Taliban able to stand for 2014 poll

Afghans pass by a giant poster of Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in the centre of Kabul. Source: AP

THE Taliban could stand in Afghanistan's next presidential election in 2014, as a series of suspected insurgent bombings killed 17 civilians.

President Hamid Karzai, who is serving his second term as leader of the war-torn nation, is constitutionally barred from running in the election and no clear candidate to succeed him has yet emerged.

The vote, scheduled for April 5, 2014, is seen as crucial to stability after the withdrawal of NATO troops and Fazil Ahmad Manawi, the head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), insisted his body would act impartially.

"We are even prepared to pave the ground for the armed opposition, be it the Taliban or Hezb-i-Islami, to participate in the election, either as voters or candidates," Mr Manawi told a news conference.

"There will be no discrimination," the IEC chief added, defending the body in response to a question about its impartiality.

Hezb-i-Islami is the faction of former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar which wages an insurgency along with the Taliban against Karzai's Western-backed government.

The Taliban, whose hardline Islamist regime was overthrown in 2001 by a US-led invasion for harbouring Osama bin Laden, did not take part in the 2009 election. Instead it launched polling day attacks that killed more than 20 people.

At least 17 civilians, most women and children, were killed in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday in roadside bombings which officials blamed on "the enemies of Afghanistan" - the term they use for the Taliban.

In the deadliest incident, seven women and three children died when a blast tore through the vehicle in which they were travelling in Musa Qala district of Helmand province.

Also overnight, a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in eastern Kunar province left four police dead, while another five officers were killed in an insurgent raid on a post in Zabul province, in the south.

The 2009 poll, in which Mr Karzai was re-elected over former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, was marred by widespread allegations of fraud. The credibility of the 2014 vote is seen as key to avoiding an escalation in violence after the NATO withdrawal.

Donor nations at a conference in Tokyo in July pledged $US16 billion ($15.4 billion) for Afghanistan to prevent the country from sliding back into turmoil when foreign combat troops depart, with several pre-conditions including presidential elections in 2014.

The International Crisis Group think-tank warned in October that the Kabul government could fall apart after NATO troops withdraw, particularly if the presidential elections are affected by fraud.

Security officials said they were confident they would learn lessons from 2009 as they seek to prevent violence in the run-up to the next election, only the third since the fall of the Taliban.

"Afghan security institutions will start working to design a comprehensive plan for security during the election," said defence ministry chief of staff Shir Mohammad Karimi.

Under the Afghan system, voters elect the president as an individual rather than as a representative of a party, and candidates must submit their nominations by October 6, 2013.

The IEC will then rule on their admissibility and publish a final list of candidates on November 16.

Initial results of the ballot will be announced on April 24, 2014, and final results on May 14, with May 28 set aside for any potential run-off vote. Provincial council elections will be held at the same time as the main poll.

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Jersey Shore cast support Sandy victims

Downed power lines and a battered road is what superstorm Sandy left behind in Seaside Heights. The cast of Jersey Shore, which filmed in the town, are showing their support for those affected by the devastating storm. Source: AP

THE cast of Jersey Shore are showing their support for Seaside Heights after it was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy.

Seaside Heights, which for millions made "Jersey Shore" synonymous with Snooki and fist-pumping was among the those devastated - and its famous summer residents sent their prayers to those affected.

"Sandy destroyed Seaside - our second home," Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi told MTV News in a statement.

"It's devastating to see our boardwalk and favourite spots ruined. My prayers go out to everyone affected by the storm."

Jenni "JWoww" Farley appeared on the Tonight Show, and host Jay Leno asked about the house she owns with her fiance, Roger, in Toms River.

Jersey Shore star Jenni "JWoww" Farley told Jay Leno the destruction left by Sandy "hurts the heart a lot".

"Fixable, I want to say. It's really, it like hurts the heart a lot. It's really kind of devastating," she said. But as long as like my dogs, Roger's safe, my friends are safe, we're just all without power."

Vinny Guadagnino told MTV that Seaside Heights had become his second home, while Paul "Pauly D" DelVecchio sent thanks to the "heroes" who were working to help. Sammi Giancola called the impact "devastating."

Guadagnino tweeted that Staten Island, New York, where he lives, "looks like war zone" and posted a picture of a downed tree.

He, Farley and DelVecchio asked their Twitter followers to donate $10 to the American Red Cross by texting REDCROSS to 90999.

