Survey on Aussie-S'pore cable link

Survey work is set to begin soon on an ambitious plan to export power from a giant solar farm in Australia to Singapore via a 3,800km undersea cable.

The Sun Cable project, which is backed by two Australian billionaires, has awarded a contract to Perth-based Guardian Geomatics to conduct a route survey for the high-voltage direct current cable.

Sun Cable says the project can supply a fifth of Singapore's power needs, helping to reduce the city-state's reliance on natural gas imports. It also has plans to link to Indonesia.

BLOOMBERG

Deaths from bush fire smoke

SYDNEY • Smoke from Australia's deadly recent bush fires is linked to an estimated 445 deaths and more than 4,000 hospitalisations over several months, a government inquiry heard yesterday.

More than 30 people died as a direct cause of the blazes and thousands of homes were destroyed late last year and early this year, leaving affected communities devastated.

The Royal Commission - tasked with finding ways to improve how Australia deals with natural disasters - heard from an environmental health specialist that the overall toll was estimated to be far higher when accounting for impacts from the bush fire smoke.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Russia starts stealth bomber work

MOSCOW • Russia has begun manufacturing the prototype of its first strategic stealth bomber, state news agency Tass reported yesterday, as the country presses ahead with the modernisation of its military.

Quoting defence industry sources, Tass said the state-controlled United Aircraft Corporation was overseeing the project. It said material was being shipped for the project and that work had begun on the cockpit of the bomber, known as the Pak da.

"The final assembly of the entire machine should be complete in 2021," one of the sources told Tass.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE