Leahy-Arnold case could still go to trial

A Supreme Court judge has overturned a decision to commit Alan Leahy to stand trial for murder. Source: AAP

QUEENSLAND man Alan Leahy could still stand trial over the 1991 deaths of his wife and her friend, despite the Supreme Court overturning a coroner's ruling that he face trial.

Cairns Supreme Court Justice James Henry on Tuesday overturned the state coroner's decision.

However, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) can still commit Mr Leahy to stand trial.

Earlier this year, former state coroner Michael Barnes committed Mr Leahy to stand trial over the deaths in a case previously deemed to be a murder-suicide.

Mr Leahy was accused of the shooting murders of his wife Julie-Anne Leahy and her friend Vicki Arnold, but he denied any wrongdoing.

The women's bodies were found in a four-wheel drive in remote bushland in the Atherton Tablelands near Cairns on August 9, 1991.

Mr Leahy applied in the Supreme Court to have the coroner's ruling overturned.

Justice Henry upheld his appeal on Tuesday afternoon, saying in his written judgment that the coroner erred in committing Mr Leahy to trial.

He found that the coroner didn't apply the "correct test of admissibility" when considering allegations that Mr Leahy had lied during police interviews.

"His findings suggest he elevated his adverse opinion of Mr Leahy's credibility to providing evidence going to guilt rather than merely credibility," his judgment said.

"This is the very mischief which the correct test is calculated at avoiding."

The coroner's other finding that the deaths weren't a murder-suicide still stand.

Despite the coroner's ruling being overturned it will be up to the DPP to decide whether a trial takes place.

This decision was due about six months after the coroner's ruling - September 22 - but it's understood this deadline no longer stands following the Supreme Court ruling.

University of Queensland legal expert Heather Douglas has said the DPP can still commit Mr Leahy to stand trial, even though the coroner's decision has been overturned.

Last week she told AAP that if the ruling was thrown out it could make it difficult for prosecutors to justify committing Mr Leahy to trial.

"But it doesn't constrain them," Ms Douglas said.

"The coroner is not making criminal law findings beyond reasonable doubt, so it's a different process that's going on in the coroner's court."

In deciding to charge Mr Leahy over the deaths, Mr Barnes overturned previous coronial findings that Ms Arnold, 27, had shot and killed her 26-year-old friend before turning the gun on herself.

Mr Barnes said the evidence indicated the gun, which was found near Ms Arnold's hand, was planted.

The shooter would have had to have been a third person.

Mr Barnes was able to commit Mr Leahy to stand trial under laws covering inquests that are heard for cases that arose before 2003.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Aussie celebs shocked by Miley Cyrus dance

Australian celebrities have reacted on social media to Miley Cyrus' performance at the MTV VMAs. Source: AAP

MILEY Cyrus' performance at the MTV Video Music Awards has left many Australian celebrities bewildered, with some criticising the former teen idol for promoting "unnecessary" images.

Cyrus has received widespread condemnation for her provocative and raunchy live rendition of her song We Can't Stop at the awards night on Monday.

Stripping down to a latex bikini, the 20-year-old twerked, stripped and gyrated on stage as social media exploded with shocked reactions.

Cyrus's performance was mentioned 4.5 million times on Twitter, with many Australian celebrities expressing their disgust on the social networking site.

Singer Emma Birdsall, a 2012 finalist on hit reality show The Voice, criticised Cyrus for promoting a negative role model for young women.

"It made me incredibly sad thinking that young women will watch that and think that's how you have to dress/dance/sing/act to become a superstar," Birdsall wrote on Twitter on Monday.

"It's not. Don't care what anyone says, it's completely unnecessary."

The Voice host Darren McMullen called the performance "disturbing", while models Jesinta Campbell, Megan Gale and Pia Miller all had similar reactions.

"Just watched Miley's VMA's performance. I feel much better about myself on DWTS. Nothing could b (sic) more shameful.... Cheers Miley," Campbell tweeted, referring to her appearance on the TV dance competition, Dancing With The Stars.

"What the hell was that?!?! #weirdcrazytongueaction ??" Gale wrote.

"Can't sleep. Scared I'm gonna have Miley Cyrus Nightmares. #Gross," Miller tweeted.

Comedian Wil Anderson also weighed in with a cheeky comment.

"I feel like twerking may have some side-effects that haven't been explored properly by medical science."

