Hot battles in US to control congress

ALL eyes may be on the White House, but another electoral battle is also in the offing in the US on November 6, with the results likely to determine just how much the next president can accomplish.

In congress, the entire 435-member lower US House of Representatives and one-third of the 100-member Senate will also be chosen by voters.

But with most legislators safe in their seats, only a few races could determine control of the body, where the upper chamber now is controlled by Democrats and the lower House by Republicans.

Some 10 races in the Senate and 26 in the larger House are considered toss-ups by the website Real Clear Politics.

The presidential election pitting Barack Obama and Mitt Romney has dominated news coverage, but neither man can govern in a vacuum and will need the support of legislators on the opposite end of Pennsylvania Avenue to push through their agenda.

"If we don't win a Democratic senate for President Obama, the Republicans will spend the next four years tearing apart his agenda," the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee declares on its website, stressing the importance of the congressional races.

However, observers note that despite overall dissatisfaction with the legislative process, major changes in congress appear unlikely at this stage. On the House side, an extremely unlikely gain by Democrats of 25 seats would be needed - far more than has ever been picked up by either party in a presidential election year, analyst Charlie Cook notes.

If Obama wins a second term that would mean the deadlock that has marked the last several years would likely continue, with showdowns over spending, raising the US debt ceiling and other issues.

"If you like gridlock, you're going to see a lot more of it," said University of Virginia analyst Kyle Konkik, who studies the congress.

He notes such a scenario would make it difficult for Obama to pass any major policy initiatives, such as immigration reform or on climate change. Instead, Kondik notes Obama would have to defend what already has been accomplished, particularly given calls by Republicans to repeal his health care reforms.

Conversely, if Romney is elected president and Democrats keep their control of the Senate, the Republican leader would have a difficult time passing any major laws or repealing "Obamacare" as he has vowed to do.

Kondik predicts the Senate will remain under Democratic control, while the House will stay in Republican hands. He predicts slight gains for Democrats in the House, narrowing the Republican majority, and the Senate to keep roughly its current configuration.

Several months ago, it looked possible that Republicans could regain control of the Senate with the retirement of several longtime Democrats, but a gaffe by Missouri candidate Todd Akin may have changed that.

Akin, a Republican senate candidate, caused an uproar in August with remarks about "legitimate rape" and pregnancy. There were widespread calls from his own party for him to drop out of the race, but he stayed in. Until he made those remarks, he looked likely to defeat incumbent Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, who had been considered highly endangered. Now she is favoured to win.

Other Senate races of national interest include the contest in Massachusetts where Republican Scott Brown unexpectedly seized the seat once held by Democratic scion Ted Kennedy in a 2010 special election. Now Obama's consumer advocate pick, Elizabeth Warren, is mounting a challenge to take back the seat in the left-leaning state.

Still a narrow Republican majority in the Senate remains possible and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which works to elect the party's candidates, proclaims on its website that just four seats are needed for it win control.

Cook noted that a year ago he would have forecast Republicans to control the Senate, but now puts the odds at closer to 40 per cent.

"I think on the day after the election at lunch time, I don't think we will be sure who's going to be in a majority in the senate," he said at the Economic Club of Washington this month. "I would give Democrats a little bit of an edge."

He pointed to 10 races in which the candidates are within 3 percentage points of one another in polls, and suggested they may trend in one direction or the other. "It's like dominos," he noted.

Virginia, a key battleground in the presidential election, is also a major prize in the senate. The retirement of Democrat Jim Webb, who was swept into office in an anti-Republican wave in 2006, has left a hotly contested race between former senator George Allen, a Republican, and Tim Kaine, who led the Republican Party until last year.

A strong showing for Obama or Romney on election day could help fellow members of their parties as voters tend to support candidates across the party ticket.

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G20 meet with eurozone again in limelight

THE Group of 20 world powers meets on Sunday to tackle fears of a new global economic downturn and renew pressure on Europe to contain its stubbornly tenacious debt crisis.

G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will hold two days of talks in Mexico City as the troubles in Greece continue to vex the eurozone, while Spain keeps everyone guessing if it will ask for a bailout.

While the fiscal situation in the United States is also a major concern, officials do not expect any movement on that front until after the US presidential election, which takes place on Tuesday.

"What we need, and we hope to be able to do it during this meeting, is to stress how we can reduce these uncertainties, resolve issues so that the environment can be more conducive to growth," said Mexican Deputy Finance Minister Gerardo Rodriguez Regordosa.

"All this uncertainty discourages economic players from taking decisions," said Rodriguez, whose country will hand over the G20 rotating presidency to Russia on December 1.

The meeting is a follow-up to a June summit in the Pacific resort of Los Cabos, where G20 leaders declared that they stood ready to coordinate "fiscal actions" to boost domestic demand if economic conditions deteriorated.

Since Los Cabos, the International Monetary Fund slashed its 2012 global growth forecast to 3.3 per cent, eurozone unemployment rose to a record 11.6 per cent in September and growth decelerated in emerging nations.

"You won't be surprised. Europe will be one of the themes of the G20," a German official said.

"Europe must present a long-term crisis management."

The eurozone has taken steps to meet its Los Cabos pledges, moving closer to a banking union and activating a new crisis firewall, the 500 billion euro ($A627.7 billion) European Stability Mechanism (ESM), while the European Central Bank unveiled a bond-buying program.

The markets have been relatively calm since the summer.

"The G20 has been very emphatic, and will continue to be so, that we must show to the markets and (economic) actors that all this effort in building the famous firewalls has led to firewalls that are effective," Rodriguez said.

"And to prove that they are effective, they must be used," he said.

He refused to say whether Spain should ask for a bailout, but Madrid insists that it does not need outside help.

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos is a guest at the G20 talks.

A senior Canadian finance ministry official said there was a need for greater clarity around Spain and the path forward for it and other struggling eurozone nations.

But the epicentre of concern in Europe has shifted back to Greece.

Athens is locked in negotiations with European Union and IMF auditors over austerity measures Greece must take in return for bailout funds it needs to avoid defaulting on its debt.

