Massive media operation for Gallipoli

Some familiar Australian media personalities will be among the thousands at Gallipoli on Anzac Day. Source: AAP

SOME familiar Australian media personalities will be among the thousands at Gallipoli this Anzac Day with the 100th anniversary of the landings set to be an enormous event.

SEVEN'S Sunrise team of David Koch and Samantha Armytage, Triple M Network breakfast identities Mick Molloy and Eddie McGuire, and Nine Network presenter Cameron Williams are some of the 200 journalists and crew who will be in Turkey.

Just as members of the Australian public vied for just 8000 tickets in a ballot to attend the tightly controlled Dawn Service at Anzac Cove, media access is tight too, with just 80 journalists allowed in to cover the ceremony at the Australian Commemorative Site.Most of Australia's major news organisation will have people in Turkey and many are broadcasting from the region in the week leading up to April 25.While planning has gone on for many months for some organisations, head of the Triple M Network, Mike Fitzpatrick, said the FM broadcaster scrambled to organise its coverage in seven weeks after an invitation from Veterans' Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson.Triple M will have a week of special broadcasts from Dubai, Istanbul and Gallipoli by its Melbourne breakfast team - comprising McGuire, Molloy and Luke Darcy.Broadcasting from the remote Gallipoli peninsula has its challenges - Triple M had to buy a satellite transmitter for the operation - but Mr Fitzpatrick said it was an honour to be asked."It's a hugely significant moment," he said.The Macquarie Radio Network - which operates 2UE in Sydney, 3AW in Melbourne, 6PR in Perth and 4BC in Brisbane - is also sending a team to Gallipoli with 2UE's Justin Smith to broadcast back to Australia.The Dawn Service to mark the 100th anniversary of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli will start at 5.30am in Turkey, which is 12.30pm AEST - after Dawn Services have taken place across Australia.ABC is the host TV broadcaster and will be providing vision to all Australian networks.The Dawn Service will be watched not only by hundreds of thousands of viewers in Australia and New Zealand but also a huge Turkish audience, who will served by local journalists.

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Israel remembers 6m Jews killed in WWII

Israelis have observed two minutes of silent remembrance during the annual Holocaust Memorial Day. Source: AAP

ISRAELIS have observed two minutes of silence in remembrance of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust and 70 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camps.

SIRENS marked the start of a state wreath-laying service at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Centre in Jerusalem during Israel's annual Holocaust Memorial Day, which began after sunset on Wednesday and lasts until sunset on Thursday.

Ceremonies were also held at schools, colleges and universities throughout the country.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at an opening ceremony at Yad Vashem, said the world had not learned from World War II."Has the world really learned from the incomprehensible universal and Jewish tragedy of the previous century?" he asked."Democratic governments made a momentous mistake before World War II and we, along with many of our neighbours, are convinced that a bitter mistake has also been made now."Netanyahu also compared Iran's "aggression" in the Middle East to Hitler's Germany."As the Nazis sought to stamp out civilisation and to set the master race to rule across the earth ... while wiping out the Jewish people, so does Iran seek to control the region, spread outwards and destroy the Jewish state," he said.Netanyahu misses no opportunity to slam the emerging nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers, which is to be finalised by June 30.Israel and the West suspect Iran's civilian nuclear program is a front for efforts to build a military capability, a charge Tehran denies.

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Accused Kiwi drug mule granted sick leave

A NEW Zealand man has been granted a week's leave from his Bali drug smuggling trial, after collapsing in a hearing last week.

ANTONY de Malmanche says he has a history of the heart condition angina, and wants to be thoroughly examined.

The 52-year-old could face the death penalty for smuggling 1.7kg of methamphetamine into Bali in December.Chief Judge Cening Budiana, who noticed the Kiwi was ailing last week and adjourned witness hearings, on Thursday granted him a week off.The judge asked the prosecutor to take de Malmanche for a fuller check with the prison's physician and bring the results to court next Thursday.De Malmanche's son Shaun was in court for the first time on Thursday.Lawyers for de Malmanche say their client was tricked into carrying the meth by a drug syndicate that snared him on a dating website, and made him believe he was coming to Bali to meet a woman named Jessie.

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UK man to be extradited to Aust

A MAN accused of dozens of sex offences against three women in Australia more than 30 years ago has lost an extradition appeal in the High Court in London.

COLIN Simpson Henderson is alleged to have carried out the attacks in Melbourne between 1981 and 1984 after answering advertisements for a lodger or tenant.

The 63-year-old, who left Australia in 1996, faces trial on 58 charges which relate to offences including rape and indecent assault.He was living in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, when arrested last June after after the cases were re-opened and a DNA sample matched. He has since been in custody.Henderson launched a bid to block his extradition, claiming it would be oppressive because of the passage of time that had elapsed and because of his physical condition, including a lung problem which could make it risky to fly.Lord Justice Aikens and Justice Kenneth Parker dismissed the appeal - which means Henderson will be extradited within 14 days.Lord Justice Aikens said Australian authorities were not to blame for the delay and there was ample protection for defendants in historic sex cases.The circumstances in Henderson's case fell very far short of amounting to oppression, he added."These alleged extradition offences are very serious," he said."It is very important that the UK's international obligations with regard to extradition are respected."The judge said it made sense to ensure Henderson arrived in Australia in as good a state of health as possible.

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US unemployment benefit numbers rise

THE number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose for the second straight week yet remained at a low level that is consistent with more hiring.

APPLICATIONS increased 12,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 294,000, the Labor Department said.

Despite the increase, other data on Thursday suggests the number of laid-off workers applying for benefits is still quite low.The four-week average, a less volatile measure, ticked up 250 to 282,750, just barely above the previous week's level, which was the lowest in nearly 15 years.With fewer Americans seeking aid, the number of people collecting benefits fell to 2.27 million, the lowest in more than 14 years. The benefit rolls have dropped because some unemployed have found jobs, while many others have used up all the benefits available.The US economy is stumbling through a period of slower growth, but when applications are below 300,000, that suggests employers haven't been spooked enough to cut many jobs.Hiring was sluggish last month. Employers added just 126,000 jobs in March, the fewest in 15 months and snapping a year-long streak of monthly gains above 200,000. The unemployment rate remained 5.5 per cent.

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Charges dropped for cop who kicked teen

Assault charges have been dropped against a NSW police officer who kicked a teen during an arrest. Source: AAP

A NSW police officer who forcefully kicked a teenage boy in the face during an arrest in Sydney's west will walk free from court after charges against him were dismissed.

SENIOR Constable Chad Owen Halliday, 37, was hugged by his jubilant family as Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge, herself a former NSW police officer, said the crown has failed to prove the assault occasioning actual bodily harm charge, in a hearing on Wednesday.

During an earlier hearing, Halliday told the court the kick to the face of Aaron Borthwick last May was a standard police tactic he used out of concern for his safety.Borthwick had been a passenger in a stolen Audi, and after police were led on a long chase he bailed from the car, hopped over three fences and tried to hide in a small hole under the patio of an Emu Plains home in early morning darkness.Borthwick, who was 17 at the time, and the others in the stolen car were determined to avoid arrest at all cost, Ms Milledge said.Several police officers present during the arrest gave varying versions of events with discrepancies in the locations of officers, how many torches were on and the state of Borthwick.Borthwick, Ms Milledge found, was hiding in the hole, which measured about one metre by one metre, for about five minutes before he heard voices.Halliday, a dog handler, told Borthwick to leave the hole and threatened to set his animal on the teen if he didn't comply.But as Borthwick was getting out of the hole he hesitated and Halliday saw him going for what he thought could be a weapon in his pants.He kicked the teen's face in what he said was a reasonable use of force."What Halliday did in the circumstances was understandable," Ms Milledge said.Halliday pleaded not guilty to the assault last August.After the charges were dismissed, Halliday indicated he would pursue the state for costs.

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Minister apologises to dad for FSH death

The WA health minister has apologised to the father of a man who died at Perth's new hospital. Source: AAP

HEALTH minister Kim Hames has apologised to the father of a man who died at Perth's new Fiona Stanley Hospital after he was given the wrong drug.

JARED Olsen, 41, went to the hospital with stomach pains that were suspected to be caused by Crohn's disease.

Mr Olsen was prescribed mercaptopurine - a strong drug usually used to treat leukaemia and sometimes Crohn's.He was also tested to see if he had the enzyme TPMT, which is needed to prevent the potentially life-threatening side effects of the drug.But Mr Olsen's father Phillip said the results of the test were never followed up and he found his son weeks later collapsed in the shower in a pool of his own blood and faeces.Mr Olsen was rushed to hospital but died on March 5 from suspected organ failure.It was revealed earlier this month that in a letter written in November, staff warned of "significant clinical and financial consequences" from cutbacks to the inflammatory bowel disease service, which used to be housed at Fremantle Hospital.The health minister had initially said the specialist service had been transferred completely across to FSH but later conceded that the advice he had received was wrong.Mr Olsen told Fairfax radio on Wednesday that Dr Hames had called him and his daughter to offer a personal apology for the treatment that caused his son's death."I have no reason to believe that he wasn't genuine about that apology," Mr Olsen said."He was fairly critical of those people advising him."One wonders if those advisers are still working for the minister."Mr Olsen said Dr Hames told him the service would be brought back to its original standard and that he had asked for a coronial inquest to be held into his son's death.

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Rock-throwing NT kids threatened with care

IF the parents of children responsible for attacking authorities and damaging property in Alice Springs can't control them they'll be taken into care, the NT chief minister has warned.

