POLICE have tracked down the parents of a young boy who was found wandering alone through suburban southwest Sydney.
Residents of Claymore called police after spotting the boy in the street wearing pyjamas about 7.30am Saturday.
Estimated to be aged two or three years old, the boy was cared for by officers until his parents were located and the search was called off.
The police thanked and updated the public about 2pm.
A cyclone forming in the Coral Sea is expected to hit Queensland's Cape York Peninsula later next week.
The low pressure system which has brought torrential rainfall and flooding to the Solomon Islands -- killing at least 17 people and leaving thousands homeless – is forecast to intensify into a tropical cyclone, which will be named Ita, tomorrow.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Amber Young said the weather system was moving slowly south-west and expected to be about 750km north-east of Cairns by Monday morning.
"The conditions are very favourable for it to develop into a tropical cyclone,'' she said.
Information issued by the Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre yesterday indicated the system could become a category two cyclone by Monday, strengthening to a category three by Tuesday.
Most models indicated it would continue to edge closer to Australia, possibly crossing the northern Cape York coast on Thursday, although some suggested it could stall and even turn back out to sea.
Cook Shire Mayor Peter Scott said they keeping a close eye on the developing weather pattern.
Dramatic firsthand footage shows what it's like being in the different categories of cyclones. Produced by Christine Nestel.
"We keep our fingers crossed every time one looms.''
Cr Scott said Cooktown had been quite fortunate.
"The last time Cooktown was hit was 1949. This one looks as if it might cross at Lockhart River or north.'
"I think we are as well prepared as we can be and the same goes for the other communities up the Cape. They all go through cycle preparation exercises every year.
"But if it brings the sort of rainfall that has hit Honiara, it would cause a lot of damage to our road network.''
Lockhart River Shire Mayor Wayne Butler was not available to comment.
A woman in her 60s has been killed by a shark near Tathra Wharf on the NSW south coast. Source: AAP
SWIMMERS have been warned to stay out of the water at a NSW tourist spot after a 62-year-old woman was killed by a shark during a regular morning swim.
Christine Armstrong, a member of her local surf lifesaving club, was with a swimming group at Tathra Beach on the NSW south coast when she went missing on Thursday.
Emergency services said she was killed swimming the 250 metres between Tathra Wharf and Tathra Beach about 8.20am.
Witnesses claim to have seen a three to four metre shark close to the surface, according to Bega District News.
It's understood about five or six swimmers were doing their regular circuit when Mrs Armstrong separated from the group and turned back toward the wharf and disappeared.
Emergency services and surf lifesavers are searching the area, with reports that body parts have been discovered.
"She will be sadly missed by all who loved her, especially by Rob, her husband of 44 years," Mrs Armstrong's family said in a statement.
"She has been swimming at Tathra Beach for 14 years and was an experienced and committed member of the surf club."
Police and surf lifesavers asked the public to stay out of the water at Tathra Beach following the attack.
Tathra has a population of only a few hundred and it's believed to be the first reported shark attack in the area.
"It struck me as surprising," shark bite expert Dr Chris Neff of the University of Sydney told AAP.
"Tathra certainly doesn't have a history of shark attacks on the database."
The fatal shark attack brings to 47 the number of people killed in NSW in the past 100 years, according to the Shark Attack File.
Dr Colin Simpfendorfer, a shark researcher at Queensland's James Cook University, said the shark was likely to have been a great white as they inhabit Australia's southern waters.
"If you swim in the ocean, there is a remote chance you will be bitten by a shark," he said.
"There is no place that is particularly safe."
He was surprised the attack happened so close to shore as the swimmers were only 100 metres from the beach.
Bermagui Blue Balls swimming club president Gary Pearse often swims and dives in the area.
"There is a resident great white. I haven't seen it myself, but I know people who have and there's also a lot of bronze whalers," Mr Pearse told News Corp Australia.
Local residents of the popular holiday spot are stunned by the attack.
Molly Carroll described the scene in the fishing village, 20km south of Bega, as "eerie".
