US charges Snowden with espionage: reports

US officials have asked Hong Kong authorities to detain Edward Snowden, a US newspaper reports. Source: AAP

US authorities have filed espionage charges against rogue intelligence technician Edward Snowden and asked Hong Kong to detain him, a US official says.

Confirming a report in the Washington Post, the official said a sealed criminal complaint has been lodged with a federal court in the US state of Virginia and a provisional arrest warrant has been issued.

Snowden was charged with espionage, theft and "conversion of government property".

A report on NBC News said he was accused of sharing classified documents with individuals who were not cleared to received them.

The one-page criminal complaint was filed under seal on June 14 in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, and made public on Friday evening by government officials.

An accompanying affidavit in support of the charges, prepared and signed by FBI Special Agent John A Kralik Jr, remained under seal.

The criminal complaint said Snowden engaged in unauthorised communication of national defence information, wilful communication of classified communications intelligence information - both charges under the Espionage Act - and the theft of government property.

All three crimes carry a maximum 10-year prison penalty.

The 30-year-old technician fled Hawaii on May 20 and flew to Hong Kong, an autonomous Chinese territory, from where he proceeded to leak details of secret US intelligence programs to international media outlets.

The leaks embarrassed US President Barack Obama's administration, which was forced to defend US intelligence agencies' practice of gathering huge amounts of telephone and internet data from private users around the world.

Following reports of the sealed complaint, all eyes will turn to Hong Kong and Beijing to see whether China will agree to help the United States by complying with the provisional warrant and holding Snowden.

Hong Kong is a semi-autonomous territory with its own legal system and a provision for granting political asylum, but it is subordinate to China in foreign policy matters and has an extradition treaty with the US.

A US government official, speaking anonymously because the case is still under investigation, told McClatchy newspapers that officials hope the charges will be enough to satisfy authorities in Hong Kong to begin the extradition process.

That process could become bogged down if Snowden fights extradition and argues that he is being singled out and prosecuted for political reasons.

The official added that a more formal, federal grand jury indictment against Snowden likely will follow later in the northern summer.

"We're just getting under way," the US official said.

The US and Hong Kong have a standing agreement on the surrender of fugitives.

However, Snowden's appeal rights could drag out any extradition proceeding.

The success or failure of any extradition proceeding depends on what the suspect is charged with under US law and how it corresponds to Hong Kong law under the treaty.

In order for Hong Kong officials to honour the extradition request, they have to have some applicable statute under their law that corresponds with a violation of US law.

Snowden has told Britain's Guardian newspaper that he might seek asylum in Iceland, which has strong internet freedom laws, but he is thought to still be in Hong Kong and might now find it difficult to travel.

Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Justice Department move confirmed his view that the leak was "a treasonous act".

"I hope Hong Kong's government will take him into custody and extradite him to the US," Nelson said.

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Female cyclist dies in Townsville crash

A TRUCK has ploughed into four cyclists, killing one in the north Queensland city of Townsville.

Police say the truck crashed into the cyclists when trying to overtake them on Shaw Road on Saturday morning.

The cyclists, a 62-year-old man and three women aged 58, 59 and 60, were taken to the Townsville Hospital.

The 58-year-old woman later died while her friends have non life-threatening injuries.

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Singapore haze hits critical 400 level

SINGAPORE'S smog index has hit the critical 400 level, making it potentially life-threatening to the ill and elderly people, according to a government monitoring site.

The level was reached at 11am (1300 AEST) on Friday, after a rapid rise in the Pollutant Standards Index, which measures the haze crisis caused by Indonesian forest fires.

Indonesian and Singaporean officials have been holding emergency talks on how to extinguish the fires on farms and plantations on Sumatra island, which are also affecting Malaysia.

According to Singapore government guidelines, sustained PSI average levels above 400 on a 24-hour basis "may be life-threatening to ill and elderly persons".

General practitioner Philip Koh said he had seen a 20 per cent spike in consultations in the past week, and estimated that about 80 per cent of all his patients are suffering from haze-related ailments.

"My patients are telling me they are worried about how long this is going to last and how much higher this is going to go. It is already high at 400 now, how much higher will it go?" he told AFP.

Koh also said many were turning to his clinic to buy protective masks, as supplies are low at retailers.

"Our supplies are running low here too," he said.

If the 400 index average is sustained over a 24-hour period, the government advises all children, elderly people and persons with existing diseases to stay indoors, keep windows closed and avoid physical exertion as much as possible.

