Vic killer Knight says he's no psychopath

HODDLE Street mass murderer Julian Knight says jail authorities are dashing his hopes for freedom, because of their mistaken view he is a psychopath.

Knight is eligible to apply for parole next May, but the parole board has already said he is not ready for release, the Victorian Supreme Court was told on Friday.

Knight, wearing a black suit and representing himself, was back in court to apply for leave to bring proceedings against jail authorities.

He accuses them of failing to provide him with a detailed sentencing plan to improve his chances of release.

He also wants to be transferred to the Judy Lazarus transition centre which gives selected prisoners near the end of their sentence a supervised pathway back into the community.

Knight needs to ask the court's permission to start legal proceedings, because he has been declared a vexatious litigant, and is fighting jail authorities in up to 14 current matters before the courts.

Knight, who is in maximum security Port Phillip Prison, complained to the court he is being treated differently to other murderers.

"All other cases, they've all progressed out of maximum security within a third of their minimum term," he told Justice Anthony Cavanough.

Knight was jailed for life for killing seven people and wounding 19 in a shooting spree in Melbourne in 1987.

He is serving a minimum 27 years and last August was reduced from a maximum security to a medium security prisoner.

Knight says that having a minimum term gives an expectation he will eventually be released.

"Corrections Victoria have the mistaken belief, apparently forever, that I'm a psychopath with a personality disorder," he told the court.

Knight says this is affecting his progress through the jail system and if the parole board believes he is not ready for release then it should "hurry up and get me ready for release".

Claire Harris, for Corrections Victoria deputy commissioner Brendan Money, denied Knight's claim authorities failed to consider psychological reports recommending his gradual integration into the community.

Ms Harris said sentencing plans were tailored to each inmate and were not fixed.

She said Knight's sentencing plan was reviewed in August last year and again last December.

Ms Harris added jail authorities had no duty to transfer Knight to the transition centre.

Justice Cavanough will rule on the matters at a date to be fixed.

15.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ramsay and Medibank fight over funding

AUSTRALIA'S biggest private hospitals operator, Ramsay Health Care, is urging patients to quit Medibank should a dispute with the insurer over funding not be resolved satisfactorily.

But Medibank, which is Australia's largest health insurer, says Ramsay's requests are excessive, and payments to hospitals are outstripping growth in health insurance premiums.

Ramsay said on Friday that Medibank had lifted health insurance premiums by 6.2 per cent in April 2013.

But the insurer had offered to pay Ramsay only two per cent more for the provision of healthcare services.

Ramsay said a two per cent increase was less than the inflation rate, far less than the rising rate of healthcare costs, and so low that it could threaten the quality of care for patients.

The hospitals group said Medibank appeared to want members' premium income but not actually spend it when members needed access to quality healthcare.

"To ensure that patients' choice is not compromised by Medibank's actions, Ramsay would be suggesting that patients transfer to another health fund," Ramsay said in a statement.

Ramsay said Medibank had not passed on sufficient increases to private hospitalS for some years.

In was essential that health insurers pay appropriate rates to private hospitals given the rising costs of wages and healthcare technology and infrastructure.

Medibank has written to 9,000 doctors at Ramsay Health Care, saying that each year its payments to hospitals grow by more than the increase in premiums.

"Medibank contracts more than 450 private hospitals across Australia on behalf of our members," Medibank group executive of provider networks, Dr Andrew Wilson, said in a statement.

"We believe Ramsay Health Care's current request is excessive.

"We will not simply sign a contract with a hospital at any cost."

Medibank said hospital charges must be affordable, otherwise they would not be sustainable and would affect member premiums.

Shares in Ramsay Health Care were $2.25, or 6.29 per cent, lower at $33.52 at 1531 AEST on Friday.

15.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

China zoo with fake lion closes: media

A Chinese zoo under fire for disguising a hairy dog as a lion has closed for "rectification". Source: AAP

A CHINESE zoo ridiculed for disguising a dog as a lion has shut down temporarily for "rectification", media report.

The zoo's supposed "African lion" was exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute - a Tibetan mastiff - started barking, the state-run Beijing Youth Daily had reported earlier.

The zoo, in central China's Henan province, has "altered several misnamed animal signs", the Beijing Times reported on Friday, adding that zoo officials have issued a public apology and "closed for rectification".

