BlackBerry selling Canadian real estate

BLACKBERRY is selling most of its real estate holdings in Canada as the struggling smartphone company continues to look for ways to improve its business.

BlackBerry Ltd did not disclose the buyer or purchase price, but said Friday that it will sell more than three million square feet (0.28 million sq m) of space and vacant lands. It will also lease back part of the space.

"The successful sale of property in Canada will help us move toward our goal of continued operational efficiency," CEO and Executive Chair John Chen said in a statement.

The company had announced in January that it planned to sell the majority of its Canadian real estate holdings.

BlackBerry pioneered the smartphone in 1999 and dominated for years, but since the late 2000s the company has been hammered by competition from the iPhone as well as Android-based rivals.

Under Chen - who took on the CEO post permanently late last year - BlackBerry has been working to turn around its business.

Chen said that BlackBerry is still committed to having a strong presence in Canada. It is keeping its headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario.

The company said that more terms of the transaction will be announced once principal conditions are satisfied or waived by the parties.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.

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Norwegian museum returns stolen Matisse

A NORWEGIAN art museum has returned a precious Matisse painting looted by the Nazis in the Second World War to the American heirs of the French art dealer Paul Rosenberg.

The 1937 painting by Henri Matisse - Woman in Blue in Front of a Fireplace - worth an estimated $US20 million ($A22.17 million), was claimed by the Rosenberg family after it appeared in a temporary exhibition at the Paris Pompidou Centre in 2012.

The piece - which has been returned by the Henie Onstad art centre near Oslo - was seized in France by the Nazis in 1941, and was briefly part of the personal collection of Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering.

It later found its way into the hands of a German art dealer Gustav Rochlitz who owned a gallery in Paris.

In 1950, a wealthy Norwegian shipowner Niels Onstad bought the painting from the Parisian dealer Henri Benezit without knowing how he had acquired it.

The Matisse went on to form one of the centre-pieces of the Henie Onstad art centre, established in the 1960s by Onstad and his wife, the Olympic figure skating champion Sonja Henie.

Although Norway is a signatory to the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art it also has a law which grants definitive ownership once a collector has possessed an item for more than a decade.

"Henie Onstad art centre's extensive investigation of the case has led to the decision that the return is justified, and HOK's board has decided to return the painting without further conditions," board chairman Halvor Stenstadvold declared Friday, announcing the unconditional return of the piece.

Now the Woman in Blue in Front of a Fireplace will cross the Atlantic following an agreement between the French and American sides of the Rosenberg family.

"There is no (contentious) issue," said Christopher Marinello, the Rosenberg's lawyer who travelled to Norway to collect the painting.

The family was continuing to actively search for "hundreds of works" looted by the Nazis during the war, he added.

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NASA could predict sinkholes

RADAR images taken from planes or satellites could some day be used to predict where sinkholes might form - a potential boon for Florida, the sinkhole capital of the US.

The possibility of an early-warning system stems from new NASA research into a monstrous sinkhole that opened in Louisiana in 2012, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents.

Two NASA researchers examined radar images of the sinkhole area near Bayou Corne. Cathleen Jones and Ron Blom discovered that the ground near Bayou Corne began shifting at least a month before the sinkhole formed - as much as 10 inches (25.4 centimetres) towards where the sinkhole started. Since its formation, the sinkhole has expanded to 25 acres and is still growing.

The NASA findings raise the possibility that engineers eventually could develop a way to predict the location of sinkholes. It would require the constant collection and monitoring of the Earth's surface with radar data collected from planes or satellites.

"It's not a magic bullet," Blom said. But it could be "one more tool in a tool kit."

The radar images studied by the two NASA scientists were part of the agency's ongoing effort to monitor the Louisiana coast, which is rapidly sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. Although the Louisiana images were taken from a research jet, the scientists said a satellite with similar technology could do the same job.

