156 dead, thousands injured in China quake

Hundreds of people are dead or injured after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province. Source: AAP

A POWERFUL earthquake struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province on Saturday, leaving at least 156 people dead and more than 5,500 injured, nearly five years after a devastating quake wreaked widespread damage across the region.

Saturday's quake, while not as destructive as the one in 2008, toppled buildings, triggered landslides and disrupted phone and power connections in mountainous Lushan county.

The village of Longmen was hit particularly hard, with authorities saying nearly all the buildings there had been destroyed in a frightening minute-long shaking by the quake.

"It was such a big quake that everyone was scared," said a woman who answered the phone at a kindergarten hours later and declined to give her name. "We all fled for our lives."

Rescuers turned the square outside the Lushan County Hospital into a triage centre, where medical personnel bandaged bleeding victims, according to footage on China Central Television.

Rescuers dynamited boulders that had fallen across roads to reach Longmen and other damaged areas lying farther up the mountain valleys, state media reported.

CCTV reported that at least 156 people had died. The government of Ya'an city, which administers Lushan, said in a statement that more than 2,600 people were injured, but other reports suggested the real figure was probably more than double that.

The quake - measured by the China Earthquake Administration at magnitude-7.0 and by the US Geological Survey at 6.6 - struck the steep hills of Lushan county shortly after 8am (1000 AEST), when many people were at home, sleeping or having breakfast.

People in their underwear and wrapped in blankets ran into the streets of Ya'an and even the provincial capital of Chengdu, 115km east of Lushan, according to photos, video and accounts posted online.

The quake's shallow depth, less than 13km, likely magnified the impact.

Chengdu's airport shut down for about an hour before reopening, though many flights were cancelled or delayed, and its railway station halted dozens of scheduled train rides Saturday, state media said.

Lushan reported the most deaths, 76, but there was concern that casualties in neighbouring Baoxing county might have been under-reported because of inaccessibility after roads were blocked and power and phone services cut off.

As the region went into the first night after the quake, rain started to fall, slowing rescue work. Forecasts called for more rain in the next several days, and the China Meteorological Administration warned of possible landslides and other geological disasters.

Tens of thousands of people moved into tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back as aftershocks continued to jolt the region.

Lushan, where the quake struck, lies where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau and sits atop the Longmenshan fault.

It was along that fault line that a devastating magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12, 2008, leaving more than 90,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead in one of the worst natural disasters to strike China in recent decades.

"It was just like May 12," Liu Xi, a writer in Ya'an city, who was jolted awake by Saturday's quake, said via a private message on his account on Sina Corporation's Twitter-like Weibo service. "All the home decorations fell at once, and the old house cracked."

The official Xinhua News Agency said the well-known Bifengxia panda preserve, which is near Lushan, was not affected by the quake. Dozens of pandas were moved to Bifengxia from another preserve, Wolong, after its habitat was wrecked by the 2008 quake.

As in most natural disasters, the government mobilised thousands of soldiers and others - 7,000 people by Saturday afternoon - sending excavators and other heavy machinery as well as tents, blankets and other emergency supplies.

Two soldiers died after the vehicle that they and more than a dozen others were in slipped off the road and rolled down a cliff, state media reported.

Premier Li Keqiang flew to Ya'an to direct rescue efforts, and he and President Xi Jinping ordered officials and rescuers to make saving people the top priority, Xinhua said.

The Chinese Red Cross said it had deployed relief teams with supplies of food, water, medicine and rescue equipment to the disaster areas.

With roads blocked for several hours after the quake, the military surveyed the disaster area by air.

Aerial photos released by the military and shown on state television showed individual houses in ruins in Lushan and outlying villages flattened into rubble.

The roofs of some taller buildings appeared to have slipped off, exposing the floors beneath them.

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12 bodies found in ruins of Texas factory

A TEXAS law enforcement official says 12 bodies have been recovered following a massive explosion that levelled a fertiliser plant.

Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt Jason Reyes said on Friday that about 200 people were injured in the explosion at the factory on Wednesday night in the small farming community of West, about 32 kilometres north of Waco.

Search and rescue crews have been sifting through the still-smouldering remains for survivors. That work continues. The blast crumpled dozens of homes, an apartment building, a school and a nursing home.

Authorities say there's no indication that the blast was anything other than an industrial accident sparked by a fire. The company has been cited for apparently minor safety and permitting violations over the past decade.

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Warsaw marks 70 years since ghetto stand

SIRENS wailed and church bells tolled in Warsaw as largely Roman Catholic Poland paid homage to the Jewish fighters who rose up 70 years ago against German Nazi forces in the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

The mournful sounds on Friday marked the start of state ceremonies that were led by Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski at the iconic Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. The president was joined by officials from Poland, Israel and beyond as well as a survivor of the fighting, Simha Rotem, to honour the first large-scale rebellion against the Germans during World War II.

About 750 Jews with few arms and no military training attacked a much larger and well-equipped German force that was about to send the remaining residents of the ghetto to death camps. The revolt was crushed the following month, and the ghetto was razed to the ground, most of its residents killed.

"We knew that the end would be the same for everyone. The thought of waging an uprising was dictated by our determination. We wanted to choose the kind of death we would die," said Rotem, an 88-year-old who is among a tiny number of surviving fighters and was the key figure at the ceremony.

