SA man on child exploitation charges

A South Australian man has been charged with producing child exploitation material. Source: AAP

A SOUTH Australian man has been charged with producing child exploitation material after a tip-off from interstate authorities.

Detectives arrested the 70-year-old man from Adelaide's northern suburbs after receiving information from Queensland police.

The man has been charged with one count each of accessing, producing and possessing child exploitation material of an aggravated nature and one count of basic possession of child exploitation material.

Police will allege that the access and production offences occurred over the internet on December 17 last year and that the possession offences occurred on Saturday at the man's home address.

The aggravated aspect of the offences is due to the age of the children depicted in the material, police say.

The man was granted police bail and will appear in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court on May 15.

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Snorkeller tragedy at Sydney beach

A snorkeller has died after getting into difficulty at Maroubra Beach, police say. Source: AAP

A SNORKELLER has died after getting into difficulty at Maroubra Beach.

The man was at snorkelling at the beach on Saturday afternoon and had to be pulled out of the water, say police.

He died shortly after arriving at hospital and is yet to be formally identified.

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Plane crashes in Bali, all 108 survive

A Lion Air plane carrying 108 people has overshot the runway at Bali's international airport. Source: AAP

PASSENGERS who were aboard a Lion Air flight that crashed into the sea in Bali have told of their horror as the plane plunged into the water short of the runway as it came into land.

All 101 passengers as well as seven crew were safe in Bali, although at least seven people had been taken to Denpasar's Sanglah Hospital on Saturday with head wounds and broken bones.

Many passengers arrived with wet clothes and bruises.

The Boeing 737-800 had been trying to land at Ngurah Rai International Airport about 3.30pm local time (5.30pm AEST) on Saturday when it fell short of the runway.

Photographs on Indonesian television showed the plane's fuselage had split into two parts just behind its wings, and the plane half submerged in shallow water.

Andis, a passenger who was on the flight, said afterwards that the plane suddenly fell into the sea as it made its final approach.

There was a loud bang as the plane hit the water, he said.

"I looked down. It was suddenly sea," Andis said.

"I realised that the plane was flying too low, but we still stayed calm until we heard a bang. There was panic."

A spokeswoman with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra said efforts were being made to find out whether any Australians were on the flight.

"The Australian Consulate-General in Bali is making urgent inquiries to determine whether any Australian citizens may have been involved in air crash is Bali on Saturday afternoon," the spokeswoman said.

"At this time we are not aware that there are any Australian victims."

The Lion Air fight 904 was due to arrive at Denpasar at 3.30pm local time (5.30pm AEST) after leaving from Bandung about two hours earlier.

Lion Air commercial director Edward Sirait confirmed that some passengers had been taken to a hospital in Denpasar.

"All passengers and crew are safe - 101 passengers and seven crew. They've been taken to the nearest hospital," he said.

Mr Sirait said that the plane was new, and began operating last year.

"The plane is Boeing 737-800 NG, Next Generation. It's a new one, a 2012 product," he said.

However, the airline is sure to come under fire again with Saturday's crash the latest in a string of incidents in recent years including one crash in 2004 which left 25 people dead.

It has also been banned from flying in the US and Europe after failing to pass a safety audit.

Lion Air started operating in 2000 and services more than 36 destinations, mostly in Indonesia.

The airline last month agreed to buy 234 Airbus planes and announced that it planned to target new routes in Asia, as well as a venture in Australia.

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South Sudan welcomes Sudan president

SUDAN'S President Omar al-Bashir has arrived in South Sudan for the first time since his 2011 visit for the country's independence, a sign of easing tensions after bloody border battles last year.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, Bashir's former civil war foe and an ex-rebel commander, welcomed his counterpart at Juba airport as a military band struck up their respective national anthems.

Bashir was accompanied by several high-ranking officials, including Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein, Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed, Oil Minister Awad Ahmad al-Jaz and intelligence chief General Mohamed Atta al-Moula, according to Sudan's official news agency SUNA.

Bashir's visit "will be good for the future of the two countries", South Sudanese Information minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said before Bashir's plane touched down on Friday.

"There should be peace between the two countries," he said.

"We are expecting good news from this visit," Ahmed Bilal Osman, Sudan's information minister, told SUNA.

He said the trip "comes at a propitious political time after signing the co-operation agreements in Addis Ababa" and that the problems between the two states "are on the way to being solved".

"The visit will break the barriers of lack of confidence and express good political will to implement what has been agreed.

"Our brothers in South Sudan will only hear good words from us. We are working to narrow the area of difference and to widen the area of agreement, to prevent anything negative in the relation between both sides."

