Fire at Vic car firm

A FIRE has destroyed a number of imported cars in Melbourne.

The blaze at a high-performance car importer in Clayton South burned four modified Nissans, but two large 'Mr T-style' vans got away with just some smoke damage.

The fire at Auto Project caused $500,000 damage on Sunday, with fire investigators unable to immediately determine the cause.

Firefighters got the Fairbank Rd fire under control within 30 minutes.

A large quantity of oils and lubricants helped fuel the blaze but firefighters managed to stop the flames reaching a bank of acetylene cylinders.

Mr T's character B.A. Baracus drove a large, black GMC van in the 1980s tv series 'The A-Team'.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Reasonable chance of finding plane: RAAF

Three planes have left Perth to continue the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Source: AAP

LONG-RANGE aircraft have joined the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, boosting confidence that suspected debris from MH370 will be found.

The large debris that was captured on satellite imagery on March 16 and publicly revealed on Thursday after being analysed is the most credible lead so far in the hunt for the missing plane.

While it is yet to be spotted by search aircraft, the HMAS Success is due to arrive at the search area on Saturday afternoon.

Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss told a large international media contingent at the Royal Australian Air Force Pearce air base north of Perth, from where the search is being coordinated, that the Australian effort has so far covered some 500,000 square kilometres.

Mr Truss said there had already been 15 sorties from the base, mainly Australian and New Zealand Orion aircraft.

Two longer range aircraft being deployed this weekend had intercontinental capability and would be able to search the area for five hours, compared to the 2-3 hours that military aircraft had available over the past two days, he said.

Aircraft from China will arrive at Pearce later on Saturday and join the search on Sunday, when Japanese aircraft will land at the base.

They will become involved on Monday.

Several vessels from around the world are also en route to assist.

No aircraft or vessels have been sent from Malaysia to help with the Indian Ocean search, but it has sent military personnel to Pearce to act as liaison officers.

"They have other search areas where they are concentrating their efforts, in their own waters and nearby," Mr Truss said.

He said Malaysian authorities were being contacted every few hours

The search area has been adjusted to account for considerable drift.

Weather conditions had much improved and would remain so for the foreseeable future, Mr Truss said.

"If there's something there to be found, I'm confident that this search effort will locate it," he said.

RAAF group captain Craig Heap was cautiously optimistic.

"There's a reasonable chance of finding something," Captain Heap said.

At a press conference in Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Tony Abbott described the lead as "tenuous", while Mr Truss conceded the debris may be a shipping container.

He said the search would continue as long as there was hope.

"It is important from the perspective of those who have families, whose whereabouts are unknown ... and indeed for the future of the aviation industry, that we do whatever we can to firstly confirm whether or not the sightings as a result of the satellite imagery are indeed connected in any way with the Malaysia Airlines flight," Mr Truss said.

"And then if so, what can be recovered so we can learn more about what has happened on this flight and learn any lessons that are necessary to make sure this doesn't happen again." Australian authorities would their utmost to keep the public informed, he said.

"These families .... they're anxious for information," Mr Truss said.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Qld police search garbage dump for body

A SEARCH is underway at a Queensland landfill site for the remains of a diamond miner who vanished a month ago.

David Hanson, 71, was supposed to catch a flight to Tanzania on February 22 but never made it to the airport.

Police believe his body and belongings were dumped in a bin south of Brisbane and on Saturday began searching garbage at a waste transfer station.

Fifty-two State Emergency Service volunteers began sifting through 5000 tonnes of compacted waste at the Browns Plains Waste and Recycling Facility using rakes and garden forks on Saturday.

Police won't speculate on a motive.

They say Mr Hanson was jailed for drug trafficking in the United States two decades ago and was not a particularly wealthy man.

Detective Superintendent David Hutchinson said police had set aside a month for the search, which would be a slow and methodical process.

"There's been no proof of life in relation to Mr Hanson since the 22nd of February," he said.

"We always hope for the best and we hope that there's been a reason why he's gone away ... but the evidence that we have would suggest otherwise."

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pakistan crash kills at least 25

AT least 25 people have been killed and 30 others injured in a multi-vehicle collision involving two trucks and two passenger buses in Pakistan's southwest.

Senior officer Ahmed Nawaz says the accident happened early on Saturday near the town of Gadani, when a bus bound for the port city of Karachi collided head-on with a truck.

