Vic family denies threatening paramedics

A MELBOURNE family accused of threatening paramedics say their mother was left injured and bleeding in her home.

The paramedics set off a duress alarm and fled the home early on Monday morning, hitting a man as they tried to flee.

The pair had arrived to help an injured woman in Melbourne's north when they say they were threatened by a group of men.

The woman's family were angry it had taken 45 minutes for an ambulance to respond to the non-life threatening case.

But one of the woman's sons, who gave his name as Michael, said they had not threatened anyone or acted aggressively.

He said the paramedics' departure had meant his mother was left waiting even longer to be treated.

"I totally understand that they're doing their job but they can't act like that," he told reporters.

"They left an injured person inside the house, bleeding."

Ambulance Victoria chief executive Greg Sassella said the woman missed out on immediate treatment for an injured elbow because a vehicle containing more men rolled up at the scene.

"From the paramedics' point of view, there was no misunderstanding in their mind - they felt threatened," Mr Sassella told reporters.

Police are investigating the incident.

Mr Sassella said two previous ambulances had been dispatched to treat the woman but were diverted to more urgent patients.

The paramedics returned later to the Roxburgh Park house with police and took the woman to hospital with minor injuries.

A 24-year-old man suffered leg injuries and was also taken to hospital for observation.

Ambulance Employees Australia State Secretary Steve McGhie said the time it took for paramedics to arrive was due to under-resourcing.

"This is supply and demand. It shows how poorly covered this area is," he told AAP.

"The resources in that area are stretched, leaving people exposed."

Mr McGhie said anyone angry about slow response times should vent their anger at the Victorian government, not paramedics.

The state government has introduced laws creating mandatory minimum sentences for those found to have assaulted emergency workers, including paramedics.

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Seven killed in India building collapse

A hotel has collapsed in the southern Indian city of Secunderabad, killing five restaurant workers. Source: AAP

THE wall of a two-storey hotel has collapsed in the southern Indian city of Secunderabad, killing at least seven restaurant workers and injuring 15 others, local police officials say.

Rescue workers were searching through tonnes of rubble on Monday for those still trapped after the incident in Andhra Pradesh state, local police official Srinivasan, who goes by one name, said.

"Seven persons have been found dead so far after a nearby hotel collapsed early this morning. We are still trying to clear the rubble and find more people," he said.

Nearly 25 people were working at the City Light Hotel, located on a busy road in Secunderabad, when the kitchen wall gave way, burying staff under debris, local police official B Surender said.

Fifteen people were admitted to hospital, five of them with serious injuries, Surender said.

It was unclear how many people were still trapped under the rubble.

"The building was very old and the walls showed cracks, according to people working nearby," he added.

Rescue workers used diggers, cranes and electric cutters to try to clear the debris, as family members of the hotel workers waited at the site for news.

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Hendra kills three NSW horses

A Chief Veterinary Officer says three horses on the NSW mid north coast have died from Hendra virus. Source: AAP

THREE horses have died from Hendra virus on the NSW mid north coast in a month, the state's Department of Primary Industries (DPI) says.

NSW Acting Chief Veterinary Officer Therese Wright said on Monday that a horse died at a property near Macksville after becoming ill on Thursday.

"The horse was noticeably ill on Thursday and was showing neurological changes, including loss of balance and staggering," Dr Wright said.

"The property has now been quarantined and a second horse on the property has been vaccinated, sampled and will continue to be monitored."

Dr Wright said the 18-year-old mare that died was not vaccinated against the Hendra virus.

Two other horses in the same area recently died from the virus, one on Saturday and the other on June 5, Dr Wright said.

The deaths represent the first Hendra cases in NSW since 2011 when 10 horses died on eight properties between late June and late August.

All properties affected in 2011 were in northeastern NSW.

However, there have been several cases of Hendra in Queensland in the last 12 months.

Horses can contract the virus by eating feed or drinking water contaminated with body fluids and excretions from flying foxes infected with the virus.

Although people can't contract the virus directly from bats they can through horses.

