ACT firefighters have evacuated 12 Canberra houses while they repair a gas leak.
Contractors ruptured a gas line in the northern suburb of Amaroo on Saturday.
ACT Fire & Rescue crews, including a specialist hazardous materials unit, are at the scene and evacuated homes to ensure the residents' safety.
The US Senate has approved a $A606.41 billion defence spending bill for next year. Source: AAP
THE US Senate has approved a $US633 billion ($A606.41 billion) defence spending bill for next year that tightens penalties on Iran, funds the war in Afghanistan and boosts security at US missions worldwide.
The legislation passed 81-14 on Friday despite furious opposition from Republican Senator Rand Paul, who criticised removal of an amendment that would have provided Americans with protection against indefinite military detention.
Despite a raging partisan row in Washington over how to resolve a year-end fiscal crisis, the compromise bill sailed through the House of Representatives on Thursday and now goes to President Barack Obama's desk.
In addition to covering standard national security expenses like shipbuilding, it provides a 1.7-per cent pay raise for men and women in uniform, authorises the Pentagon to pay for abortions in cases of rape and incest and lifts a ban on same-sex marriage ceremonies on military bases.
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2013 was hammered out by House and Senate conferees this month after each chamber voted to approve separate versions of the bill.
The White House last month said Obama could veto the act out of concern for the restrictions on his handling of Guantanamo detainees, but Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin said this week he did not expect a veto.
The bill extended for one year the restriction on use of US funds to transfer Guantanamo inmates to other countries, a limitation critics say marks a setback for Obama's efforts to close the detention centre.
Paul said it was a "travesty of justice" that an amendment designed to limit the president's power to indefinitely detain US citizens as terror suspects was stripped from the final bill.
"It's a shame to scrap the very rights that make us exceptional as a people," Paul said, referring to the rights to a trial for anyone held in the United States.
Australian MP Ian Hunter (R) and his boyfriend Leith Semmens have flown to Spain to get married. Source: AAP
THE South Australian parliament has been urged to pass same-sex marriage laws after gay MP Ian Hunter had to go to Spain to marry his long-time partner.
On Thursday Mr Hunter because the first gay Australian politician to marry while in office when he wed Leith Semmens in the town of Jun, near the southern city of Granada.
The pair, together for 22 years, flew half-way around the world to tie the knot, two months after the federal parliament voted down same-sex marriage legislation.
Mr Hunter, the social inclusion minister, said the decision to travel to Spain, which has allowed same-sex couples to marry since 2005, was about finally being able to express his love for his partner in front of the people who were important to him.
He said the pair had decided they couldn't wait for their own country to approve their union.
"Without a doubt it's inevitable in Australia, but you're looking at six or seven years, and me and my partner weren't willing to wait that long," Mr Hunter said a few hours before the ceremony.
Australian Marriage Equality national convener Rodney Croome said the marriage of Mr Hunter and Mr Leith was tinged with sadness because their solemn vows would not be respected in Australian law.
"We call on the South Australian parliament to lead the nation toward marriage equality by allowing same-sex couples to legally marry and fully recognising same-sex marriages from overseas," he said.
"Reform at a federal level would be best, but in the absence of this, Ian Hunter's wedding is a strong impetus for South Australia to take the lead."
The SA parliament will consider a bill in 2013 to introduce same-sex marriage laws with MPs from both the Labor and Liberal parties to be granted a conscience vote.
HONG Kong's de facto central bank says it will probe Swiss banking giant UBS over claims of possible rigging of Hong Kong's interbank offered rate (Hibor).
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Thursday said it had received information from overseas regulators about "possible misconduct" by UBS involving submissions for Hibor and other reference rates in Asia.
"The HKMA has commenced an investigation with a view to ascertaining any misconduct committed by the bank in relation to Hibor submissions," the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said in a statement.
The HKMA said it will work with overseas regulatory authorities to gather information and "consider further actions that need to be taken" pending the findings of the investigation.
