Three in hospital after Brisbane bus crash

THREE people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries after a bus crashed into three cars and an Indian restaurant in South Brisbane.

The Brisbane City Council bus mounted the curb on Melbourne Street and crashed into the front of the Punjabi Palace Indian restaurant at about 4.40pm (AEST) on Saturday.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman told AAP that no passengers were on the bus and no customers were in the restaurant at the time.

She said paramedics assessed 10 people at the scene for injuries, including the driver, and three people were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The front of the restaurant was extensively damaged by the bus which wedged underneath an awning.

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Flood rescue prompts police warning

A 68-YEAR-OLD man's narrow escape from his rapidly submerging ute in NSW's Northern Rivers region has prompted police to repeat warnings to motorists not to drive into floodwaters.

Police said that at about 6am (AEDT) on Saturday the man ignored signs warning of water over a causeway at Ellangowan, 20km south of Casino, and drove his utility in, flooding the vehicle up to the bonnet.

The force of the water pushed the ute off the causeway and it began to float downstream.

Police said the man managed to get out moments before the ute submerged and he was swept about 100 metres downstream before he managed to grab a tree.

At about 8.30am a passerby heard his cries for help and called a nearby resident, who waded towards the man but wasn't able to reach him because of the current.

Police and Casino Volunteer Rescue Association officers were called and conducted a swift water rescue of the man who was treated for mild hypothermia before being taken to hospital.

The rescue came only hours before the body of a man was found in his submerged car on a flooded road at Mylneford, about 20km northwest of Grafton on the NSW north coast.

That death prompted a warning to motorists from Deputy State Emergency Operations Controller, Assistant Commissioner Alan Clarke, and he repeated the warning after learning of the Ellangowan rescue.

"Roads are closed for a very good reason - they are flooded and dangerous," he said in a statement.

"We are again appealing for motorists and members of the public to never enter floodwaters or cross flooded causeways.

"It is dangerous for them and for those who have to rescue them."

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16 sites for new nuclear plants in Iran

IRAN has selected 16 locations for the contruction of nuclear power plants as part of a plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity at multiple sites over the next 15 years.

State TV says that experts at the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran have finished studies to select the best locations across the country.

It added the sites were chosen in part for their resistance to earthquakes and military air strikes.

The Islamic republic says it needs 20 large-scale plants to meet its growing electricity needs over the next one-and-a-half decades.

State TV also says that Iran has discovered new uranium resources in the country that will put its reserves at 3990 tonnes compared to 1385 tonnes three decades ago.

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Pistorius spends time with family

Oscar Pistorius (R) has been freed on bail pending a high-profile trial for killing his girlfriend. Source: AAP

SOUTH Africa's Olympic "Blade Runner" and murder suspect Oscar Pistorius was on Saturday with his family spending his first day out on bail pending trial for the killing of his girlfriend.

Pistorius was freed on a record one million rand ($A110,656) bail on Friday after eight days in cells and an emotionally charged four-day bail hearing.

"I would like Oscar to just compose himself and to have a normal day," his uncle Arnold Pistorius told the local Eyewitness News.

Pistorius will return to court later this year when a date will be set for trial for having shot dead his model girlfriend and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day.

When contacted by AFP, his father Henke Pistorius refused to say how his son had slept. He spent the night at his uncle's house in Pretoria.

But a source close to the family told AFP that "the family just want time together. They haven't thought about anything except being together".

Pistorius claims he killed his lover by mistake thinking she was a burglar.

The grieving parents of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, however, did not appear convinced.

"It doesn't matter how rich he is and how good his legal team is. He needs to live with himself if he lets his legal team lie for him," his father Barry told the Afrikaans language daily Beeld.

Pistorius has assembled some of the best legal brains in South African to defend his case.

"He'll have to live with his conscience. But if he's telling the truth, I may forgive him one day," said Steenkamp's father.

But "if it didn't happen as he described it, he should suffer. And he will suffer ... only he knows".

Pistorius' family sent flowers and card to the Steenkamp family, but "what does that mean? Nothing," said June, Reeva's mother.

In addition to the bail cash he posted on Friday, which experts say is among one of the highest ever set in South Africa, Pistorius had to surrender his passport and his firearms.

He will have to report twice weekly to Pretoria's Brooklyn police between 7am and 1pm each Monday and Friday. He was also ordered not to take alcohol or drugs.

Pistorius may also on Saturday hold talks with his trainer to get back on the track, despite being banned under the terms of his bail from competing outside South Africa.

"He is a professional athlete. He needs to keep his body in shape," said the family source.

His arrest on February 14 shocked the world and gripped South Africa, where he became a national hero after becoming the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics last year.

The state charged him with the premeditated Valentine's Day killing of 29-year-old Steenkamp.

If found guilty he faces a possible life sentence.

Just hours before the magistrate decided to release Pistorius on bail, arguing he was not a flight risk and did not pose a danger to the public, defence lawyer Barry Roux appeared to concede that the star sprinter could be convicted on a lesser charge of homicide.

That charge entails negligence rather than murderous intent and can carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

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Opposition slams world inaction on Syria

Syria's opposition coalition says it will form a government to run "liberated areas" of the country. Source: AAP

THE umbrella opposition National Coalition condemned world powers for failing to act to stop the slaughter in Syria, as missiles killed at least 29 in Aleppo.

The remarks by spokesman Walid al-Bunni came after the Coalition had said it would form a government to run "liberated areas" of Syria and was pulling out of several international meetings in protest against world "silence".

