Women took part in slashing rampage

Separatists from China's Xinjiang region orchestrated the attack on a train station which left 29 dead.

A woman in shock ... at the crime scene outside the railway station in Kunming, in south-western China's Yunnan province. Picture: AP Source: AP

AUTHORITIES have blamed a slashing rampage that killed 29 people and wounded 143 at a train station in southern China on separatists from the country's far west and vowed a harsh crackdown Sunday, while residents wondered why their laid-back city was targeted.

Police fatally shot four of the assailants — putting the overall death toll at 33 — and captured another after the attack late Saturday in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. But authorities were searching for at least five more of the black-clad attackers.

State broadcaster CCTV said two of the assailants were women, including one of the slain and the one detained.

"All-out efforts should be made to treat the injured people, severely punish terrorists according to the law, and prevent the occurrence of similar cases," said China's top police official, Politburo member Meng Jianzhu, who arrived in Kunming early Sunday, an indication of how seriously authorities viewed the attack.

Mass stabbing ... police officers investigate the crime scene after an attack by knife wielding men left 28 people dead in Kunming, in south-western China's Yunnan province. Picture: AP Source: AP

The attackers' identities have not been confirmed, but evidence at the scene showed that it was "a terrorist attack carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces," Xinhua said. The far western region of Xinjiang is home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule by some members of the Muslim Uighur (pronounced WEE'-gur) population, and the government has responded there with heavy-handed security.

Police in Kunming on Sunday were rounding up members of the city's small Uighur community, believed to number no more than several dozen, for questioning in the attack.

Most attacks blamed on Uighur separatists take place in Xinjiang, where clashes between Uighurs and members of China's ethnic Han majority are frequent, but Saturday's assault happened more than 1500km to the southeast in Yunnan, which has not had a history of such unrest.

Kunming residents expressed dismay at both the attack and the conditions within China that could have allowed it to happen.

Chinese police investigators ... inspect the scene of an attack at the railway station in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan province. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

Restaurant worker Xie Yulong said the attackers were "worse than animals." But he also expressed sympathy toward ethnic Uighurs, saying their region has come under severe security crackdowns in recent months under the government of President Xi Jinping.

"It's the pressure," Xie said. "Beijing has put too much pressure on them since Xi Jinping. They are under so much pressure they do not want to live, and they did that."

Another Kunming resident, Jiang Hua, said the attack has made people scared to go out at night.

"I think we should chase off the Uighurs and let them be independent," Jiang said. "And local authorities should be held accountable for providing public safety."

Witnesses described assailants dressed in black storming the train station late Saturday evening and slashing people indiscriminately with large knives and machetes.

Police officers ... investigate and protect the crime scene outside a railway station in Kunming, in south-western China's Yunnan province. Picture: AP Source: AP

Student Qiao Yunao, 16, was waiting to catch a train at the station when people started crying out and running, and then saw a man cut another man's neck, drawing blood.

"I was freaking out, and ran to a fast food store, and many people were running in there to take refuge," she said via Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblog. "I saw two attackers, both men, one with a watermelon knife and the other with a fruit knife. They were running and chopping whoever they could."

Alarms over a possible spread of militant attacks to soft targets beyond the borders of Xinjiang were first raised in October when a suicide car attack blamed on three ethnic Uighurs killed five people, including the attackers, at Beijing's Tiananmen Gate.

A fork ... used by the police to handle attackers is left on the ground outside a railway station after an attack by knife wielding men in Kunming. Picture: AP Source: AP

Sean Roberts, a cultural anthropologist at George Washington University who has studied Uighurs and China for two decades, said the Kunming violence would be a new kind of attack for ethnic Uighurs — premeditated, well-organised and outside Xinjiang — but still rudimentary in weaponry.

"If it is true that it was carried out by Uighurs, it's much different than anything we've seen to date," Roberts said by phone.

But he added that it is still unclear whether there is any organised Uighur militant group, and that attacks so far do not appear linked to any "global terrorist network, because we're not seeing things like sophisticated explosives or essentially sophisticated tactics."

A victim ... is inspected by police officers. Picture: AP. Source: AP

The violence in Kunming came at a sensitive time, with political leaders in Beijing preparing for Wednesday's opening of the annual legislature, where Xi's government will deliver its first one-year work report.

Willy Lam, a political observer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the attack coming so close to the National People's Congress dented Xi's message of a "Chinese Dream" coalescing under his rule.

"Pockets of dissatisfaction, groups of people with grievances, appear to be increasing. After 1 1/2 years of more heavy-handed control (in Xinjiang), the report card does not look good," Lam said.

