US appalled by reports of Syrian massacre

THE United States says it is "appalled" by reports Syrian troops have killed more than 100 people, executing entire families, in the coastal village of Bayda this week.

"We strongly condemn atrocities against the civilian population and reinforce our solidarity with the Syrian people," State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said in a statement on Saturday.

The opposition National Coalition had reported a "large scale massacre" in the Sunni village of Bayda, in the southern suburbs of Banias, a predominantly Alawite city on the Mediterranean.

"The United States is appalled by horrific reports that more than 100 people were killed May 2 in gruesome attacks on the coastal town of Bayda, Syria," the US statement said.

"Regime and Shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and children.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy," it said.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bomb kills five US troops in Afghanistan

A ROADSIDE bomb has killed five US troops in southern Afghanistan, in the biggest attack on NATO-led forces since the Taliban launched their "spring offensive" a week ago.

"Five American soldiers were killed at about noon when their armoured vehicle hit a powerful roadside mine in Maiwand district," Kandahar province's police chief General Abdul Razeq said on Saturday.

The troops died in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack, NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed in a statement without specifying the nationalities of the victims, in line with coalition policy.

The attack came four days after three British soldiers were killed in a similar attack in the neighbouring province of Helmand.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Taliban militants frequently use roadside bombs against US-led foreign troops and their Afghan allies.

Afghan police and soldiers are taking over responsibility for security, but there is growing concern over the war-torn country's prospects after 2014 when all foreign combat deployments will finish.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Karzai urges Taliban to 'fight enemies'

PRESIDENT Hamid Karzai has urged Taliban insurgents to fight Afghanistan's enemies, an apparent reference to Pakistan after an Afghan soldier died in border clashes with the Pakistani army.

"Instead of killing their own people and destroying their own country, they must point their guns against places where plots are being made against Afghan prosperity and progress," Karzai told journalists in Kabul on Saturday.

An Afghan soldier died this week in clashes with the Pakistani army in the east of Afghanistan, sparking anti-Pakistan protests.

"They must stand along with this youth Mohammad Qasim who martyred to defend this soil," Karzai said, referring to the dead soldier.

Karzai's remarks are likely to worsen relations with Pakistan, whose military Afghanistan blames for supporting Taliban-led insurgents.

The United States and its allies want Pakistan to help broker peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban as the NATO-led military alliance prepares to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

The deadly clash took place along the Durand Line, a 19th-century British-drawn boundary through the tribal Pashtun region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Pakistan recognises the line as an international border between the two countries. Afghanistan disputes this.

Afghan officials say that the Pakistani government has built new military installations on Afghan soil near the line, which it wants removed.

Meanwhile, five US soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan.

The Kandahar governor's office said the soldiers were killed in the Maiwand district of the province.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Solar plane takes off on US trip

A SOLAR aircraft has taken off from California on its first attempt at a cross-country trip across the United States.

"Solar Impulse has successfully taken off from Moffett Air Field," a traffic control operator said as the plane left the runway in the morning sunrise on Friday, describing it as a "perfect takeoff".

Piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, the plane is scheduled arrive in Phoenix, Arizona later on Friday night.

It will also stay over in Dallas, Texas and the US capital Washington, before arriving in New York in early July.

The journey allows for up to 10 days at each stop in order to showcase the plane's technology to the public.

The plane could make the flight nonstop - which would take approximately three days, travelling at the aircraft's cruising speed of around 70 kilometres per hour, its creators said.

But with space for only one pilot and the intensive task of navigating the ultra-light but ultra-long plane through turbulence, Solar Impulse decided, for safety reasons, to break the flight up into multiple stages.

That will allow two pilots - Piccard and his co-founder, Swiss engineer and ex-fighter pilot Andre Borschberg - to share duties and rest between legs.

The Solar Impulse plane has already made several trips, including a 26-hour flight in 2010, but this will mark its first trip across a continent.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Solid jobs report sends US stocks higher

THE Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen above 15,000 for the first time following a solid US jobs report.

At 1429 GMT on Friday (0029 AEST, Saturday), the Dow reached 15,000.54, up 173.96, or 1.17 per cent. The rise followed a US Labor Department report that showed the US economy added 165,000 jobs in April, well above market expectations.

Upward revisions for the prior two months also showed 114,000 more jobs were added than initially estimated.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, a broad measure of the markets, earlier had topped 1600 points for the first time.

