Kerry presses China over N Korea crisis

US Secretary of State John Kerry says North Korea's rhetoric is "unacceptable by any standards." Source: AAP

THE world is facing a "critical time", top US diplomat John Kerry has told China's President Xi Jinping, citing tensions on the Korean peninsula, Iran's nuclear program and the conflict in Syria.

"Mr President, this is obviously a critical time with some very challenging issues," Kerry told Xi in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Saturday.

"Issues on the Korean peninsula, the challenge of Iran and nuclear weapons, Syria and the Middle East, and economies around the world that are in need of a boost."

Kerry arrived from South Korea earlier to press Beijing to help defuse soaring nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula ahead of an expected missile launch by the North, which conducted a nuclear test in February and a rocket test last December.

Beijing is Pyongyang's sole major ally and its key provider of aid and trade, and is seen as having unique leverage over the government of Kim Jong-Un, which has issued repeated threats of nuclear war.

But Xi did not refer to the Korean peninsula or other issues raised by Kerry in his opening remarks at the meeting, instead saying that the US-China relationship was "at a new historical stage and has got off to a good start".

China and the US are both members of the P5+1 nations - the five veto-wielding permanent UN Security Council members and Germany - pressing Iran to give up its what they see as its ambitions to develop nuclear weapons.

The world powers suspect Tehran of developing a covert program aimed at having the capacity to produce a nuclear bomb. Iran denies this and says its work is being conducted for energy and medical purposes.

China, however, is a key trade partner for the Middle Eastern country and has spoken out against US and European Union sanctions targeting its oil exports.

Washington and Beijing have also been at odds over the conflict in Syria.

China, along with Russia, has vetoed UN Security Council resolutions to introduce sanctions against Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria as a two-year conflict has ravaged the country.

As the world's two biggest economies the US and China are major trade partners, while China is the single biggest buyer of US Treasuries.

But the relationship is also characterised by trade disputes and other tensions, most recently regarding allegations of computer hacking.

A report in February from US security firm Mandiant said a unit of China's People's Liberation Army had stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 companies, government agencies and other organisations, mostly based in the US.

Beijing has steadfastly denied the allegations and says it is itself a regular victim of cyberattacks.

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Pell appointed to Pope advisory group

VATICAN CITY/SYDNEY April 13 AP/AAP - Archbishop of Sydney George Pell has been appointed by Pope Francis to a permanent advisory group to help him run the Catholic Church and study a reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.

Cardinal Pell is one of eight cardinals and one monsignor - the others are from Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Asia - who have been appointed to the group.

The panel is a clear indication that Francis wants to reflect the universal nature of the church in its governance and core decision-making, particularly given the church is growing and counts most of the world's Catholics in the southern hemisphere.

In the run-up to the conclave that elected Francis pope one month ago, a reform of the Vatican bureaucracy was a constant drumbeat, as were calls to make the Vatican itself more responsive to the needs of bishops around the world.

Including representatives from each continent in a permanent advisory panel to the pope would seem to go a long way toward answering those calls.

In its bombshell announcement on Saturday, the Vatican said that Francis got the idea to form the advisory body from the pre-conclave meetings.

"He has formed a group of cardinals to advise him in the governing of the universal church and to study a revision of the apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus on the Roman Curia," the statement said.

Pope John Paul II issued Pastor Bonus in 1988, and it functions effectively as the blueprint for the administration of the Holy See and the Vatican City State, meting out the work and jurisdictions of the congregations, pontifical councils and other offices that make up the governance of the Catholic Church, known as the Roman Curia.

Pastor Bonus itself was a revision of the 1967 document that marked the last major reform of the Vatican bureaucracy undertaken by Pope Paul VI.

A reform of the Vatican bureaucracy has been demanded for decades, given both John Paul and Benedict XVI essentially neglected in-house administration of the Holy See in favour of other priorities.

But the calls for change grew deafening last year after the leaks of papal documents exposed petty turf battles within the Vatican bureaucracy, allegations of corruption in the running of the Vatican city state and even a purported plot by senior Vatican officials to out a prominent Catholic as gay.

Francis' advisory group will meet in its inaugural session October 1-3, the Vatican said in a statement.

Cardinal Pell, aged 71, is the eighth Archbishop of Sydney, serving since 2001.

The non-Vatican officials, apart from Cardinal Pell, include cardinals Francisco Javier Errzuriz Ossa, the retired archbishop of Santiago, Chile; Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, India; Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo; Sean Patrick O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston; and Oscar Andrs Rodrguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Monsignor Marcello Semeraro, bishop of Albano, will be secretary.

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Snorkeller dies at Sydney beach

A snorkeller has died after getting into difficulty at Maroubra Beach, police say. Source: AAP

A SNORKELLER has died after getting into difficulty at Maroubra Beach.

The man was at snorkelling at the beach on Saturday afternoon and had to be pulled out of the water, say police.

He died shortly after arriving at hospital and is yet to be formally identified.

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Suu Kyi arrives in Japan after 27 years

MYANMAR'S (Burma's) democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi has arrived in Japan, her first visit to the country where she spent time as a university researcher nearly three decades ago.

A group of well-wishers including Burmese gathered at Tokyo's Narita airport to greet Suu Kyi, now her country's opposition leader, but were denied the chance to meet her as she left through a backdoor.

"I respect her like my mother," one of Burmese women said in an interview with public broadcaster NHK.

"I want to tell her that I support her strongly."

During her six-day trip, the Nobel laureate is expected to have meetings with some of the approximately 10,000 Burmese who live in Japan, as well as with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

It is Suu Kyi's first visit to Japan since spending time as a researcher at Kyoto University in 1985-86.

But a leader of about 200 of Myanmar's Muslim minority Rohingya in Japan has expressed disappointment after being told his community was not wanted at events welcoming Suu Kyi.

