World News joined 2

[OMEN]

A coal mine flood in northeastern China has left 13 miners missing for three days.

The flood happened early on Saturday in Jixi, Heilongjiang province and rescuers were pumping water out of the pit as fast as possible, China's state-owned Xinhua news agency said.

China, the world's largest producer and consumer of coal and home to the world's deadliest mining industry, has been trying to improve safety, but accidents are common as owners push production beyond safety limits to meet robust demand.

Nearly 4000 miners died in Chinese coal mines in 2007, 20 per cent down from the previous year.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare has told journalists they are lucky he hasn't followed Fiji's lead and deported them for writing "contrary" articles.

He made the comment after returning from a meeting of regional leaders in Vanuatu, where Fiji's coup leader Frank Bainimarama explained why he had deported two Australian publishers of major Fiji newspapers.

Somare said he accepted Bainimarama's explanations about the expulsion last month of Evan Hannah, publisher of News Ltd's Fiji Times, and Russell Hunter, publisher of the Fiji Sun, in February.

Both newspapers had carried articles critical of Bainimarama's military government, installed after a 2006 coup.

The two Australians were branded threats to Fiji's national security and thrown out of the country, in defiance of court orders aimed at stopping their deportations.

The expulsions sparked a chorus of international condemnation, led by Australia and the United States.

Somare today said he understood that Bainimarama was trying to protect his country's image.

"We raised the questions with Bainimarama (about the expulsions). We have our rules, and they have their rules," Somare told reporters.

"We all know that they (Fiji) are trying to preserve the image of their country while newspapers are trying to give the wrong impression."

Somare told reporters assembled in the PNG capital Port Moresby that they were lucky by comparison.

"You are very lucky, I have not deported any one of you yet, for writing something contrary," he said.

"When you start twisting, that's the essence of what you get."

Somare last week referred PNG's Post-Courier newspaper, owned by News Ltd, to the parliamentary privileges committee over what he said was an irresponsible front page story linking PNG officials to a scandal over millions in missing aid money from Taiwan.

A Port-Courier journalist also received death threats while reporting on the scandal.

And Somare last year banned reporters from asking whether he sanctioned a clandestine PNG military flight that whisked wanted Australian lawyer Julian Moti from Port Moresby to the Solomon Islands.

AAP

[OMEN]

Five children and an adult have died after a train collided with a school bus at a level crossing in eastern France, French authorities said.

Four people were seriously hurt and 27 suffered less severe injuries, police said, adding that more than 100 rescue workers went to the scene and a field hospital was set up.

Fifty children from a school in the small town of Margencel, five parents and the driver were on board the bus, which was taking the children on a school trip to a local historical site.

The children were believed to be 12 or 13 years old.

The accident occurred just before 2.00pm (12.00am NZT) when a regional train struck the bus at a level crossing at Mesinges, near the town of Allinges in the mountainous Haute Savoie area near the border with Switzerland.

National train operator SNCF and rail network operator RFF said they would launch investigations to determine the causes.

RFF said early indications were that the level crossing, which was not considered high risk, was functioning normally. RFF said it was the most serious accident at a level crossing in about 30 years.

A woman in a car behind the bus told France Info radio she saw the bus start to cross the track when the red warning lights were already flashing.

"The train came and it cut the bus in two," said the weeping woman, whose name was not given on the radio report.

The drivers of the bus and train both survived.

The Education Ministry said counsellors were on hand to help pupils from the school cope with the trauma.

Several ministers were on their way to the site and President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed shock and sympathy.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Tonga's government has confirmed they will spend $T5 million ($NZ3 million) on crowning their king but say they the kingdom will double that in benefits from the show.

Sixty-year-old George Tupou V will be crowned on August 1 in a coronation attracting criticism because of its cost.

The government's spending is equivalent to a third of New Zealand's annual aid to Tonga.

Part of the spending includes $NZ570,000 on regal robes tailored in London and a gold sceptre for $50,000.