Greece has asked for fiscal targets to be pushed back another two years, to give it more room to rekindle economic growth after a crushing austerity program sent it into a deeper recession than the lenders had expected.

A French government source said eurozone officials will reassure G20 partners that "things are moving forward" ahead of a November 12 meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

While Europe will seek to reassure it is acting on its debt crisis, the United States is not expected to give more clarity about its looming "fiscal cliff" - a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes that take effect in January if the White House and Congress fails to strike a deal by the end of the year.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is not travelling to Mexico City, sending a deputy in his place while US President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are locked in a close race for the White House.

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Restructuring costs push Alcatel into loss

RESTRUCTURING costs and lower sales have pushed telecoms equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent into a third-quarter loss.

The company said on Friday it lost 146 million euros ($A181.55 million) in the July-September quarter.

That's down from 194 million euros profit in the same quarter a year earlier. Sales also slid 2.8 per cent to 3.6 billion euros.

Alcatel-Lucent supplies telecommunication carriers such as AT&T, Verizon and France Telecom.

It competes with European rivals such as LM Ericsson AB of Sweden and Nokia Siemens Networks of Finland.

But it has struggled to turn a profit since the 2006 merger of France's Alcatel and Lucent of the United States.

Rounds of cost-cutting helped it make 2011 its first full-year profit since the tie-up.

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Popular vote doesn't decide US election

IN the 2000 US presidential election, Democratic candidate Al Gore garnered 540,000 more votes nationwide than Republican George W. Bush.

Yet Bush was the ultimate winner because, in the end, he was awarded the most electoral votes.

Though the US is considered the world's preeminent democracy, the American "people" do not directly elect their president. Instead, the US constitution calls for states to choose "electors" who do the actual electing. It's known as the Electoral College.

Each state is allotted electors equal to their congressional delegations - meaning there are 538 electors in total (435 representatives and 100 senators, plus three for the District of Columbia). A candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes to win.

In 48 US states, the candidate with the most popular votes - by even the slimmest margin - wins all the state's electoral votes.

Maine and Nebraska allot electoral votes by who won particular congressional districts.

Harvard University political science Professor Alex Keyssar, a critic of the Electoral College system, says the framers of the US constitution did not have a model for how to choose a president. They also had a "traditional aristocratic fear of the people" and were hesitant to enfranchise them. They didn't think the citizenry was informed enough to make important political choices, so an "elite" would do it for them.

In the nation's 56 presidential elections to date, including in 2000, there have been four in which a candidate lost the popular vote, but still became president.

In 1824, John Quincy Adams became president even though Andrew Jackson won nearly 40,000 more popular votes. The House of Representatives made the decision after none of the four presidential contenders had enough electoral votes to win.

In 1876, Samuel Tilden won nearly two million more popular votes than Rutherford Hayes, but a congressional commission, deciding along party lines, gave the election to Hayes in the wake of an inquiry into voting irregularities.

In 1888, Benjamin Harrison garnered 93,000 more popular votes than Grover Cleveland, but the Electoral College nevertheless voted in favour in of Cleveland.

And, in 2000, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to end the Florida recount and give all of Florida's 25 electoral votes to George W. Bush, thus delivering him the presidency.

Many regard the Electoral College to be an anachronism and would replace it with a national popular vote.

Keyssar says that the Electoral College makes a mockery of the "one person, one vote" system the country extols. Furthermore, it causes candidates to concentrate primarily on swing states, turning the majority of states into bystanders. (The current swing states are Colorado, Iowa, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and New Hampshire.)

Keyssar acknowledges that in the case of voter irregularities, a nationwide recount would be a much larger undertaking than in a single state.

But the professor says the current system arguably offers a much larger "inducement to fraud" because altering a few thousand votes in a certain state could change the entire outcome of the election.

For example, had John Kerry won Ohio in the 2004 election, which he nearly did, the Electoral College would have delivered him the presidency, even though incumbent George W. Bush had 3 million more popular votes nationwide.

The Electoral College also has its strong backers in the US, including Tara Ross, a conservative lawyer and author of Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College.

Ross says the Electoral College diminishes the potential impact of voter fraud or complications of razor-close outcomes by isolating the problem to smaller geographic units.

Anyone trying to manipulate an election has to "steal the right vote at the right place at the right time", she says, whereas with a national public vote, every stolen vote would count.

Ross also refutes the argument that the current system forces candidates to focus only on swing states.

"There is no such thing as a permanently safe district," Ross says, pointing to Virginia and New Hampshire, once Republican strongholds that are up for grabs in the 2012 presidential race between incumbent Barack Obama, a Democrat, and his Republican rival Mitt Romney.

What's more, she says, the current system forces candidates to appeal to a wider variety of voter because there is "not one kind of swing state". Candidates will tailor their campaigns to fit the rules of the game, Ross says, but it's unrealistic to think they would canvas every single corner of the country.

While the idea of "one person, one vote" may "feel good", Ross expects that in a national popular vote system, the candidates would go directly to the large population centres, bypassing even more of the electorate than they do now.

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Fake credit cards used in bank fraud

A WESTPAC employee is accused of creating fake credit cards to fleece the company of more than $110,000.

Police from The Rocks Local Area Command were contacted by the bank's internal investigators on Friday morning in relation to fraud involving one of their employees.

The same morning, officers arrested a 25-year-old man outside his workplace at the corner of Market Street and Clarence Street in Sydney's CBD.

It will be alleged the man created nine fake credit card accounts and used them to withdraw a total of $113,930 from several ATMs over the past year.

He has been charged with nine counts of fraud and one count of knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

The man is out on conditional bail and due to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on December 4.

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Hills to shed hundreds jobs in restructure

TROUBLED clothes line, electronics and building products maker Hills Holdings is expected to shed hundreds of jobs as part of a massive restructure.

Newly installed chief executive Ted Pretty said he did not want to put an exact figure on the number of job losses until shift workers were informed on Thursday night, but he didn't deny that hundreds of people would be affected.

