Italy prepares for landmark election

ITALIANS hit by austerity and recession are preparing to take to the polls for an election being watched around Europe, a day after a mass rally in Rome showed rising social discontent.

Tens of thousands turned out to hear Beppe Grillo, a comedian turned activist whose grassroots Five Star Movement could receive a massive protest vote and become Italy's third biggest political party after the elections on Sunday and Monday.

"Let's send them all home!" the crowd chanted on Friday - a slogan of Grillo's campaign against mainstream politicians, many of whom have been discredited recently by a series of investigations into corruption and waste of public funds.

La Repubblica daily called Grillo the "Rock Star of Populism", while La Stampa spoke of an "apocalyptic climate" and top-selling Corriere della Sera said in an editorial: "An entire system is disappearing."

Grillo has promised to slash politicians' salaries, increase unemployment benefits and hold a referendum on whether Italy should retain the euro.

Candidates could not campaign on Saturday, and voter surveys have been off-limits for the two weeks leading up to the polls.

"I am worried for my country," centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, the favourite in the polls, told supporters at his final rally on Friday.

Renowned film director Nanni Moretti also appeared at the event and said it was time to "liberate" Italy from the scandal-tainted media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi.

Outgoing premier Mario Monti promised to overhaul the labour market to create more jobs.

Three-time premier Berlusconi said he was confident even though polls have put him in second place.

Bersani, a cigar-chomping former communist who now espouses broadly pro-market views, has said he will continue with the budget discipline enforced by Monti to the delight of financial markets.

But he will come under pressure to ease back on austerity and do more to promote growth and jobs as Italy endures its longest recession in 20 years and unemployment hits a record high of 11.2 percent.

The financial markets are monitoring closely as a return to Italy's bad old days of free-wheeling public finances could spell disaster for the eurozone beset by a debt crisis.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Stuttgarter Zeitung daily that it was "in Italy's interests" to continue with Monti's reform agenda.

Belgian daily Le Soir carried an editorial titled "Italian Elections, European Stakes".

"The real danger that threatens Italy, and therefore all of Europe, is instability," wrote the paper's editorialist Christophe Berti.

Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza said the election was "A Fight Between Clowns" - Berlusconi and Grillo.

With everything at stake, the campaign has been remarkably underwhelming, with few rallies and a lot of back-and-forth in television interviews that have provided little detail on electoral promises.

A case in point was Berlusconi's vow to refund to Italians - if needed out of his own pocket - an unpopular property tax levied by Monti in an official-looking letter that prompted some to queue at post offices to claim their money back.

The billionaire, who is fighting his sixth election campaign in two decades and is a defendant in two trials for tax fraud and sex with an underage prostitute, has been rising in the polls.

The 76-year-old has pursued a populist campaign, intimating that Italy's social misery can be blamed on a "hegemonic" Germany imposing austerity.

Polls open at 0700 GMT (1800 AEDT) on Sunday and close 12 hours later.

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Pistorius spends time with family

SOUTH Africa's Olympic "Blade Runner" and murder suspect Oscar Pistorius has spent his first day out on bail with his family pending trial for the killing of his lover.

Pistorius was freed on a record one million rand ($A110,656) bail on Friday after eight days in custody and an emotionally charged four-day bail hearing.

"I would like Oscar to just compose himself and to have a normal day," his uncle Arnold Pistorius told the local Eyewitness News.

He will return to court later this year when a date will be set for trial for having shot dead his model girlfriend and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day.

When contacted by AFP, his father Henke Pistorius declined to say how his son had slept at his uncle's house in Pretoria.

But a source close to the family told AFP late on Friday "the family just want time together. They haven't thought about anything except being together."

Pistorius claims he repeatedly shot at and killed his lover by mistake thinking she was a burglar.

Steenkamp's grieving parents, however, did not appear convinced.

"It doesn't matter how rich he is and how good his legal team is. He needs to live with himself if he lets his legal team lie for him," her father Barry told the Afrikaans-language daily Beeld.

Pistorius has assembled some of the best legal brains in South Africa to defend his case.

