Plane crashes into trees, injuring two

TWO men have been injured after crashing a light plane into trees near Maitland, in the NSW Hunter region.

Police say the men, a 20-year-old pilot and a passenger in his early thirties, were practising take-offs and landings from an aerodrome at Luskintyre about 11.30am (AEDT) on Saturday.

"Witnesses have reported the plane experienced difficulties before it narrowly missed houses and crashed into trees," police said in a statement.

The men have been taken to John Hunter Hospital for checks.

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Cruise passengers make their way home

The passengers of cruise ship Triumph have finally disembarked after five numbing days stuck at sea. Source: AAP

PASSENGERS have finally escaped the disabled Carnival cruise ship Triumph after five numbing days stuck at sea due to an engine-room fire.

They were on the move on Friday - some checked into hotels while others hopped on buses or jumped on charter flights home.

The ship carrying some 4200 people docked late on Thursday in Mobile to raucous cheers from passengers weary of overflowing toilets, food shortages and foul odours.

"Sweet Home Alabama!" read one of the homemade signs passengers fixed alongside the 14-storey ship as many celebrated along deck rails lining several levels. The ship's horn blasted several times as four tugboats helped it to shore.

"It was horrible, just horrible" said Maria Hernandez, 28, of Angleton, Texas, tears welling in her eyes as she talked about waking up to smoke in her lower-level room on Sunday from the engine-room fire and the days of heat and stench that followed. She was on a "girls trip" with friends.

It took about four hours for all passengers to disembark.

Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said passengers had three options: take a bus straight to Galveston, Texas, to retrieve cars parked at the ship's departure port, take a bus to New Orleans to stay at a hotel before a charter flight home or have family or friends pick them up in Mobile.

As if the passengers hadn't endured enough, one of the buses broke down during the two-hour ride to New Orleans. Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said the passengers got on another bus and made it safely to New Orleans. Passengers aboard another bus also said their luggage was somehow lost.

Gulliksen said up to 20 charter flights would leave New Orleans later on Friday to take guests who stayed in hotels there to their final destinations.

Nearly 2000 passengers arrived at a New Orleans Hilton in the wee hours, and by dawn many were headed out again to fly to Houston. They then had to get a connecting flight home or chartered bus back to their cars in Galveston.

"It just feels so good to be on land again and to feel like I have options," said Tracey Farmer. "I'm just ready to see my family. It's been harder on them than us I think because they've been so worried about us. It's been extremely stressful for them."

In Mobile, tugs pulled the ship away from the dock on Friday, moving it down a waterway in the direction of a shipyard where city officials said it will be repaired.

A line of taxis waited for people, and motorists on Interstate 10 stopped to watch the exodus of passengers. Some still aboard chanted, "Let me off, let me off!"

It took six gruelling hours navigating the 48km ship channel. At nearly 275 metres in length, it was the largest cruise ship ever to dock at Mobile.

Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill apologised at a news conference and later on the public address system as people disembarked.

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Carr says Xenophon detention surprising

FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr says Malaysia's detention of independent senator Nick Xenophon is a surprising and disappointing act.

Senator Carr said Australian officials in Kuala Lumpur were seeking the immediate release of Senator Xenophon, who was detained and held pending deportation when he entered the country on Saturday morning.

As well, Australian officials have raised Senator Xenophon's plight at the highest level of the Malaysian government.

Senator Xenophon, who was participating in an unofficial delegation of Australian MPs, said he was told he was a security threat and would be deported.

Senator Carr said preliminary reports indicated Senator Xenophon had been held under Malaysia's national security laws.

"Our High Commissioner Miles Kupa has now made direct contact with Senator Xenophon at the airport and is seeking his release," he said in a statement.

He said Mr Kupa was also urgently pursuing an explanation from Malaysian authorities regarding the reasons for this detention.

"Australia's concerns have been raised with Malaysia's foreign minister and the minister for home affairs and the Malaysian high commissioner to Australia. Their support is requested in securing Senator Xenophon's swift release from custody," he said.

"Senator Xenophon's detention is a surprising and disappointing act from a country with which Australia routinely maintains strong diplomatic relations."

The delegation, including Senator Xenophon, Liberal Mal Washer, Nationals Senator John Williams and ALP MP Steve Georganas, have now called off their visit to Malaysia.

They were to have met opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, as well as Malaysia's minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, Mohammed Nazri, and members of the group Bersih, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections.

