A 22-year-old contestant for the title of Miss South Africa, who was abandoned as a baby, is urging those down on their luck to “keep fighting, keep loving, keep giving” in a spirited message of hope. Fikile Cele said she was raised by an Indian woman who found her in a box outside a factory. “It may come as a surprise to many that I don’t speak Zulu. Neither do I understand my mother tongue,” Cele said. “My mother was 15 or 16 when she fell pregnant with me and ran away from her home in Johannesburg to Durban because…
Author: zenger.news
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australian actor Rose Byrne has been cast as Jacinda Ardern in a controversial movie centered on the New Zealand prime minister’s response to the 2019 Christchurch terror attacks. The film is titled “They Are Us”, a phrase Ardern used in the aftermath of the shootings, which killed 51 people and injured many more. The film is being produced in New Zealand and has been developed in consultation with members of Canterbury’s Muslim community. Acclaimed Kiwi director Andrew Niccol — who directed “Gattaca” and wrote “The Truman Show” — is behind the project, with Byrne cast as the…
MELBOURNE, Australia — A breakthrough discovery by Australian scientists could dramatically reduce the carbon emissions created by ammonia production. The smelly substance — used to produce fertilizers that keeps food growing around the world — is carbon-intensive to create. Currently, it accounts for some 1.8 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. But researchers at Melbourne’s Monash University believe they’ve found a way to produce green ammonia at scale. The research, published in the journal Science, could help Australia position itself as a leader in the ammonia economy, Jordan Nash, Monash University Faculty of Science Dean, said. According to one of the lead researchers on the…
MELBOURNE, Australia — An inquiry into whether Crown can retain a license for its Melbourne casino has been extended, and its multi-million dollar budget nearly doubled. The Victorian government has granted a request by Raymond Finkelstein, who is heading the royal commission. His investigation has grown to include a broader range of matters than initially intended because of the severe nature of the allegations made. Acting Premier James Merlino granted Commissioner Raymond Finkelstein’s request to continue the investigation and increase its funding, as per the state government officials. “Due to the seriousness of evidence produced through hearings and submissions to date,…
SYDNEY — Hundreds of hotels and motels from Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory to Hobart in Tasmania are set to save on their power bills under an AU$10.2 million ($7.9 million) federal government grants program. Energy Minister Angus Taylor has announced 443 facilities had been given the green light for up to AU$25,000 ($19,364.8) in grants under the Hotel Energy Uplift Program. Hotels, motels, and serviced apartments with up to 99 rooms were eligible to receive grants under the program. Taylor tweeted: “Small and medium hotels across Australia are receiving support to cut their energy costs. Australia’s hotel industry was among…
SYDNEY — A New South Wales farmer’s bid to overturn land clearing laws by claiming his land is being compulsorily acquired from the fallout of the Kyoto Protocol has no reasonable prospect of success, a court has ruled. Mungindi farmer Robert Alexander Houston had claimed laws regulating the clearing of native vegetation were invalid because they had a disproportionate or discriminatory effect on his farming operations. To give effect to the Kyoto Protocol, the federal government made a series of agreements with the states and territories to implement a “net-zero broadscale land clearing” policy. He argued that the restrictions on land…
CANBERRA, Australia — Aged care and disability support workers in Australia would receive four days of paid leave to get vaccinated against coronavirus under a union plan to bolster the rollout. Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus has written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison asking the federal government to provide the special entitlement. For each of the two doses, workers would be given one day off to receive their vaccine and another to recover from potential side effects. The plan would be extended to aged care and disability casuals without other leave entitlements. “Today, we are calling for the…
CANBERRA, Australia — Universities Australia, the peak body for the country’s varsities, says the south-eastern state of New South Wales’s plan to reintroduce international students is pleasing given their “large role in cultural and economic life”. Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said on June 10 that 250 international students would be able to come to Sydney each fortnight from mid-year. They would spend their quarantine period in purpose-built student accommodation. Under the plan, the first international students would touch down within eight weeks — around the time semester, two begins for most New South Wales universities. The arrival of these students will be in addition…
WASHINGTON — Los índices de aprobación internacional de Estados Unidos se han disparado bajo el mandato del presidente Joseph R. Biden Jr. en comparación con el de su predecesor Donald J. Trump, según muestra una encuesta publicada el jueves. Pero la investigación, realizada en 16 países aliados clave, muestra que la mayoría de las personas no ven al país como “un buen ejemplo de democracia”. Los encuestados, además, tienen una baja percepción del manejo del COVID-19 por parte de la Unión Americana. La encuesta del Pew Research Center a 16 mil 254 personas, radicadas en Canadá, Bélgica, Francia, Alemania, Grecia, Italia,…
Dr. Khalil Bakly has two dental practices: one in Nazareth, where he treats a mostly Muslim clientele, and one in Netanya, where most of his patients are Jewish. As such, he was privy to multiple voices and opinions surrounding the conflict that recently engulfed Israel, as violence erupted between Israel and the Gaza Strip and, in some cases, between Israel’s Jewish and Arab communities. “As you can understand, I experience both worlds and both populations on a daily basis,” he said. “There’s no doubt that there were extremists on both sides in certain areas that succeeded in inducing a really…