New Jersey National Guard Spc. Wilfredo Rodriguez, top, helps a woman off a boat as rescue workers help stranded people in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. The cast of Jersey shore have asked Twitter followers to donate to the American Red Cross to help Sandy's victims.

Polizzi also said she would donate but was more true to form: "Ugh trying to change my son's diaper while holding a flash light is not easy," she wrote from East Hanover, using the hashtag "nopower.

This photo made available by the New Jersey Governor's Office shows damage to the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.

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Sandy unearths 'Colonial skeleton', coffin

A casket floated out of the grave in a cemetery in Crisfield, Maryland after the effects of superstorm Sandy. Source: AP

SUPERSTORM Sandy has unearthed what is believed to be a Colonial skeleton in Connecticut and brought coffins to the surface in Maryland.

Police spokesman David Hartman says a woman who was with other bystanders in New Haven, Connecticut, looking at a fallen oak tree called police on Tuesday after she saw bones in the upturned roots.

Mr Hartman says the tree was planted on the green in 1909 on the 100th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth. He says the remains likely belong to one of thousands of people buried there in Colonial times. The remains will be evaluated by the state medical examiner.

Katie Carbo, who called police, tells the New Haven Independent she saw something in the tree roots, and found the bones when she removed some dirt. She says the skeleton "should be given a proper burial."

Meanwhile, a casket in Crisfield, Maryland, has popped out of the ground after Sandy has passed.

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America the brave gets back up

New York is recovering after superstorm Sandy carved a path of destruction from the Caribbean to Canada.

BATTERED by superstorm Sandy, New Yorkers and millions of other Americans have taken the first cautious steps to reclaim their upended daily routines, even as rescuers comb neighbourhoods strewn with debris and scarred by floods and fire.

TWO major airports reopened and the floor of the New York Stock Exchange came back to life, but across the river in New Jersey, the National Guard searched for flood victims and fires still raged two days after Superstorm Sandy.

For the first time since the storm battered the Northeast, killing 59 people and doing billions of dollars in damage, brilliant sunshine washed over the nation's largest city - a striking sight after days of gray skies, rain and wind.

At the stock exchange, running on generator power, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a thumbs-up and rang the opening bell to whoops from traders on the floor. Trading resumed after the first two-day weather shutdown since the Blizzard of 1888.

A picture provided by the US Coast guard shows flooded homes in Tuckerton, New Jersey.

It was clear that restoring the region to its ordinarily frenetic pace could take days - and that rebuilding the hardest-hit communities and the transportation networks that link them together could take considerably longer.

"We will get through the days ahead by doing what we always do in tough times - by standing together, shoulder to shoulder, ready to help a neighbor, comfort a stranger and get the city we love back on its feet," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

It was clear that restoring the region to its ordinarily frenetic pace could take days - and that rebuilding the hardest-hit communities and the transportation networks that link them together could take considerably longer.

A woman views still-smoldering damage in a neighbourhood in the Breezy Point area of Queens in New York on October 30, 2012 after fire destroyed about 80 homes as a result of Sandy.

About 6.5 million homes and businesses were still without power, including 4 million in New York and New Jersey. Electricity was out as far west as Wisconsin and as far south as the Carolinas.

The scale of the challenge could be seen across the Hudson River in New Jersey, where National Guard troops arrived in the heavily flooded city of Hoboken to help evacuate thousands still stuck in their homes and deliver ready-to-eat meals.

Live wires dangled in floodwaters that Mayor Dawn Zimmer said were rapidly mixing with sewage.

This aerial photo shows burned-out homes in the Breezy Point section of the Queens, where more than 80 homes were destroyed.

Thousands of people were still holed up in their brownstones, condos, and other homes in the mile-square city is across the Hudson River from New York.

And new problems arose when firefighters were unable to reach blazes rekindled by natural gas leaks in the heavily hit shore town of Mantoloking.

As New York began its second day after the megastorm, morning rush-hour traffic was heavy as people started returning to work. There was even a sign of normalcy: commuters waiting at bus stops.

A woman looks at damage in the Rockaway neighbourhood, Brooklyn.

On the Brooklyn Bridge, closed earlier because of high winds, joggers and bikers made their way across the span before sunrise. One cyclist carried a flashlight. Car traffic on the bridge was busy, and slowed as it neared Manhattan.

