World News joined 5

[OMEN]

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has told his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, the New York Times has reported on its website, citing an administration official.

A person with knowledge of the governor's role told the Times the governor was believed to be a client of a prostitution ring.

Spitzer had been due to make an announcement at 2:15 p.m. EDT (7:15am NZT), but half an hour later had yet to address a room crowded with journalists awaiting his statement.

As state attorney general before being elected governor in November 2006, Spitzer was sometimes called the Sheriff of Wall Street for his prominent role in investigating financial cases.

A Democrat, he entered the governor's office promising ethical reform but soon entered into a conflict with Republican leaders in the state Senate, slowing his agenda.

He has been married to Silda Wall Spitzer since 1987 and they have three daughters.

Spitzer prosecuted at least two prostitution rings when he ran the state's organized crime task force, the New York Times said in its article.

The paper said Spitzer "spoke with revulsion and anger" after announcing the arrest of 16 people for running what the paper termed a high-end prostitution ring in Staten Island.

The Times quoted Spitzer as saying: "This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure," Spitzer said at the time. "It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring."

Reuters

[OMEN]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/708001.jpg
LETHAL WEAPON I TO IV: Chuck Norris is a cult figure among US forces in Iraq, and is beginning to catch on with Iraqis too.
Hollywood action star Chuck Norris, known for his martial arts prowess and tough-guy image, has become a cult figure among the US military in Iraq and an unlikely hero for some in Iraq's security forces.

A small cardboard shrine is dedicated to Norris at a US military helicopter hub in Baghdad, and comments lauding the manliness and virility of the actor have been left on toilet walls across Iraq and even in neighbouring Kuwait, soldiers say.

"The fastest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist," reads one message at the shrine, which consists of a signed photo of the actor surrounded by similar statements.

"Chuck Norris puts the laughter in manslaughter," reads one and "Chuck Norris divides by zero," reads another.

Known as Chuck Norris "facts", the claims have already become an Internet phenomenon, and scores are featured on www.chucknorrisfacts.com, including "Superman wears Chuck Norris pyjamas", and "There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Chuck Norris lives in Oklahoma".

The actor has visited Iraq several times and was made an honorary Marine last year. Some 20 US military personnel and support staff spoken to by Reuters could recite at least one Norris "fact", despite many having not visited the website.

US troops in Iraq say his support for them and Norris' invincible image has made him their idol and insist the exaggerated and satirical claims are not meant to mock him.

"The jokes all add to his legend. They're not derogatory. He's an icon," said Sergeant Joe Lindsay at a base in Falluja in Iraq's Western Anbar province, which Norris has visited.

AN IRAQI NORRIS

Bearded and muscled, Norris shot to fame fighting kung fu legend Bruce Lee in the 1972 film The Way of the Dragon, and later films show him devastating groups of men with one kick.

"Norris visited Iraq when violence was its worst and other celebrities were skittish. He's one of the guys," US military public affairs officer Specialist Mark Braden said in Baghdad.

"The Marines love him. He's like a mythical legend," Staff Sergeant Amy Forsythe in Falluja said.

Soldiers cited many reasons for his appeal. Some appreciated his films and fighting ability – Norris is a martial arts guru, and many of his films have military themes.

Others said the masculine and plainly dressed actor was an antidote to the preening and moisturized metrosexual male.

Some praised his Christian and political values. The actor recently endorsed Republican Party presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, though in the spirit of the Norris "facts", Marines argued it was Huckabee who endorsed Norris.

"He's helped us a lot. The appeal is also his martial arts, and sheer physical presence. . . I don't think I go a day without hearing a Norris joke," said Corporal Ricardo Jones in Falluja.

Norris' appeal is not restricted to US troops either. At an Iraqi police graduation ceremony in Falluja, graduates called out for their "Chuck Norris" to pose with them for photos.

"Truthfully, I didn't know who he was. I asked the Americans, and they said he was a great fighter, and that's why they named me after him. They showed me a video, and it's true, he's a great fighter" said police trainer Mohammed Rasheed.

With his handle-bar moustache, Rasheed has a vague resemblance to Norris.

