Are you Queensland's newest millionaire?

Lotto numbers Source: Supplied

QUEENSLAND'S newest millionaire could be a Cairns resident after a winning Gold Lotto ticket was bought from a Manunda newsagency.

Raintrees Newsagency owner Sharryn Stokes said the mystery winner was likely unaware of their new millionaire status with the prize still unclaimed as of late yesterday.

In her 31 years of operating the newsagency, Mrs Stokes said the $1 million prize could be one of her biggest winners.

"I'm hoping it is someone we know and well-deserved. It would be great to shake their hand and say 'congratulations'," she said.

"Saturday is always a good draw. We get well over 1000 people a day purchasing into that draw."

Golden Casket public relations executive Zoe Knobel urged anyone who bought an entry in Saturday's Gold Lotto draw 3271 from Raintrees Newsagency to check their ticket at a Golden Casket outlet or online.

"The entry was not registered to a Winners Circle card, so we have no way of contacting the winner to tell them the amazing news," she said.

"You could be one of Queensland's newest millionaires, making for your best Christmas yet."

Ms Knobel said four winners shared in the estimated $4 million division-one prize pool in Saturday's draw, claiming just over $1 million each.

Mrs Stokes said just seven weeks ago the shop sold a second-division winning Powerball ticket worth $76,657.

"And just before that in July we had a $200,000 happy camper which was a $4 scratch-it."

The winning numbers in draw 3271 were 43, 30, 26, 42, 32 and 17 with supplementary numbers 12 and 6.

Winning tickets were purchased in Cairns, North Rockhampton, Victoria and New South Wales.

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Prime farmland for sale on Coast

FOREIGN and interstate buyers are being sought for one of Queensland's biggest strawberry farms, Gowinta, which has gone into liquidation with debts of more than $17 million.

Gowinta, at Beerwah in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, is a third-generation farming business that comprises 11 properties totalling 84 hectares.

It can pack up to 70,000 punnets a day during the strawberry season - around 17 tonne of fruit - and also produces pineapples, lychees and raspberries.

Earlier this year, Gowinta Farms Pty Ltd entered into voluntary administration after being left with "an unsustainable debt level" due to a reduction in the value of assets.

It restructured its operation, replacing many of its 200 plus pickers and packers with contract labourers from South Korea, but hit more hurdles including bad weather and low strawberry prices.

This led to the business being placed into liquidation on October 25, after administrators reported the company was unable to make planned capital repayments.

Gowinta has 110 creditors, the biggest being Bankwest, owed about $13.6m.

Liquidator Robert Moodie, of Sydney-based firm Rodgers Reidy, informed creditors that agent Colliers International had been engaged to market the sale of farms, business and properties.

He said Gowinta would be advertised locally, interstate and overseas, noting Colliers had "links to international food production markets".

Agent Rawdon Briggs, of Colliers, confirmed Gowinta was up for grabs, with expressions of interest closing December 18 at 4pm.

Gowinta Farms is described as one of the Sunshine Coast's premier farming enterprises with a long standing history as a successful producer of quality strawberries, pineapples and raspberries.

The business can be purchased in its entirety on a walk-in walk-out basis, or the 11 properties involved can be bought individually.

It features substantial entitlements to water for irrigation, extensive greenhouse, packing, administration and staff facilities plus two houses and a number of sheds.

There's also a 56-berth caravan park and cafe offering alternative income streams and the farm has convenient access to Brisbane CBD and markets.

A creditors' meeting will be held at the property at 11am tomorrow to discuss a plan to keep the business operating and fund preparations for next season.

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Secret confetti confounds New York police

IT rained confetti - and secrets - on last week's Thanksgiving parade in New York.

The traditional deluge of shredded paper over the Macy's parade in Manhattan on Thursday turned out to include legible snippets of police files, including a mention of a motorcade used by Republican Mitt Romney.

Officers at the Nassau County Police Department on Long Island, where the files were traced back to, declined to give details on Monday about how the parade became a charade.

"We're not really commenting any further," a spokesman said.

Earlier, Nassau Police Inspector Kenneth Lack said he was "very concerned".

"The department will be conducting an investigation into the matter, as well as reviewing procedures for the disposing of police documents."

The New York Post reported pieces of paper tumbling down into the parade still had social security numbers, names of detectives, and details relating to Romney's campaign motorcade.

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Soft drink raises prostate cancer risk

MEN who drink one normal-sized soft drink per day are at greater risk of getting more aggressive forms of prostate cancer, according to a Swedish study.

"Among the men who drank a lot of soft drinks or other drinks with added sugar, we saw an increased risk of prostate cancer of around 40 per cent," said Isabel Drake, a PhD student at Lund University.

The study, to be published in the upcoming edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, followed more than 8000 men aged 45 to 73 for an average of 15 years.

Those who drank one 330-millilitre soft drink a day were 40 per cent more likely to develop more serious forms of prostate cancer that required treatment.

The cancer was discovered after the men showed symptoms of the disease, and not through the screening process known as Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA).

Those who ate a diet heavy on rice and pasta increased their risk of getting milder forms of prostate cancer, which often required no treatment, by 31 per cent, while a high intake of sugary breakfast cereals raised the incidence of milder forms of the cancer to 38 per cent, Drake told AFP.

While further research was needed before dietary guidelines could be changed, there are already plenty of reasons a person should cut back on soft-drink consumption, she noted.

The men in the study had to undergo regular medical examinations and kept a journal of their food and drink intake.

