NSW MPs votes to disband Game Council

A CONTROVERSIAL body that licensed amateur hunters will be formally disbanded after legislation passed NSW parliament.

State Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson introduced the legislation last month, which abolishes the controversial Game Council and transfers the responsibility of licensing to the Department of Primary Industries.

The bill passed the upper house on Wednesday night.

The O'Farrell government moved to scrap the council in July, after a scathing review by public servant Steve Dunn found it was poorly governed and had an "inherent conflict of interest".

Ms Hodgkinson said the bill to disband the council will restore confidence in hunting as a recreational activity.

Game and feral animals cost the agricultural sector $70 million of losses each year across NSW and must be controlled, she said.

"We believe in the role of volunteer hunters in contributing to co-ordinated pest management programs," Ms Hodgkinson said in a statement.

Greens MP David Shoebridge said the bill's passage was an important blow to the developing gun and hunting culture in NSW.

"The government was pushed by the community of NSW, with the support of the Greens, into abolishing the pro-gun Game Council and tonight's vote finally achieved that," he said in a statement.

The Game and Feral Animal Control Amendment Bill 2013 now awaits royal assent.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bank of America Q3 profit up sharply

BANK of America Corp says its third-quarter profit surged as it saw increases from investments and interest charged on loans.

The second-largest US bank reported on Wednesday that it earned $US2.5 billion ($A2.63 billion) in the July-September period, up from $US340 million a year earlier. On a per-share basis, earnings were 20 US cents, beating the 19 US cents expected by financial analysts.

Bank of America has been slimming down and cutting jobs since chief executive Brian Moynihan took over in early 2010. The strategy is meant to make the bank easier to manage and to reduce riskier businesses.

Third-quarter revenue slipped to $US22.2 billion from $US22.5 billion, coming in close to the analysts' forecast of $US22 billion.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

McCann appeal sparks huge response

UK police are focussing on a man with dark hair who was seen the night Madeleine McCann disappeared. Source: AAP

A NEW British police television appeal about the 2007 disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann in Portugal has triggered an unprecedented public response, the BBC says.

UK detectives who have spent two years raking over the case published new electronic images of men they want to trace, plus a reworked timeline of events leading up to Madeleine's disappearance.

Police said the appeal, broadcast on Monday on BBC TV's Crimewatch, triggered more than 300 calls and 170 emails from the public.

They are keen to find one man seen carrying a young child in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on the night of May 3, 2007, around the time Kate McCann discovered her eldest daughter was missing from their holiday apartment.

London's Metropolitan Police said the man was of "vital importance" in their quest to discover what happened to Madeleine, who vanished just a few days before her fourth birthday.

"It's been a truly unprecedented response," Crimewatch editor Joe Mather told BBC radio.

"There were lots of calls from British people who were in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine's disappearance who'd never previously spoken to the Met.

"Several callers mentioned the same name" for the man seen carrying a child, he said.

"It is a long shot but it's remarkable how often results are possible even several years down the line.

"The ability to rule people out of an investigation or out of a timeline can be almost as significant as being able to name potential suspects.

"There were genuinely useful calls."

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, the senior investigating officer in the case, said his team had had a "revelation moment" that put the spotlight on other possibilities.

Their probe focused on the time between 8.30pm, when the McCanns left their three children in their apartment to dine with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant, to when Kate McCann discovered Madeleine was missing at 10pm.

They established that a man seen carrying a child near their apartment at 9.15pm by a friend of the McCanns, was almost certainly an innocent British holidaymaker collecting his own daughter from a nearby creche.

That put the spotlight on other events leading up to 10pm.

The new e-fits of the man whom police are especially keen to trace were drawn up based on descriptions from different witnesses. They said the blonde-haired child did not seem in distress.

The witnesses described the man as white, between 20 and 40 years old, with short brown hair, of medium build and height and clean-shaven. One image shows him with a fuller jaw than the other.

Police said they were working on the theory that the abduction could have been planned and were also interested in tracing "one or two" fair-haired men who had been seen "lurking" around the apartment complex before Madeleine's disappearance. Witnesses said the men were speaking German or Dutch.

