Sydney road and railway line reopen

A MAIN road and part of a railway line that were shut after a train malfunction on a level crossing in Sydney's northwest have reopened.

Garfield Road at Riverstone and the T1 western railway line between Mulgrave and Quakers Hill station are open but the Transport Management Centre says delays could still occur on trains in the area.

No delays are expected on local roads.

Supplementary buses are running and users of public transport are being asked to allow extra travel time.

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Man arrested after shots fired in Tas

A man is in custody after shots were reportedly fired in a Tasmanian street. Source: AAP

A MAN is in custody after shots were reportedly fired in a Tasmanian street.

Police received calls from the public reporting several shots being fired in the street by a man in Swansea on Tasmania's east coast, just before 5pm (AEDT).

Investigations are continuing.

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US man dies in Vic skydiving accident

A man has plunged to his death in a skydiving incident in Victoria's northeast. Source: AAP

A US citizen has plunged to his death in a skydiving incident in Victoria's northeast.

The man, 33, had a parachute malfunction and fell a considerable distance in Drysdale Road, Euroa, about 12.30pm (AEDT), an Ambulance Victoria spokesman said.

The man was in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived and they tried to resuscitate him but he died at the scene.

Police said the man was a US citizen and they are in the process of notifying his family.

They will prepare a report for the coroner.

The Australian Skydiving Association has been notified.

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Severe storm warning for wind and hail

ANOTHER round of severe thunderstorms is set to pummel the southeast.

7.30pm: Sharon Wheatley said the earlier storm battered her property near Rathdowney.

"I was watching the clouds from the doorway and saw that one hailstone drop into the yard, nothing else, just that one, so I stuck a bucket over my head and ran out and grabbed it," she said.

"Gradually a few more dropped. There was no rain at first, just large hail dropping from the sky.

"I had to move from the doorway because they were smashing on the concrete outside and chunks were flying in at me. Then they just came down solidly for maybe 10 minutes or so."

"I had to move from the doorway because they were smashing on the concrete outside and chunks were flying in at me." Picture: Sharon Wheatley at Rathdowney

7.15pm: The weather bureau has warned that while one severe thunderstorm is skirting dangerously close to Brisbane's CBD, another one is brewing just over the NSW border.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Peter Otto said an earlier warning was still current for areas to the west of Brisbane, but the storm was unlikely to reach the city centre.

Further west, he said golf-sized hail stones have fallen on Mt Barney, with larger stones reported at Boonah.

"That storm is moving over the Ipswich area at the moment," he said.

"There is another cell south of the border that is likely to hit Rathdowney in the next half hour and it may head north after that. It's another very dangerous storm with large hail stones expected."

6.45pm: Very dangerous thunderstorms are forecast to affect Rosewood, Marburg, Lake Manchester, Upper Brookfield and Fernvale by 7.20 pm and Enoggera Reservoir, Enoggera, Mount Nebo, Highvale, Samford and Albany Creek by 7.50 pm.

Other severe thunderstorms in northern NSW are forecast to affect Mount Barney, the McPherson Range, Rathdowney, Maroon Dam, Kooralbyn and Lamington National Park by 7:50 pm.

Damaging winds and large hailstones are likely, with hail larger than golf balls reported at Boonah earlier.

6.20pm:  The Bureau of Meteorology has updated their thunderstorm warning, alerting residents that very dangerous thunderstorms were moving north.

The storms were detected on weather radar near Boonah, Aratula, Harrisville, Peak Crossing, Bundamba Lagoon and the area south of Amberley.

Very dangerous thunderstorms are forecast to affect Ipswich, Redbank Plains, Amberley, Rosewood, Marburg and Lake Manchester by 6:50 pm and Lowood, Fernvale, Mount Nebo, Highvale, Samford and the D'Aguilar Ranges by 7:20 pm.

Other severe thunderstorms were located near Bonalbo(NSW). Damaging winds and large hailstones are likely.

Hail larger than golf balls was reported at Boonah at around 5:40pm.

5.20pm: The weather bureau issued a severe thunderstorm warning after storms were detected over the Scenic Rim region near Mount Barney, Laravale and Kooralbyn.

The southeast Queensland warning said damaging winds and large hailstones are likely.

Forecasters from the Bureau of Meteorology said the thunderstorms were moving in a northerly direction, with Brisbane, Ipswich and the Gold Coast put on alert.

The storms are predicted to hit Beaudesert about 5.30pm.

More to come.
 

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services advises that people should:
* Move your car under cover or away from trees.
* Secure loose outdoor items.
* Seek shelter, preferably indoors and never under trees.
* Avoid using the telephone during a thunderstorm.
* Beware of fallen trees and powerlines.
* For emergency assistance contact the SES on 132 500.
 