Senator Xenophon has raised concerns about the probity of the upcoming Malaysian election.

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SA govt to insist on budget savings

THE South Australian government is at odds with both police and the courts insisting on budget savings the two agencies say they will struggle to meet.

The government says total funds provided to both groups will rise in each of the next four years.

But it will also insist they meet designated savings targets, $150 million for police and $7.3 million for the courts.

Police Commissioner Gary Burns warned recently that budget savings would be difficult to meet without a review of officer numbers.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Chris Kourakis has issued a similar warning that savings targets can only be met by cutting the number of judges and magistrates.

Premier Jay Weatherill said the government understood that reaching the targets would not be easy but would insist on budget discipline.

"I'm not suggesting that these budget savings tasks are easy, in many cases they're very difficult, they're hard work and people would prefer not to have to deal with it," the premier told reporters on Friday.

"But we have an obligation to present a prudent set of finances.

"We have to trim our cloth to meet the budget that we have and that's the task that they've been set."

Mr Weatherill said while both Mr Burns and Justice Kourakis were free to make their opinions known, their comments would not get them "advanced in the queue".

He said there was no mechanism for providing top-up funding outside of the budget process.

In the case of the courts, Law Society of SA president John White said the government's savings targets would delay court proceedings and impact severely on the delivery of justice.

"Justice delayed really is justice denied," Mr White said.

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Navy gets new helicopter landing dock ship

AUSTRALIA'S new large amphibious landing helicopter dock (LHD) ship will give the navy an unprecedented ability to operate on land and sea, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

Speaking at a ceremony in Melbourne to name the first of two LHDs on Friday, Ms Gillard noted it was the 71st anniversary of the surrender of Singapore.

That event sent a clear message for other island nations - like Australia - that "the best defence is self defence," she said.

The new vessel is named Canberra, and her sister ship will be called Adelaide.

At 27,500 tonnes, these will be the largest ships ever to serve in the Australian navy - even bigger than Australia's last aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne - and were acquired at a cost of more than $2 billion.

Each will be able to transport an entire combined arms battle group of more than 1100 personnel, 100 armoured vehicles and 12 helicopters.

"The Canberra and her sister Landing Helicopter Dock ship will give our Navy, and our Defence Force as a whole, an entirely new ability to defend Australia and our interests," Ms Gillard said.

"They will give our defence force an unprecedented ability to exercise and operate on land and sea - supporting amphibious operations and operating independently in our region and beyond like never before."

The naming ceremony was conducted at Melbourne's Williamstown dockyard where the Canberra vessel is now being fitted out after the long voyage from her construction site in Spain.

Navy chief Vice Admiral Ray Griggs said the LHDs would transform the navy and the Australian Defence Force.

"This ship will give the government options from humanitarian assistance and disaster relief at one end of the spectrum through to stabilisation and peacekeeping operations and right through if needed to combat operations," he said.

Naming the ship was made by Mrs Vickie Coates, widow of Rear Admiral Nigel Coates who was the commander of the last HMAS Canberra, which was decommissioned in 2005.

"I name this ship Canberra. May God bless her and all who serve in her," she said, to a wave of applause and three cheers from a large contingent of VIPs and dock workers aboard the ship.

The LHD will be the third vessel to carry the name.

The first HMAS Canberra sank at the Battle of Savo Island on August 9, 1942.

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Crippled ship pulls into US port

The crippled cruise ship making its way to the US has suffered a setback after a tow line snapped. Source: AAP

STRICKEN Carnival cruise ship Triumph has docked on the southern US coast, ending a nightmarish voyage for around 4000 desperate passengers and crew after it lost power over the weekend.

A little after 0300 GMT (1400 AEDT) on Friday, the crippled ship limped into port in Mobile, Alabama, after being towed by a flotilla of tugboats.

What was supposed to have been a pleasurable excursion in the Gulf of Mexico turned into a hellish ordeal after an engine room fire on Sunday left the ship without the power needed to prepare meals or flush toilets.

The tugs were needed to pull the massive liner into port, in an operation that took longer than anticipated because of a delay when the towline for one of the boats snapped and had to be replaced.

Some of the passengers on the Triumph, which is operated by Florida-based Carnival Cruise Lines, signalled news media helicopters with SOS messages scrawled on sheets, desperate to flee the stench and mess they'd endured for four days.

