'Foxy Knoxy' to give first interview

US student Amanda Knox, seen here in court in Italy in 2011, is set to be interviewed about her murder conviction and acquittal for the first time. Source: AFP

AMANDA Knox, a US student who spent four years in jail in Italy on charges of murdering her British roommate before she was acquitted, is to give her first television interview, US network ABC announced overnight.

"Now, after the dramatic Italian trial, conviction, and the court appeal that finally acquitted and freed her she will speak to ABC News," the US network said, announcing that the interview will be broadcast on April 30.

The interview comes just as Knox, who was a college junior at the time of the incident, launches a press tour promoting her memoir Waiting to Be Heard, which will be published by HarperCollins on April 30.

HarperCollins, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which also owns this website, did not reveal financial details.

However The New York Times has said Knox sold the rights to her story for nearly $4 million.

In October 2011 an appeal court in Perugia, northern Italy, freed the American Knox and her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, after acquitting them of the 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox and Sollecito had initially been sentenced to 26 and 25 years behind bars.

Foxy Knoxy was Knox's schoolgirl nickname and was originally her MySpace sign-on.

The moniker was adopted widely by the media after the death of her roommate and revelations about Knox's personal life, including images of her kissing her co-accused boyfriend.

According to the Times, HarperCollins acquired the rights to Knox's book after a "heated auction among publishing houses that stretched for days."

The Times said several publishers had submitted bids for the book, including Crown, part of Random House; St. Martin's Press, a Macmillan unit; Simon & Schuster's Atria; and Penguin Group USA's Dutton.

Knox had hired Washington attorney Robert Barnett of the law firm Williams & Connolly to negotiate the deal. She returned to her home town of Seattle, Washington after her acquittal.

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Shot schoolgirl records video message

Pakistani schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai, seen here last November, has recorded a new video message to her supporters. Source: AFP

MALALA Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education, says she is getting better in her first public statement.

"Today you can see that I am alive. I can speak, I can see you, I can see everyone and I am getting better day by day," said the 15-year-old in a video message made before she underwent surgery on her skull on Saturday.

Speaking clearly in English, she said: "It's just because of the prayers of people. Because all people - men, women, children - all of them have prayed for me.

"And because of all these prayers God has given me this new life - a second life. And I want to serve. I want to serve the people. I want every girl, every child, to be educated. For that reason, we have organised the Malala Fund."

In an attack that drew worldwide condemnation, a Taliban gunman shot Malala at point-blank range as her school bus travelled through Pakistan's Swat Valley on October 9.

Surgeons in Pakistan saved her life with an initial operation to relieve the pressure on her brain before she was flown to Britain to be treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England.

Doctors say the bullet grazed Malala's brain and travelled through her head and neck before lodging in her left shoulder.

In the surgery last weekend, she had a titanium plate fitted to replace part of her skull and surgeons inserted an implant to help restore her hearing in her left ear.

The Malala Fund is a charity set up in late 2012 to promote education for girls.

Malala first rose to prominence aged 11 with a blog for the BBC's Urdu-language service charting her life under the Taliban.

Since her attempted murder, millions of people have signed petitions supporting her cause, while the United Nations declared a global Malala Day last November.

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'Aussie' journalist's court date delayed

The portrait of French-Australian journalist and director Nadir Dendoune. Source: AFP

THE court appearance of a French-Australian journalist arrested in Iraq for taking photos without permission in Baghdad has been postponed.

Muayad al-Lami, the head of the Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate, said that Nadir Dendoune, 40, was to be presented in the court overnight

"The appearance will take place (tomorrow). We have to find an interpreter," the judicial source said on condition of anonymity, adding that Dendoune will be accompanied by a lawyer.

The Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate said "it has mandated lawyer Nama al-Rubaiye to defend the journalist after obtaining a green light from the French consulate" in Baghdad.

Iraqi judicial sources claim that Dendoune was arrested carrying a camera with which he took pictures of the Iraqi intelligence service headquarters, army and police.

