Asian markets lower on Wall Street tumbles

ASIAN markets are mixed as the effect of big Wall Street losses - sparked by weak reports and forecasts from top US companies - was offset by an improvement in Chinese manufacturing.

However, selling was also given impetus by concerns over Spain as well as profit-taking after an impressive run by global markets in recent weeks following easing measures in the United States, Japan and Europe.

Tokyo on Wednesday closed 0.67 per cent lower, shedding 59.95 points to 8,954.30, Seoul fell 0.67 per cent, or 12.85 points, to 1,913.96 and Sydney ended down 0.82 per cent, or 37.3 points, at 4,505.8.

However, Hong Kong ended 0.31 per cent higher, adding 66.23 points to 21,763.78. Shanghai edged up 0.07 per cent, or 1.54 points, to 2,115.99.

Mumbai was closed for a public holiday.

Investors took fright at big falls in New York after poor earnings figures and guidance from DuPont, United Technologies, UPS, Xerox, Radio Shack and 3M provided evidence that the US corporate earnings boom is stalling.

Chemicals giant DuPont was the stand-out loser, lowering its 2012 outlook after posting a 98 per cent fall in earnings in the three months to September. It also said it would cut around 1,500 jobs over the next 18 months.

"The US earnings report season has disappointed, with 60 per cent of companies missing revenue forecasts so far," Sean Callow, at Westpac Global Strategy group in Sydney, said in a note.

US shares tumbled. The Dow lost 1.82 per cent, the S&P 500 sank 1.44 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 0.88 per cent.

In Europe, the Bank of Spain forecast the economy would contract 0.4 per cent in the third quarter. If confirmed, the figures would mean the recession, which has left one in four workers unemployed, is moving into a second year.

Moody's cut its debt rating for five Spanish regions by one or two notches each, blaming their weak financial positions and looming debt redemptions.

But data out of Beijing on Wednesday indicated China's manufacturing sector was showing signs of recovery. The HSBC Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) hit 49.1 this month, the highest level in three months and up from 47.9 in September. A reading above 50 indicates growth.

While the figures mark the 12th straight month of contraction, they also represent the second consecutive monthly improvement and add to recent indications the economy is on the mend after a slowdown.

However, Qu Hongbin, HSBC's chief economist for China, warned that problems in overseas economies including Europe and the United States, as well as China's job market, continue to pressure the economy.

"This calls for a continuation of policy easing in the coming months to secure a firmer growth recovery," he said in a statement.

On currency markets the euro extended losses seen in New York late on Tuesday. The single currency bought $US1.2960 and Y103.43 in afternoon trade, compared with $US1.2978 and Y103.64 in New York.

The dollar was at Y79.80 against Y79.84.

Oil was higher, with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, adding 50 US cents to $US87.17 a barrel in the afternoon and Brent North Sea crude for December gaining 45 US cents to $US108.70.

Gold was at $US1,710.60 at 1900 AEDT, compared with $US1,710.66 late on Tuesday.

In other markets:

- Taipei fell 0.31 per cent, or 22.60 points, to 7,314.88.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co shed 0.35 per cent to $Tw85.4 while leading smartphone maker HTC rose 2.13 per cent to $Tw263.5.

- Manila closed 0.62 per cent lower, shedding 33.63 points to 5,398.69.

SM Investments dropped 1.57 per cent to 816.50 pesos while Ayala Corp fell 0.14 per cent to 433 pesos.

- Wellington closed flat, edging down 2.81 points to 4,001.45.

Telecom rose 0.2 per cent to $NZ2.48 and Contact Energy was up 1.9 per cent at $NZ5.51.

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Breast cancer risk higher in south

WOMEN who live south of Coffs Harbour or below 30 degrees latitude in Australia have almost double the risk of breast cancer than those in the north, a study shows.

The Westmead Breast Cancer Institute study, to be presented at a Sydney conference on Thursday, also analysed the geographical incidence of skin cancer and found the opposite effect.

The lead investigator of the study, clinical dietician Kellie Bilinski, said researchers believed the link between latitude and breast cancer might be down to the reduced potential to synthesise vitamin D from sunlight at lower latitudes.

The decreased risk of melanoma, which was linked to ultraviolet radiation from too much sun exposure, supported the theory, she said.

"This supports our hypothesis that the potential for sunlight exposure and, therefore, vitamin D synthesis, is lower the further south you go," Ms Bilinski said.

A similar link with vitamin D has been found in multiple sclerosis sufferers, with the disease far more common in Australia's south.

Earlier studies had linked low vitamin D levels to an increased risk of breast cancer, while studies in animals with low vitamin D had shown tumour cells grew faster, Ms Bilinski said.

