Titanic II a tribute to lives lost: Palmer

MINING magnate Clive Palmer has told British critics of his plan to build a replica Titanic that it's "bulls***" to suggest he's simply seeking publicity.

And he's denied inappropriately making money from the 1912 tragedy that cost over a thousand lives, arguing his Titanic II will be a tribute to them.

Some 1500 people died when the original Titanic sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

At the London launch of Titanic II the first question fired at Mr Palmer was from a reporter with Southampton's daily newspaper.

The city still mourns 550 seafarers lost on the passenger liner.

"There are some concerns, putting it bluntly, that you are making money on the back of 550 dead," the Southampton reporter said at the Ritz Hotel.

Mr Palmer replied: "I haven't made any money yet and we still may not make any money."

The Mineralogy owner went on to argue Titanic II would actually be a tribute to those who lost their lives.

"It's significant that 100 years later we should be mature enough to pay tribute to those people," he said.

"If I'm dead in 100 years time and someone wants to spend some money commemorating my life and the things I've done I'll be very happy about that."

Mr Palmer insisted many descendants of those involved with the original Titanic had expressed interest in travelling in the same cabins their relatives had stayed in.

Titanic II is due in 2016 to retrace the original ship's planned route.

When it reaches the point where the Titanic sank "it'll be very symbolic for the world", Mr Palmer said.

In a "metaphysical" sense the replica would be carrying the hopes and dreams of generations who left Europe to find a better life in the United States.

To those suggesting the whole endeavour is a hoax to generate publicity the Queenslander declared: "It's bulls***."

"We're building four (iron ore) ships now bigger than the Titanic at the shipyard.

"I'm not somebody with no money."

British Titanic Society president Bob Pryor says the people of Southampton don't believe anyone should "play around" with the name Titanic.

"The idea of sailing a replica into Southampton - down there they are absolutely horrified by the idea," Mr Pryor told AAP.

Locals are afraid there'll be an inappropriate "song and dance" when Titanic II reaches the point where the original sank.

"Mr Palmer has got to prove them wrong," Mr Pryor said.

The society president is himself excited to see a replica being built.

But the man who's made many Titanic models, including one that's 12-foot long, is sad to hear Titanic II won't have fake rivets on her hull.

"It's going to look very bare without them," Mr Pryor said.

"They are almost like a signature of the ship."

Mr Palmer on Saturday announced replica rivets weren't needed.

"We want the best technology - we don't want to appear that we've got the worst technology," he said.

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Moscow rally held as adoption row flares

RUSSIA says it is concerned by a US ruling that the death of an adopted Russian boy in Texas was an accident, fuelling a diplomatic row as thousands marched in Moscow demanding an end to all foreign adoptions.

Russia's foreign ministry said it had learned of the US coroner's findings, which clear the boy's parents of wrongdoing, "with concern" and called on US officials to provide Moscow with the necessary documents, including the death certificate of three-year-old Max Shatto (born Maxim Kuzmin), to help shed light on the case.

"Only an examination of these documents will enable meaningful conclusions to be reached about the circumstances surrounding the Russian child's death and determine our possible future steps," the ministry's rights representative Konstantin Dolgov said in a statement on Saturday.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman added that efforts were under way to try to bring home Max's two-year-old brother, whose Russian name is Kirill and who is also being raised by the Shatto couple.

"Certain steps are being taken to bring back (Kirill)," Dmitry Peskov told Dozhd, a private television channel. "There are very complicated legal circumstances related to the possibility of such a return."

According to the autopsy results, the boy died from a lacerated artery in his bowel due to blunt force trauma in his abdomen. The coroner's report also noted that the child had a mental disorder that caused him to hurt himself.

Officials in the US cleared the boy's adoptive parents Laura and Allen Shatto of homicide but the couple could still face negligence charges for leaving the boy alone in their backyard, where he was found unconscious in January.

The Kremlin children's rights envoy Pavel Astakhov reacted to the US findings with scepticism.

