Tsunami warning canceled for Alaska, Canada

OFFICIALS have canceled a tsunami warning for parts of southern Alaska and coastal Canada.

The Alaska Tsunami Warning Centre says a tsunami was generated by a strong earthquake, but the waves don't pose a threat to the areas.

The centre says some areas are seeing small sea level changes, but there will be no widespread destructive wave that had earlier been warned about.

The warning area included coastal areas from Cape Fairweather, Alaska, to the north tip of Vancouver Island, Canada. The area extended for more than 700 miles.

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Cooler weather helps Vic firefighters

Victorian firefighters hope to gain control over two major bushfires as the temperature cools. Source: AAP

FIREFIGHTERS are making progress against a major bushfire in Victoria's southwest.

About 40 trucks and several aircraft were at the scene of the blaze at Kentbruck, in the state's southwest, on Saturday.

The fire began in a pine plantation on Friday and has so far burned more than 2700 hectares in the Lower Glenelg National Park area.

No property is under threat, but smoke from the fire is visible several hundred kilometres away.

As the temperature cooled, Victorian firefighters made the most of conditions.

At Ensay in East Gippsland a blaze which burned out of control about 7km north of the town has been contained.

Crews will remain on site overnight, patrolling the fire edge and mopping up.

Temperatures on Saturday were much cooler than Friday, when the mercury peaked above 40C across much of the state.

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Afghan govt releases 80 Taliban prisoners

SOME 80 Taliban prisoners once held at the US military Bagram jail have been released by the Afghan government amid hopes that it might help reconciliation efforts.

Their release was secured through a special complaints committee that looked into each case.

Most of them had been incarcerated without charge, said a senior member of the High Peace Council, a government initiative seeking peace and reconciliation efforts with the Taliban insurgency, which has been waging a deadly war for more than 11 years.

"Many were imprisoned on political grounds ... We hope their release will strengthen the peace efforts," council member Ismail Qasimyar said.

"We want those who have been released to be peace workers and spread the word of peace."

A total of 275 prisoners had already been released from Bagram jail, which hosts around 3000 inmates and came under Afghan control in September.

A further 585 prisoners are to be released in the coming days, General Ghulam Farooq Barakzai, the commander of the Bagram Jail, told reporters, adding that a total of 1200 prisoners are set to be freed in the coming months.

"Justice causes security and stability. If we fear an individual's release will cause an effect on security, we will keep him jailed," he stressed.

Last year, an Afghan government investigation found "many cases of violations" of Afghan law and human rights at the then US-run Bagram prison, which is located north of Kabul city.

The Afghan government also accused the United States military of holding some prisoners for more than two years without charge.

The mood was sombre during Friday's release ceremony, which was held inside the infamous Pul-e-Charkhi jail in the Afghan capital.

Obaidullah, an Afghan teacher, was one of those released on Friday. He had spent 20 months in Bagram after being arrested during a US special forces raid on a school in eastern Logar province.

Teary-eyed, his relatives greeted him and handed him a mobile phone to talk to his family in the village.

"They arrested me without any reason. Later they told me that I had links with the Haqqani network and the Taliban," he said.

"They could not find any proof. Now I am free."

Obaidullah said he was tortured mentally, with the US army keeping him in an uncomfortable position for hours each day.

He was also kept in a dark cold room without any blankets for weeks, he said, and could leave the room only for one hour each day.

On many occasions, his meals were limited to one a day, he alleged.

"We all faced different types of problems ... I am still suffering from deep mental pressure," he said, adding he was still surprised as to why he had been arrested in the first place.

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Quake hits off Alaska, tsunami 'no threat'

OFFICIALS have cancelled a tsunami warning for parts of southern Alaska and coastal Canada.

The Alaska Tsunami Warning Centre says a tsunami was generated by a strong earthquake, but the waves don't pose a threat to the areas.

The centre says some areas are seeing small sea level changes, but there will be no widespread destructive wave that had earlier been warned about.

The warning area included coastal areas from Cape Fairweather, Alaska, to the north tip of Vancouver Island, Canada. The area extended for more than 1,125 kilometres.

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TV channel facing charges for gang-rape interview

INDIAN police they had filed a case against a cable news channel for airing an interview with the boyfriend of a woman whose gang-rape and murder has spurred protests across the country.

A criminal case was registered late on Friday against Hindi-language Zee News channel over the footage, which police said would lead to the identification of the victim in breach of a law entitling her to anonymity.

The interview showed the boyfriend's face unobscured as he recalled the horrific incident on the night of December 16 when the couple took a private bus to return home from a cinema in south Delhi.

Once in the bus, he was attacked and his 23-year-old girlfriend was allegedly gang-raped by the driver and five others who also violated her with an iron bar causing immense internal damage that led to her death last weekend.

"We have filed a case against Zee News under section 228 A of the Indian Penal Code which deals with disclosing the identity of victims of offences such as rape," police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said.

Indian law does not allow the naming of rape victims without permission from the victim or family members and showing the boyfriend without obscuring his face could be judged to have revealed her identity.

The boyfriend levelled harsh criticism at the police for arriving late at the scene and then delaying taking the couple to hospital while they argued over which police station should take responsibility for the crime.

AFP also interviewed the man and - like Zee News - did not name him.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on authorities not to press charges against Zee News.

"This is an instance of greatly misplaced priorities," Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator, said in a statement.

"Authorities are hardly protecting the victim's rights by retaliating against news media that are bringing to light details of the horrific crime that claimed her life."

Zee News faces a separate court case in which it is accused of trying to extort money from a lawmaker.

Zee reporters were accused by Naveen Jindal of offering to drop a potentially damaging story in exchange for one billion rupees ($18 million).

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Man seriously hurt in Qld machete attack

A MAN is in a critical condition in hospital with serious head injuries after being attacked with a knife and a machete by two men at Landsborough in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Police said the 49-year-old victim also suffered wounds to his arms in the attack about 2.15pm (AEDT) on Friday.

