A 57-YEAR-OLD man has been killed after a car accident on the Gold Coast.
Police were called to the scene of a single vehicle accident in the suburb of Nerang where a car had crashed into a tree around 3am (AEDT) on Saturday morning.
The man, who was the only person in the car, was taken to Gold Coast hospital but died from his injuries.
Police are continuing their investigations into the accident.
HUNDREDS of candidates vying for a seat in Japan's parliament made their final pitches on Saturday in an election expected to see the return of the country's old guard.
Opinion polls show the Liberal Democratic Party on course for a convincing victory in Sunday's lower house election, with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda set to pass into history as the sixth consecutive one-year premier.
Hawkish LDP leader Shinzo Abe is predicted to return to the premiership, a job he held without much distinction in 2006-7, in a move that may herald a hardening of Japan's foreign policy at a time of heightened tensions with China.
As light rain fell over Tokyo, some of the over 1,500 candidates running in the poll stood before train stations to make final pleas to voters, while their staff held banners with the candidates names and parties printed in bold typeface.
Abe donned a white windbreaker to speak with with voters in Wako-city, Saitama prefecture, north of the capital, reiterating his promise to reform Japan's education system, Kyodo News said.
Abe has pledged in previous campaign speeches to "repair the Japan-US alliance and firmly defend our territorial soil and waters".
In one of the last gauges of the public mood before Sunday's vote, polls published Friday showed the LDP and its junior coalition party set to achieve a possible two-thirds majority in the lower house ballot.
That would hand Abe a mandate to try to fulfil his campaign pledge of bolstering Japan's military and coastal defences, particularly on the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islands, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus.
On Thursday Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese plane entered airspace over the Japanese-held chain. Tokyo said it was the first time a Chinese state-owned plane had breached its airspace.
North Korea's rocket launch earlier this week could also boost the right-wing vote in a country that lives uneasily next door to an unpredictable Pyongyang.
Polls indicate that despite a strong current of anti-nuclear feeling since the March 2011 tsunami sparked reactor meltdowns at Fukushima, an array of smaller parties promising an atomic exit may struggle to gain traction.
A 17-YEAR-OLD learner driver has been caught drink driving and speeding in his mum's car on the first day of a Victoria Police road safety blitz in the lead-up to Christmas.
The boy was pulled over in Carrum Downs, in Melbourne's southeast, about 1.20am (AEDT) after being clocked travelling at 112km/h in a 70km/h zone.
He also returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.139 per cent. Learner drivers must have a zero blood alcohol content.
The Carrum Downs boy had his learner's permit suspended for 12 months and received penalty notices for offences including drink driving, failing to have headlights on a vehicle and speeding.
The teen was one of 36 drink drivers caught on the first day of Operation Break Up.
The police campaign is targeting alcohol and drug driving, speed, fatigue and driver distraction during the high-risk pre-Christmas period.
Across the state, police detected 1261 traffic offences and 113 crime offences.
They conducted 9748 preliminary breath tests and 106 roadside drug tests, which found five drug drivers.
Police also detected:
- 39 disqualified/suspended drivers
- 58 unlicensed drivers
- 150 unregistered vehicles
- 376 speeding offences
- 123 mobile phone offences
Operation Break Up runs until 23 December.
US envoy to the UN Susan Rice has withdrawn as a contender to become the next US secretary of state. Source: AAP
SUSAN Rice, the embattled UN ambassador, abruptly withdrew from consideration to be the next secretary of state on Thursday after a bitter, weeks long standoff with Republican senators who declared they would fight to defeat her nomination.
The reluctant announcement makes Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry the likely choice to be the nation's next top diplomat when Hillary Clinton departs soon. Rice withdrew when it became clear her political troubles were not going away, and support inside the White House for her potential nomination had been waning in recent days, administration officials said.
Rice had become the face of the bungled administration account of what happened in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012 when four Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya, were killed in what is now known to have been a terrorist attack.
In another major part of the upcoming Cabinet shake-up for President Barack Obama's second term, former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska now is seen as the front-runner to be defence secretary, with official word expected as soon as next week.
