Bahrain opens probe into labour camp fire

OFFICIALS have opened an investigation into the cause of fire that killed 13 people in a labour camp in Bahrain.

The official Bahrain News Agency says the public prosecutor's office is leading the probe into Friday's blaze in the capital Manama.

The report on Saturday said fire collapsed the roof of the three-story building used to house workers.

Special compounds for migrant labourers are common across the Gulf. For years, rights groups have pressed for better living conditions for the mostly South Asian workers.

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Turkey PM demands France clarify killings

Police are hunting down the assassins of three Kurdish activists shot dead in Paris. Source: AAP

TURKISH Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is calling on France to "immediately" clarify the killing of three Kurdish activists shot dead in Paris.

He also wants to know why French President Francois Hollande is meeting with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"France must immediately clarify this incident," Erdogan said in televised remarks on Saturday.

"Also, the French head of state must explain immediately to the French, Turkish and world public why ... he is in communication with these terrorists," he added.

Hollande said earlier that the murder of Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Soylemez was "terrible", adding that he knew one of the Kurdish women and that she "regularly met us".

The three were found dead on Thursday at the Kurdistan Information Centre in the French capital's 10th district, after last being seen alive at the centre at midday on Wednesday.

Cansiz was a founding member of the PKK, which took up arms in 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey and is branded a terrorist organisation by Ankara and much of the international community.

The separatist PKK warned that it would hold France responsible if the killers were not quickly found, as Ankara said the slayings bore the hallmarks of an internal feud, noting that the victims appeared to have given the killer or killers access to the centre.

The killings came days after Turkish media reported Turkey and the PKK leadership had agreed a roadmap to end the three-decade old Kurdish insurgency that has claimed more than 45,000 lives.

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French army raid in Somalia leaves 19 dead

TWO French soldiers and 17 militants have been killed in a failed bid to free a French hostage held by Islamists in southern Somalia since 2009, French's defence minister says.

The overnight operation was launched by France's elite DGSE secret service, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement on Saturday.

He added that the raid was sparked by the "intransigence of the terrorists who have refused to negotiate for three and a half years and were holding Denis Allex in inhuman conditions".

But the al-Shabab militants denied Le Drian's assertion that they had killed the hostage, a secret agent whose alias is Denis Allex, adding that they would decide his fate in two days and issuing a stern warning to Paris.

Two French soldiers "lost their lives (and) 17 terrorists were killed" in the battle, Le Drian said, offering the "most sincere condolences" to the dead soldiers' families and praising the men for their "courage and remarkable work".

He said the families of the dead soldiers had been informed.

An al-Shabab statement said "in the end, it will be the French citizens who will inevitably taste the bitter consequences of their government's devil-may-care attitude towards hostages".

Sheikh Mohamed Abdallah, a local al-Shabab military commander, said: "Mujahedeen fighters defeated the so-called commandos of the French government who tried to rescue a hostage, and they (the commandos) left the bodies of several of their own at the site of the attack."

Abdallah is the commander of Bulomarer, where the raid allegedly took place.

The al-Shabab statement said the French carried away "several" of their dead.

"The helicopters attacked a house ... upon the assumption that Denis Allex was being held at that location, but owing to a fatal intelligence blunder, the rescue mission turned disastrously wrong.

"Several French soldiers were killed in the battle and many more were injured before they fled from the scene of battle, leaving behind some military paraphernalia and even one of their comrades on the ground.

"The injured French soldier is now in the custody of the mujahedeen and Allex still remains safe and far from the location of the battle."

A Bulomarer resident, Idris Youssouf, said: "We don't know exactly what happened because the attack took place at night, but this morning we saw several corpses including that of a white man.

"Three civilians were also killed in the gunfight," he said.

The French secret agent was kidnapped in Somalia in July 2009 along with a colleague who was freed the following month.

Four military helicopters were used in the raid on al-Shabab-controlled Bulomarer, some 110 kilometres south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses said.

Al-Shabab has lost its main strongholds in the south and centre of the country following an offensive launched in mid-2011 by an African Union force, but they still control some rural areas.

Allex appeared in a video in June 2010 appealing to Paris to drop its support for the Somali government.

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Measles alert in Brisbane and Mount Isa

RESIDENTS of Brisbane and Mount Isa could have been exposed to measles when a traveller returned from abroad with the disease, Queensland health officials say.

The traveller returned home from Asia on January 2 while still infectious with measles after picking up the disease overseas.

The infected person flew into Brisbane where they spent the day before flying to Mount Isa.

The Queensland Department of Health is urging anyone who was at the Brisbane International Airport abound 1am (AEST) on January 2 or in the the Brisbane CBD the same day to seek immediate medical advice if they feel unwell.

People at the city's domestic airport about 6am on January 3 or anyone who flew to Mount Isa that morning should also be on alert for symptoms.

Measles can be spread by droplets expelled during coughing or sneezing.

Early symptoms include fever, lethargy, a moist cough and sore and red eyes, followed a few days later by a red rash.

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Boy, 13, drives father's Merc to Germany

A 13-YEAR-OLD boy has run away from his adoptive parents in Italy, driving his father's Mercedes 1000 kilometres towards his native Poland before being stopped in Germany.

The boy - a go-kart enthusiast - managed to pass motorway toll booths and cross two international borders in his two-day drive across northern Italy, Austria and half of Germany.

"He looks like a 16-year-old, but still! He managed to fuel up and pass two borders. It's just incredible," Eleonora Spadati, head of local Carabinieri police in Montebelluna in northeast Italy where the boy ran from, told AFP on Saturday.

Spadati said the boy missed Poland and wanted to see his biological sister.

Just before leaving on Thursday with just 200 euros ($A252.14) in his pocket and a passport, he had also argued with his parents after they confiscated his mobile phone as a punishment for topping up its credit without their consent.

The boy's parents quickly realised he might have tried to go to Poland and contacted local Italian police, asking for an alert along his possible route.

German traffic police picked him up just 200 kilometres from the Polish border on Friday.

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Fears for Pakistan as blasts kill 125

A series of bombings have killed 115 people across Pakistan, including 81 who died in Quetta. Source: AAP

EXTREMIST bomb attacks killed 125 people in one of Pakistan's deadliest days for years, raising concerns about rising violence in the nuclear-armed country ahead of general elections.

Two suicide bombers killed 92 people and wounded 121 after they targeted a crowded snooker club in the southwestern city of Quetta on Thursday, in an area dominated by Shi'ite Muslims from the Hazara ethnic minority.

