Fiennes' Antarctic evacuation underway

THE evacuation of injured British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes from Antarctica is underway after the veteran adventurer was forced to pull out of a marathon expedition because of frostbite.

Fiennes was picked up from base camp in the early morning and on his way to a Belgian station about 70 kilometres away after injuring his left hand at the weekend, his team said.

The 68-year-old was part of a six-member team attempting the first winter crossing of the world's coldest continent.

"In a fond farewell to his teammates today he told them he was unhappy to be leaving them on the ice," Hugh Bowring of the expedition operations headquarters said in a brief statement.

His withdrawal from the epic trek was announced on Monday but a snow storm had grounded the team and stalled his evacuation.

Fiennes was finally picked up on Wednesday by a team of Belgians stationed at Princess Elisabeth Station.

If weather permits, he will next be flown from the Belgian base to Novo air base, which is a key route in an out of Antarctica.

"Once there (he) will await a further flight to take him to Cape Town," said Bowring.

The team's doctor on the ice said Tuesday that "Ran", as the multiple record holder is known, has suffered frostbite to four fingers of his left hand.

This was after he removed a glove to adjust a ski binding at the weekend, forcing him to withdraw from the marathon trek.

Fiennes had suffered severe frostbite to the same hand during a 2000 expedition, and sawed off the damaged parts of his fingers himself.

The five remaining members of the team will press on with the mission, dubbed The Coldest Journey, and are set to start the winter crossing on March 21.

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Fitch Ratings warns US on budget fighting

RATINGS agency Fitch has warned Washington that continued political fighting over the government budget and deficit-cutting measures could lead to the US losing its AAA grade.

With the government two days away from enacting the harsh "sequester" budget cuts because political parties cannot agree a more moderate compromise, Fitch said that the policy deadlock could lower confidence in the world's largest economy.

It pointed out that after the $US85 billion ($A83.51 billion) sequester cuts that begin to take effect Friday comes a battle over a six-month budget, which has to be concluded by March 31 or the government could be shut down.

And shortly after that, on May 19, the country will hit its statutory borrowing limit.

"Implementation of the automatic spending cuts - the sequester - and a government shutdown would not prompt a negative rating action," Fitch said in a statement.

"But such an outcome would further erode confidence that timely agreement will be reached on additional deficit-reduction measures necessary to secure the AAA rating."

Fitch, like other rating agencies focused mainly on how the US will reduce its massive deficit and debt burdens over the medium term, said that the sequester itself was not bad.

It called the 2011 poison-pill deal between Democrats and Republicans, originally aimed at scaring them into a more moderate deficit-cutting plan, the government's "only substantive agreement on medium-term deficit reduction" so far.

But it acknowledged projections that implementing the sequester's $85 billion in targeted cuts over the next seven months, and $110 billion in reductions for the 2014 fiscal year, would slow economic growth.

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US stocks flat after mixed goods report

US stocks have opened essentially unchanged after a mixed report on durable goods orders.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.87 points (0.03 per cent) to 13,904.00.

The broad-based S&P 500 edged lower by 0.45 point (0.03 per cent) to 1,496.49, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.42 (0.01 per cent) to 3,130.07.

The trading came after durable goods orders for January sank by 5.2 per cent because of a big drop in aircraft orders.

However, excluding transportation orders, which can be volatile month-over-month, new durable goods orders were up 1.9 per cent, almost double the increase in December.

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Rusty rolls inland, prompting flood fears

MAJOR flooding is expected as Tropical Cyclone Rusty moves inland from Western Australia's Pilbara coast and puts new towns on red alert.

The eye of the massive storm hit land just before 3pm (WST) on Wednesday, more than 30 hours after the northwest coastline was placed on red alert and residents told to take shelter and stay indoors.

Late on Wednesday night, people in or near communities between Pardoo and Nullagine, including Marble Bar, were on red alert and advised to go to shelter immediately.

Rusty will gradually weaken as it moves inland, but wind gusts of more than 165kmh are expected near the eye of the cyclone overnight on Wednesday, when the threat of a dangerous storm tide remains for the coast between De Grey and Wallal.

Wind gusts of more than 125kmh were expected to reach Marble Bar on Thursday as the cyclone heads that way.

Flooding is expected in the De Grey catchment, and possibly in the Fortescue catchment and in Pilbara coastal streams, on Thursday.

Late on Wednesday, Perth Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre duty forecaster Peter Clegg said the cyclone was moving at a speed of 9kmh in a south to south-easterly direction, but within about 12 hours its speed is expected to double.

He said the cyclone is still a category three, but it is expected to weaken over the next two days.

Port Hedland, which was initially expected to bear the brunt of the storm, appeared to have come off relatively unscathed, after the cyclone took a last minute turn before making landfall.

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Ikea confirms horsemeat in meatballs

IKEA says it is withdrawing more food products from its stores in Europe as tests confirmed the presence of horsemeat in its meatballs.

The Swedish furniture giant pulled its hot dogs in France, Spain, Britain, Ireland and Portugal, and two traditional dishes sold in Sweden: a veal patty known as "wallenbergare" and a cabbage beef casserole.

Earlier this week the company pulled its Ikea-brand one-kilogram bags of frozen meatballs off its shelves and withdrew meatballs from its restaurants in 25 countries, primarily in Europe but also in parts of Asia and in the Dominican Republic after Czech authorities said they found traces of horse DNA in the product.

Ikea said its own tests had so far only shown the presence of horsemeat in its meatballs, but the other products were being removed because they were made by the same supplier as the meatballs, Swedish company Dafgaard.

"Out of several hundred test results we have received ... a handful have shown indications of horsemeat," Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said, referring to the meatball tests.

