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The head of Manila's Roman Catholic Church has frowned on the participation of gay men in the "Santacruzan" flower festival held across the Philippines every May in honour of the Virgin Mary.
"Gays should not be allowed to participate in Santacruzan since it defeats the true meaning of the celebration," Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales told the church-run Radio Veritas station.
"I am not angry at gay men. But, I am against what they're actually doing."
In the past, Rosales said, he has refused to say mass to any parish that allows gays in the Santacruzan procession.
Danton Remoto, leader of the pro-gay activist group "Ladlad", protested against the cardinal's statement, saying the participation of gays in the May flower procession was not aimed at mocking or desecrating the church.
"In the eyes of God, everyone is equal," Remoto said.
"Some of these gay men have saved a lot of money for their gowns (to be worn in the procession) and they were doing it because they believed in the Virgin Mary. They need understanding, not condemnation."
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-05-2008, 08:12 PM
Thanks for the news.
Scotland appeared to be moving towards a referendum on independence after the head of the country's Labour Party supported the idea for the first time, predicting Scots would vote to keep union with England.
The pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) formed a minority government after Scottish polls last year, breaking a long Labour hold.
Scotland dispatches many Labour members to the British parliament and its secession could change the balance in London, where a Labour government struggles to keep support.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond told Reuters at the weekend the SNP would seek legislation in 2010 for a referendum on independence after a two-year-long national dialogue.
Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, who had opposed a referendum along with Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties, appeared to see a referendum as a way of ending uncertainty over the SNP demands.
"I don't fear the verdict of the Scottish people," she told BBC Scotland on Sunday. "Bring it on."
Alexander said the SNP appeared to be toying with the electorate, saying `we want this (independence), it is the reason we came into politics, but by the way we are frightened to bring the matter forwards'."
Support for independence after 300 years of union with England varies from poll to poll.
A YouGov poll in Saturday's Times newspaper gave a figure of 19 per cent, while other analysts have put it at up to one third in the nation of just over five million people.
The SNP said at the weekend its own poll-of-polls showed 41 per cent supported independence.
Alexander said there had been "tactical discussion" with Labour leaders in London on the referendum issue.
The Times said it was understood Prime Minister Gordon Brown now saw a referendum as the best way to weaken Salmond's grip on power in Scotland.
Labour lost heavily in local elections in England and Wales last Thursday, and was beaten into third place in the overall vote behind the leading Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
Some political analysts say Brown, who represents a Scottish constituency, can ill afford any loss of seats in Scotland in a future nationwide election.
Reuters
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DEADLY: Fear of a virus that has infected thousands of children gripped parents in China's capital and financial hub, as the number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease mounted across the country.
Fear of a virus that has infected thousands of children gripped parents in China's capital and financial hub, as the number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease mounted across the country.
Some 11,905 cases of the virus have been reported in China this year, the official Xinhua news agency said. The virus has caused 26 deaths, largely in Fuyang, a city in China's eastern province of Anhui.
But parents in northern Beijing, host of the 2008 Olympics which begin in August, were also on the alert.
"Of course we're worried. If a child got sick, we'd be very frightened," said one woman, bouncing a toddler on her hip. "We know about this virus, but we don't know clearly how to protect ourselves. The information hasn't been thorough enough."
Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common illness in children and infants caused by a family of viruses called enteroviruses, and outbreaks regularly occur in China.
But the current outbreak has led to fatalities mostly when the cases have been linked with enterovirus 71, which can cause a severe form of the disease that can lead to high fever, paralysis and viral meningitis.
Beijing has had 4496 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease this year, mostly in children under 5, though it has had no fatalities, the Beijing News reported.
The city's Centre for Disease Control has advised that any child found with the illness should be isolated at home, and that if more than three children in a single classroom were infected the class should be suspended, the newspaper said.
A doctor from a Beijing children's hospital declined permission for interviews there, saying it could cause panic.
"Parents are already very nervous, and if they see a camera, they would think that our hospital has such cases and they will take away their children," the doctor told Reuters.
"We are facing great pressure these days," she added.
Shanghai, China's financial centre, has reported no cases, but the city government nonetheless ordered kindergartens and primary schools to step up daily monitoring and emphasise more hand-washing and sterilising of furniture and toys.
The World Health Organisation has cautioned that the virus, which spreads mostly through contact with infected blisters or faeces, could be yet to peak.
China, which initially covered up the SARS epidemic in 2003, in a scandal which contributed to its spread and led to the sacking of Beijing's mayor and health minister, has ordered authorities to aggressively tackle hand, foot and mouth.
An editorial in Monday's China Daily blamed the crisis in Fuyang on a "delayed reaction" by the local government.
But at least one Beijing resident said he had confidence in the government's efforts.
"Before, when SARS hit, that was the scariest time," said He Xinping, the father of an 8-year-old. "But now, with Beijing hosting the Olympics, the city is certain to increase its efforts."
Reuters
An envoy of the Dalai Lama said that one-day talks with China on the unrest in Tibet had been "a good first step", and the two sides will meet again after he reports back to the exiled spiritual leader.
"We had very candid discussions ... we have a good rapport, so that is always very helpful," Lodi Gyari told Reuters at Hong Kong airport as he prepared to board a flight for India, home of the Tibet government-in-exile.
"We have agreed to meet once again so I think it is a good sign, but we will make a formal statement after I have reported to his Holiness when I get back to India."
Lodi Gyari and another envoy held a meeting with Chinese officials, the first since an eruption of Tibetan protests and deadly riots two months ago, in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Monday.
The unrest, the most serious challenge to Chinese rule in the mountainous region for nearly two decades, prompted anti-China protests around the world that disrupted the international leg of the Olympic torch relay and led to calls for Western leaders to boycott August's Beijing Games.
China proposed the latest talks last month after Western governments urged it to open new dialogue with the Dalai Lama, who says he wants a high level of autonomy, not independence, for the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan homeland he fled in 1959.
But state-run Xinhua news agency said on Sunday that the meeting was arranged at the government-in-exile's repeated request for contacts and consultations with Beijing.
Lodi Gyari, speaking to the media for the first time since the closed-door Shenzhen meeting, said a date for a further round of talks would only be announced after consultations with the Dalai Lama.
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-06-2008, 04:07 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-06-2008, 04:08 PM
Interesting, thanks for the read.
JohnCenaFan28
05-06-2008, 04:09 PM
Thanks for the news.
The Austrian government has admitted for the first time to lapses in a probe into the disappearance of a woman kept prisoner and raped by her father for 24 years in a windowless dungeon.
The admission came ahead of the first questioning by a regional prosecutor of Josef Fritzl, 73, who has admitted subjecting his daughter Elisabeth to years of sexual abuse in a bunker beneath the family home in eastern Austria.
Elisabeth Fritzl, now 42, bore seven children to her father who had told authorities at the time that she had run away at 19 to join a religious sect.
"I consider that there was a certain credulity (on the part of the authorities), particularly concerning the story of the sect by which the suspect explained the disappearance of his daughter," Justice Minister Maria Berger was quoted as saying in today's edition of the Standard newspaper.
"Today it would certainly be examined more closely," she said - the first time the Austrian authorities had conceded any shortcomings in the grim case that has shocked the nation.
Fritzl had already been convicted of rape in 1967 and spent 18 months in prison.
But authorities did not examine his criminal record when he later adopted three of the children he fathered with Elisabeth, pretending she had left them on the doorstep, according to press reports.
"We wish however that this procedure had been followed even though these were adoptions by family members," Berger said.
Fritzl today faces questioning from the regional prosecutor, Christiane Burkheiser, for the first time.
Experts have said the incest victims will carry the scars of their ordeal for the rest of their lives, although doctors say the family has made progress since their release.
Three of Elisabeth Fritzl's children were held alongside her, living all their life underground, never even seeing natural daylight.
One died soon after birth and the other three were raised by Fritzl and his 69-year-old wife as their "grandchildren" in the house upstairs, unaware of the fate of their siblings underground.
"They remain in a very extreme and difficult situation," said Berthold Kepplinger, doctor at the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric clinic where Elisabeth Fritzl, her mother and five of her children are recovering.
"The fresh air, the light and the balanced diet are doing them good," he said, adding that the youngest child, a five-year-old boy, "is growing livelier by the day. He's a real charmer, funny and sociable."
The eldest child, Kerstin, 19, is still fighting for her life in intensive care, where she has been placed in an artificially-induced coma and on a life-support machine.
The victims suffered a lack of vitamin D from the absence of natural daylight and possible motor deficiencies resulting from growing up in cramped conditions.
Even the three children who lived upstairs with Fritzl would face problems, said Paulus Hochgatterer, a child psychologist coordinating the team of experts looking after family.
"The man who provided for them, the father figure, has been arrested and is now suddenly the perpetrator," Hochgatterer said.
Fritzl himself is soon due to meet a psychiatrist for the first formal evaluation of his mental state. Adelheid Kastner will meet Fritzl, currently sharing a cell in a regular prison, at an as yet unspecified date.
Meanwhile, Elisabeth's lawyer has said she may sue her father for compensation.
Lawyer Christoph Herbst said he was looking into claiming compensation from Fritzl, who had four or five real estate assets in his name, for those who had been locked in the basement.
"There is the possibility of claiming compensation for imprisonment and the damage that has been incurred by it," Herbst said in an interview.
But Fritzl's assets also have debt attached to them and it is unclear how much money will be left in the end, he said.
"Now it is all about evaluating his financial circumstances. Does he actually have any wealth so that it pays off to start proceedings?"
Reuters
Authorities in India's remote northeast said they were increasing security in the world's biggest reserve for the endangered great one-horned rhinoceros to save them from poachers.
Poachers have killed at least 10 rhinos in two national parks in Assam state since January, eight of them at the Kaziranga National Park.
"We are increasing the number of guards in Kaziranga because of a recent increase in poaching, and a probe has also been ordered," Rockybul Hussain, Assam's forest minister said.
Last year, two dozen animals lost their horns to poachers in Assam, for their medicinal value in the international black market.
Horns fetch up to 400,000 rupees ($NZ12,780) and demand is soaring in China and Southeast Asian countries, wildlife experts say.
After failing to check poachers for years, officials at Kaziranga have asked the national police's Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate.
But conservationists now say the new steps will be meaningless unless the government improves the working conditions of the existing guards.
"The guards do not have proper training, face harassment from senior forest officials and are blamed when things go wrong," said Soumyadeep Datta, director of Nature's Beckon, a conservation group working for protection of rhinos in the region.
The thick-skinned, one-horned Indian rhinoceros is one of the five surviving rhino species in the world.
The global conservation group WWF estimates there are less than 3000 animals left in the world. They are found mostly in northeastern India, with a few hundred in neighbouring Nepal.
Inside Kaziranga, 1800 of them live in swamps, forests and tall thickets of elephant grass, where poachers hide before trapping them with poison or just shooting them dead.
Morale among forest guards, often engaged in a lonely battle against poachers, is low.
"There is no coordination between the foresters and police," Hare Krishna Deka, a former police chief in Assam said.
Forest guards are poorly paid and often forced to patrol barefoot without raincoats.
They have old rifles and asked to counter poachers who have modern automatic weapons, some officials and conservationists said.
As a result, it has become easier for poachers to sneak into the park without worrying much about the guards.
Reuters
The federal government is being pressed to fast-track a national scheme for recycling Australia's growing pile of electronic waste.
Major consumer electronics manufacturer Panasonic is concerned the problem is spiralling out of control without a co-ordinated national programme for dealing with "e-waste".
Two million old televisions will end up in Australian landfill this year, releasing a toxic mix of substances including lead and mercury into the environment, the company estimates.
"E-waste is one of the most significant environmental issues facing Australia and the time to begin implementing a national television recycling scheme is now," said Panasonic Australia managing director Steve Rust.
"The more a national initiative is delayed, the more dire the consequences for the Australian environment."
Panasonic has joined industry groups such as Product Stewardship Australia in calling for a national scheme.
A number of small-scale e-waste recycling programs are operating in Australia, including Victoria's Byteback scheme.
But a co-ordinated national programme is imperative, Mr Rust says.
"It is unrealistic for the burden of this problem to be borne by individual local councils, manufacturers or recycling organisations," he said.
"This is a significant logistical and educational challenge that needs the full attention of the federal government."
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the government is currently working towards a solution for Australia's e-waste.
"The Australian government and Environment Protection and Heritage Council are actively working with industry on a range of product stewardship options such as voluntary codes of conduct and recycling schemes," Mr Garrett said.
"Considerable effort is being made with groups like Consumer Electronics Suppliers Association to address issues such as the use of hazardous substances in electronic equipment.
"Industry is also working with staff from the Commonwealth Environment Department on the development of a voluntary code of conduct for the industry to move away from using hazardous materials in their products."
AAP
Cannabis should remain on the lowest "C" classification of illegal drugs, an independent advisory body said, in a conclusion expected to be rejected by the government.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said in a report there is insufficient evidence to regrade cannabis to the more serious class B.
"After careful scrutiny of the available evidence, the ACMD considers - based on its harmfulness to individuals and society - that cannabis should remain a class C substance," said Chairman Michael Rawlins.
However, Prime Minster Gordon Brown is widely expected to ignore the advice and insist on a reclassification because of fears over the mental health effects of stronger "skunk" strains of the narcotic.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was due to announce the government's decision later on Wednesday.
Government officials declined to comment ahead of the announcement but Brown said last month he wanted to send a strong message that use of the drug was "unacceptable".
Cannabis was downgraded to Class C - which includes substances such as anabolic steroids - on the ACMD's advice in January 2004.
That means possession of the drug is treated largely as a non-arrestable offence.
But proponents of a tougher drugs policy say its Class C status ignores cannabis' potential health impacts.
Mental health criminal lawyer Grahame Stowe, a partner at law firm Grahame Stowe Bateson, said reclassification of cannabis is long overdue.
"Those of us who work in the criminal and mental health spheres of the legal industry are acutely aware of the danger cannabis poses and the long-term damage it causes," the lawyer, who has 35 years' experience, said in a statement.
"Reclassification is the only way to address this problem and make concrete progress on tackling cannabis use."
The ACMD was asked by Brown shortly after he took office last June to review the drug's classification and it reported to ministers last week.
Going against the council's advice would be controversial given it plays a major role in drugs policy, but Brown would also come under fire from those who say the current policy is too soft if he decides to keep the drug in Class C.
Last month, Brown hinted he favoured reclassification.
"I don't think that the previous studies took into account that so much of the cannabis on the streets is now of a lethal quality and we really have got to send out a message to young people - this is not acceptable," he said.
He added he was particularly worried about the growing use of skunk cannabis, which he described as "more lethal".
Reuters
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MEET THE NEW BOSS: New Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen.
Brian Cowen, who takes over as Irish prime minister, has a reputation as a tough fighter - something he will need if he is to deal with a turbulent economy and a challenging EU referendum campaign.
Bertie Ahern, who resigned on Tuesday after a corruption investigation began to overshadow his government's work, leaves as his legacy one of Europe's richest countries and a more stable Northern Ireland next door.
After a decade of construction-fuelled expansion, however, Ireland now faces much slower or negative growth.
Analysts hope Cowen will keep the discipline he showed as Ahern's finance minister and not overspend or agree to inflationary wage rises, which would hurt the competitiveness of exports and might tip Ireland into a recession.
"Cowen gives the impression that he has a sort of bulldog strategy in that he may take a tougher line with the unionists than Bertie Ahern," said Alan McQuaid, economist at Bloxham stockbrokers.
Cowen will also need to convince Irish voters to support the European Union's "Lisbon" reform treaty on June 12, in the only referendum planned on the issue among 27 member states. A recent poll showed most voters do not understand the treaty.
A cartoon in the Sunday Business Post newspaper likened Cowen's position to that of Giovanni Trapattoni, the star Italian coach hired recently to get the team into the 2010 World Cup finals after they missed out on Euro 2008.
"How do you fancy our chances in the big Lisbon match?," a reporter asks Cowen in the cartoon.
"No bother. If we don't get a result in June ... we'll replay in November," Cowen replies in an apparent reference to 2002, when Ireland staged an embarrassing repeat of a referendum on the Nice Treaty on EU enlargement.
Cowen, already elected leader of the main governing party Fianna Fail, is expected to be confirmed by fellow deputies as prime minister around 1330 GMT and to unveil his new cabinet later in the day.
Although Cowen has dismissed all speculation as unfounded, Irish media named Enterprise and Trade Minister Micheal Martin as favourite to become finance minister. Bookmaker Paddy Power however listed Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern as more likely.
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-07-2008, 06:48 PM
Interesting story, thanks.
JohnCenaFan28
05-07-2008, 06:50 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-07-2008, 06:50 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-07-2008, 06:52 PM
Electronic waste should be recycled, so I hope Australia fixes their situation.
JohnCenaFan28
05-07-2008, 06:53 PM
That's interesting, thanks for the news.
Fiji police are taking seriously a death threat made against Australian High Commissioner James Batley last night.
Police spokeswoman Ema Mua said their Special Branch had increased security around the Australian High Commission in Suva, as well as other foreign embassies and commissions in the country.
She said the threat was contained in a taxi-delivered letter handed to high commission security staff last night.
"At the moment, we are very much concerned about looking after the safety of the foreign workers. That is paramount," Mua said.
"We are taking this very, very seriously."
Although details of what was in the letter have not been released, Mua said the threat may have had political implications.
"We are getting this implication that perhaps people are trying to sabotage what government is trying to do and in the process doing these kind of things," she said.
Fiji has been ruled by military commander Frank Bainimarama since a bloodless coup in December 2006.
Australia has sanctions against Fiji and has been a staunch critic of Bainimarama's regime.
"I don't think it is people upset with Australians. I should think it would be some people trying to sabotage what our government is trying to do," Mua said.
A statement from the Australian High Commission said two copies of an anonymous threatening letter primarily directed at Batley were delivered early yesterday evening.
"The threat appears to be politically motivated by a person or persons who object to the Australian government's current policy on Fiji," it said.
"Needless to say, neither the high commission nor the Australian government will be intimidated by threats."
The commission gave thanks for the speedy response by Fijian police and assurances made by senior government officials.
Appropriate security arrangements had been made and the commission remained open for business, the statement said.
AAP
The Olympic flame has reached the top of Mount Everest, an emotional high for China and the crowning moment of a Beijing Games torch relay that was mired in anti-Chinese protests on its world tour.
"Long live Tibet!" and "Long live Beijing!", the climbers, all wearing red, shouted joyously into a TV camera after unfurling the Chinese national flag, the Olympic flag and a flag bearing the Beijing Olympic logo.
Rights groups criticised the climb as politically motivated, saying China had used the torch to underline its claim to sovereignty over Tibet.
Anti-Chinese protesters caused serious disruption to some legs of the main torch relay on its journey around the world after deadly riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on March 14 and subsequent unrest in other Tibetan areas of China.
The ambitious project to take the torch to the Himalayan peak was cast as the highlight of the relay ahead of the Games, which starts in exactly three months' time.
"We have realised a promise to the world and a dream of all the Chinese people," base camp commander Li Zhixin told reporters after being mobbed by friends and colleagues.
Communist China has spent billions of dollars on staging the Olympics, eager to project the image of a modern and vibrant country.
The protests in cities from Paris to Los Angeles have bruised Chinese pride and provoked a surge of nationalist sentiment.
Five climbers, two of them women, staged the relay just shy of the world's highest peak amid strong winds and minus-30-degree temperatures.
"Beijing welcomes you!" and "tashi delek", the climbers said - using a Tibetan greeting meaning "may everything be well" - after escorting the flame in a mini-relay to the 8,848-metre peak at the end of a six-hour climb.
Beijing student Huang Chungui passed the flame to ethnic Tibetan woman Ciren Wangmu, who trudged the final steps unaided by oxygen to hold the torch aloft.
That prompted jubilation among the reserve climbers, officials and a small team of journalists, who had endured thin air at high altitude, sub-freezing temperatures and basic sanitation as they waited for the final ascent.
The tent to which the live pictures were relayed from the summit was rent with cheers and tears and several renditions of the Chinese national anthem echoed out across the Himalayas.
The Everest climbing team, which included 22 Tibetans, eight Han Chinese and one man from the Tujia minority, had been on the mountain for more than a week preparing the route along the north-east ridge.
"The Tibetan ethnicity in particular has made great devotions to the big event," said Wu Yingjie, executive vice chairman of the region.
Overseas pro-Tibet groups condemned China for taking the torch up Everest.
"Beijing's conquest of Everest is a political move meant to reassert China's control of Tibet," Tenzin Dorjee, Deputy Director of Students for a Free Tibet, said in an emailed statement.
Tibetan groups said they planned prayer vigils around the world later in the day to mourn those killed in protests in Tibet.
Concerned that protesters would try to disrupt the assault on Everest, which sits astride the border of the Chinese region of Tibet and Nepal, China had effectively closed off the region and released only limited information to the media.
Li said the news blackout had been essential and there had been a "series of interferences" to the mission.
"We apologise to the local and international media, we didn't have any choice because of the outside interference," he said.
"I can tell you there are people still out there trying to interfere with the event. Our climbing torchbearers found their tracks and saw their lights up there on our routes."
The flame that crested Everest's peak was taken from the main Olympic torch when it arrived in Beijing in March.
The Beijing organisers paused the main torch relay, scheduled to pass through the southern city of Shenzhen on Thursday, while the final push for the summit was taking place.
The Everest flame will be reunited with the main flame later in the relay, possibly when it passes through Lhasa in mid-June.
Reuters
Take one Pope, 1500 ministers and a racecourse full of the faithful, add 300 kilos of flour, 300 litres of water and 120 litres of wine, and what have you got?
Answer: holy communion for half a million people.
These are the logistics organisers are juggling with as they plan Pope Benedict XVI's huge July 20 mass at Sydney's Randwick racecourse, the final event of the church's week-long World Youth Day (WYD).
"Mass was not meant to be celebrated by quite so many people, so the challenges are great but not insurmountable," said Father Peter Williams, WYD director of liturgy, as he visited an inner Sydney bakehouse busy making one million communion hosts, or altar bread, for the event.
Half a million of the hosts will be used at the final mass, and the rest at other WYD events, including the opening mass celebrated by Sydney's Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, which is expected to attract up to 180,000 people at Darling Harbour on July 15.
"We have doubled our production. We are now making 45,000 hosts a week to meet the July contract," said Rod Silber, business development manager for the Ozanam Bakehouse at Stanmore, a St Vincent de Paul Society operation providing supported employment for people with physical and mental disabilities.
"There is not usually a large market for communion hosts.
"It's something I can safely say will never happen again."
Bakehouse supervisor Aida Santos said the hosts were being made in plain, wholemeal and low gluten varieties, each 100,000 of them requiring some 30 kilos of flour and 30 litres of water.
Father Williams said bishops, priests and deacons would serve as ministers of communion at the mass, as well as commissioned laymen, seminarians and brothers and sisters from religious orders.
The Pope will administer holy communion to 24 young people he will confirm on the day.
The communion, planned to take 30 minutes, is so vast that many hosts will be "pre-consecrated" at other masses around Sydney.
Randwick will be divided into a grid system so that the hosts can be quickly ferried in 1,800 ciboria -- round metal communion bowls - to designated staging points and tents.
AAP
The Red Cross' first aid plane will fly into cyclone devastated Myanmar today as pressure builds on the reclusive Asian nation to open its borders to international aid.
The official death toll from the aftermath of the weekend's Cyclone Nagris stands at 22,980, but some experts fear that number could rise to 100,000.
Western countries, which have imposed tough sanctions against Burma over its human rights record, have been urging its military junta to urgently open its borders to help.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said overnight that millions of dollars in assistance was waiting to be delivered and international disaster experts were on standby in nearby countries, ready to help, but they Burma is yet to give them visas.
"This is the kind of crisis which will only get worse without humanitarian assistance being made available from the international community," she said.
Some aid agencies with an established relationship with the Burmese government, such as the Red Cross and CARE Australia, have been able to begin work in the country.
Red Cross and Red Crescent, John Sparrow, said the organisation's first aid plane loaded with supplies would be flying from Malaysia into Burma today, and hoped it would be the first of many.
"We can't move quickly enough. We are a very happy though that later today our time we can get our first plane into Myanmar and we'll be taking shelter materials from Kuala Lumpur," Mr Sparrow told the Australian Nine Network this morning.
"So there are some positives. Of course we need to move much faster, there is no doubt about that. I'm looking right now at the positives."
But Mr Sparrow would not comment on the military regime's refusal to allow the freer flow of foreign aid.
"I think also it is time to be saying, for us right now, thank you for the go ahead on that first flight that's coming up today," Mr Sparrow said.
"For us it's a test run - for procedures, for getting a more active logistics pipeline going.
"We want to build on that. That's where we should be putting the emphasis right now."
CARE Australia spokesman Robert Yallop said it was not unusual for there to be a delay in aid getting into areas affected by major disasters, including New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
"In any disaster of this magnitude, no matter which government you are dealing with, it takes time to figure out the scale and the scope and the proportion," he told the Nine Network.
He said the challenge in Myanmar was enormous.
"It takes some time for the administrative arrangements, for the support and so on to be put in place," he told the Nine Network.
"CARE is making arrangements with the United Nations and the government authorities to bring in relief supplies within the next couple of days.
"But the real concern that we all have is to focus on how we get support and assistance to those in need."
He said he believed a UN relief flight from Italy was on its way to Rangoon.
"I have full confidence that the United Nations, working with the government authorities, will make the appropriate arrangements to get staff and to get materials and everything else in that is required for this relief effort.
He said relief was getting through to victims.
"Today we will be providing food and water to 10,000 people. In the coming days we will be providing assistance to another 50,000 people down in the delta
"That was given full support by the ministry of social welfare yesterday when our country director met with them.
"It is frustrating ... but I have complete optimism that it will happen and will happen in a way that is appropriate to the situation."
- AAP
Tonga is to spend more than $4 million - equivalent to a third of New Zealand's annual aid vote to the kingdom - on the July coronation of ageing bachelor King George Tupou V.
Details are due to be announced today by the Palace Office in Nuku'alofa, but leaks reveal the big bash is to have a celebrity guest list including Sir Elton John and Sir Mick Jagger.
It will also feature three balls: one for "very very important people", another for "very important people" and another for the rest who do not make the cut.
London tailors have designed the king's robes and a new sceptre in gold has been cast for the occasion. It is said to be similar to the Queen's. The king has reportedly given exclusive broadcasting rights to the BBC.
The Tongan Government is to keep its state of emergency in place fearing a repeat of the November 2006 riots that caused $86 million worth of damage to the capital.
The king, who turned 60 last Sunday, assumed the title in September 2006 on the death in Auckland of his father, Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. Riots broke out five weeks later with the commercial businesses owned by the current king targeted.
The Tongan Government delayed plans to hold the coronation last year, fearing public reaction to the extravagance.
Few public details are known yet of the coronation, which will run from July 30 to August 3. No official budget has been released, but Tongan Government sources say they expect it to run between T$5 million to T$6 million (NZ$4 million). Other sources say the cost could climb to T$10 million.
No aid money is expected to be spent. New Zealand aid to Tonga for the current financial year is worth NZ$11.5 million.
As crown prince, the king was seen as an unpopular dilettante who collected toy soldiers and dressed up in military uniforms.
He became a multimillionaire by taking over state businesses, including electricity generation, mobile telephone services, Internet domain name registration and the Royal brewery.
The dominion Post
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Brig.-Gen. Dennis Thompson, the next commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, arrives at Kandahar airfield on Wednesday.
The next commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan arrived in Kandahar on Wednesday, saying he believes the mission will take on a different flavour during his nine-month tour.
Brig.-Gen. Dennis Thompson is replacing current commander Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche. The official handover will take place soon, although a date hasn't been specified.
Thompson said evolving conditions in the war-torn region mean there will be a greater emphasis on the civilian side of development and reconstruction.
Still, he said, there will still be a military aspect and he doesn't expect the army will be adopting a defensive posture just because the focus is shifting.
"I think there will be a change in emphasis, but I'm not prepared to say how much that will be [because] there are other players here," Thompson said, referring to the Taliban.
Canada's Conservative government is in the process of refocusing the mission and setting down objectives to be achieved before Canada's military mission ends in 2011.
Thompson will be laying the groundwork for refocusing the mission, and for a civilian administration at the provincial reconstruction base, which Canada operates in the city of Kandahar.
Thompson coped with losses while leading in Petawawa
Thompson is the former commander of the 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade at CFB Petawawa in Ontario, a base that has suffered a lot of casualties, and he says that aspect of loss personalizes this assignment for him.
"You tend to know an awful lot of people that are either injured or killed," he said.
"It sharpens your focus and it makes you want to do everything you can to mitigate all of those risks."
Thompson arrived at Kandahar airfield one day after a Canadian soldier was killed in an ambush in the Pashmul region outside Kandahar city. Cpl. Michael Starker was killed while on patrol with his Civil-Military Co-operation unit, which reaches out to local Afghan villages and serves as a bridge to the community.
Despite the killing, Laroche said yesterday that Kandahar province is safer than when he took over almost 10 months ago.
He said the area where Starker was killed on foot patrol was an area Canadians couldn't enter a year ago.
CBC
JohnCenaFan28
05-08-2008, 06:01 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-08-2008, 06:01 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-08-2008, 06:01 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-08-2008, 06:02 PM
Wow, thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-08-2008, 06:03 PM
I'm glad they're getting help, thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-08-2008, 06:03 PM
That's interesting, thanks for the news.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he had requested talks with senior Myanmar general Than Shwe over a humanitarian crisis in the country.
In a separate statement issued by his office at the UN headquarters, Ban suggested that it might be "prudent" for Myanmar's government to postpone a referendum on a military-drafted constitution because of the cyclone that has devastated the country.
The United Nations estimates 1.5 million people have been "severely affected" by the cyclone that swept through Myanmar.
The United States has expressed outrage at the delays in allowing in aid.
"We're outraged by the slowness of the response of the government of Burma (Myanmar) to welcome and accept assistance," US Ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters.
"It's clear that the government's ability to deal with the situation, which is catastrophic, is limited."
