China quake toll up to 113

The number of people killed in the Chinese earthquake has risen to 113, with at least 2,600 injured. Source: AAP

THE earthquake that has struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province has left at least 113 people dead and more than 2,600 injured.

Nearly five years after a devastating quake wreaked widespread damage across the region, Saturday's quake toppled buildings, triggered landslides and disrupted phone and power connections in mountainous Lushan county.

The village of Longmen was hit particularly hard, with authorities saying nearly all the buildings had been destroyed.

Rescuers turned the square outside the Lushan County Hospital into a triage centre, where medical personnel bandaged bleeding victims, according to footage on China Central Television.

Rescuers dynamited boulders that had fallen across roads to reach Longmen and other damaged areas lying farther up the mountain valleys, state media reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency, citing the Sichuan earthquake bureau, said at least 113 people had died.

The government of Ya'an city, which administers Lushan, said in a statement that more than 2,600 people were injured, 330 of them severely.

The quake - measured by China's seismological bureau at magnitude 7.0 and the US Geological Survey at 6.6 - struck the steep hills of Lushan county shortly after 8am local time, when many people were at home, sleeping or having breakfast.

People in their underwear and wrapped in blankets ran into the streets of Ya'an and even the provincial capital of Chengdu, 115 kilometres east of Lushan, photos, video and accounts posted online showed.

The quake's shallow depth, less than 13 kilometres, likely magnified the impact.

It was along that fault line that the devastating magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12, 2008, leaving more than 90,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead in one of the worst natural disasters to strike China in recent decades.

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Female suicide bomber kills 4 in Pakistan

A female suicide bomber has blown herself up outside a hospital in Pakistan, killing four people. Source: AAP

A FEMALE suicide bomber has blown herself up outside a hospital in a lawless tribal area of northwest Pakistan, killing at least four people and wounding four others.

The attack took place on Saturday in Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district bordering Afghanistan where the military has carried out several offensives against al-Qaeda-linked Taliban militants.

"At least four people were killed and four others were wounded in the blast outside the main gate of the hospital," Mohammad Riaz, chief doctor at the government hospital said.

"It was a female suicide bomber, about 18-20 years old. We have found her legs and head," local administration official Abdul Haseebhe said.

The dead included a security personnel, a hospital worker and two civilians, he added.

Bajaur is one of seven districts that make up Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas (FATA).

The semi-autonomous region of mountains, valleys and caves is one of the most deprived in the country.

It has been a stronghold for Afghan Taliban, al-Qaeda and other Pakistani militant groups, and a battleground between the army and insurgents.

Pakistan has lost more than 3,000 soldiers in the fight against homegrown insurgents but has resisted US pressure to do more to eliminate the havens in remote areas where they hide.

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Man arrested over India girl's brutal rape

The kidnapping and brutal rape of a five-year-old Indian girl has triggered protests across India. Source: AAP

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Indian girl who was abducted, raped and tortured in New Delhi was alert and stable, doctors said, as fresh protests erupted over sexual violence in the country.

The attack evoked memories of the brutal gang-rape and death of a young female student last December which shook India and sparked weeks of demonstrations against widespread crimes against women and children.

Newspapers splashed the rape of the five-year-old on their front pages with headlines such as "Delhi shamed again" and "Depraved Delhi".

The child was being treated at a top government hospital for serious internal injuries sustained during the more than 40-hour ordeal, as police arrested a garment worker early on Saturday on suspicion of carrying out the attack.

"It is the act of a monster," senior Patna police official Ravindar Kumar told AFP, saying the suspect was booked on charges of rape, attempted murder and illegal confinement, and that he would be returned to New Delhi to face trial.

The child "is conscious and alert," D K Sharma, one of a team of doctors treating her at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India's premier government-owned hospital, told reporters.

"Now her condition is okay and she is under close observation," Sharma said, adding she is "quite stable".

The 22-year-old man arrested, Manoj Kumar, described by media reports as a tenant in the child's house, was apprehended after he fled to his in-laws' home in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

Police accused the suspect of repeatedly attacking the child inside a locked room after kidnapping her Monday in a lower middle-class area of the New Delhi.

Doctors said the girl was mutilated and suffered serious internal and other injuries. She was also fighting an infection.

"She was left for dead by the suspect in the room where she was held for over 40 hours," Delhi's chief police investigator, Prabhakar, who uses one name, said.

Demonstrators were angered by reports that police, who have been under heavy public pressure to reduce the number of rapes, were reluctant to register the case and had offered the father money to forget the assault.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it a "shameful incident" and asked society "to work to root out the evil of rape".

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Taiwan executes six death-row inmates

TAIWAN has executed six more death-row inmates, just a few months after the same number of prisoners were put to death, as the debate continued over the need for capital punishment.

Three were executed in Tainan city in the island's south and one each in the capital Taipei, eastern Hualien and central Taichung cities, the justice ministry said in a statement.

They were anaesthetised and then shot, it said.

Taiwan executed six prisoners in December 2012, five in 2011 and four in 2010 -- the 2010 executions were the first after a hiatus that had lasted since 2005.

