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."

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Bomb blast on bus kills nine in Pakistan

A BOMB has exploded on a bus in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least nine people and wounding seven others.

"At least nine passengers have been killed and seven injured. Bomb disposal officials told me that it was a timed device," Fazal Wahid, a senior police official, told AFP on Saturday.

Shafi Ullah Khan, another police official, confirmed the attack which occurred as the was bus passing through the city's Matani suburb.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which came hours after militants blew up the election office of an independent candidate in the same region, adding to security fears ahead of historic national polls next month.

A recent wave of terror attacks has fuelled concerns that violence will mar general elections on May 11, which will mark the country's first democratic transition of power after a civilian government has served a full term in office.

Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More