Coal collapses at Indian mine kills seven

AN official says at least seven villagers were killed and five others injured when a heap of coal collapsed on them at a coal mine in eastern India.

Dikken Mehra, a spokesman for state-owned Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd, says the villagers trespassed into the mine on Saturday to steal coal in order to sell it, a common occurrence at coal mines in India.

Mehra says that about half a dozen villagers are feared to be trapped in the debris and that rescue work is continuing.

The coal mine is about 650 kilometres west of Bhubaneshwar, the capital of Orissa state.

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Abbott praises US for its race relations

THE US has bested Australia in overcoming historical racism by putting Barack Obama in the White House, Tony Abbott says.

The opposition leader came straight from the Top End, where he'd flagged a more engaged relationship with indigenous Australians and underscored his belief in constitutional recognition of Australia's first peoples, to address a diplomatic function in Sydney on Saturday night.

Mr Abbott told the Australian American Leadership Dialogue gala dinner that, like the US, Australia had tried to live by the ethos of treating others as they would be treated, but had not always succeeded.

"For all the difficult history ... you have got this so much more right than we have over the years," he said.

"Whatever I might think of the politics of President Obama, the fact that America elected him five years or so back is proof positive that in that great democracy, in that shining city on a hill, the content of a man's character counts for far more than the colour of his skin."

The night offered a breath of bipartisanship after six days of election campaigning, with former Labor leader Kim Beazley, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare and Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr sharing a stage - and a couple of hugs - with shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop.

"I'm happy to give (Mr Clare) a hug because if you ask the Daily Telegraph, he's the third most sexy man in Australian politics," Mr Morrison joked.

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UK redheads rally in Ginger Pride walk

MORE than a hundred redheads have taken part in the UK's first Ginger Pride march.

A parade led by Canadian comic Shawn Hitchins wound through Edinburgh city centre on Saturday to demonstrate against "gingerism" - described as prejudice or discrimination against people with red hair.

The march created an "amazing" atmosphere as it made its way from the Balmoral Hotel on Princes Street across North Bridge to the city's Royal Mile, Hitchins said.

"Everyone was cheering and we definitely let everyone know that it gets redder," he said.

"I just want to thank all my fellow gingers who took the time attend today's inaugural Ginger Pride event.

"I believe we truly sent a message to the world of how proud we are to be ginger. It was a special moment for gingers everywhere. All hail the red, orange and pale."

Marchers held aloft signs carrying messages such as "For the love of ginger", "All hail! The red, orange and pale" as well as "Ginger and proud".

Hitchins is also performing a show inspired by his hair colour called Ginger Nation at this year's Edinburgh PBH's Free Fringe.

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Obama denies bad relationship with Putin

PRESIDENT Barack Obama denies having a bad relationship with Vladimir Putin, even though he said the Russian leader can appear to have a "slouch" and sometimes looks "like the bored kid in the back of the classroom."

The comments came at a White House press conference on Friday, two days after Obama cancelled a summit in Moscow with Putin due to what the United States called a lack of progress on key issues and Russia's granting asylum to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

"I don't have a bad personal relationship with Putin," Obama insisted.

"When we have conversations, they're candid, they're blunt; oftentimes, they're constructive.

"I know the press likes to focus on body language and he's got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. But the truth is, is that when we're in conversations together, oftentimes it's very productive," the president said.

Aside from Snowden, Washington and Moscow disagree on issues that include the war in Syria, missile defence, nuclear disarmament and human rights.

As Russia's defence and foreign ministers met in Washington with their US counterparts, Obama said relations have chilled since Putin's return to the Russian presidency in May 2012.

"I think there's always been some tension in the US-Russian relationship after the fall of the Soviet Union," Obama said.

"There's been cooperation in some areas. There's been competition in others. It is true that in my first four years in working with President Medvedev, we made a lot of progress."

Medvedev was Russia's leader between 2008 and 2012 while then former president Putin took a turn as prime minister - having first boosted the powers of the office - before returning to the top job.

This period saw a brief flowering of joint US-Russian projects, including a new strategic arms reduction treaty and a deal that saw Russia help supply US forces in Afghanistan.

"What's also true is, is that when President Putin... came back into power, I think we saw more rhetoric on the Russian side that was anti-American, that played into some of the old stereotypes about the Cold War," Obama said.

"And I've encouraged Mr Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards on those issues. With mixed success."

Obama however said he was against a boycott of Russia's Winter Olympics next year over a controversial new Russian law banning "homosexual propaganda."

