Fire bans, warnings as WA set to scorch

A MID-40C scorcher will see a total fire ban for around 2600 residents on the northern WA coast, while 6000 people in the state's Pilbara region are bracing for severe fire danger.

The Shire of Exmouth, in the coastal region of Gascoyne about 1000km north of Perth, has been placed on a total fire ban on Sunday by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES).

All open air fires are banned, and hot work such as metal welding and grinding is not allowed without an exemption. The DFES has warned that those who flout the ban face fines of up $25,000 and/or up to 12 months in jail.

Residents in the inner-Pilbara's Shire of Ashburton face hot, dry, windy conditions that could see a potential bush or grass fire take hold, DFES said, announcing a severe fire warning.

The area faces overnight temperature lows in the mid to high 20Cs before daytime maximums expected in the low to mid 40Cs, with the searing weather tipped to continue until Boxing Day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).

Motorists are being urged to avoid driving near the abandoned town site of Wittenoom, where a fire southwest of the area - despite posing no danger - has seen roads closed in the area due to thick smoke.

Several non-threatening fires are also burning on either side of the North West Coastal Highway in the Shire of Ashburton, causing a potential smoke hazard for motorists, DFES said in a statement.

The department has urged residents in affected areas to have bushfire plans and survival kits on standby, and to tune in to local radio and other media for updates.

"Do not wait for a warning before you act. If you see flames call triple zero," the DFES said.

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Syria's chemical weapons safe, Russia says

RUSSIA'S foreign minister says the Syrian government has consolidated its chemical weapons in one or two locations amid a rebel onslaught.

Sergey Lavrov says Russia, which has military advisers training Syria's military, has kept close watch over its chemical arsenal. He says the Syrian government has moved them from many arsenals to just "one or two centres" to properly safeguard them.

US intelligence says the regime may be readying chemical weapons and could be desperate enough to use them. Both Israel and the US have also expressed concerns they could fall into militant hands if the regime crumbles.

Lavrov also told reporters on a flight from an EU summit late on Friday that countries in the region had asked Russia to convey an offer of safe passage to President Bashar al-Assad.

Meanwhile Rebels have threatened to storm two predominantly Christian towns in central Syria, saying regime forces are using them to attack nearby areas.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday that the rebels issued an ultimatum to the towns of Mahrada and Sqailbiyeh in the province of Hama.

A video released by rebels showed Rashid Abul-Fidaa, the Hama commander of the Ansar Brigade, calling on residents to "evict Assad's gangs" or be attacked. He was referring to Assad's forces in the area.

Christians, who make up about 10 per cent of Syria's population, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people.

They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups.

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Two charged over $580,000 cigarette haul

CIGARETTES worth more than half a million dollars have been seized and two men charged following a routine police truck stop in Victoria's north, police say.

Officers pulled over a light truck north-bound on the Hume Freeway at Seymour, about 100km north of Melbourne, about 11.30am (AEDT) on Saturday.

After speaking with the driver, a search of the truck revealed three pallets of cigarettes valued at around $580,000, police said.

Two NSW men, aged 28 and 35, have been charged with two counts each of possessing proceeds of crime and one count each of handling stolen goods.

Both were bailed and will appear at Seymour Magistrates Court on March 21.

Police say they'll work with customs officials to further investigate the circumstances surrounding the find.

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Suicide bombers attack Nigeria telcos

TWO suspected suicide car bombers have attacked the offices of two major telecoms companies in the volatile northern Nigerian city of Kano, police and the army say.

One of the attackers blew himself up when he rammed his car into the office gate of the Airtel mobile phone company, setting the building ablaze, police said on Saturday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in northern Nigeria's largest city, and no reports of any civilian deaths.

The Islamist group Boko Haram - notorious for shootings and bomb attacks across north and central Nigeria - has in the past targeted phone companies, accusing them of cooperating with the security services.

"There has been a bomb blast at Airtel office. From what we hear, it was a suicide attack. The bomber rammed his car into the gate and blew himself up. The building is on fire," said a policeman who requested anonymity.

The attack was confirmed by an army spokesman in Kano, Lieutenant Iweha Ikedichi.

Airtel worker Bayo Osho said his leg was injured in the blast.

"A car rammed into the gate and forced its way into the premises. The car hit me on the leg and flung me into a corner before it exploded. I was dragged out and taken to the hospital by soldiers outside the gate," he told AFP at the hospital where he was taken for treatment.

Security agents cordoned off the scene while firefighters battled to put out the fire.

Officials from Airtel, one of the three biggest mobile phone service providers in Nigeria, were unavailable for comment.

A second suspected bomber was blown up when his car exploded outside the gate of an office of MTN, the country's largest mobile network, Ikedichi said.

No other casualties were recorded in the attack, he added.

Kano was the scene of Boko Haram's deadliest attack yet in January, when at least 185 people were killed in coordinated bombings and shootings.

Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead in Nigeria since 2009, including killings by the security forces.

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Pope pardons butler who stole from him

POPE Benedict XVI has granted a Christmas pardon to his former butler, who stole the pope's private papers and leaked them to a journalist in one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.

The Vatican said Benedict visited Paolo Gabriele in the Vatican police barracks on Saturday morning, told him he had pardoned him, and Gabriele was subsequently freed.

Gabriele was arrested May 23 after Vatican police found heaps of papal documents in his Vatican City apartment. He was convicted of aggravated theft by a Vatican tribunal October 6 and has been serving his 18-month sentence in the Vatican police barracks.

Gabriele told investigators he gave the documents to a journalist because he thought that exposing the "evil and corruption" in the Vatican would put the church back on the right track.
 

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List unveils top English tongue-twisters

"PHENOMENON", "remuneration" and "statistics" have topped a list of the most commonly mispronounced English words.

Speakers also have a problem getting their tongue around "ethnicity", "hereditary" and "particularly", according to the UK body charged with recording public utterances.