By late Tuesday, the winds and flooding inflicted by the fast-weakening Sandy had subsided, leaving at least 55 people dead along the Atlantic Coast and splintering beachfront homes and boardwalks from the mid-Atlantic states to southern New England.

The storm later moved across Pennsylvania on a predicted path toward New York State and Canada.

Residents in Ocean City, Maryland, begin to assess the damage after superstorm Sandy slammed the popular resort town three hours away from Washington D.C. Sarah Charlton reports.

At the height of the disaster, more than 8.2 million lost electricity - some as far away as Michigan. Nearly a quarter of those without power were in New York, where lower Manhattan's usually bright lights remained dark for a second night.

But, amid the despair, talk of recovery was already beginning.

"It's heartbreaking after being here 37 years," Barry Prezioso of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, said as he returned to his house in the beachfront community to survey the damage.

A man walks by the remains of part of the historic Rockaway boardwalk in Brooklyn, after large parts of it were washed away during Sandy.

"You see your home demolished like this, it's tough. But nobody got hurt and the upstairs is still livable, so we can still live upstairs and clean this out. I'm sure there's people that had worse. I feel kind of lucky."

Much of the initial recovery efforts focused on New York City, the region's economic heart.

Mr Bloomberg said it could take four or five days before the subway, which suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history, is running again. All 10 of the tunnels that carry commuters under the East River were flooded.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, centre, rings the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange after it was closed for two days.

But high water prevented inspectors from immediately assessing damage to key equipment, raising the possibility that the nation's largest city could endure an extended shutdown of the system that 5 million people count on to get to work and school each day. The chairman of the state agency that runs the subway, Joseph Lhota, said service might have to resume piecemeal, and experts said the cost of the repairs could be staggering.

Power company Consolidated Edison said it would be four days before the last of the 337,000 customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn who lost power have electricity again and it could take a week to restore outages in the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Westchester County. Floodwater led to explosions that disabled a power substation Monday night, contributing to the outages.

Surveying the widespread damage, it was clear much of the recovery and rebuilding will take far longer.

Two women walk along a street flooded with water from Hurricane Sandy on October 30, 2012 in Hoboken, New Jersey.

When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stopped in Belmar, New Jersey, during a tour of the devastation, one woman wept openly and 42-year-old Walter Patrickis told him, "Governor, I lost everything."

Mr Christie, who called the shore damage "unthinkable," said a full recovery would take months, at least, and it would likely be a week or more before power is restored to everyone who lost it.

"Now we've got a big task ahead of us that we have to do together. This is the kind of thing New Jerseyans are built for," he said. US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the state today to inspect the storm damage.

On a National Guard truck, Ali LaPointe, of Hoboken, New Jersey, hands her daughter Eliza Skye LaPointe, 18-months-old, to Hoboken firefighters.

By sundown, however, announcements from officials and scenes on the streets signaled that New York and nearby towns were edging toward a semblance of routine.

First came the reopening of highways in Connecticut and bridges across the Hudson and East rivers, although the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan, and the Holland Tunnel, between New York and New Jersey, remained closed.

A limited number of the white and blue buses that crisscross New York's grid returned Tuesday evening to Broadway and other thoroughfares on a reduced schedule - but free of charge.

A man takes a picture of the John B. Caddell, a tanker that washed up on the shore of Staten Island in New York during a storm surge caused by Hurricane Sandy.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he hoped there would be full service by Wednesday. Still, school was canceled for a third straight day in the city, where many students rely on buses and subways to reach classrooms.

In one bit of good news, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty International airports reopened with limited service just after 7am local time Wednesday. New York's LaGuardia Airport remains closed.

The New York Stock Exchange was again silent Tuesday - the first weather-related, two-day closure since the 19th century - but trading was scheduled to resume this morning with Bloomberg ringing the opening bell.

People stop along the Brooklyn waterfront to look at the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline. Much of lower Manhattan remains without power following the impact of superstorm Sandy.

Amtrak also laid out plans to resume some runs in the Northeast on Wednesday, with modified service between Newark, N.J., and points south. That includes restoring Virginia service to Lynchburg, Richmond and Newport News, Keystone trains in Pennsylvania, and Downeaster service between Boston and Portland, Maine.

