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Tonnes of Xmas trees dumped in garden

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 24 November 2012 | 21.29

AN EARLY seasonal delivery went badly wrong in Austria when a truck was involved in a crash and dumped 13 tonnes of Christmas trees in a resident's garden.

Police in Vorarlberg state, at Austria's western tip, say the accident happened Friday night as a truck with a trailer loaded with trees drove through the town of Hohenems.

The trailer hit a wall, tipped over and landed in the garden of a house. A police statement said that the fire service dispatched 30 people to recover the hundreds of fir trees.

A passenger in the truck was injured and taken to a local hospital.


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Egypt judges strike against Morsi powers

JUDGES in Egypt's second city of Alexandria have announced a strike to reject a decree by President Mohamed Morsi which grants him sweeping powers immune from judicial oversight.

The Judges Club of Alexandria on Saturday announced "the suspension of work in all courts and prosecution administrations in the provinces of Alexandria and Beheira ... until the end of the crisis caused by this declaration," club chief Mohammed Ezzat al-Agwa said in a statement.

Meanwhile Egypt's highest judicial authority on Saturday slammed Morsi's decree, which makes his decisions immune from judicial oversight as an "unprecedented attack".

The new constitutional declaration is "an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings," it said in a statement after an emergency meeting.

Morsi's constitutional declaration replaced the country's chief prosecutor, appointed under ousted president Hosny Mubarak.

Thursday's announcement also made Morsi's decrees immune to judicial review and barred any court from dissolving the constituent assembly, which is drawing up a new constitution.

Around 100 people were injured around Egypt on Friday when thousands of protesters clashed with Morsi's supporters in several cities, where offices of the president's Muslim Brotherhood party were burned.

On Friday, the president spoke before a crowd of his supporters massed in front of his palace and said his edicts were necessary to stop a "minority" that was trying to block the goals of the revolution.

"There are weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt," he said, pointing to old regime loyalists he accused of using money to fuel instability and to members of the judiciary who work under the "umbrella" of the courts to "harm the country."


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China mine explosion kills 18

AN EXPLOSION at a mine in southwest China killed 18 people, state media said, the latest incident to hit the industry, which has a notoriously poor safety record.

Another five people were still trapped underground in the pit after the accident at the Xiangshui coal mine in Liupanshui city in Guizhou Province, the Xinhua state news agency said citing provincial government and company sources.

The blast at the mine, part of the Guizhou Panjiang Group, went off at 11.00 am local time and by early evening 18 people were confirmed dead while several others had been rescued.

China is the world's biggest consumer of coal, relying on the fossil fuel for 70 per cent of its growing energy needs.

But its mines are among the deadliest in the world because of lax regulation, corruption and inefficiency. Accidents are common because safety is often neglected by bosses seeking quick profits.

According to the latest official figures, 1973 people died in coal mining accidents in China in 2011, a 19 per cent fall on the previous year.

But labour rights groups say the actual death toll is likely to be much higher, partly due to under-reporting of accidents as mine bosses seek to limit their economic losses and avoid punishment.


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Highway reopens after horror crash

THE Great Western Highway has reopened after a crash that killed four people, and left a man with critical injuries.

The highway reopened in both directions around 12.45am (AEDT) on Sunday, the Transport Management Centre said.

All lanes of the highway had been closed between Bathurst and Lithgow after the crash at Glanmire, east of Bathurst, around 1.40pm on Saturday.

"A lengthy recovery operation has been completed and all diversions have been lifted," a spokeswoman said.

It was reported that the horrific crash - involving a car, a ute and a semi trailer - occurred after one of the vehicles swerved to miss a dog that had run onto the road.

Three people in the car were killed instantly, while a passenger in the ute also died at the scene.

The ute driver was trapped for an hour and half before being airlifted to Westmead Hospital with life threatening injuries.


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Syrian refugees double since September: UN

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 23 November 2012 | 21.29

THE number of Syrian refugees registered in neighbouring countries has nearly doubled since the beginning of September to more than 440,000, the UN refugee agency says.

"Across the region ... the number of Syrian refugees in surrounding countries now stands at 442,256, an increase of more than 213,000 since the beginning of September," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva.

The figure does not include the hundreds of thousands more who did not come forward for registration.

The agency said it counted 127,420 Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon, 125,670 in Jordan, 123,747 in Turkey, 55,685 in Iraq and 9734 in North African countries.

In Iraq, the number of registered Syrian refugees had tripled since September 1 when only 18,700 were registered there, the agency said in a statement.

Three quarters of all Syrian refugees in Iraq were in the Kurdistan region, and nearly half were in camps.

The Domiz camp in the north of the Kurdistan region was housing around 18,500 people, and had for the past two months received around 500-600 new arrivals per day, it said.

In Jordan, meanwhile, "nearly 4500 desperate and exhausted Syrian refugees have crossed the border over the past eight days, most of them women and children," the UNHCR said.

The UN estimates around 2.5 million Syrians are in need of emergency aid inside the wartorn country.

More than 40,000 people have been killed across Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.


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Swedish racist sniper sentenced to life

A SWEDISH court has sentenced to life in prison a man convicted of two racially motivated killings carried out during a spate of sniper attacks that terrified the southern city of Malmoe.

