Major Australian exhibition in London

THE most significant collection of Australian art ever mounted in the United Kingdom is to go on display in London from September.

It was revealed on Thursday that the Prince of Wales will be the patron of the exhibition, which is simply called Australia.

The exhibition spans 200 years, taking in indigenous and non-indigenous art from 1800 to the present day. It focuses on the influence of landscape.

Co-curator Kathleen Soriano from the Royal Academy of Arts said the exhibition was several years in the making.

"There has never been an exhibition like this before," she told the press launch at the academy on Thursday.

"This survey is long, long overdue."

The exhibition brings together works from the most important public collections in Australia.

Works by artists including Albert Namatjira, Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts, Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley, Bill Henson and Tracey Moffatt will be on display.

Judy Watson has been commissioned to create a new sculpture that will remain in the academy's courtyard for the duration of the exhibition.

Deputy high commissioner Andrew Todd said the Australian government, which helped fund the exhibition, was "immensely proud" of it.

"We see this exhibition as a particularly exciting platform to promote and celebrate Australian art and culture more widely," he told reporters on Thursday.

"Artists, in holding up a mirror to Australian life and landscape, express so effectively who we are as a people and a nation."

The BBC will broadcast a three-part series on Australian art to coincide with the London exhibition.

The series will be presented by former Art Gallery of NSW director Edmund Capon.

The exhibition, organised in partnership with the National Gallery of Australia, opens on September 21 and will run until early December.

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Nationals WA president stands down

COLIN Holt has stood down as The Nationals' West Australian president because of his increasingly heavy parliamentary workload.

Mr Holt, who held the position for four years, was last month appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister for training and workforce development Terry Redman and is also leader of The Nationals WA in the Legislative Council.

David Eagles has accepted the role of acting state president until the party's state conference in August.

Meanwhile, several nominations were received for the party's new candidate for the federal seat of O'Connor, currently held by retiring MP Tony Crook, before the close of nominations on Tuesday.

While the party's policy is to not name nominees, one that is known is William "Chub" Witham, who worked as a geologist in the Goldfields and is well known in the Great Southern region.

The successful candidate will be ratified at the State Council meeting on May 25.

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US boy, 5, accidentally shoots sister dead

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy playing with a rifle given to him as a gift accidentally shot dead his younger sister, officials say, thrusting the issue of US gun violence back into the spotlight.

The boy's two-year-old sister was pronounced dead after being rushed to a hospital following the shooting on Tuesday in rural Kentucky, police said.

Cumberland County Coroner Gary White on Wednesday identified the girl as Caroline Starks and said the children's mother was cleaning the house at the time and had stepped outside onto the porch.

"She said no more than three minutes had went by and she actually heard the rifle go off. She ran back in and found the little girl," White said.

The .22 calibre rifle had been given to the boy last year and was kept in the corner of a room. The parents didn't realise a shell had been left in it.

"It's a Crickett," White told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "It's a little rifle for a kid. ...The little boy's used to shooting the little gun."

An autopsy was set to be conducted but White said he expects the shooting will be ruled accidental.

"Just one of those crazy accidents," White said.

"Down in Kentucky where we're from, you know, guns are passed down from generation to generation," White said. "You start at a young age with guns for hunting and everything."

What is more unusual than a child having a gun, he said, is "that a kid would get shot with it."

The Crickett is just one of many child-sized rifles on the market and is sold with the tag line 'My First Rifle.'

It comes in a number of child-friendly barrel designs and colours, including hot pink for little girls. A host of accessories are also available, like story books and a gun-toting beanie baby of the rifle's mascot, a cartoonish cricket.

"It's a normal way of life, and it's not just rural Kentucky, it's rural America - hunting and shooting and sport fishing. It starts at an early age," said Cumberland County Judge Executive John Phelps. "There's probably not a household in this county that doesn't have a gun."

In Cumberland County, as elsewhere in Kentucky, local newspapers feature photos of children proudly displaying their kills, including turkey and deer.

It was the second fatal shooting involving minors in America this week.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that a five-year-old girl in a remote Alaska community had been shot and killed by her eight-year-old brother on Monday. The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear.

The United States has been embroiled in a heated debate over gun control and gun culture in the wake of a horrific December shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut that killed 26 young children and educators.

President Barack Obama has pushed for tougher federal gun laws to require universal background checks on gun buyers and called for a ban on assault weapons like the one used in Newtown.

But last month, his background check proposal - condemned by the powerful National Rifle Association as an infringement on Americans' constitutional right "to keep and bear arms" - failed to muster the necessary 60 votes needed to clear the US Senate.

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Labor to take disability tax rise to poll

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has put disability care at the centre of her government's re-election strategy, announcing a tax rise to pay for Labor's new scheme.

