Aussie troops wear new combat uniform

NEW Australian-made MultiCam combat uniforms with a distinctly Australian design are on their way to Afghanistan.

Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare said local production of this uniform was under way and the first troops to wear them would be RAAF airfield defence guards and soldiers of the 7th Battalion (7RAR) set to deploy in the next few weeks.

Australia adopted the US Multicam, or multi-camouflage, uniforms in 2010 as the most effective concealment across the range of terrains in Afghanistan. American and British troops also wear them.

Australia initially sourced them from the US manufacturer Crye Precision and soldiers found this uniform comfortable and its camouflage highly effective.

But they did complain they looked just like American soldiers.

Mr Clare said Defence last year purchased a licence from Crye Precision to manufacture them in Australia and Crye developed a uniquely Australian version of the camouflage pattern with feedback from Australian troops in Afghanistan.

"This is best uniform for the work we do in Afghanistan. It provides better concealment and makes it easier for our soldiers to do their job," he said in a statement.

"The feedback I have received from troops has been very positive. They have told me this is the uniform they want, and Australian industry has delivered."

The new uniform is produced by Pacific Brands WorkWear Group in West Footscray, Victoria. The camouflage fabric is produced by Bruck Textiles in Wangaratta.

Mr Clare said 3600 sets of the new uniforms had been ordered in a deal worth $780,000. A further 5500 uniforms will be ordered to equip soldiers deploying next year.

The uniforms have stronger fabric and modifications to improve functionality and durability, the minister said.

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Cocaine found in baby formula tins

SOME drug dealers clearly think the Sydney cocaine trade is child's play.

But the game is up for one such alleged drug pedlar - after police discovered 2.4 kilograms of cocaine stuffed inside tins of baby formula.

They made the surprising find after raiding a townhouse at Greenacre, in the city's west, on October 17.

Detectives also found smaller quantities of loose cocaine in a bag, and $80,000 in cash.

They think all the cocaine recovered from the home, which at the time was occupied by a 36-year-old woman and her two children, is worth about $600,000.

A 36-year-old man handed himself in to Bankstown police station on Monday and was charged with supply and possession of cocaine, and dealing with the proceeds of crime.

He is to appear in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday.

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Air regulator not proud of Norfolk report

AUSTRALIA'S transport safety watchdog chief says he's not proud of a three-year investigation into the ditching of a medical flight near Norfolk Island.

Captain Dominic James ditched the Westwind jet carrying six people on a Careflight mission from Samoa to Melbourne in November 2009.

Capt James was forced to put the plane down in the ocean before he ran out of fuel after failing to update himself on the weather at Norfolk Island.

Four passengers - a patient and her husband, a doctor and a nurse - and the two pilots survived after the plane hit the water at speeds of around 100 kilometres an hour before sinking quickly.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) two months ago released its final report into the incident, finding incomplete pre-flight and en-route planning by Capt James.

ATSB chief commissioner Martin Dolan told the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee on Monday he wouldn't hold the report as a benchmark.

"I'm not proud of this report, no," Mr Dolan told the public hearing in Canberra.

Capt James called for the ATSB investigation to be withdrawn.

He said that after ditching the plane, Pel-Air, the company he worked for, had asked him if he was aware it was company policy to carry full fuel.

Capt James said he told them he was was not aware of such a policy.

"Then I asked where exactly was that set down - they weren't actually able to point me in any such reference," he told the hearing.

A special audit of Pel-Air by the Civil Aviation Services Authority (CASA) in 2009 identified deficiencies in its fuel policy and flight training.

But that information was not included in the final ATSB report, nor were there any recommendations for the company to act on safety concerns.

Mr Dolan said the ATSB had taken far too long and should have explained the process investigators undertook to reach its conclusions.

Both Mr Dolan and CASA aviation safety director John McCormick rejected suggestions the two organisations had met to discuss having reached different conclusions about the incident to save public embarrassment.

