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Portuguese unemployment hits record 17.7%

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 09 Mei 2013 | 21.29

PORTUGAL'S unemployment rate rose sharply in the first quarter of 2013 to a record high 17.7 per cent from 16.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, data from the national statistics institute INE shows.

For the whole of 2013 the government has forecast a rate of 18.2 per cent and 18.5 per cent for next year as the effects of recession and austerity measures take hold.

The record high comes as a new government spending package, announced by the centre-right government last week, foresees the slashing of 30,000 public sector jobs out of a total 700,000.

Civil servants are also to work 40 hours per week, compared with 35 at present and are to be eligible for full retirement at the age of 66, one year later than now.

The new terms are aimed at ensuring continued aid payments from a package worth 78 billion euros ($A101.71 billion) granted by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in May 2011.

According to the INE data, 4.4 million people currently hold jobs in Portugal out of a total population of about 10.5 million.

In 2012, the economy contracted by 3.2 per cent and is forecast to shrink another 2.3 per cent in 2013.


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Abetz defends coalition workplace policy

OPPOSITION workplace spokesman Eric Abetz has rejected criticism of the coalition's workplace relations policy, arguing that it is designed to favour not one particular sector but to consider the best interests of the nation.

The opposition is facing criticism from industry and employer groups as well as the federal government after revealing its workplace proposals, including a greater take-up of individual flexibility agreements (IFAs).

Asked if the policy was the first step towards a return to the Howard Government's Work Choices reform and the use of Australian Workplace Agreements, Senator Abetz said it was not, and that a portion of the policy was based on a Labor-generated review.

"Labor's own Fair Work Review Panel ... even came up with recommendations, one of which we have adopted in this policy to ensure that this flexibility arrangement was more widely used," he told ABC television on Thursday.

Senator Abetz said the plan was "sensible" and "fair-minded" and he denied that the interest of business was the sole consideration in the formation of the policy.

"I see our core constituency ... is not the business community or any other sectional interest, it's the national interest, it is every Australian and what we are seeking to do is bring in policies that don't seek to divide," Senator Abetz said.

Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh says the opposition's industrial relations policy recognises the importance of productivity and is a "step in the right direction".

"It is recognising the need for engagement and communication involvement between management and the entire team," he said.

"That's important if you want to have an efficient business, and there are another number of elements that should help."

Mr Walsh said productivity was a big issue for the global mining giant.

The broadest measure of labour productivity - gross domestic product per hour worked - rose by an annual 3.5 per cent to December 2012 in Australia, which was the fastest rise in a decade, official data showed in March.

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten said the coalition was desperate to hide their intentions for workers' rights until after the September 14 election.

"They are desperate to not have it (industrial relations) as an issue because they want to skate into office as a small target," he told ABC Television on Thursday.

"Then do what they have always done when they get into power, do whatever they want."

Mr Shorten said the Howard government introduced WorkChoices following the 2004 federal election and conservative state governments have cut jobs after gaining power.


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US stocks retreat slightly

US stocks Thursday edged lower after recent record-setting gains, despite a favourable report on jobless claims.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.99 (0.01 per cent) to 15,103.13.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.70 (0.04 per cent) to 1,631.99, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.92 (0.03 per cent) to 3,412.35.

The losses came after the Dow and S&P set fresh record highs amid low interest rates and somewhat better US economic data.

The Department of Labor reported Thursday that new claims of US unemployment insurance benefits fell to 323,000, well below the 336,000 consensus estimate.

Major indices "are poised to take a breather from their recent rally despite this morning's positive update on the labour market," said Wells Fargo in a market note.


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Kenya asks UN to drop ICC charges

KENYA has written to the UN Security Council seeking to scrap the international crimes against humanity trials for President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Vice President William Ruto, according to a letter seen on Thursday.

Kenyatta, 51, voted into power in March elections, is to go on trial in July at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for crimes against humanity relating to post-election violence in 2007-08.

