Greek Golden Dawn leader, MPs arrested

GREEK police have arrested the leader and other top officials of the anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party on charges of forming a criminal organisation.

The arrests are an escalation of a government crackdown after a fatal stabbing allegedly committed by a supporter.

It is the first time since 1974 that a party head and sitting members of parliament have been arrested.

Police announced the arrests of 16 Golden Dawn members, including party head Nikos Michaloliakos, spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris and two other MPs.

The arrests included a local Golden Dawn leader in an Athens suburb while the rest were ordinary members.

Two police officials said an operation by the counterterrorism unit was still ongoing on Saturday morning, with a total of about 35 arrest warrants for Golden Dawn members issued.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly.

Despite the arrests, the party's MPs retain their parliamentary seats unless they are convicted of a crime.

Golden Dawn holds 18 of parliament's 300 seats, after winning nearly 7 per cent of the vote in general elections last year.

Michaloliakos had earlier threatened to pull the group's deputies out of parliament, a move that would prompt by-elections in 15 regions around the country.

"We will exhaust any means within our legal constitutional rights to defend our political honour," Michaloliakos said on Thursday.

"If the country enters a cycle of instability, it is those who demonise Golden Dawn who will be responsible, not (us)," he said.

The arrests come 11 days after the killing of anti-fascist activist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by an alleged Golden Dawn member.

Though the party has vehemently denied any role in the killing, the case has appeared to dent its appeal among Greeks and the government has worked to crack down on the party.

Golden Dawn expressed outrage at the arrests in a text message to journalists.

"We call upon everyone to support our moral and just struggle against the corrupt system! Everyone come to our offices!," it said.

A later text message called for supporters to head to police headquarters "with calm and order".

A small group of about 30 people initially gathered, standing on the footpath across the street from the building.

Golden Dawn entered the Greek parliament for the first time in May 2012, capitalising on Greece's deep financial crisis, rising crime and anti-immigrant sentiment.

The party's members and supporters have frequently been suspected of carrying out violent attacks, mainly against immigrants.

Despite its reputation for violence, the party had enjoyed growing popularity.

A government spokesman refused to comment on the details of the operation.

"Democracy can protect itself. Justice will do its job," Simos Kedikoglou told reporters.

In addition to Michaloliakos and Kasidiaris, Golden Dawn deputy, Ilias Panayiotaros, gave himself up at police headquarters, telling police they were looking for him at a wrong address.

Another MP, Yannis Lagos, has also been arrested.

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Two ships crash off Japan

Two cargo ships have collided off Tokyo leaving five crew members injured, and another missing. Source: AAP

TWO cargo ships have collided off Tokyo leaving five Japanese crew members critically injured, and another missing.

The five sailors rescued on Friday evening from the Japanese-flagged Eifuku Maru No 18 were found in a state of cardiorespiratory arrest, the Japan Coast Guard said.

The coast guard was searching for the sixth crew member, the Kyodo News Agency reported.

The 498-tonne ship and the 2,962-tonne Jia Hui, registered in Sierra Leone, collided at about 1.25am on Friday near Izu Oshima island, 100km south of Tokyo.

The Japanese vessel, found capsized with all its crew missing, was heading for Chiba, east of Tokyo, from Nagoya, central Japan.

The 13 Chinese and Myanmar nationals that made up the Sierra Leone freighter's crew were rescued from waters nearby, Kyodo said.

The Jia Hui was on its way to Busan, South Korea, from Kawasaki, south of Tokyo.

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Two die on Vic roads in two hours

TWO women have been killed within two hours in separate Victorian crashes.

The first died after a head-on collision at Brucknell in Victoria's southwest.

Police say the woman's car collided with a van about 45km from Warrnambool, at about 3pm (AEST) on Saturday.

She died at the scene.

Police say another woman died in the Geelong suburb of Leopold, when a utility lost control and struck her car at about 5pm.

The woman, who was the only occupant in the car, died at the scene.

The deaths take Victoria's road toll to 172, compared with 197 at the same time last year.

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Asylum seekers 'abandoned' at sea

The Abbott government has been criticised for its tight-lipped stance on an asylum-seeker tragedy.

SURVIVORS from an asylum-seeker boat that sank off Indonesia claim their desperate pleas to Australian authorities for help were ignored as their vessel foundered in heavy seas.

