ALP and Coaltion neck and neck: poll

THE coalition and the ALP led by new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd are neck and neck in the lead up to the federal election, a poll shows.

On a two-party preferred result, the Labor Party would receive 49 per cent of votes compared to the coalition's 51 per cent, according to the first national Galaxy poll since Rudd's return as prime minister.

The poll, published in Sunday's News Ltd newspapers, also shows most voters think Mr Rudd will be a better prime minister than Mr Abbott, scoring 51 per cent compared to Mr Abbott's 34 per cent.

Mr Rudd lifted Labor's primary vote by six points, to 38 per cent.

Voters backed the ALP's decision to replace Julia Gillard with Mr Rudd, with 57 per cent saying it was the right move.

The poll also revealed Bill Shorten won the support of the public for knifing two prime ministers, with most believing he made the right choices.

A total of 52 per cent of voters backed his decision to dump Ms Gillard, while 30 per cent believed Mr Shorten did the wrong thing.

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Rudd to promote more women to cabinet

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd intends to promote a record number of women into his cabinet, which will be sworn in on Monday.

Mr Rudd, who regained the leadership after toppling Australia's first woman prime minister Julia Gillard last week, will add three new women to the cabinet.

Overall, News Ltd reports, 11 women will be in the overall ministry up from nine now.

Victorians Jacinta Collins and Catherine King and Tasmanian Julie Collins will become cabinet ministers.

"These women will be first-class contributors to our cabinet decision making," he told News Ltd.

"They join Penny Wong, the first woman to be leader of the government in the Senate, Jenny Macklin and Tanya Plibersek, who have all demonstrated their strong credentials in the past."

Senator Collins is expected to become the minister for mental health, Ms King will take on the regional Australia portfolio while Ms Collins will hold the portfolio of housing, homeless and status of women.

AAP jl

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Obama meets family of ailing hero Mandela

US President Barack Obama has met the family of his "inspiration" Nelson Mandela, but was unable to visit the anti-apartheid legend who remains critically ill in hospital.

Despite tentative signs of an improvement in the condition of the father of multi-racial South Africa, Obama decided not to visit Mandela during his visit for fear of disturbing his "peace and comfort".

Instead, Obama met privately with some relatives of the revered leader including two daughters and several grandchildren and spoke by telephone with Mandela's wife Graca Machel.

"I expressed my hope that Madiba draws peace and comfort from the time that he is spending with loved ones, and also expressed my heartfelt support for the entire family as they work through this difficult time," Obama said, using Mandela's clan name.

Machel said she had "drawn strength from the support" offered by the Obama family.

"I am humbled by their comfort and messages of strength and inspiration which I have already conveyed to Madiba."

Speaking earlier in Pretoria, where 94-year-old Mandela lay fighting for his life in a nearby hospital, Obama praised the "moral courage" of South Africa's first black president.

"The struggle here against apartheid, for freedom, Madiba's moral courage, his country's historic transition to a free and democratic nation, has been a personal inspiration to me. It has been an inspiration to the world," Obama said after talks with President Jacob Zuma.

"The outpouring of love that we've seen in recent days shows that the triumph of Nelson Mandela and this nation speaks to something very deep in the human spirit - the yearning for justice and dignity that transcends boundaries of race and class and faith and country."

Obama said before arriving he did not need "a photo-op" with Mandela, whom he meet briefly in 2005, and the White House on Saturday ruled out a meeting between the two men.

"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," the official said.

Obama's three-nation tour is aimed at changing perceptions that he has neglected Africa since his election in 2008, while also countering China's growing economic influence in the resource-rich continent.

But it has been overshadowed by the illness of his fellow Nobel peace laureate, who has been in intensive care for more than three weeks.

Zuma said Mandela remained in "critical but stable" condition, expressing hope that he would improve.

Welcoming the US president to South Africa on the second leg of his tour, he said Mandela and Obama were "bound by history" as the first black leaders of their respective nations.

"You both carry the dreams of millions of people in Africa," Zuma said.

But the US leader was not greeted so warmly by all South Africans. Riot police fired stun grenades at anti-Obama protesters in the township of Soweto, once a flashpoint in the anti-apartheid struggle.