"We cannot continue listening to statements that are not accompanied by action," Bunni said it remarks to France 24's Arabic-language channel.

"The world has a responsibility to protect (the Syrian people) from a butcher who has been slaughtering them for two years," a reference to President Bashar al-Assad.

Referring to a meeting of the Friends of Syria group in Rome next Thursday, Bunni said: "We want to say... if you are our real friends, help us to stop the massacres that are being committed against our people".

Late on Friday, the group had said it would not attend meetings in Italy, Russia and the United States to protest against the "shameful" lack of global condemnation of "crimes committed against the Syrian people".

It had been due to attend the Friends of Syria, and Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib had also been invited to Moscow.

"The international silence on the crimes committed every day against our people amounts to participating in two years of killings," a statement said.

"We hold the Russian leaders in particular ethically and politically responsible because they continue to support the (Damascus) regime with weapons."

Bunni also challenged the United States to honour what he said were promises of support for democracy in Syria.

"Our visit to Washington is on hold until Washington takes a stance that is in accordance with US statements on its support for democracy."

On Friday, Bunni announced plans for a government for "liberated areas" that he said he hoped would be based inside northern Syria.

Its composition and "prime minister" would be chosen at a meeting on March 2, he added, with Coalition members saying the gathering would be held in Istanbul.

Meanwhile, peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Thursday's attack in Damascus had left about 100 people dead - substantially more than a previous toll of 61 - and wounded another 250.

Describing it as a "war crime", the UN-Arab League envoy said "nothing could justify such horrible actions that amount to war crimes under international law".

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said "nothing can justify an act of such brutality that killed so many people, mostly civilians, including children".

Both the regime and opposition have blamed "terrorists" for the attack near the ruling Baath party's main offices.

The same day, another 22 people were killed in a triple bombing targeting security headquarters in northern Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the second largest city of Aleppo, at least 29 people, including 19 children, had been killed and 150 wounded when three missiles hit Tariq al-Bab district on Friday, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Shelling of the city's Maadi district caused a building to collapse, killing an unknown number of people, and rebels fought troops near Aleppo international airport and Nayrab air base to the southeast.

The army's use of surface-to-surface missiles is part of a bid to advance on Aleppo, swathes of which the rebels have seized since mid-2012, said Abdel Rahman.

"The army has been trying for weeks to come closer to Aleppo via its eastern entrance, in order to assault it. Elite troops are being sent... but so far the army has been unsuccessful."

The Britain-based Observatory said 149 people were killed nationwide on Friday, adding to an overall UN death toll of at least 70,000 dead in the 23-month conflict.

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Verbal spray ends in Vic man's death

A SHOUTING match has turned violent in Victoria's east, leaving one man dead.

Two men had been arguing in the east Gippsland town of Orbost when the disagreement escalated and became physical.

Police say one of the men suffered serious injuries during the Friday night fight and later died in hospital.

Police arrested a 29-year-old man at the scene.

Homicide detectives drove from Melbourne to the crime scene.

No further details were available on the 6pm (AEDT) incident.

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Hunt for suspects over sisters' murders

POLICE say investigators are searching villages in western India for suspects in the rape and killing of three young sisters.

The killing of the girls aged 7, 9 and 11 last week has horrified Indians still angry over the gang rape and killing of a student on a moving bus in New Delhi in December.

The girls' bodies were found six days ago in a village well in Bhandara district in Maharashtra after they had gone missing from school.

The victims' mother said police did not take the case seriously and did nothing for several days until villagers held protests.

Police officer Abhinav Deshmukh said on Friday that 30 investigators are now working on the case.

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Tunisia Islamist party chooses new leader

TUNISIA'S ruling Islamist party has chosen its hardline interior minister to form the North African nation's new government, a top official said.

Ali Larayedh, who has been widely criticised by the opposition for failing to ensure stability in Tunisia, hails from Ennahda Party's hardline wing.

His nomination is expected make the task of finding consensus and building a coalition with Tunisia's other political parties more difficult.

The party chose Larayedh in an overnight meeting and he will be presented to President Moncef Marzouki later Friday, Moadh Ghannouchi, the son of Ennahda's leader.

Tunisia was plunged into a political crisis after the assassination of a leftist politician two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned after his own party rejected his proposal to form an apolitical government of technocrats.

The split between the party and Jebali was seen as a deep disagreement between the party's hardline and moderate wings.

Larayedh also announced late Thursday the arrest of several suspects in the assassination of opposition lawyer Chokri Belaid, saying "rapid progress" had been made in the investigation.

He gave few details, however, and could not confirm whether those arrested were the suspected killers or say who was behind the assassination.

Belaid was shot four times outside his home on February 6, provoking days of unrest as many Tunisians held the government responsible for his death.

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China holds general's son for gang rape

CHINA has detained the 17-year-old son of a general on suspicion of involvement in a gang rape, reports said, the latest allegation against the privileged children of officials to spark public outrage.

Li Tianyi, the son of general Li Shuangjiang - a popular singer and household name in the country - was held on Thursday, reported several Chinese news outlets including state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).

Crimes by the offspring of China's elite cause particular anger among ordinary people.

The latest reports did not go into detail about the alleged offence, but news of the teenager's arrest was re-posted thousands of times on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, with many users leaving angry comments.

"Child, why don't you stop disturbing everyone and quickly grow up," said one. "Your father has a glorious past, and you are blaspheming it."

Other Weibo users were more direct. "Put him to death," said another.

It's not the first time the teenager has come to public attention.

He was sent to a government correctional facility for one year in 2011 for beating a couple while their young child looked on.