For the newly re-elected president, Rice's withdrawal was a sharp political setback and a sign of the difficulties Obama faces in a time of divided and divisive government. Already, he had been privately weighing whether picking Rice would cost him political capital he would need on later votes.
When Rice ended the embarrassment by stepping aside, Obama used the occasion to criticise Republicans who were adamantly opposed to her possible nomination.
"While I deeply regret the unfair and misleading attacks on Susan Rice in recent weeks, her decision demonstrates the strength of her character," he said.
"I am saddened we have reached this point," Rice said.
Obama made clear she would remain in his inner circle, saying he was grateful she would stay as "our ambassador at the United Nations and a key member of my Cabinet and national security team." Rice, too, said in her letter she would be staying.
Clinton, in a brief statement, said Rice had "been an indispensable partner over the past four years" and that she was confident "that she will continue to represent the United States with strength and skill."
Obama had defiantly declared he would choose her for secretary of state regardless of the political criticism, if he wanted, but such a choice could have gotten his second term off to a turbulent start with Congress.
In a letter to Obama, Rice said she was convinced the confirmation process would be "lengthy, disruptive and costly." The letter was part of a media rollout aimed at upholding her reputation. It included an NBC News interview in which she said her withdrawal "was the best thing for our country."
Rice may end up close to Obama's side in another way, as his national security adviser should Tom Donilon move on to another position, though that is not expected imminently. The security adviser position would not require Senate confirmation.
Rice would have faced strong opposition from Senate Republicans who challenged her much-maligned televised comments about the cause of the deadly raid on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Her efforts to satisfy Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte and Susan Collins in unusual, private sessions fell short. The Republicans emerged from the meetings still expressing doubts about her qualifications.
"The position of secretary of state should never be politicised," Rice said. "As someone who grew up in an era of comparative bipartisanship and as a sitting U.S national security official who has served in two US administrations, I am saddened that we have reached this point."
Attention now shifts to Kerry, who came close to winning the presidency in 2004 and has been seen as desiring the State job. In a statement, he made no mention of his own candidacy but praised Rice, who was an adviser to him his in his presidential bid.
Kerry was an early backer of Obama and was under consideration to become his first secretary of state. Obama has dispatched Kerry to foreign hot spots on his behalf. Kerry played the role of Republican Mitt Romney during Obama's presidential debate preparations this year.
The longtime senator would be almost certain to be easily confirmed by his colleagues on Capitol Hill.
A MAN has been charged with car theft and driving while disqualified after allegedly fleeing police and hiding in a waterway in a reserve in Sydney's north.
Police said that at about 3am (AEDT) on Friday a man was seen driving a Toyota Hilux without its headlights on along the Warringah Freeway at Artarmon.
Police attempted to stop the driver for a random breath test but he stopped the vehicle on the freeway and ran into nearby bushland.
Officers chasing him saw him enter a waterway and a police search involving a helicopter, police divers and the police dog squad was launched.
A 24-year-old man was arrested at 8.45am and has been charged with taking and driving a vehicle, driving while disqualified and breach of bail.
He was refused bail to appear in Central Local Court on Friday.
Police said the Hilux was stolen from a building site in Sydney's North Shore sometime after 1.30am on Friday.
VICTORIAN motorists will be slugged with more expensive licence renewal fees as part of $750 million in revenue raising measures announced in the mid-year budget update.
The state is expected to be $137 million in the black at the end of June next year, which is $18 million less than the surplus forecast in May.
Premier Ted Baillieu said $1 billion in revenue had been wiped from the state's bottom line since this year's budget.
The black hole is partly due to $285 million less in expected stamp duty revenue.
The revenue raising measures include an increase in driver's licence renewal fees by $20 for a three-year permit and $70 for a 10-year licence.
To receive the $7000 first home owner grant, first home buyers will have to live in the property for a minimum of 12 months, instead of just six months.
Government departments will also have to trim spending to meet a two per cent efficiency dividend from January 1, 2014.
Mr Baillieu pointed the finger at the Gillard government for a significant part of the state's revenue woes.
He said the commonwealth had announced major policies such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the Gonski education reforms that will deliver a nasty blow to the states' finances.
"It is a real problem, it's a real challenge," he told reporters.
"You can't have all of these noble initiatives without having revenue streams to be able to pay for them.
