Rowhani officially becomes Iran president

MODERATE cleric Hassan Rowhani has assumed Iran's presidency with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei officially endorsing him.

"There is a clear message in electing a competent individual with more than three decades of service to the (Islamic republic's) establishment," Khamenei said in a statement on Saturday.

"The message is of loyalty to the (Islamic) revolution, hope in the establishment ... and trust in individuals determined to add to its success and reduce problems" in Iran, he added.

Khamenei said Rowhani, 64, "hails from the clerical stronghold which has confronted the enemies".

He called on the new president to "defend the goals of the Islamic establishment and the rights of the nation, and to stand up to arrogance and bullies", in reference to Western powers.

Rowhani begins his term as the Islamic republic's seventh president facing challenges over its ailing economy and international isolation due to the controversial policies of his hardline predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Rowhani's public inauguration will take place on Sunday when he takes the oath of office in parliament.

He defeated several conservative rivals in the June 14 presidential election, having pledged to resolve tensions with world powers and shore up an economy hit hard by international sanctions.

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Interpol suspects al-Qaeda jailbreak link

INTERPOL says it suspects al-Qaeda was involved in recent jailbreaks across nine countries, including Iraq, Libya and Pakistan.

The global police agency said in a statement on Saturday the jailbreaks had "led to the escape of hundreds of terrorists and other criminals" in the past month alone, and that it has issued a security alert.

It is also asking its 190 member countries to help "determine whether any of these recent events are co-ordinated and linked" and to immediately convey any intelligence which could help prevent another attack.

The Interpol alert comes the day after the United States issued a worldwide travel warning and ordered that its embassies across the Islamic world be temporarily closed due to unspecified plans by al-Qaeda to strike US interests in the Middle East or North Africa.

Germany, France and Britain have also announced their embassies in Yemen will be closed on Sunday and Monday for security reasons.

Interpol noted that August is the anniversary of attacks in India, Russia and Indonesia.

This week also marks the 15th anniversary of the US embassy bombings in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, that killed more than 200 mostly African citizens and injured thousands.

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Senior Libya policeman wounded by car bomb

A SENIOR police officer has been seriously wounded in an overnight bomb attack in Libya's restive second city of Benghazi.

The blast is the latest in a string of attacks on members of the security forces and judiciary in eastern Libya.

"Colonel Faouzi al-Oujli was critically injured when an explosive device placed in his car went off," said the city's security spokesman, Colonel Mohamed al-Hijazi on Saturday.

He said the officer had been returning to Benghazi from the southern city of Sabha to visit his family when the blast happened.

"The same method was used as in other attacks on members of the security forces - a home-made bomb planted in the car," Hijazi said.

"These attacks are well-planned and systematic and show that police and army officers are under surveillance."

Security forces also arrested two men for firing at a military patrol in Benghazi on Saturday, a commander in Libya's special forces told AFP.

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Facebook above IPO price

SOCIAL networking giant Facebook has breached its 2012 IPO price of $US38 a share for the first time since the company's May 2012 initial public offering.

Facebook got as high as $US38.31 on Wednesday shortly after the market opened, before retreating. Shares recently traded at $US37.72, up 10 cents or 0.3 per cent.

The company's IPO was priced at $US38 a share. Facebook has only closed above $US38 one time: its first day on the markets.

Facebook has been on an upward tear since releasing earnings a week ago that showed a big jump in mobile advertising revenue. Shares have rallied more than 40 per cent since the earnings release.

Facebook shares plummeted after the highly anticipated IPO last year and languished, primarily due to doubts about the California-based company's ability to make money from members using mobile devices to get online.

But the most recent earnings report showed that some 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.

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Dell committee rejects voting change

A DELL board committee has rejected a voting rule change Michael Dell attached to an increased buyout offer for the struggling PC maker he founded.

A group led by Michael Dell and the investment firm Silver Lake Partners last week raised its bid to buy out Dell Inc's other shareholders by a dime, to $US13.75 per share.