Nawaz says the second bus and truck then piled onto the two vehicles and all caught fire, mainly because the buses were also smuggling Iranian petrol- and diesel-filled canisters.

He says most of the victims were severely burned and the death toll may rise.

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Indonesian fisherman wins compo claim

AN Indonesian fisherman whose boat was wrongfully destroyed by Australian Customs officials has been awarded $44,000 by the Federal Court in a landmark ruling.

Justice John Mansfield ruled via video link from Adelaide on Wednesday that boat owner and captain Sahring, 43, was not committing an offence when a Customs vessel approached his boat in Indonesian waters in April 2008 and boarded on the suspicion that he was illegally fishing for trepang, or sea cucumber.

The seabed there, and the marine life that rests on it beneath Indonesian waters, belong to Australia.

But Sahring, from Kupang in West Timor, said his boat was strictly for catching groper and snapper.

Customs officials seized the boat and set it alight, which Sahring in a statement said caused him "immense sadness".

Justice Mansfield found that the seizure of his boat was invalid and that no offence was committed.

Customs officials said the boat had equipment they suspected was for catching trepang. But Sahring's lawyer Greg Phelps said he had not even begun to fish that day before he was stopped.

"I have always been a hardworking person who keeps the law... the loss of my boat and my detention in Australia has caused me a great hardship and sadness," Sahring's statement reads.

"My ability to take care of my family has been taken away from me and I have no way of getting a new boat without compensation."

Justice Mansfield awarded Sahring $44,000 in compensation for the destruction of his boat, for the loss of income, and for some of the three months he was detained in a Darwin immigration centre.

However, he also found it was not unlawful for Customs to take Sahring and his crew to Australia once their boat had been destroyed.

Lawyers for Sahring had been seeking $300,000 for false imprisonment and damages for his destroyed boat, they told AAP.

The compensation ruling - the first of its kind - has implications for other Indonesian fishermen accused of illegal fishing in Australian waters, Mr Phelps said.

"Many of the fishermen are struggling because they lost their fishing craft," he told reporters.

"I know Sahring's children have been out of school for four years. I know that when this decision reaches him he'll be able to put his children back to school and he'll be able to provide for his family again."

Justice Mansfield released only his findings on Wednesday. The reasons for his decision will be published later this week.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rinehart has 'double standards': Latham

AS she predicted, Gina Rinehart's criticism of Australia's "entitlement" mentality has drawn return fire, with left wing MPs inviting her to leave the country, and leave the nation's battlers alone.

Ms Rinehart, who's worth almost $20 billion, took aim at welfare recipients and the political left for spending the "bottomless pit" of revenue created by mining.

The mining tycoon predicted "forests and splinters" of articles from "people boiling with rage that I dare challenge their bottomless pit and belief money doesn't have to be earned before it is spent mentality".

And she was right.

Former Labor leader Mark Latham accused Ms Rinehart of double standards.

"She wants to be a bigger welfare recipient herself," Mr Latham told the Seven Network.

"She's against social welfare but she's very much in favour of business welfare for herself.

"I think that's an appalling double standard. There is no bottomless pit of money and that should apply to Gina as much as the people she's bagging today."

WA Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan said Ms Rinehart "just doesn't get what has made Australia such a safe place for her to make her billions".

"Enterprise and achievement is built on education, inspiration and opportunity, not by bringing in truckloads of overseas workers so that Ms Rinehart can live in even greater grandiosity and have even bigger pearls, if that is at all possible," Ms MacTiernan said.

And Greens Deputy Leader Adam Bandt said Ms Rinehart was "a threat to Australian egalitarianism".

"Gina Rinehart is full of suggestions about how to balance the budget, but none of them involve her paying a fairer share of tax and all of them involve getting the rest of us to pay more," Mr Bandt said.

"If Gina Rinehart thinks Australians are paid too much and have health care that's too good, she's welcome to leave."

Writing in a resources magazine, the billionaire espoused her admiration of former British PM Margaret Thatcher, while saying Australia was "living beyond our means".

"Australians have to work hard or actually harder and smarter to create the revenue to be able to pay that bill ... something has to give - we can't do it all," Ms Rinehart said.

In her column titled 'The Age of Entitlement - has Consequences', Ms Rinehart urged action from politicians, saying "now is the time to change some thinking and urge leadership".

