Football codes urged to tackle concussion

AUSTRALIA'S football bosses have been urged to review their concussion management guidelines to protect players from long-term damage.

Alzheimer's Australia NSW released a series of recommendations in a discussion paper on Sunday, asking the four major football codes to take a serious look at the way they manage head injuries.

The paper asks the codes to consider changing the rules of their game to better protect junior players.

Alzheimer's Australia NSW chief executive John Watkins said there was growing evidence of links between concussion and the development of brain injuries and dementia.

Players must be aware of the potential risks of later-life cognitive impairment and dementia from multiple concussive injuries, he said.

It was also critical to ensure younger players were adequately protected.

The paper called for Australian research into a degenerative brain illness known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which had affected dozens of former American football players.

Australian Medical Association NSW president Professor Brian Owler said he was pleased with the progress made by football codes.

"Encouraging the football codes to do more to minimise the risks and allow players with suspected concussions sufficient recovery time is only sensible," he said.

Former AFL star Greg Williams said last month he had significant gaps in his memory of his playing days, which he attributed to the heavy knocks he copped.

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Cyprus shellshocked over eurozone bailout

RESIDENTS of Cyprus have reacted with shock after the government agreed to a 10 billion euros ($A12.62 billion) bailout that includes an unprecedented levy on all bank deposits.

The debt rescue package, agreed with the eurozone and International Monetary Fund early on Saturday morning after around 10 hours of talks in Brussels, is significantly less than the 17 billion euros Cyprus had initially sought.

It includes 5.8 billion euros to be raised through the bank deposit levy of up to 9.9 per cent, which will apply to everyone from pensioners to Russian oligarchs and tens of thousands of British expats.

At the same time, a "withholding tax" would be imposed on interest on bank deposits, and Cyprus will have to hike corporate tax to 12.5 per cent from 10 per cent and sell off state assets to help balance the public finances.

Though it was reached too late for Cyprus newspapers the bailout deal prompted some to queue up outside banks to withdraw cash from ATMs.

But analyst Sony Kapoor cautioned that there was no point, tweeting: "Dear Cyprus bank depositors, the time to line outside ur banks was last week, no point now."

A flood of angry comments flowed on the internet.

"The Cyprus deal is exactly why I don't keep money in the bank anymore. Brussels can commandeer your cash. Just like that," one person wrote on Twitter.

Government spokesman Christos Stylianides tried to calm shell-shocked Cypriots saying: "The situation is serious but not tragic, there is no reason to panic."

The levy will see deposits of more than 100,000 euros hit with a 9.9 per cent charge when lenders reopen their doors after a scheduled public holiday on Monday. Under that threshold and the levy drops to 6.75 per cent.

Co-operative bank branches, which, unlike the main lenders, usually open for business on Saturdays, kept their doors closed as their systems were shut down, officials said.

One furious customer reportedly parked his digger outside one such branch in the seaside resort of Limassol, claiming the government had "tricked" him into believing deposits were safe.

Cyprus - which accounts for just 0.2 per cent of the combined eurozone economy - is the fifth country to secure a debt rescue package from its eurozone partners in the three-year debt crisis.

The price tag is very small compared with two rescues for Greece worth some 380 billion euros, Ireland's 85 billion euros, Portugal's 78 billion and 41 billion for Spanish banks.

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Tense Zimbabwe votes on new constitution

ZIMBABWEANS have voted on a new constitution that would pave the way for crucial elections in a country plagued by political violence.

Voters are expected to roundly back the text, which would introduce presidential term limits, beef up parliament's powers and set elections to decide whether 89-year-old Mugabe stays in power.

Mugabe has ruled uninterrupted since the country's independence in 1980, despite a series of disputed and violent polls and a severe economic crash propelled by hyper-inflation.

The new draft constitution is part of a internationally-backed plan to get the country back on track. It is supported by both the veteran president and his political nemesis Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

But that has not prevented incidents of violence as activists keep one eye on the general election slated for July.

Shortly before polls in the constitutional referendum opened on Saturday, gunmen - later identified as plainclothes police detectives - seized a member of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change from his home southeast of Harare.

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told AFP Samson Magumura had been arrested on charges of attempted murder in connection with a recent firebomb attack that injured a Mugabe ally.

