Greeks want probe of tax scandal minister

GREEK MPs have called for a probe into former finance minister George Papaconstantinou's alleged role in scrubbing names from a list of accused tax dodgers, days after he was ejected from his party over the scandal.

Seventy-one MPs from Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's governing coalition proposed the parliamentary inquiry, which if voted through by the 300-seat legislature will investigate whether Papaconstantinou is guilty of "falsification" of an official document and "breach of duty".

The probe could lead to charges against Papaconstantinou, who helped draw up the debt-ridden nation's first austerity drive. The 51-year-old denies all wrongdoing in the tax affair, which he called a "conspiracy" on Sunday.

The ex-minister was booted from his socialist Pasok party on Friday after it was revealed that the names of four of his family members - two cousins and their husbands - had been deleted from the list of alleged tax dodgers.

Greek prosecutors are investigating some 2000 holders of HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland for suspected tax evasion, according to media reports.

Media have dubbed the case the "Lagarde list" affair, after International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde, who personally gave Papaconstantinou the list in 2010 when she was France's finance minister.

The list was originally leaked by an HSBC employee before being passed to Greece by Lagarde.

Authorities have claimed the list was illegally obtained and hence cannot be used in the battle against tax evasion, a chronic problem in the heavily indebted and recession-hit country.

But mounting anger against a new round of austerity cuts, imposed by Greece's international creditors, has put pressure on the government to act on the list.

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Venezuela axes New Year's with Chavez sick

VENEZUELA has called off public New Year's Eve festivities and social media sizzled with worry after the government revealed cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez had taken a turn for the worse.

The streets of Caracas were quiet as front-page headlines relayed that Chavez had developed "new complications" from a respiratory infection after undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery on December 11 in Havana.

His vice-president and political heir, Nicolas Maduro, broke the news from Havana on Sunday night, saying the condition of the Venezuelan leader was delicate and that he faced an uphill battle.

Chavez, the face of the Latin American left for more than a decade and a firebrand critic of what he calls US imperialism, has been in power since 1999 in Venezuela, an OPEC member that sits on top of the world's largest proven oil reserves.

For many Venezuelans, a holiday season without their ubiquitous comandante just wasn't the same.

"I do not know what will happen to Chavez, but we have never had a Christmas like this. Only God knows what will happen with him and with us," said 70-year-old retiree Miguel Enrique as he prepared to attend Mass.

Authorities cancelled a New Year's eve concert in a downtown plaza and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas urged "families in Caracas and Venezuela in general to ring in the New Year at home, praying and expressing hope for the health" of Chavez.

On Twitter, hashtags translating into expressions such as "Chavez will live and conquer" and "I love Chavez" were all the rage.

But Chavez is also deeply polarising, even though he has ruled for nearly 14 years, and his detractors spoke out too.

Chavez, 58, won another six-year term in October's presidential election, and is scheduled to be sworn in on January 10.

But his ill health has raised concerns that he won't be well enough to attend his inauguration.

Chavez's government has said that the inauguration can be postponed if the president is not fit enough to be sworn in.

Not so, said Veppex, a Miami-based association of 25,000 Venezuelans living outside their country as refugees or political exiles.

It insisted the constitution must be respected verbatim and that new elections must be held within 30 days if Chavez cannot be sworn in on the scheduled day. It said all signs were that he will not be.

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Nine shot dead during party

NINE people have been shot and killed in a rural village in northwest Colombia, apparently during a party, a police official has said.

None of the four women and five men who were slain have been identified, no suspects have been arrested and authorities have no idea what the motive of the killings might be, said Yesid Vasquez, police chief for Antioquia department.

He said the victims were apparently celebrating in a rented villa in Envigado, near Medellin, when they were shot.

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Police searching for missing Sydney man

AN appeal has been issued for information on a 48-year-old man who has gone missing from his Sydney home.

Barry Kodesh was last seen between 9am and 10.45am (AEDT) on Sunday at his home in Everton Street, Pymble.

Police and family members are concerned for his welfare as the disappearance is out of character.

"There has been no access to any bank accounts and Mr Kodesh is not believed to have taken any other cash, medication or property with him," a police statement says.

Also missing is his blue 1995 Toyota Camry with a NSW registration of UBR 354.

Mr Kodesh is described as being of Caucasian appearance, about 180-185cm tall with a medium build, light brown hair, brown eyes, a beard and moustache.

Anyone with information about Mr Kodesh or his car is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Two-year-old boy attacked by dog in Sydney

A TWO-YEAR-OLD boy remains in hospital after he was attacked by a Rottweiler while visiting family in Sydney's west.

The boy and his parents were visiting a home in Fullerton Street, St Helens Park about 7.30pm (AEDT) on Monday, when he was attacked by the owner's five-year-old Rottweiler, police said.

The boy was playing with other children in the backyard of the premises and suffered serious facial injuries in the attack, while his father was also bitten several times on the leg as he tried to free his son.

The boy was taken to Campbelltown Hospital before being transferred to Westmead Children's Hospital in a stable condition, while his father also was treated at hospital.

The dog was surrendered to Campbelltown Council by the owner and will be destroyed.

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Man shot in stomach in Sydney's southwest

A MAN has been shot in Sydney's southwest.

A 21-year-old man was found with a wound to his stomach after police were called to Green Valley Road, Busby about 11.15pm (AEDT) on Sunday following reports of a shooting.

The man was treated by ambulance paramedics before being taken to Liverpool Hospital.

A crime scene was established that will be examined by specialist forensic officers.

Police have urged anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Benghazi security a 'huge problem': Obama

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has admitted that a probe into a deadly assault on a US consulate in Libya had uncovered a "huge problem" in security procedures at the mission.

"We're not going to be defensive about it," Obama said in an interview recorded on Saturday for NBC's Meet the Press. "We're not going to pretend that this was not a problem. This was a huge problem."

On September 11, the anniversary of the 2001 attacks by al-Qaeda on New York and Washington, heavily-armed militants stormed the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and attacked a nearby CIA safehouse.

Four Americans died in the assault, including US ambassador Chris Stevens, and Obama's domestic opponents have attacked the administration's handling of both security prior to the attack and public statements afterwards.

In his interview, Obama said all of the recommendations of a critical report into the State Department's operation in Benghazi would be implemented, and said US agents were hunting down those responsible for the killings.

"With respect to who carried it out, that's an ongoing investigation. The FBI has sent individuals to Libya repeatedly," the president said.

"We have some very good leads, but this is not something that I'm going to be at liberty to talk about right now."

Obama also defended UN ambassador Susan Rice, who was accused by Republican lawmakers of misleading the public when she said the attack was a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim film made privately in the United States.

Rice had been considered the frontrunner to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as America's top diplomat in Obama's second term, but dropped out of the running after becoming the focus of Republican attacks.

"She appeared on a number of television shows reporting what she and we understood to be the best information at the time," Obama said, accusing opponents of making a scapegoat of his close ally.

"This was a politically motivated attack on her. I mean, of all the people in my national security team, she probably had the least to do with anything that happened in Benghazi."

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Russia sends landing ships to Syria

A RUSSIAN warship carrying a marines unit has left its Black Sea port for Syria amid preparations for a possible evacuation of nationals living and working in the strife-torn country, news reports say.

The Novocherkassk landing ship is the third such craft dispatched since Friday to the Tartus port that Russia leases from its last Middle East ally, agencies cited an unnamed official in the general staff as saying.

The reports said the Azov and Nikolai Filchenkov landing ships had also been sent to Syria from their Russian bases.

The military source said the Novocherkassk would arrive at Tartus within the first 10 days of January.

The Novocherkassk and another landing ship called Saratov both made a rare port call to Tartus in late November.

Officials did not disclose the details of that visit.

The Tartus base is Russia's only remaining naval station outside the former Soviet Union and is seen as a major strategic asset for Moscow.

Russia has been accused of using the base to supply Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with secret military shipments supplementing the official weapons sales that Moscow has made to Damascus since Soviet times.

But recent rebel gains prompted Russia to admit for the first time this month that Assad's days in power may be numbered.

Officials have since openly acknowledged making preparations for a possible evacuation should the safety of Russians in Syria be threatened by Assad's downfall.

The three landing ships will be joining what Russian reports said was a much broader exercise off the coast of Syria involving vessels from three naval fleets.

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Magazine mistakenly publishes Bush obit

GERMANY'S respected news weekly Der Spiegel has mistakenly published an obituary for former US president George Bush senior, hours after a family spokesman said the 88-year-old was recovering from illness.

Bush was hospitalised in Houston November 23 for treatment of a bronchitis-related cough and moved to intensive care on December 23 after he developed a fever.

On Saturday, spokesman Jim McGrath said Bush was moved out of intensive care into a regular hospital room again after his condition improved.

The unfinished obituary appeared on Der Spiegel's website for only a few minutes on Sunday before it was spotted by internet users and removed.

In it, the magazine's New York correspondent described Bush as "a colourless politician" whose image only improved when it was compared to the later presidency of his son, George W Bush.

"All newsrooms prepare obituaries for selected figures," the magazine said on its Twitter feed. "The fact that the one for Bush senior went live was a technical mistake. Sorry!"