"He'll have to live with his conscience. But if he's telling the truth, I may forgive him one day," Steenkamp's father said.

But "if it didn't happen as he described it, he should suffer. And he will suffer ... only he knows."

Pistorius's family has sent flowers and a card to the Steenkamp family but "what does that mean? Nothing," said June, Reeva's mother.

Pistorius's brother Carl later in the day tweeted: "Thank you to every person that has prayed for both families."

In addition to the bail cash he posted Friday afternoon, which experts say is among one of the highest ever set in South Africa, Pistorius had to surrender his passport and firearms.

The magistrate quadrupled the bail amount initially proposed by the state.

He will have to report twice weekly to Pretoria's Brooklyn police. He was also ordered not to take alcohol or drugs.

Pistorius may also hold talks with his trainer to get back on the track, despite being banned under his bail terms from competing outside South Africa.

"He is a professional athlete. He needs to keep his body in shape," the family source said.

His arrest on February 14 shocked the world and gripped South Africa, where he became a national hero after becoming the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics last year.

The state charged him with the premeditated killing of 29-year-old Steenkamp.

If found guilty he faces a possible life sentence.

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Quake off Indonesia causes panic

AN undersea earthquake has rocked eastern Indonesia, causing panic among residents in neighbouring East Timor.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The US Geological Survey says the magnitude-5.7 quake that struck on Saturday evening was centred 202 kilometres east of East Timor's capital, Dili, at a depth of 35 kilometres.

Witnesses in Dili say residents ran out of their houses in panic, with many staying outside in fear of aftershocks.

Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency put the quake's magnitude at 6.2 with a depth of 10 kilometres.

Indonesia and East Timor are prone to seismic upheaval due to their location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

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Floods isolate thousands in NSW's north

MORE than 3000 people are isolated in NSW's north as gale force winds, strong rains and flooding lash the region.

A severe weather warning is in place for northern NSW, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning of very heavy rains leading to flash flooding over the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, Northern Tablelands and Hunter forecast districts.

Late on Friday night, the NSW State Emergency Service said the extreme weather had isolated about 3500 people on the north coast.

An SES spokesman told AAP that "no significant towns have been isolated at this stage" but that Bellingen was likely to be cut off overnight.

He said the SES had received 1000 calls for assistance so far, and had completed nine flood rescues, including one in which three people were dragged from a car at Taree.

He expected the threat of flooding to increase on Saturday.

"We are expecting that tomorrow in particular the Macleay and the Clarence will begin to peak and we'll begin to see a lot more water affect places like Grafton and Kempsey," he said.

On its website, the SES is advising residents at Newry Island, Bellingen Quays and Yellow Rock to evacuate.

Meanwhile, Essential Energy says 33,000 homes are without power on the state's north coast due to the inclement weather.

The company says the worst hit areas included Ballina, Byron, Yamba and Maclean.

Homes are also impacted from Woolgoolga down to Bellingen and Nambucca Heads, it advises.

An Essential spokesman said in a statement that in some customers would have their power off over the weekend.

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Chile fire kills at least 4

A FIRE has killed at least four people in a neighbourhood near Chile's capital.

Firefighters were on Friday still battling the blaze that destroyed three houses in Quinta Normal, which is near Santiago.

They said a 2-month old baby was missing amid the rubble.

A recent fire in the nearby port city of Valparaiso destroyed more than 100 homes, injured dozens and forced the evacuation of more than 1200 people.

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UN sounds alarm over Myanmar boat people

THE UN's refugee agency has raised the alarm over the rising number of boat people perishing in the Indian Ocean, including Rohingya Muslims fleeing communal strife in Myanmar (Burma).

"It is clear that for people fleeing violence and conflict in their homelands, this has become one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said on Friday.

In 2012, some 13,000 people took to smugglers' boats in the Bay of Bengal, of whom 500 died at sea when the vessels broke down or capsized, Mahecic said.

"Already in 2013, several thousand people are believed to have boarded smugglers boats in the Bay of Bengal," he added.

Among the most recent incidents, around 90 people are believed to have died of dehydration and starvation during a two-month journey.

Around 30 survivors were rescued last weekend by Sri Lanka's navy off that country's coast.