Among the Dow's blue-chip companies, the biggest gains came in industrial companies like Alcoa (up 2.4 per cent), Caterpillar (up 2.8 per cent), General Electric (up 2.3 per cent and 3M (up 2.3 per cent).

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Darfur mine disaster 'leaves 100 dead'

ABOUT 100 miners are thought to have died inside a collapsed gold mine in Sudan's Darfur region and nine rescuers trying to free them are now trapped, a miner says.

"Nine of the rescue team disappeared when the land collapsed around them yesterday (Thursday)," the miner, who had visited the scene and asked to remain anonymous, said on Friday.

On Monday the unlicensed desert gold mine began to collapse in Jebel Amir district, more than 200km northwest of the North Darfur state capital El Fasher.

The stench of death is now seeping out of the baked earth, the miner said.

"Yesterday eight bodies have been found and still they are looking for the others," he said.

"According to a count by people working in the mine, the number of people inside is more than 100."

On Thursday the Jebel Amir district chief, Haroun al-Hassan, said "the number of people who died is more than 60", but it was unclear whether anyone might still be alive.

He said rescuers were using hand tools out of fear that machinery would cause a further collapse.

But the ground fell around some of the rescuers anyway.

"We are still searching for the bodies," the district chief said, adding it was unclear how many victims there might be. "We are having difficulty to reach them."

Production from unofficial gold mines has become a key revenue source for the cash-strapped government in Khartoum.

It is also a tempting but dangerous occupation for residents of Sudan's poverty-stricken western region of Darfur, which has been devastated by a decade of civil war.

A humanitarian source said earlier this year that close to 70,000 people were digging for gold in Jebel Amir.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

China reports 27th death from bird flu

The death toll from the H7N9 bird flu virus in China has risen to 25, state media reports. Source: AAP

THE death toll from the H7N9 bird flu virus has risen to 27, state media says, after a man died in central China's Hunan Province.

The 55-year-old whose surname was given as Jiao died on Wednesday after receiving medical treatment, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday, citing local authorities.

More than 120 people have been diagnosed with the virus since it was first reported in late March, with most cases confined to eastern China.

The only one reported outside the mainland has been in Taiwan. That victim was infected in China, but led to Asian countries urging renewed vigilance against the virus.

Experts fear the possibility of the virus mutating into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to trigger a pandemic.

The World Health Organisation has said so far there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission but warned H7N9 is "one of the most lethal" influenza viruses ever seen, and urged travellers against contact with live poultry.

Chinese researchers, reporting in The Lancet a week ago, said they had confirmed poultry as a source of the virus.

Chinese health officials have acknowledged so-called "family clusters", where members of a single family have become infected, but have not established any confirmed instances of human-to-human transmission.

Most of the cases reported have not yet resulted in death, and some patients have been discharged from hospital after apparently recovering.

China confirmed 19 new cases of the virus in the week leading up to May 1, Xinhua said.

But the number new cases in Shanghai has seen a "dramatic slowdown", Nancy Cox, director of the influenza division at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week, describing the slowdown as "very encouraging".

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

I'll ditch the NDIS levy: Palmer

Clive Palmer says there is no justification for raising the Medicare Levy to help pay for the NDIS. Source: AAP

CLIVE Palmer says his United Australia Party would abolish the increase in the Medicare Levy designed to help pay for the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) if it is elected at the September election.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on Wednesday the levy would rise 0.5 percentage points to two per cent from July 2014.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said on Thursday the coalition would consider the rise.

But Mr Palmer says there is "no justification" in raising the levy.

"Mr Abbott and Ms Gillard are incompetent and this is resulting in this increase of the Medicare levy," he said in a statement on Thursday.

He said both leaders had resorted to increasing taxes to pay for their policies.

"When the United Australia Party takes government at the next federal election, any increase in the levy will be abolished," Mr Palmer said.

The Medicare levy increase will raise about $3.3 billion a year - less than half the $8 billion or more to run the care scheme each year when it begins full operation from 2018/19.

It will add $350 a year to the tax bill of a person earning $70,000 a year.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

UN sounds alarm on record Arctic ice melt

THE Arctic's sea ice melted at a record pace in 2012, the ninth-hottest year on record, compounding concerns about climate change underscored by extreme weather such as Hurricane Sandy, the UN weather agency says.

In a report on the situation in 2012, the World Meteorological Organisation said on Thursday that during the August to September melting season, the Arctic's sea ice cover was just 3.4 million square kilometres.

