Syria spillover risk, say analysts

SYRIA'S neighbours face a growing risk of the conflict spilling across their region with Bashar al-Assad turning to ever more desperate acts to halt rebels, analysts say.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki voiced such concerns on Saturday when he said a new wave of sectarian strife in his country stemmed from violence elsewhere, although he did not name Syria.

However, others believe while Iraq, Israel and Turkey will all be affected, Lebanon and Jordan will be most vulnerable if the conflict spreads.

"There is a significant risk of an increased spillover," says Anthony Skinner of British risk consultancy Maplecroft.

"It is a very vulnerable region and there is a risk of escalation. The whole region may increasingly become involved in the conflict."

Jordan hosts more than 500,000 Syrian refugees, while Lebanon is home to 400,000 but the two countries face other tough challenges.

Amman has found itself dragged closer to the conflict with the deployment of more US troops on its territory amid a warning by Assad the kingdom could be engulfed by the war, and accusations of allowing fighters into Syria.

"Jordan had been pushed because of the escalation next door and because of its concerns regarding militant Islam and Salafists. Jordan is concerned about the potential chaos that may follow for years or decades in the likely event that Assad will eventually be toppled," Skinner said.

Lebanon has witnessed frequent shelling from Syria of both Sunni Muslim and Shi'ite areas of its north and east.

It has adopted a policy of neutrality despite being torn between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies that support Assad, and the Sunni-led March 14 movement that backs the revolt.

Opposition activists in Syria have accused Hezbollah of sending elite fighters to battle alongside Assad's troops in Qusayr, an area near the border.

"Lebanon could be plunging into a state of war - this is a very real risk," Skinner said.

For Yezid Sayigh of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut, "the main impact on Jordan and Lebanon is the refugees, which puts them under severe pressure.

"Even those who support the Syrian opposition, are becoming fed up with the refugee influx. If the situation develops, more Syrians, maybe millions, will flee to Jordan and Lebanon," exacerbating the chances of conflict in the host countries, he told AFP.

Syria's conflict is increasingly becoming a proxy war, with the rebels backed by US allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, and Assad by Hezbollah, Iran and Russia.

Assad's forces are too stretched to retaliate against those who back the rebels, but occasional cross-border shelling is conceivable, said Skinner.

"Though, these attacks would not be deemed large enough to provoke a strong counter-punch, it's conceivable that Assad would use proxies that are not so clearly linked to his line of command," Skinner said.

Turkey and Israel are worried about the fallout.

"The threat of the Syrian conflict has pushed Turkey to engage in what appears to be a serious peace process with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)," he said.

Israel fears Syria's chemical weapons arsenal could fall into the wrong hands.

"The United States and Israel have limited options to deal with the chemical weapons. They do not want things to develop, which might give the Syrian regime the chance to use the weapons," Sayigh said.

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Navajo the chosen one for new 'Star Wars'

THE classic Star Wars film that launched a science fiction empire is being dubbed in the Navajo language.

A handful of Navajo speakers have translated the script for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and people are now being sought to fill some two dozen roles.

Casting calls are scheduled on Monday in Burbank, California and next Friday and Saturday at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona.

Potential actors don't have to sound exactly like Princess Leia or Luke Skywalker but should deliver the lines with character.

Museum director Manuelito Wheeler says he sees the translation as entertaining and a way to preserve the Navajo language.

Wheeler says it's rewarding considering the US once tried to eradicate the language.

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Man arrested over poisoned letters

A MISSISSIPPI man has been arrested on suspicion of sending poisoned letters to US President Barack Obama and others.

Everett Dutschke, 41, was arrested about 12:50am (3:50pm AEST) Saturday at his Tupelo home in connection with the letters, FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden said.

The letters, which allegedly contained ricin, were sent last week to President Barack Obama, Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and earlier to an 80-year-old Mississippi judge, Sadie Holland.

Ms Madden said Mr Dutschke was arrested without incident. She said additional questions should be directed to the US attorney's office. The office in Oxford did not immediately respond to messages Saturday.

Mr Dutschke's attorney, Lori Nail Basham, did not immediately respond to phone or text messages Saturday.

Charges in the case were initially filed against an Elvis impersonator but then dropped. Attention then turned to Mr Dutschke, who has ties to the former suspect and the judge and senator.

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Colombian teen hired gun confesses murders

A 19-YEAR-OLD hired gun has told Colombian police he committed more than 30 murders, blaming poverty and his father's violence.

"Seeing the powerlessness when I heard my parents saying they didn't have money for the rent and didn't know how they were going to get it" led him to become a gang enforcer, Andres Leonardo Achipiz told Caracol Television on Friday.

