Australia abolishes divisive carbon tax

SYDNEY: Australia on Thursday axed a divisive carbon tax after years of vexed political debate, in a move slammed as backward and out of step with the rest of the world.

The upper house Senate voted 39-32 to scrap the charge, which was imposed by the former Labor government on major polluters from 2012 in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

It followed days of protracted negotiations with the minor Palmer United Party, which embarrassed the government last week by pulling its crucial support for repeal of the tax at the last minute.

Power-broker Clive Palmer backed the legislation after winning concessions for tougher measures to ensure cuts to electricity and gas prices were passed through to consumers and businesses.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott went to the polls in September with repealing the pollution levy as a central campaign platform, arguing the cost was being passed to consumers, resulting in higher utility bills.

"Scrapping the carbon tax is a foundation of the government's economic action strategy," said Abbott, who once said evidence blaming mankind for climate change was "absolute crap".

"A useless, destructive tax which damaged jobs, which hurt families' cost of living and which didn't actually help the environment is finally gone," he added.

The government must walk a tightrope in the upper house, needing the backing of minor party senators such as those from Palmer's party to get its legislative agenda passed if it cannot secure support from Labor or the Greens.

This includes not only scrapping the carbon tax but the massive spending cuts it has planned to bring the budget under control.

Taking Australia backwards?
Abbott's conservative government says dumping the tax would save households Aus$550 a year and strengthen the economy, which is among the world's worst per capita polluters due to its reliance on coal-fired power and mining exports.

Under the carbon tax, the country's biggest polluters, including mining, energy and aviation companies, paid for the emissions they produced, giving them an incentive to reduce them.

The current administration favours a "direct action" plan that includes financial incentives for polluters to increase their energy efficiency.

The Climate Action Tracker, an independent monitor of countries' carbon pledges and actions, has said this method will increase Australia's emissions by 12 percent in 2020 instead of reducing them by five percent from 2000 levels as per its own target.

Michael Raupach, director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University, said repealing the law was "a tragedy, not a triumph".

"It flies in the face of three giant realities: human-induced climate change, the proper role of government as a defender of the common good, and the emerging quiet energy-carbon revolution."

Labor leader Bill Shorten said Abbott had "embarrassed Australians".

"Tony Abbott is taking Australia backwards while the rest of the world is moving forward," he said in a statement.

"All of Australia's major trading partners are taking serious action on climate change, including in our own region."

Greens leader Christine Milne joined Labor in expressing outrage, saying abolishing the tax would make Australia an international "pariah".

"It is a monumental blunder for the nation under a climate-denying prime minister," she said.

"It will make life worse for future generations and make Australia a global pariah."

Abolition of the tax caps years of bitter debate.

Former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard promised voters there would never be a carbon tax under a government she led, and then announced a fixed price on carbon pollution after she won the 2010 election.

The "broken promise" dogged her for years with Abbott's "axe the tax" rhetoric eating away at her government and ultimately paving the way for her toppling as Labor leader by Kevin Rudd.

Big business welcomed the repeal with mining giant BHP Billiton saying the tax had "a detrimental impact on Australia's competitiveness".

But analysts disagreed.

"From the point of view of sensible economic and environmental policy, today's decision is a big step backwards," said Paul Burke, a research fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University.

"The carbon price was doing its job: reducing emissions and contributing to government revenue."

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US man charged with hugging child to death

COLUMBIA, South Carolina: A US man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for hugging a 14-month-old child so tightly that the boy stopped breathing and died, authorities said Wednesday.

Robert Kemp, 27, was taken into custody Tuesday and released on $10,000 bond the next day. Kemp is described as a family friend in a news release from Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell.

An arrest warrant said Kemp killed the child "by giving him a bear hug, squeezing the victim so tight that the victim stopped breathing as a result."

Jaylen Harris died from asphyxiation on June 27, 2013, Orangeburg County Chief Deputy Coroner Sean Fogle said.