The British Institute Of Verbatim Reporters (BIVR) is the UK's leading organisation for professionals involved in taking down speech at court and tribunal hearings.

A poll of its members found the 10 words that Britons consistently find the most challenging to pronounce.

Completing the list are "conjugal", "specific", "processes" and "development".

Leah Willersdorf, of the BIVR, said: "We work with many different types of professionals and hear all kinds of voices during our work.

"However, when it comes to the English language it always seems to be the same few words that verbally trip people up, with the speaker having to repeat the word in order to get it right, or just abandoning their attempts and moving on."

BIVR members were quizzed by the team behind the popular word game Scrabble.

According to the words buffs, one in 10 players admit to being reluctant to producing words that they cannot pronounce.

Scrabble is a favourite with British families over the festive period, with an estimated 11 million going head to head on Boxing Day, according to its makers.

University of York sociolinguistics expert Paul Kerswill said the English language has evolved to compensate for tricky pronunciations but some words remain a challenge.

"People always find a way of simplifying words that they find difficult to get their tongues round, so that an everyday word like 'handbag' sounds like 'hambag'," Professor Kerswill said.

"Our forebears simplified 'waistcoat' to 'weskit' - but we've turned our backs on that.

"We certainly don't pronounce Worcester and Gloucester the way they are spelt any more. And 'York' used to have three syllables, not one.

"And most people talk about 'Febry' and 'Wensday'."

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Obama vows action after online petition

US President Barack Obama has vowed to take action to stop gun violence in response to online petitions signed by more than 400,000 people after last week's primary school massacre.

"In the days since the heartbreaking tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, hundreds of thousands of you, from all 50 states, signed petitions asking us to take serious steps to address the epidemic of gun violence in this country," Obama said in an online video on Friday. "We hear you."

Obama has called on Congress to pass legislation banning military-style assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition clips. It would would also close loopholes that allow people to purchase guns without background checks.

He has also appointed Vice President Joe Biden to head a task force to explore ways to prevent mass shootings, including by improving access to mental health care, and addressing depictions of violence in popular culture.

"I will do everything in my power as president to advance these efforts, because if there's even one thing we can do as a country to protect our children, we have a responsibility to try," Obama said in the video.

"But as I said earlier this week I can't do it alone. I need your help."

Obama called on ordinary citizens, law enforcement officials and gun owners to campaign publicly and petition Congress in support of his reforms.

Last Friday's massacre of 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School - the latest in a series of mass shootings over the past two years - has galvanised support for reforms aimed at stemming gun violence.

More than 400,000 people have signed "We the People" petitions on the White House's website calling for action on gun violence, making it one of the most popular issues since the launch of the site, a White House official said.

One such petition set the record for being the fastest ever to reach 25,000 signatures, the official said.

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Pope makes new anti-gay marriage stance

THE Pope has taken his opposition to gay marriage to new heights with a strong denunciation of how people are manipulating their sex and gender to alter their God-given nature.

Benedict made the comments on Friday in his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican bureaucracy - one of his most important speeches of the year and one he dedicated this year to promoting family values.

In it, Benedict quoted the chief rabbi of France in saying the campaign for granting gays the right to marry was an "attack" on the traditional family made up of a father, mother and children.

Benedict also issued a denunciation of gay marriage in his recently released annual peace message, saying gay marriage, like abortion and euthanasia, was a threat to world peace.

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Dutch impound Steve Jobs superyacht

STEVE Jobs' Dutch-built superyacht has been impounded in Amsterdam because of a dispute between the late Apple founder's estate and designer Philippe Starck over an unpaid bill.

"The yacht has been impounded," Rotterdam-based lawyer Roelant Klaassen, who represents French designer Starck's Ubik company said on Friday.

"There is some unfinished business, namely two invoices which were issued by Ubik last summer after Mr Jobs died," he said.

Amsterdam court bailiffs seized the 70-metre long yacht following a request from Starck's lawyer.

The Venus reportedly cost over 100 million euros ($126 million) to build and was only unveiled in October, just over a year after Jobs died.

Jobs' estate says Starck should be paid a percentage of the overall cost of the project, which took over five years to complete, while Starck says he should be paid a fixed nine million euros for his contribution, Mr Klaassen said.

Mr Klaassen said he was in contact with a Dutch lawyer representing the Jobs estate, Gerard Moussault.

"Hopefully we will come to an interim agreement with regard to security," Mr Klaassen said.

Mr Moussault declined to comment on the matter.

Jobs' family, including widow Laurene Powell Jobs and their three children Reed, Erin and Eve, was supposed to take charge of the yacht in the United States.

Mr Klaassen said he had seen documents that show Jobs and Starck were "very close in the period that the design was made and the building proceeded".

"That's one of the reasons there was no formal agreement on the job," he said.

"The most important thing for everyone is that the vessel can sail at a certain moment and hopefully funds will be paid into the account of the lawyers of the estate which can then be used as security," Mr Klaassen said.

"Apparently the vessel will be loaded on another vessel to be shipped to the States, I think to California."

The aluminium-hulled yacht was built by Royal De Vries shipbuilder's in Aalsmeer, just south of Amsterdam, with interiors designed by Starck.

The bridge features a control panel made up of an array of seven iMac computers.

Starck said last year that he was working on the yacht, which was mentioned in Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, who died on October 5, 2011. He said it was "sleek and minimalist", with teak decks.

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Cameron in Oman as BAE unveils $4bn deal

British defence giant BAE Systems has announced a $A3.93 billion deal to supply aircraft to Oman. Source: AAP

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron has visited Oman as Britain's defence giant BAE Systems announced a STG2.5 billion ($A3.91 billion) deal to supply fighter planes and trainer jets to the sultanate.

Cameron met Sultan Qaboos to discuss "ongoing cooperation between both countries in several fields in light of their good relations and the mutual interests of their friendly people," Oman news agency ONA reported on Friday.

On Thursday, the prime minister paid a pre-Christmas visit to British troops serving in Afghanistan.

