McGurk murder statements 'inconsistent'

THE defence team of property tycoon Ron Medich say there are a number of "inconsistencies" in the statements of witnesses about the murder of Michael McGurk.

Medich is due to face a committal hearing next month to determine whether he should stand trial for the murder of his former business partner who was shot outside his home in Sydney's lower north shore in September 2009.

The crown alleges 65-year-old Medich enlisted the help of one-time featherweight boxing champion Lucky Gattellari to carry out the alleged contract killing after their business relationship began deteriorating in late 2008.

Gattellari then allegedly recruited three others - Senad Kaminic, Haissam Safetli and Christopher Estephan - to assist in the hit.

Earlier this month, Safetli pleaded guilty to his part in Mr McGurk's death, while Gattellari and Kaminic were sentenced earlier this year over offences relating to the murder.

Medich and Estephan are now the only two remaining to face committal.

During a pre-committal mention on the matter on Thursday, Medich's barrister April Francis said they were facing a "number of material inconsistencies" within the crown witnesses statements.

"The extent of those inconsistencies has now significantly increased as a consequence of another version that has been supplied by Mr Safetli," she told Central Local Court.

When Magistrate Jan Stevenson questioned whether the matter was ever going to finish, Ms Francis said: "It will finish , in our submission, here," she said referring to the local court.

At the mention, Estephan's solicitor Gordon Elliot discussed his application to have Safetli called as part of the committal.

In statement or facts that were tendered when Safetli entered his plea earlier this month, the crown said he alleged the then 19-year-old Estephan had fired the fatal shot.

Mr Elliot said there were 11 areas in which he was seeking to cross-examine Safetli on.

The matters will return to court next week.

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Ex-Las Vegas prosecutor found dead

A FORMER prosecutor-turned-fugitive who handled the high-profile drug cases of Paris Hilton and Bruno Mars has been found dead in his Las Vegas home, his lawyer says.

David Schubert, 49, had completed a five-month stint in prison for crack cocaine possession in April. He was found sitting in his truck in his home's garage with the windows rolled down, according to his lawyer and friend Lou Schneier.

Schubert spent 10 years as a Clark County prosecutor, including a stint as a liaison to a federal drug task force. He resigned in 2011 after he was arrested with $US40 in rock cocaine and an unregistered handgun in his car.

He fled to Mexico to avoid jail but returned to the US. He told a judge he felt he had been treated exceptionally harshly.

He expected mandatory probation and a chance to wipe the felony conviction from his record. But the judge refused to consider a plea deal, calling Schubert "a disgrace to his oath as a prosecutor and a lawyer" and declaring that he wouldn't get special treatment.

Schubert told the Las Review-Journal in a jailhouse interview that he felt singled out.

"I did what I did, and I accept the consequences," he said. "But I don't feel I was treated fairly by the system."

Schubert's sentence contrasted with those of the people he helped prosecute. Both Hilton and Mars made plea deals and avoided jail time.

He was isolated for his own safety in prison because of his history as a prosecutor. Schneier said that may have contributed to Schubert's poisoning sense of injustice.

The ex-prosecutor missed a check-in with his parole officer last week, Schneier said. His phone had been turned off for at least a week, possibly because he couldn't afford the bill.

After a few visits to Schubert's home, parole officers finally entered early on Wednesday and found the body, Schneier said.

The ex-prosecutor is survived by a 15-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter who live with their mother in another state.

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Ford to recalibrate hybrids, improve fuel

FORD is offering free upgrades to US and Canadian hybrid customers to improve their fuel economy.

The company plans to recalibrate the vehicle control systems on 77,000 Ford C-Max and Fusion hybrids and Lincoln MKZ hybrids from the 2013 model year.

Some customers have complained that the cars aren't getting the 20 kilometres per litre fuel economy promised in Ford's advertising.

Ford will increase the maximum speed the cars can be driven in electric mode from 100 km/h to 137 km/h.

