14 Sri Lankan asylum seekers sent home

A MAN making his second bid for asylum was among 14 asylum seekers sent home after allegedly hijacking a ship off the coast of Sri Lanka, the federal government says.

Speaking in Sydney, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the 14 asylum seekers left Cocos Islands on a plane bound for Sri Lanka at 1pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

He said the group, which also included three children, had all been on the Chejan - a fishing trawler that was allegedly hijacked on October 13 off the Sri Lankan coast.

The boat had been missing until it was intercepted on Thursday north-west of the Cocos Islands by ACV Hervey Bay.

He said the government had decided to remove all but one of the alleged 15 hijackers because they faced "serious charges in Sri Lanka".

"The government took the view that it's appropriate that they face those charges and the removal occur as soon as possible," Mr Bowen told reporters.

"The Australian government took the view that the Sri Lankan government should be able to cooperate and these people should be able to face these charges."

He said the government was not pressured by Sri Lanka to remove the group and did not say why one of the alleged hijackers had not been expelled.

He also denied the government had acted overly secretively on the issue.

"I don't think there's been secrecy, we've been progressing their removal and that entails conversations with other governments and it entails steps being put in place," he said.

The group included one man who had already been removed from Australia after a previously failed asylum bid, Mr Bowen said.

"I'm very clearly now, we are showing that if they return again we have steps available to us which we will implement," he said.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the Chejan should never have reached Australian waters.

"Labor has gambled on our borders by allowing alleged pirates to enter our waters and be given the opportunity to make a protection claim," he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship confirmed on Saturday that seven more Sri Lankan men had returned home voluntarily from Christmas Island.

They departed Perth on Friday on a commercial flight for Colombo.

Mr Bowen said he expected even more people return home in the future as the government's policy of offshore processing takes effect.

People who opt to depart voluntarily can receive individual reintegration support to assist with their return through the International Organisation for Migration.

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Hajj pilgrims stone devil for second day

HUNDREDS of thousands of Muslim pilgrims from all over the world, grouped by nationality, stoned the devil in Saudi Arabia's Mina valley on Saturday, as the Hajj reached its final stages.

Security forces were heavily deployed in the stoning area and first aid teams remained on high alert around the three adjacent pillars representing Satan.

Men, women and children from 189 countries moved easily from one pillar to the next shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is the greatest) as they hurled pebbles at the stone walls.

They walked in groups carrying their national flags so no members would get lost in the massive crowds.

As many prayed during and after the stoning, others were taking pictures on their mobile phones of themselves next to the pillars.

The photographing was criticised by members of the security forces who said through loudspeakers: "How are you people stoning Satan and taking pictures with him at the same time?"

The ritual, which takes place in the kingdom's usually deserted Mina valley and comes to life only during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, began on Friday with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday as the faithful began by stoning the largest pillar, Jamrat al-Aqaba.

Mina used to be the most dangerous phase of the Hajj and the most problematic for the Saudi authorities, marred by deadly stampedes in the past as well as by fires in tent camps.

In the past few years, however, tents have been fire-proofed and gas canisters and cooking are now banned.

The stoning area has also been expanded to avoid overcrowding.

The ritual is an emulation of Abraham's stoning of the devil at the three spots where it is said Satan tried to dissuade the biblical patriarch from obeying God's order to sacrifice his son, Ishmael.

According to the authorities, 168,000 police officers and civil defence personnel were mobilised for this year's Hajj.

For the stoning, they organised specific times of day for groups of pilgrims to perform the ritual.

More than three million registered pilgrims are taking part in the rituals which will finish on Monday.

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Woman dies after her car rolls on highway

A WOMAN has died after the car she was in rolled on the Bruce Highway in central Queensland.

Police said the accident occurred at Clairview about 3.40pm (AEDT) on Saturday and that no other vehicles were involved.

They said two passengers in the car sustained injuries that were not life-threatening.

Police are currently investigating at the scene.

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Sandy weakens to tropical storm

SANDY weakened from hurricane to a tropical storm early Saturday as it inched toward the US East Coast with sustained winds of 110 kilometers an hour, US forecasters said.

On Friday, the storm packed maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers an hour, enough to classify it as a Category 1 hurricane.

"Sandy weakens, but is expected to remain a large storm with widespread impacts into early next week," the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said.

It said the storm was expected to continued moving "parallel to the southeast coast of the United States through the weekend."

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End of an era for Berlusconi

ITALIAN newspapers splashed the news of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's jail sentence for tax fraud across their front pages on Saturday, heralding the end of an era dominated by the man one anti-Berlusconi paper called a "natural-born delinquent".

"The mirages and alibis are finished," said La Stampa.

"An entire generation of Italians born after 1975 will for the first time vote in elections next spring that are not a pro- or anti-Berlusconi referendum."

Berlusconi, 76, had already announced last week he would not stand in next year's elections, but his sentencing on Friday to four years in jail - quickly reduced to one under an amnesty law designed to reduce overcrowding in prisons - put an emphatic punctuation mark on the end of his domination of the Italian political scene.

"And so ends a Titanic affair, born in television and finished in court, with a clear, very tough and above all insulting punishment," wrote the editor of the centre-left daily La Repubblica, Ezio Mauro, saying the case highlighted Berlusconi's fall from grace.

Left-leaning daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, which had waged war on Berlusconi's government during his three stints as prime minister from 1994 to 2011, said the media tycoon had a "natural capacity for delinquency".

The verdict "is the proof that Italy was governed for nine years by a tax cheat", said the paper.

During the trial, Berlusconi was accused of artificially inflating the price of distribution rights bought by his Mediaset empire and creating foreign slush funds to avoid paying taxes in Italy.

Scandal-hit Berlusconi condemned his sentence as "intolerable judicial harassment".

The disgraced former premier looked alternately distraught and defiant in front-page photos.

In some shots he wearily pressed a hand to his eye or stared sullenly into space; in others he raised his hands in a protestation of innocence or briskly straightened the lapels of his suit.

Some papers stuck strictly to the facts.

The country's main newspaper, the centre-right Corriere della Sera, said only "Berlusconi convicted" in its headline, and did not run an editorial on the sentence.

Berlusconi's lawyers have said they will appeal by November 10. Italy's lengthy appeals process will likely ensure he never sees the inside of a jail cell.

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Suicide bomber kills 41 in Afghan mosque

A SUICIDE bomber has killed at least 41 people, including five children, when he struck at a mosque in northern Afghanistan after Eid al-Adha prayers on Friday.

Dozens more were wounded as the bomb ripped through the crowd of worshippers in Maymana city in Faryab province on Friday and there were fears the death toll could rise.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suicide bombings are a favourite weapon of Taliban Islamists trying to topple the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

The attacker was wearing a police uniform when he blew himself up at the entrance to the city's packed Eid Gah mosque, deputy provincial governor Abdul Satar Barez told AFP.

"Our latest death toll shows 41 deaths, and that might rise," he said.

"Nineteen were members of the security forces, including police, army and intelligence agents. Seventeen were civilians and five children are also among the dead."