"There are time bombs being planted into the forward estimates of the commonwealth budget and state budgets and they are being planted by the commonwealth."
As part of the revenue scramble, the coalition will reallocate some government aged care places to private providers in Melbourne.
The government also intends to gradually reform managed disability accommodation and transfer some of the functions of statutory authority Sustainability Victoria to the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
Shadow Treasurer Tim Holding said the government was reducing services to families and was formulating a plan to increase taxes.
He said the treasurer had regular updates on stamp duty revenue and should have told the public about the revenue shortfall earlier.
"Victorians are entitled to ask how did the government not see this coming," Mr Holding told reporters.
He said the treasurer had not ruled out further public sector job cuts.
"The government is clearly hatching a secret plan to dramatically increase the tax burden on Victorian families and it's always someone else's fault."
Community and Public Sector Union Victorian secretary Karen Batt said the government was rehashing the Kennett era strategy of privatising services.
"They say it won't affect services but believe me it will," she told reporters.
"It will have a direct impact on the ability of this state to provide for our aged parents into future."
Foreign Minister Bob Carr is set to visit Sri Lanka, with asylum seeker talks on the agenda. Source: AAP
FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr says Sri Lankans are getting the message that economic migrants who arrive in Australian waters will be swiftly sent home.
"Every time we send a plane load back, a message goes out to the villages of Sri Lanka," he told Sky News on Thursday.
"You can pay what is, in Sri Lankan terms, a fortune to a people smuggler, but you will only be sent back, you won't get to make it to a new life in Australia."
More than 600 Sri Lankans asylum seekers have been returned involuntary since September.
"Sure that has cost a bit of money, but it has asserted Australian sovereignty and Australian control of irregular immigration," Senator Carr said.
The foreign minister leaves Australia on Thursday for visits to East Timor and Sri Lanka.
UP to 1000 cleaning contractors will be audited by next year in a bid to catch shonky operators who underpay workers.
The Fair Work Ombudsman on Thursday announced the random audits following concerns over a high level of non-compliance with fair work practices by cleaning contractors.
United Voice, the union representing cleaners, welcomed the audits, saying major corporations such as Westfield also needed to take some responsibility if they employed shonky contractors.
The ombudsman said in a statement that inspectors had recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars for underpaid cleaners over the past three years.
Auditing of 376 cleaning businesses in 2010 found 149 were non-compliant with federal workplace laws.
The most common contraventions were underpayment of penalty rates, inadequate record-keeping and failure to keep to minimum shifts.
Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson said the 2010 results and ongoing complaints from the sector prompted the decision to undertake a follow-up campaign.
"We are mindful that this is an industry which employs large numbers of young people and migrant workers who may be vulnerable if they are not fully aware of their workplace rights."
United Voice National President Michael Crosby said the audits were a shot across the bows of major corporations like Westfield, which was one of the largest users of contract cleaners in Australia.
"Underpayments, cash payments, short shifts, bullying and sham contracting are rife in this industry," Mr Crosby said in a statement.
"These contractors don't operate in a vacuum. They are in business because of the refusal of property owners to accept responsibility for the consequences of their contracting decisions."
Mr Crosby said the ombudsman had recently warned business operators they risked breaching workplace laws if they knew underpayments were occurring.
ELEPHANT and Rhino poaching surged to record levels in 2011 and is worth at least $US19 billion ($A18.08 billion) a year, according to a report commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The report, launched on Wednesday, found criminals view it as high profit and low risk because governments don't give it a high enough priority or have an effective response.
Germany's U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig, who hosted the launch, said strong demand and high prices for rhino horn and elephant ivory in particular have spurred poaching.
Ivory estimated to weigh more than 23 tons - representing 2500 elephants - was confiscated in 2011, Wittig said.
"And the illegal poaching of rhinos surged to a record high in 2011, with a final death toll of 448 rhinos in southern Africa alone," he said.
The trend continued in 2012, with ivory prices up to $US1000 a pound and rhino horns up to around $30,000 per pound.
Wittig stressed that it isn't only rhinos and elephants that are at risk.
"There may be as few as 3200 wild tigers left in the world - and the increase in poaching makes extinction of tiger species a very real threat," he said.
