Bull runners crushed in Pamplona

Bull-runners were crushed in a pile-up in Pamplona on the seventh day of Spain's famed festival. Source: AAP

DAREDEVIL bull-runners have been crushed in a pile-up in Pamplona on the seventh day of Spain's famed San Fermin festival, and at least one man was carried away unconscious.

Television pictures showed a chaotic pile of fallen runners on Saturday blocking the entrance to the bullring in the town, the end point of the frantic dash through the cobbled streets.

The pile-up blocked several of the half-tonne bulls from reaching the arena, causing chaos as runners tried to pull fallen companions free, while some of the bulls leapt over the pile, crushing runners under their hooves.

One man was seen being carried away unconscious by emergency workers, bleeding from the face as an anxious companion, dressed in the traditional white shirt and red neckerchief of the festival, looked on.

It was the second last day of the fiesta in this northern town, which draws festival-goers and daredevils from around the world for a week of drinking and perilous bull-runs.

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Russia mulls asylum for data spy Snowden

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden (C) has told rights activists he will seek asylum in Russia. Source: AAP

RUSSIA has been weighing whether to grant asylum to fugitive US leaker Edward Snowden after he told activists he wanted sanctuary in the country, a move that would risk further straining its ties with Washington.

Snowden on Friday dramatically summoned activists to the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport where he has been marooned without a valid passport for the last three weeks after arriving on a flight from Hong Kong.

The United States wants the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor extradited back home to face justice over his leaking of sensational details about US surveillance activities, a demand Moscow has so far rejected.

Snowden, 30, making his first publicised appearance since arriving in Moscow, told the activists he wanted to claim asylum in Russia until he could safely travel to win permanent sanctuary in Latin America.

"I ask for your assistance in requesting guarantees of safe passage ... in securing my travel to Latin America, as well as requesting asylum in Russia until such time as ... my legal travel is permitted," Snowden told the activists at the meeting.

He said the asylum request was being made on Friday night although Russian officials have yet to confirm that they have received it.

The almost surreal meeting saw the group of less than a dozen activists arrive at the airport to be surrounded by a huge crowd of journalists. They were then ushered away by an airport official clutching a sign labelled "G9" to a secure area to meet the hitherto invisible fugitive.

Those invited, who received a personal email from Snowden sent on Thursday night, included representatives of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well as prominent Moscow lawyers.

"He is not a phantom, he is a live human being," commented Russian lawyer Genri Reznik after meeting Snowden, who had not been sighted before at all since arriving at the airport.

Russian state television broadcast footage shot from a mobile phone of the meeting, which showed Snowden reading out a statement while flanked by a staffer from the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website, Sarah Harrison, and a woman interpreter.

He appeared well and spoke confidently.

"We walked in and there he was: Mr Snowden waiting for us," said Tanya Lokshina, senior researcher at HRW in Moscow in a blog on the group's website. "The first thing I thought was how young he looks - like a school kid."

Curiously, Snowden had last week withdrawn a request for asylum in Russia after President Vladimir Putin insisted he could stay only if he stopped releasing information that harmed the United States.

At the half-hour meeting with activists, Snowden vowed he did not want to harm the United States but it was not clear whether this meant he was prepared to stop leaking in order to stay in Russia.

Although several leftist Latin American states have indicated a readiness to host him, Snowden said at the meeting that Western governments would prevent him from travelling there.

In an indication that Snowden's new application may be viewed positively, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament Sergei Naryshkin and the upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko both swiftly said his request should be accepted.

Naryshkin, a powerful ally of Putin who used to head the Kremlin administration, said that Snowden was a "defender of human rights" who risked facing the "death penalty" if he was sent back to the United States.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the conditions for Snowden claiming asylum were the same as before.

But the US has already rebuked China for allowing Snowden to leave for Russia from Hong Kong and Moscow would risk incurring the wrath of Washington should it dare offer him asylum.

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Search for answers after French rail crash

A passenger train has derailed and crashed into a station outside Paris, killing at least seven. Source: AAP

INVESTIGATORS are working to determine the cause of a train crash near Paris that claimed six lives as the French transport minister warned more victims could yet be found.

Praising the quick reflexes of the driver, who sent up the alert that halted all train traffic in the area, Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier virtually ruled out human error in the disaster.

