Syrian rebels launch counteroffensive

SYRIAN rebels have launched a counteroffensive in the northern city of Aleppo, recapturing a base near its international airport hours after the army had advanced into the area, activists say.

Saturday's fighting came as the main Western-backed opposition group was to begin a two-day meeting in Istanbul to decide whether they will attend a proposed peace conference the US and Russia are trying to convene in Geneva.

The Syrian National Coalition has demanded that President Bashar Assad step down in any transitional Syrian government as a condition for its going to Geneva. Syrian officials say Assad will stay in his post at least until his terms ends in 2014 and that he may run for re-election.

In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told reporters upon arrival from Geneva that the UN-Arab League's top envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, will hold a new meeting in early December with concerned parties to decide on a new date and the attendees of the Geneva conference.

Gangs pay blood money to avoid jail

CRIMINALS are making secret "blood money" settlements with victims and their families in a back-channel justice system designed to help them avoid jail.

Adult flu shot left boy brain damaged

A TODDLER taken to the doctor for a child's flu shot was left unable to walk or talk after being given a version of the drug banned for under fives.

"We were saddened and depressed because of the failure of the latest meetings to decide on a date and participants for the conference," Elaraby said, referring to a meeting in Geneva earlier this week that many had hoped would call for holding the talks later this month.

The League had wanted the peace conference to lead to a ceasefire and secure means to deliver humanitarian aid to Syrians, Elaraby added.

In Aleppo, rebels were able to fully recapture the military base of "Brigade 80" after government troops seized parts of it early on Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Aleppo Media Centre said.

The main job of "Brigade 80" was to protect the government-held Aleppo International Airport, which has been closed due to fighting for almost a year.

Rebels captured the base in February and now government troops are trying to get it back.

The Observatory said 40 rebels and more than 20 troops were killed in the latest fighting, which began Friday and continued early Saturday.

Syria's state-run news agency SANA said a rocket fired by opposition fighters hit near a health centre in Aleppo's Ashrafieh neighbourhood, killing six children and wounding six others.

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Jetski rider dies after Gold Coast crash

A MAN has died after a jetski crash on a Gold Coast river.

Police say the 22-year-old was riding the jetski on the Coomera River at Paradise Point at about 5.45pm (AEST) on Saturday and initial reports suggest he collided with a small boat.

"The occupants of the boat immediately recovered the man from the river and provided medical assistance before emergency crews arrived," police said in a statement.

He was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

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Four charged with severing US man's penis

FOUR people are accused of torturing a California marijuana dispensary owner with a blowtorch and cutting off his penis in an attempt to force him to reveal where he had buried piles of cash in the desert.

Ryan Anthony Kevorkian, 34, and his wife Naomi Josette Kevorkian, 33, were arrested on Friday in Fresno, a day after the FBI arrested 34-year-old Hossein Nayeri in Prague in the Czech Republic.

Another man, Kyle Shirakawa Handley, 34, was arrested in October 2012.

The four have been charged with kidnapping for ransom, aggravated mayhem, torture, burglary and a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury.

Prosecutors said the victim was a prosperous medical marijuana dispensary owner who took some of his pot suppliers - including Handley - to Las Vegas last year for an extravagant weekend.

Authorities allege that after the trip, Handley told some friends that the dispensary owner was extremely wealthy and they came up with a plan to kidnap and rob him.

Gangs pay blood money to avoid jail

CRIMINALS are making secret "blood money" settlements with victims and their families in a back-channel justice system designed to help them avoid jail.

Adult flu shot left boy brain damaged

A TODDLER taken to the doctor for a child's flu shot was left unable to walk or talk after being given a version of the drug banned for under fives.

Orange County authorities contend that on October 2, 2012, Handley, Nayeri and Ryan Kevorkian went to the man's Newport Beach home, stole cash, bound and beat him and kidnapped him along with his room-mate's girlfriend, then drove them out to a desert spot in a van.

Throughout the drive, they allegedly burned the dispensary owner with a blowtorch.

At the spot where the men believed the victim had hidden money, they cut off his penis, poured bleach on him in an effort to destroy any DNA evidence and dumped him and the woman on the side of the road, authorities allege.

It is alleged the three men then drove away with the penis so it couldn't be reattached.

The man survived his injuries.

Handley pleaded not guilty to the charges last month.

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Strangers to pay respects to war hero

HUNDREDS of people are expected to attend the funeral of a British war veteran they never knew after it emerged he died with no close friends or relatives.

Harold Jellicoe Percival helped with the famous Dambusters raids during the Second World War.

He died last month aged 99 in a nursing home in the UK but had lived much of his life in Australia.

Poignantly for the ex-military man, his funeral service will be held at 11am on Armistice Day on Monday.

But Percival never married, had no children and has no close family members able to attend the service.

Those involved in organising the funeral say they have been contacted by veterans' groups and other military supporters keen to acknowledge Percival's career.

Funeral director Edmund Jacobs said: "We're hoping a few faces will turn up and show their support for a war hero.

Gangs pay blood money to avoid jail

CRIMINALS are making secret "blood money" settlements with victims and their families in a back-channel justice system designed to help them avoid jail.

Adult flu shot left boy brain damaged

A TODDLER taken to the doctor for a child's flu shot was left unable to walk or talk after being given a version of the drug banned for under fives.

"It doesn't sit well with me that somebody who has served their country can be forgotten about, that his service can go un-noted.

"I am sure he would have had a few stories to tell."

Mr Percival was one of four siblings but lived a "nomadic lifestyle" after leaving the RAF at the end of the war.

His nephew, David Worsell, said: "He was a private man, he worked in Australia for a number of years as a decorator and would visit England for holidays.

"He travelled around England with only his backpack.

"He didn't have a postal address, he just used to get everything sent to my mother's address and would go through it when they met up."

Percival was based in the north west of England and became part of the ground crew which helped with the Dambusters, the squadron which was initially formed to destroy dams in the Ruhr valley in Nazi Germany.

After working in Australia, he later retired to England.

He was a distant relative of former British prime minister Spencer Perceval, who was shot dead by a bankrupt broker, John Bellingham, as he entered the House of Commons, in 1812.

"My uncle would be very surprised at the attention this seems to have received and the number of people wanting to attend," Worsell said.

"What with him being a very private person, forming long-term relationships didn't seem to be part of his make-up.

"He didn't really speak about his military career but he perhaps wished he didn't leave the RAF at the end of the war.

"But he was a free spirit."

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Young Aussies are most stressed out: study

AUSTRALIAN employees are suffering high levels of stress, a survey reveals.

That's not surprising. Australians overall report declining wellbeing and increasing stress, according to a state-of-the-nation survey commissioned by the Australian Psychological Society (APS).

They also have more depression and anxiety symptoms than those revealed in the 2011 and 2012 surveys.

Younger people are the most stressed and people older than 66 are coping the best, according to the online survey of 1548 people, 999 of whom are employed.

Workplace issues include a lack of feedback, unclear expectations and not feeling valued.

Employees report significantly lower levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of interest in their job compared with previous years.

Gangs pay blood money to avoid jail

CRIMINALS are making secret "blood money" settlements with victims and their families in a back-channel justice system designed to help them avoid jail.

Adult flu shot left boy brain damaged

A TODDLER taken to the doctor for a child's flu shot was left unable to walk or talk after being given a version of the drug banned for under fives.

While most employees feel physical injuries are taken seriously, only 50 per cent feel supported with mental health issues, according to the survey, released to coincide with national psychology week.

Women feel more supported by their managers than men.

This could be because men do not seek support and try to cope on their own, APS executive director Professor Lyn Littlefield says.

"Feedback should be regular and should be both formal and informal. Not just once a year at a performance review," she said.

Prof Littlefield says temporary stress can be a useful motivator, but when stress reaches a certain level it becomes problematic and people become dysfunctional.

If it continues too long it can lead to depression and anxiety.

Stress-management techniques and making changes to things that are within a person's control can help, Prof Littlefield says.

The worst thing to do is to attempt to manage it with alcohol or drugs.

"People do try to self medicate, but that does not ever solve the problem," she said.

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Chess world championship starts

DEFENDING champion Viswanathan Anand has held Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen to a quick draw with the black pieces in the first game of their chess world championship match.

Playing in Chennai on Saturday close to where Anand was born, the 43-year-old Indian grandmaster forced Carlsen to repeat a position by chasing his opponent's queen back and forth with a knight, leading to an automatic draw after just 16 moves.

That gives Anand a slight early advantage, as he now gets the white pieces in six of the remaining 11 games.

The 22-year-old Carlsen is the biggest star in chess and the game's top-ranked player, but this is his first world championship match. Anand has held the world title since 2007 and has defended it against three previous opponents.

Gangs pay blood money to avoid jail

CRIMINALS are making secret "blood money" settlements with victims and their families in a back-channel justice system designed to help them avoid jail.

Adult flu shot left boy brain damaged

A TODDLER taken to the doctor for a child's flu shot was left unable to walk or talk after being given a version of the drug banned for under fives.

