French forces stop Mali Islamist advance

MALIAN troops were poised on Saturday to reclaim a key town from Islamists threatening to advance on the capital after France sent in its air force, opening a dramatic new phase in the months-old conflict.

Witnesses and the Malian army said dozens of Islamist fighters were killed in the battle for Konna, one of the worst clashes since the start of the crisis almost a year ago and the most significant setback inflicted on the Islamists.

US officials said Washington might support France's sudden military involvement to help Bamako wrest northern Mali back from al Qaeda-linked groups, while Nigeria also said it had dispatched personnel on the ground.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Operation Serval had already claimed its first French casualty when a pilot carrying raids to support Malian ground troops fighting for Konna was killed on Friday.

France also said it had deployed troops in Bamako, which has remained under government control since Islamist groups seized half of the country in March to protect its 6000-strong expatriate community.

A senior Malian officer in the region told AFP that the army was now fully in control of the town, after spending the best part of Saturday flushing out the last pockets of resistance.

"We control the town, all of it," said Lieutenant Ousmane Fane, a member of the Mopti regional command.

"We have claimed dozens of casualties, even around 100 among Islamist ranks in Konna."

Witnesses reached by AFP spoke of dozens of bodies strewn across the area, with one resident counting 46 dead Islamists.

The town, which had fallen into insurgents' hands on Thursday, is some 700km from Bamako but was seen as one of the last ramparts against an Islamist advance.

Mali's armed forces had been in disarray since a March coup and seemed powerless against a rebellion of seasoned mainly Tuareg fighters, but France's shock intervention tipped the power balance.

"The helicopters struck the insurgents' vehicles, which dispersed. The army is mopping up the city," a Malian military source said.

"During this intense combat, one of our pilots ... was fatally wounded," Le Drian told a press conference in Paris.

Groups with ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) overpowered a secular Tuareg rebellion in March 2012 and seized control of a territory the size of France.

They have since destroyed centuries-old mausoleums which they see as a heresy in the fabled city of Timbuktu and imposed an extreme form of Islamic law -- or sharia -- in the main towns, flogging, amputating and sometimes executing transgressors.

The collapse of a nation seen as a democratic success story in the region sparked Western fears that northern Mali could become a major launchpad for global terrorist attacks.

The United States, former colonial power France -- which has eight hostages in the Sahel -- and the rest of the European Union had looked set to let the regional bloc ECOWAS take the lead on any military intervention, which appeared at least several months away.

The UN Security Council had okayed the regional mission but Mali's interim administration had warned it could not afford to wait months for a game-changer.

"Our choice is peace ... but they have forced war on us. We will carry out a crushing and massive retaliation against our enemies," Mali's interim leader, Dioncounda Traore, said in an address to the nation on Friday.

On Saturday he thanked France for its intervention.

French army chief Edouard Guillaud, speaking at the same briefing as the defence minister, said the operation had a tactical command in Mali.

French President Francois Hollande, who has struggled on the domestic front and seen his popularity hit record lows, said French forces would remain involved as long as necessary.

Nigeria's presidency on Saturday confirmed it had sent an air force technical team and the commander of the planned ECOWAS force to Mali.

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Arthur Highway to reopen Sunday night

TASMANIAN police are planning to reopen the Arthur Highway on the bushfire-ravaged Tasman Peninsular for general access from 6pm on Sunday.

They say the opening will be confirmed after an assessment of prevailing fire and wind conditions during the afternoon.

They're also warning that there will be a number of work crews on the highway on Monday particularly between Sugarloaf Road and the Dunally Bridge, and people planning to travel on it should expect delays.

The crews will be working to restore essential services on the peninsular after more than week of bushfires.

The highway will have a speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour, and some areas may be signposted at 40 due to the works. Police warn the limits will be enforced.

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Zeman, Schwarzenberg top Czech vote

CZECH rivals Milos Zeman, a former premier and veteran left-winger, and right-wing Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, topped the results of the presidential election Saturday and will face off in a run-off later this month.

Zeman, 68, garnered 25 per cent of votes while Schwarzenberg, 75, scored 21.2 per cent, the Czech Statistical Office said, with 75 per cent of ballots counted after the two-day first round wound up.

The second-round run-off is scheduled for January 25-26.

Former centre-right prime minister Jan Fischer, who had led opinion polls ahead the vote, scored 17.06 per cent, ahead of leftist senator Jiri Dienstbier with 16.7 per cent.

"Jan Fischer was rather weak in debates. Confronted with his rivals, he didn't offer much," Tomas Lebeda, a political analyst at Charles University in Prague, told public broadcaster Czech Television.

Vladimir Franz, an eccentric artist who is tattooed head-to-toe, was running fifth among the nine contenders with seven per cent support in the vote whose turnout topped 60 per cent.

The winner will replace outgoing eurosceptic Vaclav Klaus, whose mandate expires on March 7.

The Czech Republic is an ex-communist NATO and EU member with population of 10.5 million.

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200 dead from violence in Kenya: Red Cross

AT least 200 people have been killed in violence in Kenya's southeast since August in fighting that could be related to political tensions ahead of March elections, the Red Cross says.

Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet said that in the past there had been skirmishes between the semi-nomadic Orma and the farming Pokomo communities in the Tana Delta over resources, but the current violence was unprecedented.

Gullet said 36,000 people have been displaced from their homes and schools have been closed

Kenya police say the motive behind the violence could be to displace a certain tribe ahead of the elections. At least 18 people died this week in tit for tat attacks between the two groups.

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Obama's second inauguration to be smaller

US President Barack Obama's second inauguration is going to be smaller than his historic first swearing-in, but still full of glamour and pomp.

Estimates of turnout are 600,000 to 800,000, compared with a record 1.8 million in 2009.

Yet recent developments have shown enthusiasm is high.

A limited offering of $US60 ($A56.87) inaugural ball tickets for the public sold out quickly, and there's an impressive list of celebrities, including Beyonce, Katy Perry and Usher, set to perform.

Obama has cut the number of balls from 10 last time to just two this year.

But The Associated Press has learned that organisers are expecting 35,000 people to attend the larger ball, and 4000 people are expected to attend a ball in honour of US troops - double the size of two years ago.

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France hunts Kurd killers amid feud claim

POLICE are hunting down the assassins of three Kurdish activists shot dead in Paris even as Turkey said an internal feud in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was most likely behind the slayings.

Judicial sources say the three female activists, including founding PKK member Sakine Cansiz, were each shot in the head at least three times, giving further credence to the theory of an execution-style hit.

Autopsies on the bodies revealed one of the women had been shot four times in the head and the other two shot three times, the sources said on Friday.

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

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

Experts have suggested a number of potential motives for the killings, including an attack by Turkish extremists and internal feuding within the PKK.

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

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday the slayings bore the hallmarks of an internal feud, noting that the victims appeared to have given the killer or killers access to the centre.

"The place was protected not by one lock but many coded locks," Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as telling reporters. "Those three people opened it (the door). I do not assume they would open it to people they didn't know."