The two nations battled over their un-demarcated border one year ago, with Khartoum's warplanes bombing the South, and Juba sending troops deep into disputed areas to battle Sudanese soldiers.

The fighting raised fears of wider war with intermittent clashes continuing for several months, but international pressure reined the two sides into an uneasy standoff.

At talks in Addis Ababa in March, Sudan and South Sudan finally settled on detailed timetables to improve relations by resuming the oil flows and implementing eight other key pacts including one for a demilitarised border buffer zone.

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Scientists study secrets of 'moreishness'

SCIENTISTS are starting to unravel the mystery of moreishness - why some snacks seem impossible to eat in small amounts.

It is the phenomenon that explains why it can be so difficult to dip into a crisp packet without polishing off all the contents.

Likewise, a single bite of chocolate may prove waist-expandingly fatal.

Some might call it greed, but another name for such behaviour is "hedonic hyperphagia".

"That's the scientific term for 'eating to excess for pleasure rather than hunger'," said expert Tobias Hoch, who presented findings from a study of hungry rats to the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans.

"It's recreational over-eating that may occur in almost everyone at some time in life. And the chronic form is a key factor in the epidemic of overweight and obesity."

Hoch and his team from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany scanned the brains of rats as they ate potato chips or ordinary chow pellets.

The rats were far more keen on the crisps, despite the fat and carbs mixture containing the same number of calories. Standard pellets were the least popular food.

"The effect of potato chips on brain activity, as well as feeding behaviour, can only partially be explained by its fat and carbohydrate content," said Hoch. "There must be something else in the chips that make them so desirable."

High levels of fat and carbohydrate had been thought to send pleasing messages to the brain, leading people to gorge on calorie-packed snacks.

The magnetic resonance imaging scans showed reward and addiction centres in the rats' brains were most active when they ate crisps.

Pinpointing the molecular triggers in snacks and sweets that stimulate the brain's reward centres could lead to the development of new drugs or food additives that combat over-eating.

Identifying the triggers is the German team's next project.

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Has Kimberley environment dodged a bullet?

ONE thing the Browse gas project has inadvertently brought about, without even getting off the ground, is a greater understanding of the Kimberley region's environmental significance.

Initially, it was only a handful of locals and greenies who opposed the project, some 60km north of Broome in Western Australia's far north.

Before too long, however, the threat of industrialising the unique coastline - just like the Pilbara to the south - became big news.

Musicians such as John Butler and Missy Higgins didn't look out of place on the anti-hub bandwagon, nor did former Greens leader Bob Brown in highlighting the fact the waters off James Price Point are a major humpback whale migration zone.

Former prime ministerial consultant turned eco-warrior and outspoken businessman Geoffrey Cousins was also in the "no way" camp, as was retired Federal Court judge Murray Wilcox, QC, who was so impassioned about the issue that he published a book on it.

Perhaps the most compelling argument against the hub - aside from the likely disruption of Aboriginal heritage sites including graves - was the possibility of causing damage to dinosaur footprints on the shoreline at James Price Point.

Leading palaeontologist, the University of Queensland's Steve Salisbury, feared that near-shore geotechnical surveys being undertaken by Woodside for the project could encroach on nearby dinosaur tracks.

Most were exposed only at extreme low tide in the intertidal zone that marks the boundary of the West Kimberley National Heritage site.

While Woodside claimed it would be able to work around the tracks without damaging them, it would have been tricky work, given all the marine pile-driving and dredging that would have been involved.

WA's environmental watchdog, in granting approval for Browse last year, warned that turbidity from dredging, oil spills, industrial discharges, noise, light and vessel strikes could adversely affect whales, dolphins, turtles, dugong and fish.

There were also concerns about surrounding monsoon vine thicket vegetation.

And it of course remains to be seen how benign the floating gas processing approach - still in its early days and likely to be the way Browse will eventually be developed - will be on the environment.

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Teens return 62,000 euros found on train

TWO Norwegian teens returned 467,200 kroner ($A77,427.41) they found left on a train by an elderly passenger, Norwegian media says.

The pair found the treasure on Wednesday in a handbag left on the seat of a train running between Oslo and a small town in southeastern Norway.

"When I opened the bag, the first thing I saw were these wads and wads of bills," one of the teens, identified as 16-year-old Bendik, told local daily Vestby Avis.

"My first thought was to call the police," he said.

After looking in the bag more closely, the good samaritans found the passport of its owner, a man in his 70s who was expected to pick up his money from the police on Thursday.

Police said they did not suspect any foul play behind the man's huge quantity of cash, and said they did not know if the two teenagers had been rewarded for their honesty.

