Aust must lead way against shark fin trade

CONSERVATIONISTS are calling on Australia to take a stand to protect several shark species threatened by the multi-million dollar shark fin trade to Asia, especially China.

The call comes as delegates of 178 nations meet on Sunday at the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Humane Society International Australia's program director Alexia Wellbelove says shark and ray populations are in trouble and international trade is a key driver in their decline as sharks are being taken at an unsustainable rate, primarily for their fins for shark fin soup.

The CITES meeting will decide whether international conservation efforts will be used to restrict the trade in several shark species now seen as vulnerable.

Proposals at the meeting include protection for the Porbeagle shark, Oceanic White Tip, the Scalloped Hammerhead Shark and the giant mantra ray, now targeted for their gill plates or rakers, used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Between 1.3 million to 2.7 million hammerhead sharks die each year to meet the demand for shark fin soup, with declines in shark populations reported by up to 80 per cent.

"One of the main threats really to sharks is to trade in their products, particularly for the Asian market, not so much Thailand but China (and) Taiwan," Ms Wellbelove told AAP.

The fins from between 200,000 to 1.2 million Oceanic White Tip sharks are harvested annually, at a price of around $US122 per kilogram on markets in Asia.

It has left this shark population dropping by more than 90 per cent in parts of the Atlantic.

Just two shark species, the Great White Shark and the Whale Shark are listed for protection under the UN convention.

The Porbeagle shark is found in the Northern Atlantic and southern hemisphere, including waters off Australia and New Zealand.

"Basically it does mean that we're in a situation where we can get some regulation on that now we can stop those populations from dropping too much further, controlling it before it's too late," she said.

Australia is sponsoring the call for a ban on the trade in the Freshwater Sawfish now largely extinct in the region apart from northern Australia.

Conservationists have already lobbied Australia's three main political parties ahead of the September general election to adopt measures by the US state of Hawaii which ban the sale, trade and possession of shark fin.

Rebecca Regenry, a deputy director at the US based Human Society International, says moves to control the trade in shark fins is facing resistance from China and Japan.

Ms Regenry said documents indicated Thailand, the meetings host, was also opposed to controls.

But Secretary General of CITES, John Scanlon, said divisions were apparent within states to provide greater protection for shark species.

"There are some parties who are very keen to bring sharks, commercially harvested sharks and rays, under the control of our convention," Mr Scanlon told AAP.

"(But) there are some states who remain of the view that these issues should be left to regional fisheries management organisations such as the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) and not bring it user CITES," he said.

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Myanmar media clampdown criticised

MEDIA groups in Myanmar (Burma) have reacted with dismay over a proposed law to regulate the press that has raised fears the government could be rolling back on promises to loosen its grip on the long-shackled industry.

The printing and publishing bill, drafted by the ministry of information, has listed a number of restrictions - including reporting on clashes between ethnic groups and producing articles that "violate" the junta-drafted constitution.

The proposed legislation, which also laid out strict penalties of up to six months in jail for those operating without valid accreditation, came as a shock for the country's interim press council, which is drafting a separate media law.

"It's an annoyance for us. We think the penalties are much harsher than necessary," council member Zaw Thet Htwe said on Saturday.

Myanmar has surprised observers with a raft of reforms under a quasi-civilian government that replaced outright military rule in 2011, including holding elections that swept democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament.

Pre-publication censorship rules were scrapped in August - ending draconian controls that applied to everything from newspapers to song lyrics - and the country recently announced it would allow private newspapers to publish daily for the first time in decades from April.

But a notice in the state-run New Light of Myanmar on Saturday said only eight out of 17 applications for daily licences had so far been approved.

Eleven Media Group, one of the country's larger newspaper publishers, said its application had been rejected on technical grounds.

The draft printing legislation, which was published in Burmese language state media on Wednesday, also drew criticism from media freedom campaigners.

It would "essentially replace (Myanmar's) old censorship regime with a similarly repressive new one", said Shawn Crispin of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Flooding prompts Lockyer Valley alert

AN emergency alert has been issued for the Lockyer Valley region, west of Brisbane, with residents told to evacuate if needed.

The Lockyer Valley regional council issued the alert on Saturday night.

The council has advised that flooding is expected for Forest Hill, Laidley, Glenore Grove and areas downstream.

Residents are being told to monitor the situation and evacuate themselves if necessary.

Earlier, the local council had been doorknocking homes at Dalby, in southern Queensland, where the Myall Creek is expected to peak at three metres on Saturday night.

Western Downs Mayor Ray Brown says water starts to enter homes when the water reaches 2.8 metres.

It's another blow to residents who experienced significant flooding on the Australia Day weekend and a severe flood two years ago.

The council is also monitoring the nearby towns of Chinchilla and Moonie which are on flood alert.

