A young driver has died and a passenger is in hospital after their car smashed into a tree in Qld. Source: AAP
A WOMAN has died after her scooter collided with a bus on the Sunshine Coast.
The 51-year-old woman was travelling in a roundabout at Noosaville at about 2.20pm (AEST) on Saturday when the collision happened.
Police said the woman died at the scene.
A Forensic Crash Unit is investigating the incident.
BRITAIN has suspended all financial aid to Uganda over a corruption scandal in which millions in donor funds were embezzled in the office of the prime minister.
Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) said in a statement on Saturday that it was suspending development assistance immediately "as a result of initial evidence" from an ongoing audit.
The British government planned to give STG27 million ($A41.74 million) to the East African country this year.
Sweden, Norway, Ireland and Denmark have also suspended aid to Uganda over the fraudulent loss of up to $A12.64 million in financial aid meant for the rehabilitation of some of Uganda's poorest regions.
Uganda's auditor-general revealed in a report released last month that the funds were lost through widespread fraud and embezzlement, with a network of officials perpetrating a scam in which some of the money was deposited into the private accounts of individuals.
The report documented numerous cases of forgery to justify fictitious expenses, and an accountant has since been taken to court over the scam.
"Unless the government of Uganda can show that UK taxpayers' money is going towards helping the poorest people lift themselves out of poverty, this aid will remain frozen and we will expect repayment and administrative and criminal sanctions," the DFID statement said.
Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has expressed shock over the scandal, saying it must be investigated. Some MPs have called for an inquiry into the prime minister's role in the scam.
Corruption is rampant in Uganda, where critics accuse President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, of not doing enough to punish corrupt officials who are loyal to him.
"The donors need to come out with better alternatives of ensuring that their money reaches the intended beneficiaries," said Cissy Kagaba of the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda. Donors need to work closely with non-state actors and low-level community leaders, she said.
Gaza militants have fired rockets at the Jewish state's political and commercial hearts. Source: AAP
ISRAELI air strikes against Gaza have killed eight Palestinians and destroyed the Hamas government headquarters as the Jewish state called up thousands more reservists for a possible ground war.
After Palestinian militants fired rockets at the heart of Israel on Friday, about 180 air strikes were carried out overnight, according to Israeli television.
Palestinian medics said 38 Gazans had been killed and 345 wounded since Israel launched the aerial campaign on the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday, with at least four militants among the eight people killed in the latest raids.
Since the start of its operation, Israel's army says militants have fired more than 580 rockets over the border, 367 of which hit southern Israel and 222 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
In the same period, three Israelis have been killed and 13 injured, including 10 soldiers.
On Saturday, a rocket lightly wounded four Israeli soldiers, as police spokeswoman Luba Samri said rocket fire was down on previous days, with 16 counted in the morning.
The Israeli military said it had sealed off all main roads around Gaza and declared a closed military zone, in the latest sign it was poised to launch a first ground offensive on the Palestinian territory since the period between December 2008 and January 2009.
"The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) has targeted Ismail Haniya's headquarters in Gaza," an army spokesman told AFP, referring to the Hamas prime minister.
The army also said it had targeted Hamas government buildings, the interior ministry and the police compound, as well as training facilities for militants and "dozens of terror sites".
Haniya's Islamist government said four "barbaric Israeli" strikes "completely destroyed" its headquarters and that neighbouring houses were damaged.
Correspondents at the scene said the building, deserted for fear of attack, had been flattened and reduced to a pile of rubble but there were no reports of casualties.
Air strikes on Rafah in southern Gaza killed five people and three others died in an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in central Gaza, medics said.
Saturday's violence came as Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem crossed into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a day after a solidarity visit by Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.
AFP correspondents in Gaza City reported a heavy bombardment in the city's west, after raids on the Hamas police headquarters in the same area and the government's internal security headquarters in the north.
Tanks were seen massing along the Gaza-Israel frontier on Friday, and a steady stream of reservists arrived throughout the day.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama reiterated American support for Israel's right to defend itself.
The assurance came during a phone conversation between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli ministers approved the call-up of as many as 75,000 reservists as Netanyahu held late evening talks in Tel Aviv with his key ministers, Channel 2 television reported.
Hamas's military wing said it fired a rocket at Jerusalem, and witnesses said another crashed into the sea off Tel Aviv on Friday.
The two rockets were the farthest Gaza militants have ever fired into Israel, exceeding even the 60 kilometres achieved by a rocket that hit the sea off Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv, on Thursday.
Neither caused any casualties or damage, but they sowed panic in both of Israel's main population centres, setting off warning sirens and sending people scurrying to shelters.
United Nations and Palestinian officials said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would travel to the region within days to push for a truce.
"Ban went to the region during the last Israeli offensive against Gaza in 2009 and worked hard to end that conflict. He is looking to produce a truce and ceasefire this time as well," one senior UN diplomat said.
But as ground troops massed, there was no let-up in Israeli air attacks.
Washington has appealed to Egyptian leaders as well as to allies such as Turkey to use their sway with the Palestinians in a flurry of telephone diplomacy aimed at containing the crisis.
FORTY-NINE school children have been killed and 18 injured when a train ploughed into their bus in the southern Egypt.
Transport Minister Rashad al-Mateeni and the chief of the state-run rail authority, Mustafa Qenawi, resigned following Saturday's accident, state television reported.
There were about 60 pupils on the bus when it was hit by a train at a level-crossing at Manfalut in the province of Assiut, about 350km south of Cairo. The children were aged between four and six.
"The deaths have now reached 49. There are 18 children injured," governor Yehya Keshk told state television.
"There is a team of 45 doctors looking after the injured children."
A state television correspondent described the scene as "terrifying" with the blood-splattered bodies of children on the ground, before they were taken to nearby Manfalut hospital.
A source at the Transport Ministry was quoted by state television as saying the bus driver and two helpers were killed.
President Mohamed Morsi has ordered the prime minister, the defence and health ministers and the Assiut governor "to offer all assistance to the families of the victims," MENA said.
"President Mohammed Morsi ordered a swift probe into the accident and those responsible for it to be brought to justice," a statement from the president's office said.
Keshk has ordered the "formation of a fact-finding committee" to probe Saturday's accident, but in similar tragedies in the past, such panels have done little to shed light on the details and less still to bring about accountability.
Road accidents are common in Egypt and largely blamed on reckless driving and bad roads.
Ordinary Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with the country's chronic transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as train lines.
Earlier this month, five people were killed and dozens injured when two trains collided in Fayyum province, southwest of Cairo. A month earlier, 28 police died in the Sinai peninsula when the driver of their bus lost control of the wheel.
Egypt's deadliest train accident took place in the village of Al-Ayyat in February 2002 when a train travelling from Cairo to Luxor caught fire after a cooking gas cylinder exploded on one of its carriages.
Trains are often overcrowded in Egypt, particularly in lower-paying carriages, adding to the safety hazard.
More than 6000 homes and businesses remain without power in Brisbane following a damaging storm. Source: AAP
A FIRE started, powerlines were ripped down, trees were uprooted and roofs collapsed as severe thunderstorms ripped across Queensland and caused mass electricity outages.
About 13,000 homes and business in Brisbane, Ipswich and Somerset were left without power as rain, hail and lightning struck the region at about 11am (AEST) on Saturday.
In Ipswich, a small grass fire was sparked when lightning struck a crane next to the city's hospital just after 10am but the incoming rain extinguished it, a Department of Community Services (DCS) spokeswoman told AAP.
