The NS and ProRail assumed on Thursday of last week that there would be three to five centimetres of snow. When the forecast was increased on Friday morning to between 10 and 15 centimetres, it was too late to change the timetables automatically, Schultz van Haegen told parliament.

Drivers and conductors had to be told about the changes individually which cost time and delayed the availability of information to passengers, she said.

Once the new schedule was up and running, it did provide ‘a predictable and reliable service’ from Sunday onwards, the Volkskrant quotes the minister as saying.

Schultz van Haegen says she will be consulting ‘experts’ from countries with experience of extreme weather conditions to find solutions to the chaos on the railways whenever it snows.

But she also says the railways will remain ‘vulnerable’ because of the ‘intensive use of the trains and track’.

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Prime Minister Julia Gillard said eight military helicopters would help in search, evacuation and resupply missions in the eastern state, where days of heavy rainfall have prompted hundreds of evacuations and dozens of rescues.

“The helicopters will be available to assist in rescue operations as required until the immediate crisis has passed,” Gillard said in a statement.

In the inland Queensland town of Charleville authorities are on alert amid fears a temporary levee will collapse as the Warrego River continues to rise, flooding the whole town.

The weather bureau’s Paul Birch told the ABC the situation was “touch and go” as the water will be “rushing in quick over the levee”.

“If it does that you find it tends to erode out part of the levee fairly quickly. So then it will just open up the river into town — it’s quite catastrophic,” Birch said.

Mayor Mark O’Brien said hundreds of people had been evacuated from their homes but so far Charleville itself was “high and dry”.

“We’ve just got an enormous body of water going down the river, but if this thing passes quickly people can just go straight back to the way they were before,” he told the ABC.

In the town of Roma to the east, police were continuing their search for a woman missing since Friday after her vehicle was swept off the side of a road.

“A boy was rescued from the car and a woman got out of the vehicle but rescuers could not keep hold of her,” police said in a statement. “The woman was swept away in fast flowing flood waters.”

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who just over a year ago was dealing with epic floods that swamped the state, sweeping away entire hamlets and flooding thousands of homes, has warned the community faced dangerous new territory.

In New South Wales, the State Emergency Service said 16,550 people were stranded with the worst affected areas around Moree in the state’s far north where floodwaters are expected to remain at their peak for one or two days.

“At this height the properties on the north side of the Mehi River in Moree will remain isolated with many properties surrounded by floodwater and some, possibly in excess of three hundred, inundated,” the service said.

SES assistant commissioner Andrew Edwards said while the rain was easing, the amount of flooding in the region and to the north meant that “we can expect these floods to be going on for months” in some pockets.

Australia suffered epic floods late 2010 and in the January 2011 which swamped a huge area of Queensland, inundating thousands of homes and businesses, sweeping away small villages and leaving more than 30 people dead.

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During her three-day trip to the world’s second largest economy, Merkel praised the advantages of the single currency and urged China to put pressure on Iran and to condemn Syria at the United Nations.

Merkel, who was prevented from meeting journalists and a human rights lawyers, ended her official visit in the southern city of Guangzhou, Xinhua news agency reported.

Merkel, who held talks with Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao during her visit, had said that she would raise human rights issues during the trip.

She attended a business forum with Wen, who Friday said China had neither the intention nor ability “to buy Europe”.

Experts believe China holds more than $550 billion of European sovereign debt, although the figure has not been officially confirmed.

Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will preside Monday over the 14th Franco-German council of ministers, which will be largely devoted to the eurozone financial crisis.

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In a proposal presented on Friday, the justice ministry said the new identity cards would help tackle illegal immigration.

“The residency card system will increase security surrounding residency permit documentation, thereby contributing to the prevention of illegal immigration and illegal residency,” said Justice Minister Grete Faremo (Labour Party) in a statement.

The move follows pressure from the European Union to ensure that immigrants from outside the European Economic Area, of which Norway is a member, are provided with residency cards that include fingerprint details.

Faremo said the cards would benefit immigrants with legitimate residency permits, enabling them to display fully reliable ID to prospective employers and banks.

