Pakistan suicide attack toll passes 50

Twin suicide attacks have rocked a busy marketplace in Pakistan, killing at least 41 people. Source: AAP

THE death toll from twin suicide attacks at a busy marketplace in northwest Pakistan has risen to 51, officials say.

The Friday attacks at the bazaar in Parachinar, the main town of Kurram tribal district on Pakistan-Afghanistan border were the deadliest to hit the country during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"The death toll from the suicide attacks has risen to 51," a senior administration official in Kurram, Riaz Mehsud, told AFP on Saturday.

Earlier, officials had put the death toll at 41.

"The new deaths occurred overnight", Mehsud said, adding that more than 150 people were injured in the attacks.

"We are still compiling the data about injured people as many of them had been shifted to Peshawar and Kohat."

Sabir Hussain, head of the local hospital also confirmed the new death toll.

The explosions sent handcarts flying as shoppers bought food to open their fasts at sunset.

Parachinar administration officials said both blasts were carried out by suicide bombers, who walked into the crowded market.

The area where the bombers struck is mainly inhabited by minority Shi'ite Muslims but officials said they could not immediately identify the victims.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but attacks waged by Sunni Muslim extremists against Pakistan's Shi'ites, who account for 20 per cent of the 180 million population, are on the rise.

Kurram is frequently the scene of sectarian violence between Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority and Shi'ite minority.

The country is battling a Taliban-led domestic insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and security personnel since 2007.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Lorde replaces Frank Ocean at Splendour

Splendour in the Grass have asked NZ Lorde to jump in after headlining act Frank Ocean pulled out. Source: AAP

NEW Zealand teenager Lorde has been handed the break of her life after promoters of Splendour in the Grass asked her to step in to replace Frank Ocean, who pulled out of the festival at the last minute.

It is hoped the 16-year-old Auckland singer-songwriter - whose real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor - will thrill punters squelching in the mud at the festival outside Byron Bay in NSW when she takes to the stage at 5.30pm (AEST) on Sunday.

Lorde released her debut EP The Love Club in March, which features her number one New Zealand hit Royals.

Her second EP Tennis Court was released in June, following sold-out gigs in Sydney and Melbourne in May.

Lorde's entrance in the festival line-up has bumped up Monsters and Men into Ocean's Sunday night timeslot and The Presets up to the festival's closing slot.

Ocean cancelled all of his upcoming Australian shows on Friday after suffering a small tear to one of his vocal chords.

The singer-songwriter received medical advice to rest his voice.

Concert promoter Live Nation said on Friday it would be working to confirm a return visit to Australia for Ocean and advised those who purchased concert tickets to return them for refunds.

Ocean was scheduled to play at Melbourne's Festival Hall on Friday night and at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion on Monday and Tuesday.

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Korean veteran remembers mate's snoring

Fifteen Australian war veterans who fought in Korea have returned to mark the 60th anniversary. Source: AAP

RETURNING to Korea 60 years after fighting in the war has stirred up unexpected memories for Bill Monaghan.

During the Korean War, Monaghan bunked with fellow fighter pilot Bob Macintosh at the Kimpo Airbase, outside of Seoul.

"The room mate I'm sharing with, we were in Kimpo together, I had forgotten how much he snores," the 84-year-old Canberra great-grandfather told AAP on the phone from Korea on Saturday.

The pair are among 15 Australia war veterans who have travelled to Korea to mark the 60th anniversary of the armistice signing that ended fighting.

Mr Monaghan joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1949 and was in active combat during the last three months of the war.

His role was to fly over enemy supply lines and try to stop supplies getting through to the frontline.

"I was a frightened young boy from the country who did not know what he'd gotten himself into," he said.

During his twelfth combat mission, his Gloster Meteor plane was hit by enemy fire which took out his right engine.

Unable to return to base on one engine, Mr Monaghan made an emergency beach landing on the island of Paengyong-do held by United Nations forces, where his engine was replaced.