But flooding continues to prevent service to and from New York's Penn Station. Amtrak said the amount of water in train tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers is unprecedented. There will be no Northeast Regional service between New York and Boston and no Acela Express service for the entire length of the Northeast Corridor. No date has been set for when it might resume.

But even with the return of some transportation and plans to reopen schools and businesses, the damage and pain inflicted by Sandy continued to unfold, confirming the challenge posed by rebuilding.

The darkened skyline of Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy. Floodwater led to explosions that disabled a power station during the storm, contributing to the outages.

In New Jersey, amusement rides that once crowned a pier in Seaside Heights were dumped into the ocean, some homes were smashed, and others were partially buried in sand.

National Guard troops arrived in Hoboken on Tuesday night to find live wires dangling in the floodwaters that Mayor Dawn Zimmer said were rapidly mixing with sewage.

About 2.1 million homes and businesses remained without power across the state late Tuesday. When Tropical Storm Irene struck last year, it took more than a week to restore power everywhere. The state's largest utility, PSE&G, said it was trying to dry out substations it had to shut down.

Morning commuters walk and bicycle across New York's Brooklyn Bridge, two days after superstorm Sandy. Bus service has resumed and the bridges re-opened, but it could be days before the subway is running again.

Outages in the state's two largest cities, Newark and Jersey City, left traffic signals dark, resulting in numerous fender-benders at intersections where police were not directing traffic. And in one Jersey City supermarket, there were long lines to get bread and a spot at an outlet to charge cellphones.

Trees and power lines were down in every corner of the state. Schools and state government offices were closed for a second day, and many called off classes too. The governor said the PATH trains connecting northern New Jersey with Manhattan would be out of service for at least seven to 10 days because of flooding. All the New Jersey Transit rail lines were damaged, he said, and it was not clear when the rail lines would be able to open.

In Connecticut, some residents of Fairfield returned home in kayaks and canoes to inspect widespread damage left by retreating floodwaters that kept other homeowners at bay.

A man shops for groceries by flashlight at an East Village grocery store as New Yorkers cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The storm left large parts of New York without power and transportation.

"The uncertainty is the worst," said Jessica Levitt, who was told it could be a week before she can enter her house.

"Even if we had damage, you just want to be able to do something. We can't even get started."

The storm caused irreparable damage to homes in East Haven, Milford and other shore towns. Still, many were grateful the storm did not deliver a bigger blow, considering the havoc wrought in New York City and New Jersey.

"I feel like we are blessed," said Bertha Weismann, whose garage was flooded in Bridgeport. "It could have been worse."

And in New York, residents of the flooded beachfront neighborhood of Breezy Point in Queens returned home to find fire had taken everything the water had not. A huge blaze destroyed perhaps 100 homes in the close-knit community where many had stayed behind despite being told to evacuate.

John Frawley, 57, acknowledged the mistake. Mr Frawley, who lived about five houses from the fire's edge, said he spent the night terrified "not knowing if the fire was going to jump the boulevard and come up to my house."

"I stayed up all night," he said. "The screams. The fire. It was horrifying."

There were still only hints of the economic impact of the storm.

Forecasting firm IHS Global Insight predicted it will end up causing about $US20 billion ($19.3 billion) in damage and $US10 billion to $US30 billion in lost business. Another firm, AIR Worldwide, estimated losses up to $US15 billion - big numbers probably offset by reconstruction and repairs that will contribute to longer-term growth.

"The biggest problem is not the first few days but the coming months," said Alan Rubin, an expert in natural disaster recovery.

Some of those who lost homes and businesses to Sandy were promising to return and rebuild, but many sounded chastened by their encounter with nature's fury.

They included Tom Shalvey of Warwick, Rhode Island, whose 152-square-metre cottage on the beach in South Kingstown was washed away by raging surf, leaving a utility pipe as the only marker of where it once sat.

"We love the beach. We had many great times here," Mr Shalvey said. "We will be back. But it will not be on the front row."

Jersey Shore stars show support for Sandy victims

Click here to see a selection of pictures showing yesterday's incredible storm.

Click here to see our gallery of the shocking aftermath.

And here is a selection of the best images from social media.

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Wedding blaze sparked by gunfire kills 25

Twenty-five people, mostly women and children, have died in a blaze at a wedding in Saudi Arabia, after bullets fired in celebration set a women-only marquee on fire. Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied

A FIRE sparked by celebratory gunfire has killed at least 25 people at a wedding in Saudi Arabia, media reported on Wednesday.