On his way home as he arrived in Muscat for a brief visit, BAE Systems announced in London that it has sealed a multi-billion dollar fighter jets deal with Muscat.

"BAE Systems and the government of the Sultanate of Oman have entered into a contract for the supply of Typhoon and Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer aircraft to the Royal Air Force of Oman," the London-listed company said in a statement.

"The contract, valued at approximately 2.5 billion, provides for the delivery of 12 Typhoon and 8 Hawk aircraft starting in 2017."

ONA later said that "this deal comes within the framework of Sultan Qaboos's concern ... in developing the capabilities and potential of the Omani Air Force."

Oman will become the seventh nation in the world, and only the second in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia, to operate the Eurofighter Typhoon.

"We believe that Oman has now added the most advanced fighter jet and proven training aircraft, available in the world, to its military portfolio," said Guy Griffiths, group managing director for BAE Systems' international business.

Oman has historically close relations with Britain and is the only Arab state in the Gulf that also has warm ties with neighbouring Iran, enabling it to become a key mediator between Tehran and the West.

On Tuesday, Oman said it had mediated the repatriation from Britain of former Iranian diplomat Nostratollah Tajik, who won a British court ruling against his extradition to the US where he is wanted for allegedly smuggling arms.

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Thailand extradites of Italian mafia boss

A THAI court has ordered the extradition of a former banker and Italian mafia boss accused of laundering money for two Sicilian godfathers.

Vito Roberto Palazzolo, who was arrested in Thailand in March after investigators tracked him down through Facebook, is considered to a leading member of the Cosa Nostra Sicilian mafia.

"The court ruled that Palazzolo should be extradited," an official at the Bangkok Criminal Court said.

"The judge ruled his case was not political as it's organised crime and money laundering," she said.

Under Thai law, the 65-year-old is entitled to file an appeal within 30 days, but his lawyer in Italy suggested he was unlikely to oppose the ruling.

"Palazzolo does not intend to appeal and his return to Italy will probably be voluntary," said Baldassare Lauria.

"This is not 100-per cent sure yet but we are speaking to the Italian government and judges. My client wants to speak to prosecutors to clear things up. From his time as a banker in Switzerland, he can shed light on many mysteries and on his ties with institutions," Mr Lauria added.

Palazzolo previously worked as a banker in Switzerland and was convicted in the 1980s of laundering mafia revenues from drug trafficking between Asia and Europe and the United States in an operation named the "Pizza Connection".

He served three years in prison for the crime. A few years after his release, the lead prosecutor in the case was assassinated with a roadside bomb that also killed his wife and three bodyguards.

Palazzolo is accused of being the "treasurer" for the last two godfathers of the Sicilian mafia who are now in jail - Bernardo Provenzano and Toto Riina, who imposed a reign of terror in the 1980s and 1990s.

He was sentenced in absentia by an Italian court in 2009 to nine years in jail for association with the mafia, and had been living in South Africa under the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko before travelling to Thailand.

In South Africa - which declined to extradite him - Palazzolo was seen as a major businessman with interests in mineral water, security and ostrich farming.

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'Super Mario' arrested for groping

POLICE say a man dressed as a Super Mario Brother has been arrested for groping a woman in New York City's Times Square.

An NYPD spokesman says 34-year-old Damon Torres of North Bergen, New Jersey, was charged with forcible touching. Police say Mr Torres blocked a 58-year-old woman's path in front of 4 Times Square and grabbed her thigh before walking away.

The woman notified police officers, who arrested Mr Torres at the famous tourist attraction. Mr Torres was also charged with marijuana possession.

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Russia recognises need for change in Syria

VLADIMIR Putin says Russia realises changes in Syria are needed, but is concerned that the push to unseat President Bashar Assad's regime could plunge the country even deeper into violence.

The Russian president says that Moscow stands for a settlement that would "prevent the country from breakup and an endless civil war."

"Agreements based on a military victory can't be efficient," he said on Thursday at his annual marathon news conference.

Russia has repeatedly said that its stance on the Syrian crisis is not aimed at propping up Assad.

"We are not preoccupied that much with the fate of the Assad regime; we realise what's going on there and that the family has been in power for 40 years," Putin said. "Undoubtedly, there is a call for changes."

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'Erin Brockovich' toxin at Japan plant

THE toxic chemical made infamous by campaigning single mother Erin Brockovich has been found at up to 15,800 times safety limits in groundwater at a Japan iron plant, the factory's operator said Thursday.

Excessive amounts of hexavalent chromium were discovered at Nippon Denko's plant in Tokushima in the country's west as it prepared to halt production of chromium salts at the sixties-era factory, the firm said.

Also known as chromium-6, cancer-causing hexavalent chromium was at the centre of the 2000 US film Erin Brockovich, which starred Julia Roberts as a real life legal assistant who leads a battle against a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply.

At the Japanese plant, the chemical was found at up to 400 times safety limits in soil and up to 15,800 times allowable levels in groundwater, Nippon Denko said, but added that "no hazards to human health or the outside environment" were reported.

"We voluntarily surveyed the soil and groundwater at the plant between June and August before the closure," a company spokesman said, adding that two dozen locations on the site were tested.

"At the moment, we're assuming the contamination is limited to the plant's compound and that no adverse effects have been caused to surrounding areas," a local government statement said.

The authority said its own survey had found no traces of the chemical in water surrounding the plant, which sits on landfill, or in wells on the fringes of the facility.

The company said it was planning to enclose contaminated areas with 11 metre containment walls to prevent seepage of the tainted groundwater.

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Retrial for cops jailed in Egypt death

A COURT in Egypt has ordered a retrial of two policemen jailed for beating a young man to death in a shocking case that helped spark the country's revolution in early 2011.

The Court of Cassation on Thursday overturned seven-year prison sentences handed to officers Mahmoud Salah Mahmoud and Awad Esmail Suleiman in October 2011 for the beating death of 28-year-old Khaled Said in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in June the previous year.

