Suicide bombs kill 31 in Baghdad attacks

TWIN suicide bombs on a Shi'ite Muslim religious hall in north Baghdad on Tuesday killed 31 people and wounded 57 others, officials say.

The two attackers struck after Tuesday midday prayers at the Habib ibn al-Mudhaher Hussainiyah in the capital's Qahira neighbourhood, an interior ministry official and medical sources said.

The first bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the hall, while the second ran through the ensuing chaos and set off his explosives inside the building itself, said the officials.

The Hussainiyah, a Shi'ite Muslim hall that can be used for religious functions as well as prayers, lies adjacent to the Imam al-Sadiq university, a private teaching institution.

As a result, many of the victims were students, the police source said.

Bombings elsewhere in Baghdad and north of the capital in Salaheddin province, meanwhile, left two people dead and six others wounded.

Violence has surged across Iraq recently, with May the deadliest month in Iraq since 2008, sparking fears of a revival of the brutal sectarian war that left tens of thousands killed in 2006 and 2007.

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Pakistan funeral bomb kills 10

A BOMB attack has killed 10 people, including a provincial politician, and wounded more than 40 others at a funeral in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, police say.

The attack took place in the town of Shergarh in Mardan district during funeral prayers on Tuesday for the owner of a local compressed natural gas (CNG) station, Abdullah Khan.

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Embattled shipping operators form alliance

THREE leading shipping companies have announced an alliance across the Pacific and two other crucial routes in a strategy to face over-capacity and declining demand for transportation.

CMA CGM of France, Maersk Line of Denmark and Swiss MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company said that the new so-called P3 Network would initially use 255 ships on three trade lanes: Asia-Europe, Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic.

The venture would have capacity of 2.6 million standard-sized containers (TEU).

"Declining volume growth and over-capacity in recent years have underlined the need to improve operations and efficiency in the industry," the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.

In the scheme, each company will offer more shipping options to customers then they would individually "through better utilisation of vessel capacity," they added.

The companies intend to begin the program in the second quarter of 2014, but the go-ahead still requires regulatory approval as well as finalised contracts linking the companies.

Maersk Line, a unit of A P Maersk, will contribute 42 per cent of the joint shipping force. Italo-Swiss company MSC will pitch in 34 per cent and France's CMA CGM 24 per cent.

With world growth still yet to fully recover from the financial crisis, shippers are faced with declining traffic, lower volume demand and surging capacity as jumbo-sized ships come on line.

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G8 leaders agree not to pay ransoms

G8 leaders have agreed to stamp out the payment of ransoms for hostages kidnapped by "terrorists", British Prime Minister David Cameron's office says.

Downing Street said the world leaders meeting at a summit in Northern Ireland would also call on companies to follow their lead in refusing to pay for the release of abductees.

"Leaders agree to stamp out payment of ransoms to terrorists and call on companies to follow their lead," Cameron's office said on its Twitter feed.

The leaders of the world's most industrialised nations were focusing on counter-terrorism during talks on Tuesday, the second and final day of the summit.

British officials said Cameron had been keen to push the deal because funds raised by ransom payments were the main source of funding for terror groups, especially those in north Africa.

Britain was particularly focused on the subject following a hostage crisis at a gas plant in Algeria in January in which 37 foreign hostages were killed, among them six Britons.

Hostage-taking was worth $US70 million ($A74 million) to al-Qaeda-linked groups around the world over the last two years, British officials said.

Five of the G8 nations had been "shifting" on the issue while three did not pay ransoms as a matter of principle, British officials said.

In Britain, it is illegal to pay a ransom from the UK to anywhere else.

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Crew held as ship hits Philippine reef

EIGHTEEN Vietnamese crew members of a cargo ship have been detained after it ploughed into a coral reef in the central Philippines, the coastguard says.

The Unicorn Logger, a Panama-flagged freighter, ran aground at a protected marine sanctuary off the tiny island of Sambawan on Friday, coastguard spokesman Armand Balilo said.

"The crew are detained aboard their vessel as the damage to the reef is assessed," he told AFP on Tuesday.

The ship was carrying logs from Malaysia to Japan when it hit the reef, Balilo added.

A central Philippines coastguard spokesman, Ensign Jamaal Aceron, told AFP the ship will be towed for repairs to a shipyard in the central port of Cebu once the extent of the damage on the vessel is determined.

It was the latest in a series of maritime incidents at protected Philippine reefs this year.

A US Navy minesweeper ran aground at Tubbataha Reef, a World Heritage-listed marine sanctuary in the southern Philippines in January, leading to fines for reef damage and the dismantling of the ship.

A Chinese fishing vessel also ran aground at Tubbataha in April, causing even more damage.

The crew were arrested and charged for damaging the reef as well as for carrying endangered mammals.

