Australia firefighters race to beat rising heat

YASS: Australian firefighters raced to control a series of blazes on Thursday before a forecast rise in temperatures brings the risk of more infernos, as dramatic accounts of survival emerged.

Fires have been raging across southeast Australia for nearly a week. While many have been contained, 120 are still burning and at least 17 remain out of control in the country's most populous state, New South Wales.

Cooler weather that brought some relief on Wednesday continued in many parts Thursday. But temperatures are set to soar again to well over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Friday, piling pressure on firefighters.

In Tasmania, residents of the fishing village of Dunalley, where 90 homes and businesses were destroyed, could be allowed to go home on Friday, police said, as gripping stories of survival emerged.

"We saw tornadoes of fire just coming across towards us and the next thing we knew everything was on fire, everywhere all around us," Tim Holmes, who took refuge in the sea under a jetty with his five young grandchildren, told the ABC.

"We were all just heads, water up to our chins just trying to breathe because... the atmosphere was so incredibly toxic." The family survived but are now homeless.

NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said crews were working flat-out containing blazes before the heat returned.

"It's about focusing on getting as much contained and consolidated as we can ahead of a return to hotter and dryer conditions dominating much of NSW over the coming days," Fitzsimmons told ABC television.

"We're looking at temperatures across much of NSW into low-to-mid 40s and extending into the high 40s on Saturday.

"The only reprieve, if you can call it that, is that we are not expecting significant wind strengths to build."

The blazes have scorched more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) of land in New South Wales alone, with one fire burning just two kilometres (1.2 miles) from a former weapons range littered with unexploded bombs.

The 5,840-hectare Deans Gap fire is near the Tianjara plateau which, until the mid-1970s, was used by the army as a practice bombing range.

"If it was required, they'd be looking to put in a firebreak in that area," a New South Wales Rural Fire Service spokeswoman told AFP.

Were the flames to reach the plateau south of Sydney, it could complicate firefighting efforts, with the unexploded bombs making water-drops impossible.

The fires are so large they can be seen from space, with astronaut Chris Hadfield uploading images of "streamers of smoke visible all across the country" to Twitter from the International Space Station.

While more than 100 homes were razed by fires in Tasmania state last weekend, only a handful have since been destroyed nationwide and no deaths have been reported.

The biggest impact has been on farmers, with vast amounts of pasture, crops and animal feed lost, as well as thousands of head of stock and sheds and outbuildings.

One of the worst-hit areas is Yass Shire west of Canberra where a fire has so far burnt out 16,000 hectares and killed 10,000 sheep.

As well as New South Wales, fires continue to burn in the states of Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland.

Wildfires are a fact of life in arid Australia, where 173 people died in the 2009 Black Saturday firestorm, the nation's worst natural disaster of modern times.

Most are ignited naturally, but in Sydney's west three teenage boys were charged with deliberately lighting a fire on Tuesday, and on Wednesday a man was charged after sparks from his angle grinder caused a blaze.

- AFP/al

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Bantwal records highest maximum temperature in Karnataka

MANGALORE: Bantwal hobli in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district recorded highest maximum temperature of 38.3°C on January 9 at 4.15 pm. Lowest minimum temperature of 12.1°C is recorded in Khanapur hobli of Khanapur taluk in Belgaum district on January 10 at 7.15am. Gund gram panchayat in Supa hobli of Supa taluk in Uttara Kannada district recorded maximum rainfall of 2.5mm in the last 24-hours up to 8.30am on Thursday.

Minimum relative humidity of 23.3% is recorded in Kundgol hobli of Kundgol taluk in Dharwad district on January 9 at 2.45pm. Maximum relative humidity of 99.9% is recorded in Jala hobli in Bangalore north taluk of Bangalore urban district on January 10 from 4am to 8.30am. Mainly dry weather prevailed over the state in the last 24-hours up to 8.30am on Thursday. Rainfall was negligible in 30 districts, KSNDMC, Bangalore stated.

North-East monsoon was normal in three districts and weak in remaining 27 districts. Light rain was recorded in one district, very light rain in seven districts and no rain in 22 districts.

