Puppy room set up at Canadian university

A Canadian university has created a "puppy room" to help stressed students calm their nerves. Source: AAP

A CANADIAN university has created a "puppy room" to help stressed students calm their nerves.

Dalhousie University's student union is opening a puppy room next week where students can spend time with dogs, including Roc, a loveable St Bernard.

"They can come in and sit down, they can pat the dogs, talk to the dogs," St Bernard owner Mark Grant told CBC News.

"That's our hope ... that the dogs will bring as much comfort to the individuals that we're going to meet as the individuals will bring to the dogs."

The puppy room idea came from Montreal's McGill University, which has a similar dog therapy program.

According to CTV News the animals will be provided by Therapeutic Paws Canada, which usually brings them to nursing homes, hospitals and schools.

Dalhousie is bringing several kinds of dogs to campus, including a Labradoodle, a Sheltie, a Papillon and a Golden Retriever.

"It's a great idea," said Dalhousie student Michael Kean, who proposed the puppy room idea.

"There's no downfall about therapy dogs.

"Students, we're stressed out, don't know what to do, and they're fluffy. It comes down to that."

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NSW man charged over 2011 school blaze

A MAN has been charged over a fire that gutted a southern NSW high school building two summers ago.

The blaze took hold at Yass High School on Grampian Street, Yass, just before dawn on January 29, 2011.

A message to parents on the school's website indicates the fire destroyed the school's canteen.

Goulburn police joined Fire and Rescue NSW officers to investigate the fire in Strike Force Severn.

"Following an exhaustive investigation, an 18-year-old man was arrested by strike force detectives at Goulburn Police Station yesterday," police said in a statement on Saturday.

The Yass man was charged with malicious damage by fire and released on conditional bail to appear at Yass Children's Court on February 5.

A blaze broke out at the same school last weekend, but a police spokeswoman told AAP investigators did not believe the two fires were connected.

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Suu Kyi urges talks to end mine protests

Aung San Suu Kyi is urging for talks to end protests over a military-backed copper mine in Myanmar. Source: AAP

OPPOSITION leader Aung San Suu Kyi is urging a negotiated resolution to protests over a military-backed copper mine in northwestern Myanmar (Burma).

The call on Friday follows the government's biggest crackdown on demonstrators since reformist President Thein Sein took office last year.

Riot police used water cannons, tear gas and smoke bombs to break up the 11-day occupation of the Letpadaung copper mine, wounding dozens of villagers and Buddhist monks early on Thursday.

The action was a public relations disaster for Thein Sein's government, which has touted Myanmar's transition to democracy after almost five decades of repressive military rule.

In a visit scheduled before the crackdown, Suu Kyi met on Thursday with company officials and protesters and was scheduled to meet with local officials and others on Friday.

The mine is jointly operated by a Chinese company and a holding company controlled by Myanmar's military, and activists say as the project expands, villagers have been forced from their land with little compensation.

Through state television, the government initially acknowledged using the riot-control measures, but denied using excessive force against the protesters. In an unusual move, it later retracted the statement without explanation.

Protesters suffered serious burns after the crackdown near the town of Monywa.

It was unclear if people were burned by the weapons themselves or because the weapons ignited fires in shelters at the protest camps.

"I didn't expect to be treated like this, as we were peacefully protesting," said Aung Myint Htway, a peanut farmer whose face and body were covered with black patches of burned skin.

Another protester, Ottama Thara, said: "This kind of violence should not happen under a government that says it is committed to democratic reforms."

Still writhing from pain hours after the early morning crackdown, Aung Myint Htway said police fired water cannons first and then shot what he and others called flare guns.

"They fired black balls that exploded into fire sparks. They shot about six times. People ran away and they followed us," he said. "It's very hot."

Suu Kyi's visit to nearby Kan-Kone village had been scheduled before the crackdown.

The Nobel Peace laureate, elected to parliament after spending most of the past two decades under house arrest, unexpectedly went to the mine to meet with its operators before making her speech.

"I already met one side. I met with mine operators. I want to meet with villagers and protesters," she said.

"I haven't made any decision yet. I want to meet with both sides and negotiate," she said in a speech that lasted less than 15 minutes.

"Will you agree with my negotiating?"

The crowd shouted its assent.

Some of Suu Kyi's comments suggested that she may not fully embrace the tactics of the protesters.