"I've seen that number reported and I won't be drawn, but it is a number you would expect to flow from the closure of one of our sites," Mr Pretty told a media call on Thursday.

The changes will cost the company as much as $110 million, as underperforming parts of Hills' businesses are closed.

Some products will be scrapped and jobs cut from its 2,642-strong workforce.

Hills' roofing business, Fielders, is likely to bear the brunt of the changes, while the Orrcon Steel arm and the company's lifestyle and sustainability businesses, whose brands include the Hills Hoist, Bailey Ladders and Team Poly water tanks, will also undergo major overhauls.

Shares in Hills closed 8.5 cents, or 11.2 per cent, higher at 84.5 cents on the news.

Mr Pretty said the restructure was needed because of the effect that slower economic conditions and a steeper-than-expected drop in construction activity were having on Hills' manufacturing businesses.

"My strong view is that recent events are a call to action to fundamentally review the way we operate and perform," Mr Pretty told shareholders earlier at the company's annual general meeting.

The company would consolidate some manufacturing activities, oversee the exit of certain products and businesses and sites and reduce staffing levels.

"We must now cut our coat according to our cloth," he said.

He said that Hills had no choice but to close some of its underperforming Fielders roofing branches until demand recovered.

The company expects the changes will allow it to reap savings of between $10 million and $15 million in the second half of the financial year and another $30-$40 million in 2013/14, subject to market conditions.

Shareholders were told that no dividend would be paid for the first half of 2012/13 but that the payments should return at the end of the year.

Both Orrcon and Fielders posted operating losses last financial year because of weak construction markets in Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Pretty, a former group managing director at Telstra, said the restructure would also involve Hills no longer making solar-hot-water specific products.

He also lashed out at the federal government for not recognising that businesses like Orrcon and Fielders should have been included in its steel transformation plan, along with BluesSope and Arrium.

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Evacuation alert lifted in north Qld

AN evacuation alert has been cancelled for the residents of a north Queensland town threatened by a large bushfire.

Firefighters were called to the blaze southwest of Ravenshoe at about 3.45pm (AEST) on Thursday afternoon.

With 10 crews fighting the flames, residents of Millstream were warned to get ready to evacuate.

That alert was lifted on Thursday evening but the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service said 12 crews would keep working on backburning.

With an increased fire danger predicted for Friday the service said crews would work through the night to make sure the blaze is fully contained.

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Govt workers charged with $82,000 thefts

TWO West Australian government employees have been charged with fraud and stealing, with one alleged to have fraudulently used more than $66,000 worth of Cabcharge vouchers.

Major fraud squad detectives on Thursday revealed that two separate government agencies had been investigated.

A 55-year old Wembley man has been charged with seven counts of fraud, following a probe into the misuse of corporate credit cards.

Police will allege that between 2007 and 2011, the man, who was employed as a senior manager, used his corporate credit card for unauthorised purchases worth more than $16,000.

He is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on December 5.

Those charges came after an investigation into corporate credit card misuse at a separate government agency, which resulted in allegations that a 60-year old Parkwood woman unlawfully used Cabcharge vouchers while employed as a senior manager.

The purchases were in excess of $66,000, police said.

The woman is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on January 16 to answer five counts of stealing as a servant.

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Seven kidnapped sailors freed in Nigeria

KIDNAPPERS have freed six Russian sailors and an Estonian who had been abducted from a ship off Nigeria's southern delta, a French oil and gas services company says.

Paris-based Bourbon SA said in a statement that the sailors were in good health despite facing "difficult conditions while in captivity". The company said the men would leave Nigeria in several days after undergoing medical tests and psychological examinations.

The company statement said Bourbon would not take any questions regarding the sailors' release on Wednesday and did not say if a ransom had been paid to free them.

Typically, foreign companies operating in Nigeria's Niger Delta pay cash ransoms to free their employees after negotiating down kidnappers' demands. Foreign hostages can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Onyema Nwachukwu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The kidnapping happened during an attack October 15 on a Bourbon ship near the Niger Delta, where the company works closely with oil companies like Chinese-owned Addax Petroleum. Gunmen apparently attacked the Bourbon Liberty 249 and seized the sailors before escaping, the company said.

Another nine sailors onboard the vessel sailed safely away to the company's port in Onne in Nigeria's Rivers state, the company said.

The attack occurred near the Pennington River off Bayelsa state, military officials later said. That's close to the Pennington Export Terminal run by US-based Chevron Corp., which loads crude onto large oil tankers for export to the West.

Foreign oil companies have pumped oil out of the Niger Delta, a region of mangroves and swamps the size of Portugal, for more than 50 years. Despite the billions of dollars flowing into Nigeria's government, many in the delta remain desperately poor, living in polluted waters without access to proper medical care, education or work. The poor conditions sparked an uprising in 2006 by militants and opportunistic criminals who blew up oil pipelines and kidnapped foreign workers.

That violence ebbed in 2009 with a government-sponsored amnesty program that offered ex-fighters monthly payments and job training. However, few in the delta have seen the promised benefits and sporadic kidnappings and attacks continue. The last major kidnapping happened in August, when gunmen attacked a vessel operated by Sea Trucks Group, another oil and gas contractor, and abducted four workers. The workers were later released unharmed.

Bourbon operates support vessels for offshore oil rigs and provides repair, inspection and maintenance services for undersea oil fields, and has a smaller unit that ships commodities like coal, grain and timber worldwide. The company had revenues of 1 billion euros ($A1.26 billion) last year.

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China tightens security ahead of congress

DON'T roll down the taxi windows. Don't buy a remote-controlled plane without a police chief's permission. And don't release your pigeons.

Beijing is tightening security as its all-important Communist Party congress approaches, and some of the measures seem downright bizarre. Kitchen knives and pencil sharpeners reportedly have been pulled from store shelves, and there's even a rumour that authorities are on the lookout for seditious messages on pingpong balls.

The congress, which begins on November 8, will name new leaders to run the world's most populous country and second-largest economy for the next decade. Most of the security measures have been phased in in time for Thursday's opening of a meeting of the Central Committee, the roughly 370-member body that is finalising preparations for the congress.

