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A TRANSPORT company has been accused of forcing three pilots to sign new workplace agreements.

TWO in five preschool teachers are exposed to daily noise exceeding safe levels, leaving them highly stressed and dissatisfied with their jobs.

POPULARISED by blockbuster movies such as Casino Royale, Texas Hold'Em tournaments and games around the kitchen table are sparking concerns that poker could soon rival slot machines as a source of problem gambling.

HIS father was a whale, one of the biggest Las Vegas gamblers of all time. Now James Packer wants to go one better by claiming a slice of new casino action opening up in New York.

SO many operations and other treatments are done in private hospitals, doctor's rooms and private clinics that public hospitals can no longer train junior doctors in the skills they need.

SCIENTISTS have bred cows that produce skim milk and hope to establish herds of the cattle in order to meet the demands of health-conscious consumers.

NATIONAL water restrictions could be phased out in five years under a plan to implement a "user pays" policy and push for greater investment in water infrastructure and technological innovations, a study has found.

BRISBANE co-captain Luke Power believes the side's three week slide has been a reality check for the talented, but inexperienced, Lions list about how quickly things can turn during a season.

DOCKERS veteran Troy Cook believes Fremantle can set up its season against Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night provided it starts well.

AUSTRALIA will press members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum to consider working towards an emissions trading scheme, at a meeting of APEC energy ministers in Darwin this week.

THE Defence Department is examining alternatives to radioactive tritium in itsmilitary equipment following contamination that went undetected for almost five years at Bulimba barracks inBrisbane.

THE turmoil surrounding Dow Chemical intensified after it emerged that US regulators had opened an informal probe into the trading of its shares and that the US chemicals group had held merger talks with its rival DuPont.

PRIME Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to step up attacks on the Hamas militant group after a Palestinian rocket attack killed an Israeli man in southern Israel yesterday.

COCA-COLA has made its largest ever acquisition of a rival drinks company, in a $US4.1 billion ($5 billion) deal aimed at revitalising US growth.

THE crisis in the high-risk mortgage market made it harder for Americans to sell their homes last month, according to real estate agents.

NEW anti-terrorism laws are to be pushed through before British Prime Minister Tony Blair leaves office, giving "wartime" powers to the police to stop and question people.

A ROYAL Bank of Scotland-led consortium that is battling for control of ABN Amro is expected to publish details of its E71 billion ($116 billion) break-up bid for the Dutch lender today.

WASHINGTON: Washington and Tehran open their first substantial talks in 27 years in Baghdad today with both countries setting modest goals and limiting discussions to ways to quell the chaos in Iraq.

EUROTUNNEL'S desperate four-year battle against bankruptcy ended on Friday as shareholders voted for a new structure that will hand control of the Channel tunnel operator to its bankers.

FROM miraculous recovery one week to mystery virus the next. It has been a dramatic time for Sydney's Tadhg Kennelly.

A CARBON emissions trading system would generate billions of dollars in revenue that could be used to compensate low-income earners and industry for the higher price of electricity.

ONLY companies experiencing short-term crises will be allowed to escape a new "fairness test" for workers under legislation to be unveiled by the Howard Government today.

UNIONS have been shut out of moves to draft a national safety code for the multi-billion-dollar construction industry, reinforcing their marginalisation in the workplace.

CHILD advocates have attacked a reluctance by welfare workers to contact police when children are abused under a "minimal intervention" approach that places neglected children at risk of injury or even death.

KEVIN Rudd and Therese Rein have taken a difficult but correct decision to separate their business and political affairs - but the Opposition Leader should extend this rethink into Labor's industrial relations tactics.

AUSTRALIAN scientists have helped to uncover four new genes involved in breast cancer and believe they hold the magic key to exposing all others behind the deadly disease.

Awards given at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, selected by a nine-member jury headed by British director Stephen Frears:

LOW-COST carrier Jetstar has committed to being the cheapest domestic airline in Australia by offering customers travel vouchers if they find a cheaper flight advertised.

A RELIGIOUS ruling by an Islamic scholar permitting women to breastfeed adults with whom they work has led to his suspension this month from al-Azhar University in Cairo, the world's leading Sunni university.

OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd says a future federal Labor government will invest $50 million in a plan to capture and store carbon gas emissions.

THE cricket world has been hit by the death of another luminary, former Australian Test all-rounder Ron Archer.

