Kerry reasserts Syria charge in London

IN a strong rebuttal to remarks by Syrian President Bashar Assad, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday there is very strong evidence that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against his own people.

In an interview by Charlie Rose, slated to air Monday on CBS "This Morning," Assad argued that the evidence Kerry has disclosed about chemical weapons use amounts to a "big lie" that resembles the case for war in Iraq that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell made to the United Nations over a decade ago.

Asked to respond, Kerry told reporters in London that he would be confident to take evidence that the US intelligence committee has gathered into any courtroom.

"What does he offer?" Kerry asked rhetorically of Assad. "Words that are contradicted by fact."

Kerry arrived in London Sunday afternoon from Paris where he held talks with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Saudi Arabia and members of the Arab League's committed on the Mideast peace talks. He was returning to Washington later Monday to continue to lobby Congress to authorise a military strike against Assad's regime.

At a news conference with Foreign Secretary William Hague, Kerry also said that the British Parliament's decision against endorsing a military strike in Syria would not damage US-British relations. "Our bond is bigger than one vote - bigger than one moment in history," Kerry said.

Kerry, at another point, referenced the roughly 50 protesters outside the British foreign ministry who were chanting "One, two, three four, we don't want another war!" But he said he thinks it's important for nations to "stand up for humanity."

"This is a humanitarian catastrophe of global proportions," he said.

Kerry said the US realises that there is no military solution to conflict, but that a political resolution will not be possible if the Assad regime is allowed to continue killing the Syrian people without consequences.

"The evidence is powerful and the question for all of us is what are we going to do? Turn our backs? Have a moment of silence?" Kerry asked.

He said Assad's credibility is in question.

"He sends SCUD missiles into schools," Kerry said.

Hague agreed, saying: "Let's not fall into the trap of believing every word that comes out of this man's mouth."

Kerry said Assad could resolve the crisis by turning over "every single bit" of his weapons arsenal to the international community within a week. But he said he didn't believe the Syrian leader was "about to do that."

"We know that his regime gave orders to prepare for a chemical attack. We know they deployed forces," he said. Kerry said Washington also "knows where the rockets came from and where they landed ... and it was no accident that they all came from regime -controlled territory and all landed" in opposition-held territory.

Meanwhile, Russian and Syrian foreign ministers said Monday they planned to push for the return of United Nations inspectors to Syria to continue their probe into the use of chemical weapons.

Lavrov said after Monday's talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moallem that Moscow will continue to promote a peaceful settlement and may try to convene a gathering of all Syrian opposition figures who are interested in peaceful settlement. He said a US attack on Syria would deal a fatal blow to peace efforts.

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China school blast kills two, hurts 34

Two people have died after an apparently accidental explosion outside a primary school in China. Source: AAP

AN explosion outside a primary school in China killed two people and injured at least 34 others on Monday, 26 of them schoolchildren, state-run media and a local official said.

The blast in Guilin, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the south, occurred as a man riding a motorcycle passed the school gate while children were arriving for classes, China's official Xinhua news agency said.

"First, the motorcycle caught fire and then exploded with a tremendous noise that could be heard from far, far away," a witness told Xinhua.

The cause of the explosion was not clear.

A man and a woman were killed immediately and 34 of the injured, including 26 pupils and two infants, were taken to a military hospital in Guilin, Xinhua said. Five of them were in critical condition, it added.

It was not known if the motorcyclist was among the casualties.

Other victims were taken to other hospitals, it said, and exact casualties were still to be determined.

Pictures posted online showed the mangled remains of a tricycle on the ground and a motorcycle in flames outside the school, while several people sat on the ground bleeding.

A local official in Lingchaun County, where the explosion occurred, confirmed the death toll to AFP without offering further details.

Police in Guilin have begun a search for illegal explosives in the city, Xinhua said.

Posters on China's popular weibo microblog sites were outraged.

"Keep asking why the harmonious society is not harmonious, and address the fundamental problems," said one.

Another added: "Why is it always aimed at children? Can't we do something to stop violence?"

China has been hit by a number of attacks on schoolchildren in recent years, including a spate of five incidents in 2010 that killed 15 children and two adults and wounded more than 80.

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Russia, Syria want return of UN inspectors

RUSSIAN and Syrian foreign ministers on Monday strongly pushed for the return of United Nations inspectors to Syria to continue their probe into the use of chemical weapons and again warned Washington against launching an attack.

The statement comes as President Barack Obama, who blames President Bashar al-Assad for killing hundreds of his own people in a chemical attack last month, is pressing for a limited strike against the Syrian government.

It has denied launching the attack, insisting along with its ally Russia that the attack was launched by the rebels to drag the US into war.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after Monday's talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem that UN chemical weapons experts should complete their probe and present their findings to the UN Security Council.

"We have agreed to push for the soonest return of inspectors," Lavrov said.

Al-Muallem said his government was ready to host the UN team, and insisted that Syria is ready to use all channels to convince the Americans that it wasn't behind the attack.

He added that Syria was ready for "full cooperation with Russia to remove any pretext for aggression".