Another police trainer said Chuck Norris was a role model for the police in Falluja, which until 2007 was an al Qaeda stronghold and the scene of fierce battles with security forces.

"I've seen his videos, he's a hero. He saves the city, he protects women and children and he fights crime wherever it is. We should all be like Chuck Norris," Khaled Hussein said.

Reuters

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The price of crude oil has hit an all-time high for the fifth time in six trading sessions.



New York sweet light crude touched a new high of $108.21 a barrel, before edging down to trade at $107.93.

Analysts say traders are investing in commodities to protect themselves against the falling dollar.

Another factor pushing up prices is last week's decision by producers' cartel Opec to keep output unchanged, despite rising demand in China.

The dollar has been reaching new lows against the euro and other key currencies since last summer, and was hit again on Friday by a US employment report showing the labour market at its weakest in five years.

This has prompted traders to seek refuge in commodities, including oil and gold, which are more likely to sustain their value than the greenback.

In Europe, Brent crude hit $104.42 at one point on Monday - also a record.

Financial strain

Analysts at the International Energy Agency said that real oil prices are higher than the previous peak reached in April 1980, which was $102.53 in today's money.

But the oil price measure used then was slightly different to the one in current use and so it is difficult to make an accurate comparison.

The high oil price is making petrol and energy costs more expensive around the world, putting financial pressure on businesses and household budgets.

BBC News

[OMEN]

The Bali Nine and Schapelle Corby face an obstacle to their chances of returning eventually to Australia under a prisoner transfer deal with Indonesia.

Indonesian authorities say they are opposed to transfers of prisoners convicted of drugs crimes or terrorism back to Australia.

Australia and Indonesia have been slowly negotiating a prisoner exchange deal for more than two years.

Indonesia says there are still a number of sticking points between the two countries, including how long inmates must serve before being transferred.

Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Ministry spokesman Kolier Haryanto today said Indonesian negotiators believed that prisoners jailed for terrorism and drugs crimes were to be left out of any deal.

"What was agreed (between Indonesian negotiators) is that in the first place that terrorism and drugs was not in it," Haryanto said.

"But we can still talk about it.

"It's still optional. I mean that's not the Indonesian fixed position."

He said most of the other issues related to "technical" matters, such as which authority was responsible for the transfer and who would pay.

An Australian embassy spokesman said Australia was committed to concluding a deal, but it was inappropriate to comment on how the treaty would be applied in particular cases.

Earlier, Indonesia's prisons director general Untung Sugiyono told reporters there was still disagreement about whether people convicted of drugs crimes could be transferred back to Australia.

"It's still under discussion, I cannot give you a (time frame) target," he told reporters in Bali.

"What I know is there's still one thing not matched.

"We don't want to give (the transfer) to those who are involved in drugs."

Sugiyono met with Schapelle Corby as he inspected Kerobokan Prison today, and she took the opportunity to reject reports she had been allowed to go on outings from the prison.

Corby said she had been let of out her Bali prison home only three times in the past four years – for medical reasons.

"I will have been here for four years in a little while," Corby told SugiyoNo

"I have been out three times to take out my tooth only, and that's all.

"Only for half an hour."

Corby is serving a 20-year prison term after her arrest at Bali's airport in 2004 with 4.2kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag but says she is innocent.

Meanwhile, the former head of security at the prison was today found guilty of drugs and weapons charges.

Mohammad Sudrajat was sentenced to four years' imprisonment after Denpasar District Court found him guilty of possessing crystal methamphetamine (ice) and illegally possessing ammunition for a firearm.

At the time of his arrest last year, Sudrajat was head of security at Kerobokan Prison, where the Bali Nine heroin smugglers and Corby are housed.

Denpasar District Court Chief Judge I Nyoman Sutama today said the former security chief was "officially and convincingly guilty" of the charged crimes.

The panel of judges said that Sudrajat had been well mannered during his trial and had no prior convictions, but the crimes were "against the government efforts which are strongly fighting drugs".

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of seven years' imprisonment.

The court previously heard police had found 50 live bullets for a 0.22 firearm in Sudrajat's office at the prison, but he did not have a licence for the ammunition.

He was also found with packages of ice totalling 0.3g, which police alleged he was going to deliver to a person in Denpasar when he was arrested last September.

