Three elderly killed with brick in China

A CHINESE nursing home worker accused of killing three residents and injuring 15 others with a brick had argued with his boss over unpaid wages.

LUO Renchu, 64, attacked elderly residents and staff at the privately run home in Hunan province early on Thursday morning, the first day of the Chinese New Year, Shuangfeng county officials say.

Luo fled the scene and police were still searching for him on Saturday.Citing police, the official Xinhua News Agency reported that the attack happened shortly after Luo argued with the nursing home's owner over unpaid wages of 40,000 yuan ($A8350).Luo and his wife, who also works at the Aixin Nursing Home, had been promised 10,000 yuan before the new year.But owner Fang Hongchun gave them only 6000 yuan, Xinhua said.The agency said the 15 injured were residents and the owner's mother and brother. Most suffered head injuries and six were in life-threatening condition.

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Teen survives 500-metre drop in Alps

A BRITISH teenager has suffered little more than a few bruises after falling 500 metres down a glacier in the Austrian Alps.

THE 14-year-old skier and several friends were taking panoramic pictures on the Moelltaler glacier, in the Austrian province of Carinthia, on Friday when he moved dangerously close to a rim.

Authorities say the boy slipped on the icy ground with his ski boots and dropped down a steep chute.Rescuers found him half a kilometre below with only slight injuries.

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More wild weather for NSW

NSW'S northeast is set for another night of heavy rain and high winds as a trough extending from devastating Cyclone Marcia moves out to sea.

EMERGENCY workers have so far responded to more than 700 requests for help in the region following the arrival of wild weather and localised flooding.

Damaging winds of about 65 km/h featuring peak gusts of 100 km/h are forecast for southern parts of the Northern Rivers and parts of the Mid North Coast before the low pressure system departs land on Sunday, the Bureau of Meteorology says.A State Emergency Service spokeswoman told AAP on Saturday evening response crews would remain on hand, with gale force winds likely to buffet the Byron, Coffs and Macquarie coasts on Sunday.The SES has responded to 727 jobs since Friday, mostly related to inundation, minor property damage and fallen trees.Most of the calls have come from Tweed Heads and Ballina.Strong winds forecast for Saturday night could mean a pick-up in the requests, the spokeswoman said.On Saturday night the BoM said flood warnings were current for the Tweed, Brunswick, Richmond and Wilsons Rivers.It said the town of Lismore was experiencing minor flooding.Widespread rainfall of 50 to 80mm is forecast with local falls as high as 100 to 150mm in the Northern Rivers district, with winds of up to 100km/h.A flood watch is current for the Tweed Valley, Brunswick Valley, Richmond and Wilsons valleys, Clarence Valley, Bellinger Valley and Nambucca Valley.The bureau said there was a more than 70 per cent chance of flooding in the areas on Saturday and Sunday.

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89 boys abducted by South Sudan group

AN armed group has abducted 89 boys in South Sudan, the UN children's agency says.

UNICEF said in a statement on Saturday the boys, some as young as 13, were abducted near Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile state.

It said a UNICEF education team reported the children were taken while doing exams in the town of Wau Shilluk.Citing witnesses, the statement added that armed men surrounded the community and searched house by house, forcibly taking boys older than 12.It is not clear which group carried out the abductions.Watchdog groups have persistently accused South Sudan's warring factions of actively recruiting and using child soldiers.

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Greek PM warns of tough talking ahead

GREEK Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has hailed the "important success" of Greece's loan negotiations and what he called "the end of austerity and the bailout" but warned Greeks that difficult negotiations lie ahead.

"WE won a battle, but not the war. The difficulties lie ahead of us," Tsipras said in a TV appearance made on very short notice on Saturday.

The Greek government is facing a Monday deadline to come up with credible reform proposals to extend the existing bailout deal and the drafting of a new one.Tsipras is meeting with his inner cabinet later Saturday to discuss the proposals.Friday's agreement to extend the country's rescue loans, although conditional, was greeted with relief by many people as a first step forward and away from the crushing austerity of recent years.Others were more sceptical, wondering whether the left-wing Syriza government will be able to keep even a fraction of its promises and how it will find the money to finance them.

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Aust plays part in comet rendezvous

IN the fields of human achievement, landing a washing machine sized probe onto a speeding comet millions of kilometres from earth must rank up there with man's first steps on the moon.

THE stunning rendezvous occurred late last year when the Rosetta orbiter released its Philae lander to touch down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko half a billion kilometres from earth - and Australia played its part.

