US, Canada launch joint cybersecurity plan

CANADA and the United States say they are launching a joint cybsersecurity plan to protect their digital infrastructure from online threats.

The action plan, under the auspices of the US Department of Homeland Security and Public Safety Canada, aims to better protect critical digital infrastructure and improve the response to cyber incidents.

"Canada and the US have a mutual interest in partnering to protect our shared infrastructure," said the Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.

"We are committed to working together to protect vital cyber systems, to respond to and recover from any cyber disruptions and to make cyberspace safer for all our citizens."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the plan "reinforces the robust relationship" between their two agencies.

Washington and Ottawa hope to improve collaboration on managing cyber incidents between their cyber security operation centers, enhance information sharing and engagement with the private sector and jointly promote cyber security awareness.

The announcement came after the US House Intelligence Committee warned earlier this month that equipment supplied by Chinese telecoms groups Huawei and ZTE could be used for spying.

The committee called for the groups' exclusion from government contracts and acquisitions.

Canada later invoked a "national security exception" that could exclude China's Huawei Technologies from a role in helping build its new super secure government network.

AF

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Buildings destroyed in Sydney fire

AN overnight fire in Sydney's south west has caused $2 million worth of damage after burning down a mobile phone tower.

The blaze in Lansvale also destroyed two communications rooms.

Firefighters and police were called to the fire, near Hollywood Drive and Howard Street, at 1am on Saturday.

The buildings had already been razed to the ground by the time they arrived.

Police are investigating the cause of the fire, which they believe may have started in scrub between the street and the phone tower.

A report is to be prepared for the Coroner because of the high cost of damages.

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US senators want Libya video declassified

US Republican senators are demanding that the Obama administration make public the surveillance video taken during last month's deadly attack on the US consulate in Libya.

The US ambassador and three other staff members were killed in the attack.

Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte wrote to President Barack Obama's defence secretary, CIA director and attorney general demanding that the video be declassified.

In the run-up to the presidential election, Republicans have accused the Obama administration of distorting the account of the attack on September 11 that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.

Officials first blamed it on a mob set into motion by an anti-Islamic film.

Obama administration officials have pointed to US intelligence reports that showed conflicting information.

Administration officials did not respond to requests for comment.

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Shot Malala's family arrive in UK

RELATIVES of teenager Malala Yousufzai, who was shot and wounded by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan, are reported to have arrived in the UK to be with her as she recovers.

Ziauddin Yousufzai, her father, is believed to be among those who have arrived in Birmingham, where the 15-year-old is being treated for wounds received in the October 9 shooting.

He had previously told Pakistani state television she will return to Asia after she recovers in Britain.

She was shot for her role in advocating education for girls and was airlifted to the UK on October 15.

Her medical team at the hospital said she was comfortable and was responding well to treatment.

She has received thousands of goodwill messages from around the world.

Malala was travelling home from school with two classmates in northwest Pakistan when she was shot at point-blank range. The bullet hit her just above the back of her left eye and she was lucky to survive.

The bullet travelled through the side of her jaw, damaging her skull and jaw joint on the left-hand side, and went through her neck and lodged above her shoulder blade.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has described the shooting as a "barbaric attack".

The Taliban have vowed to kill her, raising questions about whether it would be safe for her to return.

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Aboriginal concerns halt oil project

BURU Energy says it has stopped work at its Ungani oil project in Western Australia after traditional owners claimed it had destroyed a significant Aboriginal archaeological site.

KRED Enterprises on Friday said Nyikina Mangala traditional owners had demanded the Perth-based company cease operations at the project, about 100km east of Broome in WA's Kimberley region, where extended production testing began in March.

It said Buru had bulldozed through sand dunes in an exclusion zone, destroying an Aboriginal archaeological site and disturbing important objects.

KRED chief executive and Nyikina Mangala traditional owner Wayne Bergmann, who used to head the Kimberley Land Council, said a complaint had been lodged with the Department of Indigenous Affairs along with a request for a full investigation.