The bullets struck electric decorations that triggered a short-circuit, igniting a women-only marquee at the wedding on Tuesday night in Eastern Province, said Al-Yaoum newspaper, citing civil defence chief General Abdullah Khsheiman.

Al-Yaoum, which is based in the province, said at least 28 people died in the fire, although various other reports put the death toll at 25, all of them women and children.

The governor of the oil-rich region, Prince Mohammed bin Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, ordered a prompt investigation into the incident, the Okaz daily reported.

Only women and small children were in the tent in line with strict rules of segregation in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.

In July 1999, 76 people died in a similar incident in Eastern Province.
 

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Man with 'bionic leg' to climb skyscraper

Zac Vawter, who lost his leg in a motorcycle accident, looks down from the Ledge at the Willis Tower in Chicago. Vawter will put the leg to the test by attempting a charity climb up 103 flights to the top of the skyscraper.
Source: AP

ZAC Vawter considers himself a test pilot.

After losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident, the 31-year-old software engineer signed up to become a research subject, helping to test a trailblazing prosthetic leg that's controlled by his thoughts.

He will put this groundbreaking "bionic" leg to the ultimate test Sunday when he attempts to climb 103 flights of stairs to the top of Chicago's Willis Tower, one of the world's tallest skyscrapers.

If all goes well, he'll make history with the bionic leg's public debut. His whirring, robotic leg will respond to electrical impulses from muscles in his hamstring.

Mr Vawter will think, "Climb stairs," and the motors, belts and chains in his leg will synchronise the movements of its ankle and knee.

Zac Vawter kicks a soccer ball with his experimental "bionic" leg as biomedical student Aaron Young makes adjustments to the leg at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

Vawter hopes to make it to the top in an hour, longer than it would've taken before his amputation, less time than it would take with his normal prosthetic leg - or, as he calls it, his "dumb" leg.

A team of researchers will be cheering him on and noting the smart leg's performance. When Vawter goes home to Yelm, Washington, where he lives with his wife and two children, the experimental leg will stay behind in Chicago. Researchers will continue to refine its steering. Taking it to the market is still years away.

"Somewhere down the road, it will benefit me and I hope it will benefit a lot of other people as well," Vawter said about the research at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

"Bionic" - or thought-controlled - prosthetic arms have been available for a few years, thanks to pioneering work done at the Rehabilitation Institute. With leg amputees outnumbering people who've lost arms and hands, the Chicago researchers are focusing more on lower limbs. Safety is important. If a bionic hand fails, a person drops a glass of water. If a bionic leg fails, a person falls down stairs.

Biomedical engineer Annie Simon, left, and research prosthetist Elizabeth Halsne fit the experimental "bionic" prosthetic leg, controlled by the mind, on Zac Vawter.

The Willis Tower climb will be the bionic leg's first test in the public eye, said lead researcher Levi Hargrove of the institute's Centre for Bionic Medicine. The climb, called "SkyRise Chicago," is a fundraiser for the institute with about 2700 people climbing. This is the first time the climb has played a role in the facility's research.

To prepare, Mr Vawter and the scientists have spent hours adjusting the leg's movements. On one recent day, 11 electrodes placed on the skin of Mr Vawter's thigh fed data to the bionic leg's microcomputer. The researchers turned over the "steering" to Mr Vawter.

He kicked a soccer ball, walked around the room and climbed stairs. The researchers beamed.

Mr Vawter likes the bionic leg. Compared to his regular prosthetic, it's more responsive and more fluid. As an engineer, he enjoys learning how the leg works.

It started with surgery in 2009. When Mr Vawter's leg was amputated, a surgeon repositioned the residual spaghetti-like nerves that normally would carry signals to the lower leg and sewed them to new spots on his hamstring. That would allow Mr Vawter one day to be able to use a bionic leg, even though the technology was years away.

The surgery is called "targeted muscle reinnervation" and it's like "rewiring the patient," Mr Hargrove said.

"And now when he just thinks about moving his ankle, his hamstring moves and we're able to tell the prosthesis how to move appropriately."

To one generation it sounds like The Six Million Dollar Man, a 1970s TV show featuring a rebuilt hero. A younger generation may think of Luke Skywalker's bionic hand.

