Storms black out 50,000 Qld properties

A SERIES of severe storms, accompanied by 90km/h winds and lightning strikes, have swept through southeast Queensland, cutting off power to thousands of homes and businesses.

The State Emergency Service responded to up to 100 calls for help, mostly for damaged and leaking roofs and fallen trees as some streets were turned into rivers.

By 10pm (AEST) on Sunday, Energex crews had restored power to 15,000 homes and businesses across the region but there were still 43,000 homes without power including 6500 in the Brisbane City Council, 2000 in Ipswich and 25,500 in Logan.

Energex said all its available field staff are working and will continue until electricity is restored to all customers.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Zygier gave up names of informants: report

THE man known as Prisoner X - Melbourne-born former Mossad agent Ben Zygier - was outfoxed trying to turn a Hezbollah representative into a double agent and unwittingly became one himself, handing over the names of two valuable informants in Lebanon, Fairfax Media says.

That is the reason why he became a top-secret inmate in an Israeli jail where he took his own life.

Fairfax says Mr Zygier, recruited in 2004, was disconsolate that his career as a Mossad agent had become bogged down at a desk job and he took it upon himself to turn the Hezbollah link into a double agent.

But in an effort to prove he was a Mossad agent, he handed over the names of two informants in Lebanon who were subsequently arrested and given hefty jail sentences.

Fairfax says that unable to bear the shame of his downfall, and facing a minimum 10-year jail sentence with no prospect of a return to the Mossad, Mr Zygier apparently took his own life on December 15, 2010.

Fairfax said that he learned that east European man was known to be close to the militant Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, and set up a meeting towards the end of 2008 with the intention of turning him into a double agent.

But the reverse happened, and Mr Zygier became the conduit for information flowing from Tel Aviv to Hezbollah.

In an effort to prove his Mossad bona fides he gave up the names of Israel's two top Lebanese informants, Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh.

Both men were subsequently arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years jail with hard labour.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Spain paper retracts Merkel Hitler column

SPANISH newspaper El Pais has retracted a column that compared German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler and apologised for its "inappropriate" content after sparking an indignant internet outcry.

In the column, published on the paper's website and in its Andalusia regional edition, economist Juan Torres Lopez of the University of Seville wrote that "Angela Merkel, like Hitler, has declared war on the rest of the continent, this time to guarantee (Germany) its vital economic space".

"She punishes us to protect her large companies and banks and also to hide from her electorate the shameful model that has seen the poverty rate in her country rise to its highest level in 20 years, 25 per cent of employees earn less than 9.15 euros an hour and half the population represent ... a miserable one per cent of all the nation's wealth."

After the column provoked shocked reactions online, the newspaper took it down from its website and apologised.

"El Pais has withdrawn the article 'Germany against Europe' ... because it contained statements that this newspaper considers inappropriate," it said.

"El Pais regrets that a supervisory error allowed the publication of this material. The opinions expressed by Torres Lopes are his alone."

The article had set media commentators and German Twitter users aflutter.

"Bitter. Now El Pais has also published an editorial, in which Merkel is compared to Hitler," wrote Robin Alexander, a journalist with German daily Die Welt, on Twitter.

"To put Merkel's policies on a level with Hitler's is as loco (crazy) as it gets," Mathieu von Rohr, Paris bureau chief for German weekly Der Spiegel, wrote on Twitter.

"Of course Merkel's (and everybody's) stance may be criticised. But to use Hitler is incendiary, stupid and irresponsible."

But the retraction also drew criticism.

"Shameful El Pais censoring an article by J. Torres Lopez for criticising Merkel," wrote Twitter user Adrian Arcas Munoz.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cyprus in last-ditch bailout talks

CYPRUS President Nicos Anastasiades has entered emergency talks with the island's international creditors seeking to avert bankruptcy in a crisis that is again threatening the stability of the wider eurozone.