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Switzerland freezes Mubarak sons' $300m

SWISS authorities have frozen $US300 million ($A290 million) sitting in Credit Suisse accounts in Geneva held by the sons of deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the newspaper Le Matin Dimanche has reported.

The funds are held in accounts belonging to Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, sons of the ex-president who are currently being held in an Egyptian prison.

The brothers are accused of using their position as scions of Egypt's long-time ruler to help themselves to villas, luxury cars and stakes in the country's key companies.

According to the newspaper, the funds were deposited at the Credit Suisse in 2005, which was after Switzerland tightened rules governing transactions by politically exposed depositors.

A Credit Suisse spokesman refused comment, citing the bank's secrecy policy.

The paper said Egypt-linked funds had also been frozen at the Swiss office of French banking giant BNP Paribas.

Switzerland has opened a probe targeting 14 people close to the Mubarak regime who are suspected of embezzling public funds and widescale corruption.

Earlier this month, Swiss authorities refused to provide their Egyptian counterparts with access to their findings so far, citing concerns for the "institutional situation" in Cairo.

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Fifteen tied up and killed in Nigeria

SUSPECTED radical Islamist gunmen have attacked a village in northeast Nigeria, tying up men, women and children before slitting their throats and killing at least 15 in the troubled region's latest attack.

The assault happened early on Friday morning in the village of Musari on the outskirts of Maiduguri.

The gunmen, suspected of being members of Boko Haram, shouted religious slogans and later ordered people to gather up into a group, said Mshelia Inusa, a primary school teacher in the village.

Chants of "God is great, God is great" followed, he said.

Later, Mr Inusa and others saw corpses with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats cut.

Later Friday morning, an ambulance arrived at the State Specialists Hospital in Maiduguri, accompanied by a group of military vehicles, a security guard said. Agitated soldiers ordered people away, but the guard said he counted at least 15 bodies being brought into the facility's morgue.

A military spokesman later issued a statement saying only five people had been killed in the village during the attack. However, military and police officials routinely downplay casualty figures because they are under increasing pressure from their superiors to minimise the perceived effects of the ongoing attacks by Boko Haram.

Boko Haram could not be immediately reached for comment.

More than 780 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks in 2012.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen also attacked another village Friday in Adamawa state on its border with neighbouring Cameroon.

Witnesses said that attack focused on the town of Maiha, where gunmen also shouted praises to God while setting fire to government buildings, a school and a prison.

At least 35 prisoners were released from the prison in the attack, though 11 had been recaptured, police spokesman Mohammed Ibrahim said.

Mr Ibrahim said a civilian and a police officer were killed during the fighting.

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Swine flu kills nine Palestinians

NINE Palestinians have died in an outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain known as swine flu, the office of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad says.

"Latest figures and information ... show that 187 cases have so far been recorded, the majority of which are in the northern West Bank," it said in a statement.

"The number of recorded deaths ... stands at nine until now."

It added that the Palestinian health ministry "has the necessary medicines, testing kits and equipment to deal efficiently with the spread of the virus".

The virus has affected Israel and the Palestinian territories in the past, killing dozens of people.

In 2009, an H1N1 epidemic erupted in Mexico and spread into a worldwide pandemic that caused at least 17,000 deaths.

In 1997, the H5N1 strain of influenza, commonly known as bird flu, broke out in Hong Kong.

Spreading from live birds to humans through direct contact, it causes fever and breathing problems and claimed 359 human lives in 15 countries, mainly in Asia and Africa, from 2003 to August of this year, according to the World Health Organisation.

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Hanlong to buy Sundance: report

A PRIVATELY-owned Chinese company is finalising the acquisition of an Australian mining firm that controls a major iron ore mine in west Africa, China's official Xinhua News Agency reports.

The move would give China a stronger role in setting global iron ore prices.

Xinhua, citing officials from Hanlong Group, based in southwestern China's Sichuan province, said Hanlong plans to complete the acquisition of Sundance Resources Ltd for 45 cents per share by March 1, after submitting paperwork to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Sundance controls the Mbalam iron ore mine, which straddles Cameroon and the Republic of Congo.

Hanlong is seeking a partnership with Chinese state-owned companies and investing $US5 billion ($4.84 billion) to develop the Mbalam project and to build a 550-kilometre railway and a shipping port, Xinhua said.

Operations are expected to begin in 2014, Xinhua said.

As the world's second-largest economy, China is eager to acquire overseas assets and resources to feed its rapid growth.

The prospect of a takeover appeared remote earlier this month following news that Hanlong wanted to delay the bid because it could not secure funding by December 13, AAP reported.

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'Invisible Exhibition' opens eyes to blind

THE darkness is total. Mundane gestures suddenly become complicated. How do you find the door to your room, cook a meal or cross the road?

The Invisible Exhibition in the Polish capital Warsaw offers an opportunity to understand what it is like to be sightless, as blind guides steer visitors round in blacked-out rooms .

"The visitors take on the role of the blind," exhibition curator Malgorzara Szumowska told AFP.

"Thanks to a series of sense-based installations, you experience what it is to live in the dark."

The hour-long tour requires a healthy imagination, as the sighted learn how smell, hearing, taste and touch work differently in this unknown world.

"There are six rooms, all in utter darkness. Each one replicates a scene from daily life: an apartment, a street, a museum, and so on," said Szumowska.

The noise seems overwhelming in the street scene, where visitors must dodge cars and lampposts. Smells are a delight in a forest chalet, as is the sound of a stream under a small wooden bridge.

The last stop is a loud cafe where the blind guide takes on the role of the barman.

Along with the dark side, the exhibition has a section with light that offers educational games to stimulate the senses and demonstrates tools the blind use in their daily lives, such as braille.

"Our goal is to show that the invisible world is beautiful and sumptuous, and that the blind have a sense of humour, with a life and passions," said Szumowska. "Fate doesn't exclude them from society."

The idea for the exhibition came from Hungary, where a woman blacked out her apartment to understand and share the experience of her husband, blinded by an accident.

Her experiment led to an exhibition-cum-social project in the capital Budapest. It caught on, and was followed by a version in the Czech capital Prague then another one in Warsaw, which opened a year ago.

Some 30,000 people have visited Niewidzialna Wystawa, as it's called in Polish.

"It's very powerful," said Warsaw student Aleksandra. "At first I was terrified. I didn't know what was going on around me. I felt lost. But luckily there was a blind guide."

The guides are paid, a boost in a labour market where options for the blind are often limited.

"It's the best job I've ever had," said Pawel Kozlowski, one of the team.

It's also a challenge, said 31-year-old Pawel Orabczuk, a graduate in teaching and social work as well as a sound engineer and drummer in a heavy metal band who has been blind since birth.

"The main thing for we guides is to ensure that everything feels fine and safe," he said. You not only have to help visitors tap their four remaining senses but you must do so "only through words, because they can't see your gestures in the dark".

"If only one visitor in 10 realises that you should consider the blind as an ordinary person, that's a success," he added.

Even "we can still say, 'See you soon'," he said at the exit. "How else can you put it?"

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Road trip on tap for NASA's Mars rover

SINCE captivating the world with its acrobatic landing, the Mars rover Curiosity has fallen into a rhythm: Drive, snap pictures, zap at boulders, scoop up dirt. Repeat.

Topping its to-do list in the new year: Set off toward a Martian mountain - a trek that will take up a good chunk of the year.

The original itinerary called for starting the drive before the Times Square ball drop, but Curiosity lingered longer than planned at a pit stop, delaying the trip.

Curiosity will now head for Mount Sharp in mid-February after it drills into its first rock.

"We'll probably be ready to hit the pedal to the metal and give the keys back to the rover drivers," mission chief scientist John Grotzinger said in a recent interview at his office on the sprawling NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

The road trip comes amid great expectations. After all, it's the reason the $US2.5 billion ($A2.42 billion) mission targeted Gale Crater near the Martian equator. Soaring from the center of the ancient crater is a 3-mile-high peak with intriguing layers of rocks.

Curiosity's job is to figure out whether the landing site ever had the right environmental conditions to support microbes. Scientists already know water flowed in the past thanks to the rover's discovery of an old stream bed. Besides water, life as we know it also needs energy, the sun.

What's missing are the chemical building blocks of life: complex carbon-based molecules. If they're preserved on Mars, scientists figure the best place to hunt for them is at the base of Mount Sharp where images from space reveal hints of interesting geology.

It's a six-month journey if Curiosity drives nonstop. But since scientists will want to command the six-wheel rover to rest and examine rocky outcrops along the way, it'll turn into a nine-month odyssey.

Before Curiosity can tackle a mountain, there's unfinished business to tend to. After spending the holiday taking measurements of the Martian atmosphere, Curiosity gears up for the first task of the new year: Finding the perfect rock to bore into.

The exercise - from picking a rock to drilling to deciphering its chemical makeup - is expected to last more than a month.

"We have promised everybody that we're going to go slowly," said Grotzinger, a geologist at the California Institute of Technology.

Curiosity's low-key adventures thus far are in contrast to the drama-filled touchdown that entranced the world in August. Since the car-size rover was too heavy to land using a parachute and airbags, engineers invented a daring new way that involved lowering it to the surface by cables. The risky arrival proved so successful and popular that NASA is planning an encore in 2020.