According to the report, although illicit wildlife trafficking has a well-documented link to other forms of illegal trafficking, the financing of rebel groups, corruption and money laundering, "the issue is primarily seen as an environmental issue, which puts it low on governments' agendas".
WWF called for governments to be held accountable for enforcing regulations on wildlife, including imposing sanctions where necessary, and a campaign to reduce demand for endangered species.
The report was produced for WWF by Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a strategic consulting firm that says it "works to raise living standards in developing countries and address global issues such as climate change".
INDEPENDENT MP Rob Oakeshott says Tony Abbott needs to explain his decision to move a no-confidence motion against former speaker Peter Slipper in October.
Federal Court judge Steven Rares on Wednesday dismissed a sexual harassment case against Mr Slipper brought by staffer James Ashby.
Mr Oakeshott was among the MPs who encouraged Mr Slipper to resign in October because he had lost the confidence of the federal opposition, even though the no-confidence motion failed.
The MP wants the opposition leader and his team to explain what prompted them to move the motion against Mr Slipper.
He says the opposition also needs to explain why it spent so much of 2012 "running this witch-hunt" when there are so many national issues that need addressing, such as education.
"For those who played a game on a day-to-day basis and have clearly been chucking the mud, the day of account has arrived," Mr Oakeshott told AAP on Wednesday.
However, he was not joining calls for an inquiry into the federal coalition's role in the case.
AUSTRALIA has condemned North Korea's rocket launch and is calling for a swift and strong response from the United Nations Security Council.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the launch as a provocative and irresponsible act that would threaten the stability and security of the Asia-Pacific region.
"This was another disappointing example of North Korea choosing a path of militarism and isolation," she said in a statement on Wednesday, noting it was the second, costly, long-range rocket launch this year.
"And all the while its people struggle to get the food they need to survive."
North Korea says the launch was aimed at putting a satellite into orbit but it is widely seen as a way for the secretive dictatorship to test its ballistic missile technology.
Authorities in Japan and South Korea say the launch was significantly more successful than a failed April attempt, with the device following its planned path over Japan, the East China Sea and plunging into the ocean east of the Philippines.
Ms Gillard said Australia would express its concerns directly to the North Korean government, and called on it to abide by UN resolutions and stop its provocations.
"Australia urges the Security Council to meet urgently and respond firmly," she said.
The launch comes just a few days out from the first anniversary of the death of North Korea's former ruler, Kim Jong-il. He was replaced by his son, Kim Jong-un.
United States Ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich said such provocative actions by North Korea were counterproductive and created significant problems.
"They are playing with fire," he warned during an address to the National Press Club in Canberra.
"I'm confident the US will condemn it and obviously we're going to have to consult with our other partners in the region about what is appropriate in response to this."
THE federal opposition and the Australian Greens are again calling on the government to send a customs ship to monitor expected clashes between Japanese whalers and conservationists in the Southern Ocean.
The Japanese fleet reportedly has left for a reduced whaling season near Antarctica which is expected to begin at the end of December.
Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says an Australian customs vessel could help keep the peace and stop the whaling.
"(It will) effectively provide a cop-on-the-beat presence where both sides know there is a third party who will record, who will monitor and who will be in place," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
Both sides were willing to take risks and had pledged to take steps that may well result in violence and collisions at sea.
"It is time to make sure that we simply have a police presence effectively in an area where there is likely to be a conflict."
Mr Hunt said while he supported an end to whaling everybody had to abide by international maritime law.
The Sea Shepherd's newest ship has arrived in Hobart ahead of the conservation group's annual battle with the whalers.
The Sam Simon will join the Steve Irwin, the Bob Barker and the Bridget Bardot.
Greens whaling spokeswoman Rachel Siewert says Labor should use monitoring vessels and aerial surveillance.
"Once again we see the Sea Shepherd driving efforts to protect whales this summer because governments have failed to do so," she said in a statement.
It was unacceptable for the fleet to enter Australia's territorial waters and the government should demand a commitment from Japan that the fleet would steer clear, Senator Siewert said.
But as international law expert Tim Stephens told AAP earlier this year, Canberra can't stop vessels from navigating through Australia's exclusive economic zone, contiguous zone or territorial sea.