It also plans to make better use of the grille shutters which improve aerodynamics, reduce the electric fan speed, shorten the engine warm-up time and minimise use of the air conditioning compressor.

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Xenophon criticises car tax changes

CHANGES to tax concessions on cars provide the budget with a "sugar hit" but risk tipping Australia's car manufacturing industry over the edge, independent Senator Nick Xenophon says.

Senator Xenophon said the car assembly sector was fragile and questioned why the government would do anything to put it at risk.

"The federal government owes an enormous duty of care to our car industry given that it's in a very precarious situation," he told reporters in Adelaide on Wednesday.

Senator Xenophon said if Holden closed its manufacturing operations in Adelaide it would cost many thousands of jobs and turn the city's northern suburbs into an industrial wasteland.

He said the extra fringe benefits revenue looked good on paper but could result in the government paying out more in Centrelink payments if the auto industry collapsed.

"Right now why do anything to put our car industry in jeopardy for a sugar hit to the budget?" Senator Xenophon said.

His comments came as the South Australian government also revealed Premier Jay Weatherill would travel to Canberra on Friday for talks on the tax changes with Industry Minister Kim Carr.

The changes to tax arrangements on car leasing and salary sacrifice packaging will raise $1.8 billion to help support a move to an emissions trading scheme a year earlier than expected.

They are expected to impact 325,000 people and have been criticised by auto producers.

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Found! Kidnapped 82-year-old cocky

AN 82-year-old cockatoo stolen from Victoria's Phillip Island has been found in a Sydney backyard.

The sulphur-crested cockatoo, named Robbo, had been a well-loved resident of Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit Visitors Garden for more than 40 years before he was stolen about six weeks ago, Andrew Bowring of the visitor's centre told AAP.

Police said the elderly cocky was found in a cage in the backyard of a Marrickville home during a search on Monday.

"Investigations revealed that the cockatoo was possibly being held at a home in Sydney's inner west," police said in a statement.

"Robbo the cockatoo was located in the rear yard of the property in a large cage during the search."

He was kidnapped from the garden on May 18.

Mr Bowring said Robbo had been missed and the visitor's centre was thrilled to be getting the bird back.

"He's been here for years and years and years," he said.

"He's well known with a lot of the regulars here, including our campers for some of our major events."

Although Robbo was old at 82, sulphur-crested cockatoos are known to live to 120.

The cocky is being checked by an RSPCA vet before being returned to his home.

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New moon spotted circling Neptune

A TINY new moon has been spotted circling Neptune - the 14th known to be orbiting the faraway planet, the US space agency says.

The moon is the smallest ever glimpsed around Neptune and measures just about 19 kilometres across, based on observations from the Hubble Space telescope, NASA said on Monday.

Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun, and NASA said the moon, named S/2004 N1, is about 100 million times fainter than the dimmest star that can be seen with the naked eye.

Astronomers found the moon by tracking a white dot that appeared repeatedly in more than 150 photos taken by Hubble from 2004 to 2009.

Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, found the moon on July 1 while studying the faint arcs around Neptune, NASA said.

"The moons and arcs orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system," he said.

"It's the same reason a sports photographer tracks a running athlete - the athlete stays in focus, but the background blurs."

The moon is believed to circle Neptune once every 23 hours.

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Juice withdrawn as senator complains

THE Berri fruit juice company has withdrawn an imported product from sale amid criticism from independent Senator Nick Xenophon.

Berri Ltd on Monday said its Berri Truly juice, produced in Mexico, had been withdrawn because it had not met its performance benchmarks.

The company's action came on the same day Senator Xenophon launched an attack on the company for misleading customers.

He said the fact the juice was a product of Mexico was only in small print on the pack which also included the Berri logo and the words "since 1943".

South Australian Liberal MP Tim Whetstone also criticised the company for deceiving consumers and misrepresenting Australian growers.

"The whole product comes from Mexico with not one molecule of Australian content," Mr Whetstone said.