"The repeated tragedies at sea demonstrate the need for a co-ordinated regional response to distress and rescue at sea," Mahecic said.

Described by the UN as among the most persecuted minority groups in the world, Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya have for years trickled abroad to neighbouring Bangladesh and, increasingly, to Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship.

Buddhist-Muslim unrest has left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine since June 2012.

"We are advocating with the Myanmar government to urgently address the root causes of the outflow," Mahecic said.

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More suicide blasts hit Mali

FIVE people, including two suicide bombers, have died in car bombings in northern Mali, a day after fierce urban battles between French-led forces and Islamists left up to 20 militants dead, officials say.

Two kamikaze vehicles targeting civilians and members of the ethnic Tuareg rebel group the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) exploded near the town of Tessalit, killing three and wounding several others, a security source said.

A spokesman for MNLA in Burkina Faso confirmed the report.

Mohamed Ibrahim Ag Asseleh said "the two kamikazes were killed and in our ranks there were three dead and four seriously wounded".

The blasts came after the Islamist rebels claimed a car bomb attack on Thursday near a camp occupied by French and Chadian troops in the city of Kidal, local officials said.

At least two civilians were reported wounded in that attack.

The vehicle, apparently driven by a suicide bomber, was targeting the camp but exploded before it reached it, killing the driver, an official in the Kidal governor's office said.

France sent in its troops in January to help the Malian army oust Islamist militants who last year captured the desert north of the country.

Thousands of soldiers from African countries have also deployed since then.

The French-led forces are increasingly facing guerrilla-style tactics after initially meeting little resistance in their drive to oust Islamists from the main northern centres of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

The Tuareg MNLA blamed Friday's car bomb attacks on the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of Mali's main Islamist groups.

The MUJAO made no comment on the latest attacks, but on Thursday it said it was responsible for the car bomb in Kidal.

"More explosions will happen across our territory," MUJAO spokesman Abu Walid Sahraoui warned.

He also said the group had sent fighters to Gao, 1200km from the capital Bamako, where battles erupted overnight on Wednesday after about 40 Islamists infiltrated the city.

The Islamists briefly occupied the courthouse and the city hall but French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Malian and French forces backed by French helicopters repelled the attack on Thursday.

Le Drian said initially that five Islamists were killed in the fierce street fighting, but on Friday the French defence ministry said between 15 and 20 had died.

Sporadic gunfire was heard on Friday morning in Gao, an Agence France-Presse journalist there said.

MUJAO spokesman Sahraoui said the militants were determined to recapture the city: "Our troops have been ordered to attack. If the enemy is stronger, we'll pull back only to return stronger, until we liberate Gao."

Mali's Prime Minister Diango Cissoko said this week that large-scale military operations in the north were winding down, but sporadic fighting has continued.

A French legionnaire was killed on Tuesday in the mountainous Ifoghas region.

The French military said that their Panthere 4 operation in the Ifoghas had already left 30 Islamists dead since the start of the week.

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Confusion over fate of French family

THE fate of a French family kidnapped in Cameroon remains uncertain after a Cameroonian minister denied they were free and a French minister backtracked on his claim they had been found alive.

Hopes for the seven members of the family - a couple, their children aged five, eight, 10 and 12 and an uncle - were raised when a Cameroonian military source said they had been found safe and well in Nigeria.

"They were found abandoned in a house in Dikwa" in northern Nigeria, about 100 kilometres from the border with Cameroon, the source said on Thursday.

France's Veteran Affairs Minister Kader Arif confirmed that information but later said he had merely been passing on media reports and said "there is no official confirmation at this stage".

Cameroon's Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary bluntly stated: "It is a wild rumour. If this was true, the Cameroonian government would have already given the information to France."

France's foreign ministry said it could not confirm the release and warned against "spreading premature information".

A security source close to the case in Nigeria said there were "serious doubts" about whether the family had been freed.

The family was snatched Tuesday by six armed suspected Islamists on three motorbikes. Officials said they were taken across the border into Nigeria.

President Francois Hollande condemned the seizure as an "odious" act, saying: "This is the first time that children have been taken hostage in this manner."