Mr Monaghan returned to Australia in December 1953, to marry his wife Dot.

"She's only divorced me 14 times," he joked, hastily adding that they've had a wonderful married life and are proud of their son and daughter.

More than 18,000 Australians served in the Korean War, 340 soldiers died, 1200 were wounded and 43 are still listed as missing in action.

The 15 Australian veterans are attending a special ceremony at the Korean War Memorial in Seoul on Saturday, alongside Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon, and have toured some battle ground sites.

Mr Monaghan said it was sobering to visit the famous land battle site at Kapyong.

"You look at the conditions where the (Australians) fought back an overwhelming force of the Chinese, it's very daunting to consider that ... your hat comes off to them every time you think about it."

While the highlight of the trip has been the companionship of his mates, Mr Monaghan was keen to return to Korea and see first-hand the thriving democracy and economy.

"We look over the border at the north and we say it was well worth the effort," he said.

* Korean War veterans will also mark the anniversary at a service at National Korean War Memorial in Canberra on Saturday.

AAP lpm/nl

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Albo calls for patience on poll date

The Deputy Prime Minister has called for people to be patient about the federal poll date. Source: AAP

DEPUTY Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says no one in the Rudd government has a "rush to the polls mentality" but it will be before or after his league team wins the premiership.

Mr Albanese on Saturday called for patience, as speculation about the federal election date reaches fever pitch.

"No one in the government has had a rush to the polls mentality," he told reporters, flanked by scores of red balloons at a community campaign event for Chinese Australian lawyer Jason Yat-sen Li, Labor's candidate for the Sydney seat of Bennelong.

He said the government would consider calling the election at an appropriate time.

"It will be before or after the Souths win their twenty first premiership," he joked.

Mr Albanese is a South Sydney Rabbitohs supporter.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott urged Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to stop "playing games" and name the date.

"The government of our country is not about showbiz," he told reporters at the Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach in western Queensland.

"Electing a national government is not a version of celebrity Big Brother."

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Abducted NSW baby handed in to police

A Sydney man who threatened his ex-girlfriend and abducted his eight-month-old remains on the run. Source: AAP

MISSING baby Zhaiden Mifsud has been handed in to a Sydney police station after his father abducted him at knifepoint.

Police have confirmed that the eight-month-old was handed in to Campbelltown police station around 5pm (AEST) on Friday.

It is still unclear if his father, Steven Hume, was with the boy at the time of the handover.

Police said Zhaiden was handed in by a family member, and was safe and well.

They later confirmed they were still searching for Mr Hume.

The 24-year-old allegedly forced his way into the Chester Hill home of his ex-girlfriend Casey Mifsud, 16, and their son Zhaiden about 8.30pm (AEST) on Thursday.

He grabbed both of them at knifepoint and put them into his 2007 Toyota Camry before allegedly assaulting Ms Mifsud at a highway rest stop and driving off with the baby, police say.

Zhaiden was in light clothing and Mr Hume had no food or baby formula.

The chain of events sparked a massive police manhunt around Bargo, southwest of the city, where the Camry, which had struck a tree, was found abandoned on Friday morning.

Local police, PolAir, the Dog Squad and volunteers from the State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service joined the search for Mr Hume, which will continue.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Talks on joint Korean industrial park fail

Talks between North and South Korea on reopening their joint industrial estate at Kaesong failed. Source: AAP

NORTH Korea has blasted South Korea's "arrogant" attitude after talks on salvaging the jointly-run Kaesong industrial zone collapsed, sparking a shoving match between officials from both sides.

The North also accused the South of using "delaying tactics" by demanding that Pyongyang take responsibility for the closure of the estate and compensate for financial losses.

"The North side made every possible effort to prevent the talks from not making any results, but the South side persisted in its arrogant stand, pushing the talks to the point of stalemate," the North's Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary on Friday.

"The South side can never escape its responsibility for all the aftermaths to be entailed by its move of having pushed the talks to a deadlock," it said.