China always tightens security for high-profile events, like much of the rest of the world. London, for instance, restricted aeroplanes from flying above it during the Olympics.

But many of Beijing's rules seem extraordinary, perhaps in an effort to smooth a once-a-decade transition that has already been bumpy.

Bo Xilai, once a candidate for the all-powerful Politburo's Standing Committee, suffered a spectacular fall from grace in which his wife was convicted of murder. One of President Hu Jintao's closest aides was also forced to step down after his son was killed alongside two partially dressed women in an accident in his Ferrari. Meanwhile, protests over pollution, land seizures and local corruption continue across the country.

Human rights groups report that activists and petitioners are being rounded up ahead of the congress. But the broader security measures may best illustrate how China is trying to leave absolutely no room for disruptions.

The government has blocked searches for the phrase "party congress" on websites including China's popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo. internet posters manage to get around that by using characters that sound like "party congress."

Taxi drivers have been told to remove window handles and require passengers to sign a "travelling agreement" promising to avoid sensitive parts of the city and not to open their windows or doors if they pass "important venues."

A man who answered the phone at Wan Quan Si taxi company in the south of the capital said the rule applies to all taxi companies in Beijing. He declined to give his name.

Beijing investment company worker Li Tianshu said she didn't believe colleagues' claims that door handles had been removed until she got into a taxi herself the other day.

"There were no handles for three of the four windows," she said. "The driver told me that their company asked them to do it to prevent passengers spreading leaflets. The driver complained that if they don't take the handles away or the passengers throw leaflets out of the taxis, they will be fired."

Citizens have taken to Weibo to post photos of doors with handles crudely ripped off. Liu Shi, a client manager in a mass communication company, wrote that the taxi driver had told him that power to electronic window buttons would also be cut.

A memo circulating on Weibo warned taxi drivers to be on guard against passengers who may want to cast balloons with slogans or throw "ping pong balls with reactionary words." It was unclear who issued the memo and its authenticity could not be confirmed.

A man who wouldn't give his name at Tong Hai taxi company in central Beijing said it had received orders "from higher authorities" to reinforce security measures and a memo, but he wouldn't elaborate.

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US air travel resumes after Sandy

SUPERSTORM Sandy grounded more than 18,000 flights across the US northeast and the globe, and it will take days before travel gets back to normal.

More than 7000 flights were cancelled on Tuesday alone, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware,

Delays rippled across the US, affecting travellers in cities from San Francisco to Atlanta. Some passengers attempting to fly out of Europe and Asia also were stuck.

Authorities closed the three big New York airports because of the storm. New York has the nation's busiest airspace, so cancellations there can dramatically affect travel in other cities.

It was possible that John F. Kennedy airport would reopen for flights on Wednesday, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It wasn't known when the LaGuardia and Newark airports would reopen.

Flying began to resume at other airports. Delta restarted flying from Boston and Washington Dulles and Reagan on Tuesday. Airline spokesman Morgan Durrant said it would resume domestic flights from JFK on Wednesday.

Service was slowly returning to Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday afternoon.

Traffic from Asia to the east coast was beginning to resume, with flights from Tokyo's Narita International Airport to New York and to Washington, DC resuming as of Wednesday morning.

From Tokyo's Haneda airport, the JAL/American Airlines flight to and from New York was cancelled.

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific, which cancelled seven flights to Kennedy airport through Wednesday, said service would resume on Thursday.

South Korean airlines Korean Air and Asiana Airlines said they would resume normal service to east coast cities starting late Wednesday or Thursday.

The number of cancellations caused by Sandy was roughly on par with other major storms that airlines dealt with. A major winter storm in early 2011 caused 14,000 cancellations over four days.

The airlines are facing a large task in getting things back to normal.

Workers had to clear garbage and downed tree limbs from runways at JFK. Water was on the runway at LaGuardia. At one point, some airlines hoped to restart some New York flights by late Tuesday, but that idea was abandoned.

Flooded roads and closed subways kept some workers from the airport. Reservations workers at other airports and at call centres were busy dealing with stranded passengers.

Some travellers hunkered down and waited, while others looked for a new way home.

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No water guarantee under Murray bill: ACF

THERE is no guarantee the federal government will actually deliver on its promise to pump an extra 450 billion litres of water into the Murray-Darling Basin ecosystem, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) says.

Environment Minister Tony Burke introduced legislation to parliament on Wednesday to secure $1.77 billion in extra funding over 10 years to restore the ailing basin environment to health.

The extra 450 gigalitres (gl) of water a year and the cash earmarked for its delivery were pledged by Prime Minister Julia Gillard in South Australia last week.

The commitment lifted the total amount of water designated for the environment under the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's draft water plan from 2750gl to a potential maximum of 3200gl a year.

But the legislation only calls for the $1.77 billion to enable "up to" 450gl of extra water for the environment, a phrase that's concerned some conservationists.

The ACF's healthy rivers campaigner Jonathan La Nauze says that without specific targets it's pretty unlikely the 450gl promise will be kept.

"At the moment, it's just a giant slush fund for the irrigation industry with no obligation to return any specific volume to the environment," Mr La Nauze said.

"It's a giant blank cheque with some nicely spelt out good intentions but no promise of delivering an outcome."

The actual final figure to be delivered to the environment could be anywhere between 2100gl and 3200gl, he said.

The ACF is calling on the government to make 450gl a mandatory target, or better still enshrine it in the final basin plan.

Under the legislation, most of the $1.77 billion will go towards water-saving projects on farms and to removing constraints in the river system that restrict flows to the environment.

It will also allow for the amount of water set aside for irrigators to be adjusted if infrastructure improvements lead to less water being needed for the environment.

Mr La Nauze said he had little faith that such projects could ever have the same environmental impact as flushing more water throughout the basin system.

"Ultimately it cheats the environment," he said.

"You can't replace real water, no matter how smart you are with concrete and steel."

