ONE man is dead and another is in police custody after a fight in Western Australia's central wheatbelt.
Police say two men had started fighting in a home in Koorda, a township about 240km northeast of Perth.
A 46-year-old man died at the scene at about 1.30am on Saturday.
Police are treating the death as a homicide and a 64-year-old man is being questioned by detectives.
UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has strongly condemned a bomb blast in Syria that killed 100 people. Source: AAP
INTERNATIONAL peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says a devastating bomb blast in the Syrian capital was a "war crime" that has left about 100 people dead.
The toll given by Brahimi on Friday was grimly higher than the 61 dead given by Syrian activists after a suicide bomber staged the attack on Thursday near the entrance to President Bashar al-Assad's ruling party offices.
Brahimi said he "strongly condemns the savage and horrible explosion in Damascus yesterday, which resulted in the killing of around 100 and the injuring of two hundred fifty civilians.
"Nothing could justify such horrible actions that amount to war crimes under international law," the UN-Arab League envoy added in a statement.
Brahimi called last month for the UN Security Council to set up an independent international investigation for "such crimes" in Syria.
Assad's government and the opposition have blamed the Damascus attack on "terrorists".
Six tanks containing nuclear waste have started leaking at a site in the US state of Washington. Source: AAP
AT least six tanks containing radioactive waste are leaking at a site that was used to make Cold War-era bombs in the US state of Washington.
Authorities in the state are urging more federal help to clean up the site, which first produced fuel for nuclear bombs in World War II and closed down 25 years ago
Washington governor Jay Inslee said that the extent of the leaks at the Hanford site was disturbing.
"There is no immediate or near-term health risk associated with these newly discovered leaks, which are more than five miles from the Columbia River," he said, after meeting US Energy Secretary Steven Chu in Washington DC.
"But nonetheless this is disturbing news for all Washingtonians," he said.
The Hanford nuclear site, 185 miles (300 km) southeast of Seattle, was used to produce plutonium for the bomb that brought an end to World War II.
Output grew after 1945 to meet the challenges of the Cold War, but the last reactor closed down in 1987. Its website says: "Weapons production processes left solid and liquid wastes that posed a risk to the local environment".
Millions of litres of leftover waste is contained in 177 tanks at the site, according to the Department of Energy, which in 1989 agreed a deal with Washington state authorities to clean up the Hanford Site.
A Department of Energy spokesman, Lindsey Geisler, confirmed that "there are six tanks at the Hanford site .. including the one announced last week, that show declining levels of fluid."
"There is no immediate public health risk. The Department is working with the State of Washington and other key stakeholders to address the issues associated with these tanks," he added.
Details of exactly what kind of waste was involved were not immediately available.
THE Canadian former ambassador to Iran who protected Americans at great personal risk during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis says it will reflect poorly on Ben Affleck if he doesn't say a few words about Canada's role if the director's film Argo wins the Oscar for best picture.
But Ken Taylor - who said he feels slighted by the movie because it makes Canada look like a meek observer to CIA heroics in the rescue of six US citizens caught in the crisis - is not expecting it.
"I would hope he would. If he doesn't than it's a further reflection," Taylor said.
"But given the events of the last while I'm not necessarily anticipating anything."
Taylor kept the Americans hidden at the embassy in Tehran and facilitated their escape by getting fake passports and plane tickets for them.
He became a hero in Canada and the US afterwards. The role he played in helping the Americans to freedom was minimised in the film.
"In general it makes it seem like the Canadians were just along for the ride. The Canadians were brave. Period," Taylor said.
Affleck's thriller is widely expected to win the best picture trophy.
Two other high-profile best picture nominees this year, Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, have also been criticised for their portrayal of some factual issues.
Affleck said in a statement on Friday night he thought his issue with Taylor had been resolved.
"I admire Ken very much for his role in rescuing the six houseguests. I consider him a hero. In light of my many conversations as well as a change to an end card that Ken requested I am surprised that Ken continues to take issue with the film," he said in a statement.
"I spoke to him recently when he asked me to narrate a documentary he is prominently featured in, and yet he didn't mention any lingering concerns."
Taylor noted that former US President Jimmy Carter appeared on CNN on Thursday night and said "90 per cent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian", but the film "gives almost full credit to the American CIA".
Carter also called Argo a complete distortion of what happened when he accepted an honorary degree from Queen's University in Canada in November.
