Flag flap delays Spain's Pamplona bull run

A RED-AND-WHITE ocean of revellers erupted in cheers to launch Spain's annual San Fermin bull-running festival on Saturday but only after a 19-minute delay caused by a giant Basque flag that blocked the starting rocket.

The nine-day mix of alcohol-soaked partying and fleeing huge, sharp-horned fighting bulls is supposed to start at noon each year with a traditional shout of "Viva San Fermin!" and the launch of a firecracker known as the "chupinazo".

But just 10 minutes before the firework was to be set off from the city hall of the northern city of Pamplona, a massive Basque flag was hoisted in front of the building.

City officials struggled to remove the flag, strung up between buildings on either side of the Consistorial square, before the firecracker could be set off.

"I am not going to tolerate setting off the chupinazo with a flag that is not the flag of Pamplona," said the city's mayor, Enrique Maya.

"We have to do it the right way, and not with the indignity some want to impose on us," he told Spain's public television.

Pamplona lies in the Spanish Basque Country, where some favour creating an independent nation in northern Spain and southern France.

When the firework finally flew above the square, masses of people squeezed into the streets broke into cheers, danced and sprayed each other with sangria and cheap wine, turning white shirts pink.

"It's one of those big things you need to get done before you die," said Alison Windsor, a 27-year-old Australian who came just for the festival.

"I needed to come once in my life," she said.

"I am not sure I will run with the bulls."

The highlight of the festival is a bracing, daily test of courage against a pack of half-tonne fighting bulls.

Each day hundreds of people race with six huge bulls, charging along a winding course through the narrow streets to the city's bull ring, where the animals will be killed in a bullfight.

Fifteen people have been killed in the bull runs since records started in 1911.

The most recent death took place four years ago when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard in the neck, heart and lungs.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pakistan train accident kills 14: official

AT least 14 people, including two children, were killed when a train collided with a packed motorcycle rickshaw in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, officials say.

The passenger train travelling from the country's financial hub Karachi to Punjab capital Lahore on Saturday crushed the rickshaw on a road crossing which had no barrier.

"The accident occurred in Khanpur town of district Sheikhupura, around 40km northwest of Lahore," Salim Niazi, a local police official, told AFP.

Officials said at least two children were among the dead.

"Twelve people died on the spot. Four people with critical injuries were taken to hospital, of whom two expired," Muhammad Asim, a senior doctor at the local hospital, told AFP.

"Two of them were children under 12 years old," he said adding that many bodies were mutilated and unable to be identified.

Police said the rickshaw was over-capacity and drove onto the train track moments before the Lahore-bound train passed through, smashing into it.

"There was no gate at this crossing, (nor) a man to stop the traffic to clear a way for the train," said Niazi.

Pakistan has a poor railway system with a track dating back to British rule and old coaches. Many Pakistanis avoid travelling by train due to low safety standards and poor facilities.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Heavily armed Islamists attack in Cairo

RESIDENTS of Cairo's Manial neighbourhood are recovering from a bloody night of clashes with armed supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who killed at least seven people and left dozens injured, they've told AFP.

The violence erupted when residents tried to stop hundreds of Islamists passing through Manial to reach protests being staged in the iconic Tahrir Square against toppled president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood.

"The Brotherhood attacked the area with all kinds of weapons," said resident Mohammed Yehya, who lost three of his friends in the mayhem.

Inhabitants of the Nile island of Manial reported seeing dozens of bearded Islamists armed with machineguns, machetes and sticks on Friday night before the deadly clashes broke out.

Snipers were spotted on rooftops, and medics told AFP they treated some residents of the normally quiet middle-class neighbourhood for bullet wounds with a downward trajectory.

Buildings were pockmarked with bullet holes. Rocks carpeted the floor and charred tyres showed the ferocity of the violence.

The clashes in Manial and elsewhere came two days after the army toppled Morsi, underlining the determination of his Muslim Brotherhood to disrupt the military's plan for a political transition until new elections.

Residents say the attack began just minutes afer the Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohammed Badie, gave a fiery speech to Morsi supporters camped out in Cairo's Nasr City, which was broadcast live on television.

"The attack came minutes after Badie's speech. They treated us like infidels. They were chanting 'Allahu akbar' (God is greatest) as they were shooting us," said Ahmed Fattouh.

On the door of one shop hung a sign announcing that the owner, 26-year-old Abdallah Sayyed Abdelazim, had been killed.

Parts of Manial were a ghost town on Saturday, with businesses shuttered and residents devastated by the night's violence.

"Their ammunition just didn't run out. They are trying to terrorise us and take over the country," said Khaled Tawfik.

Shopkeeper Mohammed Fekry, 29, who was wounded by birdshot said at least 10 people were killed and dozens injured.

"We have 10 people dead in this area, including six people who died with single bullets in the head. There were snipers on the roof of the Salaheddine mosque," Fekry said.

The overall toll for Friday's violence across Egypt was 30, but casualties are likely to rise.

Ihab al-Sayyed, a doctor at Qasr al-Aini hospital, told AFP that seven people he treated for injuries from the Manial clashes had died.

"I think the death toll will be much higher.

