Japan election candidates make final pitch

HUNDREDS of candidates vying for a seat in Japan's parliament made their final pitches on Saturday in an election expected to see the return of the country's old guard.

Opinion polls show the Liberal Democratic Party on course for a convincing victory in Sunday's lower house election, with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda set to pass into history as the sixth consecutive one-year premier.

Hawkish LDP leader Shinzo Abe is predicted to return to the premiership, a job he held without much distinction in 2006-7, in a move that may herald a hardening of Japan's foreign policy at a time of heightened tensions with China.

As light rain fell over Tokyo, some of the over 1,500 candidates running in the poll stood before train stations to make final pleas to voters, while their staff held banners with the candidates names and parties printed in bold typeface.

Abe donned a white windbreaker to speak with with voters in Wako-city, Saitama prefecture, north of the capital, reiterating his promise to reform Japan's education system, Kyodo News said.

Abe has pledged in previous campaign speeches to "repair the Japan-US alliance and firmly defend our territorial soil and waters".

In one of the last gauges of the public mood before Sunday's vote, polls published Friday showed the LDP and its junior coalition party set to achieve a possible two-thirds majority in the lower house ballot.

That would hand Abe a mandate to try to fulfil his campaign pledge of bolstering Japan's military and coastal defences, particularly on the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islands, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus.

On Thursday Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese plane entered airspace over the Japanese-held chain. Tokyo said it was the first time a Chinese state-owned plane had breached its airspace.

North Korea's rocket launch earlier this week could also boost the right-wing vote in a country that lives uneasily next door to an unpredictable Pyongyang.

Polls indicate that despite a strong current of anti-nuclear feeling since the March 2011 tsunami sparked reactor meltdowns at Fukushima, an array of smaller parties promising an atomic exit may struggle to gain traction.

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17y/o Vic drink driver nabbed

A 17-YEAR-OLD learner driver has been caught drink driving and speeding in his mum's car on the first day of a Victoria Police road safety blitz in the lead-up to Christmas.

The boy was pulled over in Carrum Downs, in Melbourne's southeast, about 1.20am (AEDT) after being clocked travelling at 112km/h in a 70km/h zone.

He also returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.139 per cent. Learner drivers must have a zero blood alcohol content.

The Carrum Downs boy had his learner's permit suspended for 12 months and received penalty notices for offences including drink driving, failing to have headlights on a vehicle and speeding.

The teen was one of 36 drink drivers caught on the first day of Operation Break Up.

The police campaign is targeting alcohol and drug driving, speed, fatigue and driver distraction during the high-risk pre-Christmas period.

Across the state, police detected 1261 traffic offences and 113 crime offences.

They conducted 9748 preliminary breath tests and 106 roadside drug tests, which found five drug drivers.

Police also detected:

- 39 disqualified/suspended drivers

- 58 unlicensed drivers

- 150 unregistered vehicles

- 376 speeding offences

- 123 mobile phone offences

Operation Break Up runs until 23 December.

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Facebook to meet Victoria police

A FACEBOOK representative will meet with Victoria's police chief over concerns the social media site's users are a "mob" that incites hatred and undermines the criminal justice system.

Chief Commissioner Ken Lay confirmed on Friday that since he publicly criticised the company's response to major cases, he had been contacted by Facebook's head in Southeast Asia.

"I'll be meeting with him in the next few weeks to have a chat about some of my concerns," Mr Lay told Fairfax Radio.

Earlier this year, Mr Lay attacked Facebook for failing to quickly remove hate pages that could have threatened the high-profile prosecution of Adrian Ernest Bayley, the Melbourne man accused of raping and murdering ABC staffer Jill Meagher.

"They've got a social responsibility, this mob," Mr Lay said in October.

Bayley, 41, had at least six Facebook pages - devoted to revealing his background - posted on Facebook for days before they were finally deleted.

He is still in custody and awaiting his next court appearance in January.

Law enforcement authorities have similar concerns about other hate pages, including some that target accused killers, a page that targeted a senior traffic policeman, and the continuing problem of trolls who litter victims' memorial pages with offensive content.

Australia's attorneys-general met earlier this year to discuss how best to tackle social media when users can easily skirt around court publication bans and prejudice someone's right to a fair trial.

