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By Byron Kaye and Cordelia Hsu, Reuters So far, no country has rolled out an age-based ban targeting internet platforms. Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Koroi Hawkins Analysis - For Tereza Hussein, a 14-year-old refugee who lives in Darwin, Australia's planned social media ban would mean losing a direct line to the most important person to her: a grandmother she has never physically met. "It's the only way I've ever connected to my grandma before, over socials," said Hussein, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo but lived in a refugee camp in Malawi before settling in Australia when she was nine. "It's going to have a very big change in my life because it's going to be hard for me to talk to the people that I've left behind," she said. While Hussein rarely posts on social media, she ...

Photo: 123RF / Andrey Moisseyev The High Court of Australia has ruled against SkyCity Adelaide in a disagreement over the tax treatment of customer loyalty points used in its gaming machines. The decision on the long-running dispute with the Treasurer of South Australia means the points were gaming revenue and subject to a casino duty of about $14 million (A$13.1m as of 30 June), plus interest to be determined by a single judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia at a later date. "This is a long running matter involving highly technical tax issues regarding the calculation of casino duty," SkyCity chief executive Jason Walbridge said. The penalty could leave SkyCity Adelaide with a tax bill of as much as A$25.3m as of 30 September, with A$10.3 million already provided for in its 2024...

King Charles Photo: Samir Hussein/WireImage Visit revives debate over whether a British royal should be Australia's head of state King is only British monarch who has spent time living in Australia Pro-republic campaigners promoting 'farewell to monarchy tour' King Charles, the only British monarch who has spent time living in Australia, arrives on Friday for his inaugural visit to an overseas realm as sovereign, his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer. The first visit by a reigning monarch in 13 years has revived debate in Australia over whether a British royal should be head of state, although polling shows Australians remain ambivalent about becoming a republic. Concern for King Charles's health has seen the republican movement's founder, "Schindler's Lis...

By Laila Bassam and Humeyra Pamuk, Reuters Members of the Lebanese civil defence battle a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on Beirut's Basta neighbourhood on October 11, 2024. At least 22 people were killed in Israeli strikes on a densely populated area of central Beirut on October 10, the Lebanese health ministry said. Photo: AFP At least one Israeli strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs early on Wednesday morning, Reuters witnesses said, hours after the US said it opposed the scope of Israeli attacks in Beirut amid a rising death toll and fears of wider regional escalation. Reuters witnesses heard two blasts and saw plumes of smoke emerging from two separate neighbourhoods. It came after Israel issued an evacuation order early on Wednesday which mentioned only one building. The...

Helen Regan, Lex Harvey, Manveena Suri and Esha Mitra for CNN Air India Airbus A350-900 aircraft. Photo: AFP / NICOLAS ECONOMOU Twin bomb threats have hit Indian airliners on opposite sides of the globe, forcing an emergency landing in the Arctic and fighter jets to scramble in Asia - the latest in a series of similar hoax scares for the country's airlines. Indian airlines have faced "a number of threats in recent days," all of which have been found to be hoaxes, flag carrier Air India said in a statement, as authorities in New Delhi and around the world investigate the string of false bomb warnings. An Air India flight from New Delhi to Chicago made an emergency landing in Iqaluit, Canada's northernmost city. All 211 passengers and crew were relocated to the airport, Canadian police...