Plane on fire after running off runway

A PASSENGER airliner is on fire after running off the runway while landing at Moscow's Vnukovo airport.

There was no immediate confirmed word on whether there were any casualties in the crash of the Tu-204 belonging to Red Wing Airlines.

Russia's state news channel Vesti said the plane was not carrying passengers, and it had only a crew of 12 aboard.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. Light snow was falling in Moscow at the time.

The Tu-204 is a twin-engine medium-range jest with a capacity of 210 passengers.

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Karachi bus explosion kills five

AN EXPLOSION on a bus in Pakistan's largest city Karachi left at least five people dead and wounded 35 others, police said.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the blast in Sadar, a congested shopping area of Karachi, officials said, adding that a bomb disposal team was trying to determine whether it was caused by a bomb or an exploding compressed natural gas cylinder.

"At least five people were killed and 35 others were wounded," said police surgeon Jalil Qadir.

Karachi is in the grip of a long-running wave of militancy, political and sectarian violence.

Pakistan says 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism since the 9/11 attacks and the 2001 US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan.

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Iran hangs drug traffickers, rapists

IRAN has hanged an Afghan drug trafficker and four Iranians, three of them convicted of rape, local media reported.

The 27-year-old Afghan from Herat, identified only by his initials MM, was sent to the gallows in the northern city of Damghan after being convicted of selling around two kilos (four pounds) of crack cocaine.

Three Iranian men convicted of rape and another of smuggling heroin and opium, were hanged in the central city of Yazd.

The Islamic republic, where murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are punishable by death, has one of the highest annual execution counts in the world, alongside China, Saudi Arabia and the US.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has condemned the executions, but Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and that it is enforced only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.

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Iran to relocate airport after oil found

IRAN plans to relocate an airport in the southwest of the country after discovering oil deposits under its runway, media reported.

The National Iranian Oil Company "intends to buy Ahvaz airport due to the existence of oil deposits under the airport's tarmac," the state broadcaster's website quoted Mohammad Rasoulinejad, managing director of the Iranian Airports Company, as saying.

"The government has approved the relocation of the airport," mR Rasoulinejad said, adding that the new airport will be built 15 kilometres from the city.

He did not give any details about the oil deposits.

Mr Rasoulinejad said that the airport is among "the country's busiest" with some 30 flights per day, adding that relocating it would also enable its much-needed expansion.

The NIOC did not comment on the government's decision.

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Fifteen tied up and killed in Nigeria

SUSPECTED radical Islamist gunmen have attacked a village in northeast Nigeria, tying up men, women and children before slitting their throats and killing at least 15 in the troubled region's latest attack.

The assault happened early on Friday morning in the village of Musari on the outskirts of Maiduguri.

The gunmen, suspected of being members of Boko Haram, shouted religious slogans and later ordered people to gather up into a group, said Mshelia Inusa, a primary school teacher in the village.

Chants of "God is great, God is great" followed, he said.

Later, Mr Inusa and others saw corpses with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats cut.

Later Friday morning, an ambulance arrived at the State Specialists Hospital in Maiduguri, accompanied by a group of military vehicles, a security guard said. Agitated soldiers ordered people away, but the guard said he counted at least 15 bodies being brought into the facility's morgue.

A military spokesman later issued a statement saying only five people had been killed in the village during the attack. However, military and police officials routinely downplay casualty figures because they are under increasing pressure from their superiors to minimise the perceived effects of the ongoing attacks by Boko Haram.

Boko Haram could not be immediately reached for comment.

More than 780 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks in 2012.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen also attacked another village Friday in Adamawa state on its border with neighbouring Cameroon.

Witnesses said that attack focused on the town of Maiha, where gunmen also shouted praises to God while setting fire to government buildings, a school and a prison.

At least 35 prisoners were released from the prison in the attack, though 11 had been recaptured, police spokesman Mohammed Ibrahim said.

Mr Ibrahim said a civilian and a police officer were killed during the fighting.

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Swine flu kills nine Palestinians

NINE Palestinians have died in an outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain known as swine flu, the office of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad says.

"Latest figures and information ... show that 187 cases have so far been recorded, the majority of which are in the northern West Bank," it said in a statement.

"The number of recorded deaths ... stands at nine until now."

It added that the Palestinian health ministry "has the necessary medicines, testing kits and equipment to deal efficiently with the spread of the virus".

The virus has affected Israel and the Palestinian territories in the past, killing dozens of people.

In 2009, an H1N1 epidemic erupted in Mexico and spread into a worldwide pandemic that caused at least 17,000 deaths.

In 1997, the H5N1 strain of influenza, commonly known as bird flu, broke out in Hong Kong.

Spreading from live birds to humans through direct contact, it causes fever and breathing problems and claimed 359 human lives in 15 countries, mainly in Asia and Africa, from 2003 to August of this year, according to the World Health Organisation.

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Hanlong to buy Sundance: report

A PRIVATELY-owned Chinese company is finalising the acquisition of an Australian mining firm that controls a major iron ore mine in west Africa, China's official Xinhua News Agency reports.

The move would give China a stronger role in setting global iron ore prices.

Xinhua, citing officials from Hanlong Group, based in southwestern China's Sichuan province, said Hanlong plans to complete the acquisition of Sundance Resources Ltd for 45 cents per share by March 1, after submitting paperwork to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Sundance controls the Mbalam iron ore mine, which straddles Cameroon and the Republic of Congo.

Hanlong is seeking a partnership with Chinese state-owned companies and investing $US5 billion ($4.84 billion) to develop the Mbalam project and to build a 550-kilometre railway and a shipping port, Xinhua said.

Operations are expected to begin in 2014, Xinhua said.

As the world's second-largest economy, China is eager to acquire overseas assets and resources to feed its rapid growth.

The prospect of a takeover appeared remote earlier this month following news that Hanlong wanted to delay the bid because it could not secure funding by December 13, AAP reported.

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'Invisible Exhibition' opens eyes to blind

THE darkness is total. Mundane gestures suddenly become complicated. How do you find the door to your room, cook a meal or cross the road?

The Invisible Exhibition in the Polish capital Warsaw offers an opportunity to understand what it is like to be sightless, as blind guides steer visitors round in blacked-out rooms .

"The visitors take on the role of the blind," exhibition curator Malgorzara Szumowska told AFP.

"Thanks to a series of sense-based installations, you experience what it is to live in the dark."

The hour-long tour requires a healthy imagination, as the sighted learn how smell, hearing, taste and touch work differently in this unknown world.

"There are six rooms, all in utter darkness. Each one replicates a scene from daily life: an apartment, a street, a museum, and so on," said Szumowska.

The noise seems overwhelming in the street scene, where visitors must dodge cars and lampposts. Smells are a delight in a forest chalet, as is the sound of a stream under a small wooden bridge.

The last stop is a loud cafe where the blind guide takes on the role of the barman.

Along with the dark side, the exhibition has a section with light that offers educational games to stimulate the senses and demonstrates tools the blind use in their daily lives, such as braille.

"Our goal is to show that the invisible world is beautiful and sumptuous, and that the blind have a sense of humour, with a life and passions," said Szumowska. "Fate doesn't exclude them from society."

The idea for the exhibition came from Hungary, where a woman blacked out her apartment to understand and share the experience of her husband, blinded by an accident.

Her experiment led to an exhibition-cum-social project in the capital Budapest. It caught on, and was followed by a version in the Czech capital Prague then another one in Warsaw, which opened a year ago.

Some 30,000 people have visited Niewidzialna Wystawa, as it's called in Polish.

"It's very powerful," said Warsaw student Aleksandra. "At first I was terrified. I didn't know what was going on around me. I felt lost. But luckily there was a blind guide."

The guides are paid, a boost in a labour market where options for the blind are often limited.

"It's the best job I've ever had," said Pawel Kozlowski, one of the team.

It's also a challenge, said 31-year-old Pawel Orabczuk, a graduate in teaching and social work as well as a sound engineer and drummer in a heavy metal band who has been blind since birth.

"The main thing for we guides is to ensure that everything feels fine and safe," he said. You not only have to help visitors tap their four remaining senses but you must do so "only through words, because they can't see your gestures in the dark".

"If only one visitor in 10 realises that you should consider the blind as an ordinary person, that's a success," he added.

Even "we can still say, 'See you soon'," he said at the exit. "How else can you put it?"

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Damascus car bomb kills 5

A CAR bomb blast in northeastern Damascus killed five men and wounded dozens of people on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"A car bomb blast in the district of Qaboon killed five men, wounded dozens of other people and caused widespread material damage," said the Britain-based watchdog.

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Don't return to sectarian strife: Iraq PM

IRAQI Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has called for people to stand together against sectarian strife, warning of a return to the days of bloody conflict when heads were left in the streets.

Maliki called in a speech in Baghdad for Iraqis to "stand together in one rank in facing this strife".

And the Shi'ite premier warned of a return to the worst days of the sectarian conflict that swept Iraq from 2006 to 2008.

"Have you forgotten the day we were collecting bodies from the streets? Have you forgotten the day we were collecting severed heads from the streets?" he asked.