The clock is ticking for the tiny country after the European Central Bank threatened to halt life-support funding if there is no deal by Monday, a day before Cyprus's banks are due to reopen after a 10-day shutdown.

Cyprus and its creditors are trying to nail a deal that will restructure the island's banks and deliver up to six billion euros ($A7.5 billion) from large bank deposits in order to resurrect an agreement for a bailout worth up to 10 billion euros.

European Union economics head Olli Rehn acknowledged Cypriot leaders faced hard choices to try to limit the damage from the blow to its bloated banking sector, after a firestorm of protest over the EU plans to impose a special levy on bank customer deposits.

Anastasiades's cortege entered EU headquarters in Brussels shortly after 2pm on Sunday (0001 AEDT Monday), an AFP correspondent said.

Anastasiades was to meet with ECB head Mario Draghi, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, EU president Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem and Rehn, sources told AFP.

Dijsselbloem will also bring in the finance ministers from all 17 currency partners from 1700 GMT (0400 AEDT) for what is likely to prove yet another sleepless night in snow-covered Brussels.

Cypriot reports suggested officials had made progress with EU and IMF representatives, having agreed a 20 per cent haircut on Bank of Cyprus and a 4.0 per cent levy on other banks.

A radical restructuring of the island's second largest lender Laiki (Popular Bank) will see all deposits over 100,000 euros put into a "bad bank" where they will be tied up for years and may never be fully recovered.

But negotiations stumbled on EU-IMF demands for a substantial levy on deposits above the same threshold in the Bank of Cyprus to avoid it facing similar restructuring. It holds more than a third of all deposits.

The haircut would take the form of a bond or share swap in a bid to get the measure through parliament.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brit in India 'shouted for help for hour'

A BRITISH woman who jumped from a hotel balcony in India fearing a sexual assault says she shouted for help for more than an hour before she fled.

Jessica Davies, 31, from London, says she barricaded the door of her hotel room in Agra with furniture to stop two men from entering.

"I held my key in the lock and I could feel them turning it from the other side," she told the BBC.

Davies, a dental hygienist, injured both legs in the jump but said her ordeal could have been a lot worse.

The manager of the hotel and another member of staff appeared in court on Wednesday accused of harassing Davies, with their lawyer saying they denied the charges.

Davies said she wanted to talk about her experience "because the shame of sexual assault makes many people too scared to speak out".

She also said it was "disgusting" that her fellow hotel residents had failed to help.

The incident came just days after a Swiss cyclist was allegedly gang-raped in the central state of Madhya Pradesh by a group of villagers, while on a cycling trip with her husband that was meant to include a stopover in Agra.

Davies, who is now back in Britain, told the BBC her ordeal began when she was "surprised" by a knock at her door at 3.45am.

She denied claims by the hotel manager's lawyer that she had asked for a wake-up call, saying she had set her phone alarm for 4.30am to catch a taxi for a train to Jaipur.

"By hook or by crook this person - or persons - were going to get into my room. I'm 100 per cent certain. And there was only one way out, to jump two floors."

She said a passing rickshaw driver took her to a police station where he stayed with her for hours and acted as translator.

"He was amazing," she said, but added: "I don't know his name and I don't know how to thank him."

She said she had not been put off from returning to India, but was "never going to travel alone again".

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Storms black out 50,000 Qld properties

A SERIES of severe storms, accompanied by 90km/h winds and lightning strikes, have swept through southeast Queensland, cutting off power to thousands of homes and businesses.

The State Emergency Service responded to up to 100 calls for help, mostly for damaged and leaking roofs and fallen trees as some streets were turned into rivers.

By 10pm (AEST) on Sunday, Energex crews had restored power to 15,000 homes and businesses across the region but there were still 43,000 homes without power including 6500 in the Brisbane City Council, 2000 in Ipswich and 25,500 in Logan.

