Ex-US defence chief warns on UK army cuts

A SMALLER British armed forces would mean the UK could no longer be a full military partner to the United States, former US defence secretary Robert Gates says.

Gates told the BBC that cuts in the number of military staff would limit the UK's global position.

The British government is planning major cuts to the Armed Forces.

The army is being cut from 102,000 to 82,000 over a number of years, with the 20,000 posts expected to be gone by 2020.

Navy numbers are expected to fall by 6000, while the RAF will lose 5000 staff.

Gates, who served under presidents Barack Obama and George Bush, told BBC Radio 4's Today program that naval cuts were particularly damaging, noting that for the first time since World War I, Britain does not have an operational aircraft carrier.

He said: "With the fairly substantial reductions in defence spending in Great Britain, what we're finding is that it won't have full spectrum capabilities and the ability to be a full partner as they have been in the past."

This referred to the ability to fight on land, sea or in the air.

His concerns echoed those of senior military staff in the UK.

Last month General Sir Nicholas Houghton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, warned that manpower was increasingly seen as an "overhead", and that Britain was in danger of being left with hollowed out armed forces, with "exquisite" equipment but without the soldiers, sailors and airmen needed to man it.

He told the Royal United Services Institute military think-tank that the Royal Navy was "perilously close" to its "critical mass" in terms of manpower.

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More explosives at Czech Palestine mission

CZECH investigators have discovered explosives at the Palestinian embassy complex in Prague where a possibly booby-trapped safe killed the ambassador on January 1, police say.

Police discovered 12 illegal weapons following the explosion at the embassy that killed Ambassador Jamal al-Jamal, but this is the first time that authorities said explosives were also found in the new complex that includes the embassy and the ambassador's residence.

It remains unclear what caused the safe to explode but the ambassador's death is being investigated as a case of negligence.

Al-Jamal had only started his posting in October.

Police spokesman Tomas Hulan said they have sent the explosives for testing at Prague's Institute of Criminology.

The Palestinians have officially apologised after the Czech Foreign Ministry demanded an explanation, accusing the Palestinians of breaching international obligations.

The ministry said on Thursday it would not immediately comment on the explosive.

Police said on Thursday they received a letter from the Palestinian authorities saying the weapons were given to them as gifts by the officials of the former communist Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet bloc that had warm ties with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

According to police, the Palestinians said the weapons were never used and always kept in a safe.

Police said experts are trying to determine whether the weapons were used in any criminal activity in the past.

The ballistic testing might take weeks, police said.

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Spending on the rise, survey

SPENDING has risen across the Australian economy for 16 consecutive months and a lower Australian dollar, along with improving consumer sentiment, should provide a further boost this year.

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Father and daughter still missing in NSW

POLICE want residents in the NSW towns of Katoomba and Mullumbimby to watch out for a missing father and daughter who may be in either area.

A new image of Greg Hutchings, 35, has also been released in a bid to locate him and his four-year-old daughter Eeva.

The search continued on Thursday for the pair who have not been seen since leaving the home of Mr Hutchings' mother at Pottsville in northern NSW on Saturday.

Mr Hutchings had arranged to meet his former partner and Eeva's mother in Pottsville at midday but he never appeared.

There have been no confirmed sightings of father and daughter, police say.

But inquiries have led investigators to two possible areas the pair might be - at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains and Mullumbimby near Byron Bay.

Police are appealing for members of these communities to keep a look-out for the pair and to contact Crime Stoppers if they are sighted.

A new image of Mr Hutchings was released on Thursday.

He is of Caucasian appearance, about 175cm tall, with short brown curly hair and of a thin build.

Police say he was last seen wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, grey trousers and carrying a black backpack.

Eeva is also of Caucasian appearance, with long blonde hair and blue eyes.

She was last seen wearing an oversized blue and white-coloured shirt and multi-coloured board shorts.

Police are urging anyone with information about this incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Thousands of WA sheep die during export

REVELATIONS that thousands of sheep died while being exported from Western Australia to the Middle East has been described by activists as the worst live export disaster in recent history.

About 4000 sheep were exported by Livestock Shipping Services (LLS) on the Bader III five months ago, but details about their deaths from severe heat stress are only now being publicly revealed.

Federal authorities are already investigating LLS for breaches of live export regulations in Jordan and Gaza, and is now also investigating the August incident.

It is understood the same ship was back in Fremantle last weekend loading more animals in 44-degree heat.

The revelations have again prompted calls for an overhaul of the live animal export trade.

Animals Australia labelled the incident "the worst live export shipboard disaster in recent history".

"The suffering of these animals is too horrific even to imagine," Animals Australia campaign director Lyn White said.

"In these temperatures, the ship would have turned into an oven, with these thousands of individual sheep literally baking alive."

Animals Australia said the risks of lengthy sea voyages for animals were well known, with almost 20,000 sheep dying onboard every year.

Greens spokeswoman Lynn MacLaren said Australia's live export trade had repeatedly proven to be ineffective in delivering all sheep and cattle to a humane death once they left Australia.

"Not only is the system not working, but live export stakeholders are scrambling to keep the system's failings under wraps," she said.

"The Australian public should be outraged that this horrific incident was hidden in the weeks leading up to the federal election."

