Gay couples wed in Utah after ruling

A US judge has struck down Utah's same-sex marriage ban in a decision that marks a drastic shift towards gay marriage in a conservative state where the Mormon church has long been against it.

Friday's decision set off an immediate frenzy as the clerk in the state's most populous county began issuing marriage licences to dozens of gay couples while state officials took steps to appeal the ruling and halt the process.

Cheers erupted as the mayor of Salt Lake City led one of the state's first gay wedding ceremonies in an office building about three miles from the headquarters of the Mormon church.

Deputy Salt Lake County Clerk Dahnelle Burton-Lee said the district attorney authorised her office to begin issuing licences to same-sex couples but she couldn't immediately say how many had been issued.

Just hours earlier, US District Judge Robert Shelby issued a 53-page ruling saying the constitutional amendment Utah voters approved in 2004 violates gay and lesbian couples' rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Shelby said the state failed to show that allowing same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any way.

"In the absence of such evidence, the State's unsupported fears and speculations are insufficient to justify the State's refusal to dignify the family relationships of its gay and lesbian citizens," Shelby wrote.

The decision drew a swift and angry reaction from Utah leaders, including Republican Governor Gary Herbert.

"I am very disappointed an activist federal judge is attempting to override the will of the people of Utah. I am working with my legal counsel and the acting attorney general to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah," Herbert said.

Late on Friday, the state filed both a notice of appeal of the ruling and a request for an emergency stay that would stop marriage licences from being issued to same-sex couples. It's unknown when the judge will make a decision on whether to grant the stay.

If the ruling stands, Utah would become the 18th state to allow gay marriages, said Jon Davidson, director of Lambda Legal, which pursues litigation on LGBT issues nationwide. That's up from six before the US Supreme Court last year struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The District of Columbia also allows same-sex marriage.

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Khodorkovsky starts life as a free man

Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky has arrived in Germany after being freed from a Russian prison. Source: AAP

RUSSIA'S most famous prisoner, Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has begun life as a free man in Germany after his surprise pardon by President Vladimir Putin.

Khodorkovsky has been reunited with his son in Berlin, a spokeswoman for the former tycoon said on Saturday.

"The eldest son of Mikhail Borisovich, Pavel, has already seen his dad," a spokeswoman for Khodorkovsky, Olga Pispanen, said on Russian radio Echo of Moscow.

"They are now together in Berlin."

Khodorkovsky's parents, Marina and Boris, were also preparing to fly out to Germany to "finally see and hug him," the spokeswoman added.

Released on Friday after 10 years behind bars, Khodorkovsky is "feeling well" and will give a news conference on Sunday, she said, with the date and place to be confirmed later.

Khodorkovsky's 79-year-old mother, who has cancer, said she was taking sedatives to help her cope with the strong emotions sparked by his release.

"We survived grief but it is also apparently hard to survive joy," Marina Khodorkovskaya said in an interview broadcast on Russian state television on Saturday.

Putin stunned Russia on Thursday by revealing that Khodorkovsky had turned to him for pardon on humanitarian grounds, citing his mother's health.

In a head-spinning succession of events, less than 24 hours later Khodorkovsky was granted pardon, walked out of prison and flew to Germany in a secret operation worked out behind the scenes with Berlin.

Prison officials said Khodorkovsky had requested to fly to Germany, where his mother has undergone treatment before.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Khodorkovsky was not forced into exile and was free to return to Russia.

Former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who helped negotiate his release, arranged the flight for him on a private jet and picked him up at the airport in Berlin.

From the airport, Khodorkovsky was reportedly taken to Berlin's luxury Adlon Hotel near the Brandenburg Gate from which Genscher was seen leaving on Friday evening.

About 20 cameramen and photographers as well as two TV vans were waiting for a possible glimpse of the former tycoon outside the landmark hotel in sub-zero temperatures on Saturday morning, according to reports.

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Attacks in Iraq kill 4 police, 2 pilgrims

OFFICIALS say attacks in western Iraq and south of Baghdad have killed six people - four policemen and two Shi'ite pilgrims.

Police officials say gunmen in a speeding car opened fire at a police checkpoint in the western city of Fallujah on Saturday morning, killing four policemen.

