Clean Energy Future plan

Under the government's carbon pricing plan announced on Sunday, more than half of the emissions abatement to 2020 will come from companies buying it from overseas, at an estimated cost of $3 billion, with the remainder coming from Australian carbon farming and other initiatives.

A new body called the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) will determine companies' carbon price liabilities and operate the national register of emissions units, and work alongside the Climate Change Authority headed by former Reserve Bank chief Bernie Fraser.

Already more than 30 Australian-based brokers and companies, such as the Commonwealth Bank and Origin Energy Electricity, are registered with the CER.

While a carbon price will provide incentives to reduce energy consumption, manufacturing businesses will be supported in identifying and implementing technologies that improve energy efficiency and reduce their exposure to changing electricity prices.

The $1.2 billion Clean Technology Program aims to provide support for manufacturers through three components:

CLEAN TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT PROGRAM

If you're a manufacturer, the $800 million Clean Technology Investment Program will provide grants to allow you to invest in energy efficient equipment and low-pollution technologies, processes and products.

CLEAN TECHNOLOGY - FOOD AND FOUNDRIES INVESTMENT PROGRAM

If you're in the food processing, metal forging and foundry industries, special assistance grants will be provided to help you invest in energy efficient equipment and low-pollution technologies, processes and products. It's anticipated that the grants will be worth up to $150 million over six years to the food processing industry and up to $50 million over six years to the metal forging and foundry industries.

CLEAN TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION PROGRAM

To support business investment in research and development (R&D) in the areas of renewable energy, low-pollution technology and energy efficiency, an additional $200 million of grants will be provided over five years. This will be in addition to the R&D Tax Concession.

n April 2010, AFP deputy commissioner for national security, Peter Drennan, said carbon trading "may in time provide opportunities for organised criminal syndicates to exploit new markets and engage in fraudulent activity".

An AFP spokesman told AAP this week the final design of the scheme's governance was still being developed by the climate change department.

"The AFP has commonwealth responsibilities in relation to the investigation of serious fraud in government programs and in addressing organised crime," the spokesman said.

"It is too early to speculate on any potential criminal risks or the size and impact of any obligations for the AFP.

"However, the AFP will work closely with the relevant agencies ... to address identified risks, enhance the scheme's overall integrity, and manage any law enforcement resourcing impacts."

GreenCollar chief Schultz said carbon trading was becoming like buying any other commodity, but some companies will find that investing in Australian-based abatement projects, such as forests and farms that cut their use of fertilisers, is better than looking overseas.

"Some product is cheaper than others and some has a higher or lower risk profile than others," he said.

"There is significant upside for companies that are able to invest directly into the primary market - companies that create credit, create the project itself as opposed to buying on the secondary market, which is cheaper but has a higher risk."

Schultz said the public could trust the auditing system as "these are the same people who tell you ships won't sink and planes won't fall out of the sky".

"The same level of audit is brought to this, and in fact it is more rigorous," he said.

The public concern was driven largely because in many cases "you are trading something that didn't happen", Schultz says.

"Most of what you are trading is an avoided emission. You are trading something that didn't happen, like stopping deforestation. It's not planting trees but has a great impact," he said.

"By not chopping down a forest that is however many millions of tonnes of CO2 that goes into the atmosphere and that compensates another activity.

Sale on eBay:Children offered

A VICTORIAN woman is being investigated after offering her two young children for sale to the highest bidder on internet auction site eBay.

The woman, in her early 30s, lives near Geelong. She wrote a "lengthy sales pitch" that included photographs of her son and daughter, both aged under 10.

Several people placed bids on the sickening auction, which has alarmed authorities.

Detectives from the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse unit were alerted to the internet page by a horrified member of the public.

The page has been taken down and the woman's children could be taken into permanent care.

Victoria Police has decided not to press charges against the mum, who claims the act was a joke.

However, police sources told the Sunday Herald Sun they were disturbed by the incident and in particular the genuine bidders who tried to obtain the children.

However, police sources told The Sunday Mail they were disturbed by the incident and in particular the genuine bidders who came out of the woodwork to buy the children.

Officers are investigating the people who bid on the children and the Department of Human Services is continuing its inquiries into the family.

"Investigators from Geelong were notified last week that a mother was trying to sell her two children on eBay," a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.

"Photos of the children, a boy and a girl both aged under 10 years, were included in the sales pitch.

"Police tracked down the woman from Lara, who said it was a joke.

"Police and Department of Human Services Child Protection are conducting a joint investigation and remain involved with the family."

The page was posted on July 6 and was active until late morning the next day.

"The mum wrote a lengthy sales pitch that was very interesting reading," a police source said.