She said it might be time to adjust the SunSmart messages to ensure women had enough sunlight at appropriate times of the day.

Investigators were now recruiting almost 600 women diagnosed with early breast cancer to examine the relationship between their vitamin D status and tumour growth, Ms Bilinski said.

Victorian breast cancer survivor Jo Lovelock, 54, was initially diagnosed with a malignant tumour in 2003 that was successfully treated, but recently discovered she was vitamin D deficient.

Ms Lovelock said checking vitamin D levels could be part of women's overall health strategy, along with diet, exercise, minimising alcohol consumption and not smoking.

However, she suspects vitamin D may be just one part of the breast cancer puzzle.

"It's probably only one of many factors," she said.

The research will be presented on Thursday at the Sydney International Breast Cancer Congress.

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NT police accused over man's death

A FAMILY in the Northern Territory are claiming police mistreatment caused the death of an Aboriginal man after he left a lock-up.

Doris Lewis, the sister of Eric Lewis, said her brother died early in the morning on September 23, soon after being released from police custody in the outback town of Katherine.

Mr Lewis suffered from diabetes and needed regular medication, Ms Lewis said.

"We are blaming police. He had just come from the police station, the watch house," Ms Lewis told AAP.

In a statement, police denied Mr Lewis's death occurred soon after he left police custody.

Acting Commander Michael White said Mr Lewis was taken into custody at 5.20pm (CST) on Friday, September 21 for a number of offences relating to an incident at the Katherine Hotel.

He said Mr Lewis was interviewed, charged and refused bail, although on Saturday at 2.16pm he was given bail and taken home by police.

"Just before 2.30am on Sunday the 23rd of September 2012 authorities were called to his house where subsequent attempts to resuscitate him failed," the acting commander said.

Asked about the police statement, Ms Lewis said it was wrong and that her brother did not return home from the police lock-up until the early hours of Sunday, and died just a short time later.

She said that after leaving the watch house, Mr Lewis complained he was not given any medicine, food or water, and that he had been dragged and kicked by police.

When he returned home he could barely sit up, she said.

Ms Lewis said witnesses had also seen her brother, a Warlpiri man who was a diabetic amputee and used a wheelchair to get around in, roughly handled by police during his arrest.

"They (police) lifted him up and threw him in the paddy wagon without his wheelchair, and that is the last the family saw him alive," she said.

The arrest is believed to have followed an altercation between Mr Lewis and a bouncer at a local pub.

"My brother had left the premises. He walked away," Ms Lewis said.

She said he went to a nearby place where people were playing cards, and was involved in a card game when police arrested him.

Ms Lewis has called for a coronial inquiry to examine the circumstances surrounding the death.

"Unless there is some justice, they will just keep treating our people like this," Ms Lewis said.

Police urged anyone with information that could assist the coroner to contact the NT Coroner's Office.

"If anyone has any information regarding Mr Lewis's period in custody or alleged impropriety by police, they can contact the ombudsman," Acting Commander White said.

The death of Mr Lewis comes soon after a coroner's findings critical of the treatment of Kwementyaye Briscoe, who died in a police lock-up in Alice Springs earlier this year.

Mr Briscoe's aunt, Patricia Morton-Thomas, said Mr Lewis's death was the fifth in suspicious circumstances involving police or corrections since 2009.

"The Northern Territory government must do something urgently about the brutality and harassment that our people are experiencing at the hands of the police," she said.

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Business tax group fails on corporate tax

THE business tax working group's failure to settle on a way of cutting the company tax rate to help the economy shows Labor's tax reform is in chaos, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey says.

The group says a cut of two to three percentage points to the company tax rate could be funded through changes to the tax treatment of interest, capital allowances and research and development spending.

However, the group, set up by the Gillard government after the Tax Forum in October 2011, said that despite consultation with 20 groups and more than 80 submissions, it could not recommend a specific revenue-neutral way to lower the company tax rate.

"It was clear to the working group that there was no agreement in the business community to broaden the business tax base to fund a cut in the company tax rate at this time," the report found.

Mr Hockey says it shows Labor's tax reform is in chaos.

"The business tax working group was set an impossible task to find a way of hiking taxes to fund a cut," he said in a statement.

"How can the business community have any confidence in a government that blindsided them on Monday when Wayne Swan lacked the courtesy to even consult with the business tax working group over the changes to company tax schedules announced in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook?"

In its final draft report on Wednesday, the group said a lower corporate tax would increase Australia's ability to attract foreign investment and have other economic benefits in terms of higher profits and real wages and lower prices.

The cut should be made "as economic and fiscal circumstances permit".

"This would need to be considered against other budget priorities and should take into account the overall mix of business taxation," the report said.

