Dubai plans world's largest mall, new city

DUBAI famed for its mega-projects before it was hit by the global financial crisis, has announced a new development to open the world's biggest mall and a park larger than London's Hyde Park.

The ruler of the Gulf desert city state, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, announced the plan for a "new city within Dubai," according to an official statement on Saturday, naming it after himself.

No cost was stated for "Mohammed bin Rashid City," to be carried out by his Dubai Holding and the publicly-listed Emaar Properties, which developed many of Dubai's prestigious projects, including Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower.

The plan also features new residential areas, although the emirate continues to have a surplus of units built during a five-year bubble which burst in 2009.

The "Mall of the World" will have a capacity of 80 million visitors a year to become the "largest in the world," said the statement, while its park will be "30 per cent bigger than Hyde Park of London."

The mall will be connected to a family entertainment centre to be developed in cooperation with Universal Studios International that will be the largest in the region, aiming to attract six million visitors a year.

The emirate already has countless malls and hotels, including the Dubai Mall, touted as the world's largest shopping, leisure and entertainment destination, with 62 million visitors this year.

"The current facilities available in Dubai need to be scaled up in line with the future ambitions for the city," Sheikh Mohammed said in the statement.

Dubai's tourism is growing by 13 per cent a year, according to the statement, with hotel occupancy hitting 82 per cent in 2011 while hotel revenues grew 22 per cent last year, exceeding 16 billion dirhams ($4.26 billion).

The emirate rocked global financial markets in autumn 2009 over its debt crisis, but Dubai has restructured the mountain of debt owed by its corporations, and its economy has returned to growth after contracting in 2009.

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India to log 5.5% quarter growth: minister

INDIA'S economy logged around 5.5 per cent growth in the last financial quarter, a rate that could boost calls for lower interest rates to spur activity.

India's once-booming economy has been hit by high interest rates, Europe's debt crisis that has slowed exports, and sluggish investment caused by domestic and overseas concerns about policy and corruption.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said he expected official data to be released next Friday to show that the economy grew by "around 5.5 per cent" in the three months to September 30.

That would be down from 6.9 per cent in the same second-quarter period a year earlier.

"It goes without saying that we face a difficult situation," Chidambaram said at a bankers' conference, adding the "global economy is still in crisis".

India's economy was growing by more than eight per cent before 2011/12.

But it has been performing increasingly worse with the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan widely criticised for its handling of the situation.

Even though 5.5-per cent growth would be the envy of much of the world, it is not enough for India, which has been aiming for close to double-digit expansion to substantially reduce crushing poverty.

"For us eight per cent growth is not an aspiration but a necessity. India cannot afford to grow below eight per cent," Chidambaram said.

The slow growth comes at a time when it is more difficult for the Indian government to pep up the economy than in the 2008/09 financial crisis.

Then, the government had more fiscal room to stimulate the economy but now it is struggling to cut a widening budget deficit and avert a downgrade of its sovereign debt to "junk" status by global credit ratings agencies.

In addition, the central bank has been keeping interest rates high to combat stubbornly high inflation.

Inflation eased marginally in October to 7.45 per cent year-on-year, but economists said the level is still too high to permit the bank to lower rates.

Indian businesses have been calling for lower rates, saying the slowdown is in large part due to high borrowing costs that have curbed consumer spending.

Chidambaram said India must boost growth "through innovation, through finding ways of increasing the production of goods and services".

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Syria rebels attack army in Aleppo

SYRIAN rebels have attacked army positions in the northern province of Aleppo, while Islamist fighters clashed with Kurdish militias on the border with Turkey.

Insurgents also attacked troops guarding the strategic Tishrin dam, located on the Euphrates river between the provinces of Aleppo and Raqa.

The rebels have surrounded the area, about 10 kilometres from the town of Manbij, local resident Abu Mohammed told AFP.

Opposition fighters already control one of the main routes to Raqa and the Tishrin dam would give them a second passage, connecting a wide expanse of territory between the two provinces, both of which border Turkey.

In Aleppo city, the commercial capital where fighting has reached stalemate after five months of deadly urban combat, clashes broke out near an air force intelligence building, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Insurgents earlier this week captured Base 46, just west of Aleppo. Nearly 300 soldiers were killed in the sprawling army garrison, according to the rebels, and a large cache of arms and ammunition seized.

The rebels are aiming to also seize Sheikh Suleiman base, also west of the city, that they have encircled for nearly two months, to give them full control of a swathe of northwest Syria from Aleppo to the Turkish border.

In Hasakeh province, northwest Syria, Ras al-Ain saw its fiercest violence since the town near the Turkish border was captured by rebels two weeks ago, a resident told AFP.

"There are so few people, most have left. There is no electricity, no water and no mobile coverage," said Ali, a farmer in his 40s, who fled with his family on Saturday.

"The fighting has been non-stop for five or six days now, but in the last 24 hours it has gotten worse ... The Kurds are bringing reinforcements from Derik and other nearby villages," he said.

Two main Kurdish groups have joined forces in a standoff with hundreds of Islamist rebels, a Syrian Kurdish representative and an activist said on Friday.

Hundreds of fighters loyal to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) - which has close ties to Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - have been locked in fierce battles with fighters of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and allied Ghuraba al-Sham group in Ras al-Ain.

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Probe into attempt to set bear on fire

AN INQUIRY has been ordered into an attempt by a jeering mob to set a terrified bear on fire in northern Indian, a state minister said.

Television footage showed the frightened bear scrambling up a tree in the state of Jammu and Kashmir as one of the men in the crowd tied a flaming cloth to a pole and tried to poke the animal.

"We've ordered an inquiry - a senior government official will hold the inquiry," Kashmir forest minister Mian Altaf told India's NDTV network.

The incident took place in the southern Kashmir district of Shopian earlier in the week, the network said.

The bear eventually climbed down from the tree and managed to escape but its fate was unknown, Mr Altaf said.

The attack was reported just two days before India's environment ministry was due to host a global conference on bear conservation in New Delhi.

Vivek Menon, executive director of the Wildlife Trust of India, blamed the the incident on the increasing incursion by humans into bears' natural habitats in Kashmir and in other parts of the country.

"There has been a great land use change in Kashmir. People are living closer and closer to the forests and therefore coming into contact with bears - and both people and bears are suffering," he said.

According to medical officials, a large number of hospital beds in Kashmir are occupied by people suffering from wounds inflicted by bears, Mr Menon said.

"That is spreading fear and panic among people and resulting in absurd retaliatory measures," he said.

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Mideast nuclear conference moved to 2013

UN leader Ban Ki-moon says he has given up hope of holding a conference on a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East this year, but hopes it can be held in 2013.

Ban and Finnish special envoy Jaakko Laajava have been trying to persuade Middle East powers to attend the conference but hit opposition from Israel and others.

The conference, organised by the United States, Britain and Russia, was to be held in 2012 in Finland.