In Ann Street in the CBD, a hotel roof collapsed under the storm while another 72 calls for assistance were made asking for help with leaking roofs and fallen trees,
"It turned day into night," a SES worker said.
"It came quickly and then it left."
By 6.30pm about 300 homes remained without power, with the majority of the outages continuing in the Algester area south of Brisbane.
An Energex spokeswoman said they were unsure as to when power would be returned to the area as the repairs were "complicated".
"We are working through the problems and doing it as quickly as we can," she said.
More than 11,000 lightning strikes were recorded across Queensland's southeast since 10am, with Energex receiving reports of more than 100 powerlines down.
Despite the widespread outages, the situation was not as bad as they have seen, the spokeswoman said.
"In our storm season we can see 20,000 to 30,000 lose power so 13,000 is really reasonable for us," she said.
But she said Energex was looking towards Toowoomba to see if the second forecast storm would wreak more damage.
On Saturday evening the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) was continuing to send out severe weather warnings for much of the state.
"Very dangerous thunderstorms" were detected at a weather radar near Oakey, west of Brisbane, at about 6.30pm.
The thunderstorms were forecast to move towards the northeast and to hit Haden, Cooyar and the area north of Crows Nest, Blackbutt, Yarraman and the area north of Cooyar.
"Destructive winds, heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding and large hailstones are likely," the BoM said.
The BoM said severe thunderstorms were also likely to produce damaging winds over the next few hours in parts of the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, Central Highlands and Coalfields, Central West and Maranoa and Warrego districts.
People in Warwick, the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Dalby, Coolangatta, Ipswich, the Moreton Bay islands, Kingaroy, Stanthorpe, Caloundra and Taroom were warned just before 8pm (AEST) to brace themselves for wild weather over the following hours.
Along the southeast, the BoM said "very dangerous" storms were detected near Esk and Lake Wivenhoe, with the front moving towards the northeast.
The wild weather was also forecast to hit the D'Aguilar Ranges, Dayboro and Mount Mee north of Brisbane by 9.15pm.
In the hour leading up to 8pm, the BoM recorded 65mm of rainfall at Buaraba, west of Brisbane.
But the BoM said severe thunderstorms were no longer occurring in the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, Central West and Maranoa and Warrego districts.
INDIA'S rural development minister has said the country's public health system has "collapsed" in a blunt assessment of his government's failure to extend a social safety net for the poor.
Jairam Ramesh, known as a maverick with often outspoken views, stressed that 70 per cent of spending on health was out of people's own pockets, making it the single most important reason for indebtedness in rural areas.
"We all know that the health system in India has collapsed," he told a forum in New Delhi.
"India is a unique country in the world where 70 per cent of expenditure is private expenditure at a time when most other countries are having a debate on how to increase public investment in health," he added.
"In many poor areas of India, the public health system simply does not exist."
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in power since 2004, pledged earlier this month that health spending would triple in a five-year plan adopted by the government.
Spending in 2010 was 4.0 per cent of gross domestic product, according to the World Health Organisation -- less than many African countries or Afghanistan and a fraction of developed nations, which spend around 10 per cent.
Indians of all backgrounds and economic means generally choose to absorb the costs of a trip to one of India's booming private hospitals instead of their public equivalents, which are often under-staffed and poorly equipped.
Ramesh said the other important factor pushing people into poverty in India, where 40 per cent of the population live on less than $US1.5 ($A1.46) a day, was degradation of the environment.
"The last 25-30 years, with accelerated economic growth and the pressure that economic growth has brought to bear on our natural resources, it has created this new animal of ecological poverty that we have to now address," he said.
He stressed the poor had "a disproportionate dependence" on forests, rivers and farm land, which are being steadily degraded under the pressure of the country's rising 1.2 billion population and economic development.
Sanitarium has told New Zealanders that Marmite won't be in production before Christmas. Source: AAP
TOUGH luck, Kiwis, you won't get your favourite breakfast spread of Marmite before Christmas after all.
Sanitarium's New Zealand general manager Pierre van Heerden told NZ national Business Review on Friday the company still does not have council approval for its newly-strengthened and reconfigured Christchurch factory.
"A black Christmas isn't going to be possible," he said from Melbourne.
"It's almost impossible for me now to set a specific on-shelf date because there are still a few uncertainties."
He says the company is hoping to have council sign-off by the end of the month and the Marmite machinery has to be tested before it can start producing the spread again.
The earthquake-enforced shortage of the popular spread has consumers anxious to know when it will return.
The shortage has prompted a "black" market on auction website Trade Me, with 500g jars selling for more than $65.
The company's Christchurch factory, the only one to make Marmite for New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific, was closed late last year because of earthquake damage.
The company had hoped to have Marmite back on supermarket shelves by October.
Vegemite, anyone?
Former WA premier Brian Burke won't be allowed to appeal to the High Court against his conviction. Source: AAP
FORMER West Australian premier Brian Burke will not be allowed to appeal to the High Court against his conviction for giving false testimony to the state's Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC).
Burke has already failed in WA's appeal court to have his 2010 conviction and $25,000 fine for lying to the CCC overturned.
At a High Court hearing on Friday, Burke's lawyers failed to persuade Justice Kenneth Hayne there were grounds for another appeal.
Burke was originally convicted for lying to the CCC during its 2006 investigation into lobbying for the controversial Smiths Beach development in WA's southwest.
The court found he misled the CCC over his lobbying of then cabinet minister and friend Norm Marlborough to appoint Beryle Morgan, a National Party member and former shire president, to a key development commission.
Justice Hayne said there was no reason to doubt the earlier rulings.
Burke will be back in court next week to face four counts of insider trading, along with stockbroker David John Massey.
The federal charges date back six years and arose from the taping of Burke's telephone calls by the CCC.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith says Australia and NZ are working much closer together in defence. Source: AAP
DEFENCE Minister Stephen Smith says formal talks with his New Zealand counterpart have proved fruitful, showing the bilateral defence relationship between the nations is in good shape.
New Zealand Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman met Mr Smith in Perth on Friday for their first formal discussions since the countries signed a Defence Relationship Review in January, although it was their fourth meeting this year.
"Our practical co-operation continues to be enhanced across the board," Mr Smith told reporters at a joint news conference.
"We continue to be very pleased by the navy-to-navy collaboration.
"We've got very good collaboration which we are enhancing in our heavy amphibious lift area, in our sea support ship area, including and involving cross-crewing and the like.
"It's very good for general co-operation, it's very good for interoperability and it also puts us in a good position in response to humanitarian disaster relief exercises, which we are regularly called upon in our part of the world."
Mr Coleman said it was "not just all talk", with New Zealand using its tankers to refuel Australian defence ships at sea, for example.
"We are really working very closely together," he said.
"We're facing common challenges across our defence establishments in terms of the affordability of future capabilities - challenges that all Western nations are having to face up to."
The ministers also said they had discussed drawdown dates for stabilisation forces in East Timor and Solomon Islands, and future defence configurations in Afghanistan.
HONG Kong shares climbed 0.24 per cent on Friday, bouncing back slightly from a big loss in the previous session.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index added 50.08 points to 21,159.01 on turnover of HK$47.43 billion ($6.12 billion).
Chinese shares closed down 0.77 per cent. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 15.56 points to 2,014.73 on turnover of 36.8 billion yuan ($5.9 billion). It fell 2.63 per cent for the week.
