Spain train driver detained over crash

The driver of a train that derailed in Spain is being questioned after admitting to speeding. Source: AAP

SPANISH police say they have formally detained the driver of a fast-moving train that flew off the tracks, killing dozens of people, while they revised down the death toll.

"He has been detained since 8pm (on Thursday). He is accused of crimes related to the accident," said Jaime Iglesias, the chief of police in the northwestern region of Galicia where the accident happened, on Friday.

Police also said on Friday they had found 78 bodies and have been able to identify 72 of the victims.

Government officials in Galicia in northwestern Spain had earlier put the death toll from Wednesday's accident at 80.

The driver, identified by local media as Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, 52, is in hospital after the train hurtled off the tracks late on Wednesday while apparently going at twice the legal speed limit in one of Spain's worst rail disasters ever.

He was still being treated for light injuries sustained in the crash on the outskirts of the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela, a police source said.

State train company Renfe said the driver was a 30-year veteran of the firm with more than a decade of train driving experience.

The train's data recording "black box" and other documents were passed over to the judge in charge of the investigation on Thursday.

Attention has so far centred on Garzon Amo, one of two drivers on the train, after media reports described him as a speed freak who once gleefully posted a picture on his Facebook page of a train speedometer showing it was travelling at 200km/h.

Below the photo he wrote the caption: "I am on the edge, I can't go faster or else I will be fined."

His Facebook page has since been taken down, but Spanish newspapers quoted another of his posts as saying: "What fun it would be to race the Guardia Civil (police) and pass them, causing their radar to blow up hehehe. What a huge fine that would be for Renfe."

The El Pais newspaper, citing sources close to the investigation, said the driver stated immediately after the crash that he had been travelling at 190km/h on a curve with a speed limit of 80km/h.

"I am going at 190! I hope no one died because it will weigh on my conscience," he reportedly told supervisors over the radio while trapped inside the cab after the eight-carriage train flew off the tracks on a curve at 8.42pm.

Dramatic video footage from a security camera showed the fast-moving train, which was travelling from Madrid to the port of Ferrol, slamming into a concrete wall at the side of the track as the engine overturned.

On Friday, the paper reported the driver was unable to brake in time.

"The railway warning systems detected that Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the driver of the Alvia train that departed Madrid, was travelling at 190 kilometres an hour when it should not exceed 80," El Pais wrote.

"The driver acknowledged that the alarm went off in the control panel and he tried to brake but was not able to avert the tragedy," the newspaper added.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a native of the city, declared three days of national mourning after visiting the scene of the accident.

Renfe president Julio Gomez-Pomar Rodriguez told Cadena Cope radio station that it was too early to speculate about the cause of the disaster, but the Spanish secretary of state for transport, Rafael Catala, said excessive speed appeared to be the culprit.

"The tragedy that happened in Santiago de Compostela seems to be linked to excessive speed, but we are still waiting on the judicial investigation," he told radio station Cadena Ser.

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Hong Kong shares end 0.31% higher

HONG Kong shares have closed up 0.31 per cent following small gains on Wall Street and with China unveiling measures to help boost the mainland economy.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index added 67.99 points on Friday to 21,968.95 on turnover of HK$44.43 billion ($A6.24 billion).

Extending a week of quiet trade in the Chinese city, volume totalled HK$44.43, down from HK$45.33 billion on Thursday.

At the start of the week turnover was just HK$38.49 billion, the market's lowest point since September.

The slow trade has meant hope the market might push the 22,000 points barrier this week prove elusive.

"We still believe 22,000 is a kind of resistance," Steven Leung, head of institutional sales at UOB Kay Hian, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Investors, he added, were still in profit-taking mode after the index rallied more than 2 per cent on Tuesday.

Financial shares were one of the few areas that saw some gains.

Mainland bank shares closed mostly higher. China Construction Bank rose 0.4 per cent to HK$5.78 and Bank of China gained 0.3 per cent to HK$3.28.

Shares of Hong Kong insurer and index heavy AIA rose 0.4 per cent to HK$35.85 after reporting first-half results that comfortably beat expectations.

The company reported a 26 per cent jump in the value of new business, topping the 22 per cent growth expected by analysts.

Chinese shares ended down 0.51 per cent on Friday due to persistent worries over the health of the domestic economy, dealers said.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 10.32 points to 2,010.85 on turnover of 65.5 billion yuan ($10.7 billion).

The index rose 0.91 per cent for the week on hopes for policies to boost economic growth.

