Pirate Party sails into Iceland parliament

ICELAND'S Pirate Party, a file-sharing activist movement, had wind in its sails in the country's election, becoming the first of its kind to win seats in a national parliament.

The libertarian movement, modelled on its Swedish namesake which has been campaigning for copyright reform since 2006, garnered 5.1 per cent of the vote, just above the five per cent election threshold, giving it three of the 63 seats in the Icelandic legislature.

The party was already represented in the parliament, known as the Althing, through co-founder Birgitta Jonsdottir, 46, an activist and poet who in the previous election ran under the banner of the Citizen's Movement.

Jonsdottir told public broadcaster RUV the results were "historic".

Founded in November last year, the party is young compared to its Swedish counterpart - which pioneered the movement and has two members of the European Parliament - as well as the German Pirate Party which has won seats in state legislatures.

After an inconspicuous launch, the Icelandic group made a splash in the polls less than a month before the vote, passing the five per cent election threshold that, in addition to Althing representation, gives it access to state funding.

Its internet-based campaign slammed the growing role of corporate interests in politics, appealing to protest voters and stealing some of the supporters who helped elect the Left-Green movement in 2009.

"We're not vying to get a seat in the government. But we're ready to work with any party that will be interested in the issues we've been raising," Jonsdottir told AFP.

Those issues included "21st century laws" on online privacy, freedom of information and government transparency, she said.

"Many people see Iceland as a kind of laboratory for democracy. We have to live up to this reputation," she said.

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Hip pocket pain hitting healthcare: report

WHEN it comes to out-of-pocket medical costs, Australians are among the hardest hit in the world, a new report shows.

The Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) says the country is now in the top five highest-spending nations in the world, with almost 20 per cent of total health costs now being paid on top of tax and private insurance.

CHF CEO Carol Bennett said the costs are high because the Australian health system enables additional costs to be applied to almost every treatment.

"Every time you see a GP or a medical specialist, fill a script, have a medical test, go to the dentist, there's another payment," she told AAP.

"And for people who have chronic conditions, those payments can be tens of thousands of dollars for treatments they have to have, like surgery on a private basis."

Australians now pay double the amount in out-of-pocket costs of people in the UK or France, Ms Bennett says, and a two-tiered health system has developed.

"We have a system in which if you can afford to pay, you'll get good access to healthcare; if you can't, you'll probably miss out.

"And that's the reality for many people who are having to make difficult choices about whether they access healthcare or not."

CHF says a typical Australian family is spending $500 a year on doctors' bills to meet the gaps left by Medicare, and are then shelling out a further $1200 a year on over-the-counter medicines not covered by the PBS.

Ms Bennett says thousands of Australians are now using superannuation funds to cover medical gaps, and says costs will keep climbing unless major parties develop real funding reform in the health system.

"We've had the Medicare system for 40-odd years - it no longer works for Australian consumers, and people are finding it too difficult to be able to afford the cost of healthcare in this country," she said.

"We (need) to make sure that the money being spent on healthcare is better spent and better targeted so the people who use and pay for healthcare get the service they need, rather than the system being driven by the providers and industries," Ms Bennett said.

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Windsor wants referendum on gay marriage

INDEPENDENT MP Tony Windsor is pushing for the Gillard government to include a referendum on gay marriage when the federal election is held in September,

Fairfax Media says Mr Windsor wants the controversial issue taken out of the hands of politicians and instead let the people decide.

"Polls on gay marriage say it's what the population wants," Mr Windsor said.

"A way to resolve it is through a referendum. It's a bit like the gun debate in America - the politicians appear to be out of step with the people."

Mr Windsor voted against the most recent same-sex marriage bill but said his views had softened after attending a civil union ceremony last year.

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Four die as bridge collapses in Thailand

POLICE say at least four people were killed when a small bridge collapsed near Thailand's ancient capital of Ayutthaya.

Police Colonel Jitkasem Sonkham says several motorcycle drivers and their vehicles fell into the Pasak river on Sunday while they were crossing the suspension bridge in Ayutthaya province's Tha Ruea district.

Authorities found four bodies under the rubble. Twelve people were injured.

Jitkasem says the cement bridge was built a few years ago for pedestrians and small vehicles to cross but has not been well maintained.