A visit by Obama on Sunday to Mandela's former jail cell on Robben Island, off Cape Town in particular is expected to be laden with symbolism.

Obama will then visit former Archbishop Desmond Tutu's youth foundation HIV centre before delivering the central speech of his African tour at the University of Cape Town.

Mandela has been hospitalised four times since December.

The man once branded a terrorist by the United States and Britain won South Africa's first fully democratic elections in 1994, forging a path of racial reconciliation during his single term as president, before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading AIDS campaigner.

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Qld man killed in gunpowder blast

Lion tamers take series to the wire

Iain Payten A BOLD captain's call and a nerveless conversion by a second-game "debutant" saw the Wallabies snatch a thrilling victory over the Lions in Melbourne.

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David Stratton reviews own fake Twitter account

ACCLAIMED Aussie film critic David Stratton was none too pleased at the news someone had set up a fake Twitter account in his name. He simply had to review it.

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Heading overseas? Leave your phone

TRAVELLERS are losing out on travel insurance when they misplace their phones or have them stolen on holiday.

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Aussies axe the old garden shed

GARDEN sheds are fast becoming a thing of the past as backyards shrink, houses expand and apartments dominate the skyline.

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Step inside the ultimate sky home

IF there was a perfect penthouse for James Bond, we reckon this would be the one.

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Singapore goes pink to support gay rights

MORE than 20,000 people wearing pink clothing have gathered in Singapore for an annual rally in support of gay rights in the city-state, where an archaic law criminalises sex between men.

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Paris celebrates Gay Pride and marriage

TENS of thousands of people have thronged the streets of Paris to mark the city's Gay Pride, exactly one month to the day since France celebrated its first gay marriage.

To the sounds of techno music, the rainbow-decorated parade wound its way through the city centre on Saturday to end at the Place de la Bastille.

For participants, this year's Gay Pride - the first since President Francois Hollande signed a landmark gay marriage and adoption bill into law last month - was something special.

"This year it's different. I definitely had to be here, I had to overcome the fear," said Martine, a 63-year-old Parisian, referring to the numerous, and sometimes violent, anti-gay marriage protests that took place in the months leading up the bill's signing into law - and that are still continuing.

At a press conference ahead of the parade, Nicolas Gougain, spokesman for the Inter-LGBT association, called the reform "a very important step that should lead to others" such as improved rights for transsexuals and medically assisted procreation to enable gay couples to have children.

"This is the opportunity for us to show everyone who wanted us to disappear these last few months that we do exist," he said.

France's first gay marriage, between two men, took place in the southern city of Montpellier on May 29. Dozens more have since been celebrated around the country.

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Legislative changes for WA renters, miners

RENTAL home tenants, landlords and property managers in Western Australia have new rights and obligations after an overhaul of the Residential Tenancies Act, which is about to come into effect.

The state government said the changes, which come into force on Monday and apply to both privately and real estate agent-managed properties, were aimed at making current "best practice" in the industry the law.

They include mandating property condition reports at the beginning and end of a tenancy, the use of a prescribed standard tenancy agreement that all parties can understand, and depositing all tenant bonds with the state government's Bond Administrator.

"This will lead to greater transparency for tenants as to the handling of their bond monies," the WA government said.

Other major changes relate to the provision of locks, pet bonds and capping of option fees.

Another legislative change that takes effect on July 1 is the Mining Rehabilitation Fund Act 2012, which establishes a pooled fund, levied according to the environmental disturbance on a tenement on a prescribed date each year.

Currently, tenement holders must provide bonds as security to ensure that they fulfil their environmental obligations, but this does not cover the true cost of rehabilitating abandoned mines.

The state government took the view that increasing bonds to fully cover these costs would place a significant financial burden on the mining industry, tying up cash that could be used for developing a project.

Tenements with a rehabilitation liability estimate below $50,000 will report disturbance data but will not be required to make a payment to the fund, which will initially be on a voluntary opt-in basis but will be compulsory from July 1 next year.

"This provides companies with an early opportunity to have their bonds retired where approved by the Department of Mines and Petroleum against specific criteria, and allows other companies more time to establish administrative systems," the state government said.

