NYC mulls radical storm protection plan

FEDERAL officials looking to better protect New York and New Jersey from disasters like Superstorm Sandy are examining a plan to create a string of islands off the coast.

The proposal by New Jersey's Stevens Institute of Technology and two architectural firms would pump sand onto hard bases to form a chain of islands designed to blunt the force of storm surges like the ones that caused billions of dollars damage in 2012.

The Blue Dunes proposal would cost an estimated $US10 billion ($A10.83 billion) to $US12 billion.

The islands would reach from central Long Island to the southern tip of Long Beach Island.

The proposal is part of the Rebuild By Design competition staged by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to look for bold new ideas in storm protection.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Two men shot and wounded in Sydney's west

TWO men have been shot and wounded in separate incidents at Merrylands in Sydney's west, with the shootings believed to be linked to an armed robbery.

A man aged in his 20's was found with several gunshot wounds to his stomach when police were called to a petrol station on the corner of Woodville and Merrylands Roads about 10.50pm on Wednesday.

He was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to Westmead Hospital where his condition was unknown.

At the same time, police were called to Lansdowne Street after a resident reported hearing arguing in the street.

Police found a man, believed to be aged his 50's, with a suspected gunshot wound to his chest.

He was treated by paramedics and taken to Westmead Hospital in a stable condition.

Detectives believe the incidents are linked, possibly as a result of an armed robbery.

Investigators are looking for four males believed to be involved in the shootings.

One is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, with a thin build, a small amount of facial hair and tattoos across his body including one on his face.

A second man is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, with a short and thin build, a beard and tattoos.

The other two men have not been described.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Lessons of WWI 'speak to us still': Obama

US President Barack Obama has laid a wreath at the World War I memorial at Flanders Field, noting the war that tore apart Europe still echoes in conflicts 100 years later.

"The lessons of that war speak to us still," Obama said on Wednesday in his first stop since arriving in Belgium late on Tuesday.

The president is in Brussels for a summit with European Union leaders.

He's also slated to meet with NATO's secretary-general and deliver a speech at the Palais des Beaux-Arts.

The itinerary, like much of Obama's European trip this week, is expected to be dominated by talk of a new threat on Europe's doorstep.

Obama and European leaders are to discuss Russia's armed seizure of the Crimean peninsula and how the West can prevent Moscow from moving further into Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Obama repeated threats of more painful economic sanctions if Russian President Vladimir Putin sends troops into other regions of the former Soviet state.

But the president also acknowledged that, for now, Crimea is likely to remain in Russian control.

"There's no expectation that they will be dislodged by force," he said in a news conference in The Hague.

Still, Russia's neighbours are looking for assurance that NATO will make good on its obligations to defend them.

Other European nations are worried about the effect that broader sanctions would have on their own fragile economies.

Obama's remarks later on Wednesday are expected to address such concerns, while avoiding the divisive and dated rhetoric of the Cold War era, officials have said.

The president's visit comes 100 years after the outbreak of World War I, an anniversary being widely marked in Europe.

In a morning ceremony at the cemetery west of Brussels, Obama, Belgian King Philippe and Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo placed wreaths at a monument erected to the missing dead.

In remarks afterward, all three leaders made reference to lessons of the war that apply today.

"Our countries have learned the hard way that national sovereignty quickly reaches its limits when met with heavily armed adversaries," said the king, who noted that his great-grandfather, King Albert, fought in the war.

Di Rupo warned that "those who ignore the past are taking the risk to relive it."

Noting that chemical weapons were used to "devastating effect" on Flanders Field, Obama said that today, in Syria and elsewhere, the world still struggles to eradicate their use.

"We thought we had banished their use to history, and our efforts send a powerful message that these weapons have no place in a civilised world. This is one of the ways that we can honour those who fell here," Obama said.

"This visit, this hallowed ground, reminds us that we must never, ever take our progress for granted."

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cumberbatch to play Hamlet on London stage

BENEDICT Cumberbatch is going from Sherlock to Shakespeare.

London's Barbican Centre said on Wednesday he would play Hamlet at the venue next year.

The Lyndsey Turner-directed production of Hamlet will run from August to October 2015, and the 12-week stint in the 1160-seat venue is guaranteed to be a hot ticket.

Cumberbatch has gained fans around the world for his role in the BBC TV drama Sherlock as cerebral sleuth Sherlock Holmes.

Producer Sonia Friedman called Cumberbatch "one of the most gifted and exciting actors of his generation."

Cumberbatch, who recently appeared on screen in The Fifth Estate, 12 Years a Slave and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, won an Olivier theatre award for his starring role in Frankenstein at Britain's National Theatre in 2011.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thai police seize heroin bound for Aust

THAI police say they have seized 147 kilograms of heroin they believe was destined for Australia, a single haul that exceeded some of Thailand's recent yearly seizure totals.

