Rudd, Barroso talk refugees and G20

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd and European Union President Jose Manuel Barroso have agreed talk further on the issue of refugees, after a phone call between the pair.

A spokesperson for Mr Rudd's office said the two spoke on August 2, where the issue of international co-operation on the management of refugees was canvassed.

The pair "agreed to further exchanges on the issue", she said in a statement.

It was revealed on Friday the government's hardline policy to send boat people to Papua New Guinea for processing would cost $1.1 billion over four years.

Under the plan to combat people smuggling, asylum seekers who arrive by boat would have no chance of resettlement in Australia.

The prime minister and Mr Barroso also agreed on the importance of the G20 as "the world's premier international economic forum".

Whether Mr Rudd will attend the upcoming G20 leaders summit has been a source of speculation with the St Petersburg meeting being held just days before the predicted September 7 election.

Australia will host the summit in 2014, in Mr Rudd's home town of Brisbane.

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Man arrested after Sydney stabbing death

A MAN has been arrested in connection to the fatal stabbing of a young Sydney woman, police say.

Media reports say the woman was five months pregnant.

The 23-year-old woman was found in a Maroubra unit with a stab wound to her chest by emergency services in the early hours of Saturday and died at the scene.

Shortly after midday (AEST), a 38-year-old man attended Maroubra Police Station, where he was arrested by detectives and is assisting them with their inquiries.

AAP understands the man was on bail for a grevious bodily harm matter and the woman had an apprehended violence order.

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Banks can make a choice over levy: Bowen

TREASURER Chris Bowen says banks have a choice now that the government has announced a new levy on deposits.

Either absorb the "modest" costs, or pass it onto their customers.

The federal government will set up an insurance fund to gradually build over time to a target size of 0.5 per cent of total bank deposits.

The levy, to start in 2016, is expected to raise nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars in revenue in its first 18 months, with the extra cash to go into a fund to protect people's savings.

Banks say such an insurance fund isn't necessary because Australia has a secure banking system, and warned they might have to pass the costs onto their customers.

Mr Bowen said ultimately that would be up to the banks.

"It could be that a bank or banks decide to absorb some of that cost and make themselves more attractive to customers," he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

"They could make a decision to pass it on, which would then mean their customers would bear that in mind and look at their returns and they may make a decision accordingly."

Mr Bowen said he wanted banks to be strong and profitable but the big four had collectively made $94 billion in profits over the past four years.

They could make a "modest" contribution to guaranteeing deposits instead of leaving it all to the taxpayer, he said.

The Australian Bankers Association said the levy was an extra cost that wouldn't deliver Australians any more security, while the coalition accused Labor of trying to grab cash to shore up the budget.

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Wong coy on potential car industry cash

FINANCE Minister Penny Wong is tight-lipped on speculation the car manufacturing industry may be set for more taxpayer subsidies.

Senator Wong was quizzed about $500 million of unallocated money in Labor's mini-budget in Canberra on Friday and whether it could be earmarked for the struggling car industry.

Senator Wong said it was a normal process to have a contingency reserve for decisions taken but not yet announced.

"It's standard budget practice," she said.

The federal government was in talks with the car industry, Senator Wong said.

She reaffirmed the government's commitment to car manufacturing in Australia and pointed out the coalition's pledge to wipe out $500 million in taxpayer assistance already allocated.

"If there is to be any further arrangement that is to be negotiated, that would be offset," Senator Wong said.

There have been media reports Holden may receive another $200 million from the federal government, on top of the $275 million package negotiated last year to keep the company going until at least 2022.

Last week about 400 Holden workers in Adelaide took voluntary redundancies, cutting the company's SA workforce to 1700.

Ford announced in May it would stop making cars in Australia from October 2016, and close its plants in Broadmeadows and Geelong.

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Refugee 'groped blind woman on train'

SYDNEY, Aug 1 AAP - A Bangladeshi refugee who is accused of groping a blind woman's breasts on a Sydney train may have assaulted others, a court has heard.

Rubel Sheikh, 25, applied for bail at Parramatta Local Court after he was charged with twice indecently assaulting a young blind woman while she was travelling on a Sydney train last month.

Prosecutor Louise Cummings told the court Sheikh was a refugee who had only been in Australia for a month.

"It's a strong prosecution case, most of it has been captured by CCTV," Ms Cummings told the court on Thursday.

"There's a strong likelihood, if convicted, that he would face a custodial sentence."

She described Sheikh as a flight risk and said three other alleged victims had come forward as a result of the widespread media coverage.

Ms Cummings said Sheikh's immigration status is being investigated, he arrived to Australia by boat and was on a temporary visa.

Sheikh's lawyer Jeff Tunks said he had no family or support network in Australia, spoke little English and had told him he was here on a tourist visa.

A public tip-off led to his arrest after police released CCTV footage of the 23-year-old woman, who told police she had been touched on her breast in an lift at Ashfield, in Sydney's inner west, on July 17.

She later felt a hand on her breast while she was on a train in the city's south, between Jannali and Sutherland railway stations.

Magistrate Les Brennan, who refused bail, said it was an unusual assault.