The death toll from the tragedy was on Saturday expected to surpass 50, with 30 or so people still missing.

Indonesian authorities say that at least 21 people, including seven children, drowned when the boat, which was believed to be carrying about 80 passengers, sank on Friday off the coast of Java.

A decision on whether to resume the search would be made on Sunday morning, Indonesian officials said late Saturday.

Authorities fear for up to 70 asylum seekers still missing after their boat sank off Java.

The Australian government issued a statement on Saturday evening expressing its sympathies and saying that it would provide assistance to Indonesian authorities.

Immigration and Border Protection minister Scott Morrison said Australian authorities received a call about the vessel on Friday morning that placed the stricken boat about 25 nautical miles of Indonesia.

Mr Morrison said Rescue Coordination Centre Australia maintained co-ordination of the search and notified the Indonesian rescue agency.

An all-ships broadcast was issued by Australian authorities, but a merchant ship and a border protection aircraft were both unable to find the vessel.

The dead, wrapped in yellow bodybags, some stacked on top of each other, could be seen on Saturday, exposed to the sun and heat in an open storage room of a clinic in the village of Agrabinta, near where they had washed ashore the previous day.

Many were children.

One of the survivors, Lebanese man Hussein Khodr, had reportedly lost his pregnant wife and eight children in the disaster.

But some of the survivors say that more lives could have been saved, claiming that as many as 10 calls to Australian authorities were either eventually ignored or treated as a low priority.

"We called them and we told them we're sinking, we need anybody to help us," 28-year-old Abdullah al Qisi said, according to The Australian newspaper.

"And they were telling us 'we're coming, we're coming' and they didn't come," he said.

Initial reports suggested the boat first got into trouble about 10 hours into its journey and efforts were made to return to Indonesia before it sank.

There were also claims on Saturday that the crew had abandoned ship shortly after setting off, and that the passengers had been left to fend for themselves for five days, drifting around with no engine, before calamity finally struck on Friday.

A spokesman for the Indonesian search and rescue agency, BASARNAS, said his office was not advised of an incident involving an asylum-seeker boat until 8am local time on Friday.

He said the Australian Maritime and Safety Authority had contacted BASARNAS about the boat.

However, a police official from the district of Cianjur near where the boat sank said authorities were only alerted to the incident after bodies were discovered floating in an estuary on Friday morning.

Strong waves had limited search and rescue efforts on Saturday, although three more people were found alive, taking the number of confirmed survivors to 28.

It's the first known fatal attempted asylum-seeker crossing under the coalition government, which promised that it would stop boats reaching Australia after it won this month's federal election.

The sinking comes after another group of 44 asylum seekers were rescued by an Australian navy vessel in the Sunda Strait on Thursday.

It also emerged on Saturday that a third group of 31 asylum seekers had been rescued by an Australian navy vessel, and were set to be returned to Indonesia - the second "hand-back" in as many days.

The latest tragedy in waters between Indonesia and Australia comes amid an increase in tensions between Canberra and Jakarta over the asylum-seeker issue, and days ahead of talks in Jakarta between Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Mr Abbott and President Yudhoyno will meet on Monday, with asylum-seeker policy expected to be at the top of the agenda.

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Ex-UK PM Thatcher's ashes laid to rest

The ashes of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher have been laid to rest in London. Source: AAP

BARONESS Thatcher's ashes have been laid interred in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Members of her family attended a short church service in the chapel of the central London site on Saturday before a solid oak casket containing her ashes was placed in the ground.

A headstone bearing the simple inscription "Margaret Thatcher 1925 - 2013" was being erected on top of her final resting place in the leafy hospital grounds.

Britain's first female prime minister died aged 87 on April 8.

Twelve Chelsea Pensioners dressed in their distinctive scarlet coats formed a guard of honour as her ashes were placed alongside those of her husband Sir Denis, who died in 2003.

Prayers were said by hospital chaplain the Reverend Richard Whittington as her family members comforted one another.

Among the small group of mourners was Lady Thatcher's former private secretary Lord Powell and Lord Bell, her former political adviser.

Her children each placed a single red rose alongside the casket.

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Tunisia's ruling Islamists to step down

TUNISIA'S governing Islamist party has agreed to step down following negotiations with opposition parties that begin next week.

A spokesman for the main labour union said months of talks with the Islamist-led government had finally reached an agreement on Saturday. Bouali Mbarki of the UGTT union said the deal calls for three weeks of negotiations to appoint an interim, non-partisan government.

