Pakistan PM in Kabul to discuss Taliban

PAKISTAN'S prime minister says that the recent release of a senior Taliban leader shows he is committed to helping bring peace to Afghanistan.

Nawaz Sharif said after meeting in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday that an agreement had been reached for members of an Afghan peace council to continue talks with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was released from Pakistani detention last September.

The Taliban's former No. 2 was set free after years in detention and some officials hope he can help jumpstart the peace process, while others have their doubts. An Afghan delegation met with him last week, officials said, the first such encounter since his release.

"A few days ago Salahuddin Rabbani, the head of the peace council, visited Pakistan so we once again discussed the peace process," Karzai said after meeting Sharif. "We discussed how Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States can work together to bring peace to the region."

Both men made very short remarks after their meeting and provided no other details. Both expressed their general desire for closer ties, trade and regional peace and agreed to work toward those goals.

Pakistan is beset by its own Taliban insurgency that has claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians in recent years.

It was Sharif's first visit to Afghanistan since being elected. Karzai has been pushing Pakistan for help in talking to the Taliban, where of its leaders are thought to be based. Kabul has sought Islamabad's help to bring the militant group to the table.

Sharif also said they discussed trade and energy issues.

The topics under discussion included a plan to expand an electricity distribution network to ship surplus power from the Central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan through Afghanistan and into Pakistan, which suffers massive power shortages that threaten its industrial production and economy.

Another project is a planned natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan that will pass through Afghanistan to Pakistan and end up in India.

Relations between the two countries have been testy and Afghanistan has often accused Pakistan of aiding Taliban leaders sheltering across the border. Sharif has nonetheless made improving ties with Afghanistan a priority.

Karzai was in Pakistan last August and the two leaders again met in October, where they agreed during a London meeting for Islamabad to allow an Afghan peace delegation to meet with

Pakistan has released around four dozen Taliban prisoners over the last year in an attempt to help peace talks, but there is no sign they have made any difference.

The Taliban have refused to talk directly with Karzai, his government or its representatives. US-backed talks between Afghanistan and the Taliban failed in June after Karzai accused the militants of setting up a government in exile. The Taliban have since closed their office in the Gulf state of Qatar.

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No Aussies caught in helicopter pub crash

IT appears that no Australians were in a Glasgow pub when a police helicopter crashed into the roof on Friday night killing at least one person.

There were more than 100 revellers in the Clutha pub when the incident occurred and the death toll is expected to rise.

Thirty-two people had been taken by ambulance to three Glasgow hospitals. Rescuers are still searching through the ruins of the pub.

"We are not aware of any Australians involved," a spokeswoman for the Australian High Commission in London said on Saturday morning.

"We remain in contact with the Scottish authorities."

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond called it a "black day" for Scotland as he sent his condolences to the bereaved on Saturday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said UK authorities had not advised it of any Australians affected "at this stage".

"The rescue operation is still underway," a spokeswoman told AAP in a statement.

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New test may help with Bladder cancer

A SIMPLE urine test may be able to distinguish between aggressive and low-grade bladder cancers, allowing doctors to tailor personalised treatments, say scientists.

Researchers measured levels of a protein shed by bladder tumours in 600 patients. They found that higher amounts of the protein, EpCAM, in the urine were associated with more aggressive cancers.

Study author Dr Douglas Ward, from the University of Birmingham, said: "This protein could be used to help doctors to decide what the best course of investigation or treatment for the patients is, and may prevent unnecessary delays.

"We've known for some time that the protein EpCAM is released from some tumour cells but it wasn't clear whether it would be useful as a way to decide the best investigation and treatment for patients suspected of having bladder cancer. We are now planning further studies to test the benefits of urine biomarker testing to patients and the NHS."

Each year around 10,300 bladder cancers are diagnosed in the UK and 5,000 people die from the disease.

In many cases, the tumours are superficial and do not pose a significant risk to life. Invasive cancers that spread into the surrounding muscles of the bladder are less common but can be fatal.

Martin Ledwick, head information nurse at Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, said: "This research has shed new light on a protein that we've known for some time is linked to certain types of cancer. Developing a urine test to work out how aggressive or advanced a patient's tumour is could replace the need for more invasive and costlier tests used by doctors at the moment."

The research is published in the British Journal of Cancer.

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Haiyan rebuilding to take five years

The death toll from Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines has soared past 5600 and continues to rise. Source: AAP

REBUILDING areas devastated by a super typhoon that killed thousands in the Philippines will take up to five years and cost more than two billion dollars, officials said.

The comments came as the death toll from Haiyan, one of the most powerful typhoons to ever hit the country, continued to rise.

On Saturday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said 5,632 people had been confirmed dead while 1,759 were still missing following the category five storm earlier this month.

"The total rehabilitation will take three to five years, depending on the pace of our support system and the projects we implement," Eduardo del Rosario, executive director of the NDRRMC, said.

He told reporters that President Benigno Aquino did not want to merely repair the damage but wants the new structures to be better than those that were standing before the storm.

"Our president wants the rehabilitation to be 'build-back better communities," so they can withstand future storms," del Rosario said.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said: "We are looking at over a hundred billion pesos ($A2.42 billion) of reconstruction, from livelihood, commerce, social services," as well as infrastructure and power facilities.

That figure does not include the huge amounts already spent on immediate relief for the millions of people who were injured or left without food, water or shelter.

About 15 to 20 billion pesos will go to providing shelter with some 60,000 to 80,000 families to be re-settled in two to three years, said Singson.

This will include the people whose homes were destroyed by the storm as well as those who will have to move out of a recently-declared 40-metre "no-build zone" from the coastline, Singson added.

The zone is intended to prevent a repetition of the large number of deaths that occurred after Haiyan brought massive storm surges that flattened seaside communities.

A spokeswoman for the local UN office, Orla Fagan, told a news conference on Friday that donors had forked out $US164 million ($A180.41 million) so far.

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Plane crash in Alaska, four dead

A PLANE crash near the remote western Alaska village of Saint Marys has killed four of the 10 people aboard, including a baby boy, an Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman said.

The pilot and three passengers died in the Friday night crash, spokeswoman Megan Peters said on Saturday.

Peters had no immediate word on the six survivors' condition.

The single-engine, turboprop Cessna 208 was a Hageland Aviation flight from Bethel to Mountain Village and Saint Marys, said Kathy Roser, a spokeswoman for Era Alaska airline.

The wreckage was found about six kilometres east of Saint Marys.

An emergency locator beacon signal helped pinpoint the crash site, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Clint Johnson said.

There was no immediate word on what might have caused the crash. The NTSB plans to send two investigators to the scene Saturday.

The temperature in the area Friday night was about minus eight degrees Celsius.

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Toddler found walking down NSW road

A TODDLER has been found wandering along a main road on the NSW mid-north coast.

A driver spotted the one-year-old boy while heading through Edgeworth, near Lake Macquarie, on Friday night, police said.

The boy is in good health and has been taken to the Toronto police station.

A door knock is underway as police search for the toddler's parents.

Anyone with information about the child or his parents is asked to contact police.

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Myanmar family to contest return to Nauru

A family of asylum seekers from Myanmar will be allowed to argue against their return to Nauru. Source: AAP

A FAMILY of Rohingya asylum seekers from Myanmar will be allowed to stay in Australia to argue their case against their return to a Nauru detention centre.

The family of five has been living in detention in Brisbane after they were transported from the Pacific island nation to allow the mother Latifar to give birth to baby boy Ferouz earlier this month.

