Flooding prompts Lockyer Valley alert

AN emergency alert has been issued for the Lockyer Valley region, west of Brisbane, with residents told to evacuate if needed.

The Lockyer Valley regional council issued the alert on Saturday night.

The council has advised that flooding is expected for Forest Hill, Laidley, Glenore Grove and areas downstream.

Residents are being told to monitor the situation and evacuate themselves if necessary.

Earlier, the local council had been doorknocking homes at Dalby, in southern Queensland, where the Myall Creek is expected to peak at three metres on Saturday night.

Western Downs Mayor Ray Brown says water starts to enter homes when the water reaches 2.8 metres.

It's another blow to residents who experienced significant flooding on the Australia Day weekend and a severe flood two years ago.

The council is also monitoring the nearby towns of Chinchilla and Moonie which are on flood alert.

Heavy rain has also fallen in the regions around Mackay, Bundaberg and Rockhampton on the state's central coast and the Gold Coast in the southeast.

Forecasters expect about 100mm of rain to fall on Bundaberg in the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile the government is keeping a close eye on its dams in the southeast.

The Bureau of Meteorology has advised the rain will continue in the short term and there will be heavy falls later this month.

Water Supply Minister Mark McArdle says releasing water from the dams will reduce the risk of flooding.

"The ground is currently saturated so the rain will all run off into the Somerset and Wivenhoe Dams," he told AAP.

"We want to make certain those dams are at a precautionary level of 88 per cent as best as we possibly can."

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Two dead, three critical in road crashes

TWO people are dead and three are fighting for their lives following separate crashes in NSW.

A woman in her 20s died during a single-car crash near Dorrigo in northern NSW just before 2pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

The driver, a woman in her late 40s, and another woman in her late 20s, were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Two girls and a boy, all aged under 10, were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Police said the vehicle was heading east along the Waterfall Way, when it left the road and rolled down an embankment.

In another crash, one male passenger died and three others from the same vehicle including the driver were critically injured in a two-car crash in Sydney's southwest.

The vehicles collided on Douglas Park Drive in Douglas Park about 6.20pm (AEDT).

The three critically injured men were airlifted to Liverpool Hospital.

A man from the second car was taken by road to Liverpool Hospital with serious injuries.

Three other men from the second car suffered minor injuries.

The road remains closed in both directions while the scene is examined.

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Pistorius was an avid gun collector

IN his Olympic year, Oscar Pistorius steadily became an avid firearms collector, joining a gun-collecting club and purchasing a collection of firearms that included a .500 Magnum pistol dubbed by its manufacturer as "the most powerful production revolver in the world" and a civilian version of a military assault rifle.

At the end of 2012, in the first blush of his romance with Reeva Steenkamp, the model he later shot and killed on Valentine's Day, Pistorius got deeper into his hobby.

It was known that Pistorius liked guns but only now, from Associated Press interviews with other collectors, is it becoming clear the extent to which he became a dedicated firearms aficionado in the 12 months before the Steenkamp tragedy.

The track star not only applied for licences to own more guns, but actually bought them, too, according to John Beare, vice chairman of the Lowveld Firearm Collectors Association which accepted Pistorius as a paid-up member last April.

He and Pistorius were introduced at a Johannesburg hotel in January 2012, and it was there that Beare first explained to the athlete and some of his friends how to become certified collectors.

Had he not become a collector, Pistorius would under South African law have been limited to a maximum of four firearms for self-defence, of which only two could have been handguns, according to Johannesburg attorney Martin Hood, who specialises in firearms law.

Carvel Webb, chairman of the National Arms and Ammunition Collectors Confederation of South Africa, an umbrella group for the country's 2,000 approved private collectors including Pistorius, said that in the wake of Steenkamp's death his group will now verify that Pistorius fulfilled the necessary requirements to be accepted as a collector and a decision in January to let him start collecting semi-automatic rifles.

"We will review all of those just to see if we are happy with it," Webb said.

Pistorius made no secret of his passion for firearms. Reporters who visited him at home in Pretoria, the capital, saw the pistol he kept by his bed and was licensed to own. He practiced at firing ranges both in South Africa and in Europe where he trained for the London Games. But apparently less well-known was his involvement with gun collectors to start building a firearms collection.

Beare said he twice observed Pistorius shoot at firing ranges and also at a clay pigeon shoot, but saw nothing to suggest he could be a menace with a gun.

"His safety was good," Beare told the AP. "He wouldn't do anything irrational with a firearm, because then I would have nailed him immediately."

Pistorius says he mistook his girlfriend Steenkamp for a home intruder and shot her while she was in his bathroom toilet, firing through the closed door.

Pistorius' license for the 9 mm pistol was issued on September 10, 2010, according to the South African Police Service's National Firearms Centre. It was registered for self-defence.

Prosecutors have charged Pistorius with premeditated murder for killing Steenkamp with three of four shots fired in the early hours of February 14.

Some have questioned why Pistorius felt he needed such a variety of weapons and whether the association should have certified him.

Andre Pretorius, president of the Professional Firearm Trainers Council, a regulatory body for South African firearms instructors, said he struggles to see how pistols, shotguns and a semi-automatic rifle could be regarded as a coherent collection.

"The makes differ, the models differ and generally a collection needs to have a theme," said Pretorius. "I don't see there's a theme here."

But Webb, of the collectors' confederation, disagreed.

"There was a logic," Webb told the AP. "He's got three approved areas of interest."