Referring to the physical abuse, he said his father would resort to "physical blows, humiliation, because of having to work so hard to support six children," adding that repressed anger led him to consider doing harm to others.

Achipiz said most of his victims were in their early teens, his first an individual who stole his mobile phone at knifepoint. After several other killings criminals began hiring him.

He said he eventually became a full-time enforcer, estimating that he murdered a total of 32 or 33 people.

Achipiz, who committed his last homicide in November 2012, was arrested last week and could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison if convicted, a spokesman for the Bogota police force said on Friday.

Police have evidence he carried out eight murders, and Achipiz admitted to those crimes at a court hearing, the spokesman said.

The jailed suspect, who asked forgiveness from the families of his victims, says he hopes his three-year-old son is raised far from the life he chose.

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Italy government unveiled

ITALY'S incoming prime minister Enrico Letta has finally unveiled his new government line-up.

The breakthrough ends a two-month deadlock that saw former premier Silvio Berlusconi reassert his status as a key player and tested the patience of Rome's European partners.

Angelino Alfano, from Berlusconi's party, has been handed the deputy prime minister post and interior portfolio, while former EU commissioner Emma Bonino has been made foreign minister, Letta said on Saturday.

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Remains found in missing Vic woman's home

HUMAN remains have been found in the home of an 82-year-old Melbourne woman who has been missing for almost two years.

Phyllis Kelly was last seen on August 20, 2011, at the State Theatre, just after 6pm.

She had not accessed her bank account since then and police had made public calls for information about her disappearance, having held grave fears for her welfare.

Police, accompanied by a pathologist, searched the woman's home on Little Charles Street in Fitzroy on Thursday after receiving authority from the coroner to conduct the search.

The remains will now be taken to the coroner for testing, a police spokeswoman said.

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40 survivors found in Bangladesh collapse

FORTY people have been found alive in a room inside a collapsed garment factory compound in Bangladesh, the army said in an announcement greeted by loud cheers from waiting relatives.

"We've found 40 people alive in a room," an army spokesman announced at the scene of the country's worst industrial accident, near Dhaka.

"They are being rescued," he added to wild applause from the crowds.

More than 230 people are so far known to have died in Wednesday's disaster but many more are still trapped under the rubble at the Rana Plaza, in the town of Savar.

Thousands of relatives of people still missing have gathered at the site to watch the rescue effort.

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UN votes to send peacekeepers to Mali

THE UN Security Council has unanimously backed sending up to 12,600 international troops and police to take over from French and African forces battling Islamist guerrillas in Mali.

The United Nations is aiming for a July 1 start by the new force, but the 15-nation council will decide later whether the conflict has eased enough for the handover.

French troops moved into Mali in January to halt an Islamist advance on the capital Bamako and have since forced the al-Qaeda-linked militants into desert and mountain hideouts.

France is to keep up to 1000 troops in Mali and they will maintain responsibility for military strikes against the Islamists, who are now waging a guerrilla campaign.

UN resolution 2100 authorises France to intervene if the UN troops are "under imminent and serious threat and at the demand" of UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

The resolution authorised the new force to use "all necessary measures" to stabilise major cities, protect civilians and help the government extend its authority over the vast West African nation.

"The adoption of this resolution confirms the unanimous international support for the stabilisation of Mali and France's intervention," said France's UN envoy Gerard Araud.

Mali's Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly called the resolution "an important step in the process to stem the activities of terrorist and rebel groups".

The proposed UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali, to be known by its French acronym MINUSMA, would have a maximum of 11,200 soldiers and 1440 police.

Mali's army launched a coup in March 2012, which unleashed the chaos that allowed Tuareg rebels and their erstwhile Islamist allies to take over the north of the country and impose a brutal Islamic rule.

Many shrines in Timbuktu and other cities were destroyed, and public executions and amputations staged.

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US weekly jobless claims drop

NEW claims for US unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since mid-March, the government says, in a fresh sign of a slowly improving job market.

Initial jobless claims totalled 339,000 in the week ending April 20, down from the prior week's revised reading of 362,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

The decline in new claims, which indicate the pace of layoffs, was sharper than analysts expected. The average estimate was for 351,000 claims.

Last week's reading was the lowest since the week ending March 9, when claims hit a five-year low of 334,000.

A Labor Department official noted that claims data were particularly volatile in the weeks near the Easter holiday, which this year fell on March 31.

The four-week moving average, which helps to smooth out volatility, fell by 4,500 to 357,500 last week.