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Singapore toilet tracker goes mobile

SINGAPOREANS can now track the status of the city-state's public toilets in real time, as a program to monitor facilities' cleanliness gets its own smartphone application.

"This app provides toilet users with the convenience of locating a clean toilet nearby and also providing feedback on a dirty toilet they have just visited," Emerson Hee, the program's executive director, said on Thursday.

Hee's Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS) launched the app on Wednesday, which will relieve hygiene-conscious Singaporeans of the suspense of stepping into a convenience of unknown cleanliness.

The initiative puts a further touch of polish on the sparkling reputation of a country where spitting, chewing and littering are punishable by strict fines, and where hygiene tips are posted in public spaces.

The LOO (Let's Observe Ourselves) Connect app classes the country's 40,000 public toilets into categories from disgusting to certified.

Toilets need at least a 4-star rating to pass muster as user-friendly, Hee said.

The Android-based app is a work in progress and relies on user contributions for data.

Users can post comments and photographs of toilets registered on the system, or add new locations on a special map.

"As a non-profit charity advocating for clean public toilets, we are always keen to leverage on the use of new technology to promote our cause," RAS president Tan Puay Hoon said.

As part of its Happy Toilet program, which has been running online for several years, the association also hopes to encourage the owners of persistently offensive facilities to brush up.

The app was developed by the Singapore Land Authority and Nanyang Polytechnic and can be downloaded on the Google Play Store.

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Abetz defends coalition workplace policy

OPPOSITION workplace spokesman Eric Abetz has rejected criticism of the coalition's workplace relations policy, arguing that it is designed to favour not one particular sector but to consider the best interests of the nation.

The opposition is facing criticism from industry and employer groups as well as the federal government after revealing its workplace proposals, including a greater take-up of individual flexibility agreements (IFAs).

Asked if the policy was the first step towards a return to the Howard Government's Work Choices reform and the use of Australian Workplace Agreements, Senator Abetz said it was not, and that a portion of the policy was based on a Labor-generated review.

"Labor's own Fair Work Review Panel ... even came up with recommendations, one of which we have adopted in this policy to ensure that this flexibility arrangement was more widely used," he told ABC television on Thursday.

Senator Abetz said the plan was "sensible" and "fair-minded" and he denied that the interest of business was the sole consideration in the formation of the policy.

"I see our core constituency ... is not the business community or any other sectional interest, it's the national interest, it is every Australian and what we are seeking to do is bring in policies that don't seek to divide," Senator Abetz said.

Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh says the opposition's industrial relations policy recognises the importance of productivity and is a "step in the right direction".

"It is recognising the need for engagement and communication involvement between management and the entire team," he said.

"That's important if you want to have an efficient business, and there are another number of elements that should help."

Mr Walsh said productivity was a big issue for the global mining giant.

The broadest measure of labour productivity - gross domestic product per hour worked - rose by an annual 3.5 per cent to December 2012 in Australia, which was the fastest rise in a decade, official data showed in March.

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Pell to appear before Vic abuse inquiry

Cardinal George Pell will give evidence before a Victorian child abuse inquiry later this month. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA'S most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, will appear before a Victorian child abuse inquiry.

Cardinal Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, and Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart will give evidence to the parliamentary inquiry's next public hearings later this month.

They welcomed the opportunity to appear before the inquiry, a statement from the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne said.

Cardinal Pell and Archbishop Hart had been consistent in their support for the inquiry and remain committed to the church's full co-operation with the inquiry, the statement added.

Archbishop Hart will appear at the inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations on May 20.

Cardinal Pell, who was archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 until 2001, will appear on May 27.

Cardinal Pell in his Christmas message apologised to those who suffered at the hands of priests, saying he was "deeply sorry" for the hurt that had occurred.

But he did not specifically mention allegations of child sex abuse by members of the clergy, only those who "suffered at the hands" of fellow Christians, Christian officials, priests and religious teachers.

Former Catholic priest Michael Parer, who served as a priest in the Melbourne diocese, has told the inquiry most Victorian bishops have withheld evidence from child abuse investigations.

In evidence given to the inquiry in March but suppressed until this week, Mr Parer said bishops should be held accountable to the same laws as everyone else.

"Bishops today are citizens, and they are under the law. Many, most, have withheld evidence in criminal cases," he told the inquiry.

"They have perverted the course of justice.

"They have failed to see that they are holding criminal evidence and they are obstructing the course of justice by not making that evidence available to the police."

The inquiry has heard that former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns was aware of child abuse accusations against pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale but moved him to a different parish.

The Christian Brothers have admitted to the inquiry that two brothers were not reported to police when child abuse allegations surfaced.

Mr Parer said he knew of 21 admitted pedophiles among the 445 seminarians he had studied with at Melbourne's Corpus Christi College in the 1950s.

