Merkel raises rights questions with Putin

THE German and Russian leaders have sparred over human rights questions during a summit in Moscow, as companies from the two powers signed major business deals.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised Russia's jailing of three female members of the punk band Pussy Riot for performing a protest song in a Russian Orthodox cathedral in February.

Allowing that a similar stunt would have outraged Germans too, she added pointedly: "We are asking ourselves whether this is good for the development of Russian civil society or not."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has faced down unprecedented pro-democracy protests during the past year, defended the sentence handed down to the women.

In a joint press conference with Merkel, Putin accused the band of anti-Semitism and said he had heard that under German law the activists would have faced up to three years in jail.

Despite their differences on rights questions, energy-rich Russia and the European export power are major trade partners, with Germany reliant on massive Russian gas imports.

Germany is Russia's main trading partner, with two-way trade totalling 75 billion euros ($A92.40 billion) last year.

Merkel was joined in the annual meeting by a large delegation of cabinet members and industry heavyweights, who signed multi-billion-euro deals on Friday.

German engineering giant Siemens inked a memorandum of understanding for the sale of 695 train engines, worth 2.5 billion euros, with the Russian state railway RZD.

The German stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse AG and Russia's Moscow Exchange signed a letter of intent designed to enhance co-operation between the two financial markets.

Putin also promised Russian support for the euro and voiced confidence that the eurozone debt crisis would be resolved, saying: "We are convinced that the difficulties will be overcome."

Nonetheless, the rights question clouded the summit, as it has darkened the Kremlin's relations with other Western powers, who are also upset by Moscow's and Beijing's support for the Syrian government.

Putin's government has tightened the screws on dissent, forcing non-governmental organisations that receive funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents" in a law passed in July.

On the eve of Merkel's visit, one group - the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, which has uncovered scandals in the Russian military - said it would have to suspend operations, in part because of the new rule.

On Wednesday, Putin signed another law that stiffens provisions for treason, granting authorities wider powers to charge citizens with spying and to impose lengthy sentences.

Merkel, who faces an election in less than a year, was under pressure from her parliament to raise concerns about human rights.

The Kremlin leadership was irritated by a resolution passed last week in the German Bundestag that contained 17 demands related to democracy and human rights in Russia.

Meanwhile, Moscow's Kommersant newspaper reported that Russia's relations with Germany were "worsening without a doubt".

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Four killed, 17 hurt in US train crash

AT least four people have died and 17 were injured when a freight train crashed into a parade float carrying wounded US war veterans in the West Texas city of Midland.

The crash happened at a rail crossing as a truck carrying the float was on its way to an event to honour the veterans, municipal spokesman Ryan Stout said.

The injured were taken to Midland Memorial Hospital, where 10 were reported in critical condition while the other seven were listed as stable.

The Show of Support's Hunt for Heroes parade was to be followed by a banquet in honour of the wounded war veterans.

The US National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation of the crash.

Midland is a town of about 110,000 inhabitants some 530 kilometres west of Dallas.

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Greens want new EIS for Olympic Dam

THE Greens say BHP Billiton must be made to prepare a new environmental impact statement (EIS) after indicating new technologies may be used to expand the Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia.

The company had environmental approvals from both the federal and South Australian governments in place before it mothballed the $30 billion expansion of the copper, uranium and gold mine earlier this year citing increased development costs and lower commodity prices.

The mining giant says it will now try to prove-up new technology which will allow the expansion to proceed in a revised form, but has offered no guarantees it will push ahead before a new state government deadline of October, 2016.

Greens MP Mark Parnell said the SA government had already indicated that the existing EIS would cover the new acid heap leaching technology.

But he said that would be "trashing" the integrity of the state's major project approval process.

Mr Parnell said the government had given environmental approval for one type of mining and would now allow that approval to stand for a completely different processing technique.

"It is simply outrageous that BHP Billiton is not being asked to seek further approvals for this completely different mining method," he said.

Also on Wednesday, the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy welcomed moves by the state government to extend the deadline for the expansion to proceed.

