At least 30 die in boat capsize off Gabon

AT least 30 people died when their boat capsized off the Gabonese capital, Libreville, AFP journalists and rescue workers say, the latest disaster off the west African coast.

Police said the boat, which was carrying 65 people thought to be illegal immigrants, capsized in stormy weather overnight as it was travelling from Nigeria to Libreville.

AFP journalists counted 30 bodies lying along the shore, with the boat still visible in the waters off Cape Esterias, which lies about 40 kilometres north of Libreville.

A gendarme who requested anonymity said there were at least eight survivors among the passengers thought to be illegal immigrants from Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso.

Last week, an overloaded boat carrying an estimated 128 people sank off Nigeria's southern coast. An emergency official said on Thursday that 29 people have so far been rescued, but that the search for survivors was ongoing.

Gabon, a small oil-rich nation with a population of 1.5 million, is an attractive destination for illegal immigrants who come their in search of work.

They often reach Gabon by road through Cameroon or by sea from Nigeria or Benin.

The boats they travel in are often overloaded, however, making them an extreme hazard to travel in.

In 2008, some 20 illegal immigrants died when their boat capsized off the Gabonese coast.

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India upholds death penalty in 1993 blasts

INDIA'S top court has upheld the death penalty for a mastermind of the country's deadliest series of attacks and ruled a Bollywood star who bought weapons from the bombers must return to jail.

Yakub Memon, brother of the alleged main plotter and fugitive Tiger Memon, was the only one of 11 convicts to see his death sentence upheld by the Supreme Court for his role in the 1993 blasts, which killed 257 people in Mumbai.

The judges also handed down a five-year term for the actor, Sanjay Dutt, for possessing illegal weapons bought from gangsters accused of orchestrating the bombings. Dutt has served 18 months but is out on bail.

Announcing the sentences on Thursday, Supreme Court judge P Sathashivam said the Memon brothers and another suspect, Dawood Ibrahim, who is said to be living in Pakistan, "were archers and the rest of the appellants were arrows in their hands".

"They were the architects of the blasts," Sathashivam said.

The remaining convicts who had appealed against the death penalty saw their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

The attacks on March 12, 1993, were believed to have been staged by Mumbai's Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for anti-Muslim violence that left more than 1000 dead in the city a few months earlier.

Yakub, an accountant by profession, his brothers Essa and Yusuf and sister-in-law Rubina were all convicted for their involvement in the serial blasts at 13 locations.

The Bombay Stock Exchange, the offices of the national carrier Air India and the luxury Sea Rock hotel were among the targets.

Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim, the other alleged masterminds of the attacks, have been on the run since 1993. Indian investigators say they were helped by Pakistan's intelligence service, a charge denied by Islamabad.

Dutt, who was appealing against an original six-year term, spent 18 months behind bars before being bailed in 2007.

During a police raid, investigators uncovered a pistol and an AK-56 rifle which were part of the consignment of weapons and explosives said to have been brought to India from Pakistan and then used in the attacks.

Dutt, a one-time heavy drug user who has a reputation as one of Bollywood's bad boys, had admitted buying the weapons but insisted they were only meant to protect his family.

The 53-year-old in a statement said he "respected" the court's verdict.

"I have already suffered for 20 years and been in jail for 18 months. If they want me to suffer more I have to be strong," he said.

"I am heartbroken because today, along with me, my three children and my wife and my family will undergo the punishment," he said in the statement.

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UN to hold Syria chemical weapons inquiry

THE United Nations will launch an independent investigation into whether chemical weapons have been used in the Syria conflict, UN leader Ban Ki-Moon says.

Ban said the "difficult mission" would focus on a Syrian government allegation that opposition rebels fired chemical weapons missiles in an attack this week.

But France, Britain and the United States called on Ban to widen the inquiry to include allegations made against President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

The Syrian government has accused opposition rebels of using chemical weapons in an attack at Khan al-Assal near Aleppo on Tuesday. The opposition said the government staged the attack and also used banned chemical weapons in another incident near Damascus.

"I have decided to conduct a United Nations investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria," Ban told reporters in his office.

The UN leadership is working with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which oversees the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the World Health Organisation to set up the inquiry.

"The investigation mission is to look into the specific incident brought to my attention by the Syrian government," he said.

"I am, of course, aware that there are other allegations of similar cases involving the reported use of chemical weapons." Ban would not take questions on whether the inquiry could be extended.

"In discharging its mandate of an investigation mission, full co-operation from all parties will be essential. I stress that this includes unfettered access," Ban insisted.

"My announcement should serve as an unequivocal reminder that the use of chemical weapons is a crime against humanity," said Ban. "The international community needs full assurance that chemical weapons stockpiles are verifiably safeguarded."