The failure of both sides to set a date for another meeting after a sixth round of discussions on Thursday on reviving Kaesong was compounded by a pushing match that broke out between North and South officials.

At the end of the talks, the North's chief delegate, Pak Chol-su, told South Korean reporters that the North's military may re-occupy the estate unless the two sides work out a solution.

Pak's unscheduled news conference sparked a rare shoving match between South and North Korean officials, according to pool reports.

When Pak barged into the press room without notice, 20 North Korean officials shut down elevators or stood guard around him.

Minutes later, a dozen South Korean officials ran down from the conference hall in an attempt to stop Pak, denouncing him for ignoring a protocol.

Pool pictures showed North and South Korean officials grabbing, pushing and shoving each other.

Seoul refuted the North's accusations, saying it should change its attitude and give a firm pledge to prevent another work stoppage.

"Our demand for safeguards ... is not something that North Korean can reject," Kim Hyung-suk, spokesman for the South's unification ministry, said on Friday.

Production at the Seoul-funded estate, 10 kilometres over the border, has been suspended since North Korea withdrew its 53,000 workers from the South's 123 factories in April.

Talks on reopening it have been dominated by mutual recriminations over who was to blame for the shutdown.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Workers blockade Vic pier over sackings

ABOUT 100 dock workers and supporters are blockading the Spirit of Tasmania in Melbourne to protest against staff sackings.

The protesters are stopping freight trucks loading cargo onto the Spirit of Tasmania, which is due to depart Melbourne's Station Pier at 7.30pm (AEST) on Friday.

David Schleibs of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) said the community members wanted stevedore company QUBE which employed the workers to negotiate their return to work.

"The company has terminated them and they believe it's been unfair," Mr Schleibs said.

He said six men may have an unfair dismissal case.

The MUA believes the workers were sacked because they had raised safety concerns but the company said they had refused to carry out duties for which they had been trained, and had previously performed.

A QUBE spokesman said only one worker had been dismissed and the action taken by the union was illegal.

QUBE will take the MUA to court over the protest, the spokesman said.

The rally is not expected to delay the ship's departure.

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Video claims to show plastic iPhone

A YOUTUBE video claims to show the prototype for a plastic, low-cost iPhone obtained by a Melbourne blogger.

The six-minute video shows a rounded white plastic shell which resembles the iPhone 3 and is slightly thicker and wider than the iPhone 5.

American author Michael Kukielka says in the video he was sent the prototype by fellow tech blogger Sonny Dickson.

Dickson runs a self-titled blog from Melbourne, famous in tech circles for leaking pictures of Apple prototypes like the iPad mini.

He told AAP via email he obtained the prototype phone shell from Chinese contacts involved in Apple's manufacturing chain, calling it the "iPhone 5S".

Earlier in July, he posted pictures showing it in a number of colours including green, blue, pink and yellow.

Rumours of a low-cost iPhone have spurred speculation Apple is looking to appeal to customers in lower-income countries.

"The budget iPhone is going to be a really good handset for people who want an iPhone but don't have $600 to get one," Dickson said.

The video has been viewed more than half-a-million times in two days.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Unilever first-half net profit rises 13%

UNILEVER, the maker of products including Lipton tea, Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Axe deodorants, says its first-half net profit for 2013 rose 13 per cent compared with the same period last year to 2.7 billion euros ($A3.92 billion), despite tough market conditions.

First-half sales edged up 0.4 per cent to 25.5 billion euros, led by its emerging markets, although the company said those markets are also slowing "as macroeconomic headwinds influence consumer behaviour".

CEO Paul Polman says the results show "that the transformation of Unilever to a sustainable growth company is fully on track".

However, he added that the "tougher economic environment and reinvigorated competition" meant the company has to continue to increase investment while cutting costs.

15.33 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thomson lawyer seeks damages from Labor

The lawyer for federal MP Craig Thomson (pic) claims NSW Labor promised him$35,000 in legal fees. Source: AAP

THE lawyer for federal MP Craig Thomson is seeking $35,000 in legal fees he claims NSW Labor promised him.