Reuters

[OMEN]

John Howard's public rehabilitation has begun.

The extraordinary denunciation of Australia's second-longest serving prime minister started within days of last year's election loss.

Liberal and National MPs fell over themselves to declare Work Choices dead, decry the failure to ratify the Kyoto protocol, and join in the apology to indigenous Australians.

But Mr Howard is being welcomed back into the fold.

Liberal leader Brendan Nelson today praised him as "the quiet achiever", condemning Kevin Rudd as "the quiet deceiver".

Former health minister and Howard stalwart Tony Abbott went further, predicting that the Rudd government would be so bad that it would make the Howard years look like "a golden age of compassion and decency".

Dr Nelson implored coalition MPs to defend their record in government, and urged them against any radical policy deviations.

"As a coalition, in terms of policy, we shouldn't see any radical deviation, it's important that there is no radical shift to the left or the right," he told them.

That's despite the fact that he has spent the past three months junking the fundamentals of the Howard years, with backflips on Iraq, industrial relations, the apology to the stolen generations, nuclear power and ratifying Kyoto.

"We as a coalition need to be focused, resilient and confident – confident in our values and philosophy, be proud of our achievements and not allow Labor to rewrite our time in government," Dr Nelson said.

The change has been sparked by two things.

The coalition has been battered by weeks of dismal polls and revelations that MPs have been moonlighting overseas.

But Mr Rudd's clumsy handling of plans to reconfigure payments to carers and seniors has given it its first sniff of blood.

His refusal to spell out how the government plans to maintain the payments – given as one-off bonuses under Mr Howard – has upset more than two million Australians.

Mr Abbott says the government is suffering "compassion fatigue" after just three months in office.

The government has laughed off the claims.

"Being lectured by this mob on vulnerable people is like being lectured by Paris Hilton on public modesty," Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen joked.

But the running dispute has given Dr Nelson renewed energy.

And Mr Howard has re-entered public life with a series of appearances in the United States, in which he has given a spirited defence of his time in office.

Asked by Harvard University students about what he'd learnt from the election, a philosophical Mr Howard said: "I guess the first lesson I learnt was that you win some and you lose some."

But he pointed out that he had won four elections and stood by his refusal to ratify Kyoto or apologise to the stolen generations.

"I can point to three or four policy decisions that my government took that did look to the longer term but which had a short-term political cost," he said.

Unfortunately, they are the ones his party has turned its back on since the election loss.

But his reappearance seems to have reminded his former colleagues of why they kept him as leader for more than 11 years.

AAP

[OMEN]

Leaders of the US Episcopal Church were told once and for all that the gay man they elevated to bishop will not be allowed to attend a top, once-a-decade worldwide Anglican church meeting this summer.

"It feels as if, instead of leaving the 99 sheep in search of the one, my chief pastor and shepherd, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams), has cut me out of the herd," said Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, after receiving the definitive word that he will be excluded from the Anglican Communion's Lambeth Conference in England.

It was the US church's consecration of Robinson in 2003 as the first bishop known to be in an openly gay relationship in more than four centuries of Anglican church history that jolted the 77 million-member global church, already divided over biblical interpretation, the ordination of women and the blessing of same-sex unions.

Robinson's exclusion from the Lambeth Conference had previously been announced. But the 2.4 million-member Episcopal Church, Anglicanism's US branch, had been negotiating the issue, hoping to change the situation.

Word that no change would be possible came from the Episcopal Church House of Bishops meeting in Texas.

Robinson said he had been offered instead a chance to appear for media interviews at an exhibition that accompanies the Lambeth Conference.

"One workshop on one afternoon and being interviewed by the secular press was not anything I was seeking. I wasn't going to Lambeth to have another interview with the secular press. If interviewed at all, I want to talk with a theologian. I want to talk about the love of Christ. I want to talk about the God who saved me and redeemed me and continues to live in my life," he said.

Robinson said he would nonetheless attend the meeting as an outside observer.

