Man attempts to lure girl in Wollongong

POLICE are appealing for information after an unknown man attempted to lure a 13-year-old girl into his car in Wollongong.

Police say a green older-model sedan with light-blue number plates pulled up beside the girl at 4pm on Wednesday when she was walking on Pioneer Road in Bellambi.

When the girl declined the offer of a lift, police say the driver reached towards her and she ran away.

Officers want to speak with a man they describe as being aged 30-40, with olive skin, a large build, and a flat nose.

Police say the man was unshaven, wearing sunglasses and a black cap with a red logo on the front on Wednesday.

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Police want help with Laverton North grab

'There are no winners': Lisa's mum

JOAN Harnum's daughter was brutally taken from her but after Simon Gittany was found guilty of her murder she said, "there are no winners in this case''.

Justice Lucy McCallum's verdict

SIMON Gittany was today found guilty of the murder of Lisa Harnum after he threw her off the 15th storey balcony of their apartment, read Justice Lucy McCallum's full verdict here.

Police will allege teen wanted to kill

EUNJI Ban was the victim of a random thrill killing, dying at the hands of a teen who had fantasised about murder since he was a child, police allege.

NRL bad boy's career in limbo after 'cab assault'

BULLDOGS recruit Reni Maitua has been suspended from all club duties after he was charged with assault following a serious late-night incident.

Maitua Bulldogs ban over 'assault'

CANTERBURY Bulldogs recruit Reni Maitua has been suspended from all club duties after he was charged with assault.

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UK detectives quiz 'slavery victims'

'There are no winners': Lisa's mum

JOAN Harnum's daughter was brutally taken from her but after Simon Gittany was found guilty of her murder she said, "there are no winners in this case''.

Justice Lucy McCallum's verdict

SIMON Gittany was today found guilty of the murder of Lisa Harnum after he threw her off the 15th storey balcony of their apartment, read Justice Lucy McCallum's full verdict here.

Police will allege teen wanted to kill

EUNJI Ban was the victim of a random thrill killing, dying at the hands of a teen who had fantasised about murder since he was a child, police allege.

NRL bad boy's career in limbo after 'cab assault'

BULLDOGS recruit Reni Maitua has been suspended from all club duties after he was charged with assault following a serious late-night incident.

Maitua Bulldogs ban over 'assault'

CANTERBURY Bulldogs recruit Reni Maitua has been suspended from all club duties after he was charged with assault.

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Indigenous smoking falls but still high

SMOKING rates among indigenous people have fallen by 10 per cent in a decade, but are still far higher than the rest of the community.

New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show 41 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 or over smoked each day in 2012-13.

That's a significant decrease from 51 per cent in 2002.

But the smoking rate in the rest of the community was 20.4 per cent of men and 16.3 per cent of women in 2011-12.

Close the Gap co-chairs Mick Gooda and Kirstie Parker said the figures show measures to improve the health of indigenous people could work, but sustained long-term commitment was needed.

"The decline in smoking is good news but health outcomes for our communities will continue to reflect the long-term damage caused by the high level of smoking. And it will take time for the closing the gap initiatives to be reflected in health data," Mr Gooda said in a statement.

Ms Parker said improving the health of indigenous people had to remain a national priority.

"Our people are significantly more likely than other Australians to experience major health problems such as heart or circulatory disease (twice as likely), diabetes (three times more likely), and almost one-third of participants reporting psychological distress," she said.

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UK man spared jail for Venables tweet

A UK man who tweeted images purporting to be of James Bulger's killer Jon Venables as an adult has been given a 14-month suspended prison sentence.

The term was handed down at London's High Court for a flagrant contempt of court on the part of 27-year-old security guard James Baines.

Baines, who is from Liverpool and close to the Bulger family, will also have to pay STG3000 ($A5,360) in costs.

He admitted disobeying a January 2001 injunction binding on the whole world that prohibits the publication of any information purporting to identify the appearance, whereabouts, movements or new identities of Venables or Robert Thompson, who were convicted of the two-year-old's murder in November 1993.