Curiosity joined another NASA rover, Opportunity, which has been exploring the Martian southern hemisphere since 2004. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, stopped communicating in 2010.

After nailing the landing, Curiosity fell into a routine. The first month was dominated by health checkups - a tedious but essential prerequisite before driving. A chemistry laboratory on wheels, it's the most high-tech spacecraft to land on another planet so extra care was taken to ensure its tools, including its rock-zapping laser and robotic arm, worked.

Once it got the green light, it trundled to a way point that's home to three unique types of terrain to perform science experiments. Every time Curiosity roves, it leaves Morse code tracks in the soil, providing a visual signal between drives. The message spells out JPL, short for Jet Propulsion Lab, which built the rover.

So far, its odometer has logged less than a mile. Despite the slow going, scientists have been smitten with the postcards it beamed home, including a stylish self-portrait and tantalising glimpses of Mount Sharp.

Huge expectations weigh on the mission with NASA balancing the need to feed the public's appetite while pursuing discoveries at its own pace. Last month, the space agency quashed Internet speculation that Curiosity had detected complex carbon compounds in a pinch of Martian soil by issuing a statement ahead of a science meeting where the team was due to present the latest findings.

American University space policy professor Howard McCurdy said Curiosity is currently in a transition, caught between the viral landing and the scientific payoff expected at Mount Sharp.

"It is interesting, but slow," he said in an email. "I expect public interest will rise as the rover gets closer to its destination."

Curiosity's prime mission lasts two years, but NASA expects the plutonium-powered rover to live far longer. A priority for its human handlers is to learn to operate it more efficiently so that it becomes second nature. Before heading to Mount Sharp, engineers plan a software update to Curiosity's computers to fix remaining bugs.

"We'll need to be pretty careful," project manager Richard Cook said of the upcoming drive. "We may find terrain that we're not comfortable driving in and we'll have to spend time driving around stuff."

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WA bushfire destroys sheds, fences

A NUMBER of sheds and fences have been destroyed in a bushfire east of Perth.

The fire in Chidlow was reported shortly before 8pm (WST) on Thursday and took several hours to bring under control.

Fire and Rescue Service and Bush Fire Service firefighters remained on the scene overnight strengthening containment lines.

Firefighters say they are being helped by an easing of the wind.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

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'Rescue Me' singer Fontella Bass dies

FONTELLA Bass, a St. Louis-born soul singer who hit the top of the R&B charts with "Rescue Me" in 1965, has died

The singer's daughter, Neuka Mitchell, says Bass died at a St. Louis hospice Wednesday night of complications from a heart attack suffered three weeks ago. She was 72. Bass had also suffered several strokes since 2005.

Bass was born into a family with deep musical roots. Her mother was gospel singer Martha Bass, one of the Clara Ward Singers. Her younger brother, David Peaston, had a string of R&B hits in the 1980s and 1990s. Peaston died in February at age 54.

Her surviving family includes four children. Her husband, jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie, died in 1999.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

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Apple CEO takes sharp pay cut

APPLE CEO Tim Cook got a relatively modest $US4.2 million ($4 million) in pay for the latest fiscal year, after the company's board set him up with stock now worth $US510 million for taking the reins in 2011.

Mr Cook's pay for fiscal 2012, which ended in September, consisted of $US1.4 million in salary, a bonus of $US2.8 million, and $US17,000 in company contributions to his 401(k) account and life insurance premiums, according to a filing.

Apple's board saw no need to grant Mr Cook additional shares in 2012 after the sign-on grant of 1 million shares in 2011. Half of those shares vest in 2016 and the other half in 2021.

Mr Cook did vest into shares worth $US140 million in 2012. Those shares were granted earlier, when he was chief operating officer.

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Egypt prosecutor orders opposition probe

EGYPT'S public prosecutor has ordered a probe into the top three leaders of the opposition on suspicion of trying to incite followers to overthrow President Mohamed Morsi, a legal source says.

The prosecutor, Taalat Ibrahim Abdallah, who was appointed by Morsi late last month, signed the order against the leaders of the opposition National Salvation Front, which led protests against Morsi's drive to have a new constitution adopted.

The probe targets Mohammed ElBaradei, a Nobel peace prize laureate, Amr Moussa, former chief of the Arab League, and Hamdeen Sabbahi, the leader of the nationalist left wing. Moussa and Sabbahi were presidential candidates in June elections that Morsi won.

The National Salvation Front alleged frauds and irregularities in the December 15 and 22 split referendum on the new charter, which Morsi signed into law this week.

It accuses Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood of wanting to use the constitution to introduce creeping strict Islamic sharia law.

Abdallah called on Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki to name an investigating magistrate for the probe, which would examine suspicions of "inciting for the overthrow of the regime".

Morsi on Wednesday hailed the adoption of the new constitution with 64 per cent of the votes in the referendum, though turnout was a low 33 per cent.

Within two months, Egypt has to hold legislative elections to choose a parliament to succeed the one dissolved by the constitutional court in June. The opposition parties in the National Salvation Front coalition are considering competing in the elections on the same ticket.

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Zuma in doghouse after pet comments

SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma got himself into a spot of bother when he suggested that owning a dog was not African and belonged to white culture.

Local media reported that Zuma had remarked that buying a dog, taking it for walks and paying for veterinary care belonged to "white" culture.

Not able to let sleeping dogs lie, Zuma went on to say that pet ownership was part of a worrying trend of black Africans trying to be white.

That prompted howls of protest from South African pet owners of all hues and mottles.

Criticism of Zuma littered social networking sites like Twitter, where one user tweeted: "Zuma says owning dogs is un-African. Unlike those old African traditions of owning German cars, Italian suits, and Irish whiskey."

The presidency later tried to fend off some of the criticism, insisting Zuma had been trying to "decolonise the African mind".

"The message merely emphasised the need not to elevate our love for our animals above our love for other human beings," said spokesman Mac Maharaj.

"He made the well-known example of people who sit with their dogs in front in a van or truck with a worker at the back in pouring rain or extremely cold weather.

"Others do not hesitate to rush their dogs to veterinary surgeons for medical care when they are sick while they ignore workers or relatives who are also sick in the same households."

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Tube strike can't stop London shoppers

STRIKE action has heavily disrupted London's Underground train network, as hundreds of thousands of bargain hunters headed to the shops for the traditional Boxing Day sales.

All 13 of the Tube lines were running a reduced service after just a third of drivers turned up for work in a dispute between the Aslef union and the network operators over payments for working on public holidays.

Howard Collins, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "This strike action is completely unnecessary.

"Train drivers are paid a salary that reflects some bank holiday working, but the Aslef leadership is demanding to be paid twice for the same work and has rejected our attempts to resolve the matter."

Despite the transport problems, shoppers formed long queues from the early hours of the morning outside London's top department stores including Harrods and Selfridges.

Many of the bargain hunters were Chinese, with Harrods creating a separate queue outside its store in the upmarket district of Knightsbridge for those looking for reductions on designer goods such as Gucci.

Sue West, director of operations at Selfridges, said handbags and menswear were particularly popular items in the sale at its flagship branch on London's main shopping thoroughfare of Oxford Street.

"Of the people queuing to get inside 60 per cent or 70 per cent were men. It's a great day for men's shopping. It's a tradition and people want to experience it," she said.

"Online sales for us have been great but year on year people still want to experience the Boxing Day sales."

British retailers slash prices on the day after Christmas Day, with big-ticket items such as TVs and computers carrying the biggest reductions.

The price comparison site MoneySupermarket.com estimates that shoppers in Britain will spend STG2.9 billion ($4.6 billion) in the sales.

The British Retail Consortium had described high-street spending as "acceptable but not exceptional" during the Christmas period.

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National holiday road toll reaches 17

AUSTRALIA'S national road toll stands at 17 after a man was killed in a single car accident in Western Australia.

Perth Now reports the man died when his car flipped on the North West Coastal Highway at Yannarie, which is about 1200km north of Perth and 200km southeast of Exmouth, about noon (WST) on Wednesday.

Police in WA say the first death on the state's roads happened on Christmas Eve, when a young man died after his car hit a power pole at Esperance, about 720 kilometres southeast of Perth.

Meanwhile, NSW police are pleading for drivers to slow down after accidents on the state's roads left five people dead in one day, including an elderly Fijian couple, who died when their can left the Hume Highway near Holbrook in the state's south and rolled.

Queensland has recorded its first holiday road death after a sedan veered off the Bruce Highway on the state's east coast and rolled early on Wednesday.

The losses take the toll for NSW to six, five people have died on Victoria's roads, and two in South Australia.

One person each has been killed on roads in Queensland and Tasmania.

The Northern Territory and ACT remain fatality-free.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012, until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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US stocks up ahead of 'fiscal cliff' talks

US stocks have opened slightly higher, as President Barack Obama heads back to Washington to try to secure a year-end "fiscal cliff" deal with Republican lawmakers.

In roughly the first 15 minutes of trade on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22.59 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 13,161.67.

The broad-market S&P 500 was up 0.99 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 1,427.65.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained 0.82 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 3,013.42.

"The action today through Friday will be heavily influenced by news on the fiscal cliff negotiations. Underlying that will be support from the traditional year-end bullish bias," said Briefing.com's Dick Green.

"At least for today, it looks like the seasonal support is enough to boost the stock market given the uncertain outlook for the budget negotiations."

