Two A380s to fly over Sydney Harbour

TWO Airbus A380s will fly in formation over Sydney Harbour on Sunday to mark the start of a partnership between airline carriers Qantas and Emirates.

A Qantas A380 and Emirates A380 will start flying north of Longreef, turn around into Sydney Harbour and pass over the Sydney Opera House before flying in tandem over the bridge at 1500 feet around 10.30am (AEDT) on Sunday, Qantas said in a statement.

The airline said it's believed to be the first time two commercial airline A380s have flown in formation.

"Qantas and Emirates have worked extremely close together to make this possible," Qantas chief pilot Philip Green said.

"Pilots from both airlines have conducted dozens of special simulator training sessions since January this year".

The flyover marks the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's approval of a Qantas and Emirates partnership earlier this week, which allowed both airlines to combine operations for an initial period of five years.

Under the alliance, Qantas will use Dubai, rather than Singapore, as the carrier's stopover point for its flights to London.

The flyover manoeuvre on Sunday has been approved by safety regulators in both Australia and the United Arab Emirates.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Teen to face court over fatal Easter crash

A girl will face court after a fatal crash north of Adelaide which killed a 17-year-old boy. Source: AAP

A 17-YEAR-OLD South Australian girl will face court over causing death by dangerous driving after a fatal crash that killed another teenager.

Police say a 17-year-old boy died after a car carrying five passengers crashed just before midnight on Friday near Balaklava, north of Adelaide.

The girl, from Balaklava, will appear in Youth Court over causing death by dangerous driving and driving unlicensed.

The other passengers in the car, all teenage girls aged between 14 and 17 years, received non-life threatening injuries.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

US hands over troubled area to Afghans

US special operations forces have handed over their base in eastern Afghanistan. Source: AAP

US special operations forces handed over their base in a strategic region of eastern Afghanistan to local Afghan commandos on Saturday, a senior US commander said.

The withdrawal from Nirkh district meets a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that US forces leave the area after allegations that the Americans' Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there.

"We're coming out of Nirkh," said Maj. Gen. Tony Thomas, the top US special operations commander in Afghanistan.

Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Wardak province outside Kabul in which Nirkh is located, confirmed that US special operations forces withdrew and were replaced by a joint Afghan security forces team.

The transfer of authority ends a controversial chapter in which Karzai accused US troops and an interpreter working with them of torture, kidnapping and summary execution of militant suspects in Nirkh - charges US officials including top commander in Afghanistan Gen. Joseph Dunford firmly denied.

The incident shows the larger struggle of Karzai's government to assert its authority over security matters, even as its green security forces try to assume control of much of the country from coalition forces on a rushed timeline, ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of most of coalition forces by December 2014.

Karzai had originally demanded the US special operations forces pull out from the entire province, a gateway and staging area for Taliban and other militants for attacks on the capital Kabul.

But he scaled down his demands to just the single district after negotiations with Dunford and other US officials.

"President Karzai was specific, it's only for Nirkh, that was a provocative point," Thomas said.

"American special operations forces are integral in the defence of Wardak from now until the foreseeable future."

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tibet copper mine landslide kills 83

Eighty-three workers have been buried after a large-scale landslide hit a mining area in Tibet. Source: AAP

RESCUE teams have found the first body almost 36 hours after a giant landslide in Tibet buried 83 mine workers.

Xinhua news agency said rescuers "found the first body at 5.35 pm (8.35pm AEDT)", after two million cubic metres of earth buried a copper mine workers' camp in Maizhokunggar county, east of the Tibetan capital Lhasa, at 6 am on Friday.

The report came after officials said at a press conference Saturday that no survivors or bodies had been found.

About 2,000 rescuers battled difficult terrain in the hunt for survivors after a vast three-kilometre-long section of land, with a volume of two million cubic metres, crashed down a slope, covering the miners' camp.

The rescuers braved bad weather as an emergency response team attempted to prevent a secondary disaster.

One rescue worker had earlier described the chance of survivors being found as "slim", Xinhua reported.