The government has promised to release a final version of the Murray-Darling Basin plan within weeks.

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Russian upper house passes treason bill

RUSSIA'S upper house of parliament has passed a hugely controversial bill broadening the definition of high treason to include passing NGOs harmful information.

The Federation Council passed the bill on Wednesday with 138 senators in favour, none against and one abstention, clearing the final legislative hurdle before President Vladimir Putin, as expected, signs the bill into law, state media said.

The bill lists as high treason not only passing secret information to foreign governments, but also giving out consultations or financial help, including to international organisations, if they are engaged in "activities directed against the security of Russia".

The current treason law does not mention international organisations and applies only to activities hurting "foreign security."

The bill also creates a new criminal charge, punishable by up to four years in prison, for people who receive state secrets through illegal means defined as kidnapping, bribery or blackmail.

Rights activists and lawyers have said that the broader definitions could criminalise sharing information with international organisations such as Amnesty International or even appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.

The bill follows the passing of laws that have branded rights groups with foreign funding as "foreign agents", criminalised slander and blacklisted websites unfavourable to the government.

Activists say all the legislation is part of a broad crackdown against the opposition in revenge for the unprecedented protests that erupted as Putin returned to the Kremlin in May for a third presidential term.

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Philippine troops face court over killings

THIRTEEN Philippine soldiers will be court-martialled for shooting dead the wife and two sons of a tribal leader who opposed a Swiss-Australian mining project, the military says.

A military inquiry found the soldiers were negligent when they engaged in a shootout with the tribal leader because they did not try to avoid civilian casualties, said armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Paniza on Wednesday.

"There is a violation of the rules of engagement. You should fire only aimed shots and determine your targets before you fire," he told AFP.

Paniza said a lieutenant and 12 enlisted men involved in the killings could face life in jail if found guilty.

In the incident on the southern island of Mindanao on October 18, soldiers shot dead the wife and two sons of Daguil Capion, a tribal leader opposed to the enormous Tampakan copper and gold project in his tribe's area.

The soldiers said they were fired upon as they neared a hut of the Capion family in an isolated part of Kiblawan town, prompting them to fire back, according to Paniza.

Capion escaped the scene, he said.

However a coalition of anti-mining activists, Alyansa Tigil Mina (Stop Mining Alliance), insists that it was a massacre with the soldiers opening fire on the hut without provocation, and that Capion was not there at the time.

The planned $5.9-billion mine project is run by Swiss mining giant Xstrata and Australia's Indophil Resources NL.

The mine would be the country's biggest source of foreign investment if it begins operations in 2016 as scheduled, although influential local church figures, tribal groups and environmental activists fiercely oppose it.

Spokesman for the mining project, Manalo Labor, declined to comment on the investigation but said the company did not condone violence.

Philippine security forces have long been accused of summary killings and other abuses.

President Benigno Aquino, who took office in 2010, has said reforms undertaken by his government are improving the situation. However rights groups say much more needs to be done.

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Cyclone barrels towards south Indian coast

SCHOOLS and ports have shut down in southeast India as a cyclone heads towards the coast, with forecasters predicting it could make a direct hit on Chennai later in the day.

Cyclone Nilam was likely to do extensive damage to thatched roofs and huts and also uproot trees, causing power blackouts and communication problems across Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh states, officials said on Wednesday.

A bulletin from the India Meteorological Department warned of winds gusting up to 110 kilometres an hour and flooding of low-lying areas because of a sea surge and heavy rain.

It advised residents living in huts along the coast to move to safer areas and ordered fishermen not to go out to sea.

The cyclone was expected to make landfall on Wednesday evening at some point along a 350-kilometre stretch of coast. Chennai, the state capital of Tamil Nadu, is in the middle of the affected zone.

"We have advised all the schools and colleges to remain close for the day," Jayraman, a government administrator in Chennai who uses only one name, told AFP.

"All maritime activities have been suspended and the government is monitoring the situation closely," he added. "So far, no evacuation process has started."

Local authorities said they were preparing helicopters and boats for any emergency. Existing cyclone shelters, schools and community halls have also been identified to serve as potential relief camps.

Neighbouring Sri Lanka on Tuesday allowed thousands of people who had been evacuated to return to their homes after the storm, which had been expected to hit the island, changed course and moved towards India.

The last cyclone in India struck in the same southeast region in January, claiming 42 lives and leaving a trail of destruction across Tamil Nadu.

India and Bangladesh are hit regularly by cyclones that develop in the Bay of Bengal between April and November, causing widespread damage to homes, livestock and crops.

India's Andhra Pradesh state saw its worst cyclone in 1977 when more than 10,000 people were killed.

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Commuters prefer car to public transport

PUBLIC transport remains unattractive to most people, with new data showing three out of five commuters prefer the comfort of their own car.

Despite this, there has been a slight increase in the number of people taking a train to work over the past five years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The ABS on Tuesday released the second round of results from the 2011 Census of Population and Housing.

Figures show that 60.2 per cent of the 10 million-strong Australian workforce drive to work, up slightly from the 59.4 per cent recorded in the previous census in 2006.

The results show a shift in the preferred methods of travel to work for some Australians, with the train overtaking walking as one of the most preferred modes of transport.

The proportion of people opting to take the train has increased from 3.4 per cent in 2006 to 3.9 per cent in 2011, putting the train in the top three methods of travel to work.

There has been a small decline in the proportion of people who walk to work, with only 3.7 per cent of people in 2011 compared to four per cent in 2006.

Census Executive Director Andrew Henderson said the census data will inform future planning for public transport and other vital services in communities across Australia.

"Census data is used to allocate government funding for all areas of Australia, and to plan vital services and infrastructure that we all use in our communities every day," Mr Henderson said.

Other popular methods of travel to work include travelling by bus (three per cent), truck (one per cent) and bicycle (one per cent).

Census data is available at www.abs.gov.au/census.

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New Zealand man charged over Vic assault

A 19-YEAR-OLD New Zealander has been charged over an alleged attack on a man at Windsor railway station last month.