"But to this day I have doubts as to whether we had the right to carry out the uprising and shorten the lives of people by a day, a week, or two weeks. No one gave us that right and I have to live with my doubts."

Rotem's uncertainty is in stark contrast to how the world remembers the revolt. Though a clear military defeat, it is hailed as a moral victory for the Jewish fighters, who refused to go without a fight to the gas chambers. It is widely viewed as a model of resistance against the odds and is often celebrated in Israel, part of a never-again ethos that stresses the importance of self-defence.

During the ceremonies, Komorowski bestowed one of the country's highest honours on Rotem - the Grand Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland. Later the two of them, along with Israeli Education Minister Shai Piron and Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a Polish Auschwitz survivor who helped rescue Jews during the war, walked side-by-side to the monument and bowed before it as soldiers laid a wreath for them.

Other dignitaries followed them in paying their respects at the memorial, including Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, members of Poland's Jewish community and US ambassador Stephen Mull along with an American survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, Estelle Laughlin.

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Suspect's uncle condemns bombing in US

FRIENDS and relatives of the Boston marathon bombing suspects have reacted in shock as one was killed and the other remained the target of a massive manhunt.

The surviving bomb suspect is Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old.

His uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, said on Friday Dzhokhar and the other suspect, who he said is named Tamerlan, are brothers who have been in the country since 2001.

When his wife showed him the picture of the suspects, he was "shaking".

"Anger, anger, anger. I can't come up with the words," Tsarni said when asked for his response to the terrorist attacks his nephews are accused of. "Unhuman."

Describing his emotions, he said: "I'm not being able to feel anything. Anger for the people they murdered."

A man who described himself as a friend of the suspects, Ahdi Moro, 22, of Watertown, Massachusetts, said the two attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.

"I was pretty shocked," Moro said.

"I would never think anything like that of them. They were good kids."

He said Tamerlan was a Golden Gloves boxer who was the father of a 2-year-old and Dzhokhar was an all-star wrestler.

"He was a really quiet kid," Moro said.

"He was very popular at school, like, the most popular kid at school. He was a really good-looking kid. He's as American as anybody. He grew up here. He's like a regular Cambridge kid."

He described Tamerlan as big and tough, and remembered how, on the first day of school, he was "picked on" by three kids - and beat up all three.

"These kids grew up around violence," Moro said.

"They were always not scared of anything.

Cambridge Rindge and Latin assistant wrestling coach Peter Payack said as soon as he saw the photo of bombing suspect Dzhokar in a hoodie released early on Friday morning, he had a sickening feeling.

"Once I saw that picture, I knew it was him," Payack said of Dzhokar, who wrestled at Cambridge in 2010 and 2011.

"I just couldn't talk, it was like someone put a knife in my heart, I just felt like crying. Wrestling is like a brotherhood and you feel like all the wrestlers are your son, so this was hard for me."

Dzhokar was an all-Greater Boston League wrestler at Cambridge in 2011.

He placed third in the 135-pound weight class at the Division 1 Central sectionals that year, but failed to qualify for the All-State tournament.

According to Payack, Dzhokar returned to Cambridge as recently as six weeks ago to work with the team in preparation for the state tournament.

Payack remained stunned by the recent turn of events.

"He was a great kid, very dedicated to the sport and a hard worker," Payack said.

"Everyone liked him."

Tamerlan Tsarnaev boxed in the Golden Gloves in 2010 as a heavyweight, said Terry Moran, marketing and production director for Lowell Golden Gloves.

"He was a successful fighter. He was on the New England team. I didn't know him personally."

He added: "We're really sad that he was associated with the program. This doesn't represent all the great kids, more than 100 a year, that go through this program."

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Suspected Boston bombers fled Chechnya

DZHOKHAR and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, suspected of bombing the Boston marathon, appear to hail from Russia's war-torn Chechnya, but had been in the United States for several years.

The North Caucasus region of Chechnya has been ravaged by two back-to-back wars since 1994 between Russia's army and increasingly Islamist-leaning separatist rebels, and the mountainous region still sees occasional fighting.

A US law enforcement official would only say on condition of anonymity that the two brothers were Russian, but online profiles with pictures strongly resembling their wanted posters describe them as Muslim refugees.

NBC News reported that they hail from Chechnya, but they appear to have left during the wars and spent time in Central Asia.

Dzhokhar, a baby-faced 19-year-old still at large, won a scholarship in 2011 while enrolled at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school. He was also named a Greater Boston League Winter All Star wrestler that year.

In a profile on a Russian-language site similar to Facebook, he says he speaks Chechen and includes several links to a North Caucasus comic.

Tamerlan, 26 - who was killed during the police chase - appears to have been featured in an online photo essay by Johannes Hirn entitled "Will Box for Passport", in which he says he has been living in America for five years.

"I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them," he is quoted as saying under one of several pictures of him boxing at the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts Center, a gym mentioned in an online profile in his name.

The website says Tamerlan, who was studying engineering at Bunker Hill Community College, had taken a year off to train for the National Golden Gloves competition in Salt Lake City, Utah.

It says he is originally from Chechnya, but left because of the conflict in the 1990s and spent years in Kazakhstan before coming to the United States as a refugee.

But Ruslan Tsarni, identified by CNN as the boys' uncle, said in an interview broadcast by the network that they grew up in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Central Asian republic.

