POLICE have arrested a 30-year-old man in relation to the shooting deaths of two Victorian brothers.
The bodies of sheep farmers Douglas and John Streeter, both aged in their late 60s, were discovered by a family member about 6pm (AEDT) on Thursday.
Police say the arrested man has been taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.
PATRONS heading to the Bruce Springsteen concert at Boondall or the Queensland Reds match at Suncorp Stadium tonight should be wary of delays on public transport.
Trains are not running on the Gympie North and Shorncliffe lines from Bowen Hills.
Trains coming from other directions can still stop at Bowen Hills.
The closures are in place on Saturday and Sunday due to maintenance works and travellers are advised to add an additional hour to their travel time.
Buses are available to ferry people between stops on these trains lines and are running at about the same frequency as timetabled trains.
All services will resume on Monday.
A spokeswoman for Queensland Rail said extra services are in place for people heading to the Tinnie and Tackle Show at the RNA Showgrounds.
Between 9am and 6.30pm this week the Exhibition loop is running approximately every 30 minutes.
Check the Translink website for more information or call 13 12 30.
TWO gunmen have burst into a Mexican bar and shot seven people dead and wounded four.
Public Safety Secretary Jesus Aiza says most of the victims belonged to a taxi driver union.
Aiza says the assailants arrived in two cars at The Mermaid bar in a poor area of the resort town of Cancun. Two men with automatic rifles went inside and began shooting.
Aiza says soldiers are guarding the hospital where the wounded are being treated.
He says police are trying to determine a motive for the attack.
AUSTRALIA'S national broadcaster says it is monitoring claims one of its international radio signals was jammed by China.
Shortwave signals beamed into Asia by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Australia were allegedly interfered with over the past 48 hours and the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) says it appears China is to blame.
The British Broadcasting Corporation's World Service and the US Voice of America service in Asia were also tampered with, the AIB said.
ABC International said in a statement: "While we have received reports of interference of our signal into China it is extremely difficult to identify or confirm the source of this interference.
"We will continue to monitor the situation as well as consult with partners in the region."
The ABC stressed it had not registered a formal complaint about the alleged signal jamming, which comes as China's new premier Li Keqiang prepares to take power.
The corporation posted a short example of the type of interference suffered by Radio Australia to its news websites.
The Australian signal could be heard, but it appeared another broadcast was being relayed simultaneously, making it impossible to hear either clearly.
The AIB said its own research suggested the jamming signal emanated from China.
It has lodged protests with China's embassies in London, Canberra and Washington.
The BBC issued a statement condemning the situation.
"Though it is not possible at this stage to attribute the source of the jamming definitively, the extensive and co-ordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China," it said.
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said he would be 'horrified' if the ABC's international service was being blocked in China.
THE Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) information director who mistakenly lifted a ban on sensitive documents from the Fitzgerald Inquiry did so because he thought they were already publicly available.
A hearing is under way at Queensland parliament into how the 65-year ban was lifted for 741 documents in February 2012.
It had been imposed upon the inquiry's completion in 1989.
The documents contained information about targets and informants from the inquiry into police corruption, which led to the jailing of the state's police commissioner and politicians in the Joh Bjelke-Petersen-led government.
Another 4000 documents were shredded.
CMC director of information management Peter Duell said he had reduced the restricted access period on the documents to 20 years, meaning they went into the public domain.
He believed when the original 19,000 documents from the inquiry were transferred to State Archives, a process started years ago, it was widely understood the most sensitive information had a 100-year ban, and the remainder had a 65-year ban as a precautionary approach.
He was under the wrong impression that the latter were mostly public exhibits and were available anyway through transcripts and tabled documents from the inquiry.
He said he had been inundated with requests for documents, so he thought lifting the ban wouldn't be controversial.
"With a number of requests coming through I asked the acting records manager to review the restricted access period and make recommendations to make what was publicly available information, available to the public," he said.
He told the hearing the material was made public without an audit of its contents.
He didn't realise at the time that some of the documents he was reclassifying were sensitive.
