THREE women protesters lay naked on a home-made Stars and Stripes flag in front of the US Consulate in Sydney yesterday while others burned two American flags, hours before representatives of 25 nations were to discuss how to liberalise world trade.

A man in custody following a recent murder Sydney is also being investigated over the disappearance of English backpacker Peter Falconio.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard today asked a senior adviser to resign after he used parliamentary privilege to accuse a gay judge of using government cars to pick up rent boys.