World News joined 2

[OMEN]

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

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[OMEN]

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

[OMEN]

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

[OMEN]

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]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Interesting, thanks for the read.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[OMEN]

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

[OMEN]

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

[OMEN]

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

[OMEN]

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

[OMEN]

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]

Interesting story, thanks.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the story.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Electronic waste should be recycled, so I hope Australia fixes their situation.

[JohnCenaFan28]

That's interesting, thanks for the news.

[OMEN]

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

[OMEN]

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