IT tech convicted in 'Vatileaks'

A VATICAN court has convicted a Holy See computer technician of helping the former papal butler in the theft of confidential papal documents and given him a two-month suspended sentence.

Claudio Sciarpelletti, an Italian who is a computer program analyst in the Vatican's Secretariat of State, had testified earlier that he had played no role in helping to spirit out confidential documents in a scandal involving alleged corruption in the Vatican bureaucracy.

Pope's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, was convicted last month in a separate trial for the theft of the documents and is serving a 18-month prison sentence in Vatican City.

Top Vatican security officials, including the head of Pope Benedict XVI's bodyguards, as well as his convicted former butler were the witness list in the latest trial in the leak of confidential papal correspondence.

The witnesses had been called to testify earlier in the week in a Holy See courtroom, but the judge told them to come back Saturday to give more preparation time for the defence.

The stolen documents formed the basis of an Italian journalist's book about alleged corruption at the Vatican.

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Prince Charles thanks 'kind' Aussies

Prince Charles thanked Australians for being "wonderfully kind", as he and wife Camilla wrapped up a six-day tour which has taken them from the Outback to Bondi Beach.

Hundreds of people came to see the royal couple at their final destination in Canberra, with one woman offering the prince a packet of chocolate Tim Tams -which he had said he hoped someone would allow Camilla to try.

"You're very kind," Charles told Alyson Richards, 25, as she handed over the biscuits and wished him a happy birthday for next week.

At a lunch at Government House, Charles said it had been a joy to visit Australia, where the couple had met hundreds of community volunteers, as well as been able to see the local wildlife, including koalas and kangaroos, up close.

"When we finally get back, after a very, very, long journey, if I'm still reasonably compos mentis by then and haven't completely lost my marbles to jet lag, I will report back to Her Majesty your wonderfully kind thoughts and expressions after our visit," he said.

He said while the tour had not allowed them to visit as many places as they would have liked, it enabled them to "witness so many of the changes that have happened here since I was here last".

"And to witness... the extraordinary vibrancy of the multicultural society which Australia is and which of course has stood Australia in such remarkable stead in terms of the richness and diversity which you can see only too well."

Earlier, Charles watched as one of the terraces of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin was named after the Queen, following a tradition of naming the terraces after Australia's monarchs since the country became a federal state in 1901.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the renaming would "remind future generations that for more than half of our journey as a united nation, Elizabeth the Second has been our monarch."

The royal couple arrived in New Zealand late onSaturday on the last leg of their tour marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and were met at a military air base in Auckland by Prime Minister John Key.

They will formally begin their six-day visit with a traditional Maori welcome today at the Auckland War Memorial Museum where they will also commemorate Armistice Day.

They will then travel to Wellington and tour Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop to inspect costumes and props used in The Hobbit movies before moving to Christchurch, the scene of devastating earthquakes last year that claimed 185 lives.

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Europe to hold auto industry crisis talks

AS Europe's once powerful auto sector struggles against falling sales, EU industry commissioner Antonio Tajani says ministers will draw up plans by December 10 to save their carmakers.

"It is the European Commission's duty to prevent carmakers from leaving the Union," said Tajani after the loss of thousands of jobs in recent weeks at Ford plants and France's Peugeot Citroen.

"Each closure of a plant is like an injury," he added.

"If we don't act, we risk facing a plant closure a month."

Tajani said he would gather car producers, trade unionists and government officials by the end of the month to draw up a co-ordinated response to the crisis, looking at over-capacity, investment and state aid measures.

Among measures are plans to build greener and safer cars, strike trade deals to improve access to emerging markets and harmonise rules and regulations.

One of the biggest industries in Europe, the auto sector provides over 12 million jobs, directly and indirectly, with about 180 vehicle plants and more than 700 billion euros ($A864 billion) in turnover.

It is also the top private R&D investor and spent about 30 billion euros in 2010.

"Because of the multiplier effect it has in the economy, the car industry should provide a strong impetus to maintain a strong industrial base in Europe," Tajani said, adding that he hoped to draw up a coordinated plan before the talks.

Car sales have been on the decline for five years and are expected to fall by almost 8.0 per cent this year, with no hope of a return to pre-crisis levels for up to a decade on some markets.

"We are not just talking about Fiat, Volvo or Daimler, but thousands and thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses," Tajani added.

European manufacturers welcomed the EU's so-called Cars 2020 plan for action but called for urgent measures to cope with the social and economic consequences of current restructuring and cautioned against "unbalanced" trade agreements.

"We cannot afford to open up our markets in times of crisis unless there is a level playing field," European Automobile Manufacturers' Association head Ivan Hodac said.