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$100m Vic budget boost for Frankston line

TRAIN services are set to be more reliable on one of Melbourne's busiest rail services under a $100 million boost that will be part of this week's state budget, the government says.

Premier Denis Napthine will on Sunday announce a cash injection for the south-eastern Frankston line, which carries about 60,000 people every weekday.

The money will pay for track, signalling and power upgrades, which will in turn improve service reliability, he says.

"This $100 million will mean the Frankston line will also be able to accommodate the X'Trapolis trains, giving passengers the fastest, most reliable and most comfortable commute to and from the city," Dr Napthine said.

Poor service on the Frankston line was a key issue in the 2010 election, with a swathe of seats along the line, including Bentleigh, Mordialloc and Carrum, switching from Labor to the coalition.

Transport Minister Terry Mulder said one in three trains on the Frankston line ran late under Labor as at June 2010.

Over the past year, punctuality had jumped to 91 per cent, he said.

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Pakistan officials visit hurt prisoner

PAKISTANI embassy officials have visited a hospital in north India where a Pakistani prisoner is in critical condition in the intensive care unit after being attacked by an Indian inmate.

Convicted murderer Sanaullah Ranjay suffered multiple head injuries in a prison in Jammu in an apparent tit-for-tat attack after an Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, was fatally assaulted in Pakistan.

On Friday, Ranjay was airlifted to a government hospital in the city of Chandigarh, 250km north of New Delhi.

A spokeswoman for the government hospital said Ranjay was in the intensive care unit and on a ventilator as his condition "continues to remain critical".

The Pakistani High Commission (embassy) officials "came to the hospital and we have given them Ranjay's medical update", added Manju Wadwalkar, the spokeswoman of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Hospital.

Ranjay, who hails from the city of Sialkot in Pakistan, was attacked by a prisoner who was identified as a former Indian army soldier nearly 24 hours after Singh's death in Lahore.

Singh died on Thursday in Pakistan and was cremated with state honours on Friday in his native village in northwestern India where hundreds of protesters shouted "Down with Pakistan!" as they gathered to pay their tributes.

Singh had been on death row after being convicted by a Pakistani court 16 years earlier for espionage and for his alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Pakistan that killed 14 people in 1990.

His family insisted he was a farmer who became a victim of mistaken identity after inadvertently straying across the border while drunk. India's government also denied he was a spy.

The prison violence could aggravate tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, whose relations were hit by a border flare-up earlier this year that undermined efforts to build trust.

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Orthodox Christians mark 'Holy Fire' rite

THRONGS of Orthodox Christians have filled Jerusalem's ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre and surrounding streets for the "Holy Fire" ceremony on the eve of Orthodox Easter.

Believers hold that a divine fire from heaven ignites candles held by the Greek Orthodox patriarch, in an annual rite dating back to the 4th century AD symbolising the resurrection of Christ.

Israeli police deployed in large numbers to secure an estimated 10,000 faithful packed into the church, with a similar number in the streets around the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

The event, the highlight of the Eastern Christian calendar, was attended by pilgrims from around the world - predominantly Eastern Europe - as well as Arab Israelis, all carrying unlit candles.

Greek Patriarch Theophilos III made his traditional grand entry on Saturday at the head of a procession of monks, chanters and dignitaries with red and gold banners bearing icons.

After circling the shrine in the heart of the church three times, he entered along with the Armenian Patriarch what Orthodox, Roman Catholics and many other Christians believe is Jesus's burial site, emerging minutes later with a lit candle.

The holy flame was swiftly passed from candle to candle between ecstatic believers, most of whom had waited for several hours for the ceremony which filled the air with light and smoke.

While the Church of the Sepulchre is one of Christianity's holiest sites, it is shared uneasily by six denominations - the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Armenian Orthodox, Egyptian Copts, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox.

Roman Catholics in Jerusalem and Bethlehem celebrated Easter on March 31, according to the Gregorian calendar.

But this year other Catholics in the Holy Land, including those from Nazareth, decided for the first time to mark Easter this Sunday under the Orthodox calendar, in an act of ecumenical unity.

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