Carlton AFL player charged with assault

A CARLTON AFL player charged with assaulting a fan will continue playing while the case proceeds.

SIMON White is with the club in Fremantle, where he has been named in Carlton's team for its Thursday night AFL game.

White allegedly punched a Carlton fan after a concert in the Melbourne CBD, the Herald Sun reports.Victoria Police spokesman Adam West said a man had been charged over the alleged assault."Police have charged a 26-year-old Brunswick West man in relation to an alleged assault which occurred in the CBD on May 14," he said."He has been charged with recklessly cause injury and unlawful assault and summonsed to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on November 21."A statement from Carlton confirmed White had been charged and said his lawyers were going over the case."Simon and the football club have co-operated with police throughout the investigation," the statement said."Simon has the full support of the Carlton Football Club and will continue with his normal playing duties until advised otherwise."Carlton said the AFL integrity unit was "fully informed" throughout the investigation.The Herald Sun reported White and the fan gave different versions of the incident to police.White said he was taunted, while the fan said the alleged attack was unprovoked.

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One dead, 5 hurt as German dare goes wrong

GERMAN authorities say a man was killed and five others injured when a mechanical digger tipped over and hit them during a so-called Cold Water Challenge, a dare that has been spreading on Facebook.

PROSECUTORS said 11 members of a bowling club in Isselburg, on the Dutch border, had filled the digger's shovel with 2000 litres of water, which was to be poured over them.

However, as the shovel was lifted into the air, the digger tipped over and the shovel hit six of the men.Four of the injured were taken to hospitals following the accident late on Tuesday.In the US, several people have been injured participating in Cold Water Challenges, which typically involve dares such as jumping into cold water.

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UK AG won't challenge Harris jail sentence

British government won't challenge the sentence handed down to convicted paedophile Rolf Harris. Source: AAP

DISGRACED entertainer Rolf Harris's sentence for sex offences will not be referred to an appeals court despite numerous complaints that it was too lenient, the attorney general's office in Britain says.

THE 84-year-old Australian-born Harris, a long-time fixture on British television, was jailed earlier this month for five years and nine months for a string of sexual assaults against girls.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright, the government's chief legal adviser, received 150 complaints asking to review the sentence for being too lenient.But his office said on Wednesday that the sentence will not be referred to the Court of Appeal."After very careful consideration, the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright... has decided not to refer the five year and nine month sentence given to Rolf Harris to the Court of Appeal, as he did not think they would find it to be unduly lenient and increase it," said a spokeswoman from his office.Wright acknowledged that the ruling would cause disappointment, but said the courts were bound by the maximum sentence in force at the time of the offences.Trial judge Nigel Sweeney made some of the sentences on the 12 counts consecutive to make up the total term, of which Harris will serve around half, but also had to take into account the entertainer's age.The television star, artist and songwriter was found guilty of indecently assaulting four victims between 1969 and 1986, including the childhood best friend of his daughter Bindi."You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all," Sweeney told Harris as he handed down his sentence earlier in July."Your reputation lies in ruins, you have been stripped of your honours, but you have no one to blame but yourself."Harris was the second person to be convicted under a wide-ranging police investigation set up in the wake of revelations that the late Jimmy Savile, a fellow major BBC star, was a prolific abuser.Seven of the 12 counts against Harris related to the friend of Bindi, including one incident when she was 15 where he seriously sexually assaulted her while his daughter slept in the adjacent bed.The entertainer's conviction caused widespread revulsion in Britain, where his television programs were watched by millions of children, and his homeland of Australia.He was made a CBE in 2006 - one step below a knighthood - and even painted Queen Elizabeth II's portrait to mark her 80th birthday.

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Tax, security info at cyber attack risk

TAX and social security records and national security information remains vulnerable to cyber attacks, a new report shows.

AN auditor-general review of seven major government agencies found that none complied with the required cyber security measures which were due to be in place by mid-2014.

The agencies included the Australian Tax Office, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Customs, Australian Financial Security Authority, the Department of Human Services and IP Australia.The agencies hold a wide range of personal, national security and economic information.The report said that in 2012 there were more than 1790 security incidents against Australian government agencies, of which 685 were considered serious.While the audited agencies had put in place internal security safeguards to protect their information "the selected agencies had not yet achieved full compliance with the top four mitigation strategies" mandated by the government in 2013.And none was on track to meet the mid-2014 compliance date.The agencies were found to have a "reasonable" level of protection from breaches from internal sources, but "vulnerabilities remain against attacks from external sources to agency systems"."In essence, agency processes and practices have not been sufficiently responsive to the ever-present and ever-changing risks that government systems are exposed to," the report concluded.The four strategies agencies have been asked to put in place include protections against malicious programs, security "patching" of applications, devices and operating systems and keeping administrative privileges to a small group of users.

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Vatican overturned bishop's ban on priest

Brian Lucas has been asked to explain why he didn't take notes when interviewing abusive priests. Source: AAP

IT took almost 20 years for the pope to defrock an Australian priest for allegedly indecently assaulting a boy, the royal commission into child sex abuse has heard.