Buru executive director Eric Streitberg said the company had been preparing for a geophysical survey but stopped operations in the area in question as soon as it was made aware of the concerns on Thursday.

"The company will not conduct any further work in that area until all investigations are complete," he said.

Mr Streitberg said Buru was undertaking its own investigation into the incident and was fully assisting the department's independent probe.

However, there were no sites in the area of the alleged disturbance that had been registered with the department, he said.

Mr Streitberg said all of Buru's activities were conducted after obtaining heritage clearances from traditional owners.

"Buru takes particular care to ensure that its activities do not disturb registered sites or areas of cultural significance that are brought to our attention," Mr Streitberg said.

"This particular work was conducted following extensive consultation with the Nyikina Mangala people over a period of nine months and has included on-ground monitoring by the traditional owners."

KRED said Buru was currently in negotiations with the Nyikina Mangala people over access to land for exploration activities.

"Buru has covered every inch of our claim with mining and exploration tenements, and if it wants to work with us, it needs to do it on our terms and respect our culture and heritage," Mr Bergmann said.

Buru is an Australian Securities Exchange-listed company with market capitalisation of about $756 million. It is developing the Ungani project in partnership with Japan's Mitsubishi,

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Newman must release Caltabiano's CV: Labor

THE Queensland premier must release the CV of a senior bureaucrat accused of misleading a parliamentary committee, the Labor opposition says.

Michael Caltabiano on Thursday stood down on full pay from his $500,000 a year post as transport and main roads director-general.

The parliamentary ethics committee will investigate concerns he may have misled a budget estimates hearing about his relationship with departmental liaison officer Ben Gommers - the son of Arts Minister Ros Bates.

Mr Gommers, who earns up to $105,000 a year, is currently the subject of a Crime and Misconduct Commission investigation into his employment with Mr Caltabiano's department.

During a transport estimates committee hearing last week, Mr Caltabiano said he had known Mr Gommers personally, not professionally.

But media reports allege Mr Caltabiano was named, alongside Mr Gommers, on the register of lobbying firm Entre Vous.

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk says there's a stench of scandal.

"I call on the premier to immediately release this CV to the media and the public," she told reporters in Brisbane on Friday.

"This CV will clearly state yes or no if Michael Caltabiano worked at Entre Vous."

Ms Palaszczuk said the government had moved at a "snail's pace" on the matter, and only took action after intense media attention.

"The premier didn't have to wait for a week to take action," she said.

"He had four hours during that ethics committee hearing ... all the premier had to ask was, 'did Michael Caltabiano work at Entre Vous?'"

Asked if the matter should be referred to the Crime and Misconduct Commission, Ms Palaszczuk said she was confident in the bipartisan ethics committee.

But she said it probably should not be a private investigation.

"If it's the public interest it can be public, and there is a lot of interest at the moment," she said.

Earlier, the LNP MP who heads the ethics committee said he wasn't in a position to detail the specific allegations against Mr Caltabiano.

Alex Douglas said the matter involved an element of privilege, which could mean a lot of things.

"It could mean anything from that a question was answered incorrectly to elements of deliberately misleading our people," Dr Douglas said.

"It has to be confidential. You can prejudice any matter at any point in time by declaring exactly what may or may not occur."

He said the committee would take submissions on the matter, and would report back to parliament, which would make a decision on what action, if any, would be taken against Mr Caltabiano.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the government was determined to investigate any claims of wrongdoing in a fair and open way.

"I heard Dr Douglas this morning, who is the chair of that committee, and it's obvious that we're making sure we uphold the standards that we always said we would in opposition," he told reporters on Friday.

"I think Dr Douglas pointed out this morning that the government does not have the numbers on the ethics committee, with an independent in there as well.

"I'm also confident the proper processes will be followed."

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Renewable energy target succeeding: report

AUSTRALIA'S renewable energy target (RET) has driven $18.5 billion of investment in clean power and eroded wholesale energy prices since it was introduced a decade ago, a new report suggests.