On Christmas Eve, the Dow was down 0.39 per cent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.24 per cent and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite shed 0.28 per cent. Markets were closed for Christmas Day.

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Spain seizes 11 tonnes of hashish

SPANISH police have seized 11 tonnes of hashish smuggled from Morocco on trucks with fuel tanks rigged to hide the drugs and arrested 35 people in what has been described as the breakup of a major smuggling ring feeding the European market.

The haul was displayed across a patio outside the headquarters of the National Police, with some hashish packaged in small amounts resembling bars of soap, while much of it was held in suitcases made out of tape and packaging material.

It was described as one of Spain's biggest drug seizures, but officials did not provide details of previous confiscations for comparison purposes.

Authorities said the hashish travelled in trucks that took cargo ferries from Morocco to southern Spain, and were then driven to a Madrid suburb where the hashish was extracted from the vehicles' fuel tanks. From there, some of the hashish was sent to Madrid for sale while the rest was put aboard other trucks carrying legal merchandise to countries including Belgium, Britain, France and Holland.

Those arrested included 31 Moroccans, three Spaniards and a Belgian woman. One of the Spaniards and the Belgian woman were truckers driving rigs with loads of carrots and clothing with the hashish hidden amid the legitimate cargo, National Police chief Ignacio Cosido said.

Cosido declined to put a value on the hashish seized except to say "it's very profitable".

Police in 17 raids also seized numerous bags of marijuana, 150,000 euros ($A190,000) in cash, 14 vehicles valued at 400,000 euros and 109 mobile phones during the course of an eight-month investigation that started when authorities broke up a Madrid hashish selling ring and went after that group's suppliers.

The ring used GPS systems to track the movements of their hashish loads, and the specially designed fuel tanks to hold the drugs were put back together again for reuse after being dismantled, said Jose Luis Conde, who heads the National Police's Madrid division.

Conde declined to say whether the hashish originally came from Morocco, a major producer, saying only that it was from North Africa.

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Oil rises on housing data

THE price of oil is rising sharply on higher US home prices and hopes of a budget deal in Washington.

US benchmark crude jumped $2.31, or 2.6 per cent, to $90.92 a barrel overnight in thin post-Christmas trading.

US home prices rose in most major cities in October compared with a year ago, according to a key report. The improvement is adding to economic growth, which generally boosts energy consumption and lifts prices.

Also, President Barack Obama will return to Washington today after a brief holiday to resume budget talks with Congress. Negotiations are aimed at avoiding the "fiscal cliff," the deep budget cuts and tax increases that could slow US growth.

On Monday, concerns over the budget pushed down oil prices. Benchmark crude closed 5 cents lower at $88.61.

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Morocco busts Qaida recruitment cell

MOROCCAN authorities said they had broken up a recruitment cell for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in the central Fez region, after announcing the discovery of a jihadist network last month.

"The police, in coordination with the leadership of territorial surveillance, have dismantled a cell with six members, originating from the city of Fez," the interior ministry said in a statement.

The aim of the cell was to "enroll and recruit young Moroccans who have embraced jihadist ideas, in order to send them to camps of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) in Algeria," it added.

Among those arrested was a "former prisoner detained under the anti-terrorism law," who had been "extradited from Algeria in 2005 after he attempted to join the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC)."

AQIM, the global terror network's north African branch, evolved from the GSPC, a breakaway group of militant Algerian Islamists who refused to lay down their weapons when Algeria's civil war ended.

Last month, the Moroccan authorities said they had dismantled several "terrorist" cells that were planning to attack strategic targets in the kingdom.

More than 2000 Islamists were arrested and sentenced after 2003 suicide bomb attacks in Morocco's second city of Casablanca that killed 45 people including the 12 attackers.

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Egypt court frees Mubarak-era Senate chief

AN Egyptian court has freed the former Senate leader under ousted president Hosni Mubarak on bail, after spending the maximum permitted 18 months in jail awaiting his corruption trial, the official MENA news agency reports.

Safwat al-Sherif, one of the top-ranking members of Mubarak's National Democrat Party, was allowed out on payment of the equivalent of $US8100 ($A7830).

He is one of several Mubarak-era officials facing charges of corruption and abuse of power.

In October he and other former regime officials were acquitted of charges of ordering horse- and camel-riders to attack protesters in Cairo during the country's uprising.

Mubarak himself is serving a life sentence for the deaths of some of the 850 protesters in the revolution. He is appealing the conviction, and a court will decide on January 13 whether or not to order a new trial.

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Iran begins naval war games

IRAN has launched naval manoeuvres in the Gulf, and announced plans for another exercise in the strategic Strait of Hormuz later this week, media reports said.

Revolutionary Guards naval units began a four-day exercise inside Iranian waters at South Pars, a joint gas field between Iran and Qatar, a Guards spokesman was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.

The drill, dubbed "Fajr 91," is aimed at honing "capabilities in executing defensive and security scenarios," Admiral Alireza Nasseri said without elaborating.

The Guards are tasked with defending Iran's territorial waters in the Gulf.

The regular navy, meanwhile, on December 28 begins an exercise dubbed "Velayat 91," covering an area that includes the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean, navy chief Admiral Habibollah Sayari said in remarks reported by the ISNA news agency.

Warships, submarines and missile defence systems will be used and tested during the exercise, Admiral Sayari said.

"We will definitely respect the maritime border of our neighbours, and conduct the manoeuvres based on international law," Admiral Sayari said.

"Iran aims to demonstrate its defensive naval capabilities by conducting this exercise, and send a message of peace and friendship to regional countries."

Iran frequently conducts missile tests and manoeuvres to underline its military muscle and has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic should it be attacked.

The strait is a narrow channel at the entrance of the Gulf through which a third of the world's traded oil passes.

The US has warned Iran that any attempt to close the strait would be viewed as a "red line" - grounds for US military action.

Iran's navy, with 17,000 servicemen, is tasked with defending Iranian interests in the Indian Ocean and beyond. Its offshore forces are limited to half a dozen small frigates and destroyers, and three Russian Kilo class submarines.

Iran regularly denounces the regional presence of foreign forces, including the US, particularly those stationed in the Gulf. It says the security of the region must be ensured "by regional countries."

Arab monarchies on the opposite side of the Gulf from Iran are worried by what they see as territorial ambitions by the Islamic republic, which frequently stresses Persia's historic dominance over the waterway.

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17 killed as Yemen army, tribesmen clash

YEMEN'S army has launched an offensive against tribesmen suspected of repeatedly sabotaging an oil pipeline in the country's east, sparking clashes that left 17 people dead, tribal sources say.

The dead included 10 tribesmen and seven soldiers, said the sources, who added the offensive in Marib province's Habab valley, 140 kilometres east of the capital Sanaa, was launched in the early hours of Tuesday and backed by air raids.

The sources said the army was "randomly shelling" the area where some al-Qaeda militants joined tribesmen battling Yemeni troops. Marib is a major al-Qaeda stronghold.

Tribesmen, of whom 18 were also wounded according to the same sources, fought back with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, one source said.

According to official figures, lost production because of attacks on the oil pipeline in the east cost the government more than $US1 billion ($A965 million) in 2012, while oil exports fell by 4.5 per cent.

A tribal source told AFP the offensive was targeting prominent figure Salah bin Hussein al-Dammaj, who has allegedly blown up the pipeline several times to pressure the authorities to pay him 100 million riyals ($A465,000) in compensation for land he claims was taken from him in Sanaa.

The 320-kilometre pipeline carries oil from Safer oilfields in Marib to an export terminal on the Red Sea. It carries about 180,000 barrels per day.

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Military plane crashes, killing 27

KAZAKHSTAN'S acting border service chief was among 27 people killed in a military plane crash near a southern city, authorities said.

The An-72 crashed at 1255 GMT (11.55pm AEDT) about 20 kilometres away from the city of Shymkent near the border with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan's Committee for National Security said in a statement.

The fatalities included a crew of seven and 20 border guards, including the acting head of the ex-Soviet nation's border protection service, Col. Turganbek Stambekov, the statement said. Without specifying further details, authorities said an investigation was opened into the crash.

Stambekov was appointed acting head of the border service in June, after a mass killing of 14 frontier troops in a remote Kazakh outpost near China the month before. Vladislav Chelakh, a 20-year-old conscript, was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison after being found solely responsible for the killings.

The border service has come under close scrutiny in Kazakhstan since the killings, which many argued showed the lack of readiness and professionalism among serving troops. Legislation approved Thursday by the upper house of parliament and supported by Stambekov was designed to improve the process for selecting conscripts for the service.

The Kazakh-Uzbek border stretches 2200 kilometres of Central Asian steppes and deserts.

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Two firefighters shot dead in US

THE police chief in Webster, New York, says that four firefighters were shot while responding to a blaze in the town and that two are dead.

Chief Gerald Pickering says "one or more shooters" fired at the firefighters Monday morning. Officials say they had arrived at the scene of the blaze near the Lake Ontario shore around 6am.

Officials say a fire started in one home and spread to two others and a car. Officials say there is no active shooter at the scene.

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Top Putin foe Navalny faces new charges

RUSSIAN investigators have opened their third criminal case in five months against an opposition leader who poses one of the main challenges to President Vladimir Putin in opinion polls.

