Khodorkovsky starts life as a free man

Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky has arrived in Germany after being freed from a Russian prison. Source: AAP

RUSSIA'S most famous prisoner, Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has begun life as a free man in Germany after his surprise pardon by President Vladimir Putin.

After spending more than 10 years behind bars, Russia's former richest man was quietly escorted from his prison in northwestern Russia on Friday and boarded a plane to Berlin in an operation worked out behind the scenes with the German government.

The lightning speed of his release led some observers to suggest that Khodorkovsky might have flown into forced exile but Putin's spokesman dismissed such suggestions.

"He is free to return to Russia. Absolutely," Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday. He declined however to say whether any conditions were attached to his release or whether he would be free to participate in politics.

Putin had stunned Russia on Thursday by saying his fierce critic had asked for clemency on humanitarian grounds as his mother was ill.

"Guided by humanitarian principles," the Russian strongman signed a pardon decree on Friday.

In his first remarks since his release, Khodorkovsky said in a statement on Friday he did ask Putin for a pardon but his request did not amount to an admission of guilt and thanked Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Germany's foreign minister from 1974-1992, for helping negotiate his release.

"I am very much looking forward to the minute when I will be able to embrace my loved ones," the father of four said, without specifying his future plans.

Khodorkovsky's 79-year-old mother Marina, who has cancer, was expected to fly out to Berlin, where she had undergone treatment before, to see her son.

The Russian opposition magazine The New Times, for which Khodorkovsky wrote a column about his prison life, said the former tycoon called the editorial office to express gratitude for support.

"The most important today is Freedom, Freedom, Freedom," the magazine quoted him as saying.

"A lot lies ahead, the release of those hostages who still remained in prison, first and foremost Platon Lebedev," he said, referring to his jailed business partner.

Genscher said he was unaware if Khodorkovsky planned to remain in Germany: "I think that he wants to take a deep breath and wait to take his family in his arms tomorrow."

Interviewed on CNN television, Khodorkovsky's son Pavel, said he was in a state of "happy shock" following his father's release, adding that they had spoken on the phone.

"He's doing very well, sounds certainly very good and very happy."

Pavel said he "didn't think" his father would seek political asylum in Germany.

Khodorkovsky's release coincided with an amnesty for prisoners convicted of non-violent crimes that is expected to free the two jailed members of Pussy Riot band, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, just as the Kremlin readies to host the Winter Olympics in February.

Thirty foreign and Russian Greenpeace activists including an Australian man, arrested on hooliganism charges after their protest against Arctic oil drilling, are also expected to escape prosecution.

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Gunman had botched vasectomy: Neighbours

AUTHORITIES in the US are trying to determine whether a Northern California man's anger over complications he suffered from a 2010 surgery prompted him to go on a shooting rampage at a Nevada urologist's office, killing one doctor and critically wounding another before committing suicide.

Reno Police Lieutenant William Rulla said on Friday detectives were working to obtain Alan Oliver Frazier's medical records to learn more about his physical and mental health.

Frazier, 51, made it clear in a suicide note that he had planned the attack and that his "focus was on the physicians at the specific office," Rulla said. Police recovered the note at Frazier's home.

Investigators have declined to specify the kind of surgery he had or say whether the doctors he targeted had anything to do with it.

But a couple who lived across the street from Frazier at Lake Almanor, about 130 miles north of Reno, said the operation he had had was a vasectomy. They also said Frazier frequently posted complaints in an online chat group about the pain he suffered from what he claimed was a botched surgery.

An international expert in men's reproductive health care said that while it's uncommon, some men experience pain more than two years after a vasectomy.

Neighbour Mario Tognotti told The Associated Press on Friday that Frazier told him and his wife that he sought help from doctors for his pain and had approached a lawyer about the situation. Tognotti declined to comment further.

His wife, Jari Tognotti, told the Reno Gazette-Journal in an email Thursday that Frazier encouraged friends to learn more about the kind of painful allergic reactions that men like him sometimes suffered as a result of vasectomies. She said it involved "immune-type reactions while their bodies are trying to absorb the sperm."

