Yahoo wins ruling in data collection case

YAHOO has won a court fight that could help the public learn more about the US government's efforts to obtain data from internet users.

The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews government requests to spy on individuals, ruled on Monday that information should be made public about a 2008 case that ordered Yahoo Inc to turn over customer data.

The order requires the government to review which portions of the opinion, briefs and arguments can be declassified and report back to the court by July 29.

The government sought the information from Yahoo under the National Security Agency's PRISM data-gathering program. Details of the secret program were disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has fled the US.

The program came to light in early June after The Washington Post and Guardian newspapers published documents provided by Snowden. It allows the NSA to reach into the data streams of US companies such as Yahoo, Facebook Inc, Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and others, and grab emails, video chats, pictures and more. US officials have said the program is narrowly focused on foreign targets, and technology companies say they turn over information only if required by court order.

Yahoo requested in court papers filed June 14 to have the information about the 2008 case unsealed. A Yahoo spokeswoman hailed Monday's decision and said the company believes it will help inform public discussion about the US government's surveillance programs.

The government hasn't taken a position on whether details of the case should be published as long as it's allowed to review the documents before publication in order to redact classified information, according to the court order.

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German TV set maker files for protection

LOEWE, the German manufacturer of television sets, has filed for protection from creditors so as to accelerate a restructuring.

The board said on Tuesday it had taken the action "to assist the company in implementing its restructuring program and its new corporate strategy more quickly".

It said in a statement: "After receiving approval for the proceedings, Loewe will continue to be managed by its executive board and can use the opportunities offered to restructure the company."

Business at its main Kronach site "will continue without any restrictions," Loewe added.

The applications was made to under the so-called Schutzschirmverfahren, an instrument available under German law since March 2012 aimed at making it easier for indebted but nonetheless viable businesses to restructure themselves.

Businesses which apply for it are still technically bankrupt, but they are given three months to restructure, while for the most part still maintaining control of their business.

The management board's aim "is to restructure Loewe in co-operation with strategic partners and investors," the company insisted.

Loewe shares nosedived on the news and were showing a loss of 18.2 per cent on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

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Chance of Qld ratings downgrade: Nicholls

Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls says there is a one-in-three chance of a credit ratings downgrade. Source: AAP

QUEENSLAND Treasurer Tim Nicholls says there is a one-in-three chance the state's credit rating will be downgraded.

Queensland lost its prized AAA rating in 2009 as the global financial crisis shook world markets.

Moody's in November downgraded its AA1 outlook from stable to negative only two months after 14,000 public sector jobs were slashed in the budget.

Mr Nicholls fronted a budget estimates hearing on Tuesday and was asked whether the job losses and increased taxes hurt Queensland's economy don't help a return to a triple A credit rating.

"(They) are actually absolutely essential to ensuring that Queensland does not receive a further downgrade," he said.

"With a negative watch from Moody's, we have a one in three chance of a downgrade.

"We have to continue to monitor our expenses to ensure that our expenses growth does not exceed over the cycle our revenue growth.

"And that's exactly what we are delivering."

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UN court not a medieval inquisition: Japan

TOKYO has told the UN's top judicial body it is a court of law, not a "medieval inquisition" as proceedings wrapped up in the whaling dispute between Australian and Japan.

Japan used the final day of the three-week hearing to argue the International Court of Justice (ICJ) didn't have the authority to decide what was or wasn't science.

Canberra wants the 16-judge panel to ban Japan's annual hunt on the basis it's not "for purposes of scientific research" as allowed under Article 8 of the 1946 whaling convention.

Australia argues the Southern Ocean JARPA program is actually a commercial operation.

But Japan insists lethal research is both lawful and necessary.

Deputy foreign affairs minister Koji Tsuruoka on Tuesday said Tokyo was seeking "scientific information on the basis of which Japan might be able to ask for the moratorium (on commercial whaling) to be lifted".

"This court is a court of law not a court of scientific truth," Mr Tsuruoka said in The Hague.

