Rudd apology over insulation deaths

The family of a worker killed while installing insulation wants a face-to-face apology from the PM. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is prepared to meet and apologise to parents of tradesmen killed installing home insulation batts under a federal government scheme.

But the opposition says Mr Rudd must go further and release all documents relating to advice to him about problems with the scheme, set up during his first term as prime minister.

The issue re-emerged just over a week into Mr Rudd's return to the leadership after Queensland coroner Michael Barnes handed down a damning report into the deaths of three men.

Mr Barnes found the rushed rollout of the scheme was a significant factor in the deaths of installers Matthew Fuller, Rueben Barnes and Mitchell Sweeney in Queensland.

A fourth man, Marcus Wilson, died in November 2009 from hypothermia complications with installing batts in a Sydney house.

Mr Rudd, who rolled out the scheme to create jobs during the global financial crisis, issued a public apology to the men's families on Thursday during a trip to Jakarta.

On Friday, a spokesman for Mr Rudd said the prime minister would meet with any of the parents who wished to meet him in private.

"These events are tragic - and despite what the opposition might believe, they are not some opportunity for a headline."

Lawyer Peter Koutsoukis, representing Mr Sweeney's family, told AAP they would appreciate a face-to-face apology, even though "no amount of apologies can bring Mitchell back".

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said an apology was an important "first step".

But Mr Rudd should also release all 10 warnings he personally received between August 2009 and March 2010 and any others he was aware of relating to the scheme, which also has been linked to 250 fires.

Four of the letters were from the then minister in charge of the program, Peter Garrett, who is quitting parliament at the next election.

A cabinet committee is known to have discussed the scheme's safety issues in October 2009 and February 2010.

"I think he's got a bit of explaining to do," Mr Abbott said.

Mr Rudd's spokesman said Mr Abbott was calling for release of information already made public, except for confidential cabinet documents.

The victims' families are considering claims against the state and federal governments.

Mr Albanese said the pace at which the program had been rolled out allowed dodgy operators to take advantage.

"What these findings highlight is that because of the pace of the scheme, in some places unscrupulous operators didn't give staff appropriate health and safety training, and that has led to these consequences," he said.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the deaths were a tragedy and the government would look closely at the coroner's report.

Mr Garrett apologised for the bungled program and defended his own actions in the matter, but accused Mr Abbott of playing politics.

"Of course I'm terribly sorry about what happened," Mr Garrett told reporters on Friday.

The former Midnight Oil frontman said two independent reviews showed he had acted appropriately during the home insulation roll-out.

"At all times I've served the country to the best of my ability," Mr Garrett said.

"It's on the public record ... you can come to your own conclusions about those matters.

"I'm not buying into Tony Abbott's attempt to turn this into some kind of additional political conflict scenario."

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Qld-NSW interstate drug ring smashed

AUTHORITIES have dismantled an interstate criminal enterprise accused of importing flu medicine to make $10 million worth of the drug ice.

A Queensland-based network is accused of placing orders with importers for ContacNT on behalf of criminal gangs in NSW.

The over-the-counter flu medicine can be used to extract pseudoephedrine, which is then used to produce the drug ice.

The 10-month joint operation, codenamed Operation Lithium, has resulted in the seizure of eight kilograms of precursor chemicals.

They had the potential to produce ice with an estimated street value of $10 million.

Two men and a woman from the Brisbane area were charged on Thursday with a raft Queensland and NSW drugs charges.

All three appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.

One man was remanded into custody while the other man and woman are expected to also appear in Sydney courts next week.

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Comedians get stuck into news at Ten

NETWORK Ten is promising a fresh new look but looks like it's reviving some well-worn formats - including The Panel.

While it's not bringing back Rob Sitch, Tom Gleisner, Santo Cilauro, Glenn Robbins and Kate Langbroek, Ten will be putting a bunch of comedians in a Melbourne studio to discuss live the events of the week in news, sport and showbiz.

Oh, and it'll screen at 9.30pm on Wednesdays - a timeslot The Panel called its own from 1998 to 2004.

This time it'll be Dave Thornton, Tommy Little, Tom Gleeson and Meshel Laurie who will be trying to find the funny in everyday events in the weekly chat show This Week Live.

The comedians released a statement on Friday, but didn't exactly reveal what they would be bringing to the show.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that a Christmas Party car pool with Ita Buttrose is now a very real possibility for me," said Laurie.

"I'm 39 and bald," Gleeson said.

"I don't belong on television, but someone's paying me to do it, so I'll turn up."

Ten already mixes a lighter-hearted look at the news with The Project.

