Measles alert in Brisbane and Mount Isa

RESIDENTS of Brisbane and Mount Isa could have been exposed to measles when a traveller returned from abroad with the disease, Queensland health officials say.

The traveller returned home from Asia on January 2 while still infectious with measles after picking up the disease overseas.

The infected person flew into Brisbane where they spent the day before flying to Mount Isa.

The Queensland Department of Health is urging anyone who was at the Brisbane International Airport abound 1am (AEST) on January 2 or in the the Brisbane CBD the same day to seek immediate medical advice if they feel unwell.

People at the city's domestic airport about 6am on January 3 or anyone who flew to Mount Isa that morning should also be on alert for symptoms.

Measles can be spread by droplets expelled during coughing or sneezing.

Early symptoms include fever, lethargy, a moist cough and sore and red eyes, followed a few days later by a red rash.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

French army raid in Somalia leaves 19 dead

TWO French soldiers and 17 militants have been killed in a failed bid to free a French hostage held by Islamists in southern Somalia since 2009, French's defence minister says.

The overnight operation was launched by France's elite DGSE secret service, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement on Saturday.

He added that the raid was sparked by the "intransigence of the terrorists who have refused to negotiate for three and a half years and were holding Denis Allex in inhuman conditions".

But the al-Shabab militants denied Le Drian's assertion that they had killed the hostage, a secret agent whose alias is Denis Allex, adding that they would decide his fate in two days and issuing a stern warning to Paris.

Two French soldiers "lost their lives (and) 17 terrorists were killed" in the battle, Le Drian said, offering the "most sincere condolences" to the dead soldiers' families and praising the men for their "courage and remarkable work".

He said the families of the dead soldiers had been informed.

An al-Shabab statement said "in the end, it will be the French citizens who will inevitably taste the bitter consequences of their government's devil-may-care attitude towards hostages".

Sheikh Mohamed Abdallah, a local al-Shabab military commander, said: "Mujahedeen fighters defeated the so-called commandos of the French government who tried to rescue a hostage, and they (the commandos) left the bodies of several of their own at the site of the attack."

Abdallah is the commander of Bulomarer, where the raid allegedly took place.

The al-Shabab statement said the French carried away "several" of their dead.

"The helicopters attacked a house ... upon the assumption that Denis Allex was being held at that location, but owing to a fatal intelligence blunder, the rescue mission turned disastrously wrong.

"Several French soldiers were killed in the battle and many more were injured before they fled from the scene of battle, leaving behind some military paraphernalia and even one of their comrades on the ground.

"The injured French soldier is now in the custody of the mujahedeen and Allex still remains safe and far from the location of the battle."

A Bulomarer resident, Idris Youssouf, said: "We don't know exactly what happened because the attack took place at night, but this morning we saw several corpses including that of a white man.

"Three civilians were also killed in the gunfight," he said.

The French secret agent was kidnapped in Somalia in July 2009 along with a colleague who was freed the following month.

Four military helicopters were used in the raid on al-Shabab-controlled Bulomarer, some 110 kilometres south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses said.

Al-Shabab has lost its main strongholds in the south and centre of the country following an offensive launched in mid-2011 by an African Union force, but they still control some rural areas.

Allex appeared in a video in June 2010 appealing to Paris to drop its support for the Somali government.

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Boy, 13, drives father's Merc to Germany

A 13-YEAR-OLD boy has run away from his adoptive parents in Italy, driving his father's Mercedes 1000 kilometres towards his native Poland before being stopped in Germany.

The boy - a go-kart enthusiast - managed to pass motorway toll booths and cross two international borders in his two-day drive across northern Italy, Austria and half of Germany.

"He looks like a 16-year-old, but still! He managed to fuel up and pass two borders. It's just incredible," Eleonora Spadati, head of local Carabinieri police in Montebelluna in northeast Italy where the boy ran from, told AFP on Saturday.

Spadati said the boy missed Poland and wanted to see his biological sister.

