Last French troops exit Afghanistan

FRANCE has flown its last combat troops out of Afghanistan, two years before allied countries in the 100,000-strong NATO mission led by the United States are due to recall their fighting forces.

Around 200 soldiers of the 25th Belfort infantry regiment, responsible for overseeing the hastened French exit from the 11-year war, took off around 2.30pm local time (2100 AEDT), an airport official said.

They are expected to return to France on December 18 following a three-day decompression stay on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Their departure means France has around 1500 soldiers left in Afghanistan, the vast majority in Kabul. They are due to stay into 2013 to take responsibility for repatriating equipment and training the Afghan army to take over.

Only several hundred French soldiers involved in cooperation or training missions will remain in the country.

At the height of its involvement, France had 4000 soldiers in Afghanistan as the fifth largest military contingent in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), behind the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy.

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NSW healthcare system 'working well'

RATES of premature death from cancer, heart disease and stroke have fallen across NSW, but further improvements could be made in the state's health care system, a report says.

Results from the third annual Healthcare in Focus 2012 report, which compares the performance of the NSW health care system with other states and countries, found fewer years of life are lost to cancer and heart disease in NSW than in most other countries, Bureau of Health Information chief Kim Browne said.

"NSW is performing quite well when we compare internationally," Ms Browne told AAP.

"(But) there are areas where we've got opportunities to improve compared to international comparators."

The report indicated NSW has one of the lowest rates of potential years of life lost to cancer, outperforming France, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the US.

Only Sweden has a lower rate, Ms Browne said.

Fewer years of life were lost to cardiovascular disease and stroke in NSW than in most other countries, the report found.

Ms Browne added fewer years of life were lost to heart attack in NSW than in any of the 10 other countries examined in the report.

But there are areas of the health care system that can be improved, she said.

"Unplanned readmissions for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are mid-range ... but they're higher than places like Canada, the UK and Switzerland," she told AAP.

NSW also has a high rate of hospitalisation for diabetic, medical and surgical care complications, a statistic Ms Browne would like to see decrease.

"It's a bit of a mixed picture but overall when we look internationally NSW tends to perform fairly well," Ms Browne said.

Health care system users were surveyed as part of the report and the majority rated their experiences and treatment positively, she said.

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Ex-cop sentenced for journalist's murder

A MOSCOW judge has sentenced a former police officer to 11 years jail and fined him 3 million rubles ($A95,400) for his part in the 2006 murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who prosecutors claimed helped track Politkovskaya's movements and provided the triggerman with a gun, had struck a plea bargain qualifying him for a reduced sentence in exchange for co-operation.

Politkovskaya's family opposed the deal, which allowed Pavlyuchenkov to admit guilt without testifying, on the grounds it would not help find the masterminds of the killing.

The alleged gunman and four other defendants will be tried separately.

Politkovskaya, a sharp critic of Kremlin policies in Chechnya, was gunned down in her apartment building on October 7, 2006.

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Queen gets art trove as jubilee gift

WHAT do you get the woman who has everything? Britain's Royal Academy of Arts has presented the Queen with works by some of the country's leading artists to mark the monarch's 60 years on the throne.

The 97 works on paper include a royal portrait by Tracey Emin, a celebratory Diamond Jubilee drawing done on an iPad by David Hockney and pieces by Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Grayson Perry.

All the artists are members of the Royal Academy, the elite artistic society founded in 1768.

The artworks will go on public display at Buckingham Palace next year.

Martin Clayton, senior curator of prints and drawings at the Royal Collection Trust, called the gift "a vivid cross-section of the best of contemporary British art."

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Vic budget hit by $1.2bn revenue shortfall

THE Victorian budget is reportedly facing a $1.2 billion shortfall in revenue.

Updated budget figures to be released on Friday show state coffers were slugged by a major drop in stamp duty and GST, Fairfax Media reports.

The figures show stamp duty collections were slashed by $285 million this financial year, creating a predicted shortfall of around $1.2 billion for the next four years.

