US bishop exposes churchgoers to hepatitis

An American bishop says his exposing parishioners to hepatitis by giving communion was accidental. Source: AAP

A CATHOLIC bishop exposed some parishioners to hepatitis while giving communion in five different churches in late September and early October, the diocese says.

Bishop John Folda said in a statement on Friday exposure to the disease was accidental.

"I sincerely apologise to the people who may have been exposed to the virus," his statement said.

"I wish I had known I was ill so I could immediately refrain from participating in public activities. Unfortunately, I had no symptoms immediately following my return and during the events that have been brought to the public's attention."

Folda said his doctor has told him that he is no longer contagious and hasn't been for some time.

The North Dakota Health Department on Thursday issued an advisory of exposure for anyone who attended any of the five affected churches and took communion. Health officials however say they are not sure exactly how many churchgoers might have been exposed.

Diocese spokeswoman Aliceyn Magelky said that Folda, who is bishop of the Fargo Catholic Diocese, contracted the liver disease from contaminated food while attending a conference last month in Italy.

Folda has taken time off work due to the hepatitis A virus, she said. "He's doing great," Magelky said. "He's moving back into his regular schedule."

State immunisation program manager Molly Howell said that the risk is low but that officials "felt it was important for people to know about the possible exposure".

Hepatitis A is rarely deadly but can cause serious liver problems.

Magelky on Friday said Folda would soon be able to perform communion "whatever time he is invited or asked".

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Adoring NSW fans greet prince and princess

Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary have visited the Australian Twins Registry in Sydney. Source: AAP

CROWN Prince Frederik is accustomed to some titles, among them the most popular your royal highness.

But he blushed as he responded to another on Saturday during a visit to the Sydney Children's Hospital.

"Hello gorgeous" is how adoring and self-described royalist Fay Thompson grabbed the Danish Royal's attention before pleading with him for a photo in the hospital driveway.

"I said 'hello gorgeous can I take your picture'," she told AAP.

"For an old duck, that's quite good isn't it?

"He blushed."

Mrs Thompson hoped her granddaughter, who is a patient at the Randwick-based hospital, could have had a glimpse of Frederik and Crown Princess Mary during their visit.

"We got all her equipment and moved it to the window so she could look down but it's hard - she is so tired," Mrs Thompson explained.

Mrs Thompson shot downstairs to snap a photo on her phone to show her 10-year-old granddaughter, who had just undergone a bone marrow transplant.

The Danish Royals spent day three of their Sydney tour with the not-for-profit Australian Twin Registry and the Sydney Children's Hospital.

A small but admiring contingent of predominantly female onlookers gathered outside the hospital entrance to get a glimpse of Princess Mary.

Wollongong twins Charlotte and Lillian Harding, 8, practised their curtsies ahead of their face-to-face encounter with Mary.

The bubbly twins presented her with a bouquet of blooms.

Charlotte said her brush with royalty had left her friends in awe.

"We weren't supposed to tell anyone but we couldn't keep our mouths shut," she said.

Mary, who is mum to twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, has been an international patron with the Australian Twin Registry (ATR) since January.

The registry, which pairs twins and research, has about 70,000 members, or 35,000 twins, with the oldest twin pair aged 97.

In a statement from the registry, Mary said she was proud to be the international patron for both the Australian Twin Registry and Danish Twin Registry.

"Twins are special as I now know as the mother of Vincent and Josephine," the statement read.

"What is perhaps less well-known is the special contribution twins of all ages have made to medical and health research though the Australian, Danish and other twin registries."

Mary and Frederik met the ATR director before they were introduced to twins and parents inside the hospital.

Mother Kristy Pereira said Frederik showed her twins, Kai and Siobhan, 5, photos of his children on his phone.

"(Kai and Siobhan) know they are boy and girl twins like Prince Frederik's as well so they were very excited," she told AAP.

Mary and Frederik left the hospital under a strong police presence, leaving awestricken princess-hopefuls and satisfied royalists in their wake.

Mary and Frederik are in Sydney for the Opera House 40th anniversary.

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Holden boss to leave the company

Holden boss Mike Devereux has been appointed to a senior role within General Motors. Source: AAP

EFFORTS to save carmaker Holden have become more complicated with the man spearheading the company's bid to stay on as a local producer set to leave the organisation.

Chairman and managing director Mike Devereux has been appointed to a senior role within General Motors.

