Portuguese unemployment hits record 17.7%

PORTUGAL'S unemployment rate rose sharply in the first quarter of 2013 to a record high 17.7 per cent from 16.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, data from the national statistics institute INE shows.

For the whole of 2013 the government has forecast a rate of 18.2 per cent and 18.5 per cent for next year as the effects of recession and austerity measures take hold.

The record high comes as a new government spending package, announced by the centre-right government last week, foresees the slashing of 30,000 public sector jobs out of a total 700,000.

Civil servants are also to work 40 hours per week, compared with 35 at present and are to be eligible for full retirement at the age of 66, one year later than now.

The new terms are aimed at ensuring continued aid payments from a package worth 78 billion euros ($A101.71 billion) granted by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in May 2011.

According to the INE data, 4.4 million people currently hold jobs in Portugal out of a total population of about 10.5 million.

In 2012, the economy contracted by 3.2 per cent and is forecast to shrink another 2.3 per cent in 2013.

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Kenya asks UN to drop ICC charges

KENYA has written to the UN Security Council seeking to scrap the international crimes against humanity trials for President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Vice President William Ruto, according to a letter seen on Thursday.

Kenyatta, 51, voted into power in March elections, is to go on trial in July at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for crimes against humanity relating to post-election violence in 2007-08.

Ruto, 46, faces three counts of crimes against humanity for his role in deadly violence.

"What this delegation is asking for is not deferral," Kenya's ambassador to the UN, Macharia Kamau, wrote in a letter to the council seen by AFP.

"What this delegation is asking for is for the immediate termination of the case at The Hague."

The letter, dated May 2 and stamped confidential, is the first such official request for the cases to be dropped.

However, while the security council can ask for a case to be deferred for a year, it does not have the authority to order the ICC drop a case completely.

Kenya, however, appealed to "friendly nations to use their good offices and prevail upon the International Criminal Court to reconsider the continued process".

Some 1,100 people died in bloodshed after the 2007 elections over allegations of vote rigging, shattering Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability.

What began as political riots quickly turned into ethnic killings and reprisal attacks, plunging Kenya into its worst wave of violence since independence in 1963.

The letter warned that continuing with the trials would risk destabilising Kenya.

"Kenyans... spoke with a loud, clear, concise voice when they overwhelmingly elected Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto as president and deputy president," it said.

"It is obvious that their absence from the country may undermine the prevailing peace and any resultant insecurity may spill over to the neighbouring countries."

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Technology changes how we chat to mum

TECHNOLOGY is changing the way Australians communicate with their mums, with more using social media and video calls to stay in touch, new research suggests.

But no matter what method is used, it seems one thing will never change - we still call mum for help and advice.

In the run-up to Mother's Day, Telstra released data showing that half of all Australians chat to their mums once a week and 20 per cent do so every day.

But the evidence suggests more are using apps like Skype.

"These days more mums are happy to be called on their mobile for the weekly catch up and increasingly they are enjoying video calls too," Telstra's Inese Kingsmill said.

"In fact, 10 per cent of the mums we surveyed like receiving video calls from their kids and grandkids.

"Phoning home will take on a new meaning as technology advances."

Many of the calls - no matter what the medium - are made out of desperation rather than kindness.

That's particularly true among younger people, with 13 per cent of those aged between 18-25 only telephoning mum when they want something, according to Telstra's research.

Mums aged between 40-44 are the least responsive to these sorts of calls, with seven per cent saying they'd ignore them.

"I'm sure many mums can relate to the urgent phone call from their kids wanting to know how to remove red wine stains from the carpet or how to get lumps out of the gravy," Ms Kingsmill added.

Facebook said 27 per cent of Australians aged between 13-18 were connected to their mums via the social networking site.

That's higher than in many other countries, including France (15.5 per cent) and Brazil (13.5 per cent).

Fifteen per cent of Australians have friended their mum on Facebook, listing the relationship in the "family" section on their profiles.

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Remote students less likely to reach uni

HIGH school students from remote and disadvantaged Queensland schools are less likely to be accepted into university.

Year 12 completion rates are almost universal across the state, with close to 100 per cent of students at most state and Christian schools offered a place in higher education.

The results are positive at schools in Brisbane and larger regional cities.

But a closer look at the Queensland Studies Authority data shows pockets of disadvantage in remote areas, and at schools catering to students from indigenous and troubled backgrounds.

Griffith University Dean of Learning and Teaching, Professor Glenn Finger, says the results show the need for the Queensland government to sign up to the federal government's Gonski education reforms, which allocate more funding to disadvantaged and public schools.