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Germans commemorate Kristallnacht

GERMANS across the country have commemorated the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht - the night of broken glass - during which the Nazis staged a wave of attacks on Jews in Germany and Austria.

On November 9, 1938, hundreds of synagogues were burned, numerous homes and Jewish-owned stores were ransacked, some 1000 people were killed and more than 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps.

The attacks marked the beginning of the state-organised, violent persecution of Jews which ended in the murder of six million European Jews by the end of the Third Reich in 1945.

Germans in many cities and towns held candle-light vigils, listened to Jewish survivors share memories and met at Jewish cemeteries to remember the victims of Kristallnacht during Saturday's commemorations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the night of broken glass "was an event that humiliated Jews in an unbelievable way ... a real low point in German history had been reached."

Gangs pay blood money to avoid jail

CRIMINALS are making secret "blood money" settlements with victims and their families in a back-channel justice system designed to help them avoid jail.

Adult flu shot left boy brain damaged

A TODDLER taken to the doctor for a child's flu shot was left unable to walk or talk after being given a version of the drug banned for under fives.

She added, "Unfortunately, later on German history developed in an even more dramatic way which eventually ended in the Shoah" - or Holocaust. The chancellor also called on Germans to never forget the past.

Across Berlin, guided groups of residents walked through their neighbourhoods, noting sites where Jewish stores, schools and other locations once stood before being destroyed by the Nazis and their supporters.

Several Berliners came together to polish some of the city's 5000 Stolpersteine, or stumbling blocks, which identify by name individual victims of Nazis in front of their former homes.

The cobblestone-sized brass plaques are inserted on sidewalks and called stumbling blocks because one unexpectedly trips over them -figuratively speaking - while strolling through the city.

"We have organised 16 groups who are out today cleaning the stumbling blocks and we are hoping to turn this into an annual event in the future," said the coordinator of the tours, Silvija Kavcic.

Despite the many positive activities, some speakers sounded a note of caution, reminding their listeners that anti-Semitism is still a problem in Europe.

A poll of European Jews released on Friday found that more than three-quarters of those questioned believe anti-Semitism is surging in their home countries and close to one-third have considered emigrating because they don't feel safe.

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Colombia club shooting leaves 8 dead

• From: AAP
• November 10, 2013 3:50AM

EIGHT people have been killed and six injured after a man entered a nightclub in the Colombian city of Cali and opened fire, police say.

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Italian quake-hit town of Onna rebuilds

RECONSTRUCTION work funded by the German government has started on a 13th century church in Onna, a village in the central Italian region of Abruzzo that was destroyed by an earthquake four years ago.

The 6.3-magnitude quake that hit the medieval town of L'Aquila and its surroundings on April 6, 2009, killed 309 people and left nearly 70,000 homeless. In Onna, 41 of 280 inhabitants were killed.

Italy's new culture minister, Massimo Bray, and Germany's public works minister, Peter Ramsauer, travelled to the village for the inauguration of the rebuilding works.

The German embassy in Rome said on Saturday that Berlin pledged 3.5 million euros ($A4.4 million) for Onna's church, where occupying German troops shot dead 17 civilians as a reprisal for partisan activities during World War II.

"On June 11, 1944, Germans inflicted on Onna unspeakable sufferings. With the sustainable reconstruction of the Church of Saint Peter Apostle we want to offer a proof of reconciliation and friendship between our two countries," Ramsauer said.

Il Centro, a local newspaper, wrote: "Everything that has been done in Onna in the last four years is due to the solidarity from the German Federal Republic," noting that reconstruction work should have started in 2010 but was blocked by "Italian bureaucracy".

Locals have repeatedly complained about slow progress on rebuilding. Work on the historic centre of L'Aquila started in recent weeks, and Italy's former regional aid minister, Fabrizio Barca, has told the DPA news agency that it would take "10-12 years" to be completed.

Barca quit office last week, as a new government was appointed. In his last report to parliament, he said that there were still more than 22,000 displaced people in the L'Aquila region and that 10 billion euros ($A12.8 billion) would be needed to fund the reconstruction.

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$100m Vic budget boost for Frankston line

TRAIN services are set to be more reliable on one of Melbourne's busiest rail services under a $100 million boost that will be part of this week's state budget, the government says.

Premier Denis Napthine will on Sunday announce a cash injection for the south-eastern Frankston line, which carries about 60,000 people every weekday.

The money will pay for track, signalling and power upgrades, which will in turn improve service reliability, he says.

"This $100 million will mean the Frankston line will also be able to accommodate the X'Trapolis trains, giving passengers the fastest, most reliable and most comfortable commute to and from the city," Dr Napthine said.

Poor service on the Frankston line was a key issue in the 2010 election, with a swathe of seats along the line, including Bentleigh, Mordialloc and Carrum, switching from Labor to the coalition.

Transport Minister Terry Mulder said one in three trains on the Frankston line ran late under Labor as at June 2010.

Over the past year, punctuality had jumped to 91 per cent, he said.

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Pakistan officials visit hurt prisoner

PAKISTANI embassy officials have visited a hospital in north India where a Pakistani prisoner is in critical condition in the intensive care unit after being attacked by an Indian inmate.

Convicted murderer Sanaullah Ranjay suffered multiple head injuries in a prison in Jammu in an apparent tit-for-tat attack after an Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, was fatally assaulted in Pakistan.

On Friday, Ranjay was airlifted to a government hospital in the city of Chandigarh, 250km north of New Delhi.

A spokeswoman for the government hospital said Ranjay was in the intensive care unit and on a ventilator as his condition "continues to remain critical".

The Pakistani High Commission (embassy) officials "came to the hospital and we have given them Ranjay's medical update", added Manju Wadwalkar, the spokeswoman of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Hospital.

Ranjay, who hails from the city of Sialkot in Pakistan, was attacked by a prisoner who was identified as a former Indian army soldier nearly 24 hours after Singh's death in Lahore.

Singh died on Thursday in Pakistan and was cremated with state honours on Friday in his native village in northwestern India where hundreds of protesters shouted "Down with Pakistan!" as they gathered to pay their tributes.

Singh had been on death row after being convicted by a Pakistani court 16 years earlier for espionage and for his alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Pakistan that killed 14 people in 1990.

His family insisted he was a farmer who became a victim of mistaken identity after inadvertently straying across the border while drunk. India's government also denied he was a spy.

The prison violence could aggravate tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, whose relations were hit by a border flare-up earlier this year that undermined efforts to build trust.

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Orthodox Christians mark 'Holy Fire' rite

THRONGS of Orthodox Christians have filled Jerusalem's ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre and surrounding streets for the "Holy Fire" ceremony on the eve of Orthodox Easter.

Believers hold that a divine fire from heaven ignites candles held by the Greek Orthodox patriarch, in an annual rite dating back to the 4th century AD symbolising the resurrection of Christ.

Israeli police deployed in large numbers to secure an estimated 10,000 faithful packed into the church, with a similar number in the streets around the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

The event, the highlight of the Eastern Christian calendar, was attended by pilgrims from around the world - predominantly Eastern Europe - as well as Arab Israelis, all carrying unlit candles.

Greek Patriarch Theophilos III made his traditional grand entry on Saturday at the head of a procession of monks, chanters and dignitaries with red and gold banners bearing icons.

After circling the shrine in the heart of the church three times, he entered along with the Armenian Patriarch what Orthodox, Roman Catholics and many other Christians believe is Jesus's burial site, emerging minutes later with a lit candle.

The holy flame was swiftly passed from candle to candle between ecstatic believers, most of whom had waited for several hours for the ceremony which filled the air with light and smoke.

While the Church of the Sepulchre is one of Christianity's holiest sites, it is shared uneasily by six denominations - the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Armenian Orthodox, Egyptian Copts, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox.

Roman Catholics in Jerusalem and Bethlehem celebrated Easter on March 31, according to the Gregorian calendar.

But this year other Catholics in the Holy Land, including those from Nazareth, decided for the first time to mark Easter this Sunday under the Orthodox calendar, in an act of ecumenical unity.

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At least 62 bodies found: Syria watchdog

THE bodies of at least 62 murdered residents have been found in a Sunni neighbourhood of the Syrian city of Banias, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

"The bodies of dozens of citizens killed on Friday during an assault by the army and Alawite members of the National Defence Forces in the Sunni neighbourhood of Banias were discovered on Saturday," the Observatory said.

"We have identified 62 citizens by their names, photos, or videos, including 14 children, and the number could rise because there are dozens of citizens who are still missing."

The mass killing is the second "massacre" to be reported in the Banias area this week.

On Thursday, the Observatory said at least 50 people had been killed in the Sunni village of Bayda, south of the coastal city of Banias.

"Witnesses from the village say no less than 50 civilians were killed, including women and children," the group said.

"Some were summarily executed, shot to death, stabbed or set on fire."

After the deaths, which were reported on Friday, regime forces began shelling several Sunni neighbourhoods of Banias, prompting residents to flee the area early on Saturday.

"Hundreds of families are fleeing Sunni neighbourhoods in Banias in fear of a new massacre," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"They started fleeing at dawn this morning (Saturday) from Sunni neighbourhoods in the south of the city towards Tartus and Jableh," he added.

