Huge fire ravages Mackay shopping complex

FOUR youths have been questioned over a massive fire that gutted a north Queensland shopping complex.

No one was injured in the blaze on Greenfield Boulevard, Mackay, but it destroyed most of the Toys R Us, Clark Rubber and Autobarn stores.

Emergency services received reports of the fire at about 11.45am (AEST) on Saturday and it took more than three hours for the blaze to be contained, with the Department of Community Safety (DCS) saying the main fire was put out at about 3pm.

Police said four juveniles were questioned over the fire and two boys, aged 10 and 13, were still assisting with inquiries on Saturday evening.

Officers will remain at the scene overnight as investigations into the cause of the fire continue.

A public safety order is still in place because of concerns about toxic smoke from burning chemicals in some of the shops.

A nearby shop worker, who did not want to be named, said witnesses saw four teenagers being arrested in the car park.

"They (the teenagers) were in our shop this morning. We hunted them out. They were being horrible in here," she told AAP.

"Officers have put those young people in a paddy wagon."

The DCS said a fire investigator would be brought in to work out how the blaze started.

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US computer graphics guru wins Kyoto Prize

AN American regarded as a father of computer graphics, an Indian literary critic and a Japanese molecular cell biologist have received the Kyoto Prize, Japan's highest private award for global achievement.

The Inamori Foundation awarded its advanced technology prize on Saturday to US computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, who developed the graphic interface program Sketchpad in 1963.

Gayatri Chakrovoty Spivak, an Indian literary critic and professor at Columbia University, won the arts and philosophy prize.

Yoshinori Ohsumi, a molecular biologist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, received the basic sciences prize for his work on autophagy, a cell-recycling system that could be used to help treat neurodegenerative and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer.

The Kyoto-based Inamori Foundation was set up in 1984 by Kyocera Corp's founder, Kazuo Inamori.

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'Volunteers' roped into Beijing crackdown

THE Chinese Communist Party's paranoia is on full display for its congress in Beijing in a security squeeze extending from police swarming Tiananmen Square to elderly sentinels watching street corners.

The capital has 1.4 million "public order volunteers" - retirees, street cleaners, firemen and low-paid private security guards - on the lookout for anything that could upset the sensitive gathering, even in the quietest residential neighbourhoods.

But despite their patriotic armbands, many grumble about being roped in as foot soldiers for China's massive police state.

"Volunteer? They made me volunteer," said Zhang Weilin, 25, a security guard at a central Beijing shopping mall who wore a camouflage jacket bearing a "US Army Airborne" patch and that was a size or two too large.

"My security company gave us the uniforms and made all of us (other security guards) volunteer during the congress," he said.

Increasingly worried about rising social unrest and acutely aware of public unhappiness over a lack of democracy, Chinese authorities have dramatically escalated the state security apparatus under President Hu Jintao.

At the end of the congress next week, Hu is widely expected to hand leadership of the party to Vice President Xi Jinping after 10 years in power.

Under Hu, security budgets have exploded - $US111 billion ($A107.1 billion) was allocated in 2011 for "stability maintenance", exceeding China's stated defence budget.

Authorities frequently buttress security by tasking ordinary citizens with maintaining order in their patch and reporting potential threats to the Communist regime, particularly during important events like the congress.

"If we see anything out of the ordinary, like a petitioner trying to protest, we report immediately to the neighbourhood committee, who calls the police," said retired teacher Huo Huihua, watching a Beijing street corner.

Under an age-old system from imperial times, Chinese across the country are officially granted the right to petition to Beijing authorities against local injustices.

However, petitioners and rights groups claim complainants are routinely jailed, beaten, or otherwise persecuted into silence. Rights groups say petitioners are being detained and ejected from the city during the congress.

"It doesn't matter if the petitioner has a legitimate beef or not. That will be up to the police to decide," said Huo, adding a sad grimace that acknowledged routine police brutality.

Zhang Yaodong, a petitioner from Henan province, was beaten to death by unknown thugs on Tuesday ahead of the congress, a rights group has said.

Beijing police refused to comment. Such incidents are common in China and often trigger violent demonstrations.

Although AFP reporters have witnessed numerous petitioners being dragged by police since the congress began, none of the nearly 20 "public order volunteers" interviewed said they had seen anything that merited a report to police.