Mr McCormick said the responsibility for the incident all came back to Capt James.

"There is no pilot in Australia who will not stand up and say the pilot-in-command is responsible for how much fuel he put on an aeroplane," he said.

CASA's decision to suspend Capt James from flying was not to punish him but required him to show proficiency he could calculate figures for fuel loads, Mr McCormick said.

The pilot regained his licence after CASA slashed the number of exams he had to take, when he launched legal action.

Aviation safety consultant Mick Quinn said the ATSB's failure to make any safety recommendations would make the industry "a laughing stock".

Another expert, Bryan Aherne, said Capt James had been singled out and suggested the ATSB and CASA had put their heads together.

The pilot's union said they hoped the ATSB report was an anomaly because it was not a good report.

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Guinea-Bissau blames Portugal for coup bid

THE government of Guinea-Bissau claims it thwarted a coup bid at the weekend after a deadly raid on an army barracks, accusing Portugal of being behind the attack.

Gunmen staged a raid before dawn on Sunday on the barracks of an elite army unit near the capital's airport, sparking a firefight that killed at least seven people in the latest unrest to blight the chronically unstable country.

Witnesses said the raid had been led by Pansau N'Tchama, the head of a commando unit that assassinated president Joao Bernardo Vieira in 2009.

It was not immediately clear why N'Tchama might have carried out the assault, but the army captain is a former associate of the government overthrown in a coup on April 12.

That coup toppled the government of Carlos Gomes Junior, interrupting a presidential election between the first and second rounds, which he was leading after the first round.

"The government considers Portugal, the CPLP (the Community of Portuguese Language Countries) and Carlos Gomes Junior as the instigators of this attempt at destabilisation," said a statement read out by Communications Minister Fernando Vaz.

Its aim had been to overthrow the transitional government, undermine the political process, bring Gomes Junior back to power and justify an international "stabilisation" force, the statement said.

In Sunday's pre-dawn raid, the gunmen launched an assault on the "red beret" barracks.

The soldiers there fought off the attack after about an hour of fighting, forcing the assailants to flee, witnesses said.

N'Tchama is a former member of the "red berets" and returned last week from Portugal, where he had been undergoing military training since July 2009, security sources said.

An AFP journalist at the scene saw the corpses of six attackers. One soldier said a sentry at the barracks had also been killed by N'Tchama himself.

A military source confirmed the attack but would not say whether there had been any casualties among the troops at the barracks.

In the hours after the raid army vehicles criss-crossed Bissau, although the situation in the capital remained calm.

Troops and police were also out in force at the airport and in the area leading to the capital.

The army chief-of-staff, General Antonio Indjai, who led the April coup, visited the barracks after Sunday's attack, as well as army headquarters in central Bissau.

Following the April coup his junta ostensibly handed power to a transitional government. But the coup leaders remain influential: it was they who chose Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo for the role of interim president.

In a speech last month, Nhamadjo insisted that his government was "not under the army's orders, either in form or substance". He called on the international community to back the fight against drug-trafficking and help organise elections in 2013.

The country's instability has allowed drug traffickers operating between South America and Europe to make it a hub for their activities in recent years, with senior military officers believed to be involved in the trafficking.

After the April coup the European Union, the country's chief trading partner, suspended aid and imposed sanctions on a number of military officers, including Indjai.

But the West African bloc ECOWAS has recognised the transitional administration.

Since independence from Portugal in 1974, the army and state in the nation of 1.6 million people have remained in constant conflict.

No president has ever completed a full term in office.

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Sonar used in fisherman search

SONAR technology has been used to try to find a fisherman believed to have drowned in a southern NSW lake.

The 57-year-old fell overboard from a small motorboat during a fishing trip with his son on Lake Eucumbene, in the Snowy Mountains, on Wednesday night.

The son jumped into the water and spent about 40 minutes trying to rescue his dad, before heading to shore to get help.

A fourth full day of searches on and around the lake on Sunday failed to reveal any sign of the man.

