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Life has imitated art – and a bad Hollywood movie – with a snake slithering into the cockpit of an Australian plane. Photo / supplied

A terrified Australian pilot has been forced into an emergency landing after finding a snake in the cockpit of a small plane mid-flight, reports say.

The snake slithered from the dashboard of the Air Frontier plane 20 minutes after it took off from Darwin Airport on Tuesday, ABC News reported.

Its pilot issued a mayday call and made an emergency landing.

Air Frontier director Geoffrey Hunt told ABC news the incident was a first for the company.

“I have heard of crocodiles being loose in planes but not snakes,” he said.

Mr Hunt said the plane had been grounded while a search was carried out for the snake.

Traps had been set and the plane would not fly again until the reptile was found, he said.

“Until we find the snake, it’s not good for business.”

- HERALD ONLINE

A suicide blast during a ceremony at Somalia’s newly reopened national theater killed at least 10 people, including two of the country’s top sports officials. Photo / AP

Two weeks ago, Somalia’s National Theater reopened for the first time in 20 years for a concert that drew an audience in festive colors in a city trying to rise above war. A welcoming banner proclaimed: “The country is being rebuilt.”

On Wednesday, the theatre was turned into a scene of screams, chaos and blood when a suicide bomber attacked another high-profile event, killing 10 people, wounding dozens and shattering a tentative peace in the capital, Mogadishu.

The blast occurred as Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali stood at the podium to deliver a speech. He was unharmed, said government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman, but the president of Somalia’s Olympic committee and the head of its soccer federation were among the dead.

The government said a female suicide bomber carried out the attack. The Islamist militant group al-Shabab used its official Twitter feed to claim responsibility for the bombing.

The al-Qaeda-linked organisation said explosives had been planted in the theatre before the event, but an Associated Press journalist at the scene said there was no large blast crater, making a suicide bombing more likely.

“It was a cowardly act and that will not deter the government from performing its national duties,” Osman said. “The prime minister will energize the government to eliminate the terrorists.”

Omar Jamal, the charge d’affaires and first secretary of Somalia’s mission to the U.N., said in New York that the bombing was an attempt to assassinate Ali. The prime minister was sitting among a group of officials, and the suicide bomber was in an adjacent row, trying to figure out which one was her target, when Ali got up and went on stage to speak, Jamal added.

“It clearly shows that al-Shabab is still active and a real threat to the lives of government officials,” he said.

Fighters belonging to al-Shabab were pushed out of Mogadishu in August by government and African Union troops after two decades of violence that have gripped the Somali capital.

Since then, sports leagues have blossomed, markets have appeared and Western-style restaurants have sprung up, marking a long-awaited revival of the seaside capital. The National Theater was refurbished and reopened with a concert of singing, guitar-playing and drums on March 19 that drew hundreds of people and was broadcast live on TV.

Wednesday’s ceremony was part of that rebirth of entertainment, celebrating the first anniversary of the start of a national TV station.

“The blast happened as musicians were singing and spectators were clapping for them,” said Salah Jimale, who attended but received only scratches from the bombing. “Huge smoke made the whole scene go dark.”

Amid the screams, nervous soldiers outside fired into the air to disperse crowds gathered around the theatre.

A man wounded in the head and chest tried to sit up but suddenly collapsed and died. Shoes and blood-splattered cellphones were scattered on the floor of the theatre, which can accommodate 2,000 people and is partly open to the sky.

An old woman in tears ran toward a policeman, saying: “My son was in there.”

The policeman stopped her. She sat down and cried, but later ran inside, where she learned her son had died.

Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu’s ambulance service who provided the death toll, said the wounded included the national planning minister.

At a nearby hospital, nurses led stumbling patients into operating rooms.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the reopening of the theatre was a sign that normal life was returning to Mogadishu, “so the fact that al-Shabab chose this site for their attack shows their true stripes.”

He said the U.S. supports the transitional government in Somalia, as well as the African Union mission and the Somali security forces “to return peace and stability to Somalia. And we stand with the people of Somalia as they are trying to build a normal and functioning society.”

Reporters Without Borders said seven Somali journalists were among the wounded.

“Despite claims that Mogadishu is safer with the ousting of al-Shabab, the challenges and dangers Somali journalists face in the capital are still very prevalent,” said Tom Rhodes of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The International Olympic Committee said it was shocked by the attack that killed Aden Yabarow Wiish, the president of the Somali Olympic Committee, and Said Mohamed Nur, head of the Somali Football Federation.