SONY shares dived to three-decade lows in Tokyo on Thursday after the troubled Japanese electronics maker announced a $1.9 billion bond issue that stoked dilution fears among investors.
The stock closed down 8.85 per cent at Y793 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, after falling more than 11 per cent in early trading to levels last seen around 1980 and the era of the Walkman.
The firm said late on Wednesday it would issue convertible bonds totalling Y150 billion ($A1.81 billion) yen ($1.9 billion) to raise funds for business investment and repay debts, sparking fears that debt converted into Sony stock would dilute the value of its existing shares.
Thursday's session was also a long way from the stock's level just shy of 17,000 yen in 2000, the year Sony's PlayStation 2 game console was released.
"This is likely a one-off trade following the CB (convertible bonds) announcement," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.
"The focus is on whether the firm can achieve synergy effects through the tie-up with Olympus," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
Sony has joined hands with the camera and endoscopes maker that had looked for business partners as it tries to move on from an embarrassing accounting scandal.
In September, Sony said it would invest 50 billion yen in Olympus, citing its desire to tap the lucrative medical equipment business as its television unit struggles.
Olympus said Monday it had swung back into the black in the first half of its fiscal year, reporting a $US100 million net profit on the sale of subsidiaries unrelated to its core business, while the key medical systems unit posted an operating profit.
Sony and its domestic rivals are all struggling due to the strong yen and falling prices of televisions and other products amid stiff competition from South Korean, Chinese and other makers.
Moody's last week downgraded Sony's credit rating for the second time in a month, the latest blow to Japan's electronics sector where embattled Sharp has seen its own credit rating slashed to junk.
The global ratings agency chopped Sony by one notch to Baa3 with a negative outlook, just above junk grade.
US defence chief Leon Panetta has arrived in Thailand to try and boost security ties in the region. Source: AAP
US defence chief Leon Panetta has arrived in Thailand as part of an Asian tour designed to beef up security ties across the region as a counterweight to China's rise.
A possible reopening of US military contacts with neighbouring Myanmar (Burma) for the first time since the 1980s are expected to feature in Panetta's talks in Bangkok.
The Pentagon chief's trip has been overshadowed throughout by a snowballing sex scandal in Washington that forced the resignation last week of ex-general and CIA director David Petraeus over an extramarital affair.
The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, has been linked to a key figure in the case and is now under investigation for potentially inappropriate emails.
Panetta's visit to Bangkok marks the first face-to-face talks between US and Thai defence ministers since 2008, and comes days before President Barack Obama is due in the region for a tour of Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Thai-US military relations have deep roots, dating back to the Korean war, but American officials said the Pentagon wanted to restore a more strategic dialogue to complement lower-level contacts between military units.
"We enjoy great operational cooperation with the Thais and what we're trying to do is to do bring back the strategic piece," said a senior defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The United States suspended military aid to Thailand after a 2006 coup but reinstated the assistance after elections in December 2007.
However, Thailand's domestic turbulence has diminished Bangkok's importance for Washington, which is building up partnerships in Southeast Asia. The "rebalance" to the Pacific is fuelled by American worries over China's growing military might and its tough stance on territorial disputes.
Thailand's airbases and ports remain vital to the US military's logistical network in Asia and the Pentagon continues to hold dozens of drills every year with Bangkok, including the elaborate annual Cobra Gold exercise that involved nearly 13,000 troops from 24 countries last year.
Apart from affirming US-Thai security ties, the two governments are expected to discuss tentative steps to reopen US military contacts with neighbouring Myanmar, officials said.
Washington restored diplomatic relations with Myanmar and ended sanctions on investment in July.
Next week Obama will make the first visit to Myanmar by a sitting US president.
He will meet President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that bloody unrest in the western state of Rakhine between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims would "of course" feature in Obama's talks.
Earlier during his week-long trip to Asia, the third since June, Panetta took part in annual strategic talks with Australia, where officials unveiled plans to station a powerful US Air Force radar and space telescope.
He will fly to Cambodia on Friday to join a meeting of defence ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that is expected to focus on territorial tensions with China and the Myanmar unrest.
Barack Obama says his administration is not yet considering sending weapons to Syrian rebels. Source: AAP
PRESIDENT Barack Obama says he is encouraged that the Syrian opposition has formed a new, more representative leadership council.
But he says the US isn't ready to recognise the group as a "government in exile" or to arm it.
Obama said at a White House news conference on Wednesday the US believes the new council is "a legitimate representative of the aspirations of the Syrian people".
But he says his administration isn't prepared to recognise the group as a successor to Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.
Obama also says the US isn't currently considering sending weapons to Assad foes because of concerns the arms might fall into the hands of extremists and damage regional security.
On Tuesday, France became the first Western country to formally recognise the new opposition coalition.
ANGLO American Platinum Ltd. says miners in South Africa have returned to work, ending a more than eight-week strike that crippled the world's largest platinum producer.
Company spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said the workers returned on Thursday and would get safety briefings before work began.
During the strike the company fired 12,000 workers then later reinstated them. They reached a deal after Anglo American offered a one-time payment and salary options to the striking workers.
In a statement to investors, the company said its year-end earnings "will decrease by more than 20 per cent" compared with the previous year, partly because of the strike.
THE Australian government has urged Israel and Palestine to exercise restraint and step back from the brink of full-scale war.
Israel has launched a major offensive on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, assassinating military commander Ahmed Jabari and striking more than 100 militant targets.
It says it has been forced to act due to mounting rocket attacks on towns in its south.
The offensive has killed at least ten Palestinians and wounded about 100 more. Three Israelis were killed by a rocket attack on the town of Kiryat Malahi on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr said he did not want to see the conflict escalate further.
"All we can do is urge both sides to exercise restraint," he told Sky News.
Senator Carr called on Hamas to cease its rocket attacks on Israel's south but also called on Israel to ensure its response was proportionate.
"But rather than attacks and responses, let's set that aside and have mutual restraint and have both sides - Palestinians and Israelis - commit to resuming negotiations to get that two-state solution."
Senator Carr said he hoped the United Nations Security Council could push both sides towards restraint.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott condemned the rocket attacks on Israel.
"We of course regret the escalation of conflict, but Israel has every right to defend itself against the threat while continuing to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties," he said in a statement.
Mr Abbott's deputy, Julie Bishop, said the extremists behind the attacks on Israel's south were seeking to terrorise and kill Israeli civilians.
"The first step towards resolving this latest conflict is for Hamas and other armed groups to halt the attacks on Israel and to commit to peaceful negotiations," she said.
Australia-born Israeli diplomat and spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mark Regev, said Israel's operation was "fundamentally defensive".
"Israel is acting to defend our people, as I believe the Australian government would if Australian citizens were being rocketed by terrorists," he told ABC television.
"We have to deal with this threat and we have to try to neutralise this threat."
He conceded the situation "could get worse before it gets better."
AUSTRALIA needs to do more to prevent child sex tourists travelling abroad and impose tougher sentences on pedophiles, a senior Thai official says.
Saowanee Khomepatr, a director at the Thai Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, also called on Thai authorities to step up child protection programs with few signs of progress over the past decade.
"I think it's not so much progress about the work (in Thailand). But we have to try more and make more effort," Mrs Saowanee told AAP.
A director of the ministry's Anti-Trafficking in Women and Children Bureau, Mrs Saowanee works closely with Australia on child sex abuse cases.
