A MAN has been arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of two brothers in country Victoria.
The bodies of sheep farmers Douglas and John Streeter, both aged in their late 60s, were discovered at their Natte Yallock property, near Avoca, by a family member on Thursday night.
Police arrested a 30-year-old Bendigo man on Saturday in connection with the deaths.
He was then taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
MUSLIM and Western nations have overcome deep divisions to agree a landmark UN declaration setting out a code of conduct for combating violence against women and girls.
Iran, Libya, Sudan and other Muslim nations agreed to language stating violence against women could not be justified by "any custom, tradition or religious consideration".
Western nations, particularly from Scandinavia, toned down demands for references to gay rights and sexual health rights to secure the accord after two weeks of tense negotiations between the 193 UN member states.
Cheers and wild applause erupted when the accord was announced in the UN headquarters late on Friday.
Michelle Bachelet, executive director of UN Women, said it had been a "historic" meeting. It was announced straight afterwards that Bachelet would be leaving her post to return to Chile.
"People worldwide expected action, and we didn't fail them," Bachelet said.UN leader Ban Ki-Moon said UN members had committed "to take action to prevent violence and provide justice and services to survivors" of violence against women, which he called a "global menace" and "moral outrage".
Iran and other Muslim states, the Vatican and Russia had formed what some diplomats had called "an unholy alliance" to weaken a statement calling for tough global standards on violence against women and girls.
They had objected to references to abortion rights and language suggesting rape includes forcible behaviour by a woman's husband or partner.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood had called the proposed UN document un-Islamic and warned it would lead to the "complete degradation of society".
With Norway and Denmark leading a European alliance with North America calling for tough language, right up to the final hours it had appeared that the meeting could end without an accord.
The last attempt by the UN commission to agree a declaration on violence against women in 2003 ended in failure.
"The commission urges states to strongly condemn all forms of violence against women and girls and to refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination," said the declaration.
States should "devote particular attention to abolishing practices and legislation that discriminate against women and girls, or perpetuate and condone violence against them."
Countries should "address and eliminate as a matter of priority domestic violence," went on the declaration.
Maxim magazine's president says the international men's publication is up for sale. Source: AAP
RACY men's magazine Maxim is up for sale.
The international magazine's president, Ben Madden, confirmed the start of the sales process on Friday.
Madden said the private equity owners of Maxim's parent, Alpha Media Group, had owned the business for more than six years, and that was the usual time for such investors to try to sell.
Madden said that after some years of decline, revenue at the publication had steadied.
The magazine publishes 10 times a year.
He said the company's investment in online video and digital subscriptions was starting to pay off.
He said digital revenue was up 45 per cent so far this year, compared to a year ago, while print ad revenue was set to rise in the first half.
Maxim was first launched in the UK in 1995 and its Australian edition was launched 2011 by Nuclear Media.
A MAN accused of the notorious slayings of his wife and her best friend in far north Queensland more than two decades ago has surrendered to police.
Alan Leahy, who has been living in Western Australia, handed himself in at Cairns Police Station on Friday, just in time to meet a coroner's deadline.
He is now in custody awaiting a bail hearing next week.
Earlier this month, State Coroner Michael Barnes committed Leahy to stand trial over the deaths of his wife Julia-Anne Leahy and her friend Vicki Arnold.
However, it will be up to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide whether he stands trial.
"When the brief of evidence is received ... it will be considered and a decision made as to whether it will proceed," a statement from the office said.
The bodies of Julia-Anne Leahy and Ms Arnold were found in a four-wheel drive in remote bush on the Atherton Tablelands, near Cairns, on August 9, 1991.
Mr Barnes overturned previous coronial findings that the women died in a murder-suicide.
He was able to commit Leahy to stand trial as the inquest was heard under the Coroners Act 1958, not the 2003 version now in place.
A week ago, Leahy's lawyer Malcolm Liston said his client denied any involvement in the deaths.
THE stepfather of Kiesha Weippart is to be sentenced in May over the killing of the six-year-old girl in western Sydney.
Kiesha was allegedly knocked unconscious by another person, who cannot be named, at her Mt Druitt home in July 2010.
