Ex-cop gets one year jail over tip-offs

A FORMER NSW crime command detective has been sentenced to at least 12 months jail for leaking confidential police information to his mate.

Anthony Farrell, 42, was working at Coffs Harbour police station in 2011 when he accessed confidential "intel" on his friend - Andrew Macleod - who was under investigation for the alleged importation of steroids.

Phone taps revealed Farrell had told McLeod he would give him the "heads up" if he was on notice in the police database, the Downing Centre Local Court heard on Wednesday.

Farrell accessed the police database system seven times and tipped off Mcleod about police investigations, even instructing him to use a land line phone to discuss sensitive matters, the court was told.

The intercepted calls indicated Farrell was using steroids while Macleod was supplying illicit drugs.

Additionally, the court heard Farrell had been disclosing personal information about people on the police database to other friends in May and June 2011.

Acting judge Colin Phegan acknowledged the former police officer pleaded guilty to a charge of misconduct in common office when he was arrested in June 2011.

"I am satisfied that the offender has shown remorse," he said.

"However, the offender appears to have acquired an irresponsible and overconfident approach to his responsibilities as a police officer."

Farrell was sentenced to two years imprisonment, with a 12-month non-parole period, meaning he could be eligible for release on February 12, 2014.

Acting judge Phegan recommended Farrell be placed in protective custody due to his previous profession.

Last year, MacLeod was found guilty of making a collusive agreement with Farrell.

His suspended jail sentence is currently the subject of an appeal.

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Perth woman sexually assaulted in her home

A PERTH woman has been sexually assaulted during a burglary at her home.

Police say the offender forced open a window and entered the 22-year-old woman's Highgate home some time after 3am (WST) on Sunday.

Between 3.30am and 5.45am (WST), the woman was woken by the man covering her mouth with his hand.

He then sexually assaulted her before fleeing, police say.

The man is described as being aged 30 to 35, about 183cm tall and fair skinned.

He was wearing dark cargo pants and a dark hooded jacket.

Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Police said the incident was another reminder for people to be mindful of their surroundings and keep their homes secured.

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Man charged over Tasmanian fires

A MAN has been charged with deliberately lighting vegetation fires in Tasmania just weeks after the state's worst blazes in half a century.

The 34-year-old from Ulverstone in the state's northwest has been charged with lighting several fires in the area earlier this month, police say.

"Police would like to thank the members of the public who provided valuable information and assistance in this matter and would like to speak to any additional witnesses who may have information regarding these fires," a statement said.

Bushfires hit Tasmania again last week, the worst at Molesworth in the Derwent Valley northwest of Hobart.

They came just a month after nearly 200 properties were destroyed, most near the Tasman Peninsula in the state's south.

Little damage was reported but firefighters from interstate were called in to help Tasmania's weary crews.

The Molesworth fire continues to attract an advice level warning from the Tasmania Fire Service.

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Finks bikie bashed in SA clubrooms

A FINKS bikie has been bashed in the gang's Adelaide clubrooms.

Police said ambulance crews and crime gangs task force officers went to the Salisbury premises on Wednesday afternoon after reports a man had been assaulted.

The victim was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with serious injuries.

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Aldi to move into South Australia

DISCOUNT supermarket chain Aldi plans to open 40 to 50 stores in South Australia, with the state government hailing the move as a major boost to the local economy.

Aldi said on Tuesday it was committed to expand into SA, but admitted it would take a number of years for it to secure a warehouse site and sufficient store locations.

"The benefits associated with Aldi's decision to enter into the South Australian market will be substantial, with hundreds of millions in capital investment, over 900 new permanent jobs and a final rollout of 40 to 50 stores across the state," group managing director Tom Daunt said in a statement.

Premier Jay Weatherill said Aldi's decision was a vote of confidence in the strength of the South Australian economy.

But independent Senator Nick Xenophon said the entry of the German supermarket giant into SA could ultimately lead to less choice and service for consumers, with independent operators squeezed out of the market.

