PARIS: French teachers went on strike today on the eve of a nationwide general stoppage called by trade unions opposed to President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62.

A third of secondary school teachers did not turn up for work, unions said, but officials said only 6% of them went on strike to protest the slashing of 7,000 jobs in education and other reform plans in the sector.

Teachers and other private and public sector workers were to join protests tomorrow that unions said would see hundreds of thousands take to the streets to fight pension plans that are a cornerstone of Sarkozy's reforms.

The demonstrations come as the right-wing president limps into the last two years of his first term weakened by scandal and dismal opinion poll ratings.

They are timed to fall on the same day that the French Parliament begins debate on a draft pension reform law, which is to be presented by Sarkozy's embattled labour minister Eric Woerth.

The bill would increase France's minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018, which would still leave it low by international standards but would reverse a cherished and emblematic Socialist reform.

"If this week is decisive, it is because Sarkozy, by attacking one of the biggest totems of the left, is also attacking a bygone era when governments thought they could spend without counting," said Le Figaro daily.

CGT union leader Bernard Thibault said he believed that even more people would turn out for the 190 marches planned in cities across France than in June, when more than 800,000 took part in demonstrations.

"We may have an exceptional day and, if it is exceptional, we will perhaps be at a turning point," he told France Inter radio.

Widespread disruption was expected in transport, government, industry, banks and postal services.

Just two out of five TGV high-speed trains were expected to run, with reduced service on many other lines, state railway operator SNCF said. But Eurostar trains between Paris and London were expected to run normally.

Key measure

An Obea/Infra Forces opinion poll said 73% of French approved of the protest marches. But the poll also showed 65% thought the government would not change course.

Sarkozy hopes to make pension reform the key measure of the final two years of his first mandate and the start of an electoral fightback, but it comes after a politically disastrous summer.

Woerth, the minister tasked with pushing the bill through Parliament, has been weakened by a series of allegations surrounding his links to France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

The president has stood by him publicly, and the minister denies any wrongdoing or conflict of interest in his role as ruling party fundraiser, but the scandal rumbles on and several judicial probes are under way.

Sarkozy has also sparked international outrage and incensed the French left and human rights groups with a crackdown on Roma immigrants and threats to strip foreign-born criminals of French citizenship.

Voters tell pollsters they approve of the crackdown, but this has failed to translate into a fillip for Sarkozy's own ratings.

Likewise most voters say they believe pension reform is necessary, but again this fails to translate into improved ratings for the president.

There is little sign Sarkozy is ready to back down, even if his chief of staff Claude Gueant said Sunday the government would propose amendments to the law this week.

France is running a huge public deficit and government thinks raising the retirement age could save 70 billion euros (RM281 billion) by 2030.

A minimum retirement age of 60 is well under the average of 64 in the OECD group of wealthy industrialised democracies, despite France having one of the world's longest life expectancies.

- AFP

The three "kingmaker" independent MPs who hold the balance of power went into talks with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott, saying they were hopeful of a decision tomorrow.

"My guess is that... we'll make a determination probably tomorrow morning," Tony Windsor, one of the three, told public broadcaster ABC.

Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and maverick Queenslander Bob Katter have been wooed assiduously by Gillard and Abbott since Aug 21 polls failed to give either side a majority, sparking the worst political paralysis in decades.

Gillard's Labor party currently has 74 seats, two short of a lower-house majority, while Abbott's Liberal/National alliance is one behind on 73, making the three independents' votes crucial.

The deadlock caps an unusually dramatic period for Australian politics after Gillard ousted elected prime minister Kevin Rudd in June, becoming the country's first woman leader, and called elections just three weeks later.

Signs of a split emerged today between the three kingmakers, who have been negotiating as a bloc, raising the possibility of a 75-seat dead heat between Gillard and Abbott which would trigger fresh polls.

"There's three of us with a full spread of political views and policy views," Oakeshott told reporters in Canberra.

"It does look like we may have to make some choices about whether we stick together to get stable government or not," he said.

But the trio did succeed in forging a deal with both major parties on parliamentary reform following their meetings with Gillard and Abbott.

Greater say

The reforms include an independent speaker of the lower house -- a position now filled by a member of the ruling party -- and changes to prime ministerial questions which will limit queries to 45 seconds and responses to four minutes.

At the beginning of each sitting day, and prior to prayers, the speaker will also make an "acknowledgement of country" -- a recognition of the historical Aboriginal ownership of the land.

Oakeshott said the reforms were designed to give the 150 lower-house representatives a greater say, reducing the dominance of the prime minister and key Cabinet ministers in parliament.

"I think that is a positive change for parliamentary democracy in Australia," he told a press conference.

Analysts say even a government with a tiny minority will be vulnerable to collapse, threatening the reputation for stability that has helped Australia's mining-driven economy become the "wonder from Down Under".

Gillard's dismissal of Rudd and poor campaigning were blamed for her reverse at the election, where the environment-focused Greens party won a record share of the ballot.