"The market will likely be stuck in consolidation mode before there are signs of an economic recovery," Zheshang Securities analyst Zhang Yanbing told AFP.

A government plan to cut excess production capacity in 19 sectors hit coal producers and steel firms.

Qinghai Jinrui Mineral Development lost 4.29 per cent to 7.81 yuan while Yanzhou Coal Mining fell 2.28 per cent to 9.87 yuan.

Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Union dropped 2.03 per cent to 3.87 yuan and Chongqing Iron & Steel shed 1.06 per cent to 2.79 yuan.

Heavyweight financial shares also fell.

Industrial Securities lost 2.01 per cent to 9.26 yuan, Agricultural Bank of China fell 1.20 per cent to 2.48 yuan and China Life Insurance slid 0.61 per cent to 13.13 yuan.

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Aussie getaways cheaper despite $A fall

Domestic travel and hotel prices have become cheaper despite a fall in the currency. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIAN holidays have become cheaper despite a sharp fall in the local currency.

Domestic travel and hotel prices dropped by four per cent during the June quarter, even as the Australian dollar fell from a peak of 105 US cents to below 92 US cents.

A weaker currency potentially encourages more overseas and local tourists to holiday within Australia, which in theory drives up accommodation costs.

Despite this, local holiday expenses posted the biggest decrease in three years, Tourism Research Australia figures show.

Meanwhile, international travel costs rose by half a per cent.

Tourism Australia (TA) managing director Andrew McEvoy says cheaper flights are stimulating competitive.

"Campaigns and offers being run by the airlines and travel operators are helping to drive down prices and offer domestic travellers great value for money," he said.

TA has launched a campaign to encourage families considering an overseas trip to instead stay in Australia.

A recent survey of 1000 people by TA found Australians preferred local beach holidays to overseas getaways.

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Coalition would delay schools funding

The coalition says it won't change new school funding arrangements for at least a year if elected. Source: AAP

A COALITION government will let Labor's Gonski-based funding system stand for a year if it can't get legislation repealing it through parliament.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has written to school principals across the country explaining he has "deep reservations" over the government's new Better Schools funding model.

He said a coalition government would use the year to figure out how to "get the model right" as leaders in Western Australia and the Northern Territory continued to criticise the $15 billion plan.

WA Premier Colin Barnett emerged from a one-hour meeting with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Friday without a breakthrough and said the legislation was "inadequate".

He has consistently said the state would not become part of the program until concerns about control were addressed, claiming other states had been "bullied" into it.

Mr Rudd dismissed Mr Barnett's concerns as "nonsense" as he urged WA to sign up.

NT Chief Minister Adam Giles announced he had rejected the plan, which he said was "con".

He said the federal government continued to release misleading calculations based on false assumptions about how much funding Territory schools currently received.

Victoria was expected to sign up on Friday after Premier Denis Napthine revealed on Wednesday he was willing to be flexible.

But no agreement was announced.

In the letter to school principals, Mr Abbott and opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said if there was no national agreement on school funding in place if the coalition was elected, they would move to delay the start of the proposed model by one year.

"If Labor and the Greens use the parliament to stop our plan to delay the new model, the coalition will allow it to operate for one year (until 2015) while we work out how to get the model right," the letter states.

Though previously they have been inconsistent on the conditions under which they would keep the plan.

Mr Abbott has said all jurisdictions would have to sign up, while Mr Pyne said it needed an overwhelming majority.

But the commitment has been slammed as cruel and worthless by the union representing Australia's public school teachers.

Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos says the coalition's continually shifting position makes the latest commitment worthless.

"Let's be clear what this letter actually means - at best it merely delays the massive funding cuts of ripping up Gonski to 2015 instead of 2014," he said on Friday.

"What a cruel thing it would be for additional Gonski funding to flow to schools for just one year, before being ripped away from students."

So far only NSW, the ACT, South Australia and Tasmania have signed up to the $15 billion better schools plan.

Independent and Catholic schools have also endorsed it.

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Abbott lands in Tassie classroom

OPPOSITION leader Tony Abbott has been forced to defend his approach to school reforms after a Q&A with Tasmanian voters turned into a virtual classroom.

Around a third of the questions asked at the Launceston session came from teachers keen to know the fate of what were previously known as the Gonski reforms.

Mr Abbott repeated his mantra that no school would be worse off under a coalition government but expressed serious concerns about funding the renamed Better Schools Plan.

Tasmanians, teachers or not, are keen to know the fate of the extra $380 million the state recently signed up to.

