LNP selects top three for senate bid

A PARTY strategist and Barnaby Joyce's chief of staff will join long-serving senator Ian Macdonald on the Liberal National Party's (LNP) Queensland senate ticket.

LNP official James McGrath and Joyce staffer Matthew Canavan were chosen to run second and third on the ballot by the LNP State Council in Brisbane on Saturday from a field of 16 candidates.

Their selection puts them in line to replace out-going LNP senators Sue Boyce and Ron Boswell in parliament after they retire at the end of their term in 2014 if the LNP can retain three senate seats.

Senator Macdonald, who has been the number one candidate for the Queensland Liberal Party senate ticket since 1990, was once again selected for the number one position.

LNP president Bruce McIver said the candidates came from all around Queensland and from all walks of life.

"They are united by a determination to fight hard for Queensland and to help deliver the change of government in Canberra that our state so desperately needs," Mr McIver said.

Mr McGrath, an LNP official, was publicly backed by prominent federal Liberals including Malcolm Turnbull when he unsuccessfully campaigned for preselection for the federal seat of Fisher.

He lost to former Howard minister Mal Brough.

Mr Canavan has worked for Senator Joyce since March 2010 and was previously an senior executive at accounting firm KPMG, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Businessman David Goodwin, small business owner and scientist Theresa Craig and barrister Amanda Stoker will also appear on the ballot in positions four, five and six respectively.

LNP state director Brad Henderson said it was a strong field of candidates.

The three spots are all considered winnable.

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Convicted Russian spy Danilov released

A RUSSIAN physicist convicted of spying for China has been released on parole and is continuing to protest his innocence.

Valentin Danilov was arrested in 2001 on charges of passing classified information on space technology to China. He claimed the information was already publicly available.

He was acquitted in a 2003 trial, but retried the next year and convicted and sentenced to 14 years.

After his release on Saturday, Danilov told a news conference in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk that he would pursue his case with the European Court of Human Rights.

Before his arrest, Danilov was a professor at Krasnoyarsk Technical University.

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Tough penalties to cut Russia road deaths

RUSSIA will introduce tough punishments for drunk driving of up to 15 years in prison and $US16,000 ($A15,500) in fines to combat the "horrific" annual death toll on its roads, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says.

Medvedev said about 28,000 people lost their lives in road accidents last year in Russia - one of the highest tolls in the world - even though the fatality rate had been falling in recent years.

"The road tragedy statistics are still horrific. None of us are without blame and we have to start with ourselves," Medvedev said in a video blog posted on the government website.

The video - viewable at blog.da-medvedev.ru - begins with Medvedev sweeping around the driveway of his residence at the wheel of a black jeep, conspicuously wearing a safety belt.

He said the government would put forward legislation that would introduce a minimum punishment of five years in jail and a maximum of 15 years for causing death while drunk at the wheel.

Drunk drivers who are found speeding or jumping red lights will face massive fines of 500,000 rubles ($A15,500) in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and 250,000 rubles in other regions.

Medvedev's video blog - his favoured form of floating new ideas - appears to be a response to a string of highly publicised accidents that have made the public more aware of road safety problems in Russia.

Prominent Russian actress Marina Golub was killed in a traffic accident in October while travelling in a taxi hit by a speeding car.

And in one particularly horrific incident in Moscow in September, a drunk driver rammed a bus stop at high speed and killed seven people including five orphans from a children's home.

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Catalan leader seeks 'freedom' in election

THE leader of Spain's Catalonia region has rallied crowds cheering for independence to fight for "freedom" in snap elections he has cast as a vote for nationhood.

Artur Mas, president of the northeastern region, is openly defying a furious Madrid by promising a referendum on sovereignty for Catalonia if Sunday's vote gives him a mandate.

"We are not vassals of the state," he told thousands of people chanting "independence" in a Barcelona stadium on Friday, wrapping up a bitterly fought campaign before a day of pre-vote reflection on Saturday.

Mas urged supporters to be "builders of freedom".

"Catalonia is one of the oldest nations of Europe and all through history we have had to fight against very high obstacles, very strong setbacks," he said, slipping into English to reach a foreign audience.

"We have fought against armies, we have fought against dictatorships, we have overcome setbacks and now we are alive, our culture is alive, our language is alive, our nation is alive."

Catalonia is fiercely proud of its language and culture, which were suppressed by General Francisco Franco until the dictator's death in 1975, but returned to life under Spanish democracy.

The region has been welded to Spain since the nation's symbolic birth when Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon, which included Catalonia, married in 1469.

In a forest of banners, Catalan and European flags at the stadium where Mas brought his campaign to a close, some placards called for Mas as president of a new Catalan nation.

"I'm for independence," said one supporter, 20-year-old student Anna Roses.

"Artur Mas does not say the word because Madrid is putting on the pressure, but it's the only solution."

As Spain struggles in a recession, with one in four workers unemployed, many Catalans are straining against Madrid, which they blame for spending cuts and their troubled finances.

Mas accuses Madrid of raising far more in Catalan taxes than it returns and estimates the gap, or fiscal deficit, at 16 billion euros ($A20.3 billion) a year, a figure Madrid disputes.

Emboldened by huge protests in Barcelona demanding independence on Catalonia's national day, September 11, Mas demanded greater taxing powers from Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

When he did not get the concessions he was seeking, he called the snap election.

Rajoy's right-leaning government is determined to thwart any referendum, however, saying it flies in the face of common sense and vowing to wield the Spanish constitution if necessary.

The prime minister condemned Mas's decision to call regional elections two years early, saying it was wasting precious time needed to salvage the economy and "creating a great division".

Speaking in Brussels after a European Union summit on Friday, the Spanish leader said he hoped for a return to "common sense" after the election. "In the end, I don't know what all this has all been for," he said.

