Bolshoi chief undergoes plastic surgery

THE Bolshoi ballet's artistic director has undergone successful plastic surgery following an acid attack that left the former dancer barely able to see the fingers on his hand.

Doctors said Sergei Filin was receiving family visits on Tuesday after undergoing a high-tech procedure to remove lesions from the third-degree burns to the face.

He was attacked outside his home on Thursday night.

"The operation was a success," the Moscow city health department said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

The violent incident shook the global artistic community and cast a spotlight on rivalries raging between superstars of the 237-year-old institution - one of Russia's most prominent brands.

Police have since spoken to several Bolshoi staff members as they sift through allegations that the attack was triggered by either personal rivalries or criminals with links to the globetrotting troupe.

Filin - a principal dancer before moving into the artistic management side - said in his first detailed post-attack interview that he had felt threatened for several weeks.

"I associate what happened with my work," Filin told the mass-circulation Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.

"The only thing I blame myself for is carelessness," he added. "I should have told the media about the threats right away, before New Year."

Friends said that Filin had told them about his car tyres being slashed and his social media account being hacked - and its explicit content republished - within the past few weeks.

Filin named no suspects in the interview while hinting darkly that he knew where the trouble was coming from.

Doctors said the hooded assailant threw the sulphuric acid cocktail on the right side of Filin's face.

As a result, the former dancer has begun recovering his vision first in his left eye, while his right could barely distinguish between shadows of dark and light.

"My eyes worry me the most," Filin said in the interview.

Doctors said Monday they hoped to restore Filin's vision in at least his left eye while ruling out the possibility of his travelling abroad for treatment because of his weakened state.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Catastrophic fire warning in southeast WA

A CATASTROPHIC fire danger warning has been issued for people living in the southeast of Western Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast the worst possible conditions for bush or grass fire on Wednesday for the Eucla, which includes the Kalgoorlie-Boulder area, as well as the shire of Dundas.

Residents have been warned that any fire that takes hold will be "extremely difficult to control and will take significant firefighting resources".

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said spot fires would start well ahead of the main fire, causing rapid spread of the fire with embers coming from many directions.

DFES said people living in or near bush with high fuel loads would be at risk and needed to act.

"If you are not prepared to the highest level, leaving bushfire risk areas early in the day is your safest option," DFES said in a statement.

Residents should also read through their bushfire survival plans.

Meanwhile, severe fire danger advice has been issued for inland parts of the Pilbara and coastal parts of the Great Southern for Wednesday, while extreme fire danger will be experienced in central and southern parts of the Interior.

A total fire ban has been declared for the Shire of Esperance.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man dies in crash west of Ipswich

A MAN has been killed in a crash west of Ipswich involving a car and a truck.

The man, 33, was DRIVING on the Haigslea Malabar Road at Haigslea when his car and a truck collided about 1.20pm.

Emergency crews tried to save the man with CPR but he died on scene.

The Police Forensic Crash Unit is investigating. The truck driver, 52, was not injured.

Queensland' road toll now stands at 23.

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Man caught filming up girls' skirts

A MAN has been charged with using his mobile phone to film up the skirts of teenage girls at a shopping centre in Sydney's inner west.

Police say they were on foot patrol in a Burwood shopping complex on Monday afternoon when they witnessed a man, 53, approach two young women, before placing a mobile phone up their skirts.

After following the man for a short period, officers allegedly saw him use a phone to video under the skirts of two 14-year-old girls.

He was arrested, with an examination of his phone revealing further offences, police allege.

The Croydon man was charged with 13 counts of filming a person's private parts, one of attempting the same and two counts of possessing cannabis.

He was allowed bail and will appear in Burwood Local Court on February 14.

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Patriot missiles arrive in Turkey

FOUR batteries of Patriot missiles have arrived in Turkey as part of a NATO mission to protect the Turkish border from any spillover of the conflict in neighbouring Syria, a NATO source has told AFP.

A ship carrying two German Patriot missile batteries anchored at the southwestern port of Iskenderun on Monday and its cargo was being unloaded, the source said.

The source said a second ship carrying two Dutch Patriot missile batteries also arrived at Iskenderun after a two-week journey, waiting behind the German ship to unload its cargo, as well as 300 support troops.

The United States has also begun deployment of two Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries to contribute to the mission, which NATO says will be operational by early February.

Its first shipment arrived by air earlier this month at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey's southeast. Additional equipment will be sent by sea later in January.

The six batteries of the US-made missiles, effective against aircraft and short-range missiles, will be deployed in the southern city of Adana and the southeastern cities of Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, along with 350 troops from each contributing nation.

Turkey requested help from its NATO allies after shells landed on its border areas from Syria in October, killing several villagers.

NATO approved their deployment in December, saying the use of ballistic missiles by the Syrian regime posed a threat to Turkey and insisting that the move was purely defensive.

But Syria's allies Iran and Russia oppose the Patriot deployment, fearing that it could spark regional conflict also drawing in NATO.

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Fitch highlights economic threat of ageing

MANY advanced economies will be threatened by another, long-term fiscal shock unless they tackle the problem of ageing populations, the ratings agency Fitch has warned.

"Whilst a successful resolution of the current fiscal crisis remains the most important driver for many advanced-economy ratings, without further reform to address the impact of long-term ageing these economies face a second, longer-term fiscal shock," a Fitch statement said on Monday.

Few countries face immediate threats, and reforms implemented by indebted eurozone members such as Greece, Italy and Portugal "have effectively neutralised the long-term impact of ageing on public finances in those countries", it added.

