Australia stuck below 3 pct growth: IMF

The International Monetary Fund have urged Treasurer Joe Hockey not to go too hard in his budget. Source: AAP

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sent Treasurer Joe Hockey a timely reminder not to go too hard in his first budget.

In its latest regional report, the IMF continues to expect the Australian economy will struggle to grow at a pace to relieve pressure on the unemployment rate, which stands close to a decade high of just under six per cent.

Since October last year, the Washington-based institution has downgraded its Australian growth forecast to 2.6 per cent in 2014 and 2.7 per cent in 2015.

It had previously expected growth of 2.8 and 2.9 per cent, respectively.

"Australia's economy is likely to grow below trend as the investment phase of the mining boom passes its peak and begins to decline," the IMF said in its Regional Economic Outlook for Asia and the Pacific released in Hong Kong on Monday.

The economy needs to grow above three per cent a year to keep unemployment in check.

Mr Hockey previously has promised his May 13 budget won't hinder tentative signs of economic recovery, suggesting spending cuts will occur in the outer years of what he has described as a 10-year plan.

In contrast, the IMF has upgraded its New Zealand growth forecasts in the past six months as its post-earthquake reconstruction gathers steam, along with strengthening domestic demand and exports.

It expects the NZ economy to grow at 3.3 per cent in 2014 and three per cent in 2015, up from respective forecasts of three per cent and 2.4 per cent previously.

More broadly, the IMF says Asia should experience robust growth throughout 2014 and 2015, and be among the global growth leaders.

The region should benefit from improved prospects among the world's advanced economies, while facing both new and old risks.

These include geopolitical uncertainty over Ukraine, the exit from unconventional monetary policy in the US - otherwise known as tapering - and the impact of a low inflation environment in the euro area.

"Growth in China and Japan could also fall below expectations, with negative spillovers from the rest of the region," it said.

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WA senate result expected Tuesday

THE results of the West Australian Senate re-run election are about to be announced.

WA Australian electoral officer Kathy Mitchell says she has advised candidates that distribution of preferences to decide the six WA Senate places would start on Tuesday and they could appoint scrutineers to observe the process.

Following the preference distribution, the Australian Electoral Commission will release a national media statement announcing the outcome. That is expected any time after 4.30pm (AEST).

It will also outline arrangements for formal declaration of the WA Senate poll.

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Hospital attack kills 22 in C Africa

BANGUI, Central African Republic, April 28 AFP - At least 22 people including three staff members of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres have been killed during an attack by gunmen on a Central African hospital, in the latest atrocity to hit the violence-plagued country.

The brutal attack in the northwest was blamed on the mostly Muslim rebels known as the Seleka, whose coup in March last year unleashed a vicious cycle of sectarian violence.

"Armed men from the ex-Seleka and of Fula ethnicity on Saturday afternoon attacked a hospital supported by MSF in the region of Nanga Boguila, killing at least 22 people, including three Central African employees of MSF and leaving a dozen wounded," an officer from the African-led MISCA peacekeeping force told AFP on Monday.

MSF confirmed the death of its three employees, without giving further details.

The gunmen had stormed into the building as local representatives and MSF employees held a meeting, the MISCA officer said.

"The assailants first opened fire at a group of people, gunning down four of them. Then they went to the hospital where they killed 15 other people and three members of MSF.

"They took computers and several other assets, breaking down doors probably in search for cash," added the officer.

The Seleka rebels were ordered to disarm by their leader Michel Djotodia several months after they installed him in power in a coup. But some ignored orders and went on a killing, raping and pillaging rampage.

Mostly Christian communities then formed "anti-balaka" vigilante forces to wreak revenge against Muslims, usually targeting innocent people.

Djotodia resigned in January after failing to quell the violence that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced a quarter of the country's 4.6 million population. And today, extremists of the Seleka alliance actively encourage de facto partition.

African and French peacekeepers, backed up recently by an EU force, have been struggling to curb the fighting ripping the country apart.

"It is a region that is not completely secured because our forces (are not large enough) to be deployed in other sites than the main cities like Bossangoa," said the MISCA officer, referring to a city about 100 kilometres from the scene of the MSF attack.

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Tornadoes kill at least 17 in US

Officials say a tornado has killed at least two people and destroyed buildings in Oklahoma. Source: AAP

POWERFUL tornadoes have killed at least 17 people as they flipped cars, ripped up homes and uprooted trees across the south-central United States, emergency officials have reported.