Hundreds of thousands of people went online to express their outrage at the time, and the general, a dean of the music department at the Beijing-based People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts, apologised for his son's actions.

"As the father, I bear the responsibility for my son's behaviour. I'm so sorry that I'd rather now be beaten by you," he was quoted as saying.

That incident came after a high-profile scandal in 2010, when the son of a top police officer tried to use his father's status to escape a fatal car accident he had caused.

Li Qiming, 22, ran over a student in the northern province of Hebei, and shouted: "Sue me if you dare. My father is Li Gang!".

He was later sentenced to six years in prison.

Last March senior Communist Party official Ling Jihua's son reportedly died when he crashed a Ferrari in the capital, leaving two women passengers - one said to have been naked - injured.

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Toddler missing in Queensland southeast

POLICE are looking for a two-year-old boy missing on a property in Queensland's southeast.

The toddler was last seen on the property at South Maclean about 6pm (AEST) on Friday, police said in a statement.

They began a search of the area a short time later.

Officers from the dog squad and volunteers are currently searching the property on Flynn Road.

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Guards 'didn't notice' Prisoner X hanging

A NEW media report claims Israeli guards supposedly keeping a round-the-clock watch on prisoner and suspected Israeli spy Ben Zygier failed to notice his suicide for a full hour.

Although his cell was fitted with four CCTV cameras, the guards did not see Zygier, identified by media as an Australian-Israeli Mossad agent, remove a sheet from his bed and take it with him into the shower cubicle.

"For an unknown reason, none of the guards discerned him doing that," the Yedioth Aharonot newspaper reported on Thursday.

It said one camera covered the shower "in a way that allowed for the prisoner's head to be visible without invading his more intimate privacy".

"It was only after an entire hour had passed that (the guards) realised that the prisoner was nowhere to be seen in any of the areas picked up by the four cameras, at which point they rushed to his cell, where they discovered his body dangling in the shower stall," it said.

"They were busy with something else," a prisons service official told the paper.

"The bottom line is that the prisoner died, and we failed in our job of keeping him alive."

Findings of an inquest, which were only released for publication on Tuesday, showed Zygier committed suicide in his cell at Ayalon prison on December 15, 2010.

The details emerged after a court loosened a gag order on the case.

Israel has gone to extreme lengths to cover up the story of Zygier's arrest and death in captivity, imposing a media blackout that was only partially eased last week after Australian broadcaster ABC said he had been jailed in top-secret conditions.

Israel's parliament is to launch an "intensive" inquiry into the arrest and death of Zygier, who immigrated to Israel around 2001 and was arrested for reasons which remain unknown, in February 2010.

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Confusion over fate of French family

THE fate of a French family kidnapped in Cameroon remains uncertain after a Cameroonian minister denied they were free and a French minister backtracked on his claim they had been found alive.

Hopes for the seven members of the family - a couple, their children aged five, eight, 10 and 12 and an uncle - were raised when a Cameroonian military source said they had been found safe and well in Nigeria.

"They were found abandoned in a house in Dikwa" in northern Nigeria, about 100 kilometres from the border with Cameroon, the source said on Thursday.

France's Veteran Affairs Minister Kader Arif confirmed that information but later said he had merely been passing on media reports and said "there is no official confirmation at this stage".

Cameroon's Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary bluntly stated: "It is a wild rumour. If this was true, the Cameroonian government would have already given the information to France."

France's foreign ministry said it could not confirm the release and warned against "spreading premature information".

A security source close to the case in Nigeria said there were "serious doubts" about whether the family had been freed.

The family was snatched Tuesday by six armed suspected Islamists on three motorbikes. Officials said they were taken across the border into Nigeria.

President Francois Hollande condemned the seizure as an "odious" act, saying: "This is the first time that children have been taken hostage in this manner."

The French foreign ministry urged citizens in the far north of Cameroon "to leave the area as quickly as possible" and advised against travel to areas bordering Nigeria until further notice.

The ministry could not say how many French citizens are believed to be in the north but 6200 in total are registered as living in Cameroon.

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'Separatists' kill 8 soldiers in Indonesia

INDONESIAN authorities suspect separatists were behind the slaying of eight soldiers in Indonesian Papua, in the biggest attack on security forces in the restive region's recent history.

Gunmen shot dead the eight and wounded another in two separate incidents among the mountains of Puncak Jaya district, a known hideout for rebels where attacks on police and soldiers are common.

Co-ordinating Security Minister Djoko Suyanto said the government "strongly condemned the brutal incident" and suspected the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) was behind the shootings.

"Based on our intelligence, there are several (separatist) groups in the area," Suyanto told reporters, adding that groups in Tingginambut and Sinak, where the attacks took place, were led by known OPM commanders.

"We always try to map and chase them but you must understand the mountainous and dense forests in Papua make the work difficult," he said.

Security analyst from the University of Indonesia, Andi Widjajanto, said: "This is a big number of deaths, especially as they were all soldiers. This has never happened before in Papua."

The first incident took place at 9:30am (1130 AEDT), when an armed group opened fire on a military post in Tingginambut village, killing one soldier and wounding another, Papua province military spokesman Jansen Simanjuntak said.

An hour later in nearby Sinak, some 60 kilometres away, armed attackers opened fire at nine soldiers walking to a nearby airport, killing seven of them.

"They were going to the airport to pick up packages containing communication devices. All of the soldiers were unarmed," Simanjuntak said.