She said those found guilty in Australia of child sex abuse, and in particular pedophiles who travel abroad to commit crimes, should face stiffer sentences.
She called on Australia to step up publicity to warn potential offenders.
Australia has in place extra-territorial laws covering child sex offenders whose offences occur outside the country.
Thailand is a key destination for child sex tourists and pedophiles, although stepped-up local and international policing has forced more foreign sex tourists to travel to neighbouring countries, such as Cambodia, where official sanctions may be weaker.
Mrs Saowanee's comments came after Thai police arrested a 51-year-old Sydney man, Ian Potterton, last week on charges of "indecency" with a child under 15 years of age and a second count of mental torture to a child.
Potterton, who strenuously denies the charges, could face up to 10 years in jail as well as monetary fines.
Thai police investigators allege he transferred funds to The Philippines and Thailand to pay for "online sex shows" while in Australia.
In Thailand, he travelled with a Thai family and is alleged to have abused their seven-year-old nephew in northern Thailand.
Potterton was arrested on November 8 as he prepared to board a flight to Sydney.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) allege Potterton had earlier emailed photos of a naked young boy to Australia.
Potterton acknowledged the existence of the file, but told AAP the photos were non-sexual and expressed outrage over the AFP intervention.
On October 31, the AFP conducted a search of his Sydney residence, where "electronic devices" were seized.
Potterton is the second Australian currently facing pedophile charges.
A 93-year-old Australian man, Karl Joseph Kraus, is due to appear in a Chiang Mai court next month over the sexual assault of four young sisters under the age of 15.
Mark Capaldi, a researcher with non-government group End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT), known in Australia as ChildWise, says the new challenge in fighting child sex abuse is digital technology.
"A lot of (child abuse) can be facilitated nowadays around digital technology, through the internet or file sharing, dissemination of child pornography to those people who specifically want to target children," he said.
But he said the high profile cases, often involving Western men, were overshadowed by the fact that the majority of sexual exploitation of children was by "local demand, nationals".
"So that remains a concern in countries like Thailand."
Mr Capaldi welcomed Australian government programs across Asia in awareness and education along with capacity building with Thai police authorities in a bid to address the problem.
WESTERN Australia now has some of the toughest organised crime laws in the country after passing a bill that can ban bikie gang members from associating.
The legislation is aimed at disrupting the illegal activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs and other criminal organisations and prevent them profiting from violence, intimidation and crime.
Under the new laws, the police commissioner and Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) can apply to a judge to have groups declared criminal organisations if they associate for the purpose of criminal activity and pose a risk to public safety.
WA Attorney-General Michael Mischin said the legislation would also provide for mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment for members of criminal organisations convicted of serious offences.
"Once a criminal organisation has been declared, a range of measures can be imposed on members, including WA Police applying to the Supreme Court for control orders to stop them associating with other controlled persons, going to banned locations, promoting or recruiting for the organisation, or transferring funds to the organisation," he said.
For some offences, courts will be required to impose at least two years imprisonment on offenders.
Mr Mischin said it was hoped that if members continued their criminal acts once their organisation has been declared, the lengthy jail terms they received would cripple the organisation's ability to operate.
"The state government is committed to targeting outlaw motorcycle gangs and other criminal organisations which brazenly break the law and manufacture and distribute drugs to the detriment of the community," he said.
HONG Kong shares have climbed 1.20 per cent, in line with a regional rebound after recent selling fuelled by concerns over the US fiscal cliff.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index, which had lost more than four per cent in the past four sessions, rose 253.34 points to 21,441.99 on turnover of HK$48.34 billion ($A6.01 billion) on Wednesday.
Dealers were also looking to mainland China as the Communist Party prepares to unveil its top decision-making body on Thursday, with hopes leaders will clarify their plans for the economy.
The index, along with global markets, has fallen over the past week as investors grow nervous about the US fiscal cliff of tax hikes and spending cuts that are due to take effect from January 1.
The package, agreed last year during a spending cap face-off between Democrats and Republicans, will almost certainly tip the economy back into recession if a deal between deeply divided politicians cannot be made.
"It is difficult to understand the confidence that investors have in the ability of US politicians to accomplish in the next few months what they haven't been able to do in the past two years," investment house UBS said.
US politicians are expected to begin negotiations on Friday.
In Hong Kong, aluminium giant Chalco rose 2.8 per cent to HK$3.32, while China's largest two banks ICBC and China Construction Bank, and mainland developer China Resources Land all rallied more than 3.0 per cent.
Chinese shares closed 0.37 per cent higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 7.53 points to 2,055.42 on turnover of 35.9 billion yuan ($A5.59 billion).
"The market is likely to welcome a Politburo Standing Committee line-up that includes more leaders who favour reform," Changjiang Securities analyst Wu Bangdong told Dow Jones Newswires.
Aluminium producers rose as dealers bet that the falls in prices would be arrested after state media said China may soon start government procurement of the metal.
Chalco jumped 4.65 per cent to 4.95 yuan, Shandong Nanshan Aluminium rose 2.22 per cent to 6.45 yuan and Dongyangguang Aluminum added 0.86 per cent to 8.24 yuan.
Among liquor makers, Xinjiang Yilite Industry gained 3.01 per cent to 13.68 yuan, while Sichuan Swellfun climbed 1.33 per cent to 22.81 yuan.
UNITED States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta says a deployment of Australian special forces to assist in maintaining security in Afghanistan after 2014 is worth considering.
Mr Panetta, who visited the barracks of the Special Air Service Regiment in Perth to meet some of those who had fought in Afghanistan, said Defence Minister Stephen Smith had expressed an interest in an Australian special forces presence in Afghanistan in the post-2014 period.
"I believe that is worth considering," he told the media conference at the conclusion of the annual Australia-US Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations in Perth.
Under current transition plans, Afghan National Security Forces are progressively taking the lead in security, with that process to be fully completed by the end of 2014.
Australia is now considering what assistance it can provide after that period. Among the possibilities is ongoing help with training and deployment of special forces, subject to a suitable mandate and legal framework.
Mr Panetta said one of the missions in Afghanistan after 2014 would be counter-terrorism and continuing to target al-Qaeda and other groups.
"As we design that post-2014 presence, we want to consider the role not only of Australia but other countries can provide in special forces that I think would be very important in the future security of Afghanistan," he said.
In the communique released at the close of AUSMIN, Australia and the US reiterated the continued commitment to a secure, stable and prosperous Afghanistan that is not a safe haven for international terrorists.
Australia and the US reiterated their commitment to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) transition strategy and to a post-2014 mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan National Security Forces.
Much pre-AUSMIN discussion centred on alleged US concerns at the level of Australian defence spending but the topic was only mentioned briefly in the media conference after a specific question to Mr Panetta.
He said both the US and Australia were facing budget constrictions which had to be taken into consideration.
"But I remain fully confident that in light of what we are confronting that we have the capability to maintain a strong national defence for both of our countries," he said.
"We will be able to meet the threats that confront us, not only in this part of the world but elsewhere as well."
MOST Afghans believe their country is headed in the right direction but still worry about the lack of security resulting from the 11-year war, a public opinion survey by a major international non-profit group says.
The poll by the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation also found that an overwhelming majority of Afghans back the government's efforts to negotiate and reconcile with armed insurgent groups.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered jobs and housing to Taliban fighters who defect and formed a High Peace Council to facilitate negotiations.