Some gay rights activists around the world have called for a boycott, and US Senator Lindsey Graham said he thought Washington should consider boycotting the Games if Russia were to grant asylum to Snowden.

There is a precedent: the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

"I want to just make very clear right now, I do not think it's appropriate to boycott the Olympics," Obama said.

"Nobody's more offended than me by some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation that you've been seeing in Russia," Obama said.

The most immediate barrier to warmer relations is Snowden, a former US intelligence contractor who fled to Moscow after revealing details of the US National Security Agency's vast electronic spy networks targeting telephone calls and email.

Washington wants him extradited to face espionage charges, and was outraged when Moscow granted him political asylum.

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Zanzibar offers reward after acid attack

ZANZIBAR has offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of men suspected of hurling acid in the faces of two young British women.

Information and Tourism Minister Said Ali Mbarouk said Wednesday's attack on the two 18-year-olds - the first such assault on foreigners in the popular tourist destination - was "a shame on the people of Zanzibar".

He said anyone providing information leading to the arrest of the assailants would be given 10 million Tanzanian shillings ($A5000).

Two men on a moped threw acid at Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup on Wednesday evening as they strolled through Stone Town, the historical centre of the capital of the semi-autonomous Tanzanian archipelago, splashing their faces and chests.

"We have to work harder to make sure that Zanzibar is safe for visitors and citizens," the minister said on Friday.

Wednesday's incident was the first assault on foreigners in the Indian Ocean island but acid has been used in a number of recent attacks.

The women were flown to Tanzania's economic capital Dar es Salaam for treatment, and then flown home.

The two women were spending three weeks doing volunteer teaching in a local school, a placement organised through i-to-i Travel, a Kent, Britain-based company that organises Gap year volunteer work.

The attack occurred at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and as people began to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Tourism is the main foreign currency earner for Zanzibar, famed for its white-sand beaches and historical buildings in Stone Town, listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO.

In Zanzibar, some more conservative elements of the Muslim community object to foreign tourists who wear revealing clothes, as well as bars selling alcohol.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who visited the two young women in hospital in Dar es Salaam, called the attack "shameful" and said it "tarnished the image" of Tanzania.

He ordered the security forces to step up their investigation and find the culprits.

Zanzibar police chief Mussa Ali Mussa said seven people have already been questioned over the attack.

Politicians and religious leaders in Zanzibar also condemned the incident.

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Austrian gun tycoon loses alimony battle

THE multi-millionaire octogenarian founder of Austrian handgun giant Glock has lost a lengthy legal battle over alimony payments to his ex-wife in the country's top court.

Two lower courts had ruled that Gaston Glock, 84, did not have to pay any allowance to Helga Glock, whom he divorced in 2011 after 49 years of marriage, because she was wealthy in her own right.

But Austria's supreme court has overturned the rulings, saying Helga Glock's own financial situation was irrelevant, court spokesman Christoph Brenn told AFP.

"The plaintiff is entitled to make claims on the income of the ex-husband, just as is the case with normal levels of income," Brenn said. "The allowance level now has to be examined."

The court made the ruling on August 3 but was only delivered to the Glocks this week.

According to media reports, Helga Glock is also involved in legal proceedings to obtain a stake in Glock the company, a major supplier to law enforcement agencies including the US police.

Gaston Glock, one of Austria's richest people with a fortune estimated by Trend magazine in 2012 at around 550 million euros ($A814.63 million), divorced Helga in order to marry a woman about 50 years his junior.

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Watchdog probes UK's migrants ad

BRITAIN'S advertising watchdog says it has launched a formal investigation into a government campaign urging illegal immigrants to "go home or face arrest", after receiving dozens of complaints that it was racist.

Trucks carrying billboards with the words, "In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest" drove through London for a week last month in a pilot scheme by the interior ministry that has sparked widespread criticism.

In a campaign that critics have dubbed the "racist van", the trucks were driven through several areas of London with large ethnic minority populations.

Posters, leaflets and advertisements in local newspapers are still carrying the message as part of the campaign.

"The Advertising Standards Authority has launched a formal investigation into the Home Office 'Go Home' ad campaign following 60 complaints," a spokesman for the watchdog said on Friday.

Complainants said the phrase "go home" was particularly "offensive and irresponsible" as it was reminiscent of slogans used by British racist groups in the past, he added.

The adverts feature a huge picture of a pair of handcuffs together with a number said to represent the number of arrests in the local area. They tell people to text the word "HOME" to a given phone number to get help to leave Britain.

A spokesman for the Home Office, the interior ministry, said it was in contact with the ASA over the investigation and would respond "in due course".

Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman defended the vans last week, saying it was "clear that this is already working" and that helping illegal immigrants to leave voluntarily was the most cost-effective way to reduce their numbers.

But the campaign has caused a rift in Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government, with several senior members of junior partner the Liberal Democrats, blasting it as offensive.

For years, immigration, along with the economy, has regularly topped polls of voters' concerns.

A Home Office spokesman said the ministry could not provide a figure for the number of illegal immigrants living in Britain, but in 2005 it estimated that it could be up to 570,000.

Some 14,000 migrants were forcibly removed from Britain in the year ended March 2013, while 28,000 left voluntarily, according to ministry figures.

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Twitter tells Sydney trolling victim sorry

TWITTER has apologised and is set to discuss trolling with Australian police after a Sydney woman endured weeks of horrific threats from fans of the rapper, Tyler Okonma.

The social network giant has also promised to install a "report abuse" button on its main website and Android app from September in a bid to make it easier for trolling victims to highlight their cases.

The button's already available on Twitter's iPhone apps.

It comes after 24-year-old Talitha Stone received hundreds of tweets threatening violence and rape after she challenged Okonma's controversial "horrorcore" lyrics, which have centred on violence, rape fantasies, murder and necrophilia.

The online threats began in June after Ms Stone, a Sydney psychology student, tweeted Okonma and an Australian clothing store where he was due to appear, highlighting her opposition to his lyrics.

Her tweet read: "Have to visit @Culturekings tomoz to protest against (Okonma) - he will be there at midday. I think they need educating on #misogyny."

Ms Stone received threats online almost immediately.

But the real deluge began a few days later, after the rapper mentioned Ms Stone while performing on stage in Australia.

The Sydneysider had previously lobbied the UK government to revoke Okonma's visa - a move the rapper appeared to take strong exception to.

During a performance at Newtown's Enmore Theatre, the 22-year-old artist reportedly told his audience: "I wish she could hear me call her a bitch".

Fans then deluged Ms Stone with abuse.

She told AAP: "For about two weeks after that I was receiving abuse daily - so much I couldn't keep up with it."

The abuse included threats of rape and violence, which Ms Stone reported to Australian police and to Twitter.

She started a change.org petition earlier this month challenging the social network firm to address trolling and continued tweeting about it.

Her persistence led to a phone-call from Twitter's global head of trust and safety, Del Harvey and public policy vice-president Colin Crowell on Friday.

The executives apologised and promised tougher action against trolls. They also said they would hold talks with senior Australian police to discuss how similar cases might be handled.

Twitter will also introduce the new "report abuse" button from September, along with a simplified "autofill" form to make it easier for victims to detail the abuse they've suffered.

The company employed to handle Twitter's public relations in Australia did not immediately respond to AAP's request for further comment.

The incident comes as social networks and police around the world attempt to address the issue of trolling, which occurs across jurisdictions and often under the cloak of anonymity.

The Australian government has previously called on Twitter and other social networks to better address trolling, including last year when rugby league star Robbie Farah suffered abuse.

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Insurance arm 'dictated victim's policy'

THE Catholic Church's insurance company has been accused of dictating policy towards child abuse victims to reduce risk of culpability, with allegations an official even boasted of destroying 40 boxes of personnel records.

A US psychologist, who during the late 1990s helped the church draft its Towards Healing protocol, has told ABC's Lateline program that Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) attended every meeting of the National Committee for Professional Standards, and attempted to influence the approach to victims.

Dr Robert Grant said CCI officials would object to language used in the Towards Healing document "that would put the church at risk in terms of admitting culpability".

"At first I thought maybe they were there to advise the church about the risk of taking certain pastoral stances, but I began to realise quite quickly that they were dictating policy," he said of the meetings which took place in 1996 and 1997.

When Dr Grant raised his concerns that the church was not being more honest and transparent in its approach to victims, one CCI official told the committee: "I need to remind the members ... that I just destroyed 40 boxes of personnel records."

"I was shocked, I was dumbfounded, not only the timing - I realised it was a statement to me how things were going to be run," Dr Grant said.

CCI chief executive Peter Rush told the ABC he had no knowledge of Dr Grant or his claims.

"I do not accept that any senior officer of CCI would have engaged in the inappropriate destruction of documents," he said.

Francis Sullivan, chief of the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council, told the ABC that "any official of any organisation that destroys records should be sanctioned".

The Truth, Justice and Healing Council was established by the church to co-ordinate its response to the royal commission into child sex abuse.