ADAM Giles says he won't tolerate a situation, which early on Tuesday escalated to a group of more than 50 youths throwing rocks at police, starting several fires and damaging property in the central Australian town.

Police say they are concerned they are being targeted.Over the past two weeks there have been other rock-throwing incidents, one resulting in a damaged ambulance being taken off the road.The government says many of the young people responsible are from outlying, predominantly indigenous communities.Over Easter, Alice Springs hosted a metal concert, a national bike race and the AFL's Lightning Cup Carnival, with many attendees staying on for the school holidays.But there have been numerous reports of property damage since."I'm giving the parents of the children responsible for this spate of violence a very clear message: get your kids off the streets, get them back to communities and back into school," Mr Giles said in a statement late on Wednesday."Otherwise, these children will be regarded as requiring protection and we will take immediate action. Parents should not doubt our resolve to do this."Any school-age child found on the streets during school hours will now be issued with a $298 fine by school attendance officers.Minister for Children and Families John Elferink said he had directed the department "to take strong action" and put children into care where legally possible."Normally the department would see this as a last resort and be willing to work with parents but these are not normal circumstances," he said."If parents don't want to see their children in care then they need to get off the grog and head back to their home community."The government will organise bus transport for families to get them home.Mr Giles said in light of the violence the government is reconsidering supporting the Lightning Cup Carnival next year."If the organisers want taxpayers support, they best think long and hard about how they conduct their event and how to reduce the impact it has created on the town in the subsequent days," he warned.

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Nokia to buy Alcatel-Lucent for $A21b

Finland's Nokia has confirmed it is acquiring French telecom company Alcatel-Lucent for $A21.64bn. Source: AAP

NOKIA has struck a 15.6 billion euro ($A21.64 billion) deal to buy its rival Alcatel-Lucent to create the world's biggest supplier of mobile phone network equipment.

THE Finnish telecom giant on Wednesday agreed to give shareholders in its Franco-American rival 0.55 shares in the new merged company for every one of their own.

The new group "will be uniquely positioned to create the foundation of seamless connectivity for people and things wherever they are," Nokia's statement said.It will go by the name Nokia, be based in Finland, and be run by Nokia's current management team, it said.The group is targeting savings of 900 million euros in costs by the end of 2019 without further job cuts following the restructuring, both companies said, adding the merger should save an additional 200 million euros in financial charges.Alcatel-Lucent boss Michel Combes, told French TV channel BFM Business the new group was committed to "increasing R&D activities in France by 25 per cent" by hiring 500 additional researchers, bringing the total research and development workforce in the country to 2,500."The new group's innovation and research capabilities on a global scale will be spearheaded in France," he said.The French government said on Tuesday it was concerned about jobs disappearing in France if the merger were to go through.Rumours have swirled since December of a possible deal between the two firms, with France's Les Echos reporting on Monday that executives had been in negotiations since January.Nokia was the world's biggest mobile phone maker for more than a decade until it was overtaken by South Korea's Samsung in 2012.Then in 2014, Nokia sold its mobile phone and tablet division to US software giant Microsoft, and the company now develops mobile and internet network infrastructures for operators.Nokia is now set for a significant boost in market share.The deal will also help Nokia bolster its mobile infrastructure business against Swedish arch-rival Ericsson and China's Huawei, profiting from Alcatel's position as a leading supplier of 4G and LTE mobile networks and related services.

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Ellis trial hears of Bali kitchen killing

THE violent details of an Australian businessman's murder in his own Bali villa have been aired in the trial of his wife, who is accused of ordering the hit.

NOOR Ellis faces charges of pre-meditated murder over the death of her husband of 25-years, Robert Ellis, whose body was found in a rice field last October.

Also known as Julaikah Noor Aini, Ellis could face the death penalty.In her defence she claims she only asked her maid's boyfriend to take care of her problems with her husband, not kill him.But the trial has already heard from the maid, and a second maid, that the order was given to kill Mr Ellis.On Wednesday, the man who cut Mr Ellis' throat, 23-year-old Urbanus Yohanes Ghoghi, told the court in graphic detail of the roles he and four other men played in the killing.Ellis had given one of the men, Martin, a towel and pillow, and the men first tried to suffocate him, Urbanus said.When their victim fought back, Martin handed him the kitchen knife he used to slash his throat.Afterwards, Ellis handed Martin the plastic to wrap her husband's body in, Urbanus' co-accused, Yohanes Sairokudu, said."That night, Mrs Noor gave Rp 50 million ($5000) to Martin. It was then split, Rp 10 million each," he said."Martin also said to us that tomorrow, there will be more."Yohanes was also asked about a meeting Ellis called prior to the murder, where other witnesses say she gave the order to kill her husband."Mrs Noor said that when killing Mr Bob, don't use a sharp weapon," he said."Close his nose and mouth with a pillow only."To be neat, basically."Ellis later took the stand as a witness in the trials of the two men, who are also charged with premeditated murder.Asked by Judge Beslin Sihombing where Mr Ellis was now, she replied: "In heaven".Asked who gave the order to have him murdered she said: "probably me".The judge replied: "Probably? Or did you order them?"She replied: "Because of the order from me. I asked Martin's help to teach a lesson".Judge Hadi Masruri asked Ellis why she gave the order."For a long time he hadn't given me sufficient (money), (he) even took the money for my kids' schooling," she replied."Because his attitude didn't change, I couldn't stand it anymore."Once I asked for divorce but he didn't want to."He said we should just go on, in our own way."The trial continues next week with Ellis' defence.

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Man kills armadillo, but shot hits in-law

A US man shot an armadillo, but ended up accidentally wounding his mother-in-law when the bullet ricocheted off the mammal known for its hard shell.

SHERIFF'S deputies have told WALB-TV that 54-year-old Larry McElroy fired his 9mm pistol at the armadillo in the state of Georgia.

Deputies say the bullet killed the armadillo, but bounced off the animal, hit a fence, travelled through the back door of the mother-in-law's mobile home and the recliner in which she was sitting, striking her in the back.McElroy's 74-year-old mother-in-law, Carol Johnson, suffered injuries described as non-life-threatening.McElroy was about 90 metres away from the home when he shot the armadillo.

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US retail sales rise in March

US retail sales rose in March as Americans increased their spending on cars, furniture, clothing and building materials, new figures show.

THE Commerce Department says retail sales jumped 0.9 per cent last month, after declining 0.5 per cent decline in February. The retail rise was the first in four months.

The rebound suggests US shoppers are returning after an unseasonably cold winter froze sales. Warmer weather fuelled a 2.7 per cent increase in auto sales and a 2.1 per cent boost in building materials, possible signs that the lagging manufacturing and construction sectors might also recover from a winter slump.Economists say sales should continue to climb because of the year-long hiring surge and lower petrol prices.

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Norway asks Indonesia to halt executions

NORWEGIAN Prime Minister Erna Solberg has reportedly asked Indonesia's President Joko Widodo to halt the executions of Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

MS Solberg visited Jakarta for bilateral talks on Tuesday and afterwards told the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang that she "asked explicitly not to implement the imminent death sentences".

She said Mr Joko had responded that it was part of Indonesia's legal system and that Indonesia faced a huge drug problem."My experience is that they are listening," Ms Solberg said."But it is important to mobilise internal support to liquidate the death penalty."We as politicians must always point this out to politicians from Indonesia, but I think it's just as important what civil society in Indonesia says."Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31, await execution on a central Java island for their roles in the Bali Nine effort to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005.The Norwegian newspaper on Tuesday splashed a story about Sukumaran, who worked with Norwegian academics and students to initiate rehabilitation programs in Kerobokan prison, where he spent most of the past decade.Student Espen Nordstrom has met Sukumaran around 20 times and told the newspaper the Australian regretted the choices he had made when he was younger."He always seemed incredibly quiet and had a big smile," he said.Sukumaran turns 34 on Friday, an occasion that is being marked in London with an exhibition of his paintings, held with the support of Amnesty International.The Australian pair and eight other drug offenders are next in line for the firing squad, but Jakarta has not set a date.Norway is firmly against capital punishment. It has strong ties with Indonesia in various areas, including conservation, climate change and energy.

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Over 7000 migrants rescued off Italy: EU

More than 7,000 migrants have been plucked from the Mediterranean since Friday, the EU says. Source: AAP

MORE than 7,000 migrants have been plucked from the Mediterranean since Friday as an unprecedented wave of people flee conflict and poverty seeking better lives in Europe.

OF those 7,000 EU migration spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said "over 3,500 are still on board rescue vessels and being taken to Italy and so far, 11 bodies were recovered."

More than 280,000 people entered the European Union illegally last year. Many came from Syria, Eritrea and Somalia and made the perilous sea journey from conflict-torn Libya.European coast guards have been overwhelmed by the numbers.The EU's top migration official Dimitris Avramopoulos told EU MPs on Tuesday that the influx "is unfortunately the new norm and we will need to adjust our responses accordingly."

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Cameron woos voters on homes, childcare

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron has launched his Conservative Party's election manifesto with a pledge to allow up to 1.3 million more social housing tenants to buy their homes and to extend free childcare for under-5s.

CAMERON urged voters to let him "build on foundations" laid over the last five years of the Conservatives' coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, claiming he had "turned a great recession into a great recovery."