The announcement came just after Dafgaard confirmed it had found horsemeat in several batches of its meatballs.

"The affected batches are all frozen meatballs that have already been blocked from sale," Dafgaard said in a statement.

Swedish news agency TT reported the level of horsemeat found was between one and 10 per cent, which is higher than the level usually considered to be the result of contamination in a slaughterhouse.

Ikea said no decision had been taken about whether it would terminate its contract with Dafgaard.

"For several years we have been working closely with Dafgaard, we view this just as seriously (as they do). Together we are looking at how to proceed," Magnusson said.

The furniture retailer was the latest group to become caught up in a Europe-wide scandal over horsemeat in food products that erupted in January when horse DNA was detected in beefburgers in Britain and Ireland.

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Britain set to cull thousands of badgers

BRITAIN is set to cull up to 5,000 badgers in a bid to combat tuberculosis in cattle which has outraged animal welfare groups, after two pilot schemes were given the green light.

The culls will see 70 per cent of the black and white animals killed in two areas of southwest England - Gloucestershire and west Somerset - after the Natural England government agency approved the pilots.

Ministers say culls are needed as bovine TB, which spreads from badgers to livestock, costs farmers and the taxpayer millions of pounds every year.

"Bovine TB is spreading at an alarming rate and causing real devastation to our beef and dairy industry," Environment Secretary Owen Paterson told a conference of Britain's National Farmers' Union on Wednesday.

"These pilot culls are just one part of our approach to control and eradicate this dreadful disease."

But opponents claim culling badgers is an inhumane and ineffective way of battling TB.

Britain's biggest animal welfare charity, the RSPCA, described the plans as "senseless".

"All the evidence shows that the answer to the problems of bovine TB in cattle does not lie in a cull that will be ineffective, wasteful and potentially damaging to the welfare of both farm and wild animals," said the charity's chief executive Gavin Grant.

"We care about cattle and badgers alike and have great sympathy for the farmers dealing with the effects of this disease, but killing badgers is not the answer."

The pilot schemes were due to begin late last year but were delayed in October after condemnation by wildlife experts and a high-profile campaign led by Queen guitarist Brian May.

Almost 35,000 cattle were slaughtered in 2012 because of TB infection, according to government figures.

Paterson said the disease had cost the British taxpayer STG500 million ($A744.32 million) in the past 10 years, and costs could reach 1 billion over the next decade if the disease is left unchecked.

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Three dead, 7 hurt in Swiss shooting

A 42-YEAR-OLD employee killed two workmates and wounded seven when he opened fire in a Swiss factory, rocking the small community where the plant is located.

Police said that the gunman, who also died, had worked for more than 10 years at the Kronospan wood panel plant in Menznau, near Lucerne in central Switzerland.

He had no record of making trouble, police and factory officials said, but workmates quoted by Swiss media said he may have been suffering from mental problems since last year.

The man, who was not identified by name, reportedly launched his assault with a handgun at around 9:00 am (1900 AEST) in the plant's canteen.

Police said that he appeared to have aimed deliberately at his victims, rather than spraying shots at random.

Of the seven wounded, six were in a serious condition.

Three helicopters from the Swiss emergency service REGA evacuated four of the wounded to neighbouring hospitals, a spokesman told AFP.

Police would not say how the shooter died and added they were waiting for the results of an autopsy.

"We still don't know what his motives were," Lucerne's police chief Daniel Bussmann told reporters.

Some Swiss media claimed the gunman had fallen out with his employers, with local newspaper Willisauerer Bote noting that Kronospan had last week announced it was cutting production.

Owned by Austrian group Kronospan, the factory is the top employer in Menznau, giving jobs to about 400 people in the community of almost 2,600.

Kronospan underlined that the production cutback was the result of a wood shortage due to bad weather, and that there had been no threat to jobs.

Capozzo said the gunman was known as a very calm individual. "We can't understand what happened," he said.

The national daily Blick said the gunman was a family man who worked as a machine operator at the plant.

The regional newspaper Luzerner Zeitung quoted an unnamed colleague as saying that the man's behaviour over recent months suggested he was having mental problems.

"He changed last year. He talked to himself, or to people who weren't there. And he'd change the subject completely in mid-conversation, so you could barely talk to him any more," the colleague said.

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Italy gridlock deepens as Europe watches

ITALY'S political gridlock has deepened, with bickering between the main leftist party and a new anti-establishment party putting off the prospect of a new government anytime soon following shock elections that have spooked Europe.

Comedian turned populist firebrand Beppe Grillo said his Five Star Movement (M5S) would not endorse the Democratic Party (PD), which won the most votes in the elections on Sunday and Monday but not enough to form a majority in parliament.

"The M5S is not going to give a vote of confidence to the Democratic Party or to anyone else," Grillo, who has channelled the frustrations of austerity-weary Italians, wrote on his blog.

The comment appeared to be a rejection of overtures from the PD, which on Tuesday held out the possibility of working with M5S on key reforms like slashing government costs and helping Italy's poorest get through a grinding recession.

Grillo said the PD had made a series of "indecent proposals", prompting PD leader Pier Luigi Bersani to hit back with a statement saying: "If Grillo has something to say to me, including the insults, I want to hear it in parliament."

Grillo has railed against traditional politicians and has called for a referendum on the euro. His party won 163 seats in the lower and upper houses.

After market panic on Tuesday, investors were more measured on Wednesday, especially after a better-than-expected bond sale even though Italy's borrowing costs spiked.

European capitals remained nervous however amid fears Italy could turn back the clock on reforms and austerity following an election that had been seen as crucial for the future of the eurozone.

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