Bob Brown applauds SA same sex bill

Former MP Bob Brown has applauded the introduction of same sex marriage laws in the SA parliament. Source: AAP

SOUTH Australian legislation to allow same sex marriage could survive a High Court challenge, former Greens leader Bob Brown says.

Mr Brown has applauded the introduction of marriage equality legislation in the SA parliament and said if passed it would be a fitting tribute to former social-reforming premier Don Dunstan.

"What a great follow-through from the great premier Don Dunstan, who made such a breakthrough for equal rights in this country," he said.

Mr Brown said the suggestion that any state-based legislation would ultimately fail in the High Court cut across the justice of the proposed laws.

"The High Court can look at it and the High Court can make a decision, but to pre-judge the High Court is not the way our constitution and the balance between the states and the commonwealth works," he said.

"I expect the High Court will endorse it."

The SA legislation was introduced to parliament on Thursday with a vote expected by the end of the year.

Premier Jay Weatherill has pledged to support it and other Labor MPs will be allowed a conscience vote.

However Liberal MPs are expected to vote against it on party lines.

Opposition Justice spokesman Stephen Wade said any state-based laws for marriage equality would be ruled unconstitutional.

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Thousands stranded by north Indian floods

Some 50,000 people are stranded after flash floods and landslides in northern India. Source: AAP

THOUSANDS of pilgrims and tourists are sheltering in forests awaiting rescue, almost a week after flash floods and landslides hit northern India, wiping out villages and leaving at least 150 dead, officials say.

Helicopters and thousands of soldiers have been deployed to rescue people stranded at remote pilgrimage sites after devastating torrential monsoon rains hit the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand last weekend.

Rescue workers who have managed to reach those stranded are racing to cut down trees and clear vegetation to allow military helicopters to land and evacuate those most in need, a state official said on Friday.

"Thousands of tourists are waiting in the dense forests. They had all taken refuge in the jungle after hotels and other buildings collapsed," said the state's principal secretary Rakesh Sharma.

"We are trying all possible ways to rescue them. Roads are totally destroyed," he said.

More than 150 people have been killed in Uttarakhand and neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, their state control departments said.

But officials have warned the death toll could rise dramatically as flood waters recede and rescue workers reach isolated areas.

Some 50,000 people are still stranded after the floods swept away houses and other buildings, while bridges and narrow roads leading to pilgrimage towns have also been destroyed, the national government said.

More than 34,000 people have been rescued in recent days, unconfirmed reports of another 13,000 people missing.

Torrential rains four and a half times as heavy as usual have hit Uttarakhand, known as the "Land of the Gods", where Hindu shrines and temples built high in the mountains attract many pilgrims.

The military operation was concentrating on reaching the worst-hit Kedarnath temple area, with many of those rescued taken to the Uttarakhand capital Dehradun.

Some of those stranded in mountain areas are trying to walk to safer ground, with photos showing pilgrims, aided by soldiers, using ropes to climb down cliffs.

Soldiers have also reached some of the villages in lower lying areas by boat, ferrying women clutching babies, children and elderly men to safety.

Video footage shows only roofs of the houses visible above the water line.

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Stonehenge draws 20,000 for solstice

POLICE say more than 20,000 celebrants have gathered at England's famed Stonehenge monument to mark the summer solstice.

The cloud cover on Friday morning prevented bright sunshine at dawn of the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere but a joyous spirit prevailed.

Police say there were fewer arrests than usual with 22 people taken into custody, most for drug-related offences.

The solstice has typically drawn a wide and varied crowd to the mysterious set of standing stones whose purpose remains unclear.

The ancient stone circle on the Salisbury Plain about 130km southwest of London, was built in three phases between 3000BC and 1600BC.

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Bomb kills 14 at Pakistan Shi'ite mosque

A suicide attack on a Shi'ite mosque in northwest Pakistan has killed at least 14 people. Source: AAP

A BOMB attack has killed 14 people and wounded more than 25 others at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque and seminary on the outskirts of Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, police say.

"It was a suicide attack in which 14 people were killed and more than 25 others were wounded," senior police official Shafi Ullah told AFP at the scene on Friday.

"The suicide bomber, who was on foot, first opened fire at police guards who were deployed outside the mosque, then entered the prayer hall where he blew himself up amid worshippers just before the start of prayers."

