Obama meets family of ailing hero Mandela

US President Barack Obama has met the family of his "inspiration" Nelson Mandela, but was unable to visit the anti-apartheid legend who remains critically ill in hospital.

Despite tentative signs of an improvement in the condition of the father of multi-racial South Africa, Obama decided not to visit Mandela during his visit for fear of disturbing his "peace and comfort".

Instead, Obama met privately with some relatives of the revered leader including two daughters and several grandchildren and spoke by telephone with Mandela's wife Graca Machel.

"I expressed my hope that Madiba draws peace and comfort from the time that he is spending with loved ones, and also expressed my heartfelt support for the entire family as they work through this difficult time," Obama said, using Mandela's clan name.

Machel said she had "drawn strength from the support" offered by the Obama family.

"I am humbled by their comfort and messages of strength and inspiration which I have already conveyed to Madiba."

Speaking earlier in Pretoria, where 94-year-old Mandela lay fighting for his life in a nearby hospital, Obama praised the "moral courage" of South Africa's first black president.

"The struggle here against apartheid, for freedom, Madiba's moral courage, his country's historic transition to a free and democratic nation, has been a personal inspiration to me. It has been an inspiration to the world," Obama said after talks with President Jacob Zuma.

"The outpouring of love that we've seen in recent days shows that the triumph of Nelson Mandela and this nation speaks to something very deep in the human spirit - the yearning for justice and dignity that transcends boundaries of race and class and faith and country."

Obama said before arriving he did not need "a photo-op" with Mandela, whom he meet briefly in 2005, and the White House on Saturday ruled out a meeting between the two men.

"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," the official said.

Obama's three-nation tour is aimed at changing perceptions that he has neglected Africa since his election in 2008, while also countering China's growing economic influence in the resource-rich continent.

But it has been overshadowed by the illness of his fellow Nobel peace laureate, who has been in intensive care for more than three weeks.

Zuma said Mandela remained in "critical but stable" condition, expressing hope that he would improve.

Welcoming the US president to South Africa on the second leg of his tour, he said Mandela and Obama were "bound by history" as the first black leaders of their respective nations.

"You both carry the dreams of millions of people in Africa," Zuma said.

But the US leader was not greeted so warmly by all South Africans. Riot police fired stun grenades at anti-Obama protesters in the township of Soweto, once a flashpoint in the anti-apartheid struggle.

A visit by Obama on Sunday to Mandela's former jail cell on Robben Island, off Cape Town in particular is expected to be laden with symbolism.

Obama will then visit former Archbishop Desmond Tutu's youth foundation HIV centre before delivering the central speech of his African tour at the University of Cape Town.

Mandela has been hospitalised four times since December.

The man once branded a terrorist by the United States and Britain won South Africa's first fully democratic elections in 1994, forging a path of racial reconciliation during his single term as president, before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading AIDS campaigner.

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Qld man killed in gunpowder blast

A MAN has been killed and two other injured after an explosion on a far north Queensland rural property in far north Queensland.

Police say the explosion occurred about 9.40pm (AEST) on Saturday at Arriga, west of Mareeba.

It's believed the men were disposing of expired gunpowder, the ABC online reports.

A 58-year-old man died due to the blast, while a 58-year-old man and a 33-year-old man were injured and taken to hospital.

"Initial information suggests the cause of the explosion is not suspicious, but related to the burn off of a substance on the property," Queensland police said in a statement.

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Singapore goes pink to support gay rights

MORE than 20,000 people wearing pink clothing have gathered in Singapore for an annual rally in support of gay rights in the city-state, where an archaic law criminalises sex between men.

From pink tube tops to hats and even facial hair dyed in pink, straight and gay Singaporeans arrived on Saturday at Speakers' Corner, a government-designated free speech park, in the colour theme picked by organisers to represent the freedom to love.

Some brought their dogs and cats in pink pet clothing and leashes.

Organisers, who stressed the event was not a protest but a public show of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, estimated 21,000 people had attended.

The three-hour gathering featured musical performances by Singaporean artists, and culminated with the crowd forming a giant pink dot after dusk by holding LED lights.

Law student Akesh Abhilash, 25, said younger Singaporeans are more inclined to denounce calls from conservative segments of society to retain Section 377A, a provision in the penal code that makes it a crime for men to have sex with each other.

