Chess world championship starts

DEFENDING champion Viswanathan Anand has held Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen to a quick draw with the black pieces in the first game of their chess world championship match.

Playing in Chennai on Saturday close to where Anand was born, the 43-year-old Indian grandmaster forced Carlsen to repeat a position by chasing his opponent's queen back and forth with a knight, leading to an automatic draw after just 16 moves.

That gives Anand a slight early advantage, as he now gets the white pieces in six of the remaining 11 games.

The 22-year-old Carlsen is the biggest star in chess and the game's top-ranked player, but this is his first world championship match. Anand has held the world title since 2007 and has defended it against three previous opponents.

Hospital cuts to hit kids

EXCLUSIVE: EMERGENCY helicopter cases will have to bypass the new Monash Children's Hospital after the State Government cut plans for a helipad.

Typhoon death toll rises to 1200

WITH the death toll from Super Typhoon Haiyan rising to 1200 in the Philippines, neighbouring Vietnam is bracing itself for the storm's next landfall.

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Young Aussies are most stressed out: study

AUSTRALIAN employees are suffering high levels of stress, a survey reveals.

That's not surprising. Australians overall report declining wellbeing and increasing stress, according to a state-of-the-nation survey commissioned by the Australian Psychological Society (APS).

They also have more depression and anxiety symptoms than those revealed in the 2011 and 2012 surveys.

Younger people are the most stressed and people older than 66 are coping the best, according to the online survey of 1548 people, 999 of whom are employed.

Workplace issues include a lack of feedback, unclear expectations and not feeling valued.

Employees report significantly lower levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of interest in their job compared with previous years.

Hospital cuts to hit kids

EXCLUSIVE: EMERGENCY helicopter cases will have to bypass the new Monash Children's Hospital after the State Government cut plans for a helipad.

Typhoon death toll rises to 1200

WITH the death toll from Super Typhoon Haiyan rising to 1200 in the Philippines, neighbouring Vietnam is bracing itself for the storm's next landfall.

While most employees feel physical injuries are taken seriously, only 50 per cent feel supported with mental health issues, according to the survey, released to coincide with national psychology week.

Women feel more supported by their managers than men.

This could be because men do not seek support and try to cope on their own, APS executive director Professor Lyn Littlefield says.

"Feedback should be regular and should be both formal and informal. Not just once a year at a performance review," she said.

Prof Littlefield says temporary stress can be a useful motivator, but when stress reaches a certain level it becomes problematic and people become dysfunctional.

If it continues too long it can lead to depression and anxiety.

Stress-management techniques and making changes to things that are within a person's control can help, Prof Littlefield says.

The worst thing to do is to attempt to manage it with alcohol or drugs.

"People do try to self medicate, but that does not ever solve the problem," she said.

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Rickets makes a comeback in Britain

RICKETS, the childhood disease that caused an epidemic of bowed legs and curved spines during the Victorian era, is making a shocking comeback in 21st-century Britain.

Rickets results from a severe deficiency of vitamin D, which helps the body absorb calcium. Rickets was historically considered a disease of poverty among children who toiled in factories during the Industrial Revolution.

Last month, Britain's chief medical officer Sally Davies proposed the country give free vitamins to all children under five.

Most people get vitamin D from the sun, oily fish, eggs or dairy products. Rickets largely disappeared from Britain in the 1950s, when the country embarked on mass programs to give children cod liver oil. But the number of reported cases of rickets in hospitalised children has increased from 183 cases in 1995 to 762 cases in 2011. With no official surveillance system, experts said the actual number is probably even higher.

"Children come in with bendy legs, swollen wrists and sometimes swollen ribs," said Dr Mitch Blair, an officer for health promotion at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Blair cited several reasons for the rise in rickets cases, including children spending more time playing indoors, the stringent use of sunscreen and religious beliefs that mean skin is covered.

In the US, doctors say there has also been a rise in rickets, though there are no solid national figures to confirm it.

"Kids with rickets are children who don't have exposure to safe places to play and (who) stop drinking milk as soon as they're weaned," said Dr Laura Tosi, an orthopedic surgeon in Washington, DC.