The French foreign ministry urged citizens in the far north of Cameroon "to leave the area as quickly as possible" and advised against travel to areas bordering Nigeria until further notice.

The ministry could not say how many French citizens are believed to be in the north but 6200 in total are registered as living in Cameroon.

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'Separatists' kill 8 soldiers in Indonesia

INDONESIAN authorities suspect separatists were behind the slaying of eight soldiers in Indonesian Papua, in the biggest attack on security forces in the restive region's recent history.

Gunmen shot dead the eight and wounded another in two separate incidents among the mountains of Puncak Jaya district, a known hideout for rebels where attacks on police and soldiers are common.

Co-ordinating Security Minister Djoko Suyanto said the government "strongly condemned the brutal incident" and suspected the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) was behind the shootings.

"Based on our intelligence, there are several (separatist) groups in the area," Suyanto told reporters, adding that groups in Tingginambut and Sinak, where the attacks took place, were led by known OPM commanders.

"We always try to map and chase them but you must understand the mountainous and dense forests in Papua make the work difficult," he said.

Security analyst from the University of Indonesia, Andi Widjajanto, said: "This is a big number of deaths, especially as they were all soldiers. This has never happened before in Papua."

The first incident took place at 9:30am (1130 AEDT), when an armed group opened fire on a military post in Tingginambut village, killing one soldier and wounding another, Papua province military spokesman Jansen Simanjuntak said.

An hour later in nearby Sinak, some 60 kilometres away, armed attackers opened fire at nine soldiers walking to a nearby airport, killing seven of them.

"They were going to the airport to pick up packages containing communication devices. All of the soldiers were unarmed," Simanjuntak said.

Suyanto urged all parties to allow the police and military to carry out their mission in hunting down the perpetrators without disruption, to "defend the rights of our soldiers".

Violence occasionally erupts in Papua - the western half of New Guinea island in Indonesia's extreme east - where poorly-armed separatists have for decades fought a low-level insurgency on behalf of the mostly ethnic Melanesian population.

Jakarta keeps a tight grip on the resource-rich region with a heavy police and military presence and foreign journalists are banned from reporting out of the area.

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Lego sales soar 25%

DANISH toy maker Lego says sales soared 25 per cent last year thanks partly to the new Lego Friends series of building blocks designed for girls.

The privately owned company says on revenue of 23.4 billion kroner ($A4.12 billion) it made net profits of 5.6 billion kroner, up 38 per cent.

The company, based in western Denmark, said on Thursday series like Lego Star Wars and Lego Ninjago were among the more popular.

But it was the novel rollout for girls, Lego Friends, that sold much better than expected - to the extent the company was unable to keep up with demand.

CEO Joergen Vig Knudstorp says Lego has shown it can develop toys children across world "put at the top of their wish lists".

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Prince Harry shows off new girl on slopes

PRINCE Harry has shown he's serious about girlfriend Cressida Bonas by hugging her on a Swiss ski slope in front of the world's paparazzi.

Top-selling British tabloid The Sun told readers: "Harry is like a dog with a Bonas".

Photographs of the 28-year-old prince hugging the 24-year-old model and dance student graced the front page of every tabloid in England on Thursday.

The Daily Star labelled him "Flirty Harry".

The Daily Express's royal correspondent said Prince Harry had declared his love for Bonas "in an unprecedented public display of affection".

It would inevitably evoke memories of the first pictures of Prince William and Kate Middleton skiing together in Switzerland, the royal watcher wrote.

It's the first time Prince Harry has been spotted in such an embrace since splitting with former flame Chelsy Davy in 2010.

Prince Harry was first linked with Bonas in mid-2012.

But in August it was reported she'd dumped the third-in-line to the royal throne following his nude antics in Las Vegas.

Some suggested she felt humiliated following the release of naked pictures of Prince Harry partying with other women in Sin City.

Wednesday's ski-slope hug followed a more private display of affection at an up-market restaurant in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier.

"Cressida climbed on to Harry's knee," a fellow diner told The Sun.

"He started softly rubbing her hair then they began kissing.