"The injuries were all from live bullets, most of them automatic weapons. Three of the dead and dozens of the injured were shot at from a height," the doctor said.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iraq bombings kill five

A suicide attacker and a car bombing have killed at least 19 people in separate attacks in Iraq. Source: AAP

BOMBINGS north of Baghdad have killed five people, including a police officer, a day after attacks across the country left 23 dead.

A roadside bomb killed four people west of the northern city of Kirkuk, while another bomb in Tikrit, also north of the Iraqi capital, killed a police officer and wounded two others.

The attacks come a day after 23 people died in a string of attacks across the country, including the bombing of a Shi'ite religious hall.

Iraq is grappling with a protracted political standoff within its national unity government and months-long protests among its Sunni Arab minority.

Analysts and diplomats worry that the stand-off is unlikely to be resolved at least until general elections due next year.

With the latest violence, attacks have killed more than 160 people and wounded more than 400 in the first six days of July, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

British PM's hopes for sporting weekend

DAVID Cameron says he hopes Andy Murray will add the Wimbledon title to the British and Irish Lions' "superb" series win over Australia to give the country a "perfect sporting weekend".

The Prime Minister was quick to congratulate the rugby union players after they roared to a 41-16 victory in the third Test in Sydney to end 16 years of hurt in unforgettable fashion.

"A superb result for the British and Irish Lions," the Prime Minister wrote on Twitter.

"Hoping Andy Murray can make it the perfect sporting weekend."

Mr Cameron is expected to be among the spectators at Wimbledon's Centre Court tomorrow when Murray takes on the world's number one tennis player Novak Djokovic in the final in a bid to end Britain's 77-year wait for a men's champion.

Downing Street will fly the Scottish Saltire to mark the occasion.

The Lions put in an awesome display of scrummaging power to build an unshakeable victory foundation, with England prop Alex Corbisiero scoring an early try, fly-half Jonathan Sexton, wing George North and centre Jamie Roberts also touching down and brilliant full-back Leigh Halfpenny kicking 21 points.

Australia, 19-3 behind just before half-time, rallied to within three points six minutes into the second period courtesy of a James O'Connor try and 11 points from goalkicking centre Christian Leali'ifano.

But the Lions were not to be denied as they took the series 2-1, savouring a triumph they last experienced against South Africa in 1997

P

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

China supports people's 'choice' in Egypt

CHINA says it supports the "choice of the Egyptian people" and called for dialogue after the army toppled democratically-elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, detaining him and his top aides.

But foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying sidestepped questions on Thursday as to whether her comments offered "hope" to the Egyptian leader overthrown after only a year in office.

Western powers had earlier called for a swift return to democracy.

"China respects the choice of the Egyptian people," Hua told reporters at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

"We also hope that all parties concerned in Egypt can avoid using violence and properly solve their disputes through dialogue and consultation and realise reconciliation and social stability."

China is generally suspicious of intervention in the internal affairs of other nations.

Beijing was rattled by the wave of mass protests that swept the Arab world in 2011, eventually bringing Morsi to power.

Morsi's first official trip outside the Arab world was to Beijing last August, a fact highlighted by state media.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Egypt seeks arrest of Brotherhood leaders

THE authorities in Egypt have issued an arrest warrant for the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme leader Mohammed Badie and his first deputy Khairat El-Shater, a judicial source says.

The two are wanted on charges of inciting the killing Sunday of protesters in front of the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters in Cairo's southern neighbourhood of Mokattam, the source tolD AFP on condition of anonymity.

The warrants come a day after the military toppled president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, following bloodshed and mass protests calling for his ouster.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Female Afghan police officer shot dead

GUNMEN have shot dead one of the most high-profile female police officers in Afghanistan, underlining the threat to women who take on public roles in the country.

Lieutenant Islam Bibi was a well-known face of female advancement but admitted to receiving regular death threats from people who disapproved of her career - including from her own brother.

"She was shot by unknown assailants when she was being driven to work by her son in the morning," Helmand provincial government spokesman Omar Zwak told AFP.

"She was badly wounded and taken to hospital, and later died in emergency care. Her son was also injured."

Bibi, aged 37 and a mother of three, was seen as an example of how opportunities for women have improved in Afghanistan since the repressive Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

She was the most senior female officer serving in Helmand, a hotbed of the Islamist insurgency that was launched against the US-backed Kabul government after the fall of the Taliban.

"My brother, father and sisters were all against me. In fact my brother tried to kill me three times," Bibi told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper earlier this year.

"He came to see me brandishing his pistol trying to order me not to do it (serve in the police), though he didn't actually open fire. The government eventually had to take his pistol away."

Bibi, a former refugee in Iran, returned to Afghanistan in 2001 and joined the police force nine years ago, saying she signed up for the salary and for the love of her country.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man dead, two in hospital after Qld crash

THREE children have escaped serious injury from a two vehicle crash in central Queensland that left a man dead and two others in hospital.

The man died at the scene on Thursday night at Avondale, northwest of Bundaberg, where the three children were treated for minor injuries, police say.

A seriously injured man and a woman with non life-threatening injuries were taken to Bundaberg Base Hospital.

The forensic crash unit is investigating.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Electricity could prevent battle deaths

PULSES of electricity could be the key to saving lives on the battlefield, if research results in rats are able to be replicated in humans.

Scientists at Stanford University in the United States carried out experiments using the electrical stimulation of the veins and arteries of rats, using microsecond pulses.