The Rohingya have been described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

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Bomb blast on bus kills nine in Pakistan

A BOMB has exploded on a bus in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least nine people and wounding seven others.

"At least nine passengers have been killed and seven injured. Bomb disposal officials told me that it was a timed device," Fazal Wahid, a senior police official, told AFP on Saturday.

Shafi Ullah Khan, another police official, confirmed the attack which occurred as the was bus passing through the city's Matani suburb.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which came hours after militants blew up the election office of an independent candidate in the same region, adding to security fears ahead of historic national polls next month.

A recent wave of terror attacks has fuelled concerns that violence will mar general elections on May 11, which will mark the country's first democratic transition of power after a civilian government has served a full term in office.

Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

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Kerry hits out as N Korea threatens Japan

The United States has played down a report that North Korea has a nuclear-armed missile. Source: AAP

US Secretary of State John Kerry is demanding North Korea abandon an expected missile launch as the communist state threatens a nuclear strike on Japan amid a chilling new evaluation of its offensive capability.

Kerry, visiting Seoul to give strong US backing to military ally South Korea, joined President Barack Obama in decrying North Korea's incendiary rhetoric and urged China to step in.

The air of crisis that has engulfed the region for weeks, since North Korea staged a rocket launch and atomic test, was given even greater menace from a US intelligence report that said it may now have a nuclear warhead in its arsenal.

US and South Korean military officials downplayed the assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), but Pyongyang warned of dire results if Japan executes its threat to shoot down any North Korean missile.

The North's Korean Central News Agency said that such a "provocative" intervention would see Tokyo - an enormous conurbation of 30 million people - "consumed in nuclear flames".

"Japan is always in the cross-hairs of our revolutionary army and if Japan makes a slightest move, the spark of war will touch Japan first," KCNA said in a commentary.

Unbowed, an official at Japan's defence ministry told AFP that the country "will take every possible measure to respond to any scenario", while Kerry warned that a North Korean missile launch would be a "huge mistake".

"The rhetoric that we are hearing from North Korea is simply unacceptable by any standards," he told a news conference in Seoul alongside South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se.

"The United States, South Korea and the entire international community... are all united in the fact that North Korea will not be accepted as a nuclear power," Kerry added.

"If (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-un decides to launch a missile, whether it's across the Sea of Japan or any other direction, he will be choosing wilfully to ignore the entire international community.

"It will be a huge mistake for him to do that because it will further isolate his country," Kerry said, adding that North Koreans want food, not a leader "who wants to flex his muscles".

Kerry also that it was high time for China - whose trade and aid have propped up North Korea since the end of the Cold War - to intervene with its wayward ally if it truly wants to safeguard regional stability.

"China has an enormous capability to make a difference here," he said.

Intelligence officials in Seoul say the North, as a show of force, has two mid-range missiles ready for imminent launch from its east coast, and South Korea and Japan remained on heightened alert for any test.

Observers believe a launch is most likely in the build-up to Monday's anniversary of the birth of late founder Kim Il-sung, for which celebrations are already well under way in Pyongyang.

The mid-range missiles mobilised by the North are reported to be untested Musudan models with an estimated range of up to 4000 kilometres.

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Five die after asylum-seeker boat sinks

A GROUP of 14 asylum seekers has been rescued by fishermen in Indonesia after their boat sank in the Sunda Strait on its way to Australia, but at least five others are believed to have drowned.

There are also fresh details about the unfolding tragedy with one of the survivors revealing that boat actually sank on Wednesday, and not on Friday morning as initially reported by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).

Habibullah Hashimi, one of 14 men plucked from the water by fishermen off the coast of Sukabumi in West Java, said he was in the water for about 24 hours before help finally came.

The 29-year-old said there were 72 people aboard the vessel. All were ethnic Hazara from Afghanistan.

At least five asylum seekers had perished, Mr Hashimi said.

The death toll could rise further.

"The ship just broke," he told AAP.

"We saw about five people dead. They were in the water."

Mr Hashimi's group had linked arms as they struggled to survive.

"The sea kept moving us around," he said.

Mr Hashimi, who was on Friday afternoon recuperating in Bogor, also confirmed that the boat sank at about 8am on Wednesday.

The development came after a spokeswoman from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) initially reported that a boat may have sunk in the Sunda Strait at about midnight (3am AEST) on Friday.

"A people-smuggling vessel may have sunk in or near the Sunda Strait around 3am AEST today. Some passengers may have been rescued by a fishing vessel," the spokeswoman said earlier on Friday.

The information was in turn passed on to the Indonesian national search and rescue agency BASARNAS.

But BASARNAS was unable to locate the area where the incident was believed to have occurred, prompting a scramble for information.

Provincial search and rescue offices in Jakarta and Lampung on the island of Sumatra also had little idea of what had happened, or where to look for survivors.

"We don't have the co-ordinates for the area where we could search. Do you have that information? Please share it with us," an officer with the Jakarta search and rescue office said when contacted by AAP.

"We only received information from BASARNAS that it's in south of Sunda Strait and they've been rescued by local fishermen. But where is it? We're now contacting local ports and others if they have such information."

And Indonesia still hasn't launched a rescue mission because the location of the sunken vessel hasn't been found.

The search and rescue authorities were criticised last August when more than 100 asylum seekers drowned when their boat foundered in the Sunda Strait.

An aerial search was not launched until more than six hours after a distress call was received by the AMSA.

It was almost 24 hours before the first survivors were pulled from the water.

Hundreds of asylum seekers have perished in recent years while making the perilous crossing from Indonesia to Christmas Island.

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US hymn book could fetch $28m

A TINY hymn book from 1640 believed to be the first book ever printed in what is now the United States is going up for auction, and it could sell for as much as $US30 million ($A28 million).

Only 11 copies of the Bay Psalm Book survive in varying degrees of completeness. Members of Boston's Old South Church have authorized the sale of one of its two copies at Sotheby's November 26.

