Council worker asked to cover up asbestos

A FORMER northwestern NSW council worker claims he was asked to cover up dumped asbestos with green waste and garbage.

Mark Sankey said he worked at landfill sites for Gwydir Shire Council from 2008 until March this year.

On numerous occasions he alleges he was asked to cover dumped asbestos with garbage, green waste, push it into walls and sometimes burn it.

"When I was first in that job I was exposed to asbestos many, many times," he told AAP on Wednesday.

"They would ask me to just push the asbestos under the garbage so people couldn't see it."

He said only two landfills in the shire were locked, allowing dumping to occur overnight.

It was only after he began receiving training on how asbestos was to be properly disposed of that he began questioning the requests.

"When I asked questions they threatened me with my job."

In March, Mr Sankey said he was made redundant after being told his skills were no longer required.

Gwydir Shire Council was not immediately available to comment on Mr Sankey's claims, which come after the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia (ADFA) accused the council of unsafe work practices and illegal dumping, which is potentially putting the residents at risk.

ADFA president Barry Robson said worried Warialda locals had reported council workers cutting asbestos cement pipes in a residential street without safety equipment or warnings.

He also said there were reports asbestos was being illegally dumped or "simply being tossed over the fence of local tips".

But Gwydir Shire Mayor John Coulton dismissed the reports as "unfair and misleading", saying safety concerns had been fully investigated.

"The council is confident that no staff member or member of the public has been endangered during the water pipe replacement program in Warialda," he said in a statement.

He also rubbished allegations workers in the small town were told to misclassify asbestos waste to minimise disposal costs.

WorkCover NSW and the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) have both confirmed they were looking into the claims.

The EPA said it received a report from Gwydir Shire Council on September 19 saying the council had inadvertently deposited about 10 cubic metres of soil with bonded asbestos pipe on council-owned lands at Warialda.

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Sports cars, glamour usher in Bond novel

FLANKED by vintage sports cars and glamorous flight attendants, author William Boyd has unveiled the new James Bond novel, Solo, in which he opts for a 1960s settings for 007's exploits.

Setting off from The Dorchester hotel in London on Wednesday, copies of the book were driven in a convoy of Jensen cars to London's Heathrow Airport from where they were flown to Amsterdam, Cape Town, Delhi, Edinburgh, Los Angeles and Sydney.

Boyd said the novel, adorned with a dust cover pierced through with six 'bullet holes', was the culmination of a lifelong passion for the original books about the dashing British secret agent, penned by Ian Fleming.

"I was always interested in Fleming, the man, to such an extend that I had to put him in one of my novels, in 2002, Any Human Heart," he said.

To prepare for writing the latest Bond novel, Boyd re-read all the Fleming books, "in chronological order, pen in hand, taking notes".

"I came to admire what he's done as a writer," said Boyd, who decided against donning a Bond-like dinner suit for the occasion and came in a blue suit and white shirt instead.

Solo steps away from the cinema incarnation of Bond - currently played by the muscular Daniel Craig - and portrays 007 as a veteran agent sent to single-handedly stop a civil war in the fictional West African nation of Zanzarim in 1969.

The plot also takes Bond to Washington, where he discovers a complicated web of geopolitical intrigue, and to a host of cities around the world.

Before packing his bags, Bond has - naturally - enjoyed a night at The Dorchester and the start of a potential love affair with a beautiful woman.

Boyd said the superspy's worldly ways with the opposite sex had been an eye-opener for him as a schoolboy.

"I was probably too young at the time to read these books. I remember reading From Russia With Love while I was at prep school in the north of Scotland - we used to read it to each other after lights out, it was a kind of illicit thrill."

Yet he insisted that Bond was a complex character who was not merely seeking quick flings.

"Bond wants relationships with women, not just casual sex," he said.

"I haven't set out to make Bond ultra-modern but there is no doubt that he is aware of how the world has changed around him."

Boyd is the latest big-name author to take on a Bond novel. The last two were penned by Sebastian Faulks (Devil May Care, in 2008) and Jeffery Deaver (Carte Blanche, in 2011).

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Delhi gang-rape convicts set to appeal

FOUR men sentenced to death in the Delhi gang-rape case are likely to appeal, their lawyers say.

A special trial court handed down the sentences on September 13 after finding them guilty in the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old student in December.

The case was referred to the Delhi High Court for confirmation of the sentence, which on Monday directed jail authorities to produce the men before it on Tuesday.

"Production warrants have been issued, now the court will inquire whether they want to challenge the sentence," said AP Singh, the lawyer representing two of the defendants.

"My clients have decided to appeal against the sentence and that is what we will inform the court. We can file the appeal within 30 days from the date of verdict," he said.

VK Anand and Vivek Sharma, lawyers for other defendants, also confirmed they would begin appeals.

"They have retained us as lawyers, barring last minute changes. The High Court will hear arguments from the prosecution and defence before deciding on the matter," Anand said.

The appeal could take up to a year, Indian media outlets reported citing legal experts.

A death sentence can be challenged in the High Court and the Supreme Court, after which the defendant can file a mercy petition with the president.