Extremist Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for what was the worst single attack ever on Shi'ites, who account for about 20 per cent of Pakistan's 180 million population.

It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since twin suicide bombers killed 98 people outside a police training centre in the northwestern town of Shabqadar on May 13, 2011 - shortly after US troops killed Osama bin Laden.

Earlier on Thursday, a bomb detonated under a security force vehicle in a crowded part of Quetta, killing 11 people and wounding dozens.

A bomb at a religious gathering in the northwestern Swat valley killed 22 people and wounded more than 80, the deadliest incident in the district since the army in 2009 fought off a two-year Taliban insurgency.

At the snooker club, the first bomber struck inside the building then, 10 minutes later, an attacker in a car blew himself up as police, media workers and rescue teams rushed to the site, said police officer Mir Zubair Mehmood.

"The death toll is now 92. Some bodies were found from the blast site today," said police official Hamid Shakeel.

He said all but five of the victims had been identified and handed over to their families for burial later on Friday.

Nine police, three local journalists, several rescue workers and a spokesman for the Frontier Corps paramilitary were among those killed, officials said.

"We have collected two bags of body parts, including limbs, fingers, upper torsos, lower torsos, legs, feet," said Mohammed Raza, who works for a Hazara ambulance service.

Akbar Hussain Durrani, home secretary in the provincial government of Baluchistan, said more than 120 people were wounded.

The government has announced three days of mourning in Baluchistan, and compensation of two million rupees ($A19,500) to families of killed police officials and one million rupees to those of civilians.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility in telephone calls to local journalists. The group has links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and was involved in the kidnap and beheading of reporter Daniel Pearl in January 2002.

The attacks, coupled with violence in the northwest, revived warnings from analysts that an Islamist militancy could threaten national elections, expected sometime in May after parliament disbands in mid-March.

Polls would mark the first time an elected civilian government in Pakistan, for decades ruled by the military, completes a term in office and is replaced by another democratically elected government.

"The government is completely losing control over the situation. Events are taking place one after the other," security and political analyst, retired lieutenant general Talat Masood said.

"The disturbing law and order situation will have a very adverse effect on elections. The government seems to have no plans for security and nothing is being done for the safety of people who are being killed like flies."

But a senior official in the Quetta administration, Mohammad Hashim, denied sectarian violence had any bearing on elections.

"Incidents of sectarian violence have been taking place in the country for more than a decade. It may have an affect on law and order. I don't think it will have an impact on elections. It's not political, it's sectarian," he said.

Human Rights Watch said 2012 was the deadliest year on record for Shi'ites in Pakistan and the government's failure to protect them "amounts to complicity in the barbaric slaughter of Pakistani citizens".

Baluchistan has long been a flashpoint for attacks against Shi'ites and Hazaras, and suffers from a separatist insurgency and Islamist militancy linked to a domestic Taliban insurgency concentrated in the northwest.

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Nastassja Kinski shocked by sister's abuse

Nastassja Kinski (pic) praised her half-sister for alleging she was abused by their father Klaus. Source: AAP

ACTRESS Nastassja Kinski says she's proud of her half-sister Pola for coming forward with allegations that she had been repeatedly raped by their father, the late German film icon Klaus Kinski.

Pola Kinski, 60, said in a magazine interview ahead of the release of a memoir on Saturday that the mercurial actor, who died in 1991, had sexually abused her throughout her childhood.

Nastassja Kinski, who achieved the Hollywood fame with films such as Cat People and Tess that eluded her father, wrote in the German daily Bild that she had wept when she read Pola's account.

"My sister is a hero because she has freed her heart, her soul and thus her future from the burden of this secret," the 51-year-old wrote.

"I stand by my sister, I stand behind her. I am deeply horrified. But I am proud of the strength she has shown in writing this book."

Nastassja Kinski said she hoped the book would raise awareness of child abuse and encourage other victims to tell their stories.

"A book like Pola's helps all children, youths and mothers who are afraid of fathers, who swallow their fear and hide everything away in their souls," she said.

"Just because someone calls himself a father, as in this case, does not mean that he is a father. The horror has taken place nevertheless. Even fathers do horrible things."

She added: "There is always help - all children should know that."

Nastassja Kinski, who lives in California, is the daughter of Kinski's second wife Brigitte. Pola's mother was his first wife, singer Gislinde Kuehbeck.

Pola said Klaus Kinski, who was already notorious as a brilliant but tyrannical force in European cinema, began abusing her at the age of five and raped her for the first time when she was nine.

The assaults continued until she was 19, she alleged in an interview this week with Stern magazine.

The volatile but prolific star of Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, the Wrath of God and a frequent collaborator of German director Werner Herzog "ignored all protests" by his young daughter, she charged.

"He just took what he wanted," she said, adding that as a youngster, she lived in constant fear of his angry outbursts.

She said she aimed to go public with her allegations to put a stop to the idolising of her famous father.

"I was sick of hearing, 'Your father! Great! Genius! I always liked him'," she said.

"Since his death, this adulation has only got worse."

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China landslide kills dozens

AT least 36 people were killed including seven from a single family when a landslide smashed into a remote village in southwestern China, state-run media said.

About a dozen more were also buried when the landslip engulfed 16 homes in the village of Gaopo on Friday, said Yunnan Web, run by the Yunnan provincial government, adding that emergency teams rescued two injured people from the debris.

Photos posted on the website showed rescuers in orange uniforms digging in large areas of clumpy mud against a backdrop of snow-covered, terraced hills.

A video posted on a Chinese social networking site appeared to show a group of villagers digging through thick mud and debris to uncover a body, which was carried away on a stretcher.

Snow was visible in images of the rescue, in an area which has experienced unusually low temperatures in recent weeks, with China suffering what authorities have called its coldest winter in 28 years.

Top-ranking members of the ruling Communist Party had been made aware of the landslide, Yunnan Web said.

The province, which borders Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, is a relatively impoverished area of China, where rural houses are often cheaply constructed.

Gaopo is in Zhenxiong county, in the northeast of Yunnan, a temperate province known for its tobacco industry and as being the home of Pu'er tea.

But its mountainous areas are prone to landslides and it is also vulnerable to earthquakes. Two in September - one of magnitude 5.7 - left 81 people dead and hundreds injured.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao made an overnight trip to the quake zone at the time to comfort survivors, many of whom had taken refuge in tents erected on a public square.

