Newspaper sales fall in December quarter

DIGITAL sales of Australia's three big broadsheets have grown by double digit percentages, in a further sign of the shift away from printed newspapers.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) said in its latest report that Monday-to-Saturday sales of national, metropolitan and regional newspapers fell 6.9 per cent in the three months to December 3, compared with the prior corresponding period.

The December quarter result was a little worse than the 5.9 per cent decline in the three months to September 30.

However, figures from Australia's two major publishers - Fairfax Media and News Ltd - showed average daily sales of Monday to Friday digital editions of The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age rose by 13.4 per cent, compared with the previous quarter.

Moreover, sales of Saturday digital editions for the three mastheads were up 19 per cent.

It was the second consecutive quarter the two publishers have reported digital sales.

The Newspaper Works chief executive Tony Hale said the data showed consumers were willing to pay for quality journalism across publishing platforms.

"The growth of digital subscriptions is now starting to offset the decline in print circulations, as illustrated by the one per cent increase in total sales of the mastheads which are reporting their digital figures," he said in a statement.

"Given that the newspaper industry has only just begun reporting digital sales, these latest ABC numbers are very encouraging."

The Newspaper Works, a non-profit body set up to promote the industry, said reporting of print and digital sales would be compulsory for all publishers from the July to September audit period in 2013.

In a separate statement, Fairfax said there have been more than one million downloads of its SMH and Age tablet apps since they were launched 19 months ago.

The two apps had more 150,000 daily unique browsers, Fairfax said.

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16-year-old 'stole car, hit cop'

AN unlicensed teenager is accused of stealing a sedan before hitting a police officer on the NSW central coast.

Police say the 16-year-old reversed a stolen red Hyundai into an officer after he and a passenger were stopped for questioning on Cape Street, West Gosford before midnight on Tuesday.

The open driver door struck the officer and scraped along the side of his patrol car.

The Hyundai, which was allegedly stolen from Ourimbah earlier in the night, was later found abandoned on a fire trail off Donnison Street at Gosford.

The policeman was unhurt.

Police arrested a 16-year-old boy over the incident on Thursday evening.

The boy has been charged with take and drive conveyance, drive manner dangerous and never licensed driver.

He is due to appear in Woy Woy Children's Court on April 5.

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Health group calls for booze law review

A PUBLIC health group says time is running out for the NSW government to get its review of alcohol laws under way.

The NSW and ACT Alcohol Policy Alliance (NAAPA), which represents 30 health, community, law enforcement, emergency services and research groups, on Friday said a five-year statutory review of the Liquor Act 2007 needed to be conducted and tabled in parliament by the end of the year.

Spokesman Michael Thorn, chief executive of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, said the review needed to start immediately or the consultation process would suffer.

"If there's going to be a proper and thorough review of the legislation then government needs to set up the processes around that now," he told AAP.

"Otherwise, there will be no time for debate."

NAAPA wants to see the liquor licensing laws revised to give communities more say in restricting the granting of new licences, and would allow them to voice fears about alcohol-related violence, antisocial behaviour or poor health outcomes.

"(Ideally) licensees would need to show that the licence that they seek won't result in any additional harms in the community," he said.

Mr Thorn said the group was likely to call for measures including "risk-based licensing", which would force prospective alcohol suppliers to pay more for their licences if, for instance, they wanted to have longer trading hours.

His comments came hours after Ralph Kelly opened up publicly for the first time about the death of his 18-year-old son while he enjoyed a night out at Sydney party spot Kings Cross.

Thomas Kelly was punched in the head during a Saturday night out with his girlfriend and friends and his family made the "agonising decision" to shut down his life support system two days later.

Mr Kelly told a group of schoolchildren on Thursday that alcohol-related violence ruined lives.

"The hole in our hearts and lives - I can't begin to explain to you," he told them.

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UK abattoir has deal with Grand National

THE owner of an abattoir embroiled in the horsemeat scandal has a deal to dispose of horses fatally injured in the Grand National race, the racecourse says.

Peter Boddy, whose slaughterhouse was raided by the Food Standards Agency on Tuesday, removes the carcasses of some horses that have been put down during the meeting, Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool said.

The racecourse said it was "confident" that no "unfit meat" had ever entered the food chain.

It is alleged that Boddy's plant in West Yorkshire supplied horse carcasses to a food processing plant in Wales where operations have also been suspended.

They are the first suppliers in Britain suspected of passing off horsemeat as beef.

A spokesman for Aintree said the racing industry took every possible measure to ensure that horses put down after they are injured in races cannot enter the food chain.

"Aintree Racecourse follow these guidelines to the letter and can confirm that Peter Boddy ... is contracted by Aintree to remove carcasses if required.

Aintree added: "By the time these carcasses are returned to the disposal organisation's premises they are totally unsuitable for consumption.

"They are fully signed off as unsuitable.

"Indeed it is illegal for horses humanely put down by injection on the racecourse to enter the food chain.

"We are as confident as we possibly can be that no unfit meat ever reaches the human food chain."

During last year's Grand National race, joint favourite Synchronised and According to Pete were both put down following falls, and four horses died at the meeting in 2011.

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Rebels shoot down two warplanes in Syria

SYRIAN rebels have shot down two military warplanes over the northwestern province of Idlib, says a monitoring group.

Both jets were hit with fire from heavy machine guns while the air force was carrying out a series of raids in the area, much of which is under the control of the rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The warplanes were shot down in separate strikes, several hours apart on Thursday, near the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan.

An Islamist rebel group, Ahfad al-Rasul (Grandchildren of the Prophet), claimed in an amateur video posted online to have brought down one of them, a Russian Sukhoi fighter jet, using anti-aircraft weaponry.

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US stocks fall despite giant M&A deals

TWO giant M&A deals, the merger of American Airlines and US Airways, and Berkshire Hathaway's takeover of ketchup maker Heinz, have failed to lift US stocks in opening trade.

Fifteen minutes into trade on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 32.64 points, or 0.23 per cent, at 13,950.27.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 3.82 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 1,516.51.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite lost 9.84 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 3,187.04.

US Airways shares fell 1.9 per cent to $US14.33 after the official announcement of its long-awaited merger with American Airlines, creating the largest US carrier. American parent AMR Corp is under bankruptcy reorganisation.

Heinz shares though soared nearly 20 per cent to $US72.51 after the shock announcement that billionaire Warren Buffett's investment firm would partner with 3G Capital to buy Heinz in a deal worth $US28 billion ($A27 billion).

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GM earnings jump 89% in fourth quarter

GENERAL Motors' fourth quarter earnings jumped 89 per cent but were held back by $US700 million ($A680 million) in losses on its European operations, the company says.

The top US automaker earned a net $US892 million in the quarter to December 31, compared to $US472 million a year earlier.

The figures were buoyed by a turnaround in South America, where the company swung from a loss in the year-earlier quarter to a $US99 million gain, and in its Asia-Africa division, where earnings jumped $US100 million to $US473 million.

Earnings per share came in at 54 cents for the quarter, compared to 28 cents a year ago.

For the full year 2012 GM reported $US4.86 billion in net income - down 36 per cent from a year earlier, with special items having boosted 2011 earnings sharply and also taking nearly $US500 million from 2012's final figure.

"We recorded another solid year in 2012 as we grew the business, delivered a third straight year of profitability and took significant actions to put the company on a solid path for future growth," said Dan Akerson, chairman and chief executive.

"This year our priorities will be executing flawless new vehicle launches, controlling costs and delivering more vehicles to our customers at outstanding value."

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