"The triumph of justice?" he wrote on Twitter, adding that the boy had become a "victim of big politics."

Meanwhile, thousands of people, including activists from pro-Kremlin children's advocacy groups, braved a temperature of minus eight degrees Celsius to march through Moscow urging authorities to ban all foreign adoptions and demanding the return of Max's brother.

Late last year, Russia introduced a ban on all American adoptions in retaliation for a US bill targeting Russian officials with sanctions over the prison death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

According to official estimates, US families have adopted more than 60,000 Russian children over the past two decades, 21 of whom have died.

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Kerry in Egypt to press for consensus

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Cairo to push for a way out of Egypt's political impasse and its crippling economic crisis.

As Kerry landed in Cairo from Turkey, protesters torched a police station in the canal city of Port Said, reflecting the size of the task facing the secretary of state in Egypt, which has been rocked by months of unrest.

The interior ministry said in a statement about 500 protesters threw stones and petrol bombs at the police station on Saturday, setting it on fire, and then blocked fire engines from approaching the blaze.

In the capital, Kerry, is due to hold talks with Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, as well as political parties, business leaders and civil society groups during his two-day visit which is part of a world tour.

"He is working to touch base with the government, with the military, with people involved in the new Egypt: the political leaders, NGO leaders, the business people," a US State Department official said.

Egypt has been deeply divided since Morsi - the country's first post-revolution president - issued a now-repealed decree in November expanding his powers and paving the way for the adoption of an Islamist-drafted constitution.

The political turmoil has fuelled weeks of unrest and clashes that have left dozens dead.

Two leading dissidents, Mohamed ElBaradei and Hamdeen Sabahi of the opposition coalition National Salvation Front (NSF), said they would not be meeting with Kerry, after Washington's call for them to reconsider a boycott of next month's parliamentary elections.

During the visit, Kerry will stress the "importance of building consensus," a US State Department official said.

A political consensus would pave the way for a crucial loan from the International Monetary Fund, which in turn will unlock several pledges of aid for Egypt's battered economy.

Egyptian officials have said they will continue talks with the IMF on a much needed $US4.8 billion ($A4.7 billion) loan, which has been delayed amid political unrest and might possibly be signed after a parliament is in place in July.

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Assad 'will take part' in 2014 Syria poll

BASHAR al-Assad will take part in Syria's next presidential election in 2014, Iran's foreign minister says.

"In the next election, President Assad, like others, will take part, and the Syrian people will elect whomever they want," Ali Akbar Salehi said at a news conference with his visiting Syrian counterpart, Walid al-Muallem.

Salehi also said that "the official position of Iran is that... Assad will remain the legitimate president until the next... election" in 2014.

Muallem arrived on Saturday in Tehran - a close ally of Damascus - for talks aimed at ending the nearly two-year conflict in Syria that the United Nations says has killed at least 70,000 people and is tearing the country apart.

His visit comes after a week of intense international diplomacy aimed at ending the bloodshed.

Salehi threw Iran's weight behind Damascus's call this week for dialogue with the armed opposition, calling the initiative a "positive step," but reiterated that Assad's regime has "no choice" but to keep fighting rebels.

"We believe that the crisis has no military solution and only a Syrian political one," said the Iranian minister.

"Iran firstly wants a stop to the bloodshed but the Syrian government has no choice but to fight against the terrorists and we cannot ask the Syrian government not to do so and leave them alone," he added.

Muallem, meanwhile, condemned the announcement by US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday that Washington would provide $US60 million ($A59 million) in "non-lethal" assistance to support the Syrian political opposition.

"When the US (says it has) allocated $US60 million to the opposition and this opposition is killing people, I don't understand this initiative... are there any weapons that do not kill people? Who are you kidding?" Muallem asked.

He repeated calls for pressure to be exerted on Turkey and Qatar, among the main supporters of the rebels alongside Western countries.

While in Tehran, Muallem is also due to meet the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, Mehr news agency reported.

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Kenya prepares to go to the polls

KENYA'S top two presidential candidates have held their final rallies before large and raucous crowds.