Though officials and diplomats say contacts are being made with insurgent leaders, no formal peace talks are currently under way - mostly because the Taliban broke off efforts to start negotiations earlier this year.
"Security continues to be the biggest indicator of both optimism and pessimism for Afghans," Abdullah Ahmadzai, the deputy representative for Afghanistan with the Asia Foundation, said on Wednesday.
Only 30 per cent of respondents in the poll expressed sympathy for the insurgents, while nearly two-thirds said they did not support them.
But when asked why the Taliban continue to fight, the most common reason cited was opposition to the presence of foreign troops in the country.
Other reasons included a desire to gain power, illiteracy, support from Pakistan and corruption.
Despite their opposition to the Taliban, many respondents also said they were afraid of the troops from the US-led NATO coalition and government's security forces.
Nearly three-quarters said they felt fear when meeting international troops, while just under half said they had the same reaction when encountering the Afghan army or police.
NATO has intensified training of the 352,000-strong Afghan police and army to help improve standards and enable them to operate independently after foreign combat troops leave the country at the end of 2014.
The survey, which included 89 questions on a wide range of issues, showed that the vast majority of Afghans see corruption as a major problem in all facets of life and at all levels of governance.
Nearly 80 per cent of respondents said graft was a serious problem across the country, the report said.
The in-person survey of 6,290 Afghans from all 34 provinces, conducted with support from the US Agency for International Development and other foreign agencies, had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 per cent.
THREE "romance robbers" from True Love Corp must pay almost $1.5 million for exploiting vulnerable clients and leaving them dateless and destitute.
NSW Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe says True Love's conduct was "despicable" and he hopes "other ruthless operators" in the dating game will take note of the landmark decision against them in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Zivko Dimitrijevski, the former director of the internet dating company True Love Corp (TLC) Consulting Services Pty Ltd and his wife Helen Dimitrijevski, a former manager of TLC, have been ordered to pay compensation of $1,123,095 and banned from working in the introduction industry, Mr Stowe said in a statement.
Hollie Veall, a former co-director, was ordered to pay $342,050.
The NSW Supreme Court found that between February 2003 and July 2008, TLC had made false and misleading representations to a number of its clients who had signed up to get suitable introductions, Mr Stowe said.
In most cases the clients were told to upgrade their memberships, at significant cost, to meet more people and have life coaching and grooming services but didn't get anything and it turned out the prospective partners on the databases were largely nonexistent.
One victim sustained a loss of more than $680,000.
"TLC's conduct was particularly despicable as the Dimitrijevskis and Ms Veall had targeted lonely and vulnerable members of the community, many of whom had a disability or lived in remote areas," he said.
"These people put their trust in a company which took advantage of their vulnerable situation and milked them for every dollar they could get, leaving them destitute and dateless."
He said TLC had been operating on the NSW/Queensland border since 2002 but targeted consumers across most states and territories.
FLOODING in Venice has receded after record highs over the weekend that left much of the city under water, as four people were found dead from flooding due to heavy rains in Tuscany in central Italy.
The level of the water in Venice reached 149 centimetres on Sunday - its highest level since 2008 - sparking a red alert in the city, where hardy bathers were seen taking a dip in the flooded historic St Mark's Square.
The maximum highs forecast in Venice this week are 90 centimetres on Tuesday, 85 on Wednesday, and falling to 60 on Friday.
Meanwhile the toll mounted from flooding in central parts of the country.
Three of the victims were found in a car that was swept off a bridge that collapsed due to the swollen current near the town of Manciano late on Monday.
The local prosecutor's office said that the three victims were employees of electricity operator Enel who were travelling to a flood-struck area.
The heavy rains also left a victim in Capalbio on the Tuscan coastline, where a 73-year-old was swept away in his car.
Local trains were disrupted across Tuscany and the local governor has asked for assistance from the army but the rain in Italy has eased and several regions were expected to lower alert levels later on Tuesday.
FLASH flooding which swept away an entire village in Nepal originated with a minor rockslide, scientists say, warning that the disaster could be repeated.
More than 70 people are believed to have died when the Seti River burst its banks on May 5, 2012 and hit Kharapani - a village in the central Annapurna region with a population of just 100.
A team of Nepalese and US scientists investigating the cause of the flood said that a "comparatively small" rockslide had dammed an upstream gorge, forming a reservoir over several weeks.
This reservoir was then hit by a large avalanche from the Annapurna IV peak.
The research team found that the impact of the avalanche had overfilled the reservoir and had "caused such stress as to break the rockslide dam. The huge outburst flood resulted."
Satellite images had shown that there had been rockslides between 2003 and 2008 with a "significant reactivation" weeks before the disaster, they said.
The scientists, from the Nepalese government and the University of Arizona, recommended research into an early-warning system and warned villagers to be vigilant.
They cited the area's "unique" geography as a potential danger as its deep, marble gorges cause rivers to "cut directly downward like a hot knife slicing through a stick of butter".
Their report followed an expedition they had made to the region earlier in the month.
The village of Kharapani stood in the shadow of Mount Annapurna, one of Nepal's most popular tourist destinations.
The fast-flowing floodwaters smashed into two buildings and a number of shacks, as well as swamping families enjoying picnics.
Although there was never any official death toll, 23 bodies were recovered and around 50 people remain missing, including three Ukrainian tourists.
FORMER employees of a used car dealer which collapsed in July will be paid in time for Christmas.
But more than 1000 owners around Australia who sold their vehicles through We Buy Any Car will have to wait between four and six months to hear if they have any hope of getting their cash.
We Buy Any Car traded in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Western Australia.
Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants announced on Tuesday that all 53 full time staff would be paid outstanding wages, including holiday pay, this week.
But people who worked for the company under tourist visas aren't so lucky - they are not covered by the federal government's General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme.
Liquidator Raj Khatri says the incomplete state of the company's books is making the job difficult.
"Something has gone very wrong here and our accountants are conducting an in-depth investigation, made more difficult as we cannot speak to the managing director who has disappeared overseas," he said in a statement.
Mr Khatri said the company was only trading for 12 months and he could not say when, or even if, people would see any money.
"This company incurred debts of at least $10 million over a short time period and we need to find out why this happened and where all the money went.
"We understand and empathise with the many people who sold their car in good faith - many of them have endured significant financial difficulties due to this loss."
Customers of We Buy Any Car can still register a proof of debt at Worrells.net.au.
HONG Kong shares have slid 1.13 per cent, in line with a regional sell-off sparked by growing concerns over Greece's bailout and the approaching US "fiscal cliff".
The benchmark Hang Seng Index on Tuesday fell 241.65 points to 21,188.65 on turnover of HK$52.28 billion ($A6.50 billion).
The losses, which mirrored falls in mainland China, came despite data out of Beijing on Friday and Saturday indicating the slowdown in the world's No.2 economy was coming to an end.
In Europe finance ministers said Greece had made "considerable progress" on meeting conditions for its next tranche of rescue cash, but they would have to meet again on Tuesday next week to decide whether to release it.
Investors are also growing increasingly nervous about the approaching automatic spending cuts and tax rises that threaten to send the US economy back into recession unless a cross-party deal is brokered.
"China's economy is on a recovery (track), though not a V-shape rebound," Steven Leung, director of institutional sales at UOB KayHian, told Dow Jones Newswires, saying he saw value emerging in policy-driven and cyclical stocks.
