Girl reporter stuns Chinese officials

CHINESE officials accustomed to the tame questions of a compliant state press have been caught out by a plucky 11-year-old reporter during the country's sensitive Communist Party congress.

Sun Luyuan, a Beijing sixth-grade student, shook up one of the tightly-controlled party meetings on Friday on the congress's sidelines with a question that put officials on the spot over China's miserable food-safety record.

Noting that a steady stream of scandals and health scares involving tainted or unsafe food products had particularly affected students, leaving many sickened in various incidents, Sun asked why China can't clean up its act.

"I love snacks, but I don't dare to eat snacks now because we see so many reports these days of problems with food products," Sun asked high-level officials during a congress delegate meeting, according to state-run China News Service.

During the meeting at Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People, Sun, who works for the Chinese Teenager News, continued by asking "why are these kinds of food products available for purchase?"

"As many primary and middle school students eat our lunches at school, what can you do to put us at ease over food safety?" she asked.

The Communist Party is presenting a tightly-scripted image of national unity for the week-long congress that opened on Thursday.

Held every five years, the congress will end next Wednesday with the unveiling of a new top leadership line-up widely expected to be headed by Vice President Xi Jinping, who will lead for the next ten years.

Ma Kai, a top official in China's cabinet who presided over Friday's meeting, passed the question to Education Minister Yuan Guiren, the China News Service said.

Yuan offered a stock official response pledging the government was addressing the situation and putting proper safety measures in place, a line repeated for years even as the scandals have persisted.

In 2008, China was rocked by one of its biggest-ever food safety scandals when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content.

At least six babies died and another 300,000 became ill after drinking the tainted products.

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Madonna fan guilty of resisting arrest

A FORMER firefighter with a crush on Madonna has been convicted of resisting arrest outside her former New York City apartment building as he spray-painted poster boards with love notes.

A jury delivered its verdict on Friday in Robert Linhart's trial. He could face up to a year in jail.

Defence lawyer Lawrence LaBrew told the New York Post that Linhart will appeal.

Linhart was arrested in September 2010. Police say he parked his SUV outside the singer's Manhattan apartment, laid out a tarp and wrote out such messages as "Madonna, I need you".

Jurors told the Post they felt it was fine for Linhart to express himself to the Material Girl, but they said they believed police testimony that he resisted arrest by flailing his arms.

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PM concerned about US 'fiscal cliff'

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard stands by forecasts for the budget to return to surplus but says she is concerned about the implications for the Australian economy from the "fiscal cliff" in the United States.

The so-called fiscal cliff - the predicted effect of a combination of legislated tax increases and spending cuts - if not averted, is expected to drive the US back into recession next year.

There are also rising fears that if the world's biggest economy tanks again, others could be dragged over the edge with it.

Ms Gillard, who has been meeting with about a dozen world leaders in Bali, said on Friday she was concerned about the implications for global finances and the Australian economy.

But the prime minister nsisted that her government would still deliver a budget surplus next year as promised, despite the worrying signs coming out of the US and the economic slow-down in Europe.

"Of course we are concerned about the fiscal cliff in the US and we are concerned that if this matter isn't resolved it will have severe implications for the economy of the United States and that's got implications for the global economy including our own," Ms Gillard said on Friday.

"But I'm not going to deal with hypotheticals about our budget position."

The Mid-Year and Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), released last month, has forecast a $1.1 billion surplus in 2012/13, with improving surpluses to 2015/16.

"We've got in there the projections that treasury believes are appropriate for the Australian economy and we've made savings in there, hard savings, to bring the budget to surplus," Ms Gillard said.

"We stand by the work that was done for the Mid-Year and Economic and Fiscal Outlook."

US President Barack Obama is set to begin negotiations with Congress soon in an effort to reach a budget compromise over the tax increases and spending cuts that would result in the fiscal cliff, and which are to come into force on January 1.

However, financial markets around the globe slid for a second day in a row on Friday over doubts that the issue will not be resolved in time.

At 1200 AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 32.3 points, or 0.72 per cent, at 4,451.5 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index had fallen 29.9 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 4,472.3 points.

On Wall Street on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 120.95 points, or 0.94 per cent, to 12,811.78 points.

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Picasso sells for $40m in New York

AN erotically charged Picasso oil painting of his mistress alongside tulips and fruit has sold for $US41.5 million ($A40m) on an otherwise anemic night for high-end art in New York.

"Nature morte aux tulipes," painted in 1932, was the star of Sotheby's Impressionist and modern art sale in Manhattan on Thursday.

The pre-sale estimate for the work had been between $US35m and $US50m.

The painting depicts the head of Marie-Therese Walter, who was Picasso's lover and famous muse, poised over a suggestive flower arrangement.