But Ban on Saturday said he was now aiming for it "to be convened at the earliest opportunity in 2013".

The US State Department on Friday said the conference could "not be convened because of present conditions in the Middle East and the fact that states in the region have not reached agreement on acceptable conditions for a conference".

"The United States believes that a deep conceptual gap persists in the region on approaches toward regional security and arms control arrangements," it said.

But Britain said the three co-organisers also wanted it held as soon as possible in 2013.

Ban also appealed to Middle East states to overcome their differences "to seize this rare opportunity to initiate a process that entails direct engagement on security issues".

Laajava will continue talks "in the shortest possible time which will allow the conference to be convened at the earliest opportunity in 2013," Ban said.

Israel had said it would not attend a conference now because of the tense security in the region and it would become a target of diplomatic attacks in any talks, diplomats said.

US diplomats had expressed similar fears, which have heightened since the eight days of conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement in Gaza this month.

Iran and Arab states criticise Israel for its suspected nuclear arsenal.

Israel refuses to say whether it has nuclear arms, though security experts say it has a substantial number of weapons.

Israel and the United States and its allies say Iran is the main proliferation threat, even though Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.

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Postcard mailed during WWII arrives

A POSTCARD mailed nearly 70 years ago has finally arrived at the former upstate New York home of the couple who sent it.

The postcard was sent July 4, 1943, from Rockford, Illinois, to sisters Pauline and Theresa Leisenring in Elmira, New York.

Their brother, George Leisenring, was stationed at Rockford's Medical Centre Barracks at Camp Grant, an Army post during World War II. Their parents were visiting him when they mailed the postcard home.

The postcard reads in part, "Dear Pauline and Theresa, We arrived safe, had a good trip, but we were good and tired."

Elmira's Star-Gazette newspaper reports the postcard arrived last week at the family's former home, where a different family now lives.

A postal official says the postcard may have been found by someone outside the postal service and placed in the mail.

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Qatar man had new type of virus

A PATIENT from Qatar has been confirmed with a new type of coronavirus, but it has shown no signs of being easily transmitted like the related virus that caused the 2003 global SARS outbreak, Germany's national health institute said.

As a precaution, the World Health Organisation advised medical authorities around the world to test any patients with unexplained pneumonias for the virus. Previously, the organisation had only advised testing patients who had been to either Qatar or Saudi Arabia - the two countries with all six reported cases.

"Until more information is available, it is prudent to consider that the virus is likely more widely distributed than just the two countries which have identified cases," the WHO said.

Germany's Robert Koch Institute said the patient fell ill in Qatar in October with severe respiratory problems. He was then brought to Germany for treatment in a specialty clinic and recovered after a month and was released this week.

Britain's Health Protection Agency confirmed based on samples that were sent from Qatar that he was sickened by a new coronavirus, the Koch Institute said.

The World Health Organisation said of the six confirmed cases of the virus - four were from Saudi Arabia, including two deaths, and two from Qatar.

Unlike SARS, the Koch institute says there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission in the patient treated in Germany.

"The Robert Koch Institute's assessment of the risk remains that the possibility of becoming infected in Germany is very low," the institute said.

Still, WHO reported a cluster of cases in a family in Saudi Arabia, where one person died and the other recovered. Two other members of the same family fell ill with similar symptoms.

One person who recovered from the illness tested negative while lab results are pending for the other family member, who died. Health officials always keep a close eye on any clusters of unusual viruses within families, since they may suggest the possibility of human-to-human spread.

About 8500 people were affected by SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, in 2003 and about 900 died.

The WHO said it was continuing to work with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other international health partners to gain a better understanding of the virus.

"Further epidemiological and scientific studies are needed to better understand the virus," the organisation said.

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Thousands of civilians flee rebel advance

THOUSANDS of civilians have fled a rebel advance in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as leaders prepared a summit on the crisis, which the UN says has blocked access to camps sheltering tens of thousands of displaced people.

The M23 rebel group, army mutineers who took the regional capital Goma on Tuesday and the key town of Sake the next day, appeared to halt their rampant advance just south of Sake after battles with government forces and an allied local militia, a United Nations source told AFP.

Thousands of people were fleeing Sake heading east toward Goma, and the local head of a relief agency reported numerous casualties.

"There are bodies lining the road" leading south from Sake, Thierry Goffeau, the head of the Goma chapter of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told AFP, without giving specific figures.

UN experts have accused Rwanda and Uganda of backing the M23 - a charge both countries deny - and the guerrillas' escalating assault has raised fears of wider conflict erupting in the chronically unstable region.

The army has proved unable to contain the rebellion, despite being backed by a massive UN peacekeeping operation that deployed attack helicopters in a bid to protect civilians from the M23's advance.

UN peacekeeping spokesman Kieran Dwyer said the UN was considering using drones for the first time to monitor the fighting.

The UN refugee agency meanwhile warned the fighting had blocked access to all but one of the 31 camps for displaced people in North Kivu.

"UNHCR is extremely concerned about the situation of displaced people in ... North Kivu province, especially children and other vulnerable groups," said spokesman Adrian Edwards.

The European Union also added its voice to the international chorus demanding the rebels stop their advance, "starting with the immediate stop of the M23 offensive and its retreat from Goma."

The rebels have refused to withdraw from Goma unless President Joseph Kabila agrees to peace talks.

Regional leaders are due to hold a summit on the crisis on Saturday in Kampala, including Kabila, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

M23 leader Jean-Marie Runiga Lugerero was in the Ugandan capital on Friday at the request of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the rebels said.

The M23 was launched by former fighters in an ethnic Tutsi rebel group that was integrated into the military under a 2009 peace deal whose terms the mutineers claim were never fully implemented.

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German-Swiss tax deal fails in parliament

THE German parliament has voted down a long-negotiated tax deal aimed at reining in German tax dodgers without upsetting Switzerland's cherished bank secrecy laws.

Swiss bankers, who have put much energy into convincing Berlin to sign the deal, said they were "disappointed" at the vote in the upper house of the German parliament, the Bundesrat, on Friday, while Bern glumly said it had "taken note" of the outcome.

The rejected deal, which had been set to take effect on January 1, called for Swiss banks to deduct taxes from German clients and transfer the tax revenues to Berlin, allowing the clients to remain anonymous.

The Swiss parliament and Germany's lower house had already approved the agreement, but members of the opposition in the Bundesrat had long threatened to block it since they consider it too soft on tax-dodgers.

Switzerland's attempts to reach a tax arrangement with Germany and other countries follows mounting objections to Swiss banking secrecy practices that have long made it possible for foreigners to stash undeclared funds in the country's banks.

Switzerland has signed deals with Britain and Austria similar to the one rejected on Friday and is in talks to do the same with Italy and Greece.

However, the agreement with Switzerland's top trading partner, Germany, was to be the first to go into practice and was considered crucial given the close ties between them.

The German government also expressed its disappointment at the rejection of a deal it has said could net the country around 10 billion euros ($A12.5 billion) in additional tax payments.