"It was quite passionate - much more than a peck on the lips."

Prince Harry returned to Britain in late January after a 20-week deployment in Afghanistan in which he acknowledged he'd targeted Taliban fighters from the cockpit of his Apache attack helicopter.

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French Tigre hits rebels in Mali

A FRENCH Tigre attack helicopter has fired on a pickup truck containing jihadist fighters during clashes in rugged northern Mali, killing about 10 insurgents.

France's main military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said on Thursday the firefight a day earlier in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains, near the Algeria border, came in the third day of an operation as French forces try to eliminate remnants of al-Qaida-linked fighters.

Burkhard said the operation, code-named Panther, is ongoing in the area, which French and Malian forces consider one of the remaining sanctuaries for the armed militant groups.

More than 20 insurgents and one French legionnaire died in similar clashes on Tuesday.

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Mortar kills soccer player

SYRIA'S state-run news agency says two mortars have exploded inside a soccer stadium in central Damascus, killing one player and injuring several.

The SANA agency said the mortars landed on Wednesday in the Tishrin Stadium in the central Baramkeh district during soccer practice.

It says one player from the Homs-based al-Wathbah club was killed.

The Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported one player was killed.

The mortar attack was the second in as many days in the capital.

On Tuesday, two mortars exploded near one of President Bashar Assad's palaces, causing material damage only.

The attack was the first confirmed strike close to a presidential palace and another sign that the civil war is seeping into areas of the capital once considered safe.

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Greens-Labor deal not a blunder: Howes

AWU boss Paul Howes has denied it was a strategic blunder for the Gillard government to strike up an alliance with the Australian Greens in order to remain in power.

Greens leader Christine Milne has slammed Labor for "walking away" from a deal signed in return for its support after the hung parliament in 2010.

Many Labor frontbenchers have expressed their good riddance since the split was made public on Tuesday.

Australian Workers' Union National Secretary Paul Howes said it was not a mistake to sign the deal in the first place.

"Of course not, it's a wonderful thing that Julia Gillard is prime minister," he told ABC television.

"Therefore to form a workable majority in the house of representatives was the right thing to do - with the Greens, Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott."

Mr Howes pointed out that Senator Milne had given the Liberal Party support in Tasmania in the past.

"I think Christine Milne has demonstrated through her political career she will jump into bed with whoever so that she can pursue her particular ideologies," he said.

Senator Milne had eradicated much of the Green's popularity, Mr Howes said.

He said Labor's election strategists should do preference deals based on the best outcomes for the party and that preferences should not automatically flow to the Greens.

"I've long held the view that the Greens are no different from the Liberals, in so much as they are political party that stands for values that are fundamentally different to the Labor Party," Mr Howes said.

Mr Howes said the Greens policies aim to put members of his union out of their jobs.

"Anyone accusing the Labor Party... of being too close to the mining industry clearly has had their head in the sand since 2007," he said.

"This Labor government... has engaged in a pitch battle with the mining bosses for the last five years," Mr Howes said.

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Canadian tourist's body found in tank

POLICE say the body of a woman found wedged in a water tank on the roof of a Los Angeles hotel is that of a missing Canadian guest.

Investigators used body markings to identify 21-year-old Elisa Lam, police spokeswoman Officer Diana Figueroa said late on Tuesday.

A maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day after guests complained of low water pressure.

Lam, of Vancouver, British Columbia, travelled to California alone on January 27 and was last seen by workers at the hotel on January 31.

Investigators were trying to determine whether there was foul play in the woman's death or "a very, very strange accident" occurred, police spokeswoman Officer Sara Faden said.

"The location of the water tank is very small and configured in a very tight way, so it's a little more difficult to get the body out," Faden said.

Officials spent much of the day struggling to remove it from the water tank.

The hotel is located in downtown Los Angeles, which has long struggled against the creeping destitution of nearby Skid Row, where drug addiction and homelessness is rampant.

At the time of Lam's disappearance, police said it appeared suspicious.

Lam was travelling to Santa Cruz, about 560 kilometres north of Los Angeles, and officials said she tended to use public transport.