But the Turkish leader also upheld his earlier suggestion that the slayings could be aimed at derailing peace talks between Ankara and the PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

A former guerrilla of the organisation, Cansiz was considered a close ally of Ocalan.

"The killings could be the result of an internal feud or steps aimed at disrupting the steps we are taking with good intentions," Erdogan said.

Experts have said potential internal feuding could be linked to the peace process or to other PKK activities, in particular conflicts over money.

A French judicial source said police are running 21 investigations into potentially illegal fundraising by the PKK.

The group raises funds through a "revolutionary tax" on Kurdish expatriates that authorities in several countries have condemned as extortion. Several PKK leaders have also been designated as drugs traffickers by the United States.

There are around 150,000 Kurds in France, the vast majority of them of Turkish origin.

Erdogan's government recently revealed Turkish intelligence services had for weeks been talking to Ocalan, captured in 1999 and held on an island prison south of Istanbul.

Under the reported peace roadmap, the government would reward a ceasefire by granting wider rights to Turkey's Kurdish minority, whose population is estimated at up to 15 million in the country of 75 million.

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Catherine 'delighted' with first portrait

THE first official portrait of Prince William's wife, Catherine, has been unveiled in London, with the Duchess giving the work a royal thumbs up.

Catherine, 31, attended the National Portrait Gallery on Friday where artist Paul Emsley's work was revealed to a private audience which included the Duke of Cambridge.

"I think, from what I can see this morning, she's delighted with it. I'm very happy about that," Emsley said of Catherine's reaction.

The award-winning artist was commissioned by the gallery to capture Catherine and worked with the Duchess during a series of photography sessions.

The larger-than-life sized head and shoulders painting shows Catherine's flowing brunette hair and soft features against a dark background.

"In discussions it became clear that what she wanted herself, and I was very happy with that, was that the portrait should convey her natural self as opposed to her official self," Emsley told reporters, as published by The Independent online.

"The fact she is a beautiful woman is for an artist difficult. In the end I think what I tried to do really was to convey something about her warmth and her smile."

Asked of any royal feedback he received during the unveiling, Emsley said Catherine, who has a history of art degree, commented on the portrait: "It's just amazing".

The work was praised by prolific royal portrait artist Richard Stone, who said Emsley is "brave" to have embarked on a work of such large scale.

"It's very challenging to do something larger than life, and he seems to have pulled it off very well," said Stone, whose first royal commission was to paint the Queen Mother, which he went on to do six times.

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US trade deficit balloons in November

THE US trade deficit widened sharply in November, posting its highest level in seven months amid a jump in consumer-goods imports, according to Department of Commerce data.

The US trade deficit expanded to $US48.7 billion ($A46.16 billion), up from a revised $US42.1 billion in October. November US exports were $US1.7 billion more than October exports, while November imports were $US8.4 billion above the October level.

The trade deficit was well above analyst forecasts of $US41.8 billion.

The jump in imports was especially pronounced in consumer goods (up 11.1 per cent) and cars (up 6.3 per cent). US spending on oil imports fell due to lower oil prices.

The US's closely watched trade gap with China fell to $US29 billion in November from the October level of $US29.5 billion.

Lower oil prices translated into a lower deficit with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which fell in November to $US6.6 billion from $US8.6 billion in October.

AFP j

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Honda axes 800 British jobs on weak demand

HONDA has announced it intends to cut 800 jobs this year at its Swindon plant in Britain owing to weakening demand for its vehicles in Europe.

"Honda Motor Europe has today announced changes to its UK car manufacturing operation to ensure the long term stability of its future business," the group said in a statement on Friday.

"Sustained conditions of low demand in European markets make it necessary to realign Honda's business structure. As such, Honda ... will enter into formal consultation with its associates to consider these changes and the proposal that it will reduce the workforce by 800 associates by spring 2013."

Ken Keir, executive vice president at Honda Motor Europe, added that current "conditions of sustained low industry demand require us to take difficult decisions."

The Swindon plant in southwest England currently employs about 3500 staff, including 500 recruited only last year, in part to work on a new diesel engine line.

Britain's biggest union Unite called Honda's decision "a hammer blow to UK manufacturing and the local economy."

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the British government would be working "to minimise the impact of the job losses."

He added: "Times are tough in the European market but the automotive industry remains a major success story for the UK.

"Over the last two years global manufacturers including Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover and BMW have invested STG6 billion ($A9.21 billion) in the UK, safeguarding and creating new jobs."

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Cabinet push for dole rise: report

THERE'S growing support within federal cabinet for the Gillard government to increase dole payments in this year's budget.

The Weekend Australian reports that the government has begun modelling a number of measures to help people who are receiving the Newstart Allowance, such as single mums.

One option being considered would allow such income support recipients to keep more of their payment if their hours of work increased, the newspaper reports.

Another possible change would reportedly lead to an increase in the amount from the current $35-a-day payment, but not up to the $50 amount being advocated by welfare groups.

They have slammed government changes to the parenting payment scheme that will shift some 84,000 single parents to Newstart when their youngest child turns eight.

Welfare groups estimate that some families will be between $60 and $100 a week worse off because of the changes.

On Friday, Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin apologised for earlier remarks in which she indicated she could live on the $35-a-week dole.

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US stocks higher after strong Chinese data

US stocks have opened higher after stronger-than-expected Chinese trade data that boosted growth hopes for the world's second-biggest economy.

After 25 minutes of trade on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 39.47 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 13,429.98.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 6.11 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 1,467.13.

The Nasdaq Composite gained 15.30 points, or 0.49 per cent, at 3,121.11.

China said its trade surplus surged 48.1 per cent in 2012 from the previous year, helped by a 7.9 per cent rise in exports. The strong trade data lifted Asian and European stock markets.

On Wall Street, news that Nokia boosted its fourth-quarter earnings guidance and that Ford doubled its quarterly dividend lent support to US stocks, said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

On the downside, Tiffany & Co released an earnings warning, while Morgan Stanley downgraded Microsoft, O'Hare said.

US jobless claims rose by 4,000 last week to come in at 371,000, the government reported, above the 364,000 estimated by analysts.

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UK detective guilty in hacking scandal

A SENIOR British counter-terrorism detective has been found guilty of trying to sell information to Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid.

Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn was charged with misconduct for allegedly phoning the newspaper and offering to pass on information about whether London's police force would reopen its stalled phone hacking investigation.

Prosecutors said the newspaper did not print a story based on her call and no money changed hands.

However, they said, she had committed a "gross breach" of the public trust by offering to sell the information.

She was accused of trying to ruin the inquiry by leaking information to the press.

Prosecutor Mark Bryant-Heron told the jury Casburn "sought to undermine a highly sensitive and high-profile investigation at the point of its launch" and accused her of malicious behaviour.

Casburn, 53, who managed the Metropolitan Police terrorist financing investigation unit, had denied the charges.

She admitted contacting the newspaper but denied she offered confidential information or sought payment.

Jurors at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday found her guilty of one count of misconduct.

She is the first person convicted in the hacking scandal since the police investigation was reopened in 2011.

