New South Wales

Hundreds of koalas are threatened to burn in a growing fire on Australia's east coast, wildlife advocates said.

The fire, thought to have been caused by a thunderstorm, raging Saturday about 400 kilometres north of Sydney, has devastated an area of ​​more than 4,942 acres. Authorities are still fighting to control it.

Mytlineos on Monday announced that its subsidiary METKA EGN has signed a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Coles, Australia's second largest supermarket chain.

Australia's most populous state of New South Wales on Tuesday imposed water restrictions for the first time in a decade with dam levels at just over 50% due to a prolonged drought, reported Euronews.

The country's east coast has suffered through two years of below average rainfall, devastating agricultural production and stoking a political debate over the impact of climate change.

Australians are suffering a brutal post-Christmas heatwave, with temperatures in most parts of the country's southeast up to 14 degrees Celsius (24 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the average for this time of year, reported CNN. 

Andrew Jackomos is fighting to improve the living conditions of young members of the Koori tribe, indigenous Australians of New South Wales and Victoria. Still, when the 65-year-old walked around Kastellorizo, the island from which his grandfather emigrated, he felt a sense of awe. "My heart is shared between all of my ancestors," Jackomos tells Kathimerini.

Sixteen people have been taken to hospital after a train hit a rail buffer at Richmond in Sydney's north-western outskirts, with witnesses describing the scene as "chaotic"./ The Guardian

New South Wales police said on Monday that the train had crashed into a buffer at the end of the train line while "slowing to stop at the station".

Five people were convicted of preparing a terrorist attack in Sydney, BBC reported.

The plan was thwarted by the New South Wales police in 2014. The suspects have planned attacks on the main police building in Sydney and a prison near Litgow, Focus reports.

An Australian court dealt on Sept. 20 a blow to a planned Aus$8.6 billion ($6.9 billion) merger of gambling giants Tabcorp and Tatts, ordering a review of the deal following competition concerns.

Researchers from Australia say they have designed a new type of qubit - or quantum bit, a piece of information - which they think is close to creating a real, full-size quantum computer, ScienceAlert reported.

Turkish police have said they were working with Australian authorities to investigate a foiled plot to bomb an Etihad Airways flight using explosives which Canberra said were flown in from Turkey.

In a statement issued late on Aug. 5, police said they had contacted Australian authorities as soon as they received news of the foiled plot.