"The gay community does not infringe on any one's rights. It is ridiculous for others to claim to be able to dictate how they should lead their lives," he said.

While Section 377A is not enforced actively by authorities, LGBT rights campaigners still see it as a threat and demand its repeal.

Government officials maintain that the law must stay in the books because most Singaporeans are still conservative and do not accept homosexuality.

Singapore's High Court in April rejected a petition to repeal the law, whose origins go back to the 19th century when Singapore was a British colony, drawing condemnation from international rights activists.

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Paris celebrates Gay Pride and marriage

TENS of thousands of people have thronged the streets of Paris to mark the city's Gay Pride, exactly one month to the day since France celebrated its first gay marriage.

To the sounds of techno music, the rainbow-decorated parade wound its way through the city centre on Saturday to end at the Place de la Bastille.

For participants, this year's Gay Pride - the first since President Francois Hollande signed a landmark gay marriage and adoption bill into law last month - was something special.

"This year it's different. I definitely had to be here, I had to overcome the fear," said Martine, a 63-year-old Parisian, referring to the numerous, and sometimes violent, anti-gay marriage protests that took place in the months leading up the bill's signing into law - and that are still continuing.

At a press conference ahead of the parade, Nicolas Gougain, spokesman for the Inter-LGBT association, called the reform "a very important step that should lead to others" such as improved rights for transsexuals and medically assisted procreation to enable gay couples to have children.

"This is the opportunity for us to show everyone who wanted us to disappear these last few months that we do exist," he said.

France's first gay marriage, between two men, took place in the southern city of Montpellier on May 29. Dozens more have since been celebrated around the country.

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Legislative changes for WA renters, miners

RENTAL home tenants, landlords and property managers in Western Australia have new rights and obligations after an overhaul of the Residential Tenancies Act, which is about to come into effect.

The state government said the changes, which come into force on Monday and apply to both privately and real estate agent-managed properties, were aimed at making current "best practice" in the industry the law.

They include mandating property condition reports at the beginning and end of a tenancy, the use of a prescribed standard tenancy agreement that all parties can understand, and depositing all tenant bonds with the state government's Bond Administrator.

"This will lead to greater transparency for tenants as to the handling of their bond monies," the WA government said.

Other major changes relate to the provision of locks, pet bonds and capping of option fees.

Another legislative change that takes effect on July 1 is the Mining Rehabilitation Fund Act 2012, which establishes a pooled fund, levied according to the environmental disturbance on a tenement on a prescribed date each year.

Currently, tenement holders must provide bonds as security to ensure that they fulfil their environmental obligations, but this does not cover the true cost of rehabilitating abandoned mines.

The state government took the view that increasing bonds to fully cover these costs would place a significant financial burden on the mining industry, tying up cash that could be used for developing a project.

Tenements with a rehabilitation liability estimate below $50,000 will report disturbance data but will not be required to make a payment to the fund, which will initially be on a voluntary opt-in basis but will be compulsory from July 1 next year.

"This provides companies with an early opportunity to have their bonds retired where approved by the Department of Mines and Petroleum against specific criteria, and allows other companies more time to establish administrative systems," the state government said.

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Union urges retailers sign safety accord

THE textile union has called on two leading Australian retailers who sell Bangladeshi manufactured clothing to immediately sign an accord on building safety in that country.

Several Australian retailers including Coles, Rivers and Forever New were named in a report by the ABC's Four Coroners program, which highlighted poor pay and conditions faced by textile workers in Bangladesh.

The program heard allegations of terrible building conditions, workers being threatened with violence and exploitation.

Coles and Rivers are yet to sign an accord on building safety in Bangladesh.

Forever New signed the accord on Friday, the program said.

National secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia Michele O'Neil said reports of conditions in Bangladesh were "shameful and outrageous".

"Rivers and Coles must act immediately and sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh that was established after the Rana Plaza collapse in Dhaka," she said.

"The survivors and the families of those who died are waiting for companies who use Bangladesh to make their clothes to sign up."

Kmart and Target have already signed the accord.

In a statement Coles said it had just one supplier in Bangladesh for a small Mix clothing order which will be completed in the next few weeks.