Ferouz's parents fled persecution in Myanmar more than a decade ago and lived for years in a Malaysian refugee camp, before arriving on Christmas Island with their two other young children in September.

Lawyers for the family had sought a court injunction to stop their return to Nauru, which the family feared was imminent.

They said there were real concerns for the health of the diabetic mother and premature Ferouz if the family returned to detention on the tiny island nation.

But in Brisbane on Friday lawyers struck a deal with the government allowing them to stay in Australia until there is a hearing for "procedural fairness".

The government also agreed to give the family two days' notice if it intended to send them back to Nauru, after their case is heard.

Federal Circuit Court judge Margaret Cassidy recognised the settlement.

Defence lawyer Murray Watt said it was a fair outcome for the family, their sick baby boy and the Australian community.

But he also said it was a time to reflect on the entire practice offshore detention "in conditions that only this week the UN has reported are inhumane".

"I think we can do better than that as Australians," Mr Watt added.

"We have international obligations that require us to do better than that and I now call on the minister and the entire Australian community to think about whether these are the kind of conditions that we think are acceptable for very small children and their families."

Refugee Action Coalition welcomed the deal, but said they had been hoping a legal precedent would have been set.

"...for the minister to be required to give judicial fairness to everyone he intends to send offshore," the organisation's Ian Rintoul told AAP.

The Australian Council of Church Taskforce called for Prime Minister Tony Abbott to release all children from detention while their refugee applications were dealt with.

The group also called for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to release the findings of the investigation he promised into why Latifar was separated from Ferouz while he was in hospital.

Comment has been sought from the federal government.

The court will also need to determine whether baby Ferouz is entitled to Australian citizenship as he was born here.

The case has been adjourned until March 21.

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Slain SKorean woman's dad seeks justice

Through a translator, the father of a young murdered Korean woman hopes Queensland delivers justice. Source: AAP

IN a foreign country and unable to speak English, the father of a young murdered Korean woman is hoping Queensland delivers justice.

The family of Eunji Ban gathered in Brisbane on Friday - five days after the 22-year-old woman was found murdered in an inner-city park.

She had been in Australia a few weeks, killed on the way to a cleaning job in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Her father Hyeonggyu Ban had flown from the South Korean port city of Busan to express, through a translator, his desire for justice.

"I trust the justice system to impose a firm and just sentence on the offender," he told reporters at Queensland police headquarters after his daughter's funeral.

Eunji's uncle Seongkyu Ban was beside him, holding a framed picture of the young woman.

Hyeonggyu Ban read from a statement in Korean, describing his grief.

"There is nothing to replace her," he said.

"To a parent, your children are your biggest treasure.

"My daughter was my hope and she was bigger than life itself.

"For me as a parent, the loss of my daughter was sadness and despair - it is impossible to express with words."

The murder victim's father described his appreciation at Brisbane's outpouring of grief, after more than 1000 people gathered at Wickham Park on Wednesday to pay their respects at the crime scene.

"Watching from a distance, I was deeply moved by the large number of Queensland community who attended and paid their respects," he said.

Mr Ban expressed gratitude to Queensland police, Premier Campbell Newman and Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk "for their kind words and condolences", along with the Korean consulate.

"I can only hope that my daughter's death plays a role in making this community more aware of their safety and aid, and further protecting the lives of Queenslanders," he said.

"I sincerely hope my daughter's death will not go to waste."

A 19-year-old man, Alex Reuben McEwan, fronted court on Tuesday charged with Ms Ban's murder.

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UN report on trauma of Syrian refugee kids

SYRIAN refugee children are paying a cruel price as civil war rips their country apart, the United Nations warns in a report with heart-rending testimony from youngsters driven from their homes.

"This is impossible to forget. It's like someone has stabbed me with a knife when I remember," 15-year-old Taha, who saw seven corpses near his house in Syria, told interviewers with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

He and scores of other Syrian refugee children in Jordan and Lebanon were interviewed for a 60-page UNHCR report, starkly laying out the trauma of young exiles from a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people.

The children's last names were not revealed, to protect them and their families.

"It is important that this human face of the refugee crisis is not forgotten," Volker Turk, UNHCR head of international protection, told journalists in Geneva on Friday.

"And if you look at what children face, they illustrate very strongly what this crisis is all about," he said.

Children make up about half of the more than 2.2 million Syrians who have fled their homeland, according to UN numbers of registered refugees.

Syria's neighbours meanwhile estimate some three million Syrians have already left the war-ravaged country, which means around 1.5 million Syrian children are living as refugees.

"Looking back over the last 20 years, the Syria refugee crisis for us is unparalleled since the Rwanda crisis," Turk said, referring to the 1994 genocide in the African nation.

He pointed out that children also represent about half of the 6.5 million people driven from their homes but who remain inside Syria.

In the report, the children describe in words and with drawings the horrors they have witnessed and the turmoil within.

"There is blood up to people's knees in Syria," said 17-year-old Sala.

And 16-year-old Maher, who was tortured in Syria and whose father remains missing there, said: "My first wish would be to go back to Syria and to have my father released."

Some of the children also drew pictures of weapons of war and bodies.

"The idea of home and warmth is gone with a stroke," said Turk.

"There is a lot of psychological scarring and a lot of trauma ... You see it in sleeplessness, children being very withdrawn, there is stuttering, bed-wetting."

Anger was also common, with some boys wanting to return to Syria to fight.

Other scars are physical: 741 Syrian children were treated for war wounds in Lebanon in the first six months of this year, and 1000 cared for in the vast Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan.

The massive influx of Syrians has stretched food, water, healthcare and accommodation resources to the limit in the host countries, and also overwhelmed their education systems.

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German policeman kills, mutilates victim

A GERMAN police officer who expressed fantasies about cannibalism killed and mutilated a man he met on the internet, prosecutors say.

The officer, arrested on suspicion of murder and in custody in the eastern state of Saxony, has admitted to committing the crime on November 4, shortly after making online contact with the 59-year-old victim.

Though there is no evidence to suggest the officer engaged in cannibalism, prosecutors told journalists on Friday that he had repeatedly expressed the desire to eat other human beings since adolescence.

The 55-year-old suspect, who worked as a police officer at Saxony's Office of Criminal Investigation, is alleged to have delivered a fatal knife wound to the victim's throat, subsequently taking up to five hours to cut the body into pieces.

The 59-year-old victim is said to have entered into the agreement willingly.

Prosecutors said the victim had been searching the internet for like-minded people who wanted to live out violent fantasies including torture-sex.

Despite admitting to the murder, the police officer denied the crime had been sexually motivated.

A special committee is investigating the incident.

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Abbott backs Bishop over China dispute

Tony Abbott says Australia will speak its mind on China's territorial dispute with Japan. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott says Australia will speak its mind on China's territorial dispute with Japan, after his foreign minister was accused of finger-pointing over the East China Sea stand-off.

Julie Bishop expressed concern this week over China's moves to impose an air-defence zone over what it calls the Diaoyu Islands, saying the provocative action was done without consultation and could increase tensions in the region.

That strained diplomatic ties with China, which has described her comments as irresponsible.

But the prime minister says while the issue has to be treated reasonably and proportionately, it is important for Australia to speak out when its interests are at stake.

"We believe in freedom of navigation, navigation of the seas, navigation of the air, and I think there is a significant issue here - that's why it was important to call in the Chinese ambassador to put a point of view to him," Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

"We're a strong ally of the United States, we're a strong ally of Japan, we have a very strong view that international disputes should be settled peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law and where we think that's not happening, or it's not happening appropriately, we'll speak our mind."