Vaccination is the single most effective way of reducing the risk of Hendra virus infection in horses.

The NSW properties affected by the latest deaths have been quarantined.

Director of communicable diseases at NSW Health, Vicky Sheppeard, said three people had been in contact with the most recent horse to die but their risk of contracting the virus was negligible to low.

Rockhampton vet Alister Rodgers died from the virus in 2009, Brisbane vet Ben Cunneen in 2008, Mackay cane farmer Mark Preston in 1995, and horse trainer Vic Rail in 1994.

The deaths represent the first Hendra cases in NSW since 2011 when 10 horses died on eight properties between late June and late August.

All properties affected in 2011 were in northeastern NSW.

However, there have been several cases of Hendra in Queensland in the last 12 months.

Horses can contract the virus by eating feed or drinking water contaminated with body fluids and excretions from flying foxes infected with the virus.

Although people can't contract the virus directly from bats they can through horses.

Vaccination is the single most effective way of reducing the risk of Hendra virus infection in horses.

The NSW properties affected by the latest deaths have been quarantined.

Director of communicable diseases at NSW Health, Vicky Sheppeard, said three people had been in contact with the most recent horse to die but their risk of contracting the virus was negligible to low.

Rockhampton vet Alister Rodgers died from the virus in 2009, Brisbane vet Ben Cunneen in 2008, Mackay cane farmer Mark Preston in 1995, and horse trainer Vic Rail in 1994.

In Queensland's fourth case of Hendra this year, an unvaccinated horse was put down on Friday in the Gold Coast hinterland after falling ill with the virus.

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Five dead, 40 missing in Canada train fire

Firefighters in Quebec have managed to put out a blaze from a freight train laden with oil. Source: AAP

CANADIAN officials say they have found five bodies as they searched for victims of a giant blaze caused by the crash of a runaway train transporting crude oil, and fear they could find as many as 40 more.

Firemen in this picturesque Quebec lakeside town finally managed to put out a raging inferno sparked when the driverless freight train derailed, crashed into town and exploded early on Saturday, sending fireballs skyward and unleashing a wall of fire that tore through homes and businesses.

"The flames, the fires all have been put out now. We did it," fire chief Denis Lauzon told a press briefing on Sunday.

That meant police finally would be able to conduct a full search of the charred wreckage at the disaster scene.

However, a mid-level explosion was heard around 10.00pm (1200 AEST Monday). Police said they did not know the cause of that blast.

The fire decimated a downtown portion of Lac-Megantic and forced about 2000 residents to flee their homes. The town is located 250 kilometres east of Montreal, near the US border.

Police spokesman Michel Brunet said after finding one body on Saturday and four on Sunday, they anticipate "many more" fatalities. The official figure for missing people is 40, he said.

One firefighter said on condition of anonymity that there had been at least 50 people in one bar that was consumed by the flames.

"There is nothing left," he said.

The explosion completely levelled more than four blocks of the town's downtown area, and it took firefighters 18 hours to contain the inferno.

Survivors described a wall of flames as the speeding black tanker cars jumped the rail tracks just as dozens of people were enjoying a summer night out in downtown bars and restaurants.

"One young girl was in flames," said a witness, Jean-Guy Nadeau. "She cried out 'save me, save me!'"

Many in this heavily Catholic area, population 6000, were unable to go to Sunday services because their church was squarely within the burned out area. The lucky ones headed to churches in nearby towns.

Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway said in a statement on Saturday that the train had been transporting 72 carloads of crude oil when it derailed around 1.20am (1520 AEST).

"People are in shock, They just cannot believe how serious this all is," said Guy Boulanger, an official with the Catholic diocese of Sherbrooke in nearby Sainte-Cecile-de-Whitton.

Scores of firefighters from around the region and from the US state of Maine were enlisted to battle the blaze, which was under investigation by Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB).

The lead investigator, Ed Belkaloul, said that the train's equivalent of an aeroplane's "black box" was recovered from the smouldering wreckage and could give valuable technical information on the crash.

