Polls close in Tasmania state election

Over 360,000 Tasmanians will vote in 305 polling places from Hobart to King Island in Bass Strait. Source: AAP

THE counting of votes in the Tasmanian election is under way as the state decides who should govern for the next four years.

Voting at the 305 polling booths across the state ended at 6pm (AEDT) on Saturday and the Tasmanian Electoral Commission is due to begin posting the initial results at around 6.30pm.

More than 360,000 Tasmanians were due to vote in polling places as far flung as King Island in Bass Strait, with recent political polls predicting a Liberal win after 16 years of Labor rule.

Speaking earlier on Saturday, Premier Lara Giddings admitted to some nerves as she awaited the decision of Tasmanians on her government.

"I'm going to be entering the polling booth with anticipation and excitement, but also I'm feeling daunted as well as you wonder what the future will hold," she told reporters.

Casting his vote, opposition leader Will Hodgman said Tasmanians were "finally getting to have their say about the direction of the state".

"We've tried to demonstrate to Tasmanians as best we can not only the good plan we've got but also the fantastic team we've got," he said.

Voters will tonight elect a 25-seat House of Assembly, the state's 48th parliament, and Tasmania's 45th premier.

Seven parties have fielded 126 candidates across the state's five electorates - Bass, Braddon, Denison, Franklin and Lyons.

Under Tasmania's Hare-Clark voting system five members are returned in each seat and Ms Giddings' opponents in Franklin include Mr Hodgman and Greens leader Nick McKim.

Mr McKim told reporters on Saturday that his party had put its "best foot forward" in the campaign.

"We've been very positive we've been very propositional and we've articulated a really strong confident vision for Tasmania," he said.

However, he conceded there was a "mood for change" in the state.

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Elderly lady dies in NSW crash

Two men have been killed in a car crash on the NSW north coast. Source: AAP

AN elderly woman has been killed in a car crash in central NSW.

The 81-year-old was driving along a rural road five kilometres outside Tumut, between Wagga Wagga and Canberra, on Saturday morning when her car left the road, climbed an embankment and smashed into a tree.

"The woman, from Gundagai, died at the scene," police said.

The crash is being investigated and a report is being prepared for the coroner.

Also on Saturday, two men were killed in a car crash on the NSW north coast.

Police were called to The Coast Road at Lennox Head, south of Byron Bay, after two cars collided in the early hours.

Both drivers died at the scene but a male passenger was taken to hospital in a stable condition.

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Missing plane flew west 'deliberately': PM

Some experts theorise one of the pilots or someone else hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. Source: AAP

MALAYSIA'S prime minister says communications aboard a missing jet were switched off and its course deliberately changed by someone on board before the aircraft disappeared a week ago, but has stopped short of saying it had been hijacked.

Final satellite communication with the Boeing 777 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing came more than six-and-a-half hours after it vanished from civilian radar at 1:30am on March 8, Prime Minister Najib Razak told an internationally televised press conference on Saturday.

The movement of the plane in the interim period, during which it changed direction and passed back over the Malaysian peninsula towards the Indian Ocean, was "consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane," Najib said.

"Despite media reports that the plane was hijacked, I wish to be very clear: we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate from its original flight path," he added.

Najib said his announcement was based on new information from satellite contact with the plane and military radar data.

The combined data suggested "with a high degree of certainty" that the plane's two automated communications systems - Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) and its transponder - were "switched off" one after the other before it reached the point over the South China Sea where it dropped out of civilian radar contact.

It then turned back and flew in a westerly direction back over peninsular Malaysia before turning north-west.

The last confirmed communication between the plane and satellite was at 8:11am, Najib said, adding that investigators were calculating how far the aircraft may have flown afterwards.

So far, experts had located the last point of communication as being inside one of two large geographical corridors: a northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and a southern corridor stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian ocean.

"This new satellite information has a significant impact on the nature and scope of the search operation," the prime minister said.

"We are ending our operations in the South China Sea and reassessing the redeployment of our assets. We are working with the relevant countries to request all information relevant to the search, including radar data," he added.

