A FUEL tanker is on fire after it collided head-on with another vehicle between Mackay and Emerald.
The smash occurred just before 7pm with emergency crews closing the Peak Downs Highway.
Initial information suggests there are several people requiring medical attention.
More to come.
FORMER French president Nicolas Sarkozy's mobile phone has been under a wiretap for nearly a year as part of an investigation into campaign financing, according to reports.
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Seven Australians are among almost 240 people missing on board a Malaysian Airlines flight. Source: AAP
TWO Brisbane couples and another two Australians are among 239 people feared dead after a Malaysia Airlines flight went missing en route to Beijing.
Contact with flight MH370 was lost about two hours after the Boeing 777-200 took off from Kuala Lumpur on Saturday morning (AEDT).
A major search and rescue operation was trying to locate the missing aircraft, which initial reports suggest may have perished about 220km off the Vietnam coast.
Aviation experts have expressed bewilderment at the aircraft's fate.
Online flight data suggested the aircraft may have experienced a very rapid loss of height and change of direction prior to slipping off the radar.
Authorities hold little hope for those onboard.
The plane was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew of 14 nationalities.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are deeply saddened this morning with the news on MH370," Malaysian Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told a press conference.
The missing Australians were Mary and Rodney Burrows and Catherine and Robert Lawton, all from Brisbane. The two couples were reportedly travelling together.
Li Yuan and Gu Naijun, believed to be from Sydney, were also missing.
Two New Zealanders were also aboard the flight.
One of the Lawtons' neighbours described them as a lovely couple who enjoyed travelling.
Australians used social media sites to express hope for all the passengers' survival.
"Praying for a miracle," one person wrote.
The 227 passengers included 152 Chinese and one infant, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, three passengers and an infant from the US, three French, two each from Ukraine and Canada and one each from Russia, Italy, Taiwan, The Netherlands and Austria.
Australian authorities said they "feared the worst" for all aboard flight MH370.
"Consular officials are currently in touch with Malaysian Airlines and with the families of the missing Australian passengers," Senator Brett Mason, parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, told reporters in Sydney.
"At the moment there is no clarity as to what has occurred.
"But can I just add that the families of the ... missing Australian passengers must be desperately concerned and the thoughts of the Australian government and I'm sure all Australians go out to them at the moment."
As of Saturday night there had been no request for Australian authorities to join the search and rescue operation.
One of the more puzzling aspects of the incident is that the flight appeared to relay no distress signal or give other indications that it was in trouble.
It was piloted by Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who had flown for the airline since 1981, the carrier said.
"The plane lost contact near Ca Mau province airspace as it was preparing to transfer to Ho Chi Minh City air traffic control," a statement posted on the official Vietnamese government website said.
Ca Mau is located at the southernmost tip of Vietnam.
The plane's signal was never transferred to Ho Chi Minh air traffic control.
Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record. Its worst-ever crash occurred in 1977, when 93 passengers and seven crew perished in a hijacking and subsequent crash in southern Malaysia.
The Boeing 777-200 model is also said to be one of the world's most popular jets.
The long-range jumbo jet has helped connect cities at the far ends of the globe, with flights as long as 16 hours.
But more impressive is its safety record: The first fatal crash in its 19-year history only came in July 2013 when an Asiana Airlines jet landed short of the runway in San Francisco. Three of the 307 people aboard died.
There were upsetting scenes at Beijing's airport as news of flight MH370 filtered through.
Screens first indicated that the flight was "delayed", but later updated its status to "cancelled".
Friends and relatives of those aboard broke down in tears and were pictured making frantic telephone calls.
A man has been struck by lightning as severe thunderstorms sweep across Sydney. Source: AAP
A MAN has been struck by lightning as severe thunderstorms sweep across Sydney.
A NSW Fire and Rescue spokesman said the 65-year-old man was struck outside his home in Baulkham Hills, in northwest Sydney, at 5pm on Friday.
Fire fighters administered first aid to the man, who was conscious but disoriented, the spokesman said.
He has been taken to hospital.
There is a severe thunderstorm warning in place for parts of Sydney, particularly the western suburbs.
GERMAN backpacker who ate flies while "lost" for three weeks in outback taken aback by the fuss but intends to keep going with his quest to walk to Uluru.
A CONVICTED rapist jailed for abusing a young girl in his care has won a retrial because the judge compared the jury's role to a cricket umpire calling LBW.
THE family of coward punch victim Thomas Kelly hope a new CCTV camera in Kings Cross will make people think twice before orchestrating a violent attack.
The Thomas Kelly Foundation was established following the 18-year-old's death in 2012.
Thomas was fatally punched while walking through Kings Cross with friends.