However, it was an interview with a British newspaper that upended the campaign's final days, with the prime minister quoted as saying violence could be worse than 2007-08 if he loses because of rigging.

Monday's vote is the first nationwide election since Kenya's December 2007 vote devolved into tribe-on-tribe violence that killed more than 1000 people. Kenyan leaders and community groups have been working to ensure that massive violence isn't repeated, but fears linger that bloodshed will reappear.

The Financial Times in a story on Saturday quoted Prime Minister Raila Odinga - one of the two top presidential candidates - as saying he knows his opponents are planning to rig the vote and "I have warned them the consequences may be worse than last time round. The people will not stomach another rigging."

The paper also quotes him as saying that if he loses it will because of "blackmail and intimidation."

Odinga, in a statement on Saturday, denied talking about violence in the interview and said he felt "absolutely slandered."

The Financial Times did not release an audio recording of the interview.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta - Odinga's top challenger - called Odinga's words "dangerous and inflammatory" and he called on Odinga to retract them.

"We have in public, and our words and deeds throughout this election - all of us presidential candidates - committed to campaign in this election in peace, and just as importantly, to accept the result in peace," Kenyatta said.

"So then why is it that at the most delicate time in the election campaign Raila sought to use such dangerous, inflammatory words? In the interests of the people of Kenya he must publicly reject what he has said to this newspaper."

Kenyatta and his running mate - William Ruto - both face charges at the International Criminal Court over allegations they instigated the 2007-08 violence. If Kenyatta wins, he may be forced to spend much of presidency before The Hague-based court.

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Syria army captures key Aleppo road

THE Syrian army says it has seized control of a key road linking the central province of Hama to Aleppo international airport, scene of weeks of fierce battles with rebel fighters.

The capture of the road will allow the army to deploy fresh reinforcements and send supplies to the area near the airport, where fighting has raged since mid-February.

"In collaboration with honourable citizens, troops carried out a special operation and restored security and stability to villages on the airport road," the military said in a statement published on Saturday by state news agency SANA.

"This achievement shows the commitment of our forces to continue to fulfil their sacred national duty, repelling killings and aggression targeting our people and our country," said the statement.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the report and said the army will now be able to deploy fresh troops and supplies in the area and the nearby Nayrab military airport.

Rebels launched last month an all-out assault on several airports in Aleppo province, including the international airport and Nayrab, which are located southeast of Syria's second-largest city.

They have since captured Al-Jarrah military airport as well as several other air defence complexes and nearby checkpoints.

But Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said that if the army succeeds in keeping control over the road "it will change the course of battles" around Aleppo and Nayrab airports "and even Aleppo", Syria's second city.

While rebels have taken over large swathes of territory and a number of key military garrisons in Aleppo province, fighting in the city has been at stalemate for months.

Abdel Rahman said that clashes around the airport road continued despite the army's capture.

Aleppo international airport has been closed since the start of the year.

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China executes 4 foreigners over murders

CHINA has executed four foreigners for the killing of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River in an attack that highlighted drug smuggling and extortion rackets along the vital waterway and led to a major expansion of Chinese police powers in the region.

State broadcaster CCTV showed the four being led in shackles and handcuffs from their cells at a jail in southwestern Yunnan province's capital of Kunming prior to their execution by lethal injection. Their deaths were announced two hours later by the Yunnan provincial police department.

Accused ringleader Naw Kham and accomplices Hsang Kham, Yi Lai, and Zha Xiha were found guilty of the murder of the 13 Chinese sailors. The four are of Myanmar (Burma), Thai, Laotian, and unknown nationality. Two others were given a suspended death sentence and eight years in prison for involvement in the killings.

The gang was accused of ambushing two flat-bottomed Chinese cargo ships on the upper reaches of the Mekong River on October 5, 2011, in Myanmar waters infested with gangs that make their living from protection rackets and the production and smuggling of heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs. The Mekong flows south from Yunnan through the infamous Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, and provides a vital trade and transportation route between southwestern China and Southeast Asia.