FORMER Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich was urged today to break his silence after fresh allegations emerged he was injected with banned blood-booster EPO.

WORKPLACE Relations Minister Joe Hockey today offered no comfort to Australian Workplace Agreements workers who signed away penalty rates without compensation before the addition of a fairness test.

SOUTH Africa's Rory Sabbatini completed an eight-under-par 62 to share the lead with Germany's Bernhard Langer and US veterans Jim Furyk and Scott Verplank after three rounds at the storm-disrupted US PGA Crowne Plaza Invitational in Texas.

THE slice of the workforce on Australian Workplace Agreements has risen to 8.4 per cent, well above previously reported figures, the federal workplace watchdog says.

OUTGOING World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said he was forced to quit because emotions had got out of control over his girlfriend's promotion, in an interview to be broadcast today.

THE Nine network has finally won a week of the official television ratings year - albeit by the slimmest of margins.

A BRITISH television channel has sparked an angry reaction by deciding to screen graphic images of the car crash which killed Princess Diana next week, the Observer newspaper reported today.

THE high-definition DVD format battle is far from over, according to figures released by independent online DVD rental company Quickflix.

SYDNEY'S Taronga Zoo, one of the nation's main tourist attractions, is asking corporate Australia to help pay for its 12-year, $225 million refurbishment.

WOMEN wanting an awe-inspiring abdominal section will have their own how-to guide by the end of this year, with Pacific Magazines announcing it will launch Women's Health Australia in the December quarter.

A CARBON emissions trading system would generate billions of dollars in revenue that could be used to compensate low-income earners and industry for the higher price of electricity.

Q I have a 2001 Saab 9-3 with 81,000 miles. Over the past month, it has had a problem restarting after it has been driven for a while and then turned off. The engine will not turn over and the only noise it makes is a buzzing sound. After the engine has cooled, it starts right up. The battery is ...

Bandar Seri Begawan - For many of the 2,000 expected delegates and participants arriving to the sultanate this following week for Bridex 2007, it will be their first taste of what Brunei has to offer.

The offense was clicking and the defense pitched a shutout Wednesday as the Fordson soccer team beat visiting Melvindale 4-0. "I challenged the team to close better and they are," said Fordson coach James Carter. "We had 37 shots and four goals to show for it and I was very proud of their play.

THE deputy leader of Al-Qa'ida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has urged supporters in Iraq to extend their "holy war" to other Middle Eastern countries.

THE deputy leader of Al-Qa'ida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has urged supporters in Iraq to extend their "holy war" to other Middle Eastern countries.

SCOTTSBORO, Ala. - Hagerstown Community College's Kevin Reiber shot a 3-over-par 75 in the final round of the NJCAA Division II Championship at Goose Pond Colony Golf Club.

Bandar Seri Begawan - Thirteen international speakers will be presenting talks on defence and security during the BRIDEX 2007 Forum. The two-day forum will begin Thursday afternoon (May 31) following the launching of the BRIDEX 2007.

It speaks volumes about the resonance which his name carries that, almost 40 years after Jim Clark's death in a crash at the Hockenheimring in Germany, people still talk about the Scottish driver with a mixture of reverence and recherche du temps perdu.

From Dhoom to Gangster to Metro, music composer Pritam is on a roll. He talks to AT about music and more.

Music composer Aadesh Srivastava has not only earned accolades for his music but also for giving hit songs with Amitabh Bachchan.

Music composer Aadesh Srivastava has not only earned accolades for his music but also for giving hit songs with Amitabh Bachchan.

Though the situation at the historic Mecca Masjid is back to normal, things seem to have changed here a week after the blast.

I replaced the brakes both front and rear pads and rotors, new sprak plugs, and new oil. But I new it needed relacing becuase that is what you GET with a used car... So many people have a hard time with that concept, they think everything is going to be perfect with the car.

THE British financial watchdog has warned activist hedge funds not to conspire to mislead the market, as it issued guidelines for the first time on what it would view as market abuse.

THE US has taken another step in dismantling the most burdensome elements of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance by producing new guidance for auditors as they test internal controls that focus on the areas most likely to give rise to financial misstatements.

THE Intercontinental Exchange will meet members of the Chicago Board of Trade next week to win backing for its $US11 billion ($13.4 billion) takeover bid and to break up a rival deal with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

THE Nasdaq stock market yesterday agreed to buy OMX, the Scandinavian exchange group, in a $US3.7 billion ($4.5 billion) deal that will create the second transatlantic exchange operator in less than a year.

