US billionaire awarded $US12m in wine case

A US billionaire has been awarded $12 million in his dispute over phony vintage wine. Source: AAP

A JURY has awarded a Florida billionaire $US12 million ($A11.4 million) in his dispute over phony vintage wine, and he's vowed to do more to expose wine frauds.

He also proclaimed on Friday his happiest day since winning the America's Cup in 1992.

"Out of sight! Over the moon!" William Koch said as he described his feelings after emerging giggling with glee from a courtroom in US District Court in Manhattan.

"We weren't even expecting any damages and we got $12 million. Unbelievable!"

The verdict came against businessman Eric Greenberg, who insisted that he never intentionally sold a fake bottle of wine in auctions that generated about $US42 million for him over an eight-year period. The trial involved alleged counterfeit bottles of Bordeaux labelled as if they were made from 1864 to 1950.

In a statement, Greenberg called the verdict "a disappointment because I believed all the consigned wine to be authentic".

Outside court, Greenberg declined to comment beyond his statement.

Koch's lawyer, John Hueston, suggested that a criminal probe of Greenberg was under way, saying: "We're co-operating with the FBI." He declined to elaborate.

In a chilly drizzle outside court, the 72-year-old Koch celebrated with his lawyers, posed for pictures and met briefly with at least one of the eight jurors who decided on Thursday that Koch had been defrauded, awarding him $380,000 in compensatory damages.

Jurors returned on Friday to hear Koch and Greenberg testify again and deliberate over punitive damages.

"I'm very sorry I had counterfeit wine," Greenberg told them. "It's a horrible thing. Both of us have lost millions of dollars."

The verdict was another blow to Greenberg, a former billionaire who built two internet consulting companies before the 2000 collapse of those stocks reportedly reduced his net worth by as much as 90 per cent.

Koch said he planned to use the $12 million to continue his crusade to clean up the wine auction industry, including by creating a website that highlights fake wines and who sells them.

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Egypt's Mubarak retrial hits a glitch

THE retrial of Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak after he appealed against a life sentence began in Cairo and was immediately adjourned as the judge recused himself amid chaotic scenes.

Mostafa Hassan Abdallah recused himself after Saturday's hearing that lasted just seconds, sending the case back to the Court of Appeal which will then refer it to a new court.

As the judge filed out of the courtroom, there was an uproar with people shouting and waving their arms.

Civil society lawyers attending the trial chanted: "The people want the execution of the president."

Last October, the very same judge had acquitted the defendants in the infamous "Battle of the Camels" trial, who were accused of sending men on camels and horses to break up a protest during the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak.

Earlier on Saturday, television footage showed Mubarak, dressed in white and wearing sunglasses, wheeled out of an ambulance on a stretcher and taken into the capital's Police Academy in a suburb of the capital for the hearing.

Inside the courtroom, he was seen sitting up, smiling and waving from inside a barred cage, although it was not clear if he was greeting anyone in particular.

In the cage with him were his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, and his former security chief Habib al-Adly, who were due to face retrial.

Earlier, a handful of Mubarak supporters outside the courthouse held up posters of their former leader, but were outnumbered by security officers.

Mubarak was flown to the academy that was once named after him by helicopter from the Cairo military hospital where he is being treated, the official MENA news agency said.

He left the compound the same way.

His original trial in August 2011 was a major moment for both Egypt and the region, being the first time an Arab leader deposed by his people had appeared in court in person.

Mubarak, Adly and six security chiefs were again in the dock - albeit briefly - for their alleged complicity in the murder and attempted murder of hundreds of peaceful protesters on January 25-31, 2011.

Gamal and Alaa Mubarak, once symbols of Egyptian power and wealth, also faced retrial on corruption charges. Another defendant, business tycoon Hussein Salem, was to be tried in absentia.

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Japan quake leaves 23 people injured

Meteorologists say there is no risk of a tsunami after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit western Japan. Source: AAP

A STRONG earthquake shook Japan near the southwestern city of Kobe, leaving 23 people injured, seven of them seriously - mostly elderly tripping while trying to flee, police said.