The Miami-based operator said cruises on the ship, which left the port of Galveston in Texas on February 7, have been halted until at least mid-April.

The Triumph had originally been scheduled to return to port early on Monday after a weekend stop in Cozumel, Mexico.

Carnival officials said earlier on Thursday that even after Triumph docks, it could be another several hours before all passengers disembark, and some would face long bus or car rides back to Texas or other far flung destinations.

Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill publicly apologised to the travellers for the poor conditions aboard the disabled ship.

Cahill said at a news conference as the liner was coming to rest that he appreciated the patience of the 3000 people on board.

He said Carnival prided itself on providing people with a great vacation "and clearly we failed in this particular case".

He said he planned to go aboard and personally apologise to everyone.

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Customs officer on drug import charges

A CUSTOMS officer who allegedly conspired with a baggage handler to smuggle drugs into Australia will remain behind bars following a Sydney court hearing.

Paul Valsamakis, 40, is charged with three counts of conspiracy to import commercial quantities of pseudoephedrine, two counts of receiving a bribe, two counts of abusing public office and one count of inciting robbery.

The Sydney man is one of five men who have been charged over the alleged importations of the drug pseudoephedrine - used to make the drug ice - in March and June last year.

The men, including two customs officers and a former baggage handler, were arrested as part of an ongoing Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation into a sophisticated drug syndicate operating out of Sydney Airport.

Police allege the customs officers directed resources and monitored CCTV to help the baggage handler take drug-loaded suitcases from planes and off the airport precinct.

Police seized about 40 kilograms of the drug, capable of making an estimated $9.5 million worth of ice, from the final importation on June 6.

Valsamakis did not apply for bail, which was formally refused on Thursday in Sydney's Newtown Local Court, where he was remanded to appear in Central Local Court on April 13.

The AFP said it believes the corrupt activity is confined to Sydney and does not involve other Australian airports.

It comes after Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare last year announced the establishment of a reform board to clean up the customs service.

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Israeli diplomat has no comment on Zygier

ISRAEL'S top diplomat in Australia has refused to comment on the shadowy case of Melbourne man and suspected Mossad spy Ben Zygier.

Ambassador Yuval Rotem was surrounded by reporters asking about the case when he attended an event at the Australian National University in Canberra on Thursday.

"I won't be providing any comment," he told the reporters. "I told you guys I've got no comment to make about this. When I can, I shall let you know."

Mr Zygier was arrested by Israeli authorities in February 2010 and was held in a maximum security cell under a false name until he died, apparently by his own hand, in December 2010.

It is believed Mr Zygier - also known as Ben Alon and Ben Allen - worked for Israeli spy agency Mossad and was in fact the shadowy figure known as Prisoner X.

Israel on Thursday admitted for the first time it had held a man with dual citizenship under a false name for security reasons. Israeli media reports overnight suggested he was detained for treason.

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Striking Vic teachers 'want respect'

VICTORIA'S striking teachers say they want respect not just increased wages.

Up to 30,000 teachers and support staff who are locked in a pay dispute with the state government joined the 24-hour action with about 10,000 meeting at Melbourne's Hisense Arena before marching to Parliament House on Thursday.

Carrum Downs Secondary College drama teacher Clare Golding says she was at the rally to get the respect of the government and community.

"I work long hours running extra-curricular activities after school," Ms Golding told AAP.

"The wage increase is really about getting the respect we deserve."

Ms Golding said she was fighting for fairness and a fair-go.

"We're not just teachers. We're carers; we're counsellors."

Contract teacher Melissa Wheatley said it was time the government valued teachers.

"We are anxious each year not knowing how we will tell our families we don't think we have a job," she told the rally.

"We're sick of the system. Sick of applying for jobs, sick of contracts and sick of the government not listening to us."

Taylors Hill Primary school library technician Maria Sartori said special needs support staff in particular looked after the most vulnerable.

"Our work is not appreciated," she told AAP.

"Our pay can be less than a supermarket worker."

Essendon Keilor College principal David Adamson said he knew of other principals being harassed by the education department over the industrial action.

He said principals are frustrated over the pay issue.

"We're in the middle of the sandwich in a sense between the department and the teachers and we're trying to do the best we can."

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Burst water main floods Perth freeway

A BURST water main has flooded part of a freeway and is causing traffic problems in South Perth.

The water has been shut off and pumps have been used to get water off the streets.

It is understood that a reticulation main in Melville Parade, beside the freeway, burst.