"She said the page was created as a joke, but what worries us is the people bidding on the auction. Who knows who these people are. They could be pedophiles or anyone. It's extremely disturbing."

A spokesman from eBay said the case proved it had a good relationship with Victoria Police and had acted swiftly.

"It demonstrates that anyone posting anything illegal on our site is extremely foolish," the spokesman said.

European markets close mostly lower

ATHENS — Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said Saturday it was "time for Europe to wake up" and find a conclusive solution to his nation's debt crisis, which threatens to undermine the eurozone.

Papandreou, who has frequently expressed impatience at the slow progress of the negotiations, made his latest comments in an interview to appear in Sunday's Kathimerini daily.

Papandreou insisted that Greece would not default on its huge debt and that talks were ongoing for a "long-term" resolution to the crisis.

"We are in the process of reaching a long-term debt breather," he said, referring to efforts between European leaders and foreign ministers to reach a formula that will make Greece's 350-billion-euro ($495-billion) debt viable.

"At this stage, there is no room for voices that cultivate fear and bank on failure," he added.

Just hours earlier, Papandreou joined fellow European socialists in calling for a dedicated agency to stabilise euro debt and limit the power of credit rating agencies.

European Union officials have denounced recent decisions by the leading ratings agencies to downgrade countries struggling with debt amid efforts to recover, arguing that they have become part of the problem.

Eurozone nations will hold an extraordinary summit on July 21 in Brussels to discuss how to tackle the debt crisis and provide fresh aid for Greece.

But EU nations want to move quickly to stop the debt crisis spreading from Greece, Ireland and Portugal to other countries perceived as vulnerable, such as Italy and Spain.

Der Spiegel weekly will on Monday report that Germany's finance minister believes Greece could slice 20 billion euros ($28 billion) of its massive debt burden by buying back its own bonds.

The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) could lend the money to Greece so it could buy back bonds from private creditors at market prices, Der Spiegel reported.

In London, the benchmark FTSE 100 index of top shares closed down a fractional 0.06 per cent to 5,843.66 points. In Frankfurt, the DAX edged up 0.07 per cent to 7220.12 points while in Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.66 per cent to 3726.59 points.

Other European markets showed modest losses but Milan shed 1.02 per cent and Madrid was off 1.12 per cent, reflecting the increased concerns over Italy and Spain.

In Paris, Yves Marcais at Global Equities said the debt crisis and the risk of contagion remained the main concerns in Europe.

"This lack of visibility on Europe's future dominates sentiment and makes investors extremely cautious," he said.

"Though undoubtedly attention grabbing, that the tests do not include the scenario of a sovereign default leaves them toothless to a large degree," said analyst Michael Turner at RBC Capital Markets of the EBA findings.

In New York, the market was surprisingly buoyant, supported by strong results from Citigroup and Google which helped offset a sharp fall in consumer confidence and the debt impasse in Washington.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.13 per cent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.68 per cent.

Commerzbank analysts said in a note: "The market is currently focussing on the problems in the US. After all, it is easy to resolve the US debt problem - in contrast to the European difficulties."

They said increasing the US government debt ceiling "is a routine step and not necessarily problematic from an economic point of view".

More concerning, a sharp fall in US consumer confidence "casts doubt over our hope of a rebound in consumption growth in the third quarter", noted Paul Dales at Capital Economics.

In the forex markets, the euro was lower at $US1.4116, down from $US1.4141 in New York late on Thursday while the dollar slipped to 79.03 yen from 79.13 yen.

"The (foreign exchange) market is currently focussing on the problems in the United States," said Commerzbank analyst Lutz Karpowitz.

"The (US) dollar is suffering from uncertainty about whether the government will succeed in having the debt ceiling lifted in time."

Washington has reached its $US14.3 trillion ($13.38 trillion) debt ceiling and the White House says it has to be increased by August 2, otherwise it will either have to default on the debt or impose huge cuts in spending that could send the economy into reverse.

Against such an uncertain background, the traditional safehaven investment of gold continued to hold near record levels, closing at $US1587 an ounce, down from $US1590.50 on Wednesday and compared with its record high $US1594.45.

In Asian trade earlier Friday, the markets were mixed after a week of heavy selling. Tokyo gained 0.39 per cent but Sydney fell 0.38 per cent lower and Hong Kong gave up 0.30 per cent.