With Friday's executions, the number of death row inmates now stands at 50, according to the ministry.

Taiwan reserves the death penalty for serious crimes including aggravated murder and kidnapping, but the political elite is divided about whether to maintain it.

A lingering debate on abolishing the death penalty has been renewed recently as judicial and military authorities came under fire over the execution of a soldier wrongly convicted in a child murder case.

Chiang Kuo-ching, a 21-year-old serviceman executed by shooting in 1997, was posthumously acquitted in a military court in 2011 for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl, due to insufficient evidence.

He had insisted he was innocent and that he was coerced by a group of air force intelligence officers into confessing.

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Taliban attack kills 13 Afghan police

Taliban insurgents killed 13 local policemen in an attack on a checkpoint in southeast Afghanistan. Source: AAP

TALIBAN insurgents killed 13 local policemen while they were sleeping, in an attack on their checkpoint in southeast Afghanistan, officials said.

The policemen were shot dead early Friday in the Andar district of Ghazni province, said district governor Mohammad Qasim Desiwal.

"They were asleep when their checkpoint came under attack by the Taliban and were killed by AK-47 fire," Desiwal told AFP.

Provincial governor Mosa Khan Akbarzada confirmed the death toll and said a delegation had been sent to the district to investigate.

The victims were members of the 18,000-strong Afghan Local Police, a village-level force formed in 2010 to provide security in areas where the better-trained national police and army are scarce.

Afghan troops and police are increasingly on the front line against the insurgents, and suffering heavier casualties, as NATO combat troops prepare to withdraw by the end of next year.

The bodies of four Afghan regular soldiers were found Wednesday with their throats slit in Jawzjan, a day after they were kidnapped by the Taliban along the road to the northern province.

The Taliban have been waging an insurgency against the Afghan government since they were toppled from power by a US-led invasion in 2001.

Attacks traditionally intensify in spring after the harsh winter recedes.

A total of 23 people were killed Tuesday and Wednesday, including the four soldiers and two local employees of the Red Crescent medical charity.

Gherardo Pontrandolfi, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Kabul, said those killings would make it even harder to reach people in need.

"In many areas people cannot reach hospitals or clinics safely. And the end of winter is likely to bring renewed fighting, making the problem worse," Pontrandolfi said in a statement Thursday.

Separately, the interior ministry in Kabul said Friday that police have arrested five Taliban insurgents who were planning suicide attacks on civilians in the capital and in another city later this month.

The four men and one woman were detained in the eastern city of Jalalabad Thursday and police seized four suicide bomb vests and C-4 explosives along with other weapons, the ministry said.

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Boston lockdown as manhunt goes on

ONE of the Boston marathon bombing suspects was killed in a shootout early on Friday as police raced on a house-to-house search for the second, with the entire city placed on lockdown.

NBC News reported that the two young men believed to be responsible for Monday's deadly carnage at the finish line of the prestigious race are brothers of Chechen origin who were permanent legal residents of the United States.

The police order means that roughly 900,000 people in the greater Boston area have been told to stay put, virtually shutting down one of America's main cities after the twin attack that left three people dead and 180 wounded.

"We're asking people to shelter in place," Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick told reporters.

"Stay indoors with the doors locked, and do not open the door for anyone other than a properly identified law enforcement officer."

The two men, dubbed "Suspect One" and "Suspect Two" by the FBI, led police on a violent cavalcade that left inhabitants of Boston and nearby towns cowering in their homes as gunfire and explosions erupted through the night.

Public transport was suspended throughout the region and all schools closed as police chased the second suspect, identified as 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The dead man was identified as 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

One police officer was killed and another wounded in the operation, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said, confirming that the dead man was Suspect One as labelled in photos released by the FBI.

The man died after suffering multiple gunshot wounds and an injury in an explosion, a doctor at Beth Israel hospital told reporters.

The surviving fugitive was "armed and dangerous," Davis said.

"We believe this to be a terrorist, we believe this to be a man who has come here to kill people."

Police said the dead suspect had explosives on his body, and there were fears the second suspect still at large was also strapped with bombs.

The pair first tried to rob a convenience store late on Thursday in Cambridge, across the river from Boston, Davis said.

They then proceeded to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world's top universities, where one campus police officer was shot dead, the commissioner added.

The pair then hijacked a Mercedes car and eventually let the driver out in Watertown, which is close to MIT, Davis added.

The chase went on through Watertown where the two were seen throwing explosives out of the car, local media said, citing police reports. Blasts and gunfire were heard in several districts.

During a shootout, the first suspect was shot and killed, Davis said. Another police officer was also wounded. The second suspect, who has been shown in pictures wearing a white baseball cap, managed to escape.

Police with rifles flooded the streets of Boston, and search helicopters patrolled the skies. Sirens blared across the city as bomb squads carried out house-to-house searches.

The attack in Boston, which sent a hail of nails and shrapnel into a crowd of thousands at the end of the marathon, was the worst terror assault on the United States since the September 11, 2001 suicide airliner attacks.

Just hours before the chaotic manhunt unfolded, the FBI on Thursday released pictures and video of the two suspects, appealing for help to identify the pair, who were carrying large backpacks.