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Israel at a crossroads on peace: Obama

US President Barack Obama has warned Israel is at a "crossroads" and should choose peace with Palestinians because it is necessary for its own ultimate security and is morally just.

Obama argued that although the Palestinian issue had receded as Israelis felt safer in their own homes, it was necessary to solve the decades-old dispute so the Jewish state could fulfil its destiny.

"Today, Israel is at a crossroads," Obama said in a major speech, adding although Israelis felt safer under Iron Dome missile defences and barriers to thwart suicide bombers, "peace is the only path to true security."

Obama made his most explicit case yet for Israelis to re-engage in peace talks which foundered two-and-a-half years ago in the speech at a Jerusalem convention centre that formed the centrepiece of his three-day visit to Israel.

The president said he realised that many Israelis did not share his views and that many observers were sceptical at the prospect of another US-sponsored peace drive, but said: "I want you to know that I speak to you as a friend who is deeply concerned and committed to your future.

"First, peace is necessary. Indeed, it is the only path to true security," Obama said, hours after returning from a five-hour visit to see Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.

"Second, peace is just," Obama said, again seeking to show he understood the reticence of Israelis who believed Palestinian leaders had missed "historic opportunities."

Finally, he concluded: "Peace is possible."

"Negotiations will be necessary, but there is little secret about where they must lead - two states for two peoples."

Obama also demanded foreign governments blacklist Hezbollah as a "terrorist organisation", slamming the Shi'ite Lebanese militia for attacks on Israelis.

He also issued a new call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to leave power amid a bloody uprising that has claimed 100,000 lives.

And he issued a fresh warning to Iran, saying a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic would be a danger to the entire world, as he sought to convince Israelis he takes seriously Tehran's threat to the Jewish state.

Obama said he favoured a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear dispute but warned Iran's time was not unlimited: "I have made the position of the United States of America clear: Iran must not get a nuclear weapon. This is not a danger that can be contained."

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Pope not complicit in war: Nobel laureate

POPE Francis was "not complicit" with Argentina's brutal military dictatorship and pursued a "silent diplomacy", Nobel peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel says, following criticism the pontiff had failed to speak out.

"He was not complicit with the dictatorship; he did not collaborate," the Argentine Perez Esquivel said after meeting with Latin America's first pope.

The Pope, Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio at the time, was head of the powerful Jesuit order in Argentina during the 1976-1983 regime.

"He preferred a silent diplomacy, inquiring about the disappeared and the prisoners," said the prominent human rights activist who campaigned against the junta and won the Nobel Prize in 1980.

"The Pope had nothing to do with the dictatorship," he added, saying the justice system had found "no proof" of any collaboration.

"In the Argentinian Catholic hierarchy there were some bishops complicit with the dictatorship but Bergoglio was not one of them," he told reporters, referring to 76-year-old Francis's name before he became pope.

Perez Esquivel said he and the Pope had discussed human rights and that the pontiff had called for "truth, justice and compensation".

He said the meeting had been "very emotional".

The Vatican last week rejected claims the Pope failed to do enough to protect two priests tortured during Argentina's "Dirty War" in which 30,000 people were killed or disappeared.

Argentinian investigative journalist Horacio Verbitsky has criticised the Pope for his role, as has the famous Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo organisation, founded in 1977 to help locate children kidnapped during the military era.

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19 miners rescued after cave-in in Poland

NINETEEN copper miners in Poland have been rescued after being trapped underground for more than seven hours by a cave-in caused by an earthquake.

The workers crawled their way to the surface of the Rudna copper mine, the deepest in Europe, after rescuers used excavators to clear rocks that had buried them almost a kilometre below ground, said operator KGHM.

Twenty-three miners initially managed to escape after the 10-second quake in Poland's southwestern mining belt late on Tuesday caused the ceiling of one section of the mine to collapse, spokeswoman Anna Osadczuk told AFP.

Two of the 42 miners on duty were taken to hospital with minor injuries, she said.

Rescue workers "used excavators to remove the rock until they saw an opening, through which they were able to communicate with the trapped miners," Osadczuk said, adding that the 19 had been caught about 960 metres below the surface.

"The rescue workers were crawling up to the opening on their knees."

One miner was taken to hospital with bruises, while another received stitches to his head and spoke of spinal pain, she said.

"It was a very dramatic night, but luckily the day began with good news," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters in Warsaw.

KGHM chief executive Herbert Wirth said luck played a part in the survival of the miners.

"They were at the front, which was well ventilated and they did not run out of fresh air. That all led to such a positive outcome," Wirth said, quoted by Polish news agency PAP.