Tunisia has endured more than two years of turmoil, worsened by the assassination of a leading opposition figure in July.

As recently as a week ago, the union, which represents 500,000 workers, said talks on a way out of the country's political impasse had failed.

The union, the opposition, lawyers and human rights advocates had said the governing Ennahda Party's inability to ensure security led to the killings of one opposition figure in July and another one in February.

The death of Mohammed Brahmi, who was gunned down in front of his family on July 25, plunged Tunisia into its current crisis, as dozens of opposition MPs quit, freezing efforts to write a new constitution. Street protests and political paralysis have crippled the country.

Tunisia's protesters, inspired by the self-immolation of a fruit seller, overthrew their decades-old authoritarian government in January 2011. Those protests spread through the Arab world, including to Egypt, Syria and neighbouring Libya.

The opposition has accused the Ennahda Party of being overly tolerant of a rising radical Islamist trend that has shown violent tendencies in its efforts to instill greater piety.

Before the 2011 fall of Tunisia's longtime dictator, the country had been known as one of the most secular countries in the Arab world.

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US consumers boost spending 0.3 per cent

US consumers increased their spending slightly last month as their income grew at the fastest pace in six months.

The Commerce Department says consumer spending rose 0.3 per cent in August. That's up from a 0.2 per cent gain in July.

Income rose 0.4 per cent in August, the best gain since February and up from a 0.2 per cent July increase.

Private wages and salaries rose $US28.5 billion ($A30.59 billion), while government's increased $US2 billion.

Forced federal furloughs reduced government wages and salaries by $US7.3 billion.

Consumer spending drives 70 per cent of economic activity.

Many analysts forecast weaker overall growth of around two per cent in the July-September quarter, in part because of weaker consumer spending.

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UK urged to follow Australia on cig packs

A leading cancer charity is calling on the British government to introduce plain cigarette packs. Source: AAP

A LEADING cancer charity is calling on the British government to follow Australia's lead and introduce plain cigarette packs.

The calls come after a Cancer Research UK-funded study found youngsters preferred novelty packaging from leading cigarette manufacturers to plain packs.

The research also suggests glamorous cigarette packaging tempts young people who have never smoked to take up the habit.

"The UK must follow the lead of Australia and introduce plain, standardised packs as soon as possible," said Professor Gerard Hastings, Cancer Research UK's social marketing expert at the University of Stirling.

"This research continues to build the case to protect vulnerable children from the might of the tobacco industry's marketing," he added.

The new research, published in the journal BMJ Open, examined the reactions of 1025 UK children aged 11 to 16 who had never tried smoking.

They were given three different types of cigarette packs: regular, novelty and plain, standardised packs.

Novelty packs included those with an unusual shape, colour or system of opening, while standardised packs were brown with all branding removed apart from a brand name.

Researchers found that children preferred the colourful and novelty packs from leading manufacturers.

They included Silk Cut Superslim's slim pack shape, the Marlborough Bright Leaf pack which opens at the side in the style of a Zippo lighter, and Pall Mall's bright pink pack.

Children who liked these packs were the same children who said they were more tempted to smoke, the study also found.

In contrast, plain, standardised packaging reduced the appeal of smoking to the youngsters.

"The urge the Government to introduce plain, standardised tobacco packaging to reduce the number of young people who take up smoking," said Dr Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive.

In July, the UK Government denied claims it had caved in to the tobacco industry after it put plans to introduce plain cigarette packaging on hold.

A decision has been delayed so more time could be spent examining how similar plans were working in Australia.

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Tears as pair deny Lee Rigby murder

Two men have denied in a London court to murdering British soldier Lee Rigby in southwest London. Source: AAP

THE widow of soldier Lee Rigby broke down in tears as two men denied his murder in a London court.

Rebecca Rigby watched tearfully as Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, appeared at the Old Bailey via videolink on Friday.

They also each denied attempting to murder a police officer on May 22, the day of Fusilier Rigby's death in Woolwich, southeast London, and conspiracy to murder a police officer on or before that day.

Both wearing red T-shirts and pale trousers, they appeared from separate rooms for Friday's hearing.

Adebowale sat in front of an HMP Belmarsh sign.

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Asylum seekers drown on way to Australia

AT least 20 people, mostly children, have drowned and scores are missing after an Australia-bound boat carrying asylum-seekers sank off Indonesia, police told AFP on Friday.

