Coal collapses at Indian mine kills seven

AN official says at least seven villagers were killed and five others injured when a heap of coal collapsed on them at a coal mine in eastern India.

Dikken Mehra, a spokesman for state-owned Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd, says the villagers trespassed into the mine on Saturday to steal coal in order to sell it, a common occurrence at coal mines in India.

Mehra says that about half a dozen villagers are feared to be trapped in the debris and that rescue work is continuing.

The coal mine is about 650 kilometres west of Bhubaneshwar, the capital of Orissa state.

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Abbott praises US for its race relations

THE US has bested Australia in overcoming historical racism by putting Barack Obama in the White House, Tony Abbott says.

The opposition leader came straight from the Top End, where he'd flagged a more engaged relationship with indigenous Australians and underscored his belief in constitutional recognition of Australia's first peoples, to address a diplomatic function in Sydney on Saturday night.

Mr Abbott told the Australian American Leadership Dialogue gala dinner that, like the US, Australia had tried to live by the ethos of treating others as they would be treated, but had not always succeeded.

"For all the difficult history ... you have got this so much more right than we have over the years," he said.

"Whatever I might think of the politics of President Obama, the fact that America elected him five years or so back is proof positive that in that great democracy, in that shining city on a hill, the content of a man's character counts for far more than the colour of his skin."

The night offered a breath of bipartisanship after six days of election campaigning, with former Labor leader Kim Beazley, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare and Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr sharing a stage - and a couple of hugs - with shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop.

"I'm happy to give (Mr Clare) a hug because if you ask the Daily Telegraph, he's the third most sexy man in Australian politics," Mr Morrison joked.

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UK redheads rally in Ginger Pride walk

MORE than a hundred redheads have taken part in the UK's first Ginger Pride march.

A parade led by Canadian comic Shawn Hitchins wound through Edinburgh city centre on Saturday to demonstrate against "gingerism" - described as prejudice or discrimination against people with red hair.

The march created an "amazing" atmosphere as it made its way from the Balmoral Hotel on Princes Street across North Bridge to the city's Royal Mile, Hitchins said.

"Everyone was cheering and we definitely let everyone know that it gets redder," he said.

"I just want to thank all my fellow gingers who took the time attend today's inaugural Ginger Pride event.

"I believe we truly sent a message to the world of how proud we are to be ginger. It was a special moment for gingers everywhere. All hail the red, orange and pale."

Marchers held aloft signs carrying messages such as "For the love of ginger", "All hail! The red, orange and pale" as well as "Ginger and proud".

Hitchins is also performing a show inspired by his hair colour called Ginger Nation at this year's Edinburgh PBH's Free Fringe.

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Obama denies bad relationship with Putin

PRESIDENT Barack Obama denies having a bad relationship with Vladimir Putin, even though he said the Russian leader can appear to have a "slouch" and sometimes looks "like the bored kid in the back of the classroom."

The comments came at a White House press conference on Friday, two days after Obama cancelled a summit in Moscow with Putin due to what the United States called a lack of progress on key issues and Russia's granting asylum to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

"I don't have a bad personal relationship with Putin," Obama insisted.

"When we have conversations, they're candid, they're blunt; oftentimes, they're constructive.

"I know the press likes to focus on body language and he's got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. But the truth is, is that when we're in conversations together, oftentimes it's very productive," the president said.

Aside from Snowden, Washington and Moscow disagree on issues that include the war in Syria, missile defence, nuclear disarmament and human rights.

As Russia's defence and foreign ministers met in Washington with their US counterparts, Obama said relations have chilled since Putin's return to the Russian presidency in May 2012.

"I think there's always been some tension in the US-Russian relationship after the fall of the Soviet Union," Obama said.

"There's been cooperation in some areas. There's been competition in others. It is true that in my first four years in working with President Medvedev, we made a lot of progress."

Medvedev was Russia's leader between 2008 and 2012 while then former president Putin took a turn as prime minister - having first boosted the powers of the office - before returning to the top job.

This period saw a brief flowering of joint US-Russian projects, including a new strategic arms reduction treaty and a deal that saw Russia help supply US forces in Afghanistan.

"What's also true is, is that when President Putin... came back into power, I think we saw more rhetoric on the Russian side that was anti-American, that played into some of the old stereotypes about the Cold War," Obama said.

"And I've encouraged Mr Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards on those issues. With mixed success."

Obama however said he was against a boycott of Russia's Winter Olympics next year over a controversial new Russian law banning "homosexual propaganda."

Some gay rights activists around the world have called for a boycott, and US Senator Lindsey Graham said he thought Washington should consider boycotting the Games if Russia were to grant asylum to Snowden.

There is a precedent: the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

"I want to just make very clear right now, I do not think it's appropriate to boycott the Olympics," Obama said.

"Nobody's more offended than me by some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation that you've been seeing in Russia," Obama said.