Dr Paul Turek, president of the Society of Male Reproduction and Urology, said that while vasectomies remain among the safest forms of permanent contraception, there are potential short- and long-term side effects. He declined to comment on Frazier's case, but noted about 60 to 70 per cent of men who undergo vasectomies develop an allergy to their sperm in the form of "antisperm antibodies."

Turek also said it's rare but possible to experience pain more than two years after a vasectomy.

"Developing over time can be a low-grade discomfort in the scrotum that's basically relieved by reversals because it's due to congestion that causes back pressure," Turek said.

Any sperm allergy appears to be localised to the immune systems on reproductive tracts, he said, and antisperm antibodies have not been shown conclusively to have any significant effect on other organs.

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Investigators probe UK theatre collapse

At least 88 people were injured when the ceiling collapsed during a show at London's Apollo Theatre. Source: AAP

INVESTIGATORS are seeking to establish why the ceiling of a packed London theatre collapsed, injuring 76 people and coating terrified audience members with rubble.

A sell-out crowd of around 720 people was in the Apollo Theatre in Soho on Thursday night when ornate masonry and rigging fell about five storeys on to their heads.

Witnesses said they heard creaking noises in the 112-year-old theatre, but thought it was part of the show they were watching, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Then debris and dust filled the air, sending coughing, terrified theatregoers - many of them families enjoying a pre-Christmas treat - fleeing for the exits.

Rescuers commandeered three iconic red London double-decker buses to transport the injured, while the city's normally tourist-thronged "Theatreland" was brought to a stunned halt.

Ambulance staff treated 76 patients, taking 58 to hospital, where seven were described as having serious but not life-threatening injuries.

A surveyor examined the theatre overnight and said the roof was secure, but investigations are now being carried out by the local authority to establish what happened.

The abnormally heavy rain that fell in the hour before the ceiling collapsed shortly after 8.00pm (0700 AEDT Friday) is likely to be one line of inquiry.

"We will not know the cause of the incident until all investigations have been completed but checks are ongoing," said councillor Nickie Aiken of Westminster Council.

"This appears to be an isolated incident, but we will continue to work with theatres throughout the day to ensure that all safety precautions are in place."

All historic theatres are required to undergo rigorous safety checks on their roofs every three years, she added.

Witnesses told of terror inside the Edwardian-era theatre, which has three tiers of balconies, the uppermost of which is said to be the steepest in London.

"A section of the theatre's ceiling collapsed on to the audience who were watching the show. The ceiling took parts of the balconies down with it," senior firefighter Nick Harding told reporters.

"In my time as a fire officer I've never seen an incident like this."

Desmond Thomas, 18, part of a school party watching the show, said they heard noises before the accident.

"Maybe 10 minutes into the performance we heard a tap-tap noise, we thought it was rain," he told AFP.

"There was a crack and then it suddenly seemed to get bigger and suddenly it collapsed. The next thing we knew the whole theatre filled with dust and smoke."

Simon Usborne, a journalist for The Independent newspaper who was watching the show, said there was "chaos".

"Loud bangs, cracks. Thought was part of show then whole interior of theatre filled with curtain of dark grey dust and debris, falling on heads of anyone not sheltered," he tweeted afterwards.

"People emerging soon after bloodied - children crying - family show - people dumbfounded."

No Australians were reported to be injured in the collapse. "Consular staff are in contact with UK authorities, but have not been advised of any Australians affected at this stage," a spokeswoman for the high commission in London said in a statement.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was being kept updated on the incident and was "grateful for the fast work of the emergency services in helping the injured".

Some of the injured were treated in triage centres set up in the lobbies of the nearby Gielgud and Queen's theatres.

"In the finest traditions of Theatreland, they very quickly rallied around," said fire brigade spokesman Graham Ellis.

He said that "heavy ornate plaster" had fallen from the roof on to theatregoers in the circle, dress circle and stalls.

Audience member James Kearney, who was given a ticket to the show as a present, told AFP there were "people with blood on their heads in shock" behind them.

Kearney's companion Dee Stephenson said there was so much dust afterwards they had to feel their way out.

"Everybody was in a trance-like state. A lot of people were in absolute shock," Stephenson told AFP. "We were extremely fortunate."

