Teen to face court over fatal Easter crash

A girl will face court after a fatal crash north of Adelaide which killed a 17-year-old boy. Source: AAP

A 17-YEAR-OLD South Australian girl will face court over causing death by dangerous driving after a fatal crash that killed another teenager.

Police say a 17-year-old boy died after a car carrying five passengers crashed just before midnight on Friday near Balaklava, north of Adelaide.

The girl, from Balaklava, will appear in Youth Court over causing death by dangerous driving and driving unlicensed.

The other passengers in the car, all teenage girls aged between 14 and 17 years, received non-life threatening injuries.

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US hands over troubled area to Afghans

US special operations forces have handed over their base in eastern Afghanistan. Source: AAP

US special operations forces handed over their base in a strategic region of eastern Afghanistan to local Afghan commandos on Saturday, a senior US commander said.

The withdrawal from Nirkh district meets a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that US forces leave the area after allegations that the Americans' Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there.

"We're coming out of Nirkh," said Maj. Gen. Tony Thomas, the top US special operations commander in Afghanistan.

Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Wardak province outside Kabul in which Nirkh is located, confirmed that US special operations forces withdrew and were replaced by a joint Afghan security forces team.

The transfer of authority ends a controversial chapter in which Karzai accused US troops and an interpreter working with them of torture, kidnapping and summary execution of militant suspects in Nirkh - charges US officials including top commander in Afghanistan Gen. Joseph Dunford firmly denied.

The incident shows the larger struggle of Karzai's government to assert its authority over security matters, even as its green security forces try to assume control of much of the country from coalition forces on a rushed timeline, ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of most of coalition forces by December 2014.

Karzai had originally demanded the US special operations forces pull out from the entire province, a gateway and staging area for Taliban and other militants for attacks on the capital Kabul.

But he scaled down his demands to just the single district after negotiations with Dunford and other US officials.

"President Karzai was specific, it's only for Nirkh, that was a provocative point," Thomas said.

"American special operations forces are integral in the defence of Wardak from now until the foreseeable future."

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EU-led Cyprus bailout to hit bank savers

Cyprus President has vowed to keep Cyprus in the euro but had harsh words for international lenders. Source: AAP

BIG savers in Cyprus's largest bank face losses of up to 60 per cent, far greater than originally feared under the island's controversial EU-led bailout plan, officials said on Saturday.

Lawmakers were meanwhile investigating a list published in Greek newspapers of Cypriot politicians who allegedly had loans written off by the island's three biggest banks, two of them at the heart of the financial meltdown.

Officials said Bank of Cyprus savers will see at least 37.5 per cent of funds over 100,000 euros turned into shares, but a further 22.5 per cent will be held until authorities know they can satisfy the terms of the bailout.

Under the first eurozone rescue package to punish savers with a so-called "haircut" of their money, Cyprus can only qualify for the 10-billion-euro ($A12.51 billion) loan by finding 5.8 billion euros of its own.

"There will be a 37.5 per cent haircut on deposits over 100,000 euros that will be converted into shares," said Marios Mavrides, a lawmaker from the ruling Disy party.

"Then 22.5 per cent will be held from the account for about two or three months, but this sum might be lower if a bigger haircut is needed," Mavrides said.

Senior Bank of Cyprus official Mario Skandalis confirmed the figures.

"There was a preliminary level reached which was 37.5 per cent but this has not been finalised yet," he told AFP, adding that if the required amount for the bailout "cannot be reached then we will change the haircut rate."

Asked whether the rate that savers with deposits of more than 100,000 euros will lose could be as high as 60 per cent he replied: "It could be a possibility but I would say it is a remote possibility."

He expected a formal announcement by Monday.

Lawmaker Mavrides said the remaining 40 per cent would be "placed in a time deposit for about six months to prevent people drawing all their money out but it creates a problem for businesses who have no access to working capital."

"The money is not lost but creates a problem for businesses."

House finance committee chair Nicolas Papadopoulos told state radio there were questions over the possible extra levy on the held-back 22.5 per cent, and said a lack of information had created panic among depositors.

The bailout takes the axe to Cyprus's prized tax-haven style banking system - bloated with Russian money and exposed to toxic Greek debt - and also threatens to deepen the recession the island was already suffering.

Bank of Cyprus is set to absorb the island's second largest Laiki under the deal with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. Laiki will be wound up with the loss of thousands of jobs.

Lawmaker Mavrides, meanwhile, confirmed that a committee appointed by President Nicos Anastasiades would investigate a list published by Greek media of Cypriot politicians who allegedly had loans forgiven.

The Bank of Cyprus, Laiki and Hellenic Bank reportedly forgave millions of euros in loans over the past five years to lawmakers, companies and local company authorities, newspapers in Greece said.

The allegations would likely be discussed in parliament next week, Mavrides added.

Banks reopened on Thursday without the feared panic and resumed normal opening hours on Friday.

Draconian controls remain in place, including a daily withdrawal limit of 300 euros and bans on cashing cheques or taking more than 1,000 euros in cash out of the country.

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Firearms charges for NSW police employee

A NSW Police Force employee who was wanted over a missing arsenal of weaponry has handed himself in. Source: AAP

A NSW Police Force employee wanted for questioning over missing police weaponry has been charged with firearms offences.

There had been a statewide manhunt for the man who works with firearms at the NSW police centre in Sydney, but he handed himself into police on Saturday.

He has been charged with a number of firearms offences including aggravated possession of firearms and unauthorised manufacture of firearms.

Police said on Friday a raid of the man's Berkeley Vale home the previous day had uncovered firearms they believed were misappropriated from the Surry Hills centre.

A statewide manhunt began on Friday but the 38-year-old contacted police at Berkeley Vale around 10.15am (AEDT) on Saturday and was taken to Wyong police station.

He was charged with aggravated possession of firearms, unauthorised manufacture of firearms, two counts of possession of prohibited pistol, three counts of possession of prohibited firearm, five counts of possession of prohibited weapon and a single count of not keeping a firearm safe.

The man was refused bail and will appear in Gosford Local Court on Sunday.

Investigations are continuing and police anticipate laying further charges.

During Thursday's search of the man's home, detectives allegedly located firearms, firearm parts, ammunition of various calibers, machining equipment and prohibited weapons.

On Friday, Firearms and Organised Crime Squad Commander Ken Finch said the man had emerged as a person of interest in a long-running investigation into the missing equipment.

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North Korea ramps up the sabre rattling

NORTH Korea declared it was in a "state of war" with South Korea and warned Seoul and Washington that any provocation would swiftly escalate into an all-out nuclear conflict.

Late on Saturday the North ratcheted up its threats, warning it could shut down the Kaesong industrial complex, a joint South-North venture that provides the regime with crucial hard currency.

"We warn that stern measures will be taken if (South Korea) continues to make reckless remarks defaming our dignity," a state body said, adding that the fate of the complex depends entirely on the attitude of Seoul.

Established in 2004 as a symbol of cross-border cooperation, Kaesong had managed to keep functioning despite repeated crises in inter-Korean relations.

But there have been concerns that its operations would be affected by Pyongyang's move on Wednesday to sever a military hotline used to monitor movement in and out of the zone.

