French gay marriage law clears hurdle

FRANCE'S National Assembly has overwhelmingly approved the first and most important article of a controversial law that will allow gay couples to get married and adopt children.

Deputies voted 249-97 in favour of article one of the draft legislation, which redefines marriage as being an agreement between two people rather than necessarily between a man and a woman.

Although the proposed law still faces at least another week of parliamentary scrutiny before a final vote scheduled for February 12, the ease with which it cleared the first hurdle indicated it is almost certain to emerge unscathed from the debate.

The article approved on Saturday was supported by deputies of the ruling Socialist Party, who enjoy an overall majority in the Assembly, other leftists and Greens as well as at least one member of the UMP, the main centre-right opposition force.

"We are happy and proud to have taken this first step," Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said. "We are going to establish the freedom for everyone t o choose his or her partner for a future together."

UMP deputy Philippe Gosselin said the government was forcing through legislation that France did not want.

"Today it is marriage and adoption. Tomorrow it will be medically assisted conception and surrogate mothers," he said in comments that reflected the strength of feeling among opponents of the government's plans.

Opinion polls suggest a clear majority of French voters support the right of gay couples to wed and a narrower majority favour them being granted the right to adopt as couples (gay men and women can already adopt as individuals if approved by social services).

Massive demonstrations across the country have underlined that those who oppose gay marriage feel very strongly about the issue and President Francois Hollande has been accused of pushing the legislation through without proper consultation.

The Catholic church has been heavily involved in mobilising opposition and protests were scheduled to take place again on Saturday in towns and cities across France.

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Illegal fireworks blamed for road collapse

A TRUCK that exploded and caused an elevated stretch of highway to collapse in central China, killing 10 people, was loaded with holiday fireworks that were illegally produced and transported, authorities say.

Local authorities have shut down the company that made the fireworks, Hongsheng Fireworks Manufacturing Co Ltd, and detained four company officials following Friday's blast, state media reported on Saturday.

It remained unclear what set off the fireworks as they were shipped eastward on a major highway through Henan province. State-run China Central Television said witnesses believed a collision caused by heavy smog might have triggered the blast, which occurred about 90 kilometres west of the ancient city of Luoyang.

The Ministry of Public Security said Hongsheng, based in the neighbouring province of Shaanxi, had illegally produced the explosives, packaged them in disguise and contracted with a trucking company unlicensed to handle hazardous commodities.

It said the factory had failed to check the credentials of the trucking company's personnel.

The state-run China News said the explosives had been declared as general commodities.

Preliminary investigations blamed the explosion for the collapse of the 80-metre stretch of the elevated highway in Mianchi county, sending trucks and sedan cars plummeting 24 metres to the ground, according to a statement by the provincial government of Henan.

Most of those who were killed died from the fall, CCTV said. Eleven people were injured.

Photos by state media and television footage showed hunks of concrete, overturned trucks and crumpled cars in the debris. In one photo, a truck's back wheels were perched at the edge of a shorn-off section of the highway.

"It was horrible. It was horrible," survivor Hou Chunlin murmured from his hospital bed in an interview by CCTV.

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Palestinians evicted from West Bank camp

PALESTINIANS and activists have been forcefully removed from a new camp near a West Bank village, after a third attempt at the novel form of protest against Jewish settlement.

An AFP correspondent said the army used tear gas and violence on Saturday to remove hundreds of people who had set up four temporary huts and three tents near Burin, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

The correspondent added that journalists were also forcefully removed from the site. He said the army made arrests, but was not aware of injuries.

A spokesman for the army was unaware of the eviction, but said there was "a violent and illegal riot taking place near Burin. Approximately 150 Palestinians were gathering and hurling rocks at IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers, who are responding with riot dispersal means."

Earlier in the day, residents and activists set up what they called "the neighbourhood ... Al-Manatir", activist Abir Kopty told AFP.

According to Kopty, the name means "the traditional stone huts Palestinians built in their agricultural lands, which were used as shelter for the watchmen of the fields".

"Burin lost a lot of its land to the settlements around, Har Bracha and others, and is subject to settlers' terror and attacks on the people," she said.

She noted that settlers had thrown stones at village residents and activists from afar before the army got involved. The correspondent said that after the eviction, one of the structures was taken away by a group of them.

An Israeli officer had threatened AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiye as he documented Saturday's events that he would be arrested at his home during the night.

A military spokesman said in response to an AFP call that such remarks were inappropriate, and that he would investigate the allegation.

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Scandal-hit Spain PM denies graft claims

SPAIN'S Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has denied allegations that he received undeclared payments from his ruling party, as he sought to douse a major corruption scandal.

Rajoy vowed on Saturday not to resign despite the publication of documents purportedly showing secret payments to him and other top party officials, branding the damaging reports "harassment".

He promised to publish full details of his income and assets, speaking at an emergency meeting of his conservative Popular Party as angry demonstrators outside called for him to step down.

"I have never received nor distributed undeclared money," he said, adding that he would publish online "statements of income, patrimony and any information necessary" to refute the allegations.

"I commit myself personally and all of my party to maximum transparency."

Rajoy, 57, was speaking out for the first time since being named in the scandal which struck at a tense time as the government imposes tough spending cuts on Spaniards suffering in a recession.

Last year he defied speculation that the country would need a financial bailout only for the political scandal to erupt in the new year.

Leading centre-left newspaper El Pais on Thursday published account ledgers purportedly showing that donations were channelled into secret payments to him and other top party officials.

The newspaper said the alleged fund was made up of donations, mostly from construction companies, adding that such payments would be legal as long as they were fully declared to the taxman.

Rajoy said the ledgers were false.

The allegations fuelled anger among Spaniards suffering in a recession that has thrown millions out of work.

"We must not allow Spaniards, of whom we are demanding sacrifice to think that we do not observe the strictest ethical rigour," Rajoy said.

Protesters say ordinary Spaniards are being made to pay for an economic crisis brought on by the collapse of a construction boom which many blame on corrupt politicians and unscrupulous banks.

As Rajoy spoke, demonstrators yelling "Thieves!" gathered near the party headquarters, kept at some distance by police barriers.

An online petition at change.org calling for Rajoy to resign, launched on Thursday, had gathered nearly 650,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon.

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Iran rial hits all-time dollar low

IRAN'S currency has plummeted to an all-time low, registering a more than 21 per cent drop in a span of two weeks against the US dollar, currency tracking websites and money changers say.

The rial was traded at between 39,000 and 40,000 per US dollar on the open market on Saturday, down from about 33,000 two weeks ago, according to money changers contacted by AFP.

