Sweden sets date for Assange hearing

A SWEDISH court will consider whether an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be repealed at a hearing on July 16, court officials say.

ASSANGE'S Swedish defence attorneys have requested that the Stockholm District Court repeal a November 2010 arrest warrant it issued after a Swedish prosecutor cited the need to question Assange about the alleged sexual assault of two women in August 2010.

The Australian denies the allegations.Assange's defence team wants the court to repeal the warrant on grounds that the prosecutor failed to act in a timely manner in the case.Earlier this week, the prosecution rejected claims it was not moving fast enough and that a proposal to interview Assange at the embassy would not be "effective" since a trial would still have to take place in Sweden if charges are brought.A court official told DPA on Friday that Assange's defence team can comment on the prosecution's response prior to the pending hearing.Assange has spent the past two years at the embassy of Ecuador. The South American country granted him asylum as he fears extradition to the US over the leaks of classified government documents.

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Billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife dies

Sydney real estate's great dividing range

Sydney real estate is known for its extremes, but not even we could have predicted the enormous divide between the city's cheapest and most expensive for sale properties.

Odds good for Jodhi to avoid jail

ACCORDING to suburb-based statistics, former model and ex-wife of billionaire James Packer Jodhi Meares stands a less than 2 per cent chance of jail if convicted of high-range drink driving.

'Take responsibility for your actions'

KING-HIT victim Thomas Kelly's brother Stuart, 16, spoke today about the need for society to shape up as his killer Kieran Loveridge had his sentence doubled on appeal.

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Muddy river could be 'crystal clear' lake

Tasmania's silted Tamar River could become a clear freshwater lake under a $320 million proposal. Source: AAP

TASMANIA'S silted Tamar River could be turned into a clear freshwater lake four-fifths the size of Sydney Harbour, a lobby group says.

THE murky Tamar is as much a part of Launceston as its favourite son, Ricky Ponting, but the group says a $320 million barrage near its mouth would produce a water-lover's playground.

"It will be virtually crystal clear," Tamar Lake Inc spokesman Robin Frith told AAP."Instead of having a visual depth of about six inches ... you'll be able to go down two or three metres."The group this week released a KPMG economic impact report that says the project would create 850 jobs during its three-year construction period and the same number in agriculture and tourism.It would generate $315 million for the state's economy in its first three years of operation, the report says.Other benefits would include stopping the effects of predicted sea-level rise of 0.8 metres lapping the streets of Launceston, Mr Frith said.The retired engineer is calling for a full feasibility study to be completed by government, which would include a submission to Infrastructure Australia.He says Singapore solved an identical problem with a similar solution."(Singapore River) used to be just a muddy bank with old junks parked on the side," he said."The lake now supplies fresh water to the city of Singapore, whereas before they had to import fresh water."Now it's an aquatic paradise."Governments have promised $125,000 for 3D modelling of the proposal to be done.The lake would be 60km long and contain 405 gigalitres of water, 80 per cent of Sydney Harbour's 500 gigalitres.It would be seven times the size of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin.Boats would come and go from the river through two locks.The barrage would stop the incoming tide causing the silt choking the waterway, Mr Frith said, but the project would also rely on water authorities improving sewage disposal in the river.Tamar Lake Inc has raised $420,000 and has completed studies on the proposal's technical and environmental viability.It hopes the project can begin in 2019.Originally published as Muddy river could be 'crystal clear' lake

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Explosion in Vic max-security jail probed

Police are investigating the cause of a small explosion at a maximum-security Victorian prison. Source: AAP

THE cause of a small blast in a vacant Victorian prison cell is being investigated.

THE "small bang" went off at the maximum-security Barwon Prison near Geelong on Friday, sending it into lockdown an hour earlier than usual.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said prison officers were doing a routine search of an unoccupied cell when a minor explosion occurred about 1pm (AEST).The area was evacuated and bomb response unit officers were called.A Corrections Victoria spokesman said the prison was locked down while emergency authorities were on site.The small explosion went off while prison officers were conducting a routine intelligence search, and it was being treated as an isolated incident, he said."There was no physical damage and no injuries but police, fire and ambulance services have been notified and are attending," he said.Police and Corrections Victoria are investigating.Originally published as Explosion in Vic max-security jail probed

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Convicted Dr can practise after court win

A Perth-based Indian doctor convicted of sexually assaulting a patient has avoided being deported. Source: AAP

THE path is clear for a Perth-based Indian doctor convicted of sexually assaulting a patient to seek a return to practising medicine.