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US hermit living wild for 27 yrs arrested

A US man thought to have lived in the woods for 27 years has been arrested for stealing food. Source: AAP

A US man who lived like a hermit for decades in a makeshift camp in the woods and may be responsible for more than 1000 burglaries has been caught in a surveillance trap.

Christopher Knight, 47, was arrested last week when he tripped a surveillance sensor while stealing food from a camp for people with special needs in a small town in Maine.

Authorities on Tuesday found the campsite where it's believed Knight, known locally as the North Pond Hermit, has lived for 27 years.

He was so well known to some summer cottage owners that they left food out for him so he wouldn't break in during the colder months, state Trooper Diane Vance said.

But others were hardly aware of the hermit living within their midst without detection since 1986.

Knight's living quarters included a tent covered by tarps suspended between trees, a bed, propane cooking stoves and a battery-run radio, which he used to keep up with the news and listen to talk radio and a rock station, authorities said.

Since vanishing from his Maine home for no apparent reason and setting up camp when he was about 19, Knight sustained himself on food stolen from cottages.

His favourite target was Pine Tree Camp, where game warden Terry Hughes, who's been trying to nab him for years, set up a surveillance alarm, authorities said.

Knight was caught on Tuesday as he left the camp's kitchen freezer with a backpack full of food, they said.

When arrested, Knight was clean-shaven and his hair was cut short, in contrast to the iconic hermit with a shaggy beard and long hair.

He was still using his aviator-style eyeglasses from the 1980s.

During questioning after his arrest, Knight said the last verbal contact he had with another person was in the 1990s.

"He passed somebody on a trail and just exchanged a common greeting of hello and that was the only conversation or human contact he's had since he went into the woods in 1986," Vance said.

It's not known whether Knight has a lawyer.

A message could not be left after hours at the Kennebec County Jail in Augusta, where Knight was being held on $US5,000 ($A4,760) bail charged with burglary and theft.

The trooper said the case of the North Pond hermit sometimes seemed a "myth" and bringing it to a conclusion was "amazing".

"I don't think I will ever be involved in such an incident or case of this magnitude," Vance said.

Knight had been charged only with the Pine Tree Camp burglary, in which $US238 worth of goods were taken.

Why he decided to disappear in the woods remained a question on Wednesday.

Attempts to reach relatives were unsuccessful.

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Pentagon monitoring us at Gitmo: US lawyer

The lawyer for the man accused of setting up the 2000 attack on the USS Cole has asked for a delay. Source: AAP

THE lawyer for a man accused in an attack on a US warship says a Pentagon computer server failure resulted in the loss of a large cache of documents used by military tribunal defence lawyers.

Richard Kammen, a member of the team representing an alleged senior al-Qaeda figure facing a war crimes tribunal at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, says officials mishandled more than 500,000 defence lawyer emails and appear to be monitoring their internet searches as they prepare their cases.

Kammen, a defence lawyer appointed to defend Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, has urged a military lawyer to cancel a hearing at Guantanamo next week over the alleged breaches of lawyer-client privilege and the server failure.

The motion remains under seal until authorities review it for potential classified information.

The lawyer said the court needed to establish the extent of any breach of lawyer-client privilege.

"We want to put the case on hold, number one, to find the scope of the intrusions," he said.

"Was this the product of negligence or something worse? Also, we need to have the problem fixed."

A Defense Department spokesman declined comment because the defence allegations are the subject of active litigation.

A response by prosecutors has not yet been posted by the Office of Military Commissions, which is in charge of the Guantanamo tribunals.

It's not the first time tribunal defence teams have alleged improper monitoring.

In February, proceedings in the case of five men charged in the September 11 attacks were thrown into disarray after lawyers discovered microphones apparently disguised to look like smoke detectors in the rooms where they meet their clients.

The military said it would disconnect the devices but said they had not been used to eavesdrop or record meetings between prisoners and their lawyers.

Al-Nashiri faces charges that include terrorism and murder for allegedly setting up the 2000 attack on the USS Cole which killed 17 crew members and wounded 37.

A four-day pretrial motions hearing is due to start on Monday.

It is not clear when the judge will rule on the request to delay the proceedings.

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Japan drafts new nuclear safety rules

JAPAN'S nuclear watchdog has published new draft safety standards that it hopes will prevent a repeat of the disaster at Fukushima.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said measures must be taken to defend atomic power plants against tsunamis, earthquakes and terrorist attacks.

Under the proposed rules there will be a ban on building reactors near active tectonic faults, which themselves will be redefined in a move that will make many more of them fit that definition.

At present, active faults are defined as those that have moved in the last 130,000 years, but the NRA will move the benchmark to any time in the last 400,000 years.

Up to five nuclear plants in Japan sit atop a possible active seismic fault, NRA-appointed experts have said.

Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the NRA, said earlier this year that plants would have to be able to survive a direct hit from a hijacked airliner or ship, as well as withstand tsunamis like the one that crippled Fukushima.

The move comes after repeated criticism that lax regulation and an overly cosy relationship between authorities and the big-money companies they were supposed to police worsened the catastrophe of March 2011, when a tsunami swamped the coastal Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless by the disaster and tracts of prime agricultural land were left unfarmable after radiation spread across a large area.

Anti-nuclear sentiment is running high in Japan, which used to rely on atomic power for around a third of its electricity needs.

The proposals will now go out to public consultation for 30 days and new rules will come into force in mid-July.

All but two of Japan's reactors remain offline after being shuttered for regular safety checks in the aftermath of the 2011 crisis.

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NSW will face gas crisis, says AGL

ENERGY industry heavyweights have warned they may be forced out of NSW by a "perfect storm" of rising prices and supply problems.

At an industry conference in Sydney on Wednesday, AGL Energy group general manager Mike Moraza said NSW had run out of time to ward off a gas crisis.

"We are facing a crisis, that's a fact," he said.

"We've run out of time. We are not going to be able to fill those supply gaps that are going to emerge at the end of 2016."

Mr Moraza said that not all existing customers would fall "in the supply camp".

"We do have a situation in this state where policy is being made on the run, not based on any evidence or scientific information, and it's a perilous situation," he said.

Last month the NSW government responded to community concerns by announcing tough new coal seam gas regulations, including a ban on CSG drilling near homes.

AGL boss Michael Fraser on Wednesday stepped up his attack on the restrictions, warning of a "perfect storm" of rising prices and short supply.

Mr Fraser said failure to develop large coal seam gas reserves in NSW would leave the state vulnerable to the loss of manufacturing industries and jobs as affordable energy would not be available.

"Whichever way you look at it the east Australian gas story is a coal seam gas story," he told the conference.

Dart Energy responded to the government's restrictions by axing 70 per cent of its workforce and suspending field operations at Fullerton Cove, near Newcastle.

Dart CEO Robbert de Weijer told the conference the company was looking to invest in the UK and would only reconsider NSW once it gets clarity and certainty from government.

Mr de Weijer said NSW was facing "a perfect storm".

"I believe there is going to be a crisis in terms of gas prices that are going to be very, very high and there is a number of large industry users basically not being able to afford them so they will be driven out of the state."

Kieran Donoghue, from the Energy Supply Association of Australia (ESAA), said there needed to be consistent and predictable regulation - "and to not have regulation where you don't need it, where markets can find a solution".

"I don't think we see that either upstream or downstream at the moment."

Santos used the conference to unveil a plan to produce enough coal seam gas, from wells in the Pilliga state forest near Narrabri, to provide one-quarter of NSW gas supply by 2016.

But Mr Moraza suggested it was unlikely to be ready by then, saying "that is a very ambitious timetable".

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Kim Jong-Un struggling: ex N Korean spy

A FORMER North Korean spy says the country's leader Kim Jong-Un is struggling to win his military's loyalty and is using the nuclear program to keep the public behind him.

Kim Hyun-Hee, who successfully carried out a mission in 1987 to blow up a South Korean airliner, killing 115 people, says the North's leader is too young and inexperienced.

"He's struggling to gain complete control over the military and to win their loyalty," she told ABC TV's 7.30 Report on Wednesday.

"That's why he's doing so many visits to military bases, to firm up support.

"He's also using the nuclear program as a bargaining chip for aid, to keep the public behind him."

The North last week told foreign diplomats in Pyongyang they had until April 10 to consider evacuating, fuelling speculation of an imminent missile launch.

Ms Hyun-Hee says she was "chosen" to become a spy for North Korea when a black sedan showed up at her school.

She was told to pack and given one last night with her family.

In 1980 Ms Hyun-Hee was sent to the North's elite spy-training school, was given a new name and training in martial arts, weapons and languages.

Eight years later, she says she was personally ordered by Kim Jong-il, the father of the North's current leader, to bomb Korean Air Flight 858 in the lead-up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

It was a move aimed at deterring nations from competing at the Games, she said.

After boarding with a fellow spy, Ms Hyun-Hee planted the bomb and got off during a stopover in the Gulf.

The bomb exploded nine hours after Flight 858 took off, as the plane was in the air en route to Seoul, leaving no survivors.

Ms Hyun-Hee was later arrested as she tried to leave Bahrain using a fake passport.

After trying to commit suicide with cyanide, as an offsider succeeded in doing, Ms Hyun-Hee was taken to South Korea for trial and given a death sentence.

Judged to be a victim of North Korean brainwashing, she was pardoned a few years later.