He says investigators believe the bridge was not over capacity at the time the accident happened but that it was in poor condition.

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Expect tax revenue hole of $12 billion: PM

TAX revenue will shrink by $12 billion by the end of June, according to new Treasury forecasts.

This means that across a four-year period, money collected by the government will be $12 billion less than forecast only seven months ago in the October budget update.

May 14's budget will include extensive spending cuts, which the government promises will not be so harsh that they will cost jobs and stunt economic growth, News Ltd reports.

This has raised speculation that welfare and tax concessions could be targeted.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is set to reveal on Monday that $4.5 billion will be shaved off anticipated earnings by June, on top of the $7.5 billion loss Treasurer Wayne Swan last week said would disappear from anticipated tax revenue.

According to an extract of the prime minister's planned speech to an economic conference in Canberra on Monday, Ms Gillard will promise to respond to "the huge reductions in revenue growth over the next four years" caused partially by the strong Australian dollar.

Ms Gillard is expected to say the profit and subsequent tax revenue drop was because "the prices for what Australian companies sell overseas are lower, imports are cheaper, local competition is fierce".

"Those things add up to business making less profit than planned."

So far the prime minister has suggested that only plans for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and increased school funding will be protected.

"Our nation cannot afford to leave children behind or to leave our nation's future economy limping behind the pack, unable to attract the high-wage, high-skill jobs of the future," she will say.

Ms Gillard will be speaking as part of the Per Capita Reform Agenda Series.

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French envoy delivers grim Afghan farewell

THE French ambassador in Kabul has delivered a starkly pessimistic farewell speech questioning the achievements of more than 11 years of international intervention in Afghanistan.

Bernard Bajolet, who has been appointed as France's new spy chief, rejected the normally cautious language of international diplomacy to express fears that Afghanistan faces an almost impossible series of challenges next year.

"I still cannot understand how we, the international community, and the Afghan government have managed to arrive at a situation in which everything is coming together in 2014," he told guests at his farewell party on Tuesday.

"Elections, new president, economic transition, military transition - and all this whereas the negotiations for the peace process have not really started," he said.

"But we have this situation in front of us and we have to cope with it."

Bajolet also had harsh words of warning about Afghanistan's prospects as a sovereign country when the NATO-led military combat mission ends next year and with international interest in the country fading rapidly.

"We should be lucid: a country that depends almost entirely on the international community for the salaries of its soldiers and policemen, for most of its investments and partly on it for its current civil expenditure cannot be really independent," he said at the embassy cocktail party.

More than a decade after the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001, Afghanistan remains in the grip of a virulent insurgency with militants launching daily attacks on government officials, police and international and Afghan soldiers.

But Bajolet's assessment contrasted with that of General Joseph Dunford, NATO's military leader in Afghanistan, who during the week struck an upbeat note, saying that there was "indisputable" progress towards the goal of a stable nation.

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Boston bombing brothers' dad in hospital

THE father of two brothers accused of bombing the Boston Marathon has been hospitalised, preventing his departure for the United States, he says.

Anzor Tsarnaev told Ria Novosti news agency he had left Makhachkala, capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan, for Moscow to catch a flight to the United States but had to be hospitalised due to a sudden rise in his blood pressure.

"I am in hospital but not in Moscow," Tsarnaev said, refusing to say where he was.

"Due to the illness I've decided to put off for the moment my journey to the United States."

Tsarnaev had told a news conference on Thursday that he wanted to go to the United States "to clear everything up" after one of his sons was killed and the other injured and captured following the bombing of the Boston Marathon that killed three and injured more than 260.

"I want to see my youngest son and bury my eldest," Tsarnaev said of Dzhokhar, 19, who has formally been charged with federal terrorist offences, and Tamerlan, 26, killed in a shootout after the April 15 bombings at the finishing line of the prestigious race.

The suspects' parents have recently been living in Dagestan, an overwhelmingly Muslim region on the Caspian Sea where the family briefly stayed before leaving for the United States.

Anzor is an ethnic Chechen born in Kyrgyzstan while Zubeidat is an ethnic Avar who hails from Dagestan itself.

The brothers spent most of their youth in Kyrgyzstan before the family moved to Dagestan and then the United States.

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