Maliki's remarks came two days after security forces arrested at least nine of Sunni Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi's guards on terror charges, threatening a new crisis with the minister's secular, Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc.

After his guards were arrested, Essawi demanded Maliki's resignation, and also called for no-confidence proceedings that failed to remove the premier earlier this year to be reopened.

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Egypt VP Mekki resigns: state TV

EGYPTIAN Vice President Mahmud Mekki announced his resignation on Saturday, state television reported, on the day of a referendum on a new constitution that leaves unclear whether his position would be maintained.

Mr Mekki, 58, was a respected judge before President Mohamed Morsi named him to the post in August.

He led judicial opposition to ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, but eschewed calls to become a presidential candidate himself, saying he wished to stay politically independent.

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Bomber kills 9 at Pakistan political rally

A SUICIDE bomber in Pakistan has killed nine people including a provincial government official at a political rally, officials say.

The rally in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Pakistani Taliban.

Among the dead was Bashir Bilour, the second most senior member of the provincial cabinet, said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the politician's brother and federal railways minister.

More than 20 others were wounded by the blast, said local police officer Sabir Khan.

Bilour was leaving the rally after delivering the keynote speech when the attack occurred, said Nazir Khan, a local Awami National Party leader.

"There was smoke and dust all around, and dead and wounded people were lying on the ground," he said.

The suicide bomber was on foot, said another police officer, Imtiaz Khan.

Mohammed Afridi, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call with The Associated Press.

He said the militant group has formed a special wing to attack members of the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Quami Movement, another political party that has opposed the Taliban.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister and a member of the Awami National Party, said both he and Bilour had repeatedly received threats from militants.

He condemned the attack and said the government needed to intensify its battle against the Pakistani Taliban.

"Terrorism has engulfed our whole society," said Hussain.

"They are targeting our bases, our mosques, our bazaars, public meetings and our security checkpoints."

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Bahrain protesters demand departure of PM

THOUSANDS of Shi'ite protesters in Bahrain have demanded a transition government and the removal of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been premier since 1974, witnesses say.

They said the demonstrators marched in the village of Diya near the capital Manama, chanting "Resign, Khalifa!" and waving Bahraini flags.

The Shi'ite opposition in the tiny Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom is led by al-Wefaq, which wants a government of technocrats to rule in a transition leading to a constitutional monarchy.

Since February last year, Bahrain has been shaken by opposition protests that the authorities accuse of being exploited by Shi'ite Iran across the Gulf.

At least 80 people have died since the start of the unrest in February 2011, according to the International Federation of Human Rights.

The opposition insists that the premier stand down and that the government be headed by the leader of the elected majority in parliament

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Taliban seek new Afghanistan constitution

AFGHANISTAN'S Taliban has called for a new constitution as a pre-condition for it joining the country's fledgling peace process, according to a declaration issued by representatives at a landmark meeting in France.

Representatives from the country's warring factions met on Thursday for two days of talks that diplomats hope will bolster relations in the war-torn country.

It is the first time since a US-led bombing campaign drove the Taliban from power in 2001 that senior representatives have sat down with officials from the government and other opposition groups to discuss the country's future, in a meeting brokered by a French think tank.

"Afghanistan's present constitution has no value for us because it was made under the shadows of B52 bombers of the invaders," said the declaration, which was handed to participants during the meeting and later released to the media.

"Islamic Emirate, for the welfare of their courageous nation, need a constitution that is based on the principles of the holy religion of Islam, national interest, historical achievements, and social justice," it read.

The meeting in France was organised by the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), and was held behind closed doors at an undisclosed location near Paris.

The talks come against a background of accelerating efforts to draw the Taliban and other opponents of President Hamid Karzai into negotiations on how Afghanistan will be run after foreign troops withdraw at the end of 2014.

Karzai's government has drawn up a roadmap for peace which involves persuading the Taliban and other insurgent groups to agree to a ceasefire as a prelude to becoming peaceful players in the country's nascent democracy.

As a first step in that direction, Karzai's administration has been attempting to secure the release of top Taliban prisoners held by neighbouring Pakistan.

Despite the landmark meeting, the Taliban's declaration continued to display a lack of trust in the government.

"The invaders and their friends don't have a clear roadmap for peace," it stated.

"Sometimes they say we want to talk to the Islamic Emirate, but sometimes they say we will talk with Pakistan. This kind of vague stance will never get to peace," it said.

To date the Taliban has refused to negotiate with the government, which it regards as a puppet of the United States.

Discussions with US officials were suspended in March.

In France the Taliban was represented by their senior figures Shahabuddin Dilawar and Naeem Wardak, a move seen as a sign that the Islamist group is contemplating going beyond exploratory discussions.

The Taliban, who ruled in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, were ousted from power by a US-led invasion and have since waged an 11-year insurgency to topple the US-supported government of Karzai.

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Kenya deputy PM eyes presidential bid

KENYAN Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity over deadly 2007-08 election violence, says he will run for president in the March vote.

"I have been mandated by (the Jubilee coalition) to be the flag bearer in the March 4 election, and I will never let you down," he said.

The son of Jomo Kenyatta, who is considered the founding father of Kenyan independence, Uhuru Kenyatta has been charged by the ICC over his alleged role in the unrest unleashed after the December 2007 elections that killed at least 1100 people.

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Punish those who shot UN chopper: Russia

RUSSIA has urged South Sudan to punish those responsible for shooting down a UN peacekeeping helicopter and killing all four Russian crew members aboard, in an attack condemned by the international community.

"We call on the government of South Sudan to carry out the necessary investigation, punish the guilty and take every measure to guarantee that this never happens again," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website after Friday's incident.

A South Sudan military spokesman said troops fired anti-aircraft guns at the Russian Mi-8 believing it was a rebel helicopter carrying weapons to anti-government forces in the world's newest country.

The United Nations said the aircraft was hit while on a "reconnaissance flight" over the Likuangole district of the eastern Jonglei state.

"The tragic event in this African country raises with new urgency the question of the security of UN peacekeeping missions," the Russian ministry said, attributing the helicopter downing to "blunders".

"The governments of countries that accept missions and carry the main responsibility for the security of UN peacekeepers must approach this problem with all seriousness and recognise all the possible consequences of blunders," it said.

It cited South Sudan officials as saying the helicopter was downed "despite the fact that the UN mission informed the local command about the planned flight as usual".

"The mission was guaranteed complete safety," the ministry said.

Russian television named the men who died as commander Sergei Ilyin, second pilot Alfir Abrarov, flight engineer Sergei Yegorov and cabin attendant and radio operator Nikolai Shpanov.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon, as well as the UN Security Council, had vehemently condemned the attack.

He said on Friday it was a "clearly marked" UN aircraft and demanded that those responsible be brought to account.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also said in a statement on Saturday that she "deplores" the attack and "calls on the government of South Sudan to give full cooperation in the investigation of this very serious incident".

Jongeli state has been stricken by ethnic strife since South Sudan became independent from Khartoum in July last year, becoming a base for rebellion against the new government.

The Mi-8 helicopter is a hardy workhorse model that was developed in the 1960s and is still being made in a modified version today.

It can carry up to 28 passengers or be used to transport cargo.

The downed aircraft belonged to the Nizhnevartovsk-Avia air company based in the Western Siberian town of Nizhnevartovsk.

The company was working on a contract with the United Nations, acting director Sergei Bakunin said in televised comments.

"They are fine pilots. The commander had more flight experience than the others: around 7000 hours. He went through Afghanistan, so he had great experience," he said.

The company had been working in South Sudan since March this year when Russian troops that had been servicing flights since 2006 left the region, Russian television reported.

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Last French troops exit Afghanistan

FRANCE has flown its last combat troops out of Afghanistan, two years before allied countries in the 100,000-strong NATO mission led by the United States are due to recall their fighting forces.

Around 200 soldiers of the 25th Belfort infantry regiment, responsible for overseeing the hastened French exit from the 11-year war, took off around 2.30pm local time (2100 AEDT), an airport official said.

They are expected to return to France on December 18 following a three-day decompression stay on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Their departure means France has around 1500 soldiers left in Afghanistan, the vast majority in Kabul. They are due to stay into 2013 to take responsibility for repatriating equipment and training the Afghan army to take over.

Only several hundred French soldiers involved in cooperation or training missions will remain in the country.

At the height of its involvement, France had 4000 soldiers in Afghanistan as the fifth largest military contingent in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), behind the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy.

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NSW healthcare system 'working well'

RATES of premature death from cancer, heart disease and stroke have fallen across NSW, but further improvements could be made in the state's health care system, a report says.

Results from the third annual Healthcare in Focus 2012 report, which compares the performance of the NSW health care system with other states and countries, found fewer years of life are lost to cancer and heart disease in NSW than in most other countries, Bureau of Health Information chief Kim Browne said.

"NSW is performing quite well when we compare internationally," Ms Browne told AAP.

"(But) there are areas where we've got opportunities to improve compared to international comparators."

The report indicated NSW has one of the lowest rates of potential years of life lost to cancer, outperforming France, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the US.

Only Sweden has a lower rate, Ms Browne said.