Latest polls show Mas's nationalist alliance, the conservative Convergence and Union, heading for a win in Sunday's vote but falling short of the absolute majority he is seeking.

Surveys a week before the vote showed Mas's party taking 60 to 64 of the 135 seats in parliament, not far from the 62 it now holds, with Rajoy's Popular Party and the opposition Socialists fighting for second place.

Nevertheless, pro-referendum parties are widely expected to enjoy a large majority in the new parliament.

Catalonia accounts for more than one-fifth of Spain's total economic output, a quarter of its exports, as well as boasting one of the world's greatest football teams, FC Barcelona.

But the region also has a 44-billion-euro debt, equal to one-fifth of its output, and was forced to go cap in hand to Madrid this year for more than five billion euros to help make the payments.

On the eve of the vote, some Spanish newspapers decried the dirty nature of the campaign.

Mas flatly denied as "libel and slander" allegations published in conservative daily El Mundo from a supposed draft police report saying he had a Swiss bank account beyond the reach of the taxman.

El Pais condemned Rajoy's government for leaving the allegations ambiguous in the public's mind by failing to clearly deny or clarify the nature of the accusations.

"You can't throw the stone and then hide your hand," the paper said in an editorial headlined "Playing dirty".

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Top judicial body slams Morsi's 'attack'

EGYPT'S highest judicial authority on Saturday slammed a decree by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi that makes his decisions immune from judicial oversight as an "unprecedented attack."

The new constitutional declaration is "an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings," the Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement after an emergency meeting.

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First Palestinian killed since truce

A PALESTINIAN has been shot dead by Israeli forces near the Gaza border, the first casualty since the two sides agreed to a truce ending their week-long conflict.

An Israeli army spokeswoman could not confirm the incident, saying only that "disturbances" had broken out on the Palestinian side of the Gaza border early on Friday, prompting Israeli soldiers to fire warning shots.

The Palestinian emergency service identified the dead man as Abdelhadi Qdeih Anwar, 21.

They said he was killed in the southern Gaza Strip village of Khuzaa. Seven other Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds.

"The occupation forces opened fire on a group of farmers," Gaza emergency service spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Gaza Strip's Hamas leadership, which has previously urged Palestinians to respect the ceasefire terms.

Eight days of Gaza violence that ended with a truce agreement announced late on Wednesday claimed the lives of 163 Palestinians and six Israelis.

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Damascus bomb kills four

A BOMB blast in a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus has killed four people and seriously wounded a member of a faction backing Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The explosion late on Thursday in the Yarmouk camp targeted the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

Four people died and a PFLP-GC activist was seriously wounded when the bomb planted under his car went off, the group said. It blamed the rebel Free Syrian Army for the attack.

Yarmouk has been pulled into Syria's fighting before, most recently earlier this month when clashes in and around the camp killed and wounded dozens.

The refugee camp is also close to two southern neighbourhoods of the capital - Tadamon and Hajar Aswad - that have seen weeks-long clashes between rebels and government troops.

Regime forces shelled the two neighbourhoods on Friday and also raided the central Damascus neighbourhood of Bab Sreijeh, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Activists said several people were arrested.

In other violence around the country, Islamic extremists, including members of the al-Qaeda inspired Jabhat al-Nusra group, battled on Friday with pro-government Kurdish gunmen in the northern town of Ras al-Ayan, near the border with Turkey.

The Islamist militants entered the town earlier this month and have since clashed almost daily with the Kurdish gunmen.

The Islamic militants and the Kurdish factions have also added to the complexity of Syria's conflict.

When government forces withdrew from Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria in July, they were quickly replaced by Kurdish fighters from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD.

The Kurds would battle the rebels when they attacked predominantly Kurdish areas in Syria. The Kurdish group is affiliated with the PKK, rebels fighting for autonomy in the Kurdish-dominated southeast region of Turkey. For its part, Ankara has sheltered and backed Syria's opposition.

As for the Islamic militants, they are fighting on the side of the rebels and have played a bigger role in the Syrian conflict in recent months, with many openly saying they want to set up an Islamic state. The opposition is split, with some groups strongly opposed to extremism.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with an uprising against Assad's regime, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts, but quickly morphed into a civil war that has since killed more than 40,000 people, according to activists.

When the unrest began, the country's half-million Palestinians struggled to stay on the sidelines. But in recent months, many have started supporting the uprising although they insisted the opposition to the regime should be peaceful.

Earlier this month, the FPLP-GC clashed with anti-government Palestinian gunmen in Yarmouk.

The Observatory reported that the body of Syrian novelist Mohammed Rashid Roweily was found late on Thursday in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, nearly two months after he was kidnapped.

State-TV said Roweily was "liquidated by terrorists".

Ruwiely, 65, was once the representative of Arab Writers' Union in Deir el-Zour and had written several novels. The Observatory said his decomposed body was found along with four other bodies, including that of a retired army officer. All were kidnapped around the same time.

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China Eastern Airlines to buy 60 A320's

CHINA Eastern Airlines says it will buy 60 Airbus A320 aircraft in a deal worth $US5.39 billion ($A5.22 billion) to meet booming domestic travel demand.

"The Airbus aircraft will primarily be used to satisfy the increasing demand for domestic medium and short-haul passenger air transportation routes," the airline said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.

"The purchase of the Airbus aircraft will further strengthen the company's competitiveness in the domestic civil aviation market and increase its operational capacity in domestic routes of the company."

The Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, one of the country's three major carriers, said the new aircraft will be delivered in stages from 2014 to 2017.

The company said the purchase will be funded through bank loans. The deal is subjected to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

The Hong Kong-listed shares of China Eastern closed up 1.88 per cent before the announcement at HKD$2.71. The benchmark Hang Seng Index ended up 0.79 per cent.

