Japan's cherry blossom season starts early

JAPAN'S weather agency has announced a record early start of cherry blossom season.

The national weather service used cherry trees at Tokyo's central Yasukuni Shrine to judge the start of the season, which features an explosion of colours that lasts about a week.

The March 16 date equals a record set in 2002, according to the service, which has monitored cherry blossom season since 1953.

Marking the coming of spring, the blooming of cherry trees is a beloved natural spectacle in Japan, involving nationwide parties and celebrations to take in the flowers' short-lived beauty.

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China names new foreign minister

China's parliament has nominated Wang Yi, a former ambassador to Japan, as foreign minister. Source: AAP

CHINA'S parliament has named a former ambassador to Japan, Wang Yi, as the new foreign minister.

Wang, currently in charge of Taiwan affairs, replaces Yang Jiechi, who has served since 2007.

Yang was nominated to the State Council, according to an announcement by the National People's Congress on Saturday.

The changes are part of a broad revamp of personnel as China concludes a once-a-decade leadership transition that saw Communist Party chief Xi Jinping elected president on Thursday.

The change at the top of the foreign ministry comes at a time of heightened tensions with Japan over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Wang, 59, served as ambassador to Japan from 2004 to 2007 and was also a diplomat in China's embassy in Tokyo from 1989 to 1994. He reportedly speaks Japanese.

He has been in charge of Taiwan affairs on the State Council since 2008.

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Bundaberg to open dam floodgates

Officials will open the floodgates of the Paradise Dam at Bundaberg to allow for repairs. Source: AAP

OFFICIALS will open the floodgates of the Paradise Dam at Bundaberg to allow for repairs following January's flooding.

About 23,000 megalitres per day will be released over a four to five day period to lower water levels enough for repairs to be carried out.

Bundaberg Mayor Mal Forman has told the town's citizens the dam is safe despite the need for the $2 million repairs.

"There is no risk," Mr Forman told ABC Online.

"We're advised there is not a problem with the integrity of the dam ... and the chance of more damage occurring is very, very small."

The work will mean residents isolated by the swollen Burnett River may be cut off for even longer.

"In the low-lying areas there are some roads that will have some flooding," Mr Forman said.

"Those roads are already flooded now with the natural flow of water that's happening at the moment.

"These additional releases won't cause any more damage, they will just mean the water stays up for longer."

Work is expected to begin next week and is estimated to take up to three weeks to complete.

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Dangerous NSW surf prompts beach warning

ROUGH surf along the Sydney coast has left one man dead and another missing.

Lifesavers patrolling Warriewood, on the northern beaches, pulled an unconscious man from the surf on Saturday morning.

Ambulances NSW said CPR was performed but he died at the scene.

It is believed the 23-year-old was swept from rocks.

At 1.15pm (AEDT) another 23-year-old man was swept into the water at nearby North Curl Curl beach, police said.

A search involving jet skis and helicopters was still under way on Saturday evening.

NSW Lifesaving manager Dean Storey said with dangerous surf conditions and sunny weather set to continue people should not let the temptation of a swim trump their better judgment.

"We're imploring people to use common sense and respect the conditions," he said in a statement.

"We'd advise people to stay out of the water and away from rock platforms and headlands until these conditions moderate."

The state's ambulance service issued a warning of its own, urging beachgoers not to swim alone and not to drink alcohol before entering the waves.

Ambulances NSW reminded parents to supervise children near water after a one-year-old boy was taken to Nepean Hospital in a critical condition.

He had fallen into a pool at Mulgoa in Sydney's west.

Paramedics on Saturday took a man to St Vincent's Hospital after he was rescued by surf lifesavers at North Bondi. A 40-year-old man was pulled from the water at Bondi Beach and taken to hospital in a stable condition.

At Cronulla a 40-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman were treated after they got into difficulties in the water.

At Mona Vale paramedics treated a 13-year-old boy and took him to hospital with a head injury after he was swept off rocks.

Meanwhile a fisherman at Merry Beach, on the NSW south coast, had to be rescued from the water after trying to reel in a catch.

Police have been told the 42-year-old man was fishing with a friend at 12pm (AEDT) on Saturday when he hooked a large fish.

He walked to the edge of the rocks to reel it in but toppled into the water. The man had to be winched to safety by helicopter.

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Qld laughs off claims of GST windfall

THE Queensland government has laughed off claims by Canberra that the state has scored a "windfall" of $700 million in the annual carve-up of GST revenue.

Treasurer Tim Nicholls says figures released on Friday were already in the Queensland budget and are "not new news or a windfall".

"No new funds are available and in fact the Federal Government is clawing back health payments to the tune of $103 million," Mr Nicholls said in a statement.

