Five dead on Vic roads over the weekend

THE death of a man late on Sunday night has taken to five the number of people who died on Victoria's roads over the weekend.

In the latest death, police believe the man lost control of his car before it hit a tree on the Henty Highway near Heywood, in Victoria's southwest, just before 11pm (AEST).

An off-duty nurse and emergency services worked to save the man but he died at the scene.

A 58-year-old man died in a quad bike accident on Sunday afternoon at Murchison, in central Victoria, while in the early hours of Sunday morning a man was killed when his car veered to the other side of the road in Doncaster and hit a tree.

On Saturday, a female passenger aged in her 60s, died after a station wagon plunged off a road in southwestern Victorian and hit a tree.

And a newborn baby died on Saturday after its mother was involved in a car crash at Point Cook on Tuesday and she gave birth prematurely.

Their deaths take the state's road toll to 223 - five more than for the same time last year.

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Turkey bars Syrian civilian flights

TURKEY'S foreign minister says the country has barred its air space to Syrian civilian flights.

Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday that Turkey had made the decision because the Syrian regime, which is battling an insurgency, was "abusing" civilian flights by transporting military equipment.

He says Syria's government was notified of the decision on Saturday.

Last week, Turkey forced a Syrian plane to land and confiscated what it said was military equipment on board. Russia said the plane was carrying spare radar parts, while Syria accused Turkey of piracy.

Syria announced on Saturday that it was closing its air space to Turkish flights.

But Davutoglu said on Sunday: "The Syrian announcement has no value for us."

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'Space jump' team begins inflating balloon

THE team working with an extreme athlete who hopes to become the first skydiver to break the sound barrier is inflating the balloon that is designed to lift him to the stratosphere.

Felix Baumgartner has donned his high-tech pressurised suit and is on board a capsule that will be lifted by the balloon near Roswell, New Mexico

The former Austrian paratrooper's jump was postponed twice last week because of high winds.

Mission control officials say the 30 million cubic foot balloon will be fully inflated by 10am local time (3am AEDT), when the three-hour ascent is expected to begin.

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Two killed in strike on Gaza: medics

TWO men have been killed and another two critically wounded in an Israeli strike on central Gaza, Palestinian medics said in what was the third deadly raid in 24 hours.

The incident occurred just east of Deir al-Balah, with the Israeli military confirming it had targeted "a terrorist rocket squad".

Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, said the strike had initially killed one man and left three others in critical condition, but one of the wounded died shortly afterwards.

"Two people were killed - one of those who was critically wounded died of his wounds," he said.

He named the victims as Ezzedine Abu Nasira, 23, and Ahmad Fatayer, 22, both of whom were from Deir al-Balah.

Witnesses said the strike targeted a motorcycle, and said that both men were militants.

Mr Qudra said both of those wounded in the strike were civilians.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed there was a "targeting of a terrorist rocket squad" which had just fired a rocket at southern Israel.

"They had just fired a rocket at Israel which hit the area of the Eshkol regional council," she said. No one was injured on the Israeli side.

According to the army, more than 500 rockets have hit Israel since the start of 2012, more than 40 of which were fired in the first two weeks of October.

It was the third deadly Israeli raid within 24 hours.

On Saturday night, the air force targeted a motorcycle in the northern town of Jabaliya, killing a top Salafist leader and a fellow militant.

Several hours later, warplanes targeted two militants from the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the southern city of Khan Yunis, killing one and critically wounding the second.

Speaking to the Israeli cabinet on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that jihadists were stepping up their attempts to harm Israelis and warned that it would not be tolerated.

"Global jihad is increasing its efforts to strike at us and we shall continue to act aggressively and forcefully in response, and also with preventive strikes," he said.

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Students prepare to take HSC

THE time has come to put pen to paper as thousands of Year 12 students start their Higher School Certificate exams.

The first HSC exams, in English, begin across NSW on Monday morning.

Students taking the standard and advanced papers will be put to the test, as well as those enrolled in the English as a Second Language (ESL) course.

There are 73,397 students enrolled in at least one HSC course in the state, according to the Board of Studies.

Over the next 19 days, they will sit papers at more than 760 centres, both in Australia and around the world.

The first exams are the ones with the highest number of students registered, with 68,111 taking at least one English course. It is the only compulsory HSC subject.

The next most popular course is mathematics, which has 53,942 students enrolled.

The written exams, which account for 50 per cent of results in most courses, will continue until November 8.

Tom Alegounarias, president of the Board of Studies, wished this year's students well in a message on the board's website, telling them their hard work would be "worth it".

"My hope is that students don't see the HSC as an end point, but rather use it as a springboard to their life experiences as an adult," he said.

The HSC is the highest educational achievement in secondary education in NSW.

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Skydiver prepares to break sound barrier

AUSTRIAN extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner has started his ascent to 37 kilometres above Earth, hoping to make a death-defying free fall that could make him the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.

Baumgartner has taken off in the New Mexico desert in a pressurised capsule carried by a 55-storey ultra-thin helium balloon that is expected to take nearly three hours to climb into the stratosphere.

Baumgartner will jump into a near vacuum with no oxygen to begin what is expected to be the fastest, farthest free fall from the highest-ever manned balloon.

Any contact with the capsule on his exit could tear the pressurised suit, a rip that could expose him to a lack of oxygen and temperatures as low as minus 57C.

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UK probes ex-brass over political access

BRITAIN'S defence ministry has announced it is investigating whether retired senior officers broke any rules after they were recorded by undercover journalists as appearing to offer to lobby the government on behalf of defence companies.

The Sunday Times said officers, including former head of the army General Richard Dannatt and former defence procurement chief Lieutenant General Richard Applegate, had boasted about their access to ministers and senior officials. The paper posted some of its recordings online.

In one, Admiral Trevor Soar, is heard to say he had to "be slightly careful of lobbying ministers", but he could "basically ignore" restrictions on meeting with officials.

The officers deny wrongdoing, and the newspaper did not suggest they had broken any laws. Retired personnel are allowed to work for the private sector two years after leaving the military.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the revelations were "deeply damaging to the individuals", but he denied retired officers had any influence on decisions about military purchases.

He told the BBC that if retired officers were using their access to politicians "for commercial purposes then we will have to tighten it up or maybe even shut it down. That is something we will now look at."

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