Last year Daniel Christie was punched on the same stretch of road.
He died in hospital from critical head injuries.
The foundation, established by Thomas' parents Ralph and Kathy Kelly, and the City of Sydney have funded a CCTV camera in Victoria Street to cover the spot where Thomas and Daniel lost their lives.
The Kelly family handed over the new camera on Friday.
Mr Kelly said he saw CCTV cameras as a preventative measure.
"Whilst they won't stop the assaults occurring by themselves, if it makes some people think twice before committing a violent attack, then they have an important role to play," he said in a statement.
Mr Kelly said the arrest of Thomas' attacker was supplemented by hours of vision from CCTV cameras.
The City of Sydney has a plan to install 10 extra CCTV cameras at night spots around Surry Hills, Kings Cross and the CBD.
The new cameras will be monitored 24 hours a day at the city's Security and Emergency Operations Centre at Town Hall.
Tasmania's leaders have clashed over PM Tony Abbott's controversial comments on forestry. Source: AAP
TASMANIA'S leaders have clashed in a pre-election debate over Prime Minister Tony Abbott's claim that too much Australian forest has been "locked up".
Mr Abbott made the comments at a forestry industry gathering this week, 10 days out from the Tasmanian poll.
The federal government has already moved to wind back World Heritage areas in Tasmania that are part of an historic peace deal between conservationists and the timber industry.
Premier Lara Giddings has defended the agreement, which Liberal opposition leader Will Hodgman has promised to tear up if, as expected, he wins government on March 15.
Ms Giddings says the deal, which took almost three years to negotiate, should not be tampered with.
"Forestry is a critical industry in Tasmania but it cannot be part of the war and conflict we had in the past," the premier said.
But Mr Hodgman said parts of the 74,000 hectares the federal government has asked UNESCO to jettison had been logged previously and could be used to revitalise the state's ailing forestry sector.
"They can in fact then be productive forests available to the industry that's been deprived of a resource," he said.
"It's costing jobs and it's not allowing our forestry industry the capacity to grow."
The Liberals have pledged to get more tourists into Tasmania's World Heritage areas and say they will boost eco-tourism developments in national parks.
"It's too easy to say 'no' to these things," Mr Hodgman said.
"Why can't we be more like New Zealand?"
In a lacklustre third debate of the campaign, questions came from some of the 100 voters present in the Hobart Town Hall as part of a live television broadcast.
There were emotional pleas about provision of services from the carer of a disabled daughter and angst from a jobseeker who described a recent knock-back.
After the first debate was widely called as a draw, Ms Giddings went on the offensive with interjections in the second and was considered the winner.
The premier had less latitude to get on to the front foot in the third but an exit poll awarded her a win.
Only one moment drew applause and it had little to do with Tasmania.
Asked about the plight of asylum seekers on Manus Island, both leaders said they would welcome more refugees to the state.
Ms Giddings called for the reopening of the Pontville detention centre north of Hobart.
"We believe that we ought to have a humane approach to these people who need someone to stand by them," she said, to claps from the audience.
Clive Palmer is furious thieves have stolen his party's election ads in a Brisbane robbery. Source: AAP
CLIVE Palmer is furious thieves have stolen his party's election advertisements in a Brisbane robbery.
Mr Palmer said there was a break-in late Wednesday at Coroneo and Co, the advertising firm he uses in Brisbane.
He said the Palmer United Party's yet-to-be released policy advertisements for the Western Australia Senate election rerun and Tasmanian state election were targeted in the raid.
"The Palmer United Party continues to be targeted by illegal and dirty-handed tactics," the Queensland MP said in a statement, referring to misplaced votes in the Fairfax seat recount and WA Senate election recount.
Mr Palmer has rushed back to Queensland from Canberra, where he had been attending federal parliament, to assess the situation.
A spokesman from Queensland Police told AAP the robbery happened between 6pm (AEST) on Wednesday and 3am on Thursday morning.
Police said three computers were stolen.
There's been no arrests so far.
GREG Inglis has produced a three-try heroic effort in South Sydney's upset victory over the defending premiers in the season opener on Thursday.
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SEA Shepherd has failed to secure a court injunction to force the suspension of the West Australian government's shark culling program, with its lawyer saying the "heart" has been ripped from the case.
The marine activists launched the fast-tracked legal challenge on Wednesday last week, seeking to have dozens of baited drumlines off Perth and the South West region removed.
Their argument questioned the validity of an exemption under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, granted by federal environment minister Greg Hunt, which allowed the state government to kill any protected great white, tiger or bull shark bigger than three metres caught in certain zones.
The exemption runs until the end of the trial program on April 30, but Sea Shepherd wanted it stopped immediately.