Lawyer Chris McArdle on Wednesday lodged a statement of claim in the NSW Local Court for $35,000 damages plus $1000 in costs.

Mr McArdle says NSW Labor secretary Sam Dastyari came to his office on February 21 and agreed to pay him $25,000 in seven days and $10,000 within the following 10 days.

The lawyer said Mr Dastyari - who had discussed the matter with Mr Thomson before the meeting - had made it clear the money was being offered to cover the former Labor MP's legal services.

Mr Thomson, who now sits as the Independent MP for the NSW seat of Dobell, is defending charges of misusing Health Services Union funds while he was the union's general secretary.

In the statement of claim, Mr McArdle cites text messages and emails between him and Mr Dastyari regarding account details.

Mr Dastyari, who was being sought for comment, has 28 days to file his defence.

Mr McArdle told AAP on Thursday he had never before met Mr Dastyari, nor had he done legal work for the ALP.

"He has been to my office but I've never been to his," Mr McArdle said.

The lawyer said he understood Mr Dastyari had told Mr Thomson that the reason the payment hadn't been made was because there was "some sort of delay".

"When time passed, he (Mr Dastyari) started denying that that which had taken place had ever taken place, which was rather pathetic," Mr McArdle told AAP.

Mr Thomson was suspended from the ALP in April 2012.

Mr Thomson declined to comment on the McArdle case.

But he told AAP two supporters, Mark Worthington and Rodney Allan, had so far raised close to $50,000 to cover his own legal bills.

"I am delighted with the support I have received through many, many donations from across Australia and from my region of the NSW Central Coast," Mr Thomson said.

"I would like to thank everybody who has supported me."

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Chinese man kills toddler in parking row

A CHINESE man threw a two-year-old girl to the ground, killing her, after her mother apparently refused to make way for him to park his car, state media reports.

The man, identified only by his surname Han, wanted to park by a bus stop in Beijing but the woman would not move because she was checking on her daughter at the time, the Beijing Times said, citing a witness.

Han, in his 40s, emerged from his Hyundai Sonata and hit the woman before taking the toddler out of her pram, holding her up and dropping her "forcefully" to the ground, said the witness, a street stall owner surnamed Zhou.

"The baby made no noises after being dropped, not even a cry of pain," the newspaper on Thursday quoted Zhou as saying.

Another man came out of the car and also beat the mother before the pair drove away, it added.

The mother rushed the girl to a nearby hospital where her condition was assessed as critical but she died while being transferred to another facility, the report said.

Police found Han, who was released from prison this year after serving a sentence for theft, in a hot spring bathhouse on Wednesday and detained him, said the report.

He could be charged with murder, the paper cited legal experts as saying, making him eligible for the death penalty under Chinese law.

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NSW sells Delta power stations for $160m

THE NSW government has sold off two power stations to one of Australia's biggest energy companies, stoking fears the state is moving towards full electricity privatisation.

EnergyAustralia has bought Mt Piper and Wallerawang power stations from state-owned Delta Electricity for $160 million, it was announced on Thursday, in the latest string of plants to be offloaded to the private sector.

Treasurer Mike Baird says selling the stations, near Lithgow in central west NSW, will remove about $200 million from the state's liabilities arising from the previous Labor government's 2010 GenTrader contracts.

"This is an excellent result for the people of NSW, who will no longer be exposed to billions of dollars in liabilities, created by Labor's GenTrader transaction," Mr Baird said in a statement.

The GenTrader deals, which Mr Baird described as a disaster, were struck under the previous Labor government to sell electricity trading rights to the private sector under a complex model.

He said the Auditor General found GenTrader assets were sold by Labor for less than half their value.

Shadow Treasurer Michael Daley warned the sale could lead to skyrocketing power prices, adding it showed the O'Farrell government was prepared to "sell off anything that isn't bolted down".

Mr Daley said the announcement marked the latest in a "now very long line" of assets sold off by the government.

