ONE man is dead and another is in police custody after a fight in Western Australia's central wheatbelt.
Police say two men had started fighting in a home in Koorda, a township about 240km northeast of Perth.
A 46-year-old man died at the scene at about 1.30am on Saturday.
Police are treating the death as a homicide and a 64-year-old man is being questioned by detectives.
UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has strongly condemned a bomb blast in Syria that killed 100 people. Source: AAP
INTERNATIONAL peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says a devastating bomb blast in the Syrian capital was a "war crime" that has left about 100 people dead.
The toll given by Brahimi on Friday was grimly higher than the 61 dead given by Syrian activists after a suicide bomber staged the attack on Thursday near the entrance to President Bashar al-Assad's ruling party offices.
Brahimi said he "strongly condemns the savage and horrible explosion in Damascus yesterday, which resulted in the killing of around 100 and the injuring of two hundred fifty civilians.
"Nothing could justify such horrible actions that amount to war crimes under international law," the UN-Arab League envoy added in a statement.
Brahimi called last month for the UN Security Council to set up an independent international investigation for "such crimes" in Syria.
Assad's government and the opposition have blamed the Damascus attack on "terrorists".
Six tanks containing nuclear waste have started leaking at a site in the US state of Washington. Source: AAP
AT least six tanks containing radioactive waste are leaking at a site that was used to make Cold War-era bombs in the US state of Washington.
Authorities in the state are urging more federal help to clean up the site, which first produced fuel for nuclear bombs in World War II and closed down 25 years ago
Washington governor Jay Inslee said that the extent of the leaks at the Hanford site was disturbing.
"There is no immediate or near-term health risk associated with these newly discovered leaks, which are more than five miles from the Columbia River," he said, after meeting US Energy Secretary Steven Chu in Washington DC.
"But nonetheless this is disturbing news for all Washingtonians," he said.
The Hanford nuclear site, 185 miles (300 km) southeast of Seattle, was used to produce plutonium for the bomb that brought an end to World War II.
Output grew after 1945 to meet the challenges of the Cold War, but the last reactor closed down in 1987. Its website says: "Weapons production processes left solid and liquid wastes that posed a risk to the local environment".
Millions of litres of leftover waste is contained in 177 tanks at the site, according to the Department of Energy, which in 1989 agreed a deal with Washington state authorities to clean up the Hanford Site.
A Department of Energy spokesman, Lindsey Geisler, confirmed that "there are six tanks at the Hanford site .. including the one announced last week, that show declining levels of fluid."
"There is no immediate public health risk. The Department is working with the State of Washington and other key stakeholders to address the issues associated with these tanks," he added.
Details of exactly what kind of waste was involved were not immediately available.
THE Canadian former ambassador to Iran who protected Americans at great personal risk during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis says it will reflect poorly on Ben Affleck if he doesn't say a few words about Canada's role if the director's film Argo wins the Oscar for best picture.
But Ken Taylor - who said he feels slighted by the movie because it makes Canada look like a meek observer to CIA heroics in the rescue of six US citizens caught in the crisis - is not expecting it.
"I would hope he would. If he doesn't than it's a further reflection," Taylor said.
"But given the events of the last while I'm not necessarily anticipating anything."
Taylor kept the Americans hidden at the embassy in Tehran and facilitated their escape by getting fake passports and plane tickets for them.
He became a hero in Canada and the US afterwards. The role he played in helping the Americans to freedom was minimised in the film.
"In general it makes it seem like the Canadians were just along for the ride. The Canadians were brave. Period," Taylor said.
Affleck's thriller is widely expected to win the best picture trophy.
Two other high-profile best picture nominees this year, Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, have also been criticised for their portrayal of some factual issues.
Affleck said in a statement on Friday night he thought his issue with Taylor had been resolved.
"I admire Ken very much for his role in rescuing the six houseguests. I consider him a hero. In light of my many conversations as well as a change to an end card that Ken requested I am surprised that Ken continues to take issue with the film," he said in a statement.
"I spoke to him recently when he asked me to narrate a documentary he is prominently featured in, and yet he didn't mention any lingering concerns."
Taylor noted that former US President Jimmy Carter appeared on CNN on Thursday night and said "90 per cent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian", but the film "gives almost full credit to the American CIA".
Carter also called Argo a complete distortion of what happened when he accepted an honorary degree from Queen's University in Canada in November.
"I saw the movie Argo recently and I was taken aback by its distortion of what happened because almost everything that was heroic, or courageous or innovative was done by Canada and not the United States," Carter said.
Taylor said there would be no movie without the Canadians.
"We took the six in without being asked so it starts there," Taylor said. "And the fact that we got them out with some help from the CIA then that's where the story loses itself. I think Jimmy Carter has it about right, it was 90 per cent Canada, 10 per cent the CIA."
He said CIA agent Tony Mendez, played by Affleck in the film, was only in Iran for a day and a half.
The movie also makes no mention of John Sheardown, a deputy at the Canadian embassy who sheltered some of the Americans.
Taylor said it was Sheardown who took the first call and agreed right away to take the Americans in. Sheardown recently died and his wife, Zena, called the movie disappointing.
THE gambling industry has exaggerated the costs of placing s $1 maximum bet limit on poker machines, a Productivity Commission expert says.
The Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform held a hearing in Canberra on Friday to investigate the merits of a Greens private member's bill to restrict gambling losses to $120 an hour.
High-stakes poker machines can chew through $1200 an hour.
The Productivity Commission recommended in a 2010 report the $1 bet limit be phased in over time, along with mandatory precommitment technology.
However, assistant commissioner Dr Ralph Lattimore told the committee there had been "significant exaggerations of the real cost" of the proposal.