NORTH Korea yesterday carried out its first missile tests in almost a year, in an apparent show of force after the South's launch of its first destroyer equipped with hi-tech Aegis radar technology.

A SYDNEY council's proposal to build a sister-city relationship with the Palestinian town of Hebron has triggered outrage among Sydney's Jewish community and accusations of "gross abuse" of ratepayer trust.

THE NSW Coroner has reopened the investigation into the death of Private Jake Kovco, the first Australian soldier to die in Iraq, with an inquest into his fatal shooting set to begin in November.

THERE were no "palatable options" left in Iraq, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer admitted yesterday, acknowledging that al-Qa'ida was "politically astute" in influencing US public opinion.

JAMES Packer's Macau casino business has signed its first third-party deal in the city, giving it access to a slice of the gambling revenues to be generated by the $2.6 billion Macau Studio City project.

WHISTLEBLOWER Allan Kessing is likely to receive a prison sentence for his role in leaking a "protected" report on crime at Sydney airport, which sparked a major overhaul of security across the country.

WATER Minister Malcolm Turnbull has appealed to the states to remain at the negotiating table over the federal Government's $10billion Murray-Darling rescue package, despite Victoria's refusal to agree.

IT won't replace a trip to the gym or a brisk walk, but a bout of hearty laughter is a proven fat burner.

SYDNEY FC has failed in a bid to lure Indonesian international Erol Iba for this season's A-League.

AUSTRALIA'S biggest construction firm is to take on private equity players Carlyle Group and Gresham in the $300million-plus battle for Barminco, the West Australian mining contractor.

THE navy's Seasprite helicopter contract -- six years overdue and $300million over budget -- will go ahead despite Defence Minister Brendan Nelson's preference for the troubled project to be scrapped.

THE world's first pilots to fly the superjumbo Airbus A380 will be paid more than those flying conventional jumbo jets, an arbitration court in Singapore ruled yesterday.

QANTAS will tonight launch its biggest advertising campaign since the Athens Olympics as the airline tries to rebuild its image with staff and travellers following the failed $11.1 billion buyout bid by Airline Partners Australia earlier this month.

HE was jockey-sized and blessed with enough talent and spirit to make him a giant in the game of golf.

WASHINGTON: Bowing to US President George W. Bush, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives reluctantly approved fresh billions for the Iraq war yesterday, minus the troop withdrawal timeline that drew his earlier veto.

AN air-to-ground missile struck next to the house of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya last night as Israel stepped up its pressure on Hamas to halt rocketing of Israeli towns.

IRISH Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's Fianna Fail party has pulled off a late campaign comeback and polled strongly in the national elections.

IN an Australian first, surgeons have restored a man's vision by performing a procedure that eliminates the need for a complete transplant of the cornea.

CONVICTED terrorism supporter David Hicks will see his father on home soil for the first time in seven years this afternoon, a week after he jetted back into Australia on a government-chartered plane from Guantanamo Bay.

GREEK Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis is an unlikely celebrity but thousands of Greek Australians treated him with a reception usually reserved for soccer stars yesterday.

NORTH Korea yesterday carried out its first missile tests in almost a year, in an apparent show of force after the South's launch of its first destroyer equipped with hi-tech Aegis radar technology.

FOR the first time in almost four years, most Australians think the Labor Party will win the next election.

CITING pressure on her family from the public spotlight and a desire to spend more time with her children, Jackie Kelly -- the former sports minister and champion for John Howard's so-called "battlers" -- announced her resignation from federal parliament yesterday.

THERE has always been a fascinating nexus between how people say they will vote and who they say will win.

KEVIN Rudd's wife deliberately shifted employees on to individual contracts last July, thinking the extra 45c an hour she was offering as a trade-off for losing some award conditions was fair. Janet Albrechtsen blog: We need new rules

WEST Australian taxpayers have spent $8 million on the corruption probes into the activities involving disgraced former premier Brian Burke and his business partner Julian Grill - and the bill is set to rise further.

MORE than a quarter of the workers at WorkDirections Australia's new Victorian subsidiary were underpaid a total of $70,000 under the introduction of common-law contracts that bought out award conditions such as penalty rates and overtime -- a system that would be allowed by a Rudd Labor government.

