Syria oppn blasts 'international silence'

Syria's opposition coalition says it will form a government to run "liberated areas" of the country. Source: AAP

SYRIA'S opposition National Coalition says it is pulling out of several international meetings to protest at the "international silence" despite the slaughter of civilians in the conflict.

The announcement late on Friday came after the coalition had said it would form a government to run "liberated areas" of Syria, and as international condemnation mounted against Thursday's devastating attacks in Damascus that left about 100 people dead.

In further violence on Friday, monitors said more than 12 people had been killed when buildings collapsed after a missile strike on the city of Aleppo.

The National Coalition said it was pulling out of meetings in Italy, Russia and the United States, to protest against the "shameful" lack of international condemnation of "crimes committed against the Syrian people".

The group had been due to attend a Friends of Syria meeting in Rome next Thursday where US Secretary of State John Kerry is also expected.

National Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib had also been invited to Moscow.

"The international silence on the crimes committed every day against our people amounts to participating in two years of killings," said the statement.

"We hold the Russian leaders in particular ethically and politically responsible because they continue to support the (Damascus) regime with weapons," the National Coalition added.

Earlier on Friday, coalition spokesman Walid al-Bunni had announced plans for a government for "liberated areas" following a meeting in Cairo.

They would decide on its composition and choose its leader at a meeting on March 2, he added.

Coalition members said the meeting would be held in Istanbul, while Bunni said it was hoped the government would be based in rebel-held territory inside northern Syria.

The opposition umbrella group had been discussing a proposal by chairman Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib to hold direct talks with President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The group has refused to meet Assad himself, or the security or military command. Khatib himself has made it clear the offer was only to those without "blood on their hands".

Earlier, international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Thursday's attacks in Damascus had left about 100 people dead - substantially more than a previous toll of 60 people - and wounded another 250.

Describing the attack as a "war crime", the UN-Arab League envoy added in a statement: "Nothing could justify such horrible actions that amount to war crimes under international law."

Another 22 people were killed in an apparently coordinated triple bombing targeting security headquarters in the northern Damascus district of Barzeh the same day, including 19 members of the forces, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

On the violence in the northern city of Aleppo, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said at least 14 people were killed and dozens wounded after three missiles hit the Tariq al-Bab district.

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UN sounds alarm over Myanmar boat people

The UN has raised the alarm over the rising number of boat people perishing in the Indian Ocean. Source: AAP

THE UN's refugee agency has raised the alarm over the rising number of boat people perishing in the Indian Ocean, including Rohingya Muslims fleeing communal strife in Myanmar (Burma).

"It is clear that for people fleeing violence and conflict in their homelands, this has become one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said on Friday.

In 2012, some 13,000 people took to smugglers' boats in the Bay of Bengal, of whom 500 died at sea when the vessels broke down or capsized, Mahecic said.

"Already in 2013, several thousand people are believed to have boarded smugglers boats in the Bay of Bengal," he added.

Among the most recent incidents, around 90 people are believed to have died of dehydration and starvation during a two-month journey.

Around 30 survivors were rescued last weekend by Sri Lanka's navy off that country's coast.

"The repeated tragedies at sea demonstrate the need for a co-ordinated regional response to distress and rescue at sea," Mahecic said.

Described by the UN as among the most persecuted minority groups in the world, Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya have for years trickled abroad to neighbouring Bangladesh and, increasingly, to Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship.

Buddhist-Muslim unrest has left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine since June 2012.

"We are advocating with the Myanmar government to urgently address the root causes of the outflow," Mahecic said.

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Stabbed man's partner 'hid kitchen knives'

THE partner of a man stabbed to death by his mentally ill son has told an inquest she hid kitchen knives in a beach house garden out of fears the son would become violent during a lunch.

Juliet Darling told the coronial inquest in Sydney on Friday that she and her partner, well-known art curator Nick Waterlow, were frightened of his son Anthony and his violent moods.

Anthony Waterlow, 45, killed his 68-year-old father and his sister Chloe Heuston, 36, at their Randwick home in Sydney 2009.

In 2011, he was found not guilty of their murders in the NSW Supreme Court by reason of mental illness.

The inquest has heard health professionals never detained Anthony under the Mental Health Act despite years of "bizarre and often threatening" behaviour.

On Friday Ms Darling said she was frightened of Anthony from the first time she met him and he seemed to resent and blame his father for everything.