The gambling industry has estimated the cost of introducing $1 maximum bets at between $3 billion to $5 billion, while the Department of Community Services calculated the cost at $1 billion.
Dr Lattimore said those estimates did not take into account the depreciation of poker machines and were based on immediate timeframes rather than a gradual phase-in periods.
"The cost of doing it the way we proposed would be less than that," he said.
Under the watered-down measures against problem gambling passed by federal parliament last year, poker machines will have to be capable of carrying mandatory precommitment technology by 2018.
Asked whether machines could also be made $1 bet-ready, Dr Lattimore replied, "It wouldn't be difficult from a technological perspective."
"There is no reason you can't have a flexible machine ... it would be valuable from the point of view of lowering the costs of experimentation," he said.
Dr Lattimore said there would be "incremental" additional costs to have machines readied for both the $1 bet limit and mandatory precommitment.
A VOLUNTEER firefighter has died while battling a blaze southeast of Perth.
The man was killed in a bushfire at Quindanning, near Williams, about 150km southeast of Perth, a Worksafe spokeswoman said.
Police can't access the area where he died because the fire is still burning and it's unsafe to do so, she said.
Police are searching for an armed man in connection with the death of a Sydney factory worker. Source: AAP
POLICE are searching for an "armed and dangerous" man they believe killed a factory worker in a fit of rage outside his Sydney workplace.
Gordon Cramp, 37, has an arrest warrant out on him for murder following the death of a 65-year-old man in Dunheved on Thursday morning.
The victim's body was found in the yard of a factory on Links Road at 5.30am (AEDT).
Cramp is believed to be armed and dangerous and police are warning the public not to approach him.
He is described as being of Caucasian appearance, about 165cm tall, with a thin build and short dark hair.
St Mary's Local Area commander Superintendent Ray Filewood told AAP on Friday that Cramp worked at the factory last year but was laid off.
It's thought he was looking for another man who held a senior position at the factory but instead attacked the 65-year-old man.
"It appears in a fit of rage he's fatally wounded this chap. There doesn't seem to be any provocation to it.
"That's why we have concerns for him being in the community," Supt Filewood said.
He said Cramp was known for carrying knives and in the past had possessed firearms.
Supt Filewood said Cramp was still believed to be in the area of St Mary's, Penrith, Mt Druitt or Hawkesbury.
US existing home sales rose in January after December's slowdown, as the US housing market continued to tighten, the National Association of Realtors says.
Sales of existing homes rose to an annual pace of 4.92 million, up 20,000 from the previous month and more than 400,000 from a year earlier, a year-on-year rise of 9.1 per cent, NAR said on Thursday.
The trade group said inventory was tightening, increasingly giving the edge to sellers over buyers.
"Buyer traffic is continuing to pick up, while seller traffic is holding steady," said Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist.
"There is plenty of demand but insufficient inventory to improve sales more strongly. We've transitioned into a seller's market in much of the country."
Inventory of existing, or previously occupied, homes on the market fell to 4.2 months' worth from 4.5 months in December and the 2012 full-year average of 5.9 months, with the supply of condominium and co-operative units tighter than that for single-family homes.
"We expect a seasonal rise of inventory this spring, but it may be insufficient to avoid more frequent incidences of multiple bidding and faster-than-normal price growth," said Yun.
Even so, the median price for housing sold in January, at $US173,600, was the lowest since March 2012 and lower than the 2012 full-year average of $US176,800, NAR data showed.
The Japanese whaling season could be cut short after a dramatic clash on the high seas. Source: AAP
JAPANESE officials insist no decision has been made to cut short the country's Southern Ocean whaling season after a dramatic clash with Sea Shepherd vessels.
Japan's whaling fleet was forced to abandon a refuelling operation on Wednesday after a series of collisions with the conservation activist group's boats.
Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson said whaling had been suspended and he didn't expect the remaining 18 days of the season would see any hunting.
But Japan's Consul-General in Melbourne, Hidenobu Sobashima, said that comment was wide of the mark.
"That is not correct," Mr Sobashima told AAP.
"We have temporarily suspended refuelling activities but not more and not less than that."
Asked if the season would continue, Mr Sobashima said: "I'm not in a position to explain the detail of the movements of the whaling fleet."
News agency AFP also quoted a Japanese Fisheries Agency official in Tokyo saying the whaling program would continue.
Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR), which co-ordinates the annual hunt, was yet to comment.
Mr Sobashima said Japan had protested to the embassies of Australia and The Netherlands in Tokyo, but would not respond to federal environment minister Tony Burke's comment that whaling was in "flagrant violation" of international law.
"However, I'd like to say that what is being done is lawful in accordance particularly with article eight of the international convention for the regulation of research whaling," he said.
Sea Shepherd said its three vessels in the area - the Steve Irwin, Bob Barker and Sam Simon - were rammed by the Nisshin Maru, but Mr Sobashima laid the blame with the conservation group.
"It's the Sea Shepherd who are endangering the life and property of the crew and the safe navigation of the sea and therefore the Sea Shepherd activities are illegal and impermissible," he said.
"It's the Sea Shepherd vessels who approached the Japanese vessel and collided."
Captain Watson rejected that version of events.
"Their argument is that we hit their fist with our face," he said.
"It was more like a case of road rage."
Mr Sobashima said Sea Shepherd's claim the Japanese fleet had been illegally refuelling was false.
As the Greens repeated their call for an Australian naval ship to be sent to patrol the area, Prime Minister Julia Gillard continued to rule it out, saying it would put Australian personnel at risk.
"When did we become the nation that apparently has got the capacity to police every ocean in the world?" she told reporters in Adelaide.