The assault is alleged to have happened on around 8.30pm (AEST) on September 29 when the victim was standing on the platform talking with his two friends.

They were approached by New Zealand man who struck up a conversation with them and, without warning, allegedly punched the victim in the face.

The alleged offender handed himself into police at Mansfield in Victoria's northeast, on Tuesday and has been charged with with a number of counts of assault including recklessly causing serious injury.

He has been bailed to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on November 29.

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South Africa police and miners clash again

POLICE in South Africa have fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades in clashes with Anglo American Platinum miners, as a deadline passed for 12,000 sacked workers to reclaim their jobs.

At least 1000 miners defied an ultimatum to return to work by 7.00am (1600 AEDT) on Tuesday, clashing with police and blocking roads amid accusations that they set fire to a power sub-station at the mine in northwestern Rustenburg.

"Police used tear gas, stun grenades as well as rubber bullets," to disperse around 1,000 strikers, said police spokesman Dennis Adriao.

Police said the workers had blocked fire engines from the sub-station, thought to have been set alight in a pre-dawn attack.

Thousands of Amplats workers who were sacked early this month for going on an illegal strike were given an option of returning to work on Tuesday morning if they wanted their jobs back.

The deal was brokered in negotiations last week by the main National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in talks with Amplats.

But the workers refused to go back to work until their pay demands are met.

"We are six weeks on strike, we can't go back to work empty handed," workers representative Siphamandla Makhanya told AFP, confirming clashes between workers and police. "There is a lot of shooting and things like that today."

Police told AFP the Amplats power substation was set ablaze around 0200 GMT and "approximately a thousand or so strong people tried to barricade the police and fire brigade from getting there."

"Since then we have been having clashes with this group of people," which is trying to block roads and hurling rocks at the police in and around the informal settlement of Nkaneng, where many workers live.

Amplats, the world's number one platinum producer, had agreed to rehire the workers after six weeks of strikes that have shuttered its mines.

The global miner gave the workers until Tuesday to return on existing wage agreements but with a 2,000 rand ($230, 178 euro) one-off allowance if they did so.

But some striking workers were adamant they would not be persuaded to return to the underground until there's some form of pay rise.

"Workers are very interested in going back to work as long as management is prepared to put something on the table," said Makhanya indicating the miners were softening their stance from the 16,000 rand per month their initially demanded.

"If our salaries can be adjusted from 2,000 (rand) upwards, they can go back to work," he said.

Amplats promised to give the numbers of workers who showed up later in the day.

A wildcat strike in August at Lonmin platinum mine has had a domino effect engulfing nearly the entire mining industry in South Africa as work stoppages spread to other platinum mines and gold sector as well.

The strikes have sometimes turned violent leaving nearly 60 people dead.

The unrest has cost 10.1 billion rand ($1.2 billion, 912 million euros) in lost production this year, pushing the country's yearly growth forecast downward to 2.5 per cent.

The industry contributes up to nearly one fifth of GDP when related activities are included.

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Asian markets close mixed

ASIAN stock markets have closed mixed but Tokyo closed lower after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced monetary easing that was only slightly bigger than market forecasts and cut its growth outlook.

With US markets closed because of Hurricane Sandy, Wall Street gave regional investors no lead but comments from Spain and Greece revived eurozone concerns.

Tokyo fell 0.98 per cent, or 87.36 points, to 8,841.98 on Tuesday while Seoul closed 0.43 per cent higher, adding 8.06 points to 1,899.58.

Sydney, which closed before the BoJ announcement, rose 0.20 per cent or 8.8 points to 4,485.7.

Hong Kong was 0.38 per cent lower, shedding 82.47 points to 21,428.58 but Shanghai gained 0.17 per cent, or 3.41 points, to 2,062.35.

Just before the Tokyo market closed the central bank said it would add another Y11 trillion ($A134.14 billion) to its Y80 trillion asset purchase scheme to provide liquidity to the economy and jumpstart growth.

It also said it expected the economy to grow just 1.5 per cent in the year to March, instead of the 2.2 per cent previously predicted.

Expectations of new easing had sent markets higher in recent weeks, while the yen had suffered a sell-off.

"The vast majority of experts seemed to think that the central bank would go for 10 trillion yen, with a few as far out as 20 trillion yen, so the weighted average probably came out somewhere right around where the BoJ settled," CLSA equity strategist Nicholas Smith told Dow Jones Newswires.

Despite a similar move last month, Japan's economy appears unable to emerge from its stupor.

Figures earlier on Tuesday showed factory output fell 4.1 per cent last month, much worse than the 3.1 per cent drop expected, with a slump in production of cars, auto parts and machinery a key cause.

In Greece the finance ministry said banks would not be able to swap greatly devalued holdings of national debt for bonds issued by the new European Stability Mechanism.

The news comes as Athens remains locked in talks with its international creditors over accessing its next tranche of rescue funds, as well as over a possible extension of a timetable to initiate crucial reforms.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy reiterated that his own debt-laden, recession-hit economy does not need a bailout, even as a ninth region made an appeal for rescue funds from Madrid.

The yen clawed back some of its recent losses against the euro and dollar soon after the BoJ's comments.

And in late Tokyo trade the dollar bought Y79.47 compared with Y79.80 in New York late on Monday.

The euro bought $US1.2945, compared with $US1.2900, and Y102.88, from Y102.95.

CLSA's Smith said he thought the "dollar-yen was vastly overbought over its recent steep run-up".

Oil prices were down as Hurricane Sandy forced the shutdown of refineries, roads and airports.

New York's benchmark oil futures contract, West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude for delivery in December, was down 19 US cents to $US85.35 a barrel in afternoon trade. Brent North Sea crude for December fell 41 US cents to $US109.03.

Gold was at $US1,714.33 at 1920 AEDT, compared with $US1,712.20 late on Monday.

In other markets:

- Taipei rose 1.28 per cent, or 90.92 points, to 7,182.59.

- Manila closed 0.54 per cent higher, gaining 29.25 points to 5,426.67.