According to employment data published in early April, the US unemployment rate dipped in March by one-tenth of a point to 7.6 per cent, the lowest rate since December 2008.

But the improvement came because people dropped out of the workforce, not because of job growth, which was a paltry 88,000 last month.

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Palmer to re-form UAP party for election

BILLIONAIRE miner Clive Palmer has come good on threats to set up his own political party, saying he will personally run for federal parliament.

Mr Palmer told ABC TV on Thursday he was re-forming the United Australia Party (UAP), which was dissolved in 1945, and had applied for registration in Queensland.

The former life member of the Liberal National Party (LNP) said the new UAP would contest 127 lower house seats in the September federal election, and stand for all seats in the Senate.

"I definitely will be (personally) standing for federal parliament," he confirmed, without revealing which seat.

"I definitely will be running in a seat in Queensland, but it would be presumptuous of me (to say which one).

"Like any political party, it's got to have its own preselections.

"By the end of next week we'll be announcing some of our candidates for federal parliament."

The original UAP was established in 1931 and was the predecessor to the Liberal Party, with Robert Menzies serving as a UAP prime minister between 1939 and 1941.

Late last year Mr Palmer gave up his life membership of the LNP after a bitter and public dispute with the Newman government in Queensland, and since then has threatened to set up his own party.

Mr Palmer said there were key differences between his new political party and the Liberals, including on refugee policy and the axing of the carbon tax.

The party already had a number of "notable Australians" that wanted to stand for federal parliament, he said.

"The United Australia Party, it's a reformation of the original party ... which has had three prime ministers in our history and is a shining example of where we should go."

Before his falling out with the LNP, Mr Palmer had considered running against Treasurer Wayne Swan in his Brisbane seat of Lilley.

But asked if the deputy prime minister should be looking over his shoulder, Mr Palmer would only say: "I'm sure there will be a good candidate running there.

"It will be up to the United Australia Party to decide who runs everywhere," he said.

"Wayne Swan is a very nice guy. His problem is he can't count. He said we'd have a balanced budget but it's going to be $60 billion over."

Mr Palmer dismissed comparisons with former Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's aborted "Joh for Canberra" campaign in 1987.

As to whether formation of the party was part of a push to one day be prime minister, the billionaire businessman said: "It's up to the people to decide.

"As you know, the people of Australia elected me as a living national treasure, and that was their choice not mine," Mr Palmer said.

"Whatever it goes, I think I'm prepared to do.

"After all, it's really crazy to think that a person that's never run anything more than a tuckshop can run a trillion dollar economy."

Mr Palmer said there were key differences between his new political party and the Liberals, including on refugee policy and the axing of the carbon tax.

The party already had a number of "notable Australians" that wanted to stand for federal parliament, he said.

"The United Australia Party, it's a reformation of the original party ... which has had three prime ministers in our history and is a shining example of where we should go."

Before his falling out with the LNP, Mr Palmer had considered running against Treasurer Wayne Swan in his Brisbane seat of Lilley.

But asked if the deputy prime minister should be looking over his shoulder, Mr Palmer would only say: "I'm sure there will be a good candidate running there.

"It will be up to the United Australia Party to decide who runs everywhere," he said.

"Wayne Swan is a very nice guy. His problem is he can't count. He said we'd have a balanced budget but it's going to be $60 billion over."

Mr Palmer dismissed comparisons with former Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's aborted "Joh for Canberra" campaign in 1987.

As to whether formation of the party was part of a push to one day be prime minister, the billionaire businessman said: "It's up to the people to decide.

"As you know, the people of Australia elected me as a living national treasure, and that was their choice not mine," Mr Palmer said.

"Whatever it goes, I think I'm prepared to do.

"After all, it's really crazy to think that a person that's never run anything more than a tuckshop can run a trillion dollar economy."

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US stocks open mixed

US stocks are mixed in opening trade after Tuesday's one per cent-plus gains, with trade tempered by Apple's fall in profits and a poor read on durable goods orders in March.

Five minutes into trade on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 21.81 points (0.15 per cent) at 14,741.27.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 2.26 (0.14 per cent) to 1581.04, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.64 (0.05 per cent) to 3267.69.

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Two days of Iraq violence claims 118 lives

TWO days of violence in Iraq have killed 118 people, 99 of them in clashes and attacks involving security forces, protesters and their supporters, officials say.

The violence also wounded 245 people, 194 of them in protest-related unrest, they said.

The trouble began early on Tuesday, when clashes broke out after security forces moved into an area near Hawijah in northern Iraq, where protests have been held since January.

