Russia gas blast kills 7, more victims feared
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At least seven people have been killed and more feared dead after a suspected gas explosion in an apartment building in the Russian city of Kazan.
"At this moment, we know of seven dead people," said an emergency services spokeswoman in the city, around 800km east of Moscow.
She said there had been "33 people registered as residents in the collapsed building, but nobody knows how many were in it at the time".
At least two people have now been rescued alive from the ruins, the emergencies services spokeswoman said. The explosion happened shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
Chances of finding survivors were slim because anyone under the rubble was likely to succumb to the cold. The temperature in Kazan was about -20degC, said the spokeswoman. "The weather is too cold," she said.
Russian television showed emergency workers removing large chunks of debris from the remains of the devastated building, which was reduced to a pile of broken concrete and steel.
"We found our grandmother but we are still missing our grandfather and our seven-year-old girl," one unidentified woman who lived in the building said on Vesti-24 television channel.
Gas explosions have become commonplace in Russia's ageing apartment buildings.
Reuters
Bush arrives in Israel to press peace effort
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George W Bush arrived on Wednesday on his first visit to Israel as US president and said he saw a new opportunity for Israeli-Palestinian peace.After shunning a hands-on role in Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy for much of a presidency that began in 2001, Bush now hopes to spur negotiations towards a lasting peace that has eluded so many of his predecessors.
"We see a new opportunity for peace here in the holy land and for freedom across the region," Bush said during a welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport.
"We will discuss our deep desire for security and freedom and for peace throughout the Middle East."
However, no breakthroughs are expected in three days of talks following up on a US-hosted international conference in November that yielded promises from both sides to try to forge a two-state agreement by the end of 2008.
On the first leg of a week-long Middle East tour, Bush was greeted on arrival by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport.
Peres opened the visit by telling Bush immediately at the welcoming ceremony of Israel's concerns about Iran's nuclear programme a concern shared with Washington: "Iran should not underestimate our resolve for self defence."
Israeli officials say Iran, not the peace process, will be the focus of their leaders' discussions with Bush.
Bush was to hold talks with the two Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, which has been decked out in US flags in his honour and clamped under tight security. He meets Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
"What has to happen in order for there to be a peaceful settlement of a longstanding dispute is there to be. . . outlines of a state clearly defined," Bush said at the White House before his departure.
Iran also looms large over Bush's travels, which will include visits to Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies he hopes to enlist in efforts to contain Tehran's growing regional influence.
Accused for years of neglecting the Middle East's most intractable conflict, Bush will try to nudge Olmert and Abbas forward in a fragile peace process relaunched at Annapolis, Maryland.
But analysts say chances are slim for a deal before Bush steps down in January 2009. Doubts remain about the seriousness of his commitment and his ability to act as an even-handed broker between close US ally Israel and the Palestinians.
Bush has made clear he has no plans for the kind of sustained personal involvement he scorned after his predecessor, Bill Clinton, failed to achieve a peace accord in the twilight of his presidency.
Also uncertain is whether Olmert and Abbas, who on the eve of Bush's visit agreed to begin talks on the thorniest issues, have enough clout to close a deal, let alone implement one.
Reuters
Close Guantanamo Bay - David Hicks
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David Hicks has called for the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay to be closed, fearful his former fellow detainees will never receive justice.
Hicks was detained by the US at the prison in Cuba for five and a half years, mostly without charge, before pleading guilty to providing material support for terrorism last year.
Rallies were staged worldwide today, marking the sixth anniversary of the incarceration of Hicks and other terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
At a rally in Adelaide attended by about 50 people, Hicks' father, Terry Hicks, said his son wanted the prison closed.
Hicks, who was released from Guantanamo in May last year to serve the remainder of his sentence in an Adelaide jail, did not attend the rally on the steps of Adelaide's parliament house.
But his father said he wanted Guantanamo Bay closed.
"His views are the same as mine. . . the best thing is to shut the place," Mr Hicks told AAP.
"He's concerned about the other people left there that don't have due process he didn't even get due process himself.
"There are still other people left in Guantanamo Bay who have no lawyers behind them.
"Probably David was one of the luckier ones to have a lawyer.
"Unfortunately they didn't want him to face the courts in America so they left him there long enough to pressure him into signing a piece of paper.
"The ones that are left there, surely we can get them into a proper justice system.
"I think they have got all the information they will ever get most of these people aren't what the Americans say they are.
"The bottom line is: the place needs shutting, put the people through proper processes of law."
Mr Hicks said his son struck a plea bargain with the US military commission just to be released from Guantanamo Bay.
Under the deal, Hicks, sentenced to seven years jail with all but nine months suspended, was able to serve the remainder of his custodial sentence in an Adelaide jail. He was released on December 29 last year.
"We don't know if David would have lasted another six or 12 months in those conditions at Guantanamo Bay," Mr Hicks said.
"He took the option plea bargain and get out.
"Signing a piece of paper doesn't mean to say you're guilty of anything.
"What David signed was a piece of paper to get him out of the place.
"It's just shameful, the whole thing, and Guantanamo Bay is a big stigma on the Americans' so-called justice system."