A team of bishops assigned to negotiate the issue with the Archbishop of Canterbury's office told the meeting it had been informed that a full invitation was not possible; that a retreat planned during the meeting in July at Canterbury Cathedral was closed to uninvited guests and media; and that there was no room for an "observer" at the Lambeth sessions.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Japan has failed to bring child pornography under control, leaving children around the world at risk, Unicef said on Tuesday as it launched a campaign to stamp out exploitation of minors.

Japan's government is inching towards a ban on the possession of obscene images of children, which would bring it into line with most other industrialised countries.

But the Japan branch of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) urged Tokyo to beef up its laws by banning child pornography in manga comics, animated films and computer games as well as individual possession.

"Japan, a major player in information technology, is left uncontrolled, meaning children both here and around the world are suffering sexual exploitation for the sake of child porn," Unicef said in a statement.

A previous campaign prompted laws, enacted in 1999 and 2004, that banned child prostitution and the production and sale of obscene images of children under 18, but simple possession of such material remains legal.

"The media report child pornography cases almost daily," the statement continued. "Hundreds of cases have been brought to court, but they are the tip of the iceberg and figures are still rising."

A committee of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party set up to look into a possible ban on the possession of child pornography, as well as penalties, held its first meeting last week.

"It turned out that almost all the members were in favour of banning individual possession, so we are moving in that direction," Mayumi Moriyama, a former justice minister who heads the committee, told the news conference.

Critics, including Washington's ambassador to Tokyo, Thomas Schieffer, say Japan's failure to ban possession has hampered international investigations into child pornography rings.

Schieffer was set to visit Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama later on Tuesday to press him on the issue, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. Hatoyama has already said he is in favour of a ban.

"I am ashamed to say that our society takes the view that it is all right to possess child porn," lawyer and children's rights campaigner Keiji Goto told reporters, adding that obscene photographs were often used by paedophiles to persuade children that sexual exploitation is normal.

Unicef also called on prosecutors and courts to apply current legislation more strictly, pointing out that photo books and DVDs featuring small children in bikinis are freely available in stores and over the Internet.

Japan and Russia are alone among G8 countries in not banning possession of child pornography.

Some members of Japan's main opposition Democratic Party oppose a ban because it might grant police too much power, domestic newspaper reports have said

reuters

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Saudi women's rights activists have posted on the web a video of a woman at the wheel of her car, in protest at the ban on female drivers in the kingdom.



Wajeha Huwaider talks of the injustice of the ban and calls for its abolition as she drives calmly along a highway.

She says the film was posted to mark International Women's Day. Thousands have viewed it on the YouTube website.

The last such public show of dissent was in 1990 when dozens of women were arrested for circling Riyadh in cars.

Last year, Ms Huwaider and other activists circulated a petition which was sent to King Abdullah urging him to lift the ban.

In the three-minute clip, she at first drives around a residential compound where she notes that women are allowed to drive because it is not a public road.

But about halfway through, without comment, she executes a left turn onto the main highway and proceeds to drive along it in defiance of Saudi law.

"Many women in this society are able to drive cars, and many of our male relatives don't mind us driving," she says in Arabic.

"I hope that by next year's International Woman's Day, this ban on us will be lifted," she concludes.

In February, two leading Islamic scholars said there was no reason to continue the ban.

However, many conservatives continue to resist reform, arguing it would lead to mingling of the sexes which is banned under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic Law.

The 1990 protest, coming at the height of the Gulf crisis when US forces had come to defend Saudi Arabia, was followed by a crackdown on the women drivers and their passengers.

The women were jailed for one day, their passports confiscated, and many lost their jobs.

King Abdullah has in the past said that he thought a day would eventually come when Saudi women were allowed to drive.

BBC News

[Suicide]

Source: MSNBC

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A woman being held as an illegal immigrant spent four days forgotten in an isolated holding cell at a courthouse with no food, water, or toilet, authorities and the woman said.

Adriana Torres-Flores, 38, appeared in court last Thursday and pleaded not guilty to a charge of selling pirated CDs, but a judge ordered her held because she is in the country illegally, Sheriff Tim Helder said.

Bailiff Jarrod Hankins put her in the cell to await transport to jail, and she was forgotten. Because of heavy snow, few staff members were in the courthouse to hear her cries and pounding later Thursday or on Friday and through the weekend.