The Clean Energy Council analysis released on Thursday finds wholesale prices are as much as $10 per megawatt hour lower as a result of the RET being in place since 2001.

The target is meant to ensure 20 per cent of Australia's electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020.

It's currently being reviewed by the Climate Change Authority amid speculation that softer demand and the popularity of rooftop solar panels means the 20 per cent target may be exceeded.

Critics say overshooting the target would unnecessarily drive up retail power bills.

But the council-commissioned report by SKM MMA states the RET is doing its job and if left unchanged will result in 12 per cent less coal-fired generation between now and 2030.

Gas-fired generation is estimated to drop 13 per cent.

"Retaining the current RET will also mean we can meet the bulk of our target for reducing carbon emissions with renewable energy projects right here in Australia," council chief executive David Green said in a statement on Thursday.

"But all this is under threat if governments succumb to pressure to tinker with or drop the renewable energy target."

Thursday's report suggests that without the RET Australia would not have met its Kyoto emission-reduction goals.

It suggests the target could deliver an extra $18.7 billion in renewable energy infrastructure by 2030, on top of the $18.5 billion already invested.

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Seniors jump in Australian skydiving first

A 74-YEAR-OLD Queensland man has leapt out of a plane with 12 other seniors in an Australian skydiving first.

The group, aged 60 to 74, accomplished the first sequential formation skydive by people over 60, succeeding 14,000 feet above the town of Toogoolawah, northwest of Brisbane, just after noon (AEST) on Thursday.

Even with 29 years of skydiving experience Gordon Turner, 74, says it's not so easy when you get older.

"But it went very smoothly. There's a lot of very happy old people here," he told AAP.

"It was excellent."

The Ramblers skydiving centre has been buzzing all week with people attending the biennial Post Equinox Skydiving and Music Festival.

Mr Turner said the group, some members of which only met on Thursday morning, could make a second attempt.

"There's some debate on whether we should all have a nap this afternoon, but we could easily be back up there," he said.

"We think it's a good advertisement for old people not to sit on the lounge chair, get out there."

It was the first time a group of people aged over 60 had performed the feat in Australian skies.

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Talks for Aussie detained in Mongolia

AN Australian lawyer prevented from leaving Mongolia will meet local authorities on Saturday but Foreign Minister Bob Carr will not speculate on how long her ordeal might last.

Sarah Armstrong was stopped at Ulaanbaatar airport last Friday because authorities want to question her about allegations of money laundering and corruption.

The 32-year-old is a mining lawyer for Rio Tinto subsidiary SouthGobi Resources. She has not been arrested or charged and still has her passport.

Australian Consul-General David Lawson has been in close contact with Ms Armstrong.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is sending an extra diplomat from its Seoul embassy to help Mr Lawson with the case.

Senator Carr said on Thursday that Ms Armstrong was scheduled to meet Mongolian authorities on Saturday.

"She will be accompanied, if she wants it, by Australian consular staff," he told reporters in Sydney.

"She can be assured of a high level of Australian consular support."

Ms Armstrong's mother Yvonne has made an emotional plea for her daughter's safe return home.

She says her daughter has told her she could be involved in the investigation until Christmas.

"Get her out, just get her out," Mrs Armstrong said to the northwest Tasmanian newspaper The Advocate.

Senator Carr says he does not know how long the case may drag on.

"I don't think I can help by speculating about the nature of the case or how long it might go on," he said.

He said he stood ready to contact his Mongolian counterpart if DFAT advised him it would help. But he warned against a premature intervention.

"The danger is if you make that call before the other side is ready to move then you've fired your best shot instead of keeping it in reserve."

Sarah Armstrong grew up in the western Tasmanian mining town of Rosebery and went to school in Burnie before completing a law degree at the University of Tasmania.

She has been based in Hong Kong for five years and is fluent in four languages.

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Judge rejects drunk driver's kangaroo tale

A DRIVER who claimed his friend grabbed the steering wheel when a kangaroo hopped across the road has been found guilty of causing the passenger's death.