Rudna, which has been open since 1969, churns out about 12.3 million tonnes of ore a year.

KGHM, which is 31 per cent state-owned, is the only copper producer in Poland, operating three mines in the southwest of the country.

It was also the world's top silver producer in 2011, according to the latest World Silver Survey.

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Pope promises 'respect' for all religions

POPE Francis has promised "friendship and respect" for all faiths at a meeting with representatives of major world religions in the Vatican in which he said he felt "close" to non-believers.

The Roman Catholic Church would "promote friendship and respect between men and women of different religions," the Pope said, a day after his formal inauguration in St Peter's Square.

"We can do a lot for the good of people who are poor, who are weak, who suffer ... and to promote reconciliation and peace," the Pope told other Christian leaders and representatives of Buddhism, Islam and Judaism in an ornate Vatican hall.

Latin America's first pontiff said all religions should be united against "one of the most dangerous pitfalls of our time - reducing human beings to what they produce and what they consume.

"I very much appreciate your presence and I see in it a sign of mutual respect and of co-operation for the common good of humanity," he said.

This was particularly important in a world of "divisions, confrontations and rivalries," he said.

Francis also told Jewish leaders he wanted to continue "a fraternal dialogue" that began with the reformist Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, which removed the notion of any Jewish blame for Jesus Christ's death in Catholic doctrine.

The 76-year-old Pope also said he felt "close" to those people who "do not recognise themselves in any faith but are in a search for truth, for goodness and for beauty, which is God."

The reference echoed a "silent blessing" Francis made on Saturday to non-believers at a meeting with journalists from around the world.

"You are all children of God," he said on Saturday.

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Miners rescued after quake cave-in

Nineteen people have been pulled to safety after a mine collapsed after a quake in Poland. Above, rescuers search for miners in China, which is frequently hit by deadly mine accidents. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

NINETEEN copper miners in Poland have been rescued after being trapped underground for more than seven hours by a cave-in caused by an earthquake.

The workers crawled their way to the surface of the Rudna copper mine, the deepest in Europe, after rescuers used excavators to clear rocks that had buried them almost a kilometre below ground, said operator KGHM.

Twenty-three miners initially managed to escape after the 10-second quake in Poland's southwestern mining belt late on Tuesday caused the ceiling of one section of the mine to collapse, spokeswoman Anna Osadczuk told AFP.

Two of the 42 miners on duty were taken to hospital with minor injuries, she said.

Rescue workers "used excavators to remove the rock until they saw an opening, through which they were able to communicate with the trapped miners," Ms Osadczuk said, adding that the 19 had been caught about 960 metres below the surface.

"The rescue workers were crawling up to the opening on their knees."

One miner was taken to hospital with bruises, while another received stitches to his head and spoke of spinal pain, she said.

"It was a very dramatic night, but luckily the day began with good news," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters in Warsaw.

KGHM chief executive Herbert Wirth said luck played a part in the survival of the miners.

"They were at the front, which was well ventilated and they did not run out of fresh air. That all led to such a positive outcome," Mr Wirth said, quoted by Polish news agency PAP.

Rudna, which has been open since 1969, churns out about 12.3 million tonnes of ore a year.

KGHM, which is 31 per cent state-owned, is the only copper producer in Poland, operating three mines in the southwest of the country.

It was also the world's top silver producer in 2011, according to the latest World Silver Survey.

Poland has a large number of mines, many of which are located in the industrialised Silesia region, which is rich in mineral and natural resources.

In 2006, a gas explosion at a coal mine in the region claimed 23 lives.

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Britain sticks to austerity path in budget

BRITAIN will stick firmly to a barrage of austerity measures, finance minister George Osborne has insisted in a budget that also slashes economic growth forecasts, while offering plans to boost the weak economy as the eurozone crisis reignites.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne, who is facing calls from within his own Conservative party to reduce deep cuts to state spending in a bid to fuel growth, told parliament Britain "must hold to the right track."

"We are slowly but surely fixing our country's economic problems," Osborne said, as he unveiled a series of measure aimed at boosting growth, including far-reaching infrastructure projects, while insisting Britain was set to escape a new recession.

"We have now cut the (inherited) deficit, not by a quarter but by a third," the chancellor said as he outlined his tax and spending plans for 2013-14.

"Despite the progress we have made there is much more to do and today I am going to level with people... It is taking longer than anyone hoped, but we must hold to the right track."

Osborne was referring to his so-called Plan A - backed by Prime Minister David Cameron - to drive down a record budget deficit inherited from the previous Labour administration in 2010.