He was taken to the Nambour Hospital where he is in a critical condition.

Police want anyone who saw a vehicle leave Gateway Avenue or any suspicious activity around the time of the incident to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Chavez suffers lung woes, aides allege war

VENEZUELA'S government has accused opposition leaders of waging a "psychological war" to destabilise the country, as cancer-stricken president Hugo Chavez battles a serious lung infection.

The hardline stance was adopted after Vice President Nicolas Maduro returned from a visit with the ailing Chavez in Cuba, where he is suffering from complications more than three weeks after undergoing cancer surgery.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said on Friday Chavez developed a "severe pulmonary infection" after the surgery.

Villegas then levelled the charge that the president's health had become the target of a campaign to destabilise the government and end its socialist revolution.

The government "warns the Venezuelan people about the psychological war that the transnational media complex has unleashed around the health of the chief of state, with the ultimate goal of destabilising the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," he said in a televised statement.

The statement came amid rising demands at home for a detailed accounting of Chavez's condition and whether he is fit to take the oath of office on January 10 for another six year term.

Venezuela's constitution calls for new elections to be held within 30 days if the president is unable to take the oath of office.

But Maduro and National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello, the regime's number two and three leaders, made clear on their return from Cuba that they were not preparing for a transfer of power.

"Here there is only one transition and it began at least six years ago and it was decreed by comandante Hugo Chavez," Maduro said, referring to the launch in 2006 of the president's socialist revolution.

Maduro and Cabello spoke on Venezuelan state television, as they toured a coffee packaging plant in Caracas that had been taken over by the state.

Both men went out of their way to deny rumours of an internal power struggle between them, with Maduro saying they had sworn before Chavez that they would remain united.

"We are here more united than ever," said Maduro, who is Chavez's handpicked successor. "And we have sworn before comandante Hugo Chavez, and we reaffirmed to him today in our oath ... that we would be united with our people."

Referring to the reported rift, Cabello said the opposition would have to wait "2000 years for that to happen" and said "no conciliation is possible with this opposition".

Maduro accused the opposition of "lies and manipulation", a campaign to try to create uncertainty.

"We know that the United States is where these manipulations are being managed," he said. "They think that their time has come. And we have entered a kind of crazy hour of offensive by the right, here and internationally."

It was unclear whether Maduro was referring to US-based Venezuelans or the US government.

A leading opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, who was defeated by Chavez in October's presidential election, has indicated that he would be willing to accept a delay in next week's scheduled inauguration ceremony.

Capriles, former governor of the state of Miranda, is seen as a possible presidential challenger.

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CCTV website expands Down Under

AUSTRALIANS are now able to view CCTV footage in UK stores and receive rewards for spotting thieves after a controversial website expanded Down Under.

Cornwall-based Internet Eyes offers rewards of up to STG250 ($A387) a month to people who detect shoplifting and other crimes on a network of security cameras.

Its expansion into Australia means users thousands of kilometres away will be able to access images from 200 cameras over the internet and pocket cash for identifying suspects.

Website founder Tony Morgan said CCTV was failing as a deterrent because shop owners do not have time to watch the footage and this move would provide 24-hour coverage.

But civil liberties campaigners Big Brother Watch (BB Watch) said the website was "a sad indictment of how out of control the British obsession with CCTV has become".

BB Watch director Nick Pickles said: "This is a deviant's dream, giving armchair snoopers the ability to sit and watch CCTV footage from across the country at their leisure.

"The people watching these cameras have no training, no legal oversight and have to pay to use the service."

He went on: "What kind of person volunteers to spend their time watching CCTV cameras in shops they have no connection with in the vague hope of winning a prize?

"Given users don't know where the camera they are watching is located, it's also impossible for them to raise an alarm with the police. It's a pointless and perverted system that puts privacy at risk and it baffles me that it's even legal."

Internet Eyes, which has around 8000 subscribers and six employees, is available for STG1.99 ($A3) a month or STG15.99 ($A25) a year with each viewer allowed five alerts a month when they believe they have spotted a crime.

The viewer can watch 10 minutes of footage at a time before the camera switches location. Users cannot access camera footage within 50km of their own location.

Shop owners receive an email with a 30-second video clip of the moments leading up to the alert. If the alert results in detecting a crime, the viewer accrues reward points.

Mr Morgan said: "We find it difficult to see what we're doing wrong.

"CCTV was a massive deterrent. It's no longer a deterrent because nobody is watching the cameras. The shopkeeper doesn't have time - all we're doing is watching the CCTV for him."

Mr Morgan said Australian viewers, who were offered the service from December 21, would be unlikely to recognise anyone in the footage.

Last year Government's surveillance camera commissioner warned advances in CCTV technology could breach British human rights laws unless they are properly regulated.

High-definition cameras that can recognise people's faces from about a kilometre away are being installed all over the country without any public consultation, Andrew Rennison said.

He is expected to report back to Parliament with any concerns over how CCTV and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems are being used.

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HK seizes huge haul of smuggled ivory

HONG Kong says it has seized more than a tonne of ivory worth about $US1.4 million ($A1.34 million) in a shipment from Kenya, the city's third big seizure in less than three months.

Customs said on Friday they seized the 779 pieces of ivory tusk, weighing 1.3 tonnes, that were cut up and hidden in five wooden boxes along with stone plates in a container marked "architectural stones" on Thursday.

The haul was worth an estimated HK$10.6 million ($1.4 million).

"It is not very often that you see architectural stones from Kenya ... (that's why) we saw this container as possibly storing high-risk goods," customs official Clare Kwan told reporters.

The department declined to say where the shipment, which passed through Malaysia, was headed. No arrests have been made.

The latest haul comes less than three months after Hong Kong made its record seizure in October of 1,290 pieces of tusk and a small number of ivory ornaments from Kenya and Tanzania that weighed a total of 3.81 tonnes.

