Labor criticises changes to fire payments

DEPUTY opposition leader Tanya Plibersek has lashed out at the government for changing eligibility for bushfire victims to receive emergency funds as NSW communities reel from devastating fires.

"Australians certainly didn't vote for cuts to disaster-affected communities," Ms Plibersek told the South Australian ALP conference on Saturday.

"At this time when there is so much devastation, why would you withdraw that very modest amount that governments have given in the past to support people who are affected?"

Federal government payments of $1000 per adult and $400 per child are now available to people who are injured or whose homes are destroyed or damaged in the fires.

It's currently being offered to affected people in the local government areas of the Blue Mountains, Lake Macquarie, Lithgow, Muswellbrook, Port Macquarie-Hastings, Port Stephens, Wingecarribee, Wyong, and Wollondilly.

But Ms Plibersek said people who had to flee the fires then return to find their home still standing but in need of serious clean-up efforts would miss out.

In contrast, she said, payments under the Labor government helped 400,000 people clean up after the 2011 Queensland floods and another 63,000 after the 2009 Victorian bushfires.

She acknowledged Prime Minister Tony Abbott had praised people fighting the fires and given personal assistance to the effort.

Earlier in the week, Assistant Minister for Social Services Mitch Fifield said the eligibility changes were designed to ensure people most in need got assistance first and the government would continue to assess the situation.

Ministers responsible for the payments were asked for further comment on Saturday.

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Teen charged over Qld motel shooting

A MAN who allegedly opened fire at a Sunshine Coast motel is in custody.

Police say a man threatened a 29-year-old woman at a motel on Buderim's King Street on Thursday afternoon.

They say when the woman ran out the back door of the room, he fired a shot through the front wall.

Investigators have since charged a 19-year-old South Gladstone man with two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon, and one count each of threatening violence and attempted armed robbery.

The man is due to appear in the Maroochydore Magistrates Court on November 11.

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Vic teen may have fallen from roof: police

A MELBOURNE teenager who died in "unusual circumstances" may have fallen from a roof, police say.

The 14-year-old boy was found by family members with head injuries in the driveway of a Balwyn home, in the same street he lived in.

An ambulance took him to hospital around 5am (AEDT) on Saturday, but he later died.

Paramedics had been called to reports of a fall.

Victoria Police Sergeant Graeme Rodgers said the death was unusual given where the teenager was found.

"It's unusual circumstances in which the young person has died," he told reporters at the scene.

"Very tragic. Young male, full of life, enjoyed his sports and for some unknown reason has tragically died."

A police spokeswoman said they are investigating whether the boy fell from the roof.

Forensic officers set up a ladder to the roof of the home's carport on Saturday morning and scoured the area.

Homicide squad detectives have been called in to help local police.

A post-mortem examination will be held later to determine a cause of death.

The spokeswoman would not confirm media reports that the death is no longer being treated as suspicious.

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Another month of fixes for Obamacare

The White House says the bug plagued website for Obamacare scheme will be fixed by end of November. Source: AAP

THE end of November. That's when the Obama administration now says the new, trouble-plagued website for uninsured Americans to get health care coverage will be working well.

After a week of intensive diagnostics, the administration acknowledged on Friday the site has dozens of complex problems and tapped a private company to oversee fixes.

Jeffrey Zients, a management consultant brought in by the White House to assess the situation, told reporters his review found dozens of issues across the entire system.

It will take a lot of work, but Zients declared that HealthCare.gov is fixable. He stopped short of saying problems will completely vanish.

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Iran hangs 16 in reprisal for border clash

GUNMEN have killed at least 14 Iranian guards on the Pakistani border, in a rugged area used by drug traffickers, prompting Tehran to retaliate by hanging 16 "rebels," reports say.

The ambush on the porous border happened on Friday night in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, home to a large community of minority Sunni Muslims, unlike the rest of Shi'ite-dominated Iran.

"Fourteen border guards were killed during armed clashes in the region of Saravan, and five others were wounded," the official IRNA news agency said on Saturday, citing what it called an informed source.

The unnamed source identified the gunmen as "bandits or rebels opposed to the Islamic republic".

In retaliation for the attack, the Iranian authorities said that on Saturday they executed 16 "rebels" held at a prison in the region.