But MDC Finance Minister Tendai Biti said police could not confirm where Magumura was being held.

As he cast his vote on Saturday, Mugabe, whom many blame for past unrest, urged Zimbabweans to ensure the referendum proceeded peacefully.

"You can't go about beating people on the streets, that's not allowed, we want peace in the country, peace, peace."

Mugabe also used the opportunity to castigate the West, vowing they would not be allowed to monitor the upcoming general election.

"The Europeans and the Americans have imposed sanctions on us and we keep them out in the same way they keep us out," he said.

Casting his ballot, Tsvangirai expressed hope that a positive outcome would help catapult the country out of a crisis that has been marked by bloodshed and economic meltdown.

"I hope it sets in a political culture where we move from a culture of impunity to a culture of constitutionalism," he said.

Official results of the referendum are expected to be released within five days of the vote.

The new constitution would for the first time put a definite, if distant, end date on Mugabe's 33-year rule.

Presidents would be allowed to serve two terms of five years each, meaning that, elections permitting, Mugabe could rule until 2023, by which time he would be 99-years-old.

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Anglican leader to skip pope inauguration

THE new leader of the world's Anglicans, Justin Welby, will miss the inauguration of Pope Francis next week as he will be on a "pilgrimage of prayer", his residence has announced.

Welby, who became Archbishop of Canterbury last month, will be represented at Tuesday's inauguration mass at the Vatican by Britain's Archbishop of York, John Sentamu.

"Dr Sentamu will travel to Rome on the Archbishop of Canterbury's behalf on Monday in time for the celebrations the following day," Lambeth Palace said on Saturday.

Welby, leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans, will meanwhile be continuing a "journey in prayer" which he started last Thursday.

The tour encompasses five cities and six cathedrals in his province of Canterbury, which covers southern England.

On Saturday the journey took Welby to London, where he stopped to pray at various locations including St Paul's Cathedral.

A statement on his website said anyone was welcome to join the journey.

"Gather in the morning, pray for the whole day, or drop in whenever you have time," it said.

Welby's own official enthronement ceremony takes place next Thursday at Canterbury Cathedral.

Cardinal Kurt Koch will represent the new pope at Welby's enthronement.

Welby, a former oil executive, takes over as Archbishop of Canterbury from Rowan Williams, who led the Anglicans for the last decade.

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Reporter detained in China live on TV

A JOURNALIST and his camera operator have been detained in Tiananmen Square live on British television, in what he described as a surreal but telling episode about reporting in China.

Viewers of the 24-hour British channel Sky News on Friday were treated to the bizarre sight of reporter Mark Stone being directed into a police van live from Beijing.

He reported live from inside the van, admitting that the Chinese officials with him - one them filming Stone herself - probably did not realise he was speaking directly to London.

"Still in the police van, should be leaving in just a second for this rather surreal experience, which gives you a little insight into what can happen sometimes" in China, Stone said.

The team were then taken into a room where they were told to await questioning.

"We were here in Tiananmen Square filming, doing lives (live reports) through the day; now they've stopped us because of one word. We were talking about the 1989 protest, they didn't like that," Stone said.

The square is a popular tourist site near the regime's nerve centre and the scene of 1989 democracy protests that were crushed by the Chinese authorities.

A police officer was filmed asking the Sky team to switch off their camera, saying they were now inside the Forbidden City and did not have permission to film there.

Stone, who was in Beijing reporting on China's leadership transition, said the police had been "utterly civil" throughout the incident.

While they had permission to film in the square, Stone said police told him the team were not displaying their passes correctly, and noted he was not carrying his passport as required.

China's foreign ministry insists that press censorship does not exist in the country, but journalists report the constant threat of interference from government officials.

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Vatican rejects Argentina junta claims

THE Vatican has rejected claims that Pope Francis failed to do enough to protect two priests kidnapped and tortured by Argentina's military junta, saying he had in fact helped save lives.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first pope to hail from Latin America, has been criticised by leftist critics for his actions during Argentina's "Dirty War" in which 30,000 people died or disappeared from 1976 to 1983.

His role in the arrest of two young Jesuits, Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics, who were taken to a notorious torture centre by the brutal right-wing junta, has come under intense scrutiny.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi on Friday said: "There has never been a credible, concrete accusation against him. The Argentinian justice system ... has never charged him with anything."