Xi called for "all-out efforts" to bring the culprits to justice. The Security Management Bureau, which is under the Ministry of Public Security, said in a statement that police would "crack down on the crimes in accordance with the law without any tolerance."

The attack was the deadliest violence attributed to Uighur-Han conflicts since riots in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi in 2009, in which Uighurs stormed the streets of the city, targeting Han people in seemingly random violence that included the killing of women and children. A few days later, Han vigilante mobs armed with sticks and bats attacked Uighurs in the same city. Nearly 200 people died.

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Ukraine on ‘brink of disaster’

Ukraine's army is put on full combat alert, while the United States calls for the immediate deployment of international monitors to the former Soviet republic. Sarah Toms reports.

In force ... a convoy of hundreds of Russian troops has headed toward the capital of Ukraine's Crimea region. Picture: Darko Vojinovic Source: AP

UKRAINE'S Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has warned that his crisis-hit country is on the "brink of disaster'', accusing Russia of declaring war in a bleak appeal to the international community.

"This is the red alert, this is not a threat, this is actually a declaration of war to my country,'' he told reporters in English, a day after Russia's parliament approved the deployment of troops to Ukraine.

"If President Putin wants to be the president who started a war between two neighbouring and friendly countries, between Ukraine and Russia, he has reached his target within a few inches. We are on the brink of the disaster."

A convoy of hundreds of Russian troops headed toward the capital of Ukraine's Crimea region on Sunday, a day after Russia's forces took over the strategic Black Sea peninsula without firing a shot.

The new government in Kiev has been powerless to react. Ukraine's parliament was meeting on Sunday in a closed session.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has defied calls from the West to pull back his troops, insisting that Russia has a right to protect its interests and the Russian-speaking population in Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine.

Escalation ... heavily-armed troops displaying no identifying insignia stand guard outside a local government building in Simferopol, Ukraine. Picture: Sean Gallup Source: Getty Images

There has been no sign of ethnic Russians facing attacks in Crimea, where they make up about 60 per cent of the population, or elsewhere in Ukraine. Russia maintains an important naval base on Crimea.

President Barack Obama spoke with Mr Putin by telephone for 90 minutes on Saturday and expressed his "deep concern'' about "Russia's clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity,'' the White House said. Mr Obama warned that Russia's "continued violation of international law will lead to greater political and economic isolation.''

The US also said it will suspend participation in "preparatory meetings'' for the Group of Eight economic summit planned in June at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the Winter Olympics were held.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius agreed, saying on French radio Europe that planning for the summit should be put on hold. France "condemns the Russian military escalation'' in Ukraine, and Moscow must "realise that decisions have costs,'' he said Sunday.

Taking sides ... Pro-Russian militants station themselves behind a row of shields in Simferopol, Ukraine. Picture: Sean Gallup Source: Getty Images

But the US and other Western governments have few options to counter Russia's military moves.

NATO's North Atlantic Council, the alliance's political decision-making body, and the NATO-Ukraine Commission were to meet on Sunday. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the allies will "coordinate closely'' on the situation in Ukraine, which he termed "grave.''

Ukraine is not a NATO member, meaning the US and Europe are not obligated to come to its defence. But Ukraine has taken part in some alliance military exercises and contributed troops to its response force.

On the road from Sevastopol, the Crimean port where Russia has its naval base, to Simferopol on Sunday morning, Associated Press journalists saw 12 military trucks carrying troops, a Tiger vehicle armed with a machine gun and also two ambulances.

Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, announced late Saturday that he had ordered Ukraine's armed forces to be at full readiness because of the threat of "potential aggression.'' He also said he had ordered stepped-up security at nuclear power plants, airports and other strategic infrastructure.

'Brink of disaster' Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says the Russian military actions are a 'declaration of war'. Picture: Andrew Kravchenko Source: AFP

On Crimea, however, Ukrainian troops have offered no resistance.

The new government came to power last week following months of pro-democracy protests against the now-fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, and his decision to turn Ukraine toward Russia instead of the European Union.

Ukraine's population of 46 million is divided in loyalties between Russia and Europe, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the EU, while eastern and southern regions look to Russia for support. Crimea, a semi-autonomous region that Russia gave to Ukraine in the 1950s, is mainly Russian-speaking.

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Russia, $1.2m and a dead man walking

A BEAUTIFUL young Russian woman and her mother, a wrong corpse and $1.2 million worth of life insurance are all pieces of a legal puzzle hinging on the claim that Sydney security guard Vladimir Safronov is actually a dead man walking.