Fewer years of life were lost to cardiovascular disease and stroke in NSW than in most other countries, the report found.

Ms Browne added fewer years of life were lost to heart attack in NSW than in any of the 10 other countries examined in the report.

But there are areas of the health care system that can be improved, she said.

"Unplanned readmissions for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are mid-range ... but they're higher than places like Canada, the UK and Switzerland," she told AAP.

NSW also has a high rate of hospitalisation for diabetic, medical and surgical care complications, a statistic Ms Browne would like to see decrease.

"It's a bit of a mixed picture but overall when we look internationally NSW tends to perform fairly well," Ms Browne said.

Health care system users were surveyed as part of the report and the majority rated their experiences and treatment positively, she said.

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Opposition claims Egypt 'vote rigging'

THE opposition accused Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood of attempted "vote rigging" in today's referendum on a new constitution for Egypt.

The National Salvation Front, in a statement, expressed "deep concern... over the number of irregularities and violations in the holding of the referendum," charging it "points to a clear desire for vote rigging by the Muslim Brotherhood."

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Mandela undergoes gallstone surgery

SOUTH Africa's presidency says Nelson Mandela has undergone successful surgery to remove gallstones.

The presidency said the 94-year-old Mandela underwent the surgery overnight. The presidency said Mr Mandela's doctors wanted to treat a recurrent lung infection before putting him through the surgery.

The statement said: "The procedure was successful and Madiba is recovering." It referred to Mandela by his clan name as a sign of affection.

Mr Mandela has been in hospital since Dec. 8.

Mr Mandela is revered for being a leader of the struggle against racist white rule in South Africa. He served one five-year term as president before retiring from public life.

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Bodies removed from US massacre school

THE bodies of 20 young children and six adults massacred by a lone gunman in a quiet US town were finally removed from the blood-soaked school, police said.

The formal identification of the victims in one of America's worst mass shootings marked a new chapter for horrified residents of Newtown, Connecticut, where Friday morning a 20-year-old man walked in with at least two powerful pistols and shot everyone he could find in two rooms of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"By early this morning, they were able to positively identify all of the victims and make formal identification to all of the families of the victims," said Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieutenant Paul Vance.

The removal of bodies, which were initially left for investigators, "has been accomplished," he said on CBS television. "That was done overnight."

The gunman shot dead 18 children inside the school and two more died of their wounds shortly afterwards. Six adults, including the school principal, perished before the gunman died - apparently in a suicide.

Authorities offered little clue as to the motive for the shootings in Newtown, a wooded and picturesque small town northeast of New York City.

Hours after the shooting, hundreds of people gathered for a vigil, the crowd filling the church to capacity and spilling outside its doors.

"This is a kind of community, when things like that happen, they really pull together," the priest, Robert Weiss, said during the Mass.

A letter from Pope Benedict XVI was also read during the service.

Pope Benedict XVI sent his condolences to the community, in a letter read aloud at a vigil in Newtown Friday evening.

The pope "has asked me to convey his heartfelt grief and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to the victims and their families, and to all affected by the shocking event," Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said in the letter.

"In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy he asks God our Father to console all those who mourn and to sustain the entire community," the letter said.

David Connors, whose triplets were at the school during the shooting but were unharmed, said he was still horrified.

"It's hard. I've never imagined a thing like that could happen here."

"Our faith is tested," state Governor Dan Malloy told the congregants.

"Not just necessarily our faith in God, but our faith in community, and who we are, and what we collectively are."

Earlier the governor had said "evil visited this community today."

US President Barack Obama, wiping away tears and struggling to maintain his composure, said he was aghast over the tragedy.

State police spokesman Vance said just one injured person survived, indicating that the gunman was unusually accurate or methodical in his fire.

The majority of killings, which began at around 9:30am local time, "took place in one section of the school, in two rooms," Vance added. The children were aged between five and 10, officials said.

The killer was identified as Adam Lanza, 20. Initially, police told media they thought the murderer was his brother, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, whose identity card had been found on the shooter's dead body.

The surviving brother was in custody and being questioned, according to US television reports.

Many news outlets said another victim found in a home in Newtown - the 28th body in the day's bloodshed - was the shooter's mother, who was a teacher at Sandy Hook and whom he had killed before driving to the school.

Mr Obama went on national television to express his "overwhelming grief." He ordered flags to be lowered to half mast.

And there were similar statements of grief and shock around the world.

The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, spoke of his "deep shock and horror," the Queen sent a message to Mr Obama in which she said she was "deeply shocked and saddened," and French President Francois Hollande expressed his condolences to Mr Obama, saying the news "horrified me."

Of all US campus shootings, the toll was second only to the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university.

The latest number far exceeded the 15 killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which triggered a fierce but inconclusive debate about the United States' relaxed gun control laws.

However, the White House has scotched any suggestion that the politically explosive subject would be quickly reopened.

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Russia breaks up anti-Putin rally

RUSSIAN police have detained dozens of people, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after breaking up an anti-Vladimir Putin rally in Moscow.

Scores of Muscovites, many holding white roses, defied authorities by gathering at Lubyanka Square, despite temperatures of minus 14 Celsius.

Police pushed protesters from the precinct and shoved some into vans two hours into the Saturday rally following warnings it would be broken up.

"By the end it was rough," Nikolai Svanidze, a member of the Kremlin-linked human rights council told Dozhd television.

Police said around 40 people had been detained.

"The unsanctioned action has now been thwarted and serious provocations were prevented," police said in a statement.

Mr Navalny, possibly the most charismatic figure in the protest movement, was detained a day after investigators launched a new criminal probe against him for suspected fraud.

"It's raving mad. (They) simply snatched me from the crowd," Mr Navalny tweeted from inside a police van.

Police also arrested Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of leftist group the Left Front, and activists Ilya Yashin and Ksenia Sobchak, the daughter of Putin's late mentor Anatoly Sobchak.

"One of the policemen mentioned that we had criminal intentions," Mr Yashin told Echo of Moscow radio by telephone from detention.

The prominent figures arrested all noted that the police vans holding them had been equipped with webcams to keep close watch on their behaviour.

Police put the turnout at around 700 people, over 300 of them journalists and bloggers, but an AFP correspondent said the number of the protesters appeared to be significantly higher.

People laid white lilies, carnations and chrysanthemums at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to victims of Stalin-era purges adorning the square, as a helicopter hovered overhead.

The opposition movement is hoping to maintain momentum despite internal divisions between liberals, leftists and nationalists and the authorities' tough crackdown on dissenters since Putin's return to the Kremlin in May.

Smaller rallies were held in several cities across Russia including Mr Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg, where about 1200 people gathered for a sanctioned march.

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School gunman 'forced' his way in: police

THE gunman who slaughtered 20 young children and six adults at a US school in Connecticut "forced" his way into the building, police say.

Lieutenant Paul Vance of Connecticut State Police said the man - identified widely in media reports as 20-year-old Adam Lanza - was not let into the Sandy Hook Elementary School "voluntarily".

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Family mourns after US school tragedy

PUERTO Rican relatives of one of the 20 children shot dead at a US primary school say the family of the 6-year-old girl moved to the mainland just two months earlier.

The parents of Ana Grace Marquez had moved from Canada to Connecticut and enrolled her at Sandy Hook Elementary School because of its good reputation, the child's grandmother, Elba Marquez, told The Associated Press.

"They looked for the best school for their daughter, the best," Marquez said, adding that she had flown there for Thanksgiving.

She said the family had moved to the area because Ana Grace's mother had been hired to teach at a local university.

"It was a beautiful place, just beautiful," Elba Marquez said.

"What happened does not match up with the place where they live."

Elba Marquez's brother, Jorge Marquez, who is mayor of a Puerto Rican town, said Ana Grace had a 9-year-old brother who was at the school during the shooting.

"He was in another classroom," he said.

The family flew from Puerto Rico to Connecticut overnight for the girl's funeral.

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Gazans mass for Hamas anniversary

MORE than 100,000 Palestinians have gathered in Gaza for a rally marking the 25th anniversary of Hamas to be addressed by the ruling Islamist movement's leader in exile.

Politburo chief Khaled Meshaal crossed from Egypt on Friday on his first ever visit to Gaza and his first to the Palestinian territories since 1975.

His speech was set to be the headline event of the rally.

Meshaal arrived at the main stage in the al-Qitaba complex west of Gaza City which was transformed into a sea of green Hamas flags.

He was accompanied by his deputy Mussa Abu Marzuk and Gaza's Hamas premier Ismail Haniya.

The celebrations come just over two weeks after an Egyptian-brokered truce ended eight days of bloodshed with Israel which left 174 Palestinians dead.

"We used only 10 per cent of our capacity in the fighting," a masked spokesman for Hamas military wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades told the crowd.

"If you had escalated (your attacks), so would we have," he told Israel.

"We will cut the hand that extends in aggression against our people and leaders."

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ofir Gendelman, retorted on Twitter that Hamas was celebrating "25 years of murdering Israelis by rockets & suicide bombings, as well as executing Fatah members & violating Pal human rights".

Fatah is the rival Palestinian faction of president Mahmud Abbas and his West Bank-based administration.