The sentence against Peter Mangs was handed down on Friday after he was declared legally sane.

"The crimes committed by Peter Mangs are characterised by extreme brutality and a total lack of empathy for others," the judge said in a statement released by the court in Malmoe.

The judge added he believed lifetime prison was "the only possible sentence" for Mangs, who is reportedly unemployed with a history of psychiatric troubles.

Mangs, 40, was found guilty in July of two of the three murders he was charged with, as well as five attempted murders. All the cases involved foreign-looking people.

Kooros Effatian, a 66 year-old Iranian immigrant, was killed at close range in his apartment in June 2003, while Trez West Persson, a 20-year-old Swede, was shot in 2009 as she sat in a car next to a friend of Albanian origin.

Mangs was acquitted of the murder of Firas al-Shariah, a 23-year-old man who was shot dead outside his home in July 2003, and who was buried in Iraq.

Forensic evidence was "central" to the case, the court said, adding that the charges that were dismissed were linked to incidents where the bullets and cartridges found "couldn't with certainty be linked to any of Peter Mang's weapons."

Mangs was also sentenced to pay a total of 1.175 million kronor ($A170,000) to the victims and their families.


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EU budget summit edges toward collapse

EU leaders looked set to throw in the towel as talks on a trillion-euro ($A1.25 trillion) budget for the 27-member bloc faltered over tensions between rich and poor states and Britain's "virulent" demands for austerity.

British Prime Minister David Cameron kept up his defiant stance on the second day of bitter negotiations on the European Union budget for the seven years from 2014 to 2020.

"There really is a problem that there hasn't been the progress in cutting back proposals for additional spending," Cameron, who back home has to pander to the powerful eurosceptic wing of his Conservative party, told reporters on Friday.

Britain, like many countries across Europe, is responding to the economic crisis with major public spending cuts and Cameron argues that at a time of austerity at home the EU must also make deep cuts.

His bleak assessment of the state of the budget talks was shared by other EU leaders, who arrived one by one at European Council building in Brussels for bilateral meetings before the summit proper resumed after lunch.

"I believe that also in this round, we won't be where have to get to, which is a unanimous decision," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, repeating a line she had adopted even before arriving in the Belgian capital.

"If we need a second round, then we will take the time necessary for it," she added, referring to the prospect of another summit in the coming months to nail down a deal.

Merkel and French President Francois Hollande both saw Cameron in bilateral meetings on Friday. A British official said afterward that Merkel was "sympathetic" to the British position. No details emerged of the Hollande meeting.

Nearly a year after he angered his European counterparts by vetoing a pact to resolve the eurozone crisis, Cameron was again at odds with them by demanding cuts to the perks enjoyed by so-called "eurocrats" - the well-paid EU civil servants frequently targeted by the British press.

An EU diplomat said the main obstacle at the summit was Cameron's demand for reductions in the planned trillion-euro budget, adding that "the most virulent" countries seeking cuts were Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands.

European Parliament member and Belgian former prime minister Guy Verhofstadt was scathing about the British position: "It's not necessary to isolate Cameron; he can isolate himself."

Cameron had vowed to bring down the budget from a proposed 1.047 trillion euros to 886 billion euros ($A1.11 trillion).

The summit was set to resume on Friday once delegates from the 27 member nations - which have a total population of 500 million people - have had time to examine new proposals on the budget submitted by EU President Herman Van Rompuy.

The proposals reintroduce his own earlier figure of 972 billion euros ($A1.22 trillion) in spending, which comes to just over one per cent of the EU's total economic output, the usual benchmark used in Brussels budget talks.

The latest blueprint which negotiators will work from Friday spreads the funds more generously to sensitive envelopes like the "cohesion" funds for regional development, and the Common Agricultural Policy, the farm subsidy program cherished by France that is the budget's biggest single item.

"We will not accept the unacceptable," warned Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy, which like France defends farm subsidies, but also backs cohesion funds which have vastly aided Italy's less developed south.

Italy is among the "net contributors", the countries that contribute more to the EU budget than they get back, while once mighty Spain, brought low by the eurozone debt crisis, rejoined the camp of those who get more cash than they put in.

Cohesion funds - billions of euros outlayed each year to the EU's poorer members so they can catch up with richer neighbours - are being defended tooth and nail by the 15 "Friends of Cohesion" nations, led by Poland and Portugal.


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EU, IMF work on Greek debt compromise

THE EU and the International Monetary Fund are working on a compromise to break the deadlock on Greece's debt mountain which has held up the latest rescue loans, a Greek finance ministry source says.

The European Union and IMF, which are fronting Greece's multimillion-euro loan rescue, are 10 billion euros ($A12.5 billion) away from a solution that will satisfy debt management requirements on all sides, the ministry source told AFP.

The IMF has insisted for months that Greece must bring its runaway debt to 120 per cent of output by 2020.

Under the compromise now in the works, the IMF could accept a revised debt target of 124 per cent, the ministry source said.

The International Monetary Fund works to its own internal principles that it should not lend to a country if debt in the medium-term looks unsustainable. The IMF's cut-off point is medium-term debt of 120 per cent of annual output.