Just before leaving on Thursday with just 200 euros ($A252.14) in his pocket and a passport, he had also argued with his parents after they confiscated his mobile phone as a punishment for topping up its credit without their consent.

The boy's parents quickly realised he might have tried to go to Poland and contacted local Italian police, asking for an alert along his possible route.

German traffic police picked him up just 200 kilometres from the Polish border on Friday.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Two NSW boys charged with lighting fire

TWO juveniles have been charged over the starting a grass fire on the side of the M5 motorway in Sydney's southwest.

Police say they spotted the boys, aged 12 and 17, near the fire off the M5 at Eagle Vale about 2.30pm Friday.

The boys were arrested and the 17-year-old was later charged with three counts of causing a fire and being reckless to its spread.

The 12-year-old was charged with two counts of the same offence, police said in a statement.

The older boy was refused bail and will appear at Campbelltown Children's Court on Saturday.

The other boy was granted bail and will front the same court on February 6.

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3000-year-old tombs unearthed in Egypt

EGYPT'S Antiquities Minister says Italian archaeologists have unearthed tombs over 3000 years old in the ancient city of Luxor.

Mohammed Ibrahim says the discovery was made beneath the mortuary temple of King Amenhotep II, seventh Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty who reigned from 1427 to 1401 B.C. The temple is located on the western bank of the Nile.

Ibrahim says remains of wooden sarcophaguses and human bones were found inside the tombs.

Mansour Barek, head of Luxor antiquities, says jars used to preserve the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines of the deceased were found. They were decorated with images of the four sons of the god Horus - figures seen as essential by ancient Egyptians to help the soul of the deceased find its way to heaven.

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France hit recession in Q4: central bank

THE French central bank repeated on Thursday its estimate that France fell into a mild recession at the end of 2012, putting contraction of the economy at 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter after equivalent estimated shrinkage in the third quarter.

The latest estimate from the Bank of France differs from data from the national statistics office which suggests that France has just averted recession this year by showing marginal intermittent growth.

But together the sets of data suggest that the country is bumping along on the edge of recession when it urgently needs to achieve steady and stronger growth to generate activity, reduce high unemployment and raise tax revenues in a battle to reduce the public deficit.

The Socialist government switched the emphasis of its economic policy a few months after coming to power this year, focusing on the need to raise the competitive position of French industry so as to boost exports and reduce a big trade deficit.

The central bank stood by its view that the country fell into mild recession on the basis of its latest monthly report in December on the state of activity in the industrial and services sector.

The bank's overall assessment of how the figures for the economy in the fourth quarter would turn out was the same as the assessments the bank made in November and October.

The bank has already said that it believes the economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter from output in the second quarter.

The technical definition of recession is two quarters running of contraction of output in a quarter from output in the previous quarter.

However, the national statistics institute INSEE estimates that in the third quarter the economy grew by 0.1 per cent after contraction of 0.1 per cent in the second quarter.

And INSEE said in its latest estimate of activity in the last quarter of the year, published on December 20, that the economy had shrunk by 0.2 per cent from output in the third quarter.

This would mean that the fractional growth in the third quarter kept the country out of recession, according to the INSEE figures.

Meanwhile, INSEE reported on Thursday that French industrial output had rallied by 0.5 per cent in November from the level in October, when it had contracted by 0.6 per cent on a revised basis from output in September.

INSEE had estimated initially that in October, industrial output had shrunk by more, by 0.7 per cent.

INSEE also said that consumer prices had risen by 0.3 per cent in December and by 1.2 per cent, excluding the price of tobacco, on a 12-month basis.

INSEE said that the increase had been driven mainly by seasonal increases in the prices of services and manufactured products.

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British interest rates on hold at 0.5%

THE Bank of England (BoE) has kept its key interest rate at a record low of 0.50 per cent.

The bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) remained in "wait and see" mode again this month, maintaining its quantitative easing (QE) program at STG375 billion ($A575.59 billion).