It had briefly dropped in late January to 37,000 per US dollar amid rumours that central bank head Mahmoud Bahmani could be sacked because of his failure to shore up the rial.

The devaluation comes with Iran facing a growing shortage of foreign cash because of international sanctions against its central bank and vital oil sector over its disputed nuclear program.

Uncertainty over stalled negotiations with the UN's atomic watchdog agency and world powers over the nuclear standoff has added to controversy over the rial, according to local media.

The currency was traded at 12,000 in late 2011, prior to the introduction of tough Western sanctions on Iran's oil and banking sectors.

The official US dollar rate in Iran has been fixed for several months at 12,260 rials, but is reserved for official government business. Parallel to the open market, another rate of 24,550 rials is reserved for a few companies importing food or other goods judged essential.

Iran is suffering from heightened geopolitical tensions over its nuclear ambitions and the effects of draconian Western measures curbing access to its reduced oil exports.

The West fears Iran's atomic program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, but Tehran insists that its activities are peaceful.

In addition to Western sanctions, some analysts and politicians blame the government for what they call mismanagement and failure to feed the market with sufficient foreign currency, stoking the currency plunge and high inflation.

The government, meanwhile, has promised to take measures to support the rial but so far there has been no sign of the pressure on Iran's currency easing.

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German teen shooter's dad avoids jail time

A GERMAN court has handed down an 18-month suspended sentence to the father of a 17-year-old boy who went on a rampage at his former school, shooting 15 dead before turning the gun on himself.

The court in the southwestern city of Stuttgart on Friday found Joerg Kretschmer, a 54-year-old businessman, guilty of manslaughter and of breaking gun laws.

His son Tim, 17, was able to take his father's 9mm Beretta pistol in March 2009 and use it in his killing spree in the southern German town of Winnenden.

Fearing a break-in, Kretschmer kept his gun by the bedside, rather than locking it away, a mistake that cost the lives of nine of Tim's fellow students, three teachers and three others.

The Stuttgart court was ruling on an appeal after an earlier sentence of a 21-month suspended sentence. This 2011 judgement was struck down following technical irregularities.

The prosecution had argued for a harsher sentence while the defence had said the loss of his son was punishment enough for the businessman.

The massacre was the worst school shooting in Germany since April 2002, when 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser, a disgruntled pupil from Erfurt in eastern Germany who had been expelled, killed 16 people and then himself.

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Spain's PM moves to ease graft scandal

SPAIN'S government has leaped to calm a growing corruption scandal over alleged undeclared payments in the ruling party, with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy set to speak out after being named in the affair.

The government run by Rajoy's conservative Popular Party insisted the publication of hand-written ledgers purportedly showing secret payments to Rajoy and other top party officials had not threatened its stability.

"The prime minister will make his position known tomorrow," Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told a news conference on Friday.

"The government is one thing and the parties are another," she added. "This government enjoys great stability."

Rajoy, 57, called an extraordinary meeting of the party's national executive committee on Saturday, a party spokeswoman said earlier, after the report by leading daily El Pais ignited a political firestorm.

He will address the allegations after the meeting, Saenz de Santamaria said.

Anger boiled over in the public and in the media over the allegations that the party had dished out undisclosed money from donors, including property developers, to Rajoy and other top party officials.

Popular Party secretary-general Maria Dolores de Cospedal on Thursday rejected the allegations, saying the ledgers were full of falsehoods, but she failed to stem the mushrooming scandal.

Rajoy's right-leaning government is imposing an austerity squeeze on Spaniards suffering a jobless rate of 26 per cent - the highest since the return of democracy after the death in 1975 of General Francisco Franco.

Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside Popular Party headquarters in Madrid on Thursday night to denounce the supposed secret payments, chanting: "Thief" and "Resign" and calling Rajoy a "delinquent".

El Pais cited ledgers kept by two former party treasurers, Alvaro Lapuerta and Luis Barcenas, apparently showing payments including 25,200 euros a year to Rajoy between 1997 and 2008.

Most top officials named in the report said the allegations were false.

Barcenas, one of the supposed authors of the ledger, roundly denied the report, saying none of the payments listed by El Pais were actually made while he had oversight of the party's accounts.

Barcenas is already under investigation following reports he had stashed up to 22 million euros in Swiss bank accounts until 2009.

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Mexico digs for answers in oil HQ blast

RESCUERS dug through the night while investigators searched for answers after an explosion rocked the headquarters of Mexican state-run oil giant Pemex, killing 32 people.

Another 121 people were injured in the explosion on Thursday, which sent shocked employees pouring out of the 54-floor Mexico City skyscraper beneath a pillar of black smoke, some carrying wounded people out on office chairs.

Hundreds of firefighters, police and soldiers toiled through the night after the blast ripped through an annexe of the tower, but the cause of the blast remained a mystery while officials cautioned against any speculation.

"A good part of the rubble was removed and we hope to be able to finish the removal in the morning," a city civil protection spokesman told AFP, adding that the search focused on the basement.

Survivors described an earthquake-like rumble that shook the floor and shattered windows after the explosion heavily damaged the annexe's ground floor and mezzanine. Witnesses said a roof connecting the annexe to the tower collapsed.

At least six ambulances were at the scene in case any people were found, while police partially reopened traffic on the heavily-travelled avenue in front of the complex. Officials said 52 people remained hospitalised.

"We were waiting all night to assist in a major emergency that did not materialise because, fortunately, it appears that almost everybody was taken out," a military nurse who refused to give her name told AFP.

Floodlights shone on the rubble and two cranes were brought to help rescuers in hard hats and surgical masks look for survivors. One survivor was found almost six hours after the blast, which took place around 3.40pm (0840 AEDT Friday).

"At the moment, we have confirmed 32 dead," Pemex director general Emilio Lozoya Austin told a news conference.

The dead included 20 women and 12 men.

Lozoya Austin said the investigation into Thursday's blast was ongoing and that "we won't speculate, we won't get ahead of ourselves".

The company continues operating normally, he added.

"I don't have any conclusive report on the cause, which is why I insist against any speculation," President Enrique Pena Nieto told reporters after visiting the site late on Thursday.

A spokesman for the civil protection agency said there was an apparent "accumulation of gas" in an electrical supply room, but the exact cause of the blast has yet to be confirmed.

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US stocks gain after mixed jobs data

US stocks have added solid gains in early trade after a mixed jobs report showed lower-than expected job generation in January, but revisions pushed last year's numbers sharply higher.

