Dallas star Larry Hagman dies in Texas

American actor Larry Hagman, known for his role on the TV show Dallas, has died at the age of 81. Source: AAP

US actor Larry Hagman, who starred as predatory oil baron JR Ewing on TV's hit soap opera Dallas, has died at the age of 81.

Hagman, who returned as JR in a new edition of Dallas this year, died on Friday afternoon due to complications from his battle with cancer, according to a statement from the family provided by Warner Bros, producer of Dallas.

"Larry was back in his beloved hometown of Dallas, re-enacting the iconic role he loved the most," the family said. "Larry's family and closest friends had joined him in Dallas for the Thanksgiving holiday."

Hagman was diagnosed in 1992 with cirrhosis of the liver and acknowledged that he had drank heavily for years. In 1995, a malignant tumour was discovered on his liver and he underwent a transplant.

Linda Gray, a long-time friend who starred alongside him in the TV show, called him her "best friend for 35 years", her agent told the BBC.

Gray, who played Hagman's on-screen wife, Sue Ellen Ewing, was by his bedside when he died.

In a statement from her agent she said: "Larry Hagman was my best friend for 35 years.

"He was the Pied Piper of life and brought joy to everyone he knew. He was creative, generous, funny, loving and talented and I will miss him enormously.

"He was an original and lived life to the full."

Years before Dallas, Hagman had gained TV fame as a nice guy with the fluffy 1965-70 NBC comedy I Dream of Jeannie, in which he played Captain Tony Nelson, an astronaut whose life is disrupted when he finds a comely genie, portrayed by Barbara Eden, and takes her home to live with him.

He also starred in two short-lived sitcoms, The Good Life (NBC, 1971-72) and Here We Go Again (ABC, 1973). His film work included well-regarded performances in The Group, Harry and Tonto and Primary Colors.

But it was Hagman's masterful portrayal of the charmingly loathsome JR that brought him his greatest stardom. The CBS serial drama about the Ewing clan and those in their orbit aired from April 1978 to May 1991.

The "Who shot JR?" story twist, in which Hagman's character was nearly murdered in a cliffhanger episode, fuelled international speculation and millions of dollars in betting-parlour wagers. It also helped give the series a ratings record for the time.

When the answer was revealed in a November 1980 episode, an average 41 million viewers tuned in to make Dallas the second most-watched entertainment show of all time, trailing only the MASH finale in 1983 with 50 million viewers.

It was JR's sister-in-law, Kristin (Mary Crosby) who plugged him - he had made her pregnant, then threatened to frame her as a prostitute unless she left town - but others had equal motivation.

Hagman played Ewing as a bottomless well of corruption with a charming grin: a business cheat and a faithless husband who tried to get his alcoholic wife, Sue Ellen (Gray), institutionalised.

"I know what I want on JR's tombstone," Hagman said in 1988. "It should say: 'Here lies upright citizen JR Ewing. This is the only deal he ever lost.'"

In 2006, Hagman did a guest shot on FX's drama series Nip/Tuck, playing a macho business mogul. He also got new exposure in recent years with the DVD releases of I Dream of Jeannie and Dallas.

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Portugal pulls bulk of police from Timor

Portugal has withdrawn the bulk of its police officers from East Timor. Source: AAP

PORTUGAL has withdrawn the bulk of its police officers from East Timor as international forces wind up a 13-year mission in Asia's youngest nation, where thousands have died in political bloodshed.

Seventy-five of the officers boarded a Lisbon-bound plane in the former Portuguese colony, among the last of 1200 UN peacekeepers to return home before the official end of their mission on December 31.

Only around three dozen UN Police remain in the country, including several from Portugal, Australia, Malaysia and Pakistan. Most of them will leave next week and all will have to withdraw by December 31.

International forces began pulling out in earnest last month with Canberra this week saying it was sending home hundreds of troops from the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force (ISF), ending a six-year operation.

At the UN's terminal in Dili's Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport, officers in Portugal's black police uniforms and UN blue berets bade a tearful farewell to Portuguese expatriates who had come to see them off.

Captain Jorge Barradas, commander of the Portuguese police contingent, said he had mixed feelings about leaving a country where he has served on and off since 2001.

"It is kind of a sad feeling for us to leave East Timor. But on the other hand, leaving means that East Timor has developed and is secure so it's also a pleasure to leave," he said.

The UN entered the territory, officially known as Timor-Leste, after violence broke out in 1999 following the resounding "yes" vote for independence from neighbouring Indonesia.

The referendum was organised by the UN after Indonesia announced it would end a brutal, 24-year occupation in which about 183,000 people, or a quarter of the population, died from fighting, disease and starvation.

The nation conducted peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections this year, and UN peacekeepers last month handed full responsibility for policing back to the nation, which celebrated a decade of formal independence in May.

Portugal, which controlled East Timor for more than 300 years before Indonesia invaded, is among 44 nations that have served in the current UN Police mission dispatched after a second wave of violence hit in 2006.

It has made one of the biggest contributions to the force, sending 2,000 officers since 2006, when unrest ahead of elections left 37 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The only major violence in the impoverished half-island nation of 1.1 million people since 2006 has been a failed assassination attempt against then-president Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in 2008.