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Rich economies on growth track: OECD

LEADING developed economies are still on a track towards growth, but among emerging economies China is showing increasing signs of slowing down, the OECD says.

Among big emerging countries, India is the only one where the economy continues to show "tentative positive change in momentum", The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a monthly report on leading indicators on Thursday.

Both Russia and Brazil seem to be slowing, the OECD said.

The OECD, grouping 34 advanced countries, said that in the eurozone, signs of a pick-up continues, with particularly German growth on track to recovery.

In non-eurozone Britain, and in the US and Japan, growth was firming.

But the OECD signalled a sluggish performance by France where it said that momentum was "relatively stable".

Its composite index of leading indicators suggested that growth was close to trend rates in Canada.

For China, it said indicators are "now pointing to slowing momentum".

The outlook is based on index of leading indicators in major economies and is considered to be a reliable guide to future economic activity.

In a separate survey, also on Thursday, the European Central Bank said it still expected the eurozone to achieve growth this year and next, but lowered its forecast due to weaker-than-expected demand in the euro area. The quarterly survey is based on estimates from a group of professional forecasters.

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Greens pledge big cut for small business

The Greens say they would support a bigger corporate tax cut, but only for small businesses. Source: AAP

THE Australian Greens want to cut corporate tax rates harder and faster than the coalition - but only for small businesses.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has confirmed a coalition government would lower the 30 per cent tax rate to 28.5 per cent from July 1, 2015 for all businesses.

Greens leader Christine Milne parried with a promise to cut the rate to 28 per cent but only for businesses with an annual turnover under $2 million.

"This is the kind of injection that small business has really been looking for," she told reporters in Canberra.

"Not only is it more generous to small business, it would start a year earlier."

The Greens plan would benefit 610,000 small business and cost $1.75 billion over four years, compared with $5 billion for the coalition cut.

Mr Abbott has said the company tax cut would offset his plan for a 1.5 per cent levy on big business to pay for his wage-replacement paid parental leave scheme.

The Greens also want to put a levy on big business to cover a similar leave proposal.

However, Senator Milne said big business could afford to pay more tax and didn't need any offset.

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BoE ties rate rise to fall in unemployment

THE Bank of England (BoE) has made a major break with policy, insisting that any rise in its record-low key interest rate would be tied to a drop in Britain's unemployment rate.

The BoE said it "intends not to raise Bank Rate from its current level of 0.5 per cent at least until ... the unemployment rate has fallen to a threshold of seven per cent".

Britain's unemployment rate is 7.8 per cent.

The new governor of the bank, Mark Carney, noted on Wednesday that "a renewed recovery is now under way" for Britain's economy.

The BoE added that its Monetary Policy Committee stood ready to provide the economy with more cash stimulus while the unemployment rate remains above seven per cent - and despite a recent recovery of British growth.

The Bank of England described its pledge over interest rates and stimulus as "explicit guidance regarding the future conduct of monetary policy".

Markets had widely expected some form of so-called "forward guidance" being introduced by Canadian national Carney, who became head of the BoE at the start of July.

The Bank of England's main interest rate, which has stood at 0.50 per cent since March 2009, is closely tied to borrowing costs offered by the retail banking sector.

The BoE's record-low rate has resulted in cheap loans for home owners but poor returns for people with deposited savings.

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Mediation fails, Egypt blames Islamists

WESTERN and Arab efforts to mediate an end to Egypt's political deadlock have failed, the presidency says, signalling a possible crackdown on Islamists that has sparked fears of more carnage.

The statement on Wednesday came hours after US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns left Cairo, having made no headway in finding a compromise between the army-installed government and supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

"The phase of diplomatic efforts has ended today," the presidency said, referring to mediation by Burns and EU envoy Bernardino Leon, who were among other diplomats who had travelled to Cairo.

"These efforts have not achieved the hoped for results," the statement added.

The statement suggested the government may now move against Cairo sit-ins by Morsi's supporters.

The presidency "holds the Muslim Brotherhood completely responsible for the failure of these efforts, and for consequent events and developments relating to violations of the law and endangering public safety".

More than 250 people have been killed in clashes since Morsi's ouster by the military on July 3, following days of mass rallies demanding the president's resignation.

The government had already tasked police with ending the sit-ins and Islamist protests, which it described as a "national security threat", but held off amid intense diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful resolution.

An airport official said Burns, in Cairo since Friday, left on Tuesday night after days of talks with the interim rulers and Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

Adding his weight to the drive for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the release of Morsi, who has been formally remanded in custody in an undisclosed location.