He will become vice president of sales, marketing and aftersales of GM's consolidated international operations (CIO) from November 1 but will stay on as Holden boss until the end of the year when a replacement will be named.

Mr Devereux has been involved in talks with the new federal government over the future of Holden's manufacturing facilities in Australia and is a strong advocate of the company retaining its local assembly operations.

Holden warned recently that it needed to cut costs and receive continued government assistance for its Australian factories to remain viable.

Last year, it reached an agreement to receive $275 million in state and federal funding to develop and build two new models from 2016.

But it is now thought Holden needs more money to commit to its plans, possibly as much as $500 million.

Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane recently met Mr Devereux in Adelaide and says he will do whatever he can to ensure Holden's future.

But he says he doesn't have a bag of money to throw at the company and will press ahead with plans for a productivity commission review of the car industry.

An interim report from the commission is possible before Christmas, but that still looks likely to push any final decision on Holden's fate into the new year, after the departure of Mr Devereux.

His new boss, CIO executive vice president Stefan Jacoby, said the Holden boss would play a key role in the GM organisation.

"We have a diverse, complex region," Mr Jacoby said in a statement on Friday.

"Mike's extensive international and cross-functional knowledge of our business will be critical as we look to position CIO for success in the coming years."

Before coming to Holden in 2010, Mr Devereux was managing director of GM's Middle East operations.

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AMP issues earnings warning

SUPERANNUATION and insurance firm AMP expects earnings to take a hit of up to $65 million in the final quarter of 2013 due to the poor performance of its wealth protection business.

The number of policy lapses - people cancelling or not renewing their insurance policies - continued to worsen in the three months to the end of September, AMP said on Friday.

It now estimates that earnings will take a hit of between $50 million and $65 million during the final three months of calendar 2013.

The forecast follows $24 million in losses from the company's wealth protection business - which provides life and income insurance - during the September quarter.

AMP said improving the wealth protection business was "one of its highest priorities".

Shares in AMP dropped 14 cents, or 2.8 per cent, to $4.80.

The company's wealth management business had $96.7 billion worth of assets under management at September 30, up from $91.8 billion 12 months earlier.

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Defence apologises for starting fire

The acting Defence chief has apologised over the NSW bushfire caused by an army explosives exercise. Source: AAP

THE Defence boss has apologised over the massive State Mine Fire that has destroyed three homes and burned through nearly 50,000 hectares of land west of Sydney.

The bushfire continued to rage at emergency level between Lithgow and the Blue Mountains on Thursday, more than a week after it was sparked during explosives training on army land.

Acting Chief of Defence, Air Marshall Mark Binskin, says a small fire that started during a routine training exercise at Marrangaroo on October 16 was responsible for the blaze.

"I do apologise, because it has been identified that this fire was the start of this mine fire," he told reporters at Rural Fire Service headquarters in Sydney on Thursday.

"We'll ascertain the facts as part of our own inquiry but what I do know to date is it was an explosives activity, it was a demolition activity in support of our people that train for operations around the world."

A NSW Police investigation was still underway, he said.

He said the decision to go ahead with the training exercise was made on a day of light winds and 23 degree-temperatures.

"The fire (danger) was on the lower end of the scale and there was not a fire ban," he said.

Defence personnel acted quickly after an explosion started a small fire after midday on October 16 but were hampered by the live ordnance around them.

RFS crews arrived within half an hour, Air Marshall Binskin said.

"It was considered too dangerous to go onto the particular site where the fire had started to burn, so they waited till it cleared that area and then started to fight it," he told reporters.

"This was not deliberately starting a fire, this was an accident as part of a training activity on a day there wasn't a fire ban."

He said Defence was "not shying from our responsibilities" but stopped short of offering compensation to those affected by the bushfire.

Air Marshall Binskin said the force's in-house investigation into this incident could prompt changes to training procedures around Australia.

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Concern at YMCA reaction, inquiry hears

THE NSW Police advised the YMCA that there were concerns about the association holding public information meetings with parents affected by allegations against employee Jonathan Lord.

An internal police memo sent by Detective Senior Sergeant Glyn Baker of the child abuse squad said the "YMCA was difficult to control" and the association was "running scared".

Det Sgt Baker was giving evidence on Thursday, the fourth day of a national inquiry into how the YMCA handled allegations of child sexual abuse against Lord, who is now in jail.