Dr Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations for the European Space Agency, said aspects of this mission had never been encountered before and were extremely challenging."What I found most difficult of this mission was the rendezvous and flying around the comet. It has very little to do with normal space flight," he said.Dr Ferri, in Australia to deliver a presentation on the Rosetta mission, said ESA operated the small Gnangara antenna outside Perth which tracked initial progress of Rosetta following launch from French Guyana, South America, in 2004.Subsequently the larger deep space tracking station at New Norcia, north of Perth, tracked Rosetta to the comet.Rosetta's probe Philae landed on the comet surface but failed to anchor properly.It now lies on an angle in the shadow of a cliff or crater wall, its battery depleted. Scientists hope to revive Philae next month as the comet approaches the sun and extra light falls on its solar panels.The mission produced the first images from the surface of a comet plus a huge amount of scientific data on comet composition.The US journal Science billed this as the top scientific achievement for 2014.Australia is a significant user of space services, launching satellites through both ESA and NASA.But once Australia hosted space facilities and even launched a satellite in 1967, the third nation on earth to launch a satellite from its own territory.Now the federal government has commissioned another report into the future of Australia's space industry.That will be completed by the end of October, assessing what Australia is doing in terms of civil space-related technology.Dr Ferri said the future of space was in international co-operation and an increasing role could only be good for Australia."Globally I think it makes a lot of sense not to replicate capabilities everywhere," he said."Co-operating in space is a vehicle for many things which are not strictly related to space - science, technology, development, outreach and education. - it's inspirational."

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WA bushfire warning downgraded

A total fire ban has been declared for parts of WA's Midwest Gascoyne region on Thursday. Source: AAP

AN alert for an out of control bushfire on Perth's northeastern fringe has been downgraded.

THE watch and act warning was issued early on Thursday evening for residents on Sounness Drive in Bullsbrook, in the City of Swan, with lives and property under possible threat.

However, Fire and Emergency Services later said the danger had diminished and the alert level had been downgraded.It said there was still a lot of smoke in the area, and people were urged to keep up to date in case the situation changed again.The bushfire sparked accidentally on Thursday afternoon.

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Schools to close as Marcia moves in

Queenslanders have been urged to take care and batten down the hatches as Cyclone Marcia approaches. Source: AAP

SOME residents on the central Queensland coast have been told to evacuate as category four Tropical Cyclone Marcia tracks towards land.

MORE than 100 schools and childcare centres along the central and southeast coast will be closed on Friday with Marcia expected to cross the coast as a category five storm, unleashing gusts up to 295km/h.

It is expected to make landfall between Saint Lawrence and Gladstone about 7am on Friday.Marcia has slowed over the past few hours as it moves in a south-southwest direction, however, the weather bureau hasn't downgraded its predicted intensity.Wind gusts up to 270km/h have been recorded near the cyclone which was about 195km north-northeast of Saint Lawrence late on Thursday night.A severe weather warning is in place from Double Island Point south to the NSW border and inland to the Great Dividing Range, with strong winds and torrential rain predicted to impact parts of the central and the entire southeast coast on Friday.Gales and heavy rain were already being felt along the Capricornia Coast.Destructive winds are expected to hit coastal areas from Mackay to Burnett Heads, extending north to Bowen as well as inland areas into Friday.Thunderstorms that could unleash gusts up to 125km/h are forecast to hit areas between Saint Lawrence and Hervey Bay as Marcia draws closer to the coast.Queensland Fire and Emergency Services has issued an alert warning coastal residents in the Isaac region to leave immediately or seek shelter in a safe place.Ogmore and Marlborough residents have been told urgent evacuation is strongly recommended, and a storm tide watch and act warning has been issued for some areas in Gladstone.Residents between Mackay and Double Island Point are being told to prepare to shelter in a safe place, while all those in affected areas are being warned to ensure large items in their yards are secure.A cyclone warning from Bowen to Mackay has been cancelled.The weather bureau has been warning of dangerous surf, abnormally high tides and heavy rainfall from central Queensland to the southeast coast.A flood watch is current for the Wide Bay and Burnett, Southeast Coast and the Darling Downs and Granite Belt District forecast districts.On Thursday, the Department of Education issued a list of more than 100 schools and childcare centres that will be closed on Friday.Education Minister Kate Jones said in a Tweet: "This is the 2nd time in 15 yrs Education Queensland has pre-emptively closed schools & comes at the request of DDMG tonight. #TCMarcia."Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk held a meeting of the Disaster Management Committee in Brisbane on Thursday where she and several of her new ministers were briefed by emergency authorities."It is important all Queenslanders brace themselves for heavy rain," she said."This is a serious event. It has changed drastically since this morning."Cyclone centres have been opened in Yeppoon, Proserpine and Mackay.Rockhampton Airport will be closed until at least Friday afternoon and other airports are expected to close.SEQ Water has advised the Wappa Dam, just inland from the Sunshine Coast, is completely full, meaning forecasted rainfall will significantly swell the Maroochy River.Torrential rain is expected hit the entire southeast coast on Friday, with up to 400mm predicted in some areas, as the storm tracks south.