Judge Paul Muscat said Jason Lee Jones had a probable blood alcohol concentration of 0.180 per cent at the time of the late-night crash at Kapunda, north of Adelaide.

He found the 33-year-old, from Elizabeth in Adelaide, guilty of aggravated dangerous driving causing the death of Bradley Brine on May 7, 2011.

In a South Australian District Court judgment published on Wednesday, Judge Muscat rejected evidence given by Jones at the judge-alone trial.

"I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr Jones was not avoiding a kangaroo as the explanation for why his vehicle was driving off the road and along the verge," he said.

"I find that Mr Jones has constructed an account to fit in with the tyre mark evidence to explain the manner of his driving.

"I do not accept as a reasonable possibility Mr Jones' evidence that Mr Brine nudged his hand and then took hold of the steering wheel."

The two mates were travelling home from another friend's place at Eudunda.

Jones testified that he drank seven stubbies of beer and a glass of scotch mixed with Coke or Pepsi over a period from 4pm to 11.25pm, saying he did not feel affected by the alcohol when he got back behind the wheel.

"Plainly, on any view, Mr Jones had a lot more alcohol to drink that day than he remembered when giving evidence," the judge said.

"The plain fact of the matter is that Mr Jones had a very high blood alcohol concentration, which would have impaired his ability to drive his vehicle."

He continued Jones' bail and adjourned sentencing submissions to December 5.

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WA police pursuit bill to be introduced

DRIVERS who kill or injure other road users while fleeing police will face a minimum 12 months in jail under new legislation to be introduced to the West Australian parliament later on Wednesday.

Police Minister Liza Harvey said mandatory jail terms of at least six months would also apply to people who drove recklessly while fleeing police.

Driving recklessly is defined as exceeding the posted speed limit by 45km/h or more or driving over 155km/h, Ms Harvey said.

She said the new legislation, which she expected would pass through parliament in the three remaining sitting weeks of this year, would help protect police who behaved reasonably and sought to follow the appropriate procedures.

"The reason we've done this is we need to send a very strong message out the community that we are not going to tolerate the dangerous and reckless behaviour of certain individuals who decide to flee police," she told reporters.

"This also sends a very song message to our police officers out there that if they are acting reasonably and in the public interest, and within the (police) commissioner's policies and guidelines for emergency driving, that they will have a defence and they will know that this Liberal/National state government and this legislation is there to back them."

She brushed aside suggestions that mandatory jail terms should apply to anyone who forced police to pursue them as a way to ensure innocent drivers were not hurt or killed.

Ms Harvey said the legislation also quadrupled the penalty for such offenders, which was currently a $300 fine for a first offence.

There were six deaths on WA roads last year as a result of police pursuits.

On Friday, a taxi driver and a British scientist who was due to deliver a speech on Rottnest Island on Wednesday were killed after they were t-boned by a four-wheel-drive that had earlier been chased by police.

The road pursuit was abandoned after the driver allegedly turned his headlights off, but a police helicopter shadowed him.

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Fairfax must reveal printing plans: AMWU

FAIRFAX Media needs to reveal details of planned closures of its printing presses after announcing print editions will still continue for years, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) says.

Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood told shareholders during Wednesday's annual general meeting that print editions of newspapers, including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, would continue "as long as there is profitable demand for them," which could be more than three years.

The announcement came after Fairfax revealed in June that it would close print sites at Chullora in Sydney and Tullamarine in Melbourne and turn the papers into tabloid-size editions.

But AMWU national print secretary Lorrain Cassin says Fairfax needs to be honest with shareholders about the future of the company's printing plans.

"Why is the company closing the brand-new, state-of-the-art facility at Tullamarine when the newspaper would continue to be printed there for at least three years?" she said in a statement.

"Mr Hywood needs to come clean on exactly what is going on."

Meanwhile, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance is taking Fairfax to Fair Work Australia over four job losses in Tasmania.

The media union says it has filed an adverse action claim after four staff were let go from the Launceston Examiner for what it alleges is in retaliation for their industrial action.