After cutting through femoral and abdominal arteries of the rodents, a series of electrical pulses were administered and shown to induce vasoconstriction, or narrowing, of blood vessels within seconds.

The blood vessels dilated back to their original size within a few minutes, and with a stronger current, a complete and permanent blocking of the blood vessels occurred.

"Further research is needed to establish whether the technique would be effective in human patients, but the technique might potentially be helpful for controlling non-compressible haemorrhages in traumatic injury or during surgery," the study concluded.

The treatment reduced the blood loss from the femoral artery by a factor of seven compared to untreated animals, researchers said.

And in contrast to research in the 1970s, the authors observed no damage to the tissue up to 3.5 hours after the vasoconstriction.

"Non-compressible haemorrhages are the most common preventable cause of death on battlefield and in civilian traumatic injuries," the study noted.

"This new treatment modality offers a promising approach to non-damaging control of bleeding during surgery, and to efficient haemorrhage arrest in trauma patients."

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

US home prices rise in May by most in 7yrs

US home prices jumped 12.2 per cent in May, suggesting the housing recovery is strengthening. Source: AAP

US home prices jumped 12.2 per cent in May from a year ago, the most in seven years. The increase suggests the housing recovery is strengthening.

Real estate data provider CoreLogic said on Tuesday that home prices rose from a year ago in 48 states. They fell only in Delaware and Alabama, while all but three of the 100 largest cities reported price gains.

Prices rose 26 per cent in Nevada to lead all states, followed by California (20.2 per cent), Arizona (16.9 per cent), Hawaii (16.1 per cent) and Oregon (15.5 per cent).

CoreLogic also said prices rose 2.6 per cent in May from April, the fifteenth straight month-over-month increase.

Steady hiring and low mortgage rates have encouraged more Americans to buy homes.

Greater demand, a limited number of homes for sale and fewer foreclosures have pushed prices higher, but prices are still 20 per cent below the peak reached in April 2006, it said.

Sales of previously occupied homes topped the five million mark in May for the first time in three and a half years. And the proportion of those sales that were "distressed" was at the lowest level in more than four years for the second straight month.

Distressed home sales include foreclosures and short sales - when a home sells for less than what is owed on the mortgage.

Home sales are expected to increase in the coming months. That's because the number of people who signed contracts to buy homes rose in June to the highest level since December 2006. There's generally a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed sale.

One worry is that higher mortgage rates could slow the housing recovery.

Still, rates remain low by historical standards and increases in rates could boost home sales because many Americans may act to lock in the lower rates before they rise further.

A survey by the University of Michigan released last week found more Americans believe it is a good time to buy a home because both rates and prices are just starting to rise.

Rates have been trending higher for two months.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage leapt to 4.46 per cent last week, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac., the highest in two years and a point more than a month ago.

Mortgage rates surged after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said last month that the Fed could scale back its bond buying later this year and end it next year if the economy continued to strengthen. The bond purchases have kept long-term rates down.

Economists say higher mortgage rates are unlikely to stifle the housing recovery.

A more critical issue is whether potential buyers can get loans. There are signs that banks have become more willing to extend mortgages.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brazil leader demands referendum

BRAZIL'S Congress has received a request from President Dilma Rousseff to hold a referendum on political reform in response to the worst social unrest in 20 years.

The move, widely supported by the public, came after three weeks of protests over corruption and public spending which marred the Confederations Cup, a dress rehearsal for next year's football World Cup, which will also be held in Brazil.

The nightly rage that made headlines around the world has waned somewhat, but no one rules it flaring up again like it did after the Cup, when a million people took to the streets.

On Tuesday night truck drivers blocked roads in at least 10 states to press for the elimination of tolls and fuel subsidies.

The proposal for a plebiscite was delivered to senate and congressional president Renan Calheiros by Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo and vice president, Michel Temer, state news service Senado said.

"Calheiros announced he would act so that any changes resulting from the referendum take effect from (October) 2014," a year before presidential elections are to be held, Senado said.

Cardozo said the referendum will include the reform of election campaign financing, the congressional voting system, rules governing coalitions and legislation on secret ballots.

"The executive is merely making a simple suggestion," Temer told reporters. "It is congress which will oversee (the process) from the start through to the conclusion."

The protests began in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro over hikes in public transport fares but mushroomed into demands for improvements in crumbling public services and for an end to rampant corruption.

Some 1.5 million Brazilians took part in the protests at their height.

Leftist leader Rousseff last week proposed a national pact with state governors to boost public services and guarantee a balanced budget.

A poll showed that 68 per cent of Brazilians back Rousseff's proposals.

20.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

S African court orders exhumation

Nelson Mandela's family are seeking to have grandson Mandla (pic) charged with grave tampering. Source: AAP

A SOUTH African court has ordered that the remains of three of Nelson Mandela's children be returned to his ancestral village, rejecting a bid by his oldest grandson to stop the exhumation following a bitter family feud.

A judge in the southern city of Mthatha upheld an earlier interim order for the grandson Mandla to transfer the remains to Qunu on Wednesday afternoon.

Mandela's grandson Mandla allegedly had the graves moved to Mvezo, about 30 kilometres away, in 2011 without the rest of the family's consent.

