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Japan wins spot in mega trade pact

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 20 April 2013 | 19.51

JAPAN has won its bid to enter talks on a massive Pacific trade pact that includes Australia.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would account for more than 40 per cent of the global economy.

Japan had to win over Canada to be included in the US-driven partnership, which also includes Brunei, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

Canada had been the sole nation of the 11 in the proposed agreement that still opposed Tokyo's participation.

"These consultations have been informed by a robust and ongoing engagement with Canadian stakeholders, and it's that engagement that helped inform this process," Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast said.

"We look forward to continuing to work together (with Japan) to deepen our trade and investment relationship in a manner that will generate significant benefits for hard-working people in both our countries."

Canada's approval came after bilateral talks on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers' meeting in Surabaya.

Washington earlier this month gave Japan the thumbs-up for talks on the free-trade agreement despite opposition from Japanese farmers and some US labour groups and manufacturers.

President Barack Obama has championed the TPP as a way to boost the US economy through trade and to build a US-driven order in a fast-growing region where China - which is not part of the talks - is gaining clout.

To allay concerns of higher competition in the US automotive industry, Japan, the world's third-largest economy, agreed that US tariffs on its cars would be phased out at the latest possible time allowed by a future accord.

Japan's Ministry of Economy APEC office director Ken Sasaji said Japan's participation in the talks was a major step toward the TPP's aim to create a free-trade zone among nations on the Pacific rim.

"As APEC leaders agreed, our final destination is FTAAP - a free-trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific," Sasaji told reporters.

"Now Japan is promoting various efforts to promote economic integration and economic partnerships, especially the trans-Pacific partnership, which is one of the most important efforts."


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120 dead, thousands injured in China quake

Hundreds of people are dead or injured after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province. Source: AAP

MORE than 120 people were killed and 3,000 injured when a strong earthquake hit a mountainous part of southwestern China destroying thousands of homes and triggering landslides.

The shallow earthquake struck Sichuan province on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau just after 8am (1000 AEST) on Saturday, prompting a major rescue operation in the same area where 87,000 people were reported dead or missing in a massive quake in 2008.

Ten hours after the quake hit Lushan county in the city of Ya'an, the death toll stood at 124, the state television station CCTV said on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo, citing the China Earthquake Administration.

At least 10,000 homes were destroyed, the Sichuan government said.

Local seismologists registered the quake at magnitude 7.0 while the US Geological Survey gave it as 6.6. More than 260 aftershocks followed, the People's Daily said on its website.

The shaking was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu, which lies to the east, and even in the megacity of Chongqing several hundred kilometres away.

Panicked residents fled into the streets, some of them still in their slippers and pyjamas.

"Members of my family were woken up. They were lying in bed when the strong shaking began and the wardrobes began shaking strongly. We grabbed our clothes and ran outside," said a 43-year-old man.

About 6,000 soldiers and police were heading to the area to help rescue work and five drones were sent to capture aerial images, the Xinhua news agency said.

Some teams had to contend with roads blocked by debris, CCTV reported, while one military vehicle carrying 17 troops plummeted over a cliff, killing one soldier and injuring seven others, Xinhua said.

"There are mountains on all sides; it is very easy to trigger mudslides and very dangerous," one user wrote on Sina Weibo.

The disaster evoked comparisons to the 2008 Sichuan quake, the country's worst in decades, and President Xi Jinping ordered all out efforts to minimise casualties, Xinhua said.

Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Sichuan in the afternoon and was taking a helicopter to the quake zone.

"The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours since the quake's occurrence, the golden time for saving lives," he was quoted as saying.

Amid the rescue efforts, 30-year-old pregnant woman was pulled out of the rubble along with a young child and sent to hospital for treatment, the People's Daily said on its Weibo account.

CCTV showed one survivor getting stitches for his head on the street, and another elderly man in a wheelbarrow padded with blankets being wheeled past a row of tents set up outside a Lushan hospital.

A local TV journalist due to get married on Saturday turned up instead for work and a photograph of her holding a microphone in her wedding dress with bright makeup and a corsage was widely circulated online.

Meanwhile Ya'an residents were offering to donate badly needed blood, the People's Daily said.

But volunteers outside the city were discouraged from flocking to Ya'an to help with relief efforts, to avoid blocking already busy phone lines and worsening road congestion, Xinhua said.

"A fair amount of telecoms facilities have been damaged," it said.

Pandas at a reserve less than 50 kilometres from the epicentre were not harmed, Xinhua said.

A Sina Weibo user posted a photo purportedly showing a badly damaged kindergarten in Lushan, its dark red stone slabs lying on the ground beside a row of trees. The authenticity of the photo could not be verified.

"Hang in there Ya'an!" the user wrote.

Weibo users in other cities reported feeling tremors.

Residents ran onto the street to get away from high rises, made phone calls and cried, a Sichuan government website reported. A few had even packed bags in case they needed to take shelter elsewhere.

The 2008 Sichuan quake, which struck west-northwest of Chengdu, generated an outpouring of support, with volunteers rushing to the scene to offer aid and then-premier Wen Jiabao also visiting.

But there was public anger after the discovery that many schools fell while other buildings did not, creating suspicion of corruption and corner-cutting in construction.

The deaths of the children became a sensitive and taboo subject in the heavily controlled domestic media and social media websites.

Earthquakes frequently strike the country's southwest. In April 2010, a 6.9 magnitude quake killed about 2,700 people and injured 12,000 in a remote area of Qinghai province bordering the northwest of Sichuan.


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China quake toll up to 113

The number of people killed in the Chinese earthquake has risen to 113, with at least 2,600 injured. Source: AAP

THE earthquake that has struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province has left at least 113 people dead and more than 2,600 injured.

Nearly five years after a devastating quake wreaked widespread damage across the region, Saturday's quake toppled buildings, triggered landslides and disrupted phone and power connections in mountainous Lushan county.

The village of Longmen was hit particularly hard, with authorities saying nearly all the buildings had been destroyed.

Rescuers turned the square outside the Lushan County Hospital into a triage centre, where medical personnel bandaged bleeding victims, according to footage on China Central Television.

Rescuers dynamited boulders that had fallen across roads to reach Longmen and other damaged areas lying farther up the mountain valleys, state media reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency, citing the Sichuan earthquake bureau, said at least 113 people had died.

The government of Ya'an city, which administers Lushan, said in a statement that more than 2,600 people were injured, 330 of them severely.

The quake - measured by China's seismological bureau at magnitude 7.0 and the US Geological Survey at 6.6 - struck the steep hills of Lushan county shortly after 8am local time, when many people were at home, sleeping or having breakfast.

People in their underwear and wrapped in blankets ran into the streets of Ya'an and even the provincial capital of Chengdu, 115 kilometres east of Lushan, photos, video and accounts posted online showed.

The quake's shallow depth, less than 13 kilometres, likely magnified the impact.

It was along that fault line that the devastating magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12, 2008, leaving more than 90,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead in one of the worst natural disasters to strike China in recent decades.


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Female suicide bomber kills 4 in Pakistan

A female suicide bomber has blown herself up outside a hospital in Pakistan, killing four people. Source: AAP

A FEMALE suicide bomber has blown herself up outside a hospital in a lawless tribal area of northwest Pakistan, killing at least four people and wounding four others.

The attack took place on Saturday in Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district bordering Afghanistan where the military has carried out several offensives against al-Qaeda-linked Taliban militants.

"At least four people were killed and four others were wounded in the blast outside the main gate of the hospital," Mohammad Riaz, chief doctor at the government hospital said.

"It was a female suicide bomber, about 18-20 years old. We have found her legs and head," local administration official Abdul Haseebhe said.

The dead included a security personnel, a hospital worker and two civilians, he added.

Bajaur is one of seven districts that make up Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas (FATA).

The semi-autonomous region of mountains, valleys and caves is one of the most deprived in the country.

It has been a stronghold for Afghan Taliban, al-Qaeda and other Pakistani militant groups, and a battleground between the army and insurgents.

Pakistan has lost more than 3,000 soldiers in the fight against homegrown insurgents but has resisted US pressure to do more to eliminate the havens in remote areas where they hide.


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Man arrested over India girl's brutal rape

The kidnapping and brutal rape of a five-year-old Indian girl has triggered protests across India. Source: AAP

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Indian girl who was abducted, raped and tortured in New Delhi was alert and stable, doctors said, as fresh protests erupted over sexual violence in the country.

The attack evoked memories of the brutal gang-rape and death of a young female student last December which shook India and sparked weeks of demonstrations against widespread crimes against women and children.

Newspapers splashed the rape of the five-year-old on their front pages with headlines such as "Delhi shamed again" and "Depraved Delhi".

The child was being treated at a top government hospital for serious internal injuries sustained during the more than 40-hour ordeal, as police arrested a garment worker early on Saturday on suspicion of carrying out the attack.