Both appeared to be young men, one dressed in a white baseball cap and the other in a black cap. The FBI named them only as Suspect One and Suspect Two.

The men are seen in the video walking calmly, one a few paces behind the other, weaving between crowds on Boston's Boylston Street where the race finished.

President Barack Obama vowed to the people of Boston Thursday that the "evil" bombers would be brought to justice.

"Yes, we will find you, and yes, you will face justice," Obama said at a service at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross attended by 2,000 people including blast survivors, relatives of the dead, rescuers and city leaders.

More than 100 of the wounded have left Boston hospitals and fewer than 10 of those still in hospital remain in critical condition. Some with horrific injuries. Some will require new operations, doctors said.

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Bid to halt mass meat recall fails

A DUTCH court has rejected a meat wholesaler's bid to quash an order recalling 50,000 tonnes of beef potentially contaminated with horsemeat.

"The court rejects the request for a preliminary injunction," on Dutch food authority NVWA's recall of meat handled by Willy Selten, judge Reinier van Zutphen said at the commercial court in The Hague on Thursday.

Businessman Selten, allegedly a key player in Europe's horsemeat scandal, had sought to overturn the NVWA's order to recall all meat sold by the company over the past two years.

The watchdog recalled 50,000 tonnes of beef suspected to have been contaminated with horse, asking hundreds of companies across Europe supplied by Selten to check their products.

Selten's company was on Tuesday declared bankrupt and placed under curatorship.

His lawyer, Frank Peters, said Selten was disappointed after he informed him of the court's decision by phone.

"He (Selten) is very disappointed that with the tumult, the distress caused by the recall, there is no intervention by this court," Peters said.

NVWA spokesman Brenno Bruggink said it was now up to other countries that bought meat from Selten to decide whether they wanted to order national recalls.

"We informed 15 other EU countries that they had had meat from Selten, so most of the work has already been done," Bruggink said.

About half the suspect meat was sold in The Netherlands and half in the EU, he said.

"We think that most of it has already been eaten," Bruggink said.

"We have to go and do what we can. Whatever we can find, we'll find."

Lawyer Peters had argued on Tuesday that the recall was "disproportionate" and "bizarre and bordering on the mass hysteria gripping the whole of Europe".

He said there had never been a complaint in the 22 years in which Selten's company distributed meat from the small Dutch town of Oss, stressing: "All his meat comes from within the European Union."

The NVWA said it had sent a letter to 130 Dutch companies who were supplied with possible horse-contaminated beef from the Selten company, asking them to "take it off the market as a precautionary measure" and "verify all products".

The NVWA authority said although the meat's origin could not be guaranteed, "there are no signs of a danger to the public health".

Dutch officials in February raided the Selten meat processing plant in the south of The Netherlands on suspicion that it was mixing horsemeat with beef and selling it as pure beef.

It handled imports from various European countries and delivered to retailers, meat wholesalers, butchers, the meat processing industry and supermarkets throughout Europe.

The plant was probed as part of a criminal investigation by the prosecutor's office and the NVWA.

It is suspected of fraud and money laundering, the prosecutor's office said at the time.

Since the horsemeat scandal erupted in Ireland in January, governments have scrambled to figure out how and where the mislabelling of meat happened in the sprawling chain of production spanning abattoirs and meat suppliers across Europe.

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Afghan security deteriorating: Red Cross

THE International Committee of the Red Cross warns that security is deteriorating across Afghanistan as militants flood the battlefield and conduct attacks in what could be the most defining spring fighting season of the nearly 12-year-old war.

This year is crucial for Afghanistan as the US-led coalition is expected to hand over the lead for security in Afghanistan to the country's security forces sometime in the late spring.

Foreign military forces are then expected to begin a massive withdrawal of forces that will culminate at the end of next year.

Gherardo Pontrandolfi, head of the ICRC delegation in Kabul, also urged the warring parties to prevent the deaths of civilians, who have become increasingly caught in the crossfire.

"Spring is a good season of the year usually. But unfortunately it has a negative connotation with the resumption of the fighting," he said.

"Spring and summer will be very difficult for civilians especially in the months ahead. The civilian population is bearing the brunt of this conflict."

So far, April has been the deadliest month of this year.

According to an Associated Press tally, 186 people - including civilians, security forces and foreign troops - have been killed in violence around the nation.

More than 150 insurgents have also died, according to the tally.

The latest deaths came in southern Helmand province when insurgents shot and killed four labourers building a checkpoint for the Afghan army, said provincial spokesman Umar Zawaq.

The Taliban have pledged to target anyone working for the government or the US-led coalition.

Pontrandolfi said the Afghan Red Crescent had temporarily stopped humanitarian operations in northern Jawzjan province after unknown gunmen ambushed a medical van on Wednesday and killed two staff members of the local organisation.

Two other Red Crescent staff members were wounded in the attack.

"This is a tragedy, not only for the families of the deceased, but for all those needing medical attention, because now units like these might find it even more difficult to work in certain parts of the country," he said.