China's new president Xi Jinping and new premier Li Keqiang had ordered "top efforts" to rescue the victims, Xinhua said.

Mountainous regions of Tibet are prone to landslides, which can be exacerbated by heavy mining activity.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cyprus will not leave euro, president vows

The Cypriot president tweeted his thanks to citizens for staying calm as national banks reopened. Source: AAP

PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades vowed Friday Cyprus would stay in the eurozone despite the harsh terms of a EU-led bailout, as the island's banks resumed normal trading for the first time in two weeks.

Cypriots queued for a second day outside banks - after they reopened on Thursday following the long lockdown - with the eurozone's first ever capital controls set to hit people for at least another month.

Anastasiades said the 10 billion euros ($A12.33 billion) rescue package from the "troika" of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund had saved the Mediterranean island from bankruptcy.

"We will not leave the euro and I stress that," Anastasiades told a conference of civil servants in the capital Nicosia, the Cyprus News Agency reported.

"I repeat, we will not engage in risky experiments that will endanger the future of our country."

The rightwing Greek Cypriot leader criticised the previous government for pouring money into the country's second largest lender Laiki, or Popular Bank, which will be wound up under the terms of the bailout.

The comments by Anastasiades, who has only been in the job for a month, came after an official at a top global grouping of banks said there was still a real chance Cyprus could exit the eurozone.

"This is the first case where you can see some kind of exit as a very distinct possibility," said Philip Suttle, deputy managing director of the Institute of International Finance, which represents some 450 banks worldwide.

Cyprus's banking system - bloated with Russian money and exposed to toxic Greek debt - paid a heavy price for the bailout that Anastasiades made it his priority to secure when he was elected on February 24.

It involves the closure of Laiki with the loss of thousands of jobs, cuts to the biggest lender Bank of Cyprus, and a raid on deposits over 100,000 euros.

The banks returned to normal hours on Friday, opening at 8:30 am (0630 GMT) and due to close at 1:30 pm (1130 GMT), but with draconian controls still in place including a daily withdrawal limit of 300 euros ($385).

Small queues built up outside many branches with some banks limiting the numbers allowed in at one time.

The controls were imposed on Wednesday for an initial period of one week in a bid to stop a catastrophic bank run.

Cypriots are already the feeling pinch. Withdrawal limits are making it hard for small businesses to pay salaries and for families to make rent payments, especially as both tend to fall around the end of the month.

"There will be some difficulties and discomfort as regards the payment of wages," Michalis Antoniou, assistant director of the Employers' and Industrialists Federation, told AFP.

More than 100 members of the right-wing nationalist ELAM party demonstrated in central Nicosia on Thursday night chanting slogans such as "Troika, out!" and "This island is Greek!"

Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said late Thursday the capital controls could be "lifted within a month if everything goes as well as it did" when the banks reopened.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Four car bombs hit Iraq Shi'ite mosques

FOUR car bombs struck Shi'ite mosques during Friday prayers in Baghdad and the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing at 15 people and wounding more than 80, officials said.

The blasts all struck within an hour of each other from around 1pm local time in the Baghdad neighbourhoods of Jihad, Qahira and Zafraniyah, as well as in an area of south Kirkuk.

In the deadliest attack, three people were killed and 70 wounded by a car bomb in southern Kirkuk city, near the al-Rasul al-Aadham mosque, according to Sadiq Omar Rasul, chief of the provincial health directorate.

The blasts in Baghdad, meanwhile, left at least one dead and 18 wounded, security and medical officials said.

The attacks come amid a spike in violence nationwide as the country prepares for its first elections in three years - provincial polls that will be held in 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces on April 20.

Questions have been raised over the credibility of those polls as elections have been postponed in two provinces roiled by months of protests, and at least 11 candidates have been killed, according to an AFP tally.

While no group immediately claimed the attacks, Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda frequently target Shi'ite Muslims whom they regard as apostates and supporters of the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad.

Violence is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007 but attacks remain common - at least 245 people have been killed this month, already more than in February, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security and medical officials.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Harry Potter actor Richard Griffiths dies

RICHARD Griffiths, the versatile British actor who played the boy wizard's unsympathetic Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter movies, has died. He was 65.

