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Bob Hewitt to face South African court

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 20 Juni 2013 | 19.51

Australian tennis great Bob Hewitt has been summonsed to appear in a South African court. Source: AAP

FORMER tennis doubles champion Bob Hewitt has been summonsed to appear in a South African court following allegations he sexually abused young girls he coached decades ago.

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority told The Associated Press on Thursday that the summons had been served on the 73-year-old Australian on Saturday.

Hewitt was ordered to appear at Boksburg Magistrate's Court near Johannesburg on August 16, when he will learn what criminal charges he faces.

The NPA would not say what the charges are against Hewitt.

NPA spokesperson Phindi Louw said Hewitt, who is believed to live in the town of Addo on South Africa's south coast, would be informed of the charges when he appears in court.

Hewitt denied all the accusations when contacted by the AP.

Hewitt confirmed by telephone that he had received the summons and would "of course" appear in court, but wouldn't say what the charges were as "they had not been made public".

"I'll keep it private," he said. "I'm innocent of all charges and these accusations have caused untold hardship on my family."

Hewitt also said he intended to sue his accusers.

Hewitt has been at the centre of a long investigation into accusations he abused and raped girls as far back as the 1970s and through to the 1990s.

Recognised as one of the greatest doubles players of all time and a winner of 15 Grand slam doubles titles, Hewitt was indefinitely suspended from the International Tennis Hall of Fame last year due to the allegations.

When contacted by the AP on Wednesday, a man who identified himself on the telephone as Hewitt said he had no knowledge of any charges.

"I think it is best you call me in a month or so," he said, before declining further comment.

Two of Hewitt's alleged victims, Suellen Sheehan and Twiggy Tolken, accuse him of abusing them when he was their coach in South Africa.

Sheehan asked South African police to open an investigation in 2011, and accuses Hewitt of raping her when she was 12.

Tolken, who now lives in New Zealand, said Hewitt also began abusing her when she was 12.

A third woman, Heather Conner, of West Newbury, Massachusetts, also accuses Hewitt of abuse in the United States.

Conner said she was sexually abused from the age of 15, being forced to have sex with him near a high school in Massachusetts.

All three women agreed to be named by the AP.

Sheehan said she felt "numb" at the news that he was to appear in court and face charges.


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Allowing homelessness 'socially repugnant'

Corporate leaders in NSW have sleep on the streets of Sydney help to raise money for the homeless. Source: AAP

AS CEOs step out of the boardroom and onto the footpath for a cold night sleeping rough, an advocacy group is calling for a federal commitment to reduce homelessness across the country.

On Thursday night, CEOs will sleep on the streets to raise awareness and money for homelessness.

Today's homeless are very different to even 10 years ago, says Homelessness NSW CEO, Gary Moore.

Families, older people and migrants have now swelled the numbers of homeless people, joining women and children fleeing domestic violence, vulnerable teens, indigenous Australians, chronic rough sleepers and people leaving jail.

"Tolerating unacceptable levels of homelessness is an economically wasteful and social repugnant state of affairs," Mr Moore said in a statement.

He noted successive Commonwealth and NSW governments since 2009 have embraced reform of homeless services and extra funding, but he said the post-2009 funding tap will be turned off at June 30 next year.

"The scale and complexity of homelessness requires a generational suite of actions to make a real difference," Mr Moore said.

Tuesday's NSW Budget papers revealed only one of NSW's four measures of progress in tackling homelessness is being achieved - reducing the rate of indigenous homelessness.

At the time of the 2011 census, the overall rate of homelessness had increased.

New investment to reduce the risk of homelessness, to get people out of the homeless services system quickly and to focus on post-crisis support are key, Mr Moore said.

As the federal election approaches, he called for a bipartisan approach to funding, which he said would save a fortune in less than 10 years' time.

Mr Moore said measures like social impact bonds, NDIS-style consumer payments, targeted tax breaks for community housing investment, encouraging better use of under-utilised dwellings, and more effective rental brokerage and tenancy maintenance schemes should all be examined.


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Koo Stark cleared of painting theft

THE Duke of York's ex-girlfriend Koo Stark has walked free from court after she returned a STG40,000 ($A67,200) painting she was accused of stealing from a former partner.

The 57-year-old, of Knightsbridge in London, was appearing at Isleworth Crown Court, in west London, on Thursday after she allegedly took the artwork from the flat of Warren Walker, father of her daughter Tatiana.

But before the case went to trial, prosecution and defence reached an agreement for her to return the Anthonie van Borssom oil painting, which depicts a moonlit coastal landscape.

Stark - real name Kathleen - remained calm as she was cleared of one count of theft.

The American-born actress, then aged 26, dated the Duke of York after his return from the Falklands War in 1982. They went out together for 18 months.

Prince Andrew went on to marry Sarah Ferguson in 1986.

The painting was brought to court and handed over to a solicitor representing Walker.

Stark's defence said she believed it was hers when she took it.

Judge Andrew McDowall told her barrister Edward Henry: "It is an unfortunate fact that for many years these parties have been locked in battle in the civil and family courts.

"At the end of the day, the fact of the matter is if your client had acted through the civil courts, it would have been dealt with there and if she had not gone to the property and taken away the painting, this would never have happened."

In a statement read outside court by Stark's solicitor, Jules Azzopardi, she said: "Today I have been cleared of a charge that should never have been brought against me.

"I leave court with my liberty and my good name, but it should never have come to this."


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Facebook broke Indonesian terror case

SEFA Riano didn't try to hide his plans or his beliefs.