The BoE's decision comes amid mounting concerns that Britain's economy slipped back into the red in the final quarter of 2012 following figures suggesting the dominant services sector contracted in December for the first time in two years.

The MPC is expected to hold off from any further QE action until the picture becomes clearer.

Anna Leach, head of economic analysis at the CBI business group, said: "A change in monetary policy was unlikely this month, given that the UK economy continues to send out mixed signals.

"We're not expecting any change in monetary policy over the next few months, unless compelling evidence of a renewed downturn emerges."

The BoE has held rates at 0.5 per cent since March 2009 as the British economy has struggled to recover from the financial crisis.

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UN: At least 52 mn domestic workers

AT least 52.6 million people worldwide are employed as domestic workers, most of them women without adequate legal protection, the UN's labour agency says in its first global snapshot of the often invisible workforce that cares for other people's families and households.

The research by the UN's International Labor Organization found that 83 per cent of all the domestic workers were women, many of them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse because of their lack of knowledge of local languages and laws or because they are often paid a flat weekly or monthly fee that is not based on how many hours they work.

"From caring for children, to caring for elderly and persons with disabilities, to performing a wide range of household tasks, domestic workers are an indispensable part of the social fabric," Sandra Polaski, ILO's deputy director-general, told reporters in Geneva.

The agency also found that 90 per cent of the domestic workers are not covered by general labour protections to the same extent as workers in the mainstream economy - with 30 per cent completely excluded from all national labour laws.

The UN warned, however, that the tally represents what is probably a reliable minimum figure, based on 2010 data, and is likely to be tens of millions of people higher due to underreporting by countries.

The report excluded those domestic workers who are below the age of 15 and are considered to be children, and were last estimated to number at 7.4 million in 2008.

AP

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China press campaign swells with new rally

PROTESTERS mounted a second day of rallies calling for press freedom in China on Tuesday, as social media users and celebrities backed a campaign which will be a test for the nation's new leaders.

Scores of people, some carrying mourning flowers, gathered outside the Guangzhou offices of the Southern Weekly, a popular liberal paper which had an article urging greater protection of rights censored.

One man in a wheelchair held a banner reading: "Support the Southern Weekly, resist censorship, give back my freedom of speech."

Some demonstrators wore masks depicting the British revolutionary figure Guy Fawkes, adopted as an anarchist symbol internationally after being popularised in the film "V for Vendetta" which was recently broadcast on state television.

Police stood by allowing the rally to proceed, but as it dispersed for the day, a lone woman demonstrator stood outside the building, holding a white rose and raising one hand, making a victory sign with her fingers.

The second day of rare public protests pushing for greater rights in China came after bloggers and celebrities -- some with millions of followers -- voiced support online for freedom of the press.

Yao Chen, an actress who has 32 million followers, posted the paper's logo on China's Twitter-like Weibo service and quoted Russian dissident Alexandr Solzhenitsyn: "One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world".

The row erupted after censors Thursday blocked the paper's 2013 New Year message calling for the realisation of a "dream of constitutionalism in China" and replaced it with an article in praise of the Communist Party, according to journalists.

Chinese media outlets are subject to directives from official propaganda departments, which often suppress news seen as negative by the ruling Communist party, but some publications take a more critical stance.

The dispute comes after the party's new leadership, headed by president-in-waiting Xi Jinping, took over at a congress in November, raising expectations of a more open style of governance.

The authorities seemed to be approaching the row cautiously to avoid a backlash that might trigger more protests, said Doug Young, a journalism professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.

"The government is treading really, really carefully in this incident because they have to make sure that it doesn't get out of control, say if they come across as acting too heavy-handed and start arresting people or trying to fire people," he said.

In a commentary the People's Daily, the Party's official mouthpiece, said propaganda chiefs needed to adapt to the "rhythm of the era" to ensure their effectiveness, and abandon "stiff preaching that is unchanging and patronising."

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Asian markets fall after US losses

ASIAN markets were mostly lower on Tuesday following losses in New York as dealers took profits from recent advances while also seeking fresh catalysts.

