Ice addict thief spared extra jail time

A HOMELESS ice addict who went on a $20,000 spending spree across Sydney using credit cards stolen from mailboxes has been spared extra time in prison.

Kayla Hemmings, 25, received a minimum sentence of 18 months at the NSW District Court on Tuesday for deliberately lighting a fire at the historic Sydney pub, the Lansdowne Hotel, which caused $2 million damage.

Magistrate Eve Wynhausen said she took Tuesday's punishment into account at Central Local Court on Wednesday when she sentenced Hemmings to concurrent sentences, the longest a nine-month jail term, for a string of offences including credit card theft.

Ms Wynhausen said Hemmings had shown remorse for the two-week spending binge in October 2013, which was funded by bank cards stolen from mailboxes on Sydney's north shore.

By the time Hemmings was charged on October 31, 2013, her spending included 48 separate transactions on a credit card totalling just under $5000 and using a David Jones store card to buy two Apple Mac Pro laptops worth more than $5000.

Hemmings' counsel, Mary Underwood, told the court at her sentencing on Wednesday that her client had been using the drug ice at the time and under the influence of her boyfriend.

"I am not excusing her actions, but she did not have a serious criminal record ... until she was in a relationship with someone that amplified this behaviour," Ms Underwood said.

The lawyer said Hemmings was introduced to amphetamines as a teenager by her mother.

"Unfortunately, she's had a number of converging events," Ms Underwood said.

"There's been abuse, physical and sexual, she got pregnant and was abandoned, she was introduced to ice and got mixed up with domestic violence."

Ms Wynhausen said Hemmings' offending had cost the community tens of thousands of dollars.

"I hope that once she is released from custody, she gets her life in order," she said.

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Row over green reforms derails debate

A STRAIGHTFORWARD proposal to change the way fees are managed under national environment law has been sidetracked by a lengthy debate about the Abbott government's green credentials.

The non-controversial bill allows for cost recovery for environmental impact assessments, and on Wednesday cleared the first hurdle of parliament with bipartisan support.

But Labor's environment spokesman Mark Butler used the occasion to move an amendment condemning the government's plan to create a "one-stop-shop" for environmental approvals.

"In eight short months... this government has shown itself to have scant regard indeed for its responsibilities to protect and nurture Australia's environment," Mr Butler told the chamber.

Critics claim the proposal will erode environmental protections by handing federal powers to the states but the government argues it will deliver faster approvals and reduce regulatory duplication.

The amendment failed, and Environment Minister Greg Hunt pushed the bill through in a vote.

He said almost all state governments - Liberal and Labor - strongly supported the reforms on the table.

"The only people opposed to this reform are the current members of the federal opposition," he said.

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Elder's 'stolen wages' claim dismissed

AN Aboriginal elder's claim for wages he says were stolen by the state has been thrown out of court due to a lack of evidence.

Conrad Yeatman, 74, was seeking $35,000 for wages he said were never paid to him when he worked as a carpenter and labourer in north Queensland in the 1950s.

Under the Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act 1939 part of his wages were placed in the trust of the superintendent of the Yarrabah mission where he lived.

Mr Yeatman's District Court claim said that while some of his earnings were paid out when he became exempt from the law in 1958, 70 pounds that he earned working on a station was never recovered.

However, Justice David Andrews granted a state bid to put the case on hold permanently after exhaustive searches found almost no financial documentation, and that potential witnesses were dead.

"The defendants have effectively no evidence whatsoever to test these claims," the judge said.

Justice Andrews said it wasn't disputed that Mr Yeatman's savings had been managed by the superintendent but the money could have been withdrawn on his behalf for food or other reasons.

There was some evidence money had been spent on the indigenous teen for clothes, medical expenses and trips.

"I don't accept Mr Yeatman is capable of giving a useful account of the number and amounts of payments made for and on his behalf," the judge said.

Mr Yeatman, whose claim was seen as a test case and was backed by the Queensland Council of Unions (QCU), must also pay the state's legal costs.

His lawyer Charles Massy said it was an immensely disappointing outcome and the team was considering an appeal.

In 2002, former premier Peter Beattie acknowledged that as much as $500 million may have been stolen from Aborigines' wages.

Mr Beattie offered $55 million in compensation, and a reparation scheme subsequently paid out about $35 million to 7000 applicants.

Mr Yeatman was offered the maximum $7,000 reparation but knocked it back as inadequate.

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HK man charged over undeclared $A300,000

A HONG Kong national has been charged after attempting to leave Australia with $300,000 in undeclared cash he had stashed in his luggage.

The 31-year-old man was picked up at Melbourne's International Airport after customs officers found the money on Tuesday.

