A MAN has been charged with the murder of another man found dead in a south Sydney home.
The body of the alleged victim was located on Thursday in a unit on Victoria Avenue, Penshurst, a senior police source told AAP.
A joint investigation between the homicide squad and Hurstville Local Area Command resulted in the arrest of the man on Saturday.
He has been charged with murder.
THE national disability care scheme is a step closer with Victoria agreeing to a full rollout of the plan.
Victoria became the fourth state to sign up to the scheme on Saturday, agreeing to a statewide disability care program by the end of the decade.
The federal government will spend $2.6 billion to establish the scheme, while the state government will contribute $2.5 billion.
Under the deal, Victoria will also receive $244 million a year from 2019-20, to be funded by an increase to the Medicare levy.
Prime Minister Gillard said the deal had been years in the making.
"Every Victorian can feel the peace of mind of knowing that disability care would be there to support them," she told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday.
"I want to say thank you to all of those who have argued for disability care for decades now."
Victorian Premier Denis Napthine said it was a proud day for the state.
"We are a state who have been very much on the front foot of fighting for a national disability insurance scheme," he said.
The Barwon region will begin a trial of the scheme from July this year, with the rollout across the state to be completed before 2019-20.
Dr Napthine said an estimated 100,000 Victorians would benefit.
The Victorian deal means that all jurisdictions except Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory have agreed to be part of the scheme.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said there was enough goodwill across the political divide to ensure the scheme.
"It is going to be an achievement for all sides of politics, for all the people of Australia," he said.
"It will be the sign, the visible institutional sign, of our decency and compassion as a country."
National Disability Services chief executive Dr Ken Baker said both governments should be proud of the agreement.
"The national disability insurance scheme will deliver unquestionable social benefits but it will also provide a boost to the economy," he said.
POLICE are not ruling out a possible crocodile attack, after abandoned fishing gear was found at a creek in far North Queensland.
A search was launched after a fishing net and a pair of thongs were found beside Trunding Creek in central Weipa on Friday morning.
A police spokesman says no one has been reported missing, but a search has been launched while they try to confirm who owns the items.
"We're trying to work out whether this stuff has been left there or if someone has slipped in; anything is on the table," he told AAP.
"This area is absolutely known for crocodiles - that's why we're a bit concerned."
In March 2011 mine worker Todd Bairstow was grabbed on the legs by a three-metre crocodile while fishing on a bank at the same creek.
He held onto a mangrove until a friend arrived to help fend off the croc, whacking it with a tree branch until it let go.
Mr Bairstow suffered horrific, but not life threatening injuries from the attack, including dislocated joints and extensive lacerations.
A sign at the creek says dangerous crocodiles may be lurking and people shouldn't go swimming.
Weipa Town Authority (WTA) boss Ian Pressley says police haven't been able to identify any signs of a struggle as the tide was in when the search began.
"The creek has been known to have crocs in it on and off," he told AAP.
"If you remove a crocodile from there another one will move in pretty quickly."
A few months ago WTA removed a three metre crocodile from the creek.
THE Australian share market has closed flat, despite strong profit reports from Westpac and Macquarie.
At the close on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 0.5 points, or 0.01 per cent, at 5,129.5 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was 1.3 points, or 0.03 per cent, firmer at 5,105.4.
On the ASX 24, the June share price index futures contract was one point higher at 5,121 with 21,975 contracts traded.
KATHMANDU shares are more than seven per cent higher after the adventure retailer said it remains on target for a strong full year result after a big boost in third quarter sales.
Shares in the company have gained more than 16 per cent over the past two days.
It comes after the retailer maintained its guidance for 2013 full year sales but said weather would be a key variable ahead of the winter sales period in June and July.
"We remain confident of a strong performance for full year 2013," Kathmandu said in a trading update on Wednesday.
Total group sales for the 13 weeks to April 28 were $NZ89.7 million ($A74.96 million), up 12.5 per cent on the equivalent period in 2012.
Sales through to end of March were affected by a warm and dry autumn in both Australia and New Zealand while more normal weather had returned over the past four weeks, the company said.
Kathmandu has opened 40 new stores over the past 33 months and said 112 stores had now received new branding.
The company added that investment in online and digital retailing would be important as the company looked to expand into international markets and target one million loyalty members by the end of 2015.
The retailer is continuing its roll-out of new stores, with five to open before July 31.
The company hopes to have 170 stores in Australia and New Zealand within the next three years.
Kathmandu recently reported an increase in first half profit of 73 per cent, despite hotter-than-expected weather in February and March.
At 1530 AEST Kathmandu shares were 15 cents, or 7.2 per cent, higher at $2.22.
THE Australian dollar has enjoyed a huge surge on the back of booming mining and resources export prices but that is unlikely to happen again, a leading economist says.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said the commodity price boom was starting to fade as Chinese economic growth moderates, falling from its stellar highs of a few years ago.
"After doubling in value against the US dollar over the last decade, the best is likely behind for the Australian dollar," he said.
He said when the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate was high relative to other countries, the local currency enjoyed good support but that is changing as recent rate cuts start to take affect.
The cash rate is currently three per cent compared with 4.75 per cent almost two and half years ago.
The effect of the US Federal Reserve's economic stimulus plan, called quantitative easing (QE), is another factor why the Australian dollar rose to its record levels.
"However, against the US dollar, the impact of quantitative easing may be starting to wane a bit," Dr Oliver said.
"While the first two rounds of quantitative easing in the US were associated with strong gains in the value of the Australian dollar, QE3 (third round) has just seen the currency continue to track sideways in the same 102 to 106 US cent range it has been in since last July.
"The main reason that the impact of quantitative easing may be starting to wane for the Australian dollar is that the interest rate differential in favour of Australia has fallen dramatically as the RBA has cut rates."