He "reiterated his call for the release" of Morsi during a call with Egypt's Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, the UN said late Tuesday.

The government, which has faced intense domestic pressure to crack down on Morsi's supporters, lashed out on Tuesday against what it called excessive international pressure.

"Foreign pressure has exceeded international norms," the official MENA news agency quoted presidential spokesman Ahmed al-Muslimani as saying.

His statement came as US senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham outraged the government's supporters by describing Morsi's removal as a "coup" during a press conference in Cairo.

"The people who are in charge were not elected, and the people who were elected are now in jail," Graham said.

The comments drew a harsh rebuke from the presidency, which described the comments as "clumsy".

Graham and McCain were later asked by CBS News if they were alarmed by what is happening in Egypt.

"Oh my God," Graham responded. "I didn't know it was this bad. These people are just days or weeks away from all-out bloodshed."

Western envoys had pressured the Brotherhood to end its sit-ins, according to Islamists who attended the talks.

The diplomats had also demanded the government release jailed Islamist leaders as a confidence-building measure.

Morsi himself is being held on suspicion of having collaborated with Palestinian militants to kill policemen and stage jail breaks during an early 2011 uprising against strongman Hosni Mubarak, while Morsi was in prison.

The Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, and his deputies will stand trial on charges of inciting the shootings of protesters outside their headquarters on June 30.

The government says it is up to the judiciary to release the prisoners, and it cannot intervene.

The Islamists say their release is a precondition for further talks on finding a settlement, which could include symbolically reinstating Morsi, who would then call for early elections.

With the failure of the talks, the government will now focus on ending the sit-ins in Cairo, which the presidency described as "terror originating spots."

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Drone strike kills seven al-Qaeda in Yemen

AL-QAEDA in Yemen has been hit by a fresh strike from a US drone which left seven militants dead, tribal sources say, a day after Washington pulled its diplomats from the country fearing an attack by the jihadists.

The early-morning strike in Yemen's southern Shabwa province destroyed two vehicles, the sources said. Those who died were all members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

"The shell left the cars and the militants inside in pieces," one source said of the attack in the town of Nasab.

Wednesday's raid was the fifth of its kind since July 28, with at least 24 suspected al-Qaeda militants killed in the strikes.

Washington at the weekend closed 19 embassies and consulates in the Middle East and Africa, citing intercepted communications among militants, reportedly including an attack ordered by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

On Tuesday, the US and its allies pulled staff out of their embassies in Yemen and stepped up security at missions across the Middle East amid fears of an imminent attack.

While the closures span cities across the Arab world, the focus of concern has been Yemen, where American forces are fighting a drone war against al-Qaeda's powerful regional affiliate.

According to media reports, the trigger for the pullback came when US intelligence intercepted messages between Zawahiri and Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the leader of AQAP.

The New York Times said the electronic communications revealed Zawahiri had ordered AQAP to carry out an attack as early as last Sunday.

AQAP is seen as the global Islamist militant network's most capable franchise following the decimation of al-Qaeda's core leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent years.

Yemeni authorities beefed up security in Sanaa, where they feared the attack would be launched.

A Yemeni security official who requested anonymity told AFP that fears are that car bombs would be used in the attacks.

"Security services are in a race against time to prevent attacks in the capital," the official said.

Tightened security measures in Sanaa were not only around Western missions but also around main government buildings in the capital, the official added.

The Yemeni government has issued a strong response to the diplomatic withdrawal, saying it recognised the safety fears but that the pullout "serves the interests of the extremists".

Such a step "undermines the exceptional co-operation between Yemen and the international alliance against terrorism", the foreign ministry in Sanaa said.

Local authorities had "taken all necessary precautions to ensure the safety and security of foreign missions", it stressed.

The Yemen-based AQAP has attempted several attacks on the United States, including a failed bid to bring down a passenger plane by a man wearing explosives in his underwear and another to send bombs concealed in printer cartridges.

Washington has launched scores of drone strikes in Yemen, where the militant group thrives in vast, lawless areas largely outside the government's control.

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Sudan floods kill 11, affect 100,000

HEAVY rains and flash floods in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan have killed 11 people and affected almost 100,000 in the past week, the United Nations says.

Giving the first official figures for the impact of the flooding, which began on August 1, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday the capital and Nile state to its north were the worst hit, but that five other states were also inundated.

OCHA said "an estimated 98,500 people have been affected by heavy rain and flash floods" in a zone from Red Sea state in the east to South Darfur in the west.

It cited figures from the Sudanese Red Crescent Society and another local humanitarian group, for the period to August 4.

