Reasonable chance of finding plane: RAAF

Three planes have left Perth to continue the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Source: AAP

LONG-RANGE aircraft have joined the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, boosting confidence that suspected debris from MH370 will be found.

The large debris that was captured on satellite imagery on March 16 and publicly revealed on Thursday after being analysed is the most credible lead so far in the hunt for the missing plane.

While it is yet to be spotted by search aircraft, the HMAS Success is due to arrive at the search area on Saturday afternoon.

Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss told a large international media contingent at the Royal Australian Air Force Pearce air base north of Perth, from where the search is being coordinated, that the Australian effort has so far covered some 500,000 square kilometres.

Mr Truss said there had already been 15 sorties from the base, mainly Australian and New Zealand Orion aircraft.

Two longer range aircraft being deployed this weekend had intercontinental capability and would be able to search the area for five hours, compared to the 2-3 hours that military aircraft had available over the past two days, he said.

Aircraft from China will arrive at Pearce later on Saturday and join the search on Sunday, when Japanese aircraft will land at the base.

They will become involved on Monday.

Several vessels from around the world are also en route to assist.

No aircraft or vessels have been sent from Malaysia to help with the Indian Ocean search, but it has sent military personnel to Pearce to act as liaison officers.

"They have other search areas where they are concentrating their efforts, in their own waters and nearby," Mr Truss said.

He said Malaysian authorities were being contacted every few hours

The search area has been adjusted to account for considerable drift.

Weather conditions had much improved and would remain so for the foreseeable future, Mr Truss said.

"If there's something there to be found, I'm confident that this search effort will locate it," he said.

RAAF group captain Craig Heap was cautiously optimistic.

"There's a reasonable chance of finding something," Captain Heap said.

At a press conference in Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Tony Abbott described the lead as "tenuous", while Mr Truss conceded the debris may be a shipping container.

He said the search would continue as long as there was hope.

"It is important from the perspective of those who have families, whose whereabouts are unknown ... and indeed for the future of the aviation industry, that we do whatever we can to firstly confirm whether or not the sightings as a result of the satellite imagery are indeed connected in any way with the Malaysia Airlines flight," Mr Truss said.

"And then if so, what can be recovered so we can learn more about what has happened on this flight and learn any lessons that are necessary to make sure this doesn't happen again." Australian authorities would their utmost to keep the public informed, he said.

"These families .... they're anxious for information," Mr Truss said.

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Qld police search garbage dump for body

A SEARCH is underway at a Queensland landfill site for the remains of a diamond miner who vanished a month ago.

David Hanson, 71, was supposed to catch a flight to Tanzania on February 22 but never made it to the airport.

Police believe his body and belongings were dumped in a bin south of Brisbane and on Saturday began searching garbage at a waste transfer station.

Fifty-two State Emergency Service volunteers began sifting through 5000 tonnes of compacted waste at the Browns Plains Waste and Recycling Facility using rakes and garden forks on Saturday.

Police won't speculate on a motive.

They say Mr Hanson was jailed for drug trafficking in the United States two decades ago and was not a particularly wealthy man.

Detective Superintendent David Hutchinson said police had set aside a month for the search, which would be a slow and methodical process.

"There's been no proof of life in relation to Mr Hanson since the 22nd of February," he said.

"We always hope for the best and we hope that there's been a reason why he's gone away ... but the evidence that we have would suggest otherwise."

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Pakistan crash kills at least 25

AT least 25 people have been killed and 30 others injured in a multi-vehicle collision involving two trucks and two passenger buses in Pakistan's southwest.

Senior officer Ahmed Nawaz says the accident happened early on Saturday near the town of Gadani, when a bus bound for the port city of Karachi collided head-on with a truck.

Nawaz says the second bus and truck then piled onto the two vehicles and all caught fire, mainly because the buses were also smuggling Iranian petrol- and diesel-filled canisters.

He says most of the victims were severely burned and the death toll may rise.

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Palmer and Katter to unite in Qld

The Katter and Palmer parties are set to merge in Queensland. Source: AAP

THE Katter and Palmer parties are set to merge in Queensland.

While the proposed merger is not confirmed, they openly declared an alliance on Friday afternoon.

