Chevron 1Q earnings drop to $6.2b

Energy company Chevron says its earnings declined for the first quarter of 2013 to $A6.05 billion. Source: AAP

CHEVRON Corp, the second-largest US energy company, says its earnings declined for the first quarter of 2013 due primarily to lower oil prices.

The company earned $US6.2 billion ($A6.05 billion) in the first quarter, or $US3.18 per share, versus $US6.5 billion, or $US3.27 per share, in the same quarter in 2012.

Revenues in the first quarter were $US54 billion, down from $US59 billion in the same quarter last year, the company said on Friday, "mainly due to lower prices for crude oil".

Chevron said its average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids in the first quarter was $US94, compared to $US102 a year ago.

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Indian PM soothes China border tensions

INDIA'S Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says he believes a border dispute over an alleged incursion by Chinese soldiers can be resolved, the Press Trust of India reports.

"It is a localised problem, we do believe it can be solved," Singh was quoted as saying by the news agency on Saturday after Chinese soldiers were accused of intruding across the disputed border in the Ladakh region earlier this month.

The incident has marked a renewal of tensions between the Asian neighbours whose relations are often prickly - a legacy of a 1962 border war.

Singh's statement came after India's Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma presented a report on the incursion to a parliamentary watchdog on Friday in which local media said he alleged Chinese soldiers had advanced nearly 20 kilometres into Indian-claimed territory.

The prime minister's comments, his first on the dispute, echoed statements of other government ministers playing down the alleged incursion in the western part of Indian-held Kashmir's Ladakh region and insisting it can be settled amicably.

"We have a plan, we do not want to accentuate the situation," Singh said, without elaborating.

Lower-level talks between military officials have so far failed to break the impasse.

According to officials in New Delhi, a platoon of Chinese troops set up a camp inside Indian territory on April 15.

Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid announced earlier in the week he will head for China on May 8, saying both countries had a mutual interest in not allowing the dispute to "destroy" long-term progress in ties.

A foreign ministry official has said new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is due to travel to New Delhi late next month, without giving an exact date.

India has called on the Chinese soldiers to withdraw while China has denied any wrongdoing.

In 1962, China gave India a bloody nose in the war fought in the Himalayan regions of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

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Bombing suspect's friends 'shocked'

Two friends of the alleged Boston bomber have denied any knowledge of the deadly attack plot. Source: AAP

TWO university friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who were jailed by immigration authorities the day after his capture had nothing to do with the deadly attack, a lawyer for one of them says.

They had also seen no hints that he harboured any violent thoughts or terrorist sympathies.

Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, who are from Kazakhstan, were classmates with Tsarnaev at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. They appeared alongside him in a recent photograph of a group of young men visiting New York City's Times Square.

They were detained on April 20 after being questioned in connection with the bombing, which had killed three people and injured more than 260 others a few days earlier.

"These kids are just as shocked and horrified about what happened as everyone else," Kadyrbayev's lawyer, Robert Stahl, said in a phone interview on Friday.

"They can't even fathom something like this from a kid who seemed to be a typical young college student."

Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev had been interviewed at length, twice, by FBI agents and had co-operated fully, Stahl said.

They were not suspects but were being held for violating their student visas by not regularly attending classes, Stahl said.

They are being detained at a county jail in Boston.

The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said earlier this week that US authorities came across the two while searching for "possible links and contacts" to Tsarnaev, a student at the university.

US immigration officials have declined to discuss the reasons why the men were detained.

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Hezbollah pressured as Syrian town falls

LEBANON'S Shi'ite Hezbollah movement is under increasing pressure over accusations it is backing regime troops in Syria, as a rebel leader warned of the risk of sparking a sectarian war.

Inside Syria, soldiers seized a key town near Damascus from rebels following weeks of fierce clashes, a monitoring group said, and each side blamed the other after fighting destroyed the minaret of Aleppo's ancient Umayyad mosque.

In an open letter on Wednesday, Syria's leading opposition figure Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib called on Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to withdraw his fighters to avoid the conflict degenerating into a sectarian war.