Previous studies have shown that Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the US develop prostate cancer more often than peers in their home countries.

Further research on how genes respond to different diets would make it possible to "tailor food and drink guidelines for certain high-risk groups", Drake said.

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Indian, Chinese companies sign deals

INDIAN and Chinese companies have signed agreements worth billions of dollars as the two emerging market giants sought to broaden commercial ties despite political tensions.

The deals inked in New Delhi during the countries' second strategic economic dialogue included plans for investments in clean energy, infrastructure, electric power, steel and other projects.

"We must aim at a magnitude and intensity of (economic) engagement appropriate for the world's two most populous nations," said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, one of India's most powerful government figures who led the Indian side at the talks on Monday.

"It is only through larger mutual investments that we can take the India-China economic cooperation to a higher level," Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's economic planning commission, told reporters.

The agreements included a plan to develop renewable energy projects envisaging an investment of $US3 billion ($A2.9 billion) by India's Reliance Power and China's Ming Yang Wind Power Group, a leading wind turbine manufacturer.

India's debt-laden Lanco Infratech said the state-run China Development Bank would arrange $US2 billion worth of loans for its two power projects.

Territorial disputes, Beijing's role as arms supplier to Indian rival Pakistan and the presence in India of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, all fuel an atmosphere of mutual political suspicion.

At the same time, India and China are major trading partners with bilateral trade totalling $US75 billion with the two countries targeting a goal of $US100 billion by 2015.

Ahluwalia said the latest tiff between the neighbours over a map issued by Beijing on its new passports claiming disputed territory did not come up in the talks.

At the government-to-government level, India signed an agreement with China to explore co-operation in modernising the dilapidated, more than century-old Indian railway system.

There was no immediate comment from the Chinese side but Ahluwalia said the view "emanating from the Chinese side is that they would also like a deepening of economic cooperation".

He said the large Chinese delegation, which had 180 members, indicated "how serious they are" about improving economic ties.

The economic dialogue emerged from a visit by outgoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to India in December 2010.

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Obama drafts in Geithner for budget talks

US President Barack Obama has made Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner lead White House negotiator in budget talks with Congress aimed at averting the fiscal cliff, a report says.

The Wall Street Journal said Geithner was viewed on Capitol Hill as a straight-shooter who had a better chance of brokering a deal than Jacob Lew, Obama's former budget chief, who has burnt his bridges with some Republicans.

If no deal is reached before the end of the year, a poison pill law of tax hikes and massive spending cuts, including slashes to the military, comes into effect with potentially catastrophic effects for the fragile US economy.

The report said Geithner, who is preparing to leave his post as treasury secretary early in Obama's second term, has spent months already preparing for the fiscal talks, which will begin this week in earnest in Washington.

Geithner will be joined by White House budget and tax experts, including Lew, now Obama's chief of staff, and National Economic Council director Gene Sperling, the Wall Street Journal said.

They will try to hammer out an elusive compromise with congressional aides but final decisions will be made by political leaders such as Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner, the report said.

In recent days, several leading Republicans have indicated a willingness to accept a deal that includes more revenue from ending loopholes in the tax code in return for cuts in funding to Democrats' beloved welfare programs.

Geithner, 51, is not affiliated with any party and has spent his career in government finance and on the political sidelines.

He first joined the Treasury at age 27. When George W Bush became president in 2001, he went to work for the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Monetary Fund.

At 42, he was tapped to be head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, considered the Fed's second-most influential post because the New York bank interacts directly with a powerful constituency that includes Wall Street.

Despite holding high office in the years leading up to the 2008 financial collapse, when regulatory authorities are accused of having been asleep at the wheel, he was tapped by Obama to lead the recovery.

Upon assuming office in early 2009, he was charged with overseeing two major bailout packages worth more than $US1.5 trillion ($A1.4 trillion) and aimed at shoring up the country's distressed banking sector.

The administration has said that the stimulus, while costly, averted another Great Depression, while conservative critics have branded it a costly expansion of government that has failed to revive the economy.

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McGraw-Hill sells education division

MCGRAW-HILL says it has reached a deal to sell its education arm to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $US2.5 billion ($A2.4 billion) in cash and debt, as part of its plan to focus on its financial information businesses.

As part of the deal, McGraw-Hill will receive $US250 million in Apollo debt with an annual interest rate of 8.5 per cent. The acquisition includes the New York-based company's digital and traditional textbook business and other assets.

The sale is expected to close in late 2012 or early 2013. At that time, the New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos will be renamed McGraw Hill Financial.

Harold McGraw III, McGraw-Hill's current chairman, president and CEO, will head that company.

McGraw Hill Financial expects 2012 revenue of about $US4.4 billion. It plans to provide 2013 financial guidance when it announces its 2012 fourth quarter and year-end financial results.

Harold McGraw said the sale will boost value for the company's shareholders, give the company added financial flexibility and allow it to focus on growing brands such as Standard & Poor's, S&P Capital IQ, Platts and JD Power and Associates.

The company said it plans to use the proceeds from the sale, estimated at $US1.9 billion, to fund its stock buyback program, make acquisitions and pay off debt.

Starting in the fourth quarter, McGraw-Hill will classify the education business as discontinued operations. It expects to take a non-cash impairment charge in the fourth quarter of about $US450 million to $US550 million related to the division.

McGraw-Hill first announced plans to split into two companies in September last year through either the sale or spin-off of the education arm. Earlier this month, the company reported a 14 per cent drop in third-quarter net income, partially as a result of the planned split.

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