In Myanmar, desperate survivors cried out for aid nearly a week after 100,000 people were feared killed by Cyclone Nargis.
The United States is awaiting approval to start military aid flights. The UN food agency and Red Cross/Red Crescent said they had finally started flying in emergency relief supplies after foot-dragging by the military junta.
US ambassador Eric John told a news conference in Bangkok earlier that the United States and Thailand thought the Myanmar generals had agreed to let a US military cargo plane fly in supplies to the reclusive southeast Asian country.
But that turned out to be premature.
"We don't have permission yet for the C-130 to go in, but I emphasize 'yet'" John said.
Approval for such a flight would be significant, given the huge distrust and acrimony between the former Burma's generals and Washington, which has imposed tough sanctions to try to end 46 years of unbroken military rule.
Witnesses have seen little evidence of a relief effort under way in the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta region.
"We'll starve to death if nothing is sent to us," said Zaw Win, a 32-year-old fisherman who waded through floating corpses to find a boat for the two-hour journey to Bogalay, a town where the government said 10,000 people were killed.
AID PLANES ARRIVE
The storm pulverized the delta on Saturday with 190 km winds followed by a massive 12 ft wave that caused most of the casualties and damage, virtually destroying some villages. It was the worst cyclone in Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people were killed in neighboring Bangladesh.
The United Nations estimated at least 1.5 million people in Myanmar have been "severely affected", Holmes said. He was "disappointed" with the lack of progress being made in getting UN aid in, he said.
State television on Thursday night did not give an update of the death toll, which stood at 22,980 with 42,119 missing as of Tuesday. Diplomats and disaster experts said the real figure is likely to be much higher.
"The information that we're receiving indicates that there may well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area," said Shari Villarosa, charge d'affaires of the US embassy in Myanmar.
About 1 million were left homeless.
UN officials who had earlier complained the generals were putting up obstacles to an emergency airlift, said a half-dozen cargo planes had been allowed to land at Yangon airport.
The Red Cross/Red Crescent confirmed its first aid plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, carrying six tonnes of shelter materials.
World Food spokesman Paul Risley said aid agencies normally expect to fly in experts and supplies within 48 hours of a disaster, but nearly a week after this cyclone, few have been able to send reinforcements into Myanmar.
France suggested invoking a UN "responsibility to protect" to deliver aid to Myanmar without the government's approval, but its bid to make the Security Council take a stand was rebuffed on Wednesday by China, Vietnam, South Africa and Russia.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called his Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win on Thursday and urged him to make it possible for international aid workers and relief organisation to reach the areas hit by the cyclone.
Some opponents accuse the junta of stalling because they do not want an influx of foreigners into the countryside during Saturday's referendum on an army-drafted constitution that looks set to cement the military's grip on power.
Medicins sans Frontieres, which has 1,238 people in Myanmar, said it was ferrying aid into the delta via trucks and boats.
"We are focusing on those still alive; 50 percent of them have wounds and they are infected," MSF official Frank Smithius in Myanmar told Australian radio. "Because of the winds and high water, people got smashed around."
Jean-Michel Grand, executive director of Action contra la Faim in London, said the logistical obstacles were formidable.
"The roads are very poor or destroyed, and in many cases there were no roads before. Everybody's looking at boats as an alternative. It's going to be a massive logistics challenge.
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej failed to reach Myanmar's generals on Thursday after US President George W. Bush asked him to intervene over the aid delays.
"We couldn't reach them because the communication towers have been damaged," government spokesman Wichianchot Sukchotrat said.
Amid the death and destruction, life asserted itself. Than Win, who lost seven of her 10 children to Nargis gave birth on Wednesday to a boy, she named "First Love".
"After what happened, this is a beautiful present," she said, lying on a wooden table in one of the few houses left standing in Bogalay town.
reuters
Murder squad detectives have been called in to investigate the circumstances in which a man died in an explosion which destroyed a house in north London, police said.
The body of the man, who has not yet been identified, was discovered in the rubble of the house in Harrow late on Wednesday.
Two other people, a man and a woman, were hurt and have been taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries. The man had head injuries and the woman burns.
Police said they had originally been called to reports of a gas explosion.
"The cause of the explosion has yet to be determined, however it is being treated as suspicious at this early stage," police said, adding that officers from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command had been sent to the scene.
London Fire Brigade said in a statement that two houses on the road had collapsed following the explosion.
Residents said the blast could be heard some distance away.
"I heard an enormous explosion – bricks and shrapnel sort of sent into the house and through the windows – doors blown through, screams," neighbour Dan Llewelleyn-Hall told the BBC.
Harrow Council said it had provided accommodation for 29 people after nearby houses were evacuated. It was unlikely residents would be able to return home until Friday.
reuters
A man seized by Iraqi forces is not the head of al Qaeda in Iraq, a senior US military official said, following an announcement by several Iraqi officials that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been captured.
Iraqi security sources had already begun to cast doubt on the earlier announcement that Masri, an Egyptian also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had been captured in an operation in Mosul on Wednesday. One senior security source in Mosul said the man seized in that raid was an Iraqi.
"He has not been detained," the US military official told Reuters, without giving further details.
It is not the first time there has been confusion over the fate of Masri. Iraq's Interior Ministry said a year ago he had been killed, but soon afterwards Sunni Islamist al Qaeda released an audio tape purportedly from him.
The detention of Masri would have been another blow for al Qaeda, which has been forced to regroup in northern Iraq after a wave of US military assaults in the past year.
Earlier, Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said a detained associate of Masri took Iraqi security forces late on Wednesday to where the al Qaeda leader was hiding.
After being detained, the man confessed to being the al Qaeda in Iraq leader, he said.
Duraid Kashmula, the governor of Nineveh province of which Mosul is the capital, had told Reuters he was certain the detained man was Masri.
Al Qaeda in Iraq was headed by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi until he was killed in a US air strike in June 2006. His successor, Masri, was Zarqawi's close associate, and has a US bounty of $US5 million ($NZ6.55 million) on his head.
US officials blame al Qaeda in Iraq for most big bombings in the country, including an attack on a revered Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 that set off a wave of sectarian killings that nearly tipped Iraq into all-out civil war.
A build-up of US troops last year allowed the military to conduct a series of offensives against the group. The emergence of Sunni Arab tribal security units also helped to provide intelligence on al Qaeda activities.
The result was that al Qaeda has largely been pushed out of Baghdad and its former stronghold in the western province of Anbar to areas in northern Iraq, such as Mosul.
Reuters
Australian police will continue to interview the mother of a five-month-old baby who died after being left alone in a car in Toowoomba in Queensland.
The mother left the girl in a parked car on Ramsay Street as she picked up her other children from St Thomas More's Catholic Primary School.
When the mother returned to the vehicle about 3.30pm (AEST), she discovered the baby dead inside her rear seat capsule.
It is not yet known how long the baby was left in the car, but it is believed school finished at 3pm.
Police had hoped a post-mortem examination would be conducted today, but that has now been pushed back to tomorrow.
Detectives interviewed the mother last night, and will speak to her again today along with other family members, a police spokeswoman said.
"The family is obviously distraught and is receiving support," the spokeswoman said.
Queensland Child Safety Minister Margaret Keech said her thoughts went out to the parents.
"The death of the child in Toowoomba is an absolute tragedy for all concerned," Ms Keech told reporters.
"My heart really does go out to the parents in particular.
"I'm advised by police that they are continuing their investigations and as a matter of course the department of child safety will investigate and support the police in their investigation."
Counsellors are at the school and teachers have been briefed on how to deal with students' questions.
AAP
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/721285.jpg
DON'T MENTION THE CYCLONE: Myanmar's military junta is pushing ahead with plans for a referendum, despite widespread damage from a recent cyclone.
Myanmar's junta is urging citizens to do their patriotic duty and vote for an army-drafted constitution, without mentioning the 1.5 million people clinging to survival a week after a devastating cyclone.
The constitution is a key step in the junta's seven-point "roadmap to democracy", which is meant to culminate in multi-party elections in 2010 and bring to an end nearly five decades of military rule in the Southeast Asian country.
It has been widely derided by the opposition and Western governments as a blueprint for the generals cementing a grip on the power they first seized in a 1962 coup.
"If you are patriotic and you love your nation you must give an affirmative vote," said one message broadcast on state-run MRTV on Friday.
Accompanying the appeals were performances by popular singers, actors and musicians and slogans such as "the approval of the draft constitution is the responsibility of every citizen, so go to the polling booth and approve the constitution."
The government announced on Tuesday it would go ahead with the vote in parts of the country not affected by Cyclone Nargis, but postponed it by two weeks to May 24 in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta.
Diplomats and disaster experts said the death toll is likely to rise to 100,000 people and the United Nations says 1.5 million people have been "severely affected".
Myanmar state-run radio and TV did not give an update on Friday of the official toll, which stood at 22,980 killed with 42,119 missing as of Tuesday.
While the military has appealed for outside help for disaster victims, it has been reluctant to allow a full-scale international relief effort, delaying the approval of visas and landing rights for aircraft carrying urgently needed supplies.
Some critics accuse the junta of stalling because they do not want an influx of foreigners into the countryside during Saturday's referendum.
The constitution gives the military an automatic 25 per cent of seats in parliament, control of key ministries and right to suspend the constitution at will.
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-09-2008, 03:02 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-09-2008, 03:02 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-09-2008, 03:03 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-09-2008, 03:11 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-09-2008, 03:12 PM
That's awful news...
Black Widow
05-10-2008, 06:31 PM
Three teenagers have been accused of digging up a body and using the skull as a bong to smoke marijuana.
The tomb raiders are believed to have desecrated a grave belonging to Willie Simms, an 11-year-old boy who died in 1921.
Officers in Texas had been working on a stolen credit card case when one of the trio made a confession, saying the body had been dug up from an abandoned graveyard in woods.
Another reportedly took officers to the site and showed them where they had removed the body.
The state's Harris County District Attorney's Office confirmed that misdemeanour abuse of corpse charges have been filed in the case.
Officers, who are continuing to investigate, do not have any physical evidence but charged the men on the basis of their statements.
Two of the teenagers are aged 17 while the third is 16.
Sky News.com
JohnCenaFan28
05-10-2008, 07:17 PM
That's horrible, they should be locked away forever or have someone do that with their skulls!
Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis are pouring out of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta in search of food, water and medicine as aid groups said thousands more people will die if emergency supplies do not get through soon.
Buddhist temples and high schools in towns on the outskirts of Nargis' trail of destruction are now makeshift refugee centres for women, children and the elderly – some of the 1.5 million people left clinging to survival by the storm.
The reclusive military government is accepting aid from the outside world, including the United Nations, but has made it very clear it will not let in the foreign logistics teams needed to transport the aid as fast as possible into the inundated delta.
"Unless there is a massive and fast infusion of aid, experts and supplies into the hardest-hit areas, there's going to be a tragedy on an unimaginable scale," said Greg Beck of the International Rescue Committee.
In the delta town of Labutta, where 80 per cent of homes were destroyed, the authorities were providing just one cup of rice per family per day, a European Commission aid official said.
The scenes are the same across the delta, where as many as 100,000 people are feared dead in the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.
"We have 900 people here, but we only have 300 lunch boxes. We gave it to the women and children first. The men still have not had any food," said one woman at a relief centre in the town of Myaung Mya, 100km west of Yangon.
"More are coming every day," she said.
Despite the devastation, the junta has kept its focus firmly on its seven-step "roadmap to democracy" that is meant to culminate in multi-party elections in 2010 and bring an end to nearly five decades of military rule.
State media have not yet revealed anything about the results of Saturday's referendum although there is no doubt about the final outcome of the vote on a new, army-drafted constitution that enshrines the military's grip on power.
In the run-up to the vote, army-controlled newspapers and television pumped out a relentless barrage of propaganda telling the former Burma's 53 million people it was their "patriotic duty" to approve the charter.
"I voted yes. It was what I was asked to do," 57-year-old U Hlaing said in the town of Hlegu, northwest of the former capital Yangon, where voting has been delayed by two weeks. It has also been delayed in worst-hit delta areas.
Protesters in Japan, Malaysia and Thailand denounced the junta for holding the referendum.
"People are dying and they still want to go on with this artificial democracy," said Than Tun Aung, a refugee who led the protest in Kuala Lumpur.
Even before Cyclone Nargis hit on the night of May 2, groups opposed to military rule, and foreign governments led by the United States, had denounced the vote as an attempt by the military to legitimise its 46-year grip on power.
The government's feeble response to the disaster has only fed cynicism about the junta's determination to proceed with their "roadmap to democracy" leading to multi-party elections in 2010.
The Bush administration on Saturday sidestepped directly criticising the constitutional vote and instead said the focus of the junta should be on relief efforts.
Questioned by reporters, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe declined to repeat stiff criticism the United States has leveled against Myanmar's leaders for a vote seen as solidifying the military's grip on the country.
"Our position on the referendum is well-known," Johndroe told reporters. "Our focus now is on getting assistance to the people of Burma and we would certainly hope that is the focus of the Burmese government as well."
The United Nations appealed for $US187 million in aid, even though it is still not confident the food, water and tents flown in will make it to those most in need because of the junta's reluctance to admit international relief workers.
Myanmar state media says 23,350 people died and 37,019 are missing after Cyclone Nargis roared up the Irrawaddy delta the night of May 2 whipping up a wall of sea-water that hammered everything in its path.
Health experts warned that a "second disaster" loomed from diseases such as diarrhoea and malaria, even if survivors do manage to find food and shelter.
State-run TV in Myanmar warned of "foreign interference" in a repeatedly broadcast message on Saturday urging people to vote yes for the constitution.
Most people probably did just that. Of the 20 people Reuters interviewed near polling stations in Hlegu on Saturday, only two admitted to voting No Even then it was in a whisper and with a nervous glance over the shoulder first.
Reuters
Barack Obama has caught up with Hillary Clinton in the race for superdelegates, the group of independent Democrats who look increasingly likely to decide the party's presidential candidate, media reports say.
Recent declarations of support from superdelegates in Utah, Ohio and the Virgin Islands give Obama 275 of the party's 800 superdelegates, the Associated Press reported.
Clinton has support from 271.
Superdelegates are prominent members of the Democratic party and can vote for whichever candidate they want, irrespective of the results in the primaries.
Buoyed by the support and acting even more like he has clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama said yesterday he would be willing to campaign jointly with Republican John McCain and acknowledged he needed to better introduce himself to Americans.
After a stop at a solar technology company in this central Oregon town, Obama was asked if he supported a suggestion that he campaign with McCain and hold joint town hall meetings in the run-up to the November general election.
"I think that's a great idea. Obviously we'd have to think through the logistics on this," Obama said. "Should I be the nominee, if I have the opportunity to debate substantive issues before the voters with John McCain, that's something I'm going to welcome."
Obama, who took a commanding lead in the Democratic race last week, said he looked forward to pointing out his differences with McCain, including views on the energy crisis, the Iraq war and health care.
"In a contest between myself and John McCain there is going to be a very clear choice on policy," he said. "I think this is going to be a very concrete contest around very specific plans for how we improve the lives of Americans and our vision for the future and that's a debate that I'm going to welcome."
McCain, who held unusual "dual town hall" style meetings with former Democratic White House hopeful Bill Bradley in the 2000 election, would not commit.
"John McCain has repeatedly encouraged these types of appearances with his opponents in the past, but in order to extend all due respect to Senator Clinton, we will look forward to welcoming the arrangements when the Democrats have actually chosen their nominee," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
Although in campaign rallies over the past two days Obama has been speaking mainly about McCain, he too was quick to note that the grueling battle against rival Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination was not yet over.
"We haven't finished this primary yet so it's premature to start projecting how the general election's going to play out," he said at the news conference. But he said Democrats must ensure they unify the party after the nomination battle is settled in order to beat McCain in November.
"I want to go into the general election. . . with the party unified and ready to take on what I think is a wrong-headed vision of where the country should go," he said.
INTRODUCE HIMSELF
Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, said he realized he must make sure Americans knew who he was and what he stood for as he moves toward the general election.
"The American people are busy. They got a lot of stuff going on," he said.
"I think they have a sense of who I am, but I'm applying for the most challenging job on the face of the planet and I expect that I'm going to have to continually describe to the American people who I am, where I come from, what shaped my character and how I intend to lead this country."
Obama received a rousing welcome from about 2,000 cheering supporters packed into a high school gym in Bend. He urged them to vote for him in the state's May 20 nominating contest.
Clinton was in New York on Saturday and appeared at a "Mother's Day Celebration" fund-raiser with daughter Chelsea. The New York senator and former first lady, who has lent her campaign more than $11 million of her own funds, is struggling financially to keep her battle afloat.
Obama has been picking up the support of more and more "superdelegates" – the group of nearly 800 party leaders and elected officials not bound by state-by-state nominating contests who are free to back any candidate at the Democratic convention in August.
The support of superdelegates has become critical as neither candidate can clinch the nomination without them.
"They are looking forward to resolving this contest as soon as we can so we can pivot and start talking about John McCain and the general election and our positive unified vision for where we want to take the country," Obama said.
With just 217 pledged delegates at stake in the final six primary contests, Clinton has no realistic chance of overtaking Obama's lead in pledged delegates won in the state-by-state battles that began in January.
Clinton is expected to do well in the next election in West Virginia on Tuesday and in the vote in Kentucky on May 20. The nominating contest in Oregon, also on May 20, favors Obama who has been campaigning across the state over the past two days.
An MSNBC count gives Obama about 155 more delegates than Clinton but he is still about 165 delegates short of the 2,025 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
- With Reuters
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was dealt a further blow when former deputy prime minister John Prescott disclosed he had urged Tony Blair to sack Brown when he was finance minister.
In memoirs serialised in the Sunday Times newspaper, Prescott described the tempestuous relationship between the two men in the years before Blair stood down last June, and said the prime minister had been scared to act against Brown.
Prescott's claims come at a difficult time for Brown, already struggling after crushing local election losses, collapsing opinion poll ratings and damaging revelations about his behaviour while serving in Blair's government.
In extracts from her memoirs on Saturday, Blair's wife Cherie accused Brown, who had long sought the prime minister's job, of "putting too much pressure on Tony to quit when Tony wasn't ready".
Prescott said he spent much of his time acting as a conciliator, with "hundreds" of phone calls and meetings dealing with "Blair-Brown issues".
Brown was "frustrating, annoying, bewildering and prickly", Prescott said, while Blair had reneged several times on pledges to make way for Brown as prime minister.
Prescott said he had also challenged Brown to quit as Chancellor of the Exchequer over Blair's broken promises.
"With Tony, when he was moaning on about Gordon's behaviour, I'd say 'Sack him. Find a new chancellor is that's how you really feel'. But neither would take the final step," Prescott said.
"They were caught in their own trap. Tony knew that sacking Gordon would tear the party apart."
Brown's popularity has plummeted in recent months, raising questions over whether he will face a leadership challenge ahead of national elections which must be called by 2010.
An unpopular income tax reform, rising fuel and food prices, a downturn in the housing market and criticism of Brown's leadership brought the Labour party to its worst local election performance on record earlier this month.
Since then, there has been no let-up in bad headlines for Brown.
An opinion poll in Sunday's Observer newspaper showed only one in five voters thinks Brown is doing a good job. Another poll in The Mail on Sunday showed Labour could be heading to defeat in a crucial parliamentary by-election in 10 days time.
The ICM survey carried out in the Crewe and Nantwich constituency puts the opposition Conservative Party on 43 percent, four points ahead of Labour on 39 percent, with the Liberal Democrats on 16 percent.
Reuters
At least 18 people were killed today in Missouri and Oklahoma after tornadoes swept through the area, authorities in the two states said.
There were at least 12 storm-related deaths in Missouri, 10 of those in Newton County on the border with Oklahoma, according to Susie Stonner of the Missouri Emergency Management Agency.
"There's a lot of wreckage and overturned vehicles," she said, adding police had not ruled out finding more victims.
Hardest hit was Racine, a tiny community along the state line about 170 miles south of Kansas City.
Six people were also killed in the small northeastern Oklahoma town of Picher, officials said.
"Basically a 24-block area is virtually destroyed," said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
She added that Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry had ordered National Guard troops to arrive in Picher by Sunday morning (local time) to help in rescue and recovery operations.
Local television footage from Picher showed widespread devastation. Homes were ripped from their foundations, trees were stripped of leaves and sheet metal was twisted like paper.
Ooten said search efforts for missing people in Picher were shutting down as it was unsafe for rescuers to move through the rubble at night even with mobile floodlights.
"You need day break," she said. "That'll be the real story."
Fifty people have been treated for injuries ranging from head trauma to lacerations and broken bones, said Jennifer Hessee, spokeswoman for the Integris Baptist Regional Health Centre in Miami, Oklahoma, 15 miles from Picher.
"I've never seen anything like this," Hessee said. "We went into disaster mode and called in all of our staff. It's slowed down. Hopefully the worst has come in. It'll make for a sad Mother's Day for a lot of people."
Picher is at the centre of a massive federal clean-up of pollution from lead and zinc mining. Residents were being assisted with relocation from the community after high levels of lead were found in groundwater.
In Missouri, Howard Birdsong, the mayor of Neosho, a town of 11,500 that is the Newton County seat, said at least two of the deaths came when a tornado overturned a vehicle.
It appeared the twister carved a 15-mile path just north of town after striking neighboring Oklahoma. In some areas, the destruction is a half-mile wide, he said.
"There's an awful lot of property damage," Birdsong said by telephone. "From what I've seen many homes have been destroyed, some businesses, and some cars have been overturned, uprooted trees and power outages . . . There are several dozen injured."
In all, the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Centre in Norman, Oklahoma, recorded 34 tornado reports in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, though some were multiple reports about the same twister or twisters.
The National Weather Service in Springfield, Missouri, said it would send out assessment teams on Sunday morning to determine the scope of the damage, and figure out the number and paths of the tornadoes.
Reuters
Turkey says it has launched air and artillery attacks against Kurdish separatist rebels in northern Iraq after an insurgent strike on a military base.
"Targets proven to belong to the PKK terrorist organisation in northern Iraq were put under heavy and effective fire by our air force planes with the support of artillery," the statement said.
The attacks, which began after 3am Sunday NZT, targeted a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members who had escaped into Iraq from Turkey after a rebel attack on a military headquarters that resulted in the deaths of six soldiers.
Two soldiers were killed in the initial PKK attack on Friday night and four died later in ensuing clashes with the rebels.
The military said on its website that it was trying to find out what casualties it had inflicted on the Kurdistan Workers Party.
A senior Iraqi border security official said there was one air strike and artillery shelling of the border area in northern Iraq overnight. There were no casualties in the attacks that occurred around 0800 NZT on Saturday, he said.
The violence was part of a wider military operation, backed by attack helicopters, tanks and artillery, against the PKK in restive and mountainous southeast Turkey.
Amid widespread public anger over PKK attacks, Turkey has sent tens of thousands of troops to the border region. Over the past week dozens of Turkish F-16 warplanes have launched bombing raids against suspected PKK positions deep inside northern Iraq.
Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of 40,000 people since 1984, when the group took up arms to fight for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey. Ankara, like the European Union and the United States, considers the group a terrorist organisation.
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-11-2008, 06:05 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-11-2008, 06:06 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-11-2008, 06:07 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-11-2008, 06:08 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-11-2008, 06:09 PM
Thanks for the story.
Edgehead82593
05-12-2008, 12:29 PM
How bored do you have to be to think that up? I know it's wrong, but really, don't you have other things to do than smoke pot through a skull?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/722948.jpg
QUAKE CASUALTY: Rescuers try to carry an injured man out from the debris of a collapsed building at Juyuan Middle School after the earthquake in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province
China's most devastating earthquake in three decades has killed nearly 9000 people, with the toll likely to soar as authorities struggle to reach casualties in large areas cut off from relief.
The earthquake that hit China's southwestern province of Sichuan killed 8533 people, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday, citing the provincial government.
The epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake was in a mountainous region about 100km from Sichuan's capital Chengdu, a bustling city of 10 million.
"The road started swaying as I was driving. Rocks fell from the mountains, with dust darkening the sky over the valley," a driver for Sichuan's seismological bureau was quoted by Xinhua as saying, as he was driving near the epicentre.
The quake hit in the middle of the school day, toppling eight schools in the region. Chemical plants and at least one hospital were also flattened, trapping many hundreds, state media said.
About 900 teenagers were buried in the rubble of a collapsed three-storey school building in the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan.
Local villagers had already helped dozens of students out of the ruins and five cranes were excavating the site as anxious parents looked on, Xinhua said.
"Some buried teenagers were struggling to break loose from underneath the ruins while others were crying out for help," the agency said.
Nightfall, severed communications and blocked roads have hampered rescue efforts and the death toll was likely to rise significantly.
An estimated 3000 to 5000 people were killed in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County alone, state media said.
As many as 10,000 in Beichuan were feared injured and 80 per cent of the buildings there had been destroyed, Xinhua said. There had been more than 300 aftershocks, state television said.
Beichuan's population is 161,000, meaning about one in 10 residents were killed or injured. The county is a part of Mianyang city, and about 160km from the provincial capital, Chengdu.
Hundreds of people were buried in two collapsed chemical plants in Shifang in Sichuan, the online edition of the official Xinhua news agency said.
About 6000 people were evacuated, Xinhua said, adding that more than 80 tonnes of highly corrosive liquid ammonia had leaked.
Hundreds of people were buried under rubble in Shifang in Sichuan as several schools, factories and dormitories collapsed during the quake, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Hundreds were also buried under rubble in a collapsed hospital in Dujiangyan city in Sichuan.
The quake's epicentre was in nearby Wenchuan, a mountainous county of about 100,000 people, but its force was enough to cause buildings to sway across China and as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok.
The Sichuan plain is one of China's most fertile agricultural areas, but it relies heavily on an irrigation system linked to the 2000-year-old Dujiangyan flood control works.
Which means the quake could exacerbate inflation, already running at the fastest pace in 12 years.
The quake is also the worst to hit China in 32 years since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in northeastern China where up to 300,000 died.
It has come at a bad time for China, which holds the Olympic Games in August, and has been struggling to keep a lid on unrest in ethnic Tibetan areas and the heavily Muslim northeastern Xinjiang region.
The US Geological Survey said on its website (http://earthquake.usgs.gov) the main quake struck at 0628 GMT at a depth of 10km.
In Beijing and Shanghai, office workers poured into the streets as the tremor hit. In the capital, there was no visible damage and the showpiece Bird's Nest Olympic stadium was unscathed.
Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Chengdu and President Hu Jintao ordered an "all-out" rescue effort, Xinhua reported.
Thousands of army troops and paramilitary People's Armed Police carrying medical supplies were also headed to the region, state television said. But a landslide had blocked a mountain road leading to Wenchuan, preventing troops from reaching the scene, state radio said.
In Washington, President George W Bush said the United States was ready to help.
"I extend my condolences to those injured and to the families of the victims of today's earthquake. I am particularly saddened by the number of students and children affected by this tragedy.
"The United States stands ready to help in any way possible," Bush said in a statement.
At least 45 had died in Chengdu, Xinhua said, citing an official with the local seismological bureau. Another 600 people were injured, 58 of them critically, in the sprawling city.
Some 57 have been confirmed killed in northern Shaanxi, 48 in northwestern Gansu, 50 in Chongqing municipality, and one in Yunnan province, Xinhua said, citing the national headquarters of disaster relief.
- Reuters
The first US military aid flight has landed in Myanmar on Monday, but relief supplies continued to just dribble into the reclusive state nine days after a devastating cyclone.
A C-130 military transport plane left Thailand's Vietnam War-era U-Tapao airbase carrying 12,700 kg of water, mosquito nets and blankets. US aid officials said they hope it will the first of many US flights to the army-ruled former Burma.
Greeting the plane at Yangon airport was Navy commander-in-chief Soe Thein, who promised to deliver the supplies "as soon as possible" to the cyclone-hit region, a US embassy official in Yangon said.
"This is Burma's hour of need and the need is urgent," US Agency for International Development administrator Henrietta Fore said before boarding the plane with a Thai-US delegation for the short flight to the cyclone-hit city of Yangon.
Admiral Timothy Keating, head of the US Pacific Command, is also on the plane, to try to meet with Myanmar's generals to urge them to allow a "long, continuous train of flights" that could carry up to 90,000kg of relief goods a day.
"We're limited only by the permission from the authorities in Burma," Keating said at the Thai air base.
Agencies report that deliveries to more than a million increasingly desperate cyclone victims have been minimal.
Reuters
Mercedes Corby has denied that she was ever involved in drugs and had no knowledge of any drugs that were in her sister Schapelle Corby's luggage when she was arrested in Bali in 2004.
Giving evidence at NSW Supreme Court today in her defamation case against Channel Seven, Ms Corby, 33, said that the allegations made by her former best friend Jodie Power on Today Tonight in February last year were false and that she had been close to two men, Ron Bakir and Robin Tampoe, who had undertaken to represent Schapelle but were then disaffected.
She said that on January 27, 2006, when she got word that Channel Seven was putting the programs together, she had sent a long email to Channel Seven warning them that Ms Power was not a reliable witness.
She told the court that Ms Power was mentally unstable, was prone to hallucinations and that she had had to call a mental health team to Jodie's home on one occasion when she was hysterical.
"Jodie's husband says until he kicked her out six months ago he was aware she was in constant contact with them [Ron Bakir and Robin Tampoe] and witnessed it as recently as a few weeks ago," she said.
"I believe they are also probably manipulating her from behind the scenes. Ron knows she is a little mad and used to call her 'my crazy friend'."
She also said she had been photographed pulling marijuana out of a package and putting it into a bowl but it was a long time ago, when she was 17. She said she had not smoked the drug.
Called by her counsel, Stuart Littlemore QC this afternoon, she said she had received very short shrift from Channel Seven.
The main addressee of the email, Neil Mooney, said he no longer worked for Today Tonight and Craig McPherson told her to ring the following week. When she did, she was told he was out of the office.