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Applications for US unemployment aid dive

THE number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, a sign that a recent string of strong job gains may continue.

THE US Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment aid dropped 21,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 283,000. The four-week average of applications, a less volatile number, fell 6500 to 289,750, its lowest level in 15 weeks.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. They have been near or below 300,000 since September, a very low reading by historical standards that points to solid hiring. The average has dropped 16 per cent in the past year.That decline has coincided with much stronger job gains. Employers added more than 1 million jobs from November through January, the strongest three-month pace in 17 years.

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Hicks says his critics will never be happy

David Hicks has won a legal challenge to his terrorism conviction before a US military court. Source: AAP

DAVID Hicks says his critics will never be happy even though a US court has cleared him of supporting terrorism.

WHILE lawyer Stephen Kenny says his client has been declared innocent by an appeal court that vacated his terrorism conviction, there's no dispute that Mr Hicks did undertake military training in Afghanistan.

He won't get any apology from the Australian government or from former prime minister John Howard for that matter - not that Mr Hicks expected one."I don't really care, to be honest," Mr Hicks said."It's all over with."The US Court of Military Commission Review vacated Mr Hicks' 2007 guilty plea to providing material support to terrorism, the first conviction of a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.A US appeal court last year ruled that material support was not a legally viable war crime.Mr Howard, who was prime minister when Mr Hicks was sent to the US military prison in Cuba in 2002, said the verdict was about the US legal process."Nothing alters the fact that by his own admission, Hicks trained with al-Qaeda, met Osama bin Laden on several occasions - describing him as a brother," Mr Howard said."He revelled in jihad."He is not owed an apology by any Australian government."In a tense exchange with reporters in Sydney on Thursday, Mr Hicks hit out at his critics saying they are "supporters of torture"."The only thing that matters is what the US government has said," he said."Obviously you don't agree with the US government's decision. You'll never be happy."He said he was "having a holiday" when he was picked up in Afghanistan in 2001.Mr Kenny said Mr Hicks was in Afghanistan underdoing military training, but what he did was not a crime."What he was doing there was not at that time illegal. He was not doing anything that was a breach of Australian, international or US law, and that's what this decision today confirms."It's a declaration of David's innocence. It's not a technicality."His father Terry Hicks called on the federal government to apologise to his son, but Prime Minister Tony Abbott was unsympathetic."He was up to no good on his own admission," Mr Abbott said."I'm not in the business of apologising for the actions that Australian governments take to protect our country."Asked if Australia had done enough to help Mr Hicks, Mr Abbott said: "We did what was needed."Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the government needed to examine if it really did all it could to ensure injustice didn't occur and bring Mr Hicks back to Australia."There is no doubt on one hand David Hicks was probably foolish to get caught up in that Afghanistan conflict, but clearly there has been an injustice done to him," Mr Shorten said.Attorney-General George Brandis said the activities that Mr Hicks has admitted to, including training with al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations in Afghanistan, would likely now fall within the scope of Australian terrorism laws.The US government does not intend to appeal against the commission's decision, a spokesman said.Mr Hicks says he's not seeking compensation at this point, but does think the Australian government should cover his medical expenses for the continuing treatment of injuries he attributes to his treatment at Guantanamo Bay."It is just unfortunate that because of politics, I was subjected to five-and-a-half years of physical and psychological torture that I will now live with always," the 39-year-old Adelaide-born man said.

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Jakarta hits back at Abbott aid 'threats'

Lawyers for the two Bali Nine men on death row have welcomed the delay in the execution process. Source: AAP

INDONESIA says it won't respond to Prime Minister Tony Abbott's "threats" which appeared to link Australian aid to the fate of the Bali Nine ringleaders facing execution.

MR Abbott has made his strongest comments yet on the cases of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, reminding Indonesia it received $1 billion in Australian aid after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