He said the probe would focus instead on the "rolling stock, infrastructure and the precise signalling area".

"Fortunately the locomotive driver had absolutely extraordinary reflexes by sending the alert immediately, which avoided a collision with a train that was coming the other way and just a few seconds later would have smashed into the cars that were derailing. So it's not a human problem," Cuvillier told French radio on Saturday.

In France's worst rail disaster in 25 years, the train derailed and crashed into a station platform on Friday afternoon, killing six and leaving 30 injured, eight seriously.

Rescue teams worked through the night checking the wreckage of overturned carriages to see if any passengers remained trapped inside.

Cuvillier said earlier on Saturday that further "unfortunate discoveries" could not be ruled out.

The regional train was heading from Paris to the west-central city of Limoges. It derailed as it passed through the station at Bretigny-sur-Orge, about 25km south of Paris.

Four carriages of the train jumped the tracks, of which three overturned. One carriage smashed across a platform and came to rest on a parallel track; another lay half-way across the platform.

Passenger Marc Cheutin, 57, told AFP he had to "step over a decapitated person" after the accident, to exit the carriage he had been travelling in.

A witness who had been waiting for a train at the station, Vianey Kalisa, told AFP: "I saw a lot of wounded people, women and children trapped inside (the carriages).

"I was shaking like a child. People were screaming. One man's face was covered in blood. It was a like a war zone."

Guillaume Pepy, head of France's SNCF rail service, told reporters that SNCF, judicial authorities and France's BEA safety agency would each investigate the cause of the derailment.

A railway passenger association denounced what it called "rust-bucket trains" and the practice of coupling different types of trains together, demanding proper inspections.

Visiting the scene on Friday night, President Francois Hollande said: "We should avoid unnecessary speculation. What happened will eventually be known and the proper conclusions will be drawn."

Officials said the derailment happened at minutes after the intercity train left the Paris-Austerlitz station.

"The train arrived at the station at high speed. It split in two for an unknown reason. Part of the train continued to roll while the other was left on its side on the platform," a police source told AFP.

Cuvillier, who also visited the crash site, said the train had been travelling at 137km/h at the time of the crash.

That was below the 150km/h limit for that part of the track.

Some 300 firefighters, 20 paramedic teams and eight helicopters were deployed to treat casualties at the scene and airlift the most seriously injured to nearby hospitals.

In total, 192 people were treated by emergency services, officials said. There were 385 passengers on the train, which means it was not overcrowded.

The derailment was France's worst rail accident since an SNCF commuter train crashed into a stationary train at Paris's Gare de Lyon terminal in 1988, killing 56 people.

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Deported WA man criticises fed government

AN Australian man deported from Saudi Arabia, leaving his brother behind in prison for terrorism-related offences, has criticised the federal government for not doing enough to help them.

Junaid Thorne arrived back in Perth in the early hours of Friday, having spent many months in hiding following detention for protesting his older brother Shayden's imprisonment.

After turning himself in and a week of legal wrangling, Junaid was finally allowed to leave the country, landing in Western Australia to be met by relieved family and friends.

He has described the day of his older brother's arrest as "shocking", and spoke of his frustration at efforts to prove Shayden's innocence.

"Certainly the day of his arrest was one of the most shocking days of my life. To have him abducted in front of you, without the power to interfere. That was really shocking," Junaid told indigenous broadcaster NITV.

In May, Shayden was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for extremist material that was found on a laptop in his possession, but maintains his innocence, saying he had borrowed the computer from a masjid, or mosque, in which he was staying.

When his year-long detention was revealed, Foreign Minister Bob Carr insisted the government had done all it could to help.

Junaid, however, feels differently.

"I was expecting a lot more from the Australian government. The thing is, I know they could have done more than what they actually did," he said.

Lawyer Abdul Jalil Al-Khalidy is working on an appeal for Shayden, which was due by Thursday, but an extension of up to a fortnight has been granted.

Mr Thorne said while he was happy to be back in Australia, he worried for his brother's health and well-being.

"I am glad to be with my family, but I am disappointed that I left my big brother behind. I thought I could have been of more help down there."

He said he believed he was arrested because of his efforts to free his brother.

"The embassy could not do much, and I had to do stuff by myself with the help of friends. That is what got me personally arrested," Mr Thorne said.

"I did not feel like an Australian abroad - I was expecting more help as an Australian citizen. I felt alone."

