Vic Speaker Ken Smith's future unknown

Ken Smith will remain Speaker when Victoria's Parliament resumes, but his future is unknown. Source: AAP

EMBATTLED Speaker Ken Smith will be in the chair when the Victorian parliament resumes on Tuesday, but it remains to be seen what will happen beyond then.

Mr Smith has been under pressure since falling out of favour with rebel MP Geoff Shaw and last month he announced he will retire at the November 29 state election.

Mr Smith says he will continue in the role when parliament resumes on Tuesday after the summer break, but he has not shed any light on whether he will remain in the chair for the rest of the year.

Premier Denis Napthine has been silent on the issue.

"I'll be in the chair at 2pm next Tuesday afternoon at Parliament House," Mr Smith told AAP on Thursday.

But when asked if he would be in the chair after that, Mr Smith replied: "That remains to be spoken about on Tuesday".

Mr Smith has slammed the behaviour of balance-of-power MP Geoff Shaw, who announced to the parliament in November that he no longer had confidence in the Speaker.

The decision meant the Speaker no longer enjoyed majority support in the house.

It sparked chaotic scenes in the parliament, with the Labor opposition seizing on Mr Shaw's announcement and continually trying to force a vote of no confidence in Mr Smith.

The development caused Mr Smith to suspend parliament and stalled the passing of legislation.

When parliament resumed, Mr Smith suspended two Labor MPs for the remainder of the year for poor behaviour.

Mr Smith says he expects neither Mr Shaw nor Labor will change their behaviour in 2014.

But Labor Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews says Mr Smith should quit because he no longer enjoys majority support.

Labor is prepared to back deputy speaker, Liberal Christine Fyffe, for the job, arguing she would be able to command a majority on the floor of the lower house.

Premier Denis Napthine has said whether Mr Smith remains Speaker is a decision for him.

"I support him as Speaker," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"We'll be looking at those issues and those issues will be decided in the future."

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Total fire ban declared for parts of Vic

A total fire ban has been declared for parts of Victoria as temperatures soar to the mid-40s. Source: AAP

A TOTAL fire ban has been declared for parts of Victoria as temperatures soar to the mid-40s.

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) has declared the ban on Sunday for the central, north central and south west districts.

The CFA is also advising people living in areas at risk of fire to activate their bushfire plans.

A number of advice warnings are in place for fires across the state, with the most concerning being a large bushfire in the Gippsland region of Goongerah.

A watch and act message has been issued for the fast-travelling blaze, which is not yet under control.

The CFA warns it could hit the area between Bonang and Goongerah on Sunday.

Temperatures are forecast to reach 45C in the Mallee region in the state's northwest on Sunday, while temperatures will hit 44C in the Wimmera and 43C in the northern country and north central regions.

Melbourne is forecast to reach 39C.

Temperatures in parts of the state are expected to remain into the 40s on Monday before cooling into the 30s on Tuesday.

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Driver wrecks BMW i8 supercar prototype

A test driver has written off a prototype of BMW's upcoming i8 hybrid supercar in Germany. Source: AAP

A TEST driver has written off a prototype of BMW's upcoming i8 hybrid supercar after skidding off a greasy trunk road near the Bavarian town of Freising.

"He was going a little bit too fast," police spokesman Nikolaus Bischof told Germany's Autobild gazette.

The 30-year-old pilot was not breaking the limit, but the speed at which he was travelling was "not appropriate considering the wet road conditions."

The test driver lost control of the exclusive petrol-electric sports car which crashed into a metal barrier and spun around to face traffic on the wrong side of the road.

The man escaped injury and was able to clamber out of one of the car's distinctive up-and-over gull-wing doors.

BMW spokesman Wieland Buech declined to put a figure on the value of the written-off car. The much-vaunted i8 is being launched as a rival to high-end Porsche and Ferrari models.

The high-performance car goes on sale with prices starting at 126,000 euros ($A195,865.07). The testbed vehicle was worth more, owing to sophisticated measuring equipment on board.

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Woman dead after three-car crash in Qld

A 54-YEAR-OLD woman is dead and another woman is in a critical condition after a three-car crash near the border of Queensland and NSW.

At about 3.15pm (AEDT) on Saturday, two cars had a head-on collision on the New England Highway, in Stanthorpe in southern Queensland.

Police say a third car also hit the vehicles.

A 54-year-old NSW woman, who was involved in the first crash, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Another passenger from the same car, a 20-year-old NSW woman, was airlifted to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital in a critical condition.

A 25-year-old NSW woman, who was driving the car in which the woman died, was taken to Toowoomba Hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

Police say the driver of the other car in the first collision, a 37-year-old Surfers Paradise woman, was "uninjured" and is assisting officers with their inquiries.

All three occupants of the third vehicle weren't hurt in the crash.

The highway has been reopened after being closed for several hours.

