Japan nuclear safety team received funding

A JAPANESE nuclear watchdog says members of a government team assigned to set reactor safety measures received funding from utility companies or atomic industry manufacturers.

Taking the money was legal but raises questions of independence since the industry would benefit from laxer standards.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority says Nagoya University Professor Akio Yamamoto received 27.14 million yen ($A327,362) over the past three years for research on reactors.

That includes 6.28 million yen from a subsidiary of the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant sent into meltdowns last year.

The authority said on Friday three others on the standards team received industry funding.

Before, regulators were in the same ministry that promotes the industry. The commission was set up this year after calls for a more independent watchdog.

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Insurgents shoot dead 3 soldiers in Iraq

IRAQI authorities say insurgents have gunned down three soldiers at a checkpoint near the country's capital.

Police said the early Saturday shooting took place in Taji, 20 kilometers north of Baghdad, and two other soldiers were wounded.

Medics in a nearby hospital confirmed the casualties.

Violence has ebbed in Iraq but insurgent attacks are still frequent.

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Royals arrive in PNG in style

A CROWD of several thousand has turned up at Port Moresby's Jackson's Airport to witness the arrival of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in Papua New Guinea.

Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, have landed on a Royal Australian Air Force plane to begin a 13-day tour of the southern hemisphere to mark Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee.

The royals were met with a booming 21 gun salute as they touched the red carpet, and were greeted by PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and dignitaries, as well as school children dressed in traditional PNG attire.

The children, or pikinis in pidgin, greeted nambawan pikini bilong misis kwin (number one child of the Queen) with a Hiri dance - a traditional movement performed as part of a trading ritual by coastal peoples who live near Port Moresby.

Wearing a navy blue suit and with a chain of yellow flowers around his neck, his highness stood on a small dais as soldiers presented their arms to him.

Prince Charles, who is also colonel in chief of the assembled Royal Pacific Islands Regiment, inspected the battalion before being whisked off to meet Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio.

As he left the airport, the crowd outside let off a cheer and ran to keep up with the royal entourage.

This visit marks Prince Charles's fourth trip to the Pacific island nation since he was a schoolboy in 1966. It is the Duchess of Cornwall's first trip to the nation.

The visit follows months of preparation by the PNG government, which fast-tracked roadworks to patch up the city's cracked and heavily potholed roads along the routes Prince Charles and the Duchess will take on their three-day tour in and around the capital.

The royal duo will visit a nearby village and participate in an ecumenical church service and cultural display at Moresby's Sir John Guise Stadium.

His highness will also visit a youth centre and Camilla will be presented with an orchid named in her honour.

The Prince and the Duchess leave PNG on Monday for Australia.

Prince Charles is expected to celebrate his 64th birthday in New Zealand on November 14.

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Jordan Islamists blast Halloween party

JORDAN'S Muslim Brotherhood has condemned Halloween celebrations held in an Amman cafe as "Satanic" and homosexual, with a newspaper reporting acts of vandalism at the party.

"We watched with disgust and shame last night (Friday) homosexual and Satanic rituals in an Amman cafe," the Brotherhood said in a statement on its website.

"This presents a challenge to the values of the Jordanian people and their Arab and Muslim identity, as well as a violation of religious laws."

The group demanded that those who organised the party be tried for the "grotesque act" and complained that such events are allowed to go ahead in Jordan when the people are "stricken by poverty and amid political crises".

Al-Ghad newspaper, meanwhile, reported that violence broke out when "angry youths tried to prevent the Halloween celebrations from taking place" in the cafe in Amman.

It said they tried to storm the cafe, throwing stones and setting fire to property, causing a traffic jam into the early hours of Saturday.

Poverty levels are running at 25 percent in the desert kingdom, whose capital Amman is the most expensive city in the Arab world, according to several independent studies.

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Aust beef shipment stuck on Indon dock

A CONSIGNMENT of Australian beef is stuck on an Indonesian dock because of anomalies with import documents in the latest problem to hit Australia's beef trade with Indonesia.

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said shipments from other countries had also been affected.

"We are aware that Australian beef has been held up by Indonesian Customs, due to anomalies with the import documentation presented by the Indonesian importer," he said in a statement.

"This is a serious matter and we are conscious that exporters may not have been paid for their product."

The ABC reported said the shipment was worth up to $10 million and could remain on the dock in Jakarta for several more days because the relevant Indonesian ministers were all out of the country.

The department spokesman said the issue of payment and port charges on the detained shipments were a commercial matter for the exporter and importer.

"The Australian government is actively seeking to have the matter resolved quickly, either by allowing the beef to enter Indonesia or by facilitating its re-export to another market," he said.

Australian Embassy representatives in Jakarta had been working with the exporters, Australian meat industry representatives and the Indonesian authorities to find a solution.

As well, Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig has written to Indonesian Minister for Agriculture Suswono, seeking a resolution of this matter.

However Suswono is reported to be away from Indonesia participating in the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

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Woman charged over Sydney teen's murder

A WOMAN has been charged over the murder of a Sydney teenager who was stabbed to death nearly a year ago.