In an emailed statement, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for UBS said: "We continue to work closely with various regulatory authorities to resolve issues relating to the setting of certain global benchmark interest rates."
"As we are currently in active discussions with these authorities, we cannot comment further."
The move comes a day after UBS agreed on Wednesday to pay $US1.5 billion ($A1.44 billion) in fines to national regulators in three countries to settle accusations that it tried to manipulate interest rates.
The probes by Swiss, British and US regulators revealed evidence of massive misconduct in the setting of the London interbank offered rate (Libor), a global reference that affects products from student loans to mortgages.
US President Barack Obama has backed a new bid to revive a ban on assault weapons. Source: AAP
US President Barack Obama has backed a new bid to revive a ban on assault weapons and other new gun laws, as traumatised politicians wrestle with the aftermath of a sickening school massacre.
Obama also called an ardently pro-gun senator who has shifted his position on firearms laws since Friday's carnage in Connecticut and has begun meeting top cabinet officials to consider his options, his spokesman Jay Carney said.
The killing of 26 people, including 20 children, at a Newtown elementary school sent the country into shock, and may have shifted the political debate on firearms in US society, after years of gun lobby ascendancy.
Carney said that Obama is "actively supportive" of an effort by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein to write a bill early next year to reintroduce a ban on deadly assault weapons that expired in 2004.
Obama aides said after previous mass shootings that the president supported reintroducing a ban on weapons like the one used by Adam Lanza to kill six and seven-year-old students but he never put political muscle behind such a push.
Carney said Obama would also be interested in any move to ban high-capacity clips - magazines that hold dozens of rounds - and to close the so-called "gun show loophole" that allows unlicensed individuals to sell guns privately.
"He is heartened... by what we have all heard from some members of Congress who have been long-time opponents of gun control measures, common-sense gun control measures like the assault weapons ban and the like," Carney said.
Feinstein has said her bill would ban by name at least 100 military-style semi-automatic assault weapons, and would curb the transfer, importation and the possession of such arms.
"It's going to be strong, and it's going to be definitive," she said.
But once outrage from the Newtown massacre fades, prospects for Feinstein's bill remain uncertain and every piece of legislation is subject to intense amendment and pressure from various lobby groups.
But the California senator said that the tragedy was so acute in Newtown, a "sea change" in gun politics was possible.
"This is so graphic in people's minds, the smallness and beauty of these children, is so graphic, the loss is so dramatic," she said.
The most well-known gun lobby group, the National Rifle Association, spoke up about the school carnage for the first time on Tuesday, saying it was "shocked" and pledged to hold a news conference on Friday.
The White House said that Obama's vow on Sunday that gun tragedies "must end" could only be realised in part by new gun controls.
To that end, he met Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday to discuss a "comprehensive" effort, possibly including new efforts to stop the mentally ill from getting weapons.
Obama also on Tuesday called West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a pro-gun politician who may now back an assault weapons ban who may be a useful ally in the days ahead.
The right to bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, and many political leaders are pro-gun for political and philosophical reasons but the political winds may be shifting.
"We need to accept the reality that we're not doing enough to protect our citizens," Senate Democratic Majority leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday.
"We must engage in a thoughtful debate about how to change laws and a culture that allows violence not to continue to grow. Every idea should be on the table."
Several leading Republican senators, while shocked by the school massacre and accepting something had to be done, were not ready to commit this early to specific anti-gun legislation or to rule out gun ownership altogether.
"The bigger point here is what public policy can we advocate that would keep all dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals and those who are mentally unstable," said Senator Marco Rubio.
"I've always supported... reasonable public policy changes that accomplish that, but also with the recognition that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is not a policy decision, it is a constitutional principle."
Republican Senator Jeff Sessions told AFP that new gun legislation would "definitely be on the table" next year.
Senator John McCain, asked about tighter controls on assault weapons, said: "I think we need to have a conversation about all aspects of this tragedy to see that it doesn't happen again.'