The fighting killed 53 people, and a series of revenge attacks left another 27 dead. A further 15 were killed in apparently unrelated unrest, officials said.

On Wednesday, another 23 people died in violence, 19 of them in protest-related unrest.

Protesters have taken to the streets in Sunni-majority areas of Iraq for more than four months, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and decrying the alleged targeting of their minority community by the Shi'ite-led authorities.

The latest spate of violence is the worst protest-related unrest since the demonstrations began.

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S Africa's Tutu in hospital for infection

PEACE icon Desmond Tutu has checked into a South African hospital for non-surgical treatment and tests related to an ongoing infection.

"Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has checked into a Cape Town hospital for the treatment of a persistent infection and to undergo tests to discover the underlying cause," his foundation said in a statement.

A photograph of the 81-year-old showed him smiling at his office where he spent the morning before being admitted to the undisclosed hospital.

"He was in good spirits and full of praise for the care he receives from an exceptional team of doctors," said the statement from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.

"The non-surgical treatment is expected to take five days."

Officially retired, Tutu is often referred to as South Africa's moral guide due to his outspokenness of wrongdoing at home and in the world.

Just under two weeks ago, he took part in a celebration to mark a recent award, getting up to dance, at the cathedral where he rallied against the apartheid state.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and underwent repeated treatments.

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Flash floods kill 11 in north Afghanistan

ELEVEN people are confirmed dead and three are missing after flash floods swept through part of northern Afghanistan, damaging almost a thousand homes.

The floods on Tuesday hit the Kishindih, Sholgara and Nahri Shai districts of Balkh province, said Munir Ahmad Farhad, a provincial government spokesman.

Eastern areas of the city of Mazar-e-Sharif were also hit but no one was hurt, Farhad told AFP.

"The floods have also damaged close to a thousand homes as well as hundreds of hectares of farmland," the spokesman said.

"We have sent delegations to the affected areas to assess the damage and casualties."

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Russia nabs gunman suspected of killing 6

A GUNMAN suspected of shooting six people dead in the western Russian city of Belgorod has been captured after a massive manhunt last more than 24 hours, police say.

Convicted criminal Sergei Pomazun, 31, was shown on television pinned down by police who found him trying to board a freight train in Belgorod, close to the Ukrainian border, where the shootings took place.

"I didn't shoot children. I was shooting at hell," said the wild-eyed man lying face-down on the ground in handcuffs in a police video broadcast on Rossiya 1 channel.

He is believed to be the gunman who opened fire in a hunting store on Monday before going outside and shooting passersby in a central square, including two girls aged 14 and 16, who both died, before fleeing.

Pomazun stabbed a policeman during his capture late Tuesday. The police major was in intensive care in hospital with non-life-threatening wounds.

Investigators said that Pomazun took a hunting rifle belonging to his father which he used to shoot dead two staff and a customer in the hunting store.

He then took another gun from the store and shot at passersby who witnessed his getaway in his father's BMW.

Rossiya 24 television reported that Pomazun had carried out the shooting in apparent revenge after staff in the store earlier in the day had refused to sell him ammunition.

His parents had recently called police twice over their son's aggressive behaviour. He had several convictions and was last released from prison in 2012 after serving time for car theft.

His father had reportedly worked as a gamekeeper and Pomazun was familiar with guns. Izvestia daily reported that he killed his six victims with just six shots.

Around 2000 police, including riot police from Moscow, searched for the gunman in the city and the surrounding area, while townspeople piled flowers at the site of the murders.

Pomazun declined to give evidence to investigators. If convicted, he faces life in jail for mass murder.

AFP

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China bird flu spreads to new province

CHINA says the H7N9 bird flu has spread to a new area as it confirmed the first case in the eastern province of Shandong in an outbreak which has so far killed 22 people.

Since China announced on March 31 that the virus had been discovered in humans for the first time, most cases have been confined to the commercial hub Shanghai and three nearby provinces, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui.

Beijing and the central province of Henan have also reported cases.

The health ministry said a 36-year-old man living in Shandong's Zaozhuang city was confirmed to have the virus, according to a statement on its website.

That case and three other new ones bring the total number of confirmed infections to 108, according to official figures.

Experts fear the prospect of such a virus mutating into a form easily transmissible between humans, which could then have the potential to trigger a pandemic.

But the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday there was still no evidence H7N9 was spreading in a "sustained" way between people in China, though it was possible some family members may have infected one another.

"Right now we do not see evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission", said Keiji Fukuda, a top WHO influenza expert in a team visiting China to study H7N9.

