UK protesters decry austerity drive

TENS of thousands of demonstrators have descended on the British capital in a noisy but peaceful protest at a government austerity drive aimed at slashing the country's debt.

Unions, anti-war campaigners, community groups and other activists poured down London's streets in a demonstration against reductions to public sector spending which officials are pushing through in order to rein in Britain's debt, which stands at more than STG1 trillion ($A1.56 trillion).

Although the austerity program has had some modest successes - the country's deficit has dropped slightly - the UK economy has shrunk for three consecutive quarters amid cuts at home and economic turmoil on the continent.

Brendan Barber, whose Trades Union Congress helped organise the march, said that the message of Saturday's protest was that "austerity is simply failing".

"The government is making life desperately hard for millions of people because of pay cuts for workers, while the rich are given tax cuts," he said.

Britain borrowed STG13 billion ($A20.25 billion) in September alone, and with other European countries - including next door neighbour Ireland - struggling to make good on their debt, and there is a general consensus that the UK budget needs to be rebalanced.

But the coalition government did little to endear itself with ordinary Britons when it reduced income taxes for the country's wealthiest citizens earlier this year.

And its leadership has struggled to fight perceptions of elitism which rankle many in this class-conscious country.

On Friday the Conservative Party's chief whip stepped down following a dispute over whether he'd described officers guarding the prime minister's official residence at Downing Street as "plebs" or warned them to "learn your (expletive) place".

News of Andrew Mitchell's resignation broke just as word was getting around that Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne had been spotted by a journalist sitting in a first class train carriage with a second class ticket.

Osborne paid for an upgrade, but story's humour was irresistible - newspapers lavished coverage on what many nicknamed "The Great Train Snobbery," and Osborne's misadventure was a talking point at the rally, which marched through the city beneath huge red and purple balloons emblazoned with union logos.

Some protesters shouted "no first class tickets here;" others booed as they passed Downing Street.

The marchers carried banners which read: "Cameron Has Butchered Britain", "24 Hour General Strike Now" and "No Cuts" as they marched through Whitehall towards Hyde Park.

They shouted "pay your taxes" as they passed a Starbucks coffee shop.

Police officers stood outside Starbucks, which has been involved in a row over its tax arrangements.

But unlike some rallies elsewhere in Europe which devolved into riots, Saturday's march appeared to go off without violence.

A police spokesman said there had been no arrests or incidents.

One group of children dressed up as government workers, including a nurse and a traffic warden.

Another child, dressed as a chef, held up a sign warning that Prime Minister David Cameron was "a recipe for disaster".

Ed Miliband, the leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, was among the speakers to address the crowd in London's Hyde Park, following the march.

Miliband accused the prime minister of "clinging" to policies which were not working.

He said the coalition was cutting taxes for millionaires and raising them for everyone else.

"It is one rule for those at the top and one rule for everyone else."

Miliband was booed by a small section of a rally in Hyde Park when he said Labour would have to make "hard choices" if it was in government.

He pledged that if he became prime minister he would tax bankers' bonuses, support the building of 100,000 houses and end the privatisation of the NHS.

Similar protests were also held in Belfast, Northern Ireland's capital, and Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city.

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TV reporter 'attacked' at Egyptian square

FRANCE 24 TV says its correspondent in Cairo has been "savagely attacked" near Tahrir Square after being seized by a crowd shortly after a live news report.

The state-funded, independent news channel said in a statement on Saturday that correspondent Sonia Dridi was attacked around 10:30pm a day earlier.

It said she was later rescued by a colleague and other witnesses.

France 24 said its employees were safe and sound "but extremely shocked" and that it will file suit against unspecified assailants.

The network and the French embassy are working to bring the correspondent home.

Tahrir Square was the epicentre of a popular uprising that toppled longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak last year.

It remains a key demonstration site for both allies and critics of new President Mohammed Morsi.

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Protesters block Lebanon roads after blast

ANGRY demonstrators have blocked roads across Lebanon in protest at the killing of a top security official in a bomb blast, as the prime minister said he had offered to resign but had been told by the president to remain in the post to avoid a political vacuum.

Lebanon has declared Saturday a day of mourning for the eight people killed in Friday's blast in Beirut's mainly Christian neighbourhood of Ashrafiya.

The attack targeted and killed Sunni Muslim security chief Wissam al-Hassan.

According to the initial investigation the bomb that killed al-Hassan weighed 60 to 70 kilograms.

General Ashraf Rifi, director general of the Internal Security Forces, was cited as saying by the local media that al-Hassan's remains were identified by his revolver and his watch.

The bombing, which also injured more than 80 people and caused large-scale destruction, revived memories of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

Most of the capital's major roads looked deserted, as Lebanese army troops manoeuvred protesters from one street to another.

Many residents in the capital were confined to their homes for fear that the situation might escalate on the streets.

Protests were mainly in Sunni Muslim areas in Beirut, the southern city of Sidon and the northern city of Tripoli.

Black smoke covered much of the capital, where rubbish bins and rubber tyres were set on fire by the angry protesters.