A county neighbouring Zhenxiong was hit by a landslide in October that killed 18 children, after one which, according to the United States Geological Survey, killed 216 people in 1991.

An earthquake in neighbouring Sichuan province in 2008 claimed around 70,000 lives - the worst natural disaster to hit China in three decades, with shoddy buildings blamed for the high toll.

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Savile was predatory sex offender: report

BRITISH police say that late BBC star presenter Jimmy Savile was a predatory sex offender whose victims were as young as eight and who preyed on children and adults in hospitals and even a hospice.

A report by police and child protection authorities on Friday found that the TV presenter, who was one of the biggest TV stars in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, used his celebrity status to "hide in plain sight".

Prosecutors said Savile, who died in 2011 at the age of 84, could have been prosecuted if police had taken the victims more seriously.

The alleged attacks stretched for more than 50 years from 1955 to 2009 and were "mainly opportunistic sexual assaults - many in situations manipulated by Savile" - but in some cases, he groomed his victims, the report said.

A total of 450 people came forward with evidence relating to Savile, from which police recorded 214 criminal offences spread around Britain, including 34 of rape or penetration, the report said.

Peter Watt, director of Britain's child protection agency NSPCC, who co-authored the report, said the scale of the abuse "simply beggared belief".

He said Savile was "without doubt one of the most prolific sex offenders we have ever come across".

The eight-year-old victim was a boy but more than 80 per cent of the victims were female.

The report found that Savile had offended at 13 hospitals, including the world-renowned children's hospital Great Ormond Street in London, and had abused a teenage visitor to a hospice.

Alison Levitt, legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), said Savile could have been prosecuted in 2009 had police taken victims more seriously.

Commander Peter Spindler, the head of specialist crime investigations at London's Metropolitan Police, said the report "paints a stark picture emphasising the tragic consequences of when vulnerability and power collide".

"Savile's offending footprint was vast, predatory and opportunistic. He cannot face justice today but we hope this report gives some comfort to his hundreds of victims, they have been listened to and taken seriously.

"We must use the learning from these shocking events to prevent other children and vulnerable adults being abused in the future. They will get a voice."

The decision of the BBC's flagship current affairs show Newsnight to drop a report into the allegations against the star shortly after his death plunged the world's biggest broadcaster into chaos last year.

The allegations then emerged in a TV documentary by rival broadcaster ITV which eventually prompted the police to investigate.

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FAA launches review of Boeing 787

FEDERAL regulators in the US say they are ordering a comprehensive review of the critical systems of Boeing's 787s, the aircraft maker's newest and most technologically advanced plane, after a fire and a fuel leak earlier this week.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the review will include the design, manufacture and assembly of the aircraft. Officials plan to detail the review at a news conference on Friday.

The 787, which Boeing calls the "Dreamliner," relies more than any other modern airliner on electrical signals to help power nearly everything the plane does. It's also the first Boeing plane to use rechargeable lithium ion batteries and to be made with lightweight composite materials.

A fire ignited on Monday in the battery pack of an auxiliary power unit of a Japan Airlines 787 empty of passengers.

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Mideast hit by worst storms in a decade

At least eight people have died as fierce winter storms batter the Middle East. Source: AAP

THE worst storms in a decade left swathes of Israel and Jordan under a blanket of snow and parts of Lebanon blacked out on Thursday, bringing misery to a region accustomed to temperate weather.

Freezing temperatures and floods since Sunday across the region have claimed at least 11 lives and exacerbated the plight of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees huddled in tent camps in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

But for students in countries battered by the snow, rain and bitter winds, the storms meant they could cut classes as authorities ordered schools and universities closed in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan Israel.

With snow blanketing the war-hit Syrian capital Damascus, the education ministry on Thursday announced that mid-term exams would be postponed in the country until further notice.

In Jordan, a blizzard brought the country to a near halt, as snow blocked most of roads in Amman and other parts in the desert kingdom, police said.

Jordan's King Abdullah II ordered the army to support the government - which declared Thursday a public holiday - in opening roads and helping those stranded in the snow, the palace said.

The storm has also triggered power blackouts in Lebanon, Jordan and Israel.

In Lebanon parts of the country were plunged into darkness, leaving those who rely on electricity to heat their homes shivering.

Officials and residents blamed the outage on the storm and an open-ended strike by employees of the state-run Electricite du Liban power company over salaries and pension issues.

"There is a storm, and there is a problem in the grid. The electricity workers are on strike, and they're not letting anyone fix the problem," Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Gebran Bassil told AFP on Thursday.

The storm also highlighted the poor infrastructure in Lebanon where chronic power shortages since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war have been a main source of grievance among Lebanese who must put up with daily rationing.

A Beirut international airport weather expert said the storm is the worst ever to have hit Lebanon while other met officials in the region said it was the worst in 10 years.

Media reports said the cold weather originated in Russia, with one daily dubbing the storm "Olga".

At least 11 people have reportedly been killed in the region, including a man who froze to death after he fell asleep drunk in his car in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley and a baby swept away in a flash flood in the centre of the country.

In the Palestinian territories, officials reported four fatalities since Tuesday, one of them a woman in the southern West Bank village of Jabaa who died from a fire she started in her home to keep warm.

Three days of driving rains and strong winds that struck normally warm Egypt paralysed most ports, with the commercial harbour in Alexandria on the Mediterranean sea worst affected, officials said.

Snow was even seen capping the northwestern Tabuk region of the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where roads leading to Mount Alluz were packed with motorists excited at the rare sight of snow.

For children across the region, including in Holy City of Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Ramallah, the snow was a godsend which saw youngsters rush outside to make snowmen and enjoy snowball fights.

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Mercury emissions rising, says UN

MERCURY pollution in the top layer of the world's oceans has doubled in the past century, part of a man-made problem that will require international co-operation to fix, the UN's environment agency said.

The report by the UN Environment Program showed for the first time that hundreds of tonnes of mercury have leaked from the soil into rivers and lakes around the world.

As a result of rising emissions, communities in developing countries face increasing health and environmental risks linked to exposure to mercury, the UN agency says.

Mercury, a toxic metal, is widely used in chemical production and small-scale mining, particularly gold.

It is a naturally occurring element that is found in air, water and soil, and it cannot be created or destroyed.

Mercury emissions come from sources such as coal burning and the use of mercury to separate metal from ore in small-scale gold mining, and mercury pollution also comes from discarded electronic and other consumer products.