Around the rally venue, security forces were out in strength, closing off nearby roads from the early hours.

Dozens of masked members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades kept watch from surrounding rooftops.

Huge portraits of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, assassinated by Israel in 2004, and Hamas military commander Ahmed Jaabari, assassinated by Israel on November 14 this year, were on the main stage.

Between the portraits was a model of an M75 rocket of the sort fired at Israeli cities during last month's conflict that began with Jaabari's assassination.

On the backdrop was a model of Jerusalem's golden-domed al-Aqsa mosque, which appears on the Hamas emblem.

Head of Hamas public activity Ashraf Abu Zaed said he expected more than 200,000 people to participate in the anniversary celebrations, which were also being held in other Gaza towns.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said that at least 3000 people from Arab and Muslim states had arrived in Gaza in recent days to attend the events.

Founded in 1987 shortly after the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, Hamas was inspired by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

Its charter calls for the eventual destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state on the pre-1948 borders of the British Palestine Mandate.

In 2006, Hamas won a landslide general election victory, routing Abbas' long-dominant Fatah.

Some 18 months later, Hamas ousted Fatah forces from Gaza after several weeks of running street battles.

Speaking in Gaza on Friday, Meshaal promised to "walk down the route of reconciliation, bury the division (with Fatah) and empower unity in order to be aligned as one in the face of the Zionist entity," Israel.

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Chinese officials punished for demolition

CHINESE state media say 17 officials and workers have been punished after two people died during the forced demolition of a building.

The official Xinhua News Agency says a cement board fell from the illegally constructed building as it was being demolished on Friday in Renhuai city in southwest China's Guizhou province, killing two workers and injuring three others.

Xinhua said on Saturday that local residents carried the bodies to the city government building, causing a disturbance.

It said three officials were criminally detained for dereliction of duty, five others were suspended, and nine workers involved in the demolition were detained.

Forced demolition is common in China, as local governments try to remake their cities, but it is rare for officials or demolition workers to be punished.

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Taiwan finance 'titan' Koo dies at 79

TAIWANESE tycoon Jeffrey L.S. Koo, head of a leading financial group and one of the island's richest men, has died at the age of 79, his company says.

Koo, chairman of Chinatrust Financial Holding Co, died at a hospital in New York on Thursday, his company said without identifying the cause of death.

"Chairman Koo was a titan in Taiwan's economy, trade and diplomacy," President Ma Ying-jeou's office said in a statement.

"Koo had countless friends in the United States, Japan and other Asian countries and he effectively helped the government promote trade and diplomacy... President Ma was deeply saddened by his death."

An influential business leader fluent in English and Japanese, Koo was appointed a presidential adviser in 1996 and an ambassador-at-large in 1998 by former president Lee Teng-hui to help promote Taiwan internationally.

Koo, from one of Taiwan's most prominent and richest families, was credited with helping stabilise ties with Washington when it switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

Koo's late uncle Koo Chen-fu had served as Taiwan's top negotiator with China while he accompanied former vice president Lien Chan on a landmark visit to China in 2005 to promote peace with the mainland.

Koo's business empire included petrochemicals, cement, construction and telecommunications.

Koo is survived by his wife Koo Lin Jui-hui, three sons and a daughter.

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Syrian regime resembles militia: Turkey

THE Syrian regime has degenerated into an "armed militia" that resorts to brutality in an attempt to stay in power, Turkey's foreign minister said at a meeting with top Arab diplomats.

The officials at a one-day summit in Istanbul described the Syrian regime as a threat to peace and security in the region, and also expressed support for the Palestinians after the United Nations endorsed an independent state for them on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey said the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad had lost its legitimacy after 20 months of conflict that started with peaceful protests against the regime and evolved into a civil war after pro-Assad forces cracked down.

"It has turned into an armed militia power that resorts to all kinds of brutal methods just to stay in power," Davutoglu said on Saturday.

"The Syrian regime, which is a serious threat to the future of its own people and country, with each passing day increases the threat poses to the well-being of our region, through its actions that target peace and security beyond its borders."

The Syrian civil war has forced hundreds of thousands of Syrians to flee the country, and many more are internally displaced. Activists say more than 40,000 people have died. Fighting has spilled into Turkey and other neighbouring countries.

Turkey has asked NATO to deploy Patriot missiles on its territory as a defence against any attacks by the Syrian regime, and there are fears that the conflict is deepening sectarian divisions in the region.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour agreed that the Syrian war has "negative ramifications" for the region. But he advocated dialogue as the only solution to the crisis, contrasting with Turkey's calls at the United Nations for an internationally protected "buffer zone" inside Syria that would protect civilians. Such a zone would likely require military action to secure it, including a no-fly zone.

"There should not be any external military or any other kind of intervention," said Mansour, current chairman of the Arab League.

He said the meeting of a dozen foreign ministers as well as other delegates, titled the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum, was a positive sign for a region traditionally plagued by a lack of political unity. Turkey launched the annual meeting in 2007.

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Indonesia detains tourist in Papua

INDONESIAN police in restive Papua have detained a Ukrainian tourist attending a prayer session to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the region's movement for independence.

Artem Shapirenko, 36, was detained by police on Saturday in the town of Manokwari in western Papua where around 50 people took part in a prayer at the traditional leaders council building. It was unclear why he had been held.

Shapirenko, wearing a Bob Marley T-shirt, held his fist in the air and yelled "Free Papua" in Indonesian as police officers ushered him into their vehicle, said an AFP reporter in Manokwari.

A photocopy of the man's tourist visa, obtained by the police, showed it had expired in July this year.

"A Ukraine citizen, Artem Shapirenko, is undergoing questioning at police headquarters and is co-operating," Manokwari police chief Ricko Taruna Mauruh said.

Papua declared independence from the Dutch on December 1, 1961, but neighbouring Indonesia took control of the region with force in 1963. It officially annexed Papua in 1969 with a UN-backed vote, widely seen as a sham.

The separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM), which formed in 1965, also marks the birth of its organisation on the December anniversary, when rallies and commemorations are held across Papua.

Police had beefed up security ahead of the anniversary and arrested three youth activists in the city of Jayapura, capital of Papua, according to a provincial police spokesman.

Jakarta keeps a tight grip on Papua and foreign journalists are de facto banned from reporting in the region.

More than 170 people are imprisoned in Indonesia for promoting separatism, most of them from Papua or the Maluku islands in eastern Indonesia, according to Human Rights Watch.

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Spain's elBulli to sell wine cellar

SPAIN'S famed chef Ferran Adria says the contents of the wine cellar of his former restaurant, elBulli, is to be auctioned off to raise funds for his new project.

ElBulli served its last supper and closed in July last year with Adria and business partner Juli Soler planning to establish "an experimental centre looking at the process of innovation and creativity".

Adria told The Associated Press on Saturday that the sale is to raise funds for the foundation. Sotheby's auction house says more than 8800 bottles from elBulli's cellar would be auctioned next year with a view to raising an estimated $US1.6 million ($A1.5 million).

El Bulli maintained an almost unattainable Michelin three-star status for over a decade and was rated the world's best restaurant five times by British magazine The Restaurant.

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Give back our money, Spaniards tell banks

Protesters and members of the Association of Users of Banks and Insurance of Spain take part in a protest to demand that the bailed-out lenders give their money back to customers, in Madrid. Picture: AFP/CESAR MANSO Source: AFP

FURIOUS Spaniards who say banks cheated them of their savings have taken to the streets demanding that the bailed-out lenders give them their money back.

"Thieves! Where is our money?" bellowed a crowd of some 1000 protesters, many of them elderly, outside the central bank in Madrid before marching on the offices of Bankia, the ruined finance giant.

The protesters say Bankia told them it was putting their money in secure savings products but actually sold them "preferential shares" as it scrambled to raise funds after the financial crisis started in 2008.

Now that Bankia and other lenders have collapsed and had to be rescued with funds from Spain's European partners, customers stand to lose a big chunk of their savings.

The banking consumers' group ADICAE, which has brought legal action against Bankia, planned similar demonstrations in more than 20 towns on Saturday.

Its president Manuel Pardos said in a statement the customers were "victims of a massive fraud" and were now being subjected to "illegal imposed losses".

The European Union on Wednesday gave a green light for the payment of the first slice of the rescue aid, some 37 billion euros ($A46 billion), for Bankia and three other Spanish banks.

To meet the conditions demanded by Brussels, Bankia said holders of the so-called "preferentials" would be repaid in shares worth only 61 per cent of the value of the money they put in the bank.

"They want to take away 40 per cent from us," said one protester, Paloma, 59, who put 25,000 ($A31,000) into preferential shares, being told she would get the money back after five years.

"I spent 25 years saving a little each day and now when I need it they won't give it to me," said Paloma, who asked not to be identified by her surname.

Spanish banks were brought low by the collapse of a construction boom in 2008 that threw millions into unemployment and poverty. Spain is deep in recession, with one in four workers unemployed.

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Suu Kyi to head probe into Chinese-backed mine

MYANMAR opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will lead a probe into a crackdown on a protest against a Chinese-backed copper mine which will also assess the future of the disputed project, the president's office said on Saturday.

