Aust to help Fiji in wake of Cyclone Evan

The federal government is giving Fiji immediate humanitarian assistance in the wake of Cyclone Evan. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA will give Fiji and Samoa an initial $1 million worth of emergency assistance each to help recover from Cyclone Evan.

The cyclone has left a swathe of destruction after battering Fiji for more than 12 hours, destroying homes, flooding rivers and stranding thousands of tourists.

Western parts of main island Viti Levu bore the brunt of the cyclone's fury but there are no reports of deaths. About 8500 locals sheltered from the cyclone in evacuation centres.

The head of AusAID in Fiji, John Davidson, says Australia is giving Fiji 1000-plus family care packages as a first step.

"We will continue to monitor the situation very closely," he told AAP from Suva on Tuesday.

"The response we've provided so far is very much an immediate response to help the people of Fiji.

"I would expect it would be a much larger response once we're able to ascertain the full extent of the damage."

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said the government was sending two disaster relief experts to assess the damage, and an extra foreign affairs official to give consular help to Australians.

"The Australian Civilian Corps is also on standby for early deployment," he said in a statement.

Mr Davidson said further assistance could include water purification, hydration, soap, tents and school infrastructure.

AusAID may also provide vaccinations and mosquito nets to prevent typhoid and dengue fever outbreaks, Mr Davidson said.

Evan killed five people when it pummelled Samoa late last week. The Australian High Commission in the capital Apia reopened on Tuesday after closing due to storm damage.

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Aust stocks closes at 16 month high

THE Australian market finished on a 16-month closing high as US politicians appeared to make progress on their budget negotiations .

At close on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 21.8 points, or 0.48 per cent, at 4,595.2 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index had risen 22.5 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 4,610.5 points.

On the ASX 24, the December share price index futures contract was 29 points higher at 4,602 points, with 167,860 contracts traded.

Australian Stock Report head of research Geoff Saffer said the Australian market had its highest close since late July 2011 after US politicians appeared to be making progress on their "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

Just two weeks remain before tax increases and government spending cuts, referred to as the fiscal cliff, start taking effect in the US if no deal is reached.

"I think it was mainly widespread buying today on hopes that US politicians will reach a compromise before the end of the year," he said.

Mr Saffer said the Reserve Bank of Australia's minutes of its December board meeting also suggested that the cash rate could be cut further in 2013 which prompted investor buying.

The Australian market recorded gains across the board with mining, utilities and healthcare the best performing sectors.

BHP Billiton jumped 31 cents to $36.66, Rio Tinto soared $1.18 to $64.70 and Fortescue gained 13 cents to $4.60.

The four major banks all finished in positive territory.

ANZ was up two cents to $24.51, National Australia Bank gained 12 cents to $24.60, Westpac added six cents to $25.81 and Commonwealth Bank jumped 16 cents to $61.45.

The spot price of Sydney gold closed at $US1,702.59, up $US10.84 from Monday's close of $US1,691.75.

Market turnover was 1.77 billion securities worth $4.99 billion, with 536 stocks up, 434 down and 352 unchanged.

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Aust bonds lower after RBA minutes

AUSTRALIAN bond futures prices were lower after the release of the minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest board meeting reduced traders' expectations of future interest rate cuts.

RBC Capital Markets fixed income strategist Su-Lin Ong said local bond futures prices fell following the release of the RBA's minutes at 1130 AEDT.

"The minutes from the December meeting suggested it was quite a close decision and I guess the interpretation is that with the cash rate down to three per cent the hurdle to cut further may be quite high," she said.

"So that weighed quite high on fixed income markets."

The RBA cut the cash rate to three per cent in December, from 3.25 per cent previously.

Ms Ong said developments in negotiations on the 'fiscal cliff' of tax hikes and spending cuts due to apply in 2013, unless US political leaders can agree to alternative measures, was likely to drive bond markets over the coming days.