"We think that there is a rather more sophisticated way forward than simply more money," Mr Abbott told the audience of around 100 in the marginal seat of Bass.

"More money is important but a lot of money has been thrown at schools over the last few years and if you look at the academic results, the international comparisons, our performance if anything has gone backwards."

Mr Abbott said $6.5 billion was needed annually to "do Gonski properly".

"I just don't know where that money is going to come from," he said.

NSW is the only Liberal state to have signed onto the reforms, which were the baby of former prime minister Julia Gillard.

Speculation has Victoria close to becoming the second coalition state to sign on but Mr Abbott is not committing to the scheme if that occurs.

"Let's wait and see what Gonski turns out to be," he said.

"At the moment there are four or five Gonskis."

A measured performance from Mr Abbott over an hour of questioning didn't stop him pointing out that more than one teacher had not not done their homework.

One accused him of remaining a climate sceptic, which he dismissed, while another said she had read about his plans for spending cuts.

"I think you've been reading the wrong material," Mr Abbott said.

Little was revealed personally, although Mr Abbott lamented the number of his daughters' parent/teacher nights and sport he had missed by being a politician.

The session did include a spirited defence of politicians - even Greens - who Mr Abbott said in the main acted in good faith and were "patriots" despite the parties' "enormous disagreements".

The forum completed northern Tasmania's day of heavyweight political battle after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earlier visited Launceston and Devonport.

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Govt keeps mum on budget cuts

The government is not revealing budget cuts ahead of Treasurer Chris Bowen's economic statement. Source: AAP

THE federal government has refused to come clean on what areas of the budget could face the chop as Treasurer Chris Bowen puts together an economic statement ahead of the looming election.

Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said the government's expenditure review committee was looking at a "range of options" to pay for its asylum seeker resettlement plan in Papua New Guinea.

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said there were suggestions the government was planning to abolish its school kids bonus - the cash payment of up to $820 to parents to help pay for school related expenses, to help fund the resettlement program.

There's also speculation the government may consider further changes to superannuation arrangements, he said.

"The Labor party is made up from A to Z of hypocrites," Mr Hockey told reporters in Sydney.

"You cannot run a budget and you cannot run an economy like this."

But Finance Minister Penny Wong said the school kids bonus is a "very important policy area".

"But I am certainly not going to be drawn ahead of the economic statement on ruling things in, or ruling things out," she told reporters in Melbourne.

Instead she launched a stinging attack on her opposition counterpart Andrew Robb.

He's questioned the relevance of Australia's top level triple-A credit rating because Lehman Brothers had the same when it succumbed to the global financial crisis in 2008.

She accused the shadow finance minister of warning investors off Australia.

"It's irresponsible, dishonest, it's damaging to confidence," she said.

Australia is one of only eight countries in the world with a triple-A rating from all three global agencies - Standard & Poor's, Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service.

However, Mr Hockey believes the triple-A rating is important because since the GFC it has become more closely linked to the standing of financial institutions and directly affects the cost of borrowing.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Australia's rating was due to the sustained reforms of the former Howard government and those of the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating governments.

He says it owes nothing to the spending spree of the current government.

He labelled Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Australia's "world champion, gold medal fiscal vandal".

"We cannot have a strong economy without strong and profitable private businesses and that means getting taxes down, getting regulation down and means having a government that lives within its means," he told reporters in Brisbane.

He told a small business conference he would install people with small business experience on the Board of Taxation, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Fair Work Commission.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said Mr Abbott had offered a practical solution to one problem.

"It's a good plan," he said in a statement.

But he said issues such as red tape reduction, simplifying tax compliance, making it easier to employ and building better infrastructure also have to be acted upon.

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Spanish train crash kills 78, injures 140

Officials in Spain say 60 people have died in a train derailment in the country's northwest. Source: AAP

A TRAIN has hurtled off the tracks in northwest Spain, killing at least 78 passengers and injuring more than 140, with the driver reportedly going at twice the speed limit.

Carriages piled into each other and overturned in the smash late on Wednesday, smoke billowing from the wreckage, as bodies were laid out under blankets along the tracks in the country's deadliest rail disaster in more than 40 years.

Several media outlets said the train was speeding at the time of the accident, but a spokesman for state railway company Renfe said it was too soon to say what caused the accident.

"There is an investigation under way and we have to wait. We will know what the speed is very soon when we consult the train's black box," a Renfe spokesman said.

The driver became trapped in one of the carriages and he told railway officials by radio that he took the bend at 190km/h in an urban zone with a speed limit of 80km/h, daily El Pais reported.

