US public offered prizes for python hunt

Cash prizes are up for grabs in a program aimed at catching giant Burmese pythons in Florida. Source: AAP

PEOPLE in Florida will have their mettle tested as the wildlife service seeks help in eradicating the giant Burmese python.

The public has been asked to join in a month-long hunt for the invasive species, which, lacking natural predators, snacks on native birds, deer, bobcats and other large animals, some of them protected.

Cash prizes up to $US1,500 ($A1,400) will be up for grabs in the January program of "harvesting" the giant snakes, organised by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"Increasing public awareness about Burmese pythons and how this invasive species is a threat to the Everglades ecosystem, including native wildlife, is the goal of the 2013 Python Challenge," a statement said.

The environmental challenge is open not only to "python permit holders" but also ordinary members of the public.

A Burmese python was found for the first time in Florida's Everglades swamp in 1979, where it may have been abandoned by a pet owner. It has taken 21 years to become an established species there.

There are now hundreds of thousands of the snakes slithering across southern Florida. In August, University of Florida scientists examined a record 5.36-metre specimen that had 87 eggs.

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Britain to allow gay marriages in churches

Britain is set to allow gay marriages in churches and other religious buildings. Source: AAP

BRITAIN will announce plans next week to allow gay marriages in churches and other religious buildings, officials say, although Prime Minister David Cameron insists no faith group would be forced to hold them.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller will unveil ministers' responses to a consultation earlier this year, which will propose that religious organisations should be able to "opt-in" to hold same-sex weddings, according to a government source.

Amid strong opposition from the Church of England and Roman Catholics, however, as well as many members of Cameron's Conservative Party, Miller will stress that no religious groups will be forced to conduct gay weddings.

"I'm a massive supporter of marriage and I don't want gay people to be excluded from a great institution," Cameron told reporters during a visit to a car factory on Friday.

"But let me be absolutely 100 per cent clear, if there is any church or any synagogue or any mosque that doesn't want to have a gay marriage it will not, absolutely must not, be forced to hold it.

"That is absolutely clear in the legislation.

"Also let me make clear, this is a free vote for members of parliament but personally I will be supporting it."

Gay couples have had the right to hold a civil partnership since 2004 but campaigners have pushed for full equality with heterosexual couples.

The Church of England repeated its opposition in a statement on Friday.

"We believe that redefining marriage to include same-sex relationships will entail a dilution in the meaning of marriage," it said.

In its submission to the public consultation in June, the Church said legalising gay marriage could force it out of its traditional role of conducting weddings on behalf of the state.

However, the Quakers welcomed Friday's news, saying they had been campaigning since 2009 for all marriages in Quaker meeting houses to be legally valid.

"We are waiting for the law to catch up," said recording clerk Paul Parker, adding, "For Quakers, this is an issue of religious freedom and we don't seek to impose this on others."

"The government is committed to bringing equal civil marriage forward and the consultation results will be announced next week," a government spokesman said.

"We are very clear that religious organisations must be protected and that no religious organisation will be forced to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies.

"The European Convention on Human Rights guarantees freedom of religion and we will additionally bring in very strong legal locks to ensure the protection is watertight."

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Starbucks caught out on UK tax

Starbucks promised to pay more corporate tax in the UK following pressure from the country's MPs. Source: AAP

STARBUCKS has bowed to mounting pressure over its tax affairs in Britain and revealed that it would pay about STG10 million ($A15.49 million) in each of the next two years.

Having been slammed by the country's MPs of "immorally" avoiding tax, Starbucks' UK managing director Kris Engskov said the firm had agreed to pay more than required by law.

"With the backdrop of these difficult times, in the area of tax, our customers clearly expect us to do more," he told the London Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.

The Seattle-based coffee company has 700 British outlets, but has paid just STG8.6 million in corporation tax in 14 years. Starbucks Corp says this is due to a process involving paying royalties to its European headquarters in The Netherlands.

The company hasn't done anything illegal. Companies operating in Europe can base themselves in any of the 27 European Union nations, allowing them to take advantage of a particular country's low tax rates.

Earlier this week, parliament's Public Accounts Committee criticised multinationals such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google for "using the letter of tax laws both nationally and internationally to immorally minimise their tax obligations".

Starbucks, which also has been the target of demonstrations by the protest group UK Uncut, announced this week that it was reviewing its tax approach.

Engskov said the company was proposing "to pay a significant amount of corporation tax during 2013 and 2014 regardless of whether our company is profitable during these years".

He estimated that would amount to "somewhere in the range of 10 million pounds in each of the next two years".

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chaired the parliamentary committee, said Starbucks' change of heart was proof that "people power works".

Earlier this week, UK Treasury chief George Osborne earmarked an extra STG77 million to clamp down on "offshore evasion and avoidance by wealthy individuals and by multinationals".

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Melbourne police hunt fast food burglars

POLICE are hunting for eight men believed to be responsible for burglaries which have netted more than $100,000 from fast food stores across Melbourne.

Two men - a 30-year-old from Thomastown and a 20-year-old from Heidelberg - have been charged over 43 burglaries which occurred mainly at Nando's restaurants around the city and suburbs between March and September.

The Thomastown man is facing a total of 56 charges.