The United States said it took North Korea's announcement about a state of war "seriously", but noted it followed a familiar pattern, while South Korea largely dismissed it as an old threat dressed in new clothing.

It was the latest in a string of dire-sounding pronouncements from Pyongyang that have been matched by tough warnings from Seoul and Washington, fuelling international concern that the situation might spiral out of control.

"As of now, inter-Korea relations enter a state of war and all matters between the two Koreas will be handled according to wartime protocol," the North said in a government statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

"The long-standing situation of the Korean peninsula being neither at peace nor at war is finally over," the statement said, adding that any US or South Korean provocation would trigger a "a nuclear war".

The two Koreas have technically remained at war for the past six decades because the 1950-53 Korean War concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

The North had announced earlier this month that it was ripping up the armistice and other bilateral peace pacts signed with Seoul in protest against South Korea-US joint military exercises.

The White House labelled the latest statement from Pyongyang as "unconstructive" and, while taking it "seriously", sought to place the immediate threat level in context.

"North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats and today's announcement follows that familiar pattern," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

In Seoul, the Unification Ministry insisted the war threat was "not really new". The Defence Ministry vowed to "retaliate thoroughly" to any provocation, but added that no notable troop movement had been observed along the border.

Most observers however still believe this will remain a verbal rather than a physical battle.

"The North Koreans in recent weeks have turned rhetoric into performance art," said

Both China and Russia have called for calm, with a Russian diplomat voicing particular concern on Saturday.

"We expect all sides to show maximum responsibility and restraint and that no-one will cross the line after which there will be no return," Grigory Logvinov, a Russian foreign ministry pointman on North Korea, told the Interfax news agency.

On Friday North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered missile units to prepare to strike US mainland and military bases, after US stealth bombers flew over South Korea.

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At least two dead in Tanzania construction

AT least two people were confirmed dead after a building under construction collapsed Friday in Tanzania's economic capital of Dar es Salaam, police said.

Dozens were feared trapped in rubble of the toppled building in an affluent area of the city as many people including children were working or playing nearby, witnesses said.

"I thought there was an earthquake and then I heard screaming. The whole building fell on itself," witness Musa Mohamed told AFP.

Residents were seen trying to rescue those trapped by digging through the rubble of the building, which was believed to have 16 floors.

Dar es Salaam regional police chief Suleiman Kova said the rescue operation was "going well".

"So far we have managed to retrieve 19 people. Two of them are dead and are two seriously injured," he said as he briefed Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete on the accident.

Kikwete, who visited the scene, posted messages of condolence on his Twitter account.

"We pray for those who have ben afflicted by this tragedy. We pray for togetherness in this time of need," Kikwete said.

Dozens of people were reportedly working in and around the building at the time of the collapse, but their exact number was not immediately known.

Saidi Mecky Sadiky, the Dar es Salaam regional commissioner, said up to 60 people, including workers, food vendors and children could have been around the area.

The accident occurred in an affluent area which has a mixture of both commercial and residential developments.

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North Korea puts rockets on standby

North Korea's leader has ordered preparations for strategic rocket strikes on the US mainland. Source: AAP

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Friday ordered missile units to prepare to strike US mainland and military bases, vowing to "settle accounts" after US stealth bombers flew over South Korea.

The order came after US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, with tensions soaring on the Korean peninsula, said Washington would not be cowed by Pyongyang's bellicose threats and stood ready to respond to "any eventuality".

Kim directed his rocket units on standby at an overnight emergency meeting with top army commanders, hours after nuclear-capable US B-2 stealth bombers were deployed in ongoing US joint military drills with South Korea.

In the event of any "reckless" US provocation, North Korean forces should "mercilessly strike the US mainland... military bases in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea", he was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

While North Korea has no proven ability to conduct such strikes, Kim said: "The time has come to settle accounts with the US imperialists."

The youthful leader argued that the stealth bomber flights went beyond a simple demonstration of force and amounted to a US "ultimatum that they will ignite a nuclear war at any cost".

A South Korean military official quoted by Yonhap news agency said a "sharp increase" in personnel and vehicle movement had been detected at the North's mid- and long-range missile sites.

The defence ministry declined to confirm the report, saying only that all strategic sites in the North were under intense South Korean and US surveillance.

The B-2 flights, which followed training runs by B-52 bombers, were part of annual drills between the United States and South Korea, which North Korea each year denounces as rehearsals for war.

Pyongyang has been particularly vocal this time, angered by UN sanctions imposed after its long-range rocket launch in December and the third nuclear test it carried out last month.

Kim's order formalised steps already taken by the Korean People's Army (KPA), which put its strategic rocket units at combat-ready status on Tuesday. The following day it cut the last remaining military hotline with South Korea.

Tens of thousands of North Korean soldiers and civilians held a huge rally and march in Pyongyang on Friday, in support of a possible military strike against the United States.

State television said the rally took place to support the decision to put the country's strategic rocket units on a war footing.

China, North Korea's sole major ally and biggest trading partner, appealed for calm and said "joint efforts" were needed from all parties to prevent the situation deteriorating further.

The bulk of the threats emanating from Pyongyang have been dismissed as bluster. North Korea has no confirmed missile capability to reach the US mainland - or indeed Guam or Hawaii in the Pacific.

But Washington has opted to match the threats with its own muscle-flexing.

"We will be prepared - we have to be prepared - to deal with any eventuality," Hagel told reporters at the Pentagon.

"We must make clear that these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously and we'll respond to that," Hagel said.

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Suicide bomber kills 12 in Pakistan

A suicide bomber has targeted a senior Pakistani police commander in Peshawar, killing six people. Source: AAP

A SUICIDE bomber on Friday targeted a senior Pakistani police commander, killing 12 people, including two women, near the US consulate in Peshawar, officials said.

It was the latest in a string of attacks as the country prepares to hold historic elections on May 11. The vote will mark the first democratic transition of power in Pakistan, which has been governed by four military rulers.

A security official said Abdul Majeed Marwat, commander of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, survived the attack and was taken to a military hospital with "only scratches".

Around 28 other people were wounded in the blast, medics said.

"It was a suicide attack, the target was the FC commander," police official Arshad Khan told AFP.

Witnesses said the bomber was on foot and struck when the convoy of the police chief stopped at a military checkpost in the busy cantonment area of Peshawar.

The checkpost is about 300 metres from the heavily guarded American consulate, which has itself been the target of attacks in the past, an AFP reporter said.

"We have received six dead bodies, including two women," Sayed Jameel Shah, a spokesman for Peshawar's main Lady Reading Hospital, told AFP.

He later confirmed that two of the injured died in hospital.

"They were in serious condition in the neurosurgery ward," he said.

Another four bodies and 17 other wounded were taken to the Combined Military Hospital, a senior security official told AFP.

Among the dead were two soldiers and one member of the FC, while the wounded were a mixture of civilians and military personnel, officials said.

The blast damaged two motorcycles and four cars, including Marwat's vehicle. Splashes of blood lay on the ground and an AFP reporter saw a pair of legs, presumed to be that of the bomber.

Umar Din, 21, a rickshaw driver, said the force of the explosion flipped his rickshaw onto the ground.

