Pistorius investigators visit crime scene

Forensic experts working for Oscar Pistorius have visited the house where he shot his girlfriend. Source: AAP

FORENSIC experts working for Oscar Pistorius have visited the double-amputee Olympian's upscale villa where he shot and killed his girlfriend, examining the toilet door through which the fatal shots were fired, police say.

The South African Police Service said in a statement on Thursday the specialists made prior arrangements with police to visit the athlete's house on Monday in Pretoria, where model and reality TV star Reeva Steenkamp was shot and killed on February 14.

Pistorius goes on trial on March 3 accused of premeditated murder. He was given seven months to put his case together after being indicted on charges of murder and illegal possession of ammunition in August.

The visit suggests that the toilet door will form a key part of the evidence in the trial. The height of the bullet holes in the door and trajectory of the bullets fired by Pistorius could prove whether or not he was wearing his prosthetic legs.

Pistorius says he was not wearing them when he shot in fear at what he thought was a dangerous intruder, but the prosecution says the Olympic and Paralympic runner had taken the time to put them on, suggesting premeditation.

It was the second time investigators acting for Pistorius had visited the scene accompanied by the police's team, the statement said.

Police also said Pistorius' villa in the gated Silverwoods estate in the eastern suburbs of the South African capital was "no longer a crime scene and was handed back to him long ago".

The investigating officer and a police ballistics expert were present while Pistorius' forensic team carried out their work on Monday. Police said no other physical evidence was examined.

Pistorius faces a possible life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison if he is convicted of murder with premeditation.

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Blaze near NSW town downgraded

AN out-of-control bushfire burning near a small town on the NSW mid-north coast has been downgraded, the Rural Fire Service says.

The scrub fire is burning in the Crowdy Bay National Park, north of the town of Harrington in the Greater Taree region.

The RFS late on Thursday night downgraded the blaze from "watch and act" to "advice".

Earlier, the blaze crossed containment lines and was burning close to properties at Coralville and Diamond Head Roads.

More than 80 firefighters and six aircraft battled the blaze through the day.

The fire has so far burned through around 3000 hectares of scrub, the RFS said on its website.

Firefighters are back-burning where they can, including at the back of some streets in the township.

About 40 holidaymakers had to be evacuated from a camping area at Diamond Head earlier on Thursday due to the blaze.

A number of roads in the area are closed.

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Rdio launches free internet radio service

DIGITAL music service Rdio is launching its free internet radio service in Australia, the US and Canada.

The launch on Thursday capitalises on Rdio's tie-up with traditional radio station owner Cumulus Media and helps it compete with digital rivals Pandora and Spotify.

For now, the app that works on Apple and Android devices won't play ads between the songs that are randomly picked based on genres, artists, songs or albums.

The company hopes nonpaying listeners will sign up for a subscription that adds features like the ability to pick and choose exact songs and albums.

On the web, Rdio's radio player will have ads that are sold by Cumulus Media Inc.

Cumulus announced it was taking a stake in Rdio parent Pulser Media last month.

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AusAid cuts threaten immunisation programs

BUDGET cuts and changes to Australia's official aid program to Asia threatens to undermine child vaccination programs in the region, a senior children's health advocate warns.

Helen Evans, deputy chief executive of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), says the recent federal government decisions to restructure the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) raises fears over future support for programs in the region.

"Australia has had for a long time a very strong investment in the region and AusAID has been a very strong supporter of the development of health services," Ms Evans said.

"It's been a very strong supporter of the GAVI Alliance that I work for because it sees the obvious value in immunisation," she told AAP.

"I'm certainly aware of the fact that the new Prime Minister (Tony Abbott) has made an announcement in terms of reducing AusAID's budget and we're waiting to see the impact of that," she said.

AusAID has played a key role in the GAVI Alliance initiatives in Indonesia under a pentavalent vaccination program to protect children against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis, and influenza.

The GAVI Alliance partners developing countries, donor governments such as Australia, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Children's Fund, World Bank, the vaccine industry, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In Myanmar, AusAID had earlier this year committed more than $82 million in 2013-14 and had been set to grow the assistance to more than $100 million a year by 2015-16, prior to Australia's federal election in September that swept Mr Abbott and the coalition to power.

But Ms Evans, an Australian, says she remains hopeful the federal government would continue "to see the value (in) making an investment in these sorts of health initiatives".

But she acknowledges the challenges in delivering programs if the budget cuts to Australia's aid program are carried through.

"It would certainly make it harder if there is a reduction; yes, there's no doubt about that," she said.