Robert Smith, 33, has pleaded guilty to her manslaughter on the grounds of negligence and to being an accessory after the fact of murder.
During a brief appearance on Friday, the NSW Supreme Court was told that Smith, who was wearing a white shirt and had his short black hair slicked down, would not be putting forward further submissions on his sentencing.
Justice Megan Latham listed his sentencing for May 3.
Evidence was given to a court last month that after the little girl was injured, Smith left her in a "comatose" state when he went off to work, only to return home that night to find her dead.
After Kiesha died, the court heard Smith stuffed her body into a suitcase and left it in her room for about five days before he and his co-accused took it to a pre-prepared grave at nearby Shalvey on July 18, 2010.
"(Smith) then doused the deceased's body in petrol and set the deceased's body alight," crown prosecutor Keith Alder has previously told the court.
Kiesha was eventually reported missing from her home on August 1, sparking a large-scale police search and nationwide media interest.
Another person, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will stand trial for Kiesha's murder later this year.
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A MEDIA officer was told not to release information about a NSW coal exploration tender without checking with then minister Ian Macdonald because it was to be kept "low profile", documents show.
One of the sites up for tender, an area in the NSW Hunter known as Mount Penny, is under investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Mount Penny is at the centre of claims that Mr Macdonald, along with former NSW minister Eddie Obeid and his family, stood to gain millions from the alleged rort of the tender process.
Documents tabled in parliament reveal Department of Primary Industries media officer Jenny Ward was approached by the ABC for details about expressions of interest received by government.
In an email to Ms Ward dated November 25, 2008 - the day after expressions of interest closed for 11 coal release areas around the state - a senior department adviser instructed her to "seek advice from the minister's office" before releasing any information about the process to media.
"I understand that the minister's office wishes this EOI to remain low-profile," the email's author, Julie Moloney, wrote.
The email was copied to Brad Mullard, who is now the executive director for mineral resources at the Department of Trade and Investment.
The email is among hundreds of pages of documents that were never volunteered when the NSW parliament called for papers relating to the tender in 2009, but were later uncovered by ICAC investigators.
They were tabled in parliament late on Thursday.
The Parliamentary Privileges Committee will now look at the documents and decide whether to take further action, including whether the matter should be referred back to the ICAC.
The ICAC will begin the next stage of its months-long inquiry, Operation Acacia, on Monday.
Acacia will examine the circumstances surrounding an exploration licence at another site, Doyles Creek.
Among those listed as witnesses in this segment of the inquiry are Jamie Gibson, Mr Macdonald's former chief-of-staff, and Mr Mullard.
WOMEN: The Army wants you.
The Australian Army has launched a recruitment campaign to lift its intake of women, insisting there's been cultural change since the defence forces were rocked by highly publicised sex scandals.
A major sex scandal hit the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in 2011 when a female cadet came forward alleging she had been filmed on Skype having sex with another cadet while others watched in a nearby room.
The incident prompted a series of reviews and other alleged victims emerged with claims of sexual and other abuse.
Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison said for too long there had been too few women in the army, but now was the time to join.
"What we're seeing at the moment is a major cultural change, not just in the army, but in the ADF," General Morrison told reporters at Sydney's Victoria Barracks.
"And yes, there will be people who'll speculate that that was a response to the reviews following the incident that occurred at ADFA (Australian Defence Force Academy) and they're probably in some parts right."
"But that's appropriate, isn't it?
"I can't say that everybody serving in the ADF is an angel, but I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of our men and women have performed stellar work."
General Morrison said it was possible that one day a women would hold his position as chief of army.
The campaign aims to increase the intake of women in the army from 10 per cent to 12 per cent by July 2014.
That equates to an extra 660 jobs for women in all trades.
Army pilot Jenny Roberts said the recent scandals were uncommon and shouldn't deter women from joining.
"It is a minor thing. It doesn't happen all the time," Captain Roberts said.
"I do believe (cultural) change is occurring."
Captain Roberts said she didn't know anyone who had been subject to harassment in the organisation, but said it was possible it was still going on.
"I believe there may be some (harassment) out there, however, but there are processes involved in dealing with those matters."