And he said the efforts to free his brother would continue.

"With or without them, we will do what we can to get him out of there. We have filed for a pardon - one way or the other we hope something works," Mr Thorne said.

"I am 100 per cent sure he is innocent of what he was charged with."

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PNG fishermen missing in Torres Strait

QUEENSLAND search and rescue crews are looking for seven Papua New Guinean fishermen who've been missing for almost five days in the Torres Strait.

Ten men had set out from the PNG island of Daru Island on Sunday to go fishing on a reef 20 nautical miles north of Queensland's Yorke Island.

Their boat overturned sometime on Sunday or Monday and washed up on the PNG mainland on Wednesday.

Three of the men were rescued by a passing fishing boat near Daru Island, but seven are still missing.

Queensland water police are searching around Warrior Reef, Yorke, Stephen and Darnley islands and uninhabited sand cays.

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Nine Indian children die in boat capsize

AT least 10 people including nine children have drowned after a boat capsized in a flooded river in India's eastern state of Bihar, police say.

The incident occurred late on Thursday on a tributary of the Kosi river when the villagers were returning from a funeral in the Madhepura district.

"Nine children, all below the age of 12 years died in the incident," district police chief Sourav Shah said on Friday.

"A 35-year-old man also drowned." A total of 25 adults swam to safety, he said.

Every year, scores of people drown in boat sinkings across India.

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Twin bombing kills five in Afghanistan

A TWIN bombing in southern Afghanistan has killed five people, an official says.

Three civilians died after their car struck a roadside bomb as well as two police officers who had rushed to the scene to help the victims when the second bomb went off.

A provincial government spokesman, Ummar Zawaq, says the attack occurred on Thursday morning in Helmand province.

Zawaq says the officers who died were members of the elite Afghan National Civil Order Police - the so-called ANCOPs who get special training from NATO forces.

The spokesman says a third officer was wounded in Thursday's blast.

Afghan authorities say roadside bombs and booby-traps are their worst threat in fighting the Taliban.

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CSR forecasts sustained housing recovery

BUILDING products group CSR predicts a sustained recovery in the Australian housing construction sector, led by New South Wales and Western Australia.

CSR believes conditions will improve after recent economic data confirmed an upward trend in building activity this year.

This was supported by record low interest rates, strong population growth and first home owners' grants in most states.

"We are confident we are seeing the start of a sustained recovery in housing construction, particularly in the states with strong population and job growth," managing director Rob Sindel told the company's annual general meeting (AGM) in Sydney on Thursday.

New South Wales and Western Australia were improving, while South Australia, Queensland and Victoria's detached housing market had stabilised.

Meanwhile, the company has forecast a sustained housing recovery in Queensland later this year.

CSR expects housing starts to increase from 145,000 to 147,000 in the year ending 2014 after the sector reached the bottom of the cycle during 2012.

In May the group recorded a full-year statutory net loss of $146.9 million, which included $255.6 million in write-downs and the restructuring of its loss-making Viridian glass business.

The glass business posted a $39 million loss and earnings at its aluminium smelter slumped by 38 per cent to $50 million.

CSR said the restructuring of Viridian would be a key focus over the next 12 months.

"We're targeting a significant improvement in the substantial losses we made this year and we're absolutely confident we can get there," Mr Sindel said.

The company expects earnings in the property division to return to normal later this year as it hedges 40 per cent of its aluminium products.

Chairman Jeremy Sutcliffe added that a significant decline in the value of the Australian dollar would be positive for the company which still had the biggest market share for the popular Gyprock plasterboard product.

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European stocks rally at open

EUROPE'S main stock markets have risen strongly at the start of trading after the Federal Reserve indicated that it was in no rush to end its stimulus program.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was up 0.65 per cent to 6547.50 points on Thursday, Frankfurt's DAX 30 jumped 1.43 per cent to 8163.56 points and in Paris the CAC 40 gained 1.17 per cent to 3885.57.

Asian stocks also rallied after US Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke said that its stimulus drive would be kept in place "for the foreseeable future".

Bernanke on Wednesday insisted the Fed's easy-money policy was still necessary, because the unemployment rate at 7.6 per cent was still too high and inflation was too low for comfort.

"Both the employment side and the inflation side are saying that we need to be more accommodating," he said, answering questions after a speech.

