Cambodia court rules Pol Pot's deputy fit

A Cambodian court has ruled that Pol Pot's former deputy Nuon Chea will stand trial for war crimes. Source: AAP

CAMBODIA'S war crimes court ruled that Pol Pot's former deputy Nuon Chea was fit to continue standing trial after the death of a co-defendant renewed fears that the elderly accused may not live to see verdicts.

"The accused Nuon Chea is fit to stand trial," Judge Nil Nonn said at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes court on Friday after speaking with medical experts.

Despite the defendant's "advancing age and frailty", he said, he "remains capable of meaningful participation in his own defence".

Nuon Chea, 86, the most senior surviving leader of the genocidal communist regime which oversaw the "Killing Fields" era in the late 1970s, did not attend the hearing due to poor health, a clerk told the court.

He is on trial with former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, 81, over war crimes and genocide charges.

They include the forced movement of people - a policy of the brutal regime which emptied Cambodia's cities - and the execution of up to 3,000 former military officers found in mass graves in western Cambodia.

The pair deny charges.

The death on March 14 of regime co-founder Ieng Sary at the age of 87 intensified fears that the surviving pair may also die before verdicts can be reached in their trial, which began in June 2011.

Ieng Sary's widow Ieng Thirith, the regime's former social affairs minister, was freed in September after being deemed unfit for trial due to dementia.

Nuon Chea has suffered a number of illnesses, including high blood pressure, acute bronchitis and heart disease, prompting his defence team to argue that their client was too weak to stand trial.

The tribunal has been dogged by funding shortages since it was set up in 2006 and was hit by a strike by local staff earlier this month over unpaid wages.

Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge from 1975-79 wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population through starvation, overwork or execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.

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Tokyo stocks, euro up in holiday-hit trade

JAPANESE shares ended higher at the end of quiet regional trade on Friday but the euro edged lower on lingering concerns over Cyprus despite the island's bank's reopening to relative calm.

Lenders in the Mediterranean nation began trading Thursday for the first time since a controversial bailout was agreed, with the first capital controls of their kind in the eurozone blocking a bank run that analysts feared could ripple across region.

Investors were also eyeing tensions on the Korean peninsula, as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered preparations for strategic strikes on the US mainland and military bases after US stealth bombers flew training runs over South Korea.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index ended 0.50 per cent higher, adding 61.95 points to 12,397.91. The market finished the first three months of 2012 almost 20 per cent higher.

In other markets Seoul gained 0.57 per cent, or 11.37 points, to end at 2,004.89, while Taipei finished up 0.66 per cent, or 51.73 points, at 7,918.61.

In late afternoon trade Shanghai was 0.10 per cent higher.

Markets in Hong Kong, Sydney, Wellington, Singapore, Jakarta, Manila and Mumbai were closed for the Easter holidays.

In forex trade, the euro edged up to $1.2804 from $1.2814 in New York late Thursday, while it bought 120.43 yen from 120.64 yen.

The single currency has been on a downward roll as traders fret about the situation in Cyprus, which this week agreed a rescue plan with its creditors that includes a levy on bank deposits over 100,000 euros.

There had been fears ahead of the reopening of the country's banks that savers would rush to take out as much money as they could - and lead to a knock-on effect in other troubled economies.

However, while the euro avoided a big sell-off analysts said the Cyprus crisis was still not over, while Italian politicians struggle to produce a governing coalition more than a month after elections despite the economy being in dire straits.

The dollar weakened to 94.06 yen, from 94.12 yen, ahead of a Bank of Japan meeting next week that is expected to see the launch of more aggressive easing by the central bank.

Traders will also have an eye on meetings of the European Central Bank and Bank of England.

Wall Street provided a healthy lead, with the S&P 500 hitting a record high thanks to growing confidence in the US economy, while the Dow, hit yet another all-time high itself.

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Woman burned in gas explosion

A WOMAN has suffered burns in a gas cylinder explosion at Berowra Waters in Sydney's north.

