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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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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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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Charities regulator appeals against cut

ONLY firms afraid of transparency stand to benefit from the scrapping of the nation's charities watchdog.

That's the view of the man who chairs the advisory board of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission, which is set for the chop under federal government plans.

Supporters of the regulator argued at a Senate inquiry in Canberra on Friday it was doing its job in cutting red-tape and holding charities accountable.

However, critics from the financial services sector and medical research bodies said it created an unnecessary regulatory burden.

Robert Fitzgerald, the regulator's advisory board chair, said some in the sector were equating transparency with red tape.

"The truth of the matter is if you don't like transparency, you will oppose the ACNC," Mr Fitzgerald said.

Mr Fitzgerald said it was difficult to understand how a government which set up two royal commissions in the name of transparency was on the other hand trying to shut down a body that shines a spotlight on the charitable sector.

The regulator needed more time to achieve its aims, he said.

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Principal didn't consider kids' protection

A FORMER Perth headmaster has told a royal commission he didn't factor in the protection of children when deciding against sacking a teacher later convicted of sex abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child sexual abuse also heard on Friday the headmaster, known as WD, did not seek advice from child protection experts or the police when confronted with a series of concerns about the teacher's behaviour in 2004.

The inquiry is investigating how the exclusive independent school, which cannot be named for legal reasons, dealt with the teacher known as YJ.

In 2009, YJ was dismissed from the school, arrested and convicted of molesting five students between 1999 and 2008.

"When you considered the ramifications and the ramifications of any decision whether to keep YJ at the school or dismiss him, did you factor in the protection of those children," counsel assisting Sophie David asked WD.

"The simple answer to your question is no," he said.

The children Ms David was referring to were named in a teacher's 2001 letter of concern about YJ's behaviour.

The commission has heard of a series of concerns raised by teachers and parents about YJ's behaviour towards students between 1999 and 2004.

The 2001 letter kept on YJ's file raised concerns he was touching students on the thigh, and stomach, and giving children cash gifts.

Later, a teacher known as WH found YJ in a class room with a boy on his knee and his hand "high up" on a child's thigh.

WH made a formal complaint about the incident in 2004.

WD then found a series of notes and a letter on YJ's file raising similar concerns but not alleging outright sexual abuse.

YJ was given a last warning about his behaviour in 2004 but not dismissed, and YJ refused to sign the official warning.

WD was asked if he sought expert advise from child protection specialists or the police.

He replied no to both questions but said he did seek industrial advise from the Independent School Teachers Union, and ethical advise from the Association of Independent Schools of WA.

However, no report was lodged with the state's now defunct teacher's registration body, the West Australian College of Teaching (WACOT).

Nor did he speak to any of the children mentioned in YJ's file.

Two of YJ's five victims were abused during WD's tenure.

WD acknowledged there was a potential risk to the child mentioned, but not named, in WH's complaint by keeping YJ on.

"The flip side to that coin was that if I was to dismiss the member of staff on the evidence that I had at that point in time, then I was potentially consigning that person to exiting the profession," he said.

The commission also heard excerpts from a report by Prof Stephen Smallbone, an expert witness critical of the school's handling of YJ.

His report said there was a systemic failure to stop YJ continuing behaviour that had on numerous occasions been documented as serious breaches of school policy.

Prof Smallbone also said there was a serious failure by the school to piece together the information concerning YJ's behaviour, and to act on it.

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Orphan bear cub charms police in Oregon

POLICE in southern Oregon have held an unlikely suspect: a well-behaved black bear cub.

Police Chief Don Brown says a teenage boy and his parents brought the cub to the police station in a large plastic storage bin on Monday.

The boy found the cub whimpering in the bushes outside his house in the town of Myrtle Creek.

He said the mother bear was nowhere in sight.

Still, Brown said it was dangerous to pick up the cub, because the mother bear could have spotted him and attacked.

Adult female black bears can weigh up to 135 kilograms.

The 5.4-kilogram female cub was "very well behaved" while spending the night at the station, Brown said.

Police and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials looked for the cub's mother the next day using a device that mimics a cub's distress call, but couldn't find her.

Oregon is home to 25,000 to 30,000 black bears.

