HK man charged over undeclared $A300,000

Last updated: May 28, 2014

A HONG Kong national has been charged after attempting to leave Australia with $300,000 in undeclared cash he had stashed in his luggage.

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Ice addict thief spared extra jail time

A HOMELESS ice addict who went on a $20,000 spending spree across Sydney using credit cards stolen from mailboxes has been spared extra time in prison.

Kayla Hemmings, 25, received a minimum sentence of 18 months at the NSW District Court on Tuesday for deliberately lighting a fire at the historic Sydney pub, the Lansdowne Hotel, which caused $2 million damage.

Magistrate Eve Wynhausen said she took Tuesday's punishment into account at Central Local Court on Wednesday when she sentenced Hemmings to concurrent sentences, the longest a nine-month jail term, for a string of offences including credit card theft.

Ms Wynhausen said Hemmings had shown remorse for the two-week spending binge in October 2013, which was funded by bank cards stolen from mailboxes on Sydney's north shore.

By the time Hemmings was charged on October 31, 2013, her spending included 48 separate transactions on a credit card totalling just under $5000 and using a David Jones store card to buy two Apple Mac Pro laptops worth more than $5000.

Hemmings' counsel, Mary Underwood, told the court at her sentencing on Wednesday that her client had been using the drug ice at the time and under the influence of her boyfriend.

"I am not excusing her actions, but she did not have a serious criminal record ... until she was in a relationship with someone that amplified this behaviour," Ms Underwood said.

The lawyer said Hemmings was introduced to amphetamines as a teenager by her mother.

"Unfortunately, she's had a number of converging events," Ms Underwood said.

"There's been abuse, physical and sexual, she got pregnant and was abandoned, she was introduced to ice and got mixed up with domestic violence."

Ms Wynhausen said Hemmings' offending had cost the community tens of thousands of dollars.

"I hope that once she is released from custody, she gets her life in order," she said.

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Row over green reforms derails debate

A STRAIGHTFORWARD proposal to change the way fees are managed under national environment law has been sidetracked by a lengthy debate about the Abbott government's green credentials.

The non-controversial bill allows for cost recovery for environmental impact assessments, and on Wednesday cleared the first hurdle of parliament with bipartisan support.

But Labor's environment spokesman Mark Butler used the occasion to move an amendment condemning the government's plan to create a "one-stop-shop" for environmental approvals.

"In eight short months... this government has shown itself to have scant regard indeed for its responsibilities to protect and nurture Australia's environment," Mr Butler told the chamber.

Critics claim the proposal will erode environmental protections by handing federal powers to the states but the government argues it will deliver faster approvals and reduce regulatory duplication.

The amendment failed, and Environment Minister Greg Hunt pushed the bill through in a vote.

He said almost all state governments - Liberal and Labor - strongly supported the reforms on the table.

"The only people opposed to this reform are the current members of the federal opposition," he said.

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Letter bid to block Vic child abuse bill

Last updated: May 26, 2014

ANTI-VIOLENCE groups want three Nationals MPs to block new Victorian laws that they fear will turn women who fail to report child sexual abuse into criminals.

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Unwanted Aussies dying in India

UNWANTED, unemployed, running amok ... then ending up as roadkill. Aussie expats are in trouble overseas — and they can't fly home.

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Speaker stands by fundraising event

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop must explain what took place in her suite on budget night, says Labor. Source: AAP

SPEAKER Bronwyn Bishop has refused to reveal details of how her parliamentary office was used for a Liberal Party fundraising event.

Labor says a $2500 a head budget night function in the Speaker's Parliament House office - revealed in weekend newspaper reports and not denied by Ms Bishop - is unprecedented and breaches the independence of the role.

Ms Bishop told parliament on Monday that all members of parliament were entitled to use their suites "for their own purposes, but not for illegal purposes".

The opposition asked her to reflect on her ruling, but she stood by her statement.

Now Labor has written to the privileges committee asking for an investigation.

A motion asking the House to refer the same was voted down.

"This is a motion about smear and innuendo directed at the speaker's office," Leader of the House Christopher Pyne said, noting political fundraising events were held in Parliament House all the time.

As long as the costs were covered privately or by a political party there was no breach of the rules, he said.

Opposition frontbencher Tony Burke said the speaker's suite was a special case and the fundraiser represented "improper interference" in the independence of the office.

"This is not an ordinary venue," he told parliament.

"Your job is not owned by the Liberal Party."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is understood to have attended the fundraiser, told parliament Labor was looking for distractions from its lack of policy.

