A 73-YEAR-OLD man has died in a bungalow fire in central Victoria.
A woman in her late 50s who was unaccounted for when police and fire fighters discovered the body has been found and is uninjured.
Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullens said the house in Maintongoon, about 100km northeast of Melbourne, was well-alight by the time emergency services arrived shortly after 5.30pm (AEDT).
ETIHAD plans to increase its stake in Air Berlin to 49.9 per cent, German weekly WirtschaftsWoche reports.
The Abu Dhabi-based carrier already holds almost 30 per cent of the shares in Germany's second-biggest airline.
WirtschaftWoche reported on Saturday the plan would involve buying out small shareholders and delisting Air Berlin PLC from the London Stock Exchange.
Large shareholders including former managers and travel firm TUI would retain a majority.
The magazine cited sources at Air Berlin for its report.
The company, which on Wednesday postponed the release of its annual results until next week, declined to confirm the WirtschaftsWoche report.
Spokesman Mathias Radowksi says Air Berlin is "currently in advanced discussions on options, which, if implemented, would have a substantial effect of the company".
AN additional 270 truancy officers will be organising uniforms and packing lunch boxes in indigenous communities in a bid to get Aboriginal children back into schools following a boost in federal funding.
Forty remote communities already benefit from 400 truancy officers, at a cost of $28 million, who encourage school attendance by walking or driving children to school, helping with lunch preparation and organising uniforms.
The government on Saturday announced a boost in funding of $18 million to help a further 30 communities.
Since the remote school attendance strategy was announced at the end of last year, attendance rates are up 14 per cent in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia - equating to more than 600 additional students in school each day.
MORE than 5000 pro-Russia residents of a major city in Ukraine's east have demonstrated in favour of holding a referendum on whether to seek to split off and become part of Russia.
Saturday's rally in Donetsk came less than a week after the Ukrainian region of Crimea approved secession in a referendum regarded as illegitimate by the Western countries. After the referendum, Russia moved to formally annex Crimea.
With Crimea now effectively under the control of Russian forces, which ring Ukrainian military bases on the strategic Black Sea peninsula, concern is rising that Ukraine's eastern regions will agitate for a similar move.
Russia has brought large military contingents to areas near the border with eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there is no intention to move into eastern Ukraine, but the prospect of violence between pro- and anti-secession groups in the east could be used as a pretext for sending in troops.
Eastern Ukraine is the heartland of Ukraine's economically vital heavy industry and mining and the support base for Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president who fled to Russia last month after being ousted in the wake of three months of protests in the capital, Kiev.
Russia and Yanukovych supporters contend Yanukovych's ouster was a coup and allege that the authorities who then came to power are nationalists who would oppress the east's large ethnic Russian population.
"They're trying to tear us away from Russia," said demonstrator Igor Shapoval, a 59-year-old businessman.
"But Donbass is ready to fight against this band which already lost Crimea and is losing in the east."
Donbass is the name for the region of factories and mines that includes Donetsk.
The demonstrators erected about several tents, an ironic echo of the massive tent camp that was established on Kiev's central square after the protests against Yanukovych broke out in late November.
The local parliament on Friday formed a working group to develop a referendum analogous to the one in Crimea.
FIVE people are dead after a light plane carrying a group of skydivers crashed and burst into flame at an airfield north of Brisbane as family members of those aboard watched in horror.
Witnesses said the Cessna 206 disintegrated in a fireball after coming down shortly after taking off from the Caboolture Airfield about 11.30am (AEST) on Saturday.
Police said there were five people on board and there were no survivors.
The names of the deceased have not yet been released, nor has that of the skydiving company involved.
A police spokeswoman said it was believed some of the families of those killed were at the airfield to watch the skydive.
It's understood two skydiving companies operate from Caboolture Airfield, which has been shut down by police.
Two investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) were travelling to Caboolture from Brisbane, and three more were due to arrive from Canberra later on Saturday.
An ATSB spokesman said they would examine the wreckage, interview witnesses and study the weather to find out what went wrong.