"The left don't want to address the issue. Instead they get hysterical and personal about who speaks out," she wrote.

Rinehart this week tumbled 10 places on the latest Forbes Magazine global rich list, despite getting richer in the past year.

She was easily Australia's richest person on the list, ahead of 208th-ranked James Packer with $US6.5 billion.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tattooed masses descend on Sydney for expo

About 16,000 people are set to attend the Tattoo and Body Art Expo in Sydney this weekend. Source: AAP

DAVID Prieto wears a suit every minute of his life.

And he can't take it off because it's one enormous tattoo that took 500 hours to complete.

Only the Californian's face remains uncovered by the heads of celebrities.

"I like my face too much," he said at the Sydney leg of the Australian Tattoo and Body Art Expo on Friday.

"I have one leg full of gangsters, one leg full of TV shows, my stomach, my ribs and my hips is all horror movies.

"My arm is all musicians, my head's all comedians, my back is all inventors, my arse is tattooed with Cheech and Chong."

Around 250 artists, 16,000 tattoo enthusiasts, pin-up models and street bike stunt riders are expected to attend the Sydney event.

Much of the crowd is heavily inked but but some arms and legs are obviously bare and seeking their first tat.

Some attendees, like Tony Cohen, are legends of the industry.

The owner of Sydney's Illustrated Man has been a tattoo artist for 45 years, long before tattooing became the booming industry it now is.

He says he loves that tattoos have become so popular but is concerned with the direction of the industry.

"People getting all their heads tattooed... it's just against my religion of tattooing," he told AAP as he tattooed two large artworks on the thighs of a young woman.

"But nothing's going to change it... they can't rub them out."

One young man once asked Mr Cohen to tattoo swastikas on him - an idea he bluntly calls "rubbish".

He says it's up to the industry to self-regulate but knows "there'll always be someone out there who will do it (face tattoos) ... and take the money."

In Helen Hew's home country, getting tattooed is a big decision.

The Malaysian artist says the industry is starting to grow but pales in comparison to the Australian scene.

"People are willing to pay for the art they want," she said.

The event is on in Sydney until Sunday before heading to Perth in June, Adelaide in August and Melbourne in December.

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NSW teacher arrested after child porn find

A PRIMARY school teacher has been charged after police uncovered child abuse material at a home west of Sydney.

After receiving a tip-off, detectives raided the man's home in the Lithgow suburb of Oaky Park on Friday.

Police say a number of electronic devices were seized and child abuse material had been allegedly stored on some devices.

The teacher, 41, was arrested at a nearby shopping centre.

He has been charged with child abuse material possession and using a carriage service for child pornography.

He was granted bail to appear in Lithgow Local Court on March 27.

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Man struck by lightning in Sydney's west

A MAN has been struck by lightning as severe thunderstorms sweep across Sydney.

A NSW Fire and Rescue spokesman said the 65-year-old man was struck outside his home in Baulkham Hills, in northwest Sydney, at 5pm on Friday.

Fire fighters administered first aid to the man, who was conscious but disoriented, the spokesman said.

He has been taken to hospital.

There is a severe thunderstorm warning in place for parts of Sydney, particularly the western suburbs.

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RBA commodity price index at 47-month low

EXPORT commodity prices fell in February to their lowest level in almost four years.

The Reserve Bank of Australia's index of commodity prices was 1.3 per cent lower in foreign currency terms in the month.

Coking coal and iron ore were the most important contributors to the monthly fall and were partly offset by a rising gold price, the RBA said on Monday.

The RBA said the prices of many base metals fell, while many rural commodities enjoyed price rises.

The February level of the index was 27 per cent lower than its peak in July 2011.

It was last below the current level 47 months earlier in March 2010.

And there appears to be more falls already in the pipeline.

The decline in commodity prices over the past 12 months was 12 per cent in foreign currency terms, based on prices actually paid, often under contract.

But, the RBA said, using spot prices - those negotiated in real time - the index would have fallen by 17.5 per cent through the year to February.

Between the July 2011 peak and February, the Australian dollar fell by an average of 11 per cent against the currencies of Australia's trading partners, according to RBA data.

That fall in the exchange rate has cushioned the blow but not completely nullified it - the index is still down by 17 per cent from its peak when measured in Australian dollars.

The foreign currency price index is measured in terms of special drawing rights (SDRs), an average of four major currencies - the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, and British pound.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More