The GAVI Alliance programs have supported the immunisation of about 370 million children in developing countries since its inception in 2000 amid signs of flagging support for vaccination programs and has helped prevent more than 5.5 million deaths from diseases ranging from hepatitis B to polio.

"Vaccination is perhaps the best investment a country can make in their children's health," and seen as supporting healthy development towards adulthood, Ms Evans said.

"So it's (about) poverty reduction, it's social, economic development investment."

In Laos this week, Ms Evans oversaw the launch of a new GAVI Alliance program to vaccinate girls against the human papillomavirus (HPV) to curb rising rates of cervical cancer in the country. Each year in Laos about 500 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer triggered by HPV. As many as half are expected to die from the cancer.

"This is a vaccine that's incredibly effective and can prevent about 70 per cent of the cancers," she said. Cervical cancer is now the leading killer of women globally as maternal mortality rates decline.

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Man arrested over Newcastle shooting

A MAN has been arrested for allegedly firing a gun into the air from a unit balcony at Newcastle in NSW.

Police said they were called to the unit block on Fowler Street, Hamilton South, after reports the man was firing shots into the air about 7.50pm (AEST) on Thursday.

Officers formed a perimeter around the unit block and arrested the alleged shooter, aged in his 30s, when he left the premises about 9.35pm.

Police said they found a firearm in the man's backpack as well as guns and ammunition in the unit.

The man is being interviewed at Newcastle Police Station.

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Bligh prioritised Wild Rivers: court

THE Bligh government fast-tracked the issue of Wild Rivers declarations in Cape York partly to show it was delivering on its election commitments, a former minister says.

Cape York traditional owners have launched a legal challenge against the State of Queensland over its Wild Rivers laws.

The Federal Court challenge by members of the Wik, Umpila and Lama Lama people of Cape York was first launched in 2010.

Traditional owners want the Wild Rivers declarations for the Archer, Lockhart and Stewart Rivers repealed.

They argue former natural resources minister Stephen Robertson didn't follow due process and consider all the material before him when he made the declarations.

Mr Robertson was cross examined by the traditional owners' barrister Dan O'Gorman on Tuesday over the approval process for the 2009 declarations.

The then minister signed off on them on April 1, 2009, six days after being sworn in as natural resources minister following Labor's re-election.

Mr Robertson told the court then premier Anna Bligh had wanted the matter prioritised partly because most of the work on the declarations had already been done.

"(It was) one of the matters that could be advanced to show that the government was back at work delivering on its election commitments," he told the court.

He added the declarations were always subject to his approval.

Mr Robertson told the court he'd signed off on the declarations on April 1, 2009, but agreed under cross examination he'd approved the declarations by or on March 31.

He said he had considered more than 20 public submissions, a scientific report and a departmental report on the public consultation.

The hearing continues.

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Paladin boss' pay halves

PALADIN managing Director John Borshoff had his pay packet halved to $2.5 million in the 2012/13 financial year after the uranium miner doubled its full year loss.

Mr Borshoff's pay, including bonuses, was down from $5.2 million in the previous year, Paladin's annual report shows.

Paladin Energy recently said it plans to boost production and push ahead with the partial sale of its Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia, after its annual loss doubled to $US420.9 million.

The company managed to achieve its 2012/13 production targets but it continues to slash costs due to weak global uranium prices.

Managing Director John Borshoff said forecast cost reductions for the 2012/13 year were exceeded at both mine sites, Langer Heinrich and Kayelekera mines.

"Further gains are expected for fiscal 2014," Mr Borshoff said.

A minority interest sale in Langer Heinrich offered the only opportunity in the world for a party to acquire a valuable equity-level participation in an operating uranium mining project, he said.

It was almost impossible for the mining industry to meet the projected demand over at least the next decade and a half, he said.

Chairman Rick Crabb said the Paladin board remained committed to asset sales.

"The company has moved to reduce costs throughout the organisation such as significantly deferring exploration and, unfortunately, making redundant a number of our staff," he said.

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Occupy Melbourne loses legal challenge

OCCUPY Melbourne has lost a legal battle against the City of Melbourne and Victoria Police over the protest movement's eviction from the city in 2011.

The local arm of the international Occupy movement was forcefully moved on from central Melbourne in October 2011 after members of the group were issued with infringement notices for erecting tents.

Federal Court Justice Tony North on Tuesday dismissed Occupy Melbourne's claim that City of Melbourne bylaws and the Local Government Act breached their freedom of political association and right to protest.

However, Justice North ruled that some of the infringement notices against one member, Sara Kerrison, were invalid.

Justice North ruled that the case was not representative, meaning the ruling is restricted to three of the eight notices issued against Ms Kerrison.