Suyanto urged all parties to allow the police and military to carry out their mission in hunting down the perpetrators without disruption, to "defend the rights of our soldiers".

Violence occasionally erupts in Papua - the western half of New Guinea island in Indonesia's extreme east - where poorly-armed separatists have for decades fought a low-level insurgency on behalf of the mostly ethnic Melanesian population.

Jakarta keeps a tight grip on the resource-rich region with a heavy police and military presence and foreign journalists are banned from reporting out of the area.

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Lego sales soar 25%

DANISH toy maker Lego says sales soared 25 per cent last year thanks partly to the new Lego Friends series of building blocks designed for girls.

The privately owned company says on revenue of 23.4 billion kroner ($A4.12 billion) it made net profits of 5.6 billion kroner, up 38 per cent.

The company, based in western Denmark, said on Thursday series like Lego Star Wars and Lego Ninjago were among the more popular.

But it was the novel rollout for girls, Lego Friends, that sold much better than expected - to the extent the company was unable to keep up with demand.

CEO Joergen Vig Knudstorp says Lego has shown it can develop toys children across world "put at the top of their wish lists".

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Prince Harry shows off new girl on slopes

PRINCE Harry has shown he's serious about girlfriend Cressida Bonas by hugging her on a Swiss ski slope in front of the world's paparazzi.

Top-selling British tabloid The Sun told readers: "Harry is like a dog with a Bonas".

Photographs of the 28-year-old prince hugging the 24-year-old model and dance student graced the front page of every tabloid in England on Thursday.

The Daily Star labelled him "Flirty Harry".

The Daily Express's royal correspondent said Prince Harry had declared his love for Bonas "in an unprecedented public display of affection".

It would inevitably evoke memories of the first pictures of Prince William and Kate Middleton skiing together in Switzerland, the royal watcher wrote.

It's the first time Prince Harry has been spotted in such an embrace since splitting with former flame Chelsy Davy in 2010.

Prince Harry was first linked with Bonas in mid-2012.

But in August it was reported she'd dumped the third-in-line to the royal throne following his nude antics in Las Vegas.

Some suggested she felt humiliated following the release of naked pictures of Prince Harry partying with other women in Sin City.

Wednesday's ski-slope hug followed a more private display of affection at an up-market restaurant in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier.

"Cressida climbed on to Harry's knee," a fellow diner told The Sun.

"He started softly rubbing her hair then they began kissing.

"It was quite passionate - much more than a peck on the lips."

Prince Harry returned to Britain in late January after a 20-week deployment in Afghanistan in which he acknowledged he'd targeted Taliban fighters from the cockpit of his Apache attack helicopter.

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NATO and Afghan forces kill 25 insurgents

AFGHAN and coalition forces say they have killed at least 25 insurgents and at least three of their commanders in separate operations around the country in the past two days.

The Interior Ministry said on Wednesday 15 insurgents were killed in an Afghan operation carried out in Mehterlam, the capital of eastern Laghman province.

It said Tuesday's raid also killed the insurgent's commander, identified as Qari Almas.

NATO also said it had killed 10 insurgents during joint operations with Afghan forces on Tuesday in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

It said five insurgents were killed in the lawless Andar district of eastern Ghazni province, three died in an operation in eastern Logar province, and two were killed in southern Helmand province.

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Mortar kills soccer player

SYRIA'S state-run news agency says two mortars have exploded inside a soccer stadium in central Damascus, killing one player and injuring several.

The SANA agency said the mortars landed on Wednesday in the Tishrin Stadium in the central Baramkeh district during soccer practice.

It says one player from the Homs-based al-Wathbah club was killed.

The Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported one player was killed.

The mortar attack was the second in as many days in the capital.

On Tuesday, two mortars exploded near one of President Bashar Assad's palaces, causing material damage only.

The attack was the first confirmed strike close to a presidential palace and another sign that the civil war is seeping into areas of the capital once considered safe.

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Greens-Labor deal not a blunder: Howes

AWU boss Paul Howes has denied it was a strategic blunder for the Gillard government to strike up an alliance with the Australian Greens in order to remain in power.

Greens leader Christine Milne has slammed Labor for "walking away" from a deal signed in return for its support after the hung parliament in 2010.

Many Labor frontbenchers have expressed their good riddance since the split was made public on Tuesday.

Australian Workers' Union National Secretary Paul Howes said it was not a mistake to sign the deal in the first place.

"Of course not, it's a wonderful thing that Julia Gillard is prime minister," he told ABC television.

"Therefore to form a workable majority in the house of representatives was the right thing to do - with the Greens, Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott."

Mr Howes pointed out that Senator Milne had given the Liberal Party support in Tasmania in the past.

"I think Christine Milne has demonstrated through her political career she will jump into bed with whoever so that she can pursue her particular ideologies," he said.

Senator Milne had eradicated much of the Green's popularity, Mr Howes said.

He said Labor's election strategists should do preference deals based on the best outcomes for the party and that preferences should not automatically flow to the Greens.

"I've long held the view that the Greens are no different from the Liberals, in so much as they are political party that stands for values that are fundamentally different to the Labor Party," Mr Howes said.

Mr Howes said the Greens policies aim to put members of his union out of their jobs.

"Anyone accusing the Labor Party... of being too close to the mining industry clearly has had their head in the sand since 2007," he said.

"This Labor government... has engaged in a pitch battle with the mining bosses for the last five years," Mr Howes said.

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Canadian tourist's body found in tank

POLICE say the body of a woman found wedged in a water tank on the roof of a Los Angeles hotel is that of a missing Canadian guest.

