Khartoum-backed militia 'kill 17 people'

KHARTOUM-BACKED militia in Sudan's South Kordofan state have killed 17 civilians, rebels say.

They accused the group of ethnic South Sudanese of ambushing a civilian lorry on Friday at Abu Nuwara, about 80km from the border with South Sudan's Upper Nile state.

"They clashed with the civilians there and there's a lot of casualties," said Arnu Ngutulu Lodi, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) which has been fighting government forces in South Kordofan since June 2011.

He said the incident occurred in a government-controlled area and blamed a militia linked to Lam Akol's Sudan People's Liberation Movement-Democratic Change (SPLM-DC).

"This is ridiculous," Akol told AFP from Khartoum. "We don't have a militia."

SPLM-DC is South Sudan's main opposition party, a breakaway group from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement which has ruled the South since independence in 2011 after a 22-year civil war.

He said the rebels in South Kordofan are "just parroting what their masters in Juba are saying."

Khartoum accuses South Sudan of supporting the SPLM-North, and this has been a major obstacle for the failure of Sudan and South Sudan to implement key security and economic agreements signed in September.

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Man gets bail after train station assault

A SYDNEY hotel worker has been charged with the sexual assault of a young male who was passed out drunk at a train station.

The man was granted bail during a brief appearance in Central Local Court on Friday.

Police allege the heavily intoxicated 18-year-old victim had been out with friends before he made his way to Central railway station in the early hours of January 8.

He passed out sometime before 3.30am (AEDT) and awoke to find the man allegedly performing a lewd act on him.

Following inquiries by police, the man was arrested at a hotel in Darling Harbour on Thursday and charged with one count of sexual intercourse.

He was granted conditional bail which included a surety of $10,000.

His wife was among family members who supported him in court.

He will appear before Downing Centre Local Court on April 9.

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Merkel ally resigns in plagiarism scandal

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has suffered a major political blow with the resignation of her education minister over plagiarism allegations.

Merkel said she had accepted the resignation of Annette Schavan "with a heavy heart". Schavan's former university stripped her of her doctorate, saying she had plagiarised parts of her thesis, Person and Conscience, 33 years ago.

Schavan reiterated her vow to fight the allegations but said she did not want the claims to damage the office, the party or the federal government.

"I think today is the right day to leave my ministerial post and to concentrate on my duties as a member of parliament," said a visibly moved Schavan on Saturday.

Schavan, 57, became the second close ally of Merkel to step down over plagiarism after Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a popular defence minister, resigned in 2011.

The extent of Schavan's alleged plagiarism is thought to be less than that of zu Guttenberg's, whose actions earned the aristocrat the nicknames Baron cut-and-paste and zu Googleberg.

Nevertheless, Schavan's mistakes were seen as indefensible given her position as education minister in a country where academic titles are taken extremely seriously.

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Hundreds of Vic firefighters kept busy

VICTORIAN firefighters have been kept busy battling two major fires in the state's east and a number of smaller blazes closer to Melbourne.

A control centre spokesman said 195 firefighters battled the 81,000-hectare Aberfeldy fire in Gippsland in Victoria's east on Saturday.

"It's burning in steep difficult terrain," the spokesman said.

Closer to Melbourne, a watch and act alert was downgraded to an advice warning for communities near an out-of-control fire at Kerrie, northwest of Melbourne.

There are 22 trucks at the scene.

"That's likely to burn into the night and probably won't be brought under control till morning," the spokesman said.

"There's a lot of smoke and activity but it's not threatening houses or property."

A fire at Arthurs Creek, northeast of Melbourne, is under control.

Conditions at a second major fire at Harrietville in alpine country in the northeast had eased, the spokesman said.

A watch and act alert has also been downgraded to an advice warning for the Hotham Heights and Dinner Plain areas, but all residents are believed to have been evacuated.

Wind gusts and spot fires were still a worry in the area as 312 firefighters, 11 aircraft and 60 vehicles worked on the fire on Saturday.

The spokesman said wind gusts were making the fire difficult to predict.

A watch and act warning is in place for Dargo at the southern side of the Harrietville fire that has so far burned around 16,000 hectares.

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Third death linked to Vic cheese company

A THIRD person has died following a listeria outbreak linked to soft cheeses produced in Victoria.

Victoria's acting chief health officer, Dr Michael Ackland, has confirmed the death of a 68-year-old New South Wales man in late January was linked to the listeria contamination of Jindi cheese products, Fairfax reported on Sunday.