His friend Sergey Gerasimov claims Safronov, 46, died six months after returning home to Russia but the companies that insured his life for $1.2 million suspect "fraud".

Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

The District Court has been asked to decide if Mr Safronov is dead as Mr Gerasimov, executor of his friend's estate, has claimed the $400,000 due on each of the three life insurance policies.

Allianz, Suncorp Life and OnePath Life are refusing to pay up, disputing that the Bondi security guard was the man found dead on a street in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov in March 2010.

A Ukrainian death certificate provided to the court by Mr Gerasimov states the Russian-born Australian national died of heart disease and his body was cremated.

Mr Safronov's body was allegedly identified by Oleg Zhirnoklev, who told the morgue at Kharkov he was a friend of Mr Safronov, the court was told.

Facebook image of Daria Chuprakova. Source: Facebook

But investigations by the insurers uncovered a photograph of the corpse identified as Mr Safronov which does not match his passport photograph, has the wrong height and the wrong date of birth.

"In light of the inconsistencies … (insurers) formed the view that the deceased the subject of the autopsy was not that of Mr Safronov and that there was no evidence that Mr Safronov was deceased," court documents state.

Mr Gerasimov has agreed the dead man in the photo was not Mr Safronov but maintained the death certificate "confirmed unequivocally that Mr Safronov had died", documents show.

Vladimir Safronov's death certificate. Source: Supplied

Mr Zhirnoklev is one of the beneficiaries of Mr Safronov's estate, along with Mr Gerasimov, Daria Chuprakova, her mother Elena Chuprakova and another two people. Mr Safronov, who was single, took out the life policies in 2007.

The insurance companies are seeking to have the NSW registration of Mr Safronov's death overturned.

The case is expected to be heard in the District Court later this year.

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Izzy doubles as Tahs thump Reds

Waratahs come out on top in their rgrudge match with the Queensland Reds

Israel Folau scores his 2nd try during the Waratahs v Queensland Reds Super Rugby game at ANZ Stadium, Sydney. pic mark evans Source: News Corp Australia

DARE to dream? Believe the hype?

The Waratahs gave long-suffering fans reasons to do both Saturday night after posting a record victory over arch-rivals Queensland.

An entertaining four-try 32-5 win was the biggest margin recorded between the teams in Super Rugby, and after pocketing a bonus point for the second consecutive week, NSW's first win over the Reds in six games said plenty of about their 2014 credentials.

But coach Michael Cheika did his best fireman's impersonation post-match, pouring buckets of cold water on talk of NSW being "front-runners" of the Aussie conference.

"I don't know if we're front-runners. We have only just jumped out of the barriers," Cheika said.

"It is only two games in and there's a long way to go. There's no front-running going on. We are mature to know we have done zero. There is just such a long way to go."

Cheika said the team's goal is week-in, week-out consistency and he at least got in his opening two victories, with Israel Folau again scoring tries, Wycliff Palu dominating and playmaking pair Kurtley Beale and Bernard Foley turning in another scheming performances.

Folau was voted man of the match but the one-sided win was by no means a one-man show, with the NSW forwards outstanding in negating the Reds pack and their danger men Quade Cooper and Will Genia.

Folau scored his first try with just 150 seconds gone but his second in the 25th minute exemplified the team performance, coming after a sweeping counter-attack that went through 12 sets of hands and travelled 60 metres.

Beale scored a try from a quick tap and laid on another for Peter Betham to seal the win over Queensland, who only managed one try from Lachie Turner.

Michael Hooper led from the front as the Tahs' stand-in skipper. Source: News Corp Australia

Cheika dismissed talk of the record winning margin, and said it was just another step in the team's progression.

"I don't know if it's that dramatic, that it's the end point of something," he said.

"What's going to happen now, obviously there is going to be a lot of talk about the win but we just need to stay level, and understand we're just at the bottom of the mountain.

"We don't need anything to sharpen our focus more than to think back to round three or so last year when we got tonked by the Brumbies, and that game is coming up next."

NSW's offloading was adventurous and the scrum strong, but it was far from a complete performance by the Tahs, after their lineout almost entirely fell apart.

Queensland never settled into any attacking rhythm and oddly kicked away what little possession they secured.

"They're playing with a lot of confidence and as that confidence they grew they got momentum," said captain James Horwill.

"We needed to be better to change that momentum … but they capitalised on the field position and possession."

The Waratahs led 19-5 at the break after dominating every minute of the opening half except the last one.