SUHAIL Ahmad Khan Durani has been successful in his bid to overturn a ministerial decision to deport him after he served more than 18 months in jail for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman while examining her at Royal Perth Hospital in 2010.

In May last year, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled the 38-year-old could keep his permanent residency despite his jail term.But former immigration minister Tony Burke overruled that decision the day before September's federal election - with the government in caretaker mode - and Dr Durani was placed in immigration detention.Dr Durani, who maintains he is innocent, appealed.On Friday, the full bench of the Federal Court of Australia delivered a unanimous verdict in his favour.He was released from the detention centre where he has spent the past 10 months and has had his permanent resident status reinstated.Asked after the judgment was handed down whether he sought to return to practising medicine, Dr Durani said: "We'll take it step by step".The Medical Board of Australia could not specifically comment on the case, but its registration standards show a serious conviction does not automatically exclude a doctor from practising in the future.Considering applications on a case-by-case basis, the board considers factors including the gravity of the offence, the time since it was committed and the likelihood of future threat to a patient.Separately, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is reviewing Friday's judgement before deciding whether to appeal it in the High Court.Mr Morrison's predecessor said cancelling Dr Durani's visa was in the national interest because his offending was serious, undermined the integrity of the skilled migration program under which he came to Australia and also reduced public confidence in the health care system.But the three Federal Court judges disagreed."We do not accept the submission on behalf of the minister that the circumstances raised a question about whether the nation is picking the right doctors to come here," they said.Dr Durani's barrister Shahid Shakur said the case - like Mohamed Haneef's - was "a most unfortunate example of misuse of power"."Locking up people like Dr Haneef and Dr Durani, who held valid visas and were lawful non-citizens, not unlawful non-citizens, should be the exception to the rule," Mr Shakur said."It should be the courts to determine whether there is a lawful basis to imprison people, not the minister for immigration as a member of the executive government."Dr Durani was happy to be reunited with his wife and five-year-old son, both of whom are Australian citizens."I've got no words. It's been a long journey," Dr Durani said."I maintain my innocence but don't deny my conviction."Originally published as Convicted Dr can practise after court win

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Statins may help prevent breast cancer

LOWERING cholesterol with statin drugs could help prevent breast cancer, new research suggests.

A STUDY of more than 600,000 British women found that breast cancer risk was almost doubled in those with abnormally high levels of blood fats.

The research is still at an early stage and the findings do not prove that cholesterol helps trigger breast cancer.But if future work demonstrates a causal link it opens up the possibility of using cheap cholesterol-lowering statins to reduce women's risk of the disease."We found that women with high cholesterol had a significantly greater chance of developing breast cancer," University of Aston cardiologist Rahul Potluri said."This was an observational study so we can't conclude that high cholesterol causes breast cancer, but the strength of this association warrants further investigation."A prospective study that monitors the risk of breast cancer in women with and without high cholesterol is needed to confirm what we observed. If the connection between high cholesterol and breast cancer is validated, the next step would be to see if lowering cholesterol with statins can reduce the risk of developing cancer."A total of 664,159 women from across the UK whose health records were stored on a large database took part in the study.Almost 23,000 (3.4 per cent) had hyperlipidaemia, meaning their blood contained abnormally high levels of lipid fats - essentially cholesterol and triglycerides.Some 530 women with the condition were among the 9,312 who developed breast cancer.Statistical analysis showed they were 1.64 times more likely to have the disease than women without hyperlipidaemia.Previous research has shown a clear association between obesity and breast cancer in post-menopausal women.A US study last year found that a cholesterol product called 27HC fuelled human breast tumours in genetically engineered laboratory mice.Scientists also discovered higher levels of 27HC in both healthy breast tissue and tumour cells in women with breast cancer.Originally published as Statins may help prevent breast cancer

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US trade deficit drops to $US44.4 billion

THE US trade deficit fell in May as US exports hit an all-time high, helped by a jump in exports of petroleum products.

IMPORTS dipped slightly.