Karnataka for the period January 4 to January 10 recorded deficit rainfall of 67%. Against normal weighted average rainfall of 0.3mm in south-interior, north-interior, malnad and coastal parts, state recorded rainfall of 0.1mm. For 24-hours period ending 8.30am on January 10, the four geographical regions received 0mm actual weighted average rainfall against normal weighted average rainfall of 0.1mm, a deficit of 100%.

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Embryonic Sharks Freeze to Avoid Detection

Jane J. Lee

Although shark pups are born with all the equipment they'll ever need to defend themselves and hunt down food, developing embryos still stuck in their egg cases are vulnerable to predators. But a new study finds that even these baby sharks can detect a potential predator, and play possum to avoid being eaten.

Every living thing gives off a weak electrical field. Sharks can sense this with a series of pores—called the ampullae of Lorenzini—on their heads and around their eyes, and some species rely on this electrosensory ability to find food buried in the seafloor. (See pictures of electroreceptive fish.)

Two previous studies on the spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) and the clearnose skate (Raja eglanteria)—a relative of sharks—found similar freezing behavior in their young. But new research by shark biologist and doctoral student Ryan Kempster at the University of Western Australia has given scientists a more thorough understanding of this behavior.

It all started because Kempster wanted to build a better shark repellent. Since he needed to know how sharks respond to electrical fields, Kempster decided to use embryos. "It's very hard to test this in the field because you need to get repeated responses," he said. And you can't always get the same shark to cooperate multiple times. "But we could use embryos because they're contained within an egg case."

Cloaking Themselves

So Kempster got his hands on 11 brownbanded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) embryos and tested their reactions to the simulated weak electrical field of a predator. (Popular pictures: Bamboo shark swallowed whole—by another shark.)

In a study published today in the journal PLoS One, Kempster and his colleagues report that all of the embryonic bamboo sharks, once they reached later stages of development, reacted to the electrical field by ceasing gill movements (essentially, holding their breath), curling their tails around their bodies, and freezing.

A bamboo shark embryo normally beats its tail to move fresh seawater in and out of its egg case. But that generates odor cues and small water currents that can give away its position. The beating of its gills as it breathes also generates an electrical field that predators can use to find it.

"So it cloaks itself," said neuroecologist Joseph Sisneros, at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. "[The embryo] shuts down any odor cues, water movement, and its own electrical signal."

Sisneros, who conducted the previous clearnose skate work, is delighted to see that this shark species also reacts to external electrical fields and said it would be great to see whether this is something all shark, skate, and ray embryos do.

Marine biologist Stephen Kajiura, at Florida Atlantic University, is curious to know how well the simulated electrical fields compare to the bamboo shark's natural predators—the experimental field was on the higher end of the range normally given off.

"[But] they did a good job with [the study]," Kajiura said. "They certainly did a more thorough study than anyone else has done."

Electrifying Protection?

In addition to the freezing behavior he recorded in the bamboo shark embryos, Kempster found that the shark pups remembered the electrical field signal when it was presented again within 40 minutes and that they wouldn't respond as strongly to subsequent exposures as they did initially.

This is important for developing shark repellents, he said, since some of them use electrical fields to ward off the animals. "So if you were using a shark repellent, you would need to change the current over a 20- to 30-minute period so the shark doesn't get used to that field."

Kempster envisions using electrical fields to not only keep humans safe but to protect sharks as well. Shark populations have been on the decline for decades, due partly to ending up as bycatch, or accidental catches, in the nets and on the longlines of fishers targeting other animals.

A 2006 study estimated that as much as 70 percent of landings, by weight, in the Spanish surface longline fleet were sharks, while a 2007 report found that eight million sharks are hooked each year off the coast of southern Africa. (Read about the global fisheries crisis in National Geographic magazine.)

"If we can produce something effective, it could be used in the fishing industry to reduce shark bycatch," Kempster said. "In [America] at the moment, they're doing quite a lot of work trying to produce electromagnetic fish hooks." The eventual hope is that if these hooks repel the sharks, they won't accidentally end up on longlines.

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Holmes 'Delighted' by Creepy Self-Portraits: Victims

After two days of apparent indifference, accused Aurora shooter James Holmessmiled and smirked at disturbing self-portraits and images of weapons shown in court today, according to the families of victims who watched him.