GST revenue is set to fall by $6 billion over the same period.

The news puts pressure on the state government, which is aiming to deliver a budget surplus of at least $100 million this financial year.

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Festive spend could be best in three years

AUSTRALIAN retailers are dreaming of a bright Christmas with economists predicting the best festive season spending in three years.

Deloitte Access Economics has made the forecast on the back of improved consumer confidence, interest rate cuts, solid wages growth and house prices stabilising.

"For retailers it won't be the Christmas of their dreams," Deloitte partner David Rumbens says in the firm's latest quarterly retail forecasts report.

"But it may provide them with a vital ingredient which has been missing over the previous two years - decent cash flow."

Around 70 per cent of the 52 senior retail executives in the Deloitte survey say they expect higher sales this Christmas from a year ago, while 13 per cent believe it will be worse than 2011.

Nearly one-third of retailers say they expect to begin discounting by early December.

"While it may be a brighter Christmas, it's likely to be back to the reality of a hard slog for retailers in 2013," Mr Rumbens said.

The improvement remains below the trend rate of retail growth in the days before the global financial crisis.

"Income growth is modest and these days consumers are taking a more measured approach to borrowing and spending than they have in the past," he said.

Retail sales turnover is forecast to rise by 2.9 per cent in 2012/13, by 2.7 per cent the following year and by 3.6 per cent in 2014/15 as broader economic conditions and housing activity improve.

Western Australia and Queensland remain the best longer-term bets for retail sales growth, Mr Rumbens said.

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Australia's 'most Googled' words revealed

IF you've spent some of the year wondering what permeate is or why it's no longer in some milk, you're not alone.

Because "what is permeate?" was one of Australia's most googled questions in 2012.

Lara Bingle was the year's most searched-for celebrity (ahead of Miranda Kerr and Delta Goodrem).

AFL champions Sydney Swans were the most searched-for sports team (followed by Essendon FC) and Hurricane Sandy was the most searched-for news event.

The results were revealed in Google's annual Zeitgeist report, which the company describes as "a barometer for what captivated Aussies during 2012".

Korean pop act Psy's Gangnam Style was the nation's highest-trending search term, followed by Nine Network's The Voice and English-Irish boyband, One Direction.

The trending category is calculated on the basis of how long a search term remains popular, rather than simply how many people search for it.

The most asked "how to" question on Google was "how to love?" - though it's not clear if the rest of the question was ever followed by anything, for example "yourself" or "someone".

It's also unclear if rapper Lil Wayne's 2011 song "How To Love" played a role in the search term's popularity.

All that loving may have led to Australia's second most searched-for "how to" question - how to kegel?

Kegeling is a pelvic floor exercise for pregnant women to help with urinary control and childbirth.

Swimmer Stephanie Rice was Australia's most searched-for Olympian.

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong was the nation's most searched-for athlete.

And in case you still haven't googled permeate to find out what it means, consumer group Choice has a handy definition.

"Manufacturers dilute milk with permeate, a solution of minerals and lactose (milk sugar) that's a by-product from making cheese," it says on Choice's website.

Permeate-free milk became popular from June, particularly after Nine Network's A Current Affair ran a series of news stories on the substance.

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Phone complaints down but amounts up

CONSUMERS are making fewer complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) about phone charges, but the amounts disputed have skyrocketed, with one customer copping a $147,908 bill.

The TIO's quarterly publication said consumers who approached the TIO about global roaming charges disputed amounts totalling $8 million between July 1 last year and September 30, 2012 - an average $1.6 million per quarter.

One customer said she had arranged a special plan for making calls during a nine-week European holiday but still received a $147,908 bill after returning to Australia.

Others reported being billed for amounts of $38,000 and $18,000.

"Some consumers who travel overseas for business or leisure are returning to telephone bills that are more expensive than the trips themselves," Ombudsman Simon Cohen said.

"Making sure that consumers are fully informed about roaming charges before and while they are overseas will go some way toward reducing the risk of returning home to a high bill."