The court did not immediately release its reasoning for the new trial. In past cases, courts have overturned verdicts because of faulty trial proceedings.

Said's death enraged many Egyptians. Disturbing photographs of his badly mutilated corpse published on the internet sparked vigils and protests in Alexandria and Cairo.

A Facebook page dedicated to Said fuelled protests that targeted police stations nationwide, becoming part of the popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

In a separate case, a court in Alexandria on Thursday acquitted a police officer accused of torturing to death an Islamist suspected in a deadly church bombing in January 2011.

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Biden to head US panel on violence: report

US President Barack Obama will appoint Vice President Joe Biden to head a government panel to formulate a response to gun violence after last week's school massacre, media reports say.

The New York Times and the Washington Post cited White House officials as saying that Obama would formally name Biden to head the panel at a press conference on Wednesday morning.

The panel will explore possible new gun legislation to rein in the sale of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, but will also look at mental health policies and violence in popular culture.

Obama vowed to take action against gun violence when he spoke at a memorial on Sunday for the 26 victims - including 20 young children - killed in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

On Tuesday Obama backed a new bid to revive an assault weapons ban and other new gun laws, as traumatised US politicians wrestled with the aftermath of the worst in a series of mass shootings over the last two years.

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Power lost to 6000 homes in Sydney's west

SIX thousand homes were left without power in Sydney's west following a fault at a substation.

The homes lost power just after 9pm (AEDT) on Wednesday after a safety system switched off power to homes in Rooty Hill and Eastern Creek, an Endeavour Energy spokesman told AAP.

While the majority of homes had their power restored less than an hour later, 2000 homes experienced poor quality electricity supply until just before 11pm.

The Endeavour Energy spokesman said the outage was due to faulty switch gear in a distribution substation.

Maintenance on the substation will take place on Thursday morning, he said.

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No regrets, says Aust boat race protester

AFTER serving seven weeks in a British prison for his public protest against elitism and inequality, Australian Trenton Oldfield says without hesitation that he would do it all again.

The former Sydneysider was jailed for six months in October after a jury found him guilty of causing a public nuisance by disrupting the annual Oxford-Cambridge rowing race on London's River Thames in April.

Subject to parole conditions and ordered to wear an electronic tracking device, Oldfield has been released from custody and spoke with BBC Radio this week.

Asked if he would repeat his protest, which a sentencing judge described as "dangerous", Oldfield replied an unwavering "yes".

"(I have) not a single regret," he added.

Oldfield swam into the path of the rowing crews on April 7, disrupting the historic annual race to the annoyance of participants, organisers and thousands of spectators.

A global audience of millions is believed to have been watching televised coverage of the race, which had been neck-and-neck when it was interrupted and restarted after a 25-minute break.

"I don't know if I owe them an apology, but I have a lot of sympathy for their training," Oldfield said of the rowers he disrupted.

The 36-year-old London-based activist said he selected the boat race because it would have "limited impact" on working people.

"It was on a very, very small group of people but in a very profound and symbolic way," Oldfield said.

The anti-elitism display aimed to serve as a broad objection to British government policy which Oldfield said has prevented stability for people who "trained hard to build a life".

Oldfield said his beliefs prevented him from appealing the jail sentence.

"First of all I didn't believe in the charge that was given to me. I had no choice, I had to go through the process and an appeal would be suggesting that I still believed in the system and the system could address it," he said.

"In a way you kind of take your hat and you ask people for their forgiveness or something, I wasn't prepared to do that."

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UK PM says 3800 troops to quit Afghanistan

AROUND 3800 British troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan during 2013, British Prime Minister David Cameron says.

Cameron told parliament that the strength of the UK force will be reduced from 9000 to 5200 by the end of next year.

The partial withdrawal paves the way for the final removal of the bulk of British personnel from Afghanistan as planned by the end of 2014, Cameron said.

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Chaos, not cover-up, at BBC: UK report

The BBC will release a report into its handling of the child-sex abuse claims against Jimmy Savile. Source: AAP

AN internal report into the BBC's handling of a pedophilia scandal surrounding one of its best-known children's presenters is blaming weak management for failing to get to grips with the story.

But the review has absolved any BBC executives of trying to bury the potential embarrassing story, saying that confusion and poor leadership were to blame for the fact that a planned expose about the presenter, Jimmy Savile, was never aired.

When a rival broadcaster later aired a similar expose, the BBC came under fire both for harbouring an alleged serial sex abuser for decades and for killing its own story.

The review was carried out by Nick Pollard, the former head of another BBC rival, Sky News.

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Five polio workers shot dead in Pakistan

GUNMEN on motorbikes have shot dead five female Pakistani polio vaccination workers, police say, highlighting resistance to the country's immunisation campaign.

Four were killed in three different incidents in the sprawling port city and the fifth in the northwestern city of Peshawar, on the second day of a nationwide three-day drive against the disease, which is endemic in Pakistan.

Sagheer Ahmed, the health minister for Sindh province, of which Karachi is capital, said on Tuesday he had ordered a halt to the anti-polio drive in the city in the wake of the shootings.

Senior Karachi police officer Shahid Hayat said another polio worker was shot dead in the city on Monday, but the circumstances of his death only became clear on Tuesday.

In Peshawar, which lies close to the restive tribal areas, a haven for militants and hotspot for polio, two attackers on a motorbike fired on two sisters working on vaccination, killing one, senior police official Javed Khan told AFP.

The incident took place in Mathra suburb of Peshawar which borders Mohmand tribal district, Khan said.

Hayat blamed "militants who issued a fatwa against polio vaccination in the past" for the Karachi killings.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where the highly infectious crippling disease remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.

But efforts to tackle polio have been hampered over the years by suspicion over vaccination drives.

The Taliban have banned immunisations in the northwest, condemning the campaign as a cover for espionage since a Pakistani doctor was jailed after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination program.