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Egypt set for Morsi rallies

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has been labelled a "new pharaoh" after assuming sweeping powers. Source: AAP

SUPPORTERS and opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi have called rival demonstrations after the Islamist leader assumed sweeping powers critics say have made him a dictator.

An array of liberal and secular groups, including activists at the forefront of the protest movement that forced veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak from power early last year, planned to march on Tahrir Square, Cairo's iconic protest hub, to demonstrate against the "new pharaoh".

Morsi's backers led by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood gathered outside the presidential palace in north Cairo on Friday in a show of support for his decision to temporarily place his decisions above judicial oversight.

"The people support the president's decisions," the crowd chanted.

Morsi was mulling an address to the nation defending his decision later in the day, aides said.

On Thursday, the president undercut a hostile judiciary that had been considering whether to scrap an Islamist-dominated panel drawing up a new constitution, stripping judges of the right to rule on the case or to challenge his decrees.

The decision effectively places the president above judicial oversight until a new constitution is ratified.

Morsi's opponents began making their way to Tahrir Square after the main weekly Muslim prayers.

They were expected to be joined by leading secular politicians Mohamed ElBaradei, a former UN nuclear watchdog chief and Amr Mussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League chief.

"This is a coup against legitimacy... We are calling on all Egyptians to protest in all of Egypt's squares on Friday," said Sameh Ashour, head of the lawyers' syndicate, in a joint news conference with ElBaradei and Mussa.

ElBaradei denounced Morsi as a "new pharaoh," the same term of derision used against Mubarak when he was in power.

"Morsi is a 'temporary' dictator," read the banner headline in Friday's edition of independent daily Al-Masry Youm.

The Islamist president assumed his sweeping new powers in a decree read out by his spokesman Yasser Ali on state television on Thursday.

"The president can issue any decision or measure to protect the revolution," it said.

"The constitutional declarations, decisions and laws issued by the president are final and not subject to appeal."

Morsi also sacked prosecutor general Abdel Meguid Mahmud, whom he failed to oust last month, amid strong misgivings among the president's supporters about the failure to secure convictions of more members of the old regime.

Morsi appointed Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah to replace Mahmud and, within minutes of the announcement, the new prosecutor was shown on television being sworn in.

Abdallah later issued a brief statement on state television, pledging to "work day and night to achieve the goals of the revolution".

In his pronouncement, the president also ordered "new investigations and retrials" in cases involving the deaths of protesters, a decision that could net military top brass and other former Mubarak regime officials.

The declaration is aimed at "cleansing state institutions" and "destroying the infrastructure of the old regime," the president's spokesman said.

A senior official of the Justice and Freedom Party, the Brotherhood's political arm, said Morsi's decision was necessary to guarantee the revolution was on course.

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Myanmar blames Rohingya group for attack

MYANMAR (Burmese) authorities have accused a Rohingya militant group of carrying out an attack that left one dead and three people missing near the Bangladesh border.

The incident in Rakhine State, where scores have died in two rounds of communal unrest between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists, happened on November 6 as a soldier and civilian engineers inspected a border fence near Maungdaw.

"One of the civilian staff was killed. We assume he was shot in the back when he tried to run away," presidential office spokesman Zaw Htay said on Friday.

There has been no news on the whereabouts of the missing trio despite Bangladeshi border guards joining the hunt.

He said the authorities were blaming the RSO (Rohingya Solidarity Organisation) "which is illegally moving across the border. But we cannot say exactly yet."

Tip-offs and bullet cases found at scene indicated the group carried out the attack, he added, without providing further details.

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Cheap rates promote vulgar calls: Pakistan

PAKISTAN has ordered mobile phone companies to ban cheap, late-night calling rates because they allegedly promote vulgarity among young men and women.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) says it has asked companies to suspend attractive night-time rates in keeping with government policy.

"We have issued the directive to all the mobile telephone companies to shelve night call packages. The step was taken after lengthy discussions," PTA spokeswoman Malahat Rab told AFP.

"These directives are issued in the light of the government decisions and this decision has also been taken by the government."

Members of parliament also demanded action.

"We strongly object to the night phone packages and recommended that the PTA either fix a time limit for this facility or ban it," said Kalsoom Perveen, who heads the committee in the upper house of parliament that made the recommendation.

"These packages are not right for our youth," she told AFP.

Shafqat Hayayt Khan, an opposition lawmaker who sits on the information technology committee in the lower house, also backed the ban.

"There is no doubt that these cheap night call rates packages are promoting vulgarity. We will make the PTA implement this decision," he said.

Pakistan is no stranger to clamping down on phone and internet services.

Mobile networks have been shut down to prevent militant attacks and Pakistan has since mid-September blocked access to YouTube to protest against the American film "Innocence of Muslims".

In November 2011, the PTA also tried to ban nearly 1700 "obscene" words from text messages, but the move was met with uproar - both at the attempted censorship and the inclusion of innocuous terms such as "lotion", "athlete's foot" and "idiot".

In 2010, Pakistan shut down Facebook for nearly two weeks in a storm of controversy about blasphemy and continues to restrict hundreds of online links.

Mobile phone companies challenged the latest PTA order in court.

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Russia warns Turkey on Patriot missiles

NATO has received a request from Turkey for Patriot missiles to defend its border with Syria. Source: AAP

RUSSIA has warned Turkey against deploying surface-to-air Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria, saying it should instead use its influence to help broker peace in the war-torn country.

"The militarisation of the Syrian-Turkish border is of course a worrying sign," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a briefing on Thursday.

Turkey, he said, should use its influence with the Syrian opposition to help the two sides in the civil war start a dialogue as soon as possible instead of "flexing muscles and placing the situation on a dangerous course."

"Such steps clearly do not add optimism from the point of view of a political settlement," he told reporters regarding the possible missile placement.

