Report says CIA helping Syrian rebels

THE US Central Intelligence Agency has been feeding information to select rebel fighters in Syria to try to make them more effective against government troops, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Citing unnamed current and former US officials, the newspaper on Saturday said the new CIA effort reflected a change in the administration's approach that aims to strengthen secular rebel fighters.

The CIA has sent officers to Turkey to help vet rebels who receive arms shipments from Gulf allies, the report said.

But administration officials cited concerns about some weapons going to Islamists, the paper noted.

In Iraq, the CIA has been directed by the White House to work with elite counterterrorism units to help the Iraqis counter the flow of al-Qaeda linked fighters across the border with Syria, The Journal said.

According to the report, the West favours fighters aligned with the Free Syrian Army, which supports the Syrian Opposition Coalition political group.

Syrian opposition commanders said the CIA had been working with British, French and Jordanian intelligence services to train rebels in the use of various kinds of weapons, the paper said.

The move comes as the al Nusra Front, the main al-Qaeda linked group operating in Syria, is deepening its ties to the terrorist organisation's central leadership in Pakistan, The Journal said.

The new aid to rebels doesn't change the US decision against taking direct military action, the paper noted.

AFP a

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Elderly man injured in garage explosion

AN elderly man is in hospital after a homemade device exploded in his garage in southwest Sydney.

The man, believed to be in his 70s, alerted emergency services to the incident at about 3.20pm (AEDT) on Saturday following the explosion in Barry Crescent, Padstow Heights.

Police said the man suffered injuries to his right hand after "playing around with some sort of homemade device".

"It looks like he might have been tinkering around with something that perhaps he should not have and it's caused something to explode," a police spokesman told AAP.

There was no damage caused to the property, which specialist police are now surveying.

Officers will speak to the man after he has undergone surgery for his injuries.

The incident is not being treated as suspicious.

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Challenge likely to US state abortion ban

THE cold, thinly populated state of North Dakota is trying to enact the toughest abortion restrictions in the US but it may soon find itself in a costly battle over legislation that opponents describe as blatantly unconstitutional.

Legislators on Friday took a step toward outlawing abortion altogether in the state by passing a resolution that says a fertilised egg has the same right to life as a person. The approval sends the matter to voters, who will decide whether to add the wording to the state's constitution in November 2014.

It's one of several anti-abortion measures to pass the Legislature. Most are awaiting the signature of Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple, who hasn't yet indicated whether he supports them. Even if he vetoes them, some could have enough support for the Legislature to override him.

Supporters of the measures hope to challenge the US Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973 that legalised abortion up until a foetus is considered viable, usually around 22 to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. They also acknowledge they want to shut down the state's only abortion clinic for its 700,000 residents.

"I'm from the group who hates voting on abortion issues and who don't like to play God," said state Sen. John Andrist, a Republican who describes himself as "moderately pro-life" and has voted for some but not all of the restrictions North Dakota has taken up this year. "But we have some strong-willed people in this state who do."

One bill would prohibit abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Another would make North Dakota the only state to prohibit women from having the procedure because a fetus has a genetic defect, such as Down syndrome.

Though similar proposals in other states have faced fierce opposition, almost all of the anti-abortion measures in North Dakota this year have passed with little debate and with overwhelming support.

The possibility of constitutional challenge is happening now in North Dakota partly because of the disintegration of an anti-abortion group of legislators that used to take the lead on introducing bills aimed at the procedure.

Longtime Senator Tim Mathern, a Democrat who once led the group, said it favoured a more gradual approach to ending abortion in the state, focusing on measures it thought would withstand legal challenges.

Without the group, some of the Legislature's most ardent abortion opponents are taking up the cause, introducing bills crafted by out-of-state organisations or from examples found on the internet.

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Cambodia French family deaths not suicide

FRENCH and Cambodian investigators have ruled out suicide in the deaths of a Frenchman and his four young children whose skeletal remains were found in a submerged car last year.

Ten French investigators, including a judge and scientific and forensic police, arrived in Cambodia earlier this month to probe the deaths of widower Laurent Vallier, 42, and his young children.

"This (investigation) has led to very significant breakthroughs which are now ruling out the possibility of a suicide," the French embassy in Phnom Penh said in a statement on Saturday.

The family's badly decomposed bodies were discovered inside Vallier's white 4x4 vehicle after it was retrieved from a large pond behind his house in southern Kampong Speu province in January last year.

Vallier and his two sons and two daughters, thought to have been aged from two to nine, had been missing since September 2011.

Chhim Rithy, a Cambodian investigating judge at Kampong Speu who was working with the team, said they had found some blood stain stains inside Vallier's house and on a rope.