Osborne's insistence on driving down state borrowing comes despite the chancellor announcing that the government was halving its economic growth forecast for 2013.

Gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to grow by just 0.6 per cent this year compared with a previous forecast of 1.2 per cent, according to estimates issued by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on Wednesday.

Economic growth guidance for 2014 was also cut to 1.8 per cent from the previous estimate of 2.0 per cent that was given in December.

The OBR meanwhile hiked its forecasts for government borrowing, stating it would stand at STG108 billion ($A158.38 billion) in the year to April 2014 from a previous estimate of STG99.3 billion.

Osborne said that the problems in eurozone member Cyprus, where savers are threatened with helping to fund an international bailout, "are further evidence that the crisis is not over and the situation remains very worrying".

He said Britain was on course to avoid sinking into its third recession since the 2008 global financial crisis, despite its economy contracting 0.3 per cent in the final three months of 2012.

And in a boost to the construction industry, he added that infrastructure plans would be backed by STG3.0 billion a year from 2015-2016 - to ensure that the "economic arteries of every part of this country" could benefit.

Meanwhile, the level at which workers would begin to pay income tax was set to rise to STG10,000 from next year.

The opposition Labour party was in no mood to applaud these advances, however, while tens of thousands of civil servants were Wednesday holding a 24-hour strike in a row over pay and other working conditions.

"Under this government, the bad news doesn't stop," Labour leader Ed Miliband told MPs in his response to the budget.

"Wait for tomorrow, the chancellor says, and I will be vindicated. But with this chancellor, tomorrow never comes ... it's a downgraded budget from a downgraded chancellor."

Moody's cut Britain's cherished triple-A rating last month.

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PM to apologise to forced adoption victims

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard will offer a national apology to victims of past forced adoption practices on Thursday.

Between the 1950s and 1970s an estimated 150,000 unwed Australian mothers had their babies forcibly adopted under a practice sanctioned by governments, churches, hospitals, charities and bureaucrats.

Some women were tricked into signing adoption papers, drugged and physically shackled to hospital beds.

Ms Gillard will offer the apology on Thursday in the Great Hall of Parliament House.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will also make a speech.

The House of Representatives and the Senate will move motions of apology following the event.

All state and territory governments have apologised to victims apart from the Northern Territory, which will do so soon.

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Qld MP Driscoll still facing allegations

A ROOKIE Queensland MP has been unable to shake off allegations of misusing taxpayer funds despite an attempt to explain himself in parliament.

Redcliffe MP Scott Driscoll has faced a raft of allegations in recent weeks, including claims of sexual harassment, financial mismanagement and improper business dealings.

Mr Driscoll defended himself in parliament on Tuesday, saying he had done nothing wrong other than failing to declare that his wife received more than $500 in income from a private company she runs.

Premier Campbell Newman has stood by his first-term MP, saying there's nothing to suggest he's unfit for public office.

The premier said investigations so far by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC), and ongoing departmental probes, had all turned up nothing.

But Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk repeatedly attacked the government in parliament on Tuesday, saying Mr Driscoll had not done enough to explain himself.

"We have heard today a very brief explanation from the member for Redcliffe ... and it does not go to the root of all the questions that need to be answered."

Ms Palaszczuk said Mr Driscoll had other irregularities in his pecuniary interests register and listed 13 specific questions the opposition felt he still needed to answer.

Mr Newman said Mr Driscoll had become subject to "trial by media", a scenario he had encountered himself during last year's state election.

"I, myself, and my wife know only too well about ... trial by media, but particularly the tactics of the Australian Labor Party to use the CMC as a political weapon to attack people," he told parliament.

The latest claims against Mr Driscoll, published in The Courier-Mail on Tuesday, accuse him of using his electorate office and staff to run a retail lobby group he used to head.

He's also faced sexual harassment claims from former employees of the Queensland Retail Traders and Shopkeepers Association and calls to produce the association's books amid claims that about $700,000 was spent inappropriately.

Mr Driscoll's wife has also been accused of inappropriately receiving taxpayer funds from another organisation with which Mr Driscoll was involved, the Regional Community Association of Moreton Bay.

But the MP says he's the target of a campaign of "falsehoods" and the attacks on his wife have been particularly upsetting.

The CMC confirmed on Tuesday that it received a referral from the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services on November 27, 2012.

It alleged official misconduct against Mr Driscoll.

The CMC says it found at the assessment phase of the complaint, that the matter did not involve official misconduct and therefore fell outside its jurisdiction.

The commission pointed out in its statement on Tuesday that the assessment process is separate to an investigation.

The CMC said it's assessing all new relevant information on the matter to decide whether or not it needs to take any further action.

