China ex-rail minister charged with graft

PROSECUTORS have charged China's former railways minister Liu Zhijun with bribery and abuse of power, state media says, after scandals involving hundreds of millions of yuan.

The official Xinhua news agency on Wednesday said the charges were filed at the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court, which has "accepted the case and will set a trial date".

Details of the charges were not immediately published. The court refused to comment to AFP.

State media have previously reported that Liu, who was appointed in 2003 and sacked in 2011, faced investigation for allegedly taking payouts while handing out contracts for the rapid expansion of China's high-speed railway system.

He was expelled from the ruling Communist Party in November, a move seen as paving the way for a trial over alleged bribe-taking involving 800 million yuan ($A123.58 million). Expulsion from the party typically precedes a court trial.

China's rail system - which has cost hundreds of billions of dollars - has been one of its flagship development projects in recent years, and it now boasts the world's longest high-speed network.

But a high-speed crash in the eastern city of Wenzhou killed some 40 people in 2011, sparking a torrent of public criticism that authorities compromised safety in their rush to expand the network.

China announced last month it was switching control of the railway ministry's administrative functions to the transport ministry and handing its commercial functions to a new China Railway Corporation.

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Landmark Malaysian election set for May 5

MALAYSIA'S general election will be held on May 5, an electoral official says, setting a long-awaited date for highly anticipated polls tipped to be the closest in the country's history.

Election Commission chairman Aziz Yusof on Wednesday said balloting would be preceded by a two-week official campaign period kicking off on April 20.

The United Malays National Organisation, which has controlled Malaysia since independence in 1957, is seeking to hold off a formidable opposition that has gained ground with promises to end corruption, cronyism and authoritarian rule.

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Sydney surgeon's ex 'seen as gold digger'

THE former partner of plastic surgeon and hotelier Jerry Schwartz was seen by his mother as a "gold-digger" who was eyeing the family fortune, a Sydney inquest has been told.

NSW State Coroner Mary Jerram is investigating whether Dr Schwartz acted appropriately in signing the death certificates of his mother Eve Schwartz, 79, and her best friend Magda Wales, 76, who died three weeks apart in 2005.

Dr Schwartz, along with his late parents, founded The Schwartz Family Company, which owns a dozen hotels in NSW and Victoria, a shopping centre, a medical centre, and a brewery.

He is currently embroiled in a civil suit concerning the division of his mother's estate with his former partner Liliane Viselle, whom he never married.

During evidence given by Mrs Wales' son George in Glebe Coroner's Court on Tuesday, the relationship between Dr Schwartz and Ms Viselle was described as "tumultuous" and "aggravated".

Mr Wales said in the two years before her death, Eve Schwartz had repeatedly made it clear she thought Ms Viselle was after her son's money as well as her own.

"I believe the term 'gold-digger' was used," said Dr Schwartz's defence counsel Patrick Saidi.

Mr Wales said his own mother was also "towards the end ... genuinely trying to distance herself" from Ms Viselle.

The death certificate Dr Schwartz signed for his 79-year-old mother listed cause of death as lung cancer and a collapsed lung which cut off her oxygen on August 20, 2005.

The certificate he signed for Mrs Wales said her death was caused by an "acute cardiac event", ischaemic heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

Mr Wales said he knew his mother was being treated by Dr Schwartz in the year or two before her death, and that he has never had any suspicion that his mother's death was unnatural.

The inquest heard that she had been seeing several different doctors for different medical conditions, and did not always disclose her ailments to her children for fear of upsetting them.

The inquest continues.

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WA hot air balloon landing 'not emergency'

AN egg-shaped hot air balloon that touched down in a suburban Perth street was not involved in an emergency, but came down as a precaution.

Police reported the balloon, which is promoting the Cirque Du Soleil production Ovo, made an emergency landing in the eastern suburb of Burswood around 8.30am (WST) on Tuesday.

Two passengers were not injured.

Police later said it was a controlled landing.

"It was in fact a safe and precautionary landing, as this was a more appropriate place to land under the circumstances, as opposed to the eventual planned landing," police said.

"The company have advised us that if this was a genuine emergency landing, they would by law have had to declare it as an emergency and this has not taken place."

Picture This Ballooning chief executive Damian Crock told AAP that the pilot, Peter Wright, who had more than 10 years experience, made the decision to land the balloon early.

"The wind became light and variable," he said.

"The pilot makes the assessment on how much to travel.

"He decided that it was the best place to cut short the flight."

