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A 25-year-old woman who fell from a carnival ride in Far North Queensland late yesterday is in a critical but stable condition in hospital. A woman was critically injured after falling from a ride at the Cairns Showgrounds. Photo: Facebook The incident happened at about 5.30pm at the Cairns showgrounds at Parramatta Park. The woman fell from a ride called The Hangover - a two-armed ride that swings people through the air. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and paramedics treated the woman at the scene before she was taken to the Cairns Base Hospital. Cairns Show Association president Ian Allen said the event was run by an independent third party. "The event there was not run by the Cairns Show Association," he said. "It was hired by an independent group called Showfest. We leased the ground out to them." The ABC has contacted the Showfest organiser for comment. 'She just dropped head-first' Darnell Addo said he saw the "terrible" moment the woman fell from the ride. "She was at the very top … and she just dropped head-first," he said. "It was just a big bang … I was just in shock." Addo said he heard an operator of the ride tell panicked onlookers: "the machine is on a timer, I can't stop it". Addo had just purchased a ticket for the ride and was waiting in line when the accident happened. "It could have been me," he said. "I'm probably never going to go on a ride in my life again after that." Allen said as president he could close the event down, but was instructed by police that would not be necessary at this stage. "But the [Hangover] ride cannot operate, nor the ride next door, until they do their investigation," Allen said. His thoughts were with the woman and her family, he said. "Just to have anyone having an accident at any event, not whether it's the Cairns Show or anything but you just don't want to have anything like that," he said. "I'd just like to send out my sympathy to the family there… that this tragic accident has happened." Queensland police and Workplace Health and Safety are investigating. - ABC Related: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/421674/dreamworld-parent-company-ardent-leisure-faces-three-charges-over-deadly-ride-accident https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/399880/mexico-rollercoaster-crash-leaves-two-dead

Gunmen stormed a school in Cameroon on Saturday and opened fire indiscriminately, killing at least six children and wounding about eight more in a region where separatist insurgents operate, officials and parents said. Cameroon's president, Paul Biya, leads a French-speaking government that has incited protests from the English-speaking minority. Photo: AFP Arriving on motorcycles and in civilian clothes, the attackers hit the school around midday yesterday in the city of Kumba in South West Region, according to the accounts, including from one parent outside the school at the time. Some children were injured jumping from second storey windows. It was unclear if the attack was linked to an ongoing struggle between the army and groups seeking to form a breakaway state called Ambazonia in the English-speaking west. But it was a grim new low in a region that since 2017 has seen hundreds die and thousands displaced because of the conflict, with many children unable to attend school. "They found the children in class and they opened fire on them," city sub-prefect Ali Anougou told Reuters. Isabel Dione ran into the school to search for her 12-year-old daughter when she heard about the shooting. She found her on the floor of a classroom, bleeding from the stomach. "She was helpless and she was shouting 'mum please help me', and I told her 'only your God can save you now'," Dione told Reuters. The girl was rushed to hospital where she is undergoing treatment for a gunshot wound. Separatists denounce attack The United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said eight children were killed, some by machete, and that 12 were wounded. Videos circulating on social media filmed by local journalists showed adults rushing from the school with children in their arms, surrounded by wailing onlookers. One photo verified by Reuters showed the inside of a classroom, where dried blood had pooled on the floor near some scattered flip-flops. Local education official Ahhim Abanaw Obase confirmed six deaths of children aged between 12 and 14, and added that another eight had been taken to hospital. Anougou and another official blamed the attack on the secessionists, but did not offer evidence. Photo: Twitter Prominent separatist leader Ayuk Tabe described the attack as "inhumane" in a Twitter post and said "anyone responsible for these atrocities must be brought to book." Still, many armed splinter groups have emerged from inside the separatist movement since 2017, and one voice rarely speaks for all. Anglophone secessionists have imposed curfews and closed schools as part of their protest against President Paul Biya's French-speaking government and its perceived marginalisation of the English-speaking minority. Rights groups have documented abuses on civilians from both sides. Last year, officials blamed separatists for kidnapping dozens of schoolchildren, which separatist leaders denied. - Reuters