And though such a system wouldn't be cheap - the price of building and launching a satellite usually is in the hundreds of millions of dollars - the gains could be significant. In Florida alone, sinkholes cause about that much property damage each year.

Although there are no recent state data on sinkhole damage, a 2010 report by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation estimated that sinkholes each year cost the state $US200 million to $US400 million ($A221.69 million to $A443.39 million).

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Toilet etiquette in year's oddest title

A GUIDE to coping with an awkward romantic moment has been awarded a prize for the year's oddest book title.

Humorous self-help book How to Poo on a Date: The Lovers' Guide to Toilet Etiquette triumphed Friday in the quirky Diagram Prize.

Organisers said the book, published by Prion Press, received 30 per cent of votes in an online ballot. It beat other finalists including Are Trout South African and Working Class Cats: The Bodega Cats of New York City.

Prize director Horace Bent said voters had chosen "a manual that can help one through life's more challenging and delicate moments."

The prize, founded in 1978, is run by the British trade magazine The Bookseller.

Previous winners include Bombproof Your Horse, Living With Crazy Buttocks and Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes.

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Polish jail takes Bosnian war criminal

A FORMER Bosnian Serb general who was the first person convicted of genocide by the UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has been transferred to Poland to serve out his sentence, prison officials say.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Radislav Krstic for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of Bosnian Muslims and in 2004 handed him a 35-year sentence and sent him to Britain.

But after he narrowly escaped a murder attempt by Muslim fellow-inmates at Britain's Wakefield prison in 2010, the ICTY decided to seek a new location for security reasons.

In 2012, it filed a request to Poland, which has few Muslim residents. A Warsaw court approved the request later that year.

The 66-year-old Krstic "was admitted to the detention centre in the central city of Piotrkow Trybunalski on Thursday," said Bartlomiej Turbiarz, a spokesman for regional prison officials.

"He will serve out his sentence in a one-person cell that will be video-monitored 24 hours a day."

Krstic is the first war criminal to serve time in Poland at the behest of the ICTY.

Poland is among 17 countries that have offered to handle convicts sentenced to prison by the tribunal, which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands.

Krstic's forces were responsible for the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica in July 1995 when they overran UN peacekeepers in the supposed "safe area".

It was deemed the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II.

All told, Bosnia's 1992-95 war claimed 100,000 lives.

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NGA director Ron Radford retires

Director of the National Gallery of Australia, Ron Radford, has announced his retirement. Source: AAP

THE National Gallery of Australia's director has announced his retirement.

Ron Radford will have served close to a decade in the gallery's top job when he leaves at the end of September.

During his time as director, Dr Radford has overseen an extension of gallery buildings, appointment of indigenous curators, the transformation and revival of Asian and Pacific collections, and is credited with initiating numerous blockbuster exhibitions.

There is no link between his retirement and controversy surrounding the purchase of a bronze sculpture, titled Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja), dating from 11th-century India.

The gallery paid $US5 million in 2008 for the statue and in 2014 has launched legal action in the United States against the selling dealer, amid allegations the artwork was stolen.

"If we are a victim of fraud then we will act," Dr Radford has said.

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Teen sneaks to top of World Trade Center

A 16-YEAR-OLD boy has bypassed security and climbed to the top of 1 World Trade Center, the US's tallest building, to take pictures in the middle of the night, police say.

The teen was arrested early on Sunday and charged with misdemeanour criminal trespass, said Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade centre site.

The teen got on the construction site of the nearly completed tower through an opening in a fence, Pentangelo said on Thursday. He then allegedly entered the tower by climbing scaffolding.

The teen eluded a guard on the 104th floor; the guard has since been fired, the spokesman said.

It was not immediately known how the teen got to the 104th floor without being noticed.

Port Authority police arrested him on the premises. His camera and mobile phone were seized after authorities obtained a search warrant.

The investigation was continuing into whether the teen may have entered other parts of the building.

"We take security and these types of infractions very seriously and will prosecute violators," Joe Dunne, chief security officer for the Port Authority, said in a statement.