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Polka-dot dresses the rage in N. Korea

POLKA-DOT dresses and manual threshing machines were among the hottest consumer products in North Korea last year, according to an annual list compiled by a research analyst in South Korea.

The arrival of the boldly-patterned dresses in the top 10 list was down to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's wife, Ri Sol-Ju, who was seen wearing them to public functions on state television.

"Young North Korean women are keenly interested in the first lady's fashion style and try to follow her example" Dong Yong-Seung, a senior research fellow at the Samsung Economic Research Institute in Seoul, told AFP on Tuesday.

Dong has been compiling a top 10 chart of consumer items in North Korea since 2010, basing her findings on interviews with North Korean defectors and Chinese traders on the Sino-North Korean border.

The fact that manual threshing machines made the list spoke of the prevalence of electricity cuts in the countryside, Dong said.

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SA backs wind farm developments

SOUTH Australian Premier Jay Weatherill has reaffirmed his government's support for wind energy and will seek a vote in parliament on Wednesday backing the renewable energy sector.

Mr Weatherill said recent suggestions of a moratorium on future wind farm developments was putting investment in the industry at risk.

"The government remains committed to providing ample opportunity for investment in wind energy in South Australia," the premier told state parliament on Tuesday.

"Every megawatt hour of wind energy cuts about one tonne of greenhouse gas emissions.

"Apart from the environmental benefits, wind farms also bring in vital investment to our state."

Mr Weatherill said South Australia had already attracted about $3 billion in wind energy investment, creating 842 direct jobs.

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Breakthrough in Vic teachers pay dispute

THERE has been a major breakthrough in the long-running Victorian teachers' pay battle, with the government backing down on performance pay.

The union says it is a sign the new Premier Denis Napthine is prepared to listen to teachers' concerns but the parties are yet to agree on salaries, contract teaching and several other issues.

Government and Australian Education Union (AEU) negotiators are due to meet again on Wednesday afternoon.

Dr Napthine said the government remained committed to performance pay but was willing to cut that aspect out of enterprise bargaining negotiations with the union in a bid to resolve the long-running dispute.

"We seek to deal with the issue of performance pay outside the EBA process," he told parliament on Tuesday.

"I call upon the teachers' union to accept this act of good faith."

AEU Victoria president Meredith Peace said the union would never accept performance pay because it did not lead to better student outcomes.

She said the government's move was a positive, small step but the union wasn't celebrating yet.

"It shows that the new premier is prepared to listen to our profession," Ms Peace said.

"This is a small step in the right direction but there is still much work to be done."

Ms Peace said the outstanding issues included salaries, workloads, class sizes and the high level of contract employment.

The union revised down its pay claim last November to a 12.6 per cent increase over three years, while the government's wages policy was 2.5 per cent plus extra for productivity gains.

"We actually now need to see what they are prepared to offer," Ms Peace said.

Former premier Ted Baillieu promised, before the coalition won government, to make Victoria's teachers the best paid in Australia.

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said Dr Napthine should become personally involved in negotiations rather than grand stand in parliament.

"Instead of these faux concessions, the mock drama on the floor of the parliament, Mr Napthine should get in a room and get a deal done," he said.

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US backs Aust and NZ's Antarctic plans

The US is backing a proposal by Australia and NZ to set up marine sanctuaries in Antarctica. Source: AAP

HAILING the waters of Antarctica as a living laboratory, the United States has joined Australia and New Zealand in appealing for the creation of marine sanctuaries in the most remote and pristine part of the world.

The United States and New Zealand have drawn up a proposal for a marine sanctuary covering 1.6 million square kilometres of the Ross Sea, which would be the world's largest reserve.

Nations led by Australia, France and the European Union also want to protect 1.9 million square kilometres of critical coastal area in the East Antarctic.

But the proposals were blocked when talks in November at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) - comprising 24 countries and the European Union - ended without resolution amid concerns from Russia and China.

Now the nations in favour are boosting their efforts to get the two sanctuaries approved at a special meeting of the group in Germany in July.

"Antarctica is a collection of superlatives. It's the highest, coldest, the windiest, the driest, the most pristine and the most remote place on Earth," US Secretary of State John Kerry told a gathering organised by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"And it has beguiled humankind for centuries as people have sought to understand it," he added, arguing that the waters of the Southern Ocean, home to 16,000 species, are a "living laboratory."

Kerry told the gathering at the National Geographic Society he believed the world can "work together to ensure that Antarctica remains a place devoted to peace and devoted to expanding human understanding of this fragile planet."

"This is one of the last places we could do this, and I think we owe it to ourselves to make it happen."