Lawyer Alain Pellet, who teaches International Economic Law at the University Paris Ouest, made a similar point on Tuesday.

"The court ... has the greatest possible authority to settle the legal disputes which it is seized of," he said through a translator.

"But it can not decide between opposing scientific assessments."

Prof Pellet said Australia was promoting "an elitist, metaphysical and sectarian view of science" whereas Japan was conducting "applied science".

"It is not up to us as legal persons to determine the validity on the merits of one or the other scientific view.

"We are not a medieval inquisition."

Australia has argued Japan's research is not science but rather "a heap of body parts taken from a large number of dead whales".

JARPA lacked defined and achievable objectives, appropriate methods, peer review and unnecessarily killed the stock being studied, Canberra has told the court.

But Mr Tsuruoka on Tuesday said the ICJ hearing had allowed Japan to finally show the world the truth about its whale research.

"We can thank Australia for this," he said.

Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus last week claimed Tokyo had resorted to "untrue and offensive" statements during The Hague hearing.

But Japan itself had reason to be offended by Australia's "factual misrepresentations and ... misleading use of selective references and quotes", Mr Tsuruoka said.

Japan claims it doesn't want to quit the International Whaling Commission.

But the deputy foreign minister on Tuesday concluded by asking what would happen "when one morning suddenly you find your state bound by the policy of the majority and the only way out is to leave".

After the hearing government spokesman Noriyuki Shikata told AAP Japan was content with its "powerful case".

Mr Dreyfus last week told the court the fact Tokyo had resorted to emotive rhetoric spoke "volumes for the weakness of the Japanese case".

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Aust woman gored by bull in Pamplona

AN Australian Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman has confirmed a 23-year-old woman from NSW is in hospital after being injured in the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, Spain.

Officers from the Australian embassy in Madrid are providing the woman with consular assistance, the spokeswoman says.

The woman was seriously injured after being gored during the final bull run of this year's annual San Fermin festival in Spain on Sunday. Four other runners were also hospitalised after sustaining cuts and bruises.

The woman was gored in the back and is undergoing surgery, a regional government statement said.

Earlier reports said she had been wounded in the chest.

The woman was struck by a massive Miura bull as she clung to wooden barriers outside the bullring entrance, regional health authority spokesman Javier Sesma said.

It is very rare for women to be gored since most of the runners are men. Javier Solano, a San Fermin expert working for national broadcaster TVE, said records showed only two other women had been injured by gorings in the recent history of the fiesta.

Other runners got tossed by the bulls or fell as they ran. The other injured were a 39-year-old man from California, a 23-year-old man from Madrid and two other men from Navarra, according to a statement from the regional government, which organises the festivities. None of those injuries were classified as serious, the statement said.

Miura bulls are renowned as Spain's largest and fastest fighting bulls, and Sunday's run was quick, taking 2 minutes, 16 seconds to cover 850 metres from stables just outside Pamplona's medieval stone wall to the central bullring.

Despite the animals' size and muscle-bound appearance, experts admire Miuras for their explosive acceleration, stamina and grace, characteristics that inspired legendary Italian car maker, the late Ferruccio Lamborghini, to name one of his iconic sports cars after the breed.

The San Fermin festival, which honours the patron saint of this northern city, dates back to the late 16th century and is also known for its all-night street parties where copious quantities of red wine from Navarra and Rioja are consumed and sprinkled around.

The festivities were made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.

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Britain's royal baby bides its time

LONDON July 14 AFP - The hospital is ready, the Wikipedia page and Twitter accounts are up and Britain's famously creative press are running out of ideas. But Sunday arrived with no sign of the royal baby.

Prince William is filling the time until his wife Catherine goes into labour playing polo, taking part in charity matches on Saturday and Sunday with his younger brother Harry.

He has taken a couple of days off from his work as a search and rescue helicopter pilot in Wales, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said, although he refused to say when the prince might be going back.

