Coalition coy on costing times

THE coalition might not reveal the cost of all its policies until the last week of the election campaign, but Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says it won't be as late as the last day.

Mr Abbott says every policy will be funded and costed so Australians are in no doubt of the coalition's economic plans when they go to the polling booths.

"And we intend to keep putting out policies right up into the last week of the election campaign," Mr Abbott told ABC's 7.30 program on Thursday.

"So when all our policies are out we will be able to tell you exactly how much we are going to spend, exactly how much we are going to save and exactly what the overall budget bottom line will be and how much better it will be than under the Labor Party."

Mr Abbott said the coalition would not release them at the last minute, like Labor did before the elections in 2010 and 2007.

He again rejected as lies, Labor's claim that he would increase the GST.

Mr Abbott, who coughed throughout the interview, said the coalition had more to say on health over the next three-and-a-half weeks.

He also said the coalition did not like Labor's three new taxes - on tobacco, the bank levy and changes to the fringe benefits tax on cars - but they might have to keep the first two.

"We possibly might have to," he said.

But he would not go ahead with the fringe benefits tax on cars because it was a "disaster" for the industry.

Mr Abbott reiterated that there was a challenge ahead to manage the budget and find savings but said there would be no overall increase in the tax burden.

He said there was an enormous amount of waste in the system but the coalition had a record of surpluses.

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World powers condemn Egypt bloodshed

EGYPT'S military rulers are facing international condemnation over the bloody crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters, with France warning of the threat of "civil war" and Turkey demanding UN action.

At least 525 people were killed in Wednesday's assaults on two Cairo protest camps of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in the worst violence the country has seen in decades.

The United States led global condemnations overnight against the "deplorable" violence, while Paris, London and Berlin have summoned Egypt's ambassadors to voice their strong concern.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting over Egypt's "massacre" of Morsi supporters.

China was characteristically muted, calling for "maximum restraint" from all parties, while fellow Security Council permanent member Russia only urged tourists to avoid trips to Egypt.

Only two Gulf states that have cracked down on Islamist groups within their own borders initially voiced support for the Cairo military leaders.

French President Francois Hollande said "everything must be done to avoid a civil war" in Egypt, while his government conveyed France's "great concern over the tragic events" to Egypt's envoy.

"France is committed to finding a political solution and calls for elections to be held as soon as possible, in line with the commitments made by Egypt's transitional authorities," said a statement.

Germany also summoned the Egyptian ambassador, a day after its Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urged all sides to renounce violence and return immediately to negotiations.

"On the orders of Foreign Minister Westerwelle, the ambassador was told the position of the German government in no uncertain terms," said a foreign ministry spokeswoman.

Turkey's Erdogan, a Morsi supporter, told reporters in Ankara that "the Security Council of the United Nations should convene quickly to discuss the situation in Egypt".

"This is a very serious massacre ... against the Egyptian people who were only protesting peacefully," he added, criticising "the silence" of the global community in the face of the bloodshed.

The United States did not initially criticise the overthrow of Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected and Islamist leader, and has avoided using the term "coup," which under US law would have halted some $US1.3 billion in annual military aid to Cairo.

But US Secretary of State John Kerry's comments, in which he called for elections, appeared to fully recant his previously expressed support for Egypt's military-backed government.

"Today's events are deplorable and they run counter to Egyptian aspirations for peace, inclusion and genuine democracy," he said.

Denmark suspended aid worth four million euros to Egypt "in response to the bloody events and the very regrettable turn the development of democracy has taken", development aid minister Christian Friis Bach told the Berlingske newspaper.

Further afield, Pakistan expressed its "dismay and deep concern" over the loss of innocent lives and called the events "a major setback for Egypt's return to democracy".

The Philippines urged its 6000 nationals in Egypt to leave the country and raised the alert level because of "the escalating civil unrest and insecurity".

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain separately voiced support for Egypt's military leaders, saying it was the state's duty to restore order.

The Emirati foreign ministry affirmed its "understanding of the sovereign measures taken by the Egyptian government after it had practised maximum self-restraint during the preceding period".

The Gulf state, where dozens of Islamists have been jailed for plotting to overthrow the regime, criticised what it said was the "insistence of political extremism groups to make speeches of violence and incitement ... that led to (Wednesday's) sad events".

Another Gulf state, Bahrain, which is facing an uprising led by the Shi'ite majority against the Sunni regime, said that the "measures taken by Egyptian authorities to restore peace and stability were to protect the rights of the Egyptian citizen, which the state is obliged to do".

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Egypt Islamists call new march, 525 dead

ISLAMISTS have vowed to rally in support of deposed president Mohamed Morsi despite a violent crackdown that sparked Egypt's worst day of violence for decades, with more than 500 people killed.

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Man critically burned in stable fire

A MAN has critical burns to his upper body after fire engulfed a stable at the Gold Coast on Tuesday night.

Around 7.42pm Queensland Fire and Rescue Services were called to the blazing stable in Racecourse Dr at Bundall.

A man was taken to Gold Coast Hospital with severe partial thickness burns to his shoulders, neck, face and back.

It is believed all of the horses were taken to safety.

Crews had the fire under control by 8.47pm.

Fire Investigation has been called to the scene.

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Rescuers race to help typhoon-hit towns

PHILIPPINE rescuers are using helicopters and bulldozers to reach isolated towns devastated by deadly Typhoon Utor, which left tens of thousands homeless and a trail of destruction in its wake.

