TWO people suffered only minor injuries when light plane crashed on the Gold Coast.
The ultralight plane slammed into a paddock on Saturday afternoon near Stapylton-Jacobs Well Rd at Jacobs Well, at the northern end of the coast.
The male pilot and female passenger suffered minor injuries and were taken to Logan Hospital as a precaution.
The Qld Forensic Crash Unit will liaise with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in an investigation into the incident.
A DAY after the US officially recognised Somalia's government for the first time in two decades, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud called on Somalis living in Minnesota to help rebuild their war-torn homeland.
Mohamud spoke to about 4000 people at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Friday night.
He said US recognition was "the beginning of a new foundation."
Omar Jamal, first secretary of the Somali Mission to the United Nations, said the president asked the crowd to assist their nation - either by returning to Somalia or from their homes in Minnesota.
Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the US.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had joined the Somali president in Washington DC to announce the change in diplomatic relations.
After Friday's speech, Ilhan Omar said she felt there was a plan to rebuild her homeland.
"I felt like it was the first time in 20 years that we can see a light at the end of the tunnel," said Omar, 30.
Amira Adawe hopes the US government's recognition of Somalia will open the door to widespread international aid.
"I can't wait to go back home and help," she said.
Clinton cited the militant group al-Shabab's retreat from every major Somali city. The US has provided $US780 million ($A743.18 million) to African forces to help that battle.
Authorities say more than 20 young Somali men have left Minnesota since 2007 to join al-Shabab, a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda. A Minneapolis man was convicted in October of sending young men to Somalia to join the group.
Roda Rabi, who protested the president's visit, said many Somalis were unhappy with Mohamud's efforts since his election in September. Rabi said Mohamud has failed to follow the UN plan for Somalia's reconciliation.
Saeed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of the Somali Community in Minnesota, said it's too early to judge the new president. Too much has happened in the past two decades to be solved in a matter of months, he said.
"It would be difficult for any human being to take on Somalia's problems," he said.
"After 23 years, Somalia is back in the world community.
"After all these years of fighting and drought ... we will be able to work toward rebuilding."
BRITAIN faces another day of travel disruption as heavy snow that blankets much of the country turns to ice.
Hundreds of passengers were left stranded on Friday as airports across the UK suspended flights and motorists struggled through blizzards along treacherous roads.
British Airways apologised to people trapped on planes in appalling weather at Heathrow airport as they waited for a slot to take off, and hundreds of others had flights cancelled.
More than 400 flights were cancelled at the airport, and hundreds of people spent the night on the floor as they waited for flights to be rescheduled.
The arctic blasts forced nearly 2000 schools to shut their doors, meaning some sixth-form and college students had their A-level exams postponed.
But the weather heaped misery on more than 10,000 households in south Wales, where residents found themselves with no power on Friday morning.
There are warnings of further misery on Saturday.
The UK's weather bureau, the Met Office, is forecasting less snow, but has issued yellow warnings for ice over much of the country. A fleet of snow ploughs and gritters will continue to be out in force across the weekend.
Rail travellers also experienced upheaval on Friday as operators scrapped services.
Snow fell across much of the UK, with south Wales experiencing the worst of the weather, forcing the Met Office to issue a "red" severe weather warning.
Sennybridge in Powys had 25cm of snow, while many other places across the UK saw between 5cm and 10cm.
Further snow fell overnight in the Midlands and London, while Suffolk and Essex had up to 4cm.
Heavy snow showers are expected to develop across parts of northern England and eastern parts of Scotland.
Temperatures are likely to remain low - down to about -3C, and ice is expected to form on any untreated roads.
THE death toll from floods in Indonesia's capital Jakarta has climbed to 14 after searchers pulled three more bodies from the waters.
Indonesia's national disaster management agency said on Saturday that the body of a 35-year-old member of the city's search and rescue team was found on the banks of an overflowing river late on Friday. Another man was found dead near his flooded home in western Jakarta.
The third body of a male worker was found on Saturday in the flooded basement parking of a building in a central area of the city.