The mosque and madrassa complex is in Gulshan Colony, a Shi'ite-dominated area on the edge of Peshawar, a city which abuts militant strongholds in the northwestern tribal belt on the Afghan border.

Two other police officials Shaukat Khan and Imran Shahid confirmed the fresh death toll of 14.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but sectarian violence targeting Pakistan's minority Shi'ite community has been on the rise in recent years.

The attack came just days after US officials said they hoped to open peace talks with the Afghan Taliban in Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar.

Shi'ites account for 20 per cent of the mostly Sunni Muslim population in the nuclear-armed state, which suffers from a Taliban insurgency and al-Qaeda-linked violence.

Extremist Sunni militant faction Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks on Shi'ites in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed at least 25 people on June 15.

Earlier on Friday, officials said two members of a pro-government militia were killed when militants armed with guns and rockets attacked their homes in the tribal district of Bajaur on the Afghan border.

About a dozen insurgents attacked the homes near Khar, the main town in Bajaur, late on Thursday, administration official Abdul Haseeb said.

The two elders, who were members of a pro-government tribal militia, were killed and two tribal policemen were wounded, Haseeb told AFP.

Pakistan has for years been fighting homegrown Taliban insurgents in its northwestern border areas with Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan's business capital Karachi gunmen shot dead a politician, his son and a passer-by outside a mosque on Friday.

Sajid Qureshi and his 25-year-old son were targeted in a drive-by shooting as they left the mosque after attending Friday prayers.

"Gunmen on a motorcycle fired at (Sindh) provincial assembly member Sajid Qureshi, his son and a pedestrian when they were coming out of mosque," senior police official Amir Farooqi told AFP.

Qureshi was a member of the secular Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the most powerful political party in Karachi now considering whether to join the government in southern Sindh province.

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Two dead in seperate NSW car crashes

TWO people have died in separate car crashes in NSW.

On Wednesday evening, a 74-year-old man who smashed a ute into a tree in the state's north was found dead by emergency services.

Police are preparing a report for the coroner and are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash at Evans Head.

Meanwhile, a 68-year-old woman has been found dead after her car ran off the road and crashed near Orange on Thursday afternoon.

A report is being prepared for the coroner.

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Gay marriage debate reignites in parly

LNP Senator Sue Boyce expresses her support for a bill to recognise overseas same-sex marriages in Australia.

A LIBERAL senator who crossed the floor to vote in favour of recognising same-sex couples who wed overseas has been praised for acting "with her heart and her mind", even though the bill was overwhelmingly defeated.

Senator Sue Boyce's support wasn't enough to carry the bill to amend the Marriage Act, so that same-sex marriages in foreign countries including New Zealand were recognised under Australian law.

The private member's bill, moved by the Australian Greens, was shot down in the Senate on Thursday by 44 votes to 28.

DLP senator John Madigan again called for a federal referendum on same sex marriage after the vote.

"We're often told that a majority wants same-sex marriage, well I'm saying put it to the people," Senator Madigan said.

He vowed to push for a referendum to define the definition of marriage as just between a man and a woman.

Senator Boyce said such a referendum would fail because it was a "disgusting and immoral idea".

She said she didn't favour the "backdoor" approach the Greens were taking to build groundswell support for same-sex marriage.

But she supported gay marriage, and as this bill would bring that closer to reality, she defied the party line to support it.

"There is no reason not to allow same-sex mariage in Australia," she said.

"I believe that this bill will assist us in moving towards that, and if we are to vote on this bill I will be supporting it."

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said he didn't counsel Senator Boyce against voting for the bill, and defended her right to cross the floor even though the coalition does not support changes to the Marriage Act.

"People on our side of the political fence have always had the right if they feel strongly enough about something to make their own decision," Mr Abbott said.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Senator Boyce's decision to cross the floor was an important step, and congratulated her for voting with "her heart and her mind".

Finance Minister Penny Wong said Mr Abbott had ensured the legislation would fail by refusing to allow opposition MPs a conscience vote.

Senator Wong, who is in a same-sex relationship, also hit out at the "hurtful and divisive" debate on gay marriage but said she respected that some people held different views.

