Saudi man dies of MERS virus: ministry

A SAUDI man has died of the coronavirus MERS and another has contracted the virus, the health ministry says, bringing the kingdom's deaths from the virus to 39.

The man, who had previously been diagnosed with the SARS-like virus, died in the southwestern province of Asir, the ministry said on its website on Saturday.

The other man who contracted the virus, 83, is in the same province, it said.

Saudi Arabia is the country worst hit by MERS, which has killed 46 people worldwide.

Out of 89 people who have contracted the virus globally, 68 were registered in Saudi.

Experts are struggling to understand MERS - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome - for which there is no vaccine and which has an extremely high fatality rate of more than 51 per cent.

It is considered a cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8273 people, nine per cent of whom died.

Like SARS, MERS is thought to have jumped from animals to humans, and it shares the former's flu-like symptoms - but differs by also causing kidney failure.

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3 Swiss found dead with wreckage of plane

A WILDLIFE official says three Swiss nationals have been found dead along with the wreckage of their plane that went missing in Kenya.

Paul Mbugua, the spokesman of the Kenya Wildlife Service, said on Saturday a KWS helicopter pilot involved in the search and rescue operation for the plane spotted the wreckage at 11,000 feet on one of the peaks of the Aberdares mountain range in central Kenya.

Mbugua says the helicopter pilot landed at the scene and confirmed the three occupants of the plane had died. Mbugua says the bodies will be retrieved on Sunday.

A county police commander, Naomi Ichama, said on Friday the Cessna 206 was headed to Wilson Airport in Nairobi from Nanyuki in central Kenya when it went missing around 5pm on Thursday.

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Bomber kills one in Somali hospital

A SOMALI police officer says a suicide car bomber has detonated explosives outside a Turkish hospital in Mogadishu killing at least one person and himself and wounding three others.

Mohammed Abdi said on Saturday the bomber drove a mini-van laden with explosives which he detonated at the Al-Shifa hospital.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack but suspicions are likely to fall on al-Shabab insurgents who have been carrying out guerilla attacks since African Union troops expelled them from the capital in August 2011

Al-Shabab, which has links with al-Qaida, has long been threatening Turkish workers and aid agencies in Somalia accusing them of spreading secularism in Somalia.

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Pope calls for dialogue to resolve Brazil

POPE Francis has told Brazil's political elite that "constructive dialogue" is needed to confront the country's social turmoil.

In a speech to political, religious and civil society leaders on Saturday, Francis said "constructive dialogue ... (was) essential for facing the present moment," referring to the massive street protests that rocked Brazil last month.

"Between selfish indifference and violent protest there is always another possible option: that of dialogue," he said.

"A country grows when constructive dialogue occurs between its many rich cultural components," said the pontiff who is on a week-long visit to Latin America's most populous country.

Last month, young Brazilians spearheaded nationwide street demonstrations to demand an end to corruption and better public services.

"Dialogue, dialogue. It is the only way for individuals, families and societies to grow, the only way for the life of peoples to progress," said Francis who is here to attend a major Catholic youth fest.

After the speech, he hugged various indigenous people wearing colourful feather headgear.

Earlier, the pope challenged priests to bring the message of the Gospel to the world's slums as he pressed his drive in Brazil to revive a struggling Catholic faith.

"It is in the favelas ... that we must go to seek and serve Christ," he told thousands of bishops, priests and seminarians from around the world gathered for a mass at Rio's St. Sebastian Cathedral.

"We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel," Francis said.

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Military judge deliberates in Manning case

A US military judge has begun deciding the fate of Army soldier Bradley Manning, who could face life in prison for giving thousands of pieces of classified military and diplomatic information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in one of the largest leaks in American history.

The prosecution says the 25-year-old is a glory-seeking traitor.

His defence lawyers call him a naive whistleblower who was horrified by wartime atrocities but didn't know that the material he leaked would end up in the hands of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Army Colonel Denise Lind began deliberating on Friday after hearing nearly two months of conflicting evidence and arguments about the 25-year-old intelligence analyst. A military judge, not a jury, is hearing the case at Manning's request.

Lind said she will give a day's public notice before reconvening the court-martial to announce her findings.