Mr Abbott dismissed suggestions trade relations with China could be damaged.

"China trades with us because it's in China's interests to trade with us," he said.

"I think China fully understands that on some issues we're going to take a different position to them."

Ms Bishop said Australia was not taking sides in the territorial dispute, but pointed out other countries had expressed concerns about China's actions.

"This is a matter of long-standing Australian policy. We've raised it before and the response from China was to be expected," she told Sky News.

"Australia has a key stake in the region and we would oppose action by any side that we believe could add to the tensions or add to the risk of a miscalculation in disputed territorial zones in the region."

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the government had a "rocky start" to foreign affairs after China emerged as a new diplomatic hot-spot as it also tried to rebuild trust with Indonesia following spying revelations.

"We accept that they've had a rocky start in foreign affairs, we want them to get it right," he told reporters in Canberra.

Chinese Ambassador to Australia Ma Zhaoxu issued a statement overnight criticising the federal government's "finger-pointing" and defending Beijing's actions.

"The move is aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty and security of territory and territorial airspace and maintaining the order of flight," he said.

"It is not directed against any specific country or target. China does not accept Australia's groundless accusations."

The United States has also criticised Beijing's establishment of the air-defence zone and Vice President Joe Biden will address the controversy during a trip to Beijing next week.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera that China's move "is a potentially destabilising action designed to change the status quo in the region, and raises the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation."

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Tears, cheers for shark victim

Shark attack victim Chris Boyd (R) has been remembered in an emotional service in the WA waves. Source: AAP

CHRIS Boyd - the surfer killed by a shark in the waters off Gracetown - has been remembered in an emotional service in the West Australian waves.

Mr Boyd's parents and his partner Krystle Westwood were joined near the spot where he died last weekend by dozens of well-wishers and mourners who remembered the 35-year-old's life.

About 100 surfers paddled out into the ocean at Gracetown Beach, where there were cheers and tears.

Mr Boyd's parents Charlie and Barbara set off a flare in their son's memory, while a wreath sent from his friends at the Coolum Boardriders Club in his native Queensland was laid.

A paddle-out in Mr Boyd's memory is planned in Queensland for December 8.

Through Christian Surfers Australia, an appeal has been launched to raise money to help cover Mr Boyd's funeral costs.

Donations can be made through the Christian Surfers Australia Facebook page.

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Russian court releases Aussie activist

Jailed Australian activist Colin Russell is set to appeal his detention in Russia on Friday. Source: AAP

GREENPEACE activist Colin Russell has been released on bail from a Russian jail.

The Australian was the last of the Arctic 30 being held in detention in St Petersburg, Russia, after his fellow activists were released in the past week.

A Russian court on Thursday released Mr Russell, with Greenpeace tweeting: "Excellent news! Colin Russell from Australia is granted bail."

Mr Russell's wife Christine, who departed Australia for Russia this week, said this was wonderful news.

"My daughter and I are one step closer to being in the arms of my darling Col. I am so relieved that my beautiful, peaceful man will soon be out of detention," she said in a statement released by Greenpeace.

Mr Russell, from Tasmania, was the radio operator aboard the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise. He and the other 29 activists were detained in September following a protest against Russian oil drilling in the Arctic Sea.

He was the last to be released on bail after 71 days in detention.

Like those already released, Mr Russell will have to post bail of two million roubles ($A66,190).

Greenpeace International will put up the bail with the expectation that Mr Russell will be released by the weekend.

However, he and the others still face charges of hooliganism, downgraded from the initial charges of piracy.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific chief executive David Ritter said this was an enormous relief.

"We will not rest until Col and the rest of the crew no longer face these ridiculous charges for what was a peaceful attempt to hang a banner off an oil platform," he said in a statement.

"The crew was there to raise awareness of the risk of spills to the pristine Arctic and for this they should be congratulated, not punished."

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the government welcomed the decision to grant Mr Russell bail and looked forward to his early release from detention.

"Australian officials are seeking urgent clarification of the bail conditions that will apply to Mr Russell," he said.

"The government will continue to urge that Russian authorities extend due legal process to Mr Russell during the remainder of the investigation period."

The spokesman said Foreign Minister Julie Bishop would continue to monitor developments in the case.

If necessary, she will follow up her recent representations to her Russian counterparts.

Officials from the Australian Embassy in Moscow are continuing to provide consular support to Mr Russell and are planning to visit him as soon as practical, he said.

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Rio approves $400m for iron ore expansion

Rio Tinto has allocated $400 million to increase its iron ore production to 360 million tonnes. Source: AAP

MINING giant Rio Tinto will spend $400 million to expand its Pilbara iron ore production capacity to 360 million tonnes per annum.

Mine production capacity will increase by more than 60 million tonnes a year between 2014 and 2017.

The rapid expansion is expected to be achieved through boosted production at existing mines, productivity gains and the development of the Silvergrass mine.

"The majority of the low-cost growth will be delivered in the next two years with mine production of more than 330 million tonnes in 2015," Rio said in a statement.

Rio plans to reach a run-rate capacity of 290 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by the end of the first half of 2014 after completing the first phase of its expanded port rail and mine operations.

The second phase of expansion of the port, rail and power infrastructure to get to 360 mtpa is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015.

Rio recently said it was confident of hitting its 2013 iron ore production target of 265 million tonnes.

But Rio has deferred an investment decision on Silvergrass until the third quarter of 2014, and a decision on the proposed Koodaideri mine has been deferred until 2016.

It comes after Rio targeted a reduction of $US5 billion ($A5.49 billion) in its overall operating cost cuts by the end of 2014.

Chief executive Sam Walsh said the expansion of the company's Pilbara operations represented the most attractive investment opportunity in the sector.

"It's in line with my commitment to be totally focussed on only allocating capital to opportunities that will generate the best returns to shareholders," Mr Walsh said in a statement.

The expansion would be delivered at an estimated capital cost of more than $3 billion below previous expectations, he said.

Analysts were expecting $US5 billion to be allocated on an iron ore expansion to achieve 360 million tonnes a year.

The expansion is subject to government and joint venture approvals.

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Nigella's PA spent $86,000 monthly on card

TV chef Nigella Lawson has been described as a 'habitual criminal' in a London court. Source: AAP

MILLIONAIRE art dealer Charles Saatchi's accountant has told a London court he did not tell his boss and his ex-wife, Nigella Lawson, his suspicions that their personal assistants were spending thousands of pounds of their money as he did not want to bother them with "trivial matters".

Rahul Gajjar said he first became aware that Italian sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo were using credit cards loaned to them by the celebrity couple on themselves at the beginning of last year.

While Francesca's average monthly spend was STG48,000 ($A86,564) and Elisabetta's was STG28,000, the other personal assistants employed by Saatchi spent a maximum of STG8000.

Asked by prosecutor Jane Carpenter why he did not go to Saatchi and Lawson with his suspicions straight away, Gajjar said: "It was on the back burner. We were dealing with more corporate matters - more serious corporate matters - and Mr Saatchi and Miss Lawson normally didn't have time for what we thought were trivial matters."

On Wednesday, jurors at Isleworth Crown Court in west London heard the sisters were alleged to have spent the money on luxury goods and lived the "high life" as "portrayed in glossy magazines".

Gajjar said both defendants had been given credit cards in Saatchi's Conarco Partnership account with Coutt's bank to buy items for the household.

While 35-year-old Francesca's credit limit was STG25,000 in June 2008, it went up to STG50,000 in February 2010 and rose to STG100,000 in June 2011.