Airport safety officer Bryan Carpenter said he saw the crash, adding that the plane which was loaded with high-octane fuel, was destroyed by flames within a minute of impact.
He said the plane veered to the left after take-off, before plunging to the ground and bursting into flames.
It took firefighters 10 minutes to douse the inferno, with another witness saying the fire was out of control when he arrived on the scene.
"It was hard getting close. You can't put that type of fire out with hand-held extinguishers," Mark Thompson from the Caboolture Warplane Museum told AAP.
Both Mr Carpenter and Mr Thompson said it was the worst crash they'd seen at the airport.
"They've had a couple of incidents here but nothing like this," according to Mr Thompson, who ran about 200 metres to the scene after hearing a loud thud and seeing a plume of smoke.
Mr Carpenter, who has worked at Caboolture for 14 years, said the crash could have been caused by any number of things.
"One of the things one would expect would be an engine failure but the engine was delivering power on touch down," he told Fairfax Radio Network.
"So it's something mechanical I would say ... or the pilot could have blacked out - any number of scenarios; it's a bit like MH370 at the moment, we just don't know."
FOR an award-winning cake decorator who spends Monday to Friday surrounded by the temptations of her sugary creations, Jacquie Goldstaiz's palate is a blessing in disguise.
"I never bake for me. I just really love fresh fruit and vegetables," she said.
"The only time I really taste cake is to make sure it's the right flavour or it's not too dry."
Ms Goldstaiz's artistic flair earned her the championship title and a $2000 prize at the Australian Cake Decorating Championships in Sydney on Friday.
The Gold Coast woman's marzipan fruit creation took two months to make.
While the competition version was not edible, Ms Goldstaiz estimates a real cake would take two weeks to create and would weigh about 10 kilograms.
Throughout her five-year career, Ms Goldstaiz has created cakes in the shape of a Louis Vuitton bag, a Native American head and a diving helmet.
But somehow the former florist manages not to overindulge.
"To me, it's an art," she said.
"I never look at it as a cake and never look at it as something to eat."
Her winning confection will return to Queensland to take prime position in her cake-decorating shop.
Police are conducting raids on properties linked to the Comancheros outlaw bikie gang in Victoria. Source: AAP
THREE men have been charged and guns and drugs seized after raids on the Comanchero bikie gang across Melbourne.
Police searched a series of homes and businesses across the city on Friday morning, finding firearms at a property in Dewhurst.
Ammunition and drugs, believed to be steroids, were found in Lynbrook.
Three men were arrested and all charged with perverting the course of justice.
Robert Morando, 41, of Narre Warren South, Michael Murray, 36, of Lysterfield South and Almir Dzafic, 33, of Hampton Park, were remanded in custody to face Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.
Murray is also facing charges of possessing firearms, steroids and ammunition.
POLICE say 10 women drowned when a small boat loaded with farmworkers sank in a lake in western India.
Police officer Satyendera Singh says six women and a boatman were also rescued after the accident on Friday in Rajasthan's state Tonk district, nearly 390 kilometres southwest of New Delhi.
Singh said the small boat appeared to be overcrowded with women heading to a nearby village to work on farms.
Police have recovered all the bodies.
Boating accidents are common in India because many ferries are poorly built and are often overcrowded, and there is little regard for safety regulations.
RADAR images taken from planes or satellites could some day be used to predict where sinkholes might form - a potential boon for Florida, the sinkhole capital of the US.
The possibility of an early-warning system stems from new NASA research into a monstrous sinkhole that opened in Louisiana in 2012, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents.
Two NASA researchers examined radar images of the sinkhole area near Bayou Corne. Cathleen Jones and Ron Blom discovered that the ground near Bayou Corne began shifting at least a month before the sinkhole formed - as much as 10 inches (25.4 centimetres) towards where the sinkhole started. Since its formation, the sinkhole has expanded to 25 acres and is still growing.
The NASA findings raise the possibility that engineers eventually could develop a way to predict the location of sinkholes. It would require the constant collection and monitoring of the Earth's surface with radar data collected from planes or satellites.