Sea Shepherd estimates only 12 whales have been caught so far this season, while Mr Sobashima said figures were not available.
The Consul-General said he was confident Australia's case at the International Court of Justice to ban the annual hunt would not succeed.
"We believe that what we are doing is lawful, therefore the International Court of Justice would favour the Japanese position," he said.
Japan claims it conducts scientific research that is lawful under an International Whaling Commission Ban, and is continuing a cultural tradition.
ANOTHER bid has been made to have Adelaide lawyer Eugene McGee sanctioned over a fatal hit-and-run crash.
The South Australian opposition has presented a 7000-signature petition to state parliament calling for the case to be referred to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.
The tribunal has the power to impose penalties if a lawyer is guilty of unprofessional or unsatisfactory conduct.
Opposition justice spokesman Stephen Wade said while Mr McGee had already been cleared by the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board, the tribunal was another avenue of review.
Mr McGee was driving a car that hit and killed cyclist Ian Humphrey in 2003 on a country road, north of Adelaide.
He fled the scene but turned himself into police several hours later.
He was charged with causing death by dangerous driving but was ultimately found guilty of the lesser charge of driving without due care, fined $3100 and lost his driver's licence for 12 months.
Mr Wade said the opposition had been seeking further action to review Mr McGee's actions for almost two years.
He said the case showed that the current complaints process was failing South Australians and leaving them without a robust framework to deal with their concerns.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon backed the new call to have Mr McGee's case reviewed.
He said the petition filed in the SA parliament was only the "tip of a very large iceberg of community revulsion".
"This case feeds into people's deepest suspicions of the legal community," Senator Xenophon said.
ALUMINA says it needs to drive through change in its pricing structure after its full year net loss blew out.
The group's net loss for the 12 months to December 31 tripled to $US152.9 million ($A149.96 million) from $US47.3 million from $A45.91 million) in 2011.
Melbourne-based Alumina's only earning asset is its 40 per cent stake in Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC), with operators Alcoa holding the remaining 60 per cent.
AWAC owns aluminium smelters at Portland and the struggling Point Henry plant, near Geelong, both in Victoria.
AWAC had two strategic initiatives to improve its financial results, Alumina chief executive John Bevan said.
"Firstly, to be successful, the market-pricing mechanism used by AWAC to sell its alumina needs to reflect the fundamentals of the alumina industry, not the (aluminium) smelting industry," he told an analysts' briefing.
"As a low-cost producer, this change will enable AWAC margins to reflect its market position in the medium term.
"This initiative started in 2011."
AWAC is changing its contracts to spot alumina prices so they are not linked to the aluminium price, with 48 per cent of shipments to reflect that in 2013.
China's overproduction of aluminium has driven down prices that were above $US3,000 a tonne before the global financial crisis and were trading around $US2,143 a tonne on Thursday, giving it access to cheaper input costs through the linked alumina price.
The results come a week after the Chinese government-owned CITIC took a 13 per cent stake in Alumina for $452 million, putting pressure on Alcoa to decide if it will bid.
Alumina's shares closed 3.5 cents down at $1.215.
Foreign exchange losses of nearly $US90 million ($A87.36 million) and other losses of the same amount contributed to Alumina's poor result.
Excluding those items, Alumina recorded a net loss of $US62.1 million ($A60.28 million) compared to a $US126.6 million ($A122.89 million) net profit in 2011.
Its underlying loss was $US52.5 million ($A50.96 million) compared to an underlying profit of $US128 million ($A124.25 million) previously.
Revenue fell to $US5.8 billion from $US6.7 billion ($A5.63 billion from $A6.5 billion).
Alumina cut its final divided to nil, from six US cents.
Mr Bevan said that while 2013 had begun on a positive note with prices recovering from 2012, uncertainty lay ahead.
"The outlook for the market in 2013 remains uncertain with macro-economic conditions, particularly in Europe, remaining difficult," he said in a statement on Thursday.
The AWAC joint venture recorded a net loss of $US91.9 million ($A90.13 million) in 2012, compared to a net profit of $US469.7 million ($A460.67 million) a year earlier.
"Despite the very difficult market conditions, we are heartened by the sound operational performance of AWAC and the progress made on important initiatives that will ultimately strengthen the company's position and improve returns to shareholders," Mr Bevan said.
Falling aluminium prices and the high Australian dollar have put Alumina under financial pressure.
Weaknesses in the global economy in 2012 have hurt demand for aluminium used in products such as aircraft, cars, drink cans and the construction industry.
A POLICEMAN who admits he wrongly accused an Aboriginal man of assault says he and other officers shared their accounts of the incident before he prepared his official statement.
The young officer said he was taught the practice by his field training officer.
Constable Luke Mewing was giving evidence on Thursday before the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) in Sydney, which is inquiring into the arrest and prosecution of 24-year-old Corey Barker.
Mr Barker had been charged with intervening in a violent street confrontation between two of his friends and police at Ballina, on the NSW far north coast, in January 2011.
He was also charged that evening with punching Senior Constable David Hill at Ballina police station during a brutal struggle in which police kicked him in the head, kneed his torso and dragged him to a cell where he was left handcuffed for one hour and 40 minutes.
All the charges against Mr Barker were eventually dropped.
Both officers and four of their colleagues prepared written statements that Mr Barker started the fracas with a punch.
Four of them later confirmed that evidence in Ballina Local Court.
Cnst Mewing said it was standard practice in the Richmond local area command for officers to share their statements in preparing their evidence, and Sen Const Hill's statement had been emailed to him.
The PIC heard the officers' written statements were nearly identical in referring to offensive language Mr Barker had allegedly used before the police station incident.
Const Mewing said his field training officer had taught him to share statements among officers who were present at the same incidents.