"Those negotiations between the federal government and the state government are probably highly politicised, but underneath it the Gonski reform does provide a roadmap for addressing the resourcing needs of different schools that's evident in this data," he told AAP.

"The funding formula for resourcing needs improvement so that the resources actually go to those areas of need."

In central Queensland, Blackall State School had a 100 per cent year 12 completion rate but only 67 per cent of students were successful in securing a place at university or other tertiary study.

The result was even more dire at the small Aboriginal and Islander Independent Community School in Brisbane, where only 60 per cent finished year 12 and no one was accepted for further study.

The Arethusa College at Deception Bay, north of Brisbane, which caters for a small number of disengaged students had even worse results, with only one third completing year 12 and no one going on to higher education.

While most religious schools produced good academic outcomes, the Australian International Islamic College helped just 30 per cent of students finish year 12, while only 56 per cent of tertiary study applicants were successful.

Brisbane Christian College in Salisbury produced another surprise, with just 68 per cent completing year 12.

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Shark kills Frenchman on Reunion Island

SAINT-DENIS, France, May 8 AFP - A French honeymooner has been attacked and killed by a shark while surfing not far from the beach on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, authorities say.

The 36-year-old was in the sea off the popular beach of Brisants de Saint-Gilles when a shark charged at him twice, prompting a nearby swimmer to raise the alert when he saw blood on the water, the local prefecture said.

Lifeguards jumped in the water to fetch the victim, who had lost a lot of blood and was in cardiac and respiratory arrest. They brought him back to the beach but were unable to revive him.

The shark had bitten the surfer on the arm and on the thigh. His wife was on the beach when the attack happened, and is being treated for shock, authorities said.

The deadly shark attack was the first this year on the island, where three people were killed by sharks in the past two years.

Sharks are not man-eaters, but sometimes mistake humans for their natural prey, like seals or tortoises, and at other times hurt surfers as they "mouth" them out of curiosity, experts say.

Last year, 78 shark attacks were reported around the world, of which eight were fatal.

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Six killed in clashes at Afghan protest

AT least six people have been killed during clashes with police at a protest in southern Afghanistan, officials say.

There were differing accounts of what happened.

Authorities said most of the dead were Taliban insurgents who infiltrated what they described as the latest in a series of protests against alleged border intrusions by the Pakistan military.

During the demonstration Taliban gunmen opened fire, targeting government buildings and killing two drivers on a highway where hundreds of people had gathered, Kandahar province police chief General Abdul Raziq told AFP.

Raziq said police fired back at the gunmen and killed four of them.

"People were demonstrating against Pakistan but the Taliban turned it violent," he said. "The police had to shoot."

The Kandahar province media office said three drivers had been killed by attackers and eight Taliban had been shot dead by police in Maiwand district.

"There were some armed people who... opened fire from among the demonstrators," it said.

Local residents told AFP the protest was against night raids on homes by joint US-Afghan forces. A Taliban spokesman said none of its fighters was involved.

A doctor in Maiwand hospital said on condition of anonymity that five bodies and 20 wounded victims had been brought in.

On Monday more than 2,000 people demonstrated and chanted "Death to Pakistan!" on the outskirts of Kabul in response to the border dispute.

Around 3,000 students held a similar rally in the eastern province of Khost that borders Pakistan.

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Architect of Putin political system quits

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has dismissed his influential deputy prime minister Vladislav Surkov, credited with designing the country's notorious political system.

The Kremlin said in a statement that Surkov had left his post voluntarily, but analysts and observers said the former Kremlin grey cardinal had been forced out amid a growing rift between Putin's Kremlin and the government.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalia Timakova told AFP that Surkov tendered his resignation on April 26.

His departure comes amid what observers describe as signs of growing infighting among Kremlin elites during Putin's controversial third term and an ongoing probe of a high-tech fund backed by Surkov.

Putin's spokesman said Surkov's departure should not be seen in connection with the investigation at the Skolkovo fund.

Instead, he suggested that the deputy prime minister quit because of the government's poor implementation of Putin's election promises.

"It is related to the priority topic and the high-priority task of implementing presidential decrees," Dmitry Peskov told the Kommersant FM radio.

Surkov declined to talk about his future plans with the media, telling Kommersant that he will explain it "when the time is right."

Surkov, 48, had served as deputy prime minister after being dismissed from the post of first deputy Kremlin chief of staff in a shakeup in December 2011 that coincided with huge opposition protests that shook Russia that winter.

He has been considered the top ideologue of Putin's domestic political strategy who oversaw political parties in parliament, electoral campaigns and the tightly controlled media.

