Chrysler recalls 490,000 cars, SUVs

Chrysler is recalling about 490,000 cars and SUVs worldwide to fix faulty automatic head restraints. Source: AAP

CHRYSLER is recalling about 490,000 cars and sports utility vehicles worldwide to fix a glitch on automatic head restraints.

The US car manufacturer says potentially faulty microcontrollers have been installed in certain vehicles that may prevent head restraints from automatically moving forward during some kinds of rear-impact collisions.

The recall affects 2011-2013 Chrysler Sebring, 200 and Dodge Avenger midsize cars; 2011-2013 Jeep Liberty SUVs and 2011-2012 Dodge Nitro SUVs.

Most of the recalled vehicles - about 442,000 - are in the United States, but the recall also affects 25,000 in Canada, 10,000 in Mexico and 12,000 in other countries.

The car maker says it's also recalling about 69,000 pickup trucks worldwide to update electronic stability control (ESC) software. Again, most are in the US.

Chrysler says it's unaware of any related injuries or accidents from the problems with the head restraints or the ESC warning lamps.

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Egypt army detains ousted president Morsi

Egypt's army has toppled president Mohamed Morsi after a week of bloodshed that killed nearly 50. Source: AAP

EGYPT'S army has detained Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after a week of deadly clashes and mass protests calling for him to go after a year in office.

His defence minister, armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, announced Morsi's overthrow on Wednesday on state television, even as police began rounding up key Morsi aides and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Warrants have been issued for the arrest of a total of 300 Brotherhood officials, state media reported.

Thousands of protesters camped out on the streets of Cairo for days celebrated wildly at the news of Morsi's downfall, letting off fireworks and sounding car horns.

But at least seven of Morsi's supporters were killed in clashes with security forces in Alexandria and the eastern city of Marsa Matrouh, security officials said.

The official MENA news agency also reported three people killed in the southern province of Minya when pro-Morsi supporters attacked the Islamist's opponents.

Morsi and his senior aides were "under house arrest" in a military facility, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member told AFP.

The ousted president was later taken to the defence ministry, Gehad El-Haddad added. His father, senior Morsi aide Essam El-Haddad, is one of those detained.

Egypt's army is "preventively" holding Morsi, a senior army official said on Thursday.

"He is being held preventively for final preparations," the official added, suggesting Morsi might face formal charges.

Police also began arresting leaders of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, an interior ministry general told AFP. Saad al-Katatni, head of Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party, was already in custody, he added.

Morsi issued a defiant call for his supporters to defend his elected "legitimacy" in a pre-recorded speech posted online after Sisi's statement.

Thousands of his supporters remained camped out in northern Cairo, but Egyptian television stations stopped broadcasting live feeds of the pro-Morsi rally after the military announced his overthrow.

In his speech, Sisi laid out details of the roadmap for a political transition.

The Islamist-drafted constitution would be frozen and presidential elections held early, he said, without specifying when.

The armed forces, which had deployed troops and armour across the country, would "remain far away from politics", he stressed.

In Cairo, celebrations at the news began immediately.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital to celebrate, cheering, whistling, letting off firecrackers and honking car horns for several hours.

"It's a new historical moment. We got rid of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood," said one celebrator, Omar Sherif.

In an amateur video posted online, Morsi declared: "I am the elected president of Egypt" and urged people to "defend this legitimacy".

And Morsi's national security adviser Essam al-Haddad, said on Facebook: "For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let's call what is happening by its real name: military coup."

But the opposition Congress Party of Amr Mussa insisted "this is not a coup".

"Consultations will start from now, for a government and reconciliation," said Mussa, a former Arab League chief, who last year ran against Morsi for the presidency.

Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, had come under massive pressure in the run-up to Sunday's anniversary of his maiden year in office.

His opponents accused him of failing the 2011 revolution by concentrating power in the hands of his Muslim Brotherhood.

The embattled 61-year-old had proposed a "consensus government" as a way out of the crisis.

But it failed to satisfy his critics and the army stepped in.

Its commander named the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly al-Mansour, as interim leader of the Arab world's most populous country.

Mansour, a hitherto little known judge, is expected to be sworn in on Thursday.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, sat beside army chief Sisi as he announced on state television that Morsi's rule was over.