Tuesday's killings in Karachi took place in parts of the city dominated by Pashtuns, Hayat said. Pashtuns are the dominant ethnic group in northwest Pakistan and have a sizeable migrant population in Karachi.

WHO, a partner in government efforts to eradicate the disease, suspended vaccination activities in part of Pakistan's largest city in July after a spate of bloody shootings.

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Greece raises 1.3bn euros in debt sale

GREECE has raised 1.3 billion euros ($A1.64 billion) in a three-month treasury bill auction with demand to spare, returning to short-term debt sales after completing an EU-funded debt buy-back last week.

"During the auction of 1.0 billion euros of 13-week treasury bills conducted today, the total bids reached 1.73 billion and the amount finally accepted was 1.3 billion," the state debt management agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The sale offered a yield of 4.11 per cent to lenders.

In the last three-month auction in November, the agency had raised 1.3 billion euros at an interest rate of 4.20 per cent.

Greece last week attracted offers of 31.9 billion euros in a bond buy-back designed to alleviate its enormous sovereign debt by some 20 billion euros.

The scheme was a condition for the unblocking of pending EU-IMF loans, which had been held back since June owing to reform delays and a protracted electoral campaign in Greece that raised doubts about the future of its fiscal overhaul.

Because of the delay in receiving the EU-IMF funds, Greece had been forced to make emergency one-month debt auctions in November and earlier this month.

Following the approval of European leaders last week, Greece is to receive 34.3 billion euros in scheduled bailout aid in December, and another 14.8 billion euros in the first quarter of next year.

The first seven billion was disbursed on Monday and another 27.3 billion is expected by Wednesday, a Greek official said on Tuesday.

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NBC newsman freed in Syria after five days

US television journalist Richard Engel has been freed after being kidnapped in Syria and held for five days, his employer, NBC News, says.

"After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his production crew members have been freed unharmed," the network said in a statement early Tuesday.

"We are pleased to report they are safely out of the country," it said.

Engel, 39, is one of the most high-profile American journalists to report from Syria, where rebels have been fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad's regime in a civil war that has claimed some 43,000 lives according to activists.

NBC said Engel and other unnamed employees went missing shortly after crossing into Syria from Turkey on Thursday, and that it had not been able to contact them until it learned they had been freed on Monday.

The network said there was no claim of responsibility, no contact with the captors and no ransom paid.

Engels and his crew were hustled into the back of a truck and transported to an unknown location believed to be near the town of Ma'arrat Misrin, NBC said. They were blindfolded and bound but otherwise unharmed, it said.

When the captors tried to move them to another location late Monday, they ran into a checkpoint manned by Syrian rebels from the Ahrar al-Sham Brigade. A firefight broke out and two of the captors were killed, NBC said.

The other captors escaped, and Engel's crew was not harmed in the incident.

The reporters were able to cross back into Turkey Tuesday morning and were in good health, NBC said.

Syria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to report from.

The 21-month-long rebellion began as a series of Arab Spring-style protests against the Assad family's four-decade reign but has since escalated into a brutal civil war, with fierce battles and intensive shelling in major cities.

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Woman dies in Qld two vehicle crash

A WOMAN has died after a car and truck collided west of Brisbane.

Queensland police said preliminary investigations indicate the car and a truck crashed on the Warrego Highway, Plainland, just after 5pm (AEST) on Tuesday.

A 41-year-old local woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigations are continuing.

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European stocks climb on hopes of US deal

EUROPE'S main stock markets have climbed as investors welcomed signs of progress in talks on a new deficit-cutting budget to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff in the United States, dealers say.

In late morning deals on Tuesday, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of leading shares rose 0.40 per cent to 5,935.72 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index won 0.53 per cent to 7,644.98 points and the Paris CAC 40 climbed 0.10 per cent to 3,641.91.

Milan's FTSE Mib index added 0.44 per cent to 16,075.25 points, ahead of a key budget vote by the Italian parliament, while Madrid's IBEX 35 gained 0.95 per cent to 8,117.2 points.

"Stocks are gaining altitude this morning as investors, confident that the fiscal cliff drama will be solved this side of Christmas, resume buying," said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at online brokerage Interactive Investor.

"Talk of President (Barack) Obama changing his stance over tax hikes for the wealthy is being heralded as the breaking of one of the final barriers to a resolution."

The European single currency firmed to $US1.3181, up from $US1.3161 late in New York on Monday. Gold prices advanced to $US1,701.25 an ounce on the London Bullion Market, from $US1,695.75.

In company news, Rolls-Royce shares rallied 0.93 per cent to 867.50 pence in London after it confirmed a $US1 billion ($A952.06 million) contract with Japan's Skymark Airlines for Trent 900 engines to power six Airbus A380 aircraft.

Asian equities mostly rose on Tuesday, taking a lead from Wall Street as dealers grow confident US lawmakers will reach an agreement.

Politicians are seeking to break the deadlock and avert automatic taxation hikes and spending cuts that are due to come into effect on January 1 in the United States.

Experts fear that the fiscal cliff package could tip the world's biggest economy back into recession.

"Giving markets a boost is a late rally in US stocks yesterday evening carrying over to European markets this morning as President Obama indicated that he would be willing to raise the income threshold by which tax increases would come into effect," said ETX Capital trader Markus Huber.

"As expected - with the end of the year approaching fast (and) a rather empty economic data schedule ... focus will mostly be on US budget negotiations with the smallest hint of progress or setback can have a substantial impact on the markets," he said.

Any indication that there is some movement in the budget negotiations and that the two parties are making an effort to find a solution "is enough to keep markets moving higher", added Huber.

President Obama hosted top Republican lawmaker John Boehner in the White House for 45 minutes on Monday in the latest effort to avert going over the fiscal cliff.

The meeting follows news that Boehner had changed his position on not allowing any more taxes, saying at the weekend that he would agree to some hikes for people earning more than $US1 million.

Originally Obama insisted higher taxes kick in for households earning more than $US250,000, but has since offered to increase the threshold to $400,000.