In vitro fertilisation

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process by which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the body: in vitro. IVF is a major treatment in infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed. The process involves hormonally controlling the ovulatory process, removing ova (eggs) from the woman's ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a fluid medium. The fertilised egg (zygote) is then transferred to the patient's uterus with the intent to establish a successful pregnancy. The first successful birth of a "test tube baby", Louise Brown, occurred in 1978. Robert G. Edwards, the doctor who developed the treatment, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010. Before that, there was a transient biochemical pregnancy reported by Australian Foxton School researchers in 1953 and an ectopic pregnancy reported by Steptoe and Edwards in 1976. At the same time, Subash Mukhopadyay, a relatively unknown physician from Kolkata, India was performing experiments on his own with primitive instruments and a house hold refrigerator and this resulted in a test tube baby, later named as "Durga" (alias Kanupriya Agarwal) who was born on October 3, 1978.

The term in vitro, from the Latin root meaning in glass, is used, because early biological experiments involving cultivation of tissues outside the living organism from which they came, were carried out in glass containers such as beakers, test tubes, or petri dishes. Today, the term in vitro is used to refer to any biological procedure that is performed outside the organism it would normally be occurring in, to distinguish it from an in vivo procedure, where the tissue remains inside the living organism within which it is normally found. A colloquial term for babies conceived as the result of IVF, "test tube babies", refers to the tube-shaped containers of glass or plastic resin, called test tubes, that are commonly used in chemistry labs and biology labs. However, in vitro fertilisation is usually performed in the shallower containers called Petri dishes. One IVF method, Autologous Endometrial Coculture, is actually performed on organic material, but is still considered in vitro.

Indications

IVF may be used to overcome female infertility in the woman due to problems of the fallopian tube, making fertilisation in vivo difficult. It may also assist in male infertility, where there is defect sperm quality, and in such cases intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) may be used, where a sperm cell is injected directly into the egg cell. This is used when sperm have difficulty penetrating the egg, and in these cases the partner's or a donor's sperm may be used. ICSI is also used when sperm numbers are very low. ICSI results in success rates equal to those of IVF.

For IVF to be successful it typically requires healthy ova, sperm that can fertilise, and a uterus that can maintain a pregnancy. Due to the costs of the procedure, IVF is generally attempted only after less expensive options have failed.

IVF can also be used with egg donation or surrogacy where the woman providing the egg isn't the same who will carry the pregnancy to term. This means that IVF can be used for females who have already gone through menopause. The donated oocyte can be fertilised in a crucible. If the fertilisation is successful, the embryo will be transferred into the uterus, within which it may implant.

IVF can also be combined with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to rule out presence of genetic disorders. A similar but more general test has been developed called Preimplantation Genetic Haplotyping (PGH).

Method

Theoretically, in vitro fertilisation could be performed by collecting contents from a woman's fallopian tubes or uterus after natural ovulation, mix it with semen from a man and reinsert into the uterus. However, without additional techniques, the chances of pregnancy would be extremely small. Such additional techniques that are routinely used in IVF include ovarian hyperstimulation to retrieve multiple eggs, ultrasound-guided transvaginal oocyte retrieval directly from the ovaries, egg and sperm preparation, as well as culture and selection of resultant embryos before embryo transfer back into the uterus.

Ovarian hyperstimulation

There are two main protocols for stimulating the ovaries for IVF treatment. The long protocol involves downregulation (suppression or exhaustion) of the pituitary ovarian axis by the prolonged use of a GnRH agonist. Subsequent ovarian hyperstimulation, typically using follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), starts once the process of downregulation is complete, generally after 10 to 14 days.

The short protocol skips the downregulation part, and consist of a regimen of fertility medications to stimulate the development of multiple follicles of the ovaries. In most patients, injectable gonadotropins (usually FSH analogues) are used under close monitoring. Such monitoring frequently checks the estradiol level and, by means of gynecologic ultrasonography, follicular growth. Typically approximately 10 days of injections will be necessary. Spontaneous ovulation during the cycle is typically prevented by the use of GnRH antagonists that are used just during the last days of stimulation to block the natural surge of luteinising hormone (LH) and allow the physician to start the ovulation process by using medication, usually injectable human chorionic gonadotropins.

Ovarian stimulation carries the risk of excessive stimulation. This complication is life-threatening and ovarian stimulation using gonadotrophins must only be carried out under strict medical supervision

Egg retrieval

Further information: Transvaginal oocyte retrieval

When the ovarian follicles have reached a certain degree of development, final maturation is induced, generally by an injection of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Commonly, this is known as the "trigger shot. hCG acts as an analogue of luteinising hormone, and ovulation would occur between 38 and 40 hours after a single HCG injection, but the egg retrieval is performed at a time usually between 34 and 36 hours after hCG injection, that is, just prior to when the follicles would rupture. This avails for scheduling the egg retrieval procedure at a time where the eggs are fully mature. HCG injection confers a risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Using a GnRH agonist instead of hCG eliminates the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, but with a delivery rate of approximately 6% less than with hCG.