"At the heart of this manifesto is a simple proposition," he said."We are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life."He promised to build 400,000 new homes and reduce income tax for low earners if the Conservatives continue in government after the May 7 election.The prime minister also pledged 30 hours a week of free childcare for three and four-year-olds "worth STG5,000 a year".Pro-Conservative media said Cameron's housing pledge revived the policy of former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher and was an attempt to win working-class votes in next month's parliamentary elections."Maggie's right-to-buy dream is back," the Daily Express said in a front page headline, referring to Thatcher's policy of selling local authority housing in the 1980s.Conservative strategists believed the right-to-buy pledge would "win favour among working-class voters in marginal constituencies," The Times said.But Ruth Davison of the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations managing some 2.5 million homes, said the Conservatives' plan would not solve Britain's housing crisis.Tenants in social housing already have "good secure homes on some of the country's cheapest rents," Davison said."It won't help the millions of people in private rented homes who are desperate to buy but have no hope of doing so, nor the three million adult children living with their parents because they can't afford to rent or buy," she said.Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband launched his party's manifesto on Monday, promising to cut the budget deficit, tackle low pay and job insecurity, improve the National Health Service, and expand controls on immigration.Opinion polls put Labour and the Conservatives roughly level with about 33 per cent support, followed by the right-wing UK Independence Party on 14 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on just under 10 per cent.

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Man killed at Walt Disney World attraction

A LAMBORGHINI that was part of an exotic car racing attraction at Walt Disney World has crashed into a guardrail, killing a passenger and injuring the driver.

THE Florida Highway Patrol says Tavon Watson, 24, lost control of the vehicle on Sunday afternoon, killing Gary Terry, 36.

Sergeant Kim Montes said in an incident report that Watson failed to manoeuvre the high-powered vehicle through the Exotic Driving Experience course. The vehicle's passenger side struck the guardrail. Terry died at the scene. Watson was taken to a nearby hospital where he was treated and released.The attraction lets race car fans be drivers or passengers in luxurious cars such as Lamborghinis, Porsches or Ferraris. For between $US200 ($A260) and $US400 ($A521), customers can drive several laps with a professional driving instructor in the passenger seat. It is located south of the Magic Kingdom parking lots.A spokeswoman said Disney offers its "deepest sympathy to those involved" in the crash.The track is operated by Petty Holdings, which has other Exotic Driving Experience attractions at speedways in Atlanta, Daytona Beach, New Jersey, Kansas, New Hampshire and Texas.The Exotic Driving Experience, along with its sibling track, the Richard Petty Driving Experience, was slated to close this summer at Disney World for unrelated reasons.Montes said the crash remains under investigation.

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China women's activists 'to be freed'

A LAWYER says the families of three of five Chinese women's rights activists detained in Beijing have been informed that they will be freed.

LIANG Xiaojun said family members of the three were on Monday told they would be given a form of conditional release that still allows charges to be brought later.

Lawyers for the women, Wang Man, Zheng Churan and Wei Tingting, did not answer phone calls, and contacts for their family members were not immediately available. Calls to the Haidian District Detention Centre in western Beijing rang unanswered on Monday night.Liang said no such notice had been received for his client, Wu Rongrong, or for the fifth woman, Li Tingting, and it wasn't clear whether they would face charges.The five were detained last month as they prepared to distribute materials against domestic violence on International Women's Day on March 8. They were accused of creating a disturbance and, if convicted, could be sentenced to up to three years in prison. Five others detained at the same time have since been released.Their case has brought international expressions of concern, including from US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, Britain's Foreign Office and the European Union.Beijing police have refused to comment on the case and China's Foreign Ministry has responded angrily to questions about it, demanding that critics "stop interfering in China's judicial sovereignty in such a manner".

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I'm ready to lead Britain, says Miliband

OPPOSITION leader Ed Miliband says he is ready to be Britain's next prime minister as he launched a manifesto designed to boost his party's reputation on the economy.

MILIBAND sought to reassure voters that his centre-left Labour party would manage the economy responsibly while handing more wealth to low and middle income families during a speech in Manchester, northwest England.

Labour has been virtually tied with Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives in opinion polls for months in an election race which many experts predict will yield another coalition or minority government.But with 24 days to go until the May 7 general election, the economy remains one of the party's main weak spots and polling suggests voters trust Labour less on the issue than the Conservatives.Labour's record on the economy while in government between 1997 and 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is also frequently attacked by the Conservatives, who blame the party for running up a budget deficit of some STG90 billion ($A171.54 billion)."I'm ready. Ready to put an end to the tired old idea that as long as we look after the rich and powerful, we will all be OK," Miliband told activists on Monday."If you elect me as your prime minister in just over three weeks' time, I will work for that goal ... I know Britain can be better."In a bid to signal fiscal credibility, Labour is promising to cut the deficit every year until it is eradicated and detail how each manifesto pledge will be paid for, with no extra borrowing.It says its plans for reducing the debt would hurt ordinary, middle-income families less than those announced by Cameron's Conservatives, in power as senior partners in a coalition government since 2010.Instead, it intends to make wealthier taxpayers shoulder more of the burden by policies such as the "mansion tax" - a tax on homes worth STG2 million or more which would help fund the state-run National Health Service (NHS) and increasing income tax for those earning more than STG150,000 a year.But some business leaders warn that a Labour government could damage Britain's economic recovery.Earlier this month, over 100 signed an open letter backing the Conservatives, including some who had previously backed Labour under Blair and Brown, who took a more business-friendly approach.Commentators say Miliband - who has struggled with a geeky public image since defeating his brother David to become Labour leader in 2010 - has turned in some strong personal performances on the campaign trail.

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Duke of York returns after sex allegations

THE Duke of York has returned to official duties for the first time since sexual allegations against him were struck from US court records.

ANDREW visited the site of multinational paints firm AkzoNobel in Slough on Monday to highlight its support for a charity he has close associations with, the Outward Bound Trust.

The Duke looked relaxed during his trip to the headquarters of the company's best-known product range, Dulux paints.Claims that Andrew had sex with an underage teenager were removed from civil court records following a federal judge's ruling last week.The allegations made by Virginia Roberts - who claimed she was the sex slave of Andrew's former financier friend Jeffrey Epstein - were vehemently denied by the Duke.When asked if he was still happy to be associated with the Duke, Mr Pullen replied: "To be honest this is a long-standing engagement, he's the patron of the Outward Bound Trust, who we have a fantastic relationship with, and its great to have him here."The allegations were part of submissions made by lawyers acting for Ms Roberts who wanted to join an existing civil lawsuit.It was launched by two women, also alleged Epstein victims, against US federal prosecutors' handling of the financier's conviction for a sex offence.He was sentenced to 18 months in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution but lawyers for the women claim a secret plea deal he struck with prosecutors, granting him and any potential co-conspirators immunity from further prosecution, violated their clients' rights.US District Judge Kenneth Marra refused Ms Roberts permission to join the lawsuit, and said in his written judgment that the sex abuse details had no bearing on the lawsuit's goal of reopening the Epstein non-prosecution agreement.

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Interpol opens digital crime centre

INTERPOL'S first digital crime centre has been officially opened in Singapore.

COMPLEMENTING its headquarters in Lyon, the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation (ICGI) will support international policing efforts against cybercrime, as well as research and capacity building in online security, the Straits Times reported.

The ICGI would target among others the bug known as Simda, which it described as a botnet used to "gain remote access to computers enabling the theft of personal details, including banking passwords, as well as to install and spread other malicious malware."According to Interpol, more than 770,000 computers worldwide have been affected by Simda. On 9 April, servers in the Netherlands, the United States, Russia, Luxembourg and Poland were hit by simultaneous attacks.Wilbert Paulissen, head of the Central Criminal Investigation Division of the Netherlands Police, said the new centre in Singapore "will help strengthen the fight against cybercrime worldwide."The ICGI first started operations in Singapore last November, and now has 110 officers from 50 countries.

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Brawl on Dutch coast for bachelor party

ABOUT 75 Germans have been arrested in the Dutch coastal town of Renesse after taking part in a mass brawl that saw two police officers hospitalised, police say.

THE group, which had travelled to the Dutch coast for a bachelor party from the German town of Gelsenkirchen, had been fighting with another group of men on Saturday night when police were forced to intervene.

The men then attacked the police, leaving six officers injured. One of them was hit over the head with a beer bottle, while the other suffered a concussion due to a blow to the head. Both had to be hospitalised.Fourteen of the Germans remain in custody.

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Townsville woman believed murdered

The husband of a missing Townsville woman has been arrested in connection to her suspected murder. Source: AAP

THE husband of missing Townsville woman Julie Hutchinson has been arrested in connection to her suspected murder.

MS Hutchinson, 48, was last seen at a home on Chelsea Drive in the Townsville suburb of Condon on March 7, but was only reported missing on Thursday.

Police believe she was murdered, and arrested her 47-year-old husband on Saturday afternoon.He has not been charged and is currently helping police with their inquiries."Information and evidence we identified suggested (Ms Hutchinson) is now deceased," Inspector David Nixon told reporters on Sunday."The exact details of that evidence are unable to be disclosed at this time because it would affect our investigation, but it has led us to arrest him."The couple's home has been cordoned off for forensic examination, and police are also concentrating part of their investigation on the nearby Herveys Range.Police also seized a vehicle for forensic examination.Investigators want to hear from anyone who may have seen Ms Hutchinson or the vehicle she may have been driving - a 2004 silver, Mazda6 sedan with Queensland registration 622-HZE.

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Police injured as large Sydney party shut

Two policemen have been injured while breaking up a large party in Sydney's east. Source: AAP

A POLICEMAN was hit and injured by a broken bottle and another was assaulted as officers battled to close down a large party in Sydney's east.

AT about 10.30pm on Saturday police were called to an abandoned industrial area on McPherson Street in Botany and for safety reasons attempted to close down a party there attended by around 1000 people.