As part of that offer, the group said the bid's fate must be decided only by the shareholders who choose to vote either for or against the plan.

Under existing rules, shareholders who don't vote count as "no" votes.

A special committee of company board members said in a short letter, dated Tuesday, to Chairman and CEO Michael Dell that it wouldn't accept the new proposal.

But the company did say it would establish a new date for a vote on the offer of $US13.75 per share under the existing rule for voting.

"A new record date would enable the many shareholders who bought their shares after June 3, 2013 to vote on the transaction while giving all shareholders more time to reflect on where their best interests lie in light of the improved offer," the letter stated.

Otherwise, the committee said it was ready to proceed on Friday with a vote on the $US13.65 offer. That vote has already been delayed a couple times.

Dell shares dropped 2.6 per cent, or 33 cents, to $US12.53 on Wednesday morning, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose.

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Egypt police told to end Islamist sit-in

EGYPT'S cabinet has ordered police to take "all necessary measures" to end protests by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

They warn the demonstrations pose a national security threat.

"The continuation of the dangerous situation in Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares, and consequent terrorism and road blockages are no longer acceptable given the threat to national security," it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Morsi's supporters have been camped out in both squares demanding his reinstatement.

"The government has decided to take all necessary measures to confront and end these dangers, and tasks the interior minister to do all that is necessary in this regard, in accordance with the constitution and law," the statement read.

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Spainish princess makes move to Geneva

SPAIN'S Princess Cristina plans to move to Switzerland without her husband, who is under investigation in a corruption case, Spanish media are reporting.

The 48-year-old princess, the middle child of King Juan Carlos' three offspring, is to work in Geneva for the charitable foundation belonging to La Caixa bank that has employed her in her home city, Barcelona.

Cristina's husband, the former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin, and his former business partner Diego Torres have been named official suspects in a corruption case.

They are suspected of embezzling millions of euros in public funds through a charity.

Cristina, who co-owned one of Urdangarin's companies, is herself under investigation for tax fraud.

The princess is to move to Switzerland with the couple's four children while Urdangarin stays in Spain to follow the judicial inquiry, the sources were quoted as saying.

Unconfirmed reports claimed the couple has grown apart during the two-year investigation, which has dealt a heavy blow to the Spanish monarchy.

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African Union delegation meet Morsi

AN African Union delegation in Cairo has met Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

"The whole delegation met with Morsi," the interim presidency said in a statement on Wednesday, giving no details on when and where the meeting took place.

Delegation head Alfa Omar Konari also confirmed the encounter at a press conference.

Morsi has not been seen in public since his July 3 ouster and had received no official visitor until Tuesday morning when EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met him for two hours.

Ashton did not disclose where he was being held and declined to reveal what he had said to her, but sources said she was flown out of Cairo on a military helicopter for the visit.

Morsi is being held on allegations related to his escape from prison during the 2011 uprising against his predecessor Hosni Mubarak.

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Irish president signs abortions into law

ABORTION has become legal in Ireland in limited cases where the mother's life is at risk, after President Michael D. Higgins signed a law that has exposed deep divisions in the Catholic-majority nation.

Irish MPs had overwhelmingly voted through the abortion bill earlier this month, prompted by an outcry over the death last year of an Indian woman who had been refused an abortion in an Irish hospital.

"President Higgins has today signed the bill into law," a statement from the president's office confirmed on Tuesday.

The law permits the termination of a pregnancy if doctors certify there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act ends years of uncertainty over the legal status of terminations in Ireland.

It follows a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in 2010 that found Ireland had failed to properly implement the constitutional right to abortion where a woman's life is at risk.

Under a 1992 Supreme Court ruling, women in Ireland are also legally entitled to an abortion if it is needed to save a mother's life - but six successive governments had failed to introduce legislation to reflect this.