The Swiss Banking Association insisted the Bundesrat had "missed an excellent opportunity to adopt a fair solution" for both countries.

According to German media, up to 180 billion euros in German assets are deposited in Switzerland.

If ratified, the tax deal would have entailed taxation rates of between 21 and 41 per cent on such assets.

Swiss banks last year managed a total of 5.27 trillion Swiss francs ($A5.49 trillion), half of which belonged to foreign clients.

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Dolphin dies during disputed flight

A dolphin being flown from the Philippines to Singapore has died in transit. Source: Supplied

ONE of 25 dolphins being transferred to a Singapore oceanarium despite protests from activists has died during its flight to the city-state.

Wen Wen, a male dolphin aged about 10, died suddenly less than an hour before the flight from the Philippines landed, a Marine Life Park spokesperson said.

The spokesperson of the park - which opened to the public for the first time yesterday and is part of the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) casino - said the dolphin appeared fine when medically examined before the flight.

"We are deeply saddened... he will be sorely missed," the spokesperson said.

The other 24 bottlenose dolphins had arrived and were acclimatising to their new home.

"No effort or resources will be spared in ensuring the health and well-being of our dolphins and all marine animals at Marine Life Park," the statement said.

Wen Wen is the third dolphin to die out of 27 which RWS acquired from the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific between 2008 amd 2009.

Wildlife activists in the Philippines - where the dolphins were kept and trained before being exported to Singapore - filed a lawsuit last month to stop them from being flown out.

They said the dolphins' capture violated an international treaty on the trade in endangered animals and plants.

A court in the Philippines initially agreed to a temporary ban on transferring the dolphins but another court overturned it.

A Singapore-based animal rights group also opposed the inclusion of the dolphins in the marine park, saying catching them from the Solomon Islands is detrimental to the survival of the species there.

The remaining 24 dolphins are due to make their public debut at the park's twin attractions the S.E.A Aquarium and Adventure Cove Waterpark only next year.

The aquarium is touted as the world's largest with 100,000 marine animals from over 800 species in 45 million litres of water.
 

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Kuwait bails tweeters after emir 'insults'

A KUWAITI court has freed three Twitter users on bail after detaining them for nine days for allegedly insulting the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, a rights activist says.

A fourth tweeter however remained in detention as his case will be heard by a court on Sunday, the director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi, said on his Twitter account.

One of the tweeters was freed on bail of $US3550 ($A3440) and the other two on $US17,700 each, Humaidi said. Their trial is set for December.

The four were arrested on November 14 and held in police custody pending further investigation on accusations they wrote tweets deemed offensive to Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Three other Twitter users, including a woman, had been arrested with them but only remained hours in custody before being each freed on bail of $US3550.

Kuwait has clamped down on opposition activists and Twitter users mainly on accusations of undermining the status of the emir as the country heads to general polls on December 1 amid a bitter political dispute.

Several former opposition MPs and activists are facing trial over similar charges. Public criticism of the ruler is illegal under the Kuwaiti constitution.

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Malala's wounded friends back in school

FOR one month the dreams kept coming. The voice, the shots, the blood. Her friend Malala slumped over.

Shazia Ramazan, 13, who was wounded by the same Taliban gunman who shot her friend Malala Yousufzai, returned home last week after a month in a hospital, where she had to relearn how to use her left arm and hand. Memories of the Taliban bullets that ripped into her remain, but she is welcoming the future.

"For a long time it seemed fear was in my heart. I couldn't stop it," she said. "But now I am not afraid," she added, self-consciously rubbing her left hand where a bullet pierced straight through just below the thumb.

Now Shazia and her friend Kainat Riaz, who was also shot, return to school for the first time since the October 8 attack when a Taliban gunman opened fire on Malala outside the Khushal School for Girls, wounding Shazia and Kainat in the frenzy of bullets.

The Taliban targeted Malala because of her outspoken and relentless objection to the group's regressive interpretation of Islam that keeps women at home and bars girls from school.

Malala is still undergoing treatment and unable to come back. But among her friends in her hometown of Mingora in the idyllic Swat Valley, she is a hero.

"Malala was very brave and she was always friendly with everyone. We are proud of her," said the 16-year-old Kainat, wrapped in a large purple shawl and sitting on a traditional rope bed. Her mother Manawar, a health worker, sat by her side, praised her daughter's bravery and with a smile said: "She gets her courage from me." Although conservative and refusing to have her picture taken, Kainat's mother slammed attacks on girls' education and warned Pakistan will fail if girls are not educated.

Quick to laugh, Kainat - who comes from a long line of educators in her family - looked forward to returning to school. "I want to study. I am not afraid," she said.

The authorities however are not taking any chances. Armed policemen have been deployed to both Shazia's and Kainat's home and will escort them both to school.

Kainat's home is hidden behind high walls with 2.4m-high steel gates, tucked away in a neighborhood of brown square cement buildings. A foul smelling sewer runs the length of the street where armed policemen patrol, eyeing everyone suspiciously.

Outside Shazia's home, a policeman wearing a bullet proof vest sits on a plastic garden chair with a Kalashnikov resting across his knees. Three policemen patrol a nearby narrow street that is flanked by roaring open fires where vats of hot oil boil and sticky sweets are made and sold.

Shazia, who has ambitions to become an army doctor, is a stubborn teenager. She doesn't want the police escort.

"They say I need the police. But I say I don't need any police," she said, pushing her glasses firmly back on her nose. "I don't want the police to come with me to school because then I will stand out from the other students. But I shouldn't."

At their school, the students are quick to attack the Taliban and display a giant poster of Malala. The school, which has more than 500 students, only closed its doors briefly at the height of the Taliban's hold on the region in 2008 and early 2009. It was then that Malala began to blog, recording her unhappiness with Taliban edicts ordering girls out of school.

Although she was barely 9 years old then, Shazia remembers those days.

"Times were very bad. Girls were hiding their books under their burqas. Compared to then, now is a very good time," she said, her pink shawl covering her head. "We are strong."

Both the army and the police are deployed outside the school, whose name means "happy," and journalists were not permitted to pass its black iron gate until last week when an Associated Press reporter and photographer were allowed inside. Authorities feared drawing attention, but the students within seemed unconcerned, often offering words of support for Malala and saying they weren't afraid to come to school.

Even the most shy among them would whisper in a friend's ear to say: "Tell her I will not stop studying."

Each morning the school principal gave the students a progress report on Malala's condition.

"She is getting better every day and she asks about all of us and what we are doing," said 15-year-old Mahnoor, one of Malala's close friends. "When it happened we just cried and prayed. We weren't worried for ourselves. We were just worried for her."

Twelve-year-old Emar said of the Taliban: "They are thinking that she is a girl and she cannot do anything. They are thinking that only boys can do things. They are wrong. Girls can do anything."

