14 Sri Lankan asylum seekers sent home

A MAN making his second bid for asylum was among 14 asylum seekers sent home after allegedly hijacking a ship off the coast of Sri Lanka, the federal government says.

Speaking in Sydney, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the 14 asylum seekers left Cocos Islands on a plane bound for Sri Lanka at 1pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

He said the group, which also included three children, had all been on the Chejan - a fishing trawler that was allegedly hijacked on October 13 off the Sri Lankan coast.

The boat had been missing until it was intercepted on Thursday north-west of the Cocos Islands by ACV Hervey Bay.

He said the government had decided to remove all but one of the alleged 15 hijackers because they faced "serious charges in Sri Lanka".

"The government took the view that it's appropriate that they face those charges and the removal occur as soon as possible," Mr Bowen told reporters.

"The Australian government took the view that the Sri Lankan government should be able to cooperate and these people should be able to face these charges."

He said the government was not pressured by Sri Lanka to remove the group and did not say why one of the alleged hijackers had not been expelled.

He also denied the government had acted overly secretively on the issue.

"I don't think there's been secrecy, we've been progressing their removal and that entails conversations with other governments and it entails steps being put in place," he said.

The group included one man who had already been removed from Australia after a previously failed asylum bid, Mr Bowen said.

"I'm very clearly now, we are showing that if they return again we have steps available to us which we will implement," he said.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the Chejan should never have reached Australian waters.

"Labor has gambled on our borders by allowing alleged pirates to enter our waters and be given the opportunity to make a protection claim," he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship confirmed on Saturday that seven more Sri Lankan men had returned home voluntarily from Christmas Island.

They departed Perth on Friday on a commercial flight for Colombo.

Mr Bowen said he expected even more people return home in the future as the government's policy of offshore processing takes effect.

People who opt to depart voluntarily can receive individual reintegration support to assist with their return through the International Organisation for Migration.

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Hajj pilgrims stone devil for second day

HUNDREDS of thousands of Muslim pilgrims from all over the world, grouped by nationality, stoned the devil in Saudi Arabia's Mina valley on Saturday, as the Hajj reached its final stages.

Security forces were heavily deployed in the stoning area and first aid teams remained on high alert around the three adjacent pillars representing Satan.

Men, women and children from 189 countries moved easily from one pillar to the next shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is the greatest) as they hurled pebbles at the stone walls.

They walked in groups carrying their national flags so no members would get lost in the massive crowds.

As many prayed during and after the stoning, others were taking pictures on their mobile phones of themselves next to the pillars.

The photographing was criticised by members of the security forces who said through loudspeakers: "How are you people stoning Satan and taking pictures with him at the same time?"

The ritual, which takes place in the kingdom's usually deserted Mina valley and comes to life only during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, began on Friday with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday as the faithful began by stoning the largest pillar, Jamrat al-Aqaba.

Mina used to be the most dangerous phase of the Hajj and the most problematic for the Saudi authorities, marred by deadly stampedes in the past as well as by fires in tent camps.

In the past few years, however, tents have been fire-proofed and gas canisters and cooking are now banned.

The stoning area has also been expanded to avoid overcrowding.

The ritual is an emulation of Abraham's stoning of the devil at the three spots where it is said Satan tried to dissuade the biblical patriarch from obeying God's order to sacrifice his son, Ishmael.

According to the authorities, 168,000 police officers and civil defence personnel were mobilised for this year's Hajj.

For the stoning, they organised specific times of day for groups of pilgrims to perform the ritual.

More than three million registered pilgrims are taking part in the rituals which will finish on Monday.

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Woman dies after her car rolls on highway

A WOMAN has died after the car she was in rolled on the Bruce Highway in central Queensland.

Police said the accident occurred at Clairview about 3.40pm (AEDT) on Saturday and that no other vehicles were involved.

They said two passengers in the car sustained injuries that were not life-threatening.

Police are currently investigating at the scene.

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Sandy weakens to tropical storm

SANDY weakened from hurricane to a tropical storm early Saturday as it inched toward the US East Coast with sustained winds of 110 kilometers an hour, US forecasters said.

On Friday, the storm packed maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers an hour, enough to classify it as a Category 1 hurricane.

"Sandy weakens, but is expected to remain a large storm with widespread impacts into early next week," the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said.

It said the storm was expected to continued moving "parallel to the southeast coast of the United States through the weekend."

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End of an era for Berlusconi

ITALIAN newspapers splashed the news of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's jail sentence for tax fraud across their front pages on Saturday, heralding the end of an era dominated by the man one anti-Berlusconi paper called a "natural-born delinquent".