"He told you that was the appropriate way to go?" Mr Rushton asked.
"I believe so," he responded.
Cnst Mewing was later shown CCTV evidence, previously thought to be damaged, which showed Mr Barker did not throw a punch.
On Thursday, Cnst Mewing admitted his written statement and court evidence were incorrect.
"That evidence was just wrong, wasn't it?" counsel assisting the PIC hearing Stephen Rushton, SC, said.
"I guess so," Const Mewing said.
"You knew that it was wrong when you gave it?" Mr Rushton said.
"I believed it at the time that I saw (the incident)."
He denied deliberately fabricating evidence.
Const Mewing said he delivered a "knee strike" to Mr Barker while he and four other officers had him pinned to the ground.
"It's a move, a weapons-control strike, for pain compliance," he told the PIC.
Statements from the officers said Mr Barker was dragged because he would not comply with a command to stand up.
Giving evidence previously, Const Mewing had admitted the prisoner would not have been able to stand up.
The inquiry continues on Monday with evidence from other officers involved in the incident.
A CHRISTIAN camp organisation says it refused a gay youth support group's booking at a resort not because its members were homosexual but because it was promoting unmarried sex.
Suicide prevention group WayOut, which works with young same-sex-attracted people from regional Victoria, had tried to book the Christian Youth Camps' (CYC) Phillip Island Adventure Resort in June 2007 for a workshop on fighting homophobia, but it was refused.
The group took the matter to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in 2010, which upheld a discrimination complaint against a Christian Brethren-run business.
On Wednesday CYC appealed the decision in the Victorian Court of Appeal, arguing it did not discriminate against homosexuals.
In written submissions to the court, lawyers for CYC argued that Mark Rowe, the man who refused the youth group, did not refuse them because their members were gay, but because a message would be promoted that it was okay to have sex outside marriage.
"The substantial reason why Mr Rowe responded as he did was because of his concern from what he was told that the forum was to be used to propagate or encourage the notion that homosexuality was part of the normal range of human sexualities to young people," CYC's lawyers said in the submissions.
CYC's barrister Joseph Santamaria QC told the court it was the belief of the organisation that God intended sexual activity to occur only between a married male and female couple.
In its submissions, CYC argued that the tribunal was in error when it did not conclude that Mr Rowe acted as he did because of his concern about the nature of the workshop given the beliefs of CYC and himself.
Debbie Mortimer SC, for Cobaw Community Health Services, which runs the WayOut program, said VCAT had made the right decision.
She said suggestions that CYC had no knowledge of the sexual orientation of WayOut group members did not stand up to scrutiny.
"The tribunal concluded that the only or dominant reason for the refusal to accept the booking was because of the (same-sex) sexual orientation of the proposed attendees, or the personal association of the proposed attendees with persons identified by their (same-sex) sexual orientation," she said in a written submission.
The hearing continues on Thursday.
SPIRALLING childcare costs should be investigated, the South Australian opposition says.
Opposition frontbencher Martin Hamilton-Smith says child care costs are almost $110 a day and for two children in care that could present families with a $1000 weekly bill.
"Who can afford that?" he said on Wednesday.
Mr Hamilton-Smith wants the state government to support a bipartisan select committee to help struggling families.
"Over the years, governments of all persuasions have tied childcare providers up with wave after wave of regulations and red tape," he said.
"The worthy aim has been to lift the quality of care but the result has been to close down childcare places and push up the costs for parents."
Mr Hamilton-Smith's plan will be debated in state parliament on March 6.
POLICE say three sisters aged between six and 11 were raped and murdered before their bodies were dumped down a well in western India.
The bodies of the three schoolgirls were found last week, two days after they went missing on February 14 from their home in the Bhandara district of Maharashtra state, police superintendent Aarti Singh said on Wednesday.
"The bodies of the three young girls were found in a well, with their schoolbags and footwear," Singh told AFP by phone from Nagpur, adding they were aged six, nine and 11.
"The post-mortem has confirmed that the girls were raped and then murdered."
No arrests have been made but Singh said four people had been detained for questioning and investigations were still under way.
Family members said the girls went to look for their mother who was out of the house and no one heard from them again.
The incident led to protests by villagers, Singh said, echoing angry rallies in the capital New Delhi after the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in December.
That incident sparked a nationwide debate about the treatment of women and girls and their safety in India.
Hunting in NSW national parks has not been delayed indefinitely, Premier Barry O'Farrell says. Source: AAP
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell should resign if someone is shot when the state's national parks are opened up to hunting, the NSW opposition says.
It says parents should "lock up their children" if the April school holidays usher in a new era of shooters sharing national parks with bushwalkers.
"Given that you are pressing ahead, despite strong warnings from your government's own risk assessment, will you resign if the unthinkable happens and someone is shot?" Opposition Leader John Robertson asked the premier during question time on Wednesday.
Mr O'Farrell, who failed to answer the question, instead attacked Labor for reintroducing duck shooting in 2008.
The government was also asked why exclusion zones weren't being considered as part of the hunting deal struck with the Shooters and Fishers Party in exchange for its support for the government's privatisation of electricity assets.
NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker told parliament consultations were continuing over how the controversial move would be carried out, but it would not begin until late April or possibly May.
"When that risk assessment is complete then the controls in each park will be announced ... You just need to listen," she said during the first sitting week of the new parliamentary year.
Outside parliament, opposition environment spokesman Luke Foley said there was no right time to allow amateur hunters into national parks "but the very, very worst time is the school holiday period".
"It stands to reason that any new program ... is going to have flaws and problems in its early days.
"My message to parents (is) lock up your children."
Ms Parker confirmed late on Wednesday the program would cost taxpayers $19.1 million over five years.