DEPUTY Opposition Leader Julie Bishop has called for Prime Minister Julia Gillard to be referred to the powerful privileges committee over comments she made about radio presenter Michael Smith.
Ms Gillard told parliament in November last year that Mr Smith was "the man who was sacked for wanting to defame me".
She said he was behind Ms Bishop's line of questioning about the prime minister's involvement in the Australian Workers' Union slush fund affair.
Mr Smith's right of reply letter to these comments were read into Hansard on Thursday morning.
"It is untrue that I was sacked," his letter stated.
"I resigned from Fairfax Media (radio 2UE).
"It also is false that I wanted to defame the prime minister."
Under the rules for right of reply for people outside of parliament, the committee does not treat the reply as a judgment on the truthfulness of either of them.
"While Mr Smith has been given the right of reply and a certain degree of natural justice ... I believe the committee should be given the opportunity to judge the truth of the statements at issue made by the prime minister to the parliament," Ms Bishop told parliament on Thursday.
She asked Speaker Anna Burke to determine whether a prima facie breach of privilege had occurred that should be referred to the privileges committee.
Ms Burke said she would consider the matter.
DOCUMENTS relating to the tender for a mining licence at Mount Penny don't appear to have been included in a file produced to the upper house in 2009, NSW parliament has been told.
The Parliamentary Privileges Committee will now examine whether the material was deliberately withheld as part of an attempted cover-up.
"This is an extremely grave matter," said Legislative Council president Don Harwin.
"We now appear to be faced with the possibility that one of the orders of the house was not complied with.
"It is ultimately for the house itself to determine whether its order has been complied with and the consequences that flow."
Operation Jasper is investigating whether Labor's former mining minister Ian Macdonald rigged a 2008 tender process for coal exploration licences at Mount Penny to benefit Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid.
The upper house first made a call for papers on the alleged deal in 2009, when Mr Macdonald and the head of the Department of Industry and Investment, Richard Sheldrake, presented to parliament one box of privileged papers and one box of non-privileged papers.
Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham sparked concerns in December last year that some key documents were missing.
Advice was then sought from the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), currently investigating the alleged deal as part of its inquiry into the state's largest-ever possible corruption case.
In a letter Mr Harwin read to the house on Thursday, Commissioner David Ipp said: "The commission has now completed that exercise." The letter said a commission officer had catalogued the documents produced in the response to the order for papers, and then compared that list with the relevant exhibits tendered during Operation Jasper.
"The commission officer then created a document comparison matrix listing the documents considered to be possibly relevant to the order for papers, but which do not appear to have been included in the production to parliament ... ," it said.
"The commission does not propose to take any further action in relation to this matter unless parliament wishes it to do so."
Mr Harwin said the matter would now go to the privileges committee.
"As your president I regard the privileges and powers of this house as matters of vital importance," he said.
"It is essential that this matter be dealt with in a way that upholds the dignity, role and powers of this house."
The Privileges Committee will now look at the documents contained in the ICAC comparison and consider further action, including whether it should be referred back to the watchdog.
NEW continuous disclosure rules on the release of market-sensitive information for listed companies are expected to come into effect from May.
ASX chief compliance officer Kevin Lewis said the new rules struck the right balance between the needs of companies for compliance certainty and those of investors for timely, meaningful disclosure.
The move to update disclosure rules for the first time since 2005 came after failed legal action against Fortescue Metals Group and a sham takeover bid for David Jones.
Draft guidelines released in October 2012 sought to clarify that the need to disclose market-sensitive information "immediately" did not mean "instantaneously" but rather "promptly and without delay".
Following the consultation period, the ASX sought to clarify "delay" was not simply just the passing of time, but rather the "deferring, postponing or putting off" of any announcement to a later time.
Also, the ASX took out a reference where it believed a reasonable person would expect a company that was subject to a hostile takeover bid to disclose a potential competing offer.
Industry feedback said such a requirement would discourage potential counter-bidders from making a genuine competing offer and "may also encourage spoilers to make illusory or highly conditional counter-offers, knowing that the target will have to disclose them".
The new guidelines are expected to come into effect around May 1 should Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten approve the changes.
Clayton Utz partner Karen Evans-Cullen said the ASX responded to the need from industry players to clear up areas of ambiguity in the draft guidelines.