"It is banned to take such pictures without prior authorisation," the source said.

The French consul in Baghdad met Dendoune for the first time on Saturday, the foreign ministry said.

"He seemed in good health and well treated," a spokeswoman of the embassy said.

Lami said he too visited Dendoune on Saturday, and that during the visit a doctor from the French embassy checked the journalist and found him to be in good health.

The journalists' syndicate chief said Dendoune, who also holds Australian and Algerian nationalities, was arrested for taking pictures in southern Baghdad of a military checkpoint and a hospital.

Dendoune's sister Houria said from Paris, however, that her brother was arrested while taking pictures of a water treatment plant.

Dendoune was arrested late January while reportedly visiting Iraq to compile a series of stories on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion of the country for French monthly magazine Le Monde Diplomatique.

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China's thick smog arrives in Japan

Tourists wearing masks in Tiananmen Square during severe pollution in Beijing last week. China's smog has now spread to Japan. Source: Getty Images

THE suffocating smog that blanketed swathes of China is now hitting parts of Japan, sparking health warnings for the young and the sick.

The Japanese environment ministry's website has been overloaded as worried users log on to try to find out what is coming their way.

"Access to our air-pollution monitoring system has been almost impossible since last week, and the telephone here has been constantly ringing because worried people keep asking us about the impact on health," said an environment ministry official.

Pictures of Beijing and other Chinese cities shrouded in thick, choking smog played out across television screens in Japan last week.

News programs have broadcast maps showing a swirl of pollution gathering strength across China and then spreading out over the ocean towards Japan.

Pinks, reds and oranges that denote the highest concentrations form a finger of smog that inches upwards to the southern main island of Kyushu.

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing are already strained, over the sovereignty of a chain of islands in the East China Sea. And on the streets of Tokyo, reaction was tart.

"China is our neighbour, and all sorts of problems happen between us all the time," said Takaharu Abiko, 50.

"It is very worrying. This is dangerous pollution, like poison, and we can't protect ourselves. It's scary."

Officials were coy about lumping all the blame on their huge neighbour, but Yasushi Nakajima of the environment ministry said "we can't deny there is an impact from pollution in China".

Air pollution over the west of Japan has exceeded government limits over the last few days, with tiny particulate matter a problem, said Atsushi Shimizu of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES).

Prevailing winds from the west bring airborne particles from the Asian mainland, he said.

Of specific concern is the concentration of a particle 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter, which has been as high as 50 micrograms per cubic metre of air over recent days in northern Kyushu.

The government safe limit is 35 micrograms.

Yellow sand from the deserts of Mongolia and China is a known source for these particles, as are exhausts from cars and smoke from factories.

"At this time of year they are definitely not yellow sands, so they're toxic particles," Mr Shimizu said, warning that "people with respiratory diseases should be careful".

Toshihiko Takemura, an associate professor of Kyushu University who runs another air pollution monitoring site, said "the impact of air pollution originating from China on Japan was scientifically discovered more than a decade ago".

"Especially in Kyushu, the level of air pollution has been detectable in everyday lives since a few years ago," he told AFP.

"People in eastern and northern Japan are now belatedly noticing the cross-border air pollution."

Mr Takemura noted that pollution in Japan over the last few days has not been quite as bad as it was in February 2011, when "very hazy days continued for several days in western Japan".

He agreed with Mr Shimizu that people with respiratory diseases, as well as small children, should take extra care to avoid the problems.

Mr Takemura's website forecast an "extremely large" amount of air pollutants would arrive in part of Kyushu yesterday and today.

Mr Shimizu said information-sharing with China on air pollution has been difficult but "there are many things Japan can do, for instance encouraging China to use pollutant-filtering equipment in factories".

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Activist dies 'after torture from cops'

In this Saturday February 2 picture demonstrators hold candles in memory of another protester, Mohammed Qorany, after police were said to have used heavy force on him which resulted in his death. Source: AP

AN EGYPTIAN activist, who slipped into a coma following days in police custody, has died, setting off a storm over police brutality in the new Egypt.

