Top ETA operatives arreted in France

THE arrests of six ETA suspects in France has broken up the Basque armed separatist group's "logistical core" and made its total dissolution inevitable, Spain's interior minister says.

"The logistical core of ETA has been detained today," with the arrest of those suspected of providing safe houses, stolen vehicles and false documents for members, Jorge Fernandez Diaz told a news conference.

He called it "a very important step towards the dismantling of ETA", which is classed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

The group is blamed for 829 deaths in a four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for independence for the Basque Country of northern Spain and southwestern France.

It declared in October 2011 a "definitive end" to its armed activity but has not formally disarmed or disbanded as the Spanish government demands.

French authorities said the six were arrested in Blois, a city in central France, and Brive-la-Gaillarde and Montpellier, in the southwest of the country.

"Investigations determined that those detained operated in three groups that formed the core of ETA's logistical system," the minister said.

"The operation dismantled three services basic and vital to the survival of ETA and its members: the running of safe houses, the providing of stolen vehicles and the production of counterfeit material."

He said the two most important members detained on Tuesday were those who ran the safe houses: Antonio Goicoechea Gabirondo, 42 -- an explosives expert -- and Raul Aduna Vallinas, 32. They were detained in Brive-la-Gaillarde.

Ekhine Eizaguirre Zubiarre and Kepa Arkauz Zubillaga, both aged 29 and arrested in Blois, took care of forging documents, he said.

The other two, Igor Uriarte Lopez de Acua, 39, and Julen Mendizabal Elezcano, 33, were in charge of stealing vehicles.

ETA has been weakened over recent years by a string of arrests of its members, many of them in France. One of its top commanders got a life sentence in April for the 2007 murder of two Spanish police officers in France.

Spain refuses to hold talks with ETA's leaders.

"The operation, added to the extreme operational weakness of the terrorist group, places ETA face to face with the inevitability of its break-up," Fernandez said.

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Low earners struggling to feed families

PEOPLE on low incomes in NSW and the ACT are struggling to regularly provide food for their families, a new study shows.

Anglicare and the Samaritans Foundation on Wednesday released the research, based on surveys of those who use emergency relief services provided by the groups.

They found 98 per cent of respondents were "not sure where their next meal was coming from" and 82 per cent were "unable to provide food for their family on a regular basis".

Children's meal sizes were cut by 30 per cent of those surveyed to make food go further and 31 per cent of parents can't afford to regularly feed their kids, the research said.

The survey also revealed seven per cent of children often went without food for a whole day.

Almost 90 per cent of respondents said they were worried about running out of food and 68 per cent said they regularly skipped meals.

Anglicare Sydney chief Grant Millard said this was happening mainly to "low income earners, people with a disability, single parents, people experiencing rental stress and people from an indigenous background."

"People were often making the difficult choice of going without food in order to pay for other more pressing expenses," he said in a statement.

"Some 95 per cent of the people surveyed in NSW and ACT indicated that they had run out of food in the last three months due to unexpected expenses like medical bills, car repairs, large power bills and sudden increases in rent."

Parents were going hungry to feed their children, Mr Millard added, but he said it was "deeply concerning" children were missing out on meals.

Anglicare's winter appeal is being launched with the research on Wednesday.

Organisers are hoping to raise $1.9 million to fund emergency relief programs, which provide food to those in need.

Donations can be made at www.anglicare.org.au.

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Woman indecently assaulted on NSW train

POLICE are looking for a man who indecently assaulted a woman on a train on the NSW Central Coast.

About 6pm (AEST) on Tuesday a 20-year-old woman was indecently assaulted on a train near Gosford, police say.

She was then followed by the man after leaving the train at Point Clare station, but he soon disappeared.

Police searched the area and were unable to find the man, described as being in his late 20s with a Caucasian appearance, about 173 centimetres tall with brown hair, unshaven and of thin build.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1300 333 000.

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Libya minister rescinds resignation

LIBYA'S defence minister resigned but then changed his mind and the army chief of staff was sacked, as a political crisis deepened over gunmen besieging government ministries.

"I find myself compelled, despite opposition from my colleagues in recent days, to present (my resignation) voluntarily and without hesitation," Mohammed al-Barghathi said, quoted by the official Lana news agency.

"I cannot accept the policy of force used by armed groups in our new state," he added.

But just hours later, the government issued a statement saying Barghathi had changed his mind after Prime Minister Ali Zeidan asked him to stay on.

"The chief of the government asked the defence minister to rescind (his decision) and the minister said he understands, given the circumstances the country is going through, that he should continue in office," a statement said.