Health experts differentiate between "sustained" human-to-human transmission and limited transmission, in which family members or medical personnel caring for the ill become infected.

Chinese health officials have acknowledged so-called "family clusters", where members of a single family have become infected, but have so far declined to put it down to human-to-human transmission.

The nine close contacts of the Shandong man were under medical observation, but so far were normal, the health ministry said.

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EU plan to buy rebel oil aggressive: Syria

A EUROPEAN Union plan to buy oil from rebel-held areas of Syria is illegal and an "act of aggression," the Syrian foreign ministry has warned in letters to the United Nations.

"In an unprecedented decision that contradicts international law and the UN Charter ... the European Union has decided to allow member states to import petrol ... under the pretext of supporting the opposition," state news agency SANA reported, citing the letters.

"It is an illegal decision and an act of aggression."

Syrian rebels fighting President President Bashar al-Assad's troops won a fresh boost on Monday when the European Union eased its oil embargo to let them exploit the resources they control.

But the EU decision raised a furious response in Damascus.

The EU will be trading "with the so-called opposition coalition, which represents no one in Syria," the letters to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council said.

The decision is an act of "complicity in the theft of resources that belong to the Syrian people, represented by the current, legitimate government," they added.

"The European Union is following its political and economic campaign that targets the national economy and the daily bread of Syrian citizens," the ministry said, referring to EU sanctions on the Assad regime.

EU ministers' decision to ease the 2011 oil embargo will enable companies on a case-by-case basis not only to import Syrian crude but also to export oil production technology and investment cash to areas in the hands of the opposition.

Under the deal, European firms seeking to import Syrian crude or invest in the energy sector would ask for authorisation from their government, which in turn would confer with Syria's opposition National Coalition to secure its agreement.

At the start of the revolt that broke out in March 2011, Syria's oil production was slashed by almost two thirds, falling to 130,000 barrels a day in March, just 0.1 per cent of the world's total production, according to the International Energy Agency's latest estimates.

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Two Iraq ministers quit after deadly clash

TWO Sunni members of the Iraqi cabinet have resigned after security forces moved in against Sunni protesters in the north of the country, sparking clashes that left dozens dead, officials say.

"The minister of education, Mohammed Ali Tamim, resigned from his post after the Iraqi army forces broke into the area of the sit-in in Kirkuk" province, an official from Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak's office said.

"The resignation is final, and there will be no going back."

Parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi later said at a news conference that science and technology minister Abdulkarim al-Samarraie told him by phone that he too was quitting.

Clashes between security forces and protesters in the morning at a demonstration near Hawijah in north Iraq left 27 people dead, while 13 gunmen died carrying out subsequent revenge attacks on army positions.

Later in the day, protesters west of Baghdad killed six soldiers and kidnapped a seventh, security officers said.

The resignations bring the number of ministers to leave Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet since March to four.

Agriculture minister Ezzedine al-Dawleh quit on March 8 after a protester was killed in north Iraq, and finance minister Rafa al-Essawi, some of whose bodyguards were arrested on terrorism charges in December, announced his resignation at an anti-government demonstration on March 1.

Protesters have taken to the streets in Sunni-majority areas of Iraq for more than four months, calling for the resignation of Maliki and decrying the alleged targeting of their minority community by the Shi'ite-led authorities.

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UN atomic agency, Iran to meet May 15

THE UN atomic agency says it will hold a new round of talks with Iran on May 15 in Vienna on suspected nuclear bomb-making efforts by Tehran.

"The Agency and Iran have agreed to hold further talks in Vienna on 15 May," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokeswoman Gill Tudor said.

The meeting is "aimed at finalising a structured approach to resolving outstanding issues related to the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program," she said.

Iran has consistently rejected as unfounded what the IAEA calls "overall, credible" evidence that until 2003 and possibly since, it conducted nuclear weapons research.

Iran denies wanting or ever having sought the bomb, and accuses the IAEA of basing its conclusions on faulty intelligence from foreign spy agencies -- intelligence it complains it has not been allowed to see.

Nine rounds of talks since the publication of a major IAEA report in November 2011 on these alleged activities, have produced no breakthrough. The last was held in February.

Parallel diplomatic efforts between Iran and six major powers -- the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, known collectively as the P5+1 -- are focused more on Iran's current activities.

The latest round with the P5+1 in Kazakhstan in early April ended with chief negotiator and EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton saying the two sides remained "far apart".

The meeting between Iran and the IAEA comes ahead of the release in late May of the agency's latest quarterly report, which is expected to show that Tehran has continued to expand its nuclear program.

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Inflation expected to stay benign

INFLATION figures to be released on Wednesday are expected to be low enough to allow for more interest rate cuts.