Analysts say the development shows the outline of a tentative deal is being formed.

Continued weakness of the yen helped send Japanese shares surging for a second straight session as Shinzo Abe prepares to take over as prime minister, vowing to press a more aggressive policy of monetary easing.

Tokyo rose 0.96 per cent and Seoul was up 0.51 per cent, while Sydney added 0.48 per cent.

Shanghai increased by 0.10 per cent, while Hong Kong gave up earlier gains to end flat.

The election of Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday was widely expected and investors now expect the Bank of Japan to unveil a further loosening of monetary policy at the end of its two-day meeting on Thursday.

In Tokyo share trading, utility giant TEPCO, which runs the Fukushima plant at the centre of last year's nuclear crisis, surged 17.32 per cent on expectations the new government will shelve any short-term plans to ditch atomic power.

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Russians lost in wild 'ate companion'

TWO Russians who were rescued in November after four months lost in the taiga wilderness of the Far East ate the corpse of a companion in order to survive, reports say.

A group of four men had disappeared in August on a river-fishing expedition to the vast Yakutia region in the Russian Far East, one of the most remote and inhospitable places in the world.

Only two of the men were finally helicoptered to safety at the end of November and the discovery of fragments of a human corpse at their campsite prompted investigators to open a murder case amid rumours of cannibalism.

The two survivors have not been arrested but are being treated as witnesses in the murder case. However it appears investigators are now certain cannibalism took place.

"During questioning, one of the witnesses testified that cannibalism did indeed take place," a source in the investigation told the Komsomolskaya Pranda daily on Monday.

"It was not murder.

"They ate the man after he died from being unable to cope with the conditions."

Yakutia newsite NVPress.ru also quoted local investigators as saying that the fisherman named Alexander Abdullayev confessed that he and the other survivor Alexei Gorulenko ate the corpse of Andrei Kurochkin.

"According to Abdullayev, Kurochkin died a natural death - he froze to death - and he and Alexei Gorulenko fed themselves with his flesh for weeks," NVPress.ru said.

Investigators from Yakutsk, the capital of Yakutia, confirmed officially for the first time last week that they were looking at cannibalism as a possible explanation.

The local branch of the Investigative Committee (SK) said they had flown out one of the fishermen - apparently Abdullayev - last week to look for the fourth man named as Viktor Komarov.

They found the fishermen's UAZ jeep - in which they had driven deep into the taiga - half submerged in a frozen river but the "corpse of the fourth fisherman was not found".

Rescuers had found the two survivors by the Sutam River some 250 kilometres from the nearest town of Neryungri in the south of Yakutia.

According to Komsomolskaya Pravda they had covered some 150 kilometres on foot after the breakdown of their jeep triggered their problems.

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US school gunman had arsenal: police

POLICE say the shooter who gunned down 20 children and six adults at a US primary school, Adam Lanza, 20, was carrying an arsenal of ammunition big enough to kill just about every student in the school if given enough time.

He shot himself in the head just as he heard police drawing near, authorities said.

"There was a lot of ammo, a lot of clips," said state police Lt Paul Vance. "Certainly a lot of lives were potentially saved."

The chief medical examiner has said the ammunition was the type designed to break up inside a victim's body and inflict the maximum amount of damage, tearing apart bone and tissue.

A Connecticut official said the gunman's mother was found dead in her pyjamas in bed, shot four times in the head with a .22-calibre rifle.

The killer then went to the school with guns he took from his mother and began blasting his way through the building.

All the victims at the school were shot with the rifle, at least some of them up close, and all were apparently shot more than once, Chief Medical Examiner Wayne Carver said. There were as many as 11 shots on the bodies he examined.

Investigators have offered no motive for the shooting. A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators are reviewing the contents of Lanza's computer, as well as phone and credit card records in an effort to piece together his activities leading up to the shooting.

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Taliban bomb hits US firm, mine kills 10

A TALIBAN car bomb targeting a US company in Kabul has killed one person and wounded at least 15, soon after a landmine killed 10 young girls in eastern Afghanistan, officials say.

It was the most brazen assault targeting Westerners in the fortified Afghan capital since a suicide car bomber killed 12 people, including eight South Africans, on September 18.

A security source at the military contracting firm, Contrack, told AFP that five foreigners, including Americans and South Africans, were wounded on Monday.

However, police said only three foreigners were slightly injured, mainly by flying glass.

Contrack is a US-owned company which builds military facilities for the Afghan army and police, an employee said.

"We were sitting in the office. There was a massive explosion. The ceiling collapsed over us and 10 to 12 Afghans in the office were wounded," he said.

"A small truck packed with explosives detonated between Contrack and Najeeb Zarab factories - one person is dead and 15 others are wounded," Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told AFP.

"We don't yet know whether there was someone in the truck or it was detonated remotely. They were very powerful explosives."

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

An AFP reporter at the scene said there were signs of a huge blast and some bystanders had suffered minor injuries.

In May, Taliban bombers disguised in burqas attacked a heavily fortified guesthouse used by Westerners in the same area. Seven people were killed at the "Green Village" complex used by the European Union, the United Nations and aid groups.

A US-led NATO force of about 100,000 troops is backing the Kabul government against the Taliban insurgents, but are due to pull out in 2014 and are training the Afghan army and police to take over responsibility for security.

In eastern Afghanistan, 10 girls aged nine to 11 died when one of them accidentally struck a mine with an axe as they were collecting firewood before going to school in a Taliban-troubled area.

"An old mine left over from the time of the jihad (against Soviet troops in the 1980s) exploded, killing 10 girls and wounding two others," Chaparhar district governor Mohammad Sediq Dawlatzai told AFP.

Nangarhar provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said, however, that the mine was planted by "the enemies of Afghanistan" - a reference to the Taliban - even if it had been in that spot for some time.

Most of the bodies could hardly be recognised, Dawlatzai said.

Despite international clearance efforts, more than three decades of war have left Afghanistan one of the most heavily-mined countries in the world.