The 30-strong non-parliamentary commission will investigate the "social and environmental issues" behind the protests, some of the most serious since a reform-minded government took over last year.

The Nobel laureate sought on Friday to mediate an end to the stand-off at the mine in Monywa, northern Myanmar, which saw scores of villagers and monks injured in the toughest clampdown on demonstrators since President Thein Sein came to power.

The commission will "investigate the truth" of the pre-dawn raid by riot police and assess whether the "copper mining project is being implemented in accord with international norms", a statement on the presidential office website, signed by Thein Sein, said late on Saturday.

In addition to probing the crackdown the commission will advise whether "to continue the copper mining project and whether to stop foreign investment", the statement said, without providing further details.

Activists are calling for work at the mine -- a joint venture between Chinese firm Wanbao and military-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings -- to be suspended to allow impact studies amid allegations of mass evictions and pollution.

The commission will be made up of prominent activists, lawmakers and other officials.

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Syrian telecomms down for third day

SYRIAN Internet and mobile phone links remained cut for a third straight day on Saturday, an AFP correspondent in Damascus reported, amid US accusations the government is deliberately seeking to deprive the opposition of communications.

But activists and human rights monitors said that ordinary civilians were harder hit by the blackout than the opposition as they unable to use cellphones even to call for emergency assistance in the event of casualties from the persistent violence rocking the country.

"Many activists have satellite phones, but the average Syrian who needs to make a mobile phonecall to get help for an injured person, for instance, can no longer do so," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.

"Internet was supposed to be restored on Friday, but it isn't back yet," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said activists without satellite connections had been forced to resort to landlines.

"We speak in code, because landlines are monitored by the government," said Abdel Rahman, whose Britain-based monitoring group relies on a network of medics and activists inside Syria for its reports.

An activist in a rebel-held area of Syria contacted by AFP from Beirut said that it was primarily people in areas still under government control who were affected by the blackout.

"While many activists in rebel-held areas have access to satellite phone and Internet devices, families in regime-held areas, who have been separated by the conflict, have been cut off from each other completely by this blackout," the activist said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Syrian authorities have said the interruption to normal service is purely for maintenance but Washington has said the move is a deliberate ploy to impede communications among rebels and opposition activists.

State television, meanwhile, accused a US company it did not identify of blacking out the official SANA news agency's website, which has been down since Thursday.

The company "was acting under the pretext of (US) sanctions against Syria," the broadcaster said.

Google and Twitter have said that they have reactivated a voice-tweet program, last used in 2011 when the Internet was shut down in Egypt during its revolution, to allow Syrians affected by the shutdown to get messages out.

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Kuwait poll hit by opposition boycott

KUWAITIS have cast ballots for a second general election in 10 months, but turnout has been low after a boycott call by the opposition which argues the parliament has lost all its legitimacy.

The vote comes nearly two months after Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah dissolved a pro-government parliament following its reinstatement in June by a court ruling that also annulled an assembly elected in February.

Predominantly tribal constituencies led the way with the boycott on Saturday as voters appeared to heed the appeal by both their chiefs and the opposition to stay away from polling over a disputed electoral law.

More activity was seen in other districts, but the highest turnout was in districts populated by the Shi'ite minority, according to an AFP correspondent and witnesses.

The opposition, which held 36 of the 50 seats in the scrapped parliament, cannot win any in Saturday's election as it has not fielded candidates among the 306 hopefuls, which include 13 women.

Voter turnout is therefore being seen as the key test between the Islamist, nationalist and liberal opposition and the government led by the ruling Al-Sabah family.

And each side is already claiming success, although it is still too early to draw a conclusion.

"The Kuwaiti people have succeeded in bringing down (this) election by not taking part," opposition leader and former MP Mussallam al-Barrak said on Twitter.

Former parliament speaker and opposition leader Ahmad al-Saadun said Friday's opposition march and the boycott had taken away "popular and political legitimacy" from the next parliament and government.

Waleed al-Tabtabai, a former Islamist MP, said on Twitter that turnout would not exceed 15 per cent. In the polls held in February, turnout was about 65 per cent.

No official figures have been released so far but Information Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah al-Sabah told state television that "the turnout has so far been positive".

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One dead in Miami airport bus crash

OFFICIALS say a double-decker bus has hit an overpass at Miami International Airport, killing at least one person and injuring more than two-dozen people on board.

Airport spokesman Greg Chin says the bus, which was a cruise or tour bus, hit the overpass going into the airport's arrivals section on Saturday morning. The bus was going about 32km/h when it clipped the roof entrance.

Chin says 32 people were on the bus, and all have some sort of injuries. The arrival area remained blocked off by fire trucks and police cars Saturday morning.

Chin says buses are supposed to travel through the departure area, not the arrival section, because it has a higher clearance for large vehicles.
 

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Highway reopens after horror crash

THE Great Western Highway has reopened after a crash that killed four people, and left a man with critical injuries.

The highway reopened in both directions around 12.45am (AEDT) on Sunday, the Transport Management Centre said.

All lanes of the highway had been closed between Bathurst and Lithgow after the crash at Glanmire, east of Bathurst, around 1.40pm on Saturday.

"A lengthy recovery operation has been completed and all diversions have been lifted," a spokeswoman said.

It was reported that the horrific crash - involving a car, a ute and a semi trailer - occurred after one of the vehicles swerved to miss a dog that had run onto the road.

Three people in the car were killed instantly, while a passenger in the ute also died at the scene.

The ute driver was trapped for an hour and half before being airlifted to Westmead Hospital with life threatening injuries.

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Anti-immigration couple lose foster kids

THREE children from ethnic minority groups have been taken away from their foster parents because the couple support the anti-immigration UK Independence Party.

The couple from Yorkshire in northern England said they had been fostering children for seven years but have been told by social workers that they were not suitable because of UKIP's calls for curbs on immigration to Britain.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said the decision was "indefensible" and opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband, whose party runs the local authority involved, called for an urgent investigation into the "very disturbing" claims.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage, a member of the European Parliament, said the situation was "appalling" and "disgraceful".

He accused the council of bigotry, insisting that decisions on foster care should be "colour-blind".

Following the outcry, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council announced it would launch an investigation into the actions of its staff.

The couple involved told the Daily Telegraph newspaper they had been "stigmatised and slandered" by the removal of the baby girl, boy and older girl they had been caring for for eight weeks.

The decision came after two officials visited to question them about their membership of UKIP, Britain's fourth-biggest party which campaigns for an end to Britain's membership of the European Union and a freeze on immigration.

The woman, a qualified nursery nurse, said the social worker told her: "We would not have placed these children with you had we known you were members of UKIP because it wouldn't have been the right cultural match".

She asked what UKIP had to do with the decision, "then one of them said, 'Well, UKIP have got racist policies'. The implication was that we were racist."

The identity of the couple, who are in their 50s, has been kept secret to protect the children.

Mr Gove condemned the council for making "the wrong decision in the wrong way for the wrong reasons" and said he would be looking into what happened.

Rotherham council's director of children's services, Joyce Thacker, told BBC radio the children had been placed with the couple as an emergency and it was never meant to be a long-term arrangement.

She added: "These children are not UK children and we were not aware of the foster parents having strong political views. There are some strong views in the UKIP party and we have to think of the future of the children."

UKIP started life on the fringes of politics but a recent ICM poll suggests it now has the support of seven per cent of voters.

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Iran congratulates Hamas 'victory'

IRAN'S President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has congratulated Gaza's Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya on a "great victory" over Israel, the two sides say.

Haniya in turn "thanked Iran for its support," they added, days after Tehran confirmed it had supplied military aid to Gaza.

"The Iranian president congratulated the people of Gaza and the (Palestinian) resistance facing Zionist aggression ... on their great victory," Iran's news agency ISNA reported on Saturday.

Haniya's office said Ahmadinejad called late on Friday to praise Gaza's "victory after eight days of Israeli aggression," referring to the Jewish state's Operation Pillar of Defence which ended with a Wednesday ceasefire.

"We stand beside the Palestinian people," the Iranian president added.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday said Iran had supplied military aid to Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza and which fired missiles at Tel Aviv for the first time during the eight-day conflict with Israel.

"We are proud to defend the people of Palestine and Hamas ... and that our assistance to them has been both financial and military," Larijani said in remarks reported by parliament's website, ICANA.ir.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari also said on Wednesday that Tehran had provided the "technology" for the Fajr 5 missiles used to target Tel Aviv, but denied supplying the actual weapons.

He said they were being "rapidly produced" in Gaza.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday thanked Iran as well as Egypt for their support during the conflict, saying Iran "had a role in arming" his Islamist movement.

The truce ended eight days of cross border attacks in which 166 Palestinians and six Israelis died.

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Dubai plans world's largest mall, new city

DUBAI famed for its mega-projects before it was hit by the global financial crisis, has announced a new development to open the world's biggest mall and a park larger than London's Hyde Park.

The ruler of the Gulf desert city state, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, announced the plan for a "new city within Dubai," according to an official statement on Saturday, naming it after himself.