"Hezbollah's intervention in Syria has complicated matters deeply, and I expected you, given your political and social stature, to play a more positive role" said Khatib in a letter posted on Facebook.

The message was also filmed and posted on YouTube.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, a close ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, has denied Syrian opposition accusations that it has sent its elite troops into Syria to support regime troops battling insurgents.

It says Syrian rebels have targeted Shi'ite areas of Syria inhabited by Lebanese and that Shi'ites in Syria have a right to self-defence.

But the accusations against Hezbollah have multiplied as fighting escalated this week in the Qusayr area near the Lebanon border.

"The claim of defence for Shi'ite villages is unacceptable," said Khatib, who on Sunday quit as head of Syria's main opposition National Coalition in protest at what he said was world inaction over Assad's onslaught on the rebels.

"There is a cunning plan to drag the Islamic world into sectarian conflict pitting Sunnis against Shi'ites, starting from Syria and Lebanon, only then to engulf all countries in the region, including Iran and Turkey."

But nobody could win in such a conflict, he said.

"Aren't 1000 years of strife between Sunnis and Shi'ites enough for us to bury this narrow sectarian mentality?" he asked.

President Assad belongs to Syria's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Most of the country's population - including the rebel fighters - are Sunnis.

Khatib, a moderate Sunni sheikh who has widespread support in Syria, made his appeal just two days after radical Sunni sheikh Ahmad al-Assir called for Lebanese fighters to join insurgents seeking to oust Assad.

But the main rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, rejected the call to jihad in a statement on Wednesday.

"We reject any presence of foreign fighters, regardless of where they are from," said FSA political and media coordinator Louay Muqdad.

"We have said that what we are missing in Syria is weapons, not men."

Two Lebanese Salafist sheikhs have called on their followers to join rebels fighting in Syria and to support Sunni residents of the embattled central province of Homs, following the reports of Hezbollah's intervention.

Lebanon's President Michel Sleiman meanwhile reiterated the country's official stance of neutrality in the conflict, saying no weapons or fighters should be allowed to cross into Syria, the National News Agency reported.

Syria's army recaptured the key town of Otaybeh east of Damascus on Wednesday after weeks of fierce fighting, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The regime force had used warplanes, tanks, artillery and rocket-launchers during the fight, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

"After trying dozens of times to re-enter into the town, rebels withdrew at dawn after putting up a fierce resistance."

The Observatory also said that mortar rounds killed seven civilians in the Jaramana suburb of Damascus, which is held by the regime, with another 30 wounded, six of them critically.

State news agency SANA published the same toll.

The Damascus regime and rebel forces meanwhile blamed each other for the destruction Wednesday of the minaret of Aleppo's ancient Umayyad mosque, Syrian state media and a watchdog reported.

An archaeological treasure in Aleppo's UNESCO-listed Old City, the mosque had already suffered extensive damage during months of fighting. Rebels said they had managed to salvage ancient handwritten Koranic manuscripts.

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Sunset service concludes Anzac Day

SUNSET on Anzac day signifies a time when veterans can finally "be at peace".

The conclusion of the national day of remembrance also helps put painful memories to rest, RSL NSW vice president John Haines says.

The flags at the Cenotaph in Sydney's Martin Place were lowered at the sunset service on Thursday, as the band of the Ambulance Service of NSW rendered the ceremonial retreat.

Mr Haines told the service the custom signified the end of the military day when soldiers on daytime duty handed over to those who would carry on through the night.

"In the 16th and 17th centuries, retreat was referred to as watch setting.

"With troops often deployed during the day outside the city walls, it was necessary to give them and local inhabitants some warning signal that the city gates were about to be closed.

"If fighting was being carried on, fire would cease at the sounding of the retreat as the soldiers withdrew their positions".

At least 300 serving and former defence force personnel and relatives of veterans attended the evening service, which concluded the 98th Anzac Day commemorations in Sydney.

Mr Haines said it was a sombre occasion that gave veterans closure.

"Unfortunately with a lot of them (the day) brings back good memories but also bad," he told AAP.

"The late service gives closure on a lot of things.

"It's an indication that you can now rest ... and be at peace with your memories," he told AAP.