"If the vitamin D deficiency is ongoing for a long time, these kids come in with horrific bowing of the legs and I have to think about breaking the bones to straighten them," she said.

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Clergy inquiry to call for reporting laws

VICTORIA'S landmark inquiry into child sex abuse by clergy is expected to demand priests and religious leaders be forced into reporting abuse allegations against their colleagues or face jail themselves.

A final report from the state's parliamentary inquiry into institutional responses to child abuse is due to be released within days.

The inquiry's report will recommend the state government create a criminal offence "for ministers of religion who fail to report physical or sexual abuse of children by other clergy", News Corp Australia says.

Clergy who don't pass on abuse allegations they have heard within their organisations "should face jail", the report recommends, according to News Corp on Saturday.

Victoria's parliamentary committee heard evidence from dozens of victims, church leaders, police officers and other officials.

Mandatory reporting laws were suggested several times during a years' worth of public hearings.

The committee's final report is expected to be tabled in parliament by November 15.

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US jobs up 204,000 in October

US employers added 204,000 jobs in October, an unexpected burst of hiring during a month in which the federal government was partially shut down for 16 days.

The US Labour Department says the unemployment rate rose to 7.3 per cent from 7.2 per cent in September, likely because furloughed federal workers were counted as unemployed. The report noted that the shutdown did not affect total jobs.

Employers also added 60,000 more jobs in the previous two months than earlier estimated.

Employers added an average of 202,000 jobs from August through October, up from 146,000 from May through July.

The percentage of Americans working or looking for work fell to a fresh 35-year low. But that figure was likely distorted by the shutdown, too.

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US consumer spending slows

US consumers slowed their spending in September, even as overall income grew at a solid pace for the second straight month.

The Commerce Department says consumer spending rose 0.2 per cent in September, after a 0.3 per cent gain the previous month.

Americans cut spending on long-lasting manufactured goods by 1.3 per cent. That partly reflected a drop in car sales.

Income rose 0.5 per cent in September, matching the August gain. The increases in both months were the strongest since February. September's gain was helped by the end of government furloughs, which had reduced federal pay in the previous two months.

The gain in income and the slowdown in spending meant consumers saved 4.9 per cent of their after-tax income, up from 4.7 per cent in August.

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Help Bougainville or risk new unrest: ASPI

AUSTRALIA must ramp up aid to Bougainville Island or risk the return of local civil unrest that could result in a more costly military response, a think tank says.

Island dwellers will vote on independence from Papua New Guinea in a referendum expected to be held between 2015 and 2020.

But if PNG declined to ratify the result, Bougainville could descend into a conflict like the bloody unrest of 1988-97, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) warns.

Special report authors, ASPI executive director Peter Jennings and analyst Karl Claxton, say Australia has a significant interest in stability in the region to its north.

"If a new generation slides into bloodshed on Bougainville, Canberra couldn't wait a decade for a military stalemate to reappear before intervening," ASPI says.

This could cost as much as operations in East Timor ($4.3 billion) and the Solomons ($350 million).

"Australia should lead a new international assistance effort to avoid the need for another military intervention," ASPI said.

This would include additional aid funding, development and police training and defence assistance.

The new coalition federal government has pledged to cut $4.5 billion from the foreign aid budget over the next four years.

Bougainville, with a population of about 175,000, became a province of PNG on independence in 1975.

In 1988, landowner disaffection and rise of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army sparked widespread unrest that approached civil war.

Under a 1998 ceasefire, Australia led a 300-member peace monitoring group.

The 2001 Arawa Peace Agreement ended hostilities and in 2005 the first Autonomous Bougainville Government was elected, with PNG agreeing to a referendum on independence.

More than $250 million in Australian money has gone towards reconstruction on Bougainville since 1997.

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Govt gives $522m for research projects

RESEARCH into bushfire behaviour is among almost 1200 projects to get a government-funded boost in the latest round of grants.

Across the country, 1177 projects will share $522 million from the Australian Research Council's Future Fellowships and major grants schemes.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales will get $370,000 to help improve understanding of bushfire behaviour.

It's hoped this will lead to better advice for fire authorities about how fires flare up.

Other projects receiving funding look at children's behaviour, including how primary school students use the internet and what influences children to be physically active or sedentary.