Provincial authorities said in addition to their recovery efforts, they have dispatched a mobile environmental monitoring laboratory to monitor air quality and to determine how much crude oil spilled into Lake Megantic and the nearby Chaudiere River.

The Red Cross also set up an emergency shelter at an area high school to help those left homeless by the disaster.

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Both Koreas agree to reopen joint zone

North and South Korea have agreed in principle to reopen the Kaesong industrial complex. Source: AAP

NORTH and South Korea have made a crucial step forward by agreeing to reopen a joint industrial zone seen as the last remaining symbol of cross-border reconciliation.

The deal follows months of friction and threats of war by Pyongyang after its February nuclear test attracted tougher UN sanctions, further squeezing its struggling economy.

At the end of a gruelling 15-hour talk, the two sides said in a joint statement on Sunday they had agreed to let South Korean firms restart their shuttered plants at the Kaesong complex near the border when conditions are ripe.

"The South and the North will let business companies at Kaesong resume operation when (they are) ready to do so," said the joint statement.

The two sides will meet again on Wednesday at the Kaesong industrial zone to discuss details over reopening the zone, including a demand from Seoul that the North guarantees it will never again unilaterally shut down the estate.

The North, however, will likely find it hard to accept such a demand as it would amount to Pyongyang accepting full responsibility for the suspension.

The complex - built in 2004 about 10km north of the border as a rare symbol of inter-Korea cooperation - had previously remained largely resilient to turbulence in relations.

But the North, citing military tensions and Seoul's hostility, pulled out all its 53,000 workers from the 123 Seoul-owned factories in April, prompting the South to withdraw the managers of around 120 companies in early May.

After signing the agreement, Suh Ho, Seoul's chief delegate for the latest talks, said the North's officials had appeared "very enthusiastic" in negotiations to rescue the complex - a valuable source of hard currency for the impoverished communist state.

Neither side declared the complex officially closed, instead referring to a temporary shutdown, while blaming each other for its suspension.

"I've got an impression that the North was making very active efforts to solve the issue of the Kaesong complex," Suh told journalists.

Under the agreement Seoul businessmen will be allowed to cross the border to check on their facilities at Kaesong from Wednesday.

The news was warmly welcomed by the South Korean firms at Kaesong.

"I was overcome with emotions and shed tears for a while," Moon Chang-Seop, a top representative of the 123 companies said.

But other businessmen expressed concern that it would be difficult for them to solicit buyers who have left them during the past three months of suspension.

The zone had become the most high-profile casualty of recent elevated tensions on the peninsula.

Representatives of South Korean companies based there had repeatedly urged the two sides to open talks to revive the moribund industrial park.

Some firms have threatened to withdraw from Kaesong, complaining they have fallen victim to political bickering between the two rivals.

After repeatedly threatening Seoul and Washington with conventional and nuclear attack, Pyongyang has appeared in recent weeks to want to move towards dialogue.

Analysts say North Korea is mindful of a US demand that it improve ties with Seoul before there can be any direct talks with Washington.

The North made a surprise move last Wednesday by restoring a cross-border military hotline and promising to let South Korean businessmen visit the Kaesong complex.

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Bahrain bomb kills policeman

A BOMB attack has killed a Bahraini policeman and wounded two others in a Shi'ite Muslim village outside the capital, a police statement carried by the official BNA news agency says.

"Terrorist groups targeted a police station in Sitra" late on Saturday, public security chief General Tariq Hasan said on Sunday.

"As police attempted to secure the area ... the terrorists blew up an improvised bomb against security forces in an attack that killed policeman Yasser Dhaib and wounded two others."

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Deported cleric Abu Qatada lands in Jordan

Radical Islamic cleric Abu Qatada has been deported from Britain and is on his way to Jordan. Source: AAP

ISLAMIST cleric Abu Qatada has arrived in Jordan to face terror charges after Britain deported him, ending a decade-long legal battle to be rid of a man once dubbed Osama bin Laden's right hand in Europe.

Prime Minister David Cameron led British ministers in expressing delight at Sunday's final removal from British soil of the Palestinian-born preacher who has been in and out of British prisons since 2002 even though he has never been convicted of any crime.