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Guantanamo detainees on hunger strike

92 detainees are on a hunger strike at the US-run Guantanamo military prison, authorities say. Source: AAP

MORE prisoners have joined a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention at the US-run Guantanamo military prison, with 92 out of 166 detainees refusing food, a spokesman said.

Among them, 17 are on feeding tubes and two are hospitalised but do not have "life-threatening conditions," Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House said in Wednesday's statement.

The rapidly growing movement began on February 6, lawyers for the detainees said. Prison authorities began releasing figures on the strike on March 15, saying 14 inmates were participating.

Lawyers for the detainees say the official numbers are still too low.

David Remes, a lawyer who represents 15 prisoners, said some 130 prisoners have been on strike since February.

"At first, GTMO denied that there was a hunger strike. Since then, its count has risen from 0 to 92. Soon they'll hit the mark despite themselves," he said.

House also confirmed that two prisoners had attempted suicide on or around April 13, when some 60 detainees were transferred from communal cells into individual ones after guards fired non-lethal shots to quell prisoner unrest.

House said only "10 to 15 are still in communal" cells, indicating that many detainees refuse to comply with prison rules.

"Some of them are continuing to throw faeces, urine and blood at the guards," he said.

The spokesman said "as soon as the detainees show a proper compliance with the rules, then we will move them back into communal".

He said the separation also allowed the guards, accompanied by doctors, to ask inmates "on an individual basis: Do you want to be a hunger striker?" far from the influence of the leaders in the cell blocks.

The hunger strikers are protesting their incarceration without charge or trial at Guantanamo in the 11 years since the prison went into use for terror suspects detained in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The hunger strikes began February 6, when inmates claimed prison officials searched their Korans for contraband. Officials have denied any mishandling of Islam's holy book.

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Musharraf denied bail over Bhutto killing

A Pakistani court refused to extend bail for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. Source: AAP

A PAKISTANI court refused to extend bail for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in connection with the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a lawyer said.

It is the second of three cases dating back to his 1999-2008 rule for which he has been denied bail.

He is already under a two-week house arrest at his villa on the edge of Islamabad over his decision to sack judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007.

Musharraf, who attended a separate hearing relating to the Bhutto case on Tuesday, did not appear before the court on Wednesday and neither did his main lawyer.

"The court dismissed General Musharraf's bail application," prosecution lawyer Chaudhry Azhar told reporters on Wednesday after the hearing by the Lahore High Court sitting in Rawalpindi, the garrison city twinned to Islamabad.

"Now the FIA (federal investigative agency) should arrest him," he added.

Musharraf is accused of conspiracy to murder Bhutto, who died in a gun and suicide attack in December 2007.

His arrest and disqualification from contesting elections on May 11 have been a humiliating blow for the former ruler of nuclear-armed Pakistan, who returned home last month promising to "save" the country.

On Tuesday, police said they had recovered a car carrying detonators and explosives on the road leading to Musharraf's house

The Pakistani Taliban have threatened to kill Musharraf who escaped three assassination attempts during his rule, but denied anything to do with the car.

Nobody has been convicted or jailed for Bhutto's assassination on December 27, 2007, in Rawalpindi, despite a long-running court case.

Musharraf's government blamed Bhutto's killing on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement and who was killed in a US drone attack in August 2009.

In 2010 a UN report said Bhutto's death could have been prevented and accused Musharraf's government of failing to give her adequate protection.

Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is chairman of the outgoing Pakistan People's Party, has accused Musharraf of her murder.

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82 die in Bangladesh building collapse

AT least 82 people have died and 700 are injured after a eight-storey building containing several garment factories collapsed on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital on Wednesday, a doctor says.

Hiralal Roy, a senior emergency ward doctor at the nearby Enam hospital, said: "The death toll is now 82. At least 700 people have also been treated at the hospital."

"The toll will rise as conditions of some injured were critical " he told AFP.

But the hospital toll contradicts information from the Bangladesh health ministry which says the death toll is 70.

Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque said that by Wednesday afternoon 70 bodies had been removed from the eight-storey building.