"I think most attention is on these fiscal cliff negotiations, we have had some progress since the weekend and I think there is an expectation that we are inching closer to both a compromise and agreement," Ms Ong said.

US President Barack Obama has offered a proposal to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner which would raise revenue by $US1.2 trillion ($A1.14 trillion), and cut spending by the same amount.

At 1630 AEDT on Tuesday, the March 10-year bond futures contract was at 96.640 (implying a yield of 3.360 per cent), down from 96.670 (3.330 per cent) on Monday.

The March three-year bond futures contract was trading at 97.220 (2.780 per cent), down from 97.235 (2.765 per cent).

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Man faces 10 years jail over flight abuse

AN international flight was diverted after a drunken Perth man allegedly tried to smoke a cigarette on the plane before punching and spitting on crew members.

The 34-year-old man was taken off the flight, enroute from Sydney to Japan on Monday night, when it was diverted to Cairns.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) allege the man was heavily intoxicated and was abusive towards the crew and other passengers.

He had to be forcibly restrained by the crew and was arrested when the plane landed in Cairns, police said.

Assistant commissioner Shane Connelly said the public needed to remember that when they travelled on an aircraft their behaviour was subject to Australian laws.

"Enough is enough. An aircraft captain and co-pilot can ill-afford to be distracted from their duties of safely flying an aircraft by having to deal with drunk, violent or disorderly passengers," he said.

"The cabin crew are there to make your flight safe and enjoyable.

"They should not have to restrain violent passengers, be abused or assaulted, or be interfered with in conducting their duties."

AFP responded to more than 1000 alcohol-related incidents at Australia's 10 major airports during the 2011-12 financial year.

Out of those incidents, 145 were for offences related to offensive and disorderly behaviour and excessive alcohol consumption.

AFP said the plane was forced to dump its fuel load when it diverted to Cairns and the airline would seek to recover significant costs.

The man was due to face Cairns Magistrate Court on Tuesday charged with smoking in an aircraft, disorderly and offensive behaviour on board an aircraft, and interfering with crew or aircraft.

The offences carry a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment.

He will also be charged with assaulting crew general, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

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Shot fired outside Gold Coast home

Police are trying to track down a group who fired a shot outside a Gold Coast home. Source: AAP

POLICE are trying to track down a group who fired a shot outside a Gold Coast home.

The four men and one woman tried to force their way into the Chevron Island home on Saturday evening, as a group of people were socialising on the front balcony.

The group couldn't bust through the door but became involved in a verbal fight with those on the balcony.

As they were leaving, one of the men fired a shot at the rear of the house.

No-one was injured.

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ANC conference starts with Zuma under fire

SOUTH Africa's ruling ANC kicked off what promises to be a contentious five-yearly party conference on Sunday, with embattled President Jacob Zuma facing a leadership challenge from his number two.

Thousands of singing and dancing ANC members clad in party colours and regalia descended on the city of Bloemfontein for the five-day conference, which will go a long way toward deciding who will lead South Africa until the end of the decade.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe is hoping to wrest control of the party from Zuma.

Should he succeed, the ANC's commanding electoral standing means he is almost certain to become the country's next president.

But Zuma -- despite being marred in a series of financial scandals and leading the party to its most serious crisis in decades -- is expected to prevail.

Preliminary voting has put the incumbent well ahead of his rival in the leadership stakes, and he remains the odds-on favourite to remain in power after the 2014 elections.

But with the party in the kind of crisis seldom seen since it was banned by the apartheid government in 1960, Zuma could be in for a rocky ride.

The conference will cap a horrendous year for the storied revolutionary movement.

Despite the cadres' best efforts, 12 months of celebrations to mark the party's 100th year have been drowned out by allegations of corruption, flashes of authoritarianism and economic mismanagement which critics say borders on gross negligence.

Zuma is expected to address some of those issues in a speech later on Sunday, before candidates for key party posts are named.

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Union warned about WA dock's standards

A KARRATHA man's arm was crushed as he worked at the dock supplying Chevron's massive Gorgon LNG project in Western Australia on Saturday, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) says.