Based on an award-winning novel by Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time has been running in London since August 2012.

Haddon said on Twitter that the incident was "horrifying" and that he was "hugely relieved that no one died".

The owner of the Apollo, Nimax Theatres, said the ceiling collapse was a "shocking and upsetting incident".

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No inquest for Ningaloo snorkelling couple

THERE will be no inquest into the death of a couple who died while snorkelling near Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef, with a coroner saying there is no evidence to support suggestions they may have suffered deadly jellyfish stings.

Canberra woman Kathreen Ricketson, 41, washed up at Elle's Beach south of Coral Bay on May 15 as her two children, a 13-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy, looked on.

After the boy saw Ms Ricketson and partner Rob Shugg face down in the water, he raised the alarm.

Attempts to resuscitate her failed and Mr Shugg disappeared before he could be recovered, sparking a massive air, sea and land search.

The 48-year-old washed up on the same beach nine days later.

The coroner's registrar at Carnarvon Magistrates Court has since advised that a formal finding was handed down after an inquiry.

"The coroner has made findings that both deceased died by way of drowning," the registrar wrote.

"The coroner determined that death occurred by way of accident.

"There is no evidence to confirm or deny the involvement of irukandji."

Media reports speculated the deaths could have been linked to a spate of irukandji jellyfish stings in Ningaloo waters in April.

While some species of the jellyfish can be deadly, the victims' lives in those cases were not threatened.

Ms Ricketson's website said she and her partner were planning to write a book about their travels around the country.

On a blog, she described the trip to Ningaloo as a "dream come true".

A trust fund was set up for her children, who are being cared for by relatives.

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Conditions at Nauru horrendous: senator

Greens' Sarah Hanson-Young says conditions for children being held at Nauru are "heart wrenching". Source: AAP

THE living conditions for children at the Nauru detention camp are "heart wrenching", Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says.

The senator has just returned from a four-day trip to the Pacific nation, where she toured the Australian offshore detention facilities housing asylum seekers.

The camps, located in the middle of a phosphate mine, house single adult males and families separately in conditions Senator Hanson-Young described as "harsh".

There was no grass or shade at the facilities, or a space for children to play.

"They live 24/7 on gravel, housed in tents, where it is upwards 40 degrees," she told Sky News on Thursday.

"They can't escape that."

Senator Hanson-Young decried the fact that so close to Christmas, children in the centres had no toys or a school to attend and were confused about why they were being detained.

All detainees she encountered referred to the facilities as prisons, reflecting the "horrendous reality" of the offshore detention policy supported by the federal government and Labor.

"The reality is we are destroying the lives of these children," she said.

The United Nations refugee agency in November warned that asylum seekers being detained at Australia's offshore centres were being subjected to arbitrary, mandatory and indefinite detention in unsafe and inhumane conditions.

Officials inspected detention centres at Nauru and PNG's Manus Island in October, finding harsh conditions there failed to meet international standards.

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Abuse victim's anger at church mediation

THE Catholic Church's response to sex abuse was "Towards Hurting" rather than "Towards Healing" one of the victims has told an inquiry.

The man said he had no faith left after being abused by three Marist Brothers at school and then participating in the church's mediation process Towards Healing, which he called a "sham."

He felt this way when he learned that the order of brothers withheld the fact that an independent mediator in his case actually worked for the Catholic Church.

The 49-year-old identified as DK, who was abused while a boarder at St Augustine's Marist College in Cairns from 1976-81, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse of his desire to forgive, and to educate his children in the Catholic system.

But this had changed because of the process to which he was subjected.

In 1999, DK reported the abuse, which included one brother fondling him when he was 11, another watching him while he showered and a third, Brother Ross Murrin, whom he considered a friend, molesting him twice. Murrin is in jail for unrelated abuse offences.

He was offered a Towards Healing process arranged by Brother Alexis Turton, the Marist Brothers' professional standards director in 2010, with an "independent mediator", Michael Salmon.

DK found out later from a TV program that Mr Salmon was the director of the NSW Professional Standards Office (PSO).

He said this "made me really, really angry because I felt I was lied to".