"We continue to reassess our security posture at the site and are constantly working to make this site as secure as possible."

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Border protection team fronts Senate again

THE Operation Sovereign Borders band is getting back together to front another tough audience in a Labor- and Greens-dominated parliamentary committee.

Immigration department secretary Martin Bowles, customs chief Michael Pezzullo and operation commander Lieutenant-General Angus Campbell will front a Senate inquiry in Canberra on Friday to explain how navy and customs ships came to wander into Indonesian waters during the summer.

It's the first public hearing for the inquiry, which is due to report next Thursday.

The committee expects to grill the trio and other border protection officials for almost five hours.

It will also hear from legal experts and officers from the Australian Hydrographic Service, which is responsible for the production and maintenance of navigational charts.

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Teens plead not guilty in US Lane case

TWO US teenagers who have been charged in the shooting death of an Australian baseball player in Oklahoma have pleaded not guilty and waived their right to a speedy trial.

On Thursday, 18-year-old Michael Dewayne Jones and 16-year-old Chancey Allen Luna were arraigned in Stephens County on first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of 22-year-old Chris Lane.

Judge Joe Enos set a trial docket date of August 18 for both teens.

Prosecutors say Lane, from Melbourne, was gunned down on August 16 last year as he jogged in Duncan, about 130km south of Oklahoma City.

Another teenage defendant, 16-year-old James Francis Edwards Jr, agreed to testify against Jones and Luna if prosecutors reduce charges against him.

He said last month that Luna shot and killed Lane from a car driven by Jones.

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US court tosses $US1.2b Risperdal case

THE Arkansas Supreme Court has overturned a $US1.2 billion ($A1.33 billion) judgment against Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit challenging the pharmaceutical company's marketing of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

The court ruled on Thursday that the state improperly sued under a law that applies to health care facilities, not pharmaceutical companies.

The ruling comes in an appeal of lawsuit filed by Arkansas against the company and subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals. The state says the companies didn't properly communicate the drug's risks and marketed it for off-label use, calling the practices fraudulent.

Johnson & Johnson said there was no fraud and Arkansas' Medicaid program wasn't harmed.

Risperdal and similar antipsychotic drugs have been linked to increased risk of strokes and death in elderly patients, along with seizures, weight gain and diabetes.

Risperdal was introduced in 1994 as a "second-generation" antipsychotic drug - and it earned Johnson & Johnson billions of dollars in sales before generic versions became available. The drug is used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and irritability in autism patients.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel sued the companies in 2007, arguing that they downplayed and concealed risks of the drugs and lied to doctors for years about its side effects. The case is among numerous lawsuits making similar claims.

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Man arrested over Victoria child abduction

VICTORIAN police will seek the extradition of a man from NSW over the abduction and sexual assault of a young boy in Melbourne.

Victorian police contacted their NSW counterparts on Tuesday about a man they were searching for following a nine-year-old boy's abduction and assault last week.

Acting on the tip-off, police stopped a car on Tuesday night in Auburn, western Sydney, and arrested the 21-year-old driver.

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US man's 'gun' turns out to be a tattoo

US police armed with assault rifles descended on a man's home after members of a tree removal crew he'd told to leave his property in Maine reported that he had a gun.

But it turns out the "gun" the tree crew had seen on Michael Smith was just a life-sized tattoo of a hand gun on his stomach.

Smith, who works nights, was asleep when the tree crew contracted by a utility to trim branches near power lines, woke him up at about 10am on Tuesday.

He went outside shirtless and yelled at the workers to leave. When he's not wearing a shirt, the tattoo looks like a gun tucked into his waistband.

Smith told a local newspaper the tattoo has never been a problem before.

Police didn't charge him.

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FedEx profit up, but misses expectations

FEDEX Corp says its latest quarterly profit has risen five per cent from a year ago despite storms that raised the company's costs, but the results were below analysts' expectations.

