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Single parents to protest over payments

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 12 Januari 2013 | 23.55

WELFARE advocates are planning to protest around Australia next month over the government's cuts to single parent benefits.

From January 1, single parents have not been eligible for the Parenting payment once their youngest child has turned eight years old and have been transferred to the lower Newstart allowance.

More than 60,000 single parents now receive between $60 to $100 a week less under entitlement changes.

The single parents action group (SPAG) are organising rallies in all major cities on February 5 to push for the government to reverse its decision, with the main protest at Parliament House in Canberra.

Protest organiser Samantha Seymour said the payment changes would have a detrimental impact on single parent families.

"Our purpose is to show the government that we will not tolerate their decision to further deprive and isolate Australians whose only crime is being single parents," Ms Seymour said in a statement on Sunday.

Families spokeswoman for the Australian Greens, Rachel Siewert, said she was concerned about the long-term impact of the lower Newstart payments on parents and their children.

"We shouldn't be condemning people to poverty," Senator Siewert said in a statement.

She said the government should reverse these payment cuts and also boost the Newstart allowance by $50 a week.

The government introduced the changes, worth around $728 million in savings over four years, in its bid for a budget surplus in 2012/13.

Last December, Treasurer Wayne Swan said the government was unlikely to have a surplus this financial year due to lower than forecast tax revenue.


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Savile's victims set to seek damages

AROUND 50 victims of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile are set to seek damages from the late broadcaster's estate and from organisations including the BBC and Britain's health service, their lawyer said.

A report by British police on Friday said Savile "groomed the nation" over six decades, hiding behind his fame to assault girls, boys and adult women on BBC premises and in schools and hospitals.

Liz Dux, a lawyer representing more than 50 of Savile's victims, said that because Savile had died in 2011 aged 84, civil claims were the only way that they could get justice.

"Compensation is not at the forefront of their mind, but of course it's the only method of recompense that we can get for them now, given that he can't be prosecuted," she said.

Dux said they would consider making claims against Savile's heirs, against the BBC -- the publicly funded UK broadcaster that made Savile one of its biggest stars in the 1970s and 1980s -- and the state-run National Health Service.

"We now have to look at what was known in the organisations. Once these inquiries have taken place then we will be able to make progress with the civil claims.

"Those inquiries are hugely important to the evidence and it will be foolhardy to press ahead straight away with the civil claims now without that evidence coming forward.

"A moratorium has been agreed in respect of the majority of the potential defendants to await the outcome of the inquiry."

In the three-month investigation by police and the NSPCC children's charity, it emerged that Savile used his fame as presenter of BBC TV's Top of the Pops chart show and children's program Jim'll Fix It to rape and assault victims on BBC premises as well as in schools and hospitals where he did charity work.

The report recorded 214 criminal offences, including 34 rapes -- 28 of them of children. Three-quarters of the victims were children, mostly girls aged between 13 and 16, but the youngest was an eight-year-old boy.


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Beijing pollution at dangerous levels

DENSE fog has enveloped swathes of east and central China, with pollution levels in Beijing reaching dangerous levels for a second day and residents advised to stay indoors, state media reports.

The municipal environment warning centre issued an alert on Saturday advising the elderly, children, and those suffering respiratory or cardiovascular illness in the capital to avoid going out or doing strenuous exercise, Xinhua reported.

Those who did venture out wore facemasks for protection, with visibility low, the skyline shrouded, and the sun hidden in the smog.

Air quality in Beijing showed airborne particles with a diameter small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs at a reading of 456 micrograms per cubic metre. The quality is considered good when the figure stands at less than 100.

The heavy pollution is expected to last another three days, with weather conditions preventing pollutants from dispersing, the warning centre said, according to Xinhua.

Fog in several provinces in east and central China closed numerous highways and delayed flights, it said.

China's air quality is among the worst in the world, international organisations say, citing massive coal consumption and car-choked city streets in the world's biggest auto market.


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French forces stop Mali Islamist advance

MALIAN troops were poised on Saturday to reclaim a key town from Islamists threatening to advance on the capital after France sent in its air force, opening a dramatic new phase in the months-old conflict.

Witnesses and the Malian army said dozens of Islamist fighters were killed in the battle for Konna, one of the worst clashes since the start of the crisis almost a year ago and the most significant setback inflicted on the Islamists.