Three other species housed incorrectly in the zoo reportedly included: two coypu rodents in a snake's cage, a white fox in a leopard's den, and another dog in a wolf pen.

A photograph of a dog sitting in a cage in front of a sign reading "African lion" drew ridicule on Chinese social media services, with one user saying: "They should at least use a husky to pretend to be a wolf".

The Tibetan mastiff is a large and hairy dog breed.

Authorities in the park in the city of Luohe, where the zoo is located, said the facility had been contracted out to a private zookeeper since 1998.

15.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

System failed NT woman, inquest hears

TWO families devastated by a killing that shocked Alice Springs are united in the sense of betrayal they feel towards the mental health system.

Gwvynyth Cassiopeia-Roennfeldt and Rocky Manu were flatmates for 18 months before the paranoid schizophrenic Manu killed her in November 2011.

Ms Cassiopeia-Roennfeldt, 36, was found with multiple stab wounds in what Coroner Greg Cavanagh described as "a frenzied attack".

The flat was leased to the pair by the Mental Health Association of Central Australia (MHACA), but an inquest into the killing has heard that they were left completely unsupported by authorities when Manu, now 45, stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication four months before the tragedy.

There was confusion about who was responsible for following up Manu's treatment, and although several people knew he was relapsing, there were no proper channels for them to report it.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, said in her closing submissions on Friday that the systems of the Alice Springs Hospital and the Central Australian Mental Health Service (CAMHS) had been "deficient in the extreme".

She said Manu's committed and supportive family were led to believe doctors had his treatment under control, when they did not, and that the concerns they repeatedly expressed to Manu's psychiatrist, Dr Prosper Abusah, asking for more involved treatment should have been given more weight.

Dr Dwyer said Dr Abusah was ultimately responsible for allowing Manu's treatment to lapse.

Multiple witnesses testified that Manu had never been homicidal or suicidal, and that he had no history of violence.

But they also said he could be aggressive and intimidating when unwell.

They said his paranoia and suspicion resulted in increasingly controlling behaviour towards his housemate, such as forbidding her friends and family from visiting the unit, making her remove all technology from the house, banning her from speaking his name, and suspecting her of poisoning his food.

Mr Cavanagh said Manu could be difficult to manage.

"A man called Rocky: intelligent, manipulative, full well knowing after 20 years the mental health requirements for him and not liking them, could work the system to get what he wanted, and not what the community wanted," he said.

Manu wanted his own life and was resistant to having a case manager watching over him.

Ms Cassiopeia-Roennfeldt was a peer worker with the MHACA, and her colleagues may have forgotten she was also vulnerable, and did not check on her regularly, Dr Dwyer said.

"Because she was such a competent, clever woman, it appeared on the surface things were going well."

But Ms Cassiopeia-Roennfeldt didn't feel she could speak to authorities about concerns she had about Manu's behaviour, motivated by a desire to help him get well as she had.

The coroner will hand down his findings at a later date.

15.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

Scot Calvin Harris world's top paid DJ

Scottish star Calvin Harris has topped Forbes magazine's list of the world's highest-paid DJs. Source: AAP

SCOTTISH singer-songwriter Calvin Harris must be glad he abandoned performing live for taking a stand behind the decks, after topping the Forbes magazine list of the world's highest-paid DJs.

The 29-year-old Scottish star, who holds the record for the most UK Top Ten hits from a studio album (nine) took home $US46 million ($A50.71 million) over the past year.

Harris pushed last year's list-topper Tiesto into second place, with the Dutch record-spinner earning $US32 million.

They were followed by French house music producer David Guetta, the trio Swedish House Mafia and Canada's Deadmau5.

Swedish DJ Avicii is the youngest on the list, pocketing $US20 million at just 23 years old, followed by Afrojack ($US18 million) and fellow Dutchman Armin van Buuren who took home $US17 million, while US Djs Skrillex and Kaskade rounded out the Top Ten.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

India works to salvage sub after blast

Indian divers and engineers are struggling to refloat a stricken submarine after it exploded. Source: AAP

INDIAN divers are pumping water out of a submarine that has sunk at its mooring in a Mumbai military shipyard after it exploded, with 18 sailors on board.