Hayden Burnes suffered severe stab wounds at the car repair business in Minchinbury, in Sydney's west, where he worked as an apprentice in December 2011.

The 15-year-old, whose father is said to have links to the Lone Wolf outlaw bikie gang, was rushed to hospital but died from his injuries.

A 38-year-old woman was arrested in a motel room in Toukley, on the NSW Central Coast, in the early hours of Thursday. She has been charged with accessory after the fact to murder and was refused bail to appear at Wyong Local Court on Friday.

Two men have previously been arrested over Hayden's death and remain before court.

Darren James McArthur, 36, is charged with murder, along with a 42-year-old man accused of acting as a getaway driver.

Police have previously dismissed media reports that the teenager's father was a member of the Lone Wolf gang, along with other reports that the attacker was a member of that gang. Their investigations are continuing.

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Syrian rebels blame West for extremism

SYRIAN regime forces have launched new air strikes in what is seen as a desperate attempt to reverse rebel gains, as the opposition blamed the international community for fuelling Islamic extremism.

Reacting after Washington urged Syria's rebels to reject extremism, the head of the main opposition Syrian National Council said the West and its partners were to blame for rising radicalisation.

"The international community is responsible, through its lack of support for the Syrian people, for the growth of extremism in Syria," SNC director Abdel Basset Saida told AFP.

"The international community should criticise itself, and ask itself: What did it give the Syrian people? How has it helped the Syrians to stop the regime's crazy killing?" he said.

Thursday saw helicopter gunships strafing a district of Damascus as warplanes pounded rebel bastions in the capital's suburbs and in the northwestern province of Idlib, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

At least three warplane raids were conducted in the northern Damascus suburb of Harasta, home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army's best organised fighters, as on the other side of the city gunships hit the neighbourhood of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, it said.

Clashes meanwhile raged in the northern commercial hub of Aleppo, it said, and in Idlib, where FSA forces backed by the Islamist Al-Nusra Front continued their siege of the Wadi Daif army base.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces have this week launched a wave of intensive air strikes analysts say are a response to opposition gains and aimed at "terrorising" and turning local communities against the rebels.

"They are trying to make the civilian population so angry and so scared that it will not be possible for the rebels to find safe havens," said Riad Kahwaji, head of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.

The air raids - often using crude barrel bombs stuffed with dynamite and chunks of metal - were not precision strikes on rebel positions but indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas under rebel control.

"These are dumb bombs, not smart bombs, and when you are using them you are not trying to gain any tactical advantage," said Kahwaji.

Violence on Wednesday killed at least 152 people across Syria, including 58 civilians, said the Observatory.

It says more than 36,000 people have now been killed since the uprising against Assad's regime broke out in March 2011 and evolved into an armed civil conflict.

Most of the rebels, like the population, are members of Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, while Assad's government is dominated by his Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

The country's fractured opposition, whose members range from pro-Western liberals to hardline Islamists, has struggled to find common ground against Assad, especially on the political front.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said Washington wanted to help the Syrian opposition unite against Assad, but warned against Islamic extremists trying to "hijack" the revolution.

"There are disturbing reports of extremists going into Syria attempting to take over what has been a legitimate revolution against an oppressive regime for their own purposes," Clinton warned during a visit to Croatia.

The opposition should "strongly resist the efforts by the extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution," she said.

The international community's divisions over the conflict were exposed once more on Wednesday, as UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi urged China to do more to help tackle the crisis and talks between French and Russian officials in Paris failed to resolve disagreements over Assad's regime.

After the talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defiantly accused the West of fuelling the violence by insisting on Assad abandoning power.

"If the position of our partners remains the departure of this leader who they do not like, the bloodbath will continue," Lavrov said.

Brahimi, who visited Moscow and Beijing this week in bid to revive peace efforts after a failed ceasefire bid for last weekend's Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, is due to present new proposals for resolving the conflict to the UN Security Council later this month.

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Saudi gas truck blast kills at least 22

A GAS tanker truck has exploded on a main road in the Saudi capital, killing at least 22 people, injuring about 111 others and leaving a trail of destruction, officials say.

The lorry veered into a bridge pylon at a junction on Khurays Road in Riyadh about 7.30am (1530 AEDT), causing a gas leak that spread out and then burst into flames, destroying nearby cars and a business, the officials told AFP.

An AFP photographer at the scene reported widespread damage to the area, with dozens of cars mangled by the blast and burned out.

A bus that had been gutted by the fire stood idle on the flyover, with witnesses saying that the vehicle had been transporting workers whose fate remained unknown.

Another truck fell off the bridge from the impact of the explosion, the witnesses said.

Amateur video footage posted on the internet showed thick black smoke billowing from different spots around the flyover whose pylons were also damaged.

Civil defence personnel carried two "completely charred" bodies from the site.

"The death toll of the gas truck fire in Khurays has increased to 22 people, in addition to 111 wounded," a civil defence official said.

