Police are investigating after shots were fired into a factory in Melbourne's southeast. Source: AAP
SHOTS have been fired into a factory in Melbourne's south-east.
It is believed 70 shots were fired into the empty factory in Clayton South just before 11.30pm (AEST) on Saturday.
Shots were also fired into a number of vehicles outside the factory.
No one was injured and a crime scene guard has been established.
Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg has arrived in Perth to film Kill Me Three Times. Source: AAP
ENGLISH actor and comedian Simon Pegg has arrived in Perth to work on the Australian film, Kill Me Three Times.
The star of Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and the recently released The World's End tweeted on Friday: "G'day Perth. Let's make a film."
Pegg seemed to enjoy Perth's sunshine on Sunday too, tweeting: "Beautiful day in Perth, WA. I might even leave the hotel, if I can find the exit."
An hour later he joked: "People keep recommending a bar called The Lucky Shag. Australia, you beautiful bitch, I don't think I could love you more at this point."
The Lucky Shag is a waterfront bar in Perth's CBD.
Written by James McFarland and steered by Red Dog director Kriv Stenders, Kill Me Three Times is a crime thriller set in the Australian surfing town of Eagle's Nest.
It tells the story of a young woman linked to three tales of murder, blackmail and revenge.
Pegg will play a murderer in the film, in stark contrast to his previous good guy roles.
More than a dozen babies in Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital have fallen ill to a mystery bug. Source: AAP
VICTORIAN Health Minister David Davis says the worst is over after more than a dozen babies in a hospital nursery came down with a mysterious infection.
Fifteen newborns being cared for in The Royal Women's Hospital's intensive and special care nursery were quarantined when the illness emerged nine days ago.
Two babies had to have surgery for an inflammatory bowel condition.
Mr Davis said the outbreak was a challenge that had been well-managed.
"An infection in neonatal has been worked through and followed up with the support of the chief health officer of Victoria," he said.
"We are now eight days since any further infection. This can happen from time-to-time but has been handled appropriately and carefully."
Mr Davis said state opposition allegations that funding cuts were to blame for stress in neonatal units were false and bed numbers were at record numbers.
He said adequate bed numbers in neonatal units was a long-term challenge for government that was separate to the infection.
"From time-to-time there are peaks in demand (of beds) and there is pressure. However the state government is working to ensure their sufficient capacity," he said.
A hospital spokeswoman said there was no danger to new arrivals and that the babies are getting better.
Australian Nursing Federation state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said she was concerned about the stress on neonatal care units across the state.
"There is continuing pressure put on those units and we know that there has been an issue this week with 20 babies still being barrier nursed," Ms Fitzpatrick said.
London Mayor Boris Johnson says wind farms are a "disease" and the UK should embrace nuclear power. Source: AAP
WIND farms are a "disease" which have blighted Britain's countryside and the country should embrace nuclear power and fracking to meet its energy needs, London Mayor Boris Johnson says.
Johnson accused the energy companies of "ruthlessly exploiting" a shortage of supply as he insisted the UK must stop "pussy-footing around" and start exploiting shale gas reserves.
The senior Tory said turning to a new generation of nuclear plants and fracking would cut energy bills and boost the economy.
Writing in The Sun on Sunday he said he was shocked by the number of wind turbines he saw on a recent drive to Scotland.
"It is a good 20 years since I last drove all the way to Scotland, and in the interim something unbelievable has been done - in our name - to our green, pleasant and precious countryside," he said.
"I mean the windmills, the turbines - whatever they are called. I mean the things that look like some hideous Venusian invasion, marching over the moors and destroying the dales; the colossal seaside toys plonked erratically across our ancient landscape; the endless parade of waving white-armed old lunatics, gesticulating feebly at each other across the fields and the glens.
"They seemed to be everywhere, and I asked myself, when were we consulted? Was there a referendum? Did someone ever warn the British people that these moaning seagull slicers were going to be erected on some of the most sensational scenery that God ever called into being?
"The answer is that no one warned us, because no one really took the decision to do it. It just sort of happened. We have contracted these mills like a disease, because of our pathetic apology for an energy policy."
Claiming that the turbines would not meet the UK's needs he blamed the last Labour administration for failing to get to grips with the issue, leaving the UK facing an energy crisis.
"It is time to take the fight to the energy companies, who have been ruthlessly exploiting their position - and the best answer is an enormous increase in supply. We can do it, and we can do it in a way that is as clean and green as any technology on earth," he said.
"First we need to grow some collective cojones and launch the nuclear energy programme that this country has too long delayed. Do you know how much of their juice the French get from their nuclear programme? Almost 80%. They are laughing at us - us, the nation that split the atom!"