He added that the security situation has been made worse by a multitude of insurgent and criminal groups now operating around the country, a sign that the mainstream insurgent groups, such as the Taliban, might be fracturing. The Taliban usually allow the ICRC and affiliated groups, such the Red Crescent, to operate in areas they control.

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Arrests following Greek mass shooting

TWO men have been arrested in Greece after foremen for strawberry growers allegedly shot and wounded 27 migrant labourers who were demanding to be paid, police said.

The migrants, mainly from Bangladesh, were hospitalised in the western port of Patras and other areas with gunshot wounds after allegedly being fired upon late on Wednesday by three foremen for the growers in the village of Manolada, one of the main areas of strawberry production in Greece.

One man was arrested as a "moral instigator" of the alleged shootings and another for helping two of the presumed perpetrators to evade arrest, local police said on Thursday.

The migrants had been working in local farms without being paid for the past six months, the police said.

Around 200 of them went to demand their money when they were fired upon.

The government condemned the attack and anti-racist groups were planning a demonstration in the area later in the day.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said the attack was "inhuman" and "outside Greek morality" and pledged an immediate response by the authorities.

But the Communist-affiliated PAME union noted that the incident was only the latest in a long history of abuse of migrant workers in Greece.

PAME said the workers had been fired upon with shotguns and pistols.

It claimed 33 were hurt, while the police said 27 were wounded, one of them critically.

"Growers and landowners have operated with cover from the government and justice for years, creating a hell-hole with slavery labour conditions," the union said.

"Modern slaves in Manolada work in stifling conditions, pay rent to their exploiters and are lodged in sheds without water and electricity," it said.

In 2008, Manolada had been the focal point of a rare strike by hundreds of migrant workers against near-slavery conditions on the fields.

The treatment of migrants in Greece has long been criticised by domestic and international rights groups, to little avail.

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Rocket attack kills 12 in central Syria

A GOVERNMENT rocket attack has killed at least 12 people in a village in central Syria, while rebels battled regime forces over two key military bases in the northeast where government troops broke an opposition siege last week, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rockets struck the village of Eastern Buwaydah outside of Homs on Wednesday, and that two children and two women were among those killed.

Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said rebels and government forces also engaged in heavy fighting nearby.

Eastern Buwaydah is located between Homs, Syria's third-largest city, and the Lebanese border.

The region is of strategic value to President Bashar Assad's regime because it links Damascus with the coastal enclave that is the heartland of Syria's Alawites - the Shi'ite sect to which Assad belongs - and also home to the country's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, rebels were attacking government troops on Wednesday as anti-Assad fighters tried to bottle up the military bases of Hamadiya and Wadi Deif near the city of Maaret al-Numan.

Regime forces killed more than 20 fighters in an ambush on Saturday, allowing them to break the rebel hold on the countryside around the bases and ferry supplies to forces in the camps.

For weeks, the military had had to drop supplies in by helicopter to the besieged troops.

"The rebels are trying to re-impose a siege on the camps," Observatory director Abdul-Rahman said.

"They want to close the highway ... to stop them from supporting Wadi Deif and Hamadiya."

The fight for the two bases fits into the broader struggle for control of northern Syria, much of which has fallen to the rebels in the past year.

Across the north, most of the countryside is in the hands of anti-Assad fighters, while the regime is holding out in isolated military bases and most urban centres.

Maaret al-Numan lies along the main north-south highway linking Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo, where rebels and government forces have been fighting for control since an opposition offensive on the city last summer.

If the regime were to regain control of the highway, it would open up a badly needed supply route to its forces in Aleppo - potentially paving the way for further government advances.

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Britain bids farewell to Margaret Thatcher

Britain will pay its final respects to Baroness Thatcher at Wednesday's funeral. Source: AAP

THOUSANDS of well-wishers have applauded Margaret Thatcher's coffin as it passed through the streets of London before a funeral filled with pomp and splendour for Britain's polarising former prime minister.

Queen Elizabeth led the British establishment and representatives of 170 countries in bidding farewell on Wednesday at St Paul's Cathedral to the Iron Lady, who had a profound impact on her country and helped end the Cold War.

But in a sign of the bitterness her legacy still provokes at home, several hundred protesters turned their backs as her funeral cortege went by, booing and chanting "Maggie, Maggie Maggie! Dead, dead, dead!"

Tens of thousands of members of the public turned out to watch Thatcher's coffin travel from parliament to St Paul's, many breaking into spontaneous applause and throwing flowers.

About 700 soldiers, sailors and airmen in full ceremonial uniform lined the route as the coffin was carried first by hearse and then by horse-drawn gun carriage, as a military band played funeral marches.

Some 4000 police officers were deployed along the procession, amid heightened security following the bombings at the Boston Marathon and fears of disruption by left-wing groups.

At the cathedral, the Queen led the mourners in a rare tribute from the monarch, who had not attended a prime ministerial funeral since Winston Churchill died in 1965.

Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of Thatcher's Conservative Party, led a cast of three former premiers - John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - and politicians from across the political divide.

Global figures including Thatcher's fellow Cold War warrior Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, and showbusiness stars Joan Collins and Shirley Bassey joined the former prime minister's family in paying their respects.