Barez, like many other provincial officials, was at the scene at the time of the bombing and described the horror of the blast in the midst of a religious celebration.

"We had just finished Eid al-Adha prayers and we were congratulating and hugging each other," Barez said.

"Suddenly a big explosion took place and the area was full of dust and smoke and body parts of police and civilians were all over the place. It was a very powerful explosion."

One eyewitness, Sayed Moqeed, described the bomber as appearing to be in his early teens.

"Suddenly I heard a very big explosion," he said. "Everywhere were pieces of bodies, hands and limbs. The suicide attacker was in police uniform, he looked to be around 14 or 15 years old."

The four-day Eid al-Adha holiday is a celebration in which Muslims slaughter animals for feasts and distribute a portion of the meat among the poor, and the first day draws large crowds to mosques around the Islamic world.

Karzai strongly condemned the attack, calling the perpetrators "the enemies of Islam and humanity".

"Those who take the happiness of Muslims during Eid days cannot be called human and Muslim," he said.

Northern Afghanistan is relatively peaceful, with the Taliban, who were ousted from power in a US-led invasion in 2001, concentrating their operations in the south and east of the country.

But they have recently stepped up their activities in the north, despite the presence of more than 100,000 NATO troops in the country.

Last week, a huge roadside bomb ripped through a minibus carrying guests to a wedding party in the northern province of Balkh, near Faryab, killing 19 people and wounding 16 others.

The United Nations says 1,145 civilians were killed in the war in the first six months of this year, blaming 80 per cent of the deaths on insurgents.

Last year as a whole, a record 3,021 civilians died in the war, according to UN figures.

But Afghan police and government officials have increasingly become targets as local forces take on more responsibility for the fight against the insurgents as NATO prepares to pull out.

The foreign combat troops are due to withdraw by the end of 2014 and there are fears that the Taliban will extend their activities across wider swathes of the country against ill-prepared Afghan forces.

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Australian found dead in Bangkok hotel

AN Australian and a Canadian tourist have been found dead in a Bangkok hotel after a suspected drug overdose, Thai tourist police say.

A maid found the bodies of the two men, who are believed to be aged 27 and 31 years old respectively, slumped in a room in the Park Plaza, a hotel in one of main the tourist drags of the Thai capital.

Their bodies were found late on Thursday alongside an unknown white powder and drug-taking paraphernalia.

"At the initial autopsy the forensic doctor said they died from a drug overdose," the tourist policeman, who wanted to remain anonymous, told AFP on Friday, adding tests will be carried out on the powder.

Thailand's reputation as a tourist paradise has been tarnished recently after the deaths of several holidaymakers including two Canadian sisters on the resort island of Phi Phi in a suspected poisoning case in June.

Australian woman Michelle Smith, 60, from Perth, died on June 20 during an attempted robbery on the Thai resort island of Phuket. Two Thai men have been sentenced to life in prison for her murder.

In August, a British and a French tourist died in a nightclub blaze on Phuket island in another blow to Thailand's image - already tarnished over recent years by deadly political unrest, devastating floods, and concerns about violent crimes against foreigners.

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Toyota global vehicle sales up 28%

TOYOTA sold 7.4 million vehicles around the world in the first nine months of the year, up 28 per cent from a year earlier, but its strong growth faces headwinds from a sales plunge in China that could unseat it as the world's top automaker.

Anti-Japanese sentiment flared in China after Japan nationalised tiny islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, intensifying a territorial dispute.

The move set off violent protests in China and a widespread call to boycott Japanese goods. The islands are administered by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.

Toyota's vehicle sales in China dropped to about half of last year's levels in September to 44,100 vehicles from 86,000 the year before.

In August, Toyota sold 75,280 vehicles in China, down 15 per cent.

Toyota reclaimed its crown as the world's top automaker from General Motors (GM) in the first half, selling 4.97 million vehicles globally.

That marked a turnaround for Toyota, which had suffered setbacks in recent years from massive recalls and natural disasters.

Toyota had planned to sell a million vehicles in China this calendar year.

But the company no longer expects to achieve that number. It has not given a new target.

Over the first half of the year, Toyota sold about 300,000 more cars and trucks than GM did.

Initially, that kind of lead was seen as large enough to make it difficult for GM to catch Toyota in the final six months of 2012.

GM said it sold 4.67 million vehicles during the first half. It's set to give its January-September numbers on October 31.

Nomura Securities auto analyst Masataka Kunugimoto expects Toyota's China sales to gradually recover, reaching 900,000 vehicles for the year, even if they fall short of a million.

He expects GM and other non-Japanese manufacturers to get a lift in sales as buyers avoid Japanese products.

"But we don't expect this kind of drop to continue," he said. "The Chinese market is still growing."

Toyota's production was hit by the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan last year and then by flooding in Thailand.

Its sales were also dented by massive US safety recalls, totalling more than 14 million vehicles since the quality control problems emerged three years ago.

GM was No.1 in world auto sales last year.

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Obama, Romney wage bitter Ohio duel

IN a spectacular finale to a 40-hour campaign sprint, US President Barack Obama has launched a searing attack on Mitt Romney in Ohio, the state that may decide their election duel.

But Romney, rallying Republicans in the state's aptly named town of Defiance, mocked Obama's "incredibly shrinking" campaign and stole the president's 2008 mantra, promising "big change" if he wins on November 6.

The latest sharp exchanges came as polls showed the White House up for grabs, with Romney ahead by a nose nationally, but Obama standing firm in the key swing states that could hand him a second four-year term.

The president on Thursday won the endorsement of Colin Powell - an African-American Republican who served in both Bush presidencies - sparking controversial remarks by a Romney surrogate who suggested race was a factor.

"When you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him," top Romney adviser John Sununu said about Powell, who also backed Obama in 2008.

The remarks by Sununu, who is known for fiery media appearances, could inject race into a campaign Romney has tried to keep focused on the economy.

Earlier on Thursday, Obama lambasted Romney for opposing his bailout of the car industry as he campaigned in Ohio, a perennial battleground in which car manufacturing supports one in eight jobs.

"I refused to walk away from those workers, I refused to walk away from those jobs. I bet on American workers. I would do it again because that bet always pays off," Obama roared, in a populist pitch for blue-collar votes.

Obama ended an eight-state tour of more than 11,263km (7000 miles) with 11 days to go before he asks Americans to defy the omens of a weak economy and high unemployment by voting to renew his lease on the White House.

The president's aides are privately signalling increasing confidence that he will prevail. But Romney has sought to convince his supporters that he has the momentum in the final stretch.

"We want change. We want big change. We're ready," Romney told a 12,000-strong crowd in Defiance, accusing the incumbent Democrat of waging a nasty, negative, diminished campaign drained of new ideas.

"This is a time for big challenges, and a time of big opportunities, we have a big choice. And frankly we're going to elect a president that's willing to make big changes, and I will," Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said.

Romney blames Obama for four years of lacklustre US growth, while the president warns that Americans have come too far out of recession to risk reversing the progress under Republicans.

