RadioShack to close up to 1100 US stores

RADIOSHACK plans to close up to 1,100 of its underperforming stores in the US and has reported a wider loss for its fourth quarter as traffic slowed during the critical holiday season.

The stock tumbled more than 24 per cent in Tuesday premarket trading.

The store closings would leave RadioShack with more than 4,000 stores.

For the period ended December 31, the electronics retailer lost $US191.4 million ($A215.09 million), or $US1.90 per share.

That compares with a loss of $US63.3 million, or 63 UScents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, RadioShack Corp lost $US1.29 per share. Analysts expected a loss of 16 US cents per share.

Revenue declined to $US935.4 million from $US1.17 billion.

Sales at stores open at least a year fell 19 per cent on weaker traffic and the soft performance of its mobility business.

Analysts expected revenue of $US1.12 billion.

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Teacher sues over blackboard injury

A FORMER science teacher who says using a defective 1950s-style blackboard left her with debilitating injuries is suing the state for $850,000

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Rodriguez joins Melbourne Grand Prix

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Victorians decide port fate at polls

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Online shoppers favour local traders

AUSTRALIAN online shoppers are increasingly buying locally. Almost three in every four online purchases are from domestic retailers.

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Study shows HPV vaccine saves lives

AUSTRALIA'S mass HPV vaccination program is working and saving lives, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.

The population-based study shows women who are fully vaccinated are far less likely to develop cervical cancer than other women.

This is real-world proof that the program is working, says co-author Professor David Whiteman.

"We always knew the vaccine was safe and effective in the narrow, controlled environment of clinical trials. This proves its value on a broad scale."

Scientists from the University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute looked at Pap smear results of young women in Queensland and compared these to their vaccination history.

Those with high-grade abnormalities of the cervix were least likely to have been vaccinated.

The vaccine halves the risk of cervical cancer by preventing infection by two types of HPV (human papillomavirus).

However, women are still at risk from other strains and about 200 Australian women die from cervical cancer a year.

This makes regular Pap tests essential for early detection.

"All young women should be vaccinated before they become sexually active," says Prof Whiteman.

"Australia was one of the first countries to undertake mass HPV vaccination. This analysis of how well the vaccine has worked in the first four years of the program supports the decision to roll it out across the country."

The program saves lives and minimises future health expenditure, he says.

The HPV vaccine (sometimes called the cervical cancer vaccine) was developed by University of Queensland professor Ian Frazer.

It is given as three doses over six months and is provided free for girls and boys in the first year of high school.

The research is great news for Australian women, says co-author Dr Julia Brotherton, medical director of the National HPV Vaccination Program Register.

HPV is passed on through sexual contact and can cause penile, anal, cervical, vulval and vaginal cancers, as well as genital warts.

"With the program now vaccinating boys as well, Australia is leading the way in preventing HPV infection and the cancers it can cause," Dr Brotherton says.

"It is still important that women remember to go for Pap tests though, because the vaccine can't prevent all of the types of HPV."

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Medicare costs must be reined in: Dutton

HEALTH Minister Peter Dutton says the Medicare system needs to modernised to be affordable, but he won't say if GP co-payments will be part of the mix.

The Consumers Health Forum on Tuesday reignited debate on GP co-payments, when it released research showing that not only would they hit the needy, but they would fail to provide any overall budget savings.

Co-payments of up to $6 have been flagged as one way to tackle health spending as the government grapples with the budget deficit.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has downplayed the likelihood of a co-payment being introduced, saying he wants the government to be "the best friend that Medicare has ever had".

Mr Dutton, who has called for a debate on whether the well-off should contribute more to their health care, said arguments for and against co-payments would be considered by the government's commission of audit.

"That's with the commission of audit at the moment - we'll consider those recommendations in relation to this portfolio," Mr Dutton told reporters in Canberra.

But he said if the coalition wants to be Medicare's best friend, it needed to modernise the decades-old system.

