UK island swimmer going strong

AN endurance swimmer has made good progress through the night in her attempt to become the first person in nearly 30 years to swim solo, non-stop, around the Isle of Wight.

Anna Wardley is undertaking the challenge as part of her bid to complete circumnavigations of five islands.

The 37-year-old, from Gosport in Hampshire, set off yesterday at 10.31am from Ryde Sands and is expected to complete the 56.4-mile swim in about 30 hours.

Only three people have completed the feat, with the last successful attempt in 1984.

She has passed the famous Needles landmark and is making her way round to the east side of the island this morning.

Heather Ewing, spokeswoman for the challenge, said: "She's looking good this morning, although her arms are looking a bit tired and it has got to be hurting by now. That said, she's very cheerful and demanding a bacon sandwich if any are made for the support team."

Wardley said before setting off: "It's been nearly 30 years since this challenge was last successfully completed, so I'm under no illusions how tough it will be.

"There will be a time when I'll be swimming against the tide through the night, almost on the spot for hours. I'll also see the sun set and rise, and we'll be racing against the clock to reach critical points to beat the tide.

"However just knowing people are thinking of me and willing me on will definitely help when the going gets really tough, and it's a huge boost knowing that I'm raising money for such fantastic charities."

Wardley is attempting the swim under the rules of the British Long Distance Swimming Association wearing just a standard swimming costume, goggles and a swimming cap.

It is the culmination of her two-year Five Island Swim Challenge raising funds for the Samaritans, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and Sail Africa, with her target set at STG50,000 ($A85,470).

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UK island swimmer going strong

AN endurance swimmer has made good progress through the night in her attempt to become the first person in nearly 30 years to swim solo, non-stop, around the Isle of Wight.

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Pakistan releases senior Taliban figure

PAKISTAN has released its most senior Afghan Taliban detainee Abdul Ghani Baradar, a senior official told AFP, in a move welcomed by Kabul who hope it will encourage peace talks with the insurgents.

Baradar, a one-time military chief often described as the militants' former second-in-command, was the most high-profile detained Taliban commander in Pakistan.

"Yes Baradar has been released," Omar Hamid, a spokesman for Pakistan's interior ministry told AFP, without elaborating on the circumstances of the release.

Afghanistan's High Peace Council (HPC) welcomed the release and thanked Pakistan's government.

"We welcome his release. And we thank the government of Pakistan that showed goodwill and answered positively to the request of Afghanistan government," Mohammad Esmail Qasimyar, senior member of HPC, told AFP.

"Baradar is someone who has always been eager to join peace negotiations, and we hope he joins peace talks soon. We are optimistic about it, he is still an influential figure, and the Taliban still respect him," Qasimyar said.

Pakistan's foreign ministry on Friday said that Baradar's release would facilitate Afghanistan's reconciliation process with the Taliban as a NATO combat mission there winds down.

However, the Taliban's spokesman in Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid said they could not yet confirm the move.

"We only heard through the media that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will be released. We have not received any official confirmation about his release," Mujahid told AFP in Kabul.

The Afghan government has long demanded that Islamabad free Baradar, whose arrest in January 2010 saw Pakistan accused of sabotaging initiatives to bring peace in war-torn Afghanistan.

He was arrested in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, reportedly in a secret raid by CIA and Pakistani agents, in an operation that was described as a huge blow to the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan until a US-led invasion in 2001.

At the time of his detention, Baradar was reported to have been the Taliban's second-in-command, the right-hand man of the supreme commander Mullah Omar.

He was the most senior member of the Taliban held after US-led troops invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, bringing down the Islamist regime.

His release brings to 34 the number of Taliban detainees that Pakistan has freed since last year, in what Afghan officials hope will encourage peace talks with Taliban insurgents.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had asked Pakistan to help open direct dialogue between his government and the Taliban, who consider Karzai an "American puppet" and have refused to hold discussions with his government.