"I don't actually think they have made any fundamental policy changes with the changes released today, it is more just clarification," Ms Evans-Cullen said.
"The package released today really does reflect that they have seriously considered the industry feedback they got."
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) welcomed the updated rules.
"Continuous disclosure issues can sometimes be difficult, and judgment calls can be required," ASIC commissioner John Price said in a statement.
"We are confident the updated guidance will help companies."
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has accused the prime minister of playing the race card over 457 visas. Source: AAP
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has accused the prime minister of playing the race card over 457 visas, sparking a parliamentary row which led to the state's opposition leader being ejected from the house.
Julia Gillard used a mini-election campaign in western Sydney last week to raise the issue of employers misusing temporary foreign worker visas.
She announced a clampdown on the 457 program to address abuses and ensure Australians get first preference for jobs.
In question time on Wednesday, Mr O'Farrell said it was clear a federal election campaign was under way.
"And once again Julia Gillard has sought to play the race card in that election and to do so, in all places, multi-cultural western Sydney," he told the lower house.
"In attacking 457 visas she attacks legal immigration at a time she can't control or stop illegal immigration ... she took the low road and played the race card."
Mr O'Farrell also accused Ms Gillard of using a speech in western Sydney in 2010 to blame immigrants for traffic congestion.
"The prime minister has become an expert at dog whistles," he said.
His remarks prompted outrage from the other side of the house, which accused Mr O'Farrell of being "highly offensive".
Opposition Leader John Robertson said the Liberal Party had "an appalling record".
"If you want to talk about racism, we'll start talking about boats ... talking about Tampa, talking about children overboard.
"You are a disgrace."
Mr Robertson's outburst led to Parliamentary Speaker Shelley Hancock ejecting him from the house for the remainder of question time.
Adam Giles (pic) has rolled Terry Mills as chief minister of the Northern Territory. Source: AAP
ADAM Giles is the Northern Territory's new chief minister after securing the numbers to roll Terry Mills while he was overseas on a trade mission.
Mr Giles, who was the NT's transport minister, becomes Australia's first indigenous head of government after his second challenge to Mr Mills' leadership in less than a week.
It is understood Mr Giles took the leadership 11 votes to five during a meeting of the parliamentary wing of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in Darwin on Wednesday afternoon.
Ten Network boss has attacked key planks of the federal government's planned media industry reforms. Source: AAP
TEN Network has slammed key parts of the federal government's planned media industry reforms.
Ten boss Hamish McLennan has criticised the government's push to introduce a public interest test for major media mergers and acquisitions, saying it is unworkable and unnecessary.
He also blasted plans for a parliamentary committee to examine the abolition of the so-called "75 per cent reach" rule, which currently stops metropolitan TV broadcasters taking over smaller regional stations.
"The only possible outcome of ditching the 75 per cent reach rule - in isolation - will be a reduction in media diversity and a further reduction in news services in regional Australia," Mr McLennan said in a statement on Tuesday.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy earlier outlined a raft of industry reforms, saying the committee would have one day to hear evidence about the reach rule.
The reforms also include a permanent 50 per cent reduction in TV licence fees, as long as local content is increased by an extra 1490 hours by 2015, and plans to overhaul the way complaints against the press are handled.
Mr McLennan said he welcomed the reduction in licence fees.
A Melbourne-led study has uncovered how influenza strains mutate and evade our immune systems. Source: AAP
A UNIVERSAL flu vaccine may be closer than ever, with Melbourne researchers saying they've found a way to predict and protect against new strains of the virus.
A study has uncovered how to potentially stop mutating cells of the influenza virus, which normally escape our bodies' white blood cell - or T cell - immunity, the researchers say.
The University of Melbourne, Monash University and international scientists worked together and found how the virus evades our immune systems by introducing specific mutations within its viral proteins, they said in a statement.
The finding may lead to a new universal flu vaccine to better protect against both seasonal and pandemic outbreaks, they believe.
It will also help researchers understand T cell immunity against other viral infections such as HIV, hepatitis C and tumours, the statement said.
Professor Peter Doherty, a lead author of the study from the University of Melbourne, said predicting and designing vaccines to protect against such mutants can promote T cell immunity.
