No schools deal between Qld, fed govts

The Queensland and federal governments have failed to strike a deal on funding for schools. Source: AAP

QUEENSLAND'S hopes of getting billions of dollars in Commonwealth funding for schools appear to have dissolved along with federal parliament as the government goes into caretaker mode.

Both governments failed to strike a deal on education reforms by the deadline of 5.30pm (AEST) on Monday, when the House of Representatives was dissolved ahead of the September 7 election.

Earlier in the day both governments traded blows, each blaming the other for the inability to reach a deal.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the federal government's offer wasn't as generous as the agreement reached with Victoria over the weekend.

But his federal counterpart Bill Shorten said the Victorian government had been prepared to stump up extra money, while Queensland wasn't.

"The Victorian government's offer to us means that the Queensland government had to find an extra $1.3 billion ... and they're not willing to do it. It's a hoax," he said.

However by Monday afternoon it appeared the figure had risen by more than one billion, when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accused the Queensland government of stalling.

He said Queensland would have to stump up $2.5 billion if it wanted to sign up under the same arrangement as Victoria.

"Given there's been months and months and months of negotiations with Mr Newman's Liberal National Party government in Queensland, why is it left to the last day?," he told reporters in Canberra.

Under the reforms, Queensland would receive $2.48 billion in additional funding over 2014-19.

Mr Langbroek said Canberra was asking the state to increase its indexation by three per cent, to Victoria's 1.3 per cent.

"Queensland is willing to sign up today, as long as we get exactly the same deal," Mr Langbroek said.

He accused the federal government of election point-scoring.

Meanwhile, Victorian Premier Denis Napthine hailed his state's education reforms deal as a great outcome and one which put the state in a "win win" position.

However Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said the deal came at the expense of the education maintenance allowance, which helped the state's lowest-income families with school expenses.

And NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell says he's getting advice on whether his schools deal with the federal government needs improving after the one done with Victoria.

He dismissed suggestions Victoria had wrangled a better deal and said NSW's agreement had a "no-disadvantage" clause.

"No deal can be done with any other state or territory that gives them a bigger benefit than exists in NSW," he said.

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UK singer Harvey backs Guantanamo detainee

Singer PJ Harvey has lent her vocal support to the last British person detained at Guantanamo Bay. Source: AAP

PJ Harvey has recorded a song in support of the last remaining British resident at Guantanamo Bay.

The musician has lent her vocals to the track about Shaker Aamer.

Shaker, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, has long been cleared for release by the United States and has never been charged with a crime in the country, according to legal action charity Reprieve.

The prisoner, who has four British children - the youngest of whom he has never met - and a British wife who all live in London, has been held at the Cuban detention camp since 2002.

Reprieve founder and director Clive Stafford Smith said the song, Shaker Aamer, is available as a free download and stream via soundcloud.com/reprieve.

"We hope that people listen to this song and think about Shaker Aamer's plight - detained for 11 long years at Guantanamo, without charge or trial," Smith said.

"The UK government must do everything it can to bring Shaker back home to his wife and kids in London, where he belongs."

Harvey's most recent album, the Mercury-winning Let England Shake, had a war theme, inspired by various conflicts and their effects, from Gallipoli to Afghanistan.

Other people in the public eye to have lent their support to Aamer's cause include the comedian Frankie Boyle and the actress Julie Christie who each spent a week on hunger strike to raise publicity for his plight.

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Russia slams flag desecration by US band

RUSSIA'S interior ministry has launched a criminal probe into flag desecration after a US rock musician stuffed a Russian flag down his trousers at a concert.

The band Bloodhound Gang scandalised Russia when a video was released showing its bassist, Jared Hasselhoff, stuffing the white-blue-and-red tricolour down his trousers and then throwing it into the crowd at a concert last week in Odessa, Ukraine.

The interior ministry said in a statement on Monday that it had opened a criminal case "after looking into actions that demonstrated disrespect to the Russian state flag by a musician from a foreign band".

According to Russian law, desecration of the national flag could lead to a jail sentence of up to one year.

Russia's Investigative Committee, a powerful agency that is an equivalent of the US FBI, said in a statement earlier on Monday that it was examining the incident.

It condemned "the cynicism of the said crime, which expressed clear disrespect for the Russian state.

"The investigation will evaluate everyone connected with this crime, from the actual perpetrators to its organisers," the Investigative Committee said, adding that it would send inquiries shortly to the US and Ukraine.

The band members were turned away from a festival where they were due to play in southern Russia on Saturday and flew out of the country after being told to pack their bags by the culture minister and having their visas cut short by the migration services.