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Two dead in Belgian train accident

TWO people died and 14 were injured when a train carrying chemicals derailed in Belgium, causing a major fire near the city of Ghent.

Jan Briers, governor of eastern Flanders, gave the death toll to the Belga news agency after the accident and blaze prompted authorities to evacuate nearly 300 people from their homes.

The accident happened around 2am (1000 AEST) on Saturday between the towns of Schellebelle and Wetteren, said Infrabel, the group responsible for the Belgian railway network.

Six of the train's 13 cars derailed and two were on their side.

The blaze led to a series of explosions in the railway cars, then a spectacular strip of fire spread over hundreds of metres prompting authorities to evacuate residents living near the site of the accident.

Firemen decided to let the cars burn out as water could have released toxic chemicals.

The blaze was under control by late morning but residents were told to keep their doors and windows closed.

The causes of the accident remains unclear. The cars derailed as the train changed tracks and observers say it might have been travelling too fast.

The train came from the Netherlands and was bound for Gent-Zeehaven, the city's seaport.

Train services between Schellebelle and Wetteren were disrupted and problems were expected for two days, with buses laid on to transport passengers.

Two similar accidents involving goods trains carrying tanks of toxic products occurred in Belgium in May 2012.

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Iceland to resume disputed fin whale hunt

ICELAND plans to resume its disputed commercial fin whale hunt in June with a quota of at least 154 whales, the head of the only company that catches the giant mammals says.

Two vessels are being prepared for the hunt and they will head out to sea in early June, Hvalur chief executive Kristjan Loftsson told Icelandic public broadcaster RUV on Saturday.

"The quota is 154 whales plus some 20 per cent from last season possibly," he said.

Loftsson's company caught 148 fin whales in 2010, but none in 2011 and 2012 due to the disintegration of its only market in quake- and tsunami-hit Japan.

Most of this year's whale meat would be exported to Japan, he said.

"Things are improving there ... everything is recovering," he said.

Fin whales are the second largest whale species after the blue whale. Iceland also hunts minke whales, a smaller species.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a global moratorium on whaling in 1986 amid alarm at the declining stock of the marine mammals.

Iceland, which resumed commercial whaling in 2006, and Norway are the only two countries still openly practising commercial whaling in defiance of the moratorium.

Japan also hunts whales but insists this is only for scientific purposes even if most of the meat ends up on the market for consumption.

In 2011, the United States threatened Iceland with economic sanctions over its commercial whaling, accusing the country of undermining international efforts to preserve the ocean giants.

But President Barack Obama stopped short of sanctions, instead urging Reykjavik to halt the practice.

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Egypt mob lynches teenager over killing

AN EGYPTIAN mob has lynched the teenage son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, saying he killed a man over Facebook comments critical of the movement.

The violence that took place on Thursday in the Nile Delta was the latest in a spate of vigilante killings in the region amid growing lawlessness since the 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

Yussef Rabie Abdessalam, 16, pulled out a gun and opened fire indiscriminately, killing a passerby and wounding another after a heated argument with a man who had openly criticised the influential Brotherhood on the internet, the sources said.

His action sparked fury in Qattawiya, a village in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, where Yussef's father, Rabie Abdessalam is an official at the local branch of the Justice and Freedom Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood of President Mohamed Morsi.

An angry mob surrounded the Abdessalam house seeking revenge, but the family refused to give Yussef up and hurled stones from inside the residence at the protesters.

A man outside the house was fatally wounded.

Police tried in vain to contain the violence and attempted to evacuate the Abdessalam family but the mob set fire to the house and in the confusion grabbed Yussef and lynched him.

The mob beat him up "and dragged him across 500 metres to his death," the Freedom and Justice Party said on its Facebook page.

"This is not a political incident," the Islamist party said, calling on all sides to show restraint.

But a security source and local media said the violence was triggered after comments hostile to the Muslim Brotherhood were posted on Facebook.

Crime rates have increased across Egypt since the uprising and a police officer reported in March that at least 17 lynchings had taken place in Sharqiya since 2011.

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100 Guantana prisoners on hunger strike

A HUNGER strike among prisoners at Guantanamo Bay keeps growing.

Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House said on Saturday 100 of 166 prisoners at the US base in Cuba have now joined the strike.

He says 19 are receiving liquid nutrients through a nasal tube to prevent dangerous weight loss. Five of those are at a hospital under observation but do not have any life-threatening conditions.

Lawyers for the detainees say the military is undercounting the number of hunger strikers.

Prisoners began the hunger strike in February to protest conditions and indefinite confinement.

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Vic Labor claims victory in Lyndhurst

Martin Pakula is confident he can win the by-election in the Victorian state seat of Lyndhurst. Source: AAP

LABOR'S Martin Pakula has claimed victory in the Victoria's Lyndhurst by-election with around 40 per cent of the primary vote, after more than three-quarters of the total vote was counted.

Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews has however acknowledged his party has an image problem after Labor's primary vote took a dive.

The primary vote was significantly down on the 55 per cent result achieved at the 2010 state poll and there was no coalition candidate.

Mr Andrews said it was no secret the Labor brand was facing challenges.

The latest Newspoll published in The Australian this week put the federal coalition at a 10-point lead of 55 to 45 per cent over Labor after preferences.

When asked if federal Labor's woes had impacted on the result, Mr Andrews said: "There are challenges from a brand point of view and I think everybody knows that," he told AAP.

"I'm not someone who throughout my time as leader of the Labor Party in Victoria that has ever sought to blame others for the challenges that we face.

"But I think it would be naive not to note, as we all do - not just Labor people but Victorians more broadly - that, you know, things are challenging, things are difficult for Labor just now."

Mr Pakula will pick up his previous portfolios of shadow attorney-general, racing, gaming and scrutiny of government.

"By-elections are very difficult, they're very challenging," he said.

"History will tell you that in by-elections people take the opportunity to vote differently, they vote all over the card."

The result gives Labor 43 seats on the floor of parliament to the coalition's 44, including the speaker.

It means the government needs the support of independent MP Geoff Shaw to pass legislation opposed by Labor.

The former Liberal MP is under police investigation for misconduct in public office and has a verbal agreement with Premier Denis Napthine that he will support the government on matters of supply and confidence.

"What this victory for Labor now means is that the Napthine government is now officially a minority, one that is beholden to Geoff Shaw," Mr Andrews said.

"On every bill, on every measure in every way, Denis Napthine is tied to Geoff Shaw."

Dr Napthine said there had been a 15 per cent swing against Labor, even without a coalition candidate.

"This is a slap in the face for Daniel Andrews in Labor heartland," he said.

"This is a repudiation of Daniel Andrew's approach and the fact that he is working hand-in-hand with militant union leadership."

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Campaigners protest British drone strikes

ANTI-WAR campaigners opposed to Britain's use of armed drones in Afghanistan have marched on a military base hosting the aircraft's human operators for the first time.

Royal Air Force pilots had been operating Reaper aircraft to support British troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan remotely from a base in Nevada in the United States.

But this week the operations were relocated to Britain for the first time, to RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire in eastern England, the Ministry of Defence said.

About 200 demonstrators marched to the base in Saturday, according to the BBC, to show their opposition to what campaigners said marked a "critical expansion in Britain's drones program".

"Drones are indiscriminate weapons of war that have been responsible for thousands of civilian deaths," said a statement from the Stop the War Coalition.

"Rather than expanding the UK's arsenal, drones should be banned, just as landmines and cluster munitions were banned."

Prime Minister David Cameron announced in December 2010 new funding to increase the Reaper program, although there are no plans to base or fly the drones in Britain, officials say.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said people were entitled to demonstrate but insisted the military did "everything possible" to avoid civilian casualties.

"We would stress that UK Reaper aircraft are piloted by highly-trained professional military pilots who adhere strictly to the same laws of armed conflict and are bound by the same clearly-defined rules of engagement which apply to those operating traditionally-manned RAF aircraft," he said.

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Syria spillover risk, say analysts

SYRIA'S neighbours face a growing risk of the conflict spilling across their region with Bashar al-Assad turning to ever more desperate acts to halt rebels, analysts say.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki voiced such concerns on Saturday when he said a new wave of sectarian strife in his country stemmed from violence elsewhere, although he did not name Syria.

However, others believe while Iraq, Israel and Turkey will all be affected, Lebanon and Jordan will be most vulnerable if the conflict spreads.

"There is a significant risk of an increased spillover," says Anthony Skinner of British risk consultancy Maplecroft.

"It is a very vulnerable region and there is a risk of escalation. The whole region may increasingly become involved in the conflict."

Jordan hosts more than 500,000 Syrian refugees, while Lebanon is home to 400,000 but the two countries face other tough challenges.

Amman has found itself dragged closer to the conflict with the deployment of more US troops on its territory amid a warning by Assad the kingdom could be engulfed by the war, and accusations of allowing fighters into Syria.

"Jordan had been pushed because of the escalation next door and because of its concerns regarding militant Islam and Salafists. Jordan is concerned about the potential chaos that may follow for years or decades in the likely event that Assad will eventually be toppled," Skinner said.