Police said the heroin seized on Tuesday night in the Andaman Sea port city of Ranong had a street value that would have been three billion baht ($A105 million).

Thai deputy police chief Major General Somyot Pumpanmuang said on Wednesday that two men - a Thai and a Malaysian - were arrested on trafficking charges when police seized the heroin.

Thai drug seizures for all 2012 totalled 127.5 kilograms, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Total seizures for 2009 and for 2010 were also smaller than the latest seizure.

Somyot said Tuesday's seizure followed a tip from Australian police to their Thai counterparts.

The drugs were wrapped in 420 packets that were to be hidden in frozen seafood containers.

He said police believed the heroin originated in Myanmar and had been smuggled across Thailand's northern border.

Myanmar is the second biggest producer after Afghanistan of opium, from which heroin is derived.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, most heroin made in Myanmar is trafficked to China.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Salvos back at child abuse inquiry

THE second public hearing by a royal commission into how the Salvation Army handled allegations of child sexual abuse opens in Sydney on Thursday.

The inquiry follows one in January, which revealed extensive abuse at four homes run by the Christian organisation in NSW and Queensland.

Thursday's public hearing will inquire into the policies, practices and procedures of the Salvos eastern territory division between 1993 and 2014, for responding to claims of child sexual abuse at children's homes it operated.

The experience of people who made complaints to The Salvation Army between 1993 and 2014 will be examined in the hearing, which may run for two weeks.

Janette Dines, CEO of the commission, said in a statement that the policies, practices and procedures between 1989 and 2014 concerning the disciplining of officers of The Salvation Army who were the subject of allegations of child sexual abuse would be examined.

In January, the leader of the Salvation Army, Commissioner James Condon, cried while apologising to victims of child sexual abuse who told the hearing about being raped and bashed and, in some cases, being rented out for sex by one officer when at Bexley Boys' home in NSW in the 1970s.

Commissioner Condon said the army now had a policy in place to respond to abuse victims, which put the survivor first.

The Salvation Army hearing will run for half a day on Thursday, but resume on Friday.

Cardinal George Pell will be back in the witness box on Thursday afternoon to complete his evidence into how the Catholic Church handled complaints by abuse victim John Ellis.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Commuter train derails in Chicago

AN eight-car Chicago commuter train has ploughed across a platform and scaled an escalator at an underground station at O'Hare airport, injuring 32 people.

No one suffered life-threatening injuries in the Blue Line derailment, Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said during a Monday morning briefing.

Chicago Transit Authority investigators along with the city fire department and police were reviewing security footage and interviewing the driver and other CTA workers to pin down the cause of the accident.

Steele said crews were working to remove the train and fix the escalator and aren't sure when the station will reopen.

The train appeared to have been going too fast as it approached the end-of-line station and didn't stop at a bumping post - a metal shock absorber at the end of the tracks.

"The train actually climbed over the last stop, jumped up on the footpath and then went up the stairs and escalator," Santiago said.

"Apparently (it) was travelling at a rate of speed that clearly was higher than a normal train would be," Steele said.

It wasn't clear how many people were on board at the time but the accident happened during what is "typically among our lowest ridership time," Steele said.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Malaysia says missing jet crashed at sea

MALAYSIA says the passenger jet that went missing more than two weeks ago crashed in the Indian Ocean, but it's shed no light on the mystery of why it veered from its intended course.

Prime Minister Najib Razak said new satellite analysis of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370's path placed its last position in remote waters off Australia's west coast, and far from any landing sites.

The sombre announcement on the fate of the plane ended 17 days of agonising uncertainty for relatives of those on board - two thirds of them Chinese.

"It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean," Najib said on Monday night.

He said the flag carrier had already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew aboard the jet which disappeared on March 8 on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"For them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking; I know this news must be harder still."

Najib said he had been briefed by representatives from Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch, which relayed further analysis of satellite data by British company Inmarsat.

The airline, in a statement sent to families, said "we have to assume" the plane was lost.

"Our prayers go out to all the loved ones of the 226 passengers and of our 13 friends and colleagues at this enormously painful time," it said.

"We know there are no words that we or anyone else can say which can ease your pain."

The airline said the multinational search, which is scouring a stretch of the forbidding Indian Ocean to find any debris, would continue "as we seek answers to the questions which remain".

Malaysia believes the plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board. But the absence of firm evidence has fuelled intense speculation and conspiracy theories, and tormented the families of the missing.

Leading theories include a hijacking, pilot sabotage, or a sudden mid-air crisis that incapacitated the flight crew and left the plane to fly on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel.

