Concerns raised over 100 childcare workers

At least 25 SA childcare workers have been assessed as unfit to work with children and stood down. Source: AAP

AT least 25 Families SA workers will be stood down after an audit raising questions about their suitability for working with children.

EDUCATION and Child Development Minister Jennifer Rankine on Friday said 25 residential carers would be immediately suspended from working one-on-one with children following the examination of the employment records of almost 500 staff.

The audit by former police commissioner Mal Hyde also identified a further 77 staff as being of "high concern".Although no recommendation has been made to immediately remove those workers from one-on-one care responsibilities, Ms Rankine said they will face further assessment."It has raised serious concerns about the employment processes of staff working in residential care, and the department is now acting to address those concerns as a matter of priority," she said."The department either already has or will today be directing them away from their workplace, while an immediate assessment is undertaken into their suitability for ongoing employment."Ms Rankine said the department will be instituting heightened levels of supervision, and increasing random audits on relevant workplaces.The audit has been provided to Royal Commissioner Margaret Nyland, as part of her inquiry into South Australia's child protection system.

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HK police separate residents, protesters

Hong Kong's embattled leader has rejected protesters' calls for him to resign. Source: AAP

PUSHING and yelling, hundreds of Hong Kong residents have tried to force pro-democracy activists from the streets they are occupying as tensions rose in the weeklong protests that have shut down parts of the city.

THE protesters said that if authorities do not act to protect the unarmed, peaceful demonstrators, they would retract an agreement to hold talks with the city government as proposed by Hong Kong's leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.

"Stop the violence or we call off the talks," the groups of students and other activists said in a statement.The scuffles in Kowloon's crowded Mong Kok district were the most chaotic since police used tear gas and pepper spray on Sunday in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse protesters pushing for greater electoral reforms.Police were hard-pressed to keep order as the two sides tussled in a tense standoff.The visibly older people trying to force the vastly outnumbered protesters out were yelling, shoving and at times trying to drag the younger protesters away.The democracy activists linked arms and held hands as they tried to stand their ground against the huge crowd.Police formed cordons and escorted some of the protesters away as hundreds of onlookers chanted, "Go home!".In Causeway Bay, a major shopping area that has also been occupied by protesters, groups of young men in face masks were forced away from the protesters by police.Hong Kong's top civil servant, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, said on Friday she had begun organising the talks with the protesters, who have continued their sit-ins after Leung rejected their calls to resign."I am indeed very concerned about the clashes we have seen in the streets," Lam said."Sentiments are running high and there is a high chance of conflict on the streets," she said."So I am urging protesters who have been occupying parts of the territory to consider retreating... so that the police can restore law and order."The police were linking arms in an attempt to keep those agitating to get the area cleared of protesters from pushing into their ranks.The protesters and many onlookers were filming the confrontations; one man tried to grab a video camera from a demonstrator's hand."I would like to appeal to members of the public that they should observe the laws of Hong Kong when they are expressing their views," police spokesman Steve Hui said when asked about the confrontation in Mong Kok, a working class area far from the main protest site in downtown Hong Kong, the Admiralty area near the territory's government headquarters.Benny Tai, leader of the broader pro-democracy movement Occupy Central With Love and Peace issued a public call for all protesters to shift back to Admiralty where they began their protests last weekend.He said the group was confident they could guarantee the protesters' safety if they moved back to that area.Witnesses said the scuffles broke out when citizens began to dismantle the tents and barricades put up in the streets by the demonstrators who are demanding the government implement universal suffrage in municipal elections in 2017.While calm was quickly restored in Causeway Bay, in Mong Kok shouting matches broke out which threatened to escalate into physical violence, the witnesses said.The demonstrators, mostly students, formed lines to keep back the angry crowds while police also formed human chains to separate the two sides.One of the students, who identified herself as Cynthia, said the citizens causing the trouble were paid government agitators brought in from outside."They're people paid by the government. They're not from here (because) they don't speak Cantonese", which is the dialect spoken in Hong Kong, she said.Some who are sympathetic to the protesters' demands for wider political reforms complained the police were not doing enough to protect the demonstrators."We saw people with no uniforms in Causeway Bay and Mong Kok attack protesters and take away their belongings," said Cyd Ho, vice-chairwoman of the Labour Party."Police have the duty to safeguard peaceful demonstrations by Hong Kong citizens," Ho said."If police do not intervene this sets a dangerous precedent ... that if people are unhappy with protesters they can attack them with impunity."But some Hong Kong residents complained that the protests were undermining their livelihoods."It affected my company, a perfume business, to deliver goods in the area," said Ken Lai in the bustling Causeway Bay neighbourhood."I really dislike the fact that they occupied so many areas, all scattered around the city. I'm a Hong Konger too. The occupiers don't represent all of us."