"I was going at 190! I hope no one died because it will weigh on my conscience," he said, according to the online edition of the newspaper which cited unidentified investigation sources.

The accident happened at 8.42pm on Wednesday (0442 AEST Thursday) as the train carrying 218 passengers and four staff was about to enter Santiago de Compostela station in the northwestern region of Galicia.

The train derailed on a stretch of high-speed track about four kilometres from the train station in the city, the destination of the famous El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage which has been followed by Christians since the Middle Ages.

The train was the Alvia model which is able to adapt between high-speed and normal tracks.

It had left Madrid and was heading for the ship-building coastal town of Ferrol as the Galicia region was preparing celebrations in honour of its patron saint James.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a native of Santiago de Compostela, arrived at the scene of the accident before visiting victims in hospital later on Thursday.

Rajoy declared three days of national mourning.

Spain's King Juan Carlos and Crown Prince Felipe called off their public engagements out of respect for the victims.

Several witnesses spoke of a loud explosion at the time of the accident.

"I was at home and I heard something like a clap of thunder, It was very loud and there was lots of smoke," said 62-year-old Maria Teresa Ramos, who lived just metres from where the accident happened.

"It's a disaster, people are crying out. Nobody has ever seen anything like this," she added.

Rescue workers recovered 73 bodies from the train's wreckage and five more victims died later in hospital, a spokesman for the Galicia high court said.

A total of 143 people were said to have various injuries.

It marks the worst rail accident in Spain since 77 people were killed in 1972 in a derailment in Andalusia in the south.

Renfe said the train had no technical problems and had just passed an inspection.

Renfe said the train had no technical problems and had just passed an inspection on the morning of the accident.

"To put it in another way, the maintenance record and control of the train was perfect," Renfe head Julio Gomez-Pomar Rodriguez told Cadena Cope radio.

The cause was unknown, Renfe said.

"There is an investigation underway and we have to wait. We will know what the speed is very soon when we consult the train's black box," a Renfe

spokesman said.

Francisco Otero, 39, who was inside his parents' home just beside the section of the track where the accident happened, said he "heard a huge bang".

"The first thing I saw was the body of a woman. I had never seen a corpse before. But above all what caught my attention was that there was a lot of silence, some smoke and a small fire," he told AFP.

"My neighbours tried to pull out people who were trapped inside the carriages with the help of pickaxes and sledgehammers and they eventually got them out with a hand saw. It was unreal."

Emergency services workers in red jackets tended to injured passengers lying on a patch of grass as ambulance sirens wailed in the background.

"There are bodies laying on the railway track. It's a Dante-esque scene," Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the regional government, told news radio Cadena Ser.

Pope Francis called for prayers for the victims.

The town hall of Santiago de Compostela called off concerts and firework displays that had been planned as part of the festivities in honour of its patron saint.

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Gunmen kill 14 truck drivers in Iraq

DOZENS of Sunni militants set up a roadblock on a highway north of Baghdad, stopped trucks, checked IDs and then summarily executed 14 Shi'ite drivers, officials say.

The attack early on Thursday was reminiscent of the darkest days of the Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian bloodshed in Iraq in 2006-07, when thousands of people were killed due to their religious affiliation or forced to abandon their homes under threat of death.

Lingering tensions between Sunnis and Shi'ites have been inflamed by persistent violence in Iraq and the civil war in neighbouring Syria, and there are growing fears that Iraq is slipping back toward all-out sectarian conflict.

Two local officials said some 150 militants carried out a coordinated operation during the night that included the highway killings, in the area of Sulaiman Bek, a town north of Baghdad.

The militants began by attacking the town itself with mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons late on Wednesday.

That attack drew security forces away from the highway connecting Baghdad with north Iraq, after which a group of around 40 militants broke off and set up the checkpoint.

They only maintained it for about half an hour but were able to stop dozens of truck drivers, killing 14 execution-style who were Shi'ites.

"These criminals belong to what is called the Islamic State of Iraq, and they targeted Shi'ite drivers and left the Sunnis," local official Shalal Abdul Baban told AFP, referring to an Al-Qaeda front group.

"It was killing by ID," he said.

Iraqi identification cards list a person's name and place of birth, from which their religious affiliation can be surmised.

The entire operation including the attack on the town, in which at least one person was wounded, lasted for about three hours, after which the militants withdrew.