"We will be letting Indonesia know in absolutely unambiguous terms that we feel grievously let down," he said."Let's not forget that a few years ago, when Indonesia was struck by the Indian Ocean tsunami, Australia sent a billion dollars worth of assistance, we sent a significant contingent of our armed forces to help in Indonesia with humanitarian relief, and Australians lost their lives in that campaign to help Indonesia."I would say to the Indonesian people and the government, we in Australia are always there to help you and we hope that you might reciprocate in this way at this time."Nine Australians died when their helicopter crashed while providing humanitarian aid after the Nias earthquake in Sumatra in 2005.The comparison was not well received in Jakarta.Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told reporters he hadn't studied Mr Abbott's comments, but understood he had made a link to "the issue now in Indonesia"."But what I know is this, threats are not part of diplomatic language ... and from what I know, no one responds well to threats," he said.Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the prime minister was not threatening to withdraw aid.She recognised Australia's aid contribution was a drop in the bucket of Indonesia's total budget and stressed it was a separate issue to the current tension over the death penalty."The fact is our aid budget is subject to completely separate considerations," she told Fairfax radio on Wednesday."There is going to have to be a cut to the aid budget across the board."But I'm not linking the two."Mr Abbott's comments came as the Bali Nine drug smugglers got at least a few days' grace from the firing squad.Indonesian Attorney-General HM Prasetyo on Tuesday delayed plans for the Australians to be transferred this week to the execution site, Nusakambangan island.Five prisoners are already on the island awaiting the firing squad and he admitted work needed to be done to prepare it for so many executions at once.Lawyer Julian McMahon welcomed the much-needed breathing room.It was good news for the men and their families, and for the lawyers preparing a case for the administrative court next week.Mr McMahon says it should also take some pressure off the governments involved.Their discussions were a matter of life or death, he said, and should go on with an "attitude of friendship, co-operation and listening"."By having a little bit of time, extra time, I'm sure everyone involved can take advantage of that to do these things with the appropriate wisdom that we citizens of both countries want all of our leaders to have," Mr McMahon said after visiting the men."So I'm feeling very relieved and grateful that here is these extra days."The challenge in Jakarta administrative court next week concerns President Joko Widodo's blanket refusal of clemency for all drug offenders on death row, without looking at their cases on merit.Lawyers argue the cases of Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33, are different because they have achieved an extraordinary level of rehabilitation in the decade since their heroin smuggling attempt.

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Brawl after bride marries guest, not groom

TWO wedding guests were briefly detained in northern India after the bride reportedly rejected her groom in favour of another guest.

DURING one of the preliminary ceremonies of the Hindu wedding - the exchange of garlands - Jugal Kishore, 25, had an epileptic fit and fell to the floor at the wedding venue in the northern Indian town of Rampur, the Times of India newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Indira, the 23-year-old bride, apparently angered that she did not know about Kishore's condition, said she would instead marry a relative of her brother-in-law who was a guest at the wedding.The guest agreed and the garlanding ceremony continued. The marriage rituals were then completed, including a key section which involved the couple walking round a holy fire seven times, according to the report late on Tuesday.Kishore, who had been taken to a doctor, came back to find he no longer had a bride. The disagreement which followed reportedly turned violent, and police were called.A complaint was filed with the local police, but was later withdrawn after elders of both families intervened, the newspaper reported, quoting local police official RP Solanki."Both families have amicably resolved the matter," Solanki said.

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Damning report on NT juvenile detention

A DAMNING review of the Northern Territory juvenile detention system reveals that staff training is grossly inadequate and that they have been operating in a "climate of daily crisis".

THE government commissioned the report after a number of high-profile break-outs and riots in the facility, peaking in August when the dog squad was called in and tear gas was used on one boy.

Reviewer Michael Vita found that was "justifiable".He found there was a lack of training for staff across the board, with an unco-ordinated case management system, "non-existent, outdated and inadequate" detention centre procedures, and a lack of consistency and direction in managing adolescents often suffering from trauma, fetal alcohol syndrome, ADHD and mental health problems.Staff were only trained for four days, compared with 11 weeks for adult prison officers, and 30 weeks for their NSW counterparts, which Mr Vita said was "grossly inadequate", especially considering youths are much more complex, immature and impulsive."I have no doubt that the lack of appropriate training has contributed to poor decision making during recent incidents," he said.In the five years to September 2014, there were nine escapes, seven attempted escapes, six alleged detainee-on-staff assaults, seven alleged staff-on-detainee assaults, four riots or disturbances, six instances of damaging government property, and four cases of detainees climbing up onto the facilities' roofs.Mr Vita said staff were too reliant on confining troublemakers, and said in some cases detainees' basic rights were withheld for an inappropriate period of time, which did not help with behaviour management.He found that no programs currently provided would be sufficiently intensive to change the behaviours of the highest risk offenders.Corrections Minister John Elferink said the review was "not a clean bill of health", and was commissioned in October to specifically examine how the department could improve.All 16 recommendations would be taken on, he said, and staff retraining would begin "as soon as possible".It will be extended to an eight-week regime from March.

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US wholesale prices drop 0.8% in January

US wholesale prices fell by a record amount in January, led by the biggest drop in petrol prices in six years.

THE US Labor Department said on Wednesday that its producer price index declined 0.8 per cent last month, the biggest drop in a data series that goes back to November 2009 when the government changed the calculation methods for its wholesale price index.

Wholesale prices fell a revised 0.2 per cent in December and were also down 0.2 per cent in November.The string of declines reflects tumbling energy costs. For January, petrol prices plunged 24 per cent, the biggest drop since a 25.5 per cent fall in December 2008.Excluding volatile food and energy costs, wholesale prices edged down 0.1 per cent in January after a 0.3 per cent rise for core prices in December.