Most were moved from the area without incident.But police say a number of people threw glass bottles at police and refused to move, forcing officers to use capsicum spray.One officer was hit by a broken bottle and sustained cuts to his head.He was treated at the scene before being taken to Prince of Wales Hospital.A 26-year-old woman was arrested at the scene after allegedly assaulting another officer and she is being interviewed by police.A number of partygoers were treated at the scene by ambulance paramedics after being capsicum sprayed.

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Man charged after Gold Coast car crash

A MAN is facing multiple charges after a car flipped and burst into flames during a police chase on the Gold Coast, leaving a passenger with a broken neck.

OFFICERS were on the lookout for hoons at Yatala, south of Brisbane, on Saturday night, when they saw a car doing burnouts and tried to pull it over.

Police allege the Holden Commodore mounted a kerb to evade them and later swerved around an officer who was standing on the road ordering the driver to stop.The police helicopter Polair continued to monitor the car, which allegedly ran a red light and almost struck another vehicle before hitting a pole, flipping onto its roof and catching alight.A 19-year-old male passenger was taken to hospital with a broken neck, along with the male driver, 20, and a 17-year-old female passenger who suffered shock and bruising.On Sunday night police charged the driver with multiple hoon offences, as well as driving a defective, unregistered and uninsured vehicle, urinating in a public place and failing to stop.

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German woman, 65, pregnant with quads

A 65-YEAR-OLD woman from Berlin is pregnant with quadruplets, German private broadcaster RTL has reported.

THE woman, identified on Sunday only as Annegret R due to German data protection laws, conceived after receiving fertility treatment abroad.

The Russian and English teacher already has 13 children and seven grandchildren. She had her last child in 2005.When asked how she would respond to potential criticism for her unconventional decision, she said: "I think it is something that everyone has to decide for themselves."RTL reported that the woman has had no complications in her pregnancy thus far.

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Man charged after violent NSW robbery

A MAN has been arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with a brutal robbery in northern NSW last year.

A 37-YEAR-OLD man was allegedly tied up and assaulted with a gun and stun gun in his Wooli home, near Grafton, on October 13.

Four men allegedly broke into his house and stole cash, jewellery and a vehicle before escaping.Police arrested a 26-year-old man at the airport after he arrived on a flight from Canada about 10am on Saturday.He was charged at Mascot Police Station with robbery in company while armed with a dangerous weapon.The man is due to face Parramatta Local Court on Sunday.The charge follows the arrest of a man in December, who was allegedly part of the robbery.A 41-year-old Bonville man is before the courts, charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, possessing suspected stolen property, and having custody of a knife in a public place.Police investigations continue.

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Obamas pay $US93K in tax last year

US President Barack Obama and wife Michelle paid more than $US93,000 in federal taxes last year. Source: AAP

US President Barack Obama and wife Michelle paid more than $US93,000 ($A120,920) in federal taxes last year on an adjusted gross income of more than $US477,000.

THEIR effective tax rate was 19.6 per cent.

The Obamas lowered their 2014 tax bill by claiming nearly $US160,000 in itemised deductions, including $US70,712 in charitable donations to 33 different charities.Altogether, they donated nearly 15 per cent of their income, according to tax returns released Friday by the White House.The largest was a $US22,012 donation to the Fisher House Foundation, which supports military families. They also donated $US5000 to Sidwell Friends School, the exclusive private school where daughters Malia and Sasha are enrolled.The 38-page document, which includes the couple's Illinois state income tax return, shows the president made nearly $US395,000 in wages.The couple also reported making $US94,889 from the sale of Obama's best-selling books. That's down from more than $US116,000 the year before.Obama received $US51,167 from Random House and $US43,722 from Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.The White House released the Obamas' tax returns ahead of the filing deadline Wednesday.The Obamas are getting a tax refund of $US20,641. They could have received an additional $US5000 but opted to apply that amount to their 2015 tax bill.

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Muslim Brotherhood group get death penalty

The head of the Muslim Brotherhood is among those given the death penalty by an Egyptian court. Source: AAP

DEATH sentences have been handed down to 14 senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders - including the head of the outlawed group - by an Egyptian court.

THE Cairo Criminal Court charged Mohammed Badie and the other 13 men with inciting chaos in 2013 following a deadly police break up of two Islamist protest camps in Cairo.

Two of the convicts were tried in absentia.The court also sentenced to life imprisonment 37 other defendants in the same case.The rulings can be appealed.In February, another court handed down life imprisonment to Badie and several Islamist leaders in a separate case.In 2013, the army deposed president Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood following mass protests against his rule.Egyptian authorities have since rounded up thousands of Islamists and put them on trial for allegedly inciting and participating in deadly riots.The Brotherhood has repeatedly dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

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Maoist rebels kill 7 policemen in India

MAOIST rebels have killed seven policemen and injured 10 others in an ambush in dense jungle in central India, police say.

A SQUAD of 61 policemen from a special task force formed to combat Maoists was on an exercise in the forests of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh state on Saturday when the ambush occurred, officer RK Vij said by phone from the state capital Raipur.

Four of the injured were in critical condition. All of the wounded were airlifted to Raipur.Additional paramilitary forces were rushed to the area, Vij said.Chhattisgarh is among the Indian states worst affected by the Maoist insurgency, which has killed more than 6600 civilians, militants and security personnel countrywide since 2005, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal.The Maoists reject parliamentary democracy and say their armed rebellion is to secure the rights of the poor and marginalised.

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Russell Brand tweets support for Bali duo

BRITISH comedian Russell Brand has tweeted his support for saving Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from an Indonesian firing squad.

SATURDAY'S tweet from Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) reads: These Aussie blokes are going to be killed soon for a bit of daft drug smuggling (they've done 10 yrs already) HELP! info.mercycampaign.org/watch/.

The tweet includes a link to the website of the campaign for mercy for the convicted drug traffickers, where video interviews of the pair can be viewed and a petition signed.Brand is well known for his outspoken views on politics and human rights and in February blasted Australia's policy of using offshore migrant detention centres.Chan and Sukumaran's fight to avoid execution last week moved to Indonesia's constitutional court after they lost a bid to challenge their clemency rejections in the state administrative court.The pair's lawyers on Thursday sought a constitutional court review to make clear the president's obligations on considering clemency.Attorney-General HM Prasetyo has dismissed the latest challenge as delaying tactics and says he won't recognise it.Jakarta is now just waiting on the legal efforts of a few other death row prisoners before setting an execution date.The Sydney men are now imprisoned on Central Java's Nusakambangan island, where Indonesia plans to execute them by firing squad.

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'Freddy Krueger' ready for Oz Comic-Con

FREDDY Krueger approves of Hollywood's nerd-led sci-fi, fantasy and horror revival, but says it's time for super heroes to hang up their capes.

ROBERT Englund, who is racking up close to 80 film credits, is not one for knocking others.

But he made an exception for the long-running super hero revival and overuse of computer graphics, saying they should be "dainty".The Nightmare on Elm Street villain also views the newer, nastier slasher horror films as being somewhat less intelligent as those of the 80s - "nihilistic, violence for violence sake"."But there's so many sub genres that we can go to now. There's room for that," Englund told AAP in Perth ahead of this weekend's Oz Comic-Con.The Californian speaks with an effusive passion for all things on screen, but it wasn't always that way for the classically trained actor, who for a time shunned pop culture while he aimed for the thespian stars.As a child he was an Australia-mad surfer, with pictures of Matt Young and Midget Farrelly covering his bedroom walls."And I kept that quiet when I became Robert Englund Shakespearean actor and I kept my fan-boy down for a long time."I had a fan-boy semi-roommate who didn't pay rent named Mark Hamill from Star Wars on my couch for years and he kind of taught me to respect it again."And (Elm St director) Wes Craven taught me to respect that again."I'd buried all that because I was Robert Englund the classical actor."I was going to date girls with red hair, and wear turtlenecks and corduroy jackets with patches on the sleeves. I was a snob for many, many years."And then I got tired of the politics of hiring and casting, and the bullshit."Now he's revelling in the nerdy entertainment revolution, with sci-fi, fantasy and horror all over both small and large screens."All of those people who were made fun of in school and had to sit in the back at the geek table, now they're running Hollywood, there's running showbusiness."I've had it ... a little bit with super hero movies but I'm constantly being surprised by great graphic novel adaptations."And there's great stuff on cable television. I don't want to live in a world without Penny Dreadful - this show is the best mash-up."And he's grateful to the Freddy franchise, feeling he owes them for his still rich career."I'm pushing 68 now and I've got two starring roles coming out."I'm getting to play the wise old man who knows the truth of the myth."I don't think I would have been offered those roles had I not that cache and baggage of horror, science fiction and fantasy. My plate is full."* Englund is a guest at Oz Comic-Con in Perth and Adelaide.

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Vic children's hospital in abuse inquiry

Allegations of abuse at hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne will be examined by the royal commission. Source: AAP

A CHILDREN'S hospital in Melbourne and a major general hospital in North Sydney will be subjects of a child sexual abuse inquiry in May.

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has announced a public hearing starting on May 6 will examine the experiences of people who have made complaints to the NSW Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) and the NSW Medical Board against medical practitioners.

One of the complaints comes from an outpatient who alleges child sexual abuse by a psychologist at the Royal North Shore Hospital, Northern Sydney in the late 1960s.The same inquiry will investigate the response of The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne to an allegation of child sexual abuse made against a hospital volunteer.The systems, policies and procedures of the Northern Sydney Local Health District, the NSW Ministry of Health and The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne when it comes to dealing with sex abuse claims will be scrutinised.