She will be sentenced later this month.

The long-running phone hacking scandal has led to dozens of arrests. It involved allegations of illegal snooping on celebrities, crime victims, politicians and others.

Murdoch closed the News of the World tabloid after many of its misdeeds were exposed.

Tim Wood, the News of the World news editor who took Casburn's call, told the court she had expressed concern that counter-terrorism resources were being diverted to the phone hacking investigation.

He said she also complained of interference from former deputy prime minister John Prescott, a hacking victim and vocal Murdoch critic.

"The one thing that stands out in my mind is the fact that she kept going on about Lord Prescott," Wood said. "Her saying that he was pressing for them to put charges on the News of the World; and she was saying that she felt it was wrong that he was interfering in the scandal, so to speak, and she resented that."

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Assange protest organiser faces taunts

A BRITISH university student has become a victim of social media abuse for organising a protest against Julian Assange, partly for his evasion of sexual assault allegations.

Simone Webb is gathering support for a January 23 rally at Oxford University to coincide with an address by the WikiLeaks founder to the exclusive institution's Union.

"I have been sent abusive tweets by Assange supporters, including his mother. I've been described as pig-headed, a bitter jealous mediocrity, a misandrist, a retard, an extremist, and a hairy-legged truck driver," Ms Webb told AAP.

She blocked Assange's Brisbane-based mother, Christine Assange, on Twitter after receiving a barrage of messages.

Using an account in her own name, Ms Assange posted: "On Jan 23 a gang of rabbid irrational frenzied 'feminists' will protest Julians video speech to Oxford Uni Students."

Assange has been invited by the Oxford Union to speak at the annual Sam Adams Award, which recognises an individual who has displayed "courage, persistence and devotion to the truth" in the name of the former CIA analyst.

The 41-year-old is expected to make a video address as he faces arrest if he leaves London's Ecuadorian embassy, in which he took refuge in August last year.

The Australian was granted asylum by the Latin American nation after claiming sex assault allegations in Sweden were the start of a campaign to get him to the US, where his secret-leaking website is under investigation.

Assange denies the assault claims of two women and maintains that sex was consensual.

"I am holding the protest for a number of reasons. Primarily to highlight the inappropriateness and irony of having someone speak at an awards ceremony supposed to celebrate integrity, justice, courage and truth-seeking who is himself evading the justice process by hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy," Ms Webb said.

"Secondly, this is about challenging society's treatment of rape allegations, and the way they are minimised and ignored."

An unnamed spokesman for the Oxford Union justified Assange's address in comments made to the Huffington Post website.

"Mr Assange is a thinker and activist who has made significant contributions to the debate on government transparency," he said.

"It is hoped that institutional corruption, whistleblowing and freedom of speech can all be discussed without in any way sanctioning or condoning his alleged private actions."

Ms Webb has called for protesters to gather outside the Oxford Union and the Ecuadorian embassy on January 23.

She has created a Facebook event to garner support.

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Honoured Aussie stamp collection for sale

AN award-winning Australian stamp collection has attracted global interest following news it will go on sale in London.

Originally compiled by Briton Guybon John Hutson, who died in 1963, the stamps are for sale following the 2012 death of the private collector's son and heir.

While the collection contains stamps from Papua, New Zealand and Tasmania dating back to the mid-1800s, the highlights are examples from NSW, said Nick Startup from auction house Spink.

"It is a fantastic and very important collection which is one of the best collections of NSW ever formed, and one which the market has been eagerly awaiting to surface for many years," he said.

The Hutson collection was awarded a rare gold medal at the 1960 London International Stamp Exhibition.

Among the items for sale at the February 19 auction is a redirected envelope sent from Orange via Bathurst to London and returned to Devonport in 1854.

The collection is expected to fetch up to STG600,000 ($A920,000).

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Lawyer says cops beat Delhi rape suspects

A DEFENCE lawyer in the New Delhi gang-rape and murder case has accused police of beating confessions out of the suspects as they appeared in court for a second time.

Speaking ahead of the closed hearing before a city magistrate, Supreme Court lawyer ML Sharma said the five adult suspects aged from 19 to 35 had been forced to confess following their arrest soon after the December 16 crime.

He also suggested his defence would cast doubt on the character of the 23-year-old victim, a physiotherapy student who had been to watch a film with her boyfriend when they were lured onto a bus and savagely assaulted.

"All the accused have been badly beaten by the police and they have used the third degree to extract the statement that suits the evidence they have collected," ML Sharma told AFP outside Saket District Court in southern Delhi.

"My clients have been forced to confess to crimes that they did not commit."

A spokesman for Delhi police refused to comment on the allegations. Officers have said they have strong forensic evidence against the accused and testimony from the boyfriend.

Sharma is defending two of the adult defendants, who are expected to plead not guilty.

Two other Supreme Court advocates were confirmed as counsel for the other three during the hearing on Thursday.

The pleas of the other three men have not been decided yet, their lawyers told reporters.

A sixth accused, who is 17, will be tried in a juvenile court.

A police bus believed to be transporting the five suspects, mostly New Delhi slum residents who are being held in top-security Tihar jail, was seen arriving at the court before their scheduled appearance.

Lawyers said afterwards the next hearing had been set for January 14.

After their first appearance on Monday was marred by chaotic scenes, presiding magistrate Namrita Aggarwal ordered the court cleared and imposed restrictions limiting media reporting of the case.

A court officer had said the case would be transferred to a fast-track trial court during Thursday's hearing, but lawyers said outside the courtroom that this had not happened.

If the men are convicted, they could face the death penalty, which is reserved for "the rarest of rare" cases in India.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Sharma was quoted as saying the companion was "wholly responsible" for the incident because the unmarried couple should not have been on the streets at night.

"Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady," he told the financial newswire.

Sharma told AFP he was not trying to smear the victim.

"I did speak to Bloomberg, but did not say anything about the victim. I only told them that women are respected in India, they are mothers, sisters, friends, but tell me which country respects a prostitute."

Asked if that meant that he regarded the victim as a prostitute, Sharma replied: "No, not at all, but I have to protect my clients and prove that they did not commit this heinous crime."

The government, which has been on the defensive over the levels of crimes against women, on Thursday promised a series of safety measures including night-time patrols by police in Delhi.

"Every police station will have at least two women police officers and 10 constables. A women's help desk will also be set up at each station," Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said at a press conference.

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British flag raised in Belfast

THE British flag has been hoisted over Belfast's City Hall for the first time since the decision not to fly it permanently sparked riots in Northern Ireland.

On a sixth consecutive night of violence in the British province, protesters pelted police in the capital Belfast with petrol bombs, fireworks, bottles and stones.

Pro-British protesters have taken to the streets almost every night since December 3, when the city council announced it would no longer fly the Union Jack all year round at the City Hall.

It will now only be hoisted for a maximum of 18 days a year, including on the birthdays of British royals - the first of which fell on Wednesday as Prince William's wife Catherine turned 31.

The flag's reappearance above the elegant central Belfast building raised fears of more violence as protesters vowed to continue their campaign until it is replaced permanently.