The agency said most victims were electrocuted or drowned. Electricity supplies have been cut to several flooding areas to prevent electrocutions.
A dyke in central Jakarta collapsed late on Wednesday amid floods that swamped the city. Successive governments have done little to mitigate the flooding threat.
ONE of 12 boys molested by former YMCA childcare worker Johnathan Lord was so ashamed when questioned by his parents that he detailed his horror in a sealed letter to police.
Lord, 26, wept when he was sentenced to a maximum of 10 years' jail on Friday in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court.
With time already served, he will serve a non-parole period of six years.
The court took four hours on Friday to detail all the offences and hear how Lord had groomed his victims.
Judge Michael King noted the serious nature of the 29 offences of child sexual and indecent assault and said Lord's victims, in offences committed between 2009 and 2011, were as young as six.
"The offender is also in breach of the trust placed in him either as a result of the position of trust because of his employment or because he had been commissioned by the parents of the individual victims to babysit them," Judge King said.
Lord worked at a creche at a YMCA in southern Sydney, participated in the organisation's before-and-after-school program and worked privately as a babysitter.
Some of his babysitting jobs were for YMCA parents, a practice that was against YMCA policy, the court was told.
Lord convinced boys to sit on his lap during YMCA bus trips and activities and would then put his hands down their pants.
Following Lord's initial arrest in October 2011, YMCA parents were notified and encouraged to speak to their children.
An eight-year-old victim repeatedly denied that Lord molested him.
Police told the boy's parents that Lord later confessed to sexually molesting the boy, who then detailed it in a letter addressed only to police and left it on his family's kitchen table.
Eight of Lord's victims were molested in YMCA transport vehicles and during YMCA excursions, including movie nights and rock climbing activities.
The other boys were molested while Lord babysat them.
During one incident, Lord had rubbed a victim's penis and then sent a text to update the boy's mother, saying everything was fine.
Lord met another boy's family via his own mother and babysat the victim every Saturday for nearly a year.
When asked, the boy did divulge he was molested.
"He then said he was embarrassed and didn't want to talk about it, putting a rug over his head," Judge King told the court.
During the incidents, the victims asked Lord to stop touching him but he continued to do so.
The court also heard one boy buried his head into a pillow and cried when his parents asked if Lord had abused him.
Another boy had gasped uncontrollably when questioned by his parents.
When Lord met another victim at the YMCA the boy said he only had his brother to play with.
"Do you want to be my friend," the court heard Lord asked the boy.
During one excursion Lord gave him a special coin.
"Because he was my best pal," the boy said.
Judge King said the incidents would have affected the boys to such a degree that their ability to form normal social relationships would be affected for the rest of their lives.
With time already served, Lord will be eligible for parole in October 2017.
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged that there will be no dismantlement of any Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins a general election next week.
Asked in an interview with the Maariv newspaper on Friday: "Can you promise that during the next four years, no settlement will be dismantled?" Netanyahu answered: "Yes."
"The days when bulldozers uprooted Jews are behind us, not in front of us. Our record proves it," he said.
"We haven't uprooted any settlements, we have expanded them," he said, recalling that his government had established the first university in a settlement, in Ariel deep in the West Bank.
"Nobody has any lessons to give me about love for the Land of Israel or commitment to Zionism and the settlements," he added.
Netanyahu was alluding to the strong opinion poll showing of the pro-settler Jewish Home party which has been championing accelerated settlement expansion and looks set to take seats from the prime minister's right-wing list in Tuesday's election.
Public radio commentator Hanan Cristal said Netanyahu had, "in the final stretch of the election campaign, steered to the right on the question of settlements to try to woo Likud supporters tempted to vote for Jewish Home."
Likud is the premier's party.
Opinion polls on Friday, the last day they may be published before the election, showed the Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu list winning 32-35 seats in the 120-member Knesset, down from 42 in the outgoing parliament.
Jewish Home was credited with 13-14, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party 11-12.