Heather Moore, 52, who appeared as a witness for Seven today, told the court she was invited to a Queensland property in late 2003, where she had drinks and smoked marijuana with a group of people on the verandah of the house.
When asked who was part of the group Ms Moore said, "Mercedes and her husband and two others."
Ms Moore told the court she had seen marijuana drying in a shed at the property and that Ms Corby and her husband had visited the shed.
Under cross-examination, Ms Moore admitted to a $1500 a day heroin habit which she had fed by shoplifting, but said she had quit 32 years ago.
Schapelle Corby was jailed in Bali after being convicted of smuggling marijuana into Indonesia.
The defamation hearing continues.
- with AAP
The woman locked in a cellar dungeon by her father for 24 years has reportedly told her family that she never wants to see his face again.
London's Daily Mail has reported that Elizabeth Fritzl - who was repeatedly raped and had seven children by her father - broke down when she saw her mother for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century and said: "I can't believe I'm free - is it really you?".
Rosemarie Fritzl, the mother of 42-year-old Elizabeth, had lived upstairs with her husband Joseph, unaware that her daughter was locked in the cellar below along with three of her children.
Another three children were taken to the surface by Joseph Fritzl, who told his wife that Elizabeth had run away to join a cult and had left the babies on their doorstep.
The Daily Mail reported that the one thing Elizabeth wanted more than anything was to feel raindrops on her skin.
"I can't believe I'm out. I didn't think I would ever see you again," Elizabeth reportedly told her mother.
"It's all too much for me. I don't ever want to see him again."
Elizabeth has also been reunited with the children taken away from her while she was living in the confined cellar, according to the report.
"My babies. You are so beautiful," Elisabeth reportedly said as she held them close and stroked their faces.
Elizabeth's sister Gabriele Helm, 36, speaking for the first time, told the UK's Sunday Mirror: "None of us can believe how normal Elisabeth seems. She is healthy and very chatty and doing very well.
"Every day she gets a bit stronger. I can't say what the family is going through. It's more than anyone can believe. It has devastated us.
"We are working together to support Elisabeth. She is overjoyed to see her children. She told them they were beautiful and she is spending all the time getting to know them."
Elizabeth's lawyer, Christoph Herbst, told the newspaper: "Elisabeth is very happy to be rediscovering the world. She is very keen to go outside and feel the rain on her skin. But it is important for them to adjust slowly.
"For now they just talk to each other. But Elisabeth and her children who lived in the cellar have no concept of time and of the future. Some people who hear the story think Elisabeth is like something from a horror film. But rumours that she has no teeth and cannot talk are not true.
"If you met her you would not realise what she has been through, as she seems just like every normal person.
"She tells her family that all she longs for is a normal life - or as normal a life as they can get. That's her only wish."
Mr Herbst told the paper one of Elizabeth's children was keeping the family's spirits up despite their ordeal.
"They are all happy and there is a lot of laughter, which you might not expect. Felix makes everyone laugh. They are teaching him to run because inside the cellar he could not run.
"It is really brilliant how Elisabeth has reacted to the outside world. They are all rather fine. Elisabeth is really an impressive person. She is very strong. She's happy now for the first time."
Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek was quoted as saying authorities were gathering evidence to charge Fritzl with murder in relation to a baby who he incinerated after it was born in the cellar.
Elizabeth was imprisoned in Amstetten, Austria, when she was just 18.
- smh.
Edgehead82593
05-12-2008, 09:49 PM
I wouldn't want to see the bastard either if he locked me up for that long. I probably would have tried to kill him.
JohnCenaFan28
05-13-2008, 05:07 AM
That was awful, natural disasters scare me a lot...
JohnCenaFan28
05-13-2008, 05:08 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-13-2008, 05:08 AM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-13-2008, 05:09 AM
I wouldn't want to see him ever again, let alone hear his name. I hope she enjoys what's left of her life.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/723233.jpg
FORLORN SCENE: Rescue workers search the rubble of a destroyed building in Dujiangyan City.
Heavy storms and wrecked roads hampered efforts to reach areas hardest-hit by China's worst earthquake in three decades as official death toll estimates approached 12,000.
State media reports indicated that the number of dead was likely to soar, with Xinhua news agency saying 10,000 people were buried in the Mianzhu area of Sichuan province and that rescue troops had arrived for the first time at Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the quake.
Death tolls in different areas are official estimates, given lack of access to worst-hit areas and inability to make accurate body counts under collapsed buildings.
"So far the death toll from the earthquake has reached 11,921," Wang Zhenyao, head of the Civil Affairs Ministry's disaster relief department, told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
A strong aftershock rocked Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, on Tuesday afternoon, one of several over the last day.
"Office workers in downtown Chengdu took the streets again after the quake," Xinhua said.
"Many said it was the strongest aftershock" since Monday's quake.
Premier Wen Jiabao, visiting Sichuan, ordered troops to clear roads to Wenchuan, a hilly area about 100km from the provincial capital Chengdu.
Damage from Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake left the area, about 1600km southwest of Beijing, completely cut off.
But rain and thick clouds over a province famous for its giant panda reserves meant that military helicopters dispatched to the area could not yet land. Parachutists belonging to the People's Liberation Army cancelled a rescue drop due to heavy storms, Xinhua said.
State television showed highways buckled and caved in from the quake and massive rockslides lining the roads.
In Dujiangyan – about midway between Chengdu and the epicentre – there was devastation, with buildings reduced to rubble and bodies in the streets, some only partially covered.
Troops and ambulances thronged the streets, and military trucks able to do heavy lifting had arrived. But many residents simply stood beside their wrecked homes, cradling possessions in their arms, and many huddled in relief tents under heavy rain.
"At least 60 or 70 old people lived there, as well as children," said a hospital worker surnamed Huo, gesturing to a building in ruins. Mattresses and household objects could be seen poking through the rubble.
"How could they survive that?" she asked.
Rescuers had worked frantically through the night, pulling bodies from homes, schools, factories and hospitals demolished by the quake, which rolled from Sichuan across much of China.
In the same city, about 900 teenagers were buried under a collapsed three-storey school building. Premier Wen bowed three times in grief before some of the first 50 bodies pulled out, Xinhua reported.
"Not one minute can be wasted," said Wen, a trained geologist.
"One minute, one second could mean a child's life."
Frantic relatives tried to push past a line of soldiers surrounding the school, desperate for news of their children.
"We're still pulling out people alive, but many, many have died," said one medical worker.
At a second school in Dujiangyan, fewer than 100 of 420 students survived, Xinhua reported.
The initial tremor, which the United States Geological Survey upgraded to magnitude 7.9 from 7.8, was followed by a series of aftershocks, which shook the area through the night.
"Some are still very strong," said a Dujiangyan resident.
"We have put up tents outside to sleep in."
A group of about 15 British tourists were out of reach near the epicentre, likely in Wolong, Xinhua reported. China said that there had been no reports of foreign casualties as of midday (4pm NZT).
China's benchmark stock index traded down after the quake, which forced suspension of trading in the shares of 66 companies.
However, analysts said they did not expect a major economic impact from the disaster though it could mean supply shortages that fuel inflation, already at a near 12-year high.
China's Communist Party leadership announced that coping with the devastating quake and ensuring that it did not threaten social stability were now the government's priorities.
But bloggers swapped information and opinions on the quake, from whether it could have been predicted to the quality of construction – and the reason for the high number of deaths of schoolchildren.
The Health Ministry issued an urgent appeal for blood and the Ministry of Railways imposed a state of emergency for trains linking Sichuan with other provinces.
"Time is life," said an official announcement from the Communist Party Standing Committee.
The Sichuan quake was the worst to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan tremor in northeastern China where up to 300,000 died. Then, unlike now, the Communist Party kept a tight lid on information about the extent of the disaster.
Neighbouring areas were also affected, with 189 reported dead in the northwestern province of Gansu, 92 in Shaanxi province and school collapses in the municipality of Chongqing.
In Gansu, the quake caused a train to derail, spilling petrol tanks and sparking a fire, Xinhua reported. In Sichuan's Shifang, where the quake sparked a major leak of liquid ammonia, about 600 people died and as many as 2300 remained buried, Xinhua said.
Reuters
Hillary Clinton appeared headed to a big West Virginia victory over front-runner Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race, although it could be too late to turn around her faltering White House bid.
Clinton has an advantage of at least 20 points in most opinion polls in West Virginia, a bastion of the white working-class voters who have become her strongest supporters in the gruelling battle for the Democratic nomination.
But Obama retains a nearly insurmountable advantage in delegates who will select the nominee at the party convention in August. A big win in West Virginia for the cash-strapped Clinton will make barely a dent in Obama's advantage.
West Virginia has just 28 delegates at stake in Tuesday's voting, which ends at 7.30pm Tuesday (11.30am Wednesday NZT). Results are expected shortly afterward.
Clinton, a New York senator who has vowed to keep fighting despite her dwindling prospects and a mounting campaign debt, spent the day in West Virginia on Monday and showed no sign she was ready to step aside so Obama could focus on a November match-up with Republican John McCain.
"West Virginia is a real indicator of which way the political winds are going to go," she said at a rally in Logan, West Virginia. Clinton said her wins in crucial big states like Ohio and Pennsylvania made her a better choice against McCain.
"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe that I could be the best president for West Virginia and America, and that I was the stronger candidate to take on John McCain in the fall," she said.
Obama, already looking to November, made a quick appearance in West Virginia on Monday and announced plans to visit general election battlegrounds Missouri, Michigan and Florida over the next week.
"The Democrats are going to unify, and we're trying to get some independents and we're trying to get some Republicans," Obama said at an evening rally in Louisville, Kentucky, which holds a nominating contest on May 20.
Despite calls from some Democratic officials for Clinton to quit, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found nearly two-thirds of national Democrats say there is no rush for Clinton to get out of the race.
Even 42 per cent of Obama's supporters said Clinton should remain to the end of voting on June 3, rejecting the idea that a prolonged race would hurt the party. The poll found 85 per cent of Democrats were confident the party would come together once it settled on a nominee.
After West Virginia, five more contests remain in the Democratic nominating battle with a combined 189 delegates at stake. Oregon and Kentucky vote on May 20, while Puerto Rico votes on June 1 and Montana and South Dakota vote on June 3.
An MSNBC count gives Obama 1869 delegates to Clinton's 1703, leaving him 156 short of the 2025 needed to clinch the nomination. But neither can win without help from superdelegates – nearly 800 party officials who are free to back any candidate.
Obama has been gaining ground among superdelegates for weeks. He picked up four more on Monday and now has a narrow lead over Clinton among superdelegates, with less than 250 still uncommitted.
Reuters
Potatoes are not traditionally high on the menu for Bangladesh's 140 million people, but a surge in rice and wheat prices has prompted the government to popularise the humble spud as a substitute food.
"Think potato, grow potato and eat potato," was the main slogan of a three-day potato festival in Dhaka last week.
Bangladesh's government is waging a campaign to convince millions of Bangladeshis to embrace potatoes as a staple food due to record high rice and wheat prices and an unusually good crop of potatoes that will need to be eaten quickly before they rot.
Since grain prices soared, about a third of Bangladeshis have had to skip one or two meals a day because they could not afford to buy rice which forms the bulk of their diet.
One kilo of rice has doubled in price over the past year and now costs 40 taka ($NZ0.76), almost half the daily wage of a factory worker. Wheat costs 44 taka for a kilo, up 150 per cent. By contrast, one kilo of potatoes sells at 13 taka in the capital, and far less in the countryside.
Potatoes are native to Latin America but were brought to South Asia from Europe sometime in the 18th century where they are mostly eaten as a vegetable ingredient in dishes such as curry.
Although an excellent carbohydrate substitute to rice, it is hard to convince Asians, who often don't regard a meal to be complete without a bowl of rice, to switch to spuds.
"It's not possible to change people's food habit overnight," said Nazrul Islam, the director of Bangladesh's Agriculture Information Service.
"Potato cannot replace rice as the main staple, but I think they will soon realise it can be a very good substitute at a reasonably low cost," he added.
Potatoes are regarded as a safe crop in the low-lying South Asian country as they are planted in October and harvested by the end of February when the land is dry and before annual floods ravage the country, leaving thousands of people homeless and hungry.
Potatoes are now Bangladesh's second biggest crop after rice. Consumption has risen from an average of 7 kilo per capita in 1991 to 24 kilo in 2007, according to agriculture officials.
Potato consumption in Britain is about 114 kilo per capita and in Belarus, the world's biggest potato consumer, it is around 338 kilo per capita, according to the International Year of the Potato website.
Bangladesh's government, which recently ordered 500,000 troops to eat potatoes, hopes potato consumption will jump drastically in the coming years as experts say it is unlikely rice prices will return back to previous lows.
"We grow potato every year as a subsidiary crop, along with pulses and spices," said Mariam, a village farmer near Dhaka.
"But I think (we) will have to rely on potato as a principal crop in the future. Growing wheat is difficult as it needs more fertilizer and irrigation. Potato is easier and cheaper to grow."
Experts see potatoes as a potential antidote to hunger caused by higher food prices, a global population that is growing by one billion people each decade, climbing costs for fertilizer and reduced cropland.
The potato has been called a "hidden treasure" by the United Nations which proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of the Potato.
Asian countries are seeing potatoes as their possible salvation as they scramble to feed their people at reasonable prices in the future in a region where the population is estimated to soar by some 35 per cent to 4.9 billion by 2025.
Food security is vital in the region as many governments fear unrest if food staple prices keep going up. India has said it wants to double potato production in the next five to 10 years. China, a huge rice consumer, has become the world's top potato grower. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the potato is expanding more than any other crop right now.
Potatoes are a great source of complex carbohydrates, which release their energy slowly and they have only five per cent of the fat content of wheat.
When boiled potatoes have more protein than corn and nearly twice the calcium, according to the Potato Centre in Peru. They are also rich in vitamins, iron, potassium and zinc.
"Rice and potato contain almost similar quantity of calories. But potatoes . . . are rich in Vitamin C and other food values. So nutritionally, potato can be a real good substitute for rice," said S.K. Roy, a nutrition expert in Dhaka.
This year, Bangladesh produced its biggest ever potato crop of over eight million tonnes, three million tonnes more than last year.
But the country lacks warehouses to store the potatoes, which spoil easily, and officials fear much of the stock will go to waste even as people starve and suffer from malnutrition because they can't afford rice and refuse to turn to potatoes.
"We cannot let the potatoes, which provide us a strong food backing in this period when food grains are short in supply and high in prices, rot and perish. So let us all take more potato and make it a viable substitute for other foods," army chief General Moeen U. Ahmed told the crowd at the potato festival.
Officials say Bangladesh can preserve only 2.2 million tonnes of potato in 300 existing cold storages across the country.
"It means we will have about 3 million tonnes left. . . This is huge, we have to consume it," said Harunur Rashid, the managing director of Canteen Stores Department, a supermarket chain run by the army which organised the Dhaka potato festival in a bid to popularise potatoes among the masses.
Leading local chefs whipped up dishes with potatoes for the thousands of people who attended the festival last week. One even made ice-cream from crushed potato, sugar and ice.
"I am just amazed to see and taste so many dishes," said university student Rafia Akther. "I never thought potatoes could make them all," she said, with a smile.
Potatoes are used in curries but these are usually served with rice. It is difficult to convince people that they can eat a meal based on potatoes without any rice at all.
"Normally we use potato to make curry mixed with vegetables and fish. We don't eat it every day but take it quite often," said Salahuddin Ahmed, a farmer and small businessman.
"But eating potato as the main dish? We never thought of it before!".
Reuters
Eight Pacific islands have a "credible claim" to an extra 1.5 million sq km of ocean, giving them exclusive rights to potential oil, gas and biological resources, says a regional organisation.
Fiji, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga and Papua New Guinea have until May 2009 to apply to the United Nations to extend their exclusive territorial and economic zones.
The inter-governmental Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) is staging a meeting of the eight states in Fiji this week to assist them prepare their applications.
SOPAC said the islands, all of them developing nations which rely on tourism, mining, fishing or agriculture, "have a credible claim to more than 1.5 million sq km of extra space beyond their current 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone".
The collective 1.5 million sq km of extra sovereignty represents a swathe of ocean the size of Mongolia, the second largest landlocked nation in the world.
SOPAC said scientific studies have revealed access to an extended continental shelf could mean more access to mineral rich resources for the island states and that assessments had identified strong grounds for the territorial extensions.
"It's the first time the Pacific region is combining their efforts in its bid to extend their exclusive economic zones," SOPAC Director Cristelle Pratt said in a statement received on Tuesday.
Pratt said securing the extended sovereignty was "critical to securing exclusive ocean development of potentially rich non-living resources, such as oil, gas, gold and silver, as well as living organisms that live on and beneath the seabed".
"Securing greater maritime sovereignty can provide increased revenue for Pacific states and deliver significant economic and social benefits," Pratt said.
Australia extended its rights over an extra 2.5 million sq km of seabed in April under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said at the time that Australia, currently self sufficient in oil and gas, needed to find a major new offshore oil source or be forced to import 80 percent of requirements by 2015.
Reuters
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/722385.jpg
STUDENT PROTEST: Primary school teacher Lynne Tziolas with her husband Antonios with the magazine shot that got her sacked. One of her former students appears to have started a petition to have her reinstated
The Australian primary school teacher sacked for posing nude with her husband in a magazine has sparked a classroom protest.
One of her 10-year-old students at Narraweena Public School on Sydney's northern beaches appears to have started a petition to get her reinstated.
But one parent, who did not wish to be named, said the buzz at the school was that the principal had taken the book with the petition and ripped out the pages - a claim the principal was not prepared to comment on today.
This act of youthful activism follows the sacking last week of 24-year-old Lynne Tziolas after she and her husband appeared in a Cleo magazine article titled "Buck naked couples talk about their sex lives".
The article ran interviews with 10 couples about "what they get up to between the sheets" and asked Ms Tziolas and her husband, Antonios, how many times they have sex a week, their favourite body part and the most risque sexual thing they've done.
"Leaving the blinds up and the lights on, which is all the time," Antonios said in response to the last question.
Ms Tziolas's sacking prompted some parents to complain.
One parent, Eileen Sawaid, organised a petition to demand Ms Tziolas's reinstatement, and she said she has received about 300 signatures.
"I fully support Lynne and will fight damn hard to help her because what happened is wrong," she said this morning.
Instead of protecting the children from the contents of the magazine, the sacking of Ms Tziolas had in fact brought it to their attention, she said.
"The way the children found about about Ms Tziolas's [magazine shoot] was after she was sacked, it had been out for a while before then and none of them had even heard about it," she said.
Ms Sawaid also said she had misgivings about how the children at the school had become part of the issue, and criticised a story in the Manly Daily today which discussed the student petition to reinstate Ms Tziolas.
"Her dismissal affects the children in many ways but the is an adult one and I don't think it's good for the children to be involved," she said.
Ms Tziolas's husband Antonios also said he regretted the involvement of the children.
"We're a little bit upset that the kids are being damaged collaterally by all this ... it would upset Lynne and I if they get punished for what they've done," he said.
The principal of the school, Julie Organ, referred questions about the alleged confiscation of the classroom petition to the Department of Education.
A spokesman for the department said: "As the situation is complex and not one easily explained to junior primary school age children, it is inappropriate for them to be asked to sign a petition without the advice and guidance of parents.
"A parent raised her concern with the school about a petition being created during class time.
"The petition, which had only a small number of signatures, was provided to the principal and the exercise book in which it had been written was returned to the parent of the student involved."
Mr Tziolas also said the couple were due to meet a lawyer provided by the Teacher's Federation this afternoon to begin legal action to have Ms Tziolas reinstated, he said.
"Lynne and I have just been overwhelmed by the response - people we've never met have been sending us letters, people have been stopping us in the streets to give us their support," he said
[I]SMH
JohnCenaFan28
05-13-2008, 05:41 PM
She shouldn't be fired just because she decided to take a nude photo... it's not like the children would be seeing it...
JohnCenaFan28
05-13-2008, 05:43 PM
That's awful, earthquake then a storm? How unfortunate...
JohnCenaFan28
05-13-2008, 05:43 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-13-2008, 05:44 PM
Interesting story, thanks.
JohnCenaFan28
05-13-2008, 05:45 PM
Thanks for the news.
China has poured more troops into the earthquake-ravaged province of Sichuan to speed up the search for survivors as time ran out for thousands of people buried under rubble and mud.
Weary rescuers pulled at tangled chunks of buildings and peered into crevices for signs of life after Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake crumpled homes, schools and hospitals.
The government dispatched 50,000 troops to the southwestern province to dig for victims as the national death toll climbed past 13,000. It is likely to rise steeply after state media said 19,000 were buried in the province's Mianyang area alone.
On the edge of Mianyang city, people roamed around a sports ground housing the homeless, holding cardboard signs with the names of relatives in hopes of information. Most were from nearby rural Beichuan county, one of the worst-hit areas.
"They have said nothing about what's going to happen to us. This is just a temporary place. I don't know when or if we'll be able to go home," said Hu Luobing, from a Beichuan village where she said everything had been destroyed.
She was leaving her daughter in the shelter of the sports ground, where some 10,000 Beichuan survivors had gathered, to look for clothes.
Others were seeking food and relief from the cold rain.
"I've had nothing to eat since last night. I've only been given some bread and a bottle of water for my child," said Bai Chenchu, one of thousands camped out at the sports ground.
Another had only the clothes on his back.
"I'm wearing everything I own," said 15-year-old Xi Dongli.
Pictures from Beichuan, a hilly area that rescuers have struggled to reach, showed near total devastation. Survivors lay alongside the dead in the open air, surrounded by buildings reduced to mangled slabs of concrete.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who has been in Sichuan leading rescue efforts, making emotional appeals to urge on workers and visiting crying, orphaned children, was in Beichuan by midday.
"Your pain is our pain," he said on state television. He stood amid a cluster of residents, one with blood on her head and some of whom wiped away tears.
"Saving people's lives in the most important task."
Beichuan county alone was in urgent need of 50,000 tents, 200,000 blankets and 300,000 coats, as well as drinking water and medicine, Xinhua said.
"Beichuan has just disappeared. There's nothing left," said Li Changqing, a salesman in Mianyang.
Reuters
A 39-year-old man killed five members of his family, some apparently with an axe and reported the deaths to police himself, police said.
The dead were his wife, daughter aged 7, and his parents and father-in-law.
The man went to police on Wednesday and they found the bodies of the wife and daughter in an apartment in Vienna. They may have been killed with an axe, Austrian news agency APA quoted police as saying.
He admitted the other killings and the bodies were found outside Vienna in Upper Austria. It was unclear how they died.
- Reuters
A car bomb has exploded at a police barracks in northern Spain's Basque country, killing one person and wounding four, police said.
The bomb exploded in a Civil Guard barracks in the town of Legutiano just before 3am today (1pm NZT), a Basque Country police spokeswoman said, and a police rescue team with dogs was used to search for people trapped in the rubble.
One person trapped under the wreckage died and the blast wounded four others, two men and two women.
There was no warning before the attack, which took place in an area that is often the target of Basque separatists. No one has claimed responsibility, police said.
The Basque separatist group ETA has killed more than 800 people in four decades of violent struggle for independence for the Basque Country, which lies in northern Spain and southwestern France.
ETA's last fatal victim was a former small town politician for Spain's governing Socialist Party, gunned down just before a national election in March, police said.
Reuters
A Perth man has failed to have his lengthy sentence reduced for a "brutal, callous and degrading" crime on a young boy he and his boyfriend kidnapped and raped for three weeks.
Robbie Sebastian Wheeler, 43, was sentenced to 23 years and eight months jail in the Western Australian District Court last May after admitting to the kidnapping and sexual abuse.
He and his partner Victor Leslie Urquhart, 46, were also found guilty by a jury of plotting to murder the then 14-year-old boy, who they held as a sex slave in their Perth home between August 30 and September 19, 2005.
Urquhart was sentenced to a total of 20 years and seven months in prison.
Wheeler appealed his sentence on the grounds it was too long for the crime.
But the WA Supreme Court today dismissed the appeal.
"I accept that the total sentence in this case was very severe," Justice Christopher Steytler said.
"However, the circumstances of the case are truly exceptional."
Psychological and psychiatric reports prepared for the appeal said Wheeler was a borderline psychopath with a high risk of re-offending.
Wheeler was more concerned for his own wellbeing than that of his victim, the reports said.
Justice Steytler said the boy was shackled for 21 days and subjected to depraved, degrading and humiliating acts.
"The appellant's behaviour was brutal, callous, degrading and sustained," he said.
During sentencing last year, the court was told the boy suffered from eating and sleeping disorders, frequent flashbacks and nightmares, that he had become reclusive and had at least once attempted suicide.
Wheeler and Urquhart abducted him from a Perth street, dragged him inside their house, handcuffed him to a bed and gagged him with gaffer tape.
Over the next three weeks they repeatedly had unprotected sex with him, forced him to use sex toys on himself, made him watch pornographic videos, had sex with each other in front of him and made him defecate in a bucket.
They also made plans to kill him, dump his body in bushland and dissolve it with acid.
Wheeler will be eligible for parole after serving 21 years and eight months.
Urquhart will be eligible for parole after serving 18 years and seven months.
- AAP
Authorities imposed a dawn to-dusk curfew in parts of India's historic western city of Jaipur a day after eight bombs ripped through bustling streets, killing around 60 people and injuring 150.
The blasts within minutes of each other brought fears that Pakistani or Bangladeshi Islamist militant groups were trying to undermine a fragile peace process between India and Pakistan. But police have not yet blamed any particular group.
Bombs, many strapped to bicycles, exploded by a main temple and markets inside the pink-walled city. Slippers, broken pieces of glass and bits of clothes now litter the main market place.
The bustling walled city's main courtyard was mostly deserted with a few people coming back to take personal belongings out of damaged cars and motorbikes left behind after the bombs.
Hundreds of policemen looked for unclaimed objects in the rubble, while many people in Jaipur preferred to stay indoors.
"It was very scary and most of us just ran as there was smoke and cries for help in every direction," said Anil Saxena, a businessman at a popular jewellery market.
Authorities cleaned a blood-splattered street in front of Hawa Mahal, or the "palace of wind," a five-storied sandstone building built by a Hindu king for his queen in 1799 AD.
Many Hindus offer prayers in temples on Tuesdays and officials say that was probably what attackers were looking for.
"There were hundreds of people there like me to offer prayers. I wonder what would have happened had the blast taken place inside the temple," Vikram Singh, an injured college student, said from his hospital bed.
India's junior home minister Sriprakash Jaiswal was quoted by local media as saying there "might be the involvement of some foreign hand in the blasts" - a phrase often used in India to refer to Pakistan.
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee is due to visit Islamabad in a week's time to review a four-year-old peace process between the two nations.
Only in the last week, Indian soldiers came under heavy cross-border fire trying to stop armed men from sneaking into its part of Kashmir. Later eight people were killed in clashes in a Kashmir village. It was some of the worse violence in Kashmir this year.
But police in Jaipur said they did not know who was behind Tuesday's bombings.
"It is too early to name one particular group and we are analyzing the material used to cause the blast to determine what it exactly contained," AS Gill, Rajasthan's police chief said.
Authorities said they do not have information about any foreigners injured in the blast. It is low season in the tourist state of Rajasthan.
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-14-2008, 07:47 PM
Wow, that's harsh but I guess for the safety of everyone, it's a good idea.
JohnCenaFan28
05-14-2008, 07:48 PM
I feel for China, this was a horrible disaster and I hope they get through it quickly.
JohnCenaFan28
05-14-2008, 07:49 PM
What the hell? That guy's insane and needs help...
JohnCenaFan28
05-14-2008, 07:50 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-14-2008, 07:54 PM
OMG, that is awful... I hope he stays locked up for good.
The death toll from China's deadliest earthquake in decades has climbed to nearly 15,000, as officials warned of calamities downstream from broken rivers and dams strained to bursting point.
Tens of thousands of troops, firefighters and civilians raced to save more than 25,000 people buried across a wide swathe of southwest Sichuan province under collapsed schools, factories and hospitals after Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake.
Many schoolchildren were buried as they were taking an afternoon nap. One body of a boy was found still clutching a pen.
The official death toll climbed to 14,866, as rescuers pulled at tangled chunks of buildings for signs of life.
The government sent 50,000 troops to dig for victims. A paramilitary officer who arrived at Wenchuan, at the epicentre, told Sichuan TV a third of houses there had been destroyed and more than 90 per cent damaged.
Amid the overwhelming gloom, there were also moments of joy.
In Mianzhu, where thousands have already been confirmed dead, about 500 people were pulled out alive from crushed buildings.
Rescuers in Hanwang, a village in Mianzhu, sustained a girl with food and water as they struggled to free her from the ruins of a school.
A woman eight-months pregnant and her mother, trapped under an apartment building in Dujiangyan, were freed by firefighters.
"We are very happy. We have been standing here shouting for two days," said Pan Jianjun, a relative. "But there are still three more people in there making sounds."
But television showed whole villages wiped out across the poor, mountainous region suggesting searchers would find many more bodies than survivors among the toppled buildings.
BLOCKED RIVERS, DAMAGED DAMS
Officials have also warned of dangers from increased strain on local dams as well as mudslides on brittle hillsides where rain has been forecast over the next few days.
Two hydropower stations in Maoxian county, where 7,000 residents and tourists remain stranded near the epicentre, were "seriously damaged". Authorities warned that dams could burst.
Landslides had blocked the flow of two rivers in northern Qingchuan county, forming a huge lake in a region where 1,000 have already died and 700 are buried, Xinhua said.
"The rising water could cause the mountains to collapse. We desperately need geological experts to carry out tests and fix a rescue plan," Xinhua quoted Li Hao, the county's Communist Party chief, as saying.
The quake had also stopped a river in the stricken Mianzhu region, prompting officials to evacuate residents and drain dams, downstream, the agency said.
Underscoring the urgency of relief efforts, the Communist Party's top discipline watchdog vowed to punish officials for any dereliction of duty.
Pictures from Beichuan, which rescuers have struggled to reach, showed near total devastation. Survivors lay alongside the dead in the open air, surrounded by rubble as state TV showed dramatic footage of soldiers parachuting in to help.