Before they abruptly left Russia, the group apologised by saying at a news conference that it was a tradition that everything thrown from the stage to fans "takes a trip through the pants".

The video of the concert shows Hasselhoff telling the crowd: "Don't tell Putin," before pushing the flag into his unzipped trousers and pulling it out the back to jeers and cheers from the crowd.

As they flew out, the band members were egged by pro-Kremlin youth activists and assaulted by Cossacks, an ultra-conservative group.

Pro-Kremlin MPs called for them to be banned from Russia for life and said that the Russian organisers of their concert should face consequences.

Top ruling party official Sergei Neverov compared the rock band to US pop star Madonna, who criticised a law against "homosexual propaganda" to minors at her concert in Saint Petersburg last year. He said the musicians were "links in a single chain" and acting on someone's orders.

The US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul late on Sunday said on his Twitter account: "I find the action by Bloodhound Gang disgusting. I also condemn the violence against them."

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World's first test tube burger unveiled

SCIENTISTS have unveiled the world's first lab-grown beef burger, serving it up to volunteers in London in what they hope is the start of a food revolution.

The 140-gramme patty, which cost more than 250,000 ($A375,375) to produce, has been made using strands of meat grown from muscle cells taken from a living cow.

Mixed with salt, egg powder and breadcrumbs to improve the taste, and coloured with red beetroot juice and saffron, researchers claim it will taste similar to a normal burger.

Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in The Netherlands, whose lab developed the meat, says the burger is safe and has the potential to replace normal meat in the diets of millions of people.

He brought it into a news conference at a TV studio on a tray covered in a metal cloche.

The patty was served to two volunteers, US-based food author Josh Schonwald and Austrian food researcher Hanni Ruetzler.

After taking a mouthful, Ruetzler said: "I was expecting the texture to be more soft.... I know there is no fat in it so I didn't know how juicy it would be.

"It's close to meat. It's not that juicy. The consistency is perfect (but) I miss salt and pepper!"

Sergey Brin, one of Google's co-founders, was revealed as one of the financial backers of the project.

He said in a video message: "Sometimes when technology comes along, it has the capability to transform how we view our world. I like to look at technology opportunities. When technology seems like it is on the cusp of viability and if it succeeds there, it can be really transformative for the world."

There are concerns that the growing demand for meat is putting unsustainable pressure on the planet, both through the food required for the animals and the methane gas they produce, which contributes to global warming.

"What we are going to attempt is important because I hope it will show cultured beef has the answers to major problems that the world faces," Post said ahead of Monday's event.

"Our burger is made from muscle cells taken from a cow. We haven't altered them in any way. For it to succeed it has to look, feel and hopefully taste like the real thing."

The team in Maastricht took cells from organic cows and placed them in a nutrient solution to create muscle tissue. They then grew this into small strands of meat, 20,000 of which were required to make the burger.

Although it is very expensive, the costs of cultured beef are likely to fall as more is produced and the team claim it could be available in supermarkets within 10 to 20 years.

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Turkey's ex-army chief gets life over coup

A TURKISH court has sentenced a former army chief and other top brass to life in prison in a high-profile trial of 275 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic-based government.

Police fired tear gas at protesters outside the court on Monday in a town near Istanbul as the verdicts were being delivered in the highly-divisive case.

Ex-military chief Ilker Basbug, along with several other army officers, were sentenced to life in prison, while 21 people were acquitted, according to the verdicts issued so far.

The trial has been seen as a key test in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's showdown with secularist and military opponents during his decade-long rule.

The defendants were on trial on dozens of charges, ranging from membership of an underground "terrorist organisation" dubbed Ergenekon to arson, illegal weapons possession, and instigating an armed uprising against Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), which came to power in 2002.

Tensions were high outside the high-security tribunal in the town of Silivri, near Istanbul, and hundreds of riot police fired tear gas to disperse some 1,000 protesters who had evaded a police barricade and attempted to march on the courthouse, an AFP reporter said.

Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu had on Friday said that demonstrations outside the court would not be allowed.

Amid a heavy security presence, only the suspects, lawyers, journalists and members of parliament were allowed to enter the building for the hearing.

"This trial is purely political," Mustafa Balbay, one of the defendants, told an audience of MPs and journalists inside the courtroom.

"Today it's the government which is convicted, not us."

Basbug, 70, led Turkey's military campaign against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for many years, only to find himself accused in his retirement of having led a terrorist group himself.