New complaints to the TIO decreased by almost 19 per cent between April and June, followed by an 11 per cent dip in July-September.

Mr Cohen said the drop in complaints about customer service, complaint handling and billing was good news for consumers and service providers alike, Mr Cohen said.

But the challenge would be to keep up the positive trend over the summer months, when demand for new services and products was high.

Telecommunications industry body Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton said the fall-off in complaints pointed to the fact many service providers had started adopting provisions of the new Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code before it came in to force in September.

"The challenge now is to ensure we can achieve industry-wide compliance with the code provisions and continue to achieve higher customer satisfaction and further falls in complaint levels," Mr Stanton said.

"While the latest data are encouraging, it is way too early to relax or declare mission accomplished. Much remains to be done."

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Man strips at Austrian art exhibition

AN Austrian museum says a man took the concept of life imitating art to an extreme when he suddenly stripped at an exhibition of pictures and sculptures portraying nude men through the ages.

Vienna's Leopold Museum says that after taking his clothes off, the man calmly sauntered through the exhibition, dressing again only after a security guard asked him to do so.

Museum spokesman Klaus Pokorny said on Tuesday that the museum had nothing to do with Saturday's strip, describing it as a "spontaneous act." He says other visitors did not appear disturbed.

He said that since its October 19 opening, the Nude Men exhibition had attracted more than 65,000 visitors - all of them dressed except for one.

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HTC unveils new rival to iPhone 5

TAIWAN'S HTC on Tuesday unveiled a new smartphone boasting a higher resolution display than Apple's iPhone 5 just days before its rival's latest handset goes on sale on the island.

The HTC Butterfly features a 5-inch screen with a pixel density of 440 ppi (pixels per inch) and full 1080P HD resolution, compared to the iPhone 5's 4-inch screen at 326 ppi at a lower resolution.

"We are confident that HTC Butterfly will set a new example for high-end smartphones," chief executive Peter Chou said at the launch in Taipei.

HTC sells its own smartphones and also makes handsets for a number of leading US companies, including Google's Nexus One.

The company has recently unveiled a new series of smartphones as it faces intense competition from Apple and South Korea's Samsung and seen its third quarter profit tumble 79.1 per cent year-on-year.

HTC and Apple were locked in more than 20 patent lawsuits worldwide until the two firms reached a global patent settlement last month. The world's leading technology firms have routinely pounded each other with patent suits.

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Most trampolines fail safety tests

ALMOST all the trampolines looked at by consumer group Choice have failed basic safety tests.

Choice tested 12 brands for safety risks, as well as ease of assembly and jumping performance.

Only one, the Springbok Trampoline RI, passed all the main safety tests.

The other 11 models posed potential strangulation or limb entrapment hazards between the trampoline's enclosure net, bed, and frame.

"Trampolines can be lots of fun," Choice spokeswoman Ingrid Just said in a statement.

"However, it's also very easy to get hurt: sprains, bruises and fractures can occur from a fall or from impact with people and objects.

"Severe brain and spinal injuries can also happen," she said.

The NSW government has called for a review of the Australian Standard for trampolines, but it is a voluntary standard.

Choice is calling on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to make it mandatory.

Of the 11 trampolines that failed Choice's test, many showed some degree of permanent damage to the safety padding and vinyl cover after testing, and some also had damage to the legs and frame tubing.

"The foam used for padding on many trampolines is similar to packaging foam and does not provide adequate protection for jumps and falls," said Ms Just.

An ACCESS Economics study estimated there were 9006 accidents involving trampolines in 2007, 11 per cent of which required hospitalisation.

Choice is warning parents to be vigilant when supervising children on trampolines.

Monash University found trampolines were the second-biggest cause of injuries needing hospital treatment of all play equipment, behind monkey bars.

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Huawei to open R&D centre in Finland

CHINESE telecom firm Huawei has announced plans to invest 70 million euros ($A86.7 million) to open up a research and development centre for smartphone and tablet software in Finland, home to rival Nokia.