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Four dead, man critical after NSW crash

A MAN is fighting for his life after a "horrendous" three vehicle crash in western NSW that has left four other people dead.

Police forensic officers are investigating after the collision on the Great Western Highway at Glanmire, east of Bathurst, about 1.40pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

Media reports suggest the tragedy - involving a car, a ute and a semi trailer - occurred after one of the vehicles swerved to miss a dog that had run onto the road.

Three people travelling in the car were killed instantly, while a passenger in the ute also died at the scene.

The ute driver was trapped for an hour and half before being airlifted to Westmead Hospital with life threatening injuries.

The truck driver was not injured.

Police said the crash scene was a horrific sight.

"It was a horrendous scene to turn up to for emergency service personnel responding, as well as to those people who witnessed the accident," Inspector Mark Wall told the Nine Network.

Police have urged anyone who witnessed the incident to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The Great Western Highway remains closed in both directions between Bathurst and Lithgow.

Motorists are advised to avoid the area.

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Syria state TV journalist shot dead

A SYRIAN state television journalist has been shot dead in Damascus, the latest in a string of employees of pro-government media to be killed.

"An armed terrorist group assassinated a journalist at the Public Authority for Radio and Television, Basel Tawfiq Yousef, in the Tadamun neighbourhood," the official SANA news agency reported on Friday.

The district has seen heavy fighting between rebels and troops since the outbreak of major violence in the capital in July.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the journalist was targeted because activists regarded him a member of the "shabiha," militia supporters of President Bashar al-Assad who have been accused of some of the worst abuses of the 20-month uprising against his rule.

Staff of pro-government media have been among 14 professional journalists killed in Syria since the uprising erupted in March last year.

Another 38 citizen journalists have been killed, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

Those killed have included the domestic news editor of SANA, a state television presenter and a journalist from the cultural section of the government daily Tishrin.

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Telstra mobiles to be back on by Saturday

TELSTRA technicians are working around the clock to restore full mobile coverage to customers in Victoria's west and southwest by Saturday lunchtime.

Approximately 65 per cent of 60,000 affected customers had their mobile phones back up and running at 6pm (AEDT) on Friday after a fire severely damaged the Telstra Exchange in Warrnambool early on Thursday morning.

But Telstra said it would still be a number of days before landlines and home internet connections were re-established.

Telstra spokesman James Howe said mobile phone voice calls were the top priority for the 30 technicians assigned to the job.

"In a number of areas we have limited the amount of data traffic," Mr Howe told AAP.

"It shouldn't impede the amount and coverage, however things like using emails and people looking things up their phone will be affected in the short term.

"We're working towards having full mobile coverage by lunchtime tomorrow."

Police stations and hospitals in the area have been issued with satellite phones.

An "exchange on wheels" has been sent to Warrnambool, with 10 mobile stations in the region restored overnight.

Some ATM and EFTPOS services have been restored, however Mr Howe warned EFTPOS would be slower than usual.

He says compensation for businesses affected by the fire will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

It may be an option for residential customers.

"Compensation will certainly be considered in the future," Mr Howe said, although he stressed the telco giant was currently focused on restoration and repair.

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Town shocked by death of veteran journo

MACKAY journalists and the legal fraternity have been shocked by the death of veteran local court reporter Bruce McKean, who was killed on Thursday night.

Mr McKean, 58, died after being hit by a truck while crossing Nebo Rd, in Mackay, about 6.30pm.

He was a court reporter for The Courier-Mail for several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s and retired from the Mackay Daily Mercury four weeks ago, shortly after discovering he had inoperable terminal cancer.

Mr McKean had spent 22 years reporting on court and crime for the newspaper and was well known to lawyers, judges and magistrates.

Mackay lawyer Gene Paterson of Macrossan & Amiet said Mr McKean was so well respected amongst the legal fraternity that solicitors and court staff had been talking about having a wake for him before he died.

``He was just a good fellow,'' Mr Paterson said.

``Bruce had a lot of compassion for people.''

Mr Paterson said Mr McKean would report on everything from drink driving and serious criminal cases to estate law cases.

``Bruce was just a legend,'' Mackay Daily Mercury journalist Lynnis Bonanno, who had worked with Mr McKean for 12 years, said.

``He would encourage young journalists and share his wisdom and knowledge.

``He was an old-school master of his craft and he loved covering courts and telling great stories.''

Mr McKean, who was not married, was also a keen bowler, a regular at Mackay City Bowls Club and he wrote stories on bowls for the newspaper.

It is believed Mr McKean was walking from the bowls club to a fish and chip shop when he was killed.

Mackay City Bowls Club patron Peter Wright said Mr McKean had been a very good bowler, a coach and president of the district bowling association.

Mr Wright said his friends had gathered at the club tonight to have a drink in his honour.
 

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Storm warning for state's southeast

A SEVERE thunderstorm warning has been issued for Southeast Queensland and other areas of the state are on alert.

A warning is current for very dangerous thunderstorms between Crows Nest and Cooyar on the Darling Downs.