No one was killed.

Saturday's 6.3 quake left some homes with rooftop tiles broken and cracked walls, while goods fell off store shelves, according to the Meteorological Agency and Japanese TV news footage.

The earthquake was centred on Awaji Island, just south of Kobe, at a depth of 15km.

The quake was in the area where a 7.2 temblor killed more than 6,400 people in 1995.

TV news footage showed that some areas of the island had liquefied, a common effect of strong earthquakes.

The agency warned there may be aftershocks for about a week.

Japan is among the most quake-prone nations in the world. In March 2011, northeastern Japan was struck with a giant earthquake and tsunami, killing nearly 19,000 people and setting off a nuclear disaster.

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Plane crashes in Bali with 108 on board

A Lion Air plane carrying 108 people has overshot the runway at Bali's international airport. Source: AAP

A LION Air plane carrying 108 people has overshot the runway at Bali's Denpasar International Airport.

The plane crashed into the water as it came in to land at the airport about 3.50pm local time (5.50pm AEST) on Saturday.

Early reports said that all passengers and crew were safe.

An Indonesian Transport Ministry official was quoted by AFP as saying that there were more than 130 people on the flight.

However, Eko Diantoro, an official from Bandung Airport said the flight manifest showed that there were 101 passengers and seven crew.

The Lion Air fight 904 was due to arrive at Denpasar at 3.40pm local time (5.40 AEST).

"Then I got information that the plane had an accident or an overshoot," Eko said.

"We don't know the cause of the accident," he said.

It is not yet known if any Australians were aboard the Lion Air plane.

It's understood that all passengers and crew had been evacuated and taken to the terminal building at Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Photographs shown on Indonesian television showed the plane's fuselage had split into two parts just behind its wings, and the plane half submerged in shallow water.

The Boeing 737-800 had been flown from Bandung in West Java to Denpasar.

A spokeswoman with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra said efforts were being made to ascertain whether any Australians were on the flight.

"The Australian Consulate-General in Bali is making urgent inquiries to determine whether any Australian citizens may have been involved in air crash is Bali on Saturday afternoon," the spokeswoman said.

"At this time we are not aware that there are any Australian victims."

Lion Air commercial director Edward Sirait said some passengers had been taken to a hospital in Denpasar.

"All passengers and crew are safe, 101 passengers and seven crew. They've been taken to the nearest hospital," he said.

Mr Sirait said that the plane was new, and began operating last year.

"The plane is Boeing 737-800 NG, Next Generation. It's a new one, a 2012 product," he said.

"It actually has sophisticated technology to anticipate accident. Let's see what the data says about that accident."

Lion Air started operating in 2000 and services more than 36 destinations, mostly in Indonesia.

The airline last month agreed to buy 234 Airbus planes and announced that it planned to target new routes in Asia, as well as a venture in Australia.

Hospital officials and paramedics said at least seven passengers were taken to Sanglah Hospital with head wounds and broken bones, the Associated Press reports.

Many passengers arrived with wet clothes and bruises.

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New clues flow from slain nurses inquest

The final two witnesses will give evidence at an inquest into the 1974 murders of two Sydney nurses. Source: AAP

NEARLY 40 years after Sydney nurses Wendy Evans and Lorraine Wilson were murdered and dumped in bushland near Toowoomba, a new inquest has led to fresh evidence about the killings.

Relatives of the two women were clearly relieved after the second coronial inquest into the murders was adjourned on Thursday following three and half days of harrowing evidence.

For the victims' families, it was a long battle to give their loved ones a courtroom hearing and now there's hope their killers may be brought to justice.

"It's a great relief," Ms Wilson's brother Eric Wilson told reporters outside the court.

"We've waited nearly 40 years for this and now it's come to an end."