But with Greece's economy rapidly contracting owing to the deepening recession that has gripped the country for the past five years, this target has become progressively unrealistic.

In absolute terms, the Greek debt still exceeds 300 billion euros, a sum that will represent about 190 per cent of the country's output in 2014.

The EU-IMF disagreement over Greece's debt sustainability has held up the disbursement of loans from the country's 130-billion-euro financial rescue agreed in February.

Athens has been waiting since June for an instalment of 31.2 billion euros ($A39.03 billion) that was held up owing to reform delays and a protracted electoral campaign.

By the end of 2012, it is also due to receive two more payments, worth five billion and 8.3 billion euros.

In return, it has pledged to implement a series of draconian and unpopular austerity budget measures.

Marathon talks on unblocking the loans collapsed in Brussels this week.

But officials have voiced confidence that a deal will be reached Monday, at the next emergency meeting of the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the 17 states that use the single currency.

"We are working hard on the issue," said Germany's deputy government spokesman Georg Streiter, adding that there was "relative optimism" regarding the upcoming meeting.

"The issues are complex...but there is the desire to find a solution ... though there is still a little work to be done," added German finance ministry spokesman Martin Kotthaus.


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Five charged with Sydney home invasions

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 22 November 2012 | 21.29

FIVE men have been charged in relation to a number of home invasions and armed robberies across Sydney.

Police say two of the men allegedly broke into a man's home at Haberfield, in Sydney's inner-west, at 5.30am (AEST) on Thursday.

The duo allegedly struck the man with a wooden bat before stealing the keys to his car.

They then fled the scene with a group of males outside the house.

Officers later located the stolen car at a fast food restaurant car park about 5km away at Hurlstone Park.

They arrested five men aged between 16 and 19 and later charged them with a number of other offences, including armed robbery and aggravated break, enter and steal.

It is alleged the five were involved in several other home invasion and armed robbery incidents within the Sydney metropolitan area.

All five were refused bail, with four to appear at Bidura Children's Court on Friday, and the other to appear at Central Local Court on Friday.


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Woman dies in schoolies balcony fall

A TEENAGE girl has died after falling from the balcony of a Gold Coast high rise.

The girl, believed to be a schoolie, fell from the Chevron Renaissance tower in Surfers Paradise, the ABC reports.

Police would only say that a woman had died after falling off the balcony of a Gold Coast Highway high rise at 9.30pm (AEST) on Thursday.

They are speaking to members of the family and said they could not immediately confirm whether the woman had been part of schoolies festivities.


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Man takes hostages, demands Japan PM quit

A MAN armed with a knife has taken five people hostage at a Japanese bank, police say, with local media reporting he was demanding Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's cabinet resign.

About seven hours after the drama began on Thursday the man released one hostage, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Television footage showed a woman walking away from the bank as night fell, escorted by a police officer and apparently handcuffed.

She was not immediately identified and the reason for the handcuffs was unclear.

The hostage-taking happened at the Zoshi branch of the Toyokawa Shinkin Bank in the central prefecture of Aichi in the early afternoon, a police spokesman said without elaborating.

Local media said the man, wielding a survival knife, took four employees and a female customer captive and was demanding the Noda cabinet step down as well as asking to speak to journalists.

Noda last week called an election for December 16. He is expected to lose, with polls suggesting the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party will be the biggest party.

The hostage-taker was originally said to be in his 30s or 40s but later reports suggested he was in his 50s.

NHK said there was no report of injuries to the hostages and the man had made no demands for money.

However, he was asking for 10 days' worth of food and water, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said. Broadcasters said he had also demanded cigarettes and a lighter.

Television footage showed a man who appeared to be a police officer carrying a megaphone and a plastic bag to a side door of the building. Shutters were down all over it but lights could be seen inside.

TV footage showed the area around the bank sealed off and guarded by police.


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Aussies living longer 'disability free'

AUSTRALIANS are living longer and the extra years are coming "disability free", new figures from the federal government show.

In the decade to 2009, life expectancy at birth jumped 3.4 years to 79.3 for men. Life expectancy for women rose 2.4 years to 83.9.

Over the same period the number of years men can expect to live without disability rose 3.7 to 61.6 years. For women the figure jumped 2.2 to 64.3 years.

"The good news is when it comes to these additional years many are disability free," Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) senior executive Brent Diverty told AAP.

The AIHW report "Changes in life expectancy and disability", released on Friday, notes that a large part of the growth in expected disability-free years occurred between 2003 and 2009.

That period saw disability rates decline for the first time in 30 years at the same time as there was a relatively slow growth in life expectancy.

The most recent life expectancy figures - for the 10 years to 2011 - were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier in November.

They show a baby boy born today can expect to live 79.7 years. A girl can expect to live until she's 84.2.

The gap between the sexes is closing over time but, as Mr Diverty says, "it's difficult to say if it will ever completely close".

Life expectancy in Australia rose markedly from the beginning of the 20th century as a result of improvements in sanitation, healthcare and nutrition. Declining smoking rates helped later on.