The balloon has been floating above Perth in the past week.

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Bryan, Lambert win big in US country music

LUKE Bryan and Miranda Lambert have won big as Nashville's biggest names took over Las Vegas for the 48th Academy of Country Music awards.

Bryan, 36, was overcome with emotion as Shania Twain presented him with the fan-voted entertainer of the year award at the climax of a three-hour nationally televised gala that he co-hosted with Blake Shelton.

"This is the defining moment of my life ... and I will never take it for granted," said the Georgia native, who's just come off his first-ever headlining tour in support of his platinum-selling album Tailgates and Tanlines.

Lambert, 29, meanwhile made three increasingly emotional trips to the stage - twice for song of the year and best single for Over You, which she co-wrote with Shelton, 36, her husband, and a third time for female vocalist of the year.

"Thank you for accepting me as a songwriter, not just as a singer, because that means the world to me," she told her Nashville peers in the cavernous auditorium of the MGM Grand hotel on Sunday.

Quipped her supportive spouse: "I used to think I was a decent songwriter until I started hanging out with her."

Equally humble was Jason Aldean, 36, when he collected his award for male vocalist of the year, saying: "I'm glad to get to sing for a living, and I'm glad you guys dig it."

Eric Church won album of the year for Chief and Little Big Town collected the best vocal group laurel. Florida Georgia Line took home the prize for best new artist and Thompson Square was honoured for best vocal duo.

Going home empty-handed were Taylor Swift, entertainer of the year for the past two years and a nominee in five categories this time around, despite the international sales success of her country-pop crossover album Red.

Putting crowd-pleasing performances ahead of the prizes, with a lot of commercial breaks in between, Sunday's spectacular ran 49 minutes before the first award was given out.

Highlights included country veterans Garth Brooks and George Strait teaming up for the first time to sing This is Where the Cowboy Rides Away in honour of late television impresario Dick Clark, a driving force behind the awards.

Kenny Chesney in a sleeveless T-shirt got the front rows waving flags with the skull-and-bones logo of his No Shoes Nation tour, while Swift joined Tim McGraw and Keith Urban for an epic performance of McGraw's Highway Don't Care.

The Academy of Country Music awards, first held in 1966, are a springtime West Coast counterpart of the Country Music Association awards held every fall in Nashville since 1967.

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Miners hopeful coalition can repeal MRRT

FORTESCUE Metals Group and junior explorers hope the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) will be repealed if the coalition wins the federal election in September, as polls predict.

But even if it remained, the tax was so poorly designed Fortescue probably wouldn't need to pay a cent for many years, the company's chief financial officer Stephen Pearce told a Senate committee hearing in Perth on Monday.

While the iron ore miner expected to pay close to $4 billion on state royalties over the next five years, it did not anticipate needing to pay the mining tax during that period, Mr Pearce said.

If deferred state royalty credits were claimed thereafter, the company would effectively not be paying the tax for a further five years, he said.

Mr Pearce said Fortescue, which has challenged the validity of the tax in the High Court, believes the MRRT is ill conceived and overly complex.

He said it had so far cost the company $3 million to $5 million in compliance costs.

Simon Bennison, chief executive of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC), said the MRRT's design made it harder for small mining companies to get into production but sheltered bigger, established producers.

It was compounding the negative impact of weaker commodity prices and skyrocketing costs, sending vast numbers of mining companies to other nations, Mr Bennison said.

"It's death by 1000 cuts, of which the MRRT is a very significant cut," he said.

Exploration activity had plunged, while Australia's mines were rapidly depleting, he said.

There needed to be incentives to explore, such as a tax credit arrangement similar to Canada's flow-through shares scheme, Mr Bennison said.

"We are really going to hit a wall down the track," he said.

While the federal government had expected the tax would bring in billions of revenue, it has so far yielded only $126 million.

Senator Mathias Cormann asked the hearing: "Why have a tax that doesn't raise revenue and is costly to administer?"

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Live donors to get financial support

AUSTRALIA will never adopt a cash-for-organs scheme, but will follow other countries in paying donors who take leave from work, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek says.

Workers who want to donate a kidney will be offered up to six weeks' paid leave at minimum wage, up to $3600, under a federal government plan to reduce the waiting list for life-saving organs.

Ms Plibersek said the government would put up a "relatively modest contribution" of $1.3 million from the federal health budget for a two-year trial that will be reviewed in 2015.

