Iran billionaire executed over $2.8b fraud

A BILLIONAIRE businessman at the heart of a $US2.6 billion ($A2.8 billion) state bank scam, the largest fraud case since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been executed, state television reports.

Authorities put Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, also known as Amir Mansour Aria, to death at Evin prison, just north of the capital, Tehran, the station reported.

The report said the execution came after Iran's Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

The fraud involved using forged documents to get credit at one of Iran's top financial institutions, Bank Saderat, to purchase assets including state-owned companies like major steel producer Khuzestan Steel Co.

Khosravi's business empire included more than 35 companies from mineral water production to a football club and meat imports from Brazil.

According to Iranian media reports, the bank fraud began in 2007.

A total of 39 defendants were convicted in the case. Four received death sentences, two got life sentences and the rest received sentences of up to 25 years in prison.

The trials raised questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran's tightly controlled economy during the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mahmoud Reza Khavari, a former head of Bank Melli, another major Iranian bank, escaped to Canada in 2011 after he resigned over the case.

He faces charges over the case in Iran and remains on the Islamic Republic's wanted list.

Khavari previously admitted that his bank partially was involved in the fraud, but has maintained his innocence.

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Gunmen fire inside El Salvador bus, kill 6

Police in El Salvador say gunmen boarded a bus in a town near the capital killing six people. Source: AAP

POLICE in El Salvador say gunmen boarded a bus in a town near the capital and opened fired on passengers, killing six.

National police director Rigoberto Pleites said another five people were wounded during the Friday bus attack in the town of San Luis Talpa near San Salvador.

Pleites said witnesses told police the assailants were gang members dressed in uniforms similar to those issued to road maintenance workers.

He said investigators haven't confirmed they belonged to a gang.

Police Commissioner Mauricio Ramirez said there have been threats of increased violence in the country in the coming days, but he didn't provide any other details.

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Suspected drug ring busted in Canberra

Police have raided 10 north Canberra properties, uncovering what they say is a major drug syndicate. Source: AAP

A MAJOR drug ring has been busted in the national capital, with a Canberra man set to face court charged with trafficking drugs.

ACT Policing raided several north Canberra properties on Friday afternoon where they seized $200,000 worth of illicit drugs, cars and cash.

They found 728 grams of cocaine, a methylamphetamine-suspected substance, tablets suspected to be ecstasy, and steroids.

Police believe the operation cracked a major drug syndicate operating in the capital.

A 28-year-old man will appear in court on Saturday charged with drug trafficking.

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Pope set to begin Middle East pilgrimage

The Vatican has billed Pope Francis' first visit to the Middle East as a "pilgrimage of prayer". Source: AAP

POPE Francis has headed for Jordan at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at boosting ties with Muslims and Jews as well as easing an age-old rift within Christianity.

The Vatican has billed Francis' first visit to a region roiled by religious and political differences as a "pilgrimage of prayer," saying the Pope will shun bulletproof vehicles in favour of open-top cars despite security concerns.

Israeli authorities have moved to lessen the possibility of trouble by ordering 15 right-wing Jewish activists to stay away from places being visited by the Pope, after a string of hate attacks on Christian sites.

"It will be a purely religious trip," the Pope told pilgrims at his last general audience in St Peter's Square before a three-day visit that takes him to Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Francis said the main reasons for the trip were to meet with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I and "to pray for peace in that land, which has suffered so much".

A joint prayer service with Bartholomew Sunday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - venerated as the place of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection - is seen by the Vatican as the highlight of the visit.

The meeting is fitting, given that Francis has made the ideal of unity of the Christian Churches, one of the priorities of his papacy.

The pontiff will also meet Muslim and Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, in an interview with French daily Le Figaro, said he attached "great importance" to the Pope's trip, calling Francis "a man of noble humility."

The 77-year-old Argentine Pope has already set the tone for a trip rich in symbolism by inviting two old friends from Buenos Aires to join him, Jewish Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Muslim professor Omar Abboud.

Hours before the Pope's early afternoon arrival in Amman, Christians had piled onto buses from around Jordan to head for the Amman stadium where Francis will celebrate mass.

Francis will meet King Abdullah II before the mass then head to a site on the banks of the River Jordan where many believe Jesus was baptised. There he will hear first hand of the suffering of Syrian refugees, 600,000 of whom are living in Jordan, and offer an opportunity for him to reiterate his calls for an end to the three-year war.