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A million Brazilians protest in cities

About 300,000 have rallied in Rio de Janeiro, bemoaning massive spending to stage the World Cup. Source: AAP

BRAZILIAN President Dilma Rousseff has called an emergency cabinet meeting after at least a million people rallied for better public services and against the high cost of staging the World Cup.

Sources quoted by the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo said authorities were "frightened" by protesters' attempts to break into the foreign ministry building in Brasilia. The presidential office would not comment on the reports.

The mounting pressure on Rousseff's government in the face of the biggest street protests the South American country has seen in 20 years prompted her to cancel a trip to Japan planned for next week and call the emergency meeting for Friday.

Late on Thursday, security forces struggled to maintain order in several cities, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse groups of rowdy protesters who hurled stones and lit fires.

Police fired tear gas in Rio de Janeiro, scene of the biggest protest where 300,000 people demonstrated near City Hall, while in the capital Brasilia, security forces blocked protesters trying to break into the foreign ministry and throwing burning objects.

Police and experts quoted by Brazilian media said at least one million marched in more than 100 cities across the country of 194 million people, an intensification of a movement sparked two weeks ago by public anger about a hike in public transport fares.

The protests have spiralled into a wider call for an end to government corruption in the world's seventh largest economy, a call fuelled by resentment over the $US15 billion ($A16.36 billion) cost of hosting the Confederations Cup and the World Cup.

In Rio, police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of stone-throwing protesters. At least one person was hurt in the clashes, which sparked panic in the crowd.

Demonstrators also set ablaze a vehicle owned by the SBT television station.

A protester died after a motorist hit him and two other demonstrators in the southeastern city of Ribeirao Preto, police said.

In the northeastern city of Salvador, one of the host cities for the Confederations Cup, police fired tear gas against some of the 20,000 protesters massed two kilometres from the stadium where Uruguay defeated Nigeria 2-1.

Vehicles used by world football's governing body FIFA were stoned in the Bahia state capital and riot police had to intervene.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, meanwhile, called for an investigation into the possible use of "excessive force" on demonstrators and journalists during protests last week.

On Wednesday, protesters had scored a major victory when authorities in Rio and Sao Paulo, Brazil's two biggest cities, cancelled the controversial transit fare hikes, but that was not enough to placate the demonstrators.

In Sao Paulo, an estimated 110,000 people flooded the main Paulista Avenue to celebrate the fare rollback and keep the pressure on Rousseff's leftist government to increase social spending.

Several protesters called for Rousseff, Sao Paulo State Governor Geraldo Alckmin and Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad to be impeached.

The protest was largely peaceful except for clashes between a group of ultra-leftists marching behind their red banners and a majority of demonstrators who objected to the presence of political parties.

"This is a social movement, not a political movement. This has nothing to do with ideology," 28-year-old protester Maria Vidal told AFP. "We don't want parties in the demonstration."

Protesters say they want higher funding for education, health and housing. They are also railing against what they view as rampant corruption within the political class.

Social media networks have been key to the organisation of the mass protests, with demonstrators using the slogan "It's more than just 20 cents" - a reference to the bus fare hikes - to rally people to their cause.

The movement has no political colouration and no clearly identified leadership.

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Qld hospital concealed fatal death: union

THE Queensland Nurses Union is calling for an independent investigation into the Wesley Hospital manager who did not disclose a previous legionnaires' disease death at the facility.

The Brisbane hospital is dealing with a deadly outbreak of legionnaires', which killed one patient and put another in intensive care this month.

Its management has previously told reporters there were no past cases.

However, Queensland Health this week told reporters it is now including a 2011 legionnaires' death at the private hospital in its investigation.

UnitingCare Health executive director Richard Royle on Wednesday admitted he knew of the 2011 death; a fortnight ago he denied any knowledge of past cases.

The Queensland Nurses Union's acting secretary, Des Elder, says withholding information and making false statements are serious offences.

"There absolutely has been a cover-up," Mr Elder said.

"I don't think there's any question that the hospital management has tried to conceal that there had in fact been a previous occurrence of legionella previous years ago when they made statements to the press quite openly that there had not been."

He said had the Wesley been a public hospital, Mr Royle would be held accountable for making false statements.

"It would be a breach of the code of conduct in Queensland Health for a CEO to lie," he said.

Mr Elder suggested a public hospital chief executive would face disciplinary action under the same circumstances, but declined to say whether he believed Mr Royle should be sacked.

However, he called for an independent investigation into the false statement and the delay in passing relevant information to Queensland Health.

"For too long the private sector has been treated with kid gloves by both the state and federal governments, and this crosses party political lines," he said.

"There's a reluctance to take strong action to ensure that accountability that everyone requires of a public health system is there in the private health system."