But conservationists argue the proposals do not go far enough to protect marine life - notably the Antarctic toothfish, which is fished in huge quantities and served as Chilean sea bass on restaurant tables around the world.

The Ross Sea proposal, while creating a reserve to protect Adelie and emperor penguins, as well as killer whales and Weddell seals, would still allow some 3,000 tonnes of toothfish to be commercially caught each year.

"We wanted New Zealand to come up with a much stronger proposal, and they just didn't, and they dug their heels in, and basically the US had to go for New Zealand's proposal," documentary film-maker Peter Young said.

"It doesn't matter how sustainable this quota is, we shouldn't be in the last place. We don't take buffalo from Yellowstone. We don't take kiwi from the forests in New Zealand. We should not fish from the Ross Sea."

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Qld Health fraudster to be sentenced

THE man accused of fleecing $16 million from Queensland Health will be sentenced on Tuesday.

Joel Barlow, 37, is alleged to have defrauded the government department of millions of dollars while working there between 2007 and 2011.

Barlow, through his lawyer David Shepherd, indicated late last year that he would plead guilty.

He is in custody and due to face a Brisbane court on Tuesday.

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Hillary Clinton backs gay marriage

FORMER US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who may be eyeing a run in the 2016 presidential election, came off the sidelines on Monday and announced her support for gay marriage.

While Clinton pushed gay, lesbian and transgender (LGBT) rights during her four-year tenure as America's top diplomat, considering them human rights, she hadn't until now advocated for gay marriage.

"LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones. And they are full and equal citizens, and deserve the rights of citizenship. That includes marriage," she says in a nearly six-minute video.

"That's why I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy and law, embedded in a broader effort to advance equality and opportunity for LGBT Americans and all Americans."

The video was released by the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organisation working for gays rights.

It came just days after Clinton's husband, former US president Bill Clinton, urged the Supreme Court to overturn a bill he signed in 1996 defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, calling it "discriminatory".

During her failed 2008 White House bid, Hillary Clinton stopped short of endorsing gay marriage, favouring civil unions instead.

In the video, she acknowledged that "like so many others, my personal views have been shaped over time", saying they had been changed by conversations and personal experiences as well as "by the guiding principles of my faith".

"Marriage, after all, is a fundamental building block of our society, a great joy and yes, a great responsibility," Clinton says.

"To deny the opportunity to any of our daughters and sons solely on the basis of who they are and who they love is to deny them the chance to live up to their own God-given potential."

Clinton stepped down on February 1, and polls show that if she throws her hat into the ring to be the Democratic Party nominee in the 2016 election, she would have a strong edge over any other candidate.

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Israeli govt ready for peace: Netanyahu

ISRAEL'S incoming government extends its hand to the Palestinians and is ready for a historic compromise, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said while presenting his new centre-right coalition to parliament.

He says Israel will maintain its existing peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and is ready for "a real peace" with the Palestinians that will end the conflict "once and for all".

Addressing the Knesset which convened ahead of casting its vote of confidence in the new government on Monday, Netanyahu warned, however, that to reach a peace treaty, both sides would have to compromise.

Israel is facing its biggest challenges since the state was founded nearly 65 years ago, said the premier, who is about to begin his third term.

"Our existence here cannot be taken for granted," he said, and promised that his government's first priority would "be the defence of the country and its citizens".

The premier finalised his coalition on Friday, a day before the deadline.

The new government comprises four parties - Netanyahu's nationalist Likud-Beiteinu alliance, the pro-settler Jewish Home, the centrist Yesh Atid, which advocates socio-economic reforms, and another centrist party of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni.

It can count on a majority of 68 mandates in the 120-seat Knesset.

Members of the small, ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism faction left the chamber during Netanyahu's speech, to protest at their exclusion from the coalition.

The session kicked off with the election of the parliamentary speaker, with the post going to Likud-Beiteinu lawmaker and former minister Yuli Edelstein.

The cabinet ministers were set to be sworn in later on Monday.

The new government assumes power two days before US President Barack Obama arrives in the region for a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

The new cabinet will initially have 22 members, including Netanyahu. The post of foreign minister is being held by the prime minister pending the outcome of a trial involving the former head of diplomacy, Avigdor Lieberman.

The Likud-Beiteinu alliance won the January election, handing Netanyahu his second successive term in office, but with a smaller number of seats.

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Jailed PKK leader confirms ceasefire call

KURDISH rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has confirmed he will call for a "historic" ceasefire on Thursday, the day of the Kurdish New Year, a pro-Kurdish lawmaker told reporters in Istanbul after meeting the jailed PKK chief.