That was a full 18 per cent less than the previous record low set in 2007.

WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud dubbed it a "disturbing sign of climate change."

"The year 2012 saw many other extremes as well, such as droughts and tropical cyclones. Natural climate variability has always resulted in such extremes, but the physical characteristics of extreme weather and climate events are being increasingly shaped by climate change," he said.

"For example, because global sea levels are now about 20 centimetres higher than they were in 1880, storms such as Hurricane Sandy are bringing more coastal flooding than they would have otherwise," he added.

October's Hurricane Sandy killed almost 300 people and caused major destruction in the Caribbean before developing further strength and causing tens of billions of dollars in damage and around 130 deaths in the eastern United States.

Typhoon Bopha, the deadliest tropical cyclone of the year, hit the Philippines twice in December, sparking floods and landslides which killed more than 1,000 people.

The WMO said that the 2012 global land and ocean surface temperature was estimated to be 0.45C above the 1961-1990 average of 14.0C.

That marked the ninth warmest year since records began in 1850 and the 27th consecutive year that the global land and ocean temperatures were above the 1961-1990 average, it underlined.

Jarraud noted that the rate of warming varies from year to year due to a range of factors, including the El Nino and La Nina weather phenomena - which see warming and cooling, respectively, in the Pacific Ocean - as well as volcanic eruptions.

Last year's warming came despite a cooling La Nina at the beginning of the year.

"The sustained warming of the lower atmosphere is a worrisome sign," said Jarraud.

"The continued upward trend in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and the consequent increased radiative forcing of the Earth's atmosphere confirm that the warming will continue," he added.

Above-average temperatures were observed across most of the globe's land surface areas, most notably North America, southern Europe, western Russia, parts of northern Africa and southern South America, the WMO noted.

Nonetheless, cooler than average conditions were observed across Alaska, parts of northern and eastern Australia, and central Asia, it said.

Precipitation also varied, with drier-than-average conditions across much of the central United States, northern Mexico, northeastern Brazil, central Russia, and south-central Australia.

Northern Europe, western Africa, north-central Argentina, western Alaska, and most of northern China were meanwhile wetter than average.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Major Australian exhibition in London

THE British are being encouraged to overcome their "shameful ignorance" of Australian art by attending the most extensive exhibition of Australian works ever shown in the United Kingdom.

It was revealed on Thursday that the Prince of Wales will be the patron of the September exhibition which is simply called Australia.

"People in this country have been, historically, shamefully ignorant of Australian art," Royal Academy of Arts chief executive Charles Saumarez Smith said at the press launch in London.

"The exhibition will be, for everyone in this country, a great revelation."

The exhibition includes indigenous and non-indigenous art from 1800 to the present day.

It focuses on the influence of landscape and was several years in the making.

"There has never been an exhibition like this before," co-curator Kathleen Soriano from the Royal Academy said.

"This survey is long, long overdue."

The last major UK exhibition of Australian art was in the 1960s but it focused on contemporary works only.

The academy last hosted an Australian exhibition in the early 1920s.

The 2013 exhibition brings together works from the most important public collections in Australia.

Works by artists including Albert Namatjira, Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts, Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley and Tracey Moffatt will be on display in London.

Controversial photographer Bill Henson will also be featured.

Judy Watson has been commissioned to create a new sculpture that will be displayed in the academy's courtyard.

Based on a bowerbird's mating structure it will be a larger version of an existing Watson work.

It will stand 6m high as opposed to the 2m-tall Fire and Water in Canberra.

"I'm hoping people will experience the strangeness of this structure encircling them and inviting people to walk through it," Watson told AAP.

The Australian government has contributed $200,000 towards the exhibition.

There's also $50,000 for other Australian events, such as screenings of indigenous films, on the sidelines.

Deputy high commissioner Andrew Todd says the government is "immensely proud" of the show.

"Artists can portray through moving images or still images a real sense of the history, the nature and the dilemmas that Australia faces," Mr Todd told AAP.

"This exhibition brings together iconic works of art from the past and works of art that will be iconic into the future."

The BBC will broadcast a three-part series on Australian art to coincide with the London exhibition.

The series will be presented by former Art Gallery of NSW director Edmund Capon.

The exhibition, organised in partnership with the National Gallery of Australia, opens on September 21 and will run until early December.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Nationals WA president stands down

COLIN Holt has stood down as The Nationals' West Australian president because of his increasingly heavy parliamentary workload.