Lukashevich spoke after Turkey had turned to NATO to request the deployment of Patriot missiles, something alliance chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday "would augment Turkey's air defence capabilities to defend the population and territory of Turkey."

He added it would contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along NATO's southeastern border, where Turkey has frequently retaliated for Syrian mortar fire into Turkish territory.

Rasmussen said NATO would consider the request for Patriots "without delay." The approval is expected in coming days, diplomatic sources have said.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Ankara this week that the surface-to-air missiles were "a precautionary measure, for defence in particular."

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Call for Carr to help Aussie in Dubai

FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has been urged to intervene in the case of a Melbourne businessman languishing in Dubai following a three-year murky legal case.

Matt Joyce, 45, from Melbourne, was arrested in January 2009 on suspicion of bribery while working on a development project for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government-owned Nakheel property group.

He was charged along with Marcus Lee, from Sydney.

During a Senate adjournment debate speech on Thursday night Liberal senator Helen Kroger said the prosecution's evidence was dubious and had been scrutinised in the Victorian Supreme Court in June this year.

"In his judgement, Justice Croft found that Mr Joyce and his co-accused are victims of a false complaint to Dubai authorities by senior executives of Sunland," she told the chamber.

She acknowledged that Australia had a long history of not interfering with the judicial systems of other nations when it came to cases involving Australian citizens.

However, Senator Kroger said the "inconsistent and seemingly random way" the Labor government gets involved in such cases demanded questions.

Senator Carr had made "public diplomatic entreaties" in the case of a Tasmanian lawyer who is detained in Mongolia, working for Rio Tinto.

"We all recall Prime Minister Gillard getting on the phone personally to speak to the young man and his parents who was charged and imprisoned in Bali for carrying drugs," she said.

"Why hasn't the prime minister or the foreign minister picked up the phone and pursued diplomatic channels in seeking a resolution to this travesty of justice?"

Senator Kroger said Ms Gillard had "not sought to make direct contact," in the case of Mr Joyce but had written a letter to the Head of the Rulers Court.

There was a danger more Australians could find themselves potentially in trouble in United Arab Emirates because of the Qantas and Emirates partnership agreement with Dubai being the transit stopover for all Qantas international flights, Senator Kroger said.

"There have been many speeches made in this place about forgotten people, forgotten Australians, and it is with great sadness that I suggest that another name needs to be added to this list," she said.

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Xstrata-Glencore gets EU conditional nod

THE European Commission has given a conditional green light to the massive tie-up between Swiss mining giant Xstrata and commodities trader Glencore that would create a global leader.

"The clearance is conditional on the termination of Glencore's off-take arrangements for zinc metal in the European Economic Area with Nyrstar, the world's largest zinc metal producer, and the divestiture of Glencore's minority shareholding in Nyrstar," it said in a statement on Thursday.

MOR

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Mining magnate Palmer resigns from LNP

Billionaire Clive Palmer says he isn't worried about being kicked out of the Liberal National Party. Source: AAP

CLIVE Palmer says he has resigned from the Liberal National Party, despite receiving a letter that he said reinstated his membership to the Queensland party.

The mining billionaire said he was resigning from the LNP because he didn't want to "become the issue".

"It's important that with the critical issues facing the state, I don't become the issue," he told ABC's Lateline program.

"So I discussed the issue with my wife and at 8.30pm (AEST) tonight I thought the best course of action for me would be to resign from the LNP straight away."

Mr Palmer said he had received a letter by the LNP president's executive committee confirming his suspension had been lifted as of Thursday morning.

Mr Palmer was suspended from the party on November 9.

The LNP executive was set to meet on Friday morning to decide whether the life member will remain in the party.

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New EU budget summit may be needed: Merkel

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel says the European Union will need to hold a new summit on its budget in early 2013 if the bloc's leaders fail to agree this week on a 2014-2020 spending plan.

"I don't know if we will have a definitive deal tomorrow or the next day - we want that," Merkel said during a debate on Germany's own budget on Wednesday.

"If necessary we will have to meet again at the beginning of next year."

European Union (EU) president Herman Van Rompuy says he will draft a fresh proposal on the bloc's contested trillion-euro budget in hopes of saving an extra-ordinary summit this week from collapse.

In an invitation to the EU's 27 leaders, Van Rompuy pledged "a revised version" of controversial proposed cuts to the EU budget for 2014-2020 to be considered when leaders begin the two-day talks on Thursday evening (European time).

Meanwhile French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday told his cabinet he hoped the European Union would come to a "compromise" on the bloc's contested trillion-euro budget being discussed at a summit this week.

Austerity-driven nations are demanding huge cuts to EU spending to match domestic belt-tightening for the 2014-2020 budget but face opposition from poorer nations to the east and south who benefit from the Brussels budget.

"The president hopes that Europe will come to a compromise as Europe must have a budget," government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem quoted Hollande as telling a cabinet meeting.

She said he had made "several contacts" with leaders ahead of the two-day summit, and would take up a "resolutely European and balanced approach" there.

Britain is seeking to secure a cut of up to 240 billion euros ($A298.69 billion) in the 2014-2020 budget.

EU head Herman Van Rompuy, who will broker the talks, last week suggested a 75-billion-euro cut to the proposed 1.047 trillion euros ($A1.30 trillion) budget but that made no one happy.

Italy, one of 11 net contributors to the EU budget, has been demanding the end to rebates and discounts enjoyed by Britain, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands and has said it will veto the budget if it went against Rome's interests.

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Hopes for Gaza truce before Clinton leaves

Violence continues to rage in the Gaza Strip as the two sides hold talks for a ceasefire. Source: AAP

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, Nov 21 AFP - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas hopes a Gaza truce will be announced before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves the region, a senior official says.

"President Abbas told Clinton that Egypt was the key to everything," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat after a meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah between Clinton and Abbas on Wednesday.