The newspaper employees had recently passed a resolution of no confidence in Fairfax management, the union says.

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Action plan launched for children's health

THE views of thousands of children and young people have been canvassed for a national action plan to improve their health and wellbeing.

The key aims of the plan will be announced at a summit on November 23 co-ordinated by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY).

ARACY Chief Executive Officer Lance Emerson on Tuesday briefed the Children's Healthcare Australasia conference in Sydney on the plan.

He told AAP that in the lead-up to the plan's launch, one of the largest consultations of children and young people in Australia had been carried out.

More than 3000 children, young people and families responded to a survey asking what they wanted to see over the next 10 to 20 years to improve the health and wellbeing of young people.

"What they want to see is not surprising," said Dr Emerson.

"They value families and relationships most highly when it comes to improving their wellbeing."

He said a national action plan was needed because governments alone could not solve many of the complex problems affecting young people.

The November summit would involve children and young people and discuss overall aims and "five or six game-changer ideas we're putting up", Dr Emerson said.

"There are no silver bullets here that are going to fix wellbeing immediately.

"For example, if we really wanted to make a big impact on reducing child abuse and neglect we'd probably be doing more in reducing some of those issues we know are connected with abuse and neglect.

These included substance abuse, mental health issues and homelessness, Dr Emerson said.

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Man raped five women in their homes: crown

FIVE women were raped at knifepoint in their own homes by a man who disguised his face before blindfolding and tying them up, an Adelaide jury has been told.

One woman was tied up on her bed after hearing the man open the door to the room where her three daughters were sleeping, said crown prosecutor Sandi McDonald on Tuesday.

He returned, pulled her out of her bed, put her in her car, drove a short distance and then raped her in the back seat, Ms McDonald said in the crown opening address in the South Australian Supreme Court.

Phillip Gordon Lindsay, 52, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of burglary, 12 of rape, one of false imprisonment and one of taking a motor vehicle without consent.

The offences took place in Adelaide in the early hours of the morning between February 1990 and January 1993.

Ms McDonald said DNA from all the rapes matched Lindsay's DNA.

The five women came from different backgrounds, from different walks of life and did not know each other, she said.

"Those are the five women whose homes were invaded and those were the five women who were raped during the period between 1990 and 1993.

"On each occasion, he forced his way into the house while they were asleep.

"He disguised himself. He threatened them with a knife. He bound and gagged them with their own clothing."

One woman, who was alone in her home with her seven-week old baby, was woken by a man who had one of her infant's nappies wrapped around his head.

Another woman who was raped had tried to get rid of him by saying her husband would be home soon.

Ms McDonald said the man had then taken the woman's car, which was found the next day in easy walking distance from the house Lindsay had rented at the time.

Referring to the DNA evidence, Ms McDonald said Lindsay had four brothers.

But she said one died before the rapes, one was in jail at the time, and a third's DNA did not match the rape samples.

The fourth brother was alive at the time of the offences, but has since died.

Ms McDonald alleged that the DNA from the crime scenes was 6,305 more times likely to match the DNA of Lindsay, than his brother, and extra testing resulted in that statistic increasing to 159,000.

Paul Charman, for Lindsay, warned the jury that DNA can never identify anyone.

All it could do was show statistical relationships between samples taken at a crime scene and from various people.

"It does not mean there are no other people on this planet that will be a match," he said.

The trial is continuing.

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New medical research centre for Sydney

A MEDICAL research centre in Sydney's southwest could lead to groundbreaking new treatments for cancer and other diseases, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

At the official opening of the Ingham Institute's new home at Liverpool Hospital on Tuesday, Ms Gillard said she hoped to see more Australian discoveries such as the anti-cancer Gardasil vaccine.

"It is this kind of research that we need and has been done in the past that we can do in the future," Ms Gillard said.

The institute, which was founded in 1996 by chicken farmer and businessman Bob Ingham AO, received almost $47 million in federal funding in 2009 to help complete the new centre at the hospital - the first medical research centre in the region.

