Storms in China traps tourists, kill 69

AT least 100 tourists have been left trapped after a landslide cut off a road amid storms that have flooded rivers and triggered mudslides, killing at least 69 people in China.

The tourists became trapped on Friday night in the northwest province of Gansu after a landslide cut off traffic, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

They were en route to a nature reserve in Sichuan province, which has been hit hardest by the week-long series of storms, and road repair work was under way in an effort to free them.

Sichuan has reported at least 31 storm-related deaths.

A massive mudslide that struck a scenic resort outside the city of Dujiangyan in Sichuan killed 26 people and left 123 people missing, according to Xinhua.

An entire hillside collapsed onto clusters of holiday cottages where city dwellers escape summer heat, a survivor told the news agency.

Flooding in Sichuan was the worst in 50 years for some areas, with more than 220,000 people forced to evacuate.

Mudslides and flooding are common in China's mountainous areas, killing hundreds of people every year but in some areas the current floods are already the worst in half a century.

In the northwest province of Shaanxi, 23 people died in landslides or house collapses.

At least 12 workers were killed in the northern province of Shanxi when a violent rainstorm collapsed an unfinished coal mine workshop.

Another three people were drowned in a car in Hebei province outside Beijing.

AP j

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Popular roving UK broadcaster Whicker dies

ALAN Whicker, one of the most widely-travelled and popular UK broadcasters of his generation, has died aged 87.

The presenter and reporter died in the early hours of Friday at his home in Jersey after suffering from bronchial pneumonia, his spokeswoman said.

For more than 40 years he roamed the world for the BBC and independent TV networks, seeking out the eccentric, the ludicrous and the socially revealing aspects of everyday life from all over the globe.

He was probably best known for Whicker's World, his long-running documentary program which he presented from 1959 to 1990.

And he acquired over the years an enviable reputation of having no equal as a television commentator.

Alan Donald Whicker was born in Cairo, Egypt, on August 2 1925, but moved to England as a young child on the death of his father.

He attended Haberdashers' Aske's School and was commissioned as an officer in the Devonshire Regiment during the Second World War, serving as a captain.

He then joined the Army Film and Photo Unit in Italy in 1943, filming at Anzio.

Whicker was also responsible for taking into custody British traitor John Amery, who was subsequently executed.

In a 2004 TV series, called Whicker's War, he disclosed that he was one of the first of the Allied forces to enter Milan and that he took into custody an SS general and troopers who were looking after the SS money vault.

He also shot footage of the body of Mussolini.

After the war he became a journalist and broadcaster, acting as a newspaper correspondent in the Korean War, during which he was mistakenly reported as having been killed.

He joined the BBC in 1957 and was a reporter for the famous Tonight program.

Soon after that he began his Whicker's World series, which over the years consistently claimed a place in the top 10 ratings.

He was also instrumental in the launch of Yorkshire Television.

Whicker was noted for probing the private worlds of the rich and famous on cruise ships, the Orient Express, at cocktail parties, on world tours, in health spas and gentlemen's clubs.

He lured countless individuals into allowing him a privileged glimpse of sometimes extraordinary lives.

Among his "victims" were John Paul Getty and Haiti's feared dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

On one occasion, while in the US, he heard about an Alan Whicker impersonation contest. He entered and came third.

He was also the man behind the popular advertising slogan Hello World for Travelocity.

Whicker was awarded a CBE in the 2005 New Year Honours list for services to broadcasting.

He had lived in Jersey and is survived by his long-standing partner Valerie Kleeman.

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Britain shelves plain cigarette pack plans

BRITAIN has announced it is postponing plans to introduce plain packaging on cigarettes, saying it's waiting to see the results of a similar move in Australia.

Prime Minister David Cameron faced criticism over the move, with opposition MPs asking whether the decision had been influenced by links between his chief party strategist and tobacco companies.

Health Minister Jeremy Hunt said the decision was delayed because the government wants more time to see how a similar system in Australia works before committing to such a policy.

In December 2012, Australia became the first country in the world to force tobacco firms to sell cigarettes in identical, olive-green packets bearing the same typeface and largely covered with graphic health warnings.

The British government is reported to be worried about the impact on jobs in the tobacco industry that any ban on branded packaging might have, especially at a time of austerity and economic stagnation.

Diane Abbott, health spokeswoman for the opposition Labour party, told parliament the government had made a "disgraceful U-turn".

"We have to ask, what happened? We suspect Lynton Crosby happened," she said, referring to the election strategist for Cameron's centre-right Conservative party.

Cameron's opponents have pounced on reports that a public relations firm run by Crosby, an Australian, had previously acted for tobacco firms opposed to the Australian plain packaging move and alcohol companies which reject minimum pricing.

Cameron's official spokesman rejected any link.

"The prime minister has never been lobbied by Lynton Crosby on cigarette packaging. The important point to stress on this issue is that Lynton Crosby has had no involvement in the decision," the spokesman told reporters.

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JPMorgan Chase logs 31% Q2 profit rise

US banking giant JPMorgan Chase has logged a 31 per cent increase in quarterly profits, but gave a mixed report on the status of the economic recovery.

