Gunmen attack Greece prison

AT least 11 inmates escaped from a Greek prison after gunmen brazenly attacked the site with grenades and automatic weapons, kicking off a nightlong standoff between police and prisoners. Two guards were injured, one of them seriously.

A senior police official told the Associated Press on Saturday that 11 inmates were missing after the gun battle and standoff, which ended at dawn when police special forces entered the prison. He spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was still pending.

The incident occurred near the town of Trikala, in central Greece, some 320 kilometres northwest of Athens. As many as six gunmen attacked the prison after driving up to the site in a van and pickup truck, according to officials.

Prison authorities were investigating reports that weapons had also been fired from inside the facility. At least five grenades exploded, while army experts were expected at the prison to dispose of two unexploded grenades.

The attack started at around 8:30 pm local time on Friday, when a police patrol jeep was fired upon.

"It was like a war was going on. There was so much gunfire," said Trikala city councilor Costas Tassios, who lives in the village of Krinitsa, near the prison.

A bullet fired at the village damaged a coffee shop window in an incident also being investigated by police.

The escaped prisoners used ropes to climb down from a guard tower that had been attacked. Police set up roadblocks near the prison and searched vacant homes and farm buildings, as well as using two helicopters, in the manhunt. Officers from evidence units were also scouring the jail perimetre after dawn.

Police said the escaped inmates were mostly Albanian but gave no other details. An inmate from Argentina was arrested but the circumstances of his apprehension were not immediately clear.

The attack was the latest dramatic incident at Greek prisons, which are suffering from serious overcrowding and staff shortages as the country struggles through financial crisis and a recession that started in late 2008.

Last month, guards foiled a breakout attempt by four inmates who tried to escape by helicopter from Trikala prison, including notorious Greek inmate Panagiotis Vlastos, who is serving life for murder and racketeering. Gunmen in the helicopter had fired on guards in the Feb. 24 incident and lowered a rope in to the courtyard, but the chopper was forced to land after being hit by returned gunfire.

In a separate incident on March 17, a convicted contract killer, Albanian inmate Alket Rizaj, took several prison guards hostage in an attempt to escape from another prison in central Greece. The attempt was unsuccessful and the hostages were released unharmed following a 24-hour standoff.

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Bangladesh storm kills 20

The death toll from a tornado that hit villages in Bangladesh has risen to 20. Source: AAP

THE death toll from a tornado that ripped through 20 villages in eastern Bangladesh has climbed to 20 people, with another 200 hurt, a government official says.

Initial reports said at least 10 people were killed and a newspaper put the toll for the injured at 500 in the storm that lashed the distant villages in Brahmanbaria district on Friday.

On Saturday, local chief government administrator Noor Mohammad Majumder said the death toll had climbed to 20 people died, with another 200 injured in the powerful storm.

The local Prothom Alo newspaper reported that the 15-minute storm destroyed many homes and shops, and toppled a large number of trees and electricity poles.

Villagers and emergency personnel took the injured to hospitals, the reports said.

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Livestock saved in Vic abattoir fire

FIREFIGHTERS have rescued hundreds of cattle and sheep from a fire at a Melbourne abattoir.

CFA Incident Controller Peter Lucas said more than 20 trucks and 100 firefighters were called in to fight the blaze at a Cranbourne abattoir in Melbourne's south-east.

Three workers alerted firefighters to the blaze caused by a possible electrical fault at about 3.30pm (AEDT).

"When the fire did erupt they saw fire take off and roll across ceiling," he told AAP.

"It was movie stuff."

Hundreds of sheep and cattle were herded into a local paddock, with a few dying from shock.

"We saved the bulk of them from a pretty terrible end," Mr Lucas said.

Mr Lucas said the fire threatened to engulf the whole abattoir and took over two hours to control.

While more than half of the building was damaged, firefighters were able to save the abattoir's storing fridges, Mr Lucas said.

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Boy critical after being hit by 4WD

A YOUNG boy is fighting for his life after being knocked off his pushbike by a 4WD while crossing a road in western Sydney.

The boy suffered life-threatening head injuries after he was hit by a silver Subaru Escape at traffic lights on Richmond Road, Marayong at about 7.30pm (AEDT) on Saturday, police said.

The boy is aged between eight and 12 and was with his brother at the time of the accident, police believe.

He has been taken to the Children's Hospital at Westmead in a critical condition.

The Subaru driver, a woman in her 30s, stopped immediately and is assisting police.

Witnesses are urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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CMC info boss too stressed to confess

THE Crime and Misconduct Commission's information manager was too stressed about looming job cuts to tell his superiors he'd made another mistake over the release of sensitive Fitzgerald inquiry documents.

In February 2012, director of information management Peter Duell mistakenly lifted the 65-year publication ban on 741 documents from the 1980s inquiry into police corruption.

Some contained intelligence reports, surveillance logs and names of targets and it was feared informants could be hunted down.