But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham argued that reinstituting an assault weapons ban might "give a false sense of security."
"I don't know what the government can do when you have somebody this disturbed. Take everybody's guns away? Start putting people in preventive detention who, you know, act odd?" he said.
"How do you prevent mass murder? Do you take every sharp object in the nation off the table? That's not practical."
"I just don't want to make people think that a bunch of politicians can solve the problem when they haven't."
America has suffered an epidemic of gun violence over the last three decades, including 62 mass shooting sprees since 1982, three of the deadliest in the second half of this year alone.
A MAN has been charged with making threats against a school in the NSW Hunter region, during a phone call with an insurance company.
Police allege the call was made early on Tuesday morning.
Officers later arrested a 40-year-old Thornton man and charged him with using a carriage service to menace or harass.
He's been granted conditional bail and is scheduled to appear in Maitland Local Court on January 14.
THOUSANDS of patients will suffer, with every Victorian hospital copping the brunt of "unprecedented" federal funding cuts, the state government says.
Up to 700 Royal Melbourne Hospital patients will be forced to wait longer for elective surgery, while Health Minister David Davis has written to the state's 86 health bosses urging them to plan for the commonwealth's mid-financial-year cuts.
Mr Davis says the commonwealth's revised funding arrangement with the state, which will strip some $107 million from the state's hospitals, is unprecedented and based on false population figures.
The arrangement will cut $15 million from Victorian hospitals in December alone, Reserve Bank of Australia figures show.
In a letter to federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, Mr Davis says bringing the cuts in halfway through the financial year makes it difficult for hospitals - which planned their annual budgets in May - to adjust.
"These cuts are unprecedented ... this is no way for the commonwealth to run healthcare in this country," he told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.
"We're obviously very angry with the commonwealth, hospitals are angry ... and the commonwealth could still reverse this very unfortunate cut."
"It will be hundreds of beds and it will indeed be thousands of patients that are impacted."
Mr Davis said the government had attempted to justify the cuts on "shonky" population figures, which claim Victoria's population fell by 11,000 last year, while Australian Bureau of Statistics in fact shows the state swelled by 75,000 people.
"Never before has this style of adjustment been made so harshly, and never before has such a spurious set of figures been used to justify what in my view is an attempt to prop up the commonwealth budget," Mr Davis said.
But Ms Plibersek says the state is trying to cover its mismanagement.
"This is a smokescreen for the Victorian government's own failures," she said.
"Before any of this was in discussion, there were record high numbers of people on Victorian elective surgery waiting lists."
FROM a devilish-looking bat to a frog that sings like a bird, scientists have identified 126 new species in the Greater Mekong area, the WWF says in a new report detailing discoveries in 2011.
But from forest loss to the construction of major hydropower projects on the Mekong River, existing threats to the region's biodiversity mean many of the new species are already struggling to survive, the conservation group warned on Tuesday.
"The good news is new discoveries. The bad news is that it is getting harder and harder in the world of conservation and environmental sustainability," Nick Cox, manager of WWF-Greater Mekong's Species Programme, told AFP.
Some 126 species were newly recorded last year in the Greater Mekong region, which consists of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.
Some, such as the Beelzebub tube-nosed bat discovered in Vietnam, depend on tropical forests for survival and so are especially vulnerable to deforestation.
In just four decades, 30 percent of the Greater Mekong's forests have disappeared, the report says.
Others, such as a short-tailed python species found in Myanmar are more at risk from illegal hunting for meat, skins, and the exotic pet trade, the report said.
"Poaching for the illegal wildlife trade poses one of the greatest threats to the existence of many species across Southeast Asia," Cox said in a statement accompanying the report.
The list, dominated by plants, included 21 reptiles and five amphibians, such as a frog that sings and another that has black and white eye patterns that look like yin and yang symbols.
The WWF said that while the number of new species discovered was testament to the region's astounding biodiversity, there had been some "worrying developments" that posed a threat to their future.
