Manila slams China's plans to board ships

THE Philippines has denounced Chinese plans to search ships sailing through what Beijing says is its territory in the South China Sea in the latest irritant between the countries.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday that the plans should be condemned by the international community because they violate maritime domains of countries in the region and impede freedom of navigation.

Chinese state media announced the plans, saying southern Hainan province, which Beijing says administers the South China Sea, had approved laws giving its police the right to search vessels that pass through the waters.

Last week the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and India protested against a map on a new Chinese passport that depicts disputed areas as belonging to China.

The Philippine statement said it wants Beijing to "immediately clarify its reported plans to interdict ships that enter what it considers its territory in the South China Sea".

It said Manila was concerned that ships entering waters claimed by China, which is "virtually the entire South China Sea ... can be boarded, inspected, detained, confiscated, immobilised and expelled, among other punitive actions".

China's action will be "illegal and will validate the continuous and repeated pronouncements by the Philippines that China's claim of indisputable sovereignty over virtually the entire South China Sea is not only an excessive claim but a threat to all countries", the statement said.

The maritime territorial disputes include the Spratly Islands over which China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have conflicting claims. The Spratlys chain is believed to sit atop rich oil and gas reserves and straddles one of the world's busiest sea lanes.

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Syrian army moves to secure Damascus

Clashes have raged near Damascus airport, as members of the Friends of Syria group meet in Tokyo. Source: AAP

THE Syrian army has shelled the outskirts of Damascus in a drive to establish a secure perimeter around the capital, including the key airport road that has come under sustained rebel attack.

The 27-kilometre highway remained perilous a day after troops said they had reopened the key link to the outside world in heavy fighting that followed repeated deadly fire on a bus carrying airport staff and at least two attacks on UN convoys, a watchdog said.

The fighting on Saturday sparked mounting expressions of concern from UN officials.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the conflict had reached "appalling heights of brutality". UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Syria was in danger of becoming a "failed state" if a political settlement was not reached soon.

The army shelled both the southwestern outskirts of the capital and the town of Douma in the northeastern suburbs, human rights monitors and opposition activists said.

Douma forms part of the so-called Eastern Ghouta region where troops have gone on the offensive to secure the airport highway.

Analysts say President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been trying to establish a secure perimeter around Damascus at all costs in a bid to be in a position to negotiate a solution to the 20-month conflict.

The repeated firing on the airport road prompted the cancellation of a string of international flights.

Airport officials said flights had resumed on Friday, but a military source acknowledged more heavy fighting lay ahead to fully secure the road.

Traffic resumed after the army cleared rebels from the western side of the highway and part of the eastern side on Friday.

"But the most difficult part is yet to come," the military official said. "The army wants to take control of the eastern side, where there are thousands of terrorists and this will take several days."

Shelling and fighting between troops and rebels also rocked Syria's second city Aleppo on Saturday, scene of urban warfare for more than four months, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Also, clashes were reported in the central city of Homs, dubbed by activists "the capital of the revolution".

In the east, troops re-entered the Al-Omar oilfield, three days after pulling out, the Observatory said.

"Despite Thursday's pullout, rebels did not enter the oilfield for fear that it was mined," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

The oilfield is one of the regime's last positions east of the city of Deir Ezzor. Rebels last week seized a huge swathe of territory stretching from the city to the Iraqi border, the largest in Syria outside government control.

Early last month, the rebels seized control of the Al-Ward oilfield, the first it had captured. The army has since also lost control of the Al-Jofra oilfield and the Conoco gas reserves, according to the Observatory.

Syria's oil and gas production is now largely for domestic consumption as a result of embargoes on its exports by its biggest pre-conflict customers. But rebel activity has also taken a mounting toll on output.

Violence nationwide killed at least 122 people on Friday, including 73 civilians and 22 fighters from neighbouring Lebanon, the Observatory said, bringing to more than 41,000 the number killed since the uprising erupted in March 2011.

UN chief Ban predicted that Syrian refugee numbers would surge to more than 700,000 by next month as more civilians fled the fighting in residential areas, up from 480,000 now.

Peace envoy Brahimi warned the intensifying conflict could see "the state and its institutions withering away, lawlessness spreading, warlordism, banditry, narcotics, arms smuggling and worst of all the ugly face of communal and sectarian strife take hold of Syria".

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

Most phones and internet networks were down for a second straight day on Friday, the Observatory said.

Syrian authorities blamed maintenance work. Washington accused Damascus of deliberately cutting communications.

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Man arrested after Darwin navy boat raid

POLICE believe a number of people were involved in a conspiracy to steal weapons from a navy patrol boat during a midnight raid in Darwin.

A dozen semi-automatic pistols and two pump-action shotguns were stolen from the armoury of the Armidale-class patrol boat Bathurst at midnight (CST) on Thursday, while it was moored at HMAS Coonawarra, near the city centre.

A duty sailor on board was overpowered during the robbery, assaulted and then restrained with cable ties.

Following an "around the clock" investigation into the robbery, Northern Territory police surrounded a unit in Darwin city about 2.30pm (CST) on Saturday.

A 40-year-old man tried to run from the area, but was captured and taken into custody nearby, Commander Richard Bryson, of the NT Police, said.

He said all 14 weapons were recovered at the unit, however police were still investigating what the man's involvement in the robbery was.

"We have a number of avenues of inquiry to go (on)," Cmdr Bryson told reporters on Saturday.

"The police force need to establish whether this person received the weapons or if he is one of the principal offenders.

"It would appear a number of people have conspired."

Cmdr Bryson said it appears several people were involved in the patrol boat raid, the ABC reported.

"Investigators will continue those investigations until all persons that had a hand in that conspiracy have been brought to justice," he said.

No charges have yet been laid and investigations are continuing.

Cmdr Bryson said he was happy to have the patrol boat's weapons removed from the streets.

"I commend all the officers involved with this investigation for working around the clock to achieve such a positive outcome," he said on Saturday.

On Friday, police said a person, allegedly wearing a balaclava and military clothing, boarded the patrol boat.

