Chopper crash kills 17 soldiers

A TURKISH military helicopter carrying soldiers on a mission against Kurdish rebels crashed because of bad weather, killing all 17 troops onboard, officials said.

Thirteen soldiers and four military crewmembers were killed in the crash in a mountainous part of Pervari district in Siirt province, in southeastern Turkey, where the rebel Kurdistan Worker's Party is fighting for self-rule.

President Abdullah Gul said the soldiers were on their way "to help their friends" in an operation against the rebels who have escalated attacks in recent months, adding the incident would not deter Turkey from its determination to fight the rebels.

The provincial governor, Ahmet Aydin, blamed the crash on heavy fog and ruled out an attack by the rebel group.

"The weather during the transportation (of troops) was bad. There was extreme rain. The helicopter crashed into rocks because of the fog," Mr Aydin said in televised statements.

"The incident was the result of a crash and any kind of an attack is out of the question."

The Kurdish rebels have been fighting since the 1980s and they seek more rights for Kurds, including autonomy in the mostly Kurdish southeast of the country. Turkey and its Western allies categorise the rebels, known by the acronym PKK, as a terrorist group.

Several days ago, Turkish media reported that Turkish soldiers were airlifted into northern Iraq for a brief operation against suspected rebels, who have bases there.

There were no reports of casualties on that mission. Turkey periodically carries out artillery and air strikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq, but reports of cross-border incursions by troops are rare.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Turkish helicopter crashes killing 17

A TURKISH military helicopter carrying soldiers on a mission against Kurdish rebels has crashed because of bad weather, killing all 17 troops aboard, officials say.

Thirteen soldiers and four military crewmembers were killed in the crash on Saturday in a mountainous part of Pervari district in Siirt province, in southeastern Turkey, where the rebel Kurdistan Worker's Party is fighting for self-rule.

President Abdullah Gul said the soldiers were on their way "to help their friends" in an operation against the rebels who have escalated attacks in recent months, adding the incident would not deter Turkey from its determination to fight the rebels.

The provincial governor, Ahmet Aydin, blamed the crash on heavy fog and ruled out an attack by the rebel group.

"The weather during the transportation (of troops) was bad. There was extreme rain. The helicopter crashed into rocks because of the fog," Aydin said in televised statements. "The incident was the result of a crash and any kind of an attack is out of the question."

The Kurdish rebels have been fighting since the 1980s and they seek more rights for Kurds, including autonomy in the mostly Kurdish southeast of the country. Turkey and its Western allies categorise the rebels, known by the acronym PKK, as a terrorist group.

Several days ago, Turkish media reported that Turkish soldiers were airlifted into northern Iraq for a brief operation against suspected rebels, who have bases there. There were no reports of casualties on that mission. Turkey periodically carries out artillery and air strikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq, but reports of cross-border incursions by troops are rare.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

China export growth accelerates

CHINA'S export growth sped up in October in fresh evidence of a broader rebound for the world's second-largest economy, as a top official all but declared the country's slowdown over.

Exports rose 11.6 per cent in October from a year earlier, the national customs bureau said on Saturday, accelerating for a second straight month just as the Communist Party discusses how best to achieve sustainable economic growth.

"The trend of slowdown has been effectively curbed," Zhang Ping, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told reporters.

"From October economic data the trend for a rebound in the Chinese economy is all the more obvious."

China's economic growth has slowed for seven straight quarters and hit a more than three-year low of 7.4 per cent in the three months through September, but recent data has fuelled optimism that the worst is over.

Industrial production for October accelerated to growth of 9.6 per cent on-year, the government said on Friday. Retail sales, the main measure of consumer spending, also picked up to a 14.5 per cent gain.

Fixed-asset investment, a key gauge of infrastructure spending, showed improvement, while inflation dipped to a nearly three-year low of 1.7 per cent.

The customs bureau also said on Saturday that October imports increased 2.4 per cent, matching September's gain.

China's trade surplus, a source of friction with the United States and other countries, widened to $US32 billion ($A30.88 billion), up from $US27.7 billion in September.

The size was a surprise, surpassing the median forecast of $US27 billion in a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires.

"Today's trade data, together with improving domestic demand indicators released yesterday, continue to support our view that China's growth momentum has picked up," ANZ bank economists Liu Li-Gang and Zhou Hao wrote in a commentary.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists Lu Ting and Hu Weijun said the export data back up their view of economic growth strengthening to 7.8 per cent in the fourth quarter and 8.3 per cent in the first half of 2013.