The eggs are retrieved from the patient using a transvaginal technique called transvaginal oocyte retrieval, involving an ultrasound-guided needle piercing the vaginal wall to reach the ovaries. Through this needle follicles can be aspirated, and the follicular fluid is handed to the IVF laboratory to identify ova. It is common to remove between ten and thirty eggs. The retrieval procedure takes about 20 minutes and is usually done under conscious sedation or general anaesthesia.

Egg and sperm preparation

In the laboratory, the identified eggs are stripped of surrounding cells and prepared for fertilisation. An oocyte selection may be performed prior to fertilisation to select eggs with optimal chances of successful pregnancy. In the meantime, semen is prepared for fertilisation by removing inactive cells and seminal fluid in a process called sperm washing. If semen is being provided by a sperm donor, it will usually have been prepared for treatment before being frozen and quarantined, and it will be thawed ready for use.

Fertilisation

The sperm and the egg are incubated together at a ratio of about 75,000:1 in the culture media for about 18 hours. In most cases, the egg will be fertilised by that time and the fertilised egg will show two pronuclei. In certain situations, such as low sperm count or motility, a single sperm may be injected directly into the egg using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The fertilised egg is passed to a special growth medium and left for about 48 hours until the egg consists of six to eight cells.

In gamete intrafallopian transfer, eggs are removed from the woman and placed in one of the fallopian tubes, along with the man's sperm. This allows fertilisation to take place inside the woman's body. Therefore, this variation is actually an in vivo fertilisation, not an in vitro fertilisation.

Embryo culture

Typically, embryos are cultured until having reached the 6–8 cell stage three days after retrieval. In many Canadian, American and Australian programmes, however, embryos are placed into an extended culture system with a transfer done at the blastocyst stage at around five days after retrieval, especially if many good-quality embryos are still available on day 3. Blastocyst stage transfers have been shown to result in higher pregnancy rates. In Europe, transfers after 2 days are common.

Culture of embryos can either be performed in an artificial culture medium or in an autologous endometrial coculture (on top of a layer of cells from the woman's own uterine lining). With artificial culture medium, there can either be the same culture medium throughout the period, or a sequential system can be used, in which the embryo is sequentially placed in different media. For example, when culturing to the blastocyst stage, one medium may be used for culture to day 3, and a second medium is used for culture thereafter. Single or sequential medium are equally effective for the culture of human embryos to the blastocyst stage Artificial embryo culture media basically contain glucose, pyruvate, and energy-providing components, but addition of amino acids, nucleotides, vitamins, and cholesterol improve the performance of embryonic growth and development. Methods to permit dynamic embryo culture with fluid flow and embryo movement are also available. A new method in development uses the uterus as an incubator and the naturally occurring intra-uterine fluids as culture medium by encapsulating the embryos in permeable intra-uterine vessel.

Lottery offers IVF treatment prize

The lottery, which launches in the UK on July 30, sells $30 tickets for a monthly prize of $38,000 worth of fertility treatment at a reputed clinic.

Lottery organiser Camille Strachan told News Ltd that bringing the lottery to Australia is a priority after she received huge support from Australians on her website.

Her charity, To Hatch, will run the controversial lottery.

Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority chief executive Louise Johnson says she finds the concept ethically murky.

Victorian Gaming Minister Michael O'Brien says he finds the idea disgraceful, and the government will consider empowering the gambling regulator to stop it.

Sydney IVF medical director Mark Bowman says the competition trivialises an important issue affecting thousands of Australians.

Louise Johnson from the Victorian Assisted Reproduction Treatment Authority says people should be wary of the raffle.

"Infertility is very, very common and the desire to have children is very deep felt for many people," she said.

"A lotto such as this would be exploiting that desire and nothing like this can guarantee that a baby is possible."

Ms Johnson says overall it is a dreadful concept.

"Somebody could win a lottery such as this and find that their treatment is not successful. I think the lottery is ethically murky," she said.

But Victoria's Gaming Minister Michael O'Brien says the Government will go as far as changing legislation to ensure the lotto cannot operate in Victoria.

"We'd be extremely concerned if somebody attempted to use the pain of infertile couples as a means of promoting a lottery or generating profit for themselves," he said.

"It may be we need to look at amending the legislation to provide the regulator with a broad power to refuse applications if they're contrary to the public interest."

Mr O'Brien says it is important infertility is treated as a serious medical issue.

"It's not the sort of thing, like a meat tray at a pub, or a holiday or a car, that people should be in a position where the only way they can access treatment is through a raffle," he said.