He said both comments, which he wrote in a memo when he was handing over the Lord case to another officer in 2011, referred firstly to the fact the YMCA had directed parents to Miranda police when in fact the Kogarah joint-investigation response team were handling the case - and this was causing confusion.

The "running scared" comment, he said, was his opinion that the YMCA was trying to manage a very difficult situation.

The commission heard that police set up a hotline and a helpline in conjunction with the NSW department of Family and Community Services about a week after the allegations against Lord were made.

It was another week before the YMCA was informed of the helpline.

Liam Whitely, who was in charge of child services at the YMCA, contacted police for a meeting.

Det Sgt Baker said they advised the YMCA there was legislation around protecting the identity of victims and revealing Lord's name.

In answer to Justice Peter McClellan, who is chairing the Royal Commission, Det Sgt Baker said that even though there was no suppression order in place at the time, police also had a duty of care to Jonathan Lord who was on bail.

He agreed with Justice McClellan that if Lord's name had been revealed in the sense of allegations more people might have come forward.

Justice McClellan asked if the police should not have offered the YMCA help by attending the meetings because the association rightly saw itself as having a responsibility to parents and children.

Det Sgt Baker said they were managing a major criminal investigation at the time and the helpline/hotline was in operation.

He repeated that police advice was not that the YMCA shouldn't hold the meeting, "the advice was, it was their choice".

"We never told the YMCA, we never told them not to give his (Jonathan Lord's) name, we provided advice and guidance.

"Our advice was that should they reveal his name they might have difficulty managing the situation."

Evidence to the commission earlier this week heard that the YMCA told parents, on police advice, they could not discuss details of the case.

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Telstra reshuffles senior management

Telstra has restructured its senior management team in order to focus on new growth opportunities. Source: AAP

TELSTRA is reshuffling its senior management as part of an effort to boost revenue and focus on new growth areas.

Chief executive David Thodey said the restructure was designed to ensure the company was focused on customer and revenue growth, and working on new areas like network services and e-health.

The changes were not made to establish a succession plan for the top job at Telstra, with Mr Thodey saying he had no intention of stepping down any time soon.

"I'm really enjoying this job, I love it, I enjoy technology and while they still want me I'm still here," he said.

Under the reshuffle, chief operating officer Brendan Riley has been appointed group executive of Global Enterprises and Services, a new $5 billion unit that includes areas such as cloud computing, network services, government and defence.

Telstra's innovation chief Kate McKenzie will replace Mr Riley as chief operating officer, while chief customer officer Gordon Ballantyne has been appointed as head of the Telco's retail team.

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Hells Angels arrested in Qld

THREE members of the Hells Angels criminal motorcycle gang, including the sergeant-at-arms and the treasurer, have been arrested in Brisbane.

Taskforce Maxima Commander Detective Superintendent Mick Niland says they were arrested along with four others in a major drug trafficking and supply operation in the southeast.

Operation Kilo Advantage started in June 2012 and targeted members of the Hells Angels allegedly involved in the supply, distribution and trafficking of drugs in the Brisbane area.

The operation closed on Wednesday after 22 search warrants across Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich and the Gold Coast.

Eight of the warrants were on premises that police will allege are rented by members of the Hells Angels.

The men are due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Detective Superintendent Mick Niland has praised the work of officers.

"This has been a massive operation aimed at disrupting a key facet of the criminal activity undertaken by the Hells Angels, the supply and distribution of drugs across the city," he said.

"Operational activity such as this is just one way the Queensland Police Service is working tirelessly to disrupt, dismantle and eliminate criminal motorcycle gangs from Queensland."

Supt Niland said all the arrests were made without incident.

"We will continue to target them throughout the coming months, if not years," he said.

Deputy Police Commissioner Brett Pointing said the 12-month operation was a major success.

"They are notoriously difficult to get arrests of this nature," he said.

"This is significant.

"Eight people on trafficking is a very, very significant day in police work and three of those being patched members of the Hells Angels is a great start."

He said police were in for the long haul and would do everything they could to eliminate criminal bikie gangs.

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Stocks to watch at close on Tuesday

STOCKS to watch on the Australian stock exchange at close on Tuesday:

APN - APN NEWS & MEDIA - up 3.5 cents, or 8.3 per cent, at 45.5 cents

Regional media group APN News and Media is moving to sell its remaining stake in its outdoor advertising business to a private equity group.

BGA - BEGA CHEESE - down 8.0 cents, or 2.0 per cent, at $4.00

WCB - WARRNAMBOOL CHEESE AND BUTTER - down 1.0 cent, or 0.1 per cent, at $8.10

Bega Cheese says the share market is lifting the value of its takeover offer for Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory every day.