Thirty minutes into trade on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 102.83 points (0.74 per cent) at 13,963.41.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 9.15 points (0.61 per cent) at 1,507.26, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 17.35 (0.55 per cent) at 3,159.48.

The markets took in stride the January jobs numbers: unemployment ticked up a notch to 7.9 per cent and only 157,000 jobs were generated, fewer than expected.

But revised data for all of 2012 gave a much better picture, with monthly net job generation at 181,000 instead of the earlier figure of only 153,000.

"A slight miss on payrolls in January was more than offset by upward revisions to the previous couple of months," said Jim O'Sullivan at High Frequency Economics.

ExxonMobil shares fell 0.2 per cent after it reported a six per cent gain in net income for the fourth quarter, but said oil and gas production had dropped five per cent from a year earlier.

Chevron added 0.6 per cent after it beat analysts' forecasts in its earnings.

But Merck shares sank 3.4 per cent after it turned in a 7.3 per cent fall in fourth-quarter profit and it forecast a slight fall in profits for this year.

Anheuser-Busch InBev rebounded 1.9 per cent after a sharp fall on Thursday following the Justice Department's move to block its takeover of Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo.

In tech shares, sagging computer maker Dell powered up 3.5 per cent amid talk that its plan to take itself private could be announced next week.

Netflix meanwhile added 3.3 per cent.

Bond prices surged. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 1.94 per cent from 1.99 per cent late on Thursday, while the 30-year fell to 3.14 per cent from 3.17 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.

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Man charged over Sydney break-in

A MAN has been charged over an alleged break-in at a home in Moorebank, in Sydney's southwest, that left an elderly man in critical condition in hospital.

A 78-year-old man and his wife returned to their Moorebank home at midday on Monday to find a man in the house.

The woman left the room and returned to find her husband on the floor.

He was taken to Liverpool Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.

About 11.25am (AEDT) on Friday, police arrested a 53-year-old man at an office in Fairfield.

He has been charged with special aggravated break and enter, and committing a serious indictable offence.

The man was refused bail to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.

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US consumer spending flat in December

US consumers held tight to their wallets in December, the key holiday shopping season, despite a rise in incomes, according to Commerce Department data.

Household spending edged up 0.2 per cent from November, only half the growth of the prior month and slightly below the consensus estimate of 0.3 per cent.

Consumer spending, the main driver of the US economy, slowed in late 2012 amid the government's looming fiscal cliff of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set for January 1, which was partly avoided in a last-minute political deal.

Meanwhile, personal incomes rose for the eighth straight month in December, rising a much stronger-than-expected 2.6 per cent from the prior month.

The income increase was boosted by accelerated payments of bonuses and other forms of "irregular" pay in anticipation of changes in individual income tax rates, as well as lump-sum payments of social security benefits, the department said.

In the partial fiscal cliff deal, political leaders allowed Bush-era payroll tax cuts on social security benefits to expire and lifted taxes in other areas.

With inflation weak in a tepid economy, the December price index for consumer spending was essentially flat, while so-called real disposable income - excluding price changes - rose 2.8 per cent.

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Marriage is good for the heart: study

MARRIED people are less prone to heart attacks than singletons and more likely to recover if stricken, according to a Finnish study.

Researchers collected data on 15,330 people in Finland between the ages of 35 and 99 who suffered "acute coronary events" between 1993 and 2002.

Just over half of the patients died within 28 days of the attacks.

The team found that unmarried men in all age groups were 58-66 per cent more likely to suffer a heart attack than married ones.

For women the nuptial benefit was even greater - single women were 60-65 per cent more likely to suffer acute coronary events, the Finnish researchers wrote in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

For both genders, wedlock also considerably lowered heart attack mortality.

Unmarried men were 60-168 per cent and unmarried women 71-175 per cent more likely to die of a heart attack within 28 days, compared to their unhitched counterparts.

"Single living and/or being unmarried increases the risk of having a heart attack and worsens its prognosis both in men and women regardless of age," the team wrote.

"Most of the excess mortality appears already before the hospital admission and seems not to relate to differences in treatment."

Speculating on the reasons, the team said married people may have a higher, combined income, healthier habits and a bigger support network.

"It may be assumed that resuscitation or calling for help was initiated faster and more often among those married or cohabiting," said the authors.

They could also not discount the psychological effects of marital bliss.

"Unmarried people have been found to be more likely depressed and according to previous studies depression seems to have an adverse effect on cardiovascular mortality rates," lead author Aino Lammintausta from the Turku University Hospital told AFP.

Previous studies on the health benefits of matrimony often had sketchy data on women and older people, the researchers said.

The new study showed that marriage protected women even more than men from out-of-hospital heart attack death.

The study included people from different race groups and social backgrounds and the findings "can roughly be thought to be applicable in other western countries", said Lammintausta.

Relying on data from population records, the team could not directly measure the effects for unmarried, cohabiting couples.

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Arnie calls for 'sexy' environmentalism

ARNOLD Schwarzenegger has called for an end to "doom and gloom" environmentalism as he hosted the first conference of his new green movement fostering action by local governments and individuals.

"If we want to inspire the world, it is time for us to forget about the old way of talking about climate change, where we crush people, where we overwhelm people with data," the former California governor, bodybuilder and film star said.

"There is a new way, a more sexy, a more hip way. Instead of using doom and gloom and telling people what they can't do, we should make them part of our movement and tell them what they can do," he said.

"I mean I still drive my Hummers but now they are all on hydrogen and biofuel ... We need to send a message that we can live the same life, just with cleaner technology."

Following his success implementing environmental legislation in California ahead of federal US action, Schwarzenegger's created the R20 Regions of Climate Action movement.

It is aimed at getting other regions, states and cities to follow the Golden State's example in the absence of effective national and international agreements on reducing carbon emissions widely blamed for the Earth's climate becoming more volatile in recent decades.

"The old way was to wait for the capitals, or an international agreement to create a sustainable energy future, is over," Schwarzenegger, 65, told the conference of about 800 people in his native Austria.

"We believe in a new way, in moving forward at a subnational level. We can't be paralysed, waiting for an international agreement or federal action or anything else," Schwarzenegger said.

"I believe we should move forward at a subnational level, in the states, in the provinces, in the cities, in the private sector, in the academic sector and in the non-profits. These should be defined by our momentum, not our hesitation."

Attendees in Vienna included European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, but absent were green pressure groups such as Greenpeace or WWF, who complained last week that the event risked being "elitist" and "Greenwashing".