The consumer price index, the key measure of inflation, is expected to rise by 0.6 per cent in the first three months of 2013 for an annual rate of 2.7 per cent, an AAP survey of 13 economists shows.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said continued benign inflation will leave the door open for further rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

"In fact, an outcome of 0.4 per cent or below for underlying inflation could bring forward a rate cut to the May meeting (of the RBA board), given the soft run of global and Australian data we have seen lately," Dr Oliver said.

The median forecast for underlying inflation, which excludes volatile price movements, is 0.5 per cent in the March quarter and 2.5 per cent over the year to March.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has kept the cash rate at three per cent since the start of 2013, after reducing it four times in 2012.

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BBC urged to remove Gill sculpture

THE BBC has been urged to remove a figure of a naked boy, sculpted by a British man who sexually abused two of his daughters, from the front of its headquarters Broadcasting House.

The carvings of a man and a naked child were the creation of Eric Gill, one of the most respected artists of the 20th century when he died in 1940.

But his diaries, published in 1989, revealed he had sex with two of his daughters and the family dog.

His 1932 statue Prospero And Ariel, from Shakespeare's play The Tempest, stands on the BBC's Broadcasting House in London as a metaphor for broadcasting.

Gill converted to Catholicism in 1913 and the Catholic Church has previously faced calls to dismantle the sculptor and engraver's world-renowned Stations Of The Cross from Westminster Cathedral.

Now Fay Maxted, chief executive of The Survivors' Trust, a body which represents organisations supporting survivors of rape, sexual violence and childhood sexual abuse, told the London Journalism Centre: "It's an insult to allow a work like this to remain in such a public place. It is almost mocking survivors, it is intolerable."

Peter Saunders, chief executive of the National Association For People Abused In Childhood, added: "There's a strong argument that this (the statue) should be removed. These symbols are in people's faces."

The statue was especially inappropriate in light of the recent Jimmy Savile scandal, he added.

"People who aren't affected by these issues can get uppity and say 'you can't do that'. But if you've been abused as a child then this is very insensitive and inappropriate."

A BBC spokesperson said: "The statue of Ariel and Prospero on the front of Broadcasting House stands as a metaphor for broadcasting, executed by one of the last century's major British artists whose work has been widely displayed in leading UK museums and galleries.

"There are no plans to remove or replace the sculptures at the front of Broadcasting House."

P

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Spanish minister sees deeper contraction

SPAIN'S economy will shrink by between 1.0 per cent and 1.5 per cent this year, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos has revealed in an interview in the Wall Street Journal.

The prediction revises the government's official forecast of a 0.5 per cent recession in 2013 and comes the same day as Brussels confirmed Spain posted the biggest deficit in the eurozone last year.

De Guindos told the newspaper he saw "slight" growth in Spain's economy for 2014.

Spain, the eurozone's fourth-largest economy, shrank by 1.37 per cent in 2012 as it continued to feel the effects of the collapse of a decade-long property boom in 2008.

The Bank of Spain, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund predict the Spanish economy will shrink by between 1.4 and 1.6 per cent in 2013.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government will unveil a new package of reforms aimed at reviving the economy, as well as new deficit forecasts for the next few years, on Friday.

Spain posted a budget deficit equal to 10.6 per cent of GDP in 2012, the highest in the eurozone, including the cost to the state of recapitalising the country's banks.

It's seeking leeway from the EU to ease its deficit target for 2013 to 6.0 per cent, and to push back as far as 2016 the obligation to get back within the terms of the EU's Maastricht Treaty, under which member states are supposed to have public deficits of no more than three per cent of GDP, and debt of no more than 60 per cent.

This would allow Spain to soften austerity measures implemented by Rajoy's government that are blamed for triggering the recession.

De Guindos said the new reforms to be unveiled on Friday will not include any "significant" austerity measures.

"What we will do now is to establish a better balance between deficit reduction and economic growth. Investors' main concern right now is economic growth," he told the newspaper.

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French Polynesia votes for veteran

GASTON Flosse, the 81-year-old veteran of French Polynesian politics, topped the polls in the first round of a vote that will determine who next governs the Pacific paradise.

The French territory, which enjoys a high degree of autonomy, has seen 13 different governments rule in quick succession since 2004 when pro-independence candidate Oscar Temaru first came to power.

Flosse's party Tahoeraa Huiraatira won 40.2 per cent of the votes in an election that took place on Sunday and aims to select 57 representatives in the Assembly of French Polynesia, who will in turn pick the president.