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UK man jailed for fake bomb detectors scam

A MAN has been jailed for making bogus bomb detectors that he claimed could find missing Madeleine McCann.

SAM Tree, 68, of Dunstable, Bedfordshire, who made the devices in his garden shed, claimed they could track down explosives, drugs and people.

Detectives heralded the sentencing as the "concluding act in a highly complex, extensive and significant investigation" in which three other British con artists have been convicted of making fake detectors.It is believed the criminals made about STG80 million ($A146.03 million) from the scam.Tree was jailed for three and a half years at London's Kingston Crown Court on Friday after being found guilty at the Old Bailey in August of making an article for use in a fraud between January 2007 and July 2012.His wife, Joan Tree, 62, was handed a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work in the community after being convicted over the same offence.The Trees broke down in tears and embraced each other after the hearing.The instruction manuals that accompanied their products claimed the user's own static electricity would power the aerial to move if it detected the substance it was searching for.In passing sentence, Judge Richard Marks QC told the pair: "The aerial would point to the vicinity or direction of the objects or person being looked at."One only has to look at the facts to see this as a bizarre and fantastic proposition as to be almost akin to something out of Alice in Wonderland."Detective Constable Joanne Law, who led the investigation for the City of London Police's Overseas Anti-Corruption Unit, said after the hearing: "It really is just an empty plastic case. It's wishful thinking and nothing more."It plays on people's desire to find a very simple solution to a very complex problem."She said the detectors and the so-called science behind them were examined by experts who concluded "it's absolute rubbish, none of it is true".

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US jobless rate dips to 6-year low of 5.9%

RAAF jets to launch IS strikes within hours

AUSTRALIA has declared war on the terrorist armies of Islamic State and RAAF fighter jets to strike tomorrow night. The Telegraph gained exclusive access to the top secret mission control.

Silk's guilty son walks free

THE son of top Sydney barrister John Agius walked free from court after committing an armed robbery that has put 96 per cent of all other offenders behind bars.

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Flegg out due to `faceless people' in LNP

FORMER Queensland housing minister Bruce Flegg says the LNP has lost confidence in Premier Campbell Newman retaining his seat at the next election.

ON Friday the Moggill MP of 10 years faced the party's powerful state executive committee, which rejected his application to contest preselection for the 2015 poll.