Myrtle Creek, 145 kilometres south of Eugene, has an abundance of wildlife, "but nobody has brought in a bear in the last nine years I've been here," the police chief said.

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College didn't lobby for funds: Abbott

Tony Abbott has described questions about his daughter Frances' scholarship as "dirt digging". Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott says he wasn't lobbied by a friend to allow private colleges to access government subsidies.

The federal budget introduced direct financial grants for students taking courses in private colleges and TAFEs.

Les Taylor, chairman of the Whitehouse Institute of Design in Sydney, has made donations to the NSW Liberal Party and has known Mr Abbott for many years.

He has also given Mr Abbott, when he was opposition leader, clothing on two occasions which have been declared on the members' interest register.

However, an institute scholarship worth up to $60,000 given to one of Mr Abbott's daughters, Frances, has not been declared on the register.

Mr Abbott has previously declared other matters relating to his children, such as trips, accommodation and tickets to sporting events, on the public register.

Mr Abbott said questions about his daughter's scholarship was "a bit of dirt digging" and that she had earned it on merit.

"I think families should be left out of it," he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

Asked whether he was personally lobbied by Mr Taylor for private college subsidies, Mr Abbott said: "No, I wasn't."

Mr Abbott said he had complied with the parliament's disclosure rules.

The Whitehouse Institute is a member of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training, which before the budget lobbied the government for extending commonwealth supported places beyond public universities.

In a statement on Friday, the institute said it would not disclose details of individual scholarship decisions because it had a duty to protect the privacy of former and current students.

It awarded all scholarships on merit.

"At no time has the institute lobbied the prime minister on issues of education policy or the accreditation of Whitehouse courses," chief executive Ian Tudor said.

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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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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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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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Sydney bus driver demolishes wall

A bus has hit two vehicles and demolished a family's front yard wall in Sydney early on Wednesday. Source: AAP

A BUS has hit two vehicles and demolished a family's front yard wall in Sydney.

Police will question the 74-year-old driver after the Transdev public bus lost control on Rabaul Road at Georges Hall, near Bankstown, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The bus hit a parked tow truck, veered across the road and smashed into a family's front-yard brick wall.

It then hit another parked car and a fence before finally coming to a stop.

The driver was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

No passengers were aboard the bus, which was badly damaged.

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10-year-olds hurt after minibus rolls

A mini-bus has rolled on its side after colliding with a car in Melbourne, injuring two children. Source: AAP

TWO children have been taken to hospital after a school mini-bus accident in Melbourne.

The mini-bus and a car collided in Northcote on Wednesday morning, an Ambulance Victoria spokesman said.

The mini-bus tipped onto its side and two children, both aged 10, were taken to the Royal Children's Hospital with minor injuries.

The mini-bus, which was on a regular school run to St Paul's College in Kew, was carrying three staff and two students, a statement from the school said.

The school said the children were taken to hospital only as a precaution and were later released.

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Hawke wants Aust a nuclear one-stop shop

Bob Hawke says Australia should enrich uranium and store nuclear power plant waste. Source: AAP

FORMER prime minister Bob Hawke says Australia should start enriching uranium and disposing of nuclear waste in its most geologically stable state and territory.

The former Labor leader told a Cooperative Research Centres Association conference in Perth on Tuesday that nuclear power was an integral element in tackling climate change, but had been vexed by the issue of safe disposal.

Based on a 25-year-old report made to him by Ralph Slayter - who he appointed Australia's first chief scientist in 1989 - Mr Hawke said the best sites were in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

"It would, of course, be entirely appropriate that before any action is taken along the lines I am suggesting, another expert scientific investigation be undertaken to confirm the accuracy of the information," Mr Hawke said.

"If Australia has - as we do - the safest remote locations for storing the world's nuclear waste, we have a responsibility to make those sites available for this purpose."

Mr Hawke said he had not yet discussed the matter with WA Premier Colin Barnett but believed he would entertain "a constructive consultation on it".

He said he had discussed it with the chief minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles, and he was "an ardent supporter".

Mr Hawke said he had spoken with some Aboriginal leaders about it and they saw merit in the proposal as it would bring in massive incomes and advance their communities.

Australia holds about 40 per cent of the world's uranium deposits but only exports yellowcake, so if it enriched the commodity, it could offer "a complete package".