A Sydney man last seen jumping into a car in the city's west is believed to have been kidnapped. Source: AAP
A SYDNEY man believed kidnapped had pleaded not to be extradited from the United States over a murder because a crime family had put a $100,000 bounty on his head.
Six years later, Raphael Joseph climbed into a car with at least two other men in Sydney's west in the early hours of March 21 and hasn't been seen since.
NSW's homicide squad believe an extortion attempt may be behind Mr Joseph's disappearance.
Mr Joseph, 38, was extradited from the US to Australia over his suspected involvement in the fatal shooting of Dimitri Debaz in the car park of the Playhouse Hotel in Sefton in 2002.
Mr Joseph, known as Huss or Hussany to his mates and family, fled to the US and was arrested in 2006 after a four year search.
In 2008, he pleaded with then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to keep him in the country, claiming he would be tortured or killed by a rival gang in Australia.
His plea failed and he appeared in court in Sydney in July, 2008, charged with murder, but the case was later dropped.
It is understood he was affiliated with the Assyrian gang Dlasthr - The Last Hour.
He claimed an Australian crime family had a $100,000 bounty on his head payable to anyone who killed him, and members of Sydney's Bronx Boys gang wanted to murder him.
His lawyer filed documents at the time alleging Mr Joseph's friends and associates had been kidnapped and tortured.
NSW police believe Mr Joseph himself has now been kidnapped.
Detective Superintendent Mick Willing said extortion was a potential motive.
Mr Joseph's family was due to hold a media conference with police, but pulled out at the last minute because they were scared and distressed.
Mr Joseph lived in the inner-west, waterfront suburb of Chiswick.
On March 20, hours before he went missing, he spent time at the Star Casino and may have also met someone at a McDonald's in Auburn.
He was last seen getting into a silver sedan on Dartbrook Road at Auburn late on Thursday, March 20, or early the next morning.
His family reported him missing on March 22.
Police have found Mr Joseph's white Mercedes car, which he drove to Auburn.
Det Supt Mick Willing said police believe a number of people knew where Mr Joseph was.
"His poor family are worried sick and are desperate to know what has happened to him," he told reporters on Thursday.
Police scoured bushland and private properties in the Flemington area last week for evidence.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stopper anonymously on 1800 333 000.
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has asked Martin Parkinson to stay on as Treasury Secretary until after the the G20 Leaders Meeting in November.
Dr Parkinson had been expected to stand down as the head of the department after assisting Treasurer Joe Hockey with his first budget in May.
Mr Abbott announced that Dr Parkinson was leaving Treasury's top job soon after being sworn in as prime minister after the September election, raising speculation that Dr Parkinson had been pushed.
Australia is the G20 president this year, which will end with the Leaders meeting in Brisbane.
Mr Hockey will attend a G20 finance minsters and central bank governors meeting in Washington next week, and after what was regarded as a successful first meeting in Sydney in February.
Mr Hockey will host a further meeting in Cairns in September.
The High Court has found in favour of a Sydneysider who wants to be recognised as gender-neutral. Source: AAP
THE High Court has backed a case of gender neutral recognition in a ruling that could have ramifications across Australia.
Sydney resident Norrie, 52, has won a long-running legal battle against NSW's Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages to be granted non-specific gender status.
Norrie, who goes by one name, was born male and underwent gender reassignment in 1989. But Norrie stopped taking hormones after surgery and no longer identifies as male or female.
In a world first in 2010, Norrie was given gender neutral status, but this was withdrawn months later by the NSW government, sparking a string of appeals and counter appeals which reached the High Court.
A unanimous judgment handed down on Wednesday found in Norrie's favour.
"The act does not require that people who, having undergone a sex affirmation procedure ... must be registered, inaccurately, as one or the other," the court found.
Despite its ruling, the court repeatedly refers to Norrie as "she" and "her" in its judgment, citing that Norrie's legal representatives used the terms in submissions.
