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READ MORE “At present, China-New Zealand ties overall are developing in a stable manner,” Li told Ardern at the start of their meeting in Beijing’s Great Hall of the people, noting New Zealand’s desire for good relations. “China also places a high importance on relations with New Zealand and is willing to,” he said. “And we hope that we can aspire to the greatest common denominator regarding each others’ interests and that when each sides businesses invest in each other’s businesses, they can enjoy a fair, transparent, convenient environment.” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern walks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang after inspecting an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on Monday, April 1. Credit: AP Ardern told Li that she wanted to underline the importance her country placed on its relationship with China. In 2008, New Zealand became the first Western country to sign a free...

READ MORE In the 2014 election, when now-president Joko Widodo defeated Prabowo, the losing candidate alleged widespread voter fraud, did not initially accept the result and took action in the Constitutional Court. But the Court found against Prabowo and eventually upheld Joko’s victory. There have also been unproved claims of Chinese and Russian hacking and other interference in the election. In Saturday’s third debate between Prabowo and Joko, who is widely known as Jokowi, the pair presented strongly contrasting visions for Indonesia’s role in the world Although opinion polls in Indonesia can at times be unreliable, the trend across most polls has seen Joko enjoy a substantial lead over Prabowo. Hashim claimed, however, on Monday that Prabowo was actually ahead in some polls.

READ MORE “I got butterflies again, I haven’t had butterflies for a while. This is a good thing, I’m excited, it’s something different and it means things are happening,” Dencio said. “Doesn’t everyone want to be an Australian champion? Whether it’s cricket, boxing or football, everyone wants to represent their country or have that title of Australian champion. Ben Dencio and Beau Hartas will both be fighting on Friday night. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong “That’s pretty cool, that would be awesome, something to tell the grand kids. It’s pretty good news I thought, I’m excited.” As for Dencio’s plan to stop Priestley? Just focus on himself – that’s pretty much all he can do.

READ MORE Kendall Jenner… reasonably popular on social media. Credit: Instagram Sixers fans were naturally wary when Ben and Kendall started hanging out and going on boring dates in suburban mall s like regular humans. Alas, all seems to be going swimmingly, to the point where they have been given a merged name – ‘Bendall’ – and Simmons stats lines haven’t dipped at all, nor have the 76ers gone off a cliff. They have been accepted, welcomed and lovingly celebrated as the ‘ Adopted Prince and Princess of New Jersey’ (Philly sits just across the river from the Garden State). These are heady days for a kid from Newcastle. From all reports, they are an endearingly low-key couple, or as low-key as you can be when one of you is an NBA star and the other populates more than half of the useable internet. Kendall has been a regular at Sixers games, Simmons has continued to flourish on the court. He seems like a tremendous young man, so we at Hera...

READ MORE Ponga has shown glimpses of the magic that lit up the league last season but Brown is hoping a move to his old spot will provide more potency. “Obviously I wanted to play well in that position. I still want to learn in that position. I think we’ll see how this weekend goes,” Ponga said. “If it works well, then we’ll continue with it.” Ponga found he was in the game more in the halves and he enjoyed the added defensive workload of playing in the front line. “Being in the first line of defence, you’re always on whereas at fullback you’re back there resting every now and then. I like that part of the game,” he said.

READ MORE Sports such as mixed martial arts and Muay Thai fell under the old Boxing Control Act but Berry hopes improved regulations changes will address safety and integrity concerns. However Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation James Milligan fears sports like judo, kung fu and taekwondo – not previously included – will suffer under the burden of extra regulations. “The greatest fear is these events will no longer be held and be held in NSW, not here in the ACT. We won’t be able to grow our young athletes here in the territory because they will be competing interstate,” Milligan said. “We believe this is a bit of a heavy-handed tactic from this government in the sense that there will be too much regulation and it may have a big effect on local sporting groups, training centres, and small businesses.

READ MORE A football season is a marathon, not a sprint. But for Sydney FC, everything – their domestic hopes, continental ambitions, and even local bragging rights – hinges on the next four games. It looms as the most pivotal period of the 2018-19 campaign for the Sky Blues and their coach, Steve Corica, whose first year in the hotseat will effectively be judged by how they fare. Business time: Everything goes on the line for Sydney FC in the next four games. Credit: AAP First up is Melbourne Victory at the SCG on Saturday night. The ‘Big Blue’ is always an event in isolation, but in the context of the race for the A-League premiership it looms as a truly captivating contest and a season-defining one for either side. Sydney FC sit second on the ladder – just one point ahead of Victory, who have a superior goal difference, and six behind leaders Perth Glory. The winner will come away with their hopes of catching the Glory still in tact and their chances of ...