Cmdr Bryson told reporters on Friday that it appeared the intruder had good knowledge of the layout of the vessel and Australian Defence Force (ADF) procedures.

Navy chief Vice Admiral Ray Griggs has ordered an investigation of the security at Australia's fleet of ships and bases around the country in response to the theft.

Another five firearms were stolen from a business at Berrimah, near Darwin, about 5.30am on Friday after a shop's gun safe was broken into, but police have not identified any link between the two thefts as yet.

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North Korea to test long-range rocket soon

NORTH Korea says it will launch a long-range rocket between December 10 and 22, a move likely to heighten already strained relations with the US and South Korea, where a presidential election will be held on December 19.

This would be North Korea's second launch attempt under leader Kim Jong Un, who took power after his father Kim Jong Il's death nearly a year ago.

The announcement comes several weeks after US President Barack Obama was elected to a second term and before his public inauguration on January 21.

Washington considers North Korea's rocket tests to be veiled covers for tests of long-range missile technology banned by the United Nations.

An unnamed spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology said North Korea had "analysed the mistakes" made in a failed April launch and improved the precision of the rocket and satellite, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The April launch broke up shortly after lift-off, but quickly drew condemnation from the UN, Washington, Seoul and other capitals.

North Korea's statement said a rocket carrying a polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite will blast off southward from its northwest coastal space centre.

The US has criticised North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to Asian and world security.

Under its young leader North Korea has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy.

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Strauss-Kahn settles with US maid: reports

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has reached a settlement with a maid who accused him of sexual assault. Source: AAP

DISGRACED former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief and would-be French president Dominique Strauss-Kahn will settle out of court with a Manhattan maid who accused him of sexual assault, ending a sordid 18-month legal saga, reports say.

According to The New York Times, quoting unidentified sources "with knowledge of the matter", the 63-year-old French politician and the hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, have "quietly reached an agreement to settle" her lawsuit.

There was no word of any payments by Strauss-Kahn and "no settlement had yet been signed", the newspaper said.

NBC television also reported the possible deal, confirming that it had yet to be completed.

Judge Douglas McKeon, who is presiding over the civil case, told AFP "there may be a court session as early as next week", but declined to comment on the reports of a settlement.

Diallo's lawyers did not immediately respond to an interview request, while a spokeswoman for Strauss-Kahn's legal team declined to comment.

Strauss-Kahn, who had been widely touted as a likely challenger to then president Nicolas Sarkozy, suffered a stunning fall from grace following his arrest at a New York hotel last year on sex assault charges.

He then faced a string of separate sex-related investigations in France.

Diallo had sued Strauss-Kahn in a New York civil court after prosecutors threw out assault charges filed against the globe-trotting politician, saying the maid's sex assault case would not stand up before a jury.

Although Strauss-Kahn has since been mired in legal troubles and brought low by the repeated tarnishing of his once stellar reputation, that initial downfall at a posh Manhattan hotel in May 2011 came as a shocking surprise.

At the time, Strauss-Kahn was jetting between world capitals as head of the IMF and was expected to announce what would have been a formidable candidacy for the French presidency.

Diallo, a maid at the Sofitel hotel, shattered that trajectory when she alleged the powerful politician had leapt on her in his room, naked, and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

Strauss-Kahn was arrested as he was about to fly back to Europe. He later conceded that there had been a sexual encounter in the hotel room with the cleaner, but insisted that it had been consensual.

The subsequent court proceedings and a brief spell in New York's tough Rikers Island detention centre publicly humiliated Strauss-Kahn.

After Diallo was caught lying over several points, the charges were dropped and Strauss-Kahn left hurriedly for France.

His lawyers have repeatedly said they would not agree to a deal to pay off Diallo, branding her a gold digger. Her lawyers have insisted they only want their day in court to confront Strauss-Kahn.

After leaving the US, Strauss-Kahn tried to get off the hook by claiming diplomatic immunity in the civil case but a judge rejected that move in May.

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Eurozone unemployment hits record high

THE recession in the economy of the 17 euro countries has pushed unemployment in the region up to a record 11.7 per cent in October.

Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, said on Friday that 18.7 million people were out of work across the 17 EU countries that use the euro.

The increase from the previous month's 11.6 per cent was anticipated in light of the eurozone's return to recession in the third quarter.

Spain and Greece have the region's highest unemployment rates - both over 25 per cent, with youth unemployment levels heading towards 60 per cent.

Eurostat also says that inflation in the eurozone fell by more than anticipated to 2.2 per cent in November. However, it is still above the European Central Bank's target of keeping price rises at just below 2 per cent.

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Clive James given special award

IT has been quite a year for indigenous artists and writers.

And the latest winner is Kim Scott, the West Australian Aboriginal writer, who on Friday won a combined $50,000 for two NSW Premier's Literary awards for his novel, That Deadman Dance.

He received $40,000 for the Christina Stead Prize and $10,000 for Book of the Year.

Set on the WA coast at the start of the 19th century, That Deadman Dance is a story of early encounters between Noongar people and European settlers.

The judges said the book is "peopled with a broad cast of compelling, complex characters" and a "work of astounding beauty".

Thirty-three judges read hundreds of nominations for the nine literary awards and five history awards, with a collective value of about $360,000 in prize money.

Expat writer, journalist and commentator Clive James CBE AM was awarded the Special Award worth $10,000.

This award, given under exceptional circumstances, isn't open to entry and can't be awarded to a work that has been submitted to the awards.

James, 73, who has leukaemia, was a member of the Aussie "Push" who went to London in the early 1960s and included feminist Germaine Greer.

He was Britain's leading TV critic, for The Observer from 1972 to 1982, and later became well known for programs including Clive James on Television and The Clive James Show, as well as documentaries.

The first volume of his autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, is his best known book.

In June, James said he was "getting near the end" after several years of illness.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said recognising James's achievements in this way was a "fitting tribute to a great Australian writer and a great son of Sydney".

He said James had had an "extraordinarily prolific and successful career" and has "pioneered and championed the idea of an internationalised Australian culture through his poetry, novels, memoirs, works of literary criticism and scriptwriting".

