NGOs in dilemma over rescuing N Koreans

SOUTH Korean NGOs face a dilemma over how to rescue 64 North Koreans held by Myanmar rebels and forced to work on a drug farm, an activist says.

The North Koreans have been taken to a rebel camp northeast of Tachilek, a town along the border between Myanmar and Thailand, over the past nine years, Pastor Kim Hee-Tae said on Saturday.

The refugees were caught while attempting to travel on their own through rebel-held territory to Thailand in order to defect to South Korea after fleeing their poverty-stricken homeland.

"We're in a great dilemma over how to rescue them", Kim said, adding the rebels were asking for $US5,000 ($A5,475) ransom for each of the hostages.

He said NGOs were unable to launch a campaign to raise the money or to ask for Seoul to intervene as the hostage takers were extremely publicity shy.

"We need very quiet negotiations to pull it through", he said.

About 80 per cent of the North Koreans were women and were forced to work at alcohol manufacturing or drug processing plants. "Some of them are forced into prostitution", he said.

Male captives were used to grow poppies.

A South Korean foreign ministry official said the ministry was investigating the case.

Myanmar (also known as Burma) is the world's second largest producer of opium - the raw ingredient for heroin - after Afghanistan, accounting for 10 per cent of global production, according to UN data.

Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, some 25,000 North Korean refugees have escaped and settled in the South.

Most begin their journey by crossing into China, where they face repatriation if caught.

They then try to reach a second country, with Thailand the most popular choice, from where they generally seek permission to resettle in South Korea.

Those who are caught and deported back to the North face severe punishment, including being sent to a labour camp, rights groups say.

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Local ballots for Labor preselection

LABOR will hold local ballots for preselection in five seats vacated by former prime minister Julia Gillard and several of her senior ministers.

The national executive decided on Saturday the rank and file process would apply for preselecting candidates for Ms Gillard's Melbourne seat of Lalor, as well as Rankin (Queensland), Kingsford-Smith and Charlton (NSW) and Hotham (Victoria).

Under special arrangements, all the preselections will be finished by Saturday, July 27.

The national executive also ruled to remove any obstacles for eligibility for Joanne Ryan, Lisa Clutterham and Julie Ann Evans to contest the preselection in Lalor.

However, Ms Clutterham announced earlier on Saturday she had withdrawn her preselection nomination.

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Lalor ALP candidates await fate

LABOR'S nominees for former prime minister Julia Gillard's vacated seat of Lalor will soon learn if the party, or local members, will pick the winning candidate.

Ms Gillard will not recontest the safe Labor seat at the upcoming federal election, leading to a potential flood of nominees.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has expressed his keenness for all preselections to be decided by a local ballot, but the party's national executive will meet on Friday afternoon to decide whether it will intervene.

Labor's Victorian assistant state secretary Kosmos Samaras said "numerous" nominations for the western Melbourne electorate had been received ahead of the close of nominations at 5pm (AEST) on Friday.

One of the likely preselection nominees, diplomat Lisa Clutterham, on Thursday admitted she had no connection with Melbourne.

Ms Gillard has publicly endorsed former local primary school principal Joanne Ryan for the seat.

Other possible candidates include Sandra Willis, daughter of former Keating-era treasurer Ralph Willis, and unionist Kimberley Kitching.

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Slipper gets some federal funds for costs

THE federal government has agreed to pay some of the legal costs incurred by former Speaker Peter Slipper's defence of civil proceedings brought by his former staffer James Ashby.

Acting special minister of state Gary Gray says the funding will close an "insurance gap" which left Mr Slipper subject to legal costs resulting from the Federal Court action.

The gap arose because the proceedings began before management of liability insurance arrangements for federal MPs and senators took effect on July 1.

This meant Mr Slipper was unable to access the coverage.

"I have decided that it is appropriate to use the act of grace mechanism ... to cover this gap in insurance coverage," Mr Gray said in a statement on Friday.

This means the government will pay Mr Slipper's net legal costs from the Federal Court matter and the subsequent appeal.

Any payment will be net of amounts Mr Slipper recovers from other parties.

If Mr Slipper is able to recover indemnity costs against the other parties, the government may not have to pay anything at all.

Indemnity costs are usually awarded in cases involving misconduct, such as an abuse of process.

Mr Gray pointed to the judgment released in December by Justice Steven Rares in the original Federal Court hearing in Sydney.

Justice Rares said he was satisfied the proceedings - based around allegations of sexual harassment - "were an abuse of the process of the court".