Twenty-five people were plucked to safety but about another 75 were unaccounted for after the boat, carrying people from Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen, went down off the main island of Java, police said.

Warsono, a police official in Cianjur district on Java, said that local people found the asylum seekers' bodies floating in an estuary on Friday morning.

"Local people found 20 dead bodies floating in the water, most of them are children," he said. "The number of deaths may increase."

"Local people said their boat had broken into several pieces," he added, although he did not know when the accident happened.

The official, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, added that the boat was believed to have been carrying 120 people when it went down.

He said they were asylum-seekers heading to Christmas Island.

An official with the Indonesian search and rescue agency, BASARNAS, confirmed to AAP on Friday evening that a rescue operation was ongoing, while warning that the death toll was expected to rise.

The official said early indications were that 25 people had survived, and had been taken to a school near the city of Cianjur.

"Local police are saying that 25 people have been rescued," he said.

"But the casualties might add up."

He said the search was ongoing.

Four boats had been deployed to search for survivors but the operation was postponed until Saturday morning.

The official said authorities were struggling to locate where the vessel had sunk.

BASARNAS was advised of a boat in distress at about 3pm local time on Friday, adding that the vessel had started taking on water off the coast of West Java, near the Sukabumi region, earlier in the day.

The BASARNAS official said Indonesian authorities had been alerted to the incident by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).

It's believed to be the first fatal attempted asylum-seeker crossing under the coalition government, and comes after another group of 44 asylum seekers were rescued by an Australian navy vessel in the Sunda Strait on Thursday.

The group rescued on Thursday, which included four children, were offloaded at Indah Kiat port at Banten in the western part of Java at about 8am local time on Friday.

The two incidents come amid a ramping up in tensions between Canberra and Jakarta over the asylum seeker issue, and days ahead of talks in Jakarta between Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Mr Abbott and President Yudhoyno will meet on Monday with asylum seeker policy expected to be at the top of the agenda.

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William and Kate get new coat of arms

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a new coat of arms to represent them as a married couple. Source: AAP

THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a new coat of arms to represent them as a married couple, Kensington Palace says.

The Conjugal Coat of Arms, shown publicly for the first time on Friday, was approved by the Queen this year and combines William's coat of arms and Kate's shield from the Middleton family coat of arms.

Designed by the College of Arms in London, conjugal arms traditionally show the separate shields of a royal husband and wife, side by side.

William's shield, on the left of the coat of arms, is his version of the Royal Coat of Arms granted to him by the Queen on his 18th birthday.

It sits alongside Kate's shield from the Middleton family coat of arms, granted to the family in 2011 ahead of her marriage.

The Conjugal Arms will be the couple's coat of arms forever, but parts of it could change as their own circumstances and roles change.

They will also keep their own coats of arms to represent themselves as individuals, Kensington Palace said.

The duchess was granted her own coat of arms by the Queen after her marriage to William in 2011. It was made by putting her father's arms next to her husband's, in what is known as an impaled coat of arms.

The left shield on the Cambridges' new conjugal coat of arms is taken from the coat of arms given to William by his grandmother on his 18th birthday and shows the various royal emblems of different parts of the United Kingdom: the three lions of England, the lion of Scotland and the harp of Ireland.

It is surrounded by a blue garter bearing the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense - Shame to those who think evil of it - which symbolises the Order of the Garter, of which he is a Knight Companion.

Kate's shield on the right shows her family arms, granted to her father Michael in March 2011 before the royal wedding.

It is divided vertically with one half blue and the other half red, and includes a gold chevron across the centre with white "cotises" either side.

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Two ships crash off Japan

TWO cargo ships have collided off Tokyo leaving five Japanese crew members critically injured, and another missing.

The five sailors rescued on Friday evening from the Japanese-flagged Eifuku Maru No 18 were found in a state of cardiorespiratory arrest, the Japan Coast Guard said.

The coast guard was searching for the sixth crew member, the Kyodo News Agency reported.

The 498-tonne ship and the 2,962-tonne Jia Hui, registered in Sierra Leone, collided at about 1.25am on Friday near Izu Oshima island, 100km south of Tokyo.

The Japanese vessel, found capsized with all its crew missing, was heading for Chiba, east of Tokyo, from Nagoya, central Japan.