The centre-left Labour party would win 16-17 seats and the centrist Yesh Atid and Hatnuah, 10-13 and 7-8, respectively.
A poll published on January 11 showed that one in four voters had still not decided whom to back.
The town of Seaton is counting the cost of a bushfire burning in Victoria's east. Source: AAP
THE town of Seaton is counting the cost of a bushfire burning in Victoria's east that is "as bad as it gets".
A man's body was found in a burnt-out car in the area, where at least one home and as many as five have been destroyed on Friday.
The fire has burnt through an area of about 48,000 hectares, ravaging mainly forest country about 200km east of Melbourne.
Seaton local Peter, who did not want his surname used, said the man might have been someone who lived next door.
"(It's) very sad. It could be a neighbour of mine," he told AAP.
"(He might have) left it too late and tried to drive through the fire. That's the worst thing to do in a car ... but we don't know if his house was destroyed.
"It's not a nice feeling."
Peter has been stranded in neighbouring Heyfield since Thursday night awaiting the go-ahead to return.
He said the death may have led to delays in authorities allowing desperate locals back in the area.
"You can put up with a loss of property but not with a loss of life."
Heyfield incident controller Bill Johnstone said four to five houses are believed to have been lost in Seaton, with residents not allowed to return until given the all-clear.
"We've got burning trees ... there's a lot of timber we need to clear," Mr Johnstone said.
"We're certainly here for a very protracted firefight. We could be here for days, possibly weeks."
Peetika Hobson, who has lived in Seaton for 30 years, was told her home was lost.
"As we were driving back to Heyfield hoping to see if the house was still there, we got a text message from our son that he heard our house had burned down," she told Network Ten.
"It becomes quite sad thinking about what you've missed.
"You'll never go home again to the house where your family grew up."
Along with Seaton, towns such as Glenmaggie and Heyfield and the hamlet of Dawson came under threat on Friday.
Mr Johnstone said the fire could affect Licola and the Macalister River Valley.
"We're still experiencing some dynamic fire behaviour," Mr Johnstone told journalists at Heyfield on Friday.
"It's a very dangerous environment we're experiencing today.
"Given the conditions it's probably as bad as it can get."
Mr Johnstone said CFA strike teams would be protecting Licola with holidaymakers already evacuated from Macalister valley.
Premier Ted Baillieu urged residents to keep informed.
"This is obviously a very big fire. In barely 24 hours this fire has grown from nothing to over 40,000 hectares," he said at Heyfield.
"It's a big fire. It's travelled very quickly and represents still a very significant threat."
Mr Johnstone said authorities' focus would be on stopping the fire entering national parkland.
"If that does occur, it's very difficult terrain, very limited access and essentially very few limited fallback options," he said.
"So we'll be working very, very hard to make sure that doesn't happen."
THE thermometer reads 48 degrees outside.
Firefighters have been on high alert on Friday hoping the Deans Gap forest fire, on the NSW south coast, doesn't break its containment line.
There are 42 fire trucks and five water-bombers and four remote teams tackling hot spots in the bush.
More than 9000 hectares have burnt since the Deans Gap fire took off early last week.
A handmade sign nailed to a power pole across from the Rural Fire Service Wandandian staging area, near Nowra, says Libby sends her love to Robert, one of the firies.
RFS logistics officer Robyn Bolton told AAP: "The boys are exhausted after going hard at it for over a week."
She said the firefighters' spirits were high and they were being looked after well by catering teams.
Despite the extreme heat, it's been a "quiet one" for fire crews.
But Ms Bolton knows first-hand the danger of becoming complacent.
A forest fire in the area 11 years ago unexpectedly swung back towards her farm, and she lost 28 head of cattle.
Lloyd Dutton's Bawley Point RFS brigade is stationed on a farm property and are "playing the waiting game".
There's a spot fire coming closer in the distance.
"We're going to give it a big hit," he said.
He's hoping a cool change will come through and turn the fire back on itself.
