Reporter detained in China live on TV

A journalist and his camera operator have been detained in Tiananmen Square live on British television.

British reporter Mark Stone and his Sky News camera operator have been detained in Tiananmen Square. Source: AAP

A JOURNALIST and his camera operator have been detained in Tiananmen Square live on British television, in what he described as a surreal but telling episode about reporting in China.

Viewers of the 24-hour British channel Sky News on Friday were treated to the bizarre sight of reporter Mark Stone being directed into a police van live from Beijing.

He reported live from inside the van, admitting that the Chinese officials with him - one them filming Stone herself - probably did not realise he was speaking directly to London.

"Still in the police van, should be leaving in just a second for this rather surreal experience, which gives you a little insight into what can happen sometimes" in China, Stone said.

The team were then taken into a room where they were told to await questioning.

"We were here in Tiananmen Square filming, doing lives (live reports) through the day; now they've stopped us because of one word. We were talking about the 1989 protest, they didn't like that," Stone said.

The square is a popular tourist site near the regime's nerve centre and the scene of 1989 democracy protests that were crushed by the Chinese authorities.

A police officer was filmed asking the Sky team to switch off their camera, saying they were now inside the Forbidden City and did not have permission to film there.

Stone, who was in Beijing reporting on China's leadership transition, said the police had been "utterly civil" throughout the incident.

While they had permission to film in the square, Stone said police told him the team were not displaying their passes correctly, and noted he was not carrying his passport as required.

China's foreign ministry insists that press censorship does not exist in the country, but journalists report the constant threat of interference from government officials.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Three astronauts return to Earth from ISS

A SPACE crew of three has returned to earth from the International Space Station in a Russian capsule which landed on the freezing steppe of Kazakhstan.

"There is landing!" flashed a Russian mission control centre message transmitted by NASA.

Rescue teams rushed to recover the capsule carrying NASA US astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian flight engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pope will give priority to victims: Pell

George Pell (pic) says newly-appointed Pope Francis will give priority to sexual abuse victims. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA'S most senior Catholic, George Pell, says Pope Francis will support national church leaders in the struggle against sexual abuse and give priority to victims.

In a statement issued early on Friday (AEDT), Cardinal Pell said he warmly welcomed Pope Francis and was delighted by his election as the church's new father.

Cardinal Pell describes as "happy omens" the fact the new pope is the first non-European pope since the eighth century, the first Jesuit and the first to take the name Francis.

"These are all happy omens which were reflected in the enthusiasm of the immense crowd of people in St Peter's Square for the announcement of the news," Cardinal Pell said.

He said Pope Francis was a man of "acknowledged piety and proven orthodoxy" who had lived through very difficult times in Argentina and had shown an ability to take hard decisions.

"He will support national hierarchies in the struggle against sexual abuse, giving priority to victims, and one of his first tasks will be to examine the 300-page report on the workings of the Vatican by the three cardinals," he said.

"God has blessed the church and I am sure that all Australian Catholics will continue in their loyalty to the papacy and to the new pope."

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

WA gets GST revenue cut in 2013/14

WESTERN Australia should receive half a billion dollars less in GST revenue in the next financial year because of its booming mining sector, the Commonwealth Grants Commission says.

However, in its annual advice on how the GST revenue pie should be carved up in 2013/14 the commission awarded Queensland nearly $700 million more to counter the impact of lower coal prices.

The commission's advice goes to the federal government each year before a final decision is made.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Labor attacks Sinodinos over company ties

LIBERAL senator Arthur Sinodinos has been accused of failing to reveal all the details when confessing he had not properly updated his personal interests.

Senator Sinodinos admitted a fortnight ago he'd been forced to update his pecuniary interests register with six directorships, following inquiries from the media.

Speaking under parliamentary privilege at the time, he also confirmed he'd abandoned a five per cent stake in Australian Water Holdings (AWH), a company linked to disgraced former NSW Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid.

He said he apologised unreservedly to the Senate for the oversights.

But Labor senator Jacinta Collins on Wednesday said Senator Sinodinos's "late-night mea culpa" had "robbed" the upper house of its chance to ask some serious questions related to his statement.

His "feigned ignorance" around the rules of declaring private interests, particularly as a seasoned corporate and political figure, was worthy of scrutiny, Senator Collins said.

"I seriously question whether Senator Sinodinos's assertions pass the person-in-the-street tests," she said.

"I question whether it is plausible that an experienced corporate executive would simply forget several company directorships."