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Smoke still troubles Vic town of Morwell

A CFA volunteer has been struck by a tanker while fighting a grassfire in central Victoria. Source: AAP

VULNERABLE residents who have been forced to leave a smoke-affected Victorian town will likely spend another weekend away from home.

The town of Morwell in the Latrobe Valley has been blanketed by thick smoke since a fire began at the nearby Hazelwood open-cut coalmine on February 9.

Victoria's chief health officer, Dr Rosemary Lester, said that weather permitting, the advice for at-risk people to stay away from the town - people over 65, pregnant women, preschool children and people with pre-existing heart and lung conditions - could be lifted within a few days.

"The air quality unfortunately has not been quite good enough for us over the past couple of days for us to lift our temporary relocating advice. I think we are almost there," Dr Lester said on Friday.

The fire at the brown coalmine was brought under control last weekend but is yet to be extinguished.

CFA regional controller Steve Warrington said crews were working on a number of hot spots beneath the mine's surface.

"We are focused on eliminating the remaining hot spots. This is one of the last steps in the mine fire fight," he said.

The Victorian government announced this week that former Supreme Court justice Bernard Teague would head an inquiry into the response to the fire.

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Iraq tries to legalise child marriage

A CONTENTIOUS draft law being considered in Iraq could open the door to girls as young as nine getting married and would require wives to submit to sex on their husband's whim.

The measure, aimed at creating different laws for Iraq's majority Shi'ite population, could further fray the country's divisions amid some of the worst bloodshed since the sectarian fighting that nearly ripped the country apart after the US-led invasion.

It also comes as more and more children under 18 get married in the country.

"That law represents a crime against humanity and childhood," prominent Iraqi human rights activist Hana Adwar said.

"Married underage girls are subjected to physical and psychological suffering.

Iraqi law now sets the legal age for marriage at 18 without parental approval. Girls as young as 15 can be married only with a guardian's approval.

The proposed new measure, known as the Jaafari Personal Status Law, is based on the principles of a Shi'ite school of religious law founded by Jaafar al-Sadiq, the sixth Shi'ite imam.

Iraq's Justice Ministry late last year introduced the draft measure to the cabinet, which approved it last month despite strong opposition by rights groups and activists.

The draft law does not set a minimum age for marriage. Instead, it mentions an age in a section on divorce, setting rules for divorces of girls who have reached the age of nine years in the lunar Islamic calendar.

It also says that's the age girls reach puberty.

Since the Islamic calendar year is 10 or 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar, that would be the equivalent of eight years, eight months old.

The bill makes the father the only parent with the right to accept or refuse the marriage proposal.

Also under the proposed measure, a husband can have sex with his wife regardless of her consent.

The bill prevents women from leaving the house without their husband's permission, would restrict women's rights in matters of parental custody after divorce and make it easier for men to take multiple wives.

Parliament must still ratify the bill before it becomes law. That is unlikely to happen before parliamentary elections scheduled for April 30.

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NSW man charged with grooming girl, 15

A NSW man who allegedly tried to groom a girl through a social networking site has been charged. Source: AAP

A NSW man who allegedly tried to groom a 15-year-old girl through a social networking site has been charged and granted conditional bail.

Police say that in March 2013, they began investigating allegations the man sent inappropriate images to the girl via a social networking site and had asked her to reply with similar photographs of herself.

On Friday, police seized a laptop, a mobile phone and clothes after raiding a home at Albion Park, south of Wollongong.

The 31-year-old was arrested near Kiama and later charged with grooming a child under 16 for unlawful sexual activity.

Bail with strict conditions was granted and he is due before Albion Park Local Court in April.

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South Australia's jobless rate rises

South Australia's Premier Jay Weatherill insists he is focused on creating jobs. Source: AAP

PREMIER Jay Weatherill insists creating jobs is at the heart of what his Labor government is about, despite official figures showing South Australia's unemployment rate remains the worst of all the mainland states.

Figures released on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that 56,900 South Australians were listed as unemployed in February, compared with 50,400 at the same time last year.

The confirmation that almost 7000 South Australians joined the ranks of the unemployed in South Australia over the past 12 months comes just days ahead of Saturday's state election.