On the website, Tamerlan is quoted as saying he aspires to be an Olympic boxer, but would rather compete for the United States than for Russia in the absence of an independent Chechnya.

He is quoted as describing himself as "very religious" and saying, "God said no alcohol."

"There are no values anymore," he is quoted as saying. "People can't control themselves."

But another caption says his favourite movie is Borat, and one picture shows him with a blonde woman whom he describes as his half-Italian, half-Portuguese girlfriend, saying she converted to Islam. "She's beautiful, man!"

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US stocks open mixed on earnings reports

US stocks have traded mixed in early trade after a deluge of earnings reports gave conflicting signals about the state of the economy.

About 30 minutes into trade on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 42.85 (0.29 per cent) to 14,494.29.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 4.71 (0.31 per cent) at 1,546.32 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index put on 20.18 (0.64 per cent) at 3,186.54.

General Electric fell 4.4 per cent after revenues edged lower due to tough conditions in some industrial markets, especially Europe.

The huge conglomerate forecast a stronger performance in its key power and water division in the second half of the year.

Earnings reports from IBM and McDonald's missed expectations, while technology heavyweights Google and Microsoft outperformed analyst forecasts.

Microsoft jumped 3.9 per cent after reporting better-then-expected profits as a stronger performance in its online and entertainment businesses helped offset flat quarter-on-quarter revenues in its Windows division.

Google rose 2.4 per cent.

The world's leading internet search company made up for cheaper ad prices with a 20 per cent increase in the number of paid clicks on ads.

IBM sank 6.7 per cent after revenues came in 5.2 per cent below expectations.

McDonald's shed 2.0 per cent after reporting profits a cent below expectations, citing "the ongoing impact of global economic headwinds".

Dell dropped 3.3 per cent after announcing that a bidding consortium led by Blackstone Management had withdrawn its takeover offer, citing poor trends in personal computers and Dell's weakened financial prospects.

Fellow computer company Hewlett-Packard, a Dow component, fell 3.7 per cent.

Boeing rose 1.5 per cent on reports that the Federal Aviation Administration was expected to announce its 787 Dreamliner plane could return to service, as early as Friday.

The plane has been grounded globally since mid-January due to battery problems.

Consumer and health care products manufacturer Kimberly-Clark rose 3.6 per cent after reporting a 13.5 per cent increase in quarterly profits and raising its full-year earnings forecast.

Capital One rose 5.4 per cent after the bank beat earnings expectations by 20 cents per share.

Bond prices slipped.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 1.70 per cent from 1.69 per cent late on Thursday, while the 30-year yield rose to 2.88 per cent from 2.86 per cent.

Bond prices move inversely to yields.

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Thousands of Pakistanis affected by quake

THOUSANDS of Pakistanis have been affected by a huge earthquake in Iran that damaged hundreds of homes and killed at least 41 people, sparking a military rescue effort in the remote region.

The United States also offered aid after the 7.8-magnitude quake, Iran's most powerful in five decades, damaged an estimated 2000 mud-built homes of Mashkail, a town in the poor Pakistani province of Baluchistan.

Tuesday's earthquake was felt across the region and though the epicentre lay in southeast Iran, all but one of the deaths reported so far have been across the border in Pakistan.

Efforts to help the survivors have been hampered by Mashkail's remote location - communities are scattered, there are no paved roads, no electricity and limited mobile phone coverage, and no proper medical facilities.

Only three tents were visible in the town and frightened families prepared to spend a second night out in the open, sheltering under trees, an AFP reporter said, too scared to return to their homes for fear of aftershocks.

A 5.7-magnitude tremor early on Wednesday frayed nerves even further. Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority said 105 injured people had been treated.

Esa Tahir, a local coordinator for the charity Islamic Relief said that after surveying two local councils in Mashkail, 5000 people have been affected and around 2000 mud homes have been damaged or destroyed, along with 150 shops.

At least five government buildings, including administrative and revenue offices, a school and a hospital, were also damaged, an AFP reporter said.

Eight injured people, including four young children from the same family, were waiting for a helicopter to fly them to Quetta, the provincial capital.

A helicopter came but could not land due to a dust storm, a military officer said, adding that they will be evacuated on Thursday.

The area's scattered population made determining the death toll difficult, but Frontier Corps Major Attiq Minhas told AFP at Dalbandin airport, around 250 kilometres from Mashkail, that at least 40 people had died.

On the Iranian side of the border, one woman was reported killed by falling rocks and the Red Crescent rushed 400 tents to shelter some 1700 people who lost their homes in the quake.

Baluchistan, an inaccessible province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is plagued by Islamist militancy, attacks on the Shi'ite Muslim minority and a separatist Baluch insurgency.

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Hundreds of pigs, dogs die in Chinese city

CHINESE health officials and police are probing the mysterious deaths of hundreds of pigs and dogs whose carcasses were discovered in a central Chinese city, authorities say.

A total of 410 pigs and 122 dogs died on Monday in a village within the city of Yanshi, according to a statement on the city's website. The deaths came after the discovery of more than 16,000 dead pigs last month in Shanghai's main river sparked public health concerns.

The statement said that livestock experts have eliminated an animal epidemic or the H7N9 strain of bird flu as the cause of the deaths of the pigs and dogs.