JPMorgan's second quarter profit came in at $US6.5 billion ($A7.12 billion) on revenues of $US25.2 billion, up from last year's income of $US5 billion on revenues of $US22.2 billion.

The results showed a healthy 19 per cent increase in profits from the corporate and investment bank unit to $US2.8 billion.

The year-over-year comparison also benefitted because the bank last year took a $US4.4 billion charge due to the so-called "London whale" debacle, a large trading loss in its chief investment office.

But results in other key divisions were mixed. Profits in the consumer and community division shrank six per cent compared with last year to $US3.1 billion, while income in commercial bank fell eight per cent to $US621 million.

Average business banking loans at $US18.7 billion were up four per cent from the prior year, but flat compared with the prior quarter.

Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said the pace of the economic recovery remains fairly slow.

"Loan growth across the industry continues to be soft, reflecting a cautious stance by consumers, many small businesses and corporations," Dimon said.

"However, we continue to see broad-based signs that the US economy is improving and we are hopeful that, as jobs are added and the confidence builds, the US economy will strengthen over time."

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Three dead in Somalia bomb attack

AT least three people have been killed when a car bomb targeting a convoy of African Union troops exploded on a major street in the Somali capital, police say.

"So far three persons are confirmed dead, and three others injured," said police official Ahmed Muktar, who was near the scene of Friday's blast, the latest in a string of explosions in Mogadishu.

"It was a huge explosion, buildings all around were rocked by the blast," said Hussein Gure, a witness who was driving nearby when the car exploded.

"There were several people killed or wounded."

It was not immediately clear if the casualties reported were civilians or from the AU force.

Some reports said the car had been parked when it exploded, others said it was driven by a suicide bomber who rammed into the armoured AU convoy, part of regular patrols carried out by the 17,700-strong force in the country.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents have carried out a series of bombings, attacks and killings aimed to overthrow the internationally-backed government.

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N Korea shelves talks on family reunions

NORTH Korea has retracted its proposal to hold talks with South Korea on restarting a family reunion program, after separate discussions on reopening a joint industrial estate faltered.

The North's sudden move came a day after the two Koreas agreed in principle to hold talks on reunions for hundreds of thousands of families separated since the 1950-53 war.

"In a message sent today to our side, North Korea said it is retracting its proposal in an effort to focus" on discussions on restarting the Kaesong industrial estate, a unification ministry official told AFP.

Pyongyang had proposed that a Red Cross meeting on restarting a temporary family reunion program be held on July 19. It also suggested talks on July 17 about restarting tours by southerners to its Mount Kumgang resort.

The South said it was premature to discuss the Kumgang tours while the Kaesong talks are still going on.

Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae told a forum on Thursday that progress at talks on the estate could help resolve a standoff over the suspended tours.

The Mount Kumgang resort opened in 1998 and once earned the North tens of millions of dollars a year. But Seoul suspended tours by its citizens after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean housewife there in 2008.

Pyongyang accused Seoul of insincerity on Wednesday after talks on the Kaesong estate, built as a symbol of reconciliation, failed to reach a firm agreement on a restart. But the two sides will meet again next Monday.

The industrial zone, just north of the border, opened in 2004 but shut down three months ago as relations approached crisis point.

At a rare weekend meeting the two sides agreed in principle to reopen the estate, where 53,000 North Koreans worked in 123 Seoul-owned factories producing textiles or light industrial goods.

The North in April withdrew its workers from Kaesong, an important source of hard currency for Pyongyang, citing military tensions and what it called the South's hostility.

The South now wants firm safeguards from the North against shutting Kaesong down unilaterally, to keep the zone insulated from changes in relations.

This would be a bitter pill for the North to swallow as it means it would accept responsibility for the April closure.

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US unemployment benefit applications rise

US unemployment benefit applications rose 16,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 360,000, although the level remains consistent with steady hiring.

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week average increased 6000 to 351,750.

The weekly applications data can be volatile in early July because some automakers briefly shut down their factories to prepare for new models and many schools close.

Those factors can create a temporary spike in layoffs.

The broader trend has been favourable.

Applications have declined steadily in the past year, as companies have laid off fewer workers and stepped up hiring.

In the past six months, employers have added an average of 202,000 jobs a month.

That's up from an average of 180,000 in the previous six months.

Employers added 195,000 jobs in June, and revisions showed that an additional 70,000 jobs were added in the previous two months.

The unemployment rate was 7.6 per cent, down from 8.2 per cent a year earlier.

Applications fell to their lowest level since the recession began in the April-June quarter, according to calculations by Joseph LaVorgna, chief US economist at Deutsche Bank.

They averaged 346,000 a week in the second quarter.

That is the lowest quarterly average since it was 338,000 in the final three months of 2007.

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Hundreds of Srebrenica victims buried

BOSNIA has buried 409 victims of the Srebrenica massacre, including a newborn baby, on the 18th anniversary of the worst slaughter in post-war Europe.

More than 15,000 people travelled to Potocari, near Srebrenica to attend the mass funeral of victims whose remains were found in mass graves and only identified almost two decades after the 1995 killing.