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The 238 known survivors arrived by five vessels at the city of Lae. Many were undergoing medical tests, according to Capt. Nurur Rahman, rescue coordinator with the country’s National Maritime Safety Authority.

About 350 people were aboard the MV Rabaul Queen when it sank Thursday, said Rahman.

The MV Rabaul Queen went down about 16 kilometers (10 miles) off Cape Fortification in the Vitiaz Strait after getting into trouble early Thursday, officials said.

The ferry is about 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) below the surface, Rahman said.

After an alert was sent out, boats and helicopters rushed to the scene to try to save scores of people left adrift at sea by the sinking. They had to deal with high winds and ocean swells.

Joanne Meehan of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority told CNN two of that country’s aircraft were assisting in the search.

Australia is Papua New Guinea’s closest neighbor minus Indonesia, with which it shares a border.

“I’m pleased that a large number of people have been rescued,” said Kevin Rudd, the Australian foreign minister. “We’re deeply concerned about those who are still missing.”

Rudd said he didn’t have any information on the nationalities of the passengers aboard the ship.

“This is a difficult operating environment,” he said. “We are doing everything within our power.”

The Rabaul Queen was ferrying passengers from the town of Kimbe on New Britain Island to Lae when it got into difficulty.

“Taking ferries is the most economic method of transport for people traveling between the islands and the mainland,” Rahman told CNN. “What I understand from local media is that a lot of students and their parents were traveling to schools that recently reopened on the mainland.”

Jurgen Ruh, the chief executive of Manolos Aviation Ltd. in Lae, was in one of the helicopters that helped with the rescue effort.

“I could see the survivors on the debris,” he said, noting that the passenger ship had sunk completely by the time he reached the scene.

There were about 10 life rafts visible, each with roughly 10 people on them, the first time his helicopter flew overhead, he said. However, when the helicopter returned to the area after refueling, no more survivors were spotted.

The weather was likely to be a contributing factor in the ferry’s sinking, Ruh said, as there were high winds at the time in what is a notorious area.

Papua New Guinea had a population of 6.7 million in 2010, the U.S. State Department says, with about 190,000 people living in Lae. Most of the population is scattered in small settlements across the state’s many islands.

The largely Christian country is part of the Commonwealth and has Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The bulk of the estimated 2,000 American residents in Papua New Guinea, are missionaries and their families, the State Department says.

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William arrived in the archipelago on Thursday ahead of a tour of duty as an RAF search and rescue pilot.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the posting was part of a “routine operational deployment”, despite Argentina likening it to that of a “conqueror”.

Tensions have risen between the two countries in the past week following the announcement that one of the Royal Navy’s most advanced new warships is being sent to the area.

HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer, is due to set sail for the South Atlantic on her maiden mission in the coming months to replace frigate HMS Montrose.

William will attend a series of briefings and take part in a “familiarisation flight” before he begins his search and rescue work in the remote outcrop, known in Argentina as Las Malvinas.

An MoD spokesman said: “MOD can confirm Flight Lieutenant Wales, as part of a four-man Search and Rescue (SAR) crew, has arrived in the Falkland Islands on a routine operational deployment and will shortly take up SAR duties post a period of briefings and a familiarisation flight.”

The Argentinean government has claimed William’s deployment was a distraction from Britain’s “internal problems”. Vice president Amado Boudou told the country’s La Red radio station that the move was a case of “bravado” to mask high unemployment and the prospect of Scottish independence.

Meanwhile, angry scenes broke out in Buenos Aires, where a group of masked protesters reportedly took to the streets and threw paint at a British bank.

The Royal Navy has rejected suggestions the decision to send HMS Dauntless to the area was a riposte to increased tensions over the sovereignty of the Falklands. William’s posting has been similarly defended by the MoD as part of a “normal” squadron rotation, but it has been branded a “provocative act” by Argentina.

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“Yes, it’s true. I am in love with captain (Francesco) Schettino,” Domnica Cemortan, who has joint Moldovan and Romanian citizenship, was quoted by La Stampa daily as saying to investigators looking into the January 13 tragedy.