Earlier, Obama became the first sitting president to cast an early vote, in a successful grab for news coverage also designed to mobilise his supporters to register their ballots early.

In a slightly incongruous scene Obama, possibly the most famous man in the world, returned to a neighbourhood near his vacant Chicago home in a presidential motorcade and presented his ID for scrutiny.

Then he stood behind a touch screen machine to cast his vote, in a move designed to convince supporters to also go to the polls early.

Hours later, in a striking example of the theatrical power possessed by an incumbent president running for re-election, Obama landed before 12,000 people who had waited for hours at a lakefront airport in Cleveland.

The converted Boeing 757 serving as Air Force One, the codename given to any aircraft carrying the president, pirouetted on its nose wheel in front of the cheering crowd before Obama bounded down the steps and on to a stage.

The closer the election gets, the more the bad feeling between Romney and Obama seems to show.

In a Rolling Stone interview published on Thursday, Obama told the magazine's executive editor, Eric Bates, that children had excellent political instincts and could spot a "bulls***ter".

The comment was widely viewed as a jab at Romney, who Obama has accused of lacking principle and shifting positions for political gain. The remark prompted an acid response from Romney spokesman Kevin Madden.

"President Obama is rattled and on the defensive. He's running on empty and has nothing left but attacks and insults. It's unfortunate he has to close the final days of the campaign this way," he said.

Obama's team says he still has multiple routes to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

In two days, he toured battlegrounds Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Virginia and Ohio, stopped in California to appear on a late night talk show and made it home to Chicago.

Romney has also done his share of map hopping, but on Thursday he focused squarely on Ohio, where the latest average of polls by the RealClearPolitics website had Obama up by two points.

NBC/Wall Street Journal polls on Thursday showed Obama up three points on Romney in Nevada, where he also leads early voting, and tied with Romney in the Rocky Mountain battleground of Colorado.

Romney, however, was up three points in an ABC News/Washington Post poll of likely voters.

Sununu's race comment threatened to ignite another controversy as Romney was still struggling to contain fallout from comments about rape and abortion by Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, whom he has endorsed.

Mourdock had said pregnancy caused by rape was "something God intended to happen", offering an opening for the Obama campaign, which accuses Romney of backing a return to 1950s-era social policies.

Romney's team has said their candidate does not agree with Mourdock's views but still supports him in the Senate race.

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Romney adviser raises race card

AN outspoken surrogate for Mitt Romney's White House campaign has suggested that race was a factor in former secretary of state Colin Powell's endorsement of President Barack Obama.

Former New Hampshire governor John Sununu told CNN late on Thursday that the re-endorsement of Obama by Powell - a Republican who served in both Bush presidencies but backed Obama in 2008 - was possibly due to both men being African-Americans.

"Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama," Sununu told CNN host Piers Morgan.

"When you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him."

The remarks by Sununu, a prominent and often flamboyant supporter of Romney, could inject race into a campaign the Republican challenger has tried to keep focused on the sluggish US economy.

The remarks came just two days after Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, explaining his anti-abortion stance, sparked controversy by saying that pregnancies caused by rape are "something God intended to happen".

Those remarks threatened to slow Romney's progress in winning over vital women voters in key swing states and gave Obama an opening to brand Republicans as extremists when it comes to women's rights.

Sununu's remarks could prove less damaging - as Obama already enjoys overwhelming support among African-American voters - but may further distract from Republicans' central argument against the president's economic policies.

The two presidential candidates are locked in a virtual tie less than two weeks ahead of the November 6 election, with Romney enjoying a slight lead in national polls but Obama holding a narrow edge in vital states.

Powell, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H. W. Bush and secretary of state under President George W. Bush, is a moderate Republican once seen as a promising presidential prospect.

In his re-endorsement of Obama on Thursday, Powell credited the president with recent improvements in the economy and praised him as a steely commander-in-chief who had wound down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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More arrests in riot-hit Wadeye

POLICE in the Northern Territory have arrested another 12 people in Wadeye, where a violent clash took place on Monday.

Nine arrests were made relating to outstanding warrants and three more arrests were linked to the violence, which involved up to 200 people, a spokesperson said.

During the clash, between supporters of rival families, some people threw rocks or used steel bars or tomahawks to attack other people.

One woman was injured in the incident.

On Wednesday police arrested 15 people in the town, which is Australia's largest indigenous community with about 1600 residents.

One person was charged with taking part in a riot, riotous behaviour in a public place and being armed with an offensive weapon.

A man and a woman were charged with aggravated assault, being armed with an offensive weapon and engaging in violent conduct.

Chief Minister Terry Mills praised territory police for their action following the violence.

"There were no reported incidents of property or violent crime in Wadeye during the past 24 hours," Mr Mills told parliament.

"Police will continue to keep a high-profile presence in the community and maintain services that allow a timely and efficient response to any future incidents."

Tensions in the town, about 230km south of Darwin, came to a head recently when one man died and Lenny Dumoo, 34, was charged with murder.

Dumoo allegedly killed a member of a rival family, although police have said the death of the man, who cannot be named for cultural reasons, was not gang-related.

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Thai hotel brews coffee from elephant dung

FOR those who like their coffee with a strong nose Thailand could be the ideal destination, after a blend made from elephant dung was put on sale by an upmarket hotel chain.

The Black Ivory blend, made from coffee beans digested and excreted by Thai elephants, is billed as producing a particularly smooth cup.

But it is not cheap, with Anantara Hotels saying the "naturally refined" coffee costs a staggering $US1100 ($A1067) a kilogram, making it one of the most expensive blends in the world.

"Research indicates that during digestion the enzymes of the elephant break down coffee protein," the Thai-based hotel group, which is selling the pungent brew at about $US50 for two cups, said in a statement sent to AFP on Thursday.

"Since protein is one of the main factors responsible for bitterness in coffee, less protein means almost no bitterness."

Once the elephants have digested the coffee berries, the beans are picked out of their dung by mahouts - their trainers - and then sun-dried.

The process is carried out at the hotel's elephant rescue centre in Thailand's north where 30 of the beasts live along with mahouts and their families.

Black Ivory is not the first novelty blend to hit the market in recent years. Coffee passed through the civet, a tree-dwelling mammal in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, sells for a similar price.

One New York coffee shop sells the civet coffee for $US748 a kilo.

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Taiwan Semiconductor 3Q profit up 62%

TAIWAN Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's top contract microchip maker, says net profit in the third quarter surged 62.2 per cent year on year to Tw$49.3 billion ($A1.63 billion).

Demand for its most advanced chip manufacturing technology more than doubled to account for 13 per cent of the total shipments during the July-September quarter, it said on Thursday.

Net profit rose 17.9 per cent from the previous quarter, the company said.

Revenues came in at NT$106.5 billion, up 32.8 per cent year-on-year and an increase of 10.4 per cent from the previous quarter.

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WA economic outlook doesn't faze Buswell

WESTERN Australia should maintain its AAA credit rating if steps being taken by the Barnett government are as effective as hoped, Treasurer Troy Buswell says.