Corpses and the injured were removed from the higher reaches of the pile of flattened floors with makeshift slides made from cloth which just hours earlier was being cut into shirts and trousers for export to Western markets.

Earlier, Mohammad Humayun, a supervisor at one of the garment factories said: "We had sent two people inside the building and we could rescue at least 20 people alive.

"They also told us that at least 100 to 150 people are injured and about 50 dead people are still trapped inside this floor."

The collapse happened about 8.30am and since garment factories in the area routinely work 24 hours a day, it appeared likely that the four factories housed in the building were staffed at the time.

After cracks appeared in the building on Tuesday, evacuated workers were forced back into the building, one survivor said.

"The managers forced us to rejoin and just one hour after we entered the factory the building collapsed with a huge noise," said a 24-year-old worker who gave her first name as Mousumi.

"I am injured. But I've not found my husband who was working on the fourth floor," she told AFP, estimating that 5000 people worked inside the building, which also contained apartments, a bank and shops.

Firefighters and soldiers using drilling machines and cranes worked together with local volunteers in the search for other survivors from the building, which pancaked onto itself and stood only about two storeys tall.

Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan told reporters that the building was illegal and violated the country's building code.

The huge death toll is likely to raise further questions about safety in the garment industry.

The November fire at the Tazreen garment factory drew international attention to the conditions workers toil under in the $20 billion-a-year textile industry in Bangladesh.

The country has about 4000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers.

Tazreen lacked emergency exits and its owner said only three floors of the eight-storey building were legally built.

Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off.

The factory made clothes for Wal-Mart, Disney and other Western brands.

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UK cosmetic report relevant to Australia

A MAJOR UK report that attempts to tame the under-regulated, rapidly growing cosmetic intervention industry is relevant to Australia, a leading surgeon says.

The UK Keogh report, released on Wednesday, found most people who have cosmetic interventions take their safety for granted but large swathes of the non-surgical sector are "almost entirely unregulated".

Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons president Geoff Lyons said Australia is ahead of the UK in some respects, but local practitioners and politicians should get behind the thrust of the report.

"What it's about is trying to increase the safety of people undergoing cosmetic surgery, either being non-invasive or invasive, and that's what we're all about," Dr Lyons told AAP.

He said legislation was failing to keep up with the rapidly growing industry.

"There needs to be an ongoing understanding from the government this is a rapidly changing area," Dr Lyons said.

The Keogh report was commissioned in response to the Poly Implant Protheses (PIP) implant scandal, which it said had exposed "woeful lapses" in product quality, patient care and record keeping.

An estimated 300,000 women in 65 countries are believed to have received the PIP implants, which some health authorities say are twice as likely to rupture as other brands.

British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) president Graeme Perks said the PIP crisis had stirred fear over other "fillers".

"Having a bit of filler doesn't seem to be a big deal but if it goes wrong the consequences are disastrous," Dr Perks said.

In the UK, nine out of 10 cosmetic interventions are non-surgical, according to the report.

"We were surprised to discover that non-surgical interventions ... are almost entirely unregulated," it said.

It recommended all dermal fillers be made prescription only and all practitioners be properly qualified for the procedures they offer.

Dr Lyons said that in Australia, many of the injectable interventions, like Botox, are classed as S4 drugs and can only be prescribed by a doctor.

But he admitted more could be done.

"There's area for further reform but these are now S4 drugs," he said.

In comparison, laser skin treatments are less regulated, he said.

"Pressure's afoot to regulate that industry more closely," Dr Lyons said.

He said the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons would support closer monitoring of those items.

Dr Perks said, in the UK, parts of the industry were resistant to regulation.

"The problem is, if plastic surgeons speak out and say 'this is unsafe we don't think it's a good idea', the people who aren't plastic surgeons cry foul," he said.

Dr Lyons said Australia could benefit from the report's work.

"We should be looking to make sure the people doing these procedures are properly trained," he said.

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Qualified nod for Woodside dividend

MOODY'S Investors Service says Woodside Petroleum's special dividend and increase in its targeted dividend payout ratio is credit negative but can be accommodated within its existing credit rating and stable outlook.