READ MORE Prime Minister Scott Morrison is unmoved by calls to bring the three surviving children of Australia’s most notorious terrorist home from Syria. Khaled Sharrouf’s three remaining children are being held in a refugee camp in northern Syria after surviving a fierce battle for Islamic State’s last stronghold in Baghouz. Their grandmother, Karen Nettleton, has called on the federal government to help the children return to Australia. However, Mr Morrison has not been swayed by her pleas. “I’m not going to put one Australian life at risk to try and extract people from these dangerous situations,” he told reporters in Canberra on Monday. “I think it’s appalling that Australians have gone and fought against our values and our way of life and peace-loving countries of the world in joining the Daesh fight. “I think it’s even more despicable that they put their children in the middle of it.” Sharrouf and two of his sons...

READ MORE New Zealand will crack down on firearms ownership this week after the Christchurch mosques massacre that claimed 50 lives – and the Kiwi gun lobby, for the most part, is okay with that. In stark contrast to the United States, where even the most minor curbs on gun ownership meet ferocious opposition led by the National Rifle Association, New Zealand gun owners agree action is needed. The March 15 rampage by a white supremacist gunman has been a shock to the collective system. “We want to support our government in any changes to prevent a terrorist attack from happening in New Zealand again,” Nicole McKee, secretary of the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners said. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government announced an immediate ban on military-style semi-automatic rifles (MSSAs) after the shooting and will put laws to parliament formalising its action on Tuesday. Finalising such legislation can often take months but Ardern says the matter...

READ MORE But the government is shortly to confirm that the administrative changes will run deeper, with Roads and Maritime Services to be brought inside Transport for NSW, which is headed by Rodd Staples. Ms Berejiklian is a former transport minister, and the senior ranks of the bureaucracy include a number of public servants who worked under Ms Berejiklian on transport matters. The secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Tim Reardon, was hired under Ms Berejiklian as transport minister. Similarly, the secretary of the Department of Planning and Environment, Carolyn McNally, was also recruited to Transport for NSW under Ms Berejiklian. But Ms McNally is being replaced by Mr Betts, the chief executive of Infrastructure NSW. Mr Betts is a former secretary of the Victorian Department of Transport, who joined Infrastructure NSW in 2013. Article source: http://smh.com.au/world/trump-rallies-highlight-his-failings-20170824-gy2zxh.html

READ MORE The widow of Queensland mining magnate Ken Talbot is suing his lawyer for negligence over claims he took too long to prepare her husband’s new will before his death. Mr Talbot, who founded Macarthur Coal, died in June 2010 when his plane crashed in the Republic of Congo. The BRW Rich 200 list had listed Mr Talbot’s worth at $965 million at the time of his death. His widow Amanda Talbot is suing Boyd Legal over allegations owner Bill Boyd failed to finalise her husband’s new will before he died, causing her to lose significant financial benefits. A claim filed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane states she and their four children were beneficiaries under Mr Talbot’s 2002 will. Article source: http://smh.com.au/world/trump-rallies-highlight-his-failings-20170824-gy2zxh.html

READ MORE Shares in GetSwift are up 2.6 per cent today to 19.5 cents after the two largest shareholders, Clutterbuck Capital Management and the founder of KPT Capital told the market they are pulling out of class action against the company. “We have already notified the Court of our decision to opt-out of the current class action proceedings,” the funds revealed this morning. “We thought it pertinent to also voice our full and strong support of the entire senior management team of GetSwift, in particular, Bane Hunter and Joel Macdonald. We believe it is essential for the future success of the Company that Messrs. Hunter and Macdonald remain at the helm for many reasons, including their strong customer relationships, deep industry expertise, and the ability to attract and retain key talent.” “Although the Company has recently endured a very tumultuous and public existence, we believe general commentary fails to address the highly supportive position of lon...

READ MORE Following Nipsey Hussle’s tragic death, so many celebs took to Twitter Instagram to remember the rapper violently gunned down in Los Angeles on Mar. 31. Nipsey Hussle , 33, was declared dead at a nearby hospital after he was shot multiples times outside of his clothing company, Marathon Shop, on Mar. 31 by a suspect who remains at large. Since news of his passing broke , so many other rappers and celebs have taken to social media to mourn his loss. Sharing photos of Nipsey on her Instagram, Rihanna , 31, wrote in her caption, “This doesn’t make any sense! My spirit is shaken by this! Dear God may His spirit Rest In Peace and May You grant divine comfort to all his loved ones! 💔🙏🏿 I’m so sorry this happened to you @nipseyhussle.” Meanwhile, Drake , 32, whom Nipsey collaborated with on the song “Killer,” wrote, “F***. My whole energy is just at a low right now hearing this. We just linked for the first tim...