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Oil prices spike as Middle East truce hope

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 21 November 2012 | 21.29

OIL prices have jumped as renewed violence between Israel and Gaza dims hopes of a ceasefire and easing Middle East supply concerns, while traders look ahead to US energy inventory data.

Dealers said gains were being capped by news that eurozone ministers had failed to reach a deal over debt-plagued Greece's latest instalment of bailout funding.

The price of Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January rallied $1.45 to $111.28 a barrel in London midday deals.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January or West Texas Intermediate (WTI), advanced $1.03 to $US87.78 ($A84.92) a barrel.

Prices jolted higher as a blast ripped through a bus in Tel Aviv, injuring 17 people in what Israel said was a "terrorist" attack, further vexing international efforts to end relentless Gaza-linked violence.

"Oil prices... posted renewed gains on Wednesday, as persistent concerns about Middle East tensions dominated the oil market," said analyst Myrto Sokou at brokerage Sucden Financial Research.

The bus attack came as Hamas-controlled Gaza was rocked by new Israeli air strikes and as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN chief Ban Ki-moon shuttled between Jerusalem and Ramallah to secure a halt to the bloodletting.

Crude futures had slumped on Tuesday on expectations of a truce between Israel and Gaza, while sentiment was also dented by fresh economic strains in Europe.

Oil prices had on Monday surged about $2.00 a barrel to strike one-month highs as Israel stepped up its assault on Gaza.

But markets pulled lower on Tuesday, also after Moody's stripped France of its prized triple-A sovereign rating, warning that it was vulnerable to more deterioration in troubled eurozone nations.

Later on Wednesday, the US government's Department of Energy was to post its weekly report on energy reserves, for the week ending November 16.

American crude stockpiles were expected to have risen by 800,000 barrels, according to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Market reaction to the data was set to be muted ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, when all financial markets shut in the United States.


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China car market to grow 8% annually

GROWTH in China's auto market, the world's largest, is forecast to slow to an average eight per cent annually from now until 2020 as consumers' tastes change, consultancy McKinsey said Wednesday.

The country's auto market grew an average of 24 per cent a year between 2005 and 2011, the global management consulting firm said in a newly issued report.

Despite the slowdown - from a 24 per cent average between 2005 and 2011 - China will remain the world's top market with sales of 22 million passenger cars in 2020, due to steady economic growth, rising incomes and road building, it said.

"Chinese consumers are growing more sophisticated about cars and their tastes are evolving," the report said.

"The Chinese car market is becoming more like that of North America, Europe and Japan and perhaps even more complex, given the many regional and segment differences."

Figures from a Chinese industry group show China's passenger car sales rose 6.9 per cent annually in the January-October period to 12.57 million vehicles.

Growth so far this year shows improvement from the 5.2 per cent for all of 2011, but is far below the 33 per cent recorded in 2010, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.

"Automakers must also factor in the uncertainties that may slow or disrupt market growth," McKinsey warned.

"The volatility, combined with chronic overcapacity, adds greatly to the challenges of doing business in the Chinese market."

Uncertainty over the global economy and policy moves by the Chinese government could have a negative impact, the consultancy also said.

Some Chinese cities have already slapped limits on car numbers due to concerns over traffic congestion and air pollution.

McKinsey said the business environment could also face "disruption" due to industry consolidation, while emerging alternatives to car ownership, such as better public transport, could also present a challenge.

Still, consumers were expected to buy bigger and more expensive vehicles, with sales of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) forecast to rise 13 per cent annually from 2011 to 2020, it said.


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DRC rebels vow they will not stop at Goma

REBELS in the Democratic Republic of Congo have warned they have the entire country in their sights after seizing the key eastern city of Goma, and demanded that President Joseph Kabila leave power.

"We are not going to stop at Goma, we will go as far as Bukavu, Kisangani and Kinshasa," M23 spokesman Viannay Kazarama told a crowd massed at a stadium in Goma on Wednesday, a day after the rebels easily overran the city.

Kazarama also demanded the departure of Kabila, charging that he was not the legitimate winner of a hotly disputed presidential election last year.

But in Goma, rebels were consolidating their control of the city which they took with ease on Tuesday after a five-day advance, with locals cheering as vehicles packed full of gun-toting M23 fighters drove through the streets.

At the rally in Goma, the capital of mineral-rich North Kivu province, Kazarama called for police and soldiers to join the rebels, who have vowed to continue fighting unless Kinshasa agrees to talks.

The UN has around 1500 "quick reaction" peacekeepers in Goma, part of some 6700 troops in North Kivu province, backing government forces against the rebels.

The UN defended its peacekeepers after Goma fell, with deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey saying a battle for the city would have put civilians at risk.

"Do you open fire and put civilians at risk or do you hold your fire, continue your patrols, observe what is happening and remind the M23 that they are subject to international humanitarian and human rights law?" he asked.

Rebels in the DRC - M23 among them - have been blamed for hundreds of deaths since they launched their uprising in the east in April.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes or camps around Goma, a city of about one million that is sheltering tens of thousands forced from their homes by conflict.

Aid group Oxfam described the situation as "a humanitarian catastrophe on a massive scale" and urged the international community to act.

