Downer elected SA Liberal party president

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer has been elected president of the Liberal Party in SA. Source: AAP

FORMER foreign minister Alexander Downer has been elected unopposed as the president of the South Australian Liberal Party.

Mr Downer replaces Grant Chapman who has held the position for the past three years.

His appointment was confirmed at the party's annual meeting in Adelaide on Saturday.

Mr Downer said the challenge for the party was to ensure the election of a Liberal government in South Australia in March next year.

"In the last few months this party has shown rather surprising, but very welcome, unity," He said.

"If we can maintain this sense of unity, focus on a single goal and a determination to achieve that goal then we'll have a great victory."

Mr Downer said the election would not be easy and the party had to ensure it retained its marginal seats and picked up marginal seats from the Labor government.

At the last election in 2010 the Liberals won the popular vote but failed to win a number of key seats it needed to form government.

"So it's not about the number of votes, it's about the number of seats," Mr Downer said.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott congratulated Mr Downer on his appointment, describing the former minister as one of the great performers in former prime minister John Howard's government.

"I know he is absolutely the man to lead and guide the party as you approach the vital (state) election in March of next year," Mr Abbott told the annual meeting.

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No charges for driving on US jet survivor

A firefighter who ran over and killed a survivor of the Asiana Airlines crash will not be charged. Source: AAP

THE US firefighter who ran over and killed a survivor of the Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco was unaware she was responsible for the girl's death at the time of the incident.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said on Friday that the firefighter was responding to the burning Boeing 777 when the truck she was driving unknowingly rolled over Ye Mengyuan.

Investigators believe Ye was laying prone on the tarmac and covered in firefighting foam.

Wagstaffe said Duckett would not be charged criminally.

The San Francisco Fire Department chief declined to discuss the 16-year-old's death, but said in a prepared statement that firefighters likely saved the lives of many critically wounded passengers.

In all, 304 of the 307 people aboard the Boeing 777 survived the July 6 crash.

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Stars help open US performing arts centre

LA's Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts has been opened with a black-tie gala. Source: AAP

MOST community performing-arts centres open with the mayor in attendance, maybe a few local business owners.

Not in Beverly Hills.

The opening of the city's Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts was celebrated with a black-tie gala on Thursday night that drew scores of stars, including Kevin Spacey, Charlize Theron, Jodie Foster, Amy Adams, Demi Moore, an apparently pregnant Gwen Stefani, her husband Gavin Rossdale and many others.

"It's such an artistic community here," said Adams, who sat near actress Maria Bello.

"It's really nice to bring the arts that inform the film community to Beverly Hills. It's nice to have it in our backyard."

Joe Jonas, Josh Duhamel, Sherry Lansing, Nicole Richie, Courteney Cox, James Caan, Jason Bateman and Suzanne Somers also attended the opening-night gala. The mayor of Beverly Hills was on hand, too, thanking the centre's namesake benefactor for "saving our city from being a cultural wasteland."

The new facility, which has been under construction for a decade, takes over the city's original 1933 post office building. It now boasts two theatres and will host concerts, plays, dance performances and drama classes for young people.

Keeping with the building's original theme, Spacey, John Lithgow and Diane Lane helped inaugurate the new 500-seat Goldsmith Theater by reading letters from Groucho Marx, Tennessee Williams, Peter Tchaikovsky and others.

A dinner of filet mignon over white truffle risotto followed the performance, along with a fashion show by event sponsor Salvatore Ferragamo and a performance by Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo.

Public performances by the Martha Graham Dance Company begin at the Wallis centre next month.

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Cat loses leg after being shot in WA

The RSPCA is investigating after a cat's leg was amputated after being shot with a rifle in WA. Source: AAP

AN 18-month old cat has lost a leg after it was shot with a rifle in Western Australia.

Stella was found limping by her owner when she returned to her Broome home on Thursday, the RSPCA says.

Bullet fragments were found in the cat's right front leg by a vet.

"Due to the severity of its injuries the leg had to be amputated," RSPCA chief David van Ooran said in a statement.

"Stella the cat is currently recovering well and should be well enough to go home (on Saturday)."

Mr van Ooran added he was "disgusted to see defenceless animals being deliberately killed or injured."

The RSPCA is also investigating the shooting of a horse with a shotgun and cases where dogs, pelican, ducks and cats were shot with arrows.

"Penalties for this kind of offence can range from a $2000 minimum fine up to a $50,000 fine and five years' imprisonment," Mr van Ooran warned.

Anyone with information about the animal attacks is asked to contact the RSPCA.

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Activist Malala meets Queen at reception

SCHOOLGIRL Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, spoke to the Queen about the importance of education when they met at Buckingham Palace.

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Malaysia must back off threats: Xenophon

INDEPENDENT Senator Nick Xenophon has called on the government to press Malaysia to back off threats against students who attend an event featuring opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim this weekend.

Senator Xenophon said the level of paranoia from the Malaysian government was just extraordinary.