He worked in the Kremlin administration from 1999 before his unexpected transition to the government seen at the time as the Kremlin's reaction to the mass anti-Putin protests in 2011.

He is known for coining the term "sovereign democracy" to describe Russia's tightly controlled political system and was once called the "Kremlin puppeteer" by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

The departure of Surkov, who had for the past year and a half been in charge of modernising the Russian economy, comes as Russian investigators are probing the Skolkovo hi-tech fund where Surkov sits on the supervisory board.

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Austrian gets 29-million-euro tax bill

AN Austrian man has gotten the shock of his life, receiving a tax bill for more than 29 million euros ($A37.5 million).

The 22-year-old, identified as Agadir B, has told the Heute daily he got the bill after filing his tax return for 2008.

That year he earned about 600 euros a month as a trainee but the bill demand that he pay one per cent of the total amount owed immediately, or 290,000 euros.

"I completely flipped out," he told the paper.

"My mum nearly had a nervous breakdown."

His mother even phoned the tax office to query the bill and was told: "You don't have a discussion at the checkout ... you just pay," he said.

However, a second letter later came through from the tax office, declaring the first one void and apologising for the "technical error".

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Rescued woman and mum yet to speak

THE mother of one of three women held captive for about a decade at a home in the US says she is yet to speak to her daughter.

However, Barbara Knight, mother of Cleveland kidnap victim Michelle, says she hopes she knows she loves her and missed her the whole time.

Mrs Knight has told NBC's Today show that when her daughter disappeared aged 20 in 2002, police and she thought she maybe just didn't want to see her family anymore.

She says her daughter's child had been removed from the home just before her disappearance.

She says she thought Michelle vanished because she was upset about "the baby".

She says she knows her daughter is likely angry at the world "because she probably thought she'd never be found".

Mrs Knight adds that she hopes their past tension can heal, and she wants to take her daughter back to Florida, where she now lives.

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Imran stays in hospital, halts campaigning

DOCTORS say they expect Pakistani politician Imran Khan to make a full recovery despite fracturing his spine at a campaign rally, as his party seeks to capitalise on a sympathy vote.

The retired cricket star and head of the Pakistan Movement for Justice (PTI) suffered several fractured vertebrae and a broken rib on Tuesday when he fell from a lift raising him onto the stage at a rally in the city of Lahore.

Medical staff have ordered the 60-year-old to remain immobile in bed, throwing into doubt the prospect that he will address in person a final rally set to wrap up his high-octane campaign for office in Saturday's election.

The man tipped to win the polls, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, suspended campaigning on Wednesday in tribute to Khan.

His fall was the latest dramatic twist to an election campaign that has been overshadowed by a series of attacks on politicians and political parties which have killed 113 people since mid-April, according to an AFP tally.

The Pakistani Taliban have condemned the polls as un-Islamic and directly threatened the outgoing secular Pakistan People's Party and its main coalition partners, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party.

On Wednesday a bomb targeted a candidate from the Awami National Party (ANP), killing two people and wounding three others in the northwestern tribal district of Bajaur, a local official said.

In another attack, unconnected to the elections, a suicide bomber killed three people and wounded 23 outside a police station in the northwestern district of Bannu, police said.

Aides said Khan would still address a final election rally on Thursday, even if it has to be from hospital.

Television footage showed him flat on his back in hospital wearing a neck brace, and looking pale and groggy after his fall.

Doctors have advised at least two days' rest but say he is in full control of his limbs and bodily functions and expected to make a full recovery.

Saturday's vote will be a democratic milestone in a country ruled for half its history by the military. It will be the first time a civilian government has served a full term and handed over to another through the ballot box.

It remains unclear whether a wave of sympathy for Khan will improve his poll prospects. Most commentators expect him to do well enough to become a strong opposition but not to form a government.

Khan, who has only ever won one seat, led an electrifying campaign until his fall, galvanising the middle class and young people in what he has called a "tsunami" of support that will propel him into office.

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Qld government hurting the reef: greenies

THE Queensland government is more interested in development and building ports than protecting the Great Barrier Reef, an environmental group claims.

Last week UNESCO recommended to the world heritage committee that the Great Barrier Reef be listed as 'in danger'.

It said decisive action must be taken to avoid a listing of 'in danger' when the World Heritage Committee meets in June.

UNESCO said the federal and state governments had failed to improve water quality or halt coastal developments that could impact the reef.

Felicity Wishart, of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, says the state government is ignoring UNESCO by opposing a Senate bill which would adopt the UNESCO recommendation.

"The Queensland government is failing to take the threats to the reef seriously," she said.