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UN calls for detained Greste's release

The government has learned journalist Peter Greste is being held in Egypt for "airing false news". Source: AAP

THE United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for the release of foreign journalists, including Australian Peter Greste, detained in Egypt.

Mr Greste, 48, and two al-Jazeera English network colleagues were arrested at a Cairo hotel on December 29 on suspicion of broadcasting false news in the service of the black-listed Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian prosecutors have since referred to trial 20 al-Jazeera journalists, including Mr Greste, for airing false news.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville says the move, based on "vague charges", was of great concern.

In a statement delivered in Geneva on Friday night, Mr Colville said the prosecutors' announcement had increased fears among the general media.

"We urge the Egyptian authorities to promptly release all journalists imprisoned for carrying out legitimate news reporting activities in exercise of their fundamental human rights."

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has spoken with her Egyptian counterpart Nabil Fahmy to express her concerns about the charges, but warns there is only so much the Australian government can do.

"Clearly, it is not possible for another nation to interfere in the criminal proceedings of another country," she told ABC Radio on Friday.

Ms Bishop said Mr Fahmy had offered some assurances about Mr Greste's situation.

"He did give us an assurance that as far as he was concerned, the case would be dealt with expeditiously and fairly," she said.

"We will continue to press our position that he should be given conditional release while we consider what more we can do to seek his release overall."

Australia's ambassador to Egypt Ralph King on Thursday night was briefed by the country's prosecutor-general about the nature of the charges facing the journalist.

That information was passed on to Mr Greste's Brisbane-based parents, who have described their son's detention as the most harrowing incident of their life.

From his solitary confinement Greste penned a letter to his parents.

"I've been caught in the middle of a political struggle that is not my own," the reporter wrote.

"The state will not tolerate hearing from the Muslim Brotherhood or any other critical voices."

Greste, usually East Africa correspondent for the global network, was due to work in Egypt for only a short time, relieving a colleague.

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Kings Cross cops brace for curfew

Police are bracing for a surge in dealing with partygoers when the mooted Sydney curfews kick in. Source: AAP

WITH up to 20,000 revellers expected to spill onto Kings Cross streets at the same time every Friday and Saturday night under proposed curfews, police are bracing for a surge in dealing with intoxicated partygoers.

The mandatory eight-year jail term for a one-punch attack resulting in death by an intoxicated person comes into effect this weekend.

Further measures, such as the 1.30am lock outs and 3am last drinks, are expected to be passed through parliament next month and in effect by April at the latest.

Kings Cross Superintendent Michael Fitzgerald expected the numbers of punters put into sobering-up centres to rise in the red light district once the curfews are in place.

"I would be very surprised if it did not increase just because of the issues with more people being on the streets between 3am and 3.30am," he said.

He said police will have to adjust to dealing with larger crowds but officers are up to the job.

Kings Cross was the site of the two prominent fatal one-punch assaults that lead to the reforms by the state coalition government.

The peak trouble time for police in the nightclub district is between 4am and 6am, just after the planned shutting of doors at 3am.

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UK police seek new McCann search

UK police are investigating three ex-employees of the resort where Madeleine McCann went missing. Source: AAP

BRITISH police searching for missing Madeleine McCann want their Portuguese counterparts to search the homes and examine the bank accounts of three former employees of the resort where she vanished, according to a media report.

Detectives from both countries are running their own investigations and a team from Scotland Yard made the request during meetings with Policia Judiciaria after flying to Portugal this week.

Police are keen to investigate the trio, who are believed to have been working at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz where the McCanns were staying in 2007, the Daily Mirror reports.

Officers reportedly believe they were behind a spate of burglaries in the weeks before three-year-old Madeleine disappeared.

Nelson Rodrigues, a barman at the Ocean Club at the time, told the Mirror a wide range of staff would have had access to rooms.

"There were quite a few staff who had access to keys," he said.

"Reception staff, the cleaners, and the maintenance men could all get into rooms. Waiters and barmen did not have access to keys.

"I remember at the time things belonging to guests went missing now and then. Mobile phones, cash, anything valuable lying around."

Police from both countries met in Faro after Scotland Yard sent an international letter of request linked to its own inquiry.

The Met said it has not yet made any arrests and that officers have visited Portugal a number of times in the past 18 months.

British detectives launched a fresh investigation into the youngster's disappearance last July - two years into a review of the case - and made renewed appeals on television in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.

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YMCA still has child safety issue

One year after Jonathan Lord was jailed, the childcare centre where he worked was still not safe. Source: AAP

A YMCA childcare centre in south Sydney was still not meeting child-protection standards more than a year after revelations a pedophile worked there unchecked.

In January last year Jonathan Lord, a YMCA NSW employee, was sentenced to 10 years in jail with a six-year non-parole period for offences against 12 boys at the centre in Caringbah.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told at a brief hearing on Friday that the NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC) inspected the centre in November and wrote to the YMCA in December saying some staff there still did not know current child protection law or how to apply it.