A BOY accused of hurling a metal pole like a javelin at another youth after trying to gatecrash a party may have been "fingered" by others involved in the incident, a Sydney court has heard.
The 16-year-old wiped tears from his eyes with his T-shirt as he sat in the dock of Bidura Children's Court at Glebe on Wednesday.
His mother and sister also wept during his application for bail, which was denied.
The North Ryde youth, who can't be named for legal reasons, is charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm by allegedly piercing the skull of a 17-year-old boy with the pole.
The victim, who remains in critical condition in Royal North Shore Hospital in an induced coma, was attending a friend's 18th birthday party on Friday at a house in Forestville, when a group of young people allegedly tried to enter the home about 11.30pm (AEDT).
A fight erupted and the accused youth allegedly punched the father of the birthday boy, the court heard.
He then went to the back of the house, climbed on to a roof and began throwing building materials from that position.
"The young person is not just throwing around the items but throwing them in a javelin-type motion," police prosecutor Sergeant Gabriel Combes told the court.
A metal pole pierced the victim's head so deeply that part of it had to be cut off before paramedics could transport him by ambulance.
After leaving the party, the accused allegedly challenged a 16-year-old boy outside, allegedly punching him so hard that he fractured his eye socket.
The teenager is also charged with affray, assault and other offences.
Sgt Combes opposed bail, saying the boy's cousin had identified him as being at the party and three independent witnesses had given statements.
She also told the court the boy was on bail for shoplifting offences and had breached those conditions by not residing at his mother's home.
The boy's barrister Gregory Stanton said there were major flaws in the prosecution's case.
His client had offered to participate in a line-up and a photo identification process which did not take place, he said.
Mr Stanton also challenged the reliability of evidence from other alleged gatecrashers, suggesting they may be trying to deflect attention away from themselves.
"He is possibly being fingered by persons allegedly involved in this offence," he told the court.
The "ruthless front-page media campaign" over the incident gave his client reason for not surrendering until five days after the incident, he said.
Magistrate Elizabeth Ellis said the prosecution's case was weaker rather than stronger, but she acknowledged the boy allegedly breached his bail conditions.
She also said if the victim's condition worsened, the alleged offender could face more serious charges.
"I have to weigh up those competing matters," Ms Ellis told the court.
She denied bail and adjourned the matter to February 26.
Outside court, the boy's family and another woman clashed with the media and hurled abuse at reporters.
US retailer Wal-Mart says it will buy more US-made goods in a bid to support the nation's economy. Source: AAP
WAL-MART, the world's biggest retailer, says it will spend $US50 billion ($A47.53 billion) more on US-made goods and boost hiring of military service veterans to support the nation's economy.
Wal-Mart Store's retail chains in the United States, Walmart and members-only Sam's Club, will buy an additional $US50 billion worth of domestic products over the next 10 years, the company said.
Wal-Mart noted that two thirds of its spending on products for Walmart US already goes to US products.
The US goods included in the latest move include sporting goods, apparel basics, storage products, games, and paper products.
It pledged to help promote US production in "high potential" areas like textiles, furniture and higher-end appliances.
The nation's largest employer also announced plans to hire more than 100,000 military veterans over the next five years.
Beginning on May 27, this year's Memorial Day holiday, it will offer a job to any honorably discharged veteran within the first 12 months of his or her leaving active duty.
"Taking action on the economy is our responsibility as Americans, but it's also our opportunity as retailers," Walmart US president and chief executive Bill Simon said at an annual retail industry convention, according to the text of his speech.
"We in this room can invest. We can grow, and we can hire -- and we can use the power of what we buy and sell to make a difference."
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company employs about 1.4 million people in its Walmart chain.
Wal-Mart shares were up 0.6 per cent to $US68.71 in afternoon trade in New York.
The move follows a rise in domestic production by several US companies in the past several years, due in part to rising wages for production abroad and a desire to bring output closer to clients.