"We believe China's economic growth has truly bottomed out," they said in a report.

China's Communist Party has been meeting since Thursday to anoint new leaders for the next 10 years at its 18th congress.

President Hu Jintao is expected to be replaced as party leader by Vice President Xi Jinping before the meeting adjourns on Wednesday.

Hu, in a speech on Thursday to the meeting, called for creating a new growth model with a robust private sector, while also insisting on the primacy of the party-led state sector.

He also warned that corruption threatens the existence of both party and state in the speech to the event, held every five years to boost the ruling party's leadership credentials.

Modernising China's economy and pulling hundreds of millions out of poverty in the more than three decades since the country embarked on reform policies is a key claim to legitimacy for the world's largest political party.

China's economy racked up average annual growth rates of more than 10 per cent in the decade through 2010, but officials now say they want an expansion that can be maintained.

"We are calling for a shift in the growth model ... to focus on sustainable growth," the NDRC's Zhang said.

Independent economist Andy Xie, based in Shanghai, said the economy still faced headwinds given continued weakness in overseas economies and in China's own domestic demand as shown by tepid import growth.

He also expressed a lack of confidence in the ability of party leaders to manage the economy.

"At least in the last five years, it's become very clear it's about how to divide the spoils among the powerful people," he said of the congress.

"I don't see it's changing. Without political reforms the economy is not coming back."

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man in custody over laneway body discovery

A MAN is in custody and assisting detectives as police investigate the death of a woman whose body was found in a laneway in Western Australia's mid west region.

A 36-year-old man is in custody in Meekatharra and assisting major crime squad detectives with their investigations.

The woman's body was found at the northern end of the Meekatharra town site, about 765km northeast of Perth, about noon (WST) on Friday.

The woman has not yet been identified.

Police are treating her death as a suspected homicide but have not yet established the cause of death.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

China economic data point to recovery

CHINA'S factory output and consumer spending improved in October in a new sign of possible economic recovery as the Communist Party prepared to install a new generation of leaders.

Growth in factory output accelerated to 9.6 per cent over a year earlier from the previous month's 9.2 per cent, the government reported on Friday.

Retail sales rose 14.5 per cent, up from September's 14.2 per cent.

The data are welcome news for the ruling party, which is meeting in Beijing for a once-a-decade handover of power to younger leaders.

Coming off the past year's steady declines in economic activity, a rebound might allow the new leaders to benefit from improving public sentiment.

Investment growth strengthened, rising 25.2 per cent over a year earlier, up from the previous month's 25.1 per cent.

Also in October, inflation eased further, giving Beijing more room to cut interest rates or launch new stimulus measures to speed a recovery with less danger of igniting politically dangerous price rises.

The improvement comes as communist leaders are holding a party congress in the capital that is expected to install Vice President Xi Jinping as party leader and China's next president.

The new leadership faces challenges including slowing growth that the World Bank and Chinese analysts say will require a drastic change in the country's economic strategy.

They say Beijing must reduce the dominance of state companies in industries from finance to energy to banking and nurture free-market competition to keep incomes rising.

Economic growth fell to a three and a half year low of 7.4 per cent in the quarter ending in September but investment, retail sales and other indicators improved from the previous quarter.

The government said last month it saw "steady economic growth," suggesting there was no need for further major stimulus.

The slowdown was due largely to government efforts to crush inflation and prevent economic overheating after the huge stimulus in response to the 2008 global crisis fuelled sharp price rises.

Beijing reversed course late last year after global demand for Chinese goods plunged, slamming exporters and raising the danger of job losses and unrest.

The abrupt slowdown added to complications for communist leaders as they tried to enforce calm ahead of the leadership change.

Forecasters expect growth to rebound this quarter or early in 2013.

They say any recovery is likely to be gradual and too weak to drive global growth without improvement in the United States and Europe.

Beijing launched a mini-stimulus early this year, cutting interest rates twice in June and July and stepping up investment by state companies and spending on building airports and other public works.

But authorities avoided bigger measures after their huge spending in response to the 2008 global crisis fuelled inflation and a wasteful building boom.

In October, consumer prices rose 1.7 per cent, down from the previous month's 1.9 per cent.

That was driven by a 1.8 per cent gain in food prices, which are unusually sensitive in a society where the poorest families spend up to half their incomes to eat, down from September's 2.5 per cent.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Japan steelmaking giant posts $US4bn loss

THE world's second biggest steelmaker, created through the recent merger of Japan's Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal, has posted a $US3.9 billion ($A3.76 billion) combined net loss in its fiscal first half.