"Even in the territorial sea foreign vessels enjoy a right of innocent passage," he said.
AAP
Russia's president dismissed accusations that he is trying to reinvent the Soviet Union. Source: AAP
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has denied that he is trying to reinvent the Soviet Union, dismissing as "rubbish" accusations by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton last week called Putin's initiative to unite former Soviet countries into a Eurasian Union and Customs Union "a move to re-Sovietise the region."
While meeting top activists in his presidential campaign on Monday, Putin dismissed such comparisons, saying there are economic rather than political reasons for uniting the former Soviet allies.
"It's very strange to hear when some colleagues abroad say that ... it is a rebirth of Russia's ambitions as the former Soviet Union. What rubbish.
"This is a process which is totally natural.
"We have a common language, to a certain extent a common mentality, a common transport infrastructure, energy infrastructure," he said.
Russian State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin was even more abrasive in his comments, comparing Clinton's "intervention and prevention of positive processes" of post-Soviet integration to the "clumsy gait of a lame duck," according to Interfax news agency.
Clinton is due to leave office when President Barack Obama begins his second mandate following his presidential election victory last month.
"Let's make no mistake about it. We know what the goal is and we are trying to figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it," Clinton said last Friday ahead of meeting Russia's foreign minister in Dublin.
Uniting ex-Soviet countries into the Eurasian Union was first proposed by Putin in a pre-election article last October.
He called the project a "historical breakthrough" that will change the geopolitical configuration of the continent.
Currently Russia is in a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, which is proclaimed as a basis for further integration in the region.
THE NSW auditor-general has questioned the revaluation of 27,000 school buildings after their total value increased by $8 billion but those built under a federal stimulus program fell by more than $660 million.
Just weeks after Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat found a $1 billion error in the state's June budget figures, he has again raised concerns about accountancy methods used by the state government.
His latest audit raises doubts about what he called a "flawed" revaluation of 27,000 school and TAFE buildings, conducted by the Education Department earlier this year, particularly the significant fall in Building the Education Revolution (BER) structures.
The replacement cost of the department's building stock rose from $26.5 billion to $34.6 billion under the evaluation, but the value of the Rudd government BER buildings dropped by one third from $1.9 billion to $1.2 billion.
Mr Achterstraat called for the department to review its revaluation methodology to confirm the figures, saying it had been unable to provide "sufficient evidence" to back the construction costs used."There were flaws in the process used and more work is needed to support the values recorded," Mr Achterstraat said in a statement on Tuesday.
"This work may confirm the value of the buildings is correct, or it may highlight shortcomings in the revaluation process."
"The significant decrease in cost attributed to new BER buildings in the revaluation process may be due to actual costs paid for BER buildings being too high, construction prices may have been higher during the period of the BER program, or replacement cost rates used in the revaluation process may be incorrect."
In October, Mr Achterstraat found the deficit of $337 million for 2011-12 announced in this year's budget should in fact be a surplus of $680 million.
The embarrassing billion-dollar turnaround was attributed to 37 mistakes - errors in spreadsheets, data entry, end-of-year accruals and reconciliation processes.
RETIRED cabinet-maker Kenneth Weger was the type of bloke who was quick to offer a visitor a beer.
But he didn't get a chance to be hospitable to former boarder Daniel Charles Hughes, who rendered Mr Weger a quadriplegic by repeatedly stabbing him and leaving him for dead in his Adelaide backyard.
Hughes, 25, was jailed for at least five years in the South Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The chef had pleaded guilty to an aggravated offence of causing serious harm to Mr Weger with intent, after stabbing him six times in the neck in February 2011 at the retiree's Marion home.
Outside court, the 70-year-old victim said Hughes had "ruined two lives" and was "an idiot".
But Mr Weger's daughter Amy stressed that her father still had sympathy for his assailant and worried about the younger man's future.
Now confined to a nursing home, her father had previously been outgoing, lived independently, travelled and would have a drink with anyone.
"If Daniel hadn't stabbed him, I bet the next words would have been 'have a beer'," she said.
"We just hope that Daniel can do his time and come out the other end a better person."