At a rally in Sydney, about 300 protesters gathered, clad in orange jumpsuits and white face masks in a symbol of silent protest against the US military prison.
Amnesty spokeswoman Katie Wood said in Sydney that 80 per cent of those detained at Guantanamo Bay were held permanently in isolation cells, in breach of the UN convention on torture.
"And let's not forget the ones who are held in secret detention victims of the practice of rendition, people who are illegally abducted and transferred to secret detention facilities," she said.
"It's unlawful, it's flouting human rights in the most egregious way and has done so for six years now."
Ms Wood said Guantanamo Bay's total detainee count over the six years was estimated at about 800 people, yet only three had faced a formal charge, including Hicks
AAP
Indonesia's Suharto critically ill
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Former president Suharto, who ruled Indonesia for more than three decades, has suffered multiple organ failure and is on a ventilator, doctors said.
Suharto, who stepped down in 1998 in the face of a student-led uprising, was losing consciousness and having difficulty breathing overnight at Pertamina hospital in Jakarta.
The doctors said Suharto's brain and other organs failed as his blood pressure fell.
"He is still in an unstable condition," said Muhammad Munawar, a member of the medical team treating the former general. "We cannot say how long" he can be kept alive.
Indonesia's vice-president Jusuf Kalla arrived at the hospital in the evening in order to be a witness at the former general's death, said a source in Kalla's office who did not want to be named.
However, Kalla left the hospital within an hour without saying anything to reporters. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is in Malaysia.
Family members had earlier gathered at Suharto's bedside, witnesses said. Former military leaders under Suharto including Prabowo Subianto, his former son-in-law, and Wiranto, a former military chief, also arrived at the hospital to see him as he lay behind a glass window, a family friend said.
Suharto was taken to Pertamina hospital a week ago suffering from anaemia and low blood pressure due to heart, lung and kidney problems. His health worsened on Friday and doctors said he appeared to have a lung infection.
"We are closely monitoring for a possible infection because there are preliminary signs of inflammation" in Suharto's lungs, Hadiarto Mangunnegoro, a lung specialist, told a news conference.
"We have given him treatment to prevent that, including giving him antibiotics and anti-inflammation medicine. Hopefully it will not happen. If it does, it will make things worse."
EMBEZZLING FUNDS
Suharto was charged with embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds after he quit office, but the government later dropped the case due to his poor health.
He and his family deny any wrongdoing.
Hutomo Mandala Putra, Suharto's youngest son who also faces graft charges and served time in prison for ordering the murder of a judge, was at the hospital on Friday.
"On behalf of our family, we would like to thank fellow countrymen who have prayed for his recovery. For those who did so, hopefully you will receive something good in return," he said. "The most important thing is that he gets better."
Suharto came to power after an abortive coup on September 30, 1965, that was officially blamed on the communist party. Up to 500,000 people were killed in an anti-communist purge in the months that followed.
Many human rights violations under Suharto's rule, in Aceh, Papua, East Timor and elsewhere, were linked to the armed forces.
On Friday, a group of 20 people belonging to a solidarity group for victims of human right violations in the Suharto era gathered at Pertamina hospital bearing banners with the words "Put Soeharto on trial" and a huge bouquet wishing him well.
Most said they wished for Suharto's recovery, but humanity and justice were two different things.
Reuters
University student planned killing spree, court told
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A female Melbourne science student accused of stabbing a fellow pupil intended going on a killing spree, a court was told yesterday.
Sarah Cheney, formerly of Bundoora, is accused of stabbing Jemma Clancy with a knife in the La Trobe University library's toilets on May 8 last year.
The 24-year-old's preliminary hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court yesterday heard the student allegedly told police she had been planning a "killing spree" at the university for months.
". . . I was intending to go on a killing spree at uni. . . I was. . . planning it for these last months," she allegedly said when interviewed by police after the stabbing.
She is charged with the attempted murder of the behavioural science student who suffered a lacerated spleen and punctured lung in the attack.
When asked by police whether she had a specific target, Cheney allegedly replied that the attack may have been directed at bullies.
"It may have just been high school or may have been directed to people who were bullying me, classmates," she allegedly said.
The court also heard that in a note found on a computer memory stick she allegedly described her loneliness and said the attack was her destiny.
"I have been treated my whole life as if I didn't exist. In a world of seven billion people I am alone," she allegedly said.
"If one person had dared to care for me maybe this would not have happened. . . What I am going to do is my destiny, my fate."
Cheney's barrister George Georgiou unsuccessfully attempted to have the police interview suppressed.
He said her lawyers would make an application at her trial to have it ruled inadmissible due to her mental state at the time.
He said if its contents were reported in the media it would prejudice her trial.
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo opposed the application saying that only in extraordinary circumstances should this occur and this was not one of those cases.
Acting Sergeant Andrew Armstrong told the court that during the police interview Cheney said she was "relieved" that she had gone through with what she had been thinking about.
He said that during the interview she appeared quite happy to talk and "quite relieved to talk to somebody about it".