PREMIER'S APPEAL
Premier Wen Jiabao made emotional appeals to workers and comfort orphaned children.
"Your pain is our pain," he said, standing amid a cluster of residents, some of whom wiped away tears. "Saving people's lives is the most important task."
The quake, the worst to hit China since 1976 when up to 300,000 died, has drowned out upbeat government propaganda three months ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.
It has also muffled criticism from abroad over recent unrest in Tibet, with images of the human tragedy and heroic rescue efforts spurring offers of aid and an outpouring of sympathy.
The Party's swift action to mobilize a massive rescue force has made a jarring comparison with that of Myanmar, whose government's slow response to a devastating cyclone has infuriated aid and rights groups.
China's stock market initially weakened after the quake, partly on fears it could add to inflation that is already at a 12-year high, but the Shanghai stock index ended 2.7 per cent higher as fears of the long-term impact ebbed.
Industrial production growth showed China's busy factories moving down a gear and economists said output growth could fade in coming months, partly due to the impact of the Sichuan quake.
Leading disaster modeling firm AIR Worldwide said the cost of the quake was likely to exceed $US20 billion.
Reuters
The United Nations has estimated those affected by the Myanmar cyclone at up to 2.5 million and called an urgent meeting of big donors and Asian states as the Myanmar junta continued to limit foreign aid.
The European Union's top aid official said the military government's restrictions were increasing the risk of starvation and disease.
UN humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters that there were now between 1.6-2.5 million people who were "severely affected" by Cyclone Nargis and urgently needed aid, up from a previous estimate of at least 1.5 million people.
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said after a two-hour meeting in Yangon, where he urged his counterpart Thein Sein to ease visa rules for relief workers, that he was told Myanmar could "tackle the problem by themselves."
In New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has expressed frustration over the response by Myanmar's reclusive leaders, called a meeting of key donor states and Asian powers later on Wednesday to discuss "what kind of concrete measures we can do from now on."
"Even though the Myanmarese government has shown some sense of flexibility, at this time it is far, far too short," he said. "The magnitude of this situation requires much more mobilisation of resources and aid workers."
A Western diplomat said the meeting would be at 4:30 p.m. EDT (8:30 a.m. NZT) and that among those invited were the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, India, Bangladesh, Australia and Japan.
TRICKLE OF AID
Nearly two weeks after the cyclone swept through the heavily populated Irrawaddy delta rice bowl, killing tens of thousands of people, foreign aid still amounts to little more than a trickle.
Myanmar, formerly called Burma, was once the world's biggest rice exporting country but more than 40 years of military rule have left it impoverished. The military junta has repeatedly crushed pro-democracy movements and tightly restricts visits by foreigners.
Samak told reporters in Bangkok that Myanmar's leaders had insisted that teams of foreign experts, who have been refused entry, were not needed.
"They are confident of dealing with the problem by themselves. There are no outbreaks of diseases, no starvation, no famine. They don't need experts, but are willing to get aid supplies from every country," Samak said.
Louis Michel, the top European Union aid official, disagreed.
"There is a risk of water pollution. There is a risk of starvation because the storages of rice have been destroyed," he told reporters in Bangkok before flying to Yangon to seek better access for international aid workers and relief efforts.
"We want to convince the authorities of our good faith. We are there for humanitarian reasons," he said, throwing cold water on suggestions foreign countries move unilaterally to bring in aid.
Even so, one EU member said on Wednesday it was time to act. "If need be, the international community must force the Burmese regime to let more help and relief workers in," Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said.
ACCESS IS "CRITICAL"
One group of Christian doctors has been treating children in churches, operating below the government's radar. "We have to try to do something," said one Asian doctor from the group, giving out medicine to children for diarrhea in a rickety wooden church in a village just north of Yangon.
World Food Program Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in Washington her organisation had so far reached 28,000 people. "A critical issue now is access. WFP has managed to reach more than 28,000 people with food aid so far, with 14 international and 214 national staff in-country," she said.
"Our flights are allowed to bring in some supplies, but far from enough - a massive effort is needed to save lives..." she said at a US Senate hearing on the global food crisis.
Holmes was asked if the United Nations might have to consider air drops to get food and other aid to cyclone victims who have not been helped and who are crowded into Buddhist monasteries and schools. He said it was not an ideal form of distributing aid but might become an option.
"It is something that could be contemplated," he said, adding that if barriers to aid workers were not lifted "one might have to look at it."
He also warned that epidemics of diseases like cholera, malaria and measles "can break out at anytime now."
Heavy rain and winds were forecast in the delta as a tropical depression moved in, but the UN weather agency discounted fears that a new cyclone was forming.
Myanmar state television raised its official toll to 38,491 dead, 1,403 injured and 27,838 missing on Wednesday.
The International Federation of the Red Cross estimated on the basis of reports from 22 organisations working in Myanmar that between 68,833 and 127,990 people had died.
ASIANS WELCOME, SAYS JUNTA
In a gesture to critics, Myanmar's rulers invited 160 personnel from Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand to assist in the sometimes chaotic relief efforts but that was a fraction of the number needed, experts said.
"It's just awful. People are in just desperate need, begging as vehicles go past," Gordon Bacon, an emergency coordinator for the International Rescue Committee, told Reuters from Yangon.
Some foreign aid workers who have reached Myanmar have been restricted to cobbling together assessment reports in Yangon for donors, based on what local staff tell them.
Experts say the relief effort is only delivering a tenth of the needed supplies. Heavy rains have slowed transportation of aid by land and added to the misery of tens of thousands of refugees packed into monasteries, schools and pagodas.
The operations in Myanmar are a shadow of the massive international relief operation begun just days after the 2004 Asian tsunami. The United States alone deployed thousands of its military and more than a dozen ships in the Indian Ocean.
So far the US military has made a total of eight aid flights into Yangon, an official said.
"We don't have confirmation of future flights yet but we are very optimistic," said Colonel Douglas Powell.
Three US naval ships were in international waters off Myanmar waiting for a go-ahead from Myanmar's generals.
Reuters
Black Widow
05-15-2008, 11:25 AM
A JEALOUS husband who suspected his wife of an affair took revenge – by putting her for sale on eBay.
Paul Osborn, 44, kicked out wife Sharon and advertised her on the internet auction site – with bids hitting £500,100.
Take my wife ... Paul's eBay advert
Take my wife ... Paul's eBay advert
It offered his “cheating, lying, adulterous slag of a wife” to the highest bidder – and became an internet phenomenon, with users forwarding the link worldwide. But Sharon, 43, denies an affair and cops are now investigating Paul for harassment.
MoT inspector Paul heard rumours in March that Network Rail manager Sharon, his wife of 24 years, was having an affair with a man at work.
Complaint
Dad-of-two Paul, of Bletchley, Bucks, said: “I started checking her emails and I realised the rumours were true. They had been discussing their sex life together and making plans for the future.
“I was absolutely destroyed. I gathered all her stuff in bags and dumped it in the drive.”
Three weeks ago, Sharon pleaded for Paul to take her realised it wasn’t the right thing to do. I was just so angry.”
Sharon and her colleague made a police complaint against Paul. Neither was available for comment last night. But the unnamed man’s wife said at home in Hemel Hempstead, Herts: “There’s nothing going on. They work in the same office, that’s all.”
Thames Valley Police confirmed it was investigating, saying: “Statements have been taken from two people. ”
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/1773/snn1517b384487364alb6.jpg
The Sun.co.uk
my brother wants to make a bid
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/723871.jpg
VICTIM: Lauren Huxley.
A Sydney carpenter has been found guilty of the brutal attack on an 18-year-old woman in which she was beaten, doused in petrol and left for dead in her garage, which was set alight.
It took the jury about three hours to come back with a verdict. The six men and six women found Robert Black Farmer, 39, guilty of the attempted murder of Lauren Huxley, detaining her for advantage, and maliciously damaging her Northmead home by fire in the attack on November 9, 2005.
As each guilty verdict was read out, family and friends of the Ms Huxley cried: "Yes."
Ms Huxley, now 21, was left clinging to life after the attack and spent 23 days on life support and suffered permanent brain damage as a result.
Standing with their arms around each other outside the court, Ms Huxley's parents Patrick and Christine Huxley and older sister Simone paid tribute to her strength.
"I don't think she makes sense of any of it because why should you make sense of such a horrific crime,'' Simone Huxley told reporters.
"She chooses to get on with her life, put herself first ... and not worry about the past.
"You can't describe how remarkable she is, how strong and how brave and what a strong spirit she has to overcome her horrific injuries and get on with her life.''
Mr Huxley said: "It's a black day for Mr Farmer, isn't it?''
Asked if he had a message Farmer, Mr Huxley replied: "Go burn in hell, with petrol, where you belong you bastard."
Farmer showed no emotions when the verdict was read out.
During the trial the court heard that DNA found in the Huxley home linked Farmer to the crime scene.
A DNA profile found on a bed rail in Ms Huxley's bedroom had a one in 10 billion chance of being from someone other than Farmer. A shoe print matching Farmer's Nike running shoes was also found in the garage the court heard.
Ms Huxley's mother and sister embraced and wept, leaning forward in the public gallery to embrace the lead detective on the case.
Farmer, dressed all in black, stared at the jury but displayed little emotion as the verdicts were handed down.
Crown Prosecutor Chris Maxwell, QC, indicated he would be pushing for the maximum penalty for the offences, labelling them as being in "the worst category" of crimes.
The prosecution case hinged on forensic and circumstantial evidence against Farmer, who lived just streets from the Huxley family's western Sydney home.
Farmer's ex-girlfriend Catharine Beverley told the court he was overly happy on the afternoon of November 9, and attempted to drive past the Huxley home later that night.
Gail Farmer said she found her son writing a suicide note in the early hours of the following morning.
Both women testified Farmer disappeared later that day.
Old school friend Yuri Naranjo gave refuge to Farmer in the weeks following the attack, after he showed up unannounced at his Southern Highlands home.
"Rob told me he'd done something wrong but he didn't want to tell me and I shouldn't ask him about what it was," Mr Naranjo told the court.
- with AAP
A suicide blast has killed 18 police and civilians in Afghanistan's western province of Farah, officials said.
The incident occurred in a bazaar near a police station in Del Aram district of Farah, they said.
"So far, 18 people, including police and civilians, have been killed," Farah's governor Rohul Amin said by phone.
Citing officials near the site, Amin said the bomber was wearing an all-enveloping burqa robe that Afghan women commonly wear.
"I know that 18 people have been killed, but do not know whether the bomber was a man or woman or was wearing burqa or not," said Juman Khan, a police officer from Del Aram.
He said two police vehicles were destroyed in the attack, the latest in rising violence in Afghanistan in the past two years, the bloodiest period since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.
Reuters
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/723162.jpg
CONCRETE JUNGLE: Survivors check a collapsed building in the city of Dujiangyan.
* Quake death toll estimated at 15,000 but likely to grow
* Homeless enduring strained water and sanitation supplies
* Nuclear company reports deaths and damage, no mention of radiation leaks
* Government mobilises more troops and helicopters
Fresh aid has reached China's earthquake-devastated areas but the sheer magnitude of caring for tens of thousands of homeless, grieving survivors threatened to overwhelm relief efforts.
The Communist Party leadership told officials to "ensure social stability" as Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake in southwestern Sichuan province spawned rumours of chemical spills, fears of dam bursts and scenes of collective grief and desperation.
The official death toll estimate from the quake stood at 14,866. But 25,000 remain buried and as search teams sift, often bare-handed, through towns turned to rubble, the number of dead is likely to climb.
The strains from tens of thousands of homeless are growing.
"There is enough food but not enough water. We have only had bottled mineral water the past few days, nothing to cook with," said Wang Yujie, a teacher whose school withstood the quake.
Three days after the quake hit, hopes of pulling survivors from crushed homes, schools and factories dimmed and the waves of rescuers appear to be hampered by lack of specialised equipment.
But more aid was arriving and efforts at co-ordination were also improving, with Sichuan setting up a hotline for victims and ambulances with Beijing licence plates on the roads.
About 130,000 army and paramilitary troops had reached the province by Thursday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
But in some villages near the badly hit area of Beichuan, angry residents complained they had had little to eat and were forced to drink contaminated water to keep themselves alive.
State radio broadcast messages warning local people not to drink unsafe water and to be patient in waiting for help.
Many are sleeping outside or in makeshift shelters where the lack of water and blocked toilets has raised fears of outbreaks of diarrhoea and other infectious disease.
And new threats emerged from damaged dams.
Minister for Water Resources, Chen Lei, said such damage was widespread and sounded far from assured in comments put on the ministry website.
"Especially in Sichuan province, there are many dams, damage from the quake is extensive and the hazards are unclear," Chen said in the speech given to officials a day earlier.
And the minister blamed more than nature for the dangers.
"Because the management systems of hydro-power stations are not smooth and information channels are blocked, the extent of their damage is unclear," Chen said.
Premier Wen Jiabao, a geologist himself, has made emotional appeals from the disaster zone urging on workers and comforting orphaned children. On Thursday he headed for Qingchuan, where landslides had blocked the flow of two rivers.
The disaster area is also home to China's chief nuclear weapons research lab in Mianyang, as well as several secretive atomic sites, but no nuclear power stations.
The China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corp reported that several of its facilities in Sichuan were damaged.
The report on its website did not mention any radiation leaks. A Western expert with knowledge of the Mianyang lab said it was not likely the facilities were put at serious risk. He requested anonymity.
Reuters
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/723889.jpg
WASTELAND: A woman sifts through the debris of her home destroyed by Cyclone Nargis
Po Aung would rather return to the ruins of his village in Myanmar's delta region than stay in a state relief camp.
"We keep hearing things about victims at the government-run camps," said the 57-year-old. "We just don't know what to do."
Nearly two weeks after Cyclone Nargis tore through Myanmar's rice bowl over half a million people are thought to be sheltering in temporary settlements.
The lucky have been taken in by monks and private volunteers.
The less fortunate are stuck in government-run centres, where people complain of tiny food rations and forced labour.
"They have to break stones at the construction sites. They are paid K 1000 ($NZ1.30) per day but are not provided with any food," said Ko Hla Min, who has been able to stay in his village outside Bogalay, a delta town 90km southwest of the main city of Yangon.
"Most people don't want live in strange places and do new jobs. They want to go back to where they lived with their beloved ones and go back to their traditional profession, agriculture," said the 35-year-old.
Ko Hla Min lost nine members of his family in the storm. Only six people survived the tidal wave that engulfed his village and they were flung miles by its force.
He said the government relief effort in Bogalay, where at least 10,000 people are believed to have perished, has been negligible.
Along the river bank, rotting corpses are still tangled in the scrubs. Villagers continue to fish, wash and bathe in the same river.
"We can see the relief aid materials given by donors stored at some places. I wonder when they will give them to us?"
Po Aung, who survived the cyclone by clinging on to a tree and then lived on coconuts for three straight days, is hoping Buddhist monks will take him in for now.
In time, he wants to return to his village, where only around 80 people survived out of more than 500.
"If possible, most of us would like to go back to our village no matter what has happened to it," said Po Aung, who lost his son and mother in the storm.
"Those dead are gone. But, we the remaining want to return to our own place and to go back to our traditional profession, agriculture and fishing."
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-15-2008, 09:59 PM
That's awful...:sad:
JohnCenaFan28
05-15-2008, 09:59 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-15-2008, 10:00 PM
This was a terrible thing that happened... I really hope people can help them get over it quickly.
JohnCenaFan28
05-15-2008, 10:02 PM
LOL, this is funny. Wonder if they stopped the bid?
JohnCenaFan28
05-15-2008, 10:03 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-15-2008, 10:04 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-15-2008, 10:04 PM
Thanks for the story.
Robbers shot dead nine employees of a Philippine bank south of Manila and emptied its vault, and police said they suspected two security guards who were missing.
Ricardo Padilla, police chief of the Calabarzon region, said the bodies of eight employees of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation were found on the floor of the bank today, with bullet wounds to the head.
One of the bank's three guards died on way to hospital and the bank's operations manager was fighting for his life in a nearby hospital, Padilla said. He said the chief suspects were the two guards who were missing.
"They were murdered in gangland-style, each one shot in the head," he said.
"We're still investigating and we have no idea how much money was taken from the bank. We suspect a possible inside job because those behind this heinous crime killed all possible witnesses who could identify them."
Police found the bank's vault open and empty.
Padilla said the police were alerted when the bank did not open on time on Friday as dozens of customers waited outside.
Reuters
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/724138.jpg
SCHOOL TRAGEDY: School bags are seen among the rubble of a collapsed primary school at the township of Wufu.
Nearly every building in the tiny rural town of Wufu withstood the forceful earthquake that shook China on Monday. One major structure – the New No 2 Primary School – collapsed, killing some 300 children.
Now grieving parents, many of whom dug through rubble with their hands in a frantic effort to save their children, are venting their anger at local officials who they claim knew the building was substandard.
Jumbled mounds of concrete and brick are all that remain of the three-storey schoolhouse that caved in just moments before afternoon classes were to begin. Notebooks, backpacks, clothes and a tin lunch box litter the picked-over rubble.
The scene is repeated in towns and cities across the quake-damaged section of Sichuan, where more than 50,000 people may have died, including hundreds of students crushed when their schools collapsed.
Bi Kaiwei's 13-year-old daughter, Yuexing, was in her second storey sixth-grade classroom when the walls and ceiling crashed down in the quake.
"Our child wasn't killed by the earthquake. She and the others were killed by a derelict building," he said. "The officials knew it was unsafe."
"Look at that one there," Bi said, pointing diagonally across from where the school used to stand to a yellowish corner building spared of damaged. "We live there. It was built in 1982. It's still standing."
Premier Wen Jiabao earlier this week stood symbolically on the rubble of another collapsed school in Sichuan and told students trapped below that they would be saved.
But that was little consolation in Wufu, where residents say the local government hasn't even announced the number of children killed in the school.
The loss of so many children is particularly poignant in China, where the government's family planning policies, aimed at curbing population growth, mean that most have only one child.
When the New No 2 Primary School fell, parents, relatives and friends of pupils rushed to the site.
Sang Jun, a short, lively man, arrived about 20 minutes after the earthquake to look for his son. "There were already five people digging," said Sang. He jumped in to help.
His arms and legs, like Bi's and other parents here, are now scarred with scrapes and bruises from the frantic efforts to pull apart the rubble and get to their kids below.
Holding a pair of dirty blue jeans and a blue work shirt stained with blood, Sang said: "I was wearing these. I pulled out more than 20 children. . . Only five were alive."
Zhang Chao was recovering from surgery in a hospital nearby. When he heard the school was demolished, he got up and went to help, pulling several bodies from the wreckage.
Down the road, a hefty farmer with a buzz cut named Zuo Jun hobbles with a crutch along a dirt path beside a golden field of wheat. Zuo injured his left foot prying through the rubble in search of his 11-year-old son, Zuo Hao, who appears pudgy with a crew cut and a jovial smile in family photos.
At the end of the raised path in the corner of the field is a mound of fresh dirt where Hao is buried.
"If the teachers had been there, he would be alive," said Zuo with a pained look. "During the lunch break, the teachers put two classes together, locked them in and then went to play mahjong. This is what students said."
Nearby fields are dotted with similar small graves. At one site, where three pupils were buried, relatives burn a pile of their child's clothes along with incense, hay and fake money.
Further along another farm path is the home of Yan Qiuyi, a classmate and close friend of Bi Yuexing's who survived. Her arm is in a sling because her shoulder was broken, her face is puffy and scarred, and she walks with a limp.
When her friend's parents approach, carrying a photo of their daughter striking a playful pose, tears flow from Yan's red, tired eyes. Speechless, Yan holds the picture to her face and cries.
Bi Yuexing's new grave is a mound of dirt ringed with small rocks in the shade of a bamboo stand and next to her great grandparents' remains. "The government told us to bury our children. There were too many to cremate," Bi said.
The parents of the victims are planning to meet on Monday morning at the school site to work out a plan to seek retribution, perhaps by suing the local education department.
"At night there is no rest," said Bi. "They must have been so scared. In bed I keep having the image of those children in my head, not knowing what was happening. If there were a teacher there to guide them out, or if they had their parents there, they might not have been so scared."
Reuters
Counter-terrorism police raided two Sydney homes, seizing documents and computer equipment this morning.
Police said the coordinated raids took place in Glebe and Riverwood, in the city's inner west and south-west respectively.
No-one was arrested but documents and computer hard-drives were seized for examination, police said.
The raids were part of a joint operation between NSW police and the Australian Federal Police.
The nature of the investigation was not revealed, but a NSW police spokesman said inquiries were continuing.
AAP
US presidential candidate John McCain said he believes the Iraq war can be won within four years, leaving a functioning democracy there and allowing most US troops to come home.
It was the first time the Arizona senator has put a date on when US troops could be withdrawn from Iraq.
The five-year war is unpopular with the US public and McCain's Democratic rivals for the White House, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have pledged to begin bringing US troops home right away.
McCain has called such promises reckless. He has rejected withdrawal timetables and agrees with President George W Bush that troop levels should be governed by conditions on the ground.
McCain, who will run against either Obama or Clinton in November to succeed Bush in January 2009, laid out a scenario he thought was achievable within his first four-year term.
"By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom," McCain said in a speech in Columbus, Ohio.
"The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced," McCain said.
Under that scenario, US troops would still be present, but those soldiers would not play a "direct combat role" because Iraqi forces would be capable of providing order.
Speaking with reporters after the speech, McCain insisted he was not talking about a timetable for withdrawal but discussing what he believed would be achieved.
"I'm saying that we are succeeding in Iraq and we will have succeeded further in Iraq in 2013," he said.
McCain also predicted that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would be captured or killed within four years and the militant group's presence in Afghanistan would be reduced to remnants.
On the economy, he promised taxpayers the option of filing under a simpler system than the current multilayered code and said he would overhaul government spending practices that have led to "extravagantly wasted money."
Ohio is expected to be a hard-fought state in the general election and McCain's visit there came as Obama, the Democratic front-runner, moves closer to his party's nomination.
Obama has charged that McCain wants to keep the United States entangled in Iraq for 100 years, referring to a comment McCain made in January, when he asked how many years the United States might have a presence in Iraq.
McCain responded, "Maybe a hundred."
He has since said that remark was taken out of context and he was talking about a troop presence aimed at maintaining stability, like the US presence now in Japan, South Korea and Germany.
McCain said on Wednesday he recognized his party's battered image posed challenges for him.
"We've got a lot of work to do," McCain said. "I have a lot of work to do."
Reuters
Black Widow
05-16-2008, 03:29 PM
Computer charges against woman whose daughter feuded with victim
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/9564/080515meganbcolwidecuo3.jpg
Tina Meier holds two pictures of her daughter Megan, who committed suicide in October.
updated 5:49 p.m. ET May 15, 2008
LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.
Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Josh didn't exist.
Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.
Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.
"The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl's weaknesses," Hernandez said. "Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she's responsible for her actions."
She's denied sending messages
Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.
Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan.
U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case. It has been used in the past to address hacking.
"This was a tragedy that did not have to happen," O'Brien said.
Both the girl and MySpace are named as victims in the case, he said.
MySpace is a subsidiary of Beverly Hills-based Fox Interactive Media Inc., which is owned by News Corp. The indictment noted that MySpace computer servers are located in Los Angeles County.
Due to juvenile privacy rules, the U.S. attorney's office said, the indictment refers to the girl as M.T.M.
FBI agents in St. Louis and Los Angeles investigated the case, Hernandez said.
Each of the four counts carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison. Drew will be arraigned in St. Louis and then moved to Los Angeles for trial.
Citing terms of MySpace service
The indictment says MySpace members agree to abide by terms of service that include, among other things, not promoting information they know to be false or misleading; soliciting personal information from anyone under age 18 and not using information gathered from the Web site to "harass, abuse or harm other people."
Drew and others who were not named conspired to violate the service terms from about September 2006 to mid-October that year, according to the indictment. It alleges they registered as a MySpace member under a phony name and used the account to obtain information on the girl.
Drew and her coconspirators "used the information obtained over the MySpace computer system to torment, harass, humiliate, and embarrass the juvenile MySpace member," the indictment charged.
After the girl killed herself, Drew and the others deleted the information for the account, the indictment said.
Last month, an employee of Drew, 19-year-old Ashley Grills, told ABC's "Good Morning America" she created the false MySpace profile but Drew wrote some of the messages to Megan.
A joke taken too far
Grills said Drew suggested talking to Megan via the Internet to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter, who was a former friend.
TIMELINE: Megan Meier Internet suicide case
Introduction
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri mother for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against 13-year-old Megan, who committed suicide.
September 2006:
Megan, of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., begins communicating online on MySpace with "Josh Evans," who she thinks is a good-looking boy living in her area.
Oct. 15, 2006:
She receives a message from Josh, saying he doesn't want to be her friend anymore.
Oct. 16, 2006:
Megan receives cruel messages through MySpace, including one from "Josh," allegedly telling her the world would be a better place without her. Megan runs upstairs. About 20 minutes later, Megan's mother finds her daughter has hanged herself in her closet.
Oct. 17, 2006:
Megan dies at a hospital, a few weeks before her 14th birthday.
Fall 2006:
Megan's parents learn from a neighbor that Josh was the creation of another neighbor, Lori Drew, her teenage employee Ashley Grills, and Drew's teenage daughter, a former friend of Megan. They are told the MySpace profile was created to see what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter online. Drew, through her attorney, later disputes she helped create the site or knew of mean messages prior to Megan's death.
Fall 2007:
Media accounts of Megan's suicide fuel public outrage in the case.
Dec. 3, 2007:
St. Charles County, Mo., prosecutor Jack Banas says he reviewed laws related to stalking, harassment and child endangerment and couldn't find statutes allowing him to file charges.
May 15, 2008:
A Los Angeles federal grand jury indicts the mother, charging her with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization.
Grills also said she wrote the message to Megan about the world being a better place without her. The message was supposed to end the online relationship with "Josh" because Grills felt the joke had gone too far.
"I was trying to get her angry so she would leave him alone and I could get rid of the whole MySpace," Grills told the morning show.
Megan's death was investigated by Missouri authorities, but no state charges were filed because no laws appeared to apply to the case.
msnbc.msn.com
JohnCenaFan28
05-16-2008, 07:28 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-16-2008, 07:30 PM
Wow... interesting read, thanks.
JohnCenaFan28
05-16-2008, 07:30 PM
OMG, that's an awful sight...
JohnCenaFan28
05-16-2008, 07:32 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-16-2008, 07:33 PM
The war should be ended...:no:
JoshTheKiller
05-16-2008, 07:51 PM
What a fucking doosh..
Edgehead82593
05-17-2008, 05:03 AM
Still wondering why she would commit suicide because some internet asshole said something
Doctors will prescribe cannabis-based drugs to cancer, multiple sclerosis and AIDS patients in a planned NSW Government trial.
NSW Health Minister Reba Meagher will write to Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon in the next few weeks for permission to import and trial a drug expected to be Sativex, which delivers cannabis compounds through an oral spray.
"While the Iemma Government is opposed to the legalisation of marijuana, we do support a therapeutic trial of a cannabis-based drug," a spokeswoman for Ms Meagher said.
"We want the trial to start as soon as possible. However the support of the Rudd Government would be needed to get TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration] approval of the drug for use in the trial. We're hopeful the Government will approve."
The Australian Medical Association welcomed the trial.
"We believe medicinal cannabis may be of benefit in HIV-related wasting and cancer-related wasting," said chairman of the association's public health committee Dr John Gullotta, adding that it might also relieve nausea and vomiting in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
The Cancer Council NSW welcomed the move.
Ms Meagher may also ask for approval for other cannabis-based drugs.
UK company GW Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Sativex, grows cannabis then extracts cannabinoids CBD and THC. "The formulation is believed to enhance the pain relief of THC while modulating the unwanted psychotropic and other THC-related side effects, such as tachycardia [rapid heartbeat]," the company says.
Sun Herald
Rescue workers have plucked more than 60 more survivors from the rubble following Monday's massive earthquake in southwestern China, as a strong new aftershock hit and the death toll rose to almost 30,000.
The United States Geological Survey reported a tremor of 6.1 magnitude early on Sunday centred 80km west of Guangyuan, the latest in a series of aftershocks to hit Sichuan province.
The official Xinhua news agency said there was no immediate word of additional damage or casualties in the area.
In the provincial capital, Chengdu, some 200km south of the new tremor's epicentre, buildings swayed and people rushed out into the streets, risking a soaking from a passing storm.
At least 56 people were rescued in Yingxiu, close to the epicentre of Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake, but around 11,000 people are thought to remain trapped, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Soldiers engaged in relief work "have their hands stained with blood and earth after days of searches in the debris", Xinhua added.
"I was expecting to see my son's body. I never expected to see him alive," it quoted Long Jinyu, the mother of one of the survivors found in the rubble, as saying.
Other people were found alive in Beichuan county, also hard hit by the earthquake, Xinhua said.
Thousands of people have fled in the Beichuan area amid fears a lake could burst its banks, hampering rescue efforts after the deadliest earthquake in more than three decades.
At least one barrier lake, formed after rocks blocked a river, has burst its banks but caused no casualties, Xinhua said.
Rescue work has been complicated by bad weather, treacherous terrain and hundreds of aftershocks.
President Hu Jintao urged emergency workers not to give up efforts to find survivors. "We should put people first and saving people's lives is still the top priority of the relief work," he said.
Hu also praised international help given to China.
"I express heartfelt thanks to the foreign governments and international friends that have contributed to our quake-relief work," Xinhua quoted Hu as saying.
Offers of help have flooded in and rescue teams from Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore have arrived. Donations from home and abroad have topped 6 billion yuan ($NZ1.1 billion).
China has said it expects the final death toll from the earthquake to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes and the days are numbered in which survivors can be found.
Premier Wen said the quake was "the biggest and most destructive" since before the Communist revolution of 1949 and the quick response had helped reduce casualties.
China has sent 150,000 troops to the disaster area, but roads buckled by the quake and blocked by landslides have made it hard for supplies and rescuers to reach the worst-hit areas.