“Both men were engaged in improving the lives of Somalian people through sport and we strongly condemn such an act of barbarism,” the IOC said. “Our thoughts are with the Somalian sporting community who lost two great leaders, and with the families of the victims.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the bombing “sickening” and acknowledged the “difficult moment” for everyone involved with Somalia’s Olympics efforts.

He said he hoped Somalis would honor the memory of those killed by participating in London Olympics this summer.

“At the London Conference on Somalia in February, the international community came together to back the efforts of the Somali people in building a new future for their country. So let us be absolutely clear today. Terrorists and violent extremists have no part in that future,” Cameron said.

“And we will not allow their actions to destabilise the process of political reform through which ordinary Somalis are, for the first time, getting a real say in how their country is run.”

The revival of sports in Mogadishu is an important part of its transformation. Women who lived under harsh rules when al-Shabab held sway can watch sports and even participate. Al-Shabab defectors have put down their guns and are participating in sports leagues.

Despite the advances, al-Shabab has continued to carry out bombings, sometimes with devastating effect. In October, militants detonated a truck bomb outside a government ministry, killing more than 100 people.

Augustine Mahiga, the U.N. special representative to Somalia, said Wednesday’s bombing must not derail Somalia’s progress.

“The reopening of the National Theater is symbolic of the real change that is happening in Somalia,” Mahiga said in a statement. “The city is being rebuilt, culture is being revived and hope is being restored.”

- AP

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Photo / AP

Two senior paramedics who wrongly declared a man dead at the scene of a Melbourne car crash have admitted they were at fault.

Ambulance Victoria chief executive Greg Sassella said the paramedics were devastated at what happened and an ongoing investigation would reveal exactly what went wrong.

The 30-year-old Hawthorn man was critically injured when his car collided with a four-wheel drive near Bacchus Marsh, west of Melbourne, about 2am (AEST) on Sunday.

Two intensive-care paramedics pronounced him dead when they couldn’t find a pulse, but they were later called back urgently to treat him after State Emergency Service volunteers found a weak pulse.

“What the paramedics are saying is that at the time, they felt that they did (check thoroughly); on reflection they are saying now they realise they would do it differently if they did it again,” Mr Sassella told reporters on Wednesday.

“So the question is, why did they do it that way in the first place when we know that they’re committed, we know they’re genuine, they spend their entire working life helping patients?

“We got to the crash in good time, the system responded well, the intensive care paramedics arrived, they made an assessment, and there was an error in the assessment.”

The man has been fighting for his life in the Royal Melbourne Hospital, but his condition has improved from critical to serious but stable.

Mr Sassella said Ambulance Victoria had offered to discuss the incident with the victim’s family when they felt ready and was also supporting the paramedics involved.

“We are worrying for them and are looking after them,” he said.

“Mistakes do happen. Unfortunately in our work when a mistake’s made it can have horrible consequences, and in this case that’s what’s occurred.”

Ambulance Victoria is next week due to release the findings from its investigation, which will involve medical experts and a review of the callout and events at the crash scene.

- AAP

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British MPs are warning Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg they may not support his surveillance proposals. Photo / Thinkstock

Plans to allow the authorities to monitor the online activity of every person in Britain were pushed back after being condemned by MPs from all parties.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced that the contentious measures would be published only in draft form and would be subject to widespread consultation – concessions that could delay the proposals for at least a year.

In a letter to Clegg published in the Independent yesterday, 17 Liberal Democrat MPs welcomed his intervention but warned him their support could not be taken for granted.

A storm erupted this week after it emerged that legislation to allow the police, intelligence services, councils and other public bodies to obtain details of messages sent via Skype and social networks would be included in the Queen’s Speech.

The disclosure provoked anger among Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs alike, who warned that the proposals contradicted the parties’ opposition to a similar Labour scheme – and were not included in the Coalition Agreement.

There have also been recriminations within the Coalition as Liberal Democrats – understood to have been backed by some Tory ministers – accused Theresa May, the Home Secretary, of mishandling the issue.

Clegg told the BBC that the most contentious parts of the legislation would be published in draft form to enable “proper scrutiny and examination and stress-testing”. He said the Government would “consult and think whether existing powers are sufficient”.

