Skateboard road rage attack arrest

An amateur cameraman caught an ugly road rage incident in Australia's Gold Coast while waiting at the traffic lights. Sarah Toms reports.

A SKATEBOARDER has been arrested over a violent road rage bashing at a busy Gold Coast intersection.

Horrified witnesses caught on camera and posted to YouTube footage of a man with a skateboard attacking the driver of a car stopped at a traffic light in Bundall on March 30.

The fight spilled on to the road, with both men throwing punches, leaving them both badly bleeding.

A 24-year-old Bundall man was arrested and charged with affray over a violent road rage bashing at a busy Gold Coast intersection. Picture: Nine News

The driver returned to his car before the other man walked up and smashed the car's taillight.

Witnesses could be heard on the video calling 000.

CHARGED: A skateboarder has been arrested over a violent road rage bashing at a Gold Coast intersection. Image: Channel 9

Police say they have charged a 24-year-old Bundall man with affray following the incident.

They say it will be alleged that the man assaulted a 50-year-old man at the intersection of Bundall Road and Thomas Drive Southport, near the Chevron Island Bridge.

A 24-year-old Bundall man was arrested and charged with affray over a violent road rage bashing at a busy Gold Coast intersection. Picture: Nine News

The accused man has been given a notice to appear in Southport Magistrates Court on April 15.

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Strong quake causes panic in Indonesia

A MAJOR 7.1-magnitude earthquake has rocked Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua, sending panicked crowds running into the streets.

There were no reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued after the quake struck on land at 1.42pm local time on Saturday at a depth of 75km, 272km west-southwest of provincial capital Jayapura, the US Geological Survey said.

Local seismologists had measured the quake at 7.2.

People in the capital of the huge province said they felt the quake strongly and hundreds went running into the streets.

Narsi Bay said she was in a meeting on the first floor of a hotel in Jayapura when she felt "strong shaking".

"I went downstairs to go outside as quickly as I could as I was afraid that the building would collapse," the 21-year-old told AFP.

"I saw lamps, tables, and chairs shaking. Some people screamed in panic and shouted at others in the hotel to go outside."

Suharjono, from the country's meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said the quake was felt most strongly in Mulia city, Puncak Jaya district.

It was strong enough to "wake people who are sleeping and break windows, but it won't cause buildings to collapse", he said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that the quake had not generated a tsunami.

Another official from the Indonesian agency said: "The quake happened on land, there is no tsunami threat."

The agency had not received any reports of damage.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

A massive quake struck off Aceh in 2004, sparking a tsunami that killed 170,000 people in the province on Sumatra and tens of thousands more in countries around the Indian Ocean.

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China steps up response to bird flu cases

A second Chinese city culled birds on Saturday to prevent the spread of H7N9 avian influenza. Source: AAP

A SECOND Chinese city culled birds on Saturday to prevent the spread of H7N9 avian influenza, which has killed six people in the country, as Shanghai's live poultry markets remained shut.

China has confirmed 16 cases of the H7N9 strain, the health ministry said, since announcing a week ago that the virus had been found in humans for the first time.

The human infections have been confined to eastern China, with commercial hub Shanghai recording six including four deaths, and the other two fatalities in the neighbouring province of Zhejiang.

One of the Zhejiang cases ate quail bought at a market in the city of Hangzhou, at which authorities began culling birds on Saturday after finding quail infected with H7N9, the official Xinhua news agency said.

In Shanghai, a uniformed worker sprayed disinfectant from a tank on his back at a local market in the city centre, where two live poultry booths were dark and the cages empty.

"People are worried," said Yan Zhicheng, a retired factory manager who like many elderly people makes a daily trip to market.

"Shanghai people eat a lot of duck and chicken. Now we can't touch them."

Shanghai had culled more than 20,500 birds at an agricultural market in a western suburb by Friday, after the virus was found in pigeons, and the government announced a ban on live poultry trading and markets.

But eggs remained on sale, as well as fresh and frozen poultry meat, as officials encouraged people to cook them well.

Chinese authorities maintain there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission, a conclusion echoed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The US government on Friday advised American citizens living in China of the cases but said no travel or trade restrictions would be applied to the country based on the current situation.

In Shanghai residents were taking no chances, turning to traditional medicine and donning face masks.

Drugstores were running short of banlangen, a traditional Chinese medicine for colds made from the roots of the woad plant, used as a blue dye from ancient times.