The company's ground-shipping segment is doing better, but the express-delivery business is flat and customers continue to shift to slower, cheaper services for international shipments.

The package-delivery giant said on Wednesday that net income in the quarter that ended February 28 rose to $US378 million ($A415.50 million), or $US1.23 per share, from $US361 million, or $US1.13 per share, a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected $US1.45 per share.

Revenue rose three per cent to $US11.30 billion from $US11 billion, missing Wall Street's forecast of $US11.43 billion.

The weak results drove FedEx to lower its forecast of full-year earnings. However, FedEx expects fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of between $US2.25 and $US2.50 per share, which leaves room to beat analysts' prediction of $US2.34 per share.

FedEx said that weather reduced operating income by $US125 million in the December-to-February third quarter. Snow, ice and freezing temperatures slowed the company's trucks and planes and raised costs for everything from de-icing to overtime. Shipments dropped off during storms because some retail shippers in the East and Midwest closed.

Rival United Parcel Service Co struggled to keep up with peak volumes just before Christmas - traffic was heavier and later in the season than UPS expected.

FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith said that his company handled December loads but will be careful in managing residential e-commerce shipments.

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Virtual presence at Irish funerals

A NEW online service has been launched to allow Irish emigrants to "attend" family funerals over the internet.

Members of the diaspora who are unable to travel to pay their respects will be able to log in to a special private weblink and stream coverage of services, including burial.

Web-based Funerals Live will broadcast live or offer mourners the option of a video recording within two hours.

Alan Foudy, who has set up the company, says it will also allow people to pay their respects from sick beds in hospitals, or from nursing homes.

"Wherever in the world our client may be, whether it is in Australia or the United States, this service provides them with private weblink to a live stream of a funeral service, or the option of a video recording of the entire service, including the burial, within two hours of its conclusion," he said.

"The general feeling was that a live webcast or a delayed broadcast of the service would be a better option, rather than having to wait up to two weeks for a DVD to arrive by post."

Mr Foudy said the idea came from a request to make a DVD of a funeral for relatives who could not attend the service. He plans to employ 10 people over the next 18 months.

It is understood to be the only service of its kind in the UK and Ireland and mourners will be charged from 350 euro ($A540), with live streaming costing up to 850 euro ($A1300).

Mr Foudy said some of the online streaming will be dependent on quality broadband in some areas.

"Based on our initial work, we expect that the majority of clients we will be working on behalf of will include either family members or friends of the deceased who have not been able to travel to Ireland to attend a funeral," he said.

"We also expect that the service will also be particularly useful to persons in hospitals or nursing homes who are unable to attend services."

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New cancer drug could extend life

A CANCER drug which could prolong the lives of terminally ill patients has been trialled for the first time, a hospital trust has announced.

Clinicians hope the drug, taken as an oral pill, will benefit patients with terminal forms of leukaemia and lymphoma who have run out of treatment options.

Four patients in Plymouth, Devon, became the first to be treated with the new class of BTK (Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase) inhibiting drugs in a 2012 trial and it has since extended worldwide, with more than 30 patients currently receiving the treatment with "positive results".

Professor Simon Rule, a consultant haematologist, called the study "exciting" and a "transformation" in the treatment of patients with the conditions.

Prof Rule, of Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and a researcher at Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, said his patients had experienced "significant improvements".

"The astonishing thing about these drugs is that they have virtually no side effects, which is unprecedented from my experience," Prof Rule said.

"In some patients, the effects are immediate. Patients with lots of symptoms, particularly those with lymphoma, will feel better the next day after taking the medication.

"This is not a cure for cancer, but it will mean we are significantly improving our patients' life expectancy and quality of life; similar to managing a chronic condition."

He said he is yet to come across another class of drugs in his career that has been so successful for leukaemia or lymphoma.

The drugs work by inhibiting Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), a protein which plays a role in the signals that cause growth in cancerous cells.

Blocking this causes the cancerous cells to die but normal cells are unaffected.