The security clampdown in Beijing has many of its practical-minded residents involved in the effort wondering why none of the huge security spending has trickled down to them.

"If any 'stability maintenance money' is handed out, it will surely go to the neighbourhood committee. We will never see any of it," said a retired worker named Chen.

Instead, rewards for "volunteers" included uniforms, jackets, soap powder and cooking oil in exchange for the hours spent on street corners in the chilly November air.

Dissident Bao Tong said the huge domestic security build-up of recent years indicates the Communist Party has lost its ruling legitimacy.

"No country in the world makes its own people the biggest enemy," Bao, who was the highest official jailed following the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests that were suppressed by the army, said before the congress opened.

"In a republic, the people should be the masters. 'Stability maintenance' takes the people as the enemy. This is an insult and a disgrace," he said.

Chen Huili, a house cleaner who says she was pressured into acting as a neighbourhood sentinel, has her own reasons for grumbling.

"I didn't volunteer. My company is making me do this," said Chen, as she swept up cigarette butts in a Beijing housing complex wearing a red "public order volunteer" arm band.

"They didn't give me anything but extra work to do."

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Fatal plane crash puzzles investigators

MYSTERY surrounds the circumstances of a fatal plane crash in northern NSW which killed two men after the aircraft plummeted to the ground about 80km off-course.

The aircraft burst into flames when it crashed into a paddock off the Bruxner Highway in South Gundurimba, south of Lismore, at 10.15am (AEDT) on Friday.

Two men, believed to be a 47-year-old and a 40-year-old from the Gold Coast, died at the scene.

The crash sparked a grass fire and debris was strewn around the wreckage.

"There is a large debris field of about 50 metres in length," a Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman told AAP.

It is believed the Socata Trinidad took off from Gold Coast Airport about 9.30am (AEDT) and was heading south to Murwillumbah Airport.

A focus of the investigation will be how the plane ended up in South Gundurimba, about 80km south of Murwillumbah.

Police from Richmond Local Area Command, crime scene officers, as well investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, remained at the scene on Friday evening.

The cause of the crash was not yet known, but one witness told the Seven Network the plane banked hard left, then "fell like a rock" to the ground.

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Plane destroyed in WA crash, pilot fine

A LIGHT plane has been destroyed but its pilot only slightly injured after a crash landing metres from the edge of a dam in Western Australia.

The single-engine Jabiru plane suffered engine failure at around 2000 feet (610 metres) about 9.30am (WST) on Friday, forcing the pilot to ditch on the edge of Wungong Dam, 45km southeast of Perth.

The plane split in two on impact but the pilot walked away with minor injuries and did not require hospital treatment after being airlifted by the RAC rescue helicopter.

WA police officers were securing the crash scene, with Recreational Aviation Australia, the regulatory body for light aircraft in Australia, likely to carry out a review of the possible causes of the engine failure.

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A year after funeral, Savile myth in ruins

AT Jimmy Savile's funeral a year ago, the priest delivering the homily was emphatic: the DJ and television host "can face eternal life with confidence".

Hundreds of people packed a cathedral for Savile's funeral Mass, thousands paid their respects at his coffin, and people from Prince Charles to the Bee Gees sent condolences.

He was a cultural fixture, even an icon, and his BBC television shows had been part of childhood for two generations of Britons.

But a year on, Savile's reputation is in ruins. Police have branded him one of Britain's worst sex offenders, accused of assaulting underage girls over half a century. Like those who feted and praised him on that November day, millions are wondering: How could he have duped so many for so long?

"His life story was an epic of giving - giving of time, giving of talent, giving of treasure," Monsignor Kieran Heskin told hundreds of mourners at the funeral. "Sir Jimmy Savile can face eternal life with confidence."

Savile's death, like his life, was full of self-spun mythology. He cast himself as a colourful entertainer who worked tirelessly for charity - and he choreographed his exit as carefully as an Egyptian pharaoh, leaving instructions for an elaborate three-day commemoration in his home city of Leeds, in northern England.

Thousands of people turned out to pay tribute at the Queen's Hotel, where the entertainer's coffin sat surrounded by flowers, photos and the last cigar he ever smoked. Inside lay Savile, dressed in a tracksuit and clutching a string of rosary beads.