The most serious of the 21 charges against Manning is aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence in prison.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a telephone media conference on Friday that if Manning is convicted of aiding the enemy, it will be "the end of national security journalism in the United States".

Prosecutors contend Manning knew the material would be seen across the globe, including by bin Laden, when he started the leaks in late 2009. Manning said he didn't' start leaking until February 2010.

Defence lawyer David Coombs said Manning was negligent in releasing classified material, but lacked the "evil intent" that prosecutors must prove to convict him of aiding the enemy.

Manning also faces federal espionage, theft and computer fraud charges.

He has acknowledged giving WikiLeaks some 700,000 battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and videos, but he says he didn't believe the information would harm troops in Afghanistan and Iraq or threaten national security.

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I would not worship a homophobic God: Tutu

SOUTH African peace icon Desmond Tutu says he would rather go to hell than worship a homophobic God, likening the fight against gay prejudice to the anti-apartheid struggle.

"I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place," the retired archbishop said at the launch of a United Nations gay equality campaign in Cape Town on Friday.

"I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this," he said, condemning the use of religious justification for anti-gay prejudice.

Launched by the UN Human Rights Office, the public education campaign "Free and Equal" aims to raise awareness of anti-gay violence and discrimination.

Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, compared the project to the fight South Africans waged to end the former white racist minority rule, a struggle in which he played a pivotal role.

"I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level," the 81-year-old said.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said same-sex relationships are illegal in more than a third of countries around the world and punishable by death in five.

Even in countries where gay rights are upheld challenges remain, she said, noting that South Africa has "some of the worst cases of homophobic violence" despite having some of the world's best legal protections.

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Putin 'catches 21 kilo pike' on day off

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin has landed a pike weighing 21 kilos on a recent weekend trip to Siberia, the Kremlin says, in the latest leisure stunt by the Russian strongman.

The Kremlin said that Putin was joined on the trip by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in a clear bid to prove Russia's top two remain unified despite reports of growing strains.

State television showed Putin laughing in astonishment as he pulled the massive pike out of the water, with the fish then having the dubious honour of being kissed on its gills by the Kremlin chief.

"It was very interesting relaxation. Putin and Medvedev socialised very warmly, talked and went swimming," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state ITAR-TASS news agency on Friday.

Several pictures published by the Kremlin also showed Putin fishing in his now traditional summer pose of naked torso and dark sunglasses.

The television pictures did not show Medvedev doing any fishing but instead standing on the bow of a motorboat taking pictures with a telephoto lens.

Peskov said the "very beautiful" pictures taken by Medvedev had now been put on the Kremlin website.

Media coverage of Putin's leisure activities is carefully managed by the Kremlin to cultivate his image as a tough nature-loving action man, which his minders believe still appeals to many Russians.

Earlier this month, Putin dived in a small submersible to inspect a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

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Suicide bomber kills anti-Taliban leader

A SUICIDE bomber on a motorcycle has struck a busy marketplace in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least seven people including an anti-Taliban militia leader, officials say.

The attack, which took place in the Qarabagh district of the insurgency-wracked Ghazni province, also injured seven civilians, deputy provincial police chief Asadullah Insafi told AFP on Friday.

"We think that the target of the attack was commander Dawlat Khan, who was martyred along with three of his bodyguards, and three civilians in this attack," Insafi said.

Khan led a group of militiamen who were taking on the Taliban in several villages and planned to join the ranks of the Afghan Local Police (ALP), Insafi added.

The ALP is a village-level force formed in 2010 to provide security in areas where the better-trained national police and army are scarce.

Deputy provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi confirmed the account saying that seven civilians were also "seriously" wounded in the blast which he described as "huge".

Taliban insurgents have carried out a campaign of assassinations of pro-government figures and warned Afghans to distance themselves from the government.

On Thursday the Taliban - reportedly helped by infiltrators - captured at least 12 Afghan policemen from their check-post in the southern province of Zabul and took them to unknown location.

Government forces have formally taken responsibility for security from US-led NATO troops who are due to leave the country next year. But there are concerns about their ability to stand against the Taliban unaided.

Afghanistan's 350,000-strong security forces are suffering a steep rise in attacks as the NATO combat mission winds down.

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Cleveland kidnapper to avoid death penalty

A MAN accused of holding three women captive in his home for about a decade has pleaded guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

Ariel Castro entered the plea on Friday. In exchange, prosecutors are recommending the 53-year-old Castro be sentenced to life without parole plus 1000 years.