South Australia's renewable energy boom has achieved a global milestone. Photo: 123RF The state once known for not having enough power has become the first major jurisdiction in the world to be powered entirely by solar energy. For just over an hour on Sunday, 11 October, 100 percent of energy demand was provided by solar panels alone. "This is truly a phenomenon in the global energy landscape," Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) chief executive Audrey Zibelman said. "Never before has a jurisdiction the size of South Australia been completely run by solar power, with consumers' rooftop solar systems contributing 77 percent." Large-scale solar farms, like the ones operating at Tailem Bend and Port Augusta, provided the other 23 percent. Any excess power generated by gas and wind farms on that day was stored in batteries or exported to Victoria via the interconnector. Too much of a good thing? Analysts say it is a significant milestone that will happen more regularly as the pace of solar growth continues. Energy regulators say without careful management, grid stability could be at risk if there is more electricity going in than coming out. If the interconnector is down, like it was for more than two weeks in February, that is when problems can occur. AEMO is forecasting an additional 36,000 new solar rooftop systems will be installed in South Australia in the next 14 months. That is on top of the 288,000 homes - about a third - already generating their own electricity. Household uptake continues Jackie Thomson has just had 20 panels fitted to the roof of her Adelaide home. "I'd been thinking about it for a long time and my electricity bills were going through the roof," she said. "I just decided the time was right … I couldn't spend my money going overseas so thought it was a good time." She was not put off by new powers introduced last month allowing the electricity distributor SA Power Networks to switch off all new solar installations if too much solar was putting the system under pressure. "I understood that it was actually about managing the grid more effectively and I wasn't concerned about it, so it didn't impact my timeline for making a decision," she said. Solar retailers say most people have not been put off by the changes. "It didn't stop the flow of enquiries, it was just more interesting conversations we had to have to educate people on those new regulations," Adam Karroum from Adam Solar said. The changes were introduced because AEMO was worried all that extra rooftop solar could play havoc with voltage levels and end up causing blackouts. New inverters must have software that allows them to be controlled remotely. Switch-off power needed AEMO suggests similar action is "required urgently in Victoria, and promptly in Queensland". SA Power Networks says any switch-off would only happen as a last resort and if grid stability was at risk. "The system needs management," company spokesman Paul Roberts said. "In 2009, we probably didn't have any solar panels connected to the grid; now we have a third of customers with solar on their roofs and this is going to become more of an issue as we go forward." He says solar is still a great investment and the network is working hard to double solar capacity within five years. "It's an exciting future for South Australia and we have a whole number of things that we are putting in place to manage that," he said. That includes making it cheaper for people to use power during the day and encouraging people to switch on dishwashers, pool pumps and hot water systems in the middle of the day. The next step is convincing more people to connect batteries to store cheap energy during the day. "The grid needs to become increasingly like a set of lungs," AEMO chief external affairs officer Tony Chappel said. "During the day, the lungs would breathe in and excess energy can be stored and then in the evening when the sun's gone down, that energy can be fed back." Plans to build a new interconnector with New South Wales will also help manage the growth of solar. "South Australia could become a net exporter of energy," Roberts said. "People are going to be looking at the opportunities that a new interconnector may create for solar farms to export to the NSW market as well as the Victorian market." - ABC

Polish President Andrzej Duda has contracted Covid-19 but is feeling "good", he says. Polish President Andrzej Duda has tested positive for Covid-19. Photo: AFP Duda, 48, was tested on Friday and found to be positive, but it is not clear when he contracted the virus. He joins a handful of world leaders who have been ill with Covid-19, among them US President Donald Trump and UK PM Boris Johnson. Poland faces a surge in the coronavirus pandemic, with a daily record of more than 13,600 new cases on Friday. The country has now entered a nationwide "red zone" lockdown that includes the partial closure of primary schools and restaurants. Duda attended an event in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on Monday where he met Bulgarian President Rumen Radev who later went into quarantine. He also met Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, who has since tested negative. "I didn't have and I don't have any symptoms, especially the serious ones like lack of taste or lack of smell, but the result of the test is absolutely clear," Duda said in a video message posted on Twitter. "I feel good right now. I will spend the upcoming days in self-isolation along with my wife and I will be working remotely; it's not a problem at all." Presidential minister Blazej Spychalski, who first gave details of the president's positive test, has himself tested positive and is going into quarantine. On Friday, Duda visited a field hospital under construction at the National Stadium in the Polish capital, Warsaw. Pictures show the president wearing a face mask while meeting workers at the site. He also met 19-year-old tennis star Iga Swiatek, winner of the French Open this year, to award her the Gold Cross of Merit for achievements in sport. "Neither I nor members of my team have symptoms of coronavirus. We carry out tests regularly. We will quarantine ourselves in accordance with current procedures," Swiatek said in a Twitter post (tweet in Polish). The second wave of infections is hitting Poland hard, with the number of new cases 22 times higher than the highest number of cases in the spring, although testing is now more prevalent. The number of hospital beds in use by coronavirus patients rose by 6.5 percent on Friday to 11,496, which means 60 percent of the total available are now filled. Under the new restrictions, gatherings of more than five are banned, and children must be accompanied by an adult when outdoors. People aged over 70 are being urged to stay at home. - BBC