Heavy rain has also fallen in the regions around Mackay, Bundaberg and Rockhampton on the state's central coast and the Gold Coast in the southeast.

Forecasters expect about 100mm of rain to fall on Bundaberg in the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile the government is keeping a close eye on its dams in the southeast.

The Bureau of Meteorology has advised the rain will continue in the short term and there will be heavy falls later this month.

Water Supply Minister Mark McArdle says releasing water from the dams will reduce the risk of flooding.

"The ground is currently saturated so the rain will all run off into the Somerset and Wivenhoe Dams," he told AAP.

"We want to make certain those dams are at a precautionary level of 88 per cent as best as we possibly can."

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Two dead, three critical in road crashes

TWO people are dead and three are fighting for their lives following separate crashes in NSW.

A woman in her 20s died during a single-car crash near Dorrigo in northern NSW just before 2pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

The driver, a woman in her late 40s, and another woman in her late 20s, were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Two girls and a boy, all aged under 10, were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Police said the vehicle was heading east along the Waterfall Way, when it left the road and rolled down an embankment.

In another crash, one male passenger died and three others from the same vehicle including the driver were critically injured in a two-car crash in Sydney's southwest.

The vehicles collided on Douglas Park Drive in Douglas Park about 6.20pm (AEDT).

The three critically injured men were airlifted to Liverpool Hospital.

A man from the second car was taken by road to Liverpool Hospital with serious injuries.

Three other men from the second car suffered minor injuries.

The road remains closed in both directions while the scene is examined.

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Pistorius was an avid gun collector

IN his Olympic year, Oscar Pistorius steadily became an avid firearms collector, joining a gun-collecting club and purchasing a collection of firearms that included a .500 Magnum pistol dubbed by its manufacturer as "the most powerful production revolver in the world" and a civilian version of a military assault rifle.

At the end of 2012, in the first blush of his romance with Reeva Steenkamp, the model he later shot and killed on Valentine's Day, Pistorius got deeper into his hobby.

It was known that Pistorius liked guns but only now, from Associated Press interviews with other collectors, is it becoming clear the extent to which he became a dedicated firearms aficionado in the 12 months before the Steenkamp tragedy.

The track star not only applied for licences to own more guns, but actually bought them, too, according to John Beare, vice chairman of the Lowveld Firearm Collectors Association which accepted Pistorius as a paid-up member last April.

He and Pistorius were introduced at a Johannesburg hotel in January 2012, and it was there that Beare first explained to the athlete and some of his friends how to become certified collectors.

Had he not become a collector, Pistorius would under South African law have been limited to a maximum of four firearms for self-defence, of which only two could have been handguns, according to Johannesburg attorney Martin Hood, who specialises in firearms law.

Carvel Webb, chairman of the National Arms and Ammunition Collectors Confederation of South Africa, an umbrella group for the country's 2,000 approved private collectors including Pistorius, said that in the wake of Steenkamp's death his group will now verify that Pistorius fulfilled the necessary requirements to be accepted as a collector and a decision in January to let him start collecting semi-automatic rifles.

"We will review all of those just to see if we are happy with it," Webb said.

Pistorius made no secret of his passion for firearms. Reporters who visited him at home in Pretoria, the capital, saw the pistol he kept by his bed and was licensed to own. He practiced at firing ranges both in South Africa and in Europe where he trained for the London Games. But apparently less well-known was his involvement with gun collectors to start building a firearms collection.

Beare said he twice observed Pistorius shoot at firing ranges and also at a clay pigeon shoot, but saw nothing to suggest he could be a menace with a gun.

"His safety was good," Beare told the AP. "He wouldn't do anything irrational with a firearm, because then I would have nailed him immediately."

Pistorius says he mistook his girlfriend Steenkamp for a home intruder and shot her while she was in his bathroom toilet, firing through the closed door.

Pistorius' license for the 9 mm pistol was issued on September 10, 2010, according to the South African Police Service's National Firearms Centre. It was registered for self-defence.

Prosecutors have charged Pistorius with premeditated murder for killing Steenkamp with three of four shots fired in the early hours of February 14.

Some have questioned why Pistorius felt he needed such a variety of weapons and whether the association should have certified him.

Andre Pretorius, president of the Professional Firearm Trainers Council, a regulatory body for South African firearms instructors, said he struggles to see how pistols, shotguns and a semi-automatic rifle could be regarded as a coherent collection.

"The makes differ, the models differ and generally a collection needs to have a theme," said Pretorius. "I don't see there's a theme here."

But Webb, of the collectors' confederation, disagreed.

"There was a logic," Webb told the AP. "He's got three approved areas of interest."