Investigators used body markings to identify 21-year-old Elisa Lam, police spokeswoman Officer Diana Figueroa said late on Tuesday.

A maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day after guests complained of low water pressure.

Lam, of Vancouver, British Columbia, travelled to California alone on January 27 and was last seen by workers at the hotel on January 31.

Investigators were trying to determine whether there was foul play in the woman's death or "a very, very strange accident" occurred, police spokeswoman Officer Sara Faden said.

"The location of the water tank is very small and configured in a very tight way, so it's a little more difficult to get the body out," Faden said.

Officials spent much of the day struggling to remove it from the water tank.

The hotel is located in downtown Los Angeles, which has long struggled against the creeping destitution of nearby Skid Row, where drug addiction and homelessness is rampant.

At the time of Lam's disappearance, police said it appeared suspicious.

Lam was travelling to Santa Cruz, about 560 kilometres north of Los Angeles, and officials said she tended to use public transport.

She had been in touch with her family daily until she disappeared.

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AngloGold reports profit slump

ANGLOGOLD Ashanti, the third-biggest gold producer in the world, has reported a 47 per cent plunge in net profit in 2012 to $US849 million ($A824.11 million).

Net profit on a comparable asset basis fell by 29.0 per cent to $US924 million, the group said on Wednesday.

However, the group said the outcome for 2012 was the second-best of its eight-year history despite widespread strikes in South African mines which hit its activities in the second half of the year.

If the industrial unrest had not occurred, net profit on a comparable basis with the outcome in 2011 would have shown a fall of 13.0 per cent to $US1.13 billion.

Production for the year fell by 9.0 per cent to 3.44 million ounces and sales fell by 4.0 per cent to $US6.63 billion.

All of the company's mines were hit by industrial unrest for a month in September-October, and some were also affected in November.

The board said it had begun an audit with a view to rationalisation to reduce costs and this could throw some projects into question.

Joint managing director Tony O'Neill said the company had made big progress in ensuring its recovery was strong after a difficult time at the end of last year.

AngloGold Ashanti said this year it expected to produce 4.1-4.4 million ounces of gold.

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WA premier defends Buswell in debate

WEST Australian Premier Colin Barnett has defended the performance of his scandal-prone Treasurer Troy Buswell, saying he hasn't compromised his role as a minister but is "accident-prone".

When asked during a leaders' debate on ABC television on Tuesday night why Mr Buswell had been promoted to Treasurer despite revelations in 2008 he sniffed the chair of a Liberal female staff member after she had sat in it - writhing in mock sexual pleasure - Mr Barnett said he was one of the most outstanding ministers he'd worked with.

"Yes, he's accident-prone if you like but has he done anything which is illegal, has he compromised his role as a minister, has he been questioned by the Corruption and Crime Commission as Labor ministers were? No," Mr Barnett said.

"He's made some mistakes in his private life and his behaviour.

"On one occasion he made a mistake which I thought potentially compromised him as a minister and I removed him from the treasury portfolio.

"The public sector commissioner conducted an inquiry and he was totally cleared.

"I respect people who work and do their job, and Troy Buswell is an outstanding minister."

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said Mr Buswell wouldn't have been promoted "anywhere else - in fact he would have been out the door".

"The only place that's he's promoted is inside Mr Barnett's cabinet."

Mr McGowan said state debt was rising under Mr Buswell and he had presided over Perth's worst congestion crisis as transport minister.

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Dreamliner second battery also affected

A SECOND battery on a Boeing Dreamliner that made an emergency landing due to smoke linked to its main power unit had also expanded, a Japanese safety board official said.

Detailed examination of the auxiliary power unit (APU) battery of the plane revealed that two of its eight cells were misshapen.

An initial inspection found the unit to be intact after the All Nippon Airways (ANA) plane made an emergency landing last month.

"Details such as how much they bulged remains unknown," said the official from the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) on Tuesday.

In their probe, Japanese officials have focused on the ANA Dreamliner's main lithium-ion battery, which was severely damaged by what they believe to have been a build up of heat that resulted in uncontrollably high temperatures.

Investigators have released a picture showing the blackened remains of the main battery in the ANA plane.

In contrast, the APU battery was initially thought to be intact.

The APU on a Japan Airlines flight that had landed in Boston in the United States was badly damaged in a fire in January, marking the beginning of a torrid period for Boeing's flagship aircraft, which is still grounded worldwide.

ANA and JAL, major customers of the aircraft with more than 100 combined orders, have been hit hard by the grounding, slashing hundreds of flights, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

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Pippa Middleton has new man in her life

MEN around the world will be disheartened by the news that royal in-law Pippa Middleton is "happy" with her new boyfriend, a self-made millionaire stockbroker.

Since the couple were pictured last week holidaying with the 29-year-old brunette's family including sister Catherine, wife of Prince William, British media have been hot on the trail of the party planner's latest beau.

An expert skier and reportedly the object of affection for many women, Nico Jackson, 35, walked hand-in-hand with Ms Middleton along a beach in Mustique while travelling with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

They've since been spotted smooching at a Swiss ski resort, British tabloid the Daily Express reports.

"Yes we have met (Pippa) and I have to say she is absolutely charming," Mr Jackson's mother Ulrike Jackson told the Daily Mail.

"We're very pleased. They are happy and that is all that matters.

"As long as my children are happy, then I am happy."

Ms Middleton shot to international stardom after appearing as her sister's bridesmaid in April 2011.

Named "her royal hotness" by many UK media outlets, the fitness fanatic who in 2012 released her first party planning book, has attracted a global following with several social networking pages set up in her honour.

