DR Congo says 130 dead in clashes

AT least 130 people have been killed, including 10 soldiers, in ongoing clashes between army forces and rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the government says.

"Our forces have inflicted very heavy losses on the M23 fighters, 120 have been killed and 12 captured," government spokesman Lambert Mende said, referring to fighting that broke out over the weekend.

Mende said that 10 soldiers had also died in the clashes, which began on Sunday in North Kivu province between the Congolese army and the M23 rebels.

UN soldiers did not intervene, Mende stressed.

"The toll from these skirmishes is not yet definitive," said Mende.

Army forces also managed to recapture previously rebel-held positions as they fled, said the spokesman.

Some 2000 soldiers were reportedly deployed during the fighting but Mende declined to confirm this figure.

A heavily armed brigade of some 3000 UN troops with more power to fight renegade forces than ever before has recently been dispatched to the region.

The troops, drawn in equal numbers from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania, are joining about 17,000 UN soldiers already deployed in the area with a limited mandate to protect civilians and themselves only.

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Greens might not support ETS plan

GREENS senator Scott Ludlum says Labor's plan to bring forward the start date for an emissions trading scheme (ETS) is a terrible idea.

He says his party might not support it if it comes before parliament.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith on Monday confirmed the federal government wanted to shift to a floating price from July 2014, a year before the fixed price period was due to end.

He denied the move was an admission that the government's carbon tax had been poorly designed, adding Labor had wanted to introduce an ETS earlier but was blocked by the Greens and the coalition.

Treasurer Chris Bowen says, either through the parliament or the election, Labor will be seeking a mandate to make the change.

The Rudd government would require the support of the Greens or the coalition in the Senate to pass any changes to its carbon pricing laws.

Senator Ludlum says the Greens will wait and see what the legislation looks like, but they aren't in the mood to support anything that cost billions and further delays real action on climate change.

"It's a terrible idea," he told ABC's Q&A program on Monday.

"I think we would be very unlikely to support something that costs us $4 billion and another 12 month delay."

Mr Smith said an announcement to explain how the government would find the budget savings to make this change was just "hours and days away".

Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop said the whole plan was a Labor "con", but had to fend off claims Tony Abbott had used the issue to stir up scepticism about climate science.

Earlier when criticising Labor's ETS plan, Mr Abbott described emissions trading as a "so-called market" dealing in an "invisible substance".

"Well.. it's (carbon dioxide) not visible to the naked eye, so he's making an evident point," she said.

"The point is, he was talking about the fact that emissions trading schemes have not been a success anywhere in the world."

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Spanish PM refuses to resign

SPAIN'S Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has refused to resign over a corruption scandal rocking his government.

He batted off calls from his political opponents to step down over allegations that he received secret payments through his Popular Party when he was a government minister in the late 1990s.

Pressure intensified on Rajoy, 58, when the man accused of organising the payments, the party's jailed former treasurer Luis Barcenas, on Monday went before a judge investigating the scandal following fresh allegations in the press.

"I will fulfil the mandate the Spanish people gave me," a defiant Rajoy told reporters.

He also vowed to "defend political stability" as he steers Spain out of a deep recession.

The grey-bearded premier has denied any wrongdoing in the growing controversy, which first erupted in January when a newspaper published copies of account ledgers purportedly showing irregular payments to top party members.

Further leaks of supposed party accounts later implicated Rajoy himself.

Rajoy pointed to the commanding parliamentary majority he has enjoyed since leading the party to a landslide electoral victory in November 2011, which has enabled him to push through tough economic reforms.

Media have been speculating for weeks that Barcenas, who is in jail in a separate corruption probe, might try to pressure Rajoy with the threat of fresh leaks, but the prime minister said he had no fear of "blackmail" and that he trusted the courts to do their job.

The noose had appeared to tighten on Rajoy on Sunday when the conservative newspaper El Mundo published friendly text messages he purportedly sent to Barcenas from May 2011 to March 2013, some two months after the scandal erupted.

"Luis, I understand, be strong. I will call you tomorrow. Best wishes," said one of the messages from Rajoy to Barcenas, dated January 18 when El Mundo first published allegations over the slush fund.

The corruption allegations have outraged Spaniards suffering in a recession with a record unemployment rate of more than 27 per cent.

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Spain on track, risks ahead: IMF

SPAIN'S bad-loan ridden banks, which were thrown a 41.3-billion-euro ($A59.9-billion) European lifeline last year, are stronger but still face high risks, the IMF has warned.

"Implementation of Spain's financial sector program remains on track," the International Monetary Fund said in its third report following a May 21-31 visit to Madrid.

The reports form part of the surveillance by the troika of the European Union, European Central Bank and Washington-based IMF to check Spain's compliance with conditions imposed in July 2012 in return for the banking rescue loan.

The Fund welcomed the creation of a bad bank, Sareb, charged with taking on the stricken banks' toxic assets at a heavy discount and then trying to sell them at a profit.

"Actions to recapitalise parts of the banking sector and the asset transfers to Sareb have provided an important boost to the system's liquidity and solvency," it said in the staff report released on Monday.

"Notwithstanding this progress, risks to the economy and hence to the financial sector remain elevated."

It cited Spain's need to correct its budget deficit, reduce the high level of private debt and cope with sliding real estate prices.

"Risks to the financial sector arising from the difficult economic environment still loom large, requiring continued action to safeguard the program's gains and better support economic recovery," the IMF said of Spain, the eurozone's fourth-largest economy, which has been in recession since mid-2011.