Earlier, a civil defence official who requested not to be named told AFP that at least 14 people were killed and around 60 others hurt "in the explosion of the truck when it hit a bridge pylon".

Civil defence spokesman in Riyadh, Mohammed al-Hammadi, said the explosion took place after gas leaked from the tank of the lorry, according to SPA state news agency.

"The explosion and fire happened after leaked gas filled the area. Huge damage happened, in addition to many traffic collisions," he said, adding there were fatalities without specifying how many.

Hammadi said a nearby show yard of construction machinery was severely damaged by the explosion.

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Russian upper house passes treason bill

RUSSIA'S upper house of parliament has passed a hugely controversial bill broadening the definition of high treason to include passing NGOs harmful information.

The Federation Council passed the bill on Wednesday with 138 senators in favour, none against and one abstention, clearing the final legislative hurdle before President Vladimir Putin, as expected, signs the bill into law, state media said.

The bill lists as high treason not only passing secret information to foreign governments, but also giving out consultations or financial help, including to international organisations, if they are engaged in "activities directed against the security of Russia".

The current treason law does not mention international organisations and applies only to activities hurting "foreign security."

The bill also creates a new criminal charge, punishable by up to four years in prison, for people who receive state secrets through illegal means defined as kidnapping, bribery or blackmail.

Rights activists and lawyers have said that the broader definitions could criminalise sharing information with international organisations such as Amnesty International or even appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.

The bill follows the passing of laws that have branded rights groups with foreign funding as "foreign agents", criminalised slander and blacklisted websites unfavourable to the government.

Activists say all the legislation is part of a broad crackdown against the opposition in revenge for the unprecedented protests that erupted as Putin returned to the Kremlin in May for a third presidential term.

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Philippine troops face court over killings

THIRTEEN Philippine soldiers will be court-martialled for shooting dead the wife and two sons of a tribal leader who opposed a Swiss-Australian mining project, the military says.

A military inquiry found the soldiers were negligent when they engaged in a shootout with the tribal leader because they did not try to avoid civilian casualties, said armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Paniza on Wednesday.

"There is a violation of the rules of engagement. You should fire only aimed shots and determine your targets before you fire," he told AFP.

Paniza said a lieutenant and 12 enlisted men involved in the killings could face life in jail if found guilty.

In the incident on the southern island of Mindanao on October 18, soldiers shot dead the wife and two sons of Daguil Capion, a tribal leader opposed to the enormous Tampakan copper and gold project in his tribe's area.

The soldiers said they were fired upon as they neared a hut of the Capion family in an isolated part of Kiblawan town, prompting them to fire back, according to Paniza.

Capion escaped the scene, he said.

However a coalition of anti-mining activists, Alyansa Tigil Mina (Stop Mining Alliance), insists that it was a massacre with the soldiers opening fire on the hut without provocation, and that Capion was not there at the time.

The planned $5.9-billion mine project is run by Swiss mining giant Xstrata and Australia's Indophil Resources NL.

The mine would be the country's biggest source of foreign investment if it begins operations in 2016 as scheduled, although influential local church figures, tribal groups and environmental activists fiercely oppose it.

Spokesman for the mining project, Manalo Labor, declined to comment on the investigation but said the company did not condone violence.

Philippine security forces have long been accused of summary killings and other abuses.

President Benigno Aquino, who took office in 2010, has said reforms undertaken by his government are improving the situation. However rights groups say much more needs to be done.

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US air travel resumes after Sandy

SUPERSTORM Sandy grounded more than 18,000 flights across the US northeast and the globe, and it will take days before travel gets back to normal.

More than 7000 flights were cancelled on Tuesday alone, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware,

Delays rippled across the US, affecting travellers in cities from San Francisco to Atlanta. Some passengers attempting to fly out of Europe and Asia also were stuck.

Authorities closed the three big New York airports because of the storm. New York has the nation's busiest airspace, so cancellations there can dramatically affect travel in other cities.

It was possible that John F. Kennedy airport would reopen for flights on Wednesday, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It wasn't known when the LaGuardia and Newark airports would reopen.

Flying began to resume at other airports. Delta restarted flying from Boston and Washington Dulles and Reagan on Tuesday. Airline spokesman Morgan Durrant said it would resume domestic flights from JFK on Wednesday.

Service was slowly returning to Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday afternoon.

Traffic from Asia to the east coast was beginning to resume, with flights from Tokyo's Narita International Airport to New York and to Washington, DC resuming as of Wednesday morning.

From Tokyo's Haneda airport, the JAL/American Airlines flight to and from New York was cancelled.

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific, which cancelled seven flights to Kennedy airport through Wednesday, said service would resume on Thursday.

South Korean airlines Korean Air and Asiana Airlines said they would resume normal service to east coast cities starting late Wednesday or Thursday.

The number of cancellations caused by Sandy was roughly on par with other major storms that airlines dealt with. A major winter storm in early 2011 caused 14,000 cancellations over four days.

The airlines are facing a large task in getting things back to normal.

