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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