Labor senator 'spied on', committee hears

Labor senator John Faulkner may have been spied on in parliament house, a hearing has been told. Source: AAP

A PARLIAMENTARY official may have wrongfully accessed security camera footage of another official talking to veteran Labor senator John Faulkner.

Senior officers in the Department of Parliamentary Services accessed nine minutes of security camera footage while investigating a code of conduct case against an employee.

Department secretary Carol Mills has told a Senate estimates hearing the footage was properly released under guidelines which allowed its use in cases where it was needed to "provide evidence upon which to take criminal and civil proceedings".

However Ms Mills told the hearing on Monday that while the footage, which had been sought by human resources officers, was being examined, there may have been an "inadvertent breach of the statement of purpose".

She said the part of the footage in question involved a person "doing other activities in the building other than that for which the CCTV footage was released".

While she declined to say what those activities were, Senator Faulkner asked whether the footage involved someone giving information to him.

"It may do," Ms Mills said.

Senator Faulkner said it was a "serious issue of parliamentary privilege" and he would seek an investigation.

"That a senator in this parliament is being spied on as they go about the proper conduct of their duties - no one in this place is ever going to accept that," he said.

The committee went into a private session to discuss the issue further.

In 2011 Senator Faulkner led an inquiry into the DPS, which he described as "the worst administered government department" he had ever come across.

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Letter bid to block Vic child abuse bill

ANTI-VIOLENCE groups want three Nationals MPs to block new Victorian laws that they fear will turn women who fail to report child sexual abuse into criminals.

Opponents say they broadly support the child protection bill's aim but one clause risks criminalising women who fail to report child abuse in their family out of fear for their own safety.

With the Legislative Council set to debate the bill this week, leaders from nine organisations have jointly written to the three National MLCs - Danny O'Brien, David O'Brien and Minister for Sport, Recreation and Veterans' Affairs Damian Drum - asking them to vote it down.

Dr Chris Atmore of the Federation of Community Legal Centres said the bill ignores previous research and best practice in the field of domestic violence.

"We hope that at least one Nationals MP will vote based on the evidence and not political expediency," she told AAP.

"We have had very little in the way of a response to our concerns from government MPs but in contrast we have had a fair amount of discussion with the opposition and the Greens, who are concerned about reducing domestic violence but seem to understand our concerns with (the) clause."

A spokesperson for the Nationals said a bi-partisan committee had strongly recommended that all adults have a duty to tell police about child sexual abuse.

"The legislation makes clear that a person does not commit an offence if they have a reasonable fear for their own or someone else's safety and if it is reasonable for them not to inform police in the circumstances of family violence they face."

Labor and the Greens hold 19 seats in the 40-seat Legislative Council and are likely to vote against the bill.

The Liberals have 18 seats and their coalition partner the Nationals hold three seats.

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Man, 21, burned in Sydney gas fireball

A GAS-FUELLED fireball in a busy northern Sydney shopping plaza has left a man with serious burns.

The 21-year-old was rushed to Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital with burns to his lower body after a gas main caught alight about 1pm (AEST) on Monday at the front of a shop in Lane Cove.

He was reported to be in a stable condition.

The local primary school was locked down and about 150 people were moved to safety as firefighters monitored the fire.

They decided not to put the fire out, opting instead to ask the gas company to shut the gas down - which it did an hour later.

"It's actually safer to allow the gas to burn," Superintendent Ian Krimmer told AAP.

"If you put the fire out, you create a bigger problem because the gas leak could go to other areas and cause explosions in other locations."

As the gas was being shut off, six fire crews were protecting buildings, while police kept Longueville Road closed to all traffic.

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Gold output off to a slippery start

Gold production in Western Australia's goldfields region has got off to a weak start for the year. Source: AAP

GOLD production in Western Australia's goldfields region has got off to a weak start for the year, with wet weather wreaking havoc at several mines.

Output dropped seven per cent to 68 tonnes between the March and December quarters as intense storm systems dumped rain on large areas of the state, Melbourne-based gold mining consultants Surbiton Associates said in a report.

On an annual basis, the amount of gold produced was up eight per cent.