So too did the heads of the Coptic Church and Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning.

The choreography was designed to show broad civilian support for the military's move against Morsi.

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New home sales continue recovery

SALES of new homes are continuing their rise from the lows experienced in 2012.

New home sales rose for the fourth month in a row, with a 1.6 per cent improvement in May, taking monthly sales to their highest level in a year and a half, the Housing Industry Association (HIA) said on Wednesday.

HIA chief economist Harley Dale said there was solid evidence of modest growth in new residential construction and that was expected to continue into the new financial year.

"That outcome was important, following as it did a sustained period of weakness which saw activity in a majority of markets reach, historically, very low levels," he said.

"The key is whether a new home building recovery can be sustained, and at a growth rate sufficient to meaningfully assist the Australian economy with its rebalancing acts."

As mining and resource investment falls it's hoped other parts of the economy will pick up pace - rebalancing the economy.

Dr Dale said government help in increasing the supply of new housing was needed to help the Australian economy make the transition.

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RBA says GFC timing was 'lucky'

AUSTRALIA was lucky the global financial crisis hit when it did, Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens says.

While it is a commonly held view that Australia was lucky to have the mining boom and record growth in China to support its economy, Mr Stevens said the timing of the global slowdown was equally fortuitous.

If not for the GFC, Australia would be in a much worse position as it attempts to navigate the current period of weaker economic growth, Mr Stevens told a business function.

He said the GFC helped to reduce inflation from around five per cent to a more acceptable level of around 2.5 per cent.

The fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US also prevented Australia from taking on more risky lending practices, Mr Stevens said.

"Although such lending was less prominent in Australia at that time, it was growing fast and would have become a much bigger vulnerability had it continued at that pace," he said.

"The fact that things went wrong in the US when they did meant that what was a small problem here stayed small."

With mining investment expected to start to decline in the next year or so, Mr Stevens said other parts of the economy would have to pick up.

Business investment, which has remained very weak in recent years, was likely to pick up over the next few years, he said.

Conditions were also likely to improve in the housing sector, Mr Stevens said.

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MacTiernan mulls over Perth nomination

Vincent mayor Alannah MacTiernan will reveal on Thursday if she'll nominate for the seat of Perth. Source: AAP

FORMER West Australian government minister Alannah MacTiernan says she'll decide in the next 48 hours whether to nominate as Labor's candidate for Stephen Smith's seat of Perth.

Ms MacTiernan, the Mayor of Vincent, said she would announce her intentions on Thursday when nominations close.

"Obviously, there's a process after that," she told AAP.

"There's not much I can add. I'm not going to engage in a commentary while making a decision."

Senior Labor sources expect Ms MacTiernan to nominate.

In 2010, she stood unsuccessfully for the seat of Canning, but lost to Liberal Don Randall.

As WA's Planning and Infrastructure Minister from 2001 to 2008, she championed the development of the Perth-to-Mandurah railway line, which proved a big success.

Ms MacTiernan hit national headlines in March when WA Labor was trounced at the state election and she called time on Julia Gillard, saying something radical needed to be done to improve the party's fortunes.

Barrister Tim Hammond on Monday announced he would not nominate for the federal seat being vacated by the Defence Minister, who is retiring at the election after holding Perth for 20 years.

Mr Hammond, who unsuccessfully contested the seat of Swan at the 2010 election, reportedly does not want to nominate because he and his wife have a 17-month-old daughter and want to have more children.

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Brosnan's daughter dies of cancer

Pierce Brosnan is in mourning after his daughter lost her three-year battle with ovarian cancer. Source: AAP

ACTOR Pierce Brosnan is in mourning after his daughter lost her three-year battle with ovarian cancer.

Charlotte Brosnan passed away on Friday, aged 41, from the same disease that killed her mother, Australian actress Cassandra Harris, in 1991.

"On June 28 at 2pm my darling daughter Charlotte Emily passed on to eternal life, having succumbed to ovarian cancer. She was surrounded by her husband Alex, her children Isabella and Lucas and her brothers Christopher and Sean," Brosnan said in a statement.