He is also expected to touch on the forced migration of Christians from the Middle East.

Although only 250,000 Jordanians identify themselves as Christian - in a Muslim country of seven million - Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur said the visit would show the kingdom as an oasis of peace in a turbulent region of "blood, wars and repression."

Early Sunday, the Pope will make a short helicopter ride to Bethlehem, the West Bank town where Jesus was born. He will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas before celebrating mass in Manger Square.

Afterwards he will chat with Palestinian children and lunch with refugee families.

He will then fly to Tel Aviv where he will be greeted by President Peres before heading to Jerusalem.

On Monday, the Pope will visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and meet the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Hussein.

He will then visit the Western Wall, a remnant of the retaining wall that supported the second Jewish temple and the holiest site at which Jews are allowed to pray, before going to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

He is then set to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and celebrate mass in the Cenacle, where Christians believe Jesus held the Last Supper memorialised in the mass.

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Qld Labor leader cries for grandfather

A Queensland Labor MP has refused to apologise for comparing fly-in, fly-out mines to the Holocaust. Source: AAP

QUEENSLAND'S opposition leader has cried in parliament as she recalled her grandfather's seven years in a Nazi labour camp after giving a qualified apology for a colleague's controversial Holocaust comparison.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, who is of Polish descent, was under pressure to take responsibility for Labor frontbencher Jo-Ann Miller after she compared fly-in, fly-out accommodation to "mining concentration camps".

Ms Miller refused to retract her statement, so the government introduced a motion of apology.

During a heated parliamentary debate, Ms Palaszczuk spoke through tears as she recalled the torture her family, from Poland and six million others endured at the hands of the Nazis.

She argued the Liberal National Party, too, had been guilty of causing offence, when a health minister's adviser described the Nazis as "very admirable people" when he edited a Young Nationals newsletter during the 1990s.

"These were the people that almost killed my grandfather, who also made my grandmother ... ," she sobbed.

"I can't believe that people on this side of the house ...."

Ms Palaszczuk said Ms Miller's comments were regrettable, but merely conveyed the thoughts of miners.

"I have no problem with apologising for anyone who has taken offence."

Ms Miller defended her comments in a radio interview, while the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union is voicing support for the embattled MP.

Government minister David Crisafulli made a totalitarian reference of his own, by arguing Queensland working conditions would always be superior to those in a former Soviet regime.

"We are not communist Russia. We are a free society," he told reporters.

During question time, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman unfavourably compared Ms Palaszczuk with her father Henry, a Beattie government minister.

In January 2005, Mr Palaszczuk asked the Speaker to withdraw his ministerial oath of allegiance to the Queen after Prince Harry wore a Nazi uniform to a costume party.

"Her father took a stand on a matter of principle, he showed ticker," Mr Newman said.

The opposition has accused the government of using Ms Miller's comments as a diversionary tactic, ahead of a parliamentary debate on legislation to increase, from $1000 to $12,400, the threshold for political donation declarations.

The LNP motion condemning Ms Miller passed.

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NZ-Thai sentenced for offending monarch

A 65-YEAR-OLD Thai woman, now living in New Zealand, has been given a suspended jail sentence by a Thai Criminal court after being found guilty of breaching Thailand's laws protecting the monarchy.

Thitinant Kaewchantranont, was arrested on July 14, 2012 as she prepared to board a flight to Auckland and charged under Thailand's "lese majeste" laws for damage to an image of the Thai monarch, 86-year-old Bhumipol Adulyadej at a protest outside the constitutional court.

Thitinant is a member of the United Democratic Front Against Dictatorship (UDD) known as the Red Shirts, supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the governing Pheu Thai party.

At the time of the incident the court's judges were ruling on whether the government then led by Thaksin's younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, had the right to amend the constitution.

Thailand has in place tough legislation designed to protect the royal family with jail sentences of up to 15 years for defamation or criticism of the family members.

But rights groups have called the laws harsh and pressed for reform.

The Criminal Court was told Thitinant had damaged an image of the king during the protest.

The judges on Wednesday initially handed down a one-year jail term but suspended the sentence for three years after Thitinant confessed and medical evidence indicated she suffered from mental illness.