Mr Duell told a public hearing into the bungle that he wasn't familiar with the documents and believed they contained benign information.

He thought those that were sensitive had a 100-year ban.

Mr Duell told former chair Ross Martin that the problem had been fixed in May, but it came to light in September that sensitive information was still available.

"I had made a big mistake," he said.

"I hadn't cleaned it up correctly."

Mr Duell said he had requested leave in September because he was upset his department had been "cut to the bone" and was again being targeted for further cuts.

Acting Parliamentary Commissioner Peter Davis SC put it to Mr Duell that he didn't relay his second error to his superiors because he wanted to save his own skin.

"No, not at all," Mr Duell said.

"I wasn't thinking about my job at that point in time, that it was going to be in jeopardy, but there were certainly staff within information management that had to leave and they did."

Mr Duell also admitted that he hadn't taken steps to remove from public access metadata - indexes on the files - which were also found to contain controversial information.

State Archivist Janet Prowse told the hearing that metadata was still available online in July.

"A researcher with basic web searching skills would be able to find and locate the metadata," she said.

Ms Prowse said that since 2007 she had processed 8.9 kilometres of records and the CMC bungle was the first of its kind.

The Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee, which oversees the CMC and is holding the public hearing, is due to report on the bungle on April 5.

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Russia turns back on Cyprus debt crisis

RUSSIA spurned investment proposals that would have helped rescue the Cyprus economy, piling pressure on Nicosia as it races to stave off financial meltdown and possible exit from the eurozone.

The European Union has given Nicosia until Monday to raise 5.8 billion euros ($A7.22 billion) to unlock loans worth 10 billion euros or face being choked from European Central Bank emergency funding in a move that would bankrupt the island.

EU sources have said the bloc is ready to eject Cyprus from the eurozone to prevent contagion of other debt-hit members such as Greece, Spain and Italy.

MPs were to meet in emergency session Friday to race through a raft of bills aimed at raising the funds and heading down a growing sense of anger and panic among Cypriots fearful that their life savings will disappear in the rubble of a banking collapse.

Local media said the start of the session was delayed as the bills went back to parliament's finance committee for further examination.

One bill gives effect to a key plank of the rescue plan - the so-called Plan B - setting up an investment fund and the nationalisation of pension funds, with bonds issued against future natural gas revenues.

A second bill imposes "temporary restrictive measures on the movement of capital".

Government hopes of an economic lifeline from Russia proved to be illusory and Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris left Moscow on Friday after two days of talks without reaching an agreement.

Russian officials said two major state-owned energy firms had turned down deals put forward by Sarris and that Russia refused a loan request to fill a 5.8-billion-euro shortfall left by the EU-IMF bailout offer.

"Our investors examined this issue and showed no interest," Russian news agencies quoted the country's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov as saying.

He added that Moscow never reviewed the issue of providing a new loan fearing Cyprus, already on the brink of bankruptcy, could not withstand more debt.

Moscow has been angered by the original terms of a rescue plan for Cyprus proposed by the troika of international lenders that would have slapped a levy of up to 9.9 per cent on bank deposits.

That plan was overwhelmingly rejected by parliament, leaving the government scrambling to put together its current Plan B.

News of the Russian rejection did little to brighten the mood of bank customers standing in long queues at dispensing machines outside banks.

Banks have been in lockdown this entire week and are not due to reopen at least until Tuesday.

Around 200 protesters gathered outside the legislature on Friday and some sat down in the street, blocking access to the complex, after anger boiled over and scuffles with police broke out briefly late on Thursday.

Most of the crowd were employees of the Laiki or Cyprus Popular Bank, which is in the eye of the storm.

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Chinese pollution affecting Japan

Air purifier sales in Japan have surged because of pollution being blown across from China. Source: AAP

JAPAN logged a huge surge in air purifier sales last month, as Tokyo warned that smog was blowing into its territory from China, which is grappling with an air pollution crisis.

Acrid haze blanketing swathes of China has sparked health risk warnings in Japan while complicating already strained ties between Tokyo and Beijing, which are embroiled in a tense territorial row over islands in the East China Sea.

The Japanese foreign ministry has proposed a meeting over the issue with Beijing, which has promised action as it faces rising public anger over the persistent problem.

Sales of air purifiers in Japan surged nearly 48 per cent to 11.5 billion yen ($A116 million) in February from a year earlier, according to a monthly survey by the Japan Electronics Manufacturers' Association released Thursday, as demand for other home appliances was flat.

Japanese shoppers scooped up more than 450,000 air purifier units last month, the data showed.

While the industry body did not cite a reason for the jump, it coincided with warnings from Japanese officials over the Chinese smog while local media has cited pollution as a key reason for the surge.

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Consumers warned about funeral contracts

CONSUMERS are being warned to beware of "push advertising" for pre-paid funeral arrangements on daytime television.

In a statement, NSW Fair Trading commissioner Rod Stowe said daytime TV was experiencing a "renaissance" in marketing around the issue of death and dying that "could play on people's insecurities about such matters".