Energex said all its available field staff are working and will continue until electricity is restored to all customers.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

ADF should plan for climate change: report

EDS: Not for use before 0001 AEDT Monday, March 25

CANBERRA, March 25 AAP - The Australian Defence Force needs to plan now to deal with the impacts of climate change on security in the region, a report from a think-tank says.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute released a paper, Heavy Weather: Climate and the Australia Defence Force (ADF) on Monday, in which it recommended that the ADF should work with the department of the prime minister and the department of climate change and energy efficiency to establish a working group on climate change security.

The group should include aid agency AusAID, the defence science and technology organisation, the bureau of meteorology and the CSIRO, the report said.

Also, defence should appoint a climate-change adviser to the the ADF chief, whose role would be to plan how to manage the effects of climate change on operations and infrastructure.

"As the world becomes more networked, the impacts of climate change in one country or region will affect the prosperity and security of others around the world," the report said.

It pointed out that regional defence forces would have more opportunities to unite in dealing with climate change.

The report also recommended that Australia should become more linked in the Multinational Planning Augmentation Team operated by US Pacific Command (PACOM), which plans for natural disasters and humanitarian risks across the Asia-Pacific program.

The ADF's role in regional humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions was likely to increase, the report said.

Neither the ADF nor the department had shown much interest around climate change, by contrast with the UK's ministry of defence, which had developed a climate-change strategy.

The UK military had also appointed a star-ranked climate change and energy security envoy, while the United States navy had initiated a similar position.

The report said an increased focus on climate change in the military wasn't about a 'green' view of the world.

"It's about the ADF being well placed to deal with the potential disruptive forces of climate change."

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shark attack hero wins bravery award

That was the only thought Trevor Ronald Burns had when he saw a woman being attacked by a Great White Shark.

He never expected to be awarded for his bravery.

The Brisbane man was holidaying in Perth with his family in October 2010 when they took part in a dolphin encounter at Rockingham with about 40 other people.

Many had gone back to the boat, but about 12 people remained in the water with a guide, looking for a baby dolphin that kept ducking around with its mother.

"They were obviously aware of the shark, and we weren't," he told AAP.

Mr Burns said when the guide was attacked by the 3.5m shark, it took a "double bite" at her legs.

He thought it was a dolphin when it brushed past his hand, until he saw the blood in the water.

"I just thought, 'Get it off her,' because she was only about a metre away from me," he said.

Mr Burns grabbed the shark's tail but it thrashed around before finally releasing its grip and swimming away.

Other tourists swam back to the boat when the alarm went off, but Mr Burns dived back into the water to find the injured woman.

"I couldn't see anything, but I knew there was no way she was coming back without help," he said.

The woman survived the attack but suffered significant leg injuries which required more than 200 stitches and several operations.

Mr Burns was also hurt, before he entered the water, slipping on the boat and injuring his ribs.

The pain was quickly forgotten as the drama unfolded.

"Adrenaline is a great pain relief," he quipped, although he felt the pain for weeks later.

Mr Burns will receive the Star of Courage as part of the 38th annual Australian Bravery Awards and said he was "really proud" to accept it.

"This really got to me," he said.

"To be recognised in this way is special."

Mr Burns remains in contact with the attack victim.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

ADF should plan for climate change: report

EDS: Not for use before 0001 AEDT Monday, March 25

CANBERRA, March 25 AAP - The Australian Defence Force needs to plan now to deal with the impacts of climate change on security in the region, a report from a think-tank says.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute released a paper, Heavy Weather: Climate and the Australia Defence Force (ADF) on Monday, in which it recommended that the ADF should work with the department of the prime minister and the department of climate change and energy efficiency to establish a working group on climate change security.

The group should include aid agency AusAID, the defence science and technology organisation, the bureau of meteorology and the CSIRO, the report said.

Also, defence should appoint a climate-change adviser to the the ADF chief, whose role would be to plan how to manage the effects of climate change on operations and infrastructure.

"As the world becomes more networked, the impacts of climate change in one country or region will affect the prosperity and security of others around the world," the report said.