The death of 31-year-old Savita Halappanavar in a Galway hospital last October placed Ireland's restrictive abortion laws under global scrutiny and forced the current government to act.

Halappanavar, who was from India, had sought a termination when told she was miscarrying, but the request was refused as her life was not at risk at the time. She died of blood poisoning days later.

In a sign of the rifts that remain on abortion in predominantly Catholic Ireland, tens of thousands of people protested both in favour and against a change in the law following Halappanavar's death.

The lower house of the Irish parliament passed the legislation with 127 votes in favour and 31 against earlier this month. It passed through the upper house last week.

But seven MPs including a junior minister were expelled from Prime Minister Enda Kenny's Fine Gael party for voting against the legislation.

Lucinda Creighton, junior minister with responsibility for European affairs, quit her cabinet post after voting against the bill over her concerns that a woman deemed suicidal will be allowed a termination.

The new act permits a termination when one obstetrician and two psychiatrists unanimously agree that an expectant mother is a suicide risk, in a clause that deeply divided opinion.

Pro-life groups are widely expected to challenge aspects of the new law through the courts.

Almost 4000 Irish women had abortions in England or Wales last year, according to the British health ministry.

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US consumer confidence dips in July

CONSUMER confidence in the United States dipped in July as consumers worried more about the economy and jobs, the Conference Board says.

The consumer confidence index retreated to 80.3 from a five-year high reading of 82.1 in June.

Analysts on average had expected a stronger 81.6 reading for July.

While consumers' views on current conditions continued to improve, expectations for the next six months weakened.

The outlook for the jobs market, where the unemployment rate stood at 7.6 per cent in June, soured as consumers expected fewer jobs to be available.

The Conference Board highlighted that despite the July dip, confidence remained well above the year-ago levels.

"Overall, indications are that the economy is strengthening and may even gain some momentum in the months ahead," said Lynn Franco, the Conference Board's director of economic indicators.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the report was "nothing to worry about" and the number should rebound in August.

The drop in consumers' expectations for the short term probably reflected the lagged effect of the drop in stock prices in late June, and perhaps the rise in petrol prices, he said.

"Overall, then, we are not worried by the headline dip in sentiment; it is not the start of a sustained decline."

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Breivik applies to study political science

NORWAY'S jailed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has applied to study political science at the University of Oslo.

"It's correct that we've received his application," the university's rector, Ole Petter Ottersen, told AFP.

"We don't know whether his application will be successful."

Breivik never completed his secondary education, choosing instead to start his own businesses, most of which were unsuccessful.

It leaves him qualified to take some of the courses offered by the Oslo university's Department of Political Science, but none of its degrees.

Breivik is serving a 21-year prison sentence for killing 77 people, mostly youths, by planting a bomb outside Oslo's main government building and later opening fire on a youth camp on the island of Utoeya.

"Generally speaking, we have a system in Norway giving inmates the opportunity to study (...) according to procedures laid down by the prison authorities," Ottersen said.

"It is obvious that in cases posing security problems, these inmates do not have access to the campus," he said.

The right-wing extremist's application caused a stir among faculty members, with some professors refusing to have any contact with the 34-year-old killer, news channel TV2 Nyhetskanalen reported.

Breivik's lawyer declined to comment.

In his lengthy thesis-like manifesto quoting hundreds of authors and academics, Breivik denounces multiculturalism as Europe's doom and calls for a crusade "to repel ... an ongoing Islamic invasion".

He also claims to have spent 16,320 hours studying, giving him "an informal education consisting of the equivalent of eight university years (or equivalent to two bachelor degrees and one master degree)."

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Eight killed in Iraq violence

VIOLENCE in Iraq has killed eight people, among them seven police as an al-Qaeda front group claimed a wave of attacks that killed dozens the day before.

The country is witnessing its worst violence since 2008, when it was emerging from a bloody sectarian conflict.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that Iraq is "on the brink," and the interior ministry warned of civil war.