BHP - BHP BILLITON - up 85 cents, or 2.4 per cent, at $37.05

BHP Billiton has upgraded its iron ore production guidance for the fiscal year from 207 to 212 million tonnes after beating forecasts during the September quarter.

BKL - BLACKMORES - down 89 cents, or 3.4 per cent, at $25.11

Health products maker Blackmores' profit fell by 31 per cent in the first quarter of the financial year due to falling sales in Australia.

BKN - BRADKEN - up 35 cents, or 5.7 per cent, at $6.45

Engineering firm Bradken says the first half of the financial year has so far proved challenging due to slowing project investment, but it still expects it full year performance to be in line with the previous year.

DJS - DAVID JONES - down 6.0 cents, or 2.1 per cent, at $2.79

Department store David Jones could take up to six months to find a replacement for chief executive Paul Zahra, and is likely to look overseas, analysts say.

MGR - MIRVAC GROUP - up 3.5 cents, or 2.0 per cent, at $1.795

Property group Mirvac says it is on track to reach its full year earnings targets as it works to put a disappointing 2012/13 result behind it.

OSH - OIL SEARCH - up 1.0 cent, or 0.1 per cent, at $8.65

Oil Search lifted production during the September quarter but sold less oil and gas.

RHL - RURALCO - down 33 cents, or 9.5 per cent, at $3.16

Agribusiness Ruralco Holdings expects its reported annual profit to fall sharply as a result of lower livestock prices and lower sales of agricultural chemicals due to drought.

SDL - SUNDANCE RESOURCES - down 2.0 cents, or 15.4 per cent, at 11 cents

Africa-focused iron ore hopeful Sundance Resources will raise $40 million to develop its Mbalam-Nabeba Iron Ore project in the Republics of Cameroon and Congo.

SXL - SOUTHERN CROSS MEDIA GROUP - down 0.5 cents, or 0.3 per cent, at $1.865

Southern Cross Media's shareholders have delivered a first strike against the broadcaster for its executive pay policy.

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Vic running track death 'not suspicious'

Homicide detectives are investigating the discovery of a man's body on a Melbourne running track. Source: AAP

THE death of a man whose body was found on a Melbourne running track is no longer being treated as suspicious.

Several passersby discovered the body on the track, which surrounds a football oval at Oakleigh, at about 6am (AEDT) on Tuesday.

The homicide squad had been called in to investigate but police said on Tuesday afternoon they now believe the 27-year-old Hughesdale man's death is not suspicious.

Investigators are awaiting the results of a post-mortem, a police statement said.

Police earlier said the man, who was wearing shorts, a jumper and running shoes, had blood at the back of his head.

One of the first people on scene said he was heading to the gym near the oval when he saw several people standing near the body.

"You could see blood over his face," he said.

"It looked like the person had just gone flat on their back."

The area is popular with dog walkers and joggers.

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'Australia's groundwater worth almost $7b'

AUSTRALIA'S groundwater reserves are worth almost $7 billion each year, a new study has revealed.

A Deloitte Access Economics report, released on Monday, shows for the first time the role groundwater plays in the country's economy.

Groundwater is worth $6.8 billion each year and supports industries worth $34 billion including mining, food production and manufacturing, the report says.

However, the value of groundwater is constantly growing as surface water dries up in a changing climate and the population grows.

"That is likely to continue into the future as competition for water resources grows further," the report said.

National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT), which commissioned the report, said that groundwater was worth more each year than individual sectors like forestry, fishing, poultry and gambling.

"To many people, groundwater is all but invisible, or there as a last resort when surface water runs short," NCGRT director, Professor Craig Simmons, said in a statement.

"In reality it drives many of our most productive industries, and if carefully managed can be maintained as a sustainable resource.

Prof Simmons said that many countries like China and India had overestimated their groundwater reserves and were using them unsustainably, which would hit long-term growth.

He said the report gave a much more accurate estimate of Australian groundwater reserves and would help develop a national plan to manage it sustainably.

"The availability of fresh water defines all sorts of national aspirations - how large our population can be, what industries we have in this country and where and how large they can be, and how well we look after our unique landscapes, rivers and ecosystems," Prof Simmons said.

"Groundwater (information) is often the missing element in all these questions.

