Cheney feared heart device hacking

FORMER US Vice President Dick Cheney says he once feared terrorists could use the electrical device that had been implanted near his heart to kill him and had his doctor disable its wireless function.

Cheney has a history of heart trouble, suffering the first of five heart attacks at age 37. He underwent a heart transplant last year at age 71.

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," Cheney says doctors replaced an implanted defibrillator near his heart in 2007. The device can detect irregular heartbeats and control them with electrical jolts.

Cheney says that he and his doctor, cardiologist Jonathan Reiner, turned off the device's wireless function in case a terrorist tried to send his heart a fatal shock.

Years later, Cheney watched an episode of the Showtime series "Homeland" in which such a scenario was part of the plot.

"I found it credible," Cheney tells "60 Minutes" in a segment to be aired Sunday. "I know from the experience we had, and the necessity for adjusting my own device, that it was an accurate portrayal of what was possible."

Cheney and Reiner are promoting a book they co-authored, "Heart: An American Medical Odyssey."

In the "60 Minutes" interview, Reiner says he worried that Cheney couldn't stand the pressure that came on Sept. 11, 2001.

The day terrorists attacked the US, medical tests seen that morning showed Cheney had elevated levels of potassium in his blood, a condition called hyperkalemia, which could lead to abnormal heart rhythms and cardiac arrest.

Reiner says he watched news coverage of the day's events on television and thought, "Oh, great, the vice president is going to die tonight from hyperkalemia."

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Chinese man arrested over seven murders

CHINESE authorities have captured a man they say fatally stabbed his pregnant wife and six of her relatives, including two elderly grandparents and two young nieces.

Police in China's northwest autonomous region of Ningxia announced the arrest of 24-year-old Ma Yongdong late Friday night on its official microblog.

State media said the suspect had quarrelled Monday with his wife, Lan Xiaohong, who was six months pregnant. They said he found her later that day at her parents' home in a village in Pengyang county, and that he clashed with his in-laws before killing all seven victims with a knife.

The victims were Lan, her parents, grandparents and two nieces - ages 4 and 18 months.

To capture the suspect, Ningxia police set up a special work team, released photos of the man, and offered cash rewards up to 100,000 yuan ($16,000) for tips leading to his arrest.

Ningxia police said on their official microblog that Ma admitted to the homicides. They and posted a photo of the handcuffed man as he was being interrogated.

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Vic expects similar fire season to NSW

VICTORIA'S fire season has the potential to see the same conditions being experienced in NSW, fire authorities say.

Victorian Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley says December to February will be a critical time for the state.

"Let's make sure we learn from NSW in what was a horrible day and has the potential to be that in our summer," he told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.

He said north of the Otways, western and central parts of Victoria and outer parts of Melbourne were a key focus for Victorian firefighters because they were mostly dry and had high grass growth over spring.

"Our early assessment is that we've had spring conditions that are conducive to a lot of growth," he said.

Mr Lapsley said his message to Victorians in October is to clean up properties and for residents to consider the risk to their families in November.

Bushfire Response Minister Kim Wells said Victoria is organised and in a good position to tackle the summer season.

"We are very well organised and very well planned, we have the right amount of equipment and the right amount of training over the winter months," Mr Wells said.

He said the state had gone above its targets for fire prevention burn-offs.

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Crown wants to develop Sri Lanka casino

JAMES Packer's Crown is in talks to develop a "must see" $US400 million ($A416.17 million) casino resort in the Sri Lanka capital Colombo.

Crown says it is in talks with the Sri Lankan government and potential joint venture partners about developing the five star resort.

"Sri Lanka is a beautiful and unique country with huge tourism potential," Crown chairman James Packer said in a statement on Friday.

"I have great confidence in the country's future and believe, as a destination, that it is Sri Lanka's time to shine in Asia."

Mr Packer said the luxury casino resort would help attract international tourists to Sri Lanka, especially from India and China.

Crown said the Sri Lankan parliament and board of investment were considering whether to grant investment approvals for the project.

Also, the project is subject to final agreement between the potential joint-venture parties and receipt of other approvals.

The casino resort, to be known as Crown Sri Lanka, will be located at Beira Lake.