BILLIONS of dollars in compensation will be offered to southeast Queensland councils to cover the loss of a key revenue stream after the Beattie Government yesterday moved to seize major water assets across the region.

BIG Brother has again ignited community outrage after a contestant made a pact with her family not to be informed in the event of her cancer-stricken father's death.

A DEPRAVED pedophile, sentenced yesterday to more than 23 years' jail for snatching a teenage boy and forcing him into sexual servitude, was a former drag queen who lived for years as a woman in a desperate bid to have a sex change, a court was told yesterday.

GOLD Coast teenager Kaihana Tahseen Hussain placed blindfolds on her parents, saying she had surprise gifts for them.

THE push for greater administrative independence for the courts has spread to Victoria, with Chief Justice Marilyn Warren endorsing renewed debate on limiting the influence of the state Government.

THE federal Government today called on the AFL to make significant amendments to its illicit drugs policy.

THE federal Government today called on the AFL to make significant amendments to its illicit drugs policy.

A POLICE officer today returned to the Sydney street where he opened fire on a man who had allegedly stabbed a woman to death in a domestic dispute.

Mumbai, May 25: Rich tributes were paid to noted actor and the Congress leader Sunil Dutt on his second death anniversary here today.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.----River Hawk Aviation, Inc. today announced that it has executed an agreement to merge with Profile Aviation Services of Hickory, North Carolina . The agreement provides for an exchange of cash, a convertible note and common stock of River Hawk worth approximately $5.5 million.

It was a baking hot night and Rose McGowan, one of the stars of Quentin Tarantino's fabulous female revenge movie Death Proof, sashayed outside for some air. We were at the amfAR bash and it was sweltering inside the marquee set up for the occasion

Taipei, May 25 (CNA) Minister of Transportation and Communications Tsai Duei is set to depart later Friday for Sweden to attend the 23d Conference of Taiwan-Sweden Economic Cooperation to be held in Stockholm May 28.

When Bryan Meehan - the 39-year-old Irish eco-entrepreneur and friend of Bono - started Fresh & Wild in 1998, organic foodstores in Britain were "smelly and predictable", he says. "The problem was that when you picked up the fruit or vegetables, they looked second-rate," says Meehan. "The shopkeeper would say, 'that's because they're organic - if they're bruised, that's because that's the way ...

LAST week Emirates president Tim Clark waxed lyrical about the finish on the first Boeing 787, which has now entered final assembly in Everett, Washington, comparing it to a highly polished silver tea service.

AIRCRAFT might one day be powered by slime.

SYDNEY FC fans might be crying out for the club to launch a worldwide hunt for a star striker, but coach Branko Culina believes the problems go much deeper than not putting the ball into the back of the net.

THE ICC has confirmed it is yet to sign a long-term agreement with ESPN Star Sports over its billion-dollar broadcast rights deal.

GENERAL Electric has doubled sales from environmentally friendly products to $US12 billion ($14.58 billion) over the past two years, in the strongest sign yet that corporate America's drive to respond to climate change is beginning to pay off.

US and European institutional investors worth $US700 billion ($854 billion) led a charge on Wednesday to oust an Exxon-Mobil board member for "inaction" on climate change.

CHINA will gradually take over the role of the US as the world's largest manufacturer but will do this only by 2020, with the US's position in the global league table of manufacturers remaining surprisingly strong, according to an authoritative economic study.

THE heir to Irish tycoon Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media empire, Gavin O'Reilly, arrived in Sydney early yesterday, resigned to the failure today of a bid for APN News & Media, despite overwhelming support from small shareholders.

INDONESIA'S business competition authority accused Temasek, the investment arm of the Singapore government, of violating competition laws by using subsidiaries' shareholdings in the two largest mobile phone operators to fix prices.

JOHN Howard's own department is leading a federal campaign to recruit indigenous people to the public service and toprovide non-indigenous staff with "cultural awareness" training to help advance the cause of reconciliation.

POLITICAL hyperbole makes great headlines, but poor analysis. Amnesty International's secretary general Irene Khan has just delivered one of the most egregious pieces of political extravagance in her latest annual report on human rights abuses by linking two of the world's most evil political leaders, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, with John Howard and George W. Bush. Such ...

STEM cell scientists would beallowed to create inter-species embryos, under a draft bill released by the British Government. Graphic: Playing God

A REMOTELY operated smart weapon system used by US and Australian troops in Iraq is likely to transform a once modest Canberra-based optical firm into the country's biggest defence exporter.