Mercury in the air settles into soil from where it can then seep into water.

The report, an update on its previous global tallies of mercury in 2002 and 2007, comes in advance of talks in Geneva next week between nations negotiating a new legally binding treaty to reduce mercury emissions worldwide.

Such a treaty would represent a major reversal from previous years when major powers including the United States, China and India sought voluntary reductions.

Mercury concentrations accumulate in fish and go up the food chain, posing the greatest risk of nerve damage to pregnant women, women of childbearing age and young children.

The report says parts of Africa, Asia and South America could see increasing emissions of mercury into the environment mainly due to small-scale gold mining, and through coal burning for electricity.

It found that mercury emissions from artisanal gold mining had doubled since 2005 due to factors such as rising gold prices and better reporting on the emissions.

Asia accounts for just under half of all global releases of mercury, the report said.

Over the past 100 years, mercury found in the top 100 metres of the world's oceans has doubled and concentrations in waters deeper than that have gone up by 25 per cent, the UN agency said, while rivers and lakes contain an estimated 260 metric tonnes of mercury that was previously held in soils.

UNEP's executive director, Achim Steiner, said mercury pollution remains "a major global, regional and national challenge in terms of threats to human health and the environment" but new technologies can reduce the risks.

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3000-year-old tombs unearthed in Egypt

EGYPT'S Antiquities Minister says Italian archaeologists have unearthed tombs over 3000 years old in the ancient city of Luxor.

Mohammed Ibrahim says the discovery was made beneath the mortuary temple of King Amenhotep II, seventh Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty who reigned from 1427 to 1401 B.C. The temple is located on the western bank of the Nile.

Ibrahim says remains of wooden sarcophaguses and human bones were found inside the tombs.

Mansour Barek, head of Luxor antiquities, says jars used to preserve the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines of the deceased were found. They were decorated with images of the four sons of the god Horus - figures seen as essential by ancient Egyptians to help the soul of the deceased find its way to heaven.

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France hit recession in Q4: central bank

THE French central bank repeated on Thursday its estimate that France fell into a mild recession at the end of 2012, putting contraction of the economy at 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter after equivalent estimated shrinkage in the third quarter.

The latest estimate from the Bank of France differs from data from the national statistics office which suggests that France has just averted recession this year by showing marginal intermittent growth.

But together the sets of data suggest that the country is bumping along on the edge of recession when it urgently needs to achieve steady and stronger growth to generate activity, reduce high unemployment and raise tax revenues in a battle to reduce the public deficit.

The Socialist government switched the emphasis of its economic policy a few months after coming to power this year, focusing on the need to raise the competitive position of French industry so as to boost exports and reduce a big trade deficit.

The central bank stood by its view that the country fell into mild recession on the basis of its latest monthly report in December on the state of activity in the industrial and services sector.

The bank's overall assessment of how the figures for the economy in the fourth quarter would turn out was the same as the assessments the bank made in November and October.

The bank has already said that it believes the economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter from output in the second quarter.

The technical definition of recession is two quarters running of contraction of output in a quarter from output in the previous quarter.

However, the national statistics institute INSEE estimates that in the third quarter the economy grew by 0.1 per cent after contraction of 0.1 per cent in the second quarter.

And INSEE said in its latest estimate of activity in the last quarter of the year, published on December 20, that the economy had shrunk by 0.2 per cent from output in the third quarter.

This would mean that the fractional growth in the third quarter kept the country out of recession, according to the INSEE figures.

Meanwhile, INSEE reported on Thursday that French industrial output had rallied by 0.5 per cent in November from the level in October, when it had contracted by 0.6 per cent on a revised basis from output in September.

INSEE had estimated initially that in October, industrial output had shrunk by more, by 0.7 per cent.

INSEE also said that consumer prices had risen by 0.3 per cent in December and by 1.2 per cent, excluding the price of tobacco, on a 12-month basis.

INSEE said that the increase had been driven mainly by seasonal increases in the prices of services and manufactured products.

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British interest rates on hold at 0.5%

THE Bank of England (BoE) has kept its key interest rate at a record low of 0.50 per cent.

The bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) remained in "wait and see" mode again this month, maintaining its quantitative easing (QE) program at STG375 billion ($A575.59 billion).

The BoE's decision comes amid mounting concerns that Britain's economy slipped back into the red in the final quarter of 2012 following figures suggesting the dominant services sector contracted in December for the first time in two years.

The MPC is expected to hold off from any further QE action until the picture becomes clearer.

Anna Leach, head of economic analysis at the CBI business group, said: "A change in monetary policy was unlikely this month, given that the UK economy continues to send out mixed signals.

"We're not expecting any change in monetary policy over the next few months, unless compelling evidence of a renewed downturn emerges."

The BoE has held rates at 0.5 per cent since March 2009 as the British economy has struggled to recover from the financial crisis.

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Pakistan suggests Indian deaths inquiry

The Pakistan Army denies that its soldiers killed two Indian troops after crossing Kashmir's border. Source: AAP

PAKISTAN denied Indian allegations that its troops killed two Indian soldiers in a second cross-border ceasefire violation in days and called on UN observers to investigate.

India summoned Pakistan's high commissioner to New Delhi on Wednesday to protest against Tuesday's killings, in which India's chief military spokesman said one of the soldiers had been beheaded by Pakistani troops who then carried away his head.

Pakistan rejected what it called "baseless and unfounded allegations" but echoed calls of caution from India's foreign minister by saying both sides need to work hard to maintain a recent rapprochement following peace talks which were revived in 2011.

"Pakistan is prepared to hold investigations through the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan on the recent ceasefire violations on the Line of Control," said the foreign ministry in Islamabad.

A ceasefire has been in place since 2003 along the Line of Control in Kashmir that has divided the countries but it is periodically violated by both sides.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told Indian channel CNN-IBN that Islamabad was "a bit appalled at some statements" from India and that she was "saddened".

"I represent a government that has invested four years to build normalcy... an environment of trust to move forward to achieve regional peace and internal stability," she said in an interview in Islamabad.

Indian army sources suggested Tuesday's attack could be a retaliation for Sunday, when Islamabad said an unprovoked Indian attack on a border post killed one Pakistani soldier and wounded another.

Khar said the Pakistani soldier had been "brutally murdered because of Indian firing" but denied that Pakistan operated a policy of "tit for tat".

"We are a responsible country, a mature country, we must not all go back to having a go at each other," she told CNN-IBN.