Reuters
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/724310.jpg
ILL: US Senator Ted Kennedy has been hospitalised after suffereing a seizure
US Senator Edward Kennedy, a leading Democrat and patriarch of a prominent American political dynasty, has been hospitalised after suffering a seizure at his Cape Cod vacation home.
Kennedy, 76, was rushed from the family compound at Hyannisport, Massachusetts, to Cape Cod Hospital at 9am Saturday (1pm Sunday NZT), before being airlifted to Boston.
"He is undergoing a battery of tests at Massachusetts General Hospital to determine the cause of the seizure," his office in Washington said in a statement.
"Senator Kennedy is resting comfortably, and it is unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours," it added.
The Boston Globe reported Kennedy, youngest brother of assassinated US President John F Kennedy, suffered one seizure at his Cape Cod home and a second seizure aboard the helicopter transport flight to Boston.
The long-serving Massachusetts senator was joined by family members in Boston including his eldest son, Edward Kennedy Jr, 46, who was at the hospital, a Reuters photographer reported.
Kennedy, the second-longest serving member of the current US Senate, is a leading liberal voice in the United States and has actively campaigned for Barack Obama in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"As I've said many times before, Ted Kennedy is a giant in American political history. He's done more for the health care of others than just about anybody in history," Obama told reporters during a visit to a hospital in Eugene, Oregon.
"We are going to be rooting for him, and I, I insist on being optimistic about how it's going to turn out."
Campaigning in Kentucky, Senator Hillary Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, offered her wishes for the senator's quick recovery.
Kennedy has been a vocal critic of Republican President George W. Bush, particularly on his Iraq war, tax cuts for the wealthy and conservative nominees to the US Supreme Court who he fears will push the high court to the right.
But he also worked closely with Republicans on legislation including Republican presidential candidate John McCain on the controversial immigration issue.
"He is a legendary lawmaker," McCain said in a statement. "When we have worked together, he has been a skilful, fair and generous partner. I consider it a great privilege to call him my friend."
The white-haired senator has had other brushes with ill health. He had preventive surgery at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital in October to unclog a partially blocked carotid artery in his neck.
The blockage was discovered during a routine check of Kennedy's back and spine, doctors said. A blocked carotid artery can lead to a stroke and death, they said at the time.
Kennedy has suffered from back problems since a plane crash in 1964 in which the pilot and one of Kennedy's aides were killed and the senator was pulled from the wreckage with a punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.
Kennedy came to the Senate in November 1962 to fill a seat earlier held by his older brother, then President John Kennedy. He currently serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pensions.
He ran for the presidency in 1980 but lost the Democratic nomination to President Jimmy Carter who failed in his attempt at a second White House term.
He helped win an increase in the national minimum wage this year and worked with Republicans to produce broad immigration reform, which failed in the Senate after stiff opposition from conservative Republicans.
Edward Moore Kennedy is the youngest of four sons and five daughters born to millionaire businessman Joseph Kennedy and his wife Rose.
His oldest brother, Joseph Jr, died as a World War 2 flier when his bomber exploded over the English Channel. John became America's first and so far only Roman Catholic president in 1960 and was assassinated in 1963. Robert was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign.
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-18-2008, 10:17 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-18-2008, 10:17 PM
Interesting news, thanks.
JohnCenaFan28
05-18-2008, 10:18 PM
That's awful...:sad:
Fijian military leader Frank Bainimarama held talks on Monday with former prime minister Laisenia Qarase, the man he forced from office in late 2006.
The 45-minute private meeting was the first between the military premier and Qarase since Bainimarama took power in a bloodless coup.
Qarase, who is facing two sets of charges related to his time in power, said the meeting had been informal and casual, but he refused to comment on what had been said.
"We discussed one or two issues. It was a good meeting. We have agreed to meet again in future to continue dialogue. It is a positive development," Qarase told Fiji media.
The meeting comes as Bainimarama seeks backing from political leaders for a range of political reforms for the country ahead of a return to democracy. He has promised elections for early 2009.
But Qarase's SDL party has so far refused to be involved in the reform discussions or moves to draft a new constitution.
Fiji, an island chain with about 900,000 people, has been hit by four coups and a military mutiny since 1987. The country remains deeply divided between ethnic Fijians, and Fijians of Indian background who make up 38 per cent of the population.
Bainimarama forced Qarase out of office in December 2006, claiming his government was corrupt and too soft on people involved in a coup in 2000.
Qarase has pleaded not guilty to two sets of charges that he acted beyond his powers by ordering public funds to be held in trust, and that he spent public money on personal Christmas gifts.
Reuters
Zimbabwe's opposition has accused the government's military intelligence division of plotting to assassinate party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is due to contest an election run-off with President Robert Mugabe.
Movement for Democratic Change leader Tsvangirai postponed his return to Zimbabwe on Saturday after his party said it had discovered a plot to assassinate him. Tsvangirai had spent more than one month abroad.
"We know there are 18 snipers, and the military intelligence directorate is in charge of this," Tendai Biti, secretary general for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said before a news conference in Nairobi.
Tsvangirai was due to return from Europe on Saturday to campaign ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off, and Biti said he would still return "very soon."
Zimbabweans hope the June poll will help end political and economic turmoil which has brought 165,000 per cent inflation, 80 per cent unemployment, chronic food and fuel shortages and sent a flood of refugees to neighbouring countries.
Tsvangirai won the first round on March 29, but not by enough votes to avoid a second round against Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for nearly three decades.
Reuters
A wave of xenophobic attacks spread through South African townships on Monday and mobs beat foreigners and set some ablaze in scenes reminiscent of apartheid era violence.
Two people were killed and more than two dozen shacks were torched in the Tembisa township near Johannesburg, the South African Broadcasting Corp. said. Police, struggling to restore order, said at least 13 people were killed over the weekend.
Immigrants from African neighbours are accused by many in the townships, among South Africa's poorest areas, of taking jobs and fuelling the high rate of violent crime. Local media report about 20 dead since trouble broke out a week ago.
The unrest is an embarrassment for a country that has vaunted its tolerance since the end of apartheid and an indicator of growing disaffection among South Africa's poor.
President Thabo Mbeki and ruling ANC party leader Jacob Zuma have called for an end to the violence, which threatens a new strain on an economy struggling with rising inflation, power outages and a skills shortage.
Hundreds of immigrants have taken refuge in police stations, churches and government offices.
"At the moment some of the people have been taken to the city hall as a place of safety, but some of them are still running around and do not know where to go," police spokesman Veli Nhlapo told SABC.
Police fired rubber bullets at gangs of youths, who patrolled unruly streets, armed with sticks, rocks and knives. Scores have been arrested in connection with the violence.
South African newspapers carried photos of a man who was set alight by a mob on the weekend. Callers to radio stations urged authorities to impose curfews and bring in the army to restore order in some of the most violent areas.
Among the immigrants are an estimated 3 million Zimbabweans who fled economic collapse at home. The immigrants say they more often the victims of crime than perpetrators.
The Zimbabweans, like others on the continent, have been lured by work in South Africa's mines, farms and homes, and by one of the world's most liberal immigration and refugee policies.
Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said the situation in the townships now amounted to a humanitarian crisis.
Reuters
The Iranian authorities has detained six members of the Baha'i faith, an offshoot of Islam considered heretical by Iran's Shi'ite Muslim establishment, members of the religious group have said.
Five men and one woman were detained on May 14 and taken to Tehran's Evin prison, the Baha'i International Community said on its news website.
A relative of 57-year-old Behrouz Tavakkoli, one of those detained, said in an e-mail that intelligence agents who came to Tavakkoli's house took Baha'i books, papers and documents, and also other items such as computers and CDs.
Subsequently, the relative said Tavakkoli's wife obtained a reference number for her husband's case from Iran's Revolutionary Court, which handles cases that include issues considered a threat to national security.
It was not immediately clear what charges were levelled against the six Baha'is, whose members say they face discrimination and persecution in the Islamic Republic.
In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said any such cases were a judicial matter when asked for details at a news conference. There was no immediate comment from the judiciary.
Baha'is say hundreds of their faith have been jailed and executed since Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. The government denies it has detained or executed people for their faith.
The Baha'i faith originated in Iran 150 years ago and Baha'is say the faith has 5 million adherents worldwide, including an estimated 300,000 or more in Iran.
The Baha'i International Community said the six people detained were members of a committee that tends to the needs of Baha'is in Iran. It said a seventh member, a woman, was detained in March in the eastern city of Mashhad.
Reuters
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/724506.jpg
FLASH HARRY: Police are investigating claims that Prince Harry was involved in a 160kmh car chase on a British motorway.
A convoy taking Prince Harry to a London nightclub was involved in a 160kmh car chase that placed lives at risk, says a motorist who was "intimidated" by one of the cars.
The Daily Mail reports that police were investigating claims that the Prince and his bodyguards took part in the high-speed chase on the way to Boujis nightclub last Saturday.
A company director, Tim Williams, told the paper the lives of his family, which includes an eight-month-old baby, were put at risk by the convoy's driving.
Mr Williams had been driving in the middle lane of the UK's M4 motorway at about 110kmh when he claims he was tailgated by Royal protection officers, who forced him to accelerate to speeds of 160kmh.
"It was about 8pm on Saturday, and we were driving from Marlborough in Wiltshire to London in the middle lane," he told the paper.
"I was about to pull out when I saw an Audi R8 in my mirrors. It came from nowhere. I let it pass. It was going a hell of a speed at least 100mph (160kmh).
"I then pulled into the outside lane. Immediately a Range Rover came right up behind us.
"It was very close. I thought they were going to nudge me. It was frightening. The middle lane was busy so I couldn't pull back in.
"I accelerated because the Range Rover was so close, ridiculously close. I thought perhaps the Range Rover was racing with the Audi. It really did scare us. It was intimidating.
"He then started flashing his lights, obviously wanting me out of the way.
"Then the blue flashing lights came on. I realised it must be an unmarked police car. I couldn't understand why he hadn't had his blue lights on when I first saw him if it was an emergency.
"I had no option but to accelerate, forcing me well over the 70mph limit to speeds I was uncomfortable with.
"As the Range Rover passed, the angry passenger in the front shook his fist and his mobile phone at me. They were doing well over 100mph."
A short while later, Mr Williams caught up with both cars at a traffic light. He saw Prince Harry in the passenger seat of the stationary Audi R8, he said. In the driver's seat was a man wearing a baseball cap speaking into his mobile phone.
Prince Harry tried to hide his identity by putting on sunglasses and placing his hands over his face, he said.
Later in the same evening, the Prince was seen partying at Boujis nightclub in Kensington until 3.30am, the paper said.
"How dare they put the lives of motorists at risk," Mr Williams told the paper.
"They intimidated me and my family. It was really dangerous and I'm furious that they think they can drive like this just because of who they are.
"Surely if the police have to tail Prince Harry, then that's all the more reason for his mate to drive slowly, or at least within the speed limit."
It was not clear who owned the Audi, but the Royal Family enjoyed a special deal with the car-maker, the Daily Mail reported.
Prince Charles has an Audi A8 limousine and two Audi estate cars, Prince William has an Audi S4 V8 saloon and Harry has an Audi A3 turbo-diesel, the paper said.
Thames Valley Police confirmed it had received a complaint from Mr Williams which had been passed to Scotland Yard, the paper said.
SMH
JohnCenaFan28
05-20-2008, 12:11 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-20-2008, 12:14 AM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-20-2008, 12:15 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-20-2008, 12:16 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-20-2008, 12:16 AM
Thanks for the story.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/724837.jpg
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED: Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been made an honorary member of the Crow Nation and given the name Barak Black Eagle.
Democrat Barack Obama became an honorary member of an American Indian tribe and promised a proactive policy to help tribal people if he wins the White House in November.
The Illinois senator who is leading rival Hillary Clinton in their race for the party's presidential nomination, joined the Crow Nation, a tribe of some 12,100 members in Montana, taking on a native name and honorary parents in a traditional ceremony.
Obama, who would be the first black US president, was "adopted" by Hartford and Mary Black Eagle and given a name which means "one who helps all people of this land."
"I was just adopted into the tribe, so I'm still working on my pronunciation," Obama told a crowd after stumbling over some of the native names.
"I like my new name, Barack Black Eagle," he said. "That is a good name."
Many in the audience wore traditional feather headdresses and some banged drums ahead of Obama's visit, the first by a presidential candidate to the Crow Nation.
Obama held rallies throughout Montana, which holds its primary election on June 3.
The state is home to some 60,000 American Indians, making them a key swing vote, according to Dale Old Horn, 62, a spokesman for the Crow Nation.
Obama said he would appoint a Native American adviser to his senior White House staff if he wins and would work on providing better health care and education to reservations across the country.
"Few have been ignored by Washington for as long as Native Americans, the first Americans," Obama said.
Old Horn said the tribal members related to Obama because of his background.
"His heritage of being poor, of being an outsider, you know those two things are the commonalities that he has with us," he said. "We've always been treated like outsiders when it comes to government policy. In addition to that, we all grew up poor.
Reuters
An angry Duchess of York has slammed sections of the British media for criticising her daughter Beatrice's body shape, describing some comments as "extremely rude".
The 19-year-old princess was photographed in a bikini during a Caribbean holiday earlier this year.
One commentator in the Daily Mail said: "Can't someone buy that girl a sarong?"
Sarah Ferguson has told BBC Radio that the critical comments are potentially damaging.
"The press has been absolutely outrageous, and really being very mean about the size of her figure, calling her such horrible names," she said.
"I just think they ought to take more responsibility.
"I think her (Beatrice's) comment was, 'Will they be happy if I get anorexia because then they could write about that, wouldn't they?"'
The Duchess said Beatrice was a regular size 10 and fit and healthy.
"I understand freedom of the press but what I don't understand is when it takes a regular, completely healthy girl and tries to completely obliterate her confidence and I think they ought to be accountable."
Reuters
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FACE THE NATION: Elisabeth Fritzl is set to appear on Austrian television to reveal details of her imprisonment at the hands of her father.
The Austrian incest victim Elisabeth Fritzl is to emerge from the shadows of her cellar nightmare to give a world exclusive interview to a television station next week.
Ms Fritzl, 42, has reportedly chosen the same channel and the same interviewer who coaxed a previous Austrian dungeon captive, Natascha Kampusch, to tell her story.
Ms Kampusch, now 20, broke free from an 8½-year hell in August 2006 and told the world of her ordeal on ORF TV. Austrian media say Ms Fritzl is prepared to do the same after marathon negotiations between the television station and her lawyer.
Like Ms Kampusch, Ms Fritzl will reportedly receive no money for her appearance but could make millions of dollars in syndicated rights as upwards of 300 TV stations around the world will pay handsomely to broadcast the program live, or gain the resale rights.
Media in Austria said none of her children - neither the three who lived upstairs with their grandparents, nor the three children forced to endure her captivity - will be in the studio with her.
Ms Fritzl is expected to talk about the first time she was raped by her father, Josef, 73; how she coped with giving birth in the squalid, damp cellar; what she felt when her stillborn child was cremated in a stove by her father; how she thought she would never see sunlight again, and her hopes for a more normal future with the children who adore her.
The interview has been organised in part to reduce the pressure on the family by media camped at the hospital door.
There is increasing tension between authorities and paparazzi who know that a picture of Ms Fritzl or her children would be worth a fortune. Already a security guard at the hospital has been injured after he fell from a balcony while tackling a photographer.
Hospital officials confirmed that 17 photographers have been caught trying to get into the Amstetten Mauer hospital. One photographer was disguised as a policeman; another pretended to be a birdwatcher.
Austrian media also reported on Sunday that a hospital worker had taken secret photographs of the family and was offering them for sale for €300,000 ($NZ603,000).
Officials have sent a letter to staff warning them that there will be legal consequences and a claim for damages that would "far exceed any profit made from the sale of such photos".
Seven members of the Fritzl family are staying at the clinic, including Ms Fritzl and two of her children from the cellar, Stefan, 18, and Felix, 6, and her three children that lived in freedom - Alexander 12, Monika, 14, and Lisa, 15.
Her mother, Rosemarie, is also in the hospital. Another daughter, Kerstin, 19, the third cellar captive, is still in a coma in hospital.
ORF TV will not deny or confirm the interview, saying only that it has been in "strong negotiations" with Ms Fritzl's lawyer. It is understood that the family thought that the first interview should go to a domestic television station.
According to media reports it is scheduled to be screened next Monday night.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Josef Fritzl is to undergo new DNA testing to see if he is the killer of three women whose murders - in 1966, 1986 and last year - have gone unsolved in Austria.
"Is Austria the heart of darkness?" a newspaper headline asked on Sunday.
Reuters
Security will be stepped up at the Australian High Commission in Fiji and families will be brought home following serious threats to the diplomatic mission, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.
The decision had been made following Fiji's refusal to allow greater protection for Australia's High Commissioner to Fiji, James Batley, who had received two death threats, Mr Smith told reporters in Canberra today.
"A number of additional steps will now be taken, by the high commission itself, to further strengthen the security of our staff, their families and our premises," Mr Smith said.
"The government has decided to offer spouses, partners and dependent children of high commission staff in Suva the option of `voluntary return' to Australia, with reasonable costs met by the Australian government in the usual way.
"Families may choose to stay. It will be entirely a matter for them."
Mr Smith said it was regrettable that Fiji's interim government had advised it was not prepared to agree to close personal protection for Mr Batley.
"As of this morning, I'm still awaiting a response on additional Fiji police measures," he said.
"As a consequence of the refusal to date of the interim Fiji government to agree to close personal protection provided by Australian Federal Police, and to date a failure to respond to further requests for Fiji police assistance, the Australian government has today decided to allow the families of Australian officials in our commission in Fiji to voluntarily return to Australia if that is their wish."
AAP
JohnCenaFan28
05-20-2008, 10:27 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-20-2008, 10:29 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-20-2008, 10:30 PM
Interesting read, thanks.
JohnCenaFan28
05-20-2008, 10:36 PM
Thanks for the news.
Democrat Barack Obama won a US presidential nominating contest in Oregon, NBC News projected, while rival Hillary Clinton cruised to a rout of the front-runner in Kentucky.
The results gave Obama a majority of pledged delegates won in the lengthy state-by-state nominating fight with Clinton.
He hopes that milestone marks the beginning of the end of their gruelling Democratic race for the right to face Republican John McCain in November's election.
"We have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States," Obama told supporters in Iowa, site of his breakthrough win in the first Democratic contest on January 3.
At a rally outside the Iowa state capitol in Des Moines, the Illinois senator turned his attention to a showdown with McCain and said their November battle would represent "more of the same versus change. It is the past versus the future."
But Clinton gave no sign of surrender, promising supporters in Kentucky that she would keep fighting until the Democratic voting ends on June 3.
"I'm going to keep making our case until we have a nominee - whoever she may be," said Clinton, who has shrugged off calls to drop out of the race for weeks.
"We have to select a nominee who is best positioned to win in November and someone who is best prepared to address the enormous challenges in these difficult times," the New York senator and former first lady told supporters in Louisville.
Even with Tuesday's results, Obama will still be about 50 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to win the nomination at the Democratic convention in August. But he hopes the milestone will start more undecided superdelegates - party officials who can back any candidate - flooding his way.
He contends those superdelegates, who have been breaking his way heavily in recent weeks, should support him because he won the most delegates in state voting.
Clinton says they should reconsider because she would be a stronger opponent for McCain, an Arizona senator. Her victories in big states like Pennsylvania and Ohio gave her a broader base of support than Obama, she said.
Reuters
French police have arrested the top military commander of Basque separatist group ETA in southwest France, Spanish state television reported.
It said Francisco Javier Lopez Pena and three other ETA members were arrested in a raid in the French city of Bordeaux.
ETA has killed more than 800 people in four decades in its fight for independence for the Basque Country in northern Spain and southern France.
Polls show most Basques do not seem to want independence, although the leader of Spain's Basque regional government Juan Jose Ibarretxe is defying the Spanish government with plans to hold a referendum on whether to begin a debate on ties with Spain.
More than 750 suspected ETA members have been arrested since 2000, and the group is believed to have been seriously weakened
Reuters
Former NSW Labour minister Milton Orkopoulos, convicted of child sex and drug offences, has been sentenced to at least nine years and three months in jail by a Newcastle court.
Orkopoulos, 50, was found guilty by a jury in March of 28 offences, and pleaded guilty to two other charges at the outset of his trial.
In the Newcastle District Court today, Judge Ralph Coolahan set a maximum jail term of 13 years and 11 months for the former Aboriginal affairs minister.
Judge Coolahan spent more than an hour detailing the former MP's crimes which date between 1995 and 2006 and involved the grooming of three young boys with drugs and alcohol in exchange for sex.
He said Orkopoulos used his position of authority and power to win the trust of his victims and introduced one to heroin, an act which he described as "a very serious offence".
"His conduct was premeditated, predatory and manipulative with far reaching impacts," Judge Coolahan told the court.
The only time Orkopoulos displayed any emotion during the hearing was when the judge mentioned the ongoing support he had received from his mother, sister and former parliamentary colleague Jan Burnswoods.
All three of his victims, who were present in court with family and friends, simply stared at Orkopoulos as the sentence was passed.
Outside court, his second victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said today represented a new beginning.
He condemned Orkopoulos as "gutless", and said he hoped he would suffer.
"Justice has been served," he told reporters.
"It's taken away so much of my life, and I want to make up for the last 10 years I have lost."
He said he was not surprised Orkopoulos only showed emotion when his own family was mentioned, saying: "That's just the sort of person he is."
The man said he supported a fundraising push by some Labor MPs hoping to raise money for Orkopoulos' wife Kathy and daughter Anastasia.
"His wife has probably suffered," he said, but broke down when asked if he believed the Labor Party had tried to protect Orkopoulos.
The third victim, Ben Blackburn, who was 16 when he was first indecently assaulted by Orkopoulos, said he was extremely relieved by the sentence.
"It's been a long road but we got justice in the end," he said, as his mother sobbed beside him.
"Obviously it is not something that is going to go away. It is always going to be with me." Orkopoulos' lawyer, John Fitzgerald, said he had since the sentencing visited his client, who was yet to consider whether he would appeal against the sentence.
"He has asked me to seek advice on his options," Mr Fitzgerald said.
"They are matters that I shall discuss with him.
"He's asked for some time to digest what's been handed down."
Hetty Johnston, executive director of the child sex abuse support organisation, Bravehearts, for whom Mr Blackburn now works, said they were satisfied with the sentence.
"(This sends a message to pedophiles that) You are going to get caught and when you get caught, justice is going to come down on you," she told reporters.
She supported fundraising for the Orkopoulos family, but said his victim's should not be forgotten.
"I think his wife and his children can't be held responsible for what he has done," she said.
AAP
The United States warned Pakistan against negotiating an agreement with militants along its border with Afghanistan, saying a deal might allow them to plot attacks in Pakistan and abroad.
The Bush administration is worried such an agreement, if pursued by Pakistan's newly elected government, would give the militants a free hand in Pakistan's tribal areas, which have long operated outside the central government's full control.
Al Qaeda members as well as Taliban militants are believed to have taken refuge in North and South Waziristan - part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) - after US-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden masterminded the September 11 attacks from Afghanistan, where he was sheltered by the Taliban regime, and he is believed to be hiding somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Speaking at a congressional hearing, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte voiced the US government's misgivings about the possibility of Pakistan striking agreements with tribal militants.
A previous deal reached by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in 2006 was abandoned. Musharraf's allies lost February parliamentary elections, bringing a new coalition government to power.
"Are we concerned about the possibility of negotiations between the government or elements of the government and these extremist groups up there ... yes," Negroponte said.
Fiercely independent tribes have fought against outside interference for centuries. They were never fully under the control of British authorities during colonial rule or Pakistani authorities since independence in 1947.
"I hope that they proceed cautiously and not accept an outcome that would give extremist elements the right, or the ability, to use the FATA area with impunity to carry out attacks on Pakistan and carry out attacks on Afghanistan or the United States or the rest of the world," Negroponte said.
"There is a lot at stake here and we have made that point repeatedly," he said, saying some Pakistanis believe it is worth trying negotiations "before one has to resort to more vigorous security measures."
"I think the response to that is that approach was tried before ... and it turned out not to work," he added.
Reuters
Black Widow
05-21-2008, 01:38 PM
A police car that killed a 16-year-old girl was travelling at "about 100mph", according to a crash witness.
Hayley Adamson died in hospital after she was hit crossing the road in Newcastle late on Monday, the day before she was due to sit her GCSE English exam.
Angry witnesses confronted police and threw bricks at them in the moments after the crash.
A man - named in reports as Hayley's boyfriend, 23-year-old George Oliver - was shot with a police taser stun gun as tempers flared.
Several arrests for violent disorder were made after the crash, which happened as the car responded to a call.
Witnesses say the Volvo T5 car was being driven at 100 mph and did not have its sirens or blue lights activated.
An investigation has been launched by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
The teenager was walking with friends - including David Forrest - when she was hit.
He said: "Hayley was right behind me in the group, but when I crossed the road and reached the other side I heard an almighty bang.
"I turned round and a police car had hit Hayley and thrown her about 50ft down the road."
Chris Broatch, 23, saw the crash from his home.
He said the police car was travelling at "about 100mph - that fast" when it hit Hayley.
"He had the headlights on but no blue lights or a siren."
Chief Supt Paul Weir, from Northumbria Police, said: "Emotions are running high that is understandable.
"There was a number of arrests made for violence and disorder immediately following the incident.
"People were distressed and some people were throwing bricks."
Gary Garland, IPCC Commissioner for the North East, said: "It is unclear at this stage whether the car's emergency warning equipment was activated.
"Following the collision there was an incident involving a member of the public at the scene which culminated in a police officer discharging a Taser stun gun.
"The IPCC will also examine the circumstances involving this incident."
The driver has been suspended from operational duty.
Tributes have poured in for "happy, popular and fun-loving" Hayley, who was about to sit her GCSEs.
sky news
JohnCenaFan28
05-22-2008, 04:08 AM
Wow, look at what the people who are supposed to be keeping us safe do...:no:
JohnCenaFan28
05-22-2008, 04:13 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-22-2008, 04:14 AM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-22-2008, 04:16 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-22-2008, 04:17 AM
Thanks for the story.
Several thousand foreigners have fled South Africa after days of violent attacks by angry mobs.
Mozambique is laying on special buses, which have taken some 9,000 people home this week, an official said.
Some Zimbabweans are also going home, preferring to risk the violence there than stay in South Africa.
At least 42 people have been killed and some 15,000 have sought shelter from the mobs, who blame foreigners for high crime and unemployment.
The army is to be deployed in South Africa to contain the violence - for the first time since the end of apartheid.
But police in Johannesburg, where most of the attacks have taken place, say the situation is now much quieter than in recent days.
The police have used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowds.
Chaotic scenes
"I am just scared for my life," Henry, a 24-year-old Zimbabwean, told the BBC as he prepared to board a bus taking him home.
"I have a little girl at home - I want to see her grow up," he said after seeing a man shot dead at the weekend.
"I think Zimbabwe is safe."
Some three million Zimbabweans are believed to be in South Africa, fleeing poverty and violence at home.
The BBC's Karen Allen saw chaotic scenes and scuffles at a Johannesburg police station, as Mozambicans tried to scramble on board buses to take them home.
She says that those who could not get places spent the night in waste ground outside the police station, during the southern hemisphere winter.
Many had been beaten and had their property stolen.
Leonardo Boby, Deputy National Director of Migration, said that about 3,000 people had returned to Mozambique each day this week so far.
"We are having hectic moments with the return of these people," he said.
At least eight of those killed are thought to be from Mozambique.
Tavern attacked
The violence also spread to the port city of Durban on Tuesday, where some 700 African migrants sought refuge in a church.
"A mob of plus/minus 200 were gathering on the streets carrying bottles and knobkerries [wooden clubs] busy attacking people on the streets," provincial police spokeswoman Superintendent Phindile Radebe told AFP news agency.
"They attacked one of the taverns there believed to be owned by Nigerians," she said.
The attacks on foreigners began a week ago in the township of Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, before spreading to the city centre and across the Gauteng region.
Mobs have been roaming townships looking for foreigners, many of whom have sought refuge in police stations, churches and community halls.
BBC
French workers at the national rail company, SNCF, have begun strike action against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to reform public-sector pensions.
Workers from other sectors are expected to join them early on Thursday in a one-day protest to pressure Mr Sarkozy to reverse his economic reforms.
Bus drivers nationwide were expected to strike, air service may be disrupted and about 50% of trains are to be cut.
The strikes follow protests by fishermen that blocked French ports.
High-speed international trains between Paris, London and Brussels were not expected to be affected by the SNCF workers' action.
The transport workers are due to be joined by postal, utility and other public sector workers across France.
Job cuts
The walkouts are not expected to cause the widespread travel chaos of last November when transport workers staged a nine-day strike against Mr Sarkozy's plan to scrap their special pension rights.
The government and the unions negotiated an end to the strikes but now workers are upset over plans to make them stay on the job one year longer - for 41 years - before receiving a full state pension.
Unions are also upset over government plans to cut the numbers of public sector workers.
Teachers and students have staged a number of strikes and protests over the plans which would see retiring teachers not replaced.
Unions are hoping that a head of steam is building up against Mr Sarkozy's economic reform plans, says BBC correspondent Hugh Schofield in Paris.
But the president has so far made the calculation that most people accept the changes that he has promised, and there is no sign of him backing down, says our correspondent.
Mr Sarkozy says the reforms are needed to restore France's economic vitality.
Ports blockaded
A separate dispute was apparently settled on Wednesday when the French government increased its offer to the fishing industry after days of protests over rising fuel costs.
The fishermen said they were not being adequately compensated to cover their increased costs.
On Wednesday, protesters clashed with police outside the agriculture ministry in central Paris.
Ferry traffic with the UK ground to a halt as fishing fleets blockaded several French ports, causing traffic to back up on English roads to busy ports such as Dover.
The French government offered to accelerate a previous aid deal, paying the fishermen 310m euros (£248m) over two years instead of three.