The verdicts come after Turkey was rocked in June by mass protests that presented Erdogan's government with its biggest public challenge since it came to power in 2002.

Police had earlier chased away a few dozen demonstrators waving Turkish flags and chanting "How happy is the one who calls himself a Turk," referring to a saying by modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

"I came here so that those people who have been behind bars for five years with no real proof against them are not left alone," said Dogan Muldur, a retired Turkish Airlines pilot.

"There are a lot of fictitious crimes in the case but no proof," he said.

"I came to fight injustice, to defend our rights. I am an ordinary Turkish citizen, I have no ties with the suspects," added housewife Ebru Kurt.

"I am not saying that all the people in jail are innocent, but I am convinced that most of them have spent years in jail even though they have done nothing wrong."

The 2,455-page indictment accuses members of Ergenekon - an alleged shadowy network of ultranationalists trying to seize control in Turkey - of a string of attacks and political violence over several decades to stir up unrest.

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Egypt denies entry to Yemeni Nobel winner

EGYPTIAN authorities have barred Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkul Karman from entering the country for security reasons, sources at Cairo's airport say.

Karman, a prominent pro-democracy activist, arrived aboard a flight from Dubai and was denied entry on Sunday on instructions from security agencies, the sources said.

Karman has voiced support for loyalists of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and described his ouster by the military as undemocratic.

Morsi's July 3 removal from office has intensified divisions in the Arab world's most populous nation.

His supporters have vowed to keep fighting for his reinstatement with two large sit-ins that have brought parts of the capital to a halt.

Egypt's interim leaders have said there is no turning back from the army-drafted roadmap that foresees new elections in 2014.

Intense diplomatic efforts are currently underway to find a peaceful solution to the political crisis.

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Indian girl dies after being set on fire

AN 11-year-old girl who was set on fire during an attempted rape has died of her injuries eastern India, media reports say.

The girl was admitted to a government-run hospital in Kolkata with critical burns after the incident in Howrah district on Wednesday, the IANS news agency reported.

On Saturday, the police arrested an 18-year-old suspect, the Times of India reported. He and an accomplice, who is still being sought, were named by the victim.

Police said the suspects allegedly attempted to rape the girl outside her home. When she resisted and threatened to reveal his identity, the 18-year-old poured kerosene over her and set her on fire.

However, the suspect told investigators that his accomplice had poured the kerosene and set her ablaze, the Times said. Police are currently trying to verify his claim, Howrah police spokesman Jayeeta Bose told the newspaper.

Activists say attacks on women and girls continue unabated in India despite new anti-rape laws, and blame police laxity in preventing such crimes.

Sexual violence has been a focus of attention since the fatal gang rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi last December triggered mass protests.

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Pakistan flood toll rises to 45

PAKISTANI disaster relief officials have issued fresh flood warnings after the death toll from heavy monsoon rains rose to 45 and waters paralysed parts of the largest city Karachi.

Flash floods caused by monsoon downpours have inundated some main roads in the sprawling port city and swept away homes in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The National Disaster Management Authority warned that more thunderstorms and heavy rains were expected on Monday and some rivers may flood.

At least 45 people have been killed in the floods over the weekend. Officials in Karachi said at least 19 had died in the city to add to 20 dead in the northwest and six in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Doctor Semi Jamali at the Jinnah Hospital in Karachi told AFP that most of the deaths occurred due to electrocution or collapsing roofs and walls.

Army engineers helped relief efforts in Karachi on Sunday where roads and streets were flooded and the city was practically paralysed, an AFP reporter said.

Authorities in the city of 18 million people, which contributes 42 per cent of Pakistan's GDP, said it would take more than two days to clear up after the water flooded markets, buildings and houses and blocked roads.

Hundreds of cars were seen half-submerged after poor sewerage and drainage systems choked due to garbage.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sent three of his cabinet ministers to inspect damage in flood-hit areas.

Pakistan has suffered devastating monsoon floods for the last three years, including the worst in its history in 2010 when catastrophic inundations killed almost 1800 people and affected 21 million.

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UK construction sector optimism grows

A SURGE in house building spurred a new wave of optimism in the UK construction sector as it achieved its best performance for three years, the latest figures show.

The reading of 57 on the closely-watched Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index was the best since June 2010 and a steep rise from 51 recorded in June. A reading of 50 separates growth from contraction.

The figures add to hopes of a sustained recovery in the sector after official figures showed it grew 0.9 per cent in the second quarter of the year, though it remains 16.5 per cent off pre-recession levels.