However, one notable Australian celebrity has remained silent on the performance.

Cyrus's Aussie fiance, Liam Hemsworth, has kept out of the commentary, choosing instead to focus his Twitter presence on promoting his new movie.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Japan halts rocket launch at last minute

Japan stopped its satellite rocket launch just seconds before lift-off after discovering a glitch. Source: AAP

JAPAN suspended the launch of its next-generation solid-fuel rocket just seconds before lift-off after engineers discovered a technical glitch, the space agency says.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) had planned to launch the Epsilon rocket from Uchinoura Space Centre in Kagoshima, southwestern Japan, on Tuesday using just two laptop computers in a pared-down command centre.

But the countdown was automatically stopped just 19 seconds before the planned blast-off "as an emergency measure due to some abnormal positioning" of the rocket, a JAXA spokeswoman said.

"We cancelled today's launch and can't say anything about the timing of our next launch, as the cause of the trouble is still unknown," the spokeswoman said.

The three-stage Epsilon - 24 metres long and weighing 91 tonnes - was scheduled to release the telescope SPRINT-A at an altitude of 1000 kilometres.

SPRINT-A is the world's first space telescope for remote observation of planets including Venus, Mars and Jupiter from its orbit around Earth, the agency said.

The Epsilon is about half the size of the nation's liquid-fuelled H2-A rocket and a successor to the solid fuel M-5 rocket that was retired in 2006 because of its high cost.

The small-sized rocket is equipped with artificial intelligence "for the first time in the world" that allows autonomous checks by the rocket itself, JAXA said.

"It also allows us to carry out launching procedures, including ignition, through only two laptop computers," another JAXA spokeswoman said.

At the control centre only eight workers were engaged in the launch operation, compared with about 150 people usually needed when JAXA launches its mainstream H2-A rocket.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Star Wars cinematographer dies

THE British Society of Cinematographers says Star Wars cinematographer Gilbert Taylor has died at age 99.

Spokeswoman Frances Russell said on Tuesday that Taylor died on August 23 and his family is still making funeral arrangements.

Taylor worked with a wide range of directors, including George Lucas, Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski.

He produced distinctive black and white classics including Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove and Richard Lester's Beatlemania chronicle A Hard Day's Night. He also worked on television series including The Avengers.

Taylor was a founding member of the cinematographers' society who entered the British film industry in the 1920s.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man charged over Molotov cocktail attacks

DETECTIVES investigating a string of arson attacks and an inner Sydney bashing have laid charges against a 50-year-old man.

In the former, crude weapons were used to set fire to six homes and businesses across the city in March and May this year.

Detectives have also been investigating the June assault of a man at Ultimo.

In that incident, three men allegedly struck a man with a baton or torch and knuckle dusters, lacerating his head and fracturing his arm.

Police from the State Crime Command's Property Crime Squad and City Central and Harbourside Local Area Commands raided a home at Kemps Creek and a business at Smithfield on August 13, seizing guns and knuckle dusters.

They also took two Porsches, two boats and two motorbikes for further examination, and wildlife officers from federal and state environment departments removed three exotic snakes and a lizard.

A 50-year-old Kemps Creek man was arrested at the time and charged over the Ultimo assault.

On Tuesday, he was charged with 25 fresh offences, including six counts of dishonestly destroy property by fire for gain.

The man has been refused bail to appear in Fairfield Local Court on Wednesday.

Investigations continue.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

NSW road toll hits seven in under 12 hours

A man and a woman have died after a motor scooter collided with a truck on a major Sydney road. Source: AAP

SEVEN people have been killed on NSW roads in less than 12 hours.

Police have launched an investigation into the death of an 84-year-old man who was hit by a Toyota Tarago as he crossed a road at Banora Point, near the Queensland border, just after 6pm (AEST) on Monday.

The pedestrian was critically injured, and although a doctor and bystanders rushed to help, he died in Tweed Hospital.

The driver was not hurt.

Later in the evening, a 26-year-old woman driving along the Wakehurst Parkway at Narrabeen, in Sydney's north, was killed when she crashed into a tree.

The first NSW road deaths of the day came about 9.45am, when a man and woman on a motor scooter collided with a truck in Haberfield, in Sydney's inner west.

Both died at the scene.

Three people also died in two separate single-vehicle crashes on the NSW mid-north coast on Monday afternoon.