He added: "Next, we must stop pussy-footing around, and get fracking. Even if we have 100s of fracking pads, they are nothing like as ugly as windmills, and they can be dismantled as soon as the gas is extracted."
Mr Johnson said shale was "clean and green" and would help the UK secure its own energy supply without relying on gas from countries such as Russia.
A 31-YEAR-OLD woman found unconscious with serious head injuries in a toilet remains in a critical condition in a Cairns hospital.
Investigators have spent the day combing the scene of her discovery around 8am (AEST) on Friday - an external toilet at a business on Draper Street in Cairns' CBD.
However, they are still piecing together what happened.
The injured woman's condition remained critical, a spokeswoman for Cairns Base Hospital said late on Friday afternoon.
A truck bomb killed at least one person and wounded 18 outside the US consulate in Afghanistan. Source: AAP
HEAVILY armed gunmen in suicide vests have detonated a truck bomb outside the US consulate in the Afghan city of Herat, sparking a shootout with American forces, officials say.
US State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said there were no American casualties and the US embassy in Kabul confirmed on Twitter that all consulate staff were safe after the attack early on Friday.
Afghan officials said at least one person had been killed and 18 others wounded.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying there were several casualties on the Afghan and US side, but the militia is known to exaggerate its claims of deaths and injuries.
The front gate of the US consulate was "extensively" damaged, Harf told reporters.
An AFP reporter at the scene said one vehicle had been completely destroyed.
Four Afghan policemen were among the wounded, Herat hospital spokesman Mohammad Rafiq Sherzai said.
The US State Department said the attack started at 5.30am local time when the gunmen, dressed in suicide vests, drove up to the front gate in a truck, opened fire and then detonated the truck bomb.
American and contracted security personnel reacted to the attack but the assault is over, Harf said.
"It appears American and contract security personnel addressed any attackers who managed to enter the compound," she added, giving no further details.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP in a telephone call that the militia carried out the attack.
"Our mujahedeen, armed with heavy and light weapons, attacked the US consulate in Herat. There are several casualties to Afghan and US forces," he said.
Herat, in western Afghanistan near the Iranian border, is considered one of the cities in Afghanistan least troubled by the 12-year Taliban insurgency.
US-led NATO troops who have supported the Afghan government against the Taliban are due to end their combat mission next year, after Afghanistan holds key presidential elections.
The Afghan government has called on the Taliban to engage in peace talks but the militia publicly refuses to deal with President Hamid Karzai, branding him a puppet of Washington.
Roughly 100,000 foreign troops now serve in Afghanistan, two-thirds of them from the United States.
Obama has pledged to the war-weary US public to end the country's longest-ever war, which was launched to fight Al-Qaeda and their Taliban allies after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
THE University of Queensland put its reputation above the public interest by downplaying a scandal in which the vice-chancellor's daughter was given a scholarship ahead of worthier candidates.
The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) says the daughter of former Vice-Chancellor Paul Greenfield was awarded a place in the medical school over 343 more suitable applicants, despite failing a qualifying exam.
The watchdog released its review of Ms Greenfield's admission on Friday.
The scandal forced the resignation of Prof Greenfield and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Keniger in late 2011.
University staff did not immediately report their nepotism concerns because Mr Greenfield himself was the public official charged with reporting such matters to the CMC.
CMC acting assistant commissioner Kathleen Florian says the university then played down the scandal in public statements in order to protect its reputation.
"The right balance was not struck between the public interest on the one hand, and protecting the reputation of the university and the reputations of the two most senior officers on the other," she told reporters.
"After the university publicly stated that the two officers were standing down on the basis of generalised accountability rather than personal responsibility the CMC asked the university to bring forward their resignations and ultimately the university agreed."
However, the CMC found nothing to implicate Ms Greenfield in the scandal and she's still enrolled in the course.
The university admitted on Friday it should have been more open from the beginning and that the UQ senate's decision not to reveal the reasons for the resignations was difficult.
But it said the senate had to weigh up competing interests.
"... the avoidance of operational disruption and reputation damage on the one hand, and the promotion of transparency on the other hand," it said in a statement.
"The university accepts, however, that its response was not well handled and acknowledges that it lacked the transparency called for in the circumstances."
The university said it had noted the CMC's conclusions and had been working on more transparent systems to manage issues of integrity and misconduct.
Ms Florian said the public must be able to have faith that decisions on university places are based on merit and equity, but that had not happened.
She said that state laws should be changed to allow a greater number of staff in public institutions to report misconduct and corruption to the CMC.
"I encourage all public sector agencies to read this report to consider how they could manage conflicts of interest and misconduct involving senior management thus ensuring merit, equity and transparency remains core to decision making," Ms Florian said.
Kate and William have left baby George with his nanny for their first night out since his birth. Source: AAP
PRINCE William has joked about spending his first night away from baby son Prince George while he attended a black-tie awards ceremony in London.