READ MORE Canberra teenager Edward Osei-Nketia won the 100 metres under-20 national title at the Australian track and field championships on Monday. Osei-Nketia stopped the clock in a blistering 10.61 seconds as the 17-year-old pipped Jake Doran on the line in Sydney. Edward Osei-Nekita is coached by his father Augustine Nketia who holds the NZ 100m record. Credit: Karleen Minney The St Edmund’s College student won the All Schools 100m national title earlier this year with the exact same time he posted on Monday. Osei-Nketia is the son of Gus Nketia who broke the New Zealand 100m record at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in a time of 10.11 seconds. The star sprinter wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an Olympian at the 2020 Tokyo Games but will need to improve his personal best of 10.3 seconds. Article source: http://smh.com.au/world/trump-rallies-highlight-his-failings-20170824-gy2zxh.html

READ MORE The deal is Creek’s third 10-day deal for this season after two with Brooklyn Nets and with the Timberwolves struggling with injuries there is hope he could see some meaningful minutes as they play out the final games of their season. Phoenix general manager Tommy Greer said Wesley, who is currently playing in Puerto Rico with Brujos de Guayama, would bring leadership to the first-year club. “I’m really excited to have Tai on-board,” Greer said. “He has been dominant in this league for a number of years now; he’s a great leader on and off the court, and a proven winner, which will be important for us in our inaugural season.” Article source: http://smh.com.au/world/trump-rallies-highlight-his-failings-20170824-gy2zxh.html

READ MORE Brisbane have altered their style by adding more focus to their defensive actions. Through the development of their young brigade, and additions to the midfield, they are also attacking the opposition with strong running. The Bulldogs, too, have modified their game with a more direct approach to goal, rather than over-possession. This is still a work in progress. If you’re not prepared to change in AFL, you will be left behind. Hawthorn, under Alastair Clarkson, have been a step ahead of the competition for quite a few years. Clarkson was even experimenting with, and altering, his game plan during the ’13, ’14, and ’15 years of premiership success. In 2018, we saw more of a handball focus, rather than the kicking of the ‘‘three-peat’’ years. Richmond changed with great success in 2017 and 2018 – but the Pies have worked them out. They will need to reinvent themselves, and not only...

READ MORE Liberatore, 26, has declared a year out of the game because of a serious knee injury has helped him rediscover his zest. That has been on show so far, with the midfield hard nut averaging 28 disposals, and he is ranked fourth in the league for hard-ball gets and clearances. Murphy told The Age Real Footy podcast that Liberatore was the Dogs’ spiritual leader. “No doubt. Here is my analogy – the great players you hear being talked about, [their] physical presence, people around them walk taller when they are there,” he said. “Tom is like that for the Bulldogs. I don’t know what he is – five-foot 11, six foot – but he has got a presence, he has got that something else that makes his teammates walk taller.” Having missed the finals in the two seasons since they claimed a breakthrough flag, the Dogs, at times, had been criticised for living in past glories. However, Liberatore’s return has put a more positi...

READ MORE Now, the painting is shrouded in a new mystery: Where in the world is Salvator Mundi ? Although the Abu Dhabi culture department announced about a month after the auction that it had somehow acquired Salvator Mundi for display in the local Louvre, a scheduled unveiling of the painting last September was cancelled without explanation. The culture department is refusing to answer questions. Staff members of the Louvre Abu Dhabi say privately they have no knowledge of the painting’s whereabouts. The Louvre in Paris, which licenses its name to the Abu Dhabi museum, has not been able to locate Salvator Mundi , either, according to an official familiar with the museum’s discussions with Abu Dhabi, who declined to be named because of the confidentiality of the talks. Officials in the French government, which owns the Louvre in Paris, are eager to include Salvator Mundi in a landmark exhibition this autumn to mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death and say t...

