Iran downplays Ahmadinejad shoe attack

IRAN'S foreign ministry has downplayed an incident in Cairo in which a protester tried to throw a shoe at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying it did not indicate Egypt's official stance towards Tehran.

"What is important to us is the behaviour of Egyptian officials and the nation, who respect the Islamic republic as a major power," the ISNA news agency quoted ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.

On Tuesday evening, Iranian President Ahmadinejad was booed by a man who also tried to throw his shoe at him as he left Cairo's Al-Hussein mosque following prayers.

The man, identified as a "Syrian opposition" member by ISNA, also pushed a bodyguard but he was quickly dealt with and Ahmadinejad was able to enter his car.

At the scene, four youths waved placards scrawled with slogans against Iran over its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in its 22-month conflict with rebels.

"O Ahmadinejad, do not think the Syrian blood is in vain. We will take revenge on the Shi'ites," read one of the posters.

Ahmadinejad, unfazed by the incident, termed it a "minor issue".

Talking to Egyptian media late on Tuesday, the president said: "There might be some opposition in both countries who disturb the atmosphere... by prejudice and some actions," the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to visit Cairo in more than 30 years, was given a red-carpet welcome by Islamist President Mohamed Morsi when he arrived on Tuesday.

But he faced criticism by Egypt's top Sunni cleric who asked him not to interfere in the affairs of Gulf states.

Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, also urged Ahmadinejad to uphold the rights of his Shi'ite-ruled country's Sunni minority, denouncing what he described as the "spread of Shi'ism in Sunni lands".

Mehmanparast on Wednesday considered Ahmadinejad's three-day visit as an "effective" step forward in bilateral ties and said it created "stability in the region".

Ahmadinejad's visit comes amid thawing relations between Egypt and Iran, which severed ties with Cairo in 1980 in protest at a peace treaty signed the previous year between Israel and Egypt.

Iran has been reaching out to Egypt since Islamists came to power in the wake of the 2011 revolution that ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak, a staunch critic of Tehran.

Morsi, who hails from the powerful Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, has attended a Non-Aligned Summit in Iran, becoming the first Egyptian president to travel to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Five dead as Solomons quake sparks tsunami

A MAJOR 8.0 magnitude earthquake has jolted the Solomon Islands, with small tsunami waves buffeting Pacific coasts, leaving at least five people dead and dozens of homes damaged or destroyed.

A quake-generated wave of just under one metre reached parts of the Solomons, and Vanuatu and New Caledonia also reported rising sea levels, before a region-wide tsunami alert was lifted.

Sirens were heard in Fiji, locals said. "Chaos in the streets of Suva as everyone tries to avoid the tsunami!!" tweeted Ratu Nemani Tebana from the Fiji capital.

The waves reached as far away as Japan, which was hit by a huge tsunami in March 2011 that killed more than 19,000 people.

Japan's Meteorological Agency reported a 40-centimetre tsunami hitting Hachijo Island about 290 kilometres south of Tokyo, while 20-centimetre waves reached the main islands of Kyushu and Shikoku and smaller waves were recorded on Honshu.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cancelled its regional alert for Pacific-island nations at 1450 AEDT, about two and a half hours after the powerful quake struck near the Santa Cruz Islands in the Solomons.

Australian and US monitors said a tsunami wave measuring 91 centimetres washed into the town of Lata, on the main Santa Cruz island of Ndende.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the wave appeared to have travelled 500 metres inland, inundating Lata's airstrip as well as surrounding villages, flattening many traditional houses.

"We can report five dead and three injured. One of the dead was a male child, three were elderly women and one an elderly man," Chris Rogers, a nurse at Lata Hospital, told AFP.

Solomons Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo's office said four villages on the Santa Cruz Islands had been hit by the tsunami.

"Latest reports suggest that between 60 to 70 homes have been damaged by waves crashing into at least four villages on Santa Cruz Islands," Lilo's spokesman George Herming told AFP.

"At this stage, authorities are still trying to establish the exact number and extent of damage. Communication to (the) Santa Cruz Islands is difficult due to the remoteness of the islands."

Solomon Islands Red Cross secretary general Joanne Zoleveke said she had been told at least three villages were hit, with houses washed away.