"That's proved to be the case now," he said.
"In hindsight I can think of a lot of things that should have been done at that point in time."
The CMC was warned in May 2012 by the former head of police's Special Branch, Barry Krosch, that information had been made available which shouldn't have been.
Mr Krosch told the hearing on Wednesday he noticed 1988 surveillance logs from the branch were publicly available and named targets of operations.
"I just hope that targets from that era don't realise the reports are there for them to inspect," he warned the CMC in an email.
It took eight months for the CMC to reclassify the information as secret, but it only informed the parliamentary committee which oversees it last week.
Under questioning from the counsel assisting the inquiry, Peter Davis, Mr Duell admitted reclassifying the documents was a grave mistake.
"It was an error that's for sure, a very serious error," Mr Duell said.
"It was a huge mistake."
Dumped police minister Peter Ryan did nothing wrong in the role, Victoria's premier says. Source: AAP
THE new treasurer has promised to deliver minimum $100 million surpluses and a budget that funds better services for Victorians.
Michael O'Brien, the former energy and gaming minister, says he's excited about his new role and has already exchanged text messages with his old boss, former federal treasurer Peter Costello.
"You hope one day you might get that call. The fact it actually came was something which was terrific," he said during his first press conference as treasurer.
Mr O'Brien, who'll release the state's half-yearly finances on Friday, said the economy was on track.
He said the government would not go on a "debt-fuelled spending binge" in its May budget, but would ensure Victorians reaped the benefits of the coalition's good financial management.
"My general intent is to try and make this a better place to do business and you don't do that by ramping up taxes. You do it by better management," Mr O'Brien said.
"When there is strong economic management, the dividend to the community is better services and better infrastructure."
He said he would strive to maintain the state's triple-A credit rating and keep the budget in the black.
"In boom times you will have much larger surpluses and you will use those surpluses to pay down your debt, because that's the responsible thing to do," he said.
"The bottom line should still be that (minimum) $100 million surplus, even in the lean times."
Mr O'Brien pointed to the state's February 5.5 per cent jobless rate, down from 6.1 per cent in January.
While acknowledging the volatility of monthly unemployment figures, he said more than half - or 37,900 of 71,500 - jobs created nationally in February were in Victoria.
"The best form of social welfare is a job," Mr O'Brien said.
He repeated his predecessor Kim Wells' attack on the commonwealth's lack of detail on key policies, such the Gonski education reforms.
"This commonwealth government - we've seen a lot of ideas being floated, kites being flown, but we don't see the price tag," Mr O'Brien said.
"To expect any state government to sign up to a commonwealth program without knowing the price tag is just irresponsible and we won't be doing it unless we get some detail."
Mr O'Brien said he would continue to prosecute the government's case for reform of the way the GST is divided between the states.
Premier Denis Napthine said the $1.6 billion Port of Melbourne expansion would drive jobs growth in the freight, import and export sectors.
He said the Doncaster rail link was another important infrastructure project, as well as the East West Link road, a Melbourne Metro rail tunnel and the Port of Hastings development.
CMC Chair Ross Martin told the PCMC last week he believed the accidental release of about 741 sensitive documents due to an administrative error was "deeply embarrassing", evidence released today revealed.
He also revealed up to 4000 documents may have been shredded.
"It is not about the damage to us. And you make the point that it is a stuff-up. The damage to us is irrelevant by comparison to the potential risk to the people..who may be in the material,'' Mr Martin said.
State Archivist Janet Prowse told the PCMC about 19 people viewed the sensitive files.
Mr Martin told the committee it was one of those people, former special branch officer Barry Krosch, who was seconded to the Fitzgerald Inquiry, who discovered the wrongly released documents, including confidential surveillance documents, while doing research at State Archives.
"It seems that a former Fitzgerald inquiry staffer named Krosch was writing a book,'' Mr Martin told the PCMC.
"I think he is doing some sort of research, a doctorate or something of that sort. He went to the archives to have a look for things and discovered all of these interesting things, realised that they probably shouldn't be publicly available and contacted the CMC,'' he said.