The left lane of Kwinana Freeway near the Mill Point Road exist has been affected and motorists have been warned to drive with caution.

Police are at the scene to assist with traffic management.

The water is also washing into nearby properties.

Authorities say residents will experience a loss of water until the problem is fixed.

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AFP return to Vanuatu after diplomatic row

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police are to resume their training mission in Vanuatu nine months after the Pacific island nation kicked them out as part of a diplomatic row.

Vanuatu expelled 12 AFP officers in May 2012, two weeks after the AFP arrested senior Vanuatan official Clarence Lawry Marae while he was passing through Sydney airport with Prime Minister Sato Kilman.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade branded the expulsion a "retaliation" for Marae's arrest.

But Foreign Minister Bob Carr, currently visiting Vanuatu, says the two countries have now struck an agreement that will result in nine AFP officers returning to the country.

"They will be returning to Vanuatu in the next few weeks," a spokesman for Senator Carr confirmed to AAP on Wednesday.

Marae was charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth of Australia over allegations he was involved in a $4.5 million tax fraud.

He remains in custody after a Brisbane court denied him bail because it judged him to be a flight risk. He is due face a three-day committal hearing next month.

At the time, Mr Kilman described Marae's arrest as "kidnap and breach of diplomatic protocol".

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Policies always properly costed: PM

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says her government will always properly cost policies and identify offsetting savings, as has been the case since 2009.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Wednesday asked Ms Gillard if she stood by her statement that every time her government announces something it will be properly funded, given the mining tax has collected less than 10 per cent of its forecast revenue but has expenditure against it of $15 billion.

"Let me assure the leader of the opposition this government will always properly cost policies and we will identify savings," she told parliament.

"We have been offsetting new expenditure since 2009."

She said it was very important this year that Australians were able to compare policies, their merits, their costs and where the savings were coming from.

She said the opposition claims its costings can't be released until after the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook was made available by August 22 and before the September 14 election.

"That is nonsense. If the leader of the opposition is in possession of costed policies, he could start identifying the matching savings," she said.

"If he doesn't do that transparently, then Australians are entitled to conclude that money will come in secret cuts in a way in which the Newman government has proceeded in Queensland."

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Need to decide 2nd Sydney airport: Husic

BOTH major parties need to reveal where they want a second Sydney airport before the federal election, Labor backbencher Ed Husic says.

Mr Husic, whose federal electorate of Chifley is in western Sydney, says fellow MPs from the area are concerned about the potential impact if a second airport was put there.

In March 2012, a joint federal and NSW government study found there would be dire consequences if Sydney's airport capacity was not addressed.

It recommended proceeding with a new airport at Badgerys Creek in Sydney's west and lifting the limit of 80 aircraft movements per hour.

Mr Husic said the Badgerys Creek plan wasn't a good idea in the 1990s and Liberal frontbencher Joe Hockey's support for it was part of a Liberal party push to force it onto western Sydney.

The region already had a population of two million and an airport would increase that, he said.

"Putting an airport in the middle of that population density makes no sense," Mr Husic said.

A poll, published in The Daily Telegraph on Monday, found three out of four people wanted a second airport for Sydney, with a third favouring Newcastle as the location.

"I don't think I'll be the first person to speak up on this, particularly in this year when both parties need to lay out on the table what their position is in relation to the airport," Mr Husic told reporters in Canberra.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese favours a second airport at Wilton, southwest of Sydney.

But a News Limited poll on Monday showed support for the Wilton option at just four per cent, with Newcastle the frontrunner.

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RBA will have to cut rates again: ACCI

THE central bank will have to cut the cash rate again at some stage given the chronic low levels of business and consumer confidence, a leading business group says.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) also believes the mood of business has not been helped by a series of federal government polices, including new taxes and regulations that have impacted on Australia's competitiveness.

The chamber's chief economist, Greg Evans, released ACCI's business expectations survey for the December quarter on Tuesday, which showed all key activity components remaining at contractionary levels.

"Clearly mainstream business outside the buoyancy of the mining sector continue to struggle," Mr Evans told reporters in Canberra.

"We appear to have settled into a sustained level of difficult trading conditions."

The general business condition index was 41.9 points, down from 42.8 points in the September quarter, remaining below the key 50-point mark that separates contraction from expansion.

Sales, exports, profitability, investment and employment were also at contractionary levels, and notably selling prices have been below the 50-point mark for two years.