Out of 49 Hong Kong blue chips, 45 finished in the red - with property giant New World Development, major Chinese oil firm Sinopec and coalminers Shenhua and China Coal registering losses of over 2.0 per cent.
Chinese shares closed down 1.51 per cent. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 31.39 points to 2,047.89 on turnover of 44.6 billion yuan ($A6.84 billion). The index ended at its lowest level since September 26.
"Positive October economic indicators helped ease concerns over the domestic economic outlook but remained insufficient to move the market further north," Shenyin Wanguo Securities analyst Li Xiaoxuan told Dow Jones.
Investors were also awaiting the end this week of the Communist Party's 18th congress that will choose the country's leaders for the next 10 years.
Developers fell after state media quoted a housing official as saying on Monday that the government had no immediate plans to loosen property control measures, which have been in place for more than two years.
China Vanke ended down 2.2 per cent at 8.37 yuan while Gemdale lost 3.9 per cent to 5.25 yuan.
Securities firms also fell on earnings fears. Sinolink Securities fell 6.5 per cent to 14.21 yuan, Haitong Securities lost 3.4 per cent to 8.44 yuan and Citic Securities slid 1.6 per cent to 10.69 yuan.
QUEENSLAND Housing and Public Works Minister Bruce Flegg has dumped another senior staffer - but unlike the others this one is not going meekly into the wilderness.
Dr Flegg's senior media adviser, Graeme Hallett, has called a news conference an hour before the opening of parliament on Tuesday morning to say why he believes his old boss is unfit to be a minister.
Earlier in the day Dr Flegg's office confirmed the minister had sacked his chief of staff.
Fraser Stephen, who had been with Dr Flegg since the government won power in March, had his employment terminated last Thursday.
"The minister lost confidence in his chief of staff," a spokesman for Dr Flegg told AAP.
It has been a tumultuous year for Dr Flegg, but the spokesman would not give a reason why Mr Stephen was sacked.
Mr Hallett told reporters he would discuss "aspects of Dr Flegg's behaviour that makes him not fit to be a minister", at Tuesday's news conference.
Earlier this month, Dr Flegg was forced to ban his son Jonathon, who is the manager of government relations at lobbying firm Rowland, from lobbying his office.
Jonathon Flegg contacted his father's chief of staff twice to arrange appointments, which were booked but later cancelled.
One of those appointments was with Mr Stephen.
Dr Flegg was also under pressure in July, when he appointed Liberal National Party (LNP) treasurer Barry O'Sullivan to secretly review the books of two government businesses.
Mr Stephen is not the first chief of staff to leave the Newman government.
Tourism Minister Jann Stuckey dumped her chief of staff, former Channel 7 political journalist Mike D'Arcy, in June.
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has made the call for a royal commission to uncover the truth into child sexual abuse but its scope will move beyond the Catholic church and target all institutions.
The royal commission will cover all religious institutions, state-based organisations, schools and not-for-profit groups such as scouts and sporting clubs, and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has said he would support such a broad-based inquiry.
It will be established by the end of the year, with the terms of reference to be developed in consultation with the states and territories, victims' groups, religious leaders and community organisations.
"Any instance of child abuse is a vile and evil thing - Australians know that," Ms Gillard told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
Once established, such a wide-ranging inquiry could run for years.
Ms Gillard wants the commission to take as long as it needs, reporting regularly to government.
"I don't want some artificial sense of deadlines to impede what could be good work that we want done," she said.
It was important to examine institutional responses to child abuse, she said, because there was evidence that adults other than the abusers had not done enough to protect children.
"It's not just the evil of the people who do it, there has been a systemic failure to respond to it and to protect children," Ms Gillard said.
"We need to learn the lessons about how institutions can best respond when there are allegations of sexual abuse of children."
Ms Gillard made the announcement after calls were made by several federal Labor, Green and independent MPs.
Mr Abbott had said if the government proposed a wide-ranging royal commission to investigate child sexual abuse, the coalition was prepared to support it.
Ms Gillard stressed the commission would not target any one religion and said the Catholic Church's senior cleric in Australia Cardinal George Pell had indicated "he's taking a very co-operative attitude".
Later, Cardinal Pell said the public remained unconvinced the church had adequately dealt with sexual abuse.
"I believe the air should be cleared and the truth uncovered," he said in a statement.
"We shall co-operate fully with the royal commission."
He also supported a statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference saying they believed a royal commission would help identify measures to better prevent and respond to child abuse.
The bishops said the church had taken "decisive steps" over the past 20 years to make child safety a priority, including working with police.
"While there were significant problems concerning some dioceses and some religious orders, talk of a systemic problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is ill-founded and inconsistent with the facts," their statement said.
They called for police and child protection authorities to release information about how many cases they were dealing with and the situations in which the abuse occurred.
NSW premier Barry O'Farrell, who announced a special Hunter-based inquiry into child sex abuse by Catholic clergy on Friday, welcomed the federal government's move.
"These heinous offences don't stop at state boundaries," he told AAP.
Ms Gillard had spoken to him and Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu before announcing the commission on Monday.
Mr Baillieu said a Victorian parliamentary inquiry that started in April to examine handling of alleged criminal abuse of children by religious and other non-government organisations had already demonstrated its value.
He pledged to work with the federal government to merge the work of that inquiry with the royal commission.
Independent MP Tony Windsor said the royal commission wouldn't be a "witch hunt" but would rather give victims access to justice.
Ms Gillard acknowledged it was an "incredibly complex and sensitive area".
"Some people may want there to be the maximum public airing of what happened to them. That might be biggest healing that they could have," she said.
"For others, I imagine that standing somewhere public and telling their story would be their version of hell.
"This will have to be dealt with sensitively and be a job for the commission to work through."
Meanwhile, Australia's leading child advocacy group called for retrospective legislation making the destruction of evidence illegal to be passed as a matter of urgency.
Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston said Monday's announcement would have caught some institutions off guard.
"Perhaps some of these organisations will be madly shredding documents as we speak," she told AAP.
"I'd like to make sure the evidence is maintained intact."
The BBC is braced for further bloodletting following the resignation of its director-general. Source: AAP
THE BBC's news chief and her deputy have "stepped aside" as the broadcaster deals with the fallout from a child abuse scandal that has forced its director-general to resign.
Helen Boaden, the BBC's director of news and current affairs, and her deputy, Steve Mitchell, have handed over their responsibilities to others for the time being, BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas said on Monday.
Their apparent departures from their posts come ahead of a report into the Newsnight program that mistakenly implicated Lord McAlpine in a sex abuse scandal, which is due to be published on Monday.
It follows the resignation of the BBC director-general George Entwistle on Saturday, which has left the embattled corporation in crisis, amid calls for BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten to follow suit.
There was no formal announcement from the corporation.
The director of BBC Scotland, Ken MacQuarrie, has prepared the report into the botched Newsnight broadcast.
It has been one of the first issues to be tackled by the acting director-general of the BBC, Tim Davie, as he prepares to rebuild trust in the corporation.
He held his first meeting on Sunday night with the BBC Trust since being drafted in as a stand-in for Entwistle.
But his efforts to move on will be hampered by a row which has erupted over the disclosure that Entwistle - who served just 54 days in the post - was to receive a full year's salary of STG450,000 ($A693,160) in lieu of notice.
Under the terms of his contract he was entitled to only six months' pay, but the trust said that the additional payment had been agreed as a reflection of his continuing involvement with the various BBC inquiries now under way.