"It's not a magic bullet," Blom said. But it could be "one more tool in a tool kit."
The radar images studied by the two NASA scientists were part of the agency's ongoing effort to monitor the Louisiana coast, which is rapidly sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. Although the Louisiana images were taken from a research jet, the scientists said a satellite with similar technology could do the same job.
And though such a system wouldn't be cheap - the price of building and launching a satellite usually is in the hundreds of millions of dollars - the gains could be significant. In Florida alone, sinkholes cause about that much property damage each year.
Although there are no recent state data on sinkhole damage, a 2010 report by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation estimated that sinkholes each year cost the state $US200 million to $US400 million ($A221.69 million to $A443.39 million).
A BOSNIAN Serb war criminal has been brought to Poland to serve out his sentence after he was assaulted in a British prison, a justice official says.
Former general Radislav Krstic was convicted in 2001 and handed a 35-year prison sentence by the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands, for aiding and abetting genocide over the 1995 killing of some 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Bosnia.
Bartlomiej Turbiarz, a spokesman for the local prison service, said on Friday that Krstic was brought to a specially guarded prison in Piotrkow Trybunalski, in central Poland, Thursday and was placed in a one-person cell that is monitored around the clock.
A Warsaw court has two months to rule how much longer, according to Poland's law, Krstic should serve, spokeswoman for the Justice Ministry, Patrycja Loose said. Poland's maximum prison term is 25 years.
Poland agreed to hold Krstic after he was attacked and injured by three Muslim inmates in Wakefield Prison, in northern England, in 2010.
Poland hasn't held a foreign war criminal since Nazi official Erich Koch, who died in Barczewo prison in 1986.
Director of the National Gallery of Australia, Ron Radford, has announced his retirement. Source: AAP
THE National Gallery of Australia's director has announced his retirement.
Ron Radford will have served close to a decade in the gallery's top job when he leaves at the end of September.
During his time as director, Dr Radford has overseen an extension of gallery buildings, appointment of indigenous curators, the transformation and revival of Asian and Pacific collections, and is credited with initiating numerous blockbuster exhibitions.
There is no link between his retirement and controversy surrounding the purchase of a bronze sculpture, titled Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja), dating from 11th-century India.
The gallery paid $US5 million in 2008 for the statue and in 2014 has launched legal action in the United States against the selling dealer, amid allegations the artwork was stolen.
"If we are a victim of fraud then we will act," Dr Radford has said.
A man who became wedged between his car and a wall in Sydney is in a critical condition in hospital. Source: AAP
A MAN is in a critical condition in a Sydney hospital after becoming wedged between his car and a brick wall.
The 50-year-old had been reversing from a driveway at a unit block on Shadforth Street, Wiley Park when he got stuck on Thursday morning.
CareFlight director Ian Badham told AAP a passerby rushed to the man's aid and pushed the car back about half a metre to relieve the pressure until emergency services arrived.
A doctor performed emergency surgery while NSW Fire and Rescue worked for 40 minutes to free the man, Mr Badham added.
He was taken to Liverpool Hospital with severe head and chest injuries and fractures.
A hospital spokesman said on Thursday night he was in a critical but stable condition.
Witness Moshi Ali told Network 10 he saw the incident unfold.
"I just heard a big bang then I looked from my balcony and I saw this guy trapped," he said.
ASYLUM seekers have told a Papua New Guinea court they were not made aware of their right to free legal representation, as the judge refused to allow an Australian lawyer to represent 75 detainees at the inquiry.
However, Justice David Cannings granted Amnesty International leave to join the case as an interested party, and ruled that media be given access to the centre on Friday.
During the fourth day of hearings into human rights obligations at Australia's detention centre on Manus Island, the court has heard transferees were not told of their right to free representation under PNG law.
A 26-year-old Burmese asylum seeker told the court he had not spoken to a lawyer in six months.
"I was not told I could have a lawyer," he said on Thursday.
Under PNG law, anyone who is locked up has the right to free legal advice.
He said he had one interview with an Australian lawyer and two with immigration officials shortly after arriving on Manus Island in August or September.