In November, customs officers intercepted another container from Tanzania carrying 569 pieces of unpolished tusks weighing about 1.3 tonnes.

Despite the large seizures, customs denied Hong Kong had become a smuggling hub for the illicit ivory trade.

"There is no information suggesting that there is an increasing trend of smuggling ivory tusks," ports control head Vincent Wong told the same news conference.

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Malala leaves UK hospital

A 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting girls' education has been released from a Birmingham hospital to live with her family, doctors said Friday.

Photographs released by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham showed Malala Yousufzai hugging nurses, waving and smiling shyly.

Malala will live with her parents and two brothers in the UK while she continues to receive treatment, but will be admitted again in the next month for another round of surgery to rebuild her skull.

Experts have been optimistic that Malala, who was airlifted from Pakistan in October to receive specialised medical care, has a good chance of recovery because the brains of teenagers are still growing and can better adapt to trauma.

"Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery," said Dr Dave Rosser, the medical director for University Hospitals Birmingham. "Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers."

Malala was returning home from school in Pakistan's scenic Swat Valley on October 9 when the Taliban targeted her for criticising their efforts to keep girls from getting an education. The militants have threatened to target Malala again because they say she promotes "Western thinking."

Pakistani doctors removed a bullet that entered her head and headed toward her spine. The decision to send Malala to Britain was taken in consultation with her family; Pakistan is paying for her treatment.

Pakistan also appointed Malala's father, Ziauddin, as its education attache in Birmingham. The position, with an initial three-year commitment, virtually guarantees that Malala will remain in Britain for now.

Her case won worldwide recognition, and the teen became a symbol for the struggle for women's rights in Pakistan. In an indication of her reach, she made the shortlist for Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2012.

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Syria rebels assault northern airports

REBELS have launched assaults to try to take strategic airports in northern Syria.

Insurgents battled with troops on the perimeter of the Aleppo international airport on Thursday, besieging the nearby military Brigade 80 in an attempt to push through to the airport itself, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The United Nations on Wednesday said 60,000 people have been killed in the 21 months since Syria's rebellion started in March 2011.

The figure, described as "truly shocking" by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, was nearly a third higher than the toll previously given by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In other fighting on Thursday, hundreds of rebels from two hardcore Islamist groups, the Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, fought soldiers around the Taftanaz airbase in the northwest province of Idlib, the British-based Observatory said.

The rebels had broken into the airport the day before after launching a car bomb at the main gate but were pushed back by the army.

The Aleppo facility is an important strategic prize in Syria's north, which is largely under rebel control.

The critical civilian transportation hub has been closed since Tuesday after repeated attacks by rebels, according to an airport official, who said it would reopen as soon as the army regained control of the surrounding areas.

Fighting in Aleppo city has been at a stalemate for months since opposition fighters launched a massive assault in mid-July.

Troops retaliated against rebel gains in the Aleppo area overnight, shelling insurgent strongholds in Sakhur district in the east of the city and the towns of Marea and Aazaz further north near the Turkish border.

Three rebels were meanwhile killed in combat with troops around the Deir Ezzor military airport, as fighting also broke out in the nearby provincial capital in the east of the country.

The armed opposition controls large swathes of land in the area stretching from Deir Ezzor city to Iraq in the east, including the Hamdan airport in the border town of Albu Kamal.

Near Damascus, deadly clashes broke out northeast of the capital while troops bombed Daraya to the southwest and brought in fresh reinforcements in an effort to regain control.

In the southeast, the army bombed Beit Saham near the Damascus airport road and the town of Maliha, where dozens were killed or wounded in an air raid on a petrol station the day before, according to the watchdog.

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Vaccine temporarily brakes HIV: scientists

A TEAM of Spanish researchers say they have developed a therapeutic vaccine that can temporarily brake growth of the HIV virus in infected patients.

The vaccine, based on immune cells exposed to HIV that had been inactivated with heat, was tested on a group of 36 people carrying the virus and the results were the best yet recorded for such a treatment, the team said.

"What we did was give instructions to the immune system so it could learn to destroy the virus, which it does not do naturally," said Felipe Garcia, one of the scientists in the team at Barcelona University's Hospital Clinic.

The therapeutic vaccine, a shot that treats an existing disease rather than preventing it, was safe and led to a dramatic drop in the amount of HIV virus detected in some patients, said the study, published on Wednesday in Science Translation Medicine.

After 12 weeks of the trial, the HIV viral load dropped by more than 90 per cent among 12 of the 22 patients who received the vaccine. Only one among the 11 patients who received a control injection without the vaccine experienced a similar result.

After 24 weeks, the effectiveness had begun to decline, however, with seven of the 20 remaining patients receiving the vaccine enjoying a similar 90 per cent slump in viral load. No one in the control group of 10 patients experienced such a decline.

The vaccine lost its effectiveness after a year, when the patients had to return to their regular combination therapy of anti-retroviral drugs.

Researchers said the results were similar to those achieved with a single anti-retroviral drug, used to block the growth of HIV.

"It is the most solid demonstration in the scientific literature that a therapeutic vaccine is possible," they said in a statement.

The vaccine allowed patients temporarily to live without taking multiple medicines on a daily basis. The multiple-medicine solution is difficult for patients to manage, could have toxic side-effects over the long term and had a high financial price, the team said.

"This investigation opens the path to additional studies with the final goal of achieving a functional cure - the control of HIV replication for long periods or an entire life without anti-retroviral treatment," the researchers said in a statement.

"Although we still have not got a functional cure, the results published today open the possibility of achieving an optimal therapeutic vaccine, or a combination of strategies that includes a therapeutic vaccine, and could help to reach that goal," they said.

The team said it took seven years to get to this point, and the researchers would now work on improving the vaccine and combining it with other therapeutic vaccines over the next three or four years.

According to latest UN figures, the number of people infected by HIV worldwide rose to 34 million in 2011 from 33.5 million in 2010.

