Woman and dog escape house fire minutes before building engulfed (ABC)

View Comments ABC It is not clear what caused the fire at the Port Arthur general store and attached house.

A shop and home at Port Arthur has been destroyed by fire.

The blaze broke out about 7:30am (AEST), and quickly engulfed the building.

A woman who owns the store apparently woke to a loud bang.

Richard Sargent co-owns a nearby cafe and says the woman fled the house attached to the store with her dog just before the building caught alight.

"There was smoke starting to billow into the general store from the back and the roof appeared to be on fire," he said.

Mr Sargent says the woman was very upset.

"Very shocked, shaken up, she was trembling almost uncontrollably," he said.

"We sat her down, got the ambulance as soon as it arrived so they could check her pressure all that sort of thing, oh it's just horrible."

It is not clear what caused the fire, which also destroyed the town's post office outlet.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24036587/woman-and-dog-escape-house-fire-minutes-before-building-engulfed/

Wayne Benett backs NRL judiciary decision to downgrade Josh Reynolds* lifting tackle charge (ABC)

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Josh Reynolds has received support from an unlikely source with Newcastle coach Wayne Bennett claiming the Blues five-eighth's tackle on Brent Tate in State of Origin I was an example of great technique.

Reynolds and back rower Beau Scott were charged after an ugly tackle that saw Tate flipped as he hit the ball up during the Origin opener.

Scott's penalty was not enough to see him serve any time on the sidelines, while there has been a general outcry since the NRL judiciary downgraded Reynolds' original charge from grade two to grade one, freeing him to play in State of Origin II.

Bennett, however, refused to join the chorus of dissenters when he spoke to ABC Grandstand following his side's loss to the Warriors on Sunday.

And the Knights coach has more than a passing interest in the topic, with the injury to his player Alex McKinnon the catalyst for the alleged crackdown on lifting tackles.

"There are two types of tackles that concern me in our game. One is the lifting tackle where they deliberately go in and lift you without any intention to tackle you and the other is the rugby league tackle which can turn a bit sour on you," Bennett said.

"In my opinion that was a rugby league tackle.

"It probably needs a bit more debate and I don't want to see that tackle again if I can avoid it, but we have to tackle in our game and it happens in a fraction of a second.

"He hit him through the middle, it was great technique and as a coach you're proud of what he did in the tackle. All of a sudden you've got a guy up top and you have another situation.

"It's what we teach and we can't not teach that. It's the only way you can stop a big guy running at you, not that Brent (Tate) was a big guy, but a big guy's running at you, you have to hit him in the middle and that's been a part of our game for 100-odd years, but when you get him in that position above the shoulder then you've got another decision to make."

Bennett happy with judiciary process

Bennett said he was happy with the judiciary process that has freed Reynolds to play in State of Origin II.

"At the end of the day, I was happy enough it was graded, it went to the judiciary, they've made a decision and they've downgraded it a little bit," Bennett said.

"I can live with that because that's the way it should be and that's the system we all have to live under and we all have to play by those rules.

"It's not about them (judiciary) being the sole judge of penalty, it's about your opportunity to go and present your case and he's done that and he's won it fair and square and that's the way it should operate.

"It's not about the NRL every time they charge you with a grading they're going to be right."

While Bennett backed the NRL crackdown on lifting tackles, he believes it may never be eradicated from the game.

"We're going to never eliminate this problem, but what we have to be is absolutely on the money about it and keep giving guys gradings which they just a couple of weeks after the Alex (McKinnon) situation. They gave about six guys gradings and all of a sudden the lifting tackle was just about non-existent.

"I'm not saying it won't come back. Periodically it will and they have to judge each on its merits."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24045445/wayne-benett-backs-nrl-judiciary-decision-to-downgrade-josh-reynolds-lifting-tackle-charge/

Binge video drives teens to drink (AAP)

View Comments AAP Two professors have questioned the effectiveness of a video aimed at discouraging binge drinking.

Health experts have called time on a slick booze-industry video they say promotes binge drinking instead of discouraging it.