But he said he had heard nothing since.
At the time, an Australian lawyer at the centre took his statement.
"She said she would do the processing (of his asylum claim)," he said.
Justice Cannings on Thursday refused Sydney lawyer Jay Williams' request to represent 75 asylum seekers detained at the Manus facility.
Mr Williams argued that under PNG's constitution and the Lawyers Act of 1986, judges had the power to admit anyone they wished under exceptional circumstances.
"We have made many requests to the migration officer to visit my clients but those requests have been delayed, frustrated or refused," Mr Williams said.
While Justice Cannings agreed PNG's constitution granted the right of representation, he would not grant Mr Williams' request because the circumstances were not exceptional.
But he did grant Mr Williams' request to visit his clients on Friday.
Justice Cannings also accepted an application by Amnesty International to join the case as an interested party.
Amnesty is expected to tender its recent, highly critical report of the centre as evidence.
So far, 11 asylum seekers have appeared at the inquiry in Lorengau, the Manus capital.
In each of the men's affidavits, the court struck out mention of the February 17 riot that claimed the life of 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati.
Many of the transferees who have appeared in the past two days have indicated the riots made them feel less safe.
A 22-year-old Iranian man told the court he felt as if he was in a prison, and had almost forgotten his name after months of being referred to by his identification number.
He said he felt terrorised by some staff at the centre.
"The expats always tell us the people here are poor and cannibals," he said.
"That's how they terrorise us."
PUBLIC service cuts are pinching the federal Treasury, stymieing creative thinking and attempts to promote more women to senior positions, Secretary Martin Parkinson says.
As the Abbott government presses ahead with plans to slash 12,000 public service jobs by way of natural attrition, the Treasury boss says his department is about halfway there, having reduced its staff of 1000 by 15 per cent.
The change means delivering similar outcomes in a very different manner, Dr Parkinson told a gathering of public administrators in Canberra on Thursday.
"In the past, our response to increased demands was to increase our efforts: by working harder and longer," he said.
"Needless to say, this is not sustainable and it also crowds out any attempts to think differently - and smarter - about prioritising our resources."
Promotion opportunities will also be hit by the cutbacks, Dr Parkinson says.
"The government's interim recruitment arrangements are going to make it harder to see women - or anyone, for that matter - progress through to leadership positions."
After helping the government deliver its first-term budget in May, Dr Parkinson will leave the top job in a move widely reported to be politically motivated.
During his three-plus years as Treasury boss, Dr Parkinson said the department had modified its operations to meet a changing environment.
But challenges remain.
He defended the Treasury's production of the 2013 Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook, describing it as an example of the department's willingness to be innovative.
"This is something we had not done in the past, but thought it necessary to increase the transparency and public understanding of our forecasts and the economic environment."
And he hit out at critics who say Treasury does not understand business.
"The Treasury is a much more diverse organisation now in terms of work experience and subject matter expertise than we have been at any point in the past," Dr Parkinson said, adding that about a fifth of senior and executive level staff have private sector experience.
Dr Parkinson renewed his call for Treasury to have a stronger base in Sydney and possibly other capital cities, to build links with business.
PETROCHINA Ltd, China's biggest oil producer, says its profit rose 12.4 per cent last year after higher retail petrol prices helped to narrow heavy losses for its refining unit.
PetroChina said on Thursday that earnings rose to 129.6 billion yuan ($A23.95 billion). Total revenue rose 2.9 per cent to 2.2 trillion yuan.
A change in state-set retail petrol prices in 2013 helped to narrow state-owned PetroChina's loss on refining operations by nearly 45 per cent to 24.4 billion yuan.
China's government squeezes refining margins at its major oil companies and sometimes forces them into a loss by holding down prices at the pump when global crude costs spike up.
SPENDING across the Australian economy grew for the 18th consecutive month in February, but at a slower pace than in recent months.
That meant annual economy-wide spending growth eased to a more sustainable pace after strong rises in the past four months, according to the latest Commonwealth Bank Business Sales Indicator (BSI).