"Moreover, the other portion of macro economic policy, fiscal policy, is now actually quite restrictive ... Put that all together, I think you can only conclude that highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future is what's needed in the US economy," he said.

He added the full impact of deep government spending cuts put in place in March was yet to be seen.

The comments came hours after minutes from the bank's latest policy meeting suggested it would move more rapidly toward winding up the $US85 billion ($A92.60 billion)-a-month stimulus.

Currency traders immediately sold the US dollar, betting that interest rates would remain low for a long time to come.

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Greek public TV signal back on air

GREECE'S public television signal is back on air, nearly a month after the government shut down the country's state broadcaster ERT to cut costs.

A backdrop reading 'Greek public television' (EDT) and featuring a globe and coloured waves was being broadcast on the main digital frequency formerly occupied by ERT.

"This is a transitional phase. Very soon the new public television program will be on air," Pantelis Kapsis, the deputy minister responsible for public TV, told private Mega channel.

The government intends to run a temporary program until it can hire staff for a new broadcaster by autumn.

The government turned off ERT on June 11, claiming the historic broadcaster was hopelessly inefficient and ate up 300 million euros ($A421.96 million) a year.

The shutdown caused over 2600 layoffs.

Greece's top administrative court later ruled that ERT's shutdown was within the state's rights, but it told the government it still needed to have public broadcasts in some form as soon as possible.

ERT's demise caused a major political crisis and nearly brought down the government, which was accused by international media groups of authoritarianism.

ERT staff refused to accept their dismissal. They took over the station's headquarters north of Athens and have maintained a rogue broadcast since June 11, with assistance from the European Broadcasting Union.

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Great Bake Off rises perfectly on debut

The debut episode of The Great Australian Bake Off was the fifth most-watched show on Tuesday night. Source: AAP

THE Great Australian Bake Off has blended in nicely with viewers, but double-agent reality series The Mole has gone from bad to worse.

The Great Australian Bake Off, which is the Nine Network's first foray into reality cooking shows and based on the British format, rose to the occasion on debut on Tuesday.

Filmed in the gardens of Werribee Mansion in Victoria, The Great Australian Bake Off drew 1.119 million viewers to be the fifth most-watched show for the evening.

However, the Seven Network's The Mole, which has returned after an eight year break, has started digging a hole in the ratings.

Launched last Tuesday, with 864,000 viewers tuning in, the series is losing its audience each time it airs. Not even recap episodes last weekend could save it.

The latest episode on Tuesday night - the first of three episodes for the week - drew 555,000 viewers to be 20th overall.

The Mole was beaten by late afternoon game shows Deal Or No Deal (597,000) and Hot Seat (753,000) - it could even be responsible for lower than usual ratings for Winners & Losers.

The return of Seven's popular drama Winners & Losers didn't make it into OzTAM's overnight Top 10, coming in 11th with 798,000.

Network Ten is on a winner with its sci-fi series Under The Dome, which again topped a million viewers.

Based on the Stephen King novel, Under The Dome drew an audience of 1.015 million to be seventh overall.

Meanwhile Ten's MasterChef finished 12th with 773,000.

The night, however, belonged to The Block Sky High with an audience of 1.446 million, while Nine News (1.356 million) was second.

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One dead in Sydney fire

A PERSON has died in a house blaze in Sydney's north.

The body of the missing person, originally reported as a child but now believed to be an adult, was found following the Mount Colah fire, a Fire and Rescue spokeswoman said on Wednesday afternoon.

Police say a mother and son have been taken to Hornsby Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

The fire has been extinguished and investigators are on the scene.

Lancelot Street, where the fire broke out, has been closed.

Inspector Kim Simpson, who ran the operation, said about 20 firefighters stopped the fire from spreading but couldn't save the one person inside.

"The guys tried to get inside but were driven out by intense heat," Inspector Simpson told AAP.

"I can confirm that two people self evacuated."

He said the deceased person's gender is still unconfirmed and their body remains in the house while investigations takes place.

Inspector Simpson said he had no reason to believe the fire was suspicious.

"It is a tragedy, any loss of life is a tragedy."

About 80 per cent of the house had been destroyed.

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Driver trapped in NSW bus crash

A BUS driver is trapped inside his bus after it crashed into a home on NSW's Central Coast, leaving one of the occupants with critical head injuries.