A one percentage point cut in the company tax rate could raise GDP and real wages by about 0.2 per cent, the group said.

Deepti Paton, tax counsel at The Tax Institute, said she was disappointed by the end of a significant opportunity for company tax reform.

"We call on the government to renew its commitment to securing a company tax rate cut, via a revision of the terms of reference of the working group."

The institute wants consideration of broader reform options such as changes to the base and rate of the GST.

It also wants recommendations on joint federal and state initiatives to drive state taxes reform.

A streamlining of the personal taxation and transfer systems is essential to ensure that the tax reform process is considered holistically and that the drive is maintained, it says.

Ai Group chief Innes Willox was not surprised the working group found little support in the business community to finance a company tax cut from within the business tax system.

"Finding a sensible way to finance it will require looking beyond the business tax system," Mr Willox said.

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Taiwan hospital fire may have been arson

TAIWAN police have arrested a person on suspicion of starting a fire in a hospital in the island's south that killed at least 12 people and injured 60, reports say.

The person was believed to be a patient in the hospital catering mainly to bedridden seniors as well as some mentally ill patients in southern Tainan city, ETTV cable news channel and other news channels reported on Tuesday.

The police department and prosecutors' office declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

Fire officials said Tuesday's blaze possibly started in a storage room on the second floor of the five-storey building, a branch of the public Sinying Hospital.

The cause of all the deaths was believed to be smoke inhalation while the injured were rushed to a dozen hospitals for treatment, officials said.

An earlier estimate by an official had placed the number of injured at 72, but the figure was revised down in a health department statement.

It was the worst hospital fire in recent years and the cause of the fire is under investigation, she added.

Television footage showed the burnt-out second floor and bedridden and wheelchair-bound patients being carried out to the hospital's lawn.

"It was pitch black and the heavy smoke was unbearable, it's really horrifying," a survivor was quoted by the Central News Agency as saying.

The patient said he was lucky to escape the fire as he was able to walk on his own and was later rescued by firefighters.

Tainan mayor Lai Ching-te told reporters that the fire was unusually deadly because the hospital was in a relatively remote area and most of the patients were immobile.

Relatives of the patients rushed to the hospital seeking their whereabouts as Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta assured the public that the authorities will identify the dead and injured as soon as possible, according to TVBS cable news channel.

Chiu also announced that an island-wide check on fire equipment in all medical facilities will be conducted this week, though there has been no suggestion that faulty equipment was to blame for this incident.

A woman complained to reporters that she only learned about the fire on TV since the hospital failed to notify the patients' families, and that she was still unable to locate her relative after several hours.

By afternoon, some relatives had arrived at a local funeral home to identify the bodies of their loved ones as social and charity workers offered support.

The fire also raised concerns in the local media about whether staffing had been sufficient, as there were only six workers on night duty for the 70 patients.

Premier Sean Chen expressed his shock at the incident and sent his condolences to the families of the victims, his office said in a statement.

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Sydney Uni attracts bigger donations

THE University of Sydney has enjoyed a significant rise in philanthropic donations over the past four years - the latest of which is a $20 million whopper.

In 2011 alone donations worth more than $79 million poured into the university's coffers - a figure it says is a new Australian record for the higher education sector.

And since 2008 the university has raised more than $220 million from 21,000 individuals.

On Tuesday the university announced that businessman John Grill has handed over $20 million to create the John Grill Centre for Project Leadership.

The donation is said to be the largest single gift ever given by a living Australian to an Australian university.

Mr Grill, who has just retired as CEO of professional services firm WorleyParsons, said his donation will be used to help educate the project leaders of the future.

"Across the globe there are more large projects than ever before, many of which are vitally important to society," he said in a statement.

"Unfortunately the track record of delivering them against the primary objectives of schedule, cost and quality is not good."

He said the John Grill Centre will give senior executives the skills to drive major projects successfully.

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China reshuffles top military officers

CHINA has named a new air force chief and reshuffled other top military positions ahead of next month's appointment of new Communist Party leaders, state media reports.

The newly named air force head, former deputy chief of staff Ma Xiaotian, is well known as a frequent participant in the Chinese military's overseas exchanges.

Ma will be replaced as deputy chief of staff by Wang Guanzhong, former head of the general office of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the armed forces, state broadcaster CCTV said on Tuesday.

Tian Xiusi was named air force political commissar, while Zhu Fuxi is the new commissar of the Chengdu Military Region, which includes much of southwestern China and Tibet, CCTV said.

The 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army is an influential force in Chinese politics and is expected to play a significant role in decisions made at the Communist Party's once-in-five-years congress, which begins on November 8.

Soldiers make up a major proportion of party delegates, and top officers have pushed for ever-bigger defence budgets and a more assertive approach to handling conflicts with the United States, Japan and other foreign rivals.