The Investigative Committee said it had charged anti-corruption blogger and lawyer Alexei Navalny with "swindling committed by an organised group or on an especially large scale".

The charge - which relates to allegations over a case dating back five years - carries a jail sentence of up to 10 years.

Navalny spearheaded the opposition movement that emerged last year in the wake of disputed parliamentary elections that the ruling party won despite suspicions of fraud.

The 36-year-old - often ranked as the most popular opposition campaigner and an emerging politician who has not ruled out running for president - denies all the charges and views the probes against him as political.

"Lord, they have opened another criminal case against me," Navalny tweeted moments after the news was announced. "The Investigative Committee - what are you doing... Enough."

He later told Russian media that investigators were simply trying to intimidate him "by showing that they could next arrest me for crossing the street in the wrong place".

Navalny is already the focus of an embezzlement probe linked to a murky business deal conducted by a small regional timber company in which he was involved. That offence also risks a 10-year sentence.

Investigators last week also launched a money laundering investigation against Navalny and his brother related to a little-known trading firm.

The latest case concerns 100 million roubles ($A3 million at current exchange rates) allegedly stolen from a liberal political party called the Union of Rightist Forces (SPS) in 2007.

The charges say a company involving Navalny secured an SPS advertising contract that was never fulfilled.

SPS disbanded in 2008 after badly losing a series of elections and Navalny continued with other projects.

But the group's former members expressed amazement at charges that emerged five years after the alleged theft.

"If there was something dirty going on, I would have known about it," said top former party member Leonid Gozman.

An aide to current regional governor and former SPS leader Nikita Belykh also told Moscow Echo radio that no money had been stolen from the party.

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Mandela spends Christmas in hospital

AILING icon Nelson Mandela is spending Christmas Day in hospital, the South African government says, dashing hopes for a festive end to his longest stay in care since being released from prison in 1990.

"Former president Nelson Mandela will spend Christmas Day in hospital, his doctors have confirmed today, on 24 December 2012," the presidency said in a statement.

The 94-year-old Nobel Peace laureate and South Africa's first black post-apartheid president, was admitted to a Pretoria hospital on December 8. He has been treated there for a recurrent lung infection and had surgery to remove gallstones.

In a statement President Jacob Zuma said his predecessor "continues to respond to treatment".

"Knowledge of the love and support of his people keeps him strong," Zuma said.

"We urge all South Africans to keep Tata (father) uppermost in their thoughts at every place of worship or entertainment tomorrow on Christmas Day, and throughout the festive season.

"We also humbly invite all freedom loving people around the world to pray for him. He is an ardent fighter and will recover from this episode with all our support," Zuma said.

There was no indication of when he might be discharged.

"He remains in hospital, recovering," presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told AFP on Monday. "I can't say when he will be discharged, doctors will make that decision."

Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president after the country's first all-race elections in 1994, has a long history of lung problems.

He contracted tuberculosis - a disease which killed his father - while in jail as a political prisoner.

He was later hospitalised for an acute respiratory infection in January 2011, when he was held for two nights.

Mandela was last seen in public in 2010, clad in a scarf during the closing ceremony of the FIFA World Cup, when he was wheeled into the stadium in a golf cart.

In May, footage of a smiling, grey-haired Madiba seated on a couch, was shown on television when he was visited by ruling ANC leaders to present him with a symbolic flame to mark the party's 100 years.

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Jobs estate pays to free impounded yacht

STEVE Jobs' superyacht Venus is free to leave Amsterdam port after the late Apple co-founder's estate paid a deposit to resolve a dispute with designer Philippe Starck, who had the yacht impounded.

"The Venus is no longer impounded, we have found a solution," Gerard Moussault, a Hague-based lawyer for the Jobs estate, told AFP on Monday.

"A security deposit was paid into a bank account, but I cannot say for how much," Moussault said after French designer Starck last week asked Amsterdam bailiffs to seize the sleek 70-metre yacht.

The vessel, which reportedly cost over 100 million euros ($A127 million) to build, was impounded after Starck said Jobs' estate still owed him three million euros for his contribution to its design.

Starck said he was to be paid a fixed sum of nine million euros, while lawyers for Jobs' estate said he was to be paid a percentage of the project's cost equal to six million euros.

The Dutch-built yacht, which was only unveiled in October - just over a year after Jobs died - is in Amsterdam harbour because of bad weather.

"The captain is waiting for better weather to set sail," Moussault said.

Starck's lawyer in the Netherlands, Roelant Klaassen, said on Friday that Jobs and Starck were "very close in the period that the design was made and the building proceeded.

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

The yacht will reportedly be shipped by another ship to the United States, where Jobs' family, including widow Laurene Powell Jobs and their three children Reed, Erin and Eve, are to take charge of her.

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

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

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

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Missing teen fails to return from surfing

A 15-YEAR-OLD boy who told his parents he was going surfing on Saturday is missing from the NSW north coast.

Tyson Cetinich was last seen about 10am (AEDT) on Saturday by his parents at his home in Bogangar.

Police were told Tyson left home to go surfing, but when he failed to return by midday, his parents became concerned and contacted police.

An extensive search of nearby beaches and inquiries to hospitals and local medical centres have been made without success.

Concerns are held for Tyson's welfare and a police statement says he may be travelling to Proston in Queensland.

Tyson is of Caucasian appearance, about 190cm tall with a thin build. He has braces on his teeth and was last seen wearing a grey cap, a navy blue hooded jumper and board shorts.

Anyone who sees him or knows of his whereabouts is urged to immediately contact Tweed Heads Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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NRA: Public wants armed guards in schools

NATIONAL Rifle Association executive Wayne LaPierre says the American people think it would be "crazy" not to put armed guards in every school, as the group has suggested in the wake of the massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Mr LaPierre also contends that any new efforts by Congress to regulate guns or ammunition would not prevent mass shootings.

Mr LaPierre's comments on NBC's Meet the Press reinforced the position that the largest gun-rights lobby took on Friday when it broke its week-long silence on the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

That stand has described by some lawmakers as tone-deaf.

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, says Mr LaPierre blames everything but guns for a series of mass shootings in recent years.

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Turkey lifts NATO Israel veto

NATO member Turkey has agreed to lift its veto on non-military co-operation between the alliance and Israel, which it imposed over a deadly raid on a Turkish aid ship to Gaza in 2010, a diplomat says.

Ankara took the retaliatory measure after the Israeli army stormed the ship carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip while it was in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, leaving nine Turks dead.

The decision to renew NATO links came at a December 4 meeting in Brussels of the 28-member alliance on a proposal by its Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the diplomat said on Sunday.

In return, several NATO allies of Israel agreed to drop a veto against co-operating with Turkey-friendly countries notably in the Arab world.

Turkey will agree to Israeli involvement in certain NATO activities but will maintain its ban on joint military manoeuvres, and Ankara reserves the right to bar activities with Israel on its own soil.

The agreement comes after NATO agreed early this month to deploy Patriot anti-aircraft missiles along the Turkish border with Syria.

Turkey's relations with its former ally Israel deteriorated sharply after the Gaza ship raid.

Israel has rejected Ankara's demands for an apology and compensation.

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Air strike on Syria bakery kills dozens

AN air strike near a bakery in the rebel-held town of Halfaya in the central Syrian province of Hama has killed dozens of people, a monitoring group says.

"Dozens of people were killed in an air strike on Halfaya," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while activists in Hama said Sunday's raid had targeted a bakery in the town.

"In Halfaya, regime forces bombarded a bakery and committed a massacre that killed dozens of people, including women and children, and wounded many others," said the Local Co-ordination Committees, a grassroots network of activists.

"A MiG (jet) has attacked! Look at (President Bashar al-) Assad's weapons. Look, world, look at the Halfaya massacre," says an unidentified cameraman shooting an amateur video distributed by the Observatory.

The footage showed a bombed one-storey block, and a crater in the road beside it.

Bloodied bodies lay on the road, while others could be seen in the rubble.

Men carried victims out on their backs, among them at least one woman, the video showed.

On Monday, rebels launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama, which is home to strong anti-regime sentiment.

Earlier in the year, rights groups accused government forces of committing war crimes by dropping bombs and using artillery on or near several bakeries in the northern province of Aleppo.

One of the bloodiest attacks was on a bread line in the Qadi Askar district of Aleppo city on August 16 that left 60 people dead, according to local hospital records.

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US public want guards in every school: NRA

THE largest US gun rights lobbying organisation is sticking to its call for placing armed police officers and security guards in every school as the best way to avoid shootings such as the recent massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association, said his organisation would push Congress to pay for more school security guards and would co-ordinate efforts to put former military and police offers in schools as volunteer guards.

"If it's crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," LaPierre said in a broadcast interview. "I think the American people think it's crazy not to do it. It's the one thing that would keep people safe."

LaPierre also refused to support any new gun control legislation and contended that any new efforts by Congress to regulate guns or ammunition would not prevent mass shootings.

His comments on NBC television's Meet the Press reinforced the position that the NRA took on Friday when it broke its week-long silence on the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

LaPierre's remarks on Friday prompted widespread criticism, even on the front page of the conservative New York Post, which had the headline: "Gun Nut! NRA loon in bizarre rant over Newtown."