"The flash floods have killed 11 people and destroyed or damaged more than 14,000 houses in the states affected," OCHA said, citing local aid groups.

"Immediate needs of the affected people include emergency shelter, health and water and sanitation services."

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US trade deficit falls sharply in June

THE US trade deficit shrank by an unexpectedly large margin in June as imports fell and exports grew, according to data released on Tuesday.

The trade gap fell to $US34.2 billion ($A38.42 billion) in June, down from a revised $US44.1 billion in May, according to the US Commerce Department. Analysts had expected a deficit of $US43.4 billion, according to Briefing.com.

The United States exported $US191.2 billion in goods and services in June and had imports of $US225.4 billion.

June's imports came in at $US5.8 billion lower than May and exports were $US4.1 billion higher.

Large export gains over May came in industrial supplies and materials ($US1.5 billion) and capital goods ($US1.5 billion).

Meanwhile, imports of industrial supplies and materials fell $US2.5 billion and consumer goods imports lost $US1.6 billion.

For the first six months of the year, the total US trade deficit was $US242.1 billion, compared to $US278.2 billion for January-June 2012.

Underpinning that improvement was a 2.1 per cent rise in exports to $US1.12 trillion, and a 1.0 per cent fall in imports to $US1.37 trillion.

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New tool 'could help prevent child abuse'

CHILD protection bodies say a recently trialled system could help them better prevent and detect child abuse.

The so-called Common Approach aims to train teachers, doctors and families how best to identify the early signs of abuse and neglect.

The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) developed the program after the federal government identified the need to strengthen child protection services across the country.

ARACY chief executive Dr Lance Emerson said Common Approach had now been successfully trialled by a number of charities and support agencies.

Dr Emerson said the program had the potential to take a great deal of pressure off Australia's child protection agencies.

"We don't necessarily need new practitioners and services," he said.

"It's about helping a wider range of professionals change the way they currently do things, to help them focus on preventing abuse and neglect."

Australian authorities received 252,962 notifications of suspected child abuse and neglect in the financial year 2011-12, of which 48,420 were confirmed.

Dr Emerson said the number and severity of cases could be lessened if professionals were taught how they could help prevent child abuse and neglect.

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Coalition to cut company tax rate: reports

THE coalition is set to announce an Abbott government would cut the company tax rate by 1.5 per cent.

The measure, to be announced by the coalition on Wednesday, would begin in July 2015 and cost $5 billion, ABC's Lateline program reports.

In its "Real Solutions" policy plan, the coalition has promised to deliver "a modest cut" in company tax, funded from savings in the budget, but at this stage it has offered no other details.

At the same time, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott also intends to put a levy on large companies to pay for its more generous paid parental leave scheme.

He's said the coalition wants to introduce the paid parental leave scheme and cut company taxes at the same time, "so that no business should face a net increase in tax".

Business groups have been pushing for a cut to the company tax rate to be made an economic and election priority.

At 30 per cent, Australia's tax rate sits about six percentage points above the average of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

In its federal election wish list, the Institute of Chartered Accounts Australia believes 25 per cent should be a medium-term goal, with 20 per cent a long-term aim.

The Henry Tax Review, released in 2010, recommended an objective of 25 per cent company tax rate over time.

The issue was raised in Chris Bowen's recent book Hearts & Minds, with the treasurer noting government "should have the ambition" of lowering the company tax rate.

Confirmation has been sought from Mr Abbott's office.

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Turkey's ex-army chief gets life over coup

A TURKISH court has sentenced a former army chief and other top brass to life in prison in a high-profile trial of 275 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic-based government.

Police fired tear gas at protesters outside the court on Monday in a town near Istanbul as the verdicts were being delivered in the highly-divisive case.

Ex-military chief Ilker Basbug, along with several other army officers, were sentenced to life in prison, while 21 people were acquitted, according to the verdicts issued so far.

The trial has been seen as a key test in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's showdown with secularist and military opponents during his decade-long rule.

The defendants were on trial on dozens of charges, ranging from membership of an underground "terrorist organisation" dubbed Ergenekon to arson, illegal weapons possession, and instigating an armed uprising against Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), which came to power in 2002.

Tensions were high outside the high-security tribunal in the town of Silivri, near Istanbul, and hundreds of riot police fired tear gas to disperse some 1,000 protesters who had evaded a police barricade and attempted to march on the courthouse, an AFP reporter said.

Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu had on Friday said that demonstrations outside the court would not be allowed.

Amid a heavy security presence, only the suspects, lawyers, journalists and members of parliament were allowed to enter the building for the hearing.