"It is not the case of suicide. It could be a murder case," he told AFP, adding investigation in the case was still ongoing.

Vallier, who according to his relatives worked as a tour guide, is understood to have moved from France to Cambodia around 13 years ago, arriving in Kampong Speu in 2007. His Cambodian wife died in childbirth in 2009.

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Vic ambo shortages 'put patients at risk'

VICTORIAN paramedics say they have fallen asleep at the wheel because they are working overtime to cover staff shortages.

Lack of staff is leading to poor ambulance response times and putting patients at risk, they say.

A group of paramedics attended Victoria's parliament house on Thursday, backed by the Labor opposition.

They say they are being stretched while a high number of paramedics are on stress leave and want a resolution to their pay deal with Ambulance Victoria.

Opposition health spokesman Gavin Jennings said the government has failed to ensure the ambulance service is adequately funded.

Comment is being sought from Ambulance Victoria.

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Indon plan to acquire Aussie cattle farms

INDONESIA is pressing on with plans to buy cattle breeding operations in Australia to help counter supply problems and surging beef prices.

Budi Perbawa Aji, a spokesman for the state-owned agriculture company Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia, confirmed on Thursday that a delegation was set to go to Australia to size up farms.

"At the moment, we're just waiting for implementation and technical guidance from the ministry," Mr Budi told AAP.

"Once we've got it, then we can go to Australia to make some assessments."

Indonesia insists it will maintain cuts to its cattle import quota, which it has slashed by about 80 per cent since 2010.

It's unclear whether cattle raised on Indonesian-owned farms in Australia would be counted as part of the import quota, potentially further damaging Australian beef producers hurt by the 2011 suspension of live exports

Indonesia's State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, who raised the idea of producing stock abroad earlier this week, said it was aimed at helping the country achieve its aim of self-sufficiency in beef production by 2014.

Australian producers have said they believe Indonesia no longer sees them as reliable suppliers because of the suspension of live trade two years ago.

The Australian government suspended live exports after footage was aired on the ABC's Four Corners of animal cruelty in Indonesian abattoirs.

The new plan has the support of Indonesia's Meat Producers and Feedlot Association.

"In the field of breeding, they are superior. They can breed cattle cheaper there," the association's director Joni Liano said.

"But on the other side, in the feedlot business, we can do it better."

He said the plan would be an important step forward in terms of Indonesia being able to meet its domestic demand for beef.

"Basically, the problem is supply. As long as it adds number to supply, then we can meet our demand to make reasonable price," Mr Liano said.

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Racist remarks no excuse for murder: judge

A YOUNG man who murdered a man who racially abused him has been jailed for at least 17 years after a NSW Supreme Court judge found he acted out of an "uncontrollable passion for revenge".

The racist remarks directed towards Douglas Barlow, 26, of Ballina were no excuse for him to commit murder, Justice Ian Harrison said as he handed down a maximum 23-year sentence in the Supreme Court at Lismore on Thursday.

On the first day of his trial on Monday, Barlow pleaded guilty to murdering 40-year-old David Newport at a hotel in Ballina on July 17, 2011.

The court heard the two men were involved in an altercation outside the Henry Rous Hotel and Mr Newport punched Barlow.

The court heard there was unchallenged evidence that Mr Newport made "offensive and racially derogatory remarks to him and told him he wanted him out of the town", the judge said.

Mr Newport also later boasted about the fight and described Barlow, who is Aboriginal, as a "black ****".

A couple of hours later, an intoxicated Barlow returned to the hotel with a steak knife and stabbed Mr Newport four times in the chest.

Mr Newport died later in hospital and Barlow handed himself in to police that evening.

Justice Harrison noted Barlow's action was "largely an anger-fuelled response to the earlier events".

"It was borne of what appears to have been an uncontrollable passion for revenge," he said.

He noted the murder took place in a public area in full view of hotel patrons and Barlow made no effort to disguise his appearance.

It was "an ill-considered, irrational and possibly even frenzied assault", the judge found.

Barlow gave evidence about the murder and apologised to his victim's family in what Justice Harrison described as "an unguarded and patently honest fashion".

However, he noted Barlow had a number of previous convictions, including for assault causing actual bodily harm.

"The racial abuse and assault of an offender by the victim amounts neither to an excuse to murder him nor to a rational or acceptable reason for doing so," he said.

Taking into account time already served, Barlow will be eligible for parole in July 2028.

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NSW introduces anti-bikie laws

BIKIE gangs could be declared criminal organisations in NSW within months, with the state government hoping to get its modified anti-gang legislation in place by Easter.

NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith said the laws recognised the "growing threat of criminal organisations".

The amended legislation adopts crucial elements of a Queensland law, which declared a chapter of the Finks motorcycle club a criminal organisation.

The High Court last week upheld the law after the Gold Coast chapter of the Finks bikie gang argued it was unconstitutional and denied procedural fairness.

"The amendments should also give the community extra confidence that due process is being followed in these applications," Mr Smith told parliament after introducing the bill on Thursday.

He said the "hybrid" laws also included parts of the state government's previous legislation, which was defeated by NSW bikies in a 2011 court case.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said the laws gave police the power to protect the public from criminal gangs.

"We're determined to get these tough new laws in place by Easter," he said.

"We did the prudent thing, waited for the High Court ruling on the Queensland laws. After careful examination, we've modified our bill.

"The NSW government is determined to have outlaw motorcycle gangs declared criminal organisations."

The amended legislation adopts the Queensland model in allowing for the Supreme Court, rather than an eligible judge, to make decisions on applications to declare an organisation a criminal organisation.

The Supreme Court would also decide what is criminal intelligence.

"A court will now need to be satisfied that members of an organisation in NSW associate for the purposes of serious criminal activity, and the continued existence of the organisation poses an unacceptable risk ... to the community," Mr Smith told parliament.

Shadow attorney-general Paul Lynch said the opposition would not oppose the bill "if it does what the government says it will do".

"We have not had time to read it yet," he told parliament.

"We are entirely committed to this legislation working."

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced plans to implement national anti-gang and asset seizure laws.

She said she would ask the premiers and chief ministers at April's Council of Australian Governments meeting to refer some of their powers to the commonwealth.

Anti-bikie legislation in South Australia was successfully challenged in the High Court.

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Senate approves NDIS legislation

THE Senate has given the federal government the go-ahead to set up the National Disability Insurance Scheme, including launch sites that will begin in July.

Landmark legislation passed the upper house on Wednesday, subject to the lower house agreeing to government and Greens' amendments.

Parliamentary secretary Jan McLucas said the scheme would end the "cruel postcode lottery" of disability care.

"(The NDIS) will transform the lives of people with disability and their families and carers," she told the Senate on Wednesday.

"For the first time they will have their needs met in a way that truly supports them to live with choice and dignity."

Liberal frontbencher Concetta Fierravanti-Wells earlier said the coalition had enthusiastically supported each milestone towards establishing the NDIS.

But she reaffirmed the opposition's call to set up a bipartisan parliamentary committee to oversee its implementation.

This was rejected.

When fully operational the scheme is expected to cover 410,000 Australians with disabilities and cost upwards of $15 billion a year.

So far, the federal government has chipped in $1 billion over four years for the first phase of the scheme, which sets up launch sites in four states covering 26,000 people from July, and in the ACT from 2014.

The contribution falls short of the $3.9 billion the Productivity Commission said was necessary over the next four years.

Launch sites will be established in the Hunter region of NSW, covering 10,000 people, and in Victoria's Barwon area covering 5000 people.

South Australia will have a state-wide trial covering 4800 children, while Tasmania's trial will cover 1000 young people aged between 15 and 24.

The ACT's launch site covers the whole territory and 6000 people aged under 65.

Earlier this week, the federal government quietly rebranded the NDIS as Disability Care Australia.

The Senate approved government amendments about disability advocacy, UN conventions on disability and the membership requirements of the NDIS advisory council.

The Greens secured support for an amendment for the NDIS agency to do advocacy work in areas broader than the scheme.

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Melb hospital joins PM in adoption apology

A MELBOURNE hospital has apologised to women who were forced to give up their babies for adoption over a 30-year period.

Monash Health chief executive Shelly Park said she was truly sorry for the pain and loss so many experienced through past adoption practices at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in the 30-year period up to the late 1970s.

"I recognise that many women, particularly young single women, experienced grief, pain, anger and loss, some of which have continued to the present time," Ms Park said on Wednesday.

"For this, I apologise unconditionally."

From the 1950s to the 1970s, about 150,000 unwed Australian mothers had their babies removed by churches and adoption agencies.

A number of states, including Victoria, have apologised to mothers who had to relinquish their babies during this time.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard will make a formal apology in Canberra.

The Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital was one of the major maternity hospitals in Melbourne for several decades.

"On behalf of Monash Health, I acknowledge that many past adoption practices, particularly when considered against today's standards, were clearly misguided; often based on societal attitudes and pressures rather than the best interests of mother and child," Ms Park said.

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