Fewer gun-buyers in mass shooting states

BACKGROUND checks for gun sales and permits to carry guns surged in the US at the end of 2012.

But an Associated Press analysis found that people in Connecticut and Colorado, scenes of the deadliest US mass shootings in 2012, were less enthusiastic about buying new guns than people in most other states. The biggest surges in occurred in the South and West.

The latest FBI figures reflect huge increases across the US in the number of background checks following President Barack Obama's re-election, the school shooting in Connecticut and Obama's promise to support new laws aimed at curbing gun violence.

Nationally, there were nearly twice as many background checks for firearms between November and December than during the same time period in 2011.

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Businesses expect to cut prices

THE first few months of 2013 will be a bargain-hunter's paradise, with more businesses cutting prices than at any point in the last 24 years.

A survey of 1,200 business owners and senior managers in the retail, wholesale and manufacturing sectors, shows a larger-than-usual number expect to have to offer price discounts to overcome the post-Christmas sales slump.

Dun and Bradstreet's selling price expectation index has fallen to a record low - indicating more businesses are planning to offer discounts during the March quarter than at any point since the survey began in 1988.

The lower prices are expected to be accompanied by weaker activity, with sales falling and businesses reducing their inventory levels, the survey showed.

Dun and Bradstreet's director of corporate affairs, Danielle Woods said the survey suggested businesses were cutting prices to stimulate spending during the difficult post-Christmas months.

"We know that there is traditionally a drop off in spending following the Christmas period as consumers play catch-up with their household budgets and debts following an often expensive holiday period," she said.

"These findings suggest that businesses are planning to negotiate the spending slump by extending discounting through the New Year and by managing their stock carefully."

Ms Woods said business' selling price expectations have been below their ten-year average since 2009.

"Although the most recent data has taken selling price expectations to a new low, it is part of a long downward trend that suggests ongoing discounting has become the new normal," she said.

D&B's economic adviser Stephen Koukoulas said the expected price cuts would help keep inflation low and added to the case for the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut interest rates again in early 2013.

"It remains likely that the inflation rate will remain near the bottom of the RBA target band (of annual inflation of two to three per cent), which will be a critical issue for the RBA when it decides future interest rate settings."

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Vic bushfire spreads to farming community

A MASSIVE bushfire could potentially double in size and hit small farming communities in Victoria's southwest, as the north of the state faces severe conditions.

There is a threat to lives and property with the southwest Victorian settlement of Drik Drik under direct attack from fire and embers, authorities said on Monday night.

An afternoon wind change swung the 4000-hectare Kentbruck fire on a path to Drik Drik, an agricultural farming area of about 30 houses.

Authorities warned the out-of-control bushfire had the potential to double in size to 8000 hectares in an afternoon with westerly to south-westerly winds of up to 40km/h on Tuesday capable of pushing the fire a significant distance.

Fire services commissioner Craig Lapsley said the immediate concern on Monday night was the Drik Drik area but the key issue would be on Tuesday.

"It will be a fire that will be pushed with winds and we believe that it's got the potential to move significant distance tomorrow, potentially block the Princes Highway and have further impacts on the rural community around Drik Drik and Dartmoor," Mr Lapsley told ABC TV.

Nearly 500 firefighters and a dozen aircraft are battling the blaze, which started on Friday and has mainly burnt through pine plantation.

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) said there had been no reports of property damage or loss of life by early Monday night, dismissing earlier rumours that at least one home had been impacted by the fire.

A spokeswoman said there was still a risk to lives and property.

A number of roads have been closed and most of the 250 residents of nearby Dartmoor have already left the town.

Mr Lapsley warned the next 24 hours would be critical, but he said the Victorian towns of Portland, Nelson, Heywood and Mt Gambier in South Australia were unlikely to be directly impacted by the fire.

"We are doing significant planning on the potential of how large it could get, that is not a scenario that we would see at this stage, where those major centres would be impacted by this fire," he told reporters at the State Control Centre in Melbourne.

"It would need a significant run of fire that is not predicted, however in this general area it could increase from 4000 to 8000 hectares in size in an afternoon so it has potential to move, but not to move to impact on major centres."

Mr Lapsley said the main concern on Tuesday was for northern Victoria, which faces yet another day of hot conditions, with total fire bans declared in the Mallee, Wimmera, Northern Country and North East fire districts.

He said there was a severe fire danger stretching along the South Australian border, the Murray River and the NSW border.

Lightning strikes have already sparked blazes in north-eastern Victoria and there are also fears that fires across the Murray River in NSW may reach Victoria if they take hold.

Northern parts of the state have experienced several days in a row above 40C.

Mr Lapsley said lightning strikes could take a day to become a fire.

The hot conditions have kept ambulance crews busy, with paramedics attending 450 heat-related incidents in the past four days including between four and seven children being left in cars each day.