It will boast gaming areas, 450 hotel rooms, restaurants, entertainment, event and conferencing facilities, shops and a water feature.

The casino resort is expected to employ 2,500 Sri Lankans.

Crown currently operates Crown casinos in Melbourne and Perth, and has joint-venture operations with Melco International in Macau.

It has been upgrading its Australian casinos to make them more competitive with new casino resorts in Asia and attract more high-rolling gamblers from China.

Crown is also negotiating the development of a six-star casino resort in Sydney and has expressed interest in developing a casino resort in Brisbane.

The joint-venture Melco Crown Entertainment (MCE) in Macau operates the City of Dreams casino resort and is developing the Studio City casino resort.

MCE also has an interest in a consortium to develop and operate a casino resort in the Philippines capital, Manila.

Shares in Crown gained 23 cents to $16.75.

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Seat gone, but Vic Liberal wants to stay

THE most high-profile victim of Victoria's electoral boundary redistributions says she hopes to remain in parliament despite her seat being abolished.

Liberal frontbencher Mary Wooldridge will lose her seat of Doncaster while the northern Victorian seat of Rodney, held by the Nationals, will also go.

Ms Wooldridge said she hopes to remain in parliament.

"I want to continue as a member of the Napthine government after the next election and am confident that a suitable opportunity will be found," she said in a statement on Thursday.

In a major shake-up of electoral boundaries, 15 seats will be abolished or have their names changed.

The changes will even up the number of electors in each seat and are the result of a growing population in Melbourne and shrinking populations in some regional areas.

Victorian National Party leader Peter Ryan said country people are the big losers in the changes.

"This is a disappointing outcome for country Victoria in the first instance, the seat of Rodney, a National Party-held seat, has been abolished and that means one less voice in this parliament on behalf of country Victorians," he told reporters.

Rodney MP Paul Weller said the Electoral Boundaries Commission had made its decision, despite a number of submissions from his constituents.

He would not be drawn on whether he would seek to contest another seat in the November 2014 election.

"We have got to wait for the dust to settle and we will have a look at it, see what opportunities arise," Mr Weller told reporters.

The changes are expected to make it tougher for Labor to hold several seats including Ripon, Monbulk and Ballarat West.

Member for Ballarat West Sharon Knight said the redistribution would make her battle to retain the seat even tougher.

"I think it makes a marginal seat a bit more marginal," she said.

Ms Knight, whose seat will now be known as Wendouree, will lose the Labor area of Sebastopol from her electorate.

Labor state secretary Noah Carroll described the redistribution as "fair across the board".

He said all preselections would be finalised before Christmas.

Mr Carroll expects "carnage" when the Liberal and National parties field candidates against each other in country Victoria.

Liberal state director Damien Mantach said the party was analysing of the new boundaries and would have further discussions about preselections, particularly for new seats and those that have changed dramatically.

"In regards to those MPs whose seats have been abolished or dramatically redrawn, the premier, state president, state director and the administrative committee of the party will have discussions with affected MPs to determine the best course of action in relation to preselections," he said.

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Abbott urged to visit indigenous in jail

Indigenous leader Les Malezer (pic) has urged Tony Abbott to visit Aboriginal offenders in prison. Source: AAP

A PROMINENT indigenous leader has challenged Prime Minister Tony Abbott to visit Aboriginal offenders in Australian prisons to better understand their disadvantage.

Les Malezer urged Mr Abbott to listen to the stories of indigenous offenders in his keynote speech at an Anti Poverty Week event in Melbourne.

Poverty and disadvantage is often an underlying factor in offending.

"If the PM wants to help our people to develop, then he should visit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people in the prisons around Australia," Mr Malezer said.

Mr Malezer, who is a co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First People, is urging the Abbott government to make it a national priority to tackle the high Aboriginal incarceration rate.

Indigenous adults are 14 times more likely to be jailed than other Australians and for minors the rate was 31 times.

During the federal election campaign Labor and the coalition committed to introducing a new close the gap target on justice.

Mr Abbott wants indigenous affairs to be a signature legacy of his prime ministership.

In 2008, following former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generations, federal, state and territory governments agreed on six ambitious targets to tackle indigenous disadvantage.