PETROL prices in Australia should peak next week at up to 145c a litre, reflecting increased international demand as the US prepares for the beginning of the summer holidays. Graphic: Liquid gold

THE Howard Government has dropped plans to appeal against a court ruling to hand back the confiscated passport of a notorious pedophile whom federal police suspect of abusing children in Asia last year and who they believe will reoffend as soon as he leaves Australia.

THE jolly roger has been flying over Opera Australia for so long that perhaps the increased box-office haul of $34.3 million for last year was inevitable.

DEFENCE spending has reached a record $22billion this year but extra money will be required from next year to pay for galloping increases in personnel and operating costs.

JOURNALISTS at Le Monde voted out their long-serving editorial director Jean-Marie Colombani yesterday, plunging the venerable masthead, arguably continental Europe's most influential newspaper, into disarray.

SCANDINAVIAN Airlines System is using its Australian experience to break the full-service network airline mould and offer international one-way fares similar to those offered by low-cost carriers.

HONG Kong tycoon Joseph Lau has made $2.5 billion from property deals, mostly in an area he could cycle around in a day.

QANTAS'S five million frequent flyers could be able to use their points to get on any flight - not just the handful chosen by the airline - under planned changes to the popular loyalty program. Graphic: Qantas U-turn See the full Qantas presentation here Video: shares take off

A SERIES of newspaper articles that allegedly "named and shamed" the people who provided character references for disgraced crown prosecutor Patrick Power endangered the justice system, a court has heard.

TOKYO: Japan last night called for the world to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, proposing a successor to the Kyoto Protocol it hopes will win over the top offenders, the US and China.

THE US threatened new UN sanctions to punish Iran's nuclear drive as it ratcheted up tensions with the biggest display of naval power in the Gulf in years.

US intelligence agencies warned senior members of the Bush administration in early 2003 that invading Iraq could create instability that would give Iran and al-Qa'ida new opportunities to expand their influence, according to a coming Senate report.

AUSTRALAND Property Group went to the market yesterday to raise $155 million for a new $215 million unlisted property investment trust.

NEW legislation that would protect journalists and their sources has received qualified support from the Opposition and the Press Council.

A HEDGE fund investing in old violins has been pledged $US11 million ($13.4 million) in the latest sign of investor willingness to put money into offbeat assets that were previously the exclusive domain of collectors and enthusiasts.

IF coincidences are your thing, it is worth recalling that, in 1980, when an electronic service-line monitor using infra-red rays was introduced at Wimbledon, Bjorn Borg won the men's singles title for a record fifth time in succession.

MEMBERS of the Exclusive Brethren sect plan to continue to fund political advertising, despite facing a likely police investigation into alleged breaches of Australia's electoral laws.

WASHINGTON thanked the Howard Government yesterday for its role in helping prepare the ground for critical talks between Tehran and the US next week in Baghdad, the first official bilateral exchange between the two countries in more than 25 years.

SOME might get their kicks out of entering a famous sporting venue, but to Alexander Downer there's no better place than the Reagan Presidential Library.

ALMOST $600 million is being spent on refurbishing Vietnam-era armoured personnel carriers for 21st-century warfare, despite doubts the aluminium-bodied M113s will see combat action.

Five eighth Stephen Larkham has been ruled out of the Wallabies team to play Wales tomorrow night through injury and Sam Norton-Knight has been called in for his Test debut.

INDIGENOUS Australians have no hope of being part of mainstream society unless they can speak English, Prime Minister John Howard said today. Your say: Equality eludes understanding

THE Australian sharemarket continued its downwards trajectory from Thursday after opening lower from weak base metal prices and a poor lead from Wall Street.

A FORWARD crisis is looming for premiership favourite Melbourne.

AUSTRALIANS Peter Lonard and Nathan Green were poised two strokes off the lead after a rain-interrupted opening round to the Colonial Invitational here.

A MAGISTRATE today dismissed an assault charge against former rugby league international Ian Roberts, who was accused of attacking his ex-boyfriend at a Kings Cross hostel last July.

The NRMA has welcomed a $10 million feasibility study into an expressway link across the Blue Mountains.

LABOR has rolled out its celebrity candidate, Maxine McKew, to help with the campaign in Queensland.

ACCUSED Nazi war criminal Charles Zentai has taken his fight against extradition to the High Court.