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Syria's Assad must go, Kerry insists

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down, says US Secretary of State John Kerry (pic). Source: AAP

US Secretary of State John Kerry insists Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will have to step down as part of any political solution in Syria, as he held a third day of talks on the bloody conflict.

Speaking as he met Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, Kerry said all sides were working to "effect a transition government by mutual consent of both sides, which clearly means that in our judgment President Assad will not be a component of that transitional government".

Kerry also officially unveiled $US100 million ($A99.10 million) in additional US humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees, almost half of which will go to help Jordan struggling to cope with a tide of people fleeing the 26-month war.

Some 2,000 people are flooding across the border into Jordan every day, and the country now hosts some 525,000 refugees, Judeh said at the start of the talks in Rome.

"We have 10 per cent of our population today, in the form of Syrian refugees. It is expected to rise to about 20 to 25 per cent given the current rates by the end of this year, and possibly to about 40 per cent by the middle of 2014," he said.

"No country can cope with the numbers as huge as the numbers I've just described," he warned, adding Jordan was very grateful for the help of the international community.

Plans for an international conference to try to find a solution to the crisis were also continuing, Kerry said, after he agreed in talks in Moscow that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would work in tandem on the issue.

He had spoken with most of the foreign ministers from the countries involved and there is a "very positive response and a very strong desire to move to this conference and to try to find, at least exhaust the possibilities of finding, a political way forward".

UN chief Ban Ki-moon had also been in touch, so "we are going to forge ahead very, very directly to work with all of the parties to bring that conference together", Kerry added.

It's hoped the conference, aimed at finding a path towards a transitional government in Syria, could be held by the end of May, possibly in Geneva.

US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, has meanwhile also met with the Syrian opposition in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss the way forward, Kerry said.

Since the war erupted to oust Assad, more than 1.5 million Syrians have fled the country into neighbouring nations, including Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, vastly straining their resources.

Up to four million more could be displaced within the country as they seek to flee the fierce fighting, which has already claimed some 70,000 lives.

Meanwhile, Syria will "give Hezbollah everything" in recognition of its support and will follow the militant group's model of "resistance" against Israel, a Lebanese newspaper on Thursday quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying.

His comments, published by Al-Akhbar, reportedly came during meetings with Lebanese visitors in Damascus and appeared intended to refute any suggestion that Israeli raids on Syrian targets would halt assistance to the Shi'ite group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The newspaper said visitors quoted Assad as expressing "confidence, satisfaction and great gratitude towards Hezbollah".

The organisation is a long-time ally of the Syrian regime and has sent fighters to battle alongside Assad's troops, particularly in the Qusayr district of the central province of Homs.

Also on Thursday, anti-regime activists say Syrian warplanes are pounding rebel positions in two northern provinces.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the air force is targeting opposition forces in the battle for the Mannagh air base outside of northern city of Aleppo.

Rebels stormed the base near the border with Turkey on Sunday. They captured parts of it but could not hold on, because of the regime's superior air power.

In neighbouring Idlib province, there are heavy clashes outside several army bases near the government-controlled provincial capital.

Government troops and fighter planes are hitting the rebels, the Observatory said.

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Two women charged over NSW bleach attack

TWO women have been charged over several incidents in Sydney's northwest, including the throwing of a bleach-based toilet cleaner at a four-year-old girl from a car.

Police had been searching for the occupants of a small red car, believing they had vital information about the attack, which happened about 4.45pm (AEST) on Wednesday at Kellyville Ridge.

In one of the incidents a bottle of toilet cleaner was thrown from a car at a 36-year-old woman who was holding the hand of her four-year-old daughter while pushing a pram down the road.

Liquid from the bottle hit the four-year-old in the face, police say.

She was then taken to Westmead Children's Hospital.

Guita Badaoui, who operates Play 'n' Learn Long Daycare said the mother had just left the centre when the incident occurred.

"She was beside herself ... she had come running in quite hysterical, she had come to the kitchen not knowing where else to go," Ms Badaoui told Macquarie radio.

"Someone had thrown bleach on her (daughter's) face ... as soon as you walked in and you could smell the bleach that was reeking from this poor child."

About the same time a bottle of energy drink was thrown at another female pedestrian on Conrad Road.

A roll of garbage bags was also hurled at a woman riding a pushbike on nearby Stanhope Parkway.

She wasn't injured.

About 1pm on Thursday a 20-year-old Glenmore Park woman and a 22-year-old Ingleburn woman turned themselves in at Quakers Hill police station.

A red Hyundai Getz was seized and both were charged with causing bodily injury by corrosive fluid, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault.

The women were granted bail and are due before Blacktown Local Court on June 12.

Investigations are continuing.

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