India's prime minister voiced "deep regret" over the accident which is feared to have left no survivors.

The fully armed INS Sindhurakshak, returned by its original maker Russia earlier this year after a major refit, was engulfed by a fireball that lit up the night sky at a Mumbai dock early on Wednesday. The vessel then sank.

The disaster, considered the navy's worst since the sinking of a frigate by a Pakistani submarine in 1971, has cast a long shadow over India's military capabilities as it seeks to counter a build-up by increasingly assertive China.

Divers had opened the main hatch and were pumping out water on Thursday to raise the diesel-powered vessel, which is lying in shallow water, officials said. Part of the stricken submarine protruded out of the water.

"So far we have not found any survivors but we have not gone through the entire boat yet. Also we have not sighted any bodies in the area searched," a senior navy official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Separately, a top defence ministry official, who asked not to be quoted, told AFP that the vessel had suffered "very, very extensive damage".

"The dewatering of the submarine is on," the official said.

Three sailors who were on the outside of the vessel managed to leap to safety.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing the nation in the traditional Independence Day speech at the Red Fort monument in Delhi, voiced sorrow over the tragedy, which marked a major setback for the rapidly modernising navy.

"We have deep regret that we lost the submarine INS Sindhurakshak in an accident. Eighteen brave sailors are feared to have been martyred," he said.

"The accident is all the more painful because the navy had recently achieved two major successes in the form of its first nuclear submarine, INS Arihant, and the aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant," Singh said.

In recent days India launched its first domestically produced aircraft carrier and began sea trials for the first Indian-made nuclear submarine, trumpeted as a "giant stride" for the country.

Newspapers lamented the loss of the submarine on their front pages. "Navy Catastrophe", said the Indian Express in a headline. "Defender of the seas meets fiery end", said The Hindustan Times.

The Times of India called it the country's "worst peacetime disaster".

The world's biggest democracy has been expanding its armed forces to upgrade its mostly Soviet-era weaponry and respond to what many in India perceive as a growing threat from regional rival China.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony described it as the "greatest tragedy in recent time".

Navy chief D.K. Joshi said on Wednesday no sign of life had been detected since the submarine was engulfed by flames.

Amateur video footage showed a fireball in the forward section of the Sindhurakshak, where torpedoes and missiles were stored as well as battery units.

An inquiry board will probe the cause and look at the possibility of sabotage, but "the indicators at this point of time do not support that theory", Joshi said.

The board is due to report its findings within a month.

Other sailors on vessels near the INS Sindhurakshak were admitted to a navy hospital in Mumbai with burns.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Katy Perry quizzes Abbott on gay marriage

The coalition is set to pledge $38m to upgrade Hobart airport in a jobs and growth plan. Source: AAP

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott stepped up his Tasmanian campaign with an offer of a tailor-made plan to boost the state's economy by investing in infrastructure and transport.

As the Liberals target the two key Labor-held Tasmanian seats, Bass and Braddon, Mr Abbott announced the second phase of the coalition's plan to lift the state out of its "dire" circumstances, by spending $438 million upgrading Hobart International Airport and the 176km-long Midland Highway.

He also promised $24 million for a new Centre for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research.

Tasmania has the highest jobless rate in Australia at 8.2 per cent, little economic growth and it's unacceptable that it also has the lowest life expectancy in the country and the lowest average wages, Mr Abbott said.

"Over the last few years, in particular, it really has become pretty dire down here," Mr Abbott told reporters in Launceston in Bass on Thursday.

"Tasmania shouldn't be like this.

"We have a growth plan that has been tailor-made for Tasmania."

Mr Abbott blamed "Labor-Green governments" in Hobart and Canberra for Tasmania's predicament.

The opposition leader pledged $38 million to expand Hobart International Airport and improve its freight and aircraft handling capacity.

An extra 500m of runway would be built and would secure the city as a world centre for Antarctic and Southern Ocean research by providing a gateway to large, heavily-laden aircraft on their way south.

The airport project could create 200 jobs.

The coalition's also promised $400 million to upgrade the Midland Highway.

The initiatives build on last week's $6.5 million announcement to support 2000 long term jobless into work by offering subsidies to businesses.

Earlier in the day, Mr Abbott found himself in a wrangle of words with US singer Katy Perry over his stance on gay marriage.