But all chemical plants in the area near to where the dead animals were found have been ordered to suspend operations, their power supplies have been cut off and managers are not allowed to leave as part of a police probe, the statement said.

The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that some village residents blamed the deaths on gas emissions from a local chemical plant, saying there had been an "extremely strong odour" on Monday morning.

The city of Yanshi, located in central China's Henan province, has a population of 558,800 people, according to Chinese government figures.

The deaths of the pigs found in Shanghai's Huangpu river, which supplies almost a quarter of the commercial city's drinking water, highlighted public health fears in China.

Authorities announced about two weeks ago that they had found the H7N9 strain of avian influenza in people for the first time. It has so far killed 16 people and infected 78, mostly in eastern China.

No vaccine to protect against the virus currently exists.

Health authorities in China say they do not know exactly how the virus is spreading, but it is believed to be crossing to humans from birds, triggering mass poultry culls in several cities.

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Iraq bombings kill four ahead of polls

BOMBINGS in Iraq, including one against an MP's convoy, have killed four people and wounded 18, just days ahead of the country's first elections since US troops departed, officials say.

In the deadliest attack, a car bomb exploded near an army checkpoint in Abu Ghraib, west of the capital, killing two people and wounding six, while another car bomb in the Jihad area of south Baghdad killed at least one person and wounded six, an interior ministry official and medical sources said.

And in Ramadi, a magnetic "sticky bomb" killed a secondary school teacher, a police officer and a doctor said.

A roadside bomb targeted a convoy carrying an MP from the secular, Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc in Madain, south of Baghdad, wounding four people but not the politician, while a "sticky bomb" wounded two people in Mansur in west Baghdad, the ministry official and medical sources said.

An estimated 13.5 million Iraqis are eligible to vote for more than 8000 candidates standing in Saturday's provincial elections, with 378 seats being contested.

Iraqi forces are solely responsible for polling security, the first time they have been in charge without support from American or other international forces during elections since dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

US forces eventually withdrew from Iraq in December 2011.

The elections are to be held amid a spike in violence. Attacks have killed more than 200 people each month so far this year, compared to tolls well below that figure for the last three months of 2012, according to AFP figures.

While violence has fallen significantly from the height of Iraq's sectarian war, the country still faces significant security challenges, mainly from Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda who carry out attacks in a bid to undermine confidence in the Shi'ite-led government.

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11 die in boat capsize off Morocco

ELEVEN migrants trying to reach Europe have died after their boat capsized off the north coast of Morocco, medical sources and a human rights group says.

Of the 34 people travelling in the boat, reached up by the Moroccan navy at midday on Tuesday, two children, three women and six men died, and another 12 were hospitalised, a doctor in the coastal town of Hoceima told AFP.

All but one of the victims drowned, the other dying while being transported to Hoceima hospital, according to Faisal Oussard, local representative for the Moroccan Association of Human Rights.

They were all sub-Saharan migrants but their nationalities were not known.

Oussard said the boat capsized nine kilometres off Hoceima, having set off from Nador, 130 kilometres to the east, either headed for the north African Spanish enclave of Melilla, or mainland Spain.

The sea was calm when the accident took place, but the boat, a rigid inflatable, or RIB, was far too small for the number of people it was carrying, he added.

The condition of those those hospitalised in Hoceima and the fate of the 11 people who escaped without injury were not known.

The Moroccan authorities frequently expel sub-Saharan migrants across the Algerian border, which is their main point of entry.

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Vic hoon caught speeding at 197km/h

A VICTORIAN hoon has been caught driving at 197km/h in a 100km/h zone - almost double the limit.

The 45-year-old man is facing dangerous speeding charges after he was caught at Coleraine, in western Victoria, police say.

He is expected to be charged on summons and his car will be impounded at a later date.

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One dead, 25 missing in Indon boat sinking

A WOMAN has been killed and 25 people are missing after a boat carrying workers from a timber company sank on a river in the Indonesian part of Borneo island, an official says.

Rescuers plucked 14 people to safety after the boat carrying 40 workers sank at around 6pm on Wednesday (1100 GMT) as it travelled across the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan province, according to the national disaster agency.

"The boat was a large vessel and had life jackets on board, but the people we have saved weren't wearing them, so we fear the missing are not wearing them either," local head of the agency, Wahyu Didit, told AFP.

Didit said the military and police were assisting in the search for the workers from plywood company Kalamur, and seven boats had been sent out to look for survivors.

"So far one woman has died and 14 people have been rescued," Didit said, adding the search would continue into the night and tomorrow. He added it was unclear why the boat sank and the weather had been fine at the time.

Such accidents are common in Indonesia, where boats have a poor safety record and the 240-million population is scattered over a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.

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Extra police for London Marathon

ORGANISERS of the London Marathon say extra police will be deployed to monitor security at the event in following the devastating fatal bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Security has been stepped up for Sunday's race after three people were killed and more than 180 injured when two bombs were detonated as runners approached the finish line in the US city on Monday.

London Marathon chief executive Nick Bitel said London Mayor Boris Johnson emphasised the importance of a visible police presence for the race in the British capital.

"We instigated a full security review. Considerable extra police and our own security resources will be employed," Bitel said.

"The mayor made it very clear to the (police) commissioner, and the commissioner down to his staff as well, that it is about putting out the right number to send the right message."