Neither minister, however, offered any evidence to back their claim of rebel involvement in the chemical attack.

Lavrov said Russia will continue to promote a peaceful settlement and may try to convene a gathering of all Syrian opposition figures to join in negotiations. He added that a US attack on Syria would deal a fatal blow to peace efforts.

Lavrov wouldn't say how Russia could respond to a possible US attack on Syria, saying that "we wouldn't like to proceed from a negative scenario and would primarily take efforts to prevent a military intervention".

President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would keep providing assistance to Syria in case of US attack, but he and other Russian officials have made clear that Russia has no intention to engage in hostilities.

Lavrov also denied allegations that Russia may have sponsored a deal between the US and Syria during the Group of 20 summit in St. Petersburg last week, where Putin discussed the Syrian crisis with Obama.

"There won't be and there can't be any deal behind the back of the Syrian people," Lavrov said.

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NT govt dumps minister Anderson

Aboriginal MP Alison Anderson has been dumped from the Northern Territory ministry. Source: AAP

ABORIGINAL MP Alison Anderson has been dumped from the Northern Territory ministry just two days after a federal coalition government was elected.

The Member for Namatjira was in charge of four portfolios: Children and Families, Regional Development, Local Government and Women's Policy.

But now Attorney-General John Elferink is the Minister for Children and Families, Deputy Chief Minister Dave Tollner has taken over the Local Government and Regions portfolio and Bess Price is Minister for Women's Policy.

In a statement released on Monday night, Chief Minister Adam Giles said he was "keen to re-organise the ministry to reflect the government's priorities" after a year in power.

Last month he ruled out dumping Ms Anderson, saying it was "all fiction".

Tension has been bubbling for some time between them, when in March after a failed leadership bid for the Country Liberal government Ms Anderson accused Mr Giles of behaving like a "little boy".

She threatened to leave the party and take three bush members - Bess Price, Larissa Lee and Francis Xavier - with her if Mr Giles pursued the Chief Ministership, which he successfully did with the bush members' support a week later.

Ms Anderson was elected as a Labor MLA in 2005, and served as a minister until 2009, when she left the party after a disagreement with then-Chief Minister Paul Henderson.

She was an independent until 2011 when she joined the Country Liberals, and was re-elected in last year's Territory elections.

Her dispute with Mr Giles came as she supported Terry Mills, the chief minister he rolled in March.

Opposition Leader Delia Lawrie said Mr Giles had never gotten over the slight.

"There's no doubt (he's) clinging to power without the full support of his colleagues," she said in a statement.

More recently, Mr Giles clashed with Ms Anderson over the CEO position for the Department of Children and Families, which now has its fourth leader in less than a year.

Ms Anderson appointed Jenni Collard to the acting role in March, and last week backed her for the full-time role, despite the government leaking that it wanted to appoint former Country Liberals leader Jodeen Carney, which it now has.

Mr Giles did not give a reason why Ms Anderson had been pushed out of cabinet, but said: "I thank Alison Anderson for her work in Cabinet and wish her well. (She) has worked as a minister for several years across different portfolios and governments."

He flagged a wider shuffle of the ministry, with the creation of three new portfolios - North Australia Development, Community Services and a combined Department of Local Government and Regions.

"Now is the time for northern Australia to be recognised as the key player in the energy, food and economic security of the Asian region," Mr Giles said.

"In light of this, I will be taking on the important new portfolio of North Australia Development, which will allow the Territory to work more closely with the federal, West Australian and Queensland governments on issues affecting the north."

Ms Lawrie described the government as the most dysfunctional the NT had ever had, with two chief ministers, five cabinets and multiple departmental changes in one year.

"There is no doubt deep divisions remain in the CLP camp," she said.

The NT's new ministry will be sworn in on Tuesday in Darwin.

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First boat arrives on coalition watch

A suspected asylum seeker boat carrying 88 people has been intercepted northwest of Darwin. Source: AAP

HOURS after Tony Abbott was elected prime minister promising hardline policy and immediate action on asylum seekers arriving by boat, authorities found a suspected people-smuggling vessel off Australia's north coast.

The boat, carrying 88 passengers and two crew, was spotted by a border patrol aircraft northwest of Darwin on Sunday.

A Customs vessel went to assist the boat and those on board are being transferred to Christmas Island for assessment.

It is the first boat to be intercepted by Australian authorities since the coalition's election victory on Saturday.

Mr Abbott has promised instant action to deter asylum seekers.

"We will make a difference from day one. I believe we can stop the boats in a term of government," he has said repeatedly, including during his election campaign.

Mr Abbott said a coalition government will put in place processes to turn back boats when it is safe to do so.

"These are Indonesian crewed, Indonesian flagged, Indonesian home-ported vessels that have a right to access Indonesia," Mr Abbott has said.

Indonesia has rejected the coalition plan to turn back boats, sparking concerns that relations between the two countries could turn rocky.

But Mr Abbott said the Howard government successfully turned back boats without compromising the regional relationship.

AAP has sought comment from the incoming government on the latest boat arrival.