Outside court, lawyer for the Occupy Movement Anna Brown said the group was disappointed by some aspects of the ruling.

Ms Brown said the group would consider the verdict before deciding whether to take the case any further.

"We think this case is incredibly important, not only because it has ramifications for the Occupy Melbourne protests, but the rights of all Australians to gather and express their views," she told reporters.

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Gillard opens up on carbon pricing, sexism

Former prime minister Julia Gillard says she had difficulties explaining carbon pricing to groups. Source: AAP

IF nine out of 10 doctors said unless you underwent chemotherapy you were going to die, what would you do?

That's how former prime minister Julia Gillard tried explaining the importance of pricing carbon to individuals when it came to fighting climate change.

"We've got an overwhelming majority of scientists telling us our planet needs to do this. Are you really going to be the one who bets that the vast majority of them are wrong with something as important as the planet's future?" Ms Gillard said during a forum with Anne Summers in Melbourne on Tuesday.

"If you could get them one at a time, you could make a difference."

However, she came unstuck when faced with the task of explaining its importance to groups.

"There is this weirdness that goes around climate change science," she said.

"In groups brought together, the toxicity that can be in social media, it just got this bizarre and explosive carry on around it that I think was hard to explain and is still hard to explain."

In just her second major public appearance since being dethroned on June 26, Ms Gillard admitted she also made a political error in conceding the scheme she had introduced was a "carbon tax".

"It is an emissions trading scheme with a fixed price for the first three years, and any iteration of an emissions trading scheme basically starts with a price that someone fixes," she said.

Ms Gillard also touched on the infamous "Ditch the Witch" anti-carbon tax rally featuring Tony Abbott outside Parliament House in 2011.

She said while the crude signs at the rally did offend her, it was the benign media response to the incident that she found really amazing.

"If someone was there with a sign that said 'Ditch the black -insert bad word here-', if that happened there would be a huge outcry about how disgusting that is," she said.

"Yet when it was gender, it just didn't get that reaction and that shocked me as much as the signs themselves."

Ms Gillard also expressed frustration at the coalition having just one woman in the current cabinet, saying it was not only disheartening, but hopeless.

"Here we are having gone back, back decades in time," she said.

"What made me a little bit more optimistic than that statistic was that the reaction to it happened in the media and the community conversation for days and days."

With the majority of the questions focused on misogyny and sexism, Ms Gillard had to laugh when an 11-year-old girl asked her if she actually had any fun while serving as prime minister.

"I don't want the whole thing to sound Dickensian, like I was in some dark, satanic mill," she said.

"I wasn't. I was living at The Lodge, surrounded by wonderful people and we had a lot of laughs."

She singled out retired independent MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, as well as retired Nationals whip Kay Hull, as giving her the most support from outside the Labor Party.

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Fresh unrest in Myanmar kills four

BUDDHIST mobs have attacked Muslim neighbourhoods in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state, killing at least four people just hours before a planned visit to the area by the president.

"Four people were reported dead and 50 more were injured by this evening," said a police officer in Thandwe, about 270 kilometres northwest of Yangon.

The mobs also burned down at least 100 houses and shops in villages neighbouring Thandwe city, he said on Tuesday.

"We can't get the exact number of dead and injured now," said Win Myaing, spokesman for the Rakhine state government. "We are trying to restore order," he said by phone.

Buddhist mobs started setting fire to Muslim houses and shops in five villages around Thandwe on Tuesday, and police failed to contain it because of a lack of personnel, the police officer said.

Thandwe is situated more than 100 kilometres south of Sittwe, the capital of the Rakhine state, which was the scene of bloody sectarian fighting last year that claimed at least 167 lives and left 140,000 homeless, most of them Rohingya Muslims.

Last year's violence was aimed at the Rohingya Muslim minority group, a stateless people who have been living for generations in the three northernmost townships of Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh.

Tuesday's violence appeared to be directed against Rakhine Muslims who are Myanmar citizens, sources said.

Trouble started in Thandwe on Saturday after a Buddhist taxi driver complained to police about being verbally abused by a Muslim shop owner for parking in front of his establishment.

Police took the Muslim in for questioning.

When he was released, Rakhine Buddhists became enraged and pelted the man's house with stones, according to police reports.

At least two houses were burned down in Thandwe on Sunday night, Win Myaing said.

The renewed sectarian tensions in the Rakhine state came hours before Myanmar President Thein Sein was due to arrive in the restive state for the first time since taking office in March 2011.

"President Thein Sein will arrive in Sittwe this evening and plans to meet ethnic Rakhine members of parliament tomorrow," Win Myaing said. "He may also visit the refugee camps."

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