Global Witness called for both sides to stop fighting for the sake of the civilians.

Kabila has meanwhile urged the population to defend the nation.

In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday, he alluded to Rwanda's alleged role in the conflict.

"When a war is imposed, one has an obligation to resist," Kabila said. "I ask that the entire population defend our sovereignty."

The M23, formed by former members of an ethnic Tutsi rebel group, mutinied in April after the failure of a 2009 peace deal that integrated them into the regular DRC army.

Two wars that shook the whole of DR Congo between 1996 and 1997, and then again from 1998 to 2002, both began in the Kivu region, with Rwanda and Uganda playing active roles in both.

Since 1998, more than three million people are estimated to have died from combat, disease and hunger, and 1.6 million have been left homeless.

The former Belgian colony, known as Zaire under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was toppled in 1997, remains one of the world's least developed countries despite a wealth of cobalt, copper, coltan, diamonds and gold.


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Smartphones killing digital cameras

THE soaring popularity of smartphones is crushing demand for point-and-shoot cameras, threatening the once-vibrant sector as firms scramble to hit back with web-friendly features and boost quality, analysts say.

A sharp drop in sales of digital compact cameras marks them as the latest casualty of smartphones as videogame consoles and portable music players also struggle against the all-in-one features offered by the likes of Apple's iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy.

Just as digital cameras all but destroyed the market for photographic film, the rapid shift to picture-taking smartphones has torn into a camera sector dominated by Japanese firms including Canon, Olympus, Sony and Nikon.

"We may be seeing the beginning of the collapse of the compact camera market," said Nobuo Kurahashi, analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities.

Figures from Japan's Camera and Imaging Products Association echo the analyst's grim prediction.

Global shipments of digital cameras among Japanese firms tumbled about 42 per cent in September from a year ago to 7.58 million units, with compact offerings falling 48 per cent, according to the Association.

Higher-end cameras with detachable lenses fell a more modest 7.4 per cent in that time, it said.

Part of the decline was due to weakness in debt-hit Europe and a Tokyo-Beijing territorial spat that has sparked a consumer boycott of Japan-brand products in the China market.

But smartphones have proved a mighty rival to point-and-shoot cameras, analysts say, offering an all-in-one phone, computer and camera with comparatively high quality pictures and Internet photo downloading.

Those features have also dug into videogame makers such as Nintendo, which has just released its new Wii U game console, as smartphone owners increasingly download free online games or store music on the devices instead of using standalone MP3 players.

"The market for compact digital cameras shrank at a faster speed and scale than we had imagined as smartphones with camera functions spread around the world," Olympus president Hiroyuki Sasa told a news briefing this month.

Olympus said its camera business lost money in its fiscal first-half due to the growing popularity of camera-equipped smartphones, and a strong yen which makes Japanese exports less competitive overseas.

Digital camera firms have scaled back their sales targets for the fiscal year to March in a "collapsing" market, said Tetsuya Wadaki, an analyst at Nomura Securities.

"Order volumes at parts suppliers currently appear to be down more than 30 per cent year-on-year," Wadaki said.

Firms are scrambling to keep improving picture quality, offer features such as water-proofing and expand their Internet features, like allowing users to share pictures through social media networks.

Camera makers say growth areas include emerging economies - where many own neither a camera nor a smartphone - along with replacement demand among compact-camera owners.

And the fall-off in demand has not been as stark for the pricier detachable lens cameras favoured by avid photographers and growing ranks of camera-buff retirees, particularly in rapidly ageing Japan, they say.

Another emerging battleground is for mirror-less cameras which can be made nearly as small as compact cameras but with picture quality that rivals their bulkier counterparts.

Canon insists the market has not been abandoned to smartphones.

"Demand for quality snapshots is there, like taking pictures of your friends' weddings, an overseas vacation, or your children," a Canon spokesman said.

"We believe there are many people who need compact cameras," he added.

Mizuho analyst Kurahashi acknowledged that compact cameras "will not disappear".

"But we see the current trend continuing as image quality in smartphone cameras steadily improves," he said.

"The compact camera market is going to keep shrinking and it's difficult to forecast any immediate comeback, or have any optimism."


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AIDS deaths plunge in sub-Saharan Africa

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 20 November 2012 | 21.29

DEATHS from HIV/AIDS have fallen sharply in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, with particular progress made on protecting children from the deadly virus, the UN says.

"Between 2005 and 2011, the number of people dying from AIDS-related causes in sub-Saharan Africa declined by 32 per cent, from 1.8 million to 1.2 million," the UN's program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said in its annual report on the state of the global pandemic.

The number of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, which remains the epicentre of the crisis, meanwhile plunged 25 per cent over 10 years, from 2.4 million in 2001 to 1.8 million last year, according to the report published ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1.

Despite the progress made to bring down the infection rate in the region, sub-Saharan Africa still counts 23.5 million people living with HIV, or 69 per cent of the global total, according to the report.

Women are disproportionately affected, accounting for 58 per cent of all HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, and, alarmingly, 92 per cent of all pregnant women in the world who live with the virus were in the region.