Michelle Tuitufu, the sister of Wendy Evans, raised her arms in a gesture of victory as she walked through the front doors of Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

Coroner Michael Barnes will decide whether there's enough evidence to lay charges after hearing from a final witness, who has been unable to testify because of illness, at a date to be set in Brisbane.

Witnesses are still coming forward with fresh evidence 37 years after the two nurses' skeletal remains were found in 1976, two years after they went missing.

A Toowoomba man appeared on Thursday as a last-minute witness after contacting police this week.

Gary John Cullinan, 57, believes he saw the nurses drinking at a nightclub with a man he knew as "Shorty Hilton" one Saturday night in 1974.

It's unclear whether he was referring to dead suspects Allan John "Shorty" Laurie or Wayne "Boogie" Hilton, or another man.

He said he ascertained the women were nurses from Goondiwindi and seemed to be having a good time, but they had seemed reluctant as they got into a car with "Shorty" and Allan Neil "Ungie" Laurie, another suspect.

Ms Evans and Ms Wilson had hitchhiked from Goondiwindi to Brisbane before they vanished.

Outside court, Toowoomba police Inspector Kerry Thompson said a number of fresh leads had emerged as a result of publicity from the inquest and they would be followed up.

Earlier, a key witness retracted what he told police in a 2008 interview.

Desmond Hilton went on record saying his cousins "Ungie" Laurie and "Shorty" Laurie had talked about having "given two girls a good hiding down the bottom of the range".

He also told police he'd seen blood in the back of their car.

On Thursday, he told the inquest his cousins had said they'd given "two people" a good hiding and couldn't recall any blood being in the car.

He blamed his memory loss on alcoholism.

During the inquest, a number of witnesses have told the inquest they believed they'd seen Ms Evans and Ms Wilson being forced into a green Holden around the time of their disappearance.

Key surviving suspects Allan "Ungie" Laurie and Terrence "Jimmy" Neil denied any involvement in the murders.

The inquest also heard that a gang of local men had regularly abducted women from the Toowoomba's main street in the 1970s, and that dead suspect Wayne "Boogie" Hilton had once confessed to his boss that he and his brother killed two nurses.

Ms Wilson, 20, and Ms Evans, 18, disappeared while hitchhiking in Queensland in October 1974.

Their remains were found two years later in bushland, at Murphys Creek, near the southern Queensland city of Toowoomba.

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Residents in China 'ordered to cull birds'

More than 2000 poultry birds have been culled in China in response to the new strain of bird flu. Source: AAP

RESIDENTS of a Chinese city have been ordered to cull all their poultry as authorities step up attempts to halt the spread of the deadly H7N9 bird flu, state media reports.

Thousands of birds and livestock were slaughtered by the Tuesday midnight deadline in Nanjing, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, the China Daily said on Thursday.

The number of cases of the H7N9 strain of avian influenza rose to 33 on Wednesday, with nine deaths since China announced over a week ago that it had been found in humans for the first time.

Residents who did not comply with the regulation in Nanjing would be fined up to 50 yuan ($A8), the China Daily said, adding that local officials offered help to kill birds and animals.

More than 2000 were dispatched by the authorities.

The newspaper also indirectly quoted an agricultural official in Beijing saying the measure "goes too far and could cause panic".

Shanghai has culled more than 111,000 birds, banned trading in live poultry and shut markets in a bid to curb the outbreak.

Nanjing and the city of Suzhou followed suit with bans on live poultry trade, while Hangzhou culled poultry after discovering infected quail.

In China poultry is often bought live from markets and taken home before being slaughtered, cooked and eaten.

Meanwhile, the state-run Global Times reported on Thursday that anti-bird nets were being erected in poultry farms in Beijing to prevent possible avian flu infection from migrant birds.

"With the weather getting warmer, migrant birds are back now but there is still not enough food for them in Beijing," the newspaper quoted a spokesman for Beijing Infectious Animal Plague Prevention Office as saying.

"It is possible that they will seek food in open poultry farms with free range poultry. If there are H7N9 carriers, other birds might get infected and that is why we made this decision," the official added.