"I have reached the firm conclusion that Mr Ashby's predominant purpose for bringing these proceedings was to pursue a political attack against Mr Slipper and not to vindicate any legal claim he may have," the judge said.

Mr Ashby's case was dismissed.

He is appealing the dismissal on several grounds, including that the judge erred in his findings.

Mr Ashby's solicitor, Michael Harmer, has also appealed claiming the judgment contained serious adverse finding impacting his professional reputation.

The appeal judgment will be handed down at a later date.

Mr Slipper resigned as Speaker of the House of Representatives after a series of lurid text messages between him and staffer Mr Ashby were made public through court documents.

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Abbott to back Gonski if all states agree

A coalition government would require "overwhelming majority" support to retain the Gonski reforms. Source: AAP

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says all states must sign up to the government's education reforms for the coalition to back the scheme.

However, his education spokesman says they would accept an overwhelming majority.

NSW, the ACT, South Australia and Tasmania, and the Independent Schools Council of Australia have signed up to the funding reforms, which involve significant amounts of new money for schools.

But the remaining jurisdictions and the Catholic Education Commission are yet to reach agreement ahead of Sunday's deadline.

Mr Abbott said all governments would need to sign up before the coalition committed to honouring the agreements.

"You can't have a national change unless all states are on board," he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

It contradicts earlier statements by opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne, who said the coalition would continue with the reforms with an "overwhelming majority" of states and territories on side.

"If the government can get most of the other states to join then we will obviously keep this new measure, but they are a long way from achieving that," Mr Pyne told ABC Radio on Thursday.

Mr Abbott said the price tag put on the reforms was unaffordable in the current climate.

"You need $6.5 billion a year more if every school is to be better off," he said.

"If we weren't blowing more than $10 billion on illegal boat arrivals, a whole lot of things ... would be more affordable."

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Students want say on poll issues

UNIVERSITY students want a say on a wider range of issues than just those directly related to their studies, their national union says.

National Union of Students president Jade Tyrrell says the upcoming federal election is an opportunity for students and young people to make their voices heard on issues which will impact on their lives now and in the future.

"Students aren't just students, they're people and they care about a multitude of issues," Ms Tyrrell told reporters in Adelaide on Thursday.

"They care about things like the national broadband network (NBN), rights at work and marriage equality.

"It's time we took a stand because the future of this country will actually rest on the shoulders of the young people of today."

Ms Tyrrell said many students were disengaged from the political process and felt political debate had become increasingly insular over the past three years.

"They feel like there's nothing to vote for," she said.

Comments from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, urging young people to "come back and listen afresh", were important.

But she said talk was not enough and students needed to take charge and be properly acknowledged for their views.

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NASA's Mars rover to up hunt for life

THE next robotic rover to explore Mars in 2020 should scour the red planet's surface more closely than ever for signs of past life, a NASA team says.

The US space agency's science definition team has released a 154-page document containing its proposals for the next Mars rover, after five months of work.

The mission would use microscopic analysis for the first time, collect the first rock samples for possible return to Earth and test ways to use natural resources on site for a future human trip, it says.

The Mars 2020 mission would build on the work being done by NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been exploring the red planet since August 2012 and has already found evidence of potentially habitable environments.

The mission would present "a major step toward seeking signs of life", said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA headquarters.

The next step is for NASA to analyse the recommendations and issue a call for scientific instruments, which could include higher resolution imaging devices, microscopes, fine scale mineralogy, chemistry and organic carbon detection tools to scan for biosignatures on Mars.

"To combine this suite of instruments would be incredibly powerful," said Jack Mustard, SDT chair and professor of geological sciences at Brown University.

The rover would collect about 31 samples that might some day be returned to Earth, representing "a legacy for understanding the development of habitability on the planet," he told reporters.

The US space agency has not yet devised the technology to bring the cache back to Earth without disturbing its contents and no plans have been set for any potential sample-return.

The next NASA mission to Mars is a November launch of MAVEN, an orbiter that will study how Mars interacted with the solar wind and lost its atmosphere.

The European Space Agency will follow in 2018 with its ExoMars rover.

John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science, said the 2020 Mars rover would get the space agency to the next step in the "quest to answer the grand questions", before a planned human mission in the 2030s.

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Poor people need power supply: Greens

A SA welfare group wants to take power to cut off a household's power out of energy companies hands. Source: AAP

THE Australian Greens will take up a campaign to stop struggling families having their electricity and gas supplies cut off.

The South Australian Council of Social Service has floated the idea to have an independent body review such decisions.

