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Historic Brisbane home engulfed in flame

Written By Unknown on Senin, 18 Maret 2013 | 23.53

Hanworth House. 109 Lytton Road, East Brisbane. Source: Supplied

FIVE fire crews are battling to save a heritage-listed homestead on fire in Brisbane's inner east.

Emergency services were called to the blaze at "Hanworth" on Lytton Road, East Brisbane shortly before 12.30am.

A Department of Community Services spokeswoman said 50 per cent of the house was alight when fire crews arrived.

It is not known if the house was vacant at the time but the spokeswoman said all persons were accounted for.

A police spokesman said Lytton Road would be completely closed to traffic while the blaze was brought under control. Lytton Rd outbound is blocked after Heidelberg St, while Lytton Rd inbound is blocked at Walter Ave.

Fire fighters in breathing apparatus were still working to contain the fire at 1.30am.

The 19 bedroom property, built in 1864, sold in September 2012 for over $2 million.

A police spokesperson has warned drivers to expect significant peak hour traffic delays on Tuesday morning on the inbound lanes of Lytton Rd.

Emergency services have urged drivers to avoid the area.

Hanworth House. 109 Lytton Road, East Brisbane.


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Hillary Clinton backs gay marriage

FORMER US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who may be eyeing a run in the 2016 presidential election, came off the sidelines on Monday and announced her support for gay marriage.

While Clinton pushed gay, lesbian and transgender (LGBT) rights during her four-year tenure as America's top diplomat, considering them human rights, she hadn't until now advocated for gay marriage.

"LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones. And they are full and equal citizens, and deserve the rights of citizenship. That includes marriage," she says in a nearly six-minute video.

"That's why I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy and law, embedded in a broader effort to advance equality and opportunity for LGBT Americans and all Americans."

The video was released by the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organisation working for gays rights.

It came just days after Clinton's husband, former US president Bill Clinton, urged the Supreme Court to overturn a bill he signed in 1996 defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, calling it "discriminatory".

During her failed 2008 White House bid, Hillary Clinton stopped short of endorsing gay marriage, favouring civil unions instead.

In the video, she acknowledged that "like so many others, my personal views have been shaped over time", saying they had been changed by conversations and personal experiences as well as "by the guiding principles of my faith".

"Marriage, after all, is a fundamental building block of our society, a great joy and yes, a great responsibility," Clinton says.

"To deny the opportunity to any of our daughters and sons solely on the basis of who they are and who they love is to deny them the chance to live up to their own God-given potential."

Clinton stepped down on February 1, and polls show that if she throws her hat into the ring to be the Democratic Party nominee in the 2016 election, she would have a strong edge over any other candidate.


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Israeli govt ready for peace: Netanyahu

ISRAEL'S incoming government extends its hand to the Palestinians and is ready for a historic compromise, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said while presenting his new centre-right coalition to parliament.

He says Israel will maintain its existing peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and is ready for "a real peace" with the Palestinians that will end the conflict "once and for all".

Addressing the Knesset which convened ahead of casting its vote of confidence in the new government on Monday, Netanyahu warned, however, that to reach a peace treaty, both sides would have to compromise.

Israel is facing its biggest challenges since the state was founded nearly 65 years ago, said the premier, who is about to begin his third term.

"Our existence here cannot be taken for granted," he said, and promised that his government's first priority would "be the defence of the country and its citizens".

The premier finalised his coalition on Friday, a day before the deadline.

The new government comprises four parties - Netanyahu's nationalist Likud-Beiteinu alliance, the pro-settler Jewish Home, the centrist Yesh Atid, which advocates socio-economic reforms, and another centrist party of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni.

It can count on a majority of 68 mandates in the 120-seat Knesset.

Members of the small, ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism faction left the chamber during Netanyahu's speech, to protest at their exclusion from the coalition.

The session kicked off with the election of the parliamentary speaker, with the post going to Likud-Beiteinu lawmaker and former minister Yuli Edelstein.

The cabinet ministers were set to be sworn in later on Monday.

The new government assumes power two days before US President Barack Obama arrives in the region for a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

The new cabinet will initially have 22 members, including Netanyahu. The post of foreign minister is being held by the prime minister pending the outcome of a trial involving the former head of diplomacy, Avigdor Lieberman.

The Likud-Beiteinu alliance won the January election, handing Netanyahu his second successive term in office, but with a smaller number of seats.


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Jailed PKK leader confirms ceasefire call

KURDISH rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has confirmed he will call for a "historic" ceasefire on Thursday, the day of the Kurdish New Year, a pro-Kurdish lawmaker told reporters in Istanbul after meeting the jailed PKK chief.

"I continue with my preparations to make a call on March 21, during the Newroz celebrations. The declaration I am going to make will be historic," lawmaker Selahattin Demirtas said on Monday, reading from a letter penned by Ocalan.

Demirtas was in the Kurdish delegation that visited Ocalan on the prison island of Imrali on Monday, the third such visit since peace talks between the state and Ocalan as chief of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) began late last year.