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Body of US pilot found in Chinese lake

DIVERS have found the body of a US stunt pilot whose plane crashed into a lake in northeast China while attempting a tricky manoeuvre in the rain, the head of the team searching for him says.

David Riggs, whose US pilot's licence had been suspended, had been missing since Tuesday's accident outside the city of Shenyang in which his young female Chinese translator died. Riggs was in China to take part in an air show and was apparently rehearsing one of his tricks when the accident occurred.

Zhang Fang said Riggs' body was found during a search of the bottom of Lake Caihu by divers from the Dalian branch of the Beihai Rescue Bureau.

"It's likely he was killed on impact, but we don't know for sure yet," Fang said by telephone from the accident scene on Friday.

Riggs' high-performance single-engine Lancair 320 plane broke into pieces after hitting the lake and some parts had been recovered, including one of its two seats. The cause of the accident remains under investigation. The plane was not equipped with a "black box" recorder because of its small size.

Zhang said Riggs crashed while attempting a stunt in which the wheels of his plane were to drag along the lake surface at high speed. He had just taken off in a light rain, but there was no indication he had violated any flying regulations, Zhang said. Other reports said Chinese officials had urged Riggs not to take off, but Zhang said he had no information about that.

Riggs was a well-known Hollywood stunt pilot, and the centre of considerable controversy over a string of legal problems and penchant for self-promotion.

Riggs' website touts his credentials as a holder of several aviation speed world records, but doesn't mention the fact his US pilot's licence had been suspended twice.

The first time was after buzzing the famed Santa Monica pier in Los Angeles in his Vodochody L-39 Albatros jet trainer. Riggs was sentenced to 60 days of community service and 60 days in jail for reckless flying.

He lost his licence again in November for selling rides in his plane without permission. The prosecution came after a plane piloted by a business partner crashed, killing both people on board.

Riggs had a stack of other legal problems, including convictions for bank, wire and passport fraud. He aroused such contempt among some pilots that a website - aviationcriminal.com - was devoted to chronicling his misdoings.

His website describes him as CEO of California-based Mach One Aviation, Inc and as a "Hollywood stunt pilot, movie producer and world aviation speed record holder". It said his aerial performances had featured in movies and television shows including Iron Man, Jarhead, and the James Bond film Casino Royale.

Despite his licence suspension, he was hired by the organisers of the AOPA-China Fly-In 2013 air show as one of its star attractions.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said other US flyers scheduled to take part in Friday's opening ceremony had pulled out of the show. Pilots and aircraft from Sweden, France and Lithuania were due to take part in the show.

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Howes would be good senator: Shorten

PAUL Howes may have disqualified himself from any NSW Senate race before the starter's pistol fired, but Labor leadership hopeful Bill Shorten says the union boss would have been an asset to parliament.

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Bodies of drowned devotees found in India

RESCUERS say they have found 17 bodies of Hindu devotees who were swept away in the Yamuna River during a religious festival in the Indian capital.

Fire official SL Sharma says the devotees drowned during a ceremony immersing clay statues of the elephant-headed Hindu deity Ganesha into the river at the end of a 10-day festival.

Sharma says the bodies were recovered on Thursday, a day after thousands of devotees thronged the river banks celebrating the birth of Ganesha, who is widely worshipped as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune.

Millions of Hindus install Ganesha statues in colourfully decorated homes and specially erected temporary structures across India and worship them before immersing them in lakes, rivers and the sea.

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WA govt lashed for credit rating downgrade

THE West Australian opposition is accusing Premier Colin Barnett of reneging on a pre-election promise to not privatise a power utility.

It's also calling for the sacking of Treasurer Troy Buswell.

In the wake of WA losing its AAA credit rating with Standard & Poor's, WA Labor leader Mark McGowan on Thursday called Mr Buswell a "clown" and a "joker" who should be made to pay a price for trashing the state's finances.