The most immediate barrier to warmer relations is Snowden, a former US intelligence contractor who fled to Moscow after revealing details of the US National Security Agency's vast electronic spy networks targeting telephone calls and email.

Washington wants him extradited to face espionage charges, and was outraged when Moscow granted him political asylum.

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Zanzibar offers reward after acid attack

ZANZIBAR has offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of men suspected of hurling acid in the faces of two young British women.

Information and Tourism Minister Said Ali Mbarouk said Wednesday's attack on the two 18-year-olds - the first such assault on foreigners in the popular tourist destination - was "a shame on the people of Zanzibar".

He said anyone providing information leading to the arrest of the assailants would be given 10 million Tanzanian shillings ($A5000).

Two men on a moped threw acid at Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup on Wednesday evening as they strolled through Stone Town, the historical centre of the capital of the semi-autonomous Tanzanian archipelago, splashing their faces and chests.

"We have to work harder to make sure that Zanzibar is safe for visitors and citizens," the minister said on Friday.

Wednesday's incident was the first assault on foreigners in the Indian Ocean island but acid has been used in a number of recent attacks.

The women were flown to Tanzania's economic capital Dar es Salaam for treatment, and then flown home.

The two women were spending three weeks doing volunteer teaching in a local school, a placement organised through i-to-i Travel, a Kent, Britain-based company that organises Gap year volunteer work.

The attack occurred at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and as people began to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Tourism is the main foreign currency earner for Zanzibar, famed for its white-sand beaches and historical buildings in Stone Town, listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO.

In Zanzibar, some more conservative elements of the Muslim community object to foreign tourists who wear revealing clothes, as well as bars selling alcohol.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who visited the two young women in hospital in Dar es Salaam, called the attack "shameful" and said it "tarnished the image" of Tanzania.

He ordered the security forces to step up their investigation and find the culprits.

Zanzibar police chief Mussa Ali Mussa said seven people have already been questioned over the attack.

Politicians and religious leaders in Zanzibar also condemned the incident.

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Austrian gun tycoon loses alimony battle

THE multi-millionaire octogenarian founder of Austrian handgun giant Glock has lost a lengthy legal battle over alimony payments to his ex-wife in the country's top court.

Two lower courts had ruled that Gaston Glock, 84, did not have to pay any allowance to Helga Glock, whom he divorced in 2011 after 49 years of marriage, because she was wealthy in her own right.

But Austria's supreme court has overturned the rulings, saying Helga Glock's own financial situation was irrelevant, court spokesman Christoph Brenn told AFP.

"The plaintiff is entitled to make claims on the income of the ex-husband, just as is the case with normal levels of income," Brenn said. "The allowance level now has to be examined."

The court made the ruling on August 3 but was only delivered to the Glocks this week.

According to media reports, Helga Glock is also involved in legal proceedings to obtain a stake in Glock the company, a major supplier to law enforcement agencies including the US police.

Gaston Glock, one of Austria's richest people with a fortune estimated by Trend magazine in 2012 at around 550 million euros ($A814.63 million), divorced Helga in order to marry a woman about 50 years his junior.

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Watchdog probes UK's migrants ad

BRITAIN'S advertising watchdog says it has launched a formal investigation into a government campaign urging illegal immigrants to "go home or face arrest", after receiving dozens of complaints that it was racist.

Trucks carrying billboards with the words, "In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest" drove through London for a week last month in a pilot scheme by the interior ministry that has sparked widespread criticism.

In a campaign that critics have dubbed the "racist van", the trucks were driven through several areas of London with large ethnic minority populations.

Posters, leaflets and advertisements in local newspapers are still carrying the message as part of the campaign.

"The Advertising Standards Authority has launched a formal investigation into the Home Office 'Go Home' ad campaign following 60 complaints," a spokesman for the watchdog said on Friday.

Complainants said the phrase "go home" was particularly "offensive and irresponsible" as it was reminiscent of slogans used by British racist groups in the past, he added.

The adverts feature a huge picture of a pair of handcuffs together with a number said to represent the number of arrests in the local area. They tell people to text the word "HOME" to a given phone number to get help to leave Britain.

A spokesman for the Home Office, the interior ministry, said it was in contact with the ASA over the investigation and would respond "in due course".

Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman defended the vans last week, saying it was "clear that this is already working" and that helping illegal immigrants to leave voluntarily was the most cost-effective way to reduce their numbers.

But the campaign has caused a rift in Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government, with several senior members of junior partner the Liberal Democrats, blasting it as offensive.

For years, immigration, along with the economy, has regularly topped polls of voters' concerns.

A Home Office spokesman said the ministry could not provide a figure for the number of illegal immigrants living in Britain, but in 2005 it estimated that it could be up to 570,000.

Some 14,000 migrants were forcibly removed from Britain in the year ended March 2013, while 28,000 left voluntarily, according to ministry figures.