"The Finnish R&D centre will be a key driver in Huawei's research and development of new technologies for mobile devices," the company said in a statement on Monday.

It said the centre, which is to start with 30 employees and grow to 100 within five years, will focus on software development for smartphones, tablets and rich-media devices using Andriod and Windows Phone operating systems.

"The open and innovative environment in Finland is an ideal place for Huawei to strengthen our global R&D capabilities for devices, creating opportunities for both Huawei and the Finnish telecommunications industry," said Kenneth Fredriksen, vice-president, Huawei Central, Eastern and Nordic Europe.

Finland is the headquarters of Nokia, until recently the world's top mobile phone maker.

The company is shedding thousands of jobs as it restructures towards using Windows Phone 8 for its smartphones. Nokia previously had programmers developing its own smartphone operating system.

"I think this is another example on how other companies like Huawei can take advantage of the fact that Nokia is firing 10,000 people," said Magnus Rehle from the strategy firm, Greenwich Consulting.

"There are a lot of highly skilled people who can help Huawei to make cheap Android-based smartphones for the growing markets outside Europe and the United States," he said.

Huawei has ambitions to expand globally, although concerns about its possible ties to the Chinese state have raised concerns in several Western countries.

Huawei said in September it would invest $US2 billion ($A1.92 billion) in Britain and roughly double its workforce in the country within five years.

The company has 7000 employees in Europe and 70,000 involved in R&D worldwide.

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Aussie firms among least optimistic

AUSTRALIAN small businesses are currently among the least optimistic in the Asia-Pacific region, a survey shows.

Research by accounting firm CPA Australia found 60 per cent of Australian companies expect to grow their business in 2013, just pipping Hong Kong at the bottom of the table on 59 per cent.

The survey of over 1700 respondents in six Asia-Pacific economies found Indonesia was leading the way, with 94 per cent of firms expecting their businesses to grow.

It also found that just 14 per cent of the Australian businesses increased their staff numbers in 2012, compared with 61 per cent in Indonesia.

When it came to accessing money, 47 per cent of the Australian firms were forced to use a personal credit card to pay for business activities, compared with a mere 12 per cent in Indonesia.

CPA Australia CEO Alex Malley said the survey results painted a worrying picture, as small businesses act as a barometer for the broader economy.

"These results reflect the direct impact of decisions around significant national issues such as returning the budget surplus, productivity, tax reform and regulation," Mr Malley said in a statement on Tuesday.

He said the results should act as a further "wake-up call" to key decision makers of the need to focus on how Australia could be best positioned to thrive in a hyper-competitive regional and global environment.

"A large part of achieving this will be predicated on the existence of a dynamic, innovative small-business sector with a focus on the high-end knowledge economy," he said.

"Achieving this will require a combined effort by business and government."

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Small business hopeful for 2013: MYOB

SMALL business confidence may have reached a turning point after some difficult times in the past couple of years.

An examination by software provider MYOB of its business monitor series from October 2010 to July 2012 points to a stabilisation in the first half of 2012 and an inkling that businesses feel more optimism going into 2013.

The proportion of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) expecting the economy to improve over the next 12 months had steadied at 19 per cent in March and June this year, after being in sharp decline from 47 per cent since October 2010.

"Our research indicates the small and medium business sector has reached a turning point, with economic confidence and revenue expectations steady over the second half of the previous financial year," MYOB chief Tim Reed said in a statement on Tuesday.

"With almost three in every four expecting either stable or rising revenue this financial year we could see a concurrent rise in economic confidence into 2013."

Mr Reed also said federal government changes to tax-free thresholds from July should help boost business performance.

"The tax-free threshold increase for individuals to $18,200 may see more part time workers join and stay in the workforce, allowing operators to draw from a larger group of skilled candidates when employing new staff," he said.

"Another positive contributor is the small business instant tax write-off increase to $6,500, which I encourage taking advantage of to invest in equipment that improves productivity and cash flow."