"It's a spectacular book, arguably one of the most important books in this nation's history," said the Rev. Nancy Taylor, senior minister and CEO of the church, which was established in 1669. Samuel Adams was a member and Benjamin Franklin was baptized there.

At one time, the church owned five copies of the 15 centimetres by 12 centimetres hymnal. One is now at the Library of Congress, another at Yale University and a third at Brown University.

Taylor says the church voted to sell one of its two remaining copies- both in "excellent condition" - to increase its grants, ministries and "strengthen our voice in general as a progressive Christian church."

The book was published in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It came just 20 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.

The hymnal was supposed to be a faithful translation into English of the original Hebrew psalms - puritans believed selected paraphrases would compromise their salvation. The 1,700 copies were printed on a press shipped over from London.

A yellowed title page, adorned with decorative flourishes, reads: "The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Faithfully Translated into English Metre." At the bottom, it says: "Imprinted 1640."

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Bomb near Iraq mosque kills seven

A BOMB exploded near a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad, killing seven people, the latest in an uptick in violence in the runup to elections next week.

The bomber struck after prayers at the Omar bin Abdul Aziz mosque, south of Baquba, and also wounded another 25 people, sources said.

Iraq is to hold provincial elections on April 20, its first polls since 2010.

Attacks on candidates have left at least a dozen election hopefuls dead, according to an AFP tally. That, and the fact that only 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces will vote due to a government postponement has drawn the credibility of the elections into question.

Violence killed 271 Iraqis last month, the highest monthly figure since August, according to an AFP tally.

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Motorcyclist killed in Vic crash

A MOTORCYCLIST has become the third person to die on Victorian roads in a single day after a three-vehicle collision in outer Melbourne.

Police say two motorcycles and another vehicle were involved in the crash, which occurred in Lilydale at about 6pm (AEST) on Friday.

One of the motorcyclists, a 32-year-old Airport West man, died at the scene.

A second motorcyclist, a 43-year-old Avondale Heights man, was taken by air ambulance to hospital with life threatening injuries.

The driver of the vehicle, a 53-year-old Lilydale man is assisting police with their enquiries.

Earlier on Friday, two women died in a three-car smash in Melbourne's outer northwest.

An elderly woman had been driving at Bulla when her car collided with two oncoming vehicles about 10.30am (AEST) on Friday, police said.

Both she and a woman driving one of the other cars died at the scene, while those travelling in a third car escaped injury.

Police are investigating whether one of the cars was travelling on the wrong side of the road.

In a third serious collision on Friday, an 85-year-old man suffered life threatening injuries after being struck by a car in Malvern East.

Victoria's road toll stands at 73, compared to 83 at the same time a year ago.

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WTO cuts 2013 global trade growth forecast

GLOBAL commerce is set to grow by 3.3 per cent this year, the World Trade Organisation says, as persistent gloom in Europe saw it cut a previous forecast of 4.5 per cent.

It's the second time the WTO has reined in its figures for 2013, after initially estimating that world trade would expand by 5.6 per cent.

"Improved economic prospects for the United States in 2013 should only partly offset the continued weakness in the European Union, whose economy is expected to remain flat or even contract slightly this year according to consensus estimates," the WTO said.

"China's growth should continue to outpace other leading economies, cushioning the slowdown, but exports will still be constrained by weak demand in Europe," it added.

As a result, this year looks set to be a "near repeat" of 2012, with both trade and output expanding slowly.

Last year, the WTO said, global commerce expanded by 2.0 per cent from the level in 2011, compared with growth of 5.2 per cent that year.

That reflected the gloomy economic picture in developed nations, as the WTO's first estimation for 2012 had been for growth of 3.7 per cent.

"The abrupt deceleration of trade in 2012 was attributed to slow growth in developed economies and recurring bouts of uncertainty over the future of the euro," the WTO said Wednesday.

"Flagging output and high unemployment in developed countries reduced imports and fed through to a lower pace of export growth in both developed and developing economies," it added.

In 2012, the dollar value of world merchandise exports only increased by 0.2 per cent to $US18.3 trillion ($A17.53 trillion), it underlined.

That trend was driven by falling prices for traded goods, with commodities such as coffee, cotton, iron ore and coal seeing major drops, while oil remained relatively stable.

Meanwhile, the value of world commercial services exports rose by 2 per cent to $US4.3 trillion.

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China targets bird flu rumours

CHINA has detained at least a dozen people for spreading false rumours about bird flu, police statements have shown, with authorities seeking to control "panic" as the number of cases rose to 33.

There have been nine deaths since China announced over a week ago that the H7N9 strain of avian influenza had been found in humans for the first time.

Local governments announced five new cases on Wednesday, but state media also reported a four-year-old boy in Shanghai had been released from hospital, the first person to be cured of H7N9.

Police across the country had held people for spreading "false information" over the internet about outbreaks of H7N9 where they lived, statements over recent days collated by AFP showed.

The latest such announcement came Wednesday from the southwest city of Guiyang where three people have been detained, for up to 10 days.

Their actions "caused panic among netizens and citizens", local police said.

The boy in Shanghai, whose full name was not given, was diagnosed with H7N9 infection on April 4, three days after he developed a fever.

Chinese health experts said his recovery showed the benefit of early detection. Doctors said in order to minimise side-effects they did not give him large doses of antiviral drugs, state media reported.

Chinese authorities say they do not know how the virus is spreading though it is believed to be jumping to humans from birds, possibly chickens, pigeons or quail.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said this week that there is no evidence H7N9 was passing from person to person - a development that has the potential to trigger a pandemic.

Chinese scientists have stepped up monitoring of migratory birds to prevent the virus from spreading that way, state media said.

Another city, Zhenjiang, had banned live poultry sales, following Shanghai and others in Jiangsu province, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Shanghai last week suspended trading in live poultry and shut markets in a bid to curb the outbreak, while Hangzhou city culled poultry after finding infected quail.