The Port of Newcastle was leased for 99 years last month in a deal expected to net the government more than $700 million, while a similar arrangement was finalised in April for Port Botany and Port Kembla for over $5 billion.

Sydney's desalination plant was leased for 50 years in 2012 in a $2.3 billion deal.

Mr Daley said the latest sale signifies the next step towards full electricity privatisation.

Similar privatisation in Victoria had seen power bills increase by 130 per cent, he said.

Greens MP John Kaye said it could end up costing the state billions of dollars if a future government wanted to replace the coal-fired stations with clean-energy alternatives.

"Wallerawang and Mt Piper produce almost 25 per cent of the state's electricity-related greenhouse gas emissions. They have just left any public control," Mr Kaye said in a statement.

Energy sector unions said taxpayers have been short-changed because the stations are being sold for a pittance without putting the sale out to competitive tender.

"Taxpayers deserve to know that they've got the best deal possible, and that clearly isn't the case with this ongoing power station sell off by the O'Farrell Government," Electrical Trades Union NSW secretary Steve Butler said.

The sale comes in response to the Tamberlin report, which recommended the government sell or lease its GenTrader power assets, and follows the sale of another government-owned plant, Eraring Energy, to Origin for $50 million on July 1.

Delta Electricity Central Coast power stations at Vales Point and Colongra are also expected to be sold in 2014.

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Qld fears TB epidemic from PNG

Queensland's health minister says the state is wearing a big bill to treat sick Papua New Guineans. Source: AAP

PAPUA New Guineans are being turned away from the Torres Strait Islands over fears they're spreading a deadly disease, which has already claimed one life.

Locals say the state and federal governments aren't doing enough to stop a tuberculosis (TB) "epidemic", which has hit the islands and could spread to the mainland.

Torres Strait Regional Council Mayor Fred Gela says since an elderly local woman died from TB in April the council has refused to allow traders from PNG to visit the islands.

Council staff are required to sign temporary permits before someone from PNG can visit any of the 14 islands under a treaty agreed by the two countries.

Last year up to 26,000 individual permits were issued.

Mr Gela says the council has been forced to act because there are no health checks in place and he fears more people could die.

"My people are vulnerable and susceptible to contracting TB," he told AAP.

"Some of our communities are right on the front line, they're only a 10 minute boat ride from the PNG border.

"The reason is strong and simple: we're very, very concerned."

Health Minister Lawrence Springborg says Queensland isn't receiving enough compensation to treat the hundreds of sick people from PNG who travel across the border each year.

He begrudgingly signed a deal on Wednesday that will see the state receive $18 million in compensation from the Commonwealth over four years.

He wanted an extra $10 million a year and a commitment to close the north's "porous" borders.

"This border is about as porous as a spaghetti colander," Mr Springborg said.

In 2011/12 about 1100 Papua New Guineans visited Queensland Health facilities in the Torres Strait and Cairns, 15 of whom had tuberculosis.

In one case, the cost of a patient's treatment came to $1 million.

Mr Springborg says Mr Gela wants to close the border, but only the Commonwealth has the power to do that.

Mr Gela described the extent of the TB outbreak in the Torres Strait as an epidemic and says the situation has worsened over the past decade.

He welcomed funding for programs such as AusAid in PNG but says Australia needs to ensure the money is being spent on stopping sick people crossing the border.

"The Australian government is pouring money into an international country with very little measures ensuring accountability," he said.

Mr Gela warned authorities not to view Torres Strait as "out of sight, out of mind," as diseases that spread through that area would soon reach the mainland.

"This is everybody's business," he said.

"The state and federal governments need to front up to this issue and deal with it."

The Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Hospital and Health Service says asylum seekers have been treated in far north Queensland hospitals.

Spokeswoman Simone Kolaric says a Syrian man, who came via PNG, was brought to a hospital by immigration officials a couple of months ago, amid concerns he had TB.

15.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

Natural gas well off US coast catches fire

A FEDERAL official has confirmed that a fire has broken out on a blown-out Gulf of Mexico gas well.