Lebanon has witnessed frequent shelling from Syria of both Sunni Muslim and Shi'ite areas of its north and east.

It has adopted a policy of neutrality despite being torn between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies that support Assad, and the Sunni-led March 14 movement that backs the revolt.

Opposition activists in Syria have accused Hezbollah of sending elite fighters to battle alongside Assad's troops in Qusayr, an area near the border.

"Lebanon could be plunging into a state of war - this is a very real risk," Skinner said.

For Yezid Sayigh of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut, "the main impact on Jordan and Lebanon is the refugees, which puts them under severe pressure.

"Even those who support the Syrian opposition, are becoming fed up with the refugee influx. If the situation develops, more Syrians, maybe millions, will flee to Jordan and Lebanon," exacerbating the chances of conflict in the host countries, he told AFP.

Syria's conflict is increasingly becoming a proxy war, with the rebels backed by US allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, and Assad by Hezbollah, Iran and Russia.

Assad's forces are too stretched to retaliate against those who back the rebels, but occasional cross-border shelling is conceivable, said Skinner.

"Though, these attacks would not be deemed large enough to provoke a strong counter-punch, it's conceivable that Assad would use proxies that are not so clearly linked to his line of command," Skinner said.

Turkey and Israel are worried about the fallout.

"The threat of the Syrian conflict has pushed Turkey to engage in what appears to be a serious peace process with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)," he said.

Israel fears Syria's chemical weapons arsenal could fall into the wrong hands.

"The United States and Israel have limited options to deal with the chemical weapons. They do not want things to develop, which might give the Syrian regime the chance to use the weapons," Sayigh said.

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Navajo the chosen one for new 'Star Wars'

THE classic Star Wars film that launched a science fiction empire is being dubbed in the Navajo language.

A handful of Navajo speakers have translated the script for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and people are now being sought to fill some two dozen roles.

Casting calls are scheduled on Monday in Burbank, California and next Friday and Saturday at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona.

Potential actors don't have to sound exactly like Princess Leia or Luke Skywalker but should deliver the lines with character.

Museum director Manuelito Wheeler says he sees the translation as entertaining and a way to preserve the Navajo language.

Wheeler says it's rewarding considering the US once tried to eradicate the language.

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Man arrested over poisoned letters

A MISSISSIPPI man has been arrested on suspicion of sending poisoned letters to US President Barack Obama and others.

Everett Dutschke, 41, was arrested about 12:50am (3:50pm AEST) Saturday at his Tupelo home in connection with the letters, FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden said.

The letters, which allegedly contained ricin, were sent last week to President Barack Obama, Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and earlier to an 80-year-old Mississippi judge, Sadie Holland.

Ms Madden said Mr Dutschke was arrested without incident. She said additional questions should be directed to the US attorney's office. The office in Oxford did not immediately respond to messages Saturday.

Mr Dutschke's attorney, Lori Nail Basham, did not immediately respond to phone or text messages Saturday.

Charges in the case were initially filed against an Elvis impersonator but then dropped. Attention then turned to Mr Dutschke, who has ties to the former suspect and the judge and senator.

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Colombian teen hired gun confesses murders

A 19-YEAR-OLD hired gun has told Colombian police he committed more than 30 murders, blaming poverty and his father's violence.

"Seeing the powerlessness when I heard my parents saying they didn't have money for the rent and didn't know how they were going to get it" led him to become a gang enforcer, Andres Leonardo Achipiz told Caracol Television on Friday.

Referring to the physical abuse, he said his father would resort to "physical blows, humiliation, because of having to work so hard to support six children," adding that repressed anger led him to consider doing harm to others.

Achipiz said most of his victims were in their early teens, his first an individual who stole his mobile phone at knifepoint. After several other killings criminals began hiring him.

He said he eventually became a full-time enforcer, estimating that he murdered a total of 32 or 33 people.

Achipiz, who committed his last homicide in November 2012, was arrested last week and could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison if convicted, a spokesman for the Bogota police force said on Friday.

Police have evidence he carried out eight murders, and Achipiz admitted to those crimes at a court hearing, the spokesman said.

The jailed suspect, who asked forgiveness from the families of his victims, says he hopes his three-year-old son is raised far from the life he chose.

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Italy government unveiled

ITALY'S incoming prime minister Enrico Letta has finally unveiled his new government line-up.

The breakthrough ends a two-month deadlock that saw former premier Silvio Berlusconi reassert his status as a key player and tested the patience of Rome's European partners.

Angelino Alfano, from Berlusconi's party, has been handed the deputy prime minister post and interior portfolio, while former EU commissioner Emma Bonino has been made foreign minister, Letta said on Saturday.

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156 dead, thousands injured in China quake

Hundreds of people are dead or injured after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province. Source: AAP

A POWERFUL earthquake struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province on Saturday, leaving at least 156 people dead and more than 5,500 injured, nearly five years after a devastating quake wreaked widespread damage across the region.

Saturday's quake, while not as destructive as the one in 2008, toppled buildings, triggered landslides and disrupted phone and power connections in mountainous Lushan county.

The village of Longmen was hit particularly hard, with authorities saying nearly all the buildings there had been destroyed in a frightening minute-long shaking by the quake.

"It was such a big quake that everyone was scared," said a woman who answered the phone at a kindergarten hours later and declined to give her name. "We all fled for our lives."

Rescuers turned the square outside the Lushan County Hospital into a triage centre, where medical personnel bandaged bleeding victims, according to footage on China Central Television.

Rescuers dynamited boulders that had fallen across roads to reach Longmen and other damaged areas lying farther up the mountain valleys, state media reported.

CCTV reported that at least 156 people had died. The government of Ya'an city, which administers Lushan, said in a statement that more than 2,600 people were injured, but other reports suggested the real figure was probably more than double that.

The quake - measured by the China Earthquake Administration at magnitude-7.0 and by the US Geological Survey at 6.6 - struck the steep hills of Lushan county shortly after 8am (1000 AEST), when many people were at home, sleeping or having breakfast.

People in their underwear and wrapped in blankets ran into the streets of Ya'an and even the provincial capital of Chengdu, 115km east of Lushan, according to photos, video and accounts posted online.

The quake's shallow depth, less than 13km, likely magnified the impact.

Chengdu's airport shut down for about an hour before reopening, though many flights were cancelled or delayed, and its railway station halted dozens of scheduled train rides Saturday, state media said.

Lushan reported the most deaths, 76, but there was concern that casualties in neighbouring Baoxing county might have been under-reported because of inaccessibility after roads were blocked and power and phone services cut off.

As the region went into the first night after the quake, rain started to fall, slowing rescue work. Forecasts called for more rain in the next several days, and the China Meteorological Administration warned of possible landslides and other geological disasters.

Tens of thousands of people moved into tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back as aftershocks continued to jolt the region.

Lushan, where the quake struck, lies where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau and sits atop the Longmenshan fault.

It was along that fault line that a devastating magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12, 2008, leaving more than 90,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead in one of the worst natural disasters to strike China in recent decades.

"It was just like May 12," Liu Xi, a writer in Ya'an city, who was jolted awake by Saturday's quake, said via a private message on his account on Sina Corporation's Twitter-like Weibo service. "All the home decorations fell at once, and the old house cracked."

The official Xinhua News Agency said the well-known Bifengxia panda preserve, which is near Lushan, was not affected by the quake. Dozens of pandas were moved to Bifengxia from another preserve, Wolong, after its habitat was wrecked by the 2008 quake.

As in most natural disasters, the government mobilised thousands of soldiers and others - 7,000 people by Saturday afternoon - sending excavators and other heavy machinery as well as tents, blankets and other emergency supplies.

Two soldiers died after the vehicle that they and more than a dozen others were in slipped off the road and rolled down a cliff, state media reported.

Premier Li Keqiang flew to Ya'an to direct rescue efforts, and he and President Xi Jinping ordered officials and rescuers to make saving people the top priority, Xinhua said.

The Chinese Red Cross said it had deployed relief teams with supplies of food, water, medicine and rescue equipment to the disaster areas.

With roads blocked for several hours after the quake, the military surveyed the disaster area by air.

Aerial photos released by the military and shown on state television showed individual houses in ruins in Lushan and outlying villages flattened into rubble.

The roofs of some taller buildings appeared to have slipped off, exposing the floors beneath them.

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Morsi to reshuffle Egypt cabinet: aide

EGYPT'S Islamist President Mohamed Morsi is set to announce a cabinet reshuffle, a presidential aide says, but it is unlikely to meet opposition demands for a complete overhaul of the government.

Morsi wrote on his Twitter account that he would make "a ministerial change" and replace provincial governors, adding the posts would go to "those who are most qualified".

A presidential palace official said Morsi's quote was taken from an interview that will be aired on Saturday night on the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television channel.

A senior presidential aide said Morsi may announce the changes by the end of the week.

"There will be six to eight ministers, and wide-ranging changes among (provincial) governors," he said.

"The ministries that will be affected include some important ones," he added.