- AFP

Wild storms lashed Victoria state over the weekend, triggering landslides, knocking out power supplies and forcing hundreds of people out of their houses, with many rivers yet to reach their peak.

At least 53,000 people had been put on evacuation alert across the state since the emergency began, officials said, with around 4,000 calls for help from people stranded in their homes or hit by the surging waters.

"We've had around 300 homes that have been affected by floods over the weekend," a State Emergency Service (SES) spokeswoman said.

Residents had been forced to flee in 11 towns, including some which were hit by a devastating firestorm last year, and the SES said more than 100 homes were under direct threat of flooding Monday.

Anthony Griffiths, mayor of the northern Victoria town of Wangaratta, said it was the area's worst flooding since 1998 and it could rival record floods in 1993.

"There are a few variables. The amount of snow melt, and extra rain obviously too, could make things a bit more interesting," Griffiths told ABC radio.

Raging rivers

Soldiers joined relief efforts in the worst-hit areas and the SES said emergency crews had come from neighbouring states to boost rescue team numbers.

"We'd hope after tomorrow it should be very much going into recovery mode, but it will depend on the weather for the rest of the week," the SES spokeswoman said.

Officials have warned that it could take several days for raging rivers in the state's northeast to empty, threatening towns further south.

"Where the water has been there is a certainly a massive clean-up for people," said SES chief Stephen Warren.

"As the water travels down into other communities, they are bracing themselves for the impact of that water," he told ABC.

Gale-force winds also lashed the neighbouring states of South Australia and New South Wales over the weekend, felling trees, tearing roofs off homes, and cutting power to tens of thousands of people.

- AFP

Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre, said the Japanese-owned chemical tanker was travelling from Singapore to China when it was targeted off Indonesia's Mangkai island.

"The 3am attack yesterday saw the pirates board the tanker and rob the 23 crew on board before the pirates escaped," he said, adding that it was the 27th incident in the region since February.

"We have informed the Indonesian authorities and we have also alerted ships in the area to mount anti-piracy watches as these pirates normally abort attacks once they are spotted."

Mangkai island lies on a busy sea passage running along the east coast of the Malaysian peninsula. It is a major route for ships heading between East Asian nations and the Pacific Ocean.

Choong said there was growing concern over piracy in the area, with the IMB receiving reports of 10 attacks in the past 20 days.

"There is a need for more patrols in these waters as the attacks have increased, he said, adding that the IMB has issued a warning that one or more pirate groups are operating in the area, armed with guns and machetes.

- AFP

Some 200 ex-soldiers will on Thursday launch the NK People's Liberation Front, Jang Ce-Yul, the group's secretary general, said.

"We still stay in touch with many of our former colleagues in the military, and many of them are fully aware they can't survive long under Kim Jong-Il's regime," said Jang, who defected two years ago.

"We will provide aid to help them bring down the North's regime at the hands of the North Korean people and military."

He said the group would help smuggle publications, videos and other material into the tightly-controlled country and circulate them among the North's soldiers.

Jang said Hwang Jang-Yop, a former top official who defected to the South in 1997, will be an adviser.

The group plans several projects with current members of the North's military and anti-regime groups to "weaken the military's loyalty" to Kim, said Jang.

He refused to give details, citing concerns about the security of former military colleagues still in the communist state.

The group said on its website (http://www.nkplf.com) it will also release on Thursday a recently recorded phone conversation with a senior North Korean army officer to demonstrate its links to the military there.

Its members at the inauguration ceremony on Thursday -- the anniversary of the founding of North Korea -- will also stage a performance simulating the assassination of leader Kim, the website said.

South Korea has numerous organisations representing refugees from the North or campaigning against the regime, but this will be the first to link former soldiers.

Around 19,000 North Koreans have fled the North for the South since the end of the 1950-53 war, the vast majority in recent years.

Despite its ailing economy and severe food shortages, the North's military totals almost 1.2 million members.

- AFP

"For someone who three years ago started opening cracks in the walls of censorship, my first feeling is that of enormous gratification," Sanchez said of the award she was given on Friday.

The recognition from the Vienna-based International Press Institute, which hailed her defiance of press restrictions and commitment to free speech, is "also a shield to keep daring" to put out news from the closeted Communist isle.

Sanchez began her blog Generation Y, which now counts over one million readers, in 2007. However, access to the site was banned in Cuba in 2008.

To bypass this, Sanchez, who celebrated her 35th birthday Saturday, emails her comments to friends abroad who post her notes on the Internet.`

In 2008, Time Magazine in the United States named her one of the 100 most influential people. The following year, her blog was listed as one of the 25 best blogs of the year by the magazine.

The future of Cuba is "where the power of the Internet can be used to promote freedom of expression”, Sanchez said, adding that the IPI prize was an additional "incentive" to keep going.

"Gradually the circle of censorship is in the process of breaking down. I am very happy. I will continue," she said.

Alison Bethel McKenzie, director of the Vienna-based International Press Institute, said on Friday that Sanchez's "tremendously important work provides a glimpse into what is otherwise a closed world".