With Queensland attempting to flood the breakdown, gaps in the backline popped up from the get-go and a flat pass from Foley to Kurtley Beale exploited one. Beale fed Folau for his opening try.

Folau has now scored five tries in two matches. Source: News Corp Australia

NSW seemed to find gaps at will on the edges of Queensland's defence but several promising raids came to nothing, and a faltering line out kept the Reds in the game.

The brilliant long-range try finished by Folau - with star roles from Foley and the impressive Jacques Potgieter in between - stunned the visitors though, and Betham scored soon after.

Folau's sinbinning just short of halftime gave the Reds a sniff, and Turner made the most of the Reds being a man up when he cruised in unmarked out wide after the siren.

If boosted, the Queensland spirit was deflated soon after they returned from oranges. A powerful NSW scrum got them down on Queensland's line and after sustained pressure, referee Glenn Jackson awarded a penalty five metres out and Beale swooped.

A quick tap saw him dive over under the attention of two Reds defenders and snare the second bonus point for NSW in as many weeks.

Relive all the action from our Live Blog below and check out Match Centre for stats and video!

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Cocoa farmers try chocolate for first time

Cocoa farmers taste chocolate for the first time. Pic: Screengrab CNN. Source: Supplied

AS I flew down to Abidjan it was the free luxury box of chocolates being handed out in Business Class that set me thinking. I was about to land in the country from where the beans which made the chocolate originated.

Although I was here to delve into the economics of chocolate, I also realised I needed to know what the farmers who grow the vital raw material — the cocoa beans — actually thought of the stuff we eat so liberally.

Something told me I might find a use for the chocolates, so I took the box with me rather than scoffing them on board.

One week later, we were in the middle of a remote farm, a few hours out of Abidjan, and this thought returned. I had spent days talking about the economics of this industry, and trying to work out who was to blame for the appalling poverty we had witnessed. I had seen diseased trees and visited experimental farms. I had heard from cooperatives and sat in tribal meetings — but I had not seen any chocolate.

Visiting a cocoa bean farm had one journalist wondering if the farmers ever got to see the end product. Source: AFP

In this village there was a small stall, selling crackers, fruits and peculiarly, a wide range of antibiotics which frankly shouldn't be taken without first getting medical advice!

But there was no chocolate to be seen. None. Of course, I realise it's very hot and the stuff melts, but it still seemed a bit odd that nowhere was there any chocolate.

Then it dawned on me. These farmers and their families, had never tasted chocolate — let alone knew the various types which are made.

I had thought it was apocryphal that the farmers who grow the beans had never tasted the final product. I never expected to come across it myself. But here I was, in the middle of a village meeting — and we decided to see what they thought of the stuff.

Since we were filming with Nestle, my producer, Matt Percival still had a couple of Kit Kats (slightly the worst for wear after a week in his case!!!) and of course I had the luxury chocolates which I was going to use as a too-clever by half prop next to some beans or trees.

We decided to do a chocolate tasting. We quickly realised protocol dictated the tribal elders tried the Kit Kat first. It became the defining moment of this trip and my experience of Cocoa-nomics.

Farmers explain they have never tried chocolate because 'where would we find it?' Pic: Screengrab CNN. Source: Supplied

That look on the elders faces as they tasted a humble Kit Kat. A big, toothless grin came across one of the faces. There was much laughing and cheering. Where children would normally clamour for the stuff, here they held back. They didn't know what it was all about.

Well, one Kit Kat doesn't go very far in a village of tribal elders — so we broke out the luxury box of chocolates.

I tried to explain the diagram and what it meant — that one has nuts, this one is strawberry cream — it didn't matter. One by one, the elders, then the children tasted these chocolates. One woman was quite overcome and kept wanting to try more!

If this was all, you would rightly say it was as gimmick and no more. But the farmers are far more astute than that.

Elders get first taste of the chocolates. Pic: Screengrab CNN. Source: Supplied

They wanted to know how much I had paid for the Kit Kat — and were amazed, horrified and bewildered when I told them roughly a $1 a bar.

With their cocoa fetching a minimum of $1.5 a kilo they were working out the profit the industry was making on one bar.

This was a fortune for the farmers who earn a pittance. But the farmers were not bitter about this — not yet anyway.

They kept saying "our cocoa makes this." There was an enormous pride in their voices and attitude that they were part of this process.

I wondered to myself, why the chocolate industry — the manufacturers, processors and distributors — didn't make more of an effort to ensure the farmers at least knew what their crop was creating.

