Australian police withdraw from East Timor

Australian police officers have left East Timor as the UN prepares to end its peacekeeping mission. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA has withdrawn its last remaining police officers from East Timor as international forces wind up a 13-year presence in Asia's youngest country.

The eight Australian officers serving with the UN Police boarded a Darwin-bound plane from the capital Dili on Saturday as the United Nations prepares to officially end its peacekeeping mission by December 31.

International forces began pulling out in earnest in October, when the UN handed policing responsibility back to the country which recently celebrated a decade of formal independence that ended Indonesia's 24-year brutal occupation.

Australian police commander for the mission Charmaine Quade expressed confidence East Timor could handle its own security after successful elections this year and the formation of a new government.

"Australian police have been there to contribute to the enhancement and professionalisation of the Timor-Leste police, and the competence the national police here have shown is testament to how far they've come," she said.

The move comes after the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force (ISF) ceased its security operations in November and began pulling out some of its 390 troops from the country.

Australia has stationed 50 police at a time in East Timor under the UN since 2006, with 33 deployed this year under a bilateral capacity-building program.

International peacekeepers first entered East Timor in 1999 as deadly violence erupted around the country's referendum for independence.

The vote ended Indonesia's occupation, under which an estimated 183,000 people - then a quarter of the population - died from fighting, disease and starvation.

The only major violence in the impoverished half-island state of 1.1 million people since has been a failed assassination attempt against then-president Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in 2008.

Quade said the last batch of Australian police to leave East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, were "looking forward to being reunited with their loved ones".

"They've been able to fully focus on their roles and duties here with the UN because they've had that support and understanding at home," she said.

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Routine morning, then unthinkable terror

FIRST, he killed his mother.

Nancy Lanza's body was found later at their home in Newtown - after the carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Nobody knows why 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, why he then took her guns to the school and murdered 20 children and six adults.

But on Friday he drove his mother's car through this 300-year-old town and arrived at a local school. Somehow, he got past a security door to a place where children should have been safe from harm.

Theodore Varga and other fourth-grade teachers were meeting. The glow remained from the previous night's fourth-grade concert.

"It was a lovely day," Varga said. "Everybody was joyful and cheerful. We were ending the week on a high note."

And then, suddenly and unfathomably, gunshots rang out. "I can't even remember how many," he said.

The fourth-graders, the oldest kids in the school, were in specialty classes like gym and music. There was no lock on the meeting room door, so the teachers had to think about how to escape, knowing that their students were with other teachers.

Someone turned the loudspeaker on, so everyone could hear what was happening in the office.

"You could hear the hysteria that was going on," Varga said. "Whoever did that saved a lot of people. Everyone in the school was listening to the terror that was transpiring."

Gathered in another room for a meeting were principal Dawn Hochsprung and Diane Day, a school therapist, along with a school psychologist, other staff members and a parent. They were meeting to discuss a second-grader.

"We were there for about five minutes chatting, and we heard Pop! Pop!, Pop!" Day told The Wall Street Journal. "I went under the table."

But Hochsprung and the psychologist leaped out of their seats and ran out of the room, Day recalled. "They didn't think twice about confronting or seeing what was going on," she said. Hochsprung was killed, and the psychologist was believed to have been killed as well.

A custodian ran around, warning people there was a gunman, Varga said.

"He said, 'Guys! Get down! Hide!"' Varga said. "So he was actually a hero."

Did he survive? The teacher did not know.

Police radios crackled with first word of the shooting at 9:36, according to the New York Post.

"Sandy Hook School. Caller is indicating she thinks there's someone shooting in the building," a Newtown dispatcher radioed, according to a tape posted on the paper's website.

In a first-grade classroom, teacher Kaitlin Roig heard the shots. She immediately barricaded her 15 students into a tiny bathroom, sitting one of them on top of the toilet. She pulled a bookshelf across the door and locked it. She told the kids to be "absolutely quiet."