The industry body DrinkWise says the video is designed to appeal to young people and has had positive results.

But the experts say it is more likely to boost sales than moderation.

What's worse, it's online and is likely to be watched by children, they write in a letter in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The video, titled How to Drink Properly, urges teenagers and young adults to find their "realm of drinking excellence", but warns that only amateurs lose control.

It's clever, but it's duplicitous, says Professor Simone Pettigrew, who wrote the letter with public health campaigner Professor Mike Daube.

"What DrinkWise is touting as being helpful is just reinforcing their sales," she told AAP.

A small study by Prof Pettigrew and her team at Curtin University shows some young people feel an urge to drink after seeing the video.

Around two thirds of the 40 people in the study liked the cartoon format, humour and swearing, she said.

"They get the message that they should not drink too much, but they don't know what too much means," she said.

"The video fails to tell them more than four drinks is binge drinking.

"They think 10 beers is OK."

DrinkWise CEO John Scott said the video was achieving its aims.

"We are weeks into a three-year campaign, but we are confident we have hit the right mark," he said.

He said a DrinkWise study of more than 750 young people had changed their behaviour after seeing the video.

"It shows the campaign is doing the right things," he said.

"We are speaking to young people for the first time in a language in which they can start to understand the moderation message."

Telling them to limit themselves to two drinks would not work, he said.

The idea was for young people to know their limits and to understand intoxication leads to adverse outcomes, such as damage to their reputation and rejection by their social group.

These are really powerful drivers for this age group.

"A sample of 40 people in comparison to the DrinkWise sample of 750 is not a way to refute the early success of our campaign."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24050039/binge-video-drives-teens-to-drink/

Whitehaven protesters arrested (AAP)

View Comments AAP A group of protesters suspended on a giant net at a Maules Creek mine site have been arrested.

A group of protesters who spent a freezing night suspended on a giant net at a Maules Creek mine site have been arrested, as police warn of increasing safety fears at the site.

The group of eight are part of a protest against Whitehaven coal's $767 million development of its Maules Creek mine in Leard State Forest and the company's plan to demolish around 1660 hectares of native woodland to extract coal by early 2015.

Police arrested eight protesters on Saturday following two days of protest.

Barwon Local Area Commander, Superintendent Gelina Talbot, said there were great concerns when a woman positioned herself under the bulldozer blade that was lowering.

"I was shocked to learn this woman had placed her head under the bulldozer blade: this was reckless and foolhardy action which put her safety and the safety of rescuers at significant risk," she said in a statement.

"This is just one example of the reckless and high-risk behaviour being demonstrated by some people protesting at this site.

"I am greatly concerned that people are engaging in activities which could potentially harm themselves, and - as a consequence - those tasked with rescuing them."

The woman and a man were arrested and taken to Narrabri Police Station where the pair were charged with hindering the working of mining equipment.

Police arrested a further six protesters who'd spent the night suspended in a tree. They were charged with numerous offences under the Crimes act and Forestry Regulations.

"They were taken down and arrested today," Greenpeace spokeswoman Julie Macken told AAP.

She said there were still more than 10 protesters suspended in the trees.

"They are in for a cold night, it's freezing up here," she said.

Ms Macken said the arrest was peaceful and respectful, and no one was hurt.

Greenpeace on Sunday announced two of its activists - Raoni Hammer, 32, and Rocco Acolecca, 27 - were arrested on Sunday morning and taken to Narrabri police station after spending 48 hours in the treetops.

The tree-high activists have been taking turns sleeping in a suspended cargo net and hammocks and use a portable bucket toilet when nature calls.

Whitehaven Coal had expressed a preference to avoid winter and early spring land clearances to bypass the "key breeding/hibernation seasons for threatened bat and bird species".

But the government recently approved a revision to the firm's biodiversity management plan (BMP).

Whitehaven's plans include using machinery to shake inhabited trees to "encourage" creatures to leave before "gently" bulldozing and leaving them overnight to allow remaining animals to escape.