"I continue with my preparations to make a call on March 21, during the Newroz celebrations. The declaration I am going to make will be historic," lawmaker Selahattin Demirtas said on Monday, reading from a letter penned by Ocalan.

Demirtas was in the Kurdish delegation that visited Ocalan on the prison island of Imrali on Monday, the third such visit since peace talks between the state and Ocalan as chief of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) began late last year.

"I want to solve the issue of guns with haste and without a single life being lost," Ocalan said in the letter.

He also called on the Turkish parliament to do "its part" to make the peace process a permanent one, allowing thousands of Kurdish rebels to lay down arms and withdraw from Turkey in the coming months.

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Republicans release 2012 poll post-mortem

US Republicans have released a scathing report on their disappointment in November's presidential vote, urging their party to broaden its appeal to minority voters before the next election.

"Unless changes are made, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future," the 98-page document concludes, seeking to guide the party's latest bout of soul-searching.

The report, dubbed a post-election "autopsy" by the media, follows President Barack Obama's easy victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney at the polls - an election many party leaders were confident they would win.

Chastened by their showing, the party said this week it will spend $10 million this year on programs to repair one of its greatest vulnerabilities, its low level of support among Hispanic, Asian and African-American voters.

Minority voters in the United States tend to vote heavily Democratic and their numbers are growing much more quickly than are those of white Americans.

This means Republicans are facing a losing numbers game unless they abandon election strategies geared to its base of white male voters.

"We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian and gay Americans and demonstrate that we care about them, too," the report concluded.

Overall, Obama carried 80 per cent support from minority voters, who will represent more than half of all US voters by 2050, according to data from the US Census Bureau.

The head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, unveiled the report at a high-profile event in Washington on Monday.

"The RNC cannot and will not write off any demographic, community, or region of this country," Priebus told reporters at the National Press Club, as he summed up the document's bottom-line conclusions.

Priebus said the analysis of the party's shortcomings - the product of extensive polling, focus groups and interviews with some 50,000 people - concluded that many of the party's biggest problems have been self-inflicted.

"The perception that we're the party of the rich continues to grow," Priebus said, in remarks that came four months after the failed candidacy of its multi-millionaire standard bearer Romney.

Priebus said that while inept messaging has hurt the Republicans, its core message and values remain strong, insisting: "Our policies are sound, but the way we communicate is a real problem."

The analysis encouraged Republicans to make a concerted outreach effort to Latino voters. The word "Hispanic" appears 99 times, suggesting the importance the party attaches to Latinos as it considers its future.

Another shortcoming highlighted is in the area of immigration policy. New immigrants and their relatives flock to the Democrats, believing Republicans are unwelcoming and inflexible, it warns.

Romney infamously declared during a campaign debate with Obama that, rather than simply rounding up undocumented immigrants, the United States should somehow encourage them to "self deport".

"If they find that - that they can't get the benefits here that they want and they can't - and they can't find the job they want, then they'll make a decision to go a place where - where they have better opportunities," he said.

The Republican document rejects Romney's approach.

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Alstom India boss rescued from kidnappers

THE India head of French multinational engineering group Alstom has been rescued over the weekend hours after being kidnapped near New Delhi, police say.

Police said Rathin Basu was abducted by a group of five men, at least one of whom was armed, late on Friday.

The kidnappers forced him to stop his car and pushed him into their white Camry in Delhi's satellite city of Noida before driving to the northern town of Meerut, said Meerut senior superintendent of police Deepak Kumar.

"We sent out 70 policemen to map the area from Noida to Meerut and after a firefight with the kidnappers, we finally found Mr Basu around 4am on Saturday," Kumar told AFP.

The executive, reportedly in his 60s, was found handcuffed in a small and dingy room, police said.

Kumar said a shopkeeper in Noida is thought to have masterminded the kidnapping. "He was in financial trouble and thought this would help, so he sent his servants and his drivers to do the job," the officer said.

The shopkeeper is being questioned by Noida police, after officers found phone records showing several overnight calls made by the alleged kidnappers to him during the incident.

Basu's family received no demands for ransom during that period, Kumar said.

Three of the five men involved in the kidnapping have been arrested on charges of abduction and attempted murder.

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I hope baby is a boy, Kate reveals

THE Duchess of Cambridge has told a soldier she would like her baby to be a boy as she attended a St Patrick's Day parade at a military barracks.

But Kate, who is five months pregnant, said the Duke, who attended the event with her, would prefer to have a girl.

Ahead of watching the parade at Mons Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire, the duchess suffered an embarrassing mishap when the heel of one of her shoes became stuck in a drain.

Kate, who showed patriotic spirit in the same green Emilia Wickstead dress coat she wore to the event last year, had to lean on William while she pulled it out with her hand.