She said her partner loved his son and did everything to help him, though he still feared him.

"I could feel Nick's fear," she said.

Ms Darling said her partner of 10 years couldn't understand the resentment of his son who had a "hair-trigger rage" and at times "just went berserk".

She said the senior Waterlow decided to sell his beach house and his son was invited to lunch there before the sale went through.

Ms Darling said she took all the knives out of the kitchen drawer, wrapped them in a towel and hid them in the garden.

"I said to Nick, 'just in case'."

She told the inquest there was a heated argument at the lunch and Anthony put a hole through a wall.

Ms Darling said the relationship between father and son just got worse and her partner's health deteriorated and he became thin.

She said he no longer had the "light-footed step he used to have" and a month before he died he confided in her that he didn't think he had much longer to live.

Ms Darling said doctors needed to look beyond their consulting rooms and listen to family and friends when it came to patient behaviour.

"It's hard to understand why the death threats were not taken seriously in this case," she said.

Ms Darling said she thought many families were living in fear because of mentally ill relatives who were violent.

A letter from Ben Heuston, the husband of Chloe, was read out at the inquest.

Mr Heuston wrote that the health system seemed too concerned with trying not to deprive mentally ill people of their liberty rather than protecting potential victims of violence.

"His behaviour was terrifying to those affected," Mr Heuston said of Anthony Waterlow.

He said it had been hard to have him taken into care.

"It's as if he had to be caught really hurting someone," Mr Heuston said.

"Surely those under threat should be given more consideration."

Mr Heuston said intelligent mentally ill people like Anthony could be "lucid and charming" after violent episodes and were capable of manipulating the system.

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Qld to review cattle disease response

TWO experts will review the Queensland government's response to a cattle disease that has rocked the state's beef industry.

The outbreak of Bovine Johne's disease (BJD), a bacterial infection that causes cattle to waste away and die, has seen quarantine restrictions placed on about 150 properties.

Queensland has BJD-protected status, which means its beef has greater market access than beef from other states.

The government last week set up a $5 million fund to help breeders struggling to deal with the disease.

But the Australian Brahman Breeders Association claims that amount won't be enough to cover the quarantine costs the outbreak is imposing on producers.

The industry is worth more than $4.5 billion a year and supports more than 45,000 jobs.

Agriculture Minister John McVeigh on Friday appointed former AgForce president Brent Finlay and University of Queensland veterinary expert Professor Jonathan Hill to review the government's response.

"I am relying on them to provide an independent assessment of the response and then provide input into our future BJD response program," Mr McVeigh said in a statement.

"Through the review I am hoping they can also identify possible actions Biosecurity Queensland may consider for any future disease eradication programs."

The pair will start their review in March and provide a final report by the end of April.

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Assange not on agenda for Carr and Bildt

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange will not be on the agenda when Foreign Minister Bob Carr holds talks with his Swedish counterpart next week.

Senator Carr will meet with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in Canberra next Wednesday.

A spokesman for Senator Carr says the pair will discuss the United Nations Security Council, approaches to the Middle East and Asia Pacific and regional security.

"There are no plans to discuss Mr Assange," the spokesman told AAP on Thursday.

Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London for the past eight months.

He sought and was granted asylum from Ecuador as part of his bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where authorities want to question him over sex crime allegations. But Britain has refused to grant him safe passage out of the country.

Assange says he fears the United States will seek to extradite him from Sweden to face charges relating to his website's release of thousands of classified US documents.

Assange says he's planning to run for election to Australia's Senate as part of a Wikileaks Party.

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UK music chain HMV shuts 37 more shops

UK music retailer HMV will shut another 37 branches over the next six weeks, administrators says. Source: AAP

COLLAPSED British music retailer HMV will shut another 37 branches over the next six weeks, in a move that will shed 464 jobs, administrators Deloitte says.

"The joint administrators of HMV today confirm that a further 37 of the group's stores have been identified for closure. The affected stores employ 464 staff," Deloitte said in a statement on Wednesday.

The outlets will be shut down in parallel with the 66 branches that were also earmarked for closure earlier this month. The latest announcement leaves the troubled group with 116 stores.

Wednesday's news came nearly two weeks after Deloitte sacked 60 staff at HMV's head office network - including former chief executive Trevor Moore.

In January, HMV had slumped into administration - the process whereby a troubled company calls upon independent expert financial help in an attempt to remain operational.

