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

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

Pell appointed to Pope advisory group

Archbishop of Sydney George Pell has been appointed by Pope Francis to a permanent advisory group. Source: AAP

VATICAN CITY/SYDNEY April 13 AP/AAP - Archbishop of Sydney George Pell has been appointed by Pope Francis to a permanent advisory group to help him run the Catholic Church and study a reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.

Cardinal Pell is one of eight cardinals and one monsignor - the others are from Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Asia - who have been appointed to the group.

The panel is a clear indication that Francis wants to reflect the universal nature of the church in its governance and core decision-making, particularly given the church is growing and counts most of the world's Catholics in the southern hemisphere.

In the run-up to the conclave that elected Francis pope one month ago, a reform of the Vatican bureaucracy was a constant drumbeat, as were calls to make the Vatican itself more responsive to the needs of bishops around the world.

Including representatives from each continent in a permanent advisory panel to the pope would seem to go a long way toward answering those calls.

In its bombshell announcement on Saturday, the Vatican said that Francis got the idea to form the advisory body from the pre-conclave meetings.

"He has formed a group of cardinals to advise him in the governing of the universal church and to study a revision of the apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus on the Roman Curia," the statement said.

Pope John Paul II issued Pastor Bonus in 1988, and it functions effectively as the blueprint for the administration of the Holy See and the Vatican City State, meting out the work and jurisdictions of the congregations, pontifical councils and other offices that make up the governance of the Catholic Church, known as the Roman Curia.

Pastor Bonus itself was a revision of the 1967 document that marked the last major reform of the Vatican bureaucracy undertaken by Pope Paul VI.

A reform of the Vatican bureaucracy has been demanded for decades, given both John Paul and Benedict XVI essentially neglected in-house administration of the Holy See in favour of other priorities.

But the calls for change grew deafening last year after the leaks of papal documents exposed petty turf battles within the Vatican bureaucracy, allegations of corruption in the running of the Vatican city state and even a purported plot by senior Vatican officials to out a prominent Catholic as gay.

Francis' advisory group will meet in its inaugural session October 1-3, the Vatican said in a statement.

Cardinal Pell, aged 71, is the eighth Archbishop of Sydney, serving since 2001.

The non-Vatican officials, apart from Cardinal Pell, include cardinals Francisco Javier Errzuriz Ossa, the retired archbishop of Santiago, Chile; Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, India; Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo; Sean Patrick O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston; and Oscar Andrs Rodrguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Monsignor Marcello Semeraro, bishop of Albano, will be secretary.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Suu Kyi arrives in Japan after 27 years

Myanmar's democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi has arrived in Japan after 27 years. Source: AAP

MYANMAR'S (Burma's) democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi has arrived in Japan, her first visit to the country where she spent time as a university researcher nearly three decades ago.

A group of well-wishers including Burmese gathered at Tokyo's Narita airport to greet Suu Kyi, now her country's opposition leader, but were denied the chance to meet her as she left through a backdoor.

"I respect her like my mother," one of Burmese women said in an interview with public broadcaster NHK.

"I want to tell her that I support her strongly."

During her six-day trip, the Nobel laureate is expected to have meetings with some of the approximately 10,000 Burmese who live in Japan, as well as with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

It is Suu Kyi's first visit to Japan since spending time as a researcher at Kyoto University in 1985-86.

But a leader of about 200 of Myanmar's Muslim minority Rohingya in Japan has expressed disappointment after being told his community was not wanted at events welcoming Suu Kyi.

The Rohingya have been described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Motorcyclist killed in Vic crash

A MOTORCYCLIST has become the third person to die on Victorian roads in a single day after a three-vehicle collision in outer Melbourne.

Police say two motorcycles and another vehicle were involved in the crash, which occurred in Lilydale at about 6pm (AEST) on Friday.

One of the motorcyclists, a 32-year-old Airport West man, died at the scene.

A second motorcyclist, a 43-year-old Avondale Heights man, was taken by air ambulance to hospital with life threatening injuries.

The driver of the vehicle, a 53-year-old Lilydale man is assisting police with their enquiries.

Earlier on Friday, two women died in a three-car smash in Melbourne's outer northwest.

An elderly woman had been driving at Bulla when her car collided with two oncoming vehicles about 10.30am (AEST) on Friday, police said.

Both she and a woman driving one of the other cars died at the scene, while those travelling in a third car escaped injury.

Police are investigating whether one of the cars was travelling on the wrong side of the road.

In a third serious collision on Friday, an 85-year-old man suffered life threatening injuries after being struck by a car in Malvern East.

Victoria's road toll stands at 73, compared to 83 at the same time a year ago.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More