"The mirages and alibis are finished," said La Stampa.

"An entire generation of Italians born after 1975 will for the first time vote in elections next spring that are not a pro- or anti-Berlusconi referendum."

Berlusconi, 76, had already announced last week he would not stand in next year's elections, but his sentencing on Friday to four years in jail - quickly reduced to one under an amnesty law designed to reduce overcrowding in prisons - put an emphatic punctuation mark on the end of his domination of the Italian political scene.

"And so ends a Titanic affair, born in television and finished in court, with a clear, very tough and above all insulting punishment," wrote the editor of the centre-left daily La Repubblica, Ezio Mauro, saying the case highlighted Berlusconi's fall from grace.

Left-leaning daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, which had waged war on Berlusconi's government during his three stints as prime minister from 1994 to 2011, said the media tycoon had a "natural capacity for delinquency".

The verdict "is the proof that Italy was governed for nine years by a tax cheat", said the paper.

During the trial, Berlusconi was accused of artificially inflating the price of distribution rights bought by his Mediaset empire and creating foreign slush funds to avoid paying taxes in Italy.

Scandal-hit Berlusconi condemned his sentence as "intolerable judicial harassment".

The disgraced former premier looked alternately distraught and defiant in front-page photos.

In some shots he wearily pressed a hand to his eye or stared sullenly into space; in others he raised his hands in a protestation of innocence or briskly straightened the lapels of his suit.

Some papers stuck strictly to the facts.

The country's main newspaper, the centre-right Corriere della Sera, said only "Berlusconi convicted" in its headline, and did not run an editorial on the sentence.

Berlusconi's lawyers have said they will appeal by November 10. Italy's lengthy appeals process will likely ensure he never sees the inside of a jail cell.

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Suicide bomber kills 41 in Afghan mosque

A SUICIDE bomber has killed at least 41 people, including five children, when he struck at a mosque in northern Afghanistan after Eid al-Adha prayers on Friday.

Dozens more were wounded as the bomb ripped through the crowd of worshippers in Maymana city in Faryab province on Friday and there were fears the death toll could rise.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suicide bombings are a favourite weapon of Taliban Islamists trying to topple the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

The attacker was wearing a police uniform when he blew himself up at the entrance to the city's packed Eid Gah mosque, deputy provincial governor Abdul Satar Barez told AFP.

"Our latest death toll shows 41 deaths, and that might rise," he said.

"Nineteen were members of the security forces, including police, army and intelligence agents. Seventeen were civilians and five children are also among the dead."

Barez, like many other provincial officials, was at the scene at the time of the bombing and described the horror of the blast in the midst of a religious celebration.

"We had just finished Eid al-Adha prayers and we were congratulating and hugging each other," Barez said.

"Suddenly a big explosion took place and the area was full of dust and smoke and body parts of police and civilians were all over the place. It was a very powerful explosion."

One eyewitness, Sayed Moqeed, described the bomber as appearing to be in his early teens.

"Suddenly I heard a very big explosion," he said. "Everywhere were pieces of bodies, hands and limbs. The suicide attacker was in police uniform, he looked to be around 14 or 15 years old."

The four-day Eid al-Adha holiday is a celebration in which Muslims slaughter animals for feasts and distribute a portion of the meat among the poor, and the first day draws large crowds to mosques around the Islamic world.

Karzai strongly condemned the attack, calling the perpetrators "the enemies of Islam and humanity".

"Those who take the happiness of Muslims during Eid days cannot be called human and Muslim," he said.

Northern Afghanistan is relatively peaceful, with the Taliban, who were ousted from power in a US-led invasion in 2001, concentrating their operations in the south and east of the country.

But they have recently stepped up their activities in the north, despite the presence of more than 100,000 NATO troops in the country.

Last week, a huge roadside bomb ripped through a minibus carrying guests to a wedding party in the northern province of Balkh, near Faryab, killing 19 people and wounding 16 others.

The United Nations says 1,145 civilians were killed in the war in the first six months of this year, blaming 80 per cent of the deaths on insurgents.

Last year as a whole, a record 3,021 civilians died in the war, according to UN figures.

But Afghan police and government officials have increasingly become targets as local forces take on more responsibility for the fight against the insurgents as NATO prepares to pull out.

The foreign combat troops are due to withdraw by the end of 2014 and there are fears that the Taliban will extend their activities across wider swathes of the country against ill-prepared Afghan forces.