UPLD, the party of incumbent Temaru, won 24 per cent of the votes, and Teva Rohfritsch, another candidate, got just under 20 per cent. All three will go forward to the second round planned for May 5.

Temaru has been president five times since 2004, and Flosse twice.

The victory of Flosse, an old friend of former French president Jacques Chirac, is a significant defeat for Temaru, who is seen as paying for the territory's dramatic economic crisis.

Unemployment in the territory, which has a population of 270,000, is estimated to be around 20 to 30 per cent, and a fifth of the population lives under the poverty line.

Many voters are also angry with Temaru for trying to register Polynesia on the United Nations' list of Non-Self-Governing Territories - a list of countries that the international body considers as colonised.

Flosse - who ruled French Polynesia for 13 years until 2004 - is not without his own set of problems, having been charged recently in corruption cases.

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More funding for Somme remembrance trail

AUSTRALIA will help fund new memorial facilities and walking trails in Somme to highlight one of the nation's greatest military achievements in World War I.

Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon announced in Paris on Monday an initial 200,000 euros ($A254,000) in funding for the latest stage of the Australian Remembrance Trail project on the Western Front.

An equal funding partnership with French authorities will provide two walking trails and a new "interpretive room" at the Museum of the Great War in Peronne, France to complement an existing memorial at Mont St Quentin.

Mr Snowdon said the room would help tell the story of the 2nd Australian Division's capture of Mont St Quentin on September 1, 1918, considered Australia's most important victory of the war.

The Australian Remembrance Trail will link sites of the most significant Australian battles of the war including Ypres and Zonnebeke in Belgium, and Fromelles, Bullecourt, Pozieres, Le Hamel and Villers-Bretonneux in France.

"This is about us building this historical trail so that Australians can come and visit here, go to the battle sites and understand what happened," Mr Snowdon told AAP.

"They can also get an appreciation of the communities which now host these memorial sites and understand how we've developed very deep and long-lasting relationships with those communities as a result of the service of Australian personnel and their sacrifice."

AAP lf/ap

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US airport delays as budget cuts hit

SOME US airports are experiencing significant flight delays in the wake of US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) furloughs due to budget cuts that are forcing staffing cutbacks.

In addition to some wind-related delays, New York's La Guardia airport was experiencing "general departure delays" of 60-75 minutes, while Newark, New Jersey's airport was experiencing delays of 46-60 minutes, according to the FAA's website on Monday.

The delays began over the weekend after the FAA began instituting furloughs for workers, including air traffic control staff, on Sunday related to the budget cuts.

Hold-ups averaged more than three hours on Sunday night at Los Angeles International Airport.

"The FAA will be working with the airlines and using a comprehensive set of air traffic management tools to minimise the delay impacts of lower staffing as we move into the busy summer travel season," the agency said in a statement.

An American Airlines spokeswoman said Newark was one of five airports "most likely" to be affected by the sequestration cuts, while La Guardia was one of four airports that "could potentially be affected" by the cuts.

On Friday three airline groups said they would petition the federal appeals court in Washington to block sequester cuts by the FAA and the Department of Transportation "to protect the rights of the travelling public."

"The Regional Airline Association, Airlines for America and the Air Line Pilots Association warned of "significant chaos" that could take place due to the furloughs of airport and other personnel.

"Our entire aviation system will struggle to maintain normality due to furloughs of these essential workers. The economic viability of our country depends on this mode of transportation; everyone will be affected," said ALPA president Lee Moak.

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ANZ ranks lowest for business customers

THE Commonwealth and Westpac rank highest for customer satisfaction among the big four banks, while ANZ and National Australia Banks are still languishing.

A monthly survey of satisfaction among the big four's business customers shows the Commonwealth and Westpac tied for first place with an average satisfaction rating of 7.4 out of 10.

By contrast NAB had an average satisfaction rating of 7.0, but ANZ ranked lowest with an average score of 6.9.

The monthly DBM Consultants' Business Financial Services Monitor (BFSM) shows the Commonwealth had the highest satisfaction rating for small, medium and large businesses and was tied with Westpac among micro businesses.

DBM Managing Director Dhruba Gupta said ANZ was still making up ground with business customers after a difficult 2012.

Satisfaction with ANZ dropped sharply after the bank shifted the timing if its monthly interest rate decision away from the Reserve Bank of Australia's board meeting.

Mr Gupta said the bank's recent pledge to lend $1 billion to start-up businesses over the next year may help to improve its standing.

"It will be interesting to see if ANZ's pledge will impact positively on its business customers' satisfaction levels," he said.

The BFSM is based on interviews with 20,000 businesses a year.