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Palestinian fury over more settler homes

Israeli authorities have announced the approval of 942 new settler homes in east Jerusalem. Source: AAP

ISRAELI authorities have announced the approval of 942 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, sparking Palestinian fury on the eve of the resumption of fragile peace talks with Israel.

The Jerusalem municipality said that while it had only now given final approval for the new homes in Gilo, an existing settlement in east Jerusalem, they had been a long time in the planning.

But senior PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo said the announcement, coupled with the weekend approval of about 1200 homes to be built elsewhere in east Jerusalem and in the West Bank, threatened the "collapse" of talks.

"This settlement expansion is unprecedented," Abed Rabbo said on Tuesday. "It threatens to make talks fail even before they've started."

The last peace talks broke down in 2010 on the issue of settlement building.

The latest developments come as the Israelis are due to free 26 Palestinian long-term prisoners - the first of a batch of 104 to be released under a deal agreed to get the talks going again.

US Secretary of State John Kerry during a visit to Colombia on Monday urged the Palestinians "not to react adversely" to the weekend Israeli settlement announcement.

Kerry, who took the lead in securing last month's resumption of peace talks after a three-year hiatus, stressed the need for the two sides to return to the negotiating table as planned on Wednesday in Jerusalem.

The city's deputy mayor Yosef Pepe Alalu told AFP the municipality had approved a construction plan for 942 homes in Gilo.

"This is a terrible decision which is a provocation against the Palestinians, the Americans and the whole world who oppose continued settlement building," the left-wing municipal councillor said.

A Tuesday municipality statement confirmed the homes' approval but said they had been planned for a long time.

"The authorisation (was) granted yesterday," the statement from Mayor Nir Barakat's office said.

But "the housing development in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo was previously announced over two years ago".

Israel's housing ministry on Sunday announced tenders for the construction of 793 settlement housing units in annexed east Jerusalem and 394 elsewhere in the West Bank.

"Settlement expansion goes against the US administration's pledges and threatens to cause the negotiations' collapse," said Abed Rabbo.

Palestinian officials had already reacted angrily to Sunday's announcement.

"Israel is attempting to prevent negotiations from taking place on Wednesday," negotiator Mohammad Shtayyeh said at that time.

Kerry, speaking in Bogota on Monday, sought to neutralise the atmosphere, noting that the settlement plans were "to some degree expected", and calling for both sides to resolve their major issues.

"We have known that there was going to be a continuation of some building in certain places, and I think the Palestinians understand that," the chief US diplomat said in Bogota.

But he added that he thought one of the announcements "was outside of that level of expectation, and that's being discussed right now".

Kerry said he did not expect the latest developments to become a "speed bump", but he reiterated that the United States regards all settlements as illegal.

"Once you have security and borders solved, you have resolved the question of settlements. And so I urge all the parties not to react adversely or to provoke adversely, whichever party may do one or the other in any way," he said.

The EU warned on Monday that approval for the West Bank settlements threatened to torpedo the peace talks.

"Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law and threaten to make a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton's spokesman Michael Mann said.

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Morsi loyalists call fresh Egypt protests

Mohamed Morsi's turbulent year in power polarised Egyptians and his removal only deepened divisions. Source: AAP

SUPPORTERS of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi have called more rallies to demand his reinstatement, amid last ditch efforts for reconciliation ahead of a threatened crackdown on protests.

The Anti-Coup Alliance said 10 marches would take off on Sunday from various parts of the capital "to defend the electoral legitimacy" of Egypt's first freely elected president Morsi, ousted by the military on July 3.

His supporters, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, have kept up two huge protest camps in Cairo and said nothing short of his reinstatement will persuade them to disperse.

The call for fresh rallies comes as Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, called for reconciliation talks in the latest of a string of attempts to find a peaceful solution to the political deadlock.

Al-Azhar's Grand Imam, Ahmed al-Tayyeb, is to begin contacts with political factions on Monday aimed at convincing them to sit down to talks later this week, state media reported.

"Al-Azhar has been studying all the proposals for reconciliation put forward by political and intellectual figures... to come up with a compromise formula for all Egyptians," Tayyeb's advisor, Mahmud Azab, told the state-owned al-Ahram.

Morsi's turbulent single year in power polarised Egyptians and his removal by the military only deepened divisions.

The army-backed leadership is under immense pressure at home to crack down on the protests, and immense pressure from the international community to avoid bloodshed.

Senior US, EU and Arab envoys flew into Cairo in recent weeks to try to persuade the two sides to find a peaceful way out of the crisis.

But the government vowed on Wednesday to clear the Islamist protest camps, saying foreign mediation had failed.

More than 250 people have been killed in clashes since Morsi's ouster by the military, following days of mass rallies demanding his resignation.

The government had already ordered police to end the pro-Morsi protests, which it described as a "national security threat."

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Man stabbed in chest in Sydney

A SYDNEY man has been stabbed in the chest multiple times in a fight.

Police say they were alerted around 7pm (AEST) on Sunday after the 27-year-old sought help from a pizza shop in Rosebery following an alleged fight.

The man is in a stable condition in hospital.

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Israel invites bids for 1,000 settler home

ISRAEL is inviting bids to build more than 1,000 settler homes in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, the housing ministry says, ahead of peace talks with the Palestinians.

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