Universities will share in $32 million, to be matched by the institutions, for building infrastructure and buying equipment.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne says a strong investment in research is needed to make sure Australian scientists and academics keep having "eureka" moments.

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Govt urged to help NSW first home buyers

IT has long been touted as the dream all Australians share.

But the NSW Real Estate Institute says unless the state government intervenes, new homebuyers will only be imagining packing their bags and moving interstate.

The institute's Young Agents Chapter Chair Eddy Piddington said the state government's move to restrict first homebuyers' incentives to new properties was simply not working.

"Most people don't really want to move to Penrith to build a new house and you can't get a brand new property for $500,000 anywhere else (in Sydney)," he told AAP.

He said those looking to enter the market for the first time were being "smashed by investors" taking advantage of low interest rates.

This was exacerbated by ever-increasing prices.

The 27-year-old Sydney agent, who is also an investor, said figures released by Bankwest last week showed the number of first homebuyers had fallen by 44 per cent.

"My tenants pay more than what the mortgage is costing me ... it makes me worry for the future," Mr Piddington said.

"Incentives for first homebuyers purchasing existing properties must be reintroduced or NSW must face the reality that they will relocate out of the state where it is more affordable."

The comments come after Treasurer Mike Baird last month announced the state had posted a $239 million surplus for 2012-13, thanks mainly to stronger-than-expected stamp duty receipts which added around $198 million to the coffers.

The government announced last year that it was dumping the $7000 first home owner grant and end stamp duty exemptions worth up to $17,990 for first homebuyers purchasing existing homes.

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Australian bulls mistreated in Mauritius

MORE video of apparent cruelty to Australian animals has emerged, this time of bulls being mistreated in Mauritius.

After releasing footage of sheep being treated cruelly in Jordan in October, Animals Australia is claiming breaches of live export regulations have been committed in Mauritius after bringing it to the attention of the Department of Agriculture.

The animal welfare group's investigators filmed Australian bulls being dragged on and off trucks by ropes, falling onto concrete, collapsing in exhaustion and distress, and being restrained and slaughtered during the Festival of Sacrifice.

Animals Australia also said it had gathered evidence of Australian cattle being loaded on trucks and transported out of the approved feedlot for private and backyard slaughter, breaching the federal government's Exporter Supply Chain Assurance Scheme (ESCAS) brought in after the Indonesian abattoir scandal in 2011.

The department said it had started investigating the claims.

Animals Australia said the exporter involved, International Livestock Exports - under investigation for ESCAS breaches in Kuwait in January - had reported the breaches to the department, but the animal welfare group dismissed that as an attempt to mitigate penalties.

The company was being sought for comment.

Animals Australia's legal counsel Shatha Hamade said the cruelty endured by the bulls was horrendous.

"Without strong regulatory sanctions, exporters will not take their legal responsibility seriously," Ms Hamade said.

"The only way that this will not be repeated is fear of consequences ... loss of export licence by exporters or the associated loss of the supply of animals for importers."

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who described last month's Jordan revelations as sickening, said Animals Australia's latest footage was further proof that ESCAS had failed and that the live export trade should be stopped.

"The live export trade is systemically cruel, not in Australia's economic interests and contrary to the vast majority of public opinion," Mr Wilkie told AAP.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the footage from Jordan was disturbing but added the government would not make policy "on the basis of one or two media reports", while Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said halting trade to that market would only harm farmers.

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Environmental crime cost world billions

OFFICIALS from Interpol and the United Nations Environmental Program are teaming up to combat environmental crime such as the killing of elephants and the theft of timber.

Achim Steiner, the UN Environmental Program's executive director, says some 500 experts from around the world are meeting in Nairobi this week to try to arrest "a rapidly escalating environmental crime wave".

The groups say internationally co-ordinated enforcement efforts must be stepped up to prevent wildlife and timber cartels from escaping law enforcement efforts by shifting operations from one region to another.

UNEP says that global syndicates behind the poaching of animals, the illegal shipping of toxic waste and the cutting down of the world's forests steal tens of billions of dollars from communities around the world every year.

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Greenhouse gas levels hit record high: WMO

THE latest data from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) shows the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached record levels last year.