But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott may try to thwart her ambition by agreeing to support legislation for her proposed hike in the Medicare levy in this parliamentary term.

Treasurer Wayne Swan says Labor will wait for the coalition's support because the government is unsure it can gain the backing of the Australian Greens and independent MPs for the levy.

Ms Gillard reversed her opposition to a tax hike on Wednesday, saying she would seek voter approval at the September 14 election to impose a 0.5 percentage point rise in the levy to fund DisabilityCare Australia.

The levy increase to two per cent would cost the average wage earner about $1 a day and go into a special fund that would collect about $20 billion by the time the disability scheme is fully operational in 2018/19.

Ms Gillard said Australians "embraced" a Labor request 30 years ago to pay a levy to fund the Medicare universal health scheme.

"I'm asking Australians to do the same thing with DisabilityCare," she told reporters in Melbourne.

Ms Gillard's change of heart follows a $12 billion drop in government revenue, pressures on state budgets, and disability-sector demands for a long-term funding source.

The levy would raise about $3.2 billion of the $8 billion annual cost of the scheme, with the remainder coming from federal budget savings and the states and territories. But there will be no changes to the disability support pension in the May budget.

The treasurer says the levy will fund around 60 per cent of the scheme at the end of 10 years with the shortfall to be paid for by cuts and savings in the budget.

Mr Abbott initially challenged the prime minister to bring on the legislation for the levy hike before parliament rises in June, but signalled the coalition would not offer immediate support.

But he later added he would have more to say on Thursday, paving the way for talks on the legislation, possibly to head off any criticism of the coalition's stance.

"I want everyone to know that the coalition wholeheartedly supports the national disability insurance scheme," Mr Abbott told reporters in rural Victoria.

"We want it to happen and we want it to happen in this term of government."

Mr Swan says the support of the Greens and independents for the proposed levy increase is not guaranteed.

"Let's see if we have that support, I don't know that," he told ABC television.

Ms Gillard says she doesn't want the scheme to turn into a "political plaything".

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey appeared to reject the levy proposal earlier on Wednesday, saying it would hurt business and damage consumer confidence.

"This levy is going to hit every household budget," he told ABC radio.

Ms Gillard concedes that asking households to pay more tax won't be easy, but the government believes most will agree that a universal scheme is needed for Australians born disabled or who become so later in life.

The disability care scheme will be launched in parts of South Australia, NSW, Tasmania, Victoria and the ACT in July 2014, but only NSW has signed up to a full state-wide launch from 2018.

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Two dead in Vic head-on crash

TWO women have died in a head-on crash in country Victoria.

Investigators believe a car was travelling north on the Bacchus Marsh-Geelong Road around 2.30pm (AEST) at Balliang East when the driver lost control and veered into the oncoming lane.

Police say the middle-aged driver of the second car died at the scene, while her passenger, a man in his 20s, was air lifted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious injuries.

The driver of the first car, who was in her 60s, was airlifted to The Alfred hospital but later died.

The deaths take the state's road toll to 86, eight fewer than at the same time last year.

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No reasons to join ALP, party elder says

LABOR party membership is plummeting and people don't see a reason to join the party, Labor elder John Faulkner says.

"Party membership is not only declining in number but it is ageing," Mr Faulkner, who was part of a Whitlam Institute panel in the western Sydney suburb of Parramatta, said.

"The party is finding it very, very difficult to attract new members."

He said Labor needed to give the existing members a reason to stay and those considering joining a reason to join.

"I don't think those reasons exist at the moment," he said.

"They can exist.

"I would argue the way to address the problem as far as Labor is concerned is give people a real say in their political party.

"If membership can be made meaningful I believe it would make a difference."

Mr Faulkner also said the disgraced former NSW Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald - both currently before the corruption watchdog - didn't represent the party.

"They are a small minority in a very big majority of decent, hardworking people," Mr Faulkner said.

"But this does not diminish the gravity of their failure to fulfil their responsibility to represent the interests and values of the Labor movement let lane their responsibilities to the people of NSW."

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Rebels declare Sudan state a 'target'

SUDANESE rebels have declared North Kordofan state a target in a widening offensive, as parliament met to discuss weekend attacks on the region which had been largely free from unrest.

Except for occasional rebel forays over the border from the conflict-plagued Darfur region, North Kordofan had been generally peaceful.

But on Saturday a rebel coalition struck a major North Kordofan town which residents said had been left unguarded and was hit during co-ordinated attacks in the insurgents' most audacious act in years.

"North Kordofan state has all become our target," Arnu Ngutulu Lodi, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), told AFP on Monday.

