Pro-choice rally supports Melb clinic

PRO-CHOICE advocates have rallied outside a Melbourne abortion clinic, saying they're fighting back against pro-life activists who regularly harass the clinic's patients.

Around 100 members of the Melbourne Feminist Action group gathered outside the East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic on Saturday to condemn the tactics of "intimidation and degradation" which its patients face almost daily, the group says.

Group spokeswoman Stephanie Convery said a variety of religious groups photograph and film women as they enter and exit the clinic, hurl abuse and hand out offensive literature.

"We need to give some support to the pro-choice movement in Melbourne and the women in the clinic," she said.

"Who wants to be bullied for making personal decisions about their own body, who wants to be told they don't know themselves, they don't know their own minds and they're making the wrong choice when they've thought long and hard about it."

A small crowd from pro-life group Youth for Life gathered opposite the rally, which was monitored by police.

Stephanie Ross, from Youth for Life, said members of her group regularly gathered outside the clinic but denied they harassed patients.

"We come to pray and witness, to be with the unborn in their last moments," she said.

The East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic was opened in 1972 and was one of the first of its kind in Victoria.

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UN wants drones in DR Congo conflict

The UN wants to use drones to monitor fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Source: AAP

THE United Nations wants to use drones for the first time to monitor fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwanda has been accused of aiding rebels.

Peacekeeping chiefs have been in contact with the governments of DR Congo and of Rwanda about the sensitive move, which could set a precedent that would worry other United Nations members, diplomats say.

UN leaders are looking for ways to strengthen their peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, where guerrillas from the M23 rebel movement have taken over much of mineral-rich North Kivu province.

UN experts say Rwanda and Uganda have sent troops and arms across the border. Both strongly deny the allegations.

The UN "is considering a range of ways to strengthen the capabilities of MONUSCO to protect civilians from the threat of armed groups in the vast area of eastern DR Congo", UN peacekeeping spokesman Kieran Dwyer told AFP on Friday.

"Unarmed aerial vehicles, drones for monitoring the movements of armed groups, are one tool we are considering," he said.

"Of course, we would do this carefully, in full cooperation with the government of the DR Congo, and trialling their most effective uses for information gathering to help implement our mandate to protect civilians."

While the drones would not halt the current M23 advance, the UN is also considering bringing in extra troops and redeploying its current force. UN leader Ban Ki-moon is to recommend options to the UN Security Council soon.

MONUSCO has about 17,500 troops but could go up to about 19,500 under its Security Council mandate.

"The UN has approached a number of countries, including the United States and France, about providing drones which could clearly play a valuable role monitoring the frontier," said one UN diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Clearly there will be political considerations though," the diplomat said.

"This is controversial, not all countries agree with this," said Olivier Nduhungirehe, first counsellor for Rwanda's UN mission.

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McIver, Newman meet to discuss roles

QUEENSLAND'S Liberal National Party president says he supports the Newman government after meeting with the premier to discuss their respective roles.

Bruce McIver told reporters he'd met with Premier Campbell Newman and they had "agreed on certain protocols".

"The premier is the premier of the state and he'll run the state and I am the head of the organisation and I'll run the organisation," he told reporters.

"We have a very good relationship."

Mr McIver said he did not believe attacks on the government by his good friend, mining magnate Clive Palmer, had caused a rift between the party and the parliamentary wing.

Mr Palmer resigned from the party on Thursday night, saying he'd be more free to shine a light on the Newman government if he wasn't a member of the party.

He said he quit despite receiving a letter from the LNP saying his suspension - sparked by his fierce public attacks on the government - had been lifted.

Mr McIver hinted that he had helped negotiate the outcome.

"I took the position that I could not see more party funds spent on this issue and I had to come up with an outcome that satisfied all people concerned and this was the outcome.

"I don't think anyone is the winner."

He said Mr Palmer would have to apologise if he wanted to rejoin the party.

"Unless we get the appropriate apologies from any member who leaves the party the membership of that person would not be considered by the executive," he said.

Mr McIver said he supported the Newman government and his focus was the party.

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Japanese police rescue bank hostages

JAPANESE police have rescued four hostages from a bank and arrested the knife-wielding man who had held them captive for more than 12 hours while demanding the prime minister resign, officials say.

In a televised news conference on Friday, a police spokesman said the hostage-taker, identified as Koji Nagakubo, was arrested on suspicion of taking a total of five people captive, including one person whom he had released earlier.

All the hostages were safe and in protective custody following the pre-dawn police raid, the spokesman said, though local media reported one of them - a 19-year-old female bank employee - was slightly injured.

The 32-year-old man began the siege on Thursday afternoon at the Zoshi branch of the Toyokawa Shinkin Bank in the otherwise quiet residential area of Toyokawa city, in central Aichi prefecture.

Wielding a survival knife, he took four employees and a female customer captive and demanded the cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda step down, local media said. Noda last week called an election for December 16, which he is expected to lose.

In initial questioning by police, the suspect admitted the allegations, but had yet to give details about his motive, public broadcaster NHK reported.