"People need to shop around and go for products without the pernicious aspects of escalating costs with age," Mr Stowe said on Friday.

The Fair Trading boss said consumers needed to be aware that with some products there was the potential to lose payments if a contract or a scheduled transfer was cancelled.

Mr Stowe stressed to consumers considering buying funeral products that refunds were "not generally provided if a payment is missed or the policy is cancelled".

Consumers should read the product disclosure statement (PDS) that outlines what happens if the policy is cancelled, he said.

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Obama receives frosty welcome in Ramallah

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, March 21 AFP - US President Barack Obama arrived in the West Bank to a more prickly welcome from Palestinian leaders than the warm embrace he won in Israel the day before.

Obama flew by helicopter over the barbed wire fences and walls of the Israeli separation barrier, before meeting Palestinian leaders dismayed by his failure to live up to expectations that he could help deliver them a state.

As Marine One touched down under a blazing sun in the courtyard of the Muqataa presidential compound, a military band began playing and Obama was warmly greeted on the red carpet by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The US president, on his first visit to the Holy Land since taking the White House in 2009, was expected to restate his vision of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite years of delays and disappointments.

Obama was to hold talks with Abbas and then prime minister Salam Fayyad, in a less than five-hour diversion to the occupied territories on the second day of a visit primarily engineered to ease tensions with Israel.

Despite the tight cordon of security around the Muqataa, around 150 Palestinian protesters could be seen trying to get near, shouting "Obama, you're not welcome here!" and "Obama, get out of Ramallah!"

Hours before leaving for Ramallah, the complications which would test any new US peace effort were underlined when two rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip slammed into southern Israel.

In only the second such attack since November, the rockets hit in Sderot, a border town which Obama visited in a previous visit to Israel while a presidential candidate in 2008.

There was no immediate comment from the White House, and a senior Israeli official said the government would be watching closely to see if Abbas condemned the rocket strike during his news conference with Obama.

Earlier on Thursday, Obama went to the Israel Museum to view the Dead Sea Scrolls dating back more than two millennia and which include some of the earliest text from the Bible, in a move seen as a nod to the ancient roots of the Jewish state.

The visit was seen as a way of making up for Obama's comment in a 2009 speech to the Muslim world in which he said the Jewish homeland was rooted in the "tragic history" of the Holocaust.

Obama says he has come "to listen" to both sides about how to resume peace talks frozen for two-and-a-half years.

He decided against coming with a comprehensive peace plan that might not gel with current political conditions.

"Ultimately, this is a really hard problem," Obama said during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.

"It's been lingering for over six decades. And the parties involved have, you know, some profound interests that you can't spin, you can't smooth over. And it is a hard slog to work through all of these issues."

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Vic man goes to police after death

A 23-YEAR-OLD man has handed himself in to police after the suspicious death of a man in Victoria's southwest.

A 57-year-old man was found dead at a house in Winchelsea about 4.15pm (AEDT) on Wednesday after police were called to conduct a welfare check.

The 23-year-old Winchelsea man went to Geelong police station on Thursday and is assisting police with inquiries.

Investigators believe the death is suspicious and a post-mortem examination will be conducted.

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Car bomb kills 13 at Pakistan refugee camp

A CAR bomb hit a Pakistani refugee camp, killing 13 people including women and children, raising further fears for the security of a May general election in the nuclear-armed state.

More than 30 other people were wounded when the bomb exploded in Jalozai, the largest refugee camp in Pakistan, as scores of people queued for rations handed out by a local charity in partnership with the United Nations and USAID.

Jalozai is home to tens of thousands of displaced people from the tribal belt, a stronghold of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants, on the Afghan border and is close to the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but officials linked the attack to fighting in Khyber district, where the military has stepped up an offensive against Taliban and local militia, and from where most camp residents have fled.

"The bomb exploded in a car parked near the administration office where refugees had lined up to get rations and new arrivals were being registered," said camp police official Fuad Khan.

District police chief Mohammad Hussain said the bomb was detonated on a timer, and carried up to 35 kilograms of explosive and mortar shells.

An AFP reporter saw scenes of devastation. Pieces of human flesh and blood spattered the scene. Slashed bags of rations marked USAID, the US government's agency for international development, and WFP, the UN food programme.

Spilt grain and children's food supplements littered the ground next to discarded toys, sandals and twisted metal. The engine of the car which exploded lay around 50 feet from a two-foot crater left by the blast.

Tariq Khan, a 40-year-old displaced driver from Khyber, said he was in his tent when he suddenly heard a "very loud" blast and saw thick black smoke outside.

"I rushed to the spot and saw bodies lying in a pool of blood and wounded people crying in pain. I saw small pieces of human flesh everywhere and found my uncle, whose both legs had gone, and he was crying with pain," Khan told AFP.

"I lifted him and looked for a car and luckily found one nearby and took him to hospital," he said.