It says no households should be left without power simply because they can't pay the bill and suggests they should still get a limited supply.

"Families can't survive without gas and electricity, but currently there's no safety net in place if they aren't able to pay their bills on time," Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said on Wednesday.

"The families that are most affected by these shut-offs are those on low incomes."

SACOSS executive director Ross Womersley said 10,000 South Australians had their power cut off each year, most of them because they simply did not have the money to pay.

"We find this situation intolerable and unacceptable and call for industry to review its approach to hardship and disconnections as a matter of urgency," he said.

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Yancoal privatisation faces FIRB hurdle

CHINESE giant Yanzhou Coal Mining's plans to take full control of its Australian offshoot Yancoal could face a potential roadblock from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Yanzhou, which already owns 78 per cent of the local miner, has approached Yancoal with a proposal to fully privatise the company.

RBS Morgans senior analyst Tom Sartor said the full takeover may be the best move for Yancoal, which has seen its share price slide significantly since its listing last year, in line with falling coal prices.

But the privatisation would need FIRB approval which, Mr Sartor says, could be problematic, given the board previously insisted Yancoal list in Australia.

FIRB approved Yanzhou's 2009 takeover of Felix Resources, which led to the establishment of Yancoal, on the condition the company list on the ASX.

"It (the full takeover) is probably the neatest solution but whether or not FIRB will allow them to do it is another story," Mr Sartor said.

Yancoal became Australia's largest listed coal company when it debuted on the ASX in June 2012, following its takeover of Gloucester Coal.

But the company has seen its shares slide from a listing price of $1.50 to as low as 63 cents in May.

Yancoal shares were trading at 74 cents on Tuesday afternoon, up four cents since before the privatisation proposal was announced.

Mr Sartor said that while the fall in the coal price had hurt the company's stock price, local investors were also turned off by its debt levels.

"It's gearing levels are off the charts. It holds $3.6 billion worth of debt, which is almost the equivalent value of its assets."

In a statement on Tuesday, Yancoal's board of directors said they were considering the non-binding proposal.

"The Yancoal Independent Board Committee is undertaking appropriate due diligence investigations to enable it to assess the proposed terms of the proposal and will engage in discussions with Yanzhou before making a recommendation to shareholders," it said.

Yancoal operates a number of coal mines across the Hunter Valley, the NSW central west and Queensland's Bowen Basin.

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Agonising abuse of tiny Tanilla: NSW court

SHE was forced to run countless laps. Whipped with an extension cord. Made to stand for hours at a time.

And her mother failed to put a stop to the abuse.

The last two months of two-year-old Tanilla Warrick-Deaves's life are outlined in an agreed statement of facts tendered in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, where her mother, Donna Deaves, pleaded guilty to her daughter's manslaughter.

The little girl was left unconscious in a pram in her NSW Central Coast home for nearly two days after she was allegedly badly beaten in the shower by a man who cannot be named for legal reasons and who is due to stand trial for murder later this year.

According to the facts, Tanilla - described by grieving relatives as a "happy-go-lucky" little girl - ultimately died from blunt force head injuries on August 27, 2011 after Deaves finally called triple zero.

But the little girl had allegedly suffered agonising and severe physical abuse in the months before.

The man allegedly beat her up on several occasions, made the toddler stand unsupported for hours on end as punishment for soiling herself and constantly forced her to run laps of the lounge room, despite her suffering from bowed legs.

He whipped her with items including his belt, an extension cord, thongs, a broom and a hairbrush.

Tanilla was "often dressed in a full body suit that covered her arms and legs to hide the bruises that covered her body", the documents said.

About a week before her death, the man allegedly told a friend, "I've hit her with an extension cord, a strap, a jug cord, a wooden spoon and she doesn't learn. Look I'll make her scream...", before he threatened Tanilla with his belt.

On August 25, he allegedly whipped Tanilla with a cord as she ran laps around the lounge room in the presence of Deaves before he put her under a cold shower.

He then banged her head against the shower glass until her mouth was bloody as the toddler screamed "no, no, no", the documents said.

Deaves told police she tried to intervene but the man slapped Deaves across the face before he held Tanilla upside down over the toilet bowl and threatened to put her head in the water.

He then allegedly kicked the little girl across the hall, causing her to hit her head against some cupboards.

After placing the unconscious child in the pram, Deaves said she came to the view that the little girl was brain damaged and was not going to wake up.

When asked by police why she did nothing, Deaves said, "It was a bit late", adding she thought Tanilla would be better off dead than to have lived as a vegetable.