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Indon party chief arrested over corruption

INDONESIA'S anti-graft agency has arrested the head of the country's largest Islamic-based party, which is part of the coalition government, on suspicion of corruption, its spokesman says.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq allegedly accepted a sum of one billion rupiah ($A98,000) from meat importer PT Indoguna Utama to secure a government contract.

After questioning him since late Wednesday, "KPK investigators have formally detained" him on Thursday night, KPK spokesman Johan Budi told reporters.

"His alleged role is as a recipient of bribes in relation to beef imports," he said, adding: "It's suspected one billion rupiah was for Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq."

The Prosperous Justice Party has three ministers in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cabinet.

The detention of the PKS chairman could complicate matters for the party and ruling coalition in the run-up to the 2014 general election.

Yudhoyono's second presidential term, won on a corruption-fighting platform, has been dogged by investigations into several members of his Democratic Party and coalition government.

Communication and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring of the Prosperous Justice Party said on Thursday on Twitter that his party "respects the legal process" that is under way.

"We hope the process will take place in a just and honest manner based on prevailing laws and not influenced by political pressure," he tweeted.

The Prosperous Justice Party was founded after the 1998 fall of the Suharto dictatorship.

It has become the country's fourth-biggest party overall due partly to its clean and pious image in the most populated Muslim country in the world, of around 240 million people.

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China convicts Tibetan burning 'inciters'

A CHINESE court has convicted two Tibetans of murder for inciting others to burn themselves to death, giving one a suspended death penalty and the other 10 years in prison, state media report.

The judgments were believed to be the first of their kind since judicial authorities were told to charge with intentional murder those accused of encouraging or helping others to carry out the gruesome act.

In a similar case in a different province another six ethnic Tibetans were sentenced to between three and 12 years, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

But analysts said such prosecutions were unlikely to end the immolations.

Nearly 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 in apparent protest against Beijing's rule, which critics say represses Tibetan religious rights and erodes their culture as more majority ethnic Han move to Tibetan areas.

According to the Tibetan government in exile, 83 of them have died.

Beijing seeks to blame the Dalai Lama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, for the deaths.

Lorang Konchok, 40, and his nephew, Lorang Tsering, 31, "incited and coerced eight people to self-immolate, resulting in three deaths", Xinhua said, citing the court in the Tibetan-majority prefecture of Aba, in Sichuan province in the south.

Lorang Konchok, who was also accused of working with a media liaison at what prosecutors called an overseas Tibet independence group, was condemned to death with a two-year reprieve, which is often commuted to life in prison.

Five of the people recruited by the two defendants ultimately decided not to set themselves on fire, "after willfully abandoning their plans or after police intervened", Xinhua reported.

The second case, in the northwestern province of Gansu, involved six people convicted "for their roles in a local villager's self-immolation in October", it said, without specifying the precise offence.

China might be using the threat of criminal prosecution to try to deter such acts, said Steve Tsang, a China expert at the University of Nottingham in Britain, but added he doubted if such tactics would work or be carried out properly.

"They do want to stop it," he said. But "to stop something drastic from happening, you have to understand why people are doing it and you have to remove the cause of why people are doing it".

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Egypt opposition urge talks amid violence

EGYPTIAN opposition leaders are calling for urgent talks on the political crisis gripping the country, as a fresh eruption of violence killed two more people in Cairo.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading figure in the National Salvation Front, called for the talks just two days after the opposition had rejected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi's call for dialogue.

"We want an immediate meeting between the president, the ministers of defence and interior, the ruling party, the Salafist movement and the National Salvation Front to take urgent measures to end the violence and begin a serious dialogue," ElBaradei said in a tweet.

Former Arab League chief Amr Mussa, another NSF leader, said "the serious current situation" required the acceptance of dialogue "in order to stop the confrontations and the violence."

It was not immediately clear whether this represented a step back by the NSF, which had been demanding the formation of a national salvation government and the amendment of the Islamist-drafted constitution, before agreeing to any talks.

But Khaled Dawoud, spokesman for ElBaradei's Al-Dustur party, said ElBaradei's Twitter statement was a "denial of all the claims by the presidency that we reject dialogue.

"We are looking for a way out of this (crisis) because we're extremely worried."

The latest round of unrest began with protests marking the second anniversary of the Egyptian uprising on Friday, and took a violent turn a day later after a court sentenced 21 residents of Port Said to death over football related violence last year.

Anger on the streets has been directed primarily at Morsi, who is accused of betraying the revolution that brought him to power and of consolidating power in the hands of his Muslim Brotherhood.

The protests have also underscored long-standing tensions between protesters and the police, a force long accused of abuse.

In Cairo, two people were killed near Tahrir Square on Wednesday. Their identities were not immediately known, but medics said they had both been hit by buckshot.

Their deaths bring to four the number of people killed in Cairo and to 54 nationwide since violence erupted late on Thursday, prompting Egypt's defence minister to warn that the crisis could lead to the collapse of the state.

"The continuing conflict between political forces and their differences concerning the management of the country could lead to a collapse of the state and threaten future generations," General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said on Tuesday.

Most of the deaths have been in Port Said, where clashes erupted on Saturday after a court issued death sentences against 21 supporters of local football club Al-Masry for their role in deadly riots last year.

Meanwhile, the NSF indicated that some of its leaders would meet during the day with representatives of the main Salafist party, Al-Nour, in response to an invitation from the ultra-conservative Islamist group to discuss the "deterioration of the situation."

As the call for talks was made, Morsi was in Berlin for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on a visit that had been shortened from two days to just a few hours because of the unrest at home.

The visit, Morsi's first to Germany since he was elected in June, will centre on bilateral cooperation as well as the situation in Egypt, state news agency MENA said.

MENA said he is to meet with business people as well as Merkel.

Hours before Morsi's arrival, Germany's foreign minister warned that German financial aid to Egypt is contingent upon democratic progress.

Morsi took over last year from an interim military administration in charge since the February 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, who ruled the country for three decades.

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US man kills bus driver, kidnaps child

A GUNMAN has boarded a school bus in the southern US state of Alabama, shot and killed the driver and kidnapped a young boy, police say.

The area around where the hostage-taking occurred on Tuesday has been evacuated, said Sergeant Rachel David, a spokeswoman for the local police in the town of Dothan.

The incident is yet another scare in a country on edge over gun violence and children, since the December massacre of 20 small kids and six teachers at an elementary school in Connecticut.

The man boarded the bus on Tuesday afternoon, shot the bus driver and took one of the children to an underground shelter.