Writer Gail Jones was awarded the People's Choice Award for Five Bells, a novel set in Circular Quay, Sydney, one sparkling summer's day.

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Catholic council set for abuse commission

The Catholic Church will establish a council to work with the royal commission into child sex abuse. Source: AAP

A COUNCIL of religious and lay people being set up to work with the royal commission into child sex abuse will help the Catholic Church "face the truth", Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart says.

The Catholic Bishops Conference on Friday announced it had established a group of representatives from the conference and religious orders to establish and oversee the new 10-member council.

In a statement, the conference said the royal commission's inquiry would be "painful and difficult" for the church, but that was nothing compared to the hurt of those who had suffered sexual abuse.

"Once again, we renew our heartfelt apology to those whose lives have been so grievously harmed by the evil perpetrated upon them by some priests, religious and church personnel."

Archbishop Hart, who is conference president, said the new council would help the church engage closely with the commission and the community.

Expert lay people, including those with expertise in the care of sex abuse victims, would be on the council, he told AAP.

"We need broad-based expertise so that the church together can face the truth, can provide a better response to the care of victims and also make Australia a safer place for our children."

Archbishop Hart said the church had 30 bishops in their dioceses and 129 different religious orders, so a unified council was considered best to liaise with the royal commission.

It was still important for the royal commission to be able to approach individual church officials and members, the archbishop said.

He has already come out in support of mandatory reporting of child sex abuse for priests in line with doctors, nurses and social workers.

There have been calls for the sanctity of the confessional to be reviewed in relation to child sex abuse.

But Archbishop Hart said it was unlikely child sex offenders within the church would use the confessional.

"Leaving things as they are has very positive value and it is part of the religious freedom that we enjoy under the constitution," he said.

Chris MacIsaac from Broken Rites Australia, a victim support group, said the church's proposed committee was an attempt to shield church leaders from the scrutiny of the royal commission.

"The royal commission must be able to question any bishop or church leader individually," he said in a statement.

"The proposed committee members will not know how each church leader concealed a crime from the police, or how an offender was transferred to new locations and new victims."

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UN court clears Kosovo ex-PM of war crimes

THE UN Yugoslav war crimes court has acquitted Kosovo's ex-prime minister Ramush Haradinaj and two aides in a retrial on charges of murder and torture during the 1990s war of independence from Belgrade.

"The chamber finds you not guilty on all counts in the indictment," Judge Bakone Justice Moloto told the Hague-based court on Thursday, ordering the men released in a decision that is certain to enrage Belgrade.

The court's public gallery erupted in cries of joy as the acquittals were announced.

Haradinaj, 44 and Idriz Balaj, 41, were being retried on six war-crime charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for allegedly murdering and torturing Serbs and non-Albanians during the 1998-99 war.

The third accused, Lahi Brahimaj, 42, faced four counts for his role in the fight between independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerrillas and the Belgrade forces of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The proceedings were broadcast live on a giant screen in the Kosovo capital Pristina, where the news was met by celebration. Haradinaj is considered a hero by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority who had high hopes of an acquittal.

Prosecutors accused the three men of murdering and torturing Serbs and suspected collaborators against the separatist KLA and had demanded at least 20 years prison for all three men.

But judges found that the accused had not taken part in a "joint criminal enterprise" to cleanse the area of ethnic Serbs, and that some witness testimony was unreliable.

Moloto said that one witness may not have been in the Jablanica detention camp where alleged abuses took place and "may have told what he heard from others."

Following one incident of abuse "a KLA soldier apologised for the incident and blamed it on extremist groups within the KLA," the judge said.

"There is no credible evidence that Haradinaj was even aware of the crimes committed at Jablanica," Moloto said.

An acquittal is almost certain to be perceived by Serbia as a new slap in the face after the court earlier this month acquitted Croatian General Ante Gotovina of war crimes against Serbs.

The most senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders to be tried, Haradinaj as well as Balaj, his lieutenant and commander of the feared "Black Eagles" unit, were acquitted in April 2008 on 37 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Brahimaj was convicted of torture and sentenced to six years in jail.

Judges however ordered the court's first-ever partial retrial for all three after UN prosecutors appealed the acquittal and Brahimaj's sentence.

Appeals judges said the ICTY's trial chamber "seriously erred in failing to take adequate measures to secure the testimony of certain witnesses" during the original 10-month trial.

Haradinaj is now likely to continue his political career in Kosovo and is expected to run again for prime minister.

However, he is still considered a war criminal by Belgrade and an arrest warrant has been issued against him by Serbia's war crimes prosecutor for his alleged crimes.

In one of the most brutal episodes of the Balkans conflicts in the 1990s, more than 10,000 people died in the fighting.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade fiercely opposes its international recognition.

In Pristina, Kosovo erupted in joy on Thursday as hundreds of ethnic Albanians celebrated the acquittal of former prime minister and rebel chief Ramush Haradinaj of charges of war crimes during the 1990s conflict.

Fireworks erupted throughout the capital Pristina as the verdict was announced in The Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal.

"Kosovo has expected such a decision, Kosovo needs him," said economist Maria Haradinaj, not related to the former prime minister.

Said Shpetim Felmanaj, a former rebel fighter: "We are awaiting his return with joy to lead Kosovo".

Belgrade slammed the verdict - which came after the court in The Hague two weeks ago acquitted Croatian General Ante Gotovina of war crimes against Serbs - as legalising "Mafia rule" because of the alleged witness intimidation.

"The Hague tribunal has legalised Mafia rule in Kosovo, above all, the omerta, the law of silence which still prevails and is stronger than any crime," government spokesman Milivoje Mihajlovic told AFP.

Senior Serbian officials had warned that should Haradinaj walk, EU-sponsored talks between Pristina and Belgrade - which still considers Kosovo to be part of Serbia - could be jeopardised.

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Germany to abstain in Palestinian vote

GERMANY says it will abstain when the UN General Assembly votes to recognise a Palestinian state.

