Australia

    A woman whose headphones caught fire on a plane suffered burns to her face and hands, Australian officials said Wednesday as they warned about the dangers of battery-operated devices in-flight. The passenger was listening to music on her own battery-operated headphones as she dozed about two hours into the trip from Beijing to Melbourne on February 19 when there was a loud explosion. As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face, she told the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) which investigated the incident. I just grabbed my face which caused the headphones to go around my neck. I continued to feel burning so I grabbed them off and threw them on the floor. They were sparking and had small amounts of fire. Flight attendants rushed to help and poured a bucket o...

    Five people have been killed after a small plane crashed into a shopping centre near an airport north of Melbourne, Australia. The Beechcraft plane exploded on impact just before 9am local time, an hour before the Direct Factory Outlet shopping mall was due to open. Those killed reportedly include four US citizens. Assistant police commissioner Stephen Leane said: There were five people on the aeroplane and it looks like nobody's survived the crash. A plane carrying five people has crashed into a shopping centre in northern Melbourne A taxi driver told ABC radio there was a "massive fireball" after the impact. He said: I could feel the heat through the window of the taxi, and then a wheel - it looked like a plane wheel bounced on the road and hit the front of the taxi as w...

    Families of migrants to Australia will be able to apply for a five-year temporary residency visa, in a move set to reduce decade-long wait list for families seeking a permanent residency visa, the Australian government has announced. The move was made after the government became aware of frustrations surrounding the current visa program, Assistant Minister for Immigration Alex Hawke was quoted by The Australian on Saturday. Currently, if family members of a migrant to Australia wish to join their family through a visa program, they are put on a lengthy wait list for a permanent residency visa. But under the new plan, migrants can sponsor their family's move, and they'll be given a five-year visa without waiting for long time. Families or the migrants will be required to co...

    Vietnam has cancelled an event marking the 50th anniversary of Australia's bloodiest battle in the Vietnam War. The commemoration of the battle of Long Tan was due to be held at a cross marking the site on Thursday. More than 1,000 Australian veterans and their families have travelled to Vietnam to commemorate the anniversary. Eighteen Australian soldiers and hundreds of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters died in the battle, deep in southern Vietnam, on 18 August 1966. Police blocked access to the site, which is on private land, without explanation on Wednesday. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed that the Vietnamese government said it will not allow the event to go ahead, although small groups will be allowed access on Thursday. An official party invol...

    The Home Office has told an Australian family living in the Scottish Highlands to go home after their deadline for a successful visa application expired. The Brain family has been sent a letter from the Government telling them to "voluntarily" return to Australia after the visa they came to the UK on was scrapped under new rules three months after their arrival. Kathryn Brain and her husband, Gregg, only found out a year after they moved to Scotland that the post-study student visa Ms Brain was awarded in 2010 had been retroactively discontinued - leading them to accuse the Government of failing to uphold "their end of the bargain. And now the final of three extended deadlines for the parents to find a permanent job, which would allow them and their 11-year-old son Lachlan...

    Two pieces of debris found in South Africa and Mauritius "almost certainly" came from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australia said Thursday after an expert examination. The items were brought to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's laboratories for testing, as authorities seek to work out what happened to the plane, which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It follows a wing part recovered last year from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, which neighbours Mauritius, being confirmed as coming from the jet. Since then two more items found about 220 kilometres (140 miles) apart from each other in Mozambique in December 2015 and February 2016 have been examined. The ATSB in March said these were also "almost certainly" from the Boeing 777 ai...

    Melbourne Fire Brigade Four-year-old Leo Waterhouse, who spent more than five hours with his hand trapped in a vending machine on Sunday. Emergency services in Melbourne have carried out a delicate operation to free a young boy who spent more than five hours with his hand stuck in a vending machine. Firefighters were called to an apartment block on Lonsdale Street in the city centre at noon on Sunday. Four-year-old Leo Shorthouse had put his hand in the dispensing slot of a vending machine before becoming caught in the anti-theft mechanisms. Aaron Shorthouse, Leo’s father, told 9 News that Leo was an inquisitive child – “I don’t think he’s ever seen a vending machine before.” The Shorthouse family live in Nhulunbuy, a small town in the very remote north-east Arnhem Land, a...

    An Australian man has pledged to only eat potatoes for the entirety of 2016 in an attempt to cure his binge-eating. Father-of-two Andrew Flinders Taylor, from Melbourne, said he made the decision after reaching his heaviest ever weight of 23 stone 12lbs. After only a 34 days of the diet, he has lost over two stone and says he is sleeping better as a result. Mr Taylor took on the challenge after studying scientific papers and finalising a plan with the help of a doctor and a dietician. He says he was surprised to find that potatoes offer "more than enough protein" along with all essential amino acids. Mr Taylor told The Independent: "I'm getting over 600% of my daily iron retirements and over 400% of vitamin c as well as heaps of fibre - all things that so-called experts h...

    British couple David (left) and Marco Bulmer-Rizzi were on honeymoon in Adelaide when David died. Marco was initially told his late husband’s status would be recorded on a South Australian death certificate as ‘never married. The British high commission has said an English man who died while on honeymoon in Adelaide will be registered as married on his death certificate, after the South Australian premier apologised for the “awfully insensitive” treatment of his widower. Charity worker David Bulmer-Rizzi, 32, died after a fall while on honeymoon with husband Marco, 38, in Adelaide. Though the couple, from Sunderland, had married in London last year, Marco Bulmer-Rizzi was told David’s death certificate would state never married and he was not recognised as next of kin. The...

    Police in Austria are investigating how bank notes worth tens of thousands of euros ended up in the River Dan-ube. The notes were found floating down the river in Vienna on Saturday, leading one passer-by to jump in and sal-vage the money. A police spokesman told the BBC that the recovered money was worth some €100,000 (£72,000; $108,000). Police said there were no crimes were recorded in the area and that it was not clear where the money originated. Reports in Austria said officers had first believed the money - made up of €500 and €100 notes - was counterfeit, but they now believe the notes to be genuine. They were first alerted when bystanders spotted a boy in the river on Saturday. Fearing he was attempting suicide, they called police, only to find he was trying to ret...