$40,000 gold prize to those who enrol

ACTIVIST group GetUp! will give away $40,000 in gold in a bid to encourage people to enrol to vote in the upcoming federal election.

GetUp! National Director Sam McLean said 1.4 million people eligible to vote weren't on the electoral role, with 493,000 under 24.

"A huge number of young Australians aren't enrolled to vote and we want to give them every reason to," Mr McLean said in a statement.

"If they win, they can pay off part of their HECS debt, buy a car, go on a holiday or give it to charity - we don't mind.

"The most important thing is that people realise that once the election is called they only have seven days to get themselves enrolled to vote."

Those who enrol and register with GetUp! will go into a draw, with one winner from each state and territory getting $5,000 worth of gold.

The gold will be delivered the Sunday after the election, which has yet to be called by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

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Pioneering journalist Helen Thomas dies

HELEN Thomas, a long-time White House correspondent and a pioneer for women in journalism, has died aged 92.

A friend, Muriel Dobbin, says Thomas died at her apartment in Washington on Saturday morning. Dobbin says Thomas had been ill for a long time, had been in and out of the hospital, and had come home on Thursday.

Thomas made her name as a bulldog for United Press International (UPI) in the great wire-service rivalries of old. She used her seat in the front row of history to grill nine presidents - often to their discomfort and was not shy about sharing her opinions.

She was persistent to the point of badgering; one White House press secretary described her questioning as "torture" - and he was one of her fans.

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Comedian Mel Smith dies in London

TRIBUTES have been paid to comedian Mel Smith after his death at the age of 60, with his sidekick Griff Rhys Jones describing him as someone who "inspired love and utter loyalty".

The star of Alas Smith and Jones and Not the Nine O'Clock News had a heart attack at his home in northwest London on Friday.

Jones, who had been friends with Smith for 35 years, said: "I still can't believe this has happened. To everybody who ever met him, Mel was a force for life. He had a relish for it that seemed utterly inexhaustible.

"He inspired love and utter loyalty and he gave it in return. I will look back on the days working with him as some of the funniest times that I have ever spent.

"We probably enjoyed ourselves far too much, but we had a rollercoaster of a ride along the way. Terrific business. Fantastic fun, making shows. Huge parties and crazy times. And Mel was always ready to be supportive. Nobody could have been easier to work with.

"He was a gentleman and a scholar, a gambler and a wit. And he was a brilliant actor. But he never took himself or the business too seriously. We are all in a state of shock. We have lost a very, very dear friend."

Smith attended Oxford University while Jones was at Cambridge and the pair became known to each other while performing at the Edinburgh fringe.

They became friends working on Not the Nine O'Clock News and then went on to make Alas Smith and Jones, which lasted for 10 series over 16 years.

BBC director general Tony Hall said: "Mel Smith's contribution to British comedy cannot be overstated. On screen he helped to define a new style of comedy from the late 1970s that continues to influence people to this day.

"And his pioneering TV production work with Griff Rhys Jones through their company Talkback has created many of the defining comedy shows of recent decades."

Comedian and broadcaster Stephen Fry wrote on Twitter: "Terrible news about my old friend Mel Smith, dead today from a heart attack. Mel lived a full life, but was kind, funny & wonderful to know."

Rowan Atkinson, who worked with Smith on both Not the Nine O'Clock News and Bean, the first Mr Bean film, said he was "truly sad" to hear about his death.

In a statement, he said: "Mel Smith - a lovely man of whom I saw too little in his later years. I loved the sketches that we did together on Not the Nine O'Clock News.

"He was the cast member with whom I felt the most natural performing empathy.

"He had a wonderfully generous and sympathetic presence both on and off screen.

"He was also an excellent theatre and movie director, doing a wonderful job on the first Mr Bean movie.

"I feel truly sad at his parting."

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G20 sets growth and jobs priorities

THE G20 has agreed to make boosting growth and jobs, rather than deficit reduction, the short-term priority for the global economy as it battles to consolidate a "fragile and uneven" recovery.

Finance chiefs from the G20 group of advanced and emerging nations, after meeting in Moscow, also on Saturday backed an action plan drawn up by the OECD to crack down on tax avoidance by multinationals to help replenish budgets diminished by the slowdown.

The finance ministers and central bank governors agreed that the Saint Petersburg summit in September of G20 heads of state -- the culmination of Russia's presidency of the group -- should produce an action plan to improve productivity and employment.

"We agreed that our near-term priority is to boost jobs and growth," said their final communique.

"The global economy remains too weak and its recovery is still fragile and uneven," the statement said.

"We are fully committed to taking decisive actions to return to a robust, job-rich growth path."

The G20 said that while the United States and Japan showed signs of strengthening activity, the recession in the euro area was continuing and growth in many emerging markets was slowing.

The statement said jobs could be boosted by reducing financial market fragmentation, rebalancing global demand, and taking measures to support growth.

All G20 governments are acutely aware of the fragility of their recoveries from the global slowdown, with some eurozone countries now battling youth unemployment of 60 per cent.

The IMF earlier this month cut its forecast for global growth to 3.1 per cent in 2013, down from its April estimate of 3.3 per cent, and warned that emerging markets like China face new risks.

The US has emerged in better shape than other key economies, and the US Federal Reserve is already considering cutting its quantitative easing program -- which injects some $US85 billion a month into the economy via bond purchases -- later this year and end the program by mid-2014.

However this has concerned several big economies, including Russia and Brazil, which fear their own fragile recoveries could be hit by any sudden about-turn in US policy.

In response to these concerns, the statement vowed that any changes to monetary stimulus packages would be "carefully calibrated and clearly communicated".

The US made clear that the fight against unemployment should be at the top of the agenda although other states, like Germany, are known for wanting to keep a strict eye on fiscal discipline.

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said: "It's clearly on the mind of everybody to restore confidence and to create the conditions for growth and for employment."

The economic fragility appears to have also helped unite the G20 in a fight against tax avoidance -- technically legal schemes which allow multinationals to pay very low tax -- as well as illegal tax evasion.

Companies like Amazon and Starbucks have been in the spotlight in recent months over tax avoidance.

The G20 said they had "fully endorsed" the action plan delivered earlier in the two-day meeting by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to clamp down on tax avoidance.

"We encourage all interested countries to participate," it said.

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