"When he sees himself, he gets very excited and his eyes crinkle," Caren Teves said outside of the courthouse, after the hearing. "Your eyes are the window to the soul and you could see that he was very delighted in seeing himself in that manner."

Teves' son Alex Teves, 24, died in the shooting.

Prosecutors showed photos that Holmes took of himself hours before he allegedly carried out a massacre at a Colorado movie theater. He took a series of menacing self-portraits with his dyed orange hair curling out of from under a black skull cap and his eyes covered with black contacts. In some of the photos, guns were visible.

Those haunting photographs, found on his iPhone, were shown in court today on the last day of a preliminary testimony that will lead to a decision on whether the case will go to trial. The hearing concluded without Holmes' defense calling any witnesses.

The judge's decision on whether the case will proceed to trial is expected on Friday.

James Holmes: Suspect in Aurora Movie Theatre Shootings Back in Court Watch Video

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Holmes, 25, is accused of opening fire on a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colo., on July 20, 2012, killing 12 people and wounding dozens others during a showing of "Dark Knight Rises."

The court room's set-up kept members of the media from being able to see Holmes' face as the photos were displayed, but victims and their families could watch him.

Teves said that Holmes was "absolutely smirking" when images of his weapons and the iPhone photos he took of himself were shown in court.

"I watched him intently," Caren Teves' husband Tom Teves said. "I watched him smile every time a weapon was discussed, every time they talked about his apartment and how he had it set up (with booby traps), and he could have gave a darn about the people, to be quite frank. But he's not crazy one bit. He's very, very cold. He's very, very calculated."

Holmes' has exhibited bizarre behavior after the shooting and while in custody. His defense team has said that he is mentally ill, but have not said if he will plead insanity.

"He has a brain set that no one here can understand and we want to call him crazy because we want to make that feel better in our society, but we have to accept the fact that there are evil people in our society that enjoy killing any type of living thing," a frustrated Tom Teves said. "That doesn't make them crazy. And don't pretend he's crazy. He's not crazy."

The photos presented in court showed Holmes mugging for his iPhone camera just hours before the shooting.

Click here for full coverage of the Aurora movie theater shooting.

Half-a-dozen photos showed Holmes with his clownish red-orange hair and black contact lenses giving the photos a particularly disturbing edge.

In one particularly odd image, he was making a scowling face with his tongue out. He was whistling in another photo. Holmes is smiling in his black contacts and flaming hair in yet another with the muzzle of one of his Glock pistols in the forefront.

Yet another photo showed him dressed in black tactical gear, posing with an AR-15 rifle.

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GAO calls on Postal Service to prefund retiree benefits

U.S. Postal Service officials and postal unions have long pushed Congress to relieve the agency of its obligation to prefund retiree health benefits. It’s a burden other agencies don’t share and one that officials say the Postal Service can’t afford. Defaults on prefunding payments total $11.1 billion.

But not everyone agrees that removing or substantially reducing the prefunding requirement is the best way out of the USPS hole.

A recent Government Accountability Office report says the “USPS should prefund its retiree health benefit liabilities to the maximum extent that its finances permit.”

The GAO said that deferring the prefunding payments “could increase costs for future ratepayers and increase the possibility that USPS may not be able to pay for some or all of its liability.”

The report said the Postal Service’s financial condition makes it difficult for the agency “to fully fund the remaining $48 billion unfunded liability over the remaining 44 years of the schedule” set up by the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

USPS officials say they can pay $0.00. The Postal Service is losing $25 million a day.

“If Congress was to eliminate the requirement for USPS to pay down its unfunded liability on retiree health care, taxpayers would almost certainly pick up the bill,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). “USPS needs to cut costs, not cheat taxpayers or its own employees.”

The GAO report gives something to both sides, saying that the USPS should prefund its retiree health benefits, while acknowledging that it currently is too broke to do it.

In a response included in the GAO report, Joseph Corbett, the USPS chief financial officer and executive vice president, said the Postal Service “does not have the financial resources to make the prefunding payments required by current law.”

He criticized the GAO for releasing a report that did not include the controversial USPS proposal to sponsor its own health-care plan, outside of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan that now covers postal workers.