Separately, members of the National General Congress (NGC), said it had sacked army chief of staff General Yusef al-Mangoush, who has long been accused of delaying the formation of a proper army.

Other deputies said Mangoush would stay on for another month until a replacement is named.

Militiamen, mostly former rebels who fought to oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, have surrounded the justice and foreign ministries since last week to demand the removal from public posts of former officials of the slain dictator's regime.

Initially, the gunmen intended to pressure the NGC, the highest authority in the country, to adopt the law on political exclusion.

But they remained camped outside the ministries despite the adoption of the legislation, with some of them now calling for the resignation of Zeidan's government.

On Tuesday, a dozen vehicles armed with anti-aircraft guns and rocket-launchers were still parked in front of the foreign ministry, an AFP correspondent reported from the site.

"We are thuwars (revolutionaries) and we want to correct the process of the revolution," said one of the gunmen who identified himself as Mohamed Ben Neema.

"The employees and officials of the former regime who massacred the Libyan people continue to occupy important positions, especially the foreign ministry. The revolution has not come to this building."

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Ireland pardons WWII soldiers who deserted

THOUSANDS of Irish soldiers who deserted their neutral nation's military to fight with the Allies in World War II will be officially pardoned under a new law.

About 5,000 deserters were court martialled or dismissed from the Irish defence forces in 1945, a move that left them without military pensions and barred from any state job for seven years.

Defence Minister Alan Shatter formally apologised last year for the discharge order, known as the "starvation order" because of the devastating effect it had on ex-servicemen and their families.

On Tuesday, MPs were set to approve legislation enshrining this apology and an amnesty in law, in a move Shatter said "goes some way to right the wrongs of our past".

"The bill is being enacted in recognition of the courage and bravery of those individuals court martialled or dismissed from the defence forces who fought on the Allied side to protect decency and democracy during World War II," the minister said.

"It gives important statutory expression to the apology given by me on behalf of the state last year for the shameful manner in which they were treated."

He acknowledged that only a handful of those affected were still alive, but said the amnesty would restore their reputations and help their families find peace.

Peter Mulvany, co-ordinator of the Irish Soldiers Pardons Campaign, said it was a "good day for the country".

He said the ex-servicemen "were treated horrendously".

About 60,000 Irish people are thought to have fought in the British army, navy or air force during World War II, but tensions between London and Dublin over British-controlled Northern Ireland meant their efforts were for decades virtually forgotten.

Since the landmark 1998 Good Friday peace deal in Belfast, however, recognition of their role has become a powerful symbol of reconciliation between the neighbouring countries.

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Thick-skulled fossil cuts dino theory down

THE discovery of a new thick-skulled dinosaur the size of a large dog may challenge our image of a pre-historic Earth dominated by supersized lizards, a study says.

The planet may, in fact, have been inhabited by many more types of small dinosaur than widely thought, a group of researchers wrote in the journal Nature Communications.

"It would have been a world filled with a diversity of dinosaur life, both large and small," study co-author David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum's natural history department said of the results.

Today, Earth is dominated by small-bodied animals, including mammals and reptiles.

But dinosaur fossil finds have painted a picture of a very different world during the Mesozoic era, from about 250 to 65 million years ago, in which monster-sized creatures prevailed.

Scientists disagree on whether this meant the bigger animals were simply more numerous, or that their remains have been better preserved.

Now, evidence for the latter theory has been found in fossilised skull fragments discovered in the Milk River Formation of southern Alberta, Canada.

The remains are from a small, plant-eating dinosaur that strode the Earth hunched on two muscled hind legs some 85 million years ago.

About 1.8 metres from nose to tail and weighing in at 40 kilograms, the animal had a ridge of solid bone more than 10 centimetres thick on the top of the skull -- possibly used in head-butting contests.

The feature gave rise to its name Acrotholus audeti, after the Greek for "high dome".

Acrotholus is the oldest species from a group of thick-skulled dinosaurs known as pachycephalosaurs in North America, and possibly the world, the researchers wrote.

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4 UN peacekeepers seized in Golan Heights

AN armed group has abducted four UN peacekeepers from the Philippines in the Golan Heights, which has been hit by mounting spillover from the Syrian civil war, the United Nations says.

The four were patrolling near the Al Jamlah locality in the ceasefire zone between Israel and Syria where 21 Filipino peacekeepers were seized by Syrian rebels in March, said a UN peacekeeping spokeswoman, Josephine Guerrero.