The Delhi gang rape led to protests across the country and international outrage, prompting the government to amend laws to apply stricter punishments for rape including the death penalty if the victim died or was left in a vegetative state.

The police charged six people initially. The case against one of the accused was dropped after he was found hanged in his cell in jail during the trial. The sixth accused, a juvenile, was found guilty by a juvenile court and sent to a correctional home for three years.

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East Timor bans martial arts clubs

EAST Timor police say there will be zero tolerance against those who continue to practice a local martial art after the government banned all clubs following deadly gang violence.

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Turnbull called for NBN Co board's scalps

The communications minister has asked the NBN Co board to resign, a spokesman confirmed. Source: AAP

LABOR says the "trashing" of the national broadband network has begun after Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull asked NBN Co board members to resign last week.

A spokesman for Mr Turnbull confirmed late on Monday night that Mr Turnbull made the request ahead of the board meeting last Friday.

He declined to confirm NBN Co chairwoman Siobhan McKenna and all but one of her board colleagues have since offered their resignations.

The spokesman told AAP there may be an announcement about new board members soon.

It is understood the matter will be considered at a meeting of the federal cabinet as early as next Tuesday.

"And so the trashing of the national broadband network has begun," Labor communications spokesman Anthony Albanese said on Monday.

The resignations may relate to Mr Turnbull's comment earlier this month that while he had no criticism of individual members "it is remarkable that there is nobody on that board who has either run or built or been responsible for building or managing a large telecommunications network".

"Given that is the core business of NBN Co, that is a singular deficiency", Mr Turnbull said.

Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten said the Abbott government would stack the NBN Co board with its "friends".

The Abbott government has flagged at least three examinations into broadband: an independent audit of NBN Co's books, a review of its commercial progress and a Productivity Commission inquiry into broadband policy.

It wants to cut down the cost and speed up the rollout by changing from a fibre-to-the-premises to a fibre-to-the-node model.

NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley, who also sits on the board, announced his retirement in July but remains in the job during the transition.

Former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski has been flagged as a possible replacement for Mr Quigley.

The NBN Co website makes no mention of the resignations, but states: "This website is currently under review, pending the introduction of new government policy."

Liberal frontbencher Mitch Fifield said the government would ensure there was "good and appropriate governance" of the NBN.

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Dutch royal Beatrix breaks cheekbone

PRINCESS Beatrix, the former Dutch queen, has undergone surgery after falling and breaking a cheekbone.

Beatrix, 75, was operated on Sunday morning after the fall and will remain hospitalised for a few days.

After 33 years on the throne, Beatrix was replaced as Dutch monarch on April 30 this year by her eldest son Willem-Alexander.

Following her abdication, she was named Princess Beatrix and continues to perform public duties.

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Computer mishap delays ISS supply ship

A BRAND new commercial cargo ship making its orbital debut has experienced trouble with a computer data link, and its arrival at the International Space Station has been delayed at least two days.

The rendezvous was aborted less than six hours before the scheduled arrival of Orbital Sciences Corp's Cygnus capsule, packed with 590 kilograms of food and clothes for the space station crew.

The Virginia-based company said it was working on a software repair, but it would be at least two more days until another approach is attempted.

Orbital Sciences said the two orbiting vessels established direct contact early Sunday, four days after the Cygnus' launch from Virginia. But the Cygnus rejected some of the data, which interrupted the entire rendezvous. Until then, everything had been going well.

Because this is a test flight of the Cygnus, nothing valuable or urgent is on board. If necessary, it could keep orbiting the world for weeks, even months, before pulling up at the orbiting lab.

Orbital Sciences is the second private company to launch supplies to the space station. In 2012, the California-based SpaceX began accomplishing that job for NASA.

The space agency is paying the two companies to deliver goods to the space station, in the absence of the now-retired space shuttles.

Three astronauts - an American, Italian and Russian - currently are aboard the orbiting outpost.

On Wednesday, three more crew members will be launched from Kazakhstan. Orbital Sciences will have to work around that manned flight, delaying the Cygnus further if a Tuesday hookup is not feasible.

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Raise a glass, Newton-John clinic opens

Olivia Newton-John has opened the final stage of her Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne. Source: AAP

OLIVIA Newton-John says her completed cancer centre in Melbourne should be a place where everybody knows your name, and has a drink waiting for you too - if that's what you want.

Newton-John recently lost her sister to cancer and says the experience taught her how important "loving care and support" is for someone who is dying.

On Friday, after a decade in the making, budget shortfalls and many fundraising campaigns, the star finally opened the final stage of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in the city's north.

The opening brings online more palliative care beds, more treatment beds and additional research laboratories.

But the cancer survivor says the centre needs to also be about enabling patients to be surrounded by people who know them and care about them.

"(People who) give you all the food you want, that give you a vodka if you want one," she said.

Newton-John said the marriage of the words "cancer" and "wellness" are important too.

"When you see that you think, 'I can go from cancer to wellness,'" she said.

Her big dream is that, one day, she can erase "cancer" from the centre's logo.

"It will be a wellness centre only because we'll find a cure for cancer."

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