Kemp told deputies he was playing with the child when he started to rub his eyes like he was tired, so he put the toddler in his crib on his back with his bottle, according to an incident report.

Kemp said he went to the kitchen to do some chores and realized he hadn't heard the boy in a while. He went back into the bedroom and noticed the toddler on his stomach, unconscious with his hands balled into fists, according to the report.

Another person in the home, whose name was blacked out on the report, started CPR, but the boy could not be resuscitated, according to the report.

If convicted, Kemp faces up to five years in prison.

The sheriff's release didn't say why it took a year to bring charges, and a spokeswoman for the sheriff said in an email no more information would be released.

A woman who identified herself as Kemp's mother when she answered the phone offered to give her son a message that was not returned.

A message left at a phone number listed for the baby's mother was not returned.

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Israel charges 3 Jews over Palestinian teen murder

JERUSALEM: Israeli prosecutors indicted three Jews on Thursday over the kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian teenager who was burned to death this month, the justice ministry said.
The identity of those charged was not disclosed by the ministry, which simply stated that one was a 29-year-old from the West Bank settlement of Adam.

The others were 16-year-olds, one from Jerusalem and the other Beit Shemesh, an Israeli town west of Jerusalem. All were from the same family.

Mohammed Abu Khder, 16, was kidnapped from east Jerusalem on July 2 and burned to death in a suspected revenge attack for the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers.

The three Israeli youths face separate charges over the attempted kidnapping of another Palestinian, aged seven, from the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Hanina, as well as alleged arson attacks on Palestinian-owned cars.

Two of them are also accused of setting alight a Palestinian shop in the town of Izmeh, a West Bank village near Israel, the ministry said in a statement.

An Israeli government legal adviser quoted in the media denounced the attacks as "shocking acts of racism against innocent people".

Khder's murder followed the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank last month.

It led to days of violent protests in east Jerusalem that quickly spread to Arab towns across Israel, with stone-throwers fighting pitched battles with riot police.

That in turn sparked a new conflict between Israel and Hamas, with the Jewish state launching an aerial bombing campaign on July 8 against the Gaza Strip that has killed at least 230 Palestinians.

One Israeli has been killed.

Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet, this week disclosed confessions of three Jewish extremists who said they kidnapped and killed Khder in revenge for the murder of the three Israelis by Palestinian militants.

The trio had decided to kill an Arab, and equipped themselves with cable ties, petrol and other materials, and had randomly chosen Abu Khder as their victim, it said.

Shin Bet also said at the time that the suspects were all related.

On July 1, the suspects had tried to kidnap a child elsewhere in east Jerusalem, but were thwarted by the youth's mother.

Police said the three had scoured east Jerusalem neighbourhoods in search of a victim before happening on Abu Khder.

After forcing him into the car, they struck him on the head and drove to a forest in west Jerusalem, where they poured flammable liquid on him and set him alight.

An initial forensic report showed smoke in his lungs, indicating he was alive when set alight. A lawyer for the family told AFP his body had been burnt beyond recognition.

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Nepal ex-prince arrested for drugs in Thailand

BANGKOK: Former Nepalese crown prince Paras Shah has been arrested on drugs charges in Thailand for a second time and could face up to five years in prison, police said Wednesday.

Shah was detained with about 13 grams (0.5 ounces) of marijuana at a hotel in Bangkok, according to an officer at Thonglor police station who did not want to be named.

"He borrowed a flash drive from hotel security and when the security guard entered his room to get his flash drive back he saw marijuana on the counter so he told police," the officer told AFP.

He said Shah, who is visiting Thailand on a tourist visa, had admitted illegal drug possession and was remanded in custody.

It is not the first time the former royal has been in trouble with the law in Thailand.

Shah, who as crown prince was unpopular for his playboy lifestyle, was arrested for possession of about three grams of marijuana on the island of Phuket in October 2012.

He was detained again later the same year for smashing property at a luxury apartment in Bangkok.