It pointed out that regional defence forces would have more opportunities to unite in dealing with climate change.

The report also recommended that Australia should become more linked in the Multinational Planning Augmentation Team operated by US Pacific Command (PACOM), which plans for natural disasters and humanitarian risks across the Asia-Pacific program.

The ADF's role in regional humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions was likely to increase, the report said.

Neither the ADF nor the department had shown much interest around climate change, by contrast with the UK's ministry of defence, which had developed a climate-change strategy.

The UK military had also appointed a star-ranked climate change and energy security envoy, while the United States navy had initiated a similar position.

The report said an increased focus on climate change in the military wasn't about a 'green' view of the world.

"It's about the ADF being well placed to deal with the potential disruptive forces of climate change."

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shark attack hero wins bravery award

That was the only thought Trevor Ronald Burns had when he saw a woman being attacked by a Great White Shark.

He never expected to be awarded for his bravery.

The Brisbane man was holidaying in Perth with his family in October 2010 when they took part in a dolphin encounter at Rockingham with about 40 other people.

Many had gone back to the boat, but about 12 people remained in the water with a guide, looking for a baby dolphin that kept ducking around with its mother.

"They were obviously aware of the shark, and we weren't," he told AAP.

Mr Burns said when the guide was attacked by the 3.5m shark, it took a "double bite" at her legs.

He thought it was a dolphin when it brushed past his hand, until he saw the blood in the water.

"I just thought, 'Get it off her,' because she was only about a metre away from me," he said.

Mr Burns grabbed the shark's tail but it thrashed around before finally releasing its grip and swimming away.

Other tourists swam back to the boat when the alarm went off, but Mr Burns dived back into the water to find the injured woman.

"I couldn't see anything, but I knew there was no way she was coming back without help," he said.

The woman survived the attack but suffered significant leg injuries which required more than 200 stitches and several operations.

Mr Burns was also hurt, before he entered the water, slipping on the boat and injuring his ribs.

The pain was quickly forgotten as the drama unfolded.

"Adrenaline is a great pain relief," he quipped, although he felt the pain for weeks later.

Mr Burns will receive the Star of Courage as part of the 38th annual Australian Bravery Awards and said he was "really proud" to accept it.

"This really got to me," he said.

"To be recognised in this way is special."

Mr Burns remains in contact with the attack victim.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Zygier gave up names of informants: report

THE man known as Prisoner X - Melbourne-born former Mossad agent Ben Zygier - was outfoxed trying to turn a Hezbollah representative into a double agent and unwittingly became one himself, handing over the names of two valuable informants in Lebanon, Fairfax Media says.

That is the reason why he became a top-secret inmate in an Israeli jail where he took his own life.

Fairfax says Mr Zygier, recruited in 2004, was disconsolate that his career as a Mossad agent had become bogged down at a desk job and he took it upon himself to turn the Hezbollah link into a double agent.

But in an effort to prove he was a Mossad agent, he handed over the names of two informants in Lebanon who were subsequently arrested and given hefty jail sentences.

Fairfax says that unable to bear the shame of his downfall, and facing a minimum 10-year jail sentence with no prospect of a return to the Mossad, Mr Zygier apparently took his own life on December 15, 2010.

Fairfax said that he learned that east European man was known to be close to the militant Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, and set up a meeting towards the end of 2008 with the intention of turning him into a double agent.

But the reverse happened, and Mr Zygier became the conduit for information flowing from Tel Aviv to Hezbollah.

In an effort to prove his Mossad bona fides he gave up the names of Israel's two top Lebanese informants, Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh.

Both men were subsequently arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years jail with hard labour.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cyprus in last-ditch bailout talks

CYPRUS President Nicos Anastasiades has entered emergency talks with the island's international creditors seeking to avert bankruptcy in a crisis that is again threatening the stability of the wider eurozone.