Tokyo was also weighed by a rise in the yen, which has suffered heavy selling in recent weeks, while the South Korean bourse slipped on disappointment over the latest earnings guidance from Samsung Electronics.

Tokyo slipped 0.86 per cent, or 90.95 points, lower to 10,508.06, Sydney lost 0.57 per cent, or 27.1 points, to close at 4690.2 and Seoul was 0.66 per cent lower, shedding 13.31 points to 1997.94.

Hong Kong lost 0.94 per cent, shedding 218.56 points to 23,111.19 while Shanghai fell 0.41 per cent, or 9.29 points, to 2276.07.

With the US fiscal crisis out of the way until talks next month on raising the country's borrowing limit and cutting spending, eyes are now on the upcoming earnings season and economic indicators.

"We could be in a no man's land between the fiscal cliff and [the debate around] the debt ceiling," said Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac Institutional Bank in Sydney.

China is due to unveil several batches of data over the coming week, including on trade, inflation and gross domestic product, with most economists upbeat following a series of results suggesting the economy is picking up strength.

However, Wall Street provided a negative lead owing to caution ahead of the start of the corporate reporting season later on Tuesday.

The Dow shed 0.38 per cent, the S&P 500 fell 0.31 per cent and the Nasdaq edged down 0.09 per cent.

In Tokyo the Nikkei fell as the yen picked up slightly against the dollar and euro, although analysts said its relative weakness should continue to provide support.

"The market remains overheated after running up so much over the past several weeks, making it vulnerable to more selling," SMBC Nikko Securities general manager of equities Hiroichi Nishi told Dow Jones Newswires.

"Currency levels remain somewhat supportive ... so this should hold any sharp sell-offs in check."

The US dollar stood at 87.41 yen in Tokyo trade, from 87.89 late on Monday in New York, where it last week surged to a peak of 88.41 yen, its highest since July 2010.

The euro bought $US1.3113 and 114.61 yen, from $US1.3115 and 115.09 yen in New York.

Seoul's Kospi was dragged lower by heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which fell 1.3 per cent as it disappointed traders despite forecasting a record operating profit of $US8.8 billion for the three months to the end of December.

"Investors appear concerned that Samsung may not show a better performance in the first quarter, with some of them taking profit," said Hyundai Securities analyst Bae Sung-Young.

Oil prices were lower, with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, down nine cents to $US93.10 a barrel in the afternoon while Brent North Sea crude for February delivery lost 15 cents to $US111.25.

Gold was at $US1653.49 at 1045 GMT (2145 AEDT) compared with $US1654.50 late Monday.

In other markets:

- Taipei fell 0.43 per cent, or 33.43 points, to 7,721.66.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was 0.80 per cent lower at Tw$99.7 while leading smartphone maker HTC lost 3.99 per cent to Tw$276.5.

- Manila was flat, nudging up 3.99 points to a new record 6,048.90.

SM Investments added 1.73 per cent to 939 pesos, BDO Unibank gained 0.13 per cent to 75.15 pesos and Philippine Long Distance Telephone dropped 0.60 per cent to 2,646 pesos.

- Wellington rose 0.14 per cent, or 5.53 points, to 4,090.37.

Telecom added 2.3 per cent to $NZ2.23, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 1.7 per cent at $NZ2.47 and Metlifecare surged 4.4 per cent to end at $NZ3.35.

- Singapore slipped 0.40 per cent, or 12.74 points, to 3205.52.

Global integrated supply chain manager Olam International dropped 2.13 per cent to Sg$1.61 while Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation gained 0.10 per cent to Sg$9.69.

- Jakarta ended up 0.12 per cent, or 5.17 points, at 4,397.55.

State-controlled miner Aneka Tambang jumped 2.99 per cent to 1380 rupiah, while Bank Negara Indonesia rose 1.97 per cent to 3875 rupiah.

