Funeral for Game Of Thrones actor Murphy

GAME Of Thrones actor J.J. Murphy saw theatre as a labour of love, his funeral mass has been told.

THE 86-year-old was cast to portray Ser Denys Mallister, the oldest member of the Night's Watch military order, and began filming scenes in the HBO series last week. He died on Friday at his home.

Friends and family attended the service at St Brigid's Catholic church in his native city of Belfast. Fr Edward O'Donnell said he offered a helping hand and had real concern for others.The priest said: "JJ knew from his earliest days in the old Group Theatre what his path in life was to be and so all he did in the theatre was a labour of love - that doesn't mean that it was without its difficulties and frustrations."The thespian's film credits include Cal (1984), Angela's Ashes (1999) and Mickybo and Me (2004). He has a character role in the forthcoming film, Dracula Untold and, just days before his death, filmed his first scenes for Game of Thrones, also shot in Northern Ireland.J.J. Murphy is perhaps more familiar to Northern Ireland audiences through his wide range of stage work, including Sam Cree's Don't Tell the Wife (1967) at the Belfast Arts Theatre, Martin Lynch's Lyric Theatre production of Dockers (1981), and Tinderbox Theatre Company's production of Convictions (2000), a site-specific work at Crumlin Road, Courthouse, Belfast.He trained with the Ulster Group Theatre and worked for many years at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, where he helped mentor a younger generation of local actors including Ciaran Hinds and Liam Neeson.Fr O'Donnell said he was a fixture at his parish and his sudden death came as a surprise."Last Friday morning JJ wasn't feeling so well so he lay down on his bed, closed his eyes and didn't waken."He said the actor had continued to play an active part in the life of the congregation."His sudden death, therefore, comes as a great shock to us all and even more so for the love of his life, Mary."She and JJ would have celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary in September."He had a son, Joe, daughter Jane and granddaughter Sarah-Jane.Fr O'Donnell said he strove to put his faith into action through service to others.He told mourners: "JJ not only serve the parish as reader, sacristan and trainer of altar servers, but he also had a real concern for others, his was a helping hand."We in the parish know that, as you from the theatre world do also."The cleric added: "Life is at its brightest and best when lived in the service of others. Service is love made visible."Northern Ireland's Arts Council has said his concern for his fellow actors was well-known and described him as a spirited and redoubtable advocate for improving the pay, conditions and career opportunities of actors in the country.

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Palmer dismisses nepotism claims

Clive Palmer has refused to name PUP's Queensland executives and defended the recruitment of mates. Source: AAP

CLIVE Palmer has angrily refused to name the executives of his party in Queensland and defended the recruitment of mates amid claims of nepotism and jobs for friends.

THE mining magnate turned federal MP held a media conference on Wednesday, a day after Alex Douglas went public about his reasons for quitting as the Palmer United Party's Queensland parliamentary leader.

Ironically, it was held at Paradise Point on the Gold Coast, which falls within the state seat of Broadwater.Dr Douglas alleges the PUP executive fast-tracked the preselection of Mr Palmer's brother-in-law George Sokolov, a party photographer, for that electorate.He also says that Mr Palmer's son Michael, an unsuccessful Liberal National Party state candidate in 2009, has been chosen as a candidate along with Queensland senator Glenn Lazarus's wife Tess.The PUP is yet to confirm any preselection.But Mr Palmer refused to answer a question on who ran the PUP's Queensland executive."It's not for me to answer your questions and follow your agenda. I won't do that," he told reporters."You tell me who the executives are of the Liberal Party."He said the PUP website had information on its office bearers but AAP was unable to find any details of executive members.Dr Douglas has described the PUP as a shell organisation with only Mr Palmer making decisions.The Gold Coast MP, who defected from the LNP in late 2012 before joining the PUP last year, said Mr Palmer's party had no formal state party structure and "no commitment to policy formation".Mr Palmer defended his party's structure."It's not really outstanding to think that people who join the Palmer United Party won't be some of my friends, some of the people I work with because we all think the same way," he said.

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France to send weapons to Iraq

French President Francois Hollande has said France will supply arms to Iraq's Kurdish forces. Source: AAP

FRANCE will send arms to Kurdish forces in Iraq to support their fight against radicals of the Islamic State group, French President Francois Hollande announced.

