Turnbull criticises Sydney Harbour helipad

MALCOLM Turnbull has criticised NSW government plans to allow a helicopter barge in Sydney Harbour, tweeting that he is concerned for people's safety.

In a series of tweets, the federal member for Wentworth said he was told the decision to approve the helicopter service from a barge in Sydney Harbour was made by the Roads and Maritime Services "without consulting the premier or cabinet or community.

"Frankly what troubles me most is safety, summer afternoon, harbour full of boats, most with kids, noreaster......"

"And don't forget every weekend there are hundreds if not thousands of kids in skiffs sailing on Sydney Harbour," he said.

Mr Turnbull said "democracy involves government with the consent of the governed", adding that the decision was taken administratively with no consultation.

According to Newcastle Helicopters website, the company will be operating a floating heliport on Sydney Harbour.

"The Floating heliport will offer swift transfers from Mascot airport ideal for the time poor businessperson and centrally located Sydney residents, and scenic flights over Sydney Harbour convenient to tourists staying close to the CBD, and those visiting with limited schedules on cruise ships," it says on its website.

It said the helipad is a flat-top powered barge that would be positioned each day from its overnight berth (in the Pyrmont area) to one of "several designated areas".

A spokesman for Mr O'Farrell reportedly told the Sydney Morning Herald that he would not be rescinding the heliport licence and he was satisfied with how it had been approved.

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Harder to provide food aid in Syria

THE UN's World Food Program (WFP) has warned that the spiralling violence in Syria is making it increasingly difficult to distribute food in the war-torn country.

"Food needs are growing in Syria," said WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs, whose organisation distributes most of its aid in Syria through the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC).

Citing SARC figures, Byrs told reporters in Geneva that nearly 2.5 million people currently need emergency food assistance, up from the 1.5 million estimated two months ago.

Yet WFP is only able to reach 1.3 million people each month, she said, lamenting the "escalating violence", especially in the north of the country.

WFP said in a statement it had seen a sharp rise in the number of attacks on its aid trucks in recent weeks.

Since the beginning of October, the organisation said, armed groups have stolen or confiscated around 10 of its trucks.

"In many of these incidents, WFP was able to recover the food after negotiations through third parties, but truck drivers have become more reluctant to drive on some roads or deliver food assistance to risky areas," it explained.

Fuel shortages have also impacted WFP's ability to distribute aid, it said, adding that there were not enough humanitarian partners on the ground to help deliver the aid.

The WFP appeal came after UN aid chief Valerie Amos at the weekend asked the Syrian government to allow 10 additional aid organisations into the country to help the increasingly desperate population.

People on the ground are going hungry, Byrs added, saying there was a "bread crisis" because fuel shortages had forced bakeries to close.

The UN, which is set to issue an appeal for funds to finance all of its aid work in Syria in 2013, estimates that around four million Syrians are in need of humanitarian aid.

WFP meanwhile said it aimed to help 1.5 million people by the end of this month, but stressed that if it was going to continue providing food to so many people it would need another $US132 million ($A125.67 million).

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Gunmen kill 5 polio workers in Pakistan

GUNMEN have shot dead five women working on UN-backed polio vaccination efforts in two different Pakistani cities, officials say, a major setback for a campaign that international health officials consider vital to contain the crippling disease but which Taliban insurgents say is a cover for espionage.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio is endemic. Militants however accuse health workers of acting as spies for the US and claim the vaccine makes children sterile. Taliban commanders in the troubled northwest tribal region have also said vaccinations can't go forward until the US stops drone strikes in the country.

Insurgent opposition to the campaign grew last year after it was revealed that a Pakistani doctor ran a fake vaccination program to help the CIA track down al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was hiding in the town of Abbottabad in the country's northwest.

The Taliban have targeted previous anti-polio campaigns, but this has been a particularly deadly week. The government is in the middle of a three-day vaccination drive targeting high risk areas of the country as part of an effort to immunise millions of children under the age of five.

The women who were killed on Tuesday - three of whom were teenagers - were all shot in the head at close range. Four of them were gunned down in the southern port city of Karachi, and the fifth in a village outside the northwest city of Peshawar. Two men who were working alongside the women were also critically wounded in Karachi.

The attacks in Karachi were well-coordinated and occurred within 15 minutes in three different areas of the city that are far apart, said police spokesman Imran Shoukat. In each case, the gunmen used nine millimetre pistols. Two of the women were teenagers, aged 18 and 19, and the other two were in their 40s, he said.

Two of the women were killed while they were in a house giving children polio drops, said Shoukat. The other two were travelling between houses when they were attacked, he said.

On Monday another person working on the anti-polio campaign, a male volunteer, was gunned down in Karachi. Taliban militants also killed three soldiers in an ambush of an army convoy escorting a vaccination team in the northwest.