Mandela, who remains critically ill in what is now his fourth week in hospital, has expressed his wish to be buried in his childhood village of Qunu, and his daughters want to have the children's remains returned so they can be buried together.

A judge in the southern city of Mthatha upheld an earlier interim order for Mandla to return the remains to Qunu by Wednesday afternoon and instructed him to pay all legal costs.

The order was issued in response to a request by more than a dozen relatives of the revered leader, who led the struggle against white-minority rule in South Africa and won election as the country's first black president in 1994 after spending 27 years in apartheid prisons.

The relatives who brought the case included two of Mandela's daughters and several grandchildren.

After the decision, family members stood up and hugged each other.

Mandela's eldest daughter Makaziwe refused to comment on the ruling, saying "a private matter will remain private".

20.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Group finds carcinogen in Pepsi products

AN environmental group says that the caramel colouring used in Pepsi still contains a worrisome level of a carcinogen, even after the drink maker said it would change its formula.

In March, Pepsi and Coca-Cola both said they would adjust their formulas nationally after California passed a law mandating drinks containing a certain level of carcinogens come with a cancer warning label. The changes were made for drinks sold in California when the law passed.

The chemical is 4-methylimidazole, or 4-Mel, which can form during the cooking process and, as a result, may be found in trace amounts in many foods.

Watchdog group The Center for Environmental Health found via testing that while Coke products no longer test positive for the chemical, Pepsi products sold outside of California still do.

Pepsi said its caramel colouring suppliers are changing their manufacturing process to cut the amount of 4-Mel in its caramel. That process is complete in California and will be finished in February 2014 in the rest of the country. Pepsi said it will also be taken out globally, but did not indicate a timeline.

Meanwhile, the company said the FDA and other regulatory agencies around the world consider Pepsi's caramel colouring safe.

Coca-Cola said it has transitioned to using a modified caramel in US markets beyond California that does not contain Mel-4, so it wouldn't have to have separate inventory of products for different locations. It also said all of its products, whether they have the modified caramel or not, are safe.

Trace amounts of 4-Mel have not been linked to cancer in humans. The American Beverage Association said that California added the colouring to its list of carcinogens with no studies showing that it causes cancer in humans. It noted that the listing was based on a single study in lab mice and rats.

The Food and Drug Administration has also said that a consumer would have to drink more than 1,000 cans of soda a day to reach the doses administered that have shown links to cancer in rodents.

20.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Egypt's ElBaradei and Coptic Pope meet

CAIRO July 3 AP - A senior opposition figure says pro-reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei, the top Muslim cleric of Al-Azhar Mosque and the Coptic pope are meeting the army chief to discuss a political road map for Egypt.

The Wednesday meeting takes place ahead of the military's deadline for Islamist president Mohammed Morsi to yield to the demands of millions of protesters or face intervention by the army.

Morsi has vowed not to step down in the face of three days of massive street demonstrations calling for his ouster. At least 39 people have died since the protests began on Sunday.

Khaled Daoud, spokesman of the main opposition National Salvation Front, which ElBaradei leads, announced the meeting.

20.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

US town mourns 19 firefighters

MORE than 1,000 people have gathered in a deeply emotional memorial in the Arizona mountain town of Prescott to mourn the deaths of the 19 elite firefighters killed on Sunday.

It was the nation's deadliest day for fire crews since September 11, 2001.

Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo spoke in a shaky voice at the memorial as he described throwing a picnic a month ago for the department's new recruits and meeting their families.

"About five hours ago, I met those same families at an auditorium," he said at the memorial on Tuesday. "Those families lost. The Prescott Fire Department lost. The city of Prescott lost. The state of Arizona and the nation lost," he said before receiving a standing ovation as he left the podium.

For the 19 killed, violent wind gusts turned a lightning-caused forest fire into a death trap that left no escape.

In a desperate attempt at survival, the firefighters - members of a highly skilled Arizona-based Hotshot crew - had unfurled their foil-lined, heat-resistant shelters and rushed to cover themselves on the ground.

But the success of the shelters depends on firefighters being in a cleared area away from fuels and not in the direct path of a raging fire.

Only one member of the 20-person crew survived, and that was because he was moving the unit's truck at the time.

The blaze grew from 80 hectares to about 800 hectares in a matter of hours, and Prescott City Councilman Len Scamardo said the wind and fire made it impossible for the firefighters to flee.

"The winds were coming from the southeast, blowing to the west," he said. "What limited information we have was there was a gust of wind from the north that blew the fire backed, and trapped them."

Authorities are investigating to figure out what exactly went wrong after the wind suddenly changed direction.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Two more quit Morsi government

A FOREIGN ministry official says two spokesmen for President Mohammed Morsi have quit in the latest defections from his embattled administration as protesters and the military challenge his authority.

The official says career diplomats Omar Amer and Ihab Fahmy have stepped down after nearly five months speaking on behalf of Morsi.

The official spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The move compounds the woes for Morsi as he faces massive protests calling for his ouster.

On Monday, six Cabinet ministers quit and the military gave the president a 48-hour ultimatum to work out his differences with the opposition or it will intervene and oversee the implementation of its own political road map.

The ultimatum expires early Wednesday.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

China probes baby formula makers on prices

China has launched an investigation into alleged price fixing by foreign baby formula makers. Source: AAP

CHINA has launched an investigation into alleged price-fixing by several mainly foreign baby formula makers, state media said.