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Aboriginal protest disrupts Melb CBD

A large protest opposing the closure of remote indigenous communities in WA has shut down Melbourne. Source: AAP

A LARGE protest opposing the closure of remote indigenous communities in WA has shut down streets in central Melbourne.

SEVERAL thousand people gathered outside the city's main railway station Flinders Street at 4pm.

"Enough is enough - where is the justice for Aboriginal people?" a speaker shouted to the crowd before the walk through CBD streets, flanked by police.The rally forced the closure of Flinders and Elizabeth streets, where surrounding streets soon became clogged with cars and trams forced to stop.Rally goers gathered again outside Flinders Street station, blocking the intersection, just on 5pm.Police, on foot and on riot horses, followed the marchers all the way.Jason Maxwell, 31 of South East Dandenong Ranges, was among the protesters."I disagree, strongly disagree, in selling out on the aboriginal communities just for money," Mr Maxwell told AAP.He said the WA and Federal governments should recognise the importance of the link between indigenous people and their lands, and it was wrong to describe this as a lifestyle choice."It is the worst thing that a modern government could ever say," Mr Maxwell said."It's a political tool to separate us, and I think it is wrong."The protesters did not enjoy universal support, with a heckler heard to shout "move over to WA".

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Robot checks Japan plant nuke fuel debris

A robot is checking the condition of melted fuel debris at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. Source: AAP

A ROBOT has been deployed for the first time to survey the condition of melted fuel debris inside a stricken nuclear reactor in Japan, the plant's operator says.

TOKYO Electric Power Co, or Tepco, on Friday sent the robot inside the containment vessel of a reactor at the plant in Fukushima that suffered a catastrophic meltdown four years ago.

Tepco is looking to obtain data on radiation levels and temperature as well as footage of the upper part of the vessel from the deployment of the remote-controlled robot inside reactor 1 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.The plant suffered meltdowns at three of its six units after a tsunami swept through the complex in March 2011.Nuclear fuel inside reactors 1 to 3 is believed to have melted through the reactor pressure vessels and has been accumulating in the outer containers.The details, however, remain unknown more than four years after the nuclear disaster because of extremely high levels of radiation inside the three units.The robot - 60 centimetres in length and 9.5 centimetres in height - is equipped with cameras, a thermometer and dosimeter and can function properly only for around 10 hours under high levels of radiation, the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning said.

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Clinton declaring US president bid: report

HILLARY Clinton will this weekend announce her candidacy for the Democratic Party ticket to the 2016 US presidential elections, according to several US media reports.

THE former secretary of state will announce her candidacy on Sunday on video and social media sites, the New York Daily News reported on Thursday.

The portal Business Insider published similar reports without specifying whether the announcement would be made on Saturday or Sunday.While Clinton's candidacy has been taken for granted in Democratic circles and the US press for several months, a formal announcement is still awaited from the former First Lady who ran against Barack Obama in the 2008 primaries.The Daily News went even further, saying that Clinton would begin her campaign with a series of small events in the states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where the primaries to select presidential candidates usually precede those of other states.Clinton is favourite to become the Democratic candidate and as yet faces no serious challenge from any other party candidate.Meanwhile, the situation is less clear in the Republican camp, with dozens of possible candidates of whom only Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have officially declared their candidacy.

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'Fake relative' claims Germanwings flights

GERMAN police are looking into an allegation that a woman got free flights to the south of France by pretending to be a relative of one of 150 people killed in the Germanwings crash.

GERMANWINGS, the budget airline in the Lufthansa group, provided free flights for mourners visiting the French Alps scene of the March 24 crash, which French and German prosecutors believe was deliberately caused by the plane's co-pilot.

The freeloader claimed to be a cousin of a female teacher who died, reported the Halterner Zeitung, a newspaper in Haltern, Germany, quoting the teacher's father. Haltern's high school lost 16 schoolchildren and two teachers in the disaster.An airline spokesman told DPA, "The incident is known to Lufthansa," but would not discuss details, except to say Lufthansa lawyers were examining if they could sue her.A fraud inquiry had begun in Hoexter, another town in North Rhine Westphalia state, police there told DPA. They said they were acting on a complaint from Lufthansa.The father said the phantom cousin, who was neither a kinswoman nor friend of his daughter, flew twice to the Alps and back, taking three other unidentified persons with her, according to the newspaper.She even received the counselling that was offered free to the rest of the mourners.

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Mum questioned, released over Vic deaths

A WOMAN described as a good mother to her seven children is being investigated after three of the youngest died when she drove a car into a lake.

AKON Guode, 35, was questioned by homicide detectives on Thursday and later released without charge.

On Wednesday afternoon, she was at the wheel of a 4WD that ploughed deep into a suburban Melbourne lake with four of her children on board.Three died and a fourth was seriously injured.Police say their investigation into the tragic incident was ongoing though Ms Guode has been released from custody."She has been interviewed and allowed to leave without being charged," a Victoria Police spokeswoman told AAP late on Thursday."The investigation is continuing."One-year-old Bol, his four-year-old sister Anger and her twin brother Maudit all died after being pulled from Lake Gladman in Wyndham Vale.Their five-year-old sister, Awel, was awake but still in serious condition in the Royal Children's Hospital on Thursday.Superintendent Stuart Bateson urged the Sudanese community to help police understand what happened, as officers took a computer and other items from Ms Guode's house."We need to understand their movements yesterday leading up to the incident," Supt Bateson said."We understand that there may be some social, cultural and religious implications impacting on the community, but let me reassure you that we will remain respectful of those issues at all times."Carloads of Sudanese well-wishers also visited Ms Guode's Wyndham Vale home, as did the distraught adoptive father of the four children, Joseph Manyang, who paced up and down on the front lawn.Family also visited a makeshift memorial where people from the area had been laying flowers, toys and candles in memory of the children.Community members said Ms Guode came to Australia as a refugee after her first husband died in south Sudan.They described her as a good mother who would do anything for her children.Martha Mayola, whose children walked to school with the twins, said Ms Guode and her children had escaped the civil war in Sudan."Our community here may be weak," she told reporters."We need to be stronger so we can see someone with problems and help them."Thomas Kok, a cousin of the children's father, saw the flowers at the lake."We feel like people care, it's nice," Mr Kok told reporters on Thursday."It's shocked everyone."Police have removed the car from the water, its tyres covered in thick mud.The Major Collisions Unit will examine the vehicle as part of investigations to find out whether the fatal smash was an accident or not.

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Missing Sydney woman returns home

JESSICA Bialek has returned to her Sydney home after a public, emotional plea from her father following her disappearance.

THE 38-year-old mother vanished from her Coogee home on Wednesday morning, sparking a desperate search by her family, friends and police.

Her father Michael Bialek pleaded on Thursday with his daughter to call home.He fought back tears as he told reporters: "She's got a darling little daughter who's missing her and a loving husband, and we're desperate to find out from her that she's safe. If there's a reason she wants to be on her own, we just want to know she's safe."Ms Bialek's husband posted on social media later that evening she had been found."Jessica Bialek is safe and at home. Found. Thank you," Sabino Matera posted on Facebook just after 6.30pm.Her family raised the alarm on Wednesday afternoon after she left home on foot to run errands just after 8.30am.Mr Bialek said his daughter, her husband and their young girl had just returned from an Easter visit with family in Melbourne.He described her as a "complex character" but said it would be very strange for her to leave behind her daughter or not make contact with her family or friends."She's a loving mother, a wonderful sister, a wonderful daughter, so all of those things make us very suspicious about what it is that's made her go missing."Friends scoured the eastern suburbs on Thursday, posting "Missing" flyers as police doorknocked and checked hotels in an effort to find out where Ms Bialek spent last night.As news of her return filtered through, friends spoke of their relief."And now we can breathe again," wrote Baci Hillyer on Facebook."Thank God. I hope she is ok and knows how much she is loved. Xxx," said Donna Anthony.Detective Superintendent Gavin Dengate earlier told reporters it was unusual for Ms Bialek to disappear."It's totally out of character for Jessica to go missing. We haven't been able, and the family have not been able, to contact her," Supt Dengate said.Ms Bialek is a freelance photographer who has worked for the Australian Ballet, Opera Victoria and the Bangarra dance theatre.A NSW Police spokesman said officers would speak with Ms Bialek to check on her welfare and discuss her absence."We are all very relieved that she is home, safe and well," the spokesman told AAP.

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Sex of second Royal baby still unknown

THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have thanked the public for their "warm wishes" ahead of the birth of their second child - but they still do not know if it will be a boy or girl.

A HEAVILY pregnant Kate is expected to give birth towards the end of April and for the delivery will return to the Lindo Wing, the private maternity department of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington where Prince George was born.

William will take two weeks paternity leave from his job as an air ambulance helicopter pilot and join his family at Kensington Palace where they will spend the first few days after the birth before travelling to their Norkfolk home Anmer Hall, a source has said.The Duke is due to begin flying rescue missions with the East Anglian Air Ambulance in the summer but at the moment is working from three bases undergoing training."The Duke and Duchess are hugely grateful for the warm wishes they have received from people throughout the UK and indeed around the world and over the last few months," the source said."They know that people are excited that Prince George will soon have a little brother or sister, it means a great deal to them that so many will be celebrating this important moment for their family."The source confirmed that the sex of the baby will be a surprise to the couple who do not appear to have asked about their baby's gender during routine scans.The birth of the child will be announced on the official Kensington Palace Twitter account and also in the traditional manner - with a royal bulletin displayed in Buckingham Palace's forecourt on the same ornate easel used when George was born.

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Judge dead in Italy court shooting

A GUNMAN has opened fire in an Italian courtroom, killing a judge and as many as two other people before being captured as he tried to flee on a motorbike, news reports and Italy's interior minister say.