She said allegations of ceasefire violations had to be dealt with responsibly and offered to ask the UN military observers to investigate.

"We can ask a third party to do investigation on this, you know that UN military observers exist, we can call them. We are promising a full inquiry," she said in the TV interview.

The Pakistani military also denied that its troops were responsible.

"Indian authorities were informed that Pakistan has carried out ground verification and checked and found nothing of this sort happened as being alleged by India," a military official told reporters.

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S African police arrest 50 in farm protest

STRIKING farm workers set up barricades and threw stones at motorists and police in a South African province whose vineyards are vital to the wine industry, prompting riot officers to close roads and arrest at least 50 demonstrators.

Wednesday's unrest was reported in several areas of Western Cape province, where similar protests last year also turned violent, resulting in at least two deaths.

Footage on eNCA television showed debris in flames on a rock-strewn highway, and the smashed window of a police vehicle. Security forces in helmets patrolled the area.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut said police had arrested about 50 people, according to the South African Press Association.

The protesters had sought to block roads in a campaign for higher wages and to prevent other farmhands from going to work. They want their daily wages to be more than doubled to 150 South African rand ($A16.74).

South Africa is a major wine producer. In addition to grape-harvesting, workers involved in the protests work on apple and other fruit farms.

The country's mining industry was also shaken by labour unrest last year. Some of those protests turned violent, culminating in the shooting deaths of several dozen miners by police at a platinum mine.

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At least 30 Darfur rebels killed: Sudan

THE Sudanese army says its soldiers have killed at least 30 rebels in clashes in Sudan's troubled North Darfur region.

The army spokesman, Colonel Sawarme Khalid, says the rebel forces belong to Justice and Equality Movement.

He told the semi official Sudan Media Center on Wednesday that the army turned back a rebel attack in Jebel Marra area of North Darfur.

Darfur has been in turmoil since 2003, when ethnic Africans rebelled, accusing the Arab-dominated Sudanese government of discrimination. Rights groups charge the regime retaliated by unleashing Arab militias on civilians, a claim the government denies.

The UN estimates 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been displaced in the conflict.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court over Darfur.

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Saudi beheads S Lankan maid for murder

SAUDI Arabia beheaded a Sri Lankan maid after she was convicted of murdering her employer's baby, the interior ministry announced, despite calls for a stay of execution.

Rizana Nafeek smothered the infant to death after an argument with the child's mother, her employer, the ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency said.

She was beheaded in the Dawadmi province near the capital Riyadh.

Human Rights Watch had on Tuesday urged Saudi King Abdullah and the interior ministry to halt Nafeek's execution.

The New York-based watchdog said that Nafeek, who was only 17 when the incident occurred in 2005, had retracted "a confession that she said was made under duress, and says that the baby died in a choking accident while drinking from a bottle."

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had sent an appeal to King Abdullah on Sunday "requesting a stay of the execution until a settlement can be reached between the baby's family and a Saudi reconciliation committee," said HRW.

HRW "opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty and finality," it said.

"Given the possibility of mistakes in any criminal justice system, innocent people may be executed."

This is the second execution of the year in Saudi Arabia after a Syrian was beheaded on Tuesday for drug trafficking.

Last year, the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom beheaded 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. HRW put the number at 69.

Rape, murder, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under its strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.

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New Russia-US talks with Brahimi on Syria

THE top Russian and US negotiators on Syria will meet chief international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi in Geneva on Friday for fresh talks, Moscow's pointman on the crisis said.

"The trilateral meeting between (Russian Deputy Foreign Minister) Mikhail Bogdanov, (US Undersecretary of State) William Burns, and (UN-Arab League envoy) Lakhdar Brahimi has been planned for January 11 in Geneva," Bogdanov told Interfax on Wednesday.

Often referred to as "The Three Bs," the diplomats first met in Geneva in mid December, when reports leaked out on a joint Russia-US initiative on ending the 22-month-old conflict.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov revealed while hosting Brahimi at the end of December that Assad had earlier told the international mediator that he had no intention of stepping down.

Brahimi later said he now had the outlines of a peace initiative that he said all sides could subscribe to to end the bloodshed, which the UN estimates has claimed more than 60,000 lives.

Moscow has been under intense pressure to urge the leadership of its Middle East ally to accept a face-saving agreement that would see the rebels assume gradual command as the fighting reaches Damascus itself.

Analysts have questioned the actual sway the Kremlin has over Assad.

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Winehouse inquest confirms alcohol death

A new inquest into the death of British singer Amy Winehouse is set to begin in London. Source: AAP

A SECOND inquest into the death of singer Amy Winehouse has confirmed that her death was caused by alcohol.

The same verdict of misadventure was recorded at a re-hearing of the inquest - after the first was heard by a coroner who did not have the correct qualifications.

The hearing was told on Tuesday that the Back To Black star had more than five times the legal blood alcohol drink-drive limit when she died, having 416mg of alcohol per decilitre of blood in her system - the legal driving limit is 80mg.

The inquest at St Pancras Coroner's Court in London heard the same evidence about the singer's death as was revealed at the first inquest in October 2011.

Winehouse was found dead in bed at her flat in Camden, north London, on the afternoon of Saturday July 23 2011.

St Pancras Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said the star died from "alcohol toxicity", adding that it was "a level of alcohol commonly associated with fatality".

She said Winehouse "voluntarily consumed alcohol" and added that "two empty vodka bottles were on the floor" beside her bed when her body was discovered.

In a written statement, Winehouse's GP, Dr Christina Romete, said: "She was genuinely unwilling to follow the advice of doctors, being someone who wanted to do things her own way."

Dr Romete saw Winehouse the night before she died.

Although the singer had been drinking, the GP said: "She specifically said she did not want to die."

The doctor's statement also revealed Winehouse's struggle with an eating disorder - which she spoke about shortly before her death.

"I visited Amy at home on 16 May and for the first time she admitted she made herself sick following food binges," Dr Romete said in her statement.

In a written statement, Winehouse's live-in security guard Andrew Morris said he and the star had over time "developed a brother/sister relationship".

Speaking about the moment he realised she was dead, he said: "I was upset and shaken. She's like a sister to me."

Detective Inspector Les Newman, who gave evidence in person, confirmed there were "no suspicious circumstances" in the singer's death.

Professor Michael Sheaff, a colleague of Suhail Baithun who carried out the post-mortem examination, also gave evidence in person and said: "Mr Baithun established the cause of death as alcohol toxicity."