Under the protocols of Towards Healing, which was set up by the Catholic Church in the early 1990s to deal pastorally with abuse victims, it is recommended that a PSO director not be a mediator.

The March 2010 mediation, which started on an angry note as DK confronted two brothers he believed knew of the abuse, ended amicably, with all parties agreeing to a settlement of $88,000. This was negotiated away from the mediation.

In a statement which he read, DK said the mediation made him feel "really dirty and filthy".

"From 1976 to 1981, I was sexually abused; there was horrendous physical abuse and there was control and emotional abuse by angry, cruel men, who ruled my life and had more control over me than my parents," he said.

He added that he had put his trust back in them for Towards Healing and, by three o'clock that afternoon: "I just felt that the same angry, cruel men had done the same thing to me 25 years later. It's the same abuse.

"I don't call it Towards Healing, I call it 'Towards Hurting'."

Under questioning by Angus Stewart, counsel assisting the commission, Br Turton admitted he had not formally handed the complaint to Mr Salmon, who as director of the Catholic Church's PSO, should have managed it, not mediated it.

Br Turton said he prepared a draft email to DK on February 22 explaining Mr Salmon's position in the church but he never sent it because DK happened to ring and he told him.

DK said that he was now experiencing healing because, although the documents before the commission were searing and painful to read, he was finally getting the truth.

The hearing continues on Thursday.

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Sattler suing Perth station for $500,000

Shock-jock Howard Sattler (R) is suing his former employer 6PR, claiming he was unlawfully sacked. Source: AAP

VETERAN shock-jock Howard Sattler is suing his former radio employer for more than $500,000, claiming he was unlawfully sacked for asking former Prime Minister Julia Gillard if her partner Tim Mathieson was gay.

Mr Sattler caused a national outrage this year with an interview in which he posed the question to Ms Gillard.

Ms Gillard responded that the notion was absurd.

"You hear it! He must be gay. He's a hairdresser," Mr Sattler continued, sparking a vitriolic backlash and his termination from Fairfax Radio's 6PR station in Perth the next day.

Mr Sattler, who is suffering from a form of Parkinson's, has lodged a writ with WA's Supreme Court claiming he was unlawfully dismissed, and the manner of his sacking has made it impossible for him to find work.

Through his lawyer Bruce Havilah, Mr Sattler has claimed more than $500,000, calculated on six months remaining on his contract and a promise of another three-year deal to come.

The writ reveals Mr Sattler earned $190,000 in the first year of his contract and $195,000 in the second year, plus $100 for each live and recorded commercial read on air.

"I am confident that the circumstances will clearly show my claim is justified," Mr Sattler said.

"I will continue my fight for justice with the same tenacity I have fought for others."

The claim will contend that Ms Gillard's office had accepted in writing that the interview would be candid and that it would touch on controversial topics such as same-sex marriage and religion.

"He asked her to respond specifically to a myth about her de facto partner where he voiced that myth," Mr Havilagh said.

"He denies that the contract was breached ... or if it was breached, it was capable of rectification by an an on-air apology."

Mr Sattler said he was only able to launch the legal action through the generosity of others and also had to cut back on medical treatment because of his strained financial position.

But he only regretted asking the question because it led to his sacking.

"It never occurred to me at the time that this would lead to me being sacked," Mr Sattler said.

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Court to rule on bail for alleged bikies

Apple forced to extend warranties

TIME to return that broken iPhone or iPad. Apple Inc is forced to extend its Australian product warranties after an investigation by the ACCC.

Why 2013 is the year of Jessica Hart

YES, we know she criticised Taylor Swift, but it's time to move on. If you ever doubted Aussie model Jessica Hart's star power, just wait until you see her Vogue cover.

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Indigenous services watchdog axed

PM Tony Abbott has axed a watchdog that monitors service delivery in remote indigenous communities. Source: AAP

THE Abbott government has axed a watchdog that monitors service delivery in remote indigenous communities.

The coordinator-general for remote indigenous services, Brian Gleeson, will finish up when his contract expires on January 31.

The midyear economic and fiscal outlook reveals the government will save $7.1 million over three years by scrapping his office.