The 52-year-old captain is married and has a daughter. Cemortan in earlier interviews had dismissed gossip that she was Schettino’s lover saying he was a faithful family man because he had shown her pictures of his daughter.

The woman was also quoted as saying that she was on the bridge when the luxury liner hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio on January 13, which caused it to keel over with a loss of 32 lives out of 4,229 people on board.

In an interview with AFP earlier, however, she said that she had been dining with friends when the accident happened. Schettino had told investigators that there was no-one apart from authorised staff on the bridge at the time.

Italian newspapers say that the testimony of the mysterious Moldovan — a former employee of cruise ship operator Costa Crociere — has become a key part of the investigation that is trying to work out who was where when.

Cemortan in earlier interviews in the Moldovan capital Chisinau said Schettino was “a hero” whose actions after the impact saved thousands of lives and she dismissed the accusations against him as “absurd”.

The captain, who is under house arrest at his home on the Amalfi coast, and first officer Ciro Ambrosio are accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all the passengers were evacuated.

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Her trip comes just days after China was hit by deadly unrest in Tibetan-inhabited areas, and the leader of Europe’s biggest economy will also broach the issue of human rights with her Chinese counterparts.

Germany and China, the world’s top two exporters, enjoy vibrant trade relations and Merkel will meet investors and seek to boost confidence in Europe on her fifth trip to the world’s second largest economy.

She is due to make a key address on the euro crisis Thursday morning, before holding talks with Premier Wen Jiabao later in the afternoon.

Accompanied by a trade delegation, she will also hold talks with President Hu Jintao and visit the wealthy, southern province of Guangdong — a manufacturing hub — on Friday.

Observers will be watching her visit for any mention of last week’s violence in Tibetan-inhabited areas of Sichuan province, which saw police fire on protesters in unrest that left at least two ethnic Tibetans dead.

A German government source said human rights would figure highly on the trip’s agenda, with Merkel keen to talk about minority issues and social development in China.

The German leader will also discuss the eurozone with her Chinese counterparts, who are keen to see a return to growth in Europe and a stable euro.

She will hold talks on possible increased Chinese involvement in the International Monetary Fund, access to Chinese markets and intellectual property rights, the source said.

Merkel will also urge China not to take advantage of Europe’s ban on Iranian oil — imposed on Tehran over its nuclear programme — to boost its own imports of the resource, the source said.

And the German leader will ask for Beijing’s support for a UN Security Council resolution against Syria, where fighting between President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces and rebels is escalating.

On Friday, Merkel will fly to Guangdong — where nearly 500 German companies are already present — with Wen and executives from the energy, chemicals, engineering, banking and electronics sectors.

On the agenda of her discussions will also be rare earths — valuable elements that are used in the production of high-tech products and which are of “very great importance for the German economy,” the source said.

China has been accused of deliberately restricting their exports to drive up prices and force manufacturers onto its shores, but Beijing says it limits them for environmental reasons as mining them is very polluting.

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An airplane from Australia, three helicopters and six ships were scouring the search area after the MV Rabaul Queen went down while traveling from Kimbe on the island of New Britain to coastal town of Lae on the main island, Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the incident a “major tragedy” and said her country was providing assistance to its near neighbor.

“Given the likely very high loss of life here, I think when this news comes to the attention of Australians around the country they will be thinking about the people of PNG as they respond to this tragedy,” she added.

The Australian maritime agency initially detected the ferry’s distress beacon and alerted the PNG Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, which is coordinating the rescue effort. The Australian statement said “approximately 50 people have been rescued so far.”

It said 350 people were believed to be on board, but Papua New Guinea’s National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA) rescue co-ordinator Captain Nurur Rahman said the true figure was likely lower.

“I cannot confirm or deny the 350 missing number. It is hearsay,” Rahman said. “I have not seen the manifest as yet, but it is likely around 300.”

Rahman said he was being fed information from an NMSA agent on board one of the ships.

“The dynamics of this thing are changing all the time, minute by minute,” he said.