A further target has been introduced aimed at increasing disability services for Aboriginal people ahead of the full roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

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Telstra defends CEO's pay packet

Australia's biggest telco, Telstra, will spend billions on its 4G mobile network this year. Source: AAP

TELSTRA has defended chief executive David Thodey's $8.8 million pay packet after a shareholder questioned whether the telco's performance justified such a salary.

At the telco's annual general meeting in Sydney, shareholder David Jackson questioned an 8.7 per cent increase that lifted Mr Thodey's base pay to $2.65 million last year.

The CEO also received millions in bonuses and incentive-based shares.

"If you can allow an 8.7 per cent increase in the base pay of Mr Thodey, it doesn't sit very well with many shareholders and many employees because they have not received anything like that," he said during questions from the floor of an otherwise low-key meeting.

Mr Jackson said Telstra's earnings had been flat over the past five years, and was applauded by most of the 500-strong audience when he said shareholders were "paying lots of money and quite often for results which are not very satisfactory".

Chairman Catherine Livingstone said executives were rewarded according to their performance, and defended Telstra's recent results, saying the market and technology had undergone enormous change.

"Every year David Thodey and his team have to cope with the fact that half a billion dollars of revenue on fixed-line voice will no longer be there," Ms Livingstone said.

"That revenue has to be replaced.

"We regard the performance of the executive team in managing the business model change in Telstra as warranting the remuneration that we provide."

The remuneration report was passed with 98 per cent shareholder support.

Telstra faced further criticism from the Community and Public Sector Union, which mounted a small protest outside the AGM over more than 3,000 jobs cut by the telco this year.

Ms Livingstone said Telstra's workforce was "rebalancing".

"While we have proposed that in our operations workforce, certain roles will reduce by around 1,100 jobs by June next year, we have made other announcements recently that could result in close to 1,000 jobs being added by operations in other areas," she said.

Mr Thodey also signalled further cost savings.

"We believe there remains further opportunity to improve operational efficiency while growing new business opportunities," he said.

Telstra would continue to spend the same percentage of its sales revenue on the rollout of the 4G mobile network, he added.

Telstra's capital expenditure was $3.8 billion in 2012/13.

"We expect capital expenditure to be around 15 per cent of sales as we continue to build out our 4G mobile network and complete the build of the NBN transit network," he said.

Ms Livingstone said the telco would continue working under existing contracts for the National Broadband Network while the new federal government carried out reviews of the project.

Telstra shares added seven cents to $5.00 on Tuesday.

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Too soon to judge NSW silence laws: govt

THE NSW government says it is too soon to say whether new legislation that weakens people's once historic right to silence is working or not.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione on Tuesday said officers were concerned that the laws, which have recently come into effect, are unworkable in their present form.

An unfavourable inference can be drawn if an accused person fails to mention something during police questioning that they later rely on in their defence.

In order for the laws to apply a solicitor must be present, among other requirements.

Mr Scipione says this has resulted in "circumnavigation" by some solicitors, who aren't attending police interviews to dodge the law.

But Premier Barry O'Farrell says it's too soon to say that the legislation wasn't working.

He says it would be "absolutely disappointing" if lawyers were seeking to misuse the legislation.

"If people have nothing to hide, they should be prepared to make full and open statements to police," he said on Tuesday.

The coalition government flagged the amendments when police investigations into a spate of drive-by shootings in Sydney's west were frustrated by "a veil of silence".

But the laws have always caused disquiet among the legal profession, with worries they tip the balance in favour of the prosecution.

NSW Bar Association president Phillip Boulten SC said earlier this year that the amendments would be ineffectual against the well-heeled, organised crime suspects they sought to entrap.

"The suspect can ring their lawyer whilst they are in the police station and, unless the lawyer actually comes into the room with the investigating officer and their client, the law won't apply," Mr Boulten told AAP in March.

He said then that the real fear lawyers had was that the law's scope would eventually be broadened.

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Malaysian oppn leader to visit Adelaide

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will speak at Adelaide's Festival of Ideas. Source: AAP

MALAYSIAN opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is to appear at Adelaide's Festival of Ideas this weekend.