MH370 last made contact over the South China Sea halfway between Malaysia and Vietnam. For reasons unknown, it backtracked over the Malaysian peninsula and then flew on for hours.

The search swung deep into the Indian Ocean last week after initial satellite images depicted large floating objects there.

Hopes of a resolution to the mystery rose after a weekend in which an Australian aircraft spotted a wooden pallet, strapping and other debris, and French and Chinese satellite information indicated more floating objects.

An Australian-led multinational air and sea search has been scouring the vast ocean and there have been two separate sightings of possible debris from the plane.

Crew members of an Australian P-3 Orion plane reported seeing two objects, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told parliament on Monday.

Australian officials said they were different to pieces seen by a Chinese plane earlier in the day.

The Australian naval ship HMAS Success, equipped with a crane, is in the area, about 2500km southwest of Perth, and will attempt to recover the objects.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

New Crowe film Noah banned in Indonesia

AUSTRALIAN actor Russell Crowe's portrayal of religious figure Noah won't be seen in Indonesian cinemas, with the film rejected by the censors.

The big-budget Hollywood epic, which opens in Australia on Thursday, has been blocked by censors in Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates because it could offend Muslim viewers by depicting a prophet.

Indonesia followed on Monday with a unanimous decision by the Indonesian Censorship Board.

Board member Zainut Tauhid Sa'adi told news website detik that anyone who shows the film would be punished.

He said the board was responding to the values of a society "which highly respects religion and the value of unity".

"We're not following or tailing other countries," he said.

Catherine Keng, corporate secretary of Indonesia's largest cinema chain Cinema 21, said it would comply.

The move disappointed some Indonesian film critics.

Mumu Aloha, managing editor of detik's entertainment website detikHot, branded the censorship board's reasoning as "stupid".

"This great nation is being 'protected' by a bunch of dwarf people sitting in an institution which has the tendency to censor anything," he wrote to his Facebook followers.

"Pity us all!"

Crowe has said the reaction of some countries was expected.

Early US reviews of Noah, made by acclaimed filmmaker Darren Aronofsky with a $130 million budget, have been mixed.

The story of Noah's ark is told in the Bible and the Koran.

In Islam, depictions of prophets are taboo to avoid worship of a person rather than God.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Dentist tool broke off in patient's mouth

A NEW Zealand teen suffered pain when a dentist tool broke off during root canal treatment, but he only found out about the mistake from another dentist.

The instrument broke off in the patient's root canal, but the dentist never told the teen and didn't write it down in clinical records, an NZ Health and Disability Commission report found.

The boy, aged 16-17, began to feel pain and the dentist treated him three further times, attempting to remove the instrument.

But the dentist never told the boy the reason for the treatment, the options available, or the risks involved - even when the boy and his parents asked directly about the reason for the re-treatment.

The boy found out about the mistake only when he went to another dentist for a second opinion.

The report found the dentist breached the health code by failing to let the boy know about the mistake, failing to keep him informed and failing to keep proper records.

The dentist has now been referred to the Director of Proceedings who'll decide whether further action should be taken.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thomson to learn fate over misusing funds

SINCE using union members' money to pay for prostitutes Craig Thomson has lost his reputation, his Labor Party membership and his seat in federal parliament.

On Tuesday he will learn whether it will cost him his freedom when he appears before the Melbourne Magistrates Court for sentencing.

The 49-year-old faces up to five years in prison for misusing $24,538, including more than $5500 on escorts, while he was national secretary of the Health Services Union and a Labor MP.

Prosecutors have called for him to be jailed, saying his behaviour was arrogant in the extreme. His lawyers say he should be spared jail because he can never again enter public life.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pell to take stand at abuse inquiry

FORMER archbishop of Sydney George Pell takes the stand at a hearing on Monday to answer questions on how he handled an abuse complaint by former altar boy John Ellis.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse enters the third week of a hearing in Sydney in which Dr Pell's senior associates have been grilled on why the archdiocese disputed in court that Mr Ellis had been abused when an internal church process had accepted his allegation as true.

Dr Pell is expected to shed light on his role in instructing the church's legal team, which "vigorously defended" the case. It ended in a landmark finding, which some say created church immunity from abuse-related civil actions.

Mr Ellis was a 13-year-old altar boy at Bass Hill in Sydney in 1974 when Father Aidan Duggan first sexually abused him.

In 2002 Mr Ellis sought help from Towards Healing, the internal church process for dealing with victims of abuse.

In the past two weeks the commission has heard how that process failed and Mr Ellis sued Dr Pell and the trustees of the archdiocese.

Witnesses have included Michael Casey, Dr Pell's private secretary, and Monsignor Brian Rayner, the then chancellor of the archdiocese.