In his address, Bishop of London Richard Chartres said Thatcher was a polarising figure but insisted there was no place for politics at her funeral.

"After the storm of a life led in the heat of political controversy, there is a great calm," he told the 2300 assembled guests, all clad in black.

"The storm of conflicting opinions centres on the Mrs Thatcher who became a symbolic figure - even an -ism. Today the remains of the real Margaret Hilda Thatcher are here at her funeral service."

Thatcher's coffin had arrived at St Paul's following an hour-long procession from parliament, during which London's famous Big Ben bell was silenced.

It was draped in the Union Jack flag and dressed with flowers and a card reading "Beloved Mother - Always in Our Hearts", a message from her twin children, 59-year-old Mark and Carol Thatcher.

The pavements along the route were packed by well-wishers, many of whom had risen at dawn to travel to London.

"I wanted to pay my respects to the best prime minister since Churchill," said Gloria Martin, a property developer in her 60s with an array of "I Love Maggie" badges pinned to her chest.

"She was strong, she was resolute, and she put her country first above any idea of popularity."

The crowd included veterans of the Falklands war, viewed by many of her admirers as Thatcher's finest hour and which played a central theme of the ceremony.

Servicemen from units that fought in the 1982 conflict with Argentina carried Thatcher's coffin into St Paul's while two brothers who served in the war walked behind.

Argentina was pointedly not represented among the mourners at the service, who included the prime ministers of Canada, Israel, Italy, Poland and Kuwait.

But the pomp and splendour - paid for with millions of pounds of public money - have sparked criticism from those who argue that Thatcher was too polarising a figure to merit such a state-sponsored send-off.

Some in the crowd turned their backs as the funeral cortege went by to protest at the damage wrought by her radical free-market economic reforms, which created mass unemployment in Britain's industrial heartlands.

"We're spending STG10 million ($A14.96 million) on it and that's disgraceful and unacceptable at a time of austerity," said 22-year-old student Casper Winslow, who held a placard reading "Rest of us in poverty".

The government has yet to disclose the costs of the funeral but insists it will be less than the reported STG10 million.

Cameron insisted it was right to give Thatcher a proper farewell.

"It is a fitting tribute to a great prime minister respected around the world," he told BBC radio.

"And I think other countries in the world would think Britain got it completely wrong if we didn't mark this in a proper way."

The funeral included Christian hymns reflecting Thatcher's strict Methodist upbringing, and Bible readings by Cameron and Thatcher's granddaughter Amanda, followed by a blessing from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

Her body was to be cremated in a private family ceremony.

Britain's first female prime minister, who was in office from 1979 to 1990, had suffered from dementia and was rarely seen in public for the final years of her life.

She died from a stroke aged 87 nine days ago.

Her death prompted tributes poured in from across the world for the role she played in bringing down the Iron Curtain, but sparked renewed debate at home over her legacy.

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Vic protesters rally at community cabinet

MELBOURNE April 17 AAP - More than 100 protesters rallying against live animal exports have sought to leave their stamp on an otherwise subdued federal community cabinet meeting in the marginal Melbourne Labor seat of Deakin.

The noisy protest, organised by Animals Australia and controlled by a heavy police presence, greeted Prime Minister Julia Gillard on her arrival at the Norwood Secondary College venue in Ringwood.

Inside the venue, however, Ms Gillard faced a mainly welcoming crowd of 300 who showered her with compliments as well as peppering her with questions on the National Disability Insurance scheme, gay marriage, 457 visa workers, Gonski reforms and Labor's image problem.

A rare, pointed question - as to why Labor was unable to sell its message through the media - had Ms Gillard casting a few thinly disguised barbs and insisting the government regularly engaged with the public at a grassroots level.

"It's our responsibility to be out there explaining our vision for the country's future," Ms Gillard said.

"In terms of media whether it's television or radio or newspapers, obviously the people who run those organisations bring some of their own perspectives to bear on what they think is news and how it should be reported."

Asked whether the states would usurp money earmarked for schools in the budget, Ms Gillard said she was determined to push through Gonski reforms.

"The debate now isn't with us because we're so determined to get this done. It's to make sure we have states and territories signing on (to the reforms)," she said.

"I can be very clear we are going to make sure money passes through state government and gets into schools."

Cabinet ministers to address the audience during the one hour Q and A included Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and Disabilities Minister Jenny Macklin.

Asked how the NDIS would provide better choices for young people who require care, Ms Gillard and Ms Macklin said the scheme would give greater support and more choices for those with disabilities.

"There are too many young people with profound disabilities and the only option they've got at the moment is residential care and that is not meeting their needs," Ms Gillard said.

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Benefit concert for ailing Doc Neeson

The music industry has raised $200,000 at a concert for The Angels frontman Doc Neeson. Source: AAP

THE Australian rock community has a history of helping the less fortunate - from families made homeless by bushfires to victims of the Boxing Day tsunami - so when the afflicted is one of their own they rally in style.