Its sale was one of the few bright spots for Sotheby's, with 30 per cent of lots failing to sell and the total haul of the evening amounting to $US163m - below the low end of the overall $US169-245m estimate.

This followed a similar performance at the Christie's auction on Wednesday.

Another of the Marie-Therese series offered by Sotheby's, Femme a la fenetre (Marie-Therese), sold for $US17.2m, inside the $US15-20m estimate.

Other successes included the $US12.1m paid for Champ de ble by Claude Monet.

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Pedophile evidence in Rahma inquest

A SUSPECTED pedophile who lived near missing Sydney toddler Rahma El-Dennaoui deposited $65,000 in his account eight days after the little girl vanished, an inquest has heard.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, talked on the phone to another suspected pedophile the morning after Rahma disappeared from her Lurnea home in Sydney's southwest in the early hours of November 10, 2005, Glebe Coroners Court heard on Thursday.

But the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Nick Sedgwick, said there was no evidence a paedophile ring was operating in the area.

Under questioning from David Evenden, representing Rahma's father Hosayn El-Dennaoui, Det Sgt Sedgwick said police had seized the man's caravan for forensic analysis 18 months after Rahma disappeared.

Asked why this hadn't ben done earlier, Det Sgt Sedgwick said, "There wasn't sufficient evidence to put all our eggs, or at least a lot them, towards (him)".

The court heard there was evidence the man had a "liking" for young girls and had enticed children into his home in the past.

No evidence was found in the caravan, but bank records showed the man had deposited $65,000 in his account eight days after Rahma disappeared.

Det Sgt Sedgwick said the bank had "hit a brick wall" when investigating how that sum of money came into the man's account.

The inquest also heard the man's phone records showed that the day after Rahma disappeared, he talked to another man believed to have previously sexually assaulted a six-year-old child.

But the evidence in relation to that man was "loosely based intelligence from an anonymous source", Det Sgt Sedgwick said.

"No evidence ever came forward that a pedophile ring ever existed," he said.

The inquest continues before Deputy State Coroner Sharon Freund.

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Missing Perth man worries police

THE family of a Perth man who has "disappeared off the face of the earth" hold grave fears for his safety after a fruitless month-long police search.

Antony Bryan Colquhoun, 26, was last seen at his home in Leake Street, Bayswater, at about 11pm (WST) on October 12 and has not contacted family or friends since.

His mother Julie on Thursday made a desperate plea for him to get in touch if he was able.

"He has just disappeared off the face of the earth - and that is impossible," his mother said.

"He was a very innocent boy, and it is inconceivable he could be looking after himself.

"He would have also run out of medication. You cannot describe how you feel."

A worrying message he posted on Facebook before he went missing has added to the family's fears.

"I am fearing the worst - it is quite serious now," brother Aiden said.

Mr Colquhoun was last seen wearing a bright blue T-shirt with an Atari computer logo and wearing black plastic thick-rimmed glasses.

Police say Mr Colquhoun has a fair complexion and is 182cm tall with a medium build, short brown hair with a distinctive patch of white hair on one side, and brown eyes.

Anyone who has information on Mr Colquhoun's whereabouts is asked to call police on 131 444.

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Camilla makes a good impression

SEASONED royal-watcher Neville Condron says Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, has made a good impression on her first visit to Australia.

Mr Condron, who has met several queens, princes and princesses from various countries, says he's pleased there haven't been comparisons with the late Princess Diana, who was a favourite with Australian crowds.

The duchess has been warmly welcomed at official events and has happily chatted with the small crowds that have turned out to greet her since arriving in Australia on Monday.

But the crowd numbers have been far from the thousands that flocked to greet Diana, or even the Queen, during their visits to Australia.

Mr Condron shook hands with both Prince Charles and his first wife in 1985.

"I've been pleased that the comparisons just aren't an issue," he said outside the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, where the royal couple watched a performance by school children.

"Camilla just seems so relaxed, people are warming to her and I think it's been long enough for memories to fade a little bit and I think she's off to a really good start.

"I think Australians would like her sense of humour and enjoy the way she dresses. She's very relaxed with the crowd.

"I think she's great and they look so happy together. It's a good thing."

Mr Condron took his French bulldog, Bert, to meet the royal couple, and the duchess was especially taken.

"The duchess said she used to keep Boston terriers, which are a similar looking dog, not as cute as French bulldogs though, and she was just very taken with him and gave him a good pat and called him Bertie," he said.

"He was enjoying himself. He'll sleep well tonight."

Yet Mr Condron is frustrated at the lack of public information about the royal tour, which is part of the Queen's Jubilee year.

"Last year for the Queen's visit you knew exactly where to go, what time, there was no guessing," he said.

"Nobody seems to know what's going on (this time)."

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