About 13 hours after the incident began, police wearing protective gear and carrying shields rushed the office before dawn, overpowered the man and escorted out the remaining four hostages.

"It was difficult to check inside, but we took action placing top priority on the safety of the hostages," an investigator told NHK. "We believe we took the best possible way."

Television footage showed a dozen police breaking the window on the second floor before moving to the ground floor, where the man pointed his knife at the hostages.

The man, who also held another knife, handcuffed at least one of the hostages, NHK said, adding that all police involved in the rescue operation were also unhurt.

"I was so relieved because no one was (seriously) injured," one neighbour told Tokyo Broadcasting System Television.

Television footage earlier showed a man who appeared to be a police officer carrying a megaphone and a plastic bag to a side door of the building guarded by police. The building's shutters were down but lights could be seen inside.

Shortly before the incident, a man police believe was the hostage-taker had attempted to break into another bank just 150 metres away from the site, NHK reported.

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Dodgy cop had personality problems: court

A YOUNG woman with a long history of serious mental illness became a NSW police officer even though personality tests raised serious concerns, a court has heard.

Her duties exacerbated her condition, resulting in criminal behaviour and lying to the Police Integrity Commission (PIC).

Jenna Lee Hughes, 24, wept in the dock as her psychologist gave evidence during sentencing proceedings in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Thursday.

Hughes had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of misconduct as a police officer and two charges of lying to the PIC when giving evidence about corruptly using the police database.

She accessed the database on two separate occasions without justification to benefit a boyfriend and a former boyfriend.

Hughes is no longer a police officer.

The court heard that at the age of nine she found her neighbour dead from a gunshot wound.

That same year, she was inside a bank with her family during an armed hold-up.

As a teen, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

At age 18, she applied to become a police officer and did not reveal her condition.

But while in the police academy, she was administered a personality test that returned adverse results.

"The results indicate a number of scales that were questionable, certainly of somebody that was entering the police force," her psychologist Anne Marie De Santa Brigida told the court.

"It is of concern she still made it into the police force."

She also said Hughes would have been suffering from her mental conditions at the time she committed the offences, which carry possible jail time.

The sentencing proceedings are continuing before Judge Mark Marien.

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Duck hunting bill passes NSW upper house

A SHOOTERS Party bill to expand duck hunting in NSW has been passed by the state's upper house.

MPs in the Legislative Council passed the bill on Thursday to overhaul the licensing system for duck hunting by a vote of 21 to 18.

The legislation would make the Game Council the sole authority for granting duck hunting licences in the state, stripping the National Parks and Wildlife Service of its current role in the process.

During the debate, the opposition's environment spokesman Luke Foley said Labor supported the current system of hunting by farmers for pest mitigation but the Shooters bill was "a bridge too far".

"If recreational shooters play a part in a legitimate mitigation effort, we don't see a problem with that," Mr Foley told the upper house on Thursday.

"(But) It ought to be regulated - there ought to be balance.

"We don't believe the regulatory arrangements contemplated by (the Shooters Party) are balanced, in giving everything to the Game Council. That is clearly unbalanced. We cannot support that."

The upper house also passed government amendments to the bill, including the creation of a new Game Bird Management Committee responsible for setting quotas and determining what species of bird can be hunted and where.

Shooters Party MP Robert Brown said the bill - which will now go to a vote in the state's lower house - would simply remove the red tape involved with the current licensing system.

Greens MP John Kaye blasted the government for backing the duck hunting bill in return for the Shooters' vote on its ports privatisation bill, which passed through parliament late on Wednesday night.

"This is a government that will go to the next polls with everybody knowing it does not care about animal welfare," Dr Kaye told parliament on Thursday.

"It is absolutely happy to trade off animal welfare in order to get its legislation through this chamber."

The duck hunting bill was passed by the state's lower house later on Thursday.

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Former Storm adviser to be supervised

A FORMER Storm Financial employee will have his work supervised for the next two years following an investigation by Australia's corporate watchdog.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced on Wednesday it had accepted an enforceable undertaking from financial adviser Terrence Webb, who worked for Storm before it folded in early 2009.

Clients of the Townsville-based financial services company lost about $830 million in the collapse.

In a statement, ASIC said its investigations led to concerns that Mr Webb had advised clients to follow a single investment strategy predominately recommended by Storm.

He had failed to warn clients his advice may not have been tailored to meet their specific financial goals, ASIC said.

The commission said it was concerned Mr Webb, who now works for Synchronised Business Services Pty Ltd, may be providing "incomplete or inaccurate" advice to his clients.

Mr Webb has agreed to complete professional development courses as part of his undertaking.

For the next two years he will also be subject to supervision, audit and review of the financial services he provides to clients.

ASIC has banned former Storm employee Stuart Craig from providing financial advice for four years and accepted enforceable undertakings from four other former Storm financial advisers.

The watchdog is currently pursuing Macquarie Bank and the Bank of Queensland through the courts over their involvement in Storm's collapse.

A class action brought against Macquarie and the Commonwealth Bank by investors is also scheduled to be heard this year.

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