- Kuala Lumpur lost 0.31 per cent, or 5.25 points, to 1688.91.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong shed 1.4 per cent to 22.62 ringgit while Astro Malaysia gained 0.7 per cent to 3.02.

- Bangkok rose 0.14 per cent, or 2.01 points, to 1417.33.

Oil company PTT dropped 1.20 per cent to 330 baht, while power giant Electricity Generating Public Co. added 0.33 per cent to 150.50.

- Mumbai rose 0.26 per cent, or 51.10 points, to 19,742.52.

Conglomerate ITC group rose 2.18 per cent to 285.3 rupees while private housing finance firm HDFC rose 1.95 per cent to 839.65.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Workers injured in Syrian camp in Jordan

HUMANITARIAN workers distributing aid to Syrian refugees in northern Jordan after destructive rains have been injured in a "stampede", officials say.

"Refugees started to push each other as they ran towards the aid workers. They hurled stones at each other and there was a stampede, which hurt some aid workers," Anmar Hmud, a government spokesman for refugee affairs, told AFP on Tuesday.

"At least one of the aid workers was taken to hospital."

The incident occurred as aid workers were helping some of the 62,000 Syrians sheltering in the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan near the Syrian border, where hundreds of tents have been destroyed by two days of heavy rains.

"Bad weather and heavy rain in the past two days have affected 500 tents in Zaatari," Ali Bibi, in charge of cooperation and international relations at UN refugee agency UNHCR, told AFP.

"We are now are working with the Jordanian government to move hundreds of refugees to caravans."

There are 4000 caravans and 4,500 tents at the six month old camp, which has seen several protests against poor living conditions, including a lack of electricity.

Jordan, which says it is hosting more than 290,000 Syrians, suffers bad weather in winter, including the torrential downpours seen in recent days.

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Aceh ban on women straddling motorbikes

AUTHORITIES in Indonesia's Aceh province are pressing ahead with a proposed law that would ban female passengers from straddling motorbikes despite reported opposition from the central government.

Aceh introduced a version of Shariah, or Islamic law, in 2009, following through on a deal struck in 2005 to end a long-running separatist war there. The Aceh laws regulate women's dress and public morality, and allow for public caning.

On Monday, authorities in northern Aceh distributed a notice to government offices informing residents of the proposed law, which would apply to adolescent girls and women.

Suaidi Yahya, mayor of the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe, said a ban was needed because the "curves of a woman's body" are more visible when straddling a motorbike as opposed to sitting sideways with legs dangling.

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Obama to nominate Brennan as CIA director

US President Barack Obama will nominate White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan as CIA director, an administration official says.

"Brennan has the full trust and confidence of the president," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Monday.

"Over the past four years, he has been involved in virtually all major national security issues and will be able to hit the ground running at CIA."

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Egypt army foils bid to attack church

THE Egyptian army has foiled a bid to attack a Coptic church in the Rafah border town with Gaza as the minority Christian community begins celebrating its Christmas, MENA news agency reports.

"Army units foiled an attack against the Rafah church at 1am (1000 AEDT on Monday) and seized a car packed with explosives and weapons near the church," the official news agency said.

Another car carrying masked men sped away as the patrols seized the explosives-packed Toyota vehicle, MENA said.

Egypt's Coptic minority celebrates on Monday its first Christmas under Islamist rule and amid a climate of fear and uncertainty for their future, although President Mohamed Morsi has pledged to be the "president of all Egyptians".

In September, residents and officials reported several Coptic families from Rafah had fled from the Sinai peninsula town that borders the Gaza Strip after receiving death threats from Islamists.

Egyptian security sources suggested, meanwhile, the planned attack could have been aimed at a military camp under construction near the church that has been targeted in the past by Islamist militants.

They said the church has been lying abandoned for the past two years after it was torched in the aftermath of the countrywide uprising that toppled the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the planned attack but one security source said the perpetrators were "probably radical Islamists whom security forces have been tracking for months".