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Twitter tells Sydney trolling victim sorry

TWITTER has apologised and is set to discuss trolling with Australian police after a Sydney woman endured weeks of horrific threats from fans of the rapper, Tyler Okonma.

The social network giant has also promised to install a "report abuse" button on its main website and Android app from September in a bid to make it easier for trolling victims to highlight their cases.

The button's already available on Twitter's iPhone apps.

It comes after 24-year-old Talitha Stone received hundreds of tweets threatening violence and rape after she challenged Okonma's controversial "horrorcore" lyrics, which have centred on violence, rape fantasies, murder and necrophilia.

The online threats began in June after Ms Stone, a Sydney psychology student, tweeted Okonma and an Australian clothing store where he was due to appear, highlighting her opposition to his lyrics.

Her tweet read: "Have to visit @Culturekings tomoz to protest against (Okonma) - he will be there at midday. I think they need educating on #misogyny."

Ms Stone received threats online almost immediately.

But the real deluge began a few days later, after the rapper mentioned Ms Stone while performing on stage in Australia.

The Sydneysider had previously lobbied the UK government to revoke Okonma's visa - a move the rapper appeared to take strong exception to.

During a performance at Newtown's Enmore Theatre, the 22-year-old artist reportedly told his audience: "I wish she could hear me call her a bitch".

Fans then deluged Ms Stone with abuse.

She told AAP: "For about two weeks after that I was receiving abuse daily - so much I couldn't keep up with it."

The abuse included threats of rape and violence, which Ms Stone reported to Australian police and to Twitter.

She started a change.org petition earlier this month challenging the social network firm to address trolling and continued tweeting about it.

Her persistence led to a phone-call from Twitter's global head of trust and safety, Del Harvey and public policy vice-president Colin Crowell on Friday.

The executives apologised and promised tougher action against trolls. They also said they would hold talks with senior Australian police to discuss how similar cases might be handled.

Twitter will also introduce the new "report abuse" button from September, along with a simplified "autofill" form to make it easier for victims to detail the abuse they've suffered.

The company employed to handle Twitter's public relations in Australia did not immediately respond to AAP's request for further comment.

The incident comes as social networks and police around the world attempt to address the issue of trolling, which occurs across jurisdictions and often under the cloak of anonymity.

The Australian government has previously called on Twitter and other social networks to better address trolling, including last year when rugby league star Robbie Farah suffered abuse.

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Insurance arm 'dictated victim's policy'

THE Catholic Church's insurance company has been accused of dictating policy towards child abuse victims to reduce risk of culpability, with allegations an official even boasted of destroying 40 boxes of personnel records.

A US psychologist, who during the late 1990s helped the church draft its Towards Healing protocol, has told ABC's Lateline program that Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) attended every meeting of the National Committee for Professional Standards, and attempted to influence the approach to victims.

Dr Robert Grant said CCI officials would object to language used in the Towards Healing document "that would put the church at risk in terms of admitting culpability".

"At first I thought maybe they were there to advise the church about the risk of taking certain pastoral stances, but I began to realise quite quickly that they were dictating policy," he said of the meetings which took place in 1996 and 1997.

When Dr Grant raised his concerns that the church was not being more honest and transparent in its approach to victims, one CCI official told the committee: "I need to remind the members ... that I just destroyed 40 boxes of personnel records."

"I was shocked, I was dumbfounded, not only the timing - I realised it was a statement to me how things were going to be run," Dr Grant said.

CCI chief executive Peter Rush told the ABC he had no knowledge of Dr Grant or his claims.

"I do not accept that any senior officer of CCI would have engaged in the inappropriate destruction of documents," he said.

Francis Sullivan, chief of the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council, told the ABC that "any official of any organisation that destroys records should be sanctioned".

The Truth, Justice and Healing Council was established by the church to co-ordinate its response to the royal commission into child sex abuse.

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Rich economies on growth track: OECD

LEADING developed economies are still on a track towards growth, but among emerging economies China is showing increasing signs of slowing down, the OECD says.

Among big emerging countries, India is the only one where the economy continues to show "tentative positive change in momentum", The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a monthly report on leading indicators on Thursday.

Both Russia and Brazil seem to be slowing, the OECD said.

The OECD, grouping 34 advanced countries, said that in the eurozone, signs of a pick-up continues, with particularly German growth on track to recovery.

In non-eurozone Britain, and in the US and Japan, growth was firming.

But the OECD signalled a sluggish performance by France where it said that momentum was "relatively stable".

Its composite index of leading indicators suggested that growth was close to trend rates in Canada.

For China, it said indicators are "now pointing to slowing momentum".

The outlook is based on index of leading indicators in major economies and is considered to be a reliable guide to future economic activity.

In a separate survey, also on Thursday, the European Central Bank said it still expected the eurozone to achieve growth this year and next, but lowered its forecast due to weaker-than-expected demand in the euro area. The quarterly survey is based on estimates from a group of professional forecasters.

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