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Case against top judge illegal: court

SRI Lanka's highest court has declared a parliamentary committee acted beyond its authority in disqualifying the country's chief justice from office.

The case against Shirani Bandaranayake, the country's first chief justice, has drawn local and international criticism as an attempt by the government to stifle the judiciary's independence.

Three Supreme Court judges said on Thursday the Parliament Select Committee that investigated Banadaranayke "has no legal power or authority to make a finding adversely affecting the legal rights of a judge".

The committee last month found Banadaranayke guilty of unexplained wealth and misuse of power. She has denied the allegation.

Parliament is expected to vote for her impeachment when it convenes this month, and the president then could decide to dismiss or retain her.

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Gang-rape suspects charged with murder

AUTHORITIES filed rape and murder charges against five men accused of the gang rape of a 23-year-old university student on a New Delhi bus, a crime that horrified Indians and provoked a national debate about the treatment of women.

Police said they plan to push for the death penalty in the case, as government officials promised new measures to protect women in the nation's capital.

Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan filed a case of rape, tampering with evidence, kidnapping, murder and other charges against the men in a new fast-track court in south Delhi inaugurated only the day before to deal specifically with crimes against women.

Mr Mohan asked for a closed trial and a hearing was set for Saturday.

The men charged are Ram Singh, 33, the bus driver; his brother Mukesh Singh, 26, who cleans buses for the same company; Pavan Gupta, 19, a fruit vendor; Akshay Singh, 24, a bus washer; and Vinay Sharma, 20, a fitness trainer.

A sixth suspect was listed as 17 and was expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility.

The Dec. 16 attack on the woman, who died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital on Saturday, has caused outrage across India, sparking protests and demands for tough new rape laws, better police protection for women and a sustained campaign to change society's views about women.

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Delhi gang-rape suspects formally charged

Five men charged with the gang-rape of an Indian student will make their first appearance in court. Source: AAP

INDIAN police have formally charged five men with murder, kidnapping and rape following the fatal gang-rape of a young woman that appalled the nation.

"We have filed the charge sheet against the five accused," an investigating police officer told a magistrate hearing the case in the Saket court complex in New Delhi on Thursday.

The five men, who could face the death penalty if convicted, were not present when the media were allowed into the courtroom.

Journalists were initially prevented from listening to proceedings, sparking chaotic scenes outside.

The men face at least seven charges, including murder, kidnapping, rape, robbery and attempting to destroy evidence.

The next hearing in the case was set for January 5.

A police charge sheet under Indian law lays out the charges against the accused and details the key evidence against them.

The 23-year-old victim in the gang-rape case, who died at the weekend from her horrific injuries, gave a statement to police immediately after the attack.

Her boyfriend, who was with her at the time and was also attacked, has also given an account.

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Stampede caused by barricades: victims

TWO survivors of the New Year's stampede in Ivory Coast that killed 61 people say barricades set up unofficially created the crush of thousands of people who were leaving a fireworks display.

The two survivors, who are hospitalised at Cocody Hospital, said on Wednesday that after the fireworks they were prevented from moving along the Boulevard de la Republic by wooden barricades.

Newspapers in Ivory Coast have speculated that the roadblocks were set up so pickpockets could steal money and mobile phones.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, who declared three days of national mourning starting on Wednesday, has ordered an immediate investigation into the causes of the stampede.

He said the government would open a crisis centre to help families find missing people and to take testimony from witnesses.

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Indon city cracks down on women passengers

A CITY in Indonesia's Islamic law stronghold of Aceh will ban women passengers from straddling motorbikes, describing the position as "improper".

The move comes after leaders from the country's only province ruled under strict sharia law drafted a series of new bills, including banning women from wearing tight trousers, and allowing the stoning adulterers and the flogging of homosexuals.

Under the new law, women in Lhokseumawe city, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, will have to sit "side-saddle" with their legs dangling off to one side.

"Women sitting on motorbikes must not sit astride because it will provoke the male driver. It's also to protect women from an undesirable condition," Mayor Suaidi Yahya told AFP on Wednesday.

"It's improper for women to sit astride. We implement Islamic law here."

Women are allowed to straddle motorbikes if they are driving, as long as they are dressed "in a Muslim way", Yahya said.

The mayor plans to publicise the ban in coming weeks and will discuss sanctions with local Muslim clerics before issuing a formal regulation.

Indonesia is the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation, but most practice a moderate form of Islam.

Aceh began implementing sharia law after it was granted special autonomy in 2001. Authorities now regularly canes people caught gambling or drinking alcohol.

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Minister pens Bollywood love song

INDIA'S communications minister, already a poet in his spare time, has found another outlet for his creative ambitions: penning a slushy love song for a new Bollywood film.

Despite his challenging role as a minister and government troubleshooter, Kapil Sibal took up an offer by actor-director Aditya Om for the film Bandook (Gun) and wrote four songs, one of which made it into the movie.

Mr Sibal's romantic number "showcases the pangs of separation of two lovers", Om said.

"His exuberant knowledge of literature has enabled him to pen beautiful luvvy-duvvy lyrics," he added. The Hindi lines include: "romantic eyes, admire shyly, declare love silently".

The film, releasing this month, looks at gun culture in northern India and the link between crime and politics.

"I really appreciate (Sibal's) knowledge of the vast subject that is portrayed in my film, which attracted him more than anything," said Om, an upcoming director looking to break into the mainstream with the release.

Mr Sibal, 64, already has two collections of poetry under his belt and has linked poems to politics in the past.

The lawyer-politician told The Economic Times newspaper that he normally wrote on his iPad during flights, and that he was very busy with work when he penned the lyrics.

"The Bandook song is already available in ringtones, though I haven't got it as yet," he added.

In his ministerial post, Mr Sibal has come under fire from free-speech activists after he championed an amendment to India's IT act in 2009, which makes it illegal to post "grossly offensive" comments online.