Jehanzeb Khan, 27, another refugee from Khyber, also spoke about helping to rescue the wounded.

"I saw bodies, blood and wounded, everywhere. I started lifting the wounded and put them in the cars and ambulances and the white clothes I put on this morning turned all red with blood," Khan told AFP.

Local administration official Ayaz Khan Mandokhel said 13 people were killed, including two children aged around eight and 10, and three women.

"Some 36 others were wounded," he told AFP.

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Turkey awaits ceasefire from Kurds

JAILED Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan was set to call a "historic" ceasefire, raising expectations for an end to a three-decade conflict with Turkey that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

The widely anticipated ceasefire appeal is to come in a letter penned by the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from his isolated island prison cell, and millions of people nationwide are set to tune in to hear his words read out on television and radio.

The announcement, which Ocalan in a previous letter said would be "historic", has been timed to coincide with the Kurdish New Year, or Newroz, that will see hundreds of thousands gather for celebrations in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir.

Starting from the early hours, people from across Turkey were pouring into the square where the celebrations will take place and the Kurdish lawmakers will reveal Ocalan's messages.

"The light of Newroz burning for peace," read the mainstream Sabah daily's headline on Thursday, referring to the celebratory ritual where young men jump over flames in a sign of courage and fertility.

"Hundreds of thousands will light the fire of peace in Diyarbakir today. And Turkey will turn a new page on the historic Newroz, the most critical junction in the peace process," the daily said.

The ceasefire call would cap months of clandestine peace talks between Turkey's spy agency and the state's former public enemy number one Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence for treason on Imrali island off Istanbul since 1999.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ocalan both appear to have staked their political futures on the renewed push to end the 29-year armed campaign for self-rule that has killed some 45,000 people, mostly Kurds.

Erdogan said he was putting his faith in the peace process "even if it costs me my political career", in the face of accusations that Ankara was making concessions to Ocalan - routinely labelled a "terrorist chief" and "baby-killer" by Turks.

A solution to Turkey's ingrained Kurdish problem could etch Erdogan's name in history, in much the same way the abolition of slavery enshrined Lincoln's memory for Americans a century ago, wrote Murat Yetkin, editor-in-chief of the Hurriyet Daily News.

"If he can do this and convince people that a political solution to Kurdish problem is on track and the conflict is over, yes, there is a chance that Erdogan can be the Lincoln of Turkey," he wrote in February.

Ocalan's expected ceasefire is likely to be in return for wider constitutional recognition and language rights for up to 15 million Kurds in Turkey's, as well as the release of thousands detained over links to the PKK.

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Cyprus scrambles to find cash

Furious Cypriot MPs rejected the terms of a bailout aimed at saving the country from bankruptcy. Source: AAP

DEBT-HIT Cyprus was scrambling to secure funding vital to an international bailout after MPs rejected the terms of an EU deal, tapping Russia, the church and state institutions for cash.

With banks closed and fears growing of a forced eurozone exit, President Nicos Anastasiades huddled with party leaders and financial experts trying to track a way out of the island's worst crisis since the 1974 Turkish invasion.

The meeting comes a day after lawmakers flatly rejected a highly unpopular measure that would have slapped a one-time levy of up to 9.9 percent on bank deposits as a condition for an EU-led 10 billion euros ($A12.52 billion) loan.

The 5.8 billion euros the proposal would have raised was crucial to Nicosia getting the full rescue.

With that now in doubt, Cyprus must now find other ways to raise cash to repay its debts.

Caught between the demands of its eurozone lenders and traditional ally Russia, the government is treading a very fine line, and one reason being given for parliament's refusal to accept the deposits levy was that Moscow had to be placated.

Russians - many of them wealthy tycoons seeking to avoid taxes back home - hold between a third and half of all Cypriot deposits and have $31 billion in private and corporate cash buried in the island's teetering banks.

Any levy on these holdings could have sparked a capital flight that would probably have collapsed the banking sector.

Cyprus's banks were left heavily exposed to the Greek debt crisis, and their failure would leave the country on the verge of bankruptcy and in danger of going into default.

Illustrating the balancing act Anastasiades is being forced to perform, he telephoned both German Chancellor Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday night after parliament angrily vetoed the bailout deal.

The Kremlin said that Putin and Anastasiades had discussed what Russia could do to help.

By that time the Cyprus president had already sent his finance minister, Michalis Sarris, to Moscow to woo Russian assistance and seek an easing of the terms of a 2.5 billion-euro loan that Moscow gave Nicosia in 2011.

Sarris said on Wednesday the Moscow talks had started well.

"We have a very good beginning. We had a very good, honest and open discussion," Sarris told reporters after meeting his Russian counterpart Anton Siluanov.

But he stressed that he had so far received no offer from Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom to infuse Cyprus's banks with cash in exchange for a stake in its offshore energy fields.

The option has been mentioned as one possible way Moscow could help the debt-laden island.