"I saw the movie Argo recently and I was taken aback by its distortion of what happened because almost everything that was heroic, or courageous or innovative was done by Canada and not the United States," Carter said.
Taylor said there would be no movie without the Canadians.
"We took the six in without being asked so it starts there," Taylor said. "And the fact that we got them out with some help from the CIA then that's where the story loses itself. I think Jimmy Carter has it about right, it was 90 per cent Canada, 10 per cent the CIA."
He said CIA agent Tony Mendez, played by Affleck in the film, was only in Iran for a day and a half.
The movie also makes no mention of John Sheardown, a deputy at the Canadian embassy who sheltered some of the Americans.
Taylor said it was Sheardown who took the first call and agreed right away to take the Americans in. Sheardown recently died and his wife, Zena, called the movie disappointing.
THE gambling industry has exaggerated the costs of placing s $1 maximum bet limit on poker machines, a Productivity Commission expert says.
The Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform held a hearing in Canberra on Friday to investigate the merits of a Greens private member's bill to restrict gambling losses to $120 an hour.
High-stakes poker machines can chew through $1200 an hour.
The Productivity Commission recommended in a 2010 report the $1 bet limit be phased in over time, along with mandatory precommitment technology.
However, assistant commissioner Dr Ralph Lattimore told the committee there had been "significant exaggerations of the real cost" of the proposal.
The gambling industry has estimated the cost of introducing $1 maximum bets at between $3 billion to $5 billion, while the Department of Community Services calculated the cost at $1 billion.
Dr Lattimore said those estimates did not take into account the depreciation of poker machines and were based on immediate timeframes rather than a gradual phase-in periods.
"The cost of doing it the way we proposed would be less than that," he said.
Under the watered-down measures against problem gambling passed by federal parliament last year, poker machines will have to be capable of carrying mandatory precommitment technology by 2018.
Asked whether machines could also be made $1 bet-ready, Dr Lattimore replied, "It wouldn't be difficult from a technological perspective."
"There is no reason you can't have a flexible machine ... it would be valuable from the point of view of lowering the costs of experimentation," he said.
Dr Lattimore said there would be "incremental" additional costs to have machines readied for both the $1 bet limit and mandatory precommitment.
A VOLUNTEER firefighter has died while battling a blaze southeast of Perth.
The man was killed in a bushfire at Quindanning, near Williams, about 150km southeast of Perth, a Worksafe spokeswoman said.
Police can't access the area where he died because the fire is still burning and it's unsafe to do so, she said.
Police are searching for an armed man in connection with the death of a Sydney factory worker. Source: AAP
POLICE are searching for an "armed and dangerous" man they believe killed a factory worker in a fit of rage outside his Sydney workplace.
Gordon Cramp, 37, has an arrest warrant out on him for murder following the death of a 65-year-old man in Dunheved on Thursday morning.
The victim's body was found in the yard of a factory on Links Road at 5.30am (AEDT).
Cramp is believed to be armed and dangerous and police are warning the public not to approach him.
He is described as being of Caucasian appearance, about 165cm tall, with a thin build and short dark hair.
St Mary's Local Area commander Superintendent Ray Filewood told AAP on Friday that Cramp worked at the factory last year but was laid off.
It's thought he was looking for another man who held a senior position at the factory but instead attacked the 65-year-old man.
"It appears in a fit of rage he's fatally wounded this chap. There doesn't seem to be any provocation to it.
"That's why we have concerns for him being in the community," Supt Filewood said.
He said Cramp was known for carrying knives and in the past had possessed firearms.
Supt Filewood said Cramp was still believed to be in the area of St Mary's, Penrith, Mt Druitt or Hawkesbury.
US existing home sales rose in January after December's slowdown, as the US housing market continued to tighten, the National Association of Realtors says.
Sales of existing homes rose to an annual pace of 4.92 million, up 20,000 from the previous month and more than 400,000 from a year earlier, a year-on-year rise of 9.1 per cent, NAR said on Thursday.
The trade group said inventory was tightening, increasingly giving the edge to sellers over buyers.
"Buyer traffic is continuing to pick up, while seller traffic is holding steady," said Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist.
"There is plenty of demand but insufficient inventory to improve sales more strongly. We've transitioned into a seller's market in much of the country."