Detective Senior Constable Andrew White said police were looking for another eight men over the heists, which often took just a few minutes to occur and netted up to $15,000 at a time.

"They certainly appear to know what they are doing and have a well-planned and sophisticated method," he told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.

Investigators have released CCTV footage of one of the incidents in a bid to identify a man that police believe may assist their investigation.

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Qld governor asked to rule on KAP dispute

KATTER'S Australian Party (KAP) has called on the Queensland governor to intervene in a dispute sparked by laws stripping the party from attaining official status in state parliament.

KAP became eligible to be recognised as an official party - and receive the associated funding benefits - after Condamine MP Ray Hopper defected from the Liberal National Party (LNP) last week.

However, new laws were rushed through parliament that deemed parties had to have at least three members elected under their banner in a popular vote.

The changes meant the party became ineligible because only Mount Isa MP Rob Katter and Dalrymple MP Shane Knuth won their seats under the KAP banner at the Queensland election.

Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney has called KAP's attempt for recognition an "opportunistic" bid to claim about a third of the opposition's funding.

But Mr Hopper, who now serves as the party's state leader, says he and the other two KAP MPs wrote to Governor Penelope Wensley because they were concerned the government was using its massive majority to remove opposing parties' rights.

"Queenslanders, whatever their political persuasion, are very concerned that this government would attack the democracy of this state in such a way," Mr Hopper said.

"This is the stuff of tin pot dictators from African nations who will do anything to crush political opposition."

Mr Hopper called for parliament to be recalled if Ms Wensley deems the bill to be "questionable".

It is not supposed to sit again until February next year.

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Witness didn't see Elkass point gun

A WOMAN who witnessed the fatal police shooting of a man on a western Sydney street has told an inquest she did not see him point a gun outside his car window.

Rodney Elkass, 37, was killed last year following a brief confrontation with plainclothed police a block from Castle Hill police station.

He was shot in the head while stopped in his ute about 1pm on September 29 - less than half-an-hour after waving a Glock 17 pistol at his former workmate and his brother when they tried to start a fight.

Penny Biddell was driving up Castle St towards the shopping centre when she saw three men in suits running up the hill, but she stopped when she realised they were going to cross the road in front of her and towards the ute.

Giving evidence at Parramatta Coroner's Court on Thursday, Ms Biddell said one of the men reached for a gun as he approached the car, but she was then distracted by a beeping driver behind her.

She told the court she could not see clearly inside the ute or determine whether it was a male or female at the wheel.

Asked by counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Hamill, SC, whether she saw the driver of the ute point a gun outside the driver's window, she replied: "No."

"I'm sure I would've seen that if it had come out," Ms Biddell said.

Eye witnesses gave contradictory accounts of the same scene on Wednesday.

One of them, schoolteacher Claire Bayley, who was walking up Castle St with her five-month-old baby in a pram, said Mr Elkass appeared "out of control" as he reached for a gun from inside the ute and pointed it out the driver's window.

But another witness, Sonal Kumar, said she never saw a gun in Mr Elkass's hands as she sat in her car about five metres away.

She told the inquest he looked "surprised" when the three officers approached the ute.

According to Ms Kumar's statement to police, Mr Elkass had his "hands up near his face, his palms facing outwards in front of him" at the time.

The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Hugh Dillon continues.

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HSBC to sell stake in China insurer

BRITAIN'S HSBC says it will sell its stake in China's second largest life insurer Ping An for $US9.4 billion ($A9.01 billion), as it looks to shift its focus back towards its traditional banking business.

The lender said in a statement it will sell its entire 15.57 per cent holding in Ping An Insurance Group to Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group at HK$59 ($US7.66) a share, a two per cent premium to its Tuesday closing price.

Ping An recently hit the headlines after the New York Times said last month that relatives of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had gained from its Hong Kong listing in 2004 by buying stock at a discount before the sale.

Ping An has denied those claims and threatened legal action against the US newspaper.

HSBC Group Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said in the statement the Ping An sale would benefit shareholders, but added that China remained "a key market for the group".

He said the firm would "strengthen our focus on growing our own operations and building on our long-term strategic banking partnership with the Bank of Communications", China's fifth largest lender, in which HSBC has a 19 per cent stake.

The bank has been selling non-core assets as part of a broad restructuring plan designed to boost profitability.

"They can unload their non-core assets and resources to refocus on their main business, which is banking," Tanrich Securities Vice President Jackson Wong told AFP.

London-listed HSBC is also setting aside hundreds of millions of dollars as provision for fines related to possible criminal charges over money-laundering allegations in the United States.

Shares in Ping An climbed after the announcement. It was up 2.25 per cent at HK$58.95 in Hong Kong on Wednesday morning, while it rose 2.7 per cent to 38.38 yuan in Shanghai.

Last month the New York Times reported the chairman of Ping An wrote in 1999 to Wen, who was vice-premier at the time, and met his wife as the government considered a decision on whether to split up the company.

After the lobbying, it said, the government granted Ping An a waiver from a requirement that large financial companies be broken up.

Following the decision an investment vehicle - later controlled by relatives of Wen - bought shares in Ping An at a significant discount, long before most other investors could buy into it, the report said.

Ping An said of the report that "recent media coverage related to the company" contained "serious inaccuracies, facts being distorted and taken out of context, as well as flawed logic".

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