"I said, 'There are bad guys out there now. We need to wait for the good guys,"' she told ABC News.

"The kids were being so good," she said. "They asked, 'Can we go see if anyone is out there?' 'I just want Christmas. I don't want to die, I just want to have Christmas.' I said, 'You're going to have Christmas and Hanukkah."'

One student claimed to know karate. "It's OK. I'll lead the way out," the student said.

In the gym, crying fourth-graders huddled in a corner. One of them was 10-year-old Philip Makris.

"He said he heard a lot of loud noises and then screaming," said his mother, Melissa Makris. "Then the gym teachers immediately gathered the children in a corner and kept them safe."

Another girl who was in the gym recalled hearing "like, seven loud booms."

"The gym teacher told us to go in a corner, so we all huddled and I kept hearing these booming noises," the girl, who was not identified by name, told NBC News. "We all started - well, we didn't scream; we started crying, so all the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us."

An 8-year-old boy described how a teacher saved him.

"I saw some of the bullets going past the hall that I was right next to, and then a teacher pulled me into her classroom," said the boy, who was not identified by CBSNews.com.

Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. "That's when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He was very brave. He waited for his friends."

He said the shooter didn't utter a word.

"The shooting appears to have stopped," the dispatcher radioed at 9:38 am, according to the Post. "There is silence at this time. The school is in lockdown."

And at 9:46 am, an anguished voice from the school: "I've got bodies here. Need ambulances."

Carefully, police searched room to room, removing children and staff from harm's way. They found Adam Lanza, dead by his own hand after shooting up two classrooms; no officer fired a gun.

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Three dead on Queensland's roads

THREE men have died on Queensland roads in separate crashes on Saturday, including an 18-year-old who was thrown from the tray of a ute and a cyclist who hit a tree.

Police said the 18-year-old was travelling in the back of the ute in Cape Palmerston National Park, in the state's north, at about 6.40am (AEST) on Saturday when the vehicle rolled.

The man, from Bilinga on the Gold Coast, died at the scene.

The driver, also 18, was also thrown from the utility, but survived with injuries.

On the Gold Coast, a 57-year-old man was killed in the suburb of Nerang after his car crashed into a tree at about 3am.

Emergency services transported him to the Gold Coast Hospital but he died later in the morning.

In Townsville, in Queensland's north-east, a cyclist died after apparently colliding with a tree.

The 69-year-old's body was found at the side of the Mount Low Parkway at about 6am.

The Forensic Crash Unit is investigating each incident and police have urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Macmahon shares drop to eight-year lows

SHARES in Macmahon Holdings slumped to an eight-year low after the mining contract launched a $80.7 million capital raising and sold its ailing construction business.

The stock dropped heavily after coming out of a trading halt on Friday, closing five cents lower at 21.5 cents after earlier sliding to 18 cents.

The stock had last traded at 26.5 cents before going into a trading halt on Monday.

Two days later it announced the capital raising, the sale of its construction arm to Leighton Holdings for $16.3 million, and downgraded its full year earnings guidance.

Chief executive Ross Carroll warned that Macmahon's net profit for 2012/13 would be between nil and $25 million as the company had been forced to make substantial writedowns on its construction business.

The earnings downgrade came three months after Macmahon shocked investors with news that its annual profit would be about half the $56.1 million reported in 2011/12.

Morningstar Equities Research senior analyst Ross MacMillan said he had cut his net profit forecasts for the group to $2.4 million for 2012/13 from $24.3 million.

He described the capital raising as highly dilutive and advised investors not to take up their entitlements.

"However, if the shares trade above the offer price there may be profitable opportunities for investors to take up their entitlements and sell shares on market," he said in a note to clients on Friday.

As its shares resumed trading, Macmahon said it had completed the bookbuild for the institutional component of its fully underwritten capital raising.

The company raised $42 million from institutions, who paid 16 cents a share.