"I can't mention which ones because, as you know, this is a sensitive matter."

Morsi has repeatedly declared his confidence in Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, whose sacking is demanded by a coalition of opposition groups as a condition for dropping a boycott of parliamentary elections.

Egyptian newspapers have reported that Morsi may replace Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki and other less prominent ministers.

The opposition remains steadfast in its demand for a national unity government, in a protracted deadlock with Morsi that has delayed a much needed $US4.8 billion ($A4.68 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund.

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Thousands rally at scandal-hit UK hospital

THOUSANDS of people have flooded a British town centre in a demonstration aimed at keeping major services at a scandal-hit hospital.

Campaigners of all ages packed into the Market Square in Stafford for the rally and public march, many holding placards and banners emblazoned with slogans showing their opposition to the withdrawal of services including maternity care from Stafford Hospital.

A public inquiry into the hospital, which was placed into administration five days ago, found it had provided "appalling" standards of care and caused unnecessary suffering to hundreds of patients over a five-year period up to 2009.

Health regulator Monitor has given two special administrators 45 working days to produce a plan for the sustainable "reorganisation" of future services.

The issue is of extreme importance to people living in and around the town and has now become apolitical, according to Sue Hawkins, chair of the Support Stafford Hospital group which arranged the demonstration.

Speaking in the busy Market Square, where supporters gathered ahead of the kilometre-long march to the hospital, Hawkins said it was important to move on from mistakes of the past.

"I think we've got to talk about 2013," she said.

"What happened, happened. The numbers will be debatable but what we've got to do is move forward and look to the future for our community.

"We've got a safe hospital today and we're looking to the future."

She said she hoped the march would send a clear message that the majority of people in Stafford want to retain acute services in the town and that they did not accept the proposal of a downgrade to a local hospital.

"We need to have an Intensive Care Unit here, we need to have an Accident and Emergency 24 hours a day and we believe that's possible.

"We know there have to be changes, we know there may have to be some alliance with another hospital to achieve that."

The march set off from the town centre at around 2pm in blazing sunshine and many taking part chanted slogans, waved their banners and sang songs as they walked.

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John Kerr 'dreamed of becoming PM'

FORMER governor-general Sir John Kerr reportedly once dreamed of becoming prime minister.

Kerr controversially dismissed Labor PM Gough Whitlam in 1975 during his second term in office.

But in series of interviews conducted by the National Library of Australia, transcripts of which have been obtained by News Limited's Australian, Kerr reportedly revealed he had become estranged from Labor long before the dismissal and had thought of taking parliament's top job for himself.

In one interview, published by the paper for the first time on Saturday, Kerr said Whitlam "represents something that perhaps I might have been, had I stayed in the party as he did".

He also said he discussed his future with former Liberal prime minister Robert Menzies and how he could make his "way to the top".

The interviews with Kerr, who died in 1991, reveal that he also considered a dozen offers to be a Liberal MP before becoming governor-general.

"I had, during the 60s, re-established an interest in politics and was tempted to submit myself in the Liberal interest," he said.

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Indon detains Muslims heading to Aust

INDONESIAN police have arrested 35 Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar planning to make the treacherous sea crossing to Australia to seek asylum.

Officials said on Friday the arrests came the same day Rohingya being held at a detention centre on Sumatra island beat to death eight Buddhist detainees from Myanmar (Burma) after being enraged by photos of recent communal violence in their homeland.

Rohingya, described by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, have fled Myanmar in their thousands since Buddhist-Muslim tensions exploded in their home state of Rakhine last year.

The 35 migrants, who included 12 children, were arrested at a flat in the city of Surabaya, East Java province, for not having the necessary immigration documents to be in Indonesia, said local police chief Wiji Suwartini.

"They planned to go to Australia," she told AFP, adding that they would be sent to an immigration detention centre in the city.

An increasing number of Rohingya have been arriving on Indonesian shores, where many face long stints in detention awaiting UN assessment for refugee status.

Friday's attack at the detention centre in Belawan underscored the soaring Muslim-Buddhist tensions that have cast a shadow over political reforms in Myanmar which have brought an end to decades of authoritarian military rule.

Australia is facing a steady influx of asylum-seekers arriving by boat, many of whom use Indonesia as a transit hub, paying people-smugglers for passage on leaky wooden vessels after fleeing their home countries.

Hundreds have died making the treacherous journey over the past few years.

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US trade deficit shrinks to $43bn in Feb

THE US trade deficit edged lower in February after a big jump in January, government data released on Friday shows.

The Commerce Department reported the trade gap shrank to $US43 billion ($A41.4 billion), down from the revised $US44.5 billion in January.

The decline, which came after a large 16.7 per cent deficit increase in January, surprised analysts who had projected a deficit of $US44.7 billion.

US exports grew 0.8 per cent to $US186 billion, strengthened by the exports of industrial goods (up 4.5 per cent) and cars (up 1.6 per cent).

Meanwhile, US imports held steady at $US228.9 billion.

US imports of crude oil, which represent more than 10 per cent of imported goods by the US, dropped 5.6 per cent to $US23.6 billion.

But US imports of foreign cars rose 4.6 per cent between January and February to reach $US24.8 billion.

On a 12-month basis, the US trade deficit has dropped by 3.5 per cent.

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Canada unemployment rate rises to 7.2%

A LOSS of 55,000 jobs in March pushed Canada's unemployment rate up 0.2 per centage points to 7.2 per cent, its government statistics agency says.

Fewer people were working in accommodation and food services, public administration and manufacturing, while there was little change in all other industries, said Statistics Canada on Friday.

The private sector shed 85,000 employees while the ranks of the self-employed rose by 39,000.

There was little change in the number of public sector jobs.

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US stocks plunge after disappointing jobs

US stocks have pared back sharp losses as traders digested a surprisingly weak March labour report and watched rising global tensions with North Korea.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 40.86 points (0.28 per cent) to 14,565.25.

The broad-based S&P 500 slid 6.70 (0.43 per cent) to 1,553.28, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 21.12 (0.65 per cent) at 3203.86.

The main indices had plunged in opening trade, shedding more than 1.0 per cent, reeling from jobs data that came in far below expectations.

The Labor Department reported the US added only 88,000 nonfarm jobs in March, a third of the February gain and the slowest jobs growth in nine months.

Employment growth tanked far below the average analyst estimate of 192,000 jobs.

The Labor Department also reported the unemployment rate ticked down 7.6 per cent from 7.7 per cent in February, due to people dropping out of the workforce.

The pullback in jobs gains "was simply awful," said Fred Dickson, chief investment strategist at DA Davidson & Co.

"This piece of economic data adds some uncertainty regarding an economic surge needed near-term to push stock prices meaningfully higher."

Market sentiment was also under pressure from the worries regarding North Korean intentions after reports indicated Pyongyang had ordered two missiles to be relocated to North Korea's east coast, Briefing.com said.

Financials and tech stocks were under pressure. On the Dow, American Express slid 2.8 per cent, IBM fell 0.9 per cent and United Technologies was down 0.6 per cent.

Blue-chip Microsoft reversed losses and gained 0.4 per cent.

Oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil fell 0.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively.

Dow member Hewlett-Packard shed 1.5 per cent after announcing its non-executive chairman Raymond Lane has decided to step down in a shakeup of the board of directors at the struggling US computer giant.

On the Nasdaq, heavyweight Apple fell 1.1 per cent

Wall Street stocks had scored modest gains Thursday after the Bank of Japan's monetary stimulus plan boosted sentiment. The Dow rose 0.38 per cent, the S&P 500 added 0.40 per cent and the Nasdaq climbed 0.20 per cent.

Bond prices soared. The yield on the 10-year Treasury plummeted to 1.69 per cent from 1.76 per cent Thursday, while the 30-year yield skidded to 2.86 per cent from 2.99 per cent.

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Strong 6.2 quake rocks Russia near NKorea

A POWERFUL 6.2 magnitude earthquake has struck in eastern Russia near the border with China and North Korea.

The US Geological Survey says the epicentre of the quake was southwest of Vladivostok, around nine kilometres from the Russian border town of Zarubino, at a depth of 561 kilometres.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the tremor, which struck seconds after 12 am Saturday local time.

A 6.1-magnitude quake struck Russia's far east last month, and a 6.9 quake rocked the region in February. Neither caused significant damage.

An underground formation in the area known as the Kuril-Kamchatka arc is considered one of the most seismically active regions in the world.

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Fidel Castro breaks 9-month hiatus

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has called for North Korea and the US to avoid hostilities. Source: AAP

CUBAN revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has called for long-time ally North Korea and the United States to avoid hostilities on the Korean peninsula.

"If war breaks out there, the peoples of both parts of the peninsula will be terribly sacrificed, without benefit to all or either of them," he said in a column published in Cuban state media.

"Now that (North Korea) has demonstrated its technical and scientific achievements, we remind her of her duties to the countries which have been her great friends, and it would be unjust to forget that such a war would particularly affect more than 70 per cent of the population of the planet."

Castro, 86, reminded the US of its duty to avoid a clash, amid mounting tensions this year between North and South Korea.