Officials in Karachi responded to the attacks by suspending the vaccination campaign in the city, said Sagheer Ahmed, the health minister for surrounding Sindh province. The campaign started on Monday and was supposed to run until Wednesday, he said.

Immunisation was suspended in Karachi in July as well after a local volunteer was shot to death and two UN staff were wounded.

Janbaz Afridi, a senior health official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the fifth woman was killed, said the shootings would not stop the local government from continuing its vaccination program in the province and the neighbouring tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taliban militants in the country.

"These incidents are depressing and may cause difficulties in the anti-polio drive, but people should not lose heart," said Afridi. "The government is very serious, and we are determined to eliminate polio despite all odds and difficult conditions."

Also on Tuesday, two men on a motorcycle hurled hand grenades at the main gate of an army recruiting centre in the northwestern town of Risalpur, wounding 10 people, including civilians and security personnel, said senior police official Ghulam Mohammed.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a string of assaults in recent days that illustrate the continued challenge Pakistan faces from militants despite multiple military operations against the Pakistani Taliban and their supporters.

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Funerals continue; some return to school

MOST children in Newtown have returned to school for the first time as the toll of funerals for the 26 dead continues on a grey, wet day.

The national debate on gun control sharpened as a prominent investor said it would sell shares in the company that makes the rifle thought to be used in Friday's shooting.

At least one funeral was planned for one of the 20 young students - six-year-old Jessica Rekos - as well as several wakes, including one for teacher Victoria Soto, who has been praised as a hero for sacrificing herself to save several students in one of the worst mass shootings in US history.

Security remained high, and the small, affluent Connecticut community was still on edge.

Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced it would sell its stake in major arms manufacturer Freedom Group, saying in a statement, "It is apparent that the Sandy Hook tragedy was a watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level."

And the mystery of why a smart but severely withdrawn 20-year-old, Adam Lanza, shot his mother to death in bed before rampaging through Sandy Hook Elementary, killing 20 children ages six and seven, was as deep as ever.

The first two children, including the youngest victim, were buried on Monday, the first of a long, almost unbearable procession of funerals as the rest of the country prepared for the Christmas holidays.

Classes resumed on Tuesday for Newtown schools except those at Sandy Hook, where the school will remain closed indefinitely.

"It's the right thing to do. You have to send your kids back. But at the same time I'm worried," said Dan Capodicci, whose 10-year-old daughter attends another local school. "We need to get back to normal."

Investigators say Lanza had no ties to the school he attacked, and they have found no letters or diaries that could explain why he targeted it. He forced into the school shortly after its front door locked as part of a new security measure. He wore all black and is believed to have used a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle, a civilian version of the military's M-16. Versions of the AR-15 were outlawed in the US under the 1994 assault weapons ban, but the law expired in 2004.

Debora Seifert, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said both Lanza and his mother fired at shooting ranges and visited ranges together.

At the White House on Monday, spokesman Jay Carney said curbing gun violence is a complex problem that will require a "comprehensive solution." He did not mention specific proposals to follow up on President Barack Obama's call for "meaningful action."

New York City's billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, perhaps the most outspoken advocate for gun control in US politics, again pressed Obama and Congress to toughen gun laws and tighten enforcement.

"If this doesn't do it," he asked, "what is going to?"

At least one senator, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, said on Monday that the attack has led him to rethink his opposition to the ban on assault weapons. And West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat who is an avid hunter and lifelong member of the powerful National Rifle Association, said it's time to move beyond the political rhetoric and begin an honest discussion about reasonable restrictions on guns.

In Newtown on Monday, minds were on mourning.

Two funeral homes filled for Jack Pinto and the youngest victim, Noah Pozner, who turned six just two weeks ago.

A rabbi presided at Noah's service, and in keeping with Jewish tradition, the boy was laid to rest in a simple brown wooden casket with a Star of David on it.

"I will miss your perpetual smile, the twinkle in your dark blue eyes, framed by eyelashes that would be the envy of any lady in this room," Noah's mother, Veronique Pozner, said at the service, according to remarks the family provided to The Associated Press. Both services were closed to the news media.

Noah's twin, Arielle, who was assigned to a different classroom, survived the killing frenzy.

At six-year-old Jack Pinto's Christian service, hymns rang out from inside the funeral home, where the boy lay in an open casket.

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Fresh protests in Egypt over constitution

EGYPT'S opposition has launched fresh protests in a last-minute bid to scuttle a draft constitution pushed by President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist backers ahead of a second round of voting.

Hundreds of people had already begun gathering in Cairo by late afternoon ahead of the evening rallies, AFP correspondents reported.