She had been in touch with her family daily until she disappeared.

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AngloGold reports profit slump

ANGLOGOLD Ashanti, the third-biggest gold producer in the world, has reported a 47 per cent plunge in net profit in 2012 to $US849 million ($A824.11 million).

Net profit on a comparable asset basis fell by 29.0 per cent to $US924 million, the group said on Wednesday.

However, the group said the outcome for 2012 was the second-best of its eight-year history despite widespread strikes in South African mines which hit its activities in the second half of the year.

If the industrial unrest had not occurred, net profit on a comparable basis with the outcome in 2011 would have shown a fall of 13.0 per cent to $US1.13 billion.

Production for the year fell by 9.0 per cent to 3.44 million ounces and sales fell by 4.0 per cent to $US6.63 billion.

All of the company's mines were hit by industrial unrest for a month in September-October, and some were also affected in November.

The board said it had begun an audit with a view to rationalisation to reduce costs and this could throw some projects into question.

Joint managing director Tony O'Neill said the company had made big progress in ensuring its recovery was strong after a difficult time at the end of last year.

AngloGold Ashanti said this year it expected to produce 4.1-4.4 million ounces of gold.

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Indon pollie sacked over text divorce

INDONESIA'S president has sacked a district chief who took an 18-year-old as his second wife but divorced her after four days via text message, accusing her of not being a virgin.

The case of Aceng Fikri, the chief of the town of Garut 200 kilometres southeast of Jakarta, has angered residents who wanted him removed from his position.

Following a wave of protests, the local parliament launched an investigation and found that Fikri, 40, had breached multiple laws in his brief marriage. It recommended he be sacked, a decision later confirmed by the Supreme Court.

"The president has signed the dismissal letter for Aceng today," home affairs minister Gamawan Fauzi told reporters on Wednesday.

Fauzi said he would pass on the letter to West Java's governor so Fikri could be dismissed, a process which would take about one week.

Earlier one of Fikri's lawyers, Eggi Sudjana, had said the penalty on his client was too harsh.

"I must admit that from an ethical point of view his act was wrong, but ethical violations do not bear any sanction other than social, such as being jeered at or insulted," Sudjana said.

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23,000 more dementia sufferers for NSW

NEW figures have shown the number of people in NSW with dementia will increase by about 23,000 in seven years.

The figures, prepared for Alzheimer's Australia by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, show there are an estimated 109,000 people with dementia in NSW.

That's set to increase by 20 per cent to about 132,000 by 2020.

The chief executive of Alzheimer's Australia NSW, John Watkins, says the figures are alarming and he's renewed the call for the NSW government to fully fund the NSW dementia services framework implementation plan in the 2013/14 state budget.

"This plan has been well researched and is a comprehensive approach to dealing with dementia across NSW," Mr Watkins said on Wednesday.

The plan tackles diagnosis, management and support of people with dementia and their carers. It covers hospital care, residential aged care and palliative care.

"The NSW government should be congratulated for developing the plan but now we need to see the next step taken for the state government to fully fund it," Mr Watkins says.

More than 320,000 Australians have dementia.

It's predicted the number will rise to more than half a million by 2030.

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Consumer spending up in Jan

CONSUMERS opened their wallets again in January, after disappointing retailers by cutting back spending in December.

Consumer spending rose 1.9 per cent, seasonally adjusted, in January, according to the Commonwealth Bank's Business Sales Indicator (BSI), which tracks debt and credit card transactions at CBA's point-of-sale terminals.

CBA said the January figure reversed a 1.3 per cent fall in spending in December.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said the BSI figures showed consumers were still looking for discounts but were spending more than they were six months ago.

"The lift in spending in January coincided with post-Christmas sales, suggesting that consumers are more inclined to spend when goods or services are discounted," he said.

"However, we have seen positive indicators for some time now, with the underlying trend pattern ticking upward for the past five months."

CBA executive general manager, local business banking, Adam Bennett said the latest BSI figures suggested 2013 could be a better year for businesses.

"While Christmas spending did not have the impact many businesses had hoped for, the results of January spending offered some positive news," he said.