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Aust troops 'kill two Afghan children'

AUSTRALIAN soldiers in southern Afghanistan shot dead two children tending cattle, local officials said on Saturday as the international coalition launched an inquiry into the incident.

Civilian casualties caused by NATO-led troops have been one of the most contentious issues in the campaign against Taliban insurgents, fuelling public anger and often triggering criticism from President Hamid Karzai.

The two children, aged seven and eight, were killed on Thursday morning as Australian soldiers fought back after a Taliban attack in southern Uruzgan province, said provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada.

"The children were killed by Australian troops, it was a mistaken incident, not a deliberate one," Akhundzada told AFP, adding that insurgents had first shot at a helicopter carrying Australian soldiers.

A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul said he was unable to confirm details.

"We are aware of the reports and we take all such reports very seriously," he said.

"An incident assessment team in Uruzgan is now there looking into it."

In a recent case of civilian deaths, on 13 February, 10 Afghan civilians, including five children, were killed by a NATO airstrike in Kunar province.

Following the attack, Karzai barred Afghan forces from seeking air support from foreign troops in a bid to curb civilian casualties.

Security responsibility for Uruzgan, a restive province where the Taliban insurgents have been holding sway, is being handed over to Afghan forces.

The bulk of Australia's 1,550 troops are based in the province, and are focused on training and mentoring Afghan soldiers ahead of the withdrawal of NATO combat troops by the end of next year.

Comment is being sought from Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

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Prof welcomes overturned murder conviction

A 30-YEAR-OLD murder conviction has been overturned by Western Australia's Court of Appeal on the back of Nobel Prize-winning ulcer research by Perth-based scientist Barry Marshall.

Chris von Deutschburg was a teenager in 1983 when convicted of murdering Stavros Kakulas in a scuffle during a burglary at the 86-year-old man's home in Perth's seaside suburb of Scarborough.

Mr von Deutschburg, then 19, received a life sentence on the basis Mr Kakulas died of a bleeding duodenal ulcer seven days after the crime.

The ulcer was said to have been brought on by the stress of the home invasion.

Professor Marshall and his colleague Robin Warren won Nobel Prizes in 2005 for proving bacteria, rather than stress, caused stomach ulcers.

Prof Marshall told AAP he had been involved in the case from the beginning, when he had already conceived his award-winning theory, but was yet to prove it.

"There were just a couple of people on our side and everyone else just believed this traditional theory," he said.

In proving his theory, Prof Marshall acted as a human guinea pig, downing a bacterial brew that made him very ill, but gave new hope of treatment for millions of sufferers.

Once the research gained worldwide attention, Mr von Deutschburg, who spent seven years in prison before being paroled in 1990, looked to Prof Marshall's work as a way to clear him of his murder conviction.

The scientist got behind him, writing to the State Solicitor's Office saying Mr von Deutschburg could not be guilty, prompting former state attorney-general Christian Porter to refer the case to WA's Court of Appeal.

On Friday, Justices Carmel McLure, Robert Mazza and Michael Buss announced their unanimous decision, saying the basis of the conviction had been overtaken by the groundbreaking discovery by Prof Marshall and Mr Warren.

The judges said Mr Kakulas's duodenal ulcer was likely to have existed before the home invasion in June 1983.

Evidence provided by Prof Marshall, and also by PathWest Laboratory Medicine chief forensic pathologist Clive Cooke, raised enough doubt in the judges' minds to make them conclude Mr von Deutschburg should not have been convicted of murder.

"If the jury had heard Professor Marshall's and Dr Cooke's evidence, in addition to the evidence adduced at trial, it must be necessarily have entertained a doubt about the appellant's guilt," the judgment read.

"A miscarriage of justice occurred at the trial."

In his petition on behalf of Mr von Deutschburg, Prof Marshall said there was no likelihood that Mr Kakulas's injuries either worsened or contributed to the duodenal ulcer.

On Friday, Prof Marshall said the case was one for the law books.

"This is really a landmark case ... a milestone if you like," he said.

It was important for Mr von Deutschburg to clear his name, he said.

"To have a conviction at a young age ... that affects your career and your job prospects for the rest of your life.

"These things are very important and maybe you can't just be a bit irresponsible in your youth in case something does happen like that.

"It affects you for a long time."

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US sailors jailed for Okinawa rape

TWO US sailors who raped a Japanese woman in Okinawa last October were jailed on Friday for a crime that reignited long-smouldering anger against the American military in Japan.

The Naha District Court in Okinawa said Seaman Christopher Browning, 24, should go to prison for 10 years for the brutal rape of the young woman, from whom he also stole 7,000 yen ($A73).

Petty officer 3rd class Skyler Dozierwalker, 23, was jailed for nine years, also for raping the woman before dawn in a car park.

Browning and Dozierwalker, who were not stationed in Okinawa, had been drinking on the evening of the attack, and "were contemptible and violent", Judge Hideyuki Suzuki said.

"The ruling may seem severe, but the damage to the feelings of the victim and residents is more severe," he said in a statement after the case, according to Kyodo News.

During an earlier court appearance the two men had admitted the rape, which caused outrage on the sub-tropical islands and beyond, and led to a nationwide night-time curfew on all US military personnel in Japan.

Despite the curfew, misconduct involving servicemen, much of it drunken, has continued to fuel anti-US sentiment in communities with bases.

Wary of yet another public relations disaster, the US moved quickly to try to lower the temperature immediately after the rape, with ambassador John Roos holding a special news conference at which he appeared visibly angry and upset.

"The United States will cooperate in every way possible with the Japanese authorities to address this terrible situation."