The trade deficit narrowed 5.6 per cent in May to $US44.4 billion ($A48.0 billion) after hitting a two-year high of $US47 billion in April, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.Exports of goods and services rose one per cent to a record $US195.5 billion in May while imports fell a slight 0.3 per cent to $US239.8 billion.A lower trade deficit boosts overall economic growth when it shows US companies are earning more in their overseas sales.Economists are looking for a smaller trade deficit in the April-June quarter, which will mean less of a drag on overall growth than in the first quarter, when the economy shrank at an annual rate of 2.9 per cent.In May, the US trade deficit with China rose 5.4 per cent to $US28.8 billion.Through the first five months of this year, America's deficit with China is running 3.2 per cent ahead of last year's record pace.The rise in exports reflected record sales of US-made autos and auto parts and an 11.3 per cent jump in exports of US petroleum products.The rise in US production has helped lower the need for imported oil, which dropped by five per cent in May to $US28.3 billion, the lowest monthly import total since November 2010.Total US exports to Canada were the highest on record while imports from Canada were the highest since July 2008, leaving a trade deficit of $US2.8 billion with Canada.Originally published as US trade deficit drops to $US44.4 billion

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India building collapse toll hits 60

THE death toll in a building collapse in southern India has risen to 60, as hundreds of workers came close to clearing the massive ruins of the 11-story structure.

POLICE Inspector-General Sandeep Rai Rathore on Thursday said 27 people had been rescued since the weekend - the last one on Tuesday - from under the enormous heap of broken concrete slabs, twisted iron girders and concrete dust in one of the worst building collapses in India in decades.

The excavation was likely to be completed on Friday, he said.Police have arrested six construction company officials for alleged criminal negligence and violation of building codes.Authorities are investigating the cause of Saturday's collapse in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.

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Agencies 'paralysed' by abuse inquiry

A lawyer says the wait for the final report of the child abuse commission could be detrimental. Source: AAP

INSTITUTIONS dealing with child abuse will be paralysed if there is a three and a half year wait for a federal inquiry's final report, a prominent Catholic lawyer says.

FATHER Frank Brennan, who is professor of law at the Australian Catholic University, says the effects of a two-year extension sought by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have not been taken into account.

In its interim report on Monday, the commission said it would need a two-year extension until December 2017, and an extra $104 million.Fr Brennan said on Thursday the Catholic Church, as the main organisation under the commission's scrutiny, had spent years trying to develop protocols to deal with sexual abuse."(But) what we have heard from the commission so far would seem to be that the Catholic Church protocols are not worth the paper they are written on," he told AAP."Presumably we have to wait three and a half years to get an answer (on) what is the workable protocol; that terrifies me."He also said it worried him that state police and welfare departments already lacking resources to deal with abuse cases have to resource themselves to deal with the commission."This means there are less resources available to deal with current problems."He said he agreed there was no better way to uncover systemic failures than looking at institutional behaviours through the prism of historical abuse cases but was worried it would take five years."I just do not think there has been sufficient account taken of the cost of the paralysis of institutions" that are dealing with abuse and will be waiting for the commission to report.In an article published in the online journal Eureka Street Fr Brennan wrote the commission was setting up unreal expectations of compensation among victims."The commission is clearly anxious to expand the realm of vicarious liability, much in the way that the courts in the UK and Canada have done, however there is little point in asking witnesses about this, let alone asking church leaders."It is not a matter for the commission. It is a matter for the High Court."The legal issues need to be separated out from "the political and media maelstrom" which accompanies a commission of this sort, he argued."Royal commissioners may have extensive legal powers of inquiry but they have very limited capacity to influence outcomes."He said a federal commission was "an inefficient way" to deal with some of the issues like state agreements on child protection laws.The commission needed to clarify what it actually had power to change or recommend, and to focus "its activity more on looking for lessons rather than apportioning blame for the past so that procedures might be improved in future," he said.The royal commission declined to comment.Originally published as Agencies 'paralysed' by abuse inquiry

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US war hero, Olympian Zamperini dies

AN Olympic distance runner and World War II veteran who survived 47 days on a raft in the Pacific after his bomber crashed, then endured two years in Japanese prison camps, has died.

LOUIS Zamperini was 97.

Universal Pictures studio spokesman Michael Moses says Zamperini died on Wednesday.Zamperini enlisted in the Army before Pearl Harbor and was a bombardier in World War II.He and his crew were searching for a downed B-24 when their plane crashed into the Pacific, killing eight of the 11 men.Before joining the military, Zamperini was a runner at the University of Southern California.He ran in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, placing eighth in the mile.His story was told in Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 best-seller, and is the subject of an Angelina Jolie-directed film by the same name being released in December.

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