The Department of Agriculture is expected to release details of the incident later on Thursday.

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Cate Blanchett scores Oscar nomination

IT is shaping up as a golden year at the Oscars for Australia, with Cate Blanchett, Catherine Martin and a posse of other Australians nominated for Oscars.

Martin received a double Oscar nomination - costume design and production design - for The Great Gatsby, a similar feat she achieved for Moulin Rouge! more than a decade ago.

Martin's Aussie collaborator Beverley Dunn joins her on the production design nomination, but Baz Luhrmann was snubbed for a directing nomination for the film.

Battling Martin for the costume design Oscar is Sydney's Michael Wilkinson who was nominated for American Hustle.

Australian visual effects wizard Dave Clayton has been nominated for his work on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Clayton was also nominated last year for the first Hobbit film.

The film about Australian Mary Poppins author PL Travers, Saving Mr Banks, received a cold shoulder from the Academy.

It received just one nomination, original score.

It was hoped Saving Mr Banks' Australian producer Ian Collie would get a best picture nod and screenwriter Sue Smith for original screenplay, but they were bypassed.

The Samuel Goldwyn Theatre inside the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences headquarters already had an Australian flavour before Blanchett and the other Aussie names were announced, with former Home & Away star-turned Thor superhero Chris Hemsworth on stage helping reveal the nominations.

Blanchett was nominated for her role as a New York socialite on the decline in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine.

The 44-year-old has been nominated five previous times - Elizabeth in 1999, The Aviator (2005), Notes on a Scandal (2007), I'm Not There (2008) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2008).

The Aviator, as supporting actress, was her only win.

Blanchett is the red hot favourite to win the best actress Oscar for Blue Jasmine after claiming the Golden Globe on Sunday.

The Oscar ceremony will be held on March 2.

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Asylum seekers say navy gave them a boat

A GROUP of asylum seekers say they were given a boat by Australian authorities in which they were forced to return to Indonesia under their own steam after their own vessel's engine failed.

The development appears to be confirmation that Australian border-protection authorities have begun using lifeboats to return asylum-seekers to Indonesia, after the commander of Operation Sovereign Borders confirmed on Wednesday that a number of such vessels had been acquired.

One asylum seeker has told AAP he was with about 50 others from Bangladesh and Pakistan when they were intercepted close to Christmas Island about 10 days ago, after their boat's engine stopped working.

The man, from Bangladesh, who spoke through a translator, said they were then transferred to an Australian navy vessel, where they remained for several days, before being escorted back towards Indonesia.

They were then given a smaller boat that they used to make their own way to Pelabuuhan Ratu in West Java, which they say took about three hours.

The smaller boat was crewed by by the same Indonesian men that had attempted to take the asylum seekers to Christmas Island.

The group arrived at Pelabuuhan Ratu, about 12 hours drive from Jakarta, at about 11am on Wednesday morning.

It's believed they could be from a group of about 54 asylum seekers from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) who had reportedly set out for Christmas Island on about January 5 or 6.

The development comes after Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday refused to comment on whether Operation Sovereign Borders had involved towing back or turning back boats into Indonesian waters.

However, Operation Sovereign Borders commander Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, speaking at the same media conference, confirmed that Customs had bought a number of lifeboats for its operations.

He would not say how they would be used.

The incident, if confirmed, is likely to prompt an angry response from the Indonesian government after Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa warned against the measure earlier this week.

"Developments of the type that has been reported in the media, namely the facilitation by way of boats, this is the kind of slippery slope that we have identified in the past," Dr Natalegawa said in response to the government's admission that lifeboats have been bought.

The asylum seekers involved in the incident were not in custody on Thursday night, with many having already made their way back to Bogor, near Jakarta.

Some of group said they were also on another boat which was turned back to Indonesia by Australia in December.

At least three other asylum-seeker boats are believed to have been towed back to Indonesia by Australian authorities since December 13.

A spokesman for Indonesia's Co-ordinating Minister for Politics, Security and Law Djoko Suyanto said his office was aware that two asylum-seeker boats had been turned back by Australia, in December and January 6.

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Granville disaster 37th anniversary

THE twisted debris and the distressing screams may be 37-years gone but for many impacted by Australia's worst train disaster, the memories remain vivid.

Eighty-three people were killed when a city-bound commuter train derailed in Granville in Sydney's west on January 18, 1977.

The train took out the base of the Bold Street overpass causing the massive structure to crush two passenger carriages.

Emergency service workers who helped pull the injured and lifeless out of the wreckage, along with survivors and families will gather in Granville on Saturday for the disaster's 37th anniversary.

Gerard Buchtmann responded to the "bloody mess" as captain of the Nepean rescue squad.

"It was absolutely horrific the scene that confronted us when we pulled up," he told AAP.

"When you get out of the truck to a scene like that, the first thing you do is say a little prayer."

Mr Buchtmann, who now works with the Granville Memorial Trust, said the anniversaries provided a forum for those impacted by the disaster to talk.

"A lot of the families that have lost people just like to have a talk to us and that helps them and us as well," he said.

The "day of the roses" ceremony will see 83 roses handed out in memory of the victims.

Members of parliament and local councillors are also expected to attend.

The ceremony will start at 11am (AEDT) at Granville Memorial Gardens on Carlton St.

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