"They worry about what might be in what room at what time in this parliament," he said.

Taking aim at Labor leader Bill Shorten the prime minister said: "Really and truly, this man is no Bob Hawke - he is no leader."

Labor has been critical of Ms Bishop's appointment from an early stage, especially in her handling of question time and biased language.

She has suspended 101 opposition MPs from parliament, but none from the government.

That image was reinforced when Ms Bishop said, after Mr Burke finished his speech: "I find it a bit rough to be lectured on morality from you."

Earlier, the secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services, Carol Mills, told a Senate estimates hearing she was unaware of any rule preventing such a use of the speaker's suite.

"It is up to the speaker, president or the other holders of special suites to decide how to use them," she said.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon asked for a list of events held in Parliament House over the past three years to ascertain how many were party fundraisers.

Two previous speakers, Anna Burke and Harry Jenkins, have said they never used the suite for political fundraising events.

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Man, 21, burned in Sydney gas fireball

A GAS-FUELLED fireball in a busy northern Sydney shopping plaza has left a man with serious burns.

The 21-year-old was rushed to Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital with burns to his lower body after a gas main caught alight about 1pm (AEST) on Monday at the front of a shop in Lane Cove.

He was reported to be in a stable condition.

The local primary school was locked down and about 150 people were moved to safety as firefighters monitored the fire.

They decided not to put the fire out, opting instead to ask the gas company to shut the gas down - which it did an hour later.

"It's actually safer to allow the gas to burn," Superintendent Ian Krimmer told AAP.

"If you put the fire out, you create a bigger problem because the gas leak could go to other areas and cause explosions in other locations."

As the gas was being shut off, six fire crews were protecting buildings, while police kept Longueville Road closed to all traffic.

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Belgians vote, brace for new stalemate

Last updated: May 25, 2014

BELGIANS are casting their vote Sunday for a new national parliament, amid fears that a fresh political stalemate may be in the making for the fissured country.

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Taliban frees 24 Afghan hostages

TALIBAN militants have released 24 hostages who were seized in northeastern Afghanistan last week, an official says.

Taliban fighters captured Yamgan, a remote mountainous district in Badakhshan province on Wednesday, and took 40 policemen hostage.

Police recaptured the area on Friday.

"Tribal elders negotiated with Taliban and freed 24 hostages, most of who are policemen, but held three senior ranked officials," said Nawid Frotan, the governor spokesman for Badakhshan province.

Earlier, Fazluddin Ayyar, the provincial police chief said that 15 policemen were freed in Friday's operation.

Frotan said that the three senior ranked officials were a district police chief, a district prison chief and a member of the secret service.

The Taliban have launched their spring offensive, targeting Afghan and NATO troops, and government employees.

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Gunmen kill 6 police officers in Pakistan

GUNMEN have stormed a tribal police post in southwestern Pakistan, killing six police officers and wounding three, authorities say.

The attack took place in Wadh area of Baluchistan province's Khuzdar district, where insurgents have launched previous attacks, said Baroz Khan, a senior government official.

Officers manning the post returned fire and pushed the gunmen back toward nearby mountains, Khan said. Reinforcements from the paramilitary Frontier Corps later reached the post, some 300 kilometres south of Quetta, the provincial capital, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion immediately fell on Baluch nationalist groups who have claimed responsibility for such attacks in the past.

For over a decade, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-intensity insurgency by some nationalist groups demanding autonomy or a greater share from mineral and gas resources being extracted from the impoverished province. It is also believed to be home to many Afghan Taliban members.

Residents say a crackdown has sparked disappearances in Baluchistan blamed on security forces. They say the disappearances swelled in the mid-2000s, when Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government cracked down on insurgents there.

Two years ago, the Voice for Baluch Missing Persons organisation handed the United Nations a list of 12,000 names they said belonged to people missing in the conflict.

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Gunmen fire inside El Salvador bus, kill 6

Police in El Salvador say gunmen boarded a bus in a town near the capital killing six people. Source: AAP

POLICE in El Salvador say gunmen boarded a bus in a town near the capital and opened fired on passengers, killing six.

National police director Rigoberto Pleites said another five people were wounded during the Friday bus attack in the town of San Luis Talpa near San Salvador.

Pleites said witnesses told police the assailants were gang members dressed in uniforms similar to those issued to road maintenance workers.

He said investigators haven't confirmed they belonged to a gang.

Police Commissioner Mauricio Ramirez said there have been threats of increased violence in the country in the coming days, but he didn't provide any other details.

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