She "represents a future where the power of the Internet can be harnessed to promote free speech”, McKenzie said in a statement.

Harassed and beaten on separate occasions, Sanchez has noted on her blog that she is constantly watched by state security agents.

But she refuses to stop writing: "If you are insulted by the mediocre, the opportunists, if you are slandered by the employees of the powerful but dying machinery, take it as a compliment," she has written.

- AFP

Authorities said strong aftershocks continued to rock Christchurch following the 7.0-magnitude quake on Saturday, which caused extensive damage estimated at NZ$2 two billion (RM4.5 billion).

Troops were called in to relieve exhausted police manning checkpoints sealing off the city centre, with the Civil Defence authority saying the area remained closed due to danger from falling masonry and glass.

"The state of emergency has been extended until midday Wednesday," a ministry spokesman said.

A night-time curfew has been imposed since Saturday after initial reports of looting.

Christchurch police superintendent Dave Cliff told Radio New Zealand that a number of "known criminals" were arrested as they attempted to enter the central business district posing as council workers.

About 200 people whose homes were uninhabitable spent the night in welfare centres.

Officials warned it would be some time before life returned to normal in the city of 340,000 people following the country's most destructive quake in almost 80 years.

"This isn't a short-term thing," said Prime Minister John Key, who was scheduled to hold a Cabinet meeting today to fast-track arrangements to restore Christchurch's damaged infrastructure.

Rebuilding efforts

Key is expected to appoint a special commissioner to oversee rebuilding efforts.

Schools, shops and businesses were closed and residents were advised to stay at home until inspections of the more than 500 buildings damaged by the quake were completed.

Business owners were among the few people allowed into the city centre so they could assess damage to their properties.

Buildings deemed too dangerous to enter, many of which are likely to be torn down, were marked with red tags by structural engineers.

About one-fifth of the city's homes were without running water and authorities were bringing in supplies on rail tankers.

Civil Defence advised residents whose taps were working to boil drinking water because of possible contamination from burst pipes.

However, emergency workers gained some relief when a massive storm that was feared would topple already weakened building failed to arrive.

The break in the weather eased fears of flooding in Christchurch, although it remained a danger in the wider Canterbury region and 150 people were evacuated from a caravan park near the town of Kaiapoi as a precaution.

- AFP

COPIAPO: The 33 miners trapped deep underground in Chile may be rescued as early as November, according to documents revealed yesterday, as relatives held a tearful vigil to mark a month since they were entombed.

The quickest route is the rescue workers' "Plan C" that involves a football pitch-sized oil drilling platform, expected to begin work by Sept 18 -- Chile's Independence Day. It reduces the rescue time to two months at best, having to only drill some 597 metres (1,958 feet) to reach the trapped workers.

The process, in which miners can escape one-by-one in a small cage winched up to ground level, through a hole that is still yet to be drilled, should be ready "in early November in the best case scenario or early December if there are problems”, said the document provided to rescue workers and seen by AFP.

Meanwhile, yesterday in an emotional ceremony full of song, music and tears, relatives of the 33 miners marked the month since a cave-in at the northern Chilean mine entombed their loved ones deep underground.

Flags for the 32 Chileans and one Bolivian were placed in the ground, and at 1.45pm (1745 GMT), the estimated time when the San Jose mine collapsed on Aug 5, the crowd sounded flutes and horns and chanted upbeat songs.

Chile's Mines Minister Laurence Golborne presided over the ceremony, reading aloud the names of the workers. Relatives and friends shouted "Viva!" as each name was called.

In the weeks since the cave-in, the miners have become national heroes as their improbable tale of survival has captivated the world.

But relatives said the miners, trapped 700m underground, were becoming dejected and demoralised as the realisation sinks in that freedom is still several weeks away at least.

"It's painful, because time is passing by," said Elizabeth Segovia, whose brother Dario is one of the workers trapped in the mine.

She spoke of the families' pain in knowing that 30 days after the accident, rescuers were not likely to reach the men before Christmas, and that most of their ordeal still lies ahead of them.

"Hopefully everything will turn out all right so that they can be rescued."

Video link

Relatives who spoke to the miners on Saturday using a special video link were able, for the first time, not only to hear their voices but also to see their faces.

But far from providing relief, some relatives said those conversations only made them more fretful about the emotional and mental state of their loved ones.

"Yesterday, they were angry, because fatigue was beginning to set in. It has already been quite a few days," Alejandro Zamora said of his trapped brother, Victor.

"My brother was not able to speak, he was so angry," Zamora said. "He was not in a very good mood."

While the quickest plan had yet to start work, "Plan B" began its installation phase yesterday but still has to reach down 620m to get to the miners. It would be a shorter time than the three-to-four months that the original "Plan A" is set to take.

This effort, the only one of the three options already in the drilling phase, requires burrowing the full 700m into the mine, and later having to widen that hole to accommodate a rescue.

So far yesterday, only 40m of the "Plan A" rescue shaft had been drilled, however.

At the beginning of last month, the miners had been given up for lost, but against all odds managed to survive deep down in the mine in Chile's remote Atacama desert for longer than anyone thought possible.