"I understand the anger that many people feel with respect to this reported incident," he said. "I have a 25-year-old daughter myself, so this is very personal to me."

The attack came amid already high tensions in Okinawa, which saw demonstrations last year against the US deployment to the island of the tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft.

The aircraft's perceived poor safety record has been picked over in Japanese media and by local opponents, but commentators say it is a proxy issue and resentment over what many see as an unfair burden is at the root of objections.

Okinawa is the reluctant host to more than half of the 47,000 American service personnel in Japan, and the crimes, noise and risk of accidents associated with their bases regularly provoke ire in the local community.

In 1995 the gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by US servicemen sparked mass protests resulting in a US-Japan agreement to reduce the huge US military presence on the Okinawan chain.

Okinawans say other parts of Japan should take more of the burden and want bases closed or reduced in size.

But with islands stretching out from mainland Japan to Taiwan that obscure rising China's access to the Pacific, Okinawa is too strategically important for either Washington or Tokyo to be able to countenance a large-scale drawdown.

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Cardinals prepare to elect new pope

Faithful watch a giant screen showing Pope Benedict XVI in St Peter's Square on the day of his last public appearance as pontiff. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) Source: AP

CATHOLIC cardinals from around the world have begun preparing for a conclave to elect a new pope, a day after Benedict XVI became the first pontiff to resign in 700 years telling the world he would be a "pilgrim" on life's last journey.

Letters were due to be sent inviting the cardinals to take part in meetings next week that will set the date for a conclave under Michelangelo's frescos in the Sistine Chapel.

The meetings - known as "general congregations" - will also be a way of vetting possible candidates to be leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics at a difficult time for the Church.

The conclave is to start in the first half of March.

After an emotional final day as pope on Thursday, world newspapers paid tribute to the 85-year-old German pope's historic decision, which could set a precedent for ageing popes in the future.

"Farewells made with courage, humility and grace," ran a headline on an editorial in the German conservative daily Die Welt, while top-selling tabloid Bild said: "Our pope has retired."

"This is how great popes go," said Italian daily Il Messaggero, hailing the "greatness of his humility, the simple step of a pilgrim".

La Repubblica daily said the 85-year-old Benedict's troubled eight-year reign had ended abruptly "not with an apocalypse, but with the sigh or relief of a man who became man again."

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, at centre with red skull cap, officially takes over the vacant See as camerlengo, chamberlain, before sealing Pope Benedict XVI's apartment, after Benedict left the Vatican. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho) Source: AP

Benedict's final hours as pope were filled with ritual and emotion, from the pealing bells of St Peter's Basilica to the Swiss Guards who shut the giant doors of his new temporary residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome to mark the moment that Benedict was no longer pope.

The Vatican flag flying over the palace was lowered as the Swiss Guards - the papacy's military corps since the 15th century - formally completed their mission to protect the pope.

"Long live the pope!" a crowd outside chanted as a clock chimed the hour that Benedict said he would step down in an announcement earlier this month that stunned the world.

"I will no longer be pope but a simple pilgrim," the pope told supporters earlier after arriving at Castel Gandolfo from the Vatican in a helicopter that flew as the bells of St Peter's rang out.

A placard in Rome pays tribute to the papcy of Benedict XVI. AFP HOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS Source: AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attended a mass in Berlin to mark the pope's last day in office and at a special mass in New York's Saint Patrick's Cathedral hundreds of worshippers paid homage.

Many ordinary Catholics hope the next pope will breathe new life into a Church hit hard by rising secularism in the West and discrimination against Christians in some developing countries.

The former pope Benedict will now be known as "Roman pontiff emeritus" - a completely new title created especially for this new situation.

He will still be addressed as "Your Holiness".

In a last tweet sent from his @pontifex Twitter account as he left the Vatican, the pope said: "Thank you for your love and support."

"May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives."

Benedict is only the second pope to resign in the Church's 2,000-year history, and in his final hours as pontiff he took the highly unusual step of pledging allegiance to his successor.

"Among you there is also the future pope to whom I promise my unconditional obedience and reverence," the pope said to 144 cardinals in the ornate Clementine Hall in the Vatican.

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Obama's half brother for governor

A POLITICIAN named Obama who is running for governor in Kenya can boast of one biggest claims to fame on the campaign trail: blood relations with the president of the United States.

Malik Obama - a half brother of Barack Obama - is running for governor in the country's nationwide elections on Monday.

Malik said in a phone interview Friday that he can't run away from his name and association with his brother.

He said he has the feeling people want to see who the brother of President Barak Obama is.

Evoking Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, one of Malik's campaign slogans is change.

Monday is Kenya's first nationwide election since the 2007 vote devolved into massive tribal violence that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced 600,000 from their homes.

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Spain's Bankia posts $A24.57bn loss

Bailed-out Spanish banking giant Bankia suffered a loss of $A24.57 billion in 2012. Source: AAP

BAILED-OUT Spanish banking giant Bankia suffered a loss of 19 billion euros ($A24.57 billion) in 2012, it said in an earnings statement.

Bankia, which has become a symbol of Spain's banking collapse, said the losses were in line with its expectations after the Spanish government nationalised it in May.

In December it received 18 billion euros in eurozone aid to restructure it.

Bankia's chairman Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri said that despite the net losses of 19.193 billion euros the bank's financial situation was in line with its aims.

"We have a very solvent balance sheet. We are a tremendously solvent and solid entity," he told a news conference.

The European Commission approved the payment of 18 billion euros to rescue Bankia, obliging it to restructure by closing branches and cutting jobs.