Mr Holt, who held the position for four years, was last month appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister for training and workforce development Terry Redman and is also leader of The Nationals WA in the Legislative Council.

David Eagles has accepted the role of acting state president until the party's state conference in August.

Meanwhile, several nominations were received for the party's new candidate for the federal seat of O'Connor, currently held by retiring MP Tony Crook, before the close of nominations on Tuesday.

While the party's policy is to not name nominees, one that is known is William "Chub" Witham, who worked as a geologist in the Goldfields and is well known in the Great Southern region.

The successful candidate will be ratified at the State Council meeting on May 25.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

US boy, 5, accidentally shoots sister dead

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy playing with a rifle given to him as a gift accidentally shot dead his younger sister, officials say, thrusting the issue of US gun violence back into the spotlight.

The boy's two-year-old sister was pronounced dead after being rushed to a hospital following the shooting on Tuesday in rural Kentucky, police said.

Cumberland County Coroner Gary White on Wednesday identified the girl as Caroline Starks and said the children's mother was cleaning the house at the time and had stepped outside onto the porch.

"She said no more than three minutes had went by and she actually heard the rifle go off. She ran back in and found the little girl," White said.

The .22 calibre rifle had been given to the boy last year and was kept in the corner of a room. The parents didn't realise a shell had been left in it.

"It's a Crickett," White told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "It's a little rifle for a kid. ...The little boy's used to shooting the little gun."

An autopsy was set to be conducted but White said he expects the shooting will be ruled accidental.

"Just one of those crazy accidents," White said.

"Down in Kentucky where we're from, you know, guns are passed down from generation to generation," White said. "You start at a young age with guns for hunting and everything."

What is more unusual than a child having a gun, he said, is "that a kid would get shot with it."

The Crickett is just one of many child-sized rifles on the market and is sold with the tag line 'My First Rifle.'

It comes in a number of child-friendly barrel designs and colours, including hot pink for little girls. A host of accessories are also available, like story books and a gun-toting beanie baby of the rifle's mascot, a cartoonish cricket.

"It's a normal way of life, and it's not just rural Kentucky, it's rural America - hunting and shooting and sport fishing. It starts at an early age," said Cumberland County Judge Executive John Phelps. "There's probably not a household in this county that doesn't have a gun."

In Cumberland County, as elsewhere in Kentucky, local newspapers feature photos of children proudly displaying their kills, including turkey and deer.

It was the second fatal shooting involving minors in America this week.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that a five-year-old girl in a remote Alaska community had been shot and killed by her eight-year-old brother on Monday. The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear.

The United States has been embroiled in a heated debate over gun control and gun culture in the wake of a horrific December shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut that killed 26 young children and educators.

President Barack Obama has pushed for tougher federal gun laws to require universal background checks on gun buyers and called for a ban on assault weapons like the one used in Newtown.

But last month, his background check proposal - condemned by the powerful National Rifle Association as an infringement on Americans' constitutional right "to keep and bear arms" - failed to muster the necessary 60 votes needed to clear the US Senate.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple raises record $16.47b in bond sale

TECHNOLOGY giant Apple has confirmed it sold $US17 billion ($A16.47 billion) in bonds in the biggest corporate debt issue ever.

The bond sale, described in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, broke the record of $US16.5 billion from Roche Holding in 2009, according to the research firm Dealogic.

The debt-free Apple offered six tranches of debt, four at fixed rates and two at floating rates with the maturity between three and 30 years.

For the three-year bonds, Apple will pay a rate of 0.45 per cent, which according to Dealogic is the lowest coupon rate on record, tied with Texas Instruments, Unilever Capital and Walt Disney for comparable notes.

The bond maturities go up to 30 years, with a rate of 3.85 per cent, according to the SEC documents.

The company chose to issue debt to finance part of the $US100 billion in share buybacks and dividends it pledged to undertake through the end of 2015.

Apple had a cash pile of $US145 billion at the end of March.

But a significant part of the money is in foreign accounts and the company decided it was better to borrow than bring the money back into the US because of tax issues.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Canberra unveils fashionista underbelly

IT'S usually wise to separate clothes and moths but one young Canberra fashion designer has embraced the flying critters.

Alice Sutton is among local designers launching collections at Canberra's inaugural fashion week - Fashfest - which opened on Wednesday night, with sold-out shows until Saturday.