Eileen Angelico of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement confirmed that the evacuated rig caught fire late on Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The 44 workers on the drilling rig were evacuated early on Tuesday when the blowout occurred.

Angelico says it wasn't immediately clear what caused the gas to ignite. And it wasn't known what efforts to extinguish the blaze were being made early on Wednesday.

Personnel with Wild Well Control Inc were at the site to assess how and when to try to bring the well under control.

The site is about 88km off the Louisiana coast.

The drilling rig is owned by Hercules Offshore Inc. Executive vice president Jim Noe says experts will assess the well site and develop a plan to shut down the flow of gas.

Noe stressed that gas, not oil, was flowing from the well.

He says it's an important distinction because gas wells in relatively shallow areas - this one was in 47 metres of water - sometimes tend to clog with sand, effectively snuffing themselves out.

"That is a distinct possibility at this point," he said. "But until we have our (well control) personnel on the rig, we won't know much more."

Kevin Davis, head of the Louisiana governor's homeland security office, said: "According to federal officials, there is no imminent danger at this time."

Nonetheless, the Coast Guard is keeping nautical traffic 500 metres away from the site, where the spewing gas poses a fire hazard, and the Federal Aviation Administration has restricted aircraft up to 2000 feet (610 metres) above the area.

15.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tokyo stocks end 0.32% lower

TOKYO shares have closed 0.32 per cent lower after US stocks ended mixed in a market that traders said looked overheated.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index on Wednesday fell 47.23 points to 14,731.28, while the Topix index of all first-section shares was down 0.23 per cent, or 2.80 points, at 1,219.92 in low-volume trading.

Investors were watching the mid-morning release of the preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which came in at 47.7 in July versus 48.2 in June, an 11-month low, suggesting a continuous slowdown in the huge economy.

"The PMI data didn't add a great deal of pessimism to the already negative market, but it may very well act as a weight," an equity trading director at a foreign brokerage told Dow Jones Newswires.

He noted that trading volumes were light.

"With several players out for the summer holiday and others waiting for confirmation of earnings results, overall activity is simply not very robust."

Japan reported it had logged a $US1.82 billion ($A1.97 billion) trade deficit last month, reversing a small year-earlier surplus.

In the currency market, the US dollar was trading at Y99.82, up from Y99.48 in New York on Tuesday, while the euro fetched $US1.3195 and Y131.76, against $US1.3222 and Y131.53.

Kao, the parent of cosmetics firm Kanebo, fell 6.24 per cent to Y3,230 as the subsidiary said more than 2,000 Japanese had complained about skin discolouring after using its whitening products while it had also widened a consumer recall outside Japan.

China-related shares fell, with Fanuc off 0.32 per cent at Y15,130 and Komatsu down 0.45 per cent at Y2,386.

15.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

Atlas Iron targets production increase

ATLAS Iron increased shipping volumes 16 per cent during the June quarter and expects to lift production further this financial year.

The Perth-based miner says it shipped 2.2 million tonnes of iron ore during the June quarter, up 16 per cent on the previous three months.

It plans to produce between 9.8 and 10.3 million tonnes this financial year, compared to the 7.4 million tonnes it shipped during 2012/13.

Atlas managing director Ken Brinsden said production had been affected by unseasonal bad weather in Western Australia during the June quarter.

But he said the company was nonetheless happy with its performance.

"This is a strong result, with the company continuing to expand production while meeting the quarter's cost and shipping guidance," he said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange on Wednesday.

"This was achieved despite difficult and unseasonal weather conditions."

Atlas shares gained 7.5 cents, or nine per cent, to 91 cents.

The company said its capital operating costs were around $49-50 a tonne, which was within its guidance range.

The company said the average price for its iron ore fell from $US126 a tonne in the March quarter to $US107 last quarter, but the price had since recovered.

15.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rudd clearing the decks after caucus meet

Labor caucus members are gathering in Sydney to discuss the new hardline stance on asylum seekers. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has crossed another item off his pre-election to do list after caucus endorsed internal reforms before a possible poll next month.

