Brave teachers honoured in national awards

THEY tackled an armed woman to the ground, but the five Perth teachers did not forget their manners - they offered the intruder a cushion for her head until police arrived.

The five women, who work at St Stephens School in Duncraig, have been honoured for their heroics in the annual Australian Bravery Awards after being confronted in February last year by a woman carrying a 27cm chopping knife.

The intruder seized a child by the arm at the school's early learning centre, but released the student when challenged by Year 1 teacher Katherine Hilder.

Ms Hilder grabbed the intruder and subtly forced her out of the classroom, leaving the children unaware of the unfolding drama.

She began to struggle, but by then, fellow teacher Heather Louise King had heard her colleague's call for help and grabbed the arm of the intruder that was brandishing the knife.

Both teachers continued to push the intruder away from the students and were joined by two more colleagues - Sally McAlpine and Jo-Anne Urquhart.

Ms Urquhart managed to snatch the knife away.

"Kate yelled, 'quick, get the knife' so I just grabbed the woman's hand to pull the knife out," Ms Urquhart told AAP.

She said the teachers realised the woman was not mentally stable, so they offered her a cushion while keeping her pinned down.

Ms Urquhart then left her colleagues to commence a lockdown, and ensured all students were safe until police arrived.

"The kids thought it was a drill, but then it went on for too long so we explained that there was a sick woman who needed help," she said.

"None of the children even realised what had happened."

Ms Hilder, Ms King, Ms McAlpine and Ms Urquhart were each recognised with bravery medals.

Fellow teacher, Rosalie Michelle Brades, was also commended for her brave conduct in maintaining hold of the intruder.

Ms Urquhart said she and her fellow teachers were surprised to receive the award.

"It is lovely to be recognised. I'm humbled," she said.

"It is great to be able to rely on everyone you work with."

The four bravery medals were among 21 approved by Governor General Quentin Bryce this year, along with 31 commendations for brave conduct and 10 group bravery citations.

Ms Bryce said the recipients had placed the safety and lives of others before their own.

"We are privileged to have such role models in our society," she said.

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Rudd offers tax sweetener to small firms

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd will offer small businesses a tax deduction sweetener of up to $10,000 for equipment, from the day after the election, if Labor wins.

Mr Rudd is set to announce a 'small business investment boost' on Sunday.

It will allow small businesses with an annual turnover of less than $2 million to claim an immediate tax deduction for assets purchased up to $10,000.

Computers, photocopiers, building tools and commercial fridges are among the items that will be covered.

An estimated 3.2 million businesses will be eligible for the tax deduction which will be on offer from September 8, 2013 to June 30, 2015.

The measure will expand and replace the existing instant asset write-off during this period.

It will cost $200 million over four years.

The cost will be offset from uncommitted funds in the budget.

Mr Rudd said it would be a "shot in the arm" for small businesses because it will provide upfront cash flow benefits.

Under the plan, if a cafe owner buys a commercial fridge for $7450, they will be able to claim the full cost as tax deduction and will pocket $2235 in the first year.

Under the old rules they would receive $335.

All small businesses irrespective of whether they are companies, sole traders, partnerships or trusts will be eligible.

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Egypt detains suspected 'spy' swan

IN a case that's ruffling feathers in Egypt, authorities have detained a swan that a citizen suspected of being a spy.

Officials say a man brought the suspected winged infiltrator to a police station on Friday in the Qena governorate, some 450 kilometres southeast of Cairo.

Officials say the man suspected the bird was an undercover agent because it carried an electronic device.

The head of security in Qena said on Saturday that officials examined the bird and the device.

Mohammed Kamal said the device was neither an explosive nor a spying device. It likely could be a wildlife tracker.

With turmoil gripping Egypt, authorities and citizens remain suspicious of anything foreign.

Earlier this year, a security guard filed a police report after capturing a pigeon he said carried microfilm.

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Ex-royal limousine sells for $70,000

THE description "one careful lady owner" particularly applies to a Daimler car auctioned for more than STG40,000 ($A69,970) - as it once belonged to the Queen.

Complete with a space to accommodate the royal handbag, the 2001 Daimler Super V8 LWB limousine was owned, and driven by, the Queen for three years until 2004.

It was sold on Saturday by auction house Historics at Brooklands in Surrey and fetched a hammer price of STG40,500 - a figure which is subject to commission and does not include the buyer's premium.

Sporting a British Racing Green livery, the car was tested over 4000km pre-delivery miles before being handed over to the Queen.