The NRA's stand has been described by some lawmakers as tone-deaf.

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, says LaPierre blames everything but guns for a series of mass shootings in recent years.

"Trying to prevent shootings in schools without talking about guns is like trying to prevent lung cancer without talking about cigarettes," Schumer said.

The NRA plans to develop a school emergency response program that would include volunteers from the group's 4.3 million members to help guard children, and has named former federal politician Asa Hutchinson, an Arkansas Republican, as national director of the program.

Hutchinson said local districts should make decisions about armed guards in schools.

"I've made it clear that it should not be a mandatory law, that every school has this. There should be local choice, but absolutely, I believe that protecting our children with an armed guard who is trained is an important part of the equation," he told the American ABC's This Week.

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Japan PM steps up pressure on central bank

JAPAN'S incoming prime minister Shinzo Abe has stepped up pressure on the Bank of Japan to set a two per cent inflation target, threatening to change a law guaranteeing the bank's independence if it does not agree.

Speaking on Fuji Television on Sunday, Abe said the BoJ's central policy board must back his proposed inflation goal at its next meeting in January.

"If unfortunately it refuses to agree to it, we have to amend the BoJ law, reach an accord (between the government and the bank) and we will have the policy," Abe said.

The law, called the Bank of Japan Act, spells out the central bank's duties and guarantees its independence.

The act also says the bank should work with the government to make sure "its currency and monetary control and the basic stance of the government's economic policy shall be mutually compatible".

Abe also said the BoJ should be held responsible for expanding employment, a point he had stressed during his recent election campaign.

The hawkish leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party is expected to take office on Wednesday, following a landslide victory in national elections last weekend.

Abe has already criticised the central bank for not doing more to stoke Japan's economy - which may have slipped into a recession in the third quarter - and has advocated "unlimited" easing measures, drawing a mixed response from economists.

But the market has welcomed his rhetoric, boosting the Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in recent weeks.

The central bank's policy board met on Thursday and expanded an existing asset-buying program to pump money into the market, but kept interest rates unchanged at between zero and 0.1 per cent.

BoJ governor Masaaki Shirakawa told a news conference on Thursday his board would review their one per cent inflation goal, but made no direct mention of the two per cent inflation target.

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Bahrain protesters demand departure of PM

THOUSANDS of Shi'ite protesters in Bahrain have demanded a transition government and the removal of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been premier since 1974, witnesses say.

They said the demonstrators marched in the village of Diya near the capital Manama, chanting "Resign, Khalifa!" and waving Bahraini flags.

The Shi'ite opposition in the tiny Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom is led by al-Wefaq, which wants a government of technocrats to rule in a transition leading to a constitutional monarchy.

Since February last year, Bahrain has been shaken by opposition protests that the authorities accuse of being exploited by Shi'ite Iran across the Gulf.

At least 80 people have died since the start of the unrest in February 2011, according to the International Federation of Human Rights.

The opposition insists that the premier stand down and that the government be headed by the leader of the elected majority in parliament

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Bomber kills 9 at Pakistan political rally

A SUICIDE bomber in Pakistan has killed nine people including a provincial government official at a political rally, officials say.

The rally in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Pakistani Taliban.

Among the dead was Bashir Bilour, the second most senior member of the provincial cabinet, said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the politician's brother and federal railways minister.

More than 20 others were wounded by the blast, said local police officer Sabir Khan.

Bilour was leaving the rally after delivering the keynote speech when the attack occurred, said Nazir Khan, a local Awami National Party leader.

"There was smoke and dust all around, and dead and wounded people were lying on the ground," he said.

The suicide bomber was on foot, said another police officer, Imtiaz Khan.

Mohammed Afridi, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call with The Associated Press.

He said the militant group has formed a special wing to attack members of the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Quami Movement, another political party that has opposed the Taliban.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister and a member of the Awami National Party, said both he and Bilour had repeatedly received threats from militants.

He condemned the attack and said the government needed to intensify its battle against the Pakistani Taliban.

"Terrorism has engulfed our whole society," said Hussain.

"They are targeting our bases, our mosques, our bazaars, public meetings and our security checkpoints."

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Kenya deputy PM eyes presidential bid

KENYAN Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity over deadly 2007-08 election violence, says he will run for president in the March vote.

"I have been mandated by (the Jubilee coalition) to be the flag bearer in the March 4 election, and I will never let you down," he said.

The son of Jomo Kenyatta, who is considered the founding father of Kenyan independence, Uhuru Kenyatta has been charged by the ICC over his alleged role in the unrest unleashed after the December 2007 elections that killed at least 1100 people.

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Taliban seek new Afghanistan constitution

AFGHANISTAN'S Taliban has called for a new constitution as a pre-condition for it joining the country's fledgling peace process, according to a declaration issued by representatives at a landmark meeting in France.

Representatives from the country's warring factions met on Thursday for two days of talks that diplomats hope will bolster relations in the war-torn country.

It is the first time since a US-led bombing campaign drove the Taliban from power in 2001 that senior representatives have sat down with officials from the government and other opposition groups to discuss the country's future, in a meeting brokered by a French think tank.

"Afghanistan's present constitution has no value for us because it was made under the shadows of B52 bombers of the invaders," said the declaration, which was handed to participants during the meeting and later released to the media.

"Islamic Emirate, for the welfare of their courageous nation, need a constitution that is based on the principles of the holy religion of Islam, national interest, historical achievements, and social justice," it read.

The meeting in France was organised by the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), and was held behind closed doors at an undisclosed location near Paris.

The talks come against a background of accelerating efforts to draw the Taliban and other opponents of President Hamid Karzai into negotiations on how Afghanistan will be run after foreign troops withdraw at the end of 2014.

Karzai's government has drawn up a roadmap for peace which involves persuading the Taliban and other insurgent groups to agree to a ceasefire as a prelude to becoming peaceful players in the country's nascent democracy.

As a first step in that direction, Karzai's administration has been attempting to secure the release of top Taliban prisoners held by neighbouring Pakistan.

Despite the landmark meeting, the Taliban's declaration continued to display a lack of trust in the government.

"The invaders and their friends don't have a clear roadmap for peace," it stated.

"Sometimes they say we want to talk to the Islamic Emirate, but sometimes they say we will talk with Pakistan. This kind of vague stance will never get to peace," it said.

To date the Taliban has refused to negotiate with the government, which it regards as a puppet of the United States.

Discussions with US officials were suspended in March.

In France the Taliban was represented by their senior figures Shahabuddin Dilawar and Naeem Wardak, a move seen as a sign that the Islamist group is contemplating going beyond exploratory discussions.

The Taliban, who ruled in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, were ousted from power by a US-led invasion and have since waged an 11-year insurgency to topple the US-supported government of Karzai.

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Punish those who shot UN chopper: Russia

RUSSIA has urged South Sudan to punish those responsible for shooting down a UN peacekeeping helicopter and killing all four Russian crew members aboard, in an attack condemned by the international community.

"We call on the government of South Sudan to carry out the necessary investigation, punish the guilty and take every measure to guarantee that this never happens again," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website after Friday's incident.

A South Sudan military spokesman said troops fired anti-aircraft guns at the Russian Mi-8 believing it was a rebel helicopter carrying weapons to anti-government forces in the world's newest country.

The United Nations said the aircraft was hit while on a "reconnaissance flight" over the Likuangole district of the eastern Jonglei state.

"The tragic event in this African country raises with new urgency the question of the security of UN peacekeeping missions," the Russian ministry said, attributing the helicopter downing to "blunders".

"The governments of countries that accept missions and carry the main responsibility for the security of UN peacekeepers must approach this problem with all seriousness and recognise all the possible consequences of blunders," it said.

It cited South Sudan officials as saying the helicopter was downed "despite the fact that the UN mission informed the local command about the planned flight as usual".

"The mission was guaranteed complete safety," the ministry said.

Russian television named the men who died as commander Sergei Ilyin, second pilot Alfir Abrarov, flight engineer Sergei Yegorov and cabin attendant and radio operator Nikolai Shpanov.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon, as well as the UN Security Council, had vehemently condemned the attack.

He said on Friday it was a "clearly marked" UN aircraft and demanded that those responsible be brought to account.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also said in a statement on Saturday that she "deplores" the attack and "calls on the government of South Sudan to give full cooperation in the investigation of this very serious incident".

Jongeli state has been stricken by ethnic strife since South Sudan became independent from Khartoum in July last year, becoming a base for rebellion against the new government.

The Mi-8 helicopter is a hardy workhorse model that was developed in the 1960s and is still being made in a modified version today.

It can carry up to 28 passengers or be used to transport cargo.

The downed aircraft belonged to the Nizhnevartovsk-Avia air company based in the Western Siberian town of Nizhnevartovsk.

The company was working on a contract with the United Nations, acting director Sergei Bakunin said in televised comments.

"They are fine pilots. The commander had more flight experience than the others: around 7000 hours. He went through Afghanistan, so he had great experience," he said.

The company had been working in South Sudan since March this year when Russian troops that had been servicing flights since 2006 left the region, Russian television reported.

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Obama to nominate Kerry as secretary of state

US President Barack Obama will nominate Senator John Kerry, a veteran foreign policy hand and former presidential candidate, as his next secretary of state on Friday, a US official told AFP.