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Genes study may aid allergy treatment

SCIENTISTS have discovered more than 30 new genes that predispose people to allergies and asthma, some of which could be targets for new drugs.

THE 10-year study, published in the journal Nature, could also help to predict who will respond best to current treatments before starting expensive therapy.

Researchers in the UK, US, Canada and Sweden, led by scientists at Imperial College London, looked at epigenetic changes in genes found in the immune system, which do not affect the genetic code itself but which influence the activity of genes.The researchers were then able to pinpoint genes that regulate a particular antibody that is involved in triggering allergic responses.It paves the way for new drugs to target the genes and make them inactive.Asthma affects about one in 11 children and one in 12 adults in the UK - a total of 5.4 million people - while allergies may affect one third of the population.Professor William Cookson, from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, said: "Our pioneering approach, using epigenetics, allowed us to obtain insights that we weren't able to get from traditional genetics."It isn't just the genetic code that can influence disease, and DNA sequencing can only take you so far. Our study shows that modifications on top of the DNA that control how genes are read may be even more important."Professor Miriam Moffatt, who led the study with Prof Cookson, said: "The genes we identified represent new potential drug targets for allergic diseases as well as biomarkers that may predict which patients will respond to existing expensive therapies."

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At least 18 electrocuted in Haiti carnival

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 17 AP - At least 18 people on a packed carnival float in the Haitian capital were killed when they were electrocuted by a power line.

THE accident occurred as thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Port-au-Prince on Tuesday for the raucous annual celebration. People at the scene said someone on the float used a pole or stick to move a power line so the float could pass under it.

Some of the victims were instantly electrocuted in a flash of sparks, according to witnesses. Others managed to jump off, causing panic in the crowd."I saw the wire falling and sparks and I started running for my life," said Natacha Saint Fleur, a 22-year-old who was near the float at the time.Dr Joel Desire at the General Hospital, where many of the victims were taken, said at least 18 people died. It wasn't immediately clear if other victims were taken elsewhere.Hundreds of people thronged the hospital, some carrying victims and others searching for family members brought in by ambulance.

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Patty Hearst back in news with dog prize

A dog co-owned by infamous heiress Patty Hearst has won a prize at the Westminster Kennel Club show. Source: AAP

FAMED and infamous heiress Patty Hearst is back in the news after a dog she co-owns won its group at the Westminster Kennel Club show in New York.

A SHIH tzu called Rocket was picked as the top toy dog at Madison Square Garden.

Hearst is the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst and gained great notoriety in 1974 when she was kidnapped by the radical group the Symbionese Liberation Army.She was seen holding a machine gun while robbing a California bank, and later spent almost two years in prison.Her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.President Bill Clinton gave her a full pardon."People move on," she said, smiling at Rocket."I guess people somehow imagine you don't evolve in your life. I have grown daughters and grand-daughters and other things that normal people have."She also has appeared in films including Cry-Baby and Serial Mom.She's done television roles and charitable work.Hearst has been involved in the dog show world for more than 10 years.She said many were surprised to find out she's moved on to play with pooches.Hearst, who turns 61 on Friday, is one of Rocket's three co-owners.She's mostly worked with French bulldogs and one of them won an award ribbon earlier in the day.Hearst's dog will be one of seven in the championship ring on Tuesday night when best in show is chosen.That will cause her to do some shifting - she didn't originally have tickets for the finals.Even though Hearst loves dogs, her two daughters own cats."I don't know what I did wrong," she said.

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US proposes drone rules for commercial use

THE US government has proposed long-awaited rules to usher in an era of commercial drones zipping through US skies.

THE Federal Aviation Administration proposed requirements that commercial operators must meet, such as passing a knowledge test administered by the agency as well as a federal security check, in order to fly small drones, defined as weighing less than 25kg.

It's likely to be two or three years before the rules are made final, but federal officials said once they are in place the economic and safety benefits of unmanned aircraft are expected to be enormous.Among the chores that officials envision drones performing: Aerial photography and mapping, crop monitoring, and inspections of cell towers, bridges and other tall structures. But the proposal includes safety restrictions such as keeping drones within sight of operators at all times and no night flights. Drones would also have to stay at 8km away from an airport.Flights over people except those involved in the drone's operation would be prohibited.They could travel as fast as 160km/h, but flights would be limited to 150m in altitude or below. Flights over crowds would also be prohibited.The agency is researching technology that he hopes will eventually enable small drones to fly safely beyond the sight of operators, Huerta said.He emphasised introduction of commercial drones into the national airspace will be a staged process.The government is also looking ahead to how larger drones might be allowed to fly in airspace shared by manned aircraft, for example, he said.One of the key safety concerns is that without a human on board the ability to "see and avoid" other aircraft is limited. Another concern is the link between the operator and a remote control aircraft can be broken, causing the drone to fly away until it loses power or collides with something.Cases of flyaway drones getting stuck in trees or hitting buildings are rampant. Last month, a drone that its operator lost control of flew over the White House fence and crashed on the lawn before Secret Service agents could block it.