On Tuesday, gunmen killed three police and wounded two in an attack on a checkpoint south of Baghdad, while bombings in Kirkuk province, north of the capital, killed a policeman and a civilian, and wounded four people.

And gunmen killed three more policemen in the northern city of Mosul.

Security forces are frequently targeted by militants opposed to the government.

The attacks came as al-Qaeda front group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed a wave of attacks that killed some 60 people the day before.

"Security and military detachments of the state of Baghdad and the south on Monday ... simultaneously hit targets that were surveyed and chosen specifically," a statement posted on jihadist forums said.

The statement said the violence, which struck the capital and areas to its south, was the beginning of a new campaign dubbed "Harvesting the Soldiers".

The al-Qaeda front group said last week that brazen assaults on two Iraqi prisons marked the end of its previous campaign, called "Breaking the Walls".

At least 53 people were killed in the attacks, and more than 500 inmates, among them senior al-Qaeda members, managed to escape.

"Iraq is at another crossroads," UN chief Ban was quoted as saying in a statement released by a spokesman.

"Its political leaders have a clear responsibility to bring the country back from the brink, and to leave no space to those who seek to exploit the political stalemate through violence and terror."

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European stocks close higher

EUROPEAN stock markets have closed slightly higher, with London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares adding 0.16 per cent to 6570.95 points.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 rose 0.15 per cent to 8271.02 points on Tuesday, while the CAC 40 in Paris inched upwards 0.45 per cent to 3986.61 points.

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Islamists kill 20 in Nigeria's north

SUSPECTED members of Nigeria's Islamist group Boko Haram have shot dead more than 20 civilians when a vigilante group attacked them in the northern Borno state.

"The suspected sect members came armed and fired sporadic shots that killed over twenty innocent civilians," Haruna Mohammed Sani, spokesman for the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) said in a statement.

The violence took place on Saturday in Dawashe village, the army lieutenant said in a statement.

He said men from the Civilian Joint Task Force, a vigilante group formed in Boko Haram's bastion Maiduguri to combat the Islamist gunmen who have been terrorising the region for years, entered Dawashe to search for suspects.

Suspected Boko Haram members subsequently opened fire in the village, the spokesman said, adding that the 20 victims were mostly fishermen and traders.

Sani said a dozen other civilians sustained gunshot wounds during the incident but provided no information on casualties among the belligerents.

The toll and circumstances of the incident could not immediately be verified independently.

The MNJTF, a joint military force set up in 1998 to combat border crimes, consists of troops from Nigeria, Chad and Niger.

Its mandate was recently expanded to fight Boko Haram, whose insurgency is estimated to have cost 3600 lives since 2009, including killings by security forces.

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31 drown after boat capsizes off Libya

MORE than half the people aboard a rubber boat carrying 53 African migrants died when it capsized off Libya, Italy's Ansa news agency says.

Thirty-one people drowned in the accident that occurred late Friday, and the rest were rescued by a freighter and brought on Sunday to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, Ansa reported, citing the survivors.

Most of the migrants came from Nigeria, Gambia, Benin and Senegal, and the survivors were suffering from shock and hypothermia.

Italian authorities say more than 470 migrants have reached Italy in a 24-hour period.

Italian TV on Sunday showed a wrecked motorised rubber dinghy that the Africans told authorities had capsized after setting off from Libya's coast.

Each year, thousands of migrants pay smugglers in hope of slipping ashore in Italy. Many attempt the Mediterranean crossing during periods of calm warm seas, as in recent days.

Media reports said the camp where the migrants are housed on Lampedusa, which lies between Tunisia and Sicily, is overcrowded with 1000 people staying there although the camp has space for only 350 people.

Under international law, Italian authorities have to check whether people they rescue at sea have grounds to seek asylum. If not, they repatriate them although the border police struggles to enforce the policy strictly.