"This year we are going to bury the youngest victim of the genocide, the Muhic family's baby," Kenan Karavdic, a government official in charge of Thursday's burial ceremony told AFP.

The baby girl died shortly after birth in July 1995 at the UN base in Potocari.

She was buried next to the grave of her father Hajrudin, also a victim of the massacre in which 8000 men and boys were executed by Serb forces after they overran the UN-protected town.

Her tiny casket was covered with a modest green cloth with a white rose wreath on top and placed in a grave with a sign that read only: "The Muhic newborn."

The baby's mother, her head covered with a red veil, held the coffin as she murmured a Muslim prayer through sobs.

Many of those present lined up in front of the coffins praying, their hands turned towards the sky, amid drizzling rain.

Among the 409 victims laid to rest, 44 were aged between 14 and 18, officials said.

The sombre ceremony fell on the same day as the UN Yugoslav war crimes court was set to rule on an appeal to drop a charge of genocide against Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, who is accused of masterminding the Srebrenica massacre.

Srebrenica was a UN-protected Muslim enclave until July 11, 1995, when it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces.

Dutch peacekeepers in the so-called "safe area", where thousands of Muslims from surrounding villages had gathered for protection, helplessly looked on as the massacre unfolded.

The Serbs loaded thousands of men and boys on to trucks, executed them and then threw their bodies into mass graves.

The remains of 5657 victims, identified through DNA tests, have already been buried in the memorial centre in Potocari since the process started a decade ago.

Their remains - often only a handful of bones - were found in dozens of mass graves scattered in the area, said Amor Masovic, head of the Bosnia's Institute for Missing Persons.

But many victims remain unidentified and more are yet to be found.

The Srebrenica massacre has been judged an act of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice.

After escaping justice for years, both Karadzic and Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic are now being tried by the ICTY for warcrimes and genocide.

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Electronic tag firms overcharged UK govt

THE British government is calling in fraud investigators after auditors found security giant G4S had overcharged by millions of pounds on contracts to monitor offenders using electronic tags.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said he was asking the Serious Fraud Office to investigate after G4S refused to take part in a forensic audit of its contract.

He said an initial audit had found that G4S and another firm, Serco, had charged the government for people they were not actually monitoring - and in a small number of cases for offenders who had died.

Grayling said the overcharging was in the "low tens of millions," went at least as far back as the start of the current tagging contracts in 2005, and could have begun as long ago as 1999.

He said Serco had agreed to a forensic audit to determine whether dishonesty had been involved in the overcharging, but G4S had refused.

The detailed audit would include examining internal emails between company executives to determine what happened.

Grayling told MPs in the House of Commons he felt "astonishment that two of the government's biggest suppliers would seek to charge in this way".

"The billing practices in question were clearly unacceptable and the government will take all necessary steps to secure a refund for the taxpayer," he said.

He said the government was reviewing all its existing contracts with Serco and with G4S, one of the world's biggest private security firms.

The government paid G4S more than STG394 million ($A647.07 million) in the 2012-2013 financial year.

The fraud investigation is the latest bad news for G4S.

Last year, Britain had to call in thousands of troops to help with security at the London Olympics after G4S acknowledged it couldn't provide the 10,400 guards it had been contracted to deliver.

This week, prosecutors said they were considering criminal charges over an Angolan man who died after being restrained by G4S guards during deportation from Britain.

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Astronomers spot monster star

ASTRONOMERS have reported their best observation yet of a massive star embryo growing within a dark cloud - the largest stellar "womb" ever spotted in our Milky Way galaxy.

The star, which could grow to 100 times the mass of our Sun and up to a million times brighter, was spotted by the most powerful radio telescope on Earth - the ALMA international astronomy facility located in Chile, according to a paper published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Astronomers hope its discovery, at a distance of some 11,000 light years from Earth, will shed light on how these exceptionally massive stars are formed, shrouded as they are in dust and mystery.

"Not only are these stars rare, but their births are extremely rapid and childhood short, so finding such a massive bject so early in its evolution in our Galaxy is a spectacular result," study co-author Gary Fuller of the University of Manchester said in a statement issued by the European Southern Observatory (ESO)

The most massive and brightest stars in the galaxy form within cool and dark cloud cores, hungrily feeding on material being dragged inwards by the embryo star's gravitational pull.

This specific star is located in the Spitzer Dark Cloud, whose core has a mass about 500 times that of the Sun.

"This object is expected to form a star that is up to 100 times more massive than the Sun. Only about one in ten thousand of all stars in the Milky Way reach that kind of mass," said study lead author Nicolas Peretto of Cardiff University.

"The remarkable observations from ALMA allowed us to get the first really in-depth look at what was going on within this cloud. We wanted to see how monster stars form and grow, and we certainly achieved our aim. One of the sources we have found is an absolute giant - the largest protostellar core ever spotted in the Milky Way!"

According to the ESO, there are two theories on the formation of massive stars, which have at least ten times the mass of our Sun.

The first theory suggests that parental dark clouds fragment, creating several small cores that collapse and form stars. The other sees the entire cloud collapse inwards, with material racing into its centre to feed the star or stars growing there.

The new results support the second theory, said the statement.

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