"I came out and saw my passenger bleeding," he told AFP. "I picked up the passenger on my shoulder and ran to a safer place, it was horrible, people were bleeding and crying," he added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Pakistani police, soldiers and paramilitary units are frequently targeted by domestic Taliban, who have been fighting an insurgency since July 2007.

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Bosnian Serb gets 45yrs for war crimes

VESELIN Vlahovic, a former Bosnian Serb paramilitary dubbed the "Monster of Grbavica", was jailed Friday for 45 years for inflicting a reign of terror on Sarajevo civilians during the 1992-95 war.

"During systematic repression against the non-Serb population he participated in expulsion of his victims, he committed murders, he tortured, raped and imprisoned his victims," judge Zoran Bozic said at the sentencing in a packed Sarajevo courtroom.

The sentence against Vlahovic, a Montenegrin, is the most severe delivered for war crimes by a Bosnian court.

Dressed in light blue shirt, Vlahovic, 43, showed no reaction when the verdict was read out, drawing applause from members of victims' associations in the heavily guarded courtroom.

Vlahovic, sentenced on all 60 counts in his indictment, committed the crimes between May and July 1992, in three Sarajevo neighbourhoods controlled by Serb forces during the war -- Grbavica, Kovacici and Vraca.

"He killed 31 people, took 14 people who have still been considered missing, raped 13 women," prosecutor Behaija Krnjic said in a closing statement, having said earlier in the trial that Vlahovic's "name was the synonym for evil".

Vlahovic, who had pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial in April 2011, was charged with the "executions, enslavement, rape, physical and psychological torture" of Muslim and Croat civilians, as well as looting, according to the indictment.

Calling for Vlahovic to be jailed for 45 years, Krnjic said: "Such a sentence would be the most just, but even that one will still be insufficient to heal the suffering of the victims."

A total of 112 prosecution witnesses were heard at the trial, including a number of women who testified behind closed doors to having been raped by Vlahovic, according to Krnjic.

"Vlahovic was not even bothered with the fact that one of his victims was highly pregnant at the time of the rape," the prosecutor said.

During the trial Vlahovic insulted a witness, a local journalist who reported on his crimes during the war. He also sent an intimidating letter to the family of a victim, the prosecution said.

The case concerned some of the "cruelest war crimes committed during the war, including torture, rapes and executions committed before the eyes of family members of the victims," it said.

Vlahovic was arrested in March 2010 as a suspect in a number of burglaries in the Spanish town of Altea where he was living under a fake Bulgarian identity. He was extradited to Bosnia in August that year.

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Swiss sommelier is top world wine waiter

THE world's best wine waiter was crowned in Japan on Friday, at the culmination of a three-day competition attracting entrants from around the globe.

Paolo Basso, from Switzerland, was hoisted into the air as judges in Tokyo awarded him first place in a ceremony in front of several thousand spectators that was carried live on Japanese national television.

"Thank you very much to everybody, it is a very important moment for me," he said after receiving the gold medal and hugs from rival sommeliers.

"I would like to thank first of all my family, because they allowed me the time for the hard training that I am still doing for several years," he said in English.

Basso, who works at Conca Balla in Vacallo, on the Swiss-Italian border, beat off competition from fellow finalists Belgian Aristide Spies and Canadian Vronique Rivest.

The 47-year-old takes the title previously held by Gerard Basset, who won the 2010 competition in Chile competing for Britain.

Entrants from 54 countries had been tested over three days of events designed to measure their skills marrying wines to foods and serving demanding customers.

All of them had to work in a foreign language.

Contestants from Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Sweden were among those participating in the event, which has been held 14 times since it started in 1969.

"A good sommelier not only has to have good knowledge of wine, but he also needs to be able to put customers at ease and know what to do to let them enjoy the food," explained Serge Dubs, chairman of the jury and a former champion, ahead of the competition.

"A sommelier has to be a very good communicator, he has to know what his clients want and how to make them remember their experience at the restaurant," former champion Basset told AFP on Tuesday.

"The sommelier should also be a good cellar manager and act as an ambassador for producers, constituting a kind of link between the growers and consumers," he said.

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Pope puts personal touch on Easter service

Pope Francis will ass his personal touch on Easter celebrations by washing the feet of prisoners. Source: AAP

POPE Francis will stamp his personal touch on Easter celebrations starting by washing the feet of young prisoners, as he stresses the importance of reaching out to those in need.

The Holy Thursday mass begins four days of symbolic ceremonies which commemorate Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.

Francis' decision to celebrate Christ's Last Supper in the Casal del Marmo prison in northwest Rome, rather than in St John Lateran's Basilica as per tradition, may be a hint of a shake-up in keenly observed Easter rituals.

He called for changes in everyday faith in a message posted on Twitter on Wednesday, which read: "Being with Jesus demands that we go out from ourselves, and from living a tired and habitual faith."

When the former Jorge Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he held masses in prisons, hospitals, slums or old people's homes, and has called repeatedly for the Roman Catholic Church to be closer to ordinary people.

The washing of feet is a tradition based on the belief that Christ washed the feet of his apostles before the final meal together before his crucifixion - and the choice of prisoners corresponds with the pope's Holy Week message.

In the first general audience of his papacy on Wednesday, the pontiff called on the world's 1.2 billion Catholics to reach out to "lost sheep" during the coming days - the highlight of the Christian calendar for many pilgrims.

"Holy Week challenges us to step outside ourselves so as to attend to the needs of others: those who long for a sympathetic ear, those in need of comfort or help," Francis told thousands of faithful gathered on St Peter's Square.

"We should not simply remain in our own secure world - that of the 99 sheep who never strayed from the fold - but we should go out, with Christ, in search of the one lost sheep, however far it may have wandered."

Francis will begin the day with a solemn chrism mass in St Peter's Basilica before travelling to the prison where he will hold the afternoon Lord's Supper mass with 35 male and 11 female offenders, aged 14 to 21.

Most of the inmates at the institute are foreign-born and Muslim or atheist.

The 12 prisoners who will have their feet washed will be chosen from different nationalities and religions.

It is not clear whether any of them will be female.

While Bergoglio has washed women's feet in past ceremonies, traditionalists would be riled by such a gesture as they hold that the disciples were all male.

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Euro stocks rise as Cyprus banks re-open

EUROPEAN stock markets mostly climbed on Thursday and the euro dipped versus the dollar as Cyprus' banks reopened and traders prepared for a long Easter weekend as the first quarter draws to a close.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading companies grew 0.57 per cent to stand at 6,362.96 points approaching midday in the British capital.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.20 per cent to 7,805.43 points, also after mixed German economic data, and in Paris the CAC 40 won 0.15 per cent to 3,717.25.

Madrid fell 0.12 per cent and Milan climbed 0.51 per cent.

"There are plenty of reasons not to be adding risk today: month-end, quarter-end, four-day weekend, and then, obviously, Cyprus," said IG trader Will Hedden in reference to FTSE investors.

"It has been a good quarter for equities, so money managers everywhere will be pretty happy to bank some profits before they tuck into their Easter eggs."

Despite the current eurozone problems fuelled by Cyprus' controversial bailout terms, stocks markets have risen solidly since the start of 2013, largely thanks a slowly improving US economy and some better European economic data.