Mr Robertson responded: "Taxpayers are being forced to foot the bill because of a grubby deal.
"They have a minister who is not across her brief, who is not implementing exclusion zones when it comes to roads and walkways ... when it comes to the distances between hunters and people using our national parks."
NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said the premier was "throwing money" in a vain attempt to mitigate the risks that should be spent on weeds and feral animals.
"But what he should be doing is ripping up the deal and ending this embarrassing saga."
During question time in the upper house, Ms Faehrmann also called on the government to sack Game Council head John Mumford, after he admitted helping to produce flyers on behalf of a shooter's lobby targeting a rival pest control program.
"(He) has demonstrated a frightening lack of professionalism and judgment for someone in charge of a government body that dishes out hunting licences," Ms Faehrmann said in a statement.
"It's a bit like the roads minister saying that as a private citizen it would be okay for him to publish flyers that oppose drink-driving controls."
A QUEENSLAND man has been sent to jail for life for setting fire to his ex-girlfriend's house in a jealous rage, killing two people and seriously injuring his former lover.
Craig Anthony Leonard, 30, was given a minimum non-parole period of 20 years in the Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane on Tuesday.
Leonard pleaded guilty to murdering Nicholas David Spohn, 23, and Jennifer Anne Bachmann, 43, in April 2011.
He also pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to his ex-girlfriend Rina Linda Mayall, then 24.
The court heard Leonard set fire to Ms Mayall's house north of Brisbane while she was in bed with her new boyfriend, in a jealous fit fuelled by drink and drugs.
Months earlier she ended her eight-month relationship with Leonard and rebuffed attempts to reconcile, Crown Prosecutor Michael Byrne SC said.
After drinking heavily and injecting amphetamines, Leonard drove to the Beachmere house on the night of April 17, and set a mattress under the home alight using petrol.
The house caught fire and Ms Bachmann and Mr Spohn, who were asleep, died of smoke inhalation.
Ms Mayall jumped from a verandah and broke her back.
Mr Byrne told the court Leonard later told police he just wanted to "put the wind up" his ex-girlfriend and "f*** her up financially".
In a statement, Mr Spohn's mother, Erika Varga, said their family had been robbed of a life with their son.
"We will never see him, hold him, hug him and tell him how much we love him," it read.
Ms Bachmann's sister, who cannot be named, told the court through tears how her sister was so badly burned DNA tests were needed to identify her.
In sentencing, Justice James Douglas said there was evidence to suggest Leonard's crime was a stupid act brought on by intoxication, but that didn't detract from its seriousness.
"To describe it as stupid or senseless is to severely understate the effect of what you have done," he said.
A YOUNG Aboriginal man who was allegedly bashed and falsely accused by police had assaulted an officer less than a year before, a police misconduct inquiry has been told.
The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) is looking at allegations that officers in Ballina, on the NSW far north coast, bashed Corey Barker in custody and later accused him of attacking them, after he intervened in an altercation between police and two of his friends in January 2011.
He was serving a nine-month suspended sentence for assaulting police at the time of the incident.
Mr Barker, now 24, pleaded guilty to the assault, resisting arrest and using offensive language in a street at nearby Byron Bay in 2010.
Court documents state that he pushed an officer when a wine bladder was pulled from his grip, then swung violently and swore, before a vicious struggle ensued on the ground.
He later spat on one officer but told the PIC it was an accident.
The inquiry was also told Mr Barker had been convicted in 2008 of bashing his best friend because he'd been talking to his girlfriend and that he'd had anger issues as a teenager.
CCTV footage showed him repeatedly punching Mitchell Clark in the head before flinging him to the ground and continuing the assault.
Mr Barker pleaded guilty and was given a 12-month good behaviour bond.
On Tuesday, lawyer Robert McIlwaine, representing one of the officers in the 2011 incident, asked Mr Barker if he had a problem controlling his anger.
"As a kid, yes," Mr Barker replied.
He said he had first sought counselling when he was 17 and was taking prescribed anti-depressants at the time of the incident.
"Once you were tackled from the side (by police), you lost your temper," Mr McIlwaine said of Mr Barker's intervention in the confrontation between police and his friends.
The case was referred to the PIC after CCTV footage from inside Ballina police station contradicted testimony from officers, and a magistrate found they had lied about the incident.
Mr Barker said when his mother visited him at the police station one officer made a lewd gesture while standing behind her.
"I saw an officer behind doing a gesture, pretending to squeeze her arse," he told the inquiry.
"They were just trying to aggravate me."
Four officers then attempted to move him from the cage to another room, intending to take him to a cell down the hall.
"They had shoved me through the door ... to provoke me," he said.
Police falsely claimed he had punched Senior Constable David Hill on the nose in that incident.
Senior Constables Hill and Ryan Eckersley and Constables Luke Mewing and Lee Walmsley gave court evidence about the punch.
The CCTV footage showed the officers wrestling Mr Barker to the ground, kicking him in the head and kneeing him in his side.
The officers handcuffed him and dragged him along the floor down to the cells with his arms in a vertical position.
"It had to be the top of the cake for pain in that incident," Mr Barker said.
He suffered injuries to his face, neck, arms and hips.
The inquiry continues on Wednesday.
THE "appalling shooting" of a senior reporter working for a privately-owned newspaper in Sri Lanka underscores the threats faced by journalists in the country, say media rights groups.
Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) and Journalists for Democracy, a group of Sri Lankan reporters in exile, said the Friday night shooting of Faraz Shauketaly was the latest attempt to muzzle the country's independent press.