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Australia attends Jakarta maritime talks

INDONESIAN immigration officers in the area where asylum seekers set off for Australia - and where the first orange lifeboat came back - say they are undermanned and overwhelmed, but still stopped almost 1000 people risking their lives last year.

Australia's Defence Minister David Johnston is visiting Jakarta on Wednesday as the difficult period in relations with Indonesia continues.

Defence co-operation was wound back late last year after reports of Australian intelligence monitoring the phones of Indonesia's leaders.

Then Australia apologised to Indonesia when it learned its vessels had breached its territory during operations to turn asylum seekers away.

Senator Johnston, accompanied by Defence force chief General David Hurley, will attend the fourth annual Jakarta International Defence Dialogue, where co-operation on asylum seekers is up for discussion.

In west Java, Indonesia's frontline of the problem, immigration officers stopped 984 people from making the dangerous journey last year, Sukabumi Immigration Office chief Irfan Sapari says.

"Some were stranded, some were intercepted by the police when they were on land," he told AAP.

The officers' area includes the port where an orange lifeboat was taken in January, after asylum seekers were apparently sent back by Australian Navy and Customs at the border.

Chief Sapari says his crew of six lacks a vehicle capable of getting to remote beaches like those where more capsules have washed up since.

"At the moment, we only have one Kijang Innova vehicle as an operational vehicle and that's usable while we're in town," he said.

"But to reach difficult areas, it's hard.

"But it's our job. We have to make it with what we have."

Another officer, Eryana Sastra, worries about the dry season ahead, which usually sees an upsurge in activity.

"It's a hugely vast area for our co-ordination and we have limitations in mobility," he said.

Asylum seekers are willing to take the risk even in terrible conditions, he says, so they must always be vigilant.

"It could be any time," he said.

Indonesia has expressed discomfort with the boat turnback policy. Australian officials have confirmed they bought lifeboats but won't discuss their use.

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Market blast kills 17 in Afghanistan

AT least 17 civilians have been killed and 46 others injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in northern Afghanistan.

"A pregnant woman and two children are also among the dead," said Abdul Sattar Barez, deputy governor for Faryab province.

"The bomber driving an explosive-filled auto rickshaw and wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in the crowded Maisara area in Maimana city."

Most of the victims were shopkeepers and other vendors, he said, adding: "The blast was so strong that the bodies were torn to pieces."

The wounded were taken to nearby medical facilities and also to Mazar-e-Sharif, provincial capital for Balkh.

The crowds in the area were larger than usual as people were shopping for the Afghan New Year, according to another official.

Faryab is a restive province bordering Turkmenistan in northern Afghanistan.

In November, six Afghans working for the French agency Acted were shot dead by Taliban militants in Pashtun Kot district.

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Govt to try to push through bills

THE Abbott government has had enough of stalling in the Senate and will move a motion on Wednesday calling for a vote on bills abolishing the mining and carbon taxes.

The carbon tax repeal legislation has been bogged down in the upper house since December, frustrating the government's efforts to axe the impost.

Debate on the mining tax has stalled as well, appearing for the first time before the Senate on Tuesday.

The government will move a motion on Wednesday calling for a vote by Thursday night, when the Senate is due to rise for the week.

But its demands are likely to fall on deaf ears, as Labor and the Greens use their combined numbers to defeat the motion.

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Aust gets back-up in aircraft search

AIRCRAFT from New Zealand and the United States will bolster Australian search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean on Wednesday as the operation to find Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continues.

Four RAAF aircraft have already started sweeping a 600,000 square kilometre patch of ocean some 3200 kilometres southwest of Perth, calculated as a possible location for the jet, which went missing with 239 people on board.

"A further three Air Force P-3 Orions will join the search," John Young, head of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's emergency response division, said of plans for Wednesday.

A New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion will also head to the search zone on Wednesday, along with a US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft.

China has offered more assistance.