A STATEMENT Hollande's office said the arms shipment will be delivered "in the coming hours" and has been agreed with authorities in Baghdad.

Citing the "catastrophic" situation in Iraqi Kurdistan, it added that "mobilisation in support of Kurdistan and of all Iraq must continue."The statement did not specify what weapons France was sending.The surprise announcement comes as the United States has also increased its role in fighting back Sunni extremists of the Islamic State group that is threatening the autonomous Kurdish region in the north of Iraq. Senior American officials say US intelligence agencies are directly arming the Kurds who are battling the militants, which would be a shift in Washington's policy of only working through the central government in Baghdad.Other European leaders were also feeling the pressure to respond to the emergency. France called earlier this week for an urgent meeting of European Union foreign ministers to consider Kurdish requests for arms and an aid airlift to northern Iraq.Earlier on Wednesday, France had pledged to deliver a second shipment of humanitarian aid to northern Iraq in a bid to help religious minorities persecuted by advancing radicals.The foreign ministry said in a statement the airlift of 20 tonnes of medicine, tents and water treatment material will arrive in the Iraqi Kurdish capital, Irbil later on Wednesday.The shipment is enough to provide assistance to 50,000 people, it said, and it pledged further operations in the coming days "to aid populations in serious danger."On Sunday French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius travelled to Irbil to deliver an initial shipment of aid. France has taken a strong stance on the need to protect Christians and other minorities being persecuted in northern Iraq.

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Caretaker's death ends whiskey theft case

Lin family murders: Cop's tears in court

ONE of the first police officers to arrive at the bloodied scene of the Lin family murders wiped away tears as he agreed he remains "affected" by the sight of the slain relatives.

Gallacher 'orchestrated' illegal deal

FORMER police minister Michael Gallacher and Port Stephens MP Craig Baumann have been implicated in a scheme to have developers illegally fund disgraced former MP Tim Owen's 2011 election campaign.

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900 French jihadi in Iraq and Syria

FRANCE'S top security official says nearly 900 French citizens have gone to Middle East battlegrounds and some have joined the Islamic State group.

DESPITE efforts to discourage French people from joining militant groups, the figures given on Wednesday by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve show the numbers of French youth leaving continue to grow.

"There are today nearly 900 from France who are part of this phenomenon, either in the theatre of operations in Syria or in Iraq."There are presumably some in Iraq because the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which recruited them, takes them to all the places where it is engaged in combat," Cazeneuve told France Info radio.Security officials fear European militants will ultimately turn their skills against their homelands.

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Second S Leone doctor dies from Ebola

A SECOND Sierra Leonean doctor has died after contracting the deadly Ebola virus, health officials say.

EBOLA has killed more than 1000 people in a West African outbreak that has also hit Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria. Many of the dead are health workers, who are often working with inadequate supplies and protection.

Sidie Yayah Tunis, director of communications for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, announced that Modupeh Cole died on Wednesday.The US-trained Cole was one of the lead doctors working in the Ebola isolation ward in Connaught Hospital in Freetown, the capital.Cole's death comes on the heels of that of another physician who was leading Sierra Leone's fight against Ebola, Sheik Humarr Khan.

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Abbott to Russia: uranium ban on the table

PM Tony Abbott has warned Russia that Australia will consider further sanctions. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has put Moscow on notice, warning that Australia will consider banning uranium sales in the event of a Russian incursion into Ukraine.

MR Abbott said on Saturday Australia would not accept that any Russian troop movement across the border could have a humanitarian purpose.

"Everything's on the table," he said when asked about the prospect of extending sanctions to include uranium."Our message to President (Vladimir) Putin is, `hold your forces back'," Mr Abbott said."Any move by Russian forces across the border would be an invasion, pure and simple..."The business of Ukraine should be left to Ukrainians to sort out."The comments come three days after Russia slapped an embargo on agricultural imports from Australia, the European Union, the United States, Canada and others.Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the government was working with affected Australian agricultural producers to try to get access to other markets.But he said the $400 million of trade hit by Russia's sanctions represented only about 0.4 per cent of exports."It is not a significant amount of trade," he said.

