Men granted conditional bail on manslaughter charges

Two Brisbane men have been granted conditional bail on manslaughter charges.

Benny Joseph Kubalec, 48, of Graceville and Francis Karel Kubalec, 51, of Carindale appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court.

They are charged with the manslaughter of Rita Kubalec.

Feedback from a mental health liaison officer was tended to the court before Benny Kubalec was conditionally bailed.

Police allege Rita Kubalec’s body was found at a home at Magee Street in Graceville in May last year.

The two men will face court again in June.

Army hosts yacht training camp for school children

Nainital, Sep 18 (ANI): With an aim to revive yacht sailing in the country, a 15-day camp is being organised in Nainital district of Uttarakhand where in school children are being trained in yacht sailing.

Over 40 school students from the various parts of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh are taking part in the camp, which is being conducted under the aegis of Indian Army’s Central Command.

The Lucknow based Central Command is conducting such adventure camps for school children from over a decade.

The participants are receiving guidance in the yacht sailing by a team of 11 Army instructors.

“This yacht sailing is a great sport because these days it’s becoming extinct. Most of the people do not want to take part and people of Nainital are also not taking so much interest in yacht sailing. But I feel it’s a very adventurous sport and a great sport,” said Karel Caprini, a participant.

Many of the participants also feel that the training would open up new job opportunities for them.

“We have come here to revive this sport and as far as I can say it’s a very good sport and there is a lot of job opportunity in it. If we do well and learn the technique, we can make our career in the sports,” said Deep, another participant.

According to the Chief instructor of the camp, Mahip Singh the main motive behind the camp is to popularise the dying sport among youth.

“Basic purpose is that sailing is an international sport and the facilities available in Uttaranchal especially, which comes under the central command. We have got our sailors, who have participated in international levels and we got the expertise. So to give the young building up generation a chance to gain knowledge and finally if they have the interest, so excel in the sport. That’s why we have organised the camp,” said Singh.

Despite being considered as a sport at the international level, yacht sailing in India is still at its nascent stage. (ANI)

Estonian parties agree to launch coalition talks

Estonian parties agree to launch coalition talks Tallinn – The likely form of a new government in Estonia began to emerge Tuesday when a small opposition party agreed to coalition talks with the two government parties.

The six-seat People’s Union party will begin talks with the governing Reform party and the Pro Patria/Res Publica Union on Tuesday afternoon, following an extraordinary meeting of its leading members on Monday night.

People’s Union chairman Karel Ruutli said the main issue for the coalition talks would be planning for the 2010 budget.

“The constant changing of the budget in a piecemeal fashion has to stop,” Ruutli said.

Though the People’s Union holds just six of the Estonian parliament’s 101 seats, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip requires its support to regain a parliamentary majority as the existing two government parties control 50 seats.

On May 21, Ansip announced that he was ejecting the Social Democrat party from his three-party coalition, which has been in power since April 2007.

The Social Democrats had disagreed with Ansip over the need for reforms to employment law as the government seeks to impose severe curbs on spending.

After a decade-long boom, the small Baltic state became the first country in the European Union to slip into recession in 2008.

In the first quarter of 2009, the economy contracted by 15 per cent year-on-year and unemployment is at nearly 10 per cent of the workforce.(dpa)

Slovenia resists EU pressure over Croatia membership

Luxembourg – Slovenia resisted European Union pressure on Monday to give immediate backing to a plan aimed at easing Croatia’s EU membership path, officials at a meeting of EU foreign ministers said.

Slovenia has been blocking Croatia’s EU bid in a row over the two neighbours’ maritime border.

Last week EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn proposed a compromise which would see the two countries nominate five judges tasked with solving the problem. Croatia and many EU member states welcomed the proposal.

EU foreign ministers gathered on Monday in Luxembourg to put pressure on both sides to agree to the compromise, according to Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who chaired the meeting.

“It depends on the two of them. We had a talk together, they know the conditions, they have to accept the mediation offer, if they do then there will be progress,” he said as he arrived.

“There is pressure on both of them, there won’t be on one side alone,” he said.

But Slovenia’s foreign minister, Samuel Zbogar, said that his country would have to make an in-depth analysis of the proposal before it was ready to comment on it, according to diplomats close to the negotiations.

He also pointed out that Monday is the day on which Slovenia celebrates the beginning of its resistance, as part of the then Yugoslavia, to Nazi occupation in 1941. (dpa)