But it backed proposals to make 'clean vehicles' an investment priority and to improve competitiveness in trade, transport, energy and climate policy.

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Putin reshuffles top military officers

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin reshuffled the nation's top military brass following the defence minister's ouster, and instructed the new top military officer to be friendlier to Russia's defence industries.

Mr Putin's advice to Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov, appointed chief of the armed forces' General Staff, appeared to shed more light on the reasons for the ouster of Russia's powerful Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov earlier this week.

While Mr Putin linked the ouster to a probe into the alleged military corruption, most experts believe that Mr Serdyukov was sacked because of an intensifying behind-the-scenes battle for the distribution of 20 trillion rubles ($635 billion) that the Kremlin plans to spend on buying new weapons through 2020.

Mr Serdyukov demanded higher quality and cheaper prices from the military industry, often refusing to sign new contracts for months.

He criticised arms makers for continuing to produce Soviet-era designs instead of developing new weapons, angering industry leaders with strong Kremlin connections.

Under Mr Serdyukov, the military purchased amphibious assault vessels from France, bought Israeli drones, Italian armored vehicles and other foreign weapons.

"We have had a problem with the Defence Ministry changing its demands to the industries," Mr Putin said.

"Of course, we must seek cutting-edge items, but we need a certain stability too. I strongly hope that you will be able to develop a stable and good partnership with our leading defense plants."

Alexander Golts, an independent military analyst, said that Mr Putin's statement sent a message to the military to "forget your demands for the industry to produce modern weapons and be happy with those the defense industries are capable of producing."

"The top military brass is expected to carefully pretend that it's getting state-of-the-art hardware, not the obsolete weapons designed 30 or 40 years ago," he wrote in a comment in the online newspaper ej.ru.

Mr Golts added that along with angering Mr Putin's lieutenants with links to defense industries, Mr Serdyukov's intransigence created a political problem for the president himself by threatening to erode his core support base of blue-collar workers.

Mr Gerasimov replaces Mr Serdyukov loyalist Gen. Nikolai Makarov. The 57-year old Mr Gerasimov is a career military officer who graduated from a Soviet tank academy and previously served as the commander of the Central Military District, a job that made him responsible for Red Square military parades.

As part of Friday's shakeup, Mr Putin also sacked a deputy defence minister and promoted two other generals.

Mr Serdyukov has been succeeded by Sergei Shoigu, who spent only half a year as the governor of the Moscow region after serving as Russia's emergency situations minister for two decades.

Mr Serdyukov's ouster came as a surprise because he had previously enjoyed Mr Putin's support for Russia's most radical defense reforms in decades. The effort led to the dismissal of 200,000 officers and the disbanding of 90 per cent of Russia's military units in a bid to turn Russia's Soviet-style military into a leaner and a more mobile force similar to Western armies.

When Mr Putin fired Mr Serdyukov on Tuesday, he linked the move to a probe launched last month by the country's top investigative agency into the sale of military assets, including real estate. The agency says the state suffered damages of 3 billion rubles ($95 million) in just a few cases reviewed.

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Mr Serdyukov is married to the daughter of one of Mr Putin's closest allies, Viktor Zubkov, who served as prime minister in 2007-8 and continues to wield strong clout as chairman of the state-run natural gas giant, Gazprom.

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Million-signature petition for Malala

UN special envoy Gordon Brown on Friday presented a petition with more than a million signatures in support of shot schoolgirl education campaigner Malala Yousafzai to the Pakistan government.

The 15-year-old is recovering in hospital in Britain after being shot in the head by Taliban militants a month ago in the Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley for the "crime" of promoting girls' right to go to school.

Former British prime minister Mr Brown is visiting Pakistan to call for education for all children and to mark Malala Day - Saturday - a global "day of action" in support of Malala and girls' education.

Malala thanked people around the world for their support on Friday in a message from hospital passed on by her father.

At a meeting in Islamabad attended by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Brown, the UN's special envoy for global education, said the international community was ready to support Pakistan in its efforts to tackle poverty and ensure all children could go to school.

"Malala and her family believe that there are many many more courageous and brave girls and families in your country who want to stand up for the right of every child, in particular girls, to have the education that they deserve," he said.

Some 32 million girls around the world are denied access to education, according to UN figures, more than five million of them in Pakistan.

Education in Pakistan is under attack from Islamist militants opposed to secular schooling but also suffers from chronic underfunding: the country spends less than 2.5 per cent of GNP on education, according to UN children's agency UNICEF.

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Maitre d' wins world cup for waiters

A JAPANESE maitre d' was crowned world's best in an international competition to find the top high-end server.

Shin Miyazaki, 35, who works at Chateau Restaurant Joel Robuchon in Tokyo, proved his mettle through nine rounds that tested his ability to dress a salad, flambe a pineapple and identify which wine works well with certain flavours.