It was made on the basis that the pair would face an acute risk of serious physical harm or death upon their release.

The case was referred by Attorney General Dominic Grieve after Baines put images purporting to identify Venables as an adult on his Twitter profile on February 14 this year - the 20th anniversary of the crime.

One image showed Venables in a school photograph as a child while below and alongside were different images of an adult male.

They were accompanied by the tweet: "Its on bbc news about the jon venables pic on twitter saying its been removed eerrm no it hasn't."

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Nigella Lawson called 'habitual criminal'

TV cook Nigella Lawson was described as a "habitual criminal" in a London court on Wednesday.

Italian sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo are due to go on trial accused of using a company credit card to buy themselves designer handbags and flights while working as personal assistants to Lawson and Charles Saatchi.

But lawyers for the defendants argued today that the case should not go ahead due to the "manipulation of the court process" by the TV cook and the millionaire art dealer, who had a high-profile divorce earlier this year.

On Tuesday, Isleworth Crown Court in west London heard that Saatchi alleges that Lawson was so high on drugs that she was unaware of what she had or had not permitted the sisters to spend money on.

After hearing submissions from Anthony Metzer QC, defending Elisabetta Grillo, 41, and Karina Arden, defending Francesca, 35, Judge Robin Johnson ruled that the trial should go ahead.

"I consider, with the right rulings and the ability to monitor the process of the court during the process of the trial, a fair trial can be achieved and therefore I have refused this application," he said.

Earlier Mr Metzer argued that the case should be dropped as Mr Saatchi and Ms Lawson were at "loggerheads" and the alleged drug use damaged the TV cook's "credibility as an honest witness".

He told the court: "The defendants' case is that Nigella Lawson lied to her ex-husband about her drug use and about the expenditure that was incurred by the defendants, both expressly and implicitly, because she was fearful of Mr Saatchi's reaction if he knew about the extent of the expenditure and drug use.

"There was a culture of secrecy within Nigella Lawson's marriage."

He argued that the defendants will not receive a fair trial "as there has been a manipulation of the court process by the two main prosecution witnesses in this case".

He said that if it did go ahead, "it's a convenient forum for Mr Saatchi and Miss Lawson to rehearse disputed issues between them ... in the criminal courts where, of course, the possibility of libel is not possible".

"If Mr Saatchi is telling the truth, then Miss Lawson is a habitual criminal."

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US jobless claims drop as lay-offs slow

THE number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dropped 10,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 316,000, a sign that workers are in less danger of being laid off.

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McCann teams 'should become one'

BRITISH and Portuguese police should join together as one team in their investigations into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, London's Metropolitan Police Commissioner says.

Currently Scotland Yard is running its own inquiry into what happened to the little girl, who vanished while holidaying with her parents in Praia da Luz in 2007, while the Portuguese authorities have their own investigation.

The Portuguese shelved their inquiry into her disappearance in 2008, but last month said that a review had uncovered enough new information to justify reopening the case.

"One thing we'd like to see in the future is a joint investigation team which comes under the European community," Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said on Wednesday.

"It is a possibility legally, and we're working together at a political level, and at a police and judicial level, to see how we can construct that.

"There are two separate inquiries with a different focus - we've got one particular set of lines of inquiry and they have a different one. But it's important that we work together on what is clearly a common problem.

"It's a formal arrangement, it allows officers from each country to work in the other country, it gives them powers associated with that, and it's an efficient way of doing it.

"If you're not careful, you end up doing things on an ad-hoc basis, and for us it would be better to have that type of arrangement. So that's what we're trying to get agreement between the two governments and the two police services."

British police received hundreds of calls and emails after recent renewed television appeals for information in the UK, Holland and Germany.

They appealed for help trying to trace a man who was seen carrying a child towards the sea, and a number of fair-haired men who were lurking around the holiday apartments where Madeleine was staying.

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