On the shredding, Mr Martin told the committee there was a possibility up to 4000 Fitzgerald Inquiry documents may have been accidentally destroyed.
"It seems that back in 2007 some documents may have been destroyed that were Fitzgerald inquiry records which should have been kept for much longer,'' he said.
"Fitzgerald inquiry records should have been kept permanently, I would have thought, but I am not totally familiar with the details of this.
"I am presently informed that what happened was back when the Fitzgerald inquiry records became CJC records some one or more persons thought it useful to pull papers from the Fitzgerald records and use them as a starting point for CJC records as intelligence files, files to start doing actions on.
"Those files were then created, actioned and eventually closed with approval, but mistaken approval it may turn out. In 2007 they were destroyed without anybody realising that on those files was original Fitzgerald material.''
He told the PCMC he regretted not informing them of the accidental public release of the documents but said he doubted underworld figures had been trawling the archives to find them.
Earlier, Ms Cunningham told the inquiry the PCMC had been the subject of "unfair, uninformed comments" in recent days.
She said such comments would not be tolerated now the inquiry had commenced and would be actioned.
Ms Cunningham said the committee had limited powers to direct the CMC and she believed it acted swiftly when becoming aware of the accidental release of documents late.
"We are not afraid of positive reform of the CMC or the PCMC," she said.
This afternoon former special branch officer Barry Krosch, who was seconded to help with the landmark Fitzgerald Inquiry, will give evidence via video link.
Mr Krosch will give evidence about the availability of the sensitive files which were wrongly classified as suitable for public release.
Ms Cunningham repeatedly quoted Tony Fitzgerald, who led the Fitzgerald Inquiry, as she took Premier Campbell Newman and Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie to task over their comments about both the PCMC, and CMC chair Ross Martin, who has since taken sick leave and will not be returning to his post.
"It is misleading to suggest the PCMC caused the issues the subject of this inquiry," Ms Cunningham said.
"The committee has been the subject of unfair, uninformed, adverse comments," she said, which she alleged were designed to be sensational.
"In the context of a serious inquiry, words can be more than wind. Words can easily damage the reputation of individuals before they have adequate opportunity to answer the charges against them. Words can create an atmosphere of fear.
"Words can in short interfere with the proper conduct of an inquiry."
Ms Cunningham did not name Mr Newman or Mr Bleijie but told the inquiry: "Those that have been injudicious to date should take it upon themselves to reflect and remedy their actions or words".
"We will no longer tolerate words that have the propensity to distract us from our inquiry.
"Any improper interference ... will in future be actioned."
Ms Cunningham said she believed any future reform of either the CMC or the PCMC "should be done with the public interest and notions of accountability at its heart".
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday referred Mr Newman to Speaker Fiona Simpson over his comments including his description of the PCMC as a lapdog, which she alleged were in contempt of the Parliament.
Six staff from State Archives, including State Archivist Janet Prowse, made a brief appearance this morning before the inquiry adjourned until 4.30pm to hear from Mr Krosch.
A JURY in the Jayant Patel manslaughter trial has asked for the judge's help for an explanation on the test for gross negligence.
In the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Wednesday the jury of five men and seven women asked Justice George Fryberg for a re-direction following two days of deliberation behind closed doors.
Justice Fryberg said the test applied to criminal conduct was objective, and the standard was that of "a reasonably competent surgeon" in all of the circumstances.
"You should assess what a reasonably competent surgeon would have done," he told them.
He said criminal negligence required a standard of conduct that was "so unskilled or careless as to be grossly negligent".
"It's very much an assessment you have to make based on your commonsense," Justice Fryberg said.
"It's a question of degree."
During his closing address on Monday, Justice Fryberg warned the jury it was its duty to pay attention to the evidence and not to be "swayed by emotion" when deciding whether the former Bundaberg Hospital surgeon was guilty or not.
He spent just under three hours addressing the jury with the aid of a Powerpoint slide presentation before sending them out to deliberate at 3.57pm on Monday.
