial building in New Delhi.
Habemus papam: Catholic Church’s new pope could be one of these cardinals
There are no official candidates for the papacy, but some cardinals are considered ‘papabile’ or possessing the characteristics necessary to become pope
Updated 30 April 2025
AP
Wanted: A holy man. Job description: Leading the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church. Location: Vatican City.
There are no official candidates for the papacy, but some cardinals are considered “papabile,” or possessing the characteristics necessary to become pope. After St. John Paul II broke the centuries-long Italian hold on the papacy in 1978, the field of contenders has broadened considerably.
When the cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on May 7 to choose a successor to Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, they will be looking above all for a holy man who can guide the Catholic Church. Beyond that, they will weigh his administrative and pastoral experience and consider what the church needs today.
Here is a selection of possible contenders, in no particular order. The list will be updated as cardinals continue their closed-door, pre-conclave discussions.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin. (AP)
Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Date of Birth: Jan. 17, 1955
Nationality: Italian
Position: Vatican secretary of state under Francis
Experience: Veteran Vatican diplomat
Made a cardinal by: Francis
The 70-year-old veteran diplomat was Francis’ secretary of state, essentially the Holy See’s prime minister.
Though associated closely with Francis’ pontificate, Parolin is much more demure in personality and diplomatic in his approach to leading than the Argentine Jesuit he served and he knows where the Catholic Church might need a course correction.
Parolin oversaw the Holy See’s controversial deal with China over bishop nominations and was involved – but not charged – in the Vatican’s botched investment in a London real estate venture that led to a 2021 trial of another cardinal and nine others. A former ambassador to Venezuela, Parolin knows the Latin American church well and played a key role in the 2014 US-Cuba detente, which the Vatican helped facilitate.
If he were elected, he would return an Italian to the papacy after three successive outsiders: St. John Paul II (Poland), Pope Benedict XVI (Germany) and Francis (Argentina).
But Parolin has very little pastoral experience: He entered the seminary at age 14, four years after his father was killed in a car accident. After his 1980 ordination, he spent two years as a parish priest near his hometown in northern Italy, but then went to Rome to study and entered the Vatican diplomatic service, where he has remained ever since. He has served at Vatican embassies in Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela.
He is widely respected for his diplomatic finesse on some of the thorniest dossiers facing the Catholic Church. He has long been involved in the China file, and he played a hands-on role in the Holy See’s diplomatic rapprochement with Vietnam that resulted in an agreement to establish a resident Vatican representative in the country.
Parolin was also the Vatican’s point-person in its frustrated efforts to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. He has tried to make the church’s voice heard as the Trump administration began working to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Let’s hope we can arrive at a peace that, in order to be solid, lasting, must be a just peace, must involve all the actors who are at stake and take into account the principles of international law and the UN declarations,” he said.
Parolin might find the geopolitical reality ushered in by the Trump administration somewhat unreceptive to the Holy See’s soft power.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. (AP)
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle
Date of Birth: June 21, 1957
Nationality: Filipino
Position: Pro-Prefect, Dicastery for Evangelization under Francis
Experience: Former archbishop of Manila, Philippines
Made a cardinal by: Benedict
Tagle, 67, is on many bookmakers’ lists to be the first Asian pope, a choice that would acknowledge a part of the world where the church is growing.
Francis brought the popular archbishop of Manila to Rome to head the Vatican’s missionary evangelization office, which serves the needs of the Catholic Church in much of Asia and Africa. His role took on greater weight when Francis reformed the Vatican bureaucracy. Tagle often cites his Chinese heritage – his maternal grandmother was part of a Chinese family that moved to the Philippines.
Though he has pastoral, Vatican and management experience – he headed the Vatican’s Caritas Internationalis federation of charity groups before coming to Rome permanently – Tagle would be on the young side to be elected pope, with cardinals perhaps preferring an older candidate whose papacy would be more limited.
Tagle is known as a good communicator and teacher – key attributes for a pope.