He said the campaign against Bergoglio was "well known" but claimed it was defamatory and aimed at discrediting the Church.

"The accusations come from parts of the anti-clerical left to attack the Church and must be denied," said Lombardi, insisting that Bergoglio "did a lot to protect people during the dictatorship" when he was not yet a bishop.

Bergoglio himself has always denied any involvement in the case, and even says he intervened with the head of the junta, Jorge Videla, to beg for them to be freed. The two men were released after five months.

The newly-elected pontiff, who is also the first Jesuit pope, earlier urged the troubled Catholic Church that he has inherited not to succumb to "pessimism" and to find new ways of spreading the faith.

"Let us not give in to pessimism, to that bitterness that the devil offers us every day," he told an audience of the world's cardinals on his third day in office.

In a reference to the declining number of worshippers in many parts of the world, he urged the cardinals to find "the courage to persevere and also to find new ways to bring evangelisation to the ends of the earth".

Francis, 76, said he and they were "elderly", but old age brought wisdom.

"Let us give this wisdom to young people like good wine that gets better over the years," he told the cardinals.

Francis hailed his predecessor Benedict XVI's historic resignation as a "courageous and humble act".

Benedict, who last month became the first pope to stand down for 700 years, had "lit a flame in the depth of our hearts that will continue to burn", he said.

Francis wore white papal vestments but also plain black shoes, not the red shoes favoured by his German predecessor, for the address in the ornate 16th-century Clementine Hall in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican.

He has signalled he will lead a more simple papacy, stripped of the fineries enjoyed by his predecessors.

On Thursday, he gave a stark warning that the Church, wracked by scandal and Vatican infighting, risked becoming just another charitable organisation if it strayed from its true mission.

His inauguration mass will take place on Tuesday - a significant date in the Catholic calendar because it is the Feast of St Joseph, the patron saint of the universal church.

The new pontiff is also due to meet his predecessor, who has withdrawn to the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, in the coming days.

The surprise election of the son of an Italian emigrant railway worker, who was considered a rank outsider before the cardinals began their confidential deliberations, has sparked hope for change in the Church.

His elevation is being seen as a nod to the Church's power in Latin America, which is home to 40 per cent of the world's Catholics. In Europe, its traditional power base, it is ageing and declining.

Projecting an image as a simple man of the people, the pope chose to name himself after St Francis of Assisi, the 13th century saint who shunned the riches of his family to devote himself to God and the poor.

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he lived in a modest apartment rather than the official residence, and he has already made his mark in Rome with his informal style.

The Vatican revealed that following his election Francis had chosen to ride in a minibus with his fellow cardinals rather than the papal limousine. He also returned to his lodgings to pay his own bill.

With health always an issue surrounding new popes - John Paul I only lived for just 33 days after he was elected in 1978 - the Vatican confirmed that Francis had part of a lung removed as a boy, but insisted that he is in good health.

The pope faces the challenge of stamping his authority on the Vatican machinery and trying to bring back people in the West who are turning their back on Catholicism.

He must also confront the continuing fallout from the sexual abuse of children by paedophile priests stretching back decades.

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Unborn wallaby caught on camera

IT'S a wallaby, but not like one you've ever seen.

Australian scientists have for the first time videotaped a wallaby fetus - just 1.5mm in size - inside its mother's tummy.

The scientists, from Melbourne University, used a high-resolution ultrasound to capture the footage of the tiny creature three days before its birth.

The fetus, which weighs about 400mg, can be seen making climbing movements in the video as it rehearses from the trip into its mother's pouch.

It can be seen in the video making climbing movements about three days before birth, practising to climb to the pouch.

Professor Marilyn Renfree, from Melbourne University, said she was stunned by the footage even though she was part of the team that got it.

"It's incredible," Dr Renfree told AAP by phone.

"You can actually see it, and you don't have to have a great knowledge of ultrasonography to be able to understand what you're seeing."

She said the video was a breakthrough because it meant small creatures could now be observed in utero.

"What it shows is that we can actually measure even tiny, tiny foetuses in mammals which, until the recent past, nobody has been able to do," she said.

"Because marsupials are such a different branch of mammals they inform us in many ways as to how we develop.