"It's chaos right now," the mayor of the Arkansas town of Vilonia, James Firestone, told CNN late on Sunday emergency crews used searchlights to comb through the debris in some of the hardest-hit areas.

The central part of the town of 4000 "seems like it's completely levelled. There's a few buildings partially standing, gas lines spewing. Fire lines down. We've had some casualties."

The twisters tore through the region on Sunday and continued overnight into Monday. They are forecast to threaten much of the region throughout Tuesday.

Firestone said that police and firefighters from nearby cities as well as National Guard troops were heading to Vilonia.

Twisters also devastated large sections of the town of Mayflower, population 2300, just northwest of the Arkansas state capital Little Rock.

Pictures of tornado damage posted by Arkansas TV station THV 11 showed smashed cars, homes ripped in half and whole residential blocks reduced to rubble.

Officials said that parts of Interstate 40, a major east-west highway across the United States, was closed due to debris and overturned vehicles in the Mayflower area.

Two regional utility companies, Entergy and First Electric Cooperative, said that more than 15,000 customers were in the dark.

"It's been a truly awful night for many families, neighbourhoods and communities but Arkansans always step up to help each other recover," Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe wrote on Twitter.

The full impact of the storm and its toll will likely not be known until after sunrise.

In Oklahoma, a powerful twister struck the town of Quapaw.

"There have been numerous homes and buildings damaged and some destroyed," Keli Cain of the Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency told AFP.

She cited local emergency officials as saying that a fire station was destroyed and there was damage to the northern part of the town.

Dozens of homes were also reported destroyed in nearby Kansas, though state officials have reported no fatalities.

The National Weather Service warned of a severe weather threat across the central and southern United States over the next days.

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Palmer trying to buy govt in NT: Giles

Federal MP Clive Palmer has induced three rebel Northern Territory MPs to join his political party. Source: AAP

CLIVE Palmer has been accused of buying his way into Northern Territory politics after three indigenous MPs joined his party a month after walking out on the Giles government.

The Palmer United Party (PUP) founder declared that Alison Anderson would be chief minister after the next territory election, after announcing that she, Larissa Lee and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu were now part of the Palmer party.

The three MPs quit the ruling Country Liberal Party (CLP) in early April after a rift between Ms Anderson and Chief Minister Adam Giles, saying they wanted to create their own regional political party.

On Sunday they revealed they had joined the Palmer United fold, with Ms Anderson to be the party's leader in the territory.

"We approached Clive Palmer because we believed that we could achieve better things for all Territorians with the Palmer United Party," Ms Anderson said in a statement.

"I met with Mr Palmer (on Saturday night) and in consultation we decided to join the Palmer United Party.

"We were not offered any inducements to join, we did so because we strongly believe it is the best way forward to give the people of the Northern Territory the future they deserve."

Mr Palmer said his party was in discussions with other territory parliamentarians, and expected them to join the PUP in the next few weeks.

"I think she'll (Ms Anderson) be the chief minister after the next election," Mr Palmer told ABC TV.

"That government is falling apart, it's not really got a good future."

But Mr Giles said the multi-billionaire miner was trying to "buy government" in the NT, and he was not concerned that other members of the CLP could join Mr Palmer's party.

"Clive can try and throw his money around as much as he wants but I can tell you the members of the CLP, the Country Liberals, are not for sale, the Northern Territory's not for sale," he told Sky News.

"And we won't stand ... for any of these bullyboy tactics by some rich bloke from the Gold Coast."

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman joined in the criticism of Mr Palmer, saying questions needed to be asked about what cash, jobs and financial support he had offered the three MPs.

Ms Anderson defended her defection, describing the PUP as "the new force in Australian politics".

Asked what was in Mr Palmer's deal for the three NT MPs, she said: "I think it gives us comfort, it gives us stability, it gives us a home".

"He's welcomed us, and said that 'you can come on board' with his party, and we're happy to do that," she told ABC TV.

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MERS claims two more lives in Saudi Arabia

SAUDI Arabia's Health Ministry says two more patients who contracted a potentially fatal Middle East virus related to SARS have died as the kingdom detected nine new cases of the disease.

The ministry said in a statement on its website late on Saturday that one Saudi man died in Riyadh and the other in Jiddah, bringing to 94 the number of people who have died of the disease since September 2012. The nine new cases were detected in Riyadh, Jiddah and Mecca, raising the number of cases to 323.

MERS belongs to the coronavirus family that includes the common cold and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which caused some 800 deaths globally in 2003.