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Cardinals look to elect new pope

Swiss Guards shut the giant wooden doors of Benedict XVI's temporary residence, the Castel Gandolfo. Source: AAP

CATHOLIC cardinals from around the world began preparing for a conclave to elect a new pope, a day after Benedict XVI became the first pontiff to resign in 700 years telling the world he would be a "pilgrim" on life's last journey.

Letters were due to be sent inviting the cardinals to take part in meetings next week that will set the date for a conclave under Michelangelo's frescos in the Sistine Chapel.

The meetings - known as "general congregations" - will also be a way of vetting possible candidates to be leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics at a difficult time for the Church.

The conclave is to start in the first half of March.

After an emotional final day as pope on Thursday, world newspapers paid tribute to the 85-year-old German pope's historic decision, which could set a precedent for ageing popes in the future.

"Farewells made with courage, humility and grace," ran a headline on an editorial in the German conservative daily Die Welt, while top-selling tabloid Bild said: "Our pope has retired."

"This is how great popes go," said Italian daily Il Messaggero, hailing the "greatness of his humility, the simple step of a pilgrim".

La Repubblica daily said the 85-year-old Benedict's troubled eight-year reign had ended abruptly "not with an apocalypse, but with the sigh or relief of a man who became man again."

Benedict's final hours as pope were filled with ritual and emotion, from the pealing bells of St Peter's Basilica to the Swiss Guards who shut the giant doors of his new temporary residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome to mark the moment that Benedict was no longer pope.

The Vatican flag flying over the palace was lowered as the Swiss Guards - the papacy's military corps since the 15th century - formally completed their mission to protect the pope.

"Long live the pope!" a crowd outside chanted as a clock chimed the hour that Benedict said he would step down in an announcement earlier this month that stunned the world.

"I will no longer be pope but a simple pilgrim," the pope told supporters earlier after arriving at Castel Gandolfo from the Vatican in a helicopter that flew as the bells of St Peter's rang out.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attended a mass in Berlin to mark the pope's last day in office and at a special mass in New York's Saint Patrick's Cathedral hundreds of worshippers paid homage.

Many ordinary Catholics hope the next pope will breathe new life into a Church hit hard by rising secularism in the West and discrimination against Christians in some developing countries.

The former pope Benedict will now be known as "Roman pontiff emeritus" - a completely new title created especially for this new situation.

He will still be addressed as "Your Holiness".

In a last tweet sent from his @pontifex Twitter account as he left the Vatican, the pope said: "Thank you for your love and support."

"May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives."

Benedict is only the second pope to resign in the Church's 2,000-year history, and in his final hours as pontiff he took the highly unusual step of pledging allegiance to his successor.

"Among you there is also the future pope to whom I promise my unconditional obedience and reverence," the pope said to 144 cardinals in the ornate Clementine Hall in the Vatican.

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WA bushfire still a threat to lives, homes

HOMES in Perth's semi-rural northeast remain under threat as more than 200 firefighters battle a bushfire raging through the difficult terrain.

They've made good progress tackling the blaze near Shady Hills in Bullsbrook, and with the exception of the northern flank, it's now burning within containment lines.

"They are working in hilly, rocky and difficult to access country and it may take some time to complete the containment lines," the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said at 5pm (WST).

Some 1460 hectares of bushland has been burnt since the fire began around midday on Thursday.

A bushfire emergency warning remains for people in Shady Hills View, Gibbard Place, Clarkson Road, Taylor Road, Foaling Ridge and Auger Place.

West of Walyunga National Park - where the blaze had been threatening homes - the alert level has been downgraded to a watch and act.

That warning applies to Railway Parade including Great Northern Highway between Stock Road and Walyunga Road.

Some fencing has been destroyed and so far there have been no other reports of significant losses or damage from the fire.

Bullsbrook's Pickett Park Hall, where 12 evacuees stayed overnight, remains the relocation point.

While the official cause of the bushfire remains unknown, sparks from a Kalgoorlie-bound freight train were suspected to have sparked a string of fires that became one large blaze.

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Gonski appointed to SingTel board

FUTURE Fund chairman David Gonski has been appointed to the board of Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel).

SingTel is the parent of Australian telco Optus.

The announcement of the appointment of the prominent Sydney-based businessman and philanthropist was made in a statement after the close of share market trading on Friday evening.

SingTel is dual Singapore-Australian stock exchange listed company.

The 59-year-old Mr Gonski is also a non-executive director of Singapore Airlines, as well as chairman of Coca-Cola Amatil in Australia.

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Prof welcomes overturned murder conviction

A 30-YEAR-OLD murder conviction has been overturned by Western Australia's Court of Appeal on the back of Nobel Prize-winning ulcer research by Perth-based scientist Barry Marshall.

Chris von Deutschburg was a teenager in 1983 when convicted of murdering Stavros Kakulas in a scuffle during a burglary at the 86-year-old man's home in Perth's seaside suburb of Scarborough.

