Total fire ban declared for parts of Vic

A total fire ban has been declared for parts of Victoria as temperatures soar to the mid-40s. Source: AAP

A TOTAL fire ban has been declared for parts of Victoria as temperatures soar to the mid-40s.

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) has declared the ban on Sunday for the central, north central and south west districts.

The CFA is also advising people living in areas at risk of fire to activate their bushfire plans.

A number of advice warnings are in place for fires across the state, with the most concerning being a large bushfire in the Gippsland region of Goongerah.

A watch and act message has been issued for the fast-travelling blaze, which is not yet under control.

The CFA warns it could hit the area between Bonang and Goongerah on Sunday.

Temperatures are forecast to reach 45C in the Mallee region in the state's northwest on Sunday, while temperatures will hit 44C in the Wimmera and 43C in the northern country and north central regions.

Melbourne is forecast to reach 39C.

Temperatures in parts of the state are expected to remain into the 40s on Monday before cooling into the 30s on Tuesday.

21.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Viacom fiscal net income up 16%

VIACOM is reporting a 16 per cent jump in net income for the first quarter thanks in part to smaller losses at its film division.

The New York company, which owns Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures, earned $US547 million ($A628 million), or $US1.20 per share for the quarter ended December 31.

That compared with $US470 million, or 92 cents per share, in the same quarter the year before.

Revenue fell 4 per cent to $US3.2 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected a profit of $US1.16 per share on $US3.3 billion in revenue.

Revenue from media networks increased six per cent to $US2.54 billion, while filmed entertainment revenue dropped 30 per cent to $US681 million.

But losses related to filmed entertainment shrunk as a result of lower movie-related expenses.

21.29 | 0 komentar | Read More

French ex-first lady reveals shock

FRANCE'S former first lady says she and the president had grown detached recently but she was caught totally by surprise by his affair with an actress.

Valerie Trierweiler gave interviews to two French publications coming out this week describing for the first time some of what led to their break-up last weekend.

Trierweiler told the weekly Paris-Match, where she long worked as a journalist, that she didn't believe rumours about the affair until a gossip magazine report earlier this month.

"When I found out, it was like I had fallen from a skyscraper," she is quoted as saying.

She told the weekly Le Parisien Magazine that she and the president exchanged text messages while she was in India this week because he was worried about her health.

21.29 | 0 komentar | Read More

Harley-Davidson 4Q earnings up

HARLEY-DAVIDSON'S fourth-quarter earnings rose 6.8 per cent as motorcycle sales continued to rise worldwide.

The Milwaukee company says global sales of new motorcycles grew 5.7 per cent in the quarter and 4.4 per cent for the full year as buyers responded to its new model lineup.

Harley-Davidson posted fourth-quarter net income of $US75.4 million ($A86.61 million), up from $US70.6 million a year ago.

That's 34 US cents per share, compared with 31 cents in the last quarter of 2012. Revenue rose 2.1 per cent to $US1.03 billion.

The company beat Wall Street's earnings expectations for the quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected 33 cents per share, on revenue of $US1.04 billion.

21.29 | 0 komentar | Read More

Trust in government bucks global trend

AUSTRALIA appears to be bucking a global trend of distrust in governments since the election of the coalition last September.

But a new global survey suggests Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his team still have work to do.

The 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer showed trust in the Australian government as an institution jumped 14 points in the past year to 56 per cent, compared to a global average of 44 per cent.

"While trust levels in the United States and Europe have witnessed historic declines, Australia has bucked the trend and found confidence in the new government," Edelman Australia CEO Michelle Hutton said on Friday.

In its 14th year, the barometer is a global study of 27,000 participants across 27 countries examining levels of trust across the institutions of government, business, non-government organisations and the media.

Ms Hutton said the latest survey has seen a significant rise in trust across all of Australia's institutions and sectors, rebounding from the crisis in leadership.

However, before the Abbott government gets too smug, the survey also sends a warning it must work harder to engender trust among everyday Australians.

It found that three in five Australian respondents do not trust government leaders to tell the truth, while two in five do not trust them to make ethical and moral decisions.

"Last year, our new prime minister announced Australia was 'open for business' with the intent to rebuild trust among Australians and sustain confidence in business," Ms Hutton said.

"While this year's results paint a rosy picture for government and business, expectations are high - and as recent history has shown us, Australians have a low tolerance for leaders that fall short of what was promised."

21.29 | 0 komentar | Read More

Roache a gentleman, Kirkbride tells trial

CORONATION Street star Anne Kirkbride has told a jury that her on-screen husband William Roache was "always a perfect gentleman" around her.

Kirkbride, a stalwart of the ITV soap as Deirdre Barlow, was called as a character witness for the actor who is accused of a series of sex assaults.

Roache, 81, is accused of using his fame and popularity to exploit "starstruck" youngsters for sex in the mid to late 1960s.

He denies two counts of rape and four counts of indecent assault involving five complainants aged 16 and under between 1965 and 1971.

Giving evidence from the witness box at Preston Crown Court, Kirkbride was asked what one word she would use to describe Roache and replied: "Lovely."

Kirkbride said she had never seen anything worrying about Roache's behaviour on set with young women from when she joined the show in about 1972.

The actress swore on the Bible and then chose to stand as she was asked a number of questions by defending barrister Louise Blackwell QC.

She confirmed she had known Roache "for quite some time", after she started in the soap aged 17 or 18.

Kirkbride was asked how she felt on joining Coronation Street.

She replied: "I was terrified for my first day. Very nervous going.

"It was a completely new situation. I didn't know anybody.

"I very quickly got to know people and it became easier."

Asked what she thought of Roache on meeting him, she said he was friendly.

"I remember the first time I spoke to him was outside a lift and we had a really nice chat and he offered me a cigarette," she said.