Norrie's lawyer, Scott McDonald, described the case outcome as a "persuasive authority" for other jurisdictions.
"It'll be binding on the states that have identical or similar legislation," he told reporters.
And for states such as Western Australia, with very different legislation, the judgment has sent a message the High Court doesn't think gender is limited to male and female.
The court was asked to consider whether "non-specific" can be included as a third gender category under the Registry's Act.
Lawyers for the Registry argued unacceptable confusion would flow from the acceptance of more than two gender categories, and that the purpose of a reassignment procedure is to assist a person to be considered a member of the opposite sex.
But counsel for Norrie said it is the register's purpose to record the truth.
"Norrie's sex remained ambiguous so that it would be to record misinformation in the register to classify her as male or female," a judgment summary reads.
For Norrie, Wednesday's ruling was "very exciting".
"Many other people let me know they wanted (to identify as non-specific) in Australia and indeed around the world," Norrie told reporters in Sydney.
The Human Rights Law Centre said it was important that identity documents such as birth certificates give equal recognition to gender diverse people.
"It's essential that our legal systems accurately reflect and accommodate the reality of sex and gender diversity that exists in our society," spokeswoman Anna Brown said.
Community support group A Gender Agenda spokesman Sam Rutherford said all states and territories would have to pay attention to the judgment.
Norrie's application for non-specific status should now be reconsidered by the Registry in accordance with the court's finding, the judgment said.
The Registry must pay Norrie's costs of the High Court appeal.
THE infighting in the Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party (CLP) government continues, with a senior minister appealing for the game-playing to stop.
Indigenous MP Alison Anderson was suspended from the CLP parliamentary wing on Friday by Chief Minister Adam Giles, who said he refused to allow the government to be held in thrall to her demands, along with her Aboriginal colleagues Larissa Lee and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu.
Their advisors Norman Fry and Don Fuller were also sacked on Friday, after the trio staged a walk-out during question time on Thursday after negotiations with Mr Giles broke down.
They say the government has failed to deliver on election promises to remote communities, and claim that Indigenous people are not being heard.
Mr Giles rejected their demands, which included the creation of an Indigenous Affairs portfolio, ministries for Ms Anderson and Ms Lee, and for Mr Kurrupuwu to head a committee.
"We are not going to be held to ransom and have a gun to our head as we try to govern," he told reporters in Darwin on Friday.
In an interview with NITV broadcast on Monday, the trio alleged that the women had been called an offensive name for an Aboriginal woman by their CLP colleagues, and that Mr Kurrupuwu had been demeaned with inappropriate nicknames in contrast to his role as senior elder on the Tiwi Islands.
Peter Chandler, Minister for Lands, Planning and the Environment, rejected any suggestion that the CLP was racist.
"As far as racism goes, it's certainly something I haven't seen," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"I know I'm certainly not a racist ... We should stop playing these games and get on and provide good governance."
The three rebel backbenchers have not yet announced whether they will move to the crossbenches or start their own party, but met with the leadership of the First Nations political party over the weekend.
The CLP's management committee also met over the weekend to discuss the deadlock but have so far not ejected Ms Anderson from the party.
It is understood it will not make a decision on her membership until April 15, after the hotly contested Blain by-election which will most likely see a large swing against the CLP.
If she goes, they all go, Ms Lee said.
"If we're going to walk out ... that's going to be the proudest moments of our life, to leave the Country Liberal Party, because we're not breast-plated n*****s, we're home-grown traditional people," she told NITV.
FULL-TIME public service jobs are being axed at a rate of eight a day, despite the Queensland government reaching its 14,000 target.
The Public Service Commission has released its workforce snapshot for the December quarter, revealing 721 full-time positions were lost.
However, the number of individuals employed, including part timers and casuals, reduced by 1029.
Since the Newman government came to power, 14,135 full-time positions have been lost, however, the total head count has been reduced by 15,414, the commission's data shows.
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was clear public servants had everything to fear from the premier, despite his assurances to the contrary.