"This young lady has been followed a great distance," he said.

"Much of the time unaware what's going on because of the disability."

The case will return to Central Local Court on August 6.

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Concerns grow for man missing in SA

SA Police have resumed their search for a man who went missing after swimming in a river near Lyrup. Source: AAP

CONCERNS are growing for a man missing after swimming across the Murray in the South Australian Riverland.

An extensive search of the river and the riverbanks at Lyrup, with police and volunteers using a helicopter, boats and quad bikes, has failed to Paul "Kiwi" Henderson.

Described as a popular local identity, the 46-year-old was last seen early on Wednesday morning after he went swimming in the Murray.

He had made it to the other side of the river, but has not been seen since.

Inspector Kylie Walsh said police were appealing for public help in locating the missing man.

"We have concerns for Mr Henderson's welfare," she said.

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Signal-jumping focus of Swiss train probe

Investigators say signal-jumping is the likely cause of a head-on train collision in Switzerland. Source: AAP

SWISS investigators have pointed to signal-jumping as the likely cause of a head-on train collision in the west of the country that killed a driver and injured 26 other people.

"The investigation focuses on the likelihood that the train travelling from Payerne failed to respect a signal," Jean-Christophe Sauterel, police spokesman for Switzerland's Vaud region, told reporters.

Monday's crash between two local trains occurred just outside the station in Granges-pres-Mornand, a village between the Geneva and Neuchatel lakes in Switzerland's French-speaking region.

One train had been travelling from the town of Payerne to the lakeside city of Lausanne, 38km to the south, while the other one, a faster regional service, was travelling north from Lausanne.

The driver of the northbound train, a 24-year-old French citizen who lived in the region, was killed in the collision. His body was pulled from the wreckage early Tuesday after a frantic rescue operation.

Daniel Antonez, a resident of nearby Moudon, said he had heard the impact.

"It's one I often take. I'm sure I know some people who were on the train," he said.

Flanked by cornfields, the two mangled trains were still on the track on Tuesday, both engines locked into each other and lifted slightly off the ground as workers used beams to prepare to remove them.

Forty-six people were believed to have been travelling on the two trains. Police did not rule out the possibility of finding another victim in the wreckage.

"Two adults and a child are still in hospital out of the 23 recorded injured, but their lives are not in danger," said Jocelyn Corniche, the emergency services' chief physician.

The relatively slow speed of the southbound train, 40km/h, appeared to be one explanation why more people had not died. The speed of the northbound train has yet to be confirmed.

Accident investigators were still trying to understand why the southbound train, operating a slower service between a string of communities, failed to wait for the passage of the faster northbound service, which does not stop at Granges-pres-Marnand.

Sauterel stressed that the issue of criminal responsibility for the crash was not under discussion for the moment.

Swiss federal railway company CFF offered its condolences to the dead driver's family.

"The management and employees of the CFF are shocked by the death of their colleague," the company said in a statement.

Rescuers had worked into the night under arc lamps, using special equipment to cut through the wreckage and reach the missing driver. They retrieved his body but it was not clear whether he had died on impact.

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Appeal against Burke co-accused fails

AN appeal against a spent conviction order for a former West Australian public servant found guilty of passing on confidential information to former premier-turned-lobbyist Brian Burke has failed.

Former deputy director-general of the Department of Industry and Resources (DoIR), Gary Stokes, was in December found guilty of leaking a letter to benefit one of Mr Burke's clients in early 2006.

The letter was from then DoIR director-general Jim Limerick to then Department of Planning and Infrastructure director-general Greg Martin and related to rezoning land at Whitby, southeast of Perth, owned by residential property developer Urban Pacific, which another company wanted to mine for mineral sands.

The company, Bemax Ltd, estimated the value of minerals at Whitby at up to $134 million and said a three-to-six year mining operation could be established.

But Urban Pacific, which was promised royalties of $10 million, did not want to take part in such a joint venture.

For passing on the letter, Stokes was fined $1500 and granted a spent conviction after a protracted prosecution.

The state argued a spent conviction was not appropriate because the magistrate had erred in regarding the offence to be a minor example of its type.

It submitted that the gravity of the offence lay not in the size of the operation but in the breach of the duty of non-disclosure by a senior public servant, resulting in the potential conferral of an advantage upon one party to a dispute.

But on Wednesday, the appeal was dismissed.

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Robbo wants book thrown at corrupt NSW MPs

NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson wants the book thrown at anyone found to have acted corruptly by the state watchdog.

He says findings against a number of high-profile former Labor MPs, to be released on Wednesday, will clear the air for Labor to get on with the job of holding the government to account.

"I am looking forward to the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) reports being handed down," he told reporters, saying he wants "to see the book thrown" at them if they are found to have acted corruptly.

The reports involve allegations against former mining minister Ian Macdonald, Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid and former treasurer Eric Roozendaal.

However Mr Robertson said the ICAC proceedings had hurt Labor in the electorate.

The latest Newspoll shows that if a NSW election were held today the coalition government would be returned to power with a similar majority to its sweeping 2011 victory.

