4 survivors found at Russia chopper crash

RUSSIAN rescue teams have found four survivors including a teenage boy after finally reaching the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed in the nearly impassable taiga of eastern Siberia the day before.

Three people have already been evacuated from the crash site, spokesman for the emergencies ministry, Oleg Voronov, told AFP, adding the fourth survivor was a teenage boy who is believed to have a broken spine.

Voronov could not immediately identify the first three survivors, saying they could be the crew members.

A MI-8 helicopter carrying three crew members and 25 passengers including 11 children crashed on Tuesday in the northern Yakutia region when it was apparently pushed to the ground by a downward stream of air.

Aviation officials said, citing the survivors, that 19 people had died although the emergencies ministry is refusing to give casualty figures. Voronov said the search was continuing.

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Egypt security slaps travel ban on Morsi

EGYPTIAN security forces have imposed a travel ban on President Mohamed Morsi and several top Islamist allies over their involvement in a prison escape in 2011, security officials say.

Airport officials confirmed to AFP that they had received orders to prevent the leaders -- including Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Badie and his deputy Khairat al-Shater -- from travelling abroad.

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S.Africa's De Klerk out of hospital

SOUTH Africa's last apartheid president FW de Klerk has been discharged from hospital following an operation to have a pacemaker fitted, paying tribute to his ailing successor Nelson Mandela's legacy of reconciliation.

De Klerk, 77, who spent the night in a Cape Town hospital, fell ill after returning early from a European trip due to his fellow Nobel peace laureate's grave condition.

After leaving hospital he lauded Mandela's "philosophy of the necessity for reconciliation".

"I think his legacy will become much more alive again and it can only be good for South Africa," De Klerk told the eNCA news channel.

Mandela is spending a 26th day in hospital with a recurring lung infection.

De Klerk said he had felt light-headed while in London and visited his physician once home.

"It could have become much more serious," he told the broadcaster.

As the country's last apartheid ruler, De Klerk released Mandela after 27 years of apartheid prison in 1990 in a move that paved the way to multi-race democracy.

Mandela became president four years later and De Klerk served as one of his two deputies.

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N. Korea restores hotline with South

NORTH Korea has restored its hotline with South Korea and announced it would let the South's businessmen visit a shuttered joint industrial zone, Seoul officials say.

The move came hours after dozens of South Korean firms threatened to withdraw from the zone at Kaesong in the North, complaining they had fallen victim to political bickering between the two rivals.

"The hotline was restored this afternoon after North Korea accepted our request to normalise it," a South Korean unification ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

The move followed months of high tensions and threats by Pyongyang of nuclear war.

As tensions began easing last month, the North restored the hotline across the border truce village of Panmunjom for talks on setting up a high-level meeting to discuss the fate of the zone.

But the line was switched off again after plans for the talks collapsed due to disputes over protocol.

The Kaesong estate, where North Koreans work in Seoul-owned factories, was the most high-profile casualty of the months of elevated tensions that followed the North's nuclear test in February.

Operations at the complex just north of the border ground to a halt soon after the North banned entry by the South's factory managers and other officials on April 3.

About a week later Pyongyang pulled all its own workers out.

In an unexpected change of course on Wednesday, the North sent a message to the South saying South Korean businessmen and managers would be allowed to visit the complex.

It said the businessmen could take emergency steps to avert damage to facilities and materials during the rainy season, according to a unification ministry statement.

South Korean managers could have talks with their North Korean counterparts during their trip, it said.

The North's invitation sparked speculation that it may be ready for dialogue with the South.

But South Korea responded cautiously, saying it would review the proposal and convey its response later.

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NSW Labor placed under administration

THE NSW Labor Party has been placed under the administration of the ALP national executive in a bid to end corruption and limit union influence.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and NSW Labor boss Sam Dastyari secured the agreement, aimed at improving the party's image after damning revelations about former MPs' conduct came to light during hearings at the state's corruption watchdog.

News Ltd reports that Mr Dastyari will be handed absolute power by the Prime Minister and the national executive to begin the reforms.

They include a policy of zero-tolerance under which MPs will be expelled if they are investigated for corruption.

The administrative committee of NSW Labor is expected to be sacked.

Presently 80 per cent of the NSW administration is comprised of union officials.

This will be changed under the reforms and Mr Rudd and Mr Dastyari are seeking to have 50 per cent of the new administration made up from rank-and-file members.

"We need to not only clean it up, we need to look like we are cleaning it up," a senior NSW federal MP told News Ltd.

"It's a courageous and necessary move."

Under the move, property developers will be prohibited from seeking preselection for the party at state and federal levels, News Ltd reports.

Unions could be angered by the plan, but Mr Rudd told News Ltd he "had a gutful of this stuff,"

"Labor party members have had a gutful of this and so has the nation," he told News Ltd.

"It must now be fundamentally changed."

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Past decade hottest on record, says UN

THE 21st century's first decade was the hottest on record, with temperatures rising at an unprecedented pace and weather extremes claiming over 370,000 lives, the United Nations says.

In a new report on 2001-2010, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said land and sea temperatures averaged 14.47 degrees Celsius.

This compares with the long-term average of 14 C, as measured from weather records dating back to 1881.

"This is the warmest decade of this whole period," said WMO chief Michel Jarraud.

When measured globally, every year of the decade except 2008 was among the 10 warmest on record, the report showed.

"The increase between the 1990s and the past decade is the largest since we have instrumental records," Jarraud added.

In 2001-2010, the average global temperature jumped 0.21 degrees over the previous decade. By comparison, warming rose by 0.14 C in the 1990s over the 1980s.

Global warming is blamed on human activity such as industrial emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, chiefly carbon dioxide (CO2).

Sceptics, however, suggest temperatures should be even higher according to estimates based on CO2 levels and that global warming is therefore plateauing.

"There's no plateau. If you filter out the very short-term variability, the last decade was the warmest by a significant margin," Jarraud countered.

He backed suggestions that heat is being stored in the deep ocean, where it was bound to released in the future.

Based on surveys of 139 countries, the WMO report showed that nearly 94 per cent registered their warmest decade in 2001-2010, while 44 per cent reported nationwide temperature records during the period.

The first 10 years of the 21st century registered more than 370,000 deaths linked to weather extremes, up 20 per cent from the previous decade.

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Portugal govt on the brink, markets fall

PORTUGAL'S government is tottering close to collapse after two ministers quit over its bailout reforms, sparking cries of concern from European authorities as financial markets take fright.

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