Pierre-Georges Dachicourt, president of the national fishing committee called on "all fishing crews to return to the sea," but it was not clear whether fishermen would be satisfied enough to end their stoppage.
And the trouble at the ports may be worsened by a dock workers' plan to strike on Thursday against privatisation.
BBC
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/7853/44679016iraqbaiji0508na0.gif
Eight civilians have been killed in an air strike by US military helicopters north of Baghdad, Iraqi police say.
Two children were among those who died in the attack on Wednesday evening near the town of Baiji, the police said.
Baiji's police chief said the attack targeted a group of shepherds in a farming area. The US military said the incident was under investigation.
In other violence, an Iraqi TV cameraman is reported to have been shot dead in crossfire in Baghdad.
'Tense relations'
A US military spokesman, Lt Col Maura Gillen, said one of its helicopters fired in the Baiji area after noting "suspicious activity", and she said people travelling in a car had ignored warnings to stop their vehicle.
Locals said some of those killed had been people running away on foot after the US forces entered the area.
A local man, Ghafil Rashed, told Reuters that his brother and son had been killed in the attack: "The Americans raided our houses... People started fleeing with their children, then the aircraft started bombing people in a street along the farm."
Baiji's police chief, Col Mudher Qaisi, told Reuters news agency that the attack was a criminal act, and would make relations between Iraqi citizens and the US forces tense.
"This will negatively affect security improvements," he said.
In a press statement, the US military said it regretted the loss of innocent civilian lives.
In a separate development the Iraqi satellite television channel, Afaq TV, said one of its cameramen, Wissam Ali Auda, had been shot dead in sniper fire in the Obeidi district of Baghdad.
BBC
Eleven elderly people accused of being witches have been burned to death by a mob in the west of Kenya, police say.
A security operation has been launched to hunt down villagers suspected of killing them in Kisii District.
The BBC's Muliro Telewa in the region says the gang had a list of the victims and picked them out individually.
The area has witnessed similar attacks in the past when people suspected of engaging in witchcraft have been killed or ostracised.
But our reporter says that this is a surprisingly large number of people to be attacked at the same time.
'Witches meeting'
Anthony Kibunguchy, the provincial police officer, told the BBC that the eight women and three men were all aged between 80 and 96 years old.
The mob dragged them out of their houses and burned them individually and then set their homes alight, our correspondent says.
Residents have been ambivalent about condemning the attacks because belief in witchcraft is widespread in the area, he says.
But local official Mwangi Ngunyi spoke out against the murders.
"People must not take the law into their own hands simply because they suspect someone," he told AFP news agency.
Villagers told reporters that they had evidence that the victims were witches.
They say they found an exercise book at a local primary school that contained the minutes of a "witches' meeting" which detailed who was going to be bewitched next.
The victim's families have gone into hiding, fearing for their lives.
BBC
JohnCenaFan28
05-22-2008, 10:15 PM
That's awful news, there's no such thing as "real" witches.
JohnCenaFan28
05-22-2008, 10:17 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-22-2008, 10:18 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-22-2008, 10:18 PM
Thanks for the news.
A Melbourne teacher who had sex with a 15-year-old student who sent him flirtatious text messages has been jailed for 18 months.
David Barry Quinn, 33, had sex with the student four times, including on one occasion when he picked up the student from her home in the middle of the night and took her to the Dandenong Ranges.
He pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to four counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16.
In sentencing Quinn, Judge Frances Millane noted he twice denied the relationship when confronted by the school principal.
She said he had committed a "gross breach of trust", although it was clear the victim was a willing participant.
Quinn was sentenced to a total of two years and 10 months in prison, with one year and four months suspended.
Reuters
Britain's opposition Conservative Party has gained a mid-term parliamentary seat from the ruling Labour Party, a new setback to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's fading political fortunes.
The Conservatives' win in the northern town of Crewe was the party's first gain from Labour in a mid-term election since 1978, the year before Margaret Thatcher seized victory and condemned the party to 18 years in the political wilderness.
The election, triggered by the death of the constituency's Labour member of parliament, is being closely watched as an indicator of Brown's diminishing appeal 11 months after he took over as prime minister from Tony Blair.
Brown's popularity ratings have collapsed since October after he backed away from calling an early election.
Some Labour members are asking whether he is the best man to lead them into a parliamentary election due by 2010.
The Conservatives believe victory in this Labour heartland would signal that the political wind has turned in their favour, putting them on track to unseat Brown.
More recently, Labour suffered a drubbing in May 1 local council elections and is struggling to restore public confidence after a botched tax reform left many of the poorest worse off.
Rising living costs and anxiety over a potential housing market slump have added to the government's woes.
Lifelong Labour voters on the streets of Crewe and the neighbouring market town of Nantwich on Thursday blamed Labour for the rising cost of living and said they had had enough.
While the election was for a single parliamentary seat, voters were aware of its significance for the national picture.
"I think Labour had lost it before this," said taxi driver Terry Clorley, 63, referring to the next general poll. Clorley said he voted Conservative for the first time on Thursday.
"They must know the writing is on the wall," said 60-year-old Patrick Sutton, also a lifelong Labour supporter who switched to Conservative candidate Edward Simpson.
Brown could now face a renewed backlash from members of his Labour Party who already doubt his ability to win.
The single-seat election was triggered by the death of Labour incumbent Gwyneth Dunwoody, who held it for 34 years. Her daughter Tamsin, a 49-year-old single mother, ran for Labour.
Voters said the rising cost of food and fuel, the government's mishandling of tax reform and a negative campaign run by Labour had prompted the move to the Conservatives.
Analysts will now probe the numbers to see how big the swing was from Labour to the Conservatives and what that means for a future national election.
Reuters
"Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe has begun a legal challenge to win freedom, on the grounds that the government failed to set the exact length of his sentence.
Sutcliffe, 61, was jailed for life in 1981 for the murders of 13 women over five years in one of Britain's most notorious criminal cases.
His London law firm Bindmans said the state has a legal obligation to set a tariff, the minimum term that life sentence prisoners must serve before becoming eligible for parole.
"Any prisoner is entitled to have a tariff set within a reasonable time of conviction which will set out the minimum term of imprisonment to be served," it said in a statement.
Media reports said Sutcliffe wants to be moved back into the prison system from the Broadmoor secure hospital in Berkshire, where he has been treated for mental illness.
If he is returned to prison, his condition would be reassessed and the length of his sentence formally laid down, the BBC said.
His solicitor Saimo Chahal and barrister Paul Bowen would make no comment beyond their prepared statement.
It said an unnamed court was due to consider the case of "Peter Coonan", the name Sutcliffe now uses, under the terms of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
The court will set a tariff in due course, the statement added, without giving further details.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We do not comment on individuals. Sentencing is a matter for the courts."
A Home Office spokeswoman declined to comment.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told the BBC News website: "Top of my list of priorities, I have to say, is not Peter Sutcliffe's rights, it's the rights of those people who were his victims, and how we keep this country safe." Sutcliffe preyed on lone women, some of them prostitutes, in Bradford and Leeds in a five-year reign of terror.
He gained the name the Yorkshire Ripper because of the way he mutilated his victims after murdering them, as did the original Jack the Ripper in east London 120 years ago.
Reuters
Republican John McCain has taken aim at presidential rival Barack Obama's lack of military service, drawing a rebuke from the Democratic front-runner for his "endless diatribes and schoolyard taunts".
McCain's opposition to Senate legislation that would expand educational benefits for military veterans ignited a heated crossfire between the two White House contenders as they gear up for November's presidential election campaign.
McCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam, reacted sharply after Obama criticised him for opposing the legislation. The Arizona senator did not return to the Senate to vote on the measure, which passed easily.
"I take a backseat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans," McCain said. "And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did."
Obama, an Illinois senator who did not serve in the military, said he was proud to "give our veterans the support and opportunity they deserve" by voting for the bill. He said in a statement he was disappointed by McCain's attack.
"These endless diatribes and schoolyard taunts from the McCain campaign do nothing to advance the debate about what matters to the American people," Obama said.
The blistering exchange came as both candidates turn their attention to a likely match-up in November's presidential election. McCain has clinched the Republican nomination, and Obama has moved within reach of the Democratic nomination.
Obama's remaining rival, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, has promised to stay in the race despite his nearly unassailable lead in delegates who will select the Democratic nominee at the August convention.
The legislation that sparked the exchange was sponsored by Virginia Democratic Senator James Webb and Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, both military veterans.
McCain and the Bush administration said it was so generous it could encourage veterans to leave the military after one term to take advantage of the increased college benefits.
In his Senate speech, Obama said he respected McCain's military service "but I can't understand why he would line up behind the president in opposition."
McCain, who has stepped up his criticism of Obama but had not previously mentioned his lack of military service, said Obama had no right to criticise him on the issue.
"It is typical, but no less offensive, that Senator Obama uses the Senate floor to take cheap shots at an opponent and easy advantage of an issue he has less than zero understanding of," McCain said.
The exchange came as McCain campaigned in California, where he rejected the endorsement of a Texas preacher after the pastor was discovered to have made derogatory comments about Jews.
"Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them," McCain said of the remarks by John Hagee. "I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well."
McCain's statement came after The Huffington Post website reported on a late 1990s sermon Hagee gave in which he quoted from the Bible to make the argument that God's will had its influence on Nazism.
"'And they the hunters should hunt them,' that will be the Jews. `From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.' If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the Holocaust, you can't see that," Hagee had said.
McCain previously had distanced himself from Hagee, founder of Cornerstone Church of San Antonio, Texas, but still accepted his endorsement because of Hagee's influence with evangelical Christians.
McCain, 71, plans to show a small group of reporters his medical records on Friday before he enjoys the Memorial Day holiday weekend at his Arizona vacation house with three potential vice-presidential candidates – Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
Obama also has begun thinking about his potential vice-presidential choice, asking Jim Johnson, the former chief executive of government mortgage giant Fannie Mae, to begin the search, TheAtlantic.com reported.
Johnson performed a similar role for Democratic candidates John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984.
McCain campaigned on Thursday in California's Silicon Valley, attending an economic discussion with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and local business leaders.
Reuters
The master of the Pasha Bulker was largely to blame for the bulk carrier running aground on a Newcastle beach, an Australian investigation has found.
The 225-metre coal carrier became an instant tourist attraction when it became wedged on a sandbar off Nobbys Beach during wild storms on June 8 last year.
It remained stranded just metres from the shoreline for 25 days while a massive salvage operation was planned and executed.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau today released its final report into the incident, which found the ship's master did not appropriately ballast the ship and did not weigh anchor until it was dragged in severe weather.
"The unwise decision not to ballast the ship for heavy weather and remain at anchor were the result of his inadequate knowledge of issues related to ballast, anchor-holding power and local weather," the report said.
The Pasha Bulker's safety management system did not give the master guidance about safely putting to sea in poor weather.
The report, which makes 11 recommendations, also found the queue of 57 ships off Newcastle at the time of the incident increased the risks of collision and grounding.
Reuters
A new chapter in Mars exploration opens on Sunday when a small robotic probe jets down to the planet's arctic circle to learn if ice beneath its surface ever had the right chemistry to support life.
NASA approved the mission, known as Phoenix, after the Mars orbiter Odyssey found ice surrounding the polar caps in 2002. Five probes landed near Mars' equatorial zones, including the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which discovered signs of past surface water. Odyssey found no sign of buried ice around Mars' equator.
"We're going way to the north," said Peter Smith, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson who heads the Phoenix science team.
On Earth, the arctic regions hold the history of the planet's climate changes, which are locked layer by layer into the ice core.
"This is where the history of life is preserved in its purest form – organic molecules and cellular bacterial microbes and so forth," Smith said.
"We're wondering if this is true on Mars," he said.
Phoenix is not going to search for life directly, but it should be able to determine if the Martian ice was ever liquid. Liquid water is believed to be an essential ingredient for life to exist.
Among Phoenix's science instruments are small ovens to vaporise and chemically analyse the Martian ice, revealing, some of the processes the molecules underwent before reaching their present condition. Other sensors will study minerals in the soil and ice and image the shape and structure of individual grains in the soil.
"We're really trying to understand if the ice has ever melted, because it's liquid water that is required for a habitable zone," Smith said.
"We'll leave future missions the task of figuring out who's living there," he added.
The US space agency faces a formidable obstacle before its new round of Mars studies can begin.
Phoenix has to land in a process that requires it to slow itself from 19,000kph to zero in seven minutes.
"This will be a very nail-biting time for us," said Fuk Li, the Mars Exploration programme manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which oversees Phoenix.
From 274 millionkm away, flight controllers will only be able to watch and wait to learn Phoenix's fate. Radio signals from Mars travelling at the speed of light take 15 minutes to reach Earth, so by the time flight controllers learn that the probe has begun its descent it already should have landed.
Finally, Phoenix has to unfurl its solar power panels to begin collecting energy from the Sun. Otherwise its batteries will last just 31 hours.
"All of these events have to occur exactly as planned," said project manager Barry Goldstein. "The team is very confident in that we've done everything we can."
Reuters
Violence that followed Zimbabwe's disputed March elections has started to decline throughout the country, acting Attorney General Bharat Patel was quoted as saying by state media.
"From the feedback received by the Attorney General's office, it would appear that the scale and occurrence of public violence has begun to abate throughout the country," Patel said in a report published by the Herald newspaper.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says 43 of its supporters have been killed by militias loyal to President Robert Mugabe since the March 29 elections.
It says the violence is intended to help rig a June 27 run-off presidential vote pitting Mugabe against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The government has blamed the opposition for the violence.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the MDC are expected to hold talks on Friday in a multi-party committee facilitated by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission as part of preparations for the presidential run-off.
The first talks under the liaison committee will discuss problems encountered by the parties so far in their campaigns for the run-off, officials say.
Tsvangirai is due to return home on Saturday for the first time since April 8. His return was postponed last weekend after the MDC said it had learnt he was the target of a military intelligence assassination plot.
According to official results, which did not emerge for five weeks after the March 29 election, Tsvangirai beat Mugabe but fell short of the absolute majority needed for outright victory.
Zimbabweans hope the run-off will start recovery from an economic collapse that has brought 165,000 per cent inflation, 80 per cent unemployment, chronic food and fuel shortages and has sent millions fleeing to nearby countries.
The MDC has vowed to "bury" Mugabe in the run-off, ending his uninterrupted rule since independence from Britain in 1980.
Reuters
Anti-immigrant violence has spread to South Africa's second largest city, Cape Town, where mobs attacked Somalis and Zimbabweans and looted their homes and shops, police have said.
Hundreds of African migrants were evacuated overnight from a squatter camp near Cape Town, the hub of South Africa's prized tourism industry. Somali-owned shops also were looted in Knysna, a resort town on the southwestern coast.
"We don't know the exact number of shops looted and burnt, but it's a lot," said Billy Jones, senior superintendent with the Western Cape provincial police.
He added that one Somali died overnight but it was unclear whether the death was linked to the attacks.
At least 42 people have been killed and more than 25,000 driven from their homes in 12 days of attacks by mobs that accuse African migrants of taking jobs and fuelling crime. More than 500 people have been arrested.
The unrest began in Johannesburg area townships but has spread to other provinces. Authorities warned more attacks were expected over the weekend and said they would seek additional assistance from the military if necessary.
Troops have joined police in operations in Johannesburg's seething shantytowns. President Thabo Mbeki approved army intervention to quell unrest that has threatened to destabilise Africa's largest economy.
The South African currency fell sharply earlier this week on the back of the violence. The rand was slightly firmer on Friday at 7.63 to the US dollar.
The violence comes amid power shortages and growing disaffection over Mbeki's pro-business policies. Soaring food and fuel prices helped push tensions between poor South Africans and immigrants to a breaking point. The attacks have also sent a chill through the business community.
Officials in the tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy, are worried overseas visitors will avoid the country. A number of Western governments have issued travel warnings for South Africa, and tour companies report rising cancellations.
Nearly one million South Africans earn their living from tourism, which accounts for 8 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. The country is hoping to draw an additional half a million tourists for the 2010 soccer World Cup.
South Africa had attracted millions of African immigrants with the prospect of work in its booming economy and an immigration and asylum policy that was considered one of the most liberal in the world. That reputation is now in tatters.
Thousands of African migrants have chosen to return home.
Mozambique said more than 10,000 migrants and their families had left South Africa since the violence broke out, and officials in the Portuguese-speaking southern African nation expected the number to swell in the coming days.
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday that officials in his Movement for Democratic Change would help arrange transportation for refugees who wanted to go home to Zimbabwe, which is mired in a deep economic crisis.
Tsvangirai is trying to unseat President Robert Mugabe in a June 27 presidential run-off vote.
There are an estimated three million Zimbabweans in South Africa, making them the biggest immigrant group.
Some Zimbabweans are willing to go home despite Zimbabwe's hyperinflation, shortages of food, and an upsurge in political violence since disputed elections almost two months ago.
Others, however, are waiting it out in overcrowded shelters.
Bishop Paul Verryn of the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, where many Zimbabweans have fled, said tensions were high among refugees, who still feared further attacks.
"One senses a profound anxiety and fear," Verryn told the South African Broadcasting Corp.
Reuters
Democrat Barack Obama has accused rival Hillary Clinton of "stirring up" a controversy over the disqualified Florida primary election because it was her last hope of winning their party's presidential nomination.
Obama, an Illinois senator, is leading Clinton, a New York senator, in delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination to face Republican John McCain in the November election. The delegates are awarded in state nominating contests that kicked off in January.
Florida's and Michigan's delegates were stripped of their rights to be seated at the party's August convention – when the nominee is formally chosen – because their contests were held too early in the year, in breach of party rules.
Clinton, who won both contests, has long argued the delegates should be seated and awarded based on the popular vote. She made a trip to Florida this week to press her case.
"The Clinton campaign has been stirring this up for fairly transparent reasons," Obama told reporters on the plane from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Chicago, adding she had not done so earlier in the race when she did not need the delegates to win.
"Let's not. . . pretend that we don't know what's going on. I mean this is, from their perspective, their last slender hope to make arguments about how they can win, and I understand that," Obama said.
Neither Clinton nor Obama campaigned in either state before the primary elections, and the Illinois senator removed his name from the Michigan ballot. Obama spent three days campaigning in Florida this week.
A party committee will meet next Saturday to seek a resolution to the conflict. Obama said he wanted the delegates seated and brushed off arguments that voter anger at his less aggressive role in resolving the issue would cause lasting resentment among Democratic voters in Florida, a battleground state in November's general election.
"I think that anger will go away once it's resolved," he said, questioning whether those who were upset were only Clinton supporters or other voters as well.
"I want to make the Florida delegates seated. And once they're seated, then I think this is going to be a story that nobody's thinking about come August."
Obama has not called for Clinton to drop out of the race and has been careful to avoid alienating her supporters.
He said on Saturday he would need to "pivot quickly" in June, if he obtains the number of delegates to secure the nomination, to engage in a search for a vice-presidential running mate.
"I think we'll have ample time, should I be the nominee, to engage in that process."
Reuters
At least 31 people have been killed and scores injured in western India in two days of clashes between police and members of a farming caste demanding job quotas for their community.
The violence began on Friday when protesters belonging to the Gujjar caste lynched a policeman in Bharatpur district in Rajasthan state, G C Kataria, the state's home minister, told reporters.
Police shot at protesters as they tried to damage railway lines and government property, he said. At least 15 were killed.
On Saturday, the army was called in to help calm the violence as another 15 people were killed when police shot at a mob protesters trying to torch a police in Sikandra.
Thousands of protesters were blocking a rail route between Delhi and Mumbai, police said. Highways have also been blocked, and state authorities have cancelled many buses.
Gujjars are already considered among the low born in India's complex caste hierarchy. They want to be thought of as even lower – a so-called scheduled tribe – so they can qualify for the nearly half of all government jobs and state college seats reserved solely for the lowest castes, who tend to be poorer than their high-caste compatriots.
But a state government committee did not agree, and announced instead it would spend 2.82 billion rupees ($NZ86.55 million) improving schools, clinics, roads and other infrastructure in Gujjar-dominated areas.
The protesters do not want the money.
"We do not accept the economic package," K S Bainsla, the head of the main Gujjar protest organisation, told reporters. He said the state government must write to New Delhi recommending Gujjars be recategorised. "We'll not accept anything less."
A year ago, Gujjars in Rajasthan fought police and members of another caste that already qualifies for job quotas. At least 26 people were killed in that violence.
Reuters
At least six people have been killed after a shallow, 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit Colombia, destroying homes and shaking buildings in the capital Bogota, where panicked residents fled into the streets.
Three people, including a small baby, were killed when an avalanche crushed their car and three more died in landslides. The quake blocked a highway out of Bogota and flattened ten houses and a church near the epicentre, authorities said.
"They died trapped by landslides," President Alvaro Uribe told a community meeting where he updated the death toll.
At least eight other people were injured by the quake, which was centered 54km east-southeast of Bogota at a depth of 10km, the US Geological Survey said.
The USGS earlier measured the quake at 5.7 magnitude at a depth of 3.5km.
Bogota Mayor Samuel Moreno told local radio some buildings in the city were slightly damaged, but there were no reports of victims in the Andean country's capital.
"The report we have so far is that it was strong and some structures have suffered damage," Moreno said.
One Bogota government building was evacuated after the quake sent a shower of bricks tumbling off one of its walls.
Colombia's coffee-growing region was hit in 1999 by a 6.2-magnitude quake that killed 1230 people and left more than 250,000 homeless in the country's worst natural disaster in the last decade
Reuters
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has returned to Zimbabwe for an election run-off with President Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai arrived at Harare airport aboard a regular South African Airways flight around 1030 GMT after cancelling his homecoming a week ago after his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it had learnt he was the target of a military intelligence assassination plot.
The government dismissed the plot as a propaganda stunt.
Tsvangirai told a news conference that Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF party had launched a concerted campaign against the MDC, which has seen 42 people killed and tens of thousands displaced.
"ZANU-PF wants to decimate MDC structures," Tsvangirai said, adding that many opposition officials were in hiding.
He said he was confident of victory, although conditions are not conducive for a free and fair election and ZANU-PF was trying to destroy his MDC before the run-off.
"The conditions on the ground for a run-off are not perfect, and will never be perfect. But we are saying with the support of SADC (Southern African Development Community), putting in election observers and peacekeepers, we can instil confidence in the people of Zimbabwe".
The MDC chief was cheered by party officials at the news conference when he vowed to knock out Mugabe in the second round, saying he was drawing fresh inspiration from victims of political violence:
"I was in the hospital today, people with scars, wounds, all saying: 'President, we will finish him off, don't let us down'."
Tsvangirai has been travelling abroad since April 8 on a diplomatic drive to pressure Mugabe to surrender power following a March 29 presidential poll, which he says he won outright.
But Zimbabwe's electoral commission says he did not get enough votes for a straight victory and must face Mugabe in a June 27 run-off.
Tsvangirai said the regional SADC will hold a meeting on the run-off vote next Tuesday at which sending regional peacekeepers to Zimbabwe will be discussed.
"But I told them that by the 1st of June they should put these people on the ground otherwise we don't need them. You can't have peacekeepers and observers two weeks before an election because they will not be of any benefit. What we want is a complete demilitarisation of the situation," he added.
SADC, which is due to monitor the run-off, said this month that conditions were neither safe nor fair yet for a fresh vote.
Zimbabweans hope the run-off will start recovery from an economic collapse that has brought 165,000 per cent inflation, 80 per cent unemployment, chronic food and fuel shortages and has sent millions fleeing to nearby countries.
The MDC has vowed to "bury" Mugabe in the run-off, ending his uninterrupted rule since independence from Britain in 1980.
But the 84-year-old veteran leader has also vowed that he will win the June 27 poll because his ZANU-PF could not afford to lose power to an opposition backed by "white imperialists."
Mugabe says the MDC enjoys the backing of Western powers out to oust him over his seizure of white-owned farms to give to landless blacks. The MDC denies the charge.
Mugabe's party lost control of parliament on March 29 for the first time since it came to power, and the opposition says the former guerrilla leader can only win the June 27 re-run through violence and rigging votes.
"If Mugabe thinks he has beaten people into submission, he will have a rude shock on the 27th," Tsvangirai said.
A 30-year-old man, in a small crowd of people who saw Tsvangirai's convoy arriving at a city hotel for the news conference, said he was happy the MDC leader had returned home.
"I don't think he should have stayed away for so long, but I think MDC supporters will support him, and I hope he wins," said the man, who declined to give his name.
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:36 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:36 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:36 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:36 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:37 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:37 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:37 PM
Interesting news, thanks.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:37 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:37 PM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:38 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:39 PM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-25-2008, 08:39 PM
Thanks for the story.
Rebels from Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta have admitted they attacked an oil pipeline belonging to Royal Dutch Shell and killed 11 soldiers in a gunbattle with the security forces.
The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an email that it had sabotaged the Shell pipeline at Awoba flow station in the southern Rivers state in the early hours of Monday morning.
Shell was not immediately available for comment.
Reuters
The United Nations children's agency (Unicef) is trying to convince army-ruled Myanmar not to place at least 2000 youngsters orphaned by this month's cyclone into state-run homes.
"We should try and place children within family environments as a priority, and not in institutions," Unicef child protection chief Anne-Claire Dufay said.
"We should try to keep them in their community and even in the interim, before we are able to trace families, we should be able to place children in temporary foster care families. That's the message we are sending," she said.
The junta said last week it would build orphanages in Labutta and Pyapon, two of the hardest-hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta, where the May 2 cyclone left 134,000 people dead or missing and another 2.4 million destitute.
In an attempt to reverse this policy, Unicef is flying in its Asia head, Anupama Rao Singh, to speak in person to Welfare Minister Major-General Maung Maung Swe.
Despite government restrictions on aid workers in the delta, the United Nations says it has established that at least 2000 children have lost both parents.
In Labutta, 282 children were separated from their families, and of those 50 now in the care of officials had no known family, Unicef said.
Their story is repeated across the delta, where - as in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami - children made up a disproportionate number of the dead because they were unable to cling to trees or buildings when the storm surge swept in.
Even before Cyclone Nargis, children in Myanmar faced a challenge to stay alive. Infant mortality rates of 76 per 1000 live births are among the highest in Asia and the UN says one in three toddlers is malnourished.
One of the few positives is that decades of military rule and international isolation have at least protected youngsters from the child trafficking networks that operate elsewhere in southeast Asia.
"If there is one area in Myanmar where we can say the government has taken positive steps, it is child trafficking," Dufay said.
Even though a trickle of aid is getting through, Dufay said Nargis would affect families for months to come as poverty forced children to leave home in search of work, causing a so-called "second separation".
"You have family breakdowns, poverty, single-headed households, women with five children and no husband to go fishing. Child protection issues tend to surface over many months," she said.
As with nearly all outside aid agencies, Unicef has had problems with access to the delta, although said it had been fortunate enough to have some emergency supplies already stockpiled in the area.
Reuters
One of the travellers who arrived at Tokyo's Narita airport over the weekend may have picked up an unusual souvenir from customs - a package of cannabis.
A customs official hid the package in a suitcase belonging to a passenger arriving from Hong Kong as a training exercise for sniffer dogs on Sunday, but lost track of both drugs and suitcase during the practice session, a spokeswoman for Tokyo customs said.
Customs regulations specify that a training suitcase be used for such exercises, but the official said he had used passengers' suitcases for similar purposes in the past, domestic media reported.
"The dogs have always been able to find it before," NHK quoted him as saying. "I became overconfident that it would work."
Anyone who finds the package should contact Tokyo customs as soon as possible, the spokeswoman said.
Reuters
Prince William's girlfriend Kate Middleton has asked that she be called by her formal name Catherine, further fuelling speculation that the couple will soon announce their engagement.
The couple are currently holidaying in the Caribbean, amid intense media speculation that Prince William will use the trip to propose.
Marriage is considered so certain that UK bookmakers have stopped taking bets on the likelihood of the prince popping the question, Britain's Daily Mail reported.
The report said Middleton had asked friends and family to call her by her birth name Catherine - a more formal moniker suitable for a future queen.
"Everyone knows it's about to happen with Kate and William but we were a little surprised about the request to call her Catherine," the paper quoted a close friend as saying.
"There's a distinct feeling that she has started to become very aware of her position."
But a former classmate said those close to Middleton never called her Kate, and that the name was given her by the press.
"No one ever referred to her as Kate - ever," the former classmate said.
"It doesn't irritate her, even when the photographers shout her name out. She's not so precious as to correct them. But her family and close friends have always called her Catherine and that's the way she prefers it."
The prince and his girlfriend are holidaying at an opulent STG1785 ($NZ4564)-a-night villa.
They are expected to stay there until Wednesday, when the prince must return to the UK for a three-month attachment with the Royal Navy.
AAP
A string of letters written by Mercedes Corby in which she repeatedly outlines her drug use discredits her as a witness, an Australian court has been told.
Mercedes Corby is suing the Seven Network for defamation, saying she was falsely portrayed as a drug smuggler and dealer in interviews with her former friend Jodie Power, which were aired in February last year.
Tom Hughes QC, for the Seven Network, today began his closing address to the jury, dismissing Ms Corby's credibility as a witness.
Mr Hughes told the jury letters Ms Corby wrote to Ms Power while she was working in Japan in 1993 and 1994 "nailed the lie" that Corby was an infrequent drug user.
In one letter before the court, she wrote: "Japan has the best mull, I only need two or three puffs of a joint and I am wasted."
In another letter, she refers to putting on weight and writes: "I think when I get home I might go on a speed diet."
In evidence, Ms Corby said she had probably only smoked half a joint while working in Japan, and had exaggerated her claims to show off to Ms Power.
"(Ms Corby said) her total consumption during the period when she was in Japan was no more than half a joint," Mr Hughes said.
"Can you possibly believe that after these enthusiastic statements about her enjoyment of marijuana and the quality of the product?
"(The letters) leave an indelible stain on the plaintiff's credibility as a witness.
"They make it clear that she lied by limiting her total consumption of marijuana in Japan to half a joint."