"This appalling shooting suggests that the enemies of media freedom are trying to silence those journalists who still dare to report the news freely," the two rights groups said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Shauketaly, a 54-year-old investigative journalist at the Sunday Leader newspaper, had reported on alleged graft in Sri Lanka's energy sector.
He was moved to a private hospital after undergoing surgery at a state hospital to remove a bullet from his neck.
The newspaper said the shooting at Shauketaly's home in a suburb of Colombo brought back memories of the assassination of its founding editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was gunned down in January 2009 while driving to work.
"Sri Lankan journalists are constantly the targets of threats and reprisals, often by the government," the rights groups said, adding that Sri Lanka was ranked 162 out of 179 countries in the RSF press freedom index.
Rights groups say at least 17 journalists and media workers have been killed in the country in the past decade. Many Sri Lankan journalists have also fled the island fearing violence.
Sri Lanka lifted a state of emergency in 2011, but media rights groups say journalists have been forced to self-censor their work due to fear of attacks.
TURKISH police launched a massive nationwide crackdown against a radical Marxist group which claimed a suicide bomb attack against the US embassy this month, the state-run Anatolia news agency reports.
Police on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for 167 people in 28 cities as part of the operation against the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKP-C), which is classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States, Anatolia said.
A Turkish guard at the US embassy in Ankara was killed in the February 1 attack and three other people including a journalist were injured.
The outlawed DHKP-C has waged a string of attacks over the past few decades that have left dozens of people dead, including prominent political and military figures.
The fiercely anti-US group has threatened further attacks on other US diplomatic facilities in Turkey.
Victoria's premier has called for lifetime bans for thugs who misbehave at Melbourne A-League games. Source: AAP
THUGS rioting at Melbourne A-League games should be banned for life, Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu says.
Unruly soccer fans destroyed dozens of seats and lit flares at the Melbourne derby earlier this month, leaving a damage bill of thousands of dollars.
Flares were also set off at the Melbourne Victory game last weekend.
Mr Baillieu urged both Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart to work with Victoria Police to identify the offenders.
"I am a Melbourne Victory member myself and I am a sports fan, and I absolutely deplore what I have seen," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"It's just ugly, unacceptable, and sends absolutely the wrong message.
"Any more the clubs can do should be done. We will give them whatever support is necessary.
"These people have got to be out of the door, never get in, not banned for six months or 12 months, never get in."
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton said police were closing in on the offenders.
He said those responsible were known to police and had a history of disrupting public events across Victoria.
"They're known to us as people that do this sort of behaviour," Mr Ashton said.
"They do go out and try to cause disruption and not be focused on the event."
THE government is planning legislative changes to allow an elder daughter to precede a younger son in the line of succession to the British throne.
Monarchists are praising it as another part of the emancipation battle but the republican movement says New Zealand is just tagging along with the gang in case the Duchess of Cambridge has a girl.
Prince William and his wife Kate are expecting their first baby in July.
All 16 countries sharing the Queen as head of state, including New Zealand, must have the same laws of succession and a bill is going through the British parliament to make the change.
Justice Minister Judith Collins says the new rules will also allow a person married to a Roman Catholic to become king or queen.
Currently, prospective heirs who are married to Catholics are disqualified.
"It is fitting that the nation which led the charge for women's suffrage is co-ordinating the change for equal succession rights," said Monarchy New Zealand chairman Sean Palmer.
"This international effort to modernise the crown is remarkable. The monarchy has been evolving for centuries and will continue to do so far into the future.
"The much-needed changes to the royal succession will remove gender discrimination by allowing women equal right to the throne."
Dr Palmer said the ban on heirs marrying Catholics came out of 17th century European conflicts and was completely unnecessary today.
"The religious divisions of the old world have no place in New Zealand," he said.
But Republican Movement chairman Lewis Holden said the changes were "too little too late".
The changes should have been made a long time ago and were a rushed job in case Kate gave birth to a girl. The monarchy wanted to avoid the embarrassment of her not being in line for the throne, he told NZ Newswire.
New Zealand was spending a lot of time and effort changing its rules all for a foreign aristocracy, when for the same effort they could have set the wheels in motion for a New Zealand head of state, he said.
The UN "strongly" condemned the bomb blast in southwestern Pakistan that killed 81 people. Source: AAP
THOUSANDS of women have refused to bury victims of a bloody bombing and a strike shut down Pakistan's biggest city Karachi as protesters across the country demanded protection for Shi'ite Muslims.
Up to 4,000 women began their sit-in in Quetta on Sunday evening, a day after a bomb in the city killed 81 members of the minority community including nine women and two girls aged seven and nine.
The women blocked a road and refused to bury the dead until authorities take action against the extremists behind the attack, which wounded 178 people.
The bomb, containing nearly a tonne of explosives hidden in a water tanker, tore through a crowded market in Hazara Town, a Shi'ite-dominated area on the edge of the city on Saturday evening.
It was the second deadly blast in the city in little over a month.
The sit-in continued on Monday at Hazara Town and near a local station, said Wazir Khan Nasir, police chief of Quetta which is the capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan.
"We are going to resume negotiations with the Shi'ite community leaders this morning to convince them to bury the dead," said Nasir.
However a local Shi'ite party leader, Qayyum Changezi, said the protesters "will not bury the dead until a targeted operation is launched".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the bomb blast and called on authorities to act quickly against those responsible.
Noting that this is the second attack against the minority Shiite community in Quetta in the last few weeks, Ban "calls for swift and determined action against those claiming responsibility and perpetrating such actions", his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said his country was "appalled".
"I welcome the condemnation of these attacks by the government of Pakistan and urge swift action to bring the perpetrators to justice," he said on Monday.
Sit-in demonstrations were held in several cities and towns across the country demanding an end to the killing of Shi'ites.
