Battery trial for ex-tennis champ Capriati

Former world No.1 tennis player Jennifer Capriati will face trial in a stalking and battery case. Source: AAP

A DECEMBER 17 trial date has been set in Florida for former tennis star Jennifer Capriati in a stalking and battery case involving her ex-boyfriend.

The 37-year-old Capriati is accused of punching Ivan Brannan while he worked out at a gym on Valentine's Day.

Authorities also say Capriati stalked Brannan for months earlier. The charges are misdemeanours.

Capriati's lawyer says the accusations are false. The trial date was set in Palm Beach County at a hearing on Friday that the former grand slam champion did not attend.

Capriati is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame who began her professional career aged just 13.

She won a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and went on to win the French Open in 2001 and Australian Open crowns in 2001 and 2002.

The one-time world No.1 was arrested for shoplifting and marijuana possession in the 1990s.

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Military rejects animal death concerns

THE killing of animals to make Australian Defence Force medicos battle-ready is a breach of national health guidelines, says a welfare group.

In a letter to Defence Minister Stephen Smith, PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals) says it is "of grave concern" that Australia's military has failed to adopt synthetic models that could save thousands of pigs, which are used in trauma training before being killed.

But a Defence spokesman said the force's practice complied with current regulation and had been used in military and civilian training for many decades.

"These courses are considered essential to adequately prepare medical officers to deploy on ADF operations," the spokesman told AAP in a statement.

PETA claims Defence is not following guidelines published by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council by using live animals, and that research has found a simulated model provides outcomes superior to animal-based training.

Defence does not agree.

"Based upon the best scientific advice available, there remains a small number of circumstances where training of those who save the lives of critically-injured service personnel is best achieved through live tissue trauma training," the spokesman said.

"This training essentially concentrates on the first hour of emergency care post-event."

He added that the force has "reduced to the absolute minimum" the use of animals for medical training, and aims for further reductions.

PETA says "more modern" training technology has been adopted by the majority of NATO countries.

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NSW keepers plead for return of reptiles

REPTILE keepers on the NSW Central Coast have urged thieves to surrender a haul of exotic creatures, as they nurse a pair of recovered lizards back to health.

The two Solomon Island skinks were among 23 reptiles taken from the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby last month.

The haul, which included snakes, tortoises and a baby American alligator, had an estimated street value of $40,000.

Police seized the skinks in a sting operation at a Brooklyn car park on Friday, during which three men allegedly tried to sell them at $5000 apiece.

Park operations manager Tim Faulkner says the skinks returned worse for wear and staff now have grave concerns for the remaining reptiles.

"(The skinks) are in poor health, they're dehydrated, their body temperature is low," he told AAP.

"One looks like it's sustained some burns along the back, probably from where they've been trying to heat it."

But he said the skinks were the most vulnerable of all the reptiles stolen, and staff were hopeful that with the right care they would recover.

"If you had to pick an animal to bring back first, this would be it," he said.

Three teenagers arrested on Friday have been charged with receiving stolen goods.

One, aged 18, was refused bail to appear at Gosford Local Court later on Saturday.

The others, both 19, were granted conditional bail to appear at the same court on October 22.

Mr Faulkner urged the thieves to cut their losses and surrender the remaining reptiles: "You could drop them anywhere, from a Woolworths to a petrol station to our front door. As long as there's a note on them they'll find their way back to us."

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Katter and Palmer unite in preference deal

CLIVE Palmer and Bob Katter have negotiated a preference agreement between their two fledgling parties.

Katter's Australian Party and Palmer United Party will both exchange preferences above the major parties in the lower house at the federal election.

"The agreement has been reached in the spirit that all parties must work together on preference outcomes to deliver the best outcomes for Australian voters," a KAP statement reads.

"The two parties are pitted in a 'David and Goliath' battle against the major parties who believe they are born to rule."

Both parties will negotiate independently over Senate preferences.

The election will be held on September 7.

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Man charged in NSW sex assault cold case

A COLD case involving the 1987 sexual assault of a Sydney woman has leapt forward with the arrest and extradition of a Victorian man.

The woman was 21 when a man sexually assaulted her on Mona Vale beach, in Sydney's north, in January 1987.

Police were unable to locate her attacker but a 2011 cold case review of DNA evidence led them to identify a man.

On Wednesday, police arrested a 54-year-old man at Bairnsdale, east of Melbourne, by virtue of an arrest warrant for sexual assault.

He was extradited to NSW on Thursday and refused police bail in Sydney.

The man was expected to appear in Central Local Court on Friday.