"We are blocking roads to show whoever killed Brigadier al-Hassan that there are people who loved him and supported what he was doing," a protester said in the mainly Sunni-neighbourhood of Kornich al-Mazraa.

Al-Hassan had recently uncovered a Syrian-backed plot to stir unrest in Lebanon.

His investigation linked pro-Syrian politician Michel Semaha to planned bomb attacks.

"So far the situation is contained on the streets," an army officer said on condition of anonymity, as dozens of soldiers and tanks were deployed across the city.

The cabinet held an emergency meeting chaired by President Michel Suleiman to discuss the attack and the security situation.

Prime Minister Nagib Mikati announced after the meeting that he offered to resign but Suleiman asked him to stay in his post to prevent the country from entering a political vacuum.

"President Michel Suleiman has requested a timeframe for consultations over my decision and asked me to hold on to my position in the premiership," Mikati told reporters.

"This is a national issue and we are keen on preserving the nation. We do not want to leave Lebanon in a vacuum," Mikati added.

The opposition March 14 bloc had called on the Hezbollah-led coalition government to resign after the attack and urged their followers to stage an open-ended sit-in in central Beirut to protest the assassination of al-Hassan, who opposed the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The group also called on their loyalists to participate in al-Hassan's funeral on Sunday in what they called a "Day of Rage."

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, Lebanon's top Sunni cleric, called on Saturday for calm.

"We call on all Lebanese to exert patience and self-restraint and I tell you that the blood of the martyr Wissam al-Hassan and all the others will not go in vain and the perpetrators will be punished - sooner or later," he said in a statement.

Al-Hassan will be laid to rest in a central Beirut square alongside former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a 2005 car bomb blamed on Syria.

Since Hariri's assassination, Lebanon has been divided between a pro-Syria camp led by Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah and the March 14 coalition group led by Saad Hariri, the late prime minister's son.

March 14 blamed the Syrian government for the assassination.

Lebanon's Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that al-Hassan received threats before his department implicated Semaha.

Al-Hassan, who attended a conference in Germany earlier this week before returning to Lebanon on Thursday, was advised "not to return to Lebanon," Charbel said.

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Somali pirates free ship after 2 years

A PIRATE commander in Somalia says that a cargo ship has been freed after being held captive for nearly two years.

Hassan Abdi said on Saturday that a $US600,000 ransom was paid for the MV Orna on Friday.

But he said six hostages are still being held by the pirates on land.

Pirates shot and killed one of the ship's crew members in August over delayed ransom payments.

Abdi said that other ships towed the vessel away because it had run out of fuel.

The MV Orna, which is owned by a UAE company, was hijacked 400 nautical miles northeast of the Seychelles in December 2010.

Indian Ocean pirate hijackings are down drastically this year thanks to improved on-board defences, but pirates still hold six ships and some 170 crew members.

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Libya 'not fully liberated' after Gaddafi

THE new Libyan authorities say the country has not yet been "fully" liberated, exactly a year since the killing of Muammar Gaddafi and against the backdrop of clashes in one of his last bastions.

"The campaign to liberate the country has not been fully completed," Mohammed Megaryef, the head of Libya's national assembly, said in remarks broadcast on state television.

He singled out the oasis town of Bani Walid, scene of deadly clashes over the past week and one of the final strongholds of Gaddafi's dictatorial regime during the 2011 revolution that ousted and killed him.

Megaryef, president of the democratically elected General National Congress, gave a sombre assessment of the post-Gaddafi period and warned that remnants of the former regime still pose a threat.

He pointed to "delays and negligence" in the formation of a professional army and police force, and the failure to disarm and integrate former rebels into state institutions.

Megaryef stressed that delays in reactivating and reforming the judiciary had also hampered reconciliation in what marks a critical transition period for the oil-rich country.

"This situation has created a state of discontent and tension among different segments of society and contributed to the spread of chaos, disorder, corruption and weakness in the performance of various government agencies," Megaryef said.

This benefited "remnants of the former regime which have infiltrated the organs of the state, maybe even its leadership, and are plotting against the revolution with the help of others who are abroad".

The weakness of the state, he continued, has allowed groups with or without ties to the former regime to defy the law and carry out arbitrary arrests, torture, blackmail and looting.

"They even dared to establish their own prisons," Megaryef said in apparent reference to armed militias, some of which have their own detention centres and act as a law unto themselves.

Libya's top official reserved his sharpest criticism for the town of Bani Walid, which is seen by many as a hideout for regime loyalists and criminal gangs, and endorsed military operations there.

"Bani Walid's misfortune is that it has become a sanctuary for a large number of outlaws and anti-revolutionaries and mercenaries," Megaryef said.

Forces linked to the army, the majority of them former rebels, encircled the hilltop town this month in a bid to bring to justice the men who kidnapped and allegedly tortured an ex-rebel credited with capturing Gaddafi.

Fighting around Bani Walid this week has killed more than 10 people.

Megaryef stressed that the operations underway "do not target this brave city or its people, rather they target culprits, wanted people, the accused and infiltrators among its honourable residents".