EUROPE'S main stock markets slid at the start of trading on Wednesday, with London's FTSE 100 index of top companies down 0.30 per cent at 6099.26 points.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 index fell 0.19 per cent to 7661.61 points and in Paris the CAC 40 declined 0.10 per cent to 3693.75.
A WAVE of attacks in Baghdad and north of the Iraqi capital has killed at least 17 people and wounded 168 others, officials say.
The deadliest attack on Wednesday struck in the ethnically-mixed northern city of Kirkuk where a car bomb detonated by a suicide attacker killed at least 10 people and wounded 140 others, according to provincial health chief Sadiq Omar Rasul.
Another suicide car bombing in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, meanwhile, killed two people and wounded 26 others while three separate attacks in Baghdad left five people dead.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but Sunni militants including al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq regularly carry out waves of violence in a bid to destabilise the government and push the country back towards the sectarian violence that blighted it from 2005 to 2008.
The latest attacks come a day after the killing of a Sunni Iraqi MP in a suicide attack west of Baghdad, with Ayfan al-Essawi's funeral expected to be held in Fallujah later on Wednesday.
The violence comes amid a political crisis that has pitted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against his erstwhile government partners just months ahead of key provincial elections.
IRAN says a religious decree issued by the country's supreme leader banning nuclear weapons is binding for the Iranian government.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says the West must understand the significance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's fatwa for the Islamic Republic, and that the edict should end the debate over whether Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
Khamenei said last year that Iran is not seeking atomic arms. He called possessing such weapons a "sin" as well as "useless, harmful and dangerous."
Mehmanparast's comments on Tuesday come a day ahead of a new round of talks between Iran and the UN's nuclear watchdog over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.
The US and its allies accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
A PALESTINIAN teenager has been shot dead by Israeli troops in the northern West Bank, not far from the separation barrier, Palestinian medical and security sources say.
Samir Ahmed Awad, 17, died on Tuesday after being hit by a bullet to the chest and another to the leg in an area not far from the village of Ras Karkar, some 10 kilometres northwest of Ramallah.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the incident, which took place a day after medics said a 21-year-old Palestinian farmer was killed by Israeli fire in northern Gaza.
On Tuesday, the military denied any involvement in the Gaza incident.
On Saturday, a 21-year-old Palestinian labourer was shot dead by troops as he tried to cross the vast separation barrier in the southern West Bank in search of work in Israel, medics said.
THE Russian interior ministry has charged Moscow's former representative to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) with seeking to procure a $US1.4 million ($A1.33 million) bribe.
The ministry on Tuesday said former EBRD official Yelena Kotova and a group of others promised to award a Canadian energy firm operating in Russia a $US95-million loan in exchange for the payment.
A Russian banker named as Igor Lebedev was named as an intermediary in the alleged scheme.
The accused "deliberately took steps to obtain illegal monetary compensation from a Canadian oil and gas company," the interior ministry statement said.
It added that Kotova "made the final decisions on credits and indirectly guaranteed the businessmen (that she would give them) a positive answer in exchange for receiving from the latter the sum of $US1.425 million."
Kotova had served as the London-based bank's Russia department director from 2005 until her resignation in December 2010.
London police opened a money laundering and bribery case against her in early 2011 after the EBRD lifted the immunity of both Kotova and three other former and acting Russian officials at the bank.
The interior ministry statement described Lebedev as a "leading" Russian banker but gave no further details on his position.
Kotova's lawyer Sergei Mirzoyev said his client has been prohibited from leaving Moscow in the course of the investigation but was not being put under arrest.
"The defence considers these charges as unfounded," Mirzoyev told the RAPSI legal news agency.
The lawyer added that the interior ministry was basing its case on the evidence of foreign nationals who do not live in Russia and whose testimony is therefore difficult to check.
London police were initially rebuffed by the Russian authorities when they requested Kotova's detention in 2011.
Police cooperation between Russia and Britain ended with the 2006 death by poisoning in London of fierce Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko.
British authorities suspect two Russian nationals on close terms with the ruling authorities of killing Litvinenko by pouring highly radioactive polonium in his tea.