Police used side-scan sonar technology to look under the water in an effort to find his body.

A decision is set to be made on Monday morning as to whether the search continues.

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Taliban deny their bombs kill most

THE Taliban has dismissed a UN report that roadside bombs are causing most civilian casualties in Afghanistan as "Western propaganda".

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed on Sunday the insurgents only use the weapons to target foreign troops and the Afghan security forces.

"By spreading such propaganda they are trying to prevent us from planting bombs which cause the deaths of invaders in our country," he said in an emailed statement.

On Saturday, the UN mission in Afghanistan urged the insurgents to end the use of roadside bombs, also known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs, saying they were by far the biggest killer of civilians in the conflict.

The organisation used the term in reference both to bombs detonated by remote control and landmines that go off when a vehicle goes over them.

The call came a day after 19 civilians died and 15 were injured when their bus struck a mine in northern Balkh province.

The UN said that blast was caused by an IED planted on a busy public road and set off by a pressure plate.

It said the bomb was "consistent with documented patterns and tactics of choice by the Taliban".

Insurgent-placed homemade bombs continue to be the deadliest weapon for civilians, according to the world body.

IEDs killed 340 civilians and injured a further 599 over the past nine months, an increase of almost 30 per cent compared to the same period last year, the UN said.

But the Taliban spokesman denied that any insurgents were operating in the area of Balkh province where Friday's blast occurred.

He also said the Taliban use only remote-controlled roadside bombs which - unlike the devices automatically activated by pressure-plates - allow a bomber to choose the time of the blast and specifically target coalition troops and their Afghan allies.

About half of the casualties suffered by coalition forces in recent years have been caused by roadside bombs and mines.

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6 % growth for Bangladesh: World Bank

THE World Bank says Bangladesh's economy is faring well despite the global economic crisis and should grow about 6 per cent in the 2012-2013 fiscal year as long as a stable political situation prevails before the next national elections.

Published on Sunday, the projection compares to the government's target of 7 per cent economic growth for the fiscal year that ends in June.

The bank's country director Ellen Goldstein told a news conference that while economic measures will influence growth, political stability is the key.

Her concerns come as Bangladesh remains undecided over how the elections in early 2014 will be held after its government scrapped a caretaker government system last year.

The opposition says it wants to restore the system under which elections are overseen by independent caretaker administrations.

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Dangerous NSW bushfire under control

A BUSHFIRE that was threatening a small community southwest of Sydney has been controlled, firefighters say.

But a severe thunderstorm has sparked a dozen bush and grass fires in NSW's far west, and another out of control blaze has begun near Brewarrina, in the state's northwest.

Hazard reduction burns that ran out of control sparked Sunday's first major fire, with bushland near the Bargo State Forest - 100km southwest of Sydney - going up in flames about 9am (AEDT).

Owners of about six properties on William Street, in Bargo, were warned they could be in danger if the fire spread any further.

But by 7pm (AEDT) the Rural Fire Service had the blaze under control, and residents did not need to evacuate.

Bulldozers were ordered to the scene to help reinforce containment lines and build a firebreak.

A Remote Area Firefighting Team also travelled from Macarthur, in Sydney's southwest, to tackle flames that sprang up in inaccessible terrain.

Firefighters in western NSW were also busy on Sunday, with a severe thunderstorm sparking bushfires around Wilcannia and northeast of Broken Hill.

All of the fires were in rural areas and did not pose a threat to homes.

Meanwhile, on Sunday evening, several residents living on Carinda Road, about 25km southeast of Brewarrina, were put on high alert because of a 150 hectare, out of control bushfire near their properties.

There were no immediate evacuations and firefighters were hoping to control the blaze before they got near the homes.

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Stronger dollar hurts McDonald's Q3 result

TOUGH competition in the US and the weakening economy abroad was a double whammy for McDonald's in the third quarter, sending the burger chain's net income down nearly 4 per cent.