Police say the bus crashed into a duplex on Greenfield Road at Empire Bay shortly after 4.15 (AEST) on Tuesday.

Fire and rescue officers are trying to stabilise the building before attempting to free the driver, police say.

A man who was inside the building is being airlifted to hospital in a critical condition and a woman in the house with him is being treated at the scene.

None of the 11 people on the bus suffered major injuries.

The intersection of Greenfield and Rickard Roads has been closed and police are advising motorists to avoid the area and expect delays.

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Energy giant Shell names new CEO

ANGLO-DUTCH energy giant Royal Dutch Shell says it has appointed downstream director Ben van Beurden as chief executive to replace outgoing boss Peter Voser.

"The board of Royal Dutch Shell Plc today announced that Ben van Beurden will succeed Peter Voser as chief executive officer, effective 1 January 2014," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Peter Voser will leave Shell at the end of March 2014, marking the end of 29 years with the company."

Dutch national Van Beurden, 55, has been downstream director since January 2013.

"I am delighted to announce Ben van Beurden as the next chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell," said chairman Jorma Ollila.

"Ben has deep knowledge of the industry and proven executive experience across a range of Shell businesses.

"Ben will continue to drive and further develop the strategic agenda that we have set out, to generate competitive returns for our shareholders."

Shell revealed in May that Voser, 54, would retire in 2014 to spend more time with his family.

The London-listed energy major made the surprise announcement of Voser's departure alongside a drop in first-quarter profits that was blamed on lower crude oil prices.

Van Beurden joined Shell in 1983 and has held various operational and commercial roles in upstream and downstream activities at Shell.

Voser, who has been chief executive since July 2009, will have worked a total of 29 years at the group during two spells.

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S. Korean officials visit Kaesong

A GROUP of South Korean officials and workers have visited a joint industrial complex on the border with North Korea, just days after the two Koreas agreed to fresh talks on reviving the shuttered site.

About two dozen visitors from the South on Tuesday went to the Kaesong industrial complex - a rare symbol of inter-Korea co-operation and a crucial source of hard currency for the North - to restart power supplies, Seoul's unification ministry said.

The trip follows months of friction and threats of war by Pyongyang after its February nuclear test attracted tougher UN sanctions, further squeezing its struggling economy.

The visit is the first by southerners to the complex since early May. It was aimed at preparing for a visit on Wednesday by South Korean officials and dozens of businessmen who run factories at the industrial site.

At the end of gruelling 15-hour talks, Seoul and Pyongyang said in a joint statement on Sunday that they had agreed to let South Korean firms restart their shuttered plants at the complex near the border when conditions are ripe.

The statement was viewed as a crucial step forwards in winding down months of high tension, with the joint industrial zone seen as the last remaining symbol of cross-border reconciliation.

Another round of talks to discuss conditions for reopening the site is scheduled for Wednesday.

High on the agenda will be a demand from Seoul that the North guarantees it will never again unilaterally shut down the estate.

The North, however, will likely find it hard to accept such a demand as it would amount to Pyongyang accepting full responsibility for the suspension.

The complex - built in 2004 about 10 kilometres north of the border - had previously remained largely resilient to turbulence in relations.

But the North, citing military tensions and Seoul's hostility, pulled out all its 53,000 workers from the 123 Seoul-owned factories in April, prompting the South to withdraw the managers of around 120 companies in early May.

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Vic laws to target dangerous dog owners

Irresponsible dog owners could be jailed for two years under a proposed crackdown in Victoria. Source: AAP

IRRESPONSIBLE dog owners could be jailed for two years and banned from keeping canines under a proposed crackdown in Victoria.

Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh says the state already has strong restrictions on so-called dangerous breeds but is now turning the focus on owners.

"Those people who have been convicted of their dog attacking others now face bans of up to 10 years in the ownership and control of these dogs," he told reporters on Monday.

"If they break the ban, they can then face more severe penalties, such as up to two years in jail or a fine of up to $34,600."

Mr Walsh said the proposed laws - which will be introduced into parliament this spring - would give magistrates more power when dealing with dog attacks.

"They can convict someone for what their dog has done, but they cannot control what that person will do with dogs in the future," he said.

The minister cited the attack on four-year-old Ayen Chol as a prime motivator behind Victoria's approach to toughening dog attack laws.