"Sixteen rebels linked to groups hostile to the regime were hanged this morning in the prison of Zahedan in response to the death of border guards in Saravan," Mohammad Marzieh, attorney general of Sistan-Baluchestan, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

"We warned the rebel groups that any attack targeting civilians or members of the security forces would not go unanswered," he added.

Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi said that the guards had been killed during the ambush set by Iranians who were "members of hostile groups".

He added that "three soldiers have been taken hostage and taken to the other side of the border in Pakistan," without giving further details.

The region has seen bloody clashes over the past few years and officials say that more than 4000 police officers and soldiers have been killed in three decades of fighting with drug traffickers.

Iran is a major transit route for drugs that originate in Afghanistan and is trafficked across its territory, with much of it bound for Western countries.

People smugglers also use the route to traffick illegal immigrants to Europe, via Iran and Turkey.

The Islamic republic says it is fighting a deadly war against drug traffickers who make up half its prison population.

But Sunni militant group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) has also launched attacks on civilians and officials in Sistan-Baluchestan, including a December 2010 suicide bombing in the city of Shabahar that killed 39 people.

The Iranian authorities hanged 11 suspected members of Jundallah at Zahedan prison in December 2010 in response to the deadly bombing of the Shi'ite mourning procession in Shabahar.

Jundallah, whose leader Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged in June 2010, has been waging a deadly insurgency in southeastern Iran for almost a decade.

The group says it is fighting for the rights of the ethnic Sunni Baluchis who make up a significant part of the province's population.

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Bronco turned outlaw bikie denied bail

A FORMER Brisbane Bronco turned outlaw motorcycle gang member has been denied bail over drug trafficking charges under harsh new laws designed to stop bikies walking free.

Michael Spence, 25, was one of eight men arrested on Wednesday in a police sting targeting the alleged ice trafficking outfit.

Spence was the sergeant-at-arms of the Hells Angels' Brisbane chapter and alleged debt collector for accused ringleaders and gang members Bruno and Nuno Da Silva.

The trio resigned from the gang nine days before contentious new laws targeting bikies were passed on October 17.

Under one part of the law, criminal gang members who apply for bail must now show cause as to why they should be released.

Spence's lawyer Jeff Hunter argued in the Brisbane Magistrates Court the new laws were passed too late to apply to his client, and that the case against him was weak.

But Chief Magistrate Tim Carmody ruled that the new bail laws did apply to Spence and ordered he be remanded in custody.

Mr Carmody accepted the argument by prosecutors that although Spence had resigned from the Hells Angels he was still in an allegedly criminal organisation by trafficking drugs with the Da Silvas.

He criticised the prosecution's material as "limited", but rejected Spence's lawyer's argument that the police case was too weak to keep the former footballer in prison.

There was enough information to show the prosecution had evidence capable of securing a conviction, the magistrate said.

"Accordingly the applicant has failed to discharge his onus and show cause why bail should be granted," Mr Carmody said.

Spence was remanded in custody until his next court appearance on January 20.

The Da Silva brothers' bail applications have been adjourned until Monday.

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Cambodian opposition rallies wrap up

Cambodian opposition supporters wrapped up protests against what they claim was a rigged election. Source: AAP

ABOUT 20,000 Cambodian opposition supporters have wrapped up a three-day demonstration to petition foreign embassies and the United Nations for intervention in what they claim was a rigged election.

While the international community is very unlikely to intervene in Cambodia's domestic affairs, the rallies served to highlight the opposition's demand for an independent probe into the July 28 poll, which it says returned Prime Minister Hun Sen to power illegitimately.

Throngs of cheering demonstrators marched through the capital this week as they delivered petitions to the French, British, US, Australian, Russian, Japanese, Indonesian and Chinese embassies and to the UN human rights office. The rallies ended peacefully.

The Australian embassy said in a statement on Friday that it had received the petition and that its ambassador, Alison Burrows, "urged both parties to continue their dialogue including on electoral reform." Official election results extended Hun Sen's 28-year rule and gave his party 68 seats in parliament, compared to 55 for the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party. The party says it was cheated out of a victory and that it will boycott parliament until the government has met its demands.