Hackers attacked and defaced his website in November amid protests against the law.

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Thai arrested over NY tourist murder

POLICE in Thailand said they had arrested a Thai man over the death of a British tourist shot during New Year celebrations at one of the Southeast Asian nation's most popular islands.

The 26-year-old suspect is alleged to have opened fire during an argument with a group of other Thai men at a bar on the southern resort of Koh Phangan, killing holidaymaker Stephen Ashton who was dancing on the beach.

"He was charged with murder, even though he said he did not aim to kill a tourist. Firing the gun, no matter at whom, was aiming to kill," said Surat Thani province police commander Kietpong Khaosa-ard.

The man, who was arrested late Tuesday near his home on the island, was also charged with illegal possession of a weapon.

The British Foreign Office on Tuesday said it was providing consular assistance to Ashton's family.

Phangan is a resort island in the Gulf of Thailand near Koh Samui and draws thousands of backpackers to its famous full moon parties.

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Woman trapped in supermarket for NY

WHILE others were celebrating the start of 2013, an elderly French woman has spent New Year's Eve locked inside a supermarket.

The 73-year-old was trapped in the supermarket in the northern city of Roubaix after emerging from the toilet to find the shop closed and the doors locked, local firefighters said.

She set off the alarms several times throughout the night but there was no answer.

She was only discovered the morning of New Year's Day around 10.30am (local time).

Despite her ordeal, the woman did not take advantage of the situation to snatch some new year's treats and spent the night without eating or sleeping.

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Ivory Coast NYE stampede kills 60

AT least 60 people have died and dozens have been injured in Abidjan as crowds stampeded during celebratory New Year's fireworks, Ivory Coast rescue workers say.

The head of military rescue workers, Lieutenant Colonel Issa Sako, told public television on Tuesday that "60 people" died and 200 were injured based on a preliminary toll.

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UK man shot dead at Thai NYE beach party

A 22-YEAR-OLD British tourist has been shot dead as he danced at a New Year party on one of Thailand's most famous islands after a fight between rival Thai gangs erupted on the beach, police say.

The holidaymaker was killed when a Thai man opened fire at a bar on the island of Koh Phangan in southern Thailand in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

"He was shot in the side while he was dancing on the beach," local policeman Lieutenant Colonel Somsak Noorod said, adding the area had been packed with revellers during the evening's New Year celebrations.

Police believe the gunman was aiming at members of a rival gang.

Phangan is a resort island in the Gulf of Thailand neighbouring Koh Samui and draws thousands of backpackers to its famous full moon parties.

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Bomb found near home of Delhi rape suspect

INDIAN police has arrested a man as he tried to plant a crude bomb near the home of one of the suspects in the New Delhi gang-rape case as a backlash against widespread sex crimes gathered steam.

As protests against harassment and violence against women continued, a chart-topping Indian rapper known for his sexually explicit lyrics also became embroiled in a growing campaign against sexism and misogyny in Indian society.

Yo Yo Honey Singh, whose hits include My Home My Village, saw his New Year's Eve concert in New Delhi cancelled following an online campaign which highlighted lyrics allegedly inciting abuse of women.

His 2007 track Prostitute refers to him having violent sex with a woman after he forces her to "dance naked" and includes the line: "You will scream and run but where can you go... I will take your life".

The furore over the rap star comes as the country comes to terms with the December 16 gang-rape in which a 23-year-old medical student was repeatedly assaulted and violated with an iron bar while being driven around in a bus for 40 minutes.

She died from internal injuries in a Singapore hospital at the weekend and her ashes were immersed Tuesday in the holy Ganges river by her family near their native village in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The unnamed girl, whose parents had sold land to fund her studies, had been out to the cinema with her boyfriend when she was lured onto the bus by a gang of reportedly drunk joyriders.

Sexual violence and gang-rapes are commonplace in India, but the case has brought simmering anger - particularly among young urban women - to the boil and led to protests in the capital and calls for the death penalty for rapists.

Police said they had arrested a 37-year-old man on Tuesday in the narrow by-lanes of a slum in southwest Delhi after he allegedly tried to plant a crude bomb near the house of one of six suspects detained by police for the Delhi rape.

The low-grade device was filled with explosives usually used in firecrackers, a police official said.

Protests in India, which continued on Monday and on New Year's Eve, have also spilled to other parts of the world with people taking to the streets in Hong Kong, Islamabad, London and Kathmandu.

On Tuesday, about 30 women's rights activists protested outside the Indian consulate in Hong Kong, urging authorities to enact tougher laws to punish sex crimes.

The government, which has faced a wave of anger, has set up a panel headed by a former chief justice to recommend changes to the criminal law dealing with sexual crimes.

The panel, which was set up last week, had already received more than 17,000 suggestions until Monday, The Indian Express newspaper reported.

Also on Tuesday, the Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the six suspects for the gang-rape risked the death penalty if found guilty and the case against them appeared very strong.

"We have a solid case with very good evidence... a magistrate has recorded the victim's dying declaration and we have a prime witness, the girl's friend, who has identified the rapists," Shinde told The Economic Times newspaper.

The victim's boyfriend, whom friends said she intended to marry, tried to prevent the rape and is likely to give crucial evidence during what is expected to be a fast-tracked trial.

Police are to file charges and present their evidence against the suspects - five men and a minor - on Thursday.

Delhi police have said their probe is almost complete, pending the arrival of an autopsy report from doctors in Singapore and the conclusions of forensic experts.

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Pope prays for peace at New Year mass

POPE Benedict XVI prayed for the "gift of peace" this year, condemning the inequality between rich and poor and "unregulated financial capitalism" at a New Year's mass in St Peter's Basilica.

The Pope spoke of "hotbeds of tension and confrontation caused by the growing inequality between rich and poor and the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mentality also expressed by unregulated financial capitalism."

But he also said that humanity had "an innate vocation for peace" and quoted from the Biblical passage: "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."

