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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