On Aug 22 a drill probe finally reached the underground shelter where they had managed to take refuge, surviving by rationing cans of tuna for 17 long days.

The men attached a note to it, saying: "All 33 of us are well inside the shelter."

Jubilation followed and relatives set up camp outside the mine and began what promises to be a long vigil.

- AFP

The plane went down near the airstrip at Fox Glacier, a central attraction in the Unesco-designated World Heritage area on the west coast of New Zealand's South Island.

"All nine people on board were killed," a police spokesman said.

He listed the dead as the pilot, four New Zealand males and tourists from Ireland, England, Australia and Germany whose ages and gender were not available.

Initial details of the tragedy were sketchy because of the remoteness of the area. However, the police spokesman said he understood the plane burst into flames after it crashed.

Television New Zealand reported the aircraft, which it said belonged to a skydiving company, burst into flames soon after take off.

The only skydiving company in the area, Skydive New Zealand, would not comment on the tragedy.

However, a message on the company's answerphone said: "Unfortunately, we will not be skydiving for the rest of the day."

Police said the ill-fated aircraft was a Fletcher fixed-wing, the type operated by Skydive New Zealand which has been involved in the skydiving and aviation industry for more than 25 years.

- AFP

The quake struck just before dawn when few people were on the streets sending building facades crashing to the ground, crushing parked cars and showering the roads with shattered glass.

Frightened residents fled from their homes to find streets covered in rubble and glass, but in the city of 340,000 only two people were seriously injured.

Many buildings were structurally damaged, and there were gas leaks, ruptured water and sewage mains, collapsed bridges and cuts to electricity supplies.

A state of emergency was declared in the city with people being warned to stay away from damaged buildings for fear of further collapses as severe aftershocks continued to rock the city.

"I think we've been extremely lucky as a nation that there's been no fatalities... we're blessed actually," Civil Defence Minister John Carter said after being briefed on the impact of the quake.

He described it as a "significant disaster" and although many Christchurch residents were in shock he appealed for people not to flood hospitals with minor injuries.

"The most important thing we can tell anybody at the moment is please don't panic," he said.

State of emergency

Christchurch mayor Bob Parker said he was "horrified by the amount of damage" which daylight showed was considerably worse than first thought.

"We've decided to declare the state of emergency in the city. It just makes it a bit easier for us now to move people out of buildings if necessary, close streets down," Parker announced on national radio.

The quake, initially recorded at a magnitude of 7.4, struck at 4.35am yesterday at a depth of 5km (three miles) some 45km west of Christchurch, the US Geological Survey said.

"Oh my God. There is a row of shops completely demolished right in front of me," resident Colleen Simpson told the Stuff website, adding that many people had run out onto the streets in fear.

Christchurch Hospital spokeswoman Michele Hider said two men in their 50s were seriously injured -- one was hit by a falling chimney and the other was cut by falling glass.

Several people were treated for minor injuries from objects falling in their homes, while hospitals had put additional doctors on standby because of the intensity of the quake and the extent of the damage.

Extensive damage

Police closed the centre of the city as looters targeted damaged shops, police Inspector Mike Coleman said.

"There's considerable damage there, and we've already had reports of looting. Shop windows are broken and obviously it's easy pickings for displays and things."

Coleman said that with the extensive damage, people were being urged to stay at home.

"We've got considerable road damage, there's gas leaks, there's been damaged water pipes, we've got sewage in houses and quite a lot of power lines and power poles down. It's very unsafe to be out and about."

Roads in the seaside suburbs were packed with cars as residents moved inland, but there were no tsunami alerts issued.

A swarm of aftershocks continued to shake the area, while electricity supplies were cut to about half of the city.

Kevin O'Hanlon, from the Mairehau area of Christchurch, said: "Just unbelievable. I was awake to go to work and then just heard this massive noise and, boom, it was like the house got hit. It just started shaking. I've never felt anything like it."

Mayor Parker said he was in bed when the quake struck and he was "absolutely scared. I've never felt anything like it and I've experienced, like most Kiwis, a number of good shakes."

The quake was felt throughout the South Island and the lower North Island.

Christchurch International Airport, the main international gateway to the South Island, has been closed and rail movement in the South Island has been stopped while facilities are checked.

- AFP

"This is really terrible news and a very serious threat, unfortunately," the firebrand politician told AFP by e-mail on Friday in response to the threat reported in the popular daily De Telegraaf newspaper.

Wilders, who campaigns for an end to Muslim immigration and a ban on the building of new mosques and the Quran in a bid to end the "Islamisation" of the Netherlands, has been under 24-hour protection since 2004.

According to De Telegraaf, Muslim cleric Feiz Muhammad called on extremists in an Internet chatroom to "chop off his head" and accused Wilders of "denigrating" Islam.

The newspaper claims to have a sound recording of the appeal by Muhammad, who it said had links with terrorists and was influential for western Muslims.

Wilders appeared on Australian television on Sunday during which he defended his views.