Others lined the street as Savile was carried into St Anne's Cathedral by Royal Marine pallbearers for a richly ceremonial requiem Mass. Later he was buried in a golden coffin, in a tree-shaded cemetery - and on a 45-degree angle so he could overlook the sea.

"He had gold, jewellery and diamonds, but wealth meant nothing to him," Alistair Hall, a cardiologist at one of the hospitals Savile supported, said in his eulogy. Savile, he said, "was as he appeared - a caring man".

Savile cultivated the persona of an eccentric, curmudgeonly but generous uncle. He wore brightly coloured tracksuits and chunky gold chains and drove a Rolls-Royce. On the long-running TV show Jim'll Fix It, he made children's wishes come true. Off-screen, he ran marathons for charity and frequently visited schools and hospitals.

What now seems clear - what so many missed - is that both roles brought him into contact with potential victims: star-struck teenagers, vulnerable patients, inmates of a secure psychiatric hospital.

Cary Cooper, a professor of psychology at England's Lancaster University, said that probably nobody will ever know whether Savile used his charity work deliberately to meet victims, or simply to burnish his saintly image. "Either way," Cooper said, "it protected him more, being seen as a philanthropic individual. It served his purpose."

At the funeral, Hall said Saville's charitable legacy would live on. Last month, the trustees of two charities that bear his name announced that they were closing down.

When Savile died, Prince Charles' office said the heir to the throne and his wife "were saddened to hear of Jimmy Savile's death".

The late DJ boasted of his ties to powerful people, including Prince Charles, the late Princess Diana and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom he visited at her country retreat.

His connections may have helped shield him from criticism. Several young people accused Savile of abuse while he was alive, and he was questioned by police, but no charges were laid - and no newspaper ever printed the allegations.

Now, police are investigating claims of abuse from about 300 people who have come forward since the scandal exploded when allegations about Savile were broadcast in a TV documentary in early October. And police are facing investigation themselves for their failure to act sooner.

Charles' Clarence House office says the prince's relationship with Savile was solely a result of their shared charity work.

"If there's a heaven, he'll be laughing now if he's got time," fellow DJ Tony Prince said at the funeral. "Because if there is a heaven, he'll be introducing Elvis on the clouds."

Younger DJs mentored by Savile were out in force at the memorial, and remembered the flamboyant star fondly. One, Dave Eager, wore a bright yellow sweat shirt saying "Jimmy's Eager Helper".

"Everyone who knew Jimmy knows it was a life-changing experience," he said.

Last month, Eager told The Sun newspaper that he was "completely and utterly gobsmacked" by the allegations against Savile, and felt guilty about failing to stop the abuse.

"You feel traumatised and sorry for the people abused by Jimmy, but equally you think, 'Why the bloody hell didn't we see something?'" he said.

Savile's carefully crafted myth didn't outlive him by long, and he has not rested in peace. His family has had the star's gravestone destroyed in response to public outrage. This week his nephew backed calls to exhume and cremate Savile's body out of respect to other bereaved families.

Of all the words spoken at the funeral a year ago, one comment now sounds prophetic. "None of us really knew the real Jimmy," fellow DJ Mike Read said. "Maybe he didn't even know himself."

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Bomb kills 10 Afghans going to wedding

A ROADSIDE bomb has killed 10 civilians, including women and a child, heading for a wedding party in southern Afghanistan, officials say.

"Ten civilians, including four women and a child were killed in a roadside bomb attack as they were going to attend a wedding party in Musa Qala district of Helmand province," the provincial governor's spokesman Ahmad Zeerak told AFP on Thursday.

Seven children were wounded in the blast, which police blamed on Taliban insurgents.

The attack took the day's toll in the Afghan war to 18, with a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killing three policemen in a pre-dawn attack and five Afghan troops dying in a roadside bombing.

The blasts came as Afghan forces take increasing responsibility for the fight against Taliban insurgents as US-led NATO combat troops prepare to pull out by the end of 2014.

The suicide attack came in Kandahar city in the south of the country while the soldiers died in Laghman province in the east.