In a strong voice and speaking in English, Gulranga Ali, 17, said students have "gotten courage from her (Malala) and everyone is attending school. No one is staying home." She said the attack has turned the country against extremists and "now every girl and child is saying 'I want to be Malala.'"

Malala's father says the family will return to Pakistan after his daughter is well enough.

But even her classmates worry for her safety.

"I don't think she will come for education anymore in Swat. She will not be safe here. Now she is a celebrity," said Gulranga.

There is also a deepening concern that Malala's attacker has not been arrested, that the outrage her shooting generated throughout Pakistan has subsided without substantive changes and that fear will prevent real change.

Ahmed Saeed, a close friend of Malala's father, said politicians and Pakistan's military establishment still have to decide if they will support Malala's worldview or that of the Taliban. Saeed said the teenager will have another operation in three months to reconstruct her skull but that she is talking and walking "and gossiping with her family."

In what has been cheered as a first step toward compulsory education for both boys and girls in Pakistan, Parliament last week introduced legislation making it a crime to keep a child at home. Offending parents can be fined upward of $500.

Still, earlier this month the Taliban attacked on a busload of girls returning from school in the tribal regions, throwing acid in their faces. In a statement, the Taliban accused the girls of embracing the West through education.

"I don't know if this has changed Pakistan," Shazia's father said of the shooting. Still, he wants his daughter to continue at school.

"Now I want to be an example to other girls," Shazia said. "They (Taliban) can't stop us from going to school."

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Israeli soldier dies of rocket wounds

AN Israeli reserves officer has died of wounds sustained in a rocket attack that occurred hours before a truce to end eight days of violence in and around Gaza was agreed between Israel and Hamas.

A statement from the Israeli army named the casualty as "Lieutenant Boris Yarmulnik, 28 years old from Netanya", who "died of his wounds ... after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit the Eshkol Regional Council (Wednesday) afternoon".

His death on Thursday raises the toll of Israelis killed by rocket fire from Gaza to six since November 14, two of them soldiers.

A total of 163 Palestinians died in the eight-day Israeli air operation directed against Gaza militants firing rockets into the Jewish state.

The truce to end the fighting was announced in Cairo on Wednesday evening, with both sides expected to stop cross-border fire and Gaza rulers Hamas expected to enforce its terms on the various militant groups in the Palestinian territory.

During the eight eight-day operation, the army said it hit more than 1500 targets, as Gaza militants fired 1354 rockets over the border, 421 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

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Girl dies in schoolies balcony fall

A TEENAGE girl has died after falling from the balcony of a high-rise hotel on the Gold Coast during schoolies celebrations.

The girl, believed to be a schoolie, fell from the Chevron Renaissance tower in Surfers Paradise.

Police will only say a woman has died after falling off the balcony of a Gold Coast Highway high rise at 9.30pm (AEST) on Thursday.

They are speaking to members of the family and could not immediately confirm whether she'd been part of schoolies festivities.

One witness told the ABC he saw the girl fall onto the hotel's pool deck.

"A girl fell off the balcony and (I) just watched her fall," schoolie Seb Georgio said.

"I didn't want to watch."

Rory, a barman across the road from the Towers Of Chevron Renaissance, said hundreds of schoolies were standing outside the hotel following the incident.

"I saw 200 schoolies out the front of the building, two ambulance (crews), there were cops everywhere," he told AAP.

This is the sixth death from a balcony fall on the Gold Coast in the past 12 months.

Earlier this week, a photo of a drunk schoolie lying on the ledge of a Gold Coast high rise sparked renewed warnings.

Cameron Cox, 18, took a nap on the unfenced 11th floor ledge on Monday and photos of the incident were posted online.

He told the media he was drunk at the time and climbed out a window for the thrill, and to get some fresh air.

But if he'd rolled over he would have plummeted to his death.

The prank ended his end of school celebrations, with the Hawaiian Holiday Apartments at Surfers Paradise telling AAP he'd been ordered to leave.

But police inspector Pat Swindells said the girl's death was a tragedy during an otherwise good week of schoolies festivities.

"Young people who've come to Surfers Paradise have been exemplary in their behaviour and this is a very tragic incident that has occurred during what has been a very good week," he told reporters.

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Church vote needs explanation: leader

THE Church of England has much explaining to do following its failure to vote to allow women to serve as bishops, its leader says - and politicians from the prime minister downward are already demanding action or answers.

One MP even suggested there might be an issue under anti-discrimination laws.

The governing General Synod blocked the change as the vote among lay members on Tuesday fell short of the required two-thirds majority. Bishops and clergy, in separate votes, overwhelmingly backed the proposal.

Speaking to the synod a day after the vote, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said any church member who thought there was an easy solution to the impasse between traditionalists and proponents of female bishops was being unrealistic.

"Yesterday did nothing to make polarisation in our church less likely," said Williams, who had long supported the proposed change.

"We have, to put it very bluntly, a lot of explaining to do," he added.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron urged the church to resolve the schism and swiftly approve female bishops.

"I'm very clear the time is right for women bishops, it was right many years ago," Cameron said.

"They need to get on with it, as it were, and get with the program. But you do have to respect the individual institutions and the way they work, while giving them a sharp prod."

Labour MP Diana Johnson asked for a statement from the church's representative explaining "what this means in terms of the continuing discrimination of having only men eligible to sit in the House of Lords as bishops."

John Bercow, the speaker of the House, noted that there were "very strong voices" in favour of women bishops among legislators.

He suggested that Johnson approach Maria Miller, the government's minister for women and equalities, to see whether she "has any responsibilities in relation to this matter."

More than 100 members of the General Synod spoke in Tuesday's debate, largely repeating arguments which have become familiar in the 18 years since the church began ordaining women as priests.

Williams, who had campaigned for the change, said that much of the prolonged debate is "not intelligible to our larger society."

John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, said he was confident that women would become bishops in his lifetime.

"The principle has already been accepted by the General Synod, it has already been accepted by all the dioceses," Sentamu, 63, said in a BBC radio interview.

"So what we need to do is find the legislation: 99.9 per cent of the legislation is there, it's this little business of provision for those who are opposed," Sentamu said.

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US stocks creep higher in opening trade

US stocks have opened slightly higher as Wall Street awaited a batch of economic data and weighed another eurozone failure to agree on a crucial aid payment for Greece.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 8.34 points (0.07 per cent) at 12,796.85 in the first five minutes of trade.

The broad-market S&P 500 index advanced 1.39 (0.10 per cent) to 1389.20, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 7.13 (0.24 per cent) at 2923.81.

"Today is the last full trading day of the week as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, but the market has a slew of economic reports to digest this morning. These include jobless claims, consumer sentiment, as well as leading indicators for November," said Karee Venema at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Trade volume was expected to be light ahead of US market closures on Thursday in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Markets will be opened on Friday for a shortened session.