A Chinese newspaper on Wednesday again raised questions on the delay of more than three weeks between the first victim's death and the announcement by the central government.

The Southern Metropolis Daily claimed testing by Shanghai confirmed H7N9 a week after the man's death and linked the delay to the annual session of China's legislature, when the government seeks to avoid negative news.

"Would not infections and deaths be less (if there had been an earlier announcement)?" asked the newspaper, part of the Nanfang Daily Press Group, which is known for investigative journalism.

Chinese officials say time was needed to confirm the virus in people for the first time.

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Man charged over Kingaroy woman's death

A MAN has been charged with murder after a woman's body was found in an apartment in the town of Kingaroy, about 200km northwest of Brisbane.

Police found the 26-year-old woman's body in a unit in Gladys Street about 2.15am on Wednesday.

A 37-year-old man was taken for questioning by police and was charged with murder about 8.15 pm.

He remains in custody and is due before Kingaroy Magistrates Court on Thursday.

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Kerry, G8 ministers to meet Syrian rebels

Syrian rebels will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry and G8 foreign ministers in London. Source: AAP

SYRIAN rebels will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry and G8 foreign ministers in London as the United States mulls ways to step up support for outgunned opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.

The spiralling North Korean nuclear crisis and Iran's atomic ambitions will also be discussed at the meeting of foreign ministers, a prelude to the annual Group of Eight leaders' summit later this year in Northern Ireland.

But Syria is at the top of the agenda with Kerry also set to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a bid to persuade Moscow, a key ally of Damascus, to help break the international stalemate on the conflict.

"The United States every single day thinks about what more we can do to help bring this horrible situation to an end," a senior US administration official said, asking not to be identified.

The aim was to "move to a transition government that reflects the legitimate desires of the people," the official said.

Kerry was to meet later with Syrian opposition prime minister Ghassan Hitto and other top coalition members on the sidelines of the G8 foreign ministers meeting on Wednesday, for talks hosted by British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Hitto and Syrian National Coalition vice presidents George Sabra and Soheir Atassi are expected to push their demands for weapons to help topple Assad.

The US and EU are providing non-lethal aid such as communications equipment, and are beginning to distribute food and medical supplies to the Free Syrian Army.

But many countries have refused to arm the opposition fearing the weapons could get into the hands of al-Qaeda-linked militants in a complex and volatile conflict.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq on Tuesday claimed ownership of one of the key opposition forces fighting in Syria, the al-Nusra Front.

The battle to oust Assad is now in its third year, with an estimated 70,000 people said to have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes.

The G8 foreign ministers would discuss the Syrian crisis at a dinner on Wednesday night, and were expected to issue "quite a strong statement" on Thursday at the end of their two-day meeting, the US official told reporters in London.

Hague said before the talks started on Wednesday that "top of the agenda will be dealing with Syria and the situation in Syria, which continues to get worse".

Britain and France would continue to push for the lifting of an EU arms embargo to Syria so they can arm the rebels, Hague added.

Syria's opposition umbrella group the National Coalition is recognised by the United States and many other Western and Arab countries as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

The Syrian opposition was formally granted an Arab League seat last month.

Iran, Syria's main ally, will also loom large at the G8 talks after nuclear negotiations between Tehran and world powers ended in deadlock at the weekend.

The tensions over North Korea would also be a key topic, with Wednesday being the point Pyongyang had previously said beyond which it could not guarantee the safety of foreign diplomats on the grounds that war may break out.

Hague meanwhile said his "personal priority" for the meeting was a new agreement to prevent sexual violence in conflicts.

The meeting of the top diplomats from the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations will also tackle Myanmar, Somalia and cyber-security.

The G8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

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Cruise giant fined for Italy disaster

ITALY'S Costa Crociere, the biggest cruise operator in Europe, has accepted limited responsibility for the Costa Concordia disaster in which 32 people died.

A court ruled the company will have to pay a fine of one million euros ($A1.26 million) and will no longer be investigated for alleged responsibility in the disaster. Costa will instead aim to take part in the expected trial as an injured party.

"It is a balanced solution," the company's lawyer, Marco De Luca, told reporters in Grosseto in Tuscany where the court hearing was held and where preliminary hearings will begin on Monday to decide whether the accused should face trial.

Prosecutors have levied charges against six people including captain Francesco Schettino and the head of Costa Crociere's crisis unit Roberto Ferrarini for the January 2012 incident.

The charges have to be confirmed before any trial can go ahead.

The giant luxury liner crashed into the Italian island of Giglio with 4229 people on board just as many passengers were dining on the first night of their Mediterranean cruise, prompting a panicked and chaotic night-time evacuation.

Dozens of passengers are suing the company for damages, although most of those who were not injured or did not lose loved ones have accepted 11,000 euros in compensation from Costa, which belongs to US giant Carnival.

Wednesday's ruling bears only on the criminal investigation and not on civil proceedings.

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Egypt pope blasts Morsi over violence

EGYPT'S Pope Tawadros II has accused President Mohamed Morsi of "negligence" in his response to deadly clashes outside Cairo's Coptic cathedral, the worst sectarian crisis since he took power in June.

Morsi had telephoned Tawadros after Sunday's violence which saw crowds pelt mourners with stones after they emerged from a funeral service for slain Coptic Christians.

Shocking television images showed police fire tear gas at St Mark's cathedral - symbol of the Coptic community which has long complained of discrimination and has been the target of frequent sectarian attacks.

Morsi "promised to do everything to protect the cathedral but in reality we don't see this," Tawadros told the private ONTV channel in a call-in.

When asked why, Tawadros said he believed "it comes under the category of negligence and poor assessment of events."

Two people died in Sunday's clashes which erupted after the funeral service of four Christians killed in earlier violence in a town north of Cairo. One Muslim was also killed in those confrontations.