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Indian troops try to halt communal clashes

Hundreds of troops have been deployed to halt deadly clashes between Hindus and Muslims in India. Source: AAP

HUNDREDS of Indian troops have been deployed to quell clashes between Hindus and Muslims sparked by the killing of three villagers who had objected when a young woman was being harassed.

Nine people were killed, including an Indian broadcast journalist and a police photographer, when the two groups set upon each other with guns and knives in Kawal village, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Sunday.

The violence quickly spread to neighbouring villages in Muzaffarnagar district on Saturday night.

"A curfew has been imposed in three riot-hit areas of Muzaffarnagar," said the head of the state's home ministry, RM Srivastava.

"The situation is still very tense, but under control."

Soldiers were going door to door to search for weapons.

A state of high alert was declared for the entire state of Uttar Pradesh, which has a population of 200 million people.

The clashes broke out on Saturday after thousands of Hindu farmers held a meeting in Kawal to demand justice in the August 27 killing of three men who had spoken out when a woman was being verbally harassed.

The state's minority welfare minister, Mohammad Azam Khan, said some at the meeting gave provocative speeches calling for Muslims to be killed.

The farmers were attacked as they were returning home after the meeting, senior police official Arun Kumar said.

"The attack seemed well planned," Kumar said.

"Some were armed with rifles and sharp-edged weapons."

Gunfire was reported from several areas of the village.

Within hours clashes broke out in neighbouring villages, Kumar said.

A leader from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party said tensions had been simmering since the three men were killed August 27 in a tea shop.

"Had the killers been arrested, the situation might not have gone out of hand," Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.

Uttar Pradesh was at the heart of some of India's worst communal clashes in December 1992, after a Hindu mob razed the 16th-century Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

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'Taliban attack' kills 4 Afghan soldiers

FOUR Afghan soldiers have been killed and 30 people injured in a Taliban attack on the office of the national intelligence agency in eastern Wardak province, an official says.

"Six insurgents attacked the National Directorate of Security building in Maidan Shahr city, trying to enter the building," Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Wardak, said.

One detonated an explosives-filled truck bomb at the entrance before the others opened fire on troops guarding the building.

Police shot dead all six insurgents, Khogyani said.

Most of the injured were civilians, he added.

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Chinese man convicted via Yahoo email free

China has freed a dissident writer who was convicted of leaking "state secrets" in 2005. Source: AAP

CHINA has freed a dissident writer who was convicted of leaking "state secrets" in 2005 in a landmark case where his Yahoo emails formed key evidence against him, international writers' groups say.

Shi Tao, 45, was released on August 23 after serving nearly nine years of a 10-year sentence for "providing state secrets to overseas organisations," the Independent Chinese PEN Centre and PEN International said.

"We welcome news of Shi Tao's early release, at a time when there seem to be increasingly long shadows over freedom of expression in China," said Marian Botsford Fraser, head of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee.

"Shi Tao's arrest and imprisonment, because of the actions of Yahoo China, signalled a decade ago the challenges to freedom of expression of internet surveillance and privacy that we are now dealing with," Botsford Fraser said.

Other dissident writers said they believed Shi was arrested because of online publications in which he criticised the ruling Communist Party.

The government said Shi had leaked details via email of a "certain important document" that he learned about through his work as a reporter in the southern city of Changsha.

Yahoo later apologised for handing over Shi's emails to Chinese authorities.

In 2007, it settled a lawsuit brought on behalf of Shi and another Chinese journalist who was convicted partly through information provided by Yahoo.

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Greens retain seat of Melbourne

AUSTRALIAN Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt has retained the lower house seat of Melbourne.

Mr Bandt claimed victory minutes after Labor's candidate Cath Bowtell conceded defeat.

"It looks like we have won the seat of Melbourne," Mr Bandt told the Ten Network.

Mr Bandt had earlier predicted the result would go down to a handful of votes but he leads the two-party preferred count 55.4 per cent to 44.6, with about half the primary vote counted.

He credited a strong people power campaign for giving him a second term in parliament and the Greens retaining their only lower house seat.

"This is a win for people power but more than that this is a win for refugees.

"This is a vote that says we are sick of the race to the bottom. Politics and elections should be about the best in us not pandering to the worst in us."

He said the clear message from the result was that elections should not be about who can beat up on refugees the most.

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Swan says he'll be returned in Lilley

FORMER treasurer Wayne Swan says he'll keep his seat, but has refused to say who should lead the Labor party in opposition.

Mr Swan says Labor's policies saved Labor from further losses, particularly in Queensland.

When asked about the Labor leadership going forward, he said he wasn't about to talk about internal matters when that's what had cost the party so dearly at this election.

"We've been punished for those divisions," he told the Seven Network.

He said Labor must conduct a mature election post-mortem.

"In this election campaign and in the last few years there has been too much concentration on divisions and not enough on the policy way forward," he said.

Mr Swan wouldn't be drawn on whether the party was right to dispose of Julia Gillard.

"I'm not going to get involved in that sort of debate. We've had too much of that over the last three years and we have to move on.

"We've got to be mature in our analysis of what went right and what went wrong."

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