The little girl was mauled to death two years ago when a neighbour's pit bull escaped its yard and attacked her and other family members in their St Albans home in August 2011.

"The dog in that case had not attacked before, and was not considered dangerous, but it had escaped from its yard and killed the child and did lots of damage," Mr Walsh said.

Australian Veterinary Association president David Neck said educating, rather than punishing owners, was the best approach when it came to dog attacks.

"There are two sides to this - first, the response to a dog attack when it happens, but more importantly, pro-activity, so preventing attacks before they happen," Dr Neck said.

"We need to focus on teaching owners to look for the early warning signs, and to proactively seek help before the dog's behaviour gets them into a court of law."

Premier Denis Napthine, a trained veterinarian, said specific breeds should be banned too.

"Let's get rid of American pit bulls. They're just bred for attacking and they can do enormous damage," he told Gold 104.3 FM.

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Protesters to continue Whitehaven fight

Workers at a NSW coal mine have vowed to fight a project they say will destroy local heritage sites. Source: AAP

PROTESTERS have vowed to continue their fight against a Whitehaven Coal mine approved last week, saying it will destroy local heritage sites in northwest NSW.

Whitehaven received final approvals to begin construction at the site near Boggabri last Thursday after a three-year process.

Gomeroi traditional owner Stephen Talbot says the $767 million Maules Creek mine will clear more than 4000 acres of "culturally significant forest, artefacts and cultural values" which have not been properly assessed.

"The forest contains cultural heritage sites, food sources, and totems of our people, and most of them will be permanently destroyed by the planned mine," Mr Talbot said.

"There hasn't been a proper consultation process, the management plan is flawed and we don't believe that our people have been treated with proper respect or that our concerns about the destruction of cultural heritage have been addressed."

A Whitehaven spokeswoman, however, said there had been discussions with Aboriginal representative groups since the earliest days of the Maules Creek project.

"A detailed Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment was included ... as part of the planning process and consultation has continued throughout the project," she said.

A spokeswoman for the Wilderness society said over fifty people including traditional owners, elders and members of the non-indigenous community protested outside Whitehaven's office and at an adjacent park on Monday morning.

Mr Talbot said demonstrators would return to Boggabri Park in greater numbers on Tuesday to continue their protest.

He called for all salvage works to be halted until community concerns had been addressed.

Whitehaven is permitted to extract up to 13 million tonnes of coal per annum and rail 12.4 million tonnes from the site each year.

The federal government gave conditional approval for the project in February this year.

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Five killed in India building collapse

A hotel has collapsed in the southern Indian city of Secunderabad, killing five restaurant workers. Source: AAP

A TWO-STOREY hotel has collapsed in the southern Indian city of Secunderabad, killing five restaurant workers and injuring 15 others, police say.

"Five people have died and 15 more have been injured when the City Light Hotel collapsed early this morning," local police official B Surender told AFP on Monday.

Nearly 25 people were working at the hotel on a busy road in Secunderabad in Andhra Pradesh state when one of the kitchen walls gave way, burying staff under the debris, Surender said.

"Five of the workers have been admitted to hospital with serious injuries. We are still working to clear the rubble and find the remaining people," he said. It was unclear how many people were still trapped.

"The building was very old and the walls showed cracks, according to people working nearby," he added.

Several buildings have collapsed in India in recent months, many of them apartment blocks in the financial capital Mumbai, including one in April that killed 74 people.

The collapses have highlighted pervasive poor construction standards in the country, where massive demand for housing and endemic corruption often result in illegal buildings and a lack of safety inspections.

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Bahrain bomb kills policeman

A BOMB attack has killed a Bahraini policeman and wounded two others in a Shi'ite Muslim village outside the capital, a police statement carried by the official BNA news agency says.

"Terrorist groups targeted a police station in Sitra" late on Saturday, public security chief General Tariq Hasan said on Sunday.

"As police attempted to secure the area ... the terrorists blew up an improvised bomb against security forces in an attack that killed policeman Yasser Dhaib and wounded two others."

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Deported cleric Abu Qatada lands in Jordan

Radical Islamic cleric Abu Qatada has been deported from Britain and is on his way to Jordan. Source: AAP

RADICAL Islamist cleric Abu Qatada has arrived in Amman after Britain deported him to face terrorism charges, ending a decade-long legal battle, a Jordanian government official said.