Charles Schwab & Co analysts said stocks were under modest pressure amid US fiscal cliff uncertainty and the failure of eurozone leaders to agree on Greece's fiscal plan and the payment of the next instalment of bailout aid.

Stocks closed near breakeven on Tuesday after Dow member Hewlett-Packard reported a huge charge for a soured acquisition and the government released upbeat housing market data.

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Argentine experts find huge penguin fossil

ARGENTINE experts have discovered fossils of a two-metre tall penguin that lived in Antarctica 34 million years ago.

Paleontologists with the Natural Sciences Museum of La Plata province, where the capital Buenos Aires is located, said the remains were found on the icy southern continent.

"This is the largest penguin known to date in terms of height and body mass," said researcher Carolina Acosta, who noted that the record had been held by emperor penguins, which reach heights of 1.2 metres tall.

Lead researcher Marcelo Reguero added that the find, announced on Tuesday, will "allow for a more intensive and complex study of the ancestors of modern penguins."

In its next expedition to Antarctica, during the region's summer, the team will seek additional fossils of the newly discovered species, as well as information about its anatomy and how the giant penguin might have moved.

Previous finds from prehistoric penguins indicated they did not sport the iconic black and white feathers the birds are known for today, but had reddish-brown and grey plumage.

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NATO receives Turkey request for Patriots

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance has received a request from NATO member Turkey for a deployment of Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria.

"I have received a letter from the Turkish government requesting the deployment of Patriot missiles," Rasmussen said in a statement.

"Such a deployment would augment Turkey's air defence capabilities to defend the population and territory of Turkey. It would contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along NATO's southeastern border.

"And it would be a concrete demonstration of Alliance solidarity and resolve," the statement said.

Diplomatic sources told AFP that NATO ambassadors meeting later on Wednesday would likely approve the Turkish request while Rasmussen said a team would visit Turkey next week to conduct a site-survey for the possible deployment of Patriots.

"The security of the Alliance is indivisible," Rasmussen said.

"NATO is fully committed to deterring against any threats and defending Turkey's territorial integrity," he said.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Ankara on Tuesday that the surface-to-air missiles were "a precautionary measure, for defence in particular."

Turkey's border villages have been hit by artillery fire from Syria as forces loyal to Damascus battle rebels seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"It is the very mission of NATO to supply the security of its members, when one of them is threatened by this level of border violations and faced with even further risks, like ballistic missiles," Davutoglu said.

Germany and The Netherlands are the two main European nations that possess the medium-range missiles made by US group Raytheon.

"It is up to the individual NATO countries that have available Patriots... to decide if they can provide them for deployment in Turkey and for how long," the Rasmussen statement said.

NATO deployed Patriot missiles in Turkey during the 1991 Gulf war and in 2003 during the Iraqi conflict.

Rasmussen said earlier this week that "the situation on the Syria-Turkey border is of great concern."

"We have all the plans ready to defend and protect Turkey if needed. The plans will be adjusted if necessary to ensure effective protection of Turkey," he said during talks with EU ministers on Monday.

Rasmussen said there was currently no question of imposing a no-fly zone with the back-up of the Patriot missiles.

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Scandal-hit US commander returns to Kabul

US General John Allen, under investigation for potentially inappropriate emails with a woman linked to a CIA sex scandal, has returned to Kabul to take up his duties as commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, his spokesman says.

"He returned today," Major David Nevers told AFP.

The Pentagon on November 13 announced a probe into the general's correspondence with Jill Kelley, a key figure in the sex scandal that forced the resignation this month of CIA director David Petraeus, a retired four-star officer.

Allen had been in Washington for a Senate hearing on his nomination to be the next NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, but President Barack Obama's administration requested the hearing be postponed after the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, launched the probe.

Allen has maintained he is innocent of any wrongdoing, and Panetta has said he retains "confidence" in the general.

As head of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Allen oversees roughly 66,000 American troops and 37,000 forces from other countries.

Petraeus, who preceded Allen as ISAF commander in Afghanistan, resigned abruptly from the CIA on November 9 over an extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, an Army reservist.

Allen is under investigation over a trove of 20,000 to 30,000 pages of correspondence - mostly emails - between himself and Kelley, a Tampa, Florida woman who threw parties for military officers posted at US Central Command.

Kelley informed the FBI she received threatening emails from Broadwell, who allegedly viewed her as competition for Petraeus's attention, according to media reports.

Looking into the allegation, the FBI stumbled upon correspondence between Petraeus and Broadwell, as well as between General Allen and Kelley.

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UBS rogue trader jailed for 7 years

A ROGUE trader who lost $US2.2 billion ($A2.12 billion) in bad deals at Swiss bank UBS has been sentenced to 7 years in prison after being convicted in what prosecutors called the biggest fraud case in UK banking history.

Ghanaian-born Kweku Adoboli, 32, exceeded his trading limits and failed to cover his losses, allegedly faking records to hide his tracks at the bank's London office. At one point, Adoboli risked running losses of up to $12 billion.

"There is a strong streak of the gambler in you," Judge Brian Keith told Adoboli. "You were arrogant to think the bank's rules for traders did not apply to you."

Adoboli wiped away tears as Keith handed down his sentence.

A conviction for fraud carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.

The 10-person jury at Southwark Crown Court in London found Adoboli guilty of two counts of fraud and innocent of four other false accounting charges.

The trader ran into trouble dealing in exchange traded funds, complex financial products that track stocks, bonds and commodities. Adoboli admitted the losses, but said he was pressured by staff to take risks.

He also testified last month that he had been trying to help UBS survive after it amassed losses of $52 billion during the 2007-2008 global financial crisis.

"There were times we thought there was no way the organisation would survive," said Adoboli, who joined UBS as a trainee in 2003 and rose quickly to become a senior trader. "I grew up with UBS. I felt very loyal to UBS."

Detective Chief Inspector Perry Stokes of City of London Police, who led the investigation of Adoboli, had a different view, believing the trader's motive was "to increase his bonus, his status, his job prospects and his ego."

"Adoboli was a sophisticated fraudster," Stokes said. "He was one of the most accomplished fraudsters that I've seen in my time investigating serious fraud."

After questions were raised about his trading, Adoboli walked off the job and sent an email to colleagues saying what he had done.

"I take full responsibility for my actions and the s-- storm that will now ensue. I am deeply sorry to have left this mess for everyone and to have put my bank and my colleagues at risk," he wrote.

The conviction on the second fraud count came on a 9-1 vote after the judge said he would accept a majority verdict. The sentences, to be served concurrently, were seven years on the first charge and four years on the second.

"We are glad that the criminal proceedings have reached a conclusion and thank the police and the UK authorities for their professional handling of this case," UBS said in a statement. "We have no further comment."

Prosecutors said it was the biggest fraud in British banking history, but it wasn't the largest trading loss. US-based JPMorgan Chase lost at least $5.8 billion through bad trades at its London office, the bank's CEO Jamie Dimon said in July.