The London stock market has risen 8.62 per cent since the beginning of January, Frankfurt by 2.59 per cent and the CAC 2.13 per cent. Madrid though has fallen 3.53 per cent.

The world's biggest economies are slowly recovering from a 2012 slowdown, the OECD said in a near-term of assessment of G7 nations on Thursday, with Japan and the United States leading the way, ahead of a struggling two-speed eurozone.

Emerging economies were tipped to remain by far the strongest growth performers with China expected to expand by well more than 8.0 per cent in the first half of 2013, the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation said.

The OECD forecast that the full Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised economies, which does not include China, will grow by 2.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year on an annualised basis and by 1.8 per cent in the second.

Equity markets meanwhile mostly rose Thursday as Cyprus banks reopened under armed guard after a nearly two-week lockdown, but customers faced harsh curbs to stop them draining the island's coffers after its eurozone bailout.

Queues of dozens of people formed before the doors swung open at 12:00 pm (1000 GMT) for the first time since March 16, and there were tensions as a few branches opened late, with customers banging on the doors.

World markets have been jittery over the crisis, which has seen capital controls imposed for the first time by a eurozone economy to prevent financial meltdown after the 10-billion-euro ($13-billion) EU-IMF rescue package.

Under a deal agreed in Brussels on Monday, Cyprus must raise 5.8 billion euros to qualify for the full 10-billion-euro loan from the "troika" of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Depositors with more than 100,000 euros in the top two banks - Bank of Cyprus (BoC) and Laiki or 'Popular Bank' - face losing a large chunk of their money.

Bank share prices were largely higher Thursday after some heavy losses earlier in the week, with BNP Paribas up 1.41 per cent to 40.23 euros, Deutsche Bank winning 1.13 per cent to 30.83 euros and Barclays advancing 1.89 per cent to 293.43 pence.

In foreign exchange deals, the euro fell to $1.2767 from $1.2776 late in New York on Wednesday. The European single currency had on Wednesday fallen under $1.28 for the first time since November.

Gold prices on Thursday edged up to $1,605.60 an ounce from $1,603 Wednesday on the London Bullion Market.

"Investors remain jittery in the near-term over the potential for developments in Cyprus to lead to broader contagion materially undermining investor confidence in eurozone assets," said Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi foreign exchange analyst Lee Hardman.

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Dead, wounded in mortar attack on Damascus

A MORTAR attack on Damascus University has killed and wounded several people , Syrian state television reported, blaming rebels.

"Terrorists fire mortar rounds on the faculty of architecture in Damascus, and according to initial reports several people have been killed or wounded," the broadcaster said on Thursday, using the regime term for rebels fighting against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebels have this week escalated mortar attacks on central Damascus, including Umayyad Square in the heart of the capital, which houses the state television headquarters.

At least five people have been killed in such attacks since Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed Thursday's attack.

"Several mortar rounds hit the Baramkeh area and the architecture faculty compound, causing several casualties," the Britain-based monitoring group said without elaborating.

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Pope appoints new Buenos Aires archbishop

POPE Francis made his first clerical appointment on Thursday, assigning the bishop of Santa Rosa in Argentina to take over his former post as archbishop of the large diocese of Buenos Aires.

Archbishop Mario Poli, 65, steps into the shoes of former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the top Catholic Church figure in Argentina.

Poli worked alongside Bergoglio in the Argentine capital - which numbers 2.5 million faithful - from 2002 to 2008, after he was appointed auxiliary bishop by Francis's predecessor Benedict XVI.

The pair are said to be close.

The world's first Latin American pontiff is expected to include a trip home to Argentina among his first visits abroad.

While Argentina's Clarin daily has cited Vatican sources saying the 76-year-old pope plans to travel there in the first weeks of December, no trip has yet been officially confirmed.

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Church leaders call for action on gambling

CHURCH leaders have used Easter to call on the NSW government to launch an inquiry into the social impacts of gambling.

In a statement, the NSW Council of Churches urged politicians not to back any laws that would boost the availability of gaming until an inquiry had been held into the issue.

The council's president, the Reverend Ross Clifford, said an inquiry was needed due to the ongoing debate about a second Sydney casino, and concerns over poker machines and sports betting.

He said the community would need to have "adequate opportunity to respond to any recommendations (the inquiry) might propose".

The call was not about trying to impose "wowser values", Dr Clifford said.

"It's about effective harm minimisation and consumer protection strategies," he said.

"No one who is genuinely concerned about the devastating impact of problem gambling on individuals and communities in NSW wants to wait for a federal inquiry to report on federal issues."

He said it was an issue on which NSW needed to take the lead.

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Sommeliers compete in Japan for best title

WINE connoisseurs of the world have gathered in Tokyo for a competition to find the planet's best sommelier.

Entrants from 54 countries began three days of events designed to test their skills as they marry wines to foods and serve demanding consumers, with all of them having to work in a foreign language.

"A good sommelier not only has to have good knowledge of wine, but he also needs to be able to put customers at ease and know what to do to let them enjoy the food," explained Serge Dubs, chairman of the jury and a former champion.

Contestants from Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Sweden are among those competing for an award won last in 2010 by Britain's Gerard Basset, when the contest was held in Chile.

"A sommelier has to be a very good communicator, he has to know what his clients want and how to make them remember their experience at the restaurant," Basset told AFP on Tuesday.

"The sommelier should also be a good cellar manager and act as an ambassador for producers, constituting a kind of link between the growers and consumers," he said.

Candidates will be selected in two preliminary rounds on Wednesday and Thursday, before a final among the top three on Friday in front of some 5000 spectators.

Contestants will undergo a series of written and oral examinations that test their ability to recognise and describe wines, their skills in matching food and drink and the quality of their service in a foreign language.

The contest, which began in 1969, is being held for the 14th time.

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French soldier arrested in shooter probe

A SERVING French soldier has been arrested for questioning in connection with a hunt for accomplices of Mohamed Merah, the Islamist gunman who killed seven people in southwestern France last year.

The soldier was picked up at his barracks in the southern town of Castres on Wednesday morning, police sources said. His arrest follows the detention for questioning on Tuesday of two other men.

Three of Merah's victims were French paratroopers, whom he said he had targeted because of France's involvement in the NATO intervention in Afghanistan.

He subsequently killed a rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren before being shot dead by police in a siege of his flat in Toulouse.

Detectives looking into the case are convinced that Merah, who had travelled to Pakistan in 2011, could not have acted alone and fear accomplices still at large could represent a security threat.

To date, the only person charged with helping him is his brother Abdelkader Merah, who has been in custody since last year but denies involvement in the killings.

Five other people have been detained and interrogated by police as part of the probe but they were all released without charge.

Since Merah's death, it has emerged that he had been known to France's security services for several years and it has become clear the threat he posed was disastrously underestimated by agents who had contact with him.

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Garnaut says super shouldn't be hands off

LEADING economist Ross Garnaut says Australia's superannuation scheme shouldn't be untouchable for a government looking for budget savings.

Speculation that "rich" people will see their super tax concessions eroded further have swirled for many weeks.