There is no vaccine or treatment for MERS. It is still unclear how it is transmitted.

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Search zone for MH370 broadened

The search zone for MH370 has been expanded after an underwater drone found nothing of interest. Source: AAP

THE search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight has been expanded after the Bluefin-21 underwater drone found no trace of the passenger jet.

The automated underwater vehicle (AUV) has completed sidescan sonar work in a narrowed-down circular zone 10km in radius, 1584km north west of Perth, which centred on an acoustic ping detected on April 8.

Other man-made acoustic signals were picked up in the vicinity on April 5.

Now on its 15th mission, the Bluefin-21 is combing adjacent areas, the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said in a statement on Sunday.

Due to deteriorating weather conditions, the air and surface search for floating debris has been suspended for the day.

On Friday, the AUV was forced to resurface after a software issue that required re-setting.

Last week, Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said more sophisticated and expensive technology would be needed if the Bluefin-21 came up with nothing.

The next phase of the search would require probably submersibles that would be very, very expensive and probably more Bluefin-21s, he said. MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 with 239 people on board.

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Chloe and Kelly through to MKR grand final

TRASH talking travellers Chloe and Kelly are through to the My Kitchen Rules grand final after rolling the show's good guys Paul Bullpitt and Blair Tonkin.

Bullpitt and Tonkin made up one of the more polite and level-headed teams on the Seven Network series but the pair fell short in Sunday night's semi-final.

Chloe and Kelly, who have boasted about travelling to 40 different countries, won the semi-final with 47 points to 46.

They'll now meet the winner of Monday night's second semi, between SA mum Jessica and Bree and Melbourne twins Helena and Vikki, in Tuesday's grand final.

The winner of the series receives $250,000.

Tonkin and Bullpitt are Gold Coast school teachers and made a pact not to get embroiled in any controversy or sledge their opponents.

Tonkin said it's not their style to bait people or be nasty and says he was surprised the way some teams approached the competition.

Bullpitt said their My Kitchen Rules appearance has been a vehicle to drive positive conversations about food among the students.

Some school children have asked to have recipes from the show printed out while others have brought food to school that was inspired by the cooking series.

"It's basically given me an opportunity to talk to kids about something different like food and it was only two weeks ago I had 10 kids asking me to print recipes out," Bullpitt said.

"It's a really good avenue to open up conversations about healthier types of food."

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No tsunami risk from Tongan quake

A 6.3-MAGNITUDE earthquake has struck off the coast of the Pacific Island nation of Tonga but experts say there is no threat of a tsunami.

The quake reportedly struck in waters northeast of the Tongan capital, Nuku'alofa, at about 7pm local time (1600 AEST) on Saturday.

Geoscience Australia reports the impact could have been felt by people more than 600-kilometres away.

Seismologist Marco Maldoni said residents of the island nation would definitely felt shaking after the movement of tectonic plates and that that part of the world was prone to earthquakes.

"That earthquake itself happened where the Australian plate meets the Pacific plate," Dr Maldoni told AAP on Saturday.

"Thankfully this is a non-tsunamigenic earthquake - something that can potentially generate a tsunami."

Dr Maldoni said that in the past five years there had been about 200 earthquakes within that area, with another one occurring near Tonga at a magnitude of 6.2 as recently as Friday.

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Hard line on boats paying off: Morrison

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the government's tough stance on asylum seekers is working. Source: AAP

NO people-smuggling venture had succeeded in landing asylum seekers on Australia for more than four months, the government says.

In the latest update on Operation Sovereign Borders, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday that vigorous border protection activities was deterring illegal boat arrivals, even into the post-monsoon period when weather conditions usually improve.

Mr Morrison said the practice of turning back unauthorised boats remained in effect.

"Anyone seeking to enter Australia illegally by boat will be faced with the same policies those who previously attempted illegal entry met," he said in a statement.

Mr Morrison said no one had reached Australia since December 19 and that continued this month. But 3351 on 47 boats arrived in April 2013 under the former Labor government.

The latest Operation Sovereign Borders operational update says there are now 1281 in the processing centre on Manus Island and 1177 on Nauru, making a total of 2458.

Another 1405 remain on Christmas Island. During the last week, eight asylum seekers were transferred to Nauru.

Seven unauthorised maritime arrival transferees were voluntarily returned to Iran.

Since Operation Sovereign Borders started on September 18, 220 asylum seekers have voluntarily returned to their home countries.

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