"We believe the Reserve Bank will have to act at some point to further ease interest rates given what seems to be a chronic level of investment ... outside the mining sector," Mr Evans said.

He said there was little evidence that the mainstream economy was taking up any slack from a peaking mining boom, and that was why the central bank had downgraded its growth forecast to below trend.

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N. Korea carries out apparent nuclear test

North Korea has pulled manpower and equipment out of its nuclear test site, a report says. Source: AAP

NORTH Korea has staged an apparent nuclear test in a striking act of defiance that, if confirmed, is sure to trigger global condemnation from enemies and allies alike.

Regional seismic monitoring agencies detected a seismic event, of a magnitude between 4.9 and 5.1, at 11.57am (1357 AEDT) on Tuesday with the epicentre in the same location as the North's Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

China's Earthquake Administration said it was a "suspected explosion", while South Korean and Japanese agencies concluded that the tremor was the result of a possible nuclear test.

"At this point, the seismic activity ... appears to indicate a nuclear test by North Korea," the South's Yonhap news agency cited an unidentified foreign ministry official as saying.

The US Geological Survey noted the tremor had a very shallow depth of just one kilometre.

The South Korean defence ministry and the presidential Blue House both said they were trying to verify whether a nuclear detonation had taken place.

Pyongyang has been threatening a nuclear test for weeks despite warnings of severe repercussions from the UN Security Council.

If confirmed, it would mark the third time the North has detonated a nuclear device, following previous tests in 2006 and 2009.

It would throw down a stark security and diplomatic challenge to US President Barack Obama at the start of his second term, and to regional neighbours China, Japan and South Korea, all of which have new or incoming leaders.

The first priority for the international community will be determining the precise nature and yield of any test and what it reveals about the technical level of the North's nuclear weapons program.

Pyongyang's promise of a "higher level" test had fuelled speculation it would be of a uranium device, compared to the plutonium ones detonated in 2006 and 2009.

A uranium test would confirm suspicions that the North has been secretly enriching weapons-grade uranium for years and would open a path for Pyongyang to significantly expand its small nuclear arsenal.

Some experts had suggested a simultaneous test of both a plutonium and a uranium device.

Even with sophisticated seismic monitoring and "sniffer" planes capable of detecting radioactive fallout, external analysis will provide only limited information on the test, especially if it was well-contained.

There will be particular concern at any sign that the North has made progress in the technically complex process of "miniaturising" a bomb to fit on the head of a long-range missile.

Proven miniaturisation ability would take on added significance in the wake of December's rocket launch which marked a major step forward in ballistic prowess.

Pyongyang had announced its nuclear test plan as a defiant response to a UN Security Council resolution that condemned the launch as a disguised ballistic missile experiment and tightened sanctions.

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Barclays tax advice unit to close

Barclays will close its tax avoidance unit as it seeks a break from its scandal-hit past. Source: AAP

BARCLAYS boss Antony Jenkins will attempt to break from the bank's scandal-hit past this week by announcing the closure of its tax avoidance unit and the cull of about 2000 investment banking jobs, it has been reported.

The moves - due to be unveiled alongside the bank's annual results on Tuesday - are part of Jenkins' drive to "shred" the legacy left by former boss Bob Diamond, who quit after the bank's STG290 million ($A446 million) Libor rigging settlement last year.

According to the Sunday Times, about 10 per cent of the investment banking division's 23,000 staff will be shown the door, while Jenkins will close the Structured Capital Markets division, which gained notoriety for its advice to multinational companies on reducing their tax bills.

The review has broken the bank down into 75 business units and examined both their potential to generate sustainable profit and their ability to inflict reputational damage.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Jenkins said: "Tuesday is an important day in the 320-year history of Barclays. Combined with announcements on purpose and values, our strategy review will set out a fundamentally new approach for a new era.

"It will provide a road map for long-term success and I am confident that, given time, it will show that the understandable scepticism about our commitment to real change was misplaced."

He wants the business to combine its "excellent" retail banking operations with a "high-quality" investment bank, including a strong international presence in growing markets.

However, he is expected to say on Tuesday: "There are some areas that relied on sophisticated and complex structures, where transactions were carried out with the primary objective of accessing the tax benefits.

"Although this was legal, going forward such activity is incompatible with our purpose. We will not engage in it again."

