Vic transport costs to rise in 2014

VICTORIANS are set to pay more to use public transport and for the first time motorcycles will pay to use the CityLink freeway from New Year's Day.

And as the new year rings in with the sting on hip pockets, motorists can say goodbye to pesky vehicle registration stickers, which will be abolished from January 1.

The labels for light vehicles in Victoria, including passenger cars, will be a thing of the past, with the state government estimating it will save Victorians $19.5 million a year by reducing the red-tape burdens.

The move follows the removal of registration labels in other states.

Upgrades in technology mean police and VicRoads can monitor registrations without the need for the windscreen stickers.

Public transport fares will rise by 2.5 per cent under changes announced recently by the state government.

Two-hour fares will expire after exactly two hours and weekend fares will jump from $3.50 to $6 for a daily zone one and two pass.

Other changes include new charges for motorcyclists, who for the first time will be tolled to use CityLink from January 1.

The road operator will toll them using technology so they will not have to carry an e-TAG.

CityLink is the only toll road in Australia that does not toll motorcycles.

Under its contract with the Victorian government, it was always expected motorcycles would be charged, but they will be tolled half the rate for cars.

The tax grab on poker machines is also set to rise from April.

Taxes on poker machines in bigger venues will be increased by 4.2 per cent, while the minimum player return ratio will be reduced from 87 per cent to 85 per cent.

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Arctic 30 members granted exit visa

If Russian authorities approve activist Colin Russell's exit visa he could be home for New Years. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIAN activist Colin Russell will finally make his way home after Russian authorities granted the Greenpeace campaigner an exit visa on Friday.

Mr Russell, 59, was one of 30 activists arrested and detained in September for protesting against a Russian oil rig operated by Moscow-based energy company Gazprom in the Pechora Sea.

Known as the Arctic 30, the group, made up of 28 Greenpeace activists and two freelance journalists, had been accused of hooliganism.

The charges were dropped last week after the Russian parliament passed an amnesty law and freed the defendants.

Greenpeace communications manager James Lorenz confirmed Mr Russell, from Woodbridge in Tasmania, had been granted an exit visa on Friday night.

"Colin has received a final piece of the puzzle, which is the exit stamp in his passport," he told AAP.

"We have heard he is enormously relieved to be going home. It's been a long time."

Mr Russell is expected to fly to Amsterdam, where Greenpeace International is based, with his wife Christine and daughter Madeleine.

He will make his way to Australia in a few days' time.

Britain-born Australian resident Alex Harris and Adelaide resident Jon Beauchamp were also granted exit visas.

"We're leaving Russia, it's over, we're finally truly free," Ms Harris, 27, said in a statement.

"It feels like the moment I've been waiting for, and my family too, but also for millions of people around the world who have worked for this, and I simply cannot find the words to say how grateful and humbled I am by their support.

"People I will never meet have campaigned for our release - they wrote emails, they marched, they protested, they made a noise that became deafening, even in the Kremlin.

"I promise I will repay those people by using my freedom to stand up for the Arctic."

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Boats are stopping: Morrison

The Australian government says no asylum seekers arrived in Australia by boat in the past week. Source: AAP

THE Australian government says no asylum seekers arrived in Australia by boat in the past week, as it declares its tough border protection policy is working.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on Friday said 355 asylum seekers on seven boats had been intercepted by Australian authorities since the start of December.

None arrived in the week leading up to Friday, despite unusually favourable weather during the December monsoon season.

"This represents a 70 per cent decline on last December, when there were 1149 (arrivals) on 20 boats - so far this is the lowest number of arrivals in December for five years," Mr Morrison said in a statement.

"The boats have not yet stopped but they are stopping."

Mr Morrison said that in the 100 days since the September 18 start of Operation Sovereign Borders, there had been an average of 145 asylum seeker boat arrivals on three boats a fortnight.

That compares with about 920 people on more than a dozen boats a fortnight between the introduction of the previous government's regional resettlement arrangement with Papua New Guinea and the establishment of Operation Sovereign Borders.

Critics say the policy is inhumane, while the UN Human Rights Commission pointed to deficiencies in the running of the asylum-seeker processing camps on Nauru and in PNG - including unhygienic conditions and limited processing of asylum claims.

Last week Mr Morrison said he had been aware since early December of a 92-page letter from 15 doctors formally employed at detention facilities that highlighted a low standard of medical care at the Australian-run detention centre on Christmas Island.