No cost was stated for "Mohammed bin Rashid City," to be carried out by his Dubai Holding and the publicly-listed Emaar Properties, which developed many of Dubai's prestigious projects, including Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower.

The plan also features new residential areas, although the emirate continues to have a surplus of units built during a five-year bubble which burst in 2009.

The "Mall of the World" will have a capacity of 80 million visitors a year to become the "largest in the world," said the statement, while its park will be "30 per cent bigger than Hyde Park of London."

The mall will be connected to a family entertainment centre to be developed in cooperation with Universal Studios International that will be the largest in the region, aiming to attract six million visitors a year.

The emirate already has countless malls and hotels, including the Dubai Mall, touted as the world's largest shopping, leisure and entertainment destination, with 62 million visitors this year.

"The current facilities available in Dubai need to be scaled up in line with the future ambitions for the city," Sheikh Mohammed said in the statement.

Dubai's tourism is growing by 13 per cent a year, according to the statement, with hotel occupancy hitting 82 per cent in 2011 while hotel revenues grew 22 per cent last year, exceeding 16 billion dirhams ($4.26 billion).

The emirate rocked global financial markets in autumn 2009 over its debt crisis, but Dubai has restructured the mountain of debt owed by its corporations, and its economy has returned to growth after contracting in 2009.

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India to log 5.5% quarter growth: minister

INDIA'S economy logged around 5.5 per cent growth in the last financial quarter, a rate that could boost calls for lower interest rates to spur activity.

India's once-booming economy has been hit by high interest rates, Europe's debt crisis that has slowed exports, and sluggish investment caused by domestic and overseas concerns about policy and corruption.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said he expected official data to be released next Friday to show that the economy grew by "around 5.5 per cent" in the three months to September 30.

That would be down from 6.9 per cent in the same second-quarter period a year earlier.

"It goes without saying that we face a difficult situation," Chidambaram said at a bankers' conference, adding the "global economy is still in crisis".

India's economy was growing by more than eight per cent before 2011/12.

But it has been performing increasingly worse with the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan widely criticised for its handling of the situation.

Even though 5.5-per cent growth would be the envy of much of the world, it is not enough for India, which has been aiming for close to double-digit expansion to substantially reduce crushing poverty.

"For us eight per cent growth is not an aspiration but a necessity. India cannot afford to grow below eight per cent," Chidambaram said.

The slow growth comes at a time when it is more difficult for the Indian government to pep up the economy than in the 2008/09 financial crisis.

Then, the government had more fiscal room to stimulate the economy but now it is struggling to cut a widening budget deficit and avert a downgrade of its sovereign debt to "junk" status by global credit ratings agencies.

In addition, the central bank has been keeping interest rates high to combat stubbornly high inflation.

Inflation eased marginally in October to 7.45 per cent year-on-year, but economists said the level is still too high to permit the bank to lower rates.

Indian businesses have been calling for lower rates, saying the slowdown is in large part due to high borrowing costs that have curbed consumer spending.

Chidambaram said India must boost growth "through innovation, through finding ways of increasing the production of goods and services".

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Syria rebels attack army in Aleppo

SYRIAN rebels have attacked army positions in the northern province of Aleppo, while Islamist fighters clashed with Kurdish militias on the border with Turkey.

Insurgents also attacked troops guarding the strategic Tishrin dam, located on the Euphrates river between the provinces of Aleppo and Raqa.

The rebels have surrounded the area, about 10 kilometres from the town of Manbij, local resident Abu Mohammed told AFP.

Opposition fighters already control one of the main routes to Raqa and the Tishrin dam would give them a second passage, connecting a wide expanse of territory between the two provinces, both of which border Turkey.

In Aleppo city, the commercial capital where fighting has reached stalemate after five months of deadly urban combat, clashes broke out near an air force intelligence building, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Insurgents earlier this week captured Base 46, just west of Aleppo. Nearly 300 soldiers were killed in the sprawling army garrison, according to the rebels, and a large cache of arms and ammunition seized.

The rebels are aiming to also seize Sheikh Suleiman base, also west of the city, that they have encircled for nearly two months, to give them full control of a swathe of northwest Syria from Aleppo to the Turkish border.

In Hasakeh province, northwest Syria, Ras al-Ain saw its fiercest violence since the town near the Turkish border was captured by rebels two weeks ago, a resident told AFP.

"There are so few people, most have left. There is no electricity, no water and no mobile coverage," said Ali, a farmer in his 40s, who fled with his family on Saturday.

"The fighting has been non-stop for five or six days now, but in the last 24 hours it has gotten worse ... The Kurds are bringing reinforcements from Derik and other nearby villages," he said.

Two main Kurdish groups have joined forces in a standoff with hundreds of Islamist rebels, a Syrian Kurdish representative and an activist said on Friday.

Hundreds of fighters loyal to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) - which has close ties to Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - have been locked in fierce battles with fighters of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and allied Ghuraba al-Sham group in Ras al-Ain.

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Probe into attempt to set bear on fire

AN INQUIRY has been ordered into an attempt by a jeering mob to set a terrified bear on fire in northern Indian, a state minister said.

Television footage showed the frightened bear scrambling up a tree in the state of Jammu and Kashmir as one of the men in the crowd tied a flaming cloth to a pole and tried to poke the animal.

"We've ordered an inquiry - a senior government official will hold the inquiry," Kashmir forest minister Mian Altaf told India's NDTV network.

The incident took place in the southern Kashmir district of Shopian earlier in the week, the network said.

The bear eventually climbed down from the tree and managed to escape but its fate was unknown, Mr Altaf said.

The attack was reported just two days before India's environment ministry was due to host a global conference on bear conservation in New Delhi.

Vivek Menon, executive director of the Wildlife Trust of India, blamed the the incident on the increasing incursion by humans into bears' natural habitats in Kashmir and in other parts of the country.

"There has been a great land use change in Kashmir. People are living closer and closer to the forests and therefore coming into contact with bears - and both people and bears are suffering," he said.

According to medical officials, a large number of hospital beds in Kashmir are occupied by people suffering from wounds inflicted by bears, Mr Menon said.

"That is spreading fear and panic among people and resulting in absurd retaliatory measures," he said.

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Mideast nuclear conference moved to 2013

UN leader Ban Ki-moon says he has given up hope of holding a conference on a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East this year, but hopes it can be held in 2013.

Ban and Finnish special envoy Jaakko Laajava have been trying to persuade Middle East powers to attend the conference but hit opposition from Israel and others.

The conference, organised by the United States, Britain and Russia, was to be held in 2012 in Finland.

But Ban on Saturday said he was now aiming for it "to be convened at the earliest opportunity in 2013".

The US State Department on Friday said the conference could "not be convened because of present conditions in the Middle East and the fact that states in the region have not reached agreement on acceptable conditions for a conference".

"The United States believes that a deep conceptual gap persists in the region on approaches toward regional security and arms control arrangements," it said.

But Britain said the three co-organisers also wanted it held as soon as possible in 2013.

Ban also appealed to Middle East states to overcome their differences "to seize this rare opportunity to initiate a process that entails direct engagement on security issues".

Laajava will continue talks "in the shortest possible time which will allow the conference to be convened at the earliest opportunity in 2013," Ban said.

Israel had said it would not attend a conference now because of the tense security in the region and it would become a target of diplomatic attacks in any talks, diplomats said.

US diplomats had expressed similar fears, which have heightened since the eight days of conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement in Gaza this month.

Iran and Arab states criticise Israel for its suspected nuclear arsenal.

Israel refuses to say whether it has nuclear arms, though security experts say it has a substantial number of weapons.

Israel and the United States and its allies say Iran is the main proliferation threat, even though Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.

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Sirens go off in Tel Aviv, 1 dead in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Nov 17 AFP - Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed 10 Palestinians and destroyed the Hamas government headquarters as Israel called up thousands more reservists for a possible ground war.

After Palestinian militants fired rockets at the heart of Israel on Friday, Israeli warplanes carried out 180 air strikes overnight, Israel TV reported, with the strikes levelling the headquarters of the Hamas government.

Medics said 40 Gazans have been killed and more than 350 wounded since Israel launched an aerial campaign on the enclave on Wednesday afternoon, with at least five militants among the 10 people killed in Saturday's raids.

As the toll rose, sirens went off in Tel Aviv on Saturday for a third day running, sending people scuttling for cover, a day after a rocket crashed into the sea near the city centre, AFP correspondents said. The fire was claimed by Hamas's armed wing.

While Cairo was at the centre of efforts to halt the violence, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti appealed for a truce in a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, Monti's office said.

He called for "a truce between the parties as soon as possible, to bring to an end the fighting and allow dialogue and peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to begin again".

Since the start of Operation Pillar of Defence, the Israeli army says militants have fired more than 600 rockets over the border, of which 404 hit and 230 were intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system.

Over the same period, three Israelis have been killed and 18 injured, including 10 soldiers, with the army saying the air force had hit more than 830 targets in Gaza.

