Sydney

Christmas festivities began on Dec. 25, with hundreds of millions across the world under coronavirus restrictions celebrating a pared-down version of a holiday typically marked by travel and large gatherings.

Australia's second-largest city has welcomed its first international passenger flight in five months - an arrival that will test the state of Victoria's revamped hotel quarantine system.

Voting in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies elections of December 5 and 6, 2020, began on Friday at 8 pm, Romania's time, once with the opening of the polling station in Auckland, New Zealand, informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), in a press release.

Australia's Northern Territory will be closed to visitors from virus hotspots for a further 18 months to protect its large and vulnerable Aboriginal population, authorities said Tuesday.

The sparsely populated northern region is home to roughly 250,000 people -- 30 per cent of whom are Aboriginal -- according to government figures.

Australia's coronavirus-infected population has declined from 5 to 2%, Health Minister Greg Hunt told a news conference in Sydney today, TASS reported.

More than 313,000 coronavirus tests have been carried out in the country since the first case of infection was registered on January 25, the minister said.

Oil prices plummeted around 30 percent on March 9 after Saudi Arabia slashed its official selling prices and set plans for a dramatic increase in crude production next month, starting a price war even as spread of the coronavirus erodes global demand growth.

We received information from the Australian authorities about two people who were in contact with another person who tested positive for the new coronavirus because they were in the same flight. The flight was from Doha to Sydney. This is what Health Inspector Angel Kunchev said.

The accident happened near Victoria State.

A train with 160 passengers aboard left the rails in Australia. Two people are reported missing.

It is not clear how many were injured. The train was travelling from Sydney to Melbourne. The accident occurred near Victoria around 7:50 pm local time.

A rescue operation is underway. 18 firefighters were dispatched to the scene.

A four-day downpour across Australia's east coast has brought relief after months of devastating bushfires and years of drought, but also widespread storm damage and forecasts of more wild weather to come.   

Heavy rains flooded parts of eastern Australia, causing flooding in the Sydney area, but also brought some relief to firefighters who continue to fight dozens of wildfires in the state of New South Wales, the Associated Press and Reuters reported.