RESCUE authorities are working to free a truckdriver trapped in a crash between two trucks in Beckenham early this afternoon.
The RAC Rescue helicopter has been sent to traffic crash in Beckenham on William Street near Brixton Street.
Career Fire and Rescue Service firefighters are at the scene and are working to free a person who is trapped.
A FORMER West Australian university lecturer has been charged with nine counts of corruption involving $83,000.
The senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University allegedly helped his estranged wife gain employment as a sessional tutor between 2008 and 2012 to tutor students and mark exam papers.
But the Corruption and Crime Commission claims she did not do the work.
Instead, the 52-year-old man allegedly did the work for her and had the payments sent to a joint bank account held by the couple, which was used to pay the mortgage on a property.
The man is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on March 29.
GET the latest on what the weather's been doing today, plus the forecast for the next 24 hours and week ahead, with Channel 9's weather presenter Sally Ayhan.
Channel Nine's new weather presenter Sally Ayhan gives PerthNow readers a unique insight into what's been happening with the local weather and a sneak peek into what temperatures to expect over the next 24 hours.
For Sally's full weather report, including the 7-day forecast, make sure you tune in to Nine News at 6pm tonight.
Source: The Sunday Telegraph
THIS is not the crisis Australian cricket was meant to have. Not with the Ashes 16 weeks away.
Searching for answers, defiant captain Michael Clarke will move up the batting order in a desperate bid to stop the rot after Australia crashed to an embarrassing innings loss against India in the second Test.
In a dark day for Australian cricket, the Hyderabad horror show was over by lunch on day four as India completed a ruthless hatchet job to consign the tourists (131) to an innings and 135-run defeat.
Rajiv Gandhi Stadium resembled a cricketing abattoir yesterday as a slew of Australian batsmen batted like meandering Brown's cows before meeting a swift 237-minute execution.
Only Ed Cowan (44 from 150 balls) showed a scintilla of resolve yesterday as the tourists lost 8-56 to be rolled for 131, slumping to a 2-0 deficit that will almost certainly cost them the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
And now the ugly post-mortem begins.
For Clarke, there is no longer any option. He has been content to bat at No.5 but after watching this appalling collapse, the third consecutive implosion on this tour, the Australian skipper declared he must go up the order.
"I have no choice," said Clarke, who backed up his 130 and 31 in Chennai with 91 and 16 in this Test.
"Again, it hasn't been about me, it's about trying to do what's best for the team, and I think now, especially in these conditions, I have to bat higher."
Australia's batting order capitulates again, losing five wickets early on day four of the second Test in Hyderabad.
Clarke is unsure if he will bat three or four in the third Test at Mohali starting March 14, but when asked about Australia's insipid display, he was unequivocal.
"It's obviously unacceptable," he fired. "It's probably more polite of me by not putting it into words.
"Very disappointing. I certainly don't want to take any credit away from India, I thought they played very well yesterday, they showed us once again how to bat in these conditions, they showed us once you get in how to go on and cash in and make a big score.
"At the end of the day our performances in these two Test matches have been unacceptable, certainly nowhere near the standard we are trying to set as an Australian cricket team.
"There's plenty of people that not only watch us on TV but fly around the world to support us and watch us and we know we've let them down."
A drawn campaign would see Australia retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy but on the evidence of the first two Tests they will be lucky to avert a 4-0 whitewash.
Now pressure is on the selectors to finally pull the right rein to save a tour on the brink of implosion.
In the wake of the first-Test defeat, the panel axed bowlers Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc in the hope a re-jigged attack could square the series.
Australia are 192 runs behind India despite a stirring fightback by their much-maligned spinners on day three of the second Test in Hyderabad.
India's mammoth 503 in the second Test does not absolve the bowlers of blame, but the batsmen are sure to enter the firing line after consecutive innings of mediocrity.
Phil Hughes (19 and 0) and Shane Watson (23 and 9) both suffered twin failures and there will be pressure to elevate left-hander Usman Khawaja, the shadow batsman in the 16-man touring party.
Seeing blood in the water, Clarke will now promote himself for the third Test to bolster a top-order looking as unreliable as a politician's promise.
