Swedish band ordered to pay pop rivals

ONE of Sweden's most successful rock bands, The Hives, has to pay 18.5 million kronor ($A2.80 million) to Swedish pop group The Cardigans, a court has ruled.

The dispute is one of several lawsuits embroiling Tambourine Studios, a recording studio in the southern city of Malmoe used by some of the country's biggest artists, which also handled the two bands' finances.

Tambourine had said it was standard practice for the company to transfer money from bands with high liquidity to those with less cash.

But The Hives claimed it was never told that some of the money the band was receiving was a form of loan from The Cardigans, whose biggest hit Lovefool topped global charts in 1997.

"There are no loan agreements, no signed documents, no agreements on interest rates," The Hives said in a blog post before the ruling.

The district court in the Swedish city of Lund ruled that, while the transfers "shouldn't be viewed as a loan" as such, the money still had to be repaid "since there is no reason ... to keep the money that came from The Cardigans".

The Hives was also ordered to pay the plaintiffs' legal fees.

Other Swedish bands involved in the Tambourine accounting scandal include Europe, the band behind eighties rock anthem The Final Countdown, who have claimed that the company forged signatures on some of its documents.

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Protesters turn backs on Thatcher coffin

LONDON police are bracing for protests at Margaret Thatcher's funeral, with opponents vowing to pelt her coffin with eggs, coal or milk if they can get close enough - or simply turn their backs on the passing procession.

More than 800 people have pledged to attend an event called "Maggie's good riddance party", promising a "right jolly knees-up" outside St Paul's Cathedral - where 2000 global political leaders, celebrities and friends will be paying their respects to the former British prime minister on Wednesday.

"Let the world know the hypocrisy of a state-funded funeral for the person who influenced 30 years of cuts to state funding of welfare," the protest's Facebook page reads.

"If taxpayers are funding her funeral ... we can at least get our money's worth."

The former Conservative Party leader's death has sparked furious debate in Britain over her legacy - and over the decision to grant her a state-funded ceremonial funeral, which by some estimates will cost the taxpayer up to STG10 million ($A14.93 million).

Her more radical critics, who accuse her of ruining millions of lives with her radical free-market reforms, greeted news of her death from a stroke last week with impromptu street parties.

Hundreds of people filled London's Trafalgar Square on Saturday, erected a giant effigy of her and shouted "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie! Dead, dead, dead!"

Scotland Yard has launched a massive security operation, fearing that protesters could attack the 1.9-kilometre route between parliament and St Paul's. Her coffin will be carried on a horse-drawn gun carriage through streets lined with military personnel.

Some protesters have vowed to pelt the coffin with eggs, while others have hinted at hurling coal - a reminder of the bitter 1984-1985 miners' strike which Thatcher crushed, leading to the closure of dozens of mines and tens of thousands of job losses.

In London, some protesters suggested they may try to throw milk at Thatcher's coffin, a reference to her days as education minister when her decision to stop free milk for older school pupils earned her the nickname "Thatcher the milk snatcher".

Westminster City Council has nine "flushing machines" and 40 staff on standby to clear the streets of milk if necessary, a spokeswoman said.

But many of Thatcher's foes said that simply turning their backs as her coffin passes would send a more powerful message.

"If many people turn their backs it will be a deeply symbolic act," said Becca Blum, an environmental activist who said she had police permission for a peaceful protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice.

"We will show the world that Britain is not all united in grief," she wrote on her blog.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said an "appropriate" policing operation was in place for Wednesday.

She declined to say how many officers would be on the ground, adding that the force had been in contact with some protesters.

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Mt Isa locals free to leave homes: police

MOUNT Isa residents are being told they can leave their houses after a warning was issued for locals to stay indoors due to a blast at an acid plant.

A chemical tank exploded at an Incitec Pivot facility near the Mount Isa mine at about 6.30pm (AEST) on Tuesday, police say.

The blast caused workers to be evacuated from the nearby mine, with residents of the northwest Queensland city urged to stay indoors.

Early on Wednesday morning, police said locals no longer needed to stay in their homes.

"A request for Mount Isa residents to remain inside has now been revoked," police said in a statement.

They said no one was injured in the blast and the incident wasn't considered suspicious.

Queensland Fire and Rescue Service tested air quality in the area on Tuesday night, police said.

Workers were evacuated from the nearby Mount Isa mine following the blast as a precaution.

In a statement, Incitec Pivot said an "adverse chemical reaction" occurred in a water treatment part of its plant about 5pm on Tuesday, creating a plume.

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Mum and dad equally good at baby's cry ID

FRENCH researchers have dealt a blow to folklore that says mothers are better than fathers in recognising their baby's cry.

The "maternal instinct" notion gained scientific backing more than three decades ago through two experiments, one of which found that women were nearly twice as accurate as men in identifying the cry of their offspring.