Diagnosed with a brain tumour in January, The Angels frontman Bernard "Doc" Neeson is now $200,000 better equipped to fund his ongoing cancer treatment thanks to a benefit concert held at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Monday night.

Neeson defied doctors' orders to sing a couple of songs at the Rock For Doc bash, a moment made more poignant by the death from cancer of Angels bass player Chris Bailey earlier this month.

The packed-out gig, at Neeson's request a celebration of music rather than just about him, turned out to be a who's who of Australian rock and roll including members of Cold Chisel, Dragon, Mi-Sex, Noiseworks and Rose Tattoo.

Politician Peter Garrett gave a rare vocal performance with his Midnight Oil band mates, but even their contribution was upstaged by David Hasselhoff, who started singing The Angels' anthem Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? before dragging Neeson on stage to finish the song.

"I think the fact that you play with people when you are starting out and you see them doing it rough, you do end up with a bond," Garrett said.

James Morley, The Angels' bass player since their 1990 album Beyond Salvation, said Neeson was humbled by the coming together of friends.

"Doc was blown away by the response and was telling everybody that Australia is one of the only places in the world where people will band together and do this kind of thing," Morley said.

"Everybody wanted to do it," Angry Anderson said backstage. "It is about Doc's friends celebrating his life."

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Tasmanian forest deal on edge again

Green groups could pull out of Tasmania's historic forests peace deal after an upper house vote. Source: AAP

TASMANIA'S forests peace deal is on a knife's edge again after the state's upper house voted to delay the creation of reserves.

Environment groups who came to an historic agreement with the timber industry in November have said they would walk away if the Legislative Council moved to slow down the protection of forests.

Under the deal for the state's ailing forestry sector, more than 500,000 hectares of forest was to be protected in exchange for federal funding of around $200 million to restructure the industry.

Legislation to enact the agreement has been mired in the upper house since December.

Labor Premier Lara Giddings has said any amendments must be agreed to by the signatories to the agreement.

Negotiations, which have dragged on for more than two years, have stalled on numerous occasions as the state government seeks an end to 30 years of bitter conflict between environmentalists and the industry.

Greens federal leader Christine Milne accused MLCs of wrecking the peace deal.

"The Legislative Council has pushed back the dates for securing reserves in a clear move by them and the Liberal Party to wait for a new Abbott federal government which will destroy any hope of protecting Tasmanian forests," Senator Milne said in a statement.

Labor's sole upper house member, Craig Farrell, denied the move went against the agreement.

"The government believes this amendment is materially consistent with the intent of the TFA (Tasmanian Forests Agreement)," the ABC quoted him as saying.

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Quake kills at least 40 near Iran border

A MAJOR earthquake described as the strongest to hit Iran in more than half a century has flattened buildings near Iran's border with Pakistan, and was felt as far away as New Delhi, Dubai and Bahrain.

Reports say it killed at least 40 people in the sparsely populated region in Iran while in Pakistan, at least five people were killed, also in a remote community.

It also caused the skyscrapers in Dubai and Bahrain to sway.

Iran's Red Crescent said it was facing a "complicated emergency situation" in the area with villages scattered over desolate hills and valleys.

Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency and others described the quake, measured at least magnitude 7.7, as the strongest quake in more than 50 years.

It also was the second deadly quake to hit Iran in less than a week after a magnitude 6.1 temblor struck near Bushehr, on Iran's Persian Gulf coast, killing at least 37 people and raising calls for greater international safety inspectors at Iran's lone nuclear reactor nearby.

Iran's state TV said the quake was centred near Saravan, about 48 kilometres from the Pakistani border.

A previous report citing the country's seismological centre placed the strength at magnitude 7.5, but it was apparently revised upward. The US Geological Survey put the preliminary magnitude at 7.8 and at a depth of 15.2 kilometres.

The quake was felt over a vast area from New Delhi to Gulf cities that have some of the world's tallest skyscrapers, including the record 828-metre Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Officials ordered temporary evacuations from some high-rises as a precaution.

A resident in the quake zone, Manouchehr Karimi, told The Associated Press by phone that "the quake period was long" and occurred "when many people were at home to take a midday nap".

Pakistani news channels showed buildings shaking in the southern city of Karachi, where people in panic came out from offices and homes.

There was no immediate word on any damage and people were seen standing outside their homes and offices even minutes after the quack rattled various parts of the country, although reports say five people have been killed.

"We have received five dead bodies," Ashraf Baloch, a hospital official, told AFP by telephone from Mashkail in Washuk district, around three kilometres inside Pakistan from the Iranian border.

In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a magnitude 6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern Iranian city of Bam.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Abbott quizzed on gay marriage stance

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has repeatedly been questioned about his stance against gay marriage. Source: AAP

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has repeatedly been questioned about his stance against gay marriage at a community forum in Sydney.

About 500 people attended the question and answer session with the opposition leader on Monday night in the beachside suburb of Manly, part of Mr Abbott's local electorate of Warringah.

In what was a wide ranging question and answer session, Mr Abbott fielded questions on topics including immigration, tax, education, climate change and superannuation.

He was also repeatedly urged to allow coalition MPs a conscience vote on gay marriage.