"It is the act of a monster," senior Patna police official Ravindar Kumar told AFP, saying the suspect was booked on charges of rape, attempted murder and illegal confinement, and that he would be returned to New Delhi to face trial.

The child "is conscious and alert," D K Sharma, one of a team of doctors treating her at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India's premier government-owned hospital, told reporters.

"Now her condition is okay and she is under close observation," Sharma said, adding she is "quite stable".

The 22-year-old man arrested, Manoj Kumar, described by media reports as a tenant in the child's house, was apprehended after he fled to his in-laws' home in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

Police accused the suspect of repeatedly attacking the child inside a locked room after kidnapping her Monday in a lower middle-class area of the New Delhi.

Doctors said the girl was mutilated and suffered serious internal and other injuries. She was also fighting an infection.

"She was left for dead by the suspect in the room where she was held for over 40 hours," Delhi's chief police investigator, Prabhakar, who uses one name, said.

Demonstrators were angered by reports that police, who have been under heavy public pressure to reduce the number of rapes, were reluctant to register the case and had offered the father money to forget the assault.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it a "shameful incident" and asked society "to work to root out the evil of rape".


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Manhunt after first Boston suspect dies

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 19 April 2013 | 19.51

US authorities say one of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing was killed in a firefight. Source: AAP

ONE of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing is dead and a massive manhunt is underway for another, US authorities said early Friday.

Residents of Watertown, a suburb just outside Boston, have been advised to keep their doors locked and not let anyone in.

The Middlesex district attorney said the two men are suspected of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer on campus late Thursday, then stealing a car at gunpoint and later releasing its driver unharmed.

Hours earlier, police had released photos of the marathon bombing suspects and asked for the public's help finding them.

Authorities say the suspects threw explosives from the car as police followed it into Watertown.

The suspects and police exchanged gunfire, and one of the suspects was critically injured and later died while the other escaped.

"We believe this to be a terrorist," Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis said.

"We believe this to be a man who came here to kill people."

The FBI said it is working with local authorities to determine what happened.

The MIT shooting on the Cambridge campus Thursday night was followed by reports of gunfire and explosions in Watertown, about 16km west of Boston.

The MIT officer had been responding to report of a disturbance Thursday night when he was shot multiple times, according to a statement from the Middlesex district attorney's office and Cambridge police. It said there were no other victims.

In Watertown, witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots and explosions at about 1am local time on Friday.

Dozens of police officers and FBI agents were in the neighbourhood and a helicopter circled overhead.

State police spokesman David Procopio said, "The incident in Watertown did involve what we believe to be explosive devices possibly, potentially, being used against the police officers."


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Govt slammed for sending back Sri Lankans

The Australian Human Rights Commission says Australia may be fast tracking Sri Lankan boat arrivals. Source: AAP

THE immigration department has been accused of denying 38 failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers access to legal advice before sending them back to their homeland.

Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs said she was profoundly concerned that Australia had employed an "enhanced screening process" in recent months for Sri Lankan boat arrivals.

The latest group of returnees included 38 men, women and children who arrived last week on a boat that reached Geraldton in Western Australia.

They were flown back involuntarily to Colombo on Thursday after the immigration department deemed they were not genuine refugees.

Prof Triggs said Australia risked breaching its non-refoulement obligations, which forbid asylum seekers from being returned to countries where they may be persecuted.

"Asylum seekers may be 'screened out' without being provided with access to legal advice or independent review," she said in a statement on Friday.

Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor denied Australia was acting in an "injudicious manner".

He said the asylum seekers who were returned did not request legal advice.

"We are ensuring that our obligations in accordance with the (United Nations) Refugee Convention are fulfilled," he told reporters in Adelaide.

Mr O'Connor says 28 other people who arrived on the same boat last week will have their refugee claims assessed.

Sending the boat's passengers back to their homeland would send a very powerful message to other people considering the dangerous boat journey to Australia that there would be no guarantees of settlement.

Meanwhile, an asylum-seeker boat with 153 people on board was intercepted on Wednesday near Christmas Island.

The boat, carrying the largest number of passengers of any arrival since October 2012, was assisted by an Australian navy vessel after a request for help.

Its 150 passengers and three crew were transferred to Christmas Island for security and health checks.

They will probably be sent to Australia's offshore processing centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

Another asylum-seeker boat with 89 people and three crew on board was also intercepted on Wednesday near Christmas Island, a customs spokeswoman said.

The boat was assisted by an Australian Maritime Safety Authority vessel after suffering a mechanical problem, the spokeswoman said.

The asylum seekers have been transferred to Christmas Island where they will undergo security checks.


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Taiwan executes six death-row inmates

TAIWAN has executed six more death-row inmates, just a few months after the same number of prisoners were put to death, as the debate continued over the need for capital punishment.

Three were executed in Tainan city in the island's south and one each in the capital Taipei, eastern Hualien and central Taichung cities, the justice ministry said in a statement.

They were anaesthetised and then shot, it said.

Taiwan executed six prisoners in December 2012, five in 2011 and four in 2010 -- the 2010 executions were the first after a hiatus that had lasted since 2005.

With Friday's executions, the number of death row inmates now stands at 50, according to the ministry.

Taiwan reserves the death penalty for serious crimes including aggravated murder and kidnapping, but the political elite is divided about whether to maintain it.

A lingering debate on abolishing the death penalty has been renewed recently as judicial and military authorities came under fire over the execution of a soldier wrongly convicted in a child murder case.

Chiang Kuo-ching, a 21-year-old serviceman executed by shooting in 1997, was posthumously acquitted in a military court in 2011 for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl, due to insufficient evidence.

He had insisted he was innocent and that he was coerced by a group of air force intelligence officers into confessing.


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Taliban attack kills 13 Afghan police

Taliban insurgents killed 13 local policemen in an attack on a checkpoint in southeast Afghanistan. Source: AAP

TALIBAN insurgents killed 13 local policemen while they were sleeping, in an attack on their checkpoint in southeast Afghanistan, officials said.

The policemen were shot dead early Friday in the Andar district of Ghazni province, said district governor Mohammad Qasim Desiwal.

"They were asleep when their checkpoint came under attack by the Taliban and were killed by AK-47 fire," Desiwal told AFP.

Provincial governor Mosa Khan Akbarzada confirmed the death toll and said a delegation had been sent to the district to investigate.

The victims were members of the 18,000-strong Afghan Local Police, a village-level force formed in 2010 to provide security in areas where the better-trained national police and army are scarce.

Afghan troops and police are increasingly on the front line against the insurgents, and suffering heavier casualties, as NATO combat troops prepare to withdraw by the end of next year.

The bodies of four Afghan regular soldiers were found Wednesday with their throats slit in Jawzjan, a day after they were kidnapped by the Taliban along the road to the northern province.

The Taliban have been waging an insurgency against the Afghan government since they were toppled from power by a US-led invasion in 2001.

Attacks traditionally intensify in spring after the harsh winter recedes.

A total of 23 people were killed Tuesday and Wednesday, including the four soldiers and two local employees of the Red Crescent medical charity.

Gherardo Pontrandolfi, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Kabul, said those killings would make it even harder to reach people in need.

"In many areas people cannot reach hospitals or clinics safely. And the end of winter is likely to bring renewed fighting, making the problem worse," Pontrandolfi said in a statement Thursday.

Separately, the interior ministry in Kabul said Friday that police have arrested five Taliban insurgents who were planning suicide attacks on civilians in the capital and in another city later this month.

The four men and one woman were detained in the eastern city of Jalalabad Thursday and police seized four suicide bomb vests and C-4 explosives along with other weapons, the ministry said.


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Boston lockdown as manhunt goes on

ONE of the Boston marathon bombing suspects was killed in a shootout early on Friday as police raced on a house-to-house search for the second, with the entire city placed on lockdown.

NBC News reported that the two young men believed to be responsible for Monday's deadly carnage at the finish line of the prestigious race are brothers of Chechen origin who were permanent legal residents of the United States.

The police order means that roughly 900,000 people in the greater Boston area have been told to stay put, virtually shutting down one of America's main cities after the twin attack that left three people dead and 180 wounded.

"We're asking people to shelter in place," Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick told reporters.

"Stay indoors with the doors locked, and do not open the door for anyone other than a properly identified law enforcement officer."

The two men, dubbed "Suspect One" and "Suspect Two" by the FBI, led police on a violent cavalcade that left inhabitants of Boston and nearby towns cowering in their homes as gunfire and explosions erupted through the night.

Public transport was suspended throughout the region and all schools closed as police chased the second suspect, identified as 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The dead man was identified as 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

One police officer was killed and another wounded in the operation, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said, confirming that the dead man was Suspect One as labelled in photos released by the FBI.

The man died after suffering multiple gunshot wounds and an injury in an explosion, a doctor at Beth Israel hospital told reporters.

The surviving fugitive was "armed and dangerous," Davis said.

"We believe this to be a terrorist, we believe this to be a man who has come here to kill people."