Premier Campbell Newman told reporters earlier on Thursday he was disturbed to hear the 2011 death was never made public.

"I believe the hospital had the duty back then to reveal what went on, but of course Queensland Health had a duty to reveal," he said.

"It's not clear to me why the previous government failed to tell Queenslanders what was going on."

He said private hospitals were required to comply with the same accountability standards as the public sector.

The Wesley withheld information about the 2011 death from media, but it was reported to health authorities at the time.

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Visa crack down put off to next week

THE federal government's crackdown on skilled migration visas appears to be on shaky ground after independent MP Rob Oakeshott said he won't support the legislation.

During heated debate on the bill in parliament on Thursday, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott explosively likened Prime Minister Julia Gillard to anti-immigrant One Nation founder and one-time MP Pauline Hanson.

Mr Abbott said Labor's legislation was divisive and accused Ms Gillard of using it for base political purposes.

"We saw a member of this parliament set out to make perfectly decent Australians feel like strangers in their own country," he told the lower house.

"It's an embarrassment."

Labor claims there's been widespread rorting of the 457 skilled worker visa scheme at the expense of Australian jobs.

Its legislation requires employers to conduct labour market testing and only hire foreign workers if no Australian worker is available.

Mr Abbott said the government should be tackling the problem of asylum seeker boat arrivals.

"Instead, they have decided to raise a false problem," he said.

"They can't get tough on illegal arrivals by boat, so they have decided to get tough on legal arrivals by plane."

Mr Oakeshott won't support the legislative changes, saying authorities should make full use of existing sanctions and penalties to crackdown on any abuses of the 457 visa system.

"We don't need new law. We need existing law to be acted upon," he told parliament.

The NSW MP also called for relevant agencies to show "backbone" in pursuing bosses suspected of breaching the system.

"Let's send the dogs onto those that are breaking the laws," he said.

However, fellow cross-bench MP Craig Thomson said he would support the legislation, while criticising the tone of the parliamentary debate.

"It's quite extraordinary that this parliament is at such a state that we see political points on both sides being made, rather than looking at what is the legislation, what are the real issues here and what are the solutions to it," he said.

"This is not ground-breaking legislation but it's important legislation."

The other key independent MPs - Andrew Wilkie and Bob Katter and Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt - are expect to vote in favour of the bill.

But the positions of NSW independent Tony Windsor and former Liberal Peter Slipper remain unclear.

Debate on the Migration Amendment (Temporary Sponsored Visas) Bill 2013 was adjourned until next week.

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WA power station costs public $250m: Labor

WESTERN Australia's opposition is calling for the head of a minister over what it says is the waste of $250 million of taxpayers' money on the refurbishment of a 47-year-old power station.

The long-running saga of the Muja AB power station resurfaced on Wednesday, when WA Labor leader Mark McGowan said heads should roll over the stop-start revamp of the facility south of Perth.

Premier Colin Barnett said in 2009 refurbishing the coal-fired power station would cost the public nothing, with $100 million of private money earmarked to complete the project.

But four years on, the opposition says the project has cost the public $250 million after massive technical issues surfaced, and remain unfixed.

"Colin Barnett promised that the Muja AB refurbishment would cost 'around $100 million' and be 100 per cent privately funded with no cost to the state or taxpayer," Mr McGowan said.

"The premier must now explain how taxpayers have been left with a $250 million loss."

The opposition said former energy minister Peter Collier, who is now WA's education minister, should resign over the losses incurred in the energy sector over the past four years, which they claim total nearly $1 billion.

"Today in parliament we will call for his dismissal, because we think these issues are so significant that someone in the government needs to pay a price for that," Mr McGowan said.

"Even the replacement energy minister Mike Nahan admits it has turned into 'a sow's ear' and it is giving him nightmares."

Premier Barnett had previously admitted in parliament the Muja project had been a mistake.

"That project has not gone well, and that is probably a great understatement," Mr Barnett said.

"The boiler system there has failed, and therefore, the cost of rehabilitating Muja A and B is way above what was estimated."

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50 plots foiled by US spy program: NSA

SECRET US surveillance has foiled more than 50 terror plots since 2001, including a planned bomb attack on the New York Stock Exchange, a US spy chief says.

Google, meanwhile, asked a federal surveillance court to grant it permission to release the number of national security requests and secret court orders it has received in order to be more transparent with users.

Since the disclosure of vast government surveillance programs targeting phone logs and internet data, Silicon Valley firms have scrambled to respond to users angered by perceived privacy violations. The government has defended the programs as fully legal and vital in preventing terror attacks.