"The state government should be commended for giving the company the time it needs and allowing the current indenture act to stand, as it is a good deal for South Australians," chamber chief executive Jason Kuchel said.

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Qld CMC can intervene in police discipline

A WATERSHED legal ruling has given Queensland's crime watchdog the authority to intervene if it considers police have not been properly punished by internal discipline.

The Court of Appeal in Brisbane on Friday upheld an appeal by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) in a case involving an officer who was punished by the police force after a high-speed car chase that ended with the death of a bikie.

Last year Assistant Commissioner Paul Wilson heard complaints against Senior Constable Stephen Chapman who, after various appeals, was fined $200 for failing to follow police guidelines for pursuits.

The CMC lodged an appeal to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), which found the penalty was manifestly inadequate.

QCAT set aside the fine and ordered the officer to have his salary entitlements reduced by two pay points for two years.

CMC's right to intervene then became a legal issue, but the Court of Appeal noted the CMC's role as a public watchdog was important.

The case related to a pursuit involving Craig Robert Shepherd, 26, a member of the Odin's Warriors outlaw motorcycle gang.

Shepherd died after his bike hit a wall on Beechmont Road in the Gold Coast hinterland on June 16, 2006.

A 2008 coronial inquest found Mr Shepherd was being pursued by a police car, in which Sen Const Chapman was a passenger, at speeds of up to 160km/h.

Sen Const Chapman sought to review the penalties, and the QCAT appeals body set aside an order allowing the CMC to be part of the proceedings.

The CMC then went to the Court of Appeal to have that decision overturned.

In a unanimous judgment the Court of Appeal found it was clearly in the public interest for the CMC to be able to intervene in such matters.

In effect, the court confirmed the CMC's right to intervene in police disciplinary action.

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What the royals nearly ate in New Zealand

THE Duchess of Cornwall's taste buds were tempted by an unusual snack in a small New Zealand town - a curly deep fried potato.

The vegetable is usually sliced or chopped before being cooked but this spud was ingeniously cut into a spiral and served on a stick for Camilla on Thursday.

The duchess marvelled at the savoury treat but resisted the offer to sample it during a visit to a New Zealand farmers' market with the Prince of Wales.

Lynette Hickmott, who was manning the "Tater Curlys" stall in the rural town of Feilding, gave the royal a demonstration of how to make the snack.

Camilla said "it's amazing" when the food stall worker started a hand drill to spin a potato and it was cut into a perfect spiral by a sharp tool.

But when she was handed the cooked snack she looked at it intently before giving it to a nearby photographer.

When Charles stopped at the stall he also watched in amazement as another curly potato was made, but after it was deep fried and seasoned with a large amount of salt he said "look at all that salt" and walked away laughing.

The royal couple toured Manchester Square in Feilding where producers were displaying everything from locally made wine and olive oil to soap and meat.

Crowds lined the edge of the open space and during an extensive walkabout the royal couple came across two familiar faces in the crowd - the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.

The monarch and Philip were in fact realistic face masks worn by two British born sisters-in-law Maggie Duff, 52, and Sue Duff, 53, now living in New Zealand.

Sue Duff, who wore the Queen mask, said: "I did this for a dare, Maggie dared me so I said 'come on' and we got the masks from family in the UK.

"We thought Charles would appreciate it, he stopped and laughed then asked who was behind the masks."

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High security as India firebrand falls ill

Bal Thackeray, the founder of right-wing Indian Hindu party Shiv Sena, is reportedly critically ill. Source: AAP

MUMBAI police have stepped as firebrand politician Bal Thackeray was reported in a "very critical" condition at his home in the city.

Large crowds of supporters gathered overnight outside the residence of ailing 86-year-old Thackeray, who founded the right-wing Hindu party Shiv Sena and is widely accused of stoking communal tensions in Mumbai.

"We have a lot of forces on the roads. Extra measures are being taken," Mumbai police spokesman Nisar Tamboli told AFP on Thursday.