The bank has announced it will close a third of its branches. Unions say the restructuring will lead to 4,500 job cuts.

A long recession brought on by the collapse of a building boom in 2008 left Bankia saddled with unpaid loans.

In Thursday's earnings report BFA-Bankia, the financial group that includes the troubled lender, said it made provisions of 26.8 billion euros in 2012.

It offloaded 22.3 billion euros' worth of bad property-linked assets to a "bad bank" set up to purge the bad loans of Spain's banks. Of this figure, 19.5 billion were from Bankia.

After the government stepped in to rescue Bankia by nationalising it, Spain then had to seek a broader bailout for its whole banking sector from the eurozone.

The recession has driven Spain's unemployment rate to 26 per cent.

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Spain's recession deepens

SPAIN'S economy sank deeper into recession in the fourth quarter of last year as high unemployment and biting austerity measures prompted households to slash spending, official data showed Thursday.

The eurozone's fourth largest economy shrank by 1.4 percent on an annual basis in 2012, a slightly better performance than the decline of 1.5 percent forecast by the government.

The economy shrank 0.8 percent in the final quarter of 2012 from the previous three months, after dropping 0.3 percent in the third quarter, the national statistics institute said.

The figures were slightly bleaker than preliminary data released last month by the statistics institute which saw the economy contracting by 0.7 percent in the final quarter on a quarterly basis and by 1.37 percent for the entire year.

Spain is grappling with a double-dip recession and 26 percent unemployment, having never recovered from a real estate crash in 2008.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government forecasts the economy will return to growth in the second half of 2013.

It forecasts an economic contraction of 0.5 percent in 2013 followed by an expansion of 1.2 percent in 2014, a significantly more optimistic forecast than that of most analysts and international organisations.

Activity is being cramped by his government's programme of spending cuts and tax rises, aimed at saving 150 billion euros ($194 billion) between 2012 and 2014, which have prompted mass street protests.

The Spanish economy appeared to continue its contraction in the first quarter of 2013 due to sluggish domestic demand, the Bank of Spain said Wednesday in its latest monthly economic bulletin.

The government has vowed to lower the public deficit from the equivalent of 9.4 percent of annual gross domestic product last year to 2.8 percent in 2014.

Analysts say those targets will be hard to reach in a period of declining economic activity.

Rajoy on Wednesday announced that Spain missed the budget deficit target agreed with the European Commission as the shortfall reached 6.7 percent of GDP in 2012, compared with a target of 6.3 percent.

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Pope vows 'obedience' to successor

Pope Benedict will spend his last day as pontiff, following an emotional public farewell. Source: AAP

POPE Benedict XVI on Thursday vowed "unconditional obedience" to his successor on his historic final day as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, when he will become the first pontiff to resign since the Middle Ages.

"Among you there is also the future pope to whom I promise my unconditional obedience and reverence," the pope said as he bade farewell to cardinals in the Vatican's ornate Clementine Hall.

"Let the Lord reveal the one he has chosen," said the 85-year-old pope, wearing an ermine-lined red stole over his white cassock.

"We have experienced, with faith, beautiful moments of radiant light together, as well as times with a few clouds in the sky," Benedict said, reprising a theme from his adieu to some 150,000 pilgrims in St Peter's Square on Wednesday.

The cardinals with their black cassocks and red sashes then took turns bidding farewell to the pontiff, kissing his gold papal signet ring according to time-honoured tradition.

Many doffed their berettas in a sign of deference.

Just hours remained before Benedict will make history as only the second pope to resign of his own free will in the Church's 2,000-year history.

The German pope stunned the globe when he announced on February 11 his surprise decision to step down, saying he no longer had the "strength of mind and body" to carry on in a fast-changing world.

"I took this step in full awareness of its gravity and novelty but with profound serenity," the pope said Wednesday.

The theologian pope - a shy academic who struggled with Vatican infighting and a raft of toxic sex abuse scandals - said his eight-year pontificate had seen "sunny days" and "stormy waters", but he added: "I never felt alone".

The Vatican has said that the moment the pope's powers officially expire at 1900 GMT (0600 Friday AEDT) the ex-pontiff will formally be known by the new title of "Roman Pontiff Emeritus" although he will still be addressed as "Your Holiness Benedict XVI".

The only other pope who resigned by choice was Celestine V, a humble hermit who stepped down in 1294 after just a few months in office out of disgust with Vatican corruption and intrigue.

Once Benedict takes up permanent residence in a former convent on a hill within the Vatican walls, the Church will find itself in the unprecedented situation of having a pope and his predecessor living within a stone's throw of each other.

Vatican analysts have suggested his sudden exit could set a precedent for ageing popes in the future, and many ordinary Catholics say a more youthful, pastoral figure could breathe new life into a Church struggling on many levels.

From Catholic reformers calling for women clergy and for an end to priestly celibacy, to growing secularism in the West and ongoing scandals uncovering sexual abuse by paedophile priests going back decades, the next pope will have a tough agenda.

French cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, one of the electors, spoke of the upcoming conclave in an interview with Italian daily Il Messaggero saying: "Our eyes will be turned on the conditions of the world, to the great challenges the Church faces."

According to Church rules, any Catholic adult male can be elected pope - but the last non-cardinal to land the top job was Urban VI in the late 14th century.

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Deadly clashes in Bangladesh

A BANGLADESH war crimes court sentenced a top Islamist opposition figure to death on Thursday, a verdict that unleashed a new wave of deadly clashes between police and protesters.