Peacemakers "are like the yeast in the dough - they allow humanity to grow according to God's design," he said.

The Roman Catholic Church celebrates New Year's Day as World Peace Day.

The Pope later addressed a crowd in St Peter's Square with his traditional Angelus prayer and invoked the blessing of the Virgin Mary "like a mother blesses her children who are about to set off on a voyage."

"A new year is like a voyage. With the light and grace of God, may it be a voyage of peace for every person and every family, for every country and for the whole world," he said.

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Attacks down but Iraq in 'low-level war'

VIOLENCE in Iraq dropped in 2012, data shows, but insurgents proved they were still capable of mounting waves of attacks and a watchdog warned the country was still in a "low-level war".

The warnings, which come after the first full year since American forces completed their withdrawal in December 2011, were punctuated by a series of nationwide shootings and bombings on New Year's Eve in which 28 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded.

The latest violence came just days ahead of a major Shi'ite commemoration ceremony, and after more than a week of non-stop anti-government rallies in Sunni-majority areas where demonstrators allege targeting of their community by Iraq's Shi'ite-led authorities.

A total of 144 people were killed across Iraq last month, including 40 policemen and 15 soldiers, and 360 others were wounded, according to figures compiled by AFP based on reports from security and medical officials.

The monthly death toll was near 2012's low of 136 set in October.

And data released by Iraq's ministries of health, interior and defence said 2,174 people were killed throughout last year, sharply lower than in previous years, particularly compared to the height of the country's brutal sectarian war from 2005 to 2008 when tens of thousands were killed.

But Britain-based monitor group Iraq Body Count put the overall death toll at 4,471, more than double the official figures, though the last three months of 2012 represented a record low.

It warned in its annual report that "the country remains in a state of low-level war ... with a 'background' level of everyday armed violence punctuated by occasional larger-scale attacks designed to kill many people at once."

"2012 has been more consistent with an entrenched conflict than with any transformation in the security situation for Iraqis in the first year since the formal withdrawal of US troops," it said.

US troops withdrew in December 2011, though a small contingent of around 150 soldiers remains as part of a bilateral agreement to help train and supply Iraq's security forces.

Baghdad's police and military are widely agreed to be largely able to maintain internal security, but are not expected to be fully capable of defending Iraq's borders, airspace and waters until 2020.

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Sydney's firework go off with a roar

Sydney's lord mayor says the city is spending $6.6 million on its New Year's Eve event. Source: AAP

SYDNEY'S skyline has exploded in gold, pink, green and blue as part of the traditional New Year's Eve family-oriented curtain raiser.

The ten minute spectacular at 9pm (AEDT)- which illuminated the city and dazzled spectators - is a warm-up for the city's midnight show-stopper.

Under balmy and clear skies, tens of thousands of revellers lined Darling Harbour and other viewing hotspots, and about 1.5 million filled the harbour foreshore.

As streams of incandescent colour shot into the heavens, families on picnic blankets cheered and clapped along with others aboard luxury yachts.

Colours streamed from four barges situated around the harbour, with gold flashes cascading like tinsel as a gold butterfly-like design lit up the bridge.

At one stage fireworks fell from the structure like a waterfall, with the display reaching a kaleidoscopic climax of green, red and blue fireworks.

"It was all great, amazing," said Lee Whittaker, from Denistone, who brought her kids Mel and Leon with her.

Kallya Alffonso, from Maroubra, said festivities in Sydney were much better than her native Brazil.

"Sydney is a very pretty city, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House make it looks spectacular," she said.

"It's the spirit too, everybody is here together, and it's just the whole atmosphere."

Event organisers estimate a record 130,000 people packed Sydney's Darling Harbour for the 9pm display.

"There is definitely more people here than last year," organiser Sal Sharah told AAP.

"We've had great weather and a great lead up to this evening."

The early show was greeted with cheers from the thousands of spectators at Lady Macquarie's Chair, many of whom had waited much of the day under a hot sun.

"I think they were awesome," said nine-year-old Nell Whittaker.

"I loved the sparkle effect, and they were really loud too."

A much-hyped show-stopper is then set to wow the world at midnight.

All eyes are on Sydney, one of the first major cities to ring in the new year, with more than a billion people expected to tune in to watch the $6.6 million party worldwide.

Many local partygoers are only now emerging to gather at pubs and clubs in time for midnight.

Others will cram onto rooftops or gather in backyards for a VB and sausage sambo to say goodbye to 2012

Celebrations in Sydney dwarf rival cities, with only 100,000 attending Paris fireworks, while 700,000 revellers gather for festivities in London.

Pop princess Kylie Minogue, chosen as the event's creative ambassador, will be honoured with a one-of-a-kind sparkling musical note firework at the turn of the year.

The semiquaver will be one of 100,000 individual pyrotechnic creations this year, including brand new koala, octopus and hand images up in lights.

People going to the CBD to watch the fireworks have been urged to leave their cars behind and take public transport, with road closures in place and extra + and buses laid on for the night.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge will be closed in both directions from 11pm on Monday to 1am on Tuesday.

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UK singer remanded on child sex charges

ROCKER Ian Watkins has reappeared before a Welsh court to face allegations of plotting to rape a baby girl.

The 35-year-old vocalist, whose band Lostprophets has sold more than 3.5 million records worldwide, was arrested with two women earlier in December.

As well as being charged with conspiring to rape a child under the age of 13, Watkins faces five other sex abuse charges.

They include conspiring to engage in sexual activity with two young children as well as making, downloading and distributing child pornography and accessing "extreme pornography" - relating to animals.

During a previous hearing at Cardiff Magistrates Court, Watkins' legal team said the Last Summer singer would be denying the charges against him.

He was remanded in custody over the Christmas period with two women - who face similar child sex charges.

The pair, aged 20 and 22, cannot be named for legal reasons.

On Monday Watkins and his co-defendants appeared in Cardiff Crown Court via video-link.