In the early hours of Thursday, Thackeray's son Uddhav emerged from the house in the suburb of Bandra to reassure the crowds and ask them to pray for his father.

"We are hopeful. You be hopeful. Let's pray," he said.

"Bal ... has strong will power. We'll come out from the problem. Don't trust rumours. Make peace," he was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.

Doctors earlier told the agency that Thackeray's condition was "very critical" and that he was on a life support system.

Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan and his actor son Abhishek were among those to visit Thackeray's home in the night. They were suffered minor injuries in the rowdy crowd.

"Yes both Abhishek and me were injured with cuts, but are fine and back home," the elder Bachchan wrote on Twitter.

Thackeray is one of the best known and most controversial figures in the western state of Maharashtra and its capital, which his party renamed from Bombay to Mumbai.

The Shiv Sena became synonymous with deadly communal violence during its campaign to protect local Marathi-speaking people and their culture from migrant workers.

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Body found floating on NSW south coast

THE body of an 82-year-old man has been found floating face-down near a tinny on the NSW south coast in what police are describing as "a boating tragedy".

The man's body was found at about 6.15am (AEDT) on Wednesday near an eight-foot tinny at Sussex Inlet by another man who was out on the water, police said.

Initial inquiries suggested the man had left a boat ramp by himself on a trip to catch prawns at about 6pm (AEDT) on Tuesday.

The body has not been formally identified, but police believe the deceased is an 82-year-old man from Rooty Hill in Sydney's outer west.

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Nuclear might be an option: Ferguson

Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says Australia may have to debate the merits of nuclear power. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA will have to seriously consider nuclear power as an option if there is no breakthrough on baseload clean energy, Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says.

The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) released an energy research paper, entitled "Policy choice not economic inevitability", on Wednesday.

It examined the Australian electricity market and found price rises had been the most significant where state governments had maintained ownership of electricity assets.

CEDA chief executive Stephen Martin said "perverse incentives" of state government owned network service providers to grow their regulatory asset base was a significant contributor to price increases for households.

"State governments are effectively using their utilities as a means of indirect taxation, in part because they get extraordinary income that private operators cannot get," Mr Martin said.

The paper was in line with the Energy white paper, released by the federal government last week when it came to the roll-out of smart metres, time-of-use pricing and better community education.

But Mr Martin said the exclusion of nuclear energy in the white paper was "a serious omission".

"If Australia is serious about mitigating the effects of climate change then nuclear must be on the table, it has the potential to provide low-cost, clean, baseload energy and will be an important back-up if other renewable or clean energy options do not come to fruition," he said.

"It is important that steps are taken now, such as the development of a regulatory framework, to ensure this option can be utilised in the future if necessary."

Mr Ferguson said the white paper made it clear nuclear power was not needed as part of Australia's energy mix, given Australia's abundance and diversity of low-cost and reliable energy sources, both fossil fuel and renewable.

Nuclear power was not economically competitive and did not have the required community support, he said.

"But the community will continue to have these debates, just like we have had a debate over the previous decades about uranium mining," Mr Ferguson said.

"The Australian government's responsibility is to test all forms of clean energy and if at some point in the future we don't get the breakthrough on baseload clean energy - Australia will need to think seriously about considering nuclear," he said.

The minister said the government agreed with CEDA's position on the increased deployment of clean energy technologies.

"We agree that low emissions technologies have a role to play in meeting growing energy demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions but is important that market drive this change."

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Murder accused tried to get a gun: court

A WOMAN accused of murdering her lesbian lover's partner told a friend, "He will kill me or I will kill him," a Sydney jury has heard.

Tanya Louise Lane also asked another friend if he could get her a gun, the Supreme Court in Sydney was told on Tuesday.

Lane, 28, from Waratah near Newcastle, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Steven Quire, whose body was discovered in dense bushland near Freeman's Waterhole at Watagan State Forest on March 13, 2010.

Mr Quire, who was shot in the chest, was last seen on February 19, 2010.

The crown has alleged Lane murdered Mr Quire because she was in a "close, passionate and intimate relationship" with Renae Burns.