President Donald Trump voted in his adopted home of Florida before hitting the campaign trail for rallies in three swing states, joining more than 54 million Americans who have cast early ballots at a record-setting pace ahead of the 3 November election. Donald Trump leaves the polling station after casting his ballot at the Palm Beach County Public Library, during early voting for the 3 November election. Photo: AFP Trump cast his ballot at a library in West Palm Beach, near his Mar-a-Lago resort, after switching his permanent residence and voter registration last year from New York to Florida, a must-win battleground for his re-election bid. "I voted for a guy named Trump," he told reporters after voting. Democratic rival Joe Biden also hit the campaign trail on Saturday, speaking at a drive-in rally of supporters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania where he warned of a looming "dark winter" unless the Trump administration does not do a better job at fighting the coronavirus. With 10 days to go in the campaign, about 54.2m Americans have already cast early ballots, a pace that could lead to the highest voter turnout in more than a century, according to data from the US Elections Project. Trump has regularly condemned mail-in voting without evidence as prone to fraud, even though experts say it is as safe as any other method. He voted by mail in two elections since he switched his address to Florida. The large number of early voters is a sign of the intense interest in this year's election, as well as concerns about avoiding crowded polling places on Election Day and reducing the risk of exposure to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 224,000 Americans. The United States set a single-day record of more than 84,000 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, with the spike in infections hitting election swing states Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Many states have expanded in-person early voting and mail-in ballots as a safer way to vote during the pandemic. Biden addressed supporters in Bristol, Pennsylvania, gathered in pickup trucks or cars, many with their windows or sunroofs down. "It's going to be a dark winter ahead unless we change our ways," he said of Trump's attempts to contain the coronavirus, which has killed more people in the United State than any other country. The former vice president spoke on a stage decorated with hay and pumpkins carved to say "VOTE" and painted with the names of Biden and his running mate Senator Kamala Harris. Trump has accused Biden of overstating the health crisis to scare Americans into voting for him. Opinion polls show Biden leading Trump nationally, but the race is much closer in the battleground states that will decide the election. Trump will head to three of those after voting, holding rallies in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. In Pennsylvania, polls show Biden narrowly leading. A Reuters/Ipsos survey released earlier this week showed Biden with a four-percentage point advantage over Trump in the state, down from seven points the week before. Biden will get some help again on Saturday from former President Barack Obama, who will hold a drive-in rally in Miami. Obama, still popular in the party nearly four years after leaving office, delivered a blistering attack on Trump's leadership when he made his 2020 campaign-trail debut in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. - Reuters

Prince Charles sent a hand-written letter of support to Australia's governor general in 1976, backing his controversial sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, Australian media reported. Prince Charles Photo: William West / AFP The letter, published by The Australian newspaper, is dated four months after Queen Elizabeth's representative in Australia, John Kerr, took the unprecedented step to dismiss Whitlam without first warning the palace or the prime minister. "Please don't lose heart," the heir to the British throne wrote in the hand-written letter to Kerr on 27 March. "What you did last year was right and the courageous thing to do - and most Australians seemed to endorse your decision when it came to the point." The letter was revealed in an extract of a book The Truth of the Palace Letters: Deceit, Ambush and Dismissal in 1975 by Paul Kelly and Troy Bramston, due to be published next month. Whitlam's firing remains one of the country's most polarising political events because it represented an unmatched level of intervention by the Commonwealth. Historians say the country was never told the full story behind Whitlam's removal during a political deadlock over the Budget and in 2016, one historian sued Australia's National Archives for access to letters between Kerr and the Queen. In July, the 211 so-called "palace letters" were published, pulling the veil from one of the great mysteries of Australian politics, and re-igniting a conversation about whether the country should cut ties with Britain and become a republic. -Reuters