South Australia's jobless rate stood at 6.7 per cent in February, a rise of 0.1 per cent compared to the previous month. By contrast, the unemployment rates in the nation's two largest states, NSW and Victoria, were unchanged at 5.8 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively.

However, the official figures also confirm Mr Weatherill's statement on Thursday that the rise in South Australia's headline unemployment rate has been driven by an increase in the number of people looking for a job.

He said South Australia had a lower cost of doing business compared to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and that his government had been investing in industries to bring jobs to the state.

"Recently HP announced they are bringing over 400 high end IT jobs into South Australia. This investment doesn't just happen. Government needs to work in partnership with business and invest in the future of the state," Mr Weatherill said.

"Our infrastructure investment in projects like the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, Southern Expressway and Riverbank Precinct has ensured thousands of South Australians have stayed in jobs."

Opposition leader Steven Marshall said a Liberal government would be doing everything it could to lower the state's unemployment rate.

"We've announced 18 separate policies designed with one purpose in mind and that's to employ more South Australians," he said on Thursday.

The national unemployment rate was steady in February at a decade high of six per cent, despite a strong rise in the number of people employed in the month.

Full-time employment soared by a staggering 80,500, but was offset by a drop in part-time workers.

Both Treasury and the Reserve Bank expect the unemployment rate to rise further in coming months as the economy struggles to transition from a fading mining investment boom to broader based growth.

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Myer exec Greg Travers resigns

RETAILER Myer's executive general manager, business services and strategy, Greg Travers, has resigned to take up a role in the resources sector.

Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes paid tribute to Mr Travers' contribution to the company over the past eight years.

"While we will be very sorry to see Greg leave, he has been offered a great new opportunity to return to the resources sector with an international mining company," Mr Brookes said.

"Greg spent many years in senior roles in the resources sector prior to joining Myer."

Mr Travers has provided three months notice. His role will be covered by internal appointments while a review of further changes and other appointments is under way.

Myer recently announced Mr Brookes' reappointment as Myer chief executive.

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"Kill" machete not murder weapon

A HOMEMADE machete with "kill" written on it was found at a NSW murder scene but prosecutors don't believe it was used to fatally stab a small-time drug dealer.

The 30cm weapon was found by police at a Wagga Wagga home in May 2011 the day after John Gjedsted was killed during a brief and violent confrontation with four men in his front yard.

Ethan McKellar, Bevan McKellar, Douglas Dennis and Luke Elwood all admit they went to Mr Gjedsted's home on the evening of May 1 2011.

They drove over in Dennis's car after a few drinks to buy some cannabis from the dealer, a NSW Supreme Court heard on Wednesday.

But during opening submissions, the men's lawyers all denied their clients had fatally attacked Gjedsted, had seen a weapon before the brawl broke out or devised a plan to rob or swindle "sticks" - slang for small amounts of cannabis.

All men have pleaded not guilty.

Blood stained clothes, shoes, thongs, cigarette butts and a baseball cap were taken from the scene, Detective Senior Constable Kristan Cox told the court.

He described red stains, which later proved to be blood, across much of the front of Mr Gjedsted's home and front yard.

Detective Cox seized a homemade machete during the course of his investigation and told the court it was about 30cm long with "kill" written on the blade and the initials FJ stamped near a makeshift handle.

But it's not believed this was the weapon used to stab Gjedsted.

The court heard he was stabbed four times, in the chin, back and twice in the left side of the chest.

One blow to the chest punctured his lung, causing his death.

A teenage boy who was in a bedroom of the house at the time of the fight told police during investigations Mr Gjedsted was chatting with men at the front door before hearing sounds of a struggle.

The men asked "Can we just get a few sticks off you?", crown prosecutor Trevor Bailey told the court in his opening address.

A fight broke out in the front yard and the teenager ran in but was stabbed by one of the men.

He then saw two other men stab Mr Gjedsted and other witnesses earlier told police they saw a group of men kicking him.

The trial continues.

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Stop poisoning dingoes, scientists urge

MANY regard them as pests and one infamously killed a baby.