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Winner unlikely in Syrian war: al-Sharaa

Syrian VP Faruq al-Sharaa called for an end to all forms of violence among warring parties in Syria. Source: AAP

SYRIAN Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa says a clear winner is unlikely to emerge from the 21-month conflict.

Sharaa's comments, published on Monday, came as Syrian warplanes pounded eastern Damascus and as residents of a Palestinian camp in the capital - bombed for the first time on Sunday by the regime - fled renewed clashes.

Sharaa told the pro-Damascus Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar that neither government forces nor the rebels can achieve outright victory in the war which activists say has already killed more than 43,000 people.

"No opposition can end the battle militarily, just as the security forces and army cannot achieve a decisive conclusion," he said.

"Every day that passes, we are moving further away from a military or political solution," said Sharaa, the most prominent Sunni Muslim in the Alawite minority-dominated regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"We must position ourselves to defend Syria's existence - we are not in a battle for an individual or a regime."

Sharaa criticised Arab and Western powers who have recognised the armed opposition, who he says "cannot claim they are the sole legitimate representatives of the Syrian people."

He believes the solution to the crisis "must be Syrian" but could involve key regional countries and UN Security Council member states which can help to form a "national unity government with broad powers."

Sharaa, 74, has served the regime for decades, both under Assad and his father and predecessor Hafez, but has been seen in public only a few times since the uprising erupted in March last year.

In October, Turkey said Sharaa would be suitable to lead a transitional government and on Monday, Tehran, a key Damascus ally, offered its own plan to end the conflict.

Tehran's six-point plan includes an immediate halt to violence under UN supervision, lifting sanctions against Syria, freeing political prisoners and a national dialogue to form a transitional government to organise free elections.

Opposition groups, as well as Washington and other Western and Arab nations, reject any Iranian involvement in resolving the crisis, saying Tehran has been discredited due to its unwavering support for Assad.

On Sunday, warplanes bombed the Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, prompting UN chief Ban Ki-moon to protest.

"The secretary general is alarmed by the continued dramatic escalation of violence in Syria over the past several days and the grave danger facing civilians in areas under fire," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on local medics and activists for its information, said the air strikes killed at least eight civilians in Yarmouk.

On Monday, residents told AFP that several people in the camp were fleeing as new clashes erupted between the pro-regime Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and rebels.

One resident, Issam, said he was unable to return home on Sunday to Yarmouk "because of the fighting that took place in most of the streets and the snipers."

He spent the night at work, and early on Monday took his wife and children to stay with relatives near Damascus.

Sunday's missile strikes hit the Abdel Qader Husseini Mosque which was acting as a makeshift shelter for about 600 people fleeing violence, activists said.

Amateur video posted online by activists in Yarmouk showed several bloodied bodies at the entrance of the mosque.

"There is a state of real war in the camp now," resident Abu Mohammed told AFP via the internet.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said the bombing of refugee camps must stop immediately, while the Islamist Hamas movement condemned the air strike as a "crime."

Nationwide in Syria at least 160 people were killed on Sunday - 85 civilians, 35 soldiers and 40 rebels, the Observatory said.

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Boat arrivals may reach 30,000 in 2013

IMMIGRATION Minister Chris Bowen insists Australia's tough asylum seeker policies are discouraging Sri Lankans from getting on boats despite a warning that boat arrivals could total 30,000 in 2013.

The minister's comments came as refugee advocate Paris Aristotle warned asylum seeker boat arrivals, which reached around 2500 in November, were likely to increase next year.

"At the current rate of arrivals, we could see upwards of 25,000 to 30,000 people coming (in 2013)," Mr Aristotle told a parliamentary committee in Canberra on Monday.

"There is simply no way our navy has the capacity to get to every boat that will get into distress in those circumstances."

Mr Aristotle was part of an expert panel which in August made 22 recommendations to the federal government on asylum seeker policy.

The Gillard government adopted all of the recommendations which included the reopening of offshore processing centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

Mr Aristotle said a long-term commitment was needed to stop the boats.

"If we think this is going to be fixed in three months we are delusional," he said.

Panel chair Angus Houston told the committee that since August at least 213 people had died at sea and more deaths were likely in coming months.

"With the monsoon season upon us now I think it's inevitable there will be further loss of life at sea," he said.

Since August, Australian authorities have returned more than 700 Sri Lankans, who had arrived by boat, back to their homeland after deciding they were not refugees.

Mr Bowen says this was discouraging others from taking the perilous boat journey to Australia.

"We've seen a very big reduction in the number of people arriving from Sri Lanka in recent weeks - it's been 13 days or so since we had a boat from Sri Lanka," he told Fairfax radio on Monday.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr is in Sri Lanka this week discussing ways of ending the people smugglers' trade.

The minister on Monday unveiled a four-point plan to fight people smuggling, which included Australia giving Sri Lanka extra surveillance and search and rescue equipment.

Australia will also host a joint training program on maritime surveillance for Sri Lankan naval officers.

Senator Carr said images of Sri Lankans being returned from Australia will be screened on Sri Lankan television and cinema screens to show that "if you give money to people smugglers, you're not going to succeed".

"That's the most powerful way we can puncture the business model that lies behind this recent spike in numbers from Sri Lanka," Senator Carr told Sky News.

Meanwhile, the government announced on Monday that it had reopened the Pontville Immigration Detention Centre in Tasmania and 95 Afghan men had been transferred there from Christmas Island.

The facility has a capacity of 400 and is expected to receive more detainees.

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China to focus on domestic demand in 2013

EXPANDING domestic consumption will drive China's economic development next year, according to a statement issued at a key annual leadership meeting.

With export growth falling in November to 2.9 per cent year-on-year, down from 11.6 per cent in October, China's new leaders are pinning their hopes for the world's second-largest economy on fostering demand at home.

Sunday's statement was issued at the two-day Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing.

But unlike after previous meetings, state media did not immediately report China's much-anticipated target for gross domestic product.