Mr Gleeson has been monitoring a national agreement, which expires in June, on remote service delivery between the Commonwealth and states and efforts to close the gap on indigenous disadvantage.

He reports every six months, fronts Senate estimates hearings and has conducted 149 visits to 29 remote indigenous communities.

A bureaucrat from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will take on the scrutiny role for the last six months of the national agreement.

Mr Gleeson, who learned of the decision on Tuesday, said he would have liked to continue in the role, and that its independence had proved effective.

"I've built a personal trust and relationships with all the communities. They ring me up when they have an issue," Mr Gleeson said.

"Having a person in a bureaucracy doing the role may not have the same traction."

He was confident there was enough state, territory and the federal government support to come up with successor arrangements once the national agreement expired.

Indigenous legal aid funding is facing a $9 million budget cut.

Amnesty International condemned the decision, pointing to an increase in indigenous incarceration rates.

Meanwhile, the federal government is allocating $28.4 million over two years towards a remote school attendance strategy in 40 remote indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, WA, SA, Queensland and NSW.

It reportedly involves sending truancy officers to children's homes to take them to school, and could be in operation from the first term of 2014.

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Woman charged over Vic man's disappearance

POLICE have charged a woman in relation to the alleged kidnapping and suspected murder of a Melbourne man.

Wayne Amey, 54, was last seen leaving a Toorak restaurant on December 10.

Police searched for his remains in bushland near Inglewood in northern Victoria on Tuesday.

Homicide Squad detectives charged Robyn Lindholm, Mr Amey's former partner, with being an accessory to murder and she faced an out of sessions court hearing on Tuesday evening.

She has been remanded in custody to appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

A 54-year-old man continues to assist police with their inquiries.

A third person, John Anthony Ryan, 36, is now wanted for questioning over the suspected murder.

Detective Inspector John Potter says Mr Ryan is possibly armed and dangerous and anyone who sees him should call triple-zero.

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Aurizon to cut rail fleet, cancel project

FREIGHT and coal haulage operator Aurizon will take a hit of almost $200 million as it cuts the size of its rail fleet and cancels a major Queensland project.

The company, previously known as QR National, is reducing its locomotive fleet by 28 per cent and cutting the number of wagons by 12 per cent in a bid to bring down fuel and maintenance costs.

Aurizon's downsizing will appear as an asset impairment expense of $130 million to $150 million in its accounts for the first half of the 2013/14 financial year.

The company will also incur a $47 million impairment on recent changes to several projects, including Glencore Xstrata's decision to stop the Wandoan project because of weakening thermal coal prices.

Aurizon had proposed a 210 kilometre Surat Basin rail corridor from the Wandoan mine in a joint venture with the Swiss multinational.

"There's not any job losses that are related to that," chief executive Lance Hockridge told reporters on Monday.

In July, Aurizon launched a second voluntary redundancy program in a bid to save $230 million by 2015.

Some 248 voluntary redundancies have since been accepted.

"I think the bulk of it is done," Mr Hockridge said.

More than 2,000 employees have left the company since it was privatised by the former Queensland Labor government in 2010.

Mr Hockridge said he was "cautious but confident" about the thermal coal sector, as well as the future of projects in Queensland's Galilee Basin, where Aurizon has agreed to develop a rail project for the GVK-Hancock joint venture involving billionaire Gina Rinehart.

Aurizon shares dropped two cents to $4.68.

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Kiwi extends gains over Aussie dollar

THE New Zealand dollar has extended its rally against its trans-Tasman counterpart as the divergence between the neighbouring economies makes New Zealand interest rates more attractive.

The kiwi rose as high as 92.49 Australian cents on Monday, the highest since October 2008, trading at 92.40 cents at 5pm in Wellington from 92.26 cents on Friday in New York.

The NZ dollar traded at 82.78 cents from 82.56 cents at 8am and 82.63 cents on Friday in New York.

The kiwi has been making fresh five-year highs against its Australian counterpart as the slowing economy in Australia and burgeoning local recovery underline the different stages of the interest rate cycle each nation's central bank is in.