The EBRD - comprised of 64 shareholder countries alongside the European Union and the European Investment Bank - was founded in 1991 to help ex-Communist countries switch to market economies.
TWO men have been charged in connection with the murders of three rival drug dealers from the NSW Illawarra region and police say they have identified the other alleged killers.
Darko Janceski, 32, was shot multiple times in the front yard of his home at Berkeley on April 14 last year. He died on his way to hospital.
He and the other two victims were involved in local standover tactics and the distribution of amphetamines and cocaine, police say.
All of the men are of Macedonian background.
"This is the underbelly of the Illawarra region," Homicide Detective Inspector David Laidlaw told AAP.
On Tuesday, police charged a 24-year-old man with Janceski's murder and a 38-year-old man with organising the alleged hit.
Officers from Strike Force Calligan arrested the men after searching homes in the Wollongong suburbs of Blackbutt and Cordeaux Heights.
They will both appear in Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday.
The younger man allegedly rode to Janceski house's on a trail bike and spoke with him before firing three shots into his chest and torso.
Janceski's father came out and confronted the man, who had struck him number of times in the face before fleeing the scene, police said.
During the confrontation he dropped his helmet, sunglasses and the firearm, and the trail bike was found torched nearby.
The older man is the brother of Goran Nikolovski, 35, who police presume is dead after his burned-out car was found a day after he went missing from his Unanderra home on October 31, 2011.
"It is our belief that the two persons who were charged today were of the belief that Mr Janceski murdered Mr Nikolovski," Det Insp David Laidlaw told AAP.
Nikolovski and Saso Ristevski, 37, were associates and had both served previous jail sentences for commercial drug supply.
"During that time their friendship or allegiances waned so much so that they became rivals when they came out," Det Insp Laidlaw said.
A month before Nikolovski's suspected murder, three men confronted Ristevski in the backyard of his parents' home at Lake Heights where he was shot at point blank range to the chest and died.
Police allege all three victims were operating separately from each other and have yet to confirm the allegations any of them were responsible for the other two deaths.
Homicide detectives have identified Nikolovski and Ristevski's killers but have more work ahead of them before laying any charges.
"Drugs have obviously been down this area for quite some time," Det Insp Laidlaw said.
"And it's just a matter of business that they're trying to negate some of their opposition."
AFGHAN elders will decide on the key issue of whether American soldiers remaining in the country after 2014 will be granted immunity from prosecution, President Hamid Karzai says.
US President Barack Obama warned last week that no American troops would remain behind in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2014 unless they were granted immunity from prosecution in local courts.
"The US is standing firm by its demand for immunity for its soldiers," Karzai told reporters on Monday, on his return from Washington where he held talks with Obama on Friday.
"The Afghan government can't decide on this. This is up to the Afghan nation to decide. The Loya Jirga will decide," he said, referring to the national assembly of tribal elders.
Obama, planning to withdraw most of the 66,000 US troops left in Afghanistan, said that after 2014 American forces would have a "very limited" mission in training Afghan forces and preventing a return of al-Qaeda.
But he warned that Karzai, with whom he has had a sometimes testy relationship, would have to accept a security agreement, still under discussion, granting legal immunity to US troops who remain.
"It will not be possible for us to have any kind of US troop presence post-2014 without assurances that our men and women who are operating there are (not) in some way subject to the jurisdiction of another country," Obama said.
Karzai said that after 2014, US troops would be in Afghanistan "in small numbers, very, very small numbers like in Germany, Turkey or South Korea, like in Japan".
Their presence would be based on an agreement which could take eight to nine months to finalise, he said, adding that the US proposals were not yet acceptable.
A MAN has died in hospital 10 days after suffering severe burns in a suspected drug lab fire at a house in Sydney's northwest.
Neighbours noticed smoke coming from the home on Quarry Road at Ryde in the early hours of January 4, police said.
Emergency services found a 50-year-old man inside suffering "full thickness" burns to his arms and legs.