HMV was the nation's last remaining high-street music and video specialist retailer. The iconic group succumbed to heavy debts and fierce pressure from online rivals and supermarket giants, whose scale enabled them to offer CDs and DVDs at cheaper prices.

Deloitte revealed last week that sale talks were "progressing" as it also announced it had secured stock from most of HMV's suppliers that will see it continue to sell new music and blockbusters, including James Bond film Skyfall.

Late last month, US-based restructuring firm Hilco agreed to buy the debt of HMV, in a move which raised hope of a rescue deal.

Before its collapse, HMV employed more than 4120 staff and had 220 branches dotted across Britain.

In a separate gloomy development on Wednesday, British carpet maker Axminster announced its intention to file for administration, placing 400 jobs at risk.

Axminster Carpets, which is based in Devon, southwest England, said the decision would provide the company and its creditors with time to explore various rescue options.

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Royal commission head made judge of appeal

Justice Peter McClellan QC has been appointed a Judge of Appeal in NSW. Source: AAP

THE man set to head the upcoming Royal Commission into child sex abuse has been appointed a judge of appeal in NSW.

Justice Peter McClellan QC has more than a decade of experience on the bench of the Supreme Court and has been Chief Judge at Common Law since 2005.

NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith said Justice McClellan's new role capped an eventful start to the year after he was last month appointed chair of the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse.

"In practical terms, Justice McClellan will not sit as a Judge of Appeal until he has completed his duties at the royal commission," Mr Smith said in a statement.

Mr Smith also announced two other appointments on Wednesday.

Justice Clifton Hoeben will be the new chief judge at Common Law, while federal court Justice Arthur Emmett will become a supreme court judge and a judge of appeal.

Justice Hoeben's appointment will begin on February 22.

Justice Emmett will begin serving on the bench of the Supreme Court on March 7.

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Brisbane switched onto NBN

The northern Brisbane suburb of Aspley has been switched onto the national broadband network. Source: AAP

A PART of Brisbane has been switched onto the national broadband network (NBN).

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan attended Wednesday's switch-on ceremony, saying the NBN was a project Australia could not afford to be without.

"It connects the nation and then it connects the nation to the global economy," he told reporters in Brisbane.

He said the NBN would help Australia maximise international opportunities, including the economic rise of Asia.

During the launch junior football players took part in a virtual coaching session led by former Australian representative rugby league player Michael Hancock.

Hancock's image was beamed from Suncorp Stadium across town onto a large screen in the northern Brisbane suburb of Aspley, via the NBN.

The instant communication between Hancock and the junior players wouldn't have been possible without the superfast broadband connection, NBN Co spokesman Ryan Williams said.

The fibre optic connection is now available to 500 homes in the suburb.

Work has started to connect a number of other Brisbane suburbs.

Brisbane is the fourth capital city to get the NBN.

Melbourne came online in October last year while Hobart and Canberra went live in early February.

The Queensland centres of Townsville and Toowoomba have already been hooked up too.

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Admirers, protesters greet Cuban dissident

DISSIDENT Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez has been greeted in Brazil by admirers and protesters at the start of a "bittersweet" foreign tour, after she finally won permission to leave Cuba.

Sanchez arrived in Recife, where she was welcomed by friends, supporters and journalists, and also by about 20 pro-Cuban protesters who waved signs accusing her of being "Yoani agent of the CIA".

Sanchez responded, "Long live democracy. I want this democracy in my country, too."

Later, pro-Cuba protesters disrupted a planned screening for Sanchez of a documentary on human rights in which she appears, causing them to cancel the showing, the filmmaker said.

Instead, the dissident agreed to a discussion with the protesters, who billed themselves as members of the Young Communist League, a Brazilian official who attended the event said.

The 37-year-old philologist, who found an international audience on the internet with her prize-winning blog "Generation Y", is known for her biting commentary, which has drawn the displeasure of Cuba's ruling communist party.

The government in Havana repeatedly denied permission for her to leave the country in response to invitations to speak in Brazil and elsewhere.

But it finally relented after easing travel restrictions for Cubans in mid-January, and eliminating the requirement of an exit visa.

Brazil is Sanchez's first stop on a three-month trip that will take here around the Americas and to Europe.

"I am very happy," she told Globo News on her arrival. "It was five years of struggle, of trying every path. I have that bittersweet feeling. I am happy for me, but I also have friends who didn't get a passport."