But the doctor who performed a post-mortem examination said Tanilla "may well have survived if she had received prompt medical treatment".

Deaves has pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of criminal negligence.

She will face a sentence hearing in September.

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Five killed in India building collapse

A TWO-STOREY hotel has collapsed in the southern Indian city of Secunderabad, killing five restaurant workers and injuring 15 others, police say.

"Five people have died and 15 more have been injured when the City Light Hotel collapsed early this morning," local police official B Surender told AFP on Monday.

Nearly 25 people were working at the hotel on a busy road in Secunderabad in Andhra Pradesh state when one of the kitchen walls gave way, burying staff under the debris, Surender said.

"Five of the workers have been admitted to hospital with serious injuries. We are still working to clear the rubble and find the remaining people," he said. It was unclear how many people were still trapped.

"The building was very old and the walls showed cracks, according to people working nearby," he added.

Several buildings have collapsed in India in recent months, many of them apartment blocks in the financial capital Mumbai, including one in April that killed 74 people.

The collapses have highlighted pervasive poor construction standards in the country, where massive demand for housing and endemic corruption often result in illegal buildings and a lack of safety inspections.

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Bail refused for accused NSW bash killer

A MAN charged with manslaughter over the death of another man who was brutally assaulted near Newcastle will remain behind bars.

Matthew Beattie, 26, was charged on Sunday night with manslaughter and grievous bodily harm after a Currans Hill man, 28, died in Newcastle's John Hunter hospital earlier on Sunday.

The 28-year-old had wounds to his head and abdomen when he was found by emergency crews in a house at Port Stephens on June 30.

On Monday, Beattie appeared at Campbelltown Local Court where he did not apply for bail, which was formally refused.

The Leumeah resident, wearing a white track top and black pants, kept his head bowed during the brief appearance.

Magistrate Robert Rabbidge adjourned the matter for mention in Newcastle Local Court on July 10.

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Vic footy spectator's wheelchair taken

A footy spectator had his wheelchair stolen while watching a match at the MCG, police say. Source: AAP

A FOOTY spectator had his wheelchair stolen while watching a match at the MCG.

The man, 60, left his wheelchair near the Medallist Bar while he watched the Geelong versus Hawthorn AFL game from his seat on Saturday night, police said.

The wheelchair was believed stolen between 7pm and 10.30pm (AEST).

It is described as a light-blue Karma Econ 800 model, standard folding wheelchair.

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Mandela still critical as his family feuds

Nelson Mandela remains hospitalised in a critical state for a fourth week with a lung condition. Source: AAP

NELSON Mandela remains hospitalised in a critical state after doctors ruled out turning off his life support unless he suffers massive organ failure.

Meanwhile his grandson's lawyers were planning to lodge an official complaint over a court document which they say falsely claimed he was "in a permanent vegetative state".

The anti-apartheid hero's health condition was unchanged over the weekend, South Africa's presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said on Saturday.

He is in a critical but stable condition after his June 8 admittance for an obstinate pulmonary infection and relies on machines to help him breathe.

There has been no official update on his health but a close friend of the former statesman had said turning off life support was discussed and ultimately dismissed.

"I was told the matter had been raised and the doctors said they would only consider such a situation if there was a genuine state of organ failure," Denis Goldberg, who has known Mandela for more than 50 years, told AFP on Friday.

"Since that hasn't occurred they were quite prepared to go on stabilising him until he recovers."

The 80-year-old Goldberg was convicted along with Mandela in 1964 for their fight against white-minority rule.

He visited the former president in hospital on Monday.

A court document filed by a lawyer for Mandela's feuding family 10 days ago stated the 94-year-old was "assisted in breathing by a life support machine".

"The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off," the court filing read.

"Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability."

The document - which was designed to press a court to urgently settle a family row over the remains of Mandela's children - also stated that Mandela was "in a permanent vegetative state".

South Africa's presidency has said that was not the case, but refused to give further details of his condition, citing the need to respect Mandela's privacy.

President Jacob Zuma, Mandela family members and his close friends have reported since last week his condition has improved.

Earlier Goldberg said Mandela was "clearly a very ill man, but he was conscious and he tried to move his mouth and eyes when I talked to him".

Mandela spent 27 years in prison for fighting white-minority rule and went on to lead the process of racial reconciliation as South Africa's first black president.

Meanwhile an acerbic feud between his relatives showed little sign of abating.

Fifteen family members had won a court order against Mandla after he moved the family graves two year ago without their consent.

The fall-out from the dispute continues to reverberate.

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