New Zealand's Reserve Bank is keen on hiking rates next year, while Australia's is sitting on record-low rates to keep the stimulus coming.

Investors will be looking to see any hint of an easing bias when the minutes to this month's Reserve Bank of Australia policy meeting are released on Tuesday.

"Their central bank is quite determined to get the Aussie dollar lower to get a more sustainable mix in their economy," said Dan Bell, head of corporate sales at HiFX in Auckland.

"It looks like the kiwi/Aussie could get up to the 95 cent level" over the next month before it "runs out of puff," he said.

The kiwi fell to 85.04 yen at 5pm in Wellington from 85.31 yen on Friday in New York, and was little changed at 60.16 euro cents from 60.19 cents.

The trade-weighted index was steady at 77.92 from 77.90.

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Eight more dead in Bangladesh riots

10 people have been killed in Bangladesh's violence over the execution of an Islamist party leader. Source: AAP

EIGHT more deaths were reported in Bangladesh in intensified riots and protests sparked by the execution of a top Islamist leader, as the prime minister warned of a crackdown on the violence.

Police said Islamist supporters torched houses and fought running street battles with officers in towns and cities during a third day of unrest over the execution of Abdul Quader Molla for war crimes.

Two people were killed on Sunday in the northern town of Patgram and another six elsewhere overnight, police said, as Islamist supporters enforced a nationwide strike over the execution of Molla, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

"Police fired shotgun pellets to disperse the Jamaat protesters who torched at least 20 houses belonging to ruling party supporters," government administrator Habibur Rahman told AFP of the violence in Patgram.

Molla's hanging on Thursday night triggered fresh unrest in the impoverished country, already reeling from political violence in the build-up to a deeply divisive national election scheduled for January 5.

Twenty people are now known to have died and dozens more have been injured in the clashes since Thursday between outraged Jamaat activists and police and between the activists and supporters of the ruling Awami League.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned of strong action against the rioters, saying "we have shown enough patience. We will not tolerate anymore."

"People of the country know how to reply to these atrocities (the latest violence), we (government) also know how to respond to, control you (the rioters)," she told a rally late on Saturday to commemorate those killed in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Molla, 65, became the first person to be executed for his role in that war. Jamaat called the hanging a "political murder" and said it would avenge it.

Molla had been found guilty in February by a much-criticised domestic tribunal of having been a leader of a pro-Pakistan militia that fought against the country's independence and killed some of Bangladesh's top professors, doctors, writers and journalists.

He was convicted of rape, murder and mass murder, including the killing of more than 350 unarmed civilians. Prosecutors called him the "Butcher of Mirpur", a Dhaka suburb where he committed most of the atrocities.

Of the six killed overnight, police said three died in the southern town of Companyganj, two in the northern town of Ramganj and one in the coastal town of Laxmipur.

At Companyganj, an opposition bastion, police fired rifles to disperse at least 8,000 rampaging Jamaat supporters who torched four government offices and attacked officers with crude bombs and guns, a senior police officer said.

In Ramganj, activists of Jamaat and its main ally, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, attacked a convoy of ruling party lawmakers, leaving two people dead, sub-inspector Ershadul Alam told AFP.

Molla was one of five Islamists and other politicians sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal, which the opposition says is aimed at eradicating its leaders.

The sentences have triggered riots and plunged the country into its worst violence since independence.

Some 250 people have now been killed in street protests since January, when the first verdicts were handed down.

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Red-suited revellers hit NY bars

The costumed New York pub crawl known as SantaCon has seen thousands of Santa's partying in bars. Source: AAP

SANTA Claus came to town despite snow and widespread criticism of the costumed New York pub crawl known as SantaCon.

New York City's SantaCon started on Saturday morning in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. Thousands of red-suited revellers then spread out through the city's bars and snowy streets.

This year's SantaCon takes place in New York amid criticism that the event has become too rowdy. SantaCon participants were told to make charitable donations and encouraged to bring small gifts to bestow on one another and passers-by.

Organisers say similar events were set for more than 100 other cities worldwide on Saturday, including San Francisco; Portland, Oregon, Newport Beach, California and Vancouver, British Columbia.

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