But controlling Australia's dingo population with poison may be doing more harm than good, according to a controversial new study.

"Dingoes should not be poisoned if we want to halt the loss of mammal biodiversity in Australia," said the study's lead author Dr Mike Letnic.

The University of NSW ecologist and researchers from two other universities examined conservation reserves across NSW and found that when dingoes were killed the local fox, kangaroo and wallaby populations shot up.

Foxes ate large amounts of small mammals, while kangaroos and wallabies destroyed vegetation which smaller marsupials, mice, bandicoots and native rodents live in.

Dr Letnic called for a rethink on the areas where the wild dogs are being culled and said populations should even be allowed to flourish in some places where they've previously been targeted.

"Actively maintaining dingo populations, or restoring them in areas where they have been exterminated, is controversial but could mitigate the impacts of foxes and herbivores," he added.

Dingoes are common across much of Australia and in many respect are icons of the country's outback and bushland areas.

But some regard them as pests and they are blamed for attacking livestock, particularly sheep.

Their image has been damaged by Azaria Chamberlain's death in Uluru in 1980 and a series of attacks on children on Queensland's Fraser Island.

Government-run culling and prevention programs are active across the country, with methods including shooting and poisoning, using sodium fluoroacetate.

A dingo exclusion fence, built in the late 19th century and measuring more than 5600 kilometres, runs from the eastern seaboard to the south coast of South Australia.

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Japan marks 3rd anniversary of disaster

JAPAN has observed a moment of silence to mark the third anniversary of the quake-tsunami disaster which swept away thousands of victims, destroyed coastal communities, and sparked the nuclear emergency that forced a re-think on atomic power.

Survivors bowed deeply at remembrance ceremonies in towns and cities around the disaster zone and in Tokyo, where Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko led tributes to those who died in Japan's worst peace-time disaster.

A national moment of silence followed the cry of tsunami alarm sirens which were set off at 2:46pm, the moment a 9.0-magnitude undersea quake hit.

Its raw force unleashed a towering wall of water that travelled at the speed of a jet plane to the coast. Within minutes, communities were turned to matchwood, and whole families drowned.

Giant waves also crashed into the Fukushima nuclear plant, sparking reactor meltdowns and explosions, and setting off the worst atomic crisis in a generation.

The crippled plant remains volatile and the complicated decommissioning process is expected to last for decades, as fears persist over the health effects of leaked radiation. Tens of thousands were evacuated from the stricken area.

Emperor Akihito paid tribute to victims killed in the tragedy, and those struggling in its aftermath.

"Many victims still lead difficult lives in devastated areas and places that were evacuated," he said from a national theatre hall in downtown Tokyo.

"It is important for all people to join together and show their support in the long-term... I pray for a return of peaceful times to devastated areas."

Although no one died as a direct result of Fukushima, about 1,650 area residents passed away from complications related to stress and other problems following the accident.

A total of 15,884 people are confirmed to have died in the tsunami with another 2,633 still listed as missing. Human remains are sometimes still found years later.

In the shattered town of Namie, just eight kilometres from the stricken plant, about 200 former residents, police and firefighters gathered to search for remains.

They raked a beach where broken timber and cars pulled by the waves once lay half buried.

"Our parents are still missing," said 25-year-old former resident Miho Suzuki, joined by her sister.

"I don't think we'll ever find them, but we came here to take part because we felt like doing something to help."

For another former Namie resident, Morihisa Kadoya, returning to a town that remains uninhabitable due to health concerns seems like a distant dream.

"It's impossible to come back - the decommissioning at the plant is going to take years," he said.

Despite the government pledging billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, progress in disaster-hit regions has been slow, and thousands of disaster refugees struggle to cope.

Among almost 270,000 evacuees from the tsunami and Fukushima, about 100,000 are in temporary housing while others found shelter in new cities or with relatives.

Japan has so far built only 3.5 per cent of the new homes promised to disaster refugees in heavily affected Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.

And doubts are growing. Some 77 per cent of Japanese say the pace of reconstruction has fallen short, according to a poll by Japanese media this month.

"I'm determined to accelerate the recovery and not let this disaster fade from memory," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament Monday.