The Libor-rigging scandal and provisions to cover mis-selling claims for payment protection insurance and interest rate swap products mean bottom-line pre-tax profits are expected to slump from 5.9 billion in 2011 to below 1 billion.

Stripping out one-off factors, analysts expect profits of STG7.18 billion for 2012, up 28 per cent on the STG5.59 billion reported in 2011, with more than half of this expected to come from its investment banking division.

Jenkins has already waived his bonus for 2012, saying it was "only right that I bear an appropriate degree of accountability" after a "very difficult" year for the group.

But Barclays is set to reveal how much its wider bonus pool is for 2012 and what it will pay staff in its investment banking arm, about 9000 of whom are based in London.

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Islamists attack troops in north Mali city

Malian soldiers and Islamic extremists have engaged in combat in a surprise attack in Gao. Source: AAP

ISLAMIST gunmen have attacked the largest city in northern Mali following two straight days of suicide bombings, intensifying their insurgency on territory reclaimed by French-led forces.

In the first large-scale urban guerrilla assault of the conflict, rebels from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) on Sunday attacked Malian troops in the streets of central Gao, sending residents running for cover as Kalashnikov bullets and 14.5-millimetre rounds pierced the air.

Rocket-propelled grenade explosions and fire from heavy machine guns and light weapons resounded late into the afternoon before dying down in the evening, when a power cut plunged the city into darkness.

A French Tiger attack helicopter was circulating over the neighbourhood around the governor's offices and the central police station, the focal points of the attack.

French and Malian forces conducted joint patrols, warning residents that snipers could be hidden in the city.

"Many Islamists were killed," said Colonel Mamadou Sanake of the Malian army.

A death toll could not immediately be established, and it was unclear whether any soldiers had been killed.

Sanake said the rebels had infiltrated the city by motorcycle and via the Niger river, which passes near the governor's offices.

MUJAO, one of the al-Qaeda-linked groups that seized control of northern Mali for 10 months in the wake of a military coup in March 2012, claimed the attack and a suicide bombing on Saturday, its second in two days.

"Today God's faithful successfully attacked the Malian army, which let the enemies of Islam come to Gao," said spokesman Abou Walid Sahraoui.

"The combat will continue until victory, thanks to God's protection. The mujahedeen are in the city of Gao and will remain there."

A witness said the gunmen had hidden in the empty police station - which MUJAO used as the headquarters of its "Islamic police" until French-led forces recaptured Gao on January 26 - then attacked Malian soldiers when they arrived.

When reinforcements came, snipers hidden in surrounding buildings opened fire on them, he said.

The man said he had seen one body that appeared to be that of a civilian hit by a stray bullet.

A security source said there had been "several dozen" attackers.

The French army said it had evacuated about 50 journalists who were in a nearby restaurant and hotel when the fighting erupted.

The latest violence underlined the threat of a drawn-out insurgency as France tries to map an exit strategy nearly one month into its intervention in its former colony.

Late on Saturday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the same army checkpoint where the first such attack in Mali occurred a day earlier.

His severed head, still lying on the ground the next morning, was later picked up and placed in a wheelbarrow as French troops swept the site at the edge of Gao for landmines, finding three, according to a soldier.

The two MUJAO suicide attackers were the only fatalities in the explosions, although one soldier was lightly wounded in Friday's blast.

France is anxious to hand over its military operation to UN peacekeepers, and last week announced it would begin bringing its troops home in March.

Asked whether there was a risk getting bogged down in the long term, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told journalists on Sunday: "No. I've said that of course we have to be pragmatic, but ... the goals of the operation must be clear and the duration must not be infinite.

"But we aren't going to just leave surreptitiously," he added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told France it was reaping in Mali what it had sown in Libya by arming rebels fighting slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

"In Mali, France is fighting against those it armed in Libya against Gaddafi's regime," he said.

Lavrov has previously criticised French arms drops to rebels fighting Gaddafi's regime, denouncing France's interpretations of a UN resolution allowing the use of force to protect the civilian population.

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Zoo banks on frozen sperm to save reef

IT'S a sperm bank with a difference.

For the past two years, Taronga Western Plains Zoo has been storing the sperm and eggs of coral from the Great Barrier Reef.

It now holds the biggest collection of frozen coral gametes - mature reproductive cells - in the world.

It's hoped the bank will help preserve the fragile World Heritage area.

Coral spawning on the Queensland reef occurs in spring after a full moon.