William and wife Kate were guests of honour at the inaugural Tusk Trust awards, a UK-based African wildlife conservation charity of which he is patron.
William joked that he might be seen checking his mobile phone to make sure all was well back home with his son, who was in the care of William's former nanny, Jessie Webb.
It is believed Ms Webb, 71, is looking after the baby when the couple need her and is not working for them full-time.
William started his speech with a reference to seven-week-old Prince George.
"As you might have gathered, Catherine and I have recently become proud parents - of a baby who has a voice to match any lion's roar.
"This is actually our first evening out without him, so please excuse us if you see us nervously casting cheeky glances at our mobile phones to check all is well back home.
"Like any new parents, our thoughts inevitably turn to the world that our child will inherit. It is unfathomable to imagine a world in which children who have been born in the past couple of months may grow up in a world in which rhinoceros have ceased to exist in the wild."
Kate dazzled in a silver sequinned Jenny Packham dress and told Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who asked who George took after: "Like most babies, he's got a mix of both of us."
The Cambridges' night out came after William announced that he had given up his operational career in the military and was now considering options for future "public service".
This year will be a "transitional" one for William and he will be expanding his core charitable interests - including his passion for conservation - as he carries out his normal royal duties, which are not expected to increase.
In a sign of the direction his public life may take, it was also announced earlier that William had become president of a new umbrella conservation organisation he has formed called "United for Wildlife".
A LETTER in which King Edward VIII described his wife's lack of an HRH title as an "insult" has sold at auction for well over its expected price.
The 1939 letter from the Duke of Windsor sold to a private collector in Britain on Thursday for a hammer price of STG12,000 ($A20,623).
It had only been expected to fetch as much as STG8000.
The letter to Daily Express newspaper proprietor Lord Beaverbrook aimed to correct an article published in the Sunday Express which claimed the former monarch, who abdicated in 1936 to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson, wished to live in France.
In response to the article, Edward writes: "While the Duchess and I have received the greatest courtesy in all the countries, especially France, where we have resided since our marriage, I have not lived out of England for over two years by preference.
"It is true that there exists no law to prevent my returning to my country whenever I wish to do so, but I have remained away out of deference to my brother in order to leave the field clear for him to establish himself on the throne, which it is admitted he has succeeded in doing."
He also dispels claims that he had set conditions for his return to England, including that his new wife be accorded the title of Royal Highness.
Edward wrote: "I have never made any such announcement nor would I ever set conditions upon my return to England. Regarding the two stipulations I am alledged (sic) to have made, I wish to say firstly, that while naturally the matter of witholding (sic) the title of Royal Highness from the Duchess is an insult which I as her husband and a member of the Royal Family have always resented far more deeply than she has, we have too many other more important interests to worry over such a triviality.
"Secondly, whatever may be the behaviour of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth towards the Duchess, it would in no way affect any plans we might make for going to England."
The item was among 200 lots of royal memorabilia auctioned by International Autograph Auctions in Nottingham.
A letter in which George VI expresses his dislike of public speaking, written after his first Christmas broadcast as king in 1937, sold for STG3200. King George had a stutter he struggled with, captured in the film The King's Speech.
FIREFIGHTERS who battled a bushfire in Western Australia last summer were not warned about a deadly wind change until moments before the flames engulfed their vehicles, killing firefighter Wendy Bearfoot.
Ms Bearfoot, 45, died and several others were injured when their trucks were trapped by a fast-moving firestorm at Black Cat Creek last October.
A report into the deadly bushfire near Albany revealed vital weather forecasts showing dramatic changes in conditions were not passed on in full to the firefighters in the heat of the battle.
And the investigation, released by the state's Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES), concluded firefighters were left stranded in the so-called 'Dead Man's Zone' when the wind shifted, pushing flames towards the crews in moments.
"Within about four minutes, firefighters were trapped in a burnover," the report says.
"The nature of the terrain, thick vegetation and that the fire approached the crews on an angle from behind meant that they may not have been immediately aware ... until the fire was close, giving them a short time to react."
While the fire was jointly managed by the City of Albany, DFES and the former Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) none "had a direct line of control", the report revealed.
Plus the stranded crews had no in-cab radiant heat shields to protect them from the flames, and were not recently trained in what to do when they were trapped by a burnover.
The report made 10 recommendations, including all vehicles entering the fireground to be fitted with one accessible fire blanket per person, and fire managers receive more training about how to properly interpret weather forecasts.
Ms Bearfoot, a mother of three, suffered burns to more than 60 per cent of her body, and died three weeks later despite intensive treatment in Royal Perth Hospital's world-renowned burns unit.
Colleague Charlene Hordyk, 25, suffered severe burns to 20 per cent of her body.