The UN's specialist weather agency on Wednesday said the warming effect on the climate caused by heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere had increased by a third between 1990 and 2012.

Carbon dioxide, mainly from fossil fuel-related emissions, accounted for 80 per cent of that increase, though spikes in methane and nitrous oxide concentrations also played a part.

The agency also found the atmospheric carbon dioxide grew more quickly last year than its average increase over the past ten years, showing an accelerating trend.

Limiting the impacts of global warming would require sustained cuts to greenhouse gases, and the time for action was now, the WMO said in its latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

CSIRO's Dr Pep Canadell said the WMO findings were further evidence of the unprecedented and relentless human impact on the planet.

"The new trends in atmospheric greenhouse gases are the definitive proof of... the fact that current efforts to address climate change are not enough to stabilise the climate system," he said in a statement.

It comes after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that concentrations of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere had hit levels not seen in at least 800,000 years.

The IPCC fifth assessment, handed down in September, warned that failing to curb greenhouse gas emissions would lead to dangerously high rises in global temperatures by the end of the century.

Since the start of the industrial era, the global average concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by around 40 per cent, methane by 160 per cent and nitrous oxide by 20 per cent.

Both methane and nitrous oxide are considerably more harmful to the atmosphere that carbon dioxide.

The WMO said because carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, the impacts of climate change would persist for centuries, even if emissions ceased today.

The WMO snapshot reports on concentrations, or what remains in the atmosphere after natural processes, not emissions, or what is released.

Only about half of the CO2 emitted by human activities remains in the atmosphere, with the rest being absorbed in the biosphere and in the oceans.

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US court to hear evidence in Aussie murder

ONE of the US teenagers accused of the drive-by shooting of Australian baseball player Chris Lane will appear in court in Oklahoma for a preliminary hearing.

Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, allegedly told police Lane was randomly selected and murdered in August because he and two other boys were bored.

New evidence from the investigation into the murder is expected to be revealed at Jones' hearing.

Lane, 22, from Melbourne, was a member of an Oklahoma college baseball team and was jogging along a residential street when he suffered a fatal gun shot in the back.

Jones, the alleged driver, is being prosecuted as an adult.

He faces a charge of accessory after the fact of murder in the first degree and a count of use of vehicle in the discharge of weapon.

His preliminary hearing will begin in Duncan's Stephens County District Court about 7am AEDT on Thursday.

James Edwards Jr, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, and Chancey Luna, 16, face first-degree murder charges.

Edwards Jr and Luna will face a preliminary hearing later this month.

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Raffaele Sollecito back in court in Italy

RAFFAELE Sollecito, the former Italian boyfriend of US student Amanda Knox, has pleaded his innocence before a court, insisting he's been the victim of a "big mistake".

Sollecito and Knox are suspected of murdering British student Meredit Kercher, six years ago. They were found guilty in a first ruling in 2009 and acquitted on appeal two years later, but that verdict was invalidated in March and a retrial was ordered.

"These accusations against me ... against us, are absurd," Sollecito said on Wednesday.

"I humbly ask you to look at the reality of all this story and to consider the big mistake that was made and to give me the possibility ... to have a life, because at the moment I do not have a real life," he added.

It was the first time the 29-year-old appeared in court since the new appeal trial started in Florence, central Italy, on September 30.

He made a spontaneous declaration, meaning that he was not subjected to cross-questioning.

At the end of his remarks, Sollecito almost broke into tears.

The courtroom was packed, with people in the public gallery forced to stand. Many took out their mobile phones to photograph Sollecito, who did not speak to journalists.

Knox, who is back in her home town of Seattle, has declined to return to Italy for the trial.

The Florence appeals court could deliver its verdict on January 10, Italian media reports say, based on the latest schedule for hearings announced by presiding judge Alessandro Nencini.

In case of a conviction, Knox and Sollecito would still be able to file another appeal, and if eventually confirmed guilty, Knox would not go to prison unless US authorities agreed to extradite her.

Kercher died aged 21. She was found on November 2, 2007, half-naked and with multiple stab wounds, in the apartment she was sharing with Knox in the central Italian university town of Perugia, along with two other female students.

