New federal loans will help farmers: NFF

Struggling farmers will be offered concessional loans under a federal government package. Source: AAP

CONCESSIONAL government loans worth $420 million will help farmers who are being "smashed" by the high Australian dollar and rising production prices, the National Farmers' Federation says.

Treasurer Wayne Swan and Agricultural Minister Joe Ludwig on Saturday announced a federal Farm Finance package, which will provide $60 million in loans for each state and the Northern Territory to help farmers restructure their debts.

Under the two-year scheme, loans of up to $650,000 would be made available as soon as possible to struggling farmers, with the funding to be allocated in the May 14 federal budget.

Farmers' federation Australian vice-president Brent Finlay welcomed the much-needed assistance for farmers, saying while some might not want to access the loans and take on more debt, others would now be able to reinvest in their operations.

"It's about upgrading their production systems, making their production systems more efficient and more effective," Mr Finlay told AAP.

"But it also allows them to restructure the way they've set up their production system. Maybe even downscale somewhere just to consolidate for a while."

As part of the Farm Finance package, 16 extra financial counsellors will be hired from July to work with agricultural businesses.

A tax relief deposit scheme to help farmers manage fluctuations in their income will also be overhauled from July 2014, including raising the off-farm income threshold from $65,000 to $100,000.

The assistance package follows a rural finance roundtable held in October last year, convened by Mr Swan, which heard how farmers were being hit by the high Australian dollar.

"Most of our commodities are export commodities, so the high dollar is absolutely smashing our farmers," Mr Finlay said.

"We also have the rising cost of production on our farms, and they're getting squeezed between the two."

Mr Swan said the federal government would work with state governments to deliver the concessional loans through agencies such as the Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority.

"We recognise that parts of the rural community are suffering, suffering particularly from a high Australian dollar," he told reporters in Brisbane.

"We think it is very important to get behind Aussie farmers who've got good prospects in the future, but who are doing it tough at the moment. We make no apologies for putting together a responsible package to support them through some difficult times."

Bob Katter said the government's plan was a step in the right direction and demanded states and territories match the federal commitment.

"There will be a very harsh and condemnatory judgement passed upon them by Australian farmers if they don't match the federal funding," the member for Kennedy said in a statement.

But Mr Katter said the measures announced on Saturday would only buy time for some farmers.

Addressing the "long term fundamentals" - including the high dollar, investment in ethanol and pricing for dairy, sugar and eggs - could deliver more security for farmers, he said.

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Wave of Iraq violence kills over 200

The death toll from the latest violence in Iraq has risen to more than 200, officials say. Source: AAP

THE latest violence in Iraq has pushed the death toll from four days of attacks to more than 200, officials say.

The unrest has also wounded more than 300 people.

Confirmation of the toll follows a warning by United Nations envoy Martin Kobler that Iraq is at a "crossroads", and his calling for restraint.

"I call on the conscience of all religious and political leaders not to let anger win over peace, and to use their wisdom, because the country is at a crossroads," Kobler said in a statement on Friday.

Kobler spoke a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned that the country was in danger of returning to "sectarian civil war".

The trouble began on Tuesday when security forces moved in against anti-government protesters near the Sunni Arab northern town of Hawijah, sparking clashes that left 53 people dead.

A wave of subsequent unrest, much but not all of it apparently linked to the Hawijah clashes, killed dozens more people and by Thursday 182 people had been killed and 292 wounded.

The protest-related violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shi'ite-majority country more than four months ago.

The protesters have called for the resignation of Maliki, a Shi'ite, and railed against authorities for allegedly targeting their community.

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Chevron 1Q earnings drop to $6.2b

Energy company Chevron says its earnings declined for the first quarter of 2013 to $A6.05 billion. Source: AAP

CHEVRON Corp, the second-largest US energy company, says its earnings declined for the first quarter of 2013 due primarily to lower oil prices.

The company earned $US6.2 billion ($A6.05 billion) in the first quarter, or $US3.18 per share, versus $US6.5 billion, or $US3.27 per share, in the same quarter in 2012.