Facebook has previously said it would remove content when "it violates local law".

Mr Lay said his Facebook meeting has been scheduled for the first week of January.

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Banksia had problems for years: receiver

BANKSIA Securities was facing financial problems for at least three years before it collapsed owing investors $660 million, receivers for the company say.

McGrathNicol partner Tony McGrath said the beginning of the failure of the company could be traced back to the start of the global financial crisis "three, four, five" years ago, and its lending practises had not kept pace with changing market conditions.

Some 600 of about 15,000 affected investors, many of whom live in regional Victoria, were told at a meeting on Friday they would get back 65 cents in the dollar at most, but it could take up to three years to pay all the money.

The first distribution of 20 cents in the dollar was made last week and Mr McGrath said he hoped investors would receive 50 cents in the dollar by next September.

Any remaining money would take longer to realise, due to the difficulty of the loan portfolio, he said.

Investors at the meeting in Kyabram, central Victoria, took issue with how much the receivers are being paid, with the latest report to debenture holders showing they have been paid $1.6 million since being appointed seven weeks ago.

But Mr McGrath said he was comfortable with the amount they were charging, given the way his business was conducted and the outcomes achieved.

Banksia Securities is a subsidiary of Kyabram-based non-bank lender Banksia Financial Group.

Mr McGrath also flagged the possibility of legal action against Banksia's directors and auditors over potential conflicts of interest and negligence.

"I think there are some issues that I'm concerned about," he told reporters after the meeting.

In particular, Mr McGrath is investigating the relationship between the Banksia group and the Banksia Mortgage Fund.

He said investors' money was siphoned into the fund, which then lent it to other parties.

Mr McGrath said there was also an "obvious issue" around the role of the auditor, who signed off a $24 million surplus for the company just months before it collapsed with massive debts.

"That's quite a significant change that requires addressing," he said.

Mr McGrath said any potential legal action - either by the receivers or as a class action by investors - would have to be weighed against the potential outcome and the ability of those being sued to pay.

He also said McGrathNicol were in constant communication with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) about Banksia Securities.

Investors in a second failed Banksia Financial Group fund, Cherry Fund Ltd, are expected to get back 55 to 70 cents in the dollar.

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Screaming match in Vic parliament

THE last question time of the year in the Victorian Parliament's lower house has descended into a screaming match, with a Labor MP kicked out for repeatedly calling the speaker a disgrace.

Speaker Ken Smith cited Labor MP Danielle Green, the member for Yan Yean, after she yelled at him repeatedly: "You're a disgrace!"

Ms Green began her tirade as Labor MPs stormed out of the Legislative Assembly midway through question time after Mr Smith refused to allow a question relating to controversial Liberal MPs Geoff Shaw and Bill Tilley.

The government then used its numbers to have Ms Green suspended from the house for the rest of the day.

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PM apologises to Pike mine families

NEW Zealand Prime Minister John Key has personally apologised to the families of the 29 men killed in the Pike River mine disaster.

But they took little solace from Mr Key's words at a meeting in Greymouth on Thursday, as they continue to campaign for the bodies of their loved ones to be retrieved from the mine where they have lain since the November 2010 gas explosions.

"People were upset at the way government had handled things," said Bernie Monk, who acts as spokesman for most of the families.

The families had an opportunity to air their views and they did, he said.

"They asked a lot of questions. In fact the families gave the prime minister a fair going over.

"He apologised to each one in person."

International experts the families engaged concluded it was feasible to re-enter the mine, but this clashed with advice the government had received.

Mr Monk hoped the experts could thrash it out, and believed it would be accepted if both groups agreed there was no safe plan to enter the mine.

"Then we would walk away from it," he said.

"But we cannot move on until there has been at least an attempt to get into the mine."

Lawyer for the families, Colin Smith, said there was obvious frustration at this lack of progress.

A big positive of the meeting, however, was the government's commitment to implement all the recommendations of the royal commission into the disaster.

Mr Key told reporters that if the families or Solid Energy could come up with a safe and credible plan to go into the drift, the government would help fund it.

But he didn't think that it would ever be possible to go deep into the mine where many of the miners were believed to be working when the explosions occurred.