"We think that might be encouraging an irresponsible approach and we certainly don't believe that it treats infertility with the seriousness it deserves.

UK has too many hospital births

Women should no longer assume they will give birth in hospital with a doctor on hand.

In a watershed moment, leading medical experts declared that mothers should be given more opportunity to have babies at home because a maternity ward is not necessarily the 'safer option'.

A report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists suggests that as many as a third of all women should give birth 'without a doctor going anywhere near them'.

House call: Medical experts are urging more women to give birth at home

It calls for a radical shake-up in the NHS which could lead to thousands more women having babies at home, as was the case 50 years ago.

In 1959, more than a third of women gave birth at home but by 1988 this had fallen to a low of 0.9 per cent. By last year this had risen only slightly to 2.4 per cent, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

Midwives have welcomed the report, saying it could improve the experience for about a third of women who have straightforward deliveries.

The proposals for maternity are part of a wider vision of delivering all women's gynaecology and obstetrics care in networks, similar to the model which has helped improve cancer treatments in England.

The National Childbirth Trust said the idea of having a network to provide joined-up care for women was one it could support but it would prefer care during pregnancy and maternity to be concentrated in one NHS organisation in each area.

The NHS confederation, which speaks for managers, described maternity care as a classic example of a service which desperately needed to be reorganised.

Chief executive Mike Farrar said politicians needed to be prepared to speak up for change.

"Where the case for change is clear, politicians should stand shoulder-to-shoulder with managers and clinicians to provide confidence to their constituents that quality and care will improve as a consequence of this change."

That has not always been the case, with two ministers in the last Labour government campaigning against the closure of units in Greater Manchester.

Hundreds of people turned out to a rally to oppose the closure of maternity services in Salford last autumn. After a review under the coalition, the NHS is pressing ahead with plans to reduce the number of units across the area from 12 to eight.

Although Scotland has reorganised some of its maternity services, there are likely to be pressures for change elsewhere in the UK.

In North Wales maternity care across three hospitals is expected to change after an initial review recently concluded improvement was needed.

Questions over PNG literacy

Literacy in Papua New Guinea has fallen below 50 per cent of the population, the PNG National Research Institute says.

The figures, obtained from national census data, show a 6 per cent drop since 2000.

The Institute is calling on the government to do more to curb the literacy rate.

Director Thomas Webster told Pacific Beat the statistics were based on surveys and did not test "functionary literacy".

The institute says the government should do more to ensure basic education is available.

Institute director Dr Thomas Webster said analysis of census figures found the literacy rate was 56 per cent but a recent study has found the actual rates are much lower.

"The reason being that the census questionnaire was based on asking people: can you read and write in English or Tok Pisin or Motu?

"And if people said yes they were ticked off and if they said no they were considered illiterate and so it was based on that question.

"There wasn't any real test to determine whether they had any functional literacy rate or not.

Dutch couple sentenced over internet baby

A DUTCH couple who bought a baby boy for €7,500 on the internet were each given eight-month suspended jail terms and sentenced to 240 hours of community service yesterday.

The couple, aged 28 and 29, replied to an advertisement placed by the baby’s parents and picked up the infant across the border in the Belgian city of Ghent shortly after he was born in June 2008, a court in Zwolle, in the east of the Netherlands, was told.

Dutch social workers discovered the transaction six months later, and the baby was handed back to the Belgian authorities just two days before Christmas 2008 – on the grounds that he would have a better future in his country of origin.

The court heard that the reason given by the baby’s parents for selling their son – initially known only as “Baby J” but later named as Jayden – was that they already had one child and could not afford a second.

However, their lawyer subsequently said they deeply regretted the decision and hoped ultimately to have Jayden, who has been living in care, returned to them.

The Dutch couple, who have not been named, denied buying the baby, and have since claimed on TV current affairs programme Netwerk that the €7,500 represented only the costs associated with the mother’s pregnancy.

After Jayden was born in Ghent in northern Belgium on July 3, 2008, the Dutch couple declared the birth under their own name at the city's municipality and returned to the Netherlands, where they used the Belgian documentation to register the birth in the town of Hardenberg.

Said the court on Thursday: "The accused only thought of their own wish to have a child and not of the implications for the baby."

Dutch prosecutors only charged the couple with an illegal adoption and using false documents as the Dutch penal code did not rule against the buying of a baby.

The baby was placed in the care of an adoptive family in December 2008.

Belgian prosecutors in Ghent said they wanted to prosecute Jayden's parents and grandmother, the Belga news agency reported, with the Ghent judges' chamber to announce a decision shortly.