Mr McGowan also accused the premier of going back on a February 21 pledge not to privatise Western Power, given Mr Buswell told Fairfax Radio on Thursday that power, port and water utilities were potentially on the block as the Liberal-led government sought to reduce debt.

Mr Barnett said he was only responding to a specific question at a media conference about privatising Western Power, and maintained it would not be sold.

"There will be extensive asset sales, not only because of the downgrade by Standard & Poor's but at this stage we're spending $7-8 billion a year on assets and projects and the like," Mr Barnett told parliament.

"And as we continues as a state to accumulate more and more, there's nothing particularly wrong with disposing some of the established and income-earning assets."

Mr Barnett said Australian superannuation funds would buy the assets and he didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

"The state has billions of dollars worth of assets. It's continually buying and selling assets.

"Is that privatisation? I don't know - you can choose your definition."

When Mr McGowan called it a fire sale, asking if the government would be in a weak negotiating position, Mr Barnett shot back: "It could be weaker - you could be in charge of negotiations".

Mr Buswell said ports would not be sold "in totality".

"But there are plenty of assets that sit within WA ports that we could look to sell."

He said asset sales would only solve part of the problem - namely too much spending and not enough income.

Mr Buswell said the key was major reform of the public sector, but acknowledged job culls would be met with fierce resistance exemplified by Thursday's teacher rallies.

"If the public response to what I think is some minor changes to the education system is anything to go by, we're going to have a heck of a time getting those public sector reforms through but they're critically important."

Talkback callers lashed the treasurer for saying on Wednesday the downgrade was a wake up call for the public and its expectations of government.

"Mr Buswell has got a nerve," one said.

The caller said it wasn't the public who wasted money on the botched Muja power station refurbishment, or gave hefty pay rises to government media advisers and the Water Corporation chief.

Another caller described Mr Barnett as "stark raving mad" for pushing unaffordable major infrastructure projects.

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Abuse inquiry hears of Scouts NSW failings

SENIORS members of Scouts NSW knew a disgraced scouts leader was working with children, but they failed to alert authorities, urging him to resign from the organisation quietly.

A series of failings by the scouts movement, and police, emerged during the second day of the royal commission into child sex abuse in Sydney on Tuesday, which is investigating the actions taken by various organisations over convicted pedophile Steven 'Skip' Larkins.

Larkins was last year jailed for the aggravated indecent assault of two boys, as well as child pornography possession and forging documents.

But from the 1990s, rumours were circulating in the Hunter region about his inappropriate behaviour, including that he had cavorted with children in the showers and made a scout lay on his chest while he and the boy were alone in a tent.

In 1997, after complaints were made about Larkins giving kids lollies at a swimming pool, he was removed from having face-to-face contact with children, former regional commissioner of the Hunter Scouts, Allan Currie, told the inquiry on Tuesday.

"This type of publicity, as you would realise, is something that we in Scouts Australia can well do without," Mr Currie said in a letter to Larkins, which prompted counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, to query if Mr Currie was more concerned about the scouts' reputation.

"Probably," Mr Currie replied, before adding he was new to the job and had no training in such matters.

In 1997, a boy known only as AC, came forward to police with allegations he had been sexually abused by Larkins.

But the inquiry heard the police investigation took more than a year, before the boy's mother was wrongly informed the DPP was not prepared to proceed with the case.

By the time that issue was rectified, the victim had decided he no longer wanted to proceed.

The police officer in charge of the investigation, Sergeant Nigel Turney, conceded the delay was not acceptable and he should have informed the scouting organisation of the allegations in writing.

But he said the allegation was "at the lower end" of that type of offence.

"Yes, it involved a child, but you'd also have to look at the seriousness of the allegations," he said.

In 2000, a former scout known as AA told a scout leader that Larkins had indecently assaulted him.

Larkins was then suspended from the movement.

