Witherspoon court hearing rescheduled

A court hearing on a disorderly conduct charge for US actress Reese Witherspoon has been postponed. Source: AAP

A COURT hearing on a disorderly conduct charge has been rescheduled for Reese Witherspoon, who said she is "deeply embarrassed" by what she said to a state trooper during a traffic stop in Atlanta.

Witherspoon's case was scheduled for a Monday morning hearing, but it was reset for May 22. She was arrested on Friday.

The Oscar-winning actress released a statement late on Sunday apologising for her behaviour when her husband, Hollywood agent Jim Toth, was arrested and accused of driving under the influence of alcohol. Toth also had a hearing set for Monday, but it was rescheduled for May 23.

A state trooper's report says she told the trooper: "Do you know my name?" The report states she also said: "You're about to find out who I am."

The actress didn't appear in court on Monday. She was in New York on Sunday night attending the premiere of her new movie Mud. She posed for cameras on the red carpet but did not stop to talk to reporters.

"I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said," Witherspoon said in her staement.

"It was definitely a scary situation and I was frightened for my husband, but that is no excuse. I was disrespectful to the officer who was just doing his job. The words I used that night definitely do not reflect who I am. I have nothing but respect for the police and I'm very sorry for my behaviour."

Witherspoon said she can't comment further "out of respect" for the pending case, and her publicist, Meredith O'Sullivan Wasson, offered no other details.

The 37-year-old actress was arrested on a municipal charge of disorderly conduct after a state trooper said she wouldn't stay in the car while Toth was given a field sobriety test.

The trooper noticed the car driven by her husband wasn't staying in its lane early on Friday morning, so he pulled the couple over. He reported that Toth had droopy eyelids, watery, bloodshot eyes, and his breath smelled strongly of alcohol.

Toth told the trooper he'd had a drink, which Witherspoon said was consumed at a restaurant two hours before the traffic stop, the trooper wrote.

Before the field sobriety test began, Witherspoon got out of the car, but then got back in when she was ordered to, the report said. After the Walk the Line star got out a second time, the trooper said he warned her that she would be arrested if she left the car again.

As the test continued, "Mrs. Witherspoon began to hang out the window and say that she did not believe that I was a real police officer. I told Mrs. Witherspoon to sit on her butt and be quiet," Trooper First Class J Pyland wrote.

Toth, 42, was then placed under arrest. He was charged with driving under the influence and failure to maintain the lane.

At that point, the report says, Witherspoon got out and asked the trooper what was going on. After being told to return to the car, she "stated that she was a 'US Citizen' and that she was allowed to 'stand on American ground'," the report states.

The trooper then began to arrest Witherspoon. The report says Witherspoon was resistant at first but was calmed down by her husband.

Toth and Witherspoon were then taken to jail.

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Qld police close net on sex offender

POLICE chasing a dangerous escaped sex offender have blocked access to a north Queensland community and are telling residents to secure their houses.

Officers have blocked the only road to the north Townsville suburb of Pallarenda where they believe 25-year-old convicted sex offender Tyrone Speechley is hiding.

Queensland Police Media have tweeted that residents of the suburb should secure their houses and report anything suspicious.

Fellow escaped prison farm resident Algana Tiers, 26, was taken into custody near bushland at Pallarenda shortly before 11.30am (AEST) on Tues.

A manhunt was launched after the pair removed their GPS tracking devices and left their accommodation at the Townsville Correction Centre farm on Monday night.

The men were recently released into the community under supervision and both have absconded before.

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk criticised Police Minister Jack Dempsey for failing to alert the public for three hours.

"Not good enough," she told reporters.

The escape, as well as that of two teens on the weekend from a bootcamp, shows the state government's cuts are hurting corrective services, Ms Palaszczuk said.

"We're seeing the pressure felt on corrective services."

Ms Palaszczuk is worried corrective services will see more job cuts or jails privatised when the government's response to the Costello report into the state's finances is handed down next week.

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Vic discovery provides hope of cancer drug

MELBOURNE scientists have been involved in a discovery they hope will lead to a new cancer drug.

