World News joined 3

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[OMEN]

Heathrow airport operator BAA said that British Airway's planned move of its long haul flights to problem-hit Terminal 5 has been deferred until June, instead of April 30 as planned.

"We will work together to iron out any remaining problems, including the baggage system and its operation, and develop a robust timescale for phasing the move of Terminal 4 services into Terminal 5," said British Airways and BAA in a joint statement.

"BAA regrets this postponement, and we recognise the impact it has on other airlines, but we believe it is a wise precaution to ensure that passengers can have the maximum confidence once the move does take place," said Colin Matthews, BAA's Chief Executive.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Pirates have released the 30-strong crew they took hostage last week aboard a luxury French yacht off Somalia, President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said.

"The President expresses his deep gratitude to the French armed forces and all the state services which enabled a rapid and peaceful solution to this hostage-taking," a statement said, giving no further details.

The pirates stormed the French-owned yacht, the Ponant, last Friday as it was crossing the Gulf of Aden and sailed it to the Somali coast, eventually mooring the vessel at Garacade, near the town of Eyl.

The French Defence Ministry said 22 of the crew were French, including six women.

The rest were believed to be Ukrainian and Korean. The boat's owners said during the week that they had been well treated.

Piracy is lucrative off lawless Somalia and most kidnappers treat their captives well in anticipation of a good ransom. It was not immediately clear if any ransom was paid in this case.

France dispatched a small French warship to track the Ponant and also sent special forces to nearby Djibouti in case the situation deteriorated.

Reuters

[OMEN]

The Australian arm of the Italian mafia has resurfaced as a key player in a $A38 billion ($NZ44.75b) cocaine trafficking operation, Italian authorities say.

The Calabrian mafia in Australia had played a key role in helping to create a criminal network, shipping drugs around the world from South America and laundering the proceeds through banking schemes, a News Ltd report said.

The claims are made in a report to the Italian parliament by the Anti-Mafia Commission, News Ltd said.

The report outlines the results of a four-year probe and challenges the view of Australian authorities that mafia operations in Australia had declined by the 1990s.

It also gives details of the criminal network, which is said to be lacking in central control, and operates like a franchise operation.

The Italian report names several families established in Australia as being part of the secretive Italian Ndrangheta crime group, News Ltd reported.

"The network was formed by the criminals in southern Italy, with import-export duties granting the drugs to Australia (where the clan had another base)," the Italian report said.

It said drugs were sent in the past inside marble bricks, and part of the money laundering process happened in Australia.

The Ndrangheta became notorious in Australia in the 1970s when anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay was gunned down in a hotel car park in rural New South Wales, sparking a royal commission into drug trafficking, News Ltd reported.

This week the Australian Crime Commission said it stood by a 1995 report by its predecessor, the National Crime Authority (NCA), which suggested the mafia's activities in Australia were in decline.

But former NCA chairman John Broome told News Ltd there were reports the mafia was regrouping in Australia.

"I have certainly seen references in more recent times to a resurgence of Italian (organised) crime," Mr Broome said.

Italian authorities have previously said the Ndrangheta had a monopoly on the European cocaine trade and claimed the organisation had an estimated annual turnover of nearly 36 billion euros ($NZ72b).

The cocaine trafficking network is believed to be worth $A38 billion.

NZPA

[OMEN]

"Russia will take steps aimed at ensuring its interests along its borders," the agencies quoted General Yuri Baluyevsky as saying.

"These will not only be military steps, but also steps of a different nature," he said, without giving details.

Russia is opposed to Nato plans to grant membership to ex-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia, saying such a move would pose a direct threat to its security and endanger the fragile balance of forces in Europe.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this week that Moscow will do everything it can to prevent the two countries, run by pro-Western governments, from becoming Nato members.

President Vladimir Putin has said that if Nato military installations ever appear in Ukraine, Moscow would have to target its missiles at the country.

At a summit in Bucharest this month, Nato members turned down requests from Georgia and Ukraine to be granted a Membership Action Plan, which would have set them on the road to membership.

But under pressure from Washington, one of the strongest advocates of enlargement in the alliance, Nato gave a commitment that the two countries would be allowed to join eventually.

Russian news agencies quoted Baluyevsky as telling reporters that it was premature to talk about Georgia and Ukraine joining Nato anytime soon. "This is not the end of the day," he said. "We will live and see."

Reuters

[OMEN]

Washington is sceptical that Iran is installing 6000 new centrifuges to enrich uranium and testing an advanced centrifuge with greater capacity, a top US diplomat has said.

Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, told reporters they should take "with a grain of salt" comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday.

Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium, which can be used as fuel in power plants or, if highly refined, for nuclear weapons. The West fears Iran's objective is to make a bomb. Tehran says its programme is for peaceful uses only.

"Ahmadinejad has a record of making bold political announcements not necessarily supported by technical facts," Schulte said, calling the speech more of a "political stunt".

"Iran has not yet mastered the capability to enrich uranium although they are obviously working very hard to do this," he told a news conference.

Iran has a number of centrifuges in operation but experts say it has not mastered the highly sophisticated process of producing uranium in the quantities needed to fuel a nuclear power plant or to build an atomic bomb.

Nevertheless, Schulte said the path Ahmadinejad was taking was of "enormous concern" to the United States and others.

"Clearly President Ahmadinejad and the leadership in Iran are disregarding the concerns of the international community and they are also violating now four resolutions of the (UN) Security Council...," he said.

The Security Council has imposed three rounds of limited sanctions since 2006 on Iran for refusing to stop enriching uranium. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, says it wants nuclear power to generate electricity to meet high demand.

While urging Iran to negotiate, Schulte said Washington kept open the "military option" to halt Iran's nuclear programme.

"I think the president (George W Bush) is very careful not to take options off the table but ... our goal is to get a diplomatic solution," he said. The military option was "not the next option, I can say that for sure".

"Sometimes I've worried that perhaps the only person in the world who would like a military option could be that crazy guy President Ahmadinejad. He seems to revel in isolation, he seems to revel in defiance," he said.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany will meet on April 16 in Shanghai and are expected to discuss whether to sweeten incentives they offered to Iran in 2006 to curb its nuclear programme.

Schulte said the offer was "pretty darn generous". "It's a big offer ... and it's an offer, so it's also available to negotiate," he said. "Rather than just negotiate among ourselves, we'd like Iran to seriously consider the offer."

Iran has ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, and says it will only negotiate with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Reuters

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