Organisers will have taken heart from the successful security operation put in place for the funeral of Britain's former prime minister Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday.

An extra 4000 police officers took to the streets for the procession through central London, which passed off without major incident, despite fears of large-scale protests.

As yet, there have been no high-profile withdrawals from the event by elite runners, with British Olympic star Mo Farah among the top-level athletes scheduled to compete, although he is only running half the race.

Kenya's Wilson Kipsang, the 2012 London Marathon winner and Olympic bronze medallist, expressed sympathy for those caught up in the carnage in Boston.

"We are really sorry for what happened in Boston, but we should have no fear during the race (in London) because security matters will be put in place and we will run feeling free."

Despite the new security measures, former London Marathon champion Paula Radcliffe said she would have doubts about taking her family to this year's event.

"I think first and foremost, as a mother, I'd think more about having family at the finish area," the women's marathon world record holder told BBC radio.

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Iraq executes 21 in one day over 'terror'

IRAQ has put 21 men to death, a senior justice ministry official has told AFP, the latest in a series of mass executions that have drawn international condemnation.

All of the men were Iraqis and had been convicted on anti-terror charges, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The latest executions brought to 50 the number of times Baghdad has carried out the death penalty so far this year, despite widespread calls for a moratorium on the country's use of capital punishment.

Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari insisted last month that Baghdad would continue to implement the death penalty in the face of widespread calls for it to issue a moratorium.

Iraq's executions have sparked concern from the United Nations, as well as from Britain, the European Union and rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

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EPA urged to act on NSW air pollution

AIR quality standards are being "routinely exceeded" in some parts of the state's Hunter region, NSW conservationists say.

The impact of air quality on health is the subject of a Senate committee public hearing in Newcastle.

Almost 160 submissions have been received from individuals, mining companies and conservation and community groups.

The Hunter Community Environment Centre said it told the inquiry on Tuesday that air quality standards in the area were exceeded more than 115 times in 2012.

Spokesman James Whelan said air quality was often not good enough in the area including in Muswellbrook and small towns in the Hunter coal corridor.

"In Australia our speed limits are strictly enforced, but air quality standards are routinely exceeded," Dr Whelan said in a statement.

"The NSW Environmental Protection Agency should act decisively to improve air quality."

The inquiry continues on Wednesday.

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Boston remembers young bombing victim

THE eight-year-old boy who has been killed in the Boston Marathon bombings is being remembered in his neighbourhood, where he loved to climb the trees.

Martin Richard, from Dorchester, a neighbourhood of Boston, was among the three people killed in Monday's blasts metres from the marathon finish line, as he waited for his father to cross it.

A candle has been reportedly placed on the stoop of his family's home, while the word "Peace" has been written in chalk on the front walkway.

Betty Delorey, who lives nearby to Martin's family home, told reporters Martin loved to climb the neighbourhood trees and hop the fence outside his home.

His father, Bill, is the director of a local community group, while his mother Denise works at the Neighbourhood House Charter School.

She and Martin's sister were also injured as they waited at the finish line.

Counter-terrorism expert Richard Barrett said the incident had hints of a right-wing attack rather than al-Qaeda-inspired extremism.

Mr Barrett, the former United Nations co-ordinator for the al-Qaeda and Taliban monitoring team, said it was too early to say who was to blame for the marathon blasts.

But Mr Barrett, who has served with MI5 and MI6, said the timing on Patriots' Day and the relatively small size of the devices suggested the work of a domestic extremist.

"This happened on Patriots' Day, it is also the day Americans are supposed to have their taxes in, and Boston is quite a symbolic city," he said.

The Pakistani Taliban, which has threatened attacks in the US because of its support for the Pakistani government, denied any role in the bombings.

Police searched a flat in the Boston suburb of Revere as part of the investigation.

Hospitals reported at least 144 people injured, at least 17 of them critically.

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Thatcher's body moved to Westminster

MARGARET Thatcher's coffin has arrived at Westminster, as the former prime minister pays her final visit to parliament.

Draped in a union flag, the coffin was brought by hearse to the Houses of Parliament, where Lady Thatcher's body will rest overnight in the crypt chapel of St Mary Undercroft before her ceremonial funeral at St Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday.

A short private service to receive the body into the chapel was being led by the Dean of Westminster and attended by members of the Thatcher family, senior figures from both Houses and members of staff who worked closely with Britain's first woman prime minister.

After the service, MPs, peers and parliamentary staff will be allowed into the chapel to pay their respects to the woman who dominated Westminster from 1979-90 and served as an MP and peer for more than half a century from 1959 until her death aged 87 last week.

In contrast to the elaborate military procession and cathedral service planned, Lady Thatcher's return to the scene of so many triumphs and battles was a simple and low-key ceremony.

Her coffin, topped by a large bouquet of white flowers, was lifted from the hearse and carried into parliament by four pall-bearers in black ties.

The road immediately outside parliament was closed to traffic and pedestrians for the arrival of the hearse.

Lady Thatcher herself had asked for her final farewell to Westminster to be a private affair.

After former colleagues and staff have paid their respects this evening, the Speaker's Chaplain, the Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin will keep vigil in the chapel through the night.

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Rights chief says Greece can ban neo-Nazis

A TOP Europe rights official has warned of a surge in racist hate crimes in Greece, urging the country to ban extremist neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, implicated in many of the attacks.