"Around 5am, a suicide bomber on a motorbike detonated his explosives at a police checkpost, leaving three Afghan policemen killed and two others wounded," the provincial governor's spokesman, Javed Faisal, told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but similar attacks have been claimed by Taliban Islamists fighting to bring down the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

The roadside bomb hit a pick-up truck carrying Afghan army soldiers, killing five and wounding one in Mehtarlam, the Laghman provincial capital, Sarhadi Zwak, the provincial governor's spokesman, said.

On October 19 a huge roadside bomb ripped through a minibus carrying guests to a wedding party in northern Afghanistan's Balkh province, mostly women and children.

Just days later, a suicide bomber killed more than 40 people, including police and civilians, in a mosque in Maimana, provincial capital of Faryab, also in the north.

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Govt using us as tools, says asylum seeker

AN asylum seeker at Australia's offshore processing centre on Nauru has accused the federal government of trying to cover up a mass hunger strike and says detainees are being used as political tools.

The man, who asked to be identified only by his first name Mahdi, has been refusing food for the past eight days.

He says more than 300 of the 377 detainees there are also on a hunger strike.

They're demanding to be sent back to Australia and for the processing centre on Nauru to be closed.

"All of the inmates, be they Iranians, Afghans or Sri Lankans, are standing firm on this," Mahdi told AAP on Thursday.

But the immigration department said on Wednesday that at least 200 meals had been claimed at eating times and a large amount of snacks had been given out to the transferees.

"(This) does indicate that the number of people claimed by advocates to be abstaining from food is incorrect," an immigration department spokesman said on Wednesday.

Mahdi, who is putting together a petition for the detainees on hunger strike, denied this was the case.

"(The government) is trying to cover up this issue," he said.

"This is not something that we'd lie about."

He described conditions on the camp as "very poor" and without proper medical facilities.

"The tents are extremely hot," Mahdi said.

"We can't stay inside the tents during the day because of the heat.

"Our beds get wet when it rains and there's cockroaches and rats everywhere."

Mahdi was sent to Nauru in late September from Christmas Island.

"Many of the guys said they didn't want to go to Nauru and demanded legal representation, but no one listened," he said.

"In the end they were handcuffed and forced to board a plane to Nauru."

Mahdi says the inmates have been told their refugee applications will start to be processed in six months by the Nauruan government.

"But we didn't come to Nauru," he said.

"The Australian government brought us here.

"We don't even know what the laws are in Nauru."

He worried about the mental health of detainees who were "going crazy".

People arriving in Australia by boat without a visa since August 13 have run the risk of being transferred to processing centres in Nauru or Papua New Guinea under the government's new offshore processing policies.

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One dead at Linkin Park concert venue

A SPOKESWOMAN for the South African city of Cape Town says one person has died after a scaffolding collapsed in high winds outside a Linkin Park concert, injuring 19 other people.

Kylie Hatton said on Thursday a woman died after being taken to the hospital. She said 19 people were injured, with 12 hospitalised, after the temporary billboard collapsed outside the Cape Town Stadium. She said police are investigating.

The American rock band said in a statement: "We wish to express our deep sadness and concern for those injured and our heartfelt condolences to the family of the fan who died as a result of her injuries."

The band said they had no relationship with the sponsor or entity responsible for the structure.

The band will perform in Johannesburg on November 10.

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WA mine workers favour new legal high

A NEW version of the synthetic drug known as Venom is on West Australian streets and is being favoured by mine workers, according to a retailer.

A Perth tobacco retailer, who did not want to be named, said he had heard several stories about the drug being produced as a cottage industry by people who imported the chemicals from China.

The drug was proving popular with mine workers in places like Karratha and Geraldton because it could not be detected in drug tests.

"It's like the next generation of Kronic," he said.

"God knows what's in it."

The tobacco retailer, who also sells smoking pipes, said customers had asked for Venom but the retailer did not sell it.

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan blamed the Barnett government for its "band-aid solution" to synthetic drugs, saying it continued to play catch-up with drug manufacturers.

The WA government last year listed several synthetic cannabis products, including Kronic, Voodoo and Mango Kush, as illegal substances.

But new, legal versions are constantly being developed.

Mr McGowan said the government should have had a clear, long term strategy to deal with legal highs.

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Bahrain revokes citizenship of 31 Shi'ites

BAHRAINI authorities have revoked the citizenship of 31 Shi'ite activists, among them two former members of parliament, for having "undermined state security", state news agency BNA reports.