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Elmo actor resigns amid sex allegation

SESAME Workshop says Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash has resigned from Sesame Street in the wake of allegations that he had sex with an under-aged youth.

Last week a man accused Clash of having sex with him when he was a teenage boy, a charge Clash denied. A day later, the man recanted his charge. A lawsuit by a second accuser was filed on Tuesday, according to attorney Cecil Singleton.

Sesame Workshop called the controversy surrounding Clash's personal life "a distraction that none of us want" and led to his decision to leave the show.

Clash created the voice and persona for Elmo, who has become one of Sesame Street's most popular characters.

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US stocks open lower after HP loss

US stocks have opened lower after Hewlett-Packard reported a quarterly loss due in part to a massive writedown, offsetting fresh data signalling recovery in the housing market.

After a triple-digit gain on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52.60 points (0.41 per cent) to 12,743.36 in the first 15 minutes of trade.

The S&P 500-stock index dropped 4.17 points (0.30 per cent) to 1382.72, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite slipped 6.21 (0.21 per cent) to 2909.86.

Charles Schwab & Co analysts said stocks were lower after Dow member HP announced an $US8.8 billion ($A8.49 billion) charge related to alleged accounting improprieties at Autonomy Corp, which HP acquired in August 2011 for over $10 billion.

On Monday, stocks scored solid gains on upbeat housing data and hopes that politicians will find a way to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts in January.

The jump was underpinned by Apple, the most valuable public company, which took a 7.2 per cent bounce to $565.73, following weeks of losses.

The Dow rose 1.65 per cent, the S&P 500 added 1.99 per cent and the Nasdaq leapt 2.21 per cent.

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One dead in fresh Kenya violence

FRESH violence has broken out in Kenya's restive northeast, with one person killed and seven others shot and wounded, officials say, a day after security forces cracked down on rioters.

Several other people were also hospitalised, some of them after being beaten with clubs by security forces in a crackdown following the killing of three soldiers in Garissa, a garrison town near the border with war-torn Somalia.

Kenya Red Cross said one person had died and 48 others - including seven with gunshot wounds - were being treated at Garissa hospital.

However, "relative calm and normalcy" had returned to the town by late afternoon, it added in a statement.

Garissa's main market was torched during the violence that broke out on Monday, after unknown gunmen killed three soldiers in town, sparking a security crackdown that provoked violent protests.

The violence is separate from riots that shook the capital Nairobi on Monday, although both broke out following attacks that resembled a recent string of grenade blasts and shootings blamed on supporters of Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents.

Small scuffles were also reported on Tuesday in Nairobi's Eastleigh district, a predominantly ethnic Somali neighbourhood, but on a far smaller scale than Monday, when street battles took place the day after a bomb blast on a bus killed nine people.

Garissa MP Adan Duale warned of the potential for further clashes between the military and residents if the garrison is not moved away from the town.

"The soldiers need to be moved out of Garissa, the lost lives and property need to be compensated and a commission of inquiry needs to be set up," Duale said, confirming that a woman had died of gunshot wounds.

Senior Shebab official Abduaziz Abu Musab denied involvement in Sunday's bomb blast in Nairobi, but said it was possible "some sympathisers of our cause acted alone" in the shooting of the soldiers in Garissa.

"We are categorically denying any involvement in the bus attack in Eastleigh at the weekend," Musab told AFP, blaming the violence on Kenya's elections due in March 2013.

"The violence is instead related to the upcoming election in Kenya and was masterminded to harm the Muslims in Kenya," he told AFP.

The Shebab have vowed revenge after Kenya invaded southern Somalia last year to chase out the Islamist fighters, although the group has not claimed direct responsibility for any attack.

Violence in Kenya - ranging from attacks blamed on Islamists to inter-communal clashes to a police crackdown on a coastal separatist movement - have raised concerns over security ahead of next year's elections.

Five years ago, elections descended into deadly post-poll killings that shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability.

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Syria troops besiege town near Damascus

SYRIAN troops have besieged Daraya and rained shells on the town near Damascus, killing a woman and a child, in a fresh attempt to storm it, activists and a watchdog say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that at least 29 people have died over the past 24 hours in clashes between Kurdish militiamen and rebels in the northern Syria town of Ras al-Ain, near the Turkey border.

"We have been under constant rocket and artillery fire," Abu Kinan, an activist from Daraya southwest of Damascus, told AFP via Skype, adding that troops had rigged the area with checkpoints and arrested scores of people.

"There is no life in all of Daraya," he said, estimating that 90 per cent of the residents had fled the town in panic.

"The clashes are some of the heaviest we have seen. The Republican Guard came to reinforce the regime army," he said.

Rebel Free Syrian Army fighters are locked in fierce battles with regime troops on the edge of the town, he added.

At least two civilians, a woman and a child, were killed by army bombardments on Daraya, the Observatory said, in the latest of several attempts to storm the town over the past few days, the watchdog said.

Considered a heartland of non-violent activism, Daraya was the site of the worst massacre in Syria's 20-month conflict, with more than 500 people killed there in late August, according to monitors.

The Observatory also reported shelling attacks across the eastern outskirts of Damascus while state media said two mortars hit the ministry of information in the west of the capital, causing no casualties.

In the northern province of Aleppo, rebels attacked the Sheikh Suleiman air defence battalion, less than two days after a military source said the insurgents took control of the sprawling Base 46 in the same province.

The Observatory said casualties from clashes in Ras al-Ain included four Kurdish fighters, a local Kurdish official, and 24 members of the Islamist Al-Nusra Front and Gharba al-Sham rebel battalions.

The Kurdish fighters are members of the People's Defence Units, the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is linked to Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said the British-based watchdog.

A Ras al-Ain activist, who gave his name only as Hevidar, said that tension has been high between rebels an the PYD since the insurgents took the town last week.

The clashes on Monday erupted after a Kurdish demonstration, which demanded that all rebels not from the town leave, was met with refusal.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists, lawyers and medics in civilian and military hospitals, gave an initial toll of at least 30 people killed across Syria on Tuesday.

The dead include nine soldiers who died in the central town of Mahin, east of Homs, when a truck rigged with explosives was detonated near a weapons depot. At least 20 soldiers were wounded in the blast.

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Speedster Clunes loses insurance gig

A STRING of speeding fines has cost British TV star Martin Clunes more than his driver's licence.

The Doc Martin and Men Behaving Badly star, 50, has lost his job as the promotional face of UK insurance firm Churchill, after admitting to the company that a culmination of infringements meant he no longer had the legal right to get behind the wheel.

A statement from the insurer said advertisements featuring Clunes, in which the star was sometimes shown riding a motorcycle, have been cancelled.

"Churchill Insurance currently has no adverts with Martin Clunes on air and will be moving forward with new advertising in the New Year," the statement read.

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US stocks jump on 'fiscal cliff' hopes

US stocks have scored solid opening gains on hopes that political leaders will find a way to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts in January.