Police said the dead suspect had explosives on his body, and there were fears the second suspect still at large was also strapped with bombs.

The pair first tried to rob a convenience store late on Thursday in Cambridge, across the river from Boston, Davis said.

They then proceeded to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world's top universities, where one campus police officer was shot dead, the commissioner added.

The pair then hijacked a Mercedes car and eventually let the driver out in Watertown, which is close to MIT, Davis added.

The chase went on through Watertown where the two were seen throwing explosives out of the car, local media said, citing police reports. Blasts and gunfire were heard in several districts.

During a shootout, the first suspect was shot and killed, Davis said. Another police officer was also wounded. The second suspect, who has been shown in pictures wearing a white baseball cap, managed to escape.

Police with rifles flooded the streets of Boston, and search helicopters patrolled the skies. Sirens blared across the city as bomb squads carried out house-to-house searches.

The attack in Boston, which sent a hail of nails and shrapnel into a crowd of thousands at the end of the marathon, was the worst terror assault on the United States since the September 11, 2001 suicide airliner attacks.

Just hours before the chaotic manhunt unfolded, the FBI on Thursday released pictures and video of the two suspects, appealing for help to identify the pair, who were carrying large backpacks.

Both appeared to be young men, one dressed in a white baseball cap and the other in a black cap. The FBI named them only as Suspect One and Suspect Two.

The men are seen in the video walking calmly, one a few paces behind the other, weaving between crowds on Boston's Boylston Street where the race finished.

President Barack Obama vowed to the people of Boston Thursday that the "evil" bombers would be brought to justice.

"Yes, we will find you, and yes, you will face justice," Obama said at a service at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross attended by 2,000 people including blast survivors, relatives of the dead, rescuers and city leaders.

More than 100 of the wounded have left Boston hospitals and fewer than 10 of those still in hospital remain in critical condition. Some with horrific injuries. Some will require new operations, doctors said.


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Many feared dead in Texas factory blast

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 18 April 2013 | 19.51

Some 60 to 70 people have been killed by an explosion at a fertiliser plant in Texas. Source: AAP

RESCUE workers are searching rubble for survivors of a fertiliser factory explosion in a small Texas town that has killed as many as 15 people and injured more than 160 others.

The explosion in downtown West, about 130km south of Dallas, shook the ground with the strength of a small earthquake and could be heard dozens of miles away. It sent flames shooting into the night sky and rained burning embers, shrapnel and debris down on shocked and frightened residents.

The blast, which one official likened to a "nuclear bomb", left the factory a smouldering ruin and levelled buildings for blocks in every direction.

Smoke and a strong burnt smell lingered in the air hours after the blast in the small town of West, near Waco, and officials expressed fears that toxic fumes could settle over the town.

There was also concern that a second fertiliser tank could explode, stoking anxiety in a nation already on edge after the nerve-jangling Boston marathon bombings and a scare in Washington over mail apparently laced with the poison ricin sent to President Barack Obama and a US senator.

An apartment complex and a nursing home were destroyed, local residents flooded into emergency shelters, and at least 100 patients were hospitalised following the blast, which US seismologists said had a magnitude of 2.1.

"It's like a nuclear bomb went off," West mayor Tommy Muska, who is also a volunteer firefighter, told CNN.

A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, D.L. Wilson, told reporters: "We have confirmed fatalities. The number is not current yet. It could go up by the minute."

House-by-house searches were being conducted to find any additional victims, Wilson said.

"They are still getting injured folks out and they are evacuating people from their homes," Waco police Sgt William Patrick Swanton said early on Thursday morning.

He added later, "At some point this will turn into a recovery operation, but at this point, we are still in search and rescue."

Swanton said authorities believe that between five and 15 people were killed in the blast, but stressed that was an early estimate as search and rescue operations remained under way. There was no indication the blast was anything other than an industrial accident, he said.

Among those believe to be dead are a group of volunteer firefighters and a single law enforcement officer who responded to a fire call at the West Fertilizer Co about an hour before the blast. They remained unaccounted for early on Thursday morning.

The huge blast also came just before the 20th anniversary on Friday of a deadly confrontation in Waco between federal authorities and heavily armed members of a religious group, the Branch Davidians.

The explosion at the West Fertiliser Co plant, sparked by an enormous blaze, occurred just before 8.00pm on Wednesday (1100 AEST Thursday), Waco assistant fire chief Don Yeager told AFP by phone.

The cause was not immediately known but Yeager said it was an anhydrous ammonia explosion.

Flames continued to flare at the plant, sparking fears more explosions could widen the disaster that the mayor said had levelled up to 80 homes in the small Texas town of 2,500 people.

As a precaution, the Federal Aviation Administration declared a no-fly zone over the area around West, over fears another blast could bring down small aircraft.

But Swanton told reporters firefighters had brought the fire in that part of the plant "under control and I don't think that's any longer a threat".

Power and gas has been cut to some areas of the town as a precaution, Swanton added.

But he said "air quality is a concern", adding that authorities were watching the wind patterns and "where the cloud may drift", and expect they will need to order further evacuations.

Mark Felton, executive director of the Waco-based Heart of Texas Red Cross, told AFP that people were "flowing into the shelters" set up for evacuees and those whose homes were destroyed, without providing a specific figure.

"There are hundreds of emergency response vehicles lined up," Felton said.


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Rio targets cash from divestments: Walsh

RIO Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh says the company will focus on divesting non-core assets as it strives to save $US5 billion ($A4.87 billion) through to 2014.

Addressing his first annual general meeting as chief executive, Mr Walsh said 2012's capital expenditure of $US17.4 billion "will be our peak year of investment".

"We are targeting significant cash proceeds from divestments and are reviewing a number of potential non-core assets for divestment, in addition to those we've already announced such as Pacific Aluminium and Diamonds," Mr Walsh told shareholders in London.

Rio Tinto in February announced its first ever full year net loss, of almost $US3 billion.

Mr Walsh on Thursday said the world's second-largest iron ore producer had now bolstered investment committee controls and procedures.

"This will ensure ... that we invest only in projects that deliver returns well above our cost of capital," the chief executive said.

Mr Walsh confirmed Rio was targeting cumulative cost savings of $US5 billion over the next two years compared with 2012.

He said just pulling more tonnes out of the ground was not enough.

Rio has been slashing jobs to cut costs in the wake of 2012's annual loss.

Aside from divesting assets, Mr Walsh said Rio in 2013 would focus on reducing costs and improving performance at all operations, delivering approved growth projects and strengthening capital allocation and discipline.

Mr Walsh said a pit wall landslide at Bingham Canyon in Utah on April 10 would have a "significant impact" on copper production.

"Based on an early assessment of information currently available, it is estimated that 2013 refined copper production at Kennecott will be approximately 100,000 tonnes less than previously anticipated," he said.

Rio chairman Jan du Plessis admitted the global aluminium industry was under pressure.

The company acquired Alcan in mid-2007 and Mr du Plessis on Thursday said that in hindsight the transaction was "badly timed at the top of the market".

"In retrospect, we therefore have to acknowledge that the acquisition has had a significant negative impact on shareholder value and, as our owners, you have every right to expect that we do better," he said.

Mr du Plessis said Rio expected continuing volatility in the short and medium term.

But as billions of people moved from rural to urban areas over the coming decades there would be an increased requirement for metals and minerals, he said.

"I am confident we are well placed to capitalise on the positive long-term demand for commodities and, by doing so, create sustainable, long-term value for shareholders," the chairman said.

Rio has been criticised for its near total dependence on iron ore despite calling itself a diversified resources company.

Iron ore in 2012 contributed $US9.24 billion of the group's $US10.2 billion in earnings.

But Mr du Plessis insisted iron was doing "fantastically well" while other operations, such as aluminium, were struggling.

"Our view is that in the long-term basis ... in almost any probable macro-economic scenario we believe iron ore prices will be such that the money we are now investing in Western Australia will give us good returns," he said.

Chief financial officer Guy Elliott wouldn't reveal what assets Rio was looking to sell. But he insisted there'd be a lot of appetite for them.

"It is not as if there is only one buyer; there are plenty of buyers," Mr Elliott told the London meeting.

"Many of them are customers, sovereign wealth funds, competitors.

"There is quite a long list of people who are well financed and able to buy these assets."

One shareholder told the board on Thursday it was "outrageous" for Rio to suggest the company had actually done well in 2012.

It was "simplistic" to solely blame former chief executive Tom Albanese, who was forced out in January after announcing a $US14 billion writedown - one of the biggest in Australian corporate history.

Before February Rio hadn't posted an annual loss since before it became a dual-listed company with the merger of its UK and Australian assets in 1995.


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Syria rebels claim strategic airbase

SYRIAN rebels have captured large parts of a strategic military airbase in the province of Homs where they are trying to expand areas under their control, an opposition group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday rebels seized large parts of al-Dabaah military airport in the town of al-Kussair near the border with Lebanon, which is used as a gathering point for government troops.