SHARES in Australian flag carrier Qantas hit record levels todayas the market reacted enthusiastically to the airline's plans for the future following a failed takeover bid.

BABCOCK & Brown said today that the difference between the book and market values of its investments since December 2006 had increased to about $450 million.

A GROUP of Aboriginal traditional owners in the Northern Territory have offered their land to the federal Government to be used as the nation's nuclear waste dump for up to 200 years.

NORTH Korea fired several short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan earlier today, Kyodo News agency reported, citing Japanese and US sources.

US President George W. Bush today predicted a bloody summer in Iraq as insurgents try to "shake the will" of the US.

A RECORD number of Americans are pessimistic about the outcome in Iraq and now believe the war was a mistake, according to a CBS News/New York Times opinion poll out today.

POLICE have launched an internal affairs investigation into the death of a Torres Strait Islander man who died just hours after being picked up drunk by police.

WORLD famous dance club outfit the Ministry of Sound will open its first Australian venue at a revamped St Kilda waterfront development at the centre of a long-running legal saga.

BUILDING materials company James Hardie Industries is expected to announce a share buyback when it posts its full year results next week.

When Bryan Meehan - the 39-year-old Irish eco-entrepreneur and friend of Bono - started Fresh & Wild in 1998, organic foodstores in Britain were "smelly and predictable", he says. "The problem was that when you picked up the fruit or vegetables, they looked second-rate," says Meehan. "The shopkeeper would say, 'that's because they're organic - if they're bruised, that's because that's the way ...

DESPITE the Prime Minister conceding to Victorian Premier Steve Bracks' demand for a meeting, Mr Bracks said there would be no compromise on the terms under which the state would sign up to the national water plan.

A WOMAN accused of killing her six-year-old daughter with fatal dose of methadone has been committed to stand trial for murder, despite key forensic evidence not being presented in the case.

Elmira College honored its athletes for the past school year at its annual awards banquet.

FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer confirmed today Australia would support its allies in building a missile defence shield.

THE US today threatened new UN sanctions to punish Iran's nuclear drive as it ratcheted up tensions with the biggest display of naval power in the Gulf in years. Video: Iran expanding nuclear program

Northwest Airlines has reduced the number of flights at Grand Forks International Airport to just four daily flights, the lowest in recent memory.

QUEENSLAND forward Tonie Carroll has escaped charges from the Maroons' thrilling 25-18 State of Origin victory last night. Video: Qld comeback Your say: A classic Maroons' victory? State of Origin special section

(Broadcasting & Cable) _ MTV Networks is developing several more virtual worlds with an eye on integrating online avatars into linear TV programming. That was the word from MTVN Global Digital Media President Mika Salmi today at the eighth annual Goldman Sachs Internet Conference inLas Vegas,NV.

The Eurofighter consortium has upgraded its IFS Applications-based system, which is supporting the Industrial Exchange and Repair Service (IERS) for the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.

ELECTORAL officials have referred a $10 company set up by an Exclusive Brethren member to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.

LAWRENCE - Dana Martino of Methuen is doing her best to defy the opinions of doctors who said she may never walk again because of injuries suffered in a car crash on Interstate 93 in Andover one year ago.

RUPERT Murdoch has denied allowing political pressure from Beijing to influence the running of his News Corp media empire, London's Financial Times said today.

GOOGLE'S ambition to maximise the personal information it holds on users is so great that the search engine envisages a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off.

THE thousands of Chinese who are signing up each day to trade shares are not too concerned about the conventional ways of valuing a stock, but they need to know the difference between a ghost and a black horse.

THE number of Asians sitting for the west's benchmark qualification for financial market literacy has outstripped candidates from the US - marking another milestone in the region's rapidly growing influence on global markets.

THE newly appointed head of Australia's Right to Know, the media industry coalition on freedom of speech, believes some of the laws affecting the media are unbalanced.

THE Government will tomorrow introduce in federal parliament shield laws for journalists' sources that have been criticised as ineffective election-year spin.

THE nation's most powerful media buying baron, Harold Mitchell, has joined the board of Sydney's struggling community television station TVS as it battles to beat a budget deficit and heal a boardroom rift.

EXPENDITURE on Australian television drama production is expected to rise more than 50 per cent this financial year in a big bounce from last year's below-average spend.

BRITISH magazine publisher Emap Plc has become the second international magazine group to launch a strategic review of its Australian operations this year, with suggestions it will consider selling parts of its business.