After five minutes of trade on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 108.12 points, or 0.86 per cent, at 12,696.43.

The S&P 500-stock index advanced 16.34 points, or 1.20 per cent, to 1,376.22.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite leaped 33.96 points, or 1.19 per cent, to 2,887.09.

"Markets are looking to extend Friday's gains on hopes that progress will be made surrounding the fiscal cliff," said Wells Fargo Advisors analysts.

"Investors are encouraged after President Obama said on his trip to South-East Asia that he believes a budget deal will be reached."

On Friday, stocks rebounded slightly following a rough week as the White House opened talks with congressional leaders on the cliff and the deficit, with politicians on both sides signalling readiness to compromise.

The Dow rose 0.37 per cent and the S&P 500 added 0.48 per cent.

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Intel to seek new CEO, Otellini to retire

COMPUTER chip giant Intel Corp has announced that chief executive Paul Otellini will retire in May, and that a search for a new CEO is under way.

"The board of directors will conduct the process to choose Otellini's successor and will consider internal and external candidates for the job," said a statement from the Santa Clara, California tech giant on Monday.

"Otellini's decision to retire will bring to a close a remarkable career of nearly 40 years of continuous service to the company and its stockholders."

The company said that since Otellini took over as CEO in 2005, it generated cash from operations of $US107 billion ($A104 billion) and annual revenue grew from $US38.8 billion to $US54 billion.

But the world's largest chipmaker has been hit recently by a shift away from traditional PCs to mobile devices, and by a sluggish global economy.

The semiconductor maker said last month third quarter profits fell 14 per cent from the same period a year ago to $US2.97 billion on revenues of $US13.5 billion, down five per cent, and cited "a continuing tough economic environment".

Intel remains the dominant chipmaker in the PC market but has been catching up in the field of mobile devices including smartphones and tablets.

"Paul Otellini has been a very strong leader, only the fifth CEO in the company's great 45-year history, and one who has managed the company through challenging times and market transitions," said Andy Bryant, chairman of the board, in a statement announcing Otellini's plans.

"The board is grateful for his innumerable contributions to the company and his distinguished tenure as CEO over the last eight years."

Intel also said the board has approved the promotion of three senior leaders to the position of executive vice president: Renee James, head of Intel's software business; Brian Krzanich, chief operating officer and head of worldwide manufacturing; and Stacy Smith, chief financial officer and director of corporate strategy.

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Women, kids crushed in deadly stampede

Indian Hindu devotees cross a bamboo bridge as they gather to pay homage to the setting sun during Chhat Puja on the banks of the Ganges River in Patna. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

AT LEAST 18 people have been killed and more than a dozen injured following the collapse of a bridge which triggered a stampede during a Hindu festival in the eastern Indian city of Patna, officials said.

"Bodies of the 18 people killed in the stampede have been sent to the hospital for autopsies," Jayant Kant, a police superintendent in Patna said.

Mr Kant said the stampede occurred when a makeshift bridge erected to help people reach the Ganges river gave way under the weight of devotees rushing to offer prayers to the setting sun as part of an annual Hindu religious ritual.

Most of the casualties are thought to be the result of the stampede and not the collapse of the low-slung bamboo-and-rope bridge designed to help worshippers cross rough terrain.

"Ten women and eight children are among those killed," the police officer said, adding the toll was likely to go up as several other Hindu devotees were reported missing at the site.

Television stations showed ambulances with sirens wailing ferry worshippers to various city hospitals, while Sanjay Kumar Singh, a city administrator, said power darkness at the site made rescue efforts more difficult.

"When the bridge collapsed, power cables strung on it snapped and lights went off and in the darkness people scrambled which triggered the stampede," Mr Singh said.

Patna is capital of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, where the annual Chhath festival dedicated to the Hindu Sun God is popular.

An estimated 400,000 Hindu devotees thronged upto 65 riverside locations specially prepared by state authorities to cater to worshippers travelling to the Ganges, which is revered by Hindus as holy.

Around 50,000 people were present at Adalat Ganj, one of the worship locations, when the makeshift bridge collapsed, officials said.

The festival is celebrated across India and the number of devotees are likely to swell at dawn today when worshippers will throng rivers to offer prayers to the rising sun.

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US existing home sales jump

US existing home sales picked up in October despite the market in the northeast being shut down in the last days of the month by Hurricane Sandy, a realtors group says.

Existing home sales rose 2.1 per cent over September, hitting an annual pace of 4.79 million units, pulled up by a 4.4 per cent rise in the West, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Sales in the South gained 2.1 per cent, and the Midwest 1.8 per cent, while the Northeast saw a 1.7 per cent decline, in part due to the superstorm which wreaked havoc on the densely populated eastern New York-New Jersey region in the final days of the month.

Year-on-year sales nationally were up 10.9 per cent from a year earlier, and the national median price, $US178,600 ($A173,290), was 11.1 per cent higher.

"Home sales continue to trend up and most October transactions were completed by the time the storm hit, but the growing demand with limited inventory is pressuring home prices in much of the country," said NAR economist Lawrence Yun.

"We expect an impact on northeastern home sales in the coming months from a pause and delays in storm-impacted regions."

Around one-quarter of all sales were "distressed" sales: homes forced on the market by lender foreclosures and short sales, reflecting the still deep impact of the crash of the housing market six years ago, according to NAR.

The inventory of homes available for sale continued to tighten. Inventory dropped to a 5.4-month supply, at current sales rates, to its lowest level since February 2006, and down from 7.6 months of supply a year ago.

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Myanmar announces new prisoner amnesty

THE president of Myanmar (Burma) has ordered a new prisoner amnesty ahead of a historic visit to the country by US President Barack Obama.

State television said President Thein Sein had ordered 66 detainees released, but it was not clear whether any political prisoners would be among them.

A Home Ministry official said Thein Sein signed the amnesty order on Friday, but the prisoners will be freed on Monday.

The presidential amnesty was the second announced this week.

On Thursday, Thein Sein announced an amnesty for 452 prisoners, but the move did not include prisoners of conscience and prompted activists to step up calls for the government to release those believed to remain behind bars.

Myanmar's government has long insisted that all prisoners are criminals and does not acknowledge the existence of political detainees. However, the reformist new government, praised for its moves toward democracy, has released hundreds of people this year who were jailed under the former military junta.

A separate press release, issued on Sunday, said the government would initiate "initiate a process between the Ministry of Home Affairs and interested parties to devise a transparent mechanism to review remaining prisoner cases of concern by the end of December 2012".

The news came one day ahead of a visit on Monday by Obama, who will become the first sitting American president to visit the once-pariah nation.

Obama is due to meet Thein Sein, as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi before flying to Cambodia later in the day.

Thein Sein's administration has made freedom for political prisoners one of the centrepieces of its reform agenda. Earlier prisoner releases helped convince Western nations, including the United States, to ease sanctions they had imposed against the previous military regime.