"This is a case where in doing good for the rest of the world, we can, in the process, do enormously well for the Australian economy," Mr Hawke said.

He also criticised the federal government for cutting $80 million from the Cooperative Research Centre program over the forward estimates.

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GP fee 'contradicts' close the gap target

Indigenous groups warn the government that charging people to see doctors will increase inequality. Source: AAP

THE Abbott government's plan to charge sick people to see their doctors will contradict its aim of closing the gap on indigenous health.

That's the view of almost a dozen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health groups that met in Canberra on Tuesday to protest proposed budget cuts.

They've called on the government to quarantine Aboriginal health services from funding cuts and extend their contracts from one year to five.

But they're more concerned over the proposed $7 GP co-payment they fear will hurt the indigenous community especially hard.

The coalition of 10 health groups argue the fee will run contrary to the principles of health equity outlined in the Closing The Gap statement.

"Introducing co-payments will not serve to close the gap in health outcomes; it will only widen the gap between our people and the rest of the community," Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service chief executive Julie Tongs said in a statement.

Ms Tongs said indigenous Australians were already disadvantaged when it came to health, but the money spent on alleviating that was already low compared to the rest of the community.

She welcomed the opportunity for further talks with the government.

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"Everything is gone": Lin grandfather

Grandfather Yang Fei Lin described the moment he heard about the killing of five family members. Source: AAP

THE morning after five members of his family were murdered, grandfather Yang Fei Li received a call from the alleged killer telling him "something terrible has happened".

He began silently praying for everything to be okay.

It wasn't long until he discovered "everything was gone".

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Lin told the Supreme Court on Tuesday about the day he learnt his son Min Lin, 45, his wife Lily, 44, her sister Irene, 39, and his grandchildren Henry, 12, and Terry, nine, had been killed in their North Epping home.

He said the night before the discovery on July 18 2009, had been spent like any other Friday family get together at the grandparents' house.

His grandson Henry complained of having broken shoes, and his wife, Feng Qing Zhu had given him $50 for winning a badminton competition.

Mrs Zhu had even tried to get Henry to stay the night but the 12-year-old said he needed to play the sport first thing in the morning.

All in all, it was a harmonious, quiet, normal night, Mr Lin added.

The next morning, everything changed.

He got a call from their son-in-law Lian Bin "Robert" Xie, saying, "something terrible has happened to the Lin family," Mr Lin recounted.

"I asked, 'What happened? He said, 'I can't say it now ... get here by train as soon as possible'."

After Xie agreed to pick him and his wife up, Mr Lin recalled: "I didn't say anything even when I was in his car; I was silently praying that nothing bad had happened to my family."

Xie has been accused of carrying out the five murders with a "hammer-like" weapon. He has pleaded not guilty.

When they arrived at the Lin family home in Sydney's northwest, Mr Lin said he was told Lily, her sister Irene and the two children had died.

At this stage, however, his son Min's death had not been confirmed.

"I was always wondering if my son Min had been abducted," Mr Lin said.

It was only when the family were later taken to hospital to see a social worker that they were told nobody had survived.

"We were really heartbroken. Very sad. Everything is gone," Mr Lin said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Lin told the court that before the "five members of my son's family were murdered we had a normal and good relationship with my daughter (Kathy) and her husband".

However, after the killings he said disputes concerning his son's inheritance and the guardianship of the sole surviving member of the Lin family began.

The trial continues.

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Tough budget necessary: Treasury Sec

Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson says Australians needs to know the nation faces a challenges. Source: AAP

THE Australian public needs to know that the nation faces a challenge and a tough budget was necessary, Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson says.

Dr Parkinson said while it was not his role to comment on specific government policies, Australians "deserve" to know there is a challenge ahead.

"It's within my responsibility as Treasury secretary to say to the community we do have to actually take this seriously to start to address the issue," Dr Parkinson told a business lunch in Sydney on Tuesday.

"It is (a challenge) that if we start today to take sensible decisions, particularly those that are essentially structural policy changes that take place over time, we'll be in a much better situation.

"Otherwise we're banking the house on 33 years of uninterrupted economic growth and there's no precedent for that.

"We're banking on another 10 years of fiscal drag and ... that has quite significant regressive impacts."

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WA abuse victims to tell their stories

THE royal commission investigating child sex abuse in institutions will hold private sessions in the Kimberley region of Western Australia on Monday.

