Two Gaza militants killed in Israeli raids

ISRAELI air strikes have killed two Gaza militants as they clashed with troops from the Jewish state who crossed the border on the eve of a landmark visit to the Palestinian territory by the Qatari emir, medical sources say.

The flareup on Monday provoked threats of revenge from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement, and a pledge from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there would be no immunity for those firing on the Jewish state.

Two air strikes took place around the northern town of Beit Hanun where militants were firing mortar shells at an Israeli tank and several military vehicles which had crossed the border into Gaza territory, witnesses and security sources said.

The first strike hit north of Beit Hanun, critically wounding four Qassam Brigades militants, one of whom later died of his injuries, medics and the militant group said.

As the clashes continued, Israel launched a second air strike east of Beit Hanun, killing a militant from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and critically wounding another man, the same sources said.

The Qassam Brigades confirmed that the first strike had killed one of its militants and critically wounded another three, naming the dead man as Abderahman Abu Jalaleh, 25, and describing him as a local commander.

The second strike killed a PRC militant whom the group named as Yasser al-Tarabin. The identity of the injured man was not immediately clear.

The Israeli military said both strikes had targeted "a rocket launching squad".

"The squad was targeted in response to mortar shell fire at a routine IDF (army) patrol in the area, near the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Am," a statement said of the first strike. An identical statement was issued following the second.

The flareup comes on the eve of a high-profile visit by the emir of Qatar to the Gaza Strip, the first such trip by an Arab head of state since Hamas took over the territory in 2007.

The military refused to say whether troops were operating on the Gaza side of the frontier, saying only "they were near the security fence on a routine patrol".

Hamas militants usually observe a de facto truce on rocket fire targeting Israel, but the rare show of force appeared to be a direct response to the incursion.

"The Zionist enemy continues its crimes and arrogance against our land and people ... because of its desire to blow up the situation," the Qassam Brigades said.

"The enemy will not be able to tie our hands and his crime will not go unanswered."

Netanyahu also issued a warning of his own.

"The real thing we have is rockets. We've got Hamas, supported by Iran, firing rockets at us. We're not going to let anyone arm themselves and fire rockets on us and think that they can do this with impunity. They're not going to get away with it," he said on meeting with the Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair.

"We're going to prevent them from arming themselves. This is our policy. This is a very different policy that I put in. You don't let them get away with it. And they know that's what we're doing."

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LA Times endorses Obama for second term

A MAJOR US newspaper, The Los Angeles Times, has endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term in the White House, saying he has brought "steady leadership" to the office.

"The nation has been well served by President Obama's steady leadership. He deserves a second term," stated an LA Times editorial on Monday.

It added that while his opponents assailed him as a socialist, "he showed himself to be an adult, less an ideologue than a pragmatist, more cautious than cocky".

The paper also warned that Republican challenger Mitt Romney would exacerbate the economic situation in the country "by spending extravagantly on defence even as the last of the Bush-era wars ends".

It was referring to the wars that President George W. Bush launched in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The alternative offered by Romney would neglect the country's infrastructure and human resources for the sake of yet another tax cut and a larger defence budget than even the Pentagon is seeking," the LA Times went on the argue.

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BBC editor steps aside over Savile probe

A TOP BBC editor has stepped aside while the broadcaster reviews its editorial decision to pull the plug on a segment about sexual abuse allegations against a prominent British children's television star, the late Jimmy Savile.

The BBC said on Monday the editor of the Newsnight program that opted not to broadcast the allegations, Peter Rippon, is "stepping aside with immediate effect".

The BBC said Rippon's explanation of his decision in a blog post earlier was "inaccurate or incomplete in some respects".

He is the first BBC figure directly blamed for the broadcaster's failure to properly report on abuse claims against Savile, who died last year at the age of 84 after a long career in children's television.

The BBC is facing criticism for providing different explanations for pulling the December segment that would have lifted the veil on Savile's abusive history, which had been rumoured but not reported on at the time.

Savile hosted the music program Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It. He was also active in numerous charities.

The BBC is set to air its own investigation of its failure to report on Savile's sexual abuses on Monday night on the Panorama show.

On the show set for broadcast on Monday, BBC correspondents claim the Savile segment was pulled because of pressure from senior management.

The fallout and allegations of a cover-up have damaged the BBC's reputation, and Savile's actions are also being investigated by police and other agencies.

Police say there may be more than 200 potential victims of the entertainer, known for his garish track suits and platinum hair.

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School funding to stay under wraps

SCHOOLS Minister Peter Garrett has "more than a vague idea" about how the bill for school funding reform should be split between the commonwealth and states.