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Stinking hot Qld town now most insulated

THONGS melt into the bitumen, the toilet can feel like a sauna and boiling water bubbles to the earth's surface.

Welcome to the outback Queensland town of Birdsville, on the edge of the Simpson Desert, where temperatures soar to nearly 50C in summer and plummet to below freezing in winter.

This is a land of extremes that produces power bills to match. The average three-bedroom house haemorrhages more than $2000 a quarter on power to warm and cool its inhabitants.

Baker Dusty Miller's bill peaked at $8000 last summer when the mercury sat above 40 degrees for 29 consecutive days and soared to a record 49 degrees one day.

Birdsville's recent heatwave caught the attention of global insulation manufacturer Knauf Insulation.

The company has spent more than two weeks this month, and $350,000, insulating every building in the town, including the famous Birdsville pub.

It trucked in enough insulation to cover a football field and with professional supervision, residents helped pack their ceilings and floors with EarthWool - fibres of glass produced to have the same texture as wool.

Birdsville can now lay claim to not only being one of Australia's most isolated towns but also its most insulated.

The project also has a broader goal to help restore confidence in the do-it-yourself insulation industry after the fallout from the Rudd government's 2008 botched home insulation scheme, which led to four deaths and hundreds of house fires.

Knauf Insulation Australia and New Zealand managing director Stuart Dunbar says the industry has been struggling ever since and there's a general misconception that all insulation products are unsafe.

A group of companies are now suing the federal government in a bid to recover millions of dollars they lost when the scheme was canned.

Knauf is also preparing its own legal action and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has made an election promise to launch a judicial inquiry into the debacle.

In the meantime, Mr Dunbar hopes the Birdsville project will let the public know there are safe insulation products such as EarthWool, which is fire-proof, doesn't conduct electricity and is soft to handle.

He said floor insulation will particularly make a big difference to Birdsville's 76-odd residents.

"People hose underneath their houses to stop the radiant heat from rising," he said.

"The insulation will keep the heat out during summer and the heat in during winter."

This means airconditioning and heating won't need to be used all day long, drastically lowering residents' energy consumption.

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S Korea president proposes family reunion

SOUTH Korea has called for the first family reunion event with North Korea in three years, a day after the two nations agreed to reopen a shuttered joint industrial zone.

President Park Geun-Hye, in a speech on Thursday marking the anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese rule in 1945, urged Pyongyang to "open its heart" and agree to a meeting next month for families left divided by the Korean War.

The South Korean leader also welcomed Wednesday's agreement on the Kaesong industrial park, which she said could start "inter-Korea relations anew" after months of sky-high tensions.

"I hope that the North will open its heart so that the divided families can be reunited around the Chuseok holiday," Park said, referring to a traditional Korean harvest festival that this year falls on September 19.

Millions of Koreans were left separated by the 1950-53 war.

The last round of reunions to allow ageing relatives to meet under Red Cross auspices took place in 2010, when as in previous rounds there were scenes of high emotion.

North Korea last month proposed to hold talks on resuming the family reunion program in conjunction with discussions about the Kaesong industrial complex.

But it retracted the offer after Seoul insisted that the two issues should be dealt with separately.

The Seoul-invested industrial zone, built just north of the border in 2004 as a rare symbol of co-operation, ground to a halt in April after remaining immune to cross-border political swings for years.

Pyongyang, angered at a joint South-US army drill coming after it conducted a nuclear test in February, withdrew all its 53,000 workers from Kaesong.

Seoul soon pulled out all its company managers.

Six previous rounds of talks since April had foundered on the South's insistence that the North take full responsibility for the crisis and provide a binding guarantee that it would not close the complex again.

Pyongyang had refused to do so.

But Wednesday's agreement suggested a compromise in which the North accepted the worker pullout had closed Kaesong, while both sides promised jointly to ensure the zone remained open in the future.

However, the two sides failed to set a precise date for the resumption of operations at Kaesong.

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Wilkie slams 'grubby' preference deals

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie is claiming he is the victim of 'grubby' preference deals. Source: AAP

INDEPENDENT MP Andrew Wilkie is demanding parties stop doing "grubby" preference deals as they try to unseat him in Denison.

Mr Wilkie says Labor and the Greens are negotiating a preference swap in the marginal Hobart-based seat, and has accused the ALP of also attempting to secure Liberal preferences.

"Seems that everything the parties claim to stand for amounts to nothing when it comes to their political self-interest," he said in a statement.

"This betrays their members and all those who support and vote for them."

Mr Wilkie is being targeted after he slipped under the radar to grab Denison from third spot in 2010.

The seat had been held by Labor for 23 years.