The 193-member assembly is to vote on Thursday in New York on a proposal to accept "Palestine" on lands occupied by Israel in 1967 and grant it non-member observer state. The measure is expected to win wide approval.

In Berlin, the German foreign ministry announced it would abstain even though it supports Palestinian statehood.

A ministry statement said Germany believes the best way to achieve Palestinian statehood is through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, a view shared by the Israelis and the United States.

Germany says it fears Thursday's vote will only serve to harden positions rather than bring the parties closer to meaningful talks.

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China 'at centre' of illegal timber trade

VORACIOUS demand for wood to feed factories for exports and satisfy wealthier consumers at home has turned China into a magnet for the illegal timber trade, an environmental group says.

It is causing other countries to strip their forests as Beijing does little to discourage the practices, says the report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a London-based activist group.

Countries as far away as Mozambique in Africa and the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific as well as Myanmar, Laos and other Chinese neighbours are felling rare hardwoods and other trees at unsustainable rates to fulfil Chinese demand, said the report, which was released on Thursday.

In some countries, the EIA found that Chinese buyers were undermining international agreements to stop illegal logging and the exports of rare species by making payoffs and using smuggling networks.

"These investigations reveal how Chinese traders thrive on crime, corruption, the purchase of political patronage and poor forest governance in the producer countries from which they source," said the report. It later said "China's government has done virtually nothing to curb illegal imports, while putting in place policies to ensure supply from some of the worst illegal logging hotspots in the world."

Chinese government agencies declined initial comment, saying they had not seen the report and asking for questions be submitted in writing. In the past, the government has responded to criticisms that China is preying on developing nations' raw materials by saying the trade is mutually beneficial, generating income and jobs for the suppliers.

Chinese demand for wood has been driven by the country's fast-rising prosperity and its emergence as the world's workshop over the past 15 years.

The report relied on undercover investigations and on analysing data from UN and Chinese agencies.

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Congo rebels begin frontline withdrawal

M23 rebels are pulling out of the Congolese city of Goma, as the UN considers sanctions. Source: AAP

REBEL fighters in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo say they are moving out of frontline positions, in line with a deal aimed at halting the deadly unrest in the volatile resource-rich area.

The M23 rebels could be seen on Thursday pulling back equipment from the areas that they seized last week in a lightning advance that prompted international condemnation and calls for withdrawal.

"We have gathered our troops and will move towards Sake," said M23 Colonel Antoine Manzi, a senior commander of the army mutineers, referring to a town some 20km west of Goma, which the insurgents have agreed to leave by Friday.

"We will start leaving Goma tomorrow ... we cannot leave Goma before we have left the other areas," he told AFP on Thursday, adding that he expected the M23 would hand over control to United Nations peacekeepers there.

Residents have reported seeing dozens of trucks trundling through the lush green and rolling hills on the shores of Lake Kivu towards Goma.

Uganda's army chief Aronda Nyakairima said earlier this week a deal had been struck with the rebels to pull out of the lakeshore city by Thursday, although M23 military leader Sultani Makenga said the deadline was Friday.

Under the deal struck in Uganda between rebels and regional military commanders - who are due to visit Goma on Friday to monitor progress of the promised withdrawal - a company of 100 M23 gunmen will stay at Goma's airport.

Decades of civil war between multiple militia forces have ravaged the region, which holds vast mineral wealth, including copper, diamonds, gold and the key mobile phone component coltan.

Civilians are suffering as aid agencies struggle to cope with newly displaced, with some 285,000 people abandoning their homes since the rebels began their uprising in April.

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Killers often know their victims: report

A REPORT by the Victorian Coroner looking into 545 homicides between 2000 and 2010 in Victoria has found 288 involved family members or intimate partners.

The Victorian Systemic Review of Family Violence Deaths (VSRFVD), led by Coroner Judge Jennifer Coates, found that an intimate relationship was the most common link making up 47 per cent of homicide deaths.

That was followed by parents killing children or children killing parents (26 per cent) and other relatives representing 12 per cent.

The report also analysed the number of service contacts victims and offenders had with the health, justice, community and welfare service systems within a six month period prior to the murders.

It identified three main focus areas for prevention of family violence-related deaths including improved service responses to vulnerable groups, strengthening health service responses to family violence and increasing community awareness of family violence.

The coroner said the evidence confirmed the need to be aware of recognised risk factors and the importance of building a responsive service system that was able to identify and respond appropriately.

Factors included a history of family violence, relationship separation, threats of harm, alcohol misuse and the mental illness in the family.

Of the 545 homicides looked at, males accounted for 363, or 67 per cent, of those killed, and females comprised 182, or 33 per cent.

Single male offenders were responsible for 79 per cent of the homicides and single female offenders for the remaining 21 per cent.

The majority of deaths (74 per cent) occurred in metropolitan rather than regional areas with the homicides predominantly perpetrated by one person.

The coroner said the findings supported previous research that indicated a substantial proportion of homicides were committed by family members, and in particular, intimate partners.

Among eight deaths that involved an intervention order, there were two suicides and one case where the parents of the affected family member were killed.

"Many of the deaths followed historical exposure to violence and abuse, while others occurred in the absence of previously identifiable violent incidents," she said.

In her conclusion, Judge Coates said deaths caused by family violence were deeply saddening events, not only for the immediate family members, but also the wider community.

"The findings of this report indicate that in Victoria, as with other Australian states and territories, deaths among intimate partners and other family members form a substantial proportion of the total number of homicides recorded each year," she said.

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European stocks drop at open

EUROPE'S main stock markets declined at the start of trading on Wednesday, with London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies down 0.29 per cent at 5,782.77 points.

Elsewhere, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index dipped 0.20 per cent to 7,317.49 points and in Paris the CAC 40 reversed 0.38 per cent to 3,488.75.

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Blasts kill 38 near Syria capital

SIMULTANEOUS car bombings in a mostly Christian and Druze town near Damascus killed at least 38 people as rebels downed a military aircraft for the second successive day.