“Allowing the Postal Service to gain control of its own health care program would save money, reduce or eliminate the current unfunded liability, and allow for better management of health care costs going forward,” Corbett said.

Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, called on Congress to “reject the GAO’s policy myopia. . . . Government records show that 80 percent of all the USPS red ink stems directly from prefunding.”

Report: Close the digital divide

Uncle Sam needs to get with the digital program.

That’s the takeaway from a report — with the appropriate title #ConnectedGov — on the government’s use of technology and social media. It is being released Wednesday by the Partnership for Public Service, in collaboration with the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting firm.

The report identifies innovative digital programs in seven agencies, demonstrating that “there are places in government that are doing immensely creative and impactful things,” said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership.

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Bangkok governor charged over city Skytrain contract

BANGKOK: Thai authorities charged outgoing Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra Wednesday with extending the multi-billion-dollar contract to run the city's elevated train network without government permission.

Sukhumbhand, who has stood down from his post to campaign for re-election in March, failed to consult the Interior Ministry before renewing the contract of Skytrain operator BTSC last year, the Department of Special Investigation said.

"The DSI informed Sukhumbhand of the charge today," the DSI's Thawal Mangkang told reporters at its Bangkok headquarters.

He added that the contract extension to 2042 -- which was made 17 years before the deal was up for renewal -- was worth $6.6 billion.

Investigators have around a month to complete their work before deciding whether to forward a case to prosecutors.

If found guilty, Sukhumbhand could face a year in jail or a hefty fine while BTSC's contract extension would be rescinded, the DSI said.

Sukhumbhand, the candidate of the opposition Democrat party, denied the allegations, telling reporters that he "did not violate any laws" and was consulting lawyers over bringing a counter legal claim against the DSI.

Eight other Bangkok Metropolitan Administration officers -- including Sukhumbhand's deputy -- were also charged over the contract renewal, which boosted BTSC's existing deal from 2029 to 2042.

Established in 1999 the Skytrain system is a key commuter alternative to Bangkok's notoriously congested roads and runs on elevated tracks through the business heart of the city.

Sukhumbhand stepped down on Wednesday to concentrate on his re-election campaign.

-AFP/fl

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Great writing will win in the end: Boyagoda

Writer, critic and scholar Randy Boyagoda is the chairman of the English department at Ryerson University, Canada. He has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Paris Review and Harper's Magazine. His debut novel, Governor of the Northern Province, was long-listed for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Boyagoda talks to The Times of India about his latest novel, Beggar's Feast, and much more

Tell us about yourself (your childhood, your parents and your early experiences). I was born in a small Canadian town located about 30 minutes outside of Toronto in 1976. My parents immigrated to Canada in the late 1960s and settled there. Along with my sisters, mine was a typical Third World-into-First World childhood: a combination of classic Canadian experiences like ice hockey and classic immigrant experiences like elaborate family trips to the airport to greet relatives who arrived smelling of Tiger Balm and immediately began praising all things Sri Lankan in comparison to all things Canadian. Sometimes they also praised all things British over and against all things Canadian, certainly the older visitors did.

Is your writing autobiographical as according to the overview, it involves family, travel, and religion? If yes, how and why? My writing isn't directly autobiographical in this novel but the story of the main character, Sam Kandy, was inspired by a family story. My travels to Sri Lanka over the years, and the many stories of the island that I've heard from my parents and others, certainly informed the novel. But at the same time, everyday commonplace experiences as a husband, as a father, as a man working in a city - all these came into play as well, transformed and mutated and sublimated such as the story and moment demanded.

How is your book different from other authors/filmmakers in the context that it deals with the life of a small town boy trying to achieve success in a big city? This is an excellent question, because I think it identifies the universal story at the heart of my novel, one that I think a lot of Indian readers will identify with: the experience of leaving a small town behind to seek a better life in the big city, which always involves the great need to return to that small town and prove to people there that you did, in fact, make it in the big city. For all the many adventures and misadventures that Sam Kandy has in Beggar's Feast, at base he wants the people in his birth-village to know that he's made something of himself in the great world because no one there ever thought he'd amount to anything.