He added: "It is likely Miss Winehouse had a respiratory arrest."

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UN says it can't feed 1m hungry Syrians

THE World Food Program said it is unable to help a million Syrians who are going hungry.

This month, the agency aims to help 1.5 million of the 2.5 million Syrians that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent says need assistance, spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said.

The lack of security and the agency's inability to use the Syrian port of Tartus for its shipment means that a large number of people, in the some of the country's hardest hit areas will not get help, she said.

"Our main partner, the Red Cross, is overstretched and has no more capacity to expand further," Byrs said.

She also said that the agency has temporarily pulled its staff out of its offices in the Syrian cities of Homs, Aleppo, Tartus and Qamishli due to the rising dangers in those areas.

But in December, WFP was able to reach for the first time in many months some hard-to-reach areas near the Turkish border, she said.

The Syria crisis began with peaceful protests in March 2011 but has since shifted into a civil war. At least 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to a recent U.N. estimate.

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China press campaign swells with new rally

PROTESTERS mounted a second day of rallies calling for press freedom in China on Tuesday, as social media users and celebrities backed a campaign which will be a test for the nation's new leaders.

Scores of people, some carrying mourning flowers, gathered outside the Guangzhou offices of the Southern Weekly, a popular liberal paper which had an article urging greater protection of rights censored.

One man in a wheelchair held a banner reading: "Support the Southern Weekly, resist censorship, give back my freedom of speech."

Some demonstrators wore masks depicting the British revolutionary figure Guy Fawkes, adopted as an anarchist symbol internationally after being popularised in the film "V for Vendetta" which was recently broadcast on state television.

Police stood by allowing the rally to proceed, but as it dispersed for the day, a lone woman demonstrator stood outside the building, holding a white rose and raising one hand, making a victory sign with her fingers.

The second day of rare public protests pushing for greater rights in China came after bloggers and celebrities -- some with millions of followers -- voiced support online for freedom of the press.

Yao Chen, an actress who has 32 million followers, posted the paper's logo on China's Twitter-like Weibo service and quoted Russian dissident Alexandr Solzhenitsyn: "One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world".

The row erupted after censors Thursday blocked the paper's 2013 New Year message calling for the realisation of a "dream of constitutionalism in China" and replaced it with an article in praise of the Communist Party, according to journalists.

Chinese media outlets are subject to directives from official propaganda departments, which often suppress news seen as negative by the ruling Communist party, but some publications take a more critical stance.

The dispute comes after the party's new leadership, headed by president-in-waiting Xi Jinping, took over at a congress in November, raising expectations of a more open style of governance.

The authorities seemed to be approaching the row cautiously to avoid a backlash that might trigger more protests, said Doug Young, a journalism professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.

"The government is treading really, really carefully in this incident because they have to make sure that it doesn't get out of control, say if they come across as acting too heavy-handed and start arresting people or trying to fire people," he said.

In a commentary the People's Daily, the Party's official mouthpiece, said propaganda chiefs needed to adapt to the "rhythm of the era" to ensure their effectiveness, and abandon "stiff preaching that is unchanging and patronising."

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Asian markets fall after US losses

ASIAN markets were mostly lower on Tuesday following losses in New York as dealers took profits from recent advances while also seeking fresh catalysts.

Tokyo was also weighed by a rise in the yen, which has suffered heavy selling in recent weeks, while the South Korean bourse slipped on disappointment over the latest earnings guidance from Samsung Electronics.

Tokyo slipped 0.86 per cent, or 90.95 points, lower to 10,508.06, Sydney lost 0.57 per cent, or 27.1 points, to close at 4690.2 and Seoul was 0.66 per cent lower, shedding 13.31 points to 1997.94.

Hong Kong lost 0.94 per cent, shedding 218.56 points to 23,111.19 while Shanghai fell 0.41 per cent, or 9.29 points, to 2276.07.

With the US fiscal crisis out of the way until talks next month on raising the country's borrowing limit and cutting spending, eyes are now on the upcoming earnings season and economic indicators.

"We could be in a no man's land between the fiscal cliff and [the debate around] the debt ceiling," said Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac Institutional Bank in Sydney.

China is due to unveil several batches of data over the coming week, including on trade, inflation and gross domestic product, with most economists upbeat following a series of results suggesting the economy is picking up strength.

However, Wall Street provided a negative lead owing to caution ahead of the start of the corporate reporting season later on Tuesday.

The Dow shed 0.38 per cent, the S&P 500 fell 0.31 per cent and the Nasdaq edged down 0.09 per cent.

In Tokyo the Nikkei fell as the yen picked up slightly against the dollar and euro, although analysts said its relative weakness should continue to provide support.

"The market remains overheated after running up so much over the past several weeks, making it vulnerable to more selling," SMBC Nikko Securities general manager of equities Hiroichi Nishi told Dow Jones Newswires.

"Currency levels remain somewhat supportive ... so this should hold any sharp sell-offs in check."

The US dollar stood at 87.41 yen in Tokyo trade, from 87.89 late on Monday in New York, where it last week surged to a peak of 88.41 yen, its highest since July 2010.

The euro bought $US1.3113 and 114.61 yen, from $US1.3115 and 115.09 yen in New York.

Seoul's Kospi was dragged lower by heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which fell 1.3 per cent as it disappointed traders despite forecasting a record operating profit of $US8.8 billion for the three months to the end of December.

"Investors appear concerned that Samsung may not show a better performance in the first quarter, with some of them taking profit," said Hyundai Securities analyst Bae Sung-Young.

Oil prices were lower, with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, down nine cents to $US93.10 a barrel in the afternoon while Brent North Sea crude for February delivery lost 15 cents to $US111.25.

Gold was at $US1653.49 at 1045 GMT (2145 AEDT) compared with $US1654.50 late Monday.

In other markets:

- Taipei fell 0.43 per cent, or 33.43 points, to 7,721.66.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was 0.80 per cent lower at Tw$99.7 while leading smartphone maker HTC lost 3.99 per cent to Tw$276.5.

- Manila was flat, nudging up 3.99 points to a new record 6,048.90.

SM Investments added 1.73 per cent to 939 pesos, BDO Unibank gained 0.13 per cent to 75.15 pesos and Philippine Long Distance Telephone dropped 0.60 per cent to 2,646 pesos.

- Wellington rose 0.14 per cent, or 5.53 points, to 4,090.37.