It took just 18 balls to start the rot, with Watson departing in the third over of the morning after edging behind an Ishant Sharma delivery that was sailing down the leg side.
Once again, Clarke arrived to the wicket facing a rescue mission, but even this was a bridge too far, the skipper lasting just 31 balls before being clean bowled by Jadeja to leave Australia 4-108.
With the skipper back in the pavilion, the tourists fell apart.
Cowan, who had batted with great heart and patience, departed just three runs later, edging Jadeja to Virender Sehwag at first slip to end his gusty 150-ball innings.
And when rookie Henriques was run out four balls later after Matt Wade took off for a quick single to leave Australia 6-111, it typified their Fawlty Towers performance in this Test.
Smelling blood, India went for the jugular. Debutant Glenn Maxwell was the seventh victim, trapped lbw by Ashwin for eight to add to his first-innings failure of 13.
Peter Siddle (4) then edged Jadeja to Virat Kohli and Wade (10) departed the very next ball, Ashwin catching an edge which sailed to Sehwag to leave Australia 9-130.
Ashwin delivered the last rites, trapping James Pattinson (0) lbw to claim another five-wicket haul and leave the tourists in disarray.
Alarm bells are ringing everywhere. If the bowlers are inept, the batsmen, excluding Clarke, are impotent.
It is one thing to go down fighting in largely foreign conditions. It is another to fall in pea-hearted fashion - and Clarke's patience is wearing thin.
"The first two Test matches we've let each other down," he said. "At the moment our shot selection has been horrible.
"That's the most disappointing thing for me ... as a team we're letting each other down.
"We have to look at both areas (batting and bowling) that's for sure.
"Both have been unacceptable, both aren't good enough.
"We have to try and find ways to improve and if that means making changes that's what we have to do."
Where Australia go from here is anyone's guess.
FULL SCOREBOARD AT THE FOX SPORTS MATCH CENTRE
***
PHOTO DISPUTE
We are unable to publish photographs from the Test series in India due to a dispute between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and international news organisations.
The BCCI has refused access to Test venues to established picture agencies including our supplier Getty Images.
News Limited considers the BCCI action to be a strike against freedom of the press.
News Limited, along with international photo and news agencies, is not providing live imagery from the tour in protest.
AMA WA branch president Richard Choong says the hospital bed crisis in WA will get worse. Source: PerthNow
LEAKED WA Government figures reveal there will only be 218 extra hospital beds by 2015 in a key metropolitan region - despite Perth's rapidly increasing population.
Health Department documents show 2389 beds are planned for the South Metropolitan Health Service area in 2014-15, which includes the Fiona Stanley, Royal Perth, Fremantle and Rockingham hospitals.
This compares with 2171 currently. And the 2389 figure is based on a scenario that includes all of Fiona Stanley's proposed 783 beds while other hospitals lose hundreds of beds.
This is despite a lack of clarity from the WA Government about when Fiona Stanley's beds will all be available, with the official line now being "it has always been the plan to bring services online gradually''.
Doctors and health workers have asked how the public system in an area as prominent as SMHS could cope with such a small rise in beds, when up to 1500 people arrived in WA weekly.
Carolyn Smith, assistant secretary of the health support workers' union, United Voice, said the Barnett Government was spending $2 billion-plus on Fiona Stanley Hospital yet was "slashing'' more than 500 beds at other major metro hospitals.
"The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates WA's population increased by 24 per cent in the past 10 years (the) biggest growth out of all the states and territories. On average over 1,000 people a week arrive in WA,'' she said.
"We have not seen the same growth at our hospitals; no wonder our hospitals are under so much pressure.
"For example, the plan to cut beds at Fremantle hospital will have a devastating impact on the local community.
"By 2014, Fremantle Hospital won't even have an emergency department."
Australian Medical Association WA president Richard Choong said while billions of dollars had been spent on health in recent years on a massive spending and building program, "very little capacity has been added''.
"Things are tight now and they will still be tight after Fiona Stanley opens,'' Dr Choong said.
"The WA community will still be short of hospital beds and this will only continue to worsen as our population both grows and ages.