Abu Qatada was handed over to Jordanian prosecutors straight after his arrival at Marka military airport in east Amman in readiness for his retrial on charges that earned him a life sentence in absentia.

"They are now interrogating him ahead of his retrial," Jordanian Information Minister Mohammad Momani told the state-run Petra news agency.

"His retrial will be conducted in line with international standards, protecting his rights and ensuring justice, fairness, credibility and transparency."

Abu Qatada's father, brothers and other family members waited outside a military courthouse near the airport for his arrival, an AFP photographer reported.

"He will appear before state security court prosectors immediately and they will read the charges," said Hussein Omari, a lawyer at the Amman-based Adaleh Centre for Human Rights Studies, which is to monitor Abu Qatada's retrial.

Abu Qatada was condemned to death in absentia in 1999 for conspiracy to carry out terror attacks, including on the American school in Amman, but the sentence was immediately commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour.

In 2000, he was sentenced in his absence to 15 years for plotting to carry out terror attacks on tourists in Jordan during millennium celebrations.

Under Jordanian law, he has the right to a retrial in his presence.

Britain was finally able to expel the 53-year-old father-of-five after the two governments last month ratified a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, guaranteeing that evidence obtained by torture would not be used in his retrial.

"I was absolutely delighted. This is something this government said it would get done, and we have got it done," Cameron told reporters.

"It's an issue that, like the rest of the country, has made my blood boil."

Abu Qatada was taken from prison in an armoured police van to a military airfield on the outskirts of London, from which he was flown out at 0146 GMT.

Home Secretary Theresa May said his departure proved that the government's efforts to deport him had been worth the 1.7 million ($2.7 million, two million euros) legal bill and would be "welcomed by the British public."

"This dangerous man has now been removed from our shores to face the courts in his own country," she said in a statement released seconds after Abu Qatada's plane took off.

Television pictures showed Abu Qatada dressed in a white robe as he boarded the aircraft at the RAF Northolt base in west London. He had earlier left high security Belmarsh jail in southeast London in a blue armoured police van flanked by three police cars.

London had been trying to deport him since 2005 but British and European courts had blocked his expulsion on the grounds that evidence might be used against him that had been obtained by torture.

But after years of legal battles his lawyers unexpectedly said in May that he would return once the fair trial treaty was ratified by the Jordanian parliament.

Abu Qatada's wife and five children are expected to remain in Britain, where he first sought asylum in 1993.

Born Omar Mahmud Mohammed Otman in Bethlehem in the now Israeli-occupied West Bank, Abu Qatada has Jordanian nationality because the town was part of Jordan at the time of his birth.

Videotapes of his sermons were allegedly found in the Hamburg flat of 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta.

Top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon once branded Abu Qatada Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, although the cleric denies ever having met the now slain Al-Qaeda leader.

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Solar airplane lands in New York

THE experimental Solar Impulse plane, powered by the sun, has completed a transcontinental trip across the United States, touching down in New York despite a rip in the fabric of one wing.

The giant, single-person plane landed at New York's John F Kennedy airport at 11.11pm (0311 GMT) on Saturday, ahead of its originally scheduled time due to a 2.5-metre long tear that appeared on the fabric of the lower side of the left wing.

Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg was met on the tarmac by compatriot and fellow pilot Bertrand Piccard, and the two posed triumphantly for pictures.

The men had taken turns flying the spindly, long-winged plane across the country.

The Solar Impulse, which runs on four electric propellers powered by an array of solar cells mounted on the plane's 63-metre wingspan, lifted off just before dawn Saturday from Washington Dulles International Airport.

"This last leg was especially difficult due to the damage of the fabric on the left wing," Borschberg told reporters upon landing after the 18 hour, 23 minute flight.

The team looked at all possible scenarios, "including bailing out over the Atlantic," he said. "But this type of problem is inherent to every experimental endeavour."

Flying coast-to-coast "has always been a mythical milestone full of challenges for aviation pioneers," added Piccard. "During this journey, we had to find solutions for a lot of unforeseen situations, which obliged us to develop new skills and strategies."