Castro says a pornography addiction and "sexual problem" have taken a toll on his mind. He also says he was sexually abused as a child.

He had been charged in a 977-count indictment. He is pleading guilty to 937 counts.

He had been scheduled for trial on August 5 on allegations that include repeatedly restraining the women and punching and starving one woman until she had a miscarriage.

The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004. They escaped from Castro's house on May 6.

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Obese US inmate spared from execution dies

AN inmate whose 204-kilogram weight became an issue in his death penalty case has died seven months after being granted clemency.

Ronald Post died on Thursday morning at a prison hospital where he'd been treated on and off since 2011, a state prisons spokeswoman said on Friday. He was a week shy of his 54th birthday.

Post was sentenced to death for killing Elyria motel clerk Helen Vantz on December 15, 1983.

His lawyers sought mercy for Post ahead of his January 16 execution date on the grounds that he was so obese that he could not be executed humanely.

Republican Governor John Kasich granted Post clemency in December citing poor legal representation, not his weight.

Spokeswoman Ricky Seyfang said the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction classified the death as "expected." She said privacy laws prevented her from divulging whether Post's weight was a factor in his death.

Post had argued in federal court that executing him would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. His lawyers said he would suffer "a torturous and lingering death" as executioners tried to find a vein or use a backup method where lethal drugs are injected directly into muscle.

Kasich commuted Post's sentence to life with no chance of parole.

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Facebook surges on mobile ad results

SHARES of social networking giant Facebook have vaulted more than 25 per cent in early trading following a surprisingly good earnings report.

Facebook shares were up 26.0 per cent to $33.39 at 1354 GMT on Thursday (2354 AEST), the highest level since May 2012.

The surge came after the company's earnings report showed large increases in ad revenue from mobile technology.

Facebook shares have not appreciably moved higher since the company's high-profile public offering in May 2012.

But the company has made a priority of following its more than one billion members onto smartphones or tablets as lifestyles increasingly revolve around accessing the internet from mobile devices.

Facebook reported net income in the second quarter of $US331 million ($A362 million) compared with a loss of $US157 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue for the quarter that ended June 30 climbed to $US1.81 billion, up 53 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

Facebook said 41 per cent of its ad revenues came from mobile, compared with 30 per cent in the prior quarter and virtually nothing a year ago.

"We've made good progress growing our community, deepening engagement and delivering strong financial results, especially on mobile," said Facebook chief executive and Mark Zuckerberg .

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Top Tunisian opposition figure shot dead

A LEADING opposition figure and critic of Tunisia's ruling Islamists, Mohamed Brahmi, has been shot dead outside his home near the capital, in the second such assassination this year.

The murder by unknown gunmen sparked angry street protests in central Tunis and Brahmi's birthplace of Sidi Bouzid where he served as MP.

"Mohamed Brahmi, general co-ordinator of the Popular Movement and member of the National Constituent Assembly, was shot dead outside his home in Ariana," Watanya state television and the official TAP news agency reported.

"He was riddled with bullets in front of his wife and children," Mohsen Nabti, a fellow member of the small leftist movement, said in a tearful account aired on Tunisian radio.

The interior ministry, cited by TAP, said that Brahmi, a 58-year-old MP and vocal critic of Tunisia's ruling Islamists, was assassinated as he left home.

Watanya said Brahmi was struck by a hail of 11 bullets fired from point-blank range.

The February 6 assassination of Chokri Belaid, another opposition figure, in front of his home sparked a political crisis in Tunisia and charges of government involvement.

Condemning the latest killing, lawyer Mabrouk Korchid said that Brahmi was "assassinated in cold blood on the day that Tunisia is marking" the 56th anniversary of the republic's declaration.

Brahmi, a man with a bushy moustache and weather-beaten complexion, was elected MP for Sidi Bouzid, birthplace of the 2011 revolution which toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

On July 7, he resigned from his post as general secretary of the Popular Movement, which he founded, protesting that it had been infiltrated by Islamists.

French President Francois Hollande, whose country was the pre-independence colonial power in Tunisia, strongly condemned Brahmi's killing and called on the country to unite behind its post-revolutionary democratic transition.