"In the Solomon Islands when we talk about villages there can be anything from 10 to 30 houses," she said.

With Lata's airstrip out of commission, officials were hoping to fly over the area early on Thursday to assess the damage better.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck the Santa Cruz Islands, which have been rocked by a series of strong tremors over the past week, at a depth of 28.7 kilometres.

Dozens of aftershocks continued through the day, including one at 6.6-magnitude.

"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated," the Hawaii-based Pacific warning centre said after the 8.0 quake, before lifting its tsunami alert for several island nations.

Lata Hospital director of nursing Augustine Bilve said some patients were evacuated to higher ground to prepare for any injured from the villages along the coast.

Settlements did not appear to be seriously damaged in the quake, he said, but added: "We were told that after the shaking, waves came to the villages."

In 2007 a tsunami following an 8.0-magnitude earthquake killed at least 52 people in the Solomons and left thousands homeless. The quake lifted an entire island and pushed out its shoreline by dozens of metres.

The Solomons are part of the Ring of Fire, a zone of tectonic activity around the Pacific that is subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

In December 2004, a 9.3-magnitude quake off Indonesia triggered a catastrophic tsunami that killed 226,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Jobless rate tipped to rise

THE Australian jobs market is expected to have started the year on a weak note, with not enough jobs created to offset population growth.

An AAP survey of 15 economists, shows the unemployment rate to rise 5.5 per cent in January, from 5.4 per cent the previous month.

Total employment is expected to grow by 5,000 in the month.

AMP chief economist Dr Shane Oliver said the economy needed to add about 15,000-20,000 jobs a month in order for the unemployment rate to remain steady, but that kind of growth was unlikely at present.

"The labour market is going through a softer patch. We've seen month after month a fall in job vacancies, and business hiring plans remain weak," he said.

"I think we are still going through that phase in the economy where the weakness we saw late last year is leading to higher unemployment and that may have a little bit further to go before it has run its course."

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the data at 11.30am (AEDT), Thursday.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Glenn Miller trombonist Paul Tanner dies

PAUL Tanner, a trombonist with the Glenn Miller Orchestra who later played a space-age instrument on the Beach Boys hit Good Vibrations, has died at 95.

His stepson, Douglas Darnell, says Tanner died of pneumonia on Tuesday at an assisted living centre in California.

Tanner performed with Miller from 1938 to 1942. During his long career, he also worked as a movie studio and ABC musician and performed with stars that included Tex Beneke, Henry Mancini and Arturo Toscanini.

He also helped develop the electro-theramin, a keyboard-style electronic instrument. Tanner provided its eerie sound on several Beach Boys recordings, including Good Vibrations.

Tanner also was a music professor and helped write several books.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Vic firefighters brace for hot weather

FIREFIGHTERS are ramping up their resources in key hotspots across Victoria in preparation for the continued spell of hot weather and strong winds this week.

A total fire ban has been declared for Thursday in the six districts.

Northern Country, North East, North Central, Central, West and South Gippsland, and East Gippsland.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said higher temperatures and strong winds are increasing the fire danger right across the state.

"The weather conditions, combined with heavy fuel loads and dry fuels, pose a serious fire risk," Mr Lapsley said.

Hundreds of DSE and CFA firefighters, together with aircraft continue to work on the Harrietville and Aberfeldy fires, which have burnt out more than 80,000 hectares.

Two aircranes - Elvis and Gypsy Lady - are ready to be dispatched from Essendon and Ballarat if needed.

A third aircrane, Malcolm, on loan from NSW, is in action on the Harrietville fire.

At Harrietville, back-burns have been completed to the south of the town to offer greater protection, with another to Mount Hotham's northwest to limit the potential spread of the fire.

The Department of Health has warned Harrietville residents to boil their drinking water as firefighting operations have pushed sediment into the river, contaminating the town's supply.

"In these hot, windy and dry conditions, if a fire starts and takes hold, it's very difficult to control," Mr Lapsley said.

He said everyone who lives in high fire risk areas should be alert to weather conditions, talk to neighbours, listen to ABC local radio, commercial and designated community stations, check cfa.vic.gov.au and the FireReady app.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Four dead in attacks on Iraq security

ATTACKS targeting security forces across Iraq have left three policemen and an army officer dead, officials say, amid a spike in unrest as the country grapples with a political crisis.