Mr Buswell made the comments after ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) revised downwards its outlook for the WA economy from stable to negative and warned that there was a one-in-three chance of a ratings downgrade in the next two years.

S&P said the revision reflected its expectation that the state's balance sheet could weaken as a result of lower mining royalties, which would take some time to be reflected in its share of GST revenues.

WA's budget had become increasingly reliant on the royalties, which were volatile as commodity prices fluctuated, S&P said.

The WA government currently receives 20 per cent of its revenue from mining royalties.

Mr Buswell downplayed the outlook downgrade, saying S&P's comments were consistent with his own commentary on the state economy.

He said he was confident the steps the government was taking would ensure WA maintained its AAA rating.

In response to a recent plunge in iron ore royalties and a strong Australian dollar, Mr Buswell last month announced sweeping public-sector cost-cutting measures in a desperate bid to keep the budget in surplus.

But on Thursday, he warned the government against responding "too harshly" to a "cyclical movement" in exchange rates and commodity prices.

"It's still my view that we're dealing with a cyclical set of events in and around a high dollar and a relative fall in commodity price," he said.

While revenues from stamp duty and GST had fallen, and notwithstanding short-term fluctuations in commodity prices, mining royalties were on an uptrend, he said.

But they were almost at their peak.

The value of mining royalties would start to plateau at around $6 billion per annum, compared to a projected $4.8 billion in 2012/13, he said.

Even after mining royalties plateaued, there would be continued growth from property and GST as the population continued to rise, he said.

Mr Buswell also confirmed the state government would announce more cost cutting at the forthcoming Mid-Year Economic Review, as flagged last month, to combat the state's vulnerability to exchange rate and commodity price fluctuations.

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Swedish princess engaged to NY banker

ANOTHER royal wedding beckons in Europe: This time it is Sweden's Princess Madeleine who is getting ready to tie the knot.

Madeleine and her US-British boyfriend Christopher O'Neill announced their engagement on the royal palace website on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Madeleine is the youngest of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia's three children and is fourth in line to the throne.

The tabloid Expressen reported early on Thursday that O'Neill, a 38-year-old financier she met in New York, had proposed to the princess, and the couple confirmed the news in a brief video clip posted on the royal website.

"Chris proposed to me in New York at the start of October and we are very happy," Madeleine said in the video, which was recorded on Wednesday at the Drottningholm Palace outside Stockholm.

"Madeleine and I have known each other for two years and I recently summoned up the courage to ask her to marry me. Thankfully she said yes," O'Neill said in English with a British accent.

He added a few words in Swedish, saying he was trying to learn the language "but it is difficult".

Madeleine said the wedding would take place in Sweden in the summer of 2013 and that more details would be released later.

Madeleine lives in New York where she works for the World Childhood Foundation, a nonprofit founded by her mother.

In 2010, she broke off an earlier engagement after media reports her then-fiance had cheated on her.

O'Neill was born in London and holds dual American and British citizenship, according to a CV released by the royal palace.

He studied at a boarding school in St Gallen, Switzerland, and holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from Boston University and a master's degree from Columbia Business School in New York.

O'Neill now works as a partner and head of research at Noster Capital, a hedge fund with offices in London and New York. His interests include Alpine skiing, tennis, golf, music, literature and the Chelsea Football Club in London, the palace said.

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ACT count suggests Liberal-ALP tie

LABOR and the Liberals could both win eight seats in the 17-seat ACT Legislative Assembly, according to the latest update of preference distributions.

But a sole Greens MLA, likely to be former speaker Shane Rattenbury, would still hold the balance of power.

An update released by Elections ACT on Wednesday evening shows Labor picking up three seats in the northern electorate of Ginninderra, at the expense of Greens leader Meredith Hunter.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said only three of the electorate's five members so far seemed certain of election.

But he said it seemed likely that ALP candidates Chris Bourke and Yvette Berry would "strengthen Labor's grip on the final two seats".

The preference update also shows incumbent Labor MLA Simon Corbell is likely to retain his seat. Earlier in the count he was under threat of losing to another ALP candidate.

However, the update suggests Liberal incumbent Steve Doszpot won't make the cut.

ACT electoral commissioner Phil Green cautioned that the update represented only a sample of preferences and the final results could still change.

Preferences are yet to be distributed from about half the formal votes counted so far in each electorate.

"As postal votes can be received up until Friday 26 October, the final result cannot be determined until all of these votes have been processed and included in the count," he said in a statement on Wednesday.

The earliest a final result would be known is Saturday.

Elections ACT did not count any further primary votes on Wednesday, leaving the Liberals and Labor tied on 38.9 per cent of the vote each.

On actual numbers, the Liberals hold a lead of 32 votes over Labor.

It was expected about 2500 votes would be counted on Thursday.

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Gaza rockets draw Israeli airstrikes

ROCKETS and mortars from the Gaza Strip have pummelled southern Israel and an Israeli airstrike has killed a Palestinian militant, in a sharp escalation of violence following a landmark visit to Gaza by Qatar's leader.

Another Gaza man died on Wednesday of wounds sustained in an Israeli air attack the night before, a health official said. The deaths bring to four the number of Palestinians who have died in strikes on Gaza in the past two days.

Several foreign workers were wounded in the rocket fire on Wednesday, and a number of militants were wounded in the Israeli air attacks, Israeli and Palestinian health officials said.

Hamas security forces were ordered to evacuate their facilities for fear they would become targets of Israeli airstrikes, and some schools in southern Israel and Gaza cancelled classes.

Crossings between Gaza and Israel were shut down following the exchanges of fire.

The Israeli military said 60 rockets and mortars were fired by early morning, and that Israeli aircraft struck Gaza three times.

The Popular Resistance Committees said one of its members died in one of the airstrikes, and Gaza health official Dr Ashraf al-Kidra said another Gaza man died of wounds sustained in an attack on Tuesday night that killed two militants. No militant group claimed him as a member.

One of the rockets hit a house, causing no injuries, and one of the airstrikes struck a mosque in the southern Gaza village of Khouza for the second time in several weeks.

Hostilities have been simmering for weeks, and Israel's defence minister vowed that his country would not reconcile itself to attacks from Gaza.

Asked if Israel was considering a ground operation in the Palestinian territory, Ehud Barak told Israel Radio that "if we need a ground operation there will be a ground operation. We will do whatever necessary to stop this wave" of violence.

Much of the fighting has been between Israel and smaller militant groups. But the military wing of Gaza's Hamas rulers and a smaller militant group claimed credit for the rocket and mortar fire Wednesday.

In a statement, Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees said "these holy missions come in response to the repeated, continuous crimes of the enemy against our people, which killed four and injured 10 in the past 48 hours".

The barrage from Gaza came just hours after Qatar's ruler accorded Hamas unprecedented political recognition by becoming the first head of state to visit the largely shunned Palestinian territory on Tuesday.

The emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, also promised his oil-rich country would invest hundreds of millions of dollars in construction projects, something that would help to revive flagging popular support for Hamas by generating thousands of jobs in the destitute territory of 1.6 million people.