The man was airlifted to a Perth hospital after his arm became trapped between the dock and a barge at the Mermaid Marine Supply base in Dampier, which is used exclusively by Chevron.

MUA WA secretary Chris Cain described Chevron and its contractor as "cowboys", saying poor safety standards had been a problem at the Mermaid Marine Supply base for months.

"It's becoming clearer and clearer that Chevron and their contractors like Mermaid are cutting corners to make up time and money on the Gorgon project," Mr Cain said.

The union said WorkSafe WA had been warned that poor training and management made an accident "inevitable".

Safety representatives had arranged for WorkSafe WA inspectors to visit the site on Friday.

"We've got serious issues when the day after WorkSafe says there's no problem, ambulances are called to an accident of the type exactly predicted by health and safety representatives," Mr Cain said.

The union said the accident raised serious questions that need to be answered, such as why WorkSafe was called to investigate the accident hours after it happened.

WorkSafe and Mermaid Marine have been contacted for comment.

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Treasurers meet to discuss tax reform

TAX reform will top the agenda when Treasurer Wayne Swan meets his state and territory counterparts on Monday but his government is holding firm against any major changes to the GST.

The Standing Council on Federal Financial Relations is expected to discuss stamp duty on home sales and the recent GST review led by former premiers Nick Greiner and John Brumby when it meets in Canberra.

Mr Swan said on Sunday that tax reform isn't the exclusive job of the federal government.

"All levels of government must do their share of the heavy lifting - a point I'll be making to my state and territory counterparts tomorrow," the treasurer said in his weekly economic note.

Mr Swan singled out state stamp duties on home sales for particular scorn, saying they discourage people from relocating for work and make it harder for people to upsize or downsize as their families change.

But Mr Swan has made it clear the government remains opposed to raising the rate or broadening the base of the goods and services tax.

"It's wrong to pretend that jacking up the GST is the holy grail of tax reform," he said.

"While it has become an accepted part of the tax mix and its integrity should be protected, the fact is it is a regressive tax - those on lower incomes pay a larger proportion of their incomes on it than those on higher incomes."

Extending the tax on food, health and education would hit those on the bottom 20 per cent of incomes much harder, he said.

The GST rate has been 10 per cent since it was introduced in mid-2000, and fresh food, education and health products are exempt.

The GST review proposed a number of refinements to the tax's distribution arrangements.

Queensland, NSW, Victoria and WA put in a joint proposal to the review arguing for a population-based distribution of GST funds, which would slash money going to smaller states.

The federal government's Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) will also be on the treasurers' agenda.

Mr Swan has also called on Australians to submit their ideas and priorities for next year's budget.

But people should keep in mind the pressures on government revenue, he said.

"That means proposals for budget spending should ideally be accompanied by proposals for equivalent savings," he said.

Submissions should be sent to Treasury's Budget Policy Division or emailed to prebudgetsubs@treasury.gov.au no later than January 31.

The budget will be handed down on May 11.

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Routine morning, then unthinkable terror

Teachers have described a scene of unspeakable terror at the school where the US shooting occurred. Source: AAP

FIRST, he killed his mother.

Nancy Lanza's body was found later at their home in Newtown - after the carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Nobody knows why 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, why he then took her guns to the school and murdered 20 children and six adults.

But on Friday he drove his mother's car through this 300-year-old town and arrived at a local school. Somehow, he got past a security door to a place where children should have been safe from harm.

Theodore Varga and other fourth-grade teachers were meeting. The glow remained from the previous night's fourth-grade concert.

"It was a lovely day," Varga said. "Everybody was joyful and cheerful. We were ending the week on a high note."

And then, suddenly and unfathomably, gunshots rang out. "I can't even remember how many," he said.

The fourth-graders, the oldest kids in the school, were in specialty classes like gym and music. There was no lock on the meeting room door, so the teachers had to think about how to escape, knowing that their students were with other teachers.