"Abu Qatada landed at Marka airport in east Amman," a Jordanian government official told AFP on condition of anonymity on Sunday.

"He was escorted by British and Jordanian guards, who handed him over to state security court prosecutors."

The military tribunal lies just outside the airport.

Abu Qatada's father, brothers and other family members stood outside the courthouse waiting for his arrival, an AFP photographer reported.

The Palestinian-born preacher, 53, was taken from prison in an armoured police van to a military airfield on the outskirts of London, from which he was flown out of Britain at 0146 GMT.

Abu Qatada was condemned to death in absentia by a Jordanian court in 1999 for conspiracy to carry out terror attacks including on the American school in Amman but the sentence was immediately reduced to life imprisonment with hard labour.

In 2000, again in his absence, he was sentenced to 15 years for plotting to carry out terror attacks on tourists in Jordan during millennium celebrations.

His deportation came after Jordan and Britain ratified a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters aimed at removing any remaining concerns about the use of tainted evidence in Abu Qatada's retrial.

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Solar airplane lands in New York

THE experimental Solar Impulse plane, powered by the sun, has completed a transcontinental trip across the United States, touching down in New York despite a rip in the fabric of one wing.

The giant, single-person plane landed at New York's John F Kennedy airport at 11.11pm (0311 GMT) on Saturday, ahead of its originally scheduled time due to a 2.5-metre long tear that appeared on the fabric of the lower side of the left wing.

Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg was met on the tarmac by compatriot and fellow pilot Bertrand Piccard, and the two posed triumphantly for pictures.

The men had taken turns flying the spindly, long-winged plane across the country.

The Solar Impulse, which runs on four electric propellers powered by an array of solar cells mounted on the plane's 63-metre wingspan, lifted off just before dawn Saturday from Washington Dulles International Airport.

"This last leg was especially difficult due to the damage of the fabric on the left wing," Borschberg told reporters upon landing after the 18 hour, 23 minute flight.

The team looked at all possible scenarios, "including bailing out over the Atlantic," he said. "But this type of problem is inherent to every experimental endeavour."

Flying coast-to-coast "has always been a mythical milestone full of challenges for aviation pioneers," added Piccard. "During this journey, we had to find solutions for a lot of unforeseen situations, which obliged us to develop new skills and strategies."

The team also "pushed the boundaries of clean technologies and renewable energies to unprecedented levels," he said.

Piccard said they had mixed feelings about the end of their long trip. "Normally you feel a bit sad and nostalgic, but with the problem with the wing, we feel relieved," he said.

The coast-to-coast US journey began on May 3, near San Francisco, California. The plane then landed in Phoenix (Arizona), Dallas/Fort Worth (Texas), St. Louis (Missouri), Cincinnati (Ohio) and the capital, Washington.

Borschberg was forced to pass the hours Saturday by circling over the Atlantic not far from the "Big Apple," before being allowed to fly over the city in the evening, due to heavy air traffic.

The light solar plane flies at around 70km per hour, and is especially sensitive to air turbulence.

Before the final leg, Piccard and Borschberg spoke of the most memorable moments from the cross-country flight.

For Piccard, a Swiss adventurer who founded Solar Impulse over a decade ago, one of those moments was flying past the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco at the very start of the journey.

Borschberg recalled one of the most dangerous moments of the trip, when wind threatened to unbalance the aircraft.

The crossing has been "more difficult than expected because of the weather: There were a lot of tornadoes, storms, causing several of our flights to be delayed or slowed down," Piccard said.

The Solar Impulse is powered by 12,000 solar cells and flies in the dark by reaching high altitudes during the day and gliding downward over long distances by night. It uses no fossil fuels.

Drawbacks include the tiny cockpit, vulnerability to turbulence and the lack of a toilet, so the pilots must relieve themselves by using an empty plastic water bottle on solo flights that can last up to 24 hours.

The current aircraft model, the HB-SIA, is soon to be phased out as the Swiss team prepares test flights next year of the second-generation aircraft, the HB-SIB.

Piccard said the next plane will be 10 percent bigger, with more power, reliability, an auto-pilot function and a toilet so that pilots can make the four to six-day long trips that will be part of its journey across the world in 2015.

The plane's American trip is just the latest in a series of groundbreaking flights across different parts of the world, including Europe and Africa.

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