"President Abbas wished that before Clinton leaves Egypt a ceasefire will be announced," Erakat said.

Clinton met with Abbas for 45 minutes at his West Bank headquarters. Neither made any comment to journalists afterwards.

She has also held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is scheduled to travel on to Cairo, where Egypt is mediating indirect talks between Hamas and Israeli officials, before returning to Washington.

"The secretary of state assured president Abbas that the United States has done everything possible to reach a ceasefire" in the conflict between Israel and Gaza militants, Erakat said.

"Every hour that passes without a ceasefire is a human catastrophe in Gaza," added Erakat, who accused Israel of obstructing efforts to reach a truce, without elaborating.

Abbas and Clinton also addressed the issue of a Palestinian bid for enhanced United Nations status, and she "urged Abbas to postpone this effort," Erakat said.

"Abbas said that with all due respect we are not going to the UN to confront the US or anyone else ... but we are going there to maintain the two-state solution and the peace process," Erakat added.

The Palestinians have said they will apply to the United Nations General Assembly for non-member state status on November 29, a move opposed by both Washington and Israel.

Meanwhile Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday voiced his support for diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza on the eighth day of the conflict and spoke of his concern at the escalating violence.

"Hatred and violence are not the solution," the pope said, adding that he encouraged "the initiatives and efforts of those who are trying to reach a ceasefire and promote negotiations."

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Taliban warns of execution reprisals

THE Taliban has warned of reprisals if the Afghan government executes any of its militants in an expected series of hangings.

Kabul hanged eight criminals on Tuesday and officials said more executions were expected after President Hamid Karzai signed death warrants for a total of 16 prisoners.

The Taliban, who are waging an insurgency against Karzai's government and 100,000 NATO troops, on Wednesday said they had "credible reports" that some Taliban members on death row were scheduled for execution.

If the "prisoners of war" were executed there would be "heavy repercussions for lawmakers, courts and other related circles of the Kabul administration", the Islamists said in a statement on their website.

It urged the United Nations, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the Red Cross and international rights groups to prevent the executions.

The Taliban, ousted from power by a US-led invasion in 2001, were notorious for executing people in public for "crimes" including adultery. The executions were often carried out at half-time during games in the main football stadium in Kabul.

The European Union and international rights groups on Wednesday condemned Afghanistan's execution of the first eight prisoners and urged Kabul to drop plans to hang any more.

"The Afghan government should end its sudden surge of executions and institute a moratorium on further executions," Human Rights Watch said.

"The weakness of the Afghan legal system and the routine failure of courts to meet international fair trial standards make Afghanistan's use of the death penalty especially troubling," it said.

Amnesty International said "the sheer number of people who could be killed by the state is a particularly shocking use of what is the ultimate cruel and inhuman form of punishment".

The EU mission in Afghanistan called on the government to commute all death sentences and to reintroduce a moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolishing capital punishment.

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Palestinian refugees celebrate bomb blast

PALESTINIAN refugees living in Lebanese camps have celebrated after a bomb ripped through a bus in Tel Aviv injuring 17 people, camp residents say.

In Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, people at a mosque sang out words of praise to God via their megaphones, while fireworks lit the sky and fighters handed out sweets, residents told AFP.

In Ain al-Hilweh near the southern city of Sidon, fighters shot live rounds into the air, while Islamist militants chanted religious texts.

Medics said at least 17 people were injured in what Israel says was "a terrorist attack".

The blast took place as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on ways to end a deadly spike in bloodshed in and around Gaza over the past week.

A spokesman for Israel's Magen David Adom emergency services said one person was in moderate to serious condition, three were in moderate condition and seven people lightly injured, while another six people were being treated for shock.

Police said the blast took place on Shaul HaMelech Street which runs just behind the Kiriya, Israel's sprawling defence ministry.

TV images showed the bus with its windows blown out and its metal frame contorted from the force of the blast, in images reminiscent of scenes from the 2000-2005 Palestinian uprising.

The front window was completely shattered and glass littered the floor as the wounded were loaded into ambulances by an army of medics.

Netanyahu's spokesman said it was "a terrorist attack".

"A bomb exploded on a bus in central Tel Aviv. This was a terrorist attack. Most of the injured suffered only mild injuries," said Ofir Gendelman on his official Twitter account.

The blast came as Clinton held talks in Jerusalem over a Gaza truce with Netanyahu, with a US embassy spokesman confirming the two had held their second round of talks in as many days.

In Gaza City, the mosque opposite the Shifa hospital broadcast praise for the attack.

"God is great, God is great. An operation in the heart of the Zionist entity," rang out from the mosque's loudspeakers.

Celebratory gunfire could also be heard after the reports of the blast.

Israel has been locked in a deadly week-long confrontation with Palestinian militants in the Hamas-run Gaza strip, whose Al-Aqsa television channel on Wednesday welcomed news of the explosion.

"Hamas welcomes the martyrdom operation and affirms that it is a natural reply to the massacre of the Dallu family and the targeting of Palestinian civilians," it said in a statement.

It was referring to nine members of a Gaza family who were killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday.

An Israeli bus was last targeted in March 2011 when a bomb left at a Jerusalem stop ripped through a bus, killing a British woman and wounding over 30 other people.

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Govt accused of dirty duck hunt deal

A DEAL to expand duck hunting in exchange for ports privatisation has put the "fox in charge of the henhouse" and shows the government is "hostage" to the Shooters and Fishers Party, the NSW Greens and Labor opposition say.

The NSW upper house on Wednesday night passed legislation to enable the multi-billion dollar leasing of Port Botany and Port Kembla, after an agreement was struck with the Shooters Party over its duck hunting bill.

The government and the Shooters had been locked in negotiations for weeks over the ports bill, with the minor party demanding support for its duck-hunting laws in return.