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Australian found dead in Bangkok hotel

AN Australian and a Canadian tourist have been found dead in a Bangkok hotel after a suspected drug overdose, Thai tourist police say.

A maid found the bodies of the two men, who are believed to be aged 27 and 31 years old respectively, slumped in a room in the Park Plaza, a hotel in one of main the tourist drags of the Thai capital.

Their bodies were found late on Thursday alongside an unknown white powder and drug-taking paraphernalia.

"At the initial autopsy the forensic doctor said they died from a drug overdose," the tourist policeman, who wanted to remain anonymous, told AFP on Friday, adding tests will be carried out on the powder.

Thailand's reputation as a tourist paradise has been tarnished recently after the deaths of several holidaymakers including two Canadian sisters on the resort island of Phi Phi in a suspected poisoning case in June.

Australian woman Michelle Smith, 60, from Perth, died on June 20 during an attempted robbery on the Thai resort island of Phuket. Two Thai men have been sentenced to life in prison for her murder.

In August, a British and a French tourist died in a nightclub blaze on Phuket island in another blow to Thailand's image - already tarnished over recent years by deadly political unrest, devastating floods, and concerns about violent crimes against foreigners.

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Toyota global vehicle sales up 28%

TOYOTA sold 7.4 million vehicles around the world in the first nine months of the year, up 28 per cent from a year earlier, but its strong growth faces headwinds from a sales plunge in China that could unseat it as the world's top automaker.

Anti-Japanese sentiment flared in China after Japan nationalised tiny islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, intensifying a territorial dispute.

The move set off violent protests in China and a widespread call to boycott Japanese goods. The islands are administered by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.

Toyota's vehicle sales in China dropped to about half of last year's levels in September to 44,100 vehicles from 86,000 the year before.

In August, Toyota sold 75,280 vehicles in China, down 15 per cent.

Toyota reclaimed its crown as the world's top automaker from General Motors (GM) in the first half, selling 4.97 million vehicles globally.

That marked a turnaround for Toyota, which had suffered setbacks in recent years from massive recalls and natural disasters.

Toyota had planned to sell a million vehicles in China this calendar year.

But the company no longer expects to achieve that number. It has not given a new target.

Over the first half of the year, Toyota sold about 300,000 more cars and trucks than GM did.

Initially, that kind of lead was seen as large enough to make it difficult for GM to catch Toyota in the final six months of 2012.

GM said it sold 4.67 million vehicles during the first half. It's set to give its January-September numbers on October 31.

Nomura Securities auto analyst Masataka Kunugimoto expects Toyota's China sales to gradually recover, reaching 900,000 vehicles for the year, even if they fall short of a million.

He expects GM and other non-Japanese manufacturers to get a lift in sales as buyers avoid Japanese products.

"But we don't expect this kind of drop to continue," he said. "The Chinese market is still growing."

Toyota's production was hit by the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan last year and then by flooding in Thailand.

Its sales were also dented by massive US safety recalls, totalling more than 14 million vehicles since the quality control problems emerged three years ago.

GM was No.1 in world auto sales last year.

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Obama, Romney wage bitter Ohio duel

IN a spectacular finale to a 40-hour campaign sprint, US President Barack Obama has launched a searing attack on Mitt Romney in Ohio, the state that may decide their election duel.

But Romney, rallying Republicans in the state's aptly named town of Defiance, mocked Obama's "incredibly shrinking" campaign and stole the president's 2008 mantra, promising "big change" if he wins on November 6.

The latest sharp exchanges came as polls showed the White House up for grabs, with Romney ahead by a nose nationally, but Obama standing firm in the key swing states that could hand him a second four-year term.

The president on Thursday won the endorsement of Colin Powell - an African-American Republican who served in both Bush presidencies - sparking controversial remarks by a Romney surrogate who suggested race was a factor.

"When you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him," top Romney adviser John Sununu said about Powell, who also backed Obama in 2008.

The remarks by Sununu, who is known for fiery media appearances, could inject race into a campaign Romney has tried to keep focused on the economy.

Earlier on Thursday, Obama lambasted Romney for opposing his bailout of the car industry as he campaigned in Ohio, a perennial battleground in which car manufacturing supports one in eight jobs.

"I refused to walk away from those workers, I refused to walk away from those jobs. I bet on American workers. I would do it again because that bet always pays off," Obama roared, in a populist pitch for blue-collar votes.

Obama ended an eight-state tour of more than 11,263km (7000 miles) with 11 days to go before he asks Americans to defy the omens of a weak economy and high unemployment by voting to renew his lease on the White House.