National Security Agency (NSA) director-general Keith Alexander on Tuesday described four thwarted plots, including a plan to bomb the New York subway he called "the first core Al-Qaeda plot since 9/11, directed from Pakistan."

Alexander, FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce and others defended the digital snooping, which they insisted has kept America safe since 2001, but which has come under global criticism after leaks of classified details.

"In recent years, the information gathered from these programs provided the US government with critical leads to help prevent over 50 potential terrorist events in more than 20 countries around the world," Alexander said, adding that at least 10 threats were "homeland-based".

He told the House Intelligence Committee that most details were classified and would not be made public.

But in an effort to win political support for the spy programs, details of four incidents, including the New York Stock Exchange plot, were released.

Joyce said a tip from the NSA, which had traced international phone calls from terror suspects to Kansas City, led the FBI to get a court order to begin electronic surveillance on Khalid Ouazzani.

FBI agents then determined that Ouazzani had provided information and support for a "nascent" plot to bomb the NYSE, and arrested him and his co-conspirators.

The controversy over the spying programs erupted after rogue defence contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of them to Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post earlier this month.

According to material leaked to the Guardian, the NSA acquires the call logs of Americans from phone companies and monitors digital communications with data obtained from internet titans like Apple, Facebook and Google.

US officials insist the phone metadata includes no names or addresses, that investigators must obtain a separate order to listen in on calls, and that the internet data searches were only carried out on foreigners residing abroad.

"If you're looking for a needle in the haystack, you have to have the haystack first," Deputy Attorney General James Cole testified, referring to the huge amounts of raw data, which he said were only used "sparingly".

Critics have slammed the spying operations as government overreach, insisting the public has the right to know the scope of the programs and the role major internet firms played in surrendering personal data to authorities.

Google and other companies say they have received thousands of requests for information targeting tens of thousands of accounts.

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'Tweet' to feature in Aussie dictionary

IN a further sign technology is changing the way we speak, the social networking term 'tweet' has entered the English Oxford Dictionary for the first time.

Tweet will also debut in Australia's printed Macquarie Dictionary later this year.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) chief editor John Simpson confirmed 'tweet' had been formally recognised in his hallowed tome's June update - more than seven years after Twitter was invented.

"The noun and verb tweet (in the social-networking sense) has just been added to the OED," Mr Simpson said.

"This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for ten years before consideration for inclusion. But it seems to be catching on."

Tweet's inclusion comes after the OED in 2011 recognised the acronyms 'LOL' (laugh out loud) and 'OMG' (oh my god) - both frequently used online and in SMS messages.

The EOD defined 'tweet' as simply: "To make a posting on the social networking service Twitter. Also: to use Twitter regularly or habitually".

'Tweet' will also be included in the printed Macquarie Dictionary, the respected compendium of Australian-English, for the first time in October.

Macquarie editors recognised 'tweet' in 2009 and included it in online editions from 2010.

But the sixth printed edition of the Macquarie Dictionary will be the first to carry the word, Editor Susan Butler told AAP.

Earlier this year, the Macquarie Dictionary included 'Phantom vibration syndrome' in its online edition - describing anxiety and an obsessional conviction that one's mobile phone has vibrated in response to an incoming call.

Other words or phrases which made it into the new EOD included: 'wingsuit' (a full-body garment having wings), 'sega' (a dance form of the Mascarene Islands) and 'metabolic syndrome' (a cluster of biochemical and physiological abnormalities).

The OED also recognised the slang phrase "to have a cow" - synonymous with the cartoon character Bart Simpson, but which in fact the OED says dates back to 1959.

Another slang phrase, "handyman special" made it too.

The OED said that term described "something (especially a house) which is in need of repair and therefore available at a discounted price".

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Customer likely planted Qld bomb: police

AN angry customer likely planted a bomb that caused several Gold Coast businesses to be evacuated on Monday, police say.

The powder-filled device that was found under a car at a Burleigh Heads car canopy manufacturer is linked to two crude bombs found at Robina car dealership Von Bibra in April, Detective Inspector Brian Swan told reporters on Tuesday.

He said the car at the centre of Monday's drama had been bought from Von Bibra, he said.

Police suspect the culprit is an angry or dissatisfied Von Bibra customer and would like to talk to the driver of a car captured on CCTV near the dealership in April, he added.

Police released images of the car to media on Tuesday.

A plastic container filled with powder and with a long wick hanging from it was found secured with cable ties to the petrol tank of a car by staff at Australian Work & Leisure Canopy on Monday.

The entire block was evacuated before the bomb squad removed the device and safely detonated it.

Improvised bombs were found at Von Bibra on April 8 and 23 this year.

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