His comments came just hours after May made a passionate defence of the proposed measures – which the intelligence services originally wanted in place by the northern summer – as essential for tracking down criminals, paedophiles and terrorists.

The planned bill would also allow GCHQ to obtain information “on demand” and in “real time” without a warrant, and require internet companies to install hardware tracking telephone and website traffic.

In their letter, the Liberal Democrat MPs make it clear that Clegg will have a rebellion on his hands if the Government allows a major expansion of surveillance.

Prime Minister David Cameron also sought to lower the temperature among his backbenchers, insisting he was opposed to creating a “snoopers’ charter”.

He said: “This is not about extending the reach of the state into people’s data; it’s about trying to keep up with modern technology.”

- Independent

Chinese police say they rescued more than 20,000 abducted women and children across the country last year.

A report from the Ministry of Public Security said police rescued 8,660 abducted children and 15,458 women in 2011 as nearly 3,200 human trafficking gangs were broken up.

Trafficking in women and children is a big problem in China, where traditional preference for male heirs and a strict one-child policy has driven a thriving market in baby boys, who fetch a considerably higher price than girls. Girls and women also are abducted and used as laborers or as brides for unwed sons.

No figure was given for the total number of abductions last year. China’s vast size and 1.3 billion pollution mean many such cases never get reported.

-AP

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Plans for a series of SpongeBob statues off the coast of France have not been well-received. Photo / Supplied

Plans to place giant statues of the cartoon character SpongeBob in the sea off one of France’s top natural sites have been scrapped in the face of stiff local opposition.

Nickelodeon, the US children’s television network, wanted to place several four-metre statues under water off the Calanques – deep narrow inlets noted for their biodiversity – near the southern city of Marseille.

The idea was that children would be able to see them when they took diving lessons in the area, Thierry Reboul of the public relations agency working for Nickelodeon on the project, said on Wednesday.

But the plan was scrapped after local activists opposed it, arguing that that the spectacular natural site should not be used for marketing purposes.

Much of the action in the Sponge Bob series centres on the adventures of the title character and his friends in the submarine city of Bikini Bottom.

- AFP

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Jenna Talackova is asking Donald Trump to state she can vie for the Miss Universe title. Photo / AP

Donald Trump wished a transgender woman who wants to be Miss Universe good luck yesterday as his organisation said she can vie for Canada’s spot in the pageant.

The Miss Universe Organisation said it actually made the decision on Tuesday to let 23-year-old Jenna Talackova compete in the 2012 competition to become Canada’s contestant.

The statement said Trump wished Talackova “the best of luck in her quest for the crown” as he would any other contestant.

But a statement issued then had a caveat that confused Talackova, saying she could enter the pageant “provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions.” No further details were provided.

Earlier yesterday, Talackova and her lawyer Gloria Allred urged the organisation to clarify its position, and displayed a copy of Talackova’s passport, which lists her as female, as do her birth certificate and driver’s licence.

Talackova, a Vancouver resident, underwent a sex change four years ago after being born a male.

Her sex change initially led organisers in Canada to disqualify her from the 61st Miss Universe Canada pageant in May, citing a rule that she must be “naturally born” a woman.

Talackova pleaded with the pageant’s leaders to drop the rule.

“I am a woman,” Talackova said yesterday. “I was devastated, and I felt that excluding me for the reason that they gave was unjust. I have never asked for any special consideration. I only wanted to compete.”

Talackova and Allred urged Trump to state that she can vie to represent Canada in the Miss Universe contest if she wins the Canadian contest. They also called on him to eliminate the rule.

“I do not want any other woman to suffer the discrimination that I have endured,” Talackova said.

- AP

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One Goh, 43, who is suspected of killing seven people at Oikos University in Oakland. Photo / AP

The nursing director at a California college where seven people were killed said Wednesday she believes the gunman was targeting her over a financial dispute, but she was teaching elsewhere when he opened fire on others at the campus.

A portrait of suspect One Goh, 43, as an angry, unstable man at school emerged today as he made his first appearance in court after being charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder, plus a special circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders that could make him eligible for the death penalty. Goh is a native of South Korean who became a US citizen.

Shackled and showing little emotion, Goh said nothing during the brief appearance other than a soft “yes” when the judge asked if he understood the charges. He did not enter a plea.

