Moose disrupts handicraft class in Sweden

SCHOOLCHILDREN in western Sweden received a surprise visit during their handicraft class when a moose jumped through the window.

The teacher and a dozen teenagers fled the classroom on Monday to another part of the school and locked themselves into a room to escape the thrashing animal, which had wounded itself on the broken window.

Goteborg police spokesman Thomas Fuxborg told daily Aftonbladet that the young moose "was in a panic and so were the children and teacher".

Officers broke a window to let the schoolchildren out and later shot the wounded animal that couldn't find its way out of the school.

Except for the moose, no one was injured during the incident at the high school in Molndal, near the western city of Goteborg.

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Serbia PM rejects OSCE censorship claim

SERBIA Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has demanded an apology from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) over allegations that the government was censoring media and the internet.

"From ... the OSCE, after all the untruths you brought up regarding Serbia, I expect a simple apology," Vucic said, addressing OSCE representative on freedom of the media, Dunja Mijatovic.

Mijatovic referred to reports that blogs were shut down that were critical of action by Vucic's cabinet during recent floods.

"I am deeply concerned by reports that websites and online content were blocked. It is a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression," she said, speaking at a conference in Stockholm last week.

She warned Serbia to nurture uncensored debate on matters of public interest, particularly in times of crisis such as during massive flooding in the Balkans in late May.

Vucic dismissed the allegations, insisting that the information Mijatovic passed along was "picked up from a site running a customary dirty campaign against its government".

Adding that the information was unverified, he asked for a "single shred of evidence" to back the allegations.

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NATO, Russia views on Ukraine 'far apart'

NATO'S and Russia's views on the crisis in Ukraine "remain far apart," a spokeswoman for the military alliance says after its ambassadors met with Moscow's envoy to NATO, Alexander Grushko, for the first time since March.

"It is clear that there are fundamentally different views on this crisis, on its origins, on what is happening now and how it should be resolved," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen concludes after the talks, according to spokeswoman Oana Lungescu.

The NATO ambassadors call on Russia to engage constructively with Ukraine's newly elected president, Petro Poroshenko, and say they would not recognise the annexation of Crimea.

"They also called on Russia to respect its international commitment to stop the flow of arms and weapons across the border, to stop supporting armed separatists in Ukraine and to withdraw in full and verfiable manner their troops from the border," Lungescu says.

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Ex-Montana gov, others seek money for mine

A GROUP of investors that includes former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer is seeking $10 million from a mining company in exchange for access to a huge copper and silver reserve - a move the company's chief executive says was "extortion" and included a threat to stir up negative publicity for the project.

Schweitzer, who has hinted at a 2016 presidential run, rejected the accusation and said he had been making a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute with a cash and stock settlement.

The two-term Democratic governor last year joined a handful of investors to form Optima Inc. That business controls mining rights - known as claims - on underground parcels needed by Mines Management Inc to access the proposed Montanore mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness near Libby.

The mine would tap into underground veins of copper and silver ore valued at more than $8 billion and employ 350 people. A federal judge in April gave Montanore a preliminary condemnation order giving it rights to access the reserves through tunnels passing through Optima's claims.

The order entitles Optima to just compensation. Schweitzer says $10 million represents a "ballpark figure" of what the claims are worth, and it is based on an earlier offer from Optima that was rejected by Mines Management.

Mines Management Chief Executive Officer Glenn Dobbs told The Associated Press that when Schweitzer called him in March to make the offer, the former governor threatened retribution if Optima didn't get its way.

"It was an extortion call," Dobbs said. "They were going to announce to the world that we didn't have access to the project. They would create controversy and depress our share price ... It's really gutter-type gangsterism."

Schweitzer responded that Dobbs' accusation was "silly."

"How would it make sense for us to depress the value of the shares if that's the way we were hoping to be paid compensation? These are illogical allegations, and they are not true," he said.

Schweitzer left office last year and now serves as chairman of Stillwater Mining Inc, where he helped engineer a corporate board takeover that ousted the company's former chairman and CEO. Stillwater - Montana's largest mining company - is not involved with Optima or the Montanore mine, Schweitzer said.

A formal compensation claim against Mines Management from Optima is expected to be filed in federal court Thursday. If the two sides cannot agree on compensation, the court will appoint a commission to resolve the matter, according to Montana condemnation laws.

The mining claims at issue were originally owned by another member of Optima, Arnold Bakie, according to court documents.

Spokane-based Mines Management needs the Bakie claims to access a 4,200 metre tunnel and build another that would give it access to the silver and copper reserves, the company said in court documents.

Bakie and others with claims at the Montanore site were sued by Mines Management in an attempt to cancel out their claims.

After a state court rejected the lawsuit, the company filed a separate complaint in US District Court to condemn the claims under Montana's eminent domain law.

A previous $100,000 offer to Bakie was rejected last year.

Schweitzer said he had followed the case as governor, and he got involved once he left office. Optima was incorporated after conversations between Schweitzer and Bakie that the governor said were "mutually" initiated.