And in the town of Latifiyah, 30km south of Baghdad, a mortar shell hit a group of Shi'ite pilgrims heading to the holy sites in the city of Karbala.

The pilgrims were commemorating Arbaeen, the end of 40 days of mourning following the anniversary of the death of Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Imam Hussein, a revered Shi'ite figure.

Medical officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to media.

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Gunman had botched vasectomy: Neighbours

AUTHORITIES in the US are trying to determine whether a Northern California man's anger over complications he suffered from a 2010 surgery prompted him to go on a shooting rampage at a Nevada urologist's office, killing one doctor and critically wounding another before committing suicide.

Reno Police Lieutenant William Rulla said on Friday detectives were working to obtain Alan Oliver Frazier's medical records to learn more about his physical and mental health.

Frazier, 51, made it clear in a suicide note that he had planned the attack and that his "focus was on the physicians at the specific office," Rulla said. Police recovered the note at Frazier's home.

Investigators have declined to specify the kind of surgery he had or say whether the doctors he targeted had anything to do with it.

But a couple who lived across the street from Frazier at Lake Almanor, about 130 miles north of Reno, said the operation he had had was a vasectomy. They also said Frazier frequently posted complaints in an online chat group about the pain he suffered from what he claimed was a botched surgery.

An international expert in men's reproductive health care said that while it's uncommon, some men experience pain more than two years after a vasectomy.

Neighbour Mario Tognotti told The Associated Press on Friday that Frazier told him and his wife that he sought help from doctors for his pain and had approached a lawyer about the situation. Tognotti declined to comment further.

His wife, Jari Tognotti, told the Reno Gazette-Journal in an email Thursday that Frazier encouraged friends to learn more about the kind of painful allergic reactions that men like him sometimes suffered as a result of vasectomies. She said it involved "immune-type reactions while their bodies are trying to absorb the sperm."

Dr Paul Turek, president of the Society of Male Reproduction and Urology, said that while vasectomies remain among the safest forms of permanent contraception, there are potential short- and long-term side effects. He declined to comment on Frazier's case, but noted about 60 to 70 per cent of men who undergo vasectomies develop an allergy to their sperm in the form of "antisperm antibodies."

Turek also said it's rare but possible to experience pain more than two years after a vasectomy.

"Developing over time can be a low-grade discomfort in the scrotum that's basically relieved by reversals because it's due to congestion that causes back pressure," Turek said.

Any sperm allergy appears to be localised to the immune systems on reproductive tracts, he said, and antisperm antibodies have not been shown conclusively to have any significant effect on other organs.

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Former judge to head new Vic parole board

FORMER Victorian Supreme Court justice Bill Gillard QC will be the first full-time chair of the state's parole board.

Mr Gillard will head the new-look Adult Parole Board and is joined by community representatives Rudolph Kirby, Glenda Frost, Peter Harvey and Keith Wolahan.

Retired County Court judge and serving board member Frank Shelton will be deputy chair.

The state government has overhauled the parole system on the recommendations of former High Court judge Ian Callinan, who delivered a scathing review of the board's performance after a series of murders committed by parolees.

Until now, the board has been chaired by a sitting Supreme Court judge, most recently Justice Elizabeth Curtain.

Board members are now only allowed to serve a maximum term of nine years, while registered victims must be given at least two weeks' notice of a prisoner's parole release.

The government has changed legislation to automatically cancel parole for serious sex and violent offenders who commit further crimes.

Laws have also been passed making it a crime to breach parole, with a possible jail term added to any other time owing.

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Woman killed in three car Vic crash

A THREE-CAR smash in southern Victoria has killed a woman and injured a man.

Three cars collided and a motorcyclist skidded off the road on Phillip Island Road at San Remo on Friday afternoon.

Police say a woman aged in her 50s died, while a man in his 60s was airlifted to The Alfred hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Meanwhile, a cyclist has died at the same hospital following an alleged hit-and-run collision a kilometre from his Melbourne home last month.

Brighton East man Julian Paul, 53, was cycling home on November 26 when he was hit from behind by a car, leaving him with severe spine and brain injuries.

He died in The Alfred on Wednesday night, police said on Friday.

A 31-year-old Moorabbin woman was charged a few days after the incident with failing to stop after an accident and failing to render assistance.