Goh dropped out of the nursing program at the tiny private school around November but returned numerous times to ask her for a full tuition refund.

Goh got angry when she told him the school could not refund all his money because he had been enrolled for nearly half of the program, she said.

Police have said Goh was seeking a female administrator when he went to the campus Monday. When he was told she wasn’t there, they said, he began shooting in classrooms, killing six students and a receptionist and wounding three others.

“In talking to several of the students and faculty who were there, I think he was looking for me. I have that weight on my shoulders and I don’t know what to do with it,” Ellen Cervellon, director of the nursing program at Oikos University, told The Associated Press, her voice quavering.

“Every single one of those students were going to be an excellent, excellent nurse. They’re in my heart, and they always will be,” she said.

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan previously said Goh was angry after being expelled from the school, but Cervellon said he was never expelled and decided to leave on his own.

“He was never forced out, he showed no behavioral problems, and he was never asked to leave the program,” she said. “He decided on his own to leave the program.”

Cervellon said police have not yet spoken with her.

Jordan confirmed Cervellon was the gunman’s intended target. He said investigators plan to interview her soon, and that many details were still unclear.

“We were told by witnesses that he was kicked out, but there could be some facts that he wasn’t,” Jordan said. “I do know that he was trying to get his down payment or tuition reimbursed.”

During previous meetings with Cervellon, Goh also said he felt his classmates were picking on him at the school, which was founded to help Korean immigrants adjust to life in America and launch new careers, she said.

Jordan has said Goh also was upset because other students had teased him about his poor English skills.

However, Cervellon and nursing professor Romie John Delariman said they never heard about or witnessed Goh being ridiculed for problems with English. Delariman said Goh was a good student who didn’t seem to struggle with his second language.

“He was a full-time student and was really motivated. If I taught something he would be the first person in line to do it,” Delariman said.

Still, Goh appeared to be the aggressor in exchanges with others at the school, according to Efanye Chibuko, whose wife Doris Chibuko was among those killed in Monday’s attack.

Chibuko said his wife, a native of Nigeria who was elected president of her nursing class, felt Goh was unstable.

“My wife was afraid of him,” he told the AP. “She was afraid he would do something like he did. She knew the other victims, and they talked about it. They were afraid that he was going to come back and do what he did.”

Chibuko said he’s angry with school officials for not doing more to protect the students.

“They were all living in fear. My wife told me the guy had been violent toward the school staff and had kicked the walls and stuff like that,” he said. “So they knew. They should have had security in place.”

Delariman said he noticed that Goh had problems, in particular, dealing with women in his predominantly female nursing classes.

“He can’t stand women,” Delariman said. “He said he never used to work with women, or deal with women in a work setting or a school setting.”

In a police affidavit, Officer Robert Trevino said Goh acknowledged going to Oikos on Monday with a .45-caliber handgun and four magazines of ammunition.

“He admitted to kidnapping a woman and forcing her from her office into a classroom at gunpoint,” Trevino said in the statement. “He admitted to shooting and killing several people inside the classroom, before taking one of the victim’s car keys and fleeing the scene in the victim’s car.”

About an hour after the shooting spree, police arrested Goh at a supermarket a few miles from campus.

Online records in two Virginia localities where he lived show that, while Goh was there, he racked up tens of thousands of dollars in liens and judgments, including a $10,377 debt to SunTrust Bank in 2006.

It’s unclear how Goh earned a living before he became a nursing student at the school of about 100 students. His instructors and a former employer said he previously worked in construction.

Several hundred friends, family and community members gathered for a multicultural prayer vigil Tuesday night to mourn the victims of the nation’s deadliest campus shooting since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

“Only God knows the meaning of the suffering we endure,” Dr. Woo Nam Soo, the university’s vice president, said in Korean during the church service. “In this unbearable tragedy and suffering, only God can create something good out of it.”

-AP

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Free Syrian army fighters perform noon prayers in a neighborhood in Damascus, Syria. Photo / AP

Syrian activists say two people were killed in government raids on villages in the country’s north while a bomb in a northern city killed one.

Also on Monday, international envoy Kofi Annan is to give the UN Security Council a report on his mission to ease the Syrian crisis. As the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, Annan has been pushing for a cease-fire to allow all sides to discuss a political solution.

So far, international diplomacy has failed to stop the violence.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces killed two people in the northern Idlib province, and a bomb blast in a kiosk killed one in the city of Aleppo.