China's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), had launched the "anti-monopoly" inquiry, the People's Daily newspaper said.

The probe appears to mainly target foreign companies with state media only naming a single domestic firm, Biostime.

China is by far the world's largest market for formula, according to consumer research group Euromonitor.

But a 2008 food safety scandal involving tainted formula has prompted domestic consumers to shun local brands and created huge demand for the foreign product, including expensive informal imports.

The People's Daily said foreign brands under scrutiny included French firm Danone's Dumex, Mead Johnson, Wyeth, Abbott and Friso, while other state media also named Swiss-based global food giant Nestle, which confirmed an investigation.

"The company has been actively cooperating with the investigation," a spokeswoman for Nestle China told AFP, but declined further comment.

The NDRC, which helps regulate prices in China, declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

The People's Daily alleged the firms had hiked prices on formula by 30 per cent since 2008 to "relatively high" levels.

Domestic firm Biostime said last week that a subsidiary was under investigation by the government for fixing retail prices for its distributors in violation of China's anti-monopoly law.

In 2008, baby formula tainted with the industrial chemical melamine killed six children and sickened more than 300,000.

The government has vowed to crack down on safety violators and called for strict monitoring of milk powder production, in an attempt to restore public trust.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Carr praises US efforts in Middle East

Bob Carr (R) has praised US efforts to bring Israel and Palestine back to the negotiating table. Source: AAP

FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has praised efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to bring Israel and Palestine back to the negotiating table, insisting there will be no peace without American leadership.

Attempts at brokering a resumption in direct talks after an almost three-year hiatus ended without agreement on Sunday following four days of Mr Kerry shuttling between both camps.

But Washington's most senior diplomat, who arrived in Brunei on Tuesday for a regional forum of foreign ministers, maintains that "with a little more work, the start of final status negotiations could be within reach".

He is understood to have spent 13 hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and about six hours with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a marathon effort to encourage both sides into talks.

Despite the lack of tangible progress, Senator Carr, who sat with Mr Kerry during a dinner attended by ASEAN foreign ministers on Monday night, said the US secretary of state deserved high praise for his efforts.

"I told him he had the admiration of Australians in his valiant attempts to bring the Palestinians and Israelis together," Senator Carr told AAP.

"It can't happen without American leadership," he said.

Senator Carr is understood to have told Mr Kerry that Australia strongly supported a two-state solution with the creation of a Palestinian state as well as security guarantees for Israel, and that "1967 boundaries should be the starting point with agreed land swaps".

President Abbas is pushing Israel to free the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners, to remove roadblocks in the West Bank and to publicly agree to make the lines that existed before the 1967 Middle East war the baseline for negotiations.

Mr Netanyahu is reportedly willing to consider just the first two conditions - but only after talks are under way - and has flatly refused to countenance any return to the 1967 lines.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

GM, Honda partner on fuel cell vehicle

GENERAL Motors and Honda will combine forces to develop hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the hopes of delivering them to customers by around 2020, the US and Japanese automakers say.

The partnership is aimed at solving the two biggest problems facing the commercial feasibility of fuel cells: high cost and lack of fuelling stations.

"Honda and GM are eager to accelerate the market penetration of this ultimate clean mobility technology," Honda chief Takanobu Ito said in a statement on Tuesday.

"I am excited to form this collaboration to fuse our leading fuel cell technologies and create an advanced system that will be both more capable and more affordable."

Engineers from both companies will work together to develop the next generation of fuel cell technology, sharing all their previous research and future discoveries at joint research facilities in Michigan and Japan.

While the master agreement does not cover manufacturing, it will likely lead the automakers to use essentially the same engine and storage tanks in their fuel cell vehicles.

One of the goals is to reduce costs by working with suppliers to develop standardised - and less expensive - components.

The automakers will also work with governments and fuel station operators to develop the necessary infrastructure to support the vehicles.

"This collaboration builds upon Honda and GM's strengths as leaders in hydrogen fuel cell technology," said GM chief Dan Akerson.

"We are convinced this is the best way to develop this important technology, which has the potential to help reduce the dependence on petroleum and establish sustainable mobility."

Fuel cell vehicles are considered the holy grail of green cars because they emit nothing but water vapour from the tailpipe and can operate on renewable hydrogen gas made from non-polluting sources like wind and biomass.

The current technology allows the vehicles to drive up to 640 kilometres on a single tank and to be refuelled in just a few minutes - an advantage over slow-charging electric vehicles. The propulsion technology also has sufficient horsepower to be used on large vehicles.

GM, which has been working on the technology since the 1960s, has logged nearly three million miles on a fleet of 119 hydrogen-powered vehicles launched in 2007.

Honda leased its first fuel cell vehicle in 2002 and has deployed 85 so far in the US and Japan. It plans to make hundreds of the FCX Clarity available to customers in Japan and the United States in 2015.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hollande says no talks with US

EU leaders have angrily demanded answers from the US over a report that America bugged EU offices. Source: AAP

FRENCH President Francois Hollande says Europe would not hold any negotiations with the United States until it is sure spying on EU institutions has ended, just as Washington and the EU are set to begin sensitive talks on a historic free trade deal.