The flag ruling sparked riots and arson attacks at the start of December which gave way to largely peaceful protests, but the violence has flared again since the start of the new year.

Tensions are running high in the province, which endured three decades of sectarian violence until peace accords in 1998 led to a power-sharing government between Protestants and Catholics.

The protesters, who are mainly Protestant, see the flag's removal as an attack on their British identity and a compromise too far with republicans, who are mostly Catholic and favour a united Ireland.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that Northern Ireland needed to break down "barriers of segregation that have been in place for many, many years".

"We need to build a shared future in Northern Ireland," he said as he faced his weekly session of questions in parliament.

"I think that is part of the challenge to take away some of the tensions that we've seen in recent days."

John Kyle, a member of the pro-British Progressive Unionist Party on the city council, said the protests expressed the wider anger of Protestants who feel they have lost out in the peace process.

"There's a feeling of alienation - they feel disconnected from the political system," he told BBC radio.

"It has erupted in this anger and regrettably the anger has led to violence."

Some 3000 people were killed in the three decades of sectarian bombings and shootings from the late 1960s known as The Troubles.

Northern Ireland's top policeman Matt Baggott has accused the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force, which murdered more than 500 people during the conflict, of orchestrating some of the recent violence.

The 1998 Good Friday peace agreement brought an end to most of the unrest in the province, but sporadic bomb threats and murders carried out by dissident republicans continue.

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US stocks open higher

STOCKS have opened higher, one day after aluminum producer Alcoa kicked off the quarterly earnings season with a report that met expectations.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 33.55 points (0.25 per cent) at 13,362.40.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 4.26 (0.29 per cent) to 1461.41, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 7.62 (0.25 per cent) at 3099.43.

Alcoa, considered an economic bellwether because of its role in industrial production, posted an in-line profit of $0.06 per share after trade closed Tuesday.

Briefing analyst Patrick O'Hare said the market may take a "wait-and-see" approach on Wednesday as it awaits a Thursday meeting of the European Central Bank and public comments from Federal Reserve officials.

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French honour Malala, father urges peace

THE Taliban are fighting a lost cause and must accept peace talks, the father of Malala Yousafzai says, accepting a key French award for the Pakistani schoolgirl shot for campaigning for girls' education.

In an impassioned speech after accepting the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Womens' Freedom on behalf of the 15-year-old, Ziauddin Yousafzai said his daughter was supported by the world and by God.

"She fell but Pakistan stood up. And the whole world - north, south, east and west - supported her," he said. "God protected her and protected the cause of humanity and education."

In an attack that shocked the world, Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban hitman as her school bus made its way through the town of Mingora in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley in October.

The bullet grazed her brain, coming within centimetres of killing her, travelling through her head and neck before lodging in her left shoulder. She was then treated in a British hospital.

Yousafzai said the Taliban should now see the writing on the wall and "learn from this incident.

"They should come to talks and to peace and to humanity," he said, referring to Pakistan's population and saying that if they wanted to impose their will "they will have to kill 180 million people and that's impossible."

Despite coming from a male-dominated society, he quoted a woman Pakistani poet Rabia Basri who wrote: "There has been no lady prophet in history and no woman has been stupid enough to claim to be God."

Yousafzai added: "In my part of the world, fathers are known by their sons. Daughters are very much neglected. I am one of the few fortunate fathers who is known by their daughter."

Excerpts from Malala's blog, which earned her the wrath of the Taliban and made her a global icon of courage and hope, were read out to sustained applause.

An entry said: "On my way from school to home I heard a man saying 'I will kill you'. I hastened my pace and after a while I looked back to see if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone."

Malala's father also evoked the plight of an Indian medical student who was brutally gang-raped in New Delhi and died in a Singapore hospital as well as "girls who are shot, who burn themselves because of child marriage and those who are raped."

Yousafzai's daughter first rose to prominence aged just 11 with a blog for the BBC's Urdu-language service charting her life in Swat under the Taliban, whose two-year reign of terror supposedly came to an end there with an army operation in 2009.

Her attempted murder has sparked calls for her to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yousafzai also called for a change in global politics, saying his country has suffered enormously in an era when "our children were orphaned, our women were widowed and our schools were lost."

"Let's have politics for the people. People should not be sacrificed at the altar of the state," he said, reminding the audience that were about 160 million children out of school worldwide.

Last month Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari announced a $US10 million ($A9.57 million) donation for a global war chest to educate all girls by 2015 set up in Malala's name.

The Malala Fund for Girls' Right to Education aims at raising billions of dollars to ensure that all girls go to school by 2015 in line with United Nations Millennium goals.

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30 to 50 reported hurt in NY ferry crash

POLICE and fire officials say 30 to 50 people have been injured when a ferry struck a dock during rush hour in New York City's financial district.

News reports say the Seastreak Wall Street ferry from New Jersey banged into the mooring as it arrived.

Officials say one person is in a critical condition with head injuries.

Some patients were carried out strapped to stretchers, their heads and necks immobilised. About a dozen passengers on stretchers were spread out on the dock, surrounded by emergency workers.

A corner of the ferry appeared to have been ripped open on Wednesday morning.

A receptionist at Seastreak says she doesn't have any information but says company officials are at the scene trying to gather information.

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Nine killed in Kenyan clash

NINE people have been killed in the latest unrest in southeast Kenya, officials said, raising concern over security less than two months before the first polls since deadly post-electoral violence five years ago.

Violence in the Tana River region first erupted in August, pitting the Pokomo farming community against their Orma pastoralist neighbours and leading to a series of vicious reprisal killings and attacks.

Regional police chief Aggrey Adoli said local politicians were being investigated for their role in the attack, after around a hundred raiders launched a pre-dawn attack on Wednesday on the Orma village of Nduru, carrying out killings and setting fire to homes.

"They will have to face prosecution...very soon we will catch up with them," he told reporters, without saying exactly who the suspects were.

Three of the nine killed were believed to be from the attackers, said Caleb Kilunde, a local Kenya Red Cross official said.

"The situation remains volatile ... with rumours of a revenge attack being planned," Kilunde said, adding that three of those wounded had deep cuts to the head.

Initially eight were reported dead, but the toll later rose to nine after one died in hospital, leaving four critically wounded, the Red Cross said.

Funerals for those villagers killed were held on Wednesday afternoon, as angry residents burned the corpses of two of the attackers.

"They prevented the police from carrying away the bodies...they burnt them to ashes," Kilunde said.

Those killed included members of both the Orma and Pokomo, taking the number of those killed since the clashes began last year to more than 140. In December, at least 45 people were killed in an attack.

The two communities have clashed in the past, violence that has often been attributed to disputes over water and grazing rights.

But the scale and intensity of recent killings - with women and children hacked to death or torched in their huts - has shocked many, with some locals accusing politicians of fuelling the spate of attacks.

Elections five years ago descended into deadly post-poll killings that shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability, with at least 1100 people killed and more than 600,000 displaced.