"If a conflict of that nature should break out there, the government of Barack Obama in his second mandate would be buried in a deluge of images which would present him as the most sinister character in the history of the United States," he said.

"The duty of avoiding war is also his and that of the people of the United States."

Cuba is one of the last remaining allies of the communist government in Pyongyang.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was always friendly with Cuba, as Cuba has always been and will continue to be with her," Castro wrote.

"I had the honour of meeting Kim Il-sung, a historic figure, notably courageous and revolutionary."

Kim Il-sung was the founder of North Korea and grandfather of Kim Jong Un, the new leader of the reclusive Pyongyang regime.

Tension ratcheted up this week on the peninsula, as North Korea has threatened nuclear strikes and moved missiles, with the South and the US positioning missile defences in response.

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Obama to host Mideast allies for talks

PRESIDENT Barack Obama will host leaders from key US allies Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in the coming weeks, amid turmoil in Syria, the White House says.

The US administration says Jordan's King Abdullah II will meet with Obama on April 26 for talks "Jordan's political and economic reforms, the humanitarian crisis in Syria, and additional regional issues of mutual concern."

Obama will then host Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 16 for talks on "Syria, trade and economic cooperation, and countering terrorism.

"As friends and NATO allies, the United States and Turkey are partners in addressing a range of critical global and regional issues," a statement said on Friday.

Jordan is a key US ally in the region and, as one of two Arab states at peace with Israel, has been involved in past efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The meeting with Erdogan will be the first since Obama helped restore ties between Israel and Turkey during his visit to the Jewish state last month.

During that visit, Obama convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apologise to Turkey over a deadly Israeli raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza in 2010 that had soured relations between the two US allies.

Turkey and Jordan have strongly backed the two-year-old revolt against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, and both countries host large numbers of Syrian refugees.

Obama will host Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan of the United Arab Emirates on April 16, and will meet with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on April 23.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will meanwhile head back to the Middle East early next week for his third trip in a month to see if there might be a way to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Expectations are growing that the US administration is ready to resume some kind of shuttle diplomacy to rekindle the moribund peace process, which has stalled since late 2010 amid bitter recriminations on both sides.

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Two dead, hundreds rescued off Italy

TWO migrants have died at sea while trying to reach Italian shores from North Africa, while hundreds more were rescued and taken to the island of Lampedusa.

The victims were on a rubber dinghy with 88 other would-be migrants. They were spotted on Saturday struggling with rough seas by an Italian military patrol ship and were later picked up by the Italian coastguard. They died, presumably from hypothermia, before arriving in Lampedusa.

The coast guard said it had rescued 106 more people from another boat, bringing to around 500 the number of migrants taken to Lampedusa this week. Another 82 Somali migrants were rescued on Friday by Maltese authorities.

Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini said her island was struggling to cope with the latest arrivals. About a hundred migrants have been transferred to another detention centre in mainland Sicily, Italian authorities said.

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Burma unrest death toll reaches 43

THE death toll from recent communal violence in central Burma has risen to 43 with more than 1300 homes and other buildings destroyed.

Sixty-eight people have been arrested in connection with the Buddhist-Muslim unrest, which has left 11,376 people homeless, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

In total, 163 incidences of violence have been reported in 15 townships, it added.

Previously the official death toll stood at 40.

The situation appears to have calmed since President Thein Sein on Thursday vowed a tough response against those behind the violence, which he attributed to "political opportunists and religious extremists".

Security forces fired warning shots on Wednesday to disperse rioters. But Muslim leaders have criticised the security forces for failing to stop the attacks.

The clashes were apparently triggered by an argument in a gold shop that turned into a riot, but witnesses say the wave of violence since then appears to have been well organised.

It is the worst sectarian strife since violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine last year left at least 180 people dead.

Representatives from civil society, government, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and religious groups issued a joint statement on Saturday calling for respect for the country's various religions.

"We oppose the violent attacks and threats on the lives and property of citizens and the racial and religious discrimination among citizens," according to the statement supported by 58 people who attended a seminar in Yangon organised by the Myanmar Peace Center.

"It is crucial to act to prevent the riots from spreading," it added.

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Attacks leave more than 50 dead in Nigeria

ATTACKS on villages surrounding a central Nigerian city at the heart of unrest between Christians and Muslims have killed more than 50 people this week.

Officials say an assault on Wednesday on a village in the Riyom local government area killed 28 people and an attack in the Bokkos local government area killed 18 civilians. On Friday, a military spokesman said at least nine people were killed in the Barkin Ladi local government area.

The fighting often pits Christian villagers against nomadic Muslim cattle herders.

The attacks around Jos, a city in Nigeria's fertile central belt, come as a string of unsolved killings continue to plague a region that has seen thousands killed in massacres in recent years.

Authorities have pleaded for calm over the Easter weekend.

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Napolitano bids to end impasse in Italy

ITALIAN President Giorgio Napolitano has asked two unidentified "groups" to come up with a program for government in a bid to end a deadlock between parties more than a month after elections that left no clear winner.

Napolitano stressed that outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti's government would remain in charge until a new cabinet is formed and ruled out his own early resignation -- a scenario that had been mooted to help resolve the crisis.

The 87-year-old did not identify the "two restricted groups of different personalities" but officials said this would be clarified later on Saturday.

Analysts said the groups could be made up of party representatives as well as non-political "institutional" figures.

Napolitano said his latest round of talks with political forces on Friday had shown up "distinctly different positions" and called for "a greater sense of responsibility".

He also said Monti, a former European commissioner drafted in to drag Italy out of the eurozone debt crisis in 2011, represented "an element of certainty".

Pier Luigi Bersani's centre-left coalition, which secured the most votes in the elections but failed to win a majority, ruled out an alliance with Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right grouping which came a very close second.

Bersani was asked by Napolitano last Friday to try to form a government but admitted on Thursday that his efforts had come to nothing, after he failed to woo rival parties to support his cabinet.

Napolitano's announcement de facto withdrew the mandate from Bersani.

Berlusconi, a scandal-tainted billionaire tycoon who has been prime minister three times in a 20-year political career, has said a cross-party deal is the only viable solution.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement party, which came in third, has ruled out support for a political cabinet but has left open the possibility of backing a technocratic government of non-political figures.

Developments in Italy are being closely watched by European capitals under similar pressures over budget cuts, as well as investors concerned that Italy could plunge back into the turmoil of the eurozone debt crisis.

Investors have been relatively calm so far and reactions on stock and bond markets have been muted -- mainly because of confidence in Monti.

Analysts say Italy has to find a government solution before markets re-open on Tuesday, however.

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Court upholds election of Kenya's Kenyatta

KENYA'S Supreme Court has upheld the victory of Uhuru Kenyatta in the March 4 presidential election.

The court unanimously ruled that the election had been conducted in a "free, fair, transparent and credible" manner and that Kenyatta and his running mate had been "validly elected", Chief Justice Willy Mutunga said.

"It is the decision of the court that the third and fourth respondents (Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto) were validly elected."

The six judges dismissed petitions filed by Raila Odinga, outgoing prime minister and Kenyatta's main rival in the presidential race, and by civil society groups, over what they said was a series of irregularities that skewed the election results.

The petitioners had called for fresh elections to be ordered.

Kenyatta faces trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague over his alleged role in planning the violence that followed the 2007 elections and left more than 1100 people dead.

There was tight security at the Supreme Court as the judgment was read out on Saturday.

The presidential, legislative and municipal elections held on March 4 were the first since the 2007 poll.

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Mandela 'breathing without difficulty'

NELSON Mandela is comfortable and breathing without difficulty on his third day in hospital after the anti-apartheid hero was treated for pneumonia, South Africa's presidency says.

Messages of concern for the ailing 94-year-old, one of the towering figures of modern history, have poured in since his admission late Wednesday for what was confirmed as "a recurrence of pneumonia".

Mandela had a build-up of fluid that had developed from a lung infection, known as a pleural effusion or "water on the lungs", drained from his chest.

"This has resulted in him now being able to breathe without difficulty," said President Jacob Zuma's office said in a statement on Saturday.

"He continues to respond to treatment and is comfortable."

On Friday, Mandela was said to be in good spirits and making steady progress.

"He sat up and had his breakfast in bed," Zuma's spokesman Mac Maharaj, who was jailed with Mandela during apartheid, told AFP.

There were no details on Saturday on how long he would remain at an undisclosed hospital.

Mandela's recent health troubles have triggered an outpouring of prayers but have also seen South Africans come to terms with the mortality of the revered Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The former president is idolised in his home nation, where he is seen as the architect of South Africa's peaceful transition from white minority-ruled police state to hope-filled democracy.

Nearly 20 years after he came to power in 1994, the first black president remains a unifying symbol in a country still riven by racial tensions and deep inequality.

It is the second time this month that Mandela has been admitted to hospital, after spending a night for check-ups on March 9.

That followed a nearly three-week hospital stay in December, when he was treated for another lung infection and underwent gallstone surgery.

He was diagnosed with early-stage tuberculosis in 1988 during his 27 years in prison under the apartheid regime and has long had problems with his lungs. He has also had treatment for prostate cancer and has suffered stomach ailments.