Two policemen were shot dead and three others were wounded by gunmen at a checkpoint in the town of Mussayib, south of Baghdad, while one police officer was killed and another hurt by gunfire in the main northern city of Mosul.

North of Baghdad in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, an army lieutenant colonel was killed and another officer was wounded by a roadside bomb while on patrol, officials said.

And in the capital, four people, including one policeman, were wounded by a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol.

No organisation has claimed responsibility for the deadly string of attacks, but Sunni militants including al-Qaeda's front group often target security forces and government targets in a bid to destabilise the country and push it back to the sectarian war that blighted Iraq from 2005 to 2008.

The violence took the death toll since Sunday to 72, indicating a spike in attacks amid a political crisis pitting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against his government partners as weeks of rallies have called for his ouster.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Woman business chief gets plum cabinet job

PRESIDENT Barack Obama will seek to add another woman to his cabinet by picking business executive Sally Jewell to head the vast Interior Department, a White House official says.

Obama has been criticised for naming middle-aged white men to the top jobs in his second term team, but has pledged to promote diversity in his other picks, and has now settled on several prominent females.

If confirmed by the Senate, Jewell - who heads Recreational Equipment Inc, an outdoors retail chain - will succeed Ken Salazar at Interior, which manages US national resources, wildlife, tribal issues and national parks.

"With years of experience managing a nearly $US2 billion ($A1.93 billion) a year company, she will bring to the position integrity, keen management skills, as well as dedication to the Department's mission of managing our nation's lands," a White House official said.

"She believes deeply in the American tradition of preserving our nation's wild places, while also understanding firsthand the inextricable link between conservation and the economy.

"She also believes we must be good stewards of our nation's natural resources, underscoring the administration's ongoing priority of expanding safe and responsible energy production," the official said, noting that Jewell began her career as an engineer for Mobil Oil Corporation.

Obama had been under pressure to add more diversity to his new cabinet after picking Chuck Hagel, John Kerry and Jack Lew, to serve as the secretaries of Defence, State and Treasury.

In January, Obama nominated high powered New York prosecutor and organised crime buster Mary Jo White to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission to implement his Wall Street reforms.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

US Post to end Saturday letter service

THE US Postal Service (USPS) has announced that it will halt letter delivery services on Saturday in an attempt to reduce costs that left it $US15.9 billion ($A15.36 billion) in the red in 2012.

USPS chief Tom Donahoe, the US postmaster general, said the national mail agency was taking the step after waiting in vain for Congress to put through reforms that would help it shore up its finances on a long-term basis.

"The Postal Service has a responsibility to take the steps necessary to return to long-term financial stability and ensure the continued affordability of the US mail," said Donahoe.

The USPS said the move is expected to result in $2 billion in cost savings.

The five-day service will begin on August 5. But the USPS will continue to deliver packages on Saturdays, and post offices will remain open on Saturday.

The USPS has been hit hard both by the turn to email and other electronic communications, reducing the volumes of mail it carries, and by competition from more agile private firms like Fedex in the high-margin parcel business.

Its losses more than tripled in the year to September 30 from $5.1 billion in fiscal 2011, with more than $11 billion sucked off to pre-fund health benefits for USPS retirees far into the future.

While package service revenue grew by 8.7 per cent last year, overall mail volume fell 5.1 per cent and operating revenues fell nearly one per cent, to $65.2 billion.

Since 2006 the service has reduced the size of its workforce by 193,000, or 28 per cent.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

US man kills bus driver, kidnaps child

Residents look over the school bus where a shooting occurred near Destiny Church,  just north of Midland City, Alabama. Picture: Danny Tindell Source: AP

POLICE, SWAT teams and negotiators are clustered at a rural Alabama property where a man is believed to be holed up in an underground shelter after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said.

The standoff went through the night after the man, whose name has not been released by police, boarded the stopped school bus in the town of Midland City on Tuesday afternoon. Dale County Sheriff Wally Olsen told WBMA-TV the man shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus and the driver later died.