Finance Minister Penny Wong on Wednesday hinted at possible taxation changes to the superannuation system in the May budget, while the federal opposition continued its attack on this potential cash grab by the government.

Professor Garnaut said while he hadn't taken a close look at exactly what was being discussed, superannuation "shouldn't be untouchable".

"Some of the concessions to superannuation that were made during the high points of the boom half a dozen years ago were unrealistic," he told ABC TV from England.

He said that during the past decade or so governments made "a lot of middle class welfare, a lot of unaffordable reductions in tax, a lot of pretty sloppy increases in expenditure" that needed to be tightened up.

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Dereel fire in Victoria's west downgraded

THE blaze that ravaged the community of Dereel in Victoria's west has been downgraded by fire authorities to a slow moving bushfire with a watch and act advice.

The CFA says the 1300 hectare fire has been contained but it is feared at least 12 properties - a mixture of homes and sheds - have been destroyed.

Firefighters and heavy machinery in the area are continue to work on the fire.

Four firefighters were injured after their firetruck slammed into a tree in thick smoke and were taken to hospital with smoke inhalation and burns, but all were in a stable condition.

A State Control Centre spokeswoman told AAP there have been reports of 12 properties affected by the blaze but were unable to confirm it while the fire was raging.

"We haven't been able to get in and assess the damage, so if they are homes or sheds, we just don't know yet," she said.

CFA chief officer Euan Ferguson said the injured firefighters should be commended for their actions and quick thinking under such difficult circumstances.

"The firefighters enacted full crew protection and took shelter in their vehicle following correct procedures as per their training," Mr Ferguson said.

In Victoria's east a fast-moving, out-of-control fire is threatening the communities of Allambee South and Allambee East.

The fire is burning across 320 hectares and creating spot fires one to two kilometres ahead of the front.

The CFA says expected wind change had reached the fire area and was causing erratic and unpredictable fire behaviour.

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Gillard warns WA over education reforms

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has warned state governments to expect no compromises at next month's Council of Australian Government Meeting (COAG), saying she is determined to come away with a deal on the Gonski education reforms.

Speaking at the community cabinet meeting in Perth, Ms Gillard said the "end game" had been reached in the debate between the federal and state governments on the proposed reforms, and she was not about to back down.

From a surprisingly welcoming audience of around 400 people, Ms Gillard was questioned on subjects as wide ranging as the Jandakot Airport to the return of the death penalty in Australia.

But it was on the debate with the states of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the Gonski reforms that Ms Gillard showed her hard edge, saying she "deeply regretted" not being able to roll out an NDIS scheme in WA later this year.

Asked about what impediments the WA Premier Colin Barnett had put in the way of the Gonski reforms, Ms Gillard renewed her attacks on state governments threatening to withdraw funding from schools.

"We are going to keep the dialogue open, but we are not going to put more money into schools only for state governments to take money out," she said.

"We are prepared to talk to get this done, but it can't be against a backdrop of states taking money out.

"We are in the end game of this now, and I am very determined to go to the COAG in April and come out with better deal for Australian children."

Asked about the lack of co-operation from Mr Barnett on the NDIS, Ms Gillard said she did not believe there was "absence of will" to support the scheme in WA.

"What we are arguing about is the governance structure - he does not want services governed remotely from Canberra and neither do I," she said.

Taking just 12 questions over 45 minutes, Ms Gillard defended her position on the live export ban, which drew protesters from both sides to greet her arrival at Thornlie Senior High School.

Flanked by ministers including Stephen Smith, Gary Gray, Kate Lundy and Mark Dreyfus, Ms Gillard fielded all but two of the questions, espousing her views on asylum seekers, the impact of a lower Newstart payment for single parents and the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Perth.

Communications minister Stephen Conroy confirmed the first homes to receive NBN coverage in Perth would be hooked up in June.

Ms Gillard will wrap-up her three-day tour of WA on Thursday morning.

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Thousands sign to keep rainbow crossing

Thousands of people have signed a petition to keep a rainbow pedestrian crossing on Oxford Street. Source: AAP

MORE than 12,000 people want the NSW government to keep a rainbow pedestrian crossing that was painted on Sydney's Oxford Street for this year's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

In a statement, independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich called on Roads Minister Duncan Gay not to remove the colourful crossing, labelling it an "iconic tourist attraction".

A petition in favour of keeping the rainbow crossing has so far gathered 12,053 signatures.

"Enforcing the removal an iconic tourist attraction that honours the (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) LGBTI community would be a short-sighted and mean-spirited move," Mr Greenwich said on Tuesday.

"We need to do everything we can to show Sydney celebrates our gay and lesbian community."

Mr Greenwich also hit out at claims the crossing was not safe, saying that was "not backed up by any facts or evidence".

The issue was important in light of the "policing incidents" at the 2013 gay pride parade, he said.

Police launched an internal inquiry into the actions of police at Mardi Gras after a video emerged showing a handcuffed 18-year-old man, Jamie Jackson, being thrown to the ground by an officer at the festival.

Another video shows Mr Jackson lashing out at an officer before he was restrained.

Police have since promised to improve their procedures for next year's Mardi Gras.

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Pakistan girls' school teacher shot dead

A PAKISTANI girls' school teacher has been killed in a drive-by shooting in the country's volatile tribal belt on the Afghan border.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Islamist militants are particularly opposed to girls' education in the northwest, where they have bombed hundreds of schools in recent years.

Shahnaz Nazli, 41, was shot dead on Tuesday in Shahkas, near the town of Jamrud in Khyber tribal district, between the northwestern city of Peshawar and the Afghan border.

She was on her way to the government girls' primary school in Shahkas when gunmen fired at her about 200 metres from the school and fled, local government official Asmatullah Wazir told AFP.

"The teacher was killed after unknown gunmen on a motorbike shot her and fled," Wazir said.

Local education officer Mohammad Jadoon Khan confirmed the shooting and death of the teacher.

Violence has increased in northwest Pakistan ahead of elections, which are due on May 11 and which will mark the first time an elected civilian government completes a full term in office.

Last October, a Taliban gunman shot and wounded schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan's Swat Valley, in an attack that shocked the world.

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Qld motorcyclist 100km/h over speed limit

A MOTORBIKE rider has been clocked going more than 100km/h over the speed limit in Queensland's southeast.

Police said the 32-year-old man from Yandina allegedly recorded a speed of 183km/h in an 80km/h zone at Nambour, around 12.50pm on Tuesday.

He had already been clocked in the area doing 70km/h over the speed limit at about 12.30pm, but couldn't be stopped by police.

He was arrested later on Tuesday at Yandina and charged with two counts of operating a motor vehicle dangerously.

He is due to appear at Maroochydore Magistrates Court on March 28.

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Bank of Cyprus chairman resigns: media

THE chairman of the Bank of Cyprus has resigned in the wake of an international bailout deal that hits the island's biggest lender, state media has reported.

The Cyprus News Agency said the bank's chairman Andreas Artemis had tendered his resignation and it would go before the board later in the day.

The bailout agreed in Brussels in Monday hits investors with deposits of over 100,000 euros ($A123,762) at both Bank of Cyprus and at Laiki, the island's number two lender, and calls for the effective wrapping up of Laiki.