Four people were shot dead in the violence that erupted after a court in Dhaka found Delwar Hossain Sayedee, vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, guilty of eight crimes related to the 1971 liberation war with Pakistan.

Prosecutor Syed Haider Ali said Sayedee was sentenced to death by hanging after he was found guilty of eight charges including murder, arson, rape and forceful conversion of Hindus to Islam.

He is the third person to be convicted by the much-criticised domestic tribunal whose previous verdicts have also been met with outrage from Islamists who say the process is more about score settling than delivering justice.

The latest clashes brought the overall death toll to 20 since the first verdict was delivered on January 21.

Two protesters were killed in the northern town of Sirajganj and another two in Mithapukur when police opened fire during clashes with hundreds of Islamists, police officials and doctors told AFP.

"They became violent and attacked us. Police fired back," police officer Sadrul Islam of Sirajganj told AFP, adding the violence was triggered by the death penalty. "Dozens were also injured."

Emergency doctor Shariful Islam told AFP two bullet-hit people died and one was injured after clashes between police and protesters at Mithapukur.

At least five people were injured after police fired live rounds at scores of Jamaat protesters in Dhaka where round 10,000 extra police had been drafted in.

Security forces had been braced for trouble ahead of the verdict against Sayedee, who reacted to the judgment by saying it had been influenced by "atheists" and pro-government protesters who have been demanding his execution.

His lawyer Tajul Islam described the verdict as "a gross miscarriage of justice", adding that Sayedee did not live in the town where the alleged crimes took place.

"It's a case of mistaken identity. We're stunned," he told AFP.

However protesters at a central Dhaka intersection erupted in cheers as news of Sayedee's sentence filtered through. "We've been waiting for this day for the last four decades," a protester told Somoy TV.

There was no immediate reaction from Jamaat to the verdict, but the party has enforced a nationwide strike demanding a halt to the trials. The cases against eight more Jamaat leaders are still being heard.

Earlier this month the tribunal, a local court with no international oversight, sentenced Jamaat's assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Molla to life imprisonment.

While angering Jamaat supporters, that verdict also enraged secular protesters, tens of thousands of whom have since poured onto the Shahbag intersection in central Dhaka to demand the execution of Jamaat leaders.

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We were sidelined in compo leaflet: unions

UNIONS have been deliberately sidelined in new leaflets prepared by WorkCover NSW, the state's peak union body says.

Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon said it was concerning that a new fact sheet advising sick and injured workers on how to make compensation claims and resolve disputes made no mention of trade unions.

Similar documents had always done so in the past, Mr Lennon said.

"People should always be made aware of their rights to seek information from various sources, including from their union," he told AAP on Wednesday.

Mr Lennon said sick or injured workers were vulnerable and often needed assistance arguing their cases.

The new fact sheet comes after the state government last year passed wide-ranging WorkCover reforms designed to help rein in a deficit of more than $4 billion.

Benefits and medical expenses were capped and journey claims axed for many workers.

"I think this makes the situation even more difficult," Mr Lennon said.

WorkCover could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night.

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Prince Harry dances in Lesotho

BRITAIN'S Prince Harry has visited his charity projects in Lesotho, finding time to perform traditional dance moves with children during his return visit to the southern African kingdom.

On the third day of a three-day tour, the 28-year-old stopped at the Kananelo Centre for the Deaf, where around 70 kids cheered his arrival.

He took part in a traditional dance with the students, though the locals coyly admitted that the flame-haired royal messed up the moves.

Some children also performed a mini-theatre production in sign language to show off the skills learnt at the centre, which was built with the support of the prince's NGO Sentebale.

It teaches the national curriculum in sign language and also trains life skills in the impoverished country.

The prince was given a violin-like instrument and a traditional clothing blanket.

Harry will next travel to a primary school for blind children and a community housing and water project.

The projects work with Sentebale, an organisation which Harry set up with Prince Seeiso, the younger brother of King Letsie of Lesotho.

Its name, in local language Sesotho, means "forget me not".

The third-in-line to the British throne will whisk off to Johannesburg in neighbouring South Africa the afternoon for a fund-raising gala dinner.

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Ex-Qld premier recovering from brain op

FORMER Queensland Premier Wayne Goss is recovering well from his third brain operation, a spokesman for his family says.

Mr Goss underwent neurosurgery in 1997 and again in 2002 to remove a low-grade malignant brain tumour.

On Wednesday, the day after his 62nd birthday, he went under the knife again.

Family spokesman Russ Morgan said surgeons told them the operation had gone well and Mr Goss was now recovering at Brisbane's Mater Hospital.

The former Labor premier and his wife Roisin thanked the public for "all the messages and good wishes we have received".

Mr Goss first underwent brain surgery in September 1997 after complaining of a severe headache when he returned from a bicycle ride.

He was operated on within days and made a full recovery, leaving politics and takingup a job as managing partner at accounting firm Deloitte.

Mr Goss was first elected to state parliament in 1983 and served as premier from 1989 to 1996.

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Pope recalls 'joy' of papacy

POPE Benedict XVI basked in an emotional send off at his final general audience in St. Peter's Square, recalling moments of "joy and light" during his papacy but also times of great difficulty.

He also thanked his flock for respecting his decision to retire.

Tens of thousands of people toting banners saying "Grazie!" - "Thank you" - jammed the piazza in Rome to bid Benedict farewell and join the appointment he has kept each week for eight years to teach the world about the Catholic faith.

Benedict clearly enjoyed the crowds, taking a long victory lap around the square in an open-sided car and stopping to kiss and bless half a dozen children handed to him by his secretary.