He said with the size and buying power of Aldi would result in a "race to the bottom" with Coles and Woolworths that could ultimately hurt consumers.

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Aust condemns North Korea nuclear test

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has condemned a nuclear weapons test by North Korea.

The so-called Hermit Kingdom on Tuesday claimed it has successfully tested a third underground nuclear weapon.

Australia has called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations security council, of which it is a temporary member.

"The Australian government condemns in the strongest possible terms nuclear testing by North Korea," Ms Gillard said in a statement on Tuesday.

"As a security council member, Australia will work for the strongest possible response to North Korea's continuing defiance of the will of international community."

Ms Gillard also said Australia would be making its concerns known to the North Korean government.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said it was a "disturbing escalation" of the regime's threatening behaviour.

"The North Korean regime must be condemned in the strongest possible terms for conduct that seeks to destabilise the Korean peninsula and beyond," she said.

Australian Greens nuclear spokesman Scott Ludlam urged the Australian government to promote serious efforts on global nuclear disarmament.

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Operation Apollo charges 3 men over drugs

THREE men have been charged with drug supply after more than 15kg of cannabis was seized in Sydney's southwest by police investigating gun crime.

Police found the cannabis leaf and bud in a white van parked in a bus zone on Kelly Street, Punchbowl, on Monday afternoon.

A 34-year-old man in the van was taken to Bankstown Police Station and charged with possessing a prohibited drug, supplying a prohibited drug, and driving while disqualified from holding a licence.

He appeared in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday, where he was refused bail.

He will face Burwood Local Court again on February 25.

Two other men were also arrested on Monday afternoon after police seized 200 grams of cannabis hidden in a gold-coloured sedan on Bligh Street, Fairfield.

Police subsequently seized about 450 grams of cannabis at a home in Villawood.

A 21-year-old man was charged with two counts of supplying a prohibited drug, one count of possessing a prohibited drug, and two counts of knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime.

A 22-year-old man was charged with one count each of supplying a prohibited drug, possessing a prohibited drug, and knowingly dealing with proceeds of a crime.

Both men were granted conditional bail to face Fairfield Local Court on March 4.

The targeted operations were carried out as part of Operation Apollo, which was established to target gun and organised crime.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Macdonald a 'crook' for Obeid links: ICAC

Former NSW MP Ian Macdonald stayed free of charge at the Obeids' ski lodge, the ICAC has heard. Source: AAP

FORMER NSW Labor minister Ian Macdonald has been labelled a "crook" at a corruption inquiry, for allegedly scheming with the Obeid family to create a highly lucrative coal mining tenement in the NSW Upper Hunter.

On a sensational day of evidence at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), counsel assisting the commission, Geoffrey Watson, SC, took Mr Macdonald through 40 pieces of evidence allegedly linking him to dodgy dealing in 2008.

The ICAC is probing whether the now disgraced former minister rigged a tender process for coal exploration licences in the coal-rich Bylong Valley, 150km west of Newcastle, and how his former Labor colleague, Eddie Obeid, stood to gain.

It has been alleged the Obeid family, who owned property over the critical Mt Penny tenement, were in line to profit up to $100 million from their links to coal mining in the area.

Mr Watson put to Mr Macdonald on Tuesday that he was a "crook" for scheming "with Eddie Obeid and his family".

"You agreed with them to create the Mt Penny tenement, and you agreed to do that because they asked you to," Mr Watson suggested.

"They wanted to make a financial benefit, and you were facilitating them doing that, isn't that the truth?" he then said.

Mr Macdonald replied, "That's an absolute lie and just said for the benefit of the Fairfax press".

Earlier, Mr Macdonald admitted phoning Moses Obeid on July 8 2008 and reading him a list of 12 coal companies likely to be invited to bid on the controversial coal tender process.

He conceded that he convened an "urgent" departmental meeting to get the list on July 7, but said there was "no way" it had been done at the request of Moses Obeid.