The town is crucial for both sides given its proximity to the Damascus-Homs highway.

Video posted online allegedly showed rebels celebrating inside the facility, where rebels and government forces have been fighting for the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the European Union faced difficult choices on its arms embargo for Syria, which is due to expire at the end of May.

"When you have people who are massacred by dictators and they try to defend themselves, it is difficult to stand by without doing anything, despite having the possibility to act," Fabius told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee in Strasbourg.

Fabius added that failure to support the rebels risked encouraging Islamist organisations linked to al-Qaeda to step in and fill the gap.

However, Fabius said that there was a risk that weapons may never reach the rebels and instead fall into the "hands of the enemy."

The opposition has repeatedly urged the West to arm the rebels in the two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

Western powers are reluctant to arm the rebels, fearing that weapons will end up in the hands of radical Islamists.


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Warsaw ghetto survivor recalls war hell

SIMCHA "Kazik" Rotem was just 19 years old when the Nazis stormed the Warsaw ghetto, facing almost certain death in the gas chambers.

But 70 years on, he recalled how he and a few hundred other poorly-armed young Jews opted for what he described as a "more decent death", rising up in their own stand against the Nazi campaign of mass murder that wiped out six million Jews in World War II.

"We didn't think we were going to win against the Germans. That was clear," said 89-year-old Rotem, one of the last living survivors of the ill-fated Warsaw ghetto revolt in April 1943.

"We knew we were sentenced to death."

"As for me, I wanted to choose a nicer, more decent death than at the gas chambers," he said at a Holocaust-themed art exhibition in Warsaw on Wednesday, two days ahead of the anniversary.

Rotem flew in from his home in Jerusalem for the anniversary, which Poland will mark with events including the opening of a Polish Jews museum and a midnight concert at a monument dedicated to the ghetto fighters.

After invading Poland in 1939, Nazi Germany isolated Polish Jews inside ghettos across the country, before beginning their systematic campaign of mass murder in the Holocaust.

"It was hell on earth. What else could it be?" Rotem said.

On April 19, 1943, the Nazis began liquidating the Warsaw ghetto, where just 60,000 people remained after the vast majority of the 450,000 imprisoned had died of hunger or disease or had been sent to the Treblinka death camp.

It was on that day that Rotem - then named Kazik Ratajzer - and hundreds of other poorly-armed Jews rose up against their brutal occupiers in Europe's first urban anti-Nazi revolt.

"The Germans entered in the morning. At night they had surrounded the walls. Then it all started," Rotem said.

The small man with a crinkly-eyed smile said he and his comrades had no weaponry to compare with the German military might.

"Because what is a pistol or a rifle or a grenade when faced with the German army that conquered all of Europe?" Rotem said slowly, a pause every few words.

But against all odds, they held out for three weeks, with the Nazis finally using fires and explosives to crush them.

"We were awaiting death," Rotem said, and then: "A miracle happened when several dozen people survived."

Rotem masterminded and led an escape through the sewers and went on to take part in a second uprising by the Polish underground the following year.

Around 7,000 Jews died in the ghetto uprising, most of them burned alive, and more than 50,000 were sent to Treblinka.

The Nazis then razed the ghetto and marked their "victory over the Jews" by blowing up Warsaw's main synagogue on May 16, flattening the rest of the city after the second uprising.

Poland was once Europe's Jewish heartland, with a thriving community of 3.3 million Jews on the eve of the Holocaust.

By 1945, only 300,000 were left.


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BMW head defends E-Mobility strategy

BMW boss Norbert Reithofer has defended his company's costly entry into the electric car market. Source: AAP

BMW boss Norbert Reithofer has defended his company's costly entry into the electric car market, despite signs that German motorists are fighting shy of the new, green technology.

"The need to go down new roads when the parameters change is not something that can be delayed or ignored," said Reithofer in Stuttgart at a recent symposium.

"It is far too short sighted to regard the German market as the sole benchmark of electro-mobility success," said the BMW executive.

BMW is poised to launch its first all-electric car at the end of 2013, the lightweight i3, on which the company has pinned many long-term hopes.

Manufacturers in Germany have encountered resistance to all-electric cars and they are set to fall short of a federal government target of 25,000 all-electric cars sold in 2012, as program leader Christina Tenkhoff told journalists at the recent Hanover industrial trade fair.

Experts doubt whether the aim of getting one million electric cars on German roads by 2020 is actually feasible. At the moment alternative propulsion accounts for only 1.3 per cent of cars sold in Germany.

But BMW boss Reithofer remains unperturbed .

"The market punishes those who do not act," he said. In Beijing or Shanghai where car ownership is soaring, the authorities have begun rationing number plates for new vehicles to limit the number on the roads, he added.

"Initiatives like these could give the introduction of all-electric cars a tremendous boost," said Reithofer.


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Britain bids farewell to Margaret Thatcher

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 17 April 2013 | 19.50

Britain will pay its final respects to Baroness Thatcher at Wednesday's funeral. Source: AAP

THOUSANDS of well-wishers have applauded Margaret Thatcher's coffin as it passed through the streets of London before a funeral filled with pomp and splendour for Britain's polarising former prime minister.

Queen Elizabeth led the British establishment and representatives of 170 countries in bidding farewell on Wednesday at St Paul's Cathedral to the Iron Lady, who had a profound impact on her country and helped end the Cold War.

But in a sign of the bitterness her legacy still provokes at home, several hundred protesters turned their backs as her funeral cortege went by, booing and chanting "Maggie, Maggie Maggie! Dead, dead, dead!"

Tens of thousands of members of the public turned out to watch Thatcher's coffin travel from parliament to St Paul's, many breaking into spontaneous applause and throwing flowers.

About 700 soldiers, sailors and airmen in full ceremonial uniform lined the route as the coffin was carried first by hearse and then by horse-drawn gun carriage, as a military band played funeral marches.

Some 4000 police officers were deployed along the procession, amid heightened security following the bombings at the Boston Marathon and fears of disruption by left-wing groups.

At the cathedral, the Queen led the mourners in a rare tribute from the monarch, who had not attended a prime ministerial funeral since Winston Churchill died in 1965.

Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of Thatcher's Conservative Party, led a cast of three former premiers - John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - and politicians from across the political divide.

Global figures including Thatcher's fellow Cold War warrior Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, and showbusiness stars Joan Collins and Shirley Bassey joined the former prime minister's family in paying their respects.

In his address, Bishop of London Richard Chartres said Thatcher was a polarising figure but insisted there was no place for politics at her funeral.

"After the storm of a life led in the heat of political controversy, there is a great calm," he told the 2300 assembled guests, all clad in black.

"The storm of conflicting opinions centres on the Mrs Thatcher who became a symbolic figure - even an -ism. Today the remains of the real Margaret Hilda Thatcher are here at her funeral service."

Thatcher's coffin had arrived at St Paul's following an hour-long procession from parliament, during which London's famous Big Ben bell was silenced.

It was draped in the Union Jack flag and dressed with flowers and a card reading "Beloved Mother - Always in Our Hearts", a message from her twin children, 59-year-old Mark and Carol Thatcher.

The pavements along the route were packed by well-wishers, many of whom had risen at dawn to travel to London.

"I wanted to pay my respects to the best prime minister since Churchill," said Gloria Martin, a property developer in her 60s with an array of "I Love Maggie" badges pinned to her chest.

"She was strong, she was resolute, and she put her country first above any idea of popularity."

The crowd included veterans of the Falklands war, viewed by many of her admirers as Thatcher's finest hour and which played a central theme of the ceremony.

Servicemen from units that fought in the 1982 conflict with Argentina carried Thatcher's coffin into St Paul's while two brothers who served in the war walked behind.

Argentina was pointedly not represented among the mourners at the service, who included the prime ministers of Canada, Israel, Italy, Poland and Kuwait.

But the pomp and splendour - paid for with millions of pounds of public money - have sparked criticism from those who argue that Thatcher was too polarising a figure to merit such a state-sponsored send-off.

Some in the crowd turned their backs as the funeral cortege went by to protest at the damage wrought by her radical free-market economic reforms, which created mass unemployment in Britain's industrial heartlands.

"We're spending STG10 million ($A14.96 million) on it and that's disgraceful and unacceptable at a time of austerity," said 22-year-old student Casper Winslow, who held a placard reading "Rest of us in poverty".

The government has yet to disclose the costs of the funeral but insists it will be less than the reported STG10 million.

Cameron insisted it was right to give Thatcher a proper farewell.

"It is a fitting tribute to a great prime minister respected around the world," he told BBC radio.

"And I think other countries in the world would think Britain got it completely wrong if we didn't mark this in a proper way."

The funeral included Christian hymns reflecting Thatcher's strict Methodist upbringing, and Bible readings by Cameron and Thatcher's granddaughter Amanda, followed by a blessing from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

Her body was to be cremated in a private family ceremony.

