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.

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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