"Queensland is the custodian of one of the world's great natural wonders and it is on the brink of becoming a massive industrial estate and shipping superhighway."

UNESCO also said there had been no clear commitment by either the federal or Queensland governments to limit port developments near the reef.

Instead about 43 proposals are under assessment.

In its response to the proposed Senate bill, the Queensland government said the reef was protected under current laws.

It also said the Senate bill was poorly drafted and would have major impacts on the Australian economy, as developments would take longer and cost more.

"The bill effectively imposes a blanket ban on development over 2300 kilometres of the state's coastline," the report said.

Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell says UNESCO has acknowledged what Australia has done to address their recommendations, which includes a review of Gladstone Harbour.

The state has also committed $35 million a year to protect the reef and is introducing best management practice programs in the agricultural industry.

"I am confident we will address the recommendations made by UNESCO," Mr Powell told AAP.

"We believe we can have sustainable economic development and strong environmental protection; the two concepts are not mutually exclusive."

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Portugal return to bond market 'a success'

PORTUGAL has received a boost from investors after returning to the long-term debt market for the first time since obtaining bailout funding two years ago, with the finance minister saying that demand for bonds totalled three time the amount on offer.

Portugal is working on yet new measures to crack down on public spending and pursue deep structural reforms of the economy.

The latest issue of bonds to fund debt was seen as a vital test of market judgment of these efforts to win back the confidence of investors and savers.

"It's been a great success," Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar told Portuguese media while visiting Brussels. "Demand has been three times greater than the offer, this means that it will reach nine billion euros ($A11.56 billion)."

Dow Jones Newswires reported that the issue, totalling three billion euros with a 10-year maturity, had been placed at an interest rate of about 5.6 per cent.

Portugal's debt office is expected to announce the final results on Tuesday afternoon.

Portugal was shut out of medium- and long-term debt markets at the time it was forced to negotiate the 78-billion bailout loan in May 2011.

The issue comes just as the "troika" of international lenders -- the European Central Bank, the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund -- arrive to analyse Portugal's latest program of measures to meet the conditions of the funding.

The sweeping package, announced by the centre-right government last week, involves the slashing of 30,000 public sector jobs and the full retirement age for public servants having been pushed back to 66 years instead of the previous 65.

Local media said six banks, CaixaBI, Citigroup, Credit Agricole, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Societe Generale, were appointed to manage the bond issue which matures on February 15 in 2024.

The sale will allow Portugal to test market confidence without running too great of a risk.

If it is successful in the sale, it would represent an important step for the country's return to the financial markets and could help prevent it from having to seek a second bailout loan once the current one has expired.

Portugal made an early return to the medium-term debt market in January, with a successful five-year bond issue in which it raised 2.5 billion euros. It last issued 10-year bonds in April in 2011.

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Pakistan's Imran Khan injured in fall

PAKISTAN cricket star turned politician Imran Khan sustained head injuries and was rushed to hospital Tuesday after falling off a lift taking him onto the stage for an election rally, his party said.

Khan was carried by aides gripping onto his arms and legs as police cleared a way through the crowd at the event in Pakistan's second largest city of Lahore, footage broadcast by private Dunya television showed.

"Imran Khan fell from a lifter. He has received injuries to his head and he has been taken to hospital," Malik Ishtiaq, a local spokesman for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) told AFP in tears.

Another party spokesman said Khan's injuries were minor.

"Imran Khan is alright. He has been taken to the hospital for first aid. He will be back to address the rally very soon after getting initial treatment," Chaudhry Rizwan told AFP by telephone.

Campaigning has reached the final stretches ahead of Pakistan's general election on Saturday when the country's electorate of 86 million will go to the polls to elect a new national assembly and four regional assemblies.

Khan, who won only one seat in 2002 and boycotted polls in 2008, has led an electric campaign, galvanising the middle-class and young people in what he has called a "tsunami" of support that will propel him into office.

Main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif is widely tipped to win the election and secure an historic third term for his Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).

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High poverty rate for Palestinians

EIGHT out of 10 Palestinians in east Jerusalem live below the poverty line, a watchdog says, as Israelis prepare to celebrate the anniversary of capturing the Arab sector of the Holy City in 1967.

Almost 80 per cent of "east Jerusalem residents live below the poverty line -- the worst rate of all time," the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in a report.

The study, which looked at the effects of Israeli policy on the "basic rights" of Palestinian residents, was published a day ahead of Jerusalem Day, when Israel marks the "reunification" of the city after it captured the Arab eastern sector during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

Today, the Palestinian population numbers 293,000 in a city which counts roughly 800,000 residents, UN figures show.