Macmahon's existing institutional investors took up 86 per cent of the new shares on offer, which is being used to strengthen the its balance sheet and expand its mining business.

However smaller institutions did not take up all their entitlements to the new shares, which were sold to other institutional investors and major shareholder Leighton Holdings.

Retail investors will now be offered $38 million worth of shares under the offer, which opens to them on Wednesday.

"The successful completion of the institutional component of the offer demonstrates strong shareholder support for Macmahon's refocused strategy to build on the long term success of our mining business," chief executive Ross Carroll said.

Macmahon wants to become a dedicated full service mining contractor after offloading its construction business.

The moves come after a major review of Macmahon's businesses and costs, which has led to the axing of up to 50 jobs.

Macmahon expects to be hit by one-off costs of about $10 million as a result of its restructuring, and redundancy and closure costs.

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Cronulla fisheries closure to go ahead

THE NSW government will ignore the recommendations of a parliamentary inquiry and push ahead with the closure of the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre, saying it is 80 per cent complete.

In a scathing report, the upper house committee in October said the decision to close the centre in southern Sydney and move jobs to regional NSW was "an example of how not to undertake decentralisation".

The government put on hold the relocation program until it responded to the inquiry's recommendations, but on Friday Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson confirmed the move would go ahead.

The closure, announced last year without any economic appraisal, triggered outrage among more than 100 Cronulla staff opposed to moving to new headquarters in Port Stephens, Nowra and Coffs Harbour.

"This is about sharing the economic benefits with our regional communities and the NSW Government cannot accept the recommendation to reverse the closure of the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre," Ms Hodgkinson said in a statement.

"The relocation project, including transferring employees, equipment and establishing new office, laboratories and storage facilities began 13 months ago and is now 80 per cent complete."

In its response the government committed to keeping the prime waterfront fisheries site in public hands, after concerns were raised at the inquiry that it might be sold to developers.

"At the end of the day, decentralisation requires strong leadership from Government and that is what we were elected to do," Ms Hodgkinson said.

The Public Service Association (PSA) called the decision gutless and cowardly.

The government deliberately waited until the Industrial Relations Commission and parliament closed for business over the Christmas period, assistant NSW secretary Shane O'Brien said.

"They do it in the hope that the news will be buried in the busy-ness of the season, and they do it in the knowledge that legal areas of recourse for the workers are severely limited."

Mr O'Brien said the parliamentary inquiry found the government did not have a sound business case, an economic analysis, or evidence of improvement of service for making such an "arrogant decision".

"What we've got is a government that has ignored the workers, the fishing industry, the fishing communities, stakeholders, researchers, parliament, they've ignored everybody," Mr O'Brien said.

"They haven't once been prepared to sit down with the staff there and explain to them why their opposition to the plan is flawed. They've hidden from them for 16 months."

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Stockwatch Week to December 14

A ROUND-UP of some of the key stock movements on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in the trading week to Friday, December 14, 2012:

(Includes change on share price from previous Friday close)

APN - APN NEWS AND MEDIA - down two cents or seven per cent to 26.5 cents

APN News & Media shares fell to a record low and had $33 million wiped off its market value after its shares plunged to new lows following a profit warning.

ALZ - AUSTRALAND - up 29 cents, or 9.6 per cent, at $3.31

GPT - GPT GROUP - down four cents, or 1.1 per cent, at $3.56

Australand has rejected an offer from fellow property company GPT Group for its commercial and industrial and investment property portfolio.

BHP - BHP BILLITON LTD - up $1.33, or 3.8 per cent, at $36.07

BHP Billiton has rid itself of looming risks with the controversial $30 billion Browse gas project after deciding to sell its interest to oil and gas giant PetroChina.

MAH - MACMAHON HOLDINGS - down 0.8 cents or 3.6 per cent, at 21.5 cents

Shares in Macmahon Holdings slumped to an eight-year low after the mining contract launched a $80.7 million capital raising and sold its ailing construction business.