"This trial is purely political," Mustafa Balbay, one of the defendants, told an audience of MPs and journalists inside the courtroom.

"Today it's the government which is convicted, not us."

Basbug, 70, led Turkey's military campaign against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for many years, only to find himself accused in his retirement of having led a terrorist group himself.

The verdicts come after Turkey was rocked in June by mass protests that presented Erdogan's government with its biggest public challenge since it came to power in 2002.

Police had earlier chased away a few dozen demonstrators waving Turkish flags and chanting "How happy is the one who calls himself a Turk," referring to a saying by modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

"I came here so that those people who have been behind bars for five years with no real proof against them are not left alone," said Dogan Muldur, a retired Turkish Airlines pilot.

"There are a lot of fictitious crimes in the case but no proof," he said.

"I came to fight injustice, to defend our rights. I am an ordinary Turkish citizen, I have no ties with the suspects," added housewife Ebru Kurt.

"I am not saying that all the people in jail are innocent, but I am convinced that most of them have spent years in jail even though they have done nothing wrong."

The 2,455-page indictment accuses members of Ergenekon - an alleged shadowy network of ultranationalists trying to seize control in Turkey - of a string of attacks and political violence over several decades to stir up unrest.

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Russia slams flag desecration by US band

RUSSIA'S interior ministry has launched a criminal probe into flag desecration after a US rock musician stuffed a Russian flag down his trousers at a concert.

The band Bloodhound Gang scandalised Russia when a video was released showing its bassist, Jared Hasselhoff, stuffing the white-blue-and-red tricolour down his trousers and then throwing it into the crowd at a concert last week in Odessa, Ukraine.

The interior ministry said in a statement on Monday that it had opened a criminal case "after looking into actions that demonstrated disrespect to the Russian state flag by a musician from a foreign band".

According to Russian law, desecration of the national flag could lead to a jail sentence of up to one year.

Russia's Investigative Committee, a powerful agency that is an equivalent of the US FBI, said in a statement earlier on Monday that it was examining the incident.

It condemned "the cynicism of the said crime, which expressed clear disrespect for the Russian state.

"The investigation will evaluate everyone connected with this crime, from the actual perpetrators to its organisers," the Investigative Committee said, adding that it would send inquiries shortly to the US and Ukraine.

The band members were turned away from a festival where they were due to play in southern Russia on Saturday and flew out of the country after being told to pack their bags by the culture minister and having their visas cut short by the migration services.

Before they abruptly left Russia, the group apologised by saying at a news conference that it was a tradition that everything thrown from the stage to fans "takes a trip through the pants".

The video of the concert shows Hasselhoff telling the crowd: "Don't tell Putin," before pushing the flag into his unzipped trousers and pulling it out the back to jeers and cheers from the crowd.

As they flew out, the band members were egged by pro-Kremlin youth activists and assaulted by Cossacks, an ultra-conservative group.

Pro-Kremlin MPs called for them to be banned from Russia for life and said that the Russian organisers of their concert should face consequences.

Top ruling party official Sergei Neverov compared the rock band to US pop star Madonna, who criticised a law against "homosexual propaganda" to minors at her concert in Saint Petersburg last year. He said the musicians were "links in a single chain" and acting on someone's orders.

The US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul late on Sunday said on his Twitter account: "I find the action by Bloodhound Gang disgusting. I also condemn the violence against them."

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World's first test tube burger unveiled

SCIENTISTS have unveiled the world's first lab-grown beef burger, serving it up to volunteers in London in what they hope is the start of a food revolution.

The 140-gramme patty, which cost more than 250,000 ($A375,375) to produce, has been made using strands of meat grown from muscle cells taken from a living cow.

Mixed with salt, egg powder and breadcrumbs to improve the taste, and coloured with red beetroot juice and saffron, researchers claim it will taste similar to a normal burger.

Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in The Netherlands, whose lab developed the meat, says the burger is safe and has the potential to replace normal meat in the diets of millions of people.

He brought it into a news conference at a TV studio on a tray covered in a metal cloche.

The patty was served to two volunteers, US-based food author Josh Schonwald and Austrian food researcher Hanni Ruetzler.

After taking a mouthful, Ruetzler said: "I was expecting the texture to be more soft.... I know there is no fat in it so I didn't know how juicy it would be.

"It's close to meat. It's not that juicy. The consistency is perfect (but) I miss salt and pepper!"

Sergey Brin, one of Google's co-founders, was revealed as one of the financial backers of the project.