Senior government minister Craig Emerson said the independent Commonwealth Grants Commission's latest assessment was a "great boost" to Queensland.

The commission has proposed Western Australia's GST share be cut by more than half a billion dollars because of its booming mining sector.

Queensland, it said, should get $700 million more because of the impact of lower coal prices and a sluggish property market on its economy.

Mr Emerson says Premier Campbell Newman has run out of excuses for his savage cuts to jobs and services.

"Stop sacking nurses and other frontline service providers," Dr Emerson told reporters in Canberra.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said Mr Newman should put the money back into frontline services.

"This massive funding injection will be a welcome boost to Queensland, particularly after the vicious cuts undertaken by the Newman LNP Government over the last 6 months," he said.

"In light of this windfall, the Federal Government is calling on the Newman LNP Government to immediately reinstate the frontline health and education services they have so savagely cut."

But Mr Nicholls shrugged off both comments as utterly ridiculous.

"The previous Labor Government left Queensland's finances in an unsustainable position, with debt heading towards $85 billion and a deficit of $5.5 billion," he said.

"While we know Queensland's share of GST will rise from 19.9 per cent to 21.5 per cent, we still don't know how much we will actually receive because Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan is refusing to reveal the total size of the GST pool.

"Their ineptitude is now impeding the States' ability to plan their budgets."

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Pakistan man arrested for Kashmir attack

A PAKISTANI and a local man have been arrested in connection with a Kashmir attack in which men pretending to be cricketers killed five paramilitary personnel.

The militant, identified as Abu Talha, is a resident of Pakistan's Multan district in Punjab. He was arrested on Thursday night in the old quarter of the state capital, Srinagar, police said on Friday.

A Kashmiri, Bashir Ahmed, was also arrested on Thursday in the border town of Uri on charges of aiding the perpetrators of Wednesday's attack in Srinagar.

Two militants were shot dead in the attack, the first in the area for three years.

On Thursday, federal Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told Parliament the two dead militants appeared to be of Pakistani origin and diaries recovered from them contained Pakistani phone numbers.

Pakistan has denied any link to the attack. Hizbul Mujahideen, an Islamist separatist group based in Pakistan, had claimed responsibility.

More than 45,000 people have been killed in Kashmir, a region claimed by both India and Pakistan, since the late 1980s.

New Delhi has accused Islamabad of aiding militants, a charge Pakistan has denied.

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Japan set to accept child abduction treaty

JAPAN is moving closer to accepting a long-delayed treaty on child abductions.

The cabinet on Friday gave approval to the 1980 Hague Convention, which requires children be returned to their usual country of residence if they are brought to the country during the collapse of an international marriage.

Japan is the only member of the Group of Eight major industrialised nations that has not joined the convention.

Hundreds of non-Japanese parents, mostly men, have been left without recourse after their estranged partners took their children back to Japan.

Unlike Western nations, Japan does not recognise joint custody and divorce courts usually award custody to mothers.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said following cabinet approval, the government would swiftly submit the necessary legislation to parliament.

"It is important for our country to join the Hague Convention that sets international rules on dealing with illegal kidnapping of children, now that the numbers of international marriages and international divorces have increased," he said.

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Abbott vows to 'engage' with Aborigines

Tony Abbott says the state of indigenous Australians constitutes a "stain on our soul". Source: AAP

TONY Abbott says a coalition government would have a "new engagement" with indigenous affairs, including constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people as the first Australians.

Speaking in Sydney, Mr Abbott said indigenous affairs will be a priority and focus for a coalition government if it's elected to govern at September's federal election.

"I want a new engagement with Aboriginal people to be one of the hallmarks of an incoming coalition government - and this will start from day one," he told a Sydney Institute function.

Mr Abbott said in the first 12 months of taking office the coalition would seek bipartisan support to amend the constitution to acknowledge indigenous Australians.

"An acknowledgment of Aboriginal people as the first Australians would complete our constitution rather than change it," he told the audience, which included NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and indigenous leader Warren Mundine.

Mr Abbott said a constitutional amendment meant people would know that Aboriginal people "will never be regarded as just a historical footnote to modern Australia".

"Done well, such an amendment could be a unifying and liberating moment," he said.

He also said a coalition government would handle indigenous affairs within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

"This means that along with Nigel Scullion as minister, there will be, in effect, a prime minister for Aboriginal affairs," Mr Abbott said.

He committed to address "deep disadvantage" in indigenous Australia by visiting remote Aboriginal communities each year, as well as by getting doctors and teachers to take longer postings in communities.