The palace has stayed tight-lipped about the birth of the new third in line to the throne, saying nothing for days other than to reiterate that Catherine is due some time in mid-July.

The press had pencilled in Saturday as the day, but bookmakers William Hill tipped Sunday as the likely due date, with Paddy Power offering equal odds on Sunday and Monday.

The only thing that is certain is that babies rarely come on time and that when this new heir to the Windsor dynasty arrives, the world will be ready.

In keeping with the digital age, the newborn already has its own page on Wikipedia, entitled "Child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge", to use William and Kate's formal titles.

Several spoof Twitter accounts have also been set up, with one, @RoyalFoetus, already claiming 5500 followers. On June 19, it declared: "One is done with gestating."

International media are camped outside St Mary's Hospital in London where Catherine is due to give birth, and a row of parking spaces have been reserved by the royals outside the private Lindo Wing until the end of the month.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the 31-year-old's gynaecologist, Marcus Setchell, will be given a police escort to hospital when she goes into labour.

It has previously been reported that Setchell had given up alcohol for several weeks in preparation for the birth.

In the absence of any proper news about the baby, such tidbits formed the bulk of the royal coverage in Britain's normally hard-hitting Sunday newspapers.

The Sunday Express reported exclusively that Catherine had spent the weekend at her parents' home in Berkshire, about 65km west of London.

Meanwhile the Mail on Sunday published a poll revealing that 53 per cent of Britons think William and Catherine should not hire a nanny.

A further 56 per cent think she should cut back significantly on her royal duties after the birth.

The paper said that palace officials expected Catherine to resume some public engagements in the autumn - provided of course, that the baby ever arrives.

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ElBaradei sworn in as Egypt VP

PROMINENT liberal Egyptian leader Mohamed ElBaradei has been sworn in as Egypt's interim vice president for foreign relations, the presidency says.

Sunday's appointment of ElBaradei, a former head of the UN nuclear watchdog and a Nobel peace laureate, follows the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3.

He was initially tipped to lead the cabinet, but his nomination was rejected by the ultra-conservative Salafist party Al-Nur.

ElBaradei was late last year named head of the National Salvation Front, a coalition of leftist and liberal groups, formed in the wake of a power grab by Morsi in November.

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Angry protests in US at Zimmerman verdict

AMERICANS angry at the acquittal of George Zimmerman over the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin have marched in US cities, with reports of sporadic acts of violence.

Spontaneous marches of varying sizes erupted in cities throughout Saturday night including San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta and Philadelphia.

A jury in Sanford, Florida late Saturday found Zimmerman, a volunteer neighbourhood watchman, not guilty of shooting dead Martin, a 17 year-old unarmed teen on the night of February 26, 2012.

The trial has riveted the nation for weeks, and emotions came to a boiling point as news of the verdict spread.

Prominent rights activists like Jesse Jackson appealed for calm.

"Avoid violence, it will lead to more tragedies. Find a way for self construction not deconstruction in this time of despair," he wrote on Twitter.

Martin's parents have long called for non-violent demonstrations, quoting civil rights icon Martin Luther King and the Bible.

Several hundred demonstrators marched peacefully amid a heavy police presence in downtown San Francisco soon after the verdict. Many carried signs with slogans such as "The people say guilty".

Hours later angry protesters marching through Oakland - just across the bay from San Francisco - spray-painted cars and smashed windows, helicopter video footage posted by the Oakland Tribune showed. One vandalised vehicle was a police cruiser.

In Chicago, to the cry of "No justice, no peace! No racist police!" a crowd of activists held a noisy downtown rally, the Chicago Tribune reported, while protesters gathered at Times Square in New York City to vent their anger.

Los Angeles police declared a "citywide tactical alert" when some 200 demonstrators gathered at a park in a historical black neighbourhood to demonstrate, but police later told local media that it was as a precaution, and that there had been no acts of violence.

In Washington, dozens of mostly African-American youths marched chanting slogans in a city neighbourhood. They were followed closely by patrol vehicles, an AFP journalist reported.