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Syria regime 'wilfully' killing civilians

SYRIA has "wilfully" killed thousands of civilians in air strikes that amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch say, as rebels lobbied the major powers for weapons.

Meanwhile, details emerged of fierce fighting for two towns in southern Syria on Wednesday in which monitors said at least 57 people were killed, among them six children.

Human Rights Watch said bakeries and hospitals were among the civilian targets that been hit by air strikes as the regime resorts to an increasingly indiscriminate use of its air power.

"Individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war wilfully - that is intentionally or recklessly - are responsible for war crimes," the New York-based watchdog said in a report titled "Death from the Skies."

"Syrian government air strikes that have deliberately or indiscriminately killed civilians appear to be part of systematic and widespread attacks against the civilian population that Human Rights Watch previously found amount to crimes against humanity," it added.

Basing its findings on investigations in rebel-held areas of three provinces, the New York-based group documented air strikes on four bakeries and two hospitals, along with other civilian targets.

One hospital in the northern city of Aleppo, the Dar al-Shifa, had suffered at least four attacks alone.

"Air strikes have killed more than 4300 civilians across Syria since July 2012," HRW said.

Fifty civilians were among 179 people killed in violence on Wednesday, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The biggest loss of life was in the southern province of Daraa, where rebels have made gains along the Jordanian border in recent weeks.

"At least six children, seven women, 16 rebel fighters, 16 other unidentified men and 12 army troops were killed on Wednesday, in fighting, shelling and summary executions waged after the army launched an assault on Al-Sanamein and Ghabagheb," the Observatory said.

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Korean Air finalises Czech air purchase

Korean Air has become the second-largest shareholder in the state-run Czech Airlines. Source: AAP

SOUTH Korean flag carrier Korean Air says it has finalised a deal to buy a 44 per cent stake in troubled Czech Airlines (CSA) in a bid to expand lucrative long-haul routes to Europe.

With the deal signed on Wednesday, Korean Air has become the second-largest shareholder in the state-run carrier following Czech Aeroholding, which holds a 51.7-per cent stake, Korean Air said in a statement.

Korean Air, the South's top airline operator with a fleet of 155 aircrafts flying to 45 countries, paid 2.64 million euros ($A3.30 million) for the stake.

The company was the only bidder for the loss-making air carrier put up for sale by the Czech state. Prague approved the deal in March.

Operating a fleet of 26 planes, CSA posted a loss of 241 million koruna ($A11.62 million) in 2011.

"With the share purchase complete, we will be able to expand our presence in Europe and globally more actively," Korean Air said.

The company said it would use the Czech capital as one of its major transfer points for its flights to European cities including Paris or Zurich and vowed to strengthen marketing ties with CSA.

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Qld govt declares Gonski a 'conski'

DENOUNCING Canberra's Gonski education reform plans as a "conski", the Queensland government has issued a list of schools throughout the state it claims would be worse off under the initiative.

Federal Minister for School Education Peter Garrett says the list is wrong and should be ignored.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek on Wednesday released a list of 102 schools throughout the state he claimed would be poorer under the Gonski plan.

Mr Langbroek said schools in the state, Catholic and independent sectors would receive 10 to 18 per cent less funding than they were currently receiving.

"We've had a number of different models given to us by the federal government that show significant issues for schools in Queensland," he said in a statement.

"That's why the premier and I have been so strident about this; we are not going to sign up to a plan where 102 Queensland schools will lose funding in real terms."

However, Mr Garrett insisted Canberra will guarantee every school in Australia will get its funding, plus indexation of three per cent as a bare minimum.

"The vast majority of schools will receive increases in funding on top of their current allocations, which will also be indexed," he said.

"This means no school will be worse off in real terms.

"We can't be any clearer than that."

Mr Garrett accused Mr Langbroek of scaremongering with a political purpose.

"He is pursuing this distraction because the Queensland government has failed to commit to investment in schools, and has no policy on how to meet the needs of Queensland students," Mr Garrett said.