The jury, who will consider the matter using a specially-prepared "flow chart", will be sequestered until they deliver a verdict in the case.
Justice Fryberg summed up both the defence and prosecution cases during his address and took the jury to various points of law, stressing they would need to be judges of facts, not advocates.
Patel, 62, has pleaded not guilty to unlawfully killing Mervyn John Morris, 75, who died three weeks after a sigmoid colostomy and colectomy removed part of his bowel on May 23, 2003.
Crown prosecutor Peter Davis SC said Patel misdiagnosed the cause of Mr Morris' ongoing rectal bleeding, misjudged the risks, ignored his patient's other underlying health problems and provided inadequate post-operative care.
He said Patel's behaviour was criminally negligent and caused his patient's death.
Defence barrister Ken Fleming QC told the jury there was not enough evidence to prove Patel caused Mr Morris' death and said the accused held the "honest and reasonable belief" the operation to remove his bowel was necessary.
He said Patel was a busy doctor who tried his best to save Mr Morris' life and urged the jury against accepting evidence from Crown witnesses who used "the luxury of hindsight" to criticise Patel's decision to do the surgery.
Mr Morris died of cardio-respiratory failure, liver protein deficiency, fluid overload, malnutrition and blood poisoning on June 14, 2003.
The trial has sat for 24 days and heard from 25 witnesses.
THE family of a German backpacker who disappeared without a trace 20 years ago in Tasmania have returned to observe the anniversary and to meet police who are still at a loss to explain her fate.
Nancy Grunwaldt, then 26, was last seen riding a push bike near Scamander on Tasmania's east coast in May 1993.
Ms Grunwaldt's mother and sister will be briefed by police next week, but Inspector Scott Flude said the disappearance remained a mystery.
"We'd love to be able to give closure to the family," Insp Flude told AAP.
"We'd like to close the case, obviously, with it being solved or knowing what actually happened to Nancy.
"As we stand today we're still not sure whether it was an accidental death, how she disappeared.
"We actually don't know, and that's the most frustrating part about the whole investigation."
A seasoned traveller from Steinverkerche, near the Danish border, Ms Grunwaldt had arrived in Tasmania after a trip to New Zealand and was on her way to Hobart.
Theories abound about how she disappeared.
A coroner found she had most likely met with foul play, and a former policeman who worked on the case says he received phone calls from a man who claimed to have hit a cyclist and pushed her body off a cliff.
Her case has been the subject of much speculation in Tasmania, and Insp Flude said he'd received 60 to 80 pieces of information from the public in the past three years.
Tips from the public led to the rubbish tip at the east coast town of Bicheno being excavated twice last year in a bid to find Ms Grunwaldt's bike.
The search came to nothing and Insp Flude said that line of enquiry had been exhausted.
"You would expect we would have found her by now - the bike, the body," he said.
"All of the searches that were done at the time didn't find anything.
"It's more likely that something's happened.
"Whether it was accidental or deliberate is another matter."
There have been persons of interest at various times over the two decades, but no suspects.
"Everyone's got a theory," Inspector Flude said.
"But without the evidence to support it, it's just a theory which is even more frustrating."
Inspector Flude said all information received was investigated and encouraged people to come forward.
"We all hope, everyone hopes, that we can come to a conclusion and find out what happened to Nancy," he said.
"There's no one that doesn't want that outcome."
AAP dpb/jl
THE Australian bond market has closed weaker after a quiet local session, with the bulk of the move coming during offshore trading.
At 1630 AEDT on Tuesday, the March 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.400 (implying a yield of 3.6 per cent), down from Monday's local close of 96.445 (3.555 per cent).
The March three-year bond futures contract was at 96.980 (3.02 per cent), down from 97.025 (2.975 per cent) previously.
Australian bond futures contract prices fell during the overnight offshore session, as a strong showing on Wall Street prompted investors to pour into equity markets.
However bonds were stuck in a tight range throughout the local trading day, with market players staying largely on the sidelines ahead of the rollover of the benchmark futures contracts.
