A HELICOPTER has crashed in Turkey's southeast killing 17 soldiers, media reports say.
Channel 24 says the helicopter crashed in the district of Pervari in Siirt province on Saturday morning. It cites the provincial governor, Ahmet Aydin.
State-run TRT television says the crash occurred in heavy fog in a mountainous area.
Authorities are investigating the cause. Kurdish rebels are active in the area.
FOUR youths have been questioned over a massive fire that gutted a north Queensland shopping complex.
No one was injured in the blaze on Greenfield Boulevard, Mackay, but it destroyed most of the Toys R Us, Clark Rubber and Autobarn stores.
Emergency services received reports of the fire at about 11.45am (AEST) on Saturday and it took more than three hours for the blaze to be contained, with the Department of Community Safety (DCS) saying the main fire was put out at about 3pm.
Police said four juveniles were questioned over the fire and two boys, aged 10 and 13, were still assisting with inquiries on Saturday evening.
Officers will remain at the scene overnight as investigations into the cause of the fire continue.
A public safety order is still in place because of concerns about toxic smoke from burning chemicals in some of the shops.
A nearby shop worker, who did not want to be named, said witnesses saw four teenagers being arrested in the car park.
"They (the teenagers) were in our shop this morning. We hunted them out. They were being horrible in here," she told AAP.
"Officers have put those young people in a paddy wagon."
The DCS said a fire investigator would be brought in to work out how the blaze started.
AN American regarded as a father of computer graphics, an Indian literary critic and a Japanese molecular cell biologist have received the Kyoto Prize, Japan's highest private award for global achievement.
The Inamori Foundation awarded its advanced technology prize on Saturday to US computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, who developed the graphic interface program Sketchpad in 1963.
Gayatri Chakrovoty Spivak, an Indian literary critic and professor at Columbia University, won the arts and philosophy prize.
Yoshinori Ohsumi, a molecular biologist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, received the basic sciences prize for his work on autophagy, a cell-recycling system that could be used to help treat neurodegenerative and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer.
The Kyoto-based Inamori Foundation was set up in 1984 by Kyocera Corp's founder, Kazuo Inamori.
THE Chinese Communist Party's paranoia is on full display for its congress in Beijing in a security squeeze extending from police swarming Tiananmen Square to elderly sentinels watching street corners.
The capital has 1.4 million "public order volunteers" - retirees, street cleaners, firemen and low-paid private security guards - on the lookout for anything that could upset the sensitive gathering, even in the quietest residential neighbourhoods.
But despite their patriotic armbands, many grumble about being roped in as foot soldiers for China's massive police state.
"Volunteer? They made me volunteer," said Zhang Weilin, 25, a security guard at a central Beijing shopping mall who wore a camouflage jacket bearing a "US Army Airborne" patch and that was a size or two too large.
"My security company gave us the uniforms and made all of us (other security guards) volunteer during the congress," he said.
Increasingly worried about rising social unrest and acutely aware of public unhappiness over a lack of democracy, Chinese authorities have dramatically escalated the state security apparatus under President Hu Jintao.
At the end of the congress next week, Hu is widely expected to hand leadership of the party to Vice President Xi Jinping after 10 years in power.
Under Hu, security budgets have exploded - $US111 billion ($A107.1 billion) was allocated in 2011 for "stability maintenance", exceeding China's stated defence budget.
Authorities frequently buttress security by tasking ordinary citizens with maintaining order in their patch and reporting potential threats to the Communist regime, particularly during important events like the congress.
"If we see anything out of the ordinary, like a petitioner trying to protest, we report immediately to the neighbourhood committee, who calls the police," said retired teacher Huo Huihua, watching a Beijing street corner.
Under an age-old system from imperial times, Chinese across the country are officially granted the right to petition to Beijing authorities against local injustices.
However, petitioners and rights groups claim complainants are routinely jailed, beaten, or otherwise persecuted into silence. Rights groups say petitioners are being detained and ejected from the city during the congress.
"It doesn't matter if the petitioner has a legitimate beef or not. That will be up to the police to decide," said Huo, adding a sad grimace that acknowledged routine police brutality.
Zhang Yaodong, a petitioner from Henan province, was beaten to death by unknown thugs on Tuesday ahead of the congress, a rights group has said.
Beijing police refused to comment. Such incidents are common in China and often trigger violent demonstrations.
Although AFP reporters have witnessed numerous petitioners being dragged by police since the congress began, none of the nearly 20 "public order volunteers" interviewed said they had seen anything that merited a report to police.
The security clampdown in Beijing has many of its practical-minded residents involved in the effort wondering why none of the huge security spending has trickled down to them.
"If any 'stability maintenance money' is handed out, it will surely go to the neighbourhood committee. We will never see any of it," said a retired worker named Chen.