Magistrate Peter Mealy adjourned the committal hearing until January 22 and remanded Cheney in custody.
AAP
India turns to prostitutes to beat human trafficking
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Authorities in eastern India have teamed up with prostitutes as the officials accelerate a drive against the trafficking of girls into the trade.
It is a rare display of official approval for the efforts of prostitutes in West Bengal's Sonagachhi area, one of Asia's largest red-light districts.
In the past year alone a prostitutes' organisation has rescued more than 550 women and girls from brothels and from traffickers, the state's social welfare department officials said.
"The state government had no choice but to join hands with the sex workers as they seem to be doing a better job in tackling trafficking," said Samarajit Jana, an official from India's Aids control programme, which helps run the project.
Younger girls are usually helped to get back to their home village. Adults are usually given housing and job training.
"I was kidnapped and forced to entertain old men, but now all that is past as I am trying to make a new beginning in life," said Anjali, a 16-year-old girl who was rescued last month by prostitutes from one of the brothels crammed into Sonagacchi's crowded maze of alleyways.
Anjali is among hundreds of poor girls shifted to one of six new government-sponsored rescue centres across the state. They learn embroidery and sewing among other crafts.
This has been possible after the government formed an alliance last month with the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya (DMSC), an organisation founded in 1995 that now represents 65,000 sex workers in West Bengal.
DMSC focuses its rescue efforts on minors entering the trade and those who were deceived into joining it.
"We have realised that we are the most effective weapon against this social evil that forces minor girls into sex trade," said Bharati Dey, a former prostitute, who leads the campaign.
At least 20,000 women and girls are kidnapped and forced into prostitution in India every year, the government said. Many pass through West Bengal on their way to Mumbai, Delhi and other cities in India, as well as the United Arab Emirates, police said.
Most of these girls are from India's northeast and neighbouring Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, they said.
In India, trafficking and profiting by selling a person for sex is illegal, but paying for sex with an adult prostitute is not. India's Ministry of Women and Child Development wants to change the laws to allow police take stern action against clients, but critics have stalled the plan.
Prostitutes and groups working with them fear such a move would force the trade deeper into the shadows.
The DMSC now plans to spread its campaign across the state and elsewhere in India.
Reuters
Plot to kill Queen in Uganda foiled
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A plot by terrorist group al-Qaeda to kill the Queen during a state visit to Uganda was foiled late last year by security services, the Sunday Express newspaper reported.
The terrorists had planned to hide inside two outside broadcast vans owned by the Ugandan Broadcasting Corporation and then set off bombs during the Queen's visit to Kampala last November.
The Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla all travelled to the east African nation's capital for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which was attended by more than 30 world leaders.
Uganda's Minister of Internal Affairs Dr Ruhakana Rugunda said several suspected terrorists were arrested.
"We received information that a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, the Allied Democratic Forces, was planning to carry out terrorist activities at the Commonwealth meeting," he said.
"The security services in Uganda neutralised these threats."
Security was extremely tight for the meeting, with roads in Kampala's centre closed off to local traffic and strict identity checks carried out at each of the CHOGM venues.
AAP
Greenpeace push Japanese whalers out of hunting grounds
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Environment group Greenpeace says it has chased the Japanese whaling fleet out of its Southern Ocean hunting grounds near Antarctica.
In the early hours of yesterday morning the Greenpeace protest ship Esperanza located the fleet of six ships conducting so-called scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean, and began its pursuit of the main vessel Nisshin Maru.
After a 24-hour chase Greenpeace now says it has driven the fleet out of the hunting grounds.
Greenpeace said it believed the fleet would soon refuel and offload its whale meat on to the tanker Oriental Bluebird, before returning to the hunting grounds.
"It's good news that the whaling fleet have left the hunting grounds," Greenpeace campaigner Rob Nicoll said.
"If they return to resume whaling, the Esperanza's international crew of activists will take peaceful direct action to defend the whales."
The drama in the southern seas comes as the federal opposition accused the government of not doing enough to combat the Japanese whalers.
Greenpeace beat the federal government in locating the fleet of six Japanese ships.
A Greenpeace spokeswoman said the Esperanza had made several attempts to pass on its co-ordinates to the Australian government, which is monitoring the Japanese fleet via the customs ship The Oceanic Viking.
Spokeswoman for Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus said The Oceanic Viking was still on course and no operational details would be made public.
"We're on track to collect photographic and video evidence of Japan's actions that's the mission of The Viking and we are on track to do so," the spokeswoman said.
Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said The Oceanic Viking had become a "ghost ship" and demanded the government reveal how long it would take to reach the whaling fleet.
"It's almost a month since Labor promised that The Oceanic Viking would be out on the high seas weeks and weeks later the ship has still not caught up with the Japanese fleet," Mr Hunt said.
"Greenpeace is having to do the Australian government's work for them."
Mr Hunt said the delay was not only "a breach of faith" for the Australian people, but also the world.
"If you make a bold promise to the world and don't keep it, it sends a message to the Japanese that we are only kidding, we weren't serious and we were just playing a domestic game.
"It's vital if you make the promise to carry it through."
AAP