They also speculated that the youngster may have disturbed a burglary, pointing to a sharp increase in local break-ins in the months leading up to the incident.

The appeal will also be broadcast in Ireland, Germany and The Netherlands - though there are no plans to show it in Portugal.

Redwood was to visit The Netherlands on Tuesday and Germany on Wednesday.

German public broadcaster ZDF's Aktenzeichen XY program will on Wednesday show the images of the key man police want to trace.

The force announced it was offering a new reward of up to STG20,000 ($A33,881) for information leading to the prosecution of McCann's abductor.

Portuguese authorities closed their investigation in 2008, but the Met Police spent two years reviewing the case at the British government's request and opened their own probe in July this year.

The operation has interviewed more than 440 people and identified 41 "persons of interest".

During Crimewatch, the McCanns, who launched a global media campaign to find their daughter, said they were still optimistic she could be traced.

"We're feeling hopeful," said father Gerry McCann.

"These cases can get solved", he said, citing instances where long-lost people have been found.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kirby moved by story from Korean woman

FORMER High Court Judge Michael Kirby admits he's a bit of a tough nut from more than three decades on the bench.

But he says he was especially moved by the story of an elderly Korean woman, one of many who testified to the United Nations Human Rights Council inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea.

Justice Kirby, who heads a three-member team investigating systematic, widespread and grave violations in the reclusive Asian nation, will address the UN general assembly on findings later this month.

He says he had heard many upsetting stories.

"I am a pretty hard nut because I was a judge for 34 years in Australia," he told ABC television.

"A lot of the stories one hears... are very distressing and you have to just distance yourself from it so that you don't allow emotion to contaminate your assessments and judgment."

Justice Kirby said the elderly woman related how she last saw her husband in 1951 during the Korean War as troops moved back and forth.

Believing it was safe, he emerged from a hiding place, just as North Korean troops returned. She hasn't seen him since.

"She said losing a partner was like losing your arm. I feel a need, she said, to embrace him. I just want to know is he still alive," he said.

"This is 1951. This was this elderly woman just talking of such love for her husband in such simple human terms. I found it a very moving thing. One thinks of one's own life in those circumstances and the terrible burden of not knowing what has happened to your partner."

In the inquiry, Justice Kirby and his team have heard testimony in South Korea, Japan, Thailand and the US, but not North Korea, which has refused to allow them in.

He said his job was to conduct an inquiry that was independent, fair and faithful to the truth, backed by the testimony of a large number of witnesses.

"It's then a matter for the politicians in the general assembly and the other organs of the UN to decide what should be done," he said.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Parliament to sit over four weeks in 2013

PARLIAMENT is likely to be recalled in a month's time, with four sitting weeks before Christmas.

AAP understands the 44th Parliament will first sit on November 12, with the Tuesday sitting a largely ceremonial affair.

This includes swearing in members, electing a Speaker and a speech by the governor-general.

There will be four sitting weeks before Christmas, split into two fortnights with a break in between.

One of the weeks will include Senate estimates hearings.

Under the previous parliamentary timetable, which was dropped once the election was called, an estimates week was due to be held in late October.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Facebook opens office in Israel

Theme park visit sparks measles scare

A TEEN from one of Australia's lowest-vaccinated regions has triggered a new measles scare after visiting a Gold Coast theme park on school holidays.

Bandidos boss banned from Coast

UPDATE: Bandidos president, who apparently lives with his parents in Brisbane, has been banned from going near his gang's Gold Coast turf.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Another arrest in fruit shop shooting

A 27-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested in connection with a deadly shooting in a western Sydney fruit shop.

Police arrested the man in a Villawood home on Monday night and are interviewing him at Fairfield Police Station.

He's the second person to be arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Kamran Yousaf.

Mr Yousaf, an employee of the store, was found lying in the back of the Villawood Value Fruit Market with bullet wounds to his head and abdomen on Saturday.

Linh Dang, 27, was arrested at the scene and charged with murder and armed robbery in company, but police continued to search for his alleged accomplice.