Mr von Deutschburg, then 19, received a life sentence on the basis Mr Kakulas died of a bleeding duodenal ulcer seven days after the crime.

The ulcer was said to have been brought on by the stress of the home invasion.

Professor Marshall and his colleague Robin Warren won Nobel Prizes in 2005 for proving bacteria, rather than stress, caused stomach ulcers.

Prof Marshall told AAP he had been involved in the case from the beginning, when he had already conceived his award-winning theory, but was yet to prove it.

"There were just a couple of people on our side and everyone else just believed this traditional theory," he said.

In proving his theory, Prof Marshall acted as a human guinea pig, downing a bacterial brew that made him very ill, but gave new hope of treatment for millions of sufferers.

Once the research gained worldwide attention, Mr von Deutschburg, who spent seven years in prison before being paroled in 1990, looked to Prof Marshall's work as a way to clear him of his murder conviction.

The scientist got behind him, writing to the State Solicitor's Office saying Mr von Deutschburg could not be guilty, prompting former state attorney-general Christian Porter to refer the case to WA's Court of Appeal.

On Friday, Justices Carmel McLure, Robert Mazza and Michael Buss announced their unanimous decision, saying the basis of the conviction had been overtaken by the groundbreaking discovery by Prof Marshall and Mr Warren.

The judges said Mr Kakulas's duodenal ulcer was likely to have existed before the home invasion in June 1983.

Evidence provided by Prof Marshall, and also by PathWest Laboratory Medicine chief forensic pathologist Clive Cooke, raised enough doubt in the judges' minds to make them conclude Mr von Deutschburg should not have been convicted of murder.

"If the jury had heard Professor Marshall's and Dr Cooke's evidence, in addition to the evidence adduced at trial, it must be necessarily have entertained a doubt about the appellant's guilt," the judgment read.

"A miscarriage of justice occurred at the trial."

In his petition on behalf of Mr von Deutschburg, Prof Marshall said there was no likelihood that Mr Kakulas's injuries either worsened or contributed to the duodenal ulcer.

On Friday, Prof Marshall said the case was one for the law books.

"This is really a landmark case ... a milestone if you like," he said.

It was important for Mr von Deutschburg to clear his name, he said.

"To have a conviction at a young age ... that affects your career and your job prospects for the rest of your life.

"These things are very important and maybe you can't just be a bit irresponsible in your youth in case something does happen like that.

"It affects you for a long time."

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US sailors jailed for Okinawa rape

TWO US sailors who raped a Japanese woman in Okinawa last October were jailed on Friday for a crime that reignited long-smouldering anger against the American military in Japan.

The Naha District Court in Okinawa said Seaman Christopher Browning, 24, should go to prison for 10 years for the brutal rape of the young woman, from whom he also stole 7,000 yen ($A73).

Petty officer 3rd class Skyler Dozierwalker, 23, was jailed for nine years, also for raping the woman before dawn in a car park.

Browning and Dozierwalker, who were not stationed in Okinawa, had been drinking on the evening of the attack, and "were contemptible and violent", Judge Hideyuki Suzuki said.

"The ruling may seem severe, but the damage to the feelings of the victim and residents is more severe," he said in a statement after the case, according to Kyodo News.

During an earlier court appearance the two men had admitted the rape, which caused outrage on the sub-tropical islands and beyond, and led to a nationwide night-time curfew on all US military personnel in Japan.

Despite the curfew, misconduct involving servicemen, much of it drunken, has continued to fuel anti-US sentiment in communities with bases.

Wary of yet another public relations disaster, the US moved quickly to try to lower the temperature immediately after the rape, with ambassador John Roos holding a special news conference at which he appeared visibly angry and upset.

"The United States will cooperate in every way possible with the Japanese authorities to address this terrible situation."

"I understand the anger that many people feel with respect to this reported incident," he said. "I have a 25-year-old daughter myself, so this is very personal to me."

The attack came amid already high tensions in Okinawa, which saw demonstrations last year against the US deployment to the island of the tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft.

The aircraft's perceived poor safety record has been picked over in Japanese media and by local opponents, but commentators say it is a proxy issue and resentment over what many see as an unfair burden is at the root of objections.

Okinawa is the reluctant host to more than half of the 47,000 American service personnel in Japan, and the crimes, noise and risk of accidents associated with their bases regularly provoke ire in the local community.

In 1995 the gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by US servicemen sparked mass protests resulting in a US-Japan agreement to reduce the huge US military presence on the Okinawan chain.

Okinawans say other parts of Japan should take more of the burden and want bases closed or reduced in size.

But with islands stretching out from mainland Japan to Taiwan that obscure rising China's access to the Pacific, Okinawa is too strategically important for either Washington or Tokyo to be able to countenance a large-scale drawdown.

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