Australia is co-ordinating the effort in that region because the search zone falls into its international maritime responsibility.

The search of the area has been described as difficult and is expected to take weeks.

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PM to start red tape cull

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott plans to light the nation's "biggest bonfire of regulations" on Wednesday with a promised $1 billion cull of red tape.

The government intends getting rid of 10,000 redundant acts of parliament and regulations, putting it about three-quarters of the way to meeting the $1 billion target.

"This is essential if we are to get our competitiveness and our productivity up," Mr Abbott told parliament on Tuesday.

Bills will be introduced to parliament on Wednesday with the expectation of passing the lower house the following week.

Labor and the Greens fear that some of the changes will adversely impact on families, business and the environment.

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Woman found dead in Qld river named

A WOMAN found dead in a river at the Queensland-NSW border has been identified, with police treating her death as suspicious.

The body of Goondiwindi woman Alexis Jeffery, 24, was found in the Macintyre River, in her home town, late on Sunday morning.

The woman was last seen alive in Goondiwindi's town centre at 3.30am on Sunday.

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Sri Lankan police arrest rights activists

SRI Lankan anti-terrorist police have arrested two prominent human rights activists in the country's former war zone in the latest crackdown on rights defenders.

Both Ruki Fernando, an adviser for the Human Rights Documentation Center, and Catholic priest Praveen of the Center for Peace and Reconciliation have been prominent in promoting human rights and media freedom in the island's north, where government forces defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.

The charges under which they were arrested were not disclosed, according to their colleagues and the Free Media Movement, a local rights group.

Sunil Jayasekara of the Free Media Movement urged authorities to release them immediately.

Attempts to contact a police spokesman for comment were unsuccessful on Monday.

Sri Lanka faces criticism for cracking down on rights activists and has rejected calls for an international inquiry into the conduct of the final months of the civil war.

The US has sponsored a third resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council calling for an international probe of alleged war crimes if the nation fails to conduct one of its own.

Last week, authorities arrested an outspoken activist, Balendran Jeyakumari, and her 13-year-old daughter who were campaigning for the release of relatives missing from the war.

Military spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya said they were arrested for harbouring a former rebel who shot at police and fled when they tried to catch him. He said one policeman was wounded.

The US expressed concern over the arrests and detention of the activists and urged authorities "to ensure that all those detained are given transparent and due legal process, including full access to legal counsel".

"Both previous and on-going human rights concerns have led many in the international community to push for a UN Human Rights Council resolution on the situation in Sri Lanka.

"With these latest actions, we remain convinced that continued scrutiny by the Human Rights Council is necessary," the US Embassy in Colombo said in a statement.

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Earthquake rattles Los Angeles

A PRE-DAWN earthquake has rolled across the Los Angeles basin, rattling houses from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach.

The 4.4-magnitude quake was centred 10km northwest of Beverly Hills and struck at 6.25am on Monday (0025 AEDT Tuesday), according to the US Geological Survey.

"It felt like a bomb going off underneath our house," said George McQuade, a West Hills resident.

"Nothing was damaged, but it sure woke everyone up. It was an eye-opener."

Residents of the Hollywood neighbourhood said they were shaken by the quake, which lasted just a few seconds.

Burglar alarms went off but there did not appear to be any damage in the area.

"I was getting ready in the bathroom and all of a sudden I felt it jolt," LA resident Yvonne Villanueva told the KTLA TV station, adding: "You always have the big one in the back of your head."

Wes Lashley told KTLA: "I woke up to feel the building swaying from side to side."

The quake came a week after a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern California, the biggest in years.

California has long braced for the "Big One".

The western state is on the so-called Ring of Fire, which circles the Pacific and has produced a number of devastating quakes including Japan's March 2011 quake-tsunami, which killed thousands of people.

Geologists say a quake capable of causing widespread destruction is 99 per cent certain of hitting California in the next 30 years.

A 7.8-magnitude quake could kill 1800 people, injure 50,000 more and damage 300,000 buildings.