The president's aides are privately signalling increasing confidence that he will prevail. But Romney has sought to convince his supporters that he has the momentum in the final stretch.

"We want change. We want big change. We're ready," Romney told a 12,000-strong crowd in Defiance, accusing the incumbent Democrat of waging a nasty, negative, diminished campaign drained of new ideas.

"This is a time for big challenges, and a time of big opportunities, we have a big choice. And frankly we're going to elect a president that's willing to make big changes, and I will," Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said.

Romney blames Obama for four years of lacklustre US growth, while the president warns that Americans have come too far out of recession to risk reversing the progress under Republicans.

Earlier, Obama became the first sitting president to cast an early vote, in a successful grab for news coverage also designed to mobilise his supporters to register their ballots early.

In a slightly incongruous scene Obama, possibly the most famous man in the world, returned to a neighbourhood near his vacant Chicago home in a presidential motorcade and presented his ID for scrutiny.

Then he stood behind a touch screen machine to cast his vote, in a move designed to convince supporters to also go to the polls early.

Hours later, in a striking example of the theatrical power possessed by an incumbent president running for re-election, Obama landed before 12,000 people who had waited for hours at a lakefront airport in Cleveland.

The converted Boeing 757 serving as Air Force One, the codename given to any aircraft carrying the president, pirouetted on its nose wheel in front of the cheering crowd before Obama bounded down the steps and on to a stage.

The closer the election gets, the more the bad feeling between Romney and Obama seems to show.

In a Rolling Stone interview published on Thursday, Obama told the magazine's executive editor, Eric Bates, that children had excellent political instincts and could spot a "bulls***ter".

The comment was widely viewed as a jab at Romney, who Obama has accused of lacking principle and shifting positions for political gain. The remark prompted an acid response from Romney spokesman Kevin Madden.

"President Obama is rattled and on the defensive. He's running on empty and has nothing left but attacks and insults. It's unfortunate he has to close the final days of the campaign this way," he said.

Obama's team says he still has multiple routes to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

In two days, he toured battlegrounds Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Virginia and Ohio, stopped in California to appear on a late night talk show and made it home to Chicago.

Romney has also done his share of map hopping, but on Thursday he focused squarely on Ohio, where the latest average of polls by the RealClearPolitics website had Obama up by two points.

NBC/Wall Street Journal polls on Thursday showed Obama up three points on Romney in Nevada, where he also leads early voting, and tied with Romney in the Rocky Mountain battleground of Colorado.

Romney, however, was up three points in an ABC News/Washington Post poll of likely voters.

Sununu's race comment threatened to ignite another controversy as Romney was still struggling to contain fallout from comments about rape and abortion by Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, whom he has endorsed.

Mourdock had said pregnancy caused by rape was "something God intended to happen", offering an opening for the Obama campaign, which accuses Romney of backing a return to 1950s-era social policies.

Romney's team has said their candidate does not agree with Mourdock's views but still supports him in the Senate race.

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Romney adviser raises race card

AN outspoken surrogate for Mitt Romney's White House campaign has suggested that race was a factor in former secretary of state Colin Powell's endorsement of President Barack Obama.

Former New Hampshire governor John Sununu told CNN late on Thursday that the re-endorsement of Obama by Powell - a Republican who served in both Bush presidencies but backed Obama in 2008 - was possibly due to both men being African-Americans.

"Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama," Sununu told CNN host Piers Morgan.

"When you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him."

The remarks by Sununu, a prominent and often flamboyant supporter of Romney, could inject race into a campaign the Republican challenger has tried to keep focused on the sluggish US economy.

The remarks came just two days after Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, explaining his anti-abortion stance, sparked controversy by saying that pregnancies caused by rape are "something God intended to happen".

Those remarks threatened to slow Romney's progress in winning over vital women voters in key swing states and gave Obama an opening to brand Republicans as extremists when it comes to women's rights.

Sununu's remarks could prove less damaging - as Obama already enjoys overwhelming support among African-American voters - but may further distract from Republicans' central argument against the president's economic policies.

The two presidential candidates are locked in a virtual tie less than two weeks ahead of the November 6 election, with Romney enjoying a slight lead in national polls but Obama holding a narrow edge in vital states.

Powell, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H. W. Bush and secretary of state under President George W. Bush, is a moderate Republican once seen as a promising presidential prospect.

In his re-endorsement of Obama on Thursday, Powell credited the president with recent improvements in the economy and praised him as a steely commander-in-chief who had wound down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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