The move was greeted with anger and disbelief by Britain's MPs. The chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, John Whittingdale, said the trust had to explain how it could justify such a large pay-off.
"A lot of people will be very surprised that somebody who was in the job for such a short period of time and then had to leave in these circumstances should be walking away with 450,000 of licence fee payers' money," he said.
"Certainly I would want to know from the trust why they think that's appropriate. I find it very difficult to see a justification for that amount of money to be paid to somebody who has had to resign in these circumstances.
"I wouldn't have thought that just because you have to help an inquiry into the Savile allegations you necessarily need to be paid such a large amount of money."
Boaden's position had been in question for several weeks, since the Jimmy Savile scandal erupted early last month when it emerged she had a brief discussion with Entwistle - then BBC director of vision - about a proposed Newsnight investigation into the late DJ's alleged abuse.
There have been repeated suggestions the report was shelved because the BBC had planned tribute programs to Savile, although the BBC has denied this.
The BBC is reporting that Fran Unsworth, the BBC's head of newsgathering, and Ceri Thomas, the editor of BBC's Radio 4 Today program, have been asked to fill in for Boaden and Mitchell.
Before he quit, Mr Entwistle warned that McQuarrie's report could result in disciplinary action against staff, and over the weekend MPs demanded that those directly involved in the broadcast were held to account.
The future of Newsnight may also be in the balance, with Lord Patten warning there would have to be some "tough managerial decisions".
A trust spokesman said Mr Davie - formerly chief executive of BBC Worldwide - would be setting out his plans for dealing with the issues raised by the broadcast "as a first step in restoring public confidence" in the corporation.
For now Downing Street appears willing to give the BBC a chance to get its own house in order in the wake of the crisis triggered by the disclosures of the Savile child abuse, with 10 sources saying ministers would not be "jumping in" to intervene.
Lord Patten, however, acknowledged that the corporation needed to "get a grip" and turn the situation around or his own position would be on the line.
A WIDE-RANGING royal commission into Australian institutional responses to child sex abuse may help heal shattered lives, the Australian Greens say.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard will ask Governor-General Quentin Bryce to set up the inquiry into institutional responses to instances and allegations of child abuse in Australia, with a focus on sex abuse.
Australian Greens leader Christine Milne said it would be welcome, if difficult, news for thousands of Australians.
"I hope this can bring some peace and justice to shattered lives, lift the shadow off all those good people in the church striving to do good for others, and make sure nothing like this ever happens again," she said in a statement on Monday.
Independent MP Tony Windsor said the royal commission would not be a "witch hunt".
"It's about giving the victims of child sexual abuse access to justice and in so doing give them hope that they can have a future in which they can move on from the past," he said in a statement.
NSW premier Barry O'Farrell welcomed the announcement, telling AAP "these heinous offences don't stop at state boundaries".
The Brotherhood of St Laurence says a royal commission is long overdue and it hopes it will bring crimes committed against children out into the open.
Executive director Tony Nicholson said it was obscene that institutions had covered up their crimes for decades.
"We welcome this announcement but it is well overdue," Mr Nicholson told AAP after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a royal commission into institutional responses to allegations of child abuse in Australia.
"It's obscene that institutions have for so long chosen to cover up crimes against the most vulnerable - our children - and have failed to report it to the police."
It was important the terms of reference, still to be announced by Ms Gillard, were comprehensive.
"Once and for all we can get these crimes into the open," Mr Nicholson said.
Nicky Davis from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said her first reaction to the announcement was to hug her son and sob with joy.
"Our suffering is being recognised, our voices are being heard and this is a wonderful thing," she told ABC television.
Victims wouldn't be able to heal while the truth was covered up, Ms Davis said.
She urged the prime minister to ensure that victims' voices were heard when the commission's terms of reference were put together.
"We are the experts in how they managed to get away with this for so long," she said.
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu said his government would work with the federal government to establish the commission.
The Victorian government has been conducting its own parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse of children by clergy, which Mr Baillieu said had provided the opportunity for a national focus on the issue.
"It is clear that there have been a substantial number of established complaints of sexual abuse of children by those who have taken advantage of positions of authority," he said in a statement.
"This abuse is abhorrent and it has had traumatic consequences for victims and their families.
"It is important that we do whatever we can to prevent it from happening and bring those who are perpetrators of child abuse to justice."
Stephen Woods, who was abused by Catholic clergymen from the age of 11, hoped the commission would help on his road to recovery.
"When you're believed, it makes you feel a little bit more powerful in one way, that, yes, I can overcome this, I can deal with this - this wasn't my fault," he told ABC television.
He described the abuse he suffered at the hands of the clergymen.
"He would molest you in the front of the class.
"While, say, you were reading a book ... he'd have his hands up your shorts.
"Or he'd take me into his office where he used to make me strip and he would masturbate behind his desk."
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said as individuals they shared the feelings of horror and outrage all decent people felt reading the reports of sexual abuse and allegations of cover ups.
"While there were significant problems concerning some dioceses and some religious orders, talk of a systemic problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is ill-founded and inconsistent with the facts," they said.
They believe it would help determine the scope of the royal commission if police and child protection authorities released the information they have about the number of cases they are dealing with now and the situations in which they have arisen - families, government organisations and non-government organisations, including churches.
Broken Rites, a long-time campaigner for justice for children abused by pedophile priests, says it wants to see outcomes for victims.
President Chris MacIsaac says it has been a long, hard battle and he now wants to see the Catholic church speak frankly about what it knows.
"We want an outcome that will benefit victims, to see recommendations made that actually help victims," Ms MacIsaac told AAP.
"They want the actual knowledge that the church accepts that these crimes took place so they can shake off their guilt and begin to rebuild their lives.
"It's certainly time that the church shed some of what it knows about what's happened over the last 20 to 30 years."
The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney said he was praying for a good outcome from the royal commission.
"The Diocese of Sydney expresses its unqualified abhorrence of child abuse, wherever it occurs," Archbishop Peter Jensen said in a statement on Monday night.
"While the terms of reference have yet to be decided, we will work and pray for an outcome which will result in a safer society for the most vulnerable."
A victims group will present an inquiry into sex abuse by clergy with a list of pedophile priests. Source: AAP
SOME Catholic priests have used guns, knives and dogs in their sexual assaults on children and women, an inquiry has heard.
Victoria's parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse heard stunning evidence on Monday, including claims of bestiality, hospital chaplains raping patients, student priests being sexually assaulted in the seminary, a priest carrying a gun around a school playground and boys on altar boy camp being assaulted for a week by seminarians in charge of the camp.
Helen Last, the director of advocacy group In Good Faith, says abuse victims have told stories of priests keeping guns and knives in their presbytery, while one told her that some clergy "introduced dogs into assaults of children".
Ms Last told the inquiry the Catholic Church took 15 years to deal with priest Peter Searson, now deceased, who was accused of carrying a gun with him in the playground in the mid 1990s, while another priest kept a pistol in his glovebox.
She also spoke of an incident in which a Catholic hospital chaplain assaulted a married woman in her bed immediately after she had been admitted for mental health care and then raped her in his quarters before sending her back to the ward.
"These are just the worst examples of the terrorisations," she told the Family and Community Development Committee.
"There are hundreds and hundreds we can access."
One priest who assaulted a woman at knifepoint told her he would "rearrange her face" if she told anyone, Ms Last said.