"An unknown armed group" took the men, Guerrero told AFP. "Efforts are underway to secure their release."

In a posting on their Facebook page, the "Yarmuk Martyrs Brigade" rebel group said they had taken the four peacekeepers for their own safety because of fierce fighting in the area.

"The leadership of the Yarmuk Martyrs Brigade announces... an operation to secure and protect United Nations forces in Wadi Yarmuk in the area between Syria and the occupied Golan Heights," the group said.

The posting showed a photograph of four men in blue flak jackets, with three of them marked "UN" and "Philippines."

The statement said shelling by regime troops and fighting in the area "seriously threatened the safety" of the peacekeepers and had prompted the fighters to "intervene and work to get them out."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog confirmed there was heavy fighting underway in the area.

The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has been in the Golan Heights since 1974, has about 1,000 troops and civilian staff.

The 917 troops from Austria, India, the Philippines, Morocco and Moldova carry only very light arms.

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Lives at risk, Vic paramedics say

VICTORIAN paramedics say emergency response times are blowing out and putting lives at risk.

The paramedics, who are in the middle of negotiating a new enterprise bargaining agreement with Ambulance Victoria, say Premier Denis Napthine's refusal to budge from the 2.5 per cent wage increase is fuelling a crisis in the ranks.

Ambulance Employees Australia state secretary Steve McGhie says the current offer amounts to a one dollar a week wage increase for paramedics and is insulting, considering how many lives they save.

"Emergency call takers and despatchers are in the eye of the storm of our worsening ambulance crisis. The crisis is right there on their computer screens every moment of every day," Mr McGhie said.

In March, the Productivity Commission revealed that average ambulance response times to Code 1 emergencies in Victoria had blown out to almost 19 minutes.

Some rural ambulance stations are seeing average response times as long as 30 minutes, and many patients across Melbourne and Victoria are being forced to wait hours for an ambulance.

"These communications staff point to a slew of incidents in which staff shortages have left patients waiting hours for an ambulance," Mr McGhie said.

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US consumer confidence rebounds in April

US consumer confidence picked up in April after falling the prior month, the Conference Board has reported.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 68.1 points from a revised 61.9 in March.

Consumers' expectations about the short-term economic outlook and their income prospects improved, but the research firm cautioned that the effects of the January 1 payroll tax hike and the sharp government spending cuts that began March 1 were weighing on sentiment.

Confidence rose slightly in the present situation, but consumers were considerably more upbeat about the outlook over the next six months.

The expectations index jumped to 73.3 in April from 63.7 in March.

"While expectations appear to have bounced back, it is too soon to tell if confidence is actually on the mend," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's economic indicators.

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Russia art museums feud over revival plan

RUSSIA'S two greatest art museums are engaged in an unsightly public feud over an idea to revive a Moscow museum of Western art that was shut down by Stalin in the late 1940s.

The State Museum of New Western Art gathered the impressionist and early modern art collected by renowned Russian art collectors Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov in the late Tsarist era.

But it was closed on Stalin's orders in 1948 as the Soviet authorities rejected anything reeking of "cosmopolitanism" in a drive to play up the importance of Soviet art.

Its collection was divided between the Pushkin Art Museum in Moscow and the famed Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, where the pictures can be seen to this day.

The redoubtable director of the Pushkin Museum, Irina Antonova, 91, last week personally asked President Vladimir Putin during his annual phone-in with Russians to consider reopening the museum in Moscow with its original collection.

However the idea did not in the least impress the Hermitage museum, which under the plan could see some of its most prized Matisse, Degas and Picasso pictures transferred back to Moscow.

"This new attempt to break up the Hermitage is a crime against the stability of the whole museum landscape in Russia, whose unity and riches have been preserved with such difficulty," fumed Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky, quoted by the government Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily.

Antonova however launched a stout defence of her position saying the recreation of the museum was a question of "historical fairness".

"The state destroyed this museum. The state has the chance to revive it. This is my opinion," she said.

In response to Antonova's request, Putin on Tuesday asked the government to draw up by June 15 a report on the viability of recreating the Western art museum in Moscow.

Morozov and Shchukin amassed two of the greatest collections anywhere of European art.

But like other private collections, their holdings were nationalised after the Russian revolution and used to form the basis of the Museum of New Western Art (GMNZI) which was founded in 1928.

The dispute has highlighted the rivalry between the Pushkin Museum and the Hermitage, with the much older Saint Petersburg institution keen to affirm its supremacy over the Moscow museum which was opened only in 1912.

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