Severe weather to hit northern NSW

A SEVERE weather warning has been issued for much of northern NSW with 90-kilometres-an-hour winds and marble-sized hailstones recorded on the coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) issued the warning just after 8pm (AEDT) on Saturday for people living in the Northern Rivers, Northern Tablelands and parts of the North West Slopes and Plains.

The bureau warned that "severe thunderstorms" were forecast to produce large hailstones and heavy rainfall, leading to flash flooding and damaging winds in the area over several hours.

Locations which may be affected include Lismore, Tenterfield, Inverell, Ballina, Casino and Kyogle.

At 8pm, gusts reaching 90km/h were recorded in Woodburn near the Queensland coast with marble-sized hail also lashing the region.

The wild weather was predicted to move northeast towards Ballina before moving out to sea later on Saturday night.

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Seven soldiers killed in the Philippines

SEVEN Philippine soldiers have been killed and eight others wounded in a clash with communist guerrillas waging a decades-old Maoist insurgency.

The army casualties on Saturday were part of a foot patrol that clashed with New People's Army (NPA) rebels in a remote area of Isabela province on the main island of Luzon, Philippine Army spokesman Cirilito Sobejana said.

"They were on security operations, combat operations. We have inserted reinforcements by helicopter and are picking up the casualties," Sobejana told reporters in Manila.

Residents had told the army up to five guerrillas were also killed but no bodies of any rebels were found when the army casualties were evacuated, he said.

Fighting has broken out in two areas of the northern province of Isabela amid efforts by the government to restart stalled talks aimed at ending one of Asia's longest-running rebellions.

Sobejana said the deadly skirmish occurred during the army's patrol at dawn near the mountainous town of San Geronimo.

NPA rebels also clashed on Saturday with another army unit in the adjacent town of San Mariano, but there were no known casualties there, the military spokesman said.

Peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front, the rebels' front organisation, were due to have resumed in Norway last month.

The rebels called them off after Manila again rejected their long-standing condition that 18 jailed comrades be released before negotiations can resume.

The communists have been waging a rebellion since 1969 and more than 30,000 people have died in the conflict, according to the government.

Both sides announced in February last year, following talks in Norway, that they had set a deadline of June 2012 to sign a final peace deal, but negotiations went nowhere due to the issue of the detained guerrillas.

The military estimates the NPA's current strength at about 4000 fighters nationwide, significantly down from over 26,000 at its peak in the 1980s.

However, the NPA retains support particularly in impoverished rural areas.

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Storms create havoc across Qld

More than 6000 homes and businesses remain without power in Brisbane following a damaging storm. Source: AAP

A FIRE started, powerlines were ripped down, trees were uprooted and roofs collapsed as severe thunderstorms ripped across Queensland and caused mass electricity outages.

About 13,000 homes and business in Brisbane, Ipswich and Somerset were left without power as rain, hail and lightning struck the region at about 11am (AEST) on Saturday.

In Ipswich, a small grass fire was sparked when lightning struck a crane next to the city's hospital just after 10am but the incoming rain extinguished it, a Department of Community Services (DCS) spokeswoman told AAP.

In Ann Street in the CBD, a hotel roof collapsed under the storm while another 72 calls for assistance were made asking for help with leaking roofs and fallen trees,

"It turned day into night," a SES worker said.

"It came quickly and then it left."

By 6.30pm about 300 homes remained without power, with the majority of the outages continuing in the Algester area south of Brisbane.

An Energex spokeswoman said they were unsure as to when power would be returned to the area as the repairs were "complicated".

"We are working through the problems and doing it as quickly as we can," she said.

More than 11,000 lightning strikes were recorded across Queensland's southeast since 10am, with Energex receiving reports of more than 100 powerlines down.

Despite the widespread outages, the situation was not as bad as they have seen, the spokeswoman said.

"In our storm season we can see 20,000 to 30,000 lose power so 13,000 is really reasonable for us," she said.

But she said Energex was looking towards Toowoomba to see if the second forecast storm would wreak more damage.

On Saturday evening the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) was continuing to send out severe weather warnings for much of the state.