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Obama departs Washington for Israel visit

US President Barack Obama is en route to Israel for a four-day trip to the Middle East. Source: AAP

BARACK Obama has landed in Israel for the first time as US president, on a mission to ease past tensions with his hosts but facing scepticism about his plans to thwart Iran's nuclear threat.

Air Force One landed at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv to kick off a three-day trip on which Obama will meet Israeli leaders and make a short visit to the West Bank, before heading to Jordan to consult with King Abdullah II.

The plane rolled to a stop to the peal of trumpets from a military band and Obama smiled broadly as he embraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then President Shimon Peres, saying: "How are you, my friend?"

They then stood to attention for the US and Israeli national anthems.

Obama's long-awaited visit, the debut overseas trip of his second term, may be marked more by symbolism than serious diplomatic substance and will expose diminished US ambitions of forging peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The president says he is carrying no new peace plans and instead plans to listen to the new Israeli government and Palestinians disaffected with his approach, leading some experts to question why he is coming at all.

He must also navigate the treacherous regional politics of the Middle East, amid new scrutiny over his wariness of deeper US involvement in Syria as government forces and rebels accuse one another of using chemical arms.

Obama will come face-to-face with Israel's security challenge at the airport by viewing a mobile battery of Israel's US-funded Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Then he will head to Jerusalem for talks with Peres before sitting down with Netanyahu, with whom he has had a prickly relationship.

During his visit, Obama will pointedly court the historic symbolism of the Jewish State when he inspects the Dead Sea Scrolls and visits the tomb of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism.

The choreography is intended to show Israelis, Arabs and political foes back home that Obama is deeply committed to Israel's security and future, despite some scepticism about his motives.

He is on tricky political ground: a survey by the independent Israel Democracy Institute showed that while 51 per cent of the Jewish Israeli respondents considered Obama neutral in his attitude toward Israel, 53.5 per cent did not trust him over Israel's vital interests.

So, mounting a charm offensive, Obama will deliver a speech to hundreds of young Israelis on Thursday.

Obama and Netanyahu will have to smooth over an often difficult personal chemistry following previous spats, but the visit is unlikely to narrow differences over how soon Iran will have a nuclear weapons capability.

Obama told Israeli television that Iran would not be able to build a nuclear weapon for "over a year or so."

Netanyahu warned last year that Iran would have the capacity to produce a bomb much earlier, within months from the current date, and questions whether sanctions will change Tehran's calculations.

The difference in "red lines" on Iran may reflect each side's differing capacities to launch meaningful action against Iran - but Obama will likely caution Netanyahu against an early Israeli strike.

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Indonesian support for death penalty grows

A LEADING human rights advocate fears public support for the death penalty is growing in Indonesia but says the importance of good diplomatic relations between Jakarta and Canberra could help two Australians on death row.

Indonesia last week carried out its first execution since 2008, putting to death a Nigerian drug smuggler.

Adami Wilson was shot by firing squad in the Thousand Islands, an archipelago popular with tourists which is located off the coast of the capital Jakarta.

The development presents serious implications for two Australian drug traffickers - the Bali Nine's Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan - who are awaiting a decision from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on their appeals for clemency.

But Haris Azhar, the coordinator of Indonesia's Commission for the Missing and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said on Wednesday that unlike in Adami's case, political factors and the relationship with Australia would have to be considered when it comes to Sukumaran and Chan.

"There's no political links in the international relations (between Indonesia and Nigeria)," he told the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.

"But imagine ... how difficult, tough if SBY, the regime, the government put the death sentence to an Australian," he said.

"It will be hard for SBY."

He added, however, that there were worrying signs in terms of the response to last week's execution, saying that there appeared to be a groundswell of public opinion in favour of capital punishment.

There seemed to be "a big applause" when Adami was executed, he said.

"This is a signal that people support it."

Adami, 48, was caught in 2003 attempting to smuggle one kilogram of heroin into Indonesia.

Sukumaran, 31, and Chan, 29, were arrested and jailed in 2005 for their roles in an attempt to smuggle eight kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia.

Indonesia has said another nine convicts would be executed this year.

However, Sukumaran and Chan are not on that list because their appeals for clemency remain unresolved.

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Climate change a values problem: expert

MANY climate sceptics do not trust environmentalists because they consider them "borderline communists" who want to curtail people's freedom, a leading US social scientist says.

Speaking on Wednesday night, the University of Michigan's Andy Hoffman said US global warming sceptics had "a serious distrust of the political ideology behind its proponents".

"The fear is that environmentalists are left-leaning, they are socialist, borderline communists, and they are using the government to try to control your freedom," Prof Hoffman said in the Sydney Ideas lecture at the University of Sydney.

"The expression for environmentalists is watermelons, they're green on the outside, but they're red on the inside. That really represents their feeling."

Mr Hoffman said a scientific consensus that humans contribute to climate change had failed to lead to action on the issue because it was really a "debate over values".