In February 2013 Shah was admitted to intensive care in Thailand after suffering a heart attack.

Shah became heir to the throne in 2001 after his cousin Crown Prince Dipendra killed nine members of his family including the king and queen in a drink-and-drugs-fuelled rampage, before apparently turning his gun on himself.

Nepal abolished its monarchy in 2008. The Nepalese embassy in Bangkok said it had been notified of Shah's latest arrest.

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Pistorius 'lonely and alienated': Family

JOHANNESBURG: South African Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius's decision to go to a night club while still on trial for murder was "unwise" but it was done because the 27-year-old is "lonely and alienated", his family said on Wednesday.

Pistorius was involved in an argument with businessman Jared Mortimer at a club in Johannesburg's upmarket Sandton business district over the weekend. Both men accuse each other of starting the altercation.

"Oscar is grappling with an extreme level of emotional pain that is manifesting itself in some of his recent unwise actions and choices," Pistorius' uncle Leo said in a statement.

"Those of us closest to him have been witness to his escalating sense of loneliness and alienation. This, we believe, is underlying some of his self-harming behaviour."

The athlete, known as "Blade Runner" because of the carbon-fibre prosthetic running legs he uses, is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, whom he shot and killed at his luxury Pretoria home on Valentine's Day last year.

Pistorius says he killed Steenkamp after mistaking her for an intruder hiding in the toilet next to his bedroom. The state accuses him of shooting her in cold blood after an argument.

His lawyers wrapped up their defence last week and the case was adjourned until August 7 to allow the legal teams to prepare closing arguments.

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Syrian President Assad sworn in for 3rd term

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar Assad has been sworn in, marking the beginning of his third seven-year term in office.

State TV broadcast what it said was a live ceremony on Wednesday from the presidential palace in Damascus during which Assad took the oath of office.

Assad was seen placing his hand on Islam's holy book, the Quran, pledging to honor the country's constitution in front of a large audience of parliament members and Muslim and Christian clergymen.

Assad was re-elected last month in a landslide victory amid a civil war in a vote dismissed by the opposition and its Western allies as a sham.

He won 88.7 percent of the ballots cast in the first multicandidate elections in decades. The voting didn't take place in areas engulfed in fighting.

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Nigeria arrests Boko Haram 'butcher'

LAGOS: Nigerian police on Tuesday said that they had arrested a senior Boko Haram Islamist commander known as "chief butcher" during a raid on an insurgent camp in the restive northeast.

Mohammed Zakari, 30, was arrested on Saturday "following the massive onslaught by security forces on the activities of the insurgent group", at Balmo Forest in Bauchi state, a statement said.

Zakari was implicated in "the recent slaughter of seven people, including women and children," it added.

According to police, Balmo Forest is one of several bases scattered across the bushlands of the northeast used by the extremist group blamed for killing more than 10,000 people during a five-year insurgency.

Bauchi has been attacked repeatedly through the conflict. Zakari was not widely known as a prominent Islamist leader, but the group's command structure is seen as fractured, including autonomous cells operating across the north headed by individuals who may not report to the group's recognised leaders.

Boko Haram, which wants to create an Islamic state in the north, is nominally headed by Abubakar Shekau, declared a global terrorist by the United States and sanctioned by the Un security council.

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Oscar Pistorius in night club altercation

JOHANNESBURG, - South African Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius was involved in an argument at a night club over the weekend, his spokeswoman said on Tuesday, days after his lawyers wrapped up their defence in his murder trial.

The Star newspaper said Pistorius had an altercation with businessman Jared Mortimer at a club in Johannesburg's upmarket Sandton business district after the athlete made disparaging comments about Mortimer's friends.

Mortimer declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

But Pistorius's spokeswoman Anneliese Burgess said the argument started after Mortimer started to "aggressively interrogate" Pistorius about the murder trial, which has attracted huge domestic and international attention.

