OCEANIA

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Rescuers on Monday were continuing to search for one person still missing a day after a chartered fishing boat carrying 10 people sank in a storm off the New Zealand coast. A helicopter rescued five people from the sea, and four bodies have been recovered.

The 17-meter (56-foot) boat got into trouble and its emergency beacon was activated at 8 p.m. Sunday off North Cape on the northern coast. A helicopter became the first search and rescue vehicle to reach the remote location at 11:40 p.m., said Nick Burt, spokesman for Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Center.

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Australia on Friday withdrew a cartel lawsuit against Citigroup Inc (C.N), Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) and four former executives over a $1.8 billion share issue, a stunning retreat from what would have been the country's biggest white-collar criminal trial.

After nearly four years of pre-trial hearings in packed courtrooms, federal prosecutors said they had pulled the case after reviewing the evidence and concluding "there were no longer reasonable prospects of conviction".

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Blinken will spend three days in Melbourne for a meeting with foreign ministers of the Quad, the informal US-Japan-India-Australia grouping that Washington hopes will become a bulwark against Beijing's push for regional dominance.

The visit will include meetings with senior Australian officials, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, as they seek to build on September's AUKUS trilateral defense pact with Britain. The shock challenge to China included a Washington-Canberra deal to buy eight nuclear-powered submarines.

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday that the reopening of the country's borders to international tourists may not be far away, adding that the parliament will debate the matter this week.

Australia, which shut its borders in March of 2020, has been going through a staggered reopening in recent months, allowing in only its citizens and residents, skilled migrants, international students and certain seasonal workers.

In January, Morrison said he hoped international borders could fully reopen before Easter. 

His popularity has been sliding in recent months, however, in part reflecting questions about his handling of the Omicron outbreak, and he faces pressure from a federal election that must be called by May. 

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Iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest said on Thursday he is launching criminal proceedings against Meta Platform Inc's (FB.O) Facebook in an Australian court, alleging that it breached anti-money laundering laws and its platform is used to scam Australians.

Forrest, Australia's richest man and chairman of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG.AX), said he was taking the action to stop people losing money to clickbait advertising scams, such as ones using his image to promote cryptocurrency schemes.

The lawsuit filed by Forrest in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia alleges Facebook "failed to create controls or a corporate culture to prevent its systems being used to commit crime."