At the time, Sollecito was "one week away" from graduating in computer studies and was experiencing "his first true love story" with Knox, he said in court.

Wednesday's hearing also discussed forensic tests from the presumed murder weapon, a kitchen knife that was seized from Sollecito's flat. Police found DNA traces attributable to Knox, but not to Sollecito or Kercher.

Giulia Buongiorno, a lawyer for Sollecito, insisted that the DNA results pointed to the innocence of the defendants. She said it was normal for the knife to have traces of Knox, since she likely used it while cooking at her former boyfriend's.

Forensic tests on the knife also ruled out a DNA match with Rudy Guede, the only person in the case who has so far been proven guilty.

In 2010, he was jailed for 16 years for murder and sexual assault, but in their ruling judges concluded that he did not act alone.

Guede, who was born in the Ivory Coast but was raised in Italy, was convicted after a bloodied fingerprint on Kercher's pillow was found to be his. There were also traces of his DNA on the victim's body and the toilet paper in the bathroom.

Sollecito said he never met Guede, and dismissed as absurd suggestions that Kercher was killed following a "racy group sex game", as suggested by Italy's top appeal court when it ordered a retrial.

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Vivendi to sell Maroc Telecom stake

FRENCH entertainment company Vivendi has signed a final agreement to sell its stake in Maroc Telecom to UAE-based telecoms company Etisalat for 4.2 billion euros ($A6.01 billion).

Vivendi, which had gone on an acquisition binge to bring together content and distribution under one roof, now says it wants to refocus its business around media and content only.

The owner of Universal Music record producer and Canal Plus TV and film studio said last month that it was considering breaking off struggling French telecom company SFR as part of that plan.

Tuesday's announcement of the sale of Vivendi's 53 per cent stake in Maroc Telecom shows the streamlining is beginning.

The sale still requires regulatory approval but is expected to be finalised by the beginning of next year.

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Govt to ditch backlog of tax proposals

THE federal government is about to ditch a host of unlegislated tax proposals that have been stuck in the pending tray dating back to 2001.

Since the September election, Treasurer Joe Hockey and Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos have been sifting through close to 100 tax and superannuation proposals.

They believe this backlog has created massive operational uncertainty for businesses and consumers.

The government is determined to resolve all policies by December 1 for the inclusion in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook that the treasurer has promised to hand down before Christmas.

Any legislation stemming from this review should be passed by parliament by July 1, 2014.

Of the 92 unlegislated and unresolved tax and superannuation changes outstanding, the government will proceed with just 18, while a further three initiatives will be significantly amended.

The government will "definitely not" proceed with seven initiatives including the former Labor government's $1.8 billion change to the fringe benefit tax on cars, a pledge made during the election campaign, because of the impact it will have on the car industry.

It will also definitely scrap a proposed tax on people's superannuation pension earnings above $100,000.

Senator Sinodinos will lead consultations on the remaining 64 measures with a disposition not to proceed with them.

Mr Hockey and Senator Sinodinos will announce further details of their review in Sydney on Wednesday.

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COAG report says reform pace is slowing

THE pace of reform to federal-state relations has slowed and needs new momentum to improve the economy and vital public services, a report says.

COAG Reform Council (CRC) chairman John Brumby on Wednesday released a report charting the progress of co-operation between federal, state and territory leaders from 2008 to 2013.

The CRC was set up to monitor the Council of Australian Government's reform agenda, especially the 2008 Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations (IGA).

In its broad findings, the five-year report card concluded: "The pace of reform under the IGA has slowed over time."

"COAG was successful in developing and agreeing an ambitious reform agenda.

"However, not enough focus was given to ... establishing the processes, responsibilities and accountabilities needed to successfully implement reforms."

The report recommended COAG should routinely meet at least twice a year, agree on a medium-term agenda and put in place meaningful indicators to track progress on agreements.

Federal, state and territory leaders should come to a new agreement on their "roles, responsibilities and accountabilities".

Lessons learned by governments in rolling out innovative policies and programs should be shared.

Examining specific policy areas, such as education, the national economy, health and indigenous disadvantage, the report found mixed progress over five years.

In education, there had been an improvement in reading in primary years and an increase in Year 12 attainment.