Britain's first female prime minister, who was in office from 1979 to 1990, had suffered from dementia and was rarely seen in public for the final years of her life.

She died from a stroke aged 87 nine days ago.

Her death prompted tributes poured in from across the world for the role she played in bringing down the Iron Curtain, but sparked renewed debate at home over her legacy.


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Putin foe Navalny goes on trial in Russia

The trial of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on embezzlement charges has been adjounred. Source: AAP

RUSSIAN opposition leader Alexei Navalny has gone on trial on charges he says were ordered by President Vladimir Putin to eliminate a top opponent, but the process was swiftly adjourned for a week to allow the defence more time to prepare.

Hundreds of journalists and Navalny supporters on Wednesday descended on the provincial northern city of Kirov 900 kilometres from Moscow for the trial of Navalny and a co-defendant on embezzlement charges related to a timber deal.

But the first act in what the opposition claims is the latest political show trial in Putin's Russia was over in less than 40 minutes after Judge Sergei Blinov agreed to give the defence more time, adjourning the trial for one week until April 24.

Navalny, who risks up to 10 years in prison in the embezzlement case, has predicted he will be convicted and possibly jailed. Even a suspended sentence would make it illegal for him to run for office.

The trial is a potential turning point in the standoff between the Kremlin and the opposition that erupted with mass opposition protests in the winter of 2011-12 ahead of Putin's return for a third Kremlin term last May.

Navalny - who emerged as by far the most eloquent of the protest leaders - had raised the stakes ahead of the trial by announcing earlier this month he wanted to stand for president.

The 36-year-old is a new breed of Russian protest leader who has yet to fully embrace party politics, but has built a huge internet following with sharply-written blogs and corruption exposes.

Dressed in a white shirt without a tie and jeans and looking relaxed, Navalny sat with his lawyers and co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov. His right hand was bandaged after a minor injury.

Navalny flashed smiles and used a mobile phone emblazoned with Putin's face and the word "thief" to take a picture of the dozens of journalists pointing cameras at him.

"One way or another I am sure that during the hearing my innocence will be completely proved. But what decision the judge makes or whoever makes the decision, we'll see," Navalny said after the adjournment.

"I won't go on about how the case is fabricated and falsified. I am completely innocent," he said. Noting that he had posted the case documents online, he added: "I think any person even without legal education can be sure of this."

Navalny is charged with organising the misappropriation in a timber deal of more than 16 million roubles ($A495,092.59)from the Kirov regional government that he advised in 2009.


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Trial begins over faulty breast implants

Four executives and the founder of PIP are in court over the sale of faulty breast implants. Source: AAP

FRANCE has launched one of its biggest-ever trials as five managers from company PIP faced charges of selling faulty breast implants that sparked a global health scare.

More than 5000 women registered as plaintiffs in the case, which sees the defendants including PIP founder Jean-Claude Mas charged with aggravated fraud for using industrial-grade silicone in implants.

An estimated 300,000 women in 65 countries are believed to have received the implants, which some health authorities say are twice as likely to rupture as other brands.

The trial, which began around 1930 AEST on Wednesday, has been moved to a congress centre in the southern city of Marseille to accommodate the hundreds of plaintiffs and lawyers attending.

The defendants face up to five years in prison and the trial is set to last until May 17.

As the trial began, Mas was booed when he took to the stand to state his name and profession.

He had earlier arrived, accompanied by his lawyer, Yves Haddad, who chided reporters for their treatment of his client, who will turn 74 next month.

"Whatever happened, what you are doing to a 74-year-old man is not dignified," he said.

Hundreds of women who were given the faulty implants are expected to attend the trial in the 700-seat congress centre hall or three other rooms where more than 800 people will be able to watch video transmissions.

Angela Mauro, a 47-year-old plaintiff, said she hoped the court would treat the women with the same respect accorded other victims of medical malpractice.

"I expect us to be considered as victims and not just as women who wanted implants," said Mauro, whose implants ruptured twice, requiring her to interrupt work for treatments.

News of the faulty implants in 2011 sparked fears worldwide, but health officials in various countries have said they are not toxic and do not increase the risk of breast cancer. A 10-year case study has been launched in France to determine the long-term effects.

More than 4000 women have reported ruptures and in France alone 15,000 have had the PIP implants replaced.

Mas, a former travelling salesman who got his start in the medical business by selling pharmaceuticals, founded PIP in 1991 to take advantage of the booming market for cosmetic implants.

He built the company into the third-largest global supplier but came under the spotlight when plastic surgeons began reporting an unusual number of ruptures in his products.

Health authorities later discovered he was saving millions of euros by allegedly using industrial-grade gel in 75 per cent of the implants. PIP's implants were banned and the company eventually liquidated.

The others on trial with Mas are PIP's former general manager, Claude Couty, quality control director Hannelore Font, technical director Loic Gossart and product director Thierry Brinon.

Some of the defendants, including Mas, have also been charged in separate and ongoing manslaughter and financial fraud investigations into the scandal.


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Rocket attack kills 12 in central Syria

A GOVERNMENT rocket attack has killed at least 12 people in a village in central Syria, while rebels battled regime forces over two key military bases in the northeast where government troops broke an opposition siege last week, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rockets struck the village of Eastern Buwaydah outside of Homs on Wednesday, and that two children and two women were among those killed.

Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said rebels and government forces also engaged in heavy fighting nearby.

Eastern Buwaydah is located between Homs, Syria's third-largest city, and the Lebanese border.

The region is of strategic value to President Bashar Assad's regime because it links Damascus with the coastal enclave that is the heartland of Syria's Alawites - the Shi'ite sect to which Assad belongs - and also home to the country's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, rebels were attacking government troops on Wednesday as anti-Assad fighters tried to bottle up the military bases of Hamadiya and Wadi Deif near the city of Maaret al-Numan.

Regime forces killed more than 20 fighters in an ambush on Saturday, allowing them to break the rebel hold on the countryside around the bases and ferry supplies to forces in the camps.

For weeks, the military had had to drop supplies in by helicopter to the besieged troops.

"The rebels are trying to re-impose a siege on the camps," Observatory director Abdul-Rahman said.

"They want to close the highway ... to stop them from supporting Wadi Deif and Hamadiya."

The fight for the two bases fits into the broader struggle for control of northern Syria, much of which has fallen to the rebels in the past year.

Across the north, most of the countryside is in the hands of anti-Assad fighters, while the regime is holding out in isolated military bases and most urban centres.

Maaret al-Numan lies along the main north-south highway linking Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo, where rebels and government forces have been fighting for control since an opposition offensive on the city last summer.

If the regime were to regain control of the highway, it would open up a badly needed supply route to its forces in Aleppo - potentially paving the way for further government advances.


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Vic protesters rally at community cabinet

MELBOURNE April 17 AAP - More than 100 protesters rallying against live animal exports have sought to leave their stamp on an otherwise subdued federal community cabinet meeting in the marginal Melbourne Labor seat of Deakin.

The noisy protest, organised by Animals Australia and controlled by a heavy police presence, greeted Prime Minister Julia Gillard on her arrival at the Norwood Secondary College venue in Ringwood.

Inside the venue, however, Ms Gillard faced a mainly welcoming crowd of 300 who showered her with compliments as well as peppering her with questions on the National Disability Insurance scheme, gay marriage, 457 visa workers, Gonski reforms and Labor's image problem.

A rare, pointed question - as to why Labor was unable to sell its message through the media - had Ms Gillard casting a few thinly disguised barbs and insisting the government regularly engaged with the public at a grassroots level.

"It's our responsibility to be out there explaining our vision for the country's future," Ms Gillard said.

"In terms of media whether it's television or radio or newspapers, obviously the people who run those organisations bring some of their own perspectives to bear on what they think is news and how it should be reported."

Asked whether the states would usurp money earmarked for schools in the budget, Ms Gillard said she was determined to push through Gonski reforms.

"The debate now isn't with us because we're so determined to get this done. It's to make sure we have states and territories signing on (to the reforms)," she said.

"I can be very clear we are going to make sure money passes through state government and gets into schools."

Cabinet ministers to address the audience during the one hour Q and A included Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and Disabilities Minister Jenny Macklin.

Asked how the NDIS would provide better choices for young people who require care, Ms Gillard and Ms Macklin said the scheme would give greater support and more choices for those with disabilities.

"There are too many young people with profound disabilities and the only option they've got at the moment is residential care and that is not meeting their needs," Ms Gillard said.


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Expert blames right-wing terrorists

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 16 April 2013 | 19.50

THE fatal explosions in Boston have hints of a right-wing terrorist attack rather than al-Qaeda-inspired extremism, according to one of the world's leading experts on counter-terrorism.

Richard Barrett, the former United Nations co-ordinator for the al-Qaeda and Taliban monitoring team, said it was too early to say who was to blame for the marathon blasts.

But Barrett, who has served with MI5, MI6 and the British Foreign Office, said the timing of the attack on Patriots' Day and the relatively small size of the devices suggested the work of a domestic extremist.