Ship operator Star Ships could not be immediately contacted for comment.

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The company proposes to end its traditional pension plans, a move strongly opposed by the airline’s unions and the U.S. pension-insurance agency, and to stop paying for retiree health benefits.

AMR Corp. said Wednesday that it must cut labor costs by 20 percent. It will soon begin negotiations with its three major unions, but the president of the flight attendants’ union quickly rejected the company’s ideas as unacceptably harsh.

CEO Thomas W. Horton said Wednesday that the company hopes to return to profitability by cutting spending by more than $2 billion per year and raising revenue by $1 billion per year.

AMR lost $884 million in the first nine months of 2011, and $904 million for December alone. It has lost more than $11 billion since 2001.

“We are going to use the restructuring process to make the necessary changes to meet our challenges head-on and capitalize fully on the solid foundation we’ve put in place,” Horton said in a letter to employees.

AMR’s 88,000 employees have braced for bad news for weeks. AMR, American and short-haul affiliate American Eagle filed for bankruptcy protection in November. Horton said in December that the company would emerge from bankruptcy with fewer workers.

Laura Glading, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said the proposal was more drastic than she expected. She claimed that the annual reduction in employee costs, which AMR put at $1.25 billion, would be closer to $2.8 billion.

“This is an absolute outrage,” Glading said. “There’s nothing in here that’s remotely acceptable.”

Transport Workers Association President James Little declared, “We’re going to fight this.” His union represents American’s mechanics and bag handlers, who would be hit hardest — 40 percent would be laid off.

The job cuts would include 4,600 maintenance workers, 4,200 baggage handlers, 2,300 flight attendants, 1,400 management and support employees and 400 pilots.

If American and its three unions can’t agree on changes, the company could ask a bankruptcy judge in New York to throw out existing labor contracts and impose the company’s conditions on workers. Federal law requires the company to first make a good-faith effort to negotiate agreements with its workers.

Besides fewer workers and reduced benefits, company officials said that other cost-cutting moves would include restructuring debt and aircraft leases and grounding older planes. A maintenance-overhaul facility in Fort Worth, Texas, would close and some maintenance would be outsourced, a move that American has long resisted. Aircraft-cleaning and fueling work would also be outsourced, and pilots and flight attendants could work more hours.

Ray Neidl, an analyst with Maxim Group LLC, said for American to win support for its plan, it would have to offer employees a goal — a carrot — and not just a stick. He said an AMR proposal for a new profit-sharing plan might help.

“It’s hard to see a carrot right now,” he said, “but you have to convince them that this is part of a plan to return to profits and secure jobs.”

The company also wants union approval to drop its traditional pension plans, which cover 130,000 employees and retirees. It would replace them with 401(k)-type plans under which the company contributes to workers’ retirement accounts.

The pension plans were once standard in the airline industry. AMR’s are underfunded by billions of dollars and the company said on a new website Wednesday that it could no longer afford them. This week, the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. slapped liens on $91 million in AMR property after the company paid only $6.5 million of a required $100 million contribution to the plans.

PBGC Director Joshua Gotbaum said that before American “takes such a drastic action as killing the pension plans of 130,000 employees and retirees, it needs to show there is no better alternative.” He said the company had failed to provide even basic financial details.

American said the cost of traditional pensions and retiree health benefits saddled AMR with higher labor costs than its rivals. Through the first nine months of 2011, labor was 29 percent of operating costs at AMR compared with 22 percent at United and 20 percent at Delta.

Horton said AMR also plans to go ahead with orders to buy hundreds of new aircraft to replace older gas-guzzlers. That would cut fuel use — high fuel costs have been a major drag on American and other airlines. The bankruptcy judge hasn’t approved those new orders, but he has allowed the company to take delivery of some new jets.

American plans to increase flights in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Miami by 20 percent over the next five years to raise revenue, Horton said.

AMR, which barely avoided bankruptcy in 2003, is the latest of several large U.S. airlines to go through Chapter 11 in an effort to reduce costs and debt. United, Delta and US Airways did so in the past decade, and Continental — now part of United — in the 1990s.

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