Heather Mussen, a family friend of Lane's, told the court she met Lane in a local pub around October 2008.

"The conversation was in regards to Steven not wanting Tanya around the house any more," Ms Mussen said.

Lane then stated, "He will kill me or I will kill him," Ms Mussen said.

Under questioning from defence barrister Anne Healey, Ms Mussen agreed she generally had six to eight drinks in the pub.

But she denied she was mistaken about the conversation with Lane.

"That was said. I remember that was said," Ms Mussen said.

Another witness, Brian Russell, told the court Tanya approached him in a pub around October or November 2008 and asked him if he could get a gun from a friend.

"She said, do you think you'd be able to get a gun off him for me?" Mr Russell said, adding he had replied, "I'll see what I can do".

Both Mr Russell and Ms Mussen recalled seeing public displays of affection between Lane and Ms Burns.

"I figured they were an item," Ms Mussen said, saying they were often "kissing and cuddling".

Another friend, Rachel Williams, told the court she was in the supermarket with Lane one day when they saw Mr Quire.

"(Lane) hid down between the registers," Ms William said.

After seeing a Facebook post about Mr Quire going missing, Ms Williams said she texted Lane about it.

"She replied that he wasn't missing, that he had gone and was laying low," she said.

Lane had then said Mr Quire was hiding from "drug dealers or bikies", Ms Williams told the court.

Earlier, a former police officer and friend of Lane's, Tanya Coxon, told the court Lane had denied shooting Mr Quire and described him as a friend.

"She (said) she's quite a small person. There's no way she could kill a man," Ms Coxon said.

"She said, 'We got on, we were great mates.'"

Crown prosecutor Christopher Maxwell QC has said it is open for the jury to find that Lane was the shooter or that she was present when he was shot and aided the shooter.

Alternatively, they could find that she was not present at the shooting, but that she organised for it to be carried out.

The trial continues before Justice Peter Hidden.

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$A drifts lower on quiet day

THE Australian dollar has followed major currencies lower in a quiet day of trading.

At 1700 AEDT on Tuesday, the currency was trading at 104.07 US cents, down from 104.17 cents on Monday.

Easy Forex senior currency dealer Francisco Solar said it had been a quiet day of trading with few major pieces of economic news.

However, he said the Australian dollar was dragged down by falls in other major currencies against the US dollar.

"Markets have been a little bit off it today, major currencies like the euro and the sterling have been trading lower and that has dragged the Aussie down a little," he said.

He said the release of Australian quarterly wage price data would probably be the main driver of the currency on Wednesday.

Economists expect the Australian Bureau of Statistics data to show a 0.8 per cent rise in wages in the September quarter.

But he said the currency could fall below 104 US cents overnight if the euro continued to weaken against the US dollar.

The euro has dropped around two US cents since last Wednesday.

"You'd be hard pressed to see it hold on to 104 if the euro keeps moving lower."

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NZ shares rise towards five-year high

NEW Zealand shares rose, nudging the NZX 50 Index back toward the five-year high charted last month, as Australian interest drove Xero to a record and Fletcher Building gained after agreeing to buy a laminated panels business in India.

The NZX 50 rose 26.07 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 3983.99. Within the index, 24 stocks rose, 13 fell and 13 were unchanged.

Turnover was $78.7 million.

Xero, the cloud-based accounting services company that dual listed on the ASX last week, rose 8.6 per cent to $6.30, giving it a market value of $622.

That's even before the fast-growth company, which listed on the NZX in June 2007, has turned a profit. It has gained 110 per cent this year.

Listing on the ASX "opens up more buying in the stock - that's what we've seen", said Grant Williamson, a director at Hamilton Hindin Greene.

Fletcher Building rose 3.3 per cent to $7.48 after its local affiliate, Formica Laminates (India) Private, agreed to buy the laminates manufacturing business of listed Indian manufacturer Well Pack Papers & Containers in the Indian state of Gujurat for 365 million rupees ($8.2 million).