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I'll be tough on 457 visa cheats: Morrison

PEOPLE who abuse the 457 skilled migrant scheme will be treated in the same "tough" way that the government treats people smugglers.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is warning those guilty of cheating the visa system to expect a firm response.

"If you abuse it, then you can expect me ... to be as tough on that as those people smugglers will find that I will be tough on our borders," he said at a migration conference in Canberra on Monday.

"If the 457 program is abused, it will be undermined, and its critical values to Australia will be diminished.

"I'm asking you - and I'm asking industry and employers - to help the government protect this vital asset for the Australian economy by making sure it is used properly, in the right circumstances and is not abused."

Mr Morrison accused the former Labor government of demonising skilled migrants when it launched a crackdown on alleged cheating of the 457 visa scheme.

"You will not hear from this government that migrants take Australians' jobs," he said.

In its final days, the Labor government introduced laws requiring employers prove they searched for Australian workers before hiring temporary workers on 457 visas.

The crackdown followed unproven claims from former immigration minister Brendan O'Connor that there might be more than 10,000 breaches of the scheme.

In a wide-ranging speech on skilled migration, Mr Morrison also indicated that the significant investor visa would be "rebooted".

Introduced last November for those willing to invest $5 million in government bonds, managed funds or private companies, the visa scheme has been beset by long delays in approving applicants.

Despite hundreds of applications, only one visa had been granted by April, with Mr Morrison bemoaning the nine-month approval process.

Mr Morrison said it was understandable applicants were starting to get "cold feet".

"The scheme could and should and I still think can attract millions if not billions of overseas capital investment in projects that will stimulate our economy and create new jobs," he said.

Mr Morrison also spoke out against student visas being used as a "backdoor to permanent migration".

"We're interested in selling education, not visas," he said.

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Hole discovered in fence at WA prison

WESTERN Australia's prisons minister says there was never any risk of a jailbreak despite last week's discovery of a hole cut into a fence at one of the state's prisons.

The state's Department of Corrective Services has confirmed the alarming discovery at Acacia prison, which can house more than 1000 medium-security prisoners.

But prisons minister Joe Francis says there had been no real danger of an escape.

"What happened here is the system worked," Mr Francis told ABC radio.

"I'm not going to go into the operational issues of it, but you can rest assured there was never any threat to the public of these people getting out.

"Intelligence was gathered that obviously discovered people plotted to escape, and it was stopped very quickly."

An investigation has been launched into the potential security breach.

"Appropriate actions have been taken and there is no risk to the community," a spokeswoman for Corrective Services said.

The WA Prison's Officers Union said continuing staff shortages were contributing to growing issues in WA prisons, but Mr Francis rejected that as a "cheap shot".

"There are five thousand people behind bars in Western Australia, and many of them spend an awful lot of time trying to escape," Mr Francis said.

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Labor policy key to reduced boats: Burke

Former immigration minister says the reduction in asylum boat arrivals is due to Labor's policies. Source: AAP

FORMER immigration minister Tony Burke says any reduction in the number of boat arrivals is because of Labor's hardline regional resettlement policy introduced before the election.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Saturday said the arrival of asylum seekers by boat had dropped dramatically since the election of the coalition government.

But while he said they hadn't stopped completely, he expressed confidence reduced numbers were arriving.

"I can say to you with great confidence, they are stopping," Mr Abbott said.

But Mr Burke, the minister responsible for introducing the Rudd government's policy of sending boat arrivals to PNG or Nauru for resettlement, said that plan is responsible for the reduction, not coalition policy.

"They haven't changed our policy. They've changed the media strategy around it, they've changed the secrecy around it, but there is not one part of the policy that we put in place with the regional resettlement arrangements that they've shifted," Mr Burke told Sky News on Sunday.

"They've haven't gone around boats and turned them back. They haven't to my knowledge gone through Indonesian fishing villages buying boats. What they've been doing is implementing the regional resettlement arrangements and they work."

However, the Labor MP said it would be "churlish" of him not to credit the coalition with implementing the resettlement plan.

"They are implementing it. There are ways you can wreck it," he said.

The newly appointed manager of opposition business said he was confident Labor would stick with the hardline policy despite divisions within the party on refugees.

"The big shift in people's thinking happened when we saw the extraordinary number of drownings," Mr Burke said.

"At that moment I think people started to recognise that having ... what you might describe as a hardline policy wasn't a situation of showing lets show how tough we are, it's actually a compassionate thing to do."

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