"Very dangerous thunderstorms" were detected at a weather radar near Oakey, west of Brisbane, at about 6.30pm.

The thunderstorms were forecast to move towards the northeast and to hit Haden, Cooyar and the area north of Crows Nest, Blackbutt, Yarraman and the area north of Cooyar.

"Destructive winds, heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding and large hailstones are likely," the BoM said.

The BoM said severe thunderstorms were also likely to produce damaging winds over the next few hours in parts of the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, Central Highlands and Coalfields, Central West and Maranoa and Warrego districts.

People in Warwick, the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Dalby, Coolangatta, Ipswich, the Moreton Bay islands, Kingaroy, Stanthorpe, Caloundra and Taroom were warned just before 8pm (AEST) to brace themselves for wild weather over the following hours.

Along the southeast, the BoM said "very dangerous" storms were detected near Esk and Lake Wivenhoe, with the front moving towards the northeast.

The wild weather was also forecast to hit the D'Aguilar Ranges, Dayboro and Mount Mee north of Brisbane by 9.15pm.

In the hour leading up to 8pm, the BoM recorded 65mm of rainfall at Buaraba, west of Brisbane.

But the BoM said severe thunderstorms were no longer occurring in the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, Central West and Maranoa and Warrego districts.

As the storm continues to lash Queensland, Energex said more than 1000 homes and businesses were without power in the Lockyer Valley area west of Brisbane.

Meanwhile more than 1600 homes had lost power in Brisbane city.

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German police stop man with mobile office

FORGET texting while driving. German police say they nabbed a driver who had wired his Ford station wagon with an entire mobile office.

Saarland state police said Friday the 35-year-old man was pulled over for doing 130 kph (80 mph) in a 100 kph zone while passing a truck Monday.

Built on a wooden frame on his passenger seat they found a laptop on a docking station tilted for easy driver access, a printer, router, wireless internet stick, WLAN antenna, and an inverter to power it all.

A navigation system and cellphone mounted to the windshield completed the array.

Since there was no evidence he used the office while moving, he got away with a 120 euro ($A149.61) speeding ticket and a possible fine for having unsecured items in his car.

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Buddhist monk self-immolates in France

A BRITISH monk died in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in France after he poured petrol over his clothes and set himself alight, police said Friday.

The 38-year-old Briton, whom police did not name, had been living at Nalanda monastery near the southwestern village of Labastide-Saint-Georges for the past five years.

He carried out the act on Thursday in the garden of the monastery, which is home to 25 monks and 20 lay people and which on its website describes itself as "a unique monastery for Western monks in the Tibetan Geluk tradition".

Police were seeking to establish whether the victim had been depressive or if he might have committed suicide in an act of solidarity with Tibetans in China.

More than 30 people have set themselves on fire in China's Tibetan-inhabited regions since March 2011 in protest at what they say is religious and cultural repression by the Chinese authorities.

Tibetans have long chafed under China's rule over the vast Tibetan plateau, accusing Beijing of curbing religious freedoms and eroding their culture and language.

The tensions have intensified over the past year, but Beijing insists that Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and have benefited from improved living standards brought on by China's economic expansion.

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Royals wave goodbye to New Zealand

Prince Charles (L) and wife Camilla will tour Christchurch on the final day of their tour of NZ. Source: AAP

PRINCE Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, have waved goodbye to New Zealand and are winging their way back home to Britain.

The royals departed Christchurch Airport late on Friday night, having spent six days in the country on the last leg of their Diamond Jubilee tour representing the Queen.

The final day of the tour was spent in quake-ravaged Christchurch, where the couple checked out work being done to rebuild the city.

There were blue skies overhead as the couple arrived at the 150th Canterbury A&P show for their final public engagement on Friday afternoon.

After presenting the award for supreme animal in show, the prince and duchess wandered around some of the stalls, picking up a bottle of Lone Goat wine along the way.

Camilla also sampled some cheese at the Neudorf Dairy stall, which she said was "delicious".

Earlier, the duchess was taken for a twirl on a makeshift dance floor in the Christchurch central business district by the founder of the student volunteer army, Sam Johnson.