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Vic family violence 'worse than feared'

THE scale of domestic violence in Victoria is worse than imagined, police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay says.

Some 51,000 family violence incidents were recorded in 2011-12, but Mr Lay says he expects the figure to rise above 60,00 this financial year.

He told Fairfax newspapers that while the rise was mostly due to more reporting, it was an alarming situation.

"There's still a hell of a lot of work to be done, and still a lot of very vulnerable people being injured every night," Mr Lay said.

"We never had a true sense of how big this problem was ... it's quite frightening."

Mr Lay said he was undaunted by the high numbers.

"No matter how much pressure we put on the courts or broader system, we're keeping on going with this," he said.

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NSW prison staff win on back pay

HUNDREDS of NSW prison workers will share in thousands of dollars in back pay after the Industrial Relations Commissions found they were owed money.

In a statement, the Health Services Union (HSU) said around 250 of its members would share in about $650,000 in underpaid allowances, dating back to 2002.

The HSU said the payments were for a range of prison workers including social workers, cooks and cleaners.

HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said the IRC found the workers weren't being properly compensated.

"We began this court action after learning that on average, these employees were being underpaid by more than $20 a week," Mr Hayes said.

"Over time this has added up to thousands of dollars for some Justice Health staff.

"This is a big win for Justice Health staff."

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Abbott's hit on retail workers' super

KITCHEN hands, hospitality workers, retail staff and cleaners are among those that will be hardest hit by the coalition's plan to scrap the low-income superannuation tax offset, Superannuation Minister Bill Shorten says.

Mr Shorten said the super savings of 3.6 million Australians earning less than $37,000 will be $500 worse off under an Abbott-led government.

He said women made up 60 per cent, or 2.2 million of those affected.

"Mums working part-time while they care for young kids being hit with a $500 tax bill for contributing to her superannuation (is) not fair or smart," Mr Shorten said, adding that women were already retiring with less money because of pay disparity and time out of the workforce to raise children.

Mr Shorten has released new figures with a breakdown of 20 occupations that will be hardest hit by the opposition's plan.

These included retail staff, kitchen hands, hospitality workers, cleaners, receptionists, labourers, childcare workers.

"I'd rather see a $500 boost to the super account of a kitchen hand or a checkout operator or a farm hand than into Tony Abbott's pocket," he said.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has committed the coalition to scrapping the low-income superannuation tax offset funded by the government's mining tax, which it wants to repeal.

The coalition is opposed to the federal government's plan to impose a 15 per cent tax on superannuation earnings over $100,000, a measure likely to affect some 16,000 high income earners.

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Brazil police jailed for prison 'massacre'

TWENTY-THREE Brazilian military police officers have been sentenced to 156 years in jail each for their role in the killing of 111 inmates during Brazil's deadliest prison uprising in 1992.

The 23 were among 26 officers on trial before the Sao Paulo state tribunal. The three others were cleared.

The officers, most of them now retired, were accused of killing 15 prisoners in Sao Paulo's Carandiru prison during the operation to quell the revolt on October 2, 1992, which came to be known as the "Carandiru massacre".

The defence, which argued the police officers fired in self-defence after being threatened and assaulted by the prisoners, said it would appeal.

None of the officers involved in the operation were harmed. In addition to the 111 prisoners killed, some 87 others were wounded.

Survivors accused police of firing on inmates who had already surrendered or were hiding in their cells.

Authorities initially claimed the police were trying to break up a fight between prisoners who had seized control of one of the cell blocks.

But evidence uncovered later suggested military police had shot prisoners and then destroyed evidence that could have determined individual responsibility for the killings.

The commanding officer of the operation, Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraes, was initially sentenced to 632 years in jail for his mishandling of the revolt and the subsequent killings.

But in 2006, a court voided the conviction because of mistrial claims. Later that year, Guimaraes was found dead in his apartment under unclear circumstances.

The massacre in what was then Latin America's biggest prison sparked outrage among inmates, and prosecutors said it was a key factor in the emergence of a criminal gang known as First Command of the Capital (PCC) in 1993.

The PCC is believed to have ordered the death of the director of the prison at the time, Jose Ismael Pedrosa.

From the prison, PCC bosses organised a series of assaults on police stations and other buildings that left more than 170 people dead and paralysed Sao Paulo for four days in May 2006.

The unrest eventually spread to other cities, and scores of suspected criminals were gunned down in a subsequent wave of police reprisal attacks.

Late last year, the PCC was also blamed for a wave of police killings and bus burnings.

The Carandiru prison was demolished in 2002.

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