Tawadros said the church had never before in its history witnessed this level of attack.

"This flagrant assault on a national symbol, the Egyptian church, has never been subjected to this in 2000 years," Tawadros said.

He called on authorities to take a strong position against such kinds of attacks.

"There has to be a clear stance from the state ... because matters now have crossed the limits of freedom of expression and have reached a level of chaos," he said.

"Some officials have expressed kind feelings, these feelings are not enough at all," he continued.

Following the attack, Morsi said: "I consider any attack on the cathedral an attack against myself," and proposed to revive the defunct Justice and Equality Committee, which was established to look at promoting citizenship and equality.

"The committees and the groups, we have had enough of them. We want action and not just words," Tawadros said.

"Committees are formed every day but there is no work taking place on the ground."

Hani Sobhi, a young Copt, explained that live television coverage of the funeral service during which Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood was booed had been the spark for the violence.

"Inside the cathedral we chanted 'Down with the Brotherhood rule' and that was aired live on television. At the exit, the people were ready and waiting for us," he said.

Christians account for between six and 10 per cent of Egypt's population of 84 million people.

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Google abusing its dominance: FairSearch

GOOGLE is in firing line of a group of major companies, including Microsoft and Oracle, over its offerings for Android-powered mobile phones.

The European Commission has been urged to move quickly to protect competition and innovation in the critical market by Thomas Vinje, Brussels-based counsel for FairSearch, which groups 17 high-tech companies, including also Nokia, Expedia and TripAdvisor.

"Failure to act will only embolden Google to repeat its desktop abuses of dominance as consumers increasingly turn to a mobile platform dominated by Google's Android operating system," Vinje said in a statement on Tuesday.

FairSearch said it had filed a complaint with the Commission, charging that the internet giant wanted Android operators to use its leading applications such as Maps or YouTube.

It said Google's Android is the dominant smartphone operating system, accounting for 70 per cent of the market by the end of 2012, while it has 96 per cent of mobile phone search advertising.

The companies grouped in FairSearch also complained about Google in the Commission's 2010 anti-trust probe of the firm which focused on its dominance of the internet search market.

Last week, six European countries, including France and Britain, launched joint action against Google to try to get it to scale back new monitoring powers that watchdogs believe violate EU privacy protection rules.

Google last year rolled out a common user privacy policy for its services that grouped about 60 previous sets of rules into one and allowed the company to track users more closely to develop targeted advertising.

The action came after the European Union's 27 member states warned Google in October not to apply the new policy and gave it four months to make changes or face legal action.

When that deadline expired in February, several European data protection agencies set up a taskforce to pursue co-ordinated action against the US giant.

Google insists its privacy policy respects European law.

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Aust-China free trade talks set for May

TALKS on a free trade agreement between China and Australia will continue in May, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

The two countries agreed to start negotiations on the FTA in April 2005 and to date 18 rounds of talks have been held.

Ms Gillard told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday that she had told Premier Li Keqiang in their first formal meeting since he came to power in March that it was a "gap" in the relationship that Australia wanted to rectify.

Trade Minister Craig Emerson said Australia was seeking "high ambition" from the agreement, including agricultural tariffs and quotas, manufactured goods, services, temporary entry of people and foreign investment.

"We could have a low ambition FTA, like a trophy to sit on the national mantelpiece...but we want it to do work," he said.

Dr Emerson said that during the meeting with Premier Li in the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday, the Chinese leader had looked around the room asking: "Who is the FTA guy?"

"I said I'm the FTA guy," Dr Emerson said.

"The premier was very keen and spent some considerable time talking about the challenge but also the great benefits an FTA would bring."

Australia has six FTAs with New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, US, Chile and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The countries covered by these FTAs account for 28 per cent of Australia's total trade.

Australia is engaged in nine FTA negotiations covering a further 45 per cent of Australia's trade.

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Frenchman appeals O'Keefe conviction

A 37-YEAR-OLD Frenchman has insisted on his innocence as he appeals his conviction for murdering an Australian student who was severely beaten, strangled and dumped in a car park outside Paris.

Brazilian-born Adriano Araujo Da Silva was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison in January 2012 for the murder 11 years earlier of 28-year-old Jeannette O'Keefe.

O'Keefe's body was found rolled up in a sleeping bag in a parking lot in the Paris suburb of Les Mureaux on January 2, 2001 -- three days after a series of events left her alone and without a bed for the night on New Year's Eve.

"I am innocent, I must be acquitted," Araujo Da Silva told the court as his appeal began in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

A ruling is expected on Thursday.

Araujo Da Silva had confessed to the crime twice before retracting his testimony, admitting to taking the woman to his home and having an argument with her, but insisting she left unharmed.

He said he had met O'Keefe on the Champs Elysees in Paris on New Year's Eve and taken her to his home in Les Mureaux, where her body was found three days later.

French investigators found male DNA under the victim's fingernails, but it was eight years before they found a match, when Araujo Da Silva's genetic profile was entered into a database after he was arrested for petty theft.

He confessed to the killing when detained by police, saying he had beaten O'Keefe and strangled her to death when she refused to have sex with him a second time and threatened to call police.

An autopsy found she had been struck by at least 13 blows before being strangled to death.

Araujo Da Silva told the court on Tuesday that he had only confessed under pressure from police, who had said he would receive a lighter sentence if he admitted to the crime.

"I was tricked and manipulated during questioning," he said.

O'Keefe's four brothers and sisters, who are civil plaintiffs, were in court for the start of the appeal.

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Spain sees economy improving in early 2013

SPAIN'S economy is faring a little better after an end-2012 slump and growth could even return by the end of 2013, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos says, as doubts grow over the prospects for debt-laden southern European economies.

The Spanish economy had "clearly" improved from the final three months of 2012, when output plunged by 0.8 per cent, De Guindos told an economic forum.

The Spanish economic chief did not, however, predict an economic expansion in the first quarter of 2013.