"Our culture which is based on Christianity, Judaism and Humanism, is better than the retarded Islamic culture and this is tough to say, but it is true," Wilders told SBS Broadcasting's Dateline programme.

Enormous response

SBS said that it had received an enormous response to the story but it was unaware of whether Muhammad had commented on it.

Sydney-born Muhammad gained notoriety in 2005 for a speech in which he said a rape victim has "no one to blame but herself". He has reportedly urged young Muslims to kill non-believers.

Wilders said he would seek "clarification from the Dutch Minister of Interior/Justice why the secret service and anti-terrorism unit NCTB have not informed me" of the reported threat, and "what the consequences will be for me".

"The information that has come to the fore will be included in the threat analysis for Wilders," said NCTB spokeswoman Judith Sluiter, who added: "We had contact with Wilders last night. We have permanent contact."

Dutch authorities would not confirm the threat or elaborate on possible steps to be taken.

Barred from entering Britain last year to stop him spreading "hatred", Wilders is known abroad for his 17-minute anti-Islam commentary, "Fitna", which was termed "offensively anti-Islamic" by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

His Party for Freedom came third in June 9 national elections, nearly tripling its number of parliamentary seats to 24.

Wilders is set to go on trial in the Netherlands in October on charges of inciting racial hatred against Muslims.

- AFP

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will meet Southeast Asian leaders this month in New York, the White House said yesterday, as the United States tries to bolster its role in a region faced with a rising China.

The White House said that Obama would hold talks with leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in New York on Sept 24, at the time of the annual United Nations General Assembly.

The summit, whose date was earlier confirmed to AFP by a senior official, will mark Obama's latest attempt to reinvigorate US policy towards the dynamic region that he said was neglected by ex-president George W Bush's team.

The New York meeting will follow the inaugural summit that Obama held last year in Singapore with his counterparts from Asean.

In Singapore, "the president and the Asean leaders pledged to deepen cooperation in a number of areas of common concern including trade and investment, regional security, disaster management, food and energy security, and climate change", a White House statement said.

"The president looks forward to working with the leaders to assess the progress on these issues, identify future efforts to strengthen US-Asean relations, and discuss multilateral approaches for greater regional cooperation," it said.

But the upcoming meeting -- like many at Asean -- may risk being overshadowed by controversy over Myanmar, whose military regime is going ahead with Nov 7 elections despite wide concern over their credibility.

Washington-based diplomats said that the White House held prolonged negotiations with Asean leaders on where to hold the summit.

Some Southeast Asian officials preferred a summit in Washington, believing it would carry greater weight and not be seen as one of the myriad "sideline" meetings held each year on the edges of the UN General Assembly.

But the diplomats said that the White House found it was logistically more practical to meet in New York -- and worried about giving too much legitimacy to Myanmar just ahead of the controversial polls.

Headline issue

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton first spoke of the second Asean summit when she visited Vietnam in July, saying that Asean and the related Asean Regional Forum were "strong, effective architecture for security and prosperity in Asia”.

In Hanoi, Clinton called for open access to the South China Sea -- an area of growing tension between China and Southeast Asian nations, particularly Vietnam. China rebuked Clinton for her remarks.

Ernie Bower, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said that the second summit would further reassure Asean of US commitment.

"That's the bottom line purpose," Bower said.

"It institutionalises the meeting, which is important both to Asean countries and to us because we can't be effective in Asian regional organisations unless we have a balanced engagement with Southeast Asia along the lines of other players like China, Japan and (South) Korea," he said.

However, he said that Myanmar would also likely be a headline issue in the talks.

At the inaugural summit in Singapore, Obama urged Myanmar's Prime Minister Thein Sein to free all political prisoners including the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but to no avail.

The Obama administration last year launched an engagement effort aimed at bringing Myanmar, also known as Burma, out of its isolation. But US officials have been increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress.

The administration has also moved to build relations with Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, and sought to forge ahead in historically fraught relationships with communist Vietnam and Laos.

Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

- AFP

"If the leaders of the region do not have the guts, then the people of the region are capable of removing the Zionist regime from the world scene," the hardliner said as the crowd chanted "Death to America! Death to Israel!"

Ahmadinejad said that direct peace talks which Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas relaunched with Israel in Washington yesterday after a 20-month hiatus were "doomed" to fail.

"What do they want to negotiate about? Who are they representing? What are they going to talk about?" the Iranian president said of the Palestinian leadership.

"Who gave them the right to sell piece of Palestinian land? The people of Palestine and the people of the region will not allow them to sell even an inch of Palestinian soil to the enemy.

"The negotiations are stillborn and doomed."

Iran is implacably opposed to the new peace talks and has given strong support to the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza.

- AFP

PTTEP Australasia, a unit of Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production PCL, said it "has not accepted any claim" by Indonesia over the months-long Montara spill, Australia's worst offshore drilling accident.

"PTTEP Australasia wishes to confirm that it has not accepted any claim made by the Indonesian government for compensation," a statement said, adding that "no verifiable scientific evidence" has been given to support the claim.