Agent Simon Beresford announced Friday that Griffiths died a day earlier of complications following heart surgery at University Hospital in Coventry.

He paid tribute to Griffiths as "a remarkable man and one of our greatest and best-loved actors."

Griffiths appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows, but will be most widely remembered as a pair of contrasting uncles - the hero's grudging Muggle guardian in the Harry Potter series, and flamboyant Uncle Monty in 1980s cult classic Withnail and I.

"I was proud to say I knew him," said Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.

A large man and a huge stage presence, Griffiths was one of Britain's leading theatre actors, creating roles including the charismatic teacher Hector at the emotional heart of Alan Bennett's The History Boys - a part he took to Broadway, winning a Tony Award, and repeated for the film adaptation.

National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner, who directed The History Boys, called Griffiths' performance in that play "a masterpiece of wit, delicacy, mischief and desolation, often simultaneously."

Griffiths also played poet W.H. Auden in Bennett's The Habit of Art, a hugely persuasive performance despite the lack of physical resemblance between the two men.

Known for his sense of humour, large store of theatrical anecdotes and occasional bursts of temper, Griffiths was renowned for shaming audience members whose mobile phones rang during plays by stopping the performance and ordering the offender to leave.

Griffiths' last major stage role was in a West End production of Neil Simon's comedy The Sunshine Boys last year opposite Danny DeVito.

In 2007 he appeared in a London production of Equus alongside the then 17-year-old Radcliffe.

"Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career," Radcliffe said on Friday.

"In August 2000, before official production had even begun on Potter, we filmed a shot outside the Dursleys', which was my first ever shot as Harry. I was nervous and he made me feel at ease.

Seven years later, we embarked on 'Equus' together. It was my first time doing a play but, terrified as I was, his encouragement, tutelage and humour made it a joy.

"In fact, any room he walked into was made twice as funny and twice as clever just by his presence."

Griffiths is survived by his wife, Heather Gibson.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

At least two dead in Tanzania construction

AT least two people were confirmed dead after a building under construction collapsed Friday in Tanzania's economic capital of Dar es Salaam, police said.

Dozens were feared trapped in rubble of the toppled building in an affluent area of the city as many people including children were working or playing nearby, witnesses said.

"I thought there was an earthquake and then I heard screaming. The whole building fell on itself," witness Musa Mohamed told AFP.

Residents were seen trying to rescue those trapped by digging through the rubble of the building, which was believed to have 16 floors.

Dar es Salaam regional police chief Suleiman Kova said the rescue operation was "going well".

"So far we have managed to retrieve 19 people. Two of them are dead and are two seriously injured," he said as he briefed Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete on the accident.

Kikwete, who visited the scene, posted messages of condolence on his Twitter account.

"We pray for those who have ben afflicted by this tragedy. We pray for togetherness in this time of need," Kikwete said.

Dozens of people were reportedly working in and around the building at the time of the collapse, but their exact number was not immediately known.

Saidi Mecky Sadiky, the Dar es Salaam regional commissioner, said up to 60 people, including workers, food vendors and children could have been around the area.

The accident occurred in an affluent area which has a mixture of both commercial and residential developments.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Queues form as Cyprus reopens banks

CYPRUS banks have reopened under armed guard after a nearly two-week lockdown but customers faced harsh curbs to stop them draining the island's coffers after its eurozone bailout.

Queues of dozens of people formed on Thursday before the doors swung open at 2100 (AEDT) for the first time since March 16, and there were tensions as a few branches opened late, with customers banging on the doors.

World markets were jittery over the crisis, which has seen capital controls imposed for the first time by a eurozone economy in order to prevent financial meltdown after the 10 billion euros ($A12.33 billion) EU-IMF rescue package.

"It will be a very bad day - there will be swearing and a lot of anger," Philippos Philippou, an unemployed electrician told AFP outside Laiki bank in Nicosia's Makarios Street where about 12 people were lined up.