The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner Nils Muiznieks wrote in a report published on Tuesday after a recent visit to Greece that government had failed to take proper action over a rise in hate crimes, particularly targeting migrants.

The report hones in on the Golden Dawn political party, reminding government that it was "possible to impose effective penalties, and even prohibition if necessary" against the extreme far-right group.

"A number of the attacks have been linked to members or supporters, including parliamentarians, of the neo-Nazi political party 'Golden Dawn'", read the report.

Once a secretive group on the fringes of Greek politics, Golden Dawn picked up over 400,000 votes in a June election dominated by anti-austerity anger, winning 18 spots in a 300-seat parliament.

Members of the party, including MPs, have been implicated in 17 violent attacks against immigrants between June and October 2012, the report says.

A few days before Muiznieks' visit to Greece, a Pakistani migrant worker in Athens was stabbed to death by two people, one of whom was later proved to be linked to Golden Dawn.

Muiznieks said it was clear that from its ideological documents that "Golden Dawn is a party that is against parliamentary democracy, and treats it with contempt".

The report also raises extensive concerns about reports of ill-treatment and torture of migrants and Roma, and the "disregard for human rights standards" by the Greek police.

He said reports of police colluding with the neo-Nazi party "have dealt an extremely damaging blow to public confidence not only in the police, but in the Greek state as a whole".

Muiznieks said it was "regrettable that the Greek parliament's reaction to hate speech has been weak".

In one example given, there was no strong reaction by parliament to "extreme hate speech" when Golden Dawn MP Eleni Zaroulia last year referred to migrants in Greece as "sub-humans who have invaded our country, with all kinds of diseases".

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Swedish band ordered to pay pop rivals

ONE of Sweden's most successful rock bands, The Hives, has to pay 18.5 million kronor ($A2.80 million) to Swedish pop group The Cardigans, a court has ruled.

The dispute is one of several lawsuits embroiling Tambourine Studios, a recording studio in the southern city of Malmoe used by some of the country's biggest artists, which also handled the two bands' finances.

Tambourine had said it was standard practice for the company to transfer money from bands with high liquidity to those with less cash.

But The Hives claimed it was never told that some of the money the band was receiving was a form of loan from The Cardigans, whose biggest hit Lovefool topped global charts in 1997.

"There are no loan agreements, no signed documents, no agreements on interest rates," The Hives said in a blog post before the ruling.

The district court in the Swedish city of Lund ruled that, while the transfers "shouldn't be viewed as a loan" as such, the money still had to be repaid "since there is no reason ... to keep the money that came from The Cardigans".

The Hives was also ordered to pay the plaintiffs' legal fees.

Other Swedish bands involved in the Tambourine accounting scandal include Europe, the band behind eighties rock anthem The Final Countdown, who have claimed that the company forged signatures on some of its documents.

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Protesters turn backs on Thatcher coffin

LONDON police are bracing for protests at Margaret Thatcher's funeral, with opponents vowing to pelt her coffin with eggs, coal or milk if they can get close enough - or simply turn their backs on the passing procession.

More than 800 people have pledged to attend an event called "Maggie's good riddance party", promising a "right jolly knees-up" outside St Paul's Cathedral - where 2000 global political leaders, celebrities and friends will be paying their respects to the former British prime minister on Wednesday.

"Let the world know the hypocrisy of a state-funded funeral for the person who influenced 30 years of cuts to state funding of welfare," the protest's Facebook page reads.

"If taxpayers are funding her funeral ... we can at least get our money's worth."

The former Conservative Party leader's death has sparked furious debate in Britain over her legacy - and over the decision to grant her a state-funded ceremonial funeral, which by some estimates will cost the taxpayer up to STG10 million ($A14.93 million).

Her more radical critics, who accuse her of ruining millions of lives with her radical free-market reforms, greeted news of her death from a stroke last week with impromptu street parties.

Hundreds of people filled London's Trafalgar Square on Saturday, erected a giant effigy of her and shouted "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie! Dead, dead, dead!"

Scotland Yard has launched a massive security operation, fearing that protesters could attack the 1.9-kilometre route between parliament and St Paul's. Her coffin will be carried on a horse-drawn gun carriage through streets lined with military personnel.

Some protesters have vowed to pelt the coffin with eggs, while others have hinted at hurling coal - a reminder of the bitter 1984-1985 miners' strike which Thatcher crushed, leading to the closure of dozens of mines and tens of thousands of job losses.

In London, some protesters suggested they may try to throw milk at Thatcher's coffin, a reference to her days as education minister when her decision to stop free milk for older school pupils earned her the nickname "Thatcher the milk snatcher".

Westminster City Council has nine "flushing machines" and 40 staff on standby to clear the streets of milk if necessary, a spokeswoman said.

But many of Thatcher's foes said that simply turning their backs as her coffin passes would send a more powerful message.

"If many people turn their backs it will be a deeply symbolic act," said Becca Blum, an environmental activist who said she had police permission for a peaceful protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice.

"We will show the world that Britain is not all united in grief," she wrote on her blog.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said an "appropriate" policing operation was in place for Wednesday.

She declined to say how many officers would be on the ground, adding that the force had been in contact with some protesters.