Mr Rudd also gave federal MPs a rousing address during which he named about eight seats he thinks the ALP could win back at the election, which might be called within a week.

However, the prime minister is keeping his election timetable options open after dealing with outstanding policy issues on the carbon tax and asylum seeker boat arrivals, and internal reform.

"These are big challenges for government, we still have other challenges to deal with," Mr Rudd told reporters in the Sydney suburb of Balmain after the caucus meeting on Monday.

August 31 has now firmed as favourite poll date, although Mr Rudd could still wait and call a vote for October.

Labor MPs, barring former prime minister Julia Gillard and some ministers who resigned after Mr Rudd was returned almost four weeks ago, gathered at the Town Hall in Balmain, which has symbolic links with the ALP.

They debated and voted in favour of changes to rules governing the election of the parliamentary leader, which would make it harder for MPs to remove a Labor prime minister - like Mr Rudd was in 2010.

The vote for leader will be split 50-50 between caucus and grassroots members, giving the 44,000 rank and file supporters a say for the first time in the party's history.

"Each of our members gets to have a say, a real say, in the future leadership of our party," Mr Rudd said. "Decisions can no longer simply be made by a factional few."

In power, a ballot could only be called if the prime minister resigned or requested one, or if at least 75 per cent of caucus signed a petition stating the leader had brought the party into disrepute.

In opposition, a ballot would be held automatically after each federal election or if at least 60 per cent of caucus signed a petition.

"There was overwhelming support for the changes," Labor MP Daryl Melham said.

Mr Rudd also addressed MPs on the election and told them they could reclaim the seats of Hasluck in Western Australia, Boothby in South Australia, Aston and Dunkley in Victoria, Denison in Tasmania, Bennelong and Macquarie in NSW and Solomon in the Northern Territory.

Mr Rudd's return has improved Labor's stocks among voters, and his personal ranking is well above Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's, the opinion polls show.

But the minority government needs to hold its current 71 seats and win at least another five to return to power and head off a coalition victory.

Mr Rudd also discussed decisions to move from a fixed to a floating carbon pricing regime and the treatment of asylum seekers.

While the carbon decision was broadly welcomed, some MPs were concerned about the hardline Papua New Guinea plan, which effectively denies settlement to asylum seeker boat arrivals.

Mr Rudd wants to send those people to Manus Island for processing and eventual settlement there if they are determined to be refugees.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

No heart in PNG plan, says Tassie bishop

A SENIOR Anglican bishop who told the prime minister "Jesus weeps" over the PNG asylum seeker plan says Australia has lost its heart.

The bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, took to Twitter to compare Australia with biblical Jerusalem - wealthy but without a sense of compassion.

"Mr Prime Minister, Jesus weeps. Whatever you do for the least of these..." Bishop Harrower tweeted.

He says Australia's generosity during the Asian tsunami and, more recently, the Tasmanian bushfires is in danger of disappearing.

"I wonder what's happening to Australia's heart," he told AAP.

"We have been, as our national anthem says, a place of hospitality.

"Yet here we are not being what we're called to be in the same way that Jerusalem at that time was not being what it was called to be.

"Jesus wept then and I'm sure Jesus weeps now."

Bishop Harrower described the new policy as "reprehensible" and said Christian leaders Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott should be working on a genuine regional solution that included refugees in Australia.

The emphasis on preventing drownings was a cop out, he said.

"It almost seems that we put up the drowning of the people, which we need to be rightfully concerned for, as some sort of justification for doing something else that seems to me to be quite horrendous," he said.

"They're fleeing for their lives so of course they're going to take risks."

Bishop Harrower said Australia was living in "cloud cuckoo land" if it thought it could be immune to the problem of millions of refugees on the move internationally.

"If we didn't have that stretch of sea and we were bordering on Syria at the moment ... we'd have tens if not hundreds of thousands of these people living in Australia and we'd be needing to set up proper refugee camps," he said.