Contact Energy fell 2.6 per cent to $5.21 after its controlling shareholder, Australia's Origin Energy, warned last week that regulatory and pricing decisions would cut underlying profit as much as 10 per cent this year.

Among smaller stocks, Genesis Research and Development was halted from trading at 1.8 cents and told the ASX it may not have enough funds to keep operating without a loan or more support from shareholders.

Telecom, the biggest phone company on the NZX 50, rose 1 per cent to $2.435, and Chorus, the networks company spun off from Telecom last year, rose 0.9 per cent to $3.27. Chorus has gained 3.9 per cent this year.

Retailer Warehouse Group rose 0.3 per cent to $3.19 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare climbed 1.2 per cent to $2.46.

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Coalition would support sex abuse inquiry

THE coalition would support a wide-ranging royal commission into the sexual abuse of children, federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.

But he says such an investigation should not be limited to one institution.

Federal Labor backbenchers, independent MPs and the Greens have been calling for Prime Minister Julia Gillard to establish a royal commission into child sex abuse inside the Catholic Church.

The demand for a national response comes after NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell last week announced a special commission to investigate allegations of abuse by clergy in the Hunter region and a possible cover-up.

Mr Abbott says the coalition "would be prepared to support" a wide-ranging royal commission investigation into the sexual abuse of children.

"Its clear that for a long period there was insufficient awareness and insufficient vigilance when it came to predatory behaviour by people in positions of authority over children," he said in a statement on Monday.

"A lot of terrible things have been done, and a lot of people have suffered deeply.

"For these reasons, if the government were to propose a royal commission to investigate the sexual abuse of children, it is something the coalition would be prepared to support."

Mr Abbott said any probe must be wide-ranging, must consider any evidence of the abuse of children in Australia "and should not be limited to the examination of any one institution".

The community must have zero tolerance for the sexual abuse of children, victims must be allowed to heal and perpetrators must be brought to justice, he said.

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Victims testify about Afghan massacre

STORIES of the massacre came one by one over a live video link from Afghanistan into a military courtroom outside Seattle: torched bodies, a son finding his wounded father, boys cowering behind a curtain while others screamed "We are children! We are children!"

As the Afghans recounted the horror that left 16 dead in the darkness early on March 11, the US soldier accused of carrying out the rampage sat quietly in the courtroom.

At one point, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales moved closer to a large monitor showing the testimony. At other times, he watched as it played on a laptop screen in front of him. Either way, he gave no discernible reaction to the stories he heard.

Speaking through an interpreter, one Afghan closed his remarks with the words: "My request is to get justice."

The hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord is meant to help determine whether Bales, 39, will face a court-martial in the deaths of the seven adults and nine children. He could face the death penalty if he is convicted.

Bales, an Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Washington, has not entered a plea and was not expected to testify. His lawyers have not discussed the evidence, but say he has post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a concussive head injury while serving in Iraq.

The hearing, which began last Monday, was held overnight on Friday to accommodate the Afghan witnesses.

They recounted the villagers who lived in the attacked compounds and listed the names of those killed, to provide a record of the lives lost. The bodies were buried quickly under Islamic custom, and no forensic evidence was available to prove the number of victims.

The youngest witness was Sadiquallah, a slight boy of about 13 or 14 whose head rose just above the back of the seat he was sitting in. He described being awakened by a neighbour screaming that an American had "killed our men."

He said he and another boy ran to hide in a storage room and ducked behind a curtain. It provided no protection from the bullet that grazed his head and fractured his skull. Sadiquallah said the shooter had a gun and a light, but he could not identify the man.

The other child was hit in the thigh and also survived. The boy, Rafiullah, testified on Saturday that an American had attacked them and put a gun in his sister's mouth.

Sadiquallah's older brother, Quadratullah, sought refuge with other children in a different part of the house. When the gunman found them, Quadratullah testified, the children scrambled, yelling "We are children! We are children!"

The boys' father, Haji Mohammed Naim, was the first person shot at the home. He testified that he was awoken by shots and dogs barking. He asked his wife to light a lantern, and saw the shooter climb over a compound wall.