"We shared a lot of the same interests in spiritual things. I just found him very easy to talk to."

Blackwell asked her: "At that time, if you had one word to describe Mr Roache what would it be?"

She replied: "Lovely."

Roache smiled in the dock as she made the comment.

21.29 | 0 komentar | Read More

Debate on urban projects helpful: Access

EDS: Not to be used until 0001 AEDT, Thursday January 30

By Colin Brinsden, AAP Economics Correspondent

CANBERRA, Jan 30 AAP - At a time of a fading mining investment boom, Deloitte Access Economics is pleased to see policymakers discussing Australia's creaking urban infrastructure.

The independent forecaster's latest Investment Monitor highlights the peaking nature of the resource-related investment spending with definite projects in the final months of 2013 posting the biggest drop since the depths of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

However, Deloitte Access Economics partner Stephen Smith notes in the report on Thursday that public infrastructure, particularly for transport, has been the focus of considerable discussion in Australia over the past few months.

The federal government has directed the Productivity Commission to examine major infrastructure projects, drawing organisations such as Infrastructure Australia, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Business Council of Australia into the debate.

"That the state of Australia's creaking urban infrastructure is stirring the passions of Australian policymakers gives hope that a more efficient system of identifying, assessing, financing and constructing public infrastructure may be in store," Mr Smith said.

"However, there is also a risk that any policy changes are designed with short term growth risks rather than the longer term sustainability of infrastructure spending in mind."

The report shows the value of definite projects - those under construction or committed - dropped by almost $25 billion over the December quarter, the most significant quarterly fall since the December quarter 2008. Definite projects over the year were down 1.2 per cent.

Mr Smith said not a single new liquified natural gas (LNG) project began construction over 2013, although there was a further $2 billion cost blowout for the Gorgon LNG project.

The value of planned projects - those under consideration or possible - rose by more than $17.5 billion over the quarter.

However, a $40 billion increase in the value of projects under consideration was partly offset by a $22.3 billion fall in the value of possible projects.

Overall, the total value of projects at their various stages fell 0.8 per cent compared to the September quarter - or $7.4 billion to $866.3 billion - to be down 9.2 per cent over the year.

21.29 | 0 komentar | Read More

Aust could take big role in nuke security

IT'S the nightmare terror scenario: an extremist group building its own atomic bomb and detonating it without warning in Sydney or New York.

A new study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) says it's tempting to think that the risks of nuclear terrorism are overblown.

"They aren't," ASPI says.

"If terrorists were able to overcome the still relatively significant challenges involved in the fabrication and successful detonation of an improvised nuclear device, the consequences could be catastrophic."

Authors Dr Tanya Ogilvie-White and Dr David Santoro said there were three pathways to nuclear terrorism.

Terrorists could acquire a ready-made bomb from military stocks; acquire materials to make their own improvised bomb; or they could attack or sabotage an existing nuclear facility or transportation to release radioactive material.

The paper says there's low-risk of such attack in Australia, although in 2005 police arrested a group of Islamic extremists who planned to attack the Lucas Heights reactor. But an attack anywhere in the world would still have consequences for Australia.

ASPI said Australia had internationally well-regarded technical and diplomatic expertise in non-proliferation.

Yet the former Labor government had cancelled the flagship Regional Security of Radiological Sources Project, launched in 2004.

Under that program, international experts worked under Australian leadership with regulatory bodies across South-East Asia to secure dangerous radioactive sources used in the health and industrial sectors. They also worked to develop plans to respond to nuclear attacks or sabotage.

ASPI said the government should now launch a new nuclear security strategy, including relaunching the Regional Security of Radiological Sources Project.

At a modest cost of around $2 million a year this would reduce the danger of nuclear terrorism and give Australia an international leadership role.

21.29 | 0 komentar | Read More

Emergency assets bill $1.2b: report

AUSTRALIANS have lost property worth more than $1.2 billion in the latest financial year through emergency events including fire, flood and storms.

A new Productivity Commission report shows that Queensland storms proved the costliest in 2012-13, with related asset loss valued at $971 million.

Storm and fire damage in NSW claimed almost $155 million worth of property while Tasmania's January 2013 bushfires racked up losses of more than $88 million.

The national figure was an increase from 2011-12, when the report showed asset loss was $1.06 billion.

But Queensland's devastating floods stretching from December 2010 into 2011 helped push that period's national losses to more than $4.6 billion.

When it comes to disaster relief, the federal government paid out $171 million in 2012-13 through its scheme of assistance in which affected individuals and communities are entitled to a one-off payment: $1000 for adults and $400 for children.

The payout figure was greater than the $78 million disseminated in 2011-12, but less than $823 million in 2010-11.

Cash payments from Canberra to disaster-struck states and territories amounted to $77.1 million during 2012-13, down from $3 billion in 2011-12, which stemmed largely from Queensland's flood crisis.

21.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

Four dead as truck hits Brazil walkway

FOUR people have died after a dump truck smashed into a pedestrian bridge on a busy highway in northern Rio de Janeiro.

The crash on Tuesday caused the walkway to collapse onto three cars and a motorcycle below.

At least four people were killed and another four injured, according to Lamsa, a private company that administers the toll road.

Witnesses said there were only two people on the yellow metal pedestrian bridge when the accident occurred just after 9am local time.

Mayor Eduardo Paes told reporters at the scene that the trailer of the truck was clearly above than the 4.5 metres permitted for use on the highway, known as the Yellow Line road, which cuts through gritty northern and western portions of Rio.

Paes said authorities were trying to confirm if the truck's bed was raised when it hit the walkway.

Regardless, "an infraction was being committed because trucks aren't allowed on the Yellow Line at that time of day", he said.

21.30 | 0 komentar | Read More