The blasts occurred when explosives-packed cars were detonated at daybreak on Wednesday in a pro-regime area of the town of Jaramana, residents, state media and a rights watchdog reported.

They were the fourth bomb attacks since August 28 to rock Jaramana, home to predominantly Christians and Druze, an influential minority whose faith is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Sectarian divides are a key factor in Syria's armed rebellion, with many in the Sunni Muslim majority frustrated at more than 40 years of Alawite-dominated rule.

The blast ripped through a central square of Jaramana, said the official SANA news agency.

There was a ball of fire at the end of a narrow lane, and the impact of the explosions brought walls down onto cars, crushing them and scattering debris over the ground. Pools of blood were seen in the middle of the street.

The death toll mounted as the morning wore on, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights giving tallies of 20, then 29 and finally at least 38. The interior ministry put the count at 34.

"Activists and residents in the town said most of the victims were killed when a suicide attacker blew up his car, just after an explosive device was used to blow up another car," said the Observatory.

SANA reported that "terrorists" blew up the two car bombs at the same time, as two separate explosive devices were set off without claiming any lives.

The Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011 with peaceful pro-democracy protests, inspired by the Arab Spring. It transformed into an armed insurgency when the government began a bloody crackdown on dissent.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite, insists it is fighting foreign-backed "terrorists".

The failure of international diplomacy has enabled it to press on with its all-out military campaign to crush the rebellion, and the fighting has resulted in more than 40,000 deaths, according to the Observatory.

In the latest violence, an AFP correspondent on the Syria-Turkey border reported that rebel fighters shot down a fighter jet in the embattled northwest.

The warplane came down in a massive explosion, leaving behind a plume of smoke, the journalist said, reporting several kilometres away from the impact.

The aircraft was hit by a missile and crashed at Daret Ezza, said the Observatory, a Britain-based watchdog that relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground for its information.

It came a day after rebels downed an army helicopter for the first time with a newly acquired ground-to-air missile, in what the Observatory said had the potential to change the balance of military power in the conflict.

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PNG stands firm on Ross Garnaut ban

PAPUA New Guinea's leader is standing firm on his decision to ban Australian climate change adviser Ross Garnaut from entering his country.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill maintains Professor Garnaut insulted his nation's leaders during a media interview and is no longer welcome there.

Prof Garnaut, who is chairman of Ok Tedi Mining, was quoted by The Australian newspaper as saying that with such an accumulation of wealth in PNG, it was "tempting for political figures to think of better ways of using it right now rather than putting it into long-term development".

Mr O'Neill said Prof Garnaut's statement was not true and could damage his country's reputation.

"As a leader of the country I cannot stand by and allow comments like those to continue," he told reporters at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.

"It was irresponsible. He has to take ownership of that statement."

Mr O'Neill says his government has sought an explanation.

"Some of the explanations he's given to us are not acceptable to us," Mr O'Neill said.

Mr O'Neill has previously said Prof Garnaut, who until recently was also chairman of the PNG Sustainable Development Fund (PNGDF) trust, would not be allowed back in until control of the Ok Tedi mine was given back to the PNG people.

The trust was given ownership of the Ok Tedi mine, located in PNG's Western Province, by mining giant BHP Billiton.

Mr O'Neill claims BHP is running the PNGSDF by remote control from Melbourne and has questioned whether the 37-year-old nation had benefited from the project.

The prime minister on Wednesday reiterated his call for BHP to back off.

"There is no longer a valid reason for it to continue to exercise any control over the board appointments to that fund," he said.

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US homeowner charged in fatal shootings

A US homeowner who shot two unarmed teenagers in the midst of an apparent Thanksgiving Day break-in said he feared they had a weapon, but appeared to take pride in "a good clean finishing shot" for one teenager, authorities say.

Byron David Smith, 64, was charged on Monday with two counts of second-degree murder in a criminal complaint that was chilling for the clinical way investigators in Minnesota said he described the shootings.

Smith told investigators he shot 18-year-old Haile Kifer several times last Thursday as she descended a stairway into his basement, and his Mini 14 rifle jammed as he tried to shoot her again after she had tumbled down the steps.

Though Kifer was "already hurting", she let out a short laugh, Smith told investigators. He then pulled out his .22-calibre revolver and shot her several times in the chest, according to the complaint.

"If you're trying to shoot somebody and they laugh at you, you go again," Smith told investigators, according to a criminal complaint filed on Monday.

Smith was also charged in the death of Kifer's cousin, 17-year-old Nicholas Brady.

Minnesota law allows a homeowner to use deadly force on an intruder if a reasonable person would fear they are in danger of harm, and Smith told investigators he was afraid the intruders might have a weapon. However, Smith's actions weren't justified, Morrison County Sheriff Michel Wetzel said.

"The law doesn't permit you to execute somebody once a threat is gone," he said.

Smith told investigators he was fearful after several break-ins at his remote home in Little Falls, a central Minnesota town of 8000 people. The sheriff's office had only one report of a break-in, on October 27. Smith reported losing thousands of dollars in cash, gold coins, two guns, photo equipment and jewellery.

Wetzel said that while the shootings happened on Thursday, Smith waited until Friday to report the deaths, explaining that "he didn't want to trouble us on a holiday".

In the complaint, Smith said he was in his basement when he heard a window breaking upstairs, followed by footsteps that eventually approached the basement stairwell. Smith said he fired when Brady came into view from the waist down.

After the teenager fell down the stairs, Smith said he shot him in the face as he lay on the floor.

"I want him dead," the complaint quoted Smith telling an investigator.

Smith said he dragged Brady's body into his basement workshop, then sat down on his chair. After a few minutes, Kifer began coming down the stairs and he shot her as soon as her hips appeared, he said.

After shooting her with both the Mini 14 and the .22-calibre revolver, he dragged her next to Brady. With her still gasping for air, he fired a shot under her chin "up into the cranium," the complaint says.

"Smith described it as 'a good clean finishing shot,'" according to the complaint.

The next day he asked a neighbour to recommend a good lawyer, according to the complaint. He later asked his neighbour to call the police.