On Saturday, four Israeli soldiers and five civilians were hurt in separate rocket attacks on the south which hit a building and a car, police and the army said. Another militant group in Gaza, Islamic Jihad, claimed those attacks.

The military said it had sealed off all main roads around Gaza and declared a closed military zone, in the latest sign it was poised to launch its first ground offensive on the territory since the 22-day campaign over New Year 2009.

Overnight, the air force hit Gaza City, targeting Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya's headquarters, other government buildings, including the interior ministry and police compound, militant training facilities and "dozens of terror sites", it said.

Correspondents at the scene said the headquarters, which had been emptied over attack fears, was reduced to a pile of rubble but there were no reports of casualties.

Air strikes in southern Gaza, notably Rafah, killed six people while three more died in an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in central Gaza, medics said. Another man died of injuries sustained in a morning strike on Gaza City.

Saturday's violence came as Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem paid a brief solidarity visit to Gaza, a day after a similar mission by Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.

The world must stop Israel's "blatant aggression", Abdessalem told AFP on his arrival in Gaza City, where he visited the ruins of the cabinet building where a day earlier Haniya had received Qandil.

The Tunisian minister called on the Arab League to act to halt the aggression as it gathered for talks in Cairo.

Egypt and Turkey, meanwhile, put the onus on Israel to end the fighting, as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Cairo a day after Washington urged the two Muslim countries to pressure the Palestinians.

After a meeting with his counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr said they both agreed on "denouncing Israel's aggression and on the need to swiftly stop this aggression".

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Albania buries exiled king's remains

ALBANIA'S top leaders and thousands of people have paid their last respect to the country's only post-independence monarch, King Ahmet Zog I, half a century after he died and was buried in exile.

The nation's television stations on Saturday broadcast live the burial ceremony in the capital, a day after Zog's remains were returned from France.

He was buried in the family's mausoleum, alongside his Hungarian wife, Queen Geraldina, his son Leka I and his wife, Susan.

Zog proclaimed himself Albania's monarch in 1928 and ruled until 1939 when he fled Albania after it was occupied by fascist Italy. Albania's post-World War II communist regime abolished the monarchy in 1946.

Albania remains a parliamentary republic after the fall of communism in 1990.

The royal family returned to Albania in 2002, leading a quiet life though never relinquishing the claim to the throne.

Prime Minister Sali Berisha said that Albanians honour Zog "for his historic contribution in building up this country".

Berisha was joined at the ceremony by President Bujar Nishani and Kosovo's President Ahtifete Jahjaga. The ceremony was ignored by the country's opposition parties.

Nishani said Zog "is one of the most important figures of the Albanian history".

After Albania's communist regime fell in 1990, Zog's son, Leka I Zog, made two disastrous attempts to return home - first in 1993 when Berisha's government then threw him out and in 1997, when he was charged with leading an armed uprising after failing to convince Albanians to vote for monarchy in a referendum.

Since then, the family has been given back some of its old royal properties and granted diplomatic passports. Zog's grandson, Leka II Zog, has since served as an adviser to several Albanian governments.

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New Syrian envoy to France named

CLASHES have raged in southern Damascus, a monitoring group says, as rebels and regime troops exchanged mortar fire in the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp on the edges of the capital, while in Paris, the French government recognised the new opposition coalition.

Elsewhere, Syria's air force dropped deadly explosive-filled barrels on rebel-held areas on Saturday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In rebel-held Harasta east of Damascus, shelling by regime forces killed at least nine civilians including four women and four children, said the Britain-based watchdog.

In eastern Syria, after battles lasting several weeks, rebels seized control of Hamdan airport in the town of Albu Kamal in Deir Ezzor province on the border with Iraq, said the Observatory.

Syria's military had used the agricultural airport as a base for helicopter gunships. Rebels also seized several tanks and mortars the army had stored there.

"The rebels now control large swathes of land in the area," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"The army has lost control of practically all the eastern border area, barring the Mayadeen military base" some 50 kilometres northwest of Albu Kamal, he said.

France boosted its support for Syria's new opposition coalition with a promise to let it appoint an envoy to Paris, but remained cautious about supplying weapons to rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

France has been one of Assad's harshest critics and this week became the first Western country to recognise the opposition coalition - formed last weekend in Doha - as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

President Francois Hollande met the coalition's leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, in Paris on Saturday and afterwards told reporters that he planned to let the group appoint an ambassador to the French capital.

The post is to be filled by Monzer Makhous, an academic, although it was unclear if this would happen before the transitional government was formed.

Most of Saturday's air strikes targeted Idlib province in the northwest, Aleppo in the north and Damascus province. All three provinces are home to highly organised rebel groups.

In southern Damascus, rebels and troops clashed in Yarmuk and Tadamun district, where anti-regime sentiment is strong.

At least five civilians and two rebels were killed in Damascus on Saturday, the Observatory said.

State television said rebels shelled the mainly Christian and Druze district of Jaramana in southeastern Damascus, killing six people.

Warplanes also buzzed the Eastern Ghuta area, east of Damascus, said the Observatory, as regime forces cut several roads leading to the capital.

In Aleppo, two rebels were killed and regime forces launched several air strikes near the embattled city, including on the towns of Hreitan and Anadan, the Observatory said.

Warplanes also targeted the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan, which rebels captured on October 9, and which lies on the road linking Damascus to Aleppo.

Despite near-daily air strikes and combat on the town's edges, the army has been unable to recapture it.

At least 47 people were killed across Syria on Saturday - 29 civilians, one soldier and 17 rebels - said the Observatory which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers for its information.

More than 39,000 people have been killed in violence nationwide since the outbreak of the anti-regime revolt in March last year, it says.

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Mali's north tense after Tuareg offensive

AL-QAEDA-LINKED fighters have gathered reinforcements in the tense Gao region of northeastern Mali and are waiting to see if the Tuareg rebels that launched a failed offensive a day earlier would regroup for a fresh assault.

The desert area of Gao has been a focus of Islamist and Tuareg activity since the once-allied fighters seized the region, along with much of Mali's arid north, following a coup and military collapse in Bamako March.

Though the dusty town of Gao and its surroundings were initially under the control of Tuaregs, who are fighting to establish an independent state, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) ousted them at the end of June.

On Friday, Tuaregs with the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) attacked the Islamist fighters but suffered a heavy defeat that saw about a dozen of their men killed, regional security sources said.

To prepare for a possible new offensive, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is linked to MUJAO, sent about 300 reinforcements from Timbuktu, about 300 kilometres west of Gao, witnesses told AFP.

By Saturday morning an uneasy calm had settled over the region as locals waited to see if the MNLA would again try their luck, witnesses said.

According to Moussa Salem, an MNLA fighter, "our goal remains to retake Azawad from the hands of AQIM and its allies. We can fall back, but it's only to be able to better push forwards after."

Azawad is the Tuareg name for all of northern Mali.

MUJAO spokesman Walid Abu Sahraoui said his group would continue to pursue the MNLA across the entire region.

"We are in control of the situation," he said.

Since their defeat at the hands of the radical Islamists on June 27, the more secular Tuaregs have no longer controlled any town in this massive desert region that spans two-thirds of Mali's territory.

In the regions under their control, Islamist groups have implemented sharia law and carried out brutal punishments of transgressors, including the stoning to death of an unmarried couple and the amputations of hands and feet of accused thieves.

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49 children killed in Egypt bus tragedy

AT least 49 nursery school children have been killed when a train smashed into their bus in central Egypt after a railway signal operator fell asleep, officials say, prompting protests and resignations.

Transport Minister Rashad al-Metini stepped down after the tragedy, which also killed the bus driver and his assistant, saying he "accepts responsibility".

President Mohamed Morsi accepted the Egyptian Railway Authority head's resignation.

"There are now 49 deaths and 18 injuries," with almost all of the casualties children, Assiut provincial governor Yehya Keshk told state television.

"There is a team of 45 doctors looking after the injured children."

The bus taking about 60 children aged between four and six on a school trip organised by their nursery was struck on a railway crossing in Manfalut, 356 kilometres south of Cairo, police said.

The worker manning the level crossing - which had been left open - was asleep when the bus tried to cross the tracks, Keshk said. "He has been arrested, of course."

Parents of the children were staging angry demonstrations near the scene of the horrific accident, demanding the death penalty for those responsible, police said.

A state television correspondent described the scene as "terrifying" with the blood-splattered bodies of children on the ground, before they were taken to nearby Manfalut hospital.

In a brief television address, Morsi offered his condolences to the families and said those responsible would be referred to the public prosecutor.

"On my and the Egyptian people's behalf, I offer my sincerest condolences to the families," the president said. "I am referring all those responsible to the public prosecution."

Earlier, Morsi ordered the prime minister, the defence and health ministers, and the Assiut governor "to offer all assistance to the families of the victims", the official news agency MENA said.

Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and his interior minister headed to Assiut, MENA said.

Activist groups have called for the resignation of Qandil's cabinet.

"This accident proves the failure of Qandil's government and strengthens the demands for the resignation of a government that has failed, over several months, to produce anything to improve the suffering of Egyptians," the April 6 movement said.