"There can be no negotiations or transactions in all areas until we have obtained these guarantees, for France but also for all of the European Union, for all partners of the United States," Hollande told journalists during a visit to the western city of Lorient.

Meanwhile UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged nations to protect the integrity of diplomatic missions on their soil.

"Member states are expected to ... protect the inviolability of diplomatic missions," Ban told reporters in Geneva, in response to a question about the latest allegations attributed to former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

While refusing to comment directly on the reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) had kept tabs on the European Union's diplomatic mission in Washington, Ban stressed that "in principle, diplomatic missions should be protected, including (their) information."

The new accusations, which threaten to seriously harm relations between the United States and its European allies, surfaced Sunday in a report by German weekly Der Spiegel, citing confidential documents leaked by Snowden.

Microphones were allegedly installed in the EU's mission in Washington and the computer network was infiltrated, giving the agency access to emails and internal documents.

Der Spiegel said the EU delegation at the United Nations was subject to similar surveillance and the spying had also extended to the 27-member bloc's Brussels headquarters.

The weekly said the leaked documents showed the US secret service had targeted Germany more than any other EU country, but Monday's Guardian newspaper reported that France, Italy and Greece were also among 38 US surveillance "targets".

"The inviolability of diplomatic missions, including the United Nations and other international organisations ... (has) been well-established by international law," Ban pointed out.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rights groups calls for borders to open

Human Rights Watch says Turkey, Jordan and Iraq must open their borders to Syrian refugees Source: AAP

TURKEY, Jordan and Iraq must fully reopen their border crossings to allow thousands of Syrians fleeing their country's war to seek refuge, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

"Iraqi, Jordanian, and Turkish border guards are pushing back tens of thousands of people trying to flee Syria," the international rights group said, adding that the lives of those trying to flee were in danger.

"Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey have either closed numerous border crossings entirely or allowed only limited numbers of Syrians to cross, leaving tens of thousands stranded."

The UN says more than 1.7 million Syrians have fled the conflict in their country. The vast majority have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

But only Lebanon has kept an open-door policy for Syrian refugees, says HRW.

Syria's war broke out more than 27 months ago and has left more than 100,000 dead, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog says.

New York-based HRW stressed international law prohibits countries "from sending anyone back to -- or pushing back anyone trying to leave -- a country where their life or freedom would be threatened".

HRW urged donor countries to step up support to countries hosting Syrian refugees.

But "neither the pressure those countries are under due to rising refugee numbers, nor giving aid inside Syria, can justify violating people's basic right to seek asylum from persecution and other abuse," HRW stressed.

It said Jordan denies closing its borders, though "recently arrived refugees... say that Jordanian border guards blocked their and others' entry for days or weeks in May".

Iraq's Kurdistan regional government has admitted closing the Syria border but has since mid-June allowed some Syrians in need of emergency assistance to cross over.

Baghdad has "severely limited the number of Syrians allowed to enter since August 2012, and new arrivals virtually ceased in late March," HRW said.

Turkey is "blocking the entry of thousands of Syrians at the Bab al-Salam, Atma, and other border crossings with Syria", it added.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Huge fire at British recycling plant

Hundreds of firefighters are battling a massive blaze at a recycling plant in central England. Source: AAP

MORE than 200 firefighters are battling a major blaze at a British recycling plant after 100,000 tonnes of paper and plastic caught fire, sending a plume of smoke rising into the sky.

West Midlands Fire Service said ten officers suffered minor injuries as they fought to put out the flames at the plant in Smethwick, just outside Britain's second city Birmingham in central England.

The fire sent a massive plume of smoke rising 1,800 metres into the sky.

"Two officers have been hospitalised and eight have been treated at the scene," a spokeswoman for the fire service told AFP.

Unconfirmed reports said Chinese lanterns had dropped on the plastics and started the fire.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rudd 'doesn't need to change image'

THE man behind the Kevin '07 campaign says the recently returned prime minister doesn't need to "remake" himself.

Kevin Rudd has maintained his public popularity despite the fact he's considered dysfunctional and difficult to work with by his party, the parliament and the media, Neil Lawrence said on the ABC's Q and A program on Monday.

His public image doesn't need significant alteration, but Mr Rudd needs to present himself as "much more collegiate," Mr Lawrence said.

Advertising guru Todd Sampson said Mr Rudd was "a unique product to sell" as he's loved by the public but despised by his own party.

"Which basically means he's loved by those that don't know him and hated by those that do," he added.

Mr Sampson also said it would be in the Prime Minister's interest to have the election as early as possible.

"Like most products the longer people think about a purchase, the less likely they are to make it," he said on Q and A.

Spin doctor Sue Cato disagreed with Mr Lawrence and Mr Sampson, saying a lot of people support him.

"It's an easy, populist thing to get up that he's hated by everyone in his party but I think it's bunkum," she said.

When asked for her view, health minister Tanya Plibersek said she was "troubled" by the way parliament and political leadership was assessed like a sporting competition.

Talk of leadership, popularity and polls prompted an audience member to ask when the Liberals would follow Labor's lead and install the popular Malcolm Turnbull as leader.

Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella didn't directly answer the question but pointed to Tony Abbott's record of "getting the measure" of both Mr Rudd and former prime minister Julia Gillard.