Mohammed al-Guindi, 28, went missing last month after joining protests demanding change on the second anniversary of Egypt's uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak.

According to the health ministry he was brought to Cairo's Al-Helal hospital by ambulance on January 28 - three days after he went missing - unconscious and suffering from internal bleeding.

Activists detained with Guindi and later released said he had been taken to a police camp and subjected to torture, his mother Samia told the private Al-Nahar satellite channel.

The Popular Current, to which Guindi belonged, said in a statement the activist died "as a result of torture."

A preliminary medical report showed that he suffered beating with hard objects, broken ribs and electric shocks, activists said.

Photos of Guindi, his face bruised and battered, lying on a hospital bed have been circulating on social media networks.

Tributes have poured in for Guindi on Twitter and Facebook, with activists dubbing him the "new" Khaled Said, an Egyptian man who was beaten to death by police in 2010 and who became a symbol of the fight against police brutality.

Hundreds of people turned out for Guindi's funeral prayer, which was held in in Tahrir Square.

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'It does get better for gay teens'

Gays and lesbians experience less bullying as they get older, a study has shown. Source: AP

IT REALLY does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.

The seven-year study involved more than 4000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 per cent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 per cent of lesbian and bisexual girls.

The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.

In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.

That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.

In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.

"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."

The study appeared online today in the journal Pediatrics.

Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in US middle schools than in high schools.

But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.

In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.

The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Prof Robinson said.

Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.

"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centres around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.

Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theatre major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.

"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.

Mr Johnson hasn't been bullied at university, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theatre crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.

"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Mr Johnson said.
 

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Ahmadinejad 'ready to go to space'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he is ready to take one giant leap for Iran-kind. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said he is ready "to be the first man in space" under Iran's ambitious program which aims to send a human being into orbit by 2020.

"Our youth are determined to send a man into space within the next four, five years and I'm sure that will happen," he said during a ceremony in Tehran where two new Iranian-made satellites were unveiled, according to ISNA news agency.

"I'm ready to be the first Iranian to be sacrificed by the scientists of my country and go into space, even though I know there are a lot of candidates," Mr Ahmadinejad quipped.

He added to the buoyant atmosphere, saying he was willing to "auction (himself) and donate" the money to the Iran's space program, which has shrunk because of international economic sanctions over Tehran's controversial nuclear drive, ISNA reported.

Iran, which last week announced it had successfully sent a small monkey into space, has said it wants to send a man into orbit by 2020.

Mr Ahmadinejad yesterday unveiled two small satellites, named Nahid and Zohreh (Venus in Farsi and Arabic, respectively).

Scientists surround a monkey Iran says it successfully launched into space. Picture: AP

Nahid, an observation satellite equipped with solar panels, is intended to orbit at an altitude of between 250 and 370 kilometres. Iran has put three other small satellites into the same orbit since 2009.

Zohreh is a geostationary communications satellite that will be placed at an altitude of 36,000 kilometres, something Iran has never tried before.

No launch date was given.

Iran's space program deeply unsettles Western nations, which fear it could be used to develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads they suspect are being developed in secret, despite denials from Tehran.

The technology used in space rockets can also be used in ballistic missiles. The Security Council has imposed an almost total embargo on the export of nuclear and space technology to Iran since 2007.

Tehran denies its space program has any link with its alleged nuclear ambitions.
 

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Bombing kills 22 anti-Qaida fighters

Iraqis inspect a crater caused by a car bomb attack in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, on Sunday. There was another attack overnight, when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a group of anti-Qaida fighters, killing 22 people. Source: AP

A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up near a group of anti-Qaida fighters as they were receiving salaries north of Baghdad, killing 22 people, the second bloody attack to hit Iraq in as many days.

The blast, which also wounded at least 44 people, came soon after officials raised the salaries of the Sunni militiamen in a bid to placate weeks of anti-government demonstrations in mostly-Sunni areas of the country.