The study also said that Israel's West Bank separation barrier was cutting east Jerusalem off from the West Bank, "exacerbating the already dire economic and social conditions for residents."

It said around 90,000 Palestinians with blue Jerusalem identity cards "pass through checkpoints on a daily basis in order to get to work, attend school, obtain medical services (and) visit family."

Hospitals in east Jerusalem were suffering financial difficulties due to the low numbers of patients and medical staff able to reach them from the West Bank, it said.

Poor infrastructure meant there was a shortage of "some 50 kilometres of sewage pipes. Residents rely instead on septic tanks, and repeated flooding of these systems causes serious health hazards."

Only 46 per cent of students study in municipal schools, which are suffering from a "chronic shortage" of classrooms.

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US stocks rise on earnings, overseas gains

US stocks have opened higher in the wake of solid corporate earnings reports and stronger overseas markets.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32.55 (0.22 per cent) to 15,001.44.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 3.89 (0.24 per cent) to 1,621.39, while the Nasdaq Composite Index put on 4.03 (0.12 per cent) to 3,397.00.

Earnings reports from DirecTV and Anadarko Petroleum beat expectations, and investors were looking ahead to the after-market release of earnings from Disney, the studio behind the hit film Iron Man 3.

Markets were also cheered by a better-than-expected report on German factory orders which helped send European indices higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 also gained 3.6 per cent on Tuesday.

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Top ETA operatives arreted in France

THE arrests of six ETA suspects in France has broken up the Basque armed separatist group's "logistical core" and made its total dissolution inevitable, Spain's interior minister says.

"The logistical core of ETA has been detained today," with the arrest of those suspected of providing safe houses, stolen vehicles and false documents for members, Jorge Fernandez Diaz told a news conference.

He called it "a very important step towards the dismantling of ETA", which is classed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

The group is blamed for 829 deaths in a four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for independence for the Basque Country of northern Spain and southwestern France.

It declared in October 2011 a "definitive end" to its armed activity but has not formally disarmed or disbanded as the Spanish government demands.

French authorities said the six were arrested in Blois, a city in central France, and Brive-la-Gaillarde and Montpellier, in the southwest of the country.

"Investigations determined that those detained operated in three groups that formed the core of ETA's logistical system," the minister said.

"The operation dismantled three services basic and vital to the survival of ETA and its members: the running of safe houses, the providing of stolen vehicles and the production of counterfeit material."

He said the two most important members detained on Tuesday were those who ran the safe houses: Antonio Goicoechea Gabirondo, 42 -- an explosives expert -- and Raul Aduna Vallinas, 32. They were detained in Brive-la-Gaillarde.

Ekhine Eizaguirre Zubiarre and Kepa Arkauz Zubillaga, both aged 29 and arrested in Blois, took care of forging documents, he said.

The other two, Igor Uriarte Lopez de Acua, 39, and Julen Mendizabal Elezcano, 33, were in charge of stealing vehicles.

ETA has been weakened over recent years by a string of arrests of its members, many of them in France. One of its top commanders got a life sentence in April for the 2007 murder of two Spanish police officers in France.

Spain refuses to hold talks with ETA's leaders.

"The operation, added to the extreme operational weakness of the terrorist group, places ETA face to face with the inevitability of its break-up," Fernandez said.

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Victoria $225m in the black for 2013/14

VICTORIA is expected to be $225 million in the black next financial year, as the treasurer prepares to deliver a budget to build for the state's growth.

Breaking with the tradition of keeping the headline budget figure under wraps until his address to parliament, Treasurer Michael O'Brien told AAP a $225 million surplus was forecast for 2013/14 using a revised Australian accounting standard for the reporting of superannuation obligations.

If you strip out that accounting change, the prediction is $817 million, slightly down on the $835 million forecast in the December budget update.

Mr O'Brien said the surplus was a strong result in difficult economic times.

"This budget is one which builds for growth in Victoria," he said.

"It's a budget which delivers a growing economy, growing employment, growing surpluses and major new infrastructure.

"We have seen governments around the country plunge into debt and deficit and Victoria has avoided that path."

The state's budget surpluses over the next four years are forecast to grow to $2.5 billion by 2016/17.

The government has made a flurry of pre-budget announcements in recent weeks, including $238 million to train more doctors and nurses, $224 million for disability support, $170 million in extra road maintenance funding over three years and a $100 million boost for the southeastern Frankston train line.

Mr O'Brien said the budget indicated the government would reduce its net debt over the next four years.