Their lawyers argued the exemption was not valid as it was not published in an official government gazette.
But on Wednesday, Judge James Edelman disagreed and decided against granting the injunction.
Patrick Pearlman, principal solicitor for WA's Environmental Defender's Office, who led the action for Sea Shepherd, said hopes of a judicial review had been extinguished.
"In ruling on the preliminary question of whether the exemption is valid, he has in essence taken the heart out of the case," Mr Pearlman told reporters.
"We're obviously disappointed. We thought we had a very good argument. It's a very legal, technical argument."
Mr Pearlman maintained the exemption should have been gazetted so parliamentarians had the chance to examine, debate and vote upon it.
"Then, I think, every member of parliament would be able to be on the record and say whether they think this program is a good idea."
He said an appeal would be considered.
There was still a chance the state government could be forced to remove the drumlines before the trial ended, Mr Pearlman said, with the WA Environmental Protection Authority still considering whether to assess the program.
Greens MLA Lynne Maclaren said all eyes now fell on the EPA.
"In that regard, we are not giving up this case," she said.
"We will continue."
Mr Hunt said the there would be no extension to the exemption until WA conducted a full environmental assessment of the program.
That was required under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, he said.
Sea Shepherd's Jeff Hansen urged the EPA to make its decision quickly.
With the WA government's lawyers now seeking to slug Sea Shepherd with court costs, the activist group faces a bill of up to $19,000.
But it was worth it, Mr Hansen said.
"We had to have a shot at this," he said.
"We will continue no matter what because we have right on our side."
The Tasmanian government and green groups have hit back at the prime minister's plans for forestry. Source: AAP
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott's declaration that too many of the country's forests are "locked up" has met a furious response from the Tasmanian state government and environmentalists.
Mr Abbott told a forestry industry gathering at parliament house they were the "ultimate conservationists".
He announced a new advisory council for the industry, which follows a government decision to push for a wind-back of Tasmania's World Heritage area.
The state's Labor government, which faces the polls in 10 days, says the federal government is putting at risk a peace deal between the industry and environmentalists that took three years to negotiate.
"The Liberals are suggesting by repealing World Heritage and high conservation forests that that will somehow save the industry," deputy premier and forestry minister Bryan Green said in a statement.
"That's rubbish because what chance would Tasmanian timber from those areas ever have of being sold anywhere around the world?"
The World Heritage areas were part of the peace deal, with green groups vowing to end protests against Tasmanian timber products in return.
Wilderness Society spokesperson Vica Bayley, whose organisation is a signatory to the agreement, said the federal government should get behind the deal.
"Well-worn greenie-bashing rhetoric will not fix the problems," Mr Bayley said.
"The Tasmanian Forest Agreement is the best example in the country of environment, industry and union groups rolling up their sleeves to address real issues, and we urge the prime minister to support it.
"Axing the new World Heritage area won't benefit anyone. It won't protect jobs - these rely on the Tasmanian Forest Agreement, it will embarrass Australia and will reignite conflict in the forests."
Tasmania's Liberal opposition, riding high in opinion polls, has vowed to rip up the agreement if it wins the March 15 election.
Federal Greens leader Christine Milne said preserving forests would create more jobs than cutting them down.
"Who in the 21st century would say the environment is meant for man and not just the other way around?" Senator Milne said.
INVESTIGATORS are excavating a southern Queensland driveway looking for a vehicle believed to be linked to the disappearance of Gold Coast woman Novy Chardon.
Police, including homicide squad officers, will search other areas of the Mt Nathan property over the coming days, looking for evidence relating to the disappearance of the Indonesian-born 34-year-old.
"We're digging up a driveway, and it is connected to the case of Novy Chardon," police told AAP.
"There's meant to be a vehicle that's underground that they're digging up."
Police wouldn't say whose property it was or what the significance of the vehicle was.
But they did say it wasn't the home of her husband John.
Ms Chandon has not been seen since February last year.
A week after she went missing, officers and SES volunteers scoured a quiet semi-rural road that runs behind Dreamworld, not far from the Chardon home at Upper Coomera.
They believe Mrs Chardon's Volvo SUV may have been driven along the road some time between her disappearance and the evening of February 11 when it was found near Nerang railway station, more than 20 kilometres away.
In January it was announced that John Chardon, 66, will stand trial on eight charges of sexual crimes against children, alleged to have occurred between 1998 and 1999.
They include three counts of rape, four counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 and one count of indecent treatment of a child under 16 in care.
The charges aren't linked to his wife's disappearance, which Chardon said he doesn't know anything about.
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has opened parliament's doors to the "frowned upon" forestry industry, saluting them as the nation's "ultimate conservationists".