It is the only reproductive event that can be seen from space, with huge areas of the ocean turned red from the slick of gametes released by the coral.

Scientists from the Taronga Conservation Society, with the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Smithsonian Institute in the US, collect the eggs and sperm of coral off the Townsville coast and freeze them for storage at the zoo in Dubbo.

Visiting the zoo on Monday, NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker congratulated it on its role in helping to conserve the reef.

"Taronga Western Plains Zoo is making a significant contribution to the future survival of the economic ecosystem," she said.

"The sperm and eggs collected from coral species may help restore and potentially re-seed the reef if required in the future."

Dr Rebecca Spindler from the Taronga Conservation Society, who attended the latest spawning event in November, said maintaining a diversity of coral shapes was critical to restoring the reef.

"We have added another branching coral species - the beautiful Acropora loripes and now some brain coral as well," Dr Spindler said.

"One of the more significant aspects of this year's collection was the addition of frozen eight-cell embryonic cells that are pluripotent, meaning that each cell has the potential to grow into new coral."

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Listeria outbreak claims a third life

A third person has died of a bacterial infection linked to soft cheeses produced in Victoria. Source: AAP

A LISTERIA outbreak linked to a Victorian cheese factory has claimed a third life.

A 68-year-old NSW man died from the infection last month, a Victorian health department spokesman confirmed on Sunday.

A Tasmanian man, 44, and a Victorian man, 88, have also died of the illness.

A total of 26 cases, including the three fatal cases and one miscarriage, have now been linked to the Jindi cheese factory in Gippsland.

Some soft cheeses produced by Jindi were pulled from supermarket shelves last year but the Victorian health department spokesman said the bacteria had a long incubation period.

"The symptoms may not show up for quite some time," the spokesman said.

Food poisoning from listeria can be particularly dangerous for pregnant women, older people and people with immunosuppressed systems, he said.

The department was "okay" with cheese produced at the Jindi cheese factory after January 7, he said.

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NSW must act on Gonski reforms: unions

AROUND 60 parents, teachers and principals have gathered in Sydney to pressure the NSW government to act on the recommendations of the Gonski review.

The action is part of the Australian Education Union's (AEU) national campaign, involving television and newspaper advertising and sponsored green-coloured Gonski buses which are running in western Sydney, the Central Coast and Brisbane.

The AEU wants the states and the commonwealth to agree on a funding model for the Gonski reforms before the next Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in April.

"We're calling on the state government and Premier Barry O'Farrell to put politics aside and start negotiating for funding reform," AEU president Angelo Gavrielatos told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

"Let the negotiations commence against a backdrop of commitment to invest, which thus far has been lacking from Barry O'Farrell.

Federal Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett, joined the rally in Sydney, to back calls for an urgent deal.

"We have had slow negotiations with the states around identifying those details of a national plan for school improvement," Mr Garrett told reporters.

"We need to see states coming to the table to deliver and commit," he said.

Mr Garrett said the federal government is also prepared to allocate additional funding for education to the states, as long as they commit to the funding model for the Gonski reforms.

"If we don't successfully negotiate, Australian students around the country will be worse off."

The Gonski review outlined a new model for funding schools and set an ambitious goal of increasing spending on education by about $6.5 billion.

Victoria and Western Australia say the plan lacks details, which is a threat to achieving education reforms.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli says his state remains strongly in favour of Gonski but he is furious the Commonwealth and unions have politicised the issue.

"The Commonwealth is obviously intent on turning school funding into a political football during an election year," Mr Piccoli said in a statement on Sunday.

He said Mr Garrett had no additional details to share when he called education ministers to Sydney on February 1, to discuss Gonski.

Mr Piccoli said the federal government had been stalling on the issue for over a year and it was time the states were given more details on the funding arrangements.

"Minister Garrett should spend more time working on an offer and less time staging bogus political stunts," he said.

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Two die after car flips into Qld creek

A WOMAN and a young boy have died and two people are in hospital after a car flipped and crashed into a creek in north Queensland.

Police say four people were travelling in the car on the Bruce Highway, north of Proserpine, about 7.20am (AEST) on Sunday.

The car skidded off the road before flipping over and landing on its roof in Greta Creek.

A woman, aged 50, died at the scene and three other passengers were taken to hospital.

A four-year-old boy died later in hospital.

Two other passengers, a man aged 40 and an 18-year-old woman, are receiving treatment.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

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