That same year, Larkins gained employment with the Hunter Aboriginal Children Services (HACS), of which he went on to become general manager.

Peter Olah, then chief executive of Scouts Australia NSW, said he informed police and community services about the abuse allegations but didn't hear back.

It was another three years before Larkins was persuaded to resign from the Scouts.

Mr Currie told the inquiry he knew Larkins was working in the "youth area".

"(It was) suggested that he could resign but if he wanted to appeal he could, but if anything came out that was defamatory to him it could cause some jeopardy to his employment," Mr Currie said.

Larkins resigned shortly afterwards.

Mr Olah said he was also aware Larkins was working for HACS, but said he could not remember if he alerted DOCs or police.

"I think I had taken reasonable steps to see Mr Larkins brought to justice and to protect those who were exposed to him," he said.

But when asked if he felt the scout movement had failed elsewhere, Mr Olah replied, "In terms of children being hurt? Absolutely."

The hearing continues.

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Appeal court sides with Alcoa over Apache

ALUMINIUM giant Alcoa has had a win in its bid to recoup more than $100 million from gas producer Apache over the massive explosion at the Varanus Island plant in 2008.

The disaster slashed the state's domestic gas supplies by about a third and dented its economy to the tune of an estimated $3 billion.

And an official report into the explosion said a 30cm pipeline, maintained by Apache, ruptured and exploded at the shoreline because of corrosion, a risk that was "not only foreseeable but to some extent foreseen" by the company.

Alcoa, a major user of natural gas from the plant at its three WA alumina refineries, claims the disaster forced it to spend $138 million more than it would have under a sales agreement with Apache on acquiring gas and diesel from elsewhere.

Alcoa commenced proceedings to sue Apache in March 2011, claiming it suffered substantial economic loss.

It claims Apache Energy - the Australian arm of US parent company Apache Corporation - breached its duty of care to ensure the pipeline was well maintained and made a separate claim of negligence against subsidiary Apache Northwest, which is responsible for operating the facility.

On Tuesday, WA's Court of Appeal denied Apache leave to appeal Alcoa's claims.

Apache, which included a force majeure clause in its gas supply contract, claimed it was not liable because Alcoa was aware of the risk of a supply interruption and had no difficulty in obtaining alternative supplies.

The appeal panel, led by Justice Michael Buss, sided with Alcoa.

"Alcoa's pleading of the alleged duty of care is adequate in that it pleads ... that the total cessation of the supply of gas ... was likely to lead to Alcoa suffering substantial economic loss and damage," the summary judgement reads.

Alcoa's claim against Apache is likely to continue.

But Apache said it would consider whether to seek special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia "in order to clarify this critical branch of the law".

"At issue is whether Alcoa is permitted to recover tort damages in addition to the contractual liquidated damages for which it contracted," Apache Northwest said.

"Alcoa is a large global company that was able to protect itself from gas supply disruption and did protect itself through contract liquidated damages, insurance, and other deliberate business strategies."

Alcoa declined to comment.

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London mayor Johnson backs UK fracking

London Mayor Boris Johnson says wind farms are a "disease" and the UK should embrace nuclear power. Source: AAP

WIND farms are a "disease" which have blighted Britain's countryside and the country should embrace nuclear power and fracking to meet its energy needs, London Mayor Boris Johnson says.

Johnson accused the energy companies of "ruthlessly exploiting" a shortage of supply as he insisted the UK must stop "pussy-footing around" and start exploiting shale gas reserves.

The senior Tory said turning to a new generation of nuclear plants and fracking would cut energy bills and boost the economy.

Writing in The Sun on Sunday he said he was shocked by the number of wind turbines he saw on a recent drive to Scotland.

"It is a good 20 years since I last drove all the way to Scotland, and in the interim something unbelievable has been done - in our name - to our green, pleasant and precious countryside," he said.