"I want to solve the issue of guns with haste and without a single life being lost," Ocalan said in the letter.

He also called on the Turkish parliament to do "its part" to make the peace process a permanent one, allowing thousands of Kurdish rebels to lay down arms and withdraw from Turkey in the coming months.


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Republicans release 2012 poll post-mortem

US Republicans have released a scathing report on their disappointment in November's presidential vote, urging their party to broaden its appeal to minority voters before the next election.

"Unless changes are made, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future," the 98-page document concludes, seeking to guide the party's latest bout of soul-searching.

The report, dubbed a post-election "autopsy" by the media, follows President Barack Obama's easy victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney at the polls - an election many party leaders were confident they would win.

Chastened by their showing, the party said this week it will spend $10 million this year on programs to repair one of its greatest vulnerabilities, its low level of support among Hispanic, Asian and African-American voters.

Minority voters in the United States tend to vote heavily Democratic and their numbers are growing much more quickly than are those of white Americans.

This means Republicans are facing a losing numbers game unless they abandon election strategies geared to its base of white male voters.

"We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian and gay Americans and demonstrate that we care about them, too," the report concluded.

Overall, Obama carried 80 per cent support from minority voters, who will represent more than half of all US voters by 2050, according to data from the US Census Bureau.

The head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, unveiled the report at a high-profile event in Washington on Monday.

"The RNC cannot and will not write off any demographic, community, or region of this country," Priebus told reporters at the National Press Club, as he summed up the document's bottom-line conclusions.

Priebus said the analysis of the party's shortcomings - the product of extensive polling, focus groups and interviews with some 50,000 people - concluded that many of the party's biggest problems have been self-inflicted.

"The perception that we're the party of the rich continues to grow," Priebus said, in remarks that came four months after the failed candidacy of its multi-millionaire standard bearer Romney.

Priebus said that while inept messaging has hurt the Republicans, its core message and values remain strong, insisting: "Our policies are sound, but the way we communicate is a real problem."

The analysis encouraged Republicans to make a concerted outreach effort to Latino voters. The word "Hispanic" appears 99 times, suggesting the importance the party attaches to Latinos as it considers its future.

Another shortcoming highlighted is in the area of immigration policy. New immigrants and their relatives flock to the Democrats, believing Republicans are unwelcoming and inflexible, it warns.

Romney infamously declared during a campaign debate with Obama that, rather than simply rounding up undocumented immigrants, the United States should somehow encourage them to "self deport".

"If they find that - that they can't get the benefits here that they want and they can't - and they can't find the job they want, then they'll make a decision to go a place where - where they have better opportunities," he said.

The Republican document rejects Romney's approach.


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Heavy rains leave 10 dead in Brazil

LANDSLIDES triggered by heavy rains have left 10 people dead over the past 24 hours in the Brazilian tourist town of Petropolis, whose historic centre is under water, authorities say.

Among the victims are two civil defence officials who took part in rescue efforts in the town located 68 kilometres north of Rio, Sergio Simoes, the Rio state civil defence secretary, told Globo television.

Simoes described the situation in Brazil's former imperial capital, where emperor Pedro II and his court used to spend the summer, as "very serious."

"The continuing rains heighten the risks of mudslides. There are many vulnerable areas in the mountainous region and as a result we are very concerned," he said.

Up to 390 millimetres of rain have fallen in some city districts in the past 24 hours, when only 270 millimetres were anticipated for all of March.

Petropolis Mayor Rubens Bomtempo urged residents to remain indoors and warned of the possibility of more landslides.

A civil defence statement said the rains also affected other Rio state towns, including Angra dos Reis, Mangaratiba, Niteroi and Teresopolis.

In January 2011, more than 900 people died in Rio state's rugged region after heavy downpours spawned flooding and landslides.


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UK pair 'plotted to murder' Joss Stone

TWO men have gone on trial in Britain accused of plotting to rob and murder soul diva Joss Stone.

Kevin Liverpool and Junior Bradshaw drove to the 25-year-old singer's home in Devon, southwest England in June 2011, with a sword, a knife, a hammer and notes of their intentions in their car, Exeter Crown Court heard on Monday.

The Grammy-winning singer was at home at the time.

Bradshaw, 32, and 35-year-old Liverpool deny charges of conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and conspiracy to rob.

"This case is about a decision by a group of individuals, of which these defendants are two, to rob and kill Joss Stone," prosecutor Simon Morgan told the jury.

He described Stone, best known for hits including Super Duper Love and Fell In Love With A Boy, as "an extremely wealthy young woman".

Bradshaw and Liverpool were arrested in the Devon town of Cullompton after they were seen driving a few kilometres from Stone's home.

The trial is due to last about three weeks. Stone is not expected to attend.

She has sold more than 11 million albums worldwide, with her 2003 debut, The Soul Sessions, and its follow-up, Mind Body and Soul (2004) going platinum in Britain, the United States and the European Union.


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