Yet particular progress had been made in bringing down the number of children newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa - a region that today is home to 90 per cent of the world's infected youngsters, UNAIDS said.

Between 2009 and 2011, the number of children in the region infected with the virus that causes AIDS dropped 24 per cent, with a number of countries, including Kenya and South Africa, seeing falls of between 40 and 59 per cent.

However, 11 countries in the region saw far more modest declines, while the number of new infections among children rose in four countries: Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.

UNAIDS, which spearheads the international fight against AIDS, said that low and middle-income countries in the region had increased their HIV prevention investment by 15 per cent from 2010 to 2011.

In 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, external funding sources account for more than 50 per cent of HIV investments, while other countries including South Africa and Botswana provided more than 75 per cent of their own expenditure, UNAIDS said.


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Pope publishes last volume of Jesus bio

POPE Benedict XVI has published the third and last volume of his biography of Jesus Christ, a touching and highly personal work written under the theologian pope's own name of Joseph Ratzinger.

The tome devoted to Jesus's childhood is being published in nine languages with a first edition of around a million copies, the Vatican says.

Its 147 pages are the result of years of work that began in 2003 when Ratzinger was still head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Pope has devoted "all his free time to bring to fruition this project, which he wanted and loved," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told hundreds of journalists and clergymen assembled in a large hall in the Holy See.

The book was what the Pope "has most at heart" and matured as part of "a long internal journey" from when he first entered the clergy in Germany.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the volume focuses on 180 verses from the Bibles of Matthew and John.

The book is "a gateway into a palace where we can already hear voices coming from chambers inside, particularly the question that Pontius Pilate asked Jesus at his trial 33 years later: 'Who are you?'" Ravasi said.

The book is written by Ratzinger rather than Pope Benedict XVI, meaning that it is an academic work rather than dogma that cannot be contradicted.

The book is characterised by its "clarity and humility," Ravasi said.

Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives goes on sale on Wednesday.

The first two volumes of the biography From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration and From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection were published in 2007 and 2011.


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Two more Tibetans in China self-immolate

TWO more Tibetans in China have burned themselves to death, state media and a rights group have reported, part of a wave of protests against Chinese rule.

China's official Xinhua news agency said that two herdsmen self-immolated in northwestern Chinese provinces.

Tsering Dongdri, 35, set himself on fire close to a remote gold mine in Gansu province on Tuesday, the report said, adding an investigation was underway.

Another herdsman, 25, died after setting himself on fire late on Monday inside the home of his brother, a Buddhist monk, in Qinghai province, Xinhua said.

US-based Tibetan rights group International Campaign for Tibet, meanwhile, also reported two self-immolations for the same days and provinces.

It said that a farmer and nomad named Tsering Dundrup, who it described as being in his 30s, self-immolated on Tuesday in Gansu, while Wangchen Norbu, 25, died after setting himself on fire late on Monday.

Though some details differed, the times, dates and locations strongly suggest they were the same incidents reported by Xinhua.

Many Tibetans in China accuse the government of religious repression and eroding their culture, as the country's majority Han ethnic group increasingly moves into historically Tibetan areas.

China rejects this, saying Tibetans enjoy religious freedom. Beijing points to huge ongoing investment it says has brought modernisation and a better standard of living to Tibet.

The Tibetan government-in-exile says 76 people have set themselves on fire since 2009, of whom 62 have died. Those figures were released before the latest reported self-immolations.


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HP reports big loss on writedowns

HEWLETT-PACKARD has reported a $US6.9 billion ($A6.66 billion) quarterly loss, hit by a massive writedown in the value of a British company acquired last year which had "serious accounting improprieties."

The US computer giant said the results closed the fiscal year with a $12.65 billion loss, sending its share price tumbling some nine per cent in pre-market trade.

HP said it took a writeoff of $8.8 billion in the past quarter, mostly due to "serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations" at Autonomy Corporation, a British-based enterprise software firm bought by HP hast year for over $10 billion.


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Syria opposition to be based in Egypt

Written By Unknown on Senin, 19 November 2012 | 21.29

A NEWLY formed Syrian opposition bloc that has received Arab and international backing is to be based in Egypt, its head Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib has told the official MENA news agency.

"It has been decided that the Syrian National Coalition will have its headquarters in Egypt," Khatib was quoted as saying after talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr.

Amr said Egypt was willing to "offer any assistance to the coalition in the coming phase".

The National Coalition was formed last week after extensive talks in Doha, Qatar, one of the six Gulf states that have officially recognised it as the representative of the Syrian people, along with France and Turkey.

The Arab League has recognised the alliance as "the legitimate representative of the Syrian opposition".

The coalition aims to present a united front to the international community and is lobbying for weapons and cash to help it topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But the main Islamist rebel groups in Aleppo, a key frontline in Syria's civil war, have rejected the bloc and instead called for an Islamic state.

Khatib said the coalition - which brings together 14 groups including the powerful Syrian National Council - would work to include all the holdouts.

He said the National Coalition would be holding a meeting in Cairo "within 10 days" and "we will listen to our brothers who have not joined this coalition".

"Many positive steps have been taken ... we will communicate with our brothers who have reservations for further co-operation for the sake of the Syrian people," Khatib said.