In setting a maximum term of eight years, Justice Michael David said Hughes had consumed an inordinate amount of alcohol and ingested drugs before going to Mr Weger's home looking for accommodation.
Defence barrister Adam Richards said when Mr Weger moved towards Hughes, the young man mistakenly believed he was making a sexual advance.
He impulsively stabbed him using a paring knife he had in his pocket for an innocent purpose - to scrape a bundle of scratchies he had been given for his birthday, Mr Richards said.
In a victim impact statement read to the court on his behalf, Mr Weger said he was now stuck in a nursing home looking at four walls.
"I can't leave when I want and it feels like I have lost my freedom," he said.
"It has completely stuffed up my retirement.
"I have lost everything."
VICTORIA should create a new offence to deal with young people who send sext messages without permission, rather than using existing child pornography laws, an inquiry has been told.
Children's Court President Judge Paul Grant said under current laws, children who sent explicit images or videos were either charged with child porn offences or given police cautions.
"I have felt that to describe some of this behaviour as child pornography material is an unwise thing to do," he told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into sexting on Monday.
"I think the child porn laws were developed for a certain purpose and that they are now being used for a different purpose.
"I have suggested we should have a different charge - a low-level charge which would attract a less serious penalty."
Bond University IT law professor Dan Svantesson told the inquiry current privacy laws were also inadequate for dealing with problems arising out of sexting.
Dr Svantesson gave the example of a teenage girl who had an explicit video of herself taken from her phone without her permission and sent to others.
"I think no one would doubt or disagree that that is a violation of that girl's privacy, but the thing is that Australian privacy law does not protect that girl."
He said there needed to be a clear legal course of action for such cases.
The inquiry is due to report back to parliament early next year.
PERU'S labour minister has resigned amid an uproar for allegedly roughing up an airport worker as he rushed to catch a plane.
Jose Villena's resignation came as a surprise, and he was immediately replaced by Teresa Laos, a lawyer.
On November 27, Villena arrived late at the airport in Arequipa and stormed up to the counter demanding that his plane, already taxiing down the runway, be stopped, according to employees of the airline Lan Peru.
They said he hit one female employee and threatened to have other workers fired as he pressed his case.
Villena apologised on Friday, but denied hitting the employee.
However, Peruvian media published a medical report that said the woman had a bruise on her forearm.
Women's groups, human rights organisations and public opinion screamed for the minister to be fired
Housing finance commitments rose just 0.1 per cent in October, the latest ABS figures show. Source: AAP
WEAKER-THAN-EXPECTED housing loan figures suggest the Reserve Bank of Australia may need to cut the cash rate further in 2013.
Housing finance commitments rose just 0.1 per cent in October, figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Monday show.
Economists had expected a three per cent rise for the month.
JP Morgan economist Tom Kennedy said the figures also showed a fall in the number of loans for first-home buyers and owner-occupied housing.
He said the data suggested the RBA may need to cut the cash rate further in order to stimulate growth the housing sector.
The RBA is counting on sectors like housing to pick up in 2013, following an expected peak in mining investment.
"The data today just reaffirms that there are numerous headwinds out there," he said.
"That's another reason that really supports further rate cuts."
The RBA cut the cash rate to three per cent at its December board meeting last week.
Macquarie chief economist Richard Gibbs said weakness in the number of home loans indicated a continued lack of confidence among would-be homeowners.
"This data is a lot more spotty than we had expected," he said.
"While the value of lending commitments is up, the number of loans remains weak, reflecting a wider lack of consumer confidence in Australia."
Uganda's President has denounced the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Source: AAP
UGANDA has heaped scorn on UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo at a southern African nations summit that agreed to put together a new, neutral force there.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni denounced the inability of MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission, to prevent conflict in the troubled region.
"It is a very big shame," said Museveni, a key broker in the crisis.
"It is some sort of military tourism."
On November 20, M23 rebels seized the key town of Goma in the mineral rich province of North Kivu, having shrugged off attacks by MONUSCO combat helicopters and put government troops on the run.
"So many people in uniforms and they just sit on problems," Museveni said of the UN force.
The rebels pulled out of Goma last week after the Congolese government agreed to discuss some of their demands.