"We know that there are a number of people who just cannot afford to take six weeks off work," she told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

"This reduces the financial burden on someone who is making the greatest gift that they can to a family member, or even to a stranger."

The scheme is not just for full-time workers. Part-time and self-employed workers will also receive payment, while the unemployed will get sickness benefits.

"You won't be financially better off, we just want to reduce the financial burden of taking time off," Ms Plibersek said.

The scheme is similar to ones operating in other countries.

But Ms Plibersek said a system where people would be paid to sell organs would never be acceptable here.

"I do not think it is right to pay for organ donations," the minister said.

"I think that is crossing a moral and ethical bridge that I would not be able to cross."

Kidney Health Australia chief executive Anne Wilson said the announcement was a "big win" for those with kidney disease.

Recent figures from the Australian & New Zealand Organ Donation Registry show there were 1080 people on the kidney transplant waiting list in Australia in 2012, but only 237 live kidney donors.

Ms Wilson said the scheme was a step toward reducing the gap between donors and recipients.

"People have come to us saying that this is a barrier and that's why it's an initiative that we applaud," she said.

"We get calls once or twice a week from people talking about problems associated with being an organ donor.

"It's very heart-breaking. If you can't (donate organs) because of financial barriers, you can imagine that must build a lot of resentment (between families) and make them feel dreadful," she said.

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British woman stabbed to death in Kashmir

A young British woman holidaying in Indian Kashmir has been found dead on a houseboat. Source: AAP

POLICE in India are investigating whether a British woman was sexually assaulted before she was stabbed to death on a floating hotel.

Sarah Groves, 24, was found in a pool of blood inside her room on the houseboat, on the Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir, on Saturday.

A Dutch national, widely named in reports as Richard De Wit, who had also been staying at the hotel, has been arrested on suspicion of her murder.

The door to Grove's room had been smashed open.

Local police said the victim had multiple stab wounds all over her body while a knife was found next to her.

De Wit, aged 43, fled with only his passport, leaving behind all his belongings before he was arrested in Qazigund, a town just under 72.4km south of Srinagar.

Groves spent more than a month on the houseboat while De Vit booked into a separate room on Thursday, police said, adding that they were investigating whether the two knew each other.

Police said the victim's body will be examined to determine whether she was sexually assaulted before being killed.

Samir Shoda, the son of the houseboat's owner, was helping police with their inquiries, Britain's The Sunday Telegraph reported.

He told the paper that he met Groves during a holiday in Goa and that he had invited her to stay at the hotel.

Shoda, who said he had been out with friends at the time, added: "She was an amazing person. She understood everything, we shared our problems, everything."

His father, G.M. Shoda, said he was woken by a commotion at 2.30am and sent his other son Irfan to investigate, who found Groves dead.

Tributes have been paid to Groves, who was from Guernsey, on Twitter.

@Rouxelfc said: "Our world is cruel. Sarahgroves was one of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. My life has been touched at the cost of urs."

While @SarahGuernsey3h wrote: "Truly pure innocent beautiful girl. Can't believe how evil some people are R.I.P SarahGroves xxxx."

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Woman's body found at Ballarat

A woman's body has been found at a house in Victoria's west. Source: AAP

A WOMAN'S body has been found at a house in Victoria's west.

Police were called to Doveton Street, Ballarat, where the woman's body was found at 11.15am (AEDT).

Homicide Squad detectives are also attending the scene.

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US military to deploy spy plane in Japan

The US military is reportedly deploying a spy plane in Japan to boost surveillance on North Korea. Source: AAP

THE US military is set to deploy an unmanned spy plane in Japan to boost surveillance capabilities as North Korea apparently readied for missile launches, a newspaper report says.

The Global Hawk will be stationed at the US airbase in Misawa, northern Japan, in the first ever deployment of the aircraft in the country, the Sankei Shimbun reported, quoting government sources.

The US military informed Japan last month about plans to deploy the plane between June and September but may bring the date forward, it said, following reports about North Korea's preparations for missile launches.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing a top South Korean government official, said North Korea had loaded two mid-range Musudan missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them in underground facilities near its east coast.

The Musudan have never been tested but are believed to have a range of around 3000km, which could theoretically be pushed to 4000km if they were to be given a light payload.

That would cover any target in South Korea and Japan, and possibly even reach US military bases located on the Pacific island of Guam.

Tensions have soared on the Korean peninsula since December, when the North test-launched a long-range rocket. In February, it conducted its third nuclear test and drew fresh UN sanctions.

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