Her claims drew heated fire from her Liberal counterparts, in particular Senator George Brandis, who rose several times in the chamber to interject on points of order.

But Senator Collins went further, saying there were "unanswered questions" about Senator Sinodinos's directorship at the company Move to Live.

She said Senator Sinodinos "did not volunteer" two weeks ago that he had sat on that company's board with Santo Santoro, a former Liberal Party senator who resigned in 2007 after failing to declare shares.

"Was Senator Sinodinos concerned that revelation of his involvement with Mr Santoro would raise damaging questions about his own political judgment?" she asked.

"Was Senator Sinodinos trying to hide something?"

She said it wasn't the first time Senator Sinodinos, who is also parliamentary secretary to the opposition leader, had been caught out "exercising poor judgment and establishing murky associations".

"Yet this is the man Tony Abbott trusts for advice," she said.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Vaccine cuts chickenpox admissions

THE introduction of a chickenpox vaccine in Australia in 2006 has dramatically cut the number of children being hospitalised with the disease, new research has revealed.

A national study has examined the number of chickenpox admissions at four hospitals and has found a 68 per cent fall since the vaccine was introduced.

The study also found that of those children needing to be hospitalised because of severe chickenpox, 80 per cent had not been immunised.

"These results are a very strong endorsement of the impact of the chickenpox vaccine," the study's lead author Helen Marshall from the University of Adelaide said.

Before the vaccine was introduced Australia had an estimated 240,000 chickenpox cases each year, with 1500 hospitalisations and up to 16 deaths.

Based on the study, the number of hospitalisations could now be under 500.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Falkland Islanders vote to stay British

Falkland Islanders voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a British oversees territory. Source: AAP

FALKLAND Islanders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a British oversees territory in a referendum designed to send a strong message to Argentina, which earlier derided the poll as illegal.

Some 92 per cent of the islands' 1,672 eligible voters turned out to deliver a 98.8 per cent "yes" vote in favour of staying an internally self-governing British territory, election officials in the capital Port Stanley announced.

Only three votes out of 1,517 were cast against the islands remaining British.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the result, saying it "demonstrates more clearly than ever the Falkland Islanders' wish to remain an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.

"We have always been clear that we believe in the rights of the Falklands people to determine their own futures and to decide on the path they wish to take," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

"It is only right that, in the twenty-first century, these rights are respected.

"All countries should accept the results of this referendum and support the Falkland Islanders as they continue to develop their home and their economy."

International observers - from Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Paraguay, the United States and Uruguay - monitored the polling stations.

The resounding "yes" result, delivered at around 10:30pm on the remote South Atlantic archipelago sparked unprecedented celebrations.

"There's so much noise here, it's huge," Legislative Assembly member Barry Elsby told AFP.

"There are hundreds of people outside the cathedral, celebrating, singing and waving flags.

Elsby called it a "tremendous point in time" for the islands which "sends a message around the world".

He said that Argentina would be "very frightened" because "this process was democratic".

"They can't dismiss it," he added.

Argentina, which invaded the islands in 1982 before its troops were ousted by a British task force after a short but bloody war, maintained its dismissive line on the vote.

"It's a manoeuvre with no legal value, which has neither been convened nor supervised by the United Nations," said Alicia Castro, Argentina's ambassador to London.

"We respect their way of life, their identity. We respect that they want to continue being British, but the territory they inhabit is not British," she told Buenos Aires radio station La Red.

Buenos Aires has stepped up its sovereignty claims against the backdrop of the discovery of potentially valuable oil reserves in the territorial waters of the islands it calls "Las Malvinas", some 400km away from the Argentine coast.

Britain has held the Falklands since 1833 but Buenos Aires maintains that the barren islands are occupied Argentinian territory.

Buenos Aires claims the islanders are an "implanted" colonial population and thus do not have the right to self-determination.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Changes mean fewer hours for L-platers

LEARNER drivers will be able to go faster and complete fewer hours of supervised driving before going for their Ps under changes announced by the NSW government.

Outlining reforms on Tuesday, Roads Minister Duncan Gay said L-platers will be allowed to travel up to 90km/h instead of 80km/h from July 1.

Those who take part in a new Safer Drivers Course as well as professional lessons will also be able to cut their number of compulsory supervised driving hours from 120 to 80.

Mr Gay said the changes were needed because the system was a "sentence on families across the state".

"This ... will be done by putting in place proper training so young people aren't just doing the hours, they're being taught the proper rules in road safety," he told reporters in Sydney.