Mr Miyazaki beat off competitors from 14 different countries under the gaze of an expert jury who were examining everything from how he put customers at ease to how he made the Irish coffee after desert.

"I practised every day for years, I'm hooked, and now I get this award," an emotional Miyazaki said as he received the Georges Baptiste Cup.

"But this is only the beginning, tomorrow I go back to work to do my best."

The Georges Baptiste Cup was established in France in 1961 in honour of the chef and butler of the same name.

It expanded to include European entrants three decades later and in 2000 went global when it was held in Canada. Subsequent editions were held in France, Mexico and Vietnam.

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Politkovskaya killed for reporting: police

RUSSIAN journalist Anna Politkovskaya was killed for her criticism of Russian officials, an investigator who led the murder probe says.

Politkovskaya, a sharp critic of the Kremlin and its policies in Chechnya, was gunned down in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on October 7, 2006. The killing drew global outrage and highlighted the dangers for journalists in Russia.

Investigator Petros Garibian was quoted on Friday in the Kommersant business daily as saying the probe failed to determine who ordered her slaying, but he dismissed media claims of the possible involvement of Chechnya's Moscow-backed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who was the target of Politkovskaya's criticism.

"Politkovskaya's death was a liability for Kadyrov," Garibian said.

"He was jockeying for the post of Chechnya's president and the high-profile killing of the journalist who criticised him was damaging rather than beneficial."

Russia's Investigative Committee said last month it has completed a probe of the suspected gunman, Rustam Makhmudov, and four others. No date for their trial has been set.

Makhmudov's two brothers and a Moscow police officer were acquitted in 2009 of helping stage the killing, but Russia's Supreme Court overruled that acquittal and sent the case back to investigators.

Politkovskaya was killed on the birthday of Vladimir Putin, who was serving his second presidential term at the time. That raised speculation about the possible involvement of authorities who were angered by Politkovskaya's exposure of atrocities in Chechnya.

Garibian said the date of the killing wasn't accidental because the perpetrators had been tracking the reporter for several days.

"I think the goal of the person who ordered the crime was not simply to take revenge on Anna Politkovskaya for her critical writing," Garibian said.

"He wanted a high profile action with the goal of scaring journalists, as well as the public and the government."

Russian officials in the past have hinted at the possible involvement of Putin's foes in Politkovskaya's killing.

Garibian said Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, a Moscow police officer involved in the killing, told investigators he had heard from the gunman's uncle, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, who is accused of organising the killing, that the order had come from self-exiled mogul Boris Berezovsky and Chechen separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev.

Garibian said that claim was not backed up by any evidence.

Berezovsky and Zakayev, who live in London, have rejected earlier Russian official claims of their alleged involvement in the murder.

Garibian said Pavlyuchenkov received $US150,000 ($A144,766) from Gaitukayev to organise Politkovskaya's slaying.

Gaitukayev will face the new trial along with the Makhmudov brothers and another former Moscow police officer, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov.

Pavlyuchenkov's case is being dealt with separately as he struck a deal with investigators.

Sergei Sokolov, deputy chief editor of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper that Politkovskaya worked for, said the probe should continue until the mastermind is determined.

"It's too early to talk about ending the probe. The question of who ordered it hasn't been answered and other people also could have been involved," he said on Ekho Mosvky radio.

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Apple targets Google in patent suit

A US judge is considering a request by Apple that would pull Google from the sidelines in a long-running patent war with Samsung over mobile gadgets powered by Android software.

Apple urged a federal court in Silicon Valley to add Android 4.1, referred to by Google as Jelly Bean, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet to a patent suit on track for trial next year, according to reports.

The judge is considering the request.

Meanwhile, Samsung has countered with a legal move that says Apple's iPhone 5 infringes on patents held by the South Korean electronics giant.

Samsung and Apple have been waging patent wars in an array of countries in an indirect assault on Google's Android software.

In a separate case, a jury in August declared that Samsung should pay Apple $US1.049 billion ($A1.007 billion) in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features.

Samsung has appealed to a higher court to reverse the jury verdict.

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Newspaper sales fall in September quarter

NEWSPAPER print circulation declined further in the September quarter as Australians looked to get their news through digital products, new figures show.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) said in its latest report that Monday to Saturday sales of national, metropolitan and regional newspapers backpedalled 5.9 per cent in the three months to September 30, compared with the prior corresponding period.

The September quarter result was a little worse than the 5.7 per cent fall in the three months to June 30.

Despite the ongoing slump in sales of the physical masthead, The Newspaper Works chief executive Tony Hale said printed newspapers had a solid future.