"Woodside's financial profile has been strengthened due to the increased cash flow generation following the start up of the Pluto LNG project, combined with Moody's expectation for lower than previously projected capital expenditures over the next several years", said Moody's analyst Matthew Moore.

"As such, the announced shareholder friendly initiatives are manageable, albeit they absorb most of the near-term cushion at the rating level (of Baa1)," he said in a statement.

Woodside will pay a special dividend of 63 US cents per share next month and target a dividend payout ratio of 80 per cent of underlying net profit.

The special dividend was announced after the oil and gas company recently shelved its controversial $45 billion Browse gas plant and ruled out a near-term expansion of its flagship Pluto project.

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NSW police officer caught drink driving

A NSW police officer has been suspended after he was caught drink driving, police say.

The officer, 48, was arrested on Sunday after he returned a high range reading of 0.173 during a breath-test at Tweed Heads, police said.

Police suspended the man's drivers licence and he will appear in Tweed Heads Local Court for driving with a high-range prescribed concentration of alcohol and other driving offences.

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Iran denies link with Canada terror plot

Canadian police say they have arrested two people over an al-Qaeda-supported plot to derail a train. Source: AAP

IRAN is denying any link with two suspects charged with plotting a terrorist attack against a Canadian passenger train.

Canadian authorities claim the suspects - 30-year-old Chiheb Esseghaier and 35-year-old Raed Jaser, - had "direction and guidance" from al-Qaeda members in Iran, though there was no allegation the planned attacks were state-sponsored.

Esseghaier is believed to be Tunisian and Jaser is from the United Arab Emirates.

Some al-Qaeda members were allowed to stay in Iran after fleeing Afghanistan but were under tight controls.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters on Tuesday that there is "no firm evidence" of any Iranian involvement, and groups such as al-Qaeda had "no compatibility with Iran in both political and ideological fields".

He called the Canadian claims part of hostile policies against Tehran.

Esseghaier and Raed Jaser were allegedly planning to carry out an attack on a Via Rail passenger train, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) told a news conference.

A bail hearing was set for Tuesday.

"Today's arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews warned.

Charges against the two include conspiring to carry out an attack and conspiring with a terrorist group to murder persons, though very few details about the plot were revealed.

Assistant RCMP Commissioner James Malizia told reporters the suspects "were receiving support from al-Qaeda elements located in Iran" but added: "There's no indication that these attacks were state-sponsored."

Asked to describe the kind of support offered, he replied: "Direction and guidance."

Malizia said the suspects were "not Canadian citizens" but declined to reveal their nationalities. One of the two men had lived in Montreal for several years, he added, without saying which one.

The suspects' plans were "not based on their ethnic origins but on an ideology," police said.

RCMP Chief Superintendent Jennifer Strachan said the duo - who had been under surveillance since last August - planned "to derail a passenger train" in the Toronto area.

"We are alleging these individuals took steps and conducted activities to initiate a terrorist attack. They watched trains and railways in the Greater Toronto area," Strachan added.

A Toronto lawyer said his client, a local imam, first alerted authorities about one of the suspects, who the imam had noticed trying to spread extremist propaganda to youths within the community, according to a report in local newspaper the Globe and Mail.

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Five killed in another shooting in US

GUNFIRE erupted at an apartment complex in a city south of Seattle and five people were shot to death, including a suspect who was shot by arriving officers, police say.

Officers responding to an emergency call at 9.30pm on Sunday (1430 Monday AEST) at the apartments in Federal Way found two injured men on the ground in a parking lot.

"When we arrived, there was a lot of gunfire already being fired and multiple calls, 911 calls of gunfire," said Federal Way police spokeswoman Cathy Schrock on Monday.

One of the men reached for a gun as police moved in to assist the two on the ground, she said.

At that point, other officers opened fire. The suspect died, but police said it wasn't immediately clear if it was from their gunfire.

The other man on the ground and a third man in the parking lot were found dead.

Police found a fourth man dead in one apartment and a slain woman in another unit.

Schrock said police were trying to determine if the woman was accidentally hit by gunfire.