Mr Jackson, a Deutsche Bank employee, is reported to have been dating Ms Middleton for about six months.

"He is tall, good-looking and has the most amazing piercing blue eyes," a friend told the Daily Express.

"He is incredibly charismatic and stands out from the crowd. He is a really good catch. Everyone is after him."

Ms Middleton used to date former England cricketer Alex Loudon, 32, a relationship believed to have ended about the time of the royal wedding.

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Burke defends Labor's environment record

ENVIRONMENT Minister Tony Burke has dismissed a Greens attack on the Gillard government's environmental credentials as a political manoeuvre from a party focused on "knocking over jobs".

On Tuesday, Australian Greens leader Christine Milne accused the Gillard government of walking away from an agreement it forged with the minor party after the 2010 election when there was a hung parliament.

She was particularly scathing of Labor's relationship with the mining industry and Mr Burke's decisions to grant mining approvals for the Tarkine in Tasmania and approve more coal seam gas mining.

Mr Burke said there had never been a time in Australia's history when so much land had become conservation areas.

He described Senator Milne's comments as a "political manoeuvre" that Greens supporters will be shaking their heads over.

"They want to be able to complain that nothing's good enough," Mr Burke told ABC Television.

Mr Burke said under his watch, Australia had become a world leader in ocean protection with the biggest network of marine parks, the Murray Darling dispute was resolved and the forestry war in Tasmania had ended.

"You won't find a term of government where you've had those sorts of environmental outcomes in one term," he said.

Mr Burke said it had been a long time since the Greens were an environment party.

He said Greens MP Adam Bandt had only asked him one question about the environment in the two years he'd sat in the lower house.

Mr Burke said Senator Milne's attack crystallised the two parties' approaches to the environment.

"When I look at an environmental decision, I look at whether it is good or bad depending on what you're protecting," he said.

"For the Greens they seem to look at whether it's good or bad depending on how many jobs you are destroying."

He dismissed the Greens' claims that Labor was too cosy with the mining industry and said tough conditions were imposed on approvals.

The Greens only want to talk about the Tarkine, Mr Burke said.

"They don't want to talk about the Tasmanian forestry agreement which is half a million hectares including the most precious parts of the Tarkine," he said.

"They just want to focus on knocking over jobs."

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Poor economy slows graduate recruitment

FEWER employers are taking on new university graduates as the uncertain economic climate continues, a new survey reveals.

One in eight organisations surveyed by Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) didn't take on any graduates in 2012.

Since 2008 there's been a steady increase in the number of employers not recruiting any graduates, the annual Graduate Outlook Survey released on Tuesday shows.

Similarly, the number of employers taking on more than 20 graduates has steadily declined.

Less than one in five employers said they would have recruited more graduates last year if the candidates had been available.

That's below the level of the global financial crisis in 2009, and well down on a 2007 high of three in five wanting more graduates.

More than half of the 584 employers surveyed cited business and economic conditions as the main reason for their hiring decisions.

The construction, mining and industry appeared the most affected, with 78 per cent saying this was the main reason.

In the government, defence and health sector, one-third cited economic conditions while almost another third said budgetary constraints had affected decision-making.

But GCA executive director Noel Edge said the long-term outlook for university graduates was still good.

"Although the graduate employment market is currently flat ... our research has consistently shown that unemployment is not a long-term concern for university graduates," Dr Edge said in a statement.

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Trial over UK woman's beheading begins

A BULGARIAN man with a history of mental health problems is on trial, accused over the decapitation a British woman at a shop on the Spanish holiday island of Tenerife.

Deyan Valentinov Deyanov, 29, attended the opening of the trial at the provincial court in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Spain's Canary Islands on Monday, accompanied by his lawyer, a court spokeswoman said.

Prosecutors are expected to ask for a sentence of 20 years in a mental asylum for Deyanov because he has chronic paranoid schizophrenia and the payment of 200,000 euros ($A261,267) in compensation to the victim's family.

Deyanov is accused of stabbing and decapitating 60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley inside a Chinese general goods store in the tourist spot of Los Cristianos beach in Arona on the southern side of Tenerife in May 2011.

Police arrested Deyanov as he was struggling with a security guard, reportedly shouting "God is on Earth".

Witnesses said they saw a man leave the store with the woman's bloodied head in his hand, which he then threw on the pavement.

The victim's daughters, Sarah Mears and Sam Gomes, said returning to Tenerife for the trial would be "daunting" and asked for the media to respect their privacy.

"On Friday 13th May 2011 our lives changed irrevocably when we heard the shocking news that our much loved mother had been brutally murdered in Tenerife," they said in a joint statement.

"Now, nearly two years later we will come face to face with the man who took her life that day and relive the heartbreaking details of the events leading up to her untimely death.

Mills-Westley, originally from Norwich in eastern England, had been living in Tenerife after retiring from her job as a road safety officer. She had no link to Deyanov.

Deyanov was released from a hospital in Tenerife where he received psychiatric treatment just three months before Mills-Westley was killed, according to Spanish media reports.

In January 2011 he reportedly struck a security guard in the head with a rock, breaking several of his teeth.

Tenerife is home to about one million residents and is one of Spain's most popular tourist destinations.

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Victorian towns brace for wind change

THE townships of Wollert and Woodstock in Melbourne's north have been warned they could be in the way of a grassfire if a wind change occurs between midnight and 4am (AEST) Tuesday.