“The pope will have to do a lot of teaching, we’ll have to face the cameras all the time so if there will be a communicator pope, that’s very desirable,” said Leo Ocampo, a theology professor at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
That said, Tagle’s tenure at Caritas was not without controversy and some have questioned his management skills.
In 2022, Francis ousted the Caritas management, including demoting Tagle. The Holy See said an outside investigation had found “real deficiencies” in management that had affected staff morale at the Caritas secretariat in Rome.
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu. (AP)
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu
Date of Birth: Jan. 24, 1960
Nationality: Congolese
Position: Archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo
Experience: President of the bishops conferences of Africa and Madagascar
Made a cardinal by: Francis
The 65-year-old Ambongo is one of Africa’s most outspoken Catholic leaders, heading the archdiocese that has the largest number of Catholics on the continent that seen as the future of the church.
He has been archbishop of Congo’s capital since 2018 and a cardinal since in 2019. Francis also appointed him to a group of advisers that was helping reorganize the Vatican bureaucracy.
In Congo and across Africa, Ambongo has been deeply committed to the Catholic orthodoxy and is seen as conservative.
In 2024, he signed a statement on behalf of the bishops conferences of Africa and Madagascar refusing to follow Francis’ declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples in what amounted to continent-wide dissent from a papal teaching. The rebuke crystalized both the African church’s line on LGBTQ+ outreach and Ambongo’s stature within the African hierarchy.
He has received praise from some in Congo for promoting interfaith tolerance, especially on a continent where religious divisions between Christians and Muslims are common.
“He is for the openness of the church to different cultures,” said Monsignor Donatien Nshole, secretary-general of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo, who has long worked with Ambongo.
An outspoken government critic, the cardinal is also known for his unwavering advocacy for social justice.
In a country with high poverty and hunger levels despite being rich in minerals, and where fighting by rebel groups has killed thousands and displaced millions in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, he frequently criticizes both government corruption and inaction, as well as the exploitation of the country’s natural resources by foreign powers.
“Congo is the plate from which everyone eats, except for our people,” he said last year during a speech at the Pontifical Antonianum University.
Ambongo’s criticism of authorities has drawn both public admiration and legal scrutiny. Last year, prosecutors ordered a judicial investigation of him after accusing him of “seditious behavior” over his criticism of the government’s handling of the conflict in eastern Congo.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi. (AP)
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi
Date of Birth: Oct. 11, 1955
Nationality: Italian
Current position: Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, president of the Italian bishops conference
Previous position: Auxiliary bishop of Rome
Made a cardinal by: Francis
Zuppi, 69, came up as a street priest in the image of Francis, who promoted him quickly: first to archbishop of the wealthy archdiocese of Bologna in northern Italy in 2015, before bestowing the title of cardinal in 2019.
He is closely closely affiliated with the Sant’Egidio Community, a Rome-based Catholic charity that was influential under Francis, particularly in interfaith dialogue. Zuppi was part of Sant’Egidio’s team that helped negotiate the end of Mozambique’s civil war in the 1990s and was named Francis’ peace envoy for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He traveled to Kyiv and Moscow after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the Holy See for help in winning the release of 19,000 Ukrainian children taken from their families and brought to Russia during the war. The mission also took him to China and the United States.
After making him a cardinal, Francis made clear he wanted him in charge of Italy’s bishops, a sign of his admiration for the prelate who, like Francis, is known as a “street priest” – someone who prioritizes ministering to poor and homeless people and refugees.
Zuppi would be a candidate in Francis’ tradition of ministering to those on the margins, although his relative youth would count against him for cardinals seeking a short papacy.
In a sign of his progressive leanings, Zuppi wrote the introduction to the Italian edition of “Building a Bridge,” by the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit, about the church’s need to improve its outreach to the LGBTQ+ community.
Zuppi wrote that building bridges with the community was a “difficult process, still unfolding.” He recognized that “doing nothing, on the other hand, risks causing a great deal of suffering, makes people feel lonely, and often leads to the adoption of positions that are both contrasting and extreme.”
Zuppi’s family also has strong institutional ties: His father worked for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and his mother was the niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, dean of the College of Cardinals in the 1960s and 1970s.