"I told them in plain English that all the advice I've had in my office has always been that it will not be possible to get in the mine's workings itself," he said.

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Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar dies

THE legendary Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, a major influence on Western musicians including The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, has died at the age of 92, Indian television has reported.

Shankar, the father of the American singer-songwriter Norah Jones, died in a San Diego hospital where he had travelled to undergo surgery, the CNN-IBN network reported on Wednesday.

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NSW top cop praises slain officer Anderson

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has remembered slain policeman Bryson Anderson as a loving husband and father, a prized friend and colleague and "a thoroughly good bloke".

The 45-year-old father of three was stabbed after responding to a dispute between neighbours at Oakville, in Sydney's northwest, on Thursday.

Detective-Inspector Anderson was a tenacious and committed police officer, driven to pursue offenders for the darkest and most serious of crimes, Mr Scipione told more than 1000 mourners at a funeral at St Patrick's Cathedral in Parramatta on Wednesday.

Yet he retained the extraordinary empathy, compassion and concern for the victims of those crimes.

Mr Scipione said Det Insp Anderson would posthumously receive the first clasp to the National Medal and the third clasp to the NSW Police Medal.

"Impressive as they are, the bare facts I have recounted do Detective Inspector Bryson Anderson little justice," he said.

"Bryson the man transcended in achievements and in potential any chronology of this type."

"He showed initiative and leadership, intelligence and perseverance, dedication and humility, and memorably, a ready smile and an engaging way.

"A proud husband and father, a keen motor cyclist, an active participant in sporting clubs, and, invariably, a superb police officer.

"He lived for the community, died serving it and deserved much better."

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Auditor again questions NSW govt figures

THE NSW auditor-general has questioned the revaluation of 27,000 school buildings after their total value increased by $8 billion but those built under a federal stimulus program fell by more than $660 million.

Just weeks after Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat found a $1 billion error in the state's June budget figures, he has again raised concerns about accountancy methods used by the state government.

His latest audit raises doubts about what he called a "flawed" revaluation of 27,000 school and TAFE buildings, conducted by the Education Department earlier this year, particularly the significant fall in Building the Education Revolution (BER) structures.

The replacement cost of the department's building stock rose from $26.5 billion to $34.6 billion under the evaluation, but the value of the Rudd government BER buildings dropped by one third from $1.9 billion to $1.2 billion.

Mr Achterstraat called for the department to review its revaluation methodology to confirm the figures, saying it had been unable to provide "sufficient evidence" to back the construction costs used.

"There were flaws in the process used and more work is needed to support the values recorded," Mr Achterstraat said in a statement on Tuesday.

"This work may confirm the value of the buildings is correct, or it may highlight shortcomings in the revaluation process."

"The significant decrease in cost attributed to new BER buildings in the revaluation process may be due to actual costs paid for BER buildings being too high, construction prices may have been higher during the period of the BER program, or replacement cost rates used in the revaluation process may be incorrect."

In October, Mr Achterstraat found the deficit of $337 million for 2011-12 announced in this year's budget should in fact be a surplus of $680 million.

The embarrassing billion-dollar turnaround was attributed to 37 mistakes - errors in spreadsheets, data entry, end-of-year accruals and reconciliation processes.

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Man jailed for leaving victim quadriplegic

RETIRED cabinet-maker Kenneth Weger was the type of bloke who was quick to offer a visitor a beer.

But he didn't get a chance to be hospitable to former boarder Daniel Charles Hughes, who rendered Mr Weger a quadriplegic by repeatedly stabbing him and leaving him for dead in his Adelaide backyard.

Hughes, 25, was jailed for at least five years in the South Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The chef had pleaded guilty to an aggravated offence of causing serious harm to Mr Weger with intent, after stabbing him six times in the neck in February 2011 at the retiree's Marion home.

Outside court, the 70-year-old victim said Hughes had "ruined two lives" and was "an idiot".

But Mr Weger's daughter Amy stressed that her father still had sympathy for his assailant and worried about the younger man's future.

Now confined to a nursing home, her father had previously been outgoing, lived independently, travelled and would have a drink with anyone.

"If Daniel hadn't stabbed him, I bet the next words would have been 'have a beer'," she said.

"We just hope that Daniel can do his time and come out the other end a better person."