Mr Wilkie says he has written to the ALP, Liberals and Greens to tell them he will do no preference deals.

Instead, he will issue a how-to-vote card with an instruction to place the number one next to his name and a reminder to number other boxes as the voter wishes.

The Greens have accused Mr Wilkie of using independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon to do his preference deals for him.

Senator Xenophon has reportedly offered to preference the Greens' Sarah Hanson-Young in return for the party preferencing Mr Wilkie in Denison.

Mr Wilkie says Senator Xenophon has acted independently to support a fellow anti-gambling candidate.

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Attack ads about policy, Rudd explains

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is defending new Labor attack ads aimed at Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, saying it hasn't breached a promise to run a positive campaign.

The two television advertisements began being broadcast on Wednesday night, with one painting Mr Abbott as a "negative" leader who will hurt families through billions in spending cuts.

The other features a mum preparing a meal for her children and asking, "what are you hiding Mr Abbott?".

Speaking to reporters in Darwin on Thursday, Mr Rudd was asked if the advertisements breached his pledge to run a positive campaign.

"What I said was we would run ads which were based on policy," Mr Rudd said.

"Those ads are based on policy."

The prime minister said the Liberal party had its guns trained on Labor and the government was fighting a "nightly barrage of advertisements".

"Running at a ratio of 10 to one, I'm advised," he said.

Coalition campaign spokesman Christopher Pyne says Mr Rudd daily declares at press conferences the politics of negativity is over before launching a negative attack on the opposition.

"Kevin Rudd's cognitive dissonance is staggering," he says in a statement.

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Israel, Palestinians resume peace talks

ISRAEL and the Palestinians will hold their first direct talks in almost three years on Wednesday, overshadowed by a deepening rift over settlements and following the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners.

The resumption of the fragile peace negotiations comes just hours after the release of the prisoners as a confidence-building gesture, and a day after Israeli authorities announced the approval of 942 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, provoking Palestinian fury.

Jerusalem city authorities said that although it had only now granted final approval for the new homes in Gilo, an existing settlement in east Jerusalem, they had been in the works for years.

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

Senior Palestine Liberation Organisation official Yasser Abed Rabbo said the "unprecedented" announcements threatened to make the talks "fail even before they've started".

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

In a bid to defuse the crisis, US Secretary of State John Kerry, whose dogged shuttle diplomacy brought about the first round of talks in Washington two weeks ago, phoned Abbas late on Tuesday, a senior source told AFP.

"The call Abbas received tonight from Kerry is part of ongoing US efforts to defuse a crisis before the talks (begin), as a result of the new settlement tenders today and in the last few days," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A few hours before the expected start of the Wednesday talks, Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners.

A group of 15 crossed into the Gaza Strip and were mobbed by relatives as they got out of a bus next to the border.

At about the same time, another 11 prisoners arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah to a welcome from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and thousands of cheering, dancing supporters.

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Whirlpool buys Hefei Sanyo stake for $552m

WHIRLPOOL is buying a majority stake in Chinese appliance maker Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Electric for about $US552 million ($A609.44 million).

Whirlpool Corp, whose brands include KitchenAid, Maytag and its namesake, says the transaction will help it expand in China.

Chief executive Jeff Fettig said, in a statement on Tuesday, the deal would give Chinese shoppers more products to choose from.

Hefei Sanyo had 2012 revenue of $US636 million ($A702.18 million). Its brands include Sanyo, Rongshida/Royal Star and Diqua. The company is a joint venture between former Hefei Rongshida Group Co Ltd and Sanyo Electric Co Ltd and Sanyo Electric (China) Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Panasonic Corp.

The deal, which gives Whirlpool a 51 per cent stake in Hefei Sanyo, is expected to close by the end of 2014.

It still needs Chinese regulatory approval and approval from Hefei Sanyo shareholders.

Whirlpool expects the transaction to add to its financial results in the first full year that Hefei Sanyo is part of its business. The Benton Harbor, Michigan company had sales of about $US18 billion in 2012.

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Torbay rumoured to stand for New England

OUTGOING independent MP Tony Windsor says former NSW politician Richard Torbay may emerge as a contender for his seat of New England.

Mr Torbay, who held the state seat of Northern Tablelands as an independent for 14 years, resigned in March a day after the Nationals dumped him as their candidate for New England.

He was subsequently referred to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption because of his relationship with Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid.

Mr Windsor said former Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce was favoured to win but that would depend on who else appeared.

With candidate nominations closing this week, he said there was some scuttlebutt about that Mr Torbay might "jump out of the woodwork and stand as an independent".

"Barnaby is sitting on about 40 per cent of the primary so there is a fairly significant vacuum there," he told Sky News.