The woman, believed to be aged in her 20s, was standing near a barbecue when the cylinder exploded at about 1pm (AEDT) on Friday.

Police said the woman was airlifted to hospital.

She reportedly suffered burns to her chest, face, arms and legs.

Earlier on Friday the NSW Department of Fair Trading urged consumers of gas and electrical products to make sure their appliances were in proper working condition.

"All gas barbecues and small camping gas appliances must be approved to be legally sold, so make sure your product has an approval mark," NSW Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe said in a statement.

"Check hoses on barbecues, they can crack and perish," he said.

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Neighbour Day celebrated on Sunday

A DECADE since an elderly woman's remains were found in her Melbourne home two years after she died, Australians are being urged to celebrate Neighbour Day in tribute to her.

The special annual celebration of community was launched in 2003 just after 75-year-old Elsie Brown's body was found by police two years after she died.

Mail, store catalogues and newspapers had piled up at her front door but neighbours didn't connect that with anything being amiss.

Australians are being urged to get together with their neighbours on Sunday as the country celebrates Neighbour Day to promote safer and more tolerant communities.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard sent a message of support, saying Neighbour Day was an opportunity to remember the importance and value of of strong communities.

"We all have an obligation to keep an eye out for those around us, particularly those who are most vulnerable," she said in a statement.

Ms Gillard said small gestures such as having a chat with neighbours or organising a community get-together could go a long way to creating safer and more inclusive neighbourhoods.

"I encourage all Australians to take part in Neighbour Day."

One of the aims of the special day is to ensure protection of the elderly, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged in communities.

Neighbour Day founder Andrew Heslop, whose letter to the editor of The Age newspaper about Mrs Brown's case kicked of the idea, said on Friday the success of the day was a living tribute to her.

He said street parties, barbecues, lunches, festivals and other events run by councils, resident groups, tenancy associations, developers and churches would bring residents together.

"It could be as simple as boiling the kettle and having a cup of tea, a slice of cake or a Tim Tam," he said in a statement.

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Newman backflips on Cape York reforms

QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman has backflipped on a decision to end indigenous welfare reform trials in Cape York.

Earlier this week Mr Newman said the state couldn't justify the cost of the program, even though it had been successful, and wouldn't fund it after 2013.

He insisted he wasn't abandoning the scheme, which has received about $100 million from the federal and Queensland governments.

He wanted a wider, more cost-effective rollout.

The trials have run since 2008 in four indigenous communities - Coen, Aurukun, Mossman Gorge and Hope Vale.

Part of the trial sees welfare payments withheld from parents who don't make decisions in the best interests of their children.

The premier's office issued a brief statement on Thursday afternoon to say the Cabinet Budget Review Committee had met and decided that it would spend another $5.65 million to extend the trial.

"We will continue to work with all indigenous communities to improve social outcomes," Mr Newman said in the statement.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who was in Brisbane on Thursday, said he wanted to see the reforms expanded to communities across the country.

"I'm happy to work constructively with all levels of government to make sure this happens," he said.

An independent report on the reforms, released on Thursday, said positive changes in education and social behaviour had been seen in the trial communities.

But gains in housing and economic development had been limited.

School attendance jumped - from four per cent below the rate in similar communities in 2008, to six per cent above it in 2011.

But keeping students in high school remained a significant challenge, the report said.

Residents say they're working towards becoming better parents and managing their money better to meet the needs of their families.

"Compared to three years ago, children are happier, more active and eating healthier food," the report said.

"Life is on the way up generally."

Progress was being made to remove legal and financial barriers to indigenous home ownership.

The reforms had also led to the creation of 220 jobs but had had a limited impact on the number of residents dependent on welfare.

The report concluded there could be no quick fix to challenges that were decades in the making.

"However, the trial of welfare reform points to a level of progress that has rarely been evident in previous reform programs."

The trial was supposed to end last year but was extended to December 2013 after the federal government kicked in $11.8 million.

In total, about $100 million has been spent on the reforms by federal and state governments.