"We are very comfortable that we have a manageable and a prudent level of debt, and one of the reasons you strengthen your surpluses is so you can afford to pay for infrastructure out of surpluses rather than out of increased borrowings," he said.

He said both the East West road link and the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel would be progressed in the budget.

Mr O'Brien said Victorian sourced revenue had held up fairly well and was tracking as forecast.

"Some is up, some is down, but the differences tend to balance each other out," he said.

"Our major revenue concern has been from GST."

He said there was $240 million in GST writedowns in 2013/14 that the government was not expecting.

Mr O'Brien said while the voluntary redundancy program for Victorian public servants would not be extended, the government was determined to drive efficiencies in the public sector.

Shadow treasurer Tim Pallas said the coalition owed it to Victorians not to increase basic daily expenses.

"The most important thing they can do is not increase the cost of living for Victorians," he said.

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PM admits she has moments of self-doubt

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard admits she has moments of self-doubt but says that to display them publicly would be dangerous, because the cultural image of leadership equates self-doubt with weakness.

Ms Gillard says she can't afford to wander around declaring she's anxious and she doesn't know, and in any case that isn't who she really is.

But she's declined to reveal just what issues have caused her moments of self-doubt.

Ms Gillard's moment of public introspection emerged at the tail end of ABC television's Q and A program on Monday night in which she faced an audience of 280 high school students.

"The reason it's dangerous for me to answer is we have this kind of cultural image of leadership that self-doubt equal weakness and we don't like to sense weakness. And so we don't exhibit weakness and I don't exhibit weakness," she said.

Everybody had moments of self-doubt, Ms Gillard said.

"To not feel that wouldn't be human and so I feel that too," she said, adding that the best way to maintain resilience in time of stress was to to be very clear about who you are, what you are trying to do and why you are trying to do it.

The other thing was to have some really good mates you could turn to in times of difficulty.

"And I am blessed with some fantastic friends and a wonderful and very supportive family," she said.

The prime minister answered a succession of questions on a range of topics - women in politics, reducing the voting age, the economy, taxation, the Middle East and nuclear weapons.

But it was on schools and the government's Gonski education reforms that she seemed at her most fluent, prompting one of the numerous mostly positive tweeters to observe: as PM she makes a very good education minister.

Then there was Tom Waterhouse.

She said as someone who watched sport, live sporting odds drove her absolutely nuts.

Ms Gillard said the government had moved to implement a code to limit on-screen betting promotion and to end the confusion of who was a commentator and who was a betting personality.

"I am not going to use any names," she said, but acknowledged that the name she wasn't mentioning was Waterhouse.

Ms Gillard said Tom Waterhouse had a big and successful betting business and was the very visible face of this issue.

But other well-known sporting commentators also discussed betting odds.

"It's a broader problem than one individual, though in public discourse one individual has become the face of it," she said.

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EU backs Apple in patent fight

EU anti-trust officials say Google-owned Motorola was abusing its leading position in Germany's mobile phone market by filing a patent injunction against Apple over some core smartphone functions.

A statement on Monday says the European Union has reached a "preliminary view" on a competition investigation opened in April 2012.

It has decided that Motorola Mobility's action "amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU anti-trust rules".

The commission says "while recourse to injunctions is a possible remedy for patent infringements, such conduct may be abusive where standard-essential patents (SEPs) are concerned and the potential licensee is willing to enter into a licence on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory terms."

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said, "The protection of intellectual property is a cornerstone of innovation and growth. But so is competition.

"I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer, not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice."

Almunia's spokesman said the row centred on "general packet radio services technology" concerned with "intermediate technologies between 2G and 3G standards" - in other words older mobile phone functioning.

In April 2013, the US International Trade Commission tossed out a Motorola Mobility patent claim that threatened to block the importation of some Apple iPhone models into the United States.

Motorola had accused Apple of infringing on patented technology that makes touch screens ignore fingers when people are holding smartphones to their ears for calls.

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Bank reforms aiding competition: Swan

TREASURER Wayne Swan says households have already benefited from lower mortgage rates under Labor, as the central bank prepares to announces its latest decision on monetary policy.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) board meets on Tuesday to discuss interest rates, but financial market economists expect it to leave the cash rate unchanged at three per cent.

But business groups believe a cut to 2.75 per cent, or lower, would be justified.

"The RBA will take its decision independently, but I'm really proud of the fact that interest rates are lower under Labor," Mr Swan said in a statement.

He said a family on a $300,000 mortgage was spending around $100 per week less on repayments compared to when Labor first came to office in 2007.

"But the high dollar is weighing heavily on many industries, just like it has savaged our budget revenues," Mr Swan added.