"The Australian government needs to make it absolutely clear to the Malaysian government as a matter of urgency some time on Friday that these threats are completely unacceptable," he told ABC's 730 on Thursday.

"These students have a right to attend this forum involving Malaysia's opposition leader without any fear of retribution."

Mr Ibrahim, a longtime opponent of the Malaysian government who was jailed for nine years on trumped up sodomy charges, will speak at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas on Saturday.

But Malaysian students in Australia had been warned against attending.

An email from the student adviser at the Malaysian consulate in Sydney reportedly told Malaysian scholarship students to stay away.

"I wouldn't hesitate to take stern action to those scholars who are involved. You know really well what you have signed into," the email said, according to ABC television.

Senator Xenophon, who was barred from entering Malaysia in February and is now banned from returning there, said Mr Ibrahim was an impressive figure who had been jailed, victimised and defamed by the Malaysian government.

"There needs to be a guarantees by the Malaysian government that this threat will be withdrawn and there will be no consequences," he said.

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NT education minister booed at rally

HUNDREDS of protesters have shouted down the Northern Territory's education minister at a rally against cuts to education funding.

About 500 teachers, parents, and supporters gathered in front of Darwin's Parliament House on Thursday to protest against the loss of 35 teacher positions.

The NT has the worst educational outcomes in Australia, and despite significant financial investment over the past five years there hasn't been any notable improvement, Education Minister Peter Chandler says.

"We've got to do things differently," he told reporters.

"The budget is not the same as it used to be. We've got to find savings within all departments across government."

Sixty-six extra teachers will be added to teach transition to year two, he says, with the student-teacher ratio there improving from 22:1 to 20:1.

But for middle school students classes will grow from 17 to 20 students per teacher, and from 14 to 18 per teacher in high school.

The minister says the new staffing allocation formula will guarantee teacher allocations for a full year, when previously schools could lose teachers from term to term due to fluctuating enrolments.

Mr Chandler was drowned out by hecklers as he told the rally the cuts would apply next year, but would be put on hold for 2014 pending the recommendations from curriculum and indigenous education reviews.

Opposition Leader Delia Lawrie said if cuts could be deferred to 2014, they could be stopped now.

"Listen to teachers, principals and education experts who, with a singular voice, are saying you don't get better educational outcomes with fewer teachers," she said.

"It does not make sense."

The minister was presented with a bark petition painted by Gatjilayngu (Yalmay) Yunupingu, wife of the deceased Yothu Yindi frontman Dr Yunupingu, the first Aboriginal person in Arnhem Land to get a degree.

Student teacher Chris Green is about to graduate from Charles Darwin University, and told the rally that if the cuts went ahead, many graduates would have no choice but to leave the Territory in search of work.

"Losing a generation of highly talented teachers would be a disgrace, not only for students but for the Territory itself," he said.

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Several fires raging around Newcastle

SEVERAL out-of-control fires are raging north, south and west of Newcastle, forcing the closure and evacuation of the airport with authorities advising people in some threatened areas to leave.

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Italy may send Nazi's body to Germany

ITALY appears set to send the body of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke to Germany as it commemorated the 70th anniversary of a round-up of Jews from the historic Jewish quarter of Rome.

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HSU to chase Williamson settlement

THE Health Services Union says it's determined to wring a $5 million settlement from its disgraced former boss Michael Williamson, who has apparently declared himself bankrupt.

The former HSU secretary and Labor Party president on Tuesday pleaded guilty to various charges including defrauding the union of almost $1 million.

It's reported he declared himself bankrupt on the same day.

With hopes of putting an end to "the Williamson era", the HSU also revealed it had secured a $5 million judgment in a Supreme Court civil claim.

The HSU's Gerard Hayes says the union will do what it can to claw back the money from Williamson, bankrupt or not.

For starters, it hopes to recoup what it can from Williamson's six-bedroom home at Maroubra, which went to auction on Wednesday night. But according to Macquarie Radio, the property failed to sell, with no one putting up a bid.

The three-level rendered brick home on Meagher Ave - with parquet floors, in-ground pool, wine cellar and ocean views - was expected to fetch $1.5 million.

Mr Hayes said union members could still take some comfort from Williamson's guilty plea, the civil settlement and an apology that came with it.

"He's in survival mode and manoeuvring however he can," he told AAP.

"At least the apology is an acknowledgment that he's done what he's done."

In addition, under the civil settlement, the union will not have to pay Williamson's $1.1 million superannuation and $600,000 of claimed leave entitlements.

"This is 1.7 million that is not flowing out of the union," Mr Hayes said.

The agreement was brokered through mediation by former federal attorney-general Robert McClelland, the HSU says.

In the apology, Williamson said he wished to "place on record my sincere apology to all of you".

"You placed your trust in me when I was the General Secretary and I abused that trust," he said.

"I apologise unreservedly to all of you for my actions, which were not in keeping with the position I formerly held."

He says he will "have to live with this matter until the day I die" and urged members "not to desert the union".

Williamson faces up to 30 years in jail.

A date for his sentencing will be set on October 25.

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