Sinai, a scarcely populated peninsula home to lucrative tourist resorts in the south and shadowy Islamist militants in the north, is a major transit point for arms smuggling to Gaza, which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas group.

Security in the desert and mountainous region collapsed after the uprising that toppled Mubarak.

Since his downfall, several militant attacks have targeted police and soldiers, including a brazen August 5 ambush on an army outpost that killed 16 soldiers.

The military launched a wide-ranging campaign after that attack to flush out militants, but drive-by shootings have continued.

And on Friday security officials announced the seizure in Sinai of US-made anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles destined for Gaza, where militants have said they would acquire more weapons to use against Israel.

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Assad outlines new Syria peace plan

SYRIAN President Bashar Assad has outlined a new peace initiative that includes a national reconciliation conference and a new government and constitution but has demanded regional and Western countries stop funding and arming rebels first.

Assad ignored international demands for him to step down and said he is ready to hold a dialogue with those "who have not betrayed Syria".

Syrian opposition forces, including rebels on the ground, are likely to reject Assad's proposal.

They have repeatedly said they will accept nothing less than the president's departure, dismissing any kind of settlement that leaves him in the picture.

"We are in a state of war. We are fighting an external aggression that is more dangerous than any others, because they use us to kill each other," he said.

He stressed the presence of religious extremists and jihadi elements among those fighting in Syria, calling them "terrorists who carry the ideology of al-Qaeda" and "servants who know nothing but the language of slaughter."

Assad was speaking on Sunday in a rare address to the nation, his first since June. He spoke to a packed hall at the Opera House in central Damascus, and the audience frequently often broke out in cheers and applause.

Wearing a suit and tie, the president spoke before a collage of pictures of what appeared to be Syrians who have been killed since March 2011.

The internet was cut in many parts of Damascus ahead of the address, apparently for security reasons.

As in previous speeches, Assad said his forces were fighting groups of "murderous criminals" and jihadi elements and denied that there was an uprising against his family's decades-long rule.

He struck a defiant tone, saying Syria will not take dictates from anyone but urged Syrians to unite to save the country.

"The first part of a political solution would require regional powers to stop funding and arming (the rebels), an end to terrorism and controlling the borders," he said.

He said this would then be followed by dialogue and a national reconciliation conference and the formation of a wide representative government which would then oversee new elections, a new constitution and general amnesty.

However, Assad made clear his offer to hold a dialogue is not open to those whom he considers extremists or carrying out a foreign agenda.

"We never rejected a political solution ... but with whom should we talk? With those who have extremist ideology who only understand the language of terrorism?" he said.

"Or should we with negotiate puppets whom the West brought. ... We negotiate with the master not with the slave."

As in previous speeches and interviews, he clung to the view that the crisis in Syria was a foreign-backed agenda and said it was not an uprising against his rule.

"Is this a revolution and are these revolutionaries? By God I say they are a bunch of criminals," he said.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shots fired in Sydney's southwest

AN investigation is under way after shots were fired in Sydney's southwest on Sunday.

Police were called to Clunes Lane, Canterbury, about 2.15pm (AEDT) on Sunday after a resident reported hearing gun shots.

At the scene, officers were told the shots were fired by two men in a blue sedan. There were no reports of injury or damage to property.

The vehicle is described as being a dark blue sedan similar to a Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon.

The car occupants are described as being of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance, aged in their mid 20s, with a stocky build, and unshaven.

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Suspected body in bag washes up in WA

POLICE in Western Australia are investigating the discovery of what appears to be human remains stuffed into a plastic bag that washed up on a beach on Rottnest Island.

The grim discovery was made on late on Sunday afternoon at Porpoise Bay, on the southeast of the island, with police immediately called in to investigate fears the bag contained a body.

A WA police spokesman said officers are "fairly convinced" the remains in the bag are human, with a pathologist due to be called in to confirm the find.

The pathologist will examine the contents of the bag either late on Sunday night, or first thing on Monday.

Rottnest Island, situated 18km off the coast of Perth, has been a popular holiday spot for West Australians for generations.

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