Indonesia made the claim this week, saying it included compensation for damage to coral reefs.

The leak in the Timor Sea from Aug 21 to Nov 3 was the worst from an offshore oil platform in Australian history, although it was smaller than the recent BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Like the BP spill, it dragged on for months as the company tried to plug the flow with a relief well, a process that eventually succeeded.

It also led to calls for tougher regulation of offshore drilling and criticism of the authorities responsible for monitoring the operation.

Evidence given at a commission of inquiry showed the Montara slick grew to almost 90,000 sq km (35,000 sq miles) and entered Indonesian waters, according to environmental group WWF.

The West Timor Care Foundation, which supports poor fishermen in eastern Indonesia, estimates the spill affected the livelihoods of about 18,000 fishermen. Businesses such as seaweed and pearl farms were also reportedly hit.

Following this year's Gulf of Mexico spill, which was the biggest maritime spill on record and spewed some 4.9 million barrels of oil, BP set up a US$20-billion compensation fund.

- AFP

Officials said it was the strongest eruption since 2,460-metre (8,100-ft) Mount Sinabung ended its long sleep on Sunday.

"The volcano erupted at 4.38am and lasted for 13 minutes, sending a column of ash as high as 3,000 metres into the air. This is the biggest eruption," government volcanologist Agus Budianto said.

He said there had been "intense magma movement" inside the volcano since Thursday evening. When the eruption finally came, it was felt 8km (five miles) away.

Police have evacuated more than 20,000 people from a 6km danger zone around the mountain, but some villagers are refusing to leave their homes on the volcano's slopes.

Others had returned to their villages from emergency shelters on Wednesday and Thursday, thinking the worst of the eruptions were over, officials said.

Farmer Seniwati Sembiring, 25, said she preferred to stay on the mountain with her two-year-old son and husband rather than move to a shelter.

"I don't think it will threaten my life. It's only ash and it doesn't contain any poisonous gas," she said, adding that she planned to work as usual on her crops of eggplants and chillies.

She admitted, however, that the couple had spent a sleepless night listening to the rumbling of the earth.

"I stayed awake most of the night. My husband and I went outside to check as we heard the volcano rumbling strongly in the early morning, but we didn't see any lava coming out of the crater," she said.

Her husband, Surya Sitepu, said he had an escape plan -- his motorcycle.

"I'm not afraid. It's the third eruption since Sunday. If it's really dangerous the three of us will rush down the slope on my motorcycle," he said.

The sprawling Indonesian archipelago has 69 active volcanoes, more than any other country.

- AFP

NEW ORLEANS: An oil platform explosion yesterday in the Gulf of Mexico forced the crew to dive into the sea and threatened further damage to waters still recovering from the BP disaster.

Fire engulfed the offshore platform 100 miles (160km) south of the Louisiana coast shortly after 9am (1400 GMT) and massive plumes of gray smoke billowed into the sky as rescuers rushed to fish out the workers.

Photographs showed the 13-strong crew linking arms as they bobbed up and down in special flotation suits before being plucked out of the water by a nearby rig. Three US Coast Guard helicopters and a commercial chopper then transported them to a mainland hospital.

All escaped serious injury.

Workers told rescue crews they managed to shut down the wells before evacuating the platform and had spotted a thin sheen of oil spreading for about a mile (1.6km).

Crews from three firefighting vessels managed to extinguish the blaze after about five hours and the oil sheen was no longer visible by the time the Coast Guard arrived.

"The fire is out, and Coast Guard helicopters on scene and vessels on scene have no reports of a visible sheen in the water," Coast Guard eighth district chief of staff Captain Peter Troedsson told reporters.

Coast Guard vessels and aircraft will continue surveillance of the area at first light today to search for any possible sheen, the Coast Guard Eighth District said in a statement.

"Responders remain vigilant for any evidence of oil on the water," it added.

Fresh criticism

The incident ignited fresh criticism of the oil and gas industry as the region struggles to recover from the BP disaster, the largest ever maritime oil spill.

"The BP disaster was supposed to be the wake-up call, but we hit the snooze button. Today the alarm went off again," said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club environmental group.

"The oil industry continues to rail against regulation, but it's become all too clear that the current approach to offshore drilling is simply too dangerous."

An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed out of a deepwater well that ruptured after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded on April 20 off the coast of Louisiana.

The explosion killed 11 workers and it took nearly three months to stem the flow of oil gushing out of the well some 5,000 feet (1,500m) below the surface.

"How many times are we going to gamble with lives, economies and ecosystems?" asked John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA Oceans campaign director. "It's time we learnt from our mistakes and go beyond oil."

The Mariner Energy platform that went ablaze yesterday was operating in relatively shallow water, about 340 feet (103m), and was not a drilling rig.

It had been producing approximately 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate and 9.2 million cubic feet (260,515 cubic metres) of natural gas per day, the Texas-based company said.

Harsh criticism

The White House said early in the day that it was monitoring the situation and reserved judgment until more information was available.