The annual growth rate fell to 10.4 per cent, down from a six year high of 10.8 per cent in January.
Despite some areas of weakness, the outlook was generally positive, CommSec chief economist Craig James said.
"Although we are still rebalancing from a mining-led economy to an economy with a more diversified growth profile, there are good reasons to be optimistic as we enter a record 23rd year of uninterrupted growth," Mr James said.
He said data showed better than expected economic growth in the December quarter, and Australian companies had reported strong profit growth.
The BSI, which tracks spending across the Commonwealth Bank's point of sales terminals, also showed sales for February rose in seven of the eight states and territories, with Queensland posting the highest growth rate at 1.1 per cent, in trend terms.
Western Australia and Tasmania were close behind, with increases of 0.9 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively.
Unions warn senior Queensland medical officers will walk away if individual contracts are rejected. Source: AAP
MORE than a thousand senior doctors working in public hospitals across Queensland have voted to reject the state government's offer on individual contracts.
The unanimous vote of no confidence in the government's last-minute compromise came after Queensland Health Director-General Ian Maynard acknowledged their concerns at a crowded gathering in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
"The concerns that I've been told you had were consistent wherever you worked in the state," he told the crowd of about 1200 doctors, including one holding a placard, "Trust Gone, Goodwill Lost".
Senior medical officers (SMOs) had met with Mr Maynard and Health Minister Lawrence Springborg last week to express reservations about working conditions.
"They helped me to understand the impact that these contracts are having ... in your lives, the distractions, the anxiety that's being created," Mr Maynard said.
But Mr Maynard asked the doctors to examine the government's new offer as it pushes to have contracts signed by April 30.
"I'm not going to tell you to sign a contract; I'm not going to encourage you to sign a contract although I really hope you do," he said.
After a two-hour meeting, the doctors belonging to the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation and the Together public service union voted to reject the "entirely inadequate" new proposal from the government.
The government has agreed for no disadvantage tests to be included in new contracts and to allow doctors limited access to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC).
They also unanimously backed resolutions to continue negotiations with the government and for legislation to be revisited that removed the QIRC from disputes resolutions in favour of a hospital board-approved mediator.
Doctors also want the rollout of individual contracts stopped and for doctors who had resigned in protest to be allowed back into the Queensland health system if a better agreement was reached with the government.
Peter Boyd, a Cairns-based hospital gastroenterologist, told the gathering that 100 specialists from far north Queensland were prepared to resign en masse.
"That represents virtually all the anaesthetists, all the ED (emergency department) positions, nearly all the obstetricians, remarkably most of the physicians ... nearly all of our psychiatrists, most of the orthopaedic surgeons and especially, all of the SMOs at Innisfail Hospital and the majority at Atherton, Tully and Mossman," he said.
Assistant Health Minister Chris Davis, a former doctor whose teenage step-daughter Jessica Lindley-Jones was killed in a weekend car crash, received a standing ovation after he empathised with the doctors.
"Refrain from entering into any contract with a colleague or organisation which may conflict with professional integrity, clinical independence or your primary obligation to your patient," he said, referring to the Australian Medical Association's (AMA's) code of ethics.
QANTAS workers and their union delegates from across Australia are flying to Canberra to warn politicians of the harm they say changes to the Qantas Sale Act will bring.
The Australian Services Union (ASU) says the Qantas Sale Act protects Australian jobs by requiring that Qantas headquarters is based in Australia.
The union's Assistant National Secretary Linda White said Prime Minister Tony Abbott did not seem to comprehend how changing that would damage the local economy and the reputation of the national carrier.
"Any changes to the Sale Act will lead to mass off-shoring of white collar jobs. We know that once jobs are off-shored they never come back," she said in a statement on Wednesday.
The union said it would meet with politicians in Canberra on Thursday along with Qantas workers and ASU delegates from all parts of the Qantas group.
The federal government this month announced plans to remove foreign ownership restrictions on Qantas after the airline announced 5000 job cuts.
COMPLAINTS about telcos have hit their lowest level in six years, but the industry Ombudsman continues to receive an average of about 360 a day.