She then said Mr Rudd should call an election so voters could decide who they wanted to govern.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Deadly US fire rages after 19 killed

Nineteen firefighters have been killed in a fast-moving forest fire in the US state of Arizona. Source: AAP

FIREFIGHTERS struggled to contain a runaway wildfire in the US state of Arizona Monday after 19 of their comrades were killed in one of the worst such incidents in US history and two towns were evacuated.

The firefighters died while racing to contain the Yarnell Hill wildfire about 135 kilometres north of Phoenix, in what Arizona governor Jan Brewer called "as dark a day as I can remember."

The deadly blaze came amid baking temperatures and tinder-dry conditions across the US southwest, with records broken over the weekend in Arizona and California, and follows an already deadly wildfire season across the region.

President Barack Obama paid tribute to those who lost their lives, in a statement issued while travelling in South Africa which lamented "this terrible tragedy."

"They were heroes - highly-skilled professionals who, like so many across our country do every day, selflessly put themselves in harm's way to protect the lives and property of fellow citizens they would never meet."

The Yarnell Hill fire, believed to have been ignited by lightning and fanned by high winds, broke out Friday and has swept across 2,000 acres, spreading rapidly through the dry, forested area.

Officials said that the incident was under investigation but that the firefighters appeared to have deployed fire shelters - last-ditch protection equipment - just before they were engulfed in flames.

"It's not reality for us, it hasn't really set in," Wade Ward, a visibly shocked Prescott Fire Department spokesman, told CNN early Monday.

"It's a very elite group of people who are highly trained, highly motivated, very fit... We don't know what happened."

Hundreds of residents of Yarnell and Peeples Valley were meanwhile evacuated, officials said on a fire alert website, as the blaze continued to tear through the area.

Figures from the National Fire Protection Association, a non-profit organisation, show that the Arizona deaths are the worst firefighter fatalities from a wildfire since 29 firefighters died fighting a blaze in Los Angeles' Griffith Park in 1933.

Sunday's deaths also mark the largest loss of firefighter lives on US soil since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, when 340 firefighters were killed, according to NFPA statistics.

Record and near-record temperatures left much of the US southwest sweltering over the weekend, with Death Valley in California equalling the hottest ever June temperature in the United States, at 53 Celsius.

As of Monday, there were over 40 active blazes in the four states, according to the inciweb fire information website.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Obama to host summit of African leaders

Barack Obama will host a landmark summit of leaders from across sub-Saharan Africa next year. Source: AAP

US President Barack Obama will host a landmark summit of leaders from across sub-Saharan Africa next year, the White House says.

The plan has strong echoes of high-profile China-Africa summits, which over the last decade have cemented Beijing's clout on the continent.

Obama will announce on Sunday that "he plans to host the first of its kind, a summit of leaders from across sub-Saharan Africa in the United States," said senior White House advisor Ben Rhodes.

"This is something that we've never done before. It's something that other nations have done," said Rhodes.

Obama is currently on the first major visit to the continent where his father was born since his election almost five years ago.

He made a brief visit to Ghana in 2009. Critics say a more substantial trip had been long overdue and have accused Obama of allowing China to steal ground from the United States in business and diplomacy.

"What we want to do is to continue the type of high-level engagement that we've had in this trip, we want to have that marker laid down so that next year the President is bringing together heads of state from across sub-Saharan Africa in Washington," said Rhodes.

Speaking in the iconic township of Soweto on Saturday, Obama dismissed talk of a Chinese and US scramble for influence on the continent, but urged Africans to watch out for lop-sided deals with foreign investors.

"I actually welcome the attention that Africa is receiving from countries like China and Brazil and India and Turkey."

But he urged African nations to make sure trade was not a one-way street.

"When we look at what other countries are doing in Africa, I think our only advice is make sure it's a good deal for Africa.

"Somebody says they want to come build something here: Are they hiring African workers? Somebody says that we want to help you develop your natural resources: How much of the money is staying in Africa?"

Obama, in South Africa on the second-leg of a three-nation Africa tour, said that too often foreign investment did not benefit locals and actually encouraged the type of corruption and resource-stripping that guts economies.

He offered up the United States as a more equitable partner which wanted African economies to grow into consumer powerhouses.

Amid a raft of Chinese investment, which topped $200 billion last year, US businesses have expressed concern that Africa is a diplomatic blind spot for their government.

In March, China's new President Xi Jinping visited Africa, as well as Russia, on his first foreign trip, signing a raft of business and energy deals signalling Beijing's intent to deepen ties further.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

EU wants answers over alleged US bugging

A top EU official says ties with the US could suffer over a report that America bugged EU offices. Source: AAP

THE European Union is angrily demanding answers from the United States over allegations Washington had bugged its offices, the latest spying claim attributed to fugitive leaker Edward Snowden.

The report in German weekly Der Spiegel is likely to further strain relations between the United States and Europe, shortly after they launched formal negotiations to create what would be the world's biggest free trade area.

Der Spiegel said its report, which detailed covert surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA) on EU diplomatic missions, was based on confidential documents, some of which it had been able to consult via Snowden.

"We have immediately been in contact with the US authorities in Washington DC and in Brussels and have confronted them with the press reports," the European Commission said in a statement.

"They have told us they are checking on the accuracy of the information released yesterday and will come back to us."