"The studies suggested that an influenza vaccine that targets T cells and recognises distinct virus strains could provide universal immunity against any future influenza strain," he said in a statement on Tuesday.
Figures show annual seasonal epidemics of the flu result in three to five million cases of severe illness, and up to 500,000 deaths worldwide.
A new strain of the virus can spread across 74 countries in two months.
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The Queensland premier Campbell Newman has been accused of contempt of parliament. Source: AAP
THE opposition will push for Queensland Premier Campbell Newman to be held in contempt of parliament for attacking the parliamentary body that oversees the embattled crime and corruption watchdog.
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk says she'll write to Speaker Fiona Simpson on Tuesday asking for action.
Mr Newman last week accused the bipartisan Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee (PCMC) of failing to supervise properly the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC).
He said the committee had become a "lapdog" of the very organisation it was meant to scrutinise.
He accused the committee of allowing the CMC inadvertently to release and shred secret documents from the Fitzgerald inquiry into police corruption.
Ms Palaszczuk said he even went as far as accusing the PCMC itself of shredding documents.
"The premier has repeatedly made comments about the PCMC and it is not appropriate and it has to end," she said.
The opposition leader told the premier, the attorney general, and the treasurer to butt out.
"The PCMC and the CMC need to have their integrity kept at all costs, and what we are seeing very clearly is an attack by the executive government on the PCMC and the CMC.
"This matter of contempt is serious."
A public hearing into the release of the confidential documents will begin in parliament on Wednesday.
THE federal government should reveal its plans to reform the media landscape after sitting on two reviews for a year, the Australian Greens say.
The government is running out of time, with just seven sitting weeks left, to see any changes to media laws passing parliament before the federal poll on September 14.
Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam says the government has delayed its response to the convergence review and the Finkelstein inquiry into news media regulation it was handed early in 2012.
"It is time the government brought forward the full package of media reforms; a package that should promote media diversity and prevent further concentration of media ownership, protect the ABC and SBS, and promote community broadcasting," Senator Ludlam said in a statement on Monday.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said last week the government would bring forward media law changes before the election but they would need the support of independent MPs.
It is understood cabinet could consider a number of measures on Monday, ahead of parliament sitting on Tuesday.
One of the key changes proposed is the removal of a rule that prevents any television network from broadcasting to more than 75 per cent of the Australian population.
The rule currently stops any one of the three major commercial networks from buying regional affiliates.
The Nine Network is considering a merger with Southern Cross Austereo.
Also being considered are a revamped press council, a tort of privacy, increased Australian content rules and a public interest test for prospective media owners.
To have any legislation pass the lower house, Labor will need the support of five crossbenchers.
Senator Ludlam said the Greens would work with Labor to bring genuine reform and prevent further concentration of media ownership in Australia.
A spokesman for shadow communications minister Malcolm Turnbull said the coalition would comment after the government revealed its media reform plans.
BOEING has chosen Brisbane firm Ferra Engineering to make wing kits to extend the range of GPS-guided bombs carried by US and Australian combat aircraft.
Defence Materiel Minister Mike Kelly says the JDAM-ER (joint direct attack munition extended range) is an Australian initiative to increase the range of existing JDAM bombs through use of bolt-on wings.
JDAM is a kit which converts a conventional aircraft-dropped freefall bomb into a guided weapon, using GPS satellite navigation to home in on its target.
These are widely used in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The ER kit, which is the one that will be made by Ferra Engineering, comprises fold-out wings that are bolted to the bomb body and triples JDAM range to about 80 kilometres.
"The wing kit will almost triple the weapon's current range, making the JDAM-ER a very cost effective weapon," Mr Kelly said in a statement.
Ferra will be the sole worldwide supplier of the wing kits to Boeing.
Dr Kelly said Boeing's choice demonstrated its confidence in Australian industry.
The first ER wing kits will be used for JDAM-ER flight tests scheduled for later this year.
Initial production orders are expected to be completed by 2015.
This program provides potential for future worldwide sales and exports worth millions.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman welcomed the announcement as a great Australian success story.
"This Queensland aerospace company began as a two-man operation in 1992 and has grown to become a great Australian success story with more than 130 employees," Mr Newman said.