The Country Fire Authority says the slow large, slow-moving grassfire in the Wollert and Epping areas is being pushed south by northerly winds but a southwesterly wind change is expected to arrive between midnight and 4am.

"The wind change may change the direction of the fire to a northeasterly direction towards Wollert and Woodstock," the CFA said.

The fire is around 1900 hectares in size and is currently under control.

Meanwhile, residents affected when the fire closed the Hume Freeway at Epping on Monday have been told it is safe to return to their homes.

A CFA spokeswoman said residents in the area around Copper St, Epping Road, Steen Avenue and Allumba Way could return home.

That fire destroyed one home and damaged another in Melbourne's northern suburbs.

One home in the Epping North area was destroyed but none in housing estates, incident controller John Deering said.

Another home was damaged and several outbuildings or sheds lost.

An emergency warning remains in place on Monday night for the Epping and Campbellfield area.

Some parts of the 31km of fire edge were still active, incident controller John Deering said.

"The fire is not advancing or spreading any further at this stage," he told ABC radio.

"However, there may be still active fire within that fire edge."

Crews would remain on scene all night, he said.

In the Grampians in Victoria's southwest, two large bushfires have merged to form one out-of-control fire about 4230 hectares in size.

The fire had come out of bushland and into private land, Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said.

A wind change due on Monday night would put a lot of pressure on the fire, Mr Lapsley said.

"We have a lot of resources in place but certainly it is a very dry area and certainly we will see significant fire move through Victoria Valley," he told ABC television,

The fire, which was started by lightning on Thursday, has been creating spot fires 1km ahead of it.

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JSF delays 'allow time to fix problems'

THE federal government says its decision to defer Australia's acquisition of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft for two years will limit its exposure to the rising costs of the program.

Responding to an ABC TV program on the aircraft's deficiencies, a spokeswoman for defence minister Stephen Smith said an earlier review of Australia's air combat needs had concluded the JSF was the preferred aircraft.

"Deferring our project by two years reduces our exposure to increasing costs and provides increased time for resolution of the remaining technical challenges," she said.

The 2009 Defence White Paper found that a fleet of up to 100 would be needed, leading the government to approve the purchase of an initial 14 aircraft at a cost of $3.2 billion.

So far $445 million has been spent.

However, Australia is contractually committed to acquire just two aircraft, due to be delivered in the US in 2014 and 2015.

Mr Smith's spokeswoman said the government decided in last year's budget that the purchase of the next 12 would be deferred for two years.

At the time of approval in 2009, the government believed there were sufficient schedule and cost buffers built into the acquisition to avoid a capability gap should the US program experience delays or cost pressures.

"Subsequently, costs have increased, although acquisition of the first 14 aircraft remains affordable within the $3.2 billion approved," she said.

Last year the government directed Defence to examine a range of air combat capability options, including seeking up-to-date pricing on additional Super Hornets.

"The government has not made any decision on the total number of Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to be procured, nor has it made any decision to purchase more Super Hornets," she said.

"The government will further and fully consider Australia's air combat capability in the context of the 2013 Defence White Paper to be delivered in the first half of this year."

Former Defence Force chief Angus Houston said despite delays in completing development, the aircraft are still expected to have the capabilities necessary to meet RAAF requirements for air combat and strike missions.

"I am still convinced that the JSF is the right air combat aircraft to meet Australia's future security needs," he said in a statement.

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Twenty evacuated as Canberra flat burns

TWENTY people have been evacuated after a fire broke out in a north Canberra flat.

ACT fire crews rescued two people from the burning flat at Howie Court in College Street, Belconnen and are checking no one else is inside.

Paramedics are assessing the duo on Monday night.

The Emergency Services Agency says 20 nearby residents have been evacuated.

Paramedics have taken a man, aged in his 40s, suffering smoke inhalation, to Calvary Hospital.

He is in a stable condition.

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EU approves military mission to Mali

EUROPEAN Union foreign ministers formally approved the launch of a 500-strong EU military mission to train the Malian army, which has already begun work on the ground.

A first group of 70 EU military arrived in the west African nation 10 days ago, and Monday's ministerial green light was the final phase in setting up the European Union Training Mission (EUTM), which has a 15-month mandate to shape up the ramnshackle Malian army.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the mission "is going to be of enormous importance in support of the Malian army", a poorly equipped and trained force without the capacity to maintain the country's territorial integrity.

The 27 EU nations first approved the notion of a training mission in December to boost the army's ability to fight Islamist rebels who last year seized control of the country's vast arid north.

But its launch was accelerated after the surprise intervention of France in its former colony on January 11, to stop the insurgents marching south on the capital.

Some 16 countries from the EU as well as Norway have agreed to take part in the EUTM, which will have a 12.3 million euros ($A16.07 million) budget, with each contributor nation financing its own troops.

Around half of the troops will be trainers, the remainder providing protection and administrative and medical backup.

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Labor and Gillard losing support: poll

THE federal government's standing with voters has dropped again, while Julia Gillard has lost her lead as preferred prime minister, a new poll shows.

Labor's primary vote stands at just 30 per cent, according to a Herald/Nielsen poll published in Fairfax newspapers.

It's a dip of 5 points since the last survey in December.

Support for the Coalition has risen 4 points, taking its primary vote to 47 per cent - its highest level since just after the carbon tax began in July 2012.

On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor's support is at 45 per cent, well behind the 55 per cent for the Coalition.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has also overtaken Julia Gillard in the preferred prime minister stakes, with his support leaping by 9 percentage points to 49 per cent compared with Ms Gillard on 45.