Inventory of existing, or previously occupied, homes on the market fell to 4.2 months' worth from 4.5 months in December and the 2012 full-year average of 5.9 months, with the supply of condominium and co-operative units tighter than that for single-family homes.
"We expect a seasonal rise of inventory this spring, but it may be insufficient to avoid more frequent incidences of multiple bidding and faster-than-normal price growth," said Yun.
Even so, the median price for housing sold in January, at $US173,600, was the lowest since March 2012 and lower than the 2012 full-year average of $US176,800, NAR data showed.
The Japanese whaling season could be cut short after a dramatic clash on the high seas. Source: AAP
JAPANESE officials insist no decision has been made to cut short the country's Southern Ocean whaling season after a dramatic clash with Sea Shepherd vessels.
Japan's whaling fleet was forced to abandon a refuelling operation on Wednesday after a series of collisions with the conservation activist group's boats.
Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson said whaling had been suspended and he didn't expect the remaining 18 days of the season would see any hunting.
But Japan's Consul-General in Melbourne, Hidenobu Sobashima, said that comment was wide of the mark.
"That is not correct," Mr Sobashima told AAP.
"We have temporarily suspended refuelling activities but not more and not less than that."
Asked if the season would continue, Mr Sobashima said: "I'm not in a position to explain the detail of the movements of the whaling fleet."
News agency AFP also quoted a Japanese Fisheries Agency official in Tokyo saying the whaling program would continue.
Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR), which co-ordinates the annual hunt, was yet to comment.
Mr Sobashima said Japan had protested to the embassies of Australia and The Netherlands in Tokyo, but would not respond to federal environment minister Tony Burke's comment that whaling was in "flagrant violation" of international law.
"However, I'd like to say that what is being done is lawful in accordance particularly with article eight of the international convention for the regulation of research whaling," he said.
Sea Shepherd said its three vessels in the area - the Steve Irwin, Bob Barker and Sam Simon - were rammed by the Nisshin Maru, but Mr Sobashima laid the blame with the conservation group.
"It's the Sea Shepherd who are endangering the life and property of the crew and the safe navigation of the sea and therefore the Sea Shepherd activities are illegal and impermissible," he said.
"It's the Sea Shepherd vessels who approached the Japanese vessel and collided."
Captain Watson rejected that version of events.
"Their argument is that we hit their fist with our face," he said.
"It was more like a case of road rage."
Mr Sobashima said Sea Shepherd's claim the Japanese fleet had been illegally refuelling was false.
As the Greens repeated their call for an Australian naval ship to be sent to patrol the area, Prime Minister Julia Gillard continued to rule it out, saying it would put Australian personnel at risk.
"When did we become the nation that apparently has got the capacity to police every ocean in the world?" she told reporters in Adelaide.
Sea Shepherd estimates only 12 whales have been caught so far this season, while Mr Sobashima said figures were not available.
The Consul-General said he was confident Australia's case at the International Court of Justice to ban the annual hunt would not succeed.
"We believe that what we are doing is lawful, therefore the International Court of Justice would favour the Japanese position," he said.
Japan claims it conducts scientific research that is lawful under an International Whaling Commission Ban, and is continuing a cultural tradition.
ANOTHER bid has been made to have Adelaide lawyer Eugene McGee sanctioned over a fatal hit-and-run crash.
The South Australian opposition has presented a 7000-signature petition to state parliament calling for the case to be referred to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.
The tribunal has the power to impose penalties if a lawyer is guilty of unprofessional or unsatisfactory conduct.
Opposition justice spokesman Stephen Wade said while Mr McGee had already been cleared by the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board, the tribunal was another avenue of review.
Mr McGee was driving a car that hit and killed cyclist Ian Humphrey in 2003 on a country road, north of Adelaide.
He fled the scene but turned himself into police several hours later.
He was charged with causing death by dangerous driving but was ultimately found guilty of the lesser charge of driving without due care, fined $3100 and lost his driver's licence for 12 months.
Mr Wade said the opposition had been seeking further action to review Mr McGee's actions for almost two years.
He said the case showed that the current complaints process was failing South Australians and leaving them without a robust framework to deal with their concerns.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon backed the new call to have Mr McGee's case reviewed.
He said the petition filed in the SA parliament was only the "tip of a very large iceberg of community revulsion".
"This case feeds into people's deepest suspicions of the legal community," Senator Xenophon said.