There was no immediate word what set off the shooting.

"We're gonna continue to go door to door in hopes that we can find some additional witnesses, and hopefully we won't be finding any more victims," Schrock said.

After police flooded the scene and carried out searches of the area, authorities said they did not think another shooter was on the loose.

There were no reports of any officers being injured.

Federal Way is about 30km south of Seattle.

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Fake bus driver 'a misunderstanding'

REPORTS of a man posing as a bus driver and picking up students on the Gold Coast have turned out to be a big misunderstanding.

The alarm was raised on Monday morning by a concerned parent who told police her child feared something was amiss.

The driver didn't seem to know where he was going, and wasn't collecting fares from the students he picked up a number of stops in the Coombabah area.

It turned out that the driver was new, unfamiliar with his route, and didn't know how to work the ticketing machine properly.

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Victims should go to police: churches

A culture of ignoring children helped child sex abuse go undetected, the Anglican Church says. Source: AAP

TWO of Australia's largest churches say it's up to the people who were sexually abused as children to go to the police.

The Anglican and Uniting churches in Victoria have together paid more than $2.25 million in compensation to victims over the past 10 to 15 years but have only referred a small number of allegations to authorities, a Victorian inquiry has heard.

Melbourne's Anglican Archbishop Dr Philip Freier says a culture of disbelieving children who complained of sex abuse and an unwillingness to face up to difficult and shameful things had helped the crime go undetected.

"As you look backwards you can see broadly as a culture we've not readily listened to children when they've made complaints," Dr Freier told the parliamentary inquiry on Monday.

"There have been opportunities for people who wanted to breach the trust of children to do that, and often for children's accounts of that trust being broken, being disbelieved.

"Some were even punished for having raised a question about the conduct of an adult."

He said this was the case for many community organisations not just churches.

Clergy have been responsible for most of the 46 incidents where a child sex abuse complaint has been made to the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne since the 1950s, the inquiry heard.

The church has paid out $268,000 to 10 victims since 2003, but only reported 12 of the 46 complaints to police.

The Uniting Church, which has $2 million in compensation since 1998, said "very few" of the 63 victims in the synod of Victoria and Tasmania had their cases referred to police.

Both churches said they did this to spare the victim further trauma.

Dr Freier said in the cases of historic abuse the church encouraged people to work with a solicitor as they didn't want to risk "revictimising" the complainant.

It's policy to report current allegations.

The Uniting Church synod's legal adviser Philip Battye said it was up to complainants to go to police if they wanted.

"Numbers of care leavers don't want the police to be involved," he said of people who had left children's homes operated by the church.

The church has no records before 1998 of child sex abuse complainants seeking compensation but acknowledged abuse had probably occurred and poor record keeping was to blame for the lack of information.

Mr Battye said it was "theoretically possible" that some alleged perpetrators were still involved with the church, potentially dealing with children.

"I can't say I'm totally confident that they're not but these complaints do go back many years," Mr Battye said.

"We are talking about 30-plus years ago."

The Uniting Church defended legal claims of sexual abuse against its members by invoking the statute of limitations, he said.

"If there are legal proceedings then the church will plead the limitation defence, because it's open to the church to do so," he said.

He said most of the perpetrators were not clergy or employees of the church and were, for example, a spouse of a 'cottage parent' looking after children in the homes.

Victorian and Tasmanian synod general-secretary Reverend Mark Lawrence said the Uniting Church in Australia had apologised unreservedly for any harm that occurred to children while in its care.

"The church continues to offer personal apologies to those who seek them."

Dr Freier said he wished he could undo the harm that had been done.

"It is unfortunate that we cannot change the past, I wish I could - but I give a real and genuine commitment to enhance the processes and culture of our organisation," he said.

"The abuse of children has no place in our society."

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Hotelier stuck in a lift for four days

A HOTELIER says skills learned on a military survival course allowed him to survive four days trapped in the lift of his Austrian hotel.

A friend delivering bread eventually alerted rescue services on Friday after noticing post piled up outside the hotel in Bad Gastein near Salzburg.