But the proportion of young people engaging in work or study after high school has dropped.

Indigenous employment and labour force participation has fallen over the past five years, while more indigenous children are attaining a Year 12 qualification.

The homelessness rate has risen from 45.2 per 10,000 to 48.9 per 10,000.

In terms of economic policy, productivity has fallen, while real income per capita has risen.

While there have been strong inroads in cutting the rate of cigarette smoking, the rate of adult obesity has risen.

The report found that in the education bureaucracy, as more agreements and partnerships were added over the past five years it had become "less clear which level of government was responsible for outcomes".

The health system was "fragmented with a complex division of funding responsibilities and performance accountabilities between different levels of government".

Only half of the targets set by the ambitious Closing the Gap indigenous strategy appeared likely to be met.

CRC chairman John Brumby will talk about the report in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.

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Brooks 'told PA to move notebooks'

FORMER News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks instructed her personal assistant to remove seven boxes of notebooks from the company's archive that have "never been seen again", a UK jury has heard.

Brooks, 45, is accused of conspiring with Cheryl Carter to pervert the course of justice by taking the documents while the police were investigating allegations of phone hacking and payments to public officials.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC told jurors at the Old Bailey that the material, said to be Brooks' notebooks from 1995 to 2007, has never been recovered.

He told the nine women and three men: "Nothing like that has ever been recovered in the course of this inquiry."

Earlier the court was told that in 2011 the situation for News International became "more fevered" as the firm came under investigation by police after it handed over three emails linked to phone hacking and payment claims, and amid renewed media interest in the allegations.

"This was a huge business for News International and for her (Brooks)," Edis said.

"There were inquiries ongoing. At all times she was of course aware that there was a police inquiry, Operation Weeting, which had in fact started when News International handed over these three emails.

"So there was always a course of justice in existence that could be perverted by hiding evidence.

"Hiding evidence was not acceptable at any time that year.

"The atmosphere, we would suggest, became even more fevered as time went on."

He added: "You can imagine the extremely anxious, if not panic-stricken approach to what was going on."

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Backlash over spying claims grows

More than 170 Australian websites were hacked by Anonymous Indonesia to protest reports of spying. Source: AAP

INDONESIA has threatened to withdraw cooperation with Australia on various policy fronts, including in the area of people smuggling, amid a growing backlash over revelations of spying out of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa on Monday labelled Australia's response to complaints that the embassy was used to collect data and eavesdrop on Indonesian interests as unacceptable.

Dr Natalegawa said Indonesia was joining Germany and Brazil in co-sponsoring a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly that calls for measures to end violations of the right to privacy, including in digital communications and to force countries to respect their obligations within the framework of international human rights laws.

The spying row started off between the US and its European allies but last week erupted in Asia after Fairfax newspapers reported there was a network of US intelligence facilities in the region.

The papers, amplifying an earlier story by German magazine Der Spiegel, said Australian missions were also involved in the US-led spying network.

On Sunday, the Guardian newspaper reported Australia and the US mounted a joint surveillance operation on Indonesia during the 2007 UN climate change conference in Bali, citing a document from US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

"Enough is enough," Dr Natalegawa, who had sought an explanation from his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop during a meeting in Perth on Friday, told reporters in Jakarta on Monday.

"The recent revelations will have a potentially damaging impact in terms of the trust and confidence between countries concerned," he said.

Dr Natalegawa said that in the absence of any "explicit assurances" that the spying would stop, various agreements between Canberra and Jakarta on a range of policies would be reviewed.

"We have to review our co-operation, our information exchange with the two countries concerned, both the US and Australia, because if they did gather information out of the official framework, the question is what is the use of the official framework," he said.

"This is something we need to carefully think about and we have explained to them that we cannot accept this kind of thing and we demand that it wont be repeated in the future.

"One of them obviously is the agreement to exchange information, exchange even intelligence information, in fact, to address the issue of people smuggling ... to disrupt terrorism, etc. Now these information flows have been rather effective, have been rather important. We need to look at that."

Dr Natalegawa said he was not satisfied by explanations given by Ms Bishop, or Australia's ambassador to Indonesia Greg Moriarty who was summoned to the Indonesian Foreign Ministry on Friday.