"What I do disagree with however is their right to impose that opinion on me and upon others in my situation," she told the upper house.

"It (marriage) is special, it is unique ... and that is why those of us who are in same-sex relationships also want to be able to demonstrate our love and commitment through marriage."

Senator Wong's home state of South Australia introduced a bill in state parliament on Thursday to allow same-sex marriage.

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I'm a lecher, not a crook: China official

CALL me a lecher but don't call me a crook, an ex-city official at the heart of a Chinese sex tape scandal has said in his unusually spirited courtroom defence against corruption charges.

The case of Lei Zhengfu, former party chief of a district in the southern city of Chongqing, has riveted the Chinese public since video clips went viral of the portly 55-year-old having sex with a woman hired by property developers allegedly in an elaborate extortion scheme.

In a country where corruption trials of high-level officials typically look like the scripted outcome of backdoor bargaining, Lei's case has offered a rare look at what happens when a lower-level official is caught in a high-profile crackdown - with few political cards to play.

Lei is accused of accepting more than 3 million yuan ($A541,560) in bribes from a developer to pay off a businessman who was allegedly using the tape to blackmail him. Lei rejects the charge of bribery, saying the money was a loan.

"Although I'm quite lecherous, I'm not greedy for money," he said in a Chongqing court Wednesday, reading out a personal statement.

Public anger and disgust over official corruption found an easy target in the images of his jowly, pop-eyed face in the throes of passion. Lei was soon fired from his post, and in ensuing weeks, more tapes were found, felling 11 other Chongqing officials.

The scandal has exposed in lurid detail the shady intertwining of sex, business and politics in Chinese society at a time when a newly installed generation of Communist Party leadership has vowed to crack down on widespread graft. It also tapped into public outrage over what is seen as the moral degradation of the country's leaders.

"The people's hatred of official corruption is not only because of their illegal behaviour but because of resentment that they enjoy a special status that is higher than others and lets them enjoy more social resources," said Liu Shanying, a politics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. "They hope to see them punished by the law, which would help them vent that anger."

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Bob Hewitt to face South African court

Australian tennis great Bob Hewitt has been summonsed to appear in a South African court. Source: AAP

FORMER tennis doubles champion Bob Hewitt has been summonsed to appear in a South African court following allegations he sexually abused young girls he coached decades ago.

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority told The Associated Press on Thursday that the summons had been served on the 73-year-old Australian on Saturday.

Hewitt was ordered to appear at Boksburg Magistrate's Court near Johannesburg on August 16, when he will learn what criminal charges he faces.

The NPA would not say what the charges are against Hewitt.

NPA spokesperson Phindi Louw said Hewitt, who is believed to live in the town of Addo on South Africa's south coast, would be informed of the charges when he appears in court.

Hewitt denied all the accusations when contacted by the AP.

Hewitt confirmed by telephone that he had received the summons and would "of course" appear in court, but wouldn't say what the charges were as "they had not been made public".

"I'll keep it private," he said. "I'm innocent of all charges and these accusations have caused untold hardship on my family."

Hewitt also said he intended to sue his accusers.

Hewitt has been at the centre of a long investigation into accusations he abused and raped girls as far back as the 1970s and through to the 1990s.

Recognised as one of the greatest doubles players of all time and a winner of 15 Grand slam doubles titles, Hewitt was indefinitely suspended from the International Tennis Hall of Fame last year due to the allegations.

When contacted by the AP on Wednesday, a man who identified himself on the telephone as Hewitt said he had no knowledge of any charges.

"I think it is best you call me in a month or so," he said, before declining further comment.

Two of Hewitt's alleged victims, Suellen Sheehan and Twiggy Tolken, accuse him of abusing them when he was their coach in South Africa.

Sheehan asked South African police to open an investigation in 2011, and accuses Hewitt of raping her when she was 12.

Tolken, who now lives in New Zealand, said Hewitt also began abusing her when she was 12.

A third woman, Heather Conner, of West Newbury, Massachusetts, also accuses Hewitt of abuse in the United States.

Conner said she was sexually abused from the age of 15, being forced to have sex with him near a high school in Massachusetts.

All three women agreed to be named by the AP.

Sheehan said she felt "numb" at the news that he was to appear in court and face charges.

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