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Vic ALP elects new shadow cabinet members

Labor's Martin Foley (pic) and Wade Noonan have been elected to the Victorian shadow cabinet. Source: AAP

THE Victorian Labor party has elected two new members to its shadow cabinet.

Albert Park MP Martin Foley and Williamstown MP Wade Noonan were elected during a meeting of the state parliamentary Labor Party on Thursday afternoon.

"I look forward to both Martin and Wade playing an important role in the shadow cabinet as we prepare for the 2014 state election," Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said in a statement.

The move follows resignations from several Labor MPs who have announced they won't contest the election, including high-profile former government ministers Justin Madden and John Lenders.

Portfolios will be announced in due course, Mr Andrews said.

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PM Abbott hosts his first COAG

Prime Minister Tony Abbott will host his first COAG meeting in Canberra on Friday. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott will use his first meeting with state premiers and chief ministers to start the groundwork for delivering the coalition's paid parental leave scheme.

Mr Abbott will host his first Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday.

The coalition promised at the election to roll out a scheme to pay mothers who give birth after July 2015 up to half their annual salary for 26 weeks, capped at a salary of $150,000 a year.

COAG will discuss how the plan, costing $5.5 billion a year, will fit in with existing state public sector parental leave schemes.

Mr Abbott said during the election campaign there would be no extra cost to state governments and the national scheme would be an improvement to existing state schemes.

However, he said he wanted to have an "adult discussion" with the premiers about its details.

The scheme is to be paid for by a levy on Australia's largest businesses.

COAG will also discuss ways to fast-track and fund major infrastructure and boost jobs in manufacturing.

The manufacturing talks had been scheduled well before the announcement of Holden ceasing car production from 2017, but is now expected to take greater prominence.

Mr Abbott will talk to the premiers about his plans for a white paper on reform of federal-state relations.

The prime minister said in a speech when he was opposition leader that COAG had become "a talk shop, not a decision-making process" and the roles of the federal, state and territory governments needed to be better defined.

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Japan plans $60b economic stimulus

JAPAN'S Cabinet has approved billions of dollars of stimulus spending in a supplementary budget meant to perk up a faltering economic recovery and cushion the impact of a sales tax rise next April.

The Y5.5 trillion ($A59.49 billion) in fresh stimulus approved on Thursday is aimed at creating at least 250,000 jobs and is heavily weighted toward construction projects. It also includes Y600 billion ($A6.5 billion) in payments to home buyers and one-time payments of Y10,000 ($A108) per child to low and middle-income families.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised the extra stimulus to counter a 3 percentage point increase in sales tax to eight per cent in April.

Parliamentary approval of the stimulus in early 2014 is expected since Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partners hold majorities in both houses.

Japan's economy, the world's third-largest, emerged from recession in late 2012, growing at a brisk 4.3 per cent pace in the first quarter of the year. However, the pace of expansion slowed to 1.1 per cent in the third quarter as corporate investment remained sluggish and exports were sapped by lacklustre growth in emerging economies.

So far, the biggest driver for the recovery has been hefty government spending, which is also the type of spending the tax rise is aimed at making up for.

The economy may get a boost in coming months as consumers speed up major purchases to beat the sales tax rise. But the government has forecast a short-term contraction in the economy after the higher tax takes effect. Another increase in the sales tax, of 2 points, is expected in 2015.

Abe appears to have forced Japan out of its deflationary rut with a growth strategy centred on pumping trillions of dollars into the economy through public spending and aggressive monetary easing by the central bank.

The flood of money has helped weaken the Japanese yen, boosting corporate profits in yen terms and making exports of some Japanese manufacturers more cost competitive. It is also helping to spark inflation, thanks to rising costs for a wide range of imported commodities, from crude oil to soybeans to computer parts.

The supplementary budget approved Thursday, along with local government spending on public works and grants for lending to small enterprises, is meant to put another Y18.6 trillion ($A201.19 billion) into the economy. Abe says this will add a full percentage point to Japan's gross domestic product.

The spending does not involve any new public debt since much of the money to be used was left over from previous, unspent budgetary allocations. The rest comes from taxes and other government revenues.

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PM tributes troops in valedictory speech

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has kicked off parliament's annual valedictory speeches, marking 2013 as the year Australian troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Following a tribute to retiring clerk of the House of Representatives Bernard Wright, Mr Abbott praised the service of Australian troops after almost a decade in the Afghan province of Uruzgan.

"Our troops have done a magnificent job, but they've paid a high price," he said.

"We hope that the years of service and sacrifice will be honoured by a province and a country that respects the values that we tried to bring to that province."