Afterwards, the royal couple chatted to soldiers from the 1st Battalion Irish Guards in the Guardsmens' cookhouse.

Guardsman Lee Wheeler, 29, said: "I was talking to her about the baby, of course.

"I asked her 'do you know if it's a girl or boy', and she said 'not yet'.

"She said 'I'd like to have a boy and William would like a girl'. That's always the way.

"I asked her if she had any names yet and she said no.

"I said I suppose you've got to stick to traditional names."

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William given aide-de-camp position

THE Duke of Cambridge has been made a personal aide-de-camp to the Queen, it has been announced.

William's honorary appointment was detailed in the Court Circular and the duke wore the insignia for the first time at the St Patrick's Day parade for the 1st Battalion Irish Guards at Mons Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire.

The position has few duties but will be seen as symbolic of William's growing role within the royal family.

It comes after a week in which the monarch, who has been suffering from the symptoms of gastroenteritis, cancelled most of her public engagements.

The Court Circular stated the Queen "has been pleased to appoint The Duke of Cambridge as a Personal Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty" with effect from Sunday.

Queen Victoria was the first to institute the appointment of a small group of personal aides-de-camp (ADC) positions, with one of the earliest holders being Prince Louis of Battenberg.

William's father Prince Charles is also a personal aide-de-camp to the monarch.

The Duke of Edinburgh was made personal aide-de-camp by the Queen's father, King George VI.

Principal ADC is an office held by some high-ranking officers in the Armed Services and includes carrying out duties such as attendance on the Queen at the state opening of parliament or representing the Queen at memorial services.

Other ADCs, rarely asked to perform any duties, are also chosen from the Armed Services.

Last year, second in line to the throne William was given the highest honour in Scotland after being installed as a Royal Knight of the Order of the Thistle at a service in Edinburgh.

He is also a Knight of the Garter.

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Irish 'kidnapping' victim 'made up story'

AN Irish property developer who alleged he was kidnapped and held captive for eight months made up the extraordinary story, it has been claimed.

Kevin McGeever reportedly came clean after being arrested on suspicion of wasting police time on Thursday.

The former tycoon from Mayo - who was emaciated and disorientated when found wandering a roadside barefoot - said he made up the elaborate tale to escape financial pressure.

Police sources said the 68-year-old caved under questioning, according to the Sunday Independent.

The newspaper reported the cash-strapped McGeever admitted to staging his kidnapping and subsequent release to keep investors off his back.

His plan went awry when the couple who found him wandering the Cavan-Leitrim border on January 29 insisted on bringing him to a police station, which led to a full-scale investigation.

McGeever, who had lost about 32kg, claimed he had been abducted at gunpoint from his gated mansion in May last year.

The businessman had the word "thief" inked on his forehead when he was found. His beard had grown out and his finger nails had not been cut for months.

He has since admitted the eight-month ruse was an attempt to get breathing space from people hounding him for cash.

He also hoped they would leave him alone following his emergence from the alleged captivity for fear they might become suspects in the "abduction", the Sunday Independent reported.

McGeever said he lived in self-imposed exile in a remote part of the west of Ireland.

He was quizzed by police for 24 hours but released without charge on Friday night.

A police spokesman said on Sunday a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

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Hospital superbug prompts call for action

A SUPERBUG has contaminated hand-washing sinks in the intensive care unit at Melbourne's Dandenong Hospital, making 10 patients ill with the bacteria that have killed people overseas.

The hospital has been struggling to contain the multidrug-resistant bacteria since 2009, a report in the Medical Journal of Australia says.

Ten patients have been infected since then, but none have died from the infection.

Infectious disease specialist Rhonda Stuart said the bacteria known as CRE were found in sinks where staff washed their hands. While it cannot be proved, this might have spread the infection to patients because the design of the sinks caused water to splash back off the drain, Fairfax reported.

The hospital is preparing to replace the sinks, which in the meantime are being cleaned regularly with 170-degree pressurised steam.

"No patients have tested positive for the bacteria since we've undertaken this process, so we're happy things have been controlled with the new steam technology," said Associate Professor Stuart.

CRE (Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae) is a new class of multidrug-resistant bacteria that have the ability to spread drug resistance to other bacteria.

The superbug is thought to be an emerging issue in Australian hospitals, with microbiologists and infectious disease experts calling for action to prevent their spreading.

Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases president David Looke and colleagues wrote in the Medical Journal that health authorities need to be "brave enough" to make difficult decisions on the use of antibiotics if Australia is to avoid a "plague" of multidrug-resistant bacteria that would make many illnesses untreatable.

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