"I'd like to know when you're going to allow a conscience vote on marriage equality," Mr Abbott was asked by a member of the crowd.

"My position on this is fairly well known. I'm fairly traditional. I support the standard definition of marriage as between a man and a woman," replied Mr Abbott, who opposes changing the Marriage Act.

"That is our party's position," he later added.

He said coalition policy on the issue would not change in the lead up to September's federal election.

He said coalition policy on marriage equality after the election was "a matter for the post election party room".

Mr Abbott also used the forum to criticise the Gillard government's proposed multibillion dollar reforms to the education sector.

"We need better schools, we need better universities, but I just don't know if we can trust the current government to deliver it," he said.

He also defended the current skilled migration scheme and the use of 457 visas.

"Where you genuinely can't find someone, you should be able to bring someone in," he said.

"They are invariably more expensive than a local worker."

At one point, Mr Abbott rebuked a member of the audience for labelling the prime minister a "horrible woman".

"It's important that everyone in this audience and everyone in our polity generally be given a polite hearing," he said.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

24 dead in wave of bomb attacks in Iraq

DOZENS of attacks across Iraq, including a brazen car bombing en route to Baghdad airport, have killed at least 24 people just days before the country's first elections since US troops withdrew.

The violence, which struck during morning rush hour on Monday amid tightened security ahead of the polls, also wounded more than 210 people and raises further questions about the credibility of the April 20 vote, seen as a key test of Iraq's stability and its security forces' capabilities.

A total of 14 election hopefuls have already been murdered and just 12 of the country's 18 provinces will be taking part.

Officials said 20 car bombs exploded on Monday in Baghdad, the northern cities of Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmatu, Mosul and Tikrit, the central city of Samarra, and Hilla and Nasiriyah south of Baghdad.

Roadside bombs also hit Baquba, north of the capital, and there was a shooting near Baghdad.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda frequently attack both government targets and civilians in a bid to destabilise the country, and have reportedly sought to intimidate candidates and election officials ahead of polls.

The deadliest attacks were in Baghdad, where six car bombs struck in five neighbourhoods across the capital despite tougher checkpoint searches and heightened security.

Among them was a car bomb in a parking area used by vehicles making their way to Baghdad's heavily-guarded airport, a rare bombing on the road famously known as "Route Irish".

The airport road was once known by American forces as "RPG alley" for the high numbers of attacks along it, but has since become much more secure.

"There were several people, buses and private cars in the parking area when the explosion went off," said a man who gave his name as Abu Ali, at the site of the blast.

"It happened all of the sudden, and several people were killed and wounded. Some of the buses went straight to the airport to avoid more attacks."

In all, 11 people were killed and 57 wounded in the capital, officials said.

AFP journalists in Baghdad reported that sites of attacks were cordoned off by security forces who barred journalists from filming or taking photos of the aftermath of the bombings.

In Tuz Khurmatu, which lies 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, six people were killed and 60 wounded by three near-simultaneous car bombs, and in Kirkuk, five people were killed and 26 wounded by four more car bombs.

Attacks elsewhere in Iraq killed two people and wounded 69 others.

Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu lie at the centre of a tract of disputed territory that stretches from Iraq's eastern border with Iran to its western frontier with Syria.

The swathe of land is claimed by both the mostly-Arab government in Baghdad and the three-province autonomous Kurdistan region of north Iraq.

The dispute is often cited by officials and diplomats as the biggest long-term threat to Iraq's stability.

Soldiers and policemen cast their ballots for the provincial elections on Saturday, a week ahead of the main vote, the country's first since March 2010 parliamentary polls. It is also the first election since US troops withdrew from Iraq in December 2011.

The election also comes amid a long-running crisis between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and several of his erstwhile government partners, which officials and diplomats say insurgent groups exploit by using the political differences to enhance their room for manoeuvre on the ground.

More than 8,000 candidates are standing in the elections, with 378 seats on provincial councils up for grabs. An estimated 16.2 million Iraqis are eligible to vote.

Although security has markedly improved since the height of Iraq's confessional conflict in 2006-2007, 271 people were killed in March, making it the deadliest month since August, according to AFP figures.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bali investigators retrieve jet wreckage

Investigators have begun to retrieve the wreckage of the Lion Air plane that crashed off Bali. Source: AAP

INDONESIAN investigators have begun retrieving the wreck of a Lion Air plane that crashed at Bali's airport, as accounts emerged of a freak storm that could have caused the accident.

The Boeing 737-800 missed the runway as it came in to land on Saturday, slamming into the sea and splitting in two.

Dozens of the 108 people on board were injured, but there were no fatalities.

After the plane hit the water, terrified passengers swam to shore as police came to their aid in rubber dinghies.

Government officials and the airline said at the time of the crash that the weather had been fine.

But on Monday, transport ministry official Herry Bakti said the plane had been travelling through dense cloud at the time of the incident and one passenger told how the aircraft became engulfed in torrential rain.

French businessman Jean Grandy, 49, one of four foreigners on the plane, said that the flight from the city of Bandung in West Java had appeared to be landing smoothly.

"The final approach was fine," he said.