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NSW police officer nabbed drink-driving

A NSW police officer has been charged with high-range drink-driving.

The male officer, attached to Sydney's Central Metropolitan Region Command, was issued with a court attendance notice on Thursday for driving with a high-range PCA.

The man is due to appear in Orange Local Court on January 23.

A police spokesman said no further details would be released due to a policy change in the way such matters were reported to the media.

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Milky Way to be mapped in 3D

The European Space Agency has launched a project set to provide the mapping of the Milky Way. Source: AAP

THE European Space Agency has launched a project set to provide the first realistic three-dimensional mapping of the Milky Way.

As part of the mission, a highly precise telescope dubbed Gaia will orbit the sun at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres beyond the Earth's orbit.

The rocket was launched on Thursday on a Russian Soyuz rocket, taking off from a space station in French Guiana.

The aim of the five-year mission is to map more than a billion stars, thereby creating a three-dimensional map of their positions and movement in space.

Scientists hope the information obtained will help them to better understand the structure and evolution of our galaxy, thereby shedding light on how it came into being.

New data on the movement of stars is also meant to allow scientists to predict incidents like the meteorite that exploded over Russia in February.

The comprehensive map, expected to collate data filling the equivalent of 20,000 DVDs, is set to be completed in 2020.

The first useable scientific data from the telescope is expected in January.

An earlier attempt by the agency to map the Milky Way took place from 1989 to 1993.

Experts say the mapping technology used for Gaia is 50 times more precise than that of its predecessor.

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Work deaths stop Incitec bonuses

EXPLOSIVES and fertiliser maker Incitec Pivot is withholding management bonuses partly because of two workplace deaths.

Chairman Paul Brasher opened the company's annual general meeting by expressing sympathy to the families of the workers killed this year in Canada and Queensland.

"Whilst our safety objective was met in terms of number of recordable injuries, we tragically had two fatalities this year," he told shareholders.

"As a consequence, no short-term or long-term incentives were paid to management in 2013."

A truck driver in Canada and a New Zealand man working as a contractor at Mount Isa, in far north Queensland, were killed in 2013.

"Tragically, we suffered the loss of two work colleagues during the year and I want to express our sympathy to the families of the two men who were killed in those incidents," he said.

Chief executive James Fazzino said the tragedies were a "very sad loss".

"Any year with such tragic events is a failure," he said, adding 86 per cent of its work sites were injury-free in 2013.

"It illustrates that we must be more determined than ever to drive our zero harm culture."

Incitec Pivot's net profit in the year to September 30 fell by 27 per cent, compared with the previous year, to $372 million.

Mr Brasher said the failure to meet the profit target was also behind its decision not to award bonuses to management this year.

"There is no point in complaining about low fertiliser prices or a high Australian dollar," he said.

Incitec Pivot shares rose seven cents or 2.83 per cent to $2.54 at 1458 AEDT.

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Gaia space probe set for blast-off

A STG2 billion ($A3.72 billion) European probe that will map more than a billion stars in 3D is due to be launched into space.

British scientists and engineers have played key roles in the design and construction of the spacecraft, called Gaia.

The two-tonne robot is expected to blast into orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket from the European space port in French Guiana on Thursday.

Its five-year mission is to pinpoint many millions of stars with unparalleled precision, and discover thousands of previously unknown objects, including exploding stars, planets orbiting other suns, and nearby asteroids.

Scientists also hope Gaia will yield clues about mysterious Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

The observatory will operate from a stable location 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth known as the L2 Lagrangian point.

Situated with the Earth shielding it from the Sun, the craft will be perfectly placed to observe the wider universe. As it spins slowly, two telescopes will sweep across the entire sky and simultaneously focus their light on the largest digital camera ever put into space.

The flood of data beamed back to Earth will be enough to fill more than 30,000 CD-ROMs.

"The results from Gaia will revolutionise our understanding of the cosmos as never before," said Professor Gerry Gilmore, from Cambridge University, the UK's principal Gaia investigator.

"Our understanding of what's out there has been driven by looking at what we can see. We've never had a genuine opportunity to look at everything, to know what's there, and to know where they are in relation to each other.

"We don't even know how much we don't know - there are sure to be objects out there that don't even have names yet, since we don't yet realise how strange they are."

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