His comments came after US supercop Bill Bratton, a former head of Boston police who is now based in London, warned there are "no shortage of potential suspects" behind the explosions.

Barrett, who is now senior director at the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies (QIASS), said: "At the moment it looks more likely that it was a right-wing terrorist incident, rather than an al Qaeda attack because of the size of the devices."

He added: "This happened on Patriots' Day, it is also the day Americans are supposed to have their taxes in, and Boston is quite a symbolic city. These are all little indicators."

Barrett, who is also a former member of a UN task force for promoting global counter-terrorism strategy, said behind the scenes a "very intense" investigation will be unfolding.

"In addition, security arrangements for other events will be quickly reviewed," he said.

"There is Margaret Thatcher's funeral tomorrow and the London Marathon on Sunday. However, there are thousands of these events coming up all the time."

Barrett said the number of right-wing extremist incidents in the US since the September 11 attacks was quite high.

From 2002 to 2007, nine right-wing extremists were indicted for their roles in politically motivated murders.

But between 2008 and 2012, the number mushroomed to 53, according to figures by the New America Foundation.

Before this period, domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph attacked a number of sites including the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in the name of an anti-abortion and anti-gay agenda.

And in 1995, right-winger Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 800.

Barrett said al-Qaeda attacks normally involve terrorists who have trained using instructions from the internet or at a training camp, which usually helps identify them.

In contrast, domestic terrorists operate in isolation or through a small number of acquaintances and often have smaller targets in mind.

"That's why many al-Qaeda terrorists have been thwarted - they're too ambitious," he said.


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Italy seizes 1.8b euros from Nomura

ITALIAN police on Tuesday seized 1.8 billion euros ($A2.29 billion) destined for Nomura and placed the former chief of the Japanese bank's European operations under investigation in a fraud probe over a derivatives deal with troubled Italian lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

A statement from the prosecutor's office in Siena said it had ordered the seizure of "a total of around 1.8 billion euros from Nomura International" including 88 million euros in commissions and 1.7 billion euros in collateral posted by Monte dei Paschi for Nomura.

Prosecutors also seized a total of 14.4 million euros from three former managers of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena who are under investigation.

It placed under investigation Sadeq Sayeed, the former head of Nomura for Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well as Raffaele Ricci, a managing director for fixed income sales.

Sayeed stepped down from Nomura in 2010.

The statement said Sayeed and Ricci were suspected of "gravely obstructing" the activities of supervisory authorities and putting out "false statements".

Nomura has declined to comment.

The world's oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has been at the centre of a massive fraud scandal since January which has uncovered several derivative deals put in place by its former management in order to disguise losses.

The bank itself last month began a lawsuit in civil court against Nomura, Deutsche Bank and two of its former managers for their role in these operations.

Investors cheered the prosecutorial action, with Monte dei Paschi's shares jumping by more than 3.0 per cent on the Milan stock exchange by 1100 GMT, while the benchmark index was down 0.46 per cent.


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Thatcher's coffin heads to parliament

London's famous Big Ben will fall silent during Margaret Thatcher's funeral as a mark of respect. Source: AAP

MARGARET Thatcher's coffin is to be taken to Britain's Houses of Parliament, allowing MPs to pay their last respects to the former prime minister ahead of her funeral.

As Thatcher requested when she planned her own funeral, her body will remain overnight from Tuesday in a chapel at the Palace of Westminster in central London, where she served for more than half a century in both the lower and upper houses.

Her coffin will be taken from the chapel on Wednesday for the ceremonial funeral with full military honours, a send-off not seen for a politician since the funeral of World War II prime minister Winston Churchill in 1965.

Thatcher, one of the giants of post-war Western politics, died on April 8 following a stroke. She was 87 and had been in frail health for some years.

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger led the latest list of guests for the funeral, to be held in St Paul's Cathedral at 11.00am (2000 AEST) on Wednesday.

Former US vice-president Dick Cheney, King Constantine II of Greece, Britain's last Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, London 2012 Games chairman Sebastian Coe and former US presidential candidate Ross Perot are also due to attend, Prime Minister David Cameron's office said.

Cameron, Thatcher's successor-but-four as leader of the Conservative Party, said last week her epitaph should be that she "made Britain great again" during her three terms in office from 1979 to 1990.

However, left-wingers remain bitter about her free-market reforms that brought sweeping changes to Britain's industrial landscape.

Left-wing firebrands said they would castigate her legacy in the House of Commons chamber, even as her body rests in the parliamentary chapel.

George Galloway, best-known internationally for his involvement in Arab affairs, opposed a motion on Monday that would have cancelled Cameron's weekly question-and-answer session on Wednesday and delay the start of Commons proceedings until after the funeral has finished.

That meant the government had to set aside three hours on Tuesday to debate the motion.

"This was a wicked and divisive woman who was hated by half of the country and did great damage to a society she said didn't exist. People think the canonisation of Lady Thatcher has gone on long enough," Galloway said.

"I will have a lot to say," he warned.

Labour veteran Dennis Skinner, who had memorable clashes with Thatcher across the Commons floor, also opposed the motion.

However, the motion to cancel the session is certain to pass, on the votes of other MPs.

Thatcher's body was to arrive at parliament at 4.00pm on Tuesday (0100 AEST Wednesday) to rest overnight in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft.

Like Westminster Abbey, the chapel is a royal peculiar, falling under the jurisdiction of the monarch as head of the Church of England rather than a bishop.

On its arrival, there is to be a short service to receive the body, attended by around 100 people made up of Thatcher's relatives, senior parliamentarians, plus MPs and staff who worked closely with the former premier.

The congregation is expected to include housekeepers who looked after her parliamentary office.

The 13th-century crypt is then to open from 5.00pm to 9.00pm (0200 AEST to 0600 AEST to allow MPs and parliamentary staff to pay their respects.

While Thatcher was Britain's first female prime minister, the woman tipped to become one of the Church of England's first female bishops - if the rules are changed - will stand watch by her coffin overnight.

Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Jamaican-born speaker's chaplain who ministers to MPs, will keep vigil.

Thatcher was first elected to represent suburban Finchley in north London in 1959, and remained the local MP until she entered the upper House of Lords in 1992 as a life member.


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Benefit concert for ailing Doc Neeson

The music industry has raised $200,000 at a concert for The Angels frontman Doc Neeson. Source: AAP

THE Australian rock community has a history of helping the less fortunate - from families made homeless by bushfires to victims of the Boxing Day tsunami - so when the afflicted is one of their own they rally in style.

Diagnosed with a brain tumour in January, The Angels frontman Bernard "Doc" Neeson is now $200,000 better equipped to fund his ongoing cancer treatment thanks to a benefit concert held at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Monday night.

Neeson defied doctors' orders to sing a couple of songs at the Rock For Doc bash, a moment made more poignant by the death from cancer of Angels bass player Chris Bailey earlier this month.

The packed-out gig, at Neeson's request a celebration of music rather than just about him, turned out to be a who's who of Australian rock and roll including members of Cold Chisel, Dragon, Mi-Sex, Noiseworks and Rose Tattoo.

Politician Peter Garrett gave a rare vocal performance with his Midnight Oil band mates, but even their contribution was upstaged by David Hasselhoff, who started singing The Angels' anthem Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? before dragging Neeson on stage to finish the song.

"I think the fact that you play with people when you are starting out and you see them doing it rough, you do end up with a bond," Garrett said.

James Morley, The Angels' bass player since their 1990 album Beyond Salvation, said Neeson was humbled by the coming together of friends.

"Doc was blown away by the response and was telling everybody that Australia is one of the only places in the world where people will band together and do this kind of thing," Morley said.

"Everybody wanted to do it," Angry Anderson said backstage. "It is about Doc's friends celebrating his life."


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Tasmanian forest deal on edge again

Green groups could pull out of Tasmania's historic forests peace deal after an upper house vote. Source: AAP

TASMANIA'S forests peace deal is on a knife's edge again after the state's upper house voted to delay the creation of reserves.

Environment groups who came to an historic agreement with the timber industry in November have said they would walk away if the Legislative Council moved to slow down the protection of forests.

Under the deal for the state's ailing forestry sector, more than 500,000 hectares of forest was to be protected in exchange for federal funding of around $200 million to restructure the industry.

Legislation to enact the agreement has been mired in the upper house since December.

Labor Premier Lara Giddings has said any amendments must be agreed to by the signatories to the agreement.

Negotiations, which have dragged on for more than two years, have stalled on numerous occasions as the state government seeks an end to 30 years of bitter conflict between environmentalists and the industry.

Greens federal leader Christine Milne accused MLCs of wrecking the peace deal.

"The Legislative Council has pushed back the dates for securing reserves in a clear move by them and the Liberal Party to wait for a new Abbott federal government which will destroy any hope of protecting Tasmanian forests," Senator Milne said in a statement.

Labor's sole upper house member, Craig Farrell, denied the move went against the agreement.