He said despite compelling science, just 40 per cent of Australians believed humans contributed to a hotter planet.

"It's not about CO2, it's not about climate models, it's about values, it's about world views," the business and environment academic said.

"It's because deeply held beliefs that they hold dear are under threat."

Climate change was such a "thorny issue" because it represented "an existential challenge to our world views", he said.

In that context, he said giving climate deniers more scientific evidence was like "finding yourself talking to a wall, they're not going to hear it".

Professor Hoffman said a "social consensus" to fight climate change needed to be built, similar to that created in the past to combat smoking and slavery.

"One of the most important first steps in engaging the debate is not to blame or mock or ridicule," he said.

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Xstrata cuts 100 jobs

GLOBAL miner Xstrata says it will axe about 100 jobs as part of a decision to close its Brisbane office.

The weak global coal market including poor prices and a high Australian dollar, as well as high costs, have been blamed for the decision.

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Qld MP Driscoll still facing allegations

A ROOKIE Queensland MP has been unable to shake off allegations of misusing taxpayer funds despite an attempt to explain himself in parliament.

Redcliffe MP Scott Driscoll has faced a raft of allegations in recent weeks, including claims of sexual harassment, financial mismanagement and improper business dealings.

Mr Driscoll defended himself in parliament on Tuesday, saying he had done nothing wrong other than failing to declare that his wife received more than $500 in income from a private company she runs.

Premier Campbell Newman has stood by his first-term MP, saying there's nothing to suggest he's unfit for public office.

The premier said investigations so far by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC), and ongoing departmental probes, had all turned up nothing.

But Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk repeatedly attacked the government in parliament on Tuesday, saying Mr Driscoll had not done enough to explain himself.

"We have heard today a very brief explanation from the member for Redcliffe ... and it does not go to the root of all the questions that need to be answered."

Ms Palaszczuk said Mr Driscoll had other irregularities in his pecuniary interests register and listed 13 specific questions the opposition felt he still needed to answer.

Mr Newman said Mr Driscoll had become subject to "trial by media", a scenario he had encountered himself during last year's state election.

"I, myself, and my wife know only too well about ... trial by media, but particularly the tactics of the Australian Labor Party to use the CMC as a political weapon to attack people," he told parliament.

The latest claims against Mr Driscoll, published in The Courier-Mail on Tuesday, accuse him of using his electorate office and staff to run a retail lobby group he used to head.

He's also faced sexual harassment claims from former employees of the Queensland Retail Traders and Shopkeepers Association and calls to produce the association's books amid claims that about $700,000 was spent inappropriately.

Mr Driscoll's wife has also been accused of inappropriately receiving taxpayer funds from another organisation with which Mr Driscoll was involved, the Regional Community Association of Moreton Bay.

But the MP says he's the target of a campaign of "falsehoods" and the attacks on his wife have been particularly upsetting.

The CMC confirmed on Tuesday that it received a referral from the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services on November 27, 2012.

It alleged official misconduct against Mr Driscoll.

The CMC says it found at the assessment phase of the complaint, that the matter did not involve official misconduct and therefore fell outside its jurisdiction.

The commission pointed out in its statement on Tuesday that the assessment process is separate to an investigation.

The CMC said it's assessing all new relevant information on the matter to decide whether or not it needs to take any further action.

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Half a million new homes for Sydney

NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard has unveiled a 20-year blueprint for Sydney's growth. Source: AAP

A 20-YEAR blueprint for Sydney's growth has identified a need for more than half a million new homes by 2031 but lobby groups want clarity about where they will be built.

Unveiling the strategy on Tuesday, Planning Minister Brad Hazzard said 545,000 new homes would be needed to cater for a population of 5.6 million Sydneysiders in 20 years - a 17 per cent increase on the number forecast in 2010.

Seventy per cent of the additional 1.3 million people who will set up homes in Sydney will be the children of current residents.

"We're trying to be less constrictive and restrictive and what we are saying is the market place should have far more of a say in what the mix of housing is and where it will be," Mr Hazzard said.

"We can make forecasts on where we believe it should be, but we are not going to do what Labor did ... they allowed the planners to be the sole determinant."

Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson said the obvious location for higher density housing was around transport nodes and town centres.

But a range of housing types was needed, including new houses on the city's fringe and apartments in existing suburban areas.

"We need more detail on the type of housing densities planned, particularly for existing urban areas," he said.

Patricia Forsythe, executive director of the Sydney Business Chamber, said the strategy needed to address the density of housing along transport corridors.

"We need to increase housing density along existing transport corridors as a matter of common sense to continue to maintain a working city.

"Many existing transport corridors, especially along railway lines, have old three-storey walk-up apartment buildings that are reaching their use-by date.

"Reforming the planning and strata systems could see a flurry of building activity to redevelop these buildings into higher density, modern apartments."

Housing Industry Association executive director NSW, David Bare, said "urgent action is required".