"That's what I'd like to think we ought to be doing."

The bishop said the response to his tweet had been "overwhelmingly positive".

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bodies of three women found in US

Searchers rummaging through vacant houses in Ohio where three bodies were found may find more. Source: AAP

THE bodies of three women wrapped in plastic bags have been discovered in a midwestern US suburb and the search is on for more victims, police say.

A suspect was arrested in connection with the grisly find in East Cleveland, in the state of Ohio.

The first body was detected in a garage on Friday after police got a call about a foul odour, Detective Sergeant Scott Gardner said in a statement.

The other two bodies turned up Saturday, with Gardner saying one was located at an "abandoned residence." The other body was found near the first corpse.

All three corpses are those of young black females.

"Searches continue for any possible additional victims," Gardner said.

The suspect, identified as Michael Madison, 35, who is also black, was arrested at his mother's house without incident after a standoff.

After the first body was found, homicide detectives called to the scene "obtained additional evidence" from Madison's apartment.

East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton told CNN that Madison was influenced by and even idolised Anthony Sowell, who was convicted in 2011 of killing 11 women and hiding the remains at his Cleveland home.

Sowell, dubbed the "Cleveland Strangler," is currently on death row in an Ohio prison.

"We are dealing with a sick individual and we have reason to believe that there might be more victims," CNN quoted Norton as saying on its website.

Norton also said that Madison is a registered sex offender who served time in prison.

The local coroner has not yet identified the victims, though officials believe they died within the last ten days, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer newspaper reported.

Police said that Madison alluded to more bodies in the area.

FBI agents, Ohio criminal investigators and sheriff deputies used sniffer dogs as they searched abandoned homes looking for the remains of more victims, local media reported.

Cleveland is the same city where former bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, is accused of holding three young women captive for a decade at his home.

The case came to light after one of the victims, 27 year-old Amanda Berry, escaped from the house with her young daughter on May 6 by calling out to a neighbour for help through a locked front door.

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Assault on Iraq jails kills at least 12

GUNMEN attacked two Iraqi jails in a bid to free prisoners, killing at least 12 security force members in fierce clashes that raged all night, officials say.

The co-ordinated attacks on the prisons of Taji, north of Baghdad, and Abu Ghraib, west of the Iraqi capital, were launched on Sunday night and lasted for around 10 hours, they said.

A police colonel said seven inmates escaped from Abu Ghraib during the clashes, although Islamists claimed on the internet that thousands of prisoners were freed.

Officials said at least five members of the security forces were killed at Taji prison, and seven others at Abu Ghraib, notorious for abuses committed by US forces against Iraqi detainees in 2004.

Around another 40 security force members were wounded.

It was not immediately known how many of the assailants were killed, wounded or captured.

The attacks were launched at around 9.30pm local time on Sunday when the gunmen fired mortar shells at the prisons.

Explosives on board cars were then detonated near the entrances to the jails, while three suicide bombers attacked Taji prison, said the police colonel.

Fighting continued throughout the night as the military deployed helicopters and sent in reinforcements around the two facilities.

The situation was eventually brought under control by dawn, according to the colonel.

"The security forces in the Baghdad Operations Command, with the assistance of military aircraft, managed to foil an armed attack launched by unknown gunmen against the ... two prisons of Taji and Abu Ghraib," the interior ministry said in a statement late on Sunday night.

"The security forces forced the attackers to flee, and these forces are still pursuing the terrorist forces and exerting full control over the two regions," it said.

But commenters on microblogging website Twitter, including some accounts apparently operated by jihadists, claimed thousands of prisoners had escaped.

The attacks on the prisons came a year after al-Qaeda's Iraqi front group announced it would target the Iraqi justice system.

"The first priority in this is releasing Muslim prisoners everywhere, and chasing and eliminating judges and investigators and their guards," said an audio message attributed to the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in July last year.

Prisons in Iraq are periodically hit by escape attempts, uprisings and other unrest.

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