All three only spoke to confirm their names at the preliminary hearing, a formality in the legal process, which lasted less than 10 minutes.

Watkins was refused bail and remanded in custody with a plea and case management hearing scheduled at Cardiff Crown Court for March 11.

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Iran tests weapons near Strait of Hormuz

IRAN'S navy says it has test-fired a range of weapons during ongoing manoeuvres near the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-fifth of the world's oil supply.

The Monday report by the official IRNA news agency quotes exercise spokesman Admiral Amir Rastgari as saying the Iranian-made air defence system Raad, or Thunder, was among the weapons tested.

Iran says the system fires missiles with a range of 50km, capable of hitting targets at 22,000m.

He said torpedoes and underwater and surface-to-surface rockets were also successfully tested.

The drill began Friday and ends Wednesday. It's one of a number of exercises Iran holds annually.

Iran has in the past said it might close the strait over Western sanctions, but has not made such threats recently.

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Syria says will respond to conflict talks

Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi believes he has a peace plan the international community can adopt. Source: AAP

DAMASCUS will respond to any initiative that could solve Syria's 21-month conflict through talks, its premier says, after peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi announced he had a plan to end the bloodshed.

"The government is working to support the national reconciliation project and will respond to any regional or international initiative that would solve the current crisis through dialogue and peaceful means and prevent foreign intervention in Syria's internal affairs," Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi told parliament on Monday.

Halaqi emphasised the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which has left an estimated 45,000 people dead, must be resolved only by the Syrian people, "without external pressures or decrees".

The country, he said, was "moving toward a historic moment when it will declare victory over its enemies, with the goal of positioning Syria to build a new world order that promotes national sovereignty and the concept of international law".

But regime officials and state media have long categorised activists and armed insurgents alike, as enemies or "terrorists" funded by Gulf rivals Qatar and Saudi Arabia, former ally Turkey and the West.

Brahimi said on Sunday he had crafted a ceasefire plan "that could be adopted by the international community," but that it was rejected by the opposition, which insists on Assad's departure before any dialogue can take place.

The uprising began in March 2011 with peaceful protests inspired by the Arab Spring, but steadily morphed into an armed rebellion following a brutal government crackdown on dissent.

Even though Syrian rebels now hold vast swathes of territory and have struck the heart of Damascus, the regime has so far stood firm despite Western predictions of its imminent fall.

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Man, 18, dies after Adelaide shooting

A YOUNG man is dead and a 17-year-old has been arrested after a shooting in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

The 18-year-old was shot at Sixth Avenue, Warradale around 7.40pm (CDT) on Monday and was rushed to Flinders Medical Centre in a critical condition, but died.

Major Crime Investigation Branch Detective Inspector Mark Trenwith says it's not believed the shooting was a random attack.

"We believe the victim and the offender were known to each other and there was some sort of an altercation and gunshots were fired and tragically a young man is now dead," he told Adelaide Now online.

"It is a horrible incident on New Years Eve, for a young person to lose his life in such a fashion."

Police have recovered the handgun allegedly used in the shooting.

A 17-year-old boy from the southern suburbs has been arrested and is expected to be charged.

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Syrian troops hit Homs, kill 23 children

SYRIAN regime forces have pressed a fierce offensive in Homs after overrunning a key neighbourhood of the central city, according to a watchdog, which also listed 23 children killed in violence across the country.

The latest bloodletting on Sunday came after international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned in Moscow that Syria was facing a choice between "hell or the political process" after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army, after Saturday seizing the Deir Baalbeh district in fighting which left dozens dead, fired off barrages of rockets into surrounding rebel-held neighbourhoods on Sunday as it sought to capitalise on its victory.

Troops also bombarded the nearby opposition stronghold of Rastan.

The Britain-based Observatory, which gathers its information from a network of activists and medics in civilian and military hospitals, said the final death toll from Saturday's clashes had not been finalised due to communications difficulties in the area.

A video released by the Syrian Revolution General Commission, a grassroots network of anti-regime activists, showed the bodies of nine male victims from Deir Baalbeh lying on the ground, their faces bloody and mutilated.

The authenticity of the video could not immediately be verified.

Near the capital on Sunday, loyalist troops carried out air raids on towns along the eastern outlying belt and on Daraya in the southwest, while fighting between rebels and the army erupted in the northeastern and southwestern suburbs.

The Observatory said 13 children were among the victims of bombardments in and around Damascus on Saturday, while 10 children were killed in air strikes across Aleppo province, including on rebel-held Aazaz near the Turkish border.

Analysts said the surge in air strikes by Syrian forces were a desperate attempt by President Bashar al-Assad's regime to reverse rampant gains by rebel fighters, especially in the north of the country.

Meanwhile, rebels made further advances on Sunday in the battle for the Hamidiyeh military post in the northwest province of Idlib which they stormed the previous day, the watchdog said.

During Sunday's clashes, three insurgents were wounded by machinegun fire, while warplanes raided a nearby village, the Observatory said.

A takeover of the Hamidiyeh post would pave the way for a rebel offensive against the nearby Wadi Deif base, one of the government's last outposts in the north.

Opposition fighters, mostly from the jihadist Al-Nusra Front, have been closing in on the base since overrunning the nearby town of Maaret al-Numan in early October.

In the south, a rebel was killed on Sunday in battles for control of several small border crossings along the regime-held frontier with Jordan, the Observatory said.

Syria and Jordan share a 370-kilometre-long border which hundreds of people cross on foot every day to escape the bloody civil war that the Observatory says has killed at least 45,000 people.

Brahimi on Saturday held talks with Lavrov on his end-of-year bid to accelerate moves to halt the Syria conflict.

He painted a stark picture of Syrian neighbours Jordan and Lebanon being overrun by a million refugees should heavy fighting for the seat of power break out in Syria's five-million-strong capital.

If this fighting "develops into something uglier ... (refugees) can go to only two places - Lebanon and Jordan", Brahimi said.