Katter's Australian Party state leader Ray Hopper says their three MPs would join forces with the two Palmer MPs to maximise their chances.

Palmer United Party MP Dr Alex Douglas says it will happen probably before the next election.

"The Katter party is very much a regional party and to a large extend has a constituency which will inherently fold into a structure like the Palmer United Party," he told ABC radio.

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Grassfire near western Vic town contained

A GRASSFIRE that threatened a small town in northwestern Victoria has been contained.

An emergency warning was issued to the residents of Antwerp as the blaze burned near the town on Friday afternoon.

The warning was later downgraded after firefighers managed to contain the blaze.

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UN to hear of Aust human rights concerns

Concerns about Australia's treatment of refugee's will be delivered to the UN Human Rights Council. Source: AAP

THE UN will be asked to remind Australia that it must share and not shift the responsibility of refugee protection.

In an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva late on Friday, Emily Howie of Australia's Human Rights Law Centre will voice concern about the "unlawful and increasingly harsh and punitive treatment" of asylum seekers arriving by boat.

She plans to detail aspects of the the Abbott government's Operation Sovereign Borders, including the practice of boat tow-backs, as well as mandatory detention and agreements with neighbouring countries to prevent boats reaching Australia.

"In addition to mistreating those who arrive, Australia is now actively preventing others from coming," Ms Howie will say.

"By seeking to prevent asylum seekers from arriving and outsourcing its obligations in respect of those that do, Australia is setting an alarming global precedent that must be condemned."

Ms Howie will also mention the death of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati, who was killed during a February 17 riot at the processing centre on Manus Island.

"We call on the Human Rights Council and member states to remind Australia that refugee protection is a global challenge," Ms Howie will tell the council.

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Manning seeks to change name to Chelsea

Bradley Manning, who leaked documents to WikiLeaks, has applied to change his name to Chelsea. Source: AAP

THE US Army private who was convicted as Bradley Edward Manning for leaking US secrets to whistleblower website WikiLeaks is petitioning a court for a name change, to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

Leavenworth County District Court in Kansas has scheduled an April 23 hearing on the request, according to a Leavenworth Times legal notice sent on Wednesday by a spokesman at Fort Leavenworth, where Manning is serving a 35-year sentence.

The petition was filed on January 27 and published on March 1 after it was submitted by Manning's lawyer, David Coombs.

Coombs didn't immediately respond to questions about the petition. Manning said in an October letter to supporters that Coombs would help with the name change.

The Private Manning Support Network announced the petition on its website on Wednesday. The group also said it is changing its name to the Chelsea Manning Support Network.

Officials at Fort Leavenworth have said Manning would have to get a legal name change to be known as Chelsea.

Manning has been diagnosed by at least two Army behavioural health specialists with gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder.

In addition to the name change, Manning has asked to receive hormone replacement therapy and live as a woman while incarcerated. She and Coombs have said they will go to court, if necessary, to obtain the hormone treatment.

Civilian federal prisons are required to provide such treatment, if deemed medically necessary, for inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Unlike in military prisons, the policy also allows inmates who believe they are the wrong gender to dress and live accordingly as part of their individual treatment plans.

The military has said it does not provide treatment for gender dysphoria because Pentagon policy dictates that transgender soldiers are not allowed to serve. But Manning can't be discharged until he's released from prison and exhausts appeals of her criminal convictions.

The former intelligence analyst was sentenced in August to 35 years for leaking battlefield video and hundreds of thousands of classified Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and State Department diplomatic cables while serving in Iraq.

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SA Catholic official apologises to victims

A SENIOR Catholic education officer has apologised to the victims of "shocking and appalling" sexual abuse carried out by a bus driver who worked at an Adelaide special school.

Allan Dooley also said the school principal's handling of the initial complaints in 1991 was "unacceptable".

Mr Dooley, former director of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, was giving evidence on Thursday at the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

It is investigating Adelaide's St Ann's Special School and its bus driver and volunteer, Brian Perkins, who sexually abused intellectually disabled boys between 1986 and 1991.

"For the former students and families, I am deeply sorry that the abuse at St Ann's ever occurred," Mr Dooley said.