In setting a maximum term of eight years, Justice Michael David said Hughes had consumed an inordinate amount of alcohol and ingested drugs before going to Mr Weger's home looking for accommodation.

Defence barrister Adam Richards said when Mr Weger moved towards Hughes, the young man mistakenly believed he was making a sexual advance.

He impulsively stabbed him using a paring knife he had in his pocket for an innocent purpose - to scrape a bundle of scratchies he had been given for his birthday, Mr Richards said.

In a victim impact statement read to the court on his behalf, Mr Weger said he was now stuck in a nursing home looking at four walls.

"I can't leave when I want and it feels like I have lost my freedom," he said.

"It has completely stuffed up my retirement.

"I have lost everything."

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Thrift Shop still No.1 on ARIA chart

US rap duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis continue to top the ARIA singles chart with their hip-hop parody Thrift Shop.

Behind the rap duo is Swedish House Mafia's single Don't You Worry Child, up one spot to No.2, while Taylor Swift's I Knew You Were Trouble has also moved up a spot to take the third position.

English singer Olly Murs has jumped 15 places to break into the top five with his single Troublemaker at No.4.

The week's biggest mover is Scream & Shout by will.i.am, featuring Britney Spears, which has jumped 27 spots to No.5.

Their success pushes X Factor winner Samantha Jade's debut single What You've Done To Me to No.6, just ahead of Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men.

Korean pop singer Psy's global sensation Gangnam Style has fallen one place to No.8.

Ed Sheeran's Give Me Love is up six spots to No.9, while Ke$ha's single Die Young rounds up the top 10.

Canadian crooner Michael Buble's Christmas album has topped the ARIA albums chart, knocking Guy Sebastian's record Armageddon off pole position to No.5.

Behind Buble is One Direction's Take Me Home.

Swift's Red holds steady at No.3, while Rod Stewart's holiday album Merry Christmas, Baby, is up three spots to No.6.

Meanwhile, the Bee Gees' 50th anniversary collection, Mythology, is back in the top 10, up eight spots to No.10.

The top two in the country chart are unchanged with Swift and Lee Kernaghan in first and second place respectively.

Keith Urban's record The Story So Far is up two spots to No.3, while The Essential Johnny Cash compilation is down three spots to No.9.

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Older students drinking at risky levels

A survey has found older high school children are continuing to drink alcohol at risky levels. Source: AAP

OLDER high school children are continuing to drink at risky levels but alcohol use by younger teenagers is dropping, a new national survey shows.

A survey of 25,000 Australian secondary school students, carried out every three years, found about one in five pupils were "current drinkers", having consumed alcohol in the past seven days.

The number of 12- to 15 year olds classified as current drinkers dropped from 17 per cent in 2008 to 11 per cent in 2011, the Australian Secondary Students' Alcohol and Drug survey has found.

The proportion of 16- and 17 year olds who drank in the past week dropped slightly, from 38 per cent in 2008 to 33 per cent in 2011.

But there was little difference in the number of those drinking more than four drinks on one occasion during that seven-day period, at 16 per cent in 2011 compared to 18 per cent three years ago.

Cancer Council Victoria chief executive Todd Harper said the fact that older students were still binge drinking at similar levels to 2008 was concerning.

"It means another generation is inheriting risky drinking behaviour," Mr Harper said in a statement.

"Drinking in teenage years is linked to higher risks of alcohol dependence problems in young adulthood, and excessive consumption is, in turn, a cause of many chronic illnesses such as cancer," he said.

About 45 per cent of those 16- to 17-year-old current drinkers intended to get drunk on most occasions when they consumed alcohol, Mr Harper said.

He said the government needed to address the availability of cheap alcohol and its promotion to young people, particularly during live television sport coverage.

Parents were the most common suppliers of alcohol to students deemed current drinkers, the research found.

Pre-mixed spirits were the preferred alcoholic drink among females while males preferred pre-mixed drinks and beer.

Meanwhile, the percentage of younger students who were considered current smokers dropped to the lowest level since the survey began in 1984.

Only four per cent of 12-15 year olds were current smokers in 2011 compared to seven per cent three years' earlier.

But rates among 16-17 year olds were stagnant at 13 per cent in 2011, the same figure recorded in 2008.