A prosecutor called Smith's reaction "appalling".

"Mr Smith intentionally killed two teenagers in his home in a manner that goes well beyond self-defence," Morrison County Attorney Brian Middendorf said after Smith appeared in court Monday morning. Bail was set at $US2 million ($A1.92 million).

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OECD confirms Australia's resilience: Swan

TREASURER Wayne Swan says the Australian economy is set to grow at twice the average pace of the 34 economies that make up the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Mr Swan says the OECD's latest economic outlook released on Tuesday confirms the resilience of the local economy in the face of challenging global conditions.

"We recognise that not everyone is on easy street, and some sectors of the economy face big challenges," he said in a statement.

"This report from the OECD confirms our economy remains very resilient in the face of global headwinds, unlike most other advanced economies."

While the Paris-based institution has slashed its 2013 prediction for Australian growth to three per cent, from 3.7 per cent six months ago, its compares with the OECD average of just 1.4 per cent expected for the same year.

The OECD expects Australia will have grown by 3.7 per cent in 2012, while it is forecasting 3.2 per cent in 2014.

Mr Swan said the latest forecasts were consistent with the government's own projections contained in the mid-year budget review.

"The Australian economy has now completed 21 years of economic growth, more than twice as long as any other advanced economy," Mr Swan said.

"While some sectors continue to face headwinds from a strong dollar and weak global demand, the OECD expects that Australia's economic growth will be underpinned by strong investment, solid consumption and a lift in export volumes."

The report also highlights significant downside risks to the global outlook, particularly from the euro area crisis and the looming US 'fiscal cliff'.

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Police probe fatal German workshop fire

INVESTIGATORS are combing through the charred debris of a workshop for the disabled in Germany, where a fire claimed 14 lives.

Police confirmed on Tuesday that those killed by smoke inhalation were 13 disabled adults and one staff member of the Catholic charity-run facility in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany.

Germany was shocked by the tragedy on Monday, which started with an explosion in a storage room and saw people flee in panic from the woodwork and metalcraft workshop in the city of Titisee-Neustadt.

A patient protection group demanded tougher fire safety rules in disabled care facilities, with one group calling current standards "unbearable", as it emerged the facility had no sprinkler system.

Police cautioned that "there is no information yet on the cause of the accident as a meticulous investigation has yet to be completed".

They were to give a press conference later to identify the dead.

The blaze claimed the lives of 13 people with disabilities - 10 women aged from 28 to 68 and three men aged 45 to 68 - and killed a female caregiver aged 50. Nine people were seriously injured.

Survivors and relatives of the dead were still receiving counselling, and the city of Titisee-Neustadt was planning a memorial service for those killed, said its mayor Armin Hinterseh.

The facility for people with mental or multiple disabilities is run by the Catholic charity Caritas, with the aim of integrating handicapped people and giving them a meaningful occupation.

Caritas president Peter Neher told German broadcaster ZDF that emergency drills were regularly held at the site, but that fire safety regulations would be reviewed.

"Of course, after a catastrophe like this ... all operational plans, all emergency measures need to be reviewed," he said.

Patient protection group the German Hospice Foundation demanded that all such facilities be fitted with sprinkler systems within four years, in comments in the daily Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.

"What applies to German airports must also apply to disabled care facilities," said its board member Eugen Brysch, urging speedy government action and asking facilities to move even quickly.

"They should take safety into their own hands," he said, labelling current conditions "unbearable" and pointing out that fires were a regular occurrence in disabled facilities that could be prevented.

The government expert on such care facilities, Willi Zylajew, denied there were systemic problems, saying: "Fire regulations for care and disabled facilities are extremely high and perfectly adequate and are usually followed correctly."

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Syrian planes bomb olive press factory

Syrian rebels have cut off the regime's supply lines to Aleppo from neighbouring Raqa province. Source: AAP

SYRIAN warplanes have bombed an olive press factory in the country's north, killing and wounding dozens of people, including farmers who were waiting to convert their olives to oil, activists say.

Two activist groups - the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) - say the factory is west of the city of Idlib.

The LCC says at least 20 people were killed and many others wounded in the raid, while the Observatory said "tens were killed or wounded."

Both groups depend on a network of activists on the ground around the country.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been launching intense air raids on rebels in recent months, mostly in Idlib, the nearby province of Aleppo, Deir el-Zour to the east and suburbs of the capital Damascus.

The most recent air raids have killed hundreds of people, including eight children on Sunday in the village of Deir al-Asafir near the capital Damascus.

Olive oil is a main staple in Syria. Tens of thousands of tons are produced annually.

Fadi al-Yassin, an activist based in Idlib, told The Associated Press by telephone that dozens of people had gathered to have their olives pressed when the warplanes struck, causing a large number of casualties.

It was not immediately clear why the olive press was targeted. "It was a massacre carried out by the regime." said al-Yassin.

"Now is the season to press oil," said al-Yassin, noting that since many olive press factories are not functioning in the area because of the fighting in the region. A large number of people were at the one near the city of Idlib.

"Functioning olive press factories are packed with people these days," he said.

The Observatory also reported heavy fighting on the southern edge of the strategic rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan, captured from government troops last month.

The town is on the highway that links the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, a commercial centre that has been the scene of clashes between rebels and troops since July.

The Observatory and al-Yassin said air raids on Maaret al-Numan killed at least five rebels.

The sound of machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades echoed throughout Damascus on Tuesday, as rebels carried out at least 10 hit-and-run attacks on army checkpoints in the Syrian capital, activists reported.

One blast targeted a key crossing in the Roukin al-Eddine neighbourhood, wounding at least three government soldiers, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"We are now focusing our attacks inside the strongholds of the tyrant regime inside Damascus," Abu Abdo, a member of the hardline group al-Nusra Front, which is fighting alongside the opposition Free Syrian Army, told dpa.

The state-run news agency SANA also reported heavy clashes between rebels and troops near Damascus airport, without giving further details.