In keeping with the historic moment, Benedict changed course and didn't produce his typical professorial Wednesday catechism lesson.

Rather, he made his final public appearance in St. Peter's a personal one, explaining once again why he was becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign and urging the faithful to pray for his successor.

"To love the church means also to have the courage to take difficult, painful decisions, always keeping the good of the church in mind, not oneself," Benedict said to thundering applause.

He recalled that when he was elected pope on April 19, 2005, he questioned if God truly wanted it. "'It's a great burden that you've placed on my shoulders,"' he recalled telling God.

During eight years, he said "I have had moments of joy and light, but also moments that haven't been easy ... moments of turbulent seas and rough winds."

But he said he never felt alone and thanked his cardinals and colleagues for their guidance and for "understanding and respecting this important decision."

Under a bright sun and blue skies, the square was overflowing with pilgrims and curiosity-seekers.

Those who couldn't get in picked spots along the main boulevard leading to the square to watch the event on giant TV screens. Some 50,000 tickets were requested for Benedict's final master class, but Italian media estimated the number of people actually attending could be double that.

"It's difficult - the emotion is so big," said Jan Marie, a 53-year-old Roman in his first years as a seminarian.

"We came to support the pope's decision."

With chants of "Benedetto!" erupting every so often, the mood was far more buoyant than during the pope's final Sunday blessing.

It recalled the jubilant turnouts that often accompanied him at World Youth Days and events involving his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

Benedict has said he decided to retire after realising that, at 85, he simply didn't have the "strength of mind or body" to carry on. He will meet Thursday morning with cardinals for a final time, then fly by helicopter to the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.

There, at 8 pm, the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church over - for now.

Many of the cardinals who will choose Benedict's successor were in St. Peter's Square for his final audience. Those included retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, the object of a grass-roots campaign in the US to persuade him to recuse himself for having covered up for sexually abusive priests. Mahony has said he will be among the 115 cardinals voting on who the next pope should be.

Vatican officials say cardinals will begin meeting Monday to decide when to set the date for the conclave to elect the next pope.

But the rank-and-file faithful in the crowd Wednesday weren't so concerned with the future; they wanted to savour the final moments with the pope they have known for eight years.

"I came to thank him for the testimony that he has given the church," said Maria Cristina Chiarini, a 52-year-old homemaker who travelled by train early Wednesday from Lugo in central Italy with some 60 members of her parish.

"There's nostalgia, human nostalgia, but also comfort, because as a Christian we have hope. The Lord won't leave us without a guide."

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Missing Jayden to rejoin family

AN intellectually disabled boy who went missing with a mate in Sydney's southwest has been found safe and sound.

Jayden Patterson, 13, and his 11-year-old friend prompted a major search when they skipped school at Warwick Farm on Monday morning.

The younger boy later turned up at Macquarie Fields police station but Jayden was not found until Tuesday evening.

Police said he was found at a Mount Druitt house and described him as being "safe and well".

Jayden's friend returned home to his family earlier on Tuesday.

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Gympie flood peak revised up

Gympie's expected flood peak has been revised up to 19 metres, placing extra businesses at risk. Source: AAP

GYMPIE'S expected flood peak has been revised up by a metre, placing extra businesses and several homes in the southeast Queensland town at risk.

The forecast level of 19 metres is one metre lower than the level reached almost exactly a month ago when more than 100 premises went under.

Mayor Ron Dyne says the adjustment makes a big difference.

"At 18 metres we were looking at around about 34 businesses. We're probably now going to have to go up to around 40 or 45, and probably three to four houses at this stage," Mr Dyne told AAP.

"We began at 12 metres when we started on this latest journey, then it became 16 metres, then 18, so I just hope 19 metres is the last so we can get on with life."

Mr Dyne said after the second flood in a month, townsfolk are a bit water shy.

"They're a resilient crowd but they're jack of it. The retail side of things aren't flash anyway; then you get four floods in one year and two in a month and some businesses have had to empty their shops every time."

Panel beater Noel Edmonds moved back into his River Road workshop just two weeks ago after it was swamped by two metres of water last month.

Now he is evacuating again.

"It's catastrophic. We've just had enough," he told AAP, saying he couldn't afford to move the business.

Weather bureau hydrologist Jess Carey says once the Mary River peaks, it should drop back to normal pretty quickly.

"By late Thursday it should be almost back to normal," he told AAP.

Forecaster Geoff Doueal says the rain should start easing on Wednesday, although some falls up to 100mm are possible between Gladstone and Bowen.

"As far as the rain goes, you'd have to think the worst is over for Gympie. There'll be an easing trend over the next couple of days," he said.

The threat to Bundaberg has also passed, Mr Doueal said.

"We think Bundaberg will have some scattered showers, with about 10mm tomorrow."

A woman who got lost in flooded bushland north of Brisbane for 16 hours was found on Tuesday morning.

The 49-year-old, who had been grocery shopping, was stopped by floodwaters not far from her home near Pomona on Monday afternoon.

She tried to walk home along a bush track with her shopping bags but became lost in the leech-infested scrub.

Search and rescue teams caught up with her just a few kilometres from her home.

A 77-year-old man drowned on Monday afternoon after being swept from his car in floodwaters near Kilcoy, northeast of Brisbane.

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Asylum seeker charged with sexual assault

A SRI Lankan asylum seeker has been charged with indecently assaulting a 20-year-old student at Macquarie University in the city's north.