She and now lives in South Korea at an undisclosed location surrounded by bodyguards.

"I deserved the death penalty for what I did," she said.

"But I believe my life was spared because I was the only witness to this terror perpetrated by North Korea.

"As the only witness, it is my destiny to testify about the truth."

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Thatcher funeral on April 17: British PM

The funeral of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher will take place on April 17. Source: AAP

BRITAIN will hold the funeral of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday April 17 with Queen Elizabeth II leading the mourners, officials say.

As fresh tributes were paid around the world, the British government on Tuesday announced the date of the ceremonial funeral at St Paul's cathedral in central London, the second highest honour after a state funeral.

But Thatcher remained as polarising in death as in life, with six police officers injured at one of a number of parties across the country celebrating the death of a woman whose critics accuse of destroying British industry.

Thatcher, Britain's first woman prime minister and an icon internationally for her role in defeating communism and ending the Cold War, died at the Ritz Hotel in London on Monday aged 87 after suffering a stroke.

"It was agreed this morning at the government coordination meeting with the Thatcher family and Buckingham Palace that the funeral service of Lady Thatcher will take place on Wednesday 17 April at St Paul's Cathedral," current prime minister David Cameron's Downing Street office said in a statement.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip will attend, in an unusual move, Buckingham Palace said.

The Queen does not usually attend funerals or memorial services of non-royals.

Lawmakers have been recalled to parliament this Wednesday to pay tribute to Thatcher, the longest serving prime minister of the 20th century.

A private ambulance accompanied by police motorcycle outriders arrived in the early hours of Tuesday at the luxury Ritz hotel in central London where Thatcher spent the last days of her life, an AFP photographer said.

Undertakers erected a green screen at the back door of the hotel before removing her body.

Thatcher, a Conservative, specifically did not want a full state funeral of the kind given to monarchs and to World War II premier Winston Churchill, thinking it was "not appropriate", her spokesman Lord Tim Bell said.

Thatcher also requested that she not get a fly-past by military aircraft as it would be a "waste of money".

His comments came after several Conservative lawmakers called for her to be given a state funeral.

Ceremonial funerals have in the past been given to the Queen Mother - the mother of current monarch Queen Elizabeth II - and to Princess Diana.

Thatcher's funeral will still be a grand affair. Her coffin will rest in the Palace of Westminster - part of the Houses of Parliament - the night before the funeral and will be taken through the streets on a gun carriage to the cathedral.

In parliament on Wednesday, the government is expected to table a motion paying tribute to Thatcher - who has her own statue outside the House of Commons, or lower house of parliament - which politicians will then vote on.

But trouble erupted at several parties to celebrate her death, reminiscent of the sometimes violent protests by miners, trade unions and anti-tax protesters during her time in office in the 1980s.

In Bristol, southwest England, six police officers were injured, one seriously, when they tried to break up a party of about 200 people believed to be celebrating her death late Monday, police told AFP.

Bottles and cans were thrown at officers and fires were started in bins.

In the south London neighbourhood of Brixton, sworn enemies of the "Iron Lady" held a street party to celebrate the news, holding placards saying "Rejoice - Thatcher is dead" and dancing to hip-hop and reggae songs blaring from sound systems.

Police said there was "low level" disorder and the group threw a small number of objects at officers but there were no arrests and no serious injuries.

A similar party took place in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

World leaders have heaped praise on her, with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard among the latest to pay tribute by saying Thatcher "changed history for women".

Pope Francis said he recalled "with appreciation the Christian values which underpinned her commitment to public service and to the promotion of freedom among the family of nations."

But in the pope's homeland Argentina, several veterans of the Falklands War reacted with delight at news of her death.

"God bless the day that terrible woman has died," said Domenico Gruscomagno, 71.

"She was an odious person. In order to win elections in Great Britain, she waged war."

Mario Volpe, leader of the Malvinas (Falklands) War Veterans Center, said Thatcher "died without being punished, without having been put on trial."

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Coalition NBN policy is a lemon: critics

A coalition government will offer Australians better broadband services, Tony Abbott says. Source: AAP

THE coalition's plan to deliver earlier and cheaper broadband to Australia has been dismissed as slow and inadequate by the government and IT experts.

In announcing the coalition's first major policy of the election year, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott promised that if elected, his government would offer all households and business minimum download speeds of 25 megabits a second (Mbps) by the end of its first term in 2016.

But Labor's National Broadband Network (NBN) offers download speeds of up to 100 Mbps, with a plan to give households and businesses access to speeds of up to one gigabit per second to those connected by the end of 2014.

Critics say the main plan to roll out optic fibre cable to "nodes" - cabinets on street corners - short-changes the nation's communications infrastructure future.