"When dealing with people, I don't always follow what people like. I only tell the truth," she said.

"I will work for the long-term benefit of the country."

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Made in Wadeye was inspired by community

AN artwork that was created following the artist's visit to a remote Aboriginal settlement in the Northern Territory has won the $30,000 Dobell Prize for Drawing 2012.

Gareth Sansom's work, Made in Wadeye, is a suite of 20 drawings in ink, lead pencil, graphite, coloured watercolour pencil, felt tipped pen, ball point pen, egg tempera, earth and collage.

It is the 20th year of the Art Gallery of NSW's prize and 639 drawings were entered, of which 47 were chosen as finalists.

Sansom, 73, visited the Aboriginal community southwest of Darwin in September this year, where his doctor wife was working in the clinic.

Reference to the Wadeye community can be found in a small, collaged, photocopied map, and earth, captured in the egg tempera paint.

But although the visit to Wadeye was the impetus for the series, it was not its subject.

Sansom says: "I make stream-of-consciousness drawings with sources going back years."

The judge, Aida Tomescu, said Made in Wadeye hovered on the outskirts of figuration and on the borderline of abstraction.

"I am attracted to the freshness of the work, its clarity and its light playfulness, and the unpredictability of the succession of images, and delicacy of the rapport between them," she says.

The art gallery says Sansom has been a pre-eminent figure of the Australian avant garde for over 50 years.

His watercolours, collages and paintings are based on a personal iconography that includes imagery of a sexual, satirical and philosophical nature.

Born in Melbourne, Sansom studied art at RMIT between 1959 and 1964 and came to prominence in the 1960s as a radical convention-breaking painter, with influences ranging from Picasso and Jean Dubuffet to Francis Bacon and British pop art.

He was Head of Painting, then Dean of the School of Art, at the Victorian College of the Arts between 1977 and 1991.

Sansom has exhibited widely, represented Australia at the Seventh Triennale, India in 1991 and won numerous awards, including the National Works on Paper Award in 2006 and John McCaughey Memorial Prize in 2008.

The art gallery also announced that this is the final year of the Dobell Drawing Prize in its present form.

It and the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation instead will launch the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial in 2014.

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Tony Burke 'honourable', says Joyce

Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce (pic) has heaped praise on Environment Minister Tony Burke. Source: AAP

IN a rare moment of bipartisanship during a heated week in federal parliament, Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce has heaped praise on Environment Minister Tony Burke.

Senator Joyce praised Mr Burke for being "honourable" in their discussions on the Murray-Darling Basin plan.

"It just goes to show that when people say that there is no agreement between parties, that they're continually negative, that the only say no ... it doesn't stand the rigours of closer investigation," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

"Because on crucial bits of legislation we obviously do (agree)."

Senator Joyce said that all deliberations between him and the minister regarding the plan had stayed private.

"I know that he could not give us everything we would have wanted and I understood that," he said.

The lower house of parliament on Wednesday paved the way for the Murray-Darling Basin to receive an extra 450 gigalitres of water for its ailing ecosystem.

The extra water will be acquired by improving water efficiency on farms and removing key river constraints, like bridges and weirs, that affect flow throughout the basin.

The bill now needs to pass the Senate.

MPs will debate a disallowance motion to the Murray-Darling Basin plan, made law by Mr Burke last week.

Labor and most of the coalition will vote against the motion.

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Obama urges pressure on Congress for debt

US President Barack Obama urged Americans to pressure Congress to avert looming austerity measures. Source: AAP

US President Barack Obama has urged Americans to pressure Congress to avert looming austerity measures as part of a publicity effort around the so-called fiscal cliff.

"There is no reason why taxes on middle-class families should go up. It would be bad for the economy. It would be bad for those families. In fact, it would be bad for the world economy," Obama said before a cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday.

"And so I think it's very important that we get that resolved. And I am very open to a fair and balanced approach to reduce our deficit and provide the kind of certainty that businesses and consumers need so that we can keep this recovery going."

Unless Republicans and Democrats agree on an alternative, the economy will be hit by a 600-billion-dollar double whammy of budget cuts and tax increases starting January 1.

Obama had earlier hosted a group at the White House to call on constituents to pressure MPs, and has been reaching out to supporters using email and social media. Obama has met with business leaders and will travel Friday to a toy factory in Pennsylvania to stress the potential economic harm of a combination of federal spending cuts and income tax hikes.