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US stocks lower on weak Chinese growth

US stocks have retreated following a surprisingly weak economic report out of China.

Five minutes into trade on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 60.97 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 14,804.09.

The broad-based S&P 500 sank 8.78 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 1,580.07.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 16.15 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 3,278.79.

Official government data on Monday said growth in China slowed to 7.7 per cent in the first quarter, compared with a median forecast of 8.0 per cent in an AFP survey and 7.9 per cent in the previous quarter.

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Sydney girl dies after being hit by car

A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD girl has died in hospital after being hit by a car in Sydney's west last week.

Police said the girl was run down by the car in Wilga Street, Fairfield about 6pm last Thursday.

She was taken to Liverpool Hospital and had been on life support, but died on Monday morning.

Police have spoken to a 44-year-old woman who was driving the car that struck the child.

Officers say they believe the child ran out onto the road.

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NSW man trapped under car for three days

AN elderly man has been rescued after spending three days stuck under a crashed car in NSW's central west.

Police said neighbours found the man, 76, trapped under the Honda CRV about 6.30pm on Monday (AEST).

The vehicle had crashed into a tree on the man's Rylstone property, police said.

It's thought the man got out of his car after the crash and then the car rolled on top of him.

Police believe the man was trapped under the chassis for at least three days.

He was still conscious when found, but was suffering severe injuries including a fractured skull.

He has been flown to John Hunter Hospital at Newcastle.

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Welfare tragic for indigenous: Pearson

ABORIGINAL leader Noel Pearson says welfare entitlement has been "a tragic disability" for his people.

Mr Pearson has backed comments by indigenous academic Marcia Langton that a sense of entitlement had poisoned Aboriginal society.

"It's been a tragic disability," he told ABC TV on Monday.

"The flipside of the opening up of the doors of citizenship to our people, was the provision of welfare. What should have been provided was opportunities to engage in ... the mainstream economy."

Australia was now "reaping that tragedy".

He also echoed Professor Langton's statements about mining being a quiet revolution for indigenous people.

"The revolution she is talking about is one that is absolutely tectonically happening," he said, adding that it was a strange irony.

Mr Pearson reflected on his "bitter" negotiations with Rio Tinto in his early years of work in the Cape York and how the changed paradigm was now creating a new Aboriginal middle class.

"We've got to embrace Aboriginal success," he said.

"Money and materialism shouldn't be an anathema to Aboriginal people."

He said indigenous people needed to be striving for a better life.

"We still haven't gotten out of the mindset of Aboriginal people being the poor, benighted victims in Australian society," Mr Pearson said.

Mr Pearson is frustrated his far north Queensland Cape York welfare reform trials had not been able to achieve home ownership for any indigenous people in the trial communities.

"There are complexities of home ownership on Aboriginal land involving tenure," he said.

"Many of the Aboriginal people in these communities earn full-time wages, work for adjacent mining companies, but they can't own a home on their own land."

The federal government was yet to heed his message that the focus on social housing should move to home ownership, Mr Pearson said.

The trials, under way in Coen, Aurukun, Mossman Gorge and Hope Vale, aim to restore local indigenous authority and improve living conditions and the local economy.

Mr Pearson is in remission from lymphoma and says 2012 was his "descent into hell".

"But I had the great joy to spend 12 months with my youngest child," he said.

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Aussies fret more, but drink less: study

AUSTRALIANS have cut down on smoking and drinking, but they have gained weight and become more anxious, a major research project shows.

A survey of 50,000 Australians has found 1.1 million fewer glasses of alcoholic beverages are being consumed a week and 134,000 fewer people smoke compared with 2007.

The bad news is 736,000 more adults are obese and the number of people with anxiety has increased by 1.3 million, says Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan Research, which collaborated with Alere healthcare company to establish the Alere Wellness Index.

Although tempting, it is not possible to link reduced smoking and drinking to increased anxiety and obesity.

"It's more likely that local and global economic issues are to blame for the psycho-emotional trend and fast-food consumption could account for the increase in obesity," said John Lang of Alere.

The results are based on 1,800 questions put to 50,000 people a year for the past five years.

According to the research, western Brisbane is the most healthy of the 57 areas surveyed. Least healthy is the Murray and Murrumbidgee area in NSW.

The questions cover medical conditions, food purchasing and consumption and psychological wellbeing. Alcohol, smoking, body weight and activity levels are also included.

"Compared to 2007, the overall health of Australians is down just slightly," said Ms Levine.

Alere managing director Mark Volling says the research allows well-informed monitoring of chronic disease risk factors.

"The index allows us to determine where action is needed," he said.

"It will provide an excellent public health resource to assist state and federal governments in their allocation of health services and funding.

"It will also provide an invaluable tool with which to track outcomes of public health initiatives."

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NSW govt to fast-track new homes

COUNCILS could be forced to approve development applications for new homes in just 10 days under proposed reforms to NSW planning laws.

A government white paper out Tuesday recommends forcing councils to give rulings on DAs within 10 days or risk losing decision making powers, News Ltd reports.

The report says councils will have to green-light the fast-tracked approvals if the new homes are under two storeys and don't impact neighbours.

The approval process for some apartments, townhouse developments and new shops and land subdivisions will also be sped up under the plan.

Councils reportedly take an average 71 days to adjudicate on DAs at the moment.