"I mean the windmills, the turbines - whatever they are called. I mean the things that look like some hideous Venusian invasion, marching over the moors and destroying the dales; the colossal seaside toys plonked erratically across our ancient landscape; the endless parade of waving white-armed old lunatics, gesticulating feebly at each other across the fields and the glens.

"They seemed to be everywhere, and I asked myself, when were we consulted? Was there a referendum? Did someone ever warn the British people that these moaning seagull slicers were going to be erected on some of the most sensational scenery that God ever called into being?

"The answer is that no one warned us, because no one really took the decision to do it. It just sort of happened. We have contracted these mills like a disease, because of our pathetic apology for an energy policy."

Claiming that the turbines would not meet the UK's needs he blamed the last Labour administration for failing to get to grips with the issue, leaving the UK facing an energy crisis.

"It is time to take the fight to the energy companies, who have been ruthlessly exploiting their position - and the best answer is an enormous increase in supply. We can do it, and we can do it in a way that is as clean and green as any technology on earth," he said.

"First we need to grow some collective cojones and launch the nuclear energy programme that this country has too long delayed. Do you know how much of their juice the French get from their nuclear programme? Almost 80%. They are laughing at us - us, the nation that split the atom!"

He added: "Next, we must stop pussy-footing around, and get fracking. Even if we have 100s of fracking pads, they are nothing like as ugly as windmills, and they can be dismantled as soon as the gas is extracted."

Mr Johnson said shale was "clean and green" and would help the UK secure its own energy supply without relying on gas from countries such as Russia.

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Trekkers' attackers captured in PNG

FOUR men suspected in the ambush and murder of two guides leading a group of Australian trekkers in Papua New Guinea have been captured by villagers, police say.

The four were captured on Sunday morning near the town of Wau, a five-and-a-half-hour walk from the Black Cat Track in PNG's Morobe province, where local guides Kuia Kerry and Matthew Lasong were killed when they were attacked by six armed men.

Several Australians and six PNG men were injured in the attack.

Police said on Sunday one suspect was caught in the town of Salamaua while the other three were caught in Wau.

"I believe it is only a matter of time before the other two are captured and brought in," Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga said in a statement.

"Whilst I encourage the local community to continue to assist police capture the remaining attackers, I urge you not to take the law into your own hands.

"Let the law deal with them."

Mr Kulunga also confirmed reports a man was attacked and killed by relatives of one of the two murdered porters.

He said the relatives accused the man of harbouring the six criminals and attacked him.

Police intervened and flew him to the nearest health centre but he died from loss of blood.

"There will be an investigation and the persons responsible for this recent death will be arrested. No one has the right to take anyone's life," Mr Kulunga said.

Police have sent 30 additional personnel to the area to capture the remaining fugitives.

"The commitment of the villagers in helping police bring in the four suspects speaks volumes for our people's genuineness and hospitality as well," he said.

"The attack was an isolated and one-off incident and not a reflection of the generally friendly people of the Morobe Province."

Meanwhile the survivors of Tuesday's machete attack have set up a trust fund for the local porters who were injured in the ambush.

Mackay man Nick Bennett was injured when he was hit on the head with a gun.

On Sunday, he told ABC radio all the trekkers had returned home and were coming to terms with the horrific experience.

But he says while the trekkers are traumatised, their injuries are insignificant compared with what had happened to the porters, some of whom had limbs hacked off and would never walk again.

"We've set up a trust fund and we're asking people ... just to provide a few dollars into an account that we've got set up to help them get the services that they need," he said.

"We've made a commitment to ensuring that we support those porters and their families who've absolutely been devastated by this.

"We really need help and we're appealing to people to be generous. Anything - a peso, a dollar, a pound - would be helpful right now for these guys."

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Colorado floods leave hundreds missing

EMERGENCY workers involved in a massive effort to rescue stranded flood victims in Colorado, where more than 500 people are still unaccounted for, are bracing for a fresh pounding from storms.

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