"The government believes this amendment is materially consistent with the intent of the TFA (Tasmanian Forests Agreement)," the ABC quoted him as saying.


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Gold price rout could continue

Written By Unknown on Senin, 15 April 2013 | 19.51

The gold price could fall further after the commodity and miners of the precious metal were routed. Source: AAP

THE rout of the gold price is expected to continue after holders of the precious metal and gold mining stocks were punished on Monday.

The speed of the fall has surprised market watchers, with gold trading below $US1,450 ($A1,387.10) an ounce on Monday and 24 per cent below its record highs of 2011, putting it in bear territory.

The trigger for Monday's pain was a fall in value of $US63 an ounce, or 4.1 per cent, on Friday night to cap off a 6.1 per cent fall for the week.

The explanations and rumours for why the price of gold is falling ranged from positive views about the US economy sparking an end to monetary stimulus; to consortiums of bullion or central banks artificially pushing the price down and selling in large volumes to China.

CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy predicts the price will fall by at least one third to $US1,000 an ounce and as low as $US880.

During a 12-year run of gains until this year, gold had been an investment for all seasons: when there was economic growth it was a hedge against inflation, when growth was going backwards it was a safe haven, Mr McCarthy told AAP.

What was different now was that it appeared the loose monetary policy of central banks around the globe and low interest rates and a weak US currency was coming to an end.

"Whenever you see that sort of dynamic in an investment, when it reverses it can get very, very ugly," he said.

"Companies with sustainable earnings paying nice dividends are attracting investors at the moment .. whereas something like gold produces no income, if it's a capital loss, its just a capital loss."

Head of research at ForexCT Steven Dooley criticised traders and investors who saw the gold price as a commodity that would only go up, expecting it to hit $US2,000.

Eagle Research Advisory managing director Keith Goode said he thought the gold price could bounce back up just as quickly as it fell.

"There are comments about why banks want the gold price to go down without waving a conspiracy," he told AAP.

"It's not impossible for the banks to act as a consortium to get the gold price down so China can buy at lower levels."

Shares in Australia's largest goldminer Newcrest Mining plunged by $1.61, or 8.24 per cent, to $17.92 and is at four-and-a-half year lows.

Smaller goldminers were harder hit, such as St Barbara, who dropped 13.5 per cent to 90 cents, and Regis Resources, who fell 12 per cent to $3.60.

Mr McCarthy said most goldminers would still be profitable until prices dropped to well below $US1,000 an ounce, but could not be complacent.


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Indian court convicts man over 2010 blast

AN Indian court has convicted a cyber cafe worker of murder over a bomb blast which ripped through a packed restaurant in the western city of Pune three years ago, killing 17 people.

A lower court in Pune on Monday found Mirza Himayat Baig guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder for the attack on the popular German Bakery restaurant where five foreigners were among those killed by a bomb in a rucksack left under a table.

"Baig has been found guilty of all the key charges. He was a co-conspirator," special public prosecutor Raja Thakare told AFP.

Baig's sentence will be handed down on Thursday and he could face the death penalty for the bombing that also injured more than 60 people. Five co-accused were still at large, Thakare said.

The blast on February 13, 2010 in the restaurant located in an upscale area of Pune in Maharashtra state was the first major attack in India after the 2008 assault on Mumbai by Islamist gunmen that left 166 dead.

The bomb exploded while the bakery and restaurant was jammed with mainly young Indians and tourists.

Thakare said Baig, in his early 30s, was linked to the Indian Mujahideen, a home-grown Islamist group with links to militants in Pakistan, which the government had suspected of involvement in the blast.

Prosecutors had told the court the conspirators planned the attack at a meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where Baig was trained to make a bomb, but the defence team denied this and said he was not in Pune at the time of the blast.

"We will file an appeal to the high court," Baig's counsel A. Rehman told reporters after the verdict was delivered in Pune, a university city which lies 150 kilometres from India's financial capital Mumbai.


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Abbott quizzed on gay marriage stance

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has repeatedly been questioned about his stance against gay marriage. Source: AAP

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has repeatedly been questioned about his stance against gay marriage at a community forum in Sydney.

About 500 people attended the question and answer session with the opposition leader on Monday night in the beachside suburb of Manly, part of Mr Abbott's local electorate of Warringah.

In what was a wide ranging question and answer session, Mr Abbott fielded questions on topics including immigration, tax, education, climate change and superannuation.

He was also repeatedly urged to allow coalition MPs a conscience vote on gay marriage.

"I'd like to know when you're going to allow a conscience vote on marriage equality," Mr Abbott was asked by a member of the crowd.

"My position on this is fairly well known. I'm fairly traditional. I support the standard definition of marriage as between a man and a woman," replied Mr Abbott, who opposes changing the Marriage Act.

"That is our party's position," he later added.

He said coalition policy on the issue would not change in the lead up to September's federal election.

He said coalition policy on marriage equality after the election was "a matter for the post election party room".

Mr Abbott also used the forum to criticise the Gillard government's proposed multibillion dollar reforms to the education sector.

"We need better schools, we need better universities, but I just don't know if we can trust the current government to deliver it," he said.

He also defended the current skilled migration scheme and the use of 457 visas.

"Where you genuinely can't find someone, you should be able to bring someone in," he said.

"They are invariably more expensive than a local worker."

At one point, Mr Abbott rebuked a member of the audience for labelling the prime minister a "horrible woman".

"It's important that everyone in this audience and everyone in our polity generally be given a polite hearing," he said.


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24 dead in wave of bomb attacks in Iraq

DOZENS of attacks across Iraq, including a brazen car bombing en route to Baghdad airport, have killed at least 24 people just days before the country's first elections since US troops withdrew.

The violence, which struck during morning rush hour on Monday amid tightened security ahead of the polls, also wounded more than 210 people and raises further questions about the credibility of the April 20 vote, seen as a key test of Iraq's stability and its security forces' capabilities.

A total of 14 election hopefuls have already been murdered and just 12 of the country's 18 provinces will be taking part.

Officials said 20 car bombs exploded on Monday in Baghdad, the northern cities of Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmatu, Mosul and Tikrit, the central city of Samarra, and Hilla and Nasiriyah south of Baghdad.

Roadside bombs also hit Baquba, north of the capital, and there was a shooting near Baghdad.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda frequently attack both government targets and civilians in a bid to destabilise the country, and have reportedly sought to intimidate candidates and election officials ahead of polls.

The deadliest attacks were in Baghdad, where six car bombs struck in five neighbourhoods across the capital despite tougher checkpoint searches and heightened security.

Among them was a car bomb in a parking area used by vehicles making their way to Baghdad's heavily-guarded airport, a rare bombing on the road famously known as "Route Irish".

The airport road was once known by American forces as "RPG alley" for the high numbers of attacks along it, but has since become much more secure.

"There were several people, buses and private cars in the parking area when the explosion went off," said a man who gave his name as Abu Ali, at the site of the blast.

"It happened all of the sudden, and several people were killed and wounded. Some of the buses went straight to the airport to avoid more attacks."

In all, 11 people were killed and 57 wounded in the capital, officials said.

AFP journalists in Baghdad reported that sites of attacks were cordoned off by security forces who barred journalists from filming or taking photos of the aftermath of the bombings.

In Tuz Khurmatu, which lies 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, six people were killed and 60 wounded by three near-simultaneous car bombs, and in Kirkuk, five people were killed and 26 wounded by four more car bombs.

Attacks elsewhere in Iraq killed two people and wounded 69 others.

Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu lie at the centre of a tract of disputed territory that stretches from Iraq's eastern border with Iran to its western frontier with Syria.

The swathe of land is claimed by both the mostly-Arab government in Baghdad and the three-province autonomous Kurdistan region of north Iraq.

The dispute is often cited by officials and diplomats as the biggest long-term threat to Iraq's stability.

Soldiers and policemen cast their ballots for the provincial elections on Saturday, a week ahead of the main vote, the country's first since March 2010 parliamentary polls. It is also the first election since US troops withdrew from Iraq in December 2011.

The election also comes amid a long-running crisis between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and several of his erstwhile government partners, which officials and diplomats say insurgent groups exploit by using the political differences to enhance their room for manoeuvre on the ground.

More than 8,000 candidates are standing in the elections, with 378 seats on provincial councils up for grabs. An estimated 16.2 million Iraqis are eligible to vote.

Although security has markedly improved since the height of Iraq's confessional conflict in 2006-2007, 271 people were killed in March, making it the deadliest month since August, according to AFP figures.


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Bali investigators retrieve jet wreckage

Investigators have begun to retrieve the wreckage of the Lion Air plane that crashed off Bali. Source: AAP

INDONESIAN investigators have begun retrieving the wreck of a Lion Air plane that crashed at Bali's airport, as accounts emerged of a freak storm that could have caused the accident.

The Boeing 737-800 missed the runway as it came in to land on Saturday, slamming into the sea and splitting in two.