Mr Reed said 45 per cent of SMEs also viewed the tax loss carry-back scheme as positive.

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Surge in household energy disconnections

THERE has been a massive rise in the number of Victorians who have had their electricity or gas disconnected because they have failed to pay their energy bills.

The Essential Services Commission (ESC) reported that in 2011-12 almost 24,000 electricity customers were cut off, a jump of 33 per cent on the previous year, while more than 20,000 gas customers were disconnected - up 50 per cent.

The report found that almost half of the disconnected customers were reconnected within seven days indicating that they were residents who had trouble paying their bills.

"As the high rate of reconnections at the same address implies, most of the disconnections are of customers who struggle to pay their bills - not 'skippers' or movers from a residence," said ESC chief executive David Heeps.

"If retailers could better identify and support customers in hardship, then the adoption of a payment plan may head off disconnection as a last resort."

The Victorian Council of Social Services said energy retailers were treating customers in hardship too harshly.

The welfare body said that disconnecting people too often proves the energy industry needed to brought into line and it was time the state government stepped in.

"More people are being disconnected from their essential energy supply than at any time since the industry was privatised and the state government needs to step in to pull the industry into line," said VCOSS chief executive Penny Wilson.

She said energy retailers are entitled to be paid but they have a legal obligation to help customers in financial difficulty by offering flexible payment options or special hardship assistance.

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Tibetan, 16, who set herself on fire dies

A 16-YEAR-OLD Tibetan girl has died after setting herself on fire, Chinese state media say, in an area that has become a flashpoint for protests against Beijing's rule.

The school pupil self-immolated on Monday in the village of Dageri in China's northwestern province of Qinghai, an area with a high population of ethnic Tibetans, just before 7pm (2200 AEDT) on Sunday, Xinhua said.

Her body was cremated four hours later and returned to her family, the news agency said, adding that local government officials were investigating.

More than 90 Tibetans have set themselves ablaze since 2009 to protest China's rule of the Tibetan plateau, rights groups have said, with the frequency of incidents increasing sharply in November. Most have died.

According to a partial list drawn up by the London-based campaign group Free Tibet the teenager is among the youngest girls to have set themselves on fire.

Xinhua reported on Sunday that a monk and his nephew had been detained for inciting eight Tibetans to set themselves alight.

Many Tibetans in China accuse the government of religious repression and eroding their culture, as the country's majority Han ethnic group increasingly moves into historically minority areas.

Beijing rejects this, saying Tibetans enjoy religious freedom. The government points to huge on-going investment it says has brought modernisation and a better standard of living to Tibet.

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North Stradbroke Island fire contained

A GRASS and scrub fire that caused the evacuation of some residents on North Stradbroke Island has been downgraded.

A Queensland Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said while the fire is not yet under control it has been contained.

He says residents have moved back into their homes after they were evacuated on Sunday because the fire threatened their homes.

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What not to eat at Christmas

BRUSSELS sprouts may not be everyone's cup of tea, but they definitely should not be on some plates at Christmas.

The controversial vegetable is a traditional festive staple in countries including the UK.

But it can be a dangerous accompaniment to blood-thinning drugs like Warfarin, as one Scottish patient found out.

The Scottish man was prescribed the drug for heart failure and warned to stay away from green leafy vegetables, especially brussel sprouts.

The vitamin K in the vegetable can interfere with the drug and cause adverse effects including bleeding, which can be fatal.

Despite the advice, the man consumed 15 to 20 brussel sprouts on three to four occasions in one week during the festive period and was admitted to hospital three days after Christmas, where his condition improved.

His treating physicians from the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Glasgow warned doctors and patients about the dangers of consuming excessive quantities of brussel sprouts at the Christmas table.

"Doctors should consider counselling patients who must remain anticoagulated at all times ... against excessive consumption of this traditional Christmas fare," they wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday.

Meanwhile, those considering starting Christmas with a grapefruit breakfast or tossing a grapefruit salad might want to check their medication first.