QAN - QANTAS AIRWAYS - up five cents or 3.6 per cent, at $1.395

The competition watchdog has approved plans by Qantas to more closely integrate its operations with that of its low-cost airline Jetstar.

SXL - SOUTHERN CROSS MEDIA - down six cents, or 5.4 per cent, at $1.045

Southern Cross Media Group said it resume advertising on Sydney radio station 2DayFM but donate the profits following a backlash over a prank call to a London hospital.

WPL - WOODSIDE PETROLEUM - up 10 cents, or 0.3 per cent, at $34.32

Woodside Petroleum has warned that further cost blowouts in the oil and gas industry could jeopardise future long-term investment.

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Schwarten happy to front payroll inquiry

Queensland's premier announced an inquiry into the state's bungled health payroll system. Source: AAP

A FORMER Queensland Labor minister at the centre of the state's health payroll fiasco says he isn't worried about having to testify at an inquiry set up by the Newman government.

Premier Campbell Newman on Thursday announced a $5 million commission of inquiry into Queensland Health's bungled payroll system, to be headed by retired Court of Appeal judge Richard Chesterman QC.

Thousands of public servants were underpaid, overpaid or left unpaid after a flawed IBM computer system was introduced in March 2010 by the former Labor government.

The inquiry will look at who could be held responsible for the bungle, which has been estimated to cost the state $1.2 billion, and could potentially call on former Labor government ministers to give evidence.

But former IT minister Robert Schwarten, who was in charge of the system's rollout, says he's "a million per cent confident" he has nothing to worry about and will happily cooperate with the inquiry if required.

"I've got three things: a clear memory, a clear conscience and a clean pair of hands," he told AAP.

"This inquiry is just to create a sideshow to draw attention from his (Mr Newman's) abysmal performance over the past eight months."

However, Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the inquiry was "absolutely necessary" and might open an avenue that isn't currently available for legal action to help recover funds.

"Our chance of success may very much depend on yet-to-be-discovered facts," Mr Springborg said.

Mr Newman said the all-encompassing inquiry would protect whistleblowers who wanted to speak out, but were too scared.

"There are people out there who are saying ... that they have something to say, but they're frightened about how they may end up being treated if they were to come forward," he said.

But the probe, which will commence in February next year, has copped criticism from unions, who have labelled it a waste of money.

"It was an administrative mess-up and we should just put it down to experience and get on with delivering health and aged care services to the people of Queensland," Queensland Nurses' Union secretary Des Elder said in a statement.

Acting Opposition Leader Tim Mulherin said the government needed to release its legal advice for the inquiry.

"If there is advice to the contrary, one would question why the need for an inquiry," he told reporters in Brisbane.

The government has said there has been $150 million in unfunded costs this year to fix the payroll system, and that has led to 1500 Queensland Health job losses.

Mr Chesterman is due to hand down his report by April 30.

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No harm reassessing budget: Westpac

THE chairman of one of the nation's leading banks believes the federal government should be continually assessing budget policy, just as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) does with monetary policy.

Treasury has reportedly advised the government to dump its commitment to a surplus, warning a slump in nominal economic growth poses a threat to revenue.

The government has repeatedly said it is sticking to its promised surplus, which was forecast to be $1.1 billion in 2012/13 in the mid-year budget update released in October.

Westpac chairman Lindsay Maxsted was quizzed on the surplus by reporters following the bank's AGM in Sydney on Thursday.

"I think it is good policy to be continually reassessing what fiscal policy should be in place, just as the RBA continues to consider what monetary policy is in place," Mr Maxsted said.

The RBA board meets 11 times a year to assess interest rate policy, while the government only reveals its budget forecasts twice a year.

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Sydney light rail plan ignores bus advice

THE NSW government will push ahead with a light rail line from Sydney's CBD to the eastern suburbs, ignoring recommendations of its own infrastructure advisory body for an underground rapid bus system.