SPLM-N, which has been fighting for two years in South Kordofan state, belongs to the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) which also includes major insurgent groups from Darfur.

SRF said it attacked Umm Rawaba, the second-largest town in North Kordofan, and several other areas in North and South Kordofan as part of its strategy to reach the capital Khartoum and overthrow the 24-year regime of President Omar al-Bashir.

Lodi claimed that rebels on Sunday shelled the airport area of Kadugli, the state capital of South Kordofan, for the second time in two days.

He warned civil aviation to avoid the area, as well as the airspace in North Kordofan.

"It is becoming a target for us," Lodi said. "This is a very serious kind of warning. This whole area has become an operational area."

The SPLM-N has shelled Kadugli periodically since late last year, but on Saturday for the first time targeted the airport region.

That barrage killed four soldiers, Lodi claimed, but residents reported only a few injuries.

They said they could not confirm that a second barrage occurred on Sunday, and reported the town as calm on Monday.

The government blamed rebels for killing civilians in its previous shelling of Kadugli, while rights groups have accused the Khartoum regime of indiscriminate aerial bombing elsewhere in the state.

A rebel statement said the Kadugli airport has become "a centre of control and command of National Congress Party forces and militias for directing its air and ground attacks against innocent citizens, therefore it becomes the direct target for the Sudanese Revolutionary Front forces."

Residents of Umm Rawaba, about 300 kilometres from Kadugli, complained their town had been left undefended when SRF briefly occupied it on Saturday.

The death toll was unclear but included some policemen, according to residents and officials.

The attack in North Kordofan comes as the government, beset by internal political struggles, seeks a broad political dialogue with its opponents.

Last week Khartoum and the SPLM-N held their first direct talks in almost two years, but both sides said negotiations stalled.

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Philippines peace talks with rebels fail

THE Philippines says peace talks with communist rebels have collapsed and a target of ending the decades-long insurgency by 2016 is impossible to achieve.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino's administration is looking for a "new approach" following nearly three years of failed negotiations and a fresh surge in deadly violence, chief government negotiator Alex Padilla told AFP on Monday.

"We are at an impasse now. Whether we talk or not, the same violence continues, nothing has changed. So why will we force ourselves to talk?" Padilla said.

Aquino had said he wanted to seal a peace deal to end the 44-year insurgency, which has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives, before his term ended in 2016.

When asked about the timeframe, Padilla said: "That is gone."

The government and the rebels had initially raised hopes in early 2011 that they were on the right track when they announced after top-level talks in Norway that both sides were committed to signing a peace deal by June 2012.

But negotiations barely progressed after that.

Padilla blamed the Netherlands-based communist leadership, the National Democratic Front, for the failure, accusing it of setting new and impossible conditions for talks such as the release of captured senior rebels.

He said this had been a tactic of the rebels in more than two decades of peace talks with previous administrations, and questioned their sincerity in seeking peace.

Padilla said the government had not yet decided on its "new approach" for dealing with the rebels but it did want to re-open negotiations at some point.

The military estimates the rebels have only about 4,000 fighters nationwide, down from more than 26,000 at their peak in the 1980s.

However, they remain a danger, particularly in rural areas where they can count on support from local populations who endure the worst of the country's savage rich-poor divide.

The rebels have become more active ahead of next month's mid-term elections when thousands of local positions will be contested.

They killed two aides to a politician on April 20, and the military has accused them of extorting millions of dollars from many candidates in return for allowing them to campaign freely.

The military said in February that the rebels killed 164 soldiers, policemen, security forces and civilians in 2012.

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S.Korea unveils restored cultural treasure

South Korea has unveiled the restored Namdaemun gate, which was destroyed in a fire five years ago. Source: AAP

FIVE years after it was reduced to ashes in an arson attack, the newly rebuilt Namdaemun gate in South Korea has been unveiled after a painstaking reconstruction costing millions of dollars.

The cultural jewel in central Seoul will reopen to the public on Saturday, following one of the longest and most expensive restoration projects ever undertaken in South Korea, involving hundreds of highly skilled craftsmen.

"Using traditional methods and materials, we've done our best to restore it to its original state," said Kang Kyung-hwan, head of the government's Heritage Conservation Bureau, on Monday.

Seoul's 600-year-old Namdaemun (South Gate) is listed as "National Treasure Number One" and is a source of immense cultural pride.

The largely wooden structure - which survived the devastation of the 1950-53 Korean War - was reduced to ashes by a disgruntled 69-year-old man with some paint thinner and a cigarette lighter on February 10, 2008.

He torched the gate after claiming he had received insufficient compensation following the expropriation of his land as part of an apartment-building project in Seoul's northwestern satellite city of Koyang.