After her arrest Thitinant had been detained at a psychiatric institute in Bangkok.

Cases of lese majeste have increased sharply in recent years amid Thailand's deep political tensions.

In 2008 Harry Nicolaides, from Melbourne, was charged for an offending passage in a privately published book, that sold fewer than 50 copies, but with the key passage regularly highlighted on the internet.

He was initially sentenced to three years' jail but later granted a royal pardon and released after a month's imprisonment and deported.

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PM Abbott defends daughter scholarship

A scholarship awarded to Frances Abbott was based on merit, says her father Tony Abbott. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has defended his daughter's scholarship from a design college chaired by a Liberal Party donor and friend.

Frances Abbott's scholarship at the Whitehouse Institute of Design has not been declared on her father's pecuniary interest register, even though he has declared other matters relating to his children such as trips, accommodation and tickets to sporting events.

MPs are required to disclose gifts above specified threshold limits, with extra requirements for ministers where a gift is retained.

But there is no rule about scholarships for MPs' children.

The institute is chaired by Les Taylor - a long-time donor to the Liberals - who gave Mr Abbott gifts of clothing in February 2012 and April 2013, which were recorded in his pecuniary interest register.

Frances was awarded a scholarship there in 2011 based on her application and art portfolio.

Mr Abbott told Fairfax radio on Thursday his daughter got it on her academic potential.

"She kept it on her academic merit - she is a distinction student," he said.

The college was so pleased with Frances' performance it offered her a place in their initial Masters course, he said.

Mr Abbott did not believe the matter warranted media interest.

"Family should be left out of this," he said.

A spokeswoman for the prime minister said if Mr Abbott received alternative advice on declaring the scholarship he would "meet the amended requirements".

Frances graduated in December 2013 and is working at Whitehouse in Melbourne as a teacher's aide.

The NSW Electoral Funding Authority register shows Mr Taylor has donated more than $20,000 to the NSW Liberal Party in the past six years.

A spokesman for the institute, Ian Tudor, told AAP that Frances' scholarship was the "chairman's scholarship, which is awarded occasionally".

"Frances was the second recipient," he said.

But he said he understood the selection was done "at arm's length" from the chairman by the managing director of the institute, Leanne Whitehouse.

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Motorbike and truck collide, rider dead

A 45-YEAR-OLD man is dead after his motorbike collided head-on with a truck in Tasmania's north.

Rain was falling when the crash occurred near Sheffield just before 1pm on Thursday.

Police say the motorbike crossed to the wrong side of the road, on a left-hand bend, and into the path of an oncoming truck.

The rider was from Sheffield, as is the 39-year-old truck driver, who was uninjured.

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Fatal crash on Vic peninsula

A SECOND man has died after a car smashed into the garage of a house on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.

The car, with three men in it, veered off the road and ploughed into the garage in the beachside suburb of Dromana on Sunday night.

A Somerville man, 31, died at the scene, while the driver, also 31, and another male passenger were critically injured.

The driver, from Sea Lake in the state's northwest, died at The Alfred hospital on Tuesday.

The third man, a 27-year-old local, is now in a stable condition in The Alfred.

No one was in the house at the time.

Victoria's road toll stands at 97, seven more than at the same time last year.

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Vic paramedics rescue men from burning car

VICTORIAN paramedics have pulled an unconscious man from a burning car and saved the life of his passenger.

When ambulance workers Amanda Stolk and Colin Kicker responded to reports of a car crash in Dandenong on Tuesday night, they found two people inside a car with the back seat on fire and flames shooting from the undercarriage.

As Ms Stolk helped the male passenger out, Mr Kicker saw the unconscious man in the driver's seat.

"The flames were growing in intensity at that point," he said.

He pulled the unconscious man, in his 40s, out of the car by his arms.

"As the flames took hold we dragged him from the car to a safe distance away from the vehicle," Mr Kicker said.

It is not known why the car caught fire.

"It doesn't look like the car was involved in a crash, but the back seat of the car was on fire, and flames were shooting from under the vehicle," Mr Kicker said.

The unconscious man was taken to Dandenong Hospital in a stable condition.

The CFA extinguished the fire but the car was extensively damaged.

Mr Kicker said he was just doing his job.

"I don't see it as a heroic act. My job is to save people's lives if they're in danger and that's what I've done," he said.

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