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Video captures moment of Spain train crash

A VIDEO has been released showing the exact moment a train derailed in northeastern Spain, killing 80 people.

The video, which lasts just 10 seconds, shows the train negotiating a curve in the track before a number of carriages in the middle of the train come off the rails and drag the rest of the carriages off with them.

The images were first released on Spanish website Zoom News, but the video has since appeared on YouTube and a number of websites and TV stations.

According to Zoom News the video comes from a security camera of railway administrator Adif. However, a spokesman for Adif said they could not confirm the images had come from one of their cameras.

Authorities have not said what caused the accident, but it has been reported that the train was travelling at 190 kilometres an hour, more than twice the 80km/h speed limit, when it crashed.

The train was carrying 218 passengers and four crew from Madrid to the coastal town of Ferrol.

It is the deadliest rail disaster in Spain since 1944.

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US durable goods orders jump

NEW orders for big-ticket US manufactured goods rose 4.2 per cent in June, led by demand for aircraft.

Orders for durable goods, long-lasting manufactured products, rose to $US244.5 billion ($A268 billion), an increase of $US9.9 billion from May, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.

Analysts had predicted a much smaller 1.8 per cent increase on average.

The May reading was revised sharply higher to $US234.6 billion from an initial estimate of $US231.0 billion.

The June reading was the fourth increase in durable goods orders in the past five months.

But transportation equipment orders, a typically volatile item, drove the increase.

Civilian aircraft orders soared 31.4 per cent and defence aircraft orders jumped 18.7 per cent.

Orders were flat excluding transportation.

Excluding defence, orders rose 3.0 per cent.

On a year-over-year basis, new orders were up 3.7 per cent.

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Speed examined in horror Spain train crash

THE driver of a Spanish high-speed train that derailed, killing at least 80 people, has been named as a suspect in one of Europe's worst rail accidents.

A court in Santiago de Compostela ordered police to question Francisco Jose Garzon, 52, who had admitted to driving at 190 kilometres per hour on a curve where the speed limit was 80km/h.

The train carrying 218 passengers from Madrid to Ferrol derailed and split apart late on Wednesday at Angrois, about 4km from the regional capital, Santiago de Compostela.

Officials confirmed that the number of dead had risen from 78 to 80. Ninety-five injured people remained in hospital. Thirty-six of them, including four children, were in critical condition.

The injured included several citizens of the US and the UK, the two countries' embassies said.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who visited the accident scene and the injured in hospital, said both the government and the judiciary were investigating the causes of the tragedy.

The driver had boasted on Facebook that he sometimes defied controls by driving trains at 200km/h, the daily El Pais reported.

Garzon, who has 30 years of experience, suffered only minor injuries.

The stretch of track on which the train was travelling did not have an automatic cab signalling system, which would have stopped it in the event of excessive speed, representatives of the engine drivers' union said.

They also criticised the route of the train, which was based on a conventional - instead of high-speed - rail line and included a steep curve.

The rail management company said the train's security systems were adequate.

The train was running five minutes late, but the drivers' union said there was no pressure on staff to speed up in such cases.

The train had been inspected the day before the accident, sources at the rail company Renfe said.

People fearing for their loved ones are still waiting for about half of the fatalities to be identified. Some of the bodies were so disfigured that identification was difficult.

All of the carriages left the rails, the rear engine caught fire, and one of the wagons was hurled 15 metres. Wagons that were ripped open or smashed on top of each other were scattered around.

"We heard a noise, enormous, like never before. We went down there and saw that the convoy had split in two," said a witness.

Local residents rushed to the site, bringing water and blankets and smashing wagon windows with stones to help those trapped inside.

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Renegade hippo captured in Cape Town

A ROAMING hippo that set up home in a Cape Town sewage plant last year has been caught and shipped to a game reserve.

The young male had eluded capture after spending a few weeks in a suburban recreational lake, popping up in gardens and on roads, while on the run from its home reserve.

It then moved into the sewage treatment works, whose abundant water and lush grazing have made it a popular choice for the city's escapee hippos.

The operation to capture the hippo took 90 minutes, before it was transferred to a private game reserve, 380km east of Cape Town.