Mr Johnson asked Camilla for a dance at the dance-o-mat, a temporary space created in response to the loss of many dance studios and performance spaces around the city as a result of the quakes.

Not to be overshadowed, Prince Charles swayed on to the mat, followed by Christchurch mayor Bob Parker and his wife, Jo Nicholls Parker.

The youthful army was formed in response to the need for volunteer help in the wake of the February 2011 quake which killed 185 people and destroyed the centre of Christchurch.

The demolition work didn't stop for the visit, with concrete tumbling from one of the nearby buildings carefully being pulled down in the CBD red zone and dust lingered in the air as the royals wandered through Cashel Mall.

Thousands of Cantabrians lined the mall hoping to catch a glimpse of the prince and duchess.

On her visit to the shipping container mall, Camilla picked up some items from one store, Hapa, including a merino scarf, a jumper, and five kiwi toys which she said were for her grandchildren.

Her press secretary tried to pay for the items, but the shop owner refused the money.

The royals had arrived in the city about midday and were welcomed at Christchurch City Council by the mayor, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) chief executive Roger Sutton.

The couple then met privately with 20 people seriously injured in the 2011 quake and their caregivers.

The tour has also included visits to Auckland, Wellington and Feilding.

It was Camilla's first trip to New Zealand, while Prince Charles was last there in 2005.

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S Africa platinum workers report for duty

ANGLO American Platinum Ltd. says miners in South Africa have returned to work, ending a more than eight-week strike that crippled the world's largest platinum producer.

Company spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said the workers returned on Thursday and would get safety briefings before work began.

During the strike the company fired 12,000 workers then later reinstated them. They reached a deal after Anglo American offered a one-time payment and salary options to the striking workers.

In a statement to investors, the company said its year-end earnings "will decrease by more than 20 per cent" compared with the previous year, partly because of the strike.

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Australia urges calm in Middle East

THE Australian government has urged Israel and Palestine to exercise restraint and step back from the brink of full-scale war.

Israel has launched a major offensive on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, assassinating military commander Ahmed Jabari and striking more than 100 militant targets.

It says it has been forced to act due to mounting rocket attacks on towns in its south.

The offensive has killed at least ten Palestinians and wounded about 100 more. Three Israelis were killed by a rocket attack on the town of Kiryat Malahi on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said he did not want to see the conflict escalate further.

"All we can do is urge both sides to exercise restraint," he told Sky News.

Senator Carr called on Hamas to cease its rocket attacks on Israel's south but also called on Israel to ensure its response was proportionate.

"But rather than attacks and responses, let's set that aside and have mutual restraint and have both sides - Palestinians and Israelis - commit to resuming negotiations to get that two-state solution."

Senator Carr said he hoped the United Nations Security Council could push both sides towards restraint.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott condemned the rocket attacks on Israel.

"We of course regret the escalation of conflict, but Israel has every right to defend itself against the threat while continuing to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties," he said in a statement.

Mr Abbott's deputy, Julie Bishop, said the extremists behind the attacks on Israel's south were seeking to terrorise and kill Israeli civilians.

"The first step towards resolving this latest conflict is for Hamas and other armed groups to halt the attacks on Israel and to commit to peaceful negotiations," she said.

Australia-born Israeli diplomat and spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mark Regev, said Israel's operation was "fundamentally defensive".

"Israel is acting to defend our people, as I believe the Australian government would if Australian citizens were being rocketed by terrorists," he told ABC television.

"We have to deal with this threat and we have to try to neutralise this threat."

He conceded the situation "could get worse before it gets better."

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Accused Sydney killer faces third trial

A SYDNEY jury has been told they must not draw any "adverse inference" from the fact a man accused of killing his gay lover is facing a third trial.

Philip Wan Por Leung, 51, has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of 72-year-old Mario Guzzetti, who died at the home they shared at Alexandria, in inner Sydney, on April 7, 2007.

Paramedics found Mr Guzzetti lying on his back at the base of a staircase, with a hysterical Leung cradling a pillow under his partner's head and rocking him from side to side.