In a statement today Tonga Prime Minister Felete Sevele says "enormous benefits" will flow to every part of the kingdom from the coronation, calling it a memorable milestone in Tongan history.

"It is part of our life and who we are. It will be a joyous celebration of culture, custom and kinship in the only Polynesian Kingdom," he said.

"There will be a renewal of our sense of nationhood and the togetherness which defines Tonga. The country's image will be taken to the world."

He said the new king is committed to modernisation and democratic change while preserving the essential qualities of Tongan identity and value.

He confirmed the budgeted cost, but went on: "Our forecast at present is that the monetary value to the country from the coronation is conservatively $T10 million. This will bring benefits to all sectors of the community."

During the coronation Tonga would host between 4000 and 5000 visitors, the largest number ever to be in the Kingdom at the same time.

"They will inject money directly into the economy, through purchase of goods and services, such as handicrafts, transport, utilities, food, and entertainment and contributions to families.

"Tongans living overseas will comprise the biggest section of the visitor influx. They will spend significantly while they are here; a large proportion of their expenditure will be of direct assistance to their local relatives."

Air New Zealand, Air Pacific and Pacific Blue were putting on extra flights.

"We have a major challenge in providing accommodation for the thousands of people who wish to attend the coronation," he said.

"Every hotel, resort and guest house on Tongatapu is booked out and there will be associated sales of tourism accommodation in other parts of the Kingdom. Many people are also volunteering to help by making their homes available to house guests."

Worldwide media coverage would lift Tonga's profile.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, a coronation for the people that will usher in a new era for Tonga," Sevele said.

The government have yet to release the full guest list but say among those attending will be Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito and Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

Tonga's hopes of getting a top British royal have been dashed with confirmation London will be represented by the Duke and Duchess of Glouster.


Fairfax Media

[OMEN]

A Brisbane father who assaulted a 19-year-old woman after she removed his pubic hair as part of a drug-addled dare has only narrowly avoided jail.

The Supreme Court today heard Ross Zelko Krezic, 46, had earlier helped his partner inject the woman with 'ice', accompanied the pair to a Fortitude Valley sex shop and then attacked her in a bedroom when she refused his offer of a liaison.

The Bosnia-born panel beater also admitted to supplying his partner's 14-year-old daughter and his own teenage son with ecstasy tablets.

Prosecutors said the 19-year-old woman - the former girfriend of Krezic's son - had accepted an invitation to Krezic's Fortitude Valley unit in February 2006 because she knew he had access to illicit drugs.

Once there, Krezic prepared a syringe with what he told her was "ice" so his partner could administer it. The three later went out to party but were turned away from several Valley nightclubs because of 3am lock-out rules.

Instead, the two women went inside an adult shop, purchasing a $30 vial of amyl nitrate - a chemical sex aide - and returned to the unit where they performed "mutual massages", the court heard.

At one stage, Krezic accepted a dare to have hair removal cream applied to his genitals, prosecutors said.

When his defacto left the room to make coffee, Krezic propositioned the woman but she turned him down, causing him to become angry.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her down onto a bed, however she managed to scratch at him and run away.

Twelve months earlier, Krezic had been partying at the same unit with several others when he shared ecstasy tablets with his 19-year-old son and his partner's then-14-year-old daughter.

"To say it was a dysfunctional household is to understate the circumstances," Crown prosecutor Glen Cash told the court, where Krezic pleaded guilty to assault and supplying dangerous drugs charges.

However, defence barrister Levis Menolotto argued the child, who had been in foster care and lived on the streets, was no stranger to illicit substances.

"There is no insinuation that he was introducing these people to drugs," Mr Menolotto said.

"It's more a situation of supply by neglect ... rather than corrupt, or further corrupt, that child."

The girl's mother was also charged and is currently serving probation for the same offence, he said.

Both had since stopped taking drugs.

A sceptical Justice Roslyn Atkinson sentenced Krezic to nine months' jail but agreed to release him on immediate parole on the condition that he stay away from illicit substances.