"We will continue to gather information as we respond, we obviously have response assets ready for deployment, should we receive reports of pollution in the water," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Gibbs declined to say whether the president believed inspections of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were moving fast enough in the wake of the BP disaster.

It was also unclear how this incident would affect Obama's moratorium on offshore drilling, which is being challenged in the courts and has faced harsh criticism from his political foes.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has held a congressional investigation into the BP spill, sent a swift letter to Mariner Energy's chairman requesting a briefing on the incident.

"In the wake of the BP catastrophe, this is an extremely disturbing event," said committee chairman Henry Waxman, a Democrat.

"I call on the administration to immediately redouble safety reviews of all offshore drilling and platform operations in the gulf and take all appropriate action to ensure safety and protection of the environment."

The Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition insisted the fire was an "industrial accident" that could have occurred at any industrial site -- onshore or offshore."

"We should wait for the facts before we use what happened today on a production platform as a reason to stop offshore drilling, especially when the incident didn't have anything to do with offshore drilling," said Jim Noe, the group's executive director.

- AFP

Desmond Campbell, 52, forced his wife Janet over the 50-metre (160-ft) precipice and then said she slipped in the darkness after leaving their tent to go to the toilet, a court in Sydney heard.

Justice Megan Latham said Campbell, who had left the police and was working as a paramedic, killed his wife of six months for her money in an incident which showed "sustained callousness towards her for monetary gain".

She said Campbell chose the "most sheer and prominent cliff" in the area south of Sydney for the murder in March 2005. Video footage has shown Campbell shedding tears while making a statement to police.

Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi earlier argued that Campbell had never held true affection for his wife and wanted her money to pay off his debts.

He said by the time the besotted Janet, 49, had purchased a home in both their names, Campbell "had got as much money out of her as he could and she was then worth more to him dead than alive".

On the day Janet died, Campbell had pitched their tent "in the most unlikely, uncomfortable and unsafe spot one could imagine" close to a cliff edge, Tedeschi said.

During the four-week trial, the court heard that Campbell had jokingly referred to his new wife as so ugly "you'd have to chew your arm off if you woke up next to her".

Campbell, who once worked as a policeman in Surrey, England, had three other girlfriends during the relationship and went on holiday with one of them in the weeks after Janet's death, the court heard.

The victim's brother Kevin Neander, who was in court for the verdict, delivered a parting shot.

"I hope Des is watching this," he said. "I just reckon you are as low as a snake's guts."

- AFP

ANALYSIS WASHINGTON: Israel and the Palestinians yesterday got off to a good start with their first direct negotiations in 20 months, but the gulf between the two sides remains wide, analysts said.

After a year and a half of US diplomacy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met this week in Washington to revive talks that stalled in bloodshed in December 2008.

"The first day has gone better than the administration could have expected," said Daniel Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Egypt and Israel who now teaches at Princeton University.

Among the good signs is the "fact that this whole opening withstood the terrorism that occurred on the West Bank", Kurtzer said, referring to two Palestinian attacks that killed four Israeli settlers and wounded two others.

"It might not have" withstood the test, he said.

He also saw what he believed may be more conciliatory language by Netanyahu on Israel as a Jewish state and by Abbas on security.

The Palestinian leader stressed cooperation with Israel on security.

The Israeli premier said: "Just as you expect us to be ready to recognise a Palestinian state as the nation state of the Palestinian people, we expect you to be prepared to recognise Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people."

For Kurtzer, the formulation may provide a "small opening", but said he needed to study it further.

"I think there is a difference between calling Israel a Jewish state and calling it a nation state of the Jewish people," Kurtzer said.

Bridging the gaps

The Palestinians are reluctant to recognise Israel as a Jewish state for fear it could undermine the right-of-return claims of Palestinian refugees who left or fled Israel when it was created in 1948.

Kurtzer also welcomed the fact that Netanyahu and Abbas met each other privately for around 90 minutes.

"I'm not sure they did any negotiating. But they probably described what their priorities are and some of the constraints that they face and some of the things that bother them the most about the other," the former ambassador said.

"You get that off your chest at the beginning and then two weeks from now, you can sit down and say all right let's get down to business," he said.

The two leaders agreed yesterday to hold their second round of talks in the Middle East on Sept 14-15, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US envoy George Mitchell joining them again.

Kurtzer, who says a US presence is key to bridging gaps between the parties, said it was a good thing Clinton was going.

Nathan Brown, an analyst at The George Washington University, hesitated to welcome the announcement by US officials that Israel and the Palestinians would meet every two weeks.

"It is clear that if you want to make serious progress, you absolutely have to have the leaders involved," Brown said.

"But I think most people on both sides think that Netanyahu has an interest in negotiations, simply to keep good relations with the Americans, but has no real interest in an agreement," he said.

"If that's the case, those periodic meetings of the leaders will benefit Netanyahu without providing Abbas any political reward," Brown said.

Positive start

Brown praised the administration for the way it organised the negotiations.

"The one positive development that I would see is the presence of Egyptian and Jordanian leaders," he said, referring to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah II of Jordan attending White House gatherings on Wednesday.