The scientists have created a new chemical compound designed to block a protein that has been linked to poor results in cancer treatment.

They say the development of the compound, called WEHI-539, is a big step towards designing a potential new cancer-fighting drug.

The compound has been developed by experts at Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), with colleagues at American biotechnology firm Genentech.

The death of abnormal cells is important in protecting the body against cancer developing.

But WEHI's Dr Guillaume Lessene said some proteins were acting to keep cancer cells alive.

As a result, the effectiveness of anti-cancer treatments such as chemotherapy are reduced.

"The idea behind the compounds that we've developed ... is that the compounds are basically reinstating the cell death process and therefore kill cancer cells," he said.

Dr Lessene said more development was needed to transform the compound into a drug which could be effective on patients.

"It will lead to a drug that would have efficacy and we think it may have efficacy in solid tumours for example," he said.

"This is a first step towards the drug but there is quite a lot of work to get to that point.

"What is important about it is that particular field of research is really challenging."

The research was published online on Monday in the Nature Chemical Biology journal.

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Spending is Labor's budget problem: Abbott

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says the federal government has a problem with spending rather than revenues, predicting budget deficits stretching out "as far as the eye can see".

Treasurer Wayne Swan revealed on Sunday government revenues would be about $7.5 billion less than forecast at the time of the mid-year budget review released in October.

But Mr Abbott said revenues were $70 billion higher than in the last year of the Howard coalition government, while expenditure was $100 billion higher.

"We certainly have a big budgetary problem," Mr Abbott told reporters in Perth.

"This is a government that can't keep its spending under control."

The Grattan Institute has warned Australia must prepare for more difficult economic times ahead by reducing its overall budget deficit.

The think tank, in a new report, says that Australia faced a "significant risk" of posting deficits of around four per cent of gross domestic product over the next 10 years, requiring governments to find savings measures and tax increases of $60 billion a year.

"What we need is a government which gets expenditure under control ... under this government there are deficits stretching out as far as the eye can see," Mr Abbott said.

"We can't wave a magic wand and solve all the problems that this bad government has created overnight, but surpluses are in our DNA."

He reeled off a number of initiatives proposed by the coalition, including stopping asylum seeker boats, which currently cost taxpayers $6.5 billion of "unnecessary spending".

Mr Abbott reaffirmed the coalition would scrap the school kids bonus and "slim" the public service, and said its version of the national broadbank network was $60 billion cheaper.

He also said there would be a modest reduction in company tax, although the precise amount and timing would be revealed closer to the election.

The coalition would stick with its version of the paid parental leave scheme, funded by a modest levy on larger businesses.

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Fortescue predicts $140 iron ore price

FORTESCUE Metals chief executive Nev Power predicts the iron price will hover between $139 and $140 per tonne in the short term because of low iron ore stocks.

Australia's third largest iron ore miner says the commodity will then trade between $120 to $130 a tonne for the foreseeable future, preventing a repeat of last year's scare when the iron ore price tanked.

"We will have some fluctuations and in the short term I see this sort of price level of $139, $140 a tonne continuing because there are very low iron ore stocks," Mr Power told ABC's Inside Business program on Sunday.

He said steel stocks in China were relatively high but they were not increasing significantly and iron ore stocks were quite low.

"While there is some potential for a correction in steel production, it would only be minor and supply/demand balance is there in iron ore so there aren't the same factors that would create any significant drop in the iron ore price," he said.

He expects China's steel mills to keep producing 2.1 million to 2.2 million tonnes of steel a day.

Six months ago iron ore prices plunged to $US86.70 a tonne, dragging down Fortescue's shares and forcing it to refinance its debt.

Analysts said at the time the company could not repay its massive $12.6 billion in debt at those prices, but it now does not owe any debt until late 2015.

Mr Power also said the construction phase of Australia's mining boom was almost over as West Australian-based companies looked to cheaper alternatives overseas in the wake of Woodside's decision to shelve its onshore gas hub.

"To a large extent most of the construction is complete," Mr Power said.

"Construction costs have increased through Western Australia and Australia and I think we do need to be very careful not to price ourselves out of the market."