US officials said Washington might support France's sudden military involvement to help Bamako wrest northern Mali back from al Qaeda-linked groups, while Nigeria also said it had dispatched personnel on the ground.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Operation Serval had already claimed its first French casualty when a pilot carrying raids to support Malian ground troops fighting for Konna was killed on Friday.

France also said it had deployed troops in Bamako, which has remained under government control since Islamist groups seized half of the country in March to protect its 6000-strong expatriate community.

A senior Malian officer in the region told AFP that the army was now fully in control of the town, after spending the best part of Saturday flushing out the last pockets of resistance.

"We control the town, all of it," said Lieutenant Ousmane Fane, a member of the Mopti regional command.

"We have claimed dozens of casualties, even around 100 among Islamist ranks in Konna."

Witnesses reached by AFP spoke of dozens of bodies strewn across the area, with one resident counting 46 dead Islamists.

The town, which had fallen into insurgents' hands on Thursday, is some 700km from Bamako but was seen as one of the last ramparts against an Islamist advance.

Mali's armed forces had been in disarray since a March coup and seemed powerless against a rebellion of seasoned mainly Tuareg fighters, but France's shock intervention tipped the power balance.

"The helicopters struck the insurgents' vehicles, which dispersed. The army is mopping up the city," a Malian military source said.

"During this intense combat, one of our pilots ... was fatally wounded," Le Drian told a press conference in Paris.

Groups with ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) overpowered a secular Tuareg rebellion in March 2012 and seized control of a territory the size of France.

They have since destroyed centuries-old mausoleums which they see as a heresy in the fabled city of Timbuktu and imposed an extreme form of Islamic law -- or sharia -- in the main towns, flogging, amputating and sometimes executing transgressors.

The collapse of a nation seen as a democratic success story in the region sparked Western fears that northern Mali could become a major launchpad for global terrorist attacks.

The United States, former colonial power France -- which has eight hostages in the Sahel -- and the rest of the European Union had looked set to let the regional bloc ECOWAS take the lead on any military intervention, which appeared at least several months away.

The UN Security Council had okayed the regional mission but Mali's interim administration had warned it could not afford to wait months for a game-changer.

"Our choice is peace ... but they have forced war on us. We will carry out a crushing and massive retaliation against our enemies," Mali's interim leader, Dioncounda Traore, said in an address to the nation on Friday.

On Saturday he thanked France for its intervention.

French army chief Edouard Guillaud, speaking at the same briefing as the defence minister, said the operation had a tactical command in Mali.

French President Francois Hollande, who has struggled on the domestic front and seen his popularity hit record lows, said French forces would remain involved as long as necessary.

Nigeria's presidency on Saturday confirmed it had sent an air force technical team and the commander of the planned ECOWAS force to Mali.


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Arthur Highway to reopen Sunday night

TASMANIAN police are planning to reopen the Arthur Highway on the bushfire-ravaged Tasman Peninsular for general access from 6pm on Sunday.

They say the opening will be confirmed after an assessment of prevailing fire and wind conditions during the afternoon.

They're also warning that there will be a number of work crews on the highway on Monday particularly between Sugarloaf Road and the Dunally Bridge, and people planning to travel on it should expect delays.

The crews will be working to restore essential services on the peninsular after more than week of bushfires.

The highway will have a speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour, and some areas may be signposted at 40 due to the works. Police warn the limits will be enforced.


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Zeman, Schwarzenberg top Czech vote

CZECH rivals Milos Zeman, a former premier and veteran left-winger, and right-wing Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, topped the results of the presidential election Saturday and will face off in a run-off later this month.

Zeman, 68, garnered 25 per cent of votes while Schwarzenberg, 75, scored 21.2 per cent, the Czech Statistical Office said, with 75 per cent of ballots counted after the two-day first round wound up.

The second-round run-off is scheduled for January 25-26.

Former centre-right prime minister Jan Fischer, who had led opinion polls ahead the vote, scored 17.06 per cent, ahead of leftist senator Jiri Dienstbier with 16.7 per cent.

"Jan Fischer was rather weak in debates. Confronted with his rivals, he didn't offer much," Tomas Lebeda, a political analyst at Charles University in Prague, told public broadcaster Czech Television.

Vladimir Franz, an eccentric artist who is tattooed head-to-toe, was running fifth among the nine contenders with seven per cent support in the vote whose turnout topped 60 per cent.

The winner will replace outgoing eurosceptic Vaclav Klaus, whose mandate expires on March 7.

The Czech Republic is an ex-communist NATO and EU member with population of 10.5 million.


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