Sutton's fashion label Edition draws inspiration from uniquely Canberra landscapes and its creatures including the life cycle of the Bogong Moths, which invade Parliament House each spring.

"There's cocoon shapes, and wing line aspects," she told AAP.

"Everybody hates them, I thought it would be fun to look at them in a new light."

Her new collection, which channels the Yarralumla brickworks, one of the earliest construction projects in Canberra, will be unveiled on Friday.

Fashfest organisers have transformed a construction site for luxury accommodation at Canberra's airport into a temporary nightclub-like catwalk.

"Canberra's in the middle of Sydney and Melbourne, people usually have to travel to get a taste of this," organiser Clint Hutchinson told AAP.

"There's so much local talent here in Canberra that doesn't usually get the opportunity to shine on a stage."

Behind the scenes models sporting Baku bikinis are huddled by heaters, wearing ugg boots and dressing gowns as they try to ward off hypothermia on a frosty late autumn night.

"It's bloody cold... We're on stage for five minutes and then we can come back and rug up again," model and university student Doris Gong told AAP.

One warms up instantly looking at the brightly coloured giraffe, seahorse and bird prints of Perpetually Five designer Mitch Thompson.

Mr Squiggle art sessions with primary school kids fed into his creative print-making process.

"It's clothing for fathers that interacts with their children," he said.

German born, Cooma-bred model Anneliese Seubert, who calls Canberra home, stole the show in a gold-sequinned mermaid green tulle ball gown by Vicky Kidd-Gallican's Rockstar and Royalty label.

Seubert began modelling in the nation's capital as a schoolgirl in the 90s before Paris runways and international Vogue cover shoots beckoned.

Five months ago she gave birth to her first child, daughter Camille.

"It's lovely to be back where I started, it's come full circle," she said.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Several hurt in Istanbul May Day clashes

SEVERAL people have been injured as Turkish riot police used water canon and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who defied a May Day ban on demonstrations in a central part of Istanbul.

About a dozen people were hospitalised after exposure to tear gas which clogged the air around the symbolic Taksim square, according to AFP journalists.

Two policemen were among those injured as well as an AFP photographer who was assaulted by protesters wearing balaclavas who broke one of his cameras.

The Istanbul governor's office said 20 protesters had been arrested.

The Turkish government decided to ban May Day gatherings on Taksim Square - a traditional rallying point --saying that because of renovations begun in November, security could not be assured for the tens of thousands of demonstrators expected.

But the leftist Disk union vowed to ignore the ban. Turkey has mobilised 22,000 police to provide security throughout the day.

Protesters threw stones at the police who tried to prevent the protest in the Besiktas neighbourhood of Istanbul, which is about two kilometres from Taksim square.

"Death to fascism. Long live May 1," shouted the protesters who were rallying to calls from leftist parties and unions.

Clashes erupted in three neighbourhoods leading to Taksim Square where the authorities had blocked off the streets to prevent protesters from reaching it.

The Istanbul office of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, located in Besiktas, were barricaded and defended by dozens of policemen backed by anti-riot armoured vehicles.

A group of 30 feminists, waving violet flags and shouting "all together against fascism", was pushed back by police firing tear gas.

By midday tension had abated and the protesters slowly dispersed.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

'WA brothers in S Arabia need help'

AUSTRALIA must do all it can to help two West Australian brothers in Saudi Arabia, one behind bars and the other in hiding and facing arrest, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says.

Senator Ludlam says he understands Shayden Thorne, 25, is in custody facing allegations of terrorism.

His brother Junaid, 23, is wanted by authorities after having previously been detained for taking part in a protest against the Saudi government's treatment of political prisoners.

"Saudi Arabia is not renowned for due process, rule of law or fair treatment of suspects. It is essential that the federal government makes the maximum effort to protect the human rights of Junaid and Shayden Thorne," Senator Ludlum said in a statement on Wednesday night.

He said Shayden Thorne had allegedly been tortured.

"The Australian government must investigate these claims as vigorously as possible. It is essential that Foreign Minister (Bob) Carr does all he can to ensure the fair treatment of these two Australians."

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman confirmed a 25-year-old West Australian man was on trial for alleged terrorism-related offences and was being detained in a prison outside the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

"Consular officials from the Australian Embassy in Riyadh have been providing consular assistance to the man since his arrest in November 2011. Consular staff in Canberra are in regular contact with the man's family in Australia," he said.