Commonwealth Bank interest rate strategist Phillip Brown said market players preferred not to trade in the days leading up to the rollover of futures contracts.
"We didn't really alter much today," Mr Brown said.
"The actual trading day itself has been remarkably quiet.
"You will have people trading stuff they always trade, but as a general rule you try and avoid these few days if you can."
The three- and 10-year March futures contracts are due to expire at 1200 AEDT on Friday.
The US government is due to hold an auction of three-year US Treasury notes during Tuesday night's (AEDT) offshore session.
US data on business confidence and retail sales are also scheduled for release.
Mr Brown said the performance of equity markets as well as any indications from the US Federal Reserve about the future of its quantitative easing program, was expected to provide direction for bonds.
THE Australian share market finished more than 0.4 per cent higher following a wave of investor enthusiasm in Japan and the US.
CommSec market analyst Juliette Saly said local shares finished strongly after a slow start as Japanese shares pushed higher on Monday afternoon.
"We've had a good start to the trading week, riding on the coat tails of what we saw coming through from offshore markets on Friday," Ms Saly said.
"We had pretty good movement coming through in the Asia region again which helped kicked things along."
Tokyo shares added 0.92 percent Monday morning thanks to a weakening yen and as traders followed another record finish for the Dow on Wall Street.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 112.93 points to 12,396.55.
However, official data released in China over the weekend showed that Chinese inflation rose to a 10-month high in February while growth in industrial production and retail sales slowed.
Locally, Australia's mining companies lost ground as investors examined the Chinese data.
Global miner BHP Billiton was 27 cents weaker at $35.82, and Rio Tinto backtracked $1.26 to $63.10.
Among the major banks, National Australia Bank climbed 54 cents to $31.64, ANZ lifted eight cents to $29.20, Commonwealth Bank firmed 30 cents to $70.13, and Westpac was flat at $31.25.
Building products company CSR was six cents higher at $2.16 after it announced it would cut 150 jobs from its glass business in response to the high Australian dollar and low construction activity.
Construction and mining firm Leighton Holdings gained 44 cents to $22.48 as its subsidiary, Thiess, won a $212 million contract for work on Chevron's $52 billion Gorgon project in Western Australia.
KEY FACTS
* At the close on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 23.5 points, or 0.46 per cent, higher at 5,146.9.
* The All Ordinaries index was up 22.7 points, or 0.44 per cent, at 5,160.2 points.
* The March share price index futures contract was up 28 points at 5,151, with 21,926 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.5 billion securities worth $3.5 billion.
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott are neck and neck in the preferred prime minister stakes, according to an opinion poll.
The Essential poll of 1948 voters, published on Monday, puts Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott at 39 per cent each on the question of who was best for the top job, while 22 per cent were undecided.
The opposition leader's personal approval rating rose one per cent to 37 per cent from February's poll.
The disapproval rating of the job he is doing as opposition leader dipped by two per cent to 51 per cent.
The prime minister's approval remained steady on 36 per cent while disapproval for the job she does increased by one per cent to 56 per cent.
The coalition's two-party vote was down one point at 55 per cent but remained an election-winning lead compared to Labor's 45 per cent.
The poll found voters were more concerned about the boat arrivals of asylum seekers than the use of foreign workers under short term 457 visas.
Another poll, Newspoll, will be released on Tuesday, coinciding with the return of federal parliament.
A MAN who was exonerated after spending 13 years in a US prison for murder cried as a federal jury found that two police detectives violated his civil rights by coercing and falsifying testimony and withholding evidence that pointed to his innocence.
The jury's verdict on Friday, which included awarding $US13.2 million ($A12.93 million) to David Ayers of Cleveland for his pain and suffering, brings an end to the legal battle he's been fighting since his arrest in the 1999 killing of 76-year-old Dorothy Brown.
Ayers, 56, was released from prison in 2011 after the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati reversed his conviction and the state decided not to seek another trial.
Ayers had been found guilty of killing Brown, who was found in her Cleveland apartment bludgeoned to death, covered in defensive wounds and naked from the waist down; she also had been robbed. DNA testing later proved that a pubic hair found in her mouth did not come from Ayers.