But he has no intention of revealing the federal government's hand before negotiations.

"You'll have a clear announcement from this government in the early half of next year once we've concluded our negotiations with the states and education authorities," he told ABC's Q&A program on Monday night.

Host Tony Jones asked the minister if he could give "even the vaguest idea" of the percentages being talked about.

"I've got much more than a vague idea but I don't propose to canvas those quantums, which we would be negotiating with the states, here on Q&A," Mr Garrett said.

He said discussions were well under way about how the final funding formula, based on the Gonski panel's recommendations, would work.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said she wants to sign a deal with the states and territories at the first COAG meeting in 2013, expected to be held in April.

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Baby bonus cut penalises families: Hockey

SHADOW treasurer Joe Hockey has likened the government's decision to slash the baby bonus for second and subsequent children to China's one child policy.

The policy that has restricted urban Chinese families to a single child since the 1970s has been attributed with leading to a gender imbalance in that country, with male children often seen as more desirable.

The Labor government announced in its budget update it would cut the baby bonus to $3000, from $5000, for second and subsequent children, as it looks to save money to prop up its budget surplus.

The measure will deliver more than $500 million in savings over the forward estimates period.

Families Minister Jenny Macklin said the change, to apply from July 1, 2013, recognised families purchased durable, big-ticket nursery items when their first child was born.

Mr Hockey said the baby bonus was initially introduced by the Howard government to encourage people to have more children and arrest Australia's declining birth rate.

"Now the government seems to want to penalise anyone that has a second or third child," he told ABC television.

"I think that worked quite well in China, didn't it?"

Mr Hockey also said the government "hates private health insurance" since it has further cut the rebate paid to health fund members.

The coalition was unlikely to support this move.

"We want to see more Australians spend more of their money on their own health care," Mr Hockey said, adding that the rebate encouraged this.

The shadow treasurer also attacked government plans to make big companies pay their tax to the government each month, rather than each quarter.

The change will smooth government tax receipts and create a revenue gain of $8.3 billion over three years.

"The bottom line is $8.3 billion doesn't appear in Wayne Swan's accounts if it isn't coming out of someone else's pocket," Mr Hockey said.

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ANZ lags in customer satisfaction

EDS: Not to be used before 0001 AEDT Monday October 22

By Evan Schwarten

SYDNEY, Oct 22 AAP - ANZ remains in bottom place among the big four banks for customer satisfaction among business clients, 10 months after provoking outrage by shifting the timing of its monthly interest rate decision.

The monthly DBM Consultants' Business Financial Services Monitor (BFSM) shows the bank has improved its standing among business clients in the three months to September but continues to languish behind the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank (NAB).

"What we have noticed in the past is that if you are not tracking particularly well it takes you longer to recover, but if you are at the top of the pack you recover more quickly," DBM managing director Dhruba Gupta said.

"It seems that people tend to forgive you more if they already have a high regard for you."

ANZ began its slide from third to fourth place on the BFSM, which tracks satisfaction among the big four banks, in December 2011 after it announced it would make its interest rate decision on the second Friday of every month.

The move split ANZ from other lenders which typically made their rate decisions in the days following the Reserve Bank of Australia's board meeting, held on the first Tuesday of each month - except January when no meeting is held.

"The slide (in customer satisfaction) more or less coincided with that announcement," Mr Gupta said.

Mr Gupta said the recovery in satisfaction for ANZ had occurred most quickly among its larger clients (those with an annual turnover of more than $50 million) among whom it was now ranked in equal third place with NAB.

However, the bank continued to trail behind its competitors among medium, small and micro-size businesses.

The September BFSM showed Westpac remained in first place across all sectors, while the Commonwealth Bank was ranked first among large- and medium-size businesses.

The BFSM is based on a monthly survey of almost 20,000 business decision-makers.

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Ten appoints new chief of programming

EDS: Not for use before 0001 AEDT Monday, October 22

SYDNEY, Oct 22 AAP - Beverley McGarvey has been appointed Network Ten's new chief programming officer.

Ms McGarvey has been serving as acting chief programming officer for the TV network since the resignation of former programmer David Mott in August.

Mr Mott had been with the station for 16 years.

Ten's CEO James Warburton said the broadcaster was delighted to appoint Ms McCarvey to the job.

"Beverley is an outstanding television executive. Her creativity, strategic thinking and programming and scheduling skills will be invaluable in the renewal of our creative content," he said in a statement issued on Monday.

The appointment comes after a difficult few months for Ten. Just last week Ten Network Holdings announced 100 jobs would be axed from its newsroom after poor television ratings led to a full year net loss of almost $13 million.