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[OMEN]

Johannesburg - The State believes it has a good chance of convicting Jacob Zuma on corruption, its advocate Wim Trengove told he Constitutional Court on Wednesday, as he fought for the right to keep documents seized in the investigation against Zuma.

"We are sure that we have a case, not merely a prima facie case, but a case with a reasonable prospect of conviction," Trengove said, with Zuma sitting behind him in the front row of the public gallery.

He said the difference between interpretations of the search warrants used in the searches, by the state on the one hand and Zuma, arms company Thint and Zuma's lawyer Michael Hulley on the other, was "extremely narrow".

Thint argued that the warrants issued BY Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe were authorised without a case being made to Ngoepe.

Zuma's lawyer, Kemp J Kemp, said there was no affidavit with information on the investigation attached to the warrants.

Trengove said neither Section 29 of the National Prosecuting Authority Act nor the Constitution made provision for the attachment of an affidavit as suggested by Kemp.

Challenging the raid

While the searches had to be done in a dignified manner that respected privacy, the person being searched was not entitled to start challenging the state's interpretation of the authority on the scene.

He was only entitled to be told on what authority it was being done and was entitled to have his questions answered.

"Of course that afternoon he (a person being searched) can go to his lawyer," said Trengove.

He said the admissibility of the documents could also be decided at trial.

In court papers Hulley said that he left his offices for the airport on the morning of the raid and it was only on his way to the airport that he tried to challenge the raid and secure an affidavit, nor was he familiar with what he could have done on the scene. He only received an affidavit the following day.

The court heard that he pointed out boxes of financial records that the searchers wanted.

Trengove said the annexes on the warrant saying what was sought gave an indication of the type of investigation.

The investigating officer, Johann du Plooy, had also justified his application for the warrants in a sworn statement to Ngoepe.

'There is a case'

Trengove said the searches were a continuation of the investigation originally done for the purposes of the trial of Schabir Shaik, Zuma's former financial adviser, who was convicted of corruption relating to a R500 000 bribe Zuma is alleged to have received from him.

"There is a case, a reasonable prospect of conviction," said Trengove.

Zuma and Thint are trying to overturn a Supreme Court of Appeal decision that the documents may be used in Zuma's forthcoming August 4 trial, on the grounds that the warrants that allowed the searches were invalid.

SAPA

[OMEN]

Bangkok - Deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to corruption charges, in the first case assembled by military-backed investigators to reach court.

Thaksin said little during the 20-minute hearing before the Supreme Court, which was packed with hundreds of his supporters who filled the courtroom and spilled out onto the steps outside.

After a judge read out the charges, accusing Thaksin of using his political influence to win his wife a sweetheart property deal, he was asked if he pleaded not guilty. Thaksin simply replied: "Yes."

The court also said Thaksin would not have to attend every hearing in his trial.

The billionaire had requested that the trial proceed in his absence so he can travel overseas to tend to his investments, particularly the English Premier League club Manchester City, which he bought last year.

Thaksin has already been granted court permission to travel to Britain for a month. He is expected to leave Thailand later in the week.

Thaksin's arraignment came less than two weeks after his jubilant return to Thailand, ending nearly 18 months in self-imposed exile following the 2006 military-backed coup against him.

The military toppled Thaksin over allegations of widespread corruption, but after 16 months in power, failed to win any convictions against him.

Thaksin and his wife each face up to 13 years in prison over two graft charges alleging she used his political influence to buy prime Bangkok property in 2003 from a government agency at about one-third of its estimated value.

AFP

[OMEN]

Poles should not be allowed to vote online because the Internet attracts people who watch "pornography while sipping a bottle of beer", a former prime minister told his party's Web site.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski and other leaders of his conservative party have said they wanted to rejuvenate their ranks and reach out to Internet users after losing power last October when younger voters flocked to their centre-right rivals.

Poland's election commission is floating proposals such as allowing people to vote online to boost turnout.

"I am not an enthusiast of a young person sitting in front of a computer, watching video clips and pornography while sipping a bottle of beer and voting when he feels like it," he was quoted as saying on his party's revamped Web site.

He added that Internet users are "the easiest group to manipulate, to suggest who to vote for".