The names of the 31 activists, including brothers Jawad and Jalal Fairuz, both ex-MPs who represented the major Shi'ite Al-Wefaq bloc, were listed in the report on Wednesday, which quoted an interior ministry statement.

Also named was Ali Mashaima, son of prominent activist Hassan Mashaima who is head of the radical Shi'ite opposition movement Haq and who is serving a life sentence for allegedly plotting against the monarchy.

The government move comes after Bahrain late last month banned all protests and gatherings to ensure "security is maintained," after clashes between Shi'ite-led demonstrators and security forces in the Sunni-ruled country.

The Gulf state has experienced unrest since March last year when the authorities crushed protests led by the Shi'ite Muslim majority.

According to the International Federation for Human Rights, 80 people have died in Bahrain since the violence erupted on February 14 last year.

Hundreds of people were arrested when the security forces, aided by troops from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, crushed the uprising within a month, while many activists, including some whose names appear on Wednesday's list, were tried in special military courts set up at the time.

Another former MP and leading Al-Wefaq member, Matar Matar, told AFP that "many named (on the list) were acquitted by a military court" after being charged with harming state security.

Others named on the list are currently living abroad, according to opposition sources.

Tension has been running high in the kingdom following a spate of bombings on Monday in the capital Manama which killed two Asian expatriates. Four people have been arrested in connection with the bombings.

King Hamad ordered Tuesday "the swift arrest of the terrorists who carried out the recent terrorist acts in Bahrain" and urged citizens to help "bring them to justice so they receive their punishment over this appalling act."

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Suicide bombing kills five in Pakistan

A POLICE officer says a suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan has killed five people, including three policemen.

Asif Iqbal says the attack on Wednesday targeted the vehicle of a senior police officer outside a police station in a crowded market in the city of Peshawar.

The blast killed the senior officer, two other policemen and two bystanders. It also wounded 20 people.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Pakistani Taliban often target security forces in the country's northwest.

Peshawar has been hit many times because it is located on the border of Pakistan's tribal region, the main sanctuary for militants in the country.

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Plane belly-lands in Perth's south

A FLYING instructor and his younger passenger have been forced to belly-land a small plane at an airport near Perth following an undercarriage malfunction.

Western Australian police said the wheels on the Piper Seneca could not be lowered when the plane landed at Jandakot airport around 3.18pm (WST) on Tuesday.

The plane remained intact and the 68-year old male instructor and his 25-year old male student pilot were treated for minor injuries by two St John's Ambulance crews who were coincidentally already at the airport.

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Hong Kong shares end 0.28% down

HONG Kong stocks have fallen 0.28 per cent with dealers displaying caution as they await the outcome of the neck-and-neck US presidential election.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index on Tuesday eased 61.97 points to 21,944.43 on turnover of $HK54.95 billion ($A6.87 billion).

Tuesday's US poll sees President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney in a dead heat, leaving markets in a tight band as traders hold off making any bets until the outcome is known.

"Investors are understandably a bit cautious before the US presidential election, and I'm not surprised to see some profit-taking given the recent market rally," said Jackson Wong, an investment manager at Tanrich Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Eyes are also on the beginning on Thursday of the Communist Party's congress in China, which will choose its leadership for the next 10 years.

"We should keep an eye on the opening speech by President Hu (Jintao) on Thursday and wait for the new leaders to make their first appearance after the closing next week," Macquarie Group said in a note.

Banking giant HSBC fell 1.4 per cent to HK$76.70 as third-quarter results were marred by provisions to settle money-laundering charges in the United States, which have climbed to $US1.5 billion ($A1.45 billion).

Also falling was China Merchants Holdings, which lost 5.2 per cent to end at $HK24.55.

Chinese shares closed down 0.38 per cent. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 8.03 points to 2,106.00 on turnover of 53.7 billion yuan ($A8.34 billion).

Property developers and spirit makers extended falls as investors took profits following last week's gains.

Xian Gree Real Estate dropped 4.89 per cent to 6.23 yuan, Gemdale fell 1.28 per cent to 5.40 yuan and Poly Real Estate shed 1.28 per cent to 11.60 yuan.

Liquor maker Kweichou Moutai lost 2.88 per cent to 235.93 yuan while Sichuan Swellfun fell 2.40 per cent to 23.63 yuan.