The centre has more than 200 researchers working on seven disease areas, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, trauma and injury and mental health.

Clinicians, researchers, nurses and students will also be able to get hands-on training at a simulation centre, set to be completed later this year.

The institute is also pioneering new MRI-Linac cancer treatment technology, one of only three in the world, which can more accurately locate tumours during a treatment session.

"We have never been able to do that before," the institute's Research Director Professor Michael Barton OAM said.

He said it was one of only three currently under development in the world and will place Liverpool at the centre of world's best practice for radiation treatment.

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Govt forced to find $16.4bn in savings

THE federal government has been forced to find an extra $16.4 billion of budget savings over the next four years to keep its surpluses intact, after a troubled global economy took a further toll on tax receipts.

Treasurer Wayne Swan's mid-year budget review released on Monday predicts a $1.1 billion surplus in 2012/13, down about 27 per cent from the $1.5 billion surplus forecast in the May budget.

But it would still be a massive turnaround from a final $43.7 billion deficit for 2011/12.

The economic growth forecast for this financial year in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (MYEFO) was also marked down to three per cent, from 3.25 per cent previously.

Mr Swan says anyone suggesting Australia is immune from the global fallout of economic weakness in Europe, the US and China is "kidding themselves".

"It's pretty obvious to all that ... this mid-year review has been put together amid storm clouds which are hanging over the global economy," he told reporters in Canberra.

"This lower global growth outlook has had another very big whack at government tax revenues and has made it harder to deliver a surplus."

The latest round of savings includes a cut in the baby bonus from $5000 to $3000 for second and subsequent children from mid-2013, further changes to the private health insurance rebate and increased visa application costs.

"Our savings send a very clear message to the world that we have world beating public finances," Mr Swan said.

"That is very important given global economic uncertainty."

But Mr Swan said the savings were made with the circumstances of lower and middle-income Australians in mind and would give the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) room to cut interest rates in the future.

Under other changes, large companies will progressively shift to remitting taxes to the government each month, instead of quarterly, from 2014.

This will deliver a revenue gain of $8.3 billion over four years and make the system "more accurate, more timely and more clear".

"It's not an increase in tax; it's simply a change in the timing of it," Mr Swan said.

Finance Minister Penny Wong said some of the savings measures would "no doubt be unpopular".

"But the government is focused on making the right decisions for our circumstances and ensuring a strong and sustainable budget position now and into the future," she said.

One budget casualty is the expected revenue from Labor's minerals resource rent tax (MRRT), which has been hit by falling commodity prices, particularly for iron ore.

Total MRRT revenue for 2012/13 and the next three years is estimated at $9.1 billion, down from $13.4 billion in the May budget.

First instalments of the 30 per cent MRRT on the profits of large iron ore and coal miners, which started on July 1, were due to be received on Monday.

Meanwhile net commonwealth debt, which peaked at 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011/12, is in a declining trend.

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Govt cuts $1.1bn from private health

THE federal government has slashed $1.1 billion from private health insurance (PHI) in the mid-year budget update by again reducing the rebate paid to fund members.

The changes could cost an individual with average hospital cover around $13-a-year. Families could be $26 worse off.

From April 2014 the government will only pay the rebate on premium rises in line with inflation, saving $700 million over three years.

It will also scratch the rebate of up to 30 per cent on any penalty loadings people pay because they didn't take out private cover when they turned 30.

That measure will start in mid-2013 and save $390 million through to 2015/16.

The new cuts come after Labor earlier this year won a four-year battle to means test the 30 per cent PHI rebate, saving $2.4 billion over three years.

But Treasurer Wayne Swan insists the government isn't trying to get rid of the rebate by stealth.

"We are not hostile to the rebate," Mr Swan told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

"We are trying to make sure that we're not providing an endless rebate for any level of (premium) increase."

In April this year health fund premiums rose an average of 5.06 per cent.

In 2011 they jumped 5.56 per cent across the board.