She said none of the allegations had been taken to police.
The claim of the woman raped in hospital had been managed by the Melbourne Archdiocese but no report had ever been made to the hospital authorities.
"We have three examples of assaults in hospitals by different priests, all in the role of chaplains," she said.
"These women have had the most shocking time in the last seven to 10 years trying to get the Melbourne Archdiocese to respond appropriately to these assaults."
She said clerical abuse continued to this day and her group had been inundated with allegations from victims in recent weeks.
But still the Catholic church had no mental health policy, she said, and adhered to an ancient secretive and hierarchical structure that "no rational person lives now."
Victims are afraid to complain because of public humiliation, a "fear of an angry punishing God" and because the church's Melbourne Response process only added to the trauma.
TWO women have gone missing in separate incidents in Melbourne.
Sandra Pevitt, 45, has not been seen for five days since leaving her Werribee home.
Katie Dircks, 30, is believed to have caught a tram in South Melbourne to Flinders Street shortly after 7pm (AEDT) on Friday and has not been seen since.
Ms Pevitt told her family she was going to her doctor when she went missing, but her regular clinic says she had no appointment.
Her partner Paul Czech says it is completely out of character for her and he's distraught over her disappearance.
"We are very concerned about her safety. We just want her back," he told reporters on Sunday.
"There was nothing to suggest that she was disturbed in any way. I just can't understand why she hasn't returned home."
He says she's a sensitive person with a great sense of humour and easy to like.
Ms Pevitt is described as Caucasian, 167cm tall, with a medium build, blonde shoulder length straight hair, brown eyes and she wears frameless glasses.
When she was last seen she was wearing blue jeans, a grey sports top, brown and white knitted jacket and white runners with a pink trim.
Police said Ms Dircks emailed a friend around 11.30am on Saturday, but had made no further contact.
She suffers from a medical condition which requires regular medication and family members have concerns for her welfare.
She is described as Caucasian, around 156cm tall with a solid build, long brown hair and brown eyes.
She was last seen wearing a navy blue dress with buttons down the front and a black cardigan with white lace pockets.
Police say there is no link between the two woman.
Jimmy Savile bragged of his sordid sexual exploits with young girls in his now out-of-print 1974 autobiography As It Happens. Source: AP
A MAN in his 70s has been arrested in connection with the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse investigation, police said.
Officers arrested the man from Cambridgeshire at 7:15am on suspicion of sexual offences and took him into police custody locally.
The arrest was part of Operation Yewtree, the investigation into Savile.
Seventies rocker Gary Glitter and comedian Freddie Starr have already been detained, questioned and released over the worsening scandal.
Police believe Savile, the former BBC TV presenter and DJ, who died last year aged 84, could have abused as many as 300 people over a 40-year period.
A number of individuals are being investigated as part of the operation. These include people who allegedly carried out abuse with Savile as well as others who are suspected of abusing independently of Savile.
More soon
GREENS senator Lee Rhiannon says she welcomes pressure from within the Labor caucus to phase out the live animal export trade.
Senator Rhiannon, addressing an animal welfare protest in Sydney's Hyde Park on Sunday, said the Greens welcomed the "growing number" of Labor backbenchers speaking out publicly about taking action on the live export trade.
Questions have again been raised over the trade after footage emerged of sheep being brutally culled - with some buried alive - by Pakistani authorities in Karachi.
Senator Rhiannon said she understood some of the backbenchers, including Kelvin Thomson and Dick Adams, are likely to raise the issue at the ALP's caucus meeting next week.
"We welcome that they are speaking out publicly," she told AAP on Sunday.
"We're hoping it gets on the agenda in the Labor caucus, and that by banning the live export trade we can have a win-win (situation), to reduce animal suffering and to boost jobs and the economy."
Senator Rhiannon said she knew of several MPs who had been "inundated with phone calls and messages" from people about the issue.
"My office is even taking phone calls from farmers who say they don't want to support the live export trade," she said.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard's assurances of an investigation into the slaughter during talks with her Pakistani counterpart was not enough, Senator Rhiannon said.
"The point is, the government has no control of what happens to these animals once they go to other countries," she said.
"We're ready to talk to the government about how we can end live exports."
Senator Rhiannon dismissed as "rubbish" that jobs would be lost by moving the processing of chilled and frozen meat to Australia.
"That's where the government should be assisting, in the transition of the industry," she said.
A TEENAGE boy has died after being stabbed in northwestern New South Wales.
Police say the 16-year-old was knifed during an altercation in Moree on Sunday afternoon.
Another 16-year-old boy is helping them with their inquiries.
Officers from the Barwon Local Area Command are appealing for information about the death and have launched an investigation with the help of the State Crime Command's homicide squad.
Anyone who saw the incident, which happened on Balo Street just after 3pm, is urged to contact police.
A POWERFUL earthquake has struck Burma, killing at least 13 people, injuring 40 and sparking panic in the central city of Mandalay.
The shallow 6.8-magnitude quake struck in a rural area 116 kilometres north of Mandalay and was followed by strong aftershocks, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said on Sunday.
Four labourers flung into the Irrawaddy River from a partly-built bridge near the town of Shwebo, north of Mandalay and nearer to the epicentre of the quake, were among those believed to have died, according to a situation report from Save the Children.
The collapse of a monastery in the nearby village of Kyauk Myaung killed two people and one died in Mandalay, it said. A further six were killed in Sint Ku township, including two people who died when a gold mine collapsed.
"People everywhere are very worried that another earthquake might strike," the aid organisation said.
Residents of Mandalay fled shaking buildings in terror, although no major damage was reported there.
"I ran from my bed carrying my daughter out to the street. There were many people in the road. Some were shouting and others felt dizzy," said Mandalay resident San Yu Kyaw.
A government official in the capital Naypyidaw who asked not to be named could only confirm two deaths so far.
Another official from Burma's Relief and Resettlement Department said most of those injured were workers on construction sites, with 15 people taken to Shwebo and Kyauk Myaung hospitals.
"We have sent a team to Shwebo where the earthquake was centred to assist in relief works and providing food to the victims," he said on condition of anonymity.
Save the Children, which has an office in Mandalay, said reports indicated that 25 were injured in the bridge collapse on the Irrawaddy, with 10 taken to hospital.
It said 20 people were thought to have been taken to hospital in Shwebo and a further 10 were being treated in Mandalay.
Construction standards are generally poor in Burma, one of Asia's most impoverished nations.
A large crack stretching from the second to the sixth floor of Mandalay's highest building, the 25-storey Mann Myanmar Plaza, appeared after the quake, a local resident said.
He said people were afraid to enter the structure and it remained closed.
The USGS issued a yellow alert, saying "some casualties and damage are possible" but the impact should be relatively localised.
The quake, which was initially thought to be magnitude 7.0, hit at 7.42 am (1212 AEDT) at a depth of just 10 kilometres.
It was followed by two shallow 5.0-magnitude aftershocks within 20 minutes, according to the USGS.
"The quake was quite strong. I was shopping in the market at the time and I saw women crying in fear when they felt it. We expect more quakes are coming. Everybody is afraid," said 23-year-old Win Win Nwe, a resident in Shwebo.
It comes little more than a week before US President Barack Obama is due in Burma on a historic visit, as the West begins to roll back sanctions to reward dramatic political reforms under President Thein Sein.
The quake was felt in neighbouring Thailand including in Bangkok.