The five-year, 27-billion-won ($A23.83 million) reconstruction project involved 35,000 people, including more than 1000 craftsmen who used traditional tools to restore the gate to its former splendour.

"The restoration took longer than we originally thought because my team used no modern tools, only chisels and hammers," Lee Eui-sang, a 72-year-old master stone carver, told AFP on Monday during a tour for the press.

"At first I was so nervous about restoring our precious national treasure, but I've poured all my energy into rehabilitating our crucial cultural heritage," he said, stroking a new base stone.

The restoration team said the original stones and materials were used as far as possible, while a number of scorched wooden pillars were left in their damaged state to alert the public to the danger of fire.

Fortress walls that were destroyed during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule were returned to their original form and were reconnected to the gate.

All 22,000 roof tiles were made by hand. Decorative paints had to be imported from Japan, since Korean specialists had lost the art of making them in the traditional fashion.

"It's wonderful to see our foremost national treasure again. The gate looks unfamiliar due to its fresh paint but I think our pride has been restored," said Lee Un-Seok, a 35-year-old engineer passing by the landmark.

The pagoda-style, two-storey gate was first constructed in 1398, then rebuilt in 1447 and renovated several times after that.

It was one of four gates built to protect the city when it was the capital of the Joseon Dynasty, which ruled the Korean peninsula from 1392 until the Japanese occupation in 1910.

Its destruction in 2008 sent shock waves through the country, with sorrowful citizens swarming around the charred ruins, laying flowers and writing grieving messages.

The arsonist was eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison.

"He should have been jailed forever for destroying National Treasure Number One. It was restored wonderfully but my chest still feels tight," said 65-year-old Kim Song-Hyun who stopped to look at the gate, pointing to some stones stained by smoke.

"This gate is not in the same shape despite enormous efforts by craftsmen. From now on we must preserve Namdaemun and other national treasures well," said 38-year-old office worker Kim Hyo-Sung.

The government vowed to make preventing another fire a top priority.

Infrared cameras sensitive enough to detect the flame of a cigarette lighter have been installed, along with additional surveillance cameras and 152 sprinklers.

"The gate is now protected by a perfect fire prevention system," said Kang of the Heritage Conservation Bureau.

But his office admitted that Namdaemun would not be totally free from the threat of damage despite the high-tech devices and called for public safety awareness.

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Dreamliner flights resume from Ethiopia

AN Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner jet has taken off on a commercial flight, becoming the first carrier to resume flying the Boeing 787 aircraft that were grounded worldwide three months ago due to battery problems.

The flight took off from Addis Ababa on Saturday and headed to Nairobi, according to an AFP journalist.

"I am very happy to see the airplane is back to the air now and I am very happy also we are the first one," Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam told journalists ahead of take off.

The US Federal Aviation Authority on Thursday issued formal approval of Boeing's 787 battery fix, clearing the way for the troubled aircraft to fly again after the prolonged grounding.

The directive from the FAA to ground the 50 Dreamliners in operation worldwide came after a series of safety scares with the aircraft, including an emergency landing by Japan's All Nippon Airways in January following a battery malfunction.

Ethiopian Airlines has four Dreamliners, which Gebremariam said would all resume service in the coming weeks after being retrofitted with new batteries.

"This is the first airplane which has completed the work," he told reporters, adding that work has started on the company's other three 787s.

Each of the aircraft are set to receive a new battery, which is encased, allowing the plane to continue flying in the event of a malfunction.

"We've fixed the battery, we've now contained the battery, so for some chance that there is a failure with the battery, it's contained, it's isolated, the airplane will be able to continue flying," Boeing's VP of Marketing for commercial airplanes, Randy Tinseth, told AFP at the airport.

Despite the previous safety scares with the aircraft, he said customers have no reason to feel nervous about flying the Dreamliner.

"I can't wait to get back on the aircraft, and I wouldn't hesitate to bring my family on it," he said.

The three-month grounding of the 50-strong fleet has not translated to major financial losses for the US-based Boeing Company. On Wednesday Boeing reported a 20 per cent year-on-year jump in first-quarter profit.

The 787 will head back to Addis Ababa - some 1160 km from the Kenyan capital - later Saturday, airline officials said.

Passenger Francois Vaillancourt told AFP he was "not at all" nervous about flying on the first commercial flight since the fleet was grounded.

"Airlines are safest after they've had a problem, so they fixed it and it is probably three times as safe as it was before," he said.

Ethiopian Airlines is the first African carrier to operate the Dreamliner.

In addition to the four Dreamliners which were in operation before January, Ethiopian Airlines has six more on order from Boeing. The full fleet is expected to arrive by the end of 2014, including one that will be delivered in June.

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