"The kind of response that we've been obtaining or receiving is the more generic response that neither the government of Australia nor the United States is able to confirm or deny the practices reported in the various media," Dr Natalegawa said.

Last week, Dr Natalegawa also called in the US embassy's charge d'affaires to protest over reports that the Americans had conducted electronic surveillance and phone-tapping from their Jakarta embassy.

It's been claimed that Australian surveillance collection facilities are in place at embassies in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili, and high commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby.

The top secret Defence Signals Directorate operates the listening posts at embassies without the knowledge of most Australian diplomats, according to documents released by US whistleblower Edward Snowden and statements from a former Australian intelligence officer.

The documents revealed the existence of a signals intelligence collection program - codenamed STATEROOM - conducted from sites at US embassies and consulates and from the diplomatic missions of other intelligence partners including Australia, Britain and Canada.

The documents say the Australian Defence Signals Directorate operates STATEROOM facilities "at Australian diplomatic facilities".

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Gen Y have the best saving habits: survey

GENERATION Y have come out on top when it comes to saving money, with better saving habits than generation X and baby boomers.

When it comes to saving a regular amount every month, Gen Y are the best at it, with 29 per cent saving regularly compared with 19 per cent of baby boomers, according to the RaboDirect annual Savings and Debt Barometer.

Among those who save nothing at all - or even spend more than they earn - 24 per cent were baby boomers, compared with 11 per cent of Gen Ys.

"People often give Gen Y a bad rap when it comes to finances but we've been running this survey since 2009 and Gen Y tend to be a lot more savvy than people give them credit for," RaboDirect Australia executive general manager Greg McAweeney said.

"A deposit for a house is something they would be aspiring towards. It's still the great Australian dream to have your own property.

"Boomers have a different attitude - they're probably more focused on retirement strategies."

Internet savvy Gen Y are generally better at researching savings strategies and looking for a better deal than the boomers, who are less likely to switch banks for higher interest rates but are the best at budgeting and would be putting money toward superannuation rather than savings, Mr McAweeney said.

But there's a large gap between the superannuation many boomers have and the amount they need for retirement, he said.

"There's quite a large proportion of boomers - 29 per cent - who have not yet retired and think they will retire with a mortgage, which is an awful lot, nearly a third, which is a bit scary," Mr McAweeney said.

"Often they'll say: 'I'm going to use some of my superannuation to pay it off', which is the worst thing you can do."

Overall, Australians have become better at saving since the global financial crisis and have felt more optimistic about their finances this year than they did last year, Mr McAweeney said.

And those with healthy finances led healthier, happier lives.

"We do see a link between savings and happiness. Your financial health equates to your physical and mental wellbeing," he said.

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Kellogg to cut jobs, lowers outlook

KELLOGG will trim its global workforce by seven per cent as part of a cost-cutting plan, with the cereal maker citing weaker-than-expected sales for the year.

The maker of Frosted Flakes and Eggo waffles says it expects earnings per share for the year to be towards the lower end of its previous forecast.

The workforce reductions will take place by 2017.

For the quarter, Kellogg Co says it earned $US326 million ($A346 million), or 90 cents per share. Not including one-time items, it earned 95 cents per share, which was above the 89 cents per share Wall Street expected.

A year ago, the company earned $US318 million, or 89 cents per share.

Revenue slipped to $US3.72 billion and was short of the $US3.73 billion analysts expected.

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Rural cancer more likely to kill: study

RURAL cancer patients are more likely to die than those in urban areas, according to a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Although the overall risk of cancer death decreased by one per cent from 2001 to 2010, the study shows the decrease was almost twice as high in metropolitan areas compared with rural and regional areas.

Some of the biggest disparities are for melanoma and cancers of the lung, prostate, oesophagus and colon.

The authors, led by Dr Michael Coory of the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, suggest a lack of investment in strategic planning is part of the reason.

They say enough is known about the causes to start evaluating possible solutions.

These include more accommodation support for patients who need to travel to metropolitan centres, virtual multidisciplinary teams and fly-in, fly-out services.

The authors point out, however, that research to guide service planning and budget decisions is not as prestigious as laboratory and clinical research for treatments and cures.

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