Instead, rewards for "volunteers" included uniforms, jackets, soap powder and cooking oil in exchange for the hours spent on street corners in the chilly November air.
Dissident Bao Tong said the huge domestic security build-up of recent years indicates the Communist Party has lost its ruling legitimacy.
"No country in the world makes its own people the biggest enemy," Bao, who was the highest official jailed following the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests that were suppressed by the army, said before the congress opened.
"In a republic, the people should be the masters. 'Stability maintenance' takes the people as the enemy. This is an insult and a disgrace," he said.
Chen Huili, a house cleaner who says she was pressured into acting as a neighbourhood sentinel, has her own reasons for grumbling.
"I didn't volunteer. My company is making me do this," said Chen, as she swept up cigarette butts in a Beijing housing complex wearing a red "public order volunteer" arm band.
"They didn't give me anything but extra work to do."
CHARLES and Camilla did what most visitors do with only one full day in Sydney - took in the sights of the Opera House, Sydney Harbour and Bondi beach.
Unlike most, they also dropped in at Government House and Admiralty House.
They mingled with well-known Australians including fashionistas, footballers and influential females, but the day also brought unscripted moments like a flash thunderstorm and a fainting military policeman.
Prince Charles rolled his eyes in disappointment when the heavens opened at Bondi, forcing him to cut short a meet-and-greet session with emergency services officers.
Charles had arrived to screams of "Charlie, Charlie", British flags and a sign reading "Say G'day to Betty for me".
A barricade almost gave way as excited locals shook hands with the prince and had photos taken with him amid a sea of smartphones.
At Sydney's historic Victoria Barracks a short time earlier, a military policeman fainted in the high heat and humidity during a parade in which Charles' wife Camilla was appointed colonel-in-chief of Australia's military police.
The Duchess of Cornwall was reviewing troops behind him at the time and would have been unaware that for the unfortunate MP it was a passing out parade.
The duchess, whose father was a British army officer, admired the "dashing scarlet berets" of the military police and wondered if she might get to wear one. Her wish was soon granted when she was presented with a beret.
Praising the MPs' outstanding service to the nation at home and in danger zones like Afghanistan, Iraq and East Timor, she said: "It seems to me you are never off duty, rather like my husband."
The 65-year-old duchess said she "deeply regretted" leaving it so late to visit Australia but now hoped to return often.
Later she attended a Women of the World reception hosted by NSW Governor Marie Bashir, where guests included film director Gillian Armstrong, Today show host Lisa Wilkinson, gold medal-winning Paralympian Carol Cooke, author Nikki Gemmell, singer Katie Noonan and writer Anne Summers.
Prince Charles, meanwhile, watched a beach touch football match featuring indigenous rugby league stars Greg Bird, Greg Inglis and Willie Tonga.
"We got told what we were supposed to say, but when he stuck his hand out I got a little bit flustered and starstruck, and I think I said 'G'day'," Bird said.
The royal couple kicked off their day with a barge ride on the harbour before a morning tea with Australian Defence Force personnel and their families.
The pair soaked up views of the sunny city as they travelled to Garden Island in a wooden ceremonial boat, the Admiral's Barge.
Prince Charles wore an Australian merino wool suit to the Museum of Contemporary Art to meet five local designers in his role as an ambassador for the Campaign for Wool.
If he had glanced up at a nearby P&O cruise ship moored in Circular Quay, he would have seen a large banner declaring "Royal Suite Available".
The royal couple ended their day with an Opera House reception where guests included NSW premier Barry O'Farrell, Olympians, youth and arts leaders before dining with Governor-General Quentin Bryce at Admiralty House.
They fly to Canberra on Saturday to close their six-day Australian visit marking the Queen's diamond jubilee, then travel on to New Zealand.
MYSTERY surrounds the circumstances of a fatal plane crash in northern NSW which killed two men after the aircraft plummeted to the ground about 80km off-course.
The aircraft burst into flames when it crashed into a paddock off the Bruxner Highway in South Gundurimba, south of Lismore, at 10.15am (AEDT) on Friday.
Two men, believed to be a 47-year-old and a 40-year-old from the Gold Coast, died at the scene.
The crash sparked a grass fire and debris was strewn around the wreckage.
"There is a large debris field of about 50 metres in length," a Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman told AAP.
It is believed the Socata Trinidad took off from Gold Coast Airport about 9.30am (AEDT) and was heading south to Murwillumbah Airport.
A focus of the investigation will be how the plane ended up in South Gundurimba, about 80km south of Murwillumbah.
Police from Richmond Local Area Command, crime scene officers, as well investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, remained at the scene on Friday evening.
The cause of the crash was not yet known, but one witness told the Seven Network the plane banked hard left, then "fell like a rock" to the ground.