The officers also retrieved the man's customs declaration, which confirmed he had not declared he was exporting excess currency.

Federal police stopped the man leaving Australia on a Hong Kong-bound flight.

After his arrest, he faced charges of money-laundering and dealing with money suspected of being the proceeds of crime.

He is expected to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court at a later date.

Victorian regional commander Graham Krisohos of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service said there was no limit to the amount of currency that could be brought in or out of Australia.

However, "if you have more than $10,000 of currency, you must declare it to a Customs and Border Protection officer before you enter or leave the country", Mr Krisohos said.

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Model Schiffer's UK home hit by fire

PARTS of supermodel Claudia Schiffer's English home have been damaged in a blaze.

Up to 50 firefighters were called to the mansion at Coldham Hall in Lawshall, Suffolk, on Monday.

The star has lived at the 16th century property with her husband, film producer Matthew Vaughn, since 2002. They have three children.

A number of outbuildings and stables, including a clock tower, were damaged in the fire which took crews more than two hours to extinguish, Suffolk Fire Service said.

It is understood eight fire crews managed to prevent the flames spreading to the Grade I-listed hall.

The hall is set in 16 hectares, and the couple reportedly paid STG5 million ($A9.1 million) for it.

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Gunmen kill 6 police officers in Pakistan

GUNMEN have stormed a tribal police post in southwestern Pakistan, killing six police officers and wounding three, authorities say.

The attack took place in Wadh area of Baluchistan province's Khuzdar district, where insurgents have launched previous attacks, said Baroz Khan, a senior government official.

Officers manning the post returned fire and pushed the gunmen back toward nearby mountains, Khan said. Reinforcements from the paramilitary Frontier Corps later reached the post, some 300 kilometres south of Quetta, the provincial capital, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion immediately fell on Baluch nationalist groups who have claimed responsibility for such attacks in the past.

For over a decade, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-intensity insurgency by some nationalist groups demanding autonomy or a greater share from mineral and gas resources being extracted from the impoverished province. It is also believed to be home to many Afghan Taliban members.

Residents say a crackdown has sparked disappearances in Baluchistan blamed on security forces. They say the disappearances swelled in the mid-2000s, when Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government cracked down on insurgents there.

Two years ago, the Voice for Baluch Missing Persons organisation handed the United Nations a list of 12,000 names they said belonged to people missing in the conflict.

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Belgians vote, brace for new stalemate

Belgians have begun casting their vote for a new national parliament. Source: AAP

BELGIANS are casting their vote Sunday for a new national parliament, amid fears that a fresh political stalemate may be in the making for the fissured country.

The last federal elections in 2010 left Belgium without a government for a world-record 541 days, because of a rift between the Dutch-speaking Flanders region and French-speaking Wallonia.

"The formation of a government could prove difficult after the elections this time too," Julie Cantalou of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom liberal think tank predicted, pointing to expectations that the nationalist N-VA party will emerge victorious.

The conservative party - the largest in Flanders - would like to eventually see Belgium break up along its linguistic lines.

It came in first nationally during the 2010 elections, but was then locked out from the government negotiations after its hardline leader, Bart De Wever, outright rejected proposed reforms.

In the end, Socialist leader Elio Di Rupo managed to form a six-party coalition government that did not include the N-VA.

Whether the Flemish nationalists could be shut out of new coalition talks is questionable, analysts say. The Socialists - the largest party in Wallonia - may have to end up sitting at the negotiating table with the diametrically opposed N-VA.

"With around a third of Flemish votes, the N-VA is an almost indispensable interlocutor for coalition talks," Cantalou noted.

A renewed stalemate could come at an economic cost for Belgium.

During the 2010-11 political crisis, for instance, the country saw the interest rates on its debt rise to challenging levels.

A new deadlock or a quarrelling coalition could be "a significant barrier to resolving Belgium's deteriorating competitiveness," Michael Pearce of the Capital Economics research group warned.

The national elections will also be the first real test for Belgium's King Philippe, who took over the throne from his father last July.

The monarch will play a role by tasking leading politicians to form a government or appointing mediators.

The vote takes place under the pall of a deadly shooting on Saturday at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in which three people were killed by an unknown individual who fired a gun into the building before fleeing the scene. The motives were initially unclear.

Belgians will also be casting ballots on Sunday for the country's regional legislatures and for a new European Parliament.

The last polls close at 4pm (1400 GMT), with results expected in the evening.

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Car bomb kills at least 10 in Syria

A CAR bomb has struck a pro-government neighbourhood in the central Syrian city of Homs, killing at least 10 people, setting cars on fire and sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky, activists and a government official say.