"These measures are comprehensive, and address issues associated with clearing in cooler months and at other times," a Whitehaven spokesman told AAP this week.

Ms Macken called on Premier Mike Baird to stop Whitehaven.

"The Baird government has got to be different from the last corrupt government," she said.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24044440/whitehaven-protesters-arrested/

Federal Government continues campaign to delist part of Tasmania*s wilderness with state government*s help (ABC)

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The Federal Government remains outwardly confident it can convince the World Heritage Committee to delist part of Tasmania's World Heritage wilderness.

It is giving committee members more information about past logging but conservation groups doubt it will be enough.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Forestry, Richard Colbeck, is leading the campaign to have 74,000 hectares excised from the World Heritage listing.

He argues it has been degraded by past logging.

The Senator says the World Heritage Committee will be given new information, after concerns the Federal Government's submission had no detailed justifications or explanations.

"Up until the state election in March we didn't have a co-operative State Government and there was certainly some information around previous harvesting that we didn't have access to the information for," Senator Colbeck said.

Vica Bayley from the Wilderness Society says the Government is clutching at straws.

"It's last ditch attempt to try to convince the World Heritage Committee that they are right, when all the facts say that they are wrong," he said.

Senator Colbeck is not saying how much of the World Heritage area will be logged if it is delisted.

"That number I think needs to be determined by the management process that's put in place," Senator Colbeck said.

He has ruled out logging if the areas are not delisted.

"I suppose potentially you could but I think you really need to consider what the broader community would understand in that respect, I don't think that would be acceptable to the broader community," he said.

The World Heritage Committee meets in Qatar in just a few weeks so the Government does not have long to convince members to allow the delisting to go ahead.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24043998/federal-government-continues-campaign-to-delist-part-of-tasmanias-wilderness-with-state-governments-help/

Five injured after beach house balcony collapses in Lancelin (ABC)

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Five people have been taken to hospital, including two with suspected spinal injuries, after a balcony collapsed in a coastal town north of Perth.

Ten people were on the balcony of the two-storey beach house in Lancelin on Sunday afternoon when the structure gave way.

Four ambulances were called to the town, 130 kilometres north of Perth.

Two people have suspected spinal injuries while a third person has a fractured leg.

Another two patients are being treated for shock.

It is not clear what caused the balcony to collapse.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24045465/five-injured-after-beach-house-balcony-collapses-in-lancelin/

Bali flights under cloud but Darwin clear (AAP)

View Comments EPA Flights in Darwin are expected to resume later today as plumes from an Indonesian volcano dissipate.

Flights to and from Darwin have resumed after they were grounded by an ash cloud from an Indonesian volcano, but doubt remains over flights to Bali.

Darwin was cut off to all air services on Saturday as ash plumes billowed from the Sangeang Api volcano off the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. It erupted continuously after an initial blast on Friday afternoon.

The major plume affecting Australian aviation swept southeast over the west side of the Northern Territory and as far south as Alice Springs.

Cyndee Seals of the Bureau of Meteorology's Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin said Australia was now clear but airlines were meeting to discuss an ash cloud near Bali.

"I can advise that the ash cloud across Australia is dissipating but there are still ash clouds southwest of the volcano and another to the east east-northeast from an earlier high eruption," she said.

The southwesterly ash cloud was nearing Bali but its effects on flights to Denpasar were not yet clear, Ms Seals said.

"Right now, unless the winds change - and they are a little variable - it will take the ash south of Denpasar, away from Bali," she said.

"The airlines are meeting about it."

Qantas announced it had resumed its flights, while Virgin, Air Asia and Jetstar had also resumed operations, Darwin International Airport spokeswoman Virginia Sanders told AAP.

But she urged travellers to stay in touch with their airline for updates on flights as some changes might be made.

"Flights are coming back on line but there are some scheduled changes so people still need to check with the airline with regards to what's happening with their particular flight," she told AAP.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24033404/bali-flights-under-cloud-but-darwin-clear/