Telecom added 2.3 per cent to $NZ2.23, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 1.7 per cent at $NZ2.47 and Metlifecare surged 4.4 per cent to end at $NZ3.35.

- Singapore slipped 0.40 per cent, or 12.74 points, to 3205.52.

Global integrated supply chain manager Olam International dropped 2.13 per cent to Sg$1.61 while Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation gained 0.10 per cent to Sg$9.69.

- Jakarta ended up 0.12 per cent, or 5.17 points, at 4,397.55.

State-controlled miner Aneka Tambang jumped 2.99 per cent to 1380 rupiah, while Bank Negara Indonesia rose 1.97 per cent to 3875 rupiah.

- Kuala Lumpur lost 0.31 per cent, or 5.25 points, to 1688.91.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong shed 1.4 per cent to 22.62 ringgit while Astro Malaysia gained 0.7 per cent to 3.02.

- Bangkok rose 0.14 per cent, or 2.01 points, to 1417.33.

Oil company PTT dropped 1.20 per cent to 330 baht, while power giant Electricity Generating Public Co. added 0.33 per cent to 150.50.

- Mumbai rose 0.26 per cent, or 51.10 points, to 19,742.52.

Conglomerate ITC group rose 2.18 per cent to 285.3 rupees while private housing finance firm HDFC rose 1.95 per cent to 839.65.

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Workers injured in Syrian camp in Jordan

HUMANITARIAN workers distributing aid to Syrian refugees in northern Jordan after destructive rains have been injured in a "stampede", officials say.

"Refugees started to push each other as they ran towards the aid workers. They hurled stones at each other and there was a stampede, which hurt some aid workers," Anmar Hmud, a government spokesman for refugee affairs, told AFP on Tuesday.

"At least one of the aid workers was taken to hospital."

The incident occurred as aid workers were helping some of the 62,000 Syrians sheltering in the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan near the Syrian border, where hundreds of tents have been destroyed by two days of heavy rains.

"Bad weather and heavy rain in the past two days have affected 500 tents in Zaatari," Ali Bibi, in charge of cooperation and international relations at UN refugee agency UNHCR, told AFP.

"We are now are working with the Jordanian government to move hundreds of refugees to caravans."

There are 4000 caravans and 4,500 tents at the six month old camp, which has seen several protests against poor living conditions, including a lack of electricity.

Jordan, which says it is hosting more than 290,000 Syrians, suffers bad weather in winter, including the torrential downpours seen in recent days.

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Irukandji sting suspected on Fraser Island

AN eight-year-old with a suspected irukandji sting has been winched off Fraser Island and airlifted to hospital.

The Gold Coast girl was stung on her right arm while swimming at Awinya Creek on the western side of Fraser Island on Monday.

She suffered severe pain, nausea and abdominal cramping.

The AGL Action Rescue Helicopter attended the scene, where the child and her mother were winched up to the helicopter.

The girl was airlifted to Hervey Bay Hospital and is in a stable condition.

In the past nine days, the AGL Action Rescue Helicopter has flown to the aid of seven people suffering jellyfish stings while swimming on the western side of Fraser Island.

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Value in traditional baby tips: professor

PRAMS should be pushed aside in favour of carrying babies upright to aid quicker development, says a lauded scientist.

Traditional child-rearing techniques dating back to primitive tribes can offer valuable tips for modern parenting, Pulitzer prize-winning professor Jared Diamond said in his new book, The World Until Yesterday.

Quickly comforting a crying baby, letting babies sleep next to their parents, regular physical contact, and carrying them upright facing outwards "may result in a more self-assured child", the US academic wrote.

"I have worked with traditional New Guinea peoples for 50 years," Prof Diamond said in an interview published by British tabloid the Daily Express.

"Many other westerners have worked with other traditional societies, including the pygmies of African rainforests and the Piraha Indians of Brazil. We are struck by how emotionally secure, self confident, curious and autonomous the members of those small-scale societies are, not only as adults but already as children.

"That's surely as a result of how they are raised as children."

The theory coincides with a rise in popularity of papoose carriers, which commonly see youngsters held on mum or dad's chest, facing forward.

"We moderns can learn from what worked well for such a long time," father-of-two Prof Diamond said.

"It is only relatively recently that some of these practices became unfashionable.

"I suggest that it is time to consider some of them seriously again."

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Media censorship sparks protest in China

A DISPUTE over censorship at a Chinese newspaper known for edgy reporting has prompted a few hundred people to gather in a rare street protest urging Communist Party leaders to allow greater political freedom.

Two protesters say the crowd stood outside the offices of the Southern Weekly newspaper Monday in Guangzhou and that some held up signs and shouted slogans calling for freedom of speech, political reform, constitutional governance and democracy.

The gathering follows a confrontation between some of the paper's journalists and a top censor after the publication was forced to change a New Year's editorial calling for political reform into a tribute praising the ruling party.

The case is unusual because what started as a censorship dispute has rapidly evolved into a political challenge for China's new leadership.

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Aceh ban on women straddling motorbikes

AUTHORITIES in Indonesia's Aceh province are pressing ahead with a proposed law that would ban female passengers from straddling motorbikes despite reported opposition from the central government.

Aceh introduced a version of Shariah, or Islamic law, in 2009, following through on a deal struck in 2005 to end a long-running separatist war there. The Aceh laws regulate women's dress and public morality, and allow for public caning.

On Monday, authorities in northern Aceh distributed a notice to government offices informing residents of the proposed law, which would apply to adolescent girls and women.

Suaidi Yahya, mayor of the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe, said a ban was needed because the "curves of a woman's body" are more visible when straddling a motorbike as opposed to sitting sideways with legs dangling.

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Obama to nominate Brennan as CIA director

US President Barack Obama will nominate White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan as CIA director, an administration official says.

"Brennan has the full trust and confidence of the president," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Monday.

"Over the past four years, he has been involved in virtually all major national security issues and will be able to hit the ground running at CIA."

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Depardieu gets Russian passport

French actor Gerard Depardieu has received a Russian passport and met with President Vladimir Putin. Source: AAP

GERARD Depardieu, the French actor who has threatened to quit his homeland to avoid higher taxes for the rich, has received a Russian passport and met with President Vladimir Putin.

Depardieu met Putin, who earlier granted him citizenship, at the Russian leader's sumptuous residence in the palm-dotted Black Sea resort of Sochi on Saturday, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP.

Putin granted Depardieu "a short meeting" and did not personally deliver the document to the actor, Peskov added without saying where and when Depardieu "was handed his passport".