AND when his bishop banned him from saying Mass in public after complaints against the priest, the Vatican overturned the decision.

John Gerard Nestor was found guilty in court but was later acquitted of indecent assault charges against the boy in the NSW parish of Wollongong.The commission is currently looking at how the Catholic Church under its own law - canon law - deals with priests or religious against whom allegations have been made, but no convictions obtained.In particular it is looking at the case of Nestor, 50, who was a priest in Wollongong when he was found guilty of indecent assault of a teenage altar boy in 1996.The priest admitted he had slept on mattresses on a floor with the boy and his younger brother in July 1991, but he denied assaulting the boy.He was acquitted on appeal in 1997.A series of investigations ensued, involving canon lawyers, Australian church processes, the NSW ombudsman and the highest echelons of the Vatican.Ultimately, Pope Benedict XVI dismissed Nestor from the priesthood in October, 2008.When more complaints emerged, Bishop Philip Wilson asked Nestor to stand aside from public ministry while the church's professional standards office assessed them.Nestor, who ran summer camps for altar boys, was alleged to have watched boys showering, and playing inappropriate games. One boy had complained that he had seen "Nestor touch his brother ... 'on the penis and the bum'".Bishop Wilson, who is now Archbishop of Adelaide, said Nestor rejected a recommendation by church assessors he go for psychological assessment.Bishop Wilson decreed Nestor not celebrate Mass publicly.Nestor challenged the decree and two years later, the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy ordered he be reinstated.The commission heard another Vatican judicial body, the Apostolic Signatura took five and a half years to consider an appeal to the finding."There was a lot of confusion about procedures within the church (at the time)," the bishop said in reply to a question about rights under canon law.Nestor asked Bishop Wilson to release him from the diocese so he could go elsewhere. Bishop Wilson said he refused and wanted Nestor to voluntarily stand aside from the ministry.Nestor went to the US and Africa without the bishop's permission.Earlier at Tuesday's hearing, Brian Lucas, the secretary-general of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference gave evidence of a confidential conversation with Nestor in 1993.Fr Lucas, who has been criticised by the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry for his failure to take notes when he interviewed alleged clerical abusers, did not take notes in the Nestor case.The senior cleric repeated on Tuesday this was because it helped the men he interviewed tell the truth.He said Nestor denied the allegations and said he experienced "a level of discomfort" about what Nestor told him about conversations of a sexual nature he had with boys.Nestor's explanation was he was teaching them about conscience.Fr Lucas may be asked to return to this hearing which is ongoing.

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Qld bikies can fill out 'resignation' form

QUEENSLAND bikies and their associates can fill out a form to declare they are no longer part of an outlaw group.

THE Queensland Police Service website has a questionnaire asking people to describe the steps they have taken to "disassociate".

The form asks participants to circle yes or no boxes to indicate if they have returned or destroyed their club colours, if they have a club tattoo, and whether it's been removed.They are also asked to declare if they are an office holder, general member or associate of a bikie chapter.New laws are coming into effect from July 1 banning bikies from working as used car sellers, security guards, locksmiths, tow truck drivers, bookmakers, pawn brokers, tattoo artists and bar workers.More than a dozen lines on the form are set aside so people can describe their future intentions with an outlaw group and the steps their organisation has taken to disassociate from them.A declaration section asks participants to give an undertaking to provide documents to the police within 10 business days.Earlier this month, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie announced the government would delay a controversial plan to ban people with bikie links from working in the building industry.This means plumbers and electricians with suspected bikie links won't be banned from having a trades licence until July 2015, after a federal royal commission into unions.But new licensing requirements will apply to other industries under the Tattoo Parlours Act 2013.Bikies can call a police hotline for help on filling out the form, which is subject to the Information Privacy Act.The Queensland police website promises that applications to disown bike membership would be assessed "in a timely manner".But participants are advised that delaying a response to a letter could jeopardise their ability to hold an industry licence.The form has to be witnessed by another signature.Queensland police say two people have filled out the form to distance themselves from a bikie group since they were posted online on June 10.

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Senator breaks into song during farewell

Senator Ursula Stephens has burst into song during her valedictory speech. Source: AAP

LEAVING parliament may be a blessing in disguise for Labor Senator Ursula Stephens, who looks prepped to shine on another stage - in showbiz.

THE Irish-born Australian stopped short of doing a jig during her valedictory speech in the Senate on Tuesday, instead providing the house with a shaky duck analogy, a famous Australian poem and a wee Irish melody.