The DEC letters were submitted to the commission on Friday and can be viewed under exhibits case study 2 at: www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

The level of staff training at the Caringbah centre was an issue during the commission's public hearing into the Lord case in October.

In December Gail Furness, counsel advising the commission, recommended it find that YMCA NSW was not a child-safe organisation and was unlikely to be under current senior management.

DEC manager David Walsh in one letter said he would be reassessing whether the YMCA NSW continued to be fit to be involved in the provision of education and care services.

"I am not confident the YMCA NSW is a child-safe organisation," he said in another letter.

The YMCA said in a statement it had been working closely with DEC throughout the hearing and would continue to do so to meet the conditions.

"We are committed to learning from the Jonathan Lord incident and doing all that we can to keep children safe."

The ABC reports that the commission also heard the NSW government was proposing to cancel the supervisor's licence of Jacqui Barnat who was the children's services co-ordinator at the YMCA Caringbah when Lord began work there.

Ms Furness recommended that Ms Barnat be referred to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions for giving false and misleading evidence to the inquiry.

She has a fortnight to show why this should not be done.

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Study to examine ABC and SBS costs

THE Abbott government has announced a review into the efficiency of Australia's two national broadcasters.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has recruited Peter Lewis, a former chief financial officer at Seven West Media, to conduct a study into the ABC and SBS.

"It is a routine responsibility of the minister to ensure that the ABC and SBS use public resources as efficiently as possible," he said in a statement on Thursday.

The decision follows Prime Minister Tony Abbott's earlier criticism of the ABC in which he accused it of acting against the national interest and lacking "basic affection for the home team".

The study will examine costs for the day-to-day operations of programs, products and services and find savings.

The editorial and programming decisions of the broadcasters will be safeguarded from the study which is being undertaken with their full cooperation.

Mr Lewis will report back to the minister in April.

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North Qld Cyclone Dylan intensifies

North Queenslanders are bracing for Cyclone Dylan which is tipped to cross the coach early Friday. Source: AAP

A TROPICAL cyclone barrelling towards north Queensland has been upgraded to a category two cyclone.

Cyclone Dylan is expected to cross the coast further south than originally expected, near Ayr or possibly Bowen, in the early hours of Friday morning, just hours before a king tide is forecast to hit.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) upgraded the severe storm to a category two cyclone on Thursday night.

Whitsunday Mayor Jenny Whitney said the council is now urging people in low-lying areas to evacuate before the king tide on Friday morning.

Those in low-lying areas in Bowen - about 1700 properties - should evacuate before 9am (AEST) and homes that could be flooded in Airlie Beach - about 900 properties - should evacuate before 6am.

Evacuation centres have been opened in both areas.

The cyclone was about 185 kilometres northeast of Townsville and 225km north of Proserpine at 7pm on Friday, the BOM says.

It's moving at 12km/h towards the coast and may bring dangerous storm tides, heavy rain, flash flooding and storm gusts of up to 150km/h.

Gales and torrential rain are battering areas from Cardwell to St Lawrence and winds are expected to intensify between Lucinda and St Lawrence on Thursday night and Friday morning.

Heavy rain, which may lead to flash flooding, is expected from Herbert and Lower Burdekin and the Central Coast and Whitsunday Districts.

Coastal residents between Lucinda and St Lawrence, including Townsville are being warned of a dangerous storm tide, particularly Friday morning.

"The sea is likely to rise steadily up to a level well above the normal tide, with damaging waves and flooding of some low-lying areas close to the shoreline," the weather bureau said in a statement.

A separate severe weather warning is in place for coastal and island communities from Cooktown to Cardwell and from St Lawrence to Gladstone.

North Queenslanders spent Thursday bracing for the cyclone.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman says while flooding is a "big threat", north Queenslanders have faced far worse disasters.

"I know people in the far north have dealt with bigger and far more serious events than this," he told media after being briefed on the cyclone in Townsville.

"But I'm here in solidarity with the people of the north."

Mr Newman says affected residents needing to travel should do so well before the cyclone makes landfall or wait it out.

Torrential rain and gales are battering coastal communities from Townsville to Mackay on Thursday night.

Low-lying areas in Townsville, Cairns, Bowen, Airlie Beach and Mackay have all been flooded and roads in Bowen have been damaged.

Townsville and Bowen ports have been closed and boats travelling to and from Palm Island, Magnetic Island and The Whitsundays have been moored.

Education Queensland has advised Hayman Island State School and TAFE campuses in Mackay, Ooralea, Burdekin, Bowen and Cannonvale will be closed on Friday.

The approaching cyclone has also disrupted flights out of Whitsunday and Townsville, while the Mackay Airport will be closed until at least midday on Friday.

Residents have been stocking up on supermarket supplies and some stores have run out of sandbags.

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