Chemicals in grapefruit called furanocoumarins can interfere with up to 85 known medications, including cholesterol-lowering drugs, and can cause serious side effects in the case of 45 of them.

The fruit interacts with medications to increase the concentration of the drug in the bloodstream, putting patients at risk of overdose.

But Christmas can be a time of overindulgence for everyone, which carries its own risks.

Australasian College for Emergency Medicine president Dr Anthony Cross said emergency departments regularly see the effects of overindulgence at Christmas.

Often, it was a result of too much cheap food and wine, he said.

He suggested people buy a little less, but spend more on quality goods.

"Eat the good stuff and drink the expensive stuff," Dr Cross said.

Heart Foundation clinical issues director Dr Robert Grenfell said heart failure patients needed to watch their fluid intake, particularly alcohol, as it could affect their treatment.

Details about medications that react with grapefruit can be found on the website of the National Prescribing Service: www.nps.org.au

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Poorer people miss out on weight surgery

OBESE Australians most in need of stomach-reduction surgery are missing out, new research shows.

A survey of almost 50,000 obese Australians found those living in socially disadvantaged areas on low incomes were less likely to have bariatric surgery than their higher earning, better-educated counterparts.

This was despite evidence that people from lower socioeconomic groups were more likely to be obese.

The research, published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, found obese people earning more than $70,000 a year were five times more likely to have bariatric surgery than those earning less than $20,000 per year.

Those living in the least disadvantaged areas were four times more likely to have surgery than those living in the most disadvantaged areas, the study by researchers from the Australian National University (ANU), University of NSW and the Sax Institute found.

Clinical guidelines recommend bariatric surgery only be carried out for those with a body mass index (BMI) over 40kg after other non-surgical options have failed.

ANU researcher Dr Rosemary Korda said it was the first study examining bariatric surgery in Australia according to socioeconomic status.

"We know that obesity is concentrated in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups but our research shows that those who need bariatric surgery the most are the least likely to receive it," Dr Korda said.

There was limited availability of bariatric surgery, which includes gastric banding and bypass procedures, in public hospitals, she said.

Meanwhile, Medicare subsidised the surgery for private patients, effectively restricting lapband surgery to patients who can afford private health insurance and large out-of-pocket costs.

Of the 49,364 participants in the study, 312 had bariatric surgery but only one of those was treated publicly.

Co-author Professor Emily Banks of the Sax Institute said the decision to have surgery should be between a patient and their doctor, based on medical need.

"If surgery was distributed among a wider range of patients, inequalities in obesity and health-related problems could decline," she said.

In 2009, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing recommended bariatric surgery be made more available in public hospitals because people who needed it most were missing out.

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New laws cause rise in child abuse reports

STRICTER child protection laws have led to a surge in Aboriginal child abuse notifications in the Northern Territory, research shows.

Notification rates for the maltreatment of Aboriginal children increased on average by about 21 per cent a year between 1999 and 2010, according to NT government child protection figures published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday.

The number of substantiated cases grew by 18 per cent a year.

The biggest increases in substantiated cases were for emotional abuse, which grew by 30 per cent a year, and neglect, which rose 22 per cent a year.

The increases began around 2002, when national attention focused on the maltreatment of Aboriginal children following two state-based inquiries in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, the authors said.

Mandatory reporting obligations were strengthened in NT in 2007, the same year the 'Little children are sacred' report into the sexual abuse of Aboriginal children in the territory was released.

"The timing of these changes was consistent with the surge in notifications by many of the reporter groups, including health professionals, school personnel and police," the report's authors said.

"The spotlight placed on child maltreatment in the Northern Territory through two inquiries and the resulting legislative and service responses, including strengthened mandatory reporting obligations, created a surge in notifications."

There were more than 35,000 child protection notifications during the period and 66 per cent of those related to Aboriginal children.

The research was led by Dr Steven Guthridge from the Northern Territory department of health.

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