* This Week Live will premiere on Ten at 9.30pm on Wednesday, July 24.

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Asia shares mostly up on ECB rate comments

ASIAN markets have mostly climbed after the European Central Bank said it would keep interest rates at record lows for "as long as necessary", while concerns over Portugal's political crisis also abated.

The euro remained under pressure in Asia after suffering losses late Thursday in the wake of the ECB announcement, while the dollar extended its gains against the yen after climbing back above 100 yen.

Tokyo rose 2.08 per cent, or 291.04 points, to 14,309.97 and Sydney was 0.98 per cent, or 47.0 points, higher at 4,841.7, while Hong Kong added 1.89 per cent, or 386.00 points, to end at 20,854.67.

Shanghai was flat, edging up 1.10 points, to 2,007.20.

Seoul eased 0.32 per cent, or 5.83 points, to 1,833.31 as market giant Samsung Electronics suffered a sell-off after announcing a weaker-than-expected earnings forecast.

With New York markets closed for Independence Day, traders took their lead from Europe, where markets rallied on comments from the ECB that it would maintain its easy monetary policy.

The bank's policy-setting governing council "expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time", its head, Mario Draghi, said.

"Our exit (from low interest rates) is very distant."

Speaking to a news conference after the ECB's governing council voted to hold its key interest rate at an all-time low of 0.50 per cent for the third month in a row, Draghi vowed that "monetary policy will remain accommodative for as long as necessary".

At the same time the Bank of England said it would keep interest rates low and hinted it would not lift them in the short term.

London's FTSE 100 rose 3.08 per cent, the DAX 30 in Frankfurt added 2.11 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 gained 2.90 per cent. Madrid was up more than 3.0 per cent.

On forex markets the euro tumbled in London trade, with low interest rates meaning the currency would not provide very good returns.

And on Friday it continued to fall, buying $1.2887 and 129.20 yen, off from $1.2922 and 129.62 yen in London.

Worries about Portugal's future were also soothed after the centre-right coalition said it had found a "formula" to avert a break up of the government, after the shock resignation of the foreign and finance ministers.

The pair had stepped down in a dispute over austerity policies put in place as part of a deal to qualify for bailout cash.

The dollar, which has been buoyed by an improved global outlook, rose to 100.21 yen in Tokyo, compared with 99.71 yen in London late Thursday.

Eyes will later Friday turn to Washington, awaiting the release of non-farm payroll data, which will provide an idea of the state of the US economy.

In Seoul, electronics giant Samsung ended 3.80 per cent lower after estimating 9.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion) in operating profit for the April-June quarter.

While it said the figure would be a record, analysts had expected a figure of more than 10 trillion won after it released its much-vaunted Galaxy S4 smartphone in April.

"Demand for high-priced, high-end smartphones shows slowing growth, which could hurt Samsung's profit margin," IBK Investment and Securities analyst Lee Seung-Woo told the Yonhap news agency.

Oil prices were mixed after rallying recently on events in Egypt. Dealers are keeping tabs on events in the country after the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi, with fears growing that the coup could send shockwaves through the crude-rich Middle East.

In afternoon trade New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for delivery in August, was down 24 cents at $101.00 a barrel in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for August rose nine cents to $105.46 63.

Gold was at $1,241.70 per ounce at 0810 GMT, compared with $1,250.80 late Thursday.

In other markets:

- Taipei rose 1.37 per cent, or 108.1 points, to 8,001.82.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rose 1.87 per cent to Tw$109.0 while smartphone maker HTC was 1.0 per cent higher at Tw$203.0.

- Manila closed 0.56 per cent higher, adding 36.22 points to 6,500.48.

SM Investments rose 1.02 per cent to 890 pesos and Alliance Global Group advanced 1.02 per cent to 24.85 pesos but Bank of the Philippine Islands slipped 0.11 per cent to 92 pesos.

- Wellington rose 0.69 per cent, or 30.91 points, to 4,489.86.

Chorus added 1.9 per cent to NZ$2.63 and Fletcher Building gained 1.5 per cent to NZ$8.62.

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Rudd may have been slow on boats

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd concedes he may have been slow to act in 2009 when the number of asylum seeker boat arrivals increased dramatically.

Mr Rudd defended his decision to dismantle the Howard government's Pacific Solution in 2008.

More than 45,000 asylum seekers have arrived by boat since those policies were scrapped.

The prime minister, in his first major interview since taking Labor leadership last week, said more people had arrived by boat in 2009 and 2010 due to wars in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

He admitted his government may have been too slow to change its policies in light of overseas conflicts.