Thunderstorms are moving north and are forecast to hit Yarraman, the area north of Crows Nest and the area north of Cooyar and the area south of Kingaroy by 6:05 pm.

Other severe thunderstorms to the east of Toowoomba are moving towards the northeast.

Destructive winds and large hailstones are likely.

Hail of 4cm in diameter was seen at Laidley at 2.45pm.

Have you got a storm picture? MMS it to 0428 258 117 or email it

The storm activity is set to move westward tomorrow, leaving the southeast mainly fine for the weekend.

The storm activity is set to move westward tomorrow, leaving the southeast mainly fine for the weekend.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Bryan Rolstone said the storms would retreat tomorrow, with inland towns more likely to be affected.

``Toowoomba is most likely going to experience storms tomorrow,'' he said.

Mr Rolstone said the weekend would see the storms retreat further towards the Darling Downs, leaving the southeast with light weather and morning showers until Monday.

"Monday the storm activity decreases over the whole of Queensland even more so and there's still a signal on the eastern Darling Downs but elsewhere in the state there's hardly any," he said.

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Rinehart launches new book

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has unveiled her new book and her vision for the nation in Sydney. Source: AAP

MINING magnate Gina Rinehart has gathered tributes from advertising millionaire John Singleton and Indian industrialist GVK Reddy for her new book, which she is launching in Sydney on Thursday.

The book, "Northern Australia and Then Some", has been held in relative secrecy ahead of a two-day publicity tour by Ms Rinehart, who is chairman of Hancock Prospecting, through Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

The preface describes the new tome as "a compendium of speeches, articles and images" and says Ms Rinehart "offers the reader a comprehensive insight into her thoughts about national prosperity" and an "intimate glimpse" of her life and times.

A series of photographs from the book, made available to media ahead of the launch in Sydney, show Ms Rinehart with her late father, Lang Hancock, in a number of situations including at her 21st birthday and on one of the family's iron ore tenements in the West Australian Pilbara.

Mr Hancock wrote his own book, Wake Up Australia, to outline his vision of the essential place of mining at the centre of the nation's economic and political future, in 1979.

Mr Singleton, in his tribute to Ms Hancock's book, writes that people need only read two books to understand "the future of Australia and its destruction by government".

"Read Lang's book and it will light up your mind. Read Gina's book and it puts our future under the brightest light I have ever seen," Mr Singleton wrote.

Dr Reddy is chairman and managing director of the giant industrial conglomerate GVK Power and Infrastructure which bought the majority share of Hancock Prospecting's Queensland Galilee Basin coal holdings under a joint development agreement.

Dr Reddy writes that Ms Hancock, who has been involved in a bitter court battle with her children over control of a multi-billion dollar family trust, is "a caring and loving individual ... who cares not only about the wellbeing of her family and those close to her but also about the nation".

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Patient set for bedside court hearing

A 36-year-old man will face a bedside court hearing tomorrow charged with two counts of attempted murder after a fight near Cairns earlier this month.

Police allege the 36-year-old man was found at a Cooktown home early on November 19 with a 31-year-old woman with cuts to her forearm and a 59-year-old man had cuts to his hands, shoulder and leg.

The 36-year-old Cooktown man was found at the home with a gunshot wound to his shoulder.

It is believed the people were known to each other.

The 36-year-old man is expected to face a bedside court hearing at the Cairns Base Hospital tomorrow where he also faces charges of assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault, dangerous operation of a vehicle, unlicensed driving and possession of a dangerous drug.

Investigations are continuing.

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China angst over runaway boys' deaths

THE deaths of five runaway boys while they tried to keep warm in a bin has captured hearts in China, and led to the sackings of officials.

The five cousins and brothers, ranging from nine to 13 years old, died of carbon monoxide poisoning when they burned coal to try to keep warm as they sheltered from the cold in a bin in the city of Bijie, in Guizhou province.

They were among the vast numbers of children of migrant workers who are left with relatives while their parents earn a living elsewhere.

"The ignorance and apathy in this country leave me speechless and, once again, heartbroken," said one user of China's popular Twitter-like service Weibo.

Two of the three fathers of the boys worked in other parts of China, while the one who laboured in their hometown as a farmer said he and his wife had little time for their boy, Xinhua news agency reported.

The others were put under the care of an elderly grandmother with poor eyesight "who had difficulties even caring for herself".

Four of the boys had dropped out of school and the other missed classes regularly, Xinhua added.

"We need to put the 'left behind' children at the top of our agenda," it quoted Hu Jihong, the deputy mayor of Bijie, as saying. "Many uncared-for youngsters are wandering about the streets."

China's one-child policy has fostered a culture of families doting on their only offspring since it was imposed three decades ago, but incidents of abuse or neglect have sparked debate about how children are treated in general.

In recent weeks a kindergarten teacher stirred outrage after an online video showed her lifting a child off the ground by his ears as he cried out in pain.

In October last year a surveillance camera showed passers-by ignoring a two-year-old girl bleeding on the ground after she was struck by two vehicles. The infant died soon afterward.

Four education and civil affairs officials and two school principals in Bijie have been fired over the latest incident, and two district officials suspended.

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