Nicaragua chopper crash kills top brass

SENIOR members of Nicaragua's air force have been killed when a helicopter they were flying in crashed near Lake Managua.

Ten people died in Thursday's crash, including air force chief of staff Colonel Manuel Lopez, the head of air force counterintelligence, Colonel Chester Vargas, and air defence chief Lieutenant Colonel Aldo Herrera, the Nicaraguan Army said in a statement.

The MI-17 helicopter went down after visiting the El Papalonal firing range in La Paz Centro, 52km northwest of Managua, the statement said.

The senior officers killed were mostly former Sandinista guerrillas who helped found Nicaragua's modern military after the leftist revolutionaries triumphed in 1979 against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza.

The officers were returning to the capital Managua when, soon after departing, the helicopter pilot made an emergency call to warn of unspecified flight difficulties, said army spokesman Colonel Orlando Palacios.

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Woman sought over Sydney bus racist abuse

NSW police are seeking a woman caught on video launching a racist tirade and hurling obscenities against a schoolboy on a Sydney bus.

The woman is captured verbally abusing an Asian student in a viral YouTube video after he refused her demand to sit down.

Police say the incident occurred at 3.30 pm (AEST) on April 7 on an STA bus driving through Burwood.

The woman, aged about 50, tells the boy, who appears to be about 15, to "sit the f*** down" before launching into a racist rant where she tells him to "get a passport bro".

"Get back on your f***ing boat and f*** off," she says.

It is the latest incident where passengers have been abused on Australian public transport.

In a video earlier this year, a French tourist was abused for singing in her native language on a bus in Melbourne.

Another recent video shows a pregnant woman being called a "fat slut" after she asked a Perth train passenger to move her bags so she could sit down.

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Tibetan nun dies after self-immolation

A TIBETAN nun who last week set fire to herself in protest at Chinese rule has died, a US-based broadcaster and rights group say.

The woman set herself ablaze on June 11 near Nyitso monastery, the scene of similar protests, in Daofu country of southwest China's Sichuan province, Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on its website.

Wangchen Dolma, aged 31, died on Friday in hospital and was "secretly cremated", RFA said, citing the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) - the India-based government-in-exile - in confirming the death.

The US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) rights group said she was "taken away by police" after setting herself ablaze during a "gathering of several thousand monks".

The ICT on Thursday confirmed the death.

RFA said "Chinese authorities have moved to block demonstrations of support" for the nun.

The ICT said "communications were restricted in the area and surveillance of monks at Nyitso monastery was intensified" following the self-immolation attempt.

Rights groups often raise concerns over surveillance issues in restive Tibetan areas.

RFA said the nun was the 120th person to set themselves alight since February 2009 in a wave of protests by Tibetans against what they view as Chinese oppression. Many of them have died.

Self-immolations peaked in the run up the ruling Communist Party's pivotal Party Congress last November.

They have become less common in recent months, but two monks died after setting themselves on fire in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture in April.

Beijing condemns the acts and blames them on exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, saying he uses them to further a separatist agenda.

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace laureate who has lived in India since 1959 after a failed uprising in Tibet, has described the protests as acts of desperation that he is powerless to stop.

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ANZ should keep jobs in Australia: union

Victoria's opposition says ANZ owes it to its workers to reveal the future of call-centre jobs. Source: AAP

THE ANZ bank can afford to keep every job in Australia and should provide certainty for the 600 Melbourne call centre workers whose jobs may be sent offshore.

A draft proposal to senior management outlines plans to sack 340 staff at ANZ's Mulgrave call centre and a further 250 in South Melbourne, but ANZ spokesman Stephen Ries says no decision has been made.

The jobs would move to the Philippines and New Zealand.

Finance Sector Union national secretary Leon Carter says the bank is so profitable it can afford to keep all its local staff.

"They do not need to send these job overseas to be profitable," Mr Carter told reporters in Sydney.

He said the Commonwealth Bank does not send jobs offshore and remains Australia's biggest and most profitable bank.

"(ANZ) continues to sacrifice our members' jobs, not because it improves customer service, not because it makes anything better, but simply to continue to get a bump in their share price."

Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said ANZ owed it to its workers and Victorians to reveal the future of the call-centre jobs.

"It's an absolute obscenity that ANZ posted a $3.2 billion half-year profit but apparently Victoria is not a good enough place to do business," Mr Andrews said.

The bank says it is looking at efficiencies during a time of low growth and as customers change they way they do their banking.

"No decision has been made, nor will there be a decision in the near future," Mr Ries said.

Mr Carter said Australian banks have sent about 7000 Australian jobs offshore in the past six years, and it's likely the trend will continue, especially with ANZ.

Mr Andrews has criticised Premier Denis Napthine - who is in South-East Asia for a trade mission - for his inaction over Victoria's recent spate of large-scale job losses.

"When it comes to employment the premier does nothing when he's in the country, I would expect he's done even less off on a trade mission somewhere," Mr Andrews said.

Treasurer Michael O'Brien said the government could not direct the decisions of individual companies, and noted there were 11,400 jobs created in the state last month.

He said Victoria's current 5.4 per cent unemployment rate was the second lowest in the country.