Workers had to clear garbage and downed tree limbs from runways at JFK. Water was on the runway at LaGuardia. At one point, some airlines hoped to restart some New York flights by late Tuesday, but that idea was abandoned.

Flooded roads and closed subways kept some workers from the airport. Reservations workers at other airports and at call centres were busy dealing with stranded passengers.

Some travellers hunkered down and waited, while others looked for a new way home.

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Cyclone barrels towards south Indian coast

SCHOOLS and ports have shut down in southeast India as a cyclone heads towards the coast, with forecasters predicting it could make a direct hit on Chennai later in the day.

Cyclone Nilam was likely to do extensive damage to thatched roofs and huts and also uproot trees, causing power blackouts and communication problems across Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh states, officials said on Wednesday.

A bulletin from the India Meteorological Department warned of winds gusting up to 110 kilometres an hour and flooding of low-lying areas because of a sea surge and heavy rain.

It advised residents living in huts along the coast to move to safer areas and ordered fishermen not to go out to sea.

The cyclone was expected to make landfall on Wednesday evening at some point along a 350-kilometre stretch of coast. Chennai, the state capital of Tamil Nadu, is in the middle of the affected zone.

"We have advised all the schools and colleges to remain close for the day," Jayraman, a government administrator in Chennai who uses only one name, told AFP.

"All maritime activities have been suspended and the government is monitoring the situation closely," he added. "So far, no evacuation process has started."

Local authorities said they were preparing helicopters and boats for any emergency. Existing cyclone shelters, schools and community halls have also been identified to serve as potential relief camps.

Neighbouring Sri Lanka on Tuesday allowed thousands of people who had been evacuated to return to their homes after the storm, which had been expected to hit the island, changed course and moved towards India.

The last cyclone in India struck in the same southeast region in January, claiming 42 lives and leaving a trail of destruction across Tamil Nadu.

India and Bangladesh are hit regularly by cyclones that develop in the Bay of Bengal between April and November, causing widespread damage to homes, livestock and crops.

India's Andhra Pradesh state saw its worst cyclone in 1977 when more than 10,000 people were killed.

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RBA says $A intervention not needed

THE Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) says the conditions are not right for it to intervene in currency markets to reduce the value of the Australian dollar.

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) deputy governor Philip Lowe told the Commonwealth Bank's Australasian Fixed Income Conference in Sydney the Australian dollar is not overvalued.

"The major influence on the currency is the terms of trade, the commodity prices," Dr Lowe said.

"That's why the exchange rate is high."

Dr Lowe said in answer to questions at the conference that the current conditions were not right for an intervention.

"While it's a bit surprising that the currency hasn't come down - the outlook for the world economy has softened and interest rates have gone down - the currency is still not at a point where I think you can make a strong conclusion that it is fundamentally overvalued," he said.

"Really you're talking about whether the Reserve Bank should undertake a very large scale intervention in the currency markets.

"The argument for doing that would arise if we thought the currency was fundamentally overvalued and was having a really adverse affect on the Australian economy."

A recent case when the RBA intervened in currency markets was in late October 2008, when it spent $3.15 billion propping up the Australian dollar after it fell below 61 US cents as the worst of the global financial crisis was setting in.

"Historically, we've been prepared to intervene for short periods of time when there is market dislocation or where the exchange rate has been fundamentally away from where it should be," Dr Lowe said.

"So that possibility is not ruled out but it would be a very big step moving away from a system that has serve us very well for a very long period of time."

Dr Lowe said the floating of the Australian dollar in December 1983 was one of the most fundamental economic reforms Australia has made over the past 30 years.

"It has been an incredibly stabilising influence, there have been periods where people may feel very uncomfortable about the movement but if you look back over the history it is difficult to escape the conclusion that a floating exchange rate has been a tremendous benefit to this country," he said.

"A decision to to intervene by the Reserve Bank would be a very big one."

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Asian markets close mixed

ASIAN stock markets have closed mixed but Tokyo closed lower after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced monetary easing that was only slightly bigger than market forecasts and cut its growth outlook.

With US markets closed because of Hurricane Sandy, Wall Street gave regional investors no lead but comments from Spain and Greece revived eurozone concerns.

Tokyo fell 0.98 per cent, or 87.36 points, to 8,841.98 on Tuesday while Seoul closed 0.43 per cent higher, adding 8.06 points to 1,899.58.

Sydney, which closed before the BoJ announcement, rose 0.20 per cent or 8.8 points to 4,485.7.

Hong Kong was 0.38 per cent lower, shedding 82.47 points to 21,428.58 but Shanghai gained 0.17 per cent, or 3.41 points, to 2,062.35.

Just before the Tokyo market closed the central bank said it would add another Y11 trillion ($A134.14 billion) to its Y80 trillion asset purchase scheme to provide liquidity to the economy and jumpstart growth.

It also said it expected the economy to grow just 1.5 per cent in the year to March, instead of the 2.2 per cent previously predicted.

Expectations of new easing had sent markets higher in recent weeks, while the yen had suffered a sell-off.