But others, in particular Cyprus, Ireland and Japan, could well see the cost of ageing populations jump over the next decade, the agency said, warning this would affect the sovereign debt ratings of such countries at some point.

"Luxembourg, Belgium, Malta and Slovenia face the most severe impact over the very long term," Fitch noted.

Based on the agency's calculations, barring any reforms, debt to GDP (gross domestic product) ratios for the European Union's 27 member countries would rise by 6.9 per cent by 2020, and by 119.4 per cent by 2050.

"Without reforms to boost labour productivity and/or participation rates in many other advanced economies, population ageing will cause potential GDP growth to decline over the long-term, exacerbating the fiscal challenge," Fitch added.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Five family members die in Syria air raid

Syrian Kurds have urged the opposition to halt a siege against them by Islamist rebels. Source: AAP

FIVE members of one family have been killed in air raids on a town in Damascus province, with Syrian warplanes bombarding a battleground town southwest of the capital.

A couple and their three children were among seven civilians killed in air strikes on the village of Baraka, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday, adding that the toll may rise as a number of people were buried under debris.

The Britain-based watchdog also reported artillery shelling and air raids on Daraya as army reinforcements arrived in the town, strategic for its location next to Al-Mazzeh military airport east of Damascus.

Pro-regime daily Al-Watan said on Sunday that "the terrorists on the outskirts of Daraya and Moadamiyet al-Sham have appealed for help after being hit very hard by the Syrian army, which destroyed several of the hideouts where they barricaded themselves."

Syrian authorities use the term "terrorists" to describe rebels against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

"The army continued its assault yesterday and completely destroyed these hideouts and plans to conduct a qualitative ground operation to root out the remaining terrorists," the newspaper said on Sunday.

In Damascus on Sunday, a man was shot dead in the southern district of Qadam as troops and rebels clashed, and another man was killed in shelling on the northeast suburb of Douma, the Observatory reported.

The army also bombarded several districts in the central city of Homs which have been under siege for months, as well as locations in the northern province of Aleppo, the northwest province of Idlib and Latakia on the coast.

In the southern province of Daraa, two rebels died in clashes near Busra al-Harir, while one civilian was killed and another critically wounded by regime gunfire in the town, the watchdog said.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and medics for information, said that 138 people were killed nationwide on Saturday: 62 civilians - including 13 children - 35 soldiers, 39 rebels and two Kurdish fighters.

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4 die in Egypt clashes

EGYPT'S Health Ministry says overnight clashes between police and residents of a densely populated district just north of Cairo have left four people dead and 12 wounded.

Security officials say the clashes began when a bystander was hit by a stray bullet fired by police chasing an alleged drug dealer.

They began on Saturday night and continued until Sunday.

The ministry said in a statement the wounded included two officers and a police conscript.

Clashes between police and civilians have been common since the ouster of autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak in an uprising nearly two years ago.

Police brutality was one of the major causes of the 2011 uprising.

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French yachtsman rescued in Southern Ocean

A cruise ship will reach a stranded French yachtsman on a life raft near Tasmania at 8pm on Sunday. Source: AAP

AFTER three days adrift on a life raft in the remote Southern Ocean, round-the-world yachtsman Alain Delord has been rescued by a cruise ship returning from Antarctica.

The Orion rescued the stranded Frenchman about 500 nautical miles southwest of Hobart on Sunday night.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) confirmed the 63-year-old was picked up by the ship, which was diverted about 1800km to perform the rescue, in an alert issued just after 9.30pm (AEDT).

"I'm very pleased to confirm the solo sailor, who had been in a life raft in the Southern Ocean for the past three days, has been recovered by the cruise ship Orion, and AMSA believes he is being taken to Hobart," she said.

There were "scant" early details of the rescue but AMSA said Delord had been recovered "safely and without injury".

"He is currently receiving medical attention and early indications are that he is healthy," the spokeswoman said.

"Weather conditions were better than expected and there was plenty of light in the area."

Delord, who set off at the beginning of October, abandoned his yacht Tchouk Tchouk Nougaton after it lost its mast and its hull was damaged in rough weather.

The location was too distant for a helicopter rescue with MSA using three aircraft to maintain contact with the sailor until a vessel could reach him.

The Orion, with 100 passengers and 80 crew on board, was on its way from Antarctica to the world heritage-listed Macquarie Island when it responded to the call for help.

The ship had battled deteriorating weather conditions throughout Sunday to reach Delord, with fears he would have to spend a third night at sea.

The yachtsman had received an air drop of food, water, communications equipment and a survival suit while he waited for his rescue.

The captain of the Orion Mike Taylor reported that Delord was recovered safely and without injury.

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Suicide bombers die in botched attack

A SUICIDE bomber and his accomplice were killed when their device went off in a botched attack on a district government headquarters in western Afghanistan, officials say.

The two attackers were riding a motorbike when they were blown up, but there were no other fatalities in the attack on Guzara district headquarters in Herat province, the district governor Nesar Ahmad Popal told AFP on Saturday.

"It killed no one but the attacker and the helper," he said.

Provincial police spokesman Abdul Raouf Ahmadi confirmed the details.

No group has yet claimed the responsibility for the incident but suicide bombings are among the tactics used by Taliban insurgents, who are leading an 11-year insurgency against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

The bombing came days after the Taliban militants stormed the Afghan spy HQ in Kabul, leaving one dead and 17 others - mostly civilians - wounded.

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