Public transport drivers and traders stopped work in Karachi on Monday after a Shi'ite party called a protest strike, residents said.
Schools were closed, traffic was off the roads and attendance in offices was thin in the city. Several political and religious parties have backed the strike call.
"We will continue our peaceful struggle for protection of the Shi'ite community," said a Shi'ite party leader, Hasan Zafar Naqvi.
Baluchistan has increasingly become a flashpoint for surging sectarian bloodshed between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and Shi'ites, who account for around a fifth of the country's 180 million people.
The attack against the minority Shi'ite community also injured close to 200 people.
The bomb was hidden in a water tanker in a crowded market in Hazara town, a Shi'ite-dominated area on the edge of Quetta.
Pakistan is due to hold a general election in coming months but there are fears that rising sectarian and Islamist violence could force the postponement of polls.
President Rafael Correa has declared victory in the first-round of Ecuador's presidential vote. Source: AAP
A LANDSLIDE second re-election secured, President Rafael Correa immediately vowed to deepen the "citizen's revolution" that has lifted tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans out of poverty as he expanded the welfare state.
"In this revolution the citizens are in charge, not capital," the leftist US-trained economist said after winning 56.9 per cent of the vote Sunday against 23.8 per cent for his closest challenger, longtime banker Guillermo Lasso.
With 57 per cent of the vote counted, former President Lucio Gutierrez finished third with 6 per cent.
The remainder was divided among five other candidates. Lasso conceded defeat late Sunday.
The fiery-tongued Correa has brought surprising stability to an oil-exporting nation of 14.6 million with a history of unruliness that cycled through seven presidents in the decade before him.
With the help of oil prices that have hovered around $US100 a barrel, he has raised lower-class living standards and widened the welfare state with region-leading social spending.
The 48-year-old Correa dedicated his victory to his cancer-stricken friend President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who some analysts have suggested he could succeed as the standard-bearer of Latin America's left.
"We are only here to serve you. Nothing for us. Everything for you," Correa told cheering supporters from the balcony of the Carondelet presidential palace on Sunday shortly after polls closed.
Yet Correa has also drawn wide rebuke for intolerance of dissent and some analysts have questioned how sustainable his economic policies are. The number of people working for the government has burgeoned from 16,000 to 90,000 during Correa's current term if office, Ecuador's nongovernmental Observatory of Fiscal Policy reported in December.
Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, called Correa's ramping up of social spending "simply applying the standard recipe for many populist governments in the region".
While it succeeds in building political support in the short term, he said, it is not clear whether it is sustainable.
And while Correa has shown himself to be the "undisputed rhetorical leader of Latin America's left" - and should now see his standing enhanced there - Shifter said Correa's consolidation of power have damaged Ecuador's "already precarious institutions" and he lacks the clout, the ambition and the coffers to build a coalition that could curtail US power in the region.
Correa's result on Sunday easily topped the 51.7 per cent that he won in his first re-election in April 2009.
He is barred by the constitution from another four-year term.
While a practitioner of one-man rule in the Chavez mould, he is more respectful of private property.
Ecuador relies on petroleum for more than half of its export earnings, and he has used this oil wealth to make public education and health care more accessible, and lay thousands of kilometres of new highways.
QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman's decision not to announce a wider cabinet reshuffle reveals his tenuous position within his government, the opposition says.
Mr Newman's judgment has been attacked after his hand-picked, trouble-prone arts and IT minister Ros Bates resigned on Friday.
Hours later, his transport director general Michael Caltabiano was told to pack his bags by March 15.
The premier said he would consider a wider cabinet reshuffle but on Sunday there were only minor changes.
Mansfield MP Ian Walker was announced as Ms Bates' successor.
Mr Newman says Mr Walker narrowly missed out on becoming housing minister in November when Bruce Flegg resigned.
"He's made it today," Mr Newman said.
Mr Walker was praised for being a strong performer as assistant minister for planning reform.
Southport MP Rob Molhoek will take over that position and first-time MP Tarnya Smith, a junior whip, will take over as assistant minister for child safety.
Mr Walker wouldn't comment on whether he believed Ms Bates had cast a shadow over his new department and insisted he had "a lot of faith in the premier's judgment and my own performance".
Ms Bates resigned after months of criticism for alleged nepotism, her contact with lobbyists and the amount of leave she's taken.
On Saturday morning, it was revealed her close friend Kaye Martin was awarded a department contract and appointed to a board position with Screen Queensland.
Mr Newman said Ms Bates left for health and family reasons and the latest debacle wasn't known at the time of her resignation.
He refused to say if he would have fired her if he had known.
He also wouldn't say why he sacked Mr Caltabiano and wouldn't comment "for legal reasons".
Mr Caltabiano, who had worked with Mr Newman at the Brisbane City Council, had also been involved in a nepotism scandal.
Ms Bates son, Ben Gommers, was given a plum job in his department.
Parliament's Ethics Committee and the Crime and Misconduct Commission are investigating.
Mr Newman said he took full responsibility for Ms Bates' and Mr Caltabiano's downfalls.
The opposition says the premier's failure to deliver a wider reshuffle underlines his lack of authority within his own government.
"The limited nature of the changes highlight the premier's tenuous position within his own government," Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
Ms Palaszczuk also criticised Mr Newman for not promoting a regional politician or a woman.
Only two of the 19-member cabinet are women.
Mr Walker is expected to be sworn in this week.
OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has kickstarted two election campaigns in one, using the official launch of the Liberals' bid to retain power in WA to make his own pitch in the west.
In a speech of high praise for Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett, Mr Abbott also heaped gratitude on the state's economy for giving "inspiration and hope" to the rest of the country by turning rocks into riches.