"Charlotte fought her cancer with grace and humanity, courage and dignity. Our hearts are heavy with the loss of our beautiful dear girl. We pray for her and that the cure for this wretched disease will be close at hand soon. We thank everyone for their heartfelt condolences."

The former Bond star married Harris in 1980, and adopted Charlotte and her brother Christopher after their father's death in 1986.

Brosnan and Harris also went on to have a son together, named Sean.

The actor is now married to journalist Keely Shaye Smith, with whom he has two boys, 16-year-old Dylan and Paris, 12.

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Gunpowder blast kills man in Qld

A MAN is dead and two others have been seriously injured after gunpowder exploded in far north Queensland.

Police say the men were believed to have been trying to dispose of expired gunpowder in a burn-off on a rural property west of Mareeba on Saturday morning.

It caused an explosion, killing a 58-year-old Cairns man and seriously injuring another 58-year-old man and a 33-year-old man.

One suffered chest injuries and the other had serious lacerations to his arm.

Police say the cause of the blast is not suspicious.

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Crunch meeting over future of Browse

THE future of the stalled multi-billion dollar Browse gas project will be discussed when the joint venture partners meet for talks on Monday.

The troubled project, believed to be worth between $30 billion and $90 billion, is led by Woodside, who want to exploit three gas fields off the northwest coast of Western Australia.

Premier Colin Barnett has said a July 1 crunch meeting would be held between venture partners Shell, BP, Japan Australia LNG and PetroChina International Investment.

It is believed the Perth meeting concerns Woodside's preference for floating processing, whereby Browse Basin gas will be processed on a large purpose-built vessel stationed far off the coast.

This has angered Mr Barnett, who was determined to see onshore processing and the subsequent flow of local jobs.

His government is pressing ahead with land acquisition at James Price Point, setting aside space for future gas developments.

After years of work on the project, and resistance on environmental grounds, Woodside scratched plans to build an onshore processing plant in April, saying it would not deliver the returns the company needed.

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Guns, cash looted after plane crash

Villagers in Guatemala have looted a crashed plane as six men lay dead in the wreckage. Source: AAP

A SMALL plane crashed in an isolated mountain area of western Guatemala on Friday, killing six men and causing scores of villagers to swarm the site and carry off bags of cash, according to a firefighters' spokesman.

The plane smashed into a hill in the town of Nuevo Porvenir about 150 kilometres from the Mexican border and was completely destroyed, said the spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. Four of the victims, including the pilot, were identified as Mexicans and a fifth was Venezuelan. The nationality of the sixth was not known.

The spokesman said he saw a pistol among the wreckage and that local villagers were looting, taking luggage and cash in US dollars and Mexican pesos that the victims had been carrying.

Rescue crews and investigators abandoned the area for fear of the villagers, who blocked the road to the morgue as firefighters tried to transport the bodies, the spokesman said. He added that they demanded to be paid to pass.

The area near the border is known for many disputes among villages over land, water and drug trafficking territory.

The pilot's licence said he is native of Tamaulipas state in northern Mexico. The identification of another passenger in the plane said he was from Sonora, a state that also borders the United States.

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Push for 50-50 deal on Brisbane rail plan

Kevin Rudd says he's willing to negotiate on a stalled major Brisbane rail project. Source: AAP

THE fight over who will pay for a major Brisbane rail project continues with the Queensland government saying they won't budge on a 50/50 deal with the commonwealth.

The federal Labor government has previously offered $715 million for the $4.4 billion Cross River Rail project.

However, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told News Limited he's willing to negotiate on the deal.

State Transport Minister Scott Emerson has accused Mr Rudd of being all talk as he hasn't put forward any new offer.

"If Kevin Rudd wants to back Queensland and be fair to Queenslanders rather than short-changing them, then he'll sign it today," he said.

"Let's see if he's really genuine about backing Queensland or if he's all just talk."

Mr Emerson says if a deal can't be struck he'll go back to the starting blocks and look at what the state can afford.

He says the funding being offered by Labor would see Queensland paying an extra $1.25 billion for the project which would push up rail fares by 15 per cent.

He will put the same offer to the coalition if they win the federal election, he says.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has said a federal coalition government would not fund the project under present budgetary circumstances.

The Cross River Rail project includes an 18 kilometre passenger and freight line with new underground city stations.

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