"He walked into a boma (enclosure) and then into a crate and then we closed the crate door, put the crate on a truck and drove him to Gondwana," said Julia Wood, the city's manager of biodiversity management.

The semi-aquatic animals are known to be extremely violent at times and can run faster than a human on land.

"We were very, very worried because obviously it's such a dangerous animal," Wood said.

The hippo escaped a city-run nature reserve after part of a boundary fence was stolen, and took to an outer settling pond of the wastewater plant.

"They are dangerous animals but they aren't a risk as long as we can ensure that we can contain them," said Wood.

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$1 mil worth of cannabis seized in Sydney

MORE than $1 million worth of cannabis has been seized by police during a raid in Sydney's southwest.

Officers found the 360 plants along with hydroponic growing equipment while searching a house in Punchbowl on Wednesday morning.

Light bulbs, transformers, exhaust fans, carbon filters and fertiliser have been taken for forensic testing.

"(The plants) have an estimated potential street value of $1.2 million," police said in a statement.

No one was home when police made the seizures.

Investigations are continuing and police have urged anyone with information to come forward.

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Sydney expensive, Luanda tops the lot

EXPATS may think it breaks the bank to live in Sydney, but spare a thought for those living in Angola's capital.

Luanda has regained the top spot in an annual survey of the most expensive cities for expatriates, with Sydney coming in at number nine.

The survey by the Mercer consulting group is published annually to help companies assess compensation allowances for expatriate workers.

It compares the cost of over 200 items in 214 cities, including housing, food, transport and entertainment.

After being overtaken by Tokyo in last year's survey, oil-booming Luanda returned to the top ranking this year.

It's now followed by Moscow at number two and Tokyo at number three.

"Despite being one of Africa's major oil producers, Angola is a relatively poor country yet expensive for expatriates since imported goods can be costly," Barb Marder, a senior partner at Mercer, said in a statement.

"In addition, finding secure living accommodations that meet the standards of expatriates can be challenging and quite costly."

Moscow's high costs for rentals and imported goods accounted for its second-place finish, with a luxury unfurnished two-bedroom apartment in the Russian capital costing $US4,600 ($A4,970) a month and a cup of coffee $US8.29 ($A8.97), Mercer said.

That compares to a similar apartment in Sydney costing $US2,551 ($A2,760) a month and a cup of coffee coming in at $US5.16 ($A5.58), it says.

The survey did not specify the size or type of coffee.

Tokyo was the third most-expensive city in the survey, followed by Chad's capital N'Djamena, Singapore, Hong Kong, Geneva, Zurich, Bern and Sydney.

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World's top shoe owner 'murdered'

A WOMAN who had world's biggest collection of shoes has been found dead in her backyard pool in suspicious circumstances.

Her ex-boyfriend had been arrested on charges of murder, according to reports in the US media.

The Riverside Press Democrat named the womas as Darlene Flynn, 58, who had a record 15,000 pair collection of shoes according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Police found her body in the pool of her house in Menifee in southern California on Monday afternoon. According to reports, Flynn appeared to have been killed as the result of blunt force trauma.

Officers arrested her ex-boyfriend, Justin Charles Smith, 29, after he was spotted fleeing the property.

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Pope decries money 'idol'

POPE Francis has led his first mass since returning to his native Latin America, warning the faithful against "ephemeral idols" like money and power at Brazil's most revered shrine.

Some 200,000 pilgrims who braved rain and cold cheered when the Pope arrived at the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Sao Paulo state and entered its grandiose basilica.

"What joy I feel as I come to the house of the mother of every Brazilian, the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida," he said in his homily after receiving and holding in his arms a black statue of the venerated Virgin Mary.

The 76-year-old pontiff, who arrived in Brazil on Monday for a weeklong Catholic youth event, is seeking to re-energize his young flock on his first overseas trip since becoming Latin America's first Pope in March.

The region is home to 40 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics but Brazil has seen its flock dwindle while Evangelicals gain ground.

In his homily, he urged pastors, parents and educators to "pass on to our young people the values that can help them build a nation and a world which are more just, united and fraternal."

"It is true that nowadays, to some extent, everyone, including our young people, feels attracted by the many idols which take the place of God and appear to offer hope: money, success, power, pleasure," he said.

"Often a growing sense of loneliness and emptiness in the hearts of many people leads them to seek satisfaction in these ephemeral idols.