"This should have been stopped a long time ago," Ayers told the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper after the jury's verdict on Friday. "My goal is that it never happens to anyone else ever again."
A phone number listed for Ayers did not accept messages on Saturday.
Ayers filed his civil rights lawsuit in March 2012 against six Cleveland police officers, the city and the county housing authority. Allegations against three of the officers, the city and the housing authority were dismissed by a judge who found that their roles did not violate Ayers' rights.
One of the remaining officers settled out of court with Ayers for an undisclosed amount. The Friday verdict was against detectives Michael Cipo and Denise Kovach, who were the lead investigators in the case.
Kovach and Cipo could not be reached for comment. They have denied misconduct.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that lawyer Rachel Steinback of Chicago, who represented Ayers, said the city is self-insured so the award will come from taxpayer money, not an insurance company.
Among the most serious allegations by Ayers against Kovach and Cipo were that the two detectives conspired with each other to fabricate a confession that he never made, coerced a friend of Ayers to lie by saying that Ayers had told him of the murder before Brown's body was discovered, and gave key information about the crime to Ayers' prison cellmate so he could later testify against Ayers about an admission he didn't make.
In an August filing, Cipo and Kovach argued to have the lawsuit dismissed, saying that they acted in good faith and with probable cause, and that Ayers was responsible for any alleged injuries that he incurred.
Federal Judge James Gwin denied their request late last month shortly before the trial, ruling that Ayers had produced sufficient evidence that the detectives had violated his rights.
A presidential election to replace late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez will be held on 14 April. Source: AAP
VENEZUELAN political parties have begun registering candidates for a snap election on April 14, setting the stage for a bruising campaign to succeed the late president Hugo Chavez.
The national electoral council set the poll date on Saturday one day after Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's handpicked successor, was sworn in as acting president in a ceremony largely boycotted by the opposition, which slammed it as unconstitutional.
Shortly after the date was set, the main opposition coalition announced it had unanimously chosen Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the October election, as its unity candidate again.
"We have all recognised Henrique Capriles Radonski as the person to embody this option of change," said Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, executive secretary of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).
Capriles wrote on Twitter that he was "grateful" for the offer and would announce soon whether he will accept the nomination.
The Miranda state governor was picked by the MUD last year in an unprecedented primary.
Political hostilities had already begun just hours after Venezuela and more than 30 foreign leaders gave Chavez a rousing state funeral, with Maduro railing against the opposition and capitalism following his inauguration.
Emulating his late mentor's combative style, the former vice president vowed "absolute loyalty" to Chavez before donning the presidential sash, his voice cracking as he declared: "Sorry for our pain and tears; but this presidency belongs to our Comandante."
Before Maduro was sworn in, Capriles denounced the inauguration as a "constitutional fraud" and abuse of power by the government.
"Nicolas, nobody elected you president. The people didn't vote for you, kid," Capriles said.
The electoral council said candidates will be able to register on Sunday and Monday and that the campaign would be short, lasting from April 2 to April 11.
Chavez will cast a huge shadow over the election, which will almost coincide with a key anniversary in his political history.
The late leader was briefly ousted on April 11, 2002, in a coup that was organised by the chamber of commerce and the trade union with the help of some military officials.
But he was restored to power by loyal soldiers on April 13 amid popular protests.
The government plans to embalm and preserve Chavez "like Lenin" to rest in a glass casket "for eternity," a move decried by the opposition, which said that it went against the president's wish to be buried.
Thousands of Venezuelans, meanwhile, continued to file past the open casket of the firebrand leader at a military academy, in a prolonged farewell to the man whose socialist revolution heightened class tensions in the country of 29 million.
Chavez lost his battle against cancer on Tuesday at the age of 58, leaving behind a divided country after a tumultuous 14-year presidency.
He had chosen Maduro to succeed him before leaving for Cuba in December for a new round of cancer surgery, urging Venezuelans to vote for the 50-year-old former bus driver and union activist if he died.