The Shooters want the Game Council to have sole control of the granting of duck hunting licences to farmers - a responsibility currently shared with the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Environment Minister Robyn Parker said current NSW laws allowed duck hunting on farms for pest control, and the Shooters' proposed changes did not signal a "return to open duck season".

Ms Parker said the government would introduce amendments to the duck hunting bill to create a new Game Bird Management Committee, including representatives from the Office of Environment and Heritage, Game Council and Department of Primary Industries.

"The policy development and science, including the setting of quotas, will be overseen by the Game Bird Management Committee under our proposals," Ms Parker told parliament on Wednesday.

"The (Shooters') bill will streamline and improve the efficiency of the current licensing system, which presently requires two separate approvals."

Opposition Leader John Robertson, who opposed the 99-year ports leases, said the government was putting the "fox in charge of the henhouse" by making the Game Council the sole licensing authority.

"The Game Council is now going to be responsible for deciding whether ducks get shot or not," Mr Robertson told reporters on Wednesday.

Greens MP John Kaye said the coalition had "made itself hostage to a party that received less than 3.7 per cent of the vote".

"(It's) another dodgy sell-off, another squandering of public assets, another handing over of crucial economic infrastructure to the private sector in order to secure a quick grab for cash," Dr Kaye told the upper house.

Head of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Pepe Clarke, said the Shooters Party bill would effectively see an end to a 20-year ban on duck hunting.

"This is another example of the Shooters and Fishers Party having an undue and dangerous influence over government policy," he said.

"Protected, threatened and endangered species are often shot by duck hunters because they do not discriminate between species."

But Shooters Party MP Robert Borsak said the new licensing arrangements would not lead to "any massive, rapid increase in ducks being shot", and dismissed talk of a "dirty deal" with the government over the ports privatisation.

"This is no different to what we did with the national parks (and the power privatisation)," he said.

"We think that was a good initiative and we applaud the government for supporting our initiative in this area."

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Senate fails to agree on Murray bill

A DISPUTE over a crucial part of the Murray-Darling Basin plan has forced a federal government bill to further debate in the Senate.

The upper house on Tuesday adjourned without passing a bill allowing for changes to be made to the amount of water that can be sustainably taken from the basin.

The legislation must pass the chamber this week if Environment Minister Tony Burke is to present a final basin plan to parliament for consideration by the end of the year.

After a protracted debate, the coalition's spokesman for the Murray-Darling Basin, Simon Birmingham, said the bill signalled that parties were coming close to the end of a very long, tortuous and drawn out process in water reform.

"For more than 120 years, particularly the Murray Darling Basin states have argued and squabbled and bickered over water reform," Senator Birmingham told the chamber.

He welcomed government co-operation with the opposition on this legislation.

Labor senator Doug Cameron said the bill "might not be everyone's nirvana, but it's a massive step forward".

But Australia Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the "something is better than nothing" argument didn't fly because the plan was "locking in failure".

The minor party moved a flurry of last-minute amendments, but all were defeated.

Any adjustments to the sustainable diversion limits (SDLs) cannot exceed five per cent above or below the total amount, and must be put to parliament and the public.

Under amendments made in the lower house, the environment minister of the day has the final say on any adjustment levels, not the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA).

Opposition water spokesman Barnaby Joyce said it was the 2.1 million basin residents who stood to lose considerably if any more of their water was diverted downstream.

"We have to be extremely cautious of how this process works," Senator Joyce said, adding he'd need to know exactly how the adjustment process would work before agreeing to any final basin plan.

The opposition, though agreeing with the bill, moved an amendment to ensure any adjustments must operate on a "no-detriment" basis - meaning they wouldn't have adverse social, economic or environmental outcomes.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon also moved amendments to recognise the water-saving efforts of basin communities in his home state of South Australia, but both were voted down.

Debate on the Water Amendment (Long-Term Average Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment) Bill 2012 has adjourned.

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Hamas top commander warns Israel

ISRAEL will "pay a heavy price" if it launches a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, Hamas's top military commander warned in a rare audio message.

"The enemy will pay a heavy price if it thinks of entering Gaza," Mohammed Deif said in the audio message carried by Hamas television station Al-Aqsa on Tuesday.

"A ground war is the best hope of freeing the prisoners," Deif said, implying that militants would seek to capture Israeli soldiers in order to bring about a prisoner swap deal as they did last year with Israel's Gilad Shalit.

Deif is the head of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, a position he assumed in 2002, after the previous commander Saleh Shehadeh was killed in a massive Israeli air strike.

In 2006, Deif was badly wounded in another Israeli air strike.

He subsequently went underground, leaving most field duties to Ahmed Jaabari, his second-in-command, who was killed in an Israeli targeted killing on November 14 which sparked the current cycle of violence.

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Call to observe Malaysia election prep

MALAYSIA'S opposition leader has pleaded with Australia to urgently send a parliamentary delegation to observe preparations for upcoming elections, the Senate has heard.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon told the Senate on Tuesday night that an Australian delegation should be deployed to Malaysia in the next few weeks due to serious concerns about the integrity of the country's election rolls.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has yet to set a date for the election, which must be held before the end of April.

Senator Xenophon said Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who he met in Kuala Lumpur last week, was worried the election would be subject to "widespread fraud and vote tampering".

"This is not the time to turn our backs or turn a blind eye to our close friend and neighbour," he told the chamber.

Mr Ibrahim has sent a letter to Foreign Minister Bob Carr requesting Australian government assistance.

"Malaysia's opposition leader is pleading with Australia not to take sides, but to do all it can to ensure that there are free and fair elections in Malaysia," Senator Xenophon said.

"This is one of those unambiguous and fortunate occasions where supporting clean and fair and free elections in Malaysia is in the interests of our region."

He said Australia should also offer the services of the Australian Electoral Commission.

Last month, Senator Carr said Australia would follow protocol by waiting for an invitation from the Malaysian government to send observers.