Trade Minister Tim Nicholls said the deal was made off the back of alliances formed during government-led overseas trade missions.
"As a result of their hard work and dedication, Ferra Engineering has now become an important supplier to a string of high profile aviation giants," he said.
Mourners gather to pay their respects to high-profile businessman James Strong, who died last week. Source: AAP
JAMES Strong was a bow-tie bikie who lived life at full throttle.
Hundreds of high-profile Australians from the boardroom to the race track to the stage gathered on Monday to remember Mr Strong as an astute businessman, generous philanthropist, arts lover and sports tragic.
The 68-year-old former Qantas chief and Woolworths chairman died on March 3 from lung complications following surgery.
The mourners at Sydney's City Recital Hall included NSW Governor Marie Bashir, Labor MP and musician Peter Garrett, former Reserve Bank of Australia chairman Ian McFarlane and former director of the Art Gallery of NSW Edmund Capon.
Former motorcycle World Champion Mick Doohan told the service that he first met Mr Strong at Eastern Creek Raceway in the mid 1990s and the pair soon became firm friends over a shared love of the sport.
"He lived life at full throttle and he was the only bow tie bikie I knew," Doohan said.
His son Sam Strong said his father, who grew up on a farm in Lismore, was a great listener and a voracious reader who had a particular love of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
"There was more than a little of a poet trapped inside a businessman's body," he said.
He said he and his brother Nick could not recall their father ever raising his voice and he was a fiercely attentive listener who always made time for them.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce paid tribute to Mr Strong's work in transforming the airline during the 1990s.
"With the airline heading into its biggest transformation since it was founded in 1920, this was the hardest job in aviation, and one of the toughest in corporate Australia," he said.
"How James succeeded was a lesson in leadership."
Mr Joyce said he also valued Mr Strong's insight when he returned to Qantas as a director in 2006.
"He was a true gentleman but also a fighter; an opera buff and a rev-head; mountain climber and bookworm: businessman and dreamer," he said.
"He was both tough and smooth and always a class act."
Woolworths chief executive Grant O'Brien said the supermarket giant would be passing on Mr Strong's words of advice on listening, treating people equally and acting with grace and dignity to its future recruits.
"I though Woolworths bought out the best in James because it was a way for him to connect with thousands of Australians," he said.
THEY turned out with rods, cricket balls and high hopes, but Australia's water divining jackpot remains unclaimed.
About 30 water diviners took part in a challenge on Sunday set by the Australian Skeptics.
To meet scientific standards, diviners had to distinguish plastic bags containing water from others filled with sand at the Mighty Mitta Muster in country Victoria.
Contestants walked around a track with their water divining devices accompanied by judges.
Judge Krissy Wilson said a score of 17 or 18 would have been needed to have a chance at claiming the $110,000 prize.
But the average score was nine out of 20.
"It's no more than we would expect simply by chance, so no one is going to scoop the prize," Dr Wilson.
Trevor Wenke, a farmer from Walla Walla near Albury, had two tries at the course with a steel rod and a cricket ball on a chain, scoring nine and 10 out of 20.
"It's the way the wire swings or whether the ball swings there to determine whether it's water or sand," he said.
Mr Wenke has been water divining for 35 years and has helped people find water across NSW and Queensland.
"In the drought when people wanted water I could find it underground and they could save their stock and their cattle and their sheep," he said.
Members of the Australian Skeptics were interested in understanding the truth about paranormal and related phenomena, Dr Wilson said.
She said the $110,000 prize was up for grabs for anyone who could prove they had a paranormal ability such water divining, talking to the dead or telepathic communication.
A MAN who was exonerated after spending 13 years in a US prison for murder cried as a federal jury found that two police detectives violated his civil rights by coercing and falsifying testimony and withholding evidence that pointed to his innocence.
The jury's verdict on Friday, which included awarding $US13.2 million ($A12.93 million) to David Ayers of Cleveland for his pain and suffering, brings an end to the legal battle he's been fighting since his arrest in the 1999 killing of 76-year-old Dorothy Brown.
Ayers, 56, was released from prison in 2011 after the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati reversed his conviction and the state decided not to seek another trial.