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Family escapes flaming 40-foot cruiser

FIREFIGHTERS will scuttle a Sydney family's 40-foot cruiser after it caught fire out on the water.

THE young family made it to safety after a blaze broke out on the vessel on Saturday afternoon near the waterside suburb of Drummoyne.

"When fire crews arrived, the family on board the vessel had escaped safely and at this stage we believe no injuries have been advised," Fire & Rescue NSW Superintendent Ian Krimmer said."The vessel is now half-submerged - the order has been given to sink the vessel to ensure that there is no chance of any re-ignition."Once the vessel is sunk, determinations will be made in terms of pollution control."As one Twitter user who witnessed the fire observed: "A lot of $$$ up in flames."Though there were no injuries on board the boat, Supt Krimmer said the smoke plumes did cause a minor car prang on nearby Iron Cove Bridge.

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Britain braced for tail of hurricane

MORE than a month's rain has fallen during an overnight downpour across parts of Britain, causing flash floods.

AND further damp and windy conditions are expected, with the remnants of Hurricane Bertha due to hit the UK on Saturday.

Eastern England has been worst affected by the big wet, with some areas seeing more than 50 millimetres of rainfall in 24 hours.Several streets in the Lincolnshire town of Louth were left under water and residents were evacuated, while downpours also led to waterlogged roads in Maidstone, Kent.Some towns saw more rainfall in one day than in the whole of an average August, Met Office forecaster Helen Roberts said on Friday."[The town of] March in Cambridgeshire had 68.8mm of rainfall in 24 hours, while the average rainfall for that region in August would normally be 53.6mm," she said.The effects of Hurricane Bertha, which is crossing the Atlantic after hitting the Caribbean with gusts of more than 145kmh, would be felt on Saturday, Roberts said.Forecasters said southern parts of the country were most at risk from "heavy rainfall, strong coastal winds and large waves", followed by areas of northeast Scotland on Monday.A spokesman for the Met Office said the transition of Bertha from a tropical to an extra-tropical storm was a "particularly hard one to forecast" but it was increasingly expected to affect the UK on Saturday."There is still some uncertainty surrounding this weekend's weather, with the potential for heavy rainfall, strong coastal winds and large waves on Sunday," chief meteorologist Paul Gundersen said.Environment Agency flood risk manager Craig Woolhouse said: "On Sunday and Monday a combination of high spring tides and strong westerly winds bring a risk of large waves and spray and possible flooding to the southwest coast of England and along the Severn estuary.

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Abbott warns of long wait for MH17 victims

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has warned Australians who lost loved ones in the MH17 disaster that the process of bringing bodies home may take time.

MR Abbott leaves on Saturday night for talks in the Netherlands with his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte.

He will also meet disaster victim identification experts and some of the 500-strong team involved in Operation Bring Them Home.Mr Abbott said he would formally thank Rutte for his country's leadership in the wake of the plane tragedy, in which 298 people died.But he has also warned the bereaved in Australia to brace for a long wait.It took months for the final Australian victim of the Bali bombings to be identified and brought home, he said.The identification process will take place as quickly as possible, but it would regretfully and of necessity be a very slow process, Mr Abbott said in Sydney on Saturday."The bodies are inevitably very badly damaged by an explosion at 33,000 feet, the subsequent deceleration, decompression and fall ... I hate to talk in such terms but that's what we're talking about," he said.The government has already offered to fly victims' next of kin to the Netherlands to accompany the bodies back to Australia."It's very important that we accord to these people, so cruelly cut down, dignity and respect in death that they certainly weren't accorded by the Russian-backed rebels who shot their plane out of the sky," Mr Abbott said.The prime minister will then head to London for talks with the British government and officials about counter-terrorism operations and the deteriorating situation in Iraq.On Friday forensic experts said they had identified a further 21 victims of flight MH17 to add to the two already identified.The latest group comprises 16 Dutch, including a dual British national, two Malaysians, a German, a Canadian and a Briton.The search for remains at the crash site has been suspended due to escalating clashes between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists.Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the government should be whole-heartedly focused on repatriating Australian bodies and ensuring the safety of investigators."If Tony Abbott believes that travelling to the Netherlands will help that, then of course he should and we support him being there," he said in a statement to AAP on Saturday.

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