The upcoming March 4 elections are for the presidency and parliament, as well as for regional gubernatorial posts and local councils. The run-up to the vote has been marked by renewed tensions both at the national political and grassroots levels.

Kenya is battling a number of security threats, including a series of grenade attacks blamed on Islamist militants, supporters of Somalia's al-Qaeda linked Shebab.

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British flag raised in Belfast

THE British flag has been hoisted over Belfast's City Hall for the first time since the decision not to fly it permanently sparked riots in Northern Ireland.

On a sixth consecutive night of violence in the British province, protesters pelted police in the capital Belfast with petrol bombs, fireworks, bottles and stones.

Pro-British protesters have taken to the streets almost every night since December 3, when the city council announced it would no longer fly the Union Jack all year round at the City Hall.

It will now only be hoisted for a maximum of 18 days a year, including on the birthdays of British royals - the first of which fell on Wednesday as Prince William's wife Catherine turned 31.

The flag's reappearance above the elegant central Belfast building raised fears of more violence as protesters vowed to continue their campaign until it is replaced permanently.

The flag ruling sparked riots and arson attacks at the start of December which gave way to largely peaceful protests, but the violence has flared again since the start of the new year.

Tensions are running high in the province, which endured three decades of sectarian violence until peace accords in 1998 led to a power-sharing government between Protestants and Catholics.

The protesters, who are mainly Protestant, see the flag's removal as an attack on their British identity and a compromise too far with republicans, who are mostly Catholic and favour a united Ireland.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that Northern Ireland needed to break down "barriers of segregation that have been in place for many, many years".

"We need to build a shared future in Northern Ireland," he said as he faced his weekly session of questions in parliament.

"I think that is part of the challenge to take away some of the tensions that we've seen in recent days."

John Kyle, a member of the pro-British Progressive Unionist Party on the city council, said the protests expressed the wider anger of Protestants who feel they have lost out in the peace process.

"There's a feeling of alienation - they feel disconnected from the political system," he told BBC radio.

"It has erupted in this anger and regrettably the anger has led to violence."

Some 3000 people were killed in the three decades of sectarian bombings and shootings from the late 1960s known as The Troubles.

Northern Ireland's top policeman Matt Baggott has accused the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force, which murdered more than 500 people during the conflict, of orchestrating some of the recent violence.

The 1998 Good Friday peace agreement brought an end to most of the unrest in the province, but sporadic bomb threats and murders carried out by dissident republicans continue.

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US stocks open higher

STOCKS have opened higher, one day after aluminum producer Alcoa kicked off the quarterly earnings season with a report that met expectations.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 33.55 points (0.25 per cent) at 13,362.40.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 4.26 (0.29 per cent) to 1461.41, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 7.62 (0.25 per cent) at 3099.43.

Alcoa, considered an economic bellwether because of its role in industrial production, posted an in-line profit of $0.06 per share after trade closed Tuesday.

Briefing analyst Patrick O'Hare said the market may take a "wait-and-see" approach on Wednesday as it awaits a Thursday meeting of the European Central Bank and public comments from Federal Reserve officials.

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French honour Malala, father urges peace

THE Taliban are fighting a lost cause and must accept peace talks, the father of Malala Yousafzai says, accepting a key French award for the Pakistani schoolgirl shot for campaigning for girls' education.

In an impassioned speech after accepting the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Womens' Freedom on behalf of the 15-year-old, Ziauddin Yousafzai said his daughter was supported by the world and by God.

"She fell but Pakistan stood up. And the whole world - north, south, east and west - supported her," he said. "God protected her and protected the cause of humanity and education."

In an attack that shocked the world, Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban hitman as her school bus made its way through the town of Mingora in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley in October.

The bullet grazed her brain, coming within centimetres of killing her, travelling through her head and neck before lodging in her left shoulder. She was then treated in a British hospital.

Yousafzai said the Taliban should now see the writing on the wall and "learn from this incident.

"They should come to talks and to peace and to humanity," he said, referring to Pakistan's population and saying that if they wanted to impose their will "they will have to kill 180 million people and that's impossible."

Despite coming from a male-dominated society, he quoted a woman Pakistani poet Rabia Basri who wrote: "There has been no lady prophet in history and no woman has been stupid enough to claim to be God."

Yousafzai added: "In my part of the world, fathers are known by their sons. Daughters are very much neglected. I am one of the few fortunate fathers who is known by their daughter."

Excerpts from Malala's blog, which earned her the wrath of the Taliban and made her a global icon of courage and hope, were read out to sustained applause.

An entry said: "On my way from school to home I heard a man saying 'I will kill you'. I hastened my pace and after a while I looked back to see if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone."

Malala's father also evoked the plight of an Indian medical student who was brutally gang-raped in New Delhi and died in a Singapore hospital as well as "girls who are shot, who burn themselves because of child marriage and those who are raped."

Yousafzai's daughter first rose to prominence aged just 11 with a blog for the BBC's Urdu-language service charting her life in Swat under the Taliban, whose two-year reign of terror supposedly came to an end there with an army operation in 2009.

Her attempted murder has sparked calls for her to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yousafzai also called for a change in global politics, saying his country has suffered enormously in an era when "our children were orphaned, our women were widowed and our schools were lost."

"Let's have politics for the people. People should not be sacrificed at the altar of the state," he said, reminding the audience that were about 160 million children out of school worldwide.

Last month Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari announced a $US10 million ($A9.57 million) donation for a global war chest to educate all girls by 2015 set up in Malala's name.

The Malala Fund for Girls' Right to Education aims at raising billions of dollars to ensure that all girls go to school by 2015 in line with United Nations Millennium goals.

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30 to 50 reported hurt in NY ferry crash

POLICE and fire officials say 30 to 50 people have been injured when a ferry struck a dock during rush hour in New York City's financial district.

News reports say the Seastreak Wall Street ferry from New Jersey banged into the mooring as it arrived.

Officials say one person is in a critical condition with head injuries.

Some patients were carried out strapped to stretchers, their heads and necks immobilised. About a dozen passengers on stretchers were spread out on the dock, surrounded by emergency workers.

A corner of the ferry appeared to have been ripped open on Wednesday morning.

A receptionist at Seastreak says she doesn't have any information but says company officials are at the scene trying to gather information.

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Nine killed in Kenyan clash

NINE people have been killed in the latest unrest in southeast Kenya, officials said, raising concern over security less than two months before the first polls since deadly post-electoral violence five years ago.

Violence in the Tana River region first erupted in August, pitting the Pokomo farming community against their Orma pastoralist neighbours and leading to a series of vicious reprisal killings and attacks.

Regional police chief Aggrey Adoli said local politicians were being investigated for their role in the attack, after around a hundred raiders launched a pre-dawn attack on Wednesday on the Orma village of Nduru, carrying out killings and setting fire to homes.

"They will have to face prosecution...very soon we will catch up with them," he told reporters, without saying exactly who the suspects were.

Three of the nine killed were believed to be from the attackers, said Caleb Kilunde, a local Kenya Red Cross official said.