"It is absolutely disgraceful," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"They should hang their heads in shame.
"People aren't happy."
Premier Campbell Newman promised in January last year that the culls wouldn't go beyond 14,000 and he's sticking by that despite the latest figures.
He insists the drop-off in the workforce is a regular seasonal adjustment over Christmas.
In fact, more police, teachers and ambulance officers are being put on, he said.
"The public service is on an upwards trajectory," he said.
"There have been no further cuts as to what we had previously announced.
"The numbers of the public service go up and down over the December and January period because there are seasonal people that come and go."
Four of Australia's smaller banks have called for a fairer playing field in the financial sector. Source: AAP
FOUR of Australia's smaller banks have joined forces to call on an inquiry into the financial system to provide a level playing field against the big four.
Bank of Queensland, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, ME Bank and Suncorp Bank have launched a joint submission to the Abbott government's
Financial System Inquiry, calling for a fairer regulatory environment.
The four lenders argue regulatory changes made since the global financial crisis had given the big four banks - Commonwealth, National Australia Bank, ANZ and Westpac - an unfair advantage over smaller institutions.
"Since the GFC, regulatory and market developments have given the major banks capital and funding advantages over everyone else," Bank of Queensland chief executive Stuart Grimshaw.
One of the key recommendations included in the submission is a reduction in the amount of capital smaller lenders are required to hold against mortgages.
Smaller banks say they are required to hold almost three times as much capital as the big four banks for mortgage portfolios with comparable risk.
ME Bank boss Jaimie McPhee said the advantages enjoyed by the big banks, as well as their market power, was not in the best interests of competition or consumers.
"We have one of the most highly concentrated markets in the globe," he said.
"I think when you get a greater level of concentration you get oligopolies and oligopolistic behavior and I actually don't think that's in the best interests of the consumer."
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank has lodged its submission to the inquiry, calling for greater regulation of the developing digital financial services sector.
The Financial System Inquiry, headed by former Commonwealth Bank boss David Murray, is expected to release an interim report in mid-2014.
HE fought for Australia in World War II.
And now legally blind, 92-year-old Bill Ryan has vowed to keep fighting for the environment despite being arrested and fined $350 for taking part in a NSW coal mine blockade.
Kokoda Track veteran Mr Ryan was led away by police as dozens of protesters chained themselves to machinery at Whitehaven Coal's Maules Creek mine on Monday, halting work for much of the day.
Protesters oppose clearing part of the Leard State Forest to make way for the new $767 million mine, near Boggabri in the state's north-west.
Mr Ryan, who lives in Sydney, says he won't contest the fine and will pay the money out of his own pocket.
He was pictured sitting next to machinery at the mine, with a protest banner above his head.
"I'll continue to protest for as long as I can walk," he told AAP.
"After that, they'll have to push me along in a wheelchair."
The former soldier said it was the fourth time he's taken part in a blockade at the Maules Creek mine.
He claims the burning of the coal from the mine will contribute to climate change.
"I think it's in the interest of my grandchildren and great grandchildren; we've got to take a stand on this issue," he added.
Greenpeace said more than 150 people took part in Monday's protest.
Police arrested 60 people, including an 84-year-old man, for trespassing and entering an enclosed area.
A 14-year-old girl, believed to be the youngest present, was given a warning by officers.
"It was a non-violent protest - we arrived early and just basically sat on the machines," said Greenpeace spokesman Julie Macken said.
Whitehaven Coal has described continuing protests against the Maules Creek mine as "a nuisance" but said it would not be deterred from continuing the project.
"This project has been extensively assessed and received all state and federal legal approvals," NSW Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee said in a statement.
"Construction is proceeding well and the project will be completed, regardless of the actions of the activists who are unnecessarily putting themselves and others at risk."
Comment is being sought from Whitehaven.
Officials say objects scooped out of the ocean are not part of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Source: AAP
THE Australian navy ship given the job of finding the black box recorder of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is preparing to leave Perth with still no clue as to the missing plane's whereabouts.