A light plane has been destroyed but its pilot only slightly injured after crash landing in WA. Source: AAP
A LIGHT plane has been destroyed but its pilot only slightly injured after a crash landing metres from the edge of a dam in Western Australia.
The single-engine Jabiru plane suffered engine failure at around 2000 feet (610 metres) about 9.30am (WST) on Friday, forcing the pilot to ditch on the edge of Wungong Dam, 45km southeast of Perth.
The plane split in two on impact but the pilot walked away with minor injuries and did not require hospital treatment after being airlifted by the RAC rescue helicopter.
WA police officers were securing the crash scene, with Recreational Aviation Australia, the regulatory body for light aircraft in Australia, likely to carry out a review of the possible causes of the engine failure.
AT Jimmy Savile's funeral a year ago, the priest delivering the homily was emphatic: the DJ and television host "can face eternal life with confidence".
Hundreds of people packed a cathedral for Savile's funeral Mass, thousands paid their respects at his coffin, and people from Prince Charles to the Bee Gees sent condolences.
He was a cultural fixture, even an icon, and his BBC television shows had been part of childhood for two generations of Britons.
But a year on, Savile's reputation is in ruins. Police have branded him one of Britain's worst sex offenders, accused of assaulting underage girls over half a century. Like those who feted and praised him on that November day, millions are wondering: How could he have duped so many for so long?
"His life story was an epic of giving - giving of time, giving of talent, giving of treasure," Monsignor Kieran Heskin told hundreds of mourners at the funeral. "Sir Jimmy Savile can face eternal life with confidence."
Savile's death, like his life, was full of self-spun mythology. He cast himself as a colourful entertainer who worked tirelessly for charity - and he choreographed his exit as carefully as an Egyptian pharaoh, leaving instructions for an elaborate three-day commemoration in his home city of Leeds, in northern England.
Thousands of people turned out to pay tribute at the Queen's Hotel, where the entertainer's coffin sat surrounded by flowers, photos and the last cigar he ever smoked. Inside lay Savile, dressed in a tracksuit and clutching a string of rosary beads.
Others lined the street as Savile was carried into St Anne's Cathedral by Royal Marine pallbearers for a richly ceremonial requiem Mass. Later he was buried in a golden coffin, in a tree-shaded cemetery - and on a 45-degree angle so he could overlook the sea.
"He had gold, jewellery and diamonds, but wealth meant nothing to him," Alistair Hall, a cardiologist at one of the hospitals Savile supported, said in his eulogy. Savile, he said, "was as he appeared - a caring man".
Savile cultivated the persona of an eccentric, curmudgeonly but generous uncle. He wore brightly coloured tracksuits and chunky gold chains and drove a Rolls-Royce. On the long-running TV show Jim'll Fix It, he made children's wishes come true. Off-screen, he ran marathons for charity and frequently visited schools and hospitals.
What now seems clear - what so many missed - is that both roles brought him into contact with potential victims: star-struck teenagers, vulnerable patients, inmates of a secure psychiatric hospital.
Cary Cooper, a professor of psychology at England's Lancaster University, said that probably nobody will ever know whether Savile used his charity work deliberately to meet victims, or simply to burnish his saintly image. "Either way," Cooper said, "it protected him more, being seen as a philanthropic individual. It served his purpose."
At the funeral, Hall said Saville's charitable legacy would live on. Last month, the trustees of two charities that bear his name announced that they were closing down.
When Savile died, Prince Charles' office said the heir to the throne and his wife "were saddened to hear of Jimmy Savile's death".
The late DJ boasted of his ties to powerful people, including Prince Charles, the late Princess Diana and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom he visited at her country retreat.
His connections may have helped shield him from criticism. Several young people accused Savile of abuse while he was alive, and he was questioned by police, but no charges were laid - and no newspaper ever printed the allegations.
Now, police are investigating claims of abuse from about 300 people who have come forward since the scandal exploded when allegations about Savile were broadcast in a TV documentary in early October. And police are facing investigation themselves for their failure to act sooner.
Charles' Clarence House office says the prince's relationship with Savile was solely a result of their shared charity work.
"If there's a heaven, he'll be laughing now if he's got time," fellow DJ Tony Prince said at the funeral. "Because if there is a heaven, he'll be introducing Elvis on the clouds."
Younger DJs mentored by Savile were out in force at the memorial, and remembered the flamboyant star fondly. One, Dave Eager, wore a bright yellow sweat shirt saying "Jimmy's Eager Helper".
"Everyone who knew Jimmy knows it was a life-changing experience," he said.
Last month, Eager told The Sun newspaper that he was "completely and utterly gobsmacked" by the allegations against Savile, and felt guilty about failing to stop the abuse.