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Kiwi's Bali drug trial postponed

A 52-YEAR-OLD New Zealander must wait longer for his trial to start in Indonesia on drug charges that carry the death penalty.

ANTONY de Malmanche was due to go on trial in Bali on Tuesday accused of bringing 1.7kg of crystal meth into the country last year.

But the hearing was postponed because there was no translator in court.A four-person defence team in Indonesia will argue de Malmanche wasn't a drug trafficker, but instead was a trafficked person, says his New Zealand lawyer Craig Tuck."We've got a very strong legal case, but we're also aware of the political backdrop," he told AAP.De Malmanche's legal team was to request a short adjournment to get more information, before the case continues one day a week for six months.De Malmanche says he thought he was going on his first overseas trip to meet a woman he met online.Instead, he says he found himself diverted to China at the direction of a man claiming to be the woman's personal assistant.The man gave him a bag and instructions to fly to Bali, where he would finally meet "Jessie".Indonesian President Joko Widodo has said there will be "no compromise" in executing drug offenders sentenced to death, as part of his determination to stop drug crime.

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Mother defends Hewitt over rape claim

THE mother of one of the women accusing Bob Hewitt of rape has testified that her daughter is lying and was not abused as a minor by the former tennis star.

JUDY Sheehan was called to testify in a South African court on Tuesday by Hewitt's defence lawyer.

She said her daughter, Suellen Sheehan, was never in a position where she could have been raped by Hewitt, a former Grand Slam doubles champion and Tennis Hall of Fame member who is on trial charged for sexually abusing three girls he coached in the 1980s and 1990s."Mr Hewitt never took my child anywhere," Judy Sheehan testified, according to the South African Press Association."He never picked her up anywhere ... I would have known about it."Judy Sheehan's testimony contradicted her daughter, who testified at the start of the trial last week that Hewitt raped her in his car in 1982 when she was 12.Suellen Sheehan testified that the rape took place after Hewitt picked her up from school to take her to tennis practice."If this had happened, this case would have taken place some 30-odd years ago," Judy Sheehan said.She said her daughter never told her at the time that she had been raped. Suellen Sheehan sat in the courtroom in Johannesburg while her mother testified.Twiggy Tolken also says she was raped by Hewitt when she was 12 in 1981. A third woman says Hewitt sexually assaulted her during tennis lessons when she was younger than 16.Hewitt, now 75, is charged with two counts of rape and one of sexual assault against minors.Tolken testified that in 1981 a case was opened with police against Hewitt after he allegedly raped her, but authorities didn't pursue charges then.Judy Sheehan said she and her husband were now estranged from their daughter having suffered physical and emotional abuse from her.Prosecutor Carina Coetzee challenged Judy Sheehan's assertion that she was not told about the alleged rape at the time by her daughter, and her denial now was a self-defense mechanism."You feel guilty for not doing anything," the prosecutor said.Hewitt won 15 Grand Slam doubles and mixed doubles titles in the 1960s and 1970s and is considered one of game's greatest doubles players. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1992, but thrown out in 2012 after the allegations of abuse resurfaced.

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Austria cracks down on Nazi number plates

AUSTRIA'S government plans to ban coded Nazi messages on custom number plates on cars.

THE transport ministry and an organisation representing victims of National Socialism have been receiving photos from concerned citizens showing vanity plates with codes such as 88, which stands for the Nazi greeting "Heil Hitler".

Authorities have no statistics on how frequently such number combinations appear among the 500,000 custom plates on Austrian vehicles, "but every one is one too many", ministry spokeswoman Andrea Heigl said.The current law on number plates already bans offensive or overtly Nazi-era acronyms such as SS.The ministry's planned amendment, which is scheduled to go to a vote in parliament in the middle of the year, would also forbid numerical codes representing letters in the alphabet, such as 18 for Adolf Hitler."The far-right scene keeps developing new codes," Heigl said."The legislative branch must watch out for these trends."

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Woman pleads not guilty to ultrasound scam

A WA woman has pleaded not guilty to selling expectant mums fake ultrasound pictures of babies. Source: AAP

A WEST Australian woman will fight allegations that she scammed expectant mums by selling them fake ultrasound pictures of babies.

RAWINIA Hayes appeared in Bunbury Magistrates Court on Monday where she pleaded not guilty to nine charges each of accepting payment but failing to deliver goods, and making false or misleading representations.

Hayes was running Amazing 4D Imaging in WA's South West region last year when she was investigated by Consumer Protection, which had received dozens of complaints.