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Delhi gang-rape suspects appear in court

The father of the gang-rape victim has revealed his daughter's identity to a British newspaper. Source: AAP

THE magistrate hearing the case of five men accused of gang-raping and murdering a 23-year-old medical student in New Delhi has ordered that their first appearance in court take place behind closed doors.

"The court has become jam-packed," magistrate Namrita Aggarwal told the court on Monday amid noisy protests from lawyers and a media scrum.

"It has become impossible for this court to conduct proceedings in this case."

Police have charged the men with murder, rape and other crimes that could bring them the death penalty.

The crime caused nationwide outrage, leading to massive protests.

The adult defendants have been named as Ram Singh, Mukesh Singh, Vijay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta. They are all from New Delhi.

The case is expected to be transferred to a fast-track court set up last week for their trial.

A sixth suspect who is 17 years old was expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility.

Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said last week that a DNA test confirmed that the blood of the victim matched bloodstains found on the clothes of all the accused.

It normally takes months for the prosecution to assemble such a case but the legal proceedings are getting under way barely a week after the student died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital.

Police have pledged "maximum security" during the hearing at the magistrates' court amid fears for the defendants' safety. A man was arrested last week as he allegedly tried to plant a crude bomb near the home of one of the men.

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Firefighters battle for control

A woman has been charged with deliberately starting a bushfire in Melbourne's southeast. Source: AAP

A MAJOR blaze burning in Victoria's southwest remains out of control with firefighters battling to bring it under control before more hot weather arrives this week.

While temperatures remained hot in the north of the state on Sunday, cooler temperatures in the south have helped authorities contain blazes.

Firefighters are working to bring the fire at Kentbruck, in the state's southwest, under control by midnight on Sunday.

The fire, which began in a pine plantation, has burned over 2700 hectares and the smoke haze is visible throughout western Victoria.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said crews and aircraft worked on the Kentbruck fire on Sunday, aiming to have it under control before the weather worsens.

"Tuesday is the day that has the northerly strong winds and again Friday. They are the two critical days, but we could still have fires on other days that could still do damage," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"It is a week that people need to stay vigilant about fires in Victoria."

On Sunday evening, the water bombing helicopter Elvis was being used to fight a grass fire in Little River, near Geelong.

The fire was spreading in a northwest direction towards Balliang, authorities said.

Mr Lapsley urged people to dob in arsonists.

His comments came as an 18-year-old woman was charged with deliberately starting a fire in Melbourne on Saturday.

She was arrested at the scene of the fire, which was burning on an embankment near Warrigal Road at Ashwood about 9.45pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

Emergency crews quickly extinguished the blaze.

The woman has been charged with intentionally causing a bushfire and recklessly endangering life and was bailed to appear in Dandenong Magistrates Court on April 29.

Mr Lapsley said the Country Fire Authority (CFA) will continue to monitor the Fireready app and CFA website on Monday to ensure people have access to information they need.

Many people had trouble accessing the site during hot weather on Friday.

The site will again be tested with temperatures set to be above 40c in the north of the state on Monday, while Melbourne is expecting 32C.

North-eastern parts of the state are already sweltering, with the towns of Wangaratta, Yarrawonga and Rutherglen reaching 42C on Sunday.

A fire burning near Ensay, in east Gippsland, was brought under control on Saturday afternoon.

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Depardieu gets Russian passport

French actor Gerard Depardieu has received a Russian passport and met with President Vladimir Putin. Source: AAP

FRENCH actor Gerard Depardieu has received a Russian passport and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Putin's spokesman says.

Putin earlier granted citizenship to Depardieu after the French movie star said he was quitting his homeland to avoid paying a new millionaires' tax.

Depardieu "was handed his passport," the Russian leader's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP on Sunday.

But Putin did not personally hand over the document to the actor when the two met briefly on Saturday at Putin's residence in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, Peskov said.

"There was a short meeting," he said, declining to give further details.

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Kuwait jails opposition tweeter

A KUWAITI court has sentenced an opposition youth to two years in jail for writing tweets deemed offensive to the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, a rights activist says.

Rashed al-Enezi, who was in the courtroom to hear the sentence, was immediately arrested by police and taken to jail, the head of the independent Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi, told AFP on Sunday.

Enezi is the first to be sentenced among dozens of tweeters, activists and former opposition lawmakers who face similar charges since the government began a clampdown on the opposition in the lead-up to elections held on December 1 last year.

The opposition has been staging regular demonstrations in protest at an amendment of the electoral law and the holding of the the parliamentary vote on the basis of the amended legislation.

It has announced plans to stage a demonstration later on Sunday to demand that parliament be dissolved and the amendment to the electoral law scrapped.

Humaidi said that more than 200 opposition activists, including former lawmakers, face trial on a variety of charges, mainly criticising the emir who is protected against criticism in the constitution.

Among those are around 25 young tweeters who were arrested, interrogated and then freed on bail on charges of insulting the emir.