The treasurer hands down the 2013/13 federal budget on May 14.

It's expected to show slowing revenue growth is hurting the budget bottom line with deficits expected this financial year next.

Mr Swan also said the government's reforms to mortgage exit fees had delivered increased competition in the banking sector.

"Since we banned exit fees, over 300,000 people have refinanced their mortgage - that's around $79 billion worth of mortgages," he said.

"By the end of this year there'll over two million home loans without exit fees."

The RBA cash rate has stood at three per cent since December.

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Aussie aid program gets good review

DESPITE breaking a commitment to foreign aid spending, Australia has been praised by its developed-country peers in a new review of overseas assistance.

The OECD's Development Assistance Committee engaged assessors from Canada and the EU to compile a report into the nation's aid program, which totalled $US5.44 billion in 2012, making it the world's eighth-largest financial contributor.

The 122-page review found Australia had made "great efforts to promote development" on a global scale and had the potential to grow its spending on aid.

However, authors made reference to Australia's division of funds, highlighting the Labor government's decision in December to channel A$375 million in aid monies to pay for the domestic upkeep of asylum seekers.

"The predictability of Australia's aid risks being undermined when newly incurred ODA (official development assistance) eligible costs are met within allocated budgetary envelopes rather than with new resources," says the review.

Earlier in 2012 the government delayed by 12 months its plans to boost aid spending to 0.5 per cent of gross national income - around $8 billion - by 2015/16 as it worked to bring the budget back into surplus.

The review welcomed Australia's ongoing commitment, albeit delayed, to reach the benchmark.

"Australia is in a very strong position to deliver a growing aid budget effectively and efficiently," it read.

"In line with its commitment to punch at or above its weight in international development, Australia should achieve its stated aid goal of 0.5 per cent by 2016/17."

AusAID Director General Peter Baxter welcomed the assessment, the first since 2008.

"This assessment of Australia's approach to aid positions us as an expert on aid delivery amongst our peers," Mr Baxter said in a statement.

"The review praises the efficiency, transparency and effectiveness of the program, making particular reference to Australia's sound strategic policies, delivery of strong results and dedicated commitment to transparency."

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Students get chance to be principal

MANY young students dream of what they would do if they ran their school, even just for a day.

A few will get the chance in June under the national student "principal for a day" program.

Primary and high school students will get the chance to switch places with their principal for the day, maybe leading a school assembly, attending a staff meeting or visiting classrooms.

The Principals Australia Institute is behind the program and hopes it will increase the community's appreciation of school leaders.

"As a principal, I know how important it is to provide young people with opportunities to stretch their capacity as thinkers and leaders," chief executive Jim Davies said in a statement on Monday.

"My hope is that "Student Principal for a Day" will inspire young people to consider a career in education - or to even become a principal one day."

Schools that want to participate can register online at www.sp4d.edu.au before May 28.

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Company tax top priority, says business

BUSINESS has told the federal government that balancing the budget is not their main concern, with a survey finding cuts in company tax and infrastructure spending as far more important.

According to an Australian Industry Group survey of 330 manufacturing, services and construction companies, 35 per cent listed company tax cuts as the top priority, while 33 per cent nominated infrastructure spending.

Only 16 per cent said balancing the 2013-14 budget was a top priority, Ai Group said.

"It (the survey) shows that business believes that in this current economic environment balancing the Budget is not the main game," Ai Group chief Innes Willox said in a statement.

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NSW sex abuse inquiry to start Monday

A SPECIAL NSW inquiry into allegations of a child sex abuse cover-up in the Catholic Church will begin in Newcastle on Monday.

The special commission of inquiry was announced by NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell in last November, following explosive allegations made to the media by police officer Peter Fox.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox will be the first of a long list of senior police who will take the witness box when the inquiry begins in the Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday.

The senior investigator asserted the church had covered up evidence in relation to pedophile priests in the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in the Hunter region of NSW.

The inquiry will look at how the church handled complaints about former priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher, both now deceased.

It will also look at the circumstances in which Inspector Fox was asked to stop investigating sex abuse in the diocese.

The NSW inquiry will sit for two weeks in May and three weeks through June and July.

It is separate from the Federal Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

Margaret Cunneen SC has been appointed as Special Commissioner to the inquiry.

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Qld men cop highest sun risk: report

ONE in eight men and one in 12 women in Queensland get sunburnt on an average weekend, according to a report in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Young men who work outdoors appear to be most at risk, and people who take part in physical activity are more likely to report sunburn.

Sunburn is defined as redness that lasts more than 12 hours.