Police allege Dang was armed with a silver-coloured pistol when he walked into the fruit shop with another unknown man.

But what began as a robbery quickly turned deadly when Mr Yousaf put up a fight.

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Mongols patch over the Finks in WA

The notorious US-based Mongols bikie gang has patched over the Finks in Western Australia. Source: AAP

A POLICE operation has confirmed the notorious Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang has patched over the Finks in Western Australia.

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan flagged concerns last week about the US-based bikie gang taking over the Finks and said police had been monitoring the situation.

There were previously only three Mongols in WA and all are in prison.

There are about 12 Finks members in WA and about half are in prison, while their club house has been frozen.

Deputy Commissioner Chris Dawson told reporters on Sunday that police were monitoring all gangs and played down the threat of the Mongols, who have a violent rivalry with the Hells Angels in the US.

"Irrespective of what they call themselves, police regard them (all) as criminal gangs and will continue to treat them as such," Mr Dawson said.

Laws allowing WA police and the state's corruption watchdog to declare bikie gangs illegal were passed by parliament late last year, but have not yet been proclaimed.

The intelligence was gathered as part of a national day of action against outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Police executed search warrants throughout Perth's metropolitan area on Saturday targeting two club houses and residences in Woodvale, Aveley, Balga, Henley Brooke, Butler, Ocean Reef, Landsdale, Quinns Rock and Wilson.

Seized items included a baton, a tracking device believed to be used for vehicles, 28g of white powder that is yet to be identified, and $56,000 in cash.

Further operations were carried out at licensed premises in Fremantle, Burswood and regional areas.

Charges included disorderly behaviour, five counts of possessing a prohibited drug and possessing a smoking implement.

In a joint operation with the Department of Corrective Services, 71 prison cells occupied by gang members were also searched and prison contraband was seized.

Nationally, 53 people were charged, 79 search warrants were executed and 362 licensed premises were patrolled.

Mr Dawson said the operation was successful despite a small haul in WA.

"The outcome of the operation is not necessarily the volume of what is seized, but it's the effective policing and the gathering of any evidence," he said.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Strong winds expected amid NSW bushfires

Properties have reportedly been damaged as an out of control bushfire continues to blaze in NSW. Source: AAP

FIREFIGHTERS are bracing for a night of strong winds and thunderstorms, as a number of homes in NSW were destroyed by bushfires.

The NSW Rural Fire Service has downgraded bushfires in Port Stephens in the state's Hunter region to 'watch and act' levels, but warns a southerly change could spread the blaze.

"It can prove to be quite problematic because there's going to be extremely strong wind gusts that come with it," a spokesman told AAP on Sunday.

"When we get a shift from the wind and it turns south which we're seeing tonight, the sides of the fires can then turn into the fronts of the fires."

Five properties have reportedly been damaged or destroyed between Salt Ash and Tanilba Bay in Port Stephens.

"We don't have solid confirmation of that yet," the NSW RFS spokesman said.

"But obviously there's been footage on the news tonight which clearly shows there have been properties destroyed."

The fires across the state come as the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the mid-north coast, the Hunter region and other parts of NSW.

The bureau is urging people in those areas to move their cars away from trees and stay indoors.

Conditions are easing on the Tangory Mountain fire ground, 15km east of Singleton but authorities warn the southerly change could make the situation worse.

Once the southerly change passes tonight, firefighters expect conditions to ease considerably. They'll use the calmer conditions in the next two days to contain the remaining fires.

More than 100 firefighters are also working on controlling a large bushfire in the Webbs Creek area, near Wisemans Ferry, in the Hawkesbury region.

Meanwhile, 43 cars were destroyed near Sydney Olympic Park in Sydney's west when a grass fire spread into a carpark near an aquatic centre, Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Ian Krimmer told AAP.

Around 1500 people were evacuated and three people were treated for smoke inhalation.

Authorities have declared the area safe but will continue to monitor it overnight.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Vic boy killed attempting to cross tracks

• From: AAP
• October 13, 2013 10:02PM

A VICTORIAN teenager killed as he attempted to cross railway tracks may have misjudged the speed of the oncoming train, police say.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More