The 21-year-old was arrested on Tuesday over the alleged sexual assault at the university on February 21.

The victim told police she was asleep in a student accommodation building at the uni when a man broke into her room and indecently assaulted her about 3.20am.

The woman woke up during that attack and the man fled her room.

The accused 21-year-old man was arrested near Sydney's Central station on Tuesday morning.

After hours of questioning he was charged with indecent assault and two counts of aggravated break and enter.

An immigration department spokeswoman said on Tuesday the man was an asylum seeker on a bridging visa but was not living in student accommodation at Macquarie University at the time of the attack.

The university has previously said there was nothing to link the attack to its ongoing accommodation of asylum seekers.

Macquarie University provides services for asylum seekers, including temporary accommodation, under a 2012 agreement with the Red Cross's Asylum Seeker Assistance Scheme (ASAS).

The man was refused bail to appear in Central Local Court on Wednesday.

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Offers exchanged at Iran nuclear talks

WORLD powers and Iran have exchanged offers in crunch talks in Kazakhstan aimed at breaking a decade of deadlock over Tehran's nuclear drive despite low expectations of any deal.

The two-day meeting in the Kazakh city of Almaty comes as sanctions bite against the Islamic republic and Israel still refuses to rule out air strikes to knock out Iran's suspected nuclear weapons drive.

The first round of closed-door talks started at around 1930(AEDT) after an initial bilateral meeting between the Chinese and Iranian delegations.

"We have come here with a revised offer and we have come to engage with Iran in a meaningful way," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who negotiates with Iran on behalf of the world powers, said in a statement.

She said the ambition was that "we see progress by the end of the meeting."

The world powers are offering Iran permission to resume its gold and precious metals trade as well as some international banking activity which are currently under sanctions, Western officials told AFP.

But in exchange, Iran will have to limit sensitive uranium enrichment operations that the world powers fear could be used to make a nuclear bomb, the sources added.

Iran would have to stop enriching uranium to 20 per cent and shut down its controversial Fordo plant where such activity occurs, a Western official said.

An Iranian source said Tehran had come up with a counter-offer, whose final nature would be determined by terms posed by the big powers.

"Which version we present depends on what the 5+1 (world powers) put forward. Our offer will be of the same weight as their offer," the Iranian delegation source said.

The source stressed "there was no question" of Tehran closing the Fordo plant where uranium is enriched to up to 20 per cent - a level seen as being within technical reach of weapons-grade matter.

But Iran could envisage halting the enrichment of uranium to 20 per cent, if all international sanctions against it were dropped, including UN Security Council measures, the source said.

Hopes are low of a breakthrough at the talks - the first such since a meeting in Moscow in June 2012 - and Iranian officials have doused expectations by insisting they will offer no special concessions.

"It's clear that no one expects everyone to walk out of here in Almaty with a done deal. This is a negotiating process," said Ashton's spokesman Michael Mann.

Iran denies it is developing nuclear weapons and wants the world to respect its "right" to enrich uranium - something current UN sanctions say it cannot do because of its refusal to co-operate with nuclear inspectors.

"We don't expect any breakthrough. The Iranians have made different declarations in the last days. It depends if you take the positive or the negative ones," said one Western official who asked not to be identified.

World powers are represented at the table by the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany - the so-called P5+1 - with the Iranian team headed by top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

The talks essentially come down to tough negotiating sessions - replete with power point presentations - between Jalili and the EU's Ashton who is mandated to speak on behalf of the world powers.

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Qantas director quits amid Italian probe

QANTAS director Corinne Namblard has resigned from the airline's board after becoming caught up in an Italian corruption investigation.

Ms Namblard denies any wrongdoing in relation to the investigation into the privatisation of Siena airport, but was stepping down in the best interests of Qantas and herself while it continued.

"Ms Namblard was especially concerned to ensure that the continuing media focus on the current Italian proceedings did not distract Qantas from implementing its strategic imperatives nor detract from the achievements that Qantas has had in meeting the challenges to its business," Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford said in a statement on Monday.

"The Qantas board appreciates those sentiments.

"It is also apt to note that Ms Namblard strenuously denies any wrongdoing in relation to the matters which are the subject of the Italian proceedings, and the Qantas Board has no reason whatsoever to doubt that position."

Ms Namblard, a French financier who joined the Qantas board in 2011, has been questioned in Italy as part of an investigation into alleged bid rigging and the Tuscan Monte dei Paschi di Seina bank.

She reportedly was asked to by Italian investigators to provide evidence about her involvement in the privatisation of Siena airport in 2007.

She was chief executive of Galaxy Fund, the winning bidder, at the time.

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Hutchison loss widens as customers flee

HUTCHISON Telecommunications (Australia) has widened its full year loss to almost $400 million as nearly half a million customers abandoned its poorly performing joint venture network.

However, the beleaguered telecommunications company expects to improve its performance through this year and into 2014, but did not give any guidance.

Vodafone in Australia is a 50/50 joint venture between Hutchison Telecoms and Vodafone Group of the UK, and has been plagued by customer complaints about poor service and reliability.

During the year Vodafone's customer base declined by 443,000 to 6.6 million, leading to a fall in customer revenue by 16.8 per cent to $1.7 billion.

Earnings before interest, tax and depreciation decreased 43.3 per cent to $177.3 million.

Hutchison Australia chairman Canning Fok said Vodafone was implementing a turnaround plan with the full support of its shareholders.

He said in a statement that the network had made "meaningful inroads" in stabilising customer numbers and financial performance.