WWF singled out Laos' determination to construct the Xayaburi dam on the main stream of the Mekong River as a significant threat to the river's "extraordinary biodiversity" and the livelihoods of more than 60 million people.
"The Mekong River supports levels of aquatic biodiversity second only to the Amazon River," according to Cox.
"The Xayaburi dam would prove an impassable barrier for many fish species, signalling the demise for wildlife already known and as yet undiscovered," he added.
The Mekong River supports around 850 fish species and the world's most intensive inland fishery, the report said.
Last month, Laos said it had begun work on the controversial multi-billion dollar Xayaburi dam, defying objections from environmentalists in its bid to become a regional energy hub.
Fiji's northern islands experienced flooding and structural damage as Cyclone Evan hit the region. Source: AAP
NEW Zealand searchers are now looking for 10 fishermen off Samoa since Cyclone Evan hit the island nation after a fourth boat was discovered to be missing.
As the destructive cyclone crossed Fiji, a New Zealand Air Force Orion continued its search for the missing Samoan fishermen.
It was initially thought eight were missing from three boats but Rescue Coordination Centre search and rescue mission co-ordinator Kevin Banaghan says they now know of a fourth boat.
"We have now been advised that a fourth fishing boat has been confirmed missing, with a total of 10 men still to be accounted for," he said.
"Each boat had three crew aboard, but two men, from different boats, have made it to shore."
A French Navy guardian aircraft is helping with the search.
Meanwhile, the cyclone has now reached Fiji, running one bulk carrier ship aground and causing destruction in Rakiraki, the Fiji Times website reported.
The ship Starford, believed to be carrying equipment for a Chinese firm constructing a highway, dragged its anchor about 11.30am local time (0930 AEDT) and was pushed onto the reef in Suva Harbour.
In Rakiraki, the Vaileka River has burst its banks and water is flowing into the town.
Evan was still rated as a category four storm by the Fiji Meteorological Office shortly after midday, with winds were reaching 170km/h with gusts of more than 230km/h.
The Fiji government urged people in low-lying areas to take shelter on higher ground.
A number flights in and out of Fiji have been cancelled or delayed.
Cyclone Evan caused widespread destruction in Samoa, killing four people and displacing about 4000.
New Zealand Red Cross has deployed a specialist team of five delegates and an emergency grant of $NZ10,000 to help deal with the damage in Samoa.
Air New Zealand is allowing all passengers flying from Auckland to Apia between December 17 and December 30 to take one extra piece of checked luggage, up to 23kg, free of charge, though the extra baggage won't travel until after Christmas while the planes carry relief supplies.
THE New Zealand dollar fell in local trading as investor optimism ran out of puff from the Federal Reserve's plan to print more money and the Bank of Japan looking likely to follow suit after the weekend's election.
The kiwi fell to 84.34 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 85.54 cents at 8am and 84.56 cents on Friday in New York.
The trade weighted index was little changed at 75.26 from 75.31 last week.
Investors' appetite for higher yields has dwindled at the start of this week, with stock markets flat across Asia as Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.4 per cent in afternoon trading and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index down 0.2 per cent.
New Zealand's currency rallied through the tail-end of last week after the Fed embarked on a fourth round of quantitative easing and the Liberal Democratic Party won a sweeping mandate in Japan on the promise of more market intervention.
Departing Bank of England governor "Mervyn King said 2013 could be the year of the currency wars - QE4 was probably enough to tip most of them over the edge", said Tim Kelleher, head of institutional FX sales NZ at ASB Institutional.
"The kiwi's going to struggle to get down as people are attracted by the higher yield."
The kiwi was little changed at 80.03 Australian cents from 80.04 cents last week.
But it rose as high as 71.33 yen after Japan's LDP and junior partner New Komeito won at least 320 of the 480 seats in the lower house in Sunday's election, a two-third majority.
The currency traded at 70.84 yen at 5pm in Wellington from 70.57 yen last week.