He said the nation had also endured floods in Queensland and fires in NSW.

"But so often in this country, nature at its worst brings out Australians at their best," he said.

He noted the change of government in September and promised it would be for the better.

"I am determined to ensure that it is a very long time indeed before this country has three prime ministers in one year," he said.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten acknowledged the thousands of Holden workers who will soon be out of a job following the announcement that the company will cease manufacturing in Australia.

"We will continue to stand up for their futures every day," Mr Shorten said.

He too noted the devastation of natural disasters across the country, which began with the Tasmanian bushfires earlier in the year.

"The worst in over 30 years, through one of the state's harshest heatwaves," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss described the past year as "long and somewhat tumultuous" while his Labor counterpart Tanya Plibersek said it had certainly been curious.

"I don't think history will look kindly on the last parliament," Mr Truss said.

"It was raucous and I don't think it reflected well on the process of our democracy."

Ms Plibersek said people watching the nightly news would have thought the past year was almost entirely one of conflict but parliament had achieved things.

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First anniversary of Hendra virus vaccine

A year since the launch of the Hendra vaccine, the push continues for mandatory horse vaccination. Source: AAP

A YEAR on from the launch of the Hendra vaccine, the push continues for mandatory vaccination of horses against the deadly virus.

Since the launch of Equivac HeV support has grown with the vaccine maker, Zoetis, last month saying 150,000 horses have been treated since it was released in November last year.

Racing Queensland, leaders from within Equestrian Australia, the CSIRO, The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) and the Queensland Horse Council, have backed moves towards mandatory vaccination.

Hendra, which can spread from flying foxes to horses and then to humans, was first identified in Queensland in 1994 when a trainer and 20 horses died.

The virus has since killed three more people and about 70 horses in Queensland and northern NSW, as it spread south.

Equestrian Australia chairman Warwick Vale says he supports mandatory vaccination at high risk events.

"I think that the events community will come to realise that the single best tool for risk mitigation of this disease is vaccination," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Associate Professor James Gilkerson, the director of the Centre for Equine Infectious Diseases at the University of Melbourne says Hendra is an endemic disease and is not going away.

"If you're worried about a disease that is carried by bats, the best thing you can do is make sure that the population of most concern, in this case horses, is highly vaccinated, he said.

Zoetis General Manager Mike van Blommestein said that in the face of the threat of the disease moving south, researchers were concentrating on rapid diagnosis and prevention, and ways to control outbreaks.

On Tuesday Zoetis launched a documentary about the battle against Hendra virus to mark the first year of the vaccine's use.

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Alleged killer feared death by fork

A Queensland man accused of murdering his wife was afraid she would kill him so he pushed her. Source: AAP

A QUEENSLAND man accused of murdering his wife was afraid she would kill him with a kitchen fork so he pushed her, causing her to fall onto tiles and die, a court has heard.

Klaus Andres, 70, has pleaded guilty to interfering with Li Ping Cao's corpse by dissolving her body in a wheelie bin of acid, but says her death was an accident.

On Tuesday, Andres told the Supreme Court the pair had argued about sex, money and their relationship in the kitchen of their Cairns home on October 30, 2011.

He says Ms Cao, 42, was screaming and that she scratched his face and then stabbed his hand twice with a fork.

Principal Crown Prosecutor Nigel Rees asked Andres if he feared for his life.

"Definitely, yes," Andres said.

"A person or Li Ping could kill me with a fork if she got the right position."

He later added: "I protected myself".

Andres says he pushed his wife on the chest with one hand and she fell to the ground and died suddenly.

He went to dial 000 but didn't make the call as he thought he would be blamed for her death.

"... in my opinion there is nothing that could be done (to revive Ms Cao)," he said.

In the days that followed he put her body in a wheelie bin, dissolved her body in acid and poured the remains down a storm drain.

Only Ms Cao's prosthetic teeth were found by investigators.

Andres admits lying to police, his family and Ms Cao's friends to cover up her death, but says he didn't mean to kill her.

Mr Rees told the court Andres murdered his wife because it would cost him a lot of money to divorce her.

"I never attacked Li Ping in the whole five years and I never assaulted her," Andres said.

He also denied an accusation that he suffocated his wife.

Andres says Ms Cao wouldn't be entitled to his assets as they had been transferred to a family trust.

Specialist forensic pathologist Professor Johan Duflou told the court there are a number of circumstances in which a person can die suddenly after a fall or blow, but it is rare.

He says it's possible wounds on Andres' hand visible after Ms Cao's death were caused by a fork.

"To me it's a possibility, but there's nothing there that specifically says fork to me."

The trial continues.

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