Mons Rayner's evidence contradicted Dr Pell's claim that he did not know Mr Ellis was willing to settle at one stage for an ex-gratia payment of $100,000. The church spent $1.5 million defending the claim.

Dr Pell's evidence comes just before he departs for Rome to become financial head of the Vatican and Holy See.

The commission has already heard a statement from Dr Pell that said: "Whatever position was taken by the lawyers during the litigation, or by lawyers or individuals within the archdiocese following the litigation, my own view is that the church in Australia should be able to be sued."

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Three killed by gunmen in Kenyan church

THREE people have died and at least 10 have been wounded after gunmen opened fire in a church outside Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa.

The three gunmen opened fire inside the Joyland Church in a Mombasa suburb of Likoni, killing two people, Kenyan officials said on Sunday, while a nurse at a nearby hospital reported a third person had died while being treated.

Kenya has suffered dozens of small attacks, many on churches, over the last several years. Muslim-Christian tensions on Kenya's coast are high.

Sunday's shooting comes about a week after police on the coast intercepted a car packed with explosives police believe were to be used for an attack.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

F-35 fighter purchase reasonable: report

AUSTRALIA is likely to push ahead with the acquisition of its first operational F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, according to a report by an independent defence think tank.

In a report released on Monday, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute says it makes most sense for the federal government to commit to spending between $8 billion and $10 billion on 58 of the fighters, which are expected to enter service in 2020.

Report authors Andrew Davies and Harry White say the F-35 is a capable fighter with an ability to penetrate sophisticated air defences, but note that other factors, including political relations, point towards a likely buy.

"Because we're an international program partner on the JSF, the economies of scale for other buyers - including the US - will be reduced if we don't purchase the aircraft," they say.

Start-up costs to take on the JSF are predicted to be $2 billion, with a ongoing annual cost of about $200 million.

"In the final analysis, the government seems likely to be prepared to pay a moderate premium to maintain a high-end air-combat capability, and to preserve the other benefits to industry and the alliance with Washington," the report says.

"On balance, that looks like a reasonable decision for Australia."

As the government keeps a watchful eye on Australia's budget, the report suggests an option of reducing the F-35 order to 50, thus saving about $800 million on the initial cost.

Australian industry has secured contracts worth more than $US300 million ($A332.54 million) to manufacture F-35 components, with the injection to the economy possibly reaching $US5 billion over the lifetime of the program.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mining tax repeal before the Senate

THE Senate will turn its attention to mining tax repeal legislation after rejecting the Abbott government's plans to scrap the carbon tax last week.

The repeal bill has been listed as the first item of business in the upper house when parliament resumes on Monday.

Trade Minister Andrew Robb has urged Labor to get out of the government's way on the issue.

"Bill Shorten has big responsibilities, he's starting to look like the Bob Brown of the new parliament - walking sovereign risk," he told Sky News on Sunday.

The Abbott government says the tax is anti-Western Australian but WA Labor frontbencher Alannah MacTiernan dismissed that proposition as silly.

"The mining tax has not been a jobs killer," she told ABC TV on Sunday.

Ms MacTiernan admitted there have been times when it has not been a popular tax.

"I think people are pretty smart ... they understand that where you've got those companies paying the tax still investing, still recording record ... profits, that quite clearly the mining tax hasn't been the problem."

Labor supports the concept of a profits-based mining tax and will consult with the mining industry and states over the issue ahead of the next election, she said.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More

China, Netherlands sign trade pacts

CHINA and the Netherlands have signed a trade pact pledging Dutch dairy expertise to help Chinese producers boost the quality and quantity of their milk.

The deal signed at a ceremony at Prime Minister Mark Rutte's official residence in The Hague on Sunday is another step by China to rehabilitate the reputation of its dairy industry in the aftermath of tainted milk product scandals.

It was part of a raft of deals and memoranda of understanding inked on the second day of a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is in the Netherlands with a large trade delegation.

In 2008, some Chinese milk brands were found to be tainted with the chemical melamine, which can cause kidney damage and other injuries. Some suppliers added it to fool protein tests on watered-down supplies.

Imported milk products like baby formula still have a reputation for safety in China and command far higher prices than local brands.

The Dutch government said in a statement that experts will help China increase its annual milk production to 40 billion kilograms in coming years.

After his meeting with Rutte, Xi spoke to a business conference in the seaside resort town of Noordwijk before visiting the world famous Keukenhof flower garden, where his wife Peng Liyuan christened a new strain of tulip called the Cathay.

After his state visit ends on Sunday, Xi is staying in the Netherlands to take part in the two-day Nuclear Security Summit starting on Monday in The Hague before travelling to France, Germany and Belgium later in the week.

23.47 | 0 komentar | Read More