"The fact that around 18 million copies are still sold every week is powerful evidence of that," Mr Hale said in a statement.

"At the same time, publishers are taking a range of different approaches to digital products with some making a more accelerated conversion to digital subscription models."

The Newspaper Works, a non-profit body set up to promote the industry, said it was the first time Australia's two major publishers - News Ltd and Fairfax Media - had participated in the reporting of both print and digital sales.

Mr Hale said there were combined digital sales of almost 120,000 for The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne in the September quarter.

He said this showed Australians were willing to pay for quality journalism in both print and digital formats.

"The multi-platform publishing strategies being pursued by the major newspaper publishers have produced a very promising picture of newspaper circulations," Mr Hale said.

The ABC figures showed Fairfax Media's Sydney Morning Herald had 56,559 average net paid digital sales in the September quarter, compared with 31,502 at Melbourne's The Age and 31,241 at News Ltd's The Australian, based on Monday to Friday sales.

News Ltd chief executive Kim Williams said The Australian had grown its digital subscriptions by 16 per cent over the past six months, which demonstrated there was a real and growing market for quality journalism available digitally.

"The growth in digital subscriptions and strong audiences for our digital sites is encouraging as we continue to transform our business in serving consumers and advertisers across a rich range of technologies - print, online, mobile, tablet and broadcast," Mr Williams said in a statement.

Sydney's Sunday Telegraph recorded the highest circulation in the quarter, with 600,236 copies sold each week, down one per cent from the prior corresponding period.

Elsewhere, print circulation for the Monday to Friday edition of The Age dived 16.9 per cent to 158,485, while weekday edition sales of The Sydney Morning Herald fell 15.1 per cent to 161,169.

One bright spot amid a sea of declining print sales was in Perth, where the weekday edition of The West Australian rose 0.7 per cent to 190,251.

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Officer challenges NSW premier for inquiry

A SENIOR police investigator has publicly challenged NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to launch a royal commission into child sex abuse by clergy, saying the premier is lucky his own children haven't become victims too.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who has investigated clergy abuse around Newcastle for decades, wrote an open letter to the premier and then criticised the state government's continued failure to launch a judicial inquiry on national television.

"We're lucky. We haven't had to go through what some of those other families have gone through," he told ABC's Lateline on Thursday, noting that Mr O'Farrell is the father of two boys.

"He has a lot of thanks to give that his boys were never ever abused. ... If he has any compassion and humanity for some of these victims, he's got to turn around (his position)."

The comments came after the senior officer published an open letter stating that there are so many NSW sex abuse cases that he's actually lost count.

"I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church," he wrote in his letter.

"Mr O'Farrell, please don't block your ears. Many priests don't want a royal commission, nor does the hierarchy of the church, but God knows we need one."

Det Chief Insp Fox said he has "irrefutable" evidence of a cover-up involving a number of diocese bishops.

"It potentially goes even higher than that," he told Lateline.

In 2010, a woman he said is a credible whistleblower and church insider came forward and gave him an "explosive" statement that is now with the Director of Public Prosecutions.

"There is an archbishop, a bishop and a priest that are implicated in a potential cover-up," he said.

But he said he was directed to give all of his material to a taskforce upon learning of the information.

A superior officer then stood him down from investigating child sex abuse cases further, he said.

He said he doesn't know why he was stood down, but noted that many in the NSW police force would consider him to be outspoken.

He's also not sure if he will face disciplinary action for publicly calling on the premier to act.

"But I don't care," he said.

"What I do care about is that there are so many victims out there. ... There's something very wrong when you have so many pedophile priests operating in a such a small area for such an extended period of time with immunity."

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Smart device sales 'to exceed a billion'

GLOBAL sales of "smart devices," which include smartphones and tablets, will hit 821 million worldwide this year and 1.2 billion in 2013, a research firm says.

Gartner says these devices are gaining momentum, as many consumers opt to use them instead of personal computers.

"For most businesses, smartphones and tablets will not entirely replace PCs, but the ubiquity of smartphones and the increasing popularity of tablets are changing the way businesses look at their device strategies and the way consumers embrace devices," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.

By 2016, Milanesi said, "two-thirds of the mobile workforce will own a smartphone, and 40 per cent of the workforce will be mobile."

She said tablets will be a key to mobility for workers, with 13 million tablets used for business this year, rising to 53 million by 2016.

Gartner estimates that 56 per cent of smartphones purchased by businesses in North America and Europe will be Android devices in 2016, up from 34 per cent in 2012.

"Today the wide range of brands and price points that the Android ecosystem is offering is winning over users. While Apple remains the heartbeat by which the market moves, Google has rapidly become its archrival," she said.