"Always know in your heart that God is by your side; he never abandons you. Let us never lose hope.".

The Pope has a special connection to Aparecida. It was here in 2007 that the then cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio led a bishops' panel that drafted a document with a strong social and political appeal for the poor in Latin America.

An estimated 15,000 people packed the basilica for the mass while another 200,000 gathered outside.

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Afghanistan dominates Biden talks in India

US Vice President Joe Biden has held talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he sought to calm fears over the exit of US troops from Afghanistan and capitalise on growing investment opportunities.

Biden also met President Pranab Mukherjee and a top opposition party figure, Sushma Swaraj, and will be guest of honour at a dinner hosted by his counterpart Hamid Ansari in the capital later on Tuesday.

Biden, the most senior US official to visit India since President Barack Obama in 2010, discussed with Singh the security situation in Afghanistan during a 75-minute meeting, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

The vice president has said the world's two largest democracies share common goals on a range of regional security issues.

But there is widespread unease among Indian leaders over what will happen in Afghanistan once US combat troops have left in 2014, with many fearing that Pakistan has most to gain from the withdrawal.

During talks, the pair confirmed that Singh will meet Obama during a six-day visit to Washington from September 20, PTI quoted sources as saying.

They also discussed implementation of a landmark civil nuclear deal and ways to build up two-way commerce, the sources said.

Boosting bilateral trade is expected to form the cornerstone of a keynote speech Biden is scheduled to make in Mumbai on Wednesday.

India has spent more than $US2 billion ($A2.1 billion) of aid in Afghanistan since the Taliban, hardline Islamists who were strong allies of Pakistan, were toppled in a 2001 US-led invasion.

Even though plans for talks between the US and the Taliban collapsed last month, the possible return to power of the insurgents alarms many in India.

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Pakistan takes 'immoral' condom ad off air

PAKISTAN'S media regulator has pulled the plug on a condom commercial starring one of the country's best known female stars, calling it "immoral", after public complaints.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) wrote to broadcasters on Tuesday ordering them to take the advertisement for Josh condoms off air immediately.

The 50-second advertisement stars Pakistani model and actress Mathira, one of the country's most popular stars, as a newlywed bride who makes a neighbouring couple jealous by pampering her husband.

Finally the neighbour asks the rather nerdy-looking husband how he keeps his glamorous wife so sweet and he replies: "Bring Josh into your life."

PEMRA spokesman Fakhar-ud-Din Mughal said the watchdog's letter pointed out that the advertisement was generally seen as "indecent, immoral and in sheer disregard to our socio-cultural and religious values."

"Airing of such immoral advertisement on Pakistani channels and that too in the holy month of Ramadan warrants serious action," he said.

Discussing contraception in public is taboo in Pakistan's deeply conservative Muslim society, though some experts warn the population is growing too fast for the country's natural resources to support.

According to the United Nations a third of Pakistanis have no access to birth control and its 180 million population is growing by more than two per cent a year.

Around a third of Pakistanis who want birth control have no access to it, according to UN and government statistics.

Josh condoms are marketed in Pakistan by DKT International, a US-based non-profit organisation that works to promote family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention in the developing world.

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French mayor under fire over Roma remark

FRANCE'S interior minister has called for a lawmaker to be "severely punished" after a journalist recorded him allegedly saying that Hitler may not have killed enough Roma.

Gilles Bourdouleix, a lawmaker and mayor of the western town of Cholet, reportedly muttered the words on Sunday as he confronted members of the travelling community who had illegally set up camp, according to a recording posted on the site of regional daily Courrier de l'Ouest.

"Maybe Hitler did not kill enough," Bourdouleix is heard saying after the Roma had reportedly given him the Nazi salute.

Bourdouleix, who is a member of the lower house National Assembly with the centrist UDI party, said his comments were taken out of context and alleged the recording was tampered with.

Confrontations between French authorities and Roma - nomadic people widely known as gypsies who were killed in their hundreds of thousands by the Nazis - erupt frequently.

Bourdouleix's comments have caused an uproar. Interior Minister Manuel Valls described them on Tuesday as "unacceptable" and called for the lawmaker to be "very severely punished by law".