A crowd of several hundred gathered all day Saturday outside the courthouse in Sanford, Florida - and many were outraged when the verdict was read.

"It's the end of our justice system," said Ashton Summer, a 20 year-old Puerto Rican. "Justice is not equal for everyone."

The ANSWER coalition, which helped organise large protest rallies during the Iraq war, said it would hold marches Sunday in seven US cities, as well as three separate ones in New York.

"We are very saddened by the jury's verdict," said Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump after the verdict was read. "The family is heartbroken."

Rights activist Al Sharpton posted a statement on Facebook describing Zimmerman's acquittal as "a slap in the face to the American people".

"We intend to ask the Department of Justice to move forward as they did in the Rodney King case and we will closely monitor the civil case against Mr. Zimmerman," said Sharpton.

Rodney King was an African-American man who was beaten by Los Angeles police following a car chase in April 1991. The beating was videotaped and aired on television, sparking widespread outrage.

Days of violent rioting and looting broke out in Los Angeles when the police officers involved in the beating were acquitted in April 1992.

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Storms in China traps tourists, kill 69

AT least 100 tourists have been left trapped after a landslide cut off a road amid storms that have flooded rivers and triggered mudslides, killing at least 69 people in China.

The tourists became trapped on Friday night in the northwest province of Gansu after a landslide cut off traffic, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

They were en route to a nature reserve in Sichuan province, which has been hit hardest by the week-long series of storms, and road repair work was under way in an effort to free them.

Sichuan has reported at least 31 storm-related deaths.

A massive mudslide that struck a scenic resort outside the city of Dujiangyan in Sichuan killed 26 people and left 123 people missing, according to Xinhua.

An entire hillside collapsed onto clusters of holiday cottages where city dwellers escape summer heat, a survivor told the news agency.

Flooding in Sichuan was the worst in 50 years for some areas, with more than 220,000 people forced to evacuate.

Mudslides and flooding are common in China's mountainous areas, killing hundreds of people every year but in some areas the current floods are already the worst in half a century.

In the northwest province of Shaanxi, 23 people died in landslides or house collapses.

At least 12 workers were killed in the northern province of Shanxi when a violent rainstorm collapsed an unfinished coal mine workshop.

Another three people were drowned in a car in Hebei province outside Beijing.

AP j

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Two dead, 100 hurt as Soulik hits Taiwan

TYPHOON Soulik is battering Taiwan with torrential rain and powerful winds which have so far left two people dead and at least 100 injured.

Roofs have been ripped from homes, debris and fallen trees litter streets and some areas are submerged by flood waters.

One town in central Taiwan reported on Saturday widespread landslides and water levels a storey high.

Around 8000 people were evacuated from homes before the typhoon struck, with hundreds of soldiers deployed to high-risk areas and the whole island declared an "alert zone" by authorities.

In the capital Taipei, a 50-year-old police officer died after being hit by bricks loosened during the typhoon, the Central Emergency Operation Centre said.

A 54-year-old woman from central Miaoli county died after falling from the roof of her home.

In Taichung city, a man was missing after falling into a river.

104 people were reported injured, mostly by trees or flying debris, with the majority recorded in Taichung.

Soulik made landfall on the northeast coast around 3am local time on Saturday, packing winds of up to 190 kilometres an hour, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.

Strong winds battered the island for much of the day but by late afternoon the CWB downgraded Soulik to a tropical storm and lifted the land warning as it churned towards mainland China.

Nine people were rescued from flooded homes in the Shiangshan area of Puli, a town in central Nantou county, which was also hit by landslides.

"The water came very fast, catching residents totally unprepared - in some areas, it was one-storey deep," township official Wu Yuan-ming told AFP.

The nine were rescued by firefighters in rubber boats after the river broke its banks, Wu said.

"Flooding and landslides were widespread in the town, especially in the areas near mountains," he added, calling the effects of the typhoon "more serious than we predicted".

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