The blast in the Zahra district, which is predominantly inhabited by Alawites and Christians, sent tremors through Homs, where rebels and the government have struck two ceasefire deals this month that have restored at least a semblance of peace to the shattered city.

The provincial governor, Talal Barazzi, said the attack targeted such reconciliation efforts in Homs.

An official in the Homs governor's office said 10 people were killed in the explosion on Sunday and more than 40 were wounded.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media.

The director of the opposition Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group, Rami Abdurrahman, put the death toll at 12.

He also said more than 40 were wounded.

Differing death tolls are common in the immediate aftermath of attacks in Syria.

Syrian state television blamed the bombing on "terrorists".

The station broadcast footage that showed cars on fire and people trying to push other vehicles away from the blast site.

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China 'offers leniency' to bomb suspects

AUTHORITIES have called for anyone involved in terrorist activities in China's restive northwest to turn themselves in and promised leniency following a bombing that killed dozens of people.

The announcement followed a security crackdown launched over the weekend in response to Thursday's attack at a morning street market, which killed at least 43 people and wounded dozens.

The official Xinhua News Agency said an anti-terrorism campaign in the northwest Xinjiang region would target religious extremist groups, underground gun workshops and "terrorist training camps," and that "terrorists and extremists will be hunted down and punished".

Police have revealed the names of five people blamed for the attack and said they were part of a "terrorist gang".

Based on their names, all the suspects appeared to be Uighurs, the region's most populous Muslim minority.

Police said that four of the assailants were killed in the bombing and that the fifth was captured on Thursday night.

In Sunday's announcement, public security officials in Xinjiang said people involved in a range of designated terrorist activities would receive mitigated punishments if they turn themselves in within 30 days, Xinhua reported.

The announcement also said those who surrender and offer information about other suspects or criminal activities "will be given minor punishment or exempted from punishment".

The bombing in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, left the region's residents on edge and raised fears that organised extremism was on the rise.

Ismail Tiliwaldi, a former governor of Xinjiang, said in an editorial posted on a website sponsored by regional authorities that the attackers "vainly attempted to attract attention through a large-scale bloody incident and maliciously sow ethnic estrangement and cause hatred and opposition to achieve their criminal plot of separating the country," according to Xinhua.

In far-off Beijing, police announced they were canceling vacations for officers and would step up patrols at train stations, schools, hospitals and markets.

A measure under which passengers at stations in central Beijing are required to undergo security checks will be extended to three additional stations, the city government said.

Thursday's violence was the deadliest single attack in Xinjiang's recent history, and the latest of several that have targeted civilians, in contrast to a past pattern of targeting police and officials.

It was the highest death toll since several days of rioting in Urumqi in 2009 between Uighurs and members of China's dominant Han ethnic group left nearly 200 people dead.

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UK deputy PM facing Lib Dem calls to quit

THE leadership of British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has been questioned by some of his own MPs as Liberal Democrat candidates joined voices urging him to quit over dismal election results.

The Deputy Prime Minister has insisted he is staying despite the party losing more than 250 councillors in local elections and anticipating another rout when European election results emerge later.

Southport MP John Pugh suggested that a dozen of his Commons colleagues had expressed doubts to him over whether Clegg should continue at the head of the party.

An internal "post-mortem" of the poor night at the polls - in which the party was almost or entirely wiped out in some former strongholds - "has to include a truly open, mature and balanced look at our whole strategy, including the leadership issue", the Southport MP told the Sunday Times.

"Although I admire enormously Nick's bravery, it does not follow that because the captain should go down with the ship that the ship has to go down with the captain."

Fellow Lib Dem MP Adrian Sanders, who represents Torbay, said: "The problem is the messenger, very few people say it's the message."

Clegg has conceded that the strongly pro-EU party could lose all 11 of its MEPS when results are declared later on Sunday and even the most optimistic polls suggest only a handful will survive.

As the scale of the losses became clear, Clegg said he would "absolutely not" resign, and insisted the Lib Dems were still succeeding where they focused on their achievements in coalition.

He blamed a wider "anti-politics mood" but his party has suffered in opinion polls, with ratings at consistently low levels since joining the Conservative-led coalition.

Two would-be MPs are among more than 600 people who have signed up to the online LibDems4Change campaign which has published an open letter calling on Clegg to step down.

Jackie Porter, who is set to fight the Conservative-held target seat of Winchester in next May's general election, said the party was "not going forward with a clear strategy".

The county councillor said the party's achievements were overshadowed because Clegg "allowed himself to be portrayed as just another pea out of the same pod" as Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband.

To win back support, the party needed to demonstrate it was different, she said.

If Clegg refuses to quit, a leadership contest would be triggered if 75 local party associations formally demanded one, or if a majority of the parliamentary party approved a no-confidence motion.

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