SINGAPORE-based developer Frasers Property and funds management and development group Charter Hall are battling for control of Sydney's $210 million Carlton & United Breweries site.

JOHN Howard's campaign to portray his senior ministers as a better and more experienced "team" than the Labor front bench is unlikely to sway swinging voters, say political analysts.

AN Australian offer to fund expert legal witnesses to testify in a Bali Nine appeal against the death sentence has come to nothing, with the Indonesian lawyer running the case failing to persuade three different academics to appear.

THE US was last night considering a request from the Lebanese Government to provide about $US280 million ($340 million) in military assistance to help put down an uprising by al-Qa'ida-inspired militants operating from a Palestinian refugee camp.

A LABOR government would support the development of a sea-based theatre missile defence system to protect Australian forces on overseas operations from ballistic missile attack.

COLLINGWOOD has moved swiftly to secure star youngster Scott Pendlebury, an AFL Rising Star nomination in round four.

WASHINGTON: Anti-war Democrats yesterday shelved their crusade to tie Iraq funding to troop withdrawals, but denied handing President George W. Bush a multi-billion-dollar victory.

HALF a twist could make all the difference as Daria Joura, 17, bids to establish herself as the new queen when the national championships begin in Melbourne today.

A DEAL on domestic runway charges between Virgin Blue and Sydney Airports Corporation is a "landmark" for the Australian aviation industry, Virgin chief Brett Godfrey says.

QANTAS shares soared to a record $5.42 yesterday - just below the private equity bid price of $5.45 a share - as the market awaited news of today's investor briefing by chief executive Geoff Dixon.

MONTREAL-based aluminium producer Alcan has produced a litany of objections to a $US27.6 billion ($33.6 billion) hostile bid by US rival Alcoa.

MAVERICK Melbourne property developer David Deague has copped another penalty for illegal building work.

EMI'S top shareholders have signalled that they are likely to support Terra Firma's recommended pound stg. 3.2 billion ($7.7 billion) offer for the British music group.

MGM Mirage has formed a committee to consider a proposal by Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda, its majority shareholder, to buy two of its Las Vegas properties and explore alternatives for the portion of the company it does not control.

SHARES of Singapore Airlines rose 1.6 per cent at the start of trade yesterday on reports that it will buy a stake in China Eastern Airlines for "hundreds of millions of US dollars", according to a person close to the deal.

FORMER world heavyweight champion George Foreman claims his water was drugged before he lost to Muhammad Ali in their 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" at Zaire in his new book.

ENGLAND not only looked outside its development squad but beyond the scope of most radars by recalling Ryan Sidebottom yesterday after a six-year absence.

JAPAN will pay $US6 billion ($7.3 billion) to relocate up to 8000 US marines and their families from Okinawa to the American Pacific territory Guam under a law passed yesterday.

MINISTERIAL adviser numbers in the Howard Government are continuing to increase, with a 29 per cent rise since 1996 - equivalent to 105 new staff.

VALAD Property Group is poised to buy more retirement village sites with plans to create a separate retirement business operation.

TAJ Din al-Hilali has been cleared by a federal police investigation into his call on the Muslim world to unite behind Iran and his alleged mismanagement of Australian-raised funds.

FORMER prime minister Robert Menzies would not wish to join John Howard's Liberal Party and would be unwelcome in it, according to human rights advocate Julian Burnside QC.

LEND Lease has completed a second capital raising for its Singapore retail trust, giving it the capacity to invest around $S3 billion ($2.4 billion) in the city state.

THE Government will try to wedge Labor on industrial relations by introducing an amendment to the Workplace Relations Act that will specifically ban compulsory union bargaining fees.

OIL services firm Halliburton, which is moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai, aims to achieve a 50-50 split between its businesses in the western hemisphere and the markets of the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

AUSTRALIA has been rebuked for its apparent shyness in raising human rights abuses with China and Indonesia in a mixed report card by Amnesty International.

THE US bank appointed to care for the Future Fund's investments was embroiled in the Enron scandal, the world's biggest corporate collapse.

BRITISH Airways confirmed that it was joining a consortium led by Texas Pacific Group, the US private equity firm, to explore a takeover bid for Spain's Iberia airline.

JOHN Howard's campaign to portray his senior ministers as a better and more experienced "team" than the Labor front bench is unlikely to sway swinging voters, say political analysts.