The UN says more than 9,000 people have been killed since Syria’s uprising started in March 2011.

- AP

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawwa and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Photo / AP

A Pakistani militant accused of directing deadly attacks in neighbouring India dismissed a U.S. decision to put a bounty of $10 million on his head as misdirected.

The reward is for “information leading to the arrest and conviction” of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who founded the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba with alleged Pakistani support in the 1980s to pressure archenemy India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. The U.S. also offered up to $2 million for Lashkar-e-Taiba’s deputy leader, Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, who is Saeed’s brother-in-law.

Saeed, who has denied involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people, said the U.S. announced the reward because of his demonstrations against reopening supply lines through Pakistan to NATO troops in Afghanistan.

“We are organising massive public meetings to inform the nation about all the threats which Pakistan will face after the restoration of the supplies,” he told The Associated Press in a mosque in Islamabad.

“With the grace of God, we are doing our work in Pakistan openly. It is regrettable that America has no information about me.

Such rewards are usually for those who live in caves and mountains.”

The bounty offers could complicate U.S.-Pakistan relations at a tense time. Pakistan’s parliament is debating a revised framework for ties with the U.S. following American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November. Pakistan closed its supply lines to NATO troops in response.

Pakistan banned the group in 2002 under U.S. pressure, but it operates with relative freedom under the name of its social welfare wing Jamaat-ud-Dawwa – even doing charity work using government money.

The U.S. has designated both groups foreign terrorist organizations. Intelligence officials and terrorism experts say Lashkar-e-Taiba has expanded its focus beyond India in recent years and has plotted attacks in Europe and Australia. Some have called it “the next al-Qaeda” and fear it could set its sights on the U.S.

The reward marks a shift in the long standing U.S. calculation that going after the leadership of an organization used as a proxy by the Pakistani military would cause too much friction with the Pakistani government.

The U.S. State Department describes Saeed as a former professor of Arabic and engineering who continues “to spread ideology advocating terrorism, as well as virulent rhetoric condemning the United States, India, Israel and other perceived enemies.” It also noted that six of the 166 people killed in the 2008 attacks in the Indian city were American citizens.

A Pakistani-American, David Coleman Headley, pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to helping Lashkar-e-Taiba plan the Mumbai rampage targeting a hotel and other sites.

While there was no single incident or development that caused the U.S. to act now, the group has developed a more anti-Western agenda in recent years, with Westerners among the victims of the Mumbai attack, for example, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition to discuss classified matters.

The group made itself a target the U.S. could not ignore, by slowly expanding its lower-level working relationships with the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other militant groups, the official said.

The official said the Pakistani military had kept the group from achieving any high level coordination with al-Qaeda as part of Pakistan’s “attempts to constrain the group while preserving it as a reliable proxy.”

Saeed’s role in the group is to “provide strategic guidance to the group and delegates the details to his trusted commanders,” making him a key target, the official said.

The 61-year-old Saeed operates openly in Pakistan from his base in the eastern city of Lahore and travels widely, giving public speeches and appearing on TV talk shows. He has been one of the leading figures of the Difa-e-Pakistan, or Defense of Pakistan Council, which has held a series of large demonstrations in recent months against the U.S. and India.

The reward for Saeed is one of the highest offered by the U.S. and is equal to the amount for Taliban chief Mullah Omar. Only Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as al-Qaeda chief, fetches a higher bounty at $25 million.

The bounties were posted on the U.S. State Department Rewards for Justice website late Monday.

Pakistani defense analyst Hasan Askari-Rizvi said the move against Saeed could be payback for his recent demonstrations against U.S. drone strikes and allowing NATO supplies meant for troops in Afghanistan to travel through Pakistan.

Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna welcomed the U.S. announcement, saying it would signal to Lashkar-e-Taiba and its patrons that the international community remains united in fighting terrorism.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means Army of the Pure, belongs to the Salafi movement, an ultraconservative branch of Islam similar to the Wahhabi sect – the main Islamic branch in Saudi Arabia from which al-Qaida partly emerged. Lashkar-e-Taiba and al-Qaeda operate separately but have been known to help each other when their paths intersect.

Analysts and terrorism experts agree that Pakistan’s intelligence agency, known as the ISI, is still able to control Lashkar-e-Taiba, though the ISI denies it.

- AP