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Govt examines malaria fund claims

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says the government is "working through" allegations that Australian aid money is going into a fund that is being used to pay for fake and ineffective anti-malarial drugs in some of the world's poorest countries.

Australia has agreed to put $100 million into a global fund to provide drugs to combat the spread of malaria, but it has been reported in the United States that the fund is the subject of corruption in at least four countries.

Ms Gillard told reporters in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh at the end of the East Asia Summit that she was aware of the allegations and they were being examined.

"We, through our aid program, take a very rigorous approach to the expenditure of Australian dollars and we have monitoring and checking processes," she said.

Ms Gillard said Australia had a lot of experience in fighting diseases and knew how to "make a difference".

"We've put a lot of vaccine into kids' arms and down their throats ... but of course you have always got to be vigilant about the expenditure of every Australian dollar," she said.

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Militants fire rocket toward Jerusalem

PALESTINIAN militants have fired a rocket toward Jerusalem, causing an explosion moments after air raid sirens sounded across the city.

The sound of the blast could be heard in the distance from downtown Jerusalem.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the rocket apparently did not reach the city and authorities are searching for the blast site.

It's the second rocket attack aimed at Jerusalem since a round of fighting broke out between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza last Wednesday. Jerusalem, nearly 80 kilometres from Gaza, is the most distant city the militants have targeted.

The rocket attack occurred as diplomats were trying to work out a cease-fire.

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Rudd, Turnbull trade barbs on leadership

KEVIN Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull could never join forces to create their own political party because they wouldn't be able to decide who should lead it.

At least, that was what the former prime minister told the ABC Q&A audience on Monday - although he was quick to add, "That was a joke."

Host Tony Jones observed Mr Rudd and Prime Minister Julia Gillard couldn't agree on leadership issues either.

"And nor could Malcolm and Tony (Abbott)," Mr Rudd shot back.

The former leaders of the Labor and Liberal parties needled each other as they answered a series of questions about their ambitions.

"It remains a matter of complete bafflement to me why the Labor Party doesn't put Kevin back," Mr Turnbull said.

"But that just proves why I'm not suited to the Labor Party - because I'm too rational."

Mr Rudd wondered how Mr Turnbull managed to get on with his leader, saying they were "chalk and cheese" and suggested, "You're more at home on our side of politics, mate".

He said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was Labor's "central asset".

"We hope that there's going to be a policy-based election," he said.

"But for that to occur Mr Abbott is going to have to either a) go or b) have a deep personal reformation in terms of being faintly interested in policy of any description whatsoever."

With polls repeatedly showing voters like the pair better than their respective party leaders, Mr Turnbull was at pains to emphasise he would be part of any coalition government leadership team even if not as prime minister.

"Regrettably if they (voters) are Kevin-fanciers ... Kevin, to the loss of his party and I think to the loss of the country, will remain not-so-enigmatically on the back bench," he said.

Mr Rudd lamented the current political climate, which "suffocates" discussion.

"For God's sake what we need in this country is a mature national conversation about policy options for the nation's future around the common vision for where we want to be in 2010, 2020, 2030, 2040," he said.

"It's a rolling Punch and Judy show where everyone knocks each other out over a technical flaw here, someone overstating the case there."

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Fatah, Hamas unite over Gaza crisis

RIVAL Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas say they have decided to end infighting in a show of solidarity in the West Bank over the Gaza crisis.

"From here, we announce with other (factional) leaders that we are ending the division," senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub told a crowd of about 1000 who gathered for a demonstration in Ramallah, the West Bank's political capital.

Among those at the rally were top members of Hamas's leadership in the West Bank as well as senior officials from its smaller rival Islamic Jihad, the AFP correspondent said.

Ramallah's Manara Square was a sea of Palestinian flags as the crowd chanted "Unity!" and "Hit, hit Tel Aviv" in an appeal to Hamas militants who have fired at least five rockets at the coastal city since Thursday.

"Whoever speaks about the division after today is a criminal," top Hamas leader Mahmud al-Ramahi told the crowd.

Fatah and Hamas, the two main Palestinian national factions, have been in a bitter dispute for years.

Gaza's Hamas-run government has long been at loggerheads with the rival Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and a unity deal struck between the two in April 2011 fell apart as the two bickered over the formation of a caretaker cabinet.

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Obama in Cambodia on last leg of Asia tour

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has arrived in Cambodia on the final leg of his three-country tour of Southeast Asia.

The trip marks the first time a US president has visited Cambodia, which is hosting the East Asia Summit.

Obama was scheduled to meet Cambodia's longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday evening. The White House says Obama will raise US concerns about Cambodia's human rights record during the meeting.

The president also will attend a dinner with regional leaders who are in Cambodia for the summit.

Obama's Asia tour, his first foreign trip following his re-election, also included stops in Thailand and Myanmar (Burma).

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Greens laud dental reforms as historic

AN entire future generation of Australians will benefit from a new dental scheme aimed at improving children's oral health, Greens senator Richard Di Natale says.

As parliamentary debate on Labor's proposed $4.1 billion scheme got underway on Monday night, Senator Di Natale said it was just the first step towards what he hoped would eventually be a universal dental health system.

Australia used to be a leader in children's oral health but had slipped to the point where the nation's young were suffering because of the cost of care, he said.

However, the current reforms would be the biggest in dental health in Australia's history.

The six-year package includes $2.7 billion for children aged two to 18, $1.3 billion for adults on low incomes and $225 million to expand services in outer metropolitan, regional and remote areas.

"For the first time, Australian families will be able to take out their Medicare card and get dental treatment for their children just like they do at the doctor," Senator Di Natale told the Senate.

"This focus on children is a good investment of the future dental health of the country."

The opposition has criticised the changes because they involve closing down a chronic dental disease scheme (CDDS) set up in 2007 by then health minister Tony Abbott, now the opposition leader.