"The results show that although spending patterns remain erratic, consumers are still willing to spend and confidence is heading in the right direction."

Service providers recorded the strongest increase in sales, up 3.7 per cent in the month, in trend terms, while transportation was up 2.0 per cent.

Telephone order providers fared worse, with sales down 1.6 per cent in January.

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Pesky packets causing 'wrap rage'

IF you've ever suffered bruises, chipped teeth or broken nails while trying to pry open a pasta sauce jar or packet of razors, chances are you've experienced "wrap rage".

"Many items are now so wrapped up that some consumers simply cannot open them," Angela McDougall from consumer advocacy group Choice says.

"Trying to bust out an electrical item sealed in a hard plastic container or twist open a vacuum-sealed glass jar is not only prompting 'wrap rage' but also leaving some people injured."

The consumer group has launched a campaign calling on manufacturers to adopt packaging that doesn't require knives, scissors or "super-human strength" to access.

"While packaging accessibility can affect us all, it is a particular problem for those suffering from arthritis, poor eyesight and reduced hand strength as well as some older people," Ms McDougall said.

The group pointed to a Readers Digest survey last year of 500 people in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia on packaging problems.

Sixty four per cent of people who said they had injured themselves on packaging suffered deep cuts, broken or chipped teeth, bruises or broken nails, according to the research.

Choice is calling on consumers to send in photos and descriptions of examples of bad packaging.

It will make complaints to the Australian Packaging Covenant on behalf of consumers and report back on responses from manufacturers.

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BBC sorry for gun song on Pistorius news

THE BBC apologised after one of its radio stations followed a report about Paralympics star Oscar Pistorius's court hearing with a song about a man shooting his girlfriend.

The bulletin on the digital station Radio 6 Music on Tuesday was followed by the Jimi Hendrix Experience's version of Hey Joe.

The song begins: "Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand? I'm going out to shoot my old lady, you know I caught her messing around with another man".

A BBC spokeswoman said: "In light of the nature of the news story, we apologise for any offence caused by the proximity of the song Hey Joe to the bulletin. An on-air apology was made immediately the mistake was realised."

South African athlete Pistorius was in court in Pretoria on Tuesday for a bail hearing on charges he murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day.

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Nine-year-old boy missing in Sydney

POLICE are appealing for public assistance to help find a boy missing in Sydney's southwest.

Tyreese Rheesy Tutudua, aged nine, was last seen about 9.20pm (AEDT) on Tuesday after leaving his house on Moore street, Campsie.

He's described as being of Aboriginal and Fijian-Indian in appearance, about 140-150cm tall, with a thin build and dark, short hair.

He may be wearing red and black sneakers.

Police hold serious concerns for the boy's welfare because of his young age and potential cold temperatures overnight.

Anyone with information about Tyreese's whereabouts should call Campsie Police Station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Opposition rules out emissions scheme

THE federal opposition's climate change spokesman says the coalition will never introduce an emissions trading scheme.

"I don't see it's ever likely to happen," Liberal frontbencher Greg Hunt told ABC TV on Monday night.

Mr Hunt said Canada had recently rejected a carbon tax and China "is not going anywhere near this".

He said the Gillard government's scheme to address climate change was an "electricity tax and gas tax" and he denied it was reducing carbon emissions.

"I can guarantee you that China will not be imposing a nationwide electricity, energy and gas tax," Mr Hunt said.

China has announced a progressive rollout of pilot emissions trading schemes, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, which cover more than 100 million people.

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott "described himself as a weathervane on climate change and then said it was bull***."

"This is the man who wants to be prime minister, take that with a grain of caution," she told ABC TV.

She said emissions had come down by 8.6 per cent since a price on carbon pollution was introduced.

Ms Plibersek said by the end of the year one billion people will be living in a country, city or state with an emissions trading scheme or carbon price.

Last week, US President Barack Obama urged Congress to introduce a market-based mechanism to tackle climate change.

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Spanish airline strike hits flights

WORKERS at Spanish loss-making airline Iberia launched a five-day strike against job cuts, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations and buffetting budget carrier Vueling, too.