After tipping her glass to the Irish ambassador, Senator Stephens burst into song to bid farewell to her colleagues."For all the comrades e'er I had, they would wish me one more day to stay," she reverberated clearly across the chamber.A little less clear was the duck analogy which the senator used to back into her message about caring for the 51 million people displaced around the world.The story goes: Canberra traffic was banked up on Senator Stephens' way to work recently because a duck had been injured and another duck had stayed by its side."And I thought to myself, yes, even a duck looks after its mate," she said.That was followed by the senator reciting Dame Mary Gilmore's Nationality poem which famously declares "this loaf is my son's bread"."We must find a way to feed our own son and also look after our fellow human beings in need."Leader of the opposition in the senate, Penny Wong, congratulated Senator Stephens on her 12-year term and said ending in song was a nice touch.

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Bishop restates support for Fiji election

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop has been updated on Fiji's progress towards its first democratic elections in nearly a decade.

FIJI has promised to hold elections on September 17, the first since the country's leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power in a military coup in 2006.

Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2009 after Commodore Bainimarama failed to meet a deadline to return it to democracy.But the federal government is keen to normalise Australia's frosty ties with Fiji, and started by lifting travel bans on senior military and government figures in March.Ms Bishop on Tuesday met her Fijian counterpart Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, where she emphasised Australia's "strong support" for the electoral process.Australia has accepted in-principle an invitation from Fiji to co-lead an international observer group to oversee the election, and is finalising the terms of reference for the mission.The two foreign leaders also discussed preparatory work to re-establish defence ties between the two nations.It's illegal under Australian law to sell weapons to Fiji or provide military advice.

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Perth Zoo orangutan has Kidman fetish

Perth Zoo's alpha male orangutan reportedly has a fetish for actress Nicole Kidman. Source: AAP

PERTH Zoo's alpha male orangutan has a fetish for redheads - and he doesn't draw the line at his own species.

HSING Hsing, who celebrated his 39th birthday on Saturday, has a harem of in-house girlfriends but his roving eye means he is always on the lookout for attractive flame-haired females among the humans who come to see him.

Not only have keepers noticed he stares at such visitors, he's also ripped out pictures of Nicole Kidman from magazines put in his enclosure.Usually, the orangutans toss the paper around but Hsing Hsing pulls out photos of the Hollywood superstar to keep.Primate supervisor Holly Thompson says it's a case of "close enough" when the 95kg diabetic ape sees redheads like Kidman, who share 97 per cent of his DNA."He's definitely interested - it's amazing," Ms Thompson told AAP."He understands that he's attracted to a lovely redhead female orangutan and then he sees a lovely redhead in a magazine and goes, 'oh yeah, close enough - Nicole Kidman, I'm going to rip that page out and put it to one side'."Hsing Hsing demonstrates other behaviours rarely seen in orangutans. He'll share his food with his best friend Utama, a 35-year-old female orangutan with whom he has a purely platonic relationship.Ms Thompson said the sharing was touching as orangutans are highly food-motivated."Because he's a diabetic, we need to know what food he's having. If he misses some, we supplement it with some more, and so Utama knows how to work him."Ms Thompson, who has travelled to Indonesia to witness the destruction of orangutan habitat for palm oil, rubber and acacia plantations, says the plight of the orangutans is probably worse than imagined.While surveys of their night nests suggest as few as 6000 remain in the wild, orangutans often build several nests each day so these numbers may be inflated, she said.

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Qld premier coy on chief justice pick

QUEENSLAND'S premier has held his first media conference in five days, but was coy when questioned about his government's controversial selection of Tim Carmody as the state's new chief justice.

SINCE Campbell Newman last stood before reporters, Judge Carmody's controversial addition to the Supreme Court has been approved by the state's governor.

Judge Carmody's meteoric rise has divided the judiciary, with critics arguing he's too inexperienced and too close to the government.But Mr Newman has declined to offer any new comment on the appointment of Judge Carmody, even though Court of Appeal justice John Muir has joined senior legal figures in slamming the appointment process."Go back to what I've said when I announced it about a week and a half ago," Mr Newman told reporters on the Sunshine Coast."You've got my comments."Late last week, Governor Penelope Wensley issued writs for the July 19 Stafford by-election, where the ruling Liberal National Party is considered the underdog despite its seven per cent margin.Asked why the media wasn't invited to that event, Mr Newman pointed to his June 5 speech to parliament."The announcement was made in parliament, look at the record," Mr Newman said, adding media weren't usually invited for by-election declarations."I've held many press conferences since I made the announcement in parliament."Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk accused the premier of hiding from voters during the past week, with Mr Newman's last media conference on Tuesday in Mount Isa."The premier has been in hiding now for over a week, afraid to front the music, afraid to talk to people in this state," she told reporters in Brisbane.The premier was on the Sunshine Coast on Sunday holding a community cabinet in Maroochydore, which is also in Clive Palmer's federal seat of Fairfax.A cabinet meeting is being held in the same beachside suburb on Monday.It would come three days after Mr Palmer lodged a defamation writ against Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney in the Supreme Court, after he alleged on the ABC that the mining tycoon had sought special favours for his Waratah Coal interests in the Galilee Basin in 2012.Mr Palmer is also suing Mr Newman for defamation after the premier claimed that he tried to "buy" the Queensland government.

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