"The vast majority of experts seemed to think that the central bank would go for 10 trillion yen, with a few as far out as 20 trillion yen, so the weighted average probably came out somewhere right around where the BoJ settled," CLSA equity strategist Nicholas Smith told Dow Jones Newswires.

Despite a similar move last month, Japan's economy appears unable to emerge from its stupor.

Figures earlier on Tuesday showed factory output fell 4.1 per cent last month, much worse than the 3.1 per cent drop expected, with a slump in production of cars, auto parts and machinery a key cause.

In Greece the finance ministry said banks would not be able to swap greatly devalued holdings of national debt for bonds issued by the new European Stability Mechanism.

The news comes as Athens remains locked in talks with its international creditors over accessing its next tranche of rescue funds, as well as over a possible extension of a timetable to initiate crucial reforms.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy reiterated that his own debt-laden, recession-hit economy does not need a bailout, even as a ninth region made an appeal for rescue funds from Madrid.

The yen clawed back some of its recent losses against the euro and dollar soon after the BoJ's comments.

And in late Tokyo trade the dollar bought Y79.47 compared with Y79.80 in New York late on Monday.

The euro bought $US1.2945, compared with $US1.2900, and Y102.88, from Y102.95.

CLSA's Smith said he thought the "dollar-yen was vastly overbought over its recent steep run-up".

Oil prices were down as Hurricane Sandy forced the shutdown of refineries, roads and airports.

New York's benchmark oil futures contract, West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude for delivery in December, was down 19 US cents to $US85.35 a barrel in afternoon trade. Brent North Sea crude for December fell 41 US cents to $US109.03.

Gold was at $US1,714.33 at 1920 AEDT, compared with $US1,712.20 late on Monday.

In other markets:

- Taipei rose 1.28 per cent, or 90.92 points, to 7,182.59.

- Manila closed 0.54 per cent higher, gaining 29.25 points to 5,426.67.

Metropolitan Bank and Trust gained 0.86 per cent to 93.65 pesos while Ayala Corp rose 0.45 per cent to 442 pesos.

- Wellington fell 0.25 per cent, or 10.01 points, to 3,941.28.

Fletcher Building was down 2.12 per cent at $NZ6.92 and Telecom was up 1.68 per cent at $NZ2.42.

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Unions win injunction against QBuild cuts

FOUR unions have won an injunction against Queensland government moves to begin dismissing more than 300 QBuild workers.

Workers with the government's maintenance company were told on Tuesday morning they would have one-on-one sessions with managers to discuss redundancy or relocation offers.

But Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) organiser Scott Stanford says the workers had not been properly briefed.

"QBuild had not followed their own due diligence procedures and many of the workers had not been able to make informed decisions about their futures," Mr Stanford told AAP.

"They weren't sure if they should stay with the business or take a voluntary redundancy because it was unclear even how many positions would go."

Mr Stanford said the union expected around 320 positions to be cut.

The AMWU, the Electrical Trades Union, the Plumbers Union and the CFMEU were granted a 28-day injunction in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission late on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Stanford said the unions hoped to begin talks with QBuild on Wednesday.

"We hope to ascertain exactly where the positions are that they believe they can maintain within the business ... because we don't know where those positions are," he said.

"People were being asked to make a decision on moving north, but without knowing what assistance would be given, whether the job would be the same or if it would have longevity.

"We firmly believe this will be the first round of cuts in QBuild and the way things are going there is likely to be a second round."

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China confronts Japan ships near islands

CHINESE patrol boats have confronted Japanese vessels near a disputed East China Sea archipelago, the latest in a series of such encounters following Tokyo's nationalisation of the islands last month.

Four ships from China Marine Surveillance entered waters near the islands at 10am (1300 AEDT) on Tuesday, according to a statement from the State Oceanic Administration that commands the service.

The ships conducted surveillance on the on Japanese coastguard vessels in the area, "sternly expressed" China's sovereignty claim over the islands and "carried out expulsion measures", the administration said.

Japanese Coast Guard spokesman Yuji Kito said ships from both countries flashed signs saying they were in their own territorial waters and demanding the other side leave.

"The Chinese flashed the signs in Chinese and Japanese," said Kito, speaking by phone from Coast Guard headquarters in Okinawa, which has jurisdiction over the islands. "They have done this before and so have we." He said the situation was not more intense than previous encounters.

The uninhabited islets, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are also claimed by Taiwan.

China has launched increasingly frequent patrols around the islands since angrily protesting the Japanese government's decision to purchase them from their private owners. Chinese ships have at times entered the 22-kilometre (12-nautical mile) zone that Tokyo considers its territorial waters near the islands and Chinese aircraft have also stepped up activity around them.

Tokyo's nationalisation sparked violent protests in dozens of Chinese cities and sent relations nose diving, with trade ties among the worst to suffer.

China has demanded Tokyo acknowledge the sovereignty dispute, and the sides have held low-key talks aimed at reducing tensions.

Japan needs to "face up to the current reality, recognise the controversy, correct their mistakes and negotiate," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regularly scheduled news conference Tuesday. "We hope Japan can show real sincerity and action to make efforts in solving the current issue."