The crown alleges the couple argued while Leung was making carrot juice, resulting in Leung striking Mr Guzzetti and applying pressure to his neck area.

In the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, Justice Derek Price told the jury they had "heard there have been two previous trials".

"Due to matters of law, the accused is standing trial. You must not draw any inference adverse to the accused from that fact," he said.

Earlier, Leung broke down sobbing during evidence being given by Josephine DiFrancesca, a friend of him and Mr Guzzetti.

Ms DiFrancesca was questioned about a phone call she made to Leung on the morning of Mr Guzzetti's death.

"Did you hear Philip crying over the phone?" crown prosecutor Mark Hobart SC asked.

"Yes," she said, adding that she assumed something was wrong and called her husband to go to the house and check on the couple.

She said her husband found Leung holding Mr Guzzetti and told his daughter to call an ambulance.

Fiona Cunney, who lived next door, told the court she heard noises about an hour before paramedics arrived.

She said she heard "crashing sounds", like a shelf with pots and pans falling, and what she believed was Mr Guzzetti "singing opera" for about 10 seconds and then silence.

Leung later started crying "like a baby", Ms Cunney said, but she decided not to call police because she "didn't want to get involved".

Defence barrister Winston Terracini SC questioned her evidence, alleging Ms Cunney did not like Leung and had had prior arguments with him over renovation works.

Friend Raymond Carter said he was called to the police station where Leung was being held but could barely understand him.

He told the court Leung repeatedly screamed, "Mario is not dead," before saying he and Mr Guzzetti had argued while he was making carrot juice.

"Mario kept at me," Leung allegedly said.

Mr Carter, a former boyfriend of Leung's, added that he'd never witnessed any violence between the "loving and caring" couple but had heard of occasional arguments.

He said Leung was "stubborn" and "not a very diplomatic person" but never violent.

"He'd walk away, slam the door and it'd be a day or two before you'd see him," he told the court.

The trial before Justice Price continues.

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Hong Kong shares close 1.20% higher

HONG Kong shares have climbed 1.20 per cent, in line with a regional rebound after recent selling fuelled by concerns over the US fiscal cliff.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index, which had lost more than four per cent in the past four sessions, rose 253.34 points to 21,441.99 on turnover of HK$48.34 billion ($A6.01 billion) on Wednesday.

Dealers were also looking to mainland China as the Communist Party prepares to unveil its top decision-making body on Thursday, with hopes leaders will clarify their plans for the economy.

The index, along with global markets, has fallen over the past week as investors grow nervous about the US fiscal cliff of tax hikes and spending cuts that are due to take effect from January 1.

The package, agreed last year during a spending cap face-off between Democrats and Republicans, will almost certainly tip the economy back into recession if a deal between deeply divided politicians cannot be made.

"It is difficult to understand the confidence that investors have in the ability of US politicians to accomplish in the next few months what they haven't been able to do in the past two years," investment house UBS said.

US politicians are expected to begin negotiations on Friday.

In Hong Kong, aluminium giant Chalco rose 2.8 per cent to HK$3.32, while China's largest two banks ICBC and China Construction Bank, and mainland developer China Resources Land all rallied more than 3.0 per cent.

Chinese shares closed 0.37 per cent higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 7.53 points to 2,055.42 on turnover of 35.9 billion yuan ($A5.59 billion).

"The market is likely to welcome a Politburo Standing Committee line-up that includes more leaders who favour reform," Changjiang Securities analyst Wu Bangdong told Dow Jones Newswires.

Aluminium producers rose as dealers bet that the falls in prices would be arrested after state media said China may soon start government procurement of the metal.

Chalco jumped 4.65 per cent to 4.95 yuan, Shandong Nanshan Aluminium rose 2.22 per cent to 6.45 yuan and Dongyangguang Aluminum added 0.86 per cent to 8.24 yuan.

Among liquor makers, Xinjiang Yilite Industry gained 3.01 per cent to 13.68 yuan, while Sichuan Swellfun climbed 1.33 per cent to 22.81 yuan.

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