It fell to 64.13 euro cents from 64.24 cents on Friday in New York and 52.20 British pence from 52.31 pence.
TAX reform will top the agenda when Treasurer Wayne Swan meets his state and territory counterparts on Monday but his government is holding firm against any major changes to the GST.
The Standing Council on Federal Financial Relations is expected to discuss stamp duty on home sales and the recent GST review led by former premiers Nick Greiner and John Brumby when it meets in Canberra.
Mr Swan said on Sunday tax reform isn't the exclusive job of the federal government.
"All levels of government must do their share of the heavy lifting - a point I'll be making to my state and territory counterparts tomorrow," the treasurer said in his weekly economic note.
Mr Swan singled out state stamp duties on home sales for particular scorn, saying they discourage people from relocating for work and make it harder for people to upsize or downsize as their families change.
But Mr Swan has made it clear the government remains opposed to raising the rate or broadening the base of the goods and services tax.
"It's wrong to pretend that jacking up the GST is the holy grail of tax reform," he said.
"While it has become an accepted part of the tax mix and its integrity should be protected, the fact is it is a regressive tax - those on lower incomes pay a larger proportion of their incomes on it than those on higher incomes."
Extending the tax on food, health and education would hit those on the bottom 20 per cent of incomes much harder, he said.
The GST rate has been 10 per cent since it was introduced in mid-2000, and fresh food, education and health products are exempt.
The GST review proposed a number of refinements to the tax's distribution arrangements.
Queensland, NSW, Victoria and WA put in a joint proposal to the review arguing for a population-based distribution of GST funds, which would slash money going to smaller states.
The federal government's Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) will also be on the treasurers' agenda.
Mr Swan has also called on Australians to submit their ideas and priorities for next year's budget.
But people should keep in mind the pressures on government revenue, he said.
"That means proposals for budget spending should ideally be accompanied by proposals for equivalent savings," he said.
Submissions should be sent to Treasury's Budget Policy Division or emailed to prebudgetsubs@treasury.gov.au no later than January 31.
The budget will be handed down on May 11.
AAP ag/w
TAX reform will top the agenda when Treasurer Wayne Swan meets his state and territory counterparts on Monday but his government is holding firm against any major changes to the GST.
The Standing Council on Federal Financial Relations is expected to discuss stamp duty on home sales and the recent GST review led by former premiers Nick Greiner and John Brumby when it meets in Canberra.
Mr Swan said on Sunday that tax reform isn't the exclusive job of the federal government.
"All levels of government must do their share of the heavy lifting - a point I'll be making to my state and territory counterparts tomorrow," the treasurer said in his weekly economic note.
Mr Swan singled out state stamp duties on home sales for particular scorn, saying they discourage people from relocating for work and make it harder for people to upsize or downsize as their families change.
But Mr Swan has made it clear the government remains opposed to raising the rate or broadening the base of the goods and services tax.
"It's wrong to pretend that jacking up the GST is the holy grail of tax reform," he said.
"While it has become an accepted part of the tax mix and its integrity should be protected, the fact is it is a regressive tax - those on lower incomes pay a larger proportion of their incomes on it than those on higher incomes."
Extending the tax on food, health and education would hit those on the bottom 20 per cent of incomes much harder, he said.
The GST rate has been 10 per cent since it was introduced in mid-2000, and fresh food, education and health products are exempt.
The GST review proposed a number of refinements to the tax's distribution arrangements.
Queensland, NSW, Victoria and WA put in a joint proposal to the review arguing for a population-based distribution of GST funds, which would slash money going to smaller states.
The federal government's Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) will also be on the treasurers' agenda.
Mr Swan has also called on Australians to submit their ideas and priorities for next year's budget.
But people should keep in mind the pressures on government revenue, he said.
"That means proposals for budget spending should ideally be accompanied by proposals for equivalent savings," he said.
Submissions should be sent to Treasury's Budget Policy Division or emailed to prebudgetsubs@treasury.gov.au no later than January 31.
The budget will be handed down on May 11.