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Wharfies to rally for safer ports

MARITIME workers are set to rally at ports across Australia to protest against industry inaction on safety issues following the death of a NSW wharfie.

Members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) will demonstrate on Tuesday calling for the introduction of a national safety code.

It comes after Greg Fitzgibbon, 56, was crushed by 20 tonnes of aluminium he was lifting while working for Newcastle Stevedores on the Chinese-owned, Bahamas-registered Weaver Arrow on September 23.

A day later, major employers such as Patricks, Qube and DP World blocked a stevedoring code of practice, which the MUA says would have improved safety standards.

"Tragically, we saw the reality of the danger of working on Australian wharves just last month," MUA assistant national secretary Warren Smith said.

"Despite the tragic death of Greg Fitzgibbon, Qube, Patricks and DP World seem to think it's acceptable to drag their heels on workplace safety."

Mr Smith said working on the Australian waterfront was dangerous, but "these companies simply refuse to behave reasonably".

Mr Smith said the union would continue to campaign until Australian wharfies received "the highest possible standard of safety".

As part of the coordinated national protest, MUA members from Newcastle, Port Kembla and Sydney will march through Sydney CBD to Shipping Australia from 11.30am (AEDT).

Mr Fitzgibbon's death was the second at Newcastle's docks in ten days.

A 55-year-old man suffered a cardiac arrest and died on board the Sage Sagittarius cargo ship, docked at Newcastle Port, on September 14.

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French business presses for huge reforms

THE biggest business leaders in France have turned up the heat on embattled President Francois Hollande with demands for radical reforms just as he heads into crisis talks with the heads of the IMF, WTO and other top economic bodies.

As Hollande launched talks on the eurozone debt crisis and ways to revive growth, the heads of 98 of the biggest French groups on Monday pleaded the case for a 30 billion euro ($A37.79 billion) cut in welfare charges paid by French employers over two years, and massive cuts in public spending.

"With a record public spending of 56 per cent of gross domestic product, we have reached the limit of what is tolerable," said the Afep, which represents more than 90 of France's top companies, in an open letter to the president.

Their onslaught against increases in taxes and charges comes in the midst of growing national controversy of ways to make lagging French industry, with factory closures announced almost every week, competitive in international trade.

But two leading ministers immediately rejected such radical action.

The appeal by big business comes just weeks after small business entrepreneurs forced the government to re-think proposed taxes on the profit of selling a start-up.

France has a huge structural trade deficit.

Hollande, on the ropes in opinion polls, is grappling with pre-election pledges to create jobs and spur growth while applying austerity measures to plug a 37 billion euro hole in public finances.

The pressures closing in on Hollande include sweeping job cuts. Auto group PSA Peugeot Citroen alone has announced the loss of 8000 jobs and the closure of an emblematic plant near Paris. It has just been rescued with a government guarantee of seven billion euros ($A8.82 billion) for its banking and credit arm.

Hollande - whose ratings have dived since he took power in May - meanwhile met World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim, the International Monetary Fund's Christine Lagarde, World Trade Organisation head Pascal Lamy, International Labour Organisation Secretary General Guy Ryder and the OECD's Angel Gurria in Paris.

An official said Hollande had called the meeting "to discuss international economic issues and economic and social recovery ... to spur growth, jobs and competitiveness".

The leaders of the organisations will then go on to Berlin to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday.

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Turks defy ban to mark Republic Day

THOUSANDS of pro-secular Turks have marched in Ankara to mark Republic Day, defying a ban by the moderate Islamist government.

Carrying national flags, demonstrators on Monday shouted slogans, "Fully independent Turkey" and "We are soldiers of Mustafa Kemal", referring to the republic's founding father.

The rally organised by dozens of civil society organisations and backed by some opposition parties began outside the first parliament building in the historic Ulus district.

Police used pepper spray after a group of protesters shouting anti-government slogans attempted to break a police barricade, a witness told AFP.

Some 3500 police officers were deployed in the area, according to media reports.

The Ankara governor's office has banned the Republic Day rally, arguing that the state's security services received intelligence that groups might be planning "provocative" actions.

Republic Day is a national holiday in Turkey but it has in recent years become a platform for opposition groups worried that the current regime is expunging the country's secular tradition.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and other government opponents have voiced outrage that celebrating the republic's 89th anniversary should be made into a criminal act.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who attended the Ankara rally, said: "We will mark the Republic Day despite the pressure."

The Turkish republic was founded on October 29, 1923 from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, which spanned six centuries and at its peak stretched from southeast Europe to the Middle East and North Africa.

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Clinton in Algeria to press action on Mali

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is holding talks in Algeria to press for a possible military intervention in neighbouring Mali, large swathes of which have been overrun by Islamists.

The US and France have launched a diplomatic offensive to secure Algeria's vital backing for such action in Mali, where al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is tightening its grip on the north.

The UN Security Council this month called on West African nations to step up preparations for a military force to reconquer the territory held by AQIM and other jihadist groups.