Mercedes Corby's sister Schapelle Corby is serving 20 years in a Bali prison after being convicted of smuggling 4.1kg of cannabis into Indonesia inside a bodyboard bag in 2004.
The hearing continues before Justice Carolyn Simpson.
AAP
Nasa's Phoenix space craft has landed safely on Mars' north pole on an expedition to find out whether there has ever been life on the Red Planet.
The small probe blazed through the skies above Mars before touching down on a frozen desert where it will search for water and assess conditions for sustaining life.
Phoenix landed after a perilous plunge through the planet's thin atmosphere. It is the first time a spacecraft has successfully landed at one of the planet's polar regions.
Pulled by Mars' gravity, Phoenix was tearing along at 12,700 mph (20,400 kph) before it entered the atmosphere, which slowed the craft so it could pop out a parachute and fire thruster rockets to gently float to the ground - a method familiar to fans of TV puppets Thunderbirds.
"It's down, baby, it's down!" shouted a Nasa flight controller, looking at signals from Mars showing that Phoenix had landed.
Scientists found in 2002 that Mars' polar regions have vast reservoirs of water frozen beneath a shallow layer of soil.
Phoenix was launched on August 4, 2007, to sample the water and determine if the right ingredients for life are present.
Nasa attempted a landing on Mars' south pole in 1999 but a problem during the final minutes of descent ended the mission.
The US space agency cancelled its next Mars landing bid but successfully dispatched two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to the planet's equatorial region to search for signs of past surface water.
Phoenix was created out of spare parts from the failed Polar Lander mission and the mothballed probe. Unlike the rovers, Phoenix will not be bouncing to the planet's surface in airbags, which are not suitable for larger spacecraft.
Instead, like the 1970s-era Viking probes and the failed Polar Lander mission, it uses a jet pack to lower itself to the ground and fold-out legs to land on.
"We haven't landed successfully on legs and propulsive rockets in 32 years," said Nasa's space sciences chief Ed Weiler. "When we send humans there, women and men, they're going to be landing on rockets and legs, so it's important to show that we still know how to do this."
Sky
Nasa's Phoenix space craft has landed safely on Mars' north pole on an expedition to find out whether there has ever been life on the Red Planet.
The small probe blazed through the skies above Mars before touching down on a frozen desert where it will search for water and assess conditions for sustaining life.
Phoenix landed after a perilous plunge through the planet's thin atmosphere. It is the first time a spacecraft has successfully landed at one of the planet's polar regions.
Pulled by Mars' gravity, Phoenix was tearing along at 12,700 mph (20,400 kph) before it entered the atmosphere, which slowed the craft so it could pop out a parachute and fire thruster rockets to gently float to the ground - a method familiar to fans of TV puppets Thunderbirds.
"It's down, baby, it's down!" shouted a Nasa flight controller, looking at signals from Mars showing that Phoenix had landed.
Scientists found in 2002 that Mars' polar regions have vast reservoirs of water frozen beneath a shallow layer of soil.
Phoenix was launched on August 4, 2007, to sample the water and determine if the right ingredients for life are present.
Nasa attempted a landing on Mars' south pole in 1999 but a problem during the final minutes of descent ended the mission.
The US space agency cancelled its next Mars landing bid but successfully dispatched two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to the planet's equatorial region to search for signs of past surface water.
Phoenix was created out of spare parts from the failed Polar Lander mission and the mothballed probe. Unlike the rovers, Phoenix will not be bouncing to the planet's surface in airbags, which are not suitable for larger spacecraft.
Instead, like the 1970s-era Viking probes and the failed Polar Lander mission, it uses a jet pack to lower itself to the ground and fold-out legs to land on.
"We haven't landed successfully on legs and propulsive rockets in 32 years," said Nasa's space sciences chief Ed Weiler. "When we send humans there, women and men, they're going to be landing on rockets and legs, so it's important to show that we still know how to do this."
Sky
At least nine people have died after a series of powerful tornadoes ripped through America's Midwest.
Authorities in the state of Iowa said six people were killed in the neighbouring towns of Parkersburg and New Hartford.
Dozens of homes were flattened and rescue crews used listening devices to search for more people trapped by debris.
A two-year-old child was also killed and nine others were seriously injured in Minnesota, according to reports.
In another incident, two people were killed in Kansas when their car was swept up by a tornado.
"We've definitely had an unusually high death toll, which is the misfortune of having tornadoes hitting population centres," said Roger Edwards, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Centre in Oklahoma.
The storm systems formed late last week and have delivered hail and high winds in a line from Texas to Minnesota.
Earlier this month at least 23 people died across three states after a number of powerful tornadoes struck.
Towns in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia were devastated, prompting President Bush to promise federal aid.
Tornado season in the US peaks in spring and early summer but twisters can also pose a threat in autumn.
Sky
5be92
05-26-2008, 02:09 PM
haha...dont think they'll get it back
JohnCenaFan28
05-27-2008, 01:55 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-27-2008, 01:55 AM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-27-2008, 01:56 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-27-2008, 01:59 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-27-2008, 02:00 AM
Interesting news, thanks.
JohnCenaFan28
05-27-2008, 02:00 AM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
05-27-2008, 02:01 AM
Thanks for the news.
Islamist insurgents firing grenades attacked Ugandan peacekeepers in Mogadishu, killing at least 10 people and injuring a dozen others in the crossfire, residents and officials said.
The overnight fighting came a day after a hardline Islamist leader linked to al Qaeda, Sheikh Hassan Abdullah Hersi al-Turki, said that rebels would continue to attack foreign troops including the African Union peacekeeping force.
"An unknown group attacked us, but we chased and killed two of them," AU force spokesman Barigye Bahouku said.
"First they fired four rocket-propelled grenades at us and then machine guns, but there were no casualties from our side. We have not killed any civilians but aimed at those who attack us using small arms."
A contingent of 1600 Ugandan peacekeepers and 600 Burundian troops, known as AMISOM, has been unable to stem mounting violence in Somalia.
Militants have routinely attacked Somali and Ethiopian troops since the Islamic Courts movement was ousted from Mogadishu in a short war in late 2006 and early 2007.
Last week, insurgents wounded five Ugandan soldiers. Kampala sent troops to the Somali capital in March 2007 to help bolster the struggling Somali government.
Residents said two mortars killed eight people and wounded nine others in the attack. A stray rocket-propelled grenade killed a further two people, witnesses said.
"Mortar shells from Ugandans killed all these people as Islamists were fighting from the gate of our building," witness Fatuma Olow told Reuters.
The Shabab militia - which the United States has labelled a terrorist organisation - claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Our mujahideen forces carried out an attack on the so-called AMISOM and our operation was successful," Shabab spokesman Mukhtar Ali Robow said.
"We had neither injuries nor deaths and we shall continue attacking them till Somalia is liberated."
On Tuesday night, clashes between insurgents and the police killed four people in western Mogadishu, residents said.
Thousands have been killed and nearly 1 million displaced in fighting since early 2007.
Reuters
The 19-year-old daughter of a woman held captive in an underground dungeon in Austria for 24 years has woken from a coma.
Kerstin Fritzl had been in a coma since late last month after she was taken to hospital from the cellar she shared with her mother, Elisabeth, and two younger brothers.
The three children were fathered by Elisabeth's father Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned them in the dungeon beneath his family home.
Doctors had feared Kerstin might die when her organs began to fail earlier this month.
But they have now revealed that she opened her eyes at the weekend, sparking hope that she'll recover.
"In a world that was very dark, the Fritzls now have light," a source told the Daily Mirror newspaper in Britain.
"Elisabeth and family are very happy, but they know they mustn't get their hopes up too high.
"Kerstin's incredibly fragile. She'll be in bed a long time - probably months."
The 19-year-old has not yet managed to speak to doctors or her family.
"She moves when she feels pressure on her skin," the source said.
"Everybody's crossing their fingers this recovery will continue but nobody can predict it."
Authorities say Fritzl confessed to locking up his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years in the cellar below his home in Amstetten, Austria, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children with her.
Investigators say he told them three of the children were raised in the cellar, three others were brought up above ground and one died in infancy.
DNA tests have confirmed Fritzl is the biological father of the six surviving children.
AAP
Army-controlled media in Myanmar has praised the United Nations for its help to the 2.4 million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis, suggesting a thaw in the junta's frosty relationship with the outside world.
The English-language New Light of Myanmar said UN agencies took "prompt action" to provide relief supplies after the May 2 cyclone, which left 134,000 people dead or missing.
The paper, the generals' main mouthpiece, also softened the government's line that the immediate relief phase of the disaster was over, saying instead that "rescue and rehabilitation tasks have been carried out to some extent".
However, the junta arrested 20 people trying to march to the home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, the day her latest year-long stretch of house arrest is due to expire, a witness and opposition sources said.
The arrests, and expected rolling-over of the 62-year-old Nobel laureate's detention order, are bound to create new tensions with Western nations who promised millions of dollars in cyclone aid at an unprecedented donor conference in Yangon on Sunday.
Three weeks after the 190kmh winds and sea surge from Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy delta, the UN says fewer than one in three of those most in need have received any aid.
Thousands of beggars are lining up along the roads, with droves of children shouting "Just throw something" at passing vehicles.
Witnesses say many villages have received no outside help, and waterways of the former Burma's "rice bowl" remain littered with animal carcasses and corpses, either grotesquely bloated or rotting to the bone.
The stench of death is widespread, as are the swarms of flies.
Much of the blame for the aid delay rests with the junta, which has been reluctant to admit a large-scale international relief effort for fear of loosening the vice-like grip on power the army has held since a 1962 coup.
However, top diplomats who helped co-ordinate Sunday's conference said there were small signs of the generals gradually overcoming their pride and paranoia and admitting outside help.
"I can sense that there is a sense of urgency," Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), told a news conference in the Thai capital on Tuesday.
"A sense of appreciation that the world, after all, is not all that hostile on some issues, particularly on humanitarian issues," Surin said.
Washington told the Yangon conference it was ready to raise its offer of $US20.5 ($NZ26.38) million in aid if the junta opened up, but added it was "dismayed" the generals went ahead with a constitutional referendum in the middle of the disaster.
The result - 92.5 per cent in favour on a turnout of 98.1 per cent in a poll held with no neutral monitoring - is unlikely to enhance the credibility of the generals' seven-step "roadmap to democracy", that is meant to culminate in elections in 2010.
After a promise to visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon by junta supremo Than Shwe that all foreign aid workers would be given full access to the delta, foreign aid workers have headed out of Yangon to test whether anything has changed on the ground.
Myanmar embassies are also granting more visas to aid workers, although the UN's World Food Programme, which is spearheading much of the emergency relief push, says it is coming up against reams of red tape at every turn.
"Yesterday was a record, red-letter day with seven visas applied for and seven issued," WFP spokesman Paul Risley said.
"But every step of the way has been difficult. Every step has required agreement with the government, clearance from the government, approval by the government of virtually all of our actions."
Reuters
China is about to try to kick a 3 billion-a-day plastic bag habit. But breaking the addiction, in a bid to save energy and protect the environment, will be easier said than done.
The world's most populous nation on Sunday will join a growing list of countries, from Ireland to Bangladesh, that are aiming to change shoppers' habits when a ban on the production of plastic bags under 0.025 millimetres thick comes into force.
Ultra-thin bags are the principal target of the crackdown because they are typically used once and then discarded, adding to waste in a country that is increasingly conscious of the air and water pollution caused by its breakneck economic growth.
Shopkeepers will also be barred from handing out free plastic carrier bags except for fresh and cooked foods. Those breaking the law face fines and could have their goods confiscated.
China consumes 37 million barrels of what is now very expensive crude oil each year to churn out the 3 billion plastic bags that its 1.3 billion people use on average each day, according to official figures.
Ma Zhanfeng, secretary-general of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, expects the ban to bite.
"Domestic demand for plastic bags will drop drastically from 1.6 million tonnes a year to around 1.1 million tonnes," said Ma, who has nearly 20 years' experience in the industry.
Bag makers have already felt the pinch from the looming restrictions. Some have even been forced out of business.
But Ning Rongju with Friends of Nature, a local non-governmental organisation, says all will depend on whether the new rules are enforced, especially in cities such as Beijing, where demand for bags in the capital's many markets is huge.
"The execution and monitoring of the law will actually determine the future of plastic bags," she said.
Xiao Ling, the mother of a 6-year-old boy, said her family was already in the habit of using nylon shopping bags. But she, too, was sceptical.
"Getting rid of all ultra-thin bags will take a long time," she said while out shopping at a Wal-Mart supermarket in Beijing.
For China's plastic processors, the curbs are the latest blow to a sector struggling with soaring raw material and labour costs, a rising exchange rate and an end to export tax rebates.
The plastic bag industry is highly segmented, with factories in almost every province.
One major centre is Taizhou, a city in southeastern Zhejiang province where more than 10,000 manufacturers of plastic products enjoy sales of 40 billion yuan ($NZ7.37 billion) each year, according to the Taizhou Plastic Industry Association.
Chen Jiazeng, the group's director, admitted that "small factories might ignore the rule and keep making ultra-thin bags" as long as they can make money.
The prospect that some underground manufacturers will turn a blind eye to the law is especially unsettling for smaller firms.
Taizhou Xinxing Plastic Packing Co Ltd, which employs 300 people and has annual sales of about 15 million yuan, mostly from plastic bags, is considering switching to other plastic goods.
"The new policy will make plastic bags even more expensive," Su Xiaobing, the company's sales manager, explained. "We won't have any price advantage then."
Fear of illegal competition is shared by big manufacturers such as Huiqiang in central Henan province, whose plastic bags all conform with the new national standards.
A sales manager who gave only his surname, Xue, said his firm had no quarrel with the policy but was worried about how it would be implemented.
"We're afraid we'll see small underground plants continuing to make ultra-thin bags if there is demand for them," Xue said. "We risk losing our market share by following the rules."
Reuters
Jodie Power's brain was "so fried" by drugs, and her malice towards Mercedes Corby was so great, she thought she could lie in the witness box and get away with it, a court has been told.
Closing Ms Corby's defamation case against the Seven Network today, barrister Stuart Littlemore QC attacked Ms Power's credibility, labelling her a "doper" who would sell out her own children for drugs.
Ms Corby, the sister of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, is suing Seven over interviews with Ms Power, screened last February, in which she claims she was falsely portrayed as a drug dealer and smuggler.
"She's no drug dealer, she's no drug smuggler and she's in no way involved with drugs," Mr Littlemore told the court.
Ms Corby was a "courageous" and honest Australian mother of three children, Mr Littlemore said, while her former best friend had been shown as a "shamefully irresponsible" woman who was driven by a lust for money and fame and hatred for the Corby family.
Ms Power used her mother's pension to daily take drugs whilst holidaying in Thailand and had been proven as a liar under oath, he said.
"When you come to judge her credibility, it's impossible to put too much emphasis on the fact that Jodie Power has been proved to have lied on oath for her own financial gain," Mr Littlemore said.
Ms Power was given $A100,000 ($NZ123,426) and two all-expenses paid overseas holidays for her story, he said, money which Seven was never likely to see again.
"They're not going to get blood out of a stone, or a stoner," Mr Littlemore quipped.
"This was a woman with no job, no prospects of a job, no money, no savings... two boys to look after and drug dealers to pay.
"If there was one thing crystal clear to Jodie Power, it was this: no show, no dough."
Mr Littlemore told the court Ms Power would "even lie about lying" if she thought she could get away with it.
He also questioned Ms Power's public claims at the time the show was screened that she would use the money to repay donors to Schapelle Corby's fighting fund, and to feed a starving African village.
"The donors got not one cent and the little African village didn't even get a second-hand penis pipe," Mr Littlemore said, prompting titters from the public gallery.
Ms Power had contradicted and corrected herself in the witness box on a number of issues, including regarding her claims Ms Corby's brother, Michael, had regularly sold her drugs at a time when he was only a schoolboy, Mr Littlemore argued.
"Perhaps her drug abuse has left her in a fog about where she was and what she was doing," he said.
"Ms Power's brain is so fried, her malice is so great, that she tried to tell you this story."
To call Ms Power a whistleblower was a "nonsense", Mr Littlemore said.
"Whistleblowers are not paid, in fact they usually lose their jobs," he said.
"Whistleblowers don't go to Channel Seven, they go to the authorities."
The trial continues before Justice Carolyn Simpson.
AAP
Sexual abuse of children by aid workers and peacekeepers is rife and efforts to protect young people are inadequate, said a report published today.
The study by charity Save the Children UK said there were significant levels of abuse in emergencies, much of it unreported and unless the silence ended, attempts to stamp out exploitation would "remain fundamentally flawed".
Accusations of sexual abuse by United Nations peacekeepers and aid workers around the world have increased in recent years and the UN is investigating claims against its soldiers in hotspots such as Haiti, Liberia, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The report said while the UN and some non-governmental organisations were stepping up efforts to address the problem, a global watchdog should be established this year to monitor attempts to tackle abuse and champion effective responses.
Save the Children based its findings on visits last year to Haiti, Southern Sudan and Ivory Coast. It held 38 focus group discussions with 250 children and 90 adults, followed up by in-depth interviews with some and desk-based research.
The study found a huge range of exploitation and abuse: children trading sex for food, forced sex, verbal sexual abuse, child prostitution, child pornography, sexual slavery, sexual assault and child trafficking.
The focus groups identified children as young as six as having been abused, although most were aged 14 to 15.
UN peacekeepers were identified as the most likely perpetrators by 20 of the 38 groups, although a total of 23 humanitarian, peacekeeping and security organisations were associated with sexual abuse in the three countries.
"All humanitarian and peacekeeping agencies working in emergency situations, including Save the Children UK, must own up to the fact that they are vulnerable to this problem and tackle it head on," said Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK.
More than half of the participants in the study identified incidents of sexual touching and forced sex. Of these, 18 and 23 per cent respectively recalled 10 or more such incidents.
"They especially ask us for girls of our age. Often it will be between eight and 10 men who will share two or three girls. When I suggest an older girl, they say that they want a young girl," a 14-year-old boy who works at a peacekeeping camp in Ivory Coast told the Save the Children research team.
And the report said official UN statistics appeared to underestimate the scale of abuse, probably because so much of the exploitation was not reported by victims.
"Clearly there is a significant disparity between the low levels of abuse cited in these statistics and the high levels suggested in field investigations and other evidence," it said.
Save the Children said there were many reasons why abuse was not reported: fear of losing material assistance, threat of retribution, stigmatisation, negative economic impact, lack of legal services, resignation to abuse, lack of information about how to report abuse and, crucially, lack of faith in a response.
Anecdotal evidence from all 38 focus groups suggested there was an endemic failure to respond to reports of abuse.
"Many UN agencies and NGOs working here feel they cannot be touched by anyone," said an aid worker in Ivory Coast.
- Reuters
Groups that monitor Islamic websites say al Qaeda in a new video will urge jihadists to use biological, chemical and nuclear weapons to attack the West.
There was no evidence of a direct threat or that the group had obtained weapons of mass destruction, US intelligence officials said.
Spokesman Richard Kolko said the FBI sent out an alert to US law enforcement agencies about the video, expected in the next 24 hours.
"We got information the tape is coming," said Kolko. "We sent out an alert to law enforcement to let them know the tape was coming."
The alert was a routine precaution sent to 1800 US law enforcement agencies, he said.
There is no sign that al Qaeda has acquired the capability to use weapons of mass destruction, a US intelligence official said on Tuesday evening.
"At this point there isn't evidence they've obtained it," the official said on condition of anonymity. "But it's clearly their intent and it's something we need to be aware of and concerned about."
The official declined comment on the FBI alert.
Kolko said the information about the al Qaeda call to jihadists was gleaned from organisations that monitor Islamic militant websites.
Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are linked to the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington that killed about 3000 people, and the Oct. 12, 2002, bombing on the tourist island of Bali when 202 people died.
Reuters
Police will never give up trying to discover the full extent of crimes perpetrated by "evil" child killers Valmae Beck and Barrie Watts, despite Beck's death, Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson says.
Beck, who was jailed for life over the brutal torture and murder of 12-year-old Noosa schoolgirl Sian Kingi, died last night in Townsville Hospital, in the state's north, aged 64.
She underwent heart surgery three weeks ago and was placed in an induced coma but never fully regained consciousness.
Mr Atkinson, who led the Kingi investigation in 1987, today said Beck, who changed her name to Fay Cramb, had taken secrets to the grave including those around the murder of Helen Mary Feeney, a 31-year-old student killed in late 1987, and possibly others.
But he said police would not give up on learning the extent of the crimes perpetrated by Beck and her "psychotic killer" husband.
He said Watts was now the sole keeper of the couple's secrets and police would seize any opportunity to encourage him to come clean.
Watts was acquitted of Ms Feeney's murder in 1995 but last year promised to reveal her resting place before reneging.
"He's our last hope now," Mr Atkinson said.
"No one else can provide that information now that Valmae Beck is deceased. But we won't give up on that and if there's any window of opportunity at all we will pursue that."
But he acknowledged the probability of ever learning the truth was stacked against police.
"I don't want to sound pessimistic with that but on balance it's probably more unlikely than likely, but we'll always keep trying," he said.
Mr Atkinson said that while police knew of the deaths of Sian and Helen, and the attempted abduction of two nurses and a woman from a shopping centre - all in 1987 - he was positive there were more victims.
"Given the fact that (Beck and Watts) were so active, so ruthless, so organised, I find it difficult to believe that the only things they did were the ones we know about," he said.
He said the positive was that Beck had fulfilled her sentence of "life in prison" and justice had been served.
However, acting Chief Superintendent Alan Bourke, who also worked on the Kingi case, said he feared Watt, who is serving a life sentence, would one day be released.
"He was the principal person that was instigating these acts for his sexual gratification," Supt Bourke said.
"(He was) simply a predator out there preying on people and I'm of fervent belief he has showed absolutely no remorse in relation to any of these crimes at all.
"And my fear is that if he is ever released in society he will re-offend."
AAP
China has evacuated more than 150,000 people living below a swollen lake formed by this month's devastating earthquake in the mountainous province of Sichuan.
The Tangjiashan lake was created when landslides caused by the May 12 earthquake blocked the Jianjiang river above the town and county of Beichuan, near the epicentre of China's most destructive earthquake in decades.
The official death toll from the 7.9 magnitude quake was raised on Tuesday to 67,183, and was certain to rise further as 20,790 are listed as missing. The quake injured nearly 362,000 people and new aftershocks toppled 420,000 houses and injured dozens on Tuesday.
Downstream from the lake, residents were evacuated overnight as engineers dug a diversion channel to prevent flooding.
"According to contingency plans, up to 1.3 million people from 33 townships of Mianyang city could be relocated if the lake barrier collapses entirely," the China Daily said in its online edition.
The water level in the lake, one of 35 "quake lakes" formed by the tremor and holding the volume of about 50,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, has kept rising and the giant sluice would not be ready for another week, the China Daily quoted experts as saying.
Immediately below the lake, the river runs in a loop between flattened high- and low-rise buildings, but threatens communities downstream which held evacuation drills on Tuesday.
In Tianlin village, among the first to be flooded if the lake bursts, gongs and loudspeakers directed 680 villagers to rush to surrounding hills within 20 minutes.
"The flood will sweep our village in five or six hours if the dam collapses," the village head was quoted as saying.
The lake water level was 727.09 metres on Tuesday, only 24.21 metres below the lowest part of the unstable landslip barrier, according to the Mianyang City Quake Control and Relief Headquarters.
In the last century, about 5,500 people have been killed by flash floods after barrier lakes burst through dams made by landslides, according to a 2004 paper by geologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In 1786, the breach of a landslide dam 10 days after a major earthquake killed about 100,000 people in Sichuan.
The region along the faultline is densely packed with dams, raising concerns that if either the quake lakes or the weakened dams burst, the rush of water could cause other dams to fail.
Apart from the threat of flooding disasters, officials are trying to stave off epidemics as the temperature rises and the rainy season approaches.
A massive relief effort, which involves providing food, tents and clothing for millions and the reconstruction of housing and infrastructure, is expected to take up to three years.
Reuters
Anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called for a mass protest against negotiations between Washington and Baghdad on keeping US troops in the country beyond 2008.
"We invite Iraqis to join us for a mass demonstration after Friday prayers unless the government cancels this agreement," Sadr said in a statement issued by his office in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf on Tuesday.
He said the protests would continue nationwide until the government agreed to hold a referendum on the continued US presence. Sadr pulled his bloc out of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government last year in protest at his refusal to negotiate a timetable for a US troop withdrawal.
Sadr called for a million-strong march against the US presence in April but later called it off for security reasons.
The United States is negotiating with Iraq on a Status of Forces Agreement aimed at giving a legal basis to US troops after Dec. 31, when their United Nations mandate expires.
The United States, which invaded in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein, now has 155,000 troops in Iraq.
Maliki met his top officials on Tuesday to discuss the negotiations.
Democrat lawmakers in the United States fear the new agreement will commit the US military to a long-term presence in Iraq, while Iraqis such as Sadr's followers see it as a surrender of Iraq's sovereignty to an occupying force.
"We will collect a petition with signatures of the Iraqi people, who are against this deal," Sadr said.
In Najaf, Sadr's spokesman, Salah al-Ubaidi, said:
"History will not look well upon this government if it signs this agreement without consulting the people. It will put Iraq in crisis."
Sadr's protest call is likely to raise tensions with the Iraqi government, whose forces battled militants loyal to the cleric in the capital for weeks before a truce was agreed on May 10. The fighting was sparked by a government offensive against his Mehdi Army militia in the southern city of Basra in March.
Sadr is popular among Iraq's Shi'ite poor and his militia is estimated to number tens of thousands. But it has kept a low profile since Iraqi troops poured into Sadr City last week, taking control of Sadr's main Baghdad stronghold.
Reuters
Lebanon's parliamentary majority coalition has agreed to nominate Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to form the country's first government under newly elected President Michel Suleiman.
The nomination, agreed at a late-night meeting of coalition leaders, means that US-backed Siniora will be appointed to head the new cabinet in which the Hezbollah-led opposition is guaranteed effective veto power.
The 'March 14' coalition will officially inform Suleiman of its choice when he consults parliament on Wednesday. The president has to appoint the prime minister nominated by a majority of MPs.
The prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system.
Siniora's nomination is seen as a moral boost to a majority battered by major political and military setbacks at the hands of Hezbollah in recent weeks. Many opposition deputies are expected to oppose his nomination.
The 18-month conflict between the US-backed ruling alliance, which has struggled against Syrian influence in Lebanon, and the opposition, led by Damascus- and Tehran-backed Hezbollah, was ended last week by a Qatari-mediated deal.
"March 14 leaders agreed unanimously to nominate his excellency Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to form the new government in line with the Doha agreement," the coalition said in a statement.
Majority leader Saad al-Hariri thought of getting the post himself but opted to keep on his close ally Siniora, mainly because the new government will stay in office only until the 2009 general election, politicians said.
Siniora, 65, has been prime minister since July 2005. He had been the target of an opposition campaign since November 2006 to force him to resign.
His cabinet's May 6 decision to investigate Hezbollah's private telecommunication network and to fire the head of airport security, who was seen as close to the guerrilla group, sparked Lebanon's worst fighting since the 1975-90 civil war.
Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group, routed followers of Hariri and other coalition leaders in six days of fighting that killed 81. The government later rescinded the decisions.
Suleiman was elected on Sunday as part of the Doha agreement. The deal met the opposition's demand for effective veto power in cabinet and set a new general election law.
Reuters
More than 50 people have been killed in political violence since Zimbabwe's disputed March 29 elections and 25,000 have fled their homes, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said.
Official figures showed Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe in the election, but did not garner enough votes to avoid a second round poll, which has been set for June 27.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change accuses Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party of launching a violent campaign against its supporters since the March elections in a bid to avoid another defeat next month. The ruling party denies the charge, and in turn blames the opposition for the violence.
"Over 50 Zimbabweans have been killed in the past six weeks. More than 25,000 people have been displaced. I've been saddened that Zimbabweans are willing to shed the blood of other Zimbabweans over political differences," Tsvangirai told a news conference in Harare.
"We are proceeding to compile the names of those who've committed these crimes. We will approach the attorney general to do something about it. I don't believe that anyone who has murdered someone should be forgiven."
Tsvangirai said he was launching a 150 trillion Zimbabwean dollar ($NZ386,100) fund for victims of political violence, to be run by representatives from churches and rights groups.
The MDC says police have taken sides with ZANU-PF supporters when dealing with political violence.
In an apparent show of support for Mugabe on Tuesday, police chief Augustine Chihuri said the force had a duty to defend the country from what he called a threat from foreign powers and their local puppets.
Mugabe frequently accuses the MDC of being a stooge of former colonial power Britain and other Western governments he says want to oust him over his seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks.
"The nation is presently facing a myriad of challenges and machinations by external forces and their internal sympathisers, who I normally call puppets," Chihuri said.
"Its very existence and survival is threatened by these puppets and their handlers," he added, after conferring ranks on senior police officers in Harare.
On Tuesday the government said it would spend quadrillions of Zimbabwean dollars on social programmes ahead of the June 27 vote in what the MDC called vote buying.
Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi said the government would offer tax relief, higher public service wages and food vouchers to ease pressure on Zimbabweans grappling with an economic meltdown under inflation of 165,000 per cent.
Under the plan, government will also provide Z$4.2 quadrillion in health and education assistance to the poor.
"This regime is clutching at straws, they hope to avert their burial on June 27 by hook or crook. They are offering a carrot and stick; a carrot for those who fall for their vote-buying and a big stick for those who resist," said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
Mugabe often accuses privately-owned Zimbabwean media and foreign media of waging a propaganda campaign against his government, and police have arrested several journalists covering events around the election.
On Tuesday, state television reported police had arrested three South Africans carrying broadcasting equipment at a roadblock in the southwestern district of Esigodini last Friday.
"They were unable to account properly how they got in possession of that property. The equipment suggests these people could be running a studio because all the gadgets are labelled Sky News," a police spokesman said on ZBC television.
He said the men would be charged under Zimbabwe's Broadcasting Act and tough media laws that critics say are aimed at stifling dissent against Mugabe.