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Syd police dismantle illegal DVD network

Police have dismantled a large-scale counterfeit DVD distribution network in Sydney's northwest. Source: AAP

SYDNEY police have dismantled a large-scale counterfeit DVD distribution network and seized an estimated $20 million worth of illegal discs.

Detectives from Quakers Hill along with representatives from the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft and product security experts from Woolworths raided a factory unit in Kings Park and a home in Marayong on Thursday.

Officers found around 1.2 million suspected counterfeit high-quality DVDs, artwork, packaging materials, computers, gift cards and cash.

The DVDs included local and international movie titles and TV show box sets which would have had a retail value of more than $20 million, police said.

It's believed the DVDs could have cost the Australian film and television industry more than $60 million if they were distributed.

A 28-year-old Marayong woman was arrested and charged with two counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception and selling, infringing copy of a work.

She was granted strict conditional bail and is due to appear at Blacktown Local Court on May 2.

Police said the network was using multiple names, residential and business addresses and post office boxes to import the DVDs, before they were assembled and repackaged at the factory unit and then sold over the internet.

It's further alleged that more than 65,000 DVDs had been sold with sales exceeding $1.6 million.

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Gillard wants the two Koreas to talk

Julia Gillard expressed solidarity in a phone call to South Korean President Park Geun-hye (pic). Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard will urge China to pressure North Korea to stop making provocative statements and accept South Korea's offer of trust-building talks.

Australia has clearly stated its condemnation of North Korea's "belligerent and provocative statements", Ms Gillard told reporters as she arrived in China on Friday for a six-day visit.

"I will be urging the Chinese leadership to use its influence to help with this issue, and help see an end to these provocative statements," Ms Gillard said.

North Korea should take a "different stance", she said amid mounting tensions in the region over its warlike rhetoric and threats of nuclear strike.

"This is a regime that cannot feed and properly care for its people, that engages in some of the worst human rights abuses that we've seen around the world.

"It is not in the interests of North Korea's people for this kind of belligerence to be demonstrated by the leadership of North Korea."

Ms Gillard says she has spoken to South Korea's President Park Geun-hye to express solidarity and Australia's concerns over the serious risk to regional security posed by North Korea's threats.

In their phone call, Ms Gillard emphasised the importance Australia placed on South Korea's security and promised to continue pressuring the rogue state to put an end to its stance and engage in dialogue with the south.

She said she thought both South Korea and the US had shown a great deal of restraint.

"But of course, among the many risks ... there is always the risk of miscalculation when tension is inflamed.

"Which is why it is very important to do all we can everything can to get North Korea to step back."

The prime minister wants North Korea to engage again in six party talks and accept an offer of president of South Korea for "trust-building dialogue".

Earlier in Canberra, US ambassador Jeffrey Bleich said there would be no changes to the American military presence in Australia following the North Korean threats.

But he did say the US was taking the threats seriously in all its missions around the world.

"We're not aware of any capability by North Korea, even with weapons they've identified ... being able to conduct a strike in Australia," he told AAP.

"From that perspective, no, we haven't changed our posture here."

Mr Bleich said the US had been very clear with China about its views, given China's special relationship with North Korea.

"It's incumbent on (China) to express the concerns of all of us about the belligerence of North Korea," he said.

"I know the prime minister is committed to reinforcing that message."

Mr Bleich noted North Korea had a relatively new leader.

"Where there are capacity for miscalculations, missteps or reckless behaviour ... we don't take anything for granted," he said.

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'Let Manus detainees mingle with locals'

Detainees on Manus Island should interact with the community, says PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA needs to consider allowing asylum seekers housed at the detention facility on Manus Island to interact with the local community, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says.

Mr O'Neill made the comments on Tuesday in response to a question about mounting criticism in Australia over the running of the centre.

"We don't run the facility, we provide the opportunity for (Australia) to run the processing centre, and we've always stressed it has to be done in a humane as possible way and manner - we expect that to be carried out," Mr O'Neill told reporters in Port Moresby.

"If children are on board, we have already offered to the Australian government and everybody that the refugees must be allowed to interact with our communities.

"I think there needs to be some consideration given to that by the Australian government."

On Thursday, Paris Aristotle, part of former Defence chief Angus Houston's refugee policy review panel, said safeguards needed to mitigate the risk of mental health harm have not been put in place at the detention centre.

He said he was particularly concerned about the arbitrary detention of asylum seekers, especially children, on Manus Island.

"Something needs to be done to address that immediately," he told ABC TV's Lateline on Thursday.

"Six months in, I don't think it's appropriate that children are still held in detention anywhere.

