Man, 21, burned in Sydney gas fireball

A GAS-FUELLED fireball in a busy northern Sydney shopping plaza has left a man with serious burns.

The 21-year-old was rushed to Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital with burns to his lower body after a gas main caught alight about 1pm (AEST) on Monday at the front of a shop in Lane Cove.

He was reported to be in a stable condition.

The local primary school was locked down and about 150 people were moved to safety as firefighters monitored the fire.

They decided not to put the fire out, opting instead to ask the gas company to shut the gas down - which it did an hour later.

"It's actually safer to allow the gas to burn," Superintendent Ian Krimmer told AAP.

"If you put the fire out, you create a bigger problem because the gas leak could go to other areas and cause explosions in other locations."

As the gas was being shut off, six fire crews were protecting buildings, while police kept Longueville Road closed to all traffic.

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Labor senator 'spied on', committee hears

Labor senator John Faulkner may have been spied on in parliament house, a hearing has been told. Source: AAP

A PARLIAMENTARY official may have wrongfully accessed security camera footage of another official talking to veteran Labor senator John Faulkner.

Senior officers in the Department of Parliamentary Services accessed nine minutes of security camera footage while investigating a code of conduct case against an employee.

Department secretary Carol Mills has told a Senate estimates hearing the footage was properly released under guidelines which allowed its use in cases where it was needed to "provide evidence upon which to take criminal and civil proceedings".

However Ms Mills told the hearing on Monday that while the footage, which had been sought by human resources officers, was being examined, there may have been an "inadvertent breach of the statement of purpose".

She said the part of the footage in question involved a person "doing other activities in the building other than that for which the CCTV footage was released".

While she declined to say what those activities were, Senator Faulkner asked whether the footage involved someone giving information to him.

"It may do," Ms Mills said.

Senator Faulkner said it was a "serious issue of parliamentary privilege" and he would seek an investigation.

"That a senator in this parliament is being spied on as they go about the proper conduct of their duties - no one in this place is ever going to accept that," he said.

The committee went into a private session to discuss the issue further.

In 2011 Senator Faulkner led an inquiry into the DPS, which he described as "the worst administered government department" he had ever come across.

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Gold output off to a slippery start

Gold production in Western Australia's goldfields region has got off to a weak start for the year. Source: AAP

GOLD production in Western Australia's goldfields region has got off to a weak start for the year, with wet weather wreaking havoc at several mines.

Output dropped seven per cent to 68 tonnes between the March and December quarters as intense storm systems dumped rain on large areas of the state, Melbourne-based gold mining consultants Surbiton Associates said in a report.

On an annual basis, the amount of gold produced was up eight per cent.

During the March quarter, the Regis Resources Duketon Gold Project, near Laverton, was badly affected as 4.7 million tonnes of water flooded the Garden Well open pit to a depth of 45 metres.

Meanwhile, Norton Gold Fields' Paddington operations near Kalgoorlie reported 278 millimetres of rain during the quarter - more than double the region's average annual rainfall.

Surbiton Associates director Sandra Close said gold production was often affected by rain early in the year, as tropical cyclones sweep in from the Timor Sea.

"Wet weather forced many mines to cut ore production and restrict ore haulage in the March quarter," Dr Close said.

"This meant they had to rely on lower-grade, stockpiled material part of the time to keep their treatment plants running near capacity."

She said the grade of ore fell by around six per cent overall.

Despite the fall in output, some new capacity helped boost production as the Tropicana project reached full capacity and the new Mungari treatment plant near Kalgoorlie was commissioned.

US mining giant Newmont's two WA operations - Boddington mine and the Kalgoorlie Superpit joint venture - produced the most gold, followed by Newcrest's Cadia East/Ridgeway operation in NSW and its Telfer mine in central WA.

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Modern Family wedding lifts Ten's ratings

The first battle round of The Voice was the No.1 show on Sunday night with 1.865 million viewers. Source: AAP

NETWORK Ten will be showering Modern Family with confetti after Mitch and Cam's same-sex wedding performed well in the ratings on Sunday, despite being against The Voice and House Rules.

The second half of Mitch and Cam's wedding on Modern Family was ninth on OzTAM's overnight ratings with 808,000 viewers.

The first part of the double episode was 12th with 699,000 viewers.

The US sitcom was in direct competition against the Nine Network's singing series The Voice and Seven Network's reality renovation program House Rules.

The first battle round of The Voice was the No.1 show with 1.865 million viewers, and House Rules was fourth with 1.264 million.

The Voice has won the ratings every night it has screened this season.

Separating the The Voice and House Rules on Sunday were Seven News (1.390 million) and 60 Minutes (1.289 million) which were second and third respectively.

Ten's reality cooking MasterChef also held up well against The Voice to be seventh with 948,000 viewers.

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Deli meats a worry, study shows

Loved ones #PrayForMathilda

As a 13-year-old remains sedated in a stable condition after being struck by a car, young people are taking to social media to #PrayForMathilda.

School violence highest in a decade

VIOLENT schoolyard incidents are at their highest in a decade, with serious reports almost doubling in the last year and Western Sydney schools bearing the brunt.

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Kabul bombing kills 2 wounds 9

Loved ones #PrayForMathilda

As a 13-year-old remains sedated in a stable condition after being struck by a car, young people are taking to social media to #PrayForMathilda.

School violence highest in a decade

VIOLENT schoolyard incidents are at their highest in a decade, with serious reports almost doubling in the last year and Western Sydney schools bearing the brunt.

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Record WC numbers for FIFA and Brazil

Loved ones #PrayForMathilda

As a 13-year-old remains sedated in a stable condition after being struck by a car, young people are taking to social media to #PrayForMathilda.

School violence highest in a decade

VIOLENT schoolyard incidents are at their highest in a decade, with serious reports almost doubling in the last year and Western Sydney schools bearing the brunt.

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Flooding in southern China kills 37

FLOODING over the past week in China's south has killed 37 people, left six missing, and forced almost half a million from their homes, officials say.

The seasonal rains have fallen especially hard on the country's manufacturing hub of Guangdong province near Hong Kong, where 17 of the deaths were reported.

At least 25,000 homes have been destroyed by the flood waters and at least 440,000 people have been displaced, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement on its website on Monday.

More thunderstorms were forecast for Guangdong on Tuesday.

China's worst floods in recent history were in 1998, when 4150 people died, most of them along the Yangtze River, China's mightiest.

The massive Three Gorges Dam has largely contained Yangtze flooding but the problem persists in the south and north.

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