Metropolitan Bank and Trust gained 0.86 per cent to 93.65 pesos while Ayala Corp rose 0.45 per cent to 442 pesos.

- Wellington fell 0.25 per cent, or 10.01 points, to 3,941.28.

Fletcher Building was down 2.12 per cent at $NZ6.92 and Telecom was up 1.68 per cent at $NZ2.42.

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Unions win injunction against QBuild cuts

FOUR unions have won an injunction against Queensland government moves to begin dismissing more than 300 QBuild workers.

Workers with the government's maintenance company were told on Tuesday morning they would have one-on-one sessions with managers to discuss redundancy or relocation offers.

But Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) organiser Scott Stanford says the workers had not been properly briefed.

"QBuild had not followed their own due diligence procedures and many of the workers had not been able to make informed decisions about their futures," Mr Stanford told AAP.

"They weren't sure if they should stay with the business or take a voluntary redundancy because it was unclear even how many positions would go."

Mr Stanford said the union expected around 320 positions to be cut.

The AMWU, the Electrical Trades Union, the Plumbers Union and the CFMEU were granted a 28-day injunction in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission late on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Stanford said the unions hoped to begin talks with QBuild on Wednesday.

"We hope to ascertain exactly where the positions are that they believe they can maintain within the business ... because we don't know where those positions are," he said.

"People were being asked to make a decision on moving north, but without knowing what assistance would be given, whether the job would be the same or if it would have longevity.

"We firmly believe this will be the first round of cuts in QBuild and the way things are going there is likely to be a second round."

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Taiwan ex-naval officers 'spied for China'

TAIWAN says three retired military officers have been arrested on suspicion of leaking military secrets to China, in one of the island's worst espionage cases.

Chang Chih-hsin, formerly the chief officer in charge of political warfare at the naval METOC (meteorology and oceanography) office, had been arrested, the defence ministry said in a statement.

"Chang, who initiated contacts with Chinese mainland officials while still serving in the navy, was suspected of luring his former colleagues and making illegal gains," it said.

Defence ministry spokesman David Lo confirmed two other former military officers had also been arrested in the case.

Lo did not say what kind of military information Chang allegedly sold to China, but played down the possible damage to Taiwan's security, saying "Chang had had limited access to sensitive information of the naval METOC".

But the Taipei-based broadsheet Apple Daily said a total of eight former military officers had been arrested in the case.

It quoted a retired naval general as saying the naval METOC kept highly classified information such as mapping and charting publications of the meteorological and oceanographic battle environment.

The information had been used by the island's submarines and other warships, the paper said.

"If China had the classified info, it could be able to be aware of the operation of Taiwan's submarines," the retired naval general warned.

Ties between Taipei and Beijing have improved markedly since President Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in 2008 on a platform of beefing up trade and tourism links.

Ma was re-elected in January for a second and last four-year term.

But the episode has highlighted Beijing's lingering hostility towards the island, which it still regards as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

In July last year, a Taiwanese general lured by a honey trap into spying for China was sentenced to life in prison in one of the island's worst spying cases for half a century.

The island has governed itself for more than six decades since splitting from the mainland in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

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Woodside signs deal with Japan Bank

WOODSIDE Petroleum has signed a preliminary agreement with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to help finance future liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects.

The oil and gas producer said the memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed to support Japan's requirement for stable and long-term energy supplies.

Woodside said the MOU strengthened the long-term relationship established between the two organisations through the financial support that the Japanese bank provided for the Pluto LNG project.

"Under the agreement Woodside and JBIC will hold periodic discussions relating to Woodside's future LNG developments and JBIC will consider providing financial support for those potential developments as well as creating opportunities for Japanese companies to participate in Woodside's future LNG developments," the company said.

The agreement comes after Woodside last week struck an agreement with Daewoo International Corporation for a production sharing contract in Burma, the first time the oil and gas producer will operate in deep water off Burma.

In May Woodside Petroleum signed a $US2 billion ($A1.92 billion) deal to sell part of its stake in the Browse gas project to Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co.

The Japanese companies will buy a 14.7 per cent stake in the $30 billion LNG project through their Perth-based joint venture company, Japan Australia LNG (MIMI).

MIMI helped obtain finance from Japanese banks, including JBIC.

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Hong Kong shares slip 0.16%

HONG Kong shares have lost 0.16 per cent as developers were hit after the city's government outlined plans to curb soaring property prices.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index on Monday fell 34.52 points to 21,511.05 on turnover of HK$47.07 billion ($A5.89 billion).

The losses are the second in a row after the index enjoyed a 10-day winning streak up until Friday, thanks to huge foreign capital inflows after the US Federal Reserve launched its third bond-buying scheme last month.

The Hong Kong government unveiled on Friday fresh measures to keep a lid on property demand, including a 15 per cent tax on purchases made by foreigners.

Sun Hung Kai Properties, the city's largest developer by market capitalisation, slumped 5.1 per cent to $HK106.10, while Cheung Kong fell 4.7 per cent to $HK112.30 and Henderson Land, New World Development and Sino Land each took a 6.4 per cent hammering.

However, the losses were tempered by Sinopec, which jumped 2.9 per cent to $HK8.25 despite reporting its third-quarter net profit fell 9.4 per cent year-on-year.

And China Construction Bank rose 0.9% to $HK5.79 after third-quarter earnings came in 12 per cent higher.

Chinese shares closed down 0.35 per cent. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 7.27 points to 2,058.94 on turnover of 39.1 billion yuan ($A6.11 billion).

"The third-quarter macroeconomic data has shown some signs of the economy bottoming out, but recent corporate earnings show that demand has yet to recover," Nanjing Securities analyst Zhou Xu told Dow Jones Newswires.

Lower prices hit rare earths producers. Baotou Steel Rare-Earth slumped 5.43 per cent to 27.35 yuan while Xiamen Tungsten lost 3.77 per cent to 33.67 yuan.

China Pacific Insurance dropped 3.23 per cent to 18.25 yuan after it posted a nearly 60 per cent year-on-year decline in third-quarter net profit.