Mr Morrison said Australia would continue to send asylum seekers to Christmas Island, while medical service provider International Health and Medical Services and his department would investigate the claims made in the letter.

On Monday Mr Morrison said a family of asylum seekers, including an intellectually disabled woman, would be reunited in community detention so she could be properly cared for by her relatives.

"Today's decision is based on meeting the immediate health and welfare needs of the intellectually disabled woman," he said in a statement at the time.

On Friday he said there would be improvements to Australia's offshore processing facilities.

"Particularly to ensure appropriate accommodation and health facilities for families on Nauru, where new funding has been put in place," he said.

Comment is being sought from Labor and the Greens.

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Summer music fests get under way

The heat is on and so is the annual line-up of summer festivals getting under way across Australia. Source: AAP

YOU might sizzle in the hot sun and be swamped in a crowd crush but your ears will thank you.

The heat is on and so are the annual Australian summer music festivals, promising sweet music from some of the world's biggest names.

One of the blockbuster events, the Big Day Out, will kick off from January 19 on the Gold Coast for those who fancy hot, long Aussie days with a sprinkling of good rocking.

Headline acts this year include rockers Pearl Jam and smooth-talking rapper Snoop Dogg, AKA Snoop Lion.

The festival then makes its way to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.

Another iconic event, Falls Festival, kicks off on Saturday in Lorne, Victoria, on Sunday in Marion Bay, Tasmania, and on Tuesday in Byron Bay, NSW.

American alternative rock band the Violent Femmes will be joined by singer, songwriter and Beyonce's cool little sister Solange, Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and local outfit the Cat Empire, who will all grace the stage.

For those who crave something more mellow, Queensland's Woodford Folk Festival began on Friday and runs until New Year's Day.

Now in its 28th year, the event bills itself as one of the world's largest folk festivals and more than 500 acts will perform.

Folk fans can ring in the new year with a line-up that includes UK singer-songwriter Beth Orton and Melbourne songstress Clare Bowditch.

Three-piece band the Basics, featuring Wally De Backer, who most probably know better as Gotye, will also perform.

For those seeking something with more grunt, Soundwave heads to town soon.

The festival begins in Brisbane on February 22 before touring to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth with heavier acts including Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Megadeth, Placebo and Korn.

For those a little bit more country, the famous Tamworth Country Music Festival gets under way on January 17.

Meanwhile, blues fans can get their fix at the Thredbo Blues Festival, now in its 20th year, which kicks off the same day featuring Wendy Matthews, Jeff Lang and Rick Price.

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WA paraglider trapped on cliff

EMERGENCY volunteers are working to rescue a man trapped on a cliff face in WA.

Police say the 26-year-old was paragliding in Sandpatch, near Albany in the state's south, when something went wrong.

Rescue Service firefighters and State Emergency Service volunteers from Albany are at the scene and a rescue helicopter is on its way.

A spokesman for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said crews were working to raise the man up the cliff face.

A police media spokeswoman said the man's injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

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Toddler saved after falling into pool

A family member's quick actions have saved a toddler who fell into a pool on the NSW Central Coast. Source: AAP

A QUICK-THINKING family member used CPR to save a toddler who fell into a pool on the NSW Central Coast.

The two-year-old girl was pulled unconscious from the backyard pool on Thursday afternoon, but she was breathing by the time paramedics arrived and she regained consciousness.

CareFlight director Ian Badham praised the quick action of the family member.

The girl was airlifted with her mother to The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

"Because she had been underwater for a while, she was taken to the hospital to be checked out and kept under observation," Mr Badham said.

She remains in a stable condition.

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Nine road deaths dampen festive season

Nine people have died on Australian roads this festive season, including a teen who fell off a ute. Source: AAP

NINE people have died on Australian roads this festive season, including two friends killed in a single-vehicle incident in NSW on Boxing Day.

A man, 31, was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene of the crash on the NSW Central Coast. A second man, 22, was trapped in the wreckage and died before he could be released.

The crash, which occurred just before 5am (AEDT), left three other men aged 29, 22 and 27 in hospital.

Police said they hoped to speak to the injured men, all from Sydney suburb Auburn.

In Canberra, a motorcyclist died after losing control of his bike late on the evening of Christmas Day.

The 22-year-old hit a traffic island in the inner-north suburb of Lyneham about 11pm on Wednesday.