"The first quarter of this year will be clearly less bad than the previous quarter," De Guindos said.

Later, on the margins of the forum, he said the government expected gross domestic product to show a decline of 0.5 or 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, a further slight improvement in the second quarter and nearly zero growth in the third quarter.

In the final three months of 2013, the government believed there was a "possibility" of positive economic growth for Spain on a quarterly basis, De Guindos said.

The minister stressed, however, that his first-quarter estimate was based on incomplete data with all the figures for March yet to come in.

Spain is immersed in a double-dip recession after failing to recover convincingly from the collapse of a decade-long property boom in 2008, an economic disaster that has sent the unemployment rate soaring to a record 26 per cent.

The Spanish economy, the eurozone's fourth-largest, contracted by 1.4 per cent last year, the second worst yearly slump since 1970.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government is predicting a return to economic growth in 2014 if the country sticks to a program of cost-cutting measures and of reforms aimed at improving economic efficiency.

The government has admitted that it will have to revise its existing forecast for an economic dip of only 0.5 per cent this year.

The Bank of Spain is predicting a 1.5-per cent plunge in output this year and only a "modest rebound" in 2014.

Portugal is preparing a new battery of spending cuts after the country's constitutional court rejected a number of austerity measures aimed at respecting the terms of its international bailout.

Spain recorded an annual public deficit equal to 7.0 per cent of gross domestic product last year, missing a 6.3-per cent target it had agreed with the European Union.

Now, the Spanish government wants Brussels to agree to relax its 2013 deficit target to about 6.0 of GDP from the previously agreed 4.5 per cent, a government source said this month.

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Qld cosmetic doctors under spotlight

QUEENSLAND'S independent health watchdog has ordered 14 cosmetic surgical and medical practitioners to lift their game in the interest of patient safety.

A Health Quality and Complaints Commissions (HQCC) report released on Monday says there were four or more complaints about each of the 14 practitioners among 245 complaints received between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2012.

The report titled Great expectations: A Spotlight Report on Complaints about Cosmetic Surgical and Medical Procedures, said all 14 had been required to prepare and implement a quality improvement action plan.

HQCC will monitor how these practitioners perform against their improvement plan.

The report said the community often perceived cosmetic procedures to be low risk when they were often complex, required a high degree of skill and posed a number of potential risks.

It found there was less regulation and fewer patient safeguards in this field than in other areas of medicine.

The report said 82 per cent of the 245 complains were about cosmetic procedures and 16 per cent were about cosmetic medical procedures.

Most complaints were about breast lifts and breast implants followed by facelifts, eye surgery abdominoplasty (tummy tucks) and breast reduction.

Cosmetic injections and laser treatment were the most frequently complained about cosmetic medical procedures, followed by chemical peels.

The number of complaints about cosmetic medical procedures more than doubled between 2006 and 2012.

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UN inspectors ready to go to Syria

A UN inspection team is in Cyprus and ready to deploy to nearby Syria to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons in the conflict, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

"I can announce today that an advance team is now in Cyprus for the final stage" before the mission heads to Syria, Ban said in The Hague.

"We are ready."

Ban said at the opening of the third review of the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that they still needed the Syrian regime's go-ahead.

"The UN is now in the position to deploy in Syria - in less than 24 hours all logistical arrangements will in place," Ban said after President Bashar al-Assad called on the UN to probe allegations rebels had used chemical weapons.

"All we are waiting for is the go-ahead of the Syrian government to determine if any chemical weapons have been deployed," Ban said.

"We are still in the process of discussing it with the Syrian government."

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Holden wrong to axe SA jobs: Weatherill

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill is in "serious talks" with Holden on a breach of agreement. Source: AAP

SOUTH Australian Premier Jay Weatherill will have "serious talks" with Holden about a breach of agreement and says it's wrong the car maker didn't warn of trouble ahead of launching its Cruze model last month.

Holden boss Mike Devereux announced on Monday it will cut 400 jobs at its factory in Adelaide and 100 at its plant in Melbourne.

Mr Weatherill says the government and the car maker celebrated the launch of the company's Cruze model in March.

"There was no mention of such a dramatic decision that was about to be announced," he told ABC television on Monday.

"That is wrong."

The premier said Holden's decision to axe jobs was in breach of a 2012 agreement to provide Holden with $50 million from his state to develop two new cars and guarantee the future of local operations until 2022.

He said the state had not paid the $50 million to Holden and they would have to discuss the future.

South Australia deserved better, Mr Weatherill said.

"There are a range of important undertakings in that agreement that I want to ensure that are delivered to South Australians," he said.

"We need to have some serious discussions with the company."

The government had been working with Holden to use Australian component suppliers in a global supply chain.

They also wanted Holden at the Elizabeth plant to be part of the global supply chain, not just a part of the domestic supply chain.

Mr Weatherill said Holden gave him little notice about the decision and Mr Devereux had only told him on Monday morning.

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Buy local car policy is needed: Vic oppn

GOVERNMENTS across Australia should buy their car fleets locally to support an industry that benefits the broader national economy, the Victorian opposition says.

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews was responding to news Holden would shed 100 jobs in Melbourne and a further 400 in South Australia.

A year ago Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a $275 million rescue deal for the car maker, including $215 million from the federal government, $50 million from the South Australian Labor government and $10 million from the Victorian coalition.

Mr Andrews defended government support for the embattled industry and argued governments should all agree to buy cars locally.

"The thing that should be considered nationally is not a withdrawal from the automotive sector but in fact a national procurement and purchasing, (a) national buy-local campaign, so that every car that can be purchased in any government fleet across Australia is in fact an Australian-made vehicle," he said.

"That would be a step forward, that's the sort of thing that we should be putting on the COAG table and if we have to have an argument, then so be it."