The two MPs said they planned to file complaints with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and SA Consumer Affairs arguing that the packaging would lead consumers to assume that the product contained Australian juice.

Berri said Berri Truly was the only one of its products not produced in Australia.

It said the juice complied with country of origin labelling laws and Australian food standards and was regularly monitored and tested for quality.

"We do not apologise for investing in innovation to grow the juice category in Australia," the company said in a statement.

"In the case of Berri Truly, the product required technology not available in Australia."

Senator Xenophon said the product should not have been sold in Australia in the first place.

"People assume Berri uses fruit that's grown in Berri or in South Australia at the very least, not in Mexico," he said.

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Asiana may sue over erroneous TV report

ASIANA Airlines says it is is considering legal action over a report on a San Francisco television station that used bogus and racially offensive names for four pilots on its plane that crashed earlier this month.

An anchor for KTVU-TV read the names on the air on Friday and then apologised after a break.

The report was accompanied by a graphic with the phoney names listed alongside a photo of the burned out plane. Video of the report has spread widely across the internet since it was broadcast.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has also apologised, saying a summer intern erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew.

An Asiana statement on Sunday said it's mulling legal measures against both KTVU-TV and the NTSB because the report "badly damaged" the reputation of the airline and its pilots.

It didn't say what legal measures it was considering.

Neither the station nor the NTSB commented on where the names originated.

The four pilots, who underwent questioning by a US and South Korean joint investigation team while in the US, returned to South Korea on Saturday.

South Korean officials plan to conduct separate interviews with them, South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Sunday.

Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, killing three and injuring dozens.

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One dead in rally car crash in Qld

ONE person is dead and another has been seriously injured in an accident at a rally car competition in Queensland.

Police said a car involved in the International Rally of Queensland rolled about 11am (AEST) in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Both victims are believed to be men.

Ambulance officers said one person was pronounced dead at the scene, while the second, a 40-year-old man, was airlifted to hospital with chest and spinal injuries.

Rally organisers say they are preparing a statement.

The incident occurred on a road near state forest close to Imbil, south of Gympie.

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Greens to tax big business to fund reforms

TAXES for mining companies, millionaires and banks would be increased to fund an extra $43 billion in social spending proposed by the Australian Greens.

Under the Robin Hood-style policy, the money would be used to boost payments to the unemployed and single parents, while nearly $6 billion more would be spent on education.

Launching the party's election platform on Sunday, Greens leader Christine Milne said the vision was not just about the next three years, but about the next 50 to 100 years.

As policy launches go, the Greens' was definitely a no-frills one.

A few dozen party faithful crammed into a small room in Melbourne's Docklands where Senator Milne and deputy leader Adam Bandt stood in front of a simple backdrop and announced a four-step plan to raise $42.7 billion.

The Greens plan to raise an extra $21.8 billion by increasing the mining tax and $12 billion by abolishing tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry.

A levy on banks would raise $8.4 billion, while increasing the marginal tax rate on incomes over $1 million to 50 per cent would raise $500 million.

The money would fund a $50 per week increase in unemployment payments and the Youth Allowance and a $40 a week increase for single parents.

Cuts to university funding would be reversed and an extra $2 billion would be spent on school funding.

The policies have been costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, the Greens say.

Senator Milne said only the Greens had a sustainable plan for the future.

"We want to see an environment that can sustain us, a society that cares for us and an economy that responds to the major challenges of this century, because the Greens are not just about the next three years, we are about the next 50 to 100 years," she said.

Mr Bandt said the Greens would stand up to the big miners and big banks, which were the world's most profitable.

"We have got a clear choice at this election: we can either go down the road of keeping cutting government services as the old parties want to do or to have guts and to stand up and raise the revenue that this country needs," he said.

The Australian Education Union welcomed the Greens' commitment to public education and their strong advocacy for the Gonski reforms.

Liberal senator Eric Abetz said the Greens were simply repackaging old policies with some costings that were not comprehensive.

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