"You feel traumatised and sorry for the people abused by Jimmy, but equally you think, 'Why the bloody hell didn't we see something?'" he said.
Savile's carefully crafted myth didn't outlive him by long, and he has not rested in peace. His family has had the star's gravestone destroyed in response to public outrage. This week his nephew backed calls to exhume and cremate Savile's body out of respect to other bereaved families.
Of all the words spoken at the funeral a year ago, one comment now sounds prophetic. "None of us really knew the real Jimmy," fellow DJ Mike Read said. "Maybe he didn't even know himself."
FIVE Tibetans have set themselves on fire in China in an unprecedented string of protests ahead of the country's once-in-a-decade leadership change, the Tibetan exile government says.
All five took place on Wednesday, the eve of a pivotal week-long Communist Party congress which will end with the transitioning of power to Vice President Xi Jinping, who will govern for the coming decade.
Individual self-immolations to protest Chinese rule in Tibet have occurred regularly since March 2011, but this is the first time such a large number have happened on the same day.
Three teenage monks set themselves ablaze in a Tibetan-inhabited area of Aba County in Sichuan province, the focus of previous protests. One of them died on the spot, the press department for the exile government said.
"The self-immolations in Tibet are an appeal to the international community, to the Chinese government and to the Chinese people as human beings to hear their cry for help," Dicki Chhoyang, information secretary for the government, told AFP.
In addition to the three burnings in Sichuan, a fourth occurred in Huangnan prefecture in Qinghai province where a 23-year-old woman self-immolated and a fifth happened in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the exile government said.
Two protesters are confirmed dead and the whereabouts of the others are unknown.
"These protests are aimed at sending the next generation of China's unelected regime a clear signal that Tibetans will continue to fight for their freedom despite China's efforts to suppress and intimidate them," Stephanie Brigden, director of the Free Tibet campaign group said in a statement.
The group reported four people had set themselves on fire, while the Radio Free Asia broadcaster reported five and two deaths.
A total of 68 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the protest, of which 54 have died, according to figures from the government in exile, which has been based in India since Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959.
China blames what it calls the "Dalai clique" for fomenting unrest in Tibet and orchestrating the self-immolations.
Last week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged China to address Tibetans' grievances saying: "I recognise Tibetans' intense sense of frustration and despair which has led them to resort to such extreme means."
Pillay said she was disturbed by "continuing allegations of violence against Tibetans seeking to exercise their fundamental human rights of freedom of expression, association and religion".
China rebuffed the criticism and expressed "strong dissatisfaction".
The Tibetan government in exile, which is not recognised by any foreign state, is looking for cause for optimism from the new Chinese leadership under Xi, the 59-year-old son of a Communist revolutionary.
Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, met and came to know the Dalai Lama in Beijing in the early 1950s, before the Tibetan spiritual leader fled after a failed uprising.
Xi senior, a party official at the time, later became a liberal vice premier known to be sympathetic towards minorities, and Tibetan exiles and analysts raise the possibility that such thinking may have passed down a generation.
Xi junior's true political leanings are largely unknown, though he has expressed the government's routine disdain for the Dalai Lama and also vowed to "smash" any attempt to destroy stability in Tibet.
PERSONAL computer-maker Lenovo Group says its quarterly profit has risen 13 per cent as mobile and cloud-based businesses expanded.
The company earned $US162 million ($A156.20 million), or 1.6 US cents per share, in the three months ended September 30. Global revenues rose 11 per cent to $US8.7 billion.
Lenovo is vying with Hewlett-Packard Co to become the world's biggest personal computer maker but faces a market in which the fastest demand growth is for mobile devices.
Research firm Gartner said last month Lenovo outsold HP in the latest quarter but IDC still had HP on top.
Lenovo said sales at its two-year-old mobile internet group rose 155 per cent to $US718 million.
"Our global PC market share reached another historic high, moving us closer to our dream of becoming the worldwide PC leader," said chairman Yang Yuanqing in a statement on Thursday.
He said emerging markets outside China have reached "the profitable growth stage", improving the prospects for future earnings.
Still, profit growth was lower than the previous quarter's 30 per cent, reflecting cooling demand for PCs as customer interest shifts to tablets, smartphones and other wireless devices.
PC shipments in Lenovo's home China market grew by 8 per cent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 59 per cent. Sales in North America grew 7 per cent to $US1.2 billion in a market in which Lenovo said overall sales contracted by 12 per cent.
Lenovo released a new version of its ThinkPad notebook computer, the X1 Carbon, in August that it said was lighter and quicker to appeal to customers who want the convenience of a tablet. Lenovo acquired the ThinkPad brand with IBM Corp's personal computer unit in 2005.
Lenovo said its acquisitions during the latest quarter included Stoneware, an Indiana software company focused on cloud computing.