"Although continuing losses are anticipated in 2013, HTAL (Hutchison Telecommunications Australia Ltd) expects improvements in VHA's (Vodafone) performance through the year and into 2014," he said.

Hutchison Telecommunications on Monday reported a $393.5 million loss for calendar 2012 compared with a loss of $167.7 million in the previous year.

In the statement released after the close of share marketing trading, the company said its share of its joint venture in Vodafone Hutchison Australia (Vodafone) was a net loss for 2012 of $408.8 million. This compared with a net loss of $175.4 million in 2011.

Law firm Piper Alderman on Monday announced plans to proceed with the class action against Vodafone but did not reveal further details.

Piper Alderman lawyers will outline details of the legal action at a media conference in Sydney on Tuesday morning.

The legal move comes more than a year after Vodafone said it was working hard to improve its service.

This followed a damning report that outlined more than 12,000 complaints ranging from patchy network coverage to poor customer service.

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Israel, US successfully test anti-missile

A JOINT exercise with US forces has successfully tested the Arrow anti-missile system for the first time, Israel's Defence Ministry says.

The system is meant to defend Israel from the threat of an Iranian strike.

The ministry said Monday's test was "a major milestone in the development of the Arrow 3 Weapon System."

The Arrow is produced jointly by Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing.

It detects an incoming missile and destroys it with a second missile. Iran's Shahab ballistic missile can carry a nuclear warhead and has a range of 2000km, putting Israel well within range.

The Arrow is part of Israel's multi-layered shield designed to intercept rockets and missiles. Israel sees Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program as an existential threat.

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Horse meat found in Ikea's meatballs

HORSE meat has been detected in meat balls labelled as beef and pork imported to Czech Republic by furniture giant Ikea.

The Czech State Veterinary Administration says the one-kilogram packs of the frozen meat balls were made in Sweden to be sold in Ikea's furniture stores that also offer typical Swedish food.

A total of 760kg of the meat balls were stopped from reaching the shelves in the Czech Republic.

The authority said on Monday horse meat was also found in beef burgers imported from Poland.

Last week, the Czechs detected horse meat for the first time - in lasagna Bolognese made by frozen food processor Tavola S. A. Comigel and sold at Tesco.

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Fire in Sydney store suspicious: police

POLICE say a fire in a home decorator store in Sydney's northwest was deliberately lit and are urging witnesses who may have seen suspicious activity to contact them.

Emergency services were called to Victoria Avenue in Castle Hill at about 11.30am (AEDT) on Sunday after a customer saw smoke and flames in the floor rug section of the store.

As staff evacuated the shop another employee put the blaze out with a fire extinguisher, confining damage to a stand of rugs.

Police believe the fire was deliberately lit and want shoppers who were evacuated from the store to contact them if they noticed someone acting suspiciously at the time of the fire.

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Iraqi president communicating after stroke

A DOCTOR who oversees Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's medical care says the president is able to speak and understand people around him as he recovers from a stroke he suffered over two months ago.

In an interview on Sunday Dr Najmaldin Karim described the improvement in the president's health as encouraging and "a good development".

Karim oversees Talabani's medical care when he is in Iraq, although the president is currently in Germany for treatment.

Karim says he is hopeful Talabani will be able to return to Iraq, but acknowledged that any decision rests with the doctors treating him in Germany.

Talabani was rushed to a hospital on December 17 for what officials described as a serious stroke. He was later moved to Germany. Few details have been released about his condition.

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'Sex stimulant' found in Pistorius home

A SUBSTANCE found in star athlete Oscar Pistorius' home during a search by police investigating the killing of his girlfriend is a herbal sexual stimulant, a South African newspaper reported.

The prosecution said during Pistorius' bail hearing last week that police had found two boxes of "testosterone" and needles in his Pretoria home, but the defence countered that it was a legal herbal remedy known as testocompasutium coenzyme.

The City Press newspaper said on Sunday the remedy was a combination of vitamins, herbal cures partly derived from animal organs.

Sports physician Jon Patricios told the paper the product is used to boost sexual energy, but that athletes are not advised to use it since it may increase their testosterone levels.

"This is not an anabolic steroid and it is unlikely it will lead to irrational anger," he said.

The National Prosecuting Authority has said it was awaiting the results of forensic tests to determine what the product is.

"Blade Runner" Pistorius, 26, an Olympic and Paralymic hero, was freed on bail on Friday ahead of a trial on a murder charge over the Valentine's Day killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The International Paralympic Committee said the double amputee was tested twice during the London Paralympics in 2012 and tested negative.

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Darfur tribal fighting hampers aid: UN

THE UN expressed deep concern over the latest deadly tribal violence in Sudan's Darfur region, which has hampered assistance for tens of thousands of people forced to flee earlier fighting.

Residents in El Sireaf town said an Arab militia firing heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades burned houses and killed more than 50 people on Saturday.

"They came on Land Cruisers, used Dushkas and they burned 30 houses (and killed) 53 people," said one resident of the town, to which most of the 100,000 people displaced or severely affected by the earlier tribal fighting had fled.

Damian Rance of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Sunday said: "We are deeply concerned by the violence".

"It's affected our ability to run a humanitarian operation."

About 100,000 people had already been displaced or severely affected by battles since early January between the Rezeigat tribe and rival Arabs from the Beni Hussein group in the Jebel Amir gold mining area of North Darfur state.

People were displaced across a wide area but most ended up in El Sireaf town, where Saturday's fighting occurred.

Aid convoys are still moving in the surrounding area but "we don't have access to El Sireaf town" because of the fighting, Rance said.

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