It also comes just a day after a coordinated assault on a police headquarters in a disputed city in the north killed 30 people amid a spike in violence nationwide.

The attacker struck at 11:00 am (7pm AEST) in Taji, which lies 25 kilometres north of Baghdad, as the fighters were collecting their salaries.

In total, 22 people were killed, the vast majority of them militiamen but also two soldiers, according to a security official and a medical source. At least 44 others were wounded, among them eight soldiers.

Members of the Sahwa, otherwise known as the Awakening Councils or Sons of Iraq, are made up of a collection of Sunni tribal militias that sided with the US military against Al-Qaida from late-2006 onwards, helping turn the tide of Iraq's bloody insurgency.

They are often targeted by Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaida who regard them as traitors.

Violence was also reported in the capital and in the ethnically-mixed northern city of Kirkuk.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a police officer and wounded three of his colleagues, while four people were shot dead overnight in Kirkuk, officials said.

The latest unrest came a day after a coordinated attack on Kirkuk's police headquarters - a suicide car bomb followed by an assault by grenade-throwing gunmen - killed 30 people and wounded 88 others.

The violence comes as Iraq grapples with a political crisis pitting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against his government partners amid weeks of protests calling for him to resign.

No one has claimed responsibility for the spate of attacks but local security officials blame Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq, which often targets security forces and officials in a bid to destabilise the country and push it back towards the sectarian bloodshed of 2005 to 2008. 

Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city 240 kilometres north of Baghdad, lies at the heart of a swathe of disputed territory claimed by both the central government and Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region.

The unresolved row is persistently cited by diplomats and officials as the biggest threat to Iraq's long-term stability.

The violence was the latest in a spike in unrest that saw 246 people killed last month, the most since September, according to an AFP tally.

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Paedophile killer seeks release

Belgian killer Marc Dutroux, in court in 2004, has applied for an early release 16 years into his life sentence for the kidnap and rape of six girls, and the murder of four of his victims. Source: AFP

NOTORIOUS Belgian child serial killer Marc Dutroux has appeared before a special court seeking to be released and placed under house arrest with an electronic tag.

His appeal for early release comes just three months before he completes 16 years of his life sentence for the kidnap and rape of six girls, and the murder of four of his victims, in one of the darkest episodes in Belgium's criminal history.

The 56-year-old appeared behind closed doors yesterday with the Brussels court house sealed off by 125 police and security officers, with all other cases wiped from the statute books for the day and journalists blocked from view. Security confirmed to AFP his passage before the bench.

A handful of protesters outside demanded Dutroux be hanged, chanting "the rope for paedophiles".

A decision on Dutroux's request is not expected before February 18. Even if it were granted, it would not be implemented before April 30.

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Hundreds killed in Brazil nightclub fire

Brazil is in mourning after more than 230 people died when a fire broke out in a packed nightclub.

POLICE have arrested an owner of a Brazilian nightclub and two members of the band that played the night 231 people were killed in a blaze

An arrest warrant was issued for another owner of the club, Kiss, said police official Michele Vimmerman. "There were three temporary detentions," Ms Vimmermann said.

Police will investigate claims that nightclub security blocked people from leaving until they paid for their drinks.

Ms Vimmermann said those in custody were nightclub owner Elissandro Sphor, as well as the vocalist and another member of the Gurizada Fandangueira band.

The fire erupted during the group's performance, with some survivors saying that its lead singer lit a firework that could have caused sparks and set off the inferno.

Soldiers carry the coffin of a victim of a nightclub blaze in Santa Maria.

Allegations also surfaced that the club lacked the necessary emergency exits, that at least one fire extinguisher did not work and, according to firefighters, their safety license had expired in August.

The club said in a statement, however, that everything was in order. In comments to the media, a band member also ruled out responsibility.

Word of the arrests came as Brazil observed three days of national mourning in the wake of the tragedy in the southern university town of Santa Maria that mostly claimed the lives of young people.