Dozens of the 108 people on board were injured, but there were no fatalities.

After the plane hit the water, terrified passengers swam to shore as police came to their aid in rubber dinghies.

Government officials and the airline said at the time of the crash that the weather had been fine.

But on Monday, transport ministry official Herry Bakti said the plane had been travelling through dense cloud at the time of the incident and one passenger told how the aircraft became engulfed in torrential rain.

French businessman Jean Grandy, 49, one of four foreigners on the plane, said that the flight from the city of Bandung in West Java had appeared to be landing smoothly.

"The final approach was fine," he said.

"Then suddenly, a cloud enveloped us. Torrents of water were pouring on us, it was an enormous downpour. It only lasted two, three minutes.

"It was almost as if it was night, even though the sun had been shining just before," said Grandy.

The Frenchman, who owns a shoe factory in Indonesia and lives in Bali, said it was an "extraordinary phenomenon" that could have happened to any plane - and that he planned to fly on Lion Air again on Wednesday.

His testimony supported the views of some analysts who said that as the plane was new, a freak weather incident may have caused the crash of the Boeing 737-800, which was delivered to Lion Air only last month.

Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent of Orient Aviation magazine, said the accident could have been caused by a change in wind direction and speed between different altitudes, or a strong downdraft from storm clouds.

"If that hit the aircraft when it was on final approach, there is the likelihood the pilots would not have had time to recover," he said.

The Indonesian pilot, Mahlup Gozali, who had more than 10,000 flying hours, and the Indian co-pilot, Chiraq Carla, tested negative for drugs and alcohol in preliminary tests, a transport ministry spokesman said.

Divers on Monday retrieved the cockpit voice recorder, which had become wedged between the body and wing of the wrecked plane, and pulled other small debris out of the water.

Salvage teams will be lifting the body of the plane in three parts, said Bali airport general manager Purwanto.

The tail will be lifted using a crane on Monday evening, and the whole operation should take two to three days to complete, said Purwanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Transport ministry official Bakti said that an interim report should be complete in around a month, but could not say when a final report would be completed.

Launched 13 years ago with just one plane, Lion Air has struck two of the world's largest aircraft orders in a staggering $US46 billion ($A44.00 billion) bet on Indonesia's air transport boom.

Saturday's crash has heightened fears the plans are overambitious for an airline that already has a poor reputation, has suffered a string of accidents, and is banned from EU and US skies because of safety fears.


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Syria troops 'break siege of army camps'

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 14 April 2013 | 19.50

SYRIAN troops have broken a months-long rebel siege on two key military bases in the northwestern province of Idlib, killing at least 21 opposition fighters, activists say.

"Regime forces managed to lift the siege on the Wadi Deif and Hamdiya military camps after the army went around the rebel fighters and attacked them from behind," the opposition British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.

At least 21 rebels were killed in the attack, which focused on the village of Babulin, the group said.

Troops "now control two hilltops on either side of the Damascus-Aleppo international highway" reopening a supply route for the army, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Rahman said two military trucks carrying materiel and soldiers have since been spotted passing through the area for the first time in months.

The area is in the countryside near the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan, which fell to rebel forces last October.

Rebels began blocking military supply routes north and to the nearby Wadi Deif and Hamdiya army bases after they seized Maaret al-Numan, which lies on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.

Elsewhere in the country, the Observatory reported air raids on the al-Hajar al-Aswad suburb of southern Damascus, as well as continued shelling of the Daraya suburb, where regime forces have been struggling to oust rebels.

Violence throughout Syria killed 138 people on Saturday, according to a tally from the Observatory, which says it relies on a network of doctors and activists on the ground for its figures.

Syrian opposition activists meanwhile say President Bashar al-Assad's forces destroyed the minaret of the historic Omari mosque in Daraa, where Syria's uprising erupted two years ago.

In amateur video footage the activists uploaded to YouTube, the mosque can be seen at the end of a street, its towering minaret toppling over after apparent shelling and crumbling into rubble and dust.

Other videos posted online show the mosque, which is thought to date back to the 7th century, had been targeted in shelling for several days.

"This regime of unrestrained barbarism targeted with tanks the minaret of the Omari mosque, a place full of symbols of civilisation and spirituality and humanity," said the opposition Syrian National Council.

"The minaret of this mosque, which was build by Caliph Omar bin al-Khattab, is the first in the whole of the Levant, and has been destroyed by the soldiers of the tyrant," it added, referring to President Assad.

As Syria's conflict continues into a third year, an increasing number of the country's key heritage sites, both religious and cultural, are being damaged in the fighting.

Syria has six sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.


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Five dead in Somalia courthouse attack

MILITANTS have launched a serious and sustained assault on Mogadishu's main court complex, detonating at least two blasts, taking an unknown number of hostages and exchanging extended volleys of gunfire with government security forces, witnesses say.

The attack on the country's Supreme Court complex began at around 12.30pm on Sunday and running battles with police and army forces lasted at least 90 minutes.

Two bomb blasts were heard and gunmen were seen on a court building roof firing shots, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.

A confirmed death toll wasn't immediately available but Hassan Abdulahi, a police officer, said he saw five dead bodies lying at the entrance to the court.

The gunmen took hostages in the main courtroom and forced their way into other rooms in the complex, said another police officer, Abdinasir Nor.

The number of hostages wasn't immediately known.

The armed men forced their way inside the complex and immediately set off an explosion, said Yusuf Abdi, who was near the court when the attack happened on Sunday.

A government spokesman, Mohamed Yusuf, confirmed the attack and said security forces had responded and were battling the militants.

Mogadishu's main government centre is heavily guarded with multiple security checks.

However, the security at the court complex is not nearly as strong.

Most militant attacks in Mogadishu are blamed on fighters for the Islamic extremist rebel group al-Shabab.


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UK considers offshore asylum camps: report

BRITAIN could be about to follow Australia's lead by processing asylum seekers in offshore desert camps.

Under a Tory plan to cut the number of unauthorised arrivals, "processing centres" would be set up in African countries to house people while their cases are examined, British tabloid The Sun reports.

A group of conservative MPs wants Britain to pay countries such as Kenya to host the camps.

The plan is included in a report by the Conservative Way Forward group.

Report author Julian Brazier says population growth is putting a strain on UK infrastructure.

"Overcrowding in turn holds back economic growth, reduces quality of life and puts heavy pressure on government spending," The Sun reports the Tory MP saying.

The conservative party has increasingly appealed to voters' perceived prejudices on immigration since Lynton Crosby was put back in charge of the Tory election campaign.

The Australian strategist is referred to as the Wizard of Oz in the British press after he helped former Liberal prime minister John Howard win four consecutive terms.

UK tabloid The Mail on Sunday reported this weekend the architect of British Prime Minister David Cameron's pro-gay marriage policy, Andrew Cooper, is to quit following a power battle with Mr Crosby.

The paper stated Mr Cooper was usurped by the Australian "fixer" who "specialises in 'dog whistle' tactics".

Australia currently sends boat arrivals to the Pacific island of Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea to be housed in camps while their asylum claims are processed.

The Labor government policy is based on the Howard-era Pacific Solution.


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First South Sudan oil reaches Sudan

SUDAN'S oil ministry says the first crude from South Sudan has reached its territory, bringing both impoverished countries closer to billions of dollars in revenue after a dispute over fees.

"The first batch of oil already arrived on Sudanese land yesterday," Sudan's undersecretary at the petroleum ministry, Awad Abdul Fatah said on Sunday.

"It's a small testing quantity."

Eight days ago South Sudan held a ceremony to restart oil production at the Thar Jath field in Unity state after a shutdown of more than a year.

The South halted crude production in early 2012, cutting off most of its revenue after accusing Khartoum of theft in a row over export fees.

China was the biggest buyer of the oil.

At talks in Addis Ababa last month, Sudan and South Sudan finally settled on detailed timetables to ease tensions, after months of intermittent border clashes, by resuming the oil flows and implementing eight other key pacts.

The deals had remained dormant after signing in September as Khartoum pushed for guarantees that South Sudan would no longer back rebels fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.


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Unknown fault 'caused latest Japan quake'

A PREVIOUSLY unknown active fault may have caused the magnitude-6.3 earthquake in western Japan this weekend, a government committee says.

Twenty-four people were injured and around 1930 houses were damaged by the 0533 quake on Saturday (0633 AEST), which was centred around Awaji Island at a depth of 15 kilometres, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on Sunday.

The active fault is believed to extend about 10 kilometres from north to south in the region, the government earthquake research committee told reporters, the Kyodo News agency reported.

"There are many as yet unrecognised active faults," Yoshimori Honkura, the committee chief, was quoted by Kyodo as saying.

The committee also said 390 aftershocks were recorded in the 25 hours since the main quake and the largest one with a magnitude of 3.8 jolting the area at 5:41 am Saturday.

In 1995, a magnitude-7.3 quake hit the same region, including the city of Kobe, killing more than 6400 people.


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