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Two men charged over Copenhagen terror

The gunman behind two deadly attacks in Copenhagen may have been inspired by the Paris attacks. Source: AAP

TWO men suspected of helping the gunman behind the deadly attacks in Copenhagen have faced a court hearing as Danes mourn the victims of a shooting spree that authorities say may have been inspired by last month's terror attacks in Paris.

THE defence lawyer for one of the suspects said they were accused of helping the gunman evade authorities and get rid of a weapon during the manhunt that ended early on Sunday when the attacker was killed in a shootout with police.

Two people were killed in the weekend attacks, including a Danish filmmaker attending a free speech event and a Jewish security guard shot in the head outside a synagogue in Copenhagen. Five police officers were wounded in the attacks.Authorities described the gunman as a 22-year-old Dane with a history of violence and gang connections.Denmark's security service said he may have been inspired by the terror attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris that killed 17 people.Denmark's red-and-white flag flew at half-staff from official buildings Monday across the capital. Mourners placed flowers and candles at the cultural centre where documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard, 55, was killed and at the synagogue where Dan Uzan, a 37-year-old security guard, was gunned down.There was also a smaller mound of flowers on the street at the location where the gunman was slain.The two suspects arraigned at a closed hearing on Monday were accused of "having helped the perpetrator in connection with the shooting attacks", Copenhagen police said.Michael Juul Eriksen, the defence lawyer for one of the two men, told reporters they deny allegations of giving the gunman shelter and getting rid of a weapon. A judge at the hearing will rule on whether to keep the two men in custody.Denmark has been targeted by a series of foiled terror plots since the 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. The cartoons triggered riots in many Muslim countries and militant Islamists called for vengeance.One of the participants in the free speech event targeted on Saturday was Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who caricatured the prophet in 2007. Vilks, who was whisked away by his bodyguards and was unharmed, said he thought he was the intended target of that attack.

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Aust to help halt Myanmar snakebite deaths

AUSTRALIA is funding a three-year, $2.3 million project to help snakebite victims in Myanmar by upgrading care facilities, and the quality and availability of antivenom.

THE University of Adelaide says Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has awarded it the grant for the project, to be carried out along with Australian antivenom producer bioCSL.

A statement from the university said an estimated 2000 people a year die from snakebite in Myanmar.In most cases, the victims live in rural areas where they don't have timely access to the necessary care and medicine.Australia has a high number of poisonous snake species, but awareness and infrastructure for dealing with them is well developed.

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Egypt strikes IS group in Libya

EGYPTIAN warplanes have struck Islamic State targets in Libya, just hours after the extremist group released a grisly video showing the beheading of several Egyptian Coptic Christians it had held hostage for weeks.

AN armed forces spokesman announced the strikes on state radio, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighbouring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have exploited the chaos following the 2011 uprising.

The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the "intense strikes" were "to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers.""Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield to protect and safeguard the security of the country and a sword that amputates terrorism and extremism," it said.Libya's air force meanwhile announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, an extremist stronghold that was taken over by an Islamic State affiliate last year. The announcement, on the Facebook page of the air force chief of staff, did not provide further details.The video purporting to show the mass beheading of the Coptic Christian hostages was released late Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State group.The killings raise the possibility that the extremist group - which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate - has established a direct affiliate less than 800 kilometres from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now plans to "conquer Rome."The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian labourers rounded up from the city of Sirte in December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed.It was one of the first beheading videos from an Islamic State group affiliate to come from outside the group's core territory in Syria and Iraq, and displayed the sophisticated techniques used in previous videos.Libya in recent months has seen the worst unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, which will complicate any efforts to combat the country's many Islamic extremist groups.The internationally recognised government has been confined to the country's far east since Islamist-allied militias seized the capital Tripoli last year, and Islamist politicians have reconstituted a previous government and parliament.Egypt has strongly backed the internationally recognised government, and US officials have said both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates took part in a series of mysterious airstrikes targeting Islamist-allied forces last year.

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Thirteen killed in India building collapse

Thirteen people have been killed after a building that was under construction collapsed in India. Source: AAP

THIRTEEN people have been killed after a building collapsed in northern India.

THREE people escaped unhurt when the partially built first floor crashed down in the town of Mughalsarai, about 300km southeast of Uttar Pradesh's state capital of Lucknow.

"People were buried alive" when the building came down, police superintendent Chandauli Muniraj said. Two people were taken to a hospital, but one died, raising the death toll to 13.The victims included the building's owner, Mohammad Kamarrudin, and members of his family, including two children under eight, Muniraj said.Police were investigating what caused the collapse, and had no details about construction permits or practices.Building collapses are common in India, where high housing demand and lax regulations have encouraged some builders to cut corners or use substandard materials.