Liberal senator Sean Edwards said the closure will leave thousands of people in pain and unable to get help for 19 months until the new scheme starts for adults.

He dismissed government claims that the scheme helped wealthy Australians receive cosmetic procedures at the taxpayers expense.

"The end of the chronic disease dental scheme would put the health of many older and lower income residents at risk," he said.

"80 per cent of patients under are concession card holders and they are being left stranded by this government."

He and fellow Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells also blasted the government scheme as being unfunded.

But Labor's Senator John Faulkner said the government's scheme will address the inequalities that had prevented thousands of low-income Australia's from receiving basic dental care.

"Unfortunately it is true that dental health in this country has been a luxury for the haves, and a dream for the have nots," he said.

"I am very pleased to speak in support of this important legislation which I believe will make that concern a thing of the past."

New investment in dental care was one of the main conditions on which the Greens pledged its support for Labor in forming a minority government.

Debate on the Dental Benefits Amendment Bill 2012 has adjourned.

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Sydney teen charged over stabbing

A TEENAGER has been charged over a stabbing at a railway station in Sydney's northwest.

Police were called to Eastwood station around 4.15pm on Monday after a fight between two youths which allegedly ended with a 16-year-old stabbing an 18-year-old in the chest and upper arm.

The younger teenager was detained by members of the public until police and paramedics arrived.

The older was taken to Westmead Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Officers arrested the 16-year-old Dundas Valley boy at the scene.

He was taken to Ryde Police Station and charged with reckless wounding, possession of a knife in a public place and possession of a prohibited drug.

Police said he was granted conditional bail and would appear before Hornsby Childrens Court on December 12.

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Invasion would cost Israel support: UK

A GROUND invasion of the Gaza Strip would lose Israel much international sympathy and support, British Foreign Secretary William Hague says.

Hague told Sky News it was much more difficult to limit civilian casualties in a ground assault and it would threaten to prolong the conflict.

His comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the armed forces were ready to "significantly expand" their operation against militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Britain has said that Hamas bears the principal responsibility for the crisis due to perpetual rocket attacks on Israeli territory.

But Hague said it would be hard for the international community to maintain sympathy with Israel if it launched a ground operation.

"That, of course, is a different proposition," he said.

"The prime minister (David Cameron) and I have both stressed to our Israeli counterparts that a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy that they have in this situation.

"It's much more difficult to restrict and avoid civilian casualties during a ground invasion and a large ground operation would threaten to prolong the conflict.

"So we have made our views very clear on that with Israel, just as we have made very clear our view that the barrage of rockets from Gaza onto southern Israel is an intolerable situation for the Israelis and it's not surprising they have responded to that.

"A ground invasion is much more difficult for the international community to sympathise with or support - including the United Kingdom."

He said Britain would like to see an agreed ceasefire, with an end to the rocket attacks being an essential component of any peace deal.

"In the absence of that ceasefire, we of course are calling on all involved to de-escalate, to avoid civilian casualties and to abide by international humanitarian law," he said.

Hague said it would be a "mistake" for the Palestinians to try to gain observer status at the United Nations at this point as it would be "divisive" with the United States.

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One Direction's Harry back with Taylor

ONE Direction heart throb Harry Styles has rekindled a relationship with US chart sensation Taylor Swift, reports UK newspaper The Sun.

One-fifth of the British boy band, floppy-haired Styles, 18, has been spotted holding hands and flirting with contemporary country singer Swift, 22, in Los Angeles on the set of American X Factor.

"It was a big deal her inviting him to the show with her mum. It was her way of showing she is ready to trust him," a pal of Swift told The Sun.

The pair were introduced in the US in early 2012 but during a brief relationship, Styles was caught kissing a model while touring New Zealand.

"Taylor was really embarrassed by what happened and was nervous about giving him another go. But this time they have spent more time getting to know each other," the friend said.

The relationship news is sure to devastate the doting global fans of Styles and his band mates.

When One Direction toured Australia in April, concert tickets sold out in three minutes and teenage fans flooded city streets to catch a glimpse of the latest sensation from Britain.

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Two boats intercepted off Christmas Island

TWO boats carrying 195 asylum seekers have been intercepted off Christmas Island.

The first boat, which was located on Friday night, was carrying 59 passengers and two crew.

The second boat, carrying 136 passengers and two crew, was intercepted on Saturday morning.

All passengers have been transferred to Christmas Island where they will undergo security, health and identity checks.

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Eighty-year-old man killed in Qld crash

A MAN has died following a crash in north Queensland.

The two-car crash happened on the Gillies Highway near Yungaburra about 4pm on Sunday.

The 80-year-old Yungaburra man was transported to Cairns Base Hospital after the crash, but died from his injuries.

A 29-year-old man was taken to Atherton Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

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Coalition would win federal election: poll

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott's approval rating may be on the wane but the coalition would win an election on a two-party basis, the latest Fairfax/Nielsen poll says.

According to the poll, the opposition would win 53 per cent of the vote (up one point since last month) and Labor would receive 47 per cent (down one point).

The poll, in Monday's Fairfax newspapers, shows Labor's national primary vote is steady on 34 per cent, while the coalition's vote has risen by two points to 45 per cent, with the Greens up one point on 12 per cent.

Mr Abbott's approval eased one point to 36 per cent. His disapproval is steady at 60 per cent.

His net approval is down a point to minus 24, a new personal low.

Voter approval for Prime Minister Julia Gillard remains steady on 47 per cent and, with her disapproval steady on 48 per cent, she has an unchanged net approval of minus one.

Ms Gillard maintains a nine-point lead over Mr Abbott in the preferred prime minister stakes at 51 per cent (up a point) to Mr Abbott's 42 per cent (up two points) in the national poll of 1400 taken from Thursday to Saturday.

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