The O'Farrell government hopes the recommended changes will save the state up to $1.7 billion over the next decade.

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Taliban claims Pakistan roadside bomb

A bomb blast on a bus in Pakistan has killed at least nine people. Source: AAP

A ROADSIDE bomb planted by the Taliban in restive northwest Pakistan has killed a political party official, a month before the country votes in a historic general election.

The blast on Sunday in the Swat valley, which was ruled by the Pakistani Taliban during a 2007-9 insurgency, comes a day after militants blew up the office of an independent candidate in North Waziristan tribal district.

The attacks are the latest violence to mar the runup to national and regional elections on May 11, which will mark the country's first democratic transition of power after a civilian government has served a full term in office.

Sunday's blast killed a local leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), which ruled the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province from 2008 until assemblies were dissolved last month for elections.

"Mukarram Shah, a local leader of ANP, was travelling to Mingora when his vehicle was targeted by an IED (improvised explosive device), around 12 kilometres northeast of Mingora city," Gul Afzal Afridi, the district police chief said.

Shah was alone in his car and no one else was hit by the explosion.

Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility of the attack saying all secular parties and their leaders were in their crosshairs.

"We have already announced we will attack ANP and other secular parties," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, said by phone.

Elsewhere, in the Charsadda district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, another convoy of ANP workers was struck by an IED and four people, including a candidate for the provincial assembly, were injured.

The Pakistani Taliban have targeted a number of top ANP figures in recent months, assassinating the number two in the provincial government in December.

The militants also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on an ANP rally on March 31 that killed two people.

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New US doctrine sends wrong message

THE US military is developing a new military doctrine but it's not in Australia's interests to openly sign on to it because of the message it would send China, a new study says.

Air-Sea Battle is a new US plan to fight and defeat an advanced adversary, which the US has consistently denied means China.

In a new Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) paper, senior analyst Benjamin Schreer said Australian endorsement of Air-Sea Battle would risk making an enemy of the Chinese military just when Australia was seeking to deepen the friendship.

Dr Schreer said Australia had an interest in contributing to the US military rebalance in the Asian region, and hosting of US training in the Northern Territory had displayed the commitment to the ANZUS alliance.

"Fully embracing the logic behind Air-Sea Battle or developing specific military capabilities to underpin the concept's implementation are so far not in Australia's interests," he said.

"Openly signing up for the concept would send a strong political message to China that the ADF is now actively planning and equipping for a potential war with the PLA (People's Liberation Army)."

As China has built up its military, it has developed a strategy to deny US forces the ability to operate in the Taiwan Strait region, South China Sea and adjacent Pacific Ocean.

The Chinese strategy includes a significant submarine force and missiles designed to hit US aircraft carriers.

In response, the US has developed Air-Sea Battle. That's been compared with the Air-Land doctrine, developed to fight the numerically superior Warsaw Pact during the Cold War.

The full version remains classified but Air-Sea envisages withstanding an initial assault, then exploiting US superiority in stealth aircraft and submarines to attack surveillance and communications networks to achieve air superiority.

Dr Schreer said there were only a few scenarios which could result in use of Air-Sea Battle, including invasion of Taiwan or a pre-emptive attack on US forces.

If that occurred, Australia would likely play a role, although not necessarily on the front line.

The US could make extensive use of Australian bases. Australian forces could also conduct peripheral operations such as intercepting Chinese merchant ships in a blockade of the Straits of Malacca.

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Sixteen arrests after Thatcher death party

SIXTEEN people are in police custody after hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a London landmark to protest against Margaret Thatcher's legacy and mark her death with a party.

Metropolitan Police officers made the arrests - mostly for drunk and disorderly conduct - in the early hours of Sunday as crowds revelled in Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and surrounding streets.

Those arrested are aged between 18 and 44 and remain at a central London police station.

Of those arrested, eight suspects were taken into custody for being drunk and disorderly and two were arrested for assaulting officers.

Union members from across the UK, who had fierce battles with Thatcher in the 1980s, rubbed shoulders with those demonstrating against today's welfare cuts.

Old and young turned out last night to mark the former prime minister's death in a "celebration" that was many years in the planning.

Despite the depth of feeling and a large police presence, there was no serious trouble.

A police spokesman said the last of the protesters left Trafalgar Square about 2am and there were no reports of any damage to property.

During the protest people drank cider and champagne, waving sparklers and letting off party poppers - and they chanted slogans about Thatcher, who died at The Ritz hotel on Monday.

Members of the National Union of Mineworkers travelled to the capital from northeast England, with others joining them from Scotland and Wales.

UK Uncut members, protesting about welfare cuts, also joined the demonstration.

One protester, drinking from a mug that read "I still hate Thatcher", said the event - initially planned by now defunct anarchist group Class War - had been years in the planning.

The 49-year-old, who gave his name only as Steve, said: "I was here during the Poll Tax riot in the 1990s."

"I've come from Brighton to be here today," he said.

"I believe it's something not to be celebrated, but something that needs to be marked in history."

Former miner Dave Douglas from Newcastle, part of the delegation from the miners' union, said Thatcher was a "terrible woman".

"We're absolutely furious at this image that is being presented on television, that the whole country is in mourning," he said.

"In the north of England, in Scotland, Wales and the Midlands, people are celebrating the fact she's gone because we don't support what she did to our community, our industry and our unions."

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