Kaczynski, who admits to not using a cellphone or having a bank account, and his party have stumbled in other recent efforts to attracted younger supporters.

Last month party officials sparked chuckles among the fans of The Matrix franchise by comparing Kaczynski's successor Donald Tusk to Leo, the movie's hero pursued by evil Agent Smith and his look-alikes.

Kaczynski ruled Poland with his twin brother Lech, the president. Since leaving office he had unsuccessfully sought to retain his secret service agents because he feared being mistaken for his brother.

Reuters

[OMEN]

A mayoral candidate in Saturday's Queensland local government elections wants to replace 25 indigenous families from a south-west Queensland town with the same number of Vietnamese families.

A brochure written and distributed in Cunnamulla by 66-year-old Paroo Shire mayoral candidate Kevin Wise pledges to ask the federal government to pay $50,000 ($NZ58,322.64) to each of the 25 local indigenous families to move out of the shire.

Mr Wise says he would invite 25 poor non-English-speaking Vietnamese families to take their place on a five-year contract.

"I guarantee that within that five years, these families will have advanced this shire's wealth and future prosperity out of all proportion to that achieved to date with the integration on totally racial grounds of this 'dead in the water', last one leaving 'turn the lights out' community," the brochure says.

Born and raised in Cunnamulla, Mr Wise says he had served in the Australian Army during the Vietnam War and believes hard-working Vietnamese families will help rejuvenate the town's economy.

He wants them to start market gardens while their children study for highly skilled careers such as medicine and return to the shire as much-needed doctors.

"In five years, those 25 Vietnamese families, who come in not speaking English, will further advance this community, this Paroo shire, in five years than what the Aboriginal community has progressed it in the past 40," Mr Wise told AAP today.

He acknowledged that his views may not be widely shared in the community.

"As a racist, I've got a membership of one. . . me."

Mr Wise also said he was too old to be mayor and did not expect to win the position on Saturday.

"I'm 15 years too late for this job and even if I could get my 25 families, I'm not prepared to put in the hard yards and fall off the perch to make a success of it," he said.

The brochure has raised the ire of Aboriginal activist and former Cunnamulla resident Stephen Hagan whom Mr Wise said he hoped to debate on ABC Radio in Toowoomba on Friday.

Mr Hagan told ABC Brisbane Radio today that the brochure also insulted his father Jim Hagan, who was also a former resident of Cunnamulla.

Stephen Hagan said the pamphlet had no place in today's society and he was lodging a complaint this afternoon with the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland.

He said he still had many relatives in Cunnamulla who would not know where to go, if Mr Wise's plan was ever put into practice.

"I think it's just ludicrous – he's just publicity-seeking," Mr Hagan told AAP.

"I don't think it has any merit.

"He's implying that the Vietnamese would be far more economic (sic) than Aboriginal people in terms of contributing to the economy.

"That is racist and there's no other way of looking at it.

"It ought to be viewed as such and I think Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland ought to have a look at this particular poster (sic) and deem it to be inappropriate.

"It would send a clear warning to people in future campaigns that they won't tolerate this type of racist stuff going on flyers."

AAP

[OMEN]

A Sydney brothel madam accused of luring Korean sex slaves to Australia was a police informant, a court has been told.

Kwang Suk Ra, 46, of Greenacre, is accused of heading a syndicate that brought at least 10 women to Australia under false pretences and forced them to work up to 20 hours every day in her Surry Hills brothel.

She is one of five people charged over the sex racket allegedly worth $3 million.

Ra faced Sydney's Central Local Court today on a string of charges, including debt bondage, deceptive recruitment for sexual purposes and dealing in the proceeds of crime worth more than $1 million.

If convicted, she faces 25 years in jail.

In his application for bail on her behalf, solicitor Stewart Levitt said Ra had been an informant for the Asian Crime Squad.

Ra provided police with information about a Korean criminal gang operating in Sydney, he said.

She also co-operated with immigration authorities and the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) in the months leading up to her arrest, he said.

"She stuck her neck out and there's no question she's been helping authorities with regard to a criminal syndicate in Australia," Mr Levitt told the court.