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Thai man in jail over Aust TV rip-off

A THAI man was sentenced to more than three years in prison on Thursday for selling copies of a controversial Australian documentary about Thailand's royal family, his lawyer said.

The imprisonment of Eakachai Hongkangwan, 37, is the latest in a series of tough sentences handed down by the kingdom's courts for royal defamation, to the dismay of human rights campaigners.

"The court found him guilty of lese majeste and sentenced him to five years, but due to his useful testimony, the sentence was reduced to three years and four months," lawyer Anon Numpa said afterwards, adding his client would appeal.

Eakachai was also fined 64,000 baht ($A2,117) for selling CDs without a licence.

The documentary was broadcast by the state-funded Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) in 2010 in the midst of a military crackdown on anti-government Red Shirt demonstrations in Bangkok.

Thailand warned at the time that the broadcast could affect ties with Australia.

The royal family is an extremely sensitive subject in politically turbulent Thailand. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 85, is revered by many Thais but has been in hospital since September 2009.

Rights groups have criticised the kingdom's royal insult laws as an attack on freedom of expression.

Under the legislation, anyone convicted of insulting the Thai king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.

In January the European Union said it was "deeply concerned" by an 11-year jail sentence handed to a former magazine editor in connection with two articles deemed offensive to the royals.

Thailand has been riven by political divisions since the Red Shirts' hero, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, was topped by royalist generals in a coup in 2006.

Two months of mass street protests by the Red Shirts against the previous government in early 2010 triggered the kingdom's worst civil violence in decades with 90 people killed, mostly in a bloody military crackdown.

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Fears CSG water will poison Murray-Darling

Poison's could wash into the Murray-Darling because opportunistic mining, environmentalists say. Source: AAP

POISONOUS water could wash into the Murray-Darling because an opportunistic mining company is taking advantage of the NSW government's "piecemeal approach" to coal seam gas (CSG) waste water regulations, environmentalists say.

Despite the government banning evaporation ponds - which store chemical-laden water used to fracture bedrock to free CSG - the department of trade has allowed mining company Santos to build two "dams" in the Pilliga forest in northern NSW, the Wilderness Society said.

The "dams" have a capacity of 600 million litres and the water they will store contains arsenic, lead, chromium, salts and petrochemicals.

"It's really not just salty water like they say," Wilderness society campaign manager Naomi Hogan told AAP on Thursday.

The two mines are in areas that have recently flooded, Ms Hogan said, and if the "dams" are overfilled, water containing poisonous chemicals will be flushed into creeks that run to the Namoi River, which feeds the Murray-Darling.

"The arsenic and heavy metals in the water would certainly cause danger to any species that were to drink that water, any vegetation," she said.

"It's not drinking water standard this stuff, it's pretty nasty."

No plans have been developed to deal with an overflow of the "dams", Ms Hogan said, despite the risk and demands from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the water authority.

Santos plans to begin drilling at the site this year and Ms Hogan argues they been able to prepare the operation by exploiting the government's "piecemeal approach" to CSG waste water regulations.

Ms Hogan said the government body responsible for promoting mines, the department of trade and investment, is also tasked with approving them.

"It really is the fox in charge of the hen house," she said.

"They are pushing their own mining agenda at the expense of other input from Barry O'Farrell's supposedly strong and independent EPA, which is clearly being ignored."

Sam Crafter, Santos' manager of Community and Government Relations said: "Santos has committed to the community that we will operate at a high standard and the most effective way to do that over the long term is to build the new water treatment plant.  This will be the best solution from a long term environmental perspective and is a major component of our Pilliga rehabilitation."

"Investing in new purpose built facilities is the best way to ensure that the local environment is protected, the Pilliga Forest is rehabilitated and that jobs and investment can continue to flow into Narrabri."
 

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Two dead, one injured in Vic wall collapse

A SWARM of people dug through bricks and rubble but could not save two pedestrians crushed when a wall collapsed on a busy Melbourne street.