Local news website Stockwatch said Artemis had resigned because of the condition in the 10 billion euro bailout that the Bank of Cyprus would have to absorb Laiki's debts.

He also cited the appointment of an administrator for the Bank of Cyprus without first informing the group's management and the sale of the bank's branches in Greece, Stockwatch said.

The Cyprus central bank said earlier on Tuesday that it had appointed Dinos Christofides as a special administrator to "implement the restructuring of the Bank of Cyprus".

All of Cyprus's banks remained closed for an 11th day on Tuesday after the central bank put back their planned reopening until Thursday.

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Kerry and Karzai strike upbeat note

US Secretary of State John Kerry vowed to stick by Afghanistan despite hostility towards US troops. Source: AAP

US Secretary of State John Kerry has held a second round of talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul after the two put on a public show of unity in a bid to repair damaged ties.

Kerry visited Afghanistan as the United States ceded to a key long-standing demand of Karzai by delivering full control of Bagram prison, where Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects are held north of Kabul, to Afghan forces.

Karzai had turned the fate of Bagram and its hundreds of detainees into a rallying cry for his push to take back sovereignty as the bulk of US-led combat troops prepare to leave by the end of 2014 after more than a decade of war.

The militant threat facing Afghanistan was on Tuesday again underlined when seven suicide bombers targeted a police base in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

All the attackers and five officers died in the assault, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.

After a series of fiery anti-US outbursts from Karzai in recent weeks, both he and Kerry were keen to make a public display of friendship and stress that relations were back on track.

"Bagram prison was handed over to the Afghan government ... Finally after many years of effort we have reached a deal," Karzai told reporters at a joint press conference late Monday.

Kerry said: "The US is committed to an enduring partnership ... The US supports a strong and united Afghanistan.

"We are committed to Afghanistan's sovereignty and we will not let al-Qaeda or the Taliban shake this commitment."

Earlier this month, Karzai accused Washington of working in concert with the Taliban and his spokesman described the NATO coalition's war effort as "aimless and unwise", triggering fury from Afghanistan's foreign backers.

Responding to a storm of protest over the collusion allegations, Kerry said he was confident that Karzai "does not believe that the United States has any interest except to see the Taliban come to the table to make peace".

For his part, Karzai said: "I was interpreted as saying the US and Taliban are colluding, but I did not use this word."

Afghan forces are gradually taking on responsibility for battling the Taliban as most of the 100,000 foreign troops prepare to exit by the end of 2014.

Karzai is due to step down at elections next year, 13 years after he came to power with US backing when the hardline Taliban regime was ousted in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks of 2001.

During his trip, Kerry emphasised the importance of a credible poll in 2014, and paid tribute to Afghan MPs, rights activists and election officials.

"You're engaged in a remarkable effort and the whole world is watching," he told them on Tuesday before he flew out of Kabul.

The war in Afghanistan is increasingly unpopular in the United States, and the latest outbursts from Karzai led many US commentators to call for Washington to take a tougher stance towards Kabul.

The Afghan leader in past weeks has also demanded US special forces leave the flashpoint province of Wardak and banned international troops from university campuses, both due to unproven harassment claims.

Washington was concerned that the handover of Bagram to Afghan forces would allow suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees to return to the battlefield.

But a final agreement was sealed on Saturday and a handover ceremony was held at the jail shortly before Kerry landed in Afghanistan.

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Cambodia shuts Australian-run orphanage

CAMBODIAN authorities have shut an orphanage run by an Australian woman amid allegations of children being beaten and human trafficking taking place.

Officials and a rights group said on Monday that police raided the unlicensed orphanage, called Love in Action, in the capital, Phnom Penh, and rescued 21 children.

Gratianne Quade, a spokeswoman for SISHA, an anti-trafficking organisation in Cambodia, said an Australian woman who ran the orphanage was not arrested in the raid on Friday and her current whereabouts was not known.

Um Sophanara, an official at the Social Affairs Ministry, which oversees orphanages, confirmed the closure, but declined to give details.

A SISHA statement said the raid came after several groups of children had fled the orphanage recently and reported a variety of neglect and abuse problems to authorities.

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NYC art museum accused of duping visitors

BEFORE visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art can stroll past the Picassos, Renoirs, Rembrandts and other priceless works, they must first deal with the ticket line, the posted $US25 adult admission and the meaning of the word in smaller type just beneath it: "recommended."

Many people, especially foreign tourists, either don't see it, don't understand it or don't question it. If they ask, they are told the fee is merely a suggested donation: You can pay what you wish but you must pay something.

Some who choose to pay less than the full price pull out a $US10 or $US5 bill. Some fork over a buck or loose change. Those who baulk at paying anything at all are told they won't be allowed in unless they pay something, even a penny.

"I just asked for one adult general admissions and he just said, '$US25,'" says Richard Johns, a high school maths teacher from Little Rock, Ark., who paid the full price at the museum this past week. "It should be made clear that it is a donation you are required to make. Especially for foreign tourists who don't understand. Most people don't know it."

Confusion over what's required to enter one of the world's great museums, which draws more than six million visitors a year, is at the heart of a class-action lawsuit this month accusing the Met of scheming to defraud the public into believing the fees are required.

The lawsuit contends that the museum uses misleading marketing and training of cashiers to violate an 1893 New York state law that mandates the public should be admitted for free at least five days and two evenings per week. In exchange, the museum gets annual grants from the city and free rent for its building and land along pricey Fifth Avenue in Central Park.

Met spokesman Harold Holzer denied any deception and said a policy of requiring visitors to pay at least something has been in place for more than four decades. "We are confident that the courts will see through this insupportable nuisance lawsuit."

The suit seeks compensation for museum members and visitors who paid by credit card over the past few years.

"The museum was designed to be open to everyone, without regard to their financial circumstances," said Arnold Weiss, one of two lawyers who filed the lawsuit on behalf of three museum-goers, a New Yorker and two tourists from the Czech Republic. "But instead, the museum has been converted into an elite tourist attraction."

The Metropolitan Museum is one of the world's richest cultural institutions, with a $US2.58 billion ($A2.48 billion) investment portfolio, and isn't reliant on admissions fees to pay the majority of its bills. Only about 11 per cent of the museum's operating expenses were covered by admissions charges in the 2012 fiscal year. As a nonprofit organisation, the museum pays no income taxes.

Holzer also noted that in the past fiscal year, 41 per cent of visitors to the Met paid the full recommended admission price - $25 for adults, $17 for seniors and $12 for students.

A random sampling of visitors leaving the museum found that there was a general awareness that "recommended" implied you could pay less than the posted price.

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Cyprus bailout stems turmoil

A preliminary agreement has been reached paving the way for Cyprus to receive a $A12.49b bailout. Source: AAP

CYPRUS has secured a 10 billion euro ($A12.49 billion) bailout in return for a radical reform of its banking sector.

The last-minute deal with international creditors is hoped to save the island from bankruptcy and prevent further turmoil across the eurozone.

The agreement deals a major hit to investors and depositors in the island's biggest bank, the Bank of Cyprus (BoC), many of whom are Russian, and will also effectively shut down its second-largest lender, Laiki.