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WA remains the economic powerhouse

WESTERN Australia is still the nation's economic powerhouse but a slowdown in the mining sector could lead to weaker spending and a softer jobs market.

A report shows WA leads the other states in four of eight criteria over the past three months.

"Western Australia remains Australia's best-performing economy, but Northern Territory is coming up fast, with the Inpex natural gas project providing strong momentum to the Top End economy," the CommSec State of the States report says.

It says WA is still first or second on seven of the eight indicators, coming out on top in construction work, retail trade, population growth and equipment investment.

Over the past quarter WA held its position while Tasmania remained fixed at the bottom end of the scale.

The NT passed the ACT to take second spot after WA, while NSW improved to rank alongside Victoria and Queensland.

There was a sizeable gap to South Australia and then another significant gap to Tasmania.

WA's economic output was 34 per cent higher than the decade average level. It also outperformed the other states in terms of equipment investment.

With an unemployment rate of 3.9 per cent, both the NT and WA have arguably the strongest job markets in the nation.

In terms of population growth, WA is the clear leader with an annual growth rate of 3.14 per cent.

The report says home prices are lower than a year ago in only half of the state capitals.

The strongest growth in home prices was in Darwin, where they are up by 2.9 per cent, followed by Sydney, up 0.9 per cent.

The weakest home prices are in Melbourne, down by 3.8 per cent on a year ago.

Real wages were positive in all state economies in the June quarter, with the strongest growth in WA.

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Budget 12/13 surplus not necessity: Access

THE federal government's promise to bring the budget back to surplus is based more on politics than economic necessity, a leading independent forecaster says.

As Labor prepares to release its mid-year budget review on Monday morning, Deloitte Access Economics director Chris Richardson says while the task of repairing budgets cannot be shirked, it shouldn't be rushed.

"Governments need to pay their way over time, but we still think that a surplus in 2012/13 is partly a political target rather than an economic necessity," he said in the company's business outlook released on Monday.

The government's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) is widely expected to stick to the May budget forecast of a $1.5 billion surplus this financial year, even though it needs to find further savings.

Mr Richardson said federal and state governments were all scrambling to repair "broken" budgets after spending the past decade dishing out the revenue proceeds of the commodity price boom.

"But a shockwave in commodity prices means the tax take will (now) stay soggy," he said.

At the same time, the fact the Australia dollar is still riding high when commodity prices are down is creating headaches across the industrial landscape.

"Some miners are losing money, and mining services ... are now feeling the pressure of cost cutting," he said.

New sectors were joining the "trouble list" of manufacturing, utilities and retail, at the same time as the government was "jumping on the anchors" of spending.

However, Mr Richardson said the engineering construction sector still had an enormous workload ahead because of increased mining investment.

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Growth could slow in 2014 with price falls

AUSTRALIA'S growth could slow in 2014 and deliver headaches for business as commodity price falls put a brake on mining construction projects.

Big mining projects that were approved a few years ago will drive output gains in the next two years, but the next round of project approvals will be a "pale shadow of the last lot", a Deloitte Access Economics report says.

"The strong bit of Australia's 'two speed economy' won't be as strong in a couple of years," the Business Outlook said.

Rising world prices for iron ore and coal had underwritten a lot of the gains in Australian incomes in the past decade, but those prices had fallen through 2012.

"There's a risk of a pothole in growth in 2014-15 as the surge in mining construction finishes before rising gas export volumes hit their straps," the report said.

"That's not the end of the world, but it suggests the difficult business environment of the last couple of years won't disappear any time soon."

A supply surge in commodities coincided with weaker demand from China, leading to faster than expected price falls.

The report also warned of complacency around the consensus view of a relatively rapid rebound in China and in its insatiable demand for commodities.

Still, Deloitte found there was a lot of import spending locked in to feed into massive resource construction spending this financial year and next.

But the same was not true of exports.

The study showed unemployment remained low, despite anaemic job growth, partly because workers have been discouraged by weak job gains.

"More Australians are retiring or otherwise staying out of the job hunt," it said.

"That buffer was only a respite and we see unemployment drifting up as governments and even the mining sector tighten their belts."

Deloitte predicts unemployment will top out in this cycle at 5.5 per cent.

Inflation prospects were less worrying, but a surge of "funny money" from the central banks underlined continuing financial fragility around the globe.

While fears for Europe had faded, concerns about China had intensified.

"Even if the US dodges the big bullet of the 'fiscal cliff', there's still going to be some fiscal headwinds in the US in 2013," the report said.

The global recovery would continue, but it would be dogged by difficulties that would leave global growth below trend in 2012 and 2013.

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