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Mouth to meow resuscitation in house fire

TWO cats came within a whisker of losing all nine lives after they were successfully resuscitated by an ambulance crew at a deliberately-lit fire in Port Augusta.

A 10-YEAR-OLD boy, a 12-year-old girl and a 42-year-old woman have been charged with arson.

Firefighters were called to a home at 5am on Sunday to find it ablaze.While no one was home, the two cats had to be revived when they were found not breathing.Police arrested and charged the woman and two children, who are all from the South Australian town.The woman was refused police bail to appear in the Port Augusta Magistrates Court on Monday.The girl and boy have been bailed to appear in the Youth Court at a later date.

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PM condemns attacks in Copenhagen

PM Tony Abbott has signalled a major crackdown on border control amid growing terrorism concerns. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has condemned a "brutal" shooting in Denmark as an affront to free speech, also flagging further efforts aimed at securing Australia's borders amid growing concerns about the threat of terrorism attacks on home soil.

TWIN attacks shook Copenhagen over the weekend.

One man killed when a cafe hosting an event where a cartoonist who had caricatured the Prophet Mohammed was speaking was sprayed with bullets, and another fatally shot in the head just hours later at the city's main synagogue.Three police officers were hurt in the cafe shooting, and another two wounded in the second attack.Danish police have confirmed a man was later killed after he opened fire on police at a train station in the northern part of the city amid a massive man-hunt.The shootings come in the wake of the attacks in Paris in January at the offices of the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, as well as a Jewish supermarket elsewhere in the French capital.Mr Abbott, in a statement issued on Sunday, said the thoughts of all Australians were with the Danish people."As with the Charlie Hebdo atrocity in Paris, the Copenhagen attack is an affront to one of our most fundamental values - freedom of speech," Mr Abbott said."We stand with the people and government of Denmark in confronting this cynical attempt to undermine that fundamental right."Earlier, the prime minister signalled security at Australia's borders would be ramped up.Mr Abbott, who will deliver a national security statement on Monday week, said the rise of Daesh, or Islamic State, had seen new threats emerge, "where any extremist can grab a knife, a flag, a camera phone and a victim and carry out a terror attack".Authorities on Friday confirmed police and a prayer hall were among targets uncovered by investigations into two alleged terrorists arrested in western Sydney last week.A number of items were seized from the home of Omar Al-Kutobi, 24, and Mohammad Kiad, 25, allegedly including a machete, hunting knife and homemade Islamic State flag, as well as a video that allegedly shows one of the men vowing to launch an attack in the name of IS.Al-Kutobi, from Iraq, is believed to have arrived in Australia in 2009 using another person's passport, and was given a protection visa before being granted citizenship in 2013."It's clear to me, that for too long, we have given those who might be a threat to our country the benefit of the doubt," Mr Abbott said in a statement broadcast on Sunday via his official YouTube channel."There's been the benefit of the doubt at our borders, the benefit of the doubt for residency, the benefit of the doubt for citizenship and the benefit of the doubt at Centrelink. And in the courts, there has been bail, when clearly there should have been jail."Mr Abbott also hit out at the Grand Mufti of Australia for speaking against a possible ban on the controversial Muslim organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, saying comments attributed to Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed were "wrong-headed" and "unhelpful".Dr Ibrahim, the spiritual leader of Muslims in Australia, last week said it would be a "political mistake" to ban the group.The government is seeking advice from security agencies on options for taking action against Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in other countries.

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Indon judges 'offered leniency for cash'

THE Indonesian judges who sentenced Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to death offered leniency in exchange for money, the men's lawyers allege.

THE Bali Nine duo could be executed within the week, with a meeting on Monday to advise the Australian embassy of the formalities.

But the pair's lawyers will seek a meeting with Indonesia's Attorney-General HM Prasetyo on Monday to ask for the executions to be delayed, pending further legal challenges.The team has made a complaint with the Indonesian Judicial Commission, based on public comments by Chan and Sukumaran's former lawyer, Muhammad Rifan.Mr Rifan last week alleged there had been "interference" in the case that saw the Australians sentenced to death when they should have been jailed for life.He then went overseas without detailing his allegations.The lawyers allege the six judges who sentenced Chan and Sukumaran to death were "willing to give a lighter sentence than the death penalty to (Chan and Sukumaran) if the (judges) were given a sum of money".The lawyers have also lodged a challenge of the presidential decrees that denied the pair clemency without examining their cases or giving reasons.

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Singapore PM Lee has prostate cancer

SINGAPORE'S Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his office says.

LEE will undergo surgery to remove his prostate gland on Monday, and will be on medical leave for a week.

Lee had undergone an MRI in January which showed suspicious lesions, the prime minister's office said in a statement. .Lee previously battled cancer in 1992, when he was diagnosed with intermediate grade malignant lymphoma. He was cleared in 1993 after undergoing chemotheraphy.

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