Obama's approach has drawn criticism for being too heavy on election-style campaigning without enough focus on actual negotiation with Republican MPs. White House reporters this week grilled Obama spokesman Jay Carney about the strategy.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday: "Rather than sitting down with MPs of both parties and working out an agreement, he's back out on the campaign trail, presumably with the same old talking points we're all familiar with."

The biggest sticking point is Democratic insistence that the highest earners face higher marginal income tax rates, while middle and lower-income earners should continue to benefit from Bush-era tax cuts. Republicans want to keep the tax cuts across the board.

Obama said Wednesday that because both sides agreed the middle class should not face tax hikes that MPs should proceed with action on that matter, but that the highest earners should be taxed at higher rates on income above 250,000 dollars.

Another conflict point is Republican insistence that government entitlement programs, such as Social Security and medical insurance for the poor and elderly, be reformed, which left-leaning Democrats have opposed.

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China passport map causes concern

The map in Chinese passports that shows disputed regions as part of China upset several countries. Source: AAP

SEVERAL countries are upset about a map in new Chinese passports that shows disputed islands as being part of China.

The map, which is printed on inside pages of the passport, shows an outline of China and includes Taiwan and the South China Sea, hemmed in by dashes.

The Philippines and Vietnam have objected to the map's depiction of disputed islands as being part of China.

India has complained about its depiction of its northern border with China, and retaliated by issuing Chinese citizens with visas embossed with its own map.

Taiwan has also condemned the map.

The United States said on Tuesday it would raise concerns with Beijing that the map was causing "tension and anxiety" among claimant states in the disputed South China Sea.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news briefing it was up to countries to decide what their passports looked like.

But she questioned whether it was politically smart or helpful to be taking steps that antagonise countries."

She said it was unhelpful for creating an environment for resolving the territorial disputes.

The US intervention won't be welcomed by Beijing, which regards as meddling Washington's advocacy for peaceful settlement of the conflicting claims in the South China Sea.

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Woman faces fine over jetski death video

A 21-YEAR-OLD Australian woman plans to plead no contest to a charge of destroying evidence after her boyfriend killed a teenager in a jet ski accident in Hawaii.

Under a plea by mail submitted to a Honolulu court, Natasha Ryan of Brisbane admitted on Tuesday that she purposely deleted video she had taken of the August 5 jet ski accident.

Kristen Fonseca, 16, of California was killed in the accident. Tyson Dagley, 20, from Brisbane was convicted of third-degree negligent homicide.

According to a report in the Honolulu Star Advertiser, a court will decide on an agreement proposed by Ryan's lawyer.

Ryan is on $US500 ($A480) bail and her lawyer is arguing the amount should be forfeited as a fine.

The prosecutor wants a fine of $US2000.

Dagley was standing on a rented jet ski before it hit Fonseca's watercraft from behind. Dagley admitted he was not paying attention to where he was going, only looking at his girlfriend who was taking video and photos.

Dagley was sentenced to the 12 days he had already spent in jail and ordered to pay the Fonseca family $US78,000 in restitution.

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Baillieu to respond to ombudsman on IBAC

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu says he will respond to the ombudsman, who has criticised the IBAC. Source: AAP

VICTORIAN Premier Ted Baillieu says he will respond to the ombudsman over a leaked letter in which the watchdog criticises the government's proposed new anti-corruption regime.

In a letter Mr Baillieu received on Monday night, Ombudsman George Brouwer expressed grave concerns about the new integrity regime, which would see him oversighted by a new body called the Victorian Inspectorate.

"I consider that the scheme is poorly designed (and) that enacting the bills will be a significant backward step for public-sector accountability," Mr Brouwer said in the letter, obtained by Fairfax Media.

The ombudsman would lose his role as a clearing house for whistleblower complaints, which would be transferred to the Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).

Mr Brouwer wants the government to delay debate on the remaining integrity bills before parliament so he can prepare a report on the proposed regime.

Mr Baillieu said he had received Mr Brouwer's letter and would respond appropriately.

"We certainly don't necessarily agree with his commentary but we respect the ombudsman," he told reporters on Tuesday.

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said Labor would move amendments to the legislation but ultimately the government had a mandate to overhaul the integrity regime.

He said Labor was concerned some potentially corrupt conduct would be beyond the reach of both the ombudsman and the IBAC.

"We will seek to insert the offence of misconduct in public office," Mr Andrews told reporters.