"It cannot deliver the high-speed services that Australians require to take full advantage of broadband-enabled healthcare, education and business opportunities," Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said in a statement.

RMIT University telecommunications expert and senior lecturer Mike Gregory said the policy wasn't a sensible answer to Australia's communications needs.

"This is the biggest lemon in Australia's history," Dr Gregory told AAP.

"What they are trying to do is offer us a bag of lollies by saying we can do it cheaper and faster, but what we are really being sold is a lemon."

The coalition's NBN would cut costs by using Telstra's copper network from the node to premises in city and most rural areas - bypassing Labor's plan to roll out optic fibre cable all the way.

"We will build fibre-to-the-node and that eliminates two-thirds of the cost," Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney.

The capital cost of the NBN under the coalition's plan is $20.4 billion, against Labor's $37.4 billion.

Including other funding, the cost rises to $29.5 billion to complete the project by 2019, while Labor's project would be $44.1 billion to finish by 2021.

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said the policy was based on what telecommunication companies and other governments were doing around the world.

"What we are presenting here is a plan that is consistent with the best practice in the world," he said.

Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne said installing tens of thousands of boxes on street corners meant most households would be "stranded" on a decaying copper network, while new housing estates received modern fibre technology.

"It's a farce," Senator Milne said in Hobart.

An incoming coalition government would aim to have its fibre-to-the-node rollout fully under way by the second half of 2014, following several reviews into the NBN project.

And if it wins a second term it promises to increase the minimum download speed to 50 Mbps for 90 per cent of Australians by 2019.

Mr Abbott said 25 Mbps was more than enough to cater to the average household's broadband needs.

"We are absolutely confident," he said.

Download speeds are currently around 5 Mbps.

Meanwhile, the director of Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society, Rod Tucker, said the coalition's fibre-to-the-node network would use twice as much power as Labor's.

"There is more energy being consumed by that network, which in turn creates a greater greenhouse impact than a fibre-to-the-premises network," Prof Tucker told AAP.

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Moly Mines & Hanlong talk board numbers

Moly Mines independent directors understood to be target of Hanlong-engineered board spill. Source: AAP

MOLY Mines says its directors are in discussions with majority shareholder Hanlong Mining regarding the future composition and structure of the board of the gold, copper and molybdenum miner.

In a short statement issued after the close of share market trading, Moly Mines said Hanlong also confirmed that China EXIM Bank had not repossessed its shareholding in the miner, contrary to a media report on Tuesday.

The statement also referred to a report in Tuesday's West Australian newspaper that said Hanlong, with a 54 per cent shareholding, was seeking to remove Moly Mines' independent directors from the board.

The three independent directors - chairman Michael Braham, David Craig, and David Nixon - are understood to be the targets of a spill, which is likely to coincide with the company's annual meeting next month.

The statement comes a day after Africa-focused iron ore hopeful Sundance Resources terminated its $1.3 billion takeover proposal with Hanlong.

In December 2012 Moly Mines conducted a review of its merger and acquisition strategy in consultation with Hanlong.

Hanlong advised the Perth-based miner at the time that it maintained its support for Moly Mine's acquisition strategy and would be in a position to financially support an acquisition or project development from the second half of 2013.

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Eurozone exit would take Cyprus backwards

FINANCE Minister Haris Georgiades said that leaving the eurozone would take Cyprus back "centuries" and insisted the island has no "Plan B" for reneging on a 10 billion euros ($A12.63 billion) bailout.

Leaving the European single currency, Georgiades told parliament's finance committee, was "not up for discussion".

"It's time to correct past mistakes. It's time to pay the bill. We can only spend what is in our pocket. There is no other option," the minister told the committee, which is looking into how Cyprus ended up with controversial and unpopular bailout terms.

"It's a question of reality. Government instructions to the ministries will be to compile next year's budget essentially from scratch. Each item, each programme of the ministries must be explained and justified," Georgiades said.

Addressing the committee earlier, central bank chief Panicos Demetriades blamed Cyprus's political leaders for the harshness of the terms of the bailout.

Under the deal struck with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, Cyprus will drastically reduce the size of its bloated banking sector, raise taxes, downsize the public sector workforce and privatise some state-owned firms.

The terms of the final bailout, Demetriades said, was a "political decision" with the central bank having the "institutional responsibility of addressing the painful situation".

"I understand there is anger and insecurity from the public. This is why I am here to present the facts with evidence, so everyone understands what really happened," he said.

Demetriades has been widely accused of mishandling the bailout deal and of destroying the island's banks, amid a groundswell of demands that he resign.