US-based Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that evidence showed government airstrikes using cluster bombs killed at least 11 children near the capital on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the newly formed opposition coalition named human rights activist Walid Safur, 62, as its "ambassador" in London, said a statement on its Facebook page.

The National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces earlier appointed Mounzir Makhous, an academic, as its envoy to France.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos is due to arrive in Beirut later Tuesday to assess the situation of Syrian refugees, the UN said in a statement.

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Greens want light shone on public sector

AUSTRALIAN Greens MP Adam Bandt wants parliament to order an inquiry into whether state public servants get a dud deal compared with their commonwealth counterparts.

Mr Bandt said workers in the public sector were increasingly coming under attack, both through job cuts and difficulties in bargaining over wages and conditions.

"It seems it's OK when it comes to (public sector) employees to come in and rewrite agreements and take away some of their basic termination change and redundancy provisions," he told parliament on Monday.

"That's why we're here debating this motion for an inquiry to shine a light on what's happening in state governments."

Mr Bandt acknowledged that the federal government had taken some steps to protect state workers where it could.

The Senate passed legislation on Monday to protect employees who leave the public sector as a result of asset sales or outsourcing and move to similar jobs under the national workplace relations system.

But he wanted to make sure everything possible was done to ensure state public servants were given all the same protections as federal employees.

Independent MP Bob Katter seconded Mr Bandt's motion.

The opposition's spokeswoman for workforce participation, Sussan Ley, said it was important to note not just state governments were cutting public service jobs - the federal government was forcing cuts too through its efficiency dividends.

Debate on the motion was adjourned.

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Cough syrup kills 16 Pakistanis

SIXTEEN people have died after drinking cough syrup suspected of being toxic.

The victims were all drug addicts who apparently drank the cough syrup in an attempt to get high, Lahore police said.

They died at various hospitals in Lahore over the past three days, police said. Two other addicts who drank the cough syrup were being treated.

Police arrested the owners of three drug stores where the cough syrup was sold and sent a sample to determine whether it was toxic.

"At least 16 people, mostly drug addicts, have died after taking the toxic syrup," local police chief Atif Zulfiqar told AFP, updating an earlier death toll of 13.

"Some of the victims were found dead in a graveyard where addicts used to take different kinds of drugs.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, a bomb hidden in a cement construction block exploded in Karachi, killing one person, said senior police officer Farooq Awan. Four other people were wounded, he said.

The bomb contained about one kilogram of explosives and was detonated by a mobile phone, Awan said.

Pakistan suspended mobile phone service throughout most of the country on Saturday and Sunday to prevent attacks against Shi'ite Muslims during a major religious commemoration.

Despite the ban, a pair of bombings over the weekend killed at least 13 people.

Awan said he suspected the bomb in Karachi was meant to target Shi'ites over the weekend, but militants were not able to detonate it because of the mobile phone ban.

Shi'ites are currently observing the holy month of Muharram. Pakistani Shi'ites on Sunday marked Ashoura, the most important day of the month.

Pakistan has a long history of Sunni Muslim extremists targeting Shi'ites, who are considered to be heretics.

Also on Monday, police in Islamabad found and defused a bomb planted underneath the car of one of Pakistan's most prominent television anchors, Hamid Mir of Geo Television.

The bomb was made up of half a kilogram of explosives stuffed in a tin can, said Islamabad police chief Bani Amin. It was placed in a bag and attached to the bottom of Mir's car.

One of Mir's neighbours noticed the bomb underneath the car after the TV anchor returned from a local market, and the police were notified, said Rana Jawad, a senior official at Geo TV.

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Marine parks cut out angler, says Nat

THE federal parliament should have the final say over what parts of Australia's oceans become national parks, Nationals MP George Christensen says.

Currently the government can declare proposed marine protected areas.

But Mr Christensen says the decisions are made without scientific analysis or extensive industry and community consultation.

The Nationals MP has introduced a bill to give parliament the power to make marine park declarations disallowable.

He said the federal government should be able to clearly answer why an area was being declared a marine park.

"It is a perfectly valid question but it's a question the Gillard Labor (government) cannot adequately answer," Mr Christensen said on Monday.

"Using the same excuse that was trotted out for the carbon tax - the Greens made me do it - simply will not cut it."

Mr Christensen argues that recreational fishers will be shut out of areas permanently because of marine park declarations, despite no adequate science to back the decisions.

The $100 million offered by the government to compensate those anglers affected by declarations was widely regarded as "desperately insufficient", Mr Christensen says.

Under the private members' bill, the environment minister would have to commission an independent social and economic impact assessment and obtain scientific peer-reviewed advice before making any decision.

The bill would also require the establishment of an independent scientific reference panel and stakeholder advisory group so the possible social and economic impacts are factored in.

Labor MP Kelvin Thomson said the bill was just an attempt to interfere with the government's announcement of the final network of commonwealth marine reserves.

Environment Minister Tony Burke announced this month that more than 2.3 million square kilometres of ocean environment around Australia will be protected from July 2014 in the world's largest marine park.

"The declaration of these new marine reserves ... represents a major achievement for the long term conservation and sustainable use of Australia's oceans," Mr Burke said.

Debate on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Making Marine Parks Accountable) Bill 2012 was adjourned.

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Voters reject Catalonia independence

CATALAN leader Artur Mas scrambled for allies to govern on Monday after a snap election slashed his majority, hobbling his campaign for nationhood and a split from Spain.

Mas' decision to call the vote two years early looked like a gamble gone horribly wrong after voters turned out in massive numbers to trim his majority, not to boost it.

"Mas' plan sinks at the ballot box," blared the front page of Spain's leading newspaper, centre-left daily El Pais.

"After asking for an 'exceptional majority', ending up with less than an absolute majority was a failure; but ending up far from that implies a spectacular failure," it said.

Mas' centre-right nationalist alliance, Convergence and Union, remained well ahead in the vote but its share of the 135 parliamentary seats plunged from 62 to just 50.

Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), a left-wing pro-independence party, surged from 10 seats to 21.

"Voters went in massive numbers to the urns not to give him a mandate for independence as he asked, but to make him look ridiculous by inflicting a very hard electoral punishment," gloated conservative daily El Mundo.