Local media said police were communicating with him through a PVC pipe but David did not confirm this. She did not give the age of the boy but news reports said he was six.

"Efforts to bring this ongoing incident to a close have continued through the night," a statement from the Dale County Sheriff's office said.

David said the bus driver died and that he has been identified as 66 year old Albert Poland. No arrests have been made.

Classes in schools in surrounding Dale and Ozark counties were cancelled on Wednesday because of the hostage crisis.

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Dow, S&P fall slightly after poor US GDP

US stocks were mostly lower in opening trade after government estimates showed the economy shrunk in the fourth quarter last year largely due to a cut back in government spending.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 10.95 points (0.08 per cent) to 13,943.47.

The S&P 500, a broad measure of the markets, lost 0.78 points (0.05 per cent) to 1,507.06.

But the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained slightly, adding 3.48 points (0.11 per cent) at 3,157.14, helped by a 7.5 per cent gain from Amazon.

The Commerce Department said the economy shrunk at a 0.1 per cent pace in the fourth quarter of last year, mainly due to defence spending cutbacks, but for the full year the economy expanded a modest 2.2 per cent.

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Israel hits Syria convoy near Lebanon

ISRAELI have forces carried out an air strike on a weapons convoy from Syria near the Lebanese border, security sources have told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The attack came after Israel expressed concerns that Damascus's stockpile of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah group, an ally of the Syrian regime, or other militant groups.

Israeli officials have said such a transfer would be a declaration of war and likely spark an Israeli attack.

Sources differed on whether the strike took place on Syrian or Lebanese territory.

"The Israeli air force blew up a convoy that had just crossed the border from Syria into Lebanon," one source said, adding that the convoy was believed to be carrying weapons, without specifying the type.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

A second security source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, also confirmed to AFP that Israeli warplanes had hit a convoy allegedly carrying weapons to Lebanon but said the incident occurred just inside Syria.

"It was an armed convoy travelling towards Lebanon but it was hit on the Syrian side of the border at around 2330 GMT (1030 AEST)," the source said.

Both sources reported a high level of "unusual" Israeli activity over Lebanese air space, which began on Tuesday evening and continued overnight.

The Lebanese army confirmed that Israeli warplanes entered Lebanese airspace up to 16 times between 9:30am (0730 GMT) Tuesday and 2:00am Wednesday.

"Every day there are Israeli overflights, but on Tuesday they were much more intense than usual," a Lebanese security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The incident occurred just days after Israel moved two batteries of its vaunted Iron Dome missile defence system to the north and at a time of rising fears that the conflict in Syria could see weapons leaking into Lebanon.

A former head of intelligence at Israel's Mossad spy service, Amnon Sofrin, said on Wednesday that the Jewish state "should make any effort to prevent any weapons systems of that kind (chemical) going out to terror organisations."

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem before reports of the attack emerged, Sofrin said Israel was unlikely to carry out air strikes on chemical weapons stocks because of the environmental risks.

"When you go and attack a... chemical weapons depot, you're going to do unwarranted damage, because every part will leak out and can cause damage to many residents," he said.

"But if you know of a convoy leading these kind of (chemical) weapon systems from Syria to Lebanon, you can send a unit to the proper place and try to halt it" on the ground, he added.

On Monday, Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "urgently dispatched" his national security adviser Yaakov Amidror to Russia to ask Moscow to use its influence in Syria to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons.

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German beer drinking hits new low

GERMANS are emptying fewer beer steins these days.

Consumption of the national beverage fell by 1.8 per cent last year to the lowest level since West and East Germany reunified in 1990.

The German government statistics agency reported on Wednesday that Germans drank 96.5 million hectolitres of beer last year. That's 2.55 billion gallons.

The German brewers' association DBB says an unusually cool summer made fewer people quench their thirst with a cold one.

German beer consumption has been slowly falling for three decades.

Reasons include health concerns and growing preference for other beverages such as wine, especially among younger people.

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Mozambique military on flood duty

MOZAMBIQUE'S military has been called in to help tackle severe flooding that has killed 48 people and is likely to spread to the country's central and northern regions, officials say.

The armed forces have begun helping with clean-up operations in the devastated southern town of Chokwe, which has borne the brunt of the flooding caused by heavy rains.

"We can confirm the army is helping support the affected people," said Benjamin Chabualo, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence told AFP.

Soldiers have also been involved in rescue efforts and the navy has ferried people by boat to reach areas isolated by flooding.

According to UN figures around 250,000 people have been affected by the floods and 146,000 people are being housed in temporary shelters.

Water levels have begun to recede in the south of the country, but the situation remains critical, and the centre and north are expected to be hit by fresh rain.

In Chokwe many homes have been completely inundated, and the flood surge has left in its wake piles of rubbish, mud and the detritus of lives destroyed.

"In Chokwe families have begun cleaning their homes and (the national civil protection unit) will help the municipality to clean the city," civil protection spokeswoman Rita Almeida said.

Even as the floods ebb in some places, residents faced a tough slog to get clean food, water, shelter and avoid a legion of risks.

"The rains over southern Mozambique have ceased for the time being, and the floodwaters are slowly receding. However, many have lost everything in the floods," according to a UN situation report.

At least 48 people have died, some electrocuted by severed power lines trailing in the water, some crushed by collapsed buildings and some attacked by crocodiles

At temporary shelters aid agencies are feeding approximately 70,000 people.

While tens of thousands of people have made their way to government camps, many more have not.

"We know there are a great many people affected who did not turn up at these centres," said Rita Almeida, Mozambique's national disaster management institute.

Some may have gone to the houses of family and friends, others, in more remote regions, remained stranded.

Helicopters are airlifting food and medical supplies to isolated areas.

"We are lifting supplies to places where neither boats or vehicles can enter," the Director-General of Mozambique's Disaster Management Institute (INGC) said on national radio.

"We are doing all in our power to get food to people where they need it."

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Ford earns $1.6b in 4Q, warns of Euro loss

FORD has earned better-than-expected profits in 2012 as record results in North America trumped losses in Europe. It will have to do even better at home this year as the losses in Europe mount.

Ford earned $US5.7 billion ($A5.50 billion) for the year, or $1.42 per share. That was down from $300 million, or $1.51 per share, in 2011, as a $1.75 billion loss in Europe took its toll.

But Ford reported a record pretax profit of $8.3 billion in North America, where sales rose and Ford made more money on every vehicle it sold. The company is planning to give out record profit-sharing bonuses of $8,300 to 45,800 workers based on its North American results.

Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said Ford expects even higher results for North America this year, as demand for Ford's pickups and its newest products - the Escape small SUV and Fusion sedan - will likely grow. But Shanks said Ford now expects to lose $2 billion in Europe, up from the $1.5 billion loss it predicted a few months ago.

"Europe will hit bottom this year," Shanks said. He said the company is on track with a plan to close plants and introduce new vehicles in the region. Ford's sales fell by 15.5 per cent in Europe last year.

Worldwide, Ford's sales rose 7.5 per cent to 1.5 million in 2012. The company saw some of its biggest gains in Asia, where it's introducing a slew of new products and building seven new plants. Sales in Ford's Asia Pacific and Africa region were up 41 per cent over 2011.

For the fourth quarter, Ford said its pretax results were the best in a decade.

The company earned $1.6 billion in the final three months of 2012 as sales rose in every region outside Europe. Ford's net income fell from $13.6 billion in the same quarter last year, but that figure included a big accounting-related gain. Without that gain, Ford's earnings were up from $1 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.

Ford earned 31 cents per share, up from an adjusted 20 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2011. That beat analysts' forecast of 25 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 5 per cent to $36.5 billion, beating analysts' forecast of $33.5 billion.

In North America, Ford's pretax profit more than doubled in the fourth quarter to $1.87 billion.

Sales of cars and trucks in the US totalled $14.5 billion in 2012 - the industry's best performance in five years. Forecasts are for an even better 2013, with the Polk auto research firm forecasting 15.3 million vehicle sales as the economy continues to improve.

Ford lost some US market share in 2012 as its Japanese rivals roared back from earthquake-related losses the prior year. But Ford expects its share to grow in 2013.

Shares fell 23 cents to $13.55 in premarket trading.

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Smog again envelops huge swathes of China

RESIDENTS across huge swathes of northern China are battling through choking pollution at extreme levels, as Beijing was plunged into toxic twilight for the fourth time this winter.

Visibility was reduced to around 200 metres in parts of the capital, where mask-wearing pedestrians groped through a murky haze, despite warnings from authorities to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary.

In a Beijing city office visited by AFP, up to 20 workers worried that the pollutants could penetrate indoors took extra precautions, wearing gas-mask style protective headgear at their desks.

State broadcaster China Central Television gave the smog's second day huge airplay, showing vehicles using full headlights in mid-morning to light their way through the noxious cloud.

More than 100 flights were delayed or cancelled at Zhengzhou Airport in Henan, the television said, adding that the haze would last until Thursday. At Beijing airport, 61 departing flights were delayed in the morning.

In the eastern province of Shandong, almost 2,000 passengers were stranded at Qingdao's main airport after it shut with 20 flights cancelled as visibility dropped to 100 metres, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The smog of recent days has hit a total area of 1.3 million square kilometres, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said - about twice the size of France.

It described the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and Jinan as "gravely polluted".

The National Meteorological Centre (NMC) announced late on Tuesday that it was introducing a three-tier colour-coded weather warning system to alert the public to the severity of smog, according to Xinhua.

Yellow will indicate moderately smoggy weather, with orange for severe conditions and red for extremely severe levels of smog, the report said.

Beijing's winter of smog has sparked an Internet outcry and anger from state media.

The China Daily reiterated its calls for firm action on Tuesday, directing them at the capital's newly-installed mayor Wang Anshun, who formally took over on Monday.

"What do Beijing residents expect of their new mayor?" asked the newspaper in an editorial. "Of all the things that need improving, cleaner air will be at the top of many people's wish list."

Wang was quoted by Xinhua as saying: "The current environmental problems are worrisome."

The Beijing News went as far as to suggest banning or regulating next month's traditional and hugely popular New Year fireworks in the capital. Pollution readings spiked last year after the city's skyline lit up with explosions.

The toxic air follows an extreme bout of pollution earlier this month, when state media said readings for PM 2.5, particles small enough deeply to penetrate the lungs, peaked at 993 micrograms per cubic metre, almost 40 times the World Health Organization's recommended safe limit.

China's pollution problems are blamed on the country's rapid urbanisation and dramatic economic development.

AFP

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US stocks flat ahead of confidence data

US stocks are treading in place ahead of a key consumer confidence report, despite a series of better-than-expected company earnings.

In the first five minutes of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 10.75 points (0.08 per cent) at 13,892.68.

The S&P 500, a broad measure of the markets, edged up 0.22 point (0.01 per cent) to 1,500.40.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 7.94 (0.25 per cent) to 3,146.36.

"Investors are cautious ahead of several economic reports and as the Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day policy meeting," Wells Fargo Advisors said in a market note.

The Conference Board is scheduled to release its consumer confidence data for November at 1500 GMT (0200 AEST).

Stocks closed mostly lower Monday after a string of rallies that left the indices at multi-year highs. The Dow dropped 0.10 per cent and the S&P 500 fell 0.18 per cent, while the Nasdaq gained 0.15 per cent, lifted by Apple.

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Top Bolshoi ballerina 'flees Russia'

ONE of the Bolshoi ballet's best known ballerinas has fled Russia for Canada after receiving threats, it has emerged, as the chief of the troubled company prepares to leave for Germany to receive treatment for wounds sustained in an acid attack.

Svetlana Lunkina told the Izvestia daily she had taken leave from the theatre until the end of the season over troubles stemming from a business dispute over a film in which her husband was involved.

Izvestia said she had already been outside Russia for some six months and that there is no clear link between her problems and the acid attack this month on the Bolshoi ballet's artistic director Sergei Filin.

Nevertheless, the flight from Russia of such a high-profile figure underlines the tense atmosphere at the Bolshoi after the attack on Filin which the management has blamed on internal conflicts.

"I think we need to react to these threats. These people have no right to interfere in our private lives or my professional work," Lunkina told Izvestia without making clear the nature of the threats.

Lunkina, who has danced with the Bolshoi since 1997, is one of the company's most experienced stars and was due this year to appear in a new work by the British choreographer Wayne McGregor.

"I was supposed to be doing a lot of interesting work, including several premieres," she said.

Having wowed the public in the Bolshoi's landmark 2011 staging of McGregor's Chroma, Lunkina was expected to take a leading role in his eagerly anticipated new version of the Rite of Spring at the Bolshoi this year.

Her prolonged disappearance from the Bolshoi stage had already puzzled fans who initially suspected she had suffered an injury before rumours spread that she was no longer in Russia.

Lunkina said the threats were linked to a film project that her husband, the producer Vladislav Moskalyev, had been working on featuring the great Russian imperial ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya.