Mr Windsor said if no one filled the vacuum Mr Joyce would win comfortably.

"But it's not over till the fact lady sings. I apologise for that faux pas," he said.

Mr Windsor said he believed the election campaign had been "slow and boring", highlighted by the fact Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's 'sex appeal' remark had made the news.

He believes the coalition will win the election.

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WA government backflips on solar decision

THE West Australian government has made a massive backflip to abandon its decision to halve a solar tariff rate for residents, only four days after announcing it.

The plan to cut the rate from 40c per kilowatt hour to 20c for homes that funnel surplus power back into the grid was announced in the state budget on Thursday and was expected to save $51 million.

But, after an overwhelming backlash from households and from within the WA Liberal party, Premier Colin Barnett announced on Monday that state cabinet had agreed to reverse the decision.

"Quite simply, we got this decision wrong and we have to fix it," Mr Barnett said.

"We have listened, and we appreciate the commitment that many people have made to take up renewable energy, like solar power.

"We understand that this measure would have had an unfair impact on one section of the community and it has to be reversed."

Treasurer Troy Buswell had only moments earlier told journalists there was no chance the decision would be reversed. The program, introduced in 2009, was such a success the Liberal government admitted in 2011 the take-up cap had been breached, costing it some $46 million more than planned.

The opposition was to hold a rally outside parliament, protesting against the move to halve the tariff, on Tuesday.

"Honestly, how bad is the Barnett government - complete, utter turmoil," WA Labor leader Mark McGowan tweeted.

The decision also brought on an internal backlash, with Southern River MLA Peter Abetz labelling the move unethical while maverick Hillarys MLA Rob Johnson threatened to cross the floor for the first time in his 20 year political career.

Mr Johnson said his constituents were irate after the government's annoucement last Thursday to ditch its original 40c deal.

"People feel they have been absolutely dudded by the government," he told ABC radio on Monday.

"And I can't help but agree with them."

Some 18 Liberal MPs had met over the weekend to discuss the matter and all had made comments of disgust, he said.

"We should never renege on a contract with the people. It is disgraceful that we should even contemplate that.

"People have been misled in general terms on many areas, but this one is a very serious one because it affects people and their ability to spend their money.

"I won't have a bar of it."

Political analyst Peter Kennedy said the decade-long tariff promise to 75,000 WA households that feed excess power into the grid could have sparked a voter backlash against the Liberal party at the September 7 federal election, potentially representing 150,000 voters.

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Thai PM urged to stop ivory trade

ON World Elephant Day wildlife protection groups have urged the Thai prime minister to deliver on her promise to shut down the country's ivory trade.

In March, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra pledged at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting to end the ivory trade in Thailand, one of the main hubs for the illicit traffic in African elephant tusks.

Thailand's ivory action plan is expected to be submitted to cabinet this year, but details of the plan have not been made public.

"It's critical the ivory action plan honours the Prime Minister's commitment, and sets out the necessary legal reforms with a clear timeline to make it illegal to buy or sell ivory," said Janpai Ongsiriwittaya, of World Wildlife Fund-Thailand.

Trade in ivory sourced from domesticated Asian elephants is legal in Thailand, but it has allegedly precipitated a large trade in smuggled African ivory that is processed and sold to tourists in Thai shops or exported abroad.

"Ending ivory trade in Thailand - currently the world's largest unregulated ivory market - will go a long way in stemming a global poaching crisis that is leading to the slaughter of tens of thousands of elephants each year," said Naomi Doak, TRAFFIC's Greater Mekong Program Co-ordinator.

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Abbott tries comedy after 'boring' debate

FIRST-TIME voter Sanaya Sabavala is collecting senior Liberals and now she's added Tony Abbott to her stash.

The 20-year-old Melbourne resident was among a contingent of younger supporters at Monday's campaign launch for Michael Sukkar, Liberal candidate for the marginal seat of Deakin.

"Mr Abbott is a wonderful man," an excited Ms Sabavala told AAP after having a photo taken with the leader.

He's the fourth addition to her portfolio of photos with senior Liberals, following John Howard, Joe Hockey and Victorian party president Tony Snell.

The crowd at the campaign launch was as buoyant as the helium balloons lining the room after Mr Abbott's performance in the leaders' debate on Sunday night.

"He's always so stiff on TV and he's so much more relaxed and human in person, and I told him that," Pamela O'Connor told AAP after meeting the leader for the first time on Monday.

Referring to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's use of notes during his first election debate with Mr Abbott on Sunday, the opposition leader said he didn't blame anyone for needing to read notes.