A man and a woman, believed to be in their late teens, were killed when a 15-metre long section of brick wall fell on Swanston Street in Carlton.

A 19-year-old woman suffered life-threatening injuries in the collapse on Thursday afternoon.

Witnesses say passers-by dug desperately through the rubble to help the people trapped underneath.

"I just frantically ran across and started digging because I could see their head and half their torso out, so I was frantically taking the bricks off her," Martin Setka told AAP.

"The whole wall just gave way."

Another witness, Jonathan Lian, said the scene resembled a war zone.

Mr Lian was sitting in a cafe opposite when the wall collapsed, and came out to see people running towards the wall.

"It was really bad. It was like a war zone," he said.

"There was dust everywhere, and they were trying to dig people out. It was like chaos."

Inspector Ian Lindsay said it appeared that strong wind gusts had caused the wall to collapse.

"It appears they've just been pedestrians in the wrong place at the wrong time when the wall has collapsed," he told reporters.

He said police were yet to confirm the identity of the people killed.

The collapse occurred at the old Carlton & United brewery site, which is now a vacant building lot owned by Grocon.

The company has said it plans to develop the site, which it purchased in 2006, but no construction work is currently underway.

The site is near Melbourne University and RMIT, but it is not known if any of the three young people were students.

The injured woman has undergone surgery and remains in a critical condition in the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Police, Grocon and WorkSafe are investigating the collapse.

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UK may freeze for another month

THE big freeze gripping the UK could last until almost the end of April, weather forecasters predict.

Temperatures are unlikely to recover to normal averages for the time of year until the latter part of next month, the Met Office suggested through its 30-day forecast.

Sub-zero temperatures look set to bring misery to thousands of people for the rest of the week and throughout Easter weekend as the dangerous wintry weather shows no immediate signs of abating.

Thousands of people in western Scotland face a sixth day without power on Wednesday after electricity pylons were damaged last week, and many transport routes across the UK remain impassable because of deep snow drifts.

Farmers have been left counting the cost of the blizzard conditions, with many having to rescue stranded livestock at the height of the lambing season.

An RAF Chinook helicopter was called in yesterday to help as part of an emergency operation in Northern Ireland as farms and families were cut off by huge snow drifts.

The severe weather has also been blamed for the deaths of a number of birds, including puffins, razorbills and guillemots, which have washed up on Britain's beaches.

The Met Office has issued a cold weather alert for much of England, with a 100 per cent probability of severe cold weather and icy conditions until Friday.

Its outlook for Sunday to April 9 predicts cold, dry weather, with a few light snow flurries and widespread frost and icy patches overnight.

And the Met Office predicts temperatures are unlikely to recover to nearer normal values until the latter part of April.

While there are no forecast for more big snow falls, temperatures as low as minus 6C are predicted overnight.

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No apology over NT forced adoptions

NORTHERN Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles has expressed regret to the victims of forced adoption in his jurisdiction, but stopped short of saying he was sorry.

"To all those Northern Territory families past and present who were separated by an adoption that was forced upon them, on behalf of this assembly I express our heartfelt sympathy," Mr Giles told the NT parliament.

"To all those affected by the policy of forced adoption please accept this statement of deepest regret in the spirit in which it is offered," he said.

Mr Giles said modern social services could not rescue people from the events of the past and the "dark practices" that changed lives forever.

Earlier Mr Giles told journalists he did not think it appropriate to apologise on behalf of the NT government, because the jurisdiction was not self-governing when the forced adoptions occurred.

"I find it abhorrent personally, but the point is we were not an NT government until 1978," Mr Giles told reporters.

"None of these adoption practices were undertaken post-1978."

Last week Prime Minister Julia Gillard made a national apology to women who had children taken from them.

From the 1950s to the 1970s an estimated 150,000 unwed Australian mothers had their babies forcibly adopted under a practice sanctioned by governments, churches, hospitals, charities and bureaucrats.

Some women were tricked into signing adoption papers, drugged and physically shackled to hospital beds.

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