One document, dated September 2010 and classed as "strictly confidential", describes how the NSA kept tabs on the European Union's mission in Washington, Der Spiegel said.

Microphones were installed in the building and the computer network infiltrated, giving the agency access to emails and internal documents.

The EU delegation at the United Nations was subject to similar surveillance, Der Spiegel said.

US Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes refused to be drawn into commenting directly on the allegations in a briefing in Johannesburg on Saturday, but said it was "worth noting" the US was "very close" to EU security services.

The Spiegel report is the latest in a series of allegations about US spying activity revealed by Snowden, a former NSA contractor who is holed up in a Moscow airport transit zone after the United States issued a warrant for his arrest and revoked his passport.

EU powerhouse Germany said the United States must quickly say whether the reports were true or not.

"It's beyond our imagination that our friends in the US consider the Europeans as enemies," Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said in a statement.

The US authorities issued an arrest warrant this month for Snowden after he revealed details of NSA's so-called PRISM program which collects and analyses information from internet and phone users around the world.

Snowden himself remains in political limbo at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after flying in from Hong Kong last week, unable to fly on without legal travel documents or exit the airport without a Russian visa.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said that US Vice President Joe Biden had asked Quito to reject any asylum request from the 30-year-old who is wanted by the United States on charges including espionage.

But he said Snowden's fate was in Russia's hands as Quito could not process his asylum request until he was on Ecuadoran soil.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Putin signs 'anti-gay propaganda' ban

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a controversial bill punishing people for homosexual "propaganda", according to an official publication.

The law introduces fines of up to 5000 rubles ($A168.87) for citizens who disseminate information "directed at forming nontraditional sexual setup" in minors or which may cause a "distorted understanding" that gay and heterosexual relations are "socially equivalent", the publication showed.

Critics have called the bill homophobic and so vaguely defined that it would inevitably be used arbitrarily against gays and stir hate crimes in the country. However, it sailed through the parliament and Putin had promised in advance that he would sign the bill.

The fines go up to as much as 200,000 rubles ($6250) for officials if such "propaganda" is disseminated through the media or internet.

Foreigners will not only be fined but face administrative arrest up to 15 days and eventual deportation, the law says. Organisations face fines of up to one million rubles and shutdown of their activity for 90 days.

Earlier this week Putin denied the law's anti-gay nature. "We are talking about protecting children from the respective information," he said.

"We ask that (other countries) do not interfere in our regulation," he added, responding to massive criticism from Western countries and human rights groups.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Somali forces arrest Islamist leader

SOMALI security forces have arrested veteran Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys.

The former Somali army colonel was detained after he flew in to Mogadishu for talks with government officials.

"There was a big argument that turned into a fist fight between the security forces who arrested Sheik Aweys and members of the delegation accompanying him who resisted the arrest," a senior police officer told AFP of the arrest on Saturday.

Yusuf Mohamed Siyad, a member of the same Ayr sub-clan as Aweys who arrived in Mogadishu with him, confirmed the arrest at the capital's airport.

However, the reason for his detention was not immediately clear.

Aweys, a hero of Somalia's 1977-78 war with Ethiopia, is on both US and UN Security Council terrorism sanctions lists, but no bounty has been placed on his head.

Now in his late 70s, Aweys was a top leader of the Islamic Courts Union, a radical group that ruled Somalia in 2006 before being overthrown by Ethiopian troops who stormed Somalia in a US-backed invasion.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Snowden handover impermissible: Russian MP

A TOP Russian politician has declared it was "morally impermissible" to hand over to the United States fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowdon, who remains in a political limbo at a Moscow airport.

Snowden, the 30-year-old former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), has been living in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport for over a week, unable to fly on with a revoked US passport or exit the airport without a Russian visa.

Snowden has requested asylum in Ecuador but is unable to get to its embassy in central Moscow.

Alexei Pushkov, who heads the international affairs committee at the Duma lower house of parliament, said it would be wrong to give Snowden over to the United States where he is wanted for leaking classified information about covert US surveillance programs.

"It's not a matter of (Snowden's) usefulness (to Russia) - it's a matter of principle," he wrote on Twitter Sunday. "Handing over a political refugee is morally impermissible."

The Kremlin on Sunday played down the fact that Snowden is still living at the airport, with President Vladimir Putin's spokesman telling the Echo of Moscow radio station that "this issue is not on the Kremlin's agenda."

"Since it's not our issue, I don't know what options there are for the situation's development, nor what the legal or other aspects are in this," said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Putin shockingly admitted on Tuesday that Snowden is staying in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport, and cannot be extradited to the US due to the lack of a bilateral extradition agreement. The Russian leader also advised Snowden to pick his destination soon.

The situation seems to be near a dead end as Ecuador has declared that it's up to Moscow to resolve the dilemma over Snowden.

"To process the asylum application, (Snowden) must be in Ecuadorian territory," President Rafael Correa said on Saturday. However, Snowden would need a visa from Russian authorities to get to Ecuador's embassy in central Moscow.

"We cannot be on the sidelines, we should participate in his fate," said another lawmaker Sunday, senator Valery Shnyakin, who is the deputy chairman of the international affairs committee in the Federation Council upper house of parliament.

"We should calculate the negative repercussions on our relations with the Americans," he added in remarks posted on the ruling United Russia party website. "For that, we need some kind of negotiations and meetings."

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More