But Mr Hargrove's inspiration came not from fiction, but from his fellow Canadian Terry Fox, who attempted a cross-country run on a regular artificial leg to raise money for cancer research in 1980.

"I've run marathons, and when you're in pain, you just think about Terry Fox who did it with a wooden leg and made it halfway across Canada before cancer returned," Mr Hargrove said.

Experts not involved in the project say the Chicago research is on the leading edge. Most artificial legs are passive.

"They're basically fancy wooden legs," said Daniel Ferris of the University of Michigan. Others have motorised or mechanical components but don't respond to the electrical impulses caused by thought.

"This is a step beyond the state of the art," Mr Ferris said.

"If they can achieve it, it's very noteworthy and suggests in the next 10 years or so there will be good commercial devices out there."

The $US8 million project is funded by the US Department of Defence and involves Vanderbilt University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Rhode Island and the University of New Brunswick.

Mr Vawter and the Chicago researchers recently took the elevator to the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower to see the view after an afternoon of work in the lab. Mr Hargrove and Mr Vawter bantered in the elevator in anticipation of Sunday's event.

Mr Hargrove: "Am I allowed to trash talk you?"

"It's fine," Mr Vawter shot back. "I'll just defer it all to the leg that you built."

At the top, Mr Vawter stood on a glass balcony overlooking the city. The next time he heads to the top, he and the bionic leg will take the stairs.
 

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130 missing after refugee boat sinks

Muslim Rohingya people from Pauktaw, some three hours away by sea, make their way to a temporary camp on the shore near the village of Ohnetaw, Burma. More than 130 refugees are missing after a boat sunk on the way to Bangladesh. Source: AFP

ABOUT 130 passengers are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees sank off the border between Burma and Bangladesh, according to Bangladesh police and a Rohingya advocacy group on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled Burma in past decades to escape persecution, often heading to neighbouring Bangladesh, and recent unrest has triggered another exodus.

Mohammad Farhad, police inspector of Teknaf on the southeast tip of Bangladesh, said that one survivor from the sinking reported that the boat had about 135 passengers on board.

"The boat was heading to Malaysia illegally," Mr Farhad said, adding that the 24-year-old survivor was being held in custody.

"He does not know what happened to the others as it was dark and he was desperate to save his own life."

A Muslim Rohingya man rests on his fishing boat near the temperory relief camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, in Burma's Rakhine state.

Mr Farhad said a total of six survivors were reported to have been picked up by a fishing vessel after the refugee boat left Sabrang village in Bangladesh on Saturday.

"We have spoken to families of missing passengers," he said.

There were conflicting reports about whether all those on the boat were Rohingya and also over the time of the sinking, which Bangladesh police said occurred early Sunday.

"We learned that an overcrowded boat with 133 people on board, which was leaving for Malaysia," Chris Lewa, the Bangkok-based director of The Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group, said.

A Rohingya woman holds her baby inside a Burmese refugee camp.

"Six survivors have been rescued by fishing boats. The others are missing," she said.

Ms Lewa however said her organisation had been told that the accident happened overnight Monday to Tuesday.

At least 89 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes in a new wave of communal unrest sweeping Myanmar's western Rakhine state, where violence between Rohingya and Buddhists in June left dozens killed.

Since the unrest erupted, Bangladesh has been turning away boatloads of fleeing Rohingya.

The policy has been criticised by the United Nations, but Bangladesh said it was already burdened with an estimated 300,000 Rohingya.

Many Rohingya refugees now try to head to Muslim-majority Malaysia for a better life.
 

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Poker pro, 24, takes $8m world title

Jake Balsiger, left, reacts as Greg Merson pulls in the pot. Source: AP

A 24-YEAR-OLD Maryland poker professional has last 12 hours in a marathon card session to win the World Series of Poker main event.

Greg Merson emerged with the title and $US8.53 million overnight ($8.23 million) in Las Vegas after a session that proved a showcase for his skills amid the unpredictability of tournament no-limit Texas Hold 'em.

Merson put his final opponent Jesse Sylvia all-in with a king high. Sylvia thought hard, then called with a suited queen-jack.

Merson's hand held through the community cards - two sixes, a three a nine and a seven - to give him the title and put his name alongside former champions including Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan.

Merson also pushed past Hellmuth for the series' Player of the Year honours, proving himself the top performer throughout this year's series of card tournaments in Las Vegas and Europe. Merson also won a tournament this summer.

