Egypt resumes hot air balloon sightseeing

EGYPT has resumed hot air balloon sightseeing in the ancient city of Luxor, weeks after a fiery accident led authorities to halt the flights.

Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad, who boarded the first balloon with several Australian, British and Arab tourists on Sunday, said he was pleased with the resumption of the flights, which he considers "one of the most important touristic aspects of the city".

Mohammed Ibrahim Sherif, head of the civil aviation authority, said flights had resumed after safety measures required by his office were implemented. He said five out of seven companies have been allowed back in the air.

Authorities suspended flights after 19 tourists were killed on February 26 when their balloon caught fire and crashed in a sugar cane field. One British tourist survived, along with the balloon's pilot. Both were injured.

The tourists - from Hong Kong, Japan, Britain, Belgium and France - were travelling on a sunrise flight over Luxor's dramatic pharaonic sites and desert landscape.

The disaster occurred as the balloon was landing. Initial investigations suggested the fire broke out when a landing cable tore a fuel tube used to fire the burner that heats the balloon's air.

Sherif said investigations were still ongoing and may take another five weeks.

Ballooning experts say the accident was the worst in the sport's 200-year history. The second-largest disaster was in Australia in 1989, when two balloons collided near Alice Springs, killing 13.

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Abbott's hit on retail workers' super

KITCHEN hands, hospitality workers, retail staff and cleaners are among those that will be hardest hit by the coalition's plan to scrap the low-income superannuation tax offset, Superannuation Minister Bill Shorten says.

Mr Shorten said the super savings of 3.6 million Australians earning less than $37,000 will be $500 worse off under an Abbott-led government.

He said women made up 60 per cent, or 2.2 million of those affected.

"Mums working part-time while they care for young kids being hit with a $500 tax bill for contributing to her superannuation (is) not fair or smart," Mr Shorten said, adding that women were already retiring with less money because of pay disparity and time out of the workforce to raise children.

Mr Shorten has released new figures with a breakdown of 20 occupations that will be hardest hit by the opposition's plan.

These included retail staff, kitchen hands, hospitality workers, cleaners, receptionists, labourers, childcare workers.

"I'd rather see a $500 boost to the super account of a kitchen hand or a checkout operator or a farm hand than into Tony Abbott's pocket," he said.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has committed the coalition to scrapping the low-income superannuation tax offset funded by the government's mining tax, which it wants to repeal.

The coalition is opposed to the federal government's plan to impose a 15 per cent tax on superannuation earnings over $100,000, a measure likely to affect some 16,000 high income earners.

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Brazil police jailed for prison 'massacre'

TWENTY-THREE Brazilian military police officers have been sentenced to 156 years in jail each for their role in the killing of 111 inmates during Brazil's deadliest prison uprising in 1992.

The 23 were among 26 officers on trial before the Sao Paulo state tribunal. The three others were cleared.

The officers, most of them now retired, were accused of killing 15 prisoners in Sao Paulo's Carandiru prison during the operation to quell the revolt on October 2, 1992, which came to be known as the "Carandiru massacre".

The defence, which argued the police officers fired in self-defence after being threatened and assaulted by the prisoners, said it would appeal.

None of the officers involved in the operation were harmed. In addition to the 111 prisoners killed, some 87 others were wounded.

Survivors accused police of firing on inmates who had already surrendered or were hiding in their cells.

Authorities initially claimed the police were trying to break up a fight between prisoners who had seized control of one of the cell blocks.

But evidence uncovered later suggested military police had shot prisoners and then destroyed evidence that could have determined individual responsibility for the killings.

The commanding officer of the operation, Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraes, was initially sentenced to 632 years in jail for his mishandling of the revolt and the subsequent killings.

But in 2006, a court voided the conviction because of mistrial claims. Later that year, Guimaraes was found dead in his apartment under unclear circumstances.

The massacre in what was then Latin America's biggest prison sparked outrage among inmates, and prosecutors said it was a key factor in the emergence of a criminal gang known as First Command of the Capital (PCC) in 1993.

The PCC is believed to have ordered the death of the director of the prison at the time, Jose Ismael Pedrosa.

From the prison, PCC bosses organised a series of assaults on police stations and other buildings that left more than 170 people dead and paralysed Sao Paulo for four days in May 2006.

The unrest eventually spread to other cities, and scores of suspected criminals were gunned down in a subsequent wave of police reprisal attacks.

Late last year, the PCC was also blamed for a wave of police killings and bus burnings.

The Carandiru prison was demolished in 2002.

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20 dead from China bird flu: state media

THE death toll from a new strain of bird flu in China has reached 20, with dozens infected, state media reports, as experts say there is no evidence so far of human-to-human transmission.

The H7N9 virus has been detected in 102 people, mostly in eastern China, including 20 cases which proved fatal, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday after the latest daily update from the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

A total of 33 infections, including 11 deaths, have been reported in the eastern commercial centre of Shanghai.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention had earlier said 40 per cent of patients with H7N9 had not come into contact with poultry, raising questions about how people are becoming infected.

It also emerged the virus had spread among family members in Shanghai, raising fears it was passing between humans.

But the World Health Organization (WHO) has said there was "no evidence of ongoing human-to-human transmission".

Referring to those cases on Friday, WHO representative Michael O'Leary said investigators were trying to determine whether there had been human-to-human transmission between family members.

"The primary focus of the investigation is to determine whether this is in fact spreading at a lower level among humans. But there is no evidence for that so far except in these very rare instances," he said.

A team of international health experts is on a week-long mission in Beijing and Shanghai to investigate the virus, for which no vaccine currently exists.

Taiwan said on Sunday it had received H7N9 specimens from China as the island battles to avoid the epidemic.

"The virus could be used in producing vaccines and diagnosis," said Liu Shih-hao of the Centers for Disease Control in Taiwan.

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Thieves rob Sydney golf club at gunpoint

TWO men have robbed a golf club in Sydney's south, threatening staff with a firearm and a sledgehammer.

Police said the pair of thieves entered the club on Harnleigh Avenue, Woolooware as it was closing about 8.20pm (AEST) on Sunday.

The bandits, who had their faces concealed, threatened staff, before fleeing the premises with cash.

No patrons were in the club at the time and no one was injured during the incident, police said.

A crime scene was established and examined by specialist forensic officers.

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NSW govt commits $60m for rail maintenance

THE NSW government will invest $60 million to set up eight maintenance centres for Sydney's rail network.

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian announced on Sunday the NSW government would spend the money as part of a program to modernise RailCorp's outdated maintenance practices.

In a statement, the government said the investment boost comes as it prepares for the start on July 1 of two new rail operators on the network - Sydney Trains and NSW Trains.

Ms Berejiklian said construction had begun on the first centre at Blacktown, with the others to be located at Sydenham, Hornsby, Strathfield, Glenfield, the Sydney CBD, Gosford and Wollongong.

She said four smaller satellite centres would be set up at Sutherland, Hamilton, Lawson and Granville.

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Carr pledges aid boost for Syria refugees

FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has pledged to boost Australia's medical and food aid to Syria amid a huge exodus of refugees from the war-torn country.

News Ltd reports Senator Carr on Sunday night took an emergency aid plan to a meeting of European foreign leaders and the Arab League.

The plan promises a $24 million boost in aid for the around two million people displaced due to the conflict in Syria, News Ltd reports.

"The Syrian war is one of the world's great humanitarian disasters," Senator Carr said. "It has been described as risking the greatest refugee crisis since World War II."

Senator Carr also offered to help rebuild a future democratic government in Syria, as long as its chemical weapons were secured and groups linked to terrorism played no part in ruling the country.

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