The whopping shortfall for Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp was largely linked to stock investment losses and the writedown of money-losing Japanese mills, it said on Friday.

Global competition in the steel industry has intensified in recent years even as demand has been spurred by fast-growing economies such as China, which are undertaking massive construction, infrastructure and manufacturing projects.

However, a slowing global economy and weakening vehicle production are threatening steelmakers' bottom line.

Japanese producers have also struggled with an unfavourable exchange rate, which saw the yen hit record highs against the dollar late last year, making their exports less competitive overseas.

"We are in the situation of mounting uncertainties as nobody can predict how the situation is going to play out or when a recovery is set to start," Executive Vice President Fumio Hombe told a news briefing, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

In its results on Friday, the combined firm said Nippon Steel alone booked a loss of 176.66 billion yen ($US2.2 billion) in the six months to September, reversing a year-earlier profit, with sales down 5.4 per cent.

Sumitomo Metal lost 133.85 billion yen in the same period, expanding its year-earlier loss, on slightly higher sales.

Combined revenue was about $US32.7 billion, they said.

The loss comes after the two Japanese giants formally merged last month, creating the world's second largest steelmaker behind India's ArcelorMittal.

On Friday, the firms said domestic steel demand was steady in the key construction and auto sectors after last year's quake-tsunami disaster, but the expiry of government eco-vehicle subsidies could take a bite out of demand for new vehicles.

Japanese steelmakers are also struggling against fierce competition from Chinese and South Korean rivals, while a global economic slowdown has weighed on demand for steel, used in everything from cars to smartphones.

"Steel demand overseas is beginning to weaken after having been driven largely by strong demand in Asia," the company said in a statement, warning of a supply glut that is "causing the deterioration of the steel market".

"In this severe operating environment, the company continued its efforts to maximise cost improvements", it added.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Air raids, clashes hit Damascus: watchdog

SYRIAN rebels and troops have clashed in several districts of Damascus while air raids hit the city's outskirts, a watchdog says, amid intensifying fighting in the capital.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Syria is now so bad that the Red Cross is struggling to cope, the head of the international aid agency said on Thursday.

The violence in Damascus came a day after 133 people were killed on Wednesday across Syria, including 59 civilians, rebels and soldiers in Damascus province alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Fresh fighting erupted overnight in Damascus in the southern neighbourhood of Qadam and Mazzeh in the west, where three civilians were killed on Wednesday in a shelling attack on Mazzeh 86, a district mainly populated by members of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Sectarian tensions have mounted over the course of the 20-month uprising, with civilians in the majority Sunni country bearing the brunt of the death toll.

On Thursday, warplanes pounded the town of Saqba just outside the capital, while helicopters could be seen circling over the East Ghuta area, some 50 kilometres northeast of Damascus, the Britain-based watchdog said.

At dawn, plumes of smoke rose over the southern Damascus districts of Nahr Aisha and Midan after mortar rounds fell on the area, reported the Observatory, which gathers its information from a network of activists, lawyers and medics on the ground.

In the commercial hub Aleppo, troops bombarded the eastern districts of the city, while one rebel was killed as clashes broke out around the air force intelligence branch in Zahraa district in the northwest.

Residents told AFP that warplanes and tanks shelled Zahraa and Liramun at the northwest entrance of the city overnight.

An AFP correspondent reported the sound of machinegun fire and explosions as rebels and troops battled in the Old City.

The Observatory says more than 37,000 people have died since the March 2011 outbreak of the Syrian revolt, which began as a peaceful protest movement inspired by the Arab Spring but evolved into an armed rebellion following repression.

In Geneva, Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters: "The humanitarian situation is getting worse despite the scope of the operation increasing. We can't cope with the worsening of the situation."

The ICRC, which works in collaboration with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to deliver aid in the conflict-racked country, nonetheless has "a lot of blank spots" with regard to the needs of the people on the ground, he said.

"There is an unknown number of people in Syria who do not get the aid they need."

Meanwhile, an Armenian plane carrying humanitarian aid for Syria was forced to land in Turkey on Thursday for an inspection of its cargo, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The cargo plane landed at Erzurum airport in eastern Turkey where teams of police and troops with sniffer dogs began a search, it said.

It was the second time in a month that the Turkish authorities have ordered an Armenian plane heading for Syria to land for security checks.