And he used the dysfunction between WA's state Labor party and their federal counterparts to taunt Prime Minister Julia Gillard about her reluctance to come to Perth before the March 9 poll.
The audience of the party faithful was treated to a warm-up act by local member and deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop act, who used the Chinese New Year to laud the Liberal leaders, while poking fun at state Labor leader Mark McGowan about his birthdate in the Chinese year of the goat.
Mr Abbott was given a rousing welcome, and immediately returned the favour, saying he hoped to model himself and his potential prime ministership on Mr Barnett.
"How much I respect the premier of this state, how much I have learnt from him, how much I wish to model myself on him, should I get the opportunity to lead our country," Mr Abbott said.
"The Barnett government has become a model for all the governments that we run or hope to run. That's the kind of government that I wish to run in Canberra."
Making a clear appeal to the parochial WA electorate ahead of the federal poll in September, Mr Abbott said the rest of Australia owed the state for driving the nation's economy.
"All of us owe a debt to you. Every Australian owes a debt to Western Australia and in an important sense, West Australians are the best Australians," Mr Abbott said.
And with the mining tax and carbon tax both impacting WA's massive resources industry more than anywhere, Mr Abbott challenged the prime minister to come west.
"Don't be shy of coming to Western Australia. Justify the carbon tax. Justify the mining tax," Mr Abbott said.
Mr Barnett used his speech to recount the WA government's economic achievements, while announcing a $57 million election pledge to provide 155 new school nurses, guaranteeing every WA child a health assessment upon starting school.
The premier also continued his tough on crime stance, saying WA's worst hoons would lose their cars after one offence under tough new laws to be introduced if they are re-elected.
Labor earlier unveiled a plan to introduce the Western Australian Sentencing Commission, an independent body reporting to parliament to scrutinise sentencing and give the public a chance to comment.
The NSW Greens have called for urgent environmental law reforms after a Sydney water scare. Source: AAP
SYDNEY Water has denied covering up the cause of contaminated drinking water in Sydney's south, saying it has provided test results to the public.
A health warning was issued to residents in parts of southern Sydney in December last year after reports the water had a chemical or petrol taste.
Sydney Water says the contamination occurred when compounds from bitumen were let into a water pipe during routine maintenance.
But the incident has sparked claims the contamination could be linked to Orica's former ChlorAlkali Plant at Botany, with suggestions Sydney Water may have covered up the incident and botched test results.
Sydney Water denies those claims, saying there was never any threat to the public.
"There has been no cover up of any results," Sydney Water said in a statement on Sunday.
"Apart from some compounds which created changes to taste and odour in the water, results show the water met the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines."
The company said the NSW Department of Health had been given samples and agreed there was no risk to residents.
NSW Health said it was advised by Sydney Water that a water pipe had been returned to service after maintenance without being flushed.
The government department "considered that the most likely cause to be disturbance of the lining of the water main".
A sample of the water found chloroform and bromochloro methanes - which are not found in bitumen.
But NSW Health says the presence of those compounds is "not unexpected" because trace amounts are commonly found in drinking water supplies around the country.
"These compounds are examples of trihalomethanes that form when drinking water is disinfected with chlorine," NSW Health Director of Environmental Health Dr Wayne Smith said in a statement.
Despite the government labelling NSW Health the "independent water regulator" the department did not carry out independent testing.
"NSW Health asked Sydney Water to undertake testing to confirm the nature and extent of the contamination," Dr Smith said.
The incident has prompted the NSW Greens to call for the creation of an independent body that would "properly monitor pollution".
Greens MP and environment spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann said residents living around Orica's former ChlorAlkali Plant at Botany were "scared out of their brains" about contamination.
"The community is not trusting companies like Orica and now companies like Sydney Water to undertake their activities safely," she told reporters in Sydney.
"It's really important the community trust is restored."
The NSW opposition has joined the call for tougher action by the state government, demanding more transparency about the cause the pollution in this incident.
"Unfortunately there is a culture of cover-up by the bureaucrats at Sydney Water and the O'Farrell government must step in and order Sydney Water to detail what caused this incident," NSW opposition spokesman for water Walter Secord told the Macquarie Network on Sunday.
But NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has rubbished opposition claims there may have been a cover-up.
"The opposition is talking through an orifice that I won't mention," he told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
Mr O'Farrell said he would happily drink from taps in Sydney's south because the health department had ruled there was no evidence the incident was linked to the Orica plant.
FIRE crews are battling a blaze heading toward a small community in Victoria's southwest as hot, dry conditions make things tough for firefighters across the state.
An emergency warning remains current for residents in the town of Mirranatwa, west of Melbourne, where a 300-hectare fire burning in the Grampians National Park may impact their community.
"We've issued an emergency warning, it may impact the town," a CFA spokeswoman said.
The blaze, which was started by lightning on Thursday evening, is one of 387 new bush and grassfires that ignited between 3pm (AEDT) on Thursday and 11.30am on Sunday, many sparked by lightning, according to the state's head of fire services.
Twenty-six fires were still going about 5.30pm (AEDT).
"It has been a very active fire period in many areas of the state and the emergency services have been kept very busy," Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said.
This activity has been driven by four days of hot, dry weather and tomorrow (Monday) is expected to be the worst day of the past week."
He said it was important for Victorians to remain vigilant as the hot weather was expected to continue for some while.
Mr Lapsley said up to 1075 firefighters, 240 vehicles and 64 aircraft have been active each shift over the past four days.
On Sunday afternoon, 108 fire fighters, 12 tankers and three helicopters were working to protect property in Mirranatwa.
"Right across the state thousands of people have been working incredibly hard, day and night, protecting their community," Mr Lapsley said.