Ayers had been found guilty of killing Brown, who was found in her Cleveland apartment bludgeoned to death, covered in defensive wounds and naked from the waist down; she also had been robbed. DNA testing later proved that a pubic hair found in her mouth did not come from Ayers.
"This should have been stopped a long time ago," Ayers told the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper after the jury's verdict on Friday. "My goal is that it never happens to anyone else ever again."
A phone number listed for Ayers did not accept messages on Saturday.
Ayers filed his civil rights lawsuit in March 2012 against six Cleveland police officers, the city and the county housing authority. Allegations against three of the officers, the city and the housing authority were dismissed by a judge who found that their roles did not violate Ayers' rights.
One of the remaining officers settled out of court with Ayers for an undisclosed amount. The Friday verdict was against detectives Michael Cipo and Denise Kovach, who were the lead investigators in the case.
Kovach and Cipo could not be reached for comment. They have denied misconduct.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that lawyer Rachel Steinback of Chicago, who represented Ayers, said the city is self-insured so the award will come from taxpayer money, not an insurance company.
Among the most serious allegations by Ayers against Kovach and Cipo were that the two detectives conspired with each other to fabricate a confession that he never made, coerced a friend of Ayers to lie by saying that Ayers had told him of the murder before Brown's body was discovered, and gave key information about the crime to Ayers' prison cellmate so he could later testify against Ayers about an admission he didn't make.
In an August filing, Cipo and Kovach argued to have the lawsuit dismissed, saying that they acted in good faith and with probable cause, and that Ayers was responsible for any alleged injuries that he incurred.
Federal Judge James Gwin denied their request late last month shortly before the trial, ruling that Ayers had produced sufficient evidence that the detectives had violated his rights.
A presidential election to replace late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez will be held on 14 April. Source: AAP
VENEZUELAN political parties have begun registering candidates for a snap election on April 14, setting the stage for a bruising campaign to succeed the late president Hugo Chavez.
The national electoral council set the poll date on Saturday one day after Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's handpicked successor, was sworn in as acting president in a ceremony largely boycotted by the opposition, which slammed it as unconstitutional.
Shortly after the date was set, the main opposition coalition announced it had unanimously chosen Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the October election, as its unity candidate again.
"We have all recognised Henrique Capriles Radonski as the person to embody this option of change," said Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, executive secretary of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).
Capriles wrote on Twitter that he was "grateful" for the offer and would announce soon whether he will accept the nomination.
The Miranda state governor was picked by the MUD last year in an unprecedented primary.
Political hostilities had already begun just hours after Venezuela and more than 30 foreign leaders gave Chavez a rousing state funeral, with Maduro railing against the opposition and capitalism following his inauguration.
Emulating his late mentor's combative style, the former vice president vowed "absolute loyalty" to Chavez before donning the presidential sash, his voice cracking as he declared: "Sorry for our pain and tears; but this presidency belongs to our Comandante."
Before Maduro was sworn in, Capriles denounced the inauguration as a "constitutional fraud" and abuse of power by the government.
"Nicolas, nobody elected you president. The people didn't vote for you, kid," Capriles said.
The electoral council said candidates will be able to register on Sunday and Monday and that the campaign would be short, lasting from April 2 to April 11.
Chavez will cast a huge shadow over the election, which will almost coincide with a key anniversary in his political history.
The late leader was briefly ousted on April 11, 2002, in a coup that was organised by the chamber of commerce and the trade union with the help of some military officials.
But he was restored to power by loyal soldiers on April 13 amid popular protests.
The government plans to embalm and preserve Chavez "like Lenin" to rest in a glass casket "for eternity," a move decried by the opposition, which said that it went against the president's wish to be buried.
Thousands of Venezuelans, meanwhile, continued to file past the open casket of the firebrand leader at a military academy, in a prolonged farewell to the man whose socialist revolution heightened class tensions in the country of 29 million.
Chavez lost his battle against cancer on Tuesday at the age of 58, leaving behind a divided country after a tumultuous 14-year presidency.
He had chosen Maduro to succeed him before leaving for Cuba in December for a new round of cancer surgery, urging Venezuelans to vote for the 50-year-old former bus driver and union activist if he died.