Ruto, 46, faces three counts of crimes against humanity for his role in deadly violence.

"What this delegation is asking for is not deferral," Kenya's ambassador to the UN, Macharia Kamau, wrote in a letter to the council seen by AFP.

"What this delegation is asking for is for the immediate termination of the case at The Hague."

The letter, dated May 2 and stamped confidential, is the first such official request for the cases to be dropped.

However, while the security council can ask for a case to be deferred for a year, it does not have the authority to order the ICC drop a case completely.

Kenya, however, appealed to "friendly nations to use their good offices and prevail upon the International Criminal Court to reconsider the continued process".

Some 1,100 people died in bloodshed after the 2007 elections over allegations of vote rigging, shattering Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability.

What began as political riots quickly turned into ethnic killings and reprisal attacks, plunging Kenya into its worst wave of violence since independence in 1963.

The letter warned that continuing with the trials would risk destabilising Kenya.

"Kenyans... spoke with a loud, clear, concise voice when they overwhelmingly elected Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto as president and deputy president," it said.

"It is obvious that their absence from the country may undermine the prevailing peace and any resultant insecurity may spill over to the neighbouring countries."


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Freddie Mac posts $4.6B net income for Q1

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 08 Mei 2013 | 21.29

MORTGAGE giant Freddie Mac earned $US4.6 billion ($A4.54 billion) from January through March, helped by a stronger housing market.

The government-controlled company has now turned a profit in its past six quarters.

It paid a dividend of $US7 billion to the US Treasury from its first-quarter earnings and requested no additional federal aid.

The earnings compared with net income of $US577 million in the first quarter of 2012.

The government rescued Freddie and larger sibling Fannie Mae during the financial crisis after both incurred massive losses on risky mortgages.

Taxpayers have spent about $US170 billion on them, the costliest bailout of the crisis.

So far, the companies have repaid a combined $62.2 billion.

Under a federal policy adopted last summer, Fannie and Freddie must turn over their quarterly profits to the government.


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Wendy's 1Q profit falls

WENDY'S first-quarter net income has fallen 83 per cent from year-ago, the result including a big gain on the sale of an investment.

But the fast-food chain operator's adjusted results have matched Wall Street's expectations.

Wendy's also boosted its full-year earnings forecast, citing a refinancing benefit.

For the period ended March 31, the Dublin, Ohio, company earned $US2.1 million ($A2.07 million), or a penny per share. That's down from $US12.4 million, or 3 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding certain items, earnings were 3 cents per share.

Revenue rose 2 per cent to $US603.7 million versus a year ago but fell short of the $US615 million forecast of analysts.

Wendy's Co. now expects 2013 adjusted earnings of 20 cents to 22 cents per share, up from 18 cents to 20 cents per share.

Wall Street predicts 19 cents per share.


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Boy, girl charged over Qld armed robbery

A GIRL and boy, both 14, have been charged over the armed robbery of a supermarket in Bundaberg.

Queensland police allege the Glenmore girl threatened an employee at a store on Kepnock Road with a knife and made demands for cash about 5pm (AEST) on Wednesday.

The staff member handed over money and the girl fled, police said.

She was later arrested and charged with armed robbery, possessing dangerous drugs and possessing a pipe.

The boy was also charged with armed robbery, however a police spokeswoman was unable to provide AAP details about his involvement in the incident.

Police said "the pair will be dealt with under the provisions of the Youth Justice Act."


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Indon police shoot dead 3 bomb suspects

INDONESIAN anti-terror police have shot dead three men suspected of involvement in a plot to bomb the Myanmar embassy after a seven-hour firefight at their hideout.

The elite unit swooped on the house on the outskirts of Bandung city in West Java in the morning but the suspects refused to surrender, shooting at the officers and hurling explosives.

The police, heavily armed and wearing combat gear, exchanged fire with the men for several hours and hurled tear gas canisters into the building to try to flush them out.