"The charges were not based on solid accusations but on wrong interpretation of the tweets by authorities. Most of the charges are fabricated," said Humaidi.

The same court is slated to issue verdicts on Monday on another youth tweeter and a member of the scrapped parliament on similar charges.

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Suicide attack hits Afghan tribal meeting

TWO suicide bombers have struck inside a meeting of community leaders in the southern Afghan town of Spin Boldak, causing an unknown number of casualties, local officials say.

"There has been a twin suicide bombing in the Spin Boldak council building. The blasts were inside the hall during a meeting of tribal elders," Jawed Faisal, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, told AFP.

"There are casualties but we don't have the numbers at this time."

Witnesses said that two explosions were heard, followed by small arms fire in Spin Boldak, a town in the restive Kandahar province close to the border with Pakistan.

The council building was badly damaged and some people were feared trapped in the rubble.

"Every Sunday the local shura (council) meet at the administrative building, that is where the attack happened," said Mohammad Ali, the border police chief in Spin Boldak, 100 kilometres south of Kandahar city.

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Delhi gang-rape case in court

THE case of five men accused of the gang-rape and murder of a student on a New Delhi bus was set to be transferred to a fast-track trial court, as her boyfriend recounted for the first time his efforts to save her.

The horrifying crime has appalled India and brought simmering anger over widespread crime against women to the boil amid demands for safer streets, more sensitive policing and a change in social attitudes.

Police arrested six suspects soon after the attack and formally charged five of them in court on Thursday with murder, rape and kidnap. One of them claims to be a juvenile aged 17, who is undergoing a bone test to check his age.

A district court was due to hold its second hearing on Saturday and is expected to transfer the case of the five men to a special "fast-track" court set up amid a public outcry and demands for the culprits to be hanged.

Adding to the anger and soul-searching underway in India was the first description of events from the boyfriend of the 23-year-old physiotherapy student, who was with her when they were attacked.

"The cruelty I saw should not be seen ever," the 28-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told AFP of the savagery of the assault, which left the woman with such serious internal injuries that she died last weekend.

"I tried to fight against the men but later I begged them again and again to leave her," he said from his family's home in rural northern India where he is taking time out from his job at a software firm in the capital.

The 28-year-old recounted bitterly how passers-by had failed to come to their rescue after they were thrown out of the moving vehicle without clothes after their ordeal.

He also criticised police for failing to be sensitive to their mental condition after the attack, and raised questions about the emergency care given in the public hospital which admitted his girlfriend.

"A passerby found us (after the attack), but he did not even give my friend his jacket. We waited for the police to come and save us," he told AFP.

Later Friday, he appeared for the first time in public since the attack, giving an anguished interview to Hindi-language Indian cable channel Zee News, in which he again criticised police and onlookers for failing to help.

"They could have taken us to hospital, given us clothes in that crucial one and half hours. For a dying person every minute is important," he told the channel, adding that police had taken 45 minutes to reach the scene.

Police told AFP on Saturday they had filed a case against the channel because the interview - which showed the boyfriend in full view - had illegally disclosed the identity of a rape victim.

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists criticised the move in a statement.

The man, who said he was "in love" with the victim but declined to comment on statements from friends that they were to marry, told AFP how events had quickly spiralled out of control on the bus.

The couple had been to see the film Life of Pi at an upmarket shopping mall and were finding it difficult to flag down a rickshaw afterwards.

"I was not very confident about getting into the bus but my friend was running late, so we got into it. This was the biggest mistake I made and after that everything went out of control," he said.

The boyfriend told how the driver and his accomplices allegedly made lewd remarks before stopping the vehicle and locking the doors.

"They hit me with a small stick and dragged my friend to a seat near the driver's cabin," he said.

After that the "driver and the other men raped my friend and hit her in the worst possible ways in the most private parts of her body".

"I cannot tell you what I feel when I think of it. I shiver in pain," he said, adding that police had eventually arrived but were dismissive of their mental condition.

"I was treated like an object by the police... They wanted all the help to solve the case even before getting me the right treatment," he said.

He added that he was "not satisfied" at the treatment his girlfriend was given at the government-run Safdarjung Hospital.

"Anywhere in the world the prognosis was not very good to start with," Yatin Mehta, a highly experienced critical care specialist at the private Medanta hospital, who helped with her treatment, told AFP.

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Vic fire fighters set for Tassie

A CONTINGENT of 65 Victorians is preparing to head to Tasmania to help battle the bushfires.

Victorian Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said planning is under way to send the crews to assist as parts of Tasmania's east coast have been cut off by bushfires.

"We will send crews that will leave Sunday evening to work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday," Mr Lapsley told AAP.

"They'll be crews that are both incident management teams, aircraft positions, so those that will manage and fly, and crews on the trucks."

The blaze on the Tasman Peninsula, east of Hobart, continues to burn out of control.

It has claimed least 80 properties and left thousands of people isolated on Friday night, spurred on by record high temperatures.

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