As friends and family members bid farewell to their loved ones, officials revised the death toll from 233 to 231 and said at least 100 others remained hospitalised, 80 of them in serious condition.

A woman cries over the coffin of a victim at a gymnasium where bodies were brought for identification in Santa Maria.

Shocked survivors, mostly science students in Santa Maria, described how scores of revellers were trampled to death or succumbed to smoke inhalation as blocked exits and rising flames caused panic.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, visibly shaken by the news, cut short her visit to the Europe-Latin America summit in Chile to fly to the town.

Brazil cancellled an event Monday today a 500-day countdown to next year's World Cup tournament, and the disaster will raise concerns about public safety as Brazil also prepares to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

The fire broke out around 2am Sunday when the nightclub was hosting a university party.

Empty coffins are laid out as the victims are are identified by relatives.

Santa Maria fire chief Guido de Melo said many people were trampled in the rush to get out. Others were suffocated by the smoke.

Club security had blocked people from leaving, sparking a stampede, he added.

Customers said guards at the club had kept the fire exit locked to prevent people from leaving without paying for their drinks.

"It was sheer horror," Mattheus Bortolotto, a young dentist, told local television. "I lost a very dear friend."

Firefighters try to put out a fire at a nightclub in Santa Maria, 550 Km from Porto Alegre, southern Brazil on January 27, 2012.

"The emergency exits did not work, and then I lost my friend in the confusion. Then a girl died in my arms. I felt her heart stop beating."

"The metal barriers they used to keep people in line on their way in, ended up blocking people from getting out," Bortolotto said.

"People were bumping into each other, crushing each other, falling down. And the people who were at the back of the club were simply trapped."

Survivor Michelle Pereira said a member of the band had lifted a flare into the air, which set the ceiling on fire. Flames quickly engulfed the entire room.

A man carries an injured man, victim of a fire at the Kiss club in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil.

"Everyone was pushing and shoving," another survivor, Taynne Vendruscolo, told reporters.

"The fire started out small, but within seconds it exploded. Those who were close to the stage could not get out."

The pandemonium inside the club soon spread outside.

"A friend of mine managed to get out but then had a heart attack and died," Ana Paula Miller, a 19-year-old engineering student, told AFP.

Hundreds of people have died after a nightclub fire in Brazil.

Firefighters doused the blackened shell of a red brick building with water and used sledgehammers to punch holes in the walls to get people out faster.

But for many, it was already too late.

Victims' bodies were taken to a sports stadium, which police cordoned off to keep sobbing relatives from streaming in.

Left outside, they waited for news of missing loved ones. "My son was killed. My son was killed," wailed one mother, just before passing out after finding his name on the list of the dead.

The victims of a nightclub fire receive medical assistance in a street of Santa Maria, 550 Km from Porto Alegre, southern Brazil.

"I saw victims who had one side of their face melted," Max Muller, who was walking by and started to film some of the chaotic early morning scenes from outside the club, told AFP.

"I am traumatised. It is hard to forget what I saw. People who were trying to get out who stopped to give other people CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) --except they didn't know how to do it, and they were breaking people's bones.

"It is horrible to see so many dead people, kids, on the ground; people crying, other people throwing up, who can't breathe.

"Some were ripping people's clothes off to do CPR but had no idea what they were doing," he recalled.

"It's a tragedy for all of us, and I cannot continue here at the summit, because my priority is the Brazilian people," a visibly emotional Ms Rousseff told reporters traveling with her in Santiago.

Federal and local authorities were mobilizing "all resources, so that we do not just recover the bodies but also support families at this time and provide very efficient care to the injured," she added.

The fire regulations permit for the Kiss nightclub expired in August 2011, local media reported, citing the head of the state's fire department.

The university town of Santa Maria lies west of Porto Alegre, one of the World Cup host cities.

This is the deadliest such blaze in more than a decade, since a fire at a shopping centre and discotheque in the central Chinese city of Luoyang killed more than 300 people in 2000.

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