Almost half the students who smoked got cigarettes from friends but 18 per cent bought them over the counter, despite bans on selling cigarettes to under-18s.

Mr Harper said the survey showed graphic warnings on tobacco packaging and an increase in smoke-free areas had made a significant impact.

Cannabis was the most commonly used illicit substance among secondary school students.

The research was led by Cancer Council Victoria's Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer and also involved commonwealth, state and territory health departments.

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Treasurer Swan to spruik Aust in India

DEPUTY Prime Minister Wayne Swan will meet senior government and business officials in India this week to boost Australia's long-term possibilities with the Asian nation and the region.

It is understood the treasurer will hold talks with his Indian counterpart, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, as well as with economists and senior business leaders from Indian and Australian firms to discuss the opportunities in the region.

"While much of the advanced world is still facing very tough times, the shift in economic activity from west to east means the long-term prospect for our own region remain bright," Mr Swan said in his weekly economic note on Sunday.

"India is, of course, critical to those prospects."

Mr Swan's visit to India follows Prime Minister Julia Gillard's trip in October.

The Asian nation is Australia's fourth largest export market, with goods and services sold to India worth $13.12 billion in the 2011/12 financial year.

India is the fifth largest foreign investor in Australia.

Education is a key link in the relationship between the nations, with more than 48,000 Indian students studying in Australia this year, Mr Swan says.

"But we also want to see our own students learn more about the region and gain the skills they need to make the most of the opportunities that will flow as the middle-classes in countries like India grow rapidly," he says.

The Indian economy is forecast to expand at an average rate of 6.75 per cent annually to 2025 as set out in the recent Asian Century White Paper, Mr Swan says.

India posted its slowest economic growth rate in a decade, 5.3 per cent in the year to September 30, with economists forecasting an improvement next year.

Australia released its latest economic growth data last week, with the economy expanding at 0.5 per cent for the September 2012 quarter for an annual rate of 3.1 per cent.

This was a slowdown from an annual rate of 3.8 per cent in the 12 months to June 30, official data showed.

Mr Swan said it was not surprising growth slowed and incomes eased following sharp falls in commodity prices in the quarter, Europe slipped back into recession and Japan, Australia's second largest export market, had a sharp contraction.

But the economy continues to show great resilience, as shown by the 0.2 percentage points drop in the national jobless rate to 5.2 per cent in November, the treasurer says.

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Kidnapped US doctor rescued in Afghanistan

US soldiers killed seven Taliban insurgents in a pre-dawn raid to rescue a kidnapped American doctor in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, the NATO force in the war-torn country says.

The mission was launched when intelligence showed that Dr Dilip Joseph was in "imminent danger of injury or death", NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

Joseph was abducted on December 5 by Taliban insurgents in the Surobi district of Kabul province.

"Today's mission exemplifies our unwavering commitment to defeating the Taliban," said General John Allen, the commander of US and ISAF forces in Afghanistan.

"I'm proud of the American and Afghan forces that planned, rehearsed and successfully conducted this operation. Thanks to them, Dr Joseph will soon be rejoining his family and loved ones."

Joseph was now "undergoing evaluations", the statement said, without giving further details.

A security source said the doctor had been involved in building clinics in Afghanistan, but details of his capture were not immediately available.

An ISAF spokesman said the rescue had been launched when multiple intelligence sources indicated that he was in immediate danger.

"We felt we had to act now," he said.

Seven of the doctor's captors were killed in the operation, which involved combined US and Afghan forces, he said.

He gave no further details of where the doctor had been held or on the rescue operation itself, saying they could be announced later in the day.

Surobi outside Kabul had been under the control of French troops until April this year, when responsibility for security was handed to Afghan forces as part of France's accelerated withdrawal from the country.

France ended its combat mission in Afghanistan last month, two years before allied nations contributing to the 100,000-strong US-led NATO force are due to depart.

Westerners are a prize target for the Taliban Islamists, who have waged an 11-year insurgency since being toppled from power in a US-led invasion in 2001.

In June, NATO special forces rescued two foreign women working for a Swiss-based charity who had been kidnapped and held in a cave in Afghanistan's remote and mountainous Badakhshan province, killing five of their captors.

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