Merson's victory over Sylvia, 26, came after the pair outlasted the last amateur at the table, 21-year-old Jake Balsiger. The Arizona State senior hoping to become the youngest World Series of Poker champion was eliminated in third place, more than 11 hours into the marathon.

Balsiger gambled his last chips with a queen-10 and was dominated by 24-year-old poker professional Greg Merson's king-queen.

Merson's hand held through five community cards, forcing Balsiger to exit the tournament no richer than he was starting Tuesday's finale.

The political science major, who has vowed to graduate, won $US3.8 million for third place.

"I have some homework due tomorrow, my Supreme Court class," Balsiger said. "I didn't do it last week because I was in a final table simulation, so my professor's probably not the happiest with me."

His ouster set up Merson against 26-year-old poker pro Jesse Sylvia for the title, with an $US8.53 million top prize at stake.

Even before Balsiger was eliminated, the players set a series record by pushing beyond 364 hands at the final table. Balsiger lost on hand 382.

All three players traded chips, big bluffs and shocking hands during their marathon run.

They started play Tuesday night having already outlasted six others at a final table that began on Monday. But they refused to give in to one another, with roughly $4.8 million on the line - the difference between first and third place.

"This is exciting," Balsiger told his tablemates just before midnight Wednesday in a game playing out as part mental sparring, part plain luck.

Merson took a commanding chip lead with perhaps his gutsiest play of the tournament - sniffing weakness in Balsiger and re-raising a 10 million chip bet all-in with just queen high. Balsiger couldn't call, and Merson moved up to more than 100 million in chips.

He didn't have the chip lead for long.

Several hands later, Balsiger wagered the last of his chips with an ace-10 and was well behind Sylvia's ace-queen with his tournament at risk. But a 10 came on the turn, allowing Balsiger to double up.

Then, Sylvia went all-in against Merson, his ace-king against Merson's pocket kings. A four on the river made a wheel straight - ace through five - and vaulted Sylvia to the chip lead, sending his supporters at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino into a frenzy.

Later in the session, Balsiger doubled his chips to a lead through Sylvia with pocket kings. Soon after, Sylvia took the chip lead back.

And so it went - par for the course in poker, a game where skill is significant, but luck is certainly a factor.

Balsiger eliminated Russell Thomas in fourth place just after midnight early Tuesday to set up the trio's final showdown. The 21-year-old was seeking to become the series' youngest ever no-limit Texas Hold 'em main event champion, besting a 2009 record set by Joe Cada.

Merson went into play Tuesday night with 88.4 million in chips, compared with 62.8 million for Sylvia and 46.9 million for Balsiger.

Each competitor was guaranteed at least $US3.8 million.

Merson picked up hands and took control of the three-handed table early, picking up strong hands and building his stack to more than half the chips in the tournament.

But Sylvia's fold of a strong hand - a nine high flush - likely kept him in the tournament after he finished contemplating a Merson bet of nearly 3 million in chips. Merson held a queen high flush in a cooler-type hand - one that gamblers in Sylvia's spot routinely lose on.

Sylvia went into the final table with a chip lead but lost it to Merson after Merson benefited from an opponent's unforced error.

Merson eliminated Hungarian poker professional Andras Koroknai in sixth place, calling Koroknai's all-in bet with an ace-king and finding Koroknai with king-queen - a marginal hand for the situation.

Chips have no real monetary value in tournament poker. Each player at the final table must lose all his chips to lose the tournament, and win all the chips at the table to be crowned champion.

The tournament began in July with 6598 players and was chopped down to nine through seven sessions spread over 11 days. Play stopped after nearly 67 hours logged at the tables for each player, with minimum bets going up every two hours.

The finalists played Monday night until only three players remained, leaving the top three to settle the title.

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Savile scandal sparks soul searching

Jimmy Savile, seen here in June 2002, was manipulative in how he picked his victim says one child abuse victim. 
Source: AFP

JIMMY Savile was one of Britain's biggest stars and allegedly worst sexual predators. Now the nation is asking whether there was a link between them.

Was this abuser at the heart of the nation's popular culture a product of the permissive 1960s and '70s, or do the conditions that let him get away with the abuse still exist, even as awareness of child sex abuse is more widespread?

"We're kidding ourselves if we think it is all hunky dory now, but obviously it was more lax," said Sarah Nelson, a child abuse expert at Edinburgh University. "The culture among disc jockeys at the time allowed a license you wouldn't get now."