"The situation remains volatile ... with rumours of a revenge attack being planned," Kilunde said, adding that three of those wounded had deep cuts to the head.

Initially eight were reported dead, but the toll later rose to nine after one died in hospital, leaving four critically wounded, the Red Cross said.

Funerals for those villagers killed were held on Wednesday afternoon, as angry residents burned the corpses of two of the attackers.

"They prevented the police from carrying away the bodies...they burnt them to ashes," Kilunde said.

Those killed included members of both the Orma and Pokomo, taking the number of those killed since the clashes began last year to more than 140. In December, at least 45 people were killed in an attack.

The two communities have clashed in the past, violence that has often been attributed to disputes over water and grazing rights.

But the scale and intensity of recent killings - with women and children hacked to death or torched in their huts - has shocked many, with some locals accusing politicians of fuelling the spate of attacks.

Elections five years ago descended into deadly post-poll killings that shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability, with at least 1100 people killed and more than 600,000 displaced.

The upcoming March 4 elections are for the presidency and parliament, as well as for regional gubernatorial posts and local councils. The run-up to the vote has been marked by renewed tensions both at the national political and grassroots levels.

Kenya is battling a number of security threats, including a series of grenade attacks blamed on Islamist militants, supporters of Somalia's al-Qaeda linked Shebab.

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US stocks open lower

US stocks opened lower on Tuesday as earnings season was set to begin, with investors cautious after the economy plodded along during the fourth quarter of 2012.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 28.68 points (0.21 per cent) at 13,355.61.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 3.05 points (0.21 per cent) to 1458.84, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged down 0.95 (0.03 per cent) to 3097.86.

Monsanto shares surged 3.1 per cent to $US99.05 ($A94.78) after reporting a 169 per cent rise in profit for its quarter to November 30 on strong corn seed sales in the US and Latin America.

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Respite on the way for bushfire-weary Tas

SOME much-needed respite is on the way for bushfire-weary Tasmanians who have endured six days of fires, with temperatures expected to drop into the high teens on Wednesday and even the chance of snow in the higher peaks.

However, the state remains on alert with 40 bushfires burning around the state and five blazes still considered a major threat.

A fire at Montumana northwest of Burnie was still cause for an emergency warning from authorities on Tuesday evening, while massive blazes on the Tasman Peninsula and in the Derwent Valley continue to burn out of control.

Two more fires, at Mathinna in the northeast, and Holwell, south of Beaconsfield, reached emergency-warning level on Tuesday but were downgraded.

Hobart was expected to reach a top of just 16C on Wednesday, after an historic high of 42C last Friday, with winds of up to 45km/h predicted.

And there's the chance of snow falling on the higher peaks of the central and southern parts of the state as the total fire ban was due to be lifted at midnight on Tuesday.

Police confirmed on Tuesday that the biggest fire, on the Tasman Peninsula, had begun accidentally at Forcett.

A tree stump burn had continued to smoulder through the root system and ignited when the south of the state hit record temperatures on Friday.

The fire has burnt 23,000 hectares, destroyed more than 120 buildings and left 100 people unaccounted for.

Lightning is thought to have started an east coast bushfire that razed up to 15 properties.

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Fire threat not over despite cool change

DESPITE cooler weather forecast for NSW, fire services warn the threat is far from over with more blazes predicted to start.

Dozens of homes remained under threat in NSW overnight on Tuesday as firefighters fought more than 140 blazes, 30 of which remained out of control.

On Tuesday night the fires claimed their first home, with one property confirmed to have been lost in Jugiong near the ACT border.

RFS spokesman Joel Kursawe said a total fire ban would remain in place on Wednesday with residents urged to stay vigilant, as crews monitor the southerly change.

"Certainly it's going to be cooler ... however there is no rain in site," he told AAP.

"We are going to take advantage of some milder weather conditions but we are certainly not out of the woods."

He said almost 1000 firefighters and 90 aircraft will be battling blazes and monitoring sites on Wednesday but fire danger ratings have moved from "catastrophic" to severe, very high or high.

However with a lot of fires started by lightning, crews would have a "very big couple of days if not weeks ahead".

"We can nearly definitely say that we are going to see more fires start," Mr Kursawe said.

Overnight, a fire was burning out of control in the Kybeyan Valley in southern NSW, prompting the Rural Fire Service to urge residents to seek shelter.

Police doorknocked homes to advise people of the risk, with the blaze - that had destroyed 4600 ha - predicted to move towards the Dangelong, Numeralla and Countegany.

Southbound lanes on the Hume Highway were closed near Jugiong, as the southerly shifted the blaze towards the township of Yass.

At Deans Gap, a 1500 hectare blaze jumped the Princess Highway and was still out of control in the early hours.

Mr Kursawe said the extent of property damage was also set to become clearer over the coming days.

"We are probably going to be talking about the loss of thousands of sheep and cattle."

The southerly change was not expected to hit Sydney until 4am (AEDT) on Wednesday.

For Sydney and the Illawarra, an early cool change is forecast to be accompanied by the chance of light drizzle during the morning, with daytime temperatures expected to reach the mid to high 20s.

Meanwhile in the Riverina, the Bureau of Meteorology also forecast temperatures to hit the mid-20s on Wednesday.

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Carngham fire contained

MEMBERS of a farming community in western Victoria who were forced from their homes because of a massive grassfire have breathed a sigh of relief after firefighters brought it under control late on Tuesday night.

The scattered farming community of Carngham, west of Ballarat, was in the path of the grassfire, which burned out more than 1100 hectares before it was finally tamed by firefighters.

The Country Fire Authority said people in the Carngham district, which included communities such as Bo Peep, Cardigan Village and Windermere, had been allowed to go back home.

However, two homes were lost in the Chepstowe district as more than 400 firefighters battled to get control of the blaze.

At least six people, including a Carngham father and son who suffered radiation burns to their face and hands, were admitted to the Ballarat Base Hospital for treatment.

Residents of the town of Snake Valley, about 30km from Ballarat, say two homes burnt down on Tuesday.

"We have lost a couple of homes," a man, who did not want to be named, told AAP from the Snake Valley Hotel.

"I can see it from the hotel with the smoke four to five kilometres away."

There may be some respite for a few days before the weather is expected to heat up again on Friday.

In southwest Victoria, a bushfire which started last Friday in a pine plantation at Kentbruck has burnt though 9000 hectares, but a westerly wind forced the fire back on itself on Tuesday.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said that after a few days of cooler conditions the next fire spike day was expected to be Friday.

"Conditions do become very mild Wednesday and Thursday in the state, that's a real opportunity for us to get on the upper hand at the fire at Kentbruck," he said.

Northeastern Victoria, which endured temperatures in the 40s on Tuesday, will get some respite on Wednesday with temperatures falling into the mid 20s.

Victorian fire crews remain positioned at Wodonga and Wangaratta to help respond to fires in southern NSW if required, as well as any outbreaks in northeastern Victoria.

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Poland probes art with Holocaust ashes

POLISH prosecutors are investigating a Swedish artist's claim that he used the ashes of Holocaust victims to make a painting, an act that could carry a prison term.