The sheriff's office named the victim as Charles Albert Poland, Jr, 66, who had been a bus driver since 2009 for the Dale County Board of Education.

The shooter took the child off the bus, authorities said.

Investigators have not released the suspect's name. Neighbours said the rural property near Dothan, Alabama, at the heart of the standoff belonged to Jimmy Lee Dykes, a man in his 60s.

Court records showed Mr Dykes had been scheduled to appear in court today to face a charge of menacing some neighbours as they drove by his house last month. The neighbours said he yelled and fired shots over damage he claimed their pickup truck did to a make-shift speed bump in the dirt road.

Law enforcement personnel near the home where the school bus shooting suspect is barricaded. Picture: Jay Hare

About 50 vehicles from federal, state and local agencies were clustered at the mouth of a dirt road off a highway. The dead-end road leads to homes including the suspect's property, which was over a low rise behind a church on the highway and couldn't be seen from where reporters were being kept back.

County coroner Woodrow Hilboldt said the overnight standoff continued into the day with tactical units, negotiators and other officers at the scene near a church. He said the suspect was believed to be in an underground shelter on his property.

"That's what has been described to me as an underground bunker. Someplace to get out of the way of a tornado," Mr Hilboldt said.

Claudia Davis, who lives on the road where the standoff was taking place, said she and her neighbours can't leave because the one road was blocked by police.

Ms Davis, 54, said she has had run-ins with the man suspected as the shooter.

Law enforcement personnel work a checkpoint in Midland City, below the home where a school bus shooting suspect barricaded himself in a bunker with a young child. Picture: Jay Hare

"Before this happened I would see him at several places and he would just stare a hole through me," Ms Davis said. "On Monday I saw him at a laundry mat and he seen me when I was getting in my truck and he just started and stared and stared at me."

Midland City police would not comment, and a dispatcher at the Dale City Sheriff's office said the agency was not releasing any immediate details.

"Authorities also confirmed the presence of a child at the scene but are giving no further information at this time," Rachel David, a spokeswoman for the police department in the nearby city of Dothan, said in a news release late Tuesday.

Michael Creel, who lives on the road where the shooting happened, said he went outside after his sister heard gunshots.

"Me and her started running down the road," Creel told the Dothan Eagle. "That's when I realised the bus had its siren going off. Kids were filing out, running down the hill toward the church."

23.49 | 0 komentar | Read More

House prices jump in December quarter

HOUSE prices across every Australian capital city have risen for the first time in nearly three years, with Sydney's housing market still the most expensive in the country.

The Australian Property Monitors (APM) December Quarterly House Price Report shows the national median house price rose 1.9 per cent over the last quarter in 2012 and 2.1 per cent across the year.

The last time all capital cities recorded house price increases was in March 2010.

The cost of units also jumped 1.6 per cent over the quarter and 2.4 per cent annually.

Perth was 2012's standout performer, with its median house price jumping 6.1 per cent over the year to $560,780.

But it was Sydney that broke new ground in the back-end of last year, with median house and unit prices reaching a record $656,415 and $475,314 respectively.

It followed a 3.4 per cent annual house price increase and 5.6 per cent rise for units.

Melbourne housing market showed more restraint, with house prices up just 0.5 per cent over the year despite a 2.4 per cent jump in the last quarter.

Adelaide has again edged out Brisbane as the most affordable mainland capital in Australia, posting a median house price of $432,309 compared to the Queensland capital's $433,302 average in the year to December.

The city of churches also boasts the country's cheapest apartments, after Hobart experienced a 20.2 per cent surge in its unit prices over the 12 months.

However, Hobart remains the overall most affordable capital for homebuyers with a median house price of $322,420.

APM senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson said while local factors still predominate housing markets, record low interest rates have boosted confidence.

A rising sharemarket and improved international outlook was promising for the local market, he added.

"Looking ahead, activity will depend on the direction of local economies as it is no coincidence that the better performing housing markets in 2012 reflected better performing economies," Dr Wilson said.

"The general economic landscape and prospects remain optimistic, which is unequivocal good news for Australia's recovering housing markets."

APM is a national supplier of property price information to banks, real estate agents, property developers, government agencies, media organisations and consumers.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More