Gajjar said he had been employed as finance director of Saatchi Gallery Group, part of Conarco Partnership, since June 2002.

He told jurors the couple, who went through a high-profile divorce earlier this year, had a number of personal assistants who worked "flexible" hours for them.

Asked what their roles were, he told the court: "It could be personal matters, looking after the home. It could be some work-related matters very close to Charles and Nigella."

Saatchi and the TV chef broke up after pictures were published in a newspaper showing him holding his wife of 10 years by the throat.

The court previously heard that Saatchi alleges that Lawson was so high on drugs that she was unaware of what she had or had not permitted the sisters to spend money on.

The Grillos deny the charge against them.

It is alleged that between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2012, they committed fraud, abusing their positions as PAs by using a company credit card for personal gain.

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Vitamins, minerals help AIDS patients

A DAILY dose of multivitamins and minerals in the early stages of HIV infection can delay the disease's progression by as much as 54 per cent in people who are not receiving antiretroviral drugs, a US study reveals.

Researchers from Florida International University (FIU) and Harvard University followed 878 HIV-infected patients in Botswana and tracked the progression of their disease for two years, finding that patients who received daily supplements of vitamins B, C and E plus selenium had a lower risk of depleting the number of immune response cells in their bodies.

The supplements also reduced the risk of other measures of disease progression, including AIDS symptoms and AIDS-related deaths, of which there were four in the study group.

Vitamins B, C and E are essential for maintaining a responsive immune system, and selenium may play an important role in preventing HIV replication, said FIU professor of dietetics Marianna Baum, the study's lead investigator.

"The disease impacts metabolism and increases the requirement for vitamins and minerals and if people don't take additional vitamins and minerals they become deficient, which in turn impacts immunity," Professor Baum said.

She said the findings were significant in countries such as Botswana, where HIV-infection rates were among the world's highest and healthcare systems struggled to provide antiretroviral medications to low-income populations.

Over-the-counter multivitamins and minerals, Professor Baum said, were "a low-cost alternative" and easily accessible therapy that proved safe and effective in delaying HIV progression.

Patients participating in the study received three to five times the recommended daily amounts of the vitamins, and about 200 micrograms of selenium every day.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Church dissent over abuse approach

Dr Philip Aspinall says the Anglican church needs an external compensation scheme for abuse victims. Source: AAP

ANGLICANS in Australia would take a dim view if the church sold off its multi-million dollar assets to settle with abuse victims, the head of the church says.

The primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Phillip Aspinall, told a royal commission the church needs a mandatory compensation scheme imposed on it so it can deal fairly with sex abuse victims.

Dr Aspinall said the only way a compensation scheme would work was if it was imposed from outside.

The Anglican Church of Australia is not a unified structure, dioceses have primary power and can reject or adopt laws passed by the General Synod, Dr Aspinall told the final day of public hearings into how the Diocese of Grafton dealt with victims of sex abuse at a church orphanage in northern NSW.

"Many confuse our structures with the Roman Catholics and presume the primate has coercive powers akin to the pope," he said in a statement submitted to the royal commission.

"The belief that the primate of the Anglican Church is effectively the CEO of Australian's Anglicans is wrong.

"It may well be helpful if the royal commission were able to achieve a uniform mandatory compensation scheme which would ensure parity, not just between Anglican dioceses, but across government organisations, so that we don't have different classes of victims.

"It would be much quicker and simpler for us if that were imposed on us from outside and dioceses would not fall into the trap that Grafton did in terms of focusing on financial matters to the detriment of victims."

The commission has learned that Grafton is asset rich with properties valued at approximately $200 million, but had a debt of between $10 million or $12 million dollars because it built a private school that was not attracting students.

Dr Aspinall told the commission that across 23 Anglican dioceses their wealth would be in assets, not cash.

Justice Peter McClellan asked if there had been any church discussion that it might need to sell assets to make settlement payments.

Dr Aspinall said there might have been, but every diocese would find it hard to achieve as the assets were houses and churches and the people who had raised funds to build them would take a "dim view" if they were being sold for this purpose.

He went on to say that with a mandatory compensation system a diocese would simply be given a determination by a statutory body and be required to find the money.

"Then they could focus on the financial aspects and be forced to deal with it."

He also said it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the church to implement that kind of system itself, as it would require every diocese to agree.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard Grafton diocese tried to deny liability for the North Coast Children's Home when more that 40 former residents alleged horrific physical, sexual and psychological abuse.

After years of legal wrangling, a without-prejudice settlement was reached in 2007 which saw 39 victims accept what has been described as a paltry payment of about $10,000 each.

The commission also heard that the then Bishop of Grafton, Keith Slater, was focused on the diocese's debt problems.

Bishop Slater has apologised for his handling of the affair.

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Sinn Fein head's brother jailed for abuse

THE pedophile brother of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping his daughter.

Liam Adams, 58, from west Belfast, was found guilty last month of a string of sexual assaults on Aine Dahlstrom when she was a child in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Judge Corinne Philpott QC handed down the sentence, which included a further two years on probation, at Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday.

Adams was found guilty of 10 offences against his daughter. The abuse was committed over a five-year period between 1977 and 1981, when she was aged between four and nine.

Dahlstrom waived her right to anonymity.

Adams' convictions have heaped pressure on his high-profile older brother to explain why he did not alert the authorities to the abuse allegations when he first learned of them.

During a trial earlier this year that collapsed, the Sinn Fein leader, now a public representative in the Irish Republic, claimed he first heard of the claims in 1987 and, 13 years later, his younger brother admitted his guilt to him.

The former west Belfast MP faced criticism for not informing police at the time of the revelations. His statements to detectives were made in 2007 and 2009.

Police recommended the Public Prosecution Service take no case against the Sinn Fein veteran.

Northern Ireland's police ombudsman is now investigating whether detectives properly examined whether Gerry Adams covered up the crimes and police have pledged to review the case.

Attorney-General John Larkin is examining the role of prosecutors.

Gerry Adams has insisted he committed no offence and accused political rivals of exploiting a family issue to attack him.

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Boy dies after hit by car in NSW driveway

A TODDLER hit by a car in the driveway of a Sydney home has died.

The three-year-old boy was left with critical head injuries after a car hit him in Morven Street, Old Guildford, just after 4pm (AEDT) on Wednesday.

Police say upon their arrival, the boy was found in the driveway.

He was rushed to Westmead Hospital where he died on Wednesday night.

Metropolitan Crash Investigation Unit police are investigating the incident.

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East Timor again raises Aust spying claim

East Timor has again raised allegations that Australia bugged its leaders during talks in 2004. Source: AAP

AMID the furore over allegations of spying on Indonesia's leaders, East Timor has repeated claims that Australia bugged its leaders during delicate negotiations on the Timor Sea resources treaty in 2004.

East Timor is pursuing international arbitration to have the 2006 treaty overturned, a process it launched last December after the Australian government failed to respond to the bugging claims.

But it says it would halt this process if the Australian government gave a detailed response to their spying allegations.

Agio Pereira, president of East Timor's council of ministers, said his country's development depended on revenue from the Timor Sea Greater Sunrise gas field.

"When you bug the negotiation team's evaluation of the impact of their negotiations, you do have an advantage. It's more than unfair," he told ABC television on Wednesday.

"It actually creates incredible disadvantage to the other side."

Former Labor MP Janelle Saffin, now a legal adviser for East Timor, said there had to be protocols around spying.

"If spying has been taking place and somebody is able to gain a commercial advantage, that is certainly of deep, deep concern," she told the ABC.