Under cross-examination, federal agent Juan Castellaz-Faico said police "no longer wished to speak" to Ra.

"For a period of time Ra was providing NSW police with information . . . but her services have been terminated," he said.

Mr Levitt said Ra was simply the landlord of the $220-an-hour brothel, Cindirellas, where the women were allegedly forced to work after having their passports confiscated.

She leased the operation to a number of managers, he said.

Kay Marinos, for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, said Ra pulled the strings.

"It's a sham, she's the real controller of the operation," Mr Marinos said.

The court was told Ra threatened the women, whom she allegedly duped into believing they owed her up to $40,000 ($NZ46,658.11) for their travel to Australia.

In denying her application for bail, Magistrate Allan Moore said Ra may have only helped the authorities to clear the field of rivals.

He said it was clear she had brought the women to Australia and if freed on bail, would try to prevent them from testifying.

Mr Moore rejected the argument she was unaware of what her tenants at the brothel were doing.

"She sits behind the scenes. . . removing herself from the frontline of the activity that takes place on a day-to-day basis," he said.

Ra was remanded in custody until April 30, when she will reappear before the same court.

Her co-accused, Na Kyung Kim, 42, Jin Hee Do, 35, Jin Woo Lee, 23 and Gin Taek Choi, 28, also appeared today before the same court on related charges.

Choi was granted bail on a $10,000 ($NZ11,664.52) surety and will be required to report daily to police.

Kim, accused of laundering the syndicate's profits, had her bail application denied. She was remanded in custody to reappear before the same court on April 30.

Neither Do nor Lee applied for bail and it was formally refused.

Both were remanded in custody, with Lee to reappear before the same court on March 20 for a bail application and Do on April 30.

AAP

[OMEN]

An inflation-wary federal government says economic restraint, as well as cost pressures on families, must be considered when deciding the next rise in minimum wages.

Unions have called on the Australian Fair Pay Commission (AFPC) to give the nation's poorest workers an extra $26 ($NZ30.32) a week.

ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence today said the union movement's submission for 1.6 million minimum wage earners would not be inflationary and was within broad wage movements.

But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the commission needed to take economic conditions into account in making its decision.

Interest rates have risen twice this year and the Reserve Bank of Australia has repeatedly warned that rising wages in a tight labour market threaten the inflation outlook and, in turn, future rate moves.

"We want an outcome that takes into account the cost of living pressures on working families," Mr Rudd told parliament.

"And we want an outcome that takes into account the need for restraint in the economy."

Mr Rudd has also taken repeated digs at the multi-million dollar salaries of corporate bosses.

"Inflation is the enemy of working families and it's critical that we reduce those inflationary pressures," Mr Rudd said.

"It's in that context that today I again call on Australia's business leaders to show some restraint when it comes to their salaries.

"I don't want to see a situation where we end up with two Australias."

Last year's AFPC increase was a mere $10.26, ($NZ11.96) after unions had called for $28 ($NZ32.66).

If the $26 ($NZ30.32) a week rise is granted this time, it will take the current federal minimum wage from $522.12 ($NZ609.02) to $548.12 ($NZ639.35) a week.

The commission is currently receiving submissions on this year's adjustment.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said the government had to take overall economic conditions into account.

"We have to bear in mind that a lot of low paid workers are very vulnerable. I think they deserve a fair increase, but a balanced increase as well," he said.

Mr Lawrence targeted AFPC chairman Professor Ian Harper as he criticised huge increases in corporate salaries in the past year.

"If there is to be restraint, it should be exercised at the top," Mr Lawrence told the National Press Club.

"I notice that Professor Ian Harper, in comments a week or so ago, seemed to be preparing the ground for a lower than justified minimum wage increase through his commission.

"That's in circumstances when he got a personal increase of $38,000 ($NZ44,325.20) last year – about 47 per cent. Well in excess of any worker who will be covered by any decision that his commission will make.

"I'd ask today whether anyone expects workers on average incomes to exercise restraint when none in shown by those who are paid 10 or 20 or 100 times as much."

Prof Harper reportedly is paid nearly $120,000 ($NZ139,974.33) a year.

Mr Lawrence said corporate salaries had risen more than 30 per cent on average in the past year.

AAP