The 13 Chinese and Myanmar nationals that made up the Sierra Leone freighter's crew were rescued from waters nearby, Kyodo said.

The Jia Hui was on its way to Busan, South Korea, from Kawasaki, south of Tokyo.

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Turnbull called for NBN Co board's scalps

The communications minister has asked the NBN Co board to resign, a spokesman confirmed. Source: AAP

LABOR says the "trashing" of the national broadband network has begun after Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull asked NBN Co board members to resign last week.

A spokesman for Mr Turnbull confirmed late on Monday night that Mr Turnbull made the request ahead of the board meeting last Friday.

He declined to confirm NBN Co chairwoman Siobhan McKenna and all but one of her board colleagues have since offered their resignations.

The spokesman told AAP there may be an announcement about new board members soon.

It is understood the matter will be considered at a meeting of the federal cabinet as early as next Tuesday.

"And so the trashing of the national broadband network has begun," Labor communications spokesman Anthony Albanese said on Monday.

The resignations may relate to Mr Turnbull's comment earlier this month that while he had no criticism of individual members "it is remarkable that there is nobody on that board who has either run or built or been responsible for building or managing a large telecommunications network".

"Given that is the core business of NBN Co, that is a singular deficiency", Mr Turnbull said.

Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten said the Abbott government would stack the NBN Co board with its "friends".

The Abbott government has flagged at least three examinations into broadband: an independent audit of NBN Co's books, a review of its commercial progress and a Productivity Commission inquiry into broadband policy.

It wants to cut down the cost and speed up the rollout by changing from a fibre-to-the-premises to a fibre-to-the-node model.

NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley, who also sits on the board, announced his retirement in July but remains in the job during the transition.

Former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski has been flagged as a possible replacement for Mr Quigley.

The NBN Co website makes no mention of the resignations, but states: "This website is currently under review, pending the introduction of new government policy."

Liberal frontbencher Mitch Fifield said the government would ensure there was "good and appropriate governance" of the NBN.

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Motorists spending thousands each year

AUSTRALIANS are forking out more than $3800 a year to keep their cars on the road.

Fuel is a major expense, but it also costs more than $100 a year to park the car, and almost the same to clean it.

Queenslanders pay the most to keep their wheels on the road, while drivers in NSW are slugged the most at the toll booth.

Vehicle maintenance costs are highest in the Northern Territory, where vast distances separate the major centres.

Nationally, motorists spend an average of $3854 on running costs, before loan repayments and depreciation are taken into account, Commonwealth Bank credit and debit card transaction data shows.

Queenslanders pay on average $254 more than that, due to higher fuel and registration expenses.

Parking is most expensive in Western Australia, where $125 is spent each year, above the national average of $108.

Car washes are priciest in NSW, where the average annual spend totals $112.

Petrol makes up 40 per cent of Australia's annual average car bill, with a total of $7.2 billion being spent at the bowser.

A weakening Australian dollar could push that bill even higher, Commonwealth Bank economist Diana Mousina said.

"Fuel costs will always be a significant expense for car owners so I'd encourage consumers to think about putting more of their weekly budget aside to cover the increasing cost of fuel, especially those in regional Australia," she said.

Insurance costs average $407 each year.

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Buy-to-let borrowers face UK fee hikes

THOUSANDS of buy-to-let borrowers in the UK are facing a steep increase in their monthly mortgage payments after interest rates were increased by two per cent despite being linked to the Bank of England rate.

West Bromwich Building Society is hiking rates on some of its tracker loans, affecting around 6700 customers, in a change which will increase repayments on a $US200,000 ($A214,465) loan by an estimated STG330.

The move adds to costs for private landlords and has led to concerns that other lenders may follow suit after a similar move by the Bank of Ireland earlier this year.

Tracker mortgages are generally advertised as being linked to the Bank of England rate - but this has not changed for four years, remaining at an historic low of 0.5 per cent which the Bank has indicated will not change until 2016.

But a spokesman for the West Bromwich said: "We believe it is very clearly stated in terms and conditions about the circumstances in which changes to the rates could happen."

The mutual said in a statement: "These changes, which are permitted under the terms and conditions of the accounts, are a reflection of market conditions and the need for us to carry out our business prudently, efficiently and competitively."

Borrowing costs on the financial markets have risen despite the Bank of England's low-interest pledge amid doubts about the timescale of the policy which is linked to the unemployment rate.