A Facebook page police traced to him is plastered with photos of bearded men in camouflage uniforms holding rifles and banners hailing "The Spirit of Jihad."

One status update in late April apologises to his parents before telling them goodbye.

Another declares ominously, "God willing, I will take action at the Myanmar Embassy, hope you will share responsibility for my struggle."

It ends with a yellow smiley face.

Days later, police arrested Riano, whose Facebook name is Mambo Wahab, just before midnight in central Jakarta.

Police say he and another man were on a motorbike carrying a backpack filled with five low-explosive pipe bombs tied together.

Riano, 29, is awaiting charges related to allegations that he plotted to bomb the embassy to protest the persecution of Muslims in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

A police investigator revealed Riano's connection to the page, which was still online Thursday, to The Associated Press.

The investigator spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to reporters.

The investigator said Riano caused his own downfall by publicising his mission on Facebook, but added that police believe it was another Facebook page that drew him to radical Islam to begin with.

Police said a growing number of young people in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, are being targeted for recruitment by terrorists on the social media site.

More than one in four of the country's 240 million people are on Facebook, thanks in large part to cheap and fast internet-capable phones.

While it is not clear how many terrorists are actually recruited through Facebook, the use of social networking to groom potential attackers poses new challenges for authorities struggling to eradicate militant groups that have been weakened over the last 10 years.

Though Facebook shuts down pages that promote terrorism when it learns of them, police say new pages are easily created and some have attracted thousands of followers.

Muhammad Taufiqurrohman, an analyst from the Centre for Radicalism and De-radicalisation Studies who works closely with Indonesian anti-terrorism officials, said 50 to 100 militants in the country have been recruited directly through Facebook over the past two years.

He said there were at least 18 radical Facebook groups in Indonesia, and one of them has 7000 members.

Police said some sites where radical discussion takes place focus on Islam, while others engage in talk about committing violence, such as how to make bombs.

Access is blocked unless group administrators allow users to participate.

Indonesian police say Facebook is one of many places where they've found terrorist activity online. They have detected militants using online games for attack drills.

A group was caught uploading propaganda videos on YouTube and terrorists are known to have purchased weapons using video calls, said Brigadier General Petrus Reinhard Golose, the director of operations at Indonesia's anti-terrorism agency.

Terrorists have used the internet for many years, but usually anonymously.

Groups such as al-Qaida have employed online discussion forums where people left comments but did not directly interact.

Today's smartphone generation appears to be operating more openly: As of Thursday, Riano still had about 900 Facebook friends.

The police investigator said authorities were alerted about "Mambo Wahab's" Myanmar bombing status update by other internet users.

Police used information collected from arrested militants in Riano's online networks to track his Web footprint.

After getting his internet protocol address and eventually linking that to a mobile phone, authorities say they were able to tap into conversations involving Riano and the plot's alleged mastermind, the investigator said.

The Mambo Wahab page has not been updated since Riano's arrest May 3.

Some people in Indonesian jails - even on death row - manage to post status updates, though others may be acting on their behalf.

Some Indonesian police want the law to address online communications that advocate or abet terrorism. Indonesia's information technology laws ban only pornography and illegal online financial transactions.

The government is drafting legislation that would criminalise hate speech and online terrorism activities.

Although police are starting to surf the internet as part of their work, many of those arrested for terrorism-linked activities on Facebook were caught not because of cyber patrolling, but because police received tips about their accounts.

Those cases include nine militants, including one woman, who were sentenced to up to 10 years in jail for funding terrorism activities by hacking into a Malaysian website and defrauding the company out $US800,000 ($A866,500) in cash and assets.

Indonesia has fought terrorism aggressively since the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

There have been no large-scale attacks for several years, though there have been several smaller strikes targeting mainly the government, police and anti-terrorism forces.

Well-funded terror networks have been disrupted, but radical clerics continue to spread their ideology to militants who set up military-style training camps.


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Life sentence for Rwandan genocide

A RWANDAN-BORN man has been sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court for committing massacres and crimes against humanity during the 1994 genocide in the Central African country.

Stanislas Mbanenande, 54, a Hutu who holds Swedish citizenship, was found to have instigated and to have been an accessory to murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and kidnappings.

He was found guilty of complicity in the assault on Tutsis who fled attacks on the slopes of Ruhiro Mountain in the southern parts of Kibuye in western Rwanda in April 1994. Hundreds were shot and beaten to death.

Mbanenande was also found to have recruited militant Hutu youth in the mass slaughter of Tutsi civilians, inciting them to attack Tutsis at a Catholic church and a football stadium.

He was also convicted of attempted murder over shooting at crowds of people, the Stockholm District Court's ruling said.

The proceedings opened in November and was the Nordic country's first related to the genocide.

Mbanenande had denied all the charges against him, and his attorney said he planned to appeal.

The court said testimony from witnesses had been crucial in the case and, although the events took place more than 19 years ago, witnesses were able to focus on "key details such as looks [of a person] during extremely traumatic events."

The court rejected claims by the defence that Rwandan authorities had fabricated evidence against Mbanenande. However, it said evidence linking Mbanenande to a massacre in the town of Kibuye was not strong enough.

Hearings were held in Stockholm as well as in Rwanda. Claims for damages presented by 21 victims were rejected by the court, which referred such claims to Rwandan authorities.

Mbanenande was arrested in December 2011 after an extradition request from Rwanda, which Stockholm rejected because of his Swedish citizenship.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the ethnic violence over 100 days.


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Suicide bombs kill 31 in Baghdad attacks

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 18 Juni 2013 | 19.51

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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