By contrast the consumer price index (CPI) in the year to June 2012 was just 1.2 per cent. It's forecast to be 2.25 per cent in 2013/14.

Mr Swan said from April 2014 "the premium to which the rebate is applied will move in line with CPI or the commercial premium increase - whichever is lower".

The commonwealth spends $5 billion a year on the PHI rebate. The treasurer said without reform that would blow out to an unsustainable $8 billion by 2022.

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek also is looking to change the way premium rises are approved.

As well as linking the subsidy to inflation, Labor will scrap the rebate altogether on the so-called lifetime health-cover component of premiums from July 2013.

Under an initiative designed to encourage people to take out hospital cover if someone isn't in a fund when they turn 31, but join later, they pay a two per cent loading for every year outside the system.

For example, someone who takes out PHI at age 40 will pay 20 per cent more than someone who joined at 30.

But from mid-2013 they won't receive the government rebate on that component of their premium.

Under the new means-testing arrangements, which started in July, individuals earning more than $84,000 and families earning more than $168,000 have their rebate reduced depending on how much they earn.

It cuts out altogether for individuals earning more than $130,000 and families on more than $260,000.

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Japan island protests against US rapists

THE legislature of the Japanese island of Okinawa has passed a protest resolution after the arrest of two US sailors on rape charges, and says US bases should be shrunk or returned.

The resolution approved on Monday demands proper punishment and victim compensation in the rape case.

The prefectural assembly also demands that the US military educate its personnel better to prevent crimes against locals.

The legislature says 5,747 crimes are on record involving US military personnel since Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972.

The US has placed an 11pm to 5am curfew to all its military personnel in Japan.

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Facebook removes fake Martin Bryant page

FACEBOOK has removed a page purporting to be the account of Port Arthur mass murderer Martin Bryant.

The page includes several photos of Bryant and distasteful comments attributed to the man who killed 35 people in a shooting rampage in 1996. He is serving 35 life sentences.

Tasmanian Attorney-General Brian Wightman lodged an urgent complaint with the social media site last week and on Sunday welcomed the move to take it down.

"This page was offensive and insensitive and appeared to be calculated to cause maximum hurt to people affected by the Port Arthur tragedy," Mr Wightman said.

"My sympathies go to any families and individuals who were upset by this page, and I thank Facebook for their prompt response to the complaint."

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Rudd denies ghostwriting McKew's book

FORMER prime minister Kevin Rudd has shrugged off suggestions that he ghostwrote ex-MP Maxine McKew's tell-all political book, saying the claim "verges on sexism".

The denial came after Ms McKew, who at the 2010 election lost the Sydney seat of Bennelong which three years earlier she'd captured from then prime minister John Howard, also rejected claims Mr Rudd had ghostwritten her book Tales From The Trenches.

"For anyone to accuse a prominent journalist such as Ms McKew of not being able to write her own book I think verges on sexism," Mr Rudd told reporters on Sunday after giving a speech in Mandarin at a Chinese cultural event in Sydney.

In her book, Ms McKew accuses Prime Minister Julia Gillard of manufacturing a leadership crisis in the ALP before challenging Mr Rudd for the Labor leadership in 2010.

She also says Ms Gillard's office launched an "offensive and sexist" smear campaign against her that included leaking confidential correspondence.

On Sunday, Mr Rudd refused to comment on speculation that he was considering another tilt at the ALP leadership.

He also denied that he had attended the Chong Yeung celebrations in Sydney's west on Sunday simply to upstage Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who was also at the cultural event.

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Man critically injured in Mildura assault

A WEST Australian man was critically injured when he was knocked to the ground during an assault in northern Victoria.

The Perth man was assaulted on a Mildura street early on Sunday morning after a minor altercation at a nightclub, police said.

The 39-year-old man was knocked to the ground where it appears he sustained critical injuries.

He was airlifted to Melbourne's Alfred Hospital, where a spokeswoman said his condition was listed as serious but stable.

Police are appealing for anyone with information or anyone who may have witnessed the incident to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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