WITNESSES reported barricading themselves inside their offices and taking cover under their desks as police hunted for the gunman, reportedly a defendant in a bankruptcy case named Claudio Giardiello.

ANSA quoted the president of the appeals court, Giovanni Canzio, as identifying the slain judge as Fernando Ciampi.Quoting police sources, ANSA said two other people were killed, including an lawyer.Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the suspect was caught by police as he tried to leave the scene on a motorcycle.The shooting immediately raised questions about how the man gained entrance to the fortress-like courthouse, given visitors to the building must pass through metal detectors.The courthouse has metal detectors at the four main entrances, but lawyers and courthouse employees with official IDs are regularly waved through without the additional security screen.Employees who trickled out after the shooting suggested that the gunman could easily have gained entrance without passing through the metal detector by entering with his lawyer.

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Germany acknowledges EU aviation concerns

GERMANY'S Transport Ministry has confirmed that the European Aviation Safety Agency had taken issue with the country's aviation safety rules several months before the Germanwings crash.

ACCORDING to the Wall Street Journal, Germany's Federal Aviation Office (LBA) was warned in November to sort out problems that included a lack of staff to carry out checks on planes and crew.

The Transport Ministry acknowledged that complaints had been made by the European agency, but declined to provide details.German aviation safety rules have come under scrutiny after investigators concluded that the budget airline Germanwings and its parent company, Lufthansa, allowed a man with suicidal tendencies to sit at the controls of an airliner.The LBA on Sunday claimed it had not known about Andreas Lubitz's history of severe depression until after the plane went down.French authorities, meanwhile, have ended the search for bodies at the site in the Alps where the aircraft crashed, killing all 150 people on board.The search will now focus on recovering the belongings of the victims, and their identification will continue off-site through DNA analysis.The removal of larger pieces of the wreckage from the mountainside is to begin this coming week, according to reports.French prosecutors confirmed that a number of mobile phones had been found at the crash site and that these had been sent off for analysis.

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Old, young hikers rescued in remote Tas

EMERGENCY services have had to winch two bushwalkers to safety by helicopter in separate incidents in remote parts of Tasmania.

A 72-YEAR-OLD man was hiking in a canyon at Cradle Mountain about 11am on Sunday when he fell down an embankment and landed in water.

The man was given first aid by members of his party but needed to be winched out and flown to hospital in Launceston.About 4pm, a 12-year-old boy became separated from his family in dense scrub while on a bushwalk near Shipstern Bluff on the Tasman Peninsula.The helicopter arrived about 7.30pm and used night-vision to find the child on a rock ledge.He was also winched to safety and later reunited with his family in Hobart.

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UK holds 16-year-old girl on terror charge

BRITISH police say a 16-year-old girl has been arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.

GREATER Manchester Police said on Sunday that the girl was arrested following a police raid at her Manchester home on Friday.

The girl has not been named and she has been freed on bail until a May 28 hearing.Police say she was arrested "on suspicion of engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism" as part of an ongoing investigation.The number of terrorism-related arrests in Britain has surged in recent months as an increasing number of Britons try to travel to Syria to link up with Islamic State group extremists there.Earlier this week nine Britons were arrested in Turkey trying to enter Syria.

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Renewed hope in search for Vic boy

THERE are renewed hopes of finding alive an autistic boy who went missing in a Victorian national park three days ago.

THERE has been a sighting of a boy fitting Luke Shambrook's description around four kilometres from the Candlebark Campground, where the 11-year-old was last seen early on Good Friday.

Searchers are now heading by four-wheel-drive to the area of the sighting, which is in rough terrain in Fraser National Park."A family that was driving in the Devils River area have told police that they saw someone matching Luke's description," a Victoria Police spokeswoman told AAP late on Sunday."So they have extended the search to cover that area this evening."

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Prince Harry in Canberra for army stint

PRINCE Harry will be attached to several Australian Army units over the next month - one of his last duties as a British soldier before retiring in June.

THE veteran of two deployments to Afghanistan starts his assignment on Monday as a VIP dignitary - laying a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial in Canberra.

He will also meet Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, tour the Afghanistan and World War I galleries of the memorial and then greet the public.He will then report for duty at Defence headquarters at 10.30am, the official start of his attachment to units in Darwin, Perth and Sydney.The prince will also travel to Gallipoli to represent the royal family at the Anzac Day dawn service along with his father, Prince Charles.

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SNP urges UK memo leak inquiry

THE Scottish National Party leader has demanded a civil service inquiry into the leaking of a memo which claims she privately wants to see the Conservatives remain in power following the May 7 UK general election.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon described the allegation as "100 per cent untrue" and said she had written to Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood to demand a Whitehall probe into how the account of her conversation with the French ambassador was obtained by the Daily Telegraph.

She said the story was a sign of "panic" in Westminster over the surge in support for the SNP, and issued a challenge to Labour leader Ed Miliband to state publicly that he would work with the SNP to "lock out" Prime Minister David Cameron from government in the event of a hung parliament.Miliband described the memo - written by a UK civil servant - as a "damning revelation" that the SNP was saying one thing in public and another in private, which he said made clear that the only way for Scottish voters to get the Conservatives out of office was to vote Labour.The Labour leader again ruled out a formal coalition with the SNP, but declined to comment on the possibility of a looser agreement to co-operate if the election result is inconclusive.

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India mum 'bats croc to save daughter'

A WOMAN in India's Gujarat state successfully rescued her 19-year-old daughter from the jaws of a crocodile after a 10-minute battle, news reports say.

DIVALI Vankar was washing clothes on the banks of the Vishwamitri river near Thikariya Mubarak village in Vadodara district on Friday when a crocodile grabbed the teenager's leg, the Times of India newspaper reported.

The crocodile started pulling the girl into the river when Divali Vankar picked up a bat used to beat the washing and attacked the crocodile until it let go of the girl, a forest department official was quoted as saying.The girl was treated for injuries to her leg and was in stable condition, the report said."The mother said she saved her daughter by attacking the crocodile," forest officer Ashok Pandya was quoted as saying."We've asked the locals to stay away from the river but many still wash clothes in the river water," Pandya said.According to a Gujarat forest department census carried out in January, there are more than 200 crocodiles in the Vishwamitri river.

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Yemen battle for Aden 'leaves 185 dead'

Al-Qaeda insurgents have advanced into a major city in south-eastern Yemen, officials say. Source: AAP

FIERCE fighting for control of Yemen's main southern city Aden has left at least 185 people dead, including many civilians, a medical official says.

THE port city, a last foothold of supporters of absent President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, has been shaken by more than a week of clashes between Houthi rebels and loyalist militia backed by Saudi-led air strikes.

At least 185 dead and 1282 wounded from the fighting have been counted in hospitals in Aden since March 26, the city's health department director Al-Kheder Lassouar said.Three-quarters were civilians, he added.The toll does not include victims among the Houthi Shi'ite rebels and their allies who do not take their casualties to public hospitals, he said.It also excludes victims of air raids by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab countries that have been pounding rebel positions across Yemen since March 26 to try to prevent the fall of Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh, he added.Meanwhile, in the rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa local residents said at least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded in a separate airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition.Coalition jets targeted a camp manned by Houthi rebels in the eastern part of Sanaa, but one of their missiles mistakenly hit the village of Hajer Akash, the residents said."A search for survivors under the rubble is underway. Several of the injured people are in critical condition. The number of victims may increase," a resident said.Lassouar called on international organisations and Arab states participating in the coalition to provide emergency medical assistance to hospitals in Aden."Medicine stocks are exhausted and hospitals can no longer cope with the increasing number of victims," he said.The United Nations said on Thursday that 519 people had been killed and nearly 1700 injured in two weeks of fighting around the country.The UN Security Council is due to meet on Saturday to discuss a Russian proposal for humanitarian pauses in the Saudi-led air campaign, according to diplomats in New York.

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Thatcher alias revealed in US papers

Official papers reveal Margaret Thatcher had the pseudonym "Mrs Stone" when travelling to the US. Source: AAP

SO-CALLED "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher had the pseudonym "Mrs Stone" when travelling to the United States, newly-released official documents show.

A DECLASSIFIED US Department of State file shows the former British prime minister travelled under the name in 2002 when flying into Miami.

Thatcher remained popular in the US long after her resignation as prime minister in 1990.Thatcher's pseudonym was disclosed after a Freedom of Information request by Shawn Musgrave, projects editor at website muckrock.com.The document released on the website shows a message from the US embassy in London to the US Secretary of State, listed under the subject "protective security - travel of Margaret Thatcher to the US".It states: "Margaret Thatcher will travel to the US on 12/4/02 arriving at Miami International Airport on Flight BA 2013 1815 under the name of Mrs Stone. She will be accompanied by two armed police officers."

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Malaysia chopper crash kills all 6 onboard

A HELICOPTER has crashed outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian authorities say, killing all six people onboard.

AN MP who is also a former ambassador to the US and an aide to the prime minister are reportedly among the victims.

The Department of Civil Aviation said preliminary information showed that the helicopter crashed and burst into flames in Semenyih town on Saturday.Police said three charred bodies have been recovered so far.The Star English-language newspaper reported in its online edition that MP Jamaluddin Jarjis, a former envoy to the US, was among those on board.The report said the victims also included an aide to Prime Minister Najib Razak.Rescuers were still searching the crash site for other passengers and no further information was immediately available.

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WHO man in Thailand 'kept maid like slave'

A WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Thailand is being accused of keeping his Ethiopian maid in slave-like conditions, the maid's lawyer says.