Other new military appointments are expected as Vice President Xi Jinping moves to assume the party leadership from Hu Jintao, who will also step down as president next (northern) spring. It's unclear whether Hu will also relinquish his office of head of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the armed forces.

China's air force has attracted growing attention with the introduction in recent years of cutting edge imported Russian and domestically designed planes. Chinese military aircraft makers are working on a pair of prototype stealth fighters, although their true capabilities remain unknown. The air force also is expanding its fleet of heavy lift aircraft to extend China's ability to deploy troops and equipment far from its borders.

Last year, the air force dispatched transport planes to Libya to rescue Chinese citizens trapped there by fighting, the first time the Chinese military had flown such a mission.

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China slams US presidential candidates

BEIJING has urged the US presidential candidates to refrain from inflaming tensions with China after President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney vowed to get tough with the Asian giant.

Both men vowed to be firm on China at their final presidential debate in Florida, with Romney reeling off a list of alleged Chinese trade violations.

"US politicians no matter from what party should view China's development in an objective and rational light and should do more for China-US mutual trust and cooperation," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Tuesday following the debate.

"The sound and steady development of China-US relations serve the fundamental interests of both countries and both peoples, it is also conducive to regional and world peace, stability and prosperity."

During the debate, Romney repeated his vow that, if elected, he would declare China to be a currency manipulator on his first day in office, charging that Beijing has kept its yuan artificially low to flood the market with cheap exports.

"I will label them a currency manipulator which allows us to apply tariffs where they're taking jobs. They're stealing our intellectual property, our patents, our designs, our technology, hacking into our computers, counterfeiting our goods," Romney said.

But despite the tough talk, he discounted the possibility of provoking a trade war with Beijing should he win the November 6 vote.

Obama pledged cooperation with the rising power despite numerous trade disagreements and a gaping US trade deficit with China - which stood at nearly $US300 billion ($A292 billion) last year.

"China's an adversary and also a potential partner in the international community if it's following the rules," Obama said at the debate in Boca Raton.

China's state press lashed out at the anti-China tone of the discussions.

"Willing or not, Democratic or Republican, the next US president shall have to tone down his get-tough-on-China rhetoric made along the campaign trail," Xinhua news agency said in a commentary.

It added: "Both US presidential candidates vowed at their third and last debate... that they would press Beijing to 'play by the rules' in shaping their bilateral ties.

"However, their definition of 'rules of the road' is primarily pro-American."

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Aussie troops wear new combat uniform

NEW Australian-made MultiCam combat uniforms with a distinctly Australian design are on their way to Afghanistan.

Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare said local production of this uniform was under way and the first troops to wear them would be RAAF airfield defence guards and soldiers of the 7th Battalion (7RAR) set to deploy in the next few weeks.

Australia adopted the US Multicam, or multi-camouflage, uniforms in 2010 as the most effective concealment across the range of terrains in Afghanistan. American and British troops also wear them.

Australia initially sourced them from the US manufacturer Crye Precision and soldiers found this uniform comfortable and its camouflage highly effective.

But they did complain they looked just like American soldiers.

Mr Clare said Defence last year purchased a licence from Crye Precision to manufacture them in Australia and Crye developed a uniquely Australian version of the camouflage pattern with feedback from Australian troops in Afghanistan.

"This is best uniform for the work we do in Afghanistan. It provides better concealment and makes it easier for our soldiers to do their job," he said in a statement.

"The feedback I have received from troops has been very positive. They have told me this is the uniform they want, and Australian industry has delivered."

The new uniform is produced by Pacific Brands WorkWear Group in West Footscray, Victoria. The camouflage fabric is produced by Bruck Textiles in Wangaratta.

Mr Clare said 3600 sets of the new uniforms had been ordered in a deal worth $780,000. A further 5500 uniforms will be ordered to equip soldiers deploying next year.

The uniforms have stronger fabric and modifications to improve functionality and durability, the minister said.

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Cocaine found in baby formula tins

SOME drug dealers clearly think the Sydney cocaine trade is child's play.

But the game is up for one such alleged drug pedlar - after police discovered 2.4 kilograms of cocaine stuffed inside tins of baby formula.

They made the surprising find after raiding a townhouse at Greenacre, in the city's west, on October 17.

Detectives also found smaller quantities of loose cocaine in a bag, and $80,000 in cash.

They think all the cocaine recovered from the home, which at the time was occupied by a 36-year-old woman and her two children, is worth about $600,000.

A 36-year-old man handed himself in to Bankstown police station on Monday and was charged with supply and possession of cocaine, and dealing with the proceeds of crime.

He is to appear in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday.

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