"The emigration reform brought some flexibility, simplified many things, but I have friends who were denied passports," she said.

She said she didn't think the Cuban government would prevent her return at the end of the tour.

"I want to stay in Cuba, to help the Cubans. I don't want to be a migrant Yoani Sanchez in another country," she said.

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Union boss dismisses Milne action

AUSTRALIAN Workers' Union (AWU) boss Paul Howes has dismissed Greens leader Christine Milne's decision to ditch her party's 2010 agreement with Labor as a "boo-hoo" moment.

Senator Milne told the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday the Gillard government's decision to allow mining in Tasmania's Tarkine and a push by unions to make coal-seam gas development easier meant Labor had effectively torn up its post-election deal with the Greens.

Mr Howes, whose union has campaigned for new gas developments, along with jobs in the Tarkine, said Labor would not "sacrifice jobs at the altar of green ideology".

"She is upset that she lost the campaign in north-west Tasmania. Well, boo-hoo. At the end of the day the federal Labor government has delivered for jobs," Mr Howes told reporters.

He said the region has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and the mining area would take up only one per cent of forest area.

Mr Howes said Senator Milne's declaration did not change things in Canberra.

"The Greens haven't been supporting a whole range of Labor's initiatives in the parliament," he said.

Mr Howes said Labor had stood up for the environment, particularly through putting a price on carbon.

"What is she saying? Is she saying that Tony Abbott and the coalition are going to be better for the environment than Julia Gillard and the Labor party?

"(It's) the Labor party who has introduced a price on carbon, extended the world's largest national parks in oceans.

"This is a ridiculous furphy and obviously a political ploy by a leader ... who has presided over a collapse in her party's support since she took over."

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Trauma report exposes firefighter need

VICTORIA must pass laws to recognise that firefighters have developed post-traumatic stress from working in the line of duty, a union says.

The United Firefighters Union (UFU) has written to Premier Ted Baillieu requesting a meeting and wants more resources pumped into firefighting support services.

The call follows the release of a report, prepared for the UFU, which says firefighters may be at higher risk of committing suicide, given the psychological impact of the job.

The report, by the Centre of Full Employment and Equity at the University of Newcastle, looks at the hidden cost of fighting fires.

"Given the psychological impact of firefighting, higher prevalence of PTSD, depression, anxiety and alcohol or drug use, there is a probability that firefighters may be more likely to commit suicide," says the report, released on Monday.

UFU Victorian secretary Peter Marshall says it wants the state government to introduce legislation recognising post-traumatic stress as being a workplace illness for firefighters, saying its world-first introduction in Canada has led to more firefighters coming forward seeking counselling.

"Firefighters are experiencing a very high level of post-traumatic stress and, at the same time, the support systems that were put in place, were put in place in the late '80s and they haven't met contemporary needs," Mr Marshall told reporters on Monday.

He said post-traumatic stress is an ever-increasing illness within firefighting, and follows changes to the role of firefighters.

Since 2001, firefighters now also respond to medical emergencies, including suicides, child deaths and crime-scene clean-ups.

He said legislation introduced in Edmonton, Canada, recognised the disorder as being a workplace illness for firefighters.

"A lot of firefighters don't know how to access the system," he said.

MFB leading firefighter Danny Ward says firefighters can be reluctant to seek help.

"They all think they're a little bit tough and they don't need that help," Mr Ward told reporters.

"We've lost a few through suicide. I'm not saying the job was the greatest impact on that, but certainly it would have had some sort of impact on some of them."

Deputy Premier Peter Ryan noted how the state had pushed through the second-largest budget for funding fire services.

"I reject absolutely any assertion that whatever might be the matters in the report, which the union has commissioned, in any way shape or form, are the result of or an outcome from so-called budgetary matters," he told reporters.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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AWU head attacks Newman government

AUSTRALIAN Workers' Union (AWU) national president Bill Ludwig has accused the Queensland government of nepotism and criticised its treatment of workers.

Mr Ludwig told the union's national conference on Monday that since Premier Campbell Newman's election, unemployment in Queensland had risen, confidence had been shattered and young people were worried about their futures.

Mr Ludwig recounted a meeting with the premier days after the Liberal National Party's 2012 election win.

As Mr Newman was explaining his plan to break up "super departments", Mr Ludwig said the premier looked him in the eye and said: "We want to go back to the future, go back to where we used to be."