The spokesman said the embassy was also assisting a 23-year-old WA man whose Australian passport was currently held by Saudi authorities.

"The man is not detained. Efforts are under way to clarify his legal situation," he said.

Junaid Thorne said his brother, Shayden, had not told him whether authorities had beaten him.

"I have seen a few bruises on his body, but he never wanted to tell me that he was being tortured," Junaid told ABC Television on Wednesday.

"When he managed to see his lawyer he told him he had been beaten very bad, lashed with cables."

Junaid said he had been in hiding for two months.

"So I have been unable to visit or speak to him," he said.

He said the terrorism charges against his brother had no basis.

"My lawyer has attended two of his trials in Riyadh and they have not provided any proof whatsoever," Junaid said.

The 23-year-old said he would leave Saudi Arabia "tomorrow" if he had the opportunity.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

US boy, 5, accidentally shoots dead sister

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy who was playing with a .22 calibre rifle he'd been given as a gift accidentally shot and killed his two-year-old sister in their Kentucky home, officials say.

The shooting happened on Tuesday in rural Cumberland county and the little girl was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, the state police said.

Cumberland County Coroner Gary White identified the girl as Caroline Starks and said the children's mother was cleaning the house at the time and had stepped outside onto the porch.

"She said no more than three minutes had went by and she actually heard the rifle go off. She ran back in and found the little girl," White told WKYT news.

The rifle had been given to the boy last year and was kept in the corner of a room. The parents didn't realise a shell had been left in it.

"It's a Crickett," he told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "It's a little rifle for a kid. ...The little boy's used to shooting the little gun."

An autopsy was set to be conducted on Wednesday, but White said he expects the shooting will be ruled accidental.

"Just one of those crazy accidents," White said.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Syria opposition denounce Hezbollah threat

SYRIA'S opposition has denounced what it called "threats" by the head of Hezbollah, and warned against any intervention by the Lebanese Shi'ite group or by Iran in the Syrian conflict.

The speech was also criticised by Lebanese opposition leader Saad Hariri, who accused Hezbollah of "leading Lebanon to ruin" by intervening in Syria.

"The Syrians and the Lebanese hoped... that the Hezbollah leadership would stop their attacks on Homs and Damascus and take into account the gravity of the situation in the region," the Syrian National Coalition said in a statement.

"But they heard nothing but threats... and warnings against setting the region on fire and an admission of their interference in Syrian affairs," the key opposition movement said.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that members of the group are fighting inside Syria and suggested Iran and other states could intervene to support the Damascus regime against rebels.

President Bashar al-Assad has "true friends in the region who will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of the United States, Israel and 'takfiri' groups," he said of Sunni Muslim groups battling the regime.

"If the situation gets more dangerous, states, resistance movements and other forces will be obliged to intervene effectively in the confrontation on the ground," he added.

"You will not be able to bring down the regime militarily," Nasrallah told Syria's rebel forces. "The battle is still long."

The Syrian opposition has long accused Hezbollah of dispatching fighters to fight alongside government forces, including in Qusayr in central Homs province and at the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine near Damascus.

The Coalition called on the Lebanese government "to immediately put an end to Hezbollah military operations in the regions close to the Syrian border."

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shots fired into Sydney home

SHOTS have been fired into a house full of people in Sydney's south.

Police rushed to the home on Moorefields Road, Kingsgrove late on Monday night and found several bullet holes in a side fence and a side door.

Bullet holes were also found in several cars parked outside the house, police said.

A car was heard fleeing the scene about the same time as the shots were fired.

No one was injured.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mandela in good shape: ANC

SOUTH Africa's former president Nelson Mandela is in "good shape" after his recent hospitalisation, the ruling ANC says, after President Jacob Zuma visited the democracy icon.

"They found president Mandela in good shape and in good spirits," the party said in a statement.

Zuma and the top brass of the African National Congress dropped in on the ailing 94-year-old at his Johannesburg home, where he has been recuperating under high-care since his hospital release earlier this month.

Mandela returned home on April 6 after spending 10 days in hospital being treated for a recurrent lung infection.

The ANC visitors were briefed by Mandela's medical team and "are satisfied that president Mandela is in good health and is receiving the very best medical care".

The ANC said Mandela was "keenly aware of the goodwill that has been outpouring from the peoples of the globe as befitting his status as our icon".