An 84-year-old Victorian man and a 44-year-old Tasmanian man have also died of listeria infection. A pregnant NSW woman miscarried. More than 20 other cases have been reported.

Jindi has voluntarily recalled all batches of cheese manufactured up to January 6.

Listeria, a bacterial infection, has a long incubation period and more people could become ill.

The Victoria health department says it acted promptly to contain the outbreak, but has warned there could be more cases.

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Australia and NZ cement ties in Queenstown

THIRTY years of close economic ties between Australia and New Zealand have been cemented with a series of new agreements, but NZ's prime minister is the first to admit they're not on an even footing.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard took part in bilateral discussions with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key in Queenstown on Saturday, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Closer Economic Relations trade deal, signed in March 1983.

That deal has paved the way for several new announcements, including a crackdown on exorbitant mobile roaming rates in both countries, further streamlining trans-Tasman travel through SmartGate, simplifying investment in each other's country, and recovering student debt.

Ms Gillard and Mr Key also announced greater co-operation on people smuggling, with New Zealand allocating 150 places in its annual refugee quota of 750 to refugees processed in Australian detention centres, from 2014.

While the leaders talked up the mutual benefits of the new arrangements, Mr Key openly admits it's an "asymmetrical" relationship.

"There's an argument that we need them more than they need us, given they're our largest source of tourists, our biggest export market, our largest investor," he said.

"We do have to work hard with that relationship, because there's lots of options for Australia and they could just choose to ignore us if they wanted to."

Ms Gillard was saying nothing of the sort during her time in the picturesque South Island's town, describing the relationship as "one of family" - a point she first made when in 2011 she became the first foreign leader to address New Zealand's parliament.

"There is a bond between Australia and New Zealand that is different to any bond that we share in any other part of the world," she says.

"The very fact that it's fundamental to our soul and how we perceive ourselves - the legend of ANZAC is part of us and it's part of New Zealand forged in history, here in contemporary times, and always here for the future."

It was fitting, then, that Ms Gillard on Saturday announced a new Australian memorial at New Zealand's National War Memorial, currently under construction in Wellington, ahead of the Anzac centenary in 2015.

Ms Gillard flies back to Australia on Sunday morning.

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Assad reshuffles cabinet as jets strike

SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad has reshuffled his cabinet as his warplanes raided rebel areas.

Syria is in the depths of an unprecedented economic recession because of the violence gripping the country for nearly two years, and the government reshuffle on Saturday focused on finance and social affairs portfolios.

The World Bank says the country's gross domestic product has shrunk by 20 per cent, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) puts unemployment at 37 per cent and possibly hitting 50 per cent by the end of 2013.

Assad changed seven ministers, the official SANA news agency reported.

It said he split the ministry of labour and social affairs into two, and brought in a woman, Kinda Shmat, to head the latter. Hassan Hijazi becomes labour minister.

Assad has announced several reshuffles since the uprising against his rule began, the most recent in August 2012.

Efforts towards finding a political solution to the conflict, which the UN says has killed more than 60,000 people, appeared to be deadlocked, hours after Damascus offered talks without preconditions.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition said on February 1, the day after an offer of dialogue by its leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, that any talks on the country's political future must be about the departure of the Assad regime.

Meanwhile, in the latest fighting, air raids on Saturday hit northern and eastern areas outside the capital.

Warplanes also hit the town of Sabineh south of Damascus, and fierce clashes broke out between rebels and troops in the embattled town of Daraya, where the army shelled insurgent positions, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The army this week launched a major offensive against rebel zones surrounding the capital, in a drive to break a stalemate.

Pro-regime newspaper Al-Watan said the army was "determined to crush terrorism around the capital and in big cities".

In the north, rebels stormed parts of Menegh airbase less than 25 kilometres from the Turkish border in Aleppo province, the Observatory said.

The Observatory said at least 15 people were killed on Saturday. It reported 136 deaths on Friday.

Lebanon's Maronite patriarch, meanwhile, is to visit Damascus on Sunday for the enthronement of Syria's Greek Orthodox leader, in a show of support for the country's minority Christian community.

Patriarch Beshara Rai will attend the enthronement of Yuhanna X Yazigi, the church said, in the first visit by a Maronite patriarch since Syrian independence in 1943, Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar reported.

It said the trip would "express solidarity between churches while Syria is in crisis, a crisis for Christians in Syria."

Syria's Christian minority makes up about five per cent of the country's population. Many Christians have remained neutral in the conflict while others have taken Assad's side for fear of the rise of Islamism.

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