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Rowling unhappy alter ego was revealed

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling says she was unhappy her identity as Robert Galbraith was exposed. Source: AAP

AUTHOR J.K. Rowling has revealed she had offers from two television firms to bring the crime novel she wrote under a pseudonym to the screen even before she was "outed".

The Harry Potter creator was exposed last week after publishing a detective tale, The Cuckoo's Calling, under the name of Robert Galbraith earlier this year.

Her unmasking left her angered, particularly when it emerged that her cover was blown by a senior figure at a legal firm which has represented her in the past.

Rowling has now pointed out the book was already gathering interest for adaptations and had sold a respectable number of copies. But she said it was becoming "increasingly complicated" to keep the charade going.

She said: "At the point I was 'outed', Robert had sold 8500 English language copies across all formats (hardback, eBook, library and audiobook) and received two offers from television production companies.

"The situation was becoming increasingly complicated, largely because Robert was doing rather better than we had expected him to but we all still hoped to keep the secret a little longer.

"Yet Robert's success during his first three months as a published writer (discounting sales made after I was found out) actually compares favourably with JK Rowling's success over the equivalent period of her career."

Rowling reiterated that her exposure was not part of a clever marketing campaign to boost sales and she had gone to great lengths to continue under the guise.

Writing on a website set up for Galbraith, she said: "If anyone had seen the labyrinthine plans I laid to conceal my identity - or indeed my expression when I realised that the game was up - they would realise how little I wanted to be discovered.

"I hoped to keep the secret as long as possible. I'm grateful for all the feedback from publishers and readers and for some great reviews. Being Robert Galbraith has been all about the work, which is my favourite part of being a writer."

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European stocks rise on EU growth hopes

EUROPEAN stock markets have climbed thanks to upbeat eurozone data and company earnings, though gains were capped by more disappointing Chinese economic data, analysts say.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares on Wednesday rose 0.56 per cent to stand at 6,634.60 points approaching midday in the British capital.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.59 per cent to 8,363.60 points and in the Paris the CAC 40 won 0.75 per cent to 3,952.48 compared with Tuesday's closing values.

In foreign exchange, the European single currency rose to $US1.3240 from $US1.3224 in New York late on Tuesday. The US dollar increased to Y100.06 from Y99.43.

On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold climbed to $US1,340.89 an ounce from $US1,333.50 on Tuesday.

"The biggest news today is that Europe is finally showing signs of growth," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com trading group.

"Perhaps the most interesting development in the eurozone is the pick-up in France. While it's good news that there are signs of stabilisation in Spain and even Italy of late, France has been the weakest link for some time."

Private business across the eurozone returned to growth in July for the first time in 18 months, a key survey indicated on Wednesday, possibly signalling an end to recession, analysts said.

The Markit Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers Index logged 50.4 points, above the 50-mark signalling growth, and a bigger-than-expected rise according to analysts after posting 48.7 points in June.

In company activity, shares in EasyJet soared 7.61 per cent to 437.72 pence after the British no-frills airline said revenues jumped in the group's third quarter on rising passenger numbers and fares.

Revenue climbed 10.5 per cent to STG1.142 billion ($A1.90 billion) in the three months to the end of June compared with a year earlier, the airline said in a statement.

Passenger numbers grew 2.6 per cent to 16.4 million and seat capacity by 3.6 per cent.

EasyJet added that it expected profit before tax for the 12 months to the end of September of between STG450 million and STG480 million, up from STG317 million in 2011/12.

Asian stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday as data showing that Chinese manufacturing activity shrank further in July added to mounting concerns about the world's second biggest economy.

Tokyo slipped 0.32 per cent, Shanghai was down 0.52 per cent and Hong Kong added 0.24 per cent.

HSBC's preliminary Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) of Chinese manufacturing activity fell to 47.7 in July - an 11-month low - from a final reading of 48.2 in June.

A figure above 50 points to growth while anything below shows a contraction.

"Weaker Chinese numbers ... were quickly pushed out of the way by eurozone PMIs that give the smallest hint that, just maybe, things aren't quite as bad," said IG sales trader Yusuf Heusen.

"Particularly heartening was a welcome return to form by the German economy, which saw its august manufacturing sector move back into expansion territory."

On Wall Street, the Dow gained 0.14 per cent on Tuesday, setting yet another record high points level, but the S&P 500 gave up 0.19 per cent and the Nasdaq slid 0.59 per cent.

US shares were hit by a mixed bag of corporate earnings, although a surprisingly downbeat US manufacturing report reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve would hold off winding down its stimulus anytime soon, traders said.

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