East Timor claims Australian intelligence bugged the East Timor cabinet room where their negotiators discussed tactics.

Canberra journalist Paul Daley, an adviser to the East Timor government during the negotiations, told the ABC they were advised that all their communications would be monitored.

To avoid eavesdropping during negotiations in 2005, East Timor negotiators left the foreign affairs building in Canberra and held their discussions in the nearby National Gallery sculpture garden, leaving all their phones 100 metres away.

Mr Pereira said compelling evidence would be presented at a preliminary hearing at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague next week.

"It's not about money. It's about sovereignty, it's about certainty and it's about the future of our future generations. It's really important for Timor," he said.

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UNHCR slams Aust asylum seeker treatment

The United Nations Refugee Agency has slammed Australia's treatment of asylum seekers. Source: AAP

EDS: Not for use before 2100 (AEDT) Tuesday, November 26

CANBERRA, Nov 26 AAP - The United Nations Refugee Agency has slammed Australia's treatment of asylum seekers as constituting arbitrary, mandatory and indefinite detention in unsafe and inhumane conditions.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officials inspected processing centres at Nauru and PNG's Manus Island in October, encountering harsh conditions they say failed to meet international standards.

Those conditions impacted profoundly on the men, women and children housed there, UNHCR regional representative Richard Towle says in a statement.

"In particular, they constitute mandatory detention that is not compatible with international law," he says in a statement.

"They do not provide a fair and efficient system for assessing refugee claims, do not provide safe and humane conditions of treatment in detention, and do not provide for adequate and timely solutions for recognised refugees."

Director of international protection Volker Turk said UNHCR understood Australia's determination to respond robustly to the challenges of people smuggling and dissuade people from dangerous sea voyages.

"Those responses must not neglect the compelling protection needs, safety and dignity of the individuals affected," he said in a statement.

UNHCR acknowledged some improvements, including better facilities and the start of processing on Manus.

It also noted efforts made to improve conditions on Nauru, which was hot, had little privacy for people in tents following riots, cramped conditions and mosquitoes.

Nauru was unsuitable for children who lacked access to adequate education and recreation facilities, UNHCR said.

"UNHCR is of the view that no child, whether an unaccompanied child or within a family group, should be transferred from Australia to Nauru," it said.

At Manus, the UNHCR officials observed what they termed a "pervasive" climate designed to encourage asylum seekers to choose to return home.

The report said UNHCR supported voluntary return for those fully informed and not in need of protection.

But it said it was concerned that some bone fide refugees might consider return because of the harsh conditions, long delays in processing and uncertainty about the final outcome.

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'Excited' tiger bit trainer: Qld zoo

A tiger has attacked its trainer, biting his neck, during a show at the Australia Zoo in Queensland. Source: AAP

A SENIOR tiger handler is in a serious but stable condition after being attacked by a tiger at a Queensland zoo.

The big cat became "overexcited" during a play session in a tiger show on Tuesday afternoon and bit its 30-year-old male trainer on the neck and shoulder.

Australia Zoo director Wes Mennon says a group of co-workers nearby saw the attack and helped drag the trainer away from the tiger.

"At the time of the incident, our emergency response team were on the scene immediately. They acted professionally and calmly. My hat goes off to them," he said in a statement.

The Department of Community Safety says the man suffered two large puncture wounds and was flown to a Brisbane hospital in a serious but stable condition.

He was conscious and breathing when he was loaded into the helicopter.

Mr Mennon said the trainer had nine years experience with big cats and raised the tiger since it arrived at the zoo as a cub.

"Our priority is the wellbeing of the handler, who is a valued member of our Australia Zoo family," he said.

"Our full support is with the handler and family."

Mr Mennon said Australia Zoo was conducting a full investigation in conjunction with workplace health and safety authorities.

The Australia Zoo keeps three Bengal and eight Sumatran tigers.

RACQ Careflight doctor Andrew Haggerty said the trainer was lucky his injuries weren't more serious.

"The neck is a very complex area and contains lots of serious structures including blood vessels, and perhaps most importantly the airway ... any bleeding in the area itself could cause significant complications," he told reporters on the Sunshine Coast.

For helicopter pilot Alan Carstens it was a very strange afternoon.

"I honestly thought someone was kidding me, they said it's a tiger attack, I said 'no', but it was," he told reporters.

"We landed just outside the African (enclosure) area, right next door to where the tigers are.

"I waited with the chopper, I was looking at a tortoise straight opposite me, I thought it was a rock initially, then it started moving."

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Lilley revives Summer Heights delinquent

ABC's 2014 line-up includes another Chris Lilley offering, and the return of Spicks and Specks. Source: AAP

CHRIS Lilley goes back to school and Spick And Specks returns after more than two years with a fresh look as part of ABC TV's 2014 line-up.

The network released its programming on Tuesday for the next 12 months, which included several new dramas, comedy shows and documentaries.

Lilley will revive his Summer Heights High character Jonah Takalua in a stand-alone series, following in the footsteps of his creation Ja'mie.

Killing Heidi frontwoman Ella Hooper will be a team captain in the revival of music quiz show Spick And Specks, which stopped production in 2011.

Veteran actors Bryan Brown and Sam Neill team up for the drama Old School, about a retired cop and a retired crim who solve crimes, unravel scams and make some cash on the side.

The letters and diaries of five Australian and New Zealand nurses during WWI forms the basis for the show Anzac Girls, while Carlotta tells the tale of the Australian transgender pioneer, starring Packed To The Rafters actress Jessica Marais.

The controversial Chaser team returns with We'll Have To Leave It There, while documentary and factual shows include Afghanistan: The Australian War and The Flying Miners.

There will also be a 60-minute documentary on the day The Beatles arrived in Australia in 1964.

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Strong Asia Pacific sales help Tiffany

TIFFANY and Co's third-quarter net income climbed 50 per cent, buoyed by strong sales in the Asia-Pacific region.

The company's results topped Wall Street's view, and the luxury retailer raised its full-year adjusted earnings forecast.

Its shares climbed 6 per cent in premarket trading.

The jewellery chain earned $US94.6 million ($A103.6 million), or 73 cents per share, for the three months ending on October 31.

That compares with $US63.2 million, or 49 cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 7 per cent to $US911.5 million from $US852.7 million, with Asia-Pacific sales up 27 per cent.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 58 cents per share on revenue of $US888.4 million.

Revenue at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer's health, increased 7 per cent.

Analysts projected a 4.5 per cent increase.

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Pyne says Gonski scheme 'bastardised'

The education minister is under pressure from the states to honour school funding agreements. Source: AAP

EDUCATION minister Christopher Pyne says the schools funding system he wholeheartedly backed in the election campaign was "entirely bastardised" and he'd be irresponsible to now try to implement it.

Mr Pyne denied he and Prime Minister Tony Abbott misled electors by declaring they were on a unity ticket with Labor on the Gonski schools funding program.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said that now appears to have been a tactic to negate an area of the election campaign where the coalition was vulnerable.

Mr Pyne on Tuesday announced he would deliver on the Gonski school reforms in 2014, but introduce a new funding scheme for the nation's more than 9400 schools from 2015.

He said he'd been advised by Treasury of a $1.2 billion hole in Labor's funding plan, putting existing agreements with most states in jeopardy because the funding cupboard is bare.

That's prompted an outcry from states and territories which signed onto the program. Mr Pyne said the agreements weren't legally binding.

He said as education minister he now had to sort out the "Shorten shambles" he had inherited.