Mr Abbott was on Sydney radio interviewing Perry who was speaking from the US when the singer turned the tables and started firing questions herself, taking the Liberal leader to task over his opposition to reform of the Marriage Act.

"Look, I love you as a human being but I can't give you my vote," Perry told Mr Abbott.

Mr Abbott used the same interview to nominate Perry's song Hot 'n' Cold as his anthem.

"It's a catchy tune, there are some interesting lyrics," Mr Abbott told reporters in Hobart.

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey later suggested the song, which begins "you change your mind like a girl changes clothes", was a reference to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

"Katy Perry was talking about someone else. Tony was talking about Kevin Rudd," he said.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tokyo shares end down 2.12%

TOKYO shares have fallen 2.12 per cent, as a stronger yen helped pull down the market and questions swirled about whether Tokyo would usher in a corporate tax cut.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index on Thursday lost 297.22 points to 13,752.94, while the Topix index of all first-section shares fell 1.67 per cent, or 19.52 points, to 1,151.82.

Investors turned cautious after Finance Minister Taro Aso expressed doubts about the possibility of a fresh corporate tax cut.

The comment came as a response to a recent media report that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had told government agencies to study the possibility to encourage private sector investment.

Aso pointed out that much of Japan's business establishment pays no corporate taxes and reducing the tax rate "would do little to help the Japanese economy".

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also denied that Abe has issued such an instruction.

The comment prompted investors to dump the US dollar for the yen, seen as a safe haven currency.

But a higher yen generally weighs on Tokyo shares as it makes Japanese exports more expensive overseas.

The Tokyo bourse was also dragged down by Wall Street's weak showing and rekindled jitters about the end of the US Federal Reserve's stimulus program.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 113.35 (0.73 per cent) at 15,337.66.

The Nikkei also fell on profit-taking after the index's sharp two-day runup.

Trading was thin, with many players away for summer vacation, traders added.

"There are almost no wholly new trading incentives to speak of and participation rates are set to stay low until the Obon holiday season plays out," Naoki Fujiwara, fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Among major shares, Toyota lost 1.56 per cent to Y6,310, Sony fell 1.60 per cent to Y1,968, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 1.14 per cent to Y605.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

FBI officers kill teen girl's abductor

FBI agents have tracked down and killed a man suspected of kidnapping a teenage girl in California. Source: AAP

FBI agents have tracked down and killed a man suspected of kidnapping a teenage girl in California and fleeing with her into the Idaho wilderness.

After officials spotted a campsite in the remote Idaho backwoods from the air, an FBI tactical team went in on the ground, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore told a press conference on Saturday.

James Lee DiMaggio, 40, was shot and killed by an FBI agent, Gore said.

"Obviously, we would have liked Mr DiMaggio to surrender and face justice in a court of law, but that's not going to be the case," Gore said.

The hostage, identified as Hannah Anderson, 16, appeared to be in "pretty good shape" and would be evaluated at a hospital, Gore said.

DiMaggio allegedly killed Hannah's mother, Christina Anderson, and her eight-year-old brother Ethan.

Their bodies were found August 4 in the suspect's burning home in Boulevard, a small town east of San Diego in southern California.

Law enforcement officials in several states conducted a manhunt, and were finally tipped off when a horseback rider called Thursday to report having spotted a man and a girl at a remote location in central Idaho.

The rider reportedly said it seemed odd that the two were equipped with only light camping gear in such a remote region.

On Friday police found the suspect's car, without its license plates, hidden under the brush at the end of a trail entering an area of deep canyons and rocky hills known as the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.

By Saturday more than 200 personnel - including local police and some 150 Federal Bureau of Investigations agents - had gathered to track down the suspect, said Andrea Dearden, spokeswoman of the local sheriff.

Hannah's father, Brett Anderson, had earlier described DiMaggio as a close friend of the family.

Brett Anderson was flying to Idaho to reunite with his daughter on Sunday, officials said.

At a later press conference in Idaho, Dearden thanked people involved in the manhunt but had few details on the incident, and could not say whether DiMaggio was armed or fired on the FBI agents.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Abbott in surplus budget pledge

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he's looking forward a television debate against PM Kevin Rudd. Source: AAP

BUDGIE smugglers are out, for now, but a budget surplus will be in, Tony Abbott promises.