The problem was the notes weren't worth reading, he added.

Earlier at Melbourne's main traffic control centre Mr Abbott was asked to promise the next debate would be less boring.

"I thought every minute was full of excitement," he quipped.

Mr Abbott had earlier spent half an hour fully absorbed in footage of Melbourne's traffic jams.

The opposition leader is trying to convince people infrastructure isn't boring.

He wants to be known as an "infrastructure prime minister" should he win the election on September 7.

But his funniest line of the day was probably unintentional.

Attacking Mr Rudd's leadership style, Mr Abbott said the coalition was a strong and united team, not a "one-man band".

"No one, however smart, however well-educated, however well experienced, is the suppository of all wisdom," he said. The saying refers to the repository of all wisdom.

Even some of the Liberal party faithful giggled.

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New case of bird flu confirmed in China

A CHINESE poultry worker has been confirmed as having contracted the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus, the first case in the southern Guangdong province.

The 51-year-old woman is in a critical condition after she was admitted to hospital on August 3 following signs of a fever, the Guangdong Provincial Health Department said.

"She was a poultry slaughtering worker at a local marketplace," the local health bureau said in a statement on its website.

A total of 134 cases have now been reported on the Chinese mainland, including the Guangdong case.

State news agency Xinhua said that 44 people had died of the disease - which includes a recent fatality following the release of the latest official figures a month ago.

The virus was first reported in late March, with most cases confined to eastern China, and only one reported outside the mainland, in Taiwan.

Scientists reported last week the first likely case of direct person-to-person transmission of the H7N9.

However, they told people to "not panic" as the virus's transmissibility remained "limited and non-sustainable".

Local health authorities on Saturday lifted medical observations on 54 of 96 people who were placed under monitoring after they had close contact with the Guangdong patient, Xinhua said.

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Sandberg sells $100m of Facebook stock

THE number two executive at social networking giant Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, has sold $US91 million ($A100.51 million) worth of the company's stock, according to US securities filings.

Facebook shares sold at their initial public offering in May 2012 for $US38 but soon after dropped in value.

Only in past days has it has recovered and surpassed that value.

The company shares closed on Friday at $US38.50.

Sandberg still holds more than 25 million shares, representing approximately $US1 billion, according to the filing, released late on Friday.

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Candidates bite the dust in week one

A WEEK into the election campaign and the first candidates have bitten the dust, one for offensive conduct more than a decade ago.

That was Geoff Lake, Labor candidate for the safe Victorian seat of Hotham, who it emerged had abused a Liberal councillor during a heated meeting of Monash City Council in 2002.

Details of a sexual harassment claim from the time, reportedly being shopped around by his own party colleagues, say he called Kathy Magee a "f...ing bitch" and a "f...ing slut".

It was apparently well-known and something for which Lake had repeatedly apologised.

No matter. In a hard-fought election campaign, every past transgression is fair game.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pulled the plug, declaring Mr Lake's conduct unacceptable for a member of his team.

Then there's Ken Robertson, Labor candidate for the North Queensland seat of Kennedy, comfortably held by independent Bob Katter.

He quit after he was reported as saying Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was a bigot who would have the white Australia policy back in a flash, and that he hoped Australia never had to suffer Mr Abbott's Catholicism.

After embarrassing their own side, both men would appear to qualify as candidates from hell.

But they weren't the only political contenders who failed to see out the week.

Queensland Labor candidate Des Hardman did nothing wrong whatsoever, but was bumped in favour of former premier Peter Beattie. His departure sparked a fleeting wave of internet snickering over his name.

One Nation, traditionally a rich source of colourful candidates, didn't disappoint.

Stephanie Banister, 27, a mother of two whose day job is a welder, quit after just 48 hours as the party's candidate for the Queensland seat of Rankin, vacated by Labor's Craig Emerson.

In a jaw-dropping interview on Brisbane's Channel Seven, she referred to Islam as a country, confused the Islamic holy book the Koran with haram (Islamic term for forbidden) and seemed baffled by the national disability insurance scheme.

She accused Seven of editing her responses to make her look a moron but any viewing of the video indicates she managed fairly well on her own.

So too did Jaymes Diaz, Liberal candidate for the marginal Labor-held Sydney seat of Greenway.

In an excruciating interview on the Ten Network, he repeatedly stumbled over the coalition's policy on asylum seeker boat arrivals in a manner so awe-inspiring the ensuing video went viral.

Diaz can't so easily plead media naivety as he's an immigration lawyer who stood for Greenway in 2010.

Abbott, who admits he's done the occasional crook media interview in his time, rang to commiserate with the man who could well be one of his MPs after September 7.

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