Describing Holden's job cuts as distressing for workers and their families, Victorian Minister for Manufacturing David Hodgett says the federal government's carbon tax has only made things harder for Australia's automotive industry.

"A range of factors are affecting the industry including the high Australian dollar, higher energy costs under Labor's carbon tax and tough global competition," he said in a statement.

Mr Andrews said the car industry produced economic and skill benefits for every state, not just those that built cars.

Mr Hodgett said the state government is committed to working with the automotive industry to secure and strengthen its future, and that Holden had reaffirmed its commitment to an $800 million joint state and commonwealth investment to keep making cars in Australia at least until 2022.

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Vic man arrested over mum's bashing death

A MAN has been arrested over the bashing death of a 29-year-old woman in her Victorian home.

Police announced late on Monday they had arrested a 30-year-old man over the woman's death, hours after telling reporters her traumatised four-year-old son had seen the man suspected of killing her.

The boy told police he saw an unknown man inside his Ballarat home, west of Melbourne, on the night his mother died.

Relatives found her body in her bedroom on Saturday morning.

Police say she was assaulted with a blunt object and suffered injuries to her head and body.

Detective Inspector John Potter, head of Victoria's homicide squad, said the boy spotted a man inside the house before her death, but couldn't identify him.

"It's pretty difficult to take it much further than that," Det Insp Potter told reporters earlier on Monday.

"We're talking darkish clothing, and that's probably the best we've got."

The boy and his mother had gone out on Friday night but returned home by 8.30pm (AEDT).

The stranger then entered the house at some point between 8.30pm Friday and 10.30am Saturday.

Det Insp Potter said police believe the man was involved in the mum's slaying but can't pinpoint the exact time he was inside the home.

The boy would have been aware of what happened to his mum, he said.

"You can imagine under these circumstances the child is extremely traumatised," he said.

Police say there were no signs of forced entry and it's possible the woman knew the man.

Det Insp Potter said security footage from nearby businesses was being viewed for clues.

He said police had spoken to the woman's former partner and followed those lines of inquiry "thoroughly".

"This is quite a brutal crime to a woman in her own home so we're very keen to work out who's responsible," he said.

A 30-year-old Sebastopol man was in police custody and being interviewed, police said just before 10pm (AEST) on Monday.

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US delays missile test over Korean crisis

THE US has delayed an intercontinental ballistic missile test to avoid stoking tensions with North Korea, as fears escalated that weeks of angry rhetoric could erupt into conflict on the Korean peninsula.

The Pentagon's disclosure it would reschedule the test due in California next week comes as the international community grows increasingly nervous the situation could spiral out of control.

A US defence official said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel postponed the Minuteman 3 test at Vandenberg Air Force Base until next month due to concerns it "might be misconstrued by some as suggesting that we were intending to exacerbate the current crisis with North Korea".

"We wanted to avoid that misperception or manipulation," the US official told AFP. "We are committed to testing our ICBMs to ensure a safe, secure, effective nuclear arsenal."

North Korea, incensed by UN sanctions following its nuclear and missile tests and by South Korean-US military drills, has issued a series of apocalyptic threats of nuclear war in recent weeks.

It has also reportedly loaded two intermediate-range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them in underground facilities near its east coast, raising speculation it is preparing for a provocative launch.

Foreign diplomats in Pyongyang huddled at the weekend to discuss a warning from the North's authorities that their safety could not be guaranteed after April 10 if a conflict broke out.

Most of their governments have made it clear they have no immediate plans to withdraw personnel, and some suggested the advisory was a ruse to fuel growing global anxiety over the crisis.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Sunday he saw no immediate need to withdraw his country's diplomats. Hague also told the BBC the North is showing no sign of gearing up for "all-out conflict" by repositioning its armed forces, and called for calm.

The top national security adviser to South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye said on Sunday the warning was another ploy to force the South and the United States to reach out with face-saving concessions.

"We believe the North is trying to turn the situation around by making the US send a special envoy, the South to offer dialogue and China or Russia to act as a mediator," Kim Jang-Soo said.

China is the North's sole major ally, but its patience with Pyongyang shows signs of wearing thin.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China opposed "provocative words and actions" from any party in the region and would "not allow troublemaking on China's doorstep", in sharply worded comments Saturday to UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

South Korea's Kim, a former defence minister, warned a missile launch by the North was possible around the April 10 date given to foreign embassies, but said there was no sign it was preparing for a ruinous full-scale conflict.

The North's mobilised missiles are reported to be untested Musudan models which are believed to have a range of about 3000 kilometres that could theoretically be pushed to 4000km with a light payload.

That would cover any target in South Korea and Japan, and possibly even reach US military bases on the Pacific island of Guam.

The North has no proven inter-continental ballistic missile capability that would enable it to strike more distant US targets, and many experts say it is unlikely it can even mount a nuclear warhead on a mid-range missile.

After non-stop escalation including the public deployment of US warships and planes to the region, the Pentagon move was a welcome measure to cool tensions, said Yang Moo-Jin from Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

"The US military may have felt that now was the time to pace itself after weeks of hectic military confrontation," he told AFP.

"If the North really launches intermediate-range missiles as widely feared, the US may be partially blamed for having pushed it to take such drastic action by deploying extremely threatening weaponry near the Korean peninsula."

Western tourists returning from organised tours in Pyongyang - which have continued despite the tensions - said the situation there appeared calm.

"We're glad to be back, but we didn't feel frightened when we were there," said Tina Krabbe, from Denmark.

North Korea on Wednesday put in place a ban on South Koreans accessing their companies in the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial zone on the North side of the border. There are no cross-trips on Sundays.

The estate is the only surviving example of inter-Korean co-operation and seen as a bellwether for stability.

But Seoul said on Sunday that 13 South Korean firms there had so far been forced to suspend production because of a shortage of materials or personnel.

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US urges Turkey, Israel to normalise ties

US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on Turkey and Israel to fully normalise their ties, two weeks after the Jewish state's US-brokered apology for a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza aid flotilla organised by a Turkish charity.