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Gunmen kill brother of Syrian politician

SYRIA'S state-run TV reports that gunmen have assassinated the brother of the parliament speaker.

The report on Tuesday said Mohammed Osama Laham was killed in the Damascus neighbourhood of Midan. It did not say when it happened, but a Syrian official said Laham was killed on Monday night.

The TV and the Syrian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media, said Laham was a brother of parliament speaker Jihad Laham.

A number of officials and top army officers have been assassinated in Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March last year.

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73 at-risk children die in Queensland

A QUEENSLAND child who had been placed in the care of an alleged sex offender was one of scores of children known to the state's child protection system who died in the year to July.

The Queensland Child Death Case Review Committee's 2011/12 annual report shows 73 children - from babies to 17-year-olds - died in the year who were known to the Department of Child Safety, eight more than the year before.

Of the 73, 27 died of disease or morbid conditions, five died of sudden infant death syndrome and undetermined causes, 11 perished in transport incidents, five drowned, four were fatally assaulted, and six committed suicide, one of whom was just nine years old.

The committee commended the department for carrying out "sufficiently comprehensive" responses to 63 of the children while they were alive. It said a further six cases were sufficient but contained minor errors.

But the department's responses to four cases were found to be insufficient.

In one of the four cases, a child was placed, without adequate investigation, with a relative who had a history of sexual abuse allegations.

The department's response was found lacking in the other three cases because staff did not appropriately analyse the risks of domestic violence and substance misuses.

The report found the "actions or inactions of the service system were linked" to the death of a four-month-old child who died from a medical condition.

The baby had been classified as very high risk even before its birth because its siblings had extensive history with the department.

The department failed to visit the baby at home after its birth, despite knowing the home was rife with domestic violence, illicit drug abuse, physical harm and neglect of children's basic needs.

Of the 73 children who died, 61 were living at home, four were in hospital, four were with foster carers, one was in a residential facility, two were living independently and one was self-placed.

Many of the families had complex multiple issues. Some 42 children had one or both parents with a criminal history, 41 families had domestic violence issues, 40 parents misused substances, and 24 parents had mental health issues.

Eight of the children had contact with the youth justice system, with four having spent time in a youth detention centre.

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Sheep farmer calls for Pakistan boycott

PAKISTAN should be permanently boycotted as a market for Australian live exports, a West Australian sheep farmer says.

Bob Ilffa, from the Wheatbelt town of Newdegate, made the comment as the industry braced for an ABC Four Corners program on the recent inhumane slaughter of about 22,000 Australian sheep in Pakistan on health concerns.

The sheep were in limbo for over a month after they were rejected in Bahrain, but further health fears in Pakistan led to them being brutally killed - in some cases buried alive - in two stages.

The culls came after repeated proof by independent veterinarians that the sheep were healthy.

The Fremantle-based exporter Wellard expressed shock when the second cull was ordered on October 20, despite promises from local authorities a day earlier that the remaining sheep would be slaughtered humanely.

The pledge came after the company agreed to drop a court injunction seeking to overturn the government-ordered cull.

Wellard immediately suspended exports to Pakistan, which had only ever been considered a contingent market.

Sheepmeat Council of Australia said it was an isolated, unusual turn of events that led to a totally unacceptable outcome.

But Mr Iffla went a step further, saying he would never send sheep to Pakistan again.

"There's no way my sheep will ever be going to Pakistan," he told AAP on Monday.

Mr Iffla said he was in agreement with animal liberationists in calling for the Pakistan market to be snubbed, but did not believe an end to live exports elsewhere was feasible, given the need among many nations to secure protein via imports.

He said he was extremely disappointed with the way the sheep had been killed, especially considering a modern abattoir was readily accessible.

Instead, the animals were clubbed and had their throats roughly slashed in a dusty feedlot.

"Pakistan has done the wrong thing by the industry," Mr Iffla said.

"It's absolutely appalling behaviour by the Pakistanis, who I don't believe we can continue to deal with (the country) because it's just going to wreck the whole live animal trade."

Mr Iffla said his sheep were currently breeding so another wave of lambs was on the way, but after that, he would rethink his business, producing less meat or even focusing on agriculture.

"I don't know where we're going," he said.