Israel's border with Gaza has been largely quiet since a major Israeli offensive four years ago, but violence has flared sporadically since.

Despite the recent flare-up, neither side appeared interested in a renewal of large-scale hostilities, and Hamas has largely stayed out of direct confrontation with Israel since the 2009 war. But it is also under pressure from various militant groups, including al-Qaeda-inspired Salafis active in Gaza, to prove it remains in confrontation with Israel, whose existence it rejects.

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Obama lashes Wall St executive payments

US President Barack Obama, who once called bank executives "fat cats" and their pay "obscene", says Wall Street needs to change executive pay incentives that reward risky bets that can yield fortunes but can also devastate financial institutions.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Obama says that despite congressional passage of a financial regulation overhaul in 2010, there still are not enough adequate means of holding risk takers in the industry accountable if their investment schemes fail.

"You still have a situation where people making bets can get a huge upside, and their downsides are limited," Obama says in the edition that hits newsstands on Friday.

"So it tilts the whole system in favour of very risky behaviour."

The wide ranging interview with presidential historian Douglas Brinkley covered topics from Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney's secretly recorded remarks to donors about Obama supporters to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' tie-breaking decision declaring Obama's health care plan constitutional.

Obama's appearance on the magazine's cover comes less than two weeks before the November 6 election and underscores the president's outreach to young voters in key battleground states.

Obama also has agreed to a cable television interview with MTV that is to air on Friday.

When congress wrote new financial regulations two years ago, it included "say on pay" provisions giving shareholders the right to vote on executive pay packages.

But Obama said there was still a need to limit compensation, though he said it could be accomplished with a mix of legislation and corporate governance.

"I think a legitimate concern, even after Dodd-Frank, is, 'Have we completely changed those incentives?"' Obama said, referring to the legislation by the names of its two chief Democratic sponsors, then-Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts.

"These days, you've got guys who are making five years of risky bets, but it's making them $US100 million ($A97.3 million) every year," Obama told Brinkley.

"By the time the chicken comes home to roost, they're still way ahead of the game."

In the interview, Obama also said he was not surprised by Roberts' decision upholding the constitutionality of the health care law.

Roberts upheld the individual insurance requirement at the heart of the law as a tax, but rejected Obama administration arguments that the mandate was justified by the Constitution's clause giving Congress power over interstate commerce.

That clause has been used to justify congressional authority for most federal programs since President Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s.

Obama, a former constitutional law professor, shared the view of some legal scholars who say Roberts rejected the Commerce Clause argument to give himself flexibility to restrict congressional power in the future.

With Halloween approaching, Brinkley, in a lighter moment, asked what he would like Romney to wear as a costume.

"I don't know about this Halloween," Obama replied. "Next Halloween I hope he'll be an ex-presidential candidate."

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Russian guide 'compares migrants to tools'

THE local authorities in Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg have sparked a huge row by publishing a guidebook for labour migrants that portrays immigrants as spades and brooms.

The brochure's avowed aim is to help migrants mainly from Muslim ex-Soviet Central Asia to settle into the city and was published on the site of an official program to promote inter-ethnic relations.

But while the natives of the city are portrayed in the guidebook's cartoon strips as normal human beings, labour migrants are drawn as walking tools like spades, brooms or paint brushes with hardly any face except a huge grin.

"I do not see anything criminal, any incitation to ethnic hatred in this," said the local government's human rights ombudsman Alexander Shishlov. "The authors had good intentions but lacked taste."

The 50-page brochure aims to give labour migrants information about preventing AIDS and staying in line with labour laws as well as useful addresses like hospitals.

As well as Russian, it has been produced in Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz, the main languages of the labour migrants who have come in tens of thousands to Saint Petersburg in the last years.

"The implication is that native inhabitants of the city are people of the first category and labour migrants are of a lower category," the deputy head of the city's Azerbaijani community Sabir Masimov told the Vedomosti daily.

Hundreds of thousands of labour migrants have come to Russia from other states of the former Soviet Union in the last years, often working as street cleaners or on construction sites and sending their salaries home.

However, they often endure poor labour and living conditions as well as being regarded with disdain by some sections in Russian society.

The brochure - entitled A Guidebook for the Labour Migrant - was published on the spbtolerance.ru website of a Saint Petersburg government program called "Tolerance" whose avowed aim is to unite society.

The head of the organisation "Look into the Future", which produced the brochure, however defended the pictures, saying the illustrations were needed to bring the information material alive.

"Before producing this brochure we carried out focus groups with migrants on buildings sites and factories. The pictures have been very popular in the immigrant community. People are taking them and passing them on to their friends," Gleb Panfilov told Kommersant FM.

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Syria govt agrees to ceasefire: Brahimi

THE Syrian government has agreed to a ceasefire during the four-day Muslim Eid holiday starting this week, international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says.

Many rebel leaders he contacted had also agreed to a truce during the holiday, which begins on Friday, Brahimi told reporters in Cairo on Wednesday after meeting Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

The Syrian government would officially announce its acceptance by Thursday, he added.

"The Syrian government has agreed to a ceasefire during the days of Eid," Brahimi said.

He added that "most" rebel leaders contacted said they would observe a truce but did not specify if this included commanders of the main rebel group, the Free Syrian Army.

"If we succeed with this modest initiative, a longer ceasefire can be built on it, and the launch of a political process," Brahimi said.

On the ground, the air force carried out fresh strikes on Maaret al-Numan where the two sides are battling for control of a key military base and a stretch of the highway linking Damascus and Aleppo, the country's second city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebel Free Syrian Army and Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group, were leading the assault on Wadi Deif base near the town in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Five members of the same family, including a woman and a child, were killed in an air strike on Maaret Shamirin village in the province, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

It said air raids further south targeted Irbin and Harasta, in the suburbs of the capital Damascus, where four rebels were killed in clashes.

Five more civilians died in shootings and bombardment of Harasta and 20 were wounded in shelling as regime forces tried to wrest back control, the monitoring group said, adding that several districts of Aleppo also came under air strikes.

A total of 164 people were killed in nationwide violence on Tuesday, including 89 civilians, 34 rebels and 41 soldiers, the Observatory said.

In Moscow, Russia's top general said on Wednesday that the rebels had secured shoulder-launched missile systems capable of shooting down aircraft, including Stingers made by the United States.

"We have information that the rebels fighting the Syrian army have shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles of several states, including Stingers," General Nikolai Makarov said, quoted by Interfax news agency.

On the diplomatic front, United Nations spokesman Martin Nesirky said Brahimi was pressing hard for a truce.

"It remains to be seen what will happen" about the ceasefire, said Nesirky.

"Mr Brahimi is pushing extremely hard as is the secretary general because this is an extremely important moment."

He said the envoy wanted "a long-lasting ceasefire that will enable a political process to unfold".

The 15-member Security Council is bitterly divided over the conflict, with Western nations pressing for international actions against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad while Russia and China have been blocking these moves.

UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous spoke on Monday of tentative plans to assemble a peacekeeping force if a ceasefire takes hold.