"We have been consistently told that everything will be okay once FSH is operating. We know it won't be and we will not allow the people of WA to be conned with this line''.
Dr Choong said because Fiona Stanley Hospital would be coming on stream "two years later than originally planned, we will still be short of beds when it finally does open and all (its) beds are available''.
"The AMA is extremely concerned that clinical reforms have reached their limit and system capacity remains static, against escalating demand likely to increase due to the 1500 people arriving in WA every week,'' he said.
Health Minister Kim Hames said the number of beds in the whole metropolitan region, which included SMHS, was due to increase by more than 500 by 2014-15.
"The Clinical Services Framework takes into account population growth, and more critically, models of care and service delivery to ensure healthcare matches the requirements of the community,'' he said.
"As a result, it is not appropriate to look at one area of healthcare to the exclusion of others.''
Det-Snr Constable Robert Martin from Major Fraud Squad with a copy of an email conversation involving dead WA woman Jette Jacobs. Source: PerthNow
Wagin woman, Jette Jacobs, 67.
Source: PerthNow
UP TO $1 million is leaving WA bank accounts each month for West African countries in online scams, according to the Major Fraud Squad.
The figure was revealed this morning in light of the death of Wagin woman Jette Jacobs, 67, who was found in her rented Johannesburg villa by police on February 9.
Ms Jacobs had travelled to South Africa in November last year to visit a Nigerian man she was having a relationship with on the internet.
Today, Detective Senior Constable Robert Martin from Major Fraud Squad's Operation Sunbird said West Australians were losing tens of thousands of dollars, their homes, and families to online romance scams.
"Between $600,000/$700,000 and $1 million per month is leaving the state of Western Australia to West Africa, particular Nigeria and Ghana - and I must stress that's just to those particular countries," he said.
He said the scammers were siphoning money from 400 to 600 people each month.
"Of those four-to-600 a number of them are serial senders," Const Martin said.
Operation Sunbird started in early 2012, joined forces with the Department of Consumer Protection in October that year and is currently working on a database of scammers.
"A number of the victims have been directed by the same offender to send money to Nigeria, Ghana, the UK, America and Malaysia, which shows there's a systematic type of fraudulent activities from a criminal network which expands over countries," Const Martin said.
"It's not just one person sitting behind a computer pretending to be whoever to defraud people."
Const Martin said the victims were often brainwashed by the scammers, being sent supporting material like documents and photos to convince them to hand over their cash.
"These victims have been groomed over a long period of time," he said.
Operation Sunbird has been trying to visit those people who are deemed at risk of losing even more.
"These people, on a lot of occasions, have based their whole hopes and dreams on the lies they have been told by the offender, so therefore to accept what we are saying is emotionally and financially devastating, in a lot of cases they have lost everything," Const Martin said.
Consumer Protection commissioner Anne Driscoll said the scammers were "heartless, cruel criminals".
"They basically suck everything they can from someone and cast them aside," she said.
Ms Driscoll said the discovery of the amount of money leaving WA each month was "surprising".
"We know that online relationships can actually be successful, but alarm bells need to go off when people start asking for money," she said.
Reports a Qantas plane has made an emergency landing at Sydney Airport. Picture: Nine News/Twitter Source: Supplied
A QANTAS plane has been forced to make an emergency landing at Sydney Airport after the undercarriage overheated.
QantasLink QF2260, which was travelling from Sydney to Lord Howe Island, was forced to return to Sydney "due to a technical issue with the air-conditioning system", a spokeswoman for the airline said.
The plane landed at 1.47pm (AEDT) and ambulance crews assessed about 50 passengers for dehydration.
Were you on the plane? Tell us about it at news@dailytelegraph.com.au
The Qantas spokeswoman said the flight crew had called ahead to request medical assistance and the plane was met by ambulance crews on the tarmac.
She could not confirm the temperature inside the cabin, but said it was high enough to cause the plane to turned around.
Some passengers reported that the temperature had reached up to 40 degrees in the cabin.
Passengers and crew were treated for heat exposure at the airport and two passengers were taken to hospital, the Qantas spokeswoman said.