The report is based on interviews with 16,473 Queensland residents aged 18 years and over during 2009 and 2010. They were asked if they had been sunburnt on the previous weekend.

Queensland has the highest melanoma rate in the world.

People aged 18 to 24 years are seven times more likely to suffer sunburn than those aged over 65. People aged 35 to 44 are five times more likely to be burnt.

Sunburn is less likely among people who generally take protective measures in summer, the authors write.

"Our results are broadly consistent with a 2004 Queensland survey showing young age and male sex greatly increase odds of sunburn," write the authors from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the Preventive Health Unit at Queensland Health.

They say sunburn is still a major public health issue despite 50 years of attempts to educate the public.

The most common reason given for getting burnt is a failure to use sunscreen or protective clothing.

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Protests mark Hollande's first anniversary

TENS of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to mark Socialist President Francois Hollande's first year in office by accusing him of turning his back on the left.

On the eve of the anniversary of Hollande's May 6 win last year over right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy, the Communist-backed Left Front gathered supporters for a march starting at the Bastille, the iconic square of the French Revolution.

Many were also expected to gather for separate protests in Paris and other cities to oppose the government's plans to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption by gay couples.

The demonstrations come with polls showing Hollande as the most unpopular president in modern French history. Many voters are angered by an economy on the edge of recession and unemployment hitting a 16-year high.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the Left Front's firebrand candidate in last year's vote, called the protest in Paris last month at the height of a scandal over Hollande's ex-budget minister Jerome Cahuzac being charged with tax fraud.

Melenchon, who said he expected 100,000 to attend the rally, told the crowd the Socialist government had betrayed its supporters on the left.

"We do not want the world of finance in power! We do not accept the politics of austerity!" he told protesters waving the red flags of left-wing movements.

In an interview Sunday with newspaper Le Parisien, Melenchon called on Hollande to "return to the left, where he was when he was elected".

He accused Hollande of contributing to Europe's economic crisis by focusing on "the interests of shareholders, of big business and of European austerity policies, to the detriment of the workers."

Melenchon called for a government reshuffle with himself or Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg -- considered one of Hollande's most left-wing ministers -- as prime minister.

Opponents of gay marriage were meanwhile to rally in major cities in a bid to force Hollande to back down from signing a bill approved in parliament last month.

The bill, which is also facing a constitutional challenge, sparked months of demonstrations across the country, with some descending into violence.

It has been one of the most controversial reforms of Hollande's first year in office, with right-wing opponents demanding the issue be put to a referendum.

About 1,000 people protested against the bill in Strasbourg on Saturday and other protests were due Sunday in Paris, Rennes, Lyon, Montpellier, Toulouse, Dijon and Lille.

Sunday's protests follow another demonstration on Wednesday that brought hundreds of supporters of the far-right National Front to the streets of Paris, as a poll showed its leader Marine Le Pen would come second to Sarkozy if an election were held now, far ahead of Hollande in third place.

Since his election, Hollande's approval rating has fallen faster and further than any other president's since the founding of France's Fifth Republic in 1958.

The government has said it will hold a meeting on Monday to set its agenda for the months to come, with the focus on tackling unemployment, boosting economic growth and controlling public finances.

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French ballistic missile self-destructs

A FRENCH test of an M51 submarine-launched ballistic missile failed on Sunday as it self-destructed off the coast of Brittany, officials said.

"It was a failure, the reasons will be determined by an investigation," said Lieutenant Commander Lionel Delort, a spokesman for the Atlantic Naval Prefecture.

He said the missile "self-destructed during its first propulsion phase... for an unknown reason."

The missile was test fired, without a nuclear warhead, from the Vigilant -- a strategic nuclear submarine -- from the Bay of Audierne at 0730 GMT (1730 Sunday AEST) and had been due to go down in the isolated north Atlantic.

The defence ministry said in a statement that it "was destroyed shortly after launch, over the ocean," without providing further details.

Delort said the area had been cleared of vessels and aircraft prior to the launch and that debris from the missile -- which fell about 25 kilometres from the coast -- would be collected for analysis.

The M51, which has a range of 8,000 kilometres, was put into operation in 2010 following five successful test launches.

Witnesses told AFP they heard a loud explosion and saw trails of smoke when the missile test failed.

"We saw flashes in the sky, I thought it was a plane exploding," Claude Jean, a resident of Cap Sizun on the northern end of the bay, told AFP.

France is estimated to have a stockpile of about 300 nuclear warheads, the majority of them designed for launching from its four Triomphant-class submarines. The remainder are designed for delivery from both land- and carrier-based aircraft.

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