"We are getting ourselves ready to act if it is necessary and a mandate is approved," he said.

Damascus has said Brahimi's visit was "successful" although there was no concrete outcome.

The Arab League, however, has dampened hopes of a truce, saying the chances of it coming into effect are "slim".

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South Korea MPs visit disputed islands

A GROUP of South Korean MPs has visited an isolated set of islands at the centre of a territorial dispute with Japan - prompting an immediate protest from Tokyo.

Seventeen members of the parliamentary National Defence Committee flew to the Dokdo islands (known as Takeshima in Japan) on military helicopters for a day-long visit on Tuesday, an aide to committee member Han Ki-Ho said.

The trip - described as a government inspection session - was aimed at checking security measures around the islands which are guarded by the South's coastguard, the aide said.

A picture released by the committee showed the MPs shouting slogans with a placard reading "Dokdo is our land. We will defend it".

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, who on Monday had urged the Seoul MPs to cancel their trip, said it was "extremely regrettable" that his call had gone unheeded.

"We strongly protest it and we are urging South Korea to prevent future incidents," Fujimura told a regular media briefing on Tuesday in Tokyo.

The islands, which lie between the two countries, are controlled by South Korea but claimed by both states.

The longstanding row over ownership boiled over in August when South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak made a surprise visit to the islets.

Tokyo said the trip, the first ever by a South Korean president, was deliberately provocative.

Lee said it was designed to press Japan to settle lingering colonial-era grievances, including the issue of Korean women forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II.

Japan colonised Korea from 1910 to 1945.

In August 2011 three conservative Japanese MPs tried to visit Ulleung island, the closest South Korean territory to the Dokdo/Takeshima chain, to voice their anger at Seoul's "occupation" of the islets.

South Korean immigration officers refused to allow them into the country, citing security concerns.

Japan is embroiled in a separate row with China over a different set of disputed islands in the East China Sea, which are also claimed by Taiwan.

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Brisbane TB clinic to remain open

QUEENSLAND Health Minister Lawrence Springborg has shrugged off claims he blundered by trying to shut the state's Tuberculosis Control Centre in Brisbane - a decision the government has reversed.

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk says the government's backflip on closing the TB centre at the Princess Alexandra Hospital is a huge win for medical professionals providing treatment to control the disease.

"But the simple fact is that these health professionals at the frontline of protecting Queenslanders from a major outbreak of this fatal illness should not have had to go into battle in the first place," Ms Palaszczuk said in a statement.

"Mr Springborg simply made the wrong decision.

"He made a decision that was based on cutting costs rather than putting the threat of a serious disease first. I'm pleased that he has seen the error of his ways."

After the government announced plans to decentralise TB services under a shake-up of Queensland Health, the Queensland Nurses Union warned it would result in some cases falling through the cracks.

A spokesman for Mr Springborg said there will be no reduction in frontline services to treat TB, which will continue to be treated in the same way as other diseases.

"We do not have a specific influenza centre or an HIV/AIDs centre," the spokesman told AAP.

He said local health boards would provide clinical diagnosis, management and public health follow-up of people with TB infection.

Shadow Health Minister Jo-Ann Miller said that Mr Springborg skirted around the issue of the closure during his evidence before estimates hearings last week, failing to provide sound reasons why it should be closed.

"This closure would have been an absolute disaster for health care in Queensland," Mrs Miller said.

"Mr Springborg's original decision was based on ignorance of a disease that threatens lives and has the real potential to rapidly spread to epidemic proportions."

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Dagong to unveil new ratings agency

CHINESE ratings agency Dagong says it is tying up with US and Russian partners to form a new "independent" group to rival US-based agencies it claims have "proven inadequate".

The Chinese firm will set up the joint venture with Egan-Jones Ratings Co (EJR), based in Pennsylvania, and Russia's RusRating JSC, it said in an invitation for a press conference on Wednesday to unveil the new company.

The joint venture, called Universal Credit Rating Group, will engage in global ratings affairs "as an entirely independent rating service provider", Dagong said in the letter on Tuesday.

"The current international credit rating system has proven inadequate to the task of producing responsible and reliable ratings," it said, adding a new institution is needed to "mitigate economic risk in the development of human civilisation".

The three partners "do not represent the interest of any particular country or group" and Universal Credit Rating Group will "provide impartial rating information to the global capital markets", it said.

US-based agencies Fitch, Standard & Poor's and Moody's - responsible for giving risk assessments to investors - were widely criticised for failing to warn about the impending global financial crisis in 2008.

Many of the debt instruments linked to the US housing market that sparked the crisis were given the highest possible rating by the groups.

Dagong chairman Guan Jianzhong insists his agency is fully independent - and stands by his criticism of his rivals, whose ratings are crucial in determining the interest rates at which countries and companies can borrow.

EJR was granted status as a "nationally recognised statistical rating organisation" by the US Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of 2007, according to the SEC website.

EJR says on its website that it exclusively serves "buy side institutional investors".

RusRating, based in Moscow, focuses on ratings for the banking sector.

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Greenpeace slams Japan's radiation count

GOVERNMENT radiation monitoring in areas near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is unreliable, Greenpeace says, with heavily populated areas exposed to 13 times the legal limit.

The environmental group said on Tuesday authorities were wasting time cleaning up evacuated areas and should prioritise decontamination efforts in places where people live, work and play.

Greenpeace found that in some parks and school facilities in Fukushima city, home to 285,000 people, radiation levels were above three microsieverts per hour.

Japan's recommended radiation limit is 0.23 microsieverts per hour.

"We also found that official monitoring posts placed by the government systematically underestimate the radiation levels," said Rianne Teule, Greenpeace's radiation expert, adding that some machines are shielded from radiation by surrounding metal and concrete structures.

"Official monitoring stations are placed in areas the authorities have decontaminated. However, our monitoring shows that just a few steps away the radiation levels rise significantly," she said.

"Decontamination efforts are seriously delayed and many hot spots that were repeatedly identified by Greenpeace are still there," Teule said.

"It is especially disturbing to see that there are many hot spots around playground equipment, exposing children who are most vulnerable to radiation risks," she said.

In tests carried out over four days last week, Greenpeace also found that radiation levels in Iitate village, where the government is hoping to soon return evacuated residents, are still many times over the limit, with decontamination efforts patchy.

Greenpeace's Japan nuclear campaigner Kazue Suzuki said attempts to clean up were "misguided".

"One home or office may be cleaned up, but it is very unlikely that the whole area will be freed of radiation risks within the next few years," given the mountainous and heavily forested nature of the region, she said.

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Young boy dies after TV falls on him in WA

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy has died after a television set fell on him at his home in Collie, in the southwest of Western Australia.

WA Police say the tragic accident happened about 10.30am (WST) on Tuesday.

"The circumstances surrounding the death will form part of the coronial investigation," a spokeswoman said.

She said there were no suspicious circumstances.

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Dutch citizen in dock for Rwandan genocide

A RWANDAN woman turned Dutch national has gone on trial in a court in The Hague charged with genocide for her alleged role in the 1994 massacre of almost a million people in the central African nation.