Under the now-defunct junta, rights groups said more than 2000 activists and government critics were wrongfully imprisoned.

Suu Kyi's party says at least 330 political prisoners remain incarcerated.

Obama said on Sunday in Thailand that his visit to Myanmar is an acknowledgement of the democratic transition under way but not an endorsement of the country's government.

Obama's words were aimed at countering critics who say his trip to the country is premature.

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Israel facing 'millions' of cyber-attacks

THE Israeli government has admitted it has become the victim of a mass cyber-warfare campaign with millions of attempts to hack state websites since the start of its Gaza offensive four days ago.

Speaking ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said the government was now waging war on "a second front - of cyber attacks against Israel".

Steinitz said in the past four days, Israel had "deflected 44 million cyber attacks on government websites. All the attacks were thwarted except for one, which targeted a specific website that was down for six or seven minutes."

His remarks came a day after the online activist group Anonymous claimed to have downed dozens of websites of Israeli state agencies and a top bank in protest over the Jewish state's deadly air assault.

It also comes as both Israel and the Palestinians try exploiting the social networks in a furious effort to win over public opinion amid the worst outbreak of Middle East violence in four years.

Steinitz did not say who was responsible, but said the government had successfully managed to deflect almost every attack, thereby avoiding serious disruption or other damage.

On Saturday, Anonymous claimed to have downed or erased the databases of nearly 700 Israeli private and public websites, including that of the Bank of Jerusalem finance house.

It also claimed to have briefly downed the foreign ministry website in protest over an alleged Israeli threat to cut the Gaza Strip's internet communications.

"For far too long, Anonymous has stood by with the rest of the world and watched in despair the barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment of the Palestinian people in the so called 'Occupied Territories' by the Israel Defence Force," Anonymous said in a statement.

"But when the government of Israel publicly threatened to sever all internet and other telecommunications into and out of Gaza they crossed a line in the sand."

Steinitz made no direct reference to Anonymous and failed to specify if the government was dealing with a co-ordinated attack. He also refused to disclose which countries these efforts were being conducted from.

But the minister stressed that the government had come up with back-up for "essential websites" should they be taken down.

"This is an unprecedented attack, and our success has been greater than we anticipated," Steinitz said.

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Egypt's new Coptic Pope enthroned

POPE Tawadros II has been enthroned as the new leader of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority in a ceremony at Cairo's St Mark's Cathedral attended by Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.

Dozens of Coptic clerics in flowing robes took part in Sunday's ceremony, the first in four decades, as the Muslim prime minister looked on.

Tawadros received the crown and crucifix from Bishop Pachomius, who had served as the church's interim leader, before ascending the huge wooden throne of St Mark embossed with lions.

Arabic, English and Greek mingled with the ancient Coptic language of the church's liturgy in the psalms and prayers of the service and the tributes of well-wishers.

Tawadros, 60, was chosen on November 4 to succeed Pope Shenuda III, who died in March after four decades on the patriarchal throne. He was chosen after a blindfolded altar boy picked his name from a chalice, according to church custom.

He becomes spiritual head of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East and 118th pope in a line dating back to the origins of Christianity and to Saint Mark, the apostle and author of one of the four Gospels, who brought the new faith to Egypt.

Shenuda, a careful, pragmatic leader, died at a critical time for the increasingly beleaguered minority, which has faced a surge in sectarian attacks after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February last year.

The pope leads the Coptic Orthodox community in a country where Christians make up between six and 10 per cent of an 83 million population.

Amid increased fears about the community's future after the overthrow of Mubarak, Tawadros will be its main contact with Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

The rise of Islamists after the revolution sparked fears among Copts of further persecution, despite Morsi's repeated promises to be a president "for all Egyptians".

Copts have suffered sectarian attacks for years, but since Mubarak's overthrow several dozen have been killed in sectarian clashes and during a protest in October last year crushed by the then ruling military.

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Seven dead in Nairobi minibus attack

SEVEN people were killed and many more wounded when an apparent explosive device was hurled at a packed minibus in a predominantly Somali area of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, police and the Red Cross say.

Nairobi police chief Moses Nyakwama said the blast occurred on Sunday on a local minibus in the district of Eastleigh, where mainly Somalis or Kenyans of Somali origin live and which has been the target of other attacks in recent weeks.

"The information we have is that there were about 25 people in the bus. It looks like it is an improvised explosive device that was thrown in it," he said. "It occurred at a congested place so even people passing by got injured."

The Kenyan Red Cross said on its Twitter account that the death toll was now seven people while the number of wounded was 29.

Kenya has suffered a wave of grenade and gun attacks, often blamed on sympathisers of Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist insurgents, since its army went into Somalia last year to flush out al-Shabab.

The Eastleigh area has often been a target of violence.

On Wednesday, a suspected grenade attack in a supermarket in the district wounded one person, and two weeks earlier another explosive device went off, wounding two.

Earlier this month, attackers also hurled a grenade into a church in the northeastern town of Garissa, close to the Somali border, killing one policeman and wounding 14 people.

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Obama calls for more Myanmar reform

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has flexed US power in Asia on a regional tour that will make history when he lands in Myanmar (Burma), calling on its leaders to step up their startling political reform drive.

Obama touched down in Air Force One in Bangkok on Sunday, sending a message that relationships like the six-decades-old treaty alliance with Thailand will form the bedrock of US diplomacy as the region warily eyes a rising China.

On Monday Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit formerly isolated Myanmar. He will praise President Thein Sein for ending a dark era of junta rule, but also prod him to go much further towards genuine democracy.

Then, in a stark illustration of how far Myanmar has come, the US leader will stand side-by-side with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi at the lakeside villa where his fellow Nobel laureate languished for years under house arrest.

Speaking in Thailand on the eve of the visit, Obama praised Myanmar's reforms but urged the regime to do more.

"President Thein Sein is taking steps that move us in a better direction," he told a press conference. "But I don't think anybody's under any illusion that Burma's arrived."

"The country has a long way to go. I'm not somebody who thinks that the United States should stand on the sidelines and not want to get its hands dirty when there's an opportunity for us to encourage the better impulses inside a country."

After a 19-hour journey from Washington, Obama first paid homage to Thailand's ancient history with a private tour of the Wat Pho temple, which is famed for a huge, golden statue of a reclining Buddha.

"What a peaceful place," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the president, who remarked that they were having a "treat" because the normally crowded tourist attraction had been cleared for their visit.

Then Obama called at Siriraj hospital in Bangkok for an audience with revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, seen as a symbol of continuity for a kingdom with a turbulent political past.

Obama and Clinton greeted and shook hands with the frail monarch, who turns 85 next month.

He also held talks with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra focusing on trade, regional politics, counter-narcotics issues and terrorism.

On Monday Obama will fly to Cambodia, and a likely tense encounter over human rights with Prime Minister Hun Sen, ahead of the East Asia Summit, the main institutional focus of his pivot of US foreign policy to the region.

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