Does the protagonist symbolize the struggle of the common man in early 20th century? I think so, in many ways - Sam really is a nobody from nowhere who discovers how much there is to be had in the world at large, a world that, as it becomes increasingly modern and interconnected, means that blood and geography and caste aren't the sole factors in determining someone's success in life: a common man with ambition and smarts can also succeed, though not without costs, as Sam also discovers.

Would there be any parallels that one could draw in the modern world today? I'd say the same phenomenon continues, only in more intense and rapid ways thanks to unprecedented levels of migration and intercultural contact made possible by our technology-dominated daily life.

Through your novel, do you intend to comment on the hypocrisy of colonization? Not in any direct, ideological way. But because the novel tells the story of Ceylon becoming Sri Lanka, of moving from a colonial possession into postcolonial self-possession, some critique of colonization itself is inevitable.

Were there any Indian authors that you appreciated and were influenced by? If no, then who are the people who inspired you? This is a loaded question because I'm not sure how fully Indian any of the authors I'd cite would be! That said, Tagore affords the novel's epigraph, and some of the Indian authors who have influenced me include R K Narayan and Salman Rushdie. Other influential authors include William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. What do all these authors have in common, from my vantage? Their books reveal whole worlds through the telling of stories set in small, out-of-the-way places.

What is the book that you are currently reading? I am currently reading Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky

With the advent of the electronic media, do you think, a books success is more to do with the way it is marketed rather than its content? I think its immediate success - meaning, the "buzz" it generates - depends largely on electronic media, especially for emerging authors. Long-term success depends on great writing itself, which will always win out.

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Pictures: Wildfires Scorch Australia Amid Record Heat

Photograph by Jo Giuliani, European Pressphoto Agency

Smoke from a wildfire mushrooms over a beach in Forcett, Tasmania, on January 4. (See more wildfire pictures.)

Wildfires have engulfed southeastern Australia, including the island state of Tasmania, in recent days, fueled by dry conditions and temperatures as high as 113ºF (45ºC), the Associated Press reported. (Read "Australia's Dry Run" inNational Geographic magazine.)

No deaths have been reported, though a hundred people are unaccounted for in the town of Dunalley, where the blazes destroyed 90 homes.

"You don't get conditions worse than this," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the AP.

"We are at the catastrophic level, and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest option."

Published January 8, 2013

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Dead Lotto Winner's Wife Seeks 'Truth'

The wife of a $1 million Chicago lottery winner who died of cyanide poisoning told ABC News that she was shocked to learn the true cause of his death and is cooperating with an ongoing homicide investigation.

"I want the truth to come out in the investigation, the sooner the better," said Shabana Ansari, 32, the wife of Urooj Khan, 46. "Who could be that person who hurt him?

"It has been incredibly hard time," she added. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone."

Ansari, Khan's second wife, told the Chicago Sun-Times that she prepared what would be her husband's last meal the night before Khan died unexpectedly on July 20. It was a traditional beef-curry dinner attended by the married couple and their family, including Khan's 17-year-old daughter from a prior marriage, Jasmeen, and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the paper, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She called 911.

Khan, an immigrant from India who owned three dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, won $1 million in a scratch-off Illinois Lottery game in June and said he planned to use the money to pay off his bills and mortgage, and make a contribution to St. Jude Children's Research Center.

"Him winning the lottery was just his luck," Ansari told ABC News. "He had already worked hard to be a millionaire before it."

Illinois Lottery/AP Photo

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Jimmy Goreel, who worked at the 7-Eleven store where Khan bought the winning ticket, described him to The Associated Press as a "regular customer ... very friendly, good sense of humor, working type of guy."

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Khan's unexpected death the month after his lottery win raised the suspicions of the Cook County medical examiner. There were no signs of foul play or trauma so the death initially was attributed to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which covers heart attacks, stroke or ruptured aneurysms. The medical examiner based the conclusion on an external exam -- not an autopsy -- and toxicology reports that indicated no presence of drugs or carbon monoxide.

Khan was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.

However, several days after a death certificate was issued, a family member requested that the medical examiner's office look further into Khan's death, Cook County Medical Examiner Stephen Cina said. The office did so by retesting fluid samples that had been taken from Khan's body, including tests for cyanide and strychnine.

When the final toxicology results came back in late November, they showed a lethal level of cyanide, which led to the homicide investigation, Cina said. His office planned to exhume Khan's body within the next two weeks as part of the investigation.