"Firstly we were told five jurisdiction had signed up to it plus the Catholics. Now we discover that in fact only three jurisdiction had signed up to it and the Catholics hadn't," he told ABC television.

Mr Pyne said the only place this model applied in its purest form was 900 independent schools. Every state and territory had their own scheme.

"The side deals that Kevin Rudd and Julia and Kevin Rudd did with a number of states and territories meant the system was entirely bastardised to the point where there is no national school funding model," he said.

Mr Pyne said it was also entirely incomprehensible and before the election Mr Shorten ripped $1.2 billion from the funding.

"It's not a great model to go forward with and I would be irresponsible as education minister to implement something that is incapable of being implemented," he said.

Mr Shorten said the government had broken its promise.

"With the government system there is a national agreement," he told ABC television.

"Then there are heads of agreement as well, signed between the jurisdictions. In the case of the non-government sector their funding base is outlined in the act. The act went through parliament."

Mr Shorten said during the election, the then opposition declared there was a unity ticket on education and whatever the funding envelope Labor agreed to would happen under the coalition.

"Now 10 weeks later, this is not the government that people thought they would be. They are now breaking a promise to every school parent in Australia," he said.

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Syria peace conference set for January 22

SYRIA'S government and opposition will on January 22 sit down at the negotiating table for the first time since the country's civil war erupted in 2011.

In a statement announcing the date on Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the warring sides would finally meet for the long-elusive Geneva II peace negotiations which repeatedly have been postponed.

"The conflict in Syria has raged for too long. It would be unforgivable not to seize this opportunity to bring an end to the suffering and destruction it has caused," he said.

Ban hailed efforts by the United States and Russia, and UN and Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi to pave the way for the conference.

"We will go to Geneva with a mission of hope. The Geneva conference is the vehicle for a peaceful transition that fulfils the legitimate aspirations of all the Syrian people for freedom and dignity, and which guarantees safety and protection to all communities in Syria," he said.

The announcement came as Brahimi held closed-door meeting in Geneva with senior US and Russian officials to pin down details for the conference.

"The purpose is to finalise all the preparations and agree on details for Geneva II," Brahimi's spokeswoman Khawla Mattar told AFP.

The international community has struggled to broker talks between the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels battling him since a bloody March 2011 crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired protests.

The increasingly sectarian civil war had claimed more than 120,000 lives, driven more than two million people from the country and left millions more within Syria reliant on international aid to survive.

The so-called Geneva II conference is meant as a follow-up to one held in June 2012, where world powers issued a call for a Syrian transition government.

But Syria's warring sides failed to agree on whether Assad or his inner circle could play a role in the process, and amid spiralling fighting plans for Geneva II have repeatedly been put on hold.

Russia, Assad's key world-power ally, has been pressing the Syrian government to co-operate on the conference. The United States, Britain and France have been working on the fractured Syrian opposition.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition has agreed to attend a peace conference.

But its authority is threatened by Islamist and other militant groups which have warned that anyone taking part in talks will be deemed a traitor.

The coalition has also demanded that Assad stand down, while the government, in turn, has insisted that the president's future cannot be a matter for discussion.

Ban said the goal was "full implementation" of the 2012 document, "including the establishment, based on mutual consent, of a transitional governing body with full executive powers, including over military and security entities".

He said he expected all Syria players to come to Geneva with a "clear understanding" of that aim, and a "serious intention" to end the war.

Iran is also a key supporter of Assad, and Russia has sought to have Tehran involved in any peace talks, raising hackles in the West and in Saudi Arabia, a key opposition supporter.

But hopes of new headway were raised after world powers on Sunday reached a landmark deal with Iran to rein in the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear program, after almost five days of intensive talks in Geneva.

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Chinese company calls Palmer "obstructive"

A HONG-KONG based company locked in a bitter legal dispute with mining boss turned federal MP Clive Palmer says the case will be closely watched by other Chinese investors.

But Mr Palmer, the member for the Queensland seat of Fairfax, has told ABC's Four Corners program that Australia will continue to attract Chinese investment "because it's best for them".

Mr Palmer's mining company Mineralogy was paid $415 million by a Chinese state-owned enterprise for rights to mine iron ore in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

It's believed to be China's largest ever investment in Australia, but the project has been delayed and has cost the company CITIC Pacific billions.

Mineralogy is in a legal fight with CITIC over future royalties, with Mr Palmer claiming the Chinese firm owes him $700 million.

In a statement obtained by Four Corners, CITIC Pacific president Zhang Jijing said Mr Palmer's "obstructive legal behaviour" is unhelpful and could be delaying a resolution to the legal stoush.

Mr Zhang also said other investors with an eye on Australia would be watching.

"It's our view that Mr Palmer's behaviour and Mineralogy's litigious approach will be closely examined by the wider business community," Mr Jijing said in a statement to the ABC.

"As part of due diligence, naturally we would expect prospective Chinese investors in Mr Palmer's other interests to take a close look at our experiences."

Mr Palmer said Chinese investors weren't in Australia for a "free handout" and "we don't want to be frightened about them".

"They invest because it's best for them, they don't invest for charity," Mr Palmer told Four Corners.

"They're here because it's in their interest."

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Detained activist in "lonely" position

AN Australian activist left in a Russian jail is in a "lonely and unenviable position" with no logical reason behind his detainment, the head of Greenpeace Australia says.

Tasmanian man Colin Russell became the final Greenpeace campaigner to remain in St Petersburg detention after the 29th detainee from the Arctic 30, English man Phil Ball, was released on Monday.

The pair was among 30 activists on board a Greenpeace vessel in September protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic Sea.

Mr Russell, a radio operator, is the only crew member to have been refused bail as the group face pending charges of hooliganism.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific chief executive officer David Ritter said there was no logical reason why he should be detained while others were allowed bail.

"I know Colin's family, his friends, the other members of the Arctic 30 and their millions of supporters around the world are hoping this worrying anomaly is remedied and he can head home," Mr Ritter said in a statement.

"There is nothing Colin did that deserves this absurd charge of hooliganism, carrying a seven year jail sentence."

Mr Ritter echoed a call from Mr Russell's wife Christine for intervention from Prime Minister Tony Abbott to support the Mr Russell's release.

Fellow Greenpeace activist and Australian resident Alexandra Harris has also been granted bail but Mr Russell's detention occupies her mind.

"Alex did say to me she can't properly relax and enjoy her freedom 'until Colin joins us. But we know he's strong and will be okay," her father Cliff Harris told ABC Radio from his UK home on Monday.

Ms Harris's bail conditions prevent her from leaving Russia, where she is staying in a hotel in St Petersburg.

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Tiananmen leader denied in bid to return

THE second most wanted student leader from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests has been turned back from Hong Kong in his latest attempt to surrender to Chinese authorities and return home.

It was the fourth such attempt by Wu'er Kaixi, who said his lack of success so far was the result of the "absurd" actions by the Chinese government.

Wu'er, who has lived in exile for more than two decades, is stuck in a situation where he's both wanted for arrest and, like many other dissidents who have fled, prevented from returning to China.

Wu'er confirmed in a text message that he was being sent back home to Taiwan.

He had tried to turn himself in to authorities in Hong Kong as his flight from Taipei, Taiwan, transited through the semiautonomous Chinese city on Monday on the way to Bangkok.

He wanted officials in Hong Kong to extradite him to mainland China.

Wu'er was accompanied by Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Albert Ho, who also assisted Edward Snowden as the National Security Agency contractor tried to clarify his legal situation while hiding out in Hong Kong in June.