Under the changes, if learners complete a four-hour safe driving course they can get 20 hours worth of credit towards their 120 hour logbook.

Ten hours worth of professional lessons will continue count as 30 hours towards the logbook total.

Learners would be able to accrue a maximum of 40 hours as credit, effectively reducing the logbook total from 120 to 80 hours, Mr Gay said.

Mr Gay said the safer drivers course would be affordable and 60-80 per cent subsidised by the government, with the exact price to be announced in July 1, when the new rules take effect.

Centre for Road Safety general manager Marg Prendergast told reporters an affordable price for the new safer drivers course would be around $200.

The changes follow recommendations made last year by the NSW Auditor General.

A new list detailing the types of cars that L-platers can learn on will soon also be released, as young drivers can't learn on some cars with turbo- or super-chargers.

Assistant Police Commissioner John Hartley denied the changes would lead to more young drivers dying on the state's roads.

"This is a sensible solution to the problem of long driving hours for people who haven't got time for it," he said.

"It think it's a step forward for NSW."

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Aurizon, Hancock to develop rail and port

GINA Rinehart's part-owned Queensland coal company has joined with Aurizon to develop new rail and port facilities for the Galilee Basin worth about $6 billion.

Freight company Aurizon says the development will unlock Galilee Basin coal reserves and help support the next phase of coal growth in the Bowen Basin.

Aurizon and Mrs Rinehart's joint venture company GVK Hancock plan to develop and manage a port and rail project with the capacity to ship 60 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

The projects involve a greenfield rail project and a development right for a coal terminal at Abbot Point.

"The proposed development of the rail and port infrastructure which is expected to deliver export capacity of 60mtpa could represent an investment for Queensland in the order of $6 billion," Aurizon said in a statement on Monday.

Under the proposed deal, Aurizon will acquire a 51 per cent interest in Hancock Coal Infrastructure (HCI), which owns GVK Hancock's rail and port projects.

Aurizon believes the development will unlock Galilee Basin coal reserves, including GVK Hancock's Alpha, Kevin's Corner and Alpha West coal mines.

Aurizon's shares were one cent higher at $4.07 at 1502 AEDT.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bikie admits assaults after mum's evidence

NOTORIOUS Perth bikie Troy Mercanti has dramatically admitted beating his former partner over a span of 15 years, after changing his pleas midway through his trial.

Mercanti, a former senior Coffin Cheater who defected to the Finks, had denied five charges of assaulting Tammy Kingdon, the mother of his two children, during the relationship which began in 1997.

Ms Kingdon had been cross-examined by Mr Mercanti's lawyer Colin Lovitt for almost six days over her allegations that he had beaten her so badly she needed a plate in her face to fix a broken eye socket, had suffered two sets of broken ribs and had her tooth knocked out on Christmas Day 2006.

But after Mercanti's brother Michael, and then his mother Sybil, both testified the assault did take place, the West Australian District Court was told the 45 year-old had been "shaken" and was pleading guilty to four of the five assaults.

The last charge was dropped by the prosecution after a trial lasting two weeks.

Mr Lovitt requested a sentencing hearing be held on Wednesday.

The trial had been told that Mercanti's physical violence towards Ms Kingdon had started just days after they had first became involved.

He was accused of punching her in the face outside a hotel in Bunbury, leaving her with black eyes and a fractured eye socket that required a metal plate to heal.

The pair continued their relationship, and Ms Kingdon gave birth to two boys by Mercanti in the following four years.

Prosecutor Justin Whalley said Mercanti punched her again in 2002, leaving a facial cut that needed stitches, and launched a prolonged assault on Christmas Day 2006 which left her missing a tooth.

In 2011, he allegedly punched and kicked her and made her stand naked in front of their Duncraig house after an argument following a sex party involving a friend of Mercanti's.

Following an alleged beating in January 2012, when with broken ribs, she was left naked and cowering outside a neighbour's home, Ms Kingdon went to police and made a statement that stretched to 104 pages.

He had also urinated on Ms Kingdon, threatened to tie her with gaffer tape to a tree to stop her attending her sister's wedding and ordered her to lie on a dog bed and bark, the court was told.

Mr Lovitt in his cross examination, accused Ms Kingdon of being a "liar and an actress", that she was out for revenge, and also claiming she was accident prone.

Mercanti's mother, however, said she had witnessed the Christmas Day assault.