The ships were recovered downriver later that day by Thai police following a gun battle with gang members, and the bodies of the 13 victims, some bound by the hands before being stabbed and shot, were fished from the river over the following days. Methamphetamine was found on the boats, leading to speculation they had been hijacked as part of a drug smuggling plot.

However, gang members later testified the killings were in retaliation for the ships refusing to pay protection money and allowing themselves to be used by Thai and Laotian soldiers in attacks on warlord bases. They said the drugs were placed on board to make it look like there had been a struggle between smugglers.

Because the killings took place on board Chinese-flagged vessels, Beijing, whose massive economy and powerful military give it considerable sway over its smaller southern neighbours, ruled the trials should take place in China.

The four were sentenced to death in November in a two-day trial, and the judgment was upheld by China's Supreme People's Court in Beijing following an automatic appeal in accordance with Chinese law.

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Rwandan woman jailed for inciting genocide

A COURT in the Netherlands has jailed Dutch-Rwandan woman Yvonne Basebya for inciting genocide during the central African nation's 1994 genocide.

"The court orders the suspect jailed for six years and eight months," judge Rene Elkerbout said on Friday, acquitting her of other charges including war crimes and genocide perpetration.

Basebya, 66, faced a total of six charges before The Hague's district court for her role in the slaughter of almost a million people, committed by Hutu extremists against Tutsis and moderate Hutus. She could have been jailed for life.

"She incited unfortunate youngsters to commit murder against Tutsis during meetings, as evidenced by the song she sang, 'Tuba Tsembe Tsembe', which means 'let's exterminate them all'," judge Elkerbout said.

Two of Basebya's daughters were in court and started crying as the judgement was read.

Basebya, wearing a pink jacket, black trousers and had her hair pulled back, was impassive during the sentencing, as was her husband, Rwandan former MP Augustin Basebya.

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Two killed in blasts at Somali restaurant

AT least two people have been killed and several wounded in twin attacks at a restaurant on the popular beachfront of Somalia's capital Mogadishu.

The blast, the latest in a string of attacks in the war-ravaged city, reportedly included a car bomb followed shortly after by an attacker wearing a suicide vest packed with explosives.

"There was a big explosion from a car, then as people rushed towards the area after the blast, a suicide bomber with a vest exploded himself," said Mohammed Abdullahi, a businessman who was inside the restaurant when the attack took place.

He saw the dead bodies of two security guards, and said at least nine other people were wounded.

"Many people who were wounded ran away after the explosion, so more might have been injured," he added.

The explosion took place on Friday close to Mogadishu's famous Lido beach, which is usually crowded on weekends with families enjoying the beach, playing football or swimming in the Indian Ocean waves.

"There was a heavy explosion, and then a short time later there was another," said policeman Ali Mohammed, who was near the scene of the attack.

One person was killed in a similar car bomb blast in the area last month.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents have launched a series of guerrilla-style attacks in Mogadishu in recent months.

The insurgents have vowed to topple President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who took office in September after being chosen by the country's new parliament.

But the once powerful Shebab are on the back foot inside Somalia, having fled a string of key towns ahead of a 17,000-strong African Union force which is also fighting alongside Somali soldiers.

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Spill at UK plant sends Scotch into sewer

A MASSIVE spill at a Chivas plant has sent the smell of spirits flowing through a Scottish sewer and sorrow coursing through the hearts of Scotch whisky fans.

Chivas Brothers Ltd spokeswoman Jennifer Stevenson says the group is investigating what she described as an "accidental loss" of spirit at the company's bottling plant in Dumbarton, Scotland on February 26.

She declined to estimate how much of the bulk whisky had been lost, saying only that it was less than the 18,000 litres mentioned in media reports.

Bulk whisky can be used in various ways, and it wasn't immediately clear which Chivas brand the liquid was meant to fill.

Stevenson said on Friday she did not want to comment on the spill's circumstances until the company had completed its investigation.

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