Yvonne Basebya, 65, is accused of involvement with "killing and raping Tutsis with the aim of the extermination of the Tutsi population group", prosecutors told the court as the case opened on Monday.

Basebya listened intently as prosecutors read out six charges for her alleged role in the killings, carried out by Hutu extremists against Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The murders, mostly carried out with just clubs and machetes, were sparked when then Rwandan Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down at Kigali Airport on April 6, 1994.

His death was subsequently pinned on Rwanda's minority Tutsi population and over the next three months some 800,000 people died in an orgy of violence, according to United Nations figures.

Basebya, whose maiden name is Ntacyobatabara, is accused of playing a central role in the genocide including at the Pallottines Church, where she "intentionally had killed ... members of the Tutsi population group", according to the charge sheet.

About 110 Tutsis were slaughtered while hiding in the church just south of the capital Kigali, in what is widely regarded as the first proof that genocide was underway in Rwanda.

Basebya allegedly incited others, including members of the so-called Interahamwe Hutu militia group, to kill Tutsis through "gifts, promises, abuse of authority, violence or threat of violence".

She allegedly sang songs including "Tubatsembatsembe", which means "exterminate them (Tutsis)", kept lists of Tutsis marked for death and kept track of their murders, prosecutors said.

Basebya, who was arrested on June 21, 2010, denies the charges against her "from the very beginning", her lawyer Victor Koppe told AFP ahead of the trial, blaming a "small group of witnesses conspiring against my client".

The accused has been living in the Netherlands since October 1998 and received Dutch citizenship in December 2004.

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Surplus shows economic strength to world

TREASURER Wayne Swan says the government's pursuit of a budget surplus is to project the strength of the Australian economy to the rest of the world.

Mr Swan dodged questions on whether the government would continue its path to a budget surplus at all costs, with a troubled global economy in the background.

"We have put in place some pretty tough savings measures in this update to bring the budget back to surplus," Mr Swan told ABC TV on Monday.

The government released its mid-year budget update earlier in the day, when Mr Swan announced an extra $16.4 billion of budget savings over the next four years to keep to its promised surpluses largely intact.

Mr Swan's mid-year budget review predicts a $1.1 billion surplus in 2012/13, down from the $1.5 billion surplus forecast in the May budget.

It would be a turnaround from a $43.7 billion deficit for 2011/12.

The economic growth forecast for this financial year in the mid-year update was also lowered to three per cent, from the 3.25 per cent trend pace previously.

Mr Swan said the government was sending a message to the world about the strength of the Australian economy at a time of global uncertainty.

"We are going to grow faster than every other major advanced economy this year and next," he said.

"In fact, they would be asking questions as to why we are not coming back to surplus in those conditions."

The savings include a cut in the baby bonus from $5000 to $3000 for second and subsequent children from mid-2013, further changes to the private health insurance rebate and increased visa application charges.

"We have been very careful to ensure that when we are making savings. We are not making impact on growth and jobs," Mr Swan said.

But shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said the federal election, due to be held by late 2013, had framed the budget outlook.

"If it were not for a fiddle on company tax, then the government would be forecasting a budget deficit next year," Mr Hockey told ABC TV.

"Instead, in an election year they are going to have a surplus, and Australian companies and shareholders and Australian employees are going to pay a heavy price for that."

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S African probe into mine violence reopens

AN inquiry into 46 deaths during a violent mine strike in South Africa has reopened after it was postponed for victims' families to travel and hear how their loved ones died.

Police lawyers told the commission of inquiry on Monday that officers fired live ammunition at strikers at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana only when they could not control the situation any longer.

"The use of lethal force was the last possible resort," they said of the killing in the small town northwest of Johannesburg, in bloodshed likened to apartheid-era police brutality.

"It was the object of disarming and dispersing over 3000 protesters. The SAPS (South African Police Service) remained focused on one outcome: a peaceful resolution."

President Jacob Zuma set up the commission, led by appeals court judge Ian Farlam, which started on October 1.

Its hearings were postponed because no family members had been able to travel to the Rustenburg, the largest town close to where the killings happened.

Transported by bus from far-flung areas like the rural Eastern Cape province, relatives sat in the front row in Rustenburg's civic centre. Most were women, some dressed in black but others wearing colourful blankets and scarves.

Autopsy reports of the 34 people killed by police were expected to show if all were part of a crowd that gathered on a hill near the mine armed with traditional weapons which authorities judged threatening, or if officers chased and killed some in cold blood between the boulders, as some witnesses have claimed.

Ten others were killed by striking workers in clashes before the police shooting, and two others died later in the strike.

London-based Lonmin on September 18 agreed to up to 22 per cent pay increases for its mine workers.

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Bushfire destroys 30,000 hectares in NSW

EIGHTY firefighters are battling strong winds as they work long into the night tackling a major bushfire that's torn through 30,000 hectares in NSW's north.

Planes are also being used to water-bomb the blaze, burning uncontained in the Macleay River region in an area of dense state forest and parkland west of Kempsey and southeast of Armidale.

Weather forecasters were predicting gusts of up to 60km/h in the region late on Monday - a concern for the Rural Fire Service (RFS) which is trying to prevent the blaze spreading to homes.

Residents in surrounding communities, including Comara and Smith Creek, have all been warned they may have to evacuate later this week if the fire continues unabated.

As of Monday night there was no immediate threat to life or property.

Nonetheless, five aircraft continued to water-bomb the fire and four bulldozers rumbled into action to help build firebreaks.

The Macleay River bushfire is actually two large blazes that joined together late on Sunday.

"Residents are advised to stay aware of local conditions, take the advice of firefighters on the ground and use caution if driving through smoke," the RFS said.

"If people do need to drive in the area be aware there are a lot of fire vehicles on local roads, as well as fallen trees and falling rocks."

Meanwhile, about 100 firefighters are tackling a bushfire in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, north of Sydney.

The RFS said residents in Terrey Hills, Duffy's Forest and Cottage Point should expect to see an increase in smoke and flames as a result of increased backburning activity designed to limit the fire's progress.

But no properties were under immediate threat.

On Monday night there were almost 100 bush and grass fires burning across NSW.

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Govt 'was warned' about trawler risk

FISHERIES Minister Joe Ludwig received confidential advice that banning the controversial super-trawler Abel Tasman would be a "significant risk" for the federal government.

ABC TV's Four Corners has revealed that Senator Ludwig was briefed by officials who warned against trying to stop the ship fishing in Australian waters.

"In our view none of the arrangements available to you or AFMA (the Australian Fisheries Management Authority) provide the capacity to prevent the (formerly named) FV Margiris from fishing," a briefing note concluded.

"Any attempt to prevent the FV Margiris from operating would result in significant risk to the commonwealth, to Australia's fisheries management credibility and to the proper operation of commercial fishing businesses."

Environment Minister Tony Burke and Senator Ludwig last month announced legislation to increase Mr Burke's powers, and effectively ban the 142-metre factory ship.

It allows Mr Burke to stop the renamed Abel Tasman fishing in Australian waters for two years while more scientific work is completed.