He died in Canberra Hospital.

In Perth, a 17-year-old boy died after falling off the back of a utility on Christmas evening.

Police say the boy suffered severe head injuries when he fell from the tray of the Nissan ute.

A 24-year-old man in the Northern Territory was killed after losing control of his motorcycle on a dirt road near the Todd River in Alice Springs on Christmas Day.

Two Victorian women killed in a head-on collision two days before Christmas were the first fatalities for the 2013 Christmas period.

A 69-year-old Queensland man died on Christmas Eve when his car hit a tree near Bundaberg.

On Monday night police found a man dead in a sedan spilt in two following a high-speed crash into a tree north of Moree in NSW.

The deaths take the national toll to nine, compared with 16 recorded by Boxing Day in 2012.

The national road toll period runs from midnight on December 23, 2013, until midnight on January 3, 2014, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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Tourists die in poorly ventilated hotel

TWO Italian tourists have been found dead in their poorly ventilated hotel room in Nepal's capital, Katmandu.

The man and woman were found after the hotel's owners alerted police they were not responding to calls, police official Umesh Raj Joshi said on Thursday.

Police broke the windows, which were taped shut, and found the bodies on the bed.

Joshi said they appeared to be regular visitors to Nepal.

Gas and kerosene heaters are common in Nepal during the winter because of a shortage of electricity.

They are dangerous if used in closed rooms.

Two Chinese tourists died from gas poisoning from a heater in a mountain resort room near Katmandu earlier in December.

About 500,000 tourists visit Nepal a year.

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Thousands turn out for community lunches

THOUSANDS of Sydney-siders who would otherwise be alone for Christmas will spend the festive season celebrating with their communities.

More than 600 people - including a few famous faces - turned out for the Wayside Chapel Christmas lunch in King's Cross.

Blaxland resident Stephen South has attended the lunch and church service for four years.

"I don't have any family and this is my family," Mr South told AAP.

"On a day like today, if you don't have family it's really hard."

The Wayside Chapel's 200 volunteers provided 80 turkeys, 40 hams, 700 mince pies and 140 bags of potatoes for the day.

Actress Claudia Karvan made her third visit to the street party this year, and actor David Wenham attended.

"I can't stay away - it just puts a smile on my face that stays there for the whole day," Karvan said.

"It totally encapsulates the spirit of Christmas, I think.

"The open-heartedness, the generosity of the day, the inclusiveness - everyone from all different walks of the community, whether you're sleeping rough or wealthy and isolated, it doesn't matter, you can come down here."

Between Christmas singing, Wayside chief executive Pastor Graham Long said the day was about people not being alone.

"Don't be alone and miserable," he said.

"Come and be miserable with us."

In Ashfield, more than 3000 people were expected at the Exodus Foundation's free Christmas lunch on Liverpool Road.

Volunteers prepared 65 hams, 50 turkeys, 400 kilograms of potatoes, 200 kilograms of green veggies, 400 kilograms of pumpkins, 1300 litres of gravy, 2500 mini puddings and 330 litres of custard.

"You can imagine, we've been preparing for this for months," Reverend Bill Crews said.

Santa Claus will give presents to needy children and adults.

"All these presents have been donated, which is another example of how generous Sydney-siders are," Rev Crews said.

At Redfern's Australian Technology Park, the Salvation Army hoped to feed 1200 of Sydney's less fortunate and disadvantaged.

"Every year we're humbled by the generosity of the over 150 volunteers who give up part of their Christmas Day to bring joy, hope and happiness to those who would otherwise go without," Salvation Army spokeswoman Robyn Evans said.

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Locals help out after Grinch steals gifts

Generous people have been dropping off gifts for two Victorian families whose gifts were stolen. Source: AAP

GENEROUS people have been playing Santa and dropping off gifts for two Victorian families whose gifts were stolen from under their Christmas trees.

Police at Wodonga near the Victoria-NSW border are calling the thefts "an unthinkable act of heartlessness".

But they say they have been overwhelmed by the number of donated presents that have been arriving at the police station throughout Christmas Day.

The Salvation Army also gave presents to the children at one of the homes.

"The occupants of the houses were asleep and realised all their gifts were missing when they went to open them this morning," a police spokeswoman said.

The two homes are on different streets, Wilca Way and Hartwig Road, on the southern end of the town.

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