Premier Jay Weatherill said the festival had a history of bringing prominent thinkers to Adelaide and was proud to host the leading democracy campaigner.

"There are strong demands for strengthening democracies around the world - both in mature democracies and in some of the newer democracies," he said in a statement.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon said Mr Anwar was a beacon of hope for democracy, not just in Malaysia but for the entire region.

"Despite over six years' imprisonment in solitary confinement on false charges - eventually quashed - and being severely beaten in custody, Answar remains an inspirational and optimistic icon for democratic change," he said.

Senator Xenophon, who was deported and banned from Malaysia earlier this year, said it was great Mr Anwar could come to Adelaide to share his experiences and insights.

Mr Anwar will appear in conversation with ABC broadcaster Waleed Aly on Saturday.

Adelaide's ninth Festival of Ideas opens on October 17 with a keynote address from cosmologist Paul Davies.

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Cuts saw NSW caseworker spots left vacant

CHILD protection positions across NSW have been going unfilled as managers struggle to meet government budget cuts, a former bureaucrat has admitted.

A former deputy chief executive at the Department of Family and Community Services, Helen Freeland, told a parliamentary inquiry on Monday that she had been forced to implement a range of savings measures due to budgetary pressures.

While the department, formerly known as DoCS, never actually reduced caseworker numbers, she said people were employing cheaper staff and not filling vacancies in a bid to cut costs.

"There were some weeks where a position might be vacated by a caseworker before you can appoint someone permanently to that position, so in that time you make some savings," she said.

The inquiry, set up by the NSW opposition, is probing whether Minister Pru Goward has made misleading statements to parliament about caseworker numbers.

Ms Goward has been under siege since August budget estimates when she denied any knowledge of an Ernst & Young report, which contradicted her claims that NSW had more than 2060 caseworkers, when in fact only 1797 positions had been filled.

The opposition says June meeting minutes show Ms Goward was advised that millions of dollars would be required if the promised posts were to be delivered.

Ms Goward, however, has consistently maintained the positions had been funded, and it was up to the department to decide where they go.

But Ms Freeland revealed that some regional directors had concluded the only way to meet budget cuts was to stop filling positions.

"When they worked out what their salaries budget was, they calculated that there were positions that they couldn't fill from time to time," Ms Freeland told the inquiry.

She said she had written to the department's other executives flagging her concerns.

But she could not say whether Ms Goward had been alerted to the problem.

Earlier on Monday, the department's director-general Michael Coutts-Trotter told the inquiry that confusion over caseworker numbers was rife, as there had been at least six different ways of counting staff at various times.

However he conceded it was clear the department wasn't "effectively translating" funding for 2068 community services caseworkers into frontline teams.

When NSW Greens MP John Kaye asked what happened to the money that was allocated to fund caseworker positions in 2012/13, Mr Coutts-Trotter said it was spent elsewhere in the department.

To the ire of the NSW opposition, Ms Goward was not required to front the inquiry into ministerial propriety after Premier Barry O'Farrell said no lower house minister needed to attend.

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GG offered Abbott her resignation

PM Tony Abbott has declined to accept the resignation of Governor-General Quentin Bryce (pic). Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has revealed Governor-General Quentin Bryce offered to resign in anticipation of Bill Shorten's election as Labor leader.

Ms Bryce, who is the mother-in-law of Mr Shorten, wanted to avoid any perception of bias.

"I have thanked her for her magnanimity but declined to accept her resignation," Mr Abbott said in a statement on Sunday.

Instead the prime minister asked Ms Bryce to stay on until March 2014, when she is due to retire.

Ms Bryce's agreement to stay on was a measure of her personal commitment to provide continuity at a time of political turbulence, Mr Abbott said.

"She should be commended for her dedication to public service."

It was only "fit and proper" that Ms Bryce be permitted to conclude her term and be accorded the appropriate farewell that her exemplary service merited, he said.

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Vic boy killed crossing train tracks

A TEENAGE boy has been killed by a train in Victoria as he attempted to change platforms by crossing the tracks.

The boy was at Riddells Creek train station, about 50km north of Melbourne, when he was hit by a train bound for Bendigo about 2pm (AEDT), police say.

He died at the scene.

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