The national poll of 1400 voters found the gap between Ms Gillard and former prime minister Kevin Rudd has also grown, with Mr Rudd favoured by 61 per cent of respondents to just 35 per cent for her.

It comes as Mr Rudd rubbished suggestions on Sunday that he was planning another tilt at the ALP leadership.

He said there was no leadership stoush, reiterating that he and the Labor Party had full confidence in Ms Gillard's leadership.

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Floods and landslides kill 13 in Indonesia

AT least 13 people have been killed in Indonesia after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides, officials say.

Flooding and landslides hit North Sulawesi province's capital city Manado early Sunday, killing 10 people and causing the evacuation of another 1200, national disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

On Saturday three people including two 14-year-old boys were killed after they were swept away by floodwaters in Jambi province on Sumatra island, local disaster official Dalmanto told AFP.

"Several days of heavy rains caused a river to break its banks and flood smaller waterways. The boys were taken away by strong currents as they were bathing in a waterway," he said.

"And today, we found the body of a man who went fishing in a canal."

Indonesia has been repeatedly afflicted by deadly floods and landslides in recent years during its wet season which lasts about six months.

Environmentalists blame logging and a failure to reforest denuded land in the world's fourth-most populous country for the frequent flooding.

Heavy rains caused flooding in the capital Jakarta in January, killing 32 people and forcing nearly 46,000 to flee their homes.

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Islamists kidnap seven workers in Nigeria

GUNMEN have attacked a camp for a construction company in northern Nigeria, killing a guard and kidnapping seven foreign workers from Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon, authorities say.

It's the biggest kidnapping yet in a region under attack by Islamic extremists.

The attack on Saturday night happened in Jama'are, a town in a rural part of Bauchi state.

The gunmen first attacked a local prison, burning two police trucks, Bauchi state police spokesman Hassan Muhammed told The Associated Press.

The gunmen then targeted a worker's camp for a construction company called Setraco, which is building a road in the area, Muhammed said.

They shot dead a guard at the camp before kidnapping the foreign workers, he said.

Adamu Aliyu, the chairman of the local government area that encompasses Jama'are, identified those kidnapped as one British citizen, one Greek, one Italian and four Lebanese.

Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north has been under attack by the radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram for the last 18 months.

The country's weak central government has been unable to stop the group's bloody guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings.

The sect is blamed for killing at least 729 people in 2012 alone.

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Pakistani city mourns after bomb kills 81

PROTESTS have erupted across Pakistan to demand protection for Shi'ite Muslims after 81 people died in a bomb blast, in the latest of a series of bloody sectarian attacks.

The bomb containing nearly a tonne of explosives, was hidden in a water tanker in a crowded market in Hazara town, a Shi'ite-dominated area on the edge of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, on Saturday evening.

Mourners gathered on Sunday as people sifted through the rubble of the explosion, many weeping as they discovered limbs and flesh torn apart by the blast, which wounded 178 people.

Witness Zainab Bibi, 38, said the carnage was "like the day of judgment had come".

"Initially I could not see anything because of a thick cloud of dust but I could hear loud screaming," she told AFP.

"As the dust settled, I saw blood everywhere, torn bodies were lying everywhere with no clothes on."

The governor of Baluchistan blamed failures by intelligence and security agencies for the attack, saying they were too frightened to deal with groups behind sectarian violence.

Baluchistan has increasingly become a flashpoint for sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and Shi'ites, who account for about a fifth of the country's 180 million people.

Saturday's attack takes the death toll in sectarian attacks in Pakistan this year to almost 200, compared with more than 400 in the whole of 2012 - a year which Human Rights Watch described as the deadliest on record for the country's Shi'ites.

It was the second major attack on Shi'ites in Quetta this year, after a double suicide bombing on a snooker club in the city on January 10 killed at least 92 people, the deadliest ever attack on the community in Pakistan.

More than 1500 Shi'ites took to the streets of the eastern city of Lahore to demand action against the extremists and there were smaller demonstrations in the central city of Multan and Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Protests after the January attack prompted Islamabad to sack the provincial government and Azizullah Hazara, chairman of the Hazara Democratic Party, on Sunday gave a 48-hour deadline to authorities to launch operations against the killers.

The banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack - as it did for the snooker hall bombing and a February 1 attack on a Shi'ite mosque in northwest Pakistan that killed 24.

There's anger and frustration among Shi'ites at the apparent inability or unwillingness of the authorities to tackle the LeJ.

Activists say the failure of the judiciary to prosecute sectarian killers allows them to operate with impunity.

Baluchistan governor Zulfiqar Magsi pointed the finger at the security forces over the latest atrocity.

"Our security institutions, police, FC (paramilitary Frontier Corps) and others are either scared or cannot take action against them," he told reporters.

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Drug lab, guns found in Sydney home

POLICE have charged an alleged bikie gang associate after several firearms and a clandestine laboratory were found in a house in Sydney's west.

Police say a replica revolver, replica rifle, sawn-off shotgun, loaded sawn-off rifle and stolen motorcycle were seized during a raid of a home in Collins Street, St Marys on Saturday.

Chemicals and equipment used in the manufacturing of prohibited drugs were also found inside the house, as well as a quantity of powder believed to be methamphetamine, police said.

A 24-year-old man, who police allege is an associate of the Lone Wolf Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, was arrested at the scene.

He was charged with 10 offences including the aggravated unauthorised possession of firearms and to knowingly deal with the proceeds of crime.

He was refused bail and remanded in custody to appear in Penrith local court on February 22.

Further charges are expected, police said.

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