A coalition government would also expand an indigenous job program to fund job-training trials developed by Andrew Forrest and Warren Mundine, he said.

Mr Abbott promised there were "better days to come" for indigenous affairs.

"Should the coalition win the election, Aboriginal people will be at the heart of a new government, in word and in deed," Mr Abbott said.

Earlier on Friday, Mr Abbott adopted the words of former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, saying the state of indigenous Australians constitutes a "stain on our soul".

"We certainly have to do it better in the future than we have done it in the past," he told ABC radio.

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Most Asian markets higher, yen down

MOST Asian markets have closed higher and the US dollar has climbed against the yen as Japan's central bank nominees appear set for approval by Parliament.

Traders seemed broadly unimpressed by another record for the Dow on Wall Street that was fuelled by upbeat economic data, while better-than-expected Australian jobs numbers on Thursday were not enough to keep Sydney shares positive.

Tokyo rose 1.16 per cent, adding 141.53 points to hit a four-and-a-half year high of 12,381.19, while Seoul gained 0.12 per cent, or 2.40 points, to 2,002.13.

However, Sydney lost 1.18 per cent, or 60.2 points, to end at 5,032.2.

Hong Kong and Shanghai both closed 0.28 per cent higher.

The Hang Seng Index added 62.53 points to 22,619.18. The Shanghai Composite Index added 6.31 points to 2,270.28.

Regional markets are experiencing a correction following recent gains that have been fuelled by growing confidence in the global economy.

However, the morning's losses were reversed in some markets thanks to late bargain-buying.

Investors have been spooked by a string of figures out of China suggesting the pick-up after last year's growth slowdown may not be as strong as first thought.

On Wall Street the Dow edged up 0.04 per cent in an ninth straight day of gains, its longest winning streak for 16 years.

US traders took heart from a report showing a stronger-than-expected rise of 1.1 per cent in retail sales in February from January, though that was partly due to higher petrol prices.

The data lifted the US dollar in New York, where it finished at Y96.14 on Wednesday. The greenback sank to as low as Y95.68 in early Tokyo trade but rebounded in the afternoon to Y96.37 in the afternoon.

The US unit got a lift in later trade after the men tapped by Tokyo to run the central bank passed their first vote in parliament.

Governor nominee Haruhiko Kuroda and his proposed deputies Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso are strong advocates of the aggressive monetary easing that has seen the yen weaken in recent months. They are expected to pass an upper house vote on Friday.

The euro bought $US1.2951 and Y124.80 against $US1.2956 and Y124.56.

In Sydney, shares dipped after a strong set of jobs numbers that, despite being positive, analysts said could dampen any new measures to boost the economy.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held at 5.4 per cent last month, defying most forecasts of a rise to 5.5 per cent, while 71,500 jobs were created, much higher than the 10,000 forecast.

Macquarie Bank senior economist Brian Redican said the numbers were "extraordinary", adding: "With that kind of employment growth there is no rationale for cutting rates."

Oil prices eased, with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, rising 35 cents to $US92.87 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for April delivery shedding 15 cents to $US108.37.

Gold was at $US1,588.44 an ounce at 0810 GMT (1910 AEDT) compared with $US1,592.78 late on Wednesday.

In other markets:

- Wellington rose 0.92 per cent, or 39.95 points, to 4,381.10.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was 3.4 per cent higher at NZ$2.71, while Fletcher Building added 2.4 per cent to NZ$9.15.

- Manila closed 1.21 per cent lower, shedding 81.85 points to 6,694.71.

Ayala Corp. fell 1.61 per cent to 550 pesos, SM Investments dropped 2.09 per cent to 1,075 pesos and Philippine Long Distance Telephone was off 3.64 per cent at 2,860 pesos.

- Taipei fell 0.55 per cent, or 43.75 points, to 7,951.76.

Leading integrated circuit chip design house MediaTek shed 2.7 per cent to Tw$343.0 while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co was 0.48 per cent lower at Tw$104.0.

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Japan lower house endorses Kuroda for bank

The lower house of Japan's parliament has endorsed Haruhiko Kuroda to become central bank governor. Source: AAP

THE lower house of Japan's parliament has endorsed Haruhiko Kuroda, a finance ministry veteran and president of the Asian Development Bank, to become central bank governor.

Kuroda, 68, has vowed to "do whatever it takes" to achieve a two per cent inflation target and end deflation.

The ruling Liberal Democrats have already won support for Kuroda from the main opposition party, which controls the upper house. MPs there are due to approve Kuroda's appointment on Friday.

Technically, however, Thursday's vote allows Kuroda to only stand in for current Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa after he steps down on March 19. Another vote is required to make his appointment permanent.

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