Officers from the commission will be in Broome and Kununurra to meet with people interested in sharing their story.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines says the visit will provide an important opportunity for people who were sexually abused as children in institutions to disclose their mistreatment.

"We strongly encourage all survivors who wish to share their story in private with a commissioner to make contact with the Royal Commission or a local support service," Ms Dines said.

She said more than 1500 private sessions have been held across Australia to date, including more than 160 in Western Australia.

"We are determined to ensure that regional and Aboriginal communities have a voice in this process, and we are working with local community organisations and support services to encourage survivors of child sexual abuse to tell their story to the Royal Commission."

Commissioners will also revisit the remote Kimberley from June 3 to hold further private sessions with victims.

They will run concurrent with a public hearing in Perth which is examining how a private school handled the case of a teacher who was molesting children for almost a decade.

*If you were sexually abused as a child while in the care of an Australian institution, you can tell your story to the Royal Commission by phoning 1800 099 340 or emailing contact@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

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Budget of 'increased taxes' unites Labor

PM Tony Abbott appears to have backed away from his threat to hold a double dissolution election. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIANS are listening to the Abbott government but some may be confused about what they're hearing, the prime minister says.

Admitting his first budget includes "increased taxes" in one interview, Tony Abbott in another pointed to selective listening for confusion about pre-election promises.

"Well, I know that people hear different things," he told ABC's Insiders TV program.

Mr Abbott spent another day on Sunday defending his budget, which includes a Medicare co-payment, pension cuts and a fuel excise rise.

Labor are using the budget as the linchpin for a new united front, with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten telling party members the budget had brought Labor together.

"This terrible budget of the Abbott government, it has defined the Labor party," he told the annual Australian Labor Party conference in Melbourne on Sunday.

"Friends, the Labor party nationally has its voice back."

His comments came just hours before state and territory leaders commenced an emergency meeting in Sydney to discuss an $80 billion hole in state funding, left by last week's budget.

Mr Shorten accused the government of using cuts to state funding for schools and hospitals to sneak in another tax.

"They are actually increasing taxes through the back door," he told party members.

The states will have no choice but to raise GST because they must continue to operate schools and hospitals, he said.

Labor call it blackmailing, a line echoed by the Greens.

Mr Abbott says it's about ending handouts the government can't afford.

"What I've got to do is ensure that at the Commonwealth level, we are not living beyond our means, we're not mortgaging our future and piling up never-ending debt for our children and grandchildren," he told Fairfax radio.

But if a tax conversation was what Mr Abbott was after, the states refused to play along and shot down suggestions GST or income tax hikes were on the agenda at Sunday's meeting.

They instead joined forces to call for an urgent Council of Australian Governments meeting before July 1.

The latest Galaxy poll, published by News Corporation on Sunday, found 75 per cent think they will be worse off as a result of the budget.

Thousands of protesters rallied in capital cities to voice that view.

But Mr Abbott says the budget is in line with what his government promised, including stopping the boats, scrapping the carbon tax, building roads and taking control of the budget.

"I don't want to plead the fine print but I do believe that we have fundamentally kept faith with people," he said.

He said everyone must share the burden caused by Labor "spending like a drunken sailor".

Labor's fury is directed at doctor co-payments, a raised pension age, restrictions on unemployment benefits, cuts to state funding and the fuel excise - measures it will oppose.

Abbott's "juvenile" paid parental scheme is also high on Mr Shorten's hit list, with the Labor leader claiming it will pay millionaires $50,000 of money they don't need.

"See how that goes for pensioners trying to get an extra smear of vegemite on their toast on day 13 of their budget," he said.

The Greens and Palmer United Party also oppose several measures, meaning Mr Abbott has some tough conversations to get the harshest of his budget measures through the Senate.

But the prime minister appears to have backed away from his threat to hold a double dissolution election over the budget, saying the crossbenchers would understand its harsher measures.

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Iran's Zarif says nuclear deal 'possible'

IRANIAN Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday that clinching a final nuclear deal with world powers is still "possible" despite a tough round of talks this week.

"Agreement is possible. But illusions need to go. Opportunity shouldn't be missed again like in 2005," Zarif said on Twitter, referring to Iran's long-stalled dispute with world powers over its disputed nuclear program.

