Fed govt cuts forcing bed closures: Vic

THOUSANDS of patients will suffer, with every Victorian hospital copping the brunt of "unprecedented" federal funding cuts, the state government says.

Up to 700 Royal Melbourne Hospital patients will be forced to wait longer for elective surgery, while Health Minister David Davis has written to the state's 86 health bosses urging them to plan for the commonwealth's mid-financial-year cuts.

Mr Davis says the commonwealth's revised funding arrangement with the state, which will strip some $107 million from the state's hospitals, is unprecedented and based on false population figures.

The arrangement will cut $15 million from Victorian hospitals in December alone, Reserve Bank of Australia figures show.

In a letter to federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, Mr Davis says bringing the cuts in halfway through the financial year makes it difficult for hospitals - which planned their annual budgets in May - to adjust.

"These cuts are unprecedented ... this is no way for the commonwealth to run healthcare in this country," he told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.

"We're obviously very angry with the commonwealth, hospitals are angry ... and the commonwealth could still reverse this very unfortunate cut."

"It will be hundreds of beds and it will indeed be thousands of patients that are impacted."

Mr Davis said the government had attempted to justify the cuts on "shonky" population figures, which claim Victoria's population fell by 11,000 last year, while Australian Bureau of Statistics in fact shows the state swelled by 75,000 people.

"Never before has this style of adjustment been made so harshly, and never before has such a spurious set of figures been used to justify what in my view is an attempt to prop up the commonwealth budget," Mr Davis said.

But Ms Plibersek says the state is trying to cover its mismanagement.

"This is a smokescreen for the Victorian government's own failures," she said.

"Before any of this was in discussion, there were record high numbers of people on Victorian elective surgery waiting lists."

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New species old threats to Mekong wildlife

FROM a devilish-looking bat to a frog that sings like a bird, scientists have identified 126 new species in the Greater Mekong area, the WWF says in a new report detailing discoveries in 2011.

But from forest loss to the construction of major hydropower projects on the Mekong River, existing threats to the region's biodiversity mean many of the new species are already struggling to survive, the conservation group warned on Tuesday.

"The good news is new discoveries. The bad news is that it is getting harder and harder in the world of conservation and environmental sustainability," Nick Cox, manager of WWF-Greater Mekong's Species Programme, told AFP.

Some 126 species were newly recorded last year in the Greater Mekong region, which consists of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.

Some, such as the Beelzebub tube-nosed bat discovered in Vietnam, depend on tropical forests for survival and so are especially vulnerable to deforestation.

In just four decades, 30 percent of the Greater Mekong's forests have disappeared, the report says.

Others, such as a short-tailed python species found in Myanmar are more at risk from illegal hunting for meat, skins, and the exotic pet trade, the report said.

"Poaching for the illegal wildlife trade poses one of the greatest threats to the existence of many species across Southeast Asia," Cox said in a statement accompanying the report.

The list, dominated by plants, included 21 reptiles and five amphibians, such as a frog that sings and another that has black and white eye patterns that look like yin and yang symbols.

The WWF said that while the number of new species discovered was testament to the region's astounding biodiversity, there had been some "worrying developments" that posed a threat to their future.

WWF singled out Laos' determination to construct the Xayaburi dam on the main stream of the Mekong River as a significant threat to the river's "extraordinary biodiversity" and the livelihoods of more than 60 million people.

"The Mekong River supports levels of aquatic biodiversity second only to the Amazon River," according to Cox.

"The Xayaburi dam would prove an impassable barrier for many fish species, signalling the demise for wildlife already known and as yet undiscovered," he added.

The Mekong River supports around 850 fish species and the world's most intensive inland fishery, the report said.

Last month, Laos said it had begun work on the controversial multi-billion dollar Xayaburi dam, defying objections from environmentalists in its bid to become a regional energy hub.

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Nelson starts role as war memorial chief

BRENDAN Nelson professes no encyclopaedic grounding in Australian military history.

But the former senior politician and diplomat believes that will be an asset in his new role as director of the Australian War Memorial.

"Most of the people working at the memorial have forgotten more about our military history than I will ever know," he told AAP on his first day in the job on Monday.

"The people here have skills and knowledge I will never have, but I have skills and knowledge that complement that."

Dr Nelson sees the role of director as much like that of a government minister.

"It's not to be an expert," the former Howard government minister said.

"It's to listen, to read, then seek out the views of the experts and then to apply intellectual rigour to the process of exercising judgement."

Of the many duties Dr Nelson undertook as NATO ambassador in Brussels, it was the commemorative events that he enjoyed the most.

"It wasn't work, it was a privilege," he said, adding he had attended the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate memorial 73 times.

"If it had been in Brussels I would have gone every night."

The memorial honours the missing from the World War I battle of Passchendaele, and the ceremony has been conducted every night since 1928 save for the years of German occupation in World War II.

"The Australian sacrifice there was horrendous," Dr Nelson said, noting the names of 6169 Australian names are listed at Menin Gate.

"There are 12,900 Australians buried in Flanders from World War I."

Dr Nelson believes the soul of the Australian nation is represented by the war memorial and the sacrifices of the men and women who stood behind its collection.

"This building has as much to do with our future as it does our past," he said.

"I will do everything I possibly can to see that we have a meaningful respect and understanding of our history and are able to apply that for the future horizons we face and the challenges."

Increasing numbers of young people were looking for a sense of what it meant to be an Australian, Dr Nelson said.

"A lot of those young Australians are finding and will find the values that will best shape their lives by what's represented here."

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PMP retains Woolworths print contract

PRINTING and distribution business PMP has received some welcome good news after it retained the contract to print catalogues for Woolworths.

"PMP confirms Woolworths has indicated that, subject to the supply agreement being finalised, it has retained the printing of Woolworth national catalogues following Woolworths request for tender," PMP said in a statement on Monday.

PMP has held the the Woolworth's printing contract, believed to be one of the largest print contracts in Australia, for about 10 years.

The company said in November it would shut its Chullora printing plant in Sydney in June 2013, as part of a transformation plan to adapt to the new digital landscape.

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US returns Guantanamo prisoner's remains

The remains of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner who died in September have been returned to Yemen. Source: AAP

US authorities say the remains of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner who died in September have been returned to his native Yemen.

A spokesman for the military's Miami-based Southern Command said on Saturday that the medical examiner ruled Adnan Latif's September 8 death a suicide.

Colonel Greg Julian said Latif died of a self-induced overdose of prescription medication, adding that acute pneumonia also contributed to the 32-year-old's death.

Latif had been held at Guantanamo for more than a decade.

The US accused him of training with the Taliban to fight in Afghanistan. He was never charged but could not be returned to Yemen because of instability there. He challenged his confinement all the way to the US Supreme Court.

Officials said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was still investigating Latif's death.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.

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Shot fired outside Gold Coast home

POLICE are trying to track down a group who fired a shot outside a Gold Coast home.

The four men and one woman tried to force their way into the Chevron Island home on Saturday evening, as a group of people were socialising on the front balcony.

The group couldn't bust through the door but became involved in a verbal fight with those on the balcony.

As they were leaving, one of the men fired a shot at the rear of the house.

No-one was injured.

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Man dies after car hits tree

A 57-YEAR-OLD man has been killed after a car accident on the Gold Coast.

Police were called to the scene of a single vehicle accident in the suburb of Nerang where a car had crashed into a tree around 3am (AEDT) on Saturday morning.

The man, who was the only person in the car, was taken to Gold Coast hospital but died from his injuries.

Police are continuing their investigations into the accident.

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