Around 7:00 pm, police said the three men left in the house surrounded by paddy fields had been shot dead. A fourth suspect was arrested earlier.

"Three of the suspects were killed in the shoot-out," said national police chief Timur Pradopo, speaking from the site where a huge crowd had gathered to watch the stand-off and hundreds of local police formed a cordon.

Police seized three guns and 280 bullets from the house and the men were believed to be part of a nationwide terror group, he added.

Local police spokesman Martinus Sitompul said the suspects had thrown several bombs at police. An AFP reporter at the scene heard two loud explosions shortly before the suspects were killed.

The fourth suspect, a 25-year-old man, was arrested earlier as he ran out of the house when police threw in tear gas, Pradopo said.

In a separate raid on Wednesday, police said they shot dead a man and arrested a second in the central Java district of Batang. They were suspected of robbing a jewellery store to fund militant training.

Deputy national police chief Nanan Soekarna said the raid on the house in Bandung was related to "the arrest of terrorists in Jakarta" last week.

Anti-terrorist police last Thursday detained two men suspected of planning a bomb attack on the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta, following violence in Myanmar that has left many minority Muslims dead and tens of thousands displaced.

Five assembled pipe-bombs were found in a backpack the men were carrying, and they had planned to launch the attack last Friday, according to officials.

Anger has been growing in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, over the violence in largely Buddhist Myanmar.

There has been particular concern over violence against the Rohingya, as an increasing number of the minority arrive in Indonesia by boat fleeing the violence in their homeland.


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Nine dead in Mexico tanker blast

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 07 Mei 2013 | 21.29

A GAS tanker has exploded in Mexico City, killing at least nine people.

Authorities say 13 others were wounded in the blast and several homes and cars were damaged.

"We regrettably confirm that in the explosion in Ecatepec, nine people died and 13 were wounded and taken to hospitals," Salvador Neme, the public safety secretary for the state of Mexico, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.


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UK comedian Tarbuck arrested: reports

UK comic Jimmy Tarbuck (R) has been arrested as part of a historical child sex abuse investigation. Source: AAP

BRITISH comedian Jimmy Tarbuck has reportedly been arrested and questioned about alleged child abuse - the latest in a long list of UK entertainers to face sex crime allegations.

The BBC, the Press Association and others say 73-year-old Tarbuck was arrested on April 26 and later released on bail.

Police in Britain do not usually name suspects who have not been charged. North Yorkshire Police said on Tuesday "a 73-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a historic child sex abuse investigation".

The force said the alleged victim was a young boy in the 1970s.

A comedian and quiz show host, Tarbuck has been a fixture on British television since the 1960s.

The arrest is not part of Operation Yewtree, the sex abuse investigation focused on late entertainer Jimmy Savile.


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Grundy's $20m art collection on show

PAINTINGS from the personal collection of Australian TV producer Reg Grundy have gone on display for the first time, in London, ahead of a predicted record-breaking auction.

The 90 works by some of Australia's most renowned artists are expected to fetch up to $A20 million when sold at Bonhams in Sydney on June 26.

An exhibition of 30 of the paintings opened in London on Tuesday before being returned to Australia next week to be shown around the country.

Works by Fred Williams, Arthur Boyd, Eugene von Guerard, Sidney Nolan, John Brack, Tom Roberts, Ian Fairweather and Rosalie Gascoigne are among the collection built by Mr Grundy, 89, and wife Joy Chambers-Grundy over almost 30 years.

It is considered the finest single-owner collection of Australian art to be offered at auction.

"The interesting thing about the collection is that the collectors wanted the best and could afford the best," John Cruthers, the curator of the collection, told AAP.

Among the most prominent paintings is Williams' 1963 painting You Yangs Landscape 1, carrying an estimated value of between $1.5m and $2m.