Revenues in the first quarter were $US54 billion, down from $US59 billion in the same quarter last year, the company said on Friday, "mainly due to lower prices for crude oil".

Chevron said its average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids in the first quarter was $US94, compared to $US102 a year ago.

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Indian PM soothes China border tensions

INDIA'S Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says he believes a border dispute over an alleged incursion by Chinese soldiers can be resolved, the Press Trust of India reports.

"It is a localised problem, we do believe it can be solved," Singh was quoted as saying by the news agency on Saturday after Chinese soldiers were accused of intruding across the disputed border in the Ladakh region earlier this month.

The incident has marked a renewal of tensions between the Asian neighbours whose relations are often prickly - a legacy of a 1962 border war.

Singh's statement came after India's Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma presented a report on the incursion to a parliamentary watchdog on Friday in which local media said he alleged Chinese soldiers had advanced nearly 20 kilometres into Indian-claimed territory.

The prime minister's comments, his first on the dispute, echoed statements of other government ministers playing down the alleged incursion in the western part of Indian-held Kashmir's Ladakh region and insisting it can be settled amicably.

"We have a plan, we do not want to accentuate the situation," Singh said, without elaborating.

Lower-level talks between military officials have so far failed to break the impasse.

According to officials in New Delhi, a platoon of Chinese troops set up a camp inside Indian territory on April 15.

Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid announced earlier in the week he will head for China on May 8, saying both countries had a mutual interest in not allowing the dispute to "destroy" long-term progress in ties.

A foreign ministry official has said new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is due to travel to New Delhi late next month, without giving an exact date.

India has called on the Chinese soldiers to withdraw while China has denied any wrongdoing.

In 1962, China gave India a bloody nose in the war fought in the Himalayan regions of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

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Two Qld sex offenders now back behind bars

POLICE have now recaptured both of the two sex offenders who escaped from a jail in north Queensland.

Tyronne Speechley, 25, and Algana Tiers, 26, ran off from a Townsville prison farm on Monday night.

Tiers was captured on Tuesday morning but Speechley eluded police by running into a crocodile-infested creek and then is believed to have stolen a car.

Speechley was found in the western Queensland city of Mount Isa late on Thursday afternoon and taken into custody, police said.

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NSW Planning appoints 'engagement' boss

THE NSW planning department has appointed a steward to steer its controversial community consultation reforms.

Laws mooted in a government white paper last week would require the state government and councils to consult early with the community in developing long-term planning ground rules for their region.

Residents would be informed but not consulted about some projects, and the state's 152 councils would not have the power to knock them back.

The Department of Planning and Infrastructure on Tuesday announced Trish Oakley had been appointed the bureaucracy's new executive director of community and stakeholder engagement.

In a statement, the department said she would bring more than 30 years experience in public policy development, strategic communications and stakeholder engagement when she starts on May 1.

"The cornerstone of the reform process is to comprehensively engage communities in planning the future of their neighbourhoods, suburbs and cities," DPI director general Sam Haddad said.

"The department recognises that, up until now, residents and community groups have not been given sufficient opportunity to have their say about big picture plans for their area.

"Trish will be using her detailed knowledge about best-practice community engagement to drive cultural change and improved community engagement outcomes."

The planning white paper is now open for community consultation.

Legislation will be introduced to parliament in the second half of this year.

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Hezbollah pressured as Syrian town falls

LEBANON'S Shi'ite Hezbollah movement is under increasing pressure over accusations it is backing regime troops in Syria, as a rebel leader warned of the risk of sparking a sectarian war.

Inside Syria, soldiers seized a key town near Damascus from rebels following weeks of fierce clashes, a monitoring group said, and each side blamed the other after fighting destroyed the minaret of Aleppo's ancient Umayyad mosque.

In an open letter on Wednesday, Syria's leading opposition figure Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib called on Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to withdraw his fighters to avoid the conflict degenerating into a sectarian war.

"Hezbollah's intervention in Syria has complicated matters deeply, and I expected you, given your political and social stature, to play a more positive role" said Khatib in a letter posted on Facebook.

The message was also filmed and posted on YouTube.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, a close ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, has denied Syrian opposition accusations that it has sent its elite troops into Syria to support regime troops battling insurgents.