Mr Abbott announced on Tuesday the government would establish a forestry industry advisory council to be co-chaired by Rob de Fegely, the president of the Institute of Foresters of Australia.
The council was necessary because too little is known about the industry, Mr Abbott told a forestry industry dinner in parliament house in Canberra.
The prime minister was "pleased" foresters were able to attend parliament after many years without feeling like they were in "hostile territory".
"For three years you were officially frowned upon in Canberra because we had a government that was over-influenced by the Greens," Mr Abbott told the 600-strong gathering, which was also attended by Labor ministers.
"I look around and I don't see people who are environmental vandals, I see people who are the ultimate conservationists.
"I want to salute you as people who love the natural world."
Mr Abbott defended the Coalition's decision to remove world heritage listing for 74,000 hectare area of Tasmanian forest earlier this year.
"We have quite enough national parks, quite enough locked-up forests," he said.
THE West Australian government has warned it intends to keep the state's controversial shark drumlines in place, even if it loses a legal challenge to the shark catch-and-kill policy.
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OSCAR Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to murdering his girlfriend on Valentine's Day last year, marking the start of the Olympian's murder trial.
The trial started 90 minutes late after an Afrikaans interpreter was delayed and two women entered the courtroom trying to see the proceedings.
One woman claimed she knew Pistorius' late mother, Sheila, and had knowledge of Pistorius' character, while another said she was the ex-wife of the doctor who had amputated his legs.
Pistorius plead not guilty to all four charges against him: murder, two charges relating to discharge of firearm in a public place and one charge of illegal possession of ammunition. Before the trial started he walked past the victim's mother who says she came to court so she can "really look him in the eyes."
The double-amputee athlete is charged with murder with premeditation in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of February 14, 2013.
Pistorius says he shot Steenkamp by accident, thinking she was an intruder inside his bathroom.
Steenkamp's mother, June, earlier entered the court dressed in black. She was quoted in the Pretoria News, which published an interview she gave to a British newspaper, saying that she wants to see Pistorius.
"I want to look at Oscar, really look him in the eyes, and see for myself the truth about what he did to Reeva," said June Steenkamp, 67. "Whatever the court decides at the end of his trial, I will be ready to forgive him ... But first I want to force him to look at me, Reeva's mother, and see the pain and anguish he has inflicted on me. I feel I need that."
Pistorius arrived at the high court in Pretoria wearing a dark gray suit and black tie. June Steenkamp was seated on the same bench as Pistorius' family, and behind Pistorius so there is a possibility that their eyes will lock during the trial.
Prosecutors charged Pistorius, 27, with murder and say it was with premeditation. They say they will seek a life sentence if Pistorius is convicted.
The state says Pistorius intentionally killed Steenkamp by shooting her through a toilet door after an argument. Pistorius denies murder and says he killed his girlfriend by mistake when he fired four times through the door thinking there was a dangerous intruder on the other side.
Australia's economic growth is expected to have strengthened a little at the end of 2013. Source: AAP
AUSTRALIA'S economic growth is expected to have strengthened a little at the end of 2013, getting a boost from a lift in mining and resource exports.
December quarter gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to have grown by 0.7 per cent, for an annual rate of 2.5 per cent, according to an AAP survey of 12 economists.
In the September quarter, GDP growth was 0.6 per cent, and 2.3 per cent in the year to September.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release National Accounts figures on Wednesday.
JP Morgan Australia chief economist Stephen Walters said mining and resources exports took over from mining and resources investment as the main driver for economic growth in 2013.
"There was a substantial shift in Australia's growth drivers in 2013, with the decade-long dependence on resource investment giving way to an inflated reliance on real net trade," he said.
"The upshot from fading resources investment is that output from the associated projects is starting to come online, particularly in the iron ore and coal sectors, with a further lift in liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity expected further down the line.
"In 2013, iron ore, coal, and LNG comprised more than half of Australia's total export basket, with this share set to well in coming years."
Commonwealth Bank chief economist Michael Blythe said Australia continued to post solid economic growth but it was still below its long-term average.
"This outcome is not unexpected," he said.
"But some perspective is needed here.
"Even at a sub-trend pace, the Australian economy has just clocked up 22 years of continuous economic growth.
Mr Blythe said evidence of the slow transition to an economy driven by non-mining segments will be one of the disappointing parts of Wednesday's National Accounts.
"Some parts of the story are unfolding as expected," he said.
"Mining capital expenditure, and related imports, are turning down. And resource exports are picking up.
"The resultant swing in net exports is set to make a significant contribution to GDP growth, of around 0.8 percentage points.
"What is missing though is the lift in residential construction and non-mining capital expenditure that is supposed to generate the jobs needed to absorb the shake-out in mining construction employment."