He was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital and placed in an induced coma, while a woman who managed to escape the fire was admitted with minor injuries.
The man died in hospital on Monday.
Police believe the fire was caused by an explosion in a clandestine drug lab.
A report will be prepared for the Coroner and investigations into the incident are continuing.
SWATCH, the world's leading watchmaker, says it will acquire US jeweller and watchmaker Harry Winston for up to $US1billion ($A952.70 million).
The Swiss group will pay $US750 million to acquire the company and add a maximum of $US250 million to take over its net debt, a statement on Monday said.
The transaction, which still needs the go-ahead from regulatory authorities, does not include the mining activities of the Harry Winston Diamond Corporation, it said.
Swatch said it would take over the Harry Winston brand and all the activities related to its jewellery and watches business, as well as 535 of its employees worldwide.
Swatch chairwoman Nayla Hayek said the deal made sense since "Harry Winston does brilliantly complement the prestige segment of the (Swatch) Group".
"Diamonds are still a girl's best friend," she added in the statement.
Harry Winston's chief executive Robert Gannicott also hailed the deal.
"The Harry Winston brand now has a new home that can provide the skills and support that it deserves to realise its true potential," he said in the statement.
Analysts were also enthusiastic about the purchase, although they said the price was steep.
NORTH Korea has vowed to strengthen its defences, amid concerns the country may conduct a nuclear test as a follow-up to last month's long-range rocket launch.
Citing US hostility, Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said in a memorandum on Monday North Korea will "continue to strengthen its deterrence against all forms of war".
The memorandum carried by state media did not say what action North Korea would take to defend itself.
However, North Korea has claimed the right to build atomic weapons to protect itself from the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea.
North Korea sent a satellite into space on December 12 aboard a long-range rocket, a launch the US and its allies have criticised as a test of banned ballistic missile technology.
In 2006 and 2009, Pyongyang conducted atomic tests after being slapped with UN security council condemnation and sanctions for similar launches of long-range rockets.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry urged the Washington to dismantle the US-led UN Command, which oversees an armistice signed at the close of the Korean War in 1953. It accused the US of trying to turn the UN Command into a NATO-like regional military bloc.
"Whether the US immediately dismantles the UN Command or not will serve as the acid stone in deciding whether the US will maintain or not its anti-(North Korea) hostile policy," said the memorandum, which was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The Korean War armistice was never replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war 60 years later.
Police are planning to reopen the Arthur Highway on the bushfire-ravaged Tasman Peninsular. Source: AAP
POLICE have reopened the Arthur Highway in Tasmania that runs from Sorell to Port Arthur on the bushfire-ravaged Tasman Peninsula.
Motorists are being asked to drive with caution, particularly between Sugarloaf Road and the Dunalley Bridge, with work crews still restoring essential services to the area.
Drivers of light vehicles who want to go south of Dunalley are being advised to detour via Sugarloaf and Fulham Roads to avoid lengthy delays.
Police say large vehicles, those towing trailers, service vehicles and tourist buses should stay on the Arthur Highway which has a speed limit of 60km/h.
They say motorists also need to be mindful of stock on the road due to the destruction of fences, particularly in the Sugarloaf Road and Fulham Road areas.
Peninsula residents were allowed to return last Friday.
Meanwhile, fire crews have made solid progress on consolidating containment lines around bushfires still burning ahead of higher fire danger conditions forecast for Thursday.
Tasmania Fire Service has issued a watch and act message for the uncontained 24,040-hectare Forcett blaze where 150 firefighters using 39 tankers and four aircraft continue working on the fire which has a 200km perimeter.
Firefighters had been strengthening containment lines around Bream Creek and Marion Bay and also at Lagoon Bay, but had to eventually pull out due to increased winds, TFS spokeswoman Shannon Fox said on Sunday.
"In Taranna, we've got a good, strong containment line in but we're working on looking after some hot spots that are within the already burnt out areas," she told AAP.
"What we are really trying to do is be prepared for Thursday when we expect fire danger ratings to increase again."