Iberia's cabin crew, ground staff and maintenance workers struck from Monday to Friday in the first of a series of three five-day strikes to protest plans to axe 3,800 jobs.

The flag carrier said it scrapped 415 flights across Spain and Europe for the week including 81 on Monday alone.

The carrier operated 135 flights on Monday.

Iberia's offshoots were hard hit, too.

Iberia Express chopped 20 flights on Monday alone and regional carrier Air Nostrum cut another 57.

Iberia ground crew service flights for budget carrier Vueling, forcing that airline, too, to curb operations.

Vueling said it had cut 354 flights for the five days - 39 per cent of its usual service.

A list posted on the airline's web site showed 78 cancellations for Monday alone.

Iberia workers also plan to strike from March 4-8 and again from March 18-22 to protest against the job cuts announced by International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns Iberia and British Airways.

IAG last week announced it would axe 3,800 jobs at Iberia to save costs but says it is still open to talks with unions during a formal 30-day consultation process.

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Gillard wooing blue-collar workers

EDS: not for use before 0001 AEDT on Monday, Feb 18.

By Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer

GOLD COAST, Feb 18 AAP - Prime Minister Julia Gillard will continue her jobs and industry pitch to blue-collar voters on Monday, addressing a key union conference on Queensland's Gold Coast.

Ms Gillard on Sunday launched a $1 billion plan to invest in innovation, provide venture capital funding for small business and give Australian manufacturers a fairer shot at major contracts.

On Monday night, she will tell the Australian Workers Union national conference her Plan for Australian Jobs would be sustainable for at least three years from 2014 through structural savings in the federal budget.

"We've been cutting bad priorities and inefficient spending from the budget to make room for investments in Australia's future - now we're taking the same approach to funding our jobs plan," the prime minister will say.

She'll argue that it is unnecessary to give some of the largest and more profitable companies in the nation $1 billion to innovate when they have the resources and the market incentives to do so already.

Some of Australia's biggest companies will also be in the sights of the AWU, when it launches a new advertisement featuring actor Jack Thompson at the conference on Monday morning.

In the ad, Thompson recites part of Henry Lawson's classic poem, Freedom on the Wallaby, and observes - in a dig at mining billionaire Gina Rinehart - that "some of the richest people in the world are complaining about how hard they're doing".

"We used to be a country that could be proud of what it made," he says, urging union members to "forge a new future".

Marginal outer metropolitan seats with large populations of blue-collar voters will be key to the September 14 federal election, just as they were to US President Barack Obama's victory in 2012.

A key US union boss Bob King, from the United Auto Workers, will share his insights with the conference on Monday.

Delegates will also hear from South Australian premier Jay Weatherill, who last week met with the prime minister in Canberra for economic talks ahead of Ms Gillard bringing federal community cabinet to his state on Wednesday.

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Public servant numbers drop in Australia

THE number of bureaucrats in Australia has dropped for the first time in more than a decade, a new analysis of jobs data shows.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) quarterly jobs reports, released on Monday, show there were 2500 fewer public servants in June 2012 than the previous year.

In previous years, commonwealth, state and local governments had hired an average of 40,000 new workers annually.

The report also notes this may be only the start, since many cuts, such as those in Queensland, were made in the 2012/13 financial year.

It found that in the year to November 2012, the public administration and safety sector, which included public servants and emergency services workers, shed 50,800 jobs.

That was the largest drop in the sector since the Australian Bureau of Statistics began recording quarterly labour force data in 1984.

"The federal government, as well Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and WA, and local governments, have reduced the size of their public sector," ACTU president Ged Kearney said.

She said governments had foreshadowed more cuts to come by reducing forecasts of wage bills.

"Cutting public sector workers is a short-sighted policy which will lead to reduced services for all Australians," Ms Kearney said.

"Many of the workers who lose their jobs will spend long periods of time in unemployment."

The union analysis also found recent jobs growth had all been in part-time work, with the amount of full-time employment falling for three months in a row.

Construction had a weak year, losing 37,800 workers to November 2012.

The mining sector made the strongest gains with 11.9 per cent growth, putting on an extra 28,600 workers.

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