"There are significant gaps in this model.

"Whether you like the ombudsman or not, he's the ombudsman; he's an officer of this parliament, and when he makes these sorts of stinging criticisms, the premier ought to respond to them."

Mr Andrews said Labor would refer to the IBAC the saga concerning conflicting evidence from Deputy Premier Peter Ryan and his former police secretary Bill Tilley about a plot to replace Simon Overland with his deputy, Sir Ken Jones, as chief of police.

Labor also plans to refer Mr Baillieu's former chief of staff Michael Kapel and Mr Ryan's former adviser Tristan Weston to the IBAC over the Overland affair.

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Sarkozy calls for new vote

Ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy called for a vote to resolve the leadership battle in the UMP. Source: AAP

EX-PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a fresh vote to resolve the bitter leadership battle that has left France's main right-wing opposition party, the UMP, on the verge of collapse, party officials say.

The UMP, the political heir to the party founded by Charles de Gaulle after World War II, is in turmoil after accusations of vote-rigging tarnished a leadership vote pitting former prime minister Francois Fillon against hardline rival Jean-Francois Cope.

At a peacemaking lunch Monday with Fillon, Sarkozy said holding a new vote would "avoid an escalation of the conflict", a party source told AFP - an account confirmed by both Fillon and Cope loyalists in the party.

Still reeling from its loss of the presidency and parliament this year, the UMP is facing the spectre of an unprecedented split as both rivals have refused to back down in the increasingly angry dispute.

The ridicule foisted on the party over the leadership debacle has done serious damage to its image, benefiting Socialist President Francois Hollande as he struggles with a flat economy and dropping popularity.

Some UMP deputies were already raising the prospect on Monday of breaking away from the party's parliamentary faction - a move that would deprive it of crucial public funding.

Sarkozy flew in early Monday from a conference in Shanghai for his lunch with Fillon, which lasted more than hour in Sarkozy's office in central Paris.

A party heavyweight who earlier failed in a mediation bid had urged Sarkozy - still enormously popular with the UMP rank-and-file despite his loss to Hollande in May's presidential vote - to intervene.

"Clearly (Sarkozy) is the only one today to have enough authority to propose a way out," former foreign minister Alain Juppe told RTL radio.

Fillon, 58, and Cope, 48, have traded accusations of fraud and ballot-rigging since last Sunday's election for a party president ended with Cope ahead.

Speaking at UMP headquarters, Cope called on the party to choose "forgiveness over division" and "the future over bitterness".

He said the party needed Fillon and urged him to join a proposed team for reconciliation.

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China in first aircraft carrier landing

China has successfully landed a fighter jet on its new aircraft carrier during military exercises. Source: AAP

CHINA has conducted the first landing of a fighter jet on its new aircraft carrier in a move that extends Beijing's ability to project its growing military might in territorial disputes.

The Chinese-made J-15 made the successful landing on the Liaoning, a former Soviet carrier, during recent exercises, the defence ministry said in a report on Sunday on the flight tests.

The Liaoning went into service in September in a symbolic milestone for China's growing military muscle that comes at a time when Beijing is increasingly embroiled in a series of territorial disputes with its neighbours.

"The successful landing ... has always been seen as a symbol of the operating combat capability for an aircraft carrier," Zhang Junshe, a vice-director at the military's Naval Affairs Research Institute, told state television.

"This is a landmark event for China's aircraft carrier ... and (moves it) one step closer to combat readiness."

Video carried by China Central Television showed a tail hook on the rear of the J-15 catching hold of a cable on the deck of the aircraft carrier as the jet landed and slowed to a halt.

China had not previously announced that its navy possessed such highly technical cable landing technology.

The J-15 had also successfully taken off from the aircraft, the ministry said.

The J-15 is a Chinese designed multi-purpose carrier-borne fighter jet based on Russia's Sukoi 33, equipped with Russian engines and capable of carrying precision-guided bombs, press reports said.

Since the carrier entered service, the crew have completed more than 100 training and test programs, the ministry said.

China bought the stripped-down 300-metre carrier from Ukraine nearly 10 years ago and refurbished it at the northeastern port of Dalian.

Construction of the vessel, formerly known as the Varyag, was commissioned by the former Soviet Union more than 20 years ago, but work halted with the sudden collapse of the Soviet bloc.