"That picture is the turning point in Fred Williams' career," Mr Cruthers said.

"We didn't just buy works by the best people, we bought their best works."

Mr Cruthers said the paintings were being sold as Mr Grundy and his wife travelled less and did not want to put them in storage.

The pair will keep 65 paintings.

Bonhams said The Grundy Collection was expected to set a new Australian art record for any single-owner collection and exceed previous blue-chip collections sold at auction, including The Fosters Collection of Australian Art (sold for $A13.3m in 2005) and the Harold E Mertz Collection (sold in 2000 for $15.9m).


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Bomb blast in Pakistan kills five

Officials say the death toll from a Taliban bomb attack at a Pakistan election rally rose to 23. Source: AAP

A ROADSIDE bomb in northwest Pakistan has killed five people, including a local leader of a political party targeted by the Taliban.

The attack comes a day after 23 people were killed and more than 60 were injured when a bomb exploded in the country's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

Police officer Mohammed Wahid Khan said Tuesday's blast was detonated by remote control as a vehicle carrying local Pakistan People's Party leader Zahir Shah passed by in Babagam village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

He said the dead included Shah, two of his guards and two of his supporters. The blast also wounded five people.

Police officer Mohammed Rasool said Shah was in the area campaigning for his brother, who is running for provincial assembly.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Monday's blast tore through a political rally, killing 23 and wounding 67 in one of the deadliest attacks on the campaign for Pakistan's historic elections.

The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying its target had been a lawmaker elected as an independent but allied to the outgoing government. Officials said the lawmaker escaped unhurt.

The killings brought to 92 the number of people killed in attacks on politicians and political parties since April 11, according to an AFP tally.

The device hit a rally by the right-wing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), a religious party in the outgoing government coalition. It exploded in Kurram, part of Pakistan's Taliban-infested tribal belt on the Afghan border.

"At least 14 people have been confirmed dead and 56 injured," Riaz Khan, the top administrative official in Kurram, told AFP.

"I fear the death toll could rise further because several of the injured are in a critical condition," he added.

Khan said the bomb was planted at a rally by two national assembly candidates representing the JUI faction led by cleric Fazul-ur-Rehman.

The apparent target, Munir Orakzai, escaped unhurt while Khan said the other, Ain u Din Shakir, was slightly injured.


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Andreotti: Powerbroker of Italian politics

Written By Unknown on Senin, 06 Mei 2013 | 21.29

SEVEN-TIME former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti, who died on Monday at the age of 94, was a cunning political power broker who presided over Italy's recovery after World War II and was accused of close ties with the mafia.

A government minister for over three decades, Andreotti was involved through all the upheavals that rocked Italy from the war until his retirement from mainstream political life in 1992.

A Machiavellian politician with close ties to the Vatican, Andreotti was known as much for his icy put-downs and aphorisms as his Realpolitik.

"He was as cunning as a fox," Bobo Craxi, a junior foreign minister and the son of late Andreotti ally Bettino Craxi, told news channel Sky TG 24.

As senator-for-life Andreotti continued to take part in political life up to his death, living in a luxury apartment building opposite the Vatican.

Born in Rome on January 14, 1919, he was elected to parliament in 1946 and became a junior minister -- at the start of a lengthy career in which he served as a government minister 21 times.

He was known for his love of intrigue and forged his career with the pro-Catholic Christian Democratic party, which helped rebuild Italy after the war but was disbanded in the early 1990s under the weight of multiple corruption scandals.

With his stooped figure and bespectacled, hangdog expression, Andreotti was a controversial figure associated with a period of extremist political militancy that rocked Italy in the 1970s and 1980s.

At various points in his career he was nicknamed "The Untouchable", "The Black Pope" and "The Divo" in an award-winning 2008 film on his life.

"There is a bad habit in our newspapers of referring to Andreotti as Beelzebub. We should stop it. Beelzebub might start suing," Indro Montanelli, a famous Italian journalist, once said.