A 6.7-magnitude earthquake in Los Angeles left at least 60 people dead and did an estimated $US10 billion ($A11 billion) damage in 1994, while a 6.9 quake in San Francisco in 1989 claimed the lives of 67 people.

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Science back on political agenda

AUSTRALIA'S science community is pushing for specialist advisers across all federal government departments.

Following the Abbott government's scrapping of a science ministry, Science and Technology Australia boss Catriona Jackson said industry leaders are hoping to follow the UK's lead and spread expert knowledge throughout federal divisions.

"We have certainly discussed the idea with the government and there has been some movement, with an appointment in agriculture," Ms Jackson told AAP.

"It is certainly something we would advocate."

While there is a federal chief scientist, and one for each state and territory, greater consultancy would be valuable, she said.

After coming to power in 2013, Prime Minister Tony Abbott reshuffled portfolios and split science between industry and employment, removing the role of dedicated science minister, which had been in place since 1931.

"It's fair to say scientists around the country were concerned when no one was appointed as a science minister," Ms Jackson said.

"But we have suspended our opinions until we see the government's first budget."

In an attempt to fuse stronger bonds between science and politicians, hundreds of the nation's industry leaders will converge on Canberra from Monday to meet with parliamentarians.

Ms Jackson denies there is a greater emphasis on the 2014 event in light of the political restructure but said increased interest and resourcing of the science sector is essential.

"Education and training opportunities leading to jobs in science and technology are a must because those are the jobs that will secure the future," she said.

While Australia is punching above its weight in the sector, more must be done to harness, grow and capitalise on the knowledge, Ms Jackson added.

Mr Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who is also Labor's science spokesman, are both due to attend the Science meets Parliament event.

"Parliament will be filled with talk of ideas and possibilities, of better ways to cure disease, to build bridges, to search for new life on other planets," Ms Jackson said.

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Defence Minister attends Jakarta meeting

THE government is taking another step towards improving strained ties with Indonesia with Defence Minister David Johnston attending a top level conference in Jakarta on building maritime collaboration.

Senator Johnston will be accompanied by Defence force chief General David Hurley and defence department secretary Dennis Richardson.

The event is the fourth annual Jakarta International Defence Dialogue (JIDD) to be held in Jakarta on Wednesday and Thursday.

The conference agenda document says maritime security and the complex issues it encompasses require collaboration among states and regional bodies for the peaceful regulation of trade, migration and military forces on the open sea.

"This cooperation is not only in the national interest of individual states but can also make the world more secure and protected from threats arising or crossing borders by sea," it says.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will make the opening remarks at an event the Indonesian government says aims to promote intergovernmental cooperation to meet common threats and challenges.

This will be President Yudhoyono's final JIDD. Under Indonesia's constitution, he can't seek a third term at the election on April 9.

Late last year relations with Indonesia were strained by media reports of Australian intelligence monitoring of the mobile phones of Indonesia's leaders.

That sparked a slowdown in defence cooperation at the time when the Abbott government was moving to implement its policy to stop the influx of asylum seeker boats.

Senator Johnston will be a panellist in a conference session on "exploring the Indo-Pacific" which will examine the shift of the global balance of power to this region.

Also attending are China's defence minister General Chang Wanquan and US secretary of defense Chuck Hagel.

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Dubai refinancing deal on $22bn debt

DUBAI has reached an agreement with Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates' central bank to extend payment of $US20 billion ($A22.23 billion) of debt due this year.

Dubai built up tens of billions of dollars in debt during a building boom but struggled to repay it as the global financial crisis battered its economy and property market.

Dubai is one of seven emirates in the UAE.

The UAE's official WAM news agency reported on Sunday the deal gives Dubai five more years to repay the debt at a fixed interest rate of 1 per cent. The term is renewable.

The debt consists of a $US10 billion loan from the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi, which is also the UAE's capital city, and another $US10 billion in central bank bonds.

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