Keertan Dheda, professor of respiratory diseases at the University of Cape Town medical department, said a pleural effusion was the accumulation of water between the lining covering the lung and that of the chest wall.

Having the fluid tapped was a minor procedure, he said.

"One can drain the fluid with a needle and a catheter and in some cases that's all that's needed," he said.

Other cases required the fluid to be chemically broken down if it had formed pockets or a small operation if infected.

"The older you are, the longer pneumonia takes to get better," said Dheda, adding that mortality was also higher.

"It takes a bit longer, everything is a bit slower and a bit more complicated the older you get."

While Mandela's legacy continues to loom large over South African politics, he has long since exited the political stage and for the large young population he is a figure from another era, serving as president for just one term.

He has not appeared in public since South Africa's football World Cup final in 2010.

Labour unrest, high-profile crimes, grinding poverty and corruption scandals have effectively ended the honeymoon enjoyed after Mandela ushered in the "Rainbow Nation", but his decades-long struggle against apartheid still resonates.

"The whole country is not happy about the old man's health. He is not so well, but we wish him a speedy recovery," Soweto handicraft seller Nhlanhla Ngobese told AFP on Saturday.

"We want him back, even though he's an old man, he's an icon to us, a hero to us, we still want his diplomacy."

Away from the public eye, Mandela has grown increasingly frail.

His December hospital stay was his longest since he walked free from jail in 1990.

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Tanzanian building collapse toll hits 19

THE death toll from a building collapse in Tanzania's economic capital Dar es Salaam has risen to 19, officials say.

"Two more bodies were found this afternoon," regional commissioner Saidi Mecky Sadicky told AFP, updating an earlier toll of 17 in the disaster that happened on Friday.

Several dozen people are still missing around the site, which was littered with huge chunks of concrete.

"The operation is still going on but we have very little hope to find anyone alive," Sadicky said.

Eighteen people have been rescued alive from the remains of the 16-storey building, he said. However it is almost 24 hours since the last survivors were pulled out.

Hundreds of rescuers worked through the night in search of those still trapped in the rubble from the shell of the tower, which was being built near a mosque in the Kisutu area of Dar es Salaam.

Rescue work was slowed on Saturday afternoon after it started to rain.

Sadicky said between 60 and 70 people were reported to have been at or near the construction site on Friday morning, meaning that between 25 and 35 people could still be trapped.

Hundreds of people, including residents and army rescuers, clawed through piles of rubble in the hunt for survivors, alongside earthmovers and excavators.

"I thought there was an earthquake and then I heard screaming. The whole building fell on itself," witness Musa Mohamed told AFP on Friday shortly after the collapse

Sadicky said the rescue team was boosted on Friday night after the Chinese embassy told Chinese construction firms to provide additional earthmoving equipment.

Dozens of Chinese construction workers were at the site on Saturday instructing operators of excavators and forklifts that were sifting through the rubble.

Local residents turned out to supply rescuers with food, water and medication.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete visited the scene of the disaster in the coastal city and posted messages of condolence on his Twitter account.

"We pray for those who have been afflicted by this tragedy," he said. "We pray for togetherness in this time of need."

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Body found as Tibet mine disaster kills 83

Eighty-three workers have been buried after a large-scale landslide hit a mining area in Tibet. Source: AAP

RESCUE teams have found the first body almost 36 hours after a giant landslide in Tibet buried 83 mine workers.

Xinhua news agency said rescuers "found the first body at 5.35 pm (8.35pm AEDT)", after two million cubic metres of earth buried a copper mine workers' camp in Maizhokunggar county, east of the Tibetan capital Lhasa, at 6 am on Friday.

The report came after officials said at a press conference Saturday that no survivors or bodies had been found.

About 2,000 rescuers battled difficult terrain in the hunt for survivors after a vast three-kilometre-long section of land, with a volume of two million cubic metres, crashed down a slope, covering the miners' camp.

The rescuers braved bad weather as an emergency response team attempted to prevent a secondary disaster.

One rescue worker had earlier described the chance of survivors being found as "slim", Xinhua reported.

China's new president Xi Jinping and new premier Li Keqiang had ordered "top efforts" to rescue the victims, Xinhua said.

Mountainous regions of Tibet are prone to landslides, which can be exacerbated by heavy mining activity.

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Lebanese president accepts PM resignation

Lebanon Prime Minister Najib Mikati says the government has resigned. Source: AAP

LEBANESE President Michel Suleiman has formally accepted the resignation of the prime minister, who stepped down blaming government infighting during a time of rising sectarian tensions.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati submitted his written resignation to the president after announcing he was stepping down the day before, taking the country by surprise.

Suleiman asked that his government assume a caretaking role while a new government is being formed.

Mikati's unexpected resignation throws the country into uncertainty at a critical time and threatens to leave a void in the state's highest ranks amid sporadic violence inflamed by the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

It opens the way for what is expected to be prolonged political jockeying as parliamentary blocs try to build a majority coalition to choose a new prime minister.

"I hope that this resignation will provide an opening in the existing deadlock and pave the way for a (political) solution," he said, following his meeting with Suleiman on Saturday.

Mikati has been prime minister since June 2011, heading a government dominated by the Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah and its allies.

Their main rivals are a coalition headed by former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, son of Rafik Hariri, who was also prime minister and was killed in a truck bombing in 2005.

A Harvard-educated billionaire, Mikati was chosen to lead the government after Hezbollah forced the collapse of Lebanon's previous government over fears a UN-backed tribunal investigating the killing of the elder Hariri would indict Hezbollah members.

Mikati stepped down on Friday to protest the parliament's inability to agree on a law to govern elections set for later this year, as well as the refusal by Hezbollah and its allies in the cabinet to extend the tenure of the country's police chief, Major General Ashraf Rifi, who at 58 is about to hit the mandatory retirement age for his rank.

Rifi, like Mikati, is a Sunni Muslim who is considered a foe by Hezbollah.

In his speech on Friday, Mikati said that if Rifi is not allowed to stay on, his departure would send the police department into "a vacuum".

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Pope tells Benedict 'we're brothers'

POPE Francis has travelled to Castel Gandolfo to have lunch with his predecessor Benedict XVI in a historic melding of the papacies that has never before confronted the Catholic Church.

The Vatican said the two popes embraced on the helipad.

In the chapel where they prayed together, Benedict offered Francis the traditional kneeler used by the pope.

Francis refused to take it alone, saying "We're brothers," and the two prayed together on the same one.

Outside the villa, the main piazza of Castel Gandolfo was packed on Saturday with well-wishers hoping to catch a glimpse of history - two popes breaking bread together and presumably discussing the future of the Catholic Church.

They chanted "Francesco! Francesco!".

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said he understands Benedict offered his pledge of obedience to the new pope, while Francis thanked Benedict for his ministry.

He said they both wore white, though Benedict was in a simple cassock without the traditional sash and cape worn by Francis.

Benedict has been living at the papal summer villa since he resigned on February 28, the first pope to step down in 600 years.

He has said he plans to live out his final years in prayer and remain "hidden from the world".

Benedict's dramatic departure that day - flying by helicopter from the helipad in the Vatican gardens with his weeping secretary by his side and circling St Peter's Square in a final goodbye - is one of the most evocative images of this remarkable papal transition.

The Vatican is downplaying the luncheon in keeping with Benedict's desire to remain in private and not interfere with his successor's papacy.

There was to be no live coverage of the private meeting by Vatican television, only a few still photos from the official Vatican photographer and perhaps a video released after the fact.

The Vatican said Benedict was at the helipad in the villa gardens to welcome Francis, and that the two were meeting in Benedict's library and having lunch together.

Francis will then return to his makeshift home at the Vatican hotel at an unspecified time later in the day.

The Vatican spokesman promised a general comment about the meeting, but no detailed statement.

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Imran Khan rallies thousands in Pakistan

PAKISTANI cricket star-turned politician Imran Khan has rallied around 100,000 supporters in the eastern city of Lahore ahead of general elections.

Khan is shaping up to be the biggest wildcard in the May 11 parliamentary election - the first transition between democratically elected governments in a country that has experienced three military coups.

Casting himself as an anti-corruption crusader, the 60-year-old is seen as a threat to the two long-dominant parties as evidenced by the huge crowds that turned out on Saturday to support him.

Khan polls as the country's most popular politician by a wide margin.

But it's uncertain how effective he will be in converting his personal appeal into votes for his party.

Much of Khan's support has come from young, middle class Pakistanis in the country's major cities, a potentially influential group.

Almost half of Pakistan's more than 80 million registered voters are under the age of 35, but the key question is whether Khan can get his young supporters to show up at the polling booth on election day.

"This is going to swing the election," Khan said in an interview before the rally.

"The youth is standing with us and change."

Khan, one of the few Pakistani politicians with a squeaky-clean image, broke into the political mainstream in the last 18 months with a message that capitalises on widespread discontent with the country's traditional politicians.

They are seen as more interested in lining their pockets than dealing with pressing problems facing Pakistan, such as stuttering economic growth, pervasive energy shortages and deadly attacks by Islamist militants.