YONAS Tegegn, an Ethiopian WHO official based in Thailand, is being accused of not paying the maid and confiscating her passport.

"After reviewing statements made by his maid, we have filed complaints of human trafficking and slavery with police," said her lawyer Surapong Kongchantuk, a human rights advocate at the Lawyers Council of Thailand.Police have yet to formally question Tegegn or his maid, Surapong said. Calls to Tegegn's office were not returned.The case came to light after the maid reportedly escaped from Tegegn's home inside a gated community where she was allegedly forced to work from 5am to midnight without pay for the last two years.In response to the allegations, the WHO released a statement on Thursday that it would take the accusations seriously.

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US man freed after 30 years on death row

AN American man who spent nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row has been freed after a decades-long fight to prove his innocence.

ANTHONY Ray Hinton, 58, was released on Friday morning from an Alabama prison. He hugged family members as he walked out, saying, "Thank you Jesus".

Hinton was convicted of the 1985 murders of two Birmingham fast-food restaurant managers. Crime scene bullets were the only evidence linking Hinton to the killings.However, prosecutors said new testing failed to show any of the bullets came from a revolver found in Hinton's home.Last year, the US Supreme Court sent the case back for a new trial. Prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges following the testing.

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North Korea fires 4 projectiles: South

SOUTH Korea's military says North Korea has fired four short-range projectiles into the sea.

SEOUL'S Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the projectiles with a range of 140 kilometres were fired on Friday into waters off North Korea's west coast.

North Korea regularly test-fires missiles, rockets and artillery.It has conducted a series of weapons tests since South Korean and US troops began annual military drills last month.North Korea has denounced the drills as a rehearsal for an invasion.South Korea and the US say the drills are defensive in nature.The training is set to end later this month.

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Cambodian cinema halts Furious 7 contest

A CINEMA chain in the Cambodian capital has apologised for what it called a "Fast and Furious Competition," which was criticised for encouraging participants to drive fast and post online photos of their speedometers.

LEGEND Cinemas had launched the competition ahead of the April 13 release of Furious 7 in Cambodia, the latest film in the blockbuster Hollywood franchise known for its high-speed driving and outrageous auto antics.

The cinema chain posted a message on Thursday on its Facebook page that called on drivers of motorcycles and cars to photograph their speedometres and post the pictures with the tagline, "I'm the fastest like (hash)Fast&Furious7".Di Lant, a cinema spokeswoman, said on Friday that the posting immediately drew complaints from people who misinterpreted the nature of the competition."It was purely a game. We were not encouraging people to commit traffic violations," Di Lant said. "But to avoid any misunderstanding, we have removed the advertisement."Within two hours of being posted, she said the campaign was taken down.A new message that was posted later Thursday said: "We do apologise for our Fast & Furious competition ... It was a shame that we made it happen."Cambodia's transportation ministry says that about six people die each day in traffic accidents on Cambodia roads.

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UK councillor's son 'travelling to Syria'

POLICE are searching the home of a British councillor whose son is one of nine Britons detained in Turkey on suspicion of trying to cross the border into Syria.

OFFICERS are now at the home of Shakil Ahmed, who represents the Kingsway ward on Rochdale Borough Council.

His son, Waheed, is among a group of five adults and four children being returned to the UK after they were stopped in Hatay province on Wednesday.The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was providing consular assistance but was unable to confirm when the nine people, who are related, would reach British soil.

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Handbags stolen from Vic hospital patients

A homeless woman is wanted by police after handbags were stolen from Melbourne hospital patients. Source: AAP

A HOMELESS woman is wanted for questioning after handbags were stolen from Melbourne hospital patients.

REBECCA Cheryl Porter, 33, was due to appear in the Dandenong Magistrates Court last month charged with burglary but failed to appear.

Handbags and personal items have been stolen from patients in public hospitals and other areas around inner Melbourne, and police think Ms Porter can assist their investigation.She is known to frequent the Richmond, Fitzroy and Collingwood areas.A warrant has been issued for her arrest.

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Germanwings unaware of pilot's depression

GERMANWINGS says it was unaware that the co-pilot of its plane which crashed in the French Alps last week had suffered from depression during his pilot training.

INVESTIGATORS believe co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked his captain out of the Airbus A320's cockpit and intentionally crashed Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf into a French mountainside on March 24.

All 150 people on board the plane were killed.German airline Lufthansa confirmed on Tuesday that it knew six years ago that Lubitz had suffered from an episode of "severe depression" before he finished his flight training."We didn't know this," said Vanessa Torres, a spokeswoman for Lufthansa subsidiary Germanwings, which hired Lubitz in September 2013.She declined to explain the discrepancy, citing the ongoing investigation. Torres noted that Lufthansa has said Lubitz held a "fully valid class 1 medical certificate" on the day of the crash.The news came as Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt and the German Aviation Association, which represents German airlines, announced the creation of an expert task force to examine what went wrong in the Germanwings crash.The panel will consider whether changes are needed to cockpit doors or pilot procedures for passing medicals and will discuss "the question of recognising psychological peculiarities," Dobrindt said.Aviation association chief Klaus-Peter Siegloch said the task force will work "very quickly" but "it is very important that we do not reach over-hasty conclusions.""We have no taboos about what the task force will discuss," said Siegloch, adding that any conclusions will be shared with international air safety organisations.France's air accident investigation agency has already said it will examine cockpit entry and psychological screening procedures.German prosecutors say Lubitz's medical records from before he received his pilot's licence referred to "suicidal tendencies" but visits to doctors since then showed no record of any suicidal tendencies or aggression toward others.The A320 is designed with safeguards to allow emergency entry into the cockpit if a pilot inside is unresponsive. But the override code known to the crew doesn't go into effect if the person inside the cockpit specifically denies entry.At the crash scene, investigators said Thursday they have found mobile phones amid the crash debris but the phones haven't yet been thoroughly examined.The French magazine Paris-Match and the German tabloid Bild say they have seen a mobile phone video from the final moments of Flight 9525. Authorities have said investigators have no such video but didn't rule out the possibility that some videos like that may exist.

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Taiwan's indoor LED-lit farms

CHANG Chen-kai is part of Taiwan's new generation of high-tech farmers that is harnessing the island's technological edge in light-emitting diodes to grow vegetables indoors under bright LED lights.

CHANG works in an air-conditioned "grow-room" at a plant factory operated by ARWIN, a biotechnology company, where plants grow in nutrient-filled water instead of soil and the temperature and humidity are controlled. LED lights imitate the cycle of night and day.

These high-tech indoor farms yield more crops per area than soil, and don't need traditional toxic pesticides. Plants grown under LED lights grow twice as fast because the intensity of lights and nutrients provided in the water, growers say."To grow vegetables in the water (under lights), you need less land," Chang said, and "you don't need pesticides."Such plant factories are gaining popularity for raising everything from common lettuce to the exotic ice plant, a thick leafy vegetable from South Africa that looks like it has water bubbles on its leaves and can fetch $US400 ($A527) per kilogram.In recent years, Taiwanese manufacturers have been able to produce cheaper LED lights that consume less electricity and give off light that mimics the intensity and spectrum of sunlight.TingMao Agricultural Biotechnology was an early pioneer, starting its plant factory in 2007, and today is the leading producer of LED-grown vegetables in Taiwan. It has also set up its own restaurant using vegetables from its factory to allow consumers to taste the vegetables themselves.But Lily Chang, a food writer and professor at Innovative Institute of Technology, isn't convinced that LED-grown vegetables are as nutritious as those grown in soil."Natural soil-based plants get nutrients from soil," she said, that are "extremely difficult for us humans to manufacture."Consumers should insist that the government to draw up regulations on the chemicals used in the water of LED-grown plants and hygienic standards, she said.

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Madonna to pen autobiography

Veteran pop star Madonna says she wants to write a tell-all memoir. Source: AAP

VETERAN pop star Madonna says she wants to write a tell-all memoir.

THE Like A Virgin hitmaker has previously published Sex, a coffee table book featuring a series of erotic photographs, and an array of children's books.

Now she wants to pen her life story."I'm sure I will one day," she told BBC Radio 2."(My albums) are just one slice of my life. If I wrote my book that would be from start to finish and that's a whole lot of ground to cover."I'd tell the stories I felt were valuable to tell, that were inspiring, that people could relate to. I'm a storyteller, that's what I think of myself as."

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New lizard identified by German scientists

SCIENTISTS in the German city of Bonn have identified a new type of large monitor lizard that can reach 1.20 metres in length, officials at the Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum (ZFMK) have announced.

THE carnivorous saurian, which bears the Latin name Varanus nesterovi, is related to the desert or grey monitor and lives in a very small area on the south-western edge of the Zagros region of Iran.

The lizard was named after the Russian scientist who originally discovered it on the Iraq-Iran border in 1914, but who was unable to describe it due to the confusion in his home country after the October Revolution, ZFMK Professor Emeritus Wolfgang Boehme said.The Smithsonian Museum in Washington in the US has had one of the lizards from south-west Iran in its collection since 1964, but was also unable to identify it.In the 1980s, Boehme discovered one of the three original animals collected by the Russian scientist in 1914 in the inventory of the St Petersburg Zoological Museum.Based on the four examples of the lizard - the three in Russia plus the one in the US - Boehme was able to identify the species with the help of two of his research students and two Russian colleagues.Almost all of the characteristics of Varanus nesterovi are particularly original and point to an ancient variety of monitor lizard.Boehme's team have already discovered 15 other types of monitor lizard.Varanus nesterovi was presented on Thursday in an article in the Russian Journal of Herpetology.