China is expected to retain its 2012 growth target of 7.5 per cent for 2013.

Succeeding Hu Jintao last month, Communist Party leader Xi Jinping chose Shenzhen, the cradle of China's economic reforms and opening-up policy, as the venue for his first official trip, in which he stressed the need for comprehensive and systemic economic reform.

The weekend meeting granted Xi his first official opportunity to make his mark on the mapping-out of key economic plans for 2013, including not just the target for economic growth, but also a range of measures involving the deficit, tax policy and urbanisation.

The Chinese economy relies on exports, government expenditure and investment, with leaders vowing to protect foreign investors' rights, including intellectual property rights, according to the Xinhua news agency.

China also wants to encourage both private and public investment next year, including through increased investments in infrastructure projects.

China will also promote urbanisation, while retaining control of the property market, and will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy.

Convened by the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council, the annual end-of-year conference usually takes three days to lay out the national agenda for the economy.

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Springsteen, Gaga join Stones in Newark

BRUCE Springsteen, Lady Gaga and more have come out to help the Rolling Stones celebrate their 50th anniversary on the final stop of their mini US tour.

Saturday's concert at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, was the last of five shows by the iconic band. The Stones did two concerts in London late last month, one in Brooklyn and then two in Newark.

Mick Jagger took time out during the concert to offer condolences to those grieving in Newtown, Connecticut, after Friday's school shooting that killed 20 children and six adults.

The concert was offered live on pay-per-view. Other special guests included the Black Keys, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr and former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor.

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Conservatives win Japan poll: broadcasters

Voters have begun casting ballots in Japan for a general election. Source: AAP

JAPAN'S conservative opposition has swept to victory in polls on Sunday, broadcasters say, in an apparent shift to the right as tensions rise with China and the economy continues to stumble.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) led by the hawkish Shinzo Abe appears set to secure a handsome majority in elections for the powerful lower house of parliament.

Voters appear to have abandoned Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda three years after his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) promised a change from the more than 50 years of almost unbroken LDP rule.

Broadcaster NHK, citing forecasts based on its own exit polls, said the LDP was likely to win 275 to 310 seats in the 480-seat lower house, against 55 to 77 seats to DPJ.

New Komeito, LDP's coalition partner, was likely to win 27 to 35 seats, NHK said.

That could give the conservative coalition a more than two-thirds majority in the powerful lower house, enough to override the upper house, in which no party has overall control.

"The LDP sweeps to victory; Abe administration to start," the online edition of the Nikkei newspaper said in its headline.

Nationalist former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, whose bid to buy disputed islands provoked a fierce diplomatic showdown with China, was also headed to parliament, NHK said.

Ishihara leads the populist Japan Restoration Party.

Abe, whose brief stint as premier in 2006-7 ended ignominiously, pledged to fix Japan's economy, which has suffered years of deflation, made worse by a soaring currency that has squeezed exporters.

He has also promised to boost spending on infrastructure projects at a time when large parts of the tsunami-ravaged northeast have yet to see significant rebuilding following the March 2011 catastrophe.

The collapse of an ageing highway tunnel that claimed nine lives earlier this month added weight to his campaign, which was criticised by opponents as a return to the LDP's "construction state" of the last century.

Public unease about a worsening security environment - North Korea lobbed a rocket over Japan's southern islands last week and China sent a plane into Japanese airspace - also apparently bolstered support for Abe.

He has promised to strengthen defences and revitalise a security alliance with the United States that is widely thought to have drifted under Noda's party.

Parliament will be called to session as early as December 26th to name Abe as the new prime minister, the Nikkei newspaper said.

"Mr Abe is expected to form his cabinet on the same day," the Nikkei said.

"He will issue his plan to draft an extra budget by the year-end as well as a broad direction for the next fiscal year's budget before closing the extraordinary Diet session on December 28," the Nikkei said.

In an evening that looked set to be a fairly miserable one for Noda, TV Asahi reported at least two of his ministers would lose their seats.

Internal Affairs Minister Shinji Tarutoko and Education Minister Makiko Tanaka appeared to have lost their constituency seats. It is possible that they may win through on the proportional representation part of the ballot.

Noda's fate as leader of the much-diminished DPJ also looked in doubt, reports said, even though he appeared to have retained his seat.

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Three bodies, boat found adrift off Japan

THREE bodies and a partially capsized wooden boat have been found drifting off central Japan, the coastguard says, with a report suggesting the boat originates from Korea.

The almost-submerged boat was spotted off the city of Wajima early on Sunday and the coastguard found the bodies in the sea nearby.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper said the craft was marked with the Hangeul alphabet used in North and South Korea.

"The bodies have been recovered but we are still checking details" including their gender and time of death, a coastguard official said.

Several boats have recently been found drifting in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) which separates Japan and the Korean peninsula.

A wooden boat containing a dead man wearing Korean-made boots was found near Japan on December 1, three days after another vessel with five corpses was discovered in the same area.

There was speculation that the five might have been North Korean fishermen who had weather or technical troubles and drifted out to sea.

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Siachen avalanche kills six Indian troops

AN avalanche on the high-altitude Siachen glacier has killed at least six Indian soldiers when their outpost was swept away before dawn on Sunday.

Thousands of soldiers from India and Pakistan endure bitter conditions on the glacier, which is dubbed "The world's highest battleground", due to the long-running territorial dispute.

An estimated 8000 troops have died since 1984, almost all of them from avalanches, landslides, frostbite, altitude sickness or heart failure rather than combat.

"The avalanche struck a forward post early on Sunday morning, burying seven soldiers," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel JS Brar told AFP.

"Rescue operations were launched immediately and so far six bodies have been recovered."

In April, 140 Pakistani soldiers were killed by a huge avalanche on Siachen.

Kashmir has been the cause of two wars between India and Pakistan and the nuclear-armed rivals fought over Siachen in 1987, though guns on the glacier have largely fallen silent since a peace process began in 2004.

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