A separate survey by research firm IDC last week found three out of four smartphones shipped worldwide used the Google-backed mobile platform, even though Apple's iOS devices are growing.

Milanesi said BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, long the dominant force in smartphones, "has a huge challenge ahead in regaining its key presence in the enterprise."

She said that in the business market, Windows 8 will take the number three position in the tablet market behind Apple and Android by 2016, with interest coming more from businesses than consumers.

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Developing nations 'need climate aid'

THE federal government must provide more funding for developing nations trying to cope with the impact of climate change, international aid organisations say.

World Vision Australia has signed an open letter along with other non-government aid organisations, calling on the federal government to provide more money for climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries for 2013-2015.

They say climate change is already having a significant impact on the communities they work with in developing nations.

"Poor communities, particularly those in small Pacific states or in parts of Africa recently ravaged by drought, are directly dependent on agriculture to meet their daily needs," World Vision says.

"Climate change and extreme weather events are putting their livelihoods under increased pressure."

World Vision food security expert David Lansley said he had seen the impact of rising sea levels on some of our nearest and poorest neighbours during a recent trip to the Solomon Islands.

"Unfortunately some of the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather events and changing climates are also those least able to afford the costs of recovery and adaptation," Dr Lansley said.

"The adaptation challenge will become insurmountable unless much more swift and robust action is taken by both developed and developing countries on mitigation as well."

World Vision is also calling on the government to participate in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

Australia is expected to announce its position on the Kyoto Protocol ahead of the United Nations climate talks in Qatar on November 26.

Last week, Australian Greens leader Christine Milne also called for Australia to sign up.

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Malaysia 'sincere' on refugees: Carr

FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr says the government's Malaysian people-swap deal can still work if the southeast Asian nation decides not to sign the UN Refugee Convention.

The federal government wants to resurrect the Malaysian deal, but the coalition wants to limit offshore processing to countries that are signatories of the UN Refugee Convention, such as Nauru.

Senator Carr is in Malaysia this week and has discussed the deal with local officials.

He confirmed Australia was still committed to resettling 4000 refugees from Malaysia over four years under the arrangement.

The minister said it was "very silly" for the opposition to oppose the plan because of the refugee convention.

"Tony Abbott was suggesting engagement with other countries in Asia that hadn't signed the refugee convention," he told ABC television on Tuesday.

"As Malaysia sees it, they have two million illegal workers, they have 100,000 refugees, they're dealing with this and they can deal with it without signing the convention."

Senator Carr would not be drawn on whether the Australian government preferred Malaysia to sign the convention, saying it was a matter for Malaysia decide on.

"The Malaysians can do without some of the bad mouthing of their eminently good reputation that occurred when the matter was last debated (in Australia)," he said.

"Their sincerity on this can't be doubted."

Under the Malaysian deal, the government would send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in exchange for 4000 processed refugees coming to Australia.

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Apple's share of tablets drops in Q3

APPLE'S share of the market for tablet computers fell to 50 per cent in the third quarter as the iPad faced more competition from Android devices such as Samsung's Galaxy tablets and Google's Nexus 7.

Apple still had a solid lead and shipped more iPads worldwide than a year earlier, according to Monday's study by IDC.

Apple had no new tablets out in the third quarter. It may also have seen sales slow amid expectations of the smaller iPad.

Apple may regain share in the holiday quarter with last Friday's release of new iPad devices, including the iPad Mini.

Apple said on Monday that it sold three million iPads of all kinds through the weekend, double the 1.5 million iPads sold in the first three days after Apple launched the third-generation iPad in March and cut the price of the iPad 2.

However, the company will face competition from new devices from Amazon, Google and others over the next few weeks.

In the July-September period, Apple shipped 14 million devices, up 26 per cent from 11 million a year ago.

However, its market share fell from 60 per cent in the third quarter of 2011 as the overall tablet market grew by 50 per cent to nearly 28 million.

Samsung's market share grew to 18 per cent, from about 7 per cent, as it more than quadrupled the number of tablets shipped to 5.1 million. The quarter saw the release of the Galaxy Note 10.1, a device designed for use with a stylus.

Amazon.com Inc was in third with its Kindle Fire, which had a 9 per cent market share. Amazon didn't release a new version until late in the quarter. Amazon managed a 9 per cent worldwide share even though the Fire was available only in the US during the third quarter.

No.4 tablet maker AsusTek Computer Inc, which makes the Nexus 7 for Google, saw its shipments more than triple to 2.4 million. It had a share of 8.6 per cent, up from 3.8 per cent.

"Competitors are turning up the pressure on market leader Apple," said Ryan Reith, a program manager for mobile devices at IDC.

Amazon and Google will start shipping larger versions of their tablets this month.

The Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 both have had screens measuring 7 inches diagonally. Google's Nexus 10 will be 10.1 inches, while Amazon's will be 8.9 inches. By comparison, the regular iPad is 9.7 inches.

Samsung is making the larger Nexus tablet, while AsusTek will continue making the 7-inch one.

Meanwhile, tablets and other devices running Microsoft's Windows system started going on sale last month, after the third quarter ended. That includes Microsoft's own Surface.

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Netflix aims to thwart takeover

NETFLIX is using a "poison pill" to make a hostile takeover more difficult, days after news that corporate raider Carl Icahn had acquired a stake in the online video giant.

The American company provides on-demand internet streaming of movies to customers in the US, Canada, Latin America, the UK and Europe.

Its latest move allows the company to issue additional shares to any shareholder if a single owner acquires 10 per cent or more, making a takeover more expensive.

The "stockholder rights plan" aims "to protect Netflix and its stockholders from efforts to obtain control of Netflix that the board of directors determines are not in the best interests of Netflix and its stockholders," a company statement said.

The plan "is not intended to interfere with any merger, tender or exchange offer or other business combination," the statement added.

Icahn responded in a regulatory filing, saying that "any poison pill without a shareholder vote is an example of poor corporate governance."

He added that "the pill Netflix just adopted is particularly troubling due to its remarkably low and discriminatory 10 per cent threshold.

"As one of the company's largest shareholders we are concerned about the poor corporate governance at Netflix that these and other actions reflect."

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed Icahn had acquired about 5.5 million shares or 9.9 per cent through various investment firms he controls, starting in September.

Icahn is known for buying stakes in a company, in some cases seeking control to restructure a firm. In other cases he may resell a stake for a profit. He is known for taking large or controlling stakes in firms such as TWA, MGM and Yahoo.

Netflix said recently it now has more than 30 million subscribers worldwide, including some five million outside the United States as the internet video service pursues a global expansion.

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China boosts BMW with record sales

STRONG sales of its luxury cars in China helped boost BMW AG's net profit by 16 per cent in the third quarter.

Booming Asian sales helped the maker of the X5 sport utility vehicle and the 5-series sedan overcome a stagnant market in Europe. Consumer demand remains slack there because of the economic crisis.

Net profit rose to 1.29 billion euros ($A1.61 million). Sales jumped 13.7 per cent to a record 18.82 billion euros.

China sales rose 30 per cent, while European sales grew modestly at 2.6 per cent as sales sagged in southern Europe where the economic crisis is at its worst.

Sales were even down slightly in BMW's home market of Germany.

The company said it was sticking to its earnings forecasts despite "an increasingly uncertain market environment."

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S Korea probes false nuclear certificates

SOUTH Korea's nuclear body is investigating a forgery scandal that is forcing the shutdown of two reactors and has sparked fears of unprecedented power shortages.

Nuclear Safety and Security Commission spokeswoman Shim Eun-jung said on Tuesday her agency was checking forged safety certificates.

South Korea announced on Monday it had found five nuclear reactors running with falsely certified components.

Officials said the two reactors with the highest concentration of those parts would be shut down by Tuesday.

About 30 per cent of South Korea's electricity comes from nuclear plants and authorities have said electricity reserves could fall dangerously low if the parts were not replaced by January. No radioactive leak has occurred.

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Swiss team prepares for Arafat exhumation

A SWISS laboratory team has arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah to prepare for the exhumation of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, Palestinian sources said on Monday.

The team, along with French investigators, is expected to participate in Arafat's exhumation on November 26, as part of a new investigation into the circumstances of the late leader's 2004 death.

The delegation from the Institute of Radiation Physics at Switzerland's University of Lausanne arrived on Monday, Palestinian sources said, adding that they met with Palestinian health minister Hani Abdeen and justice minister Ali Mhanna.

The team also held talks with Tawfiq Tirawi, head of the Palestinian commission that investigated Arafat's death, "to discuss next steps" and visited the Ramallah mausoleum that houses Arafat's grave.

Arafat died in a French military hospital near Paris on November 11, 2004 and French experts were unable to say what had killed him, with many Palestinians convinced he was poisoned by Israel.

French prosecutors opened a murder inquiry into his death in August after Al-Jazeera television broadcast an investigation in which Swiss experts said they had found high levels of radioactive polonium on Arafat's personal effects.

Polonium is a highly toxic substance rarely found outside military and scientific circles.

It was used to kill former Russian spy turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 in London shortly after drinking tea laced with the poison.

Last month, Palestinian sources told AFP that French investigators and a team from the Swiss lab would exhume Arafat's body on November 26.

"The Palestinian Authority will provide these teams with every facility in order to determine the circumstances of the death of president Yasser Arafat," the source said.