"Our client regrets the decision to go into a public place and thereby invite unwelcome attention," she said in a statement.

The 27-year-old, known as "Blade Runner" because of the carbon-fibre prosthetic running legs he uses, is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, whom he shot and killed at his luxury Pretoria home on Valentine's Day last year.

Pistorius says he killed Steenkamp after mistaking her for an intruder hiding in the toilet next to his bedroom. The state accuses him of shooting her in cold blood after an argument.

During the trial, which opened in early March, the defence has sought to portray Pistorius as a vulnerable and caring boyfriend who killed 29-year-old Steenkamp accidentally.

The prosecution has argued Pistorius is a gun-obsessed hot-head who often lost his temper and who killed Steenkamp in a fit of rage after an argument.

The case was adjourned until August 7 to allow the legal teams to prepare closing arguments. Judge Thokozile Masipa will then begin her deliberations, extending a trial that has already dragged on over four months.

Pistorius faces life in prison if convicted of murder.

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Iraq army launches Tikrit offensive

BAGHDAD: Iraq's army and Shia militia forces launched an assault on Tuesday to retake the city of Tikrit from Islamist militants as parliamentarians in Baghdad prepared to vote for a new speaker, a possible step towards breaking months of political deadlock.

The defence ministry said ground troops backed by air support began their offensive at dawn against insurgents, led by the al-Qaida offshoot the Islamic State, who have held Tikrit since mid-June.

If the army and its militia allies retake Tikrit, hometown of Saddam Hussein, it would be the first insurgent-held city to switch back to government control since Iraq's latest crisis erupted last month.

The offensive took place as Iraq's deeply divided parliament met for a third session aimed at forming a new government to tackle the insurgency, three months after the country held a parliamentary election.

Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose State of Law group is the largest individual bloc in parliament, is seeking a third term but faces opposition from Sunnis and Kurds who say he has ruled for the Shia majority at the expense of minority communities. Even rival Shia parties want to unseat him.

Acting speaker Mehdi al-Hafidh called on deputies to cast their votes for a new speaker, the first of three leadership posts which need to be decided. Moderate Sunni Islamist politician Salim Jabouri is front runner for the speaker's role.

The other posts to be decided are the presidency followed by the prime minister, but it was not immediately clear whether the planned vote for a new speaker was part of a wider deal to break the prolonged deadlock.

The political impasse has been given added urgency by the Islamist-led insurgency which swept through Sunni provinces of northern Iraq last month, encouraging Maliki's opponents to try to force his departure.

Army and militia

Sunni grievances against Maliki have helped the insurgency win support in the predominantly Sunni provinces to the north and west of Baghdad where the Islamic State and other militant groups have taken over.

Government forces retreated when Sunni insurgents overran Mosul on June 10 and swept south to seize Tikrit, 100 miles (160 km) north of Baghdad, two days later. The city is a stronghold of Saddam loyalists and ex-army officers who joined forces with the Islamic State assault.

An officer taking part in Tuesday's attack said uniformed volunteer fighters and militia forces, including the Shia Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, were fighting alongside the army, but following orders from their own militia and volunteer commanders.

The assault was launched from the village of Awja, some 8 km (5 miles) south of the city. The army retook Awja, the birthplace of Saddam, on the night of July 3, and has been trying to push north since.

The initial fighting on Tuesday focused around the Shishin district of south Tikrit, the officer and another soldier said, adding that the army was also heading towards Saddam's former presidential palace compounds, where Islamic State fighters had held captives and run their Islamic court trials.

Soldiers were also fighting to take Tikrit hospital which lies on a strategic area of high ground in the city.

Across the Tigris River to the east, the army landed paratroopers in Albu Ajeel where Iraqiya state television said some of the insurgents had fled. One army officer in the fighting said they were surprised the resistance they experienced was less fierce than expected.