The inquiry heard that less than a week after giving Moses the list, Mr Macdonald stayed and ate for free at the Obeids' ski lodge at Perisher.

"On Sunday, 13 July, 2008, did you go down and take the hospitality of the Obeid family at their place at The Stables?" Mr Watson asked him.

"Yes," Mr Macdonald replied.

The inquiry was told Mr Macdonald had restaurant bills in Perisher of $166.50 and $638.50, which were paid by the Obeids.

It heard that it usually cost $700 per night for the public to stay at the ski lodge.

Mr Macdonald said he didn't pay the money back to the Obeids because it was "hospitality".

In his second day on the witness stand, the ex-MP also denied instructing senior staff to create the Mt Penny tenement over land owned by the Obeid family.

He said he knew the Obeids owned land in the Bylong Valley, and he was upset when he found out it was on the Mt Penny tenement.

Mr Macdonald also told the ICAC he could not explain how a confidential government map ended up in the Obeids' office at Birkenhead in Sydney.

He admitted requesting the map from the department and receiving it in June 2008.

Mr Macdonald has previously told the ICAC it was just "by chance" the Mt Penny mining tenement was created over the Obeids' land.

Mr Macdonald's evidence is due to continue on Wednesday before Commissioner David Ipp.

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NT govt backs plan to save Gove refinery

THE Northern Territory Cabinet has voted to back a gas plan it hopes will be enough to keep an alumina refinery open and save the outback town of Nhulunbuy.

After returning to Darwin on Saturday following a trip to Canberra and Europe, NT Chief Minister Terry Mills took a proposal to his cabinet on Monday that may secure the future of the Gove alumina refinery.

"The Northern Territory government has agreed to release enough gas to keep the Gove aluminium refinery open for the next 10 years," the government said after the meeting.

"Today's decision is subject to a commitment from Rio Tinto assuring the ongoing operation of the Gove alumina refinery, and from Eni confirming details of their guarantee to supply gas to Power and Water Corporation until 2026," it said.

The refinery, run by Rio Tinto Ltd subsidiary Pacific Aluminium, has been making a loss of about $US30 million ($A29.2 million) per month, and an internal review recommended mothballing it.

Such a move could economically devastate the satellite town of Nhulunbuy that services the refinery and bauxite mine, and force many of its 3800 residents to leave.

"I would be wanting a statement from Rio as to what their intent is regarding the operation of the refinery," Mr Mills told reporters.

Pacific Aluminium has said that if the plant was converted to gas from diesel and the NT unconditionally guaranteed 10 years' supply, it would keep the refinery open.

But allocating enough gas to run the refinery could eventually spell shortages for the rest of the Territory, and until now the government has been unwilling to promise Rio Tinto the gas it wants.

Under the new plan the government has dropped earlier demands that any deal to supply the gas to Gove first must involve securing replacement supplies of gas.

Mr Mills reaffirmed his desire to have the NT's gas infrastructure built to link with the eastern seaboard's gas grid.

"Once you have a gas pipeline in place you then have access from others who are exploring in the region to butt into that pipeline," Mr Mills said.

He said the new deal involved challenges and opportunities for the NT.

"There are probably lots of reasons why you wouldn't make such a decision that we have taken today," he said.

"We will make available the gas that is required to keep the Pacific Aluminium operation going," he said.

Mr Mills said the government's decision to go ahead with the plan was good for the people of Nhulunbuy.

"It should provide them with the assurance and certainty they have been seeking," he said.

Chairman of the East Arnhem Futures Alliance, Klaus Helms, said the announcement was great news.

"I am elated with the work the chief minister of the Northern Territory has done," Mr Helms said.

"Word is spreading very rapidly around town to the people, so it is tremendous," he said.

Mr Helms said he doubted Rio Tinto would turn down the proposal.

"They could have stopped this any way along the line if they weren't going to make a deal," he said.

Dave Suter from the Nhulunbuy Chamber of Commerce and Industry also praised the outcome.