The two sides are set to hold talks in the Ugandan capital on Sunday.
MONUSCO has a total of 19,000 men in DR Congo, more than 6000 of whom are deployed in the eastern region affected by M23's recent military offensive.
But they are inhibited by their mandate - as they have been in other instances in DR Congo over the years.
Museveni was speaking at a summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the Tanzanian economic capital Dar es Salaam.
The summit's closing statement on Saturday called on the United Nations to modify the mandate of MONUSCO to give it more freedom to fight rebel forces in the territory.
But it also came out in favour of a new, neutral force to rein in the M23 rebels as well as Rwandan Hutu rebels active in the region and other armed groups.
Uganda, which has denied accusations in UN reports that it, along with Rwanda, has supported the mainly Tutsi M23 rebels, had been among those pushing for such a force.
"I am confident that with the neutral international force, we can solve these problems with logistical support from the United Nations," Museveni told the summit earlier.
"It will help the people of Congo and neighbouring countries."
The SADC summit statement committed to deploying the organisation's standby force into the troubled eastern part of the country, which borders both Rwanda and Uganda.
It approved an offer by Tanzania to lead the force, which could be ready to go by next Friday.
Tanzania agreed to provide a battalion to the force and South Africa will supply logistical support.
The new force's mission would be to patrol DR Congo's eastern border with Rwanda and neutralise the various rebel groups active in the region.
Images of the moon's crust point to a violent past in which it was battered by comets and asteroids. Source: AAP
NEW images of the moon's battered crust point to a violent past in which it was battered by comets and asteroids during its first billion years, US scientists say.
The new findings come from the GRAIL mission, a pair of spacecraft named Ebb and Flow that are orbiting the moon and measuring its gravitational field.
"It was known that planets were battered by impacts, but nobody had envisioned that the (moon's) crust was so beaten up," said Maria Zuber, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientist leading the mission.
"This is a really big surprise, and is going to cause a lot of people to think about what this means for planetary evolution," she said in a statement about the findings, to be published this week in the journal Science.
Unlike the Earth's crust, which is repeatedly recycled through the process of plate tectonics, the moon's hard crust dates back billions of years, offering clues to the formation of the solar system, including Earth.
The GRAIL mission has allowed scientists to stitch together a high-resolution map of the moon's gravity, reflecting surface structures like mountains and craters as well as subterranean features.
The images suggest the moon's crust is 21-27 miles (34-43km) thick, considerably thinner than was previously thought, according to Mark Wieczorek, another GRAIL scientist.
"This supports models where the moon is derived from Earth materials that were ejected during a giant impact event early in solar system history," he said.
Around 98 per cent of the crust is deeply fragmented, porous material, the result, scientists say, of very early, massive impacts.
"This is interesting for the moon," Zuber said. "But what it also means is that every other planet was being bombarded like this."
INDIGENOUS elders have gathered in Sydney to mark the 20th anniversary of Paul Keating's historic Redfern speech.
The former prime minister's speech on December 10, 1992, was the first time an Australian political leader had publicly acknowledged the impact of colonial and contemporary government policies on Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people.
The speech put reconciliation on Australia's political agenda and is credited as paving the way for 2007's formal apology to indigenous Australians.
In a statement, co-chairs of Reconciliation Australia, Dr Tom Calma and Melinda Cilento, said Mr Keating's Redfern speech was "one of the most significant speeches ever delivered by an Australian political leader".
"In his speech Keating spoke frankly and honestly of the land theft, dispossession, violence and discrimination suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people in the course of modern Australia's creation," the statement said.
"Significantly, Keating referred to the need for what he described as an 'act of recognition'."
On Saturday, Gail Mabo, the daughter of the late land rights activist Eddie Mabo, read extracts from the Redfern speech at Sydney's David Minton Gallery.
She told the ABC that Australians should reflect on Mr Keating's words.
"It's one that people should actually look at and reflect on, because the words he was saying in that, it reflects that issue of change, but it's a thing of through small things, big things will happen," Ms Mabo said.
"But change will happen. It mightn't be right here, right now, but it's just changing people's attitudes, and that's what he was doing with this speech.
"He was trying to get into people's heads that it is time for change."