An official announcement on the appointment of the Vietnam war veteran who will succeed Hillary Clinton as the top US diplomat was expected later on Friday, the official said.

Kerry, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to win easy confirmation from his colleagues in the chamber, and is a well known figure on the world stage.

The Massachusetts senator has rehabilitated his career since narrowly losing the 2004 presidential race to president George W. Bush, after a campaign that included savage attacks on his career as a swift boat commander in Vietnam.

Kerry's appointment was seen as almost a certainty after UN ambassador Susan Rice pulled out of the running for the job, over Republican attacks on her role in the aftermath of the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi.

The Massachusetts senator played an important role in Obama's political career, notably by picking him to give the keynote speech in the 2004 Democratic convention, at which the then unknown Illinois lawmaker burst onto the political scene.

Kerry also played Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in mock debates staged by the president's team ahead of Obama's successful re-election effort in November.

Clinton has said she wished to step down after Obama begins his second term in office next month and her replacement is confirmed.

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Syria 'firing Scud-style missiles'

THE Syrian regime has fired Scud-style missiles against rebels, NATO said on Friday, as Palestinians forced to flee their Damascus camp returned after a reported deal to keep out of the Syrian conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, raised the alarm over the risks of chaos in Syria, 21 months into an anti-regime revolt that monitors says has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The army's use of Scud-type missiles against rebel forces, according to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was an act of desperation.

"I can confirm that we have detected the launch of Scud-type missiles; we strongly regret that act," Rasmussen said. "I consider it an act of a desperate regime approaching collapse."

The latest launches were detected on Thursday, a source close to NATO said.

In Damascus, Palestinian refugees streamed back into their Yarmuk camp after a reported deal to keep it out of Syria's conflict, following fierce clashes earlier this week.

An AFP correspondent heard sporadic shooting early on Friday and a main road was blocked with rocks to keep out cars, although a van full of passengers still entered through a side street.

"We returned because we have had enough of being humiliated," one of them said. "We lost our land (Palestine) but we don't want to lose our homes and live in tents like our parents."

The fighting forced about 100,000 of Yarmuk's 150,000 to flee the camp, many taking refuge in the parks and squares of Damascus, said UNRWA, the relief agency for Palestinian refugees.

Residents were called to attend weekly Muslim prayers on Friday at the camp's Abdel Qader al-Husseini mosque, which has been cleaned up after a regime air strike last Sunday that killed eight people.

The exception was the bombed out headquarters of the pro-regime Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has been battling against anti-Assad rebels.

Talks began on Wednesday aimed at removing both rebel and pro-government fighters from Yarmuk in southern Damascus.

Newspapers in neighbouring Lebanon said an agreement had been reached under the auspices of Mokhtar Lamani, the representative of UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

The UN's World Food Programme, meanwhile, said it was to start providing food to 125,000 "vulnerable Palestinians and displaced Syrians" caught up in and around Yarmuk.

In flashpoints across Syria, violence raged on Friday, a day after at least 134 people were killed, among them 56 civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

According to a preliminary count, at least 50 people were killed on Friday, said the Britain-based monitoring group.

Despite the violence, protesters took to the streets in several anti-regime areas, renewing calls for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the watchdog said.

At an EU-Russia summit in Brussels, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow does not want "chaos" in Syria and that it looked forward to seeing a democratic regime in the war-torn nation.

"We will try to pursue the public order in Syria and look forward to a democratic regime in Syria because this country is close to our borders," he said at a news conference, according to an English translation of his words.

"We wouldn't like chaos in that country," he added. "Everyone is interested in stopping the violence and the bloodshed."

Putin for the second time in two days denied propping up Assad's regime and appeared to acknowledge the possibility of change, saying: "We do not advocate the government of Syria."

He insisted however that a solution must be found between all parties at the negotiating table to take into account the views "of all the citizens."

In Moscow the previous day, Putin said Russia was not concerned about Assad's fate but "we understand that the family has been in power for 40 years and there is a need for change."

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Gunmen kidnap three tourists in Yemen

GUNMEN kidnapped three tourists in Yemen's capital and drove off with them to an unknown location, a security official told AFP, adding that their nationalities were not yet known.

"Four masked gunmen in a vehicle attacked a shop in central Sanaa and abducted three foreign tourists -- a woman and two men," said the official, adding that the tourists were taken away at gunpoint.

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'God only knows' on fiscal cliff

US House Speaker John Boehner says he's still open to talks with US President Barack Obama on avoiding the double economic hit of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts but he needs Mr Obama to compromise more.

Mr Boehner spoke to reporters overnight, hours after his rank-and-file Republicans handed him a bitter defeat.

Mr Boehner was forced to pull his bill to raise taxes on millionaires because he didn't have the votes for passage.

He said he didn't know how the so-called "fiscal cliff" would be avoided. Said Mr Boehner: "How we get there, God only knows."

Mr Boehner expressed no concern about his standing as speaker.

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Madoff's brother gets 10 years in jail

THE brother of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 10 years in prison for crimes committed in the shadow of his notorious sibling by a judge who said she disbelieved his claims that he did not know about the epic fraud.

Peter Madoff, 67, had agreed when he pleaded guilty in June to serve the maximum sentence allowable to the charges of conspiracy and falsifying the books and records of an investment adviser.

He follows to prison his 74-year-old brother, who is serving a 150-year sentence after admitting he created a fraud so large decades ago that thousands of people lost a combined $20 billion.

US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain urged Peter Madoff to tell the truth even now about what he knows about the fraud that cost thousands of investors their original $US20 billion investment.

The judge said Peter Madoff, wearing a well-tailored charcoal suit, was "frankly not believable" when he claimed at his plea that he only learned of the fraud when his brother revealed it to him just before he surrendered to authorities.

Peter Madoff spoke only briefly, saying: "I am deeply ashamed of my conduct and have tried to atone by pleading guilty and have agreed to forfeit all of my present and future assets."

He added: "I am profoundly sorry that my failures let many people down, including my loved ones."

Two investors, among 40 who wrote victim impact statements, spoke during the proceeding, each describing the financial ruins of their extended family.

Investor Michael T. De Vita, 62, also called for truth, saying he believed "it to be physically impossible for a single person to carry out such a gargantuan task all by himself."

Mr De Vita said investors "have waited four years for others to accept responsibility for this massive crime. We are still waiting for that today."

"All of this was preventable if only one person was willing to do the right thing and stop this in its tracks years ago. Peter Madoff could have been that person," he said.

Amy Luria Nissenbaum, 49, choking up at times, also complained that Peter Madoff had chosen even after his plea to "turn a blind eye" to his brother's fraud, saying her home was in foreclosure and some days she struggles to "clothe and feed my children."

Ms Nissenbaum said Peter Madoff was part of his brother's fraud for more than 30 years and he should serve the same amount of time in prison.

When Judge Swain announced that Peter Madoff will not have to report to prison until Feb. 6, Ms Nissenbaum laughed out loud bitterly. The delay in reporting to prison will let Peter Madoff attend his granddaughter's Bat Mitzvah on Jan. 19.

The judge noted that 10 years was the maximum sentence allowed by the charges to which Madoff had pled and repeatedly urged Madoff to relieve the pain of investors by revealing more about the Madoff business.

"I challenge you to be honest about all that you have done and all that you have seen. In other words, all that you know," she said.

The magnitude of the damage done by the Madoffs cannot be underestimated, she said.

"Trust in financial institutions, thousands of individual lives and numerous charitable organisations have been blown apart," she said.

Assistant US Attorney Lisa Baroni said it would have been easy for Peter Madoff to blow the whistle on the fraud.

Instead, she said, he even conspired with his brother on how to distribute the remaining $US300 million in the company's accounts to family, friends and favoured clients before the FBI put an end to the fraud by arresting his brother.

The sentencing comes four years and a week after Bernard Madoff first revealed the fraud, which occurred as the former NASDAQ chairman built a reputation for delivering unparalleled investment results, even in bad times. The revelation came only days after the business sent out statements that made investors think their investments had grown to a total of more than $US65 billion.

Peter Madoff said at his plea that he had no idea his brother was running a massive Ponzi scheme, paying off longtime investors at times with money from newer investors.

"My family was torn apart as a result of my brother's atrocious conduct," he said. "I was reviled by strangers as well as friends who assumed that I knew about the Ponzi scheme."

But he conceded that he followed his brother's instructions and helped him decide which favoured friends, clients and family members would receive the $US300 million that remained in the company's accounts. The checks were never sent.

Peter Madoff, who joined his brother's firm after graduating from Fordham Law School in 1970, has been free on $5 million bail after he agreed to surrender all of his assets.

Prior to sentencing, his lawyer, John Wing, said in a memorandum that Peter Madoff will "almost certainly live out his remaining days as a jobless pariah, in or out of prison."

He called him a victim of his loyalty to his brother, saying he had been mistreated by the sibling who was eight years older and was viewed as "the prince" by his mother.

As part of a forfeiture agreement, Peter Madoff's wife, Marion, and daughter Shana must forfeit nearly all of their assets. The government said those assets and assets that will be forfeited by other family members include several homes, a Ferrari and more than $US10 million in cash and securities. It said his wife will be left with $US771,733. Besides the Madoff brothers, no other family members have been arrested.