It says Syrian rebels have targeted Shi'ite areas of Syria inhabited by Lebanese and that Shi'ites in Syria have a right to self-defence.

But the accusations against Hezbollah have multiplied as fighting escalated this week in the Qusayr area near the Lebanon border.

"The claim of defence for Shi'ite villages is unacceptable," said Khatib, who on Sunday quit as head of Syria's main opposition National Coalition in protest at what he said was world inaction over Assad's onslaught on the rebels.

"There is a cunning plan to drag the Islamic world into sectarian conflict pitting Sunnis against Shi'ites, starting from Syria and Lebanon, only then to engulf all countries in the region, including Iran and Turkey."

But nobody could win in such a conflict, he said.

"Aren't 1000 years of strife between Sunnis and Shi'ites enough for us to bury this narrow sectarian mentality?" he asked.

President Assad belongs to Syria's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Most of the country's population - including the rebel fighters - are Sunnis.

Khatib, a moderate Sunni sheikh who has widespread support in Syria, made his appeal just two days after radical Sunni sheikh Ahmad al-Assir called for Lebanese fighters to join insurgents seeking to oust Assad.

But the main rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, rejected the call to jihad in a statement on Wednesday.

"We reject any presence of foreign fighters, regardless of where they are from," said FSA political and media coordinator Louay Muqdad.

"We have said that what we are missing in Syria is weapons, not men."

Two Lebanese Salafist sheikhs have called on their followers to join rebels fighting in Syria and to support Sunni residents of the embattled central province of Homs, following the reports of Hezbollah's intervention.

Lebanon's President Michel Sleiman meanwhile reiterated the country's official stance of neutrality in the conflict, saying no weapons or fighters should be allowed to cross into Syria, the National News Agency reported.

Syria's army recaptured the key town of Otaybeh east of Damascus on Wednesday after weeks of fierce fighting, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The regime force had used warplanes, tanks, artillery and rocket-launchers during the fight, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

"After trying dozens of times to re-enter into the town, rebels withdrew at dawn after putting up a fierce resistance."

The Observatory also said that mortar rounds killed seven civilians in the Jaramana suburb of Damascus, which is held by the regime, with another 30 wounded, six of them critically.

State news agency SANA published the same toll.

The Damascus regime and rebel forces meanwhile blamed each other for the destruction Wednesday of the minaret of Aleppo's ancient Umayyad mosque, Syrian state media and a watchdog reported.

An archaeological treasure in Aleppo's UNESCO-listed Old City, the mosque had already suffered extensive damage during months of fighting. Rebels said they had managed to salvage ancient handwritten Koranic manuscripts.

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Sunset service concludes Anzac Day

SUNSET on Anzac day signifies a time when veterans can finally "be at peace".

The conclusion of the national day of remembrance also helps put painful memories to rest, RSL NSW vice president John Haines says.

The flags at the Cenotaph in Sydney's Martin Place were lowered at the sunset service on Thursday, as the band of the Ambulance Service of NSW rendered the ceremonial retreat.

Mr Haines told the service the custom signified the end of the military day when soldiers on daytime duty handed over to those who would carry on through the night.

"In the 16th and 17th centuries, retreat was referred to as watch setting.

"With troops often deployed during the day outside the city walls, it was necessary to give them and local inhabitants some warning signal that the city gates were about to be closed.

"If fighting was being carried on, fire would cease at the sounding of the retreat as the soldiers withdrew their positions".

At least 300 serving and former defence force personnel and relatives of veterans attended the evening service, which concluded the 98th Anzac Day commemorations in Sydney.

Mr Haines said it was a sombre occasion that gave veterans closure.

"Unfortunately with a lot of them (the day) brings back good memories but also bad," he told AAP.

"The late service gives closure on a lot of things.

"It's an indication that you can now rest ... and be at peace with your memories," he told AAP.

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Federal government has Qld in its sights

The PM is determined to sign up more states and territories to her schools funding reforms. Source: AAP

THE federal government has Queensland in its sights as it seeks to sign up another conservative state to its $14.5 billion schools funding package, following its success with NSW.

As Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited Rockhampton on Wednesday to woo voters in the Liberal National Party-led state with more federal money for an ageing highway, she pointed to NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell's schools decision.

"Let's be very frank here ... a conservative premier has found what is on the table acceptable for the children in his schools," Ms Gillard told ABC radio.

The Liberal NSW government on Tuesday signed up to the schools plan, earning itself $3.7 billion in federal money, leaving the other states and territories under pressure to accept a deal ahead of a June 30 federal deadline.

Treasurer Wayne Swan stepped up the pressure by accusing Queensland Premier Campbell Newman of bowing to federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who could become Australia's new prime minister in September.

"What the premier of Queensland ought to do is put the kids of Queensland first, not bow down to the interests of Tony Abbott," Mr Swan said.

Ms Gillard is awaiting a letter from Mr Newman outlining the state's position.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the state hoped Ms Gillard "can meet us halfway".

Under the current offer, Queensland's total funding would be $3.8 billion, with the federal government kicking in 65 per cent.

If Queensland signs, Ms Gillard will be more than halfway to getting national agreement on her schools funding plan, given all of the Labor states are expected to agree.

That would leave Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, which continue to argue their deals aren't up to scratch.

Victorian Premier Denis Napthine planned to speak to Ms Gillard on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Labor has offered $4.1 billion in federal funding to upgrade the ageing Bruce Highway in the Labor-held Queensland seat of Capricornia, which is under threat from the Liberals ahead of the September federal election.

Ms Gillard says the "huge" 10-year funding commitment is four times more than what the Howard government spent on the notoriously dangerous road over a similar period.

"Federal Labor understands that infrastructure matters," she said in a statement.

The federal money is conditional on Queensland agreeing to stump up $1 billion for the project, under current arrangements for federal infrastructure projects.

"It's over to Premier Newman," Ms Gillard told reporters in Rockhampton.

But Queensland Transport Minister Scott Emerson said the offer was already expected as part of the usual 80-20 federal-state funding split.

"New funding, not recycled announcements, ahead of this year's federal election will be the key to delivering for one of Queensland's most notorious national roads," Mr Emerson said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Mr Abbott again accused Labor of making spending promises it couldn't keep.

"Every day we have government ministers announcing that there is pressure on the revenue, and every day this government announces more multibillion-dollar spending initiatives," he told reporters in Melbourne.

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Musharraf denied bail over Bhutto killing

A Pakistani court refused to extend bail for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. Source: AAP

A PAKISTANI court refused to extend bail for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in connection with the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a lawyer said.

It is the second of three cases dating back to his 1999-2008 rule for which he has been denied bail.

He is already under a two-week house arrest at his villa on the edge of Islamabad over his decision to sack judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007.

Musharraf, who attended a separate hearing relating to the Bhutto case on Tuesday, did not appear before the court on Wednesday and neither did his main lawyer.

"The court dismissed General Musharraf's bail application," prosecution lawyer Chaudhry Azhar told reporters on Wednesday after the hearing by the Lahore High Court sitting in Rawalpindi, the garrison city twinned to Islamabad.

"Now the FIA (federal investigative agency) should arrest him," he added.

Musharraf is accused of conspiracy to murder Bhutto, who died in a gun and suicide attack in December 2007.

His arrest and disqualification from contesting elections on May 11 have been a humiliating blow for the former ruler of nuclear-armed Pakistan, who returned home last month promising to "save" the country.

On Tuesday, police said they had recovered a car carrying detonators and explosives on the road leading to Musharraf's house

The Pakistani Taliban have threatened to kill Musharraf who escaped three assassination attempts during his rule, but denied anything to do with the car.

Nobody has been convicted or jailed for Bhutto's assassination on December 27, 2007, in Rawalpindi, despite a long-running court case.

Musharraf's government blamed Bhutto's killing on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement and who was killed in a US drone attack in August 2009.

In 2010 a UN report said Bhutto's death could have been prevented and accused Musharraf's government of failing to give her adequate protection.

Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is chairman of the outgoing Pakistan People's Party, has accused Musharraf of her murder.

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