McDonald's said on Friday it was adjusting some of its plans to deal with the pressures, including stepping up advertising for its dollar menu and bringing back the popular McRib sandwich nationally in December to drive traffic into US stores.

The world's largest hamburger chain with 33,000 locations worldwide has thrived in boom and bust times by selling cheap meals and constantly updating its menu.

But global economic pressures and intensifying competition are wearing at the company, which does two-thirds of its business overseas.

"When the economic crisis began in 2008, few people thought the environment would still be as uncertain and fragile as it is today," said chief executive Don Thompson.

"It is clear however that this operating environment is the new normal. As such, our near-term focus is on stabilising and growing traffic and market share."

Thompson said revenue in stores open at least 13 months, a key restaurant metric, is trending negative so far in October.

That news sent shares down $US4.14 ($A4.01), or 4.5 per cent, to close at $88.72. The stock had been down 7 per cent since the beginning of the year.

"McDonald's is facing a lot of pressure," said Morningstar analyst R J Hottovy.

"They're seeing more competition from their quick-service restaurants and fast-casual peers in the US and facing austerity measures and macro-economic pressures in Europe and Asia."

McDonald's said its net income fell to $1.46 billion, or $1.43 a share.

That compares with net income of $1.51 billion, or $1.45 a share last year. Analysts expected net income of $1.47 a share, according to Fact Set.

The stronger US dollar hurt net income by 8 cents a share. When the dollar is strong, international sales translate into fewer dollars at home.

Revenue was nearly flat at $7.15 billion from $7.17 billion last year. Analysts expected revenue of $7.17 billion.

Revenue in stores open at least 13 months rose 1.9 per cent globally, including a 1.2 per cent rise in the US, where the company said it faced "broad competitive activity".

McDonald's is facing stiffer competition from newer chains like Panera Bread Co, which offers higher-end food in a fast casual atmosphere.

Long-time rivals such as Wendy's and Burger King are also reworking their menus, renovating restaurants and launching new ad campaigns to win back customers.

McDonald's said it will step up advertising for its dollar menu rather than its more profitable extra value menu that includes items more expensive than $1.

Hottovy, the Morningstar analyst, said focusing on the value menu was a good move for McDonald's.

"In this environment you have to give customers what they want, and across the globe consumers are squarely focused on value," he said.

In Europe, where McDonald's does 40 per cent of its business, revenue in stores open at least 13 months rose 1.8 per cent, hurt by reduced guest traffic.

In the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, the measure rose 1.4 per cent as the company promoted limited-time offers and traffic increased.

In China, the measure rose 3.6 per cent.

Many US companies are looking to China for growth, but there is concern about a slowdown in the country.

However, Thompson said the country is a "market with significant potential" and that McDonald's is on track to open 225 to 250 restaurants there this year, with the goal of having 2000 open by the end of 2013.

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Bushfire threatens rural homes in NSW

AT least two sheds have been destroyed by an out-of-control bushfire threatening dozens of properties on NSW's mid north coast.

An emergency warning was issued to around 110 homes in Upper Lansdowne at 3pm (AEDT) on Saturday, half-an-hour after the blaze broke out.

More than 10 hectares of bush have already been burnt.

NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) spokeswoman Bridie O'Connor said the fire was heading towards 30 rural properties on Gungully Road.

"We have got more than 20 firefighters there and they're being assisted by water bombing aircraft," she told AAP.

"Hopefully they're making good progress on it and the fire won't actually reach those homes."

Temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius in the area earlier on Saturday, with wind gusts of up to 35km/h.

Fire crews are hoping a cool change slowly moving up the NSW coast will bring with it more favourable conditions later in the evening.

A handful of properties are also under threat from a grassfire burning out of control about 10km south of Casino.

The blaze began about midday (AEDT) and has already covered about 15 hectares.

"Grassfires can start really quickly and move three times as fast as bushfires, that's why it's managed to get to these properties as quickly has it has," Ms O'Connor said.

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