Other insurance firms fell ahead of the release of their corporate earnings, with Ping An Insurance losing 4.23 per cent to 38.06 yuan and New China Life Insurance shedding 1.63 per cent to 21.73 yuan.

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Aust, US defence trade bill set to pass

AUSTRALIA will be able to buy defence equipment from the United States faster under legislation set to pass the Senate.

The Defence Trade Controls Bill 2011 implements a treaty Australia signed with the US in 2007 to co-operate on the trade of defence and dual-use items.

The agreement means companies won't have to get an individual export licence for every application to the US.

It also allows some items to be exported from America without a licence.

The federal government says the bill will help deliver equipment to Australian troops faster.

Liberal senator David Johnston said on Monday the coalition would support the bill.

Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam told parliament his party would not back the bill as it facilitated weapons trade.

About half of Australia's war-fighting equipment comes from the US.

Australia's defence force will replace or upgrade about 85 per cent of its equipment during the next 10 to 15 years.

The US passed legislation to implement the treaty in September 2010.

Senator Ludlam suggested the bill was being rushed through parliament to provide a positive photo opportunity for Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Defence Minister Stephen Smith when they greet visiting senior US officials in Perth next month.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are scheduled to attend the annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) there on November 14.

Liberal senator Ian Macdonald said the government should allow more time for the bill to be scrutinised.

He said rushing it through without proper consideration could cause "irreparable harm" to Australia's research departments and defence industries.

"This is just symptomatic, emblematic of what this government is all about," the senator said.

The bill passed the Senate on Monday night, with amendments from the government, opposition and Greens passed.

Thee Defence Trade Controls Bill 2011 and Customs Amendment (Military End-Use) Bill 2011 now return to the lower house for a final tick of approval.

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Tsunami triggered by quake hits Hawaii

A TSUNAMI generated by an earthquake in Canada has hit the US state of Hawaii, an official from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says.

"The tsunami is arriving right now," Gerard Fryer, a senior geophysicist with the centre, told reporters.

"It is coming in as we speak."

Earlier a spokesman for the centre told DPA there would be a first wave up to two metres, with further waves following.

"What we're expecting, however is far from the disaster in Japan last year," Victor Sardina said.

Television images from the island of Oahu showed relatively small waves peacefully rolling toward the shore.

The centre issued the warning for all Hawaiian islands on Saturday night (Sunday AEDT), hours after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked an island off Canada's west coast.

Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie proclaimed an emergency, mobilising extra safety measures.

Officials originally said there was no threat to Hawaii but changed that after taking new sea level readings.

Warning sirens blared while residents drove away from coasts and tourists were evacuated from lower floors of beachside hotels.

Incoming bus routes were shut off into Waikiki and police shut down a Halloween block party in Honolulu.

US broadcaster CNN said city Mayor Peter Carlisle called on residents to leave their cars, find a building and make their way to the highest floors.

The situation was "very, very dangerous, he said.

Around 80,000 people live in the evacuation zone in Oahu, where Honolulu is located, CNN said.

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No threat of tsunami to Australia

THERE is no threat of a tsunami hitting Australia's east coast following the magnitude-7.7 earthquake which struck off the coast of western Canada on Sunday.

The US Geological Survey issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas from British Columbia to Alaska.

But both Geoscience Australia and the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre have said there is no threat to Australia.

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Three dead in Nigerian church bombing

AN attacker has attempted to slam a car bomb into a church in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, killing at least three people, including himself, while wounding others.

"At least three people are confirmed dead," an official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to give out figures.

The toll included the suspected attacker, he said.

Sunday's explosion was reported to have occurred in the Malali area of the city. Kaduna, a major city in Nigeria's north, had been hit earlier by attacks blamed on Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.

In June, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for three suicide attacks on churches in Kaduna state, where the city of Kaduna is located, which led to deadly rioting. Dozens of people were killed in the violence.

Boko Haram's insurgency in northern and central Nigeria has led to more than 2800 deaths since 2009. While Muslims have often been its victims, in recent months it has specifically targeted churches.

President Goodluck Jonathan has said the group is seeking to incite a religious crisis in Africa's most populous nation, roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.

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Ship with 11 crew goes missing in Russia

A CARGO ship with 11 crew on board is missing in Russia's Far East in stormy conditions that were making rescue operations difficult.

An emergency ministry spokeswoman said the vessel, the Amurskoye, was travelling to the Shantar Islands in the icy Okhotsk Sea, which lies east of Russia's Khabarovsk region and north of Japan's Hokkaido island.

The Khabarovsk emergency ministry department received a signal for help on Sunday morning, the spokeswoman told AFP.

"Right now the weather conditions are bad, and small boats cannot work in the area," she said.

A tanker was searching for the boat but visibility was too poor for helicopters, she said.

The Life News website said the ship was carrying ore.

The Okhotsk Sea is extremely cold during the winter months.

Last December only 14 people were rescued out of a total of 67 workers on an oil platform which capsized during a storm, with the rest found dead from exposure or missing.

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Doyle returned as Melbourne lord mayor

MELBOURNE Lord Mayor Robert Doyle has won a second term with about 40 per cent of the primary vote after Victorians went to the polling booths around the state.

Mr Doyle, a former leader of the Victorian Liberal Party, said his priorities would be safety in the CBD, liveability and planning for growth.

"I want to make sure that over the next four years the city is better positioned in each of those areas," he told ABC TV.

Mr Doyle had some high-profile opponents to contend with including Sothebys CEO Gary Singer, who won just over 15 per cent of primary votes, and the ticket run by pollster Gary Morgan and former Foster's chief John Elliott, which garnered just over 11 per cent.

After distribution of preferences, Mr Doyle won with 52.42 per cent, followed by the Greens, led by Alison Parkes, with just over 25.07 per cent.

The Doyle team is expected to control at least five of the 11 seats on council.

The Greens' Victorian leader Greg Barber hailed the council elections as the best result ever achieved by the party, having fielded about 100 candidates with nine councillors confirmed as victors and another eight likely winners as counting continued into Sunday night.

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