Moskalyev was dropped from the project after he fell out with his business partner, who is now suing him for $US3.7 million ($A3.57 million).

The Bolshoi's spokeswoman Katerina Novikova confirmed to Izvestia that Lunkina had requested leave for the season and that the company had approved it.

But she said it was unclear how the company could help Lunkina given that the dispute was linked to her husband's work.

"Anna Pavlova also left Russia because of the activities of her husband," Novikova claimed, referring to the great Russian ballerina who quit her homeland in the early years of the 20th century.

Filin, 42, is currently in hospital in Moscow and has undergone several operations to save his eyesight and repair the disfigurement he suffered after a masked attacker threw acid into his face and eyes on January 17.

Russia's chief eye doctor Vladimir Neroyev told the RIA Novosti news agency that Filin, an acclaimed former dancer, would be sent to a clinic in the German city of Aachen in about a week.

Lunkina told Izvestia that she believed Filin's attacker "may not be someone who works at the Bolshoi theatre but someone linked to the theatre and ballet."

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Yemen suicide bomb kills 10 soldiers

A SUICIDE car bomb at a checkpoint in central Yemen has killed at least 10 soldiers, as the army leads an offensive on al-Qaeda militants suspected of holding European hostages.

The attack targeted a checkpoint manned by members of a battalion of the elite Republican Guards on the road between Rada and Manaseh, where the army military operation was taking place, tribal sources said.

A local official told AFP there were at least 20 casualties, adding that wounded in critical condition had been evacuated to hospitals in Sanaa.

Three people were killed earlier in an army offensive launched late on Sunday against al-Qaeda-linked militants suspected of holding an Austrian and two Finns hostage in Manaseh, in Bayda province, tribal sources said.

They said the victims were apparently caught in crossfire.

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Switzerland knew of Holocaust in 1942

SWISS officials knew in May 1942 that Jews were being exterminated in Nazi concentration camps, yet decided to tighten their asylum policies in the following months, Swiss television has reported.

"As of May 1942, we can prove that information about the killings of Jews reached Bern," Sascha Zala, the head of the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (DDS) research project, told Swiss public broadcaster SRF.

Swiss diplomats gathered hundreds of letters, telegrams, pictures and detailed reports during World War II documenting the Nazi atrocities and passed them on to Swiss officials in Bern.

DDS has for the first time published a number of the documents showing that the Swiss government knew what was going on no later than May 1942, three years before the end of World War II.

Despite the reports it was receiving, the Swiss government decided in August of that year to carry out a mass return of civilian refugees to their home countries, SRF reported late Sunday, as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The revelations add more evidence to the conclusions of a damning official report in 2002 on Switzerland's record before and during World War II.

The Bergier report showed that Swiss officials had at the time turned away thousands of people, most of them Jews, who were trying to flee Nazi-occupied Europe, sending them to certain death.

Yet Swiss historian Hans-Ulrich Jost told Swiss radio on Monday that there seemed to be in Switzerland "a sort of resistance to accepting (what happened) during this troubling period".

Swiss President Ueli Maurer for instance marked Sunday's Holocaust Remembrance Day by hailing neutral Switzerland's role during World War II as a "refuge" for those fleeing "during this dark period for the European continent".

Several Swiss Jewish organisations blasted him on Monday for not mentioning the "refugees who were pushed towards certain death".

"It is regrettable that the president of the confederation did not deem it useful to broaden indispensable Swiss self-criticism of its own past, especially its refugee policy," they said in a statement.

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US to raise Sri Lanka human rights at UN

THE US will bring a fresh resolution to the UN Human Rights Council in a bid to force Sri Lanka to deliver on promises to investigate its troops for war crimes, top US diplomats say after talks with Colombo.

"The US has decided to sponsor a procedural resolution (against Sri Lanka) at the March 2013 sessions of the UNHRC," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State James Moore said on Monday.

The US recognised Sri Lanka had made "some progress" since the previous US-led censure of Sri Lanka at the March 2012 UNHRC sessions in Geneva, but Washington believed more needed to be done, Moore said.

"The US and the other 23 members of the UNHRC who voted for that resolution in 2012 believe that the government of Sri Lanka needs to fulfil its commitments made to its own people," Moore said.

He said the fresh resolution to be moved in March was a reflection of "US commitment" to the people of Sri Lanka, which emerged from nearly 37 years of ethnic bloodshed in May 2009 after security forces crushed Tamil rebels.

The US has been highly critical of Sri Lanka's human rights record and has refused to train several of its senior military officers, saying they were linked to credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Another top US diplomat, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Vikram Singh, said the US wanted to keep Sri Lanka's case fresh at Geneva by moving a new resolution against the Indian Ocean island.

He said the government's impeachment of the country's chief justice, despite two court rulings that the process was illegal and against the constitution, also contributed to the US decision for a fresh resolution.

"It is safe to say that the impeachment of the Chief Justice also contributed to the decision to ensure that the record (against Sri Lanka) stays fresh in Geneva," Singh told reporters in Colombo.

The US has asked Sri Lanka to reconsider the sacking of Shirani Bandaranayake following an international outcry over the impeachment earlier this month, in what activists have said was an assault on the independence of the judiciary.

Sri Lanka has been accused of killing up to 40,000 civilians in the final months of fighting separatist Tamil rebels who were known for their trade mark suicide bombings. Colombo has denied any civilians were killed by its troops.

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Apple, Android have smartphone 'duopoly'

ANDROID and Apple smartphones captured a whopping 92 per cent of global sales in the fourth quarter, giving the two systems an effective duopoly, a research firm says.

Strategy Analytics said global smartphone shipments grew 38 per cent annually to reach 217 million units in the fourth quarter, to bring annual sales to 700 million.

Android, the free operating system developed by Google, grabbed 70 per cent of the market in the final three months of the year, while Apple's iOS used on its iPhone held 22 per cent.

The news bodes ill for rivals such as BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, which is launching its new platform this year, and Microsoft, which is pushing its Windows Phone system.

"Android is clearly the undisputed volume leader of the smartphone industry at the present time," Strategy Analytics executive director Neil Mawston said on Monday.

"Android's challenge for 2013 will be to defend its leadership, not only against Apple, but also against an emerging wave of hungry challengers that includes Microsoft, Blackberry, Firefox and Tizen."

The survey noted that global shipment growth slowed from 64 per cent in 2011 to 43 per cent in 2012, as regions such as North America and Western Europe matured.