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Vic boy, grandma killed with shears: court

A woman has been charged with murdering a four-year-old boy and his grandma at a home in Melbourne. Source: AAP

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD Melbourne boy was stabbed to death in his bed with garden shears by a woman who had an affair with his grandfather, police allege.

CHINESE national Cai Liao, 45, is also accused of killing Alistair Mach's grandmother Mai Mach with the same weapon.

Liao allegedly bound and gagged her former lover Brian Mach, Ms Mach's husband, in their Albanvale home on Tuesday morning and then killed four-year-old Alistair as he lay in bed.She then allegedly waited about 10 hours for Ms Mach, 60, to get home from work before attacking and murdering her in the backyard.Police allege Liao had been in a relationship with Mr Mach, 61, for about three years, but he had recently called it off.She went to his Albanvale home about 6am on Tuesday - while he was babysitting his grandson Alistair and his wife was at work - and an argument erupted, Detective Leading Senior Constable Tony Harwood said."Brian was assaulted and subdued," he told an out-of-sessions court hearing on Wednesday."He's been bound and gagged. The accused entered a bedroom where Alistair was in bed, while carrying a large pair of garden shears."Det Sen Con Hardwood said Liao allegedly stabbed Alistair as he lay in bed, causing severe head and neck injuries, with a post-mortem revealing he had suffered more than 18 stab and slash wounds including defence wounds.Liao then allegedly waited for Ms Mach to arrive home from work, continuing to assault Mr Mach, who was tied up in the living room.Ms Mach drove into the rear yard of her home and was confronted by Liao as she approached the door, Det Sen Con Hardwood said."Mai Mach was chased into the backyard by the accused and attacked with the same pair of garden shears, also suffering extreme neck and head injuries," he said.She suffered more than 23 stab and slash-type injuries, he said, as well as having defence wounds.Det Sen Con Harwood said the alleged killing was witnessed by a neighbour, who called police.Mr Mach was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with minor injuries, requiring heavy sedation.Liao, who is in Australia on a tourist visa, has been remanded in custody to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday.She faces two counts of murder and one count each of intentionally causing injury and false imprisonment.Expressionless, Liao declined to comment during the out-of-sessions hearing, only telling the bail justice that she takes blood pressure medication.Flowers and a toy have been placed outside the Mach's Albanvale home.Alistair, described as "bubbly" by family friends, was an only child.

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Bodies of WWII soldiers found in cave

SIX bodies, believed those of Japanese World War II soldiers, were discovered in a cave in the Pacific state of Palau, Radio Australia reports.

THE discovery was made on the island of Pelileu, where Japanese and American troops clashed in September 1944, by a team from non-governmental organisation Cleared Ground Demining, the report says.

"At that location was an anti-tank gun in a heavily fortified concrete bunker and it took a number of days actually to capture this fortified position," Steve Ballinger of the group was quoted as saying on Wednesday."It's my understanding that those were the crew, perhaps the officer and his men that were manning that gun," he said A number of US soldiers also died in the area, Ballinger said. World War II-era hand grenades and ammunition were found along with the soldiers' remains.ABC reported that the cave was re-opened for the first time in 70 years ahead of a visit to Palau by Japan's emperor and empress scheduled for next week.

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Singer Joni Mitchell hospitalised in US

US singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has been hospitalised in Los Angeles. Source: AAP

CANADIAN singer Joni Mitchell, one of the symbols of the Woodstock generation, is in intensive care in a Los Angeles hospital, according to her website.

MITCHELL, 71, was found unconscious in her home on Tuesday but regained consciousness on the ambulance ride to a Los Angeles hospital, said a statement on her website.

"She is currently in intensive care undergoing tests and is awake and in good spirits. More updates to come as we hear them. Light a candle and sing a song, let's all send good wishes her way," it added.The news was broken by the celebrity website TMZ, which said emergency services came to the singer-songwriter's house on Tuesday afternoon.A representative of the singer did not immediately answer calls.Mitchell, whose real name is Roberta Joan Anderson, is known for hits including The Circle Game, Big Yellow Taxi and Help Me, among many others.She was one of the top musicians to come out of the 1960s music scene, along with the Doors, Neil Young, Carole King, the Eagles, the Mamas and the Papas and Crosby, Stills & Nash.Other artists have done cover versions of her songs, including Prince, Bjork and Janet Jackson, the Los Angeles Times recalled.She has received eight Grammys, the top prize in the US music industry. She was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.Mitchell says she suffers from an ailment called Morgellon's disease, which is described as a crawling, biting or stinging sensation all over the body.Some doctors say it is a real illness, while others call it a form of psychosis, whereby patients believe their skin is infected with parasites."I have a tremendous will to live," Mitchell told the Los Angeles Times in 2010.The paper reported that in recent years she had been a vocal advocate for people who suffer from the condition."I'm a polio survivor, so I know how conservative the medical body can be," she told the Times."In America, the Morgellons is always diagnosed as 'delusion of parasites,' and they send you to a psychiatrist. I'm actually trying to get out of the music business to battle for Morgellons sufferers to receive the credibility that's owed to them."One of Mitchell's best-known songs is Woodstock, a tribute to the huge, counterculture music festival held in upstate New York in 1969. It brought together an estimated 400,000 people and lasted three days.Mitchell had planned to perform at the festival, but huge traffic jams leading to and from the farm where it was held forced her to stay in New York for a TV engagement."So I stayed home in New York and I watched it on television all day and saw everybody there playing and singing. It was really a nice festival, I guess, from the looks of everything," she told an audience at a concert in 1970.Mitchell has performed the song herself, but it also became a big hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as the folk group was known when accompanied by Neil Young.

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Abducted Qld teen still missing

Police are still searching for an 18-year-old Queensland woman who was abducted by her ex-partner. Source: AAP

A QUEENSLAND teenager abducted by her armed ex-partner on Tuesday morning still hasn't been found.

RELATIVES of Billy-Anne Huxham, 18, told police she'd been forced into a car at gunpoint outside a Caboolture home.

It's believed her ex-partner Carl Garry Chapman broke into the house and threatened her with the gun, before taking her with him.The 32-year-old is known to police.They believe she was taken in a Silver 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander with the Queensland registration number 789VNI.The car was spotted on the Bruce Highway at Kallangur several hours later.Police have serious concerns for Ms Huxham's welfare, Detective Acting Inspector Steve Windsor said, adding that the public should contact Crime Stoppers if they spot the pair given that "possibly firearms are involved".An investigation centre has also been set up at the local police station.

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Iraq claims Tikrit victory over IS group

IRAQ'S defence minister says security forces have achieved a "magnificent victory" over the Islamic State group in Tikrit.

KHALID al-Obeidi said on Wednesday that security forces have "accomplished their mission" in the monthlong offensive to rid Saddam Hussein's hometown of the militant group.

The US launched airstrikes last week in support of Iraqi ground forces.The battle for Tikrit, 130 kilometres north of Baghdad, is seen as a key step toward eventually driving the militants out of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

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Kerr: court dates distract his move south

RETIRED AFL premiership player Daniel Kerr says he's looking forward to playing football in Western Australia's south while waiting to face trial on violence charges.

KERR, 31, has previously pleaded not guilty to two counts of endangering the life, health or safety of a person after an alleged incident at a Glendalough home in November.

He appeared briefly in Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday but the case was adjourned to May 19 and Kerr had his bail renewed.Kerr has moved to Denmark, in WA's Great Southern region, to play football with Denmark-Walpole and to do other work in the town.Outside court, Kerr, who attended with his father, said his legal proceedings were a distraction from his move south."Of course it is, I've got to turn up to court, I missed work today, but I understand it's something I have to do and it's something I have to get past," he told reporters.Arson squad investigators are still probing a suspicious fire at Kerr's Wembley home, which was confined to the rear verandah and smoke damage inside the house, causing about $100,000 worth of damage.Kerr said the house was "not great" and plans to fix it had been "put on the backburner" since his move south.The two-time Brownlow Medal runner-up spent four nights at Hakea Prison last year after his parents initially refused to sign off on a $5000 surety to release him on bail.

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Vic grandma, grandson fatally stabbed

A woman has been arrested after the discovery of two bodies at a Melbourne home. Source: AAP

A GRANDMOTHER and her four-year-old grandson have been found stabbed to death at a Melbourne home.

POLICE also found the woman's 61-year-old husband bound and gagged on the living room floor when they got to the Albanvale home on Tuesday afternoon.

A 45-year-old Chinese woman, who was at the Varsity Court address when police arrived, has been arrested and is being questioned.The Vietnamese grandparents were babysitting their grandson while his parents were at work, something they did every Tuesday.The grandfather is recovering from minor injuries in the Royal Melbourne Hospital.Detective Senior Sergeant Stuart Bailey said the Chinese woman had arrived at the couple's home earlier on Tuesday morning, and an "altercation" erupted after the grandmother got home about 5pm.Police found the 60-year-old grandmother dead in the backyard, fatally stabbed.Her grandson's body was found in a bedroom after his grandfather, who was tied up in the living room, asked how he was."The scene is quite horrific," Det Sen Sgt Bailey told reporters on Tuesday night.He said the boy's parents, who live at Maidstone, were obviously inconsolable and devastated.There are four grandchildren in total, but just one was at the Albanvale house at the time.Neighbours spoke of hearing a dispute at the address before the bodies were found.A woman, who wished to be known only as Nasma, said she had lived in the area for more than 16 years and was shocked when she heard a woman and child had been killed."It's scary," she told AAP."Something like that, it just doesn't make you feel safe."Homicide detectives will remain at the scene overnight, while several witnesses are assisting police at a nearby station.No charges have been laid.

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