The coalition leads Labor on a two-party preferred basis of 61 to 39 per cent.

"The shocking revelations that we have seen play out at ICAC have put a handbrake on the polls," Mr Robertson said.

He said six months of sensational hearings had taken attention off the government.

"The fact is that ICAC is not there to allow Barry O'Farrell off the hook.

"It will be good to get this report on the table so that Barry O'Farrell has got nowhere to hide."

ICAC commissioner David Ipp can recommend the DPP consider prosecutions when he hands his findings into three operations to the NSW parliament on Wednesday.

Operation Jasper investigated whether former mining minister Ian Macdonald rigged a 2008 tender process to grant a coal licence over land owned by the family of ex-Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid.

Jarilo heard allegations ex-boxer Lucky Gattellari and Mr Medich offered Mr Macdonald rewards or inducements - including the services of a prostitute called Tiffanie - to arrange meetings with state energy executives.

Operation Indus investigated allegations that former roads minister Eric Roozendaal received a $10,400 discount on a Honda from Mr Obeid's family in return for favours.

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Train crash driver charged as Spain mourns

The driver of a train that derailed in Spain said minutes after the crash that he could not brake. Source: AAP

THE driver of a train that hurtled off the rails in Spain has been charged with 79 counts of reckless homicide and released on bail.

The judge ordered him to report to court every week and forbade him from leaving Spain for six months, the High Court of Galicia, which is leading the investigation, said in a statement on Sunday.

He also banned him from driving trains for six months.

Reports have suggested that the 52-year-old driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, was travelling at more than double the speed limit for that stretch of the line when the crashed happened.

The train came off the line near the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela, northwest Spain.

Police detained Garzon Amo on Thursday, and on Sunday, a police car delivered him in handcuffs to the courthouse for the closed hearing. He had spent the previous night in a police cell.

Just hours before the court hearing began regional health officials said a woman critically injured in the crash had died in hospital, bringing the toll to 79.

Flowers and candles were placed at the gates of the city's cathedral, a year-round destination for Catholic pilgrims, which will host a memorial service for the victims on Monday.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, and Crown Prince Felipe are scheduled to attend the service.

The president of the Spanish rail network administrator ADIF, Gonzalo Ferre, said Garzon had been warned to start slowing the train "four kilometres before the accident happened".

El Pais newspaper, citing investigation sources, reported that he had told railway officials by radio that the train had taken the curve at 190k/ph - more than double the 80k/ph speed limit for that section of track.

A resident who rushed to the scene said in a television interview broadcast Sunday that the driver told him minutes after the crash he had been unable to brake.

"He said he had to brake to 80 and couldn't, that he was going fast," Evaristo Iglesias told Antena 3. Along with another man, he said, he had accompanied the driver to a stretch of flat land where other injured people were being laid out after the accident.

"He kept saying 'I want to die! I want to die! I don't want to see this!".

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US concerned over Egypt 'bloodshed'

US Secretary of State John Kerry has called for an inquiry into violent rallies in Egypt. Source: AAP

US Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed "deep concern" about the "bloodshed and violence" in Egypt that has killed and injured scores, saying the country faces a "pivotal moment."

Kerry, in a statement on Saturday following calls with Egyptian and EU officials, also urged an "independent and impartial inquiry" into the events of the past 24 hours and urged all of the Egypt's leaders to act to "help their country take a step back from the brink".

At least 65 people were killed during clashes in Cairo early on Saturday, Egypt's health ministry said, after violence erupted at a demonstration in support of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

The ministry said nine others died in violence in Egypt's second city Alexandria, putting the toll in two days of unrest at 74.

"This is a pivotal moment for Egypt," Kerry said.

"Over two years ago, a revolution began. Its final verdict is not yet decided, but it will be forever impacted by what happens right now."

Kerry also said that, at a time of extreme volatility, Egyptian authorities have "a moral and legal obligation to respect the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression."

"Violence not only further sets back the process of reconciliation and democratisation in Egypt, but it will negatively impact regional stability," he said.

"At this critical juncture, it is essential that the security forces and the interim government respect the right of peaceful protest, including the ongoing sit-in demonstrations."

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Saudi man dies of MERS virus: ministry

Saudi health ministry says a man has died from the coronavirus MERS, bringing the global toll to 46. Source: AAP

A SAUDI man has died of the coronavirus MERS and another has contracted the virus, the health ministry says, bringing the kingdom's deaths from the virus to 39.

The man, who had previously been diagnosed with the SARS-like virus, died in the southwestern province of Asir, the ministry said on its website on Saturday.

The other man who contracted the virus, 83, is in the same province, it said.

Saudi Arabia is the country worst hit by MERS, which has killed 46 people worldwide.

Out of 89 people who have contracted the virus globally, 68 were registered in Saudi.

Experts are struggling to understand MERS - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome - for which there is no vaccine and which has an extremely high fatality rate of more than 51 per cent.

It is considered a cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8273 people, nine per cent of whom died.

Like SARS, MERS is thought to have jumped from animals to humans, and it shares the former's flu-like symptoms - but differs by also causing kidney failure.

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