Mas, like many Catalans, accuses Madrid of raising far more in taxes from the region than it returns, a shortfall he estimates at 16 billion euros ($21 billion) a year.

Emboldened by the hundreds of thousands of people who flooded the streets of Barcelona calling for independence on Catalan national day September 11, Mas decided to demand seek greater tax powers.

But when Madrid refused, he called the snap election and promised to hold a referendum on self-determination within four years if the people gave him a strong mandate.

That decision put Mas on a collision course with Spain's right-leaning government, which vowed to block any break-up of Spain, insisting that it flouted common sense and the Spanish constitution.

Mas' party had never previously favoured absolute independence from the rest of Spain, said Joaquin Molins, political science professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

"This first time they have campaigned with the formula of a proper state has been a complete failure," he said.

Pro-independence parties dominate the Catalan parliament, as they did before the vote.

But it is unclear whether Mas' conservative forces could cobble together an alliance with the left-wing ERC.

"We are clearly the only force that can lead this government, but we cannot lead it alone. We need shared responsibility," Mas told supporters in Barcelona after the vote.

"The presidency must be taken up, but we will also have to reflect along with other forces," said Mas.

The Socialists, the main opposition party nationally, came third in Catalonia as their share fell to 20 seats from 28 and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party scored 19.

The prospect of a break-up of Spain had overwhelmed debate about the region's sky-high public debt, savage spending cuts, unemployment and recession.

Catalonia, which traces its origins back more than a millennium, is proud of its language and culture, both of which were suppressed under the rule of General Francisco Franco, who died in 1975.

Catalans would vote in favour of a referendum on self-determination by 46 percent against 42 percent, according to a survey before the election in leading daily El Pais.

The region of 7.5 million people accounts for more than one-fifth of Spain's economic output and a quarter of its exports, and boasts one of the world's best football teams, Barcelona FC.

But Catalonia also has a 44 billion euros ($A55 billion) debt, equal to one-fifth of its output, and was forced to turn to Madrid this year for more than five billion euros to help make the payments.

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Cairo shares plunge 9% as crisis deepens

SHARE prices on the Egypt Exchange have declined almost 9.5 per cent, with President Mohamed Morsi assuming sweeping powers that have sparked clashes and polarised the country's politics.

The main EGX-30 index shed 9.49 per cent to reach 4,923.19 points by midday on Sunday.

The bourse suspended trading for half an hour after intense selling by investors, a source at the exchange told AFP.

The drop comes as Egyptians have been deeply split by Morsi's move to place his decisions beyond judicial scrutiny with rival rallies sparking violence in several major cities.

The powerful Muslim Brotherhood has called nationwide demonstrations in support of Morsi's decree, which has put him on a collision course with the judiciary and with many of the political forces that brought down Hosni Mubarak in a 2011 popular uprising.

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SAfrican police kill 7 robbery suspects

POLICE in South Africa have shot dead seven suspected robbers and wounded nine others in a botched theft at an armoured car company.

South African Police Service spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said on Sunday officers got a tip the thieves wanted to rob a Protea Coin depot in Robertville, a suburb west of Johannesburg.

A gunfight began on Saturday night as officers tried to arrest the suspects.

Ramaloko said no officers were injured in the shooting. He said they recovered firearms from the suspected robbers at the depot.

Violent crime remains common in South Africa, as unemployment remains high and options few for the nation's poor. Mass police shootings often occur as officers confront heavily armed criminal gangs.

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Rebels seize 'large part' of army airport

Syrian rebels have attacked army positions in the northern province of Aleppo, residents say. Source: AAP

SYRIAN rebels have seized a "large part" of a military airport near the capital as troops shell the outskirts of Damascus province, a watchdog and activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday 31 rebels and 16 soldiers in and around Damascus were among 94 people killed in violence across the country on Saturday.

Rebels took a "large part" of the military airport of Marj al-Sultan, 15 kilometres east of Damascus, and destroyed two helicopters, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

A video posted on the internet by activists appeared to show one wrecked helicopter, while a rebel shoots rockets at the airport, gripped by several fires.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission and Local Coordination Committees, two major networks of activists on the ground, meanwhile, reported shelling of several areas near Damascus.

Helicopter gunships pounded Zamalka town, northeast of Damascus, as rebels clashed with troops in nearby Harasta, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists, lawyers and medics in civilian and military hospitals.

The opposition fighters have set up rear bases in orchards surrounding the capital, where they had made advances during the summer but have since been driven out.

In the southern province of Daraa, insurgents temporarily took control of a military outpost on the border with Jordan overnight, the Observatory said.

In the north, rebels pressed on with an offensive against troops stationed at the strategic Tishrin dam, which straddles the Euphrates river and connects the provinces of Aleppo and al-Raqqa.

The rebels, according to a local resident, have been closing in on the area for the past week.

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

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Workers pelt police in Taipei rally

TAIWANESE workers have pelted police with eggs, with thousands taking to the streets to demand the government change economic policies they say favour big business.

"Up to 5000 eggs were thrown to vent our anger," Lin Tze-wen, the spokesman for the protest, told AFP at the end of the march on Sunday.

The protest ended at the presidential office square, which was cordoned off by barbed wire and hundreds of riot police.

Organisers said up to 4000 people from more than 50 labour groups took part in the event, while police put the turnout at around 3000.

No clashes with police were reported during the three-hour rally aimed at pushing the government to "turn left" in various economic and labour policies.

"Under the thinking of new liberalism, the current policies apparently have been benefiting the capitalists and the benefits of economic development have been unevenly distributed," Lin said.

Workers "have been living very hard lives", the spokesman said.

In the latest measure to anger unionists, the government in September refused to support a proposal to raise the minimum monthly wage to Tw$19,047 ($A614.51) from the current Tw$18,780.

Several business leaders had said a rise would hit firms struggling amid the global economic downturn.

Income levels have remained nearly flat for the past decade while the October jobless rate rose to 4.33 per cent.

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