Someone turned the loudspeaker on, so everyone could hear what was happening in the office.

"You could hear the hysteria that was going on," Varga said. "Whoever did that saved a lot of people. Everyone in the school was listening to the terror that was transpiring."

Gathered in another room for a meeting were principal Dawn Hochsprung and Diane Day, a school therapist, along with a school psychologist, other staff members and a parent. They were meeting to discuss a second-grader.

"We were there for about five minutes chatting, and we heard Pop! Pop!, Pop!" Day told The Wall Street Journal. "I went under the table."

But Hochsprung and the psychologist leaped out of their seats and ran out of the room, Day recalled. "They didn't think twice about confronting or seeing what was going on," she said. Hochsprung was killed, and the psychologist was believed to have been killed as well.

A custodian ran around, warning people there was a gunman, Varga said.

"He said, 'Guys! Get down! Hide!"' Varga said. "So he was actually a hero."

Did he survive? The teacher did not know.

Police radios crackled with first word of the shooting at 9:36, according to the New York Post.

"Sandy Hook School. Caller is indicating she thinks there's someone shooting in the building," a Newtown dispatcher radioed, according to a tape posted on the paper's website.

In a first-grade classroom, teacher Kaitlin Roig heard the shots. She immediately barricaded her 15 students into a tiny bathroom, sitting one of them on top of the toilet. She pulled a bookshelf across the door and locked it. She told the kids to be "absolutely quiet."

"I said, 'There are bad guys out there now. We need to wait for the good guys,"' she told ABC News.

"The kids were being so good," she said. "They asked, 'Can we go see if anyone is out there?' 'I just want Christmas. I don't want to die, I just want to have Christmas.' I said, 'You're going to have Christmas and Hanukkah."'

One student claimed to know karate. "It's OK. I'll lead the way out," the student said.

In the gym, crying fourth-graders huddled in a corner. One of them was 10-year-old Philip Makris.

"He said he heard a lot of loud noises and then screaming," said his mother, Melissa Makris. "Then the gym teachers immediately gathered the children in a corner and kept them safe."

Another girl who was in the gym recalled hearing "like, seven loud booms."

"The gym teacher told us to go in a corner, so we all huddled and I kept hearing these booming noises," the girl, who was not identified by name, told NBC News. "We all started - well, we didn't scream; we started crying, so all the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us."

An 8-year-old boy described how a teacher saved him.

"I saw some of the bullets going past the hall that I was right next to, and then a teacher pulled me into her classroom," said the boy, who was not identified by CBSNews.com.

Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. "That's when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He was very brave. He waited for his friends."

He said the shooter didn't utter a word.

"The shooting appears to have stopped," the dispatcher radioed at 9:38 am, according to the Post. "There is silence at this time. The school is in lockdown."

And at 9:46 am, an anguished voice from the school: "I've got bodies here. Need ambulances."

Carefully, police searched room to room, removing children and staff from harm's way. They found Adam Lanza, dead by his own hand after shooting up two classrooms; no officer fired a gun.

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Three boats intercepted in past 24 hours

THREE boats carrying a total of 214 people have been intercepted off Australia's north-east coast since Friday.

The boats were carrying between 54 and 101 people each.

HMAS Maryborough, operating under the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC), helped a vessel that sought assistance north-east of Christmas Island early on Saturday.

The vessel had earlier been detected by a Customs and Border Protection surveillance aircraft.

Initial indications suggest 54 passengers were on board.

On Friday a boat carrying 101 people was intercepted north of Christmas Island by HMAS Pirie, operating under the Border Protection Command, after being detected by an RAAF maritime patrol aircraft.

Border Protection Command said 97 passengers and four crew were on board.

A third boat carrying 56 passengers and three crew was intercepted by HMAS Bathurst northeast of the Ashmore Islands, also on Friday.

Passengers from all three boats will be transferred to Christmas Island for the usual security, health and identity checks.

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