"The reforms are unprecedented for the Cypriot banking system and they were expected to cause a reaction," the central bank governor said.

"I respect and understand the people and the difficulties they face."

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Ugly clashes as Turkey coup trial resumes

SCUFFLES broke out between police and demonstrators outside a prison complex in Turkey where nearly 10,000 people protested the mass trial of 275 people accused of scheming to topple the elected Turkish government.

An AFP photographer saw protesters trying to breach the security barricade outside the compound in Silivri, a suburb on the outskirts of Istanbul.

The protest was called by opposition groups and political parties as an Istanbul court prepares to hear the closing arguments in the four-year-long trial of the defendants who stand accused of having ties to an ultranationalist "terrorist network" known as Ergenekon.

A vast array of top military figures, lawyers, academics and journalists are accused of instigating an uprising against the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, in power since 2002.

If convicted, they face sentences ranging from seven and a half years in prison to life.

Prosecutors last month sought life jail terms for the 64 top suspects, who include former army chief Ilker Basbug and nine other active and former generals, accused of "attempting to overthrow the Turkish government by force".

A final verdict is not expected before a few weeks.

The trial is one of several cases brought by the AKP against the once omnipotent army which has been responsible for four coups in half a century.

In a separate case last year, dubbed the "Sledgehammer" trial after a military exercise, Turkey jailed three former generals for 20 years each and handed prison terms to dozens of officers.

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Liberal governments reject school plan

LIBERAL state and territory governments have rejected proposals by federal School Education Minister Peter Garrett for a national plan to improve schools.

Mr Garrett asked his state and territory counterparts on Monday to agree to principles of the national plan, but only three came on board.

Funding of the Gonski school reforms, which involve injecting an extra $6.5 billion a year into schools, were not part of telephone discussion.

South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT signed up, but Liberal-run WA, Victoria, Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory refused.

Elements of the plan include more support and higher entry standards for trainee teachers, individual learning plans for struggling students and more control and power for school principals.

The full details have not yet been released.

Mr Garrett said the plan would still go to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting for consideration by the prime minister and state and territory leaders on April 19.

"Education ministers who refused to endorse them today need to go back to their communities and explain to schools and to parents exactly why they haven't supported them," Mr Garrett said in a statement.

Victorian Education Minister Martin Dixon described Mr Garrett's comments as "extraordinary", given he had asked that details of the meeting not be discussed publicly.

"We were prepared to have a discussion in good faith, and for minister Garrett to then throw that back in our face is hugely disappointing," Mr Dixon said.

"This is not about outcomes and policy for minister Garrett. It's about politics."

A spokeswoman for Queensland education minister John-Paul Langbroek told AAP the minister wasn't able to participate in the discussion. The department's director-general had acted as a proxy but was not able to approve the plan.

Queensland on Monday announced its own plan to improve teacher quality under a scheme worth $535 million over four years from 2015.

Earlier, Mr Garrett said the funding model for the national school plan was in the final stages of negotiation.

He defended the approach of asking states to sign up to principles without knowing how much they would cost.

"Questions around funding envelopes will continue to be negotiated through the appropriate officials," Mr Garrett said in Canberra.

Coalition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said he was amazed that three governments had agreed without knowing the price tag.

"It is beyond a joke that a week before the Council of Australian Governments meeting where school funding will supposedly be agreed upon, state governments still do not have the details," he said in a statement.

The Australian Greens said it was "serious mismanagement" by Mr Garrett to leave negotiations so late and still refuse to give funding details.

"But the state premiers must also be held accountable for playing politics at such a crucial time," they said in a statement.

Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said the funding system was broken and under-investment in schools was denying children access to a high quality education.

"The economic and social costs of failing to act will be enormous and it is this that all political leaders must keep in mind in the lead-up to COAG," he said.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said he was disappointed at the commonwealth's "politicisation" of the Gonski negotiations.

"All that was agreed by all states and territories at today's meeting was that further work needs to be done on the National Plan for School Improvement," Mr Piccoli said in a statement.

WA Premier Colin Barnett says his government received the commonwealth's financial assumptions only last Friday.

"It is disappointing to be receiving information a week out from COAG - leaving us little time to analyse the proposals and have a constructive discussion about what's on the table," Mr Barnett said in a statement.

"We are not going to rush it."

South Australian Education Minister Jennifer Rankine said her state supported the national education plan.

"We hope that other states will come on board," she said in a statement.

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Montenegro votes for president

MONTENEGRO has begun voting in a presidential election tipped to give the incumbent, Filip Vujanovic, a third mandate that would cement the ruling coalition's grip on power in the economically struggling Balkan state aiming to join the European Union.