Mr Langbroek denied Mr Garrett's claims that all states have details of funding for the Gonski plan.

"Mr Garrett is not telling the truth," he said.

Mr Langbroek said modelling details from Canberra all carry a disclaimer that the figures "do not represent a final position or offer from the commonwealth".

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NSW Library welcomes Ned Kelly poster

An original wanted poster for Ned Kelly will be featured in a gallery at the State Library of NSW. Source: AAP

AN original wanted poster for Ned Kelly and a letter from Captain James Cook are among 60 relics and rare books that will go on public display for the first time in Sydney.

The items are featured in a new gallery at the State Library of NSW showcasing the personal collection of Sir William Dixson.

The AMAZE gallery was built with the support of Australian manufacturer Michael Crouch, who donated $1.4 million to the library.

It will open with the Dixson 60 exhibition on April 11 and primarily showcase the library's acquisitions and celebrate historic anniversaries.

Sir William - whose generosity earned him a library wing and gallery bearing his name - bequeathed his extensive collection to the library in 1952.

The Dixson 60 exhibition also includes rare letters and diaries, including a journal from the First Fleet, as well as sea atlases and maps produced centuries ago and a copy of the 1918 children's book The Magic Pudding.

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Four Kenyans die in South Sudan UN ambush

FOUR Kenyans were among the 12 people shot dead by gunmen who attacked a United Nations convoy in South Sudan, officials say.

Five Indian peacekeepers were also killed on Tuesday when 200 attackers - some armed with rocket-propelled grenades - ambushed the convoy in the troubled eastern region of Jonglei.

Two South Sudanese working for the UN and a compatriot working alongside the Kenyans for a water drilling company were also killed, the company said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that attack could constitute a war crime.

"The peacekeepers were vastly outnumbered," UN peacekeeping spokeswoman Josephine Guerrero told AFP.

"It was a deliberate and targeted attack."

Bose Reddy, manager of the company drilling water boreholes for the UN, said that five of his employees had been killed, four Kenyans and one South Sudanese.

"We are completely shocked," Reddy told AFP in Juba.

Nine people were also wounded in the attack.

"Two are badly injured, two are critical," said Ariane Quentier, spokeswoman for the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), adding that those wounded were being treated in hospital in neighbouring Uganda.

The bodies of the Indian peacekeepers would be flown home later on Wednesday, she added.

The volatile eastern state of Jonglei has been the scene of widespread ethnic conflict since South Sudan became independent in July 2011, with bloody battles between rival tribes, including the Dinka, Lou Nuer and Murle people.

Clashes between the army and a former theology scholar turned rebel called David Yau Yau from the Murle people have devastated large parts of the troubled region.

Still reeling from more than two decades of civil war that left the region awash with guns and riven by ethnic hatred, traditional cattle raiding between rival tribes has escalated into a wave of brutal killings.

While South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer has blamed Yau Yau for the attack, the UN has said the attackers were "unidentified assailants".

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Eighth meningococcal case in WA confirmed

The Department of Health has confirmed the eighth case of meningococcal disease in WA this year. Source: AAP

A WEST Australian child was diagnosed with meningococcal disease in the past week but has since been discharged from hospital, the Department of Health has confirmed.

The department says it has provided the child's close contacts with information, and, where appropriate, antibiotics to reduce the chance of contagion.

The disease, a bacterial infection of the blood and the membranes that line the spinal cord and brain, is rare and life-threatening.

The department said meningococcal bacteria were carried harmlessly in the back of the nose and throat by about 10-20 per cent of the population at any given time and it was in only very rare instances that the bacteria invaded the bloodstream and caused serious infections.

The child is the eighth case of the disease reported in the state so far this year.

In February, a young child who had contracted the disease died.

The department said the incidence of meningococcal disease had decreased significantly in the state over the past decade, with around 20 to 25 cases reported each year, down from a peak of 86 in 2000.