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G20 action needed, not just planning: Swan

EDS: Not for use before 0001 AEST on Tuesday, November 6.

By Colin Brinsden, AAP Economics Correspondent

CANBERRA, Nov 6 AAP - Treasurer Wayne Swan says the Group of 20 major economies have spent too much time on discussing crisis management and not enough on action to lift growth four years on from the depths of the global financial crisis.

In an address to the G20 Finance Ministers' meeting in Mexico City on Monday, Mr Swan said actions by central banks have helped to stabilise markets and opened the window for governments to undertake decisive reforms to reduce the risk of falling back into crisis.

"But without political action, the markets will slam it closed, as we have all seen too many times before," Mr Swan said, according to a copy of his speech obtained by AAP.

He said it was disappointing that the group was still crisis managing.

"The few of us still here who sat around the G20 in the darkest days of 2008 could not have predicted that more than four years later we would be here still talking about stability mechanisms and further unconventional action by central banks," he said.

"We have spent far too much time in the subsequent four years discussing how to deal with the risks to growth and not enough time taking action to lift growth."

He said whoever won this week's US presidential election must deal urgently with the so-called "fiscal cliff" - the end of tax cuts and the adoption of severe spending cuts at the turn of the year - or risk seeing the US economy plunge back into recession.

He said it was also important that China's new leadership after this week's 18th national congress continued to deliver reforms to shift the Chinese economy towards consumption-led growth.

Mr Swan noted European policymakers were constrained by having to address significant levels of debt over the medium to long term, so they need to develop credible and effective fiscal pathways.

The US and Japan also needed credible long-term fiscal plans to address their very high debt levels, he said.

"To maintain market confidence and to support jobs growth, you need to demonstrate policies are in place which will deal with long-term fiscal pressures," he said.

"You don't need to slash and burn now to deliver sound fiscal outcomes in the medium term. Structural saves start small but grow over time, helping to deliver credible and sustainable fiscal policy."

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Homes under flight path defy common sense

THE federal government has called on NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to reconsider his plan to allow residential development under the Canberra Airport flight path, saying it "defies common sense".

The NSW government is set to approve the rezoning of the Tralee housing development, which would see 1000 homes south of Queanbeyan developed over five to six years in a $400 million venture.

Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says the plan would kill off Mr O'Farrell's own plan to use Canberra Airport as a second hub for Sydney.

"Barry O'Farrell has stated he doesn't support a second Sydney airport actually being in Sydney, and the only option he would support is Canberra," Mr Albanese said in a statement.

"Today's decision renders his plan for Canberra as Sydney's second hub farcical and completely contradictory."

The federal government remained opposed to putting new greenfield housing developments under busy flight paths, Mr Albanese said.

"With passenger traffic at Canberra Airport forecast to grow by 36 per cent in the next decade, there will be an average 97 flight movements a day over the Tralee area.

"I have written to the NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard asking him to reconsider this decision."

Mr Albanese said it was extraordinary Mr O'Farrell would give the green light to a development that undermined his alternative to a second Sydney airport.

"It defies common sense that he's killed off his own idea, however absurd it might have been in the first place."

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Hotline fails to reduce hospital burden

A GOVERNMENT-BACKED medical hotline is having a minimal impact, if any, on reducing the burden on hospital emergency departments, a study has found.

More than half the callers to the healthdirect help line attended an emergency department despite a recommendation to the contrary, research published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday found.

The national 24-hour help line, launched in 2006, connects callers with a nurse to assess the patient and provide recommendations. It expanded last year to include GPs.

A study carried out by the Royal Perth Hospital emergency department from August 2008 to April 2009 traced admissions back to the helpline and found 52.4 per cent were patients who attended emergency despite being advised against it.

The lead authors, emergency physicians Dr Joseph Ng and Professor Daniel Fatovich, said the cost of running medical hotlines was often justified by promoting a reduction in pressure on emergency departments.

But previous studies had shown that telephone triage services had a limited impact on reducing attendances, the authors said.

One large review of multiple studies could not find a case where a hotline had decreased pressure on an emergency department, and another found a nurse helpline increased attendances, the authors said.

"Given the healthdirect referrals to the ED in our study represented fewer than two per cent of ED attendances, the impact of telephone triage is minimal," the study said.

Dr Ng said the number of patients going to an emergency department after being given alternative advice indicated an issue with access to after hours services.

"Maybe these patients were being told to go to their family doctor and they would have tried really hard to, but maybe these services are just not available out of hours," Dr Ng told AAP.

He said the study showed callers to the healthdirect service who attended the hospital emergency department were more likely to be younger and female than those who self-referred or were sent by their GP.