Wu'er said in a blog post that he wants to go back to China to see his ailing parents and other family members, whom he hasn't seen since he fled into exile 24 years ago.

His parents have also been denied permission to visit him.

"What I'm doing today is a result of the Chinese government's absurd act of ordering my arrest, while at the same time refusing to allow me to return," he wrote.

He added that he wants to be reunited with his relatives "even if the reunion would have to take place behind a glass wall".

In 2009, he was denied entry to Macau, which, like nearby Hong Kong, is a specially administered Chinese region.

Last year, he tried to turn himself into the Chinese Embassy in Washington. In 2010, he was arrested when he tried to enter the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo.

Wu'er rose to fame as a pajama-clad hunger striker haranguing then-Chinese Premier Li Peng during a televised meeting during the Tiananmen protests in Beijing.

He was named No. 2 on the Chinese government's list of 21 wanted student leaders after the military crushed the protests, killing at least hundreds.

He has lived in exile in the United States and the self-ruled island of Taiwan since fleeing China.

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More spy revelations could be on way

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott could be constrained in responding to Indonesia over spying claims because of concerns there could be more damaging revelations still to be revealed, it's been suggested.

Josh Frydenberg, parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, said the Guardian newspaper had stated that just one per cent of the information from US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden was in the public arena.

Similarly, the head of the United States National Security Agency, where Snowden worked, suggested as many as 200,000 files could have gone missing, he said.

"This could be a very slow burn. Today it could be Indonesia," Mr Frydenberg told the ABC's Q and A program.

"I would be astounded if, with only one per cent of that information out there, if there will not be more damaging revelations for Australia and its allies in due course. I don't know."

Mr Frydenberg said as Snowden was now in Russia, the intelligence files he took could now be in the possession of the Russians.

"This may be part of a bigger play out there," he said.

A week ago, the Guardian Australia and ABC reported that Australian intelligence had monitored the mobile phones of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and other leaders.

These revelations outraged Indonesia which suspended all co-operation with Australia in terms of strategic partnerships, including in combating people smuggling, intelligence gathering and anti-terrorism efforts and halted some joint defence activities.

Mr Frydenberg said it was a longstanding tradition of both sides of politics not to comment on on intelligence matters and Mr Abbott had adopted exactly the right approach in expressing regret but not an apology.

Former US assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell said this was the very beginning of a whole string of revelations.

"So you just don't know what to expect so you have to be very careful how you handle this," he said.

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Yemen court delays elopement case verdict

A YEMENI court has postponed a verdict in the case of a Saudi woman accused of eloping with her Yemeni boyfriend, as the couple's supporters demonstrated outside.

Prosecutors say they need time to see if 22-year-old Huda Abdullah Ali can be registered as a refugee with the UN, which would allow her to remain in the country and marry.

She has become a cause celebre with some youth in Yemen, a traditional society not normally associated with public demonstrations in the name of romance.

Prosecutors say her boyfriend, 25-year-old Arafat Mohammed Taher al-Qadi, told investigators Ali's father rejected his marriage proposal, and the two were forced to elope.

Ali is charged with illegally entering Yemen while al-Qadi is accused of helping her.

"My only demand is to grant Huda humanitarian refugee status so that I can marry her," al-Qadi said as police led him outside the court.

He thanked the people who have come out in his support.

The Yemen Organisation for Defending Human Rights, HOOD, said earlier they have provided the court with all necessary documents for Ali to be registered as a refugee.

HOOD's lawyer Abdul-Raqeeb al-Qadi said the Interior Ministry was still refusing to let the UN's refugee agency see Ali, who is in detention.

The couple's supporters outside the court chanted, "The sit-in continues until the pair are wed."

A group who had been bussed in from the city of Taiz to the south carried banners reading, "Taiz supporters respond to the call of love."

The court has postponed its verdict until December 1.

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Drug lab uncovered in Sydney's north

A DRUG lab has exploded on Sydney's northern beaches.

Police were called to a unit block on Frazer Street at 5pm on Saturday following reports of the blast.

Entering the unit via a balcony, they allegedly found a clandestine laboratory.

NSW Fire and Rescue HAZMAT crews were called to the scene to render it safe.

No one was injured in the explosion.

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No let up as more storms forecast this evening

NT residents are being urged to make final preparations as tropical Cyclone Alessia heads for the coast.

SEVERE thunderstorm warnings remain in place for several areas across Queensland tonight.

The weather bureau said the Wide Bay and Burnett, and Southeast Coast districts could expect damaging winds and large hailstones.

Areas expected to be affected include the  Gympie, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Rockhampton, and Yeppoon.

At 6.30pm the bureau said there were no longer severe thunderstorm warnings for the southeast of the state, east of Dalby from Rainbow Beach to Stanthorpe.

The Gabba is hit by a quick but intense storm cell that produced small hail during day four of the first Ashes Test. Picture: Adam Head

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Storms that sprang up on the city's doorstep earlier on Sunday produced marble to golf ball-sized hail which damaged some cars at the bayside suburb of Manly.

There also were reports of hail at Mt Tamborine on the Gold Coast hinterland, while a 107 km/hr wind gust was recorded at the Sunshine Coast Airport.

An Emergency Services Department spokeswoman said nine homeowners sought help from emergency services at Jimboomba, Macleay Island, Mt Tamborine, Upper Coomera and Coolum.

"It wasn't too bad,'' she said. "There was no damage of any significance and the calls were for trees down and leaking roofs.''

Mr Knepp said there would be little chance of rain saving England at the Gabba tomorrow despite Sunday's storms stopping play on Day 4 of the first Ashes Test. 

Hail at the Gabba as a storm hits day four of the first Ashes test. Picture: Jono Searle.

The hailstorm left the grounds looking  like a winter wonderland about 2pm.

Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported sunny conditions are forecast for the first cricket Test at the Gabba on Monday while in the north graziers are bracing for storms and showers as the first cyclone of the season pushes moisture inland over the drought-hit Gulf of Carpentaria.

It follows a weekend of storms that started in the Maranoa and Warrego yesterday before sweeping southeast, roughing up the Inglewood, Warwick, Lockyer Valley, Laidley, Rosewood and Ipswich districts.

The Gabba is hit by a quick but intense storm cell that produced small hail during day four of the first Ashes Test. Picture: Adam Head

Weather Bureau forecaster Michael Knepp said there would be little chance of rain saving England at the Gabba.

Send us your wet weather pics - MMS 0428 258 117

"Of course we still might get a storm or showers today,'' he said. "But after that, the whole week should be okay," he said.

At least one home has been destroyed by a tornado that whipped through northern NSW.

"The next round of activity won't be until late Friday or Saturday when a trough comes through.

"There's very little chance of any interruptions with the cricket tomorrow.''

Mr Knepp said Cyclone Alessia was moving east towards Queensland at 20km/hr and - despite being a long way away - its moisture-laden winds were expected to bring showers and storms to the Gulf and northern parts.

Large hail fell in the Tamborine area, south of Brisbane, on Sunday afternoon.

The cyclone was 100km off the coast at 9am and flood warnings had been issued for the NT.

The monsoon trough is expected to drift south through the week, allowing monsoon rain areas to extend from the Gulf Country to Queensland's east north coast and Tablelands.

It will see scattered showers and thunderstorms from the northern interior across to the central coast.

This rainbow was captured at Narangba, following the first storm that swept through the southeast on Sunday.

Rollingstone just north of Townsville had 120mm overnight, the highest falls recorded in the state in the 24 hours to 9am.