The conflict in Syria has claimed upwards of 39,000 lives since it broke out more than 20 months ago, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.


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Berlusconi accountant held hostage

SILVIO Berlusconi's accountant was taken hostage in his home last month by armed intruders who demanded a 35 million euro ($A43 million) ransom from the former Italian prime minister, police say.

The police have arrested three Italians and three Albanian citizens accused of taking Giuseppe Spinelli, one of Berlusconi's closest allies, and his wife Anna hostage for a night in October.

Three attackers forced their way into Spinelli's apartment on October 15, and in the early hours of the following morning forced him to call Berlusconi, demanding the ransom for the couple's release.

In exchange for the ransom, they also offered to hand over documents they claimed would overturn a guilty verdict for graft against one of the ex-prime minister's companies, according to media reports.

"Spinelli was suffering from shock. He could not say he had been taken hostage because he feared for his wife's life" during the telephone call to Berlusconi, said Niccolo Ghedini, one of the media magnate's lawyers.

"He was terrified, he was still being threatened with weapons," he said.

The three intruders, who had been tracking Spinelli's movements since June, left a few hours later, taking with them the building's video surveillance tapes.

Police said there was no evidence the ransom had been paid.

Spinelli, 71, is one of Berlusconi's closest friends. The media magnate, who is currently on trial for paying a 17-year-old call girl for sex, entrusted his accountant with giving cash presents to young girls invited to his parties.

The ex-prime minister's lawyers did not alert police to the hostage situation and extortion attempt until 30 hours later, according to media reports.

The intruders claimed the documents they had in hand would overturn a court ruling in 2011 that ordered one of Berlusconi's family companies to pay 560 million euros to a rival group as compensation for corrupt activities in a takeover battle.


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S African gunman guilty of Dewani murder

A JUDGE has found a South African man guilty of killing Swedish newlywed Anni Dewani while she was on her honeymoon in Cape Town two years ago, amid claims her husband organised the hit.

"I'm satisfied that the accused has committed the crime of murder," Judge Robert Henney told the High Court on Monday, delivering the verdict against Xolile Mngeni.

Dewani, a Swede of Indian origin, had been married for just two weeks when she was killed in November 2010, in what prosecutors said was a faked hijacking.

Henney told the High Court that Mngeni, a suspected small-time drug dealer, had plotted with two co-accused to carry out the premeditated murder for 15,000 rand (now $A1650).

Henney convicted the 25-year-old of firing the shot that killed Dewani, robbery with aggravating circumstances and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Dewani's husband Shrien Dewani is accused of orchestrating the hit, but has protested his innocence and is fighting extradition to South Africa.

The judge did not rule on Shrien's alleged culpability, focusing on the role of Mngeni.

Dewani was killed by a single gunshot while travelling in the back of the car with her British husband.

"During this incident, the deceased was shot once through the neck by the accused as a result of which, she died," said Henney, who said the co-accused had planned the murder to appear a car hijacking.

Two local men already jailed over the killing have fingered Shrien as their paymaster.

Mngeni, who has undergone surgery for a brain tumour and needed a walking frame to move to and from the dock, appeared unmoved as the verdict was handed down.

He had pleaded not guilty to killing the bride, but admitted that his palm print was on the car in which Dewani's lifeless body was found in a poor Cape Town township and had also pointed out key scenes to police.

The judge dismissed Mngeni's version of the night's events as "riddled with improbabilities, inconsistencies and untruths" and his testimony as "dishonest".

Shrien Dewani is being treated at a secure mental hospital in the English city of Bristol ahead of a court decision on his extradition.


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No need for abuse comment apology: Barnett

WEST Australian Premier Colin Barnett says the state opposition's response to his comments about the royal commission into child sex abuse was wrong and inappropriate.

Opposition child protection spokeswoman Sue Ellery called on the premier to apologise to victims of child abuse after he told ABC radio that the far-reaching national inquiry announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week could destroy institutions around the country.

Mr Barnett said he held grave concerns about the legacy the massive inquiry may leave on the organisations investigated and the victims involved.

The premier said he hoped the royal commission would achieve positive outcomes, "but I also fear for the negativity that could come out of it".

"I think you will see many people's lives destroyed. I think you will see many of Australia's institutions - which may have been at fault - also destroyed, and great divisions in the community," he told ABC radio.

But Ms Ellery said the premier's reservations made light of the abuse suffered by many people over many years, saying his comments showed "an appalling lack of sensitivity", and that the royal commission would be an important part of the healing process for victims.

"Most Western Australians would be appalled that the premier appears more concerned about protecting the perpetrators than providing a platform to investigate abuse claims," she said.

However, Mr Barnett said Ms Ellery's comments were wrong and inappropriate.

Mr Barnett said the WA government's concern for the victims of child sexual abuse had been illustrated by its efforts with the St Andrew's Hostel inquiry earlier this year, conducted by former Supreme Court Justice Peter Blaxell.

The inquiry initially focused on events in the 1970s and 1980s at the St Andrew's Hostel in Katanning, run by notorious pedophile brothers Dennis and Neil McKenna, and was later expanded to St Christopher's Hostel in Northam, Hardie House in South Hedland and St Michael's House in Merredin.

