DISADVANTAGED residents in remote parts of the Northern Territory facing even steeper mark-ups on food than previously thought, according to a study by the Menzies School of Health Research.

Among the products with big price differences are fresh fruit, soft drink, and canned, dried and frozen vegetables.

One of the only exceptions was bottled water, which was cheaper in remote communities.

Evidence suggests that food affordability is worsening in remote communities, with an increasing gap in prices between remote community stores and the Darwin supermarket over the past four years.

Yet another Aboriginal person has died the most inhuman of deaths: without family around, on a cold, concrete floor of a police cell.

The Northern Territory's Attorney-General said that the new paperless arrest laws make it simpler for police to "catch and release people". Police have a tough job and every reasonable effort should be made to make their job easier, but efficiency is not the be-all and end-all: putting safeguards around police powers is entirely appropriate in a liberal democracy.

A recent freedom of information application showed the paperless arrest laws have already been used an extraordinary amount of times – more than 700 times in their first three months of operation. It also showed that they are having a disproportionate impact: more than 75 per cent of people arrested have been Aboriginal.

It is clear that these laws have and will continue to see more Aboriginal people locked up for minor offences.

Another Aboriginal person was locked up for minor offences and died in custody. On these bare facts alone, as a nation we should be outraged.

Indonesian police say a boat carrying 65 asylum seekers and five crew crashed onto a reef after being turned back by Australia.

Those aboard — 54 Sri Lankans, 10 Bangladeshis, one person from Myanmar and five additional crew — told Indonesian police they were trying to get to New Zealand.

There were four women and three toddlers on board.

They are now being held on Rote Island off West Timor after crashing onto a reef near the remote Landuti Island.

One of the crew members fled from police and has not been located.

Island chief of police senior commissioner Hidayat told the ABC the latest boat was intercepted by an Australian border patrol after setting off from West Java on May 5.

The asylum seekers told police they were transferred onto a more seaworthy wooden boat, given dried fruit, biscuits, fuel and life jackets and escorted back to Indonesian waters.

The asylum seekers were found Monday by fishermen after the crash.

They will be transferred to Kupang in West Timor on Tuesday.

Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand recently ended the practice of turning asylum seeker boats away.

Okinawa, which hosts 75 percent of US military bases in Japan, is balking at plans for another base.

Okinawa, which hosts 75 percent of US military bases in Japan, is balking at plans for another base.

Once the independent kingdom of Ryukyu, Okinawa, was annexed by Japan in 1872. At the end of World War II, exactly 70 years ago, Okinawa was the site of one of the war's most ferocious battles. Caught between the armies of Japan and the United States, Okinawans suffered unspeakable horrors during the "typhoon of steel." Viewed as expendable under imperial Japan, many Okinawans were killed outright by Japanese soldiers or forced to commit mass suicide. An estimated 120,000 Okinawans - between one-third and one-quarter of the population - died between March and June 1945.

The pain inflicted during the war and its aftermath underscored the Okinawan core value nuchi du takara ("life is precious") and left many Okinawans highly adverse to warfare and militarism. Despite this, Okinawa has remained one of the most militarized places in the world for more than 70 years, first under direct US military occupation and continuing after Okinawa's "reversion" to Japan in 1972.

Okinawa is by far the smallest of Japan's 47 prefectures, and although it accounts for less than one percent of Japanese territory, it is home to around 24,000 US military personnel, almost half of Japan's total, and is burdened with nearly 75 percent of US bases in Japan.

Cardinal George Pell is "a dangerous individual" and "almost sociopathic" in his response to child sexual abuse victims, Pope Francis' specially-appointed commissioner for the protection of children, Peter Saunders, says.

In an interview with Channel 9's 60 Minutes, Mr Saunders said Cardinal Pell had a "moral responsibility" to front the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and address allegations that he knew of priests abusing children in Ballarat and elsewhere but did nothing to stop it. Cardinal Pell has denied these accusations.

"I personally think that his position is untenable, because he has now a catalogue of denials," Mr Saunders said in the interview which aired on Sunday night. "He has a catalogue of denigrating people, of acting with callousness, cold-heartedness – almost sociopathic, I would go as far as to say – this lack of care."

Pope Francis last December appointed Mr Saunders, himself a survivor of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, to the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to ensure the Catholic Church acted with greater accountability and transparency in relation to child sexual abuse.

Advertisement

"These are people who should actually be facing criminal charges now, not just sanctions at the hands of the Pope or the church or the attention of the media.

"These are people who have allegedly allowed the abuse of children to continue – sometimes for many years – and that is an unforgivable crime."