Andreotti was once convicted to 24 years in prison for ordering the murder of investigative journalist Mino Pecorelli in 1979 after a high-profile trial, but an appeals court cleared him in 2003 and he served no time in prison.

The accusations lingered, however, particularly after testimony provided by mafia turncoats who alleged that he had met with Cosa Nostra dons.

"I'm being blamed for everything, except for the Punic Wars because I was too young then," the caustic senator, who became famous for his put-downs, once said in an ironic reference to the battles between ancient Rome and Carthage.

"I know when I die I will not have to answer for Pecorelli or the mafia. Other things yes. But on those two things my papers are in order," he said.

Andreotti was also blamed for his intransigence when his political rival Aldo Moro, a former prime minister, was kidnapped by the far-left militant Red Brigades group in 1978.

As prime minister, Andreotti refused to negotiate and Moro was found dead in the boot of a car parked on a Rome backstreet after two months in captivity.

Andreotti habitually attended mass every morning even when in office and helped shape the Christian Democratic party founded by Alcide de Gasperi.

"While Alcide spoke to God, Andreotti speaks to the clergy" was a popular quip while he was in power -- a reference to his use of the political influence of the Roman Catholic Church.

Marco Tarchi, a professor of political science at the University of Florence, once said: "He knows all the corridors of power and the underbelly of power and he does not hesitate to use any means necessary."

A foreign minister under the Socialist Craxi in the early 1980s, he forged an opening to the Arab world and the Soviet bloc.

"If I had been born in a refugee camp in Lebanon, maybe I would have been a terrorist too," he once said.

The United States never really trusted him despite his staunch anti-Communist credentials and, observers say, rightly so as Libya was tipped off by Italy about an imminent US bombardment in April 1986.

He was the butt of many jokes and was popularly dubbed "The Hunchback".

A famous comedy sketch once represented Andreotti ringing a doorbell to hell and the devil opening the door and saying: "Daddy's home!"


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Syria 'to choose time' to react to Israel

DAMASCUS will respond to Israeli attacks against targets on its territory but will "choose the moment" and may not do so immediately, a Syrian political official says.

"Syria will respond to the Israeli aggression and will choose the moment to do so," the official close to the regime, who was speaking from Damascus on Monday, told AFP in Beirut.

"It might not be immediate because Israel now is on high alert," he added.

"We will wait but we will answer."

Damascus accuses Israel of carrying out raids against three military sites near the Syrian capital on Sunday morning, 48 hours after another reported Israeli strike inside the war-torn country.

A senior Israeli source said the strikes targeted weapons bound for Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi'ite group which is allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

On Sunday, Syria's government said Israel's "aggression opens the door wide to all possibilities".

"The international community should know that the complex situation in the region has become more dangerous after this aggression," the cabinet said after an emergency meeting.

Syria "has not just a right but a duty to protect the homeland and the state and the people from any attack, whether internal or external, by all ways and means and capabilities available," it added.

Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot said on Monday the Jewish state had sent Assad a secret message saying it "does not intend to become involved in the civil war" in his country.


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32 die in Bangladesh protest

BANGLADESHI police broke up a protest by tens of thousands of religious hardliners and shut down an Islamist television station after 32 people died in some of the fiercest street violence for decades.

Hundreds more people were reported injured in running battles as riot police broke up the rally near a key commercial district in a pre-dawn raid.

Dozens of demonstrators were also arrested, while the leader of the protests was put on a plane to the second city Chittagong.

Hundreds of bankers, insurance officials and stock market traders had to sleep in their offices as the sound of gunfire echoed around the Motijheel Commercial Area through much of the night.

Shops and vehicles were set alight while the roads were littered with rocks that protesters had thrown at police, witnesses said.

Police said they used sound grenades, water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse at least 70,000 Islamists who were camped at Motijheel as part of a push for a new blasphemy law.