A further 17,700km were covered while the car was with the Queen before the vehicle was returned in 2004 to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, with which it is still registered.

The car was offered with all its specifications, including its original tyres.

One feature is a factory-adapted centre armrest that has a sliding holder specifically designed for the Queen's handbag.

The vehicle's ashtray was crafted to house the security lighting controls, which remain fully functioning.

This includes a set of blue flashing strobes occupying the front fog lamp inserts, alternate flashing headlamps and alternate flashing rear lights.

A further feature is a pair of neon blue lights by the rear view mirror, which were used to identify the vehicle in which the Queen was travelling when approaching her destination.

In the vehicle's capacious boot, the fittings can still be found for direct contact to the Home Office and Downing Street, although the working components have been removed.

Inside, there are deep lambswool floor rugs.

Unsurprisingly, the car has a full service history by RA Creamer of Kensington and Guy Salmon of Ascot, and was sold with all original documentation, two sets of keys and original registration number, along with photographs of the Queen driving and being driven in it.

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Grave excavation work begins at US school

RESEARCHERS from a Florida university has begun exhuming dozens of graves at a notorious former reform school where ex-inmates from the 1950s and 1960s have detailed horrific beatings that took place in a small, white concrete block building at the facility.

A group of survivors that call themselves the "White House Boys" have pushed for five years for an investigation into the graves at the former Dozier Boys School, which was plagued by scandal almost from its inception; tales of physical, mental and sexual abuse of the children have been documented.

The school opened in 1900 and shut down two years ago for budgetary reasons.

After the state ended an investigation in 2010 and said it could not substantiate or refute claims that boys died at the hands of staff, the University of South Florida began its own research and discovered even more graves than the state had identified.

USF has worked for months to secure a permit to exhume the remains, finally receiving permission from Governor Rick Scott and the state Cabinet after being rejected by Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who reports to Scott.

USF spokeswoman Lara Wade said in a message on Saturday that the work had begun.

Researchers are removing dirt with trowels and by hand to find the remains believed to be between about 50 centimetres to a little more than 90 centimetres under the surface.

In these historic cases, it's really about having an accurate record and finding out what happened and knowing the truth about what happened," said Erin Kimmerle, a USF anthropologist who is leading the excavation.

Kimmerle said the remains of about 50 people were in the graves. Some are marked with a plain, white steel cross, and others have no markings.

The school segregated white and black inmates and the remains were located where black inmates were held, Robert Straley, a spokesman for the "White House Boys," said.

He suspects there is another white cemetery that hasn't been discovered.

"I think that there are at least 100 more bodies up there," he said.

"At some point they are going to find more bodies, I'm dead certain of that. There has to be a white graveyard on the white side."

USF will work at the site until Tuesday and hopes to unearth the remains of two to four boys before resuming the excavation at a later date, Kimmerle said. The initial work will ensure that the process works smoothly before researchers return to the site.

DNA obtained at the site will be sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification for analysis. The hope is that it can be matched to relatives. Ten families have contacted researchers in hopes of identifying relatives that might be buried at Dozier.

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Obama holds Syria meeting ahead of report

US President Barack Obama is meeting with senior national security advisers at the White House to discuss plans for possible military action against Syria.

The meeting should be followed by the public release of a report on intelligence the US has gathered about last week's deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Obama says the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad perpetrated the attack. But he has yet to present definitive evidence to back up the assertion.

Secretary of State John Kerry will speak about the intelligence report and the broader situation in Syria on Friday (US time).

Obama may also speak about Syria during the public portion of a White House meeting with Baltic leaders.

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Rudd campaigning in the NT

QUESTIONS about poor polls are likely to dog Kevin Rudd as he campaigns on Saturday ahead of Labor's official campaign launch.

A week out from the federal election, a Morgan Poll shows the coalition is increasing its lead over Labor and there has been rising support for the Greens and independents.

The prime minister will start the day campaigning in Darwin before he heads to Queensland for Labor's launch on Sunday.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who has consistently played down polls and insisted it is still a very tight race, will be in Melbourne.

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Rudd to unveil outer suburbs plan

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is to unveil his plan to make living in the outer suburbs more affordable.

Mr Rudd, who is campaigning in Perth on Friday, will commit to appointing Australia's first Minister for Cities and will also pledge to set up a task-force to look at boosting jobs and economic growth in the outer suburbs.

He's also expected to push for better roads and transport infrastructure to be built outside major cities as a way of easing cost of living pressures.