On October 15, another Armenian plane carrying humanitarian aid to Syria's battered second city of Aleppo was forced to land at Erzurum airport but the plane was allowed to resume journey after officials said no suspect cargo turned up during searches.

Last month, Turkish jets forced a Syrian plane flying from Russia to land at Ankara airport because of what it called suspect cargo.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Schoolies advised to look after mates

That's the simple message from organisers of this year's schoolies event on the Gold Coast.

Nearly 30,000 school leavers are expected to descend on Surfers Paradise from next week in the annual end-of-year celebrations.

The death of Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercars reveller Jordan Bailo after a high-rise fall in October sparked immediate concerns about teenagers partying in Gold Coast apartments during schoolies week.

But Gold Coast Schoolies Advisory Group chairman Mark Raeburn says rather than highlight one area of potential risk, his message is for youngsters to keep an eye on each other during next weekend's festivities.

"A couple of years ago it was planking that was the big thing," Mr Raeburn told AAP.

"We had a concern that that was going to become a problem but fortunately it wasn't.

"We try not to feature one thing in particular. What we try and do is focus on just being safe across the board and the big thing is just to watch your mates.

"Keep an eye on the people around you."

Mr Raeburn said the annual pilgrimage to the Gold Coast was much safer now than a few years ago, thanks to the increased cooperation and planning by organising committees and the police.

The alcohol-free schoolies hub on the Surfers Paradise beachfront was designed to bring students out of their apartments and away from non-schoolies in a safe and controlled environment, he said.

"There is no point pretending that these kids aren't going to drink," Mr Raeburn said.

"There's no point pretending kids aren't going to play up because they're away from mum and dad and, in some cases, it's their first experience of living away from home.

"That's the reason we have the hub on the beach - we want kids to come out of the units, because it's in the units that the issues really occur.

"We want them to wear themselves out by dancing madly on the beach."

Mr Raeburn said a particular focus in this year's schoolies will be the use of social media to communicate with those attending and keep them informed of event details.

There will also be a "chill-out" night on Tuesday to provide partygoers with a break in their revelry.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hong Kong shares end 2.41% lower

HONG Kong shares have tumbled 2.41 per cent on fears US legislators will fail to reach a deal before year-end to avoid a "fiscal cliff" that could tip the economy back into recession.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index on Thursday fell 532.94 points to 21,566.91 on turnover of $HK72.66 billion ($A9.04 billion). The fall is the index's steepest since July 23 but comes after it enjoyed a 16 per cent rally since the start of September.

Eyes are also on Beijing where the Communist Party began a week-long congress to anoint the country's next leaders.

President Barack Obama's election victory over Republican Mitt Romney has been followed with trepidation as the focus turns to the "fiscal cliff", a combination of deep spending cuts and tax rises.

These will automatically take effect on January 1 unless Democrats and Republicans can agree on alternative ways to cut the deficit.

Henderson Land and New World Development, sourcing firm Li & Fung, oil majors PetroChina and China National Offshore Oil Corporation, coalminer China Shenhua and Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment all fell more than 3.0 per cent on profit-taking.

Chinese shares closed down 1.63 per cent. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 34.22 points to 2,071.51 on turnover of 49.3 billion yuan ($A7.62 billion).

Traders are watching the 18th party congress to see if the country's rulers unveil any fresh measures to boost the domestic economy, which has suffered a slowdown in the past year.

"Given the absence of market-moving news from the domestic side, concerns about the US fiscal cliff dominate the (domestic) A-share market," Capital Securities' analyst Li Bin told Dow Jones Newswires.

Resources stocks led the declines on concerns about the global economy.

Coal producer Heilongjiang Heihua slumped 8.40 per cent to 6.87 yuan, Anyuan Coal Industry dropped 5.92 per cent to 12.40 yuan and Shanxi Coking Coal fell 4.27 per cent to 8.29 yuan.

Nonferrous metals producer Chengtun Mining lost 5.19 per cent to 10.23 yuan while Rising Nonferrous Metals fell 3.89 per cent to 41.56 yuan.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Queensland's CMC sacks 13

QUEENSLAND'S Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) says it has lost another 13 staff because of the state government's budget cuts.

The CMC had already announced that between July 1 and October 11 there were 44 separations, none of which were forced redundancies.

On Wednesday the CMC announced that 13 people had been made redundant.

CMC head Ross Martin told the budget estimates hearing in parliament last month that their budget had been reduced by less than one per cent, but it would lead to "losses of capacity".

He said the CMC had a "substantial" workload and there was queuing to deal with investigations.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More