Libya's warring factions signed a permanent ceasefire agreement, but any lasting end to years of chaos and bloodshed will require wider agreement among myriad armed groups and the outside powers that support them. An old man carries a flag of Libya during a protest against the attacks and ceasefire violations in Tripoli on January 24, 2020. Photo: Hazem Turkia / Anadolu Agency / AFP Acting UN Libya envoy Stephanie Williams said the ceasefire would start immediately and all foreign fighters must quit Libya within three months. As a first commercial passenger flight in more than a year crossed front lines from Tripoli to the eastern city of Benghazi on Friday (local time), Williams noted Libya's "fraught" recent history, one of numerous broken truces and failed political solutions. "But we shouldn't let the cynics win," she said, hailing both sides for their "courage" in agreeing a ceasefire and saying they deserved international support. The agreement was reached after the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in June beat back Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) from its 14-month assault on the capital. Since then, frontlines have stabilised near the central coastal city of Sirte and the LNA has ended its eight-month blockade of Libyan oil output, which was strangling state finances on both sides. Head of the Government of National Accord’s military delegation Ahmed Ali Abushahma during a signing ceremony of a Libyan ceasefire agreement, on October 23, 2020. Photo: Violaine Martin / United Nations / AFP However, Turkey, the main backer of the GNA, immediately voiced scepticism that the ceasefire would hold, with President Tayyip Erdogan saying "it does not seem too achievable". Turkey, along with the LNA's main foreign backers Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, has funnelled weapons and fighters into Libya despite a UN arms embargo which they all publicly backed. There was caution inside Libya too. "We all want to end the war and destruction. But personally I don't trust those in power," said Kamal al-Mazoughi, 53, a businessman sitting in a Tripoli cafe. "If there is no force or mechanism to apply this on the ground... this deal will only be ink on paper," said Ahmed Ali, 47, in Benghazi. 'Posturing and positioning' Key details on implementing the ceasefire, including monitoring the departure of foreign fighters and merging armed groups, have been left to subcommittees in future talks. Both sides have deployed thousands of foreign fighters in Libya, including Syrians, Sudanese, Chadians and European mercenaries brought in by Russia's Wagner group. Since June, they have entrenched along the Sirte frontlines with new weapons and defensive positions. Members of the self-proclaimed eastern Libyan National Army special forces gather in the city of Benghazi on June 18, 2020. Photo: AFP / Abdullah Doma Meanwhile, political talks scheduled in Tunisia early next month, with a view to holding national elections eventually, will need to reach agreement on historically elusive issues and overcome widespread mistrust. "There is still no clear sign that Libyan belligerents are looking at this as anything other than a period of posturing and positioning," said Tarek Megerisi, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Libya has enjoyed no political stability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, and has been split since 2014 between east and west. Haftar's assault on Tripoli last year was launched as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had arrived in Tripoli to prepare for peace talks. As that assault collapsed this summer, thanks to Turkish backing for the GNA, Egypt threatened to intervene directly, raising the spectre of a bloody regional escalation. Libya's energy facilities, the biggest prize for both sides, were on the front line as mercenaries marched into ports and oilfields. However, the United Nations is also pushing an economic track to seek agreement between the major factions on the future management of Libya's wealth and its sovereign institutions. "What prevails among [Libyan factions] is a desire to re-start the economy," said Jalel Harchaoui, an analyst working on Libya. "That alignment is frail and temporary." Guterres said he hoped to appoint the current UN Middle East envoy, the Bulgarian Nickolay Mladenov, as the new Libya envoy to replace Ghassan Salame, who quit in March due to stress. -Reuters

The US probe that collected samples from an asteroid earlier this week retrieved so much material that a rock is wedged in the container door, allowing rocks to spill back out into space, NASA officials say. This NASA video frame grab shows the robotic arm from the spacecraft Osiris-Rex making contact with the asteroid Bennu to collect samples. Photo: AFP / NASA TV The robotic arm of the probe, OSIRIS-REx, on Wednesday (NZ time) kicked up a debris cloud of rocks on Bennu, a skyscraper-sized asteroid some 320 million kilometres from Earth and trapped the material in a collection device for the return to Earth. But images of the spacecraft's collection head beamed back to ground control revealed it had caught more material than scientists anticipated and was spewing an excess of flaky asteroid rocks into space. The leakage had the OSIRIS-REx mission team scrambling to stow the collection device to prevent additional spillage. "Time is of the essence," Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, told reporters. Zurbuchen said mission teams will skip their chance to measure how much material they collected as originally planned and proceed to the stow phase, a fragile process of tucking the sample collection container in a safe position within the spacecraft without jostling out more valuable material. Photo: AFP / NASA TV NASA will not know how much material it has collected until the sample capsule returns in 2023. The troubleshooting also led mission leaders to forgo any more chances of redoing a collection attempt and instead commit to begin the spacecraft's return to Earth next March. "Quite honestly, we could not have performed a better collection experiment," OSIRIS-REx principle investigator Dante Lauretta told reporters, affirming a hearty sample size. But with the door lodged open by a rock and the "concerning" images of sample spillage, "we're almost the victim of our own success here", he added. The roughly $US800m ($NZ1.1 billion), minivan-sized OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, launched in 2016 to grab and return the first US sample of pristine asteroid materials. Japan is the only other country to have accomplished such a feat. Artwork: Osiris-Rex approaching the surface of Asteroid Bennu. Photo: NASA/GODDARD/UOA Asteroids are among the leftover debris from the solar system's formation some 4.5 billion years ago. A sample could hold clues to the origins of life on Earth, scientists say. - Reuters