"These comments are a defence of crimes committed in the Second World War, a defence of Nazism and coming from a mayor, from a member of parliament, it's completely intolerable," he said on TV channel i-TELE.

The case has already been referred to public prosecutors who will examine whether his comments constitute a "defence of crimes against humanity", said authorities in Maine-et-Loire, the department where Cholet is located.

He faces up to five years in prison and a 45,000 euro ($A64,000) fine if convicted on the charge.

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Sinai attacks kill two Egyptian soldiers

GUNMEN have killed two Egyptian soldiers and a policeman in three separate attacks in the restive Sinai peninsula bordering Israel, security and medical sources say.

In the town of El-Arish on Sunday unidentified assailants shot dead one soldier in front of the television and broadcasting building, another who was on guard duty, and the policeman in an attack on a police station, a security source told AFT said.

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Rebels kill 21 Soldiers In Colombia

AT least 17 soldiers have been killed in an ambush staged by FARC rebels in Colombia's Arauca province bordering Venezuela, media reports say.

Four other soldiers died in fighting with the guerrilla group in the southern province of Caqueta, the reports said.

The soldiers were killed on Saturday, when Colombia marked the 203rd anniversary of its independence from Spain.

The ambush was staged by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrillas in El Mordisco, a rural area along the highway that links the cities of Fortul and Tame.

The firefight in Caqueta left three soldiers wounded, the army's 12th Brigade said in a statement.

Six guerrillas were killed and two others were captured by soldiers, the army said.

President Juan Manuel Santos, meanwhile, took part in a series of Independence Day events on Saturday.

The president called on citizens and Colombia's political parties to back the peace talks his administration has been holding with the FARC for the past eight months.

The FARC, Colombia's oldest and largest leftist guerrilla group, is on both the US and European Union lists of terrorist groups.

Drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping-for-ransom are the FARC's main means of financing its operations.

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Shots fired at NSW Central Coast house

SHOTS have been fired into a house on the NSW Central Coast and an improvised explosive device has been left near a car on the property, police say.

It's believed two shots were fired from a car, hitting the garage door of the house at Ettalong Beach at about 5am (AEST) on Sunday.

Police said an undetonated improvised explosive device was located near a car parked on the driveway. The occupants of the home were not injured in the incident.

The Police Rescue and Bomb Disposal Squad attended the scene and rendered the improvised explosive device safe.

Police were told a small light-coloured vehicle was seen nearby driving at excessive speed without headlights moments after the shooting.

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Six injured in Mexico oil pipeline blast

AN oil pipeline has exploded in a rural area in central Mexico, igniting a huge blaze in which six people were injured, the state oil company says.

Petroleos de Mexico said on its Twitter account that Sunday's blast appeared to have been caused by an attempted theft of crude oil.

Four policemen and two firefighters who responded to the explosion and fire were injured in a secondary explosion, Pemex said.

The incident occurred in an open field near the municipality of Tonanitla, about 40km from Mexico City.

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Fire damages Paris office of Femen

A PRE-DAWN fire has damaged the Paris office of the radical topless feminist group Femen in what police are treating as an accident.

But the group called it a "disturbing coincidence", noting that the Paris branch, headquartered in a working-class district in the northeast of the city, had recently received a phone message calling the activists "witches" who should "burn".

The fire broke out at 5am local time on Sunday in a room where Ukrainian activist Inna Shevchenko, who was recently granted asylum in France, has been sheltering.

She was not present at the time, though several members of the group were asleep in the offices located on the building's second and top floors.

Among them were Pauline Hillier and Marguerite Stern, who were detained for nearly a month in Tunisia after a topless protest on May 29.

Firefighters said no one was injured.

But Hillier said the group was "shocked" by the incident and "would like to know what really happened".

She said: "We get death threats every day. Yesterday we received a message that said 'burn witches'.

"We find that there are many coincidences and this has happened just one week after the stamp controversy," she said.

Shevchenko was said to have partly inspired a new stamp released on Bastille Day, France's national day, bearing the image of Marianne, the female symbol of the French Republic.

That sparked fierce controversy, with critics of Femen denouncing the new Marianne as a "Christianophobe, hater and ideologue".

Earlier this month Shevchenko provoked Muslim ire when she tweeted at the beginning of Ramadan: "What could be more stupid than Ramadan? What is uglier than this religion?"

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