Vujanovic, a close ally of veteran Montenegrin leader Milo Djukanovic, faces a sole challenger: former foreign minister Miodrag Lekic, who has managed to get the main opposition groups to overcome their bickering and back his candidacy.

The vote for president, a largely ceremonial role in Montenegro, is the country's second since proclaiming independence from Serbia, its decades-long partner, in 2006.

But it is seen as the test for long-serving Djukanovic's ruling coalition that has been in power since the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in 1990s.

Vujanovic, a 58-year old lawyer, has promised voters to focus on strengthening Montenegro as a "democratic developed country" in order to boost its efforts to join the European Union and NATO.

"My new mandate will be focused on Montenegro's European integration," said Vujanovic during the campaign.

Brussels opened EU accession talks with Montenegro last June, but the European Commission noted Podgorica should do more to uphold the rule of law and crack down on organised crime and corruption.

Lekic, 65, has made the fight against corruption and organised crime his priority, two issues seen as the main obstacles for Montenegro to speed up its European integration.

"We live in a mire of hypocrisy and corruption, in a system that humiliates people. Montenegro must clean up its yard thoroughly," Lekic said during the campaign.

A veteran politician and an architect of Montenegro's independence, Djukanovic has himself been accused of corruption, but has blasted the claims as "lies".

Experts say corruption is deeply rooted in the country of 632,000 people which struggles with an unemployment rate of 20 per cent, and where the average monthly salary is about 480 euros ($A600).

Montenegro's relatively undiversified economy relies heavily on foreign investment which drove an economic boom between 2006 and 2008. Since then, the economy has slid, and public debt has now reached 51 per cent of gross domestic product,

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Musharraf approved to run in Pakistan poll

PAKISTANI poll officials have approved former military dictator Pervez Musharraf to contest the upcoming general election, despite a litany of legal challenges against him.

Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan for nine years after seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1999, returned to Pakistan from four years in self-imposed exile on March 24, vowing to run for the May 11 poll in four constituencies.

In the far northern town of Chitral, close to the Afghan border, officials approved Musharraf's candidature on Sunday.

"His papers are in order. He is not convicted so far, so we cannot disqualify him," returning officer Jamal Khan said.

But in the retired general's home city of Karachi, officials turned down his nomination on charges of violating the constitution and sacking top judges.

Returning officer Ikramur Rehman upheld objections raised by his rivals that Musharraf had violated the constitution and sacked top judges by imposing emergency rule in 2007.

"This is a biased decision," his party official Afzal Agha said, adding an appeal would be filed against rejection of Musharraf's nomination.

Musharraf's nomination papers were rejected in the Punjab town of Kasur on Friday and a decision on his bid to contest a seat in Islamabad is expected late on Sunday.

His powerbase has shrivelled since he stepped down after nine years of military rule in 2008 and faces a barrage of legal challenges.

He has been granted bail over the 2007 killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a Baluch rebel leader in 2006, and for sacking and arresting judges in November 2007.

On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear a petition asking for Musharraf to be put on trial for treason for imposing emergency rule in 2007, a move that ultimately paved the way for his downfall.

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Emigration from crisis-hit Italy rises

EMIGRATION from Italy has risen by nearly a third last year to 79,000, with a growing number of young people choosing to leave the crisis-hit country, Italian media reports, citing official data.

The number of Italian citizens registering as foreign residents rose from 61,000 in 2011. Most of the emigrants came from wealthier regions of northern Italy and their favoured destinations were Germany, Switzerland and Britain.

"Young people want to be valued and the Italian context does not allow this. That is why they try going abroad," Alessandro Rosina, demographics lecturer at Milan's Cattolica university was quoted by La Repubblica daily as saying.

"It would be wrong to stop the brain drain but there should be measures to allow circulation. Young people leave from every country but, unlike in the rest of Europe, Italy does not guarantee conditions for their return," he said.

The data showed a sharp rise in emigrants from northern Italy compared to southern Italy - the source of waves of emigration during the 20th century - which accounted for just 27 per cent of the total from 61 per cent in 2011.

The highest number of emigrants last year - 13,156 people - came from the Lombardy region, which includes Italy's business hub, Milan.

The figures showed that emigrants were becoming younger too, with those aged 20 to 40 making up 44.8 per cent of the total, from 28.3 per cent in 2011.

The data on Italian residents abroad are collated by the interior ministry.

Youth unemployment is at around 37 per cent as Italy endures its longest post-war recession, while the overall jobless rate was at 11.6 per cent in February - just lower than the record high of 11.7 per cent reached in January.

"The paradox is that people used to leave a poor country of farmers but today they are leaving... a technological and advanced country," commentator Paolo Di Stefano wrote in the Italy's best-selling Corriere della Sera daily.

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