The vessel has been left languishing at Port Lincoln after a massive campaign from environmentalists and recreational fishers, most strongly in Tasmania, caused the government to act.

A final declaration on the two-year ban is due from Mr Burke next month and the operator, Seafish Tasmania, has indicated it will sue the government if the ban goes ahead.

Damages could reportedly be as high as $10 million.

Four Corners reveals that Mr Burke asked his department to "secretly" begin working on legislation even as he was publicly saying he had "signed off" on the vessel.

Mr Burke made that announcement on the ABC's Q&A program early last month, saying he had imposed whatever restrictions were in his power at the time.

"I felt when I made that announcement on Q&A that my hands had been tied in a way that I wasn't happy with," he told Four Corners.

"I didn't know whether cabinet and the caucus would end up supporting me in a legislative pathway, so I wasn't able to announce it at that point.

"But I had the department working on it straight away."

The initial announcement had been met with relief by Seafish director Gerry Geen, whose company and its partners had spent seven years and millions of dollars negotiating the journey of the ship from Europe.

But Mr Burke announced that new legislation would be introduced a week later.

Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who campaigned against the trawler, says the stability of the federal government in the hung parliament came into play in the decision to ban it.

"At some point in there the Labor Party leadership would have understood people are going to start crossing the floor on this," Mr Wilkie has told the program.

"It was an absolutely toxic issue and particularly in Tasmania with Tasmanian Labor members."

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6 % growth for Bangladesh: World Bank

THE World Bank says Bangladesh's economy is faring well despite the global economic crisis and should grow about 6 per cent in the 2012-2013 fiscal year as long as a stable political situation prevails before the next national elections.

Published on Sunday, the projection compares to the government's target of 7 per cent economic growth for the fiscal year that ends in June.

The bank's country director Ellen Goldstein told a news conference that while economic measures will influence growth, political stability is the key.

Her concerns come as Bangladesh remains undecided over how the elections in early 2014 will be held after its government scrapped a caretaker government system last year.

The opposition says it wants to restore the system under which elections are overseen by independent caretaker administrations.

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Dangerous NSW bushfire under control

A BUSHFIRE that was threatening a small community southwest of Sydney has been controlled, firefighters say.

But a severe thunderstorm has sparked a dozen bush and grass fires in NSW's far west, and another out of control blaze has begun near Brewarrina, in the state's northwest.

Hazard reduction burns that ran out of control sparked Sunday's first major fire, with bushland near the Bargo State Forest - 100km southwest of Sydney - going up in flames about 9am (AEDT).

Owners of about six properties on William Street, in Bargo, were warned they could be in danger if the fire spread any further.

But by 7pm (AEDT) the Rural Fire Service had the blaze under control, and residents did not need to evacuate.

Bulldozers were ordered to the scene to help reinforce containment lines and build a firebreak.

A Remote Area Firefighting Team also travelled from Macarthur, in Sydney's southwest, to tackle flames that sprang up in inaccessible terrain.

Firefighters in western NSW were also busy on Sunday, with a severe thunderstorm sparking bushfires around Wilcannia and northeast of Broken Hill.

All of the fires were in rural areas and did not pose a threat to homes.

Meanwhile, on Sunday evening, several residents living on Carinda Road, about 25km southeast of Brewarrina, were put on high alert because of a 150 hectare, out of control bushfire near their properties.

There were no immediate evacuations and firefighters were hoping to control the blaze before they got near the homes.

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Nepalese minister quits over bribe charges

AN official says the Nepalese prime minister has asked his labor minister to resign for allegedly seeking bribes for registering private companies offering jobs abroad.

Such companies are mushrooming in Nepal with thousands of younger Nepalese seeking jobs in the oil-rich Gulf and other countries.

Prashant Lamichhane, a media officer in the prime minister's office, said on Sunday Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai asked for Labor and Employment Minister Kumar Belbase's resignation after television news channels showed clips of one of his aides asking job agencies' representatives for more than 250,000 rupees ($A2,900) each to register their business.

The minister sent his resignation to the prime minister on Saturday, which has been accepted, Lamichhane told The Associated Press.

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Blast hits Damascus, at least 10 dead

AN explosion has rocked the Old City of Damascus, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens of other civilians, Syrian activists say.

The blast erupted on Sunday as President Bashar Assad discussed the civil war in his country with visiting UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

The blast targeted a police station in the Bab Touma neighbourhood, a Syrian official said, insisting on anonymity because he is not allowed to make press statements.

Bab Touma, a popular attraction for shoppers, is inhabited mostly by members of Syria's Christian minority.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the death toll.

It said it was not immediately clear if the victims were civilians or policemen. But it described the blast as "strong" and said ambulances and police cars were rushing to the area.

No other details were immediately available.

Brahimi, who represents the UN and the Arab League, met with Assad in another part of the capital.

Brahimi has appealed for a truce between Assad's forces and rebels for the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins October 26.

Brahimi arrived in Damascus on Friday after a tour of Middle East capitals to drum up support for the ceasefire, which he hopes will pave the way for a longer-term truce.

A range of countries including Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Germany have thrown their support behind the idea, but neither the Syrian government nor the rebels have signed on.

Brahimi met Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem on Saturday.

A Foreign Ministry statement released after the meeting did not mention the proposed truce, but said the two men discussed "objective and rational circumstances to stop the violence from any side in order to prepare for a comprehensive dialogue among the Syrians."

Syrian government forces and rebels have both agreed to, and then promptly violated, internationally brokered ceasefires in the past, and there is little indication that either is willing to stop fighting now.

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Icelanders support revising constitution

A MAJORITY of Icelanders have voted in favour of revising the country's constitution, preliminary results of a referendum show.

Some 66 per cent have supported the draft constitution with about 88,000 votes counted.

Turnout in Saturday's vote was estimated at 50 per cent of the almost 237,000 eligible voters, public broadcaster RUV reported.

Voters were asked to answer each of six questions put forward by a constitutional committee of 25 ordinary citizens with a yes or a no.

The committee asked the public for feedback on constitutional proposals, including via social networking websites Facebook and Twitter, prompting the media to dub the new basic law as the world's first "crowdsourced constitution".

Icelanders also voted for making the island's natural resources public property and in favour of allowing the Evangelical Lutheran Church to retain its role as state church.

The council presented its draft to parliament in July 2011.

The process to draft a new constitution began after the country's 2008 financial meltdown prompted calls for reforms.

A left-leaning coalition comprising Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir's Social Democrats and the Left-Green Movement took office after disenchanted voters ousted the conservative-led government in 2009.

The new government vowed to revise the constitution, which dates from 1944.

The results showed many people want change, opposition leader Bjarni Benediktsson, head of the conservative Independence Party, said.

Low turnout and the fact a third of the electorate opposed changing the constitution posed challenges for parliament, Benediktsson added.

His party has favoured a more traditional approach to re-working the constitution in parliament before consulting voters.

Parliament will be dissolved in April ahead of an election.

Changes to the constitution must be approved by two parliaments, with a general election held in between.

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