The Liaoning - named for the northeastern province that includes Dalian - is not expected to be fully operational for another three years at least.

Over the past year, China has become increasingly assertive over its long-time maritime territorial claims as its economic and military power have expanded, causing rising anxiety among its neighbours.

Tensions in the East China Sea have risen dramatically in recent months over islands known as the Diaoyus to Beijing and claimed by Tokyo as the Senkakus.

China is locked in a similar row with Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

At a key Communist Party congress earlier this month, outgoing President Hu Jintao urged the nation to push forward fast-paced military modernisation and set the goal of becoming a "maritime power".

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Keli Lane set to appeal against conviction

Keli Lane, jailed for killing her newborn baby, is set to appeal against her conviction. Source: AAP

LAWYERS for Keli Lane, who has been jailed for killing her newborn baby, are reportedly set to appeal against her conviction.

Former water polo champion Lane was jailed last year for at least 13 years and five months for murdering her second baby, Tegan, on September 14, 1996, after they left a Sydney hospital and before she went to a wedding.

But Lane's solicitor Ben Archbold told Fairfax she "maintains her innocence".

He said he had been working on an appeal against her conviction and hoped to lodge the papers this week.

"She absolutely did not kill her daughter and will continue to fight for acquittal," Mr Archbold said.

The comments come after the judge at Lane's trial, Justice Anthony Whealy, told Fairfax he was not convinced the crown had proved its case against Lane.

While handing down the sentence in April last year, Justice Whealy said Lane committed the crime out of desperation arising "from a sense of entrapment and isolation".

The 37-year-old, who had two terminations as a teenager, kept three pregnancies and births secret.

She adopted out two babies, but was convicted of murdering Tegan, whose body has never been found.

Lane claimed she handed Tegan over to the infant's father, a man with whom she said she had a brief and secret affair.

But the crown contended she murdered the baby as she had not wanted to be burdened with a child because she wanted to pursue her sporting, sex and social life.

Justice Whealy set a maximum term of 18 years with Lane eligible for parole in May 2023.

Barrister Winston Terracini SC is reported to be appearing for her appeal.

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Bangladesh factory death toll rises to 121

At least nine people have died after a blaze tore through a garment factory in Bangladesh. Source: AAP

THE death toll from a fire at a Bangladeshi clothes factory has soared to at least 121 as rescue workers recovered 112 bodies.

"We've found 112 dead bodies this morning," fire brigade director general Brigadier General Abu Nayeem Mohammad Shahidullah told AFP on Sunday, adding the toll did not include the nine initially reported killed overnight.

"We resumed our search this morning and found the bodies lying on different floors of the factory building."

Police inspector Mostofa Kamal said many workers jumped from the Dhaka factory's upper floors to escape the raging fire before firefighters arrived to put the blaze out on Saturday night.

Fatal fires are common in Bangladesh's large garment manufacturing sector.

Lax safety standards, poor wiring and overcrowding are blamed for causing several deadly factory fires every year.

It is still unclear what caused the blaze.

In December 2010, a similar fire in another clothes factory in the same industrial zone killed at least 25 people and was caused by a wiring problem.

There are around 4500 factories in Bangladesh, employing more than two million people.

Clothes account for up to 80 per cent of Bangladesh's $US24 billion ($A23.23 billion) annual exports.

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Vic rolls out CCTV at housing estates

VICTORIA will expand its CCTV network at public housing estates after a one-year trial pointed to reductions in crime and drug use.

Premier Ted Baillieu says overall crime around public flats at Richmond in inner Melbourne has dropped by 20 per cent since live-streaming security cameras and a police command post were set up last year.

"We're very pleased with these results," Mr Baillieu told reporters on Sunday.

Public housing estates in Collingwood and Fitzroy will now have live-streaming cameras installed during a one-year trial while the Richmond site, home to 2500 people, will continue to have such technology for another two years.

A review of the program will then determine if cameras should be rolled out elsewhere.

"After those reviews take place we'll obviously look at what other opportunities there are," Mr Baillieu said.

Police say there has been some displacement of crime and injecting drug use to other areas since the cameras and command post were set up.

But Assistant Commissioner Andrew Crisp said the security cameras had led to several arrests while officers had also helped addicts get the help they needed.

"We've seen a turnaround ... but we've still got some way to go," Mr Crisp said.

The state government continues to reject calls to open a safe drug injecting site similar to the one running in Sydney.

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