An ambulance spokesman said paramedics were called to the airport around 1.30pm today after "reports the temperature inside was quite high,'' he said.
Two female passengers were treated at the scene for dehydration and taken to hospital, in a stable condition.
A spokeswoman for Sydney Airport confirmed a Qantas aircraft landed there this afternoon but would not give any further details.
''I can confirm that there was a Qantas aircraft that landed,'' she said.
WEST Australian Labor leader Mark McGowan entered a party campaign rally to the strains of a sci-fi theme song but made his case for Saturday's election on down-to-earth concerns for voters.
In six weeks of campaigning the Labor leader said he had focused on tackling health, education, community safety and public transport through his Metronet plan.
"Mr Barnett mocked Metronet by saying Perth is not London,'' Mr McGowan said, referring to Liberal Premier Colin Barnett.
"Well, Mr Barnett, I make this observation - Perth may not be London, but the way things are going under your stewardship we will end up with traffic like Los Angeles or Bangkok.''
The Liberals had also failed by allowing increases in power, water and gas bills, he said, describing Mr Barnett's arrogance as "breathtaking''.
About 150 people crammed into the historic Victoria Hall in Fremantle for today's rally, including prominent WA Labor figures Ben Wyatt, Roger Cook, Sue Ellery, Michelle Roberts, Rita Saffioti, Paul Papalia and Margaret Quirk.
Mr McGowan also went on the attack over privatisation, saying Labor would not "sell off the family silver'' but the Liberals would sell off Western Power, Water Corp and possibly some hospitals.
He said controversial Treasurer Troy Buswell was being groomed to take over as Premier if the
Liberal Party won the election, prompting boos and hisses from the crowd.
"Troy Buswell is the master of deceit and deception,'' he said.
Labor would continue to support mining and foster other industries like tourism and science, Mr McGowan said.
He was given a standing ovation after his speech, before he boarded a bus bound for regional WA for more campaigning.
But while he arrived onstage at the rally to the theme of Stargate SG-1, polls indicate he might need a miracle in the style of MacGyver - Richard Dean Anderson's other TV show - to win on Saturday.
POLICE are looking for two good samaritans who helped car-jacking victims in Wilson.
Kensington Detectives are investigating a report that about 2pm on January 31, a 23-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman were threatened by a man, who was known to the woman and was armed with a trimmer knife.
The man allegedly forced them to drive him from a unit in Preston Street, Como.
The 23-year-old man was driving a grey Toyota Corolla while the offender sat in the back and threatened the female victim, who was in the front passenger seat.
At about 2.30pm, the car stopped at traffic lights on Manning Road near Leach Highway, Wilson, and the woman called out for help.
Two men from two vehicles, a white Toyota Hilux and a white Toyota Landcruiser, came to their assistance.
The two men who helped the victims or anyone who has information about the incident is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Australia are 192 runs behind India despite a stirring fightback by their much-maligned spinners on day three of the second Test in Hyderabad.
Murali Vijay made a fine 167. Picture: Cameron Richardson Source: The Daily Telegraph
EMBATTLED Phil Hughes risks being dropped for the third time in his career after his latest duck left Australia on the brink of an embarrassing innings defeat in the second Test against India.
At stumps on day three, Australia (2-74) are going down the gurgler, still trailing by 192 runs after India's innings of mass destruction finally ended at 503 at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium.
First-Test tormentor Ravi Ashwin struck twice in the final session, bowling David Warner (26) and Hughes (0) around their legs to leave Ed Cowan (26) and Shane Watson (9) fighting in the Hyderabad furnace.
CLICK HERE FOR SCORES AND MATCH CENTRE
Classy Indian No.3 Cheteshwar Pujara, who crunched a sublime 204 yesterday, turned up the heat, saying the tourists needed to be mentally tougher to succeed on the sub-continent.
"They need to apply themselves," he said.
"They don't know how to go about the turning tracks. They know their strengths and we are trying to find out their weaknesses.
"So far we have been successful so our spinners have to continue with what they are doing."
Today is D-Day for Australia's batsmen. Perform, and they might pull off Mission Impossible and save this Test.