He first heard of the abuse in July 2001, when a parent said she suspected her child had been molested after another parent told her former employee Perkins was a pedophile and police had been involved in the case.

The school had provided no information, nor support, and some parents did not even know there was a possibility their children had been abused, she said.

"I was shocked and distressed by the information," Mr Dooley said.

He immediately put in place processes involving church officials, parents, police and school staff and helped set up a St Ann's task force.

In August 2001, he met with Claude Hamam, principal at the relevant time, who said he did a police check before employing Perkins and it revealed nothing criminal.

But in June 2003, Mr Hamam admitted he had not checked up on Perkins, who had three previous child abuse convictions, leading Mr Dooley to recommend that Mr Hamam be dismissed.

At the earlier interview, Mr Hamam told him that Perkins provided private respite support for students' families, taking groups of boys on weekend camps and other excursions.

While the school had a policy that two members of staff accompanied children on trips, the respite was a private arrangement.

Mr Hamam said he told families it was their decision whether or not they allowed their children to go on trips with Perkins and such a move was not sanctioned by the school.

Mr Hamam also said he had no personal reservations about Perkins right up to the time police visited the school in 1991 saying Perkins had been caught with naked photos of students.

Perkins then disappeared, was not arrested until 1993, skipped bail and was not extradited until 2002 after Archbishop Philip Wilson put pressure on police who knew he was in Queensland.

Mr Dooley said police interviewed 90 families who were divided into three groups of children most likely to have been abused by Perkins, children possibly abused and those who did not have contact with him.

"The abuse which occurred at St Ann's was shocking and appalling and the immediate handling of it in 1991 was unacceptable," he said.

Perkins died in prison in 2009 after being jailed for 10 years in 2003 after pleading guilty to sex offences.

The hearing is continuing.

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Plane search focuses on debris

The PM says two objects possibly related to the search for flight MH370 have been identified. Source: AAP

THE global search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has its best new lead, with possible debris spotted in water west of Australia.

Military aircraft and merchant ships are racing to a position in the southern Indian Ocean about 2500 kilometres southwest of Perth, where a satellite identified two floating objects.

One measured about 24 metres, while the other one was smaller.

Australian authorities say they are possible remnants of the Boeing 777 that went missing on a March 8 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 239 people.

But John Young of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) was cautious not to raise hopes, saying the satellite imagery shows "a sort of blob" with no features to distinguish it as aircraft fragments.

"It's probably the best lead we have right now but we have to get there, find them, see them, assess them to know whether it's really meaningful or not," the emergency response division manager said.

Water in the area is thousands of metres deep and searchers are battling poor visibility, with last light due about midnight (AEDT) on Thursday.

"Every lead is a hope," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

"This time I just hope that it is a positive development."

Australia has been co-ordinating the search operation in the southern Indian Ocean, which is based on calculations by United States experts who have analysed MH370's fuel range.

If the debris belongs to the aircraft, it indicates MH370 ended up thousands of kilometres from its planned destination, raising further questions about why it changed course.

But the priority for AMSA remains identifying the bobbing objects.

It is not uncommon to find floating debris, including shipping containers that have been washed overboard, Mr Young said.

"On this particular occasion, the size and the fact that there are a number located in the sea at the same area really makes it worth looking at."

An RAAF C-130 Hercules has dropped marker buoys at the location, and military aircraft from Australia, New Zealand and the US are combing the area.

A merchant ship was due to reach the area by 6pm (AEDT).

"They will be difficult to find. They might not be associated with the aircraft and we have plenty of experience of that in other searches," Mr Young said.

The search area is a long way from the Australian mainland and once aircraft reach the location, they have about only two hours of fuel before having to return to base.

Asked about his message to the family and friends of people on board flight MH370, Mr Young said Australia would continue to search until it found something.

"AMSA is doing its level best to find anyone who may have survived," he said.

Australia is sharing its information with 25 other countries involved in the search operation, and Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed on Thursday he had spoken to his Malaysian counterpart about the latest update.

Unfavourable weather may hinder the search.

"Weather conditions are moderate ... and poor visibility has been reported," an AMSA spokesman said.

"This will hamper both air and satellite efforts."

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