"I'm certainly thinking of changing my program to some degree because if we can't make the profit out of live sheep in the manner that we have been, we're going to have to diversify into other areas."

The Queensland Greens reiterated calls to ban live exports, saying it was not within Australia's power to control what happened to livestock once they were outside the country.

Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon wants the federal government to end the trade through the Live Animal Export (Slaughter) Prohibition Bill 2012, but that appears destined to fail in the Senate.

Labor senator Glenn Sterle last month said the Greens were suggesting that with abattoirs back in the north and a boxed meat market in place, everything would be "tickety-boo".

Mr Iffla also said Australia should stop providing aid to Pakistan because of the cull.

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Prince jetlagged but in good spirits

THE Prince of Wales says it is worth feeling "a few sausages short of a barbie" from jetlag to be Down Under to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee.

Sporting an Akubra he received at the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, Prince Charles told 300 guests at a community barbecue in Longreach of the fond recollections he has of the country, particularly the outback.

He said memories of funnel-web spiders, kangaroos and scorching heat on cross-country runs are still vivid from his time at Geelong Grammar School in Melbourne in 1966.

Charles said the "bonza barbie" was a great way to start the Australian leg of his Pacific tour with wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall after arriving in northern Queensland on Monday afternoon from Papua New Guinea.

"Even though ... I'm so jetlagged that I feel a few sausages short of a barbie, it is a great joy to be back in Australia again," he said to raucous laughter.

But he said a lot had changed since he first travelled to Australia, particularly attitudes.

"In those days... the place seemed to be full of people rushing headlong into bars to down whole lines of schooners before early closing," he said.

"Now the latest figures reveal Aussies attend more cultural events than any head of population, than any nation on earth, and they also read more books."

Queensland Governor Penelope Wensley told the crowd the couple chose the ideal location for their visit to the state, given rural areas were where Queensland spirit and mateship shone brightest.

Premier Campbell Newman publicly thanked the royal family for their support during the state's floods and cyclones in 2011.

The royal couple stayed to meet local families before departing for Victoria in preparation for the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday.

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Would-be immigrants die in shipwreck

ITALIAN coastguards have reportedly retrieved the bodies of three would-be immigrants from the Mediterranean between the Libyan coast and the Italian island of Lampedusa after their boat got into trouble.

Coastguards also assisted 62 men and eight women, one of them pregnant, who were taken to an Italian navy vessel and were expected on Lampedusa later on Sunday.

News agency ANSA did not give the nationalities of the three dead women or the people rescued.

Two coastguard ships were continuing the search 56km off the Libyan coast and 225km from Lampedusa.

Italian authorities moved after a call for help made by satellite phone, and informed colleagues in Libya and Malta.

The stricken boat was later spotted by a Maltese plane.

In September a boat carrying more than 100 Tunisian migrants sank off Lampedusa. Rescue services only managed to pull 56 people to safety and the others were lost at sea.

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US police chopper crashes, 2 dead

AUTHORITIES say an Atlanta police helicopter searching for a missing 9-year-old child has crashed in the city during the night, killing the two officers aboard.

Police spokesman Carlos Campos told The Associated Press by phone the helicopter went down about 10.30 pm Saturday at an intersection of two major highways in the city's northwestern reaches.

Campos said authorities did not yet know details of the events leading up to the crash.

He said they were working with federal aviation officials on the scene. He says no one was hurt or killed on the ground.

A photograph aired on a local TV newscast showed what appeared to be flaming debris in a roadway.

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Samsung sells 30m Galaxy S III smartphones

SAMSUNG Electronics says global sales of its flagship Galaxy S III smartphone have topped 30 million since its debut in May.

"The Galaxy S III continues to be a runaway favourite with customers around the world," JK Shin, head of Samsung's IT and mobile communications division, said in a statement on Sunday.

The third version of the Galaxy S series offers a more powerful processor that lets users watch video and write emails simultaneously as well as a large 12.2cm screen.

The company sold 56.3 million smartphones, including its flagship S III, in July-September, representing 31.3 per cent of the global market, more than twice as much as bitter rival Apple's share, research firm IDC said last month.

Samsung and US rival Apple have been embroiled in a long-running patent battle in 10 countries, including the United States and Germany, with the pair accusing each other of stealing designs and technology.

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