Though Madoff had been the firm's chief compliance officer for nearly four decades, the government marked his start in the conspiracy as 1996, when he created false and misleading compliance documents and false reports for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The crime worsened after August 2006, when the business was registered with the SEC as an investment adviser, requiring annual filings to guide the SEC's examination programs. Prosecutors say Madoff made "numerous false statements" to create the false appearance that the business represented a small number of highly sophisticated clients.

Since the fraud was revealed, a court-appointed trustee has reached agreements to recover approximately $US9.3 billion and is hoping to recover another $US3 billion over the next 18 months. About $US3 billion has been approved for redistribution to victims through an ongoing claims process.

Besides his brother, Peter Madoff is among six who have pleaded guilty in the case, including the former finance chief, a payroll manager, an accountant, a comptroller and a securities trader.

Five others face trial next year, including Bernard Madoff's longtime secretary. All have pleaded not guilty.

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Patriarch 'dismayed' at holy site attacks

THE head of the Roman Catholic church in the Holy Land expressed "dismay" at a wave of attacks on local Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious sites over the past year.

In his Christmas message, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Fuad Twal, noted "an increase in a certain religious radicalism," with church data showing 21 acts of vandalism, arson and desecration of mosques, churches, synagogues and cemeteries since December 21, 2011.

"I reiterate my dismay at the desecration of churches, convents, synagogues and cemeteries that offends everyone," Patriarch Twal said.

"We must take out the evil at its root by educating our youth in all schools."

The most recent attack was discovered on December 12, after vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on Jerusalem's Monastery of the Cross and at an Armenian cemetery overnight, in an apparent hate crime by Jewish extremists.

There have also been acts of arson and graffiti, including the painting of Nazi swastikas at synagogues, allegedly perpetrated by Muslims.

Repeated incidents of arson and anti-Islamic graffiti against mosques have been linked to the "price tag" campaign of Israeli extremists opposed to state moves to dismantle unauthorised settler outposts.

Of late they have become increasingly unrelated to any specific government measures.

The patriarch also made mention of the conflict in Syria, which activists say has killed more than 43,000 people in 21 months.

"The joy of Christmas is overshadowed by the staggering violence in Syria," he said. "We are full of compassion for the victims."

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Central bank boss quits over fake degree

ECUADOR'S central bank president has resigned over revelations he used a bogus university degree to get into a graduate school and study business.

Pedro Delgado acknowledged he never completed his economics studies at Ecuador's Catholic University and fabricated a diploma later to gain admission to a business school called INCAE, in Costa Rica.

"I made a mistake, a very serious mistake, 22 years ago," Mr Delgado said on television Wednesday night.

"I made the wrong decision and, in order to achieve my academic goal, I made a mistake that is now costing me dearly."

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, who is Mr Delgado's cousin, said Mr Delgado's dishonesty had dealt a serious blow to his government.

It was INCAE that first started investigating Mr Delgado and passed on its findings to the Quito government, which confirmed the central banker had no undergraduate degree and made as if he did.

Mr Delgado had run the central bank since November 2011.

He was also in charge of monitoring companies seized by the state over unpaid debt, and has been accused by opposition groups of a number of improprieties including attempts to coordinate financial activities with Iran.

"Nothing was found because all these accusations were fabricated to damage the image of the one who leads the revolution," Mr Delgado said of these other charges and alluding to Mr Correa.

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55 dead or missing in boat capsize

FIFTY-FIVE Somalis and Ethiopians have drowned or are missing after their boat capsized off Somalia in the worst such disaster in the area in almost two years, the United Nations says.

The UN refugee agency said on Thursday the incident represents "the biggest loss of life" in the Gulf of Aden since February 2011, when 57 Somali refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa drowned while attempting to reach Yemen.

"Twenty-three bodies have been recovered. The 32 remaining passengers are presumed to have drowned," UNHCR said.

At least five people survived Tuesday's accident.

The boat was overcrowded and capsized just 15 minutes after leaving the port of Bosasso in Somalia's northern semi-autonomous state of Puntland on Tuesday.

Some 100,000 people have crossed the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden this year, despite warnings about the risks such trips involve, the agency said.

In addition to using unseaworthy and overcrowded boats, those fleeing the Horn of Africa often fall prey to unscrupulous smugglers, in whose hands they can face exploitation, extortion and even death, the agency warned.

It said 95 people have drowned or gone missing in the waters between Somalia and Yemen this year.

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Oil prices fall in absence of fiscal deal

GLOBAL oil prices have dipped as Democrats and Republicans remain locked in a stalemate over a deal to resolve the US fiscal cliff, analysts say.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February slid 25 cents to $US89.73 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for February reversed 28 cents to $US110.08 a barrel in London afternoon deals on Thursday.

"Crude oil prices slid lower on Thursday, in a healthy correction, after a recent rally that dominated the oil market in the last few days," said analyst Myrto Sokou at brokerage Sucden Financial Research.

"The general momentum is slightly bearish today, with European equity markets reporting renewed losses as 'fiscal cliff' sentiment worsened somewhat with Obama threatening to veto Boehner's 'Plan B', heightening chances that it would not pass through the Democrat-controlled Senate."

With less than two weeks to go before the fiscal cliff of huge tax hikes and deep spending cuts is due to take effect, US lawmakers have still not reached a compromise budget deal to cut the nation's deficit with less painful measures.

Traders remain fearful that the fiscal cliff - due to be implemented on January 1 - could plunge the world's biggest economy back into recession and ravage global oil demand.

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he and the Republicans had narrowed differences to "a few hundred billion dollars". But a deal remains elusive.

Republicans are loath to raise taxes, while Democrats do not want to cut spending on programs such as Medicare.

House Speaker John Boehner, the Republican negotiating with the president, has said he is willing to extend tax breaks for everyone earning less than $US1 million ($A957,400) per year. Obama has said, however, he is willing to go no higher than $US400,000.

Boehner announced on Wednesday that he will move to pass his measure, which he describes as his "Plan B", through the House on Thursday but Obama warned he would veto the legislation.

Meanwhile traders shrugged off official data on Thursday showing that the US economy grew 3.1 per cent in the third quarter, faster than previously estimated.

Gross domestic product growth in the July-September period was revised upward from prior estimates of 2.7 per cent and 2.0 per cent.

The higher figure reflects upward revisions to consumer spending, exports and government outlays, and downward revision to imports.

"The US GDP data were fairly robust but failed to provide some upside momentum to the oil market as the main focus has been switched to the US fiscal cliff talks," added Sokou.

"Crude oil prices continue to post renewed losses, as risk appetite is limited."

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Brazil cuts GDP growth forecast

BRAZIL'S Central Bank has cut its GDP growth forecast for 2012 from 1.6 per cent to one per cent, confirming a marked slowdown in Latin America's biggest economy.

In September, the bank had already revised its forecast downward from 2.5 per cent to 1.6 per cent.

On Thursday, the bank also revised its inflation estimate for 2012 to 5.7 per cent, up from 5.2 per cent. The new projection is well above the official target of 4.5 per cent.

Market analysts have been predicting 1.5 per cent GDP growth for Brazil this year, a projection similar to one by the International Monetary Fund in October.

The IMF also expects Brazil to fare worse than its partners in the BRICS bloc of emerging powers, predicting 7.8 per cent growth for China, 4.9 per cent for India, 3.7 per cent for Russia and 2.6 per cent for South Africa.

Brazil's economy grew just 0.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2012 compared with the previous three months, signalling a weaker than anticipated recovery, the Brazilian statistics office said late last month.

The economy lost steam last year due to the global slowdown, with GDP growth at 2.7 per cent, down from a sizzling 7.5 per cent in 2010.

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Minogue and Donovan on stage for duet

KYLIE Minogue and Jason Donovan will end more than two decades of anticipation in London this week when they team up on stage for the first live performance of their number one hit, Especially For You.

The former Ramsay Street sweethearts will be the centrepiece of Friday night's Hit Factory Live concert in the English capital as they present their much-loved duet.

Concert organisers this week revealed Minogue's involvement, having previously advertised only a "very special guest".

"The Hit Factory audience are in for a very special treat as Kylie Minogue is confirmed to bring the show to an unforgettable end by performing with Jason (Donovan) on Especially For You," a statement said.

"They last performed it together in 1989."

The concert celebrates the work of songwriting and production team Stock Aitken Waterman, which penned several hits including Especially For You.

Released in November 1988 - after Minogue had left the cast of Neighbours where she played the part of Charlene alongside Donovan's character Scott - the single achieved prolonged chart success in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, along with other European countries.

A spokeswoman for Hit Factory confirmed the pair has never performed the song live, although Minogue has included the tune in some of her tours and sang the duet with Kermit the Frog for a TV special in 2001.

Minogue and Donovan's reunion was initially scheduled for July but the outdoor Hit Factory concert had to be postponed due to rain.

Before the delay, Minogue had spoken of the hype she expected as she took to the stage with her former Neighbours husband.

"I don't think we'll even need to sing it. I'm sure the audience all went through the Neighbours wedding. It's going to bring the house down," she told Glamour magazine.

Especially For You will end a concert which will see performances by Bananarama, Rick Astley, Steps, Dead or Alive, Sinitta and others.

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