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Turkey signals rate rise, lira rallies

THE Turkish central bank, which spent about $US6.0 billion ($A6.6 billion) on defending the lira last week, has signalled it might raise interest rates to support the currency.

In afternoon trading on Monday the lira, which had fallen by about 10.0 per cent since May, had firmed to 1.9378 to the US dollar from 1.9540 late on Friday.

The strong hint from the central bank came after the government assured foreign investors and the Turkish people that the bank would do its utmost to counter recent turbulence.

The 10-year borrowing rate also fell sharply on the government bond market from 9.36 per cent to 9.0 per cent.

Turkey has achieved strong economic growth in the last decade after severe financial crisis and IMF rescues, and is now an economic powerhouse in its region.

The economy is estimated to be about the 17th-biggest in the world.

The central bank, which has statutory independence in setting monetary policy, referred on Monday to its next policy meeting, saying "we will be able to decide on July 23 on a measured increase in interest rates".

The bank has been under strong pressure from the government to hold rates down.

At the beginning of last week, in response to a plunge of the lira to a record low level against the dollar, it promised tough foreign exchange intervention.

But that announcement met with scepticism on financial markets. One analyst estimated the reserves available for such action at about $US45 billion ($A49.8 billion).

Pressure on the currencies and borrowing rates of several emerging countries, including Turkey, has risen.

This is because the US Federal Reserve bank has signalled that it will soon begin winding down its special program of injecting funds to support the US economy. Some of this money went into emerging markets.

The change of climate has caused money to flow out of those markets. Turkey has been particularly hard hit.

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Aussies struggle to spot diabetes signs

EDS: NOT FOR USE BEFORE 0001 (AEST) MONDAY JULY 15

SYDNEY, July 15 AAP - It's the country's fastest-growing disease, but most Australians don't recognise all the symptoms of diabetes, a new survey shows.

On the eve of National Diabetes Week, a Galaxy poll commissioned by the Medibank 24/7 Health Advice Line has found 97 per cent of Australians do not know all the major symptoms or how many types of the disease there are.

Almost one in five people polled did not recognise that obesity is a risk factor for diabetes, and two thirds did not realise the development of type 2 diabetes can be slowed through better diet and exercise, according to the research.

Australian Diabetes Council (ADC) CEO Nicola Stokes said key symptoms for type 1 diabetes, like excessive thirst, were well-recognised.

But some symptoms of type 2 diabetes were harder to spot.

"With type 2 you can just be tired, lethargic, and everything is becoming more difficult - and that's just our lives, these days," she told AAP.

She said new polling of ADC members showed diabetes was shaping up to be an election issue.

Overall, members ranked diabetes management as a top concern, ahead of the cost of living, work and employment or relationships.

"This is a cry for help that I think the government really needs to listen to," Ms Stokes said.

"They want the tools to manage their own condition but what they really want is to help their children, (who may be) predisposed to developing diabetes."

She's called on both sides of politics to direct more resources toward programs aimed at preventing diabetes.

The ADC says up to 60 per cent of type 2 diabetes cases are preventable, and the cost of treating an individual for diabetes complications could cost up to $16,700 a year.

One Australian is diagnosed with diabetes every five minutes, according to the ADC.

"If we don't contain these costs at the rate diabetes is growing, there won't be a health budget for anything else," Ms Stokes said.

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Financial stress increase for uni students

TWO in three of Australia's university students are living below the poverty line, a report says, as student debt soars.

The report from Universities Australia's longitudinal study of student finances, released on Monday, says more than two-thirds of students worry about their finances.

This is a big jump from when the last study was done in 2006, when only about half reported financial stress.

Two-thirds of undergraduates earned less than $20,000 a year, with about 21 per cent earning less than $10,000.

But their average annual expenditure was $37,020, with big increases in the housing, food and utility costs reported.

Almost one in five said they regularly couldn't afford food or other essential items while textbooks were the most difficult study-related expense to find room for in the budget.

A quarter of undergraduates had a loan of some kind, as did a third of post-graduate students.

And the estimated level of debt incurred from HECS and course fees jumped to $37,217 per student.

The levels of financial stress were even greater for students from low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds and indigenous students.

Only a third of indigenous students got some kind of support from their parents or partner, compared with just over half of their non-indigenous counterparts.

For all students, the most common type of family support was being fed, followed by getting use of a computer or printer.

"This report clearly shows that financial stress on university students is increasing," UA chief executive Belinda Robinson said.

"While the impact of this on dropout rates and future enrolments is unclear, it is of sufficient concern to justify close monitoring - particular in the context of meeting the government's goal to have 20 per cent of students from low SES backgrounds enrolled by 2020."

National Union of Students president Jade Tyrrell said student poverty had soared.

Students need more income support and it needs to be more flexible, waiting times need to be reduced and eligibility criteria relaxed, she said.

"A huge problem we face as students is that student poverty is seen as a right of passage almost and that needs to change," Ms Tyrrell told AAP.

The report also found the average student income was higher than in 2006 and students were more likely to have savings they could draw on in emergencies.

But it said the apparently contradictory findings pointed to an increasing polarisation between the "haves" and "have-nots".

"This would be unsurprising in view of the changes that have taken place in the sector since 2006, particularly the growth in participation by students who may not previously have been likely to enter higher education," the report states.

Universities Australia surveyed more than 11,700 students across a range of demographics for the study.

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