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Women's screams haunt Qld witnesses

CHILLING witness accounts of two women being abducted and bloodcurdling screams in the night have emerged at a cold-case inquest in Queensland.

Fresh evidence about how two Sydney nurses died almost four decades ago and who might have killed them was revealed in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Monday.

The evidence in the second coronial inquest into the 1970s deaths of Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans raises serious questions about the initial police investigation.

Wilson, 20, and Evans, 18, disappeared while hitchhiking in Queensland in October 1974.

Their skeletal remains were found, bound and with multiple skull fractures, two years later at Murphys Creek, near Toowoomba.

A 1985 inquest failed to result in charges being laid but police have uncovered new evidence.

On Monday, for the first time, the names of seven persons of interest were revealed in court.

A former officer described how in 1974 he had listened helplessly to two women's distant screams for more than half an hour, unable to detect where they were coming from in the bush.

Former Toowoomba policeman Ian Hamilton had been about four or five kilometres from where the women's bodies were eventually found.

He and his partner were called to a youth camp near Murphys Creek near the foot of the Toowoomba Range one night in October 1974.

"(It's) probably the only time in the service I've ever experienced the hairs stand up on the back of my neck," he told the court.

"They were just the most blood-curdling, horrendous screams I've ever heard in my life.

"It was obvious that they were in desperate trouble."

Other witnesses told of seeing two women matching the victims' descriptions being manhandled by two or more men into a green Holden by the side of the road at Toowoomba.

One woman screamed: "Help me, oh God help me", according to witness Brian Britcher, who said he was too scared to stop or call police until at least the next day.

"I've lived with that for (more than) 30 years," he said.

The inquest was played a recording of a 2008 police interview with one of the three surviving people of interest.

In it, Desmond Roy Hilton tells of hearing some of the persons of interest bragging "that they gave two girls a good hiding ... down the bottom of the range".

Mr Hilton is to give evidence at the inquest on Wednesday.

A former police investigator told the inquest he believed there was enough evidence to arrest Hilton's cousin, Wayne Hilton, for the murders, but he'd died in 1986.

Former senior sergeant Paul Ruge also called the original police investigation inadequate, saying lines of inquiry weren't followed up.

Outside court, Wendy Evans' sister Michelle Tuifufu said it was a difficult day but the two murdered women needed "their day in court".

Lorraine Wilson's brother said it was harrowing listening to the account of what was possibly his sister's screams.

"Something should have been done way back then," Eric Wilson said of the failed investigation.

"It would have saved a lot of angst, a lot of grief."

The inquest continues in Toowoomba on Tuesday.

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Ex hospital chair rejects WA minister slur

THE ex-chairman of the company that operates the troubled Peel Health Campus has rejected "a slur" by West Australian Health Minister Kim Hames that he interfered in the running of the hospital.

Dr Hames revealed on Monday that stock exchange-listed Ramsay Health Care was set to take over the operation of the public hospital from Health Solutions WA - before Ramsay told the market.

Dr Hames also criticised Jon Fogarty, the former chairman of Health Solutions WA, saying he constantly interfered with the running of the hospital, causing several managers to leave.

The hospital is the subject of an independent inquiry into claims doctors were paid incentives to admit patients to the facility.

"I think taking away the interference that he has will let the system operate much more efficiently and effectively," Dr Hames told ABC radio.

But Mr Fogarty said it was disappointing that news of "a great development for the people of Peel ... has been given a negative slant with a slur on me".

"I have lived in Singapore for the past four years and have not interfered with hospital management in any meaningful way," he said.

"I rightly became involved in the oversight of the performance of senior management and dealing with failures or issues which nobody else in the organisation could resolve."

Ramsay said it expected to finalise the deal with Health Solutions WA, subject to state government approvals, by the end of May.

Ramsay also said it was committed to expanding the hospital.

Meanwhile, WA Labor leader Mark McGowan said it was "a bit rich" for Dr Hames to be critical of Mr Fogarty, given the Liberal party was previously "close" to Health Solutions WA.