Consumers lodged 33,351 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) between October and December, figures released on Thursday show.
That's down 6.7 per cent on the previous quarter and 12.9 per cent on the same time in 2012, making it the leanest quarter since 2008.
"It is a positive story for an industry that has very publicly committed to doing better by its customers, and has invested substantially in mobile network infrastructure," said Ombudsman Simon Cohen.
He pointed to a big drop in complaints relating to mobile phone coverage, which halved between April and December to reach their lowest level since mid-2010: about 30 a day.
Overall, the Ombudsman received about 200 new complaints regarding mobile services a day, down 4.9 per cent on the previous quarter.
Complaints about drop-outs and slow data speeds dropped compared to the previous quarter, but several other types of complaints increased.
About 20 per cent more people complained about poor information in their mobile phone contract, while complaints about excess data charges spiked 13 per cent.
Mark Callender from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network said his organisation was particularly concerned about the increase in excess data complaints.
The situation was worsened, he said, by figures showing a 14 per cent increase in complaints from people claiming they were not properly warned that they had breached their data limit.
"We'll be watching this issue closely," he said, adding that the overall results were encouraging.
For the first time, the Ombudsman also estimated the number of complaints relative to overall telco services: 313 for every 100,000.
"The clear trend over the past three years is fewer complaints per services in operation, with more services and reduced complaints," Mr Cohen said.
Victorians had the most gripes, at 1.7 per 1000 residents, while Queenslanders made the least, at 1.3.
Most complaints - about half of the total - remained about poor customer service.
The Ombudsman is an independent authority empowered to investigate complaints about telephone and internet services and make legally enforceable decisions up to a value of $50,000.
NSW and Victoria are at risk of losing their triple-A ratings if the trends in rising state debt continue unabated, a think tank has warned.
The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) says while the focus has been on the rapid increase in federal debt levels over the past six years, growth in state government debt has been just as a dramatic.
In 2007, the states collectively had a negative net debt position of just under $30 billion - that is, they had a greater financial assets than debt.
By 2013, this turned to a positive net debt position of $43 billion, or about a $70 billion debt increase in six years.
"Unless action is taken now, state governments will face rising deficits and debt in the long term, just like the federal government, and will be unable to deliver the services the public wants," CIS senior fellow Robert Carling says.
Between 2007 and 2010, the global financial crisis was felt through sagging tax revenue and investment income, while infrastructure investment rose strongly.
From 2010 to 2013, the states' operating surpluses dried up and cash deficits rose even further.
In a study released on Thursday, Mr Carling said to curtail the growth in debt, states must achieve large increases in operating surpluses and greatly reduce capital expenditure, but conceded the latter would be inconsistent with demands for infrastructure investment.
"States need to contain costs such as staff numbers and pay rates, and avoid costly new program commitments," he said, adding states should follow the Queensland Newman government in cutting operating expenses, as much as it has been criticised.
"It is on the right track," he said.
South Australia and Tasmania are in the weakest positions of the states, followed by Queensland and Western Australia.
He said if the trends continued, NSW and Victoria risked joining the ranks of the others, which had lost their tripe-A credit ratings.
"Financial strength is not just desirable for its own sake," Mr Carling said.
"If the states were to return to running operating surpluses, it would mean more funds available for improved infrastructure."
SOME of Australia's biggest charities and community sector groups have banded together to warn the federal government it will commit a "huge mistake" by closing the national charity regulator.
The federal government will introduce the first of two bills disbanding the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) on its red-tape "repeal day" on Wednesday.
It will replace the commission with a smaller, charity-focused centre for excellence, which will act as an advocacy, training and development body. It will not be a regulator.
On the same day, more than 40 supporter groups - including the heads of the RSPCA, Youth Off The Streets, Lifeline and the Ted Noffs Foundation - will write an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott asking the government to reconsider those plans.
"The ACNC has done what few new regulators achieve - gained widespread support across the sector it is regulating," the letter reads.