READ MORE Queensland line dancers have been scammed of more than $120,000 after booking trips that never eventuated. The dancers booked the trips through a “line dancing travel company” but their holidays were cancelled with no refund forthcoming, Queensland police says. They are hunting a 37-year-old man after more than 70 people from Brisbane and the Sunshine and Gold coasts complained. AAP Article source: http://smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/wattle-day-could-a-new-golden-australia-day-bloom-in-the-springtime-20170831-gy7qnk.html

READ MORE At 11.37pm on July 15, 2017, a squad car containing two Minneapolis police officers slowly made its way up a darkened alley in one of the US Mid-West city’s safest suburbs. Out of the darkness, Justine Damond Ruszczyk, a 40-year-old Australian life coach and yoga instructor who was dressed in her pyjamas, approached the police Ford Explorer SUV. Ms Damond lived in a house near the alley and had called 911 after hearing a woman’s screams. The officer in the front passenger seat, Mohamed Noor, pointed his gun across his partner, Matthew Harrity, who was driving the vehicle. Noor fired his revolver out the open driver’s side window, with the bullet hitting Ms Damond on the left side of her stomach. “I’m dying,” Ms Damond said as she put her hands on the bullet wound. It was a horrifying couple of seconds that sent shockwaves from Minneapolis to Australia. Why did Noor fire his weapon across his partner at the unarmed Australian woman renowned ...

READ MORE Alessandra Mussolini has attacked the US actor Jim Carrey after he posted a satirical sketch of her grandfather the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on Twitter. Mr Carrey’s drawing depicts the corpses of Mussolini and his mistress Claretta Petacci shortly after their execution by anti-fascist partisans in 1945. After Mussolini’s death the bodies of him and other fascists were hung with meat hooks from the girder of a petrol station in Milan. Ms Mussolini, the granddaughter of the dictator and an EU parliamentarian, responded angrily to the sketch. “You are a b*******” she wrote in a one line reply. You are a bastard — Alessandra Mussolini (@Ale_Mussolini_) March 31, 2019 The Italian politican then challenged Mr Carrey to illustrate a number of other historical events, such as the atomic bombing by US forces and the nation’s civil rights struggles. In October last year Ms Mussolini threatened to take legal action against those who defamed he...

READ MORE A 15-year-old girl who went missing in Sydney’s North Shore last week has been found. In a statement on Monday afternoon, NSW Police said the teenager was “safe and well”. Gabrielle Lopes Cardozo was reported missing by her family after she did not show up at school on Friday. Earlier Monday, police said they held “serious concerns for her welfare, as her disappearance is out of character”. She had last been seen at Artarmon Railway Station on Thursday night. The circumstances of her disappearance or how she was found have not been made public. Police thanked the community for their assistance over recent days. Article source: http://smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/wattle-day-could-a-new-golden-australia-day-bloom-in-the-springtime-20170831-gy7qnk.html

READ MORE Paladin was the only company approached by Home Affairs for the work and was given just six days to lodge its costings with the department after a PNG-run tender process collapsed in mid-2017. It gained notoriety by having until recently a beach shack on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island as its Australian head office. But Home Affairs officials told a Senate estimates hearing in February that the department had been mostly happy with Paladin’s performance. Mr Hehir’s audit team will also examine an $82 million contract to politically connected PNG landowner company NKW Holdings to feed and house asylum seekers on Manus Island. This works out to be about $1400 per day for the 209 men at West Lorengau Haus and Hillside Haus. NKW counts a former PNG Supreme Court judge turned political candidate for the ruling People’s National Congress as a director. Leaked documents from within PNG’s biggest bank, Bank South Pacific, obtained by The Age and The Sy...

READ MORE Such was Fanning’s impact on rugby league in Canberra that the region’s women’s competition is called the Katrina Fanning Shield. Fanning’s inclusion on the club board is another boost for the club as they look to boost the profile of women in rugby league at all levels. Not only do they now have three women on the board, but the club also introduced a female mascot, Velda the Valkyrie, to join Victor the Viking last year. The club has also outlined plans to enter a team into the NRL Women’s competition when work is completed on the Raiders’ centre of excellence at Braddon. More to come. Article source: http://smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/wattle-day-could-a-new-golden-australia-day-bloom-in-the-springtime-20170831-gy7qnk.html

READ MORE Kiev : A Ukrainian comedian who plays an accidental president on television delivered a walloping rebuke to the country’s political class in the presidential election Sunday by emerging first in a crowded field of candidates, exit polls indicated . The comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, 41, captured more than 30 per cent of the vote, according to two authoritative exit polls. It was a strong showing by a maverick with no political experience, though far below the 50 per cent needed to win the first round outright. Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, reacts as he responds to a question during a press conference, after the presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday, March. 31. Credit: AP If exit polls translate into real votes, Zelensky will face President Petro O Poroshenko, who emerged second with around 18 per cent, in a runoff in three weeks, on April 21. Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister making her third bid for the presidency, was third with about 13 pe...