Melissa Stratton, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department, confirmed it has been working closely with the medical examiner's office. The police have not said whether or not they believe Khan's lottery winnings played a part in the homicide.

Khan had elected to receive the lump sum payout of $425,000, but had not yet received it when he died, Ansari told the AP, adding that the winnings now are tied up as a probate matter.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Authorities also have not revealed the identity of the relative who suggested the deeper look into Khan's death. Ansari said it was not her, though she told the AP she has subsequently spoken with investigators.

"This is been a shock for me," she told ABC News. "This has been an utter shock for me, and my husband was such a goodhearted person who would do anything for anyone. Who would do something like this to him?

"We were married 12 years [and] he treated me like a princess," she said. "He showered his love on me and now it's gone."

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China press freedom campaign swells with new rally

GUANGZHOU, China: Protesters mounted a second day of rallies calling for press freedom in China Tuesday, as social media users and celebrities backed a campaign which poses a test for the nation's new leaders.

Scores of people, some carrying mourning flowers, gathered outside the Guangzhou offices of the Southern Weekly, a popular liberal paper which had an article urging greater protection of rights censored.

One man in a wheelchair held a banner reading: "Support the Southern Weekly, resist censorship, give back my freedom of speech."

Some demonstrators wore masks depicting the British revolutionary figure Guy Fawkes, adopted as an anarchist symbol internationally after being popularised in the film "V for Vendetta" which was recently broadcast on state television.

Police stood by allowing the rally to proceed, but as it dispersed for the day, a lone woman demonstrator stood outside the building, holding a white rose and raising one hand, making a victory sign with her fingers.

The second day of rare public protests pushing for greater rights in China came after bloggers and celebrities -- some with millions of followers -- voiced support online for freedom of the press.

Yao Chen, an actress who has 32 million followers, posted the paper's logo on China's Twitter-like Weibo service and quoted Russian dissident Alexandr Solzhenitsyn: "One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world".

Southern Weekly used the same quote in its 2006 New Year message.

Fellow actor Chen Kun, who has 27 million followers, replied: "I am not that deep, and don't play with words, I support the friends at Southern Weekly".

The popular blogger Han Han, named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2010, lamented the pressure that journalists faced.

"I hope we can give it some small strength and accompany it to keep it going," he wrote, referring to the Southern Weekly.

The row erupted after censors Thursday blocked the paper's 2013 New Year message calling for the realisation of a "dream of constitutionalism in China" and replaced it with an article in praise of the Communist Party, according to journalists.

Chinese media outlets are subject to directives from official propaganda departments, which often suppress news seen as negative by the ruling Communist party, but some publications take a more critical stance.

The dispute comes after the party's new leadership, headed by president-in-waiting Xi Jinping, took over at a congress in November, raising expectations of a more open style of governance.

The authorities seemed to be approaching the row cautiously to avoid a backlash that might trigger more protests, said Doug Young, a journalism professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.

"The government is treading really, really carefully in this incident because they have to make sure that it doesn't get out of control, say if they come across as acting too heavy-handed and start arresting people or trying to fire people," he said.

In a commentary the People's Daily, the Party's official mouthpiece, said propaganda chiefs needed to adapt to the "rhythm of the era" to ensure their effectiveness, and abandon "stiff preaching that is unchanging and patronising".

Analysts said the dispute was the latest instance of years of mounting tension between a heavily controlling government and a public increasingly assertive of its rights.

"It's part of the intensifying battle in the last decade," said Kerry Brown, director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. "You cannot just shut them up. This is not going to go away."

The US-based website China Digital Times posted what it called a message from propaganda authorities telling media outlets not to refer to the issue.

"Party control of the media is an unwavering basic principle" and "external hostile forces are involved in the development of the situation", it quoted the message as saying.

The international media freedom group Reporters Without Borders praised the protestors' "show of courage" and called for the original article to be published.

But a commentary in the English-language Global Times, which is close to the ruling party, on Tuesday said authorities would not allow radical changes in media policy.

"The country is unlikely to have the 'absolutely free media' that is dreamed of by those activists," it said, "The Southern Weekly issue will not be concluded with a surprise ending."

-AFP/fl

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