Cardinal Peter Erdo. (AP)
Cardinal Peter Erdo
Date of Birth: June 25, 1952
Nationality: Hungarian
Position: Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary
Past experience: Twice elected head of the umbrella group of European bishops conferences
Made a cardinal by: John Paul
Known by his peers as a serious theologian, scholar and educator, Erdo, 72, is a leading contender among conservatives. He has served as the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest since 2002 and was made a cardinal by John Paul the following year. He has participated in two conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, for the selection of Benedict and Francis.
Holding doctorates in theology and canon law, Erdo, speaks six languages, is a proponent of doctrinal orthodoxy, and champions the church’s positions on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.
Erdo opposes same-sex unions, and has also resisted suggestions that Catholics who remarry after divorce be able to receive communion. He stated in 2015 that divorced Catholics should only be permitted communion if they remain sexually abstinent in their new marriage.
An advocate for traditional family structures, he helped organize Francis’ 2014 and 2015 Vatican meetings on the family.
From 2006 to 2016, Erdo served as president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, helping to foster collaboration among Catholic bishops across Europe and to address contemporary issues facing the church on the continent.
While careful to avoid taking part in Hungary’s often tumultuous political life, Erdo has maintained a close relationship with the country’s rightist populist government, which provides generous subsidies to Christian churches.
He has been reluctant to take positions on several of the government’s policies that divided society in Hungary such as public campaigns that villainized migrants and refugees and laws that eroded the rights of LGBTQ+ communities.
When hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers entered Europe in 2015 fleeing war and deprivation in the Middle East and Africa, Erdo emphasized that the church had a Christian duty to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need, but stopped short of the full-throated advocacy for migrants that was one of Francis’ top priorities.
About 4,700 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded fighting for Russia, South Korea says
Seoul says North Korea has suffered some 4,700 casualties so far, including injuries and deaths
North Korean labor overseas is known as a source of the regime’s hard currency income
Updated 9 min 7 sec ago
Reuters
SEOUL: An estimated 4,700 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded while fighting alongside Russia against Ukrainian forces, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday.
The assessment came two days after North Korea confirmed for the first time that it had sent combat troops to help Russia recapture parts of the Kursk region, which it lost control of to a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year.
In a closed-door parliamentary committee briefing, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said North Korea had suffered 4,700 casualties, including 600 deaths, on the Russia-Ukraine battlefronts, according to Lee Seong Kweun, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting.
Lee told reporters the NIS said that 2,000 injured North Korean soldiers were repatriated to North Korea by air or train between January and March. He cited the NIS as saying the dead North Korean soldiers were cremated in Russia before their remains were sent back home.
In January, the NIS said about 300 North Korean soldiers had died and another 2,700 had been injured, and the South Korean military increased the estimated casualties to 4,000 last month.
On Monday, North Korea announced that leader Kim Jong Un had decided to dispatch troops to “annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces.” Russian President Vladimir Putin later issued a statement thanking North Korea and promising not to forget the sacrifices of North Korean soldiers.
Both Kim and Putin said the North Korean deployment was made under their countries’ landmark 2024 defense treaty, which requires each side to provide aid if the other is attacked. The US, South Korea and their partners say North Korea has been supplying vast amounts of conventional weapons to replenish Russia’s depleted stocks as well. They suspect Russia is providing North Korea with military and economic assistance in return.
US, South Korean and Ukraine officials have said North Korea dispatched 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia last fall. South Korea’s military said in March that North Korea sent about 3,000 additional troops to Russia earlier this year.
During its Wednesday briefing, the NIS said it assessed that Russia has given North Korea air defense missiles, electronic warfare equipment, drones and technology for spy satellite launches, according to Kim Byung-kee, another lawmaker who attended the NIS briefing.
Kim quoted the NIS as saying that 15,000 North Korean laborers have also been sent to Russia under bilateral industrial cooperation programs. The lawmaker said the amount of North Korean missiles and artillery sent to Russia was worth billions of dollars but the NIS hasn’t detected signs that Russia has sent North Korea cash remittances for them.