While the participants of the 11th-hour negotiations hailed the deal, Russia said it would study its consequences.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, who battled for 12 hours with eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the deal and at one point issued a veiled threat to resign, said he was "content".

The head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, insisted: "We've put an end to the uncertainty that affected Cyprus and the euro area over the last few days."

Under the agreement, the Laiki bank is to be wound up and major depositors at the Bank of Cyprus will face a "haircut" of 30 per cent, according to a government spokesman.

The deal spares all depositors with less than 100,000 euros ($A124,900) in the island's banks, a key condition missing from a previous agreement that parliament rejected last week.

News of the deal - the fifth eurozone bailout after aid for Greece, Ireland, Portugal and for Spanish banks - boosted financial markets in Asia and Europe on Monday.

The euro also gained to $1.3037 from $1.2986 late on Friday in New York.

A big unknown is the reaction of Russian investors, who hold $US31 billion in private and corporate accounts in Cyprus.

Moscow has also lent the nation 2.5 billion euros, a loan for which Cyprus is hoping to ease the terms of repayment.

In Moscow's first official response to the rescue, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said: "We have to figure out what this story turns into in the long run, what the consequences for the international financial and monetary system will be - and thus, for our own interests as well."

Cyprus has become heavily reliant on banking deposits, including those of dubious origin, which have swollen to roughly four times the size of the country's entire economy, and the biggest investors stand to lose the most in the end.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the deal was "a fair one for everybody involved."

It will help "stabilise the situation in Cyprus and help Cyprus back onto a path of sustainable consolidation. I think the solution can help win back lost confidence for an in Cyprus," he said.

The agreement, reached before a Monday deadline set by the European Central Bank, is designed to come up with almost six billion euros, to which the European Union, ECB and IMF are to add about 10 billion euros in loans, allowing Cyprus to save most of the banks which found themselves in trouble after taking part in a huge write-off of privately-held Greek debt last year.

But the Cypriot financial sector, a major pillar of the economy, has suffered severe damage, and some analysts noted the country could now be in for a painful economic contraction that would make it hard to pull itself out of trouble.

"We see a risk that Cyprus' sovereign debt burden post-bailout might not be sustainable, as the country is likely to enter a deep recession caused by the shrinkage of the banking sector and severe deleveraging," or paying down of debt, UBS economist Reinhard Cluse said.

"As the deposit base is likely to shrink, we think that local banks might become more, not less, reliant on the ECB's Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA)."

Under terms of the agreement, risky assets held by Laiki are to be transferred to a "bad bank" that is slowly wound up.

The valid assets are to be integrated into the BoC, which is then to be recapitalised, a process that would involve a substantial conversion of uninsured deposits into bank equity.

Big investors are expected to be dealt a painful blow - and the BoC holds the lion's share of the island's Russian deposits.

Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister, could not say when the banks on Cyprus would re-open, nor when restrictions on cash withdrawals and other capital controls would be eased.

The banks had been scheduled to reopen on Tuesday after remaining closed for 10 days.

While details of the final bailout remain sketchy, they will also probably involve a Cypriot government austerity program, privatisations and tax changes at a time of deepening recession given job losses at banks and companies losing out on deposits.

European Union Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn said new economic forecasts for Cyprus would need to be drawn up quickly to take account of the deal.

Economists have forecast the economy could now contract by around 10 per cent this year and by 8.0 per cent in 2014.

But IMF head Christine Lagarde said the deal provided "a comprehensive and credible plan to deal with the current economic challenges in the country".

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Prince Harry to visit the US

PRINCE Harry is returning to the United States - but this time he's skipping Las Vegas.

St James's Palace said on Monday that the 28-year-old prince will travel to the US east coast as well was Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

His trip will include trips to Arlington National Cemetery, Walter Reed National Medical Center and the competition between British and American veteran athletes in the Warrior Games in Colorado Springs.

He will also visit Hurricane Sandy victims in New Jersey.

Harry, who is third in line to the throne, made headlines on another US visit, when he was caught frolicking in the nude after what was alleged to have been a game of strip billiards in his Las Vegas hotel room.

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Rodwell overwhelmed, thankful for freedom

AUSTRALIAN Warren Rodwell says he's overwhelmed by the effort put into his release from 15 months as a hostage in the Philippines.

Facing media in Manila for the first time since he was freed, Mr Rodwell said he was very happy to be there.

"There was a great sense of helplessness and hopelessness," he told reporters.

"I'm certainly overwhelmed to know the amount of effort and compassion that has been put into this operation."

He offered "heartfelt thanks" to the Filipino and Australian governments and everyone who worked to release him from the hands of al-Qaeda-linked group Abu Sayyaf.

He also told reporters he was getting stronger.

Earlier on Monday, his sister Denise Cappello and brother Wayne Rodwell also thanked authorities.

Ms Cappello wished the Philippine national police success in tracking down and capturing Mr Rodwell's abductors.

"We hope they are brought to justice so others don't have to experience what Warren has just been through," she said.

Wayne Rodwell said the family had held on to hope of his brother's safe release throughout his ordeal.

The family's immediate concern was for his health, as he would require medical support, along with time and space to recover, he said.

The pair thanked Al-Rasheed Sakkalahul, vice-governor of the Philippine island province of Basilan, saying that without his help Warren would not be free.

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New pope opens Holy Week at Vatican

Pope Francis has celebrated Palm Sunday Mass to start Holy Week ceremonies, leading up to Easter. Source: AAP

POPE Francis has celebrated Palm Sunday Mass in Saint Peter's Square attended by thousands of people waving olive branches and palm fronds.

The new pontiff arrived in an uncovered vehicle to start solemn Holy Week ceremonies, which lead up to Easter, Christianity's most important day.

Francis wore bright red robes over a white cassock and presided over the Mass from an altar sheltered by a canopy on the steps of Saint Peter's Basilica.

Cardinals, many of them among the electors who on March 13 chose the Roman Catholic church's first Latin American pope, sat in rows for the ceremony held under hazy skies on a breezy day.

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Central Africa rebels 'seize' presidency

Rebel forces in the Central African Republic say they have entered the capital city of Bangui. Source: AAP

REBELS in the Central African Republic fighting to topple President Francois Bozize say they have seized the presidential palace in the capital Bangui.

Fighters in the Seleka rebel coalition advanced into the riverside capital on Saturday after the collapse of a two-month-old peace deal in the notoriously unstable and deeply poor former French colony - ignoring a call for talks to avoid a "bloodbath".

"We have taken the presidential palace. Bozize was not there," one of the rebel commanders on the ground, Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, told AFP on Sunday.

He said the rebels were planning to move on to the national radio station where rebel leader Michel Djotodia planned to make an address.

"Today will be decisive," Narkoyo said. "We call on our brothers in FACA (the Central African army) to lay down their arms."

Bozize, who himself led a coup in the landlocked country in 2003, has not been seen since his return from South Africa on Friday and there was no statements from the government Sunday about the latest developments.

Heavy gunbattles erupted at about 0700 GMT (1800 AEDT) but later the shooting became more sporadic, an AFP correspondent said.

"We head gunfire everywhere in the city centre. It was chaos," said one witness. "Everyone started running in all directions."