Fairfax Media

[OMEN]

When the father of one-year-old Ankita arrived at the Sydney's Scribbles and Giggles child-care centre to pick her up, he found the doors and windows locked, the lights switched off and no sounds from inside.

There was no obvious signs of life, but the centre was not empty. Lying alone and unattended in a small room was Ankita. The NSW Department of Community Services confirmed to the Sydney Morning Herald last night that the toddler had been left alone in the Rydalmere Centre on May 26.

"A child was left in the centre for a period of time," a department spokeswoman said.

She could not confirm how long Ankita had been left in the centre. Her parents - who wished only to be known as Gayatri and Bharat - were very distressed. "My wife called at 5.45pm to let them know I was on my way to pick up the baby, but no one answered the phone," Bharat said yesterday. "When I got there I found the child-care centre closed. It was dark; there was nothing happening there. That was a shock to me because it was only 6.04pm and the centre closes at 6pm.

"At that point I started to freak out because I thought, 'Nobody has called us, there's a chance the baby could be inside'. We couldn't get in touch with anyone from the centre."

Gayatri and Bharat made a number of frantic phone calls, then called the police, who arrived within 10 minutes.

Officers tracked down the owner of the centre, who arrived soon after with a set of keys. "He arrived about 6.50pm. My wife was crying. We went into the centre and switched on the lights. We opened one door and there was no one inside.

"Then we noticed the door to the next room and there she was, lying in the dark.

"She was lying on a bouncer, harnessed, sleeping. I could make out from her face that she was OK. I was just extremely relieved. I picked the baby up and just held her in my arms and she started crying."

Ambulance officers gave Ankita a clean bill of health.

The parents said staff from the centre had apologised profusely. The manager of Scribbles and Giggles could not be contacted last night, while the owner of the centre refused to comment.

SMH

[OMEN]

US President George W Bush condemned violence in Zimbabwe and attempts to intimidate opposition figures as "deplorable" and said election and human rights monitors should "blanket the country."

"The continued use of government-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe, including unwarranted arrests and intimidation of opposition figures, to prevent the Movement for Democratic Change from campaigning freely ahead of the June 27 presidential runoff election is deplorable," he said in a statement.

Over the weekend, police arrested Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and Eric Matinenga, an opposition parliamentarian and lawyer to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

"It's troubling, it's disturbing and it is a part of a continuing pattern on behalf of ZANU-PF (the ruling party) to try to intimidate those who would like to speak up with views different than those held by the government," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

Tsvangirai won a March 29 ballot against President Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, but not by a big enough margin to avoid a second round of voting.

Bush urged the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, the United Nations, and other groups to immediately send election and human rights monitors to the country.

The MDC says more than 50 people have been killed in election-related attacks since March and blames elements within ZANU-PF for the deaths. Mugabe's officials say MDC supporters are responsible.

The opposition and human rights groups also accuse 84-year-old Mugabe and his supporters of trying to intimidate opponents and fear the president will seek to rig the run-off poll.

McCormack said it was incumbent upon the United States and others to apply as much "positive pressure and leverage" as possible to ensure a free and fair run-off poll. He did not elaborate on what that pressure might entail.

Mugabe, for his part, has accused the United States of political interference in the electoral process in Zimbabwe and has threatened to expel US Ambassador James McGee.

Asked whether the United States had made plans for McGee's possible expulsion, McCormack said: "We have a whole embassy of people who are focused on issues, either all or in part, on issues related to this election and who have continued to speak out and continue to be a voice and beacon for freedom."

Bush also said he was concerned about reports that Mugabe's policies would result in one of the worst crop harvests in Zimbabwe's history and he criticised his participation in a summit in Rome aimed at addressing the global food crisis.

"While Robert Mugabe makes political statements in Rome, his people continue to face empty markets at home," Bush said.

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

That's awful to hear.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Interesting story, thanks for posting it.