Iran and six world powers ended a fourth round of nuclear talks in Vienna on Friday with "no tangible progress".

Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany - known as the P5+1 group - want Iran to radically scale back its nuclear activities, making any dash for an atomic bomb virtually impossible and easily detectable.

The parties want to clinch a deal by July 20, when a November interim deal expires, under which Iran froze certain activities in return for some relief from crippling Western sanctions.

In return for further concessions, the Islamic republic, which denies seeking an atomic weapon, wants the lifting of all United Nations and Western sanctions, which have caused major damage to its economy.

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Eastern Ukrainians rap Kiev in talks

Lawmakers and officials from eastern Ukraine have criticised the fledging central government. Source: AAP

LAWMAKERS and officials from eastern Ukraine have poured criticism on the fledging central government, accusing it of ignoring legitimate grievances of the regions which have been overrun by pro-Russia militia.

One eastern leader said last weekend's unofficial referendum in favour of independence "expressed the will of the people".

The criticism came in the second round of European-brokered talks intended to resolve the crisis in Ukraine.

The country's caretaker government came to power in February following the ouster of Kremlin-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych after months of protests in Kiev.

Moscow and many in Ukraine's east have accused the new government of intending to trample the rights of eastern Ukraine's Russian-speakers.

On Saturday, politicians from the east implored the government to believe that - apart from the pro-Russia gunmen - a large sector of the population had lost hope in the interim administration in Kiev.

The second round of talks followed hours after sustained gunfire was heard throughout the night near the eastern city of Slovyansk, the stronghold of pro-Russia fighters, after forces loyal to the Kiev government moved in to protect a television tower.

Separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions held hastily arranged referenda last weekend and declared independence following the vote, which went in favour of sovereignty.

The round-table talks in the eastern city of Kharkiv did not feature any of the insurgents, whom Kiev describes as terrorists.

The insurgents say they are willing to discuss only the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops and the recognition of the independence of the regions.

"The referendum doesn't have any legal consequences," said Valery Holenko, chairman of the Luhansk regional government.

"But it has expressed the will of the people, which cannot be discounted. People genuinely went en masse to the referendum. This was a protest vote."

Holenko said the devolution of powers that the government is offering was no longer enough and that as a first step in appeasing eastern Ukrainians the government has to stop its "anti-terrorist operation" in the east.

Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who was often busy with his iPad while some of the eastern lawmakers were making passionate speeches, called on the eastern leaders to resist the armed men and support the government's efforts to devolve powers to the regions.

"You have got in your home, in Luhansk and Donetsk, armed terrorists who are funded by Russians and those who fled Ukraine and want to seize our land," Yatsenyuk told the gathering.

"We're not going talk to robbers and terrorists. They will not be telling the Ukrainian people how to live in our country."

Yatsenyuk urged the eastern leaders to disarm the insurgents, "regain the power and start a political dialogue".

Reacting to calls to make Russian a second official language, Yatsenyuk said the government will support the equal status of Ukrainian and Russia in Russian-speaking regions but sees no need for other legal protection.

Reacting to the fighting overnight near Slovyansk, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning what it described as a sharp escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine, and accused Kiev of using the talks as cover for military operations against its citizens.

As on Wednesday, Saturday's talks included officials, lawmakers, business people and religious leaders from across the country, but no representatives of the separatists from Donetsk and Luhansk.

Oleksandr Bandurka, a Communist party lawmaker and police general from central Ukraine, said that these negotiations make no sense because "we're not talking to those who oppose us. We cannot ignore them".

Ukraine's first president, Leonid Kravchuk, who is chairing the talks, angrily reacted that "no one in the world talks to killers and terrorists. Putin doesn't talk to terrorists".

Russia has pushed for the federalisation of Ukraine, since that would allow Moscow to retain influence over areas in Ukraine dominated by Russian-speakers.

Many in western Ukraine and in the capital favour closer ties to Europe and fear being pulled back into Moscow's orbit.

Attempting to end the talks on a conciliatory note, Yatsenyuk quoted Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko and told the leaders from eastern Ukraine: "We are ready to embrace you and hope that you are too."

The next round of talks is expected on Wednesday in the central city of Cherkasy.

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