Two dead within 24 hours on NSW roads

A MAN has died after his car hit a tree, marking the second death on NSW's roads in less than 24 hours.

Police said the man died after his car veered off the road and struck a tree at about 3.30pm on Saturday, near Blayney west of Sydney.

The male driver, and only occupant, died at the scene.

It comes after a 28-year-old passenger died when the car he was in ran off the road, hit a tree, then crashed down an embankment in northwest Sydney.

Police said the 30-year-old driver freed himself and flagged down a passing motorist, who called for help.

The passenger's body was found in the wreckage.

Police say the driver blew a positive result for alcohol in a roadside breath test and was taken to hospital for blood and urine testing.

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Obama will not visit Mandela: US official

US President Barack Obama is set to meet privately with members of ailing Nelson Mandela's family. Source: AAP

US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are set to meet privately with members of ailing Nelson Mandela's family.

The White House said on Saturday the Obamas will not see the former South African president in the hospital.

Obama will not visit his political hero Mandela out of deference for the anti-apartheid icon's "peace and comfort," a US official said.

The 94-year-old Mandela had been hospitalised for three weeks with a recurring lung infection.

Obama is in South Africa as part of his weeklong trip and arrived in Pretoria for talks with President Jacob Zuma.

Obama had told reporters on Friday that he did not need a photo-op with Mandela, who he met once, in Washington DC in 2005.

His aides had said previously they would "gauge" the situation once on the ground before deciding whether Obama would visit Mandela in the hospital.

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Teetering truck closes Toowoomba Range

A TRUCK is suspended on an embankment after colliding with another truck heading down the Toowoomba Range, west of Brisbane.

Police and paramedics are on site tending to the driver of a B-double after it clipped another truck on the down section of the Toowoomba Range about 6.40pm.

A Queensland Fire and Rescue spokeswoman said the range has been blocked to traffic as there is a large diesel spill across the road.

Police media was unable to confirm if the truck had breached the guard rails of the embankment but said the driver is not believed to have been seriously injured.

A Department of Community Services spokesman confirmed one driver has been taken to Toowoomba Base Hospital as a precaution.

The down section of the Toowoomba Range is expected to remain closed for several hours while the crash is cleared.

More to come ...

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Rudd to attend Yunupingu's state funeral

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd will be flying to the Northern Territory on Sunday to pay tribute to Mr Yunupingu at his state funeral.

The former lead singer of Yothu Yindi will be remembered at a service at Gulkula in northeast Arnhem Land.

A spokeswoman for Mr Rudd confirmed he would be attending the ceremony and is expected to arrive in the Northern Territory sometime before noon.

Mr Yunupingu, an Aboriginal elder, educator and 1992 Australian of the Year, died aged 56 at his home in the small town of Yirrkala on June 2.

He was the first indigenous person from Arnhem Land to gain a university degree and the Northern Territory's first Aboriginal school principal when he was appointed head of Yirrkala Community School in 1990.

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Snowden's father seeks deal with US govt

THE father of fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has revealed he is trying to broker a compromise with the government that could bring his son back to the United States.

In a letter to the Justice Department, Lonnie Snowden said through his lawyer that his son wanted "ironclad assurances" he would not be held in jail before trial or subjected to a gag order, and would be allowed to choose where he would be tried on federal espionage charges.

The elder Snowden said the offer could end the impasse that has kept his 30-year-old son stuck in the transit zone of a Moscow airport and raised tensions between the US and other countries, including China, Russia and Ecuador, where the former National Security Agency contract employee is seeking political asylum.

"We believe you share our objective of securing Edward's voluntary return to the United States to face trial," Washington DC attorney Bruce Fein wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder on behalf of Snowden's father.

Lonnie Snowden, Fein wrote, "is reasonably certain that his son would voluntarily return to the United States if there were ironclad assurances that his constitutional rights would be honoured, and he were provided a fair opportunity to explain his motivations and actions to an impartial judge and jury".

If any of the conditions were "dishonoured," Fein added, then the prosecution "would be dismissed".

Justice Department officials did not comment on the proposal.

Meanwhile, the president of Ecuador demanded that the US stop suggesting that the small Andean country is provoking the situation by offering to shield Snowden from US justice, much as it has protected Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

For the last year, Assange has lived in Ecuador's embassy in London after he was granted sanctuary.

"It is outrageous to try to delegitimise a state for receiving a petition for asylum," Ecuador President Rafael Correa said in a speech in Ecuador.

Correa contended that the news media at first welcomed Snowden's leaks about secret US programs to collect phone logs and emails but later suggested the actions were treasonous.