A report stemming from the inquiry into the hospital was recently handed to the state government, and will be reviewed by the Public Sector Commission and cabinet before being tabled in parliament.

Mr McGowan says it should be released as soon as possible.

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Australia, China agree to annual talks

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has reassured China that Australia is open to foreign investment ahead of signing an historic "strategic partnership" deal with Premier Li Keqiang involving annual summit talks between the two countries' leaders.

The agreement will be signed in a formal ceremony in Beijing on Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People, a move that's been hailed as a significant upgrading of bilateral ties.

Ms Gillard used a speech in Shanghai on Monday to encourage China to open its economy further and drive social reform, citing Australia's own journey to modernise.

"The growing importance of China's domestic and social reforms - like strengthening health care and expanding social security - will denote a growing importance for local and provincial leadership," she told the China Executive Leadership Academy on Monday.

"This has long been vital to your social and human development.

"In coming decades, it will be vital to balancing and sustaining national economic growth - vital to national success."

Ms Gillard earlier on Monday announced an agreement to allow direct trading of the Australian and Chinese currencies for the first time.

The Australian dollar will join the Japanese yen and the US dollar to become the third currency to enjoy the benefits of direct yuan trading, which should make it easier for businesses to transact with each other and offer better rates to tourists.

"This reflects the rapid growth of our bilateral trade and the value of two-way investment," she said.

Ms Gillard pointed to Australia's experience in taking difficult but necessary steps to modernise its economy by floating the Australia dollar, cutting tariffs and opening up its financial sector to foreign competition.

"Australia is a stronger, fairer, smarter nation as a result," she said.

She defended Australia's foreign investment and environmental protection rules after being asked by a Chinese academy student about the foreign investment debate, following comments by Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce that not all investment by China was in the national interest.

"We are a capital-hungry economy," Ms Gillard told the academy.

"Australia is open for investment."

Investment in Australia is a touchy issue in China after a series of outbursts by some commentators, particularly over buy-ins of rural and mining assets by Chinese state-owned enterprises.

During Labor's term in office, 380 investment proposals from Chinese companies had been accepted.

"Only six of them had conditions put on them and none - not one - has been rejected," Ms Gillard said.

On environmental protections, Ms Gillard said Australia's "sophisticated environmental management" rules weren't specifically directed at foreign investors.

"There is one rule for everyone," she said.

The prime minister is now halfway through her China trip and heading to Beijing, where she will meet Premier Li Keqiang.

Ms Gillard is likely again to raise concerns about an escalation in North Korea's anti-US and South Korean rhetoric, which has aroused fears the North could start a war on the Korean peninsula.

Ms Gillard is expected to hold talks with business leaders and education-sector representatives in Beijing on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, ANZ and Westpac will be the first Australian banks to directly trade the currencies on the Chinese foreign exchange market after receiving licences from the People's Bank of China.

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Topless protesters disrupt Putin trip

Germany's Angela Merkel has urged Vladimir Putin to give non-governmental organisations a chance. Source: AAP

TOPLESS female demonstrators shouted at Russian President Vladimir Putin as he toured an industrial fair with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Putin and Merkel were taking in a presentation of a new car model at the Volkswagen stand by the company's chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, when the four bare-breasted women started chanting "f*** dictator".

At least one of the women seen on rolling news channel NTV had the same words painted in black ink across her torso.

The protesters were eventually overpowered by security personnel, an NTV correspondent said.

Merkel and Putin were attending the Hanover Messe - an industrial exhibition - in northern Germany where Russia is this year's guest country.

At the event's inauguration late Sunday, Merkel urged Putin to "give a chance" to non-governmental organisations which she described as a "motor of innovation" as dozens of demonstrators protested a recent Russian crackdown on the groups outside the convention centre.

Last Thursday topless activists from the Ukrainian women's power group Femen staged rallies in front of mosques and Tunisian embassies across Europe against what they called an Islamist attack on Arab women's rights.

It was not clear whether the women in Hanover were Femen members.

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