Scrapping the ACNC will be a "huge mistake" and potentially handing its powers backs to the Australian Tax Office will create more red tape and reduce services to the public and charities.
Community Council for Australia chief executive David Crosbie said returning to the "bad old days" of having the ATO determine what is and isn't a charity would create a clear conflict of interest.
"It is simply putting the fox in charge of the hen house," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
"It is a failed model from the past. It will not work."
Mr Crosbie accused the government of being dismissive of charities in assuming it knew what was better for the sector without consultation.
But Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews said the ACNC was increasing red-tape and making life harder for the sector.
"No evidence has been provided to justify establishing such a big regulatory structure with such extensive enforcement powers," he told AAP in a statement.
CHEAPER energy kept US consumer prices in check last month, despite a big rise in the cost of food, the latest sign that inflation is tame.
The Labor Department says the consumer price index rose 0.1 per cent in February, matching January's increase.
In the past 12 months, prices have risen just 1.1 per cent, down from 1.6 per cent in January and the smallest in five months.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 0.1 per cent last month and 1.6 per cent in the past year.
Energy prices fell 0.5 per cent because gas and electricity costs fell. Clothes and used cars were also cheaper last month.
Still, consumers took a hit at the grocery store as food costs rose 0.4 per cent, the most in nearly two and a half years.
US home construction fell for a third month in February, but in a hopeful sign, applications for building permits rose to their highest level in four months.
The Commerce Department says builders started work on 907,000 homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in February.
That was down a slight 0.2 per cent from January, when construction had fallen 11.2 per cent.
The declines have been blamed in large part on severe winter weather in much of the country.
Applications for permits to build new homes, considered a gauge of future activity, rose a solid 7.7 per cent in February to 1.02 million units.
The expectation is that housing sales and construction will show further gains this year, helped by a stronger economy.
GREECE has reached an agreement with its international debt inspectors that will allow the release of a long-delayed rescue loan instalment.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on Tuesday that the agreement does not include the requirement for any new austerity measures.
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said the text of the deal was being written up.
The agreement comes after six months of often stalled talks with officials from the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission.
Negotiations had snagged on several issues, including public sector firings and market reforms.
Greece has depended on its bailout from other European countries and the IMF since mid-2010.
Payment of the rescue loans depend on the country meeting criteria in spending cuts, tax increases and reforms.
THE Bank of England has appointed an International Monetary Fund official to a new job overseeing markets and banking - a position created amid allegations that bank officials condoned fixing in currency markets.
Nemat "Minouche" Shafik, the IMF's deputy managing director, will be one of two deputy governors and join the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee.
Her appointment on Tuesday helps correct a gender gap at the bank. When she takes up her post at the start of August, she will be the only woman on the nine-member MPC.
While at the IMF, Shafik oversaw much of its work in Europe during the past few crisis-fuelled years.
Bank Governor Mark Carney has pledged a "root and branch" review into how the bank monitors markets following the fixing allegations.
A YOUNG woman has died in a crash in northern NSW.
The woman, who police believe is 18 and from Brisbane, crashed her Volkswagen Beetle into a tree just after 5.30pm on Sunday while driving south on the New England Highway near Glen Innes.
She died at the scene and is yet to be formally identified.
AUSTRALIA'S science community is pushing for specialist advisers across all federal government departments.
Following the Abbott government's scrapping of a science ministry, Science and Technology Australia boss Catriona Jackson said industry leaders are hoping to follow the UK's lead and spread expert knowledge throughout federal divisions.
"We have certainly discussed the idea with the government and there has been some movement, with an appointment in agriculture," Ms Jackson told AAP.
"It is certainly something we would advocate."
While there is a federal chief scientist, and one for each state and territory, greater consultancy would be valuable, she said.
After coming to power in 2013, Prime Minister Tony Abbott reshuffled portfolios and split science between industry and employment, removing the role of dedicated science minister, which had been in place since 1931.
"It's fair to say scientists around the country were concerned when no one was appointed as a science minister," Ms Jackson said.
"But we have suspended our opinions until we see the government's first budget."