The first came at 3.20pm, when a car carrying a man and a woman left the Old Pacific Highway at Lake Inness and hit a tree.

An hour later, a male driver hit a tree on Arakoon Road, Arakoon.

None of the three people who died on mid-north coast roads on Monday has been formally identified.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Peace talks off over deaths in Palestine

PEACE talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been cancelled after Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinians during clashes in the West Bank, a Palestinian official said.

"The meeting that was to take place in Jericho ... today (Monday) was cancelled because of the Israeli crime committed in Qalandiya today," the official said, referring to the refugee camp where the clashes erupted before dawn.

He did not set a new date.

"What happened today in Qalandiya shows the real intentions of the Israeli government," Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina, told AFP as reports of the shooting started to emerge.

He called on the US administration to "take serious and quick steps" to prevent the collapse of peace efforts.

Medics earlier reported three Palestinians shot dead and 19 wounded by Israeli security forces in Qalandiya camp, between Ramallah and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, very early Monday.

They named the dead as Rubeen Abed Fares, 30, and Yunis Jahjouh, 22, both shot in the chest, and Jihad Aslan, 20, who died of brain damage.

The hospital officials said all the casualties had been hit by live ammunition.

An Israeli police spokeswoman said that border police used "riot dispersal means" to disperse a stone-throwing crowd of 1,500 people, but she did confirm the use of live fire.

"In the early hours of the morning a border police team went into Qalandiya camp to arrest a hostile terrorist activist," spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP.

"After his arrest a mob of about 1,500 residents began a disturbance, throwing petrol bombs and stones, endangering the lives of force members, who responded with riot dispersal means," she said.

She said that three border policemen were lightly injured by stones.

The peace talks formally resumed this month after a hiatus of nearly three years, thanks to an intense bout of shuttle diplomacy by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Palestinian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, had at the weekend said they expected a new round of talks to be held Monday in the West Bank town of Jericho, but there had been no official confirmation from either side, in accordance with a US-imposed news blackout.

The talks have been overshadowed by Israeli plans to build more than 2,000 new homes for Jewish settlers on occupied Palestinian territory.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Clashes in India over march ban

Hundreds of Hindu nationalists have clashed with police outside India's parliament. Source: AAP

HUNDREDS of Hindu nationalists have clashed with police outside India's parliament after being barred from conducting a religious march at a disputed holy site at the heart of deadly clashes between Hindus and Muslims.

Police used water cannons and bamboo batons on Monday to disperse 500 members and supporters of the World Hindu Council as they broke security barriers near the parliament building.

The city of Ayodhya, 550 kilometres east of New Delhi, has been under heavy security since last week, when the local government banned the march fearing communal violence.

Muslims say the site is the location of a former medieval mosque, while Hindus say it is the birthplace of their god Rama and that a temple stood there before the mosque was built.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

India bans shark 'finning'

INDIA has banned hunting sharks for only their fins in a move to protect endangered species from indiscriminate hunting for parts wanted abroad.

The practice of shark "finning," or slicing off a shark's fins and throwing it back to die slowly on the ocean floor from starvation or inability to move, has exploded worldwide due to demand from China, where shark fin soup is considered a delicacy.

India lists several of the dozens of shark species in its waters as endangered, including hammerheads, broadfins and whale sharks.

Under the Environment Ministry's new policy, announced Monday, fishermen now found with hauls including detatched fins risk up to seven years in prison for hunting an endangered species since identifying species by fins alone is difficult.

Worldwide, sharks are in sharp decline, with some species' numbers now 10 per cent of what they were three decades ago. Their demise threatens the health of ocean ecosystems, experts say, as the top predators are key to keeping fish and turtle populations in check. Tens of millions are caught every year.

The growth of shark finning to feed the Chinese market has posed a major threat to the world's oldest vertebrates.

India is the world's second-largest shark-catching nation behind Indonesia, with the two countries accounting for 20 per cent of yearly shark catches, according to a report by the international wildlife trade monitoring agency TRAFFIC.

Most Indian fishermen catch sharks primarily for food, though they also export the bones and fins abroad. Those fins will now have to be removed once the sharks are on shore.

Last year, Indian fishermen exported $4.8 million in shark fins to China, less than half the $11.3 million in 2010 exports despite steady demand, according to data from India's Marine Products Export Development Authority.

20.48 | 0 komentar | Read More