"If we want to study development, all we have to do is open the pouch and have a look at the little fella."

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'Black Death' skeletons found under London

WORKERS building a new railway in London have unearthed 13 skeletons thought to be victims of the Black Death plague that swept through Europe in the 14th century.

The remains were dug up at Charterhouse Square in central London during excavation work for the city's STG15 billion ($A21.94 billion) Crossrail project.

Archaeologists believe the site could be the location of a plague cemetery described in medieval records, where up to 50,000 victims of the Black Death were buried.

The plague wiped out a third of Europe's population between 1348 and 1353.

"The depth of burials, the pottery found with the skeletons and the way the skeletons have been set out all point towards this being part of the 14th century emergency burial ground," said Jay Carver, Crossrail's lead archaeologist, on Friday.

"This is a highly significant discovery and at the moment we are left with many questions that we hope to answer.

"We will be undertaking scientific tests on the skeletons over the coming months to establish their cause of death, whether they were plague victims from the 14th century or later London residents, how old they were and perhaps evidence of who they were."

Records refer to a burial ground in London's Farringdon area, where Charterhouse Square is located, that opened in 1348.

The 13 skeletons were found over the last two weeks, laid out in two rows a few metres below road level.

They will be taken to the Museum of London Archaeology for laboratory testing and possibly carbon dating to try to establish their burial dates.

Scientists are hoping to use the skeletons to map the DNA signature of the plague, in research they hope could help combat modern diseases.

"Many biologists are researching ancient diseases in the hope of better understanding the modern ones," said Carver.

These are not the first skeletons found during the construction of London's Crossrail.

Archaeologists have already uncovered more than 300 skeletons dating from the 16th to 19th centuries, near the former site of the notorious "Bedlam" psychiatric hospital in east London.

The Crossrail line, under construction since 2009 and due to carry its first passengers in 2017, will run across London on an east-west route.

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Wild cyclonic weather to hit Lord Howe

A tropical cyclone is expected to cause extreme winds and surf on Lord Howe Island. Source: AAP

A TROPICAL cyclone is expected to pass close by Lord Howe Island on Friday morning, lashing the island with damaging winds and surf, the weather bureau says.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said on Thursday night that the category two cyclone was tracking south in the northern Tasman sea, and would pass to the east of the Pacific island on Friday morning.

On its website, BoM said the island off the NSW coast could expect "damaging surf, heavy swells and abnormally high tides" through the rest of Thursday and Friday.

This included wind gusts up to 150km/h until the early hours of Friday, it said.

BoM advised that the cyclone would weaken as it passed by the island.

It also said heavy rain caused by the cyclonic conditions would probably cause flash flooding overnight.

Residents and holidaymakers on Lord Howe Island were being warned to bunker down as the cyclone approaches.

Luke Hanson, the manager of the largest guest lodge on the island, said the conditions were "scary" as the cyclonic winds headed for the island.

"This cyclone's a direct hit, this will be the first time we've been whacked by a category two," Mr Hanson told AAP by phone.

"Everyone's a bit nervous, we've been getting all the guests settled, they've all had an early dinner and gone to bed, and they're just going to ride out the night.

"They don't come to Lord Howe Island in March thinking they're going to get hit by a cyclone."

He said residents had been strapping down outside furniture and sandbagging in preparation for the weather to worsen overnight.

Meanwhile, a high seas weather warning has been issued for Tropical Cyclone Tim, which is currently about 500km east northeast of Cairns.

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Man's body found near Broken Hill

THE body of an elderly man has been found near Broken Hill in outback NSW.

Police said two elderly men, aged 81 and 78, went missing on Wednesday near Broken Hill after leaving the isolated mining town in a four-wheel drive.

Police told AAP on Thursday night that a search for the men was launched on Thursday, and the vehicle was located on Thursday.

One of the elderly men was found deceased near the vehicle while the other man was found alive, they said.

The 4WD may have become bogged, police said.

The ABC reports that the men were on a prospecting trip in a remote part of the region.

It also reports that the man who was found alive has been taken to hospital and is in a stable condition.

In a statement, police said the 4WD was found in remote country known as Euriowie, about 70km north of Broken Hill, about 1.45pm (AEDT) on Thursday.

Police say a report will be prepared for the coroner.

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