The clock is ticking for the tiny country after the European Central Bank threatened to halt life-support funding if there is no deal by Monday, a day before Cyprus's banks are due to reopen after a 10-day shutdown.

Cyprus and its creditors are trying to nail a deal that will restructure the island's banks and deliver up to six billion euros ($A7.5 billion) from large bank deposits in order to resurrect an agreement for a bailout worth up to 10 billion euros.

European Union economics head Olli Rehn acknowledged Cypriot leaders faced hard choices to try to limit the damage from the blow to its bloated banking sector, after a firestorm of protest over the EU plans to impose a special levy on bank customer deposits.

Anastasiades's cortege entered EU headquarters in Brussels shortly after 2pm on Sunday (0001 AEDT Monday), an AFP correspondent said.

Anastasiades was to meet with ECB head Mario Draghi, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, EU president Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem and Rehn, sources told AFP.

Dijsselbloem will also bring in the finance ministers from all 17 currency partners from 1700 GMT (0400 AEDT) for what is likely to prove yet another sleepless night in snow-covered Brussels.

Cypriot reports suggested officials had made progress with EU and IMF representatives, having agreed a 20 per cent haircut on Bank of Cyprus and a 4.0 per cent levy on other banks.

A radical restructuring of the island's second largest lender Laiki (Popular Bank) will see all deposits over 100,000 euros put into a "bad bank" where they will be tied up for years and may never be fully recovered.

But negotiations stumbled on EU-IMF demands for a substantial levy on deposits above the same threshold in the Bank of Cyprus to avoid it facing similar restructuring. It holds more than a third of all deposits.

The haircut would take the form of a bond or share swap in a bid to get the measure through parliament.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brit in India 'shouted for help for hour'

A BRITISH woman who jumped from a hotel balcony in India fearing a sexual assault says she shouted for help for more than an hour before she fled.

Jessica Davies, 31, from London, says she barricaded the door of her hotel room in Agra with furniture to stop two men from entering.

"I held my key in the lock and I could feel them turning it from the other side," she told the BBC.

Davies, a dental hygienist, injured both legs in the jump but said her ordeal could have been a lot worse.

The manager of the hotel and another member of staff appeared in court on Wednesday accused of harassing Davies, with their lawyer saying they denied the charges.

Davies said she wanted to talk about her experience "because the shame of sexual assault makes many people too scared to speak out".

She also said it was "disgusting" that her fellow hotel residents had failed to help.

The incident came just days after a Swiss cyclist was allegedly gang-raped in the central state of Madhya Pradesh by a group of villagers, while on a cycling trip with her husband that was meant to include a stopover in Agra.

Davies, who is now back in Britain, told the BBC her ordeal began when she was "surprised" by a knock at her door at 3.45am.

She denied claims by the hotel manager's lawyer that she had asked for a wake-up call, saying she had set her phone alarm for 4.30am to catch a taxi for a train to Jaipur.

"By hook or by crook this person - or persons - were going to get into my room. I'm 100 per cent certain. And there was only one way out, to jump two floors."

She said a passing rickshaw driver took her to a police station where he stayed with her for hours and acted as translator.

"He was amazing," she said, but added: "I don't know his name and I don't know how to thank him."

She said she had not been put off from returning to India, but was "never going to travel alone again".

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Spain paper retracts Merkel Hitler column

SPANISH newspaper El Pais has retracted a column that compared German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler and apologised for its "inappropriate" content after sparking an indignant internet outcry.

In the column, published on the paper's website and in its Andalusia regional edition, economist Juan Torres Lopez of the University of Seville wrote that "Angela Merkel, like Hitler, has declared war on the rest of the continent, this time to guarantee (Germany) its vital economic space".

"She punishes us to protect her large companies and banks and also to hide from her electorate the shameful model that has seen the poverty rate in her country rise to its highest level in 20 years, 25 per cent of employees earn less than 9.15 euros an hour and half the population represent ... a miserable one per cent of all the nation's wealth."