Associate Professor Patrick Bolton from the University of NSW said the study showed that a phone call did not seem to be answering patients' questions about whether a visit to an emergency department was required.

"Consideration must be given to whether healthdirect represents the best use of finite health dollars," Assoc Prof Bolton said in an accompanying editorial.

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Number of indigenous heavy smokers drops

A DRAMATIC drop in the number of indigenous Australian heavy smokers could reduce deaths and disease caused by tobacco, research suggests.

The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day almost halved between 1994 and 2008, a report in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday found.

The rate dropped from 17.3 per cent of indigenous people in 1994 to 9.4 per cent in 2008 - a 45 per cent decrease.

The decline occurred among both men and women, in remote and non-remote areas and included all age groups except older indigenous people.

However, those smoking one to 10 cigarettes a day increased by almost one-third, from 16.8 per cent to 21.6 per cent.

Smoking is the number one cause of chronic conditions and diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease among indigenous Australians.

Fifty per cent of indigenous people smoke compared with less than 20 per cent of the wider community.

Researcher Associate Professor David Thomas from the Menzies School of Health Research said it was well known that heavier smokers have higher health risks so the reduction was welcome news.

He said the decline happened before the federal government's $100 million investment to reduce smoking in Aboriginal communities in 2010.

"We are riding a wave of change," Assoc Prof Thomas told AAP.

"Reducing smoking intensity and prevalence will lead to reduced deaths and illness due to smoking."

He said wider anti-tobacco campaigns and smoke-free laws introduced across the country may have had an impact on the drop in heavy smoking rates.

The changes may have come about by heavy smokers cutting down or young people not taking up the habit heavily, Assoc Prof Thomas said.

Although there have been widespread concerns about underreporting of cigarette smoking, he said earlier research in remote Northern Territory communities showed a correlation between cigarette sales and self-reported smoking.

The increase in light smokers was worrying so tobacco control programs need to take this group into account, Assoc Prof Thomas said.

He said the federal government program to tackle tobacco use could see indigenous smoking rates drop further.

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Miners should remain optimistic on China

AUSTRALIA'S mining companies have reason to be optimistic despite a difficult past 12 months during which profits fell and their share price suffered a big hit due to lower commodity prices and a slowing Chinese economy, a report says.

The Aussie Mine 2012 Staying the Course report from financial services company PwC found the so-called mid-tier miners made a combined net profit of $1.6 billion in 2011/12, down by 44 per cent from the previous year.

The report, in its sixth year, focused on the largest 50 mining companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with a market capitalisation of less than $5 billion at June 30, 2012.

PwC partner Wayne Huf and global mining leader Tim Goldsmith said 2012 had not been an easy time for the mid-tier 50, given the rising concerns about China's economic growth.

Those concerns, coupled with weaker commodities prices, caused the market capitalisation of these mid-tier miners to fall to $51.8 billion at June 2012, down by 31 per cent from the March 2011 post global financial crisis peak of $75.3 billion.

Despite these short-term challenges, the report said the future was bright.

"We are in no doubt that the development and urbanisation of China still has many years to run," the pair said in the foreword of the report.

"This will continue to be the biggest determinant of the prospects of the mid-tier 50."

Atlas Iron CEO Ken Brinsden said China would remain a key buyer of Australian iron ore.

"China still needs to grow and their domestic ore is lower grade and more expensive to produce, therefore they are at a competitive disadvantage," Mr Brinsden said in the report.

"Demand from China for iron ore from external sources will remain."

Meanwhile, Mr Brinsden criticised the federal government mineral resource rent tax.

He said it had impacted on investment, triggered volatility in the performance of mining companies and created a significant administrative cost for companies such as Atlas.

"Our offshore investors are now continually questioning us on what is going on in Australia and what is next," Mr Brinsden said.

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Aust's lowest paid the third lowest taxed

AUSTRALIA'S lowest paid workers are also among the lowest taxed, a report says.

A study by chartered accountant UHY Haines Norton found that a single, unmarried Australian whose take-home pay was up to $US25,000 ($A24,141) a year had the third-lowest personal tax rate.

Only Japan and the United Arab Emirates were ahead of Australia in the study, which covered 25 countries including all members of the Group of Eight (G8) nations, as well as the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

UHY tax partner James Tng said the report suggested Australia had found a balance between a progressive and competitive tax system.

"There has been a general easing of the tax rates of low- and middle-income earners over the past decade, beginning with the introduction of the GST in 2000," Mr Tng said in a statement.

"Australia also wasn't forced to raise personal taxes due to the fiscal strength of our economy prior to the global financial crisis where there was little debt and very little in the way of the social security hurdles compared to other European economies."

Australians with take home pay of $US200,000 ($A193,000) were the 14th lowest taxed in the survey.

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