Perish, and some careers may go bust before the Ashes.
Hughes is fast perishing. In his third incarnation as a Test batsman, the 24-year-old impressed against Sri Lanka last summer but he is struggling to cope with the suffocating walls of spin in his maiden series on Indian soil.
Coming to the crease at 1-56, Hughes lasted just nine balls before he played on attempting to sweep Ashwin.
The pint-sized left-hander now has scores of 6, 0, 19 and 0 at an average of 6.25 at the mid-point of this four-Test series.
And while the size of the 16-man touring party may save Hughes for the third Test, his hopes of being retained for the Ashes in June are diminishing with every failure.
The former NSW opener has already been dropped twice in his Test career. Australia's selectors will be reluctant to order a third demotion, for they would fear Hughes may never be back.
But in the data-rabid game that is cricket, every batsman knows their indisputable currency is runs, and plenty of them.
Hughes is simply not getting enough.
He spent the winter re-shaping his technique to open up leg-side scoring options but the reality is Hughes has not looked comfortable employing strategies to combat spin on Indian decks.
As he trudged back to the pavilion yesterday, his Test average had dropped to 33.25 from 22 Tests. Since his return, he has managed scores of 86 and 87 against Sri Lanka, but the Test ton he is craving with his beefed-up style still beckons.
If the Australians are to have any hope of reclaiming the Ashes, they need solidity, consistency and durability in all conditions from their No.3.
Not that Hughes has been Robinson Crusoe on this tour.
The brilliance of Michael Clarke aside, the top four of Cowan, Warner, Hughes and Watson have all under-performed. Of their 12 collective innings before the second dig yesterday, just one, Warner's flaky 59 in Chennai, has yielded a half-century.
To underline the profligate batting, Australia has slumped to 3-126, 3-65, 4-63 and 2-56 in their first four outings this series. Before yesterday, Clarke had contributed 29.3 per cent _ almost a third _ of Australia's runs.
It was a mixed day for the Australians yesterday, with besieged spinners Glenn Maxwell (4-121) and Xavier Doherty (3-131) bouncing back from their day-two mauling to earn a scintilla of credibility.
At 1-387, India looked like scoring 700. But Test debutant Maxwell and Doherty claimed seven wickets yesterday as the hosts lost 7-103 in the middle session to leave Australia's batsmen staring at Mt Everest.
Doherty, who also took two fine catches yesterday to help remove MS Dhoni and Pujara, conceded Australia face an uphill battle to avert a 2-0 series deficit.
"We came in today knowing we were up against it and we needed to put in a better day than yesterday to eventually knock them over," he said.
"Today we took nine for 190 or something like that (9-192), which was a pleasing effort.
"But the damage was done yesterday so there's still a lot of work for us to do to get ourselves back into the game."
Doherty said he was relieved to finish with three wickets after figures of 0-124 from 42 overs at one stage.
"It was starting to look that way (like he would go wicketless)," he said.
"Things just didn't seem to be going my way.
"I was trying to work out my Test bowling average there at one stage because I came into the game at a hundred (three wickets at 102 in two matches).
"In the last five or six overs, it was just more pleasing how the ball started to come out. It did take a while for it to take a bit of rhythm.
"To get a couple of wickets was nice as well."
Australia can learn lessons from India's top-order. Murali Vijay (167) and Cheteshwar Pujara (204) provided the perfect Test-match template, batting with patience then panache and finally power to grind Australia into the Hyderabad dust.
Vijay and Pujara's second-wicket stand of 370 was the third-highest partnership against any Australian team in Test cricket's 136-year history.
After lunch, India collapsed, enabling Doherty and Maxwell to hit back.
The tourists will wake today determined to move mountains.
But with 192 runs still to knock off, Australia, climbing Everest, are in the death zone.
***
PHOTO DISPUTE
We are unable to publish photographs from the Test series in India due to a dispute between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and international news organisations.
The BCCI has refused access to Test venues to established picture agencies including our supplier Getty Images.
News Limited considers the BCCI action to be a strike against freedom of the press.
News Limited, along with international photo and news agencies, is not providing live imagery from the tour in protest.