"It is not for the United States to be setting conditions or terms. ... We would like to see this relationship that is important to stability in Middle East, critical to the peace process itself, we would like to see it back on track in its full," Kerry told a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"It is imperative that the compensation component be fulfilled, that the ambassadors be returned," Kerry said.

"I'm confident there will be goodwill on both sides."

Israel apologised to Ankara on March 22 for the deaths of nine Turkish activists in a botched raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound aid ship, in a breakthrough engineered by US President Barack Obama during a visit to Jerusalem.

The apology ended a nearly three-year rift between Israel and Turkey - two key US allies in the region - and the two countries are due to begin talks on compensation on Friday.

But they have yet to exchange ambassadors and fully restore diplomatic ties.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accepted the apology "in the name of the Turkish people" but said the country's future relationship with Israel including the return of ambassadors would depend on the Jewish state.

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Nazi hunter criticises Australia in report

THE Israel branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre has criticised Australia and several other countries for failing to do enough to bring perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice.

The centre's 12th annual report on efforts to hunt down Nazis accuses a raft of nations of failing to prosecute or investigate alleged Nazis.

"The most disappointing result in a specific case during the period under review was the decision by the Australian High Court to reject the extradition request submitted by the Hungarian authorities for Karoly (Charles) Zentai, who was accused of the murder in November 1944 of 18-year-old Peter Balasz," it said.

The Los Angeles-based centre said Zentai allegedly killed the Jewish teenager "whom he caught on a tram without the yellow star required of all Jews," and took part in manhunts for other Jews in Budapest in 1944.

Only the United States scored an "A" on the report; Canada, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Serbia each got a "B".

At the bottom of the table it gave Australia, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Norway, Sweden and Syria "F" grades.

"Countries like Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Ukraine consistently failed to hold any Holocaust perpetrators accountable, primarily due to a lack of the requisite political will," the report said.

It added that Sweden and Norway "refuse to investigate, let alone prosecute, due to a statute of limitations."

At the top of the centre's list of most-wanted alleged war criminals is Alois Brunner, who is accused of being a key operative for Adolf Eichmann and of responsibility for the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews.

Born in 1912 and last seen in 2001, Brunner lived in Syria for decades, the centre said, but acknowledged the chances of his still being alive were "relatively slim."

The report came as Israel prepared to observe Holocaust Day from sundown on Sunday, with the entire nation coming to a standstill for two minutes of silence on Monday to remember the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust in World War II.

To coincide with the commemoration, Tel Aviv University on Sunday released its annual report on global anti-Semitism, which it said climbed sharply last year.

"A considerable escalation in the level of violent and vandalistic acts against Jews was recorded in 2012," it said.

"The combined number of 686 such acts represents an increase of 30 per cent over the 2011 figure of 526."

The report said the largest number of attacks took place in France, where 200 incidents occurred, followed by the United States (99) Britain (84) and Canada (74).

It said the fatal shooting of three Jewish children and a rabbi at a school in the French city of Toulouse in March 2012 had sparked a wave of copycat attacks.

It "triggered a wave of copycat violent incidents against Jewish targets, mainly in France - one of the worst experienced by the community."

The report also said far-right parties exploited European economic woes to push "a clear anti-Semitic agenda."

"In Hungary and Greece, as well as in Ukraine, vociferous representatives of these parties openly incite in parliament against local Jewish communities," the survey said.

"Blatant anti-Semitic and anti-Israel expressions appeared to ignite violent activity in Hungary, and a significant rise in desecration of cemeteries and Holocaust memorials was recorded in Poland."

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UK calls for calm over North Korea

BRITAIN is urging calm over the spiralling nuclear tensions with North Korea, saying Pyongyang had shown no signs of repositioning its armed forces despite its "paranoid rhetoric".

Foreign Secretary William Hague added there was no immediate need to withdraw British diplomats despite Pyongyang warning that it could not guarantee their safety if conflict broke out.

"It is important to stress that we haven't seen in recent days, in recent weeks a change in what is happening in North Korean society. We've not been able to observe that," Hague told BBC television.

"We haven't seen the repositioning of forces or the redeployment of ground forces that one might see in a period prior to a military assault or to an all-out conflict.

"That's why I say it's important to keep calm as well as to be firm and united about this."

The heads of EU missions in Pyongyang met on Saturday after North Korea warned they should consider evacuating as it could not guarantee their safety after April 10 in the event of conflict breaking out.

"I haven't seen any immediate need to respond to that by moving our diplomats out of there," Hague said.

However, he added Britain, a nuclear-armed member of NATO and the UN Security Council, would "keep this under close review with our allies and international partners".

A further meeting of EU ambassadors is due to take place on Monday in Brussels.

Hague said while there was always a "danger" from a nuclear-armed North Korea, the real risk was letting the war of words turn into a real conflict.

He said there was a "danger of miscalculation by the North Korean regime which has worked itself up into this frenetic state of rhetoric in recent weeks and the danger that they would believe their own paranoid rhetoric."

The British foreign minister would not however be drawn when asked if he thought North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was "nuts".

"I don't know the man myself," Hague said.

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One dead in Vic truck, horse-float smash

ONE person has died and at least three others have been injured after a semitrailer collided with two vehicles, including one towing a horse-float, in Melbourne's outer northeast.

Police believe the semitrailer jack-knifed on the Melba Highway, causing it to collide with two oncoming vehicles about 8.20pm (AEST) on Sunday.

The driver and sole occupant of one vehicle died, while the extent of injuries to the pair trapped in the other vehicle bearing the horse float were unknown, police said.

Emergency crews were working to free the pair, as well as the horse, from the crash.

The male truck driver, aged in his late thirties, suffered minor injuries.

Victoria's road toll stands at 68, compared to 80 at the same time a year ago.

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