He added that globally there was no shortage of raw materials and commodities.

"It is about the ability to develop those projects cost-effectively and competitively and get them to market," Mr Power said.

Fortescue needed to constantly look at ways to improve the cost competitiveness of its projects.

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Vic premier U-turns on outpatient promise

VICTORIAN Premier Denis Napthine is backing away from a key election promise to release the state's outpatient waiting list.

Before winning power in November 2010, the coalition pledged to release the list which has tens-of-thousands of people with referrals from GPs waiting to get into outpatient clinics.

Patients on the list have serious medical issues such as gallstones and potentially cancerous breast lumps.

Dr Napthine on Sunday would not affirm that the coalition would deliver on its promise.

Instead, he referred to hospital data already released. The data details the waiting time for treatment in emergency departments and elective surgery.

"We do release regular information about the performance of our hospitals and health services and we'll continue to do that," Dr Napthine said.

"It is a very comprehensive data set."

In opposition, now Health Minister David Davis attacked the then Labor government for not publishing the outpatient list.

He said tens of thousands of Victorians languished on outpatient waiting lists - some for years - before they even made the queue for surgery.

"In many cases these outpatient lists at our major public hospitals become a waiting list before the waiting list," Mr Davis said five months before the last state election.

"We need to get these lists on the record so that the community can see how long people have to wait and (so) that they can make choices about which hospital they go to, and what options they have available to them."

After becoming health minister, Mr Davis said the government had set up an independent panel of experts, headed by auditor Stuart Alford, to determine the best way to release the data.

Australian Medical Association Victorian president Stephen Parnis was assured last May the release of the outpatient list was imminent.

He said more than halfway through its term the coalition ought to have delivered on its commitment.

AAP mj/arb

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Boston becomes battle zone

CELEBRATIONS erupted across Boston as the capture of the remaining marathon bombing suspect was announced in a tweet from police.

In the Watertown neighbourhood where 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev engaged in a firefight with police while hiding out in a parked boat, dozens of people at a police barricade cheered and applauded as law enforcement officers and emergency responders left the scene.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this would result in a shootout in Watertown," said Sheamus McGovern, who was among the crowd of people gathered outside Mount Auburn Hospital, where Tsarnaev was taken after his capture.

Early Friday morning, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a gun battle and car chase during which he and his younger brother hurled explosives at police from a stolen car, authorities said.

During the getaway attempt, the brothers killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology policeman and severely wounded another officer, authorities said. The younger brother managed to escape and was found in the boat about a mile away hours later.

McGovern had been startled overnight on Friday during a when he heard "what sounded like firecrackers, last night after one, and then pure bedlam." He could hear the helicopters overhead all day.

"It's just a huge relief to be able to get outdoors. Another day of that, I don't want to start getting angry,"

The jubilation was widespread. The mayor of Boston, which was largely paralysed during the manhunt Friday, tweeted, "We got him!" And at the home of the New York Mets, fans leapt to their feet and cheered when the news spread during a game against the Washington Nationals.

Hundreds of people marched down Commonwealth Avenue, chanting USA and singing the Red Sox anthem Sweet Caroline as they headed toward Boston Common. Police blocked traffic along part of the street to allow for the impromptu parade.

Earlier, the mood was sombre. On Boylston Street, three blocks from the site of the marathon explosions on Monday, several dozen people gathered almost in complete silence. Some were crying.

Boston University student Aaron Wengertsman, 19, wrapped himself in an American flag as a silent crowd gathered. He was on the marathon route a mile from the finish line when the bombs exploded.

"I'm glad they caught him alive," Wengertsman said. "I thought people might be more excited, but it's humbling to see all these people paying their respects."

Nearby, 25-year-old lawyer Beth Lloyd-Jones said it felt like she had her city back. She was blocks away from the blast in her south end home on Monday.

"That could have been any one of us," she said of the victims. "Now I feel a little safer."

In Boston's Dorchester neighbourhood, where an 8-year-old boy killed in the bombing lived, people set off fireworks Friday night to celebrate.

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