"He is my son and I know that he is not the perfect son but I love him and I can't take that feeling away ... I really don't want to be here today," Mrs Mercanti told the court.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Syria crushed by war two years into revolt

March 15 marks two years since the brutal and bloody conflict in Syria began. Source: AAP

AS the Arab Spring blossomed two years ago, a heady breeze brought hopes of democracy, human rights and a better life to countries across the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria.

But while dictatorships fell in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya, President Bashar al-Assad clung to power in Damascus, unleashing a brutal crackdown on what began as a peaceful pro-reform movement.

The response on the street was no surprise. As many Syrians clung to the belief that peaceful tactics could change things, an ever growing number took up arms.

Two years on, Syria is mired in a devastating civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people, forced a million to flee with millions more displaced at home or missing, and an economic and humanitarian disaster.

Rebels have seized large swathes of territory, but growing tensions between liberals and moderate Muslims on the one hand, and powerful Islamists on the other, have raised fears Syria could collapse in a new sectarian bloodbath.

The United Nations said last week that "Syria is spiralling towards full-scale disaster".

"Syria is collapsing. World powers will act only when they realise that the country is becoming a new Somalia," Paris-Sud professor of international relations Khattar Abou Diab said.

That was a chilling reference to the fragmented Horn of Africa country where a weak central government and Islamists have battled unsuccessfully for years.

For now, both the rebels and Assad are intransigent, with neither a military nor a political end in sight.

It began on March 15, 2011, when youths in the southern city of Daraa scrawled on school walls the main chant of the Arab Spring: "The people want the fall of the regime."

Activists say they were jailed and tortured, helping to spark the uprising.

In power for 40 years, the Assad clan believed it could quell the revolt, just as Bashar's father and predecessor Hafez did in 1982, when he crushed a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hama, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 people.

In Tunisia and Egypt, the army turned its back on the top echelons of power, but Syria's army, led by officers from Assad's Alawite community, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, has remained loyal.

Defections from regime ranks have multiplied but still failed to strike the core.

And while defectors once formed the kernel of the rebel Free Syrian Army, insurgent ranks now include disparate groups including jihadist fighters from abroad.

The military has formidable firepower, and clashes with poorly armed rebels have reduced many cities to rubble, and in Libya, where demands for reform also turned to civil war, dictator Muammar Gaddafi also had a powerful war machine.

But the diplomatic climate there was different, and Western powers quickly imposed a no-fly zone and provided insurgents with weapons and training.

The world is divided over Syria, where unflinching support from long-time Damascus ally Russia and China has prevented the United Nations from adopting a unified posture.

Even countries such as the United States, Britain and France that have demanded Assad's departure are not providing the heavy weaponry that the rebels need to prevail.

They fear such weapons could fall into the hands of Muslim extremists, so have limited themselves to providing non-lethal support to rebels and sanctioning the inflexible regime.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hot contest in Kimberley gas hub seat

RE-ELECTED West Australian Premier Colin Barnett remains firm on the Kimberley gas project going ahead, despite the anti-hub Greens making it a close contest in the seat.

With 52.4 per cent of the vote counted before tallying was suspended on Saturday night, the Liberals led in the Kimberley with 26.48 per cent followed by the Greens with 25.88 per cent.

Labor had 21.61 per cent of the vote and Liberal coalition partners the Nationals had 20.85 per cent.

While Mr Barnett said the results so far showed Labor couldn't take indigenous votes in the Kimberley for granted, former federal Greens leader Bob Brown said the numbers revealed a protest vote against the Liberals.

Although the seat result was still up in the air, the pro-development premier had been sent a strong message about his forceful approach to the Woodside-led project, Dr Brown said.

"It's a huge statement by the people of Broome and the Kimberley that they don't want the gas hub," he told AAP.

While Mr Barnett's victory at Saturday's state election was resounding, voters had signalled he had "got just about everything right" - except the gas hub, Dr Brown said.

"Very clearly, they don't want that."

Dr Brown said the Greens could still win the seat, and it was one of the party's biggest votes ever in WA.

He vowed to emphasise the voters' message with federal Environment Minister Tony Burke, other federal political leaders and Woodside.

But Mr Barnett remained firm.

He acknowledged some were passionately opposed to the project.

"It's also the case that James Price Point is 60km to the north of Broome - it's an isolated location," he told ABC radio.

"It's going to provide great economic and social benefits, and not have a permanent long-term damaging affect on the environment."

Mr Barnett said young indigenous leaders in the Kimberley were increasingly interested in economic independence and the benefits that brought.

"Less philosophical, less ideological, more pragmatic," the premier said.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More