"Everything is finally back to normal again - they can get back on with the job of giving plum jobs and contracts to each other," Mr Ludwig told delegates at the Gold Coast conference.

"And growing rich at the expense of ordinary working people."

Last Friday, Mr Newman lost his third minister, Ros Bates, who quit after being criticised for not declaring contact with lobbyists, taking extended leave and giving a close friend a board position.

Her son, Ben Gommers, became the focus of a nepotism scandal after he landed a plum job in the transport department. The appointment is being investigated by the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

Mr Ludwig also claimed Transport Department Director General Michael Caltabiano, who will leave his job on March 15, and Queensland Transport Minister Scott Emerson had done a deal over the state seat of Indooroopilly, where Mr Ludwig lives.

Years ago, both had wanted to run for the seat, but neither did.

"But this time they had an agreement - Emerson would run for the seat and Caltabiano would be the head of the department," Mr Ludwig said.

"And that's what exactly happened.

"That deal has become unstuck and Mr Caltabiano has got the sack."

Mr Emerson said Mr Ludwig's claims of a deal on the seat of Indooroopilly were fantasy.

"Mr Caltabiano lives on the other side of Brisbane, was a former member for Chatsworth, and has never to my knowledge expressed any interest in running for Indooroopilly," he told AAP in a statement.

"Bill is a constituent of mine and a Labor relic from the past, still creating mischief and unfortunately still misleading his members."

A spokesman for the minister later told AAP Mr Emerson ran for preselection in Indooroopilly before the 2006 election.

He said Mr Caltabiano had supported Mr Emerson's opponent, Peter Turner, in that pre-selection contest.

Mr Turner won the pre-selection battle by a handful of votes but could not take the seat from incumbent Ronan Lee.

Mr Emerson won pre-selection for the LNP before the 2009 election and has held the seat since then.

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Actor joins union's manufacturing campaign

ACTOR Jack Thompson has been recruited for a campaign to promote the Australian Workers Union and the manufacturing sector.

The video ad, to be launched at the AWU's national conference on the Gold Coast on Monday, features Thompson reciting part of Henry Lawson's classic poem, Freedom's on the Wallaby.

In the video, titled A Union That Makes Things, Thompson rails against the "rich getting obscenely rich" just by "moving numbers on spreadsheets".

"When some of the richest people in the world are complaining about how hard they're doing - what is going on?" he says.

Thompson gives a brief economic lecture, saying the mining boom put upward pressure on the Australian dollar and created in Australia a "safe haven, a place for others to store their money".

But the high dollar, he explains, made it harder for industry to sell on the global market.

"On the shop floor, things were very different," the actor says.

"In the past five years, 130,000 manufacturing jobs gone, because someone forgot to turn the lights on and wake Australia up.

"We used to be a country that could be proud of what it made.

"But now we're making less and watching our factories close."

Thompson urges union members to "forge a new future".

"We are often at our best when our backs are to the wall - that's now," he says.

AWU national secretary Paul Howes says in the video his union wants a future that "is more than just being a sand-pit for another country".

"A future that builds things, which makes things," he says.

Thompson featured in Gough Whitlam's 1972 It's Time election ad.

Mr Howes told AAP Thompson was the first person the union thought of when looking for an authentic Australian voice.

"We knew that Jack is a strong believer in fairness and social justice, and that he also has an interest on the poetry of Henry Lawson - who wrote for the AWU's newspaper The Worker," he said.

"Jack also was a member of the AWU as a young man."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will address the conference on Monday night.

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Royal Commission offers chance to 'purify'

CATHOLIC Bishops in NSW have signed a letter urging parishioners and clergy not to bury their heads in the sand ahead of the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

In a publication signed by 15 bishops, including the Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell, parishoners and clergy are urged to reflect upon the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

"We must not put our heads in the sand about any of this, or try to minimise or explain it away," the letter published on Sunday states.

"The fact is that our Dioceses have all known cases of child abuse."

The royal commission should be viewed as an opportunity for victims to obtain a just hearing, the letter states.

"These terrible sins and crimes, and their mishandling by church authorities have done great damage to the victims and their families," it states.

"As leaders ... we must listen to people's hurt and respond with humility and compassion."

However, it adds that as the commission begins to hold hearings and take submissions across Australia, the stories of abuse should not see people loose sight of the church's achievements.

"The current crisis is an opportunity for purification of the Church - a Lenten return for each one of us personally and all of us collectively," the letter states.

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