"The African National Congress thanks all South Africans and the international community for keeping president Mandela in their thoughts and prayers," it added.

Mandela's latest hospitalisation was his third since December.

South Africa's first black president was admitted for a night for a scheduled check-up in March and in December he was hospitalised for 18 days for a lung infection and gallstones surgery.

That stint was his longest since he walked free from 27 years in jail in 1990.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Subaru recalls more than 10,000 wagons

SUBARU is recalling just over 10,000 of its 2014 Forester wagons because the floor mats can interfere with the clutch, brake or gas pedals.

The recall affects Foresters made from January 2013 through March. The company says the floor mats can curl when exposed to heat.

The problem was discovered in cars arriving at a port in Vancouver, Washington.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the mats could distract the driver or interfere with operation of the car.

Subaru traced the problem to improperly manufactured backing on the mats.

Dealers will replace all four mats free of charge. It will begin notifying owners in April.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cut back Medicare, think tank says

MEDICARE funding should be split to allow generations X and Y to save for their own future health needs before the system is eventually scrapped, a right-wing think tank says.

The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) is calling for a complete overhaul of Medicare because it says an ageing population and the rising cost of medical technology is making it unsustainable.

There has been an 80 per cent increase in federal health spending since 2000, and the trend is challenging the long-term future of publicly funded universal care.

Report author Dr Jeremy Sammut says without change "governments will struggle to fund the health services and other services that people will want and need".

Top of his list of solutions is the creation of "New Medicare" for generations X and Y only.

New Medicare would create superannuation-styled savings accounts to pay for minor health problems, with annual deposits made by the federal government in lieu of Medicare entitlements.

Insurance vouchers would be issued so people could buy cover for chronic complaints, under a system that would set a mandatory minimum range of services.

Baby boomers and those older would remain in the current system, which would be phased out when the self-funded New Medicare matured.

Dr Sammut also called for the reintroduction of compulsory co-payments for GP visits and for a means test on Medicare entitlements, so the government wasn't paying for the health needs of the well-off.

"The government tries to be all things to all people and it tries to provide all services to people whether they need them or not, whether they can fund it themselves or not," Dr Sammut said.

"Because health is seen as a bit of political sacred cow and we have these romantic ideas about this universal system, no one is prepared to make any hard decisions."

He admitted Generation Y - generally those born after 1977 - and Generation X - those born after 1966 - would oppose changes excluding them from the universal health care enjoyed by older Australians.

"Yes, there are costs for Gen Y and Gen X, but they are going to pay one way or another," he said.

"Either they are going to pay through their taxes to fund an inefficient public health system, or we can move to this more efficient system."

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mum forced 14-year-old to get pregnant

A WOMAN desperate for another child forced her 14-year-old daughter to get pregnant using syringes of donor sperm, a British judge says.

In a ruling reported for the first time on Monday, High Court judge Peter Jackson said the mother had behaved in "a wicked and selfish way" that almost defied belief.

The judge said the woman, an American divorcee living in Britain with three adopted children, hatched the plan after she was prevented from adopting a fourth.

The scheme involved getting her oldest daughter to inseminate herself with syringes of sperm purchased over the internet from a Denmark-based company, Cryos International.

Jackson said the daughter, identified only as A, "became pregnant at the mother's request, using donor sperm bought by the mother, with the purpose of providing a fourth child for the mother to bring up as her own".

In his ruling, the judge quoted the teenager as saying she was shocked by the suggestion, but thought, "If I do this ... maybe she will love me more."

"My mum is a very determined person and she does her best not to let anything get in her way if she wants it," the teenager added.

The judge said the mother also made the teenager use douches of vinegar or lemon and lime juice in hopes of increasing her chances of having a girl.

The judge said it was likely but not certain that the daughter soon became pregnant and suffered a miscarriage. After six more attempts with the donor sperm, she gave birth to a baby boy in July 2011, when she was 17.

But midwives at the hospital became alarmed by the odd behaviour of A's mother. Her daughter wanted to breastfeed the baby, but her mother said: "We don't want any of that attachment thing."

The hospital alerted the authorities, and the children were taken into foster care. The mother is now serving a five-year jail term for child cruelty.

Details of the case were heard during proceedings at the family division of the High Court over the children's future last year. They were reported for the first time on Monday after several British media organisations, including the publisher of The Guardian newspaper, challenged reporting restrictions.

A court order bars identifying the family members in order to protect the children.

22.24 | 0 komentar | Read More