But the new study says men and women are equally skilled at this - and accuracy depends simply on the amount of time that a parent spends with the child.

Scientists led by Nicolas Mathevon at the University of Saint-Etienne recorded the cries of 29 babies aged between 58 and 153 days as the infants were being bathed.

Fifteen of the babies were in France and 14 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The idea of sampling cries in Africa and Europe was to test whether local culture and family habits affected outcomes.

All the mothers, and half of the fathers, spent more than four hours a day with their baby. The other fathers spent less than four hours daily with the child.

The parents were asked to listen to a recording of three different cries from five babies of a similar age, one of which was their own. There were two sessions of experiments.

On average, the parents were 90 per cent accurate in identifying the cry of their own baby.

Mothers were 98 per cent accurate, and fathers who spent more than four hours with baby per day were 90 per cent accurate.

Fathers who spent less than four hours daily with the infant were only 75 per cent accurate.

Parents who were exposed to other babies each day - a characteristic of the extended family in Africa - were 82 per cent accurate.

The study, which appears in the journal Nature Communications, says the "maternal instinct" hypothesis is flawed, as the studies from the late 1970s and early 1980s failed to take into account the amount of time the fathers spent with their kids.

In biological terms, men and women are "cooperative breeders", so the idea that one gender is better than the other at a basic mechanism to protect the baby is incongruous, it suggests.

"Both fathers and mothers can reliably and equally recognise their own baby from their cries," it says. "The only crucial factor affecting this ability is the amount of time spent by the parent with their own baby."

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Terror wins if runners alter plans: Howard

FORMER prime minister John Howard says Australians shouldn't be deterred from running in the London marathon following terror blasts in Boston.

Two bombs exploded at the Boston marathon on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding more than 150.

As a result police are re-examining security arrangements for Sunday's London Marathon which organisers have vowed will go ahead.

Mr Howard, in London for Margaret Thatcher's funeral, said the apparent act of terrorism in Boston was "an ugly reminder of the sort of world we live in".

"(But) when I was prime minister my view always was that life should go on as normal," he told reporters when asked what advice he'd give Australian runners.

"The thugs and the terrorists always win when people alter their behaviour out of intimidation."

Mr Howard said people should take extra precautions and seek official advice from the Australian government.

The former Liberal leader added there was evidence certain groups had wanted to attack sporting events in Australia in the past.

London Mayor Boris Johnson on Tuesday insisted there was always going to be robust security measures in place for the marathon.

"But given events in Boston it's only prudent for the police and the organisers to re-examine those security arrangements," he said in a statement.

Leading counter-terrorism expert Richard Barrett believes the fatal explosions in Boston have hints of a right-wing terrorist attack rather than al-Qaeda-inspired extremism.

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Obama: Boston attacks act of terror

US President Barack Obama has branded the Boston bombings a "cowardly" act of terror, but says it is still unclear if a foreign or domestic group or individual was behind the attacks.

"This was a heinous and cowardly act," Obama said at the White House. "Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror."

Obama said while the impact of the attacks near the finish line of the Boston marathon on Monday, which killed three people and wounded more than 170 others, were clear, the motives and the identify of those responsible was not.

"What we don't yet know, however, is who carried out this attack or why, whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organisation, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual," he said.

But the president again vowed to bring whoever was behind the assault to justice, and warned that America would not be cowed by terrorism.

"We also know this - the American people refuse to be terrorised," he said.

In frank and direct language, Obama vowed to keep Americans up to speed with developments in the investigation and asked them to remain vigilant.

"What I have indicated to you is what we now know. We know it was bombs that were set off. We know that obviously they did some severe damage. We do not know who did them," he said.

"We don't have a sense of motive yet. So everything else at this point is speculation."

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Boston victims suffer amputations

THE victims of the Boston Marathon bombings were peppered with nails and pellets, doctors say, adding that the most severely wounded required amputation.

The twin blasts near the finish line in the northeastern US city on Monday claimed three lives and left more than 170 injured.

"This bomb obviously was placed probably low on the ground, and therefore lower extremity injuries are to be expected," said George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Velmahos said eight patients were in severe condition, with four having undergone major surgery, mostly amputations of lower limbs.

But he added they were in stable condition "and thank God they are all alive."

"Many of them have severe wounds, mostly in the lower part of their bodies, wounds related to the blast effect of the bomb, as well as small metallic fragments that entered their body - pellets, shrapnel, nails," Velmahos told reporters.

Due to the nature of the injuries, the victims suffered rapid loss of blood, which hospital personnel were able to rapidly control, but Velhamos said that created other physiological problems.

He said surgeons amputated four limbs, and two others were at risk, but "I hope we will save those legs".

"They are in intensive care. They are in critical condition. But at this point we have stabilised their vital signs and their hemodynamic situation is under control," he said.

He said those who underwent amputations were so severely damaged by the blast that their limb was "beyond salvation."

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