Banks were handing out lists of the controls including a daily withdrawal limit of 300 euros, imposed to prevent a run on the banks that could wreak havoc on the east Mediterranean island's already fragile economy.

Five shipping containers reportedly filled with billions of euros were delivered to the central bank late Wednesday, an AFP photographer said. A helicopter and police cars accompanied the cash convoy.

The Cyprus stock exchange remained closed.

Most banks in Nicosia had between one and three guards posted at their entrances early Thursday, some of them carrying weapons - an alien sight in the generally peaceful tourist island.

There were queues of up to 25 people at other banks.

Cypriot authorities appealed on television late Wednesday for people to give priority to the elderly as many do not have credit cards and have to withdraw their money over the counter.

Roula Spyrou, 50, a jewellery shop owner, said she would not bother going.

"There's going to be queues so I'm not going to spend so many hours there to get 300 euros," she said.

The restrictions - which last for a week before they are reviewed - also ban the cashing of cheques and ordered those travelling abroad not to take more than 1000 euros out of the country.

Under a deal agreed in Brussels on Monday, Cyprus must raise 5.8 billion euros to qualify for the full 10-billion-euro loan from the "troika" of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Depositors with more than 100,000 euros in the top two banks - Bank of Cyprus (BoC) and Laiki - face losing a large chunk of their money.

Banking employees union ETYK said staff were ready to go back to work but urged the public not to blame them for the tight controls. Unlike in other European countries Cypriot tellers are not housed behind glass barriers.

Monday's deal kept the Mediterranean island from crashing out of the euro - but it has provoked fury at home.

Finance Minister Michalis Sarris said that Cyprus "will see worse days in 2013 ... the economy will go into deeper recession."

On Wednesday, around 1500 anti-austerity protesters marched on the presidential palace.

Bank workers could be among the worst hit by the bailout as it demands major reforms to its banking system, which is heavily dependent on Russian money.

The bailout involves restructuring the Bank of Cyprus and eventually winding down Laiki, whose "good" assets will be absorbed by the bigger bank. BoC's chief executive was sacked on Wednesday.

Cyprus is the first eurozone country to impose capital controls after bailouts - unlike Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland, which have also received multi-billion-dollar rescue packages.

As well as raising concerns that other countries could face similarly harsh bailouts in future, the move has raised fears that it could effectively create "two euros" as euros trapped in Cyprus are effectively worth less.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

China can end immolations: Tibetan envoy

An envoy of the Dalai Lama says China should end self-immolation protests that have killed Tibetans. Source: AAP

AN envoy of the Dalai Lama says Tibetans would likely end a wave of self-immolation protests if China reopened dialogue with the exiled spiritual leader.

More than 110 Tibetans have set themselves alight, with most of them dying, in demonstrations since 2009 against what they see as China's oppressive rule. China has since ramped up its security presence in Tibetan areas.

Lobsang Nyandak, the Dalai Lama's representative to the Americas, said that China should resume dialogue with the spiritual leader's envoys. China held nine rounds of dialogue between 2002 and 2010 with no tangible results.

"I believe, definitely, if China is to engage His Holiness's representative envoys and come up with a positive gesture, then it's almost certain that Tibetan people will - at least for the time being - watch and see what's really going to happen," Nyandak said on Wednesday.

"We always say that it's up to the Chinese leaders whether they want to put an end to the self-immolations in Tibet.

"But the way that they can put an end is not out of further intensifying repression in Tibet, but through engaging His Holiness's representatives in a very positive manner."

Nyandak was addressing a Washington meeting of the pro-democracy group Initiatives for China, part of efforts by the exiled Tibetan leadership to reach out to sympathetic members of China's ethnic Han majority.

Chinese officials have accused the Dalai Lama of encouraging violence through the self-immolations.

Beijing rejects criticism of its rule, pointing to economic development of Tibet.

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace laureate who has lived in exile in India since 1959, has described the self-immolations as spontaneous acts of desperation and said he is powerless to stop them.

In the latest protest, US-based Radio Free Asia reported a Tibetan mother of four burned herself to death in southwestern China's Sichuan province on Sunday.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More