"We were forced to act after they unlawfully continued their gathering at Motijheel. They attacked us with bricks, stones, rods and bamboo sticks," Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman said.

The protesters dispersed early Monday, he added.

Mozammel Haq, a police inspector at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said that 11 bodies were brought to the clinic, including a policeman who had been hacked in the head with machetes.

A total of 21 other people were killed in the protests, according to an AFP toll compiled through police and medical officials.

This included eight people killed in the Kanchpur district on the southeastern outskirts of Dhaka, said the sources.

At least two people were known to have been killed in the southern coastal district of Bagerhat where police exchanged gunfire with several thousand Islamists, police spokesman Shah Alam told AFP.

A pro-Islamist television channel which broadcast live footage of the raid on Motijheel was meanwhile forced off the air in a dawn raid.

Diganta Television's chief reporter M Kamruzzaman said about 25 plain-clothed policemen and an official from the broadcast commission had entered their studios without warning.

The violence erupted Sunday afternoon after police tried to disperse tens of thousands of Islamists who had blocked major highways in Dhaka.

The protests had been instigated by Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi, the leader of Hefajat-e-Islam who is said to be about 90-years-old.

Police managed to persuade Shafi on Monday to leave his madrasa in Dhaka, escorting him to the airport from where he was to be flown to Chittagong.

In a sign of their desire to avoid inflaming tensions, police insisted he had not been arrested but was leaving of his own volition.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled out a new blasphemy law, insisting she will not cave into the demands of hardliners who have been infuriated by bloggers whom they accuse of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

Chanting "One point, One demand: Atheists must be hanged", activists from Hefajat-e-Islam marched along at least six highways on Sunday, effectively cutting Dhaka off from the rest of the country.

Police said the number of protesters reached around 200,000 people at one point although the numbers had dwindled by the early hours.

Fearing further violence, Dhaka police Monday banned all protests as well as the carrying of firearms until midnight.


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US stocks open mixed in subdued trade

US stocks have opened mixed in quiet trading compared with Friday's record-busting drama.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 4.76 (0.03 per cent) to 14,969.20.

The S&P 500 added 1.84 (0.11 per cent) at 1,616.26, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 8.47 (0.25 per cent) to 3,387.10.

The slow start to trade followed the powerful rally Friday that vaulted the Dow and the S&P to new record-high closes after a surprisingly favourable US jobs report.

"There isn't any news this morning that is creating newfound excitement," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare. "In turn, there aren't any economic releases changing the low-growth message for developed economies."


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Road pricing would cut traffic: report

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 05 Mei 2013 | 21.29

MAKING Aussie motorists pay to use roads would ease traffic congestion in the nation's major cities and help boost economic productivity, a report has found.

The Grattan Institute report found a system of road pricing would also be a good way to raise funds for better public transport, such as better bus services.

The report, Productive Cities: opportunity in a changing economy, said the system could take the form of road user charges, congestion charges, or time-of-day tolling.

It found that charging motorists to use roads would result in "a more efficient use of road space" and ultimately help to lift labour productivity.

"In order to address traffic congestion, it is not enough to rely solely on building new roads without also paying attention to managing the demand for road space," the report states.

Road pricing would "also go some way towards raising the revenue needed to increase the capacity of public transport".

However the report conceded that governments would have to spend "political capital" to implement such a system.

It also urged governments to build more homes in established suburbs, saying rising house prices meant many blue-collar workers risked being locked out of areas that offered the best access to jobs.

"This will be good for the economy and good for the fair go," the report found.


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Killings up Sudan tensions in Abyei region

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for calm following the killing of a top chief in Sudan. Source: AAP

TENSION and anger gripped the Abyei region disputed by Sudan and South Sudan after the killing of a tribal chief and a peacekeeper, residents said, as the UN boosted security.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called for calm after the Ngok Dinka chief Kual Deng Majok and the Ethiopian peacekeeper died in an "attack" by a Misseriya tribesman in the region on Saturday.