"I was familiar with the doings here as governor," Schweitzer said. "I saw what was happening: These guys from MMI (Mines Management) thought they would come in here and strong-arm Arnold Bakie and their big lawyers are going to scare him ... Now he has partners that stand with him."

In March, Mines Management turned down Schweitzer's offer to resolve the claims dispute in exchange for cash and stock worth about $10 million, according to Dobbs and Schweitzer. That's when Dobbs said Schweitzer made his threats.

Dobbs also accused Schweitzer's administration of delaying the project during his two terms in office - another claim that Schweitzer said is untrue.

"Quite the opposite. This is an opportunity to settle this thing and have it over with" so work on the mine can proceed, he said.

Mines Management has been seeking state and federal permits since 2005 for Montanore. Its reserves hold 230 million ounces of silver and 1.7 billion pounds of copper, according to Mines Management.

A permit decision by the US Forest Service and other agencies is targeted for 2015.

That timeline is largely dictated by the federal agencies, not the state, said Kristi Ponozzo, project coordinator at the Montana Department of Environmental Protection. She said she was unaware of any involvement by Schweitzer when he was in office.

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Businesses worried about budget cuts

MORE than half of Australia's businesses are worried about the fallout from the federal government's tough budget will have on them.

Nearly 60 per cent of businesses surveyed by Dun & Bradstreet expressed concern about the budget.

Retailers are bracing themselves for a tough September quarter, with expectations of falling profits following the steep spending cuts announced in last month's budget.

A quarter of retailers expect a fall in earnings, pulling the sector's profits index into negative territory for the first time in two years.

"The fall in expected earnings for retailers is reflective of the mood among consumers, which has dropped significantly following the release of the budget," the head of Dun & Bradstreet's Australasian operations Gareth Jones said on Tuesday.

"Combined with soft wages growth, and signs from D&B's consumer financial stress index that individuals are finding conditions more difficult, it's unsurprising that many businesses expect to see spending levels fall away."

Despite the gloom in the retail sector, manufacturers raised their expectations for sales and profits to 10-year highs.

Forty six per cent expected higher profits in the September quarter, with 57 per cent forecasting better sales.

Wholesalers were just as upbeat, with 43 per cent expecting a rise in earnings and 56 per cent flagging a lift in sales.

However their optimism was not enough to offset the lower expectations among retailers and those in the transportation, communications and utilities sector as well as those in finance, insurance and real estate, and services.

As a result the D&B all-industries sales expectations was flat at 33.4.

Overall, 62 per cent of businesses expressed confidence about growth this year compared to 2013.

Hiring expectations also lifted for a fourth consecutive quarter, buoyed by the better-than-expected 5.8 per cent unemployment rate announced in May.

More than a fifth of businesses plan to hire workers in the September quarter, with nine per cent planning to cut staff.

"Despite concerns from business about the potential impact of the budget, expectations are, on balance, favourable for the next three months," said Dun & Bradstreet's economic advisor Stephen Koukoulas.

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Egyptian satirist announces end of TV show

EGYPT'S leading satirist, Bassem Youssef, says his show will not be returning to television.

Youssef and his crew announced the show's end at a press conference and raised a placard with "The End" written on it.

He said he preferred to end the political satire show rather than air it from outside Egypt, explaining that it would be interpreted as treason to Egypt and would affect the program's credibility.

Youssef's program, al-Bernameg, which means The Show, was broadcast on the Saudi-funded MBC network.

The show had taken a one-month break and had been scheduled to return on Friday, two days after the presidential election ended.

However, it was suspended.

Youssef, a heart surgeon, rose to fame making online videos in the style of US comedian Jon Stewart's spoof newscast The Daily Show, after the January 2011 uprising that ousted longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.

In the following year, Youssef mainly targeted radical Islamists and Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, who was ousted by the army in July after mass protests demanding his overthrow.

During Morsi's rule, Youssef faced several investigations for allegedly insulting the president and Islam.

However, legal complaints against Youssef for his political humour continued following Morsi's ouster after Youssef criticised the fervour for then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.

Al-Sissi later resigned his military post to run for president and won the balloting last week, according to initial results.

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Rate rises to start coming in a few months

BORROWERS should start bracing themselves for several interest rate increases next year as the non-mining sectors of the economy start to pick up pace.

The board of the Reserve Bank of Australia meets on Tuesday, and all 15 market economists surveyed by AAP say the cash rate will stay at a record low of 2.5 per cent.

Nine say there won't be any movement before the end of the year.

Nearly all are expecting a string of interest rate hikes next year that will push the cash rate to around 3.25 per cent.

Official data released Thursday showed that the mining investment boom has passed, with capital expenditure in the sector falling almost nine per cent in the March quarter.

However, investment intentions for the 2014/15 financial year in the non-mining sectors of the economy have risen to their highest levels since the global financial crisis.

Citigroup head of economics Paul Brennan said the figures show that the economy should rebalance away from being driven by mining investment smoother that previously expected.

"We believe the expectations data is above what the RBA would have pencilled in," he said.

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