Seven boats arrived in 2008 and 61 arrived in 2009.

"If we made a mistake, it was in perhaps not being quick enough to respond to the new change in external circumstances," Mr Rudd told ABC television's 7.30 Report on Wednesday.

Australian governments had always made changes to asylum seeker policies in response to global events, he said.

"There is nothing set in stone with immigration policy or asylum seeker policy," Mr Rudd said.

"I'm open to adjustments in the future."

He backed Foreign Minister Bob Carr's comments that more economic migrants were coming by boat, particularly from Iran.

"I can understand why people want to leave Iran," Mr Rudd said.

"But the bottom line is, it's not all about seeking freedom from persecution."

He dismissed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's plan to reinstate the Howard era policy of towing asylum seeker boats back to Indonesia as just a slogan.

"Mr Abbott, how will you turn the boats back?

"If it sinks, what will you do? Let people drown?

"If you turn the boat back to Indonesia and the Indonesian navy says no ... what do you do then?"

Earlier, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said Australia should consider expanding to other nationalities its policy of returning failed Sri Lankan refugees back to their homelands.

"The fear of death has not stopped people getting on leaky boats," Mr Clare told reporters in Sydney.

"The fear of going to Nauru or Manus Island has not stopped people getting onto boats.

"But I tell you what has: the fear of being flown home in a week - that's what works."

Australia could send Iranians "halfway" back to Malaysia instead of Iran, considering Tehran won't accept people who don't want to go back, he said.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said Mr Rudd dismantled coalition policies that worked.

He said the coalition would bring back temporary protection visas, give no benefit of the doubt to people arriving without documentation, open "genuine" offshore processing and turn back boats where it was safe to do so.

"If Kevin Rudd is elected, the people smugglers would not just have won the battle but won the war," Mr Morrison told reporters in Perth.

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Rudd appoints Treasury man as chief

SENIOR Treasury official Jim Murphy has become Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new chief of staff.

Mr Murphy, the former Treasury deputy secretary, was a key backroom figure in dealing with the global financial crisis when Mr Rudd was prime minister between 2007 and 2010.

He was appointed on Wednesday.

Mr Rudd has also appointed experienced media adviser Fiona Sugden as communications director and former News Limited journalist Matthew Franklin as his senior media adviser.

Veteran Labor strategist Bruce Hawker has taken on the role of political adviser.

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Rudd reckons Abbott lacks 'ticker'

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd suspects Tony Abbott lacks the "ticker" to debate him on key policy areas.

Mr Abbott has been "lying" to the Australian people about the state of the economy, his ability to turn back asylum seeker boats and the impact of carbon pricing, Mr Rudd says in his first major television interview since retaking the leadership from Julia Gillard.

"So what I would say to Mr Abbott - you've been doing this for a long time, it's time we had a properly moderated debate ... on his chosen subjects," Mr Rudd said on the ABC's 730 program.

"Mr Abbott, I think it is time you demonstrated to the country you have a bit of ticker on this.

"He's the boxing blue. I'm the glasses-wearing kid in the library.

"Come on, let's have the Australian people form a view about whether his policies actually have substance, whether they actually work, or whether they are just slogans."

On his now-broken pledge never to return to the Labor leadership, Mr Rudd said Ms Gillard had vacated the spot and brought on the caucus ballot.

He said a second reason was the prospect of defeat at the 2013 election.

"The Australian Labor Party and the government was on track towards a catastrophic defeat and I wasn't about to stand idly by and see everything we worked for for the last five or six years go down the gurgler as Mr Abbott set about ripping it apart."

He said he was not motivated by revenge, but taking up the fight to Mr Abbott and coming up with a positive plan for the future.

Mr Rudd said he was working through policy changes but it would be an "orderly process".

He said he wanted to take the time to "think and take the best advice".

Asked whether Labor would be punished for its long leadership turmoil, Mr Rudd said he had faced four Liberal leaders over a period of four years after he took on the Labor leadership.

"In political parties these things happen from time to time," he said.

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New research boosts search for AIDS cure

FRESH data from several small trials presented at an AIDS conference on Wednesday provides encouraging news in the quest for a cure for HIV, scientists said.

Giving an update in an eagerly-followed trial, researchers said an HIV-positive infant in Mississippi who was put on a course of antiretroviral drugs within a few days of birth had remained free of the AIDS virus 15 months after treatment was stopped.

In Boston, two HIV-positive men who were given bone-marrow transplants for cancer also had no detectable virus 15 weeks and seven weeks respectively after stopping AIDS drugs, a separate team reported.