The artist, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, wrote on the website of a gallery in Lund, Sweden, last year that he made a painting using ashes that he took from crematorium furnaces in Majdanek, a former Nazi German death camp located in eastern Poland, on a visit there in 1989.

Spokeswoman Beata Syk-Jankowska said on Tuesday that local prosecutors have opened an investigation to check whether there is truth to the artist's claim. She said there is no evidence and prosecutors are acting on media reports. Swedish investigators will be asked for assistance in gathering evidence, she said.

It could be difficult, even impossible, to determine whether von Hausswolff is telling the truth or staging a publicity stunt. If he did actually use the ashes, it would likely be extremely offensive to Holocaust survivors and many others. He also could be charged in Poland with desecrating human ashes or a resting place and face up to eight years in prison.

In 1989, there were still some human ashes remaining in furnaces from World War II from the burning of the Nazi's victims. Removing any ash would be a crime, but there were no security cameras on the site at the time to register such an action, Agnieszka Kowalczyk, a spokeswoman for the museum at the site, told The Associated Press.

The AP has made multiple attempts to get comment from the artist's gallery, but in one case the owner refused comment and on Tuesday no one answered the phone. The exhibition closed in December in reaction to the scandal involving the painting, which Polish media have described as small with just brown and grey lines.

Between 1941 and 1944, some 150,000 people were held at the Majdanek camp. An estimated 80,000 of them died, most of whom were Jewish.

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Fire threat worsens in Victoria

VICTORIA'S fire services will be stretched on two fronts on Tuesday - in the southwest, where it's feared the Kentbruck blaze could double in size because of strong winds, and in the north where temperatures will be in the 40s.

Fire services commissioner Craig Lapsley said the immediate concern was the bushfire in the southwest, where almost 500 firefighters are concentrated and which has burnt out 4000 hectares of pine plantation but was threatening the rural community of Drik Drik on Monday.

"It will be a fire that will be pushed with winds and we believe that it's got the potential to move a significant distance tomorrow, potentially block the Princes Highway and have further impacts on the rural community around Drik Drik and Dartmoor," Mr Lapsley said.

Plumes of smoke from the fire drifted over nearby Dartmoor and rural community of Mumbannar and was visible for kilometres.

Searing conditions in the north of the state has meant a severe fire danger rating along the South Australian border, along the Murray River and the border with NSW.

"It's going to be a severe day and, coupled with the weather that's in NSW, we will see the potential for fires to start early in the day and, without much time at all, they become uncontrolled fires, which is the major concern," Mr Lapsley said.

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Ahmadinejad aide replaced as news boss

A TOP aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has been jailed since September has been replaced as the head of Iran's state Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Ali Akbar Javanfekr, who is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, was succeeded by another Ahmadinejad adviser, Majid Omidi Shahraki, who led the president's Political and Security Affairs office, IRNA and other media reported on Monday.

Javanfekr was arrested on September 26 - just as Ahmadinejad was giving a speech in New York at the UN General Assembly - and is serving a six-month jail term in Evin.

He has been convicted of publishing material offensive to Islamic codes and public morality by allowing one of the state newspapers under his control to run articles questioning Iran's strict Islamic dress code for women.

Javanfekr and other Ahmadinejad aides have long been targets for Iran's hardline judges and ultra-conservative lawmakers who see them as attempting to undermine religious principles.

Ahmadinejad became locked in a public row with judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani over getting access to Evin prison. He eventually was able to see Javanfekr last month when the aide was briefly taken to hospital for what reports said was a "heart condition".

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) has a network of domestic bureaux and several correspondents in other countries.

Omidi Shahraki is the fifth IRNA head to be named since Ahmadinejad took power in 2005.

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Fire-weary Tasmania faces more anxiety

SEVERE bushfire conditions are predicted to continue in Tasmania, where a man has been accused of starting a 10,000 hectare blaze.

A total fire ban has been declared for Tuesday, with strong northerly winds predicted across the state.

Police said a 31-year-old New Norfolk man would be charged under the Fire Services Act, after leaving his unextinguished campfire unattended last week.

The campfire turned into a massive inferno, which has consumed more than 10,600 hectares and had not been contained on Monday evening.

Over 100 properties have been destroyed since last week, concentrated in the fishing village of Dunalley.

No deaths from the fires have been reported, but emergency services crews are conducting property-to-property searches for human remains.

Police say many people are still unaccounted for.

The focus of the state's efforts turned to the northwest corner on Monday, where a watch and act alert was in place for the residents of Mawbanna.

Similar warnings have been issued for the Lake Repulse and Tasman Peninsula fires.

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Restaurant bill sparks deadly Indian riot

A ROW over an unpaid restaurant bill in a western Indian city has escalated into a riot between Hindus and Muslims that's left four people dead and 175 injured.

The unrest broke out in Dhule in Maharashtra state on Sunday, special inspector-general Deven Bharti told AFP.

Four rioters were killed by police firing while 113 policemen were among the injured, he said.

Bharti said investigations were still under way, but it appeared a quarrel over a restaurant bill had provoked a mass brawl that left shops smashed, motorbikes burned and glass strewn across the streets.

Previous riots between Hindus and Muslims in Dhule broke out in October 2008, leaving 10 dead.

"The restaurant owner was from one community and the customer from the other," Bharti explained, declining to name the parties involved.

"The customer went and took 50 people from his community and assaulted the restaurant owner, and people from the owner's community also gathered and started arsoning and rioting," he said.

Bharti said the police had used sticks, tear gas and plastic bullets before resorting to live ammunition to quell the trouble.

The area was put under a curfew that continued on Monday and was "peaceful and under control", he added.

Hindus make up about 80 per cent of India's population, while some 13 per cent are Muslim.

Sporadic, isolated clashes between the two groups still break out 65 years after the Indian subcontinent was carved into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and secular yet Hindu-majority India after the end of British rule.

India saw mass riots between Hindus and Muslims 20 years ago - triggered when Hindu zealots demolished a mosque in the town of Ayodhya - that left more than 2000 dead, mostly Muslims.

A decade later another 2000 people died in riots between the two groups in Gujarat state.

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Orthodox Patriarch urges Russians to adopt

THE head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has urged Russians to adopt orphans in a Christmas message after Russia banned adoptions by citizens of the United States.

"I would like to talk especially about children in these days," said the Patriarch in a Christmas message posted on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church and broadcast on national television.

The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7 according to the Julian calendar.

"We have a lot of children who don't have parents. Even when their parents are still alive. And how important it is that our people should gladly, with a special feeling of gratitude to God, take orphans into their families.

"As it is Christmas time, I would like to ask everyone who could take an important step in life of adopting orphans, of supporting orphans. Take this step: we should not have orphans in our country," said Kirill.

"Those who don't have parents should find parents among good, honest, caring people."

His statement appeared to respond to wide public dismay at a highly controversial new law signed by President Vladimir Putin last month that bans adoptions by US citizens.

Putin has said that Russia is threatened by "ruin" if the outflow of orphans abroad continues.