During the March quarter, the Regis Resources Duketon Gold Project, near Laverton, was badly affected as 4.7 million tonnes of water flooded the Garden Well open pit to a depth of 45 metres.

Meanwhile, Norton Gold Fields' Paddington operations near Kalgoorlie reported 278 millimetres of rain during the quarter - more than double the region's average annual rainfall.

Surbiton Associates director Sandra Close said gold production was often affected by rain early in the year, as tropical cyclones sweep in from the Timor Sea.

"Wet weather forced many mines to cut ore production and restrict ore haulage in the March quarter," Dr Close said.

"This meant they had to rely on lower-grade, stockpiled material part of the time to keep their treatment plants running near capacity."

She said the grade of ore fell by around six per cent overall.

Despite the fall in output, some new capacity helped boost production as the Tropicana project reached full capacity and the new Mungari treatment plant near Kalgoorlie was commissioned.

US mining giant Newmont's two WA operations - Boddington mine and the Kalgoorlie Superpit joint venture - produced the most gold, followed by Newcrest's Cadia East/Ridgeway operation in NSW and its Telfer mine in central WA.

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Taliban frees 24 Afghan hostages

TALIBAN militants have released 24 hostages who were seized in northeastern Afghanistan last week, an official says.

Taliban fighters captured Yamgan, a remote mountainous district in Badakhshan province on Wednesday, and took 40 policemen hostage.

Police recaptured the area on Friday.

"Tribal elders negotiated with Taliban and freed 24 hostages, most of who are policemen, but held three senior ranked officials," said Nawid Frotan, the governor spokesman for Badakhshan province.

Earlier, Fazluddin Ayyar, the provincial police chief said that 15 policemen were freed in Friday's operation.

Frotan said that the three senior ranked officials were a district police chief, a district prison chief and a member of the secret service.

The Taliban have launched their spring offensive, targeting Afghan and NATO troops, and government employees.

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'Callous' NSW thieves take surf rescue 4WD

SURF lifesavers in a small NSW town fear lives could be put at risk after "callous" thieves made off with their club's 4WD rescue vehicle.

Surf Life Saving's far south coast director Andrew Edmunds says thieves broke into the Batemans Bay Surf Life Saving club on Saturday night and took the 4WD.

Mr Edmunds told AAP the loss of the vehicle - which is used to tow rescue boats onto the beach and assist with launching them in emergencies and also to transport injured beachgoers - is a major blow to the community.

He said the thieves would have known precisely what they were doing.

"It's got 'Surf Rescue' written all over it," Mr Edmunds said on Sunday afternoon.

"I honestly have no understanding why someone would do something so callous."

He said the $20,000 replacement cost for the vehicle is a "huge" amount of money for the 12,000-strong town of Batemans Bay and could take years to raise.

Patrol season starts up again in September, but even in winter, lifesavers "can get called out any day of the week".

"It's a horrible thing to have happened to a local club and I just hope that it's not a local, and I hope lives aren't put at risk as a result of this," he said.

"It's a big blow. We'll still respond (to calls for help) and we'll still do our best but it's a major setback."

Anyone with information can contact Batemans Bay police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Gunmen kill 6 police officers in Pakistan

GUNMEN have stormed a tribal police post in southwestern Pakistan, killing six police officers and wounding three, authorities say.

The attack took place in Wadh area of Baluchistan province's Khuzdar district, where insurgents have launched previous attacks, said Baroz Khan, a senior government official.

Officers manning the post returned fire and pushed the gunmen back toward nearby mountains, Khan said. Reinforcements from the paramilitary Frontier Corps later reached the post, some 300 kilometres south of Quetta, the provincial capital, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion immediately fell on Baluch nationalist groups who have claimed responsibility for such attacks in the past.

For over a decade, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-intensity insurgency by some nationalist groups demanding autonomy or a greater share from mineral and gas resources being extracted from the impoverished province. It is also believed to be home to many Afghan Taliban members.

Residents say a crackdown has sparked disappearances in Baluchistan blamed on security forces. They say the disappearances swelled in the mid-2000s, when Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government cracked down on insurgents there.