"He jumped from the wall, and I just saw the light on his head," Naim said. "He just started shooting me."

Asked how close the gunman was to him when he was shot, the thick-bearded Naim gestured toward a water bottle on the table in front of him, less than an arm's length away: "He was as close as this bottle."

One older son, Faizullah, recalled being awoken by someone telling him there had been a shooting at his father's compound. He rushed there to find him with a gunshot wound to the throat. One of Naim's daughters was also wounded, as were two neighbour siblings.

Faizullah said he loaded the wounded into a car, using a blanket to lift some of them. They were treated at a nearby base, then flown to a bigger military hospital in Kandahar. All five survived.

Khamal Adin, who had a beard and was wearing a turban, sat at the witness table with his arms folded. He described the carnage at the second village, Najiban.

The morning after the rampage, Adin said he arrived at a compound belonging to his cousin, Mohammed Wazir. Wazir had been away on a trip, and he found Wazir's mother lying dead in a doorway, a gunshot to her head.

Further inside, Adin said, he found the bodies of six of his cousin's seven children, the man's wife, and other relatives. The fire that burned the bodies was out, but he said he could still smell smoke.

When Adin began to testify, Bales moved from his seat to be closer to the courtroom monitor.

Adin was asked if he could say he personally saw the bodies. He answered: "Yes. I have seen each individual and took them out by myself." Asked to describe the injuries, he said: "Everybody was shot on the head. ... I didn't pay attention to the rest of the wounds."

Prosecutors say Bales broke his shooting rampage into two episodes, attacking one village, returning to the base and then departing again to raid another.

In between his attacks, he woke a fellow soldier, reported what he'd done and said he was headed out to kill more, the soldier testified. But the soldier didn't believe what Bales said, and went back to sleep.

Dressed in green fatigues, two Afghan National Army guards recounted what they had seen in the pre-dawn darkness outside the base the night of the killings.

One guard recounted that a man had arrived at the base and did not stop even after he asked him three times to do so. Later in the night, the second guard said, he saw a soldier leave the base - laughing as he went.

They did not say the soldier was the same person nor did they identify him as Bales.

On Saturday, Criminal Investigations Command Special Agent Leona Mansapit testified that one of the witnesses to the massacre claimed that at least two American soldiers were involved.

Mansapit said Masoma Dawood, a woman whose husband was shot, recalled seeing two soldiers. Every other eyewitness has indicated that only one US soldier was involved, and a surveillance video showed only one soldier returning to the American's base after the killings.

Interviewed months later, Dawood reported having seen two soldiers in her room, and that one of them held her back as the other shot her husband.

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More than 100 firefighters battle SA blaze

Fire crews in SA have issued an emergency warning about a serious scrub fire burning out of control. Source: AAP

MORE than 100 firefighters and three aerial water bombers are battling an out-of-control bushfire near Port Lincoln in South Australia.

The SA Country Fire Service (CFS) says the fire, which is a risk to lives and homes, is burning at Sleaford Mere, west of Tulka.

It is travelling in a southerly direction towards Fishery Bay and is burning in scrub.

Residents are advised to take shelter when the fire arrives and to protect themselves from the fire's heat.

CFS state co-ordinator Malim Watts said the serious fire was "a weather driven event".

Strong northerly winds are expected to continue, before they abate a little and ease off.

"That might give us some respite in terms of being able to gain a bit more control over this fire," Mr Watts said.

"But then we are likely to see the winds turn to a more westerly flavour."

While it may then become cooler, the winds may be reasonably strong as well, so there was still some concern from a firefighting effort until the temperature decreases and the atmospheric moisture increases.

With 100-odd firefighters, other emergency workers, three aerial water bombing aircraft and an observation aircraft, the CFS was putting as much effort as possible into fighting the fire.

"At this stage our focus of attention is on asset protection and warning as much of the community that we believe are likely to be impacted as we can and making sure that others are aware of the situation as it develops," Mr Watts said.

He had no advice yet as to how the fire started, but said the CFS would work with police to investigate its cause.

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