Earlier this year, the Bank of Ireland told 13,500 customers, many of whom had taken out loans with subsidiary Bristol & West, that rates on their tracker deals were being increased sharply.

But it announced a partial backtrack when it cancelled the rise for 1200 borrowers after the Financial Conduct Authority became involved. It related to what they had been told about potential changes to mortgage rates.

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Austen ring saved for UK

A RING once owned by Jane Austen which was sold to US singer Kelly Clarkson will stay in the UK after a museum where the author lived raised more than STG150,000 ($A257,710) to buy it.

The gold and turquoise ring remained in the Austen family for around 200 years before it was sold at auction last year.

But Clarkson, 31, was prevented from taking the item of jewellery out of the UK when it became subject to a temporary export ban.

Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire, where the writer spent the last eight years of her life and where she penned all of her six completed novels, launched its fundraising campaign in August.

The museum, which had been unable to meet the hammer price at the Sotheby's auction, has now raised STG157,740 to secure the ring which is expected to go on display in the New Year.

Donations included a single pledge of 100,000 from an anonymous donor while donors included TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh and Austen fans from around the world.

It is not known whether Austen bought or was given the ring - which contains the December turquoise birthstone (Austen's birth month) - and symbolises wisdom and spiritual journeys.

After the world-famous author's death in 1817 from an unknown illness, the ring was passed to her sister Cassandra who then gave it to her sister-in-law Eleanor Austen on her engagement to the Reverend Henry Thomas Austen.

US star Clarkson, a former American Idol winner, said that she was glad that the museum had acquired the item.

"The ring is a beautiful national treasure and I am happy to know that so many Jane Austen fans will get to see it at Jane Austen's House Museum," she said.

Curator Mary Guyatt says they have been stunned by the generosity of Austen fans to the museum, which celebrates the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride And Prejudice this year.

"Visitors come from all around the world to see the house where she once lived and we will now take great pleasure in displaying this pretty ring for their appreciation.

"The Government's decision to decline an export licence reflects how rarely Austen's personal effects turn up in today's art market, and having missed out at auction in 2012 we are thrilled to have had this second chance to bring it home to Chawton."

The museum, which has also raised enough cash to pay for costs associated with showing the ring, such as its display and insurance, already has two other pieces of jewellery owned by the author of Sense And Sensibility and Emma - a turquoise bracelet and a topaz cross.

Austen is set to appear on the new STG10 banknote following a campaign to have a woman on the currency.

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Climate Commission experts to push on

EXPERTS once at the helm of the now defunct Climate Commission have vowed to continue their work and will launch an independent body after being dumped by the federal government.

The Australian Climate Council will be officially unveiled in Sydney on Tuesday, with the same six specialists volunteering their time to interpret breaking climate science from around the globe.

Professor Will Steffen said one of the first orders of business for the not-for-profit Council will be assessing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) fifth assessment report, due for release on Friday.

"We will do the very best we can to pull out the main points to this report and make it understandable to the Australian public," Prof Steffen told AAP, adding that he and colleagues hoped to produce a summary document within days of the release.

The Climate Commission, set up in 2011 by the former Labor government to increase public awareness of climate change science, was disbanded by the new coalition government on Thursday.

"Since the axe fell I've gotten lots of emails from colleagues and the general public ... people airing their displeasure (at the Commission being scrapped) and we were just really encouraged by the groundswell of support to keep going," Prof Steffen said.

The Australian National University researcher said the Commission had filled "an important niche" as an a-political organisation, keeping Australians informed about "complex climate science".

Former Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery, who headed up the Commission, said it was important the work continued.

"It is crucial for tackling big societal challenges and for democracy that Australians have access to accurate scientific information," Professor Flannery said.

The two men will be joined by colleagues Roger Beale, Gerry Hueston, Professor Lesley Hughes and Professor Veena Sahajwalla.

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Biometric trick fools iPhone: German group

A GERMAN hacking group claims it can bypass the fingerprint-based security system used to unlock Apple's new iPhone 5S.

A spokesman for the Chaos Computer Club says the group managed to fool the phone's biometric sensor into accepting a fingerprint created with a household printer and wood glue.

Dirk Engling said on Monday that the exploit has been documented with several videos so independent experts can verify it.

He added that the hardest part had been getting hold of an iPhone 5S, which went on sale in Germany last week.

Apple didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.

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