Keshk has ordered the "formation of a fact-finding committee" to probe Saturday's accident, but in similar tragedies in the past, such panels have done little to shed light on the details and less still to bring about accountability.

In a separate road accident, 12 people were killed and three injured when a truck smashed into a minibus near the Egyptian capital on Saturday.

Officials said a speeding truck driving on the wrong side of the road crashed into a minibus carrying 15 passengers. The truck driver was arrested at the scene in the 6th October area, as rescue services worked to extract the bodies, police said.

Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with the country's chronic transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as train lines.

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ASEAN urges China 'hotline' over sea row

SOUTHEAST Asian nations will propose opening a "hotline" with China aimed at defusing tensions over the South China Sea, ASEAN's chief says.

Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said after a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers on Saturday that they had agreed to back the plan first mooted by Indonesia.

"This of course will be brought up to our Chinese friends," Surin told reporters ahead of a gathering of leaders from the region that begins in Cambodia on Sunday.

"We can call it a red line, we can give it a sense of urgency that if there is anything developing that we all will be phoned ... trying to consult, trying to coordinate, trying to contain any possible spillover of any ... incident, accident, miscalculation, misunderstanding," he added.

ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, have claims to parts of the sea, home of some of the world's most important shipping lanes and believed to be rich in fossil fuels.

China insists it has sovereign rights to virtually all of the sea, and the Philippines and Vietnam have expressed concerns that their giant Asian neighbour has become increasingly aggressive this year in staking its claim.

Philippine and Chinese vessels engaged in a standoff at a remote shoal in the sea in April, escalating the dispute between their countries dramatically.

The proposal comes as ASEAN and China struggle to make progress on a code of conduct (COC) to ease tensions in the sea that was first envisaged a decade ago.

"What Indonesia is now looking for while we are working on the COC is a commitment on the part of ASEAN and China to open a hotline of communication," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters in Phnom Penh.

"So that if there were to be an incident in the future ... we can commit to have communication and have dialogue if there were to be disputes."

ASEAN leaders will hold their annual summit in Phnom Penh on Sunday. This will be followed by a two-day East Asia Summit involving Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, US President Barack Obama, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the leaders of five other countries.

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Obama heads for Asia with stop in Myanmar

PRESIDENT Barack Obama heads to Asia for a tour of three countries on his first foreign trip since winning re-election that will see him make a once unthinkable stop in Myanmar (Burma).

The first trip by a US president spent entirely in Southeast Asia since the Vietnam War, the visit that will also take in Thailand and Cambodia aims to emphasise the Obama administration's focus on the dynamic and largely US-friendly region where several nations worry about a rising China.

But his tour also comes at an awkward time amid a spiralling conflict between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas with the Jewish state poised to launch its first ground offensive on the Palestinian territory in four years.

At home, Obama is in tough negotiations with legislators to avoid steep automatic budget cuts and tax hikes that could send the country back into recession.

Obama launched a so-called "pivot" to Asia in his first term that included greater military cooperation with Australia, Thailand and Vietnam and a plan to shift the bulk of the US navy to the Pacific by 2020.

Virtually no nation has seen a greater shift towards the United States under Obama than Myanmar. The nation formerly known as Burma was for years a close ally of China and treated as a pariah by Western nations.

Surprising sceptics, Myanmar launched reforms after its nominal end to nearly half a century of army rule last year.

President Thein Sein, a former general, released political prisoners, opened dialogue with ethnic rebels and allowed once-confined opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to run for parliament.

Thailand is the oldest US ally in Asia, famously offering elephants to Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War. But the kingdom has been consumed by internal disputes, which escalated in 2010 into violence that left more than 90 people dead.

Obama will be the first sitting US president to visit Cambodia, a staunch China supporter.

On the sidelines of an East Asia Summit there, Obama will meet China's outgoing premier, Wen Jiabao, and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan, amid a dispute between the two countries over islands in the East China Sea and the oil and gas fields in the disputed waters.

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Hamas chief in Cairo for talks

HAMAS chief Khaled Meshaal is in Cairo to confer on ending the Gaza conflict, but the Islamist group is reluctant to agree a ceasefire without guarantees Israel will honour it, a senior Hamas official says.

Meshaal was scheduled on Saturday to meet with Egypt's intelligence chief as well as Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, both visiting Cairo, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hamas, now its fourth day of conflict with Israel around the Gaza Strip, doubts that any country could guarantee terms for a ceasefire, he said.

"Through Egyptian mediation, we reached an understanding for a truce and it was broken in about 48 hours," he said of an Israeli air strike on Wednesday that killed the Hamas military chief, after rockets were fired from Gaza.

"Egypt now cannot say: 'I guarantee a truce'," he said, adding it would require a stronger effort by the "international community".

Hamas's last sustained conflict with Israel in December 2008-January 2009 ended with an Egyptian mediated truce that was meant to guarantee a loosening of Israel's blockade of Gaza.

Palestinian medics said 40 Gazans have been killed and more than 350 wounded since Israel launched an air campaign on the enclave on Wednesday. Three Israelis were killed by a Hamas rocket.

Since Israel's last major offensive on Gaza, the Arab Spring uprisings that brought an Islamist to power in Cairo have put more pressure on Israel to halt its campaign before it expands into a ground operation.

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IT tech convicted in 'Vatileaks'

A VATICAN court has convicted a Holy See computer technician of helping the former papal butler in the theft of confidential papal documents and given him a two-month suspended sentence.

Claudio Sciarpelletti, an Italian who is a computer program analyst in the Vatican's Secretariat of State, had testified earlier that he had played no role in helping to spirit out confidential documents in a scandal involving alleged corruption in the Vatican bureaucracy.

Pope's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, was convicted last month in a separate trial for the theft of the documents and is serving a 18-month prison sentence in Vatican City.

Top Vatican security officials, including the head of Pope Benedict XVI's bodyguards, as well as his convicted former butler were the witness list in the latest trial in the leak of confidential papal correspondence.

The witnesses had been called to testify earlier in the week in a Holy See courtroom, but the judge told them to come back Saturday to give more preparation time for the defence.

The stolen documents formed the basis of an Italian journalist's book about alleged corruption at the Vatican.

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Prince Charles thanks 'kind' Aussies

Prince Charles thanked Australians for being "wonderfully kind", as he and wife Camilla wrapped up a six-day tour which has taken them from the Outback to Bondi Beach.

Hundreds of people came to see the royal couple at their final destination in Canberra, with one woman offering the prince a packet of chocolate Tim Tams -which he had said he hoped someone would allow Camilla to try.

"You're very kind," Charles told Alyson Richards, 25, as she handed over the biscuits and wished him a happy birthday for next week.

At a lunch at Government House, Charles said it had been a joy to visit Australia, where the couple had met hundreds of community volunteers, as well as been able to see the local wildlife, including koalas and kangaroos, up close.

"When we finally get back, after a very, very, long journey, if I'm still reasonably compos mentis by then and haven't completely lost my marbles to jet lag, I will report back to Her Majesty your wonderfully kind thoughts and expressions after our visit," he said.

He said while the tour had not allowed them to visit as many places as they would have liked, it enabled them to "witness so many of the changes that have happened here since I was here last".

"And to witness... the extraordinary vibrancy of the multicultural society which Australia is and which of course has stood Australia in such remarkable stead in terms of the richness and diversity which you can see only too well."

Earlier, Charles watched as one of the terraces of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin was named after the Queen, following a tradition of naming the terraces after Australia's monarchs since the country became a federal state in 1901.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the renaming would "remind future generations that for more than half of our journey as a united nation, Elizabeth the Second has been our monarch."

The royal couple arrived in New Zealand late onSaturday on the last leg of their tour marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and were met at a military air base in Auckland by Prime Minister John Key.

They will formally begin their six-day visit with a traditional Maori welcome today at the Auckland War Memorial Museum where they will also commemorate Armistice Day.

They will then travel to Wellington and tour Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop to inspect costumes and props used in The Hobbit movies before moving to Christchurch, the scene of devastating earthquakes last year that claimed 185 lives.

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China plans manned space launch

CHINA is aiming to launch its next manned space mission as early as June 2013, state media reported, as the country steps up its ambitious exploration program.

The Shenzhou-10, with three crew members, is aiming for a primary launch window in June, Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of the manned space programme, told China National Radio in an interview Friday.

Mr Niu, speaking on the sidelines of China's 18th Communist Party Congress that kicked off Thursday in Beijing, said officials had identified a back-up launch window for July or August.

He said one of the three astronauts would likely be a woman.

China sent its first female astronaut, Liu Yang, into space earlier this year on the Shenzhou-9 in the country's first manual space docking mission.

The docking procedure was a major milestone in the country's ambitious space program that has a goal of building a space station by the end of the decade.

In its last white paper on space, China said it was working towards landing a man on the moon, but did not specify a time-frame.

So far only the United States has achieved that feat, most recently in 1972.

Beijing has said it will also attempt to land an exploratory craft on the moon for the first time in the second half of 2013 and transmit back a survey of the lunar surface.

China sees its space program as a symbol of its rising global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

The country sent its first man into space in 2003. It completed a space walk in 2008 and an unmanned docking between a module and rocket last year.

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