Dr Flegg said his ousting was part of a succession in the event Mr Newman loses the inner Brisbane seat of Ashgrove."I am certain that the LNP do not believe Campbell Newman can win Ashgrove," he told 7.30 Queensland on Friday night."This is about the factional battle for who leads the LNP after Campbell Newman is gone, whether or not that is before or after the election."Campbell won't be happy that I'm doing a public interview but I think the public have a right to know."But he doesn't believe Mr Newman is personally ambitious for the seat of Moggill, saying the first term premier was "very genuine and fair dinkum" about his intentions to stand in Ashgrove.Dr Flegg said his ousting was part of the succession plan, and blames "faceless people" within the LNP for pushing him."There are other forces at play," he said.The LNP state executive on Friday issued a brief statement about Dr Flegg's preselection.Dr Flegg took to Twitter soon after and accused the party executive of denying the Moggill branch its right to chose its representative.Meanwhile, embattled former minister Ros Bates (Mudgeeraba) and Redlands MP Peter Dowling, who created international headlines after he was caught plonking his penis in a glass of wine, were allowed to vie for preselection."Under the terms of the LNP Constitution, the State Executive is empowered to determine whether or not applications for the party's endorsement should proceed to preselection," the LNP statement read."The LNP is a democratic party and, unlike the Labor party, these decisions are made by office bearers from all over Queensland who are elected by party members."The preselection of LNP candidates is determined by a vote of local party members."The party said it would announce endorsed candidates in the three seats, and others, in due course.Dr Flegg was the housing minister until November 2012, when he was forced to resign after failing to declare all contact he had with his lobbyist son.He also created a furore after secretly recording his colleagues during a failed attempt to persuade him to retire so Premier Campbell Newman could take his safe conservative seat in Brisbane's west before the last election.Speculation is already mounting that Mr Newman will move into Moggill, particularly since his Labor rival in Ashgrove, Kate Jones, announced she would be standing again in 2015.However, Mr Newman has repeatedly maintained he will stay put.

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'Brave' WA surfer swam after shark attack

Rescuers have spoken of Sean Pollard's bravery after he swam to safety following a shark attack. Source: AAP

A MAN who helped rescue a 23-year-old surfer after a shark tore off his hand and part of his other arm says the bravest thing he has ever seen is the injured man swimming to safety.

BUNBURY man Sean Pollard remains in a stable condition in the trauma unit at Royal Perth Hospital after an attack on Thursday morning near Wylie Bay at Kelpids Beach, about six kilometres east of Esperance, in Western Australia's south.

Ross Tamlin was surfing about 400m away from Mr Pollard and said they were the only ones that far out."I just heard this almighty scream and I just felt very uneasy by it, and knowing of the shark sightings of recent times out there, I quickly got out of the water," he told reporters in Esperance on Friday.Mr Tamlin said he and another man drove to the spot and saw Mr Pollard lying on his back in the water.Two men dragged Mr Pollard ashore and Mr Tamlin made the emergency phone call.A man known as Robbie watched on as Mr Pollard collapsed before being dragged ashore."He's obviously swum about 100 metres with those injuries ... it was probably the bravest thing I've ever seen," he told Fairfax radio.Robbie said an off-duty paramedic at the beach, who helped stem the bleeding with towels, saved Mr Pollard's life."You couldn't give her enough props," he said.Mr Tamlin, who often visits the beach, said it was a "remarkable effort" for Mr Pollard to swim that far to safety by himself."For that (attack) to happen at our local break's pretty upsetting and pretty daunting," he said.Robbie drove Mr Pollard to meet the ambulance and said the injured man remained conscious while his partner talked to him, despite losing a lot of blood.Senior Sergeant Richard Moore has spoken with Mr Pollard's partner, Claire Oakford, and says the pair have a positive outlook on the future.He said Mr Pollard was awake and his partner's family was flying to WA from Tasmania.The Esperance community has also started fundraising to help with Mr Pollard's recovery with collection tins at the Shire's administration and leisure centres.The Lions Club will arrange for the money to be given to Mr Pollard after October 17.The state's Fisheries Department responded to the attack by catching and killing two white pointers - a protected species - on drumlines, one measuring up to 4.5 metres and the other three metres.Fisheries have defended the move amid reports Mr Pollard might have been mauled by two bronze whalers, saying it was more likely a white pointer was responsible.The two captured sharks will be dissected, although sharks often disgorge stomach contents so their role may never be confirmed.Drumlines have not been redeployed but beaches from Wylie Bay to Cape Le Grand remain closed.Mr Pollard's teammates at South Bunbury Football Club will play in a grand final this weekend and are expected to pay tribute to him.

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