As part of the plan, the government also wants to create 625,000 extra jobs over the next two decades, with 50 per cent of them in western Sydney.

The draft metropolitan strategy divides Sydney into nine key areas, known as "city shapers". These include growth corridors along Parramatta Road, Anzac Parade and the North West Rail Link, and an enhanced role for Parramatta as Sydney's second CBD.

A western Sydney employment area would be developed south of Mt Druitt.

"We need to make sure in whatever we plan, the jobs are near houses, the houses near jobs and infrastructure is there to connect them," Mr Hazzard told parliament.

He said western Sydney was at the heart of the government's economic strategy.

"Sydney is in effect the Aladdin's Cave, but the part of the Aladdin's Cave that is the critical part is the west," he said.

"The west is where the treasure lies for people to tap."

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Dead pigs in China river exceed 13,000

The number of dead pigs found in a river running through Shanghai has reached more than 13,000. Source: AAP

THE number of dead pigs found in a river running through China's commercial hub Shanghai has reached more than 13,000, as mystery deepened over the hogs' precise origin.

Shanghai had pulled 9,460 pigs out of the Huangpu river, which supplies 22 per cent of the city's drinking water, since the infestation began earlier this month, the Shanghai Daily reported.

Shanghai has blamed farmers in Jiaxing in neighbouring Zhejiang province for dumping pigs which died of disease into the river upstream, where the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday another 3,601 dead animals had been recovered.

The Jiaxing government has said the area is not the sole source of the carcasses, adding it had found only one producer that could be held responsible.

Shanghai said it had checked farms in its southwestern district of Songjiang, where the pigs were first detected, but found they were not to blame, the Shanghai Daily said.

The scandal has spotlighted China's troubles with food safety, adding the country's most popular meat to a growing list of food items rocked by controversy.

Samples of the dead pigs have tested positive for porcine circovirus, a common swine disease that does not affect humans.

"Due to some farming households having a weak recognition of the law, bad habits, and lack of increased supervision and capability for treatment have led to the situation," the national agriculture ministry's chief veterinarian Yu Kangzhen said.

Yu attributed a higher mortality rate among pigs to colder weather this spring, though he ruled out an epidemic, the ministry said in statement posted on its website over the weekend.

The thousands of dead pigs have drawn attention to China's poorly regulated farm production. Animals that die from disease can end up in the country's food supply chain or improperly disposed of, despite laws against the practice.

In Wenling, also in Zhejiang, authorities announced last week that 46 people had been jailed for up to six-and-a-half years for processing and selling pork from more than 1,000 diseased pigs.

China faced one its biggest food-safety scandals in 2008 when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products, killing at least six babies and making 300,000 people ill.

In another recent incident, the American fast-food giant KFC faced controversy after revealing that some Chinese suppliers provided chicken with high levels of antibiotics, in what appeared to be an industry-wide practice.

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Gillard open to media law amendments

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she's open to "sensible suggestions" on media law changes. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says the government is willing to consider sensible changes to its proposed media laws, but won't be "cross-trading or horse-trading".

Labor wants its package of bills passed by the end of the week, putting in place changes to broadcasting rules and a new public interest media advocate to oversee press and online standards and media mergers and acquisitions.

Ms Gillard does not yet have the numbers to get the bills through the lower house and two committees are hearing evidence from media bosses and other interested parties on Monday.

"What we've said is we don't want the intent of our reforms to be distorted in any way," the prime minister told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

"We've got the parliament committee process in train now and we will see what immediately arises from the parliamentary committees.

"(But) our intention remains to pursue the legislation that is before the parliament now."

Ms Gillard said if there were "sensible suggestions" out of the committee process, the government would listen to them.

"But we are not in the business of cross-trading or horse-trading on these bills."

Asked whether she would take a media policy to the federal election, she said she would make "further statements" after the parliamentary sitting week was over.

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Three dead in suicide attack in Pakistan

AT least three people have been killed by a suicide bomber and militant gunmen at a court complex in northwest Pakistan.

Several gunmen and two bombers stormed the crowded complex in the city of Peshawar on Monday, less than two months before expected national elections.

"One suicide bomber blew himself up in the court of an additional sessions judge. The other was shot dead by police," said senior police officer Masood Khan Afridi.

"It was an act of terrorism and the target was the judicial complex. Three civilians were killed and 30 people wounded, four of them police officials," he added.

"We have cleared the whole area and a combing operation is continuing."

Afridi denied reports that some judges and lawyers were being held hostage inside the courts. "There are no hostages. I have just come back from the site of the attack," he said.

The nuclear-armed country of 180 million is due to elect new leaders by mid-May. But Taliban attacks and record levels of violence against the Shi'ite Muslim minority have raised fears about security for the polls.

"Terrorists have attacked at a time when general elections are very near and the atmosphere for election is smooth," said the information minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

"It could be an attempt to disturb the peaceful atmosphere but elections should never be postponed."

Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Saturday hailed parliament's historic completion of a full term in office as a victory for democracy as he gave his farewell address to the nation.

The polling date has yet to be announced but officials say the election commission has recommended early May.

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Leighton wins $A656m HK rail contract

LEIGHTON Contractors has secured a $A656 million contract from Hong Kong rail operator MTR Corporation for part of a new rail link in the Chinese province.

Work for the new contract includes modification of an existing MTR station, platforms, tunnel box and approach tunnels.

Construction works are scheduled to begin immediately, with an expected completion date in 2018.

The Hung Hom Station and Stabling Sidings Contract, part of the Shatin to Central Link (SCL) development, is the seventh contract in the past three years to be awarded to Leighton subsidiary Leighton Asia by the MTR Corporation.

Leighton Asia, India and Offshore managing director Ian Edwards said the contract was yet another landmark project with a client with whom the company had shared a long and successful relationship.

The SCL development is a major transport initiative in Hong Kong that will connect several existing railway lines to form two railway corridors.

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Six in Indian court over tourist rape

Indian police have arrested a group of farmers who have confessed to gang raping a Swiss cyclist. Source: AAP

SIX men accused of raping a Swiss tourist who was cycling with her husband in central India have been produced in court and charged with gang rape.

Police Superintendent Chandra Shekhar Solanki says the men were arrested in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh state and are poor farmers from nearby villages.

The men were arrested on Sunday and charged on Monday.

The attack occurred Friday night as the Swiss couple camped in a forest in Datia district.

They told police that the woman had been raped by seven or eight men, but that it was dark and they could not be sure of the exact number.

The attack came three months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus, an attack that spurred outrage across India.

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Five confess to gang-raping Swiss tourist

FIVE villagers have confessed to gang-raping a Swiss tourist in central India, police say, in an incident that has renewed focus on the rampant violence against women in the country.

The woman was on a cycling holiday with her husband in impoverished Madhya Pradesh state when six men attacked the couple on Friday night, sexually assaulting the woman and robbing the pair, police said.

"We have detained five men and they have confessed to gang-raping the woman and attacking her husband," local police official MS Dhodee told AFP.

Police are searching for a sixth man, who was also involved in the crime, Dhodee said.

The alleged rapists live in a village near the forested area where the couple had stopped to camp for the night, while on a cycling trip to the popular tourist destination of Agra in northern India, Dhodee said.

"They were passing by, noticed the couple putting up their tent and saw an opportunity to attack and rape the woman," he said.

He added that the five detainees would be arrested shortly, pending formalities.

After the attack, the rape victim, aged about 40, underwent a medical examination at a local hospital before leaving for the Indian capital Delhi, police said.

"The victim and her husband have left for Delhi, since there was no need for her to stay in hospital here," another local police official UC Shadangi told AFP.

Shadangi said that police were in touch with Swiss embassy officials, who declined to comment to AFP about the case.

The Swiss foreign ministry in Bern released a statement on Saturday expressing deep shock at the "tragic incident".

The attack comes just three months after thousands took to the streets in nationwide protests following the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in December.

The victim, a physiotherapy student died from internal injuries after being savagely assaulted by six men. One of her alleged attackers was found dead in his prison cell in New Delhi last Monday.

Police suspect he hanged himself, but his family says he was murdered. The government has since opened an investigation into his death.

India's government is facing heavy pressure to step up efforts to protect women after the deadly gang-rape in the capital last December.

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Car bomb kills 10 in south Iraq

A CAR bomb has exploded at a bus station in the south Iraq city of Basra killing 10 people and wounding 16, a security official says.

Sunday's bombing at the bus station in Basra came soon after another that exploded in the centre of the city at about 1900 (AEDT) that caused no casualties, Ali al-Maliki said.

Attacks in Basra are relatively rare compared with other areas of Iraq, especially the centre, west and north.

Violence has decreased from its peak in 2006 and 2007 when sectarian bloodshed raged between Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs, but 10 years after the US-led invasion attacks remain common, killing 220 people last month, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical sources.

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Two men attacked with iron bars and brick

TWO men have been attacked with iron bars and a house brick during a robbery in Sydney's northwest.

The men, aged 30 and 26, were a service station in Kellyville at 2am (AEDT) when a group of up to 10 men assaulted them with iron bars and a broken house brick.

The alleged offenders, who are only described as being of Pacific Islander or Maori appearance, took the men's wallets, mobile phones, and watches before leaving in a red Subaru.

The men were taken to Westmead Hospital with non-life threatening head injuries.

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Search for boy missing north of Perth

EMERGENCY services are searching for a 14-year-old boy who has gone missing in waters off the coast of Mindarie, north of Perth.

The boy's family raised the alarm at Quinn's Beach at around 4.30pm WST, and since then three helicopters have been in the air searching for the missing teenager.

The WA police helicopter, the Surf Life Saving aircraft and the shark spotting chopper are all in the air.

The boy's family is understood to be on the beach awaiting any news.

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