"There have been falls of 50mm to 60mm around Normanton, Kowanyama had 28mm, Miranda Downs 30mm but it's likely there were heavier falls around that that,'' he said.

Send us your wet weather pics - MMS 0428 258 117

Storms roll over Brisbane, as seen from Kangaroo Point Cliffs. Pic: Adam Smith

"We don't have a lot of rain gauges out there in the Gulf so we just don't know.

"How much we get up there is highly dependent on the movement of the tropical cyclone. If it moves towards the NT-Queensland border as a low, we could get quite a lot of rainfall.''

Some cumulative rainfall totals over the past week include Bowen 295.3mm, Georgetown 74mm, Richmond 44.8mm and Charters Towers 53.6mm.

Storms roll over Brisbane, as seen from Kangaroo Point Cliffs. Pic: Adam Smith

Overnight in the southeast, Junction View, southeast of Toowoomba, had 69mm, Nanango 62mm, nearby Brooklands 72mm, Amberley 52mm, Churchill 55mm, Coolangatta 26mm, Currumbin Creek 42mm, North Stradbroke Island 37mm, O'Reilly's 36mm, Tallebudgera Creek Dam 41mm.

Goondiwindi had 31mm while in the north Mareeba had 79mm, Chillagoe 50mm, Ingham 58mm and Coen on Cape York 67mm. Falls around Brisbane were mostly in the teens.

By tomorrow, the monsoon trough should extend from the northwest, across the tropical interior and south to the Fraser Island area with showers and thunderstorms contracting to its north.

Storms roll over Brisbane, as seen from Kangaroo Point Cliffs. Pic: Adam Smith

A drier air mass should dominate to the south.

Last night, forecasters said the line of storms that barrelled through the southeast corner had started to weaken by 10.30pm and were likely to reach the Sunshine Coast by 1am.

"They have weakened over the past hour but we are still seeing some intense bursts of rainfall and the odd significant wind gust," said Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Brett Harrison.

Storm clouds north of Moonie, Western Darling Downs, Saturday afternoon. Pic: Jeff Higgins. Higgins Storm Chasing

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Early reports suggested one house was completely demolished and up to 30 other homes were reportedly damaged in the Rosewood and Pine Mountain area near Ipswich, although this could not be confirmed by emergency services.

"We have dodged three big storms lately, but we really copped it tonight,'' said Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale late on Saturday.

Top of Bunya Mountains looking west out over the Darling Downs. Things are really brewing up out here today! Picture courtesy: Jeff Higgins / Higgins Storm Chasing

"One has collapsed completely and 25 to 30 have got damage at various degrees.

"No-one has been injured so far as we know.''

On Saturday night, the heaviest falls were recorded at Junction View, south of Gatton, with up to 62mm of rain dumped in just over an hour.

Bowen certainly has copped some rain!! Thankfully tide was out bit still water is still through some houses and cars. Picture: Tash Edwards

Wind gusts of up to 92km/h were recorded at Amberley at the height of the storm.

Golf ball-size hail was dropped near Inglewood, Ipswich and Warwick, but senior forecaster Brett Harrison said there had been no reports since 5.30pm Saturday.

Energex reported more than 5000 homes across the southeast were without power at around 10pm.

Bowen certainly has copped some rain!! Thankfully tide was out bit still water is still through some houses and cars. Picture: Tash Edwards

More showers and thunderstorms are expected to brew on Sunday, with the activity likely to be closer to the southeast coast.

Mr Harrison said November had certainly made up for a late start to the storm season.

"This time of year is when we expect there to be a large number of severe thunderstorms," he said.

Bowen certainly has copped some rain!! Thankfully tide was out bit still water is still through some houses and cars. Picture: Tash Edwards

"The main trigger is the upper trough."

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A severe thunderstorm warning had been issued at 10.58pm for damaging wind and heavy rainfall in the Sunshine Coast and Cherbourg Shire areas and for parts of the Gympie, Moreton Bay, Somerset, South Burnett and Toowoomba areas.

Damaging winds and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding were likely, the Bureau of Meteorology warned.

The warning came after several thunderstorms rolled across southern Queensland throughout Saturday.

Residents reported seeing hail stones, lightning strikes, strong winds and heavy rain across the area.

By 9.15pm, the State Emergency Services had received 47 requests for help through the Rosewood, Hatton Vale, Marburg, Amberley, Ipswich and Brisbane CBD areas.

A spokeswoman said the requests related to structural damage to homes, fallen trees and general storm and flood damage.

"There was significant roof damage to houses in Lower Mt Walker, near Laidley," she said.

A 92 km/h wind gust was recorded at Amberley Airport at 7.45pm, an 87 km/h wind gust was recorded at Gold Coast Seaway at 8.30pm and a 79 km/h wind gust was recorded at Inner Beacon (Moreton Bay) at 8:55pm.

Wild weather also battered northern NSW on Saturday, with a twister destroying at least one home.

Send us your wet weather pics - MMS 0428 258 117

- additional reporting by Kate McKenna

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Vatican puts St Peter's bones on display

THE Vatican has for the first time publicly unveiled a handful of disputed bone fragments said by some to belong to the first pope, St Peter.

The eight or so pieces of bone sat nestled like rings in a jewel box inside a big bronze display case on the side of the altar during a mass commemorating the end of the Vatican's "Year of Faith".

The "Year of Faith" is a Benedict XVI initiative which began on October 11, 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vatican II Council, which approved key Catholic Church reforms.

Pope Francis prayed before the fragments, blessing them with incense, at the start of Sunday's service.

No pontiff has ever definitively declared the fragments to belong to the Apostle Peter, but Pope Paul VI in 1968 said fragments found in the necropolis under St Peter's Basilica were "identified in a way that we can consider convincing".

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ACT house shatters Christmas lights record

CANBERRA'S Richards family have turned on more than half a million Christmas lights, reclaiming a Guinness world record they first held in 2011.

Their 331,038-bulb effort was eclipsed a year later when 346,283 lights were powered up at a home in the hamlet of LaGrangeville, New York.

But on Sunday, they took back the title in style.

David Richards says he and his wife Janean and their three kids installed the 502,165 multicoloured streamers, icicles, candy canes, reindeer and other candescent decorations - some more exotic, some less - to raise funds for SIDS & Kids ACT.

"The charity is very close to our heart. We lost a child and SIDS looked after us many years ago," he said on Sunday.

Setting up the lights takes enormous effort and time but Mr Richards had a lot of help this time from family and friends, and when the power comes on and the tent-like streams of lights under a massive tree are revealed it is spectacular.

He says his six-year-old daughter Madelyn thinks everyone has a world record house with lights on it, and his other two kids, Caitlin, 10, and Aidan, 13, just enjoy it "a bit like me".

"I have always loved Christmas. Having the Christmas lights with the community coming in and sharing it is a time when you get to know people you probably should know better, I guess."

But SIDS and Kids is the main reason he does the time-consuming task, to raise money for the work they do.

"It was very important for us," he said.

"Anyone who has been through that sort of loss will probably tell you the worst thing that can happen to you is losing a young child."

People can visit the lights after dark from Nov 30 to December 26 at 3 Tennyson Crescent, Forrest. Entry is via a gold coin donation.

The Richards' last effort raised $78,000 and helped pay for two part time counsellors.

This time, though, they hope to break $100,000.

Trudy Taylor from SIDS and Kids ACT said they get 20 per cent of their funding from the ACT government and donations support the rest of the work they do with people who have lost a child aged six and under for a range of reasons.

About 150 young children die in the region, which includes parts of NSW and Victoria, each year.

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