The government has announced a new $14.7 million emergency services infrastructure program in Dandenong that will create 310 construction jobs.

Indonesian telecommunications company Telkom is to open its first Australian office in Melbourne.

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Pakistan funeral bomb's death toll rises

THE death toll from a suicide attack at a funeral in Pakistan has risen to 34 after seven victims died overnight in hospital, police say.

"The death toll has risen to 34, seven more critically injured have died in hospital," police official Tahir Ayub told AFP on Wednesday.

Another 43 people are still being treated for injuries in hospital after Tuesday's attack in Shergarh town in Mardan district, 145 kilometres northwest of Islamabad.

The bomber struck as mourners gathered for funeral prayers for the owner of a local fuel station.

There has been no claim of responsibility but police say the target was Imran Khan Mohmand, an independent lawmaker in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly who won a seat in elections last month.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is on the frontline of a seven-year Taliban insurgency and borders the semi-autonomous tribal belt, where US drone strikes target Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives.

Washington considers the tribal areas a major hub of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.

Tackling homegrown Islamist militancy is one of the major tasks for Pakistan's new government, which was sworn in earlier this month after the elections.

More than 6000 people have died in attacks in Pakistan in the last six years according to an AFP tally.

Tuesday's attack is the deadliest since a bombing in a Shi'ite Muslim area of Karachi on March 3 killed 50 people.

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Troy Buswell top of the Dry July charts

WA Treasurer Troy Buswell is currently Australia's top fundraiser for the Dry July cause. Source: AAP

BOOZE has not always been the best influence in the life of West Australian Treasurer Troy Buswell.

But after vowing to give up the grog as part of the annual Dry July fundraising push, the controversial politician seems to have the support of the country, currently sitting number one on the national league table of fundraisers for the Cancer Council.

While he struggles to balance WA's books as the state's mining boom comes off the boil, Mr Buswell has had no trouble drumming up support for his own cause, raising $4605 from more than 20 donations to date.

After getting him into some trouble in the past, with allegations of inappropriate behaviour in private and in parliament, Mr Buswell said he was now happy to turn alcohol abstinence to an advantage.

"A friend from the Cancer Council, with subsequent encouragement from a few others, prompted me to participate in Dry July," Mr Buswell said.

"It's an excellent cause to support, as well as an excuse to start a health kick.

"Donations have already started to flow and I hope to raise as much as possible. Now the word is out, I expect a lot more money to flood in."

Other personalities supporting Dry July include footballer Brent Harvey, Olympian Jana Pittman, sports broadcaster Tiffany Cherry, actor Daniel Cormack and singer Barry Southgate.

Dry July was first run in 2008 and has so far raised over $11 million for cancer patients and their families.

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'Tweet' to feature in Aussie dictionary

IN a further sign technology is changing the way we speak, the social networking term "tweet" has entered the Oxford English Dictionary for the first time.

Tweet will also debut in Australia's printed Macquarie Dictionary later this year.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) chief editor John Simpson confirmed 'tweet' had been formally recognised in his hallowed tome's June update - more than seven years after Twitter was invented.

"The noun and verb tweet (in the social-networking sense) has just been added to the OED," Mr Simpson said.

"This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for ten years before consideration for inclusion. But it seems to be catching on."

Tweet's inclusion comes after the OED in 2011 recognised the acronyms 'LOL' (laugh out loud) and 'OMG' (oh my god) - both frequently used online and in SMS messages.

The EOD defined 'tweet' as simply: "To make a posting on the social networking service Twitter. Also: to use Twitter regularly or habitually".

'Tweet' will also be included in the printed Macquarie Dictionary, the respected compendium of Australian-English, for the first time in October.

Macquarie editors recognised 'tweet' in 2009 and included it in online editions from 2010.

But the sixth printed edition of the Macquarie Dictionary will be the first to carry the word, Editor Susan Butler told AAP.

Earlier this year, the Macquarie Dictionary included 'Phantom vibration syndrome' in its online edition - describing anxiety and an obsessional conviction that one's mobile phone has vibrated in response to an incoming call.

Other words or phrases which made it into the new EOD included: 'wingsuit' (a full-body garment having wings), 'sega' (a dance form of the Mascarene Islands) and 'metabolic syndrome' (a cluster of biochemical and physiological abnormalities).

The OED also recognised the slang phrase "to have a cow" - synonymous with the cartoon character Bart Simpson, but which in fact the OED says dates back to 1959.

Another slang phrase, "handyman special" made it too.

The OED said that term described "something (especially a house) which is in need of repair and therefore available at a discounted price".

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Elephant tramples girl to death in Nepal

AN elephant has trampled a 12-year-old girl to death after dragging her away from her home in a remote region of southeastern Nepal, police say.

Three members of the girl's family managed to flee when the elephant stormed into their rural home on Monday night but the youngster was unable to escape in time, police officer Pralhad Keshari told AFP.

Keshari said police chased the elephant away following the attack at the home on farmland near Dholbazar, a village on the border with India, 370km southeast of Kathmandu.

Nepal has seen a growing number of such deadly attacks on humans, with deforestation forcing wildlife to stray into villages as they hunt for food.

A tiger mauled two people to death in central Nepal last month, dragging one of the victims from a hut.

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