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Ukraine clashes kill 15 civilians, Putin talks nixed

KIEV: Escalating clashes between pro-Kremlin separatists and Ukrainian forces on Sunday killed 15 civilians and forced the new western-backed leader to cancel a pivotal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the World Cup in Brazil.

An explosive security crisis just outside the eastern border of the European Union that has claimed more than 550 lives and inflamed east-west relations threatened to spiral into an all-out civil war over the weekend.

Militias that the West and Kiev allege are being armed by the Kremlin used a Grad multiple-rocket system late Friday to mow down 19 Ukrainian soldiers and wound nearly 100 near the Russian border.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement issued after phone talks with EU council president Herman van Rompuy that he wanted the west to condemn "attacks by Russian soldiers of positions held by Ukrainian servicemen".

Poroshenko's statement provided no details of the alleged attack, nor did he indicate whether he was referring to the Grad incident.

Further attacks have since killed 18 more troops and 23 civilians — 15 of them in what Kiev said were missile and other overnight rebel strikes staged across the eastern rustbelt — in violence that appeared to shatter any hope of a truce.

Kiev-backed authorities said nine people were killed and at least eight wounded in a suburb of the almost million-strong rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

Municipal workers in neighbouring Lugansk said six people had also died and seven were injured in various incidents in the other separatist bastion of 425,000.

Separatist commander Igor Strelkov said Ukrainian forces responded by sending dozens of tanks to the outskirts of Lugansk in preparation for a possible invasion.

But a spokesman for Ukraine's eastern military campaign said footage aired on Russian state TV of two tanks moving through the Russian border city "was designed to sow panic" and denied that they belonged to government troops.

The civilian toll is one of the highest recorded over a two-day span in a three-month conflict that has threatened the very survival of the strategic ex-Soviet state.

And the military losses have profoundly dampened emerging hopes in Kiev that its recent string of battlefield successes had finally convinced the rebels to sue for peace.

Poroshenko has vowed to kill "hundreds" of gunmen for every lost soldier and ordered an airtight military blockade of Lugansk and Donetsk — both self-proclaimed capitals of their own "People's Republics".

European leaders responded by joining forces with Putin in a bid to convince Poroshenko to put the brakes on violence first sparked by the February ouster of a Kremlin-backed president and fanned by Russia's subsequent seizure of Crimea.

The immediate hopes of a truce rested on a meeting between Putin and Poroshenko - the second since the Ukrainian president's May 25 election — that seemed on the cards on the sidelines of the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro.

But the Ukrainian presidency said early on Sunday that Poroshenko was forced to cancel his attendance "considering the situation currently happening in Ukraine".

Putin instead met Merkel for talks the Kremlin said ended with a call on the warring sides to issue "a statement as soon as possible concerning a ceasefire, a prisoner swap, and the return of (international) monitors" to eastern Ukraine.

A German government spokesman said Putin and Merkel suggested that Kiev and the separatists launch their discussions "by video conference".

The separatists' use of Grad systems — featured heavily in Russia's devastating assault on the Chechen capital Grozny in the 1990s — has underpinned the most recent charges that the Kremlin is directly involved in the insurgency.

Putin rejects accusations of orchestrating the uprising to retain partial control over eastern Ukraine and punish Kiev for its decision to strike a historic EU alliance instead of a new Kremlin pact.

But Poroshenko argues that no truce with the rebels is possible until his troops manage to seal the Russian border and halt the continuing flow of gunmen and arms.

The frontier became the conflict's new frontline after last weekend's evacuation by the rebels of a host of towns and cities that they had held since early April in the coal mining region of Donetsk.

The militias have since concentrated their forces around the cities of Donetsk and Lugansk and are hoping for new weapons deliveries to revive their campaign.

Fresh tension emerged with claims by Moscow of a Ukrainian shell killing a civilian near a small Russian border town.

The Russian foreign ministry called the episode "another act of aggression" that could have "irreversible consequences" for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said government forces "had never before, are not now, and never will fire on the territory of a neighbouring state".

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