"Algeria being the strongest Sahel state became a critical partner in dealing with AQIM," a US State Department official said aboard Clinton's plane, which touched down in Algiers on Monday morning.

"In the context of what happened in north Mali when the government forces up there collapsed and the coup happened, Algeria's importance has become ever more important and it will really be a central focus in the talks between the secretary and president," said the official.

"There is a strong recognition that Algeria has to be a central part of the solution," the official added.

Clinton, on her second visit to Algeria after a trip last year, was on Monday holding talks with Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci before a meeting and lunch with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Algeria shares a long border with Mali, where extremists and rebel groups took over large parts of the north after a coup in March.

Both it and Mauritania have called for dialogue in a bid to reach a political solution, after initially ruling out sending troops.

The common influence among the fundamentalist armed groups ruling northern Mali is AQIM, which originated in Algeria and is active in regional countries including Mauritania.

The Security Council on October 12 approved a resolution urging West African states to speed up preparations for a force of up to 3000 troops that would attempt to recapture northern Mali.

It gave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) until November 26 to clarify its plans.

Algeria, with its powerful army, was at first opposed to any military intervention in Mali, fearing a destabilisation of its territory inhabited by 50,000 Tuaregs.

Since April, AQIM and Tuareg allies Ansar Dine and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) have imposed Islamist sharia law in parts of Mali that they have effectively partitioned.

According to another State Department official travelling with Clinton, Algeria has been "warming to the idea" of intervention led by West African states.

"One of the things that we'll be talking about is ... the role that Algeria could play if ECOWAS provides the boots on the ground... in coordination with the forces of Mali," the official said.

The United States and France are willing to provide the international force with logistical support, but analysts say Algeria's backing is essential.

"An intervention in northern Mali is possible without the military support of Algeria, but not without its consent," said Pierre Boilley, head of the Centre of African Studies, a French think-tank.

Algeria's foreign ministry said the talks with Clinton would focus on "the consolidation of the security and economic partnership between the two countries as well as regional issues."

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22,000 displaced by Burma unrest: UN

MORE than 22,000 people from mainly Muslim communities have been displaced in western Burma after a fresh wave of violence and arson that has left dozens dead.

Whole neighbourhoods were razed in unrest in Rakhine state during the past week, the United Nations has reported.

The violence has cast a shadow over the country's reforms and put further strain on relief efforts in the region, where some 75,000 people are already crammed into overcrowded camps following clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in June.

The UN chief in Rangoon, Ashok Nigam, said government estimates provided early on Sunday were that 22,587 people had been displaced and 4665 houses set ablaze in the latest bloodshed.

"We have to say that this is a current estimate and we suspect there may be additional numbers," Nigam told AFP, adding that 21,700 of those made homeless were Muslims.

"These are people whose houses have been burnt, they are still in the same locality," he said, indicating that thousands more who had surged towards the state capital Sittwe may not be included in that estimate.

The latest fighting has killed more than 80 people, according to a government official, bringing the total toll since June to above 170.

In Minbya, one of about eight townships affected by the fighting, a senior police official told AFP that more than 4000 people, mainly Muslims, had been made homeless after hundreds of properties in six villages were torched.

"Some victims are staying at their relatives' houses, some are in temporary relief camps, they are staying near those burnt areas," he said, adding that a heightened security presence had prevented further clashes.

"They are staying between Muslims and Rakhine people."

Nigam, who has just returned from a visit to the region, said the UN was concerned both about the potential of a further spread of violence and that it would be "more challenging" to reach the displaced in some of the remote affected areas.

The UN had already started mobilising to take food and shelter to displaced communities, "but we will quickly need more resources", he said.

Boatloads of people have arrived in Sittwe seeking shelter in camps on the outskirts of the city that are already packed with Muslim minority Rohingya following June's unrest.

Festering animosity between Buddhists and Muslims has continued to simmer in Rakhine since the outbreak of violence in June.

Burma's 800,000 Rohingya are seen by the government as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and many Burmese call them "Bengalis". They face discrimination that activists say has led to a deepening alienation from Buddhists.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday released satellite images showing "extensive destruction of homes and other property in a predominantly Rohingya Muslim area" of Kyaukpyu, where a major pipeline to transport Burma's gas to China begins.

The images show a stark contrast between the coastal area as seen in March this year, packed with hundreds of dwellings and fringed with boats, and in the aftermath of the latest violence, where virtually all structures appear to have been wiped from the landscape.

The stateless Rohingya, speaking a Bengali dialect similar to one in neighbouring Bangladesh, have long been considered by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

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Indian PM revamps cabinet for 2014 poll

INDIAN Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government had had a major reshuffle in what analysts said was an attempt at an image makeover ahead of general elections scheduled for 2014.

Salman Khursheed, 59, a lawyer and career politician who has held varied ministerial portfolios including law and commerce, was appointed foreign minister.

He replaces SM Krishna, 80, who resigned on Saturday saying he was making way for younger faces.