After the column provoked shocked reactions online, the newspaper took it down from its website and apologised.

"El Pais has withdrawn the article 'Germany against Europe' ... because it contained statements that this newspaper considers inappropriate," it said.

"El Pais regrets that a supervisory error allowed the publication of this material. The opinions expressed by Torres Lopes are his alone."

The article had set media commentators and German Twitter users aflutter.

"Bitter. Now El Pais has also published an editorial, in which Merkel is compared to Hitler," wrote Robin Alexander, a journalist with German daily Die Welt, on Twitter.

"To put Merkel's policies on a level with Hitler's is as loco (crazy) as it gets," Mathieu von Rohr, Paris bureau chief for German weekly Der Spiegel, wrote on Twitter.

"Of course Merkel's (and everybody's) stance may be criticised. But to use Hitler is incendiary, stupid and irresponsible."

But the retraction also drew criticism.

"Shameful El Pais censoring an article by J. Torres Lopez for criticising Merkel," wrote Twitter user Adrian Arcas Munoz.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

French gay marriage foes stage protest

TENS of thousands opposed to French legislation allowing gay marriage have protested on a route leading to the Champs Elysees after police banned them marching on the famed Paris avenue.

The hugely controversial bill to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption has been comfortably adopted by the lower chamber of parliament and will go to the Senate for examination and approval in April.

The upper house is unlikely to prevent the groundbreaking reform from becoming law.

The protestors want the government to withdraw the project and put it to a referendum.

The demonstrators highlighted France's flagging economy, beset by mass layoffs and spiralling unemployment, attacking Socialist President Francois Hollande's government of ignoring pressing issues while pushing ahead with his election pledge of "Marriage for All".

Banners held up from balconies read "We want work not gay marriage" and "No to gayxtremism".

The Paris police had turned down a request from the protest organisers to march on the Champs-Elysees on the ground it would be a threat to public order, partly because it borders the French presidential palace.

The demonstrators lined a five-kilometre route from the Paris business district of La Defence to the roundabout where the Arc de Triomphe is located.

Police sprayed teargas to keep up to 200 protesters from trying to march on the Champs Elysees, AFP photographers said.

The movement against gay marriage has given France a new celebrity in the form of its public face, Virginie Tellenne, a Parisian socialite who goes by the name of Frigide Barjot.

Her assumed name - a play on the name of French film star Brigitte Bardot - translates as Frigid Loony.

"We want the president to deal with the economy and leave the family alone," Tellenne said on Sunday.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

French gay marriage foes stage protest

TENS of thousands opposed to French legislation allowing gay marriage have protested on a route leading to the Champs Elysees after police banned them marching on the famed Paris avenue.

The hugely controversial bill to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption has been comfortably adopted by the lower chamber of parliament and will go to the Senate for examination and approval in April.

The upper house is unlikely to prevent the groundbreaking reform from becoming law.

The protestors want the government to withdraw the project and put it to a referendum.

The demonstrators highlighted France's flagging economy, beset by mass layoffs and spiralling unemployment, attacking Socialist President Francois Hollande's government of ignoring pressing issues while pushing ahead with his election pledge of "Marriage for All".

Banners held up from balconies read "We want work not gay marriage" and "No to gayxtremism".

The Paris police had turned down a request from the protest organisers to march on the Champs-Elysees on the ground it would be a threat to public order, partly because it borders the French presidential palace.

The demonstrators lined a five-kilometre route from the Paris business district of La Defence to the roundabout where the Arc de Triomphe is located.

Police sprayed teargas to keep up to 200 protesters from trying to march on the Champs Elysees, AFP photographers said.

The movement against gay marriage has given France a new celebrity in the form of its public face, Virginie Tellenne, a Parisian socialite who goes by the name of Frigide Barjot.

Her assumed name - a play on the name of French film star Brigitte Bardot - translates as Frigid Loony.

"We want the president to deal with the economy and leave the family alone," Tellenne said on Sunday.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More