He said in a video message: "Sometimes when technology comes along, it has the capability to transform how we view our world. I like to look at technology opportunities. When technology seems like it is on the cusp of viability and if it succeeds there, it can be really transformative for the world."

There are concerns that the growing demand for meat is putting unsustainable pressure on the planet, both through the food required for the animals and the methane gas they produce, which contributes to global warming.

"What we are going to attempt is important because I hope it will show cultured beef has the answers to major problems that the world faces," Post said ahead of Monday's event.

"Our burger is made from muscle cells taken from a cow. We haven't altered them in any way. For it to succeed it has to look, feel and hopefully taste like the real thing."

The team in Maastricht took cells from organic cows and placed them in a nutrient solution to create muscle tissue. They then grew this into small strands of meat, 20,000 of which were required to make the burger.

Although it is very expensive, the costs of cultured beef are likely to fall as more is produced and the team claim it could be available in supermarkets within 10 to 20 years.

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Zimbabwe oppn readies Mugabe challenge

The international community has cast doubt on Zimbabwe's future after Robert Mugabe's re-election. Source: AAP

ZIMBABWE'S defeated presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai is preparing to mount a legal and political challenge against the "sham" election that looks set to extend Robert Mugabe's 33-year rule.

Tsvangirai's allies have announced they will launch a constitutional court challenge against the results of Wednesday's election, which handed Mugabe a thumping 61 per cent of the vote.

"Our lawyers are very busy at work. We will be lodging the presidential challenge before Friday," Douglas Mwonzora, spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said on Monday.

The case could delay 89-year-old Mugabe's inauguration for another five-year term.

Once the complaint is lodged, the country's top court has 14 days to reach a decision.

Western nations, including former colonial ruler Britain, voiced serious doubts about the election while the regional SADC bloc said it was "free and peaceful", but stopped short of describing it as fair.

But MDC insiders acknowledge that finding a smoking gun for electoral fraud and navigating the notoriously polarised court system with be a fiendishly difficult.

The ruling ZANU-PF has welcomed the prospect of a court challenge over the vote - the first since bloody 2008 elections led to the formation of an uneasy power-sharing pact between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

"What they are doing is a good thing, it's a wise road to take," ZANU-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said, expressing confidence the challenge will fail.

Constitutional law expert Lovemore Madhuku said that given the 61-34 per cent vote split against Tsvangirai, his chances "are non-existent, completely non-existent".

"It's not a margin that normally gets challenged in court."

It is the third time Tsvangirai, a 61-year-old former union leader, has tried and failed to unseat Mugabe.

Mwonzora said the MDC was preparing a "dossier of all the rigging that took place and we will put it in the public domain to show the people how the election was stolen."

The MDC has called for post-election an emergency summit of the regional bloc Southern African Development Community (SADC) after the group gave the vote a thumbs-up, but deferred on calling the election "fair".

South African President Jacob Zuma on Sunday extended his "profound congratulations" to Mugabe on his re-election after a "successful" vote while his Namibian counterpart Hifikepunye Pohamba also welcomed the vote.

The MDC's Mwonzora - who himself lost his seat - expressed regret at the verdict of Zimbabwe's neighbours.

"We discovered that the SADC and the African Union equate absence of bloodshed in elections to free and fair elections, which is an incorrect way of looking at things."

The MDC had more support further afield, with the United States and European nations including Britain condemning the election, and Australia even calling for a re-run.

Mugabe and his allies still face a number of Western sanctions.

The Zimbabwe stock exchange plunged 11 per cent on Monday, the first day of trading since the results were issued, with foreign-owned stocks registering steep losses.

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Support for Rudd takes a hit: Newspoll

VOTER support for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has slumped, according to a poll published hours after he named a date for the federal election.

Mr Rudd claimed underdog status on Sunday as he announced Australians would go to the polls on September 7 and according to the latest Newspoll, he could be right.

The poll, conducted this weekend and published in part by News Limited late on Sunday, shows that although Mr Rudd is still more popular than Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, his support as preferred prime minister is at its lowest.

Voter satisfaction with Mr Rudd dropped four percentage points in the past two weeks from 42 per cent to 38 per cent and dissatisfaction jumped six points from 41 per cent to 47 per cent.

The survey found voter support for Labor had fallen one percentage point in the last fortnight to 37 per cent, compared to the coalition's 44 per cent.

On a two-party preferred basis, the coalition has kept its lead of 52 per cent to Labor's 48 per cent.

Support for the Greens is down one point to nine per cent, compared to 11.8 per cent at the last election.

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