Mr Abbott joined 85,000 others on the road between Sydney's CBD and Bondi Beach on Sunday, running with blind athlete Nathan Johnstone in the 14-kilometre City2Surf fun run.

But the Opposition Leader said joining in the run on the morning of his debate with prime minister Kevin Rudd wasn't a big shift from his usual morning routine.

"I could either run around the back blocks of Forestville or I could be out with 80,000 of my fellow Australians," he told Macquarie Radio.

Running to raise money for motor neurone disease research, Mr Abbott finished in a respectable time of one hour, 21 minutes and 16 seconds.

Earlier on day seven of the campaign, Mr Abbott and Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull announced a $15 million boost for surf clubs and a new policy to deal with drowning black spots.

Asked if he had considered making the announcement in his budgie smugglers, Mr Abbott, a surf lifesaver himself, laughed and said: "Election campaigns should be budgie-smuggler-free zones.

"You won't see me in budgies this side of polling day."

Mr Abbott also said a coalition government would return the budget to surplus in its first term, provided the Labor government's budget figures - which will get another going over in Tuesday's Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook - were correct.

"If the budget figures that the government has so far put out are correct, yes (there will be a surplus in the first term)," he said.

"But we can't guarantee what the starting point is."

He said the coalition's costings would be announced well before election day on September 7.

Labor was yet to release its full list of costings and had failed to deliver any of its promised surpluses to date, Mr Abbott added.

Mr Abbott left Sydney for Canberra to take part in the first debate of the election campaign against the prime minister.

"I'm looking forward to it because it's both of our chances to present directly to the Australian people what are our positive plans for the future," Mr Abbott said.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Abbott must come clean on costings: PM

Kevin Rudd (pic) says Tony Abbott must outline the coalition's costings at the leaders' debate. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has challenged Tony Abbott to stop being evasive on the coalition's costings when the pair meet for the first leaders' debate on Sunday night.

During a visit to Queanbeyan, Mr Rudd said he was "delighted about the opportunity to debate Australia's future", and claimed it was time the opposition leader levelled with the public about his plans for the budget.

Labor is trailing the coalition according to a host of polls up published over the weekend and it is critical Mr Rudd wins the National Press Club debate if he is to reclaim some of the momentum lost during the first week of the election campaign.

Mr Rudd told reporters "you can be evasive up to a certain point, I suppose" but not during the national televised debate.

"Based on today's polls if there was an election yesterday Mr Abbott would be prime minister today and therefore he can't be evasive tonight about where his $70 billion in cuts in heath, education and jobs will fall," he said.

"I think it is a pretty basic expectation of Mr Abbott."

Mr Abbott began his day ahead of the debate running in Sydney's iconic City2Surf.

Asked how he prepared for their first showdown, Mr Rudd said he had sought "a bit of divine solace" on his regular Sunday morning visit to church.

Mr Rudd said he started the day with a long walk with son Nicholas, managing to escape the TV cameras.

"I had peace and equanimity," he said.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

SA cops hopeful baby safe with fleeing dad

POLICE searching for a South Australian man who absconded with his infant daughter after allegedly assaulting a family member say they believe he has no intention of harming the child.

Benjamin Koch, 38, took nappies and baby formula when he fled with his 10-month-old following an incident in the state's east about 3am (CST) on Sunday morning.

Police are also investigating an alleged assault after paramedics transported a 52-year-old woman with head injuries to Flinders Medical Centre.

Superintendent Trevor Twilley said the fact that Mr Koch took provisions was a good sign, but he urged the father to make contact the child's mother.

"Anybody's that a parent would understand the trauma that (the mother) must be going through not only with concerns about the injuries to her mother but also not knowing the location of her 10-month child," Supt Twilley told the Nine network.

"The gentleman did take with him some nappies and formula which from our perspective is very pleasing and would indicate there's no intent to harm the child."

South Australia police said there were no court orders preventing Mr Koch from having access to the child, but are concerned for the welfare of both him and the baby.

They say Mr Koch may be distressed.

Mr Koch is about 175cm tall, with a slim build with blond hair.

He is driving a silver 2004 Mitsubishi sedan, with South Australian registration XFC571.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More