Both research projects are at an early stage and should not be taken as a sign that a cure for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is around the corner, researchers cautioned at a world forum of AIDS scientists in Kuala Lumpur.

Even so, they said it strengthens the motivation for pursuing the once-unthinkable goal of eradicating HIV or repressing it without daily drugs -- a condition referred to as a "functional cure" or "functional remission".

"I don't actually want to use the cure word in this situation," said Timothy Henrich, from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, of the bone-marrow study he is co-leading.

"But what I can say is that if these patients are able to stay without detectable HIV for at least a year, maybe a year and a half, after we stop treatment, then the chances of the virus coming back are very small," he told an AFP correspondent in Paris.

Introduced in 1996, the famous cocktail of antiretroviral drugs is a lifeline to millions with HIV.

But if the drugs are stopped, the virus rebounds from "reservoirs" among old cells in the blood stream and body tissue. It then renews its attack on CD4 cells, part of the immune system's heavy weaponry.

Deborah Persaud, heading the so-called Mississippi Child investigation, said early treatment of newborns appears to offer the best hope of attacking the virus before it gets established in these reservoirs.

"Therapy in the first few days of life really curtailed the reservoir formation to the point that (it) was not established in this child and allowed treatment cessation without having the virus rebound," Persaud, an associate professor of paediatrics at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, Maryland, said by phone.

An estimated 34 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, and about 1.8 million die each year.

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Russian booster rocket crashes

A Russian rocket carrying three satellites has crashed in Kazakhstan shortly after takeoff. Source: AAP

A RUSSIAN booster rocket carrying three satellites has crashed at a Russia-leased cosmodrome in Kazakhstan shortly after the launch.

The Russian Space Agency said in a statement Tuesday that the Proton-M booster unexpectedly shut down the engine 17 seconds into the flight and crashed some 2 kilometres away from the Baikonur launch pad.

Russian officials said there were no casualties or damage immediately reported. Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency quoted Kazakh Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Bozhkov as saying that the burning rocket fuel has blanketed the launch pad with a toxic cloud.

But he said authorities have yet to determine its potential danger to the environment.

Another Proton-M booster crashed in Baikonur in August 2012 when it failed to place two satellites into orbits.

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Girl thrown from car in NSW crash

A YOUNG girl thrown from a car after a collision on a Sydney freeway has escaped serious injury as have a four-year-old boy and a woman also in the vehicle.

The six-year-old girl from Engadine was taken to Westmead Hospital with non life threatening injuries, police say.

When she was found by emergency services after the collision on the F3 at Wahroonga on Tuesday morning she was still strapped into her booster seat.

At first doctors feared the worst and assessed the girl for head injuries.

But they soon discovered she had escaped with only bruising and cuts to her head.

The 27-year-old truck driver was taken to Hornsby Hospital for mandatory blood and urine testing.

Police are investigating the crash and have asked for anyone with information to come forward.

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50 hurt when quake hits Aceh

A STRONG 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's north western province of Aceh on Tuesday, causing buildings to collapse and injuring at least 50 people.

The quake hit inland at 0737 GMT at a depth of just 10 kilometres, 55 kilometres south of Bireun and 72 kilometres south east of Reuleuet, the US Geological Survey said.

"We have received around 50 people with injuries suffered when the walls of their houses collapsed," Ema Suryani, a doctor at a health clinic in Lampahan city, Bener Meriah district, told AFP.

"The injuries vary from open wounds to broken bones."

Injured people had been transported from several affected villages in two trucks, she said.

People also ran out of buildings in panic in the provincial capital Banda Aceh as the quake shook houses for around one minute, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

A massive quake struck off Aceh in 2004, sparking a tsunami that killed 170,000 people in the province on Sumatra and tens of thousands more in countries around the Indian Ocean.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

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Japan opens world court defense of whaling

Japan will tell the UN's top court that is whaling program is "carefully conceived and planned". Source: AAP

JAPAN is opening its defence of the country's controversial whaling program in the seas around Antarctica during hearings at the United Nations' highest court.

Based on their written pleadings, lawyers for Tokyo are expected to argue Tuesday that the International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction to hear the dispute with Australia and New Zealand over the annual hunt and slaughter of hundreds of minke and fin whales in the Southern Ocean.

Japan also will argue that its whaling is for scientific research and therefore permitted under the 1946 convention that regulates whaling.

Lawyers for Australia told the court last week that the whaling is a commercial hunt dressed up as science and should be stopped.

The 16-judge world court will take months to issue a judgment.

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