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Gaddafi ex-spokesman arrested: Libya govt

THE office of the Libyan prime minister says that slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's former spokesman has been captured at a checkpoint outside the besieged town of Bani Walid.

The statement carried by the state news agency on Saturday says Moussa Ibrahim was captured by the forces of the interim Libyan government at a checkpoint in the town of Tarhouna.

The statement says Ibrahim is being taken to Tripoli to be questioned.

It didn't specify when he was captured.

The urbane, English-speaking Ibrahim became the voice of the regime in its final year, often appearing on television defending it.

Libyan forces have surrounded Bani Walid, which they describe as a final bastion of sympathisers of Gaddafi's regime.

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Enforce IED ban, UN tells Afghan Taliban

THE UN has urged Afghanistan's Taliban leadership to enforce their ban on improvised explosive devices, a day after 19 wedding guests were killed by a roadside bomb in the north of the country.

"Although the Taliban... leader Mullah Omar banned the use of anti-personnel landmines in 1998, denouncing such weapons as un-Islamic and anti-human, anti-government elements continue to use" them, a UN statement said.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan "calls on the Taliban leadership to publicly reiterate a ban on these weapons and to stop their use", it said, adding that IEDs caused "devastating harm to civilians".

The call comes a day after a roadside explosion killed 19 civilians, most of them women and children who were on their way to a wedding party in Dawlat Abad district of the northern Balkh province.

A Taliban spokesman on Saturday denied their involvement in the incident, saying their fighters were not present in the area, a claim that was contested by the UN.

"Taliban operatives active in Dawlat Abad... are suspected of planting the landmine-like pressure plate IED, which is consistent with documented patterns and tactics of choice by the Taliban," the statement said.

According to an earlier UN statement, 1145 civilians were killed in the war in the first six months of this year, with 80 per cent of the deaths blamed on insurgents.

More than half were caused by roadside bombs.

Last year as a whole, a record 3021 civilians died in the war, the UN has said.

It blames insurgents for 80 per cent of the civilian casualties in 2012, saying pro-government forces, which include US-led NATO soldiers, were responsible for 10 per cent.

Women and children accounted for about 30 per cent of this year's casualties, again mostly victims of roadside bombs.

IEDs are also responsible for a large percentage of the deaths among the NATO force helping fight the Taliban.

The foreign combat troops are due to withdraw by the end of 2014.

AF

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Austerity not holding back Ireland: IMF

THE International Monetary Fund has denied austerity measures are to blame for the sluggish Irish economy, saying that other factors are keeping growth flat.

Greece, Portugal and Ireland are complaining that the Fund underestimated the economic and social impact of drastic spending cuts and tax hikes in the bailout programs, but a senior IMF official said that was not the problem in Ireland.

The pace of the EU-IMF rescue program "has struck an appropriate balance and continues to do so for the period ahead, enabling Ireland to make steady progress in reducing fiscal imbalances while protecting the still fragile economic recovery," Ajai Chopra, deputy director in the IMF's European Department, said in a statement.

"With overburdened bank, household and SME (small and medium sized business) balance sheets, and weak growth in trading partners, a number of factors besides fiscal consolidation have been a drag on growth in Ireland," he said.

The IMF recently admitted that it had underestimated in Greece how deep the "fiscal consolidation," or austerity measures, in its bailout plan would force the economy into recession.

Critics say the severity of the measures are to blame for Greece's inability to get back to growth.

At issue was a revision of its "fiscal multiplier," which IMF economists use to estimate the impact of various actions, like spending cuts, on the economy.

The admission that the IMF got it wrong in Greece has been taken up by other countries undergoing IMF-European Union bailouts, with countries arguing for easier adjustment terms to cope with slower-than-expected growth.

Ireland sought an 85-billion-euro ($A108.01 billion) EU-IMF rescue package in November 2010 after it was devastated by the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

As part of the rescue, Ireland agreed to painful austerity measures including spending cutbacks, state asset sales and tax hikes.

But growth has not returned as soon as hoped - last month the IMF forecast the Irish economy would expand a bare 0.4 per cent this year, if growth picks up in the second half as expected.

Since the IMF reassessed its multiplier, Irish officials have called for less austere reform requirements to encourage faster growth.

But Chopra argued that "in the current discussion of the impact of fiscal adjustment on growth, it is important to note that no single fiscal multiplier is applicable to all countries and circumstances".

"And although there is uncertainty around any estimate of multipliers, there is no compelling evidence that a higher multiplier was at work in Ireland than the one assumed under the program."

The IMF has been fighting pressure to ease austere reform terms in all the countries undergoing bailouts since the review of the multiplier.

On Thursday, IMF's Portugal mission chief Abebe Aemro Selassie told Lisbon that there is no way around a new, strong budget squeeze to reduce debt and return to capital markets.

In the face of public anger over tax increases, Selassie said it was "imperative" to press on with further measures.

"Debt remains high, and to ensure full recovery, the country needs to contain it," he warned.

"Portugal also needs to ensure that it can finance itself again at reasonable rates. This means that fiscal adjustment is imperative and needs to continue."

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