"Like all of our international suppliers, the factory working on this order has been audited to international standards and complies with our ethical sourcing policy," Coles said in a statement.

It said sourcing from Bangladesh had always been small.

"Coles does not intend to manufacture any further Mix clothing in Bangladesh but if we do in the future we will only source from factories that are accredited under our global ethical sourcing guidelines, and we will sign the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Agreement," the company said.

In a statement to the ABC, Forever New said it was committed to ethical conduct and said its Bangladeshi suppliers were not connected to the recent disaster.

Contact numbers on Rivers website were only staffed during business.

The company refused to comment to the ABC saying only: "management will be in contact if they are interested".

Greens consumer affairs spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said a mandatory national scheme was needed to make Australian companies work towards improving conditions in foreign sweatshops.

"The real cost of Australia's cheap clothes isn't measured in dollars and cents, it's measured in human suffering," she said.

"The companies have shown they can't be trusted to tackle this issue themselves and the government now needs to implement a national system whereby retailers are made to work towards better conditions for their employees."

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European stocks close down

EUROPEAN stock markets have closed lower, with London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares losing 1.42 per cent to 6,029.10 points.

In Frankfurt the DAX 30 index fell 1.24 per cent to 7,692.45 points on Monday, while in Paris the CAC 40 dropped 1.71 per cent to 3,595.63 points.

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Ex-Italy PM Berlusconi faces 7 years jail

FORMER Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has been found guilty of soliciting sex from a minor and abusing his powers to cover up his actions by a Milan court, which sentenced him to seven years in prison and a lifetime ban on holding public office.

The verdict came after seven hours of deliberation.

The sentence will be suspended until the appeals process has been exhausted, which in Italy's justice system could take years.

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Labor could lose 35 of 71 seats: poll

FEDERAL Labor could lose 35 of its 71 seats at the upcoming federal election, including nine held by ministers, a new poll says.

The JWS Research poll, published in the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday, surveyed 47 Labor seats held by a margin of 12 per cent or less.

It shows there has been a nationwide 7.6 per cent two-party-preferred swing against the government in these seats since the last election.

The poll suggests Labor would improve under a Kevin Rudd leadership but a majority does not believe there should be a leadership change.

About 26 per cent of voters in these seats who are intending to vote for the coalition are more likely to vote Labor if Mr Rudd took over.

However, 54 per cent of those surveyed believe Labor should not change leaders while just 33 per cent believe there should be a change.

In NSW, Labor could lose Lindsay, Eden-Monaro and Kingsford Smith, held respectively by ministers David Bradbury, Mike Kelly and Peter Garrett.

In Queensland, only Mr Rudd would be left standing and among those to fall would be Treasurer Wayne Swan and Trade Minister Craig Emerson.

In WA, the swing against Labor is 9.2 per cent, enough for it to lose all three seats including those held by Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Resources Minister Gary Gray.

In South Australia, a 14.4 per cent swing would see Labor lose four of the six seats it holds there, including Adelaide, held by Childcare Minister Kate Ellis.

The Northern Territory seat of Lingiari, held by Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon, would be lost.

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Qatar emir to hand power to son: report

QATAR'S emir will address the country to announce a transfer of powers to his son Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim, a Qatari official says.

"The royal palace announces that Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, will address the Qatari people at 8am (1500 AEST) on Tuesday," said a statement carried by the official QNA news agency.

A Qatari official said that the emir will "announce the transfer of his powers to his son".

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Saudi govt adopts Friday-Saturday weekend

OIL powerhouse Saudi Arabia is switching its weekend to Friday-Saturday to better serve its economy and "international commitments," the official SPA news agency reports, quoting a royal decree.

Saudi Arabia becomes the last of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council - which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - to abandon the Thursday-Friday weekend to be closer to the world's Saturday-Sunday weekend.

The decision takes effect in ministries and government departments from next week, while it will be implemented by schools and universities from the start of the next academic year.

According to the decree the change was made to better serve "the Saudi economy and its international commitments" and co-ordinate with the working days in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world.

It will "reduce the negative repercussions on economic and financial activity in the kingdom and make up for lost economic opportunities," said the decree.

Riyadh's stock exchange, the biggest in the Arab world, is open for five days a week, but until now only three of these coincided with the working week in the world's major financial centres.