At Lake Repulse, fire crews consolidated containment lines to the south of Brown Mountain and New Zealand firefighters worked on containment lines at the Broad River Valley, Ms Fox said.
Australia wants Japan and South Korea to resolve recent disputes, Foreign Minister Bob Carr says. Source: AAP
AUSTRALIA wants Japan and South Korea to resolve recent disputes between them in the interests of enhanced regional security, Foreign Minister Bob Carr says.
He met with Japan's new Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Sydney on Sunday, with security in the Asia-Pacific region high on the agenda, particularly following a recent missile launch by North Korea.
Complicating matters and causing concern in the United States is a falling out between Japan and South Korea over a territorial dispute and Japan's attitude toward its colonial past.
Senator Carr told reporters he and Mr Kishida had discussed Australia's new role on the United Nations Security Council and the missile launch.
"We hope to be able to work closely with Japan when it comes to shaping a response on the Security Council to that unsatisfactory and illegal behaviour by North Korea," he said.
"The over-riding consideration here is enhanced security and peace in northeast Asia and that is helped if there is agreement and cooperation at the highest level between the Republic of Korea and Japan.
"Because both nations are such good friends of Australia's, we look forward to a resolution of any differences between them."
Mr Kishida said "difficult issues" were occurring between Japan and South Korea.
"Our stance is to look at this from a broad perspective and seek a peaceful resolution," he said.
There have been suggestions new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may disavow a 1993 statement by Japan apologising for the suffering of South Korean "comfort women" forced into providing sex for Japanese servicemen during World War II.
But Mr Kishida said Mr Abe was "truly distressed" by the suffering of those women and his thoughts on the issue had not changed from those of previous prime ministers.
Senator Carr said the 1993 statement related to "an episode that was one of the darkest in modern history" and it was in "no one's interest that the acknowledgement be revisited".
Mr Kishida said a territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands needed to be resolved "without getting heated about it".
American International Group (AIG) has filed a lawsuit against an investment structure. Source: AAP
AMERICAN International Group has filed a lawsuit against an investment structure created by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to help bailout the insurer, in a bid to sue mortgage debt issuers.
According to the complaint filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, AIG is seeking a declaration that the bailed out insurance giant has not abandoned its right to file suit against banks and other creditors by selling residential mortgage-backed securities to Maiden Lane II in 2008.
Maiden Lane II was created to purchase the securities, which had become unsellable at the the height of the financial crisis, from AIG.
The government took control of AIG in September 2008 through a $US182 billion ($A172.50 billion) federal bailout to prevent its imminent collapse from sparking a cascade of gigantic failures throughout the global financial system. The bailout was fully paid off last year.
AIG, which accuses Bank of America and other issuers of mortgage debt to have misled it about the value of the securities, is not seeking financial compensation from Maiden Lane II but wants the court to state whether AIG can still sue entities that issued securities in Maiden Lane II.
The insurer has filed a $US10 billion lawsuit against Bank of America as reparations for fraud claims.
On Wednesday, AIG decided not to join a private shareholder lawsuit against the US government over its bailout.
The lawsuit filed by Starr International, which is controlled by former AIG chief executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, argued that the massive bailout of AIG did not fairly compensate shareholders.
Starr sued the government for about $US25 billion in November 2011.
Taiwan has seen the largest anti-government action since President Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected. Source: AAP
TENS of thousands of opposition demonstrators have taken to the streets of Taipei to protest the policies of Taiwan's China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou.
Sunday's demonstration is the largest anti-government action since Ma was elected to a second four-year term a year ago.
Protesters called on the president to fire Prime Minister Sean Chen over the island's lacklustre economic performance - growth was less than two per cent in 2012 - and demanded regulatory bodies stop a consortium widely seen as pro-China from purchasing a mass-circulation newspaper.
The consortium includes businessman Tsai Eng-meng, who already owns a popular cable TV news station and another mass-circulation newspaper.
Opponents of the latest media deal say it would concentrate too much power in the hands of an individual.