Farmers loved the taste and were proud to be part of the finished product, although horrified at the price. Pic: Screengrab CNN. Source: Supplied

Cynics will say it's because they don't want the farmers to know how valuable their crop is to the companies. I don't think so.

So we left the farmers having had their little taste of chocolate luxury. And on the drive back to Abidjan I reflected on "that moment."

Letting the farmers understand their crops use will not make them dissatisfied. There was such a pride in their faces and voices as they realised, now, for the first time, they knew what they were helping to create.

On the flight back home, when I looked at the box of chocolates being given out, or even now when I take a Kit Kat (150 are eaten globally every second) I smile and wonder at the farmer who grew the cocoa and hope it won't be too long before the farmers and their children eat the stuff again.

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Baby brain tumour grew teeth

Rare ... Only five other cases in medical literature found teeth in the type of tumour removed from a baby's brain. Source: News Limited

DOCTORS at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US have removed a rare tumour that contained several fully grown teeth from a baby boy's brain.

The tumour was found in the four-month-old from West Virginia in 2012 after a pediatrician noticed that his head was unusually large for his age.

Doctors wrote about the findings in an article that appeared this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The discovery could someday help researchers trying to cure diseases or grow new organs, medical experts said.

"It gives us more insight into the origins of the tumour," said Dr Edward Ahn, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins who was the lead surgeon in the case.

The tumour found in the child was a craniopharyngioma, a rare mass found mostly in young children that can press up against the pituitary gland and optic nerve and cause pressure in the brain, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Only five other cases in medical literature found teeth in these types of tumours, Dr Ahn said.

Teeth are more commonly found in another kind of tumour, teratomas.

Doctors have found many bodily structures, including fingers and even partially formed humans, in teratomas because their cells have the ability to form any kind of cell type or organ system within the tumour mass, said Dr James T. Rutka, a pediatric neurosurgeon and chair of the University of Toronto's department of surgery who was not involved in the Maryland case.

"If they are absolutely certain this is a craniopharyngioma, it would be way less common" to have teeth or any body part, said Rutka, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neurosurgery and a past president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

The baby's mother, who did not want to be identified to protect her family's privacy, said in an interview that she took her son to the pediatrician for a stuffy nose in 2012.

Doctors discovered that the boy's head had grown significantly from two weeks before when it was measured during a routine visit.

An ultrasound and CT scan revealed the large tumour, which doctors said they had to remove through surgery.

"The tumour was very large and the baby was so small," Dr Ahn said.

"To do this type of surgery on a four-month-old baby is extremely risky, but something we had to do right away."

Until the surgery, doctors didn't know what kind of tumour had grown on the child's brain.

Once inside the brain, Dr Ahn discovered a solid tumour with pieces of white that he thought at first was calcium, which is not unusual in these tumours.

Craniopharyngioma tumours are formed from the lining of the brain or back of the mouth and often have calcium inside but not organised into teeth, Rutka said.

"We had to think twice," Ahn said.

"We first thought they were flakes of calcium. When we looked at it closer, we were like, 'Those really look like teeth', "

A pathologist confirmed a week later that they were teeth.

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Qantas planes collide at LAX

Qantas planes, pictured at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images

TWO Qantas passenger jets have collided with each other at Los Angeles International Airport, damaging both aircraft.

The wing tips of a superjumbo A380 and a Boeing 747 struck around 4pm AEST as the planes were being towed out of a hangar. No passengers were on board.

The damage was substantial enough to force the cancellation of flight QF94 to Melbourne and QF16 to Brisbane.

The incident comes after the troubled airliner this week announced plans to slash more than 5000 jobs, retire ageing planes and sell off terminals in an attempt to cut costs by $2 billion over three years.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce announced the drastic cuts on Thursday. Picture: AAP Source: AAP

Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association federal secretary Steve Purvinas - whose members are responsible for some of the airline's maintenance - said on Twitter he estimated the repair bill would run into the millions.

"Qantas A380 and B747 will be on the deck for a long time after accident in LAX," he said. "Thankfully the collision was on the ground."

A Qantas spokeswoman told news.com.au the damage bill claims were "unsubstantiated".

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The airliner has launched an investigation and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has been notified.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the agency deployed extra safety inspectors to the Qantas bases across Australia following yesterday's announcement.

Qantas said customers would be put up in hotel rooms and accommodated on the next available flight.

While uncommon, collisions between taxiing aircraft do occur.

In August, a Virgin Australia plane carrying 175 passengers collided with an empty Jetstar plan at Melbourne Airport, causing $3 million damage.

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