"It means that the Obama administration does a better job than any of its predecessors in putting this in regional context and trying to align things regionally in order to produce results," Brown said.

"It is something Bush tried only in a symbolic way," he said, referring to the previous administration of George W Bush.

Egypt and Jordan are key Arab mediators as the only Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.

Elliot Abrams, who worked on the Annapolis peace process under Bush, saw a positive start to the talks.

"I think the atmospherics are good, but all we had in Washington is atmospherics," said the analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations.

"The negotiations havent' begun seriously and they won't begin until the Israelis and Palestinians get alone in a room," he said.

"Both Abbas and Netanyahu are serious but I don't see how they're going to get to a deal, he said.

"I think the old line still holds. The most that any Israeli government is likely to offer is less than what any Palestinian government can accept," he said.

He said the goal of settling the core issues in one year is "impossible."

The core issues are Israel's security, borders of a future Palestinian state, the status of Palestinian refugees and the future of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital.

- AFP

The image-conscious airline, which is consistently ranked by passengers as one of the world's best, took action after some cabin crew were found to have discussed confidential job issues on Facebook.

The Straits Times newspaper reported today that some crew members got warning letters for grumbling about duty rosters, passengers, and their bosses and colleagues on Facebook.

"Our staff may of course have a blog or Facebook and Twitter account like any other member of the public," an airline spokeswoman said.

"But our policy is clear that they must not comment on work matters about business or customers, so as to protect proprietary information as well as the privacy of other staff and our customers."

A posting on the SIA staff union website stated that "recently, there have been a few cases of crew being penalized for their postings on Facebook about company-related matters such as their rosters".

"Please refrain from such postings on your Facebook wall or any public forums or blog, as you do not know who is really lurking out there and who are really your friends," it added.

On one Facebook account checked by AFP, a woman calling herself an SIA flight attendant said she was "going to be upset" if she was called up for "lousy" flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Hong Kong on Airbus A380 super-jumbos.

"No fair... roster no good again... no fair," said another account.

"So many flights.. So little Off Days.. I'm going crazy..." a third Facebook user remarked.

- AFP

BANGKOK: A former communist and political prisoner, Surachai Danwattananusorn, has a dramatic solution to fix Thailand's political crisis: a "democratic revolution" to end what he sees as a monopoly of power by the royalist elite.

It may sound overly ambitious. But his "Red Siam" group is seeking popular support for a movement that comes dangerously close to republicanism in a country where criticism of the monarchy is punishable by up to 15 years in jail under the world's toughest lese majeste laws.

"Thailand could become a failed state under the current power structure," Surachai said.

His revolutionary rhetoric comes at a delicate time three months after the military used force to disperse "red shirt" anti-government protests backed by the rural and urban poor, a group that chafes against royalists they accuse of meddling in politics. Ninety-one people died in two months of clashes.

As Thailand struggles to heal those divisions, many are pondering the future of the royal institution that has helped to hold the country together for more than half a century.

Reverence of 82-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej remains widespread, but his year-long hospitalisation and silence during weeks of unrest have focused attention on his son and presumed heir, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, who does not yet command his same support, and on the crown's elite royalist backers.

"Red Siam" splintered last year from the red shirts who now distance themselves from Surachai, whose views are too risky, legally and politically, to their bid for mainstream acceptance.

The two groups are often lumped together by authorities seeking to discredit the red shirts by suggesting they want to overthrow the monarchy, an accusation red-shirt leaders deny and one that could undermine them in a country where King Bhumibol is regarded as almost divine.

Targeting the aristocracy

But both groups have much in common. They both say they are fighting against the "ammart”, a broad Thai term for aristocrats and the royalist elite who back Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and are accused by the red shirts of orchestrating a 2006 military coup that ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

But while most red shirts want to topple Abhisit and replace him with Thaksin, a populist multimillionaire in self-imposed exile to avoid a graft conviction, "Red Siam" wants to go further and end what it sees as a royalist power structure.

"This fight isn't one of 'red shirts' versus this government," Surachai said. "It's a fight between the powerless majority and the few who wield power from behind the scenes. Changing the government is not going to change that."

Authorities say Surachai is part of a network that includes Thaksin and wants to destroy the monarchy, charges that Surachai considers "groundless and ridiculous", saying he only wants changes that would guarantee royal power cannot be abused.

Surachai, who was sentenced to death on murder and robbery charges as a member of the Communist Party of Thailand during a low-level 1970s insurgency before receiving a royal pardon in 1988, denies the suggestion he condones violence.

"I don't criticise the monarchy but I criticise those who claim to be loyal to the institution and accuse everyone else of disloyalty, only to retain power within their own circle."

Analysts say "Red Siam" does not pose a serious threat to the government given a lack of broad support.

"It is still a fringe movement," said Karn Yuenyong, director of independent think-tank Siam Intelligence Unit.

But Surachai wants to broaden its support, travelling to northern Thailand for three weeks to meet with red shirts there.

"What we need is a true revolution," he said.

- Reuters