"The WA Government also made ex-gratia payments to more than 5000 survivors of child abuse in a scheme that closed last year," Mr Barnett said later on Monday.

"This scheme allowed victims of child abuse an opportunity to tell their story and for the first time for many to be believed.

"As I said in this (ABC radio) interview and on many other occasions, Western Australia will fully co-operate with the royal commission announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard."

AAP rlm/apm


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Expert doubts value of work drug tests

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 18 November 2012 | 21.29

THERE is little evidence that random drug testing in the workplace is effective and it could be contributing to an increase in the use of synthetic substances, according to an expert.

The deputy director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) at Flinders University, Ken Pidd, says drug-testing in the workplace is just an easy "tick-a-box" response to the problem.

Dr Pidd is to present his finding on Monday at the 2012 Conference of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD) in Melbourne.

"Certainly there is very little rigorous research on the effectiveness of workplace drug testing and within that not much support for testing," Dr Pidd said.

"As a stand-alone strategy, workplace drug testing is an easy tick-a-box response and an ill-informed reaction to the problem of drug-impaired workers putting themselves and their colleagues at risk of accidents and injuries."

Dr Pidd said employees who take drugs could simply change their patterns of consumption and the types of substances they consumed.

He believes workplace testing may be contributing to the increase in synthetic drug use such as Jack3d and Kronic, and pharmaceutical drug misuse.

Western Australia, where many mining-related companies had adopted urine testing, had the highest national rate of amphetamine use.

Dr Pidd said some employers wrongly believed that drug testing was required to meet their workplace health and safety obligations.

"What they do need are high-quality education and training programs which help develop a workplace culture conducive to health and safety," he said.


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Australians back royal commission: poll

THE decision by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to establish a royal commission into child sexual abuse has the backing of almost every Australian, according to a Fairfax/Nielsen poll.

The poll shows 95 per cent of voters support the royal commission, while only three per cent are against it.

Nielsen poll director John Stirton told Fairfax he could not recall a poll issue ever receiving such universal support.

The royal commission, which will inquire into all institutions, not only churches, has the support of all political parties, state and federal.

The poll, which involved 1400 voters, also found that most Australians think the carbon tax is making no difference to them but they still want it repealed.

It found 56 per cent, two per cent more since September, believed they were unaffected by the tax that started on July 1.

The same proportion believed the tax should be repealed, something the coalition has promised to do.

The poll also showed that while support for processing of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island has dipped it still remains high.

Sixty-three per cent of those questioned support the Pacific solution - a four-point drop since announced in August - while 30 per cent are against it, which is a rise of three points.


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NSW boy detained, indecently assaulted

A MAN has been charged after allegedly detaining and indecently assaulting a nine-year-old boy on the NSW central coast.

It is alleged the boy was skateboarding with friends on Denning Street at The Entrance about 3.35pm (AEDT) on Saturday when he was approached by a man, who convinced the boy to go to his home.

Police will allege the boy went to the home and, when inside, the man locked the doors, refused to let the child leave and, during the night, indecently assaulted him.

When the child failed to return home by 9.30pm his mother raised the alarm, with police searching through the night.

The boy was located about 7.45am on Sunday when he was spotted by his family after leaving the man's home.

A 37-year-old man was taken to The Entrance Police Station where he was arrested by detectives from the Child Abuse Squad.

He was charged with detaining a person with intent to obtain advantage and indecently assaulting a person under the age of 16.

The man was refused bail and will appear before Wyong Local Court on Monday.


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Obama hopes for no 'ramping up' in Gaza

US President Barack Obama says it is "preferable" for the Gaza crisis to be ended without a "ramping up" of Israeli military action, as fears mount of a new invasion of the Hamas-run territory.

"Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory," Obama said, adding, "if that can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that is preferable".

"That is not just preferable for the people of Gaza, it is also preferable for Israelis because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they are much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded," he said.

Obama spoke in Thailand on Sunday, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to "significantly expand" its operation against militants in the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a new invasion.

The US president said the "precipitating event" of the Gaza crisis was a string of extremist rocket attacks on Israeli territory, which he said no nation in the world would tolerate.

He also backed the Jewish state's right to self-defence on a day in which the crisis deepened, with two rockets shot down over Tel Aviv and the Palestinian death toll from retaliatory strikes reaching 56.

Obama, who visited Israeli border areas around the town of Sderot when he was a candidate for president in 2008, said it was clear what had caused the latest crisis over Gaza.

"Let's understand what the precipitating event here was ... that was an ever-escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in Israeli territory but in areas that are populated.

"There is no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders."

Obama has spoken to Netanyahu, with whom he has had a tense relationship, several times since the start of the crisis, most recently on Friday.

Netanyahu has expressed deep appreciation for US investment in the Iron Dome rocket and mortar defence system, which he said has stopped hundreds of incoming rockets from Gaza.

In the latest retaliatory strikes by Israel on Sunday, three people were killed, including two women, in Gaza City.

Netanyahu said Israel was ready to "significantly expand" its operation against militants in the Gaza Strip.


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