"We are really keen for Rio Tinto to agree to the conditions, which is what we want to have happen now," he said.

Mr Suter said the next big question would be what would happen during the two years or so before the gas arrives in the town.

"We are not out of the woods completely," Mr Suter said.

Pacific Aluminium later said Rio Tinto would consider the NT government's proposal.

"Converting the refinery to competitively priced gas is essential to secure its long-term viability," the company said.

Pacific Aluminium chief executive Sandeep Biswas said his company had been working with the Northern Territory government, the federal government and gas suppliers for more than 12 months to try to get gas to Gove.

"Rio Tinto will give full consideration to the Northern Territory government's important gas supply proposal," Mr Biswas said.

In a statement NT Opposition leader Delia Lawrie and the Labor MP for Nhulunbuy Lynne Walker said Mr Mills had backflipped by agreeing to provide gas to Gove.

"Terry Mills has finally grasped what everyone has been telling him for months," Ms Lawrie said.

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Fresh blast in Mali city after battles

Malian soldiers and Islamic extremists have engaged in combat in a surprise attack in Gao. Source: AAP

AN explosion shook the largest city in northern Mali, hours after Islamist gunmen battled French and Malian troops following two straight days of suicide bombings.

Malian troops said the blast appeared to have been in the north of Gao, possibly near the checkpoint at its northern entrance which was the target of suicide attacks Friday and Saturday.

The latest incident early on Monday came a month into the French campaign to chase Islamist fighters out of the north of the country where they had imposed a brutal form of Sharia law for 10 months.

Sunday's attack by Islamist gunmen on territory reclaimed by French-led forces was the first large-scale urban guerrilla assault of the conflict.

It started early in the afternoon when Malian soldiers clashed with Islamists in the city centre, near an empty police station which the rebels had used as their base until being driven from the city last month.

Residents ran for cover as Kalashnikov bullets and 14.5-millimetre rounds pierced the air.

One witness said that after a fierce gunbattle, French troops had intervened. He reported seeing one body, which he thought was probably a civilian caught in the crossfire.

Rocket-propelled grenade explosions and fire from heavy machine guns and light weapons resounded late into the afternoon before dying down in the evening, when a power cut plunged the city into darkness.

French and Malian forces conducted joint patrols, warning residents that snipers could be hidden in the city, as a French Tiger attack helicopter circled overhead.

Colonel Mamadou Sanake of the Malian army said the rebels had infiltrated the city by motorcycle and via the Niger river, which passes near the governor's offices where some of the fighting took place.

One security source said several dozen insurgents had been involved in Sunday's fighting and Sanake said many of them had been killed.

MUJAO, one of the Al-Qaeda-linked groups that seized control of northern Mali for 10 months in the wake of a military coup in March 2012, claimed the attack and a suicide bombing on Saturday, its second in two days.

"The combat will continue until victory, thanks to God's protection," said spokesman Abou Walid Sahraoui. "The mujahideen are in the city of Gao and will remain there."

A French-led force on the ground, backed by French air power, has over the past month driven the Islamists from the cities that were once their strongholds into the desert wilderness.

But MUJAO has vowed to continue fighting French and government troops, using suicide attacks, land mines and raids such as the one on Sunday.

The latest violence underlined the threat of a drawn-out insurgency as France tries to map a strategy to exit its former colony.

France is anxious to hand over its military operation to UN peacekeepers, and last week announced it would begin bringing its troops home in March.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told France on Sunday that it was reaping in Mali what it had sown in Libya by arming rebels who were fighting then-dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Mali imploded after last year's coup.

The soldiers who revolted blamed the government for the army's humiliation at the hands of north African Tuareg fighters, who have long complained of being marginalised by Bamako.

Many of those Tuareg rebels had fought alongside Gadhafi's forces in Libya and brought back weapons from that conflict.

With the capital in disarray after the coup, Al-Qaeda-linked fighters hijacked the Tuareg rebellion and took control of the north.

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