Shashi Tharoor, a former United Nations undersecretary-general who resigned in 2010 after a brief stint as junior minister for external affairs, and Manish Tiwari, a prominent spokesman of the Indian National Congress party, were among the new ministers.

Chiranjeevi, a popular film actor from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, whose party merged with Congress in 2011, was appointed junior minister with independent charge of the tourism ministry.

Andhra Pradesh is one of the 17 states where elections to legislative assemblies are due in 2013 and 2014.

A total of 22 ministers, including 17 new inductees, were sworn in at a ceremony on Sunday at the presidential palace.

Two new ministers were appointed to the cabinet and five ministers elevated to cabinet rank. The rest were sworn in as junior ministers.

"It (the ministry) is a combination of youth and experience," Singh told reporters after the ceremony. Singh also hoped it would be the last reshuffle before the 2014 general election.

Singh's Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance government has been mired in financial scandals over the past two years and has also been accused of failing to take correct policy decisions to speed up a slowing economy.

The prime minister said he was disappointed that Rahul Gandhi, a general secretary of the Congress Party and son of party president Sonia Gandhi, had once again turned down the offer of a cabinet position.

Rahul Gandhi - whose father, grandmother and great grandfather were all prime ministers of India - is widely seen as a future candidate of the Congress Party for the top job.

He has, however, said that for now he wishes to focus on reorganising and revitalising the Congress Party.

A major overhaul of the Congress Party organisational structure is also expected soon in view of the upcoming state assembly and general elections.

Several of the seven senior ministers who resigned on Saturday to make for the new ministers had said they were resigning to work for the party.

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Ukraine votes in key democracy test

UKRAINIANS are voting in legislative polls that are being seen by the West as a test of democracy under President Viktor Yanukovych following the jailing last year of his top political foe.

The ex-Soviet nation of 46 million people - nestled between the European Union and Russia and still undecided about whose alliance it values most - is holding its first vote since jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko lost to Yanukovych in a bitter presidential race in February 2010.

The firebrand 2004 Orange Revolution leader was put behind bars less than two years later on abuse-of-power charges brought by Yanukovych's Regions Party that both Tymoshenko and Western nations regard as retribution by the president.

The election for the 450-seat parliament has also been shaken up by the political emergence of boxing heavyweight star Vitali Klitschko and recently retired football super-striker Andriy Shevchenko.

Ahead of Sunday's vote, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton issued a rare joint letter calling on Yanukovych to prove his democratic credentials to the world.

"Important steps now have to be taken by the Ukrainian government to fulfil its full potential," the open letter said.

"Ukraine's parliamentary elections at the end of this month will be an important bellwether for the state of these (democratic) institutions. At the moment, there are some worrying trends."

Opinion polls suggest that Yanukovych's alliance with the Communist Party and a top centrist politician will secure a narrow victory over Tymoshenko's opposition bloc.

But in hot pursuit in third is the UDAR (Punch) party headed by world boxing champion Klitschko - and a long-mooted alliance with the opposition bloc could swing the parliamentary majority away from the ruling party.

"I am confident that we will be able to gather all the opposition forces around us in the new parliament," the reigning heavyweight champion boldly predicted in an interview with a German newspaper on the eve of the vote.

A merger between UDAR and the Tymoshenko bloc could give the opposition a parliamentary majority and further limit the political options of Yanukovych, already under strong pressure from the West.

Tymoshenko, who has been behind bars since August last year, urged her supporters not to boycott the election on account of her absence and vote in large numbers "to help overcome ballot rigging" on the part of the ruling elite.

"Every one of us has to fight this dictatorship the best they can," Tymoshenko said in a statement on her official website.

Half of the 450 seats in the new Verkhovna Rada chamber of parliament will be filled by voters casting ballots for parties that have to clear a five per cent minimum vote threshold. The rest will be filled by individual candidates who must win their districts.

Polls are due to close at 0500 AEDT on Monday.

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Three marines killed in Philippine clash

THREE Philippine marines have been killed and 10 wounded in a clash with al-Qaeda-linked militants who are holding several foreign hostages.

The troops from the Marine Battalion Landing Team 6 were deployed to a remote village on the southern island of Jolo to check intelligence reports about the presence there of Abu Sayyaf gunmen and their captives.

"The troops conducted a combat patrol to verify the reported presence of the kidnap victims in the area when they caught up with the Abu Sayyaf group, resulting in the encounter," said a regional military spokesman.

Three were killed and military helicopters evacuated the 10 injured, he said.

The marines reported having killed two Abu Sayyaf militants, although none of the hostages was sighted or recovered.

The Abu Sayyaf, whose followers number in the low hundreds, is blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks including a ferry bombing in 2004 that killed more than 100.

The group is also behind a series of high-profile kidnappings of foreign and local tourists as well as businessmen.

It is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organisations, and a number of American advisers have been rotating in the southern Philippines for the past decade helping local counterparts to try to crush the group.

A number of foreign hostages are believed held by the Abu Sayyaf in its Jolo stronghold or elsewhere, including two European bird-watchers seized in February and an Australian abducted last December.

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