But it could potentially have a longer window to track down the black box in the vast expanses of the Indian Ocean than had been feared.
The Ocean Shield, which leaves Perth on Monday on an initial 30-day mission, has been fitted with US Navy equipment designed to electronically hunt for the box, including a towed pinger locator and unmanned underwater drone.
With the ship not likely to reach the search zone west of Perth for several days, it had been feared the 30-day life of the satellite "pinger" within the black box could expire before the equipment arrived.
But Captain Mark Matthews, the US Navy supervisor of salvage and diving, revealed on Sunday that while the pinger is certified for 30 days, it could last for up to another 15 days.
That gives authorities more precious time to find the box, which should provide crucial clues as to the fate of MH370 and its 239 passengers and crew.
"These are rated to last 30 days, but that is a minimum. In my experience they do last a little bit longer than that," Capt Matthews said.
"I would say 45 days is the realistic limited expectation."
The towed pinger locater on the Ocean Shield has a range of 1.6km and depth capability up to 6000m, with the search set to be conducted at a speed of just 5km/h.
An unmanned underwater drone will also be on board, ready to dive once the pinger locater has found a signal to map the sea floor and photograph potential debris there.
As 10 planes and eight ships descended on the search zone on Sunday, there was still no confirmation of any debris from MH370 being found.
Captain Matthews said without solid proof of the crash, they would not be able to begin to search for the black box.
"We don't have a defined search area yet. We have our challenges in front of us," he said.
In the meantime, the crew, along with Australian and Chinese ships, would join the surface search for debris.
Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced former Defence Force chief Angus Houston would lead a new joint agency co-ordination centre in Perth that would communicate with all international search partners and the families of those on the missing plane.
"Should our responsibilities increase as time goes by, there is no one better placed than Angus to co-ordinate and liaise given the quite significant number of countries that all have a stake in this search," Mr Abbott said.
Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy said the aim was still to locate debris and confirm it was from flight 370, then to work backwards to a possible crash site.
Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Ray Griggs said the best people in the field were now involved in the search.
"It is a significant co-ordination challenge which is proceeding extremely well. These are an exceptionally talented group of people," Admiral Griggs said.
Ocean Shield will leave the naval base at Garden Island south of Perth with enough supplies for 45 days before having to return to shore.
Flight 370 disappeared on March 8 after veering sharply off course while heading from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Social services agencies have welcomed a multi-million dollar boost to homelessness services. Source: AAP
SOCIAL services groups have welcomed the government's $115 million pledge for homelessness funding but say there is more work to be done on a long-term plan.
The federal government has breathed another year of life to the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness (NPAH), which was due to lapse on June 30 because it had not been budgeted for.
It will mean about 180 homelessness services across the nation will continue to provide services to vulnerable Australians until at least June 30, 2015.
Homelessness Australia said the funding would give people such as victims of domestic violence and those suffering from health and mental health issues somewhere safe to sleep for another year.
But the sector has called for the formulation of long-term solutions to tackle homelessness.
Mission Australia said it was essential that federal and state governments come together to put a new multi-year agreement in place.
"We can't afford to let another year go by without a long-term plan. That is what happened last year," spokesman Martin Thomas said in a statement on Sunday.
The Australian Council of Social Services said a new agreement should focus on developing a proper national affordable housing plan to increase the supply of affordable houses.
"We have a problem and there's more work to be done," CEO Cassandra Goldie told AAP.
The federal opposition said the announcement was cold comfort to those agencies reliant on the funds.
It meant a cut of $44 million off the original $159 million NPAH plan, which included $43 million for housing infrastructure and $4 million into homelessness research.
"In the government's eyes, anything that's more than zero dollars is a funding injection," opposition housing spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said.
Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews said the government will consider long-term arrangements on housing policy over the next year, with talks with the sector and the states and territories.
He also called on the state and territory governments to add their share to the deal so that there will be $230 million in total for services next financial year.