Construction has been buoyed by flagship initiatives including Funding for Lending, which encourages banks to offer mortgages, and Help to Buy, which offers loans and guarantees to help buyers with small deposits.

The survey results were the third month in succession the construction index was above the no-change level of 50.

Residential building activity was by far the strongest area as it recorded its sixth month of improvement in a row.

But there was also a return to expansion for civil engineering, while commercial construction output rose at its strongest pace since May 2012.

Firms attributed the overall improvement to a marked improvement in demand for housing alongside a general rise in spending amid signs of an improving UK economy.

Optimism about the year ahead reached its strongest level since May 2010, leading to a rise in employment levels for the second month running.

"July's survey highlights a new wave of optimism across the UK construction sector, with companies reporting a pace of expansion in excess of anything seen over the past three years," said Tim Moore, senior economist at survey compiler Markit.

David Noble, chief executive at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, said homes are the "beating heart" of the rapid recovery in the construction sector, which is also backed by a solid expansion in civil engineering and commercial activity.

He said confidence was the highest since the coalition's austerity policies began in 2010, suggesting growth could be sustained into the third quarter.

"Of critical importance to the construction sector going forward is that the economy and the housing market sustain their recent improvement over the coming months, and that this increasingly stimulates building work," said Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight.

"It currently appears that housing market activity is really stepping up a gear, while the Government's Help to Buy initiatives in the budget to boost housing market activity was also welcome news for house builders."

But he said construction continued to be constrained by the impact of austerity measures on public sector projects, while it may take some time for private commercial activity to show a marked pick-up.

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Talks underway on Egypt crisis

INTENSE efforts are underway to try to resolve Egypt's political crisis pitting supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi against the army-backed interim leaders.

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met Islamist leaders overnight to try to mediate a solution with Morsi supporters who have staged two major sit-ins for more than a month demanding his reinstatement.

Sisi "met with several representatives of the Islamist movements ... and stressed that there are opportunities for a peaceful solution to the crisis provided all sides reject violence," army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement.

Among those attending the talks with Sisi were influential Salafist clerics Sheikh Mohammed Hassan and Mohammed Abdel Salam, who just days ago was addressing pro-Morsi supporters from the stage at the Rabaa al-Adawiya sit-in.

"The Islamists who met Sisi, while not members of the Muslim Brotherhood, have been supporting them at the Rabaa al-Adawiya sit-in. Hopefully, the Brotherhood will listen to what they have to say to find a way out of the crisis," a source close to the talks said.

Sisi's meetings come after days of intense diplomatic activity that saw visits by US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and an African Union delegation lead by former Mali president Alpha Oumar Konare.

Konare said his team had met "with all parties it wanted to meet ... in complete freedom" during their week-long visit.

Supporters of Morsi - Egypt's first freely elected president - see his July 3 ouster by the military as a violation of democracy and have insisted that nothing short of his reinstatement would end their protests.

Authorities have repeatedly called on them to go home, promising them that a safe exit would allow the Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood to return to political life.

After meeting Burns, the Brotherhood's political arm stressed its continued commitment to "legitimacy, which stipulates the return of the president, the constitution and the Shura Council," or upper house of parliament.

Burns's visit, which followed trips by Ashton and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, was the latest move in a diplomatic drive to break the deadlock.

The Islamists' latest declaration suggested that Burns had failed to shift their position.

"We affirm our welcome of any political solutions proposed on the basis of constitutional legitimacy and rejection of the coup," said the Freedom and Justice Party statement.

Burns also met foreign minister Nabil Fahmy in a bid to broker a compromise between the two sides.

Washington also kept up the pressure from afar, with Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel urging Sisi to support an "inclusive political process", the Pentagon said.

The diplomatic push came as the Washington Post published an interview with Sisi, who lashed out at Washington, urging it to pressure Morsi supporters to end their rallies.

"The US administration has a lot (of) leverage and influence with the Muslim Brotherhood and I'd really like the US administration to use this leverage with them to resolve the conflict," he said.

He said that police, not the military, would be charged with dispersing the protests, and insisted that millions of Egyptians "are waiting for me to do something".

Tensions have spiked over a looming police bid to dismantle the pro-Morsi sit-ins.

But Fahmy insisted authorities have "no desire to use force if there is any other avenue that has not been exhausted".

Morsi has been formally remanded in custody on suspicion of offences committed when he broke out of prison during the 2011 revolt that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi, who has been held at an undisclosed location since the coup, refused to talk to the investigating judge in a meeting on Friday, said Mostafa Azab of the "Lawyers Against the Coup" movement.

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