"So if the alternative is hell or the political process, we have all of us got to work ceaselessly for a political process," he said.

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East Timor hailed a UN success

TROOPS sent by Australia and New Zealand have all gone home and only a handful of United Nations police will be left when the UN flag comes down in East Timor's capital of Dili after six years.

"As of Monday, the liquidation team will be there. They are the ones who are unscrewing all the lightbulbs," said Ameerah Haq, UN under-secretary general and former head of the UN mission in East Timor.

The UN played a key role in the birth of East Timor, officially known as Timor Leste. It organised the 1999 referendum that ended 24 years of Indonesian occupation in which an estimated 183,000 people died through conflict, starvation or disease.

It helped run East Timor until 2002 when an independent government took over.

For many Timorese leaders it was a national humiliation to seek UN help in 2006 when soldiers sacked from the army launched a mutiny which sparked factional violence that left dozens dead and 150,000 people in makeshift camps.

"You don't want to say that a country learned by crisis," said Haq, but in this case there was "good benefit" from the Timorese seeing in a few days the burning, looting and destruction threatening all they had built in the past seven years.

"They just saw it collapse before their eyes and it was like: we did this to ourselves," she told AFP.

"It was a watershed moment in their experience."

The UN was able to make an impact because it was the East Timorese government which asked for help and working in a country the size of Timor was not like bringing peace to Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"In Timor, everything happened as it should," Haq said. "We had great access to the leadership, we had complete freedom of movement within the country."

The country has now had two relatively calm presidential elections, the 3000-strong police force has been retrained district by district, and the judiciary reformed.

Haq said she had seen political tensions boil up again. There were times when she would tell political leaders to "tone down the rhetoric".

"They would always tell me 'we all struggled together, we all saw what happened in 2006'," she said.

"They always assured me they would always stop short of the trigger. I learned to have confidence in that."

The big powers are now taking a more intense look at East Timor, which has significant oil and gas reserves even though it remains one of the most impoverished countries.

As a result US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited in September and China built the presidential palace and military headquarters.

Brazil is also a key source of aid while Cuba has trained hundreds of Timorese doctors.

Haq said East Timor knows that it must now concentrate on lifting the half of the 1.1 million population living below the poverty line.

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Russia investigates Moscow plane crash

RUSSIAN medics have begun identifying the bodies of four crew killed when a passenger jet careened off the runway of a Moscow international airport and smashed into a highway.

Rescue workers recovered the flight recorders from the four-year-old Tu-204 of tycoon Alexander Lebedev's Red Wings airlines late on Saturday as Russia began mourning its latest post-Soviet crash.

"The plane touched down in the proper landing area but for some reason was unable to stop on the strip," Federal Air Transport Agency chief Alexander Neradko said in televised remarks.

A bigger loss of life was averted only because the 210-seat liner was empty except for eight crew on their return from a charter flight to the Czech Republic.

Mobile-phone footage of the accident posted on the internet showed large chunks of debris hurtling over the highway and smashing into cars speeding on the highway whose drivers had to make sudden emergency stops.

The jet split into three pieces and required the temporary shutdown of both the Kiev Highway and Vnukovo, Moscow's third-largest airport and the site of a special terminal for Kremlin officials.

A security source said investigators had brushed aside poor weather conditions or pilot error and were focusing on technical problems with the Tupolev as the most likely cause.

"According to preliminary information, the Vnukovo catastrophe may have been caused by problems with the plane, which became exposed in difficult weather conditions," the unnamed official told the Interfax news agency.

Witnesses said heavy gusts accompanying a light snowfall were swirling over the airport at the time the plane came in for landing on Saturday afternoon.

Red Wings owner Lebedev - a billionaire famous for his critical view of the Kremlin and his ownership of the London Evening Standard and The Independent in Britain - said the jet had passed a meticulous check in November.

"Plane number 47 had accumulated 8500 flight hours and underwent its last serious check on November 23," Lebedev tweeted.

He also suggested that traffic controllers' initial refusal to authorise landing - requiring the plane to complete several circles over Vnukovo - might have been a contributing factor.

"All machinery has its limits, even when it is new," Lebedev wrote.

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French paper to publish comic on Mohammed

A FRENCH weekly known for publishing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed to the ire of conservative Muslims says it plans to release a comic book biography of Islam's founder that will be researched and educational.

Satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has on several occasions depicted Islam's prophet in an effort to defend free speech and defy the anger of Muslims who believe depicting Mohammed is sacrilegious.

"It is a biography authorised by Islam since it was edited by Muslims," said Charlie Hebdo's publisher and the comic's illustrator, who goes by the name Charb.

"I don't think higher Muslim minds could find anything inappropriate," Charb said on Sunday.

The biography will be published on Wednesday and was put together by a Franco-Tunisian researcher known only as Zineb, Charb said.

The publisher said the idea for the comic book came to him in 2006 when a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons of Mohammed, later republished by Charlie Hebdo, drawing angry protests across the Muslim world.

"Before having a laugh about a character, it's better to know him. As much as we know about the life of Jesus, we know nothing about Mohammed," Charb said.

In September, Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Mohammed as violent protests were taking place in several countries over a low-budget film made in the United States that insults the prophet.

In 2011 Charlie Hebdo's offices were hit by a firebomb and its website pirated after publishing an edition titled "Charia Hebdo" featuring several Mohammed cartoons.

Charb, who has received death threats, lives under police protection.

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Man missing after canoe tips on NSW river

A MAN is missing after his canoe tipped over on a river in southwestern NSW.

The man, aged in his late 20s, was paddling on the Murrumbidgee River when the canoe overturned about 2.30pm (AEDT) on Sunday.

He failed to resurface, police say.

Police and emergency services were called out to a caravan park at Darlington Point and a search was begun. It was suspended at nightfall.

Police said the search would resume at first light on Monday and involve local officers, the State Emergency Service and Volunteer Rescue Association.

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