"It looks like Dinka are very angry," one local resident told AFP.

He reported gunfire in Abyei's town centre, where Misseriya run small shops.

A curfew was in effect, with the UN Interim Security Force in Abyei setting up extra checkpoints trying to restrict movement and prevent gatherings, said the resident on condition of anonymity.

The resident, who is familiar with the incident, said five Misseriya also died in Saturday's skirmish.

"There is high tension and all sides are alert, ready for anything," Mohammed Al-Ansari, a Misseriya chief in Abyei, told AFP.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said on Twitter that UNISFA was "expanding patrols with aim of maintaining calm".

UN chief Ban urged both tribes as well as the governments of Sudan and South Sudan to "avoid any escalation of this unfortunate event," a statement from his spokesperson said late Saturday.

The United Nations said the "attack by a Misseriya assailant on a UNISFA convoy" also seriously wounded two of its peacekeepers.

The status of Abyei has not been resolved despite steps which Sudan and South Sudan have taken since March to normalise their relations in other areas, after months of intermittent clashes along their undemarcated frontier.

Abyei's status was the most sensitive issue left unsettled when South Sudan separated from Sudan in 2011.

The territory was to hold a referendum in January 2011 on whether it belonged with the north or South, but disagreement on who could vote stalled the ballot.

Majok was heading north from Abyei town with UNISFA peacekeepers, who are the only authority in the area, when a group of Misseriya stopped them, another Misseriya leader said.

Despite negotiations, "a clash happened when a UNISFA soldier shot one of the Misseriya who was readying his weapon," said the Misseriya chief who asked to remain anonymous.

During the resulting clash, "the Dinka leader's car was hit by an explosion and he and his driver were killed".

Majok was travelling with UNISFA commander Yohannes Tesfamariam, who was unhurt, said the Abyei resident familiar with the situation.


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Bowel disease among Aussies tipped to rise

IT'S a pain in the guts that's putting a hole in the nation's pocket and experts want it nipped in the bud.

Australia has one of the highest rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the world, and the problem is getting worse.

But the lifelong disease that mostly affects young people has a low profile, even though it cost the national economy more than $US360 million ($A352.8 million) last year.

The number of Australians with IBD is expected to grow from 75,000 to 100,000 by 2023.

Experts say more young people are being diagnosed with IBD - which includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis - every year.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by Crohn's and Colitis Australia calls for a national approach to IBD care.

Gastroenterologist Dr Greg Moore says at the moment, access to appropriate treatment is inconsistent, and patients usually only see specialists when the problem flares.

But relapses are unpredictable and failing to treat IBD when its active can lead to prolonged exposure to medications, adverse side effects, potentially invasive surgery or even death.

Dr Moore says government funding for IBD nurses will help ensure patients are treated sooner, avoiding unnecessary surgeries, hospital stays and pain.

"If we have specialist IBD nurses, they're readily accessible and can act as a point of triage so we can get patients in that need to be seen urgently and nip problems in the bud," he said.

The cause of IBD is unknown, but it is more common in developed countries and possibly to do with hygienic living or diet.

Dr Moore says GPs have poor knowledge of the condition and there is no permanent source of government funding for IBD nurses.

"IBD ticks all boxes for a chronic condition. It has elements that are preventable, keeping people out of hospital and improving productivity, yet we can't seem to attract funding or interest," he says.


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Teen girls assaulted in south NSW park

TWO teenage girls have been assaulted by two man who ambushed them in a park on the state's south coast, police say.

Police said the girls, aged 14 and 15, were walking through the park at Bateman's Bay at about 5.30pm on Sunday when a man walking his dogs approached them.

He grabbed the 15-year-old girl at which point another man jumped out of bushes and grabbed the younger teen.

Both girls managed to break free and run out of the park.

Police are now looking for the two men.


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