The team also "pushed the boundaries of clean technologies and renewable energies to unprecedented levels," he said.

Piccard said they had mixed feelings about the end of their long trip. "Normally you feel a bit sad and nostalgic, but with the problem with the wing, we feel relieved," he said.

The coast-to-coast US journey began on May 3, near San Francisco, California. The plane then landed in Phoenix (Arizona), Dallas/Fort Worth (Texas), St. Louis (Missouri), Cincinnati (Ohio) and the capital, Washington.

Borschberg was forced to pass the hours Saturday by circling over the Atlantic not far from the "Big Apple," before being allowed to fly over the city in the evening, due to heavy air traffic.

The light solar plane flies at around 70km per hour, and is especially sensitive to air turbulence.

Before the final leg, Piccard and Borschberg spoke of the most memorable moments from the cross-country flight.

For Piccard, a Swiss adventurer who founded Solar Impulse over a decade ago, one of those moments was flying past the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco at the very start of the journey.

Borschberg recalled one of the most dangerous moments of the trip, when wind threatened to unbalance the aircraft.

The crossing has been "more difficult than expected because of the weather: There were a lot of tornadoes, storms, causing several of our flights to be delayed or slowed down," Piccard said.

The Solar Impulse is powered by 12,000 solar cells and flies in the dark by reaching high altitudes during the day and gliding downward over long distances by night. It uses no fossil fuels.

Drawbacks include the tiny cockpit, vulnerability to turbulence and the lack of a toilet, so the pilots must relieve themselves by using an empty plastic water bottle on solo flights that can last up to 24 hours.

The current aircraft model, the HB-SIA, is soon to be phased out as the Swiss team prepares test flights next year of the second-generation aircraft, the HB-SIB.

Piccard said the next plane will be 10 percent bigger, with more power, reliability, an auto-pilot function and a toilet so that pilots can make the four to six-day long trips that will be part of its journey across the world in 2015.

The plane's American trip is just the latest in a series of groundbreaking flights across different parts of the world, including Europe and Africa.

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Man shot dead in bed named

A GOLD Coast man shot dead in bed has been named in a move to help find his killer.

Shyam Dhody, aka Sam Dhody, was discovered by his partner when she arrived at their Sunbird Court home in Gilston just before 5pm (AEST) on Friday.

The couple's newly-built home is now a crime scene and police say the pair had only been living there for two weeks.

Mr Dhody had sustained gunshot wounds but police are refusing to provide further details, such as whether there was a struggle or signs of forced entry.

His partner is assisting police with their inquiries but is not a suspect, Detective Superintendent David Hutchinson told reporters on Saturday.

Det Supt Hutchinson says they are certain Mr Dhody had no known links to bikie gangs or other criminal groups.

"There's absolutely no information available to suggest they had any association whatsoever with OMCGs (outlaw motorcycle gangs) at this point in time," he said.

"Indications to us would tend to suggest it's not a random event but there's a lot of inquiries still to be made."

Forensic police are continuing to search the home and police are appealing for public assistance.

Anyone who saw anyone or any vehicles in the area between 7am and 5pm (AEST) on Friday is being urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Stranded whale freed on Vic coast

Rescue workers have asked boats to stay clear of a Southern Right Whale stranded in Lakes Entrance. Source: AAP

RESCUERS have helped to free a southern right whale that was stranded in shallow water in eastern Victoria.

The whale, an adolescent about 12 metres long, was first sighted on Friday morning by a charter boat operator in shallow waters west of Lakes Entrance, about 320 kilometres east of Melbourne.

The Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) led a frantic effort to free the whale, with teams of boats sheltering the mammal, and a firefighting boat spraying it with water.

By Saturday evening, the whale had begun to swim out towards the ocean, a DEPI spokeswoman told AAP.

"But it's struggling to swim against the incoming tide and is still about 200 metres from the opening out to the ocean," she said.

She said crews will search for the whale on Sunday morning to ensure it was able to return to sea.

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