In an attempt to fuse stronger bonds between science and politicians, hundreds of the nation's industry leaders will converge on Canberra from Monday to meet with parliamentarians.
Ms Jackson denies there is a greater emphasis on the 2014 event in light of the political restructure but said increased interest and resourcing of the science sector is essential.
"Education and training opportunities leading to jobs in science and technology are a must because those are the jobs that will secure the future," she said.
While Australia is punching above its weight in the sector, more must be done to harness, grow and capitalise on the knowledge, Ms Jackson added.
Mr Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who is also Labor's science spokesman, are both due to attend the Science meets Parliament event.
"Parliament will be filled with talk of ideas and possibilities, of better ways to cure disease, to build bridges, to search for new life on other planets," Ms Jackson said.
STRONG winds have lashed the NSW coast, cutting power to about 20,000 homes in Sydney's north and 19,000 on the Central Coast.
Residents between Palm Beach and Freshwater lost power early on Sunday afternoon and, about an hour later, State Emergency Service volunteers were called to 120 jobs, predominantly in the northern beaches.
This is expected to climb to about 300 by the end of the Sunday, Fairfax reports.
"This storm has hit Sydney so quickly, all our volunteers have just had to scramble together to get each job covered as quickly as possible," SES spokesman Todd Burns told Fairfax.
Responding to customers on Twitter, Ausgrid said it may take "a few hours" to restore power.
"It may take a few more hours depending on damage and location. Sorry for delays today. storm came thru fast and furious," Ausgrid said on Twitter.
Wind gusting up to 90 km/h was recorded at Terry Hills and 16 millimetres of rain fell in about 15 minutes at nearby Hornsby, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said.
"The cell was moving so quickly it didn't have a chance to drop too much," a bureau spokesman told AAP.
Further north, winds blew across Evans Head at 115km/h and through Casino at 107 km/h.
At Williamtown, near Newcastle, wind ripped through at 95 km/h, and speeds between 90 and 100 km/h were recorded at Gunnedah, Glenn Innes on the northern tablelands, Scone and in the upper Hunter regions.
The storm is now well gone and the BOM is forecasting dry, sunny days in the high 20s for the start of the week after a cool Sunday night.
TWO baby sisters are in a serious but stable condition after the hatchback they were travelling in collided with a NSW Fire and Rescue truck driving in the same direction on the Pacific Highway in Sydney's north.
A 17-month-old girl sustained head injuries and a one-month-old girl was treated for head and abdominal injuries at the scene in Ku-ring-gai before being taken to Westmead Childrens' Hospital, police said.
Their mother, 28, sustained minor injuries in the Sunday afternoon collision, while their 29-year-old father was uninjured.
Police are investigating the incident.
THE government is taking another step towards improving strained ties with Indonesia with Defence Minister David Johnston attending a top level conference in Jakarta on building maritime collaboration.
Senator Johnston will be accompanied by Defence force chief General David Hurley and defence department secretary Dennis Richardson.
The event is the fourth annual Jakarta International Defence Dialogue (JIDD) to be held in Jakarta on Wednesday and Thursday.
The conference agenda document says maritime security and the complex issues it encompasses require collaboration among states and regional bodies for the peaceful regulation of trade, migration and military forces on the open sea.
"This cooperation is not only in the national interest of individual states but can also make the world more secure and protected from threats arising or crossing borders by sea," it says.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will make the opening remarks at an event the Indonesian government says aims to promote intergovernmental cooperation to meet common threats and challenges.
This will be President Yudhoyono's final JIDD. Under Indonesia's constitution, he can't seek a third term at the election on April 9.
Late last year relations with Indonesia were strained by media reports of Australian intelligence monitoring of the mobile phones of Indonesia's leaders.
That sparked a slowdown in defence cooperation at the time when the Abbott government was moving to implement its policy to stop the influx of asylum seeker boats.
Senator Johnston will be a panellist in a conference session on "exploring the Indo-Pacific" which will examine the shift of the global balance of power to this region.
Also attending are China's defence minister General Chang Wanquan and US secretary of defense Chuck Hagel.