After falling to a record low of just under 48 US cents in 2001 the Aussie peaked above 110 US cents in July 2011.
Dr Oliver said is was inevitable that the Australian currency would fall because it has been overvalued in the past few years.
He cites the purchasing power parity (PPP) theory, which is the basis for the better-known Big Mac Index compiled by The Economist magazine.
It is based on the assumption that 100 Australian dollars ought to buy the same basket of goods and services in other countries, once it's converted into foreign currency, as it does in Australia.
Dr Oliver said that, based on PPP, the Australian dollar was currently around 35 per cent overvalued, but if you buy only a Big Mac hamburger it was about 12 per cent overvalued.
A HISTORICAL naval monument on the Sydney Harbour foreshore honouring Australian sailors and ships lost in combat is being refurbished.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) says the work will conserve the mast of the HMAS Sydney 1 on Bradley's Head, which received State Heritage listing in 2010.
The mast is part of a memorial erected in 1934 and dedicated to the memory of members of the crew of the HMAS Sydney 1 who were killed in November 1914 in a battle against the Germans.
It was rededicated in 1964 and now serves as an official memorial to those who served in the Royal Australian Navy and the nineteen naval ships lost in service.
NPWS acting regional manager Peter Hay says the work includes erecting an 'encapsulation' scaffold around the mast.
The NPWS will also build new fences and upgrade the carpark and walking trail to the Sydney Harbour National Park where the monument is located.
"The mast is a reminder of ... the naval tradition to which all Australian and international naval personnel belong," Mr Hay said.
A MAN wanted for attempting to abduct a nine-year-old girl may also be responsible for a sex attack on a Melbourne woman days earlier, police say.
Detective Senior Constable Erol Ali says the girl was in the front yard of her Reservoir home when a man approached on his bicycle on Tuesday evening.
He grabbed her arm but she pulled away and ran inside to tell her mother, before the pair drove after the attacker who escaped on his pushbike.
Det Sen Const Ali said the would-be abductor is of similar appearance to a man wanted for attacking a 42-year-old woman at nearby Fawkner on Friday.
The woman managed to escape when a man grabbed her and told her to take her clothes off as she walked along a bike path.
"It may be the same person," Det Sen Const Ali told reporters on Wednesday.
He said the young girl was terrified at being attacked at her home.
"It's a brazen attack. A nine-year-old girl minding her own business in her own yard, to have a perfect stranger climb in and grab you by the arm would be terrifying," Det Sen Const Ali said.
The man is described as being in his 60s with a Southern European appearance, wearing a denim jacket and jeans.
The Sultan of Brunei (pic) will meet with Julia Gillard and Quentin Bryce during a three day visit. Source: AAP
THE Sultan of Brunei is heading to Australia for a three-day state visit, just days after failing to offload a Northern Territory cattle station he owns.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says Hassanal Bolkiah's visit later this week provides an important opportunity to enhance Australia's bilateral relationship with Brunei, a small oil-rich nation of about 400,000 on the north coast of Borneo.
"Australia was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Brunei and we enjoy a warm and constructive relationship based on strong education, trade, security, and people-to-people links," Ms Gillard said in a statement on Monday.
The Sultan will meet Ms Gillard and Governor-General Quentin Bryce and attend a state lunch at Government House during his stay from May 1 to May 3.
Details of his itinerary have not yet been released.
Meanwhile the NT cattle station, Willeroo, owned by the Sultan failed to sell at auction last week.
The property, located about 130 kilometres southwest of Katherine, includes 17,000 head of cattle and 170,000 hectares of land.
Real estate agent Russell Wolff has led efforts to sell the property, which was passed in at an auction for $12 million on Friday.
Four people bid on Willeroo and all were Australians who wanted to keep the cattle station open, Mr Wolff said.
He said a deal to sell the station was close.
"We are expecting it will sell, or at least have an agreement, in the next few weeks," Mr Wolff said.
The Sultan of Brunei is one of the wealthiest people in the world, whose riches in 2011 were estimated to be $US20 billion ($A19.53 billion).
He purchased Willeroo in 1981 but Mr Wolff said that in recent years he had been divesting himself of NT cattle stations, although he still owned the Opium Creek property, 100km east of Darwin.
Police say there is evidence to indicate foul play was involved in a deadly house fire in Brisbane. Source: AAP
HOMICIDE detectives investigating the deaths of a couple in a Brisbane housefire say they have no suspects at this stage.
Retired army officer Glen Fry and his wife Flora were found dead after fire destroyed their two-storey brick home in the north Brisbane suburb of Bracken Ridge last Friday.
Their youngest daughter, 17, survived, but her face, chest, arms and airway were badly burnt.
She is not well enough to speak to police.
Detectives have interviewed the couple's oldest daughter, 21, and her boyfriend, 20, who also escaped the inferno.
"They have been very forthcoming and helpful," Detective Inspector Graham Clark told reporters on Monday.
"At this stage there doesn't appear to be any suspects."
He said there was also no sign of a break-in.
Asked if the parents' deaths were a result of the fire, Det Insp Clark said it was too early to say because he was waiting for the full autopsy results.
He declined to say whether the couple had any other injuries apart from burns, but he did say it appeared the deaths "were not accidental or natural".
The house is unsafe and is expected to be bulldozed once forensic teams have finished their investigations.
On Friday, police said they did not suspect foul play, but on Saturday evening they began treating the fire and the two deaths as suspicious.
Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said earlier on Monday there was evidence that would indicate foul play.
"While I won't discuss the actual evidence, certainly it's taken a turn in that direction," he told reporters on the Gold Coast.
"It is a disturbing turn, but any crime where people lose their lives is treated very, very seriously by us."
Police wouldn't confirm reports that two separate fire ignition points were found in the home.