A spokeswoman at Sky News in London said: "We're investigating the reports at the moment." She said she had no further information.
On Tuesday, police chief Chihuri echoed Mugabe's campaign theme for the June 27 run-off, saying it was "instructive for all Zimbabweans to be clear in their understanding of what 100 per cent empowerment and total independence means.
"(It) means revamping and overhauling the existing system in the manufacturing and mining sectors as was done in the agricultural sector," he said, alluding to the seizures of white farms and a drive to nationalise foreign-owned mines and other businesses.
Chihuri accused businesses of hiking prices of goods and services in order to force a change of government.
Reuters
A senior figure within Australia's Islamic community has warned that the blocking of a proposed Muslim school in Sydney could result in Islamic children being taught extreme religious views in "backyards and garages".
Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said it was "very sad" that Camden Council last night rejected a proposal to build a school for 1200 students on planning grounds.
In announcing the decision the Mayor, Chris Patterson, stressed that the refusal of the application had nothing to do with the seething religious tensions that have underpinned much of the debate.
He later told AAP he encouraged the school's developers to resubmit their proposal if they could find an alternative site within his south-western Sydney municipality.
But Mr Patel said he was saddened by the attitudes of Camden residents, some of whom declared the rejection of the school plan a victory for "decency".
"It's very, very distressing that that sort of phobia exists in the community," Mr Patel said.
"I think what the [Camden] council and the general population have to realise is that if Islamic schools are not encouraged and allowed to be established under the auspices of the State Government and their oversight, the same Muslim children will be given their religious education in backyards and garages by Imams and other religious teachers whose credentials no-one could vet.
"You may have some very extreme Imams or religious teachers getting through to the children."
Mr Patel said he supported the proposed developers, the Quranic Society Dar Tahfez El-Quran, who have declared their intention to fight for the school.
Vice-president Issam Obeid told the Camden Advertiser: "We're definitely going to appeal through the Land and Environment Court."
Another member of the society, Ahmed Halal, told the paper it was disappointing that Camden residents had made it clear they did not want Muslims in the area.
"If you build a school, then you're building education and you're building something for society," he said.
About 200 Camden residents cheered wildly as the council formally decided to reject the application in their area last night.
Dressed in a hat decorated with Australian flags and a long yellow dress, a resident, Kate McCulloch, emerged from the meeting hailing the decision and insisting that Muslims were incompatible with the local community.
"The ones that come here oppress our society, they take our welfare and they don't want to accept our way of life," she said.
A council report recommended that the application be refused after more than 3000 submissions had been received from the public. The vast majority opposed the development.
Cr Patterson pointed to a report from council officers showing the proposed development was flawed on environmental and planning grounds.
These included inadequate public transport to the site, in Burragorang Road at Cawdor, and fears that it might be contaminated by hazardous materials. Cr Patterson insisted the ruling was "on planning grounds alone".
SMH
A bomb has exploded in Nepal's capital, injuring at least one person, in the latest attack that has raised tensions ahead of a historic vote for a new assembly to abolish the 239-year monarchy.
"It was a small bomb in a public park near the venue where a pro-republican cultural programme was set to be held," Kathmandu police chief Sarbendra Khanal said.
"One person was slightly injured in the leg," he said. "We have defused a second bomb near the same place before it exploded."
The blast came hours after members of a special assembly expected to formally declare Nepal a republic were sworn in at a ceremony attended by the country's top political leaders.
The government warned that it could use force to throw unpopular King Gyanendra out of the royal palace if he refuses to leave voluntarily after the monarchy is abolished.
"The king must leave the palace immediately and move to the Nirmal Niwas," Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said, referring to Gyanendra's private home.
"If he does not leave the palace then the government might have to use force to vacate the palace," he said. "This will not be good for him."
There was no immediate comment from the palace.
Tuesday was the second day running of bomb attacks. A pro-Hindu militant group set off on Monday two small bombs outside the International Convention Centre, the venue of Wednesday's assembly meeting, police said. No one was injured in the attacks.
The assembly elected in April is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Wednesday and formally declare an end to the monarchy, a key part of a 2006 peace deal with Maoist former rebels that ended a decade-long civil war.
"It is not clear who set off the explosion but we have found a pamphlet of a pro-Hindu outfit, Ranabir Sena, near the site," another police official said
Many Nepalis think that the king will go quietly after the assembly vote. Gyanendra has been living in the Narayanhity royal palace in the heart of Kathmandu since ascending the throne in 2001, but he has made no public statement over his plans.
All state allowances and benefits given to the king will be stopped from Wednesday.
The government has banned demonstrations around major royal sites and the assembly. But Maoists and other main political parties say tens of thousands of people will take to the streets on Wednesday to celebrate the monarchy's end.
The government took over control of the royal palace after Gyanendra was forced to end his absolute rule following weeks of street protests in 2006.
Nepalis say much of the mystique of the royal family was broken after the 2001 palace massacre in which popular King Birendra and eight other royals were killed by then Crown Prince Dipendra, who later turned the gun on himself.
In April this year, anti-monarchy Maoists emerged as the largest party in elections to the 601-member assembly.
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:17 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:17 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:17 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:18 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:18 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:18 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:18 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:18 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:19 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:19 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:19 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:19 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:19 PM
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JohnCenaFan28
05-29-2008, 06:19 PM
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The US military is investigating a marine accused of promoting Christianity in Iraq by giving coins to civilians with a Bible verse written on them in Arabic, US officials have said.
"They have initiated an investigation into that and there is some evidence of an individual that was doing that," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
The Marine has been accused of distributing the coins to Iraqis as they passed through a check point in Falluja, US officials said.
"Where will you spend eternity?" was written on one side of the coins, according to a report from McClatchy News Service.
On the other was a Bible verse written in Arabic referring to Jesus: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."
If true, the Marine would have violated US military rules that prohibit the promotion of any religion, faith or practice.
"This has our full attention," Colonel James Welsh, the US commander in western Iraq, said in a statement. "We deeply value our relationship with the local citizens and share their concerns over this serious incident."
Christians make up around 3 per cent of the population in mostly Muslim Iraq.
The United States, with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been accused by Islamist groups of seeking to convert Iraqis and of denigrating Islam. The Bush administration rejects such charges but has been embarrassed by the actions of some US troops.
Last week, President George W Bush apologised and promised to prosecute a US soldier accused of using a copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, for target practice in Iraq.
Handing out or exchanging coins is a tradition within the US military. The coins are most often minted with the emblem of a unit or other military affiliation and senior commanders have their own coins.
Often, US defence secretaries hand out their coins or a "Combating Terrorism" coin to troops in the war zone and sometimes to visitors. Service members often collect dozens of these sought-after coins
Reuters
A helicopter has crashed into a building in a busy central district of Panama City, killing several people, officials and emergency workers said.
Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro said two senior Chilean military personnel visiting Panama for an anti-terrorism conference were in the helicopter, and said that at least one of them was dead.
Emergency workers said there could be several more dead, either more passengers or people in the building, which houses a store. A Reuters reporter at the scene saw body parts on the ground as the building blazed. The back end of the helicopter was torn off in the crash and landed on a nearby office building.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Reuters
Israel's foreign minister has deepened the uncertainty over Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's ability to survive a corruption scandal by saying their party had to prepare for a possible early election.
Olmert has responded with a business-as-usual approach to a demand by Defence Minister Ehud Barak that he step aside.
But the comments by Olmert's deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and other members of their centrist Kadima party could increase pressure on the prime minister to go.
Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, said Kadima should "take decisions" and start preparing for "any scenario", including an early general election and an internal leadership vote.
Widely regarded as a top candidate to replace Olmert, Livni did not call for Olmert to step down but said "values and norms" must be upheld in Israeli politics.
Addressing members of his left-leaning Labor faction, Barak said he would force the issue if Olmert failed to act.
"The prime minister has to make decisions. Factions have to make decisions, and if they don't, we will make the decisions for them," said Barak, whose party is Olmert's largest coalition partner.
Olmert has made clear through aides that he has no intention of stepping down. At a welcoming ceremony for Denmark's prime minister on Thursday, Olmert made no reference to Barak's call to go on leave or quit.
"I intend to discuss with the visiting prime minister ... the international effort to stop Iran's nuclear (program), the regional peace process, the war against terror and the strengthening of radical Islam in the Middle East and worldwide," Olmert said, hitting his usual talking points.
Olmert plans a three-day visit to Washington next week for talks with President George W. Bush and a speech to the annual policy conference of a pro-Israel lobbying group.
POLITICAL TURMOIL
Barak threatened on Wednesday to pursue an early election, which would trigger political turmoil that could derail Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, after a U.S. businessman told an Israeli court he had handed Olmert envelopes with thousands of dollars in cash.
Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz convened prosecutors and police officers on Thursday to discuss the way forward in the investigation against Olmert.
Mazuz issued a statement after the meeting saying the investigation would be speeded up "in order to complete it as soon as possible". He gave no precise timeframe for a decision on whether to indict the prime minister.
Olmert has ridden out similar storms in the past. He has pledged to resign if charged and denied any wrongdoing in accepting what he has described as above-board election campaign contributions.
Barak, a former prime minister, has been hazy on what steps he might take, and when.
He stopped short of making a move that would immediately bring down the government and trigger a snap election. Polls suggest the right-wing Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu would defeat Labor if a vote, not due until 2010, were held now.
A top Likud lawmaker, former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, predicted an election would be held in November.
A cartoon in Israel's most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, illustrated what some commentators saw as Barak's failure to take stronger action.
It showed Barak wearing bunny ears and holding a carrot, an allusion to Hebrew slang in which "rabbit" means "coward".
The American Jewish businessman at the centre of the case, Morris Talansky, is due back in Israel in July when he will be cross-examined by Olmert's lawyers.
Chief prosecutor Moshe Lador said after Talansky testified on Tuesday it was too early to tell if charges would be brought against Olmert.
Reuters
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has defended the Bush administration's record in Iraq after sharp criticism of the war in a new book by a former White House spokesman.
"The one thing that I am certain was not a mistake was to liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein," said Rice, who was national security adviser when the Iraq war began in 2003.
Speaking at a news conference ahead of an international conference on Iraq, Rice said she had not read the book by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, but added that removing Saddam was "the right thing to do".
In his book, McClellan accuses President George W Bush of using propaganda to sell the Iraq war - a dramatic break from the close-knit Bush inner circle.
Rice said she would not comment on a book she has not read, but said people often did not understand the full implications of events until long after they had happened.
But she said liberating Iraqis from "the monster that was Saddam Hussein" was neither unilateral nor a mistake.
"It was not the United States of America alone that believed that he had weapons of mass destruction that he was hiding," Rice said.
The Iraq war was fought over charges that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction based on intelligence that later proved to be faulty.
"So the story is there for everyone to see. You can't now transplant yourself into the present and say we should have known things that we in fact did not know in 2001, 2002, 2003. The record on weapons of mass destruction was one that appeared to be very clear," Rice said.
She added: "If the world did not believe that at the time, then I would ask why was Iraq under some of the most severe sanctions that the international community has ever imposed?"
Reuters
JohnCenaFan28
05-30-2008, 05:02 AM
IMO, the war was not the right thing to do at all...
JohnCenaFan28
05-30-2008, 05:02 AM
Interesting story, thanks.
JohnCenaFan28
05-30-2008, 05:03 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
05-30-2008, 05:03 AM
Thanks for the story.
A female teacher who allegedly told a 15-year-old male student to treat her like a sex slave has been charged with sexually penetrating a child.
Nazira Rafei, 25, a Melbourne high school teacher, is charged with one count of sexually penetrating a child under 16 and four counts of an indecent act with a child under 16.
The incidents allegedly occurred at Roxburgh Park, in Melbourne's outer north, in February and March this year.
Police also accuse the teacher of making an unwarranted demand by harassing the student last Monday not to disclose the relationship.
During a brief filing hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court today, Ms Rafei's lawyer Steve Pica indicated she would plead not guilty.
"This case is likely to attract a fair degree of media attention," Mr Pica told the court.
"I do want to place on the record that my client has been fully cooperative with police and is pleading not guilty."
Ms Rafei was not required to formally enter a plea.
Police allege Ms Rafei had sexual intercourse with a child under her "care, supervision or authority".
It is alleged on one occasion the teacher told the student to "treat her like a sex slave" as she lay on top of him pinching his nipples in the back seat of her car.
Another charge relates to Ms Rafei allegedly kissing the student on his lips and touching his genitals through clothing.
Two other indecency charges relate to her allegedly hugging in a "sexual context" and kissing on the mouth a child under 16 in her care.
Magistrate Felicity Broughton adjourned the case for committal mention on August 29.
Ms Rafei made no comment as she left court flanked by her lawyer
AAP
Japan has shelved plans for its military to fly tents and blankets to China in the aftermath of the devastating May 12 earthquake, having found some within the Chinese government opposed to the move.
Japanese media said on Thursday that the military would deliver assistance in what would be its first deployment to China since the end of World War 2 and a step in strengthening Sino-Japanese ties, long troubled by their wartime past.
But the plan has been postponed, with tents and other aid to be sent by chartered commercial planes for now, newspapers said.
"We could not get a consensus from within the Chinese government," the Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted a government source as saying.
The Yomiuri Shimbun daily also said the plan to send the military had been shelved, citing Beijing's concern after messages on Chinese internet sites criticising the move by linking Tokyo's military with its wartime troops.
Japan sent rescue teams and a medical team to the devastated region shortly after the May 12 earthquake, and Japan said it had received a request from China for military assistance earlier this week.
Bilateral ties chilled during former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's 2001-2006 term over his visits to Yasukuni shrine, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism because it honours some convicted war criminals along with the country's war dead.
Relations have since improved, but many Chinese harbour resentment over Japan's 1931-45 military aggression in China.
Reuters
Texas overstepped its authority when it removed some 460 children from a polygamist ranch last month, the state's Supreme Court has said.
"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the court said in a decision that upholds a lower court ruling.
"The state's Family Code gives the district court broad authority to protect children short of separating them from their parents and placing them in foster care," it said.
The ruling should pave the way for the children to be reunited with their parents. One of the legal options left for child welfare authorities is having court-imposed restrictions on reunifications where there is cause for concern.
These restrictions could include orders not to take the children beyond a certain area while investigations continue.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said in a statement that while it was disappointed, "we understand and respect the court's decision and will take immediate steps to comply."
"We will continue to prepare for the prompt and orderly reunification of these children with their families. We also will work with the district court to ensure the safety of the children," it said.
The saga has captivated America with lurid allegations of adolescent brides, teenage pregnancies and a secretive sect following its faith in a massive white temple in a remote area of west Texas.
The children were removed in early April after Family and Protective Services received a telephone call reporting that a 16-year-old girl named Sarah was being physically and sexually abused at the compound. "Sarah" was never identified.
The compound is run by followers of jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. They belong to a renegade Mormon sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS).
The mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints renounced polygamy over a century ago and is at pains to distance itself from splinter groups such as the FLDS that continue to practice plural marriage.
Reuters
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has announced $US1.2 billion in loans and grant financing to expand its assistance to poor countries struggling with the effects of soaring fuel and food costs.
The funding will be fast-tracked to governments needing budget support, or seeking help with cash and food programmes for the poor, while also boosting food production through supplies of seeds and fertilizers for farmers.
The announcement comes ahead of a world food summit in Rome on June 3-5 and meetings of finance and political leaders from the Group of Eight industrial nations.
Zoellick called on leaders to move to action, as food inflation and higher food costs cut into already stretched government budgets and raises fears of further food protests.
"As we go into the Rome meeting next week, it is crucial that we focus on specific action," Zoellick told reporters on a conference call.
"Along with our partners, these initiatives will help address the immediate danger of hunger and malnutrition for the two billion people struggling to survive in the face of rising food prices, and contribute to a longer-term solution that must involve many countries and institutions," he added.
Zoellick said Haiti, Djibouti and Liberia would benefit right away in grant funding of between $5 million to $10 million each under the new rapid response facility.
Financing for Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen would be considered by the World Bank board in June, while requests for help by another seven countries is under review, he added.
Meanwhile, assessments on the needs of countries were being conducted in more than 25 countries in co-operation with other international agencies, he added.
In addition, he said the World Bank would create a trust fund where donors could contribute funding for seed and fertilizer supplies for small-scale farmers ahead of the next planting season.
"This is not an issue like HIV/Aids where you need some research breakthrough. People know what to do," he said, "We just have to make sure we get the resources and co-ordinate the operations around the world," Zoellick said.
Zoellick was one of the first international leaders to warn in January about the rising cost of food and called attention to the danger of increasing malnutrition and hunger. He also launched talks with African governments on a new bank strategy for agriculture, acknowledging the sector had been neglected.
Food prices have noticeably soared since last year amid droughts, increasing biofuels production and changing diets in emerging economies, affecting prices of key staples maize, rice and wheat. At the same time, oil has risen to record highs.
Zoellick said the World Bank would increase lending for agriculture to $US6 billion next year from $US4 billion in 2008, to boost global food production and revive farming in countries where it has long been neglected.
He said global food production would need to double over the next 30 years to feed the world's population, which also created opportunities for countries to develop farm land and agribusinesses.
Of the increased spending on agriculture, the World Bank plans to scale up lending in Africa to $US800 million from $US450 million, and to $US400 million from $US250 million in Latin America. In addition, it expects to provide $US1 billion for new projects in South Asia for agricultural and rural development.
Zoellick also said the World Bank was looking to launch weather derivatives for poor countries through financial markets, starting with Malawi, to protect them against rising prices for food imports in case of droughts or floods.
The derivative would be linked to an index that measures rainfall. When the rainfall falls below a certain level it will trigger a payout to the country.
The agency is also developing crop and livestock insurance for poor farmers by creating a company that would underwrite index-based weather and other catastrophe risks, he said.
Reuters
Amazon Indians from one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.
The photographs of the tribe near the border between Brazil and Peru are rare evidence that such groups exist. A Brazilian official involved in the expedition said many of them are in increasing danger from illegal logging.
"What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilized' ones, treat the world," Jose Carlos Meirelles was quoted as saying in a statement by the Survival International group.
One of the pictures, which can be seen on Survival International's website (http://www.survival-international.org), shows two Indian men covered in bright red pigment poised to fire arrows at the aircraft while another Indian looks on.
Another photo shows about 15 Indians near thatched huts, some of them also preparing to fire arrows at the aircraft.
"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct," said Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, which supports tribal people around the world.
Of more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, more than half live in either Brazil or Peru, Survival International says. It says all are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed and ravaged by new diseases.
Reuters
At least eight people were shot dead when a gunman opened fire outside a village mosque in Yemen after a prayer sevice, a local official said.
The shooting took place in the village in Amran province, about 60km north of the capital, Sanaa.
Dozens were wounded, many seriously, the official said.
"It was apparently a lone gunman with a machinegun," the official told Reuters, adding that the gunman fled.
Yemen, a poor Arab state where many ordinary citizens are armed, has faced unrest over unemployment and rising prices in the south and renewed fighting between government forces and Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north.
Reuters
The United States is blocking efforts to get next month's Group of Eight summit to agree on targets for cutting carbon emissions over the next 20 years, according to a draft of the declaration.
The draft, dated May 5, shows that Washington wants to make the Major Emitters grouping set up by US President George W Bush last year the main forum for climate action, taking the initiative away from the smaller group of rich nations.
"We would be prepared to address mid-term goals in the G8 only if the Major Economies Leaders Statement does not do so and only in a way that points to the need for commitments from major emerging economies," said a US comment in the draft.
In the draft for the July 7-9 summit at Hokkaido in Japan, the US endorses expansion of civil nuclear power as a low carbon technology and says biofuels are not the main cause of the recent surge in world food prices.
The Major Economies Meeting – also known as the Major Emitters Meeting – will take place in Japan on the sidelines of the G8 summit.
It groups the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, South Africa and Britain, as well as the European Union and the United Nations.
The G8 summit is due to formally adopt the informal goal agreed a year ago that global carbon emissions should be reduced by 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
There is also rising pressure to set mid-term goals for 2020 to 2030 as well as a way of reinforcing the long-term target.
But by taking the initiative away from the G8, which has made most of the running, and linking a deal to agreement on action by booming emitters like China and India which have so far rejected targets, Washington is in effect blocking any movement.
Reinforcing that position, another US comment in the draft declaration said: "We will not agree to long-term language without mid-term language."
The US which only recently acknowledged that global warming was at least in part due to burning fossil fuels for power and transport, also rejected proposals by the G8 for an industry-by-industry approach to carbon curbs.
Here again it said the Major Emitters, not the G8, was the appropriate forum for any such declaration.
"We are prepared to address it in the G8 only if the MEM Leaders Declaration fails to capture the sectoral approach idea," it said.
In supporting civil nuclear power expansion and sustainable biofuels production such as cellulosic ethanol, the United States is also supporting its own agenda.
"The expansion of nuclear energy would help to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change and would provide the greater global energy security by diversifying supply options," said the US comment in the draft text.
It called for agreement in the Doha round of world trade talks on eliminating barriers to trade in green goods and services, adding that a voluntary deal within the G8 would not be the right approach.
Reuters
the Assistant Director Of The Top Secret Nsw Crime Commission Who Directed Some Of Australia's Biggest Drug Investigations Has Been Arrested For Alleged Involvement With An International Drug Ring.
Mark Standen, 51, Was Arrested In A Raid By Australian Federal Police Officers At 2pm Today On The High Security Office Of The Nsw Crime Commission In Kent Street, Sydney.
The Australian Crime Commission Confirmed The Arrest But Declined Any Further Comment With A Spokeswoman Saying Its Long-serving, Founding Boss, Phil Bradley, May Release A Statement Tomorrow.
However, The Commission Confirmed That Federal Police Agents Who Arrested Standen At His Desk, Also Executed A Search Warrant And Seized A Number Of Items.
Standen Was Taken Later Taken To The Afp's Sydney Headquarters And Then To The Sydney Police Centre.
He Is Expected To Be Charged Tonight With Participating In A Plot To Import Chemicals From The Netherlands That Were To Be Used To Manufacture The Drug "ice".
Federal Police Are Understood To Be In Amsterdam As Part Of The Investigation, But It Is Unclear Whether There Have Been Any Other Arrests.
Such Was The Immediate Impact Of The Announcement Nsw Police Immediately Issued A Media Release Stating None Of Its Officers Were Involved.
"we Have No Information That Suggests Any Nsw Police Officer Has Been Involved In Any Wrong Doing,'' The Statement Read.
smh
Nepal's leading political parties are locked in a power struggle as celebrations of the end of the monarchy and the dawn of the world's newest republic ebbed.
A specially elected assembly toppled the Himalayan nation's 239-year-old monarchy last week and ordered deposed King Gyanendra to vacate his palace within two weeks.
But political parties, including the Maoist former rebels who won a surprise victory in April's elections for a constituent assembly, are yet to agree on how to form a new government or elect a president.
The Maoists, who emerged as the biggest political party in the assembly but lack a majority, want both the posts of prime minister and president.
Political parties have agreed to have a symbolic president and a powerful prime minister in the new republican system.
But the centrist Nepali Congress, the second biggest group in the assembly, say the Maoists are demanding too much.
"They can't have both the posts of a prime minister and the president at the same time," said Ram Chandra Poudel, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress.
"The Maoists want to have a totalitarian system and we cannot allow this to happen," he added. "We'll not kneel down."
Under a 2006 peace deal, the Maoists have confined more than 19,000 former fighters to camps and locked their weapons in containers monitored by the United Nations, although they retain their keys.
Poudel, who is also peace and reconstruction minister, said the Maoists should hand their weapons over to the government or destroy them, return property they seized during the war and disband their youth wing before forming a new government.
The Maoist youth wing, the Young Communist League, has been blamed for continued violence and intimidation even after the Maoists joined the political mainstream.
Senior Maoist leader and Local Development Minister Dev Gurung accused the Nepali Congress of double standards.
Its leader, outgoing Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, also performed the ceremonial duties of the head of state after Gyanendra was stripped of almost all of his powers after surrendering absolute power in 2006.
"They are biased. We can't accept this," Gurung said.
The Maoists have threatened to organise street protests if they were not allowed to form a government on their terms within two to three days.
The abolition of the monarchy was the centrepiece of the peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war which killed more than 13,000 people.
Reuters
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he will stick to his principles over plans to detain terrorism suspects for longer prior to being charged, despite the prospect of a humiliating defeat in parliament.
With a rebellion rumbling in the ranks of his ruling Labour Party and threatening Brown's faltering leadership, the prime minister said a plan to allow detention of suspects for up to 42 days without charge was the "right thing" to do "to protect the security of all and the liberties of each".
Brown, whose Labour Party lost a safe parliamentary seat last month and was beaten into third place in local elections, does not have to call a national election until 2010, when he hopes the economy will have had time to recover.
His poll ratings have fallen in recent months, wiping away the political "honeymoon" he enjoyed after taking over from former prime minister Tony Blair almost a year ago.
As many as 50 Labour parliamentarians are thought to be ready to vote against Brown's 42-day detention plan when it comes to the vote next week.
The plans, which would extend the 28-day pre-charge detention limit, were attacked by the government's former top lawyer, ex-attorney-general Lord Goldsmith, who described them as a "very serious incursion on our fundamental freedoms".
Interior Minister Jacqui Smith was scheduled to meet the parliamentary party later on Monday to try to persuade them to fall into line behind Brown.
Writing in The Times newspaper, Brown said he would not give ground.
"Some have argued that I should drop or significantly water down the 42-day limit," he wrote. "But having considered carefully all the evidence . . . I believe that. . . allowing up to 42 days' pre-charge detention in these exceptional terrorist cases is the right way to protect national security."
Political analysts say Brown will be fighting for his political life over the next two months and may struggle to survive as party leader into the summer parliamentary recess.
Most commentators recognise that it is most likely to be the economy – an area where Brown won a good reputation for competence during his 10 years as finance minister under Blair – which is crucial to Brown's future.
The British economy grew at its slowest pace in three years in the first quarter of 2008 and inflation is forecast to rise near to 4 per cent, limiting the central bank's scope for interest rate cuts.
News on Monday that Britain's largest buy-to-let mortgage lender has run into financial difficulties in a global credit squeeze which has already contributed to the collapse of one major British bank was likely to darken the scene further.
And Brown's opinion poll ratings have shadowed the economic decline. A YouGov poll in last Friday's Telegraph newspaper put Labour 14 points behind in popularity, with 23 per cent support versus 47 per cent for the main opposition Conservative Party.
Reuters
Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic nominating contest in Puerto Rico, but still badly trails front-runner Barack Obama as he draws closer to clinching the party's presidential nomination.
Clinton's win in Puerto Rico, a territory where residents are not allowed to vote in the November election, gave her more fuel for her argument that she has won more popular votes and is the best Democrat to face Republican John McCain.
But the results pushed Obama closer to the magic number of 2,118 delegates needed to become the nominee, and the Illinois senator already has turned his attention to a general election fight with McCain.
Two contests on Tuesday in Montana and South Dakota, with 31 pledged delegates to the August nominating convention at stake, conclude the voting in the Democratic presidential race.
Clinton had campaigned heavily in Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island with 55 delegates at stake on Sunday. Obama visited there for one day last week.
With a portion of the Puerto Rico delegates allocated, Obama is about 50 delegates shy of securing the nomination. He probably will be short on Tuesday, but could reach the total quickly with help from some of the approximately 180 uncommitted superdelegates -- party officials who can back any candidate.
Obama picked up endorsements from at least two more superdelegates on Sunday.
With barely more than one-quarter of the vote counted, Clinton led Obama by 2-to-1. Obama, who called Clinton to congratulate her, looked past the New York senator to focus on her role in his general-election race against McCain.
"Senator Clinton is an outstanding public servant. She is going to be a great asset when we go into November to make sure that we can defeat the Republicans," Obama said at a rally in Mitchell, South Dakota.
Obama cleared a significant hurdle on Saturday when a party committee decided to seat the disputed Michigan and Florida convention delegations at half-strength.
The decision was a victory for Obama, preventing Clinton from significantly cutting his delegate lead. Clinton had won both disputed contests -- which were not sanctioned by the national party because of a dispute over their timing -- and demanded the delegations be seated at full voting strength.
'GETTING CLOSE'
"Now that Michigan and Florida have been added, we are getting close to the number that will give us the nomination," Obama said on Saturday in South Dakota after the rules committee meeting.
"And if we've hit that number on Tuesday night we will announce that, and I think even if we don't, this is the end of the primary season," he said.
Once the long primary season ends on Tuesday after five months of state-by-state nominating contests, the Obama camp expects the superdelegates to quickly line up behind him and end the campaign.
The Clinton campaign said it planned to continue the fight, possibly all the way to the national convention in Denver, and try to woo superdelegates on the claim that she won more primary votes and was beating McCain in states Democrats need to win.
"This race goes on until someone meets the magic number to be the nominee of the Democratic Party," Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said on ABC's "This Week."
Clinton argues she has won more popular votes in the lengthy nominating fight if Michigan, where Obama was not on the ballot, and Florida are counted and all the caucus states won by Obama are not. That shows she would be a better candidate in November, she says.
A big win in Puerto Rico, where votes were just being counted, could put her over the top in the popular vote even if estimated caucus results are included.
But popular votes do not determine the party's nominee, who is selected by delegates at the convention. Obama's lead in delegates is unassailable unless she wins nearly all the remaining uncommitted superdelegates.
Obama plans a victory celebration after the South Dakota and Montana polls close on Tuesday night at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota -- the site of the Republican convention in September.
He has increasingly turned his attention to the race against McCain, an Arizona senator, and expects to focus exclusively on the general election after the final two contests.
Reuters
legolas4792
06-02-2008, 08:49 PM
im disappointed in my people:no:
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:22 AM
I'm glad Hillary won:)
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:22 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:23 AM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:23 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:23 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:23 AM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:23 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:23 AM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:23 AM
Thanks for the news.
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:24 AM
Thanks for the story.
JohnCenaFan28
06-03-2008, 01:24 AM
Thanks for the news.
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