"What a joke!" the president said in a tweet.

The media, he said, are "making everyone forget the terrible things that he denounced in front of the American people and the entire world".

Correa added that, for the asylum request to be processed and approved, Snowden first must find his way to Ecuador's embassy in Moscow or to Ecuador.

"We don't know how it'll be resolved," he said.

Officials in Hong Kong, where Snowden flew when he left Hawaii, said they remained concerned about his claims that the NSA had hacked into Hong Kong's computer systems.

In the future, they said, Snowden will no longer be permitted in Hong Kong.

"We are very disappointed," said Lai Tung-kowk, Hong Kong's secretary of security.

"We hope the US government will as soon as possible give a full answer and explanation to the Hong Kong people."

US State Department officials said they were concerned about their worsening relationships with Hong Kong and Ecuador.

"These issues have an impact when we have a breakdown on co-operation," Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman, said in response to Hong Kong's statements.

Regarding Ecuador, Ventrell said it "would not be a good thing" if the country granted Snowden asylum.

"That would have grave difficulties for a bilateral relationship," he said.

Lonnie Snowden, who has not spoken with his son since April, said on NBC's Today show: "I love him. I would like to have the opportunity to communicate with him. I don't want to put him in peril, but I am concerned about those who surround him.

"I think WikiLeaks, if you've looked at past history, you know, their focus isn't necessarily the constitution of the United States. It's simply to release as much information as possible."

"At this point I don't feel that he's committed treason. He has in fact broken US law, in the sense that he has released classified information," Lonnie Snowden told NBC.

"And if folks want to classify him as a traitor, in fact he has betrayed his government. But I don't believe that he's betrayed the people of the United States."

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Market rally comes to an end

AUSTRALIAN shares fell flat on the last day of trade in the financial year as cautious investors sold mining and insurance stocks.

Australia's share market gained 17 per cent over the past year, but the final week of 2012/13 proved a roller coaster ride as global markets worried about an end to US stimulus measures.

The local market plunged on Monday, rallied on Wednesday and Thursday, then lost momentum on Friday.

Insurers were out of favour with investors, with AMP losing 14 cents to $4.25, QBE dropped 23 cents to $15.09, IAG shed seven cents to $5.44 and Suncorp closed 10 cents lower at $11.92.

Miners also fell, with BHP Billiton losing 10 cents to $31.37, Fortescue dropped six cents to $3.04 and gold miner Newcrest shed three cents to $9.87.

Rio Tinto was firmer though, adding 58 cents to $52.37.

RBS Morgans senior private client adviser Bill Chatterton said the rise in big banks' share prices over the financial year showed stocks with high dividends were maintaining their favour.

"Investors, they're quite cautious at the moment and they're still quite focused on yield," he said.

"The yield theme, which has been quite dominant, certainly in the last 12 months, I think that will continue."

Three of the big four banks made gains on Friday, with Westpac putting on seven cents to $28.88, as ANZ added seven cents to $28.58 and Commonwealth Bank gained two cents to $69.18.

NAB lost seven cents to $29.68.

Elsewhere, Caltex shares fell heavily after the oil refiner and distributor forecast a weaker net profit.

Its shares dropped by $2.42, or 11.8 per cent, to $18.05.

Seven Group shares were also sold off as its heavy machinery dealer WesTrac announced 350 job cuts in response to challenging market conditions.

Its shares ended at $6.90, down 23 cents.

KEY FACTS

* At the close on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 8.7 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 4,802.6.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 9.4 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 4,775.4.

* The September share price index futures contract was seven points lower at 4,767, with 28,821 contracts.

* The spot price of gold in Sydney finished at $US1,204.00, down $US35.43 from Thursday's close at $US1,239.43.

* National turnover was 2.02 billion securities worth $7.4 billion.

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Baldwin disables Twitter page after rant

US actor Alec Baldwin has deactivated his Twitter page following a foul-mouthed rant. Source: AAP

ALEC Baldwin has deactivated his Twitter page following a foul-mouthed rant over allegations his pregnant wife was posting messages online during James Gandolfini's funeral.

The couple paid their respects to The Sopranos star at a church in New York City on Thursday, and an online report suggested Baldwin's partner Hilaria had been tweeting throughout the service.

Initially, the former 30 Rock star brushed off the allegations by posting a simple message on the website, writing, "Someone wrote that my wife was tweeting at a funeral. Hey. That's not true. But I'm gonna tweet at your funeral".