Narkoyo had told AFP on Saturday the rebels were ready to meet with regional African leaders on the crisis, but refused to negotiate with Bozize.

And he warned that if Seleka - a loose alliance of three rebel movements - captured Bangui, it would set up a new government.

Bangui resident Francis Komgdo, who lives near a checkpoint that effectively marks the entrance to the capital, told AFP the rebels had passed through Saturday in vehicles and motorbikes, occasionally firing in the air.

Gunfire and explosions in Bangui on Saturday saw the streets emptied as local people fled to their homes.

The city was also plunged into darkness last night after rebels sabotaged a hydroelectric power plant in Boali, north of the capital, an official with the Enerca electricity company and residents said.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye on Saturday called on the rebels to accept talks to "avoid a bloodbath".

Tiangaye, an opposition figure, was only appointed as part of the peace deal brokered between the government and the rebels in January, an agreement that broke down last week.

Paris-based rebel spokesman Eric Massi has said the rebel leadership was urging its forces on the ground to refrain from "looting or score-settling with the local population".

Former colonial power France has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the deteriorating situation, said Romain Nadal, a spokesman for the president's office.

France had not issued an evacuation order, but the estimated 1,250 French nationals in the country were advised to stay at home, said Nadal.

There were no immediate plans to send reinforcements to back up the 250 French troops in the country to protect them, he added.

The UN Security Council on Friday voiced strong concern about the rebel advances "and their humanitarian consequences" amid reports of widespread summary executions, rapes, torture and the use of children in conflict.

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Syrian rebels seize border area

Syrian rebel fighters say they have seized an air base in the southern province of Daraa. Source: AAP

SYRIAN rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime have seized a 25-kilometre strip of land from the Jordanian border to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday fighters loyal a series of rebel brigades had taken control of the Al-Rai military checkpoint in the southern province of Daraa.

"The fighters seized the site after regime forces retreated," it said.

"The 25km area located between the towns of Muzrib (near the Jordanian border) and Abdin (in the Golan) is now out of regime control."

The Britain-based Observatory said in the past few days the rebels had seized several army checkpoints in the area and captured weapons and vehicles.

On Saturday they captured a key air base Daraa after two weeks of fierce battles with loyalist troops, it added.

The report came as Israel's new Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon vowed on Sunday an "immediate" answer to all Syrian gunfire onto the Golan Heights.

Yaalon issued the warning shortly after Israeli troops on the strategic plateau shot at a Syrian army post after coming under fire for the second time in 12 hours, according to the Israeli army.

"We see the Syrian regime as responsible for every breach of sovereignty. We shall not allow the Syrian army or any other body to violate Israeli sovereignty firing into our territory," Yaalon said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear whether the shooting was from the Syrian army or from rebel forces in the area.

The rebel advances came days after insurgents seized a border crossing on the frontier with Jordan, said the Observatory.

A security source in Damascus said last week Jordan was allowing jihadist fighters and arms bought by Saudi Arabia from Croatia to be smuggled into Syria.

The source said around 2500 trained and heavily equipped rebels have entered Daraa in recent weeks, following reports American instructors were training rebels in neighbouring Jordan.

Jordanian Information Minister and government spokesman Samih Maaytah said earlier this month his country "rejects interfering in Syrian affairs".

"The Jordanian army is exerting a lot of efforts to control the border and prevent infiltrations," he said.

Louay Moqdad, a spokesman and co-ordinator for opposition forces, acknowledged that several Arab and Western nations had started training rebels forces, but declined to provide further details.

Earlier this month, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported rebels were being trained in Jordan by American specialists, a claim US officials have refused to comment on.

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Kerry in Iraq to press Syria co-operation

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Iraq to push for more help over the Syrian conflict. Source: AAP

US Secretary of State John Kerry is making a surprise visit to Iraq to push for more help over the conflict in Syria amid claims of waning American clout barely a year after US troops left.

The Sunday visit, his first to Baghdad since taking office, will also focus on concerns in Washington that months of protests in the country's Sunni-majority provinces will give militant groups including al-Qaeda room to manoeuvre.

It comes just days after the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein and sought to establish a stable democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East, but has instead left a country still grappling with deadly violence and endless political disputes.

Kerry will meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi and press Iraqi officials for greater co-operation on isolating the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Washington has accused Baghdad in particular of turning a blind eye as Iran sends military equipment through Iraqi airspace, flights which Tehran insists transport only humanitarian supplies.

Kerry "will be very direct with Prime Minister Maliki about the importance of stopping the Iranian overflights and the transit across the territory, or at minimum inspecting each of the flights," a State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"He himself, as secretary of state, is convinced that they include weapons and fighters. ... This is dangerous for Iraq."

Baghdad has announced the inspections of two such flights, both in October 2012, but the New York Times reported in December that Iran appears to have been tipped off by Iraqi officials as to when plane inspections would be conducted, thus helping Tehran avoid detection.

A US official this month called on Iraq to resume unannounced inspections of Iranian flights bound for Syria.

Iran has remained a steadfast ally of Assad's regime despite the conflict in his country which according to the United Nations has killed more than 70,000 people since it erupted in March 2011.

The top US diplomat will also push for Iraq's Shi'ite-led government to better engage with its Sunni Arab minority, which has been protesting since December over the alleged targeting of their community by the authorities.

In particular, Kerry will push for Maliki to reconsider a decision to postpone upcoming provincial elections, scheduled for April 20, in two large Sunni-majority provinces.

He will also call on Nujaifi, a senior leader in the Sunni-backed Iraqiya movement that is part of Maliki's unity cabinet but has boycotted government meetings, to push for ministers to return to the table.

"Secretary Kerry will be talking with Prime Minister Maliki about the importance of engaging with all elements of Iraqi society, with the Sunnis, to work out how best to counter the very serious terrorist threat that is (of) deep concern to Iraqis," the official said.

Kerry's visit comes amid claims of declining American influence in Iraq, in particular following the December 2011 withdrawal of US forces, and concerns that Baghdad's Shi'ite neighbour Iran wields greater clout.

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Syria opposition chief Khatib resigns

SYRIA'S opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib has resigned from the National Coalition, a dissident group recognised by dozens of states and organisations as legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

"I announce my resignation from the National Coalition, so that I can work with a freedom that cannot possibly be had in an official institution," Khatib said in a statement published on Sunday on his Facebook page.

The surprise resignation comes just days after the first election in Istanbul of a rebel prime minister, Ghassan Hitto, and just over two years on from the outbreak of a popular revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

"For the past two years, we have been slaughtered by an unprecedentedly vicious regime, while the world has looked on," Khatib said.

"All the destruction of Syria's infrastructure, the detention of tens of thousands of people, the forced flight of hundreds of thousands and other forms of suffering have been insufficient for the international community to take a decision to allow the people to defend themselves," he added.

"Our message to all is that the Syrian people alone will take their decision. I had made a promise to our great people that I would resign if any red lines were crossed. Today, I am honouring my promise," Khatib said.

He had reportedly wanted to quit for some time, objecting to an interim premiership.

An aide to Khatib contacted by AFP last week before Hitto's election said it was not yet confirmed that he would resign, but he that would step down if he felt he could no longer serve the country in his current post.

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