Savile, who died a year ago at age 84, came to fame in an era of social transformation. He started out as a dance hall DJ in the early days of rock 'n' roll before breaking into television in the early '60s as host of the music program Top of the Pops. Later he hosted Jim'll Fix It, a TV show in which he made young viewers' wishes come true.

The rules of social and sexual behavior in Britain were changing in the '60s and '70s. Along with new freedoms came opportunities for abusers like Savile, whose career in the exploding world of popular entertainment gave him access to legions of star-struck young people.

"It was all opening up - the pop stars, the glamour - and he was able to take advantage of it because of course he became famous and he could introduce them to famous people, get them on Top of the Pops and all that," said Max Clifford, Britain's best-known celebrity publicist.

Savile was further shielded from scrutiny by the notion that celebrities are larger-than-life figures who exist outside normal social constraints. With his brightly coloured tracksuits, big cigars and aggressively jocular screen persona he appeared, to many, a harmless oddball - one in a long roster of British eccentrics.

"The public made Jimmy Savile. It loved him. It knighted him," argued writer Andrew O'Hagan in the London Review of Books.

"A whole entertainment structure was built to house him and make him feel secure. That's no one's fault: Entertainment, like literature, thrives on weirdoes, and Savile entered a culture made not only to tolerate his oddness but to find it refreshing."

Savile's celebrity became a shield. So did his charity work, which brought him into contact with young people who were vulnerable - students at a school for troubled girls, patients at a psychiatric hospital and a spinal injuries unit.

"He had a lot of power and influence, which is something you find with a lot of pedophiles who get away with it for a long time," Ms Nelson said.

And, she added, "he was manipulative - picking victims that either would not be believed or were discredited or were physically disabled and literally could not get away from him."

Since allegations about Savile were broadcast in a TV documentary in October, scores of women have come forward to allege that as underage girls they were abused by the late entertainer - in his Rolls-Royce, in BBC dressing rooms, in the schools and hospitals he visited. Police say they have identified 300 potential victims of Savile and associates stretching back almost half a century.

Savile's behaviour had spawned whispers and speculation. One former member of the BBC's board of governors said by the late 1990s Savile was regarded as a "creepy sort of character" and barred from the broadcaster's Children in Need charity telethons. But his behaviour was never formally investigated by the BBC.

Youngsters made several complaints to police over the years, none of which led to charges. The chief of London's Metropolitan Police, Bernard Hogan-Howe, has apologised, saying police failed to piece together Savile's "pattern of behaviour" from the disparate complaints.

British police vow that the Savile case will be a watershed moment in combating child abuse, and child protection authorities have stressed that awareness has increased enormously in recent years.

Scandals within several large institutions - from the Roman Catholic Church to the Scouts - have led to soul-searching and stronger rules to protect children, such as criminal record checks on those who work with young people.

Social attitudes have changed, too. Some of the sexualised depictions of young people produced 30 or 40 years ago make uncomfortable viewing now - think of the child prostitutes played by the preteen Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby and Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver.

But in popular culture, children and teenagers continue to be sexualised. Famous teens and their private lives remain tabloid fodder.

Among the British celebrities who received damages from Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid in the phone hacking scandal was singer Charlotte Church, who told a public inquiry that newspapers ran stories about her private affairs and sex life from the time she turned 16. Even earlier, one website set up a "countdown clock" to count the days and hours until she would reach the age of consent.

"That sense that we have sexualised youth is a much broader phenomenon than Jimmy Savile," said David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham City University. "Why are there padded bras for 13-year-olds? Why are there pressures on boys to have six packs?

"We have taken comfort in the idea that we can blame him."

Child welfare groups hope the belated revelation of Savile's crimes will be a catalyst, encouraging more victims to report their abusers. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children says the scandal has triggered a surge in reports of abuse - both from the past and from the present.

But, say some, authorities still too often fail to listen to youngsters who report abuse.

Ms Nelson, the child abuse expert, said the danger was that the Savile case "creates a storm for a few weeks" but changes little.

"In Britain, the child protection system is very bureaucratic," she said. "It relies on children to tell - and most children don't tell. It relies on a criminal justice system that can be very aggressive to victims.

"It shouldn't take something like this to make people able to come forward to say this has happened to me, or this has happened in my family."

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