According to the petition - which the opposition says was thumb printed by 2 million people - the Cambodian government's failure to investigate election irregularities and its inauguration of the National Assembly without the opposition "take Cambodia back to a one-party system of governance."

The three-day demonstration coincides with the 22nd anniversary of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords on Cambodia, which laid the groundwork for UN-sponsored elections after the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge and years of civil war that followed. The countries that received opposition petitions were all signatories to the 1991 Accords.

The government denies election fraud, and has rejected opposition demands for an independent investigation. It maintains that its inauguration of a new parliament in September was legitimate and has filled parliamentary commissions with ruling party members.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said that intervention from abroad was "not going to happen." Moreover, he said, seeking outside help was counterproductive to building democracy from within Cambodia.

"By going abroad, you're actually re-confirming this attitude of we need to depend on the UN jumping out of the sky, out of a plane or whatever, to rescue us," he said.

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UK police seize parts from 3D-printed gun

BRITISH police say they have seized components of a gun made from plastic on a 3-D printer.

The Greater Manchester Police force says a plastic magazine and trigger were seized along with a 3-D printer in a raid against suspected gang members.

The parts are being tested to see whether the gun would have worked.

Police said on Friday that if the gun was viable it would be the first such seizure in Britain.

Earlier this year a Texas company said it had successfully test-fired a handgun created with a 3-D printer. Such printers can be paired with a home computer to manufacture objects using layers of high-density plastic.

Authorities worry the technology could allow anyone to manufacture guns which would pass unnoticed through metal detectors.

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Energy costs push switch to new-builds

An industry body has found that older homeowners in the UK are opting for new-build properties. Source: AAP

OLDER people in the UK are increasingly opting for "cheaper to run" new-build homes amid surging energy costs, an industry body has found.

There has also been a marked drop in the proportion of under-25s purchasing a brand new property over the past five years, according to the National House Building Council (NHBC).

The proportion of newly constructed homes that are sold to over-55s has increased by one third from 17 per cent to 23 per cent since 2008.

The NHBC, a non-profit body which provides warranties and insurance for new-build properties, put the rise down to older people favouring houses that are well-insulated and require little maintenance.

Bosses of Britain's big six energy firms have been summoned to appear before a committee of MPs on the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee next Tuesday to explain a new round of price rises after SSE, British Gas, npower and ScottishPower all announced increases of more than STG100 ($A169.35) to an average dual fuel bill.

"Our figures show that the proportion of over-55s purchasing these properties has increased to nearly a quarter, while the numbers of young people buying new homes has decreased slightly," said Richard Tamayo, NHBC's commercial director.

"New homes are a particularly attractive option for the older generation as they are cheaper to run, easier to maintain, safer and provide protection through an NHBC warranty."

The NHBC figures also offer further evidence that young people are struggling to get a foothold on the property ladder despite schemes such as NewBuy and the first phase of Help to Buy.

The share of new-build properties sold to under-25s dropped from over 8 per cent in 2008 to just under 6 per cent this year, a fall of a quarter.

Mr Tamayo said the findings showed that young people were still "finding it difficult to access the market".

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Artist turns disaster to artistic triumph

NSW artist Stephen King has won Sydney's 17th Sculpture By The Sea exhibition for Fallout. Source: AAP

THE Fukushima nuclear disaster inspired the sculptor who has won top prize at this year's Sculpture By The Sea in Sydney.

Stephen King, from Walcha, NSW, was awarded the $60,000 Macquarie Group Sculpture Prize - the highest cash prize for sculpture in NSW - for his work titled Fallout.

At the announcement on Friday, founding director of Sculpture By The Sea, David Handley, noted that King had been close to winning the main prize at the annual event a number of times.

King said his winning work had been inspired by the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but the wooden structure's concept and construction had morphed over three years.

King has been exhibiting in Australia and internationally since 1979. His work of the last 30 years will be the subject of a touring survey exhibition at Tamworth Regional Gallery in 2014.

Sculpture By The Sea, in its 17th year, is showing 106 diverse sculptures along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. The works are by artists from 14 countries.

The exhibition, which is free to the public, runs until Sunday, November 10 and is expected to attract 500,000 visitors.

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