"Japan's revival won't come without the restoration of devastated areas."

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One suspect on missing jet is Iranian

MALAYSIAN police say they have identified one of two men who boarded a missing Malaysian jet with fake passports as a 19-year-old Iranian believed to be seeking to emigrate to Germany.

"We believe he is not likely to be a member of any terror group and we believe he was trying to migrate to Germany," said Malaysia's national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar.

Khalid said authorities had not yet identified the other man.

Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared early Saturday with 239 people aboard, sparking an international search for the plane in waters off Southeast Asia.

Revelations that two passengers on board were travelling on EU passports that were stolen in Thailand had fuelled speculation of a terrorist attack.

Khalid identified the man as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad. He said the 19-year-old boarded the plane on an Austrian passport whose owner had previously reported it stolen.

Asked why police believed the man was seeking to emigrate to Germany, Khalid said authorities had been in contact with his mother, who was waiting for him to reach Frankfurt, but he gave no further details.

However, he said police were still considering all possibilities in terms of criminal involvement in the plane's disappearance, when asked whether police thought the revelation made them consider terrorism less likely in the case.

"At this moment, I would not say less likely. Same weightage to all until we finish our investigations," Khalid said.

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University of Qld staff to strike

STAFF at the University of Queensland will strike on Tuesday in protest at their "casualisation" and worsening conditions.

National Tertiary Education Union members will walk off the job for 24 hours, accusing the university of languishing behind others on pay standards, workloads and indigenous employment.

The union's UQ representative associate professor Andrew Bonnell says while the university is in the top three in Australia on most indicators, it ranks 23rd for pay.

Fulltime teaching staff have plunged since 2012, while the number of students have risen 20 per cent over five years.

And those taken on are being forced to endure insecure employment, Professor Bonnell said.

About 50 per cent of undergraduate teaching is now performed by casuals paid by the hour.

"The anxiety and uncertainty this causes for staff is unacceptable," he said.

"We hope that the university will finally come to the table on these issues."

UQ said negotiations are close to being finalised on most issues and the union may be overstating concerns.

Out of about 7500 full-time equivalent staff, 435 staff voted in favour of industrial action last September, representing just over half of the union's membership at the university, a statement from the university said.

"It is regrettable that the union has decided to take action which may impact on some students early in the semester," the spokeswoman said.

So that staff are not disadvantaged by the negotiating process, UQ said it has paid a 2.5 per cent salary increase from 1 January 2014, outside of any scheduled pay rise.

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300 sequel victorious at Aust box office

IN the battle for the Australian box office, 300: Rise of an Empire has come out victorious.

According to the latest figures from the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, the action-packed sequel, starring Australians Sullivan Stapleton and Callan Mulvey, debuted at No.1 over the weekend with $3.170 million.

Liam Neeson's Non-Stop fell to second place, while fans of the Vampire Academy books flocked to see the movie adaptation, earning it third spot in its opening week.

Also making its debut was another adaptation, the Australian film Tracks. Based on a true story and starring Mia Wasikowska, it took sixth place.

All that Oscar glory proved helpful for 12 Years a Slave, which climbed from seventh to fourth over the weekend, and The Dallas Buyers Club, which jumped up a place to No.9.

The wolf flicks, Wolf of Wall Street and horror Wolf Creek 2, didn't do so well, falling two places to fifth and five places to seventh respectively.

Lone Survivor dropped four places to eighth and Last Vegas clung on to the bottom rung of the ladder in tenth.

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Charges expected after woman set alight

A MAN is expected to be charged after a woman was set on fire in Sydney's CBD last week.

Police have been told the 34-year-old woman was splashed with a flammable liquid and set alight around 6pm (AEDT) on Friday.

She was rushed from Castlereagh Street to St Vincent's Hospital, then transferred to Concord Hospital, which has a specialist burns unit.

The woman remains in hospital in a critical condition.

A 28-year-old man who was found with burns in Ultimo's Wattle Street later on Friday evening has been under police guard in hospital since.

On Monday afternoon, police said the man had been formally arrested and moved to Sydney City Police Station, where he was expected to be charged within hours.

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