On foreign policy, he has also struck a chord by criticising Pakistan's unpopular alliance with the United States and controversial drone attacks targeting militants in the country's tribal region that borders Afghanistan.

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China asks France to protect its tourists

BEIJING has urged French authorities to better protect Chinese tourists known for their big spending habits, citing "concern" over recent attacks on visitors to Paris.

The country's National Tourism Administration - which reports directly to the government - made the call after 23 Chinese tourists travelling in a group were robbed soon after they arrived at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport outside Paris.

"Their passports, plane tickets and cash were stolen and the group leader sustained an injury to the face," the organisation said in a statement published by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

It called on French authorities to bring to justice those who assaulted the tourists on Wednesday, and to ensure an "effective protection" of Chinese visitors in France.

France has long been considered a dream destination in China, where it is often lovingly portrayed as the country of "romance".

But that dream has recently turned into a nightmare for some Chinese tourists, who have been victims of violent robberies and other aggressions.

Chinese media has in recent weeks reported on several such incidents.

More than one million Chinese tourists visit France every year, according to the Chinese tourism administration.

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Afghan clerics warn US over 'occupation'

AFGHANISTAN'S leading religious body has warned the presence of US troops in the country would soon be treated as an "occupation" unless the United States hands over detainees.

The fate of prisoners held in Bagram jail has been one cause of a sharp deterioration in US-Afghan ties, with President Hamid Karzai repeatedly pushing to be given full control of the facility north of Kabul.

"If the Americans do not act on their promises (to hand over Bagram)... then that means occupation and they might like to see the reaction to that," the National Ulema Council said in a statement on Saturday.

The government-funded council, which is the highest Islamic authority in Afghanistan, added that a series of recent anti-US remarks by Karzai were "the true voice of the Muslim people of Afghanistan".

Karzai has ordered US special forces out of the key province of Wardak, banned international troops from university campuses over alleged harassment and stopped the Afghan military calling in US airstrikes.

He also triggered outrage by accusing the US of acting in concert with Taliban insurgents to justify foreign troops being in Afghanistan.

The hand-over of the Bagram jail has been repeatedly delayed as Afghan and US officials clash over whether the suspected militants will continue to be held or released.

US General Joseph Dunford, the commander of NATO coalition force in Afghanistan, this week said that some of the detainees posed "real threats" if they returned to the battlefield.

He has also warned that coalition troops face increased attacks from militants and rogue Afghan forces due to Karzai's anti-US rhetoric.

In one sign of heightened tensions, hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday marched to the parliament complex in Kabul demanding US special forces withdraw from Wardak after allegations of abuse.

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Football codes urged to tackle concussion

AUSTRALIA'S football bosses have been urged to review their concussion management guidelines to protect players from long-term damage.

Alzheimer's Australia NSW released a series of recommendations in a discussion paper on Sunday, asking the four major football codes to take a serious look at the way they manage head injuries.

The paper asks the codes to consider changing the rules of their game to better protect junior players.

Alzheimer's Australia NSW chief executive John Watkins said there was growing evidence of links between concussion and the development of brain injuries and dementia.

Players must be aware of the potential risks of later-life cognitive impairment and dementia from multiple concussive injuries, he said.

It was also critical to ensure younger players were adequately protected.

The paper called for Australian research into a degenerative brain illness known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which had affected dozens of former American football players.

Australian Medical Association NSW president Professor Brian Owler said he was pleased with the progress made by football codes.

"Encouraging the football codes to do more to minimise the risks and allow players with suspected concussions sufficient recovery time is only sensible," he said.

Former AFL star Greg Williams said last month he had significant gaps in his memory of his playing days, which he attributed to the heavy knocks he copped.

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Cyprus shellshocked over eurozone bailout

RESIDENTS of Cyprus have reacted with shock after the government agreed to a 10 billion euros ($A12.62 billion) bailout that includes an unprecedented levy on all bank deposits.

The debt rescue package, agreed with the eurozone and International Monetary Fund early on Saturday morning after around 10 hours of talks in Brussels, is significantly less than the 17 billion euros Cyprus had initially sought.

It includes 5.8 billion euros to be raised through the bank deposit levy of up to 9.9 per cent, which will apply to everyone from pensioners to Russian oligarchs and tens of thousands of British expats.

At the same time, a "withholding tax" would be imposed on interest on bank deposits, and Cyprus will have to hike corporate tax to 12.5 per cent from 10 per cent and sell off state assets to help balance the public finances.

Though it was reached too late for Cyprus newspapers the bailout deal prompted some to queue up outside banks to withdraw cash from ATMs.

But analyst Sony Kapoor cautioned that there was no point, tweeting: "Dear Cyprus bank depositors, the time to line outside ur banks was last week, no point now."

A flood of angry comments flowed on the internet.

"The Cyprus deal is exactly why I don't keep money in the bank anymore. Brussels can commandeer your cash. Just like that," one person wrote on Twitter.

Government spokesman Christos Stylianides tried to calm shell-shocked Cypriots saying: "The situation is serious but not tragic, there is no reason to panic."

The levy will see deposits of more than 100,000 euros hit with a 9.9 per cent charge when lenders reopen their doors after a scheduled public holiday on Monday. Under that threshold and the levy drops to 6.75 per cent.

Co-operative bank branches, which, unlike the main lenders, usually open for business on Saturdays, kept their doors closed as their systems were shut down, officials said.

One furious customer reportedly parked his digger outside one such branch in the seaside resort of Limassol, claiming the government had "tricked" him into believing deposits were safe.

Cyprus - which accounts for just 0.2 per cent of the combined eurozone economy - is the fifth country to secure a debt rescue package from its eurozone partners in the three-year debt crisis.

The price tag is very small compared with two rescues for Greece worth some 380 billion euros, Ireland's 85 billion euros, Portugal's 78 billion and 41 billion for Spanish banks.

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Anglican leader to skip pope inauguration

THE new leader of the world's Anglicans, Justin Welby, will miss the inauguration of Pope Francis next week as he will be on a "pilgrimage of prayer", his residence has announced.

Welby, who became Archbishop of Canterbury last month, will be represented at Tuesday's inauguration mass at the Vatican by Britain's Archbishop of York, John Sentamu.

"Dr Sentamu will travel to Rome on the Archbishop of Canterbury's behalf on Monday in time for the celebrations the following day," Lambeth Palace said on Saturday.

Welby, leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans, will meanwhile be continuing a "journey in prayer" which he started last Thursday.

The tour encompasses five cities and six cathedrals in his province of Canterbury, which covers southern England.

On Saturday the journey took Welby to London, where he stopped to pray at various locations including St Paul's Cathedral.

A statement on his website said anyone was welcome to join the journey.

"Gather in the morning, pray for the whole day, or drop in whenever you have time," it said.

Welby's own official enthronement ceremony takes place next Thursday at Canterbury Cathedral.

Cardinal Kurt Koch will represent the new pope at Welby's enthronement.

Welby, a former oil executive, takes over as Archbishop of Canterbury from Rowan Williams, who led the Anglicans for the last decade.

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Tense Zimbabwe votes on new constitution

ZIMBABWEANS have voted on a new constitution that would pave the way for crucial elections in a country plagued by political violence.

Voters are expected to roundly back the text, which would introduce presidential term limits, beef up parliament's powers and set elections to decide whether 89-year-old Robert Mugabe stays in power.

Mugabe has ruled uninterrupted since the country's independence in 1980, despite a series of disputed and violent polls and a severe economic crash propelled by hyper-inflation.

The new draft constitution is part of a internationally-backed plan to get the country back on track. It is supported by both the veteran president and his political nemesis Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

But that has not prevented incidents of violence as activists keep one eye on the general election slated for July.

Shortly before polls in the constitutional referendum opened on Saturday, gunmen - later identified as plainclothes police detectives - seized a member of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change from his home southeast of Harare.

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told AFP Samson Magumura had been arrested on charges of attempted murder in connection with a recent firebomb attack that injured a Mugabe ally.

But MDC Finance Minister Tendai Biti said police could not confirm where Magumura was being held.

As he cast his vote on Saturday, Mugabe, whom many blame for past unrest, urged Zimbabweans to ensure the referendum proceeded peacefully.

"You can't go about beating people on the streets, that's not allowed, we want peace in the country, peace, peace."

Mugabe also used the opportunity to castigate the West, vowing they would not be allowed to monitor the upcoming general election.

"The Europeans and the Americans have imposed sanctions on us and we keep them out in the same way they keep us out," he said.

Casting his ballot, Tsvangirai expressed hope that a positive outcome would help catapult the country out of a crisis that has been marked by bloodshed and economic meltdown.

"I hope it sets in a political culture where we move from a culture of impunity to a culture of constitutionalism," he said.

Official results of the referendum are expected to be released within five days of the vote.

The new constitution would for the first time put a definite, if distant, end date on Mugabe's 33-year rule.

Presidents would be allowed to serve two terms of five years each, meaning that, elections permitting, Mugabe could rule until 2023, by which time he would be 99-years-old.

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