Mr Rudd will argue that Australia's outer suburbs will be central to the country's population and economic growth.

"They are home to almost three-quarters of all Australians - yet opportunities are not shared fairly across the different suburban areas in each city," he will say.

"The Labor government will ensure more of the jobs of the future are based in the suburbs of the future, improving the livability of our outer suburban regions."

The funding for the plan is already included in the federal budget, Labor says.

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Young women have more IVF success: study

ONE in two women aged under 35 will be rewarded with a baby if they persevere with assisted fertilisation attempts, according to a groundbreaking study.

But the chances of success drop dramatically after five tries.

The University of NSW (UNSW) study is the first in the world to track national success rates for IVF (in vitro fertilisation) and is based on 2011 statistics from 35 centres in Australia and New Zealand.

A major concern is the increasing number of older women seeking treatment, with limited success.

It is important for people to start planning their family at a younger age, says lead author UNSW Professor Elizabeth Sullivan.

Although fertility treatment can be useful, it is always best to conceive spontaneously if possible, says Prof Sullivan, whose study is included in an report to be presented at a Fertility Society of Australia scientific meeting on September 1.

The overall chance for all age groups of delivering a baby is 21 per cent after one cycle of treatment, increasing to 40 per cent by the fifth cycle.

When women aged 35 and older are removed from the statistics, the success rate jumps to more than 50 per cent after five attempts.

"This is a great result. It shows the benefit of getting treatment early," says Prof Sullivan.

Around one in 25 babies born in Australia are the result of assisted fertilisation, she says and the average age of women using their own eggs in 2011 was 36.

The fastest growing group is women aged 40 and older, making up 25 per cent of the clinics' clientele.

Prof Sullivan says although older women have a very low success rate using their own eggs, they usually manage as well as younger women using donor eggs.

Donor eggs are seldom used in Australia, however.

Prof Sullivan is particularly happy with the way Australia and New Zealand have led the way in reducing the number of multiple births through using single embryo transfers.

The percentage of multiple deliveries was at 6.9 per cent in 2011, compared with more than 25 per cent in 2010 in the US.

"Australia and New Zealand have the lowest multiple birth rate in the world," says Associate Professor Mark Bowman, a fertility doctor and the president of the Fertility Society of Australia.

"Importantly, this has been achieved while the clinic pregnancy rate has remained stable."

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Hockney aide killed by acid drink

AN assistant to British artist David Hockney died after drinking acid at the painter's home, an inquest has heard.

Dominic Elliott, 23, had taken cocaine, ecstasy and temazepam before he drank the liquid and was rushed to hospital, where he died.

Elliott became ill at Hockney's home in Bridlington, in East Yorkshire, in March.

The artist was not at home at the time.

Hockney's former long-term partner, John Fitzherbert, told the hearing in Hull that he drove Elliott to Scarborough Hospital in the early hours of the morning.

He said that during the day leading up to the incident he and Elliott had smoked cannabis and drunk alcohol and Elliott had also snorted cocaine.

A pathologist told the court that temazepam and ecstasy was also found in his body.

Dr Richard Shepherd said the acid severely burned Elliott's mouth, tongue and throat before perforating his stomach.

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US wildfire 23 per cent contained

THE giant wildfire burning at the edge of Yosemite National Park is about 20 per cent contained.

The US Forest Service says the fire has now consumed 758 square kilometres.

The fire in northern California has destroyed 111 structures and threatened water supplies, hydroelectric power and giant sequoia trees - a state icon.

Some 4500 structures remain threatened.

The fire, one of the largest in state history, has caused air pollution problems in California cities far from the scene.

Forestry experts say unnaturally long intervals between wildfires and years of drought have primed the Sierra Nevada mountains for the explosive fire in the rugged landscape.

Federal forest ecologists say historic policies of fire suppression to protect timber interests left a century's worth of fuel in the fire's path.

Two years of drought and a constant slow warming across the Sierra Nevada also worked to turn the Rim Fire into an inferno.

For years, forest ecologists have warned that Western wildfires will only get worse.

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China plans unmanned lunar lander

CHINESE officials say the country will launch its first unmanned lunar lander by the end of this year, complete with a radio-controlled rover to transmit images and dig into the moon's surface to test samples.

The Chang'e 3 lander has officially moved from the design to the launch stage, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence said in a statement.

The Chang'e 3 and another lander will remain on the moon's surface, although China plans to follow those with landers that will return to earth with samples.