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Cambodian PM's party claims election win

THE ruling party of strongman Cambodian premier Hun Sen has claimed victory in Sunday's elections which were marred by allegations of widespread irregularities.

Although official results had yet to be announced, the prime minister's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) said it expected to take 68 out of the 123 seats in the lower house.

"We can say we've won this election," CPP spokesman Khieu Kanharith told AFP.

The CPP had 90 seats in the previous parliament, so if confirmed the result would mark the loss of more than 20 seats, despite the exclusion of the opposition leader who was barred from running.

The electoral authorities said final results could take weeks to compile.

Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge fighter, has been in power for 28 years. The 60-year-old premier - who has vowed to rule until he is 74 - is regularly accused of trampling on human rights and quashing political dissent.

The opposition decried what it described as the kingdom's worst ever poll irregularities, including missing voter names and thousands of people who turned up to find someone else had used their ballot.

"The situation is more serious than at any previous election," Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) spokesman Yim Sovann told AFP.

The opposition caused brief confusion after claiming it had won the polls but it quickly retracted the statement.

Protests broke out at one polling station in the capital Phnom Penh where a crowd destroyed two police cars, military police spokesman Kheng Tito said, as anger erupted over names missing from the voter list.

Rights groups also expressed concern that the ink used to mark voters could be easily washed off.

The National Election Committee denied irregularities.

Even before polls opened, the opposition had said a Hun Sen win would be "worthless" without the participation of its leader Sam Rainsy.

The French-educated former banker returned to Cambodia on July 19 from self-imposed exile after receiving a surprise royal pardon for criminal convictions which he contends were politically motivated.

But he was barred from running as a candidate since the authorities said it was too late to add his name to the electoral register.

Rainsy said his party was still considering whether to accept the ruling party's claim of victory.

Local poll monitor the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia alleged that up to 1.25 million people who were eligible to cast ballots were not on voter lists.

About 9.6 million people were registered to vote - more than one third of whom were aged under 30.

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NSW Labor faces another huge defeat: poll

THE coalition government in NSW would be returned with a similar resounding majority to its 2011 election victory if an election was held today, the latest Newspoll shows.

As NSW Labor prepares for the results from reports of inquiries from the state's corruption watchdog this week, the poll, in The Australian newspaper, shows the coalition leads Labor on a two-party preferred basis of 61 to 39 per cent.

Labor's primary vote remains on 28 per cent, compared to 47 per cent for the coalition.

The results are despite recent ministerial controversies, including Finance Minister Greg Pearce's alleged drunken late-night parliamentary sitting, and the use of a government travel agency to make private bookings.

Opposition Leader John Robertson's personal satisfaction rating also stands at 28 per cent, but no figure was given for Premier Barry O'Farrell.

Several ICAC reports into former members of the previous Labor government are due to report this week involving allegations against Ian Macdonald, Eddie Obeid and Eric Roozendaal.

The poll, taken in May and last month, did not cover much of the time since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reclaimed the leadership and the paper did not state how many voters were polled.

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Next World Youth Day in Krakow in 2016

POPE Francis has announced the next World Youth Day (WYD) will be held in the Polish city of Krakow in 2016.

"Dear young friends, we have an appointment for the next World Youth Day in 2016 in Krakow, Poland," he said at the end of Sunday's mass attended by three million pilgrims on Rio's Copacabana beach.

Argentine-born Francis was wrapping up a week-long visit to Brazil, the world's most populous Catholic country, on his first overseas trip since his election in March.

The choice of Krakow is in honour of John Paul II, who hailed from Krakow and who started the World Youth Day (WYD) events during his charismatic papacy.

John Paul II, who is expected to be declared a saint later this year, was archbishop of Krakow before he was elected the world's first Polish pope in 1978.

The first official WYD was held in 1986, although it had been preceded by two previous mass gatherings of young people from around the world in Rome.

The next was held the following year in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, where Francis was archbishop before he became Pope

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