US families adopted nearly 1000 Russian children last year and are the number one foreign destination of the country's orphans.

The bill has sparked anger not only among potential adoptive parents but among those who see it as motivated by politics rather than concern for the children.

Pro-Kremlin lawmakers put together the draft legislation in a matter of days in response to a new US law sanctioning Russian officials implicated in the 2009 prison death of the anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The legislation caused contention even among top officials, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets both publicly expressing opposition.

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Myanmar rebels say troops attack HQ

ETHNIC Kachin rebels in Myanmar (Burma) have accused government troops of launching two artillery attacks against the city that serves as their headquarters, but there have been no casualties or significant damage.

Army forces based at a nearby outpost fired at least seven 105mm shells at the northern city of Laiza, four rounds on Sunday morning and three more before dusk, rebel spokesman La Nan told The Associated Press.

A senior government official denied the accusation.

Fighting has wracked northern Myanmar since a ceasefire that held for nearly two decades broke down in June 2011 after rebels refused to abandon a strategic base near a hydropower plant that is a joint venture with a Chinese company.

The conflict has forced around 100,000 Kachin from their homes since then, and many are in camps near Laiza, which is held by the rebels and located near the Chinese border.

Fighting between the two sides appears to have intensified in recent weeks, with the government pounding rebel positions with helicopter gunships and fighter jets.

La Nan, a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Army, said it was the second artillery attack on Laiza since December 19.

Another rebel official, who declined to be identified because he is not a spokesman for the insurgents, said the shells fired on Sunday morning fell near several homes that were hit by shrapnel but not significantly damaged. Rebel forces did not return fire, he said.

Tension with ethnic minorities fighting for greater autonomy in Myanmar is considered one of the biggest major long-term challenges for reformist President Thein Sein, who inherited power in 2011 from the army, which ruled for almost half a century.

The Kachin, like Myanmar's other ethnic minorities, have long sought greater autonomy from the central government. They are the only major ethnic rebel group that has not reached a truce with Thein Sein's administration.

The recent fighting in Kachin state escalated on Christmas Day, when the rebels rejected a government demand that supply convoys be allowed to reach an army base, contending they carried ammunition that could be used to attack their nearby headquarters. The government then used fighter planes and helicopters to mount attacks and seized one of the guerrillas' hilltop outposts.

The skirmishes have raised fears among rebels and their supporters that the army is readying to launch an offensive on Laiza, but as recently as New Year's Eve, a presidential adviser said the military had given assurances it would not do so. The army says it has launched recent air attacks to clear a road of rebels so it could supply a base.

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More hot, dry weather for Tassie

AUTHORITIES are warning more hot weather in Tasmania could rekindle the danger level of bushfires that have ravaged the southeast of the state.

The island state won't see a repeat of the record temperatures of last Friday when fires on the Tasman Peninsula, in the Derwent Valley and on the east coast claimed more than 100 properties.

But above average temperatures are expected with Hobart forecast to reach 29C on Monday and Launceston 30.

Temperatures will stay high until Wednesday and are also expected to be above average again in the days following.

"While we hopefully will not experience those once-in-a-generation, horrific, catastrophic weather conditions that we faced on Friday, there isn't a decent rain ahead of us," emergency services minister David O'Byrne said.

"There are still some weather conditions later this week where the temperatures will rise again ... which will mean not only the existing fires but other bushfire prone areas of Tasmania will be under threat."

Fire chiefs say they can't predict when the massive blazes in the state will be brought under control.

Meanwhile, police will continue their property-by-property search for bodies on Monday.

Acting Commissioner Scott Tilyard says around 100 people are unaccounted for but many may have failed to register with authorities.

Around 400 more evacuees were due to be ferried by boat from the Tasman Peninsula on Sunday night, while police were investigating whether it was safe to escort cars out on the closed Arthur Highway.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will visit the state on Monday.

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Vic police shoot at suspected stolen car

POLICE in Melbourne are investigating if a woman with a gunshot wound was involved in an incident in which officers fired shots at an allegedly stolen car.

Two officers were walking towards a black Commodore in Chifley Drive, Maribyrnong about 12.40am (AEDT) on Monday, police said.

But when the car was driven at them they both fired shots at it, before it got away.

A short time later, a woman presented at Sunshine Hospital, where she is being treated for a gunshot wound.

Police are investigating if there are any links.

As with all police shootings, Professional Standards Command will oversee the investigation, police say.

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Tehran air pollution leaves 4460 dead

AIR pollution in Tehran has left 4460 people dead in a year, an Iranian health official says in reports, with another sounding the alarm over a high dose of carcinogens in domestically made petrol.

Hassan Aqajani, an adviser to the health minister, made the announcement on state television on Sunday, and said the Tehran residents died over a year from March 2011.

High air pollution is a constant woe for the eight million residents in Tehran. It forced the city's closure on Saturday, the second time in a month.

"In recent days, the number of patients who have visited Tehran hospitals with heart problems has increased by 30 per cent," Aqajani said.

Tehran's pollution is mainly blamed on bumper-to-bumper traffic in a city wedged between two mountains which trap fumes. But major Iranian cities also struggle with pollution on a seasonal basis.

Pollution is also exacerbated by increasing reliance on domestic production of petrol of a lower grade, and therefore more polluting, a byproduct of Western sanctions on Iran's fuel imports.

Youssef Rashidi, director of Tehran's air quality monitoring services, on Sunday warned carcinogens in Iranian-made petrol is higher than international standards.

"Based on Euro 4 standard the amount of carcinogens in petrol should be less than one per cent but the level of our domestically produced petrol is between two and three per cent," Rashidi said in remarks reported by Bahar newspaper.

The level of sulphur in the petrol is three times higher than the standard, he said.

Iran produces around 60 million litres of petrol on a daily basis, corresponding roughly to its national consumption, according to figures from the oil ministry.

Officials have promised to increase the production of higher grade petrol with Euro 4 and 5 standards, used in European countries, from nine million litres per day to around 25 million by March.

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Abbas orders use of 'State of Palestine'

PALESTINIAN president Mahmoud Abbas has given orders for work to begin on new passports, ID cards, driver's licences and stamps reading State of Palestine, official media say.

The decree, carried by the official WAFA news agency on Sunday, came after the Palestinians' successful bid late last year for non-member observer state status at the United Nations over intense Israeli and US opposition.

Abbas said the changed language on official documents would help strengthen the Palestinian state "on the ground and build its institutions ... and its sovereignty over the land".

Already last week, he ordered the foreign ministry and embassies around the world to begin using "State of Palestine" in official correspondence.

Previously, official documents issued by Abbas's government, including passports and other identification documents, had been labelled as issued by the Palestinian Authority, which he heads.

Israel has criticised the Palestinians for their successful bid for enhanced UN status, saying Palestinian statehood can only be achieved through bilateral talks with the Jewish state.

The Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment on the latest Palestinian move.

The Palestinians say the UN upgrade will strengthen their position in negotiations with Israel and is a complement to any future talks.

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