"If we want to be the best friend that Medicare can have ... then we have to recognise it was a 1980s model, and we need to modernise it and strengthen it," he said.

"Because there are costs and threats coming down the line with an ageing population that can't be paid otherwise."

The Consumers Health Forum says co-payments could be counter-productive in reducing health costs, because people would delay seeking treatment and end up in hospital emergency departments.

Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King said the introduction of GP co-payments would spell the end of universal health care.

"This will lead to a two-tier health system that looks much more like an American system than the one of universal care Australia has known for the past 30 years," she said in a statement.

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Hospitals could be $1b more efficient

EDS: Not for use before 2000 (AEDT), Tuesday, March 4.

CANBERRA, March 4 AAP - Almost $1 billion could be saved each year if public hospitals were forced to be more efficient with their spending, a think tank says.

The Grattan Institute says an efficient price for hospital services should be set by state governments to remove what it says is about $928 million in "avoidable" spending annually.

The institute's health director, Stephen Duckett, called for administrators to be held more accountable for spending, saying the current funding for the average cost of care rewarded inefficiency.

The institute's report, Controlling Costly Care, says there is a gulf between so-called high- and low-cost hospitals. The gap between the most and least expensive is as high as $2500 an admission in some states.

Dr Duckett said a new efficient average price should be set and linked to hospital funding.

The new benchmark would take account of unavoidable costs, which could be because patients were older or coming from remote areas.

However, it would also remove inefficient spending on items such as supplies, or on patients waiting or staying too long in a hospital bed.

"What we're asking states to do is to be tighter in the way they set their prices at public hospitals," Dr Duckett told AAP.

"There are a range of reasons for why hospital costs vary, and what we're saying is that these all need to be under control."

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AEC assurances sought ahead of WA poll

FEDERAL parliament will seek assurances from the Australian Electoral Commission ahead of Western Australia's Senate poll re-run.

A joint parliamentary committee hearing in Canberra on Wednesday will continue its investigation into the AEC's loss of 1370 ballot papers in the west after the September federal election, which has sparked a subsequent poll.

Former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty, who led an AEC inquiry into the matter, will appear before the committee, where the commission will also be asked to confirm that his recommendations have been implemented.

The recommendations focus on parcelling, labelling, transporting and storage of ballot papers.

The AEC says it has already implemented the key suggestions from Mr Keelty.

Elsewhere in Canberra's political sphere, debate about legislative changes to the Qantas Sales Act is expected to dominate proceedings.

The government faces opposition from Labor and the Australian Greens to its plans to allow greater foreign ownership of the airline's domestic arm.

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Economic growth getting a little faster

AUSTRALIA'S economic growth is expected to have strengthened a little at the end of 2013, getting a boost from a lift in mining and resource exports.

December quarter gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to have grown by 0.7 per cent, for an annual rate of 2.5 per cent, according to an AAP survey of 12 economists.

In the September quarter, GDP growth was 0.6 per cent, and 2.3 per cent in the year to September.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release National Accounts figures on Wednesday.

JP Morgan Australia chief economist Stephen Walters said mining and resources exports took over from mining and resources investment as the main driver for economic growth in 2013.

"There was a substantial shift in Australia's growth drivers in 2013, with the decade-long dependence on resource investment giving way to an inflated reliance on real net trade," he said.

"The upshot from fading resources investment is that output from the associated projects is starting to come online, particularly in the iron ore and coal sectors, with a further lift in liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity expected further down the line.

"In 2013, iron ore, coal, and LNG comprised more than half of Australia's total export basket, with this share set to swell in coming years."

Commonwealth Bank chief economist Michael Blythe said Australia continued to post solid economic growth but it was still below its long-term average.

"This outcome is not unexpected," he said.

"But some perspective is needed here.

"Even at a sub-trend pace, the Australian economy has just clocked up 22 years of continuous economic growth.

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