The biggest were set for outside the presidential palace and in the capital's iconic protest hub Tahrir Square as the opposition sought to mobilise voters against the draft charter in Saturday's second leg.

They add to weeks of street unrest that have challenged Morsi's authority.

Early this month, clashes between pro and anti-Morsi supporters killed eight people and wounded hundreds, and prompted the army to deploy troops and tanks around the palace.

The head of the military, Defence Minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, warned against the nation becoming so politically polarised.

"The divisions are affecting the economy and threaten social peace, requiring of us solidarity, renouncing differences and putting public interests first," Sissi was quoted as saying.

The opposition National Salvation Front coalition was urging Egyptians to protest against the draft constitution and denounce what it said was "rigging" in the first round of voting last weekend by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

"We do not agree with this constitution. We don't recognise the referendum as valid," said one opposition protester near the palace, Ayyoub Laouindi.

"The constitution is void, the referendum is void. Egyptians' voices have been falsified and the ballot boxes been stuffed," said another, Suzanne Esmat, a tourist guide.

The justice ministry responded to the opposition's fraud allegations by saying it was appointing judges to investigate.

Unofficial tallies showed 57 per cent of ballots counted from first-round voting in Cairo and nine other regions backed the draft charter, suggesting the text would be adopted in the second round when the other half of the country votes.

Many of Egypt's 21,000 judges also kept up their pressure on Morsi, charging that he was trying to undermine their independence.

On Monday, the State Council Judges Club grouping nearly 1000 top judges announced it would boycott supervision of the second round of voting. It joined an estimated 12,000 judges who already boycotted the first round.

And a protest by hundreds of prosecutors the same day forced the resignation of the prosecutor general, Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah, appointed less than a month ago by Morsi.

"This is undoubtedly a new crisis for Mohammed Morsi, showing that his decisions are not accepted by large sectors of the state system," a political science professor at Cairo University, Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed, told AFP.

"They might have let the president get away with it, if he had made a good choice, but the person he chose (Abdallah) acted in a way giving the impression he was breaking laws and at the beck and call of the president's party," the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Sayyed said.

Morsi's camp argues the new charter is needed to bring stability to Egypt after months of turmoil following the early 2011 revolution that toppled veteran leader Hosni Mubarak.

But the opposition is scathing of the document, which was written largely by Islamists, believing it weakens human rights protections, particularly for women, and sets the stage for a creeping advance towards Islamic sharia law.

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UK judge rules cancer boy operation

A JUDGE has ruled that a seven-year-old British boy with cancer could undergo more surgery despite his mother's opposition, which had led her to run away with her son earlier this month.

High Court judge David Bodey ruled that Neon Roberts, who has already had surgery on a brain tumour, should have another operation after hearing from doctors that he would very likely die soon without treatment.

The boy's mother Sally Roberts, 37, had refused to give her consent, telling the court: "I feel I need more expert opinion on it before proceeding."

But a doctor treating Neon said a scan showed more surgery needed to be carried out "urgently", saying there was a residual tumour left behind from the first operation. He said a second doctor agreed with his analysis.

The judge had been due to decide whether Neon should undergo radiotherapy treatment following surgery, which his mother had also opposed, but that issue was put on hold pending a ruling on the operation.

Sally Roberts has been locked in a legal dispute with her estranged husband Ben over the boy's condition and treatment, and earlier this month she went on the run with Neon in what she later said was a panicked move to protect him.

The New Zealander says she fears radiotherapy would cause her son long-term harm.

The pair were found safe after a judge ordered a search and Roberts apologised for her actions.

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Thousands of students wake up to HSC marks

UP to 73,000 students are set to go online, send a text or make a phone call, in order to find out their HSC results on Wednesday.

Students in NSW will receive their HSC results from 6am (AEDT) on Wednesday, followed by their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) on Thursday.

The NSW Board of Studies said most are expected to check their results online, while others will receive them via text or by phoning in.

It comes after more than 100 NSW high achievers celebrated taking out first place in their courses at a ceremony in Sydney on Tuesday.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said two-thirds of the award recipients were young women, with females also dominating the first course results for mathematics.

Meanwhile, parents who are having trouble coping with their kids' disappointing HSC marks can talk about it on a new telephone hotline.

The NSW government-funded line is a 24/7 telephone counselling service for parents confronted with a disappointing HSC score, or who need guidance on helping their kids deal with poor results.

"Parents and students often feel that if they haven't reached a certain benchmark, then they've failed," the service's manager, Tarja Malone said earlier this week.

"It's important that students, and parents, realise it's not the end of the world."

Parent Line can be reached 24 hours, seven days a week on 1300 1300 52.

The HSC Results Inquiry Centre (13 11 12) opens on 19 December.

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