A $1.6 billion light rail line will be built between Circular Quay and Randwick to reduce congestion in the city, as part of the final 20-year transport masterplan announced by NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell on Thursday.

The 12km link will run along George Street, past the Moore Park precinct, Randwick Racecourse and the University of NSW, to the Prince of Wales Hospital.

The stretch of George Street between Bathurst and Hunter Streets - about 40 per cent of the major artery - will be closed to general traffic and opened to pedestrians.

Mr O'Farrell dubbed the light rail line a "once-in-a-generation project", which would "revitalise the centre of Sydney by reducing congestion and offering a fast, attractive public transport option to key locations".

The announcement ignores a recommendation in Infrastructure NSW's (INSW) 20-year strategy for an underground Bus Rapid Transit system in the CBD, instead of what it described as a disruptive light rail line through the city.

Mr O'Farrell dismissed suggestions the light rail announcement was a slap in the face for INSW chair Nick Greiner, saying legislation to set up the body "says we get advice from Infrastructure NSW and we respond".

"We're responding today," he said.

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian said the light rail line, together with a redesigned bus network in the city, would reduce by more than 220 an hour the number of buses entering the CBD during the morning peak.

"Remember people from all over greater Sydney come to work in the city, this is going to make it much easier for all of them," Ms Berejiklian said.

"Within an hour each direction you can move 9000 people on light rail very reliably.

"At the moment, unfortunately, only about 19 to 30 per cent of buses actually run within two minutes of schedule because of the traffic problems."

The light rail line is the major new announcement in the masterplan, which restates previous commitments to the northwest and southwest rail links, Sydney's WestConnex road project, and the government's bridges for the bush program.

Sydney Lord Mayor and light rail advocate Clover Moore hailed the new tram line, to be completed by 2020, saying "Sydney really needs this network".

"It's the right thing to do for our city, and it's what other major cities are doing," she said.

Business groups were unanimous in their backing for the light rail link to Sydney's east, with Sydney Business Chamber boss Patricia Forsythe saying it would transform commuting in the CBD.

But opposition leader John Robertson dubbed the transport plan "a glossy brochure" with no details about how projects would be funded.

The government also released on Thursday its response to INSW's State Infrastructure Strategy, supporting 59 of the 70 recommendations it made in October.

However, it ignored INSW's push for a second Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek, instead saying it would call on the federal government to increase Kingsford Smith airport's flight cap from 80 to 85 an hour.

"This report makes clear that we believe that within the existing curfew arrangements, greater use, greater capacity can be made of Kingsford Smith, including increasing the capacity throughout the day," Mr O'Farrell said.

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NSW firefighters baffled by eternal flame

A MYSTERIOUS fire which has been burning for months under a dry lake in far-western NSW is seemingly thwarting attempts to put it out.

Drivers have reported seeing smoke along a lakebed outside Wilcannia and firefighters, who put the fire out on an almost-weekly basis, are fed up with the eternal flame.

"We thought we had it out about a month ago and just in the last couple of days with some wind, it's popped back up," incident controller Chris Favelle told AAP.

Mr Favelle says he suspects organic material is fuelling the fire.

"There's a little bit of water way out in the middle but it's basically dry, and along the edge, which would have once been the shore 1000 years ago, there's a build-up of organic matter, like sticks and leaves, a bit like peat."

The peat-like matter can burn for a long time but what's baffling the Rural Fire Service is the way the fire dodges all attempts at snuffing it out.

"They get called once a day to put this fire out and they get there and there's nothing," he said.

"We've tried all sorts of things. We've tried flooding the area, we've tried digging it up, we've tried putting trenches around it, all to no avail - it keeps sneaking around our attempts to stop it."

He said there is no threat to the community from the fire, which is in a bare area.

Firefighters estimate it might cover a hectare underground but say they have no real way of knowing the exact size of the fire.

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