"Then suddenly, a cloud enveloped us. Torrents of water were pouring on us, it was an enormous downpour. It only lasted two, three minutes.

"It was almost as if it was night, even though the sun had been shining just before," said Grandy.

The Frenchman, who owns a shoe factory in Indonesia and lives in Bali, said it was an "extraordinary phenomenon" that could have happened to any plane - and that he planned to fly on Lion Air again on Wednesday.

His testimony supported the views of some analysts who said that as the plane was new, a freak weather incident may have caused the crash of the Boeing 737-800, which was delivered to Lion Air only last month.

Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent of Orient Aviation magazine, said the accident could have been caused by a change in wind direction and speed between different altitudes, or a strong downdraft from storm clouds.

"If that hit the aircraft when it was on final approach, there is the likelihood the pilots would not have had time to recover," he said.

The Indonesian pilot, Mahlup Gozali, who had more than 10,000 flying hours, and the Indian co-pilot, Chiraq Carla, tested negative for drugs and alcohol in preliminary tests, a transport ministry spokesman said.

Divers on Monday retrieved the cockpit voice recorder, which had become wedged between the body and wing of the wrecked plane, and pulled other small debris out of the water.

Salvage teams will be lifting the body of the plane in three parts, said Bali airport general manager Purwanto.

The tail will be lifted using a crane on Monday evening, and the whole operation should take two to three days to complete, said Purwanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Transport ministry official Bakti said that an interim report should be complete in around a month, but could not say when a final report would be completed.

Launched 13 years ago with just one plane, Lion Air has struck two of the world's largest aircraft orders in a staggering $US46 billion ($A44.00 billion) bet on Indonesia's air transport boom.

Saturday's crash has heightened fears the plans are overambitious for an airline that already has a poor reputation, has suffered a string of accidents, and is banned from EU and US skies because of safety fears.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

First South Sudan oil reaches Sudan

SUDAN'S oil ministry says the first crude from South Sudan has reached its territory, bringing both impoverished countries closer to billions of dollars in revenue after a dispute over fees.

"The first batch of oil already arrived on Sudanese land yesterday," Sudan's undersecretary at the petroleum ministry, Awad Abdul Fatah said on Sunday.

"It's a small testing quantity."

Eight days ago South Sudan held a ceremony to restart oil production at the Thar Jath field in Unity state after a shutdown of more than a year.

The South halted crude production in early 2012, cutting off most of its revenue after accusing Khartoum of theft in a row over export fees.

China was the biggest buyer of the oil.

At talks in Addis Ababa last month, Sudan and South Sudan finally settled on detailed timetables to ease tensions, after months of intermittent border clashes, by resuming the oil flows and implementing eight other key pacts.

The deals had remained dormant after signing in September as Khartoum pushed for guarantees that South Sudan would no longer back rebels fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Unknown fault 'caused latest Japan quake'

A previously unknown active fault may have caused the magnitude-6.3 earthquake in western Japan. Source: AAP

A PREVIOUSLY unknown active fault may have caused the magnitude-6.3 earthquake in western Japan this weekend, a government committee says.

Twenty-four people were injured and around 1930 houses were damaged by the 0533 quake on Saturday (0633 AEST), which was centred around Awaji Island at a depth of 15 kilometres, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on Sunday.

The active fault is believed to extend about 10 kilometres from north to south in the region, the government earthquake research committee told reporters, the Kyodo News agency reported.

"There are many as yet unrecognised active faults," Yoshimori Honkura, the committee chief, was quoted by Kyodo as saying.

The committee also said 390 aftershocks were recorded in the 25 hours since the main quake and the largest one with a magnitude of 3.8 jolting the area at 5:41 am Saturday.

In 1995, a magnitude-7.3 quake hit the same region, including the city of Kobe, killing more than 6400 people.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brits opposed to paying for funeral: poll

Sixty per cent of Britons are against the government paying millions to Margaret Thatcher's funeral. Source: AAP

SIXTY per cent of Britons are opposed to taxpayers contributing millions of pounds to Margaret Thatcher's funeral, a new poll suggests.

Baroness Thatcher's ceremonial send-off on Wednesday is to cost the country STG10 million ($A14.7 million).

It will stop traffic in central London and thousands of police will be on hand to deal with expected protests.

A Sunday Mirror poll of 2000 people has found six out of 10 believe Baroness Thatcher was Britain's "most divisive" prime minister ever.

That's the same percentage opposed to the government paying the funeral costs.

Some 41 per cent of voters disagree with current Prime Minister David Cameron's suggestion last week that Lady Thatcher was the country's greatest peacetime leader.

Hundreds of people gathered in the rain at Trafalgar Square on Saturday to protest against Lady Thatcher's legacy and mark her death with a party.

Union members from across the UK who had fierce battles with Lady Thatcher in the 1980s rubbed shoulders with those demonstrating against present-day welfare cuts.

The Iron Lady's funeral will be the largest Britain has seen since the Queen Mother's 11 years ago.

The 20-minute military procession from Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral will feature more than 700 serving armed forces personnel from units particularly associated with the Falklands War.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More