The 58-year-old man had forgotten his mobile phone on his desk. His repeated desperate cries for help went unheeded and attempts to escape through the lift roof failed.

The Swedish-born man is now "in good health, telling officers that a survival course with the Swedish military had set him in good stead," police said.

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AG wants Racing Queensland investigation

QUEENSLAND'S attorney-general wants a parliamentary committee to investigate how the former Labor-aligned Racing Queensland board approved projects, and if anyone should face criminal charges.

A forensic audit by accountancy firm Deloitte, commissioned by the government, found that $150 million worth of contracts were awarded to engineering firm Contour Consulting Engineers without first going to tender, News Limited reports.

About $60 million worth of work was undertaken before the Newman government froze the program, $20 million of which was approved by the Bligh government before the 2012 state election.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie says the report shows an obscure procurement process.

He'll ask cabinet on Monday to set up an investigation into the board's procurement processes, favouring an open parliamentary committee inquiry.

He'd want the inquiry to have the power to impel witnesses and believes current deputy opposition leader and former racing minister Tim Mulherin and Labor heavyweight and former RQ board member Bill Ludwig should give evidence.

Mr Bleijie wants to know who approved the payments and if it went through cabinet.

"Or did Bill Ludwig get on the phone to his Labor mates and say we need the money and got it approved?" he told AAP.

"If it shows that there is any criminality that has occurred, then we will then have the options to follow through."

Mr Bleijie insists an inquiry isn't throwing good money after bad.

Late last year, former RQ chairman Bob Bentley said everything he and his board did was "above board" and tenders were not called because Contour was a preferred contractor doing specialist work, News Limited reports.

Comment is being sought from Mr Mulherin.

Mr Mulherin says as minister he properly fulfilled all of his responsibilities.

He described the potential inquiry as a diversion, and accused Mr Bleijie of making political and prejudicial comments.

"Every time (the government) is on the ropes it hits the diversion button," he said.

"It shows a government obsessed with fruitless attacks on past governments and with no plans of its own for the state's future."

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Federal, state govts urged to cut spending

Treasurer Wayne Swan has revealed a $7.5 billion hit to the national budget. Source: AAP

FEDERAL and state governments are being urged to live within their means and make more aggressive cuts in public spending.

In a report released on Sunday, the Grattan Institute warned Australia must prepare for more difficult economic times ahead by reducing its overall budget deficit.

The think tank says Australia faces a "significant risk" of posting deficits of around four per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) over the next 10 years.

Averting them would require governments to find savings and tax increases worth $60 billion a year.

"This alarming task is not impossible, but it will require tougher choices than those made over the last decade," the report said.

"To be sustainable, current budgets need to be in surplus."

The institute acknowledged that clawing back a deficit of four per cent of GDP required that everyone experienced some "budget pain".

But it was vital to cut back on spending, with "far more negative than positive forces" on the economic horizon.

"This will be politically difficult, but the alternative is unsustainable budget deficits that will be even more painful to reverse in the future," the report said.

The institute warned company and carbon tax revenues were likely to be one per cent of GDP - or $15 billion a year - less than current forecasts.

"Current revenues are inflated by the mining boom and Australia's high terms of trade.

"If, as many predict, minerals prices fall, government revenues will fall by another one per cent of GDP."

In the federal government's financial statement for February 2013, released last week, there was an underlying cash deficit of $23.646 billion, higher than $17.993 billion forecast in the mid-year budget update released in October.

The difference of $5.713 billion was mainly due to lower tax revenue and higher welfare payments, the government says.

A spokesman for Treasurer Wayne Swan said the government was committed to making the budget sustainable over the long term.

He said it had "demonstrated this again recently with the announcement of responsible savings to help pay for better funding for schools".

He said without such measures, the budget position in 2020-21 would be $250 billion worse off.

"This includes tackling unsustainable spending on health - which this report identifies as a significant issue - through measures such as means testing the private health insurance rebate and cutting the millionaires' dental scheme," the spokesman said.

Mr Swan on Sunday revealed that the high dollar and lower terms of trade have resulted in a $7.5 billion hit to revenue in the federal budget.

He said the same factors would also impact forward estimates.

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