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and a member of the G20 group of the globe's biggest economies.

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Israeli chief rabbi faces fraud probe

ONE of Israel's two chief rabbis has suspended himself over a police probe into an alleged money laundering scheme.

Yona Metzger's lawyers said on Sunday he decided to refrain from carrying out any official roles during the police inquiry.

Metzger was questioned last week over fraud and bribery allegations.

Police raided his home and office following a months-long undercover investigation into his financial dealings.

He denies the allegations.

Metzger is only weeks away from ending his 10-year term as the country's chief rabbi for Israel's Ashkenazi, or European-descended, Jews.

Along with a second chief rabbi from the Sephardic, or Middle Eastern lineage, Metzger has led the country's supreme body for overseeing Jewish services.

In 2005, Metzger was also questioned over fraud allegations but no charges were filed.

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Suicide bombings kill 5 in Syria capital

AT least five people have been killed in two suicide bombing attacks on security compounds in the Syrian capital Damascus, activists and state media say.

The state-run news agency SANA said three suicide bombers blew themselves up while trying to break into the Rukneddine police station, killing five people.

SANA said three would-be suicide bombers also tried to break into the Criminal Security Branch in the Bab Mousalla area but were caught by security forces before they could detonate their explosives.

Activists also say least 5 people were killed in the first attack.

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Snowden has forced tighter security: NSA

COMPUTER technician Edward Snowden's blowing the lid on US surveillance of phone calls and web traffic has forced a tightening of security on system operators like him, the NSA says.

National Security Agency director Keith Alexander said it is overhauling its operations to keep a closer watch on contractors like the fugitive Snowden, who had top security clearance and "stole some of our secrets".

Alexander, interviewed on ABC television, was not asked about Snowden's departure from his first haven Hong Kong for Moscow en route reportedly to a third country.

Alexander described Snowden as an NSA computer system administrator with top secret security clearance who betrayed his country by taking a trove of information from the NSA and fleeing from his base in Hawaii to Hong Kong.

No red flags went up to detect that theft, Alexander said, and the NSA is working to overhaul things to prevent a repeat.

"Clearly, the system did not work as it should have," Alexander said.

"We are now putting in place actions that would give us the ability to track our system administrators, what they doing, what they are taking," the army general said, adding that the NSA is implementing what he called a "two man rule". He did not elaborate.

Also, "we've changed the passwords. But at the end of the day we have to trust that our people are going to do the right thing."

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Three Lebanese troops killed in clash

TWO Lebanese army officers and a soldier have been killed in a clash with supporters of a radical Sunni Muslim sheik opposed to Hezbollah, an army statement says.

"An armed group loyal to Sheik Ahmad al-Assir attacked, for no reason, a Lebanese army checkpoint in the village of Abra" on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, it said.

"Two officers and a soldier were killed, while several others were wounded. Several military vehicles were damaged," the statement added.

The fighting erupted when Assir supporters surrounded an army checkpoint in Abra, where a vehicle transporting other supporters of the Sunni cleric had been stopped, a security source said.

"After the armed men attacked (the army) with gunfire" the army fired back, the source added.

The army vowed it "will not tolerate" the latest developments, and that it "will continue to fulfil its mandate to suppress strife".

The military will "strike back with an iron fist anyone who... spills the blood of the army", the statement added.

The clash was the latest in Lebanon in a series of Syria-related confrontations.

Though Lebanon has officially adopted a position of neutrality on the conflict in its larger neighbour, it is deeply divided into pro- and anti-Damascus camps.

Abra is home to a mosque where Assir leads the main weekly prayers on Fridays.

The sheik believes Hezbollah uses apartments in Abra to keep him under surveillance.

He also says the Lebanese army has provided cover to Hezbollah, whose members are fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops against rebels.

Assir was unknown until around two years ago, when he gained prominence for his opposition to Hezbollah and its ally Assad.

During Sunday's fighting, Assir distributed a video message via mobile phone addressed to his supporters.

"We are being attacked by the Lebanese army," he said, describing the military as "sectarian" and accusing it of supporting Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

"I call on everyone... to cut off roads and to all honourable soldiers, Sunni and non-Sunni, to quit the army immediately," Assir said in the message.

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