National television broadcast images of the Sochi meeting featuring Depardieu and Putin hugging each other and sharing a meal at Putin's residence.

Dressed casually in a white shirt and a dark jacket, Depardieu asked the Russian strongman whether he had seen a new film about the mysterious Tsarist monk Grigory Rasputin played by the French actor.

"Did you see the movie at all? I had sent (it) to you," Depardieu said in remarks translated into Russian, appearing to use the familiar form of address to speak to Putin.

The film is a France-Russia co-production about a monk who was famous for his mystical influence over Russia's last Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra and was assassinated in December 1916 by a group of discontented aristocrats.

"Gerard, are you pleased with your work?" Putin, who also wore a shirt without a tie, asked the actor.

"I am very much pleased with everything," Depardieu replied, praising the Russian actors who co-starred with him in the movie.

Oleg Dobrodeyev, chief of state television broadcaster VGTRK, who was also present at the meeting, said the film would be released to the general public in May.

Moscow's decision to grant citizenship to the star of Cyrano de Bergerac, Green Card and the Asterix and Obelix series was the latest volley in a row between the actor and the French government over its attempt to raise the tax rate on earnings of more than one million euros ($1.3 million) to 75 per cent.

When Depardieu first announced he would leave the country to avoid the tax, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault branded the move "pathetic".

Depardieu, who can easily earn up to two million euros per film and who has extensive business interests in France and elsewhere, will qualify for the 13 per cent tax rate if he spends at least six months of the year in Russia.

The Kremlin move and the actor's comments praising Russia sparked amusement and disbelief among many in the country.

The eccentric actor has been a huge star in Russia since the Soviet era and still enjoys cult status among many movie buffs.

But in recent years, he has also raised many eyebrows with his often unsavoury behaviour.

In 2011, Depardieu shocked passengers on a Paris to Dublin flight when he relieved himself on the cabin floor.

He was arrested last November after falling off his scooter, which he had been riding while more than three times over the legal alcohol limit.

Depardieu is also planning to star in a historic serial penned by the eldest daughter of Uzbekistan's strongman President Islam Karimov.

In a surreal twist to the saga over Depardieu's move, cinema legend Brigitte Bardot this week threatened to follow him out of France unless two elephants under threat of being put down are granted a reprieve.

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Border fence with Syria needed: Israeli PM

ISRAEL'S prime minister says he will erect a fortified fence on the border with Syria to protect against radical Islamist forces who he claims have taken over the area.

Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel needs a barrier like a new Egyptian border fence that he says has stemmed the flow of African migrants.

He said the Syrian regime was "unstable" and Israel was concerned about the country's chemical weapons. He told his Cabinet Sunday that across the frontier "the Syrian army has moved away, and in its place, Global Jihad forces have moved in."

Global Jihad is the term Israel uses for forces influenced by al-Qaeda.

Syria's rebels include some al-Qaeda-allied fighters.

Israel has largely stayed out of the conflict, though several mortar rounds have landed in the Israel-held Golan Heights.

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Assad outlines new Syria peace plan

SYRIAN President Bashar Assad has outlined a new peace initiative that includes a national reconciliation conference and a new government and constitution but has demanded regional and Western countries stop funding and arming rebels first.

Assad ignored international demands for him to step down and said he is ready to hold a dialogue with those "who have not betrayed Syria".

Syrian opposition forces, including rebels on the ground, are likely to reject Assad's proposal.

They have repeatedly said they will accept nothing less than the president's departure, dismissing any kind of settlement that leaves him in the picture.

"We are in a state of war. We are fighting an external aggression that is more dangerous than any others, because they use us to kill each other," he said.

He stressed the presence of religious extremists and jihadi elements among those fighting in Syria, calling them "terrorists who carry the ideology of al-Qaeda" and "servants who know nothing but the language of slaughter."

Assad was speaking on Sunday in a rare address to the nation, his first since June. He spoke to a packed hall at the Opera House in central Damascus, and the audience frequently often broke out in cheers and applause.

Wearing a suit and tie, the president spoke before a collage of pictures of what appeared to be Syrians who have been killed since March 2011.

The internet was cut in many parts of Damascus ahead of the address, apparently for security reasons.

As in previous speeches, Assad said his forces were fighting groups of "murderous criminals" and jihadi elements and denied that there was an uprising against his family's decades-long rule.

He struck a defiant tone, saying Syria will not take dictates from anyone but urged Syrians to unite to save the country.

"The first part of a political solution would require regional powers to stop funding and arming (the rebels), an end to terrorism and controlling the borders," he said.

He said this would then be followed by dialogue and a national reconciliation conference and the formation of a wide representative government which would then oversee new elections, a new constitution and general amnesty.

However, Assad made clear his offer to hold a dialogue is not open to those whom he considers extremists or carrying out a foreign agenda.

"We never rejected a political solution ... but with whom should we talk? With those who have extremist ideology who only understand the language of terrorism?" he said.

"Or should we with negotiate puppets whom the West brought. ... We negotiate with the master not with the slave."

As in previous speeches and interviews, he clung to the view that the crisis in Syria was a foreign-backed agenda and said it was not an uprising against his rule.

"Is this a revolution and are these revolutionaries? By God I say they are a bunch of criminals," he said.

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Shots fired in Sydney's southwest

AN investigation is under way after shots were fired in Sydney's southwest on Sunday.

Police were called to Clunes Lane, Canterbury, about 2.15pm (AEDT) on Sunday after a resident reported hearing gun shots.

At the scene, officers were told the shots were fired by two men in a blue sedan. There were no reports of injury or damage to property.

The vehicle is described as being a dark blue sedan similar to a Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon.

The car occupants are described as being of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance, aged in their mid 20s, with a stocky build, and unshaven.

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Suspected body in bag washes up in WA

POLICE in Western Australia are investigating the discovery of what appears to be human remains stuffed into a plastic bag that washed up on a beach on Rottnest Island.

The grim discovery was made on late on Sunday afternoon at Porpoise Bay, on the southeast of the island, with police immediately called in to investigate fears the bag contained a body.

A WA police spokesman said officers are "fairly convinced" the remains in the bag are human, with a pathologist due to be called in to confirm the find.

The pathologist will examine the contents of the bag either late on Sunday night, or first thing on Monday.

Rottnest Island, situated 18km off the coast of Perth, has been a popular holiday spot for West Australians for generations.

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