"If they were free to move around, if there were adequate services available for them and so forth, then that may have been an acceptable option."

He said he has had discussions with the federal government and immigration department and doesn't believe they are ignoring the panel's recommendations.

Mr O'Neill says the people of Manus would welcome more interaction with the asylum seekers.

"Manus is one of the most peaceful places in this country and people are very friendly, very welcoming.

"The community has willingly said they are free to move around and engage with them."

Following Mr Aristotle's comments, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called for the facility to be closed down.

Australian authorities on Thursday transferred the first group of asylum seekers to be moved to the Papua New Guinea processing facility in two months.

Police last month charged 18 asylum seekers with fighting and assault following a series of incidents at the temporary facility on Lombrum Naval base.

Some of the detainees then went on a week-long hunger strike to protest the charges.

A legal challenge to the centre has been repeatedly adjourned as lawyers haggle over procedural issues.

It is next expected to come before Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia on Wednesday for a directions hearing.

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NSW bike rider killed after hitting tree

A MOTORCYCLE rider has died after hitting a tree on the NSW south coast.

The 23-year-old man was riding along Quinns Lane, South Nowra about 1.30pm (AEDT) on Wednesday, when he left the road and struck a tree.

The man suffered head injuries and died at the scene, police said.

It's believed the man was from Bomaderry.

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Abbas to meet Kerry in Jordan

PALESTINIAN president Mahmud Abbas is to meet in Jordan with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is pushing for a renewal of peace talks.

"US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with president Abbas next Sunday in Amman," said a Palestinian official on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

After meeting Kerry, Abbas would on Monday travel to Qatar for a meeting of the Arab Peace Initiative committee for talks likely to focus on US efforts to revive the stalled peace process, the official said.

Israeli press reports said Kerry would arrive in Israel on Saturday night for talks with the leadership, but there was no confirmation from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kerry, who took up his post on February 1, made his first visit to the region alongside US President Barack Obama last month, holding one-on-one talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leadership in Jerusalem and Amman on March 24.

"I think the stage has been set for the possibilities that the parties can hopefully find a way to negotiations," Kerry said in Baghdad a day later, describing the meetings as "a good beginning".

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Eurozone inflation down for third month

INFLATION across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro fell for the third month running in March to its lowest level in nearly three years, official figures show.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said on Wednesday consumer prices in the eurozone were up 1.7 per cent in March from the year before, its lowest level since July 2010 and down from a 1.8 per cent rate in February.

Weaker energy price inflation was one of the main reasons behind the fall.

Though the decline takes inflation further below the European Central Bank's target of keeping price rises just below 2 per cent, no change in interest rates is expected at Thursday's monthly policy meeting.

The ECB has been reluctant to take its main interest rate below the record low of 0.75 per cent even though the eurozone is in recession and inflation has dropped.

The decline in inflation in March was widely expected, though some economists were anticipating a bigger drop to 1.6 per cent, as prices continue to be weighed down by the recession and high unemployment, which, among other things, keeps a lid on wages and consumer spending.

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Defence on agenda for Gillard in China

Stronger military ties will be on the agenda when Prime Minister Julia Gillard visits China. Source: AAP

STRONGER military ties will be on the agenda when Prime Minister Julia Gillard visits China later this week.

Ms Gillard will start her six-day visit on Friday at the Boao Forum for Asia, on Hainan Island, and meet with new president Xi Jinping over the weekend.

While trade and investment will be key items for the talks, it is also expected the two leaders will focus on the defence relationship.

President Xi is also chairman of China's powerful central military commission.

The coming year will feature a number of events demonstrating the growing defence ties.

Most of the key leadership of the Australian Defence Force will be visiting China in 2013 and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) leadership will return the favour.

As well, Sydney will play host to a Chinese Navy ship visit in October for the International Fleet Review.

And the 16th annual Australia-China Defence Strategic Dialogue will be held in Australia in late-2013.

The PLA has a reported annual budget of about $106 billion and about 2.3 million personnel.

Senior Australian officials say the leader-to-leader talks are an important opportunity to work on raising strategic engagement to the same level as the two nations' economic links.

It will also be a chance for Ms Gillard to ease concerns over Australia's growing military ties with the United States.

In November 2011, Australia reached a deal with the US to rotate Marines through the Northern Territory, and is working on further agreements on US aircraft and naval access.

In May 2012, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Chinese ministers had told him of their concerns about what they described as the Australia-US "Cold War alliance", saying the time for such deals was long past.

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