However, he returned to his Twitter page later in the day to rant about the report.

"My wife and I attend a funeral to pay our respects to an old friend... How much of this s**t are people supposed to take? With these f**king blatant lies every day. My wife did not use her phone, in any capacity, at our friend's funeral. Now, f**k this Twitter + good luck to all of you who know the truth."

Baldwin's page was then taken offline.

Hilaria attempted to explain the timing of messages which appeared on her page on Thursday, adding, "Here is some info... When someone tweets something at a certain time, and you retweet it later, it posts the time the first person tweeted."

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Two Abu Sayyaf members killed: Philippines

SOLDIERS have killed two Islamic extremists and wounded five others in the southern Philippines as government forces continued searching for two kidnapped filmmaker sisters, a military official says.

Members of the Abu Sayyaf group opened fire on a military helicopter in the southern island of Jolo on Thursday, prompting the armed forces to counter-attack, said local Marine commander Colonel Jose Cenabre.

"The aerial attack was launched immediately on the area which led to the two killed," followed by a ground assault, he said.

He said there had been no sightings of Linda Bansil, 35 and her sister, Nadjoua, 39, who were seized in the area of the attack on Saturday while working on a film about Jolo's impoverished Muslim coffee farmers.

The abduction shocked local residents, with the Muslim sisters active in human rights advocacy and having worked on films showcasing the plight of the Muslim minority in the largely-Christian Philippines.

The Abu Sayyaf is an extremist group founded with seed money from Osama bin Laden in the 1990s.

The US government has officially designated it a terrorist organisation.

It has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history as well as many kidnappings of foreigners and Filipinos, often demanding hefty ransoms for their hostages.

Other Abu Sayyaf factions are believed to be holding hostages, including two European bird watchers.

In March, Abu Sayyaf militants released Australian Warren Rodwell after holding him for 15 months.

US troops have been based in the southern Philippines for more than a decade to help train local troops in hunting down members of the group.

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WA premier declares war on green tape

WA Premier Colin Barnett has called for a high-level debate on environmental protection. Source: AAP

COLIN Barnett has called for a high-level debate on environmental protection, saying the mining sector is being held back by unnecessary compliance obligations.

The Liberal leader of Western Australia told a business function in Perth on Friday that so-called green tape was among two major burdens hampering the sector, the other being the damage the mining tax inflicted on the nation's reputation as an investment destination.

His comments came after event host Kim Williams, News Ltd chief executive, said miners were "beset by over-regulation", citing a Queensland company that had to submit 46,000 pages of documentation to comply with state and federal requirements.

Mr Barnett, who described himself as "a boom denier but a recession rejector", said Australia needed to take a more mature approach to the environment.

"No one is suggesting lower environmental standards - I think we do have high standards and generations will benefit from that - but we spend millions and millions of dollars trying to find out if some subterranean stygofauna actually exists or could be there," he said.

That was a waste of money, Mr Barnett said.

"I'd much rather see those funds go towards protecting the Kimberley or something worthwhile.

"We're overplaying the environment for really a low return in terms of actually protecting or rehabilitating the environment."

It's not the first time Mr Barnett has attacked green tape, previously suggesting the Biodiversity Act needed to be updated because the graceful sun-moth had stymied more developments in WA than any other species.

And he proved correct, with WA's Department of Environment and Conservation taking it off the threatened species list in November because it was ubiquitous.

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Bowen must reject GrainCorp takeover: Nats

Treasurer Chris Bowen should reject the takeover of GrainCorp by a US food giant, the Nationals say. Source: AAP

THE Nationals are calling on new Treasurer Chris Bowen to reject a foreign takeover of Australia's largest grains handler GrainCorp.

US food giant Archer Daniels Midland is awaiting approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and Chinese regulators.

But the Nationals say the takeover is not in the interest of grain growers or the nation.

Senator Fiona Nash says GrainCorp has a virtual monopoly on grain storage, handling and logistics on the eastern seaboard of Australia, holding almost all the ports and about 280 receiver sites.

"This is potentially going into the hands of an enormous grain giant multinational," she told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

"Our system will become a tiny cog in that giant empire, so we're calling on the treasurer to reject any approval from the FIRB on this takeover."

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Thursday said it would not oppose the $3 billion-plus takeover, as GrainCorp directors this week urged shareholders to accept the offer under a deal where shareholders would receive $13.20 per share.

Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce said the issue was a challenge for the new treasurer to prove he was up to the job.

"The treasurer has got to prove his mettle and that he works on behalf of the Australian people and Australian farmers," he said.

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