Scott Bicheno, analyst at Strategy Analytics, said the latest trends showed "the worldwide smartphone industry has effectively become a duopoly as consumer demand has polarised around mass-market Android models and premium Apple designs".

AFP

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Israel lashes UK cartoon of Netanyahu

ISRAEL'S parliamentary Speaker has lashed out at a cartoon published in Britain's Sunday Times showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall with Palestinian blood and bodies.

"For the people of Israel, this is a cartoon which recalls the dark journalism from one of humankind's darkest periods," Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin wrote in a letter to his British counterpart, John Bercow.

The cartoon, which shows a scowling Netanyahu waving a blood-covered trowel, laying bricks in a wall in which distraught-looking Palestinian men, women and children are trapped, caused particular offence because it appeared on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"As a democrat, I support political criticism but in publishing this cartoon yesterday in London, the boundaries of free speech were crossed," Rivlin wrote, adding: "Prejudice had deeply influenced legitimate criticism."

"If a cartoon had been published in Israel showing Britain in a monstrous light and hurting the feelings of the British people in such a mean and nasty way, you wouldn't hesitate to complain to me, and rightly, about crossing the legitimate boundaries of freedom of expression," he said in a direct appeal to Bercow.

Rivlin said Israel was "disappointed" that such images could be published in modern-day Britain, suggesting the cartoon exposed "certain unhealthy undercurrents".

But, writing in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, commentator Anshel Pfeffer criticised condemnation of the cartoon, which he said "was not anti-Semitic by any standard."

He noted the cartoon included no Jewish or Holocaust imagery, was as biting as the cartoonist's usual treatment of non-Jewish subjects and was not similar to traditional "blood libel" cartoons.

The cartoon appeared a day after a British parliamentarian was forced to apologise after he used his blog to criticise Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, accusing "the Jews" of perpetrating daily atrocities and drawing parallels with the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.

The remarks by Liberal Democrat MP David Ward sparked a wave of intense criticism on social media sites and from campaign groups, prompting him to issue an apology on Saturday, saying he had not meant "to offend the Jewish people as a whole, either as a race or as a people of faith".

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Lockyer Creek residents warned to move

RESIDENTS in low-lying areas in the Lockyer Valley in southeast Queensland have been urged to evacuate and seek higher ground before major flooding hits.

The state's Department of Community Safety said early on Monday morning that an emergency flood warning had been issued and people in flood-prone areas should consider moving immediately.

"Major flooding is expected during the night downstream of Laidley and Gatton in Lockyer Creek and Laidley Creek. Anyone at risk of flooding should seek higher ground," it said.

Evacuation centres have been established at the Fernvale Community Hall and the Lowood Showgrounds, it said.

Residents around the Mary River at Gympie have also been warned of flooding, with those in low-lying areas urged to relocate to higher ground if necessary before an expected flood peak of 21m hits.

Gympie Regional Council Mayor Ron Dyne advised affected residents to seek accommodation with friends and relatives or go to evacuation centres set up at the Gympie Civic Centre and Showgrounds Pavilion.

The latest warnings come as ex-tropical cyclone Oswald tracks south and into NSW, leaving flooded homes in Gladstone and Bundaberg as Brisbane, Ipswich and other centres in the state's southeast brace for flooding.

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Pro-gay marriage rally hits Paris streets

THOUSANDS of supporters of a French government-sponsored bill that would legalise marriage and adoption for same-sex couples are marching in Paris.

Demonstrators waved banners emblazoned with phrases such as "Equality of rights is not a threat" as they began marching from Denfert-Rochereau square in the southern part of the city.

Two weeks ago, a demonstration by those opposed to the proposal drew hundreds of thousands onto Paris's streets.

About 63 per cent of French favour legalising gay marriage, according to a survey released on Saturday, up from 60 per cent in December.

The French parliament is due to begin debate on the bill on Tuesday.

If MPs approve the plan, France would become the 12th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.

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20 missing from Russian fishing ship

A RUSSIAN fishing vessel has capsized in the Sea of Japan, and emergency officials say 20 Russian and Indonesian crew members are missing.

The far eastern branch of Russia's emergency services says 10 crew members were found in a lifeboat and rescued by a passing freighter.

The emergency services say the fishing vessel Shans-101 failed to make contact at the scheduled time and the ship owner reported it missing on Sunday afternoon.

A search was begun by air and sea, and late Sunday the vessel was found capsized off Russia's Pacific coast.

Shortly afterward, the freighter Anatoly Torchinov reported rescuing six Russian and four Indonesian sailors from the lifeboat.

Emergency officials say 13 Russians and seven Indonesians are missing.

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One dead in Egypt clashes

A TEENAGER has died and more than 400 people have been hurt in Egypt's Port Said as rioting sparked by death sentences handed to supporters of a local football team rocked the canal city for a second day.

Crowds attempted to storm three police stations and others torched a social club belonging to the armed forces, looting items inside, security officials said.

An 18-year-old male died of gunshots to the chest and another 433 people were injured, medical sources told AFP.

Earlier in the day, shots rang out as thousands of mourners marched at the funeral of people killed in clashes on Saturday.

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UAE to put on trial 94 Islamists

THE United Arab Emirates is to put on trial 94 Islamists accused of plotting against the Gulf state, attorney-general Salem Kobaish has announced.

He said the accused, whose arrests were announced in July, will go on trial for "having created and led a movement aimed at opposing the basic foundations on which the state's political system is built and at seizing power".

The group had formed a "secret organisation" that was in contact with individuals and organisations "abroad", including the Muslim Brotherhood, Kobaish said on Sunday, quoted by the official news agency WAM.

The attorney-general said they had also created or invested in real estate companies to finance their organisation, but he did not specify when their trial will begin.

On January 9, WAM reported that UAE prosecutors had begun questioning women allegedly linked to the group.

The UAE, a federation of seven emirates led by oil-rich Abu Dhabi, has not seen any of the widespread pro-reform protests that have swept other Arab countries, including fellow Gulf states Bahrain and Oman.

But authorities have stepped up a crackdown on voices of dissent and calls for democratic reform.

Dubai police chief General Dahi Khalfan has accused the Muslim Brotherhood - which came to power after the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia - of plotting against Gulf monarchies.

He charged the Islamists detained since last year were linked to the group.

This month, local media said UAE authorities had arrested 11 Egyptian residents suspected of links to the Brotherhood.

The case has sparked a sharp deterioration of relations between Abu Dhabi and Cairo, already under strain since Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi's election as Egyptian president in June last year.

The Gulf country, where membership of political parties is banned, has rejected a request from Egypt for the release of its nationals.

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