A crewed lunar mission could also be launched if officials decide to combine the human spaceflight and lunar exploration programs.

China has recently focused on its manned flight program, sending two missions to temporarily crew the Tiangong 1 experimental space station.

Launched in 2011, the station is due to be replaced by a three-module permanent station, Tiangong 2, in seven years.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third country after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently.

The military-backed space program is a source of enormous national pride and has powered ahead in a series of well-funded, methodically timed steps.

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Brits see Aussies as 'hopeless hicks'

COMEDIAN Adam Hills says coverage of the federal election in the UK has reinforced the British view that most Australians are "hopeless hicks".

Hills cast a pre-poll ballot at Australia House in London on Wednesday as the Australian Electoral Commission upped its campaign encouraging people overseas to vote.

More than 72,000 ballots were cast at overseas diplomatic missions in 2010 with 16,000 votes issued at London House alone.

That makes it the largest booth in the election.

Almost 7800 votes were cast in Hong Kong in 2010 while Singapore was the third busiest overseas polling place with almost 3300 ballots.

Hills has divided his time between Melbourne and London for the past 10 years.

He argues Brits are bemused to see so much infighting in Australian politics given the economy is doing so well.

"(Also) the British press like to reinforce the view that Australians are hopeless hicks who don't know what we're doing, so any gaffe, any funny moment in Australian politics is going to be reported on the news over here immediately," he told reporters outside Australia House.

The comedian's highlights of the campaign so far include Kevin Rudd's selfies, Tony Abbott's "suppository of all wisdom" comment and the One Nation candidate who thought Islam was a country.

"Honestly, that's what people over here think of Australian politics right now," the 43-year-old said.

Hills values his vote more than ever "because I'm concerned about the way Australia is seen overseas".

"I'm genuinely distressed at the state of Australian politics at the moment," he said.

"We as Australians deserve better. That's why I've come out to vote. What I said today to both parties was 'Come on, grow up'."

Votes cast overseas are returned to Australia in a number of dispatches via secure courier. Preliminary scrutiny of pre-poll votes starts on Monday in Australia.

Consul-general Ken Pascoe on Wednesday said the high commission in London had 50 staff working at the booth, which opened on Monday and closes on Friday September 6.

On busy days over 1000 votes are cast at Australia House with people often queuing to enter the historic building.

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Artist who painted Putin in panties flees

AN artist whose paintings depicted Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in women's undergarments has fled the country.

The director of St Petersburg's Museum of Power, Tatiana Titova, says Konstantin Altunin left for France and was planning to request asylum there.

Authorities removed four of Altunin's satirical depictions of Russian politicians on Monday and shut down the exhibition.

A police statement did not specify which laws may have been violated by the provocative works.

A Russian law prohibits insulting state authorities. Another law bans so-called homosexual propaganda aimed at minors.

Last year, an exhibit that depicted members of the Pussy Riot punk band as holy icons drew the ire of religious and pro-government activists, who came to protest the exhibition's opening.

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Rudd gets more briefings on Syria

HAVING met for the final leaders' debate, Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott go their separate ways as they continue their election campaigns.

The prime minister starts Thursday in Canberra, where he will receive an update on the situation in Syria.

He'll head to Melbourne after that, where the media following him were sent on Wednesday night.

Mr Abbott spent Wednesday night in his hometown of Sydney.

He's expected to campaign in the city in the morning.

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US consumer confidence up in August

CONFIDENCE in the US economy has inched closer to a 5-and-a-half year high on growing optimism that hiring and wages could pick up in coming months.

The Conference Board, a New York-based private research group, said on Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 81.5 in August.

That's up from a revised reading of 81 in July.

And it's just below the 82.1 reading in June, which was the highest since January 2008.

Consumers' confidence in the economy is watched closely because their spending accounts for about 70 per cent of US economic activity.

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Brazil building collapse kills 6: official

A COMMERCIAL building in Brazil's biggest city has collapsed, killing at least six people, authorities say.

Another 11 people were pulled alive from the rubble, but an unknown number remained trapped below.

Firefighters said it was not yet clear what caused the building to fall.

About 60 firefighters carefully searched the rubble, using dogs to help locate victims.

Nearby vehicles were covered with chunks of concrete let loose as the building fell.

The building was either being built or was under repair.

It was two storeys high.

Firefighter Marcos Palumbo told the Globo TV network that "right now the work is slow, very cautious, because to pull people from the rubble we need a lot of technique and patience".

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