Two years ago, the Voice for Baluch Missing Persons organisation handed the United Nations a list of 12,000 names they said belonged to people missing in the conflict.

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Belgians vote, brace for new stalemate

Belgians have begun casting their vote for a new national parliament. Source: AAP

BELGIANS are casting their vote Sunday for a new national parliament, amid fears that a fresh political stalemate may be in the making for the fissured country.

The last federal elections in 2010 left Belgium without a government for a world-record 541 days, because of a rift between the Dutch-speaking Flanders region and French-speaking Wallonia.

"The formation of a government could prove difficult after the elections this time too," Julie Cantalou of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom liberal think tank predicted, pointing to expectations that the nationalist N-VA party will emerge victorious.

The conservative party - the largest in Flanders - would like to eventually see Belgium break up along its linguistic lines.

It came in first nationally during the 2010 elections, but was then locked out from the government negotiations after its hardline leader, Bart De Wever, outright rejected proposed reforms.

In the end, Socialist leader Elio Di Rupo managed to form a six-party coalition government that did not include the N-VA.

Whether the Flemish nationalists could be shut out of new coalition talks is questionable, analysts say. The Socialists - the largest party in Wallonia - may have to end up sitting at the negotiating table with the diametrically opposed N-VA.

"With around a third of Flemish votes, the N-VA is an almost indispensable interlocutor for coalition talks," Cantalou noted.

A renewed stalemate could come at an economic cost for Belgium.

During the 2010-11 political crisis, for instance, the country saw the interest rates on its debt rise to challenging levels.

A new deadlock or a quarrelling coalition could be "a significant barrier to resolving Belgium's deteriorating competitiveness," Michael Pearce of the Capital Economics research group warned.

The national elections will also be the first real test for Belgium's King Philippe, who took over the throne from his father last July.

The monarch will play a role by tasking leading politicians to form a government or appointing mediators.

The vote takes place under the pall of a deadly shooting on Saturday at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in which three people were killed by an unknown individual who fired a gun into the building before fleeing the scene. The motives were initially unclear.

Belgians will also be casting ballots on Sunday for the country's regional legislatures and for a new European Parliament.

The last polls close at 4pm (1400 GMT), with results expected in the evening.

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Iran billionaire executed over $2.8b fraud

A BILLIONAIRE businessman at the heart of a $US2.6 billion ($A2.8 billion) state bank scam, the largest fraud case since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been executed, state television reports.

Authorities put Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, also known as Amir Mansour Aria, to death at Evin prison, just north of the capital, Tehran, the station reported.

The report said the execution came after Iran's Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

The fraud involved using forged documents to get credit at one of Iran's top financial institutions, Bank Saderat, to purchase assets including state-owned companies like major steel producer Khuzestan Steel Co.

Khosravi's business empire included more than 35 companies from mineral water production to a football club and meat imports from Brazil.

According to Iranian media reports, the bank fraud began in 2007.

A total of 39 defendants were convicted in the case. Four received death sentences, two got life sentences and the rest received sentences of up to 25 years in prison.

The trials raised questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran's tightly controlled economy during the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mahmoud Reza Khavari, a former head of Bank Melli, another major Iranian bank, escaped to Canada in 2011 after he resigned over the case.

He faces charges over the case in Iran and remains on the Islamic Republic's wanted list.

Khavari previously admitted that his bank partially was involved in the fraud, but has maintained his innocence.

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Gunmen fire inside El Salvador bus, kill 6

Police in El Salvador say gunmen boarded a bus in a town near the capital killing six people. Source: AAP

POLICE in El Salvador say gunmen boarded a bus in a town near the capital and opened